Let me first say, thank you writers for actually writing a great Chinese drama. You have no idea how many c-dramas I tried to find and watch, only to be never satisfied with the way it was written and handled. The problems I usually have with c-dramas it would be: the female lead doesn't admit her feelings until the very last minute, the villains does too much evil deeds but doesn't get punish for it, very draggy filler episodes, a rushed ending or the ending is very random and doesn't make sense on why it happens.

This drama is nothing like that which I'm very impressed. There are no villains. There may be a few characters who annoyed me but never to the point where I curse at them like I usually do at evil characters. You could kinda see the writers could've took that route, with so many characters I've seen as enemy potential, but I'm so glad they didn't do that. This is such a stress free, humorous, & lovable drama. Such a strong chemistry between the leads. It makes me smile so much, always cheering them on. The story flowed so well at a great pace that none of the episodes were draggy at all. I really was satisfied with each episode and I normally don't say that often for c-dramas. Comedy is in this drama from start to finish. This is great because some writers tend to lose this focus by the middle to end of the drama.

Here's where the SPOILERS are:
The only downside about this drama is that the writers seemed to show a relationship issue between Gu Wei Yi and his mom. They didn't really go into depth about this and kinda brushed this aside. I kinda felt this would've been nice to see resolved, maybe finding out why Gu Wei Yi is the way he is. I just saw that awkwardness between son and mom (or maybe Gu Wei Yi is just awkward in general lol). Also Fu Pei getting over Mo Mo that quickly so he can be with Wang Shan wasn't believable. I mean he finally fell for Mo Mo, who liked him all this time, but was too late as her feelings have changed for Gu Wei Yi. He was hurt for what an episode or two and then gotten over it. That was handled too quickly, but then again maybe it's a good thing.

Definitely give this drama a chance, especially if you're looking for a drama where you won't get angry and that every scene is so cute & funny to watch. I definitely would re-watch this.

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So if you've watched Master's Sun, you'll realize Hotel Del Luna follows the same format (because of being the same writers) of telling the main story while at the same time show minor stories of guest characters in each episode, some lasting longer than others. For me, the main story progressed at an okay pace. At the beginning, the first episode grasp your attention, wanting more, but a couple episodes after that, it was slower than I would've liked. I like the minor stories but some of them overpower the main plot when I really just want to see more of Man Wol's story.

STORY: That being said, I think the plot to Man Wol's story was revealed pretty well. It had a beginning, a middle, and a end. I like it how it leaves me guessing a lot so it wasn't predictable for the most part. What was predictable was knowing the ending was going to be heartbreaking just based on the plot and scenario itself but it matched up pretty well to what I expected.

While I did like most of the minor stories of the guest characters, my only problem was there wasn't much relation to the main plot or the main/support characters. I would've cared more of the minor stories if it somehow reminded Man Wol or the other hotel staff about their past lives and it showed some steady progression on how to move on to the afterlife eventually. I mean I just didn't like how they neglected the stories of the support character roles until the very end, like literally the last few episodes. I also didn't like how some minor stories like Chan Sung's mom or Sanchez's girlfriend had potential to have a bigger impact on the plot but was cut short like it was mistake in writing or something. This was something I had a bit of frustration in Master's Sun as well.

ACTING: For the most part, the acting from these actors & actresses were pretty good. IU shows a great deal of emotions, from being heartbroken & betrayed, a stern woman, to having a comedic side when it comes to money. Yeo Jin Goo's acting was a bit boring for me in the beginning. I felt like that didn't give him an opportunity to really show what he can do in his acting but that quickly improved towards the middle and end of the drama, especially his crying scenes. My favorite actor has to be Ji Hoon from this drama. He plays Hyun Joong so well. You just love it when he's happy because he has that puppy smile that makes you want to smile but when he's sad, you just can't help but be sad with him.

MUSIC: Rarely is there a drama where I enjoy and add every ost to my playlist but this drama is one of them. The ost are just amazing and it fits very well to every situation in this drama. Punch's songs "Done For Me" & "Another Day" with Monday and Yang Da Il - Only You, are my favorites from this drama.

REWATCH VALUE: This is one I would definitely consider rewatching however I would probably skip the minor stories this drama shows since the main plot has more value overall.

