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A very cute rom-com that had lots of potential.
The Best Hit/Hit The Top is a cute, romantic comedy with the twist of time travel. While I thoroughly enjoyed this drama and its cast, I do think that this drama had the potential to do better in terms of plot and character development. The synopsis sounded extremely attractive to me-- a popular 90s star time-traveling to the future to see how his 'death' and previous actions have affected others. In other reviews of this show, many noted that the first half of the show is amazing, but the latter half did not maintain the momentum. I have to agree to this because, in all honesty, even with all my biases for Yoon Si Yoon and Cha Tae Hyun, I wanted more from this one.I feel like the main plot of time-travel and discovering why he was sent to the future was somewhat on the back burner. It focused a loooot on this kinda odd love-triangle between Hyun Jae, his son, and his son's best friend. While the ending tries to say that 1993 HJ and 1994 HJ are "different" although they are the same, and both Ji-Hoon and HJ don't consider themselves to be father-son, it was still weird lol. Even though I did like Woo Seung, I think that the female lead's character should have been a bit more interesting and relevant to the story, not just being a friend of his son who happened to live with him due to circumstance. I did enjoy a lot of their moments together though, but their love felt a bit forced and unnatural at times.
Imo, the romance between Hyun Jae and Bo Hee could have brought out more substance to their respective characters, instead of the 1993 Hyun Jae not even remembering loving her at all. It felt like Bo Hee's character's main purpose was to have a son (even though the romance between her and Gwang-Jae had their moments).
Also, I do think that the romance between Ji-Hoon and Hye-Ri could have been more highlighted because they had great chemistry. I was a bit disappointed when it didn't lead any further. Another comment I saw a lot was that it lacked focus on the other characters, which I do agree with. I think that a lot of the characters could have been more interesting and focused on.
Overall, I felt like the writers could have done more with this plot line. There was many ways they could have went with this story and the time-travel aspect fell short. The whole 1994 HJ versus 1993 HJ was a bit odd as well. It was a bit confusing and felt too unrealistic, and I felt like the mystery behind his 'death' fell flat. While I enjoyed YSY a lot in this role (let's be honest in saying he rooocked that 90s hairstyle), I feel like they could have done something else with the story, especially the 'death' mystery aspect. I think that the writers tried their best to come up with a different concept in terms of time travel, but it ended up being a bit confusing and unnecessary towards the conclusion of the drama in my opinion. The ending was also a bit predictable, which is completely fine if only the lead up was more interesting.
I do think that I'd return eventually to watch this purely because of star-power and the comedy parts in the first half of the series. I do think that generally speaking, this is a good drama that had great potential; however, I wouldn't consider it spectacular. The production and visuals were amazing, but the story lacked a little something something for me to fall completely in love with it. :)
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This review may contain spoilers
I mean the storyline could've been more than it was. I like the concept of where the story writer was taking this. I didn't like the fact that the father of Ji Hoon fell in love with his son's long time childhood friend. I mean seriously the son's girlfriend??? It was good before it came to that episode. It turned me off! I could see if he was seeking out the secret love that he had. I mean others may think this was good... but for me... I rated it a 7 because of all the episodes before that one... I laughed a lot but was coldly turned off to it. If you watch just be prepared for it. All the actors I loved, they did their part. I did rate them a 10. Looking forward to seeing more K drama with two male leads and the actor who played MJ.
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Having said that, I mentioned things that went sideways and here are the cons:
Tone: Probably this could have stayed a total comedy of Hyun Jae trying to figure out how he ended up in modern day Seoul and all the fun that entails if it had been a 12 or 13 hour k-drama (instead of 16 hours @ 32 episodes). The drama didn't stay true to it's comedy roots and went into too much romance and some angst though I have to admit that didn't last as long as I thought it would.
Filler: Around the mid-twenty episodes (again the new 30 minute format), it seemed obvious that there was quite a bit of filler going on and this is the only skipping around a bit that I did in this drama. This was especially frustrating because I thought that a lot could have been done regarding Kim Min Jae's story. It didn't really last that long but still...
Time Travel: Some might be critical of does this make sense or work....it never does. When I'm dealing with time travel, I don't question I just watch and enjoy whether it's Faith, Queen InHyun's Man, Splash Splash Love....and the list goes on. You kinda just have to go with it because they don't seem to be taking it too seriously in this drama especially given how it works.
Pros:
It's Funny: What people think is funny is an individual thing and this just worked for me. The music video, the teddy bear head that I kept seeing throughout the drama, the hair style etc. It worked for me and when watching a bunch of angsty dramas, it's nice to have a bit of relief.
Story: I was a bit tough on the move to romance, but I will admit that it was not instalove (my pet peeve) and I liked the characters together. I thought they were sweet, and I liked how the second male lead scenario played out over the course of the drama. I think the writers, especially over the first half, really gave us a fun filled drama, but they also put in the foundation of a solid story with quite a few characters. They also didn't let their characters stagnate. People evolved, grew, changed just like it is supposed to happen in life.
Actors: All the actors were great and love that Lee Se Young plays a pretty strong gal but this is really Yoon Si Yoon's chance to show his comedy talent and he does quite well. He's solid in both the funny, the romantic, the angst. While some people weren't happy with where the story went in the second half, I really didn't hear many complaints about acting.
