Flowers centers around the business of our girl's (Kang Hye Jung - Oldboy, Love Phobia, Welcome to Dongmakgol) parents which is nothing but setting up funerals for the deceased. Well, what do you think? Depressing, Sad, Sappy? If you think that way, then I'll try to make you think other way.
Flowers is not a melodrama. It doesn't put the characters of the story in extreme difficult situations so as to appeal to the emotions. It isn't a family drama, it may not even feel like a drama ! It will be hard to believe that its a show which deals with death and is actually hilarious and funny without being jokey and gag based. It touches you emotionally without making you sappy. You will feel the characters in your heart and yet you wont cry. It will provide you lots of hilarious and humorous moments. You won't feel dull at any point in the series.
The cast is good with our leads fully absorbing into their roles. You will probably remember Cha Tae Hyun (My Sassy Girl). He is the main character in this story and I think he was perfectly cast for this role. His exaggerated facial expressions are always funny but you won't find them ridiculous here. They will rather feel as honest feelings. The lead actress Kang Hye Jung is very natural in her acting. She just steps up her acting skills in each episode. You will feel like living in the drama. The second leads are OK. The parents are awesome. There are 2 more elders who would sometimes feel annoying but their screen time is small.
Doesn't your all time favorite drama has the most beautiful music? Remember 'Coffee Prince' and 'Shut Up: Flower Boy Band' ! Well, Flowers doesn't reach to that level but there are just enough scenes where the background music matches perfectly with what is going on in the screen. In fact, it is the OST that keeps your tears away. Its the exact opposite of OST of '1 Litre of Tears' where you cry because your heart, Aya and the background music all resonate to the frequency of 'tears'. In Flowers, it resonates to happiness and smiles. To your surprise, you will come across a 90's english song.
I have never rewatched any drama till now. Not even my top favorite one. But I feel like I can always return to watching this show as this is JUST NOT sad, even when talking about death. All other good shows leave me in a state of helplessness when I finish them and I don't know what to do ending up in an existential crisis for few days. But Flowers left me satisfied and happy in the end.
Overall, I will give this one a '9'. I would have given this a 10 if not just for that 1 single episode where I think it paced up a little giving away its charm a bit. But the show made up for it in the last 5 episodes.
Additional thoughts - There are few episodes which tell a smaller story and work well in moving the characters in that small story as well as the larger story of the series in itself. You can compare it with the episodes of 'Reply 1997'. Now wasn't that amazing !
And if you see this show, then do watch out for the flowers (I mean literally; there will be just a single scene for 2-3 seconds where a character is shown with some type of flower).
This show is indeed well executed. I just didn't wanted it to be so underrated.
Thank you for your patience.
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It is also deeply underrated and I believe deserves more recognition.
In this drama the female lead is obsessed with money and is hoping to marry a man who is very wealthy and is going to die very soon.
The male lead has just come into a large sum of money....you can already see were this story is going.
What really made me like this drama were the characters. They were different from anything I had seen in a K-drama and were to me believable.
This drama captures your attention right from the get-go.
The last thing I have to say is go and watch this drama!! Its a great drama!
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For me, this drama is a testament to just how wondrous and beautiful dramas can be when they build original stories and worlds, with unique, well-written characters.
Considering it dealt so closely with death and loss, it's amazing to think that it had me laughing and feeling giddy over the curious beauty of life every step of the way. If anything, I'd say this drama is about cherishing the people who brighten up your life and how to keep them in your heart even when they're gone. It's not often that I feel so deeply gratified with the life lessons a DRAMA taught me because, let's be real, we don't watch dramas for those reasons.
Now, I'm sure that with all this talk of how moving, heartfelt, and poignant this drama is, you might be fearing something else: That it's boring. IT'S NOT. In fact, this drama has a rather eccentric sense of humor, thanks to it's wonderfully quirky lead character. It is witty and hilarious and, frankly, employs a kind of subtle humor that I don't see often in dramas.
Each and every character, both leading and supporting, is wonderfully acted and written. Cha Tae-hyun's Ho-sang and Kang Hye-jung's Na Ha-na will likely always have a very special place in my heart. Kim Ji-hoon and Gong Hyun-joo are lovely as a pair of the greatest, and most supportive second leads you will ever see in a kdrama, ever.
And if I haven't convinced you with my praise of the acting and writing, let it be known that the director has a lovely artistic sense. I distinctly remember many clever shots that elevated even the simplest of scenes.
But, most importantly, let me stress this. This drama is not sad. It is, in fact, a drama that left me with an overwhelming sense of happiness. Did I cry my heart out? Yes. But I was also laughing at the sheer beauty of life. And, yes, if you saw me, I probably looked crazy, but, hey, that's just what this drama does to you.
Hana: What kind of flower did you come in search for?
