Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh

So this was a very difficult drama to rate, because on one hand the storytelling was pretty decent, and on the other hand the romance was absolutely horrendous for a drama whose first and foremost genre is romance. There was just no romantic development for Woori with either bachelor (I’m just going to brush over the fact that they dragged on the love triangle for 14 episodes and I absolutely despise love triangles). I genuinely don’t really understand any of the Rafael shippers (of course most of them were shipping them because of the original) because, objectively speaking as someone who has never seen the OG version, Rafael was just not a very good option…? His romance with Woori made zero sense (she moved on so QUICK as well???!!!) and the actors just had no chemistry at all. Kang Jae was a much more believable option because supposedly they’ve been dating for 2 years prior. Which is why I’m even more confused about how a random dude who you met a few months ago and a boyfriend of 2 years could even be evaluated at the same level. The whole show was just soooo in Kang Jae’s favor that I’m surprised she liked Rafael at all by the end of the drama. Anyhow, I didn’t hate this drama as much as other people I don’t think, but I still would not recommend it. I watched it for Im Soo Hyang first and foremost, and I would’ve probably not bothered otherwise. To end it on a high note, I absolutely loved the storyline about the mom and the actor father of Woori. I don’t know if this was also in the original story but their romance was hands down the best one in the entire drama, although I would also go as far as to say their romance made the drama bearable for me.

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I can’t deny that I enjoyed this drama, it just didn’t really introduce anything spectacular or new, so I don’t really know what rating to give it. I went into this not even knowing it was about a kpop band, and as soon as I found out, it felt a little too meta for me. Kind of like that book “Carry On” by Rainbow Rowell where the book is a fanfiction of a character from her other book? Yeah that, but with TREASURE and with them acting like high school students but at the same time basically playing “self-inserts” (D&D word, sorry) of themselves. It was just kind of weird. I also admit that I literally COULD NOT for the life of me tell them apart even though I don’t usually struggle with this sort of thing in kdramas. I am absolutely horrible at recognizing faces in general, and these kpop boys all had the same clothes and the same haircuts. But I digress. I think you’d probably really enjoy this if you’re a treasure fan. I know I’d be rating this 10/10 if the same drama was filmed with BTS. As an outsider and a critic of the actual drama’s value, though, I have to give this a 6/10. On a positive note, I really loved how beautifully this drama was filmed. It felt really clean and crisp, and the special effects and set design were *chef’s kiss*.

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There was a lot of confused crying, especially at the end.

Considering how slow-paced the movie was, I didn't feel bored when I was watching it. You could really tell how much affection the FL had for the ML and I attribute most of that to Park Bo Young's amazing acting. Like seriously, this actress was MADE for crying scenes, she makes me tear up every time she cries on screen. I almost didn't recognize Song Joong Ki in this because it's a complete 180 from his other roles that I had seen. To be honest, though, I couldn't understand the motivations behind the main villain's actions. He didn't seem to be gaining anything from terrorizing ML besides just being an asshole and it kind of bothered me that there was no deeper meaning to his arc. If anybody reading this ever read the Webtoon "Days of Hana" this movie kind of reminds me of that webtoon except obviously less characters/gore/fleshed out storyline. In that way, the movie felt pretty predictable and pretty similar to other movies that go along the lines of "weird uncivilized male lead with nice and normal female lead." Despite that, I couldn't help but rate this movie so high because I absolutely adored Park Bo Young and Song Joong Ki's acting. I wholeheartedly admit my bias LOL. I genuinely loved the entire atmosphere of this movie (because sometimes I just want to have a good cry and watch a sad movie) and even the music felt extremely fitting (the song that played in the credits is definitely going on my Kdrama spotify playlist) to the entire mood. This movie was so calming and yet destroyed me from the inside out at the end, and I definitely recommend it, especially if you're a fan of PBY and SJK.

