Thirty-Nine (2022)

Great drama if you know what you're getting

I tend to only be interested in writing a review if I feel like I'm in the minority. Lots of negative reviews of this drama seem to be written by people who were expecting something else. So, let me speak for the other side and clear some things up from the beginning, here's what this drama is about: A woman and her two friends go through a very difficult year together and find strength to get through it by relying on one another. This is an especially character-driven drama, rather than story-driven.

Mi-jo is the central character, and her relationship to Chan-young is the primary relationship. I would say that Joo-hee and Seon-U or Jin-Seok are probably the second leads. If this were some rom-com and Mi-jo/Chan-young were the ML and FL, no one would be upset about them taking all the screen time. It's weird that everyone seems upset that the illness isn't the most important storyline--this is about their whole lives and that was a large part of it, but not the only part. I do agree that ALL the side plots eventually got a bit chaotic, but I liked getting small bits of insight into everyone's lives.

I thought it was an interesting move to tell us the ending in eps 2, but it allowed for so much more development of the leads and the (really wonderful) rest of the cast. I loved all the parents, with the glaring exception of one. I loved Mi-jo's sister, I fell in love with Seon-u and his love of Mi-jo. (I took a break from this one to watch Yeon Woo Jin in Shy Boss). Would have liked to see a little more of Joo-hee's relationship, but that's just because Hyun-jun's character seemed to have a lot of potential--but again, they aren't the main characters, so I'm fine with not having every answer.

Another thing that anyone should know by the opening scene, but in case you are wondering: This is a TEAR JERKER. I normally don't like tear jerkers and specifically come to kdrama for the comedy and romance. That said, this was a lovely story about women's friendships. Some of the side plot points were a little over the top (Seon-u's father and his sister; the slapdash adoption that appears late in the story, the jailbird), but they are all meant to get in the way of Mi-jo and Chan-young's friendship, and to show the different ways their friendship has shaped how they respond to difficulties.

Mi-jo is an imperfect heroine. She is anxious, clingy, and a bit of a control freak, maybe that's why she is getting so much negativity in the reviews. But, an imperfect character is way more interesting than a perfect one! Again, if you come to this drama interested in watching the main character move through her life and her relationships, including her close friendship to a terminally ill woman, you will be far less disappointed than if you come to this expecting an ensemble slice of life drama.

The music was good enough that I didn't notice it.

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Age is an work of art.

Created by Lotte Cultureworks and distributed by JTBC, "Thirty-Nine (서른, 아홉)" is a 12 episode long Kdrama directed by Kim Sang Ho, produced by Yoo Young Ah. It started filming in August, 2021 and was also broadcasted on Netflix, which is Son Ye Jin's comeback to JTBC after 3 years following "Something in the Rain".

The story revolves around a trio of 3 best friends who are on the verge of turning 40, but have stayed together for decades through thicks and thins of life, while nurturing their bonds and establishing a relationship on the basis of mutual love. So what the story offers? Of course, there's is a particular goal, but uttering that will serve as the most important spoiler, so watch it for yourself. This is a purely slice of life drama and hugely character driven, that is not essentially in the venture of a solid plotline with twists and development. Isn't that a perfect scenario for a slow-paced, coming of age, warm Korean drama? Well, this is that only.

Cha Mi Jo (Son Ye Jin) is a dermatologist with her own clinic; an established professional having a loving family of parents and a sister. She's the most rationale of the trio. Jung Chan Young (Jeon Mi Do) is an acting coach with a small studio and parents living in suburbs. She's the most sincere despite being outspoken. Jang Jo Hee (Kim Ji Hyun), being the softest and cutest, is a cosmetic store manager at a departmental store and lives with her mother.

Yeon Woo Jin, Lee Moo Saeng and Lee Tae Hwan are the male counterparts though story primarily focuses on the female leads. In minor roles we have many familiar and qualitatively acclaimed actors like: Kang Mal Geum, Nam Ki Ae, Seo Hyun Chul, Lee Jin Hyun, Seo Ji Young, Lee Kan Hee and Kang Ae Shim.

Plot development... Again, there is no definitive plot for this drama, however, it sets forward a goal in the very first scene, and you'll know what it is instantly. The narrative of the show is intended towards life and its unprecedented events, that test us to the extremes, making us grow and bringing the best out of us. The pacing is perfect for a sliece of life Kdrama, at least to me, it was, I don't wanna lie. Someone into long conversations, meaningful metaphors and depictive appreciations would find it their cup full of tea. Storytelling method is touchy; accompanied with monologue notes, emotional recitals and creation of alleviating scenarios.

