This review may contain spoilers
Couldn’t stop watching till I finished all episodes.
Couldn’t stop watching till I finished all episodes.”Cheer up” one of the best Korean dramas of this year in my opinion. The acting, storyline and of course music and performances was so great! I swear I will definitely rewatch this show again and again. I know that some people were disappointed with love triangle but I really like both male leads equally despite annoying love of the second male lead. Despite that he has interesting plot about his family and their relationship. Also, I’m in love with FL ? she portrayed her heroine so well, and I like how she could be dead serious and so funny and playful too. I was really impressed by her acting. Really recommend everyone to watch this show if you like good story and also amazing music and shows.Was this review helpful to you?
Potential good plot got diluted in love triangle but held on till the end.....
If you are someone who watches a drama without any external bias and are not affected by comments or social media then try this drama out. It started off with a really cheerful theme, with high potential, and had its fair share of angst and romance with some really really good music and dance sequences especially the OST "높이 (together)". As the episodes went by the main plot kind of was lost in the love triangle which more or less killed the vibe the earlier episodes created, well they recovered a bit around the last quarter of the show where there was some progress in the main plot but the impact was not that great. There were many obvious choices that would have actually made the drama much more engaging and not so frustrating until the last quarter but the writer I guess ignored all of them and messed up a really beautiful drama, which ended up being popular but could have been a lot lot better.But even in that If you are someone who is looking to watch a good drama this is still a great choice as you won't have to wait a lot for the episodes rather they are all out and available for you, so you will feel a lot refreshing and might even enjoy the plot a lot. The actors did a really great job in their respective roles the portrayer of the personalities remained quite consistent and uniform.
Trust me as someone in this drama said "Sometimes it will feel like all the work is useless, but there comes a moment which makes you forget all of that." ?? You will surely like it just stick to the end.
Let's talk about the characters:
1. Do Hae Yi:- She is the kind of FL that you will surely start to like from the very start. She is responsible, caring, extremely funny, knows what she wants, and works for it. But we all know those qualities don't come easily as the price is the suffering they undergo to become like that. Her character was consistent in most parts of the show until a certain episode? which ended quite short? so don't worry. And had a really good and satisfying ending for her character really was soothing to the viewers.
2. Park Jung-woo:- Well my favorite character of the drama similar in a lot of sense to the FL, is also responsible, caring, not funny but a bit cute and geeky, and really the best captain which led Theia(the club) out from ruins to its formal glory. His only flaw is that he is way too protective of everyone especially the FL which kinda frustrated me?? yet gave me a lot to learn about how actual love is like where the safety, respect, and trust in the other person is way more important than the fact that they are with you. But don't get confused he still slayed It in every respect and things took a good turn for him. Well, our captain changed completely for all the good reasons towards the last quarter of the show so look forward to it.
3. Jin Sun Ho:- It's not that I don't like his character but?? I really had a lot of beef with how he did things in this drama. His role was the one that went through the most changes throughout the drama, at the start for all the bad reasons then things started going good towards the last quarter of the show. His background in the drama was most emphasized as compared to any character in the drama, but I wasn't able to sympathize with his flaws and problems because of how his action was in most of the drama. In terms of being a good guy for FL, he was also a really great choice but well the competition was fierce watch the drama to find out who wins. His ending was okay but they could have given him a better one??.
4. Tae Cho Hee:- She had a really small screen time but was really impactful. The badass vice-captain Theia???, the best friend of our Captain accompanied him in his plans to save the club and fought alongside him till the end. Her ending was also really satisfying and trust me she was a really really cool character who took a stand for herself and everyone whenever necessary. I wish shows would have given her more scenes.
5. As for other characters, I if keep on writing like this I might end up writing an essay on this drama so I should stop and keep it brief. All the other supporting characters like Joo Sun Ja, Kim Min Jae, Ki Woon Chan, Choi So Yoon/Choi Ji Yoon, Lee Ha Jin, Bae Young Woong, And the families of all the characters were so so good you will definitely like them a lot each character had their fair share of problems but were all fighting to solve them and be happy and then found it, each one of them ?.
There are multiple couples in the drama which really piqued my interest in club activities I guess I should find and join one too????. All the couples in this drama really feel natural and fitting, their complimentary personalities, their understanding of their partners, etc. I also looked forward to all of the club performances as that's where all the characters shined a lot, especially the FL and our always-highlighted Captain (that's where he really gave off most of the cool captain vibe ??).
