Overdramatic and unconvincing
This drama has a refreshing synopsis and is aesthetically pleasing, but the execution is incredibly cringey as a woman past her mid-twenties. This drama builds up on the mystery of why both of the characters are so angsty and no longer together. Why they still think about each other, and loved each other. You see how depressed and miserable they are, see flashbacks that gives the viewers a peek at what happened before, but the ultimate reason for it is just so stupid, and unconvincing. The drama tries very hard to be edgy with how they present the character's personalities, which is where the cringe comes in for me. It tries to sell itself as a show that presents a realistic and raw relationship, but nothing about it seems that deep at all, and anyone who has actually been in a relationship could not take their relationship seriously. The FL was rude and dismissive, and the writers just expected the audience to root for her to be with the ML just cause she has family problems? K-dramas thinking that family/mental issues is a good enough excuse for repeatedly treating someone bad needs to come to an end.For this drama, I just dropped it after they get back together, because it was just so lame and i really did not see a reason to continue watching. Note i had to force myself to even watch that far, because most of the time the drama was so boring and uninteresting, and I don't see how anyone could actually watch it while thinking "wow this is so interesting." I could not care less if the ML and FL even got back together in the first place. Also, the most cringey part of this drama is the weird idol plot line. For a drama that aesthetically is trying to position itself as a realistic slice of life drama, it just felt so out of place to have a random character with bleach blond hair that's an idol...
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A warm hug of a drama to provide comfort this winter
Initially I wasn't planning to write a review but GOD this is so good.Ep 6 had me crying, screaming, throwing up so let's get into it.
Storyline:
It sets such a different tone to the drama as a whole. The whole idea of ex-lovers uniting after 10 years to reshoot a documentary is so fresh but it had me questioning how it would realistically be possible to convince them to do it. The drama explains it perfectly and additionally makes it entertaining. There are a lot of tropes (it's a romcom what else would you expect) but it's used so perfectly, that it doesn't make you cringe or make it seem 'ordinary'. The main characters are beautifully written, making you sympathize with them for their circumstances and decisions. Yeonsoo is your cold, logical female protagonist who makes small gestures to her loved ones, completely opposite when you compare her with Ung who is laid-back, impulsive and sensitive (in the best way possible). It's so so enjoyable to watch them banter. Kim sungcheol's Jiung is a wonderful character who's personality falls in the middle of both Yeonsoo's and Ung's with his story. There are additional side characters who you love and hate. I HAVE to mention Ung's parents who are literal angels. Something about how welcoming and warmhearted they are makes me tear up.
Cinematography:
It's so aesthetic. The sites where the scenes occur are all beautiful. The yellow filtering adds a beautiful nostalgic, film-like texture to it. The art work is brilliant and the transitions are pretty as well.
Soundtrack:
It's so beautiful and melodic. It just suits the drama perfectly. I love how V's track is the one that always plays during Ung's art scenes. My personal favorite has to be 10cm's 'Drawer'. That track is PERFECT. The little heartbeats before the instrumental starts? BEAUTIFUL.
Dialogue:
Ok I had to make this a separate section from storyline because of how painfully beautiful it is. Episode 6's ending broke me. That one line 'It's us of all people.' You hear that sound? Yeah that's my heart breaking. The contrast in how their dialogue matures, the words that are used in arguments all of it seems so natural. It's probably my favourite element of the drama after its storyline itself.
Acting:
The performances are as expected really good. Yeonsoo's character is something that Kim Dami embodies to the T. (not a spoiler) Than scene in the bathroom was so beautifully portrayed, it refuses to leave my mind. Choi Wooshik is perfect for Ung's character. He gives the character a certain flavor that makes him seem so charming, but I can't quite exactly place what it is. It was so enchanting to see how in the one episode where there's a little flashback montage of Ung's childhood, and I don't know if it was the child actor mirroring Wooshik's mannerisms as Ung or the other way around, but the resemblance is uncanny.
Rewatch value:
I'm resisting the urge to go rewatch it right now and just wait for future episodes. That should say enough.
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This review may contain spoilers
This could have been a cult classic - but alas!
This drama made me laugh, jump for joy, applaud the entire team, cheer them loudly, slap their backs, clasp my hands......what other expressions of happiness can I use?Alas though - these feelings of exhilaration lasted only to episode 10 or 12.