The introduction appeared to be engaging and pacifying, enough to make you look forward to the furthering with substantial interest. The progression stays moderate for next few episodes and it does pass by the interval successfully, but around 8th episode, the flow turns mediocre. I don't think there was any lack of context and content but why few things were made repetitive and certain elements became stretchy unnecessarily. Even so, there was a casual improvement in the finale week; 11 episode being a lil rushed and 12th having back to back tear-jerking moments.

Kim Sang Ho PD with a fair share of experience of working in the slice of life dramas, as both PD and asst. PD, was able to give a satisfactory delivery with his skills. Although there were flaws, which was substantial, I am at least not disappointed. The dynamics of initial exhibitionism was smooth, gratifying and worthy of looking forward to. However, in the later half of the story, the essential integrands and some particular facets went flat, which wasn't really uninteresting but many viewers will definitely find uncomfortable.

Yoo Young Ah jakka-nim, a very familiar name in K-movie industry, with plenty of modern coming-of-age movies in her bio, over a decade of career, has always delivered on point. However, it appears that she still struggles fundamentally when it comes to Kdramas and that could be somewhat obvious at points of her episodic writings. This was the case for "Encounter" and this is the case for "Thirty-Nine" as well. Nevertheless, it was a decent delivery, which started out great, became bog-standard somewhere in the middle and ended with a passable note. The biggest flaw it bears is the inequitable screentime distribution; obviously the central character gets the most, then the supporting ones, followed by minor actors, but the disappointment comes from expectations and prenotions. But yeah! It was unjust given the popularity and skills of many factors featured in here. Regardless the flaws, I personally feel, it was able to provide a meaningful conveyance, throughout.

What I liked...
# the slice of life elements... Definitely! That's what this show was about. The numerous shades of life, portrayed through characters, their stories and emotions and the depth and essence of various relationships have been perfectly brought forward.

# The trio friendship... Though the writer failed to make it entirely about the trio, as expected from 99% of the viewers, but the amount of crux provided, accurately defined the kind of friendship that we all crave for. It was fun and healthy and most importantly, admirable.

# The character dynamics... the archs as an average for the entire main cast, was abstemious. Although not remarkable, it was enough to make your heart warm and understand the perspective of each. There could have been definitive improvements, but well.

# The flow of the story... Make sure you have it in mind that, the story has no plot, rather a goal, more like a destination, to where? To achieved eternity, to entirety and to euphoria.

# Adult romance... The romance was basically for only one couple, Son Ye Jin and Yeon Woo Jin; while it wasn't the primary focus, theirs being the only love line, felt very beautiful with subtle depths to a relationship and it's factors.

# The orphan adoption angles... I won't say who and how but just know that it has put emphasis on scenarios associated with adoptions, various aftermaths, the inner stories of the adopted ones and the ways you can deal with the odds that has possibilities of arising from it. I don't think any other Kdrama has gone to such extents.

# The aspects of death... Life has to end, love doesn't. The most beautiful goodbyes are the ones that are never said and never explained. The drama shows, how it's not important to live forever but to create something that will.

What I didn't like...
# Son ye jin getting all the spotlight was the most annoying. It was to be made clear from the makers side in the beginning, that the drama is from the perspective only one character, even so not entirely. It felt like Mi Jo's diary, rather than a character driven story. It shouldn't have been like that.

# Jeon Mido is no longer an average artist, she's a popular star and she deserves to be at the centre and can beat every single actor out there. She not getting sufficient did piss me off, even the goal of the drama was something related to this drama.

# Johee getting substantially neglected bothered me to a great deal. I understand, her experience and considered negligible in comparison to others but she could have bewn placed in the supporting cast. The writer could have totally forgotten about her existence and the potential development of loveline between her and her partner.

# Improper utilization of supporting cast... The poster could be faulty. Just like Ye Jin, Woo Jin gets the major screentime as the former's partner, while Lee Moo Saeng's share is reduced and Tae Hwan is totally neglected just like his counterpart, Jo Hee.

Final Remarks... Thirty-Nine in overall could not be a dramq that it was expected to be and the outcomes were not hugely satisfying per se, nevertheless, the motives of the drama bloomed in an awfully beautiful ways, leaving impressions about everlasting love and relationships. There were room for improvement that could not be well utilized, which was a shame. I was more than willing to give it a 8.5 but provided the significant shortcomings, I choose to be fair. I hope people realize, the drama is not deserving of the idiotic judgements attempting to let down it's essence.

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Another Son Ye-Jin Romance (Not a Friendship Trio Drama)

The friend scenes are quite fun and touching, but few and far between. All in all, the show is fairly disappointing. There was so much potential here to develop the main characters, their friendships, what it means to process loss, etc. but they didn't do any of that. Instead, the unnecessary "side quests" detract from both the fun aspects and the depth of the show.

