Sinasina

I enjoyed watching this show, but now that I'm trying to write a review I'm having difficulties trying to describe why. I guess I liked the main couple's romance, the lack of a second ML and the OST, but honestly WSL is pretty mediocre for the most part. Maybe it's because I ALMOST felt like that the Incheon airport is a magical place..

Anyway there are lots of negatives:
I could go on and on how stupid our ML is for doing the kdrama equivalent of "burning his life" for nonsense reasons, or how certain characters completely change mid way, the lack of pre-production obviously shows. The most interesting characters on the show barely had any screen time, like that pregnant woman at the control tower, or my favorite supporting actor of all time Kim Wonhae only had like 5 scenes where he did practically nothing.
There were so many missed opportunities, like there were those mini crises at the airport, they could have made some really interesting ones, but all of them were boring. The ending was rather underwhelming, it's one of those "50 minutes of melo followed by 4 minutes of chill & 1 minute of actual happy ending" endings, I'm not impressed, I would have felt more satisfied had they all died in a nuclear attack at the airport... Oh I almost forgot that there were gangsters too, what a waste of screen time they were...

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What a year 2018 has been for kdrama, we had What's Wrong With Secretary Kim & 30 but 17 and now The Beauty Inside. TBI doesn't quite match up with the other 2, but it represents the same trend, doing away with tedious love triangles & instead using other tools to generate tension and I do love a good mystery... (even if everything is obvious about it on day2)

I felt that Lee Minky's acting was a bit off in this series, it was nowhere near as good, as it has been in This is my 1st Life. Still very decent ofc, just that he felt off here and there. I really liked the rest of the cast, especially Lee Dahee, she was really awesome here. Na Younghee is an "ajumma" actress I never liked before in any of the dramas I've seen her appearing in, but this time she was a good fit. The OST was fairly pleasant too, but not very memorable.

Now why am I not giving this 10/10? Well there are some issues. Probably this wasn't pre-produced, the way how they dealt with the rival actress's character was super strange, like the writers wanted to use her as a tool to mess everything up, but changed their minds half way. Episode 14, well this was really just a plain bad episode. I realize that they felt that a work labeled as "drama" needs to have drama in it, but oh man this was pretty badly executed in my opinion. For reference, Oh My Venus had an episode with the same writer intent, but it was SOO MUCH better in every way. Let's not even mention the time-skip part.. The assistant writers(interns?) responsible for product placements were definitely not very good, too obvious boys and girls..
There were some missed opportunities too. They could have done so much more with Segye's alter egos. I mean sure I liked it when she turned into a kid spending time with mom, but there could have been so much more. Remember how memorable Goblin's ghost stories were?

So yes, overall I was entertained, will watch it again someday. I hope that in 2019 we will have more dramas like this one.

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This is a procedural drama with some cute romance. This pretty much sums it up, the romance is reasonably okay, but you won't be floored by the main leads' chemistry. Big positive though that there is no love triangle, or forced separations. Shin Se Kyung did well compared to some of her other works, ML? his acting wasn't very convincing.. The comedic skits for the troupe were meaningless, I did not find any of them funny.
The aspect of seeing scents is a bit interesting, but the CGI showing mini leaf etc. symbols floating around is just dumb, it should've been some random shapes & colors, because this is just unacceptable even with drama logic.
The majority of the time is spent on the procedural police stuff and honestly some of it is really boring, some of it is really stupid, the side characters at the station were not that interesting either. One notable example is that moment when our ML shows his genius in rotating a barcode, well newsflash drama writers, it doesn't matter how you rotate or mirror a barcode, the numeric value won't change. Police tends to be really really bad in kdramas in general, but this is a new kind of low.
Park Jinjoo is the best part of the series, I would love to see her in a main role one day..
The killer, well I didn't really care tbh, the actor did a good job, the sub par script wasn't his fault.
The OST was okay, nothing too memorable though.

