Cast: my favorite character in this drama was Kim Sung Soo (Lee Sang Woo) I found him to be the most loving, compassionate, hurt person during this drama, of course he too has his flaws and has made similar mistakes - but he has learned from them and tries to be a better man - even through his struggle of whether or not he should get a divorce.
My second favorite character was: Song Mi Kyung - she was the wife to the other male lead on the drama - she struggled with being "perfect" and that of course never let her show her hurts and true self - basically she lived beating herself up inside everyday while trying to show a happy appearance - which is what she thought everyone wanted her to show. I found her character to be strong, wise but yet foolish, hurt and desiring love.
There was also Kim Sung Soo & Na Eun Jin's daughter whom I loved very much.
As for the other 2 main characters I didn't like them much as they never really felt "apologetic" for their sins they committed against their spouses - one (the woman) was way too "pity me" type and that got on my nerves a lot (but she made up for herself in the end) the other character (the guy) was way to arrogant and always thought he was right - he basically never sincerely apologized for his actions - he believed he was right and no one should judge him for it - that angered me a lot - I never really liked him at all.
Side Characters: there was Mi Kyung's brother and Na Eun Jin's sister who formed a relationship - as you can imagine there would be a struggle with their relationship - but I really loved it - they were special to me. Plus Na Eun Jin's parents relationship was really great to see.
Music: was really good - although a couple of times I thought the song was inappropriate for some scenes they added the song to - my favorite song (that I still listen to) is: I Love You by (the girl from Clazziquai)
Basically if you are interested in dramas that show things very uniquely and from all perspectives then you should watch this show - but don't be too biased when doing so - or you may hate people wrongly.
Re-watch value: for me it is a 10 - I will definitely re-watch this drama someday and even buy it if it becomes available.
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This drama deals with serious issues, about real-life problems so it is definitely not for those, who watch dramas in order to escape the reality. In my opinion, the issues here were well captured and it was just if I was following someone's real life. I have to admit that I cried while watching this drama (after a loooong time), not because of the main couples but because of the side one.
As for the cast, this the first time I am watching a drama with Ji Jin Hee, even though I started to watch it because of him (I loved him on Running Man). I don't know if his acting was not good, or he was just acting stiff because his character was like that. I guess that I need to see him in more productions to determine whether his acting was good or not. Here, I was not satisfied with his acting, it was like he was a side-character rather than the main lead.
As for Lee Sang Woo, this the first time I can actually say that his acting was really good. Well done, My Beloved Turtle!!!(N.B. reference to Glorious Day)
As for the main female leads, they were well chosen for their characters, but I was just not pulled in by their acting. Both of them are not really Top actresses, in my opinion.
And because of whom, I cried? Because of two amazingly talented young actors, Han Groo and Park Seo Joon. Both of them stole every scene they were in. They were much better than their older colleagues, well except for Yun Ju Sang and Go Doo Shim - they are always amazing and their relationship here was so great!! Thanks to Han Groo and Park Seo Joon, I was able to finish this drama, both of them have a bright future ahed of them!! Fighting!!
As for music, it was not great, but not bad as well. Te instrumental songs were well placed. I loved the song "i Love You" (really catchy), but sometimes, the song was not well-placed and was repeated too often.
So overall, if you are in a mood to watch this type of drama, please, do, but if know that you are that kind of person, who just hates watching dramas about real life issues, then it is not a drama for you and please, do not say that it is boring etc. The problem with this drama is that, you definitely need to be in the right mood to watch it, then it is a great drama worth your time.
