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Completed
You're All Surrounded
0 people found this review helpful
by Soula
Apr 11, 2019
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 10
Story 10
Acting/Cast 10
Music 10
Rewatch Value 10
I can't rave about this drama enough. The first 2 episodes were a bit hard to get through because they were so incredibly sad, but even though the events that occurred in those first 2 episodes were cruel, I binge watched nearly every single second of this whole drama. I loved all the characters and their dynamics with each other and I really feel like all the characters were well-written.
Also, I watched this drama TWICE in one week, which I think goes to show how AMAZING it is. Not only was the plot well thought out, but the drama was FUNNY. Laugh out loud funny! It was amazing. I will definitely be watching this drama again in the future. Most definitely worth the watch (and rewatch haha)!

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Dropped 2/16
Miss Hammurabi
2 people found this review helpful
by Soula
Apr 3, 2019
2 of 16 episodes seen
Dropped 0
Overall 4.0
Story 5.0
Acting/Cast 5.5
Music 3.5
Rewatch Value 1.0
This drama has been on my plan to watch list since it came out. I was super excited that it finally came to Viki and started it almost immediately. Unfortunately, I am not a fan of how the story *feels*. The drama doesn't have enough light/comedic moments to truly lighten the tone to have more cheerful moments. I also do not like any of the character relationship dynamics (ranging from the main characters interacting with their coworkers to their families). And one of the most disappointing aspects is that I did not find the way the characters to be written to be enjoyable even though I adore many of the actors starring in this drama.

I also found this drama to be pretty boring with nothing really peaking my interest.
I wouldn't say that this drama is bad or that it's overrated, I just did not find the drama to be enjoyable enough to hold my attention and even though I only watched the first 2 episodes, that's definitely enough time to determine if there's anything promising to encourage me to continue watching. And unfortunately, Miss Hammurabi did not have that special something for me.

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Completed
Love Forecast
1 people found this review helpful
by Soula
Mar 24, 2019
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 8.0
I actually really enjoyed this movie. It was funny and cute and quite enjoyable. The only thing I might have liked better is if the male MC didn't go after the girl in the end, and instead, the female MC went after the guy (since *she* was the one who broke his heart and all). But overall, very enjoyable, light, and well-paced K-movie. I really enjoyed the after-credits scene (be sure to watch till the VERY end of the credits!). This is definitely a movie I could see myself watching again in the future and something I could recommend to others of the appropriate audience.

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Completed
The K2
1 people found this review helpful
by Soula
Mar 23, 2019
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 6.0
Story 5.5
Acting/Cast 6.5
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 3.5
This drama has been on my PTW list since I first started watching dramas years ago, but it was never really a priority for me until after watching a FMV that made the drama look super intriguing and intense.
K2 started out really promising with a good pace and intense plot, but I think for me, the drama started to fall apart when they introduced the romance between the 2 MCs. I personally don't feel that the female MC, Anna, should really be considered a main character - we barely know anything substantial about her and she doesn't even have that much screen time in comparison to other "main" characters. Which leads me to my main issue with the romance - Anna and K2 really don't know anything about each other. Their romance is only occurring because of human nature's instincts - he likes her because she's a damsel-in-distress and she likes him because he is protecting her from her foes, NOT because they actually know anything about each other that could cause them to realize they like each other. It's not really love. Perhaps infatuation or lust would be a better term to describe their relationship?....These feelings between Anna and K2 are used to drive the entire plot once their "romance" is introduced. And I'm just not a fan of their poorly and shallowly developed romance. I actually saw a lot of parallels between the K2 and Healer, but I think Healer was WAY better, having true depth and well-rounded characters established and explored.

Aside from the weakly written romance, I *did* enjoy Ji Chang Wook's performance and his character dynamics with Choi Yoo Jin. Song Yoon Ah did a phenomenal job portraying a character who was not simply bad or good, but instead had so much gray due to all of her experiences. I actually found myself sympathizing for her and not actually hating her.