Disclaimer: - This drama started a war between kdrama communities right from the very earlier episode which lasted most than 2-3 months ?? even I was a participant in that too.
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Mediocre male characters that still somehow made the fans fight.
For a drama that on the surface, on paper seems to present many interesting issues, fun plotlines, entertaining characters - this was a massive fail. With all that was technically going on in the drama, the fact that “which male character should the female lead end up with” was the hottest topic among the viewers shows how unengaging everything was.Here’s the thing, I actually enjoyed it at first. Do Hae Yi was refreshingly bubbly and shameless about her love for money. Her enthusiasm and energy seemed realistic and fun. Loved her interactions with all the characters and was curious about a potential character development and possible change of priorities in her life (or at least some adjustments). For the most part her character was painfully stagnant, just to start hiding things and being less straightforward in the later episodes. They tried to fix that in last few episodes, but it was too little too late.
Characters wise, it felt like a huge waste of initial set up. More or less none of the characters got any development. They started and finished on the same note. We got some small changes of personalities in some side characters, but the mains were completely forgotten. The writers suddenly remembered they should do something about the main cast in the last two episodes, so everything felt rushed.
I knew we would get a typical love triangle, but with the addition of the mystery, I thought this would actually be an interesting watch. How wrong I was. The love triangle was painful to watch, since none of the male leads was that good or interesting. One, while interesting as a character and having quite a well built story around him, had an unhealthy obsession over Hae Yi. The other had the personality of a white wall and no depth, which made him simply uninteresting. Can believe we all had arguments about these basic boys in the comment section. It did have a great set of supporting characters though.
I honestly don’t want to even talk about the mystery aspect. It went from tense unknown, to barely existing, to murder thriller levels of ridiculousness. The culprit was a clown and their reveal made most of the audience question the writers’ choices. I never felt less interested in the “bad guy” reveal and the fact we had to wait so long to get any answers about the motive added to the issue.
An aspect I actually truly loved about the show were female friendships and support. There were no unnecessary catfights, no random jealousy - far more support, understanding and encouraging each other. Especially from Hae Yi and Sun Ja, and Choon Yang and Jin Hee. Honestly, I would not mind if they put more focus and gave more screen time for the mothers.
On a completely subjective note, one of my side ships failed and it made me sad. The potential behind that couple was amazing, and it was dropped for the more obvious and less complex one.
I did enjoy Han Ji Hyun’s performance. She was the only memorable part of the show. Making such an exciting, hype and enthusiastic character still feel realistic and not cartoonish couldn’t be an easy job, but she was able to achieve a believable result. Yes, the character was annoying in the second half, but that’s on the writing not the acting.
Another performance that caught my attention was Baek Ji Won as Hwang Jin Hee - Sun Ho’s mom. Her comedic addition had an underlying sadness and desperation to it, and I loved that this complexity was shown even in the limited screen time.
As for Bae In Hyuk - oh boy. I feel bad for him. He is not a bad actor, but anyone who watched Cheer Up would probably assume he is. I honestly believe the issue was the writing of Jungwoo and not the acting itself. Portraying a character that is so poorly written is just extremely hard.
Production value was high, but what’s the point when the story was not?
Overall, the show did not really deliver the cheers, nor the romance, nor the mystery. The friendship between Do Hae Yi and Joo Sun Ja was amazing and one of the limited saving graces of the show.
The show just left me frustrated. It had great potential to be a fun, light teen drama about coming of age, building friendship, learning how to give and receive help. How to believe in yourself, but also believe in people around you. And yet they wasted a good 80% of the time on useless, boring love triangles and mess of a bullshit mystery.
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I LOVE IT
Omggg, finally found drama that suits me!their first encaunter, the flow of love, friendships,AND EVERYTHING !
I love how they develop hae yi and jung woo love story , especially their character after they starts
dating and the best part is when they are not
akward at all , this drama makes me flutter all the time with their interaction.
I got exited everytime and now i already repeat it about 10 times .
Uri bae in hyuk get girls and
Uri ji hyun was a great actress and really
beautiful.
HEY GUYS, don't read the negative comment,
just go on the drama, then u decided whenever
it's good or nah, bcz EVERYONE HAVE THEIR
OWN PERSPECTIVE OF DRAMA . ?❤
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This review may contain spoilers
A Delightful Watch for Teenagers, but a proper torture for Matured audience.
First things firstThis drama doesn't have any story. If you're looking for a drama with strong story and characters. Don't look at this drama. This drama has none.
