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The backdrop of the entire drama potrays a gloomy feeling, not the typical bright and cheerful type of backdrop for the usual kdramas. I think this suits the drama's plot perfectly but again it does make my heart heavier after returning home from a heart day's work expecting something lighter and more cheerful. Having said that, there are various great scenaries up for showcase in the drama so much so that it makes you feel like visiting Korea.
I can't really appreciate the fantasy part of the drama but I guess its necessary for the entire plot. Having said that, I would have given this drama a rating of 7 if not for the last episode, which I felt was very meaningful in how we should approach life's every moment and treasure what we have.
Overall, this is a meaningful drama to watch but be prepared to watch with a heavy heart. The acting was excellent. If you are looking for something light and funny to spend your leisure time, stay away from it though.
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Padam Padam was an amazingly well conceived drama all around. With well drafted, fully developed, flawed characters, an original complex story with elements of crime, fantasy and a whole lot of emotion, this show was able to pack such punch it'll leave you wanting long after the final episode. Exactly my type of drama. I jumped into watching this because I love a good redemption story, and having completely fallen in love with Jung Woo-sung after seeing him in A Moment to Remember and Season of Good Rain, I did not hesitate. The acting, especially his, was just superb.
From the opening scene to the final montages, I was hooked. Even when I wanted to stop watching and run away from all the emotional turmoil this show unleashed.
Jung Woo-sung plays adorable, working class man-child Yang Kang Chil. Loyal and tough he isn't afraid to take on anyone who threatens his loved ones, but having lost his youth to the Korean prison system he looks at life through the eyes of a child, discovering and marveling at such simple pleasures as owning his first car, riding the train or going to the zoo. I adored Kang Chil's innocent world weariness. In this role Jung Woo-sung gave one of his bravest, most poignant performances. I loved the relationship he had with his family, esp his mom, who was so movingly portrayed by actress Na Moon Hee. The way she nurtured Kang Chil with her tough love was heartwarming to watch, and there were some hilariously funny scenes between them too.
Unlike many of the mostly western dramas that I've seen where the leads fall in love on sight and get together within the first 2-3 episodes, this was not the case in Padam Padam. The love story between Kang Chil and Ji Na took time to develop (over 10 episodes to be exact). This was torture for me because I was practically foaming at the mouth to see them together, so mad was their on-screen chemistry. In hindsight, though, their budding relationship was appropriately played out.
After all, here are two people, each with their own emotional baggage to overcome. It's only natural that they would look at the prospect of a having a relationship together from completely different standpoints, and this was what you got from Kang Chil and Ji Na. They had to overcome both internal and external obstacles before they could come together as a couple. When they finally did, their love story was so sweet and romantic it'll take your breath away. As usual, I wish there was more physicality between these characters. After making us wait so long, what we got was too tame. Of course, I wasn't looking for explicit sex, but some deep, ardent kisses would have suffice. That said though, their interactions were all heartwarming and beautiful.
I can not praise this drama enough. This is a show that will impart valuable life lessons. I wished I had known certain things before investing so much of myself in the characters. This drama took me on an emotional roller coaster ride that I'm not sure I liked. It weighed heavily on me days after I had seen it, but this was a good quality production. I'd recommend it. There's a lot of sadness and heartbreak, but I think it's manageable if you know going in that that's coming. I'll probably be able to re-watch it after many months have passed.
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Story- Right from the first episode your mind will be all over the place while watching. I kept going WTF every moment and then the ending of that episode was like “are you serious?!” but in a good way. After watching that first episode I knew I was in for a show with a story I had never seen before in the Kdrama world. The story went at a slower pace but it was needed to not only build up the plot in a way that will keep the audience interested throughout the entire run, but also it was needed for the development of Kang Chil’s relationships(not just romantic). I wont give a way the ending (which honestly with the way they started the drama it could’ve gone anyway the writers wanted being unpredictable) but I will say it was bittersweet and not completely closed. Really though I cried in the last 2 episodes and its hard to make me cry!
