DramaAjumma

I actually find Yong-pil quite relatable. He's trying to juggle a lot and keep everyone safe and happy. He is someone who is caught among many loves.

I honestly don't understand this obsession with users propping up their favourite shows with these kinds of strategies -- playing the system and the numbers game. Do they have money invested in this show? The cast and the crew have been paid for this and another season has already been approved. Sooner or later the hype will die down and people will make up their own minds as to whether this works for them or not.

I don't usually criticize opinions here but the statement that Yong-pil's life has been entirely revolved around Sam-dal is downright silly. In fact, it's a gross mischaracterization. From everything we've seen it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. If his life has been built entirely around her, he would have given Dad the proverbial middle finger and followed Sam-dal to the ends of the earth. He could have gone to Seoul (and other exotic locations already) -- many times over with all kinds of job offers on the table. But he went along with the break up and stayed with his father instead. If anything, it is more accurate to say that his entire life has revolved around his father, Mi-ja and the island especially seen in the way he is desperate to insist on accurate weather forecasting of Jeju with the higher ups.
The truth is Yong-pil would be considered a good Asian son putting duty/obligation before love and paid the price for it. There's no doubt he's been hoping for reconciliation between the parties concerned being the optimist that he is. It's Jane Austen's Persuasion with the roles reversed.

This is an old school K drama. The desire line 100% reflects that.

I'm the opposite. I like this show more than HomeCha. It feels more down to earth and people more likeable.

I appreciate your post. Makes me feel that I haven't gone mad. :D

I am putting my faith in Zhang Ruoyun's track record in consistently picking good scripts.

But I am a little concerned about the pedagogical underpinnings of the show.

To sum it up in one line... the show lacks authenticity.

I think Zhou Ye is a decent enough actress but the whole cutesy act does get a bit old after a while. As you said in another post further up, it's not a good look for not just her but him as well. On top of that she's amenable to every single thing. In a normal relationship there has to be some pushback. The problem is that neither of them really have any kind of arc that warrants 33 episodes that has them at the centre. If he for example was going through some kind of existential crisis or struggling with both professions or that she was struggling to get recognized, this would be a far more interesting show. But it feels like she's incredibly lucky and he's superman. It's Screenwriting 101 to have a desire line -- a goal.

I've pretty much given up on the show. I can listen to the music on YouTube.

I don't understand what it is exactly that you're disagreeing with in my post. I did make caveats in what I said in terms of length, the characters and the lack of character development. I did say low conflict romance that peaks early -- not low conflict shows in general. Meet Yourself is a great show because it doesn't focus on the main romance or just the leads. It has multiple character arcs that all intersect. Even though the leads don't have much conflict, there is a bit of push and pull and there's conflict elsewhere in the show. Here the support characters feel like they're mostly dancing around the leads and singing praises to them. When the well isn't very deep it tends to dry up quickly.

It's been a while. Yeah, it's Tan Jianci after all. :D

The Blood of Youth

Murong Cang's wardrobe is to die for. The green outfit is my favourite.

Well, with Asian dramas I think it's a safe bet that there's moralizing going on. :D

From where I'm looking, most (if not all ) of the problems with this show stem from the weak script and/or direction. The people in charge don't seem to know how to properly integrate the monster story with the human stories. There's a monster running loose around the place and yet people are waving guns around making empty threats while also having conversations like a normal break in and break out from a garden variety military installation. Then of course they feel the need to prop up a fledgling attraction -- one sided initially and then we're led to believe that it's mutual when the build up from Chae-ok's side is non-existent.

It's as if all the characters, the scenario are presented purely to highlight particular wartime atrocities. Like pieces on a chessboard that are moved around accordingly. Also often in ways that don't really make sense. The sequence of events is so obviously out of kilter. Take for example, large numbers have already been killed by the creature and yet the Japanese soldiers saunter around with no sense of urgency about what's going on in between the attacks. The soldiers at the bottom of the food chain should be terrified but they just carry on as usual like the monster is a nothingburger in between attacks. They should have far more important things to do to fortify their defences than make menacing gestures against Chae-ok for refusing to speak Japanese. But but... the show has to sledgehammer home the point that there's no difference between the creature and the invaders right at this very moment. It's just silly.

By pretty much the fourth episode, everything is known to the audience and it all becomes a waiting game. There's so much waste of side characters too. Wi Ha-joon's in particular.

Honestly this is probably the best short drama that I've ever seen. Most of them are pretty low quality and ridiculously choppy but the production values of this one is relatively decent. The costuming is surprisingly good. The leads not only have great chemistry but they can deliver a charming performance.
There are the usual nutty things but honestly some of the storytelling here is better than some of the bigger productions I saw in 2023.

Thanks!

It does a disservice to the show when it is reduced to a one-liner like it's "all about suicide". It's like saying that A Christmas Carol is about ghosts. Suicide is a part of the protagonist's journey and a McGuffin but the show is fundamentally quite sympathetic to the struggles of those who can't get ahead in the rat race. Overall, it's just about one man's cavalier attitude to death especially when he thinks that is the solution to all his problems. There's no need to take Death too literally when she's spouting about punishment especially knowing what comes in the end. It's a posture and a continuous debate that goes on between Death and Yee-jae.

Thank you for doing so.

That's right. It's an open ending but one that suggests the possibility that he might have retained memory of what occurred. But the likelihood of him retaining memory of what happened is high because he picks up the call right when Mum rings. Something's certainly changed.

That's one assumption of how that world works. We have only seen this game through the perspective of one person. We are not given any information as to how this game works for all the "participants". You're also trying to apply real world logic to a fantasy show (a highly constructed allegorical show) that is concerned with a single man's transmigration experience.

In these kinds of stories the protagonist never talks about it. I can't say I blame them. Who'd believe them? George Bailey didn't. Scrooge didn't.

I actually think the writing in this show is very very good.