After that it started rolling downhill so fast that only crashing against an iceberg could halt it and leave it broken and cracked.
Why why why do most leads in k dramas need to originate in orphanages?
Why did a cancer suffering mother come back to torture her child after destroying his childhood?
Are happy families so hard to find in this region?
Where are all the parents? Why do they all die? Is it so hard to be creative with living parents?
How come there is such finely developed romance but it never culminates in loving families?
What's the ratio of kids in orphanages? I read in the news that the country had banned foreigners from adopting their children.
This drama is so finely tuned with humor and slice of life details that I expected it to walk away with an unseen ending in the drama world.
Alas - the writer, director, screen play writer all seem to have lost their MOJO. The last few episodes are shabby, sorry and appalling in their positioning in this drama.
You had a fantastic product which could have reached the finish line with undisputed victory, yet you decided to go down the repetitive trodden path that was shabby and pathetic.
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Pretty but boring
This drama has beautiful cinematography and osts. The story in the beginning is fun and engaging. The cast is really really good. The main leads in particular are really able to deliver all their feelings. This is the best thing of this drama. You can feel all the three of them from the first scene. After a while though, I lost my curiosity as to how the story would end. It became boring. Each episode has noteworthy moments, but overall it was really challenging for me to make it all the way through the last episode.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
The first 7 episode are excellent!
The first 7 episodes are excellent, but then everything becomes repetitive. Unfortunately,toxic push and pull relationships are normal in real life, but unlike in real life, viewers don't want the relationship between the leads in this drama to be push and pull for most of the drama. I'm halfway through and I'm considering lowering my rating from a 9.5 to a 9. Outside of the on going push and pull relationship between the male and female lead characters, everything else is pretty great. I usually don't like male lead characters like the male lead in this drama, but the actor did so well, that I am enjoying his character.
I hope the storyline for episodes 9-16 will change a tad bit, we need a little variation.
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Too overhyped
At the beginning I had high expectations when I wanted to start this drama but everything changed when I watched this drama. The story starts with ML who hasn't been able to forget FL and FL who isn't good at expressing her feelings for ML (ML too). The story only goes round and round between ML and FL because there is no good communication between the two of them. The story is too monotonous and not very interesting in my opinion because there are many low rated dramas that have better and more exciting stories than this. I only watched this drama until episode 6 because I couldn't continue until the end because I felt bored. Overall I give this drama a 4.Was this review helpful to you?
Did not Meet Expectation
I had very big expectation for this Drama. I am very disappointed. I watched this show, all 7 episodes just for Kim Da Mi. If she was not in the show, I would have dropped it after the 1st show. I personally do not like shows with ton of flash backs. This show is littered with flash backs, which is irritating and annoying. I am not saying you should not have flash back in a show, there is a limit.Flash Back when they were 7-8 years old,
Flash Back when they were in High School
Flash Back when they were in University
Flash Back from few days ago
Flash Back from a day ago
Flash Back from few minutes ago
You get the point. Every Episode has it. Absolutely annoying.
This story so far has no suspense no pull so they are manufacturing it by slicing and dicing the scenes and jumbling them so the audience cannot figure out what's going on. I believe they have achieved it and ruined the show. The story is simple, sometimes keeping it simple is much better than the alternative.
The more I think of it, it is becoming more and more frustrating. What a Shame!
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I knew from the first episode this show probably was not for me. I kept watching because 'secret longing' is a favorite character trope of mine, and if this show had a defining theme it's 'secret longing.'
But, even all the yearning and pained glances, couldn't keep me watching this. The conflicts are highly typical from the school portion: 'failure to communicate' 'absentee parents' and 'being looked down for being poor' and the adult portion: 'failure to communicate' 'insecurities and jealousies regarding failure/success.'
There's a lot of nostalgia for their school years that feels unearned. Indeed the flashbacks pick moments from all five years of their relationship and yet don't show any relationship development. No stray touches or being able to communicate in an easier way; there's no sense that the relationship was ever lived in.
A five year 'everyday relationship' is more than studying and a few school pranks and awkward and stilted interactions. But that's all we got in five hours, five hours is double the length of a movie!
