I gave this show a 9 for acting, but most of that is due to Gong Yoo. Lee Min Jung, while adorable, didn't quite convince me during the first few episodes. She plays assertiveness way better than she plays meek. I didn't care for that meek baby voice she put on at the beginning, but thankfully, she seemed to drop that affectation as the series wore on. Gong Yoo is an expressive actor who seems to be able to pull of a range of emotions and styles.
I think the writers did an okay-ish job with the story, since it was sort of fantasy/supernatural at its core. It was easy to forget that Gyung Joon was a high school boy since he was plopped inside the gorgeous, most definitely full grown sexy and manly body of Gong Yoo as Seo Yoon Jae (sorry! Let me fan-girl for just a moment - that scene where he wakes up as in Yoon Jae's body will leave your jaw hanging. Did he just get out of military service when he made this???) So, anyway, that helped the "ick" factor of Gil Da Ran falling for a mere high school boy. I do think they side-stepped a little on the romance because he was just a boy in a man's body. I didn't feel that the plot got too draggy or boring anywhere, and zoomed through the episodes pretty quickly wanting to see what was next. But I could have done with a little less interference by Ma Ri (Suzy) and would liked to have seen her give a little more attention to Gil Choong Sik. I kind of felt sorry for the boy, but he was cute in his puppy ways. As with many Korean dramas, there are lots of little misunderstandings to overcome.
If I recall correctly, they didn't have much of an OST, it had a lot of American songs for background and I think I even caught Monster by Big Bang.
I know I won't rewatch this, so I scored it low here.
I've given it an overall 7, because it wasn't nearly up there with a truly good drama, but I have definitely seen much worse. I think that if you go in with expectations that the ending may be less than gratifying, you won't find it an unpleasant watch.
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Act: 2 main actors doing a very good job in acting, but somehow the chemistry between them wasn't good enough. So if I watched them individually, their act is impressive but they re lacking chemistry. Thats what I thought.
Music: actually, I didn't listen to it because I skipped a lot so....well...what can I say
The biggest failure in this drama is the storyline I guess.... I think there's to much going on, to many people involved in the plot and almost everything wasn't well executed. about the marriage for example. I think the scenario actually can be 2 up to 3 different drama. I found myself liking it at the beginning, since it sweet, but I'm getting confused and boring after around episode 3. The main idea about the story was brilliant, and I like it (the main idea about switching soul) but to many twist in between and a lot of it wasn't well executed..so..
Still..I'm able to finished it, but I don't want to watch this drama ever again.
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I did enjoy the drama for what it was, but after episode 14, I kinda just wanted to skip to the ending and just see how it ended because I was getting bored. The writers essentially repeated the same conceptual conflicts between the two MC's to draw out the ending and that just made me bored. I also think that having Gil Da Ran deny her feelings once for Gyeung Jun was enough - there was no reason to have her confess her feelings and then when things got tough for her to go back on them, break his heart, and then boom, they love each other again. It was just too much of the same shit and I think there was a better way to go about getting to their happily ever after. Also, Gil Da Ran was way too gullible about Gyeung Jun losing his memories prior to the ending and that just got on my nerves.
Overall, I think the story was creative and the "plot twist" was believable (parents really do that to/for their children, as despicable as it is). I just think the plot and flow of the drama would have been better if they had maintained the comedic aspects throughout the entire 16 episodes and lightened up on the melodrama in the last 6 episodes.
What I did absolutely love was Gil Da Ran's brother. He was so sweet and caring toward his sister and exceptionally suave in his pursuit of Jang Mary. He never failed to make me giggle and wish that he were my little brother.
Something else I really appreciated was how Gil Da Ran didn't just all of a sudden develop feelings for Gyeung Jun and that their relationship developed over time. The writers also did a nice job showing how torn Gil Da Ran was in being unfaithful to her fiance instead of just jumping ship the second she began to waiver.
I also appreciated that Gyeung Jun tried his best to respect Gil Da Ran and Dr. Seo's relationship by not being overly aggressive in his pursuit for Gil Da Ran, so initially their relationship kinda fell into place. I do kinda wish that there were a couple more romance scenes with them though.
I probably wouldn't recommend this drama to anyone unless they were avid Gong Yoo fans, which my mother is, so she said even though she didn't like the ending, it was worth watching just to see Gong Yoo's hunkiness ;D.
Gong Yoo is an exceptional actor and did well portraying both Dr. Seo and Gyeung Jun's characters. He did a great job portraying an adolescent as well as being flirtatious and charming.
I'm not too much of a fan of Lee Min Jung, but she didn't do a bad job in this drama. I think she fulfilled her role decently.
It was weird to see Suzy playing the "bad" character even though she wasn't actually bad, she was just a character that wanted what she wanted and got what she wanted.
Anyways, this review on Big makes it seem like I didn't like it, but honestly, it was a good drama, I just think things could have been done a bit differently toward the end to make it better received and make more logical sense.
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Heartbreakingly Beautiful
I was reluctant to watch this drama because I thought it would be like Hello Teacher which just seemed to get increasingly more annoying with each new episode. BIG is an entirely different entity. This is a younger man/older woman drama that hits all the right notes. Every moment draws you in. Gong Yoo captures the essence of an in-love teen effortlessly. Disbelief is suspended. His pairing with Lee Min Jung is flawless. Funny and emotionally intense without going for the worn-out rom-com cliches, BIG is a story that stays with you long after the last episode and it is a story you will want to revisit.Soundtrack, production values, casting, nothing was spared. Every part of this drama was crafted with care. Every moment shines.
