Valerie
La La Land
Looking at the ratings made me feel like this drama is seriously underrated. Currently at episode 10, and I'm loving it to bits! Episode 1 started a bit slow, but it was crucial to understand the different personalities of the tourists. By the way, I loved the ahjummas! Wish they were part of the tourists also, which would have made it more interesting and funny to watch.
The supporting characters' relationships seemed cliche at first glance, but as they delve deeper into their background stories, it made me realise that this drama is all about "Don't judge a book by its cover" and the different kind of relationships between the tourists.
I found the pace to be good. I loved how they focused on each pair for each episode. I loved the back stories and the progress of relationships so much! I loved the male lead's character here. It was so unique. I'm glad he wasn't a typical CEO or this good looking handsome guy with a narcissistic personality. His character was hilarious and so were his interactions with people in France. There were so many misunderstandings about him from the very start which I found to be funny. I loved his character so much!
And for the elderly couple, at first I really despised the ahjussi. He kept yelling at everyone and complaining about everything. I felt really sad for his wife. But once I saw the backstory, I kind of understood why he behaved in that manner. I could also tell that he changed slowly throughout the course of this drama, though not to a drastic extent, which seemed realistic enough for me.
For the young couple, I thought they would have a happy "honeymoon" dating period in France. But man was I not expecting a deep relationship with misunderstandings and communication problems. Their relationship changed a lot throughout this drama as well.
And for the main couple... I loved the progress of their relationship. The misunderstandings between the two of them were hilarious. And man, Jung Yong Hwa's kisses have gotten A LOT BETTER. I hated the fish kisses in "The heartstrings".
There were so many unexpected twists which I really loved. Overall, it was an awesome drama to watch!
For those ONLY looking for romance, don't start this drama because the main focus is not the romance but the growth of the characters and their relationships. It was a really good refreshing drama for me.
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The drama as a whole:
I really loved how the relationship between the leads progressed. Though there were some really annoying characters whom I wanted to strangle, looking at James smiling face made me forget about everything. Honestly, I wasn't really a fan of the setting or the costumes because chinese and korean historicals really made me have very high expectations but the story was amazing.
The story:
This is a typical revenge historical drama... NOT! First of all, the male lead doesn't play with the female lead's heart, then breaks her, just for revenge or anything like that. Though essentially, some parts of the drama were similar to that of a typical revenge drama where the male lead lies to everyone and disguises himself, which cannot be helped since the setting was in the palace but the male lead acting as an eunuch was a first for me. I really liked the progression of the story where they slowly revealed things to us in every episode instead of just dropping the bomb on us in a single episode.
The romance:
Though the beginning of the drama suggested a love hate relationship between the leads, it wasn't over the top like most love hate dramas. They only disliked each other in the first episode and slowly began to fall for each other as the story progressed. I loved their chemistry.
Characters:
I didn't really like how some of the males were portrayed in this drama, but well I guess its a historical so I was expecting a lot of gender inequality. I really loved the character of the female lead in this drama, she was strong in her own way and I loved her for it. I loved her wits and her psychological strength as she experienced a lot of challenges along the way and never gave up on what she believed in. I also liked the main lead, but didn't really appreciate the compassion he showed for the slave because that girl was so irritating that I desperately wanted to strangle her. I liked the female lead's father, even though he appears to be angry whenever she skips out on her match making dates, he never really hit her or scold her harshly like other parents would have.
Is it worth watching?
Definitely! If you don't mind hearing Thai, love James, and love watching Thai dramas, give this one a try.
Don't like the first episode? Then just drop it, no one's forcing you to watch it anyway.
Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed watching this drama like me :D
P.S For those curious as to how to watch this drama english subbed, PM me and I'll send you the details. (EDIT: I received a few replies that the leader of the group who subbed this drama hasn't accepted any invites in the past few months so sadly, the only subs available are those you can find on dailymotion).
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To be honest, the only reason I picked up this drama was when I coincidentally saw the subtitles of this drama being updated on 27th July on Dramacool and came to mydramalist to find out that the drama had finished airing. The summary did not intrigue me, and the ratings didn't really interest me either since very few have rated this drama. But I decided to give it a try still as after some research, I found out that the anime version was really popular(I've never watched it though).
When I first started watching a few days ago, I had dropped this drama thrice in the first episode because it bored me so much. I kept moving onto other dramas and decided to come back to it today because most of the good dramas always pick up in the second episode, to name a few would be My Ahjussi, Strangers From Hell and much more. And I'm so glad that I came back, this drama completely caught my attention right at the very beginning of episode 2 and it just kept getting more and more intriguing. I finished bingeing the whole drama today, and am mindblown, it was that good.
