A Love So Beautiful (2024)

Not Bad but Different

I started this because I was intrigued by the leads (I enjoyed both in other dramas) and I watched the CN and K versions.
Story: This is a loose adaptation. The MLs motivation for being a cold fish are different, they spend a good portion of college lying to her parents for no reason and reuniting looks different (No sad bench scene, ML doesn't trick her into proposing, etc).
It's only 18 episodes so things are a bit truncated. I expected that but I think they wouldn't have been so rushed if they had spent less time on the HS arc. I feel this way to a lesser extent about the other versions as well. In every version we only get 2 episodes of them getting back together/working on their relationship. Which is especially odd in an 18 episode show.
The main couple are good together but they don't spend that much of the drama together. Literally, I felt like they had more scenes with the other characters than they did together. Controversial opinion: I think the K drama is the best at showing that the ML likes/loves the FL before the break up/time jump. *Dodges tomatoes*
The CN shines for me in episode 23... Once he actually starts talking about his feelings. And openly returning her devotion. It was the same here. In every version we get that she loves him but none of them do a great job of showing why until the end. I really enjoyed the main couple in the last episode. That is both good (yay for a romance giving romance!) and bad (too few romantic moments in a romantic comedy).
The 2ML is good at providing a foil for the ML. Very in touch with his feelings and very open about his love for the FL. It was weird that he was an Olympic level swimmer yet the ML kept beating him in races. It didn't help the feeling that the ML was good at everything but life, lol.
The second couple also has some changes (he is still sick but that is only one of their issues in this version, the other is his job).

Acting: Dew will get a lot of flack for being flat but HYT was as well in my opinion. One of my biggest complaints about all three versions is that *stares blankly as his GF cries about his inattentiveness* doesn't playout on screen the way it did in the book because we don't get any narration. He could be thinking about his laundry for all we know. They gave us a few voice overs but just a bit more emotion even if it's silent would have helped.
Prim was doing most of the heavy lifting but that is the FL in every version of this. She absolutely sells the "I love this pretty mannequin and I will fight for him". They also gave her pretty good dialogue. Every time I thought she should call him out, she did! Especially, during the break up. He said he was tired and then she said she was too and talked about how she did everything in their relationship! I was like "Yes! He's tired?! Join the club dude, we meet on Saturday night and talk about what a dweeb you are!!!"
If you are here for kisses there aren't many but there were no fish lips. Or that weird thing some Thai dramas have where they look like they are trying to fight with their lips.
The second couple was okay but they didn't have much chemistry.
The parents were mostly okay but the lady playing the MLs mom was so dry. Which was terrible because those were the only scenes in the first 10 episodes where the ML actually said more than 3 words at a time, lol.
Prodution: Pretty good. The sets were nice and the houses actually looked like the characters lived there. As always the dorm rooms were insanely large.
Costumes/Hair/Makeup: The wig is always tragic. SY had short hair so the CN is always a bit better here.
Once the time jump happens, the clothing is pretty good. Except the shoes the FL wears at the 2nd couples wedding. They look crazy with her dress.
OST: I am not the best judge her but all of the songs fit the scenes.

Overall, this was a very okay drama. If you love the CN or are very attached to certain plot points, SKIP THIS and save yourself the annoyance.
If you love the 2nd ML comes because you think he is cute because the FL never really seems into him.

I rated higher than it probably deserves because the ratings seem to be people pissed that it isn't exactly like the CN.

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Disappointing. No Chemistry.

Disappointing how mild this was. Didn't feel the chemistry at all. Even after many years and they're in their mid-late 20s it still felt like they were acting like innocent teenagers. They lived together for over a year, how can you still act shy and awkward, like you hadn't kissed each other before and grew up together? Didn't feel any of that from this. The child actors that played them did a better job than they did .

But I loved all of the other versions so I had to watch this one. Not sure if it was worth it or not.

The kisses (a whole 3-wow) got even more awkward and cringe. I'm going to have to rewatch the Cdrama one to get over my disappointment and annoyingness. And the 2 scenes where they 'slowly touched each others' faces', their hands shook so bad it even made me uncomfortable. They both could have done so much better. They didn't seem comfortable with each other at all, and I love both the ML and FL as actors. Sad.