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The first 6 episodes were really slow, even compared to "A Love so Beautiful". I'm not into watching the ugliness of society (be that Korean, or American) for extended periods of time, I was ready to drop the drama multiple times for that reason, but the entire plastic surgery thing kept me interested just long enough to reach episode 7 and then things turned for the better. I realized that I really started liking the cast & the romance was getting more and more interesting. There was no humor at all in the first half, but there were quite a few funny moments later on too. As usual in a drama like this I expected the worst from the love triangle, but that never happened, that's always a giant plus. I don't really care about bromances, but this one here was not much worse than in Goblin. I also like how it ended. Yes others have commented on how many secondary plotlines are unfinished & how great a second season would be, but I disagree. I'm genuinely afraid of what the plotline in that hypothetical second season could be. I feel that they followed the still ongoing webcomic too closely up until the ending, that's why we had all that melodramatic setup in the beginning that couldn't really lead anywhere in 16 episodes and honestly I'm not that curious about their resolution, feeling that it's better not to know, I'm content that I got the happy ending that I wanted & the topic of plastic surgery & the psychology of plastic surgery were sufficiently explored.
The OST was just there, here I am writing this 8 hours after finishing the series & I don't recall a single song, or track. Not memorable at all.

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It has to be 10/10, because it's really outstanding in many ways. The casting is fantastic. Every single character has a meaningful role & is an integral part of the story. It's nice that the second male lead did not mess up the romance as it happens 99 out of 100 times in a kdrama. Based on her music videos & pictures that I've seen before I really underestimated Suzy. This is the first time I've seen her in a drama & oh man she is so cool, I'm super impressed. Also the actor that played Mr Choi was awesome, just like Strongwoman Do Bong Soon. The OST at first listen seems nothing special, but it fits really well, it just grew on me. In terms of cinematography it's definitely top tier among Kdramas, in this respect WYWS is way ahead of Pinocchio.

There are negatives too. Some of the "fake law" explanations were just too cheesy. There could have been more lighthearted scenes and the ending, which is the last 30 minutes could have been less rushed, should have been an hour long at least. Hong-joo's mom's shenanigans were really unnecessary too.

Personally I liked Pinocchio more, because I found the setting more interesting and it was funnier & the story flow was better & also the dramatic parts resonated with me more, but maybe I only feel this way, because I saw Pinocchio first and the two dramas are extremely similar in many ways. So yes, While You Were Sleeping will definitively not dethrone Goblin as the best drama I have ever seen, not even close, but it's a top tier work, that I will remember for a very long time & will rewatch it, in fact I might enjoy it even more the second time around, because some strongly hinted potential plot twists made me lightly frustrated the whole time...

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This was really good. I had Dots vibes during the entire show, but I think this is better, because the most annoying things in DoTs aren't present here & what we had instead were pretty fun, plus DoTs had the worst child actors I have ever seen, opposed the top tier child actors in FfmW. Pretty much all the flashbacks were excellent, plus all the MMA fighting scenes were entertaining, it's nice that the fights did not take 15-30 minutes each, like in other dramas/movies. It was also nice that the love triangles & stuff were heavily front-loaded making the pacing of the story much better than usual, the frustration factor was also on the low-ish side. Pyo Yejin was kind of surprising in this half villain role, but it definitely worked. The ending could have been half an hour longer, but it was decent nonetheless, especially the last scene during credits. One negative thing I guess was the breakup scene at the end of E15, it was just a meaningless forced cliffhanger, since nothing changed after the breakup, there was no tension, or drama from it.

