I was at first suspicious about whether I'd like MiKa and Do Ha as a couple, since their chemistry isn't immediate. I know there are often big age gaps in dramas, but her childish behavior, and his stern maturity, initially felt like such a bad casting choice. Then, once Do Ha turned on the charm, I started to really like them together, and got very invested in their romantic dilemma (No spoilers, but I knew tears over them would be involved eventually). I think this is the first "grown up" role I've seen Lee Sung Kyung in, and definitely the most tragic, but her youthful fun personality kept her character from being too depressing to watch as she watches how much time people have left to live. I was also very surprised by how much I liked Lee Sang Yoon as a leading man. He has a very low key seductive quality that I loved, and I felt like I could see all of his characters love, heartbreak, concern, and guilt, just in his eyes alone.
My main, and only, criticism of MiKa... too much dang singing! Unfortunately a lot of this drama becomes about the making of a musical, which started to become extremely annoying. I get that performing is a huge part of who the character is, but I cringed every time I knew she would be singing a full song AGAIN. It's not that she can't sing, but she still sang too much, and none of the performances were epic enough to be repeated. The soundtrack is also pretty good, but because of all the songs from the musical being sung on repeat, I just wanted all the music muted after a while. I honestly wish that most of the scenes and characters revolving around the musical were cut, but maybe it would have worked better with just less. I also say this as a person who LOVES musicals.
The rest of the cast was great, even if some of their characters were written to be cliché, or pretty useless. I really did like everyone... mostly. MiKa's bff was awesome, her brother was cute, and her mom was irritating but also adorable, and I liked Do Ha's banter with his secretary, but there were 2 supporting characters in particular that I liked the most, maybe even more than the main characters.
I'll start with my favorite KDrama actress Kim Hae Sook. She is always good, and this drama is no exception. I feel like her character's story touched me the most. She had so many moments that got me in the feels. I wish I got to see her with MiKa more than many of the other characters, especially Do Ha's family, since everyone but his Dad and half brother were completely forgettable.
My absolute favorite character though is Im Se Mi and Bae Soo Bong. I know this may be an unpopular opinion, but I thought she was flawless. Her outfits were flawless too! Usually I cringe at the idea of a female character who's only there to ruin the main couple, but Soo Bong is that to the best extreme! There were 2 moments when I came very close to dropping this drama completely, and she kept me watching. Her character became definitely overly melodramatic, but it was much more entertaining than the repetitive mess that the rest of the story started to become, or the ex girlfriend who I forgot all about until typing this sentence.
That leads me to my main issue with "About Time". Even though the basic idea of the story is good, the actual drama decides to fill the time with unnecessary filler stories (family rivalries that go nowhere, useless exes, showbiz drama involving a cute but completely ridiculous "genius" temperamental director...) and then resorts to clichés, and flashbacks. I would be lying if I said there weren't still moments that brought me to tears, or made me laugh, but when I finally made it to the final episode it was clear that there was no original thought put into how the story would end. I felt like the ending chosen was a total cop-out, and I even laughed inappropriately at one point. Sure, there is closure for the characters, which will satisfy some, but for me it didn't live up to this story's potential.
Overall, I cannot say that this drama is worth the time. If you decide to watch, and feel the urge to hit fast forward, do it! That's the only way I would rewatch this. There are some good moments, and some thoughtful themes about truly enjoying life, and not taking anything for granted, but, If this drama had a life clock I would definitely cut a few hours from it.
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It was so interesting in the beginning,the first episodes made me actually excited but...What happened writers?! I even started this drama with high expectations,the plot looked really promising and the cast didn't looked bad at all. I love Lee Sung Kyung as an actress so i was 100% sure this was going to be bomb.
But halfway through the story,the show lost it's way. The writers fucked up so much. This had the potential to be unique and refreshing until the end but the wrong choices and the dragging scenes were excruciating to watch. I forced myself to finish it,i don't even know why,i should've stopped at episode 8 cause that was the only one that i loved and the only one that made me cry. I feel proud for staying till the end.
Sadly,i don't like skipping episodes,but i had to skip a lot of scenes in the last 4 ones. I was pretty much done with this drama. Even Rowoon(the beauty from Sf9 <3) didn't make it better,i kept watching for him but his relationship also dragged so much,it started to be annoying and immature.
And so many characters were fillers. The evil brat that the writers seemed to love and prolonged her story to the point i wanted to jump out of the window and that guy only speaking in one language but understanding korean fluently. Like wtf,why? And the mom,istg this ahjumma always has irritating characters.
