Colum H
UK - Yorkshire Free State
This review may contain spoilers
I nearly made it to the end but...
Will I go back to this? Can I bear to (not) finish it?Right now I'm not completely sure, if I do go back I'll update this review.
I ended up at Birth Secret by a recommendation on the 'That Fool' page and at first I was very taken with it. It had a young Kim So Hyun and a fine if slightly irritating turn from Gal So Won. Sung Yu Ri also pulled me in.
The story has it's clichés (amnesia anyone?) but I didn't really mind the way it was done and that first part of the setup was intriguing.
But
At episode 10 I wrote in the comments:
<"Hong Gyung-doo is uneducated and poor" and unintelligent, boorish, violent, impulsive, aggressive... though he is a loving father. Not forgetting he is very, very shouty! (like the uncle) I'm on ep. 10 and really enjoying it apart from the shouty stupids which I tend to skip through.>
And a big part of my lack of enthusiasm by episode 14/15 is Hong Gyung Doo. I get that he's supposedly a nice chap and that they shoehorned various ways to show this into the script. He starts getting better off- better dressed, better job and so on and so on. But to me he's just a shouty simpleton with some serious boundary issues. The Oh now I remember being happy with him when we were married scenes were just jarring.
Unfortunately without the kick of Romance the rest of Birth Secret can't really stand up.
I had little time for most of the side characters whether they were love to hate or comic relief, they just weren't fleshed out enough to sustain interest. The only support character I really enjoyed was Sun Young I liked her progression. The Aunt and Kyung Doo's love triangle ended up as lost opportunities.
Another problem was by episode 14 of 18 I already felt it should have been 12 episodes or maybe 14 at the most. All the flashbacks, the long mother/father & daughter quality time scenes, the aforementioned pre-amnesia happy lovey-dovey scenes. And the professor with a handy speech impediment which could spin lines and 'tension' out interminably.
Which leaves me writing this - uninterested in the whole Chaebol corruption stuff, don't care if any of the secondary characters get happy endings and not shipping the main couple.
Hoping Sun Young gets her divorce, meets someone nice etc. and the cute kid aren't worth four more episodes.
The music was okay in places but there were quite a few yearning ballads in there which ought to have never existed
If you watch a few episodes and ship the main couple then go for it, I kept watching way past when I realised they were the 'ship of the show so it can't be all bad?
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This review may contain spoilers
Of it's time - Aggressive, selfish violent stalker ML
I made it through a fair bit with a fair bit of FF and a fair bit of gritted teeth but I should have known better and dropped it earlier.This is just a warning review - It's 'of it's time' so be prepared for - being a single mother gives every petty twat the right to publicly abuse you - the ML acting like a spoiled child - showing his love by physically and mentally abusing the FL - being a stalker and using all sorts of emotional blackmail and threats to get his way - even the FLs son; the various rubbish parents, and crazy one sided lovers. The FL who succeeds against the odds -
The friend zoned mighty nice SL etc. etc.
If you've watched older dramas in particular you've seen it all before, the terrible ML and a 'nice' female lead who inexplicably 'loves' him, shouting, bullying, crying - it's arse don't watch it.
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This review may contain spoilers
Yet another abusive Jerk lead!The premise sounded good as I had recently watched Oh! My Lady and this was apparently similar...except it wasn't.
There's nothing new about this plot line really - Jerk male lead and nice Female lead bicker but eventually fall for each other same old, same old.
As ever it is the execution that makes the difference and keeps us watching but this is yet another of those 'it's only cute, fluffy and romantic in Drama Land' programs.
Song Jae Bin isn't just a childish, spoilt little boy in a man's body, he's an abusive twat. He spends large amounts of his time physically and emotionally abusing the female lead. He thinks up new ways of hurting her and laughs when it works.
Even when everyone around him lets him know he was totally out of order, he doesn't learn from his mistake but compounds it.
Very occasionally he helps her out or obviously realises his feelings but almost immediately sets about belittling and controlling her.
This is compounded by him physically abusing her - dragging her around by the wrist, by the back of her shirt, pushing her around by her head etc. as well as publicly humiliating her.
He makes her cry and then kisses her.
Does the 'Cinderella' treatment - dresses her in expensive clothes, paints her face, does her hair and then takes her to a posh party... to introduce her to everyone as the Housekeeper!
And so on and so on
Just awful. I got to episode 8 (drag round by the back of the shirt) before I had to stop, this is days later and I'm still upset.
Choi Jin Shil, the female lead, was physically attacked by her husband in 2002 when pregnant with her second child. She divorced in 2004 and committed suicide in 2008 the same year this was released. So you get the pleasure of watching a woman who was physically abused being physically abused, humiliated, bullied and controlled, joy!
