The story for this drama has one of my favorite tropes: poor girl takes over rich girl's identity and meets rich boy and falls in love. The story has a rather realistic execution to it, as the female lead is characterized as someone who doesn't have a lot of gumption, isn't good at lying, and is constantly fearful of being found out as a fraud. The first 10 eps were frustrating to watch because this characterization makes you feel a lot of second-hand embarrassment. Later on in the drama the female lead finally grows some backbone and the overall drama becomes less annoying. Similarly, many of the supporting cast is also frustrating to watch and I had to fast forward through. I will acknowledge that the drama applies a realistic spin to an unrealistic premise - which differentiates from many other similar dramas.
The love between the main leads is believable. The story does tie up nicely.
Overall, a decent melodrama, especially for someone like me who doesn't particularly like melos.
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On the surface, this drama seems like your average slice-of-life/romance/comedy drama, but beneath all that, AoY has a more serious tone and many valuable lessons to be learned. This drama is only 12 episodes long, but each episode is packed with laughs and tears. Another thing that I loved about the plot structure is that each girl has a dark secret, but writer-nim doesn't expose them all at once. It keeps us as viewers guessing and speculating.
The entire cast is amazing. This was my first time watching many of the actors, but they've already blown me away. I'll be definitely following their upcoming works. In some dramas, the main character's 'feeling' or aura changes so much that you wonder if it's the same character, but that doesn't happen in this drama. The characters are very consistent; we get to watch them go through challenges and grow. I love how the girls communicate and comfort one another. Overall, Age of Youth is a wonderful drama with great lessons :-)
The final verdict: unique and unpredictable. easy to binge xD
Also check out:
- Reply 1988
- Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo
- Age of Youth season 2!
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I had very little expectations of this movie. I didn't really know the story and I definitely didn't know the actors, which meant I was a blank slate.
It was a wonderful experience. First of all, the romance feels real. You can see them falling for each other piece by piece, and it's that deep, profound affection kind of love. They like being around each other. Second, the villain. He really did it for me—as in, I could totally get behind our heroine trying to protect the hero from him, because Dude was legitimately off his rocker. That's the kind of thing not many stories pull off well; it just reads as noble idiocy. I was so pleased that this was not the case with this movie.
Next, the look and feel of the film. It's nothing amazing, but it feels and looks good, especially the mountain scenes. The end scene is also awesome. I also have to mention the music. It really carried the mood, and was never intrusive.
Last, the actors. They're natural, have wonderful chemistry, and I really enjoyed watching them. It might be a stupid point to mention, but I also enjoyed the fact that the lead actor is not a stick? Like, he LOOKS like someone who has spent his life dedicated to martial arts?
The end isn't for everybody, but if you're in the right kind of mood, THIS is the movie to watch.
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This review may contain spoilers
Idol-turned actress, Bang Min-ah has honestly surprised me with how well she acts. In my opinion, her acting was better than Nam-goong. The plot was intense with a bit of mystery and not as much romance as I would have thought. Min-ah has honestly ditched her idol looks and opted for a bowl cut to fit into her role which I thought was really cute. Her character was relatable to many younger siblings in the sense that she was the shadow to her beautiful sister. Jobless and without much looks but quipped with kindness that melted the two male's hearts, in my pessimistic opinion a bit unrealistic but you know, kdrama magic. I did cry a few times at places where I empathised with Min-ah's character and felt sorry for her. If you're looking for a typical kdrama with a predictable plot then watch this drama. However, I can recommend you a bunch more drama with a better romantic plot? Overall, the drama left me with a mind that I should be a better person to others like how every heartwarming-happy-ending (does this count as spoiler?) kdramas always do to me.
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Since this drama is a remake of its Chinese cousin, I had high hopes before watching this drama. It took me a year of starting and putting it on hold to finally finish this. I must say, I liked the main cast better than the Chinese version because IU! and JOONGI! However, because of the many model-turned actors and idol-turned actor, Baekhyun, the acting was a bit sloppy and somewhat fake at times to be honest. No shades here, for Baekhyun to act this way for the first time is very good for an idol but sometimes I feel like he's over-acting for the sake of it (I do look forward his future works as an actor and see how he grows). The romance between the main characters and each character's development throughout the drama, from main to support, is what kept me watching the whole thing. I do like a drama that has a good plot and good acting? But I guess this one only has a good plot, for a drama that has been remade. The ending though? I wanted to kill myself but sadly NO SPOILERS.
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AOY is a very realistic portrayal of youthful, 20s life. Realistic in the fact that it doesn't try to hide ugly truths as you will see for yourself when you watch this drama. Personally, the problems that each of the characters face are very relatable: first love or even finding a romance that's right for you, poverty, self-confidence, self-value and so on. It is a drama that will make you cry, spoiler alert. I, myself, shed plenty of fat teardrops. It's a drama with a very dramatic plot and very intense because what could have been a 24 episodes long drama is squashed into 12 episodes of comedy, romance, heartbreak and sibling-like love between friends. You will miss out on a lot if you don't watch this drama honestly. Was this review helpful to you?
I also confess to watching pieces of the drama months ago, so I basically knew the stroyline, but not enough to have the whole thing spoilt.
I found it entertaining, the costuming was fabulous, the lead pair were fantastically beautiful to look at, and the ending... I liked it. I really like this movie. One of the reasons I couldn't do the drama was the length of the drama and the too long story. This one was perfect in telling the story in a short time. But if you didn't know the story beforehand, you'd need some real good deduction skills to make sense of it. I guess that's why people called it choppy. But I liked this puzzle piece so much, I don't see a problem with it.
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I like the characters, they really standout on how they were written and portrayed. Kudos to Sun/Nam for taking the cake, it was so much harder for them to portray their swirling yet conservative emotions while holding up to the nature of their logical characters yet they did it with so much awesomeness.
In/Oh/Peach/Copper had straightforward emotions to portray and can easily approach the character more aggressively.
Music is great, I tend to sing a few lines. Got last song syndromes on it on some of my days.
I've rewatched it so yeah, definitely worth it, i understood the characters more on my second round.
Definitely a good watch, I sincerely demand for a season 2, the ending came up a bit short, it was good but could have been better. A good way to make up for it would be to have the next season, especially for InSun as their story lacked "finality".
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Lao Jiu Men Fan Wai Zhi Heng He Sha Shu
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In the beginning everything was great. It's rare for me to like a contemporary C-drama, but this one really drew me in. Our heroine is funny, with a personality that made me instantly like her. She's someone that seemed very real. I liked the way she handles certain situations that would make me want to die of embarrassment. I was a little misled by the poster as to who the hero was, but I have to say, I was really digging the fresh faced puppy that's really a mafia assassin (?). It was easy to believe that no one suspected him, because seriously, nobody ever would. He pretty much fell for her from the beginning, and it was a damn delight to watch him work for her attention.
The story kept me engaged up to about episode 15. After that, unfortunately, it went flat and never recovered. I was left feeling vaguely unsatisfied when the end came around. Basically I didn't think they had enough conflict to last the duration of the show and had to really reach for things. That was really sad for me; a subpar ending to a visually gorgeous drama.
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No Boring episodes, every episode makes you want to watch the next and the next and the next until you realise that the show is over.
this show has everything, it even had a little bit of "romance" or some sweet moments between the leads.
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