Reviews

I love love this drama! indeed this is low budget drama. but the story is so hilarious and the chemistry among cast member is so good. light hearted drama, don't need to think too much while watching this series. I heard this one is an adaptation of ongoing novel. I wish they will make season 2 for this drama. cause the ending is so questionable! don't really like it. anyone ever watch The Twin Peaks (quite old) American series? hell yeah, The Eternal love using the same back sound/BGM that I have ever heard in Twin Peaks. You know, the unforgettable back sound (so 90's!) when Twin Peaks series started and ended. You probably don't really notice it, the back sound in The Eternal is more subtle/softer than in Twin Peaks.

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Healer was a good drama. Admittedly though, it did not grip me as much as other people. It took me until Episode 13 to get really interested because it started out really slow. It was initially very confusing, what with very tiny bits of information being revealed in the first 10 episodes. The narrative is such that the story cannot be figured out easily because of how seemingly disparate everything was early on. But I persevered and I'm satisfied the drama was able to entertain me in the second half nonetheless. I was more interested in the mystery surrounding the parents of the main characters so I didn't really care if the romance got pushed to the side once in a while. I mean, Healer strikes me as somewhat of a crime thriller series with a love story on the side. It tackled corruption of big corporations and injustices done to journalists because of dangerous exposes. This plot actually engaged me more than the romance. Don't get me wrong though. Ji Chang Wook and Park Min Young were beautiful together. The way their love story was presented felt superhero-ish. I can't help but think that the writer must've been a fan of Superman, given the many allusions to Superman/Clark Kent-Lois Lane in the drama. Their first kiss even reminded me of a scene in the first Spiderman movie too.

Characters I loved were Healer's Teacher Yeong Jae (he broke my heart), Kim Min Hoo (I totally ship him with his female boss!), Yeong Shin's caring father and the cool ahjumma hacker Min Ja. Ji Chang Wook was awesome as always. Loved him.

I'm impressed at how versatile Park Min Young has become as an actress. She's improved so much since City Hunter. And OMG, Kim Mi Kyung? Is that the same old woman who played the housemaid mother of Park Shin Hye in The Heirs? Being able to camouflage into different personalities, leaving no trace of previous acting performances...that's what you call REAL acting, yo.

Oh and I LOVED the soundtrack they used: Eternal Love by Michael Learns to Rock. Now I can't get it out of my head. Ha.

My main complaint is the ending. Sure, I'm happy because I got the blissful ending I wanted for the main couple. However, I was also dissatisfied because I never got to see a more detailed narration of the downfall of the villains, particularly the Elder and the other members of The Farmers. They have been building up this noble motive of obtaining justice against these evil, greedy people since the beginning. Only to end it like that. It seemed to me that the ending was solely made for the OTP's benefit (i.e. so Healer and Chae Young Shin can live a happy and free life together, etc.) and not to Team Healer's overall cause. A pity because it could've made a big impact on a societal level. They already touched dangers to public safety and all that. They should've gone all the way. Hence, the 8 in my scores.

Despite not making it to my top favorite dramas, I gave it some high marks because I think it's a pretty intelligent show and the writing is solid. Moreover, it has enough sweet, heartwarming and funny scenes to balance the otherwise serious and socially relevant themes in the story, qualities which other crime thriller romance dramas (e.g. My Beautiful Bride) failed to deliver.

