Backstreet Rookie (2020)

One of the BEST dramas of the year!

In the beginning, I watched purely for JCW. For any JCW fans out there, watching this is a no-brainer. However, as the show went along its course it got more and more engaging. It might just be me but, there's just something about new talents like KYJ and a chill-hop OSTs which really get me coming back week after week. The acting isn't too serious but, the story isn't too tacky.

Through my short time of recently getting into kdramas, Backstreet Rookie has a very unique storyline and with top-notch actors leads like JCW & KYJ its not surprising to see that this drama currently holds a position in the Top 10 Most Viewed Dramas so far this year.

Backstreet Rookie is full of some familiar faces but, for the most part, it is a refreshing reintroduction or introduction into laidback rom-com vibes. If you are planning on whether to watch it or not, my answer is simple. WATCH IT. It is very uplifting and with it almost being finished, leaves you wanting more episode after episode.

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"Life is like a flower with so many meaning!"

BackstreetRookie is not the typical romcom that we see in kdrama. It is a romcom with a touch of slice of life you normally see in every refular family presented in a convenient store setting. However, BR provides a refreshing touch for cliches of the everyday drama in the life of an ordinary family, the hardships of an orphaned siblings, the dream of a struggling writer, the loyalty between friends, among others. BR provides tons of life lessons and realization. It's simple and yet absorbing and endearing.

I love romcom, and this drama just give justice to its claim of being a unique romcom. I gave it a 10/10. The PD is well known for his effective directing of a comedy drama (The Fiery Priest) and he delivers again in BR. I just love the exaggerated action scenes, the witty injections of a sequence from another drama, the parodies are excellently executed like the dance number of the Pulp Fiction, the crying scene while eating of Fabricated City. Many little references everyone can enjoy are presented in this drama that made it new, refreshing and entertaining.

This is the only romcom that has zero skinship between the leads but because of the beautiful interaction and visuals of JichangWook and KimYooJung, skinship is not needed. Their gazes and lovey-doveying and sweet nothings will make those romcoms a run for their money. The lead's chemistry are extremely topnotch that you wont realize they have a huge age gap.

I like the use of flowers and its meaning has ushered a more relevant meaning in this drama. The flower symbolism is heart warming that made it more romantic. This drama made me goggle for the meaning of many flowers and how they symbolize a thing.

The OSTs are all amazing, a combination of upbeat and mellow and well played in the various emroions in different scene. They are contemporaries and rendered by young and talented idols and singers in South Korea that it made it more appealing. 10/10

This is definitely a rewatchable drama. I for one has rewatched some of the previous episodes and still get the same feels and warmth the first time I see it. 10/10

BR is realistic and relatable that is why I think it has been well accepted and praised by many fans. You will definitely enjoy its uniqueness and rawness. You will laugh a lot, cry a lot and laugh a lot again! And Jichangwook was correct on what are his thoughts on BR in a recent interview "During this pandemic, everyone will be stressed and having difficulties, I hope it will being joy to everyone and relieve their stress". And sure it did, BR becomes every fans happy pill and healing at least 2 hrs each week for the last two months.

Credit: SETNews for the Interview

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That you have to be patient for their love.

I loved this series i cried and laugh and also was in love with it like i was always excited when a episode came out even tho their romance took long idc I love them together end the ending was amazing with everybody here Wow that series is a 10/10 for me!! What did i like alot in the last episode is that when she came it was like ep 1 she came for the part time job. I loved that series like the way DH keep rejecting YJ for JSB that was like so cute and the way he look at JSB feel like hes looking at me even tho that series isnt really the type of series ji chang wook do IDC that was really good and his character suit him and I hope his next series will be with some action like K2 but still that was amazing! Watch it you may really regret its really funny!!! Luv you!

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Now I know why this drama is rated too low

I will write the cons first since it's the main point of this review.
Cons:
- Too much fan-services: The actor/actress (Ji Chang Wook/Kim Yoo Jung) stares at your eyes literally through your PC/TV/Phone screen
- It's supposed to be a business-related drama, but it's just a gimmick and apparently it's just a setting. The drama doesn't tell you any marketing stuff.
- The cheap CGIs are annoyingly unnecessary.
- The introduction episode doesn't go well. Episode 1 is supposed to show the viewers about the background of the story, characters, and what the drama is about. But, episode 1, unfortunately, became a mere "filler".
- Inconsistent genre. It's like the drama wanted to cover all aspects (action, business, comedy, romance, family).
- The ending is forced to be a happy ending.
- Unresolved conflict: Eun-byul bullying case by her fellow girl group members.
- Problematic story at a glance: It looks like an adult having an affair with a middle-schooler since Saet-Byul hasn't graduated (dropped out) from her school.
- Hang on! You will be pleased with the story after episode 6.

