Sweet and simple
This was just like a nice piece of candy, some drama but not to much and a very simplified way of showing the struggles of trans girls trying to live in stealth... Without showing the whole messy process of actually transitioning...At first I felt that it was a tad problematic but seeing how the story progressed I could put my mind at ease and just see it as a way to convey some of the common fears many of these girls may have. All put in the form of a really sweet high school rom com, with friendships, love triangle and all... without the drama taking over.
I loved the main lead, she was such a sweetheart, and probably broke some stereotypes.
I love the fairy, I honestly wish every trans girl or person struggling had a fairy of their own... He was just cute and sweet as a button (very handsome too) .
The cousin and friendships where just sweet as candy and well so was the mom, not to mention that older sister... The male lead is not bad either... But is actually not the main attraction of this show.
Also, never, ever, ever, out someone! Just do not do it!
Not a masterpiece but definitely extremely easy to binge, only lovable characters and did I mention it was sweet?
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A Sweet Story with Some Unexplored Potential
I'm a sucker for a good gender bender. And this one was certainly good, don't get me wrong. Ironically enough, my biggest problem with the series is that I wanted more of it. That's not to say I just want it to continue for longer, I mean I wish there had been more exploration done in some of the premises. Let me explain.First I'll say that for the most part the production, acting, and music were all very well done. It's no cinematic masterpiece, but it definitely meets (and likely surpasses) the modern bar for quality. The screenplay was likewise, very good (again, nothing ground-breaking, but convincing at least).
The one gripe I have is that it feels like they just didn't quite take it far enough. There were interesting characters and backstories, but these were not well explored and conflict was mostly dealt with quickly. There were (attempts) at emotional moments, but they just didn't quite land. Of course, we must give credit where credit is due for managing to even have all these things considering the total length of the drama (only 10 episodes of 20 minutes each). However, if you consider it like a movie
(where it would be on the longer side) you realize more can be done within the allotted time. I just wish it would dig a little deeper, connect with the characters more thoroughly. And maybe find an ending that's a little less convenient feeling.
Of all the things to critique, this is probably the one you'd want most. It means they're on the right track, they just need to go further. Also, all the actors did a great job. As a side note, I was actually expecting the subject to be a transgender protagonist (in the more realistic sense, anyway), but I'm not upset with what we got instead. And so, with that, I will recommend this series, especially those who are interested in the gender bender trope. Also, it's a romance drama, not a sports drama, so heads up for that.
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Review based SOLELY on my enjoyment
I do not like gender bender shows, so I didn't care for this personally.That said, the acting was okay, it was short, it didn't involve too much of a time commitment, so you might enjoy this one, especially if you need a break between heavier shows. It's light, no angst, a bit of a fantasy. It is a story about what makes us love someone. What is it about them that draws us to them? Is it just a physical attraction? Or is it more about the essence of the person, two souls connecting, as it were. Watching this gives you a little to think about.
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This review may contain spoilers
This little web series has so much potential because the story in itself is intriguing: how a young boy turned into a girl by magic deals with this trauma, how she has to reconcile the male/female version of self, how the ML comes to the realization that his love and friendship never wavered that he just accepts the person. If the the script had been written a little tighter with a narrower focus, it could have been a great 2-hour movie. But it could also have been a good drama with 16-one hour episode to explore the main plot, sub-plots, and delve deeper into different relationships and characters, especially of the male fairy, Han Se Jun. I think there’s an attempt at creating a love triangle between the male fairy, the FL, and ML, but it just never really developed. The young actors performed well, better than many seasoned actors. Overall, I enjoyed it. Was this review helpful to you?
I was surprised and instantly fell in love with the main Shin Hae Yoon, as she had not only lost her other half at a young age (Kang Tae Joo traveling abroad to play baseball in America), but also "developed a disease" that changed her gender. She was sad and angry, but she kept going on like it was normal and carried on with her life not trying to be a stereotypical boy or girl, but just being herself. It wasn't until Tae Joo came back from studying/playing abroad that Hae Yoon started to step outside of her comfortable boundaries and figuring out who she was and what her true feelings were. But what I loved most about her, she that even with her gender change, she still had the same mannerisms and morals that made her the same person. Whenever something happened, she would stand up and fight and when big issues came, especially when it came to telling people about her gender change, she took the time to think about what to do and what to say. Even if her actions weren't "correct" to someone else, she wasn't an impulsive person, and she always thought about is her actions would make her life as well as the other party's life more difficult.
