This one freaking hurts!

I didn’t know much about this movie (nor did I want to know) before starting, so I was very very confused initially and really didn’t think I was going to like it. I ended up crying so hard that it gave me an absolute monster of a headache later in the day. This movie is absolutely incredible, and I think it should be watched without much context in order to make the twists and turns more surprising and make the movie an overall more enjoyable ride. I 100% absolutely recommend this, and I can never say this enough. I genuinely don’t have any words to describe how much of a mess this movie left me in (in a wonderful but very sad way ahah)

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So I will admit the ending was a taddd underwhelming but I absolutely love this drama and I literally had such a hard time balancing my schoolwork and this drama because all I wanted to do was find out what happened next. Definitely don’t start this if you have a busy week ahead. The storyline was (un)surprisingly repetitive, but I actually didn’t mind it one bit. The romance/confession scene could’ve been smoother but they were together in the end so that’s all that I care about. Overall, I loved how we got to see the backstories of most of the characters on the bus and really get down to the big reason why the bus was blown up in the first place. It was interesting to see how easy it was for them to survive the bomb explosion but how exponentially more difficult it was for them to save everyone else. Lovely drama, I 100% recommend to anyone, especially to my Happy Death Day fans.

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I didn’t think I would be writing such a positive review for this drama since I wasn’t the biggest fan of it initially. Obviously, the exceptionally high ratings gave me a lot of high hopes, so I was instantly more critical than usual when starting it. While the beginning was okay since I was still trying to get into the groove of the drama, by the second half I was really enjoying the storylines and the episodes absolutely flew. Loved how they were introducing cliches and instantly overturning them. Thought it was a nice touch. Hari was absolutely adorable, I love her personality. I thought the ML falling in love with her was done a taaad too quickly, but it was cute seeing him chasing her so I didn’t mind too too much. The second couple wasn’t my favorite but they were definitely not as bad as some others had said. Their bickering wasn’t too annoying, so I was rooting for them too. Some other complaints I had was just the Hannah Montana wig logic where Shin Hari transformed into a whole different person just by wearing a wig which was more than annoying, and also the fact that they seemed to throw in a really abrupt conflict in the last 20 minutes and didn’t really let the drama settle afterwards. Overall, none of my complaints are too major and I genuinely enjoyed the ride that business proposal took me for. Once again, Ahn Hyo Seop, doesn’t disappoint ;)

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The most emotional zombie drama I've ever watched

This one’s a toughie! On one hand, I absolutely fell head over heels for all of the characters in this drama and absolutely loved the fresh new take on the zombie genre. On the other, there were simply too many instances where logic was completely thrown out the window and the characters were frustrating as hell to watch. My main gripes probably were due to the amount of self-sacrifice and very cliche survival tropes which sometimes repeated themselves in the drama. The drama also created a seemingly impossible survival situation for our main characters. The zombies were simply too fast and there were too many of them for their survival to make sense half the time. I mean, hell, the characters are almost always facing them head on and we’re just supposed to believe that most of them can get out of it alive time and time again? I feel like humanity would die in a heartbeat if such a situation occured in real life, but I suppose the seemingly impossible stakes were there mostly to build tension so I’ll forgive it. Something that I absolutely loved about this drama in particular was the amount of side stories that went on all around even outside of the school. There was only one of them that I didn’t care for, but the rest were extremely entertaining and, although not too impactful, rounded out the story to show how everyone was impacted by the virus. I have a ton of other small complaints but I didn’t want to list them since they weren’t too bothersome and would make me look like a bit of a jerk haha. I would definitely recommend this drama to my zombie lovers, but I would warn them not to take the drama too seriously and be prepared with some tissues, because the best part of the kdrama is definitely the emotions it made me feel, especially at the end!

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Cute, mindless fun

I binge-watched this drama in one sitting and I have to say I am absolutely in love. I will definitely check out the other two dramas in the series because this one was so wholesome and lovable. I thought they did a great job of concluding the series, and while I was a little bit confused at times about how Hyo Seop’s character was truly feeling (which is usually not that hard to figure out in romance dramas) it was eventually cleared up and the drama concluded with the fact that he found her face pretty despite how “ugly” it supposedly is (what are they even talking about, the actress is stunning!). I mostly watched this drama for Ahn Hyo Seop, but I also found some new favorite actresses and I can’t wait to see what their other projects are. All in all, I would definitely recommend this to all my romcom watchers, as this drama has a super happy and wholesome ending with plenty of cute moments throughout.

