"I like men who eat carrots"

While watching Rain or Shine (alternate title), I wanted to try my best to write a professionally written review after a long time, but here I am holding back myself from an expression-rant of how much feels I am getting, so this will be a kinda fusion review.

I have come to realize what Just Between Lovers is about. It is not just about a romantic story between two people who have been scarred and brought together by an unfortunate mall collapse incident (that is I think also based from a real-life incident) which costs the lives of many people, (well actually yeah it is), but also a graceful interpretation of life and the humans in it, the wonders of living, the struggles and fortunes, and a tribute and memorial itself for victims, survivors, and for the family of the bereaved. It wasn’t just a plot that revolved on bringing up a new building after a tragedy and the few people involved in it, but an overall depth into all those affected. It is a process of recovery, healing, and remembering. This drama alone has given me so much emotions, feels, reflection time, and thought processes in the span of 16 episodes. I love it.

I would like to introduce everyone to my new comfort character, Lee Kangdu. I’m not even sure if he’s considered as a comfort character. I don’t exactly relate entirely with him, though, I have a very very very big soft spot for him and I just love him, I don’t care what he does I will always love and support him. He was given the character that was strayed far away from the cliched cold, unspoken, rich, stuck up arrogant rude bad boys. Instead, he was given a new meaning to the bad boy term (idk what im saying). Truth is, I’d usually dislike mannerless characters like him. Kangdu grew up with harsh poor circumstances, but still preserved, worked his hardest to get by each day, and still was morally righteous and was really a kind caring soul. Tbh, now that I ponder over it, he’s a good boy brought up well. Hard to explain, but you’ll understand when you watch too.

Now let's talk about romance. Oh my god. What in the world. I have never once thought that this kind of drama which looked gloomy in glance would give me so much butterflies and heart-fluttering jitters, me watching this drama is basically just a try not to scream and cry at the same time challenge everytime I see the couple interact on screen. They are sososososo cute, like sooooo cute. I didn’t think I’d crave this much skinship for them. I’m not even talking about what, but simply just holding hands. That alone, was to me, the most romantic thing ever. I literally died.

It’s slow burn, but watching them together is just so comforting and happy. It’s a fresh type of feeling I get despite the traumas that the characters went through. Their actions, dialogues, and every moment are always so pure, sincere, so personal, and simply just feels so intimate, warm, realistic, and full of love. Watching this, there is an odd specific description I am unable to give them, but I just have to say, there is just something so special about the relationship they have.

None, I mean none, of the characters are written in 2d, everyone is so complex in their own ways. There is a central focus on the two main leads, but the supporting characters have the sufficient glaze of their own specific personalities, character, and depth that makes them the more sympathetic and realistic. If it even makes sense to say, they’re all portrayed very subtly, not in the direct type but it takes a slow buildup for one to gradually observe how they are with time. Relations between every character are also explored and delivered in different forms of development, which makes the overall experience and telling very heartwarming. We have the two leads, but we also have the second leads and more of the side characters in which any kind of connection can be drawn from one another and it’ll all be a different but beautiful form. Everyone seems to have their own reasons for their actions, and by the end of the drama I didn’t fully hate anyone despite disliking or misjudging some of them at some point. I want to list out some that I really love but that’ll be almost everyone. Though the one who gave me the strongest emotions is Kangdu’s “Granny”, I genuinely truly cared about everyone.

I'd like to highlight this quote--
"Granny once said, "Living is a repetition of regrets and failures." I sarcastically asked, "Then what's the point of living?" Granny spoke again saying, "It's to make even better regrets and mistakes," and advised me not to be intimidated.”
Idk but this quote really hits home, and was enough to settle this drama for the "well-made" stamp.

I love everyone’s performance, especially the freshness of Jinah and Junho (considering at that time they’re new). I can't imagine anyone else as their respective roles because they fitted so well. Their chemistry is too good, and the way they look at each other is too romantic. But damnnn I am so impressed by Lee Junho. He’s not only way too charming and handsome to be true, but his emotions are so raw I can’t believe it. I have negative prejudices against idol-actors but he proved me wrong. I’m so crazy in love with him now.

