One of my all time favorites
This is my favorite drama. I love everything about it. The setting, the ost, the characters, everything.I like how it was set in a small town where everyone knows each other so they are all friendly with ech other (except for with the fl) and help each other out. As time goes on though they become friends with the fl and help her out when she most needs it. The music they play during the romantic scenes is cute and honestly we all need a yong sik in our lives. I love how he gave dongbaek confidence and love, something that she always need it. He always treated her with respect and absolutely adored her. Not just her but also her kid. He loved him like his own. My mom is a single mom so I have seen the struggle for providing for a child and the rent and stuff from my mom. It was nice seeing though how even with the struggles of being a single mom she was still happy. She had friends around her and that did not stop her from dating. I have not watched many shows with single moms so it was a nice change. The characters were all fun and quirky. I liked seeing dongbaek little by little become stronger and confident. She never backed down when she found out she was in danger but defended herself. I have watched this drama 4 times and I still can't stop myself from crying during the last episode, both tears of joy and sadness. Being able to make me cry just gives a show or book bonus points.
So I definitely recommend this to anyone who is not sure if to watch it or not. Its a cute romance and its a nice change from other dramas.
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While this drama embraces many unnecessary tropes at times, and piles on difficulties in the female lead's life to an excessive extent, it has a great cast, and overall feels more realistic than it arguably has the right to.
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Almost gave up but overall a good drama
I almost gave up on this drama. I loved it at first but I lost interest more than halfway through. However, I’m glad I pushed through. I think this is a drama you should watch slowly instead of binge watching it. I wish I watched it while it was airing. I think I would be able to appreciate it more.To be honest, I thought this was a romantic comedy after watching the trailer. But this drama is actually about mothers and family. The last episode really made me cry. I love the relationships of the characters. The neighborhood is like one big family and it was really heartwarming.
I think this might not be everyone’s cup of tea. Dongbaek’s life stressed me out and it was really infuriating that so many people didn’t treat her well. I also didn’t like how she was very meek but she did have character development towards the end. On the other hand, I really adored Yong Shik’s character although he also has his flaws. This drama made me fall in love with Kang Ha Neul. Honestly, I didn’t feel a lot of chemistry between the main leads but they are really good actors. I went into this expecting romance but I stayed for the other stories.
Overall, I think this is worth watching although I wish it was shorter.
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The one I’ll always think about
Every once in a while, one of those really great kdramas come around leaving you feeling empty after giving you so much. When The Camellia Blooms did everything so right. From the topics of childhood abandonment to fear of being loved to breaking generational trauma.Dong-Baek’s character and childhood spoke to me so deeply, to the point I saw myself in her and at moments, I wanted to become more like her.
Yong-Shik quickly became one of my favourite characters, the amount of times I would just wish I had someone love me as much as he loves Dong-Baek, the constant reassurance to literally worshipping the ground she walks on. Yong-Shik and Dong-Baek relationship reassured me that I will not settle for less. There is someone out there that would do anything and everything for you.
A major props to the writers for such a compelling way of telling this beautiful story filled with so many life lessons. The cinematographers for such wonderful shots (the opening is my favourite, the colour grading makes me drool). The directors being able to create an incredible sense of community, I especially loved how they all came together by the end. Sometimes you could only wish to live in one of the small town places with such a distinct feeling of a community. I also want to praise Gong Hyo-Jin and Kang Ha-Neul, for a performance that left me feeling something so deeply that’ll probably never get to know and for that I am so thankful.
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It's a crime thriller with heart warming romance with family mellow and struggle of single mothers in society.
Story begins with a women named Dongbake who came to small town ongsan with her one year old boy and open a bar to make her living. She became center of attraction of that neighborhood as she is pretty and other restaurant owner being jealous of her as her business was going well and she is able to run her business about six years and raise her child well in that town. At that time she met Young-sik who is a police officer, transferred to his hometown Ongsan. Young-sik fall in love at first sight with Dongbake and gradually became a good friend of her in her lonely life. At this time he came to know that five years back Dongbake was a witness of murder scene and that serial kill came back to take his revenge from her.
It's a complete pack where you can have a thriller, romance, story of orphan and single mother(Which will make you cry). Unlike other T.V dramas it's realistic where struggle of real world is portrayed along with humor. I personally like Kang Ha-neul's acting and Chemistry between leads is awesome .Ajumma's of Ongsan and Lawyer and her husband's humor is another level????. As a child artist Kang-hoon played very well.
Indeed!! this drama deserve to win awards. It's a must watch drama ♥️♥️
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This review may contain spoilers
A whiny, annoying drama with unlikable characters...
This drama has a good plot in theory but it wasn't executed well at all. The romance between the main characters was slow and so was the crime solving, so the overall pacing was snail pace which isn't always bad thing but in this case it was just boring.The characters were the main let down of this drama, every single character was annoying apart from Yongsik, he was the saving grace. Dongbaek whined and cried and pitied herself so much that when a scene came along that should've made me sad I just rolled my eyes because she was crying AGAIN. Yongsik's mother was particularly annoying, she was so horrible throughout the drama and then just magically changed her opinion in the last couple of episodes!
