It's not Little Forest of Two People anymore - it's Four.

There's too inappropriately much airtime for the second couple to the point that drags the whole story down. From about ep.15 onwards, I can't bear watching the second leads' scenes anymore.

First off, the second couple isn't worth watching as their acting skills are not up to par. Second, there's nothing substantial in their storyline, just some cliche boy falling in love at first sight > lying to get close to girl > girl being angry after knowing the truth > boy chasing girl -- but wait... why their story anyway?? It's supposed to be the first leads' story, isn't it? To be the most honest, I feel that the second leads' airtime is equal to the first leads'. I don't know why they have to put two totally different but equally weighed stories to compress in one series to be compared eye-to-eye for the weaker storyline to be suppressed and looked down on by the audience.

After a few episodes of too many improperly show-up scenes of the second leads, I start to be annoyed so much and have bad impression on them instead. I've been skipping their scenes the whole way through since early episodes (and still get their story -- see how simple-minded their storyline is?!) This series can be a lot more interesting if they'd reduce these wasteful scenes of the second leads.

Apart from the rant, I'd like to praise a bit about the first leads' chemistry. Their chemistry is great, so sweet and so authentic (unlike the second leads that I don't feel any chemistry between them at all.) I've watched Zhang Binbin in Love O2O, Eternal Love and The King's Woman before. I never liked his acting in any of them. He was either cringey or stiffed or forceful or all of above. He always looked like being forced when he had kiss scenes (even when it's with Dilireba. Both of them looked being forced to kiss in The King's Woman). I thought Zhang Binbin doesn't suit to play love scences. But in this series, he has done too good. I like all the subtle smiles and all the eye movements in his scenes with FL, especially love his eyes that I used to think were too cheesy because of the big eye size on a face that is too sweet for a guy. In this series, all of his features have become the complements for compliment.

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Messed-up plot. Try to to be clever but fail. Too many loopholes all over the place.

(Review In Progress
-- done watching, in-progress reviewing, and after that still needs some edit.
-- sorry, it takes me some time as this such a headache.)

[+] This series is like an experimental work. After finishing, I highly admire the team that they really put a great effort in creating this drama. It's a complex story. The messageS they want to convey are difficult, thus meaningful. And the way to convey it isn't simply about plot writing. This series especially need the collaboration between the plot creating and filming/editing processes. So it's not only the story that is complex, the process for the aimed result is also a hard work here. I feel thankful they made this done. With this work of theirs, they challenge the new level of quality series in all aspects from creating to conveying processes.

[-] Anyway, they try too hard to be clever. In the end, there're still too many loopholes both in the main plot and sub-plots. To find a positive excuse for this, I'd blame the time constraint. The time limitation especially affects the writer. I feel that the writer only has solid ideas on the main things she wants to make happen, but she lacks the ideas to logically connect two or more dots, resulting in a messy resolvement that relies on cheating the audience.

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Two main cheating ways of this series that are unaccepatable for me are:-

1) They indulgedly create many conditions in the story on their own without caring the universal laws. These conditions are not the kind of reasonable conditions that would serve them right if they had a unique universe of their own story. These conditions are just to serve their own conveninece in resolving the conflicts the easy way because they can't think of how to resolve it properly without cheating. Let me give an example,

- The conflict is A wants to kill B who is a criminal treated at a hospital, but B is protected by two polices standing guard at the patient door at all time.

- Resolution of this series to let A kill B is to let C who is another police says via the walkie talkie that there's some incident happening near the hospital area and he needs some support at the moment. On hearing that, the two polices both left their position immediately. They shouldn't leave their post in the first place, but when they do, they do it so naturally like it's the way the world normally is as they don't even need to disccuss or hesistate a bit before setting off running away.

The above is just one example. There're A LOT along the way. The plot needs media to be stupid, needs people to be stupid, needs doctors to be able to do things that normally they are not able to. All of these for the sake of connecting the solid point A to point B. Remember what I mentioned above? They only have the solid ideas on main points while have no idea of how to connect them.

Their self-indulgement frustrates me a lot. They look down on the audience like me.

~~~~~

2) Because they can't find the proper way to solve their conflicts, they trick the audience by manipulating the scenes. The plot is mean to deceive the audience at first, so that they can make a surprise twist later. The proper way to do it is to give the same set of information to the audience as to the investigative storyline (= the storyline of solving the conflicts). An improper way to do it is to hide some parts of the information that the storyline knows from the audience. This series make a worse thing by manipulating the information. In some crucial scenes that would become the surprised twists later, they film it in 2 different ways - one is the way that actually happens, the other is the way they want the audience to believe happening. Then, they firstly show the audience the wrong occurrence to mislead the viewers. And later, when they reveal the twist, they show the other occurrence. This is cheating. You don't have skills to make things right. You want to be wise, but if you cheat it doesn't shows that you're wise anymore. It shows that you're just pretentious.

As unskilled as you are, you still need to learn a lot more to not anger the audience this way. Find a place to learn? Go read more works of Dan Brown and Agatha Christie!

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More rants:

(1) Story [-]

- Too many loopholes

- Like ep.1-2 pretty much

- Ep.3 starts to have loopholes in the details.

- Ep.4-5 have too many unrealistic parts esp. about media, human behaviors in society, and decision-making relating to social impact. These surreal parts are essential for story development. If there's none of these, the story wouldn't go on the way it is written, which means the production team is not smart enough to make a proper investigative story without constructing some special conditions that would help them make the story progress easier. What a convenient way to solve a question that outwits them, right? They do it by making a condition that says whatever they say is true. Anyway, in the end, this just portrays that everything in the story is pretentious.

- Ep.8, 10 - more so-called loopholes - the self-conditioned parts that help the story to progress along the way they want.