Can’t let this review go without mentioning the sound. It’s a very sided detail, but I want to commend for how great the incorporation in music could set the mood and tone of the drama. Not just speaking about the OSTs, I mean they were great too, but I’m talking about the BGMs and musical instrumentals from Nam Hyeseung. I always admired them while watching.

To be honest, I’m resisting the urge to give this drama a 10. Maybe because I’m having post kdrama syndrome as I write this review since I just finished it 2 hours ago, but subjectively, the overall impression on me could last me for a good month of non-stop thinking. But I’ll be objective, the quality was not really the best. While there were scenes where the cinematography and settings were bomb, some driving scenes had obvious green-screen, and the building collapsing CGI still fall very shortly, as well as some old-school tinted settings and production (but we can understand, it probably lacks the budget). And also, well maybe the events of the story went a bit for the cliched sad route somewhere in the middle. It stopped by the sappyfest bus stop for too long in some episodes, but at the same time that can be considered a good thing, depending on how you see it. Well while I was a tad bothered by the prolonged events, surely for me it didn’t stop my love for the drama.

**Other quotes I feel deeply for--
“Knowing that ignorance is bliss is a strength”
"There's no such thing as being relieved because things could have been worse. Being unfortunate is just...feeling miserable."
"People say this as a word of comfort, “this, too, shall pass”. They are right. No matter how terrible the situation, they do pass. Except, the problem can always come back."
“What you can't force, just let it be. Don't try too hard. Being sad and painful. Those things are always with us. But instead, you can meet someone better and live a fun life.”
“I really like right now, when today is becoming tomorrow and not much is going on.”
"Saving a person so they can remain as a shell of who they were is us being greedy."
“When a person dies, I heard they go back to the time when they were prettiest.”
“The phrase, “a prison of one’s own making,” isn’t it strange? No one's locked us in. Then why can't we get out?"
“It's been said that life is about getting used to parting. No. There is no one who gets used to parting.”

Overall, Just Between Lovers may not be the most mind-blowing dramas out there, but definitely will be one of the most memorable and loved dramas to me, and yes I will rewatch it again someday, and yes I really do recommend it greatly to potential viewers.

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Big mess with room for potential

First half of this review will be spoiler free, other half will contain spoilers.

I was so frustrated by this that it was the first drama that gave me the motivation to start writing a review. I seriously have no idea why this is the kind of drama that is being hyped and loved around the internet when there really is nothing good that comes out, except for Lee Rang, the second male lead played by Kim Bum.

To give it initial praise, Tale of the Nine Tailed managed to create the very complex and 3 dimensional character Rang who has a solid storyline and character development arc. Maybe if this drama was solely about him I would've given it at least a 7. But it's not like I'm saying Rang was an extraordinarily written character, it's just that he was the best out of everyone else here with some questionable personalities.

Starting with the male lead Lee Yeon, I just dislike him. I don't know what they're trying to make out of him, but he's just a cheesy narcissistic douchebag who cares more about his half orange parted hair than his own brother. Not only does that look on Lee Dongwook a turnoff, his personality is just as turnoff, reminding me of the next door "Kdramas to Avoid" aka Lee Gon from TKEM. To me, Yeon is just a selfish jerk who acts like he has too much on his plate atm with lack of development because the drama makes it out that he's been perfect from the beginning. LDW's acting was decent, but Yeon isn't.

Next is the absolute worst female character of 2020, Nam Jiah. There's an obvious fine line between being brave or recklessly stupid and she's definitely the latter. Okay fair she's trying to research more on urban legends because it's her job, okay she has a strong driving force which is to find her parents, bUT ITS DEFINITELY NOT OKAY TO COME IN A SUS LOOKIN PLACE THT OBV HAS MONSTERS IN IT WHILE UR EMPTY HANDED JUST CUZ UR FORSAKENLY CURIOUS. Please ma'am use your braincells and stay out. U. R . A. MORTAL. The ending of the first episode did not just went all impactful for it to be destroyed the next ep by some damsel in distress who never learns her goddamn lesson and does the same thing again to the point Yeon has to save her over and over again at like every other ep.

