“Misunderstandings” with atypical characters just hit different

Hear me out.

While it has all the elements of a cliched contract marriage romcom, the characters’ personalities and values set this story apart from the rest. The male lead is somewhat neuroatypical. He has an almost over-logical way of thinking, and is unable to express himself to others. The female lead is passionate about her career and doesn’t consider marriage an important part in her future plans, which is slightly unconventional in “traditional” Japanese culture. This light romcom when viewed through an atypical lens can make for an easy, yet thought-provoking drama about understanding. The popular song 「Heart」 by Aimyon serves as its theme.

“Misunderstandings” is probably in my top 5 things I dislike about any drama because most of the time it’s used as an easy way to add conflict in a story and separate the couple for no good reason. But here, it’s used to highlight how the male lead struggles to communicate and understand what most consider to be conventional behaviour and feelings. Most of us take this understanding for granted. Think about it - we can say “I love you” to a best friend to mean platonic love, and say “I like you” to a new acquaintance to mean romantic love. How do you *KNOW* when is which?

Aside from the leads, supporting characters also explore their own version of unconventional “love” and “relationships” — which (in my opinion) Jdramas do best! What does it mean to be married? Is that really the only way to be “happy"? [SPOILER WARNING for side characters] A man wonders why his wife wants to get divorced in order to have a common-law marriage (where you are still lovers/partners in every way except on legal papers), A women who chose her partner not based on love, but to start an “ideal family”. A fangirl devoting her love to an idol. I loved these mini-insights that can easily be overlooked.

WHAT I WOULD HAVE CHANGED:

Of course, any drama has its flaws.

The last three episodes might be frustrating and slow for some, but I still found those episodes to be interesting. If you consider these two people not fitting into the mould of “normal”, there’s a need to explore a relationship that works best for them! Isn’t that the most important thing?

I also understood the reasons for the cliched setup and abundance of misunderstandings but could have done with a few less, especially the meddling love interests. And finally, I felt the leads could have had more build-up and chemistry with each other, and I wanted it to end slightly differently, but overall I was still satisfied with the romance.

TRY IT IF YOU LIKE:
The contract marriage trope, 『Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu』 (Japanese, 2016), "Because This Is My First Life" (Korean, 2017)

It’s not a character study on neurodivergence, but if you watch it with this open mind, you might gain a new perspective. Even if you’re not interested in the atypical angle, there are enough sweet doki-doki moments to keep a romcom fan entertained.

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Don't go into this wild mystery expecting any answers. Drop your preconceptions entirely.

If you've read the synopsis, you'll go into this movie expecting a supernatural drama or mystery thriller. It's both and neither of these things.

This film subverts all expectations of what you think it's going to be. Right from start, the film makes the viewers question what's going on. And it doesn't stop.

While watching this movie I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery elements. Trying to guess who, how, why... will be both fun and futile. There are times when the story drops you a hint and you think it's going to lead somewhere, but ultimately it's another twist to keep the tension up. As far as I understand it there isn't any deeper meaning behind the hints, and that's how the filmmaker intended it. There were so many red herrings and times when things almost came back full circle that in the end I thought I was the one going crazy. 😂

The pace and cinematography suited the film, Jo Jin Woong and cast do a good job, and I especially enjoyed the music score. It's hard to make a score coherent when the genre of the film itself keeps changing, but they pull it off in this film.

I wasn't bored at all during the film, because this film genuinely surprised me with its twists (and that's not easy), but if you're someone who likes clear answers, best to avoid this story. In order to enjoy this movie I'd suggest you throw expectation out the window and just enjoy it like the confusing rollercoaster it is. Think of this film as watching someone else's dream, and just go along for the ride.

Like a dream, the film ends abruptly. Like this review.

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This is not a film about baseball. It's about chasing your dreams

Baseball Girl is a simple, yet heartfelt story about a girl dreaming to be the first female professional baseball player, and the prejudices she'll have to face from her teammates, school and family.

STORY ---

Despite having a new coach who doesn't think she's good enough, and a mother pressuring her to come up with "realistic" future plans, Soo In has never thought about anything else other than baseball and she's determined to prove them all wrong.

The relaxed pace of the film unfolds little details of her story and those around her. It's a slow burn that mostly focuses on Soo In, but surprisingly has a few tense moments when she tries to showcase her talents on the field.

CAST & CHARACTERS ---

I enjoyed watching Soo In go after exactly what she wants. How many of us, even later in our lives, has a dream as clear as hers?

Lee Joo Young is probably best known in her roles in Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo and Itaewon Class. Here, she plays the quiet, but seriously determined athlete and is incredibly natural in the role. Her acting was amazingly subtle, and she's definitely one to keep an eye on.

The rest of the cast is rounded out by solid veterans, and when the film is mostly about it's characters, you're glad that this cast can bring them to life.

Don't worry if you know nothing of baseball (I certainly don't!). This film is about the prejudices that we all face - be it gender, class, parental expectations, or just people telling you that you can't do something - and overcoming those obstacles in order to go after what you want.