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Now that I’m thoroughly disturbed…

I went into this movie knowing full well that it was explicit as hell, but nobody warned me that it would be REALLY REALLY explicit. I haven’t seen a proper non-asian production in quite a while and was therefore very unaccustomed to seeing sex scenes left and right. While I knew that Korean movies weren’t subject to nearly as many restrictions as dramas, I am left feeling like I spent the past two and a half hours surfing a porn website instead of having just watched a mature movie. Setting all that aside, the storyline was quite enjoyable and I really liked the little plot twist at the end as I actually didn’t see it coming at all. Even though the storyline was very slow, the nostalgia I felt towards early 20th century Korea from watching Mr Sunshine a little while back kept me entertained and the movie was therefore not too dull. Overall, The Handmaiden was a decent watch, albeit extremely racy and at times rather disturbing.

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Fluffiest Romance Ever

Y'all have no idea how up my alley this drama is. The comedy was amazing and I laughed so hard throughout this whole drama no matter how immature some of the humor was. Lead actors were perfectly picked for the roles and can I just say that Yoo Seung Ho's smile is honestly everything. I took one star off the final rating only cause it kinda dragged at the end, but overall the whole journey was absolutely amazing and made me shed a lot of tears. The soundtrack was freaking amazing as well and made the drama just that much better. The two lead actors that were in this drama quickly became some of my favorite korean drama actors, and I've already watched several other dramas with them as leads. This drama is a paradise for rom com fanatics, I kid you not.

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My rating for this drama is extremely generous, let me just say, because if it wasn’t for my favorite actress, Shin Hye Sun, and a wonderful cast of other characters, this drama could have easily been 5 stars for me. I had high hopes for Mr Queen because of the cast and because of the compelling storyline, however I never expected to be so damn bored the entire time I was watching it. Each episode felt like a drag, and I found myself checking the time of each episode every 3 minutes. There wasn’t anything inherently wrong with this drama except for the ending, however I just never clicked with any of the characters. I didn’t care about what happened to Jang Bong Hwan and Cheoljong by the end, I just wanted it to be over so I could mark this drama as “Completed” and move on to the rest of my watchlist. As someone who watched and absolutely LOVED the drama Mr Sunshine, I feel as though I have forever been ruined and have set my expectations astronomically high for any period drama I watch after that. Mr Queen was completely predictable all the way until the end, and every character (except for one, but I’ll just attribute that to the obligatory second male lead death scene) got a flawless, happy ending. I so badly wanted angst, I wanted CONSEQUENCES, I wanted them to suffer because it’s so freaking unrealistic for them to get such a sappy conclusion. I wanted sacrifice (in the form of that palace child actually being poisoned to death) and I wanted Hong Yeon and the Court Lady to die in the forest fight because war isn’t pretty. Sure, that would have pissed some people off, but it would be a lot more on-brand with the Joseon period than every character turning into a superhero and defeating all the bad guys. The humor was great at first, sure, but holy crap did it get annoying toward the end. There’s only so many times a character being overly dramatic or Jang Bong Hwan saying something really aggressive and “cool” can make me laugh. The OST didn’t really impress me. The main theme was the only redeeming track in that whole playlist. The story itself just didn’t go in the direction I had hoped it would go. I was expecting some freaky supernatural shit to happen to Cheoljong, or for Kim So Yong to at least be there for more than the last 10 minutes of the drama. The romance was weird at best, and at the end it just didn’t seem to matter, because the person that Cheoljong fell in love with was not Kim So Yong but a very horny modern-day Korean chef. Overall, just pretty freaking disappointed. I have loved every single drama by Shin Hye Sun up until I watched this one, and the extremely high ratings honestly make no sense to me.

