Reviews

Lots of bickering. Rehashing plot points. Overall not that pleasant

I watched this in 2023 . There were some tropes that were kind of standard for when it was released but over all it has aged well. I am not a fan of romance between bickering people & this was very heavy with that. Yoon Eun Hye is not my fav female lead but she did a good job here though her character was unbelievably naïve for having lived in a city her whole life and they had her prancing about the vineyard in ridiculous clothes & jewelry. Male lead Oh Man Seok was a bit too rusticated & I kept waiting for a transformation (in terms of hair style) but it never happened. It was annoying that they writers covered certain topics multiple times when they had already been resolved. The production quality, the very simple OST & the acting were all very good, but the way the characters were written was not pleasant entertainment for me

Read More

Somber with hint of romance. Leads lack chemistry. Female lead miscast

Series had an Unexpected prevailing somber tone with only a bare hint of romance . I expected to be wowed with what they did with makeup, but The makeup transformations were really unimpressively lack luster. Though there is a happy ending for the main couple; to call it a slow burn would be generous. Sadly, the leads have no chemistry. Joo Sang Wook does a really good job. Female lead Kim Bo Ra is miscast, & either her character is poorly written or she's poorly directed. Supporting cast does well, except for Hong Seok Cheon who is an irritating caricature of a type of man . I did not pick up on the age gap between the leads for awhile as it didn't seem relevant. It wasn't a problem because there is Nothing romantic going on. The female lead frequently has a blank look on her face & she comes across like she is a middle schooler with her expressions. It's really hard to accept her as a part of a romance with such a charismatic male lead. Joo Sang Wook really does all the work because she might as well be a hand puppet for all she is able to emote .I kept waiting for her to show another more adult side but it never came. The one tentative kiss lacks warm fuzzies or any heat. It's just Joo Sang Wook making his own chemistry all by himself & really by that time, you feel that he is so much more mature than she is that even His character is like :"nah this is just weird "! I've seen Kim Bo Ra in "Her private life" & did not warm up to her as a supporting actress. I really don't think that she's up to being a main, especially when paired with a much better, seasoned actor.

Read More

Minimal drama. Smile inducing.

I had this on my "not interested" list, but I wanted something light & fluffy & this was free , AND I saw that it had a happy ending, so I figured I'd try it. It took me along while to warm up to the female lead's character. She was SO cringy. I wasn't all that captured by the male lead's visuals either. But by the 4th episode I was getting numb to those negatives. By the 5th episode the male lead's acting impressed me. There was very minimal drama & a very short separation period of the leads before the resolution of the story. I was surprised to find that having had no expectations of really liking this, that by the end I really had done alot of smiling throughout the drama-which is just what I wanted. I would actually watch this again sometime.

Read More

1 yr time skip & Bland happy ending; best enjoyed by stopping mid ep 10

It was pretty good until the middle of episode 10 & then once we got the main couple where we wanted them, they were going to throw multi tropes in to shake things up. After reading other reviews it seems like this is the exact place to stop for the best experience because from the middle of ep 10 to the end of ep 16 there isn't alot worth enduring through. I skipped to the end & was vindicated as I saw that not only was there a 1 year time skip (in which the main couple have NO interaction at all) to the very bland happy-ish ending where all you get is a smile & a small hug.so if I watch again I will stop in the middle of ep 10

Read More

Females are ALL unpleasant. Depressing . Could not root for any relationship

AKA; Bo Ra! Deborah By episode 4 I really hated ALL the women. By episode 7 I thought that the sobbing would be done , but Nope, Female lead is still wailing despite the fact that SHE was bored in the relationship ! Conniving women yelling ,blame shaming & being arrogant power trippers make it crystal clear why they are unhappy. they aren't misunderstood or in need of a good man, they are toxic manipulators fixated on an ideal that they pursue like a banshee. I wouldn't be friends with women like that so the idea that any man would want a piece of that is Ludacris !The cheater is obviously a jerk, and I'm not saying that the other men are perfect, but being a clueless idiot is way better than being a scheming, manipulative , angry, aggressive female. By Episode 8 I just felt depressed and sick of all the female's smug, smirky superior attitude. he men :RUN away as fast as you can! I have seen the female lead in other things, and this just ruins watching her in anything again.

