Reviews

I have extremely mixed feelings after watching this drama. I really liked the premise of the story, and I genuinely enjoyed the first episodes. However, as time went on, things started getting worse, and unfortunately the last two episodes only proved that.

I’ll start with the relationship between the main couple — Yun Jin A & Seo Jun Hui — because this is where I think the concept of the story was genuinely very strong. I enjoyed watching their dynamic, where he showed her what real love actually looks like, while she regained this kind of youthful joy for life thanks to him. The subplot involving his sister/her best friend also had huge potential in the background. But over time, the whole story started losing its charm in my eyes. At certain points, I felt so damn sorry for Jun Hui, who was constantly treated like sh*t by almost everyone, who kept chasing after her and instantly forgiving every mistake she made, while even she sometimes treated him like a child. But at least back then they still stood by each other. It got even worse in the final episodes. Their breakup happened completely off-screen — suddenly we jump to her brother’s random wedding, and she already has a new boyfriend. Then we randomly find out she’s moving to Jeju Island, and just as randomly she’s single again. After that, things somehow became even worse: we got the scene of them getting back together. Don’t get me wrong — it’s not that them reuniting was bad. The problem is that we got that one scene… and that was it. Her mother still doesn’t accept him and is proud that the relationship ended. We also never saw his sister’s reaction, and I highly doubt she would’ve been happy about it. It honestly feels like the story just went full circle, and they would still be stuck dealing with the exact same circus as before.

The whole storyline with her family also feels extremely absurd to me. A 35-year-old woman is treated like a child here. She’s afraid of her parents — parents who aren’t even powerful or influential — and allows them to walk all over her life instead of cutting them off. Overall, the mother is an incredibly st*pid and unbearable character. She supported two toxic relationships where her daughter was miserable just because those men came from influential families. Who cares that one cheated on her and the other barely gave a damn about her. Meanwhile, she was ready to burn the world down when her daughter got together with a genuinely good guy who actually made her happy, because what? His mother died and his father was weak? Just thinking about it makes my blood boil. The only normal member of that family was the younger brother, whom I actually liked. The father was tolerable sometimes, but he also had plenty of moments where he was unbearable.

As for his family, I still don’t understand why Seo Jun Hui’s anger was portrayed as something wrong. In my opinion, he had every right to be furious with her. He’s a grown man who has the right to make decisions about his own life, and meanwhile she secretly plots with his father behind his back — a father who spent most of the drama not giving a damn about his family. Then she forces Jun Hui to say goodbye to him at the airport, basically emotionally blackmailing him using their relationship. It was an absolute circus and another major negative for me. On top of that, this storyline completely disappeared afterward. What happened to his father after that? Did he try to repair his relationship with his children? Or did everything just go back to normal, with him continuing not to care about them at all? I did see his sister as one of the better characters though — honestly probably the smartest person in the entire drama. It’s just a shame we never got a romantic storyline for her, because it could have been a really nice change of pace.

The workplace h*rassment storyline is another plot point that I think was genuinely very good and really engaging to watch. I was genuinely excited to see how it would develop. The search for evidence, the scheming, the tension — it was genuinely interesting. The problem is that this storyline was also ruined by those final two episodes… In the end, we basically learned NOTHING about how the case actually turned out. The scenes make it look like she lost, while the dialogue says she won XD. What consequences did those pathetic as*holes face? That’s what I wanted to know. She literally had evidence — there’s no way she realistically could have lost that case. It’s not like the court wouldn’t figure out that the men’s “evidence” was photoshopped. On top of that, Kang Se Yeong is still casually working there even though she literally conspired with the h*rasser. I was really hoping all of that would come out and that we’d get a proper resolution, but absolutely nothing got resolved and I’m incredibly disappointed. And these were storylines that lasted through most of the drama, only to get completely watered down in the end.