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Sigh… where to begin. Strongest Deliveryman was a drama I never expected to watch because I could not find it online anywhere. I am absolutely in love with Chae Soo Bin and had seen countless of her dramas, so Strongest Deliveryman was definitely one I had also wanted to watch. When it appeared on Netflix, I got incredibly excited and began watching it the day I added it to my list. I didn’t come in with high expectations since MyDramaList tends to be pretty spot on with ratings, so I knew that the drama was not going to be anything super great. However, I was still pretty disappointed and here’s why. Strongest Deliveryman is a drama cheesier than Zach Choi’s mozzarella corn dogs, and I personally was willing to let it go since it was a comedy and wasn’t meant to be taken seriously. However, at some point I was just craving even the slightest bit of realism to this whole mess of a story, since it just got less and less realistic as the episodes went on. Let me make a quick list: Devoted deliveryman squad who was willing to do anything for our ML, chasing criminals, the entire cheesy plot that involved “brave” young adults fighting against and defeating a chain of restaurants, some weird side storyline with the owners of the noodle shop, and honestly a lot more stuff I already don’t remember because I watched this two weeks ago. While I adore Chae Soo Bin, I absolutely LOATHED Dan Ah in this drama. This gal is constantly finding something to complain about and get angry at, and she misuses her knowledge of martial arts to essentially beat people up if they make her irritated. I am a big believer that violence is not okay even if it comes from a woman. Imagine if Dan Ah was a guy who put people in headlocks and hit and slapped them whenever he felt like it. Not okay, is it? So WHY is it okay for Dan Ah to do it only for the producers to write it up as silly humor? I cringed every time she got physically abusive with someone… Lastly, I would just like to quickly complain that this entire drama is incredibly overdramatized, especially toward the end. Kang Soo’s reactions are honestly incredibly extreme when he interacts with his mother. He is legit ready to scream like a little child every time he interacts with his mother, while he instead could be a bit more adult about it and talk to her calmly about why she abandoned him as a child. I could never relate to a parent abandoning me so what do I know, but I feel like half of his crying scenes were very dramatic for absolutely no reason.
I suppose the cast of this drama was quite acceptable, however I have to say I expected a little more from the second leads, given how their romance was so raved about on some of the reviews I read. Oh well. Anyhow, probably don’t waste your time on this drama, however it wasn’t that long anyway, so I guess watch it if you REALLY want to?

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It was good until the last couple episodes :///

I’m not gonna lie, it kind of breaks my heart to give this drama 9 stars instead of 10 stars, but I honestly think it was a TAD bit overrated. I do admit that in the very first episode of this drama, I was HOOKED by the female lead and especially the autistic brother of the male lead. I hadn’t seen those types of characters in Korean dramas before, and I was loving every minute of the drama. I think the characters were beautifully developed in this drama, and it is definitely a huge plus. I have to say that the author and the director both are artistic geniuses who managed to put together the most compelling storyline, beautiful soundtrack, and relatable characters. I was this close to declaring this drama as my #1 favorite drama ever… until we got to the last few episodes. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am a huge fan of violence (in a non weird way, lol. I’m a big fan of shows like the walking dead and the horror movie genre in general), but I cannot for the life of me watch a romance with violent themes without hating every minute of it. Let me say this once and hopefully never again: Romance and violence do not and should not mix. So you will now understand my incredible frustration when the drama I had grown to adore decided to out of nowhere drop a story arc with a psychotic murderous mother who showed up out of nowhere and started drugging everyone up. It took me a lot of self coaxing to get myself to finish the drama, but I was incredibly frustrated (for extremely personal reasons, I do admit) with the drama at that point. In my defense, the arc where the mother decided to set up this whole conspiracy to teach Ko Moon Yeong a lesson or whatever was incredibly unrealistic and very out of nowhere. Despite the terrible couple episodes, I have to say that the drama was beautifully concluded and got me to shed some tears at the end. The last few episodes did seem to lose their sense of direction a little bit, but they wrapped it up nicely. I hadn’t yet said anything about the soundtrack, which was freaking awesome, by the way. Some of the songs that were played in the drama fit the mood perfectly. I could use some sadder, more emotional tracks, though. I’d overall recommend this, since the beautiful storytelling and character development more than made up for everything else.

