Backstreet Rookie (2020)

The story could be longer

I'll just do a short review about the ending



At the end when Fire Volcano said the ending for his upcoming webtoon, it showed that the two main leads were about to kiss and I was hoping that they would but in the end the didnt which was quite dissapointing because it would feel whole and the ending would have been BETTER and since Ive watch this whole movie just to see them have some skinship or interactions AS GIRLFRIEND AND BOYFRIEND but it didnt happen as well...
But overall the story plot was interesting and fresh for me BUT IT ENDED TOO QUICKLY!!!!!

Read More

Something quite wrong that feels so right all along

Warning: This is a long and opinionated review. You can beg to differ. Plus, heavy spoilers ahead so beware. Don’t report me, I just really love this show and want to spread the greatness inside of it.

This one was problematic but on the other hand, it's a feel-good rom-com drama that will make you laugh, smile, and giggle like an idiot. It's not considered family-friendly drama since it's a show adopted from an adult webtoon and it's a shame because it's actually quite inspiring. Mrs. Gong got me tearing up like a baby. Her insight and philosophy in life are the best.

First, let's address the controversies. I’ve seen a bunch of articles online pointing out all the problematic areas of the show. I gotta admit, I agree with them. But the thing that really bothered me is the way Hwang Geum-bi insulted and looked down on Dal-shik because of his dark skin and hairdo. A phrase: utterly disgusting. Plus those buzzing flies, are so annoying! I get it, it’s for comedic purposes but sadly, it rubbed me the wrong way. A lot of things from the early to mid episodes saddened me a bit.

Controversies aside, the romance and other comedy areas in the show were very fun and entertaining despite the drama not having a complex plot. The story gets better as episodes go by. I came only for my boi chang-wook, but the bit-by-bit comedy from the supporting acts and cute interaction from the main leads got me staying put. Some parts were bland and skippable. Probably be much better if they made it a little shorter than 16 episodes. To further understand what I mean by "fun", here are some scenes I absolutely loved throughout the show.

1. Aphrodite and Fire Volcano's hilarious love-to-hate relationship. The accidental donation of a million won and their flirtatious phone calls without knowing their greatest enemy is on the other end really got me!
2. The witty conversations between the 4 Heavenly Kings band members. The actors were the perfect fit for these characters. Absolutely loved them!
3. When the atmosphere starts to change because of some slip-tongued words by the ML's father. Mrs. Gong's eyes will begin to widen and Mr. Choi will begin to tremble.
4. Dal-shik spying on the convenience store and intentionally chiming in to get free food. I burst out laughing after he got caught hahaha
5. When the journalist fixed her misleading article. I went nut after she followed Kang Ji-uk and photographed him behind his back then proceed to write misleading information. I know celebrities like him are bound to these encounters but it’s just annoying.
6. Subtle references to other shows (Pulp Fiction dance & Dae-hyun singing “You Are My Everything” from Descendants of the Sun).
7. Saet-byul & Dae-hyun’s hand sign communications. They were too adorable!
8. When the family members alongside Dae-hyun’s friend and part-timer switch shifts, something hilarious and chaotic occurs afterward.
9. Dal-shik singing outside the convenience store and Dae-hyun being the clueless man he was, didn’t know his friend was dedicating the song to “scary horse”
10. Dae-hyun's Mom slaying everyone's world. The way she stood up for herself and her family. How she sincerely apologized for her mistakes. One of the best K-drama mama out there!


This drama is not something to take so seriously. It's a fun and goofy show with less serious fight scenes. It's honestly a bit odd for me to witness chang-wook as the defenseless Dae-hyun considering he's best known as one of the best action stars in K-drama world. This project is definitely a breath of fresh air. We got to see the everyday life of a convenience store owner and how his family scraped by. The way the story unfolds is good enough but I’m still left wondering what happened to the mean girls of Fancy Girls. They just suddenly accepted Eun-byul after she stood up for herself when they made her do all the household chores? What happened to Director Woo? He kissed Yeon-joo, yes. But what happened next? It wasn’t awkward the next day, they straight up neglected their actions during that night. Dae-hyun never got to find out and I'm here left curious about what would’ve happened if he did find out. Maybe it’ll add more intensity to the drama? Who knows. And let me just add the bullies that are blackmailing Eun-byul, they don’t look scary. Just some bored feeling-savage punks and that I applaud. Perfectly encapsulated the real meaning of “bully”.

