Will Definitely Be Added To My ‘Favorites’ Box!

SPOILER:


99% of the time, I only watch K, J and C dramas. I can’t remember when last I watched anything from Hollywood.
My criteria are that all episodes must already available AND already subtitled, plus it must be romantic with a happy ending. So, now you know something of why I put a spoiler alert.

Because you’re probably unfamiliar with the cast, I’ll try and make them memorable.
Eun Gyeol ( Ryeoun) Guitar Man ML1
Ha Yi-chan ( Choi Hyun-wook) ML2 Guitar Man’s Dad
Cheong-ah (Sin Eun-soo) FL1 Cello Girl
Se-kyung (Seol In-ah) FL2 Deaf Artistic Girl and ML1’s Mom
Along with other delightful and some scary characters. In fact, one of the really good looking 1995 band members has his bad past create quite a bit of havoc.

This is not a light-hearted rom-com, though many parts had me laughing so much my stomach hurt. I got swept away on a roller coaster of emotions, and cried my eyes out in parts, too. In fact, I cried so much cos at one stage it seemed hopeless, soI went back to check again if it DID actually have a happy ending! Some of it was chilling, where the headmistress plays her part-( in abusing Deaf Artistic Girl)- so convincingly you can’t help be appalled, and end up hating her (headmistress.)

Guitar Man is the CODA- Child Of Deaf Adults to his parents and also a a deaf brother. He tries really hard to be selfless and to subjugate his guilty passion for music and guitar playing. He isn’t successful so plays anonymously initially. I think this is clever, to make his passion music and to bring in the musical CODA.( In sheet music it signifies that the musical composition is nearing completion. Guitar Man was taught that by the grandfather of Cello Girl when the grandfather was teaching him to play the guitar. This is how all the lives in a drama series entangle.)

Most of the time Guitar Man succeeds in being the obedient child who strives to excel academically,and in all other areas, where he can be seen as an asset, and good example, so his parents can bask in the reflected glory. His parents aren’t knowingly bad in this respect, it’s almost an unconscious pressure they exert.

When Guitar Man’s Dad discovers his son’s secret passion, they clash, and Guitar Man rebels, and lands up at the time travel musical shop. Once he travels back in time he meets his charismatic, often hot-headed, but always well-meaning 1995 Dad. Cello Girl also travels back in time via the same music shop. She’s had enough of her home-life/situation, too. The younger version of his Mom, Deaf Artistic Girl is , of course, already there , and also enters the picture. So their lives, Drama-land style, intertwine.

Guitar Man and Cello Girl are unaware that both are time travellers until nearly the end. She tries to help Guitar Man prevent any disaster which might be the reason for Guitar Man’s 1995 Dad going deaf.

I got a bit lost with Cello Girl’s back story, as I thought she was the adopted child who was supposed to replace a child who died. That she was the adopted child who took up the cello in a desperate bid to try and gain her alcoholic Mom’s attention. How is she then a carbon copy of her 1995 “Mom” then? Confusing, or maybe it’s just me that is confused.. I never had time to go over earlier episodes to see how I missed some of that story so I will definitely need to watch it again. But even if I weren’t confused, I will watch it again, sometime in the future.

Both time travellers leave the only chance that they can, when the two moons appear in the sky. Guitar Man, who left 1995 feeling like a devastated failure re-enters a very different 2023 . Him and Cello Girl meet up again.

The ending satisfied my romantic bent. A lovely and very romantic kiss between our leads. It seems to me that the female leads in most dramas generally aren’t allowed to kiss so much as just be the recipient, so it is almost always up to the man to make it convincing, but Shin Eun-soo participated nicely. Ryeoun put his heart and soul into this series. Love his acting...loved the guitar playing parts (of both the men.) Many actors can’t cry convincingly- he acts very well generally -and cries absolutely convincingly.

The second leads were captivating and adorable. Again. Choi Hyun-Wook kisses beautifully (and cries convincingly). So nice for us, their audience, as often, though the second leads are shown to be romantically together, you hardly ever have a really breath-taking romantic moment/ satisfying kiss between them. This series was refreshingly different. .There’s a lot of gaps in this series. We learn that the Dad of Deaf Artistic Girl was hell-bent on hustling her away abroad to study poste-haste. How did Guitar Man’s parents then meet up again? What happened to them, and to other characters, in the years from 1995 ? Surely an 8 part side series could be made here?

To conclude: if you like the romantic, coming- of age time- travel genre that has some depth, it is well worth watching.

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Watch It If You like Shuhei Nomura (The Cafe Owner.)

I really didn’t enjoy this, but it wasn’t bad enough to drop.
I am also trying to give a fair rating to all the crew/ the overall picture, despite the fact that I didn’t like the FL’s acting here-bearing in mind that this is my subjective opinion.
I rarely re-watch anything, but if I was a “ re-watcher” this wouldn’t make the grade.

Today’s world leans towards using dating apps, so the story actually had potential to be really great, but I found myself being constantly irritated by the FL’s over-the-top pure-cringey acting. ( I don’t know her, or her acting ability, so I actually can’t say whether she was TOLD to act so OTT-(because of script or director)- or if she seriously thought that that was what the character required.
Also-not her fault here, just a part of the storyline- but the character’s pity party in the beginning was also irritating. I actually found myself sympathising with her ex!

I never gelled much with the ML’s character, though he is good-looking and acted fine. This is because I MISTAKENLY thought he was responsible for knocking into the FL/ into her trolley, after it hit the stone on the pavement…I thought he was being very rude, that even if he is in a hurry and a reserved person, he could have quickly apologised and assisted her. BUT I rewatched that section before writing this review, and I WAS WRONG. She was the one who knocked into him.

I google/ check out a few things on the reviews before watching. Things like: are ALL the episodes available to watch with ENG SUBS, and also the length of it. Two things are generally imperative for me, and that leads me on to a spoiler:

Here comes a spoiler alert:
1)Does it have a happy ending? (Yes)
2) Is it romantic? (Yes, BUT there is very little chemistry between the leads.)

The only person who really caught my eye was the gorgeous actor who played the cafe owner, Haruto Takagi. He made watching it worthwhile, not that he appeared all that much, comparatively.

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