The OST was wonderful and so well placed in scenes! I loved just about every OST song (some of the romantic slow songs got a bit old....but that might just be because I wasn't a fan of the romance lol).

Anyways, I would not particularly recommend this drama, and instead, if you are intrigued by the K2 and you haven't watched Healer, you really should go there instead. Healer offers a similar story with politics, a wonderfully developed romance, and mystery without plot holes/convenient plot devices.

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Completed
My P.S. Partner
0 people found this review helpful
by Soula
Mar 10, 2019
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 8.5
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 5.5
This was a good movie and I liked it well enough. The pacing was good, especially when comparing this Korean movie to other Korean movies that have tended to have more awkward pacing. I enjoyed the story even though it was predictable and not necessarily unique. A decent Friday/Saturday night watch while drinking a beer/wine.

As a warning to those people who aren't sure if this is something they are interested in watching - there is A LOT of skin revealed in this movie. There are full-blown sex scenes and entirely naked characters are shown as well. Personally I did not mind how uncensored this movie was, but it is definitely not appropriate for all audiences/ages/maturities, so you might want to have some caution as to who you are planning to sit down and watch this movie with.

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Completed
The Last Empress
15 people found this review helpful
by Soula
Mar 2, 2019
52 of 52 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 6.0
Story 6.5
Acting/Cast 10
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 1.0
This review may contain spoilers
I started this drama out of shear curiosity and really got hooked on the super drama it ended up turning into. I loved the plot and the character dynamics and could not wait for the romance between the Empress and the Chief body guard/Na Wang Shik. But......
The ending completely fell apart. It was exceptionally disappointing. I hated the way the writers wrapped things up. Min Yoo Ra being raped was just too much for me. It didn't make sense - it was like they were trying to justify and redeem her being a horrible person (throughout more than 75% of the drama) by saying that she went through something horrible (rape *is* horrible, but there was no reason to add that to her story because her story already made justifiable sense). Her horrible actions and mentally was already explained through her thinking she was abandoned when pregnant. They didn't need to add such a cruel thing on top of it. It was unnecessary and honestly, for me personally, distasteful.

Another thing that was handled poorly and was a complete let down for me was how Na Wang Shik was not in the final episodes - it felt really REALLY wrong. He needed to be there some how. Flashbacks would have been a great addition to kind of bridge the gap of the actor's absence! It was like they were trying to get us to forget he ever existed in the drama....but he was present in EVERY SINGLE EPISODE so trying to brush off his character in the last 4 episodes was just stupid and not well compensated for.

A logical issue in the plot that I could not fathom was the culprit behind the death of the Grandmother/Grand Empress Dowager....or apparently a suicide. Even if her suicide was planned by the writers, it made NO LOGICAL SENSE. NONE. How would her suicide help ANYONE (her reasoning behind killing herself rather than being murdered by her own family members)? UGH that was soooo frustrating and stupid too.

In regards to the island the Empress Dowager wanted so badly..... I was thinking that the island was gonna have something extremely taboo, cruel and crazy - the poppies with the cocaine production just really didn't cut it for me. Yes, the human experimenting was awful, but I didn't understand the point to it. Why do experimenting on humans with poppy extract? What's the goal/purpose??? That was left unexplained, which made it feel like they never really knew what was on the island until it was time to reveal it and then they didn't come up with anything worthy of all the desire to KILL over.

The ending with the Empress Dowager killing her own son was goosebumps evoking. It just didn't make sense to me how they made it seem like in his dying breaths the Dowager didn't mean it.....she tried to blow him up like 2 days ago.....

It was also sad that the sister to the emperor was simply too dumb to get involved with all the crazy stuff and therefore never trusted to handle anything. It protected her in the end, but man she felt so betrayed and surprised/appalled at their actions. Poor thing.