[[ spoiled note: 8-the surveillance officers / 10-the physical call instead of phone call; the criminal didn't have father at first but now has?? huh; the criminal's mother supposed to give birth after Yohan's mother in the early ep but now she did it before for 6-7 yrs?? ]]

- Ep.14
1) Why the TV producer takes that guy in her car?? -_-
2) How that kid gets to that man's house?? << It's like everyone is a character in an RPG game doing things without motive, no situation progresses in a logical process. It's like these characters and situations happening around them are programmed in a game.

Ep.15
1) Conveniently skip the memory about chasing on the road scene?
2) Suddenly the older police who usually fails to observe the details about everything notices the very subtle details of a victim. How convenient, the writer makes everyone change in a wink, makes any situation to occurs or changes from before like magic.
3) I also don't forget the alibi of everyone in the 1st case and waiting for you to properly explain, writer!

Ep.17 - The new paint on the wall can be removed by tissue paper??!!

- This story shows that polices are generally stupid. The supervisors would choose their subordinates to make an important decision instead of them while the subs are not clever enough.

- The media in this story breaks the law and their ethics all the time. It's the circle that there're only people who think about their own benefits. They dare to publicly take advantage of the situations even when there are other people's lives at stake. And no one at all blames the media. Nor does the media get sued. Very weird society.

- The story shows the people of Korea are stupid, always ready to be pulled to the left then dragged to the right without the ability to think on their own. They believe whatever words from TV. The people/audience in this story is much stupider than those characters in the novel 1984.

- Let me yell at this series a bit:- The real media don't work like that. The real polices don't work like that, either. And the people of Korea or most of the places in the world are not like that. The production team of this drama is just an imposter pretending to know what social psychology is, pretending to know how journalists and polices work while they actually Know NOTHING. What they do is just spreading the wrong perceptions about everything.

p.s. Damn to this drama, where the hell in the world that a TV channel would intentionally live broadcast a crime as a criminal wants? Furthermore, two TV channels even argue/criticize/condemn each other on TV-live-broadcasting to make the situation benefit the criminal. The media here are very much stupid and very much immature. Nonsense. In reality, this kind of TV station would surely be heavily investigated by law and backfired by social pressure.

P.S.2 And the ER doctors don't work in patients' rooms! You don't know how doctors work, either. You -writer, director, producer of this series- truly Know Nothing.

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(2) Acting [~]

- The older police always overacts. The paradox is they mention about overacting represents the lack of understanding in the thing the overactor tries to depict (ep.7).

- The acting of the TV program's female producer is substandard. She doesn't know the way to show her character's expressions through her face. I don't feel that she feels what she acts. She just makes a subtly disturbed face, and continues to make it the whole time. There's only one kind of facial expression from her, which is the kind of expression that I don't feel that she feels it.

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(3) Script [-]

- Bad script. It's like the characters in the series are the RPG-game players. They walk around talking to witnesses, interviewing people in the RPG-game style that we have to stop and talk on the way to certain people to get more information to complete each mission. The conversations in that kind of interviewing/asking strangers in the series are blocked and unnatural - if we get to the right person, the convo would flow as well as directly get to the point, no small talk, no introduction. No matter how weird or rude the questions of the characters are to the strangers, those strangers answer along the way that the characters want to know without opposing. No matter how private the information they get asked, they don't feel it and are willingly answer them.

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Getting worse as time goes by.

(1) Story & Its Logic [-]

Hah, I want to scoff. This is the drama that only knows the way to create the title, but doesn't know at all how to develop the story. Their story has only one idea which is "accidentally find love" as the title "一不小心捡到爱" says. Apart from the idea that the ML and FL accidentally meet and love each other, other things are totally a mess. There's no logic in any part of the story. The business part is especially wrongly portrayed. The decisions of each character that is supposed to be the elite class from the good educational background are illogical, irrational and I can't find the root of their characters.

Let's talk a bit about the business part as it won't be a spoiler:

- Everyone on the company board regards the contract that is forced to sign as legal despite knowing that it's obtained by force without the consent of the signee... Excuse me, guyssss. You don't have to discuss how to solve a situation like this at all. The contract is void when it's proved that the contract is done by coercion. How come the senior executives in this drama, including the ML and ML's family, are very less-educated in the basics of business law. This is so unrealistic to the point of stupidity.

- In front of the media, the executives openly quarrel about the share portions and fight over the chairman's position. And this is a company that is on the stock market. And the people fighting over the position are related by blood. This kind of immature action wouldn't only be unacceptable among the board members, but it would cause a big stir among the public and affect the reliability of the company that will eventually affect the stock price. If you can't foresee the consequence of this kind of action in public, you don't even have rights to battle for the chairman position. And when they ask the board to vote right there in front of the media eyes for the next chairman, damnnn... the board plays along?!! Ridiculous! The board wouldn't vote for the next chairman in an impromptu event like this and, top of all, they wouldn't vote for any of you following your immature fight before the media if they want to save the company.

Just a stupid story, I would conclude.

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(2) Character Design [-]

There's no characteristic in each character. There's only the writer who forcefully orders each character to think, speak, do what and what. All actions of the characters are just rootless. They stick to one thing like a robot without conscious consideration. They're like machines that stick to what they're programmed without wavering, but then suddenly change their mind again, and without cause, like they're re-programmed. There's no development in their characteristics. Their changes are incomprehensive as well as their prejudices, grudges, obsessions and stupidity.

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(3) Acting [-]

Overall is bad. FL makes quite a few trivial but awkward gestures. For the general gestures, she is ok, but when it's the details there're awkward parts. The ML is inexperienced in acting it's very obvious, but that also makes it refreshing to see him in love scenes. His ears are always super red... always like I don't know anymore if that maybe his ears' normal color. Good point about this drama is the chemistry between the leads, but this thing alone can't help with the overall bad points of it. The weakness of this drama is too strong.