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I could not believe I have watched REAL already, I've been dying to watch it to see for myself, how the movie is really. Why is that KSH mentioned it is a representation of his 20s while many fans are questionsing why he took the role. Also about the bed scenes, non-existing plot, bad directing, too long running time and being a bad move etc. So here's my take of the movie: 1. KSH's showed acting we have never seen from him before. I especially like his portrayal of the masked Jangtae young - the thub scene ; the cry laugh scene with the other JTY and the cry/laugh scene in the car - were my favorites. He reminds me of HIsuka's character in HunterxHunter. He was able to show the softness of the character perfectly. It truly is a work to be proud of. KSH is an actor - given a scary script which he knew he can play - and so he did. What a man can be he must be. He deserves a major award for this. 2. Bed Scenes - I would understand this is not something young korean fans would expect, well anyway the move is rated19. And for an adult film, the scenes were carefully shoot - the characters are extremist and so the bed scenes has to match the characters desires. The scenes were quick and obviously unreal (i mean why would other people even think it was real *** - and to those labeling it as cheap Bed scnes must be sleeping throughout the movie and just woke up and see the few seconds bed scene. ) 3. Non- existing plot - The film is not the typical A love B. C is the villain and D gets all the symapthy and wins in the end. KSH during showcase expected confusion from public and mentioned about watching the movie more than once.I think the film's aim is for viewers to share opinions and interpretation. I would need to rewatch the moview with better subs - there were many sub mistakes when `i compared it with the trailer subbed in english - i'd give the plot another chance then edit my review later. 4. Bad Directing - I must agree the action scenes were out of tune - there are a few impressive moves -nice attempt - but the raid scenes were weak. BUt the rest of the directing was not bad at all. 5. 2 hours running time - I didn not find it lengthy nor dragging, maybe because I don't mind watching kim soo hyun alone for hours and hours ,3 chapters are necessary for the script, I believe. For me it was just fine. 6. Other casts: there is nothing to hate about Suili, she did a good job. Suzy's appearance was ridiculuos it was not even for 2 sec. thinking she had the body tatoo done for 30mins just for that scene, or maybe they cut it bec of some reasons, and IU? I did not see her at all. 7. Overall: REAL is definetly not a bad movie, but I must say it is not everybody's genre. I look forward to watching it with better subs to give a more accurate review. But it is undeniable how great kim soo hyun acting was - watching his characters alone is worth it the plot is just a bonus. hehe. i would definetly watch it on BIg Screen more than once if only it will be shown in the country where i am at. I will still recommend the movie - let me know what you think. I certainly enjoy watching kim soo hyun for 137 minutes.

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My Rating: 9.5/10
I love the main two leads, the interactions between Yi Bai and Yun Duo are so cute and funny. Not forgetting Rui Feng and Yang Yang interactions as well.

I rated this drama 9.5 because how slow they try to reveal the broken friendship and Little One's story. Overall, the story-line, music, interaction between the actors, and the ending are THE BEST!!!!

My Mr. Mermaid OSTs
1. So Loudly Cry It - Xiong Dylan
2. Love Love - Xu Fei
3. Dare to love the impulse - Xu Yunxiao
4. Love your Good Weather - Tan Song Yun & Xiong Dylan
5. Not as good as - Xu Yunxiao
6. Crossing the Pacific - Xu Guoyang

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I thought this drama was great, honestly. Yes, the first two episodes are kind of lack luster but once the drama picks up I think it's awesome.
Nam Joo Hyuk's acting is so good, his face is great at conveying emotion so it really tugs on the heartstrings. Gong Myeong was great, as was Krystal.
The OSTs could have been better, but I usually don't think about those.
I thought the ending was great as well. It takes a lot to get me to cry at dramas now that I've seen so many but this did a great job.
I believe that the people who are writing poor reviews are because they didn't really watch it at all.

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The reason why I watched this drama was out of curiosity because of the vast amount of criticism I kept seeing. And, after watching it I see why that happened.

Story: 1/10
The biggest problem that this drama had was the script and story line. As I watched the drama I felt like I was being insulted. The writers gave so little thought to the viewing audience in terms of background and reasoning. Once I completed the drama and looked back on what I had just watched, two scenarios filled my mind. One, the writers gathered in a room, wrote down a bunch of ideas and randomly pulled them out of a hat each episode. Or two, they had so much that they wanted to fit into the drama that they didn't have enough time to delve deep into the situations and instead, caused total chaos and confusion.

Acting/Cast: 8/10
A lot of people had a problem with Shin Se Kyung's acting. After seeing her in many dramas, I realized that she is an actress that doesn't have a wide range of facial expressions. Her happy face, sad face, confused face, or even her angry face, look pretty much the same. This was even more obvious when working alongside actors/actresses who use their faces actively while acting. I think that she is an okay actress, but this role just wasn't the right fit for her. And the chemistry between the two leads was just horrible. There was no sparks and it became painful to watch. I was eager for their scenes to end and watch the side characters instead. The other actors/actresses did a phenomenal job. They played their roles well; however, no matter how great a job they do, if the script is garbage then there is no salvation for the drama.