I laughed, I smiled and I cried. I never cared nor knew what rakugo was about until I watched this drama. What first caught my attention was the mystery surrounding Konatsu's parents' death. I'm no newbie to mystery dramas but the way the story was told and shown left me wanting more. I also enjoyed watching all the rakugo scenes and even went to google some of the performances.
If I think back about it, the story itself wasn't that special except for the rakugo parts. But it was the way they told the story and it's characters which made a huge impression on me. And of course, the actors were amazing too, especially Okada Masaki. I've watched a lot of his dramas before but he never really caught my eye until this drama. My eyes followed him every time he was on screen. He's an actor I'm going to look out for in future dramas.
This is a severely underrated gem which I recommend everyone to give a try if you are looking for a unique story. If you are just here for the romance, then look elsewhere. Because here, you are going to learn about rakugo, friendship, what it means to be a family and different kinds of love.
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This drama is seriously good. It's more of a slice of life drama, with vibes similar to that of Korean's reply series. I would never compare this drama to any others because the feelings this drama gave me compared to others with similar plots were completely different. This wasn't a rom com, nor abt timetravelling, this was more on friendships, regrets and relationships between every character surrounding the male lead. Though I still question what was the point in main lead going back to the past, I still loved this drama a lot.
It is very slow paced and focuses on relationship building rather than moving the story forward so some might find it slow or boring. But to me, this drama taught me a lot of life lessons. Sometimes, you just don't understand what is happening around you unless you are looking at it from a third POV or when someone tells you about it in the future. This is how the main lead realises that a lot of things he thought he knew in the past were actually not really the case when he looked at it from the POV of a teacher's, watching himself and his friends slowly change.
Lastly, it taught me how important friendships are and how to treasure them. Saying goodbye is never easy, but something you can't avoid as life goes on. T . T
I hope everyone will give this drama a try. Like I said, it's slow, but worth the watch. Don't go in with expectations from other time travelling dramas because only the start is similar, but the focus on this drama is not the rom com nor timetravelling but the relationships.
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This review may contain spoilers
I will try not to write spoilers as much as I can (except for characters).First of all, this is the BEST Japanese Historical Drama for me and the longest drama I've ever watched in terms of the number of episodes. I have watched other asadoras before but this was my very first asadora that I began watching in 2016. I was feeling very depressed because my studies weren't progressing as well as I expected it to and needed a drama to motivate me and that's how I came across this severely underrated drama. When I saw that there were very few ratings for it, I was discouraged from watching it but I really wanted to see dramas on women taking their lives into their own hands and making a difference in the world. Whenever I listen to my English teachers talk about how there are very few women in politics in this world and women still being discriminated in some parts of the world, a part of me felt put down. Being a woman myself, I could relate to some of the issues that Asa faced in this drama. So this drama really connected to me on a personal level.
Overall story:
This story is about a girl who questioned everything that happened in her life instead of only doing what she was told without knowing about anything. This drama shows a lot about gender inequality in the past and shows that even women can overpass their husbands and are capable to take care of the family even when their husbands are unable to do so.
Women weren't only born to take care of the house, get married and give birth to an heir. Women were also born with a purpose in life.
This is an inspirational drama that helps motivate the viewers when you are going through tough times.
I highly recommend all girls to watch this drama. Not only girls, but everyone is encouraged to watch this drama. It isn't your normal historical dramas, or any drama we have seen before. This is about a woman who founded the first female university in Japan.
I loved how the drama progressed. This being my very first asadora, I was surprised to see how short the episodes were and thought it would just get boring 10-20 eps later since the eps were too short for the story to progress much. But I was totally wrong.
The drama mainly focused on Asa's journey from a young child to becoming a woman, getting married, having her own child, getting into business, becoming a great entrepreneur and making a name for herself. The story was told in such an interesting way that I found myself clicking the next episode and continued watching it through the night and even in school.
I found myself grinning, giggling, squealing, crying, getting angry and frustrated at some characters, I loved the whole journey. I felt like I was part of Asa'a life. I was probably introduced to over a 100 characters in the drama but surprisingly, despite usually forgetting most of the stories of dramas I watch, I remembered every single character to ever appear on this drama. That's how much the story and every single character had touched me.
Characters:
This is going to be very difficult to write about without spoiling anything. So don't read this part if you don't want any spoilers.
I really loved the growth of the characters in this drama.