The OST was definitely above average, although hearing that instrumental track from Goblin several times felt a bit strange, because the mood of this show is just so different. (ofc that song from DOTS also appeared a lot, but that was perfectly fine for this show)

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Lukewarm romcom with a weak-ish ending

The Good
⌲ It's quite fun early on. (lots of bickering & we get some of the more fun romcom cliches)
⌲ The quick resolution of the breakup
⌲ The lack of triangles and other geometric shapes
⌲ The fact that it's a noona romance

The Average
⌲ The chemistry
⌲ The meh second lead couple
⌲ The final two episodes (not terrible outside of grandma's 2-3 scenes, but on the boring side)
⌲ I'm sure the drama had an OST, but I cannot recall any of it & it's only been minutes since the rolling credits.
⌲ The writing (the plot and the dialog both are really average)

The Bad
⌲ The trash grandma
⌲ Grandma's awful -and predictable- mini redemption ark in the finale (this is disrespectful to the audience considering how important her role & impact is in the drama)
⌲ It is my impression after 4 dramas that this director has the tendency of not calling the NG when woman actors produce awkward lines. (I like Moon Ga Yong, but she is human and she has made some acting hiccups in the show, quite probably not her fault that no reshooting of those scenes has occurred and I recall similar things from Shi*ng Stars etc..)
⌲ It's too shallow. (even for a kdrama romcom)

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I don't regret watching this, but compared to romcoms such as Secretary Kim, Business Proposal, Secret Life of my Secretary it really falls short. (and even those are quite controversial on MDL for understandable reasons)

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It's a very middling corporate romance carried by Shin Hye Sun..

The corporate plot is pretty weak, but the 12 episode format makes the usual fare tolerable. I have certainly witnessed far far worse corporate plots in my kdrama history. Also think the basic concept of the show is ridiculous, more specifically the audit team's various investigations feel like they are the virtue police & then the drama romance is about a boss-subordinate relationship in that setting & then everyone is just okay with it, I mean come on. While focusing on the romance itself ignoring all the weird crap, I can say it's decently fun at times, however the chemistry between the leads is really not great. The triangle is not too bad, it's more tolerable than average, though not having one would've been vastly preferred of course.

Also the supporting cast is really on the boring side. The only interesting character is -the technically second FL- vice president's secretary. I somewhat understand what the production team wanted with her character, sort of using her as a mood setter, but it was just too weird. Normally I'd say her character has gotten sacrificed on the altar of live filming, but this is a pre-produced show, maybe they forgot to tell the writer. Maybe the script had been written alongside the filming, completely negating any benefit of filming a show before airing it.

So why is it a 6.5 instead of 3? Well SHS even on a bad day is still one of the best kdrama actresses there are & oh boy she sure is carrying very hard. (though not as hard as in Angel's Last Mission if I want to be entirely honest)

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average-ish

Basically this is a somewhat average vibe drama with a super predictable "the lie is revealed" final conflict. Ignoring nitpicky & not so nitpicky flaws, the biggest issue is that for me the immersion is just not there. Everything is too fake, the balance of fantasy and reality is not maintained properly, nor is the chemistry between the leads quite good enough. Painfully there is a second forced separation for the main couple somewhere around half way in, because one is not enough apparently..
In general I just don't like the ML character that much, I don't know..

I liked the 2 young side couples, but they could have had more screen time + noble idiocy issue.

Anyway I don't feel like giving this more than a 7 considering that I've seen so many great vibe dramas, this is just not anywhere near that standard. (Romance Is a Bonus Book, One Spring Night, A Piece of Your Mind, First Frost and many others..)

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Misguided educational program for Korean highschoolers!?

This is basically 3 unrelated short stories bundled up in a 7 episodes long anthology..

Act 1:
You would think that a story that involves porn/masturbation addiction would break kdrama convention, but unfortunately that is not the case. High school dating is still a no & honestly the message that wetdreams are preferred over masturbation is just plain wrong. Also the way how this almost-relationship started is very male fantasy like and unrealistic. 5/10

Act 2:
This one is much better than Act1, but it's not amazing. For starters it was supposed to be a friendship to lovers story, but the friendship is barely shown & it's not even for a lack of time, since there was more than enough time to focus on naked upper bodies and such. I don't even think it was that well acted out really, the chemistry between the leads is not all that great either. Also in one scene FL is worried about her mismatched underwear, fastforward a few minutes & she is not even willing to allow kissing, come on now! 7/10

Act 3:
I'm not exactly sure what this is supposed to be about. It felt aimless and strange to me. I don't think this was worth watching at all. Perhaps the main theme is bullying, but it's not very impactful, even if someone liked watching that kind of thing. 4/10

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It's romance, not a romcom.