I also didn't get why the Empress (Sunny) was made to look like she's going to miss the Emperor after his death/murder but not once does she seem to mourn or remember Na Wang Shik. How does that even make sense to them?! They were in frickin love! Everyone knew it, but thanks to the actor's inability to be present in the last 4 episodes they decided to pretend that they weren't leading to that the whole time?! Where was Sunny crying herself to sleep because she loved him and he died protecting her from the bomb explosion (which they didn't really explain well either, just kind of glazed over to get him out of the picture). That makes me so mad.

There was some dramatic irony of people walking around looking at "antique " stuff from in the palace. That had me cracking up.

What I can say about the ending that was good was at least Sunny always loved Ari and wanted to protect her, which she managed to do till the end. That's a plus.

You see and this is a prime reason why I never watched currently airing dramas in the first place! The ending to this drama was so awful that it ruined the whole drama for me, even though I absolutely loved mostly everything up until the way they started to wrap up the ending.
Sunny didn't get to be with Chun Woo Bin/Na Wang Shik (which I wasn't originally rooting for, but after all the implications, I found myself wanting them to end up happy together) and that kinda bugged me because they were definitely alluding to their romance. And then they took it away!

Also, what was UP with Sunny's hair cut in the end?! That style did NOT suit her. And I don't think a haircut automatically equals a progression/lapse in time so that was definitely unnecessary too (though, I'm totally nit-picking, so I'll stop there).

Overall, I want to say I enjoyed this drama more than I did, but the ending makes it something I do NOT want to rewatch. Even the epilogue scene was a let-down. It implied that the Emperor and Sunny were supposed to be together if they had met in another life in different circumstances, but the whole drama spent time showing us that they would never be together and Na Wang Shik was her *fit*.
While the drama was highly addictive and paced well, the way the writers chose to handle the drama extension and not having the actor for Na Wang Shik included in the final 4 episodes ruined everything. I think the writers really need to reflect on how they handled this drama (in plot), their characters (in development), and their actors.
I would only consider recommending this drama/rewatching this drama if there was an alternate ending including Na Wang Shik's character and their happily ever after (rather than the bittersweet ending we got).

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Completed
Devilish Joy
0 people found this review helpful
by Soula
Feb 23, 2019
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 6.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 4.0
This review may contain spoilers
Meh. I wasn't too terribly impressed by Devilish Joy. I liked the first half of the drama a lot, but the last 3 episodes just feel flat for me. The one year time jump in the final episode where the MCs are separated just annoyed me because it felt like a cop out. Don't get me wrong, I didn't *want* the MC to die, but at the same time, it doesn't make logical sense that he recovered all of a sudden and after a year of aggressive treatment is okay again. Like, what? I was coming to terms with him dying similarly to how the MC in Uncontrollably Fond died, but Devilish Joy was just too over the top. I don't think they should have made him yo-yo between dying and having a miracle recovery - they should have picked either him dying because there was no treatment OR chose to have him slowly got better over the course of the drama and, in that sense, defied all odds - a steady progress. So the ending really ruined it for me. It was not logical and it used too many convenient plot devices to satisfy hopeless romantics, rather than follow through in their intended plot.

I think a drama that did this story much better was Uncontrollably Fond, which is a melancholy romantic drama. SPOILER ALERT FOR UNCONTROLLABLY FOND::::: In Uncontrollably Fond, the MC dies in the end from inoperable terminal brain cancer, which you find out he has in the first episode. The writers don't change their tune half way through the series to decide to let him live. He has his romance while he's slowly dying and he passes away relatively peacefully in the arms of his lover. His lover moves on and it's sad but I really respect how the writers stuck to their guns and made a beautiful story even though the ending is so sad. I sobbed at the end. Please refer to my full review of Uncontrollably Fond if you're curious about it as a whole. :)

In regards to Devilish Joy, what really bothers me is that the writers wrote themselves into a corner (the MC *was* dying and there was no cure) and definitely had no logical way out of it, but then all of a sudden he makes a HUGE recovery and lives happily ever after. Personally, I think the male MC should have been recovering throughout the entire show and had a strong, healthy man for the ending, but that's not how the writers decided to take it. And for that reason alone, the drama suffered immensely.