Moreover, the appealing visuals and engaging cinematography fit the vibes of the show perfectly. The OSTs are the best damn thing. Every time something hilarious or chaotic happens, I automatically mouth “crazy, crazy”. I love the cast very much. I couldn’t picture anybody else playing the characters. I wasn’t really swayed by the main leads’ chemistry but something about them captivates me and makes me want to watch the ‘til the end… uhh (which I did).

Nevertheless, if you don’t mind some disturbing insults to people of color and box braid hairdos, then dive into the world of Saet-byul and Dae-hyun. Things can get boring but I suggest continuing it unless you feel really disappointed cause the gems of this show are hidden everywhere. It’s kinda messy. There are life takeaways along the way, but as I said they are everywhere and styled progressively so you’ll need to watch a chunk before getting in there to further understand. Might be unrealistic at times, therefore, I advise don’t expect too much. This drama is solely for entertainment purposes. Have fun dear folks!

Read More

Cowardly and Weak Characters and Writing Nearly Torpedo This Series!

This series was fairly strong through the first 12 episodes. It should have ended there, rather than filling the last four episodes with needless drama and uninteresting stories.

"Our Beloved Summer" is easily the best K-drama about young love that I've yet seen. It had intelligent, likable characters with a nice, smooth, and non-cliched story. This series falls well short of that one. The only thing that saves this series from the depths of despair is that it has strong performances by most of the cast.

Unfortunately, we have a menagerie of weak, cowardly characters, that for a while, are at least likable. That is, until they continue to demonstrate cowardice and weakness until the end.

Choi Dae Hyun is an honest and good-hearted young man nearing 30 who owns a convenience store. He treats his customers with respect and kindness. However, when it comes to his love life, Dae Hyun is about as dense as they come. In our culture, he's what we call a "whipped" man. Someone who has no say or power with his girlfriend. She calls the shots. She abuses him to no end. She toys with him like a puppy, and yet, he hasn't the brains or the guts to do anything about it. It's hard to feel sorry for people like this because they are part of the problem. The abused is just as much responsible as the person doing it.

We also have Saet Byul, a master of martial arts, and a young woman who falls hopelessly in love with Dae Hyun. She also has the task of raising her little brat of a sister. However, Saet Byul isn't very responsible. She provides underaged high school kids--including her sister--hard liquor to drink. She also never has the guts to seize opportunities when they present themselves. She also commits the most brazen act of cowardice by running away when she deems herself unworthy of Dae Hyun. Frankly, I never would have wanted her to come back. The writers proved how inept they were with the characters by creating plot points that go against the characters they created. There is no way Saet Byul would turn down Dae Hyun's initial offer of love. The writers simply felt the need to fill another few episodes with pointless drama. Yet another reason why the show backfires.

We also have two typical Korean mothers who dominate, interfere, and meddle in their children's lives. Of course, the key reason has nothing to do with love at all, but about money. It's sad how many people in this world equate success with money. Such parents have no business being parents. They claim to "know better" when they clearly do not. And meddlers may claim that they are doing it for someone else, but that is a lie. They are only doing it for themselves. And, even though I understand that this is an Asian culture, it's truly sad when a 30-year-old man can't stand up to his mother and simply tell her the truth.

We also have several uninteresting characters in Dal-Shik--who is funny in some respects--and Eun Byul, Saet Byul's bratty sister. This actress was the only one whose performance was cringe-worthy. Always uttering her lines in that whiny tone. And her story was left open-ended, as was Dae Hyun's sister.

By the 13th episode, I found myself no longer invested or caring about what happened between Saet Byul and Dae Hyun. Both pretended to be honorable, but they were cowards instead. I even fast-forwarded through most of the final episode because it was that bad. Oh, and you had one of the worst cop-out kissing scenes I've ever seen in the last episode.

However, as I said before, the performances were mostly very good. Ji Chang Wook has a real gift for comedy and the delivery of his lines. I thought that he was simply outstanding. It's just too bad he wasn't given a better script to work with.

Kim Yoo Jung was also very good as Saet-Byul. She has a dazzling smile that reminds me a lot of Lynda Carter from the 1970s. Both have unparalleled smiles. Only Mina Shin can equal her, except that Mina Shin has done a far superior job in picking good roles. Shin is still easily the much better actress.