This has been a pretty interesting drama. It's quite unusual in many ways. When I reached the half way point I've been thinking that it's the perfect blend of fantasy and reality. We've seen characters & situations that cannot possibly be real, but at the same time I did not find either the realness or the absurdity of the plot immersion breaking. Unfortunately this delicate balance is broken somewhat in the later episodes. There were some unnecessary skits that felt out of place. It's not that the later episodes weren't good, but at times I felt like I'm watching a different drama compared to when I started. I guess to some extent the writing can be blamed too. I've been thinking that perhaps the writer realized around ep9-10 that she has ran out of ideas and a lot of padding's been added instead of content that I wanted to watch. Then again the writing is on a very high level throughout the drama, it's just that there were some recurring themes that I don't really like, such as parents "owning" their children etc. There is a lot of intelligent and wholesome dialog in the drama & also the complete lack of love triangles is extremely praiseworthy. Perhaps the problem is 100% me, because I'm just never satisfied with anything. I could also nitpick about the ending, it reminded me a lot of Be Melodramatic. Objectively it's decent, but I just don't like the idea of open ended kdramas and the characters really shouldn't discuss what a happy ending is in their last scene, that is just too immersion breaking for me, but that seems almost fotm these days. I was prepared to bash the writer for ruining the second couple's story, but considering their last 2-3 scenes their conclusion is up to our imagination..

Everything else is fantastic.

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Had they just dialed down the crazy a tiny bit..

I found the early episodes awesome. It's been such a long time since I felt this way while watching a kdrama. I find the basic concept to be incredibly fun & despite the leads being a bit lacking in chemistry I felt their back and forth refreshing, interesting & even the related mysteries/thriller bits were quite well presented, for a kdrama.

Unfortunately my excitement started to seriously fade around e7-8 & by 10 I felt a tremendous amount of boredom. By e8 I thought that I had most of the plot figured out & that I pretty much know what's what with the villains & how this is going to go down.
Again unfortunately I was surprised, the script really went above and beyond my expectations in a bad way. The writers escalated the makjang to absolutely insane levels, not even a hint of sanity had been left in the show. Then comes e12 & again I thought this is it now we'll just go through the motions & we'll get some kind of a cringy super unrealistic happy ending. We've ultimately gotten that alright, but the forced separation & some of the noble idiocy explanations, the dialog related to that part is again completely insane & if we add in how she ended up "there", that's just too much.
I could talk about intelligence insulting plotholes, but I'm not motivated enough to go back & rewatch some of the earlier parts to be absolutely sure this is right.

When The Phone Rings is really hard for me to rate, because on one hand the early episodes were wonderful, but on another this drama has almost everything I hate about kdramas & Brazilian soaps. The one thing it does not have is a strong love triangle & I'm greatful for that, but good gawd all the makjang classics are present & in incredible abundance at that. Epi 11 of this show is quite possibly the craziest kdrama episode I have ever watched, we really go through all the big soap tropes and more in a super condensed way...

The OST on the whole is not great, I barely felt it most of the time, but there is an instrumental track I really liked, though it only played like 3 times throughout the entire show. It's called `In Your Arms` and it can be easily found on Youtube searching for that + When The Phone Rings.

