Encounter (2018)

Absolutely beautiful

If you want to watch absolutely beautiful people in highly aesthetically pleasing settings, this is the show for you. Park Bo-Gum, stop making me fall in love with you! After just watching you as Choi Taek, it was such a treat to see you grow up before my very eyes.

The sweet/cute moments were perfect, but the obstacles got tiring at times. Thankfully, the most angsty parts were short-lived —  you just need to endure ~2 episodes or so. This story was like a more consistent Something in the Rain; the highs weren't QUITE as high, but the lows NEVER reached the depths of frustration and despair I felt from SITR.

I did have a few gripes with this show. One was the chemistry: people often tout "negative chemistry," and while I don't think this show was atrocious in that regard (I also wasn't actively following during the whole Song-Song media storm at the time), it wasn't exceptional. Another was the side characters: beyond our two leads, most of them were pretty flat, and I never cared too much what happened to them. Many were awfully black-and-white as well, and the spoken explanations by people like Chairman Kim came too little, too late. Finally, one aspect of the message: an 11th hour change of heart is absolutely common in these types of dramas, and while I fully anticipated it, I think it negatively impacted the narrative. One of the most important parts of this story was the idea of a steadfast love. The whole 11th hour flip-flipping just made me frustrated, and made me question what one of the leads even SAW in the other lead to begin with (seriously, what made that person so appealing to make the other lead willing to endure such pain?!).

As a super minor note, this show is susceptible to quite a few kdrama tropes. It's nice and fresh for newer viewers, but a little tired otherwise. Think wrist-grabs, predictable plot points, and ridiculously shoehorned PPL. Another way of looking at it is "tried-and-true," and I came to embrace all the highly out-of-place discussions people had while eating Subway.

At the end of the day though, this show delivered on several key fronts —  the eye-candy, acting talent, witty dialogue, a banging OST, and absolutely stunning cinematography. The heart-fluttering moments were far more frequent than the hair-pulling ones, and that made this show a worthwhile and fulfilling watch on balance.

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Made my heart flutter

Wow! Either I'm getting old or this is one of the most beautiful dramas I've seen to date! It's become a frequent occurrence that since getting into Kdramas I've missed my late father so much - none more than while watching this Encounter. I can just hear him say with a tear in his eye "she suffers so much for other people" ?

Please go watch this beautiful wholesome love story - stellar performances from Song Hye Kyo and Park Bo Gum - their love for each other is so genuine and the journey that Song Hye Kyo's character goes on is truly heartwarming. When she smiled, my heart fluttered! Park Bo Gum plays to his strengths and is great.

The supporting cast are great, and the wicked mother-in-law is suitably evil. There are very few plotholes and if I have to pick a negative then I would have loved a few more episodes, but only because I didn't want it to end and would be nice to see a bit more of the relationships of the supporting cast develop.

Once my heart recovers, I will be rewatching this several times! GO WATCH IT!!!

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I've just finished watching this amazing drama. I have lots of reasons why I love it, and a few reasons why it wasn't a 10/10 for me.

1. THE MAIN CHARACTERS
The storyline aside, the lead characters were quite unique. Park Bo Geum's character was my favorite male lead characters of all times probably! The personalities of male leads are normally quite similar to each other: they can be rich and cold hearted amazingly handsome, or the most skilled person in the field of whatever is their profession. Anyways, I love that Kim Jin Hyuk was just a normal guy, that fell for this beautiful and lonely woman in his own way.
As for Song Hye Kyo's character, I loved how it's showing a different side of a rich career woman. It's focusing more on her loneliness and hardships she had in her entire life instead of being a classic bitchy boss. Even though she had a really difficult life, her heart still remained as soft as it could be, and I love how she puts Kim Jin Hyuk before anything. She chooses him over her career that was her everything so many times without thinking about it twice. I love how bravely she is embracing her love.

2.THE STORYLINE
I think the writers did a very good job with this one. The love between the two characters start and develop very naturally. I loved the gradual development of their relationship: they went from being friends that are attracted to each other to a pre-relationship phase, then they start the relationship and in the end their love exceeds everything else. I think this part of the show was written very brilliantly

3.ACTING
I mean the show has Song Hye Kyo.. In my opinion she is one of the best actresses in Kdramas. She can deliver all the emotions with her eyes which I love. I also love love love her drunk scenes where she becomes just so funny. For me she is the star of the show for sure. Park Bo Geum is also one of the actors that I admire. He really made a great job especially towards the end of the show.