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I don’t remember when I actually watched this drama, because I’m writing this review about 5 months after watching the movie. However, this movie left me with an overall very good impression. Up until I watched Train to Busan, I had only watched The Walking Dead, so seeing how someone else interprets the zombie apocalypse was very interesting for me. The characters were all very lovable, especially the dad. The fact that the entire movie took place in a train was a very interesting choice, and frankly, being trapped in a packed train with a bunch of undead is probably scarier than being out in the open. This helped the movie build suspense and kept the engagement level high since everything was fast paced and in close quarters. I would overall highly recommend this movie, if not for the zombies, then for the amazing and caring characters.

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Too innocent for me

So this drama took me over a month to finish. I kind of had a bit of an Asian drama slump while watching this? Despite the controversy about the dark skin color of the actress in the first few episodes of the drama, I didn't really find anything else overly problematic about the drama. It was very...average. The acting of the female lead was passable, but the male lead's acting was absolutely stale and emotionless, which didn't do much in the way of making the watching process any easier for me. The storyline, and I do enjoy a good slow burning romance when done right, was extremely dragged out, to the point where I'd start watching the drama and stop almost immediately after because I'd get bored of the mundane plot that's driving the story. Now, with all that said, I DID think that the drama and romance was pretty cute, but I guess I'm just not part of the target audience anymore and no longer find pleasure in watching innocent, cute romance unfold in a school setting.

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Least memorable drama of all time

I haven't seen this drama on anyone else's list, but I started it cause I heard good things about chemistry between the leads. Despite the drama being fairly fast paced, which retained my interest, I think the plot itself is entirely forgettable. The ending wrapped things up really nicely and made me pretty emotional. I seriously wasn't a fan of some of the aspects of their relationship, however, such as the guy trying to control what the girl wears all the damn time and the girl thinking it's okay to hit the dude if she's mad. I don't condone physical violence in a relationship even if it comes from a woman rather than the man. No double standards please!

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Angst and Time Jumps

This KDrama never got boring and kept me at the edge of my seat the whole time. I even went as far as sneaking my phone during class cause I NEEDED to know what happens next. I'm not usually the type to go for violent romance dramas(full disclosure: there is a LOT of violence) but this drama did it pretty well and I totally fell in love with the leads and their romance. The comedy in this drama is also very well done and really helped me through some of the depressing moments. This was actually my first ever drama and it is what got me into korean dramas to begin with, so I'd say this is a very beginner friendly kdrama to watch!

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Strong start, messy and disappointing conclusion

I will start off by saying I genuinely don’t mind the sad ending here. I did cry a little bit and honestly love me a good tragedy every now and again. My issue with heartbeat is with how the sad story was executed. Things got quite muddled and draggy towards the end, and it genuinely felt like midway through the series the writer was like, “lol what if instead of sticking to what we told the viewers in the first half of the show we made it seem like the cat dude just conveniently forgot to say that SWH needed to kill someone to turn into a human? Like woopsies I guess he just ‘forgot’ that killing someone is kind of a big deal and didn’t think it was that important.” Like cmon be so fr who would actually ever miss such a big detail. The logic is just so weird and the side characters quite frankly were so boring, I genuinely never got into any of their personalities and they just felt so misplaced in this show if that makes any sense. Anywho, I did really really love this drama in the first half and thought it was hilarious and super cute and aesthetic, but damn the writing was such a letdown for literally no reason.

TBH though, I don't think it deserves a 7.4 rating. I think the reason it's that low is because of people who gave it significantly lower ratings just to bring down the overall rating and that's kind of sad. It genuinely wasn't as bad as it's made out to be. The writers just got a lil confused in the second half.

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What in The Disney Channel...