The last thing I want to mention is her ex-boyfriend — Lee Gyu Min. Why did we never find out what happened to him afterward? Is he seriously just walking around freely after stalking her, se*ually h*rassing her in the café, and literally trying to k*ll her? Why was that never followed up on? The drama completely forgot about him, even though he played a major role through half the series and absolutely deserved prison. They forgot about him so hard that I forgot about him too and only remembered him just now XD

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dont get me started on this show

oh boi where do i start this show is the definition of me yes i have to watch at least a couple episodes a day to get through the day yes i have the english subtitles memorized for how many times i have watched it fadel style is my everything theyre my favorite bl pairing ever and played my my kings joongdunk this show made me love joongdunk more than ever styles is such a cutie eheheheheheh and kantbison penguin have brought me tears ahhhhh heheheheheuhiofbiooeb i love them so much oh and i love styles dad #weneededmoreofthatdiva lilly lowkey always pmo but thats ok my favorite episode is ep6 ep8 and ep10 OMG AND OLD FART love that guy omg and the soundtrack i listen to every day fast love is my theme song i dont even speak thai and i know it word for word and yes hurt me please and never back down makes me sad and lowkey cry dont read the book though chat it aint that good but i still read it all the time cause i spent a lot of money on it

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First Impression: ChermChay

Overall: Tutor & Yim deserve better. 10 episodes about 40 minutes each. Airing on GagaOOLala https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/7399/chermchey-2026-e01

Content Warnings: intimate partner violence (not between the leads), violence/punches, blood

What I Like
- Tutor & Yim
- color grading
- that he said he was willing to try in episode 2

Room For Improvement
- no idea why they went with an over the top comedy but the sound effects are terrible and it doesn't work as a comedy
- constantly cutting out before NC scenes when we all know Tutor and Yim would be amazing
- the bottle hit was a bit much in ep 1
- when a character said he was hit by his then boyfriend the response was "why didn't you fight back"

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Don’t let the ratings fool you

I don’t write reviews but I feel the comments from most viewers got me shaking my head through out this drama.
Thankfully after watching a short online clip I popped in here & only read another positive review before starting this.
I wanted to leave a comment but what I wanted to say is obviously too long so I’m leaving it here in review.

First off this drama’s main genre tag is Business… why anyone would expect a housewife of 10 yrs that got cheated on then somehow developed low self esteem & had nothing to her name with a sh*tty family to have complete confidence in herself is just nonsense.
These comments about her character I feel needed to review her starting point.
It’s other tag is Life meaning it ain’t always gonna be sunshine & flowers like your regular mainstream & the people/ characters aren’t always gonna be straight or proper.
From ep 1 it’s very clear the FL is well educated & speaks fluent English…she even has a resume that indicated she had a studied background for managing before marriage.
10 yrs of no work experience is obviously understandable that she won’t get positions in this field but why is it so hard for ppl to understand that it doesn’t make a person incompetent even though her work growth is obviously bias because she is recognised early on & the fact that the ML was clearly using her so he doesn’t have to risk using anyone from the chain of corrupt ppl he was trying to push out.

And her growth in housekeeping & clients is not at all surprising since being a trophy wife of a business man that deals with perfection, luxury & company dinners & events would be a piece of cake in her hands.
As for the slow burn romance..yes it’s very slow but it’s honestly realistic.
Both leads got a lot to prove on a turning point in their lives so romance is subtle, was treaded carefully & shown through their support at work.
I didn’t feel this impacted the drama in any way negative since the business aspect was a good follow & their chemistry when they did got together was worth the wait.
Although her hesitations afterwards was a bit annoying but considering what she’s been through she can somehow be excused.
My only main complaint in this department is some of her actions with the other suitor.
Overall it’s not perfect but in but it’s actually a good watch.

****
If you only want romance this isn’t for you.
If you want that mainstream upstanding ML this may also not be for you since he ain’t perfect in the beginning…that’s for his character growth.
If you don’t have the mindset to follow a business growth venture then this definitely isn’t for you.
This drama is very enjoyable only if you are in the right mindset otherwise don’t go in expecting sunshine but hate the sun.
If you read this whole comment & you might still be interested then give it a shot.
This rating is actually a rare disappointment in MDL for me because I simply read the gother comments & feel most weren’t understanding the plot’s intensions or expecting a lot from a correctly tagged genre.

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Cute and Confusing

I didn't watch the series first but there were a LOT of plot holes. I'm usually not a stickler for plot logic but there were several gaping plot holes and it wasn't the English translation like it often is.