I did like how the bad guys got what was coming to them, but I also don't think the extreme horribleness of his aunt and the exCEO matched up well with the overall tone of the drama. I feel like the aunt plotting to kill her own nephew was exceptionally morbid and the overall tone of the drama didn't seem to match how awful she was. Also, I still don't get why the exCEO of Joy framed Joy for the death of the actor...it wouldn't have been pinned on the exCEO so why mess up Joy's life? ... Personally, the bad guys were simply too dark for what this drama was trying to make viewers feel (in my opinion) and that made the struggle between good and bad messy and unsatisfying in the end.

The main leads *were* very cute. I really did enjoy their romance for what it was....although, they did NOT look good kissing each other. LMAO. (Also in my humble opinion! XD)

I'm really bashing on Devilish Joy which probably makes it seem like I didn't like anything about it, but I actually enjoyed parts of it (the first half was much stronger and more likable than the second half). For me personally, endings are really important to feel truly satisfied, so with this ending falling so flat, I was truly disappointed since I started out liking it so much.

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Completed
Train to Busan
4 people found this review helpful
by Soula
Feb 23, 2019
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 6.5
So I've been procrastinating to watch this because it looked kind of scary, but my husband wanted to watch it and my mother was dying to see Gong Yoo (her favorite Korean actor) in something new, so we finally sat down to watch it....in broad daylight. ;P And I actually really liked it! My mother had a heart attack about 10 times while watching but my husband helped keep the atmosphere much lighter by cracking jokes throughout the movie.
It wasn't *as* scary as I thought I'd be but it still had more scary moments than I usually go for in a movie (if you've read my other reviews, you'll know that I'm not usually a fan of horror/scary stuff). I think the plot was pretty well written and the acting was pretty great. I also think it's superrrrr f-ed up that the bus-rider CEO literally was responsible for EVERYONE who died. He was soooo selfish and self-centered. If he had just been more caring and less self-serving, everyone would have been fine. Personally, I think Gong Yoo should have ringed his neck from he beginning to save everyone.
The little girl singing the song in the end which helps the military realize that they're actually humans was soooo tragically sweet - that part really stuck out to me.
Overall, I liked it! I'm not sure if I'd ever watch it again, but I definitely thought it was a well done movie!
It also had a lot of famous actors in it, which I didn't realize so that was nice.