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Great opportunity to promote band music...

...unfortunately delivered in a weak format.

Just as Street Woman Fighter (SWF) introduced street dance and Korean crews to the wider public audience, Great Seoul Invasion (GSI) is an attempt to highlight the lesser known Korean band scene through a "battle of the bands" competition. While it started off a little awkwardly with forced twists and manipulative editing, and ended a little lacklustre, the middle round performances were strong and worth a watch even just for the stages. You might even discover a new band or two to listen to.

THE GOOD:
-- Bands!
I enjoyed the performances and discovered a bunch of new (and old) bands to listen to. Seeing the band members banter with each other and with other bands is always fun. As the show went on, we get to see how the quality of their performances improve as they learnt and grew as artists. The music of course, was the highlight, with middle episodes (4-7) being my personal favourites in terms of performances.

-- (Tries to) showcase what makes bands different
The audience is introduced to the band scene, a bit about the band-spirit and history through the various themed rounds and more senior bands. Bands with live instruments, in front of an audience is (in my opinion) what really differentiates band music with more popular genres in k-pop.

THE BAD:
-- Forced twists and villain editing
A common tendancy in shows of this network and nature, is to create interest and "drama" through creative editing (such as featuring harsh criticism rather than encouraging comments from fellow bands). As an audience member, we never get the full context of any situation, but it was obvious -- especially in earlier episodes -- that this was intended to manipulate how the audience perceived certain bands or individuals. Less of this please. The repetitive "rule twists" that also featured in early episodes were interesting, but delivered in such a forced way it was awkward to watch.

-- Better mini-missions
The best moments of the show were when band members had to step outside their comfort zones. The mini-missions served as a good way to break up what would have been monotonous stages. Unfortunately, there were only a few of these that really did that, the best of which was in episode 8. I would have liked to have seen more out-of-the-box missions that challenged them, such as mixing up band members or competing in groups, or even activities that would help them appeal to a global audience such as singing foreign hits or in other languages.

THE BIZARRE:
-- Who is Mr G? Does anyone even care?
The show's concept revolved around the mysterious "Mr. G" who wanted to "find the next global K-Band" capable of bringing Korean band music to the world. The host, actor Yoon Park, seemed to have been tasked with playing Mr. G's stoic assistant, which only came across as awkward and robotic. I'm sure Yoon Park himself has a much more charismatic personality that could have made the show more approachable. Overall, this concept never really served a purpose except to throw in random twists in the game rules.

THE FINALE (no spoilers):
Towards the end of the show you could tell the bands and its members were starting to grow tired, possibly from the pressure and stress or tight deadlines. The Final 3 finale stretched just a handful of performances over 1.5 hours, which made what should have been a celebration of the band scene feel more like a forced ceremony.

Overall, a decent attempt at bringing more limelight to the band community. As a fan of band music, I appreciated and enjoyed watching it. Even if you don't watch the show as a whole, the stage performances are definitely worth checking out on Youtube.

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Pretty to look at, but full of wasted potential on frustrating immature characters.

Apart from the obvious eye-candy (I could stare at Song Wei Long for days), I was overall quite disappointed in this drama. It suffered from poor character development and contrived plot, which made me both addicted and frustrated at the same time.

I wanted this show to be a mature romantic journey of growth, where two people who are inexperienced in their own ways find a balance in one other and get through societal pressures together. What I got instead was naïve main characters avoiding their problems and making poor life decisions, as well as frustrating secondary characters behaving very immaturely.

As an age-gap romance, the show had potential to explore some interested topics like going against social norms, workplace power dynamics, parental pressures and different types of marriages. These could have been interesting ways to keep our couple apart, however, these were only mentioned at a surface level and the potential was wasted.

Instead, the main source of conflict came from third-parties that manipulate our main characters or cause misunderstandings. The couples own insecurities lead them to run away from each-other or refuse to communicate their feelings. I'm not a fan of these kinds of reasons to keep the main couple apart, and kept watching in the hopes that they would learn from their repeated mistakes.

Unfortunately I don't feel like this happened, and didn't see much character growth or many people "finding themselves". In fact, I felt that several characters went backwards and became less confident or made worse decisions as the show went on. More emphasis was put on finding someone to love, than finding out who you really are, so that was a disappointing message.

I also disliked that the show glorified problematic behaviour, like the second-male-lead Lu Ming and his manipulation tactics, and that Fan Xing was okay with it. For the love of pasta, please don't take any relationship advice from any of these characters.

The only saving grace is Song Wei Long and his perfected "I find you cute, and I'm trying not to smile about it" look that he does so well. Unfortunately, there isn't as much interaction with the main couple as you would expect, which made me question why they even liked each other. The main characters have more screen time with secondary characters than with each other.

If you are looking for a sweet romance or mature journey of self-discovery then I think you will be disappointed on both fronts. You might enjoy this if you are a fan of Song Wei Long or any of the actors, however expect to be skipping a lot of scenes to get through the unnecessary number of episodes.