Pros:
- More realistic romance story. (Yo, this is MUCH BETTER than Itaewon Class in term of romance aspect).
- Comedy is there.
- This is family-friendly, no bed-scenes, even you barely find kiss-scenes.
- The family scenes are touching. It might be able to make you teary.
- Love polygonal (more than love triangle), which is good.
- It's Ji Chang Wook and Kim Yoo Jung that you love, lol. But I prefer Han Sun Hwa (Yeon Joo).
- A single thing that motivated me to finish the drama: Dreamcatcher's Yoohyeon is there!

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enjoyable & worth watching!

I never thought ill say this but this by far one of the best kdrama ive ever watched, i cant believe its already over. by this time most people are interested in 'its okay to not be okay' kdrama, but im my opinion its a good kdrama but some parts in episodes might be dull from time to times, while when i watch 'backstreet rookie' i enjoyed (enjoyable) it every episodes and its gets me hooked for more. when i first watch this kdrama i never expected this but i got really satisfied by the kdrama even though theres only one kisse and i even what season 2 for this kdrama. i dont usually interested in this kind of kdrama but this kdrama got me hooked just like 'weightlifting fairy kim bok joo' did.

this kdrama doesnt deserve the hate they got right now,i really hope theres this kdrama got a lot of attentions from seoul or intern fans. overall this kdrama is 10/10 i never felt this satisfied when watching a kdrama so i can assure you that you will enjoy this kdrama too. Good Job JCW and KYJ! <3

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Enjoyable Best Drama 2020

I enjoyed and liked this drama. I have never seen drama like this before but this one is totally unique and different than any others. These two main actor and actress are so attractive, gorgeous. I also liked comedy scenes so much. Especially main actor, I always laughed how the reaction of the his actor look likes such as he smiles silly and so on. I also loved for the actress who have superpower. She is very gorgeous and cute person. Even though, she is powerful, it does not mean she is dangerous. She only used the power to the bad person. I LOVE TO WATCH this Kdrama so much!

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Disappointed !!

I'm Highly Disappointed !! ? Ji Chang Wook.. Why are you doing this. Just because of him I started watching this drama and end it because of him. Why does he keep doing these kind of dramas ? I can't understand. His character was so dull. I couldn't understand why she was like that. Yoo Jung...I didn't like her role, she was annoying.
Plot was So Boring till the end. No Romance, No Music or OST at all... And some annoying characters made this drama unbearable.
If you're a fan of Ji Change Will, you should watch K2, Suspicious Partner or Healer twice instead of wasting your time on this drama.
I'm really feeling bad for him. ??
.

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Another disappointing drama from JCW and KYJ

STORY:

This is the story of a 19y.o girl who kisses a 26 y.o guy and 3 years later she goes to work at his convenience store to chase after him and finally he falls for her and they kiss... no they don't. It does not happen. In fact nothing really happens. There is no story. They just meet again, work together, have fun, support each other and in the last episode, she disappears for some dumb reason and he notices he misses her. Lucky him his friend found her by chance and he goes to fetch her but she asks for time and finally she comes back to the convenience store to work with him. Et voilà. The End. The story is as thin as a paper of cigarette.

CHARACTERS/CAST:

If not for the main cast, this drama would not even be noticed. The two main leads carry this drama on their shoulders and they are doing their best but it does not help if there is no story. There is no character development either. He is a simple naive kind guy working as a manager in a convenience store and in the end he stays the same. She is a reckless girl infatuated with her childhood crush who uses her fists and she stays the same. No professional evolution, no dream achieved, no success found, no change in their personality to be more mature or less naïve. Also there is no real romance between the two. They have fun and some cute moments but I never felt like they are a couple until the draggy ending then they accept each other but still... no couple's chemistry.