And i thought the ending was going to be okay but hell no. The writers just quit and walked out. This reminded me of when i used to do my homework 5 minutes before class started. Exactly the same,rushed and lazy written.
Overall,execution dragged the plot considerably and it's a shame because so many good actors wasted their time on this. I wouldn't recommend even if you're bored but if you have insomnia and you want to fell asleep,watch it.
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There are some really deep questions posed in this story. If you knew how long you had to live, would you spend that time differently? Would you want to know or not? I think it does a great job of just reminding us all to seize the day now, mend those fences, meet back up with old friends now and don't wait until your funeral for all your old school friends to get back together, do it today. If even one person comes out of watching this story and acts on that message I think it's done its job.
The story has three main "chapters" really, the first is a very happy and fluffy romance story and I think that the transition to the second "chapter" is what throws people because suddenly it's not happy anymore, it's downright depressing, it's hard to watch and there's lots of crying (on the show too, ahem) - but it has purpose. The third "chapter" is then the resolution, which I thought was really great. The conclusion needs you to take a few things at face value and not ask too many questions - but then you're watching a show where someone can see clocks on peoples bodies so let's not get too caught up in the "science".
Choi Mika, the lead character played by Lee Sung Kyun, has the weight of the world on her shoulders, I absolutely cannot understand how her character is tagged "Weak Female Lead" in the tag list for the show because she's one of the strongest characters i've seen to date. She knows when people are going to die, more than that she knows when she herself is going to die and even worse - it's not that far away, 3 months or so. Knowing any of that, let alone all of it, I think most of us would utterly fall to pieces. She's learned to accept it and start saving to help her family after she's gone and she's working to make sure she achieves her dreams before she goes. Yes, she cries a lot once things turn south, but if you can't understand why, that's a shame, it's not because of any kind of lightweight reason.
In the first "chapter" of the story, she meets Lee Do Han who she discovers can stop her clock from counting down and even better, she finds her clock starting to go up and suddenly she has a new lease on life.
I won't go any further into the story because from here on it's spoilers, but suffice to say that if you have even remotely appreciated the weight on her shoulders as the story begins, it becomes unimaginable as the story continues to unfold, and it's here that the crying starts. There's a fair bit, but I don't think any of it unjustified, everyone involved is having an insanely hard time, so it's natural to be sad about it.
In other characters - Lee Do Han (played by Lee Sang Yoon) was good but not the star of the show, which was absolutely and entirely Lee Sung Kyun. Her sparkling performance both in the drama and on the stage within the drama were a joy to watch. Songs from the musical were performed brilliantly by everyone and i'm hoping to find some of them on the OST.
In an unusual twist for me - the other point of the "love triangle" was also an absolute highlight for me. I don't normally like this kind of character at all regardless how well it's played (or love triangles themselves, for that matter) but I thought Im Se Mi completely captured the character as she descends gradually in her composure and sanity throughout the entire story until her dramatic pinnacle when her story comes to a head. I always enjoyed her scenes, even if I was verbally shouting "booo! get off!!" to the TV every time (we'll talk about my own sanity another time).
As demonstrated by the reviews, this is NOT going to be a story everyone gels with, the gear shift from the happy fluffy romance almost within 60 seconds to something entirely different will throw people off, especially how joyful that first bit is, you'll miss it and you'll feel the pain, the author does a good job of making a sky high go to a hellish low.
This is an absolute re-watch for me at some point when I start repeating shows, although it won't have as much magic and mystery the second time around I will enjoy the journey and the amazing music just as much.
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This review may contain spoilers
About Time is the story of a woman who can see a person's life clock, including her own. She's also a scuba-diving actress and trained driver because this show never met a rom-com scenario it didn't try to shoehorn into a tired script acted by people who would rather be doing anything else but this. This show is worse than terrible because it's also boring. Even the actors look bored as they sleepwalk their way through 16 episodes of predictable plotting, pedestrian characters and cliched "twists" we see coming from miles away.
The female lead is noble and stoic and little more than a singing plank of wood with two facial expressions. The second female lead is ambitious and successful but of course obsessive and crazy because heaven forbid we should portray ambitious and successful women as anything but jealous and desperate for a man. The male lead looks like he'd rather romance his secretary than his girlfriend or at least that he'd rather be back filming Twenty Again.
I made the slog because I was promised I could watch these people get hit by a ToD near the end. But it took far too long to see them being smashed onto the pavement . So even that was not worth the time I put into this tiresome piece of nothing.