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Completed
Empress Ki
3 people found this review helpful
by Soula
Feb 9, 2019
51 of 51 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 6.5
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 8.5
Music 10
Rewatch Value 1.0
This review may contain spoilers
I think the first about 35 episodes were really good. I really enjoyed the gender-bender tropes in the beginning with Ki being a warrior and a rebel and all that. But then that was completely taken out of the plot, which I wasn't terribly upset about, but at the same time, I missed it (gender-benders are a guilty pleasure of mine haha). And then around episode 35, things started to slow down a lot and a lot of the plot devices started to be reused (for example, poisoning, assassins, characters dying, but surprise!, they miraculously survive!, etc). And I think what made the whole drama completely unsatisfying in the end was the fact that the Emperor of Yuan (played by Ji Chang Wook) was a complete coward and extremely unlikable as a person. And while the Emperor of Koryo had his flaws, it was tragic that he and Ki couldn't be together due to the shitty circumstances.

~~~~~~~~SPOILER AHEAD~~~~~~~~~Read with caution!!!

Before starting this drama, I spoiled the ending for myself because I saw the "tragedy" tag; originally I was okay with the ending where Emperor of Yuan dies because then I figured that Ki could then have her chance with the Emperor of Koryo now that he was out of the way, but THEY KILLED OFF THE EMPEROR OF KORYO IN LITERALLY THE LAST 1.5 HOURS OF THE DRAMA. WHAT IS THIS SHIT?! They also killed off Yon Feisu, who I thought was a complete bad ass - her death really ticks me off just based on principle. And they also killed off Tal Tal who I adored - I'm kinda salty about that too. ???? (I really think that Tal Tal and Ki could have had something special between them if given the opportunity...)

And let's just be honest - the Emperor of Yuan was a piece of crap. He wasn't a man, his character had no true development, and he was just a pain to watch. All the decisions he made were foolish and self-serving, with no regard to what was best for his people and/or his reign. He didn't *love* Ki. He was obsessed like a psychotic person and literally made decisions to mess things up based on spite and jealously. How pitiful, childish, and annoying. I saw clips of Empress Ki that got me interested in watching it and honestly, they were completely misleading. There's nothing cute or loving about the romance between Ki and the Emperor of Yuan. This story truly is a tragedy, so if you're thinking about watching it, bear that in mind.

I know I'm harping on some stuff really hard, but it *was* a decent drama, but I just wasn't happy with how the writers handled the characters in the last 20 episodes or so and the ending. I was okay with there being sadness, but I don't think the tragedy was expertly written and so it left me feeling very unsatisfied and bitter. Definitely not a rewatch for me.

The actors in this drama were truly great -
Ji Chang Wook has always played quirky characters and he really did well portraying such an insecure and petty character.
I've tried to watch Secret Garden and Kings2Heart with Ha Ji Won and I wasn't impressed with her acting very much, but I think she did a really good job here. Not enough to make me an avid fan, but truly surprised at her performance.
Kim Ji Han grew on me. He's not conventional handsome, but man oh man did his acting grow on me. I think I'll try to pick up another drama with him to see how his acting is in another role. His voice is soooo sexy and he has definitely mastered the smolder. XD

I will also say that the OST was very good. I didn't get annoyed with any of the songs and the song selections for each scene were very well placed.

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Completed
Tunnel
0 people found this review helpful
by Soula
Feb 4, 2019
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 7.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 5.0
I liked this drama pretty well, though I did have to take a couple of breaks while watching it because there were some spooky characters/scenes that made me have to put it down until the sun was up! (I'm a bit of a wimp ;P)

Overall, I think the drama was well executed and the cast was well chosen for this drama. Choi Jin Hyuk is officially one of my favorite actors (his voice is SEXY).

My only issue really was the way the time travel was presented, specifically toward the end. The way the MC, Kwang Ho, initially jumped in time was okay and didn't bother me because it was the paranormal of the drama. But unfortunately, I don't feel like the drama followed any specific logic or rules when incorporating the time travel, which made it a bit inconsistent toward the end. The fact that Kwang Ho's actions in the past when time jumping played no part in the way the future played out/changed kinda bugs me because that makes no logical sense... If Kwang Ho did *anything* in the past when time jumping that was different from history, the future would be at least slightly altered just to simply allot for those events having taken place.