And I wasn't sure about how it was going to go with Hae Yoon telling Tae Joo about the gender change, but to be quite honest.... I thought if would have gone smoother? Tae Joo was desperately trying to to find his old friend (and I am CONVINCED that there was some little boy love and maybe Tae Joo didn't understand his feelings completely either?) and once Hae Yoon's confession was made, Tae Joo did the most bratty / un-empath thing he could have done and understandably, Hae Yoon was hurt. I understand maybe why he might have felt that way, but it was very hurtful and I didn't quite understand the ending as well. It was cute and PG... but it almost seemed that Hae Yoon was at fault and Tae Joo's priorities were not on track.
Plus, if you were hoping to watch a series about baseball.... this is not it. There was literally no baseball played except for at the ending. Also, I was a little disappointed that Hae Yoon seemed to still love baseball and give it up because she was now a she... and at one part of the show, she showed her mad pitching skills where she might have been able to try out (cause let's get real... all of the pitching scenes we saw with Bae were NOT very good), but no. Disappointed.
Other than that, it was worth the watch and I loved Hae Yoon's friendship with Han Se Jun (or Yeo One from Pentagon) to a certain point where I very much shipped them two just because she had him as a confidant and he wanted to hear and help her in any way when she was sad. But he played the roll of a big brother to both mains instead.
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This review may contain spoilers
A Fairy tale...
Or a tale about a fairy on his(because it is a handsome guy!) way to grant his first wish and it goes awfully wrong! But he realizes that only ten years later! When two baseball playing best friends make a wish to stay together forever, this is not how they imagined it would be: one of them became a girl overnight and the other moved to USA. When he comes back he meets and falls for the girl version of his friend.While watching this I could not really focus on the plot: I was constantly thinking of trans people and recent scandals and cancellations of suspicious celebrities! If all those articles about transphobia had not been on my mind, I would have probably enjoyed this much much more.
The story is sweet and nice, not an evil ex in sight, minimum toxicity and a lot of fluff! The actors could have been better: the ML was wooden and monotonal, looked depressed and generally unhappy most of the times. The FL was supposed to be a boy iso she is a bit rougher and tougher than the usual FL, speaking with a deeper voice and a bravado of a boy. The cutst of the lot was the Fairy who had the best chemistry with the FL.
This is a tale of friendship, love gender and baseball! It is a cute short watch with nice music and solid story! What else can you ask for or need one Sunday night?
I don't care if what you are; I like you as a person! Awwwww, so cute and PC!
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This review may contain spoilers
Finding love without labels
Really enjoyed this short. It def brought of interesting taboo topics not easily discussed in asian countries. Was this BL since the FL was originally a boy when she was younger? Or would she be considered transgendered since she now identifies as a girl. For me I kinda viewed this as almost neither as she says she’s both Hae Yoon and Hae Won. As kids they were super close, possibly more than best friends since they both missed each other so badly. Since they were kids why probably didn’t know about let alone understand their feelings. Now that they’re older, they still want to be with each other and still accept the change. To me it felt like they didn’t care about traditional labels and just fell in love with each other’s personalities.Was this review helpful to you?
A refreshing young love.
I loved this refreshing and different mini drama. It was about 2 boy that were beyond best friends and are separated as Tae joo is sent to America leaving Hae won behind. They keep in touch at first until Hae won wakes up and is now a transgender Hae yoon a girl. Not knowing what happened she grows a beautiful young lady with only her mom & cousin knowing. Then one day Hae won comes back looking for his BFF and cant find him, but meets Hae yoon and see similarly in her and begins to like her. What will happen when the truth comes out? Also we learn how this happened thru a fairy and a wish.The cast did a wonderful job as you could feel the emotion of each character.