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A Glimpse of What Idol Stars May Go Through

When I saw the title "Imitation", I didn't have much thought about the meaning of it until I watched this drama. I'm not sure on the reasoning they chose this title but for me, it meant to imitate the livelihood of what an idol star or group might go through.

This drama had everything I can see as realistic. You have the most popular and well known group, groups that are trying to get their name out after so many tryout attempts and difficulties for the members to be in a group, the good fans, the so called "fans" who are stalkers and have no life, group members who are looking for love but are hesitant or private about it due to public image, psycho stalkers, and/or the public agency, the brotherly and sisterly bond of the groups, and of course the saddest part of the drama, suicide of an idol due to hardship in life that they couldn't take anymore.

The story itself is good overall but the pacing can be quite slow. There were some episodes that I felt like nothing important happened and then others are like, now we're getting somewhere. Also at times, I felt like the explanation to certain events in this drama weren't clear enough to understand, so viewers have to make an assumption instead. The final episode wrapped up okay. Happy ending but I felt like there were some lack of details for specific scenes. Worst of all, greedy bad guy got away with it and didn't get punished. This is frustrating. I hate when dramas take this route.

Romance wise, our leads got together for 1 ep, broke up the next episode, then get together again in the next episode like the second half. Although I have to say, it did felt lacking for our main leads. I just couldn't feel the chemistry. Even until the very end, they weren't holding hands or hugging. Eh. I say the secondary couple had more chemistry and cute moments than our lead couples. Shoo, even our last minute third couple had a bit more chemistry than our lead couple. Kinda disappointing.

Music wise, well it is an idol drama, featuring great singers. Of course the music is going to be great (5 stars easily).

Last words about this drama:
I really hope this opens the eyes to the viewers, fans of idol singers/groups, and even to the entertainment agencies. Remember, they're not money making machines. They are human beings just like you and me. They're doing what they love and enjoy as their job. As a job, they too have a life outside of music/acting too. They have a right to find love, relax after their hard work, so they won't burnout, enjoy life, and most importantly, they need to be surrounded by those who are close to them and support them. Let's build them up not bring them down. It's going to be a difficult but I can only hope there will be more Entertainment Agencies in the future who will run it like CEO Ji Hak, caring more about the person/group and not on money.

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A Good Start But Lost Interest Quickly

Honestly, I was excited but also hesitant to try another firefighter theme drama but sad to say, I'm disappointed how this ended up with the amount of episodes I've seen. It started off pretty good. A firefighter team trying to recruit more members, sees potential in the childish ML, recruits him and others to go through a training process. But see, the problem here is they rushed this part. Just like "The Flaming Heart", when you rushed scenes, the drama ends up being a mess as the writer here is trying to put too many ideas. The flow just messes up and this is how you start to lose interest. The editing and transition from scene to scene seemed similar to The Flaming Heart and if you've seen that, then you know how bad it is, as there are lot of times when you're watching this drama, things that happen seems random or out of place.

So, I stuck through "The Flaming Heart" because I ended up being too invested into the characters despite the poor plot and transition. This drama on other hand didn't do that for me and I just lost interest completely. What confirmed it for me is checking the last episode and SPOILER ALERT, the second ML dies so our secondary couple doesn't get a happy ending. It was already a lost of interest for me when my favorite side character dies early in the drama but seeing this just made my decision to not continue this drama.

I had hope for this drama to show the journey of the ML on becoming a firefighter. Like how he was like before (which they did sort of showed this), how he is during the training, his first mission, his hardships, the solutions to his hardships, etc, but this drama just doesn't do that. The FL's character is also very lacking, as the way the writer presented her, I didn't really care much when it came to her scenes.

I keep comparing the 2 firefighter theme dramas in this review but they each have their differences in their own way. Despite the poor plot, poor writing, & bad transitions both dramas have, if I had to pick one from the two, I would say "The Flaming Heart" is slightly better than this one. But again, that's just my preference.

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"Memories don't disappear, they're all smeared into one's soul"

"Memories don't disappear, they're all smeared into one's soul, the brain may forget, but one soul's been keeping every piece of it" - Im Sol's Halmoni

The above quote perfectly describes what this drama is about. What started as saving one's life ended up being created memories with that special person. Those memories will always be there in one's soul, trying to find its way back no matter what.

