A comforting tearjerker

"Comforting tearjerker" might sound like an oxymoron but that's exactly what this is. I loved the relationships we saw in this drama — between family members, between friends, between classmates, etc. and the little hint of romance was so adorable and heart-warming. I loved how subtle the character development is, and the lines are so profound and thought-provoking.

There's really not much more to say and I don't really. have any criticisms about this show. The only thing is that I maybe wish it was a little longer as there were some little time jumps that took me by surprise at first and I would've loved to see even more day-to-day scenes. But maybe that's just me being greedy and not getting enough of this entire cast and how beautiful this drama was.

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A comfort watch

I would definitely consider this a good watch — it had a lot of depth in different themes such as ableism, family duty, guilt, friendship, vulnerability, and more — and it handled them all with a decent amount of eloquence. I do have some issues with some of the way some arcs went, such as the reasoning for a child to choose staying by an obviously abusive parent, or how two people would reconcile.

Despite the things that I did like, in some ways this felt very cliche and that was what worked against the drama the most: the romance. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the relationship between the two leads — for most of the show the communication and support between them was top-notch, and I really loved seeing the different types of families and parental roles in the show too. It was the second lead part of the romance for me. I really liked the second lead character actually, but only as an individual or as a love interest for the second female lead. I felt like any feelings he had for the FL just felt like he was going through the moments to fill the necessary cliche — there was no chemistry there and the only purpose it served was to kick the ML into action; whereas he's typically a pretty layered character with his family background and attitude, I felt like these scenes actually flattened his character development a lot into the cookie-cutter SML.

Other than that, I also felt like it was hard to relate to the main female lead; I do appreciate that she never comes off as overbearing, stupid, or annoying like the leads in dramas like Playful Kiss or even A Love So Beautiful, and she's even pretty mature sometimes, but there were definitely some lapses where I wish the drama showed her growing up more and becoming more independent without it being related to schoolwork or being related to the male lead's growth.

Overall, would say that this is a really light-hearted and fleshed-out show despite the times it delves into cliches. The romance is definitely pretty innocent and implicit (I believe due to the lead actress's age) but I have no problem with that because the support between the leads and the way miscommunications were never dragged out was just super refreshing.

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Light-hearted and low-stakes

This was a really wholesome and comforting drama — there never really felt like there was a huge conflict or overarching plot, it was just about several people in a little village town dealing with life and its issues. While I enjoy the light-heartedness of it all, I felt like it was hard to understand the point or the general direction of the drama — meaning that character development was a little sparse for most of the characters.

Speaking of which, I've never been a huge fan of ensemble dramas for the reason that I never care for everyone equally, and this drama was no different. I loved the badminton teams (both male and the female teams) and how they grew together throughout the episodes, both on and off the court. There was one character who had an arc as they joined the team after not getting along with them and he turned out to be my favorite character because the development was so strong and clear.

On the other hand, the subplots of everyone else who just lived in the village were not really interesting to me, especially because their interactions with the main teams felt peripheral.

Overall, I think this was a pretty fun drama to watch (slowly, a few episodes here and there) but it's not really a binge type of drama or something I felt very invested in.

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Half a movie

I felt like the entire mood and atmosphere of this movie was really great — I loved the quiet darkness of the town, the tension and scariness of the school setting, and this overall anticipation that was building up from beginning to end of the movie.

With that being said, I felt like this movie focused on the wrong main character; starting out following the ML and learning about the FL's reputation through his eyes was great (and really different from what I've usually seen) but it started to become clear that the FL's story was more interesting, especially as we saw her character develop.

Furthermore, I feel like this movie ended right when I thought it was hitting the climax, or its most important moments. I understand that since we're following the ML's perspective, an open and unresolved ending just makes sense, but this is when I really wished the story could have switched its point of view and continued forwards.

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Great beginning

So it pains me to give this such a low rating because I was absolutely in love with the episodes that took place in high school and the hate-love relationship between the leads. Both characters had unique personalities and could clearly hold their own, but their banter was just so FUN to watch.

Past those six or seven episodes, however, the story just gets messy. They use a bunch of tropes but it's like they never buy fully into it, with characters either being underdeveloped or shifting in wayward directions. By this I mean the characters have flawed logic again and again just to make the story move forwards, and there was just too much noble idiocy in this for it to be enjoyable.

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Light-hearted

This was cliche but cute, non-toxic, light-hearted, and just downright wholesome. I really appreciated the relationship between the lead characters — there was just so much trust and understanding between them, and the drama did a really good job of showing how two people can accept the different parts of each other. They also did a good job with the childhood connection trope; it made sense and played a huge part in the story and didn't feel thrown in haphazardly.

