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When the Camellia Blooms korean drama review
Completed
When the Camellia Blooms
8 people found this review helpful
by Tosca1
Feb 3, 2023
40 of 40 episodes seen
Completed 1
Overall 5.0
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 6.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 1.5

Watch this only for Kang Ha-neul

This series could have easily been shortened to the usual K-drama length of 16 episodes, but I guess the producers stretched it out to 20 episodes to milk as much money as they can from the TV network. That's why the show dragged starting around Episode 11. The writers should look for another profession.

Gong Hyo-jin, who played the FL, is a terrible actress. She had a blank expression on her face throughout the series or cried that looked so phony. She cried in almost every episode (sometimes several times in the same episode) and whined that she was abandoned as a child. I didn't mind her whining about her sad life for 3-4 episodes, but EVERY episode? It gets old really fast. I blame the writers for this. By Episode 18, I was really hating her - so pathetic and irrational. During Episode 19, the tale of FL's mother's early years, it was supposed to be sentimental and tugged at your heart, but it bored me and I fell asleep. At Episode 20, with every character's storyline wrapped up nicely with a bow, I felt like puking. At the end, the kid had grown to an adult but the ML and FL had not aged - not one single gray hair after being together for 15 years (they met when he was 34 and she was about 1-2 years older)!

All the Korean mothers were overbearing: ML's mother who initially can't accept her son falling in love with a single mother, the model wife's mother who schemed to have her daughter take as much alimony from the baseball player, female lawyer's mother-in-law who is a nag and a bitch. Is this a cultural thing or do the writers hate mothers?

The only acting that stood out as exceptional were from the ML, the baseball player, the dead friend/coworker and the little son. They all showed a great range and depth of emotions. It was good to see Kang Ha-neul, the ML, in a comedic role after seeing him in a serious role in Moon Lovers:Scarlet Heart. I watched this show specifically to see him after seeing his outstanding performance in Moon Lovers but felt his talent was wasted in this show.

I would not rewatch this show or recommend it to anyone unless they absolutely needed to see Kang Ha-neul.

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