I've always loved Kim Sun Young. I've already seen her in a few roles, including "Crash Landing On You" and she's just a brilliant character actress. It's too bad that her role was very much wasted here as a woman who is clearly ashamed of her husband and family. It's always sad to see a parent have shame for those closest to them. It simply speaks to their own problems and issues.

I really wanted to like this series, and as I said, I did for a while until it was bogged down in useless, petty melodrama and cliched plot lines that no longer fit the characters. This series is definitely a "must miss" in my book. I want characters that end up with redeemable traits as well as being likable, even if they don't necessarily start out that way. This show gives us characters that I'd never care to get to know or cheer for. And that is what is truly sad.

Now I need to quickly go and find a quality K-Drama to wash the bad taste of this one out of my mouth.

Read More

This drama was okay it was bad, just not my kind of drama to watch but I endured it. Ji Chang Wook and Kim Yoo Jung did very well in the lead roles they played. The other main roles and support cast also did well. The only part that I really liked was Kim Yoo Jung's part doing really great martial art choreography. I don't know if she truly knows this art and I did research to see if she had training but to no avail. The storyline was going back n forth from one love to the other... I should've read the details of the drama before watching. I also viewed that Kim Yoo Jung was nominated 3 times for the Excellence Award and won two for this drama. Congrats to her.

Read More

The age gap distorts a otherwise heartwarming experience

This story was actually wonderful. To everyone concerned about the age gap, not much romance actually takes place between the two characters, explicitly but there were some weird moments for me personally- for example, the male lead saving the child female lead when he was fully grown- sparking a ten year long crush… and a couple more.

There is not actually a lot of romance stuff that goes on from the male lead’s side, as he is pretty passive in the relationship. I feel like this would have worked better with the female lead moving on in the end, and going forward with her life.
One thing I dislike is that they fail to go into detail about the past- for eg, the story of the female lead’s father and How he met the first and second male lead, etc…..


Overall a decent show, but the extreme age gap was unnecessary. 8 years could have been 4 at max, and the story wouldn’t have changed at all.

Read More

Dang it was good

This is just gonna be a quick review. Im not gonna dive into the deep parts of the show or anything, as this isn't a school project, and theres no way Im gonna voluntarily spend time analyzing anything. So, here I go xD. First of all, I surprisingly really liked the story. I thought I would find it a bit boring, as Im usually into more action, but damn I enjoyed it. And even more so, the actors / actresses did an amazing job portraying their characters. I often find the chemistry in tv shows a bit lacking, but that was NOT an issue here. And of course their crazy beautiful appearances only added to the experience;)

Anyway, long (well, not really) story short, I definitely recommend it! It is one of my favorite tv-shows, and I might even watch it again, which is something i normally NEVER do!

Read More

Amazing show with some big and sad problem..

I love kdrama and I got into it because of these type of funny and heartwarming shows like this.
However, as someone of color. I was sad do see how they have a fake black Korean that had all bad steorypes.
They even called him monkey once. Pretty wild.
I honestly wouldn't have any issues with him having fake black skin/Black makeup if the character had depth and had a good story.
They went out of their way to tell us he's full blown Korean, not black lol.
Other than that. The whole cast is great.
The leads specially KYJ. She's so beautiful and charming. Hope to watch more of her stuff.
The actor is also amazing. His acting is amazing.
The ending felt really rushed sadly.
One character did something really bad by basically cheated but that never brought up.
Season 2 seems to be confirmed.
Hopefully there are kisses in new seasons, less problematic stories. lol.
Other than that. I will still rate it well.

Read More

CHARACTER DRIVEN KDRAMA! DOESNT DESERVE THE HATE

I didnt had many expectations from this due to all the negative comments i have seen, but i really liked this.
I actually havent watch any other drama of the main leads (crazy i know) so i went into this blind, i didnt know if i would like the actors (i cant watch a kdrama if i find the actors bad) but i knew that both of them have many fans, so i started it and i can tell you i fell in love with both of them and i look forward for their next projects.
I think the key in this drama is the characters and not the plot! Actually the plot was quite odd and some things didnt make much sense but the strong characters and their development was so great that i loved it. So if you are looking for a plot driven drama this isnt for you. The chemistry between the two leads was breathtaking and i would love to see them play together again some day, even tho i think Dae Hyun feelings for Saet Byul came kinda out of nowhere, or at least he moved on quite fast, at least they didnt rush into a relationship (i liked that it was a slow burn).
The ending was good but i wish we had seen more information about the future for some side characters, actually some of them just disappear at the last couple of episodes, for example Ji Wook, we saw his goodbye to Saet Byul but i think at the end they could have told us what happened to him.