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This review may contain spoilers
One Warm Word falls into the relationship/marriage drama category of the kdrama genre. It depicts the life of marriage, its ups and downs, its problems and ways to get through them. It was a rather heavy drama, difficult to digest, certainly not for everyone, but quite good at what it wanted to present.STORY
I will start by introducing the ideas and meanings of the drama. It doesn't talk about the affair at all. We vaguely get the reasons behind the affair. The drama basically wants to present what happens AFTER an affair. What happens to the person who commited the adultery, him/her and their family, as well as on a more social level. The description made me think that we get to see how it started and why it started, like other dramas with similar premises but this isn't the case here. The show wanted to express the repercussion of such an act. On a second level the drama wants to pass the message of 'Work on your marriage' No matter how broken it may be, and seemingly dead, it might not be, don't throw your marriage away because something happened (it doesn't have to be cheating), work on it with your spouse, divorce isn't always the answer.
The drama is character driven, nothing happens here in terms of backstory and secrets ect, just 2 couples who are working things out in different (or quite similar) ways. I can understand people calling it boring, and i won't argue with that, the show does get dragged quite a lot, especially in the middle where it felt like it was going around in circles. I do believe that in a marriage after adultery people don't just *choose* what's best, so the writters took a more realistic turn here and i appreciated that, but that didn't stop the show from becoming boring, and i've seen other dramas with similar premises that didn't get boring.
The overall experience of the drama was great, but i did have 3 quite sizeable problems with it:
1. Exaggerated situations. I will not elaborate on this because i will have to post spoilers. It is basically that in order to establish how bad adultery is the situations they introduced felt far fetched. I kind of felt like when i was a kid and my parents were scolding me like: 'This is what will happen to you when you cheat, so don't do it, ever'. Some of the situations were shocking and gave me chills, and sometimes they felt exaggerated and laughable.
2. Unreasonable character choices. This was my biggest problem and the main reason the show got an 8 and not some higher grade. I basically had problems with Ji Jin Hee's and Kim Jee Soo's characters. Their choices were unreasonable just to please the idea of 'work on your marriage', what they chose to do, felt forced and wrong in my opinion, and that made a question pop into my mind: 'Should we always work on something that is dead? Is it always worth it'
3. Overall the drama doesn't depict the concept of infidelity right in my opinion. It rather felt like a one-sided presentation of why you shouldn't do it. I know they wanted to focus on the repercussions of this, but how can we evaluate what happened if we don't know the whole story. We only vaguely were told the reasons of the adulterers, and they only had 1(!) scene together. This is one sided imo, to force us not ship them at all. I am not dead set on shipping adulterous couples, but i want to see the whole story, i want to see what each couple has to offer and then choose on my own who should be with who and for which reasons.
CHARACTERS
Spoilers ahead, feel free to skip this part if you haven't watched.
Yoo Jae Hak. I can understand people hating him, he deserved to be hated, but i didn't hate him for the apparent reasons. Yes he cheated and he is guilty, but i didn't hate him for this. I didn't hate him when he had literally no remorse over what his did (this rather shocked me), i didn't even hate him when he tried to turn all the situation around and blame his wife. And no, i didn't even hate him when he stated stupid excuses for having the affair. He basically said he was unhappy, since everything that he ever did weren't his own choices, but things dictated by others, his parents ect. Yes, i understand where you are coming from, but noone forced you to marry, you should have standed up in front of your parents and spoke your mind. I don't know what the appropriate thing to do is in Korea, but saying no to marrying someone you don't want isn't a trangression to any set of unwritten good manners rules, right? What actually made me hate his guts was the fact that he clinged to a loveless marriage. And hence what i said about unreasonable character decisions before. What was that? You never loved your wife, you loved the fact that she gave you 2 sons, you loved the fact that she was there, and you loved your family, NOT HER! You said you were unhappy and you did say you LOVE the other woman. OK THEN, LIVE UP TO WHAT YOU SAID AND LEAVE!! Divorce man, divorce yes! Why cling to something that, it isn't only dead now, it was NEVER ALIVE TO BEGIN WITH! He apparently felt obligated to be with her because his dead daddy dictated him to. Unhappiness is right there saying hello to you....