The music was nothing special, just your typical k drama osts.
I think giving this a 6.5 is highly generous and purely because Yongsik's character was so refreshing.
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The camellia blooms from late December through March
A well written, well executed drama that is both a romantic comedy and a thriller.The cast is amazing and it's a perfect watch for k-drama neophytes (despite the 20 episodes) and families.
The male protagonist is interpreted by Kang Ha-neul, whom I've met in Scarlet Heart Ryeo. Back then I fell for his coward, mediocre bad prince with outrageous hair, how could I possibly resist the sweet and loyal goofball that is Yong-sik?
I couldn't.
He is so very precious that it is clear he was written by a woman.
Mind you that I also developed a soft spot for Jong-Ryul, but he is a bit problematic so I'll just lust after him without giving him all my heart.
The female lead is played by Gong Hyo-jin, a new entry for me (but I plan on watching Master's Sun soon) and in my opinion a terrific choice. She managed a surprising balance between fragile and strong and, moreover, between pitiful and endearing. There are good dramas where the unlucky backstory of the protagonist is so heavy handed in its tragedy that it feels absurdly comic to me.
Now, Dong-baek is one of those incredibly unlucky characters, yet her lighthearted kindness and her honest smile make her real. She is not bravely enduring her catastrophic fate with the tenacity of a superwoman, but rather she is trying her best while being scared, insecure, regretful and lost.
There are the glorious moments when she stands up for herself and finds her inner strength and there are the moments when she is meek and timid and this duality brings her character to life.
Go Doo-shim and Lee Jung-eun are the epic grandmas we needed. Honorable mention for Jeon Bae-soo, Kim Sun-young, Yeom hye-ran and even Jang Hye-jin (in a cameo). All my favorites in one place!
The plot is engaging and well paced, easy to follow.
Maternal love and life in a small community are the main themes, but the writer (Im Sang-choon) also includes a commentary on social stigmas (Moms can't be single nor open a bar in Korea, apparently), mental health and the hardships of finding one's self-worth and social identity.
Our relationships and the people surrounding us shape our view of the world and can make a heaven out of hell or vice versa. As our experiences mold our identity, we are also capable of making a conscious choice on how to react to uncontrollable events. Hyang-mi and Jessica are a sort of Dong-baek alter ego in that sense. They all cope with their childhood trauma in different ways.
I liked the speech about miracles and the one about happiness.
Everyone gets their closure in the end.
I laughed and also cried a little and it felt good.
It felt organic.
Female Empowerment Score 5/5: from the kickass grandmas, to the feisty neighborhood gang of ajhummas, no female in this drama is on the sideline. Wheter they decide to drag each other down, or build each other up, these women are the main characters in their story.
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“Can a person become a miracle for another?”
Originally written on Nov 06, 2022One of my biggest gripes with K-Dramas is how the story often gets dragged out because people aren’t talking about their feelings. It’s always something like having to choose between a career and a person, and instead of trying to make it work, they just give up on one of the two, even when it’s not what they really want. When the Camellia Blooms is the exact opposite, with Hwang Yong-sik declaring his love for Dongbaek in the very first episode, leading to her thinking he’s a big weirdo, which immediately sets the tone for the rest of the show.
At first, I was quite happy with this, until I started to notice that it’s literally the same thing, but instead of the story being dragged out because people aren’t honest to each other, it’s being dragged out because they are too honest. This results in When the Camellia Blooms being a ~12-episode story spread out over 20 hour-long episodes. The pacing, especially towards the middle, is really bad, and it feels like characters are just running in circles to meet the network’s 20-episode quota.
The plot revolves around Yong-sik, a police officer who falls head over heels in love with Dongbaek, a single mother who runs a café at the outskirts of town. While this is happening, a serial killer is on the loose and starts to threaten Dongbaek. It’s super obvious near the start of the show who this murderer is, making it incredibly frustrating to see a team of cops needing an additional 10+ episodes to figure it all out. What could’ve been one big, fantastic, interconnected story turns out to be two separate storylines that only intertwine when the love story starts to stagnate. The number of times the same thing happens multiple times throughout the story is insane. It’s like I’m watching Dragon Ball Z. There’s no character development at all, except for in the first and last couple of episodes. I really wish this was done better.
What I liked was the lead characters' groundedness. Yong-sik is a goofball who tries to cheer up Dongbaek every chance he gets, whereas Dongbaek is a very insecure but pure-hearted soul who just wants to be a good mom for her kid and keeps getting thrown into awful situations. They balance each other out almost perfectly. I just wish the writers made better use of this. The supporting cast was nice as well, although they felt a bit too much like caricatures for me to really like them. There’s the biological father who wants to get the mother of his son back even though they’ve been out of each other's lives for years and he’s married. There’s the mother who doesn’t want her son to be happy with the female lead for no reason at all, which goes on for like 18 episodes. There’s the shitty kid who doesn’t like his mom’s boyfriend one scene, while they’re best buds in the next, etcetera. You know exactly where this is going a couple episodes in, but it’s still fun to watch.