4.CHEMISTRY
This one for me is the only reason why I can't rate this show 10/10. Even though I love the characters, and I love their story which was so beautiful, I couldn't sense a very strong chemistry between SHK and PBG. It wasn't because of their acting or anything, because both of them gave brilliant performances. But it was just lacking a good chemistry I guess. Perhaps the love story of this show is better compared to the Descendants of the Sun, but I still can't get over the chemistry between Song Hye Kyo and Song Jong Gi. I mean yes they got married in real life which meant they had chemistry in real life too when they were shooting. But still on-screen chemistry can be very strong even when the couple isn't dating in real life (ex: Ji Sung and Hwang Jung Eum, Hyun Bin and Ha Ji Won, Gong Yoo and Yoon Eun Hye, Gong Hyo Jin and any korean actor ever, and the list goes on and on)

Overall, I think it's definitely a drama worth watching!

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UNIQUE AND DEFINITELY WORTH WATCHING!

I watched this drama solely to kill some time, and I was pleasantly surprised and it was definitely a breath of fresh air. The story isn't really a new concept, but the execution is what made this show a treat to watch. The story is realistic and isn't filled with unnecessary and unrealistic drama. The whole ordinary MALE LEAD with the older, rich, superior FEMALE LEAD , and the whole politics, gave off the vibe that it could have turned into another overly dramatic ordeal, but it was done just right! The whole journey and the character development was what made me watch the show. It is not a cheesy ROM-COM, which was definite refreshing. The cinematography and the overall energy was very poetic and rather classy. The casting, and the performances of the characters were great, and the ending was quite satisfying which is always a positive. DEFINITELY RECOMMEND YOU GIVE IT A GO IF YOU ARE FAN OF ROMANCE!

(side note: the product placement is a little annoying at times)

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A film script became a drama that works

Initially I dropped this show but came back to it later, and I’m glad I did. There’s a lot that could be better about it, but the heart of it is very good. What interested me was that a film writer (Yoo Young Ah), wrote a drama that filled 16 hours with a plot that could have serviced a two hour movie, and managed to pull it off.

Movies, like short stories, revolve around one basic idea. To try and do more is actually to do less because you don’t have the space to properly explore them. So, here she takes the basic noona/chaebol romance, stripped of any excess emphasis on politics, secondary romances, plot twists (the normal complexities written into long dramas) and plumbs the depth of it. Although I don’t think the characters had enough shade written into them to give them the full three dimensions, Park Bo Gum acted his heart out and gave a a really convincing performance, particularly towards the end.

I doubt there’s anything more than that comment, insightful enough to add anything to the already abundant comments in other reviews.

What my rating means: 8+ A great drama with interesting content and good writing, direction, acting, OST, cinematography. But didn’t quite have the requisite sparkle to bump it into my all-time fave list. Worth watching.

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Light and Sweet

Simple, light and sweet melodramatic romance.
I picked this show because of Song Hye Kyo and was not disappointed.

Not many complications and lame misunderstandings, thankfully. The FL and ML had a pretty strong love for each other. It would have been better if the show had say .. 4-6 episodes less as I felt things getting a little dragged out from ep 11 onwards.

I love the supporting characters. The driver, the secretary and even the ex-husband were all quite likeable. They made the show a lot stronger.

My only complain is the chemistry between the FL and ML. It wasn’t very sizzling and felt a little flat for me.

Overall a recommended watch if you want a light show. Minimal crying, I assure you.

Oh, and it’s a happy ending.

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The actors need to wake up and deliver what they signed up for. I feel like they're too afraid to cross the line, just cause SHK is married and PBG is close friends with her husband. Their kiss for me is the cringiest onscreen kiss ever, it's like kissing a wall. Even the editor knew it too, they showed the back of SHK'S head so many times and a very far shot of the kiss just to mask the god awful kissing scene. There's absolutely no heat between them which is impossible for this drama because SHK is playing a divorcee. Yes, she's a very respectable divorcee but she isn't some virgin. There were already many scenes where they were alone in a room and NOTHING HAPPENED. PBG is playing an innocent unassuming man but he is still a MAN, not some saint. The director needs to get a grip and manage these actors better than this. The lines in the script always say they have deep feelings for each other but I don't see it, so far they've been giving either a sis-bro or mom-son vibe. It's so frustrating because this drama could be good but the actors are holding back which is so unprofessional. All love stories even real ones are filled with lust too. The actors should show us what it's really like when a 30-something woman gets together with a hot 20-something guy. They should take pointers from the male and female leads of Something in the rain drama, now THAT was good acting. But in this one, it's just pretty faces and sentimental lines, that's basically it.