In the final episode there are some veiled references to events that are going or went down in the Middle East, I did not watch the mistranslated version & I don't really care honestly, but it's strange the production team had to go with stuff that resembles controversial real world events, why would you step on toes like that I don't know. This did not influence my rating though, I just find it strange that this was given the okay, considering the ramifications.
Then again maybe I shouldn't be too surprised, Korean writers/directors rarely care about international success & the opinions of international viewers, Netflix or not. Just look at how often Africa comes up in kdramas & how dumb it is every single time.

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It's okay, if you are in the mood for some moodiness.

Honestly this is nowhere near as bad as the makjangish and super silly setup would suggest.
I have two big problems with the show.
The first is that the OTP romance is not very believable. I think acting shortfalls are definitely part of this issue & the chemistry was just not enough for me to fully immerse myself in their relationship.
The second is that the ending is extremely low effort. There was all this crying/suffering/hardship & then everything just worked out senselessly, also following the always annoying separation followed by a 1 minute happy ending formula. It's better than people dying I suppose, but not by much. I don't know if this was live filming or not, but it sure feels like it. Then again, it's quite normal for kdrama writers to not give a fork about well thought out endings, so that could be it. (This is pretty much the industry standard now, if anything.) On a positive note a well thought out, reasonable ending would've been exorbitantly difficult with the setting we've had, so perhaps embracing the silly is not the worst thing in the world. I would hugely prefer though if writers made scripts that can be wrapped up in a way that makes sense, instead of making convoluted messes & then just yolo-ing the ending.

As for what I liked.. There is a lot of reasonably well written dialog existing outside of the plot-driving conversations. I liked the moody presentation & the pink filter was part of that too I suppose. I liked the visuals on my color calibrated displays, but I can see why someone would hate this, if watching the show on an LG oled TV or a Galaxy phone..
The OST is pretty good too!

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Great, but the Manhwa is greater.

I'm not gonna waste the time talking about how amazing this is, it's fully deserving of the 9/10 rating, but in this review I'll focus on the things that I did not like so much.

In the early episodes Ahn Hyo Seop tried to copy Park Seo Joon's character from Secretary Kim. I'm not entirely sure why the production team wanted this, I don't think this worked for the actor. As much as I'm not a fan of his, I gotta admit that once he stopped doing that, he was perhaps the best version of himself so far. He had reasonable chemistry with Kim Se Jeong and his acting ability & on screen maturity has seemingly taken a step forward.

Obviously I've read the webtoon and I'm unhappy about a few things. For starters they have removed my favorite part of the webtoon, namely Hari's hilarious attempts at trying to turn fake into real.
In the final two episodes we have deviated quite far from the source material & I disliked pretty much all the changes.
Young Seo's conclusion was perhaps a little cliche in the comics, but it was nice. Instead of that we've gotten this rushed thing with YS cutting his father off. I liked the original plot more, but this was okay too I suppose and they might have made Korean television history with this. I've seen countless kdramas with asshole parents & this is the first time when the parent gets cut off in way that does not conform with the values of Confucianism. I certainly approve of this message!
The scandal about "Hari stalking her crush for 7 years, then dating her CEO right after" is the scriptwriter's invention. Did anyone actually like this? Not me anyway..
The forced 1 year temporary separation was complete bull, I'm sorry. There was 0 need to do this. This is one of the worst kdrama cliches that the Manhwa does not have. Compared to other dramas this is once again not the worst, at least they did not break up, or anything. it's just sad that they wasted what little time they had with the 12 episode limit on something like this. The webtoon has a very long & fluffy happy ending, also it's not boring at all. I understand that there was no time to get all of that in, but the deviations were less than appreciated and that's putting it bluntly.
Also the webtoon has a really funny secondary love interest for Kang Tae Moo, if they wanted to increase tensions in e11-12, they should have gone with her mini ark instead. (not a real love interest, but everyone though so & it was really amusing how Hari needed to defend her territory)


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(There is a love triangle, but I think triangle haters can safely watch this, the secondary love interest had relatively little screen time & has been rejected very strongly in a timely fashion)

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