And that’s the strength of When the Camellia Blooms. It’s not that well written, and it drags out way too much, but it’s incredibly wholesome and heartfelt when it needs to be, which makes this show a great comfort watch. My last couple of nights have been spent hanging out with my homies at the Camellia café, watching them try to catch a serial killer. And even though I didn’t love it, I’m sad that it’s over. It was a fun time.
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When the Camellia Blooms Korean
I was pretty hesitant going into When the Camellia Blooms. I knew it was a hit with fans both in South Korea and internationally, but I’m so picky with more simple dramas like this. But thankfully, I loved it!And I can totally see why they chose Gong Hyo Jin for this role. She seems so natural as she plays these realistic and slightly awkward characters. Her mannerisms are just so spot on.
The town is then filled with so many great supporting characters including the gossiping women, the man vying for Dong Baek’s attention, that man’s wife who is onto his games, the woman always looking to get money, Yong Sik’s mother, as well as Dong Baek’s son and mother. Talk about a wonderful group!
ways with its focus on the characters and their relationships. Yes, it had the mystery surrounding the serial killer, but that felt like more of a subplot for the bulk of the drama. And this is a prime example of how a simple story like this can be just exciting as any more complex series or an action drama.
The show is written incredibly well, and it handled everything so beautifully. It peeled back the layers of the characters and their stories in just the right manner for maximum impact. It also dropped small hints at a variety of things early on and then tied everything together later in very satisfying ways. It pulled on all kinds of heartstrings!
I was thoroughly invested in these characters and their lives, so their experiences captivated me. This drama held my attention and charmed me from start to finish. What a lovely surprise it was!
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It's All Good In The Hood❕️ °Excellent°
Is this a romance, or an exploration of parent child relationships?It's both. It's actually more the latter. There's loss, longing, loneliness, laughter and love, with scary tension mixed in for good measure. The neighborhood is a character on its own. The place to which they've taken us is so charming. Good directing, good acting, good writing and a good soundtrack all come together beautifully, like Donbaek's pork stir-fry. The romance between the two leads is sweet. The mystery surrounding the murders is also handled very well. Most of the character arcs are satisfying.
Dongbaek is uncomfortably passive and within herself in the first few episodes. Watching her develop... and bloom... is a treat. I've become a big fan of Lee Jeong Eun, Dongbaek's mom. She's a stellar talent and currently my favorite actress. I first saw her in Oh My Ghost which is a romcom that's cooked up to perfection. She, along with the other 3 leads deliver magnificent performances in that show and I have had a love affair with all of them ever since. (The other three are Kim Seul-Gi, Jo Jung-Seok, and Park Bo-Young).
This show is 95% excellent. Here's a complimentary sample of unimportant nitpicks:
It doesn't quite make sense to open a restaurant/bar because you can make one good dish.... .
It would have been fun to see policeman Young Shik catch a few more criminals, but it is understandable that one case started to consume all of his time.
I wasn't pleased with the treatment of Jong Ryul, Pil-Gu's father. It seemed more severe than he deserved. He truly cares for Dongbaek. He never had a chance to know his son. He made mistakes when he was immature, and has since grown up. The reason for the break-up and her attitude toward him is less in focus than other plot lines. I'm glad they didn't make him a cartoonish bad guy, at least. That's a played out stereotype; he has more complexity.
The efforts to catch the Joker had some holes, or flaws. Obvious things that should have been done were not, mostly to maintain the plot.
Any criticisms are easily overlooked due to the overall excellence of the show. Hwang Yong-Sik's energy alone is worth the time spent. Kang Ha-Neul is really terrific as the ML. So grab the peanuts and Soju and enjoy your stay in Ongsan.
QUOTE〰
"I scratched on cement that hasn't hardened." (Meaning that since he's a kid it will mark him, hurt him, and stay with him for life).
〰IMHO
Directing 8
Acting 8
Romance 7
Flutters 5
Thought provocation 6
Suggested Age 14& up.
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This drama was jam packed with wonderfulness. While the serial killer part of the storyline takes a backseat to the town life of Ongson, it definitely added some spice to what might have been an otherwise unpropelled storyline. This does focus more on how everybody influences each other through everyday life. While the drama did move a little bit slowly, and I did feel like they could have condensed it a little bit, they chose instead to cover every minute detail. There were no loose ends in this bad boy. I do think one of my favorite parts about this drama was that Young-shik's character was just an honest-to-goodness gem. He wasn't one to play games and beat around the bush, and he only wanted the best for Dong-baek. It was refreshing compared to the copious amounts of cold-hearted male leads in many dramas. I like a good dramatic romance as much as the next one, but this one definitely felt more real. It was sweet and the Ongson community aspect had me cheering.
The drama pulled everything together nicely and the character development was great. (So much character development, yass) All in all a nice watch.
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