This is a story about a boy who was somehow abandoned as a young child, then found and raised -solo- by a middle schooler. He feels overly indebted to his adoptive hyung/parent, and is working several part time jobs to become financially independent. There seems to be some hint that his hyung harbors romantic(?) feelings(?) and maybe that's why he's being so aggressive about wanting to become independent? He becomes a boyfriend for hire and there is like 10% chemistry. But the actors are both cuties and very awkward. Then his boyfriend-employer's boss wants in on the deal and also hires him as a boyfriend to make her actual boyfriend jealous. Actual boyfriend goes off the rails breaks up with boyfriend-employer's boss and starts stalking her. So in response, she goes to the hyung's bar and apparently talks him into disappearing (?) so that boyfriend-for-hire has to run the bar alone (?) and also become dependant on her, as well as break up with the original boyfriend-employer. Time passes and boyfriend-for-hire randomly (?) finds his hyung at a park, and they sort of (?) reconcile (?) and then boyfriend-for-hire and boyfriend-employer randomly (?) meet at a bus stop and reconcile with kisses. Then boyfriend-for-reals-now pitches an app idea to his real boyfriend and his ex-girlfriend-employer/his boyfriend's boss. and she gets really flirty and intense but approves the sales pitch.

This was a meh, the actors were all cuties and there was no overarching negativity. It wasn't particularly funny. Just kinda cute. The story made no sense at the end.

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My eyes are still puffy one day later

I CANT RECOMMEND IT ENOUGH
I haven't read the manga or watched the anime, so I was NOT prepared for what was coming.

Nostalgic Setting:
I was instantly drawn to the nostalgic setting, where technology was just up and coming. Wealth was displayed by ownership of cell phones, where students may have simple brick phone, others had flip phones, and the wealthy had swivel phones. Playing Go on a computer was a breakthrough in allowing public anonymity and also providing a platform to involve the masses. I loved the scene were Hong He bought a computer home, and he and Shi Guang and played on it together. This made me feel the simple fascination of technology, rather than its present purpose as a de-humanizing tolling machine.

Scenes were comfortable and refreshing. Homes were lived-in, and lighting and color was diffuse and moderate, all making me feel like I was at home. I found myself enjoying the conversations and activities, seldom fast forwarding unless I was too excited to continue a part when the scenes switched.

Characters:
Shi Guang is endearing -- he always carries a silly smile, banters with his friends, and acts like a child when he can. He easily shares his emotions, but may mask negative feelings with a cheerful performance until he pokes a bit, and then covers it again with banter. I didn't agree him at times and probably scolded him myself, but I still liked him nevertheless and supported him for being true to himself. It's lucky to feel the appreciation for a character who is not all good nor perfect, but who is human and able to be forgiven.

Hong He is even more heartwrenching. This silly boy often puts others above his own needs, and he would go to the ends of the earth for those he cares about. Literally "bu ke qi". He's a sweetheart who bubbles up with love and you can see his heart eyes. Anything that hurts this precious boy (often self-inflicted because he cares about others more), stabs me a bit in the heart.

Chu Ying is the source of my tears. First, he is adorable and funny. His enthusiasm as a 1000 year old is comically placed as he acts like a child when it comes to Go -- unable to keep his itchy fingers away. Most importantly, he is a mentor I wish I had. He was always present to guide Shi Guang, kept him company throughout the hardest hurdles so he never had to face them alone, and was a reliable safety net. Their small fights with each other helped them learn more about themselves. Chu Ying sought Go but found friendship to be harder to leave. Losing him felt like losing my purpose in life - the source of happiness, friendship, and comfort. I felt like a part of me has died even though characters end when shows end -- he really left a big hole in my heart.

Yu Liang plays the juxtaposition of Shi Guang - being proper, serious, and intelligent. I'm not quite convinced of this love/hate relationship for the brotherhood. I wish Shi Guang let Yu Liang know about Chu Ying, since Chu Ying was basically Yu Liang's love. Without it, I couldn't really appreciate their honesty and trust, or even a sensible reason why Yu Liang still held on the Shi Guang even though his skills obviously showed long years before he could catch up. However, I'm so glad that Shi Guang and Yu Liang got some time for brotherhood - it was more important for Yu Liang than it was for Shi Guang, because Yu Liang always felt like he was fighting the war alone without support from peers. I'm glad that he got to experience the joy of friendship in the end.

I'm really sad that I completed watching this and won't be able to experinece watching it the first time again. I went out today with my eyes all puffy, and would burst out in tears again when I had time alone. Honestly thinking of getting a Chu Ying for myself so that he doesn't have to disappear.

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Review of a Twisted Relationship

It's full of spoilers, so read at your own discretion.

