This is one of those films where you feel like the characters never really say the things they want to say. And that's a really frustrating thing to watch. I kept waiting for people to just start screaming uncontrollably at each other, actually express their feelings or...something. Alas, it never happened, and I just spent the whole viewing experience really stressed out.

There was also one point towards the end that was particularly hard for me to watch due to my own personal beliefs. But even though I don't agree with the choice the character makes, I do think it is realistic, and I can understand Why she would make it.

So would I recommend this movie to others? No, not really.

(Music is 1 because I can't remember anything about the music.)

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Take a 16-episode drama, condense it all down to 2 hours worth of storyline, and you have this movie. Don't get me wrong. It's a fun movie. But the writing is not super strong in terms of pacing and story/character development. A lot of things happen in two hours, but I never really understood Why they happened. I give this movie three stars for the writing, four stars for enjoyment, and five stars for Lee Ki Woo. Cause...Lee Ki Woo. (Somebody give this man the leading role in his own drama, stat. The man is Gorgeous.)



(Music is 1 because I don't remember what the music was like.)

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This is far too silly of a movie to deserve me waxing poetic about it...

But I will anyway, lol.

This movie is goofy yet charming in all the best ways. Haruna is so incredibly awkward, and gosh, do I relate too much. She doesn't know how to dress, she doesn't know how to talk to boys, and she's so damn eager you can see it from the moon. Yoh is her complete opposite, the straight man in their comedy duo, and their dynamic is a lot of fun. The hijinks that the characters (mainly Haruna and Yoh) end up in are shoujo manga cliche's that play out both hilariously and teen-angst swoony here. And the movie is very clearly adapted from a manga as not a lot of effort is made to translate the story to screen in a way that is believable and realistic. No, when they decided to make this movie, they also decided to go all in on the manga's silliness. And I'm honestly here for it.

Since first watching this movie (because I've obviously watched it more than once at this point, duh), I've also read the original manga. The first half is every bit as goofy yet charming as this movie. Sadly, the second half of the manga devolves a bit as the female leads behavior becomes a little grating, so if you don't think you could handle her character for longer than this movie, I wouldn't suggest reading the manga it's based on.

I 100% recommend this movie, even if you've already seen it and don't like it. How can you hate a character that's so eagerly awkward? You can't, that's how.

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This movie has a really great indie vibe. Everything feels very real, very possible, very believable. The story is sweet and portrays exactly what young love can often feel like; exhilarating, overwhelming, but also heartbreaking and disappointing. The leads are very likable and relatable, and I felt a particularly strong connection with the female lead.

But....

The ending has a completely different feel from the rest of the movie, ultimately doing a disservice to the story. I was very disappointed that they would take such a sweet little film and saddle it with such an over the top and implausible ending. (To clarify, it's only over the top and implausible, because they chose to speed forward in time to when the characters are adults but have the same, clearly teenaged, actors play the adult versions of their characters, and it just doesn't work.)

Still, this is one of my favorite Asian films, and favorite love stories, of all time. Definitely worth watching.

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I don't remember how far into this drama I got before dropping it, but it wasn't more than five or six episodes, and it was all the female leads fault.

What I loved about the first season, what made it my favorite reiteration I've seen so far, was that every time the female lead found herself in an awkward, embarrassing situation due to her own folly and stupid decisions, she owned up to it and made the best of it. She didn't complain or feel sorry for herself. She just got on with it.

That is very much Not what happened this season.

Season 2 Kotoko was downright SHRILL. She whined, she complained, she threw tantrums at the slightest provocation. You honestly felt sorry for Naoki for having to put up with that. I mean, was it annoying as hell that he didn't just Talk to Kotoko about why he didn't want to register their marriage yet? Yes. I wanted to strangle him for it. But outside of that, there's not much he does this season (at least what I watched) that was all that terrible. He's pretty benign.

And where were all of the side characters we'd come to know and love from season 1??? Not there, that's where. In the Taiwanese version of this season, there were all of these really wonderful side stories full of awesome character development that served as a nice break from the drama of the main couple. This reiteration ignored them all. Kotoko's friends basically disappear, and Kinnosuke's love line is stripped down to barely nothing, leaving it frustratingly unenjoyable to watch.

In my opinion, this season is terrible, I don't recommend it, and I wish I could unwatch it.

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I finished the original Overprotected Kahoko series earlier today (I'M IN LOVE WITH IT), and in my eagerness to consume more media about this wonderful cast of characters, I immediately jumped into the special. And I have to unequivocally say that I am Not in love with the special. In fact, it's not only not worth watching, it almost tainted my feelings for the original series.

It's not that the special is necessarily terrible. It's just........not exactly good either. The characters are still the same, and the situations are (mostly) in line with something you might expect them to go through (although there were a few things that had me side-eyeing), but because the writer doesn't have the luxury of ten episodes to really flesh things out, the whole thing ends up feeling very rushed and incomplete. I think if this had been a ten episode season 2 instead, it probably could have been just as good as the original season as all the necessary ingredients are there. But as it is, it's just a disappointment.

Overprotected Kahoko (the original series) has officially made it into my top ten favorite Asian dramas of all time, so I definitely recommend watching it, but I would suggest skipping this special. It's a waste of time.

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I tried so hard to make it to at least to one particular scene in this drama (I'm sure no one is surprised by this, but it was the scene where Terry is shirtless and Da Hua accidentally walks in on him in the bathroom).