Another thing that really made no sense to me was when catching the bad guy in the future --- it is important to catch the bad guy, but the REAL goal is to catch him in the PAST (back in the 1980's) so that way Kwang Ho can stop ALL the bad things from happening and hopefully having a brighter future for everyone. And while the sappy end scenes (before Kwang Ho goes back to his time) were well executed, why was everyone crying when they knew they were going to meet each other again in the past and likely live their lives together happily? Personally, I don't understand that. BUT, the acting while executing these highly emotionally charged scenes were excellent - I could truly tear-up for the characters who were weeping.

I'm sure I sound like I disliked the drama, but it *was* overall good, the time travelling was just my peeve as watching the wrap-up of the drama. Personally, I think it would have been important to see how the bad guy was caught back in the 1980's and therefore change the future for the better rather than wrapping things up in the future. I feel like it's a moot point when things *should* change when he goes back to the 80's.

I think this is a good drama recommendation for those people who love Criminal Minds who also enjoy a good science-fiction twist with the paranormal time travel aspect.

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Dropped 5/11
Top Star Yoo Baek
2 people found this review helpful
by Soula
Jan 27, 2019
5 of 11 episodes seen
Dropped 0
Overall 6.5
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 5.0
I really enjoyed the drama for what it was, but ultimately, I dropped this drama because the main couple lack chemistry, which made their romance feel forced and unnatural. I *loved* the comedy interwoven into this drama, but since this drama *is* a romantic-comedy, I wanted something a bit more substantial. I didn't drop the drama because it was bad or anything, but simply because there are other dramas that I like more once I begin them and this is just one that I'm not itching to get back to.
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Dropped 5/16
My Little Baby
3 people found this review helpful
by Soula
Dec 27, 2018
5 of 16 episodes seen
Dropped 0
Overall 5.0
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 5.0
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 3.0
This was recommended to me because it was a short drama and I was told that it was pretty funny. Unfortunately, while I found the drama funny, I was not a fan of how mean and vicious the main female lead was to the main male lead. She's over-the-top mean - enough so that I decided it was time to drop this drama. Her character might have changed over time, but for me personally, I didn't feel like tolerating a self-entitled character, so I decided to move on. I *did* enjoy the main male lead's friend who lives with him - he was funny and handsome, which is always nice to see in a drama.

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Completed
King2Hearts
4 people found this review helpful
by Soula
Dec 27, 2018
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 6.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 3.0

You could skip this one if you're not drawn by the synopsis - you're not missing much

Kings2Hearts has been on my Plan To Watch list for a while. I was intrigued to watch it because it was a highly recommended drama, especially for Descendants of the Sun lovers, which I am. I liked quite a few things about this drama such as the story being about North and South Korea having peaceful negotiations between each other and the royalty plot concept for the main characters.

I initially dropped this drama after a couple episodes in and didn't come back to it for months because I found Ha Ji Won's character to be very inconsistent. But since dropping this drama, I ended up watching quite a few dramas with Ha Ji Won and Lee Seung Gi and I was itching to see them in something else and kept coming back to this one. I pushed through the poor initial character writing of Ha Ji Won's character in the beginning of King2Hearts and found a pretty decent story with some nasty twists and a SUPER crazy (truly insane) villain.

Overall, I feel just so-so about this drama. I found certain things exceptionally enjoyable to watch, but I found other things uninteresting to me. Probably my favorite episode was when the Koreans are competing in the WOC competition - that was cool and pretty intense!
The romance between the 2 MC's was okay, but I wasn't swooning over them or anything. The side characters were also pretty decent and enjoyable to watch.

The only real negative to this drama I found was that it didn't *have* to be 20 episodes. I think they could have definitely shrunk down the plot to fit into 16 episodes and that would have removed a lot of the B.S. of the bad guys winning or plotting again and AGAIN. -.- I found it annoyingly redundant by the end (but the resolution was good, so I wasn't too annoyed anymore haha).

Something I'd also like to note - I've done a lot of research on North Korea and read a lot of defector testimonials/autobiographies out of my own interest and curiosity....the portrayal of North Korea is entirely unrealistic and romanticized in this drama, which is fine, since it's a piece of fiction, but it *was* something I noticed.

King2Hearts isn't a drama I would go out of my way to recommend and I won't be watching it again.... It just wasn't good enough to warrant that kind of admiration. It wasn't a waste of time and if you have a real hankering for Ha Ji Won or Lee Seung Gi, it'll definitely satisfy you.

The OST was well-placed, but nothing terribly remarkable.