Wow, just wow.
This is a dark story of obsession and codependency. At the beginning, Keiko-san, a manager in the entertainment industry, is betrayed by someone she had worked with for years. Then she finds herself in despair, as if her world were collapsing; this is well portrayed in the following scene, with her lifeless walk and then her singing; you could really feel that she was sinking into despair. It felt like the point where she broke, but then Takuto (Babu-chan) appears as a ray of hope. It was a beautiful portrayal of the beginning of this ill-fated and passionate relationship.

At first, Keiko-san treated Takuto-kun like a precious person she cared about; their interaction could still be considered fairly normal, but then, over the course of each episode, Keiko-san began to slowly change to the point of obsession. I think what triggered all of this was the jealousy she felt toward Miyo-san. So...

Keiko-san was obsessed with Takuto-kun, controlling his every move, exceeding the limits of her role as a manager, but Takuto-kun was so happy with the suffocating affection and attention that he didn’t even bother to notice how strange Keiko-san’s controlling and possessive requests and actions were.
The one who couldn’t help but become the heroine of our naive, love-starved Babu-chan was our dear Miyo-san, and that’s how Keiko-san began her journey of hatred toward Miyo-san (I kinda think Miyo dug her own grave…).

Under Miyo-san’s influence, Babu-chan stopped wanting to be a baby and rebelled against Keiko-san’s restrictive rules. Basically, from there on, everything goes downhill: Keiko-san does everything she can to regain control over Takuto-kun and, at the same time, warns(or rather, threatens) Miyo-san. As for Takuto-kun, well, he realizes how strange Keiko-san’s behavior is; I felt that he rebelled, but not with much conviction.

Finally, we see a shift in the relationship between the two when the long-awaited scene takes place, of the “murder” of Keiko-san, or so we all believed. Keiko-san was alive—a hope that had lingered in Takuto-kun’s heart ever since he returned to the “crime scene”; we then see how everyone tries to cover for Takuto-kun, fabricating a fantastical tale of how he was a hero saving the damsel in distress. Then a reporter shows up wanting to verify the facts with Takuto-kun about the events of the “stabbing”; Takuto-kun then hears the childhood story of how Keiko-san tried to save her mother only to be rewarded in the end with indifferent hostility(is that even a thing?), and he then identifies with her because, after all, they were “the same.”
After that we learn, to give more meaning to the story that was fabricated — intentionally or not —, the hero and the heroine(Miyo-san) end up moving in together.

And now we can really see the changes with Keiko: Keiko-san didn’t try to separate them or interfere in their relationship, that is a huge improvement; compared to before, this is a freedom Takuto wanted, but—let’s be honest—he no longer desired that freedom.

And then, finally, news came from Keiko-san, and Takuto-kun felt relieved? Happy? I don’t know how to describe the feeling of thinking you’ve lost someone, that you almost killed that person, and that this person is the only one you felt that understands you.
In the following scenes, Takuto thinks about all the little things Keiko does for him and misses those small gestures of affection (back when Keiko wasn’t completely crazy🙃), and later seeks comfort in those memories at Keiko’s house.

And for the ending, well, it left me in pieces; they gave us hope for a life where happiness was possible, only to have it taken away from us (in this, Keiko wanted to set Takuto-kun free, and the only way she could imagine was through extreme measures, because her life had always been about extremes). After that we have a time-skip, we now see how Takuto couldn’t live without Keiko; we see how he emulates her, perhaps to feel closer to her; in the final scene, there’s the supposedly unsettling laughter, but what I perceived was a broken heart trying to connect with the only person he believed understood him and loved him unconditionally and selflessly.

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A Well-Structured Story

Honestly, I really enjoyed this drama. Its biggest strength is definitely the characters and the writing. The world feels rich, detailed, and carefully built, with nothing that feels random or out of place. Every character matters in some way, and I especially loved how morally nuanced they all were. There are no clear “good” or “bad” characters, which makes the story feel much more human and realistic.

One of my favorite aspects was the diversity of the cast, especially the representation of characters with autism or intellectual disabilities. I thought it was handled with a lot of care and humanity. The slice-of-life and family-oriented atmosphere was genuinely touching and got me emotionally invested very quickly. The interactions between the characters also felt natural and believable, which made the relationships even more engaging.

The first half of the drama mainly focuses on building the story and setting up the world, but it stays coherent and engaging throughout. The fight scenes were really well choreographed, and the special effects were surprisingly well done too.