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Is it love, affection or ssomething else?
STORY – Kang Tae Joo and Shin Hae Won are best friends. They are inseparable until Tae Joo goes to the US to persue a Baseball career. Suddenly, a fairy, maybe on drugs, turns Hae Won into a girl. Tae Joo returns to Korea to meet his true love and cannot find him, because he is now a girl.What will they do? Maybe the fairy has the answer of that and also of global warming…
ACTING / CAST – I think they were ok, especially the girls did a better job.
MUSIC – I really recall only one song and it suits the plot. So, for me it was ok, I guess.
REWATCH - I think that this is nice to watch, but I do not find any reason to come back.
OVERALL – the last episodes are so draggy, even in a short drama. The introspections of Hae Yoon are not very good, for me. With this kind of feeling, I think gender does not matter. And does changing physically means that the love for the person changes also?
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Sneaky and manipulative gender propaganda
Do you think that Korea accepts gay people just because it produces BL dramas and movies? Wrong. They just make them because they are popular, and the audience is young girls anyway, who have two handsome male leads to drool over - or whatever may be those girls' reason for liking this content. I don't get it so I won't try to guess, although it's interesting from a sociological point of view.But they wanted to target the more mainstream audience here, without the BL tag that would maybe drive away many viewers. So what did they do? A story of two gay boys liking each other wouldn't be acceptable, so they "magically" turned one of them into a girl, so it would be okay for them to date and be together, because they would be "straight". If that isn't homophobic as h***, I don't know what is. But of course a transgender lead would also not be accepted very easily, so... instead of hormones and butchery (oops, sorry, gender reassignment surgery), we have a super-handsome and kind fairy, who turns the boy into a girl overnight, without his knowledge or consent, just because of a mistake. How very convenient! And they went to great lengths to point out that the boy was desperate about this, he suffered, he didn't want it, it took him quite a while to accept it (so it wasn't a case of gender dysphoria before, thinking he was a girl in a boy's body or anything like that). That puts conservative minds to rest, so that they trustingly gulp down what follows.
I found it very manipulative, trying to sneakily push an agenda to traditionally minded viewers who are led to accept this sweet love story, so that then the makers of the drama can tell them "See? If you are okay with someone who turned into a girl by magic, why can't you be okay with it when it's done through the person's will and great effort? Isn't it the same thing? What's the difference?"
This apart, the screenplay makes water from everywhere. The deal the sister/agent makes with the athlete to come back to Korea, the girl who makes her whole family move to Korea to cling to her one-sided crush, the fact that neither family friends nor family (except for that one cousin: is she an orphan?) know or suspect anything about the sex change, the fairy's mistake (what was he trying to achieve with the spell anyway?) etc. Of course, what do you expect from a webtoon-based web drama? Ingmar Bergman?
This said, the actors were all likeable, good-looking and capable, you didn't cringe with their acting, as often happens with web dramas, they are to be commended. The whole quality was higher than of most web-dramas, that seem home-made and amateurish. They did put some serious effort here.
It was a short watch, but frankly I wouldn't recommend it.
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Film tout mignon et poétique qui aborde mine de rien le thème de l'identité sexuelle.
Ce thème, certainement très tabou dans les dramas, est évoqué de façon légère (fantaisie d'une fée) sans aborder donc les aspects plus douloureux (transition, changement d'identité légale, aspects médicaux, etc.).Utiliser une romance scolaire pour aborder le thème, peut sembler superficiel, mais c'est aussi intelligent, bien construit, et mène logiquement à la morale de la série : c'est la personne que tu aimes qui comptes pas son sexe ou son genre.
Remarque : On n'échappe tout de même pas au personnage insupportable (cliché récurrent) des dramas romantiques : l'ami(e) amoureux(se) à sens unique, qui s'entête et revendique son lover comme un objet, un dû. Le "si je t'aime, tu m'appartiens" m'agace profondément. :)
Le format est très court (ensemble visible en moins de 2h) et vous donnera votre dose de douceur pour la soirée <3 <3
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