Anyway the show is so much better than people say (at least for me) It has some really good moments, very funny moments, cute too.

Give it a try!

Read More

Endearing main couple

Well, I really liked the chapters they were fun and I liked the main couple a lot, I think they had a lot of chemistry and their interactions showed it. I loved the character of Saet Byul, I found her very cute and funny, the parts where she interacted with Mr Choi's family, mainly with Mrs. Gong Boon Hee, were quite moving and made me shed a few tears.

I didn't like the unsatisfactory participation of the character Kang Ji Wook, it was like too easy to get rid of him, but what I liked the least was how basically everything Yoo Yeon Joo did was forgotten, cheating, making Saet Byul resign, and even putting the manager at the end to make Saet Byul's life impossible so that she leaves the store...all of that doesn't even come out and Mr. Choi forgives her without knowing those details...besides there is no kiss!!!

Despite these details, I thought it was a warm and entertaining comedy.

Read More

This was surprisingly deep, I'm glad I watched it

This show was on my list to watch for a while because I really like Kim Minkyu from Business Proposal, but have also gotten to know Ji Changwook and Kim Yoojung from other dramas as well and absolutely love them. It wasn't any different here. For the roles they had, they did amazingly well.
I won't talk much about that certain character, as everyone has pretty much touched on it already, but I will say that for me, even without the CA, he was a really hard character to watch. His comedy wasn't really that funny, but his one redeeming quality was the loyalty he had for Daehyun and that the character toned down after he got in his relationship.
Speaking of relationships, as much as I love the actors and felt their performances were amazing, I'm not sure I bought the main two as a couple. I kept getting the feeling that he saw her as more of a little sister until the last couple of episodes. But even then, it was more of a tease. Still, I think Ji Changwook is a very funny actor and I still found myself smiling during his scenes.
I mentioned in the title how this drama cut surprisingly deep, and that's because if you just watch the first couple of episodes, the tone is very different to the heart of the story. The message of family is so powerful in this, that I almost wished they cut the romance entirely. Starting with Saetbyol and her sister, I was nearly crying for these two and rooted for them the entire time. The burden that Saetbyol had to carry after moving out with her sister was really handled well by Kim Yoojung. The scenes where she breaks down because of the things happening to her really broke my heart.
Another scene that got to me was during the buildup and reveal of Yeongju's mother's scheming. That was absolutely vile, but what got me even more in the feels were Daehyun's parents in the kitchen trying to have a conversation but tearing up because of the situation. It was so mature and realistic, it caught me off guard.
Overall, if you can get through that character's scenes, this was a good watch.

Read More

Standard formula, but still fun

I really enjoyed watching this one, even though you get some of the same themes and tropes, but i have not tired of them after watching so many dramas. I am from USA, but really only watch A-dramas/reality and comedies.
First off, I have to get this out of the way: Kim Yoo Jung is the most beautiful woman ever! So gorgeous and so much style. ..and her character's fight scenes were so entertaining. She is such an incredible beauty and talent and she did a great job with this character.
As for other actors, I thought Ji Chang Wook did a great job in the male lead. I thought he was also great in Lovestruck in the City. This one, he was such a great guy. Nothing to dislike.
His mother was awesome, probably my 2nd favorite character in the show. Some have complained about how she physically hit her husband and I can understand how they feel if it were real, however, I thought it worked as part of the fictional story. Same with the reggae character. I never understood why people complain about cultural appropriation. I think it is a sign of respect and admiration when people copy others. Just don't understand why people let things like that bother them. and the fact that he was dirty and had flies around him was what his character was. Why do people have to look at it as a knock of a whole group of people. Anyway, that's all the political commentary.
Lastly about the love story, I thought it was great how FL fell in love with ML, and was devoted to him the whole program, however after watching so many K-dramas I could foresee the way she let him down after he confessed. If this was my first K-drama, I would have said 'WTF?'; she was in love with him the whole show, then when he confesses, she runs away?!?. Again, one of the same themes- giving up your love because you feel it is the best thing for the other person. The ultimate sacrifice so to say. I guess it proves how much someone really loves the other person. And it usually turns out well in the end anyway.
All said, the show was fun and I really enjoyed.
Now I will search for more shows with Ms Kim in them.

Read More