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To have been anticipated for this drama is disappointing for me. To finish this drama is also a waste of time.

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Top-notch! I can't find loophole at all.

1) Story [+]

Plot very strong, well-built and dynamic. The story moves forward the whole time which is incredible. There're things to learn, explore, discover, and be surprised in every episode. It progresses in fast pace but not hasty. The rhythm is so right to the point that there's no wasted time even for the preview. If you watched the preview of next episode at each episode's ending, you'd most likely be spoiled. All the happenings in this story are very reasonable from beginning to end, which normally is very hard to achieve in this kind of highly complex, suspense story. Most of the time, the writers/directors wouldn't be wise enough to make it perfectly suspense without loopholes (--some notable examples that failed on this point are W-Two World and Mouse). For this one, no loopholes at all. I also love the ending. It isn't romantically sugar-coated but leaning toward the side of being realisticly hopeful. The writer gave an interview that if there'd be one more episode, the audience would have the chance to see FL and ML being back together. I think so, too. But they're just clever to end it at the right timing. If there're one more episode, things would be cheesy instead as there's no point left in the suspense plot anymore, and then the tone of the series would shift a bit and might end up in the same way as many other Korean series that have strong start but usually tone down and fail toward the end.

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2) Acting [+]

Superb! There're so many actors in this series. They come in and out of the scene all the time. And I enjoy the acting of all of them. The acting of the three sisters should especially be praised. Kim Go Eun has the chance to show her true ability in acting through the role of the eldest sister here. Her performance in Goblin can't be compared to this at all. The actress who plays Wong Sang A, Hyorin's mother, also did a great job. Her fake smile and bubbly character is so annoyingly fake. Hyorin just says the right feeling of the viewers when it finally bears in her mind that things in her family are so fake. Before that, it always feels off but she can't really be certain at which point.

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*I'm not that expert in music so I avoid giving comment on that aspect and just gave the moderate/middle score when nothing wrong occurs.

*This series is one of a very few series I give this high score on Rewatch Value.

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Frustrating to watch. Problematic characters. Toxic FL.

The character design is quite problematic. I'm really struggling to understand the FL's mother and brother.

----------Mother----------
Regarding the mother, she's been blaming the FL for her own negligence in supervising her small children, which resulted in a serious accident when the FL was just 10 years old. It's absurd how she continues to openly blame a child for 20 years when it's obvious that the adult should take responsibility. She doesn't just do this in their personal life, but also in their work life, going as far as finding reasons to sue her own daughter, which could harm their family company that's publicly traded on the stock market. And all of this is happening right under the noses of the FL's grandfather and father, who are much more rational and surely wouldn't want their corporation's reputation tarnished. The whole situation is just so unrealistic and absurd.

----------Brother----------
As for the brother, it's unbelievable. His wife deceives him into marriage and even has a child with another man while they're married. Then she flees away with money of her husband's family, only to return after being abused by her child's biological father. Despite all this, the brother unquestionably welcomes her back with open arms, and still loves her illegitimate child as if the child is his own. It's like he lacks any capacity for learning or judgment. It's hard to trust someone like him to run a company at an executive level, yet he holds a high-ranking position in their publicly listed company. How is that even possible?

----------Female Lead----------
And don't even get me started on the FL herself. She gets kidnapped by the villain in a car. And when the ML catches up with them after a violent car chase, succeeding in rescuing her while he's injured, she complies with the villain's gaslighting to say that she voluntarily follows the villain, then she willingly gets back into the villain's car to be kidnapped again. The reason the villain gives her is that if she doesn't go along, the ML will realize her illness is worsening, causing her to mistake the villain for the ML. But later on, the ML still has to break into the house where the FL is being held captive to rescue her once more, and she still has to tell the ML the truth in the end. It's infuriating how easily she falls for such manipulation, especially considering the ML already knows about her illness and its progression.

----------Toxic love----------
Let me address the ML's love for the FL as my last point. I find his renewed affection for her perplexing. While his initial love before their marriage is understandable, I fail to comprehend how he could still love her after enduring a toxic relationship. Despite their troubled history, she continues to resist cooperation, vilify him, withhold her true feelings, and maintain emotional distance. It appears to be a very one-sided effort, devoid of reciprocity. His affection seems solely driven by blind devotion, without any tangible reason or justification. Their past history of love before marriage doesn't seem to influence his current feelings, and the FL's behavior offers little to warrant his continued love. In essence, it feels like he is merely serving her as a servant of love. In real life, such a dynamic doesn't foster a genuine and sustainable relationship, so it isn't believable or convincing for me.

The story's irrational elements are so frustrating to watch. I keep going with it until the end because I'm a fan of the lead actors. However, while the FL's acting is passable, it still comes across as quite stiff to me. I've seen her in 3 series, including 'Descendants of the Sun' and 'Fight for My Way,' and her acting seems to be consistently one-dimensional, and not even the best version of the character she's portraying.

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The most terrible logic among series I've seen in 2021 so far. Cute leads can't help.

The logic of this series is very messy. I started the first 4ep and concluded a score of 3. When I reached ep6, the score dropped to 2. After finishing the whole series, I'd really like to give 1 as the final score, but I let loose a bit and it's purely because of my bias to the FL. The quality of the series itself doesn't deserve 2 stars.

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Let me give some examples from ep6 of how the logic in this series is so much chaotic. (The examples are trivia scenes, which wouldn't spoil the story.)

- A mother of a child patient wants to snatch a toy of another child patient, age around 6 yrs old, for her own child. She openly threatens and blames the little child who is the toy's owner in front of a bunch of children at the kids' play space in the hospital's building. I can't imagine this happens at a pediatric ward anywhere in the world, but it happens here in this series! Not only an adult, who is also a mother, can freely bully a child, but there's also no hospital staff to protect this event to proceed on. Let me clarify, there is one hospital staff at the nearby desk who seems to be the administrator of the area, but she totally does nothing. She let the whole event occurs without intervening. My goshh, she's supposed to be fired if she does her job like this. It equals to intentionally let the kids get into danger.

- The FL's rival, who is a doctor, openly disses FL, who is her colleague, about some personal affair without proof in front of a bunch of child patients and some parent at the public area in the pediatric ward. She also has two back-ups, who are another doctor and a nurse, that help her diss the FL. She does something that not even a doctor would do at a workplace in front of clients. This kind of immature behavior is highly improper from the point of view of any profession. Not even to say that she is the daughter of the hospital's director. Is she stupid that she doesn't know this kind of nonsense action cause notoriety to their own hospital? How come she is a doctor??

- The hospital's director fires a FL's friend who talks back to the FL's rival and accidentally pours the coffee on the FL's rival when she is yanked. The FL wants to go to talk with the director for her friend, but the friend stops FL saying she does violate the hospital's rule. What?? What kind of rule does she mention? I don't think there can be any rule at any proper company about punishing people who pour coffee on a colleague because the colleague yanks the coffee cup to herself or it'd be easy for the employer to get sued!

Where's the logic in this series??
I love the FL and ML from other series, but this series is so infuriating to watch. For now, I still want to watch it till the end because I want to see the leads, but if I do so the score of this series could go to the lowest when I reach the last episode. From the frequency of illogical messiness showing up until ep6, I can imagine how messier this series would become and how bad I would criticize it as it goes on.

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I wrote the above review when I finished ep6. Here's what I add up after finishing the whole series.

- The illogical messiness continues quite intensely until ep10. During latter episodes, the story doesn't get much into the leads' occupations anymore. And when they don't challenge themselves to show their intellectual level, things are ok. Then at the last stretch, the nonsense plot concerning the psychiatrist profession comes up again, and this is quite a big one in terms of the profession's accuracy. The FL, as a psychiatrist, decides that the best way to save a patient who has PTSD is to not let the patient recall his lost memories. So, she tries hard to hide the memory from the patient. She, again, is a psychiatrist! But her way to cope with a patient isn't to treat him, but to hide the illness from him! My. GOSH. All the details about being a psychiatrist in this series are all WRONG. (Later, the patient still recalls the memory and it's no big deal -_- The FL then tells the patient to try recalling everything -___-")

- The last 6 episodes are super boring. When I reached the last 4 episodes, I almost didn't care much about anything anymore. It's easy to see through what things are going and how it'd end. The plot makes me roll my eyes, even the love scenes are so lamely tasteless. The acting is not good enough to attract me to stick just to see the actors/actresses move around.

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P.S.

P.S.1 - I don't feel any chemistry between the 2nd/3rd/whatsover-sub leads at all. I always skip when it's the story about them. I feel like watching them is just wasting time. It's bad to that point for me.

P.S.2 - Let's talk a bit about the taste in their costume. In ep21, there's a party and a female character wears a fade-brown chiffon dress that has three neon-green straps on the front torso part. MY..GOSH... The design of the chiffon part is a fail, to start with. It makes the person who wears it look swollen. They make the dress spongy all at the wrong places. I can't find the thought behind the designer's idea of how to come up with this dress at all except that he/she might not have brain? Then, the neon-green straps?? The neon-green doesn't go along with the fade brown which is the core color here at all. And straps?? Why straps there?? It's like they want to add some spice into the dull brown dress, but they don't have the initiative of how to do that, so they just conveniently put anything that would look the most out-of-place there. They succeed, I'd say. It's hilarious. I choked with laughter right when the character comes into the frame. Unless... this character has a strong personality, she's not a joke. And this is an intense scene, but I can't take it serious at all. It's humorous but in an embarrassing way.

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So unrealistic in many aspects. Bad acting from ML.

1. Unrealistic:

Let's get straight to the unacceptable points.

(1.1) The way the ML stares at the FL as if he has a lot on his mind but doesn't say anything—he literally stares all the time since they first met, before the FL got interested in him—is super creepy in real life. I don't think any girl in their right mind gonna fall for a guy who look psycho like that. Actually, I've met a guy who did just that before and it creeped me out. I couldn't reject him in the normal way. I had to think five folds to be sure he wouldn't feel offended and seek revenge instead. To be honest, he might not be that psycho, I didn't really know him since we only met one time, but I didn't want to know him more to make sure either. Staring at someone you're interested in like that doesn't make people want to be your friend. It scares them!

(1.2) During a championship match in Finland, the MCs start to talk about the athlete's love life right before her match. My gosh! How rude and inconsiderate! They don't consider at all how their public announcement on this personal matter of the athlete would affect the athlete psychologically during the game. And this is an international arena in Finland, where people don't have the culture to put their nose in other people's business, nor are they extroverts who like gossip—this is in no way expected to happen in Finland at all.

(1.3) The ML was kicked out of the club and eventually retired from the career when he was 16 years old... They cast a 12-year-old boy to play that role... -_- It's unconvincing. Later on, they also cast a 6 year-old to play a 2 year old boy... It's not believable!

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2. Bad acting of the main character:

The worst performance goes to the ML... I'm quite disappointed that he didn't do well. I watched him since he played Nirvana in Fire and always cheer for him. But after Nirvana in Fire, he gained significant public interest and transitioned to main lead roles super fast—which was too fast and too soon for him. He had to play many roles older than himself and he couldn't portray them properly. It's very obvious in this role. I see there're 2 main points of misinterpretation of the ML character by the actor, which are:

(2.1) Being mature means being stiff.
The actor was about 21-22 years old when he played this 27-29 year-old character, but this isn't a free-spirited 27-29 years old. The ML character is an orphan and was kicked out by his teacher in his teenage years. He lives on his own, reflects a lot on life and it shapes him to be a very determined person. The actor portrays this character just by being stiff—throughout the series, he maintains a stiff expression while not talking. It's as if he thinks being stiff equals being mature and cool. Additionally, many of his gestures, such as the way he points his fingers, uses his hands to make signs or tries to communicate with his eyes, are not natural at all. It's obvious he's not used to making those gestures and just pretends to look cool.

Watching him is like watching a teenager who wants to be an adult, so he straightforwardly imitates what an adult does to appear cool. Most of his gestures look forced. It's truly like a kid overexerting himself in trying to be cool. Watching him, I feel he's comical rather than cool, and I feel pity for him rather than enchanted.

Actually, there's another guy who acts quite the same as the ML thinking being stiff equals being mature and cool, but he has much less proportion of air time, so he's not as much annoying as the ML. That guy is the FL's brother.

(2.2) Being in love means being in heat.
Really, the ML acts like he's in heat all the time. It's as if he's prepared to have sex with the FL at the first blink each time they meet. His character is quiet, determined and self-controlled. So when he's on the verge of not being able to stop himself from getting the FL to the bed, it's like he's in heat and can't help it. He acts like a young boy affected by his hormones, driven by his sexual desire.

Actually, I hesitated a bit about whether to put this point under the topic of character design or acting, but I feel how these scenes become more sexual than romantic is more due to the actor's interpretation of the role. So, let's just put it here.

(Note about FL):
On the contrary, the actress who plays FL has done a very good job. Her nuance in acting is great. Her presence in the series is smooth and natural even in some of the over-cringey scenes.

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3. Shallow character design:

Both main leads have one-dimensional characters. There's nothing complicated about them. They're programmed to love each other without doubt, so they are very accepting of what the other does, even though it could be a red flag for normal people. For example, the ML like to control the FL. He orders food for FL without asking her preference and place it in front of her while she's having something else. He also buys train ticket, forcing her to travel to where she just came from (although with him) without asking her opinion as well. He even arranges his friend to be her tour guide without checking if she has her own plans. It's a troubling dynamic that lacks depth and realism, leaving much to be desired in terms of character development and relationship dynamics.

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4. Nothing in the story:

Finish watching it and I feel so empty. After 30 episodes and there's nothing to the point that I doubt if it's about promoting Finland tourism. I even wonder if the Finland Tourism Organization sponsored this series since they set it in Finland, one of the most expensive countries to live in in spite of having nothing much for sightseeing, as the location for more than half of the series (the first full 15 episodes take place in Finland and they still come back in the latter episodes). The only thing I get from this series is to see the very intimate kissing/hugging/flirting scenes of young actors/actresses who are the main leads as well as how the ML acts like he's in heat and wants sex with the FL all the time. So, if you're their fans, welcome. If you're not, it can get irritating.

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5. Messed-up timeline:

They're already confused and messing up the timeline for a few time.

For example, they say after the male lead's first comeback game for a year and a half, he moves back to China. That's supposed to be about 2 years after ML and FL first met. Two months after that, ML and FL go to Finland for FL's competition, but they say FL has competed in the arena before which was last year (=the same time when they first met.)

Another time toward the end, when the FL finds out she isn't pregnant, she asks why the ML looks happy. The ML says something along the line of when he was 22 years old, he knew so little, so if his life had stopped there, he wouldn't have become as successful as he is today. But they first met when the FL was 22. As of now should be more than 2 years after that. She can't be younger than 24 years old...

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6. Mundane music:

Their background music sounds mundane and lacks originality, esp. those used during all the competition scenes. They resemble free midi music found on the internet. It's like they simply use whatever they can find to fill the silence during those long scenes where people can't be talking. (And yes, those competition scenes are too long for each time. They use them to drag the length of the whole series.)

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Good halfway. Dropping after the leads get together. Boring toward the end. Abrupt Ending.

During the first 16ep, I gave this drama a score of 7.5. Then the score dropped to 6.5 up until ep28. Lastly, it dropped even more to 5.5 after I finished watching the last 3 episodes.

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(1) Plot and Script [~]

The plot and script of the first half are rational yet fulfilling and not bland. Consequently, I don't feel any dragging. But their rationality turns out to change during the latter half, for example, the security system at where the leads' team lives is pretty good in the beginning. When FL's ex and ML's blind date want to come seeing them, the security stops them at the gate, doesn't allow them to pass that point by themselves. But during the latter half, a huge bunch of media can go past the gate to wait at the building's door for the leads' team. How come they can openly pass the gate like there's no security anymore?

In the first half, the love storyline is cute and rational, too. It's not greasy or obsessed with kissing like we normally see in other Chinese idol dramas, but that changes during the latter half as well. The script after the leads get together also starts to be 肉麻 and 有土味 (tasteless/out-of-date flirtation + cheesily goosebumpy dialogue). The ML calls FL "小姑娘 (~little gal)" in a way that isn't a tease or joke... And the FL teases ML by calling him "臭流氓 (~ya gross rascal)".... Ummmm those words make them sound like they come from the 90s -- not the right word choice in a very contemporary e-sport drama at all for me.

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(2) Cast and Acting [~]

Not the best acting, but I'm satisfied with all the cast. They all create a good atmosphere in the group. I like to see when they all are together. The chemistry doesn't exist only between the FL and ML.

For the ML, he doesn't have the best acting skills to perfectly serve his role. His subtle anti-social character is portrayed only by frowning with the eyebrows without his facial muscles involved. And he's supposed to be fluent in Korean, but it's clearly obvious he can't move his mouth in accordance with the way to pronounce the words. Despite all that, he still has the vibe that seizes me to stop and look at him.

Nothing to complain about the FL. I like this type of character.

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(3) Music [~]

Acceptable but not that good. The music serves it ok for an e-sport rom-com that needs to offer a contemporary, fast-pacing, competitive atmosphere, but they don't have enough music in the stock. The background music starts to be repetitive even in the same scene. And when the music repeats itself in a scene, it makes the viewers feel that the scene is starting to be too long, so instead of generating an exciting atmosphere, the result turns out to be the opposite.

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(4) CG [+]

In the e-sport/gaming dramas, we can't not include the CG topic. This one is good. It's the drama sponsored by Tencent, the biggest gaming company in China, and it's like I can see they assigned the game creating talents from the game department to create the CG in the game competition scenes. Good job but some scenes are still too long.

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(5) Toward the end [-]

It's like the writer runs out of ideas toward the end. The storyline goes nowhere anymore and they just drag especially during the last 3 episodes. However, even though they drag the story pretty much, they can't make the story end with the same tempo. They suddenly rush the progress during the last 10 minutes and end it abruptly. It's like they're fed up with their own job and don't want to have any kind of relation with it anymore, so they half-heartedly made these last few episodes before intolerantly ditched it at the end. The ending is especially disappointing. I feel like being thrown to it without getting to walk properly to perceive each step toward the last point. I don't feel they have 'the last point' even. They rush it to the point that I don't feel the drama has a closure. The story surely ends, no more story in it, but it's still the kind of hanging end that the viewers' feelings just hang in the middle.

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Just another idol film with the intent to sell Kim Yoo Jung.

(1) Story [-]

There's nothing original in the story, so cliche and highly predictable. And there's nothing in the story itself, no message to convey, just bringing the formula of teenage love story that full of misunderstanding in for the actors to play. They try to make a twist but it's a cliche twist, so it's not a twist in the end since audience can guess it right beforehand. However, the feelings between the characters has a solid foundation to be believable. If you also watch Chinese movies, you'd know how unpassionate the production teams are in making a film. They don't care to build a foundation for their stories, so lots of Chinese films are very much superficial and not believable at all. This movie is a good example for comparison. It is a story with nothing but still have a good foundation, so no matter how nothing the story is, as long as the actors can perform, audience can still enjoy it. Thus, higher score.

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(2) Acting [+]

Kim Yoo Jung is the star of the film. She carries the whole team. It's very enjoyable to watch her acting. The ML is so-so. I don't feel right with his smile at times which I'm not sure if it's due to his acting or just the physical feature of his smile. The best friend of ML's acting skill isn't that strong but I'd give him passable. The acting of the FL's best friend isn't real enough. I feel like her true self tries to pretend to be the character, so it feels more pretentious though the character is actually sincere. Anyway, her role doesn't show up much so it's ok.

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(3) Cinematography [~]

Cinematography is upto standard, but I don't really like their dream-like filter. In the scene at the vast lawn, all the colors look obviously artificial.

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As a whole, it is enjoyable to watch, but also wasting time. I wouldn't rewatch it, that's for sure. And if I know it'd be like this, I don't think I'd watch it in the first place.

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Strong start until ep6. Then things gradually go down.

The velocity of good start got me high until ep6. After I figured out that this story has no more element than a love story between two grudged exes, my curiosity and interest levels decreased. There's no more interesting conflict, so things are flattening down along the way. I had no more interest to watch this until the end after finishing ep12, esp. when being compared with Snowdrop that is on air during the same time and kind of competes for the audience's attention. I came to watch it until the end, though. After the last ep has broadcasted, I came to pay my due. And yeah... I was right, it isn't interesting anymore after ep12.

In terms of acting, I don't feel the character of grown-up Yeon Soo in Dami. Grown-up Yeon Soo portrayed by Dami was intentionally stern and kind of melodramatic. I'm not very satisfied with Dami's acting. Come to think of it, she also felt off in Itaewon Class. Among the three main leads in Itaewon Class, Dami was the weakest (her character was more challenging to act than the 2nd female lead, though.) Anyway, naughty, young Yeon Soo in Our Beloved Summer was still fun and enjoyable to watch. Only the grown-up version that was lacking. For Choi Woo Shik here, his acting was also off from scene to scene. All in all, I don't feel the lover vibes between them. Toward the end, they started to kiss a lot, and I felt nothing in their kisses at all.

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Overall is bad. Still watch it because of the male & female leads.

(1) Character
The weakest point of this story is the characters, and it isn't just one problematic point in that issue.

1. The design of the female characters that are on the bad side is irrational beyond imagination. They're the kind of plain black in a very unrealistic way.

- The mother of the male lead is the sickest. The foundation of her hatred toward the female lead isn't on the same par with the extreme degree of it. The origin is not solid at all. It's like she's angry with the female lead out of the blue just for the sake of hating. A softer word would be prejudice. And because she's the kind of irrational person who wouldn't be able to snap out of the nonsense by reasoning, her character's built up to be an unforgivable person. So at the end when she starts to talk sense and nicely to the female lead, it's not convincing. No way a person would change in literally 2 days from the way she has always been for years.

- The classmate who is jealous for the male lead always comes into the scene just to scream. Very exaggerated and unrealistic.

- The young servant at the male lead's house that always bullies the female lead just disappears into thin air during the latter part of the drama. She just disappears without a cause, like the director/writer don't know what to do with her anymore so they intentionally forget about her. Considering her characteristic, there should be more chaotic events at some crucial scenes in the story and the mother wouldn't treat the female lead nicely this easy at the end of it.

2. The character development of the female lead is awful and unrealistic. She turns from being a strong teenager who never let anyone bully her one-sidedly into a person who is very submissive in letting other people unfairly taking advantage of her without voicing or protecting herself. It's out of her character. Even if the story wants to show that she's more mature, this isn't maturity. She can be mature without letting other people bully her unnecessarily as it can be avoided. This isn't called character development. This is the 180-degree shifting in character. Like it's a total replacement of a person. Her character is something like starting from being wise to being dumb.

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(2) Music
The background music is terrible on both the aspects of music choice (maybe starts from the composition) and music editing (when music is edited into the scene or when two pieces of music are placed continuously - those who did this didn't know how to do it at all). The musical style is archaic - no different from those in the Thai dramas from a decade ago. The music here also usually steals the show as most of the pieces don't go along with the mood/atmosphere of the scenes. The sound of music (composition, volume, music transition) is basically bad and unskilled that it obtrudes my perception instead of going naturally as one with the story content. It's like they add each piece of music into the frame just because they want to kill the silence. Their work simply shows that they don't know how music can help portraying the story.

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(3) Acting
The acting skills of many key actors in this drama are very questionable. Their actings are exaggerated and/or unnatural, including the female lead (she always blinks and bulges the eyes to the point that at times it's obviously pretentious, esp. when looking at her background that she's been a sensibly strong person since young age, it'd be hard to believe that she'd be easily surprised or confused out of naivete incessantly) and the male lead's friends apart from the mother, classmate and servants. The acting of the male lead seems to be the most natural though his character design is also very weird. He is another character that hasn't developed. He's shifted from being a considerate, wholeheartedly caring person, who voluntarily waits in front of the female lead's school out of kindness (he hasn't loved the female lead then, just being a good brother to her) to make sure she doesn't skip the class into a callous, insensitive sadist who throws his fist into other people's face without a proper reason in different occasions as he's jealous over the female lead.

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(4) Dialogue
The dialogue is pretty much cringey. I mean it's very goosebumply cringey. At least, it's less cringing than My Husband in Law that the male lead also played in earlier this year.

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In conclusion, the character design and development in this drama are under the bottom and this brings the drama down the hill. The background music is terrible. The acting of many main characters is disappointing. The major plotline is acceptable but can't say it's impressive. To confess, I watch this drama till the end just because the female lead looks cute and the male lead looks good, quite a superficial reason I admit. I watch it with 2x speed and press forward a lot, though.

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A complete waste of time.

Totally no essence in the story. It's like the production team had a big chunk of money but no story to convey, so they decided the filming location to be abroad as the solution to spend at least 80% of the budget, which would show the result of efficiency in budget management. But by utterly having no idea about what story they should weave, they just threw a very unlikely scene of a catastrophic incident into one point in time during the 90-minute timespan WITHOUT. A. CAUSE. It's like they also knew how their story had nothing at all, so that 'one point in time' they put the incident into was the opening scene to arouse people's curiosity. Though with this trick, the circumstances during the 90 minutes that followed were still very boring and not interesting at all cost. From beginning to end, there's absolutely no meaning in any moment - nothing in or behind the catastrophic incident - so as the whole story.

Therefore, let me be rude here -- to hell with the movie title! How is this "A Passage Of My Youth" (--I watched this movie with this as the official movie's title on IQIYI website)?? They didn't have any message to tell the viewers, and they knew it, the hecking incident being used as the bait is the evidence of how obvious this fact also bore in their mind.

Just let me rant a bit more about the acting here -- the acting is so bad. Song Wei Long is so amateur in this film. He looks super young in here, though, so maybe they filmed this when he had less experience before his popularity exploded after all his series that broadcasted in 2020. Jiang Chao's acting is as unimpressive as Song Wei Long's. I don't feel anything along with him. Zhang Zi Feng's is so-so. Her role is super boring and uninteresting. It's a role that has nothing to show, naturally the actor who plays it wouldn't have anything to deliver to the audience.

The cinematography is also very amateur.

I totally don't understand how the producer was willing to invest his money in this self-destroying project.

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P.S.1 Just noticed that this film is adapted from a novel. I don't know if the novel is any good, but this film already destroyed the reputation of the novel.

P.S.2 Just saw the information that this film was shot in 2016 on Baidu. So my speculation about the acting experience of Song Wei Long is right - so is my speculation about the fact that it bears in the producer/production team's minds how bad this film is. It's the fact that made them put this film on the shelf for a total of 5 years. I think this film would be on the shelf forever if not for Song Wei Long's popularity to skyrocket in 2020. Right after that year, they just grasped this last opportunity to make this film any use by finally releasing it.

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Tremendous Improvement in the ML's Acting!

I'm really excited watching the ML in this drama!

In his previous work, 'Snowstorm of Love', filmed the same year as this drama, his acting was unimpressive. In my ranking, he was the second worst. But in this one, despite the similar character personalities, his performance is much improved!

Both characters are solemn and calm, but in 'Snowstorm of Love', he was so stiff it hurt my eyes. It was annoying watching him try to be cool and unnatural. But in 'The Double', wow! I have to use the Chinese proverb 刮目相看 to praise him! He's made such progress that I can no longer see him the same way. He is charismatic in 'The Double' and I can't get enough of his screen time. I can watch him endlessly, always excited to see what his role will do next, without getting bored. It's amazing how my feelings toward him changed so drastically! (I finished 'Snowstorm of Love' less than a month before starting 'The Double'.)

I think I have to praise the director the most for the ML's performance. There's no way he could improve this much in such a short time between the two dramas without great directing and guidance!

('Snowstorm of Love' was filmed from Jan-May 2023, and 'The Double' from May-Sep 2023. This also reflects poorly on the director of 'Snowstorm of Love.' Remember, the ML was second to last in that drama, and the last was the ML himself.)