This drama is all over the place, with heaps more screentime for Mijo (Son Ye-jin) and her romance and family issues-- and her boyfriend's family issues-- than about the three of them as friends. I have nothing against Son Ye-jin, but I wasn't expecting a watered down romance to be center stage when her best friend is dying. Someone described the boyfriend as a "support pillow," which is accurate because the character has no real personality beyond "the nice guy". (Nothing against the actor, there just wasn't much for him to do with the character.)

That being said, Chan-young (Jeon Mi-do) and Jinseok (Lee Moo-Saeng) are great actors and have believable chemistry together. Joo-hee (Kim Ji-hyun) is also adorable- it's too bad more time wasn't spent fleshing out her character.

If you want to watch it for Mi-do, it's more bearable, as many have mentioned, if you skip the dull Ye-jin romance scenes and plentiful Ye-jin crying scenes. All in all, I'd give this one a pass as there aren't enough good scenes to justify watching the whole thing.

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3 Friends dealing with life and death

Made me cry almost as much as crash landing on you! It’s a really touching, light, but heavy at the same time story of three best friends dealing with friendships, family, love, life and death. They did such a beautiful job writing the scenes, from beginning to end, it was very emotional in both good and bad ways. The character of Mi Jo might make other feel like it was written too dramatic and unrealistic. And I agree, she cried A LOT. But I feel like they portraid her anxiety fairly well (I can say this, having ptsd and anxiety myself). The character of Chan Young was written beautifully! The character of Joo Hee was balanced but felt a bit lacking in the story. It was focused a bit more on Mi Jo and Chan Young. I do recommend for everyone wanting to watch a kdrama.

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A drama for the mature audience

I started this drama with low expectations, after reading other people comments. But when it was supposed to get boring, it never was. It is slow paced, but it has a lot of depths and food for thought.

But, as I said, this is a drama for the mature viewers. The biggest hint to that, lays in the title. This is a story for those closing in on that middle age stage in life, when things slowly are getting more often too late.. If you are 18 and have 20+ year before you hit forty, this story will be boring.

I have just turned 45. I recognise so much in this drama, except from loosing someone close. But the odds are getting higher, and one day I might loose someone too. And many times I have realised that things are getting too late in life...

In my eyes, this drama was very emotional and interesting. I felt I needed to tell people of my experience, as a contrast to everyone that found it boring.

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TEARS EVERYWHERE! *FRIEND GOALS*

I really dont know where to start!
The truth is that even if it did broke my heart, i have some complains in terms of plot and screen time of some characters, but this show was really good and really made me realise that friendship is very important.
We know what is going to happen since episode 1 but it really didnt make me cry less, the tears where everywhere when i was watching the last episode (not only the last, i think i cried at least once at every episode, but in the last one i lost control).
The plot is very interesting but i think they could had handle some things better. I think they should had invested more in the friendship rather the relationships between the female leads and their love interests.
The acting was exeptional by everyone and i think that is why i cried so much... It felt too real...
The biggest problem in this show is the lack of fairness in terms of screen time between the main characters...
Mi Jo took why more screen time that she should, leaving Joo Hee far behind, Chan Young had a normal amount of scenes. You cant say that you have three main lead and that its a story about friendship and completly ignore one of them. The way they handle Joo Hee characters really pissed me off, she was no where to be found at times and even if it was mention how she felt left out, they never tried to fix it. Her storyline and her love interest was only shown in the first couple of episodes, after that nothing.
I enjoyed the relationships between the leads and the love interests, i think my favorite is between Chan Young and Jin Seok even if i thought i would hate them together at first, i just couldnt. I think that if Joo Hee and Hyun Joon had more screen time together they would have been my favorites but they didnt had proper set up, they kinda came out of the blue. I dont wanna talk about Mi Jo and Seon Woo, not because they werent cute ( they were) but they were EVERYWHERE.

A nice and heartbreaking story...

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Unrealistic and nothing like the trailer, Cha Mijo getting all the screen time

I started watching this drama because of the way it was shown in the trailer, about 3 friends experience life before turning 40 but from what I'm seeing so far, it nothing like the trailer.
First, 8 episodes so far all i see is Cha Mijo and her boyfriend getting all the screentime, i don't know maybe because she is more famous in real life than the rest of the squad, always
Cha Mijo trying to solve her friend's problems, she is everywhere in every problem of the show, at this point she looks like the main lead than the three who were shown at first as the main leads. And why would the doctor talk to her about the friend's illness instead of talking direct to the person who is sick. Her relationship with Seon Woo was interesting in first episode but it has become boring now, she is always worrying about something whilst the guy is trying his best to make her happy. Cha Mijo has 99 problems, her family, her boyfriend's family problems, her mental health issues, her mother in prison, her adoptive parents, everything on one person, that's why she get 99% of the screentime compared to her fellow leads.
What's more annoying is that, Cha Mijo's side characters get more screentime than Jo hee who is also a main lead.