The interesting characters are the other ones:
- Fire Volcano a Rasta korean who draws webtoons and reveals himself to be a reliable friend, a cute lover and the son of a rich farmer.
- Cinderella, the friend of SB who admires Fire Volcano but doesn't know he is the guy she loathes.
These two are funny and their story is the cute and fun part of the drama. They live the real romance that never happens between DH And SB.
- The mother of DH: she is a great mother with the shortcomings of a mother who wants the best for her son.

Other characters are introduced but never developped properly:
- YJ is DH's gf and she cheats on him and they break up. Then she notices he is a nice guy. She spends the drama dithering about her feelings for DH and finally she flies abraod. A useless and annoying character on which the drama focuses for more than 10 episodes.
- JSJ the director of GS25 and love rival of DH for YJ, Eun Byul SB's sister, Puppy,.. at some point they just disappear and you never hear from them anymore.

MUSIC:
The music was decent and appropriate for the style of the drama butI am not fan of the OST.

REWATCH VALUE:
If I rewatch this, I will just rewatch the story of Fire Vocano and Cinderella : 30 minutes of the whole drama.

OVERALL:

The drama is a vehicle for JCW and KYJ to show their acting skills. Watching this drama I felt like watching the two actors portraying two characters in front of a camera and having fun doing it. I really wanted to like these two characters but they failed to be interesting and compelling because they didn't do and didn't say things that create the magic between them. In the end, the drama even broke the fourth wall by mentioning their own show as a show in the show and it showed the crew and filming set. It totally blew the credibility of the drama which did not need that.

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The Rumors are so Subjective, grow up !

First of all I have to address the reviews stating it is racist, too much of an age gap and very inappropriate.
That is all bullshit - Racist? - where? just because Han Dal Shik dresses looks like that doesn't mean he is actually racist critics forget his webcomic he is producing is called - Her reggae boy which coincidentally is related to Jamaica hence he dresses like that, its kind of an ode to his work. Second- Age gap? My god did you forget how much of an age gap was for My love from your star?( I know that was an absolute masterpiece but god be damned I fell in love with a thousand year old man) and now you guys hating on this? remember the setting : Convenience Store owner and a part timer they are able to work now so that critic goes straight to the trash now and it being very inappropriate - man dont be so quick to judge dont hate on something as soon as you see it.

Now the Story was good had me feeling all kinds of emotions after each episode, Acting? very convincing Yoo-Jung was perfect for the role and if i had to put any male actor to play Mr. Choi nothing would top my list than Ji- Chang Wook both of them were made for it, Production was very good never thought anything was out of place and ever since episode 2 where an underage posing as a Uni student got caught man I was suspicious of every transition scene praying nothing like that happens again and OST my god it is so memorable, Kang Daniel did a fantastic Job from now on every love scene i see I'm going to be singing "Something' instead. Love the added touch of the over the top Visual of Saet-byul fighting making it very convincing her emotions.

Overall a very Light Hearted story, I recommend you to start watching it without expectations because this is a Rom- Com you can expect to express every emotion you can possible feel once you start investing your time watching it, very convincing cast, OST is something to remember and the over the top fighting scenes was a good laugh and I am just going to leave this here but damn is Kim Yoo-Jung's visuals is no joke, she actually captivated my heart and made me feel like how I felt when I first fell in love and her acting well no need for me to add to the endless amount of praise she has received from her work but man did she convince me that no one else but HER could have perfected this role and Ji- Chang Wook well what can I say except there is a reason People are heads over heals over this guy I mean his acting skills are top notch and boy both of the leads could not have been played any better than these 2.

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ended with a happy ending

Even through backstreet rookie went through so many controversies it ended finally with a happy ending.
i guess people took it by heart idk why i guess it's just a drama and it was only for our entertainment .
1.The story was quite a simple and that's a rom-com and also slice of life can't expect more
2.JCW was quite cute sometimes but then felt he was too goofy .
3. JSB having crush for him over 10 years just because he helped her that was too lame reason like then who helps me should fall for him? they should have just given more logical reasons.
4.The fight of YJ and SB was quite interesting at starting but then that was also boring.
5.Nam ji wook part was quite interesting actually plot
6.Fire volcano and aphrodite were more interesting Lol>.<
7.The characters personality were varying every episode and their were many flaws in dramas too
8.The controveries made this drama actually popular
9.screenwriter shouln't have stretched the drama in 15 episode it felt too boring already