Acting/Cast- Phenomenal acting by everyone involved including every single one of the supporting characters. Really though JWS. HJM, and KB really shined and brought their characters to life. Those three deserve acting awards and I hope they at least get nominated. I just wanted to point out that I really did not like the character Ji Nah at all during the first half of the series so much so I didn’t care about her romance with main character. But her character development during the second half was so good and made me root for her. This is what good writing is all about. Making you hate a character one minute but then changing your mind in another is pretty amazing to me.
Music- I liked the music score more than the OST but the songs did elevate the scenes in which they were meant to.
Rewatch- I would wait 3-4 years before watching this again just because this is one of those dramas that doesn’t need to be watched for a while because once the plot is known you don’t get the same feel you had the first time. Hopefully by then I will forget most of what happened during the story so I can enjoy watching it again.
Overall Padam Padam plays like a movie with the excellent cinematography, acting, plot, and score. This drama was new, refreshing and I hope there are more dramas like this to come.
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Jung Woo Sung was simply amazing in this one. I believe his acting abilities elevated the performances of the other actors. For instance Han Ji Min (whose previous performances in other dramas I found I to be wooden) was very believable in her role of an educated woman struggling against a love for a man that felt so right yet felt so wrong in "her world".
The plot was improbable yet it is a KDrama and as fans of the genre we embrace the premise with open arms.
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This drama gets addictive from the beginning to the end. I was really curious to see how it would end.
The actors performed really well, and to see Kim Bum in such a role, I almost drooled *o* The main lead was absolutely exceptional, too.
The plot... I don't usually watch dramas like those, so for me it was really amazing. I was afraid it would finish badly, but I kept watching it.
The only thing I wish they could have done better was develop a few things more like why did Min Ho got stabbed and what was the relationship between the four of them or the ending, I was hoping Kang Chil to get cured but the story just ends it without any advice. It makes us think all their effort were a bit worthless.
Still, it's a drama that has a good message and it lived up to my expectations!
This is really an amazing drama. Watch it :)
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The whole drama to me is like a very good Korean movie!!!
And I should mention the scenery!!! The views in the drama are spectacular. Thumbs up for the director and the whole crew!
I've watched lots of dramas but this one is different in its good meaning. At first, I wasn't going to watch it, but I gave it a try after reading a few positive comments. And I watched it one episode after another in one go.
So, I recommend it to you who are still hesitating. It's tear-jerking, but it's worth it, because when the scene is at its high emotional pick, only then you can truly understand what and how character feels at the moment, what he or she is going through.
Wonderful drama.
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This review may contain spoilers
Is it about the journey or the destination?
Padam Padam is one of those dramas that gets you thinking about which is more important: the journey or the destination? No matter your answer, however, it still is a great drama that should be watched. It has 20 episodes, and actually, I think it should've been the usual 16 kdrama-length episodes, because episodes 17-20 were unfortunately my least favourite. I think Padam Padam is a drama with a great journey but eventually becomes a tad repetitive and too much of a 'slice of life'. However, episodes 1 to 16 were absolutely amazing.The acting and OST were pretty much perfect, almost faultless. I really enjoyed the different types of characters and the mix of different genres in the storyline. I think the crime based storyline was my favourite but I still thoroughly enjoyed the other parts, too. I really liked the bromance and family-type friendship and bonds the character eventually came to have.
I wasn't a fan of the directing, and the English sub translation provided by Viki was unusually weak, but that gives me more motivation to learn Korean. On the positive side, I now have some new favourite actors thanks to these great casting choices, and I also have another great OST to add to my playlist!
All in all, I recommend Padam Padam.