Jo Boah's acting was also ehh. This is my first time watching her so I may not be too sure, maybe this role doesn't suit her, but here she's a prime example of actors not knowing how to make use of their huge eyes and just stare out wide-eyed with no change in their facial expressions everytime they act. To add to her badly written character, the scriptwriter does a bad job at giving her lines. She talks like an old-timed philosopher using allusions in the same tone to evoke for pity effect from the male lead.

The chemistry is almost non-existent, and I seriously just don't know what they see in each other; it's just love that comes from the multiple savings needed. The second lead couple Yuri and Shinju was also not that interesting eventhough they still did better than the leads. It's one of those instances where two people just randomly decides they want to date each other. Yuri seems like she has potential to be a pretty interesting character, but Shinju was kind of plain. More like, every other side characters are just basic, useless, and only contribute as fillers.

The story is just everywhere. Well, plus point for spooky factors that actually scared me. But several scenes are just irrelevant. There was one arc in the beginnings about an imoogi island which purpose other than for leads to get closer was never really explained thus another loophole is formed. Some other events could've posed for more potential, but they dragged a lot of other things. Even the main imoogi conflict was the most boring.

Acting from villains are also quite cringe. Can't say Lee Taeri wasn't that convincing as imoogi, and they did tried their best to do whatever the script was telling them to, but again, the scriptwriter is horrible since there is really no need for them to talk so dramatically and cheesily that the dialogues just make me want to mute the audio. Say you want to say "I killed that man." The characters of TONT will say it like, "The blood of the wanderer has perished upon my hands." ...The world doesn't speak like that.

Petty complains: It was also hella laughable when they added random not that intense action scenes at the most absurd moments, and the way Yeon fights was so cheesy. The drama seems to want to go for that vampire vibes with the quick speed teleportation fighting and overall just makes it more cringe. Personally felt that color gradient was also quite disappointing, they relied on a lot of random light vibe-unmatching sky colors that made it cheesy. Tbh this drama is just full of unnecessary cheese.

Forcing out compliments, OSTs were good and hardcore to make up for the lack of intensity, especially "Blue Moon".

*****SPOILER ALERTS*****

I previously mentioned Jiah's driving force was to find her parents. That caused the biggest loophole. First of all they never explained why the villains even want to cause that accident. And then the whole drama's purpose to find the parents is suddenly lost after they were found cause right after that they only had the world's most awkward 10min reunion and then done they don't talk about it anymore. And that leaves a lot of questions. How are you going to adjust after 15 years missing? How are they going to get a job? What's going to happen? But no, they just decided to use the parents opportunity for Yeon to visit them and cause even more filler couple moments.

My biggest pet peeve with this drama is THE SELFISHNESS. Basically imoogi has the power to control people around him to be suicidal or just instantly kill whoever crosses paths with him and the only solution is to kill his other half in Jiah's body. What they could do is create a scenario where they're investigating on the mysterious deaths cause yes it's strange, but no. Every other human there acts like pawns who are just REPORTING 900 DEATHS A DAY and the rest of the main chars are calmmm. Am I seeing this correctly? If the leads even have the least amount of conscience, I know this sounds mean to say, but Jiah should just sacrifice herself. That's actually a solution mentioned by a side char, but the drama just made her out to be heartless and cruel. I mean she ain't wrong. Even if it's fiction, imagine if it occurs to you where you suddenly see people around you dying at once and there's a definitive solution but the only people who can stop this aren't doing their frikin job cause they wanna pROteCt tHeiR lOVe. Bruh at the least if you have figured out another method with no tragedy, just hurry up and get it done with already instead of just dating everyday like it's nobody's business. The drama doesn't even bother addressing that to depth cause apparently it's normal and sympathizeable for the leads.

Lastly, the ending was just stupid and unreasonable and beats the entire purpose of the messy conflict. They even tried to insert a samsung PPL. The entire scene was just too dramatized and cringe, and moreover lacked explanations.