It was an adult webtoon and coverted in a drama . people criticize it too much i guess. we should enjoy a drama but not criticize then it's better to not watch it .All the cast and crew member worked hard if can't appreciate then let's also not criticize. overall the drama was not that good SO I CAN'T RECOMMEND ANYONE TO WATCH IT unless and until you are a great fangirl or fanboy of JCW or KJY. the genre of the drama is slice of life i hope you don't expect to much from it. it has some funny and cute moments which make you smile but after sometime it is boring too

~END~

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Either Love It or Hate It

This drama was one of my most anticipated 2020 watches as well as around the time I started watching this, I started getting really into Ji Chang Wook, so I had some really high standards for this drama. Especially when web dramas have been doing extremely well recently. I was honestly a little skeptical because I kept hearing how different episodes and scenes kept getting into trouble where people started to petition to get it off the air. I also read different reviews of people who either loved it or hated it.

My honest thoughts (given you already saw what I gave this drama):

I thought it was extremely quirky and refreshing. I loved it. It was a cute "love" story between two people Dae Hyun and Saet Byul, and there love for one another and their cute little convenience store. It started off like a typical kdrama where Saet Byul has a hidden agenda to get Dae Hyun to like her (of course they have a past), but Dae Hyun thinking she is this irresponsible and immature child who solves everything with violence. Which was really annoying in the beginning and it made me dislike Dae Hyun, but it also made it so much better when Saet Byul proved him wrong and made him realize that you can't have prejudices of other people. But every character had their "flaws." But going off that, and the reason why I loved this drama was that in a regular drama, where Yoo Yeon Ju lived in, a flaw came with a negative connotation. Whereas Saet Byul had this quirky personality where she knew she wasn't perfect, and if anything, her flaws were what made her unique. She didn't see her imperfections as something bad, and she so desperately wanted to share that message and self-love to the people around her, especially Dae Hyun, who thought that if something didn't work out, it was because he did something wrong.

You can definitely tell that this drama was written as a webtoon vs in a drawing room with a production company wanting to come out with the next cookie-cutter drama. I felt like each character was extremely relatable and I really couldn't dislike anyone. Including Yoo Yeon Joo. She wasn't the best girlfriend in the world and to be honest, a bit selfish, but she was relatable where she was so stuck believing that she was a victim in her own life, that she did what she thought would make her happy which caused others to suffer.

I loved the quirky romance between the mains - I loved that when they were together, they embraced each other fully and built each other up. They built on one anthers' aspirations and goals they already held for themselves. And it was refreshing. Lightweight, I don't think either one of the main characters went through any character development (as in a normal drama, we have the stuck up heiress who learns to become down to earth) and it was ok. These characters knew self-love from the beginning and this 15 episode drama was about these people who loved their flaws finding their tribe.

Now for the few things that I didn't like about the drama which made me drop it .5 from a perfect score. Even after saying that this drama was about people finding their tribe, I honestly wish that we got more Saet Byul and Dae Hyun romance. Normally, I don't have an issue with this type of drama, but I wasn't super pumped and felt a bit cheated when we got a drama where you had to wait for the characters to finally kiss in the last episode. Given, we finally got a little bit of romance in the final few episodes, but it felt a little bit minimal. Shoot...we could have taken out the whole Dae Hyun parent drama plot they randomly added, that was unnecessary. But of what he got, was really good, that I wish we got more ramyeon dates with them.

Then, of course, the BIGGEST reason why I dropped it .5 was because of the age difference. I've seen a few dramas with an age difference that never bothered me before, but this one made me feel uncomfortable because of a flashback they included. In this scene when they met, even further in the past than what we see in episode one, we have a younger actress cast as Saet Byul, and Ji Chang Wook still cast as himself, but with fluffier hair to make him seem younger....and without saying what happened in this scene...it made me feel super uncomfortable knowing this was the moment that Saet Byul fell for him, and it made him look like a pedophile. Like...you couldn't cast anyone else? I know it was supposed to show the age difference between the two characters, but it lightweight made me feel uncomfortable.

But other than that, I loved the quirky fighting scenes, all the relationships grow, and Puppy (Kang Ji Wook) who honestly was also a perfect love interest. I am so sick of always getting second lead syndrome especially when actor Kim Min Kyu is always so cute and perfect. I makes me want to find and watch a drama he is in where he finally gets the girl.

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