I never got there.

This drama didn't know who it's OTP was, and it suffered severely for it. Terry always felt like the clear choice considering how much time he and Da Hua spent together and how Deep he fell for her, but the story could never fully commit to that choice, and I was left looking for a reason to root for them. I needed there to be a reason for Terry and Da Hua to have to be around each other, for them to get to know each other as people, for them to fall for each other, and what I got was the opposite of what I needed.

And I fully place the blame on Da Hua as a character.

Da Hua had no underlying motivation for any of the choices she made. She actively put herself in situations where she was going to be uncomfortable. She actively put herself in situations that Guan Jun was bound to misunderstand and then tried to smooth it all over each and every time. She chose to bail Terry out of the mess he had gotten himself into by lying and creating the contract to begin with. And her determination to finish the ‘contract’ was So. Annoying. It Hurt. Terry was still going to have to tell everyone that Liang Yian was dead thus making the contract pointless and void. She actively did the opposite of what would have been logical in every situation she was presented with.

And before anyone tells me I’m an idiot who clearly didn’t understand the real reason why Da Hua wanted to finish the contract, let me stop you right there.

I know what the drama writers were trying to do. They were trying to trick me into believing that Da Hua wanted to finish the contract because she was falling in love with Terry.

Falling in love with Terry my derrierriere (that is a spelling Choice, not a mistake). While he was clearly starting to have feelings for her, there was no indication from her that she had any interest in him At All. There were no tender glances or accidental touches, no inner monologues about how kind or smart or handsome he was, no lingering in his presence or just generally wanting to be around him all the time. Every time Terry attempted to make a move, Da Hua would practically Fly out of the room, she was so intensely uncomfortable with his attraction to her.

She did not like him.

Which was stupid, because…there was a lot to like.

I mean, he was an idiot who agreed to pretend his fiancé wasn’t dead and subsequently dragged someone else into that mess, but he was still an utterly lovely person.

And could we not have gotten some actual exposition on this whole idea of real love verses being enamored with someone’s physical appearance?

I have no problem believing that Terry was actually falling in love with Da Hua as a person and not because she looked like his dead fiancé. And I have no problem believing Guan Jun was also falling in love with her as a person and not because she was suddenly ‘beautiful.’ I think both actors did a good job of making their feelings for her seem believable.

I Do have a problem with there being zero exploration into what it means to be in love with someone verses what it means to be in love with your idea of someone, considering that was one of the major messages of the drama. There were very valid reasons for our lead to question the motives of these two men, and for us, the audience, to do so as well. But the writers never even touched on those reasons accept to mention them in passing. How am I supposed to pick one of them over the other if I don’t actually know if either of them are truly in love with her?

For my part, I did want her with Terry. If only because of how amazingly good the actor was at giving tender, gentle looks in her direction, and because he was a hottie Mchottieson, and because he was just so incredibly nice. (Makes terrible life choices, but he's still very nice.)

But the drama was too frustrating to finish, and I honestly probably could have substituted it with another drama and been much happier.

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This drama had Such a solid start. Unfortunately, it allowed itself to get bogged down by the on again/off again romance between two of our secondary characters (Who Literally No One Cares About) and completely forgot it's purpose.

What it's like to be a twenty year old professional in the Taiwanese work force.

And the romance between the lead characters. And the friendship between all four girls. And pairing them all off for the perfect, tied with a bow, happy ending!

Kind of important things.

This is definitely one of the most disappointing viewing experiences I've ever had, and I eventually had to drop this drama, because it clearly was never going to get back on plot.

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This drama was a straight up disappointment. It shouldn’t have been since the very beginning of the first episode and the very end of the last episode pretty much sum up Exactly What The Story Should Have Been About!

The leads had middling chemistry at best (although if the story had been better, their chemistry might have been better too), the story was just baaaaaad, and the side story was so infuriating it made you want to punch a puppy.

(No puppies were harmed in my viewing of this drama.)

The only truly good part was the big ol' Smacker our male leads lays on our female lead. That kiss was impressive. (If a little forceful.)

Save yourself the frustration and drive right on past this drama. The only rock you'll find here is the massive one lodged in your shoe.

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This movie is sweet, colorful, and just plain ridiculous. Therefore, I love it.

I have not read the original manga it's based on (although I plan to), but I could tell the writers were really speeding through the story (kind of like a bear rummaging through a picnic basket). There's an odd balance between moments that were clearly meant to be over the top, moments that were clearly not meant to be over the top but were anyway, and moments where you weren't sure if they were going for over the top or not (especially towards the end). But it's just so dang cute that I don't care.

And this review would not be complete without mentioning how much I love the fashion sense of our main characters. They were just so dang colorful!

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This is just an all around fun movie. Is it all that unique? Probably not. But it's just too fun to care about that. My favorite part definitely has to be the ending. Let's just say there's a drunk woman throwing Molotov's involved, and it's fabulous. I definitely could have done with another kiss from the main couple, but otherwise, there's nothing else I needed from this movie.

I will say though, the female lead is very much an acquired taste. With a high pitched, somewhat squeaky voice, and an overall ditzy personality that doesn't change, you will either love her or hate her. I personally loved her, but I can definitely see how she would come across as grating for others.

If you don't mind obnoxious female leads and love outrageously funny stories, then I highly recommend this movie.

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