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Ok look...

I actually liked this. Ever since the beginning, I was really enjoying the drama. I think maybe part of the reason why I liked this a lot more than I thought I would was because I had the lowest possible expectations when I was going into it. I was waiting for the sh**show that plagued BOF to begin but it never did. Of course there was the classic angsty 2010 type drama in The Heirs, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as all the other stuff I’ve watched, and I really appreciated the Heirs for providing an entertaining and actually not that messy of a storyline for me to enjoy. I think the only real problem I have with the drama is that it dragged immensely towards the end, and that I couldn’t for the life of me understand how the Jeguk group drama + Kim Won’s love life ever fit into the main storyline. The weird love triangle between the Jeguk High teacher, her student, and Kim Won was barely explored, and it just felt oddly out of place the whole time. I didn’t mind it and actually thought it was pretty entertaining, but I can’t help but be a little upset at the way it ended lmao. Now, onto the characters that stole the show, because I have 2 in mind. First, Choi Young Do. I thought I grew out of my middle school bad-boy phase but I guess I didn’t, because although I hated CYD with a passion in the beginning, he absolutely stole my heart towards the end and I rooted for him the most. I was partly hoping the writer would find him a second female lead to fall in love with, but alas. Needless to say I really felt bad for him in the end and had major SLS around episode 10 and on. Second, Kim Tan’s mom. I can’t remember her name but oh my goodness was she iconic. Her sadness at being discarded and hidden away combined with her cockiness and pride as well as her mild alcoholism made her very enjoyable onscreen for me. She was definitely a beloved character, and she was imperfect in the most perfect way and I loved her for it. She definitely deserved better. Overall, I think the Heirs was an incredibly enjoyable ride as long as you don’t take it too seriously. Surprisingly I liked it a lot more than BOF even though they get compared at around the same level. Besides a weirdly inconclusive ending (it got wrapped up but it just felt off.. Idk) the heirs was a great, mindless drama. I would definitely recommend if you’re like me and feel kind of entertained by the characters’ misery (so odd because i used to hate it but i crave it these days). Happy watching!

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This is one of the most wholesome web dramas I have ever seen. I genuinely loved everything about this and binged the whole thing in one go (which isn’t hard, let’s be real). I absolutely loved the facial expressions of the actress and the way such a short drama was able to flesh out the characters and give them so much humanity. I almost wish this was longer because I genuinely got so freaking emotional at the end once everything was concluded, however I appreciate the short, sweet, and simple style of storytelling that this drama delivered. It was a very refreshing and 100% happy and enjoyable experience all around. Probably the only reason I can't give it a 10 is because the drama is just too short for me to consider it.

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This drama is one of a kind - it takes the entirety of Korean society's standards of beauty and social norms and completely stomps all over them in a fragrant, pink fashion. I had many predictions for how this drama would end when I started watching it, and this drama went against all of them and presented the audience with something so incredibly empowering for women who may not fit a society's harsh standards of beauty or lack confidence in themselves. While the message of this drama was a lot more wholesome than other similar dramas, the storytelling was a bit clumsy, which is why it didn't receive a very high rating for me in the end. While the overall story was quite entertaining, 16 episodes were just too much for a simple story like this. The last few episodes of the drama were filled with Min Jae Hee going back and forth between wanting to be with Seo E Do and not feeling confident enough to proudly date him, resulting in her hurting his feelings as two separate people over and over again. There's no trope I hate more than the "pretending like I hate your guts so you start hating me and our separation is less painful for you because I don't deserve you/ I'm trying to protect you" trope. Kdrama writers, I beg you, please STOP. It's not cute. It's just annoying and a cheap tactic to increase the episode count of your show. All in all, this drama has a cute message and was full of really wholesome and extremely funny moments, however, I'd recommend to anyone watching it to be very liberal with the speed-up/fast forward button(s) in the latter half of the drama unless you enjoy driving yourself mad with endless, pointless conflict.