Although the 2 episodes before the final 2 episodes felt like a slow progress, this drama was written pretty well overall. I love how this writer always included events that happen in a previously timeline back to the current timeline. The development of Im Sol's feelings to Sun Jae from being a fan wanting to save him, to wanting to save him because of her love for him.

The only repetitive part that I found in this drama was Sol keeping pushing away or avoiding Sun Jae (during college and then Eps 13-14). I get why she did that but still, I'm not a fan of those kind of tropes as I prefer the leads just communicating with each other and not hide anything from each other. Still, it was great seeing Im Sol's love for Sun Jae grow each time she travels back in time and Sun Jae getting chance after chance to be with Im Sol since his love for her never changed.

A huge amount of comedy between the main characters and their friends. Even when the preview for each week shows seriousness, there's so much more laughter that occurs in me when watching each episode and a lot of romantic and cute scenes between the leads.

THIS DRAMA IS THE DEFINITION OF A ROMANTIC COMEDY!

Even though there was a killer/kidnapper in this drama, I'm glad the writers stuck with the idea of keeping his screentime at a minimum towards the very end. It would've been okay to find out his motive but at the same time, since they barely showed him, I'm glad they got rid of him quickly as well.

The whole cast was awesome! From the best friends to the parents. Great acting! I like almost every character in this drama, and I find that as a rarity in dramas.

The ending was great. Although I kind of wish there was a wedding at the end, I'm glad we got a glimpse of what their wedding look like as our leads both saw their future together. At least they ended it with a proposal. I'm satisfied.

We're about halfway through 2024 as I'm writing this, and I haven't found any k-dramas that I would consider rewatching again, but this one definitely makes the list.

THIS IS MY FIRST FAVORITE KOREAN DRAMA OF 2024

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While the romance isn't as much as I would've like it to be between the leads, I still like the drama overall. It has a good storyline and also slowly clear the HUGE misunderstanding from start to finish between Kim Bon and the other characters. The parent characters in the KIS and the little kids are what makes this drama very funny. You'll enjoy it even if there's not much romance between Bon & Ae-Rin.

Story: While the romance isn't as much as I would've like it to be between the leads, I still like the drama overall. It has a good storyline from beginning to end and also slowly clear the HUGE misunderstanding from start to finish between Kim Bon and the other characters. The story flowed at a good pace.

Acting/Cast: Who would've thought So Ji Sub can beat people up and be funny at the same time. Every character played their role fantastically. From the parent characters in the KIS and the little kids, which makes this drama very funny, to the evil villains whom you just want to hurt.

Music: Beautiful osts. Loved every song and have it in my music playlist.

Rewatch: I would rewatch it if I couldn't find another great case solving comedy like this one.

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Story: This is a first drama where I've seen a story concept revolving with VR Gaming. It seems like a good idea and very promising. It definitely showed the positive aspects of it but a lot more negative aspects for the majority of the drama. It's a confusing drama nonetheless. There are a lot of flashbacks that's suppose to clear up the confusion but at the same time, there were too many flashbacks that I consider unnecessary. They could've just showed the scenes in order instead of always going back and forth. The story drags though. It's so slow that I almost quit watching it halfway. The main focus is the VR Gaming issue so if you're looking for romance, this is not your drama. It had the potential to be a great drama but I felt like it fell far away from that for me.

Acting/Cast: I enjoy the actors & actresses in this drama however their roles were kinda lack luster for me. Hyun-Bin as Jin-Woo had all the action scenes but very little romantic scenes with Hee-Joo. Park Shin-Hye role as Hee-Jo was very boring to me. I was hoping she would get some toughness in her role like what I've seen in Doctors but that didn't happen. Her role as Hee-Jo wasn't memorable to me but as Emma, it was. Same issue with Hee-Jo, lack of chemistry for Jin-Woo which results in lack of scenes of them together.

Music: By far the best part of this drama was the music. Ailee's song "Is You" & Yang Da Il's song "I'm Here" were my favorite two osts from this drama but every other music played in this drama I've enjoyed listening to as well.

Rewatch?: Not worth rewatching for me because of the slow story progression, lack of romance & chemistry between the leads and I wasn't fond of the writing.

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