One issue I have with a lot of these kinds of dramas though is that they always try to incorporate some deeper traumatic backstory, but for the sake of maintaining a light-hearted mood, it's like they don't dare to go into the details. The same goes for the side characters, who are funny and endearing but have cookie-cutter personalities and no deeper character development.

There were other parts of the plot that were very cliche and used common tropes but nevertheless, for a light-hearted drama this is a really good go-to.

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Takes time to love

This was a drama that really had to grow on me, because I started out hating every single character except for the main male lead, who was the most straightforward and righteous one of them all. As the drama went on, the characters really grew in subtle yet obvious ways, and it was really nice to see. This goes especially for the two teens still in high school, who grew to be really lovable and relatable for me.

The biggest plot point that I hated was the goddamn AMNESIA, which really annoyed me because he was the only character that I cared about and we essentially had to start from scratch for no good reason. It also led to a bout of noble idiocy, which didn't end up terribly but is still one of my least favorite tropes.

I'm also a sucker for the little tidbits of fantasy that are in this screenwriter's dramas (dreams in WYWS, hiccups in Pinocchio, mind-reading in IHYV) and this was no different, but I kind of wish he was more involved in the different cases, like going on investigations. It's understandable he wasn't because he was still in school, but I felt like there was a lot you could do with the mind-reading and it was all confined to him passively reacting to things around him.

Another thing that annoyed me about the mind-reading was just how it was filmed, with frame holds on random faces and voiceover. It made the production value of the drama seem very cheap and took me out of every single thing where that happened. I understand that it's hard to depict something so internal, but still.

Finally: No SLS here. I never liked the second lead.

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I had a good time watching this, but it was honestly something that really had to grow on me. At the start, it was chock full of cliches, over-acting, and really ridiculous plot points — which is a huge thing that annoys me about old dramas, because it just makes the main character seem like a complete idiot.

Watching this drama and comparing it to her later dramas...you can also really see how much Park Shin Hye has improved over the years. Part of why I disliked the main character so much at the start was because her voice was in constant aegyo and there were weird, unnatural facial expressions that might've been an attempt at humor.

But the plot actually got better, and I really enjoyed the development of the characters. Even the main lead, who started off really mean, turned out to be quite lovable and understandable. I was fully prepared to be suffering through SLS the entire drama but that did not happen.

A lot of the issues were very cliche, especially since cross-dressing identity secret plot comes with a lot of cliches of its own. But the humor made it a lot better, and none of the plot points were dragged out for too long.

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I highly wonder if I would have enjoyed this better if I had watched it as one of my first dramas, because now all it seems like is a mash-up of tropes with none of them done well.

The thing I had heard most about this drama is that the male lead was the rudest they've ever met, but it actually didn't seem so bad to me, mainly because the main female lead could hold her own and fight back. This definitely tapered off as the drama went on, and I wish she had stayed that cold instead of crying so much.

I had also been warned that the body switch plot was really minor, but it turned out to be even less than I had expected, which was kind of disappointing because it would've been a plot I was really interested in. Despite this, I still really appreciated the acting of the two main leads when they were body switched. I do think that it was a little confusing the way the visual effects kept switching them back and forth, but I get that they're trying to make it clear who's in whose body in the scenes.

The second ship's plot also dragged out for soooo long, and I have to admit that I'm not a huge fan of Yoon Sang Hyun. He just yells a lot and I always have to adjust my volume ? Honestly the same could be said for the main lead's mother as well, and overall there was just so much overdramatic crying that's pretty typical of older dramas.

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Heart-breaking but also heart-warming

AHHHHHH!!! I had been putting off watching the Reply series for a long time because I was too scared of my sky-high expectations after hearing over and over again how good it was. In the end I loved it and wasn't disappointed, but I also didn't find myself with a massive drama hangover after it was finished. Disclaimer though: I was born in 1999, grew up in America, and didn't grow up with Korean culture at all, so the references and nostalgia was definitely not as strong for me.

Firstly, I love Shi Won and Yoon Jae to death. I'd been looking for a best friends to lovers drama, and this hit the nail on the head. I loved how different yet compatible they were, and it was super refreshing to have a loud-mouthed, not-afraid-to-stand-up-for-herself female main lead. They're so similar, and yet opposite in the biggest ways: like how he did nothing but think about his crush for years, whereas she found it so easy to confess hers, and when she did, he just stared at her because it's something he could never even think of doing. Honestly, his confession scene was amazing but it broke my heart and for that reason I'm probably never going to watch it again, because it just hurts that much. Overall, the two had an amazing relationship dynamic, and I love that it didn't change all that much after they got together.