Music: 9/10
Now the music on the other hand was amazing.Overall they felt almost mystical-like and were very easy on the ears. The singer's voices fit each song well and they worked perfectly in the moments they were played. My favorite OST was Glass Bridge By Savina & Drones (???????).

Rewatch Value: 1/10
I will never watch this drama again. I got through it once because of the actors and music but the drama is too infuriating to watch it again. Instead, I'll just watch other works with them in it.

Overall: 5/10
The tragedy of this drama is the wasted talent of the actors/actresses and beautiful OST set. It had a lot of promise but the haphazard job done by the script writers and the casting of the main female lead ruined the whole drama. I always say that you should try it to see how you feel about it but this time I will say that with a warning; be prepared for confusion and constant wondering if you missed something in the previous scenes.

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I am not really that fond of long dramas..but somehow I endured the Love 020 and the Eternal love…actually I was hooked to Chinese dramas after it was recommended by a Chinese friend. So when I saw this drama with Zheng Shuang as the lead actress, why not give it a try… but it's not worth the hours of watching. There was something missing in this drama… the romance between FXS and LX was not progressing. Chemistry does not exist with the two of them. I just hope that the writers justified the story itself. It looks promising but towards the end of the drama… I was getting more frustrated.

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I have a lot of mixed feelings towards this drama. A lot of things it did well, some things not so much.

STORY:
First of all, the drama itself doesn't really care about the sense of the story. It's very rushed (well, it's a short web series drama, but still, lol) and doesn't really pay attention to key elements like the whole logic of the ring and how it actually works. Nevertheless, I'm cutting it some slack since it IS a web series.
The overall message of "You don't have to be beautiful to be loved, when someone loves you, you are beautiful in their eyes" is very important. Some people call this drama shallow + for Korea's beauty standard, but being honest, not everyone is beautiful on the outside, it's just not how it is. There's all different kinds of shapes and body types we were born with that we are stuck with, but they make us who we are. We can't change it, but when someone truthfully loves us, they will see us more beautiful than any model could ever be, and that's the truth. I think this message in the drama was done very well for a measly 6 episodes. If this drama was over 10 episodes, it would easily lose it's meaning and purpose, in my opinion. The message is not something that takes a long time to present.

CHARACTERS:
I was indifferent towards both leads. On one hand, I would love the female lead's determination, stubbornness, and just being an overall enthusiastic character, but I'd get fed up with her being very shallow and thinking, "Well, I might as well be someone else, I just want his love. I don't care about him actually loving ME." But that's because she's never thought it was ever possible. She's gotten used to her being a "backstage" person and thought she'd die alone. She's still young and she has a lot of immature thoughts, but that just shows her character has flaws. Her growth wasn't very well executed, but again for 6 episodes it did work somehow. As for the male lead, he was EXTREMELY shallow, only caring about a girl's looks, but throughout the story he was gaining character and he was showing his own type of struggle, no matter how shallow it was. You can think this all sounds stupid, BUT keep in mind: both these leads who had these ideals their ENTIRE life, changed just by simply falling in love with each other in a short period of time. They aren't the greatest characters, but they represent their situation the best I could ever see it presented. Their chemistry was bad and nonexistent up until the last 2 episodes, in my opinion, but it's probably because of the fact absolutely no development or the message that the story was trying to portray came into place until the last 2 episodes. As far as the side characters, they were cute and gave me a bit of chuckles. The writers showed that even the side characters had their struggles. They weren't perfect. There was no evil villain or cliche backstabbing friend in this drama. This drama felt very human to me and accurate on society nowadays when it comes to the topics discussed in the drama.

ACTING/CAST:
They were pretty average. The male lead's actor was a SWOON. Literal definition. There were some scenes I think could've been better but I think it was probably the director's decision rather than the actual actors/actresses.

MUSIC:
Average... sometimes very annoying. The times at which they chose to play music felt out of place, sometimes the volume would go up loud out of no where trying to display emotion, but it reaaaaaally annoyed me. Yes, I know dramas usually do the cliche emotional music scenes, but these were just really out of place and waaaaay too much. Could've turned the music lower and made it less dramatic and instead just what the scene actually implied.