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Kind, mature main characters is what sets this apart from the typical contract relationship.

The first 2 or so episodes are full of typical tropes that set up the story, so initially I wasn't impressed. However, once you have the setup out of the way, you start to get to know the main characters and that's where the heart of the show really lies.

The title refers to our two main characters, the "perfect" Statistics Professor Zhang Sinian who always has to have a calculated answer for everything, and the "casual" easy-going Yun Shu who is lively and easily trusts people to a fault. A series of events leads Yun Shu to enter a contract marriage with Zhang Sinian.

The male-lead is not your usual cold and arrogant type. The contract relationship that they enter into is created out of Zhang Sinians desire to fulfil his Grandfathers last wishes, so from the very beginning we know he's a kind and thoughtful person. He's very clear to Yun Shu that he won't force her to do anything she doesn't want to, and goes out of his way to make sure she is comfortable with her decision and their relationship.

If you dislike naïve characters, don't be put off by the female-lead's first impressions. Yun Shu might seem like the typical clumsy, naïve character at the start, but that's just to set up the meet-cute. She's actually quite endearing, and wants to believe people are good at heart, but when it's clear that someone is not a good person she's not a fool. I also loved that she spoke her mind and was not indecisive with her feelings throughout the show.

The lovely main characters aside — I mean seriously, I want to be as sweet and kind as them — what impressed me about the show is how it didn't rely on toxic behaviour or contrived conflicts in order to set up the right situations for the show. Too often dramas concoct reasons for the main leads to be forced together (or apart), and quite often it involves some kind of lie, manipulation or misunderstanding. It felt so refreshing that characters actually communicated with each-other, which meant that any misunderstanding were resolved quickly. The pace of the drama was also well done so that the obstacles to their relationship that did come up didn't feel contrived or draggy.

I was less invested in the secondary couples (I usually always am), but still found their stories quite unique and interesting. In particular, Yun Shu's two best friends who once dated but are now just friends. They had great rapport.

All in all, this was an enjoyable, light-hearted watch with enough tension to keep you interested, plenty of sweet moments and no frustrating situations to drag the pace. A perfect recommendation for anyone looking for something sweet and casual.

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Short enough to fit into a lunch break, but leaves you unsatisfied

At just 3 episodes of 10 minutes each, this short drama can fit into your lunch break, but unfortunately leaves you with an unresolved taste in your mouth so you might want to grab an icecream afterwards to get your sweet fix.

The setup is cute but brief and predictable, and the actors do well in their roles with what little they are given (Jang Eui Su from breakout role "Where Your Eyes Linger" plays one of the leads). If you'd just like something short to pass the time, this is well enough produced, but don't expect anything ground-breaking. Unfortunately there isn't enough time in this drama to give the characters any development or the story a meaningful resolution, and it ends in a way that might frustrate some viewers (as it did me) with questions rather than fluffy feels. One more 5-10 minute episode could have wrapped things up nicely and rounded out the story, but you'll have to settle with imagining what happens next.

If you're like me and was looking for a quick dose of something short and sweet, it's best to skip this one as it ultimately doesn't deliver satisfying results.

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This one is pure fantasy so leave your logic at the door and just enjoy it for what it is.

The visuals and production were top notch, and it's everything you would expect in a fluffy josei. A cute girl, a cool guy, attractive kisses and plenty of overused clichés. The fast paced romance means you get mostly fluff and not a lot of substance, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Just don't go in expecting much more than that.

What I found most different is the confident pursuit by the male lead, who is all kinds of perfect it's too good to be true. He definitely deserved more attention than he was given, but when she did give him attention he was over the moon. This reminded me of the typical cold male type, where the girl usually fawns every time a kind comment was tossed her way. It was really interesting to see this reversed.

You won't get a lot of character development either, but I think this adds to the charm of the characters. They're true to themselves until the very end. In a way, it's a love story about two people with a clear sense of the lifestyle they want, that were lucky to have found someone that was going to fit into their life, as is. They found the perfect match in each other — a girl who gets so excited by work she forgets to date, a guy other who doesn't want dating to be the girl whole life. As a workaholic myself I kinda appreciated this!

There's few misunderstandings, they aren't swayed by any confessions and even any jealousy is short-lived and sweet. If you're looking for something meaningful, you won't find it here. But if you're just after some cute scenes and a short drama to pass the time this might be what you're looking for.

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The most interesting start to a romcom I've seen in a long while.

I think I'm going to love this show.

The show has already kicked off in a way I haven't seen before in similar dramas. I'm a fan of the female lead, Janice Wu, having seen her in Skate Into Love so of course I love her character already. The camera direction is also quite interesting, with direct-to-camera monologues and a nice halo effect for the cinematography.

Not to mention the story itself has started off a bit differently. It's not your typical Boy meets Girl scenario, as our leads have a history. Boy has already met Girl and they didn't end it well, so already I'm intrigued. What happened? Why did they break up? I'm reminded of one of my favourite books - Persuasion, by Jane Austen - and I'm excited to see how it all unfolds...

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