Asa's father:
Initially, Asa's father was really against Asa studying and always scolded her. I knew that he really cared for Asa and wanted the best for her so I didn't dislike him but I was not particularly fond of him either since he prevented Asa from getting the education she had wanted to have just because she was a woman. I really loved how Asa talked back to her father asking him why girls can't study and why girls have to get engaged at such a young age with no say in their life. Despite the harsh scoldings from her father, Asa never gave up on what she believed in and continued to pursue her dreams.
Later on in the drama, Asa's father realised how mistaken he was about Asa and told her husband how much he regretted not giving Asa the education she had wanted. I could really tell how much he cared for Asa and was really happy when he finally realised how great of a woman Asa had grown up to be.
Asa's mother:
She always helped Asa out whenever she was in trouble with her father. She always advised Asa on how to become a good wife for her family. i really loved the mother here. I could truly tell that she cared deeply for her family. When Hatsu, Asa's older sister went to meet her future husband for the first time, the mother felt that her future husband seemed to be like a mother's boy and was worried for her daughter. She even spoke to her husband about it and tried to come up with a solution.
Asa's grandfather:
He always believed that Asa will become a great woman in the future and always encouraged her to give her best shot in the things she wanted to do. I really loved the grandfather a lot and also liked how much he trusted Asa.
Godei: (The so-called second lead)
I really really loved him a lot in this drama. Honestly, I did ship Asa and Mr Godei together more than once in this drama. If Asa had married Godei, I'm sure they would have made a really good match and would have been able to establish much more than what they have right now. I felt Asa was a bit restricted to financial and banking side because of her husband and if she were to have married Godei, things would have turned out a lot more differently. But at the same time, I still think that Asa wouldn't have become what she is today, without the help of her husband, which I'll talk about later.
Godei loved the strange girl, Asa, ever since he met her at Osaka when Asa was only about 10 years old. He later became a famous person who was part of the new government and helped Asa grow as a businesswoman. He supported her, helped her in her journey, and advised her on a lot of stuff regarding business.
You could really tell he was in love with her and how much pain he was in because of that. But after a while, he started respecting the fact that she is a married woman and later even became friends with her husband.
Ironically, Asa's daughter, Chiyo's first love was Godei also even though she herself was unaware of it, only Ume(Asa's dowry maid) knew about it. (This kinda reminded me of Twilight). But don't worry, she was only 6 at that time so obviously nothing happened.
Asa's father-in-law:
I am really thankful to him for being such a nice and understanding father-in-law who let Asa study business and help with work-related issues when all the people surrounding Asa were against letting a woman help with the business. If it weren't for him, no one would have discovered Asa'a talent in business and Asa would have never been able to accomplish her purpose in life.
Asa's mother-in-law:
She was a really fun character. She disliked Asa at first since she didn't behave like the proper lady everyone expected to and was always interested in business and always asked the question 'why'.
But as the drama progressed on, you could tell that she grew to like her a lot. She wasn't the hateful mother-in-law at all, not even for a single moment. She did suggest getting a mistress for Asa's husband at one point in time but never really went on to accomplish that idea without permission from Asa. I wasn't happy that she even thought about such a thing in the first place but I was a bit happy that at least she wanted to lessen the burden of taking care of house and having children by taking in a mistress and even asked Asa for permission first before getting ahead of herself.
Well, she can be annoying at times, but I can't help but love her. She was one of the best mother-in-law one could ever ask for. I liked how much she took care of Asa's daughter since Asa was busy with work most of the time and she really adored Chiyo a lot.
Asa's sister, Hatsu:
She was the closest to Asa since birth. Hatsu was the total opposite of Asa. She was the ideal wife, most men would like to have at that time. She never once spoke against her father even when she felt scared upon meeting her future husband for the first time and always listened to what her parents say, unlike Asa. Hatsu always felt envious of Asa as she herself could never go against her parents' wishes nor be as outspoken as Asa was. Asa was also envious of Hatsu as unlike Hatsu, Asa could never behave lady-like nor be as graceful.
Hatsu went on to marry Soubee and was initially mostly ignored by her husband and bullied by her mother-in-law who was really strict. She felt very scared and lonely and wasn't allowed to meet with her sister. But as time passed by, her husband became nicer and you could tell he was beginning to fall for her. Once there was a change in the government, most of the money changers went bankrupt and out of business, Hatsu's family was one of those who had to run away in the middle of the night because of all of their debt that had accumulated. They became poor overnight and fought hard to protect their family. Hatsu's mother-in-law blamed her son and Hatsu for not being able to maintain their business and Hatsu went though a lot of difficulties during this time. She became pregnant and had to give birth to her son without her husband who ran away a few months ago.