Read More

Small bit of romance. Sloppy, & somewhat opened ended ending

This was was a more violent, suspenseful thriller than I expected. I would have given it a perfect score but they killed off a character I really liked. There is only a small bit of romance. the ending is slightly surprising and though it ends with most storylines tided up, it is a bit sloppy and little open ended.**spoiler** it felt like a plot hole right at the end for the little girl's situation. The "newly minted" main couple are living the lives they want, thought it's unclear what the Female lead is actually doing for a job, and no mention of who is running the company ! with the main couple no longer living with the little girl, the little girl has no one but the house keeper , who she never seemed that close to so it's sad.

Read More

Whose vengeance is righteous ? Romance doesn't work. 1 yr time skip & open ended

why the low rating:Song Joong Ki is not the reason ! it's the cast of characters closest around him that foul up the drama. For the first half of the series it was unexpectedly fun -yet the gritty, cold violence increasingly escalates & is very disturbing. The females in this series are all crass, crude, irritating & unpleasant. The good guys are playing the same games as the bad guys, so "good" is a matter of perspective ( who has tortured & killed less ?). Hero's by my definition are not cruel, so this eye for eye vengeful plotline pushed my level of tolerance to it's limit. OK it's fun to have a cool guy going around righting wrongs, but where's the line you don't cross ? Even Vincenzo admits that there is a time when he becomes a monster in order to fulfill his agenda. And the sad thing is that he inspires ( infects is a better word) those around him, putting them all in danger by following his example as well as turning them into deviants.By Episode 14 I just wanted to enjoy watching Song Joong Ki do his snarky cool thing, but the irritating female lead is like fingernails on a chalkboard & you wish someone would "off" her. I have zero desire to see the lead's in a romantic relationship at this point (& that never changed) .I gave myself a week off from watching before finishing the drama- I didn't find the building occupants interesting or amusing & the violence had started to be too much. The rest of the drama was set on driving home the theme that the justice system doesn't work as it should & so vigilantism is the only solution.[wait, by being a torturer & a killer driven by your own moral compass, how are you better than the evil you are trying to eradicate-as you go about unchecked on your self declared righteous "crusade" ?] The last episodes are grim & a blood bath of Vincenzo getting his revenge. They throw a bit of romance in that doesn't go anywhere because he can't stay in Korea & then there is a year time skip with the teaser that there might be a season 2. The ending is unsatisfying & if you step back from the fact that the actor playing the lead is so great to watch do his James Bond sort of thing, then you realize that you don't like the dark character he's playing, who will always be a killer.

Read More

story rehashing & People don't stay dead! Too many plot twists & turns.

All actors did a great job & I Would have rated it higher if it had end at the end of Episode 12 , hadn't been so intense with more heart palpitating action than I anticipated & had so many twists & turns that kept the storyline hard to keep track more often than not. The plot device that was both fun, yet also infuriating was that the characters could change the plot and the storyline retroactively. I was more than ready to be done by the end of episode 12....and if & when I rewatch this, I will stop at there as it's a happy enough ending place, because what follows, is clever, but overstuffed & unpleasantly gut wrenching. They cram in a dizzying amount of twists that really seemed unnecessary. Here's why stopping at episode 12 would have been a good option for me;How many times do the main characters have to end up in jail (doesn't once sound enough ? AND doesn't the amount of time there seem like it should be relatively short ? Apparently the writers though otherwise.How many times must characters die only to be revived ? Female lead's dad (the comic creator) is not really a good guy, but what happens to him & who decides what happens to him would have been better left not being so front & center. They created an impossible plot point.Bad guys who don't stay dead are a tired trope.Second villain's reason for wanting the male lead nihilated is weak at best.Rewrites that have the storyline ending the web series (the comic in the drama) ending it it's past (? yeah, what?)Episodes 1-12 have already given us quite a bit of gruesome violence as well as forced separation of the main couple. Episodes 13-16 just makes for a long drawn out messy (albeit happy) ending. Apparently, things can't end until the villain(s) are gone.The last episodes resulted in just being exhausting , but at least things are explained & some people may like being flung around plot wise yet again.

