Reviews

its a fairytale worth telling

When I rewatched the show again, I thought I would love it less or would find something to nitpick about but I never expected to fall deeper in love. I found myself appreciating aspects of the show, I had not considered the first time.

There are many reasons to love the show, its cinematography, the music, the top-notch acting skills, and the gorgeous dresses Seo yeo Ji wore but I feel the true quality of this show was its writing. I loved how fairytales were used to depict the harsh realities of mental illness. It allowed the audience to picture what people with mental illness and healthcare workers endure through the innocent eyes of a child, a venture that though challenging, the writer was able to pull off. The ability to use innocent, child-like words to portray the insecurities and pain, most people go through is indeed something to admire.

The acting is also something that should be commended, the actors were really able to get into their characters allowing the audience to really experience how they felt and the reason why they lived in the way they chose to, especially the actor who played the autistic brother, he played the role to perfection. The interaction between the brothers was a beautiful aspect of the story, I felt it truly portrayed all that a family is supposed to be, the struggles, the sacrifice, the pain but yet the enduring love that kept them growing. I loved the progression in their relationship, a time to lean on each other and a time to let each other go to pursue what they wanted, and how love could be extended to people outside the family was indeed amazing.
The chemistry between the main characters was funny, deep, embarrassing but beautiful.

I also loved the interaction between the fairytale and the point they were trying to make in the episodes, I loved the symbolism as well e.g the butterfly, though very dark but apt, It gave a different perspective to what we think we know, it was indeed a fairytale worth telling.
P.S I wished the Manager got a better ending, he was hilarious but yet loyal, I had hoped his efforts would pay off.

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The second couple made me stay.

Plot's predictable. It's one of those shows wherein you know what's going to happen from the first 2 episodes. But hey, that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's easy to watch.

What irks me the most is the way Gongchan seems to have the same expression in every single frame. He has the same squinty, doe-eyed expression. I can't seem to ignore that when he's the main character so he's in almost every frame. The other actors are quite good though, especially Taemin and Seowon. Seowon nailed the confrontation scene.

The second couple deserves more screentime. They're barely even in the episodes. IMO, their chemistry is more palpable than the main couple. Their storyline is more mysterious too. Too bad it was handled poorly until the end. The source material has side stories focused on them though. I wonder why they didn't include that.

All in all, is it atrocious? No. Do I love it? Also No. It's ok. It's fine.

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Once again, Honda Kyoya plays his role to perfection.

I love watching Honda Kyoya's acting. I started watching this for the plot because it sounded interesting. But I am finding more and more that Honda-san can pull off (seemingly) any role, and can (in my opinion) outperform his co-stars. It is a common Japanese trait that people seem on edge, regardless of the situation. But Honda always seems comfortable in his skin, whether he be in character or as himself.

As for the other actors: Some of them were really good in their roles. Others, including the married couple, just never seemed comfortable. Granted, their roles required them to feel uncomfortable in a good portion of the program, but it just seemed to me like they had put on full-body costumes (like a Hello Kitty costume at a birthday party) and never really clicked with the personality of the character. But maybe that's just me.

I was really interested in a good portion of the series, but I was disappointed with the ending. In my head, there were a multitude of ways that the writers would take this, but the way it ended was unsatisfying to me. It didn't seem to me that the mains ever really understood poly relationships and were just looking to be roommates. To be fair, everyone has their own definition of happiness and relationships, but Shuhei just seemed to put his aside.....idk. It feels like I need to talk this one out to others and get their opinions in order to formulate a conclusion. So, while I did feel like the story is worth watching, I feel like it's not finished. If I had friends who would be interested in something like this, I would definitely throw a watch party and go through this drama again.

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I laughed, I cried, I re-watched

For me, there are seasons for certain types of shows. My main focus is romance with the much-needed HEA. That being said, sometimes you need a slice-of-life show where you come to know and love the characters, and this was perfect, I must say. I really liked season 1 a lot, but season 2 is on another level. We already know how close all the characters are, and it was so enjoyable to learn and grow in their relationships with each other and those outside their little circle of friends. Extremely well-written and with well-rounded characters, I watched this in three evenings. There were undercurrents of romance for each of the characters and it was refreshing to see mature relationships, with nary a stupid breakup in sight (Jun Wan and GF are somewhat of an exception, but I'll forgive that). I could go on and on about this show, but I'll just give a couple of my highlights.

Jung Kyung Ho as Jun Wan - love his knowledge as well as his sometimes immaturity. One thing I found fascinating about him, did he lose weight for this role? He was SO thin and I just kept thinking that because of how busy he was he didn't have time to eat. Granted he's a small-boned man, but he can sure wear his clothes! And in scrubs, his "thinness" is really obvious. It was a good look for him.

Bromance between all the main characters. They had each other's backs but weren't above wrestling for the remote control!

Kim Hae Sook as Rosa (Jung Won's mother). I love her in anything she is in, and her character, as well as her storyline were wonderful. It's refreshing to see a mature person in a good story.

The love/hate relationship between Jun Wan and Jae Hak. There was something kind of stalker-ish about Jae Hak, which brought a lot of humor to the show, as well as their relationship. I also loved the storyline of Jae Hak and his wife.

Jun