REWATCH VALUE:
I would totally give this a watch again on a weekend. It's just really short and cute. If I ever felt bad about my appearance a particular day, or worrying I'd die alone, this would be something I'd watch. It's lighthearted, not too serious, but still cute and emotional when you look at the overall picture.

OVERALL:
Being 100% honest, this is something really good to watch when you're feeling bad about yourself. It's only 6 episodes and rather short but gets to the entire point rather fast. If you're looking for a short but meaningful reminder in life, (because well, we ALL need reminders time to time) this is the perfect drama for you. It's worth watching just for the last 2 episodes.

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Overall: 9.75

Story: 10
The story was one of my favorites. For many reasons, but the number one reason was that it didn’t rely on traditional cliches. The two leads never got into a huge argument, they never broke up, then got back together, they were just two people who went well together and dated. I feel like if they did go the traditional route, of breaking up and getting back together or having misunderstandings there would be many plot holes in this drama just because of how the characters are actually described and portrayed. One reason this wouldn’t have worked and would have gone against the characters is that, both leads like to know all the facts before they jump to conclusions and makes decisions.
The other big story plot that I liked in this piece was that whenever someone tried to say she wasn’t good enough or she got there on her looks she would just nod, than prove them wrong silently with a quick attack, yet she was still portrayed with feminine qualities. (This of course is my own Opinion and others may differ).
Another thing that story had was the slow build up that actually worked and showed how trust was built between characters, that that trust isn’t actually easily broken, unless communication doesn’t happen. There are some things about the relationship that slightly bothered me, but the story plot showed a open and honest relationship between two people that was built over a length of time.
On a last note on the story, if you have read the novel, it sticks to the script of the original piece (the novel) perfectly. This was a good interpretation of the already good original piece. I fully enjoyed the ride and wasn’t disappointed in the least.

Acting/Casting: 10
I know some people had some issues with the casting of the female lead, and I understand why, but for me, her acting was phenomenal as the role. I have watched both the movie and the Show as well as read an English translation of the novel, and this actress was more close to the original text than Angela baby was. Yes I thought Angela Baby didn’t a great job, but I’m not a huge fan of the movie.
Now that has been said, I think the casting for this film was done to a perfect ‘T’. The male lead, Yang Yang, was mysterious and handsome and played the little innuendos perfectly. The female lead, as said before worked the best with him, and in my opinion I thought their chemistry was what really sold me on the acting.
The supporting characters such as Er Xi and Cao Cuong, I wasn’t the biggest fan of in the beginning, but I slowly warmed up to them. Although it did take me re-watching the show to actually like Er Xi’s character in the slightest and this time around I could understand better why she was angry. The complexity of human emotions of getting your heart hurt by everyone only to find out they were hurting her, because of your best friend was really well done. I appreciated the acting more on this note the second time around.
The ‘villains’ were perfect and I liked how the weren’t actually labeled just bad guys that they all were redeemed in some sort of way except for the few who weren’t supposed to be.
To end on a good note, I fell in loved with most of the characters and the ones I didn’t (excluding two) I felt some form of Empathy for that made me enjoy the show even more.

Music: 9.5
I thought the music for this drama was one of the best for teen drama. It was very well placed, the instrumental background music helped established the mood of each scene, the heartache scenes, as well as help build the tension. Even sad mood scenes, instrumental wise that are usually are reserved for the leads or protagonists were also used for the ‘villains’ in the story during their sad moments. It helped expand the characterization of each, even though sometimes characters appeared to be two dimensional.

Rewatch Value: 9.0
I gave the rewatch value a 9.0 because this is one of those dramas that people will love to rewatch if they enjoyed the first watch. Its one of those that when you are tired of other dramas, you want something fresh again, I would come back to this. But I do understand that’s it's not everyone's cup of tea, the leads don’t fight, the drama is slightly mediocre and it's mostly just watching of a build of a relationship that relies heavily on chemistry between actors. So I would highly recommend this for a rewatch value and to keep on your list of dramas to watch on a saturday or sunday afternoon, with the knowledge that not everyone likes Fluffy things.

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