Perhaps for some, the warm familiarity and predictability paired with better budget and cinematography is enough. For me, it felt too much like drifting without a compass.
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This review may contain spoilers
What is so special in this story?
The idea of the drama is interesting, I managed to see the first 4 episodes, but, psychologically speaking, I saw an immature love, broken by the selfishness of the main heroine and the masochism of the main hero. Why the Korean public considered love in Nevertheless toxic, and here they feel butterflies in their stomachs, remains a mystery to me. She shows selfishness, expects to receive love without giving more than rarely, and he confuses attachment with love.The actors are good, nothing more to say.
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This review may contain spoilers
The Good:⌲ The documentary concept
⌲ The sequencing of the major plot points (first half is more melo, the second half more romcom)
⌲ The docu flashback scenes are the best.
⌲ The romance, mostly (It's way more magical in Hogu's Love)
⌲ The chemistry between the two leads
⌲ The brilliant acting (If ML did variety, he could dethrone YJS in a few weeks & the FL is also incredible)
⌲ FL's cute chubby face
⌲ The bickering
⌲ The weak love triangles
⌲ The last 5 minutes of the drama (Had they spent 1-2 episodes on that 3rd documentary, I would have given the drama a 10/10 rating for sure, flaws be damned.)
⌲ The mild melancholia
⌲ The visuals
⌲ Despite all the stupid foreshadowing the leads stay together after they start dating again.
⌲ The rewatch value should be excellent with some FW buttoning.
⌲ The low key good OST
The Neutral:
⌲ NJ (I'm suspecting the actress was portraying Sulli & that made me quite sad)
⌲ Let's be friends! (Horrible plot device, but the ensuing romcom moments were good)
⌲ There were some well acted, but underutilized supporting characters.
The Bad:
⌲ The writing is not coherent, this is especially obvious if binge watching. (yay live filming)
⌲ The reasons for the initial breakup (I would have accepted "pride", but they just had to put a noble reason spin on it)
⌲ The second ML's character feels misplaced & pointless. (Could have FW buttoned all his scenes for more enjoyment)
⌲ The last 3-4 episodes were sullied by the entire "French Architect School" plot. (Woong of all people is such a genius that he has become an architect/engineer in 2-3 years and then he went back to Korea to continue drawing for galleries and whatnot)
⌲ The story drags in the middle. (The writer pulled the breaks on romantic progress in jarring ways, because 16 episodes..)
⌲ The final episode is weak, sans the last 5 minutes. (It's not ruining anything, it's just whelming)
⌲ The audio quality is trash, don't bother with those planar headphones! (were all microphones bought at the 1$ store, then again even some of the songs sound horrifyingly low-fi, while some others are excellent)
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I strongly recommend watching https://youtu.be/yxGomiIUN8s AFTER you are done with the drama. (it's only 2 minutes long)
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Very sweet, very funny, and VERY SMART
This Drama was superb. Laugh out loud in so many places, but with real heart too. Most importantly, it was intelligent. Everything that happened made sense in its world. Characters behaved in ways that were credible for them, noone said or did anything stupidly out of character and there were no facepalm moments when the Drama caved to tropes to the lasting detriment of the show.The acting was as good as the writing. As much as I loved the leads, and the always excellent Park Jin Joo, I think the character/actor pairing that best encapsulated what made this such a remarkable show was Roh Jeong Eui's NJ. The character was fascinating, not at all a typical 2FL, and not a typical idol character either. Ms Roh delivered her part superbly, and I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for her in future.
The intelligence of the writing was also shown by the way it kept me guessing about the ending right into the final episode. Not only was it not clear how it would end, what was even more remarkable was that HOWEVER it ended, the ending would have felt right. I would not have felt cheated, frustrated or disappointed by whatever end transpired. Bravissimo!
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SO GOOD
this drama definitely raised my drama standards. I love how chill it was, yet dramatic and suspenseful. it had a nostalgic vibe which I love, and the plot was very entertaining and even though it was serious at points, there was still a lot of comedy and banter scattered through the show which made it even more enjoyable. the actors played the parts perfectly and had lots of chemistry. they were funny to watch which you don’t see much anymore! this drama is one of my all time favorites I 1000% recommend it!Was this review helpful to you?