I can't recommend this drama highly enough.
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Now I noticed that it started to just draaaggg after a while. Then it just started to get plain stupid. It felt like the writers decided to take random words out of multiple books to create one big mess. One episode was here and another episode was there. I mean we BARELY got any background information on the characters. We only found out about the main important background info that every main character has that won't be revealed until the end.
Finally, the ending came. I was a LITTLE excited just to see how the writers would wrap up this BIG mess. (You see what I did there?) We don't get to know why these certain scenes happened or why it ended this way! SO MANY PLOT HOLES
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The plot was great, the age of male protagonist was also doable(in noona romance). All it needed was a good ending. The first 5-6 episodes gives you the impresssion of a great noona romace drama in teh making, but after that it all goes downhill.
Felt like there was no direction. I was wondering whether teh script was completed before they start filming. One or two episodes of cringy romance is acceptable but no, the drama will force you to endure that almost through the whole duration.
So advice will be if you want to watch it, watch the first half of the drama then drop it. Make up your own ending and never touch it, it'll leave a bad taste in your mouth.
All these are applicable unless you're one of those "Goblin" come "Gong Yoo" fan. And it's admirable how "Bae Suzy" pull out her career in k-drama industry after this one. "Lee Min Jung" was beautiful in the drama like she how is does in her past and future works, that's it.
Don't let the overall rating of 7 fool you, that's just work of fanboy/girl of certain actor certainly. Since MyDramalist won't let me give negative rating I'll leave it at 1.
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It was a total disappointment for me after there is a time jump of one year. I kept guessing until the very end what was it supposed to be body swap, finding family or truth of oneself.
Acting wise it was ok but I was heavily irritated to see the clingyness of Bae suzy which means she did play her part awesomely. She was sassy and bratty simultaneously.
Gongyoo was good but he also cant make a bad script work.
Lee min jung was totally flat in expressions for me. I wasn’t convinced by her acting.
Since story was not kicking I didn’t enjoy the music, but BGM was good and I wont ever rewatch it, neither would recommend it to anybody.
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This review may contain spoilers
Big - My Second Korean Body Swap Drama
This drama was my 2nd body swap drama after I watched My Secret Garden.The main question throughout the drama was if the teenager in the man's body was ever going to get into a relationship with the main girl.
Typical of korean drama they didn't really go there, and in the end, the teenager grows up and meets the teacher, and I think that's when the love starts but it's not shown.
One of the gripes I have about this drama, is that the main adult guy who's body is used by the teenager get's the short end of the stick, as he was engaged to the main girl, but the main girl falls in love with the teenager, and the drama doesn't show the fall out of what happened.
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That two so completely different men switched bodies and their teacher/fianceé right in the middle of that mess.
But, I, for myself thought, there could've been more potential.
The first episodes were great, but around the middle, (7,8..) it kind of dragged. The humour got lost, and there was much drama added. I thought there wasn't any need for that, because in the beginning there were so much scenes to laugh about!
Although it got better the last three episodes.
I loved the especially funny scenes, I laughed so much during the first episodes.
I liked the ending. Don't want to spoil, but I thought it was a happy ending, at least for the main character, Gil Da Ran and her 'prince'.
I loved the main characters, Da Ran (even though it felt like Da Ran cried a lot lol), Kyung Joon/Yoon Jae.
And I LOVED the acting of Gong Yoo. The face expressions and the way he interpreted both men in one body. But I was kinda annoyed by Ma Ri's character, especially in the later episodes, but it's just my opinion.
The side characters were lovely as well.
Overall, the drama was still sweet, especially the love story that developed between the characters.
I think I may watch it again sometime, and could definitly recommend to anyone who wants a complicated, yet funny and different lovestory.
The music was good, and fitted the scenes very well.
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At first it was funny and engaging and I loved all the characters - even crazy Mari. But if I’m being real maybe I just had my Gong Yoo goggles on. Okay I admit maybe I watched this for him - I have the infinte amount of screechshots on my computer to prove it - but he honestly did such a good job with this character, it was impossible not to love this show at it’s onset. The premise and the way he interacted with every other character and made them better for it, was gold. The non-sensical plot building in the background was easily ignored, until it wasn’t. Until it ate and swallowed everything like a juggernaut with teeth and a hunger for chocolate abs and heartfelt connections. And then shit started to hit the fan with characters being ridiculous just for the sake of it. Suddenly out of the blue ultimatums sprung up - which I honestly should have expected from the Hong sisters but again I was blinded by Gong Yoo. Seriously if a store clerk is like you can only have pretzels or cheetos but you can’t have both, I’m gonna be like why the eff not, this is a free goddamn country I will eat both these salty snacks thank you very much. But in this show (or just the Hong sister universe) characters go “nooooo, I can’t have both. I’m going to be unsatisfied for the rest of my life.” And its like no, you can have both, open your eyes, the only person stopping you from having both is yourself ... and the store clerk I guess? Eff me this metaphor has gotten so convoluted - I watch too many hong sister dramas.
Anyway almost everything that happened as the conflict for this drama happened for no reason. I have never watched a drama with this many people who refused to be happy all for the sake of being unhappy. Literally nothing was stopping them from being together except for their bullshit. And the end? Idc that they didn’t show the real Kang Kyung Joon - cuz I watched this for Gong Yoo - but after all all that I couldn’t get one, fast forward where they were happy together? Whatever, fuck this.
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