Song Mi Kyung. Ew, what a character, i hated her even more. She was borderline crazy for me. It was so obvious she had the 'good person' syndrome. She entered a loveless marriage, she was in love, but never recieved love, she did everything by herself in this marriage, bring up children, pleasing a bitch of a mother-in-law, convincing herself that she is happy with the grains of love her husband gave to her. She was the best possible wife so he would have nothing to nag about, and then convinced herself, that she is happy. What is that? The fact that in this loveless marriage it took him 20 years to cheat once, is unrealistic to begin with! Consider yourself lucky. She argued that she loved him a lot, and that she can accept him the way he is. Ok then, he is a cheater, accept it! Oh no? You can't? Then leave! And there she was being a total bitch saying i hate you and i cannot forgive you, but i don't want a divorce either... o.O This made no sense to me. I couldn't root for them to be together, there was literally NOTHING there for them to work out. Their marriage was sickening and wrong, they had formed a very weird siblings-like relationship or a mother-son/father-daughter relationship and then had 2 kids...
Both characters were unreasonable. This was the worst and best part of the show at the same time. Life's goals must be happiness. What this show showed was that, if you are married you aren't allowed to divorce, stay there and if you love your spouse you get to have a second chance, if you don't you have to stay unhappy forever. This is wrong for me, the fact that the show had a happy ending was also unrealistic, especially in the case of these 2. At the same time, however, how can we expect 2 people who have never savoured happiness in their lives, who always were pressured into things, never loved, to suddenly man-up and leave a dysfunctional relationship? How can we expect 2 people in such an unreasonable situation to act... reasonable. The only way i can excuse and understand them is thinking this: Couples who are on the verge of a break down will clutch at straws, and those straws are each other, even if they aren't each other's best option, they are their only, and it is safer that starting over with someone new. Now this is REALITY! Reality isn't always reasonable, is it?
Kim Sung Woo. The most loveable character! The show forced you to root for him, and they put a great actor in this role, you just couldn't resist! The most important lesson about his character was that people deserve a second chance, the usual saying of 'once a cheater, always a cheater' isn't always true (oh, but it is!). I did feel his character was rather too good to be true, but he was the most reasonable one.
Na Eun Jin. I base what i said about exaggerated situations on her. Yes, she cheated and she is to blame, but omg, come on, 3 of the 4 leads here cheated, none of them got through all the hate and left-loathing and self-panishing she got through. I guess it is because she is a woman, this is a reality not only in korea but world-wide, but i guess it is even worse there. I didn't hate her, i couldn't to be honest, i was mostly angry at her for not knowing what she wanted for 20 episodes, and in the very end i do believe she settled for the most ensuring choice.
What i loved is that the drama told us that a broken marriage isn't a result of infidelity but infidelity is a result of a broken marriage. Still the first couple had NOTHING going on for them, while the 2nd one had communication problems, love was there, and if love is there everything can be overpassed! Love isn't something that can be pushed though, it has to come naturally. The overall compalsive meaning of 'stay inside your marriage no matter what' bugged me. Maybe i am a home wrecker i don't know, i just believe that happiness should be our goal, marrying someone doesn't mean they are the right choice 100%.
ACTING
I am not sure how i feel about the acting here. Special thanks to Ji Jin Hee and Lee Sang Woo for saving it to be honest.
Ji Jin Hee. His character was very straightforward and serious, he did feel like he had no feelings, but his character was like that. He had a few scenes that there were tips of his feelings being let out, and JJH express them perfectly, as a man who has learned to surpress his feelings deep inside and at the same time as a person who just hurts.
Kim Jee Soo. I am not sure lol. Some of her scenes were dramatic and sincere and amazing in every way, and some others were all over the place. What was that? Her character was borderline crazy so i blame that. I couldn't emotionally connect with her or understand her at all, and she was supposed to be the 'good' guy so for me she failed.
Lee Sang Woo. He was great, he was amazing, he was sensuous, he was almost flawless. I loved his character development, i loved his dramatic moments, they were sincere, he made me feel all his second thoughts, all his doubts and his dreams and his hopes. Wonderful actor.
