Absolute Boyfriend (2012)

Absolutely Weird Casting

I watched Absolute Boyfriend in 2012, and I Absolutely only watched it for Jiro. The premise of a lonely girl ordering a robot boyfriend is funny, I just recommend watching a different version.

What stuck with me:
- Casting of Ku Hye Sun absolutely perplexing. They dubbed over her in Chinese, and from what I remember they kept on trying to creatively pan out from her face when she was speaking, or whenever she was speaking to herself, it'd always be internal voice. A lot of her acting was mime-like and cringe because she can't speak the language.
- I read Absolute Boyfriend as it was coming out in Shojo Beat and watched the Japanese version when it released, but the story never ceases to be heartbreaking. Actually, I accidentally forgot to read the end of the manga, and thought it was a happy ending for at least a full year. It's not, and it stings. Night is perfect and caring, but he's not human, and at the end of the day, the human gets the girl.
- Jiro is a pretty bad ass robot boyfriend. If there's a reason to watch it, it would probably be that.

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Let me start by saying, if you are looking for a happy ending for a drama, keep scrolling because this won't do it for you. However, if you don't mind bittersweet or heart-wrenching dramas, feel free to give this one a go. The storyline is great. Love triangles, frenemies, misunderstandings,etc...everything you'd come to expect in a drama. The storyline didn't seem to get boring for me. But the ending made me wait a week before considering to start a new drama. I became emotionally attached to the characters and it was hard to let them go from my mind. The acting was overall pretty decent, but there were times where I couldn't exactly interpret what emotions the character Xiao Fei was supposed to be expressing. Sometimes it felt like her facial expressions were emotionally stiff and unrealistic. I love Gu Hye Sun's work, but her acting wasn't my favorite in this series. Another thing to keep in mind in this drama is that Gu Hye Sun is Korean, (and from what I could tell, not fluent in Taiwanese) so she is lip-syncing throughout the series. I couldn't tell if she was trying to lip sync in Taiwanese or if she was allowed to lip sync in her native language...Korean. All I know is it threw me off constantly and I had to eventually find a way to tune it out in order to not go crazy. Plus, another note, it appears they used two different version of a voice recording to replace Gu Hye Sun's voice. One is worse than the other and extremely annoying at times. I absolutely loved the character Lei Wu Wu. The actor did a phenomenal job portraying a creepy, fashionably weird, overly-excited, goofy, and loveable character all at once. I couldn't help but fall in love with him. Every time I saw him I couldn't resist a smile. I think you'll find something likeable in most of the characters. The music was great. I liked it so much I bought the soundtrack (which cost about 30 bucks). I can definitely see myself watching this again down the road once I've forgotten a majority of the plot. Overall, an okay series if you can tune out occasional awkward acting and lip-syncing.

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