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Not enough story for 20 episodes

At the beginning, this drama actually made me look forward to Mondays so much. On my watchlist, I had this drama at a perfect 10/10 star rating for about ten episodes until it started getting ridiculously repetitive and the plot felt very dragged out. Overall, the story was great with amazing characters, cinematography (those color palettes!), and romance. Unlike Lovers of the Red Sky, their love story felt very organic and well-paced. As the drama progressed, the focus naturally shifted away from romance and became more about court politics and family drama (in typical sageuk fashion) and while this was not as interesting to me (as someone who lives and breathes rom com), I saw it coming and expected something like that from a historical, anyway. It was fine. Until the love line also got needlessly angsty. These two literally spent the better two thirds of the drama trying to figure out if they should or shouldn’t be together. The same problems kept arising over and over again but were dressed up as slightly different issues. The political story also got quite stale and followed the format “let’s go investigate something, have lots of fruitless dialogue about that thing, and kill a bunch of people.” This is the main reason why I dislike anything action, but I digress. In the last couple episodes, I also became an avid hater of Dami, something I never thought would happen. Her hero complex and suicidal tendencies disguised as selflessness got incredibly out of control, and it was hard to root for a character who was so hopelessly throwing herself at danger and calling it self-sacrifice that I just wanted her to die at the end and have the drama be a tragedy. The lie she told Jun Ji Un (that I won’t spoil) before doing something unforgivable (at least in my opinion) was something that I wished he would hold against her. It was such a majorly fucked up thing to do that I completely stopped rooting for her at the end. Despite my hundreds of complaints, this drama did bring many good things to the table, and I absolutely adored the male lead from beginning to the end. I’d still recommend the drama to anyone that has some spare time, but just be prepared to use that speed-up button if you’re impatient like me.

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By now, I think I’ve realized that open endings are the bane of my existence, however the pseudo-happy open ending of this drama didn’t really hit me very hard probably because I didn’t really care enough about any of the characters. It was a semi-entertaining watch with a mildly interesting plot and mildly interesting characters. Everything about this drama is just “meh” and I don’t really know why. I reckon it’s a mistake to try and judge this drama on the same level as a 16-episode Korean drama, however I do really feel that you’d have a better time watching a Korean drama than this one, and it’s sad because this is regarded by many as one the best BLs of all time. For a BL, I was hoping for a little more skinship and less “fish kisses” between the leads, but it’s not really a deal breaker, as I prefer emotional connection over actual kissing, and this drama definitely delivered on the emotional aspect part, as short as it was. Even though nothing about this drama was memorable, I still had a fun time watching it, so I’d recommend this as long as you keep your expectations low.

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Mostly watched this for Kim Go Eun and I have no regrets. This wasn’t the best drama by any means, but the realistic take on relationships is quite nice since it’s so unique to kdramas. I still prefer my over-the-top “you are my everything” kdrama romances, but this drama was a nice change of pace. Although I’m not the person to go for slice-of-life dramas like this since I have a tendency to get bored as soon as the leads get together in the drama, Yumi’s cells stayed pretty interesting throughout its 14 episodes. I don’t think the ending was anybody’s favorite, but I look forward to a second season to watch Yumi mature and find new romances. (I totally spoiled myself before the drama even aired but what else is new)

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Masterpiece

I was honestly not expecting much from this drama because I rarely find myself enjoying “popular” and high rated dramas because I always have unrealistically high expectations for them. Even though I wasn’t a big fan of the drama initially because the pace was a little too slow for my liking, the characters grew on me, and the thickening plot was soon keeping my interest very well despite the fact that the pace was staying consistently slow. At one point, I actually started enjoying the slow pace because it fit well with the melancholy yet incredibly healing mood. By the end, I was so emotionally invested in the drama that I had to put it down for a little while because it was destroying me emotionally (in the best way possible!) and I had to distance myself before I had a breakdown. The music was absolutely phenomenal, and I think I have listened to the full version of the theme song at least 30 times since I started watching this drama. It’s hard to put into words how much this drama impacted my life. I can’t say I hated any character because they all had good reasons to do what they did (except the psychopath maybe lol). There were no stupid fights, breakups, misunderstandings, and other relationship drama that I oh-so-despise. Overall, this drama is an absolute masterpiece and it deserves all the good ratings and reviews that it got. I’m so glad I decided to watch this gem!