Jungwoo supposed to be main lead but he is just supporting character for almost 13 eps and later turned Main Lead because Female Lead choose him as she felt he is best for unknown reason. His character arc not written properly throughout the drama. Unless you are a fan of actor, it will hard to connect with that character
Suho supposed to be Second Lead but he is our Main Lead for 13eps and then turned to support character. He shares majority of the screentime with our beloved FL. He is her everything. Boy Bestie, Boyfriend, Friend, Soulmate. She is able to overcome world of problems because of his support. But for some reason our FL didn't choose him despite agreeing that she is wavered towards him and her heartbeat romantically for him atleast once.
Atleast SML and FL shared one sensual, erotic drunken lip kiss. Which is highlight in this whole drama.
SML character is extremely controversial and writers tries max tries to justify his behaviour by using family issues which is very common in kdramas.
FL is the only Main Character in this drama from start to End. I won't talk about her character but i will say few things.
Her toxic friendship with suho is extremely unhealthy.
Her realtionship with Jungwoo will not last long.
Completely One-dimensional. Always believe what she thinks and what she knows are only right.
Acting:
ML character doesnt have any scope to show actors acting skills. Anyone can sleepwalk through that role.
FL character also doesn't demand much acting skills from actress. She done well. At times she tries hard to act cute, which not works for me.
SML character demands only good looking face, so actor fits to that role perfectly.
This drama teaches me once thing perfectly. Male and Female can never stay as friends. One day suddenly all the things they did for each other may appear as romantic.
My giving 4 stars due to some side characters which are enjoyable in this messy drama.
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This review may contain spoilers
infuriating second lead
so what? Sunho just kisses her without her consent and when she is avoiding him cause she is OBVIOUSLY uncomfortable being around the dude he has the audacity to go "let's just forget it ever happened" without BLOODY APOLOGIZING?!!!!!?? can we go back to the days where we had healthy green flag second leads like Han jipyeong.atleast Jungwoo gets the girl cause I was having enough of actual main lead moping around like the second lead. I hope it doesn't get more terrible than it currently is. I had high hopes for this
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This review may contain spoilers
Cheer up is a perfect title for this drama, no doubt about it !!
Well I really really liked this drama, and I'm very glad I watched it despite so many reviews/comments saying it was horrible ! To begin with, the acting was top notch (the FL in particular was fabulous) and I loved everyone in this little group of friends (Hae Yi's family and Sun Ho's mom too !!), it was also funny and some parts made me tear up even, and honestly I didn't expect that but it was for the best because some important life lessons were addressed : while it is "only" fiction, the messages can still greatly resonate with the viewer behind the screen (it was the case for me at least).I admit I didn't know what to expect from the whole "cheering" activity. It's the first time I see it represented in a drama (quite different from the american style and very enjoyable after all) but the OST was AWESOME and the energy among the team was so sincere and spontaneous, you can definitely see the actors 100% enjoyed themselves and worked very hard to make it work.
Of course I also think the love triangle went on for way too long, but even then, I couldn't hate Sun Ho and I still liked his character in the end (I started watching this with the endgame couple already in mind lol so it was surely less frustrating for me). Moreover all the couples were extra cute and the friendships even more so !! I also loved that there wasn't any unwanted jealousy between the female characters, it was sooo refreshing. Finally, and unfortunately, I agree that the mystery part wasn't very thrilling, but I can understand why it was added. Maybe 12 episodes would have been more suitable for this story, but it was still enjoyable from start to finish.
All in all, despite some small flaws, Cheer up is a lovely drama full of energy, youthfulness and love in all its forms ! That's why I encourage you to give it a try :)
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I somehow like the first half ish of the show but the rest is a mess.
Badly written and not well executed story.
Also badly written characters.
Typical k drama story line pattern.
Average drama. it's watchable, nothing else.
In a good note, I love the osts and the cast.
Sad to see them in a roles like this. It is like witnessing a shining beacons on the top of a stagnant river.
Recommendable to watch it if you knew and like the cast but if not, its good to pick another show.
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WTF
I know korean dramas love triangle can be annoying to the core. But this has to be worst of all. I think writter just wrote whatever he wanted without thinking twice. The way they build up female lead character is very poor.She is confusing and unbearable at a time. They failed to build proper romance between her and male lead. It could have still worked but second male lead is annoying to the core. Everytime there is some good feeling, he ruins it.
So avoid it. Because its cliche korean story. Boyfriend cheat, then she meets two boys, then love triangle, then she chooses one, breakup with him later...
