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I loved A-Teen Season 1 to death, and was super excited for Season 2. Even though I turned out to quite enjoy it, I don't think I loved it as much as the first season, for multiple reasons.Firstly, there was barely any Do Ha-Na! Even though romance-wise I didn't care about her plot that much, I loved her as an individual character, and without her, I felt like the series also focused a lot less on friendship and sismance.
Secondly, I felt like there were so many questions still left unanswered from Season 1! That girl that Shi-Woo used to know, for example.
Thirdly, I was honestly annoyed by Bo Ram's mindset and lack of support for Ki-Hyun at times—I don't think any of that was sufficiently addressed.
Fourthly, I liked Joo-Ha as a character, but I don't know if it's just because he's new and I haven't warmed up to him completely yet (especially since we don't know much about him at all, other than his parents being MIA), but I just didn't care much for the relationship between him and Kim Ha-Na.
Overall, though, I enjoyed the parallels to the first season, and that we got progress for some plots, like
I'll also admit that I absolutely HATED Ah-Hyun at first, but now she's become my favorite in the cast, and I'm praying for a Season 3 so we get more of her and Min.
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For the life of me, I can't figure out why everyone loves the male lead. He was boring and his first impression was that he was doing some creepy Edward Cullen stuff. Honestly I'm just tired of the "strong and silent" male trope, in general. It got really frustrating to have to watch him say stupid and hurtful things to TJZ over and over again, and she STILL chased after him. I liked the second male character, the police officer, a lot better.
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It's honestly so refreshing to have not one, but TWO nice male leads, even though I'm pre-hurting because I know I'll be sad for the other guy no matter who Song Yi ends up with. I loved how mature the three main characters were, honestly—even though there were some scenes where I wished the characters would just be more honest, their actions were understandable and I loved how there weren't really those huge and unnecessary miscommunications.
Ga Rin and Choi Hoon were fun characters as well, but I didn't feel too invested in their plots or as a ship. They were more there for comedy, and even so I found Ga Rin a little annoying at times.
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Gets repetitive and annoying
At some point you expect some character development, and by episode 10, OHN's stupidity and stalking tendencies got extremely annoying and unbearable, especially when everything felt like an exact repeat of the earlier episodes. I liked the moments where OHN got tired of BSJ and finally said she was giving up—I just wish that these moments lasted for more than ten minutes before she ran back to him. That was a big reason I liked episode 13 (post-marriage meeting) because that lasted longer.Another thing that makes this super problematic appeared during the college years, when OHN planned her entire career and future around BSJ's. For someone like OHN who seemed to know who she was, this lack of identity and independence was just one step too far.
A lot of scenes started annoying me as they went on, too. OHN's clumsiness and stupidity and apparent lack of ability in ANYTHING got very tiresome. OHN's tennis scenes pissed me off, especially. I wish there was more character development and growth on her part as an individual. I wish there was more growth for BSJ too, and he addressed his mother directly about what she did when he was younger—I'm not sure why that part was talked about as "trauma" and made out to be such a huge deal when it was never going to be resolved.
Honestly, a lot of characters were annoying in this, and it seemed like many of them were exaggerated in some way. BSJ and OHN were okay, obviously, but Bong Joon Gu was also horribly desperate and irritating. Of course, I liked Eun Jo and BSJ's mother, but mostly as comic relief. I liked OHN's two friends as well, but I just wish they had more screentime and personality than just being the people who OHN always ran to to talk about her boy problems.
Plot-wise a lot of things are questionable, like the random and rushed marriage (that nobody even questioned) and the sub-plot of the guy who suddenly liked OHN who never showed up again after two or three appearances.
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For a drama that has such a dark sub-plot, this drama was surprisingly funny. The romance was hilarious, especially the jealous scenes, and I loved the chemistry between the two leads. The side characters were really interesting as well, and I enjoyed seeing how other relationships developed.
I was SUPER intrigued by the mystery aspect of this, and it definitely delivered. The backstory was nothing that I'd expected, and the cinematography creeped me out successfully, which was a great balance.
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This review may contain spoilers
Everyone who's saying that the first episode is really annoying and that the FL's voice is shrilly is ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. But honestly, once you get past that, it starts not being too bad.I didn't like the main guy lead as much as everyone else. Honestly, I had a bit of second lead syndrome in this, but the second lead got less than a quarter of the main lead's screentime, so I knew there was no chance. But that's why I honestly was so thankful for the ending, both because it seemed more realistic and because of the ship situation!
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Father-daughter relationship
So the father-daughter relationship in this movie was undoubtedly the best part of it, and I really wish we had seen more of the before-after scenes with them. These scenes were so touching that scenes with the mom honestly paled in comparison and I just didn't love her as a character at all; her subplot felt very extra and I was also just not very interested in her conversations or reactions.What I was interested in was the reaction of the children; I was honestly expecting this movie to be a lot more depressing, with instances of the community reacting with disgust or blaming the parents, or with other students being nosy/gossipy and there being bullying. But this wasn't the case at all and the movie delivered exactly what the title promised: Hope.
That's not to say that it was all positive, as of course there was the commentary on the legal system. It was interesting but they didn't go much into it and I kind of have mixed feelings on that.
Overall, this was a pretty touching movie and I did feel emotions — but it wasn't consistent.
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Harrowing
There are some plot points in this movie that are kind of questionable and require suspension of disbelief, but overall this was great to watch.The story was harrowing and I felt mind-blown by the way things were playing out, even when I realized things one second before it was revealed. The tone of the story was really doom-and-gloom and I felt like it perfectly encapsulated the vengeance theme, from the very first second to the very last scene. Great movie— one that's not afraid to embrace its darkness.
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