Characters: So, yes, this is YSY's for sure, but I credit the writer that all the side characters from the little girl, to Bo Hee, to the music partner from back in the day, to MJ, to Drill etc all were well executed. The diva singer got a little short thrift but was a pretty minor character. At the end of the drama, I felt I knew who these people were and that's a win for a writer who could have put it all on the lead actor.
Final Thoughts: So if you can be a bit forgiving about a tonal shift, make judicious use of the fast forward on some later episodes (or spend the time folding laundry...whatever works), this really is a rare drama that had me laughing out loud repeated throughout its run. It's the perfect drama to turn to after the melo that just broke your heart.
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Hyun-jae story get more and more touching through the episodes and you'll probably catch yourself laughing, smiling and crying with him.
Even though the story line does not feel completed, You should watch it If you want to have a good time ! (Sorry for my english)
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Makes you feel all the good things
This is one of those dramas where you're sad it's over, because you have to say goodbye to everyone you've grown so attached to! Yoon Shi Yoon is top notch and effortlessly charismatic, totally stealing the show as a free-spirited pop star from 1993. I cannot stress enough how funny and endearing he is. The unique and intriguing premise is bolstered by plenty of humor and heart, solid and multifaceted supporting characters, and catchy music. The story is spiced up by the time travel element while still hitting the feel-good beats from slice of life type dramas. I'll miss the rooftop friends!Was this review helpful to you?
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Should you watch it?
The drama had some awesome opening, with stellar cast and nice music sometimes but towards the end it becomes a total absurd. A father stealing his son's crush, dating his girlfriend in front of him makes no sense. MJ drill got no satisfactory end either. And bo hoo's beginning her carrier suddenly vanished, and it was left for that absurd repeat kiss between two protagonists. MJ and Ji hoon had nothing but a total waste role. It was as if like either writer was confused or there were more than one writer for story.Was this review helpful to you?
It was okay
It was Funny in the Beginning but the Ending disappointed me so badly.Story wasn't explained Clearly, Even Writer seems confused while writing this script.
Se young, I couldn't understand her character at all. & Why she chooses Shi yoon over Min Jae was confusing.
Main leads were really annoying, their love story wasn't attractive at all. They irritated me most of the time. They should've give some focus on Min Jae, his role was good.
From comedy's vision, this drama is good. But in Last episodes main points doesn't make sense. They didn't focus on Logic at all.
I can't recommend this drama. If you like to watch Comedy then You can watch it by Turning your mind off.
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The leads had such a poor chemistry and those romantic scenes between them made me so frustrated with no depth or true romance at all.
The plot didn't make any sense after episode 15.The father sun duo was never the theme of this drama. Its a typical Messy Time travel with unwanted Romantic elements. Female lead annoyed me so much in this drama. She was super irritating.The cast was amazing !
If you just really wanted to watch a rom-com, watch a good one, not the pathetic attempt at one this drama has. So in the end, all I can recommend is maybe the first half of this drama if you are okay with leaving things hanging and just want to laugh. Other than that I cannot recommend it.
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P.S. I lowkey wished they gave Jihoon's, Drill's and MJ'scharacter a second season.
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On a basic level this drama has it all, friendship, family, romance, character development, time travel, humour, music, it really has it all. But this isn't necessarily a good thing. With all of that come the responsibility to maintain all these and sadly, Hit the Top fails at this. I am unsure if this is because it is a 30min episodic drama, which gives the element of moving onto something new in the next episode, or how the story is shared. To me, there is too much focus on some characters at times that are not propelling the story forward, or not enough focus on the relevant parts of the story.
This is very evident with the time travel factor. Yoon Shi Yoon's character in the beginning is led through some physically challenging tasks to return to the past. However, once they don't work, it's like this old rerun of a saying "go back to where you belong" is said, but no work is achieved. This also relates to his lost money and again there is no true emphasis on either after awhile.. it's just left until towards the end where SO MUCH wrapping up occurs. Speaking of, when Yoo Hyun Jae is finally able to return to his past, it makes little sense. What makes him suddenly feel the need to make this a mission? How does he know he needs to return, and what happens to old Hyun Jae? So many questions that are simply flicked off in the present as "I don't know what happened." That doesn't sit with me and puts a huge dent in this being an enjoyable, believable experience of time travelling that any of the other characters seem to accept.
The romance is shaky, and very up and down. I am a huge Yoon Shi Yoon fan, and when it comes to romance, he usually knows what he's doing given any role he's undertaken in the past. For some reason this doesn't occur as naturally as it has in other dramas. Again, Lee Se Young has also proven herself as a formidable actress to me in Introverted Boss/Age of Youth, and was expecting her to shine as Da Bong's lover. But it just seemed forced. Again much like other 30min dramas, I feel they skip over many steps in their relationship once it's occurred. I guess I like to be led down the path with the characters as they fall in love, not told it's happened.
This drama has a lot of actors who I normally expect a lot from, and so perhaps that is why it failed in my eyes when their performances weren't as strong. I put this down to the busy nature of this drama, the multiple lives we are following about, and the lack of growth in several areas. I honestly found my interest in some of the stories shared to drop around episode 12, and never return. I didn't care for some of the characters, no matter how vital they were made to be to the story. Others could have been more utilised as well, but they weren't and it made it rather messy.
If you are looking for something uncomplicated that is great to watch whilst doing something else, then this might be enjoyable for you. For me, I feel like even though it wrapped up the lives of all with a nicely tied off ribbon, many loose threads leave me questioning what went wrong in this, and how it could have been executed better.
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