Watch anything else.
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Lee Sung Kyung is cute as Choi Michaela. Does anyone know if that is really her voice? I like her drive and desperation at first to live and then to save. It makes perfect since that she would be terrified at the end. I like Lee Sang Yoon as Lee Do Ha. I think he has great charisma with Lee Sung Kyung with out it being over bearing. He gives her what she needs because he loves her. It isn't a stingy love. The other actors are good also, but I could not have cared less about their characters.
The music is good, but geez. At some point I was tired of listening to it.
I won't rewatch this.
I recommend this drama as an easy watch with an ending that won't disappoint. Just be prepared for some unreasonable fiancé angst.
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I just could not stop watching. The story line was unique . I haven't seen a show that had this kind of supernatural concept. I believe that is what really enthralled me to keep up with the show. I just had to see "why?"
The characters. What can I say? It was love at first song . The female lead is awesome and her singing just got me I could watch her sing throughout the complete show. I like she spunky attitude when she was near the main lead at first. I loved her cutthroat techniques to get close to him.
The main lead, for some reason I just liked him. Maybe because I found him a little awkward and I enjoyed that.
Music was hands down amazing. I am a big musical junkie so this really did it for me.
Re-watch value. Yes yes and more yes. I haven't had a chance to re-watch this yet but it definitely on the top of my list.
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Choi Michaela shows that to us. She spends her short time trying to achieve her dreams. She's a character who is truly inspiring and makes us have hope and inspiration.
The drama starts with a warm and funny romance, then the romance turns out meloromance that slows the drama. Many people were saying that it was boring, but I didn't find it boring, just slow, what makes sense to the concept of the drama.
I completely fell in love with Lee Sang-Yoon, his facial expressions and emotions seem very real and pure. Lee Sung Kyung is very admirable and her acting is very realistic too, she had played many different characters and she's amazing <3
The chemistry was completely lovely and pure. There’s many scenes between the two main leads that make your heart race.
I think there are characters who are unnecessary or just poorly written/useless.
The story was pretty complex and sweet. Overall they could transmit a very easy message about life in a fantasy drama.
I really liked the ost and to see Lee Sung Kyung singing, she has a beautiful voice.
The end is beautiful...but I feel confused and little disillusioned...
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Actress cry to much and pulling victim card all time which can be quite annoying.
Crying is very powerful thing in movies and tv show and shouldn't be used to much.
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-thank god lee sang yoon and lee sung kyung are great actors (although am I the only one who always see Kim bok joo in everything LSK does now?)
-good chemistry tho
-secretary park is funny. a breath of fresh air
-finally at the last episode, this show delivered its true potential to what could've been a magical drama but it was just too little too late to save the entire thing
cons:
-very kdrama circa 2010
-the first meeting was so forced and very cringe worthy
-didnt cared about his business and his family problems, it was the same chaebol BS
-the whole musical thing TBH is just a filler
-cho jae yoo doesn't fit the role (it's obvious he's not the first choice for the role)
-how can someone fall in love so easily, c'mon man, we're not even near the second half of the series yet(rom coms' magic is all about the beginning stage, the tug of war, the push and pull, the love-hate relationship between the two leads, once they started dating that's when the thrill begins to dwell and fade because it's just all kissing, hugging and sleeping after that
-the supporting characters don't have much weight on them that's why they're not interesting
-I was really hoping for a plot twist at the end but it just turned out to be one of those predictable happy endings
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ACTING/CAST: I love Lee Sung Kyung but I did not really connect with her character or anything there wasn't any character development whatsoever but I love the main male lead though (forgot what's his name).
MUSIC: At the very least the music/BGM isn't bad, it's good actually especially Maybe. I love listening to it over and over again on youtube and I also have it on my spotify.
REWATCH VALUE: Not rewatching this again. HAHAHA
OVERALL: This score is actually a stretch, I'm quite generous with it, LOL
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This review may contain spoilers
*sigh* ZERO emotional investment.
*This entire review is riddled with spoiler (⌐■_■)*I happen to be in a terrible mood as I write this and thinking of this drama has my mood worsening ಠ_ಠ
* If you are hoping to be convinced to watch this drama, then I advise you to read someone else's review. I would not want to put anyone through what I have been through because of About Time.
STORY
It started off well, but extremely predictable. I had already seen the ending coming after I had watched the first two episodes.
What I predicted:
- Their romance will start based on a lie on her part. They will break-up over an avoidable misunderstanding.