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um i don't know if it's a review but looking at others i wanted to write this .
Jang na ra :- Be wild in life ,Be wild as long as you don't break any laws.
Don't try to spare your feelings to much , experience as much as you cans so you won't have any regrets.
God it was good , just what I needed . I am 19 years old . And recently i was feeling very down
Before that i watched 2 ep of it looking at the bad comment i decided to drop it .
But then I started to watch it with 0 expectations. it was a light and fun drama to watch with very good motivation and life lessons .
i liked it a lot i know it has its cons but still . And it was my first time seeing something like this "cheering squad" god it was another kind of experience
I really enjoyed it .
FL was a little childish though
I hate love triangles i hated this one and how FL
handled it was not great .
Park Jung woo was cute. god i wish to see him more as a main lead character.
It's a good drama. Just don't expect much.
it's enjoyable.
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I enjoyed it very much ♥️
It's been a while since I encountered a drama that made me laugh and cry this much.A lot of the dramas that are coming out lately are thrillers or action based, and although I enjoy those genres I was starting to become tired of it. It's true that this one has a bit of mystery, but it's mixed in all the drama and romance and although it's part of the plot it didn't bother me that much.
The characters are fun and likable. The protagonist, Haeyi, is presented as a character who is not in her best moment in life, always worried about money and working to support her mother and younger brother. But she never gives up, she never loses that fun and bubbly personality, and I really enjoyed that. She made me laugh out loud in almost every episode.
Jungwoo is portrayed by Bae Inhyuk and I'm glad that he's playing a main character this time. I really liked how he always had something good to say to Haeyi, and although at the begging he wasn't (they didn't know eachother), by the middle of the series he was very reasonable and understanding of the situations she was facing.
Sunho tho, it was kind of infuriating how he kept insisting that he liked the protagonist. She told him many times that she wasn't interested in him, and he even kissed her without her consent when she was drunk??? Nope.
I'm not really a fan of love triangles, especially if they're not well executed. SML should have given up on the protagonist by the middle of the drama, and Jungwoo should've had more screen time with Haeyi.
Another thing that I didn't like is that the bad guy doesn't really have a sustainable reason to dislike the main character and wanting to kill her. He wasn't even part of their team, he was only an ex-member of the group, so I don't understand his point.
Overall, I liked that this drama gave a message of courage and cheering to the audience. Never give up on your dreams, on your life. There's always someone cheering for you. Even if you can't notice them, there is someone ♥️
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Love triangle at it's worse.
The story picks up at the point where a cheerleader club is looking for new members.Little do the new ones know, that the cheerleader club is almost closing due to prophecies and controversies.
Captain Jungwoo is trying his best to save the club.
On his mission, he meets Haeyi as well as Sunho, who are joining the club for ulterior motives.
During their time in the cheerleader club, strange things are happening, which are linked to a past accident.
And so the mystery unravels. Slowly.
Or... at least it should.
Typically, the focus should be on solving the mystery and revealing the truth little by little.
Yet, there is a long drought until you actually forget, what the whole show is about anymore.
The writer clearly had his focus on the love triangle of Haeyi, Jungwoo and Sunho to the point, where even the mother of Haeyi and her brother are rooting for either of them.
I knew what I signed up for. But I didn't know, how bad it could have been implemented.
While I enjoyed tiny bits of the love triangle, it was just a pain to watch overall.
Haeyi, a bubbly, energetic girl yet childish and immature.
Her entire character didn't grow// there was no character development at all.
Sunhos story plot is well-developed, his character was interesting. I was rooting for him for the first quarter of the show, until he showed his obsessive side. Since then, he has been a red flag walking on two legs.
Jungwoo was as fascinating as a piece of plain white paper. No character depth in his character, no real background information. He just existed in the drama and happen to be the main lead.
Main leads beside, the side cast was great and I really enjoyed watching them dork around and rooting for them, even more than for the main lead couple.
Overall, the show was a mess.
I thought the title reflects it content.
A happy show that lifts my mood.
The drama started well and I was intrigued, but it lost its interest fast.
Cheerleader content? There are rarely any scenes. It's mostly just practice, which showed the same move.
Mystery? Literally butchered down. And those tiny bits we got are underperforming.
Romance? Yeah. No. Chemistry of the main leads was missing.
The only saving points were the side characters, their friendship and their story arcs.
Cheer up should have been a happy, motivating show, yet it left many of us frustrated, wanting to finish fast or drop it.
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