The drama had a habit of jumping around, which is understandable considering the premise, but also really confusing for me at first, because I wasn't sure what order the scenes happened in. Because of this, I felt like I was missing pieces of the puzzle when I watched, and there were scenes that I wanted that I never got. For example, I wanted more domestic moments between ALL the friends—like Hak Chan and Sung Jae, who I felt lacked a lot in character development and purpose, especially when I thought Hak Chan was going to be a big character, considering he was THE NEW KID. I always wondered to what extent they knew about Yoon Jae's crush on Shi Won—if they knew at all, and I wanted to see their reactions when they found out they got together. Another thing I never got to see: Yoon Jae's reaction when he found out Shi Won kept the couple ring he gave her all these years.

Now to talk about the time skip. I usually HATE time skips, but I didn't hate this one. I just felt this confusing sort of unsatisfaction. Even after the time skip, I felt like the characters didn't have enough time to develop, because they acted too similar to the way they did six years ago. Luckily, the plot after the time skip didn't drop off like so many other dramas do, but I still feel as though nothing could compare to the school days. Going off of that, I missed the voiceovers and monologues a lot, but I'm glad they brought it back for the last episode. The last episode was also definitely more like a feel-good compilation, though I loved it still for all its adorable moments.

Joon-Hee was another one of my favorites, though he broke my heart over and over again. This drama did an amazing job with being able to make you feel all the feels and letting you know everything without ever saying a word. And Joon-Hee's silence always hurt the most, because it was more than just an unrequited love.

The family and friendships in this were really powerful. I loved how loud and argumentative Shi Won's family was, but when it came down to it and she was going off to college, it became clear how much they cared for each other. Tae Woong and Yoon Jae also had a lot of development in their brother relationship, and I loved that in the end, the episode about the love triangle (ep. 15) wasn't about which couple got together, but about the sacrifices that the brothers had made for each other. In the same episode, though—even though I knew the parallel plot with the parents and the dad's uncle was similar, the character was so new that it almost felt just convenient.

Some things I didn't like:

1. Yoo Jung. I'm sorry, I just found her super annoying and almost unnecessary at times. I liked the little sismance moments (like when she cut her hair in solidarity with Shi Won) but her relationship with Hak Chan made me want to tear my hair out.

2. The relationship between Shi Won and Tae Woong. I was honestly so surprised when he was revealed to be the other part of the love triangle. He never got screentime with Shi Won and they had zero chemistry; putting aside the age difference, add the fact that he dated her dead older sister (a topic which I thought was never sufficiently addressed) and the entire relationship creeped me out, especially when their maturity levels were just so obviously different. It was definitely less weird after the time skip when Shi Won was a grown adult, but when she had just graduated high school and he was giving her apartments and rings while she was crying over a washed t-shirt of her pop idol...I never saw them as anything other than siblings.

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Amazing OST, Story

I read a review of this before going into it, from a person saying that they ended up dropping this because the villains were too conniving and it was too frustrating, so, as someone who gets attached and emotional easily, I was ready to feel the same amount of fury. BUT IT NEVER CAME. The so-called villains were surprisingly three-dimensional and characters who I thought I'd hate ended up with a conscience and even contributed to the humor.

I ended up loving this drama a lot more than I expected, especially the romance aspect. The other parts of the story definitely were not built upon as much, like the backstory of the parents, and I wish that we saw the friends play a bigger role.

I'm also usually not a fan of time jumps, but this one pulled it off surprisingly well, and it pushed me to tears. There's definitely an argument for it being cliche, but I personally enjoyed it nonetheless.

And how could I forget the OST? The music for this is SO GOOD. It'll be stuck in my head forever.

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The acting is so good. Cha Eun Woo is BEAUTIFUL. I have never seen an actor able to express so much in the littlest smile. I know a lot of people complained that the actress for the main female lead was too old, but I didn't have a problem with it. Honestly, I couldn't even tell. And to add to that, a lot of shows have main male leads that are way older than the female lead, and nobody complains about that—so what's with the double standard?

The only minor reason I didn't give this a full 10/10 rating was because I wasn't a huge fan of the way the antagonist was dealt with. While I liked the attempt to give them a backstory and have it be in line with the message of the drama, it was basically all crammed into the last few episodes.

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Mellow and quiet

This is a character-driven drama for sure — if that's your thing, then this drama pretty much does it perfectly. It's just a drama about relationships (family, friends, lovers) and there's never really any outside pressure. The characters and relationships are all pretty unconfrontational; things just happen as they do and this drama is more of a ferris wheel, as opposed to a roller coaster. What that means is that if you prefer a more plot-driven plot, it might feel like the drama is dragging and that there's nothing happening.

With that being said, I definitely skew towards the latter; there were scenes and progressions that I was craving and never really got. At the same time, I really loved how all the characters were portrayed — nobody was over-the-top, there were no true villains, and I liked how even minor side characters had their distinct personalities come through in very little screentime.

Overall, this is just a warm, soft drama — for me, it wasn't a tear-jerker or a heart-wrencher, but it'll make you feel fuzzy and cozy.

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