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Completed
Another Miss Oh
0 people found this review helpful
by Soula
Dec 27, 2018
18 of 18 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 7.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 6.5
Rewatch Value 5.0
I never considered watching Another Miss Oh because it seemed really complicated and just not my thing, but after being encouraged multiple times by my friend Kingsqueen whose watched it multiple times, I figured it was time to give it a chance. And I must say - it very cute! I very much enjoyed it. The ending was nicely done where everything was wrapped up neatly. I was told that there was a plot twist and you don't get to that twist until the ending :D. I can happily say that the twist and overall execution of the drama makes sense based on the rules set by the drama, so that was also a plus for me. I'm not sure if I'd watch the *whole* thing all over again, but I did love some very specific parts that I'll probably watch again on YouTube as clips.

I really loved certain characters, such as the lawyer friend, Ji Sang, and Oh Hae Young's parents. I personally enjoyed watching Ji Sang and the noona interact the most - their dynamics were pretty laugh out loud hilarious.
A lot of people said that Do Kyung's mother was pretty horrible, but I didn't find her to be that bad because the Chairman was WAYYY worse to me. And in the end, I still felt bad for the ex-fiance of Oh Hae Young. He got the short end of the stick soooo many different ways by so many people that I feel for him. He was douche-y at some moments, but I pity him, really - his life was pretty crappy all because of other people.

Overall, it was a very nice drama. I'm glad I watched it. Personally, I like a bit more comedy in my drama, but this was still good even though it had a bit more serious parts in it than I prefer. It actually reminds me a lot of Laughter in Waikiki. Laughter in Waikiki is very similar in set-up, just a much lighter version with no *real* bad guy other than life itself.

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Completed
Terius Behind Me
2 people found this review helpful
by Soula
Dec 3, 2018
32 of 32 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.5
Story 6.5
Acting/Cast 10
Music 8.5
Rewatch Value 5.0
I actually buddy-watched this drama with a MDL friend (kingsqueen - thank you for all your patience while buddy watching this drama with me!) out of extreme anticipation and excitement for seeing So Ji Sub in a new drama (I fell in absolute love with him after seeing him in Oh My Venus). This drama started out with so much comedy, mostly through the KIS friends of the apartment homes and the twin children of our MC, Ae Rin. After Ae Rin and SJS's character, Bon, meet we see them slowly build a relationship. My heart melted constantly throughout each episode in the beginning just from watching Bon interacting with the twins in such gentle and caring ways.

Unfortunately about 3/4 through the drama the plot shifts and the children are taken out of the plot, which I think was a poor decision because their presence offered comic relief and something to gush over (the children actors were absolutely ADORABLE!). Things also got much more NIS involved, with the focus being more about spies and solving the case. I don't particularly mind this, but I very much preferred the plot prior to the shift in focus.

Something that REALLY bothered me was that the writers "killed" 1 particular character whom I grew to like and even though we end up finding out that that character isn't dead, I didn't appreciate the use of that trope personally.
There were also a few loose ends left unanswered, but nothing too terribly obvious, just things that left me pondering and wishing had been wrapped up better.

The soundtrack was very nice. I found that the music was well placed/timed and the music selection was appropriate in making me feel emotion during the right times. A personal favorite of mine was Shout to the Sky by Eun Sung - she has a beautiful voice and the tone is very fitting for the drama.

The main reason why I've rated this drama at a 7.5/10 is because it had so many sweet, lovely, and well-thought out pieces, but I don't think everything was put together and progressed seamlessly. For example, there are time jumps in the plot that are unspecified (the time jump duration is not stated) or they are somewhat random to conveniently move the plot, which I feel is poor planning and can be a bit sloppy and confusing, especially for the viewer. I am also absolutely disappointed in the fact that the romance that was alluded to throughout the entire drama was never truly resolved. There was no kiss to literally seal the relationship. And while many people might be okay with this, I really need more in a resolution to feel satisfied. And ultimately, the shift in the plot going from a lighthearted, comedic drama to a drama that became much more serious and mystery focused left me feel unsatisfied.

Overall, a good watch and something I would not be hesitant to recommend, but instead, explain it's shortcomings as a prelude as what to expect and encourage people to enjoy it for what it is. I will personally probably rewatch many of those comedic moments (mostly found in the first half of the drama, which usually involved the twin children) in the future simply because they made me smile and gush with happiness. :)

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