Han Hye Jin. Nope, she didn't do what she was supposed to do. She was overacting most of the time, and in all those moments she fell short. I'm sorry girl, but no.
Special mention to Han Groo, she was great and especially to Park Seo Joon. This is comes from someone who doesn't really like him, he was very good here, another case of an actor's talent being wasted in fluffy rom-coms when he has so much more to offer than that!
REWATCH/RECOMMEND
I would recommend it only to people who enjoy character driven shows. People who want a backstory and rapid plot developments this is not for you!
I wouldn't rewatch this, firstly because it was difficult to watch and understand and secondly because it got dragged in the middle.
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This review may contain spoilers
OK, I would like to express that I feel kinda sad that I finished this. I started watching this when i got into K Dramas back in 2014. Story: The main plot of One Warm Word is an affair, and how it affects the lives of people around them, Through this drama you get so many revelations that I did not see coming throughout it that I was like wow. The story I give a 7.5.
Acting/Cast: I am going to start this section off by talking about Ji Jin Hee because I feel I have the most to talk about with him. Ji Jin Hee was where the acting shined for me, He a great actor, and I will atone to that. Kim Jee Soo Played the distress wife really well, Han Hye Jin (which I just found out that she had a role in Doctors which I find really cool) did her role very nicly I kinda wish I could say more but it spoiler territory. Finally Lee Sang Woo He had one the best moments at the end of episode 9 which was one of the best part he did in the drama. The supporting csst was very great too. The Acting/Cast I give a 9.
Music: I rate my music based on how the OST stick with me, and if i would go back abd listen to it. You And Me was really fantastic OST look it up when you can.
Rewatch/overall value: For a rewatch value I give it an 8 I would go back to this proabley years down the road. The overall value is a 7.5 because I feel a 6 is too low for this but a 8 is pushing it, 7.5 the great nice point.
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It's the cursed writer "Ha Myung Hee"!!
Don't expect to find a realistic portrayal of marriage and infidelity here, it's mostly quirky melodramatic maneuvers. Therefore, it's hard to see any raw emotion that carry a heavy emotional impact. Especially from Eun Jin, static stiff expressions throughout any emotional scene. Yes she tears up and her eyes get red but that's the only part of her face that moves. Also, Eun Jin had no chemistry with any of the two men. It only makes it harder to get invested. And of course, everything, with the power of magic, work out after a time skip :/Below average direction, weird inconsistent transitions and dialogues. Awkward insertions of music and sound tracks. The way the episode is divided into clips doesn't flow properly. It only get worse when they switch the topic within a scene to something irrelevant or unfitting for the scene.
I finished this drama and looked who was the screenwriter? Guess what? It's the cursed writer "Ha Myung Hee", she is the infamous writer for ruining any project she works on and this is no exception. As I said in my comment 10 months ago on her profile page "The writing is so weird, detached from reality and has no good construction.", since then, I watched 6/9 of her projects and my opinion remains the same.
Go watch "Valid Love (2014)" or "My Wife’s Having an Affair this Week (2016)".
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This review may contain spoilers
Forceful ending them together
Male lead cheated on her 3year ago she don't let go of him give him false forgiveness and then uses that to justify her own self, it was he choice to forgive and move on, if she was unable to do so she should have let go of him,1st couple end up together was fair both of them cheated
but 2nd couple was forced, even after knowing that your husband is waiting for your death so he could go to other woman , it better to even die then wait and live with that kind of inhuman Monster
other man was too self absorbed to be in love with anyone other then himself,
he uses his wife for almost 20 years without any guilt and saying love you to other woman and come and sleep with his wife
went to hotel with someone else wife while he talk about law
there talk lack logic
Female told wife she never wanted to have him, but she went to hotel they stay there for hours, why you go to hotel
1st couple might be in love but they Love can not last without Trust
and for 2nd couple they were never in love Man was simple using a poor woman to have kids and cook for his Witch mother
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