Conclusion: Ew.

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Kinda predictable and cliche, but still entertaining

My Name is like the average kind of revenge drama we see almost everywhere, whether in Korean or Western movies, and it all follows the same route. Family member died. MC driven by fury and revenge. MC went full training and adapted badass fighting skills. MC goes undercover. But this time, it’s girlboss.

This drama felt very one way, like moving from one scene to another in a straight manner, lacked complexity, but regardless was still pretty fun to watch. This is mainly thanks to the action scenes that were really great and very satisfying to see.

There's action every episode that are choreographed really well. Even used moves that gurlie learned from her training earlier. I just generally enjoy sitting in front of my laptop to see scenes where crime gangs are out there fighting each other, using guns, knives, and all those stuffs. The showcase and brutality made this drama way cooler (not to sound like a sadist). But other than the badassery, not much can really be said about the kind of drama My Name is. Like really, its just like that. Violent, grey, violent, revenge.

Plot wise, it was pretty easy to guess the twist. Maybe cause I've watched too much thriller crime, but from the first episode I'm already like, “yeah that's probably what's going to happen.'' Although so, the revelation was still suspense builded. I've also come to find more than few plotholes here and there, and some parts of the premise also lacked enough explanation or solid backstory, like for example the whole importance with Jiwoo’s dad. Even while he's the whole reason why this drama even happened, it’s always just “your dad was special to me”, “my dad was special to me”, but not enough of the how. Everyone just seemed to be involved with him but not much details are put.

Honestly I kinda reeealllyyy doubted this show and Sohee in the first ep because the whole setup just seemed pretty meh and unrealistic, and because I just didn't click too much with how flat Sohee acted at the beginning, especially in her more emotive scenes. But once I threw realism out, and Sohee started looking more like she’s adjusted to her character, I found myself enjoying the first few following eps. They were cool, wow, fast paced, and Sohee also performed her scenes well with even greater determination in her action.

Sadly towards the end it kind of went mediocre, the way where audiences could easily guess the next move. The closure was also very improper and anticlimactic and full of question marks, but okay at least its not too open ended so I see Netflix has improved.

I love dramas where characters are gray, and they did that here. Especially the dynamics between Mujin the gang leader and Jiwoo was very worth noting. Mujin is second best part about My Name. He makes use of every second of screentime he has and dominates the entire scene and entire show with his oozing charisma and badassery. Yus.

The other dynamics they wanted to show here was between Jiwoo and Pildo, but tbh it came off pretty dumb I actually laughed when they had an emotive scene together I'm sorry I'm so mean. Cause firstly, Pildo is pretty useless. Its hard to sympathize with him not because he's bad or anything, but because it just felt so umm... so flat. Like they just gave him a random tragic backstory then called it a day and expects everyone here including the MC to connect with him. I like him though, although he was pretty 1D and other times acted pretty inconsistently. Like he's supposed to be that smart tough cop leader but sometimes he act more like just some random male who simps blindly over a badass female.

The romance was the most wuutttt thing ever, because it was just too sudden and unnecessary. First of all the tags said no romance. Well in all honesty, I too am a very weird person cause for first few eps I actually hoped there'd be subtle romance between leads like what they did for extracurricular. But then they went all the way and I just ??? . It was so out of context irrelevant, and I just hate it. I hate how they always feel the need to give the strong woman lead a love interest. I get that it's to make her feel humane, but the build up is still so unnecessary it could've just been partnership with small hints of attraction and it’d still be fine. It's as if they were aiming so bad and pushing so much of a Wattpad enemies to lovers. Which was why I just can't help but laugh. Too much of romance in a non romantic thriller action drama most of the time always take up too much of what really should be more focused on. Not to mention their fate in the end was pretty uhm what?! And hard to feel.

Overall, My Name may not be a brilliant fabulous shows and had clear and predictable flaws, but it’s still a nice drama to be watched especially when you’re in the mood for a dive in its badass girlboss action.

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