A Half Baked Hallmark Story
Perfect Crown is the type of KDrama that has come to define modern kDramas. big budget, big casts, but a script with zero impact, written by chatgpt.Both of our leads, HJ and Prince Yi An, are two privileged adults who are mentally stuck in high school. The world only exists to hurt them. Our two second leads, PM and QM, are caricatures made to prop both the leads up. We are told Prince Yian is the best prince ever and not once is this supported by any on screen evidence. The drama is advertised as a marriage contract about a 21st century wife, and we do not see any of this play out.
The drama is like if someone took 50 top moments from the cringy romance webtoon you read as a teen and made it a drama, but forgot to add any details and proper plot. Every character has piss poor writing and arcs are nonexistent.
Now, to the general audience who are fine with consuming brain rot, they could enjoy this. But to anyone who wishes for 1% substance in their romance, two characters who actually are likable, this is not it for you .
Performances: Gong Seung Yeon stole the show. Utterly beautiful acting and the only believable character. Devious but stone cold in her resilience.
- IU: probably some of her worst acting but she was good on emotional scenes. I don't think she ever fully merged with HJ and I get it because HJ is very unlikable in general. That romcomy ditzy acting is hard and IU did not show this well
- BWS: not familiar with his past works but his performance was nothing good. The character of Prince Yian is just a Y/N level male lead ........the stone faced expressions and the constant shots to make him appear cool were beyond cringe.
-Noh Sang Hyun: a wonderful actor but a ridiculous character turn for him. His performance was great however.
Overall, this drama was just bad. You could watch a montage of their romantic scenes instead but the chemistry wasn't even that great for me to rewatch any of it. You're better off going and rewatching Goong.
3/10
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Not Made for Hype, but for Warmth
Park Hae Young has made a name for herself with her former kdramas, but We Are All Trying Here is much different than her 2 past slice of life works.Our lead, Hwang Dong Man, is the antithesis of a KDrama male lead. He is a known loser, he acts deranged, he is down for majority of the drama, and he can get on your nerves. But that is what makes him HUMAN. At the end, this story is about humans. messy humans, depressed humans. And this story is about WRITING. Why do writers exist? Why does film exist? And why should it be protected? The drama is the writer herself asking her industry these questions to remind themselves of the power of arts. Poetry, film, love, that is what makes us human.
The slight romance between Eun Ah and Dong Man is lovely. Together, these two lonely people heal one another, and even those around them. But the real love story is between Dong Man and Gyeong Se; our two parallel male leads, each so imperfect and messed up, but their bond and hatred and love defines every episode of the drama. Jin Man ended up being my favorite character however with an utterly outstanding performance. Tbh every performance is incredible in this drama. Koo Kyo Hwan is a maestro of acting.
This is not a drama you binge watch. It is not a drama you watch for OTP heart fluttering scenes. It is one you must digest slowly, and think about the dialogue deeply. If you want to sit down and watch worthless people find some worth in this world of ours, this is a must watch. PHY has done it again.
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started with a bang, ended with a fizz out
every "positive" character was annoying as HELL especially lim su im like her being so damn nosy from day 1 for no reason? hyena being so rude and annoying? CHA SERI??????? CALLING HER DAD WHO PAID ALL HER BILLS AND HID HER CRIMES A FAILURE???????yeonseo was the victim of the drama and deserved better than all of then. prof cha's family was the best minus annoying ahh seri.
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my demon - more like my goblin, my edward cullen, my succession
when you cast kim yoo jung and song kang, you hope to have a script to do them justice.on paper, the story of a contract marriage between the devil and an heiress, sounds amazing. in this drama however, the story was lost so much, that it was held together only by song kang and kim yoo jung's chemistry. and good outfits!
the murder plot, succession plot, business plot, etc. was so stupid that you can FF through all of it. the character arcs are mostly nonexistent. the story is a pure copy paste of goblin episodes 14-16 forward.
i've seen worse and am happy that the writer managed to put her 2 brain cells together to pull together somewhat of a happy ending, but GOD. you need better scripts @ recent kdramas! casting pretty leads is just not enough!!!
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a makjang trying to masquerade as a prestige piece
what a silly drama. the politics are un-serious to begin with; the USA would never gaf about what a south korean ambassador is doing with her personal life. like, i'm sorry, but they'd have attacked everyone in episode 1 if this was a serious thing.the romance, while pretty, makes zero narrative sense. in fact, munju and her husband have a more intriguing story and the romance with sanho cuts through that emotional arc between them. the rest of the plots - family secrets, hidden lovers, hidden kids, annoying in-laws, is KBS weekend drama content! not something you expect from such a high budget and cast. and every bit of footage of that submarine made me want to crack up it was so ridiculous.
jun ji hyun carries the drama however. kang dong won is the second lead here to her story. she shines and is breathtaking. in a different drama, i'd have loved their relationship, but here......it all felt random.
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