I really admired Hatsu's strength. She was not a woman to be taken lightly either. She was from a rich family and knew very little about the world. When she was scared and lonely, she faced the challenges head on and always helped to protect her family through the difficult times. not once, did she give up on her husband, mother-in-law nor on protecting her family. She's the kind of woman I aspire to be.
Asa did face her own challenges as well, but she had her husband and his family supporting her the whole time while Hatsu had to face the challenges alone and didn't want to lean on her sister nor her family. I really loved her character growth in this drama.
Hatsu supported Asa's dreams since she was young and knew that Asa would one day become a much greater woman that she could ever dream of, and she was right in the end. I was sad that Hatsu couldn't see Asa's growth personally but was glad that she was on Asa's side from the start till the end of her journey.
Asa's husband, Shinjiro:
When Asa was young, she refused to get married without being able to choose what she wanted to do in her life. Asa's husband, Shinjiro, supported her dreams and told her that it was up to her to decide whether she wanted to marry him or not in the future. He always gave her a choice and let her decide what she wanted to do. Asa soon became to fall for him and always looked forward to meeting him every year before her marriage.
Shinjiro was a playful boy who never thought about taking care of his family's business since he was the second son of his family. He is 11 years older than Asa.
I initially thought of him to be a useless husband since all he did was play shamisen and drink most of the time but boy was I wrong. He had the most connections with a lot of people because of his shamisen plays, and always hears a lot of talk about business though he is mostly uninterested in it. He also encouraged Asa to do whatever she wants with her life and never forced her to do anything. He sometimes advised Asa on business related stuff and even secretly helped her with the business without telling her.
Shinjiro was the one who understood Asa the best. he knew what was going in her head, all the worries she had, and always tried his best to make her happy. I thought that he was the perfect husband a girl could have as:
1. He supported his wife's dreams and respected her a lot
2. He always protected his wife, and would do anything for her
3. If anyone spoke badly about her wife, he will not stand it
4. He always thinks about his wife first and he loves her the most
5. He's the most understanding husband one can ever have. Despite her talking about business all the time, and always spending her time outside, he trusted her fully and supported her with all his heart.
Shinjiro was really suited to be Asa's husband. If he wasn't as playful as he is in the drama, then Asa would have never gotten the chance to become who she is today. If she didn't have her husband by her side, Asa wouldn't have been able to accomplish much like she had either, as she had mentioned in the drama itself multiple times.
In the end, she said that it's thanks to her husband and father-in-law that she is who she is today. If they hadn't supported her throughout the journey, she would have never been able to make it this far.
I really miss Shinjiro a lot >.<
[Incomplete review- I do not have much time so I will continue writing this on another day].
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I really loved the romance and the whole concept of trading your friends/lovers' memories in exchange for wishes, and the consequences of doing so. What I find to be more tragic than death is when someone you loved and cared for(family, friends, lovers) don't remember you nor the good times and bad times you had together. Nothing is more painful than being "forgotten" and not being able to acknowledge your own memories, but it's the price these people chose to pay in order to defy fate.
I think this drama has an interesting take on the power of "memories". When I first started the drama, I thought memories was a small price to pay for the wishes these people were getting, but the more I watched, the more I realised that nothing is more painful than losing a relationship and being forgotten by the people who once loved and cared for you, just as you do for them. Realising that you're now nothing more than strangers and that you can no longer interact with them in fear of triggering their memories of you... That's just tragic. And I find it interesting how they make the pawners continue to have these memories, constantly reminding them that it was the price they chose to pay for their wish.
Overall, I think the drama has a good plot and an interesting take on "memories", but the pacing is all over the place, they could have summarised the first half into 5-6 eps and cut this drama to a 24 ep show. It's a story worth watching if you have the patience to sit through the first half of the drama. They are important in setting up the story, but unnecessarily long in my opinion.
This show was a 6-7 for the first half, and a 9 for the second half. Overall, it's an 8 from me.
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I've watched the main lead before in coffee prince and 'My wife is having an affair this week' and the female lead was an amazing actress despite her young age of just 25. She has received many criticisms for being an idol actress but her acting is far superior than many veterans I've seen. She managed to deliver her lines and portray the characters in her previous dramas: "The best lee soon shin", "The producers" and the best of them all: "Scarlet heart". She always managed to capture my attention regardless of whether she was the female lead or not. I was a bit hesitant when I heard she was playing a depressing, mature and witty role this time as I was so used to her cheerful characters in the above mentioned dramas, but she really proved herself to be a versatile actress in this drama, one I'm really looking forward to seeing in future dramas :)
Anyways, once i got to the middle of the episode, I was totally glued to my screen and unable to divert my attention elsewhere. The cinematography, the A-list actors, the story, the characters, everything made me fall in love with this drama. And before I knew it, i had already reached the end of the episode and was once again awestruck by IU's acting and found myself clicking the next episode, and the next, and the next, till I had already reached the end. The ending was also perfect for me.