Read More

juvenile & idiotic. constant Aegyo, saccharine romance with a glut of American music

16 episodes does not seem like all that long a series, but it felt like there was way too much dull filler so really this should have been a 10 or 12 episode series. First off, the main girl is NOT feminine like the description implies. She does have her girly moments, but for the most part she's in sweats or ugly shapeless clothes & is stuffing her face with food & acting like she has the brains of a mule that's been kicked in the head. The main guy was interesting UNTIL he suddenly turned from cool hunk into a constant Aegyo maniac who instantly became obsessed with the main girl. Why ? simply because he had fond memories of her when she was very very young. He goes so far as to treat her almost as if she were that same child, when it's obvious she's grown up. I didn't find their relationship really worked the way it was written. The filler I mentioned has to do with the weight lifters as friends and the lead guy's stalker ex-girl friend. The weight lifting friends were especially boring I made me really want to fast forward through them. The side story of a girl character having a crush on an older guy & he's oblivious to the point of absurdity makes you wonder if all the characters have mental issues! As for the main romance , it was too cutesy for me & the guy, though handsome, really had no reason to instantly completely change his personality & become smitten with the lead girl. The word idiotic comes to mind as a description for the series. Sometimes you can just suspend disbelief & enjoy the fantasy, as in Love O2O, but here, it's all so very juvenile you wonder if they had a good idea & just had a 3rd grader write the plotline for each episode. rewatch value :nonemusic: the OST had way too much American music, it was very distracting & didn't work(& my first language is English).

Read More

Intimate scenes were unromantic but series is SO good, here's how to watch it

First let me say that I love this series (AND it has a happy ending) BUT I had to put my review on hold for a couple of months while I cooled off from being angry at how they began to ruin the romance at the end of Episode 14 & proceeded to strip away all the "warm fuzzies" I had for the couple. I am baffled; Is there a cultural or generational thing that I'm missing or were the writers hot blooded males locked in a room too long & they wrote that frustration into the male lead, causing him to be super aggressive & uncontrolled during what should be a romantic consensual scene. The lead female character obviously felt the same because she acts like she's putting herself on the alter to sacrifice herself. Their having sex is like something she's Doing for him, or rather letting him Do to her. Appalling & unromanticEpisode 16 is totally necessary.I liked this series enough to buy the dvds but am putting a note it the case for next time I watch this :Spoilers:for a satisfying romance version I should end where the male lead goes to Paris & I should skip ahead & pick up after the kiss (when he proposes)definitely stop at ep 15 time stamp 49:55 when she gets in the taxi & drives away. Pick up at Ep 15 times stamp 50:21

Read More

pleasant & slow paced turned into tedious & bland

Slow paced, easy going , low drama series that would have been better as a 16 episode drama . Issues get resolved quickly & I found myself smiling foolishly without realizing it. However, every time the female lead bared her teeth in her rabbity grimace of a smile, I wanted to look away. It was not endearing. I had hoped that it was affected and simply good acting, so the smile would evolve into a more mature lovely smile as the character aged; but, no it remained .There were some tedious episodes that I had no patience for. A hole episode about a sick grandmother. Touching, but boring. Episodes of college life with everyone fawning over leads, hoping to lure them away from each other were uninteresting for the most part.Life after college was not interesting either and they inserted a time skip of a year or more. I was wondering what the rating warning about sexual violence was about and it shows up around episode 22 , but it is a boss hitting on a female employee, which was creepy but not graphic. The second leads were very cute. The feel of the second half of the series was a bit bland, that it felt like they were rehashing things, replicating similar moments, just stretching the series out with mundane things that it was over without any wahoo. the proposal was bland & sedate, the wedding was a short montage , then there was there life after marriage. yawn. Cute is only cute for so long when it's in a fish bowl & the fish just go round & round !OST is something I don't usually rave about, but this soundtrack was spot on, it really matched well & I was impressed, especially with the Funky 60's beach boys-ish steel guitar song by Attic performance Paige Summer's 2021 . the first 1/2 of the drama has you feeling like you're dreamily floating down a lazy river on a sunny day, the second half looses the sweet buzz and is like standing in line at the fair, waiting for something to happen

Read More