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I hold this drama very dear to my heart because I’m also a weightlifter and feel a connection to Kim Bok Joo because of that. The couple in this drama is probably one of my most favorite couples ever because their dynamic is absolutely off the charts. This is that perfect slice of life drama that has a plot and does an amazing job of exploring its characters’ personalities. There was absolutely nothing problematic about this drama and I looked forward to watching it every single day. The angst was very minimal (essentially nonexistent), so that’s a huuuge plus for me because I have a really bad tendency to absorb all the characters’ emotions when I watch a drama. When something bad happens, I also end up having a really bad day. It just sucks for everyone. WFKBJ is like a sweet tablespoon of pure sugar: it’s super sweet, pure, and makes me want to watch it again and again for the wonderful ensemble of characters and its wholesome plot.

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I really have to stop getting my hopes up so high

To be honest, I had much grander expectations for Coffee Prince. For a drama that I constantly hear about from every single person in the kdrama community, it wasn’t nearly as impressive as some people made it out to be.

What I liked: There was great comedy and bromance in this drama. I loved how this drama handled particular tropes such as the disapproving grandmother and the time skip slash study abroad trope. They were handled very maturely and the characters were always very supportive of each other. The grandmother wasn’t actually scheming to ruin Eun Chan’s life and accepted her rather quickly into the family. The second leads had a very wild (shall I say) romance and I honestly thought for the longest time that they wouldn’t end up together. It was very refreshing to see two people love each other but lack faith/loyalty and struggle to communicate with one another sometimes.

What I disliked: Too much fighting/conflict. It left a bad taste in my mouth. I understand that the whole romance is supposed to be “hate to love” or whatever but I honestly get attached to characters so easily and so deeply that I always feel emotionally drained when they fight or get into too much conflict. Additionally, this drama lost traction at the end for me and I had to pretty much force myself to finish the last few episodes. It was the same problem I see in a lot of dramas where there was just no more storyline to tell after the leads got together. When a drama lacks a proper side story to back up the romance and the romance is at the forefront of the drama, it’s not wise for writers to have the leads get together as early as, say, episode 11. Because then what are we to do with the remaining 5 hours of the drama? Oh right, create more stupid conflicts and filler conversations and events. Dramas such as The King: Eternal Monarch and Doom at Your Service pull off having the leads get together early on because the romance is never the primary conflict of the drama. Rather, it is more of a catalyst for that primary conflict. On the other end, dramas like 30 But 17 and Gangnam Beauty with less storyline work great and don’t lose traction at the end because the leads do not confess their feelings until the last few episodes. After that, both dramas simply spend a couple episodes tying up loose ends and showing us some fun scenes with the couples.

All in all, I did enjoy Coffee Prince for what it was, but I feel the quality of the drama was blown quite a bit out of proportion when it is not as perfect as we all make it seem. We all love Gong Yoo, but even he can’t save a drama from bad pacing and (sometimes) bad writing.

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She's a 10/10!!!

I’ve had my eye on 18 Again for a while now ever since I was looking for kdramas to watch on reddit, and I only began watching it on a whim as I was going through my MyDramaList “Plan to Watch” list and picking titles at random. Needless to say, watching this drama was perhaps one of the best decisions of my life. I absolutely loved all the characters and felt like every single one of them went through a massive change throughout the story. I loved seeing my favorite actors like Lee Do Hyun and Yoon Sang Hyun on screen again, and I also found some new favorite actors to fangirl over. This type of genre is a complete guilty pleasure for me, and I’m glad that it lived up to my expectations all the way to the end. I didn’t feel like any scenes were filler, contrary to some opinions, and I really enjoyed the slice of life type of storytelling. I cried quite a bit watching this drama and was very invested in the storyline. It’s very hard for me to put into words how much I like this drama, because I’m mostly used to complaining about a drama’s low points in my reviews, and there really aren’t any in this one that I can think of off the top of my head. Rest assured, this will be one of the best things you have ever watched.

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