How Romantic, Fluffy and Cute!
I have no idea what happened in the last half of the drama, how he redeemed himself (if he truly did) or whatever but after eight hours I couldn't watch any more. Not recommended unless you can watch without thought.
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One of those that you sit and think "is it a cultural difference?" "It's just a story so am I taking it too seriously?" "Maybe I'm misunderstanding?"
Before being honest with yourself and saying this is a hideous plot line to try and hang a Romance on. It's abusive, stalkerish, voyeuristic, manipulative, etc. (1% of Something & Well Intended Love I'm looking at you!)
She wasn't great either.
I watched it on Viki and my review was -
"Horrible, manipulative twat, aided by two other Herberts, gaslights a women and treats her terribly. So of course she falls for him... he is rich though. Managed about four episodes before I couldn't stand it anymore. Terrible!"
I am unable to watch this sort of thing and ignore the horribleness. I don't think "oh it's just a plot device for a light entertainment programme" I think Jesus if someone did that to me, or my daughter, or my mother, or really just about any other actual human being I would despise them and fight them. Which is OK if they are a villain doing villainous things but not for the Romantic lead.
Sort of Spoiler ALERT!!!
Secretly filming a woman whilst doing a highly unethical experiment on them is a point of no return for me.
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Too disjointed and quick.
Both the J and the K versions blew me away, I've watched them both multiple times. This version failed at pretty much every level to drag me in. The plot didn't make sense to me - just too complicated to flow and the relationships just didn't ring true enough. Both Xhou Xun and Chen Si Nou had the acting chops to have really pulled it off but the script left them with too little to work with.The way they reworked the elements of the story - the set up, the escape etc. was just too disjointed and too quick. By the time half way came I'd lost interest - could have been great.
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Nice little Noona/Cohabitation/Contract Marriage show
Well I actually really enjoyed that - at least the bits I didn't skip past. Loads of the usual cliches but still came over as quite fresh. My enjoyment was pretty much driven by the leads, most of the secondary characters I found supremely uninteresting to unpleasant. The little brother and the 2nd couple especially pissed me off spoilt bitch and wrist grabby man.Tang Jing Mei I find difficult to cope with as well - she's like a live-action IG filter, though I am ashamed to be so put off by her looks.
The lead couple gave a great performance with some really nice chemistry and some laugh out loud moments. There was plenty of kisses but the hugs were the winners for me. They show cased an adult mutually supportive relationship with little foolishness till the last few episodes which had a Because this is my First Life feel to them. If I rewatch the series I'll not bother with the last two or three.
The Lawyer stuff on the whole bored me but I did appreciate the Me Too ness of it all.
All in all worth a watch if any of the headline appeals.
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The chemistry between the two Parks fangirling was far more convincing than the main couple's push and pull.
Attractive stars, boring story, anytime anything interesting happens they just back off next scene.
If you are a fanboi or girl of the leads it might be worth watching but for me...
Got to episode five, got bored, skipped through six, gave up...
Already forgotten ...
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The main criticism I have with it and what ultimately made me drop it is the 'Romance'. Almost from the first time Jo Gook arrives on the scene I'm wondering how they are going to make Mi Rae fall for him in a convincing manner. I mean handsome and rich was a fair enough initial interest ploy but his almost immediate acting like a twat made it sputter out for me. Not only that, he's the sort of politician she ends up fighting against. So when this strong, moral woman keeps getting dragged into such deeply compromising situations with him both in a personal and a political sense I'm like..Why? The way that he treats her and she just does it again..Why? She's not stupid or weak willed and...just why? I mean camping? alone? in one tent? Why? I mean a couple of ok gestures but on the whole he treats with little respect. And I just don't get a fatal attraction style chemistry from them at all is it really just because he's rich and handsome?
The clincher for me and why, even though I was eager to see what happened in her political life I gave up on this, was again a compromising situation, alone in a hotel room with a single man. Who says to her (from memory) - you're alone in a hotel room with me, there's a bed there or a sofa if I can't get you that far, I'm stronger than you, no one would hear you shout, I could do anything I wanted to you, I mean you could try and fight me but hey what good would it do you...ha ha ha?
I think she calls him a 'Player'...I skipped back, read the subs again and then turned it off in the sure knowledge I couldn't watch them kiss from there on in.
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I'm not even totally sure why but all the interest I had in any of the characters or the plot had just evaporated by then. Wasn't funny, wasn't intriguing, the time travel culture shock just felt like a missed opportunity, acting was so so. I might have tried another episode on the off chance but the third accidental lip bumping in one episode just killed all interest off for me. Wrist grabbing didn't help either. It all just seemed like too much of a taste of what was to come.
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