Ho-sang: I don't know. You?
Hana: As for me, I probably came in search of Ho-sang.
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Not a bittersweet drama neither a tragedy.
Maybe one will say it's like Padam Padam but I think it's more deeper and touching.
Really this drama has a great lesson you can come up from it.
Anyway, let's start rating this drama as my usual way :-
PROS:
1-It has a very meaningful story.
2-The acting is superior and outstanding
3-Nothing is wasted in this drama like embedding fillers.
4-The romance element really is perfectly was embedded with the main story.
5-First time I cared about the story more than the romance elements.
CONS:
1-He dies
2-There's something haven't been clarified yet like his mother 'what happened with her'
I recommend you to watch it even if you are afraid of getting sad don't worry, he will be funny enough to cheer you ;)
Thanks for reading :D
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If you are interested in Korean customs about burial and their ceremonies, both for the living and deceased, you will be interested in this drama. There is some interesting philosophical dialogue about how the living deal with separation. However, I didn't feel a great emotional connection between the characters until the last few episodes. Granted, Chae Tae Hyun, noted for his spectacular performance in the classic My Sassy Girl, has a very likable character here. But I didn't feel a great passion with his romantic female lead. Except for the last few episodes, this drama was too slow to spark most people's interest.
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What it means to be a family
When I first read the summary of "Flowers to my life" I wasn't expecting it to be a family oriented drama, I usually do my best to avoid those, but this one just felt so right.From the main to the support characters, everyone here has a story. These stories are imperfect, but so is life. Instead of saying that these are good or bad people, I like to think that they are simply people with a story that found each other and created a beautiful family within a community.
Truth be told I didn't focus much on trying to find faults on the acting nor on any other technical details. Why? Because the story was that good, it made me feel complete, as if I too belonged with these fictional people.
I'm happy, even if this was a drama whose main theme is death it made me rethink life and its value for me. What is it that I truly want? Do I even want something?
I hope the ones who watch this drama feel the same urge as I do to find their dreams.
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This review may contain spoilers
the only drama that I always smile through the tears for
when I think of my favorite dramas of all time, nothing ever quite manages to knock this one off the top spot. where plenty of other shows would take a premise rife with illness and confronting death and funeral processions and turn it into a misery-fest (ML lies about terminal illness to escape loan sharks, turns out to actually be terminally ill without knowing? FL who grew up in a funeral home is desensitized to death and only cares about money, latches onto ML hoping he’ll leave his “fortune” to her when he dies, and instead genuinely falls in love with someone in debt and dying? a makjang writer’s dream!) Flowers for my Life stayed loyal to it’s title and took every small moment to celebrate family and friends and neighbors, honoring death but also life, time spent with the ones we love, grief, and the beauty in every part of it. there’s introspectiveness, and laughter, a cast of characters who truly care for one another and feel like humans trying their best with what they have instead of being caricatures (not an annoying second lead in sight, they’re perfect) and of course there’s sadness, because loss hurts us. grief is often thought of as love with nowhere to go, but this show knows death is part of life, and the pain and weight of a loss won’t always be such a heavy burden.Was this review helpful to you?
Like a flower on hillside
A beautiful drama. They don't make dramas like this anymore. Watch it as long as you find it.A sad, poignant meditation on death. Simply beautiful. The OST tune has an ethereal charm.
Acting is great. A unique factor for modern audience is that this drama is set out of the city in a smaller locality. Probably outside Seoul. This makes for interesting visuals and dynamics of family. You will also learn about traditional rituals in Korea associated with passing of a person.
As I said, a meditation on death. If you lose someone, come here. This drama will comfort you. You can bear pain with smile. You will not be disappointed.
Cha Tae-hyun's smile and his usual demeanor will keep you fixated. You'll want to smile and cry at the same time. A sense of impending loss hangs like a shadow above the story.
Give it a try.
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There were many beautiful moments sprinkled throughout, and it deals with death and loss with such a deft and gentle hand, so I soldiered on, pushing myself to finish, and this drama clearly did Something right, because I was a sobbing mess the entire final 15 minutes.
That ending Wrecked Me.
I wouldn't put this drama on my list of favorite's. I wouldn't even put it on my list of 'definitely don't wish I could get any of that time spent watching it back.'
But there's something about this drama, even if I can't quite put my finger on it.
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It's okay...
Too much time wasted on the love triangle/square while the terminal illness was brought to attention way too late. It's definitely one of the weaker tearjerkers. The earlier parts were funny and interesting but I couldn't bring myself to like the later parts, they were so dry and bland. The drama didn't do a good job in portraying that deep connection needed for any tearjerker drama. On the other hand, I was glad to see Kang Hye Jung in a 1st main lead. It's a rarity in her short career, usually it's either 2nd lead or support.Was this review helpful to you?