Second we have Jeong Chan Young's sickness, which has been the entire topic of the show all along, nothing new. Her relationship with Kim Jin Seok is nothing realistic at all, like what was the writer thinking.

Third, many can agree that Jo hee and the chef are more interesting and guess what, they get less screen time, their relationship and how they're getting to know each other is more interesting and realistic than the other two but we get less than 10 or 15 minutes of their screen time the entire episode. I watch this show to see Jo hee and the Chef, they have more character development.
Edit: The ending like we all expected, ep 12 was better because it was more of Chan Young's sickness than Mi-jo. Away from that, i hate how they couldn't continue to develop Jo-hee and the chef's relationship, it was so fast paced, we don't even know who proposed first, how they started dating, I'm upset because i was so invested in their relationship than any other relationship in this drama.

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This is truly such a shame

I rarely write reviews but it's the disappointment that leads me here. The trailer and description were very misleading in indicating what this drama was actually about.

I came into this thinking it was an ensemble, slice of life, squad drama but it turned out to be almost 100% Son Ye Jin. I get that she's a top actress and all but this is too much; Cha Mi Jo's character is extremely overwhelmed and it's borderline unrealistic.

From the dying best friend to her own mental health issues, plus her boyfriend's disapproving father, throw in a criminal birth mother. How can one even function in such circumstances?! Everyone else feels like supporting characters which is kinda disappointing cause I was really looking forward to a true squad goals drama and I feel like the rest of the cast is very under-utilised.

Also for me, it's genuinely frustrating thinking about how this drama would have been infinitely better without this terminal illness and looming death hanging over it all. It makes it really hard to enjoy. There's already so much going on without having to kill off Chan Young.

This drama has so many other plots it could have explored and focused on and would have been more than sufficient to give a satisfying drama. Mi Jo's romance and finding her birth parents. Jo Hee's late-blooming and liberation from her job plus her love story which seems to be entirely sidelined. Chan Young and Jin Seok could have been a whole storyline even without her dying. We could have done without all the grief and crying honestly.

For a 12 episode drama there is way too much going on but it's still not captivating or exciting; possibly because we already know the end which is quite depressing. This drama remains dull in the absence of suspense and curiosity.

It's all quite a shame really cause the cast is very talented but there's only so much they can do with a poor script.

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“When you’re overwhelmingly grateful, you find it so hard to express your gratitude.”

when watching this my uncle was also terminally ill (he helped raise me). when i first was watching i stopped since he just got diagnosed, but than a bit after i began watching again because i was curious if the show might show what our future will hold. while watching it I was confused why the acted some ways they did, I could get a grasp but not truly understand. For example how she knew she passed without picking up the phone, not going to see he body one last time and etc. I thought "oh they just wanted it to be dramatic for the audience, but now I know, at least for my case that it portrayed it perfectly. That moment you get the phone call you instintly know, the fact that she didnt go in to see here for the last time is so relatable, for me i couldnt move i froze and kept my head down while others went in. I guess the reason i love this drama so much is because i relate to the characters so much, the show is definitly not for every one but this show for my has helped in so many ways i never thought a show could.

“When we encounter an inconvenient truth, the truth itself isn’t what makes us flustered. We become flustered because we finally encounter something ominous that we’ve strived so hard to bottle up.” – Cha Mijo

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I really enjoyed this Drama

I have read a lot of negative reviews relating to this drama and though it may not be perfect it still rates high on my list , for the storyline , acting and presentation .
A beautiful picture of the deep friendship between three women who have known each other since they were teenagers , who have laughed ,cried , got drunk together , helped each other over all these years . Then something happened to one of them for which none of them were prepared for nor had experienced before . Suddenly their world is thrown upside down and they have to find a way to adjust , cope , understand and deal with it , while life is going on around them as normal . The story is told by one of them Mi-Jo who takes charge and is trying to stay positive , upbeat and not always succeeding . Anyone who has seen someone dear to them die of cancer , will know that one tries to be strong for them , to be there , to remain hopeful , to stay positive . But it take its toll on you . They also have their own life to live and work to manage . It is this juggling of death amid life and life in death that concentrates their focus and energy . They are supported in the many facets of their lives by three admirable young men who care , who are understanding , patient and loving although they themselves have other issues to deal with . I do not mind having a brief look at these issues even if they are not dealt with fully because we know there is a future for them all . The acting is superb . One laughs , cries , feels . I would have liked to be one of these friends . They all dealt with this phase in their lives with dignity , compassion friendship and love .

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