I really should have been writing things down because I have so much I want to say about this drama. I’m going to start with the reason for my review title. Warning: major spoilers. Sena is an absolute irredeemable character, and the fact that the writer dared to suggest otherwise is absolutely disgusting to me. Not only did she try to steal her sister’s lover (twice!) and tried to never let her meet her mother (btw, can we talk about what a useless plotline that ended up being?), she sabotaged her and Tae Yong at every turn and felt absolutely zero remorse for it. She’s an absolute sociopath who played with people’s feelings only for them to let their guard down so she could do it even more. The fact that she had some sort of redemption arc is absolutely hilarious to me because she was FORGIVEN by Park Ha for “saving her life” after Sena was literally the #1 REASON why Park Ha was on the brink of death to begin with. The Disney Channel “villain redemption arc” was terribly done and absolutely laughable after everything Sena had done. She doesn’t deserve anything she has and you can’t convince me otherwise. Park Ha is incredibly stupid as a character. This ties into my short rant about Sena and the fact that not one person on the planet could ever survive if they were as nice/idiotic as Park Ha. Like, girlie literally went to see Tae Moo the DAY after he stuck her in a freezer and tried to kill her, and yet she didn’t do anything about it. She forgave her sister because of a stupid liver transplant and even before that never really hated her for all the bullshit she put her through. All I need to say about Boo Young is that she’s a stupid idiot who ate persimmons straight off a plate instead of taking the whole plate with her and dumping into a river. That’s all I will say about that. Perhaps my biggest turn off about this drama was the odd romance development and the absolute mess of a toxic relationship that the leads had. Like, cmon, ML literally berated the FL and screamed at her whenever he didn’t get his way all the damn time, and half the time she screamed back while the other half she stared at the manchild with lovey dovey eyes. The relationship progression was just odd and it felt like the romance kind of came out of nowhere. Chemistry was absolutely absent and I honestly didn’t really care about the relationship nor “feel” their love for one another all the way until the end. This drama is also simply too long. Don’t get me wrong, it was entertaining enough and was pretty nice to watch in the mornings before class while I got ready, but at some point all the plotlines were being reused, they were just ~slightly~ different, and the show became an annoying drag. It was always either Sena doing some stupid shit and sabotaging Park Ha or Tae Moo making moves against Tae Yong in their stupid business. Not only were the plotlines super generic and very much the exact same as the plotlines in other 2010 type kdramas, they were just reused constantly to drag out the screen time. Now for my final grievance (as far as I can remember at least) : that ending. What. The. Absolute. Hell. Of. A. Monstrosity. Did. I. Watch? Not only was the ending weirdly vague (which is fine sometimes but I usually don’t enjoy it), it also seemed to contradict itself and didn’t lend itself to any solid interpretations. I could only see myself making “partial cases” for Tae Yong having Lee Gak’s memories and Tae Yong not having his memories at all. Any of the clues that the viewer was given to puzzle out whether Lee Gak’s consciousness traveled through 300 years did not add up, and if you found yourself arguing for either side, you would come across plot holes that would blow your theory out of the water. I would’ve been more content with either a sad or happy ending (or bittersweet) and the writer utterly failed trying to create an ending that’s “up for interpretation” by leaving way too many clues that all contradict one another. Random point, but why did everyone seem so OK in the end? Nobody was bawling their eyes out, nobody was depressed, they all kind of missed each other and got a BIT sad, but that’s totally not how I would react if I lost the love of my live. Everybody was just so damn calm and logical the whole time. Like what?
PHEW. If you read this far, thank you for coming to my Ted Talk, and I hope you learned that this drama absolutely does not get my seal of approval. It was entertaining enough, but I’d definitely think of this show as one of those “it’s so bad it’s ALMOST good” shows that I will absolutely never watch again but will sometimes think of fondly as a mildly entertaining waste of 20 hours of my life. Ciao!

PS: contrary to popular belief, I absolutely hated the last 4 episodes :D

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