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Not a Comfort Watch — Proceed With Caution
I need to warn you before you even consider watching Padam Padam. Please read this carefully, because this is absolutely not a light comfort watch. Yes, there are funny moments. Yes, there’s warmth, humour, tenderness, even a certain strange magical charm at first. You may think you’re about to watch some philosophical fantasy drama with mystery elements, redemption arcs, maybe even a comforting “good defeats evil” kind of story. That’s exactly what I expected too. But episode by episode, it gets darker. Quietly. Relentlessly. And honestly, by the end, the series left me with this heavy lingering feeling of hopelessness and emotional exhaustion that stayed with me for several days afterwards. My mind kept returning to it whether I wanted it or not.So this is my genuine warning: if you currently struggle with anxiety, uncertainty about the future, relationship issues, health fears, emotional burnout — think twice before starting this drama. Especially if you usually watch series as escapism.
Because Padam Padam does not let you escape. It drags you straight back into all those fears about life, illness, loneliness, regret, fate, and the consequences of human choices.
And yet… ironically, that is also why it’s such a powerful series. Because underneath all the bleakness, this is an incredibly human story about relationships, guilt, forgiveness, and the strange ways people become family even without sharing blood. The emotional core of the story is genuinely beautiful. It’s about damaged people trying to hold onto each other while life keeps falling apart around them.
Now about the characters.
Jung Woo Sung as Yang Kang Chul was… complicated for me. There were scenes where he was genuinely excellent, especially in quieter emotional moments. But overall, I felt his acting was often too exaggerated. Whenever he tried to portray roughness, silliness, or the impulsive behaviour of an uneducated ex-convict, it sometimes crossed into overacting for me. I kept wishing he would tone it down just slightly and trust the emotional weight of the scenes more naturally.
As for Han Ji Min as Jung Ji Nah… honestly, I struggled with her character from beginning to end. She never fully convinced me emotionally. In many dramas, the female lead becomes the emotional engine of the story — the person who changes, inspires, rescues, or transforms the protagonist. Here, she often felt emotionally distant and uncertain, and I never truly bought into the central romance. Maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t really feel the chemistry between them. Their relationship never became the heart of the series for me.
But then there is Kim Bum. And honestly? He completely stole this drama. His Lee Gook Soo — this strange, playful, tragic “guardian angel” figure — was extraordinary. I mostly remembered Kim Bum from Boys Over Flowers as the charming flower-boy type, so I genuinely did not expect this kind of emotional range from him. But here he delivers something far deeper: warmth, grief, humour, devotion, loneliness — often all within the same scene.
Every interaction between him and Yang Kang Chul was magnetic. Their relationship — their bromance, their emotional dependency, their loyalty to each other — honestly carried the entire series for me. And the funny thing is, this keeps happening in modern dramas: the romantic storyline exists, but the emotional centre quietly becomes the bond between the male characters instead. And here, that bond absolutely wins.
I also loved the family dynamic: Kang Chul’s mother, his son, the fragile little makeshift family they slowly build around themselves. Those scenes felt painfully real and emotionally grounded. In fact, those relationships were probably the main reason I never dropped the series even when it became overwhelmingly bleak.
So my final verdict? Padam Padam is not comforting. It is not escapist. It can genuinely be emotionally triggering. But it is also deeply thoughtful, beautifully written, painfully human television.
And somehow, even after I realised this story was drifting away from fantasy and closer toward tragedy, I still couldn’t stop watching it. Almost masochistically. That probably says everything about how compelling it really is.
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So many dialogues!!! They kept talk about the same things all over again. I don't scroll forward movies/dramas but I did it this time.
I really enjoy watching the actors they did incredible job in here. I watched this drama after Boys Before Flowers and I see how amazing Kim Bum is. In BBF he was just smiling charmingly, at least that's all I remember. But in here he was fantastic. He can show his acting with his charming smile :)
I don't think Han Ji Min was that good to talk about. Jung Woo Sung, Kim Bum and Na Moon Hee was amazing. If you have lots of time or you're a hardcore fan of on of these actors, you can watch it. But if you're not go watch soemthing else.
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