- Time stops when Choi is near Lee and counts upward when they touch..... That must mean she is taking time away from him.
- Her best friend and her brother will get together.
True to my stellar predicting skills, all of this did happen, but in later episodes. The first 8 episodes I did genuinely enjoy them. There was not anything special about them. They were alright. Then it all went downhill.
Around episodes 9-15 I watched the drama at 2x the speed. I never experienced frustration, happiness, sadness, or ANY emotion when watching from around episode 9 onward. I had the most stoic facial expression as I thought in my head was, "how many minutes are left? I could be watching better dramas." These were the most boringly predictable episodes I have ever watched. I try (so very hard) not to label a drama as 'boring', but there is no other word for it. If i thought their chemistry was non-existent in the previous episodes, it definitely went out the window during these episodes. *************************sigh ************************* They never got to answer my pressing questions. Especially when the revelation came that Lady Oh can see the clocks (and possibly her grandmother could too). Fiction writers have the power to write whatever they want to, but the screenwriters decided to leave this up in the air (¬_¬ )
CHARACTERS
Lee Sung Kyung's voice is so beautiful. No doubt about that. She gave hectic Kim Bok Joo vibes whenever she sang. And that is all I can say about her characters. I remember I had written this about episode 6:
"Has anyone ever noticed that Lee Sung Kyung's left eye is larger than her right?????? Why I am saying this is because I am more interested in her eyes than the crocodile tears coming out of them (insert bus scene here)." I will just leave that there.
Every scene with Bae, Choi and Lee together. I did not know how to fee about the love triangle between Bae, Lee and Choi. I liked Bae's character. She started off unproblematic, very helpful in business and was the most fashionable in every scene. They completely RUINED her character from episode 8 onward. I had thought she was going to fall in love with the Chinese Investor (he seemed very interested in her and she had him in the palm of her hand whenever business negotiation time came around). They would have made a lovely couple. They turned her into the clichéd second female lead who would do anything to keep 'her man'. Goodness. *insert table flip*
Finally, Lee and Choi..... Hhhhmmmmmm. Their relationship.... Hhhhmmmmmm. I did feel the chemistry. Their physical contact was akward and their kisses were lackluster. And in the final episode, when they are laying on the round after being hit by the KDrama White Truck/Van of Death with that waste of tomatoes sauce they call a blood stain, I wished they had both perished. As a means of compensation for wasting hours of my time.
MUSIC
Sucked, because the drama sucked. I don't want to listen to the soundtrack seperately, it will bring back memories of this drama.
OVERALL
Never watching this ever again.
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This review may contain spoilers
better than I thought it would be ... but no one's talking about it!
First of all, I feel like absolutely no one talks about this show, which is surprising because it has Lee Sung Kyung! but it was actually better than I thought! I completely agree with the other reviewers in that this show's beginning episodes are completely engrossing ... but becomes a bit repetitive towards the end. I had actually put this show on hold after around 11 episodes and finished the rest later, but I really enjoyed those beginning episodes! to the point where the cliffhangers actually had me jumping up and down and wanting to watch the next episode. However, there does feel like there is a lot of filler in this show, hence me skipping a couple parts. A couple plot points in the last episodes were dragged on for WAY too long (i.e. Mika's problem with taking Do Ha's time was heartwrenching and complicated, but at the same time it went on for like 4 episodes with NO progress and is just miraculously fixed? felt like a waste of 4 episodes. also bae soo bong's sad end ... she's so beautiful and a powerful queen but she gets reduced to a crazed villain when her only motive was love? I didn't really get her character too much and I wished we could have seen better sides of her. but also this brings us to the ending ... it kind of felt like a cop out since everything was miraculously fixed but I don't mind stuff like that too much.Notes:
Lee Sung Kyung as Mika - Personally I found some weak acting points a couple of times (no hate to her though she's a literal queen and looked so good in the show!) but as this was an earlier work of hers, I did find some parts kind of weird. as someone who loves musicals, she just did not convince me as a musical actress. just the way she carried herself in practice and on stage and the way she danced/sang felt unlike a stage actress and she didn't shine on stage as much as I thought she would in the actual musical. I also felt like there was a bit too much of problems with putting on the musical to the point where I wasn't invested too much in it. ALSO I thought the director was so cute, but what was the point of him? I thought he was going to be a major character since he was in the little intro song but he barely served a purpose?!
Finally, Ro Woon was in this show did you know that? HAHA I was so shocked and didn't even realize until the 12th episode.
Only You is such a bop and makes up for every other song in the OST it's SO GOOD
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