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a show so badly made

A big rant. You have been warned

I have not seen any other versions of this show but this version makes the story look bad from all sides. People say that straight shows don't get viewers but how can het show gain viewers if they are made so badly?
From the beginning, we can see that there was a low budget for this show. The writers have done a very bad job. The story seems like something u get after a storywriting competition in high school.
The characters were so under-developed. It seems as if they heard a one line summary of the other versions and made a story based off that one line within 15 mins. Som and Chadjen are very one-dimensional characters. Chadjen was not even a big presence in the first half of the show. I never felt that Som was romantically interested in Chad, it felt like a younger sister annoying her brother. Chad was just a quiet guy with daddy/mommy issues. Since he is so absent in the first half, everything related to him in the latter just felt fake. Why do Som and Chad like each other? We never know.
The team was also weak in keeping the story consistent. Som was never shown to be an artist or even draw for fun but suddenly after failing her medical interest she suddenly finds out that she is passionate about art?? They don't even show her doing much art or even being passionate about it. Chadjen being a swimmer too is a weird plot point. Like wdym he is a good swimmer, so good he beats Tao but we never hear of it again???? New's dream being a video game developer too, like he never mentioned it any time during the highschool or college days but suddenly after he gets a job his life long passion is developing a game? They didn't even imply he had a passion for any subject let alone this. Also, we hear nothing about this after the proposal
The romantic aspect was weak. Chadjen was shown as uninterested in everything. His only goal is to be a doctor and its made very clear. But then Som and Chad start dating after one conversation? That too one where they don't really say anything about their feeling? Their dating era too felt weak. They dated for a year but what did they do during that time? How do they hand out? The show just made them move in together-wrote after one year- suddenly they are having issues????????does the team not know how to portray a story? Som being so surprised that Chad is so busy also seems weak to me cause he studying to be a doctor, everyone knows how time consuming it is. Plus Chadjen wasn't that active in her life before, what difference does it make now?
The parents especially the dad was annoying. Many people were touched by the dad's anger in that one episode but i didn't like him at all. They didn't show the parents much and every time they showed the dad he was so overprotective and so obsessed with som's dating life and sex life. If they had shown times when they spend time doing something other than eating it would have worked.
New and Khao's story wasn't anything to be praised. Their proposal was cute though.
Tao seems be the only developed character here. He has a genuine interest in som and tries to be a part of her life and has passions and pains of his own.
The set, THAT WIG, story, outfit........everything was so low effort.

now about the acting..........
i first saw dew and prim in f4 and they both have a good performance there. Since then i have seen many of their other shows and i think dew is getting progressively worse. It does not help that most of his works has one dimensional characters. If i were to rank his performance it would be f4>homeschool>faceless love>this. He was so good in f4, but then there Ren was such a deep character with multiple sides and was surrounded by other deep characters. Here he is alone with a plain character. I hope he tires to get better shows and work better. Prim was good in enigma, her som is a plain character who is annoying so there isn't much to redeem the character.
Anyway this was a torture to watch, glad its over

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Excellent Cast But Something Is Soooo Off

I first of all am so tired of doing bad or mediocre reviews and I adore so many GMMTV Series from BL to others but one thing I can't get behind is GMMTV Adaptations. In my opinion all of them suck so bad. Yet so many fans love and adore them (Im thrilled for those fans, I really am)
I thought the streak of me hating GMMTV ADAPTATIONS would finally end with Cherry Magic and then the whole copyright issue happened and I chose not to VPN it so I never watched it and really don't want to anymore.

So A Love So Beautiful is a wonderful story and China and Korea did amazing at it in my opinion. And so I actually thought A Love So Beautiful would take the place of Cherry Magic as a GMMTV ADAPTATION I could stand. Plus it has DEW the only person I could stand in F4: THAILAND. And yet this version falls so flat for me. The story is just blah and it so hard to watch that I had to drop it.

I don't find fault with the ML or FL but I find fault with the story itself and the support cast seems so off yet I like the actors but their characters are just off.

As a rule I love different countries take on one another's material. I loved every version of Hana Yori Dango aka BOYS OVER FLOWERS/METEOR GARDEN except F4: THAILAND. And I cant wait for Thailand's Adaptation of ADDICTED HEROIN so it's gotta be GMMTV. Because yet another Adaptation they are currently doing is not doing it for me.


Disclaimer: These opinions are mine and mine alone. No one need to agree with me this is my review and my personal opinion. Disagree if you want everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

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stop hating

ok this was good I loved it people keep hating well I think it’s great I think they should’ve let som-o’s dad be more happy when he found out stop hating? it’s good. don’t watch it if you don’t like it. some of yall saying it’s bad but like why did you watch it if it was bad I also watch a nothing show and both of them where in it they are my favorite like bye leave don’t watch it if you don’t like it. it’s very good I don’t like to watch the trailer bro I want to watch the whole thing I am already watching it on another app but the last episodes come out in 4 days hurry up pls I’m eating it on Viki it’s so annoying when I get adds I don’t know where else to watch it if I go to another app it’s always gonna be in Koran one or a trailer I’m jug tryna rush yall but pls hurry Viki it’s taking forever to release I know you have to edit it and all that but cmon now hurry I want to watch it like please

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Same Plot as Chinese version

This show is so similar to like 5 other shows. Obviously it almost exactly follows the Chinese adaptation that came first with a few changes.

The plot and story contents is exactly like Itazura na Kiss (Japanese), Playful kiss (Korean), Love at first kiss (Taiwanese movie), Kiss me (Thai).
Honestly I get these shows so confused in my brain because they are all the same and quite predictable. This makes it harder to enjoy if you've seen any of the others.

Casting wise I like the actors and I think they do a good job in their roles. I mean I like Dew and Prim a lot. Dew seems to play similar roles of being more quite and reserved so this role is great for him.
I like that supporting couple has more screen time than in other shows/movies rather than only focusing only on the Main couple which can get a bit boring.

Prim's wig is freaking atrocious like bro please at least give her a visible part to make it look somewhat real.

Some of the plot is kinda weird like how is Dew a top athlete and also going to be the school mascot?

I will wait to see if anything in this show will stand out from the rest.

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