The chemistry between the leads was also surprisingly good. I thought it would be difficult to show romance since ML is already married and FL is too young but man, their actions, expressions and their eyes when they look at each other were enough to tell me how they feel for each other. No words were needed. Now, this is what I call amazing acting skills!
A must watch for all K-drama lovers, regardless of whether you like this type of drama or not. Just watch at least until episode 2. If it still doesn't catch your interest, then just move on to another drama.
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This review may contain spoilers
Interesting mix of Suspense + Medical genres
I just finished watching this drama, all episodes in one day, and I have to say, I'm impressed.I'm no newbie to medical nor suspense genres, I've watched plenty of korean medical dramas and loved them. But this drama, was somehow different. Yes, there are many similarities where each episode talks about one of the patients that the female lead has. But besides that, there's also suspense involving a stalker who seems to know everything about the female lead. He harasses her in various ways that it really creeped me out. Makes you wonder why he was going to such an extent to harass her when there seems to be no apparent reason for it.
As for the female lead herself, I could see her change throughout the drama as she tried to take care of her patients' personal needs, rather than it being just strictly medical. Though, I was annoyed at times with the way she dealt with the stalker at the start, but now that I think about it, she wasn't in much of a power to do anything about it either. If I was her, I would have ran straight to the police because my life is more important than my career but oh wells, I'm not her.
This drama had pretty good character development, though I do think the last episode was rushed. This drama covered a variety of different kinds of patients' stories, including one of a trans. I never knew that even going to a hospital can be torture to trans people.
Overall, I feel this drama is worth a watch if you like the medical genre with some suspense. I decided to watch this on a whim when I saw that it was fully subbed and I ended up enjoying the story.
SPOILERS ALERT
Something that I disliked about this drama would be:
- While she was being harassed by this stalker, the General Secretary was claiming that all the problems lied with the doctor herself, which I thought was completely ridiculous. There's so many CCTVs and yet they couldn't even bother to get to the bottom of this.
- The way they dealt with the stalker. I gotta admit, my impression of him changed after final episode, but still, I don't believe that all bad guys become good just because of their pitiful backgrounds.
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I loved Kwang soo's and Go Hyun Jung's roles in this drama especially. I liked how much Kwang soo cared for his mother in this drama, when her other sons neglected her. Go Hyun Jung's love hate relationship with her mother is something I could relate to very well, and her romantic relationship with Jo In Sung was awesome as well. I laughed, cried and learnt a lot of life lessons along the way.
I also envied the strong bonds between the elderly friends even after so many years had passed. I've lost contact with a lot of my friends from the past and wish that I wouldn't be lonely in the future and would also have friends like them by my side.
The only thing I would want them to change is the number of episodes. I think I wouldn't mind watching 20-32 ep of this drama.
This is easily a 10/10 for me! Would love a season 2 with different characters but similar vibes. If anyone is thinking whether to watch this or not, well like I always say, give the first 1-2 eps a try. If you don't like it, just drop it, no one is forcing you to continue watching anyway. If you like it, then great, I'm sure you would love the rest of the episodes as well. Have fun watching!
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I also like how the main couple's personalities didn't change drastically at the end of the show. No matter how hopelessly romantic one might be, it's not that easy to change your personality within a few months of dating, especially when you are an adult. Since dramas were all just fiction, I didn't say anything much when the main lead suddenly changes from a narcissistic CEO to a "kind" or "nice" person by the end of 16 eps but honestly, its very unrealistic and I'm glad I can finally say this today.
If you are a lover of rom coms, give this one a try, you will most likely love it!
I would have given it a 9-9.5/10 because I didn't like what they did with Lee Sung Yeon's character but since I always rate dramas purely based on my enjoyment, this drama is 100000000000000/10 for me! :D
I think a rating of 8.7/10 for this drama on mydramalist is just right. It's not really the best drama considering the plot itself isn't that great but for a rom com, this is one of the best. It didn't change genres from rom com to melo then rom com at the last ep like a lot of rom coms I've watched. It was funny from start to the end and stayed true to the rom com genre.
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