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I see many reviews saying that the drama is very slow and awkward, and I understand it. However, what I don't understand is those reviews are based on people who haven't watched this drama pass 2 episodes, and people who enjoy this, are people who have watched this past 2 episodes. Don't get me wrong I'm not bashing on anyone who doesn't like this particular drama, it's their taste and preferences. The first few episodes are very, very slow as if it was a prologue of a book that contains very few points to the initial plot then driving people eager to read chapter 1 instead. But, I believe the prologue is very important, it paves sets of emotions with the details given, giving a sense of the audience to dive deeper into this story. Similarly, in the first few episodes Encounter does this perfectly. At least give this drama a chance.

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At first I do hesitanting, Park Bogum and Song Hyekyo are classified as A+++ class actor but since I dont really like romance kind of drama. 1st episode I just wowing the entire thing, production house and screenwriter did their best for make a romance story not so childishly teenage love story or overly adult story in another drama just your everyday romance story. I'm feeling Something In The Rain all over again~~ plus realize that Park Bogum begin his flowery 20's age journey and Song Haekyo vampire beauty could win you right away to watch it. The supporting characters are not just for accessories but they could absorb viewers quickly to the story; like how we hate her ex in-laws mom and biological mom, the ex, the supportive secretary and daddy long-legs Mr Nam.

The cinematography SUPERB, every episode did fill a lot of colours. I really love the scene in Cuba, not only took scene in popular site but they tried to picturize the charms of old Havana, the street, the garden, I love it all. The sunset just to give us viewer a description of main character feeling, a warm and happy since both of them not really have an exciting moment in life especially Cha Soohyun her life just like a cold winter and shackles everywhere for our male lead Kim Jinhyuk, he suffers a burden of breadwinner since he is a 1st born male but luckyly he surround by a good family and friends.

The BGM and OST are top rate, when watching I dont know why but my heart beat so fast and happy pheromones leaking. I seriously dont know that Cuba have those beautiful places but after watching these I do want to go there. The sunset so beautiful~~

Btw I'm in awe by Kim Hyeun actress as Manager Kim after play as Park Hongjoo congresswoman in Son: The Guest, she in here play as a single mom who have a lot of love to her subordinates, loyal to Cha Soohyun and the elders; Manager Nam and Soohyun's father.

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was beautiful but could have done more in those 16 hours then this

1 ) I enjoy this drama until few last episodes i skipped them because i really don't understand there breakup at all
2) What with MLs brother this guy is there for nothing i thought they could have developed a 3rd couple with him and MLs bestie but they did nothing for whole 16 hour , they were so focus on Main story that they ruin everything else, side character are there to be used in story but they all look separate from main story even FL's ex-husband was like after 10+ episode he want FL back and was doing so little to get her back like he wasn't serious about that at all or he doesn't value her at all then he try to sack her off from her position which somehow will make her fall for him ? what weird logic was that.

Main story was most focus thing of the Drama without giving any side character any importance
i like main story had watched 2-3 time but after watching it more then once,
i really feel they wasted 3rd couple.....

I don't get the logic of alimony in this drama ,
how she was given a position of CEO as alimony in which she can be kicked out anytime they want ?
should she had received Company stocks, or the ownership of hotel as alimony.

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YOU NEED THIS REVIEW TO WATCH THIS DRAMA!!

FIRSTLY, the description given about this drama in the synopsis is doing the drama BAD. The drama has more to it than just that! Let me start by saying this is not gonna be one of the dramas you watch and regret wasting your time. I started this drama mainly because I'm into Noona Romances. This drama brings out a lot of emotions both happy and sad ones, and also gave me a new insight in life as well. The drama is correctly paced and the most realistic drama I've ever come across in my watching of K-drama's. Many a times when I watch dramas based on life I often wonder "how can this be possible?" or "there's no way this can happen in real life!" even though they aren't fiction or fantasy. This drama left no place for doubts like that and it potrays a very mature and strong relationship between the leads.

STORY: The overall story is quite wonderful! but kdramas always have a plot twist which you never expect. I personally think this twist wasn't really necessary as the drama by itself was going on really well!

ACTING: I couldn't have asked for a better casting than this, both the actor's brought out the life in their characters exceptionally well. For all of you saying the casting is a wrong decision, I would say y'all are blind! SHK and PBG's expressions as well as their acting couldn't have been better!

OST: The OST was a blessing to the ears! Right from when they were in Cuba to the ending . The music coordinated very well with the scenes! and enhanced the ambiance of the situation as well.

The only time when I was disappointed was when episode 13 ended. After that it was kinda unexpected and when everything came back to track the happiness was very short lived. I wasn't able to experience the joy of the drama I felt all along. It would have been better if there was 1 more episode added to it after things got back on track.
But overall this drama is ONE OF THE BEST dramas I'VE seen!
I WOULD STRONGLY RECCOMNED IT!! :)

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