My main issue was the pacing and editing. Around episodes 8–10, the drama starts to drag and occasionally feels stretched out just to fit the 20-episode format. The repeated scenes and constant flashbacks slow the momentum down a lot, and sometimes they even interrupt intense or emotional moments with unnecessary callbacks, which kind of kills the tension. I can completely understand why some viewers lost interest during those parts. The ideas themselves were solid, but with tighter editing and better pacing, the drama could’ve been even stronger.

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The real star of this drama is screenwriter Park Hae Young

What a wonderful, heartfelt drama. Park Hae Young has to be one of the best screenwriters currently working. She has a very distinctive style that gives the actors room to create/inhabit their characters through her thought-provoking dialogue. She weaves incredibly clever subplots through the story that make it so much richer. In her previous script for My Liberation Notes, you can see it starting to come together. With We Are All Trying Here she is in full control.

That Dong-man's oafish, morose brother is also a celebrated poet feels incongruous, but his appearance throughout serves to shock us, elicit anguish for him, scare us, and rejoice with him. When a loan shark appears, the trope is turned completely on its head with a very clever twist. In anyone else's hands, a plot device like the "emotion watch" would be a cheap gimmick, but Writer Park uses it to help us connect with the depth of the two leads’ suffering and at one point uses it to wrench a cry of desperation out of them that is absolutely heart-breaking ("Help me...").

The cast is terrific. Koo Kyo Hwan is exasperatingly delightful as Hwang Dong-Man, and Go Youn Jung is heart wrenchingly soulful as Byeon Eun A. In one of the most touching (and controversial) scenes, Eun A loops her cardigan over Dong-Man as if to bring him into her womb to protect and nurture him. If that was in the script, it is pure genius. If it was something the actors ad-libbed, then kudos to Writer Park for creating the space for it.

Once again, Oh Jung Se is absolutely perfect as the antagonist Park Gyeong Se. (Is there a better character actor?) And Park Hae Joon's role as Dong-man's brother Hwang Jin-man is a delightful contrast to his recent role as IU's father in “When Life Gives You Tangerines”.

The cast was so good that I couldn't help but feel that the actors loved this work as much as the viewers did. This drama will be on everyone's “Best Of” list for 2026, and rightfully so. But let no one forget, the real star of this drama is screenwriter Park Hae Young.

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Terrible start but gets better give it a chance

All spoiler parts will be marked carefully
I just finished the show and it have lots of pros and cons
I’m going to start with the cons
Cons:
First thing that I like to point out is the pacing and speed of the show. I usually watch shows in 1.5x speed but I watched this show in 2x because it feels super slow. This may not be that important but another problem that I had with the show is the story pacing. It’s super slow. The first 4 episodes were boring to me (not that interesting) I could feel the potential of the story but it couldn’t use it. I was in the middle of ep 4 that I decided that I will drop the show if I didn’t enjoy the ep 5. And episode 5 was exactly when I feel the show getting better
One thing that I really hate in the show was the flashbacks. This story relies on flashbacks to explain the story to us. He saw a basketball a flashback to his high school days. Eating food another flashback. Each episode had at least 2 flashbacks and I really didn’t like that. I feel like they want to deliver the story but didn’t know how and flashbacks seems the most easiest one to them
In lots of parts of story I felt like the story have some problems (or plot holes) and things didn’t feels to match together very well. Could be better imo
This one is mostly personal but I didn’t liked some aspects of the things they were showing here is an example containing small spoiler. Skip to pros if u don’t want to be spoiled
[start of spoiler]
An old woman (female lead who is 37-38 years old old in story) felt into a pool. One young guy and one famous baseball player jump into water to help her. And no one do not care why both of them jumped. Or why the baseball player jumped instead of sending his guards. No one do not point anything out. There are some weird situations like this that I considered as problems of story (plot holes) as well
[end of spoiler]
Pros:
There is not much to say about the pros without going through the whole story. It’s a very beautiful story about how a man find his marriage life problems by getting young and fixing them, and become a better father/husband. In this way he helps his children and his wife without them noticing
Really liked the show. It is not a cup of tea for everyone but if you are interested in family binding, or shows with focus on family life it can be a good one for you
Another thing that I really liked in the show was how the switch between young version of MC and old version of him when they wanted to show his acts as an act of father/husband

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