Apart from the director, I have to praise the plot. The story is great and complex, and it unfolds logically without recklessness.

To be honest, the ML and the director's work aren't perfect, but their flaws are minor compared to the ML's tremendous improvement.

One obvious flaw is that the ML looks much younger than the FL. His acting is on par with hers, but his appearance is obviously younger, even though he plays a role much older than hers.

For the director, I love how he dares to use a lot of subjective shots where actors make direct eye contact with the audience while delivering their lines. However, there are also instances where the director overdoes it with the visual art, making scenes feel forced. For example, in certain dignified scenes, the director's visual art overshadows the natural flow, making the scenes laughable instead. An example is the student competition scene where the FL and her three friends put their hands on their waists and walk intimidatingly toward their opponents. While the FL's friend and her brother effectively convey pride, the FL and her cousin look more like they're on a catwalk, which feels out of place and out of character. This scene comes across as ridiculous instead of impressive.

Moreover, many scenes aim for beautiful visuals without any meaning. For example, the cast would flick their robes into the camera while the camera moves backward, creating a grandiose sense, but it's actually a scene without any grandiose point. This exaggeration makes me feel their art direction is empty and meaningless. Another example is a scene where two rival characters accidentally meet on the way home without any other meaning for the story. The scene is just for the visual of them walking away from each other in opposite directions under a rainstorm to symbolize their rivalry. There are a lot of forced scenes like this scattered throughout the drama, which annoy me more and more as time passes.

By the way, the FL has also done a great job with her acting, but it's not perfect either. Sometimes, you can tell her facial expressions are choreographed and not genuinely felt. For example, when she tries to look femininely cute with the ML, it looks so fake -_- Since her personality is wise, experienced, and dignified (and her mature face can't hide that she's already a mature woman), when she shows a naive/innocent expression, it comes across as fake.

As for the ending... I have to deduct 0.5 points after the last episode. I don't like when a series uses the trick of unnecessary death to play with the audience's feelings. It's always ok if the death is reasonable, but the unnecessary one is unforgivable. And this series uses that lame trick.

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Personal Enjoyment [+]
Anyway, I have no boredom watching each episode. I really enjoy it. It reminds me of how I felt about 'Nirvana in Fire'. Although I really like this drama, it hasn't reached the same level that 'Nirvana in Fire' made me crazy about it. That story was very dignified, wise, logical, and heart-wrenching. All the cast also made their characters perfect.

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Momentum sustained for exactly half way, then they lose it.

The story starts with the mysterious origin of the ML. He considers himself as a loser, but his vibes say it differently. It's interesting to find out what all this contrast and background story are about.

The story advances in fast progress that I can mostly absorb the story development without having enough time to spend on digesting and considering the story puzzles. Along the way, eccentric characters keeps showing up in succession. It's exciting and hard to predict what their actions would be.

However, this fast and addictive pace loses momentum after a vital point being unraveled right in the middle of the whole series. I skim a lot starting from EP.21. There're some important scenes in EP.25 and 27 that can slow me down a bit. Apart from that, only when Wuxin appears in the scene that I would pay attention at all. Wuxin remains as the last interesting character in this series for me. It's only genuinely interesting when he comes out.

This story is much about the brotherhood. They don't emphasize on the romantic aspect and I would hope so much for they to not mind telling the love story in this series at all because the job they've done with the love story lines is much awful. The ML together with his 2 martial brothers forming into three romantic couples. None of them have chemistry between each other.

And the couple with the worst chemistry is the ML & FL themselves. It's like someone command ML to must fall for FL, which I still don't see how ML have feelings for her at all. I don't feel any speck of love from him. FL openly shows her interest toward ML with some other character, but she herself has weak impression. She has no charm whatsoever and tends to be annoying. I don't know if this is about character design or it's because of the acting skills of the actress, but I am so lazy to watch her scenes. Among all the female characters in this series, the Divine Healer is the only one who caught my eyes and is endearing to watch in my opinion. She's too young to be matched up with ML, though.

There're last 10 episodes left for me. I'm waiting to see how my feelings for this series are going to pan out. Hope it wouldn't drop more than it has so far.

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Absurd Ending

Major Problem - The Ending [-]
At the ending, FL shoots herself in the head and nobody even bothers to call a doctor. It seems like there's no way she could survive, but somehow she's still alive two years later and crosses paths with the ML on a battlefield. How on earth does she cheat death? Moreover, when they meet, she looks at ML and smiles at him. How is it possible that their unresolved misunderstandings, which drove her to attempt suicide, are brushed aside? The 2nd ML who is the only other person who knows that ML didn't trigger the bomb that killed FL's entire family has also died. No one can possibly tells FL the truth.

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Acting [-]
The acting of the ML and FL is decent, but the second ML and second FL (especially the second ML) are way below par.

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Story in General [-]
There's a lot of physical and mental torture, abuse, and assault, and to top it all off, they're the actions by the ML. I'm not a fan of this direction the story took. For the storyline where the FL loses her memories three times, though not much creative but the details are still interesting.

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Funny Scene [-]
Okay, let me tell you about this scene that was supposed to be all erotically romantic, but it ended up being hilarious for me. Imagine this: ML and FL having sex in a car parked under the bright lights at the ML's mansion that is full of servants. The car's windows are also very clear - not tinted to obstruct the view. And guess what? The whole scene reminds me so much of that iconic sex-in-the-car scene from Titanic. I was half-expecting the FL's hand to smack against the car window, and guess what? She actually did it, mimicking that ecstasy moment. It was supposed to be romantic, but it turned into more of a parody, making it even funnier for those who've watched Titanic before.

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