KwehDoink
United States
This review may contain spoilers
Great watch at any point in your life
This is, still to date, my favorite drama I've seen. I've watched it completely now three times at different points after life-changing events. I had first watched it about a year after my grandfather whom I was very close to passed away, another when everyone I seemed to know — including myself — were having health and medical issues, and another while I was expecting a child. Each time I watched, I connected deeply to some part of a character's story, be it a main or a supporting character. The past histories and present plots of just about everyone in the show is fleshed out in a such a realistic way that anyone watching can find some part of it relatable.Besides the amazing storytelling, the chemistry between the leads and even second leads is second-to-none that I've seen and the acting overall from the entire cast is top notch. Usually, there's one character in a drama that feels like they are just reciting the script without any sort of depth. Not the case with this one, at least in my opinion.
But I don't think I would have liked this show as much as I did if it weren't for the OST. It was the first (and only) drama I've seen where I even remembered the music afterwards. The songs match the scenes they are played in perfectly and add so much more emotion to them.
I truly cannot recommend Just Between Lovers enough if you're looking for something different from your average romcom kdrama. Please give it a try.
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Watch if you need a break from the typical kdrama formula
I have seen this drama described as a "healing drama." I agree with this in multiple ways. Not only is this drama about healing from past traumas, but it's what I would describe as a "palette cleanser" which I would consider another form of healing. After watching several dramas with crazy plots and twists that causes some anxiety or an entire box of tissues to be gone through, this drama was a nice slice-of-life slow-burn drama. It has its dramatic and rather sad moments but nothing completely utter tragic to the point it's unbelievable. Probably the most realistic kdrama I have seen. Another added bonus, no real second leads so it's not your typical romance drama either. I loved it so much. I would have given it a 10/10 but honestly the end was sort of confusing to me.Was this review helpful to you?
Don't regret it but won't watch again
This was the second k-drama I ever watched back in 2018, coming directly from Boys Over Flowers. You know the deal. My first review would have been more glowing, written behind Lee Min Ho-colored glasses. But as it was with BOF, after a few years of watching other dramas, this one is just...meh. And that's allowing some grace for its age. I honestly liked it a little less than BOF. The female lead (Park Shin Hye) was a little too "damsel in distress" and lacked emotion from the very start which was extremely annoying to me. By mid-series, I was already done with Lee Min Ho as a chaebol lead and found the second lead and his story a lot more palatable. As my title says, I don't regret finishing the series as it served its purpose to me as a gateway drama but I don't think I could ever make myself rewatch it now.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
A little hokey but still entertaining
First of all, I wanted to address something several reviews I've read have mentioned about the story. The thing to keep in mind as you're watching is, primarily, All Of Us Are Dead is focusing on a group of TEENAGERS trying to survive a zombie apocalypse with no help. Those of us that are adults, think back to when you were a teenager? Did you make intelligent, rational decisions? I was considered an intelligent kid and I know I didn't. And that's not with the added stress of a real life-or-death scenario. So I think a little grace needs to be used when nitpicking the decisions that led to undesirable results for these kids.That said, I will agree that while I commend what they were TRYING to do story-wise (commentary about school bullying, the toxicity of politics, etc), there was definitely too much going on that didn't need the screen time and sort of took away focus from what should have been the main theme. I understand wanting to show the end of innocence and childhood through the loss of a parent too soon but the pregnant student and the subsequent baby left without its mother part seemed redundant, especially when there was so much emphasis put on a couple of the students witnessing the death of a parent or at least knowing for sure that their parents were dead.
The focus on the assembly member after On-jo's father had left the group to find his daughter didn't really seem needed to me at all. And killing him off within minutes after they were reunited seemed like just a cheap way to keep the kids on their own with no adult help whatsoever and made all the screen time focused on him being a badass and trying to get to the school and all his setbacks completely worthless.
Personally, I felt like not enough time was spent on fleshing out the characters and their relationships to each other to make the deaths more meaningful and devastating. Don't get me wrong, it's sad and a couple of them made me shed a tear even (I'm pretty emotional though and tend to cry when I see others crying.) but it never lasted very long.
The only other thing about it that irks me is that the score was completely forgettable. To the point where I don't remember any of it minus the intro music. I feel like with the use of a better score, I would have felt a lot more connected to the story and characters like I did after the rooftop singing scene.
Despite all that, I still found it incredibly entertaining and I'm interested in what they might be planning for a possible second season.
TLDR; Not the best drama ever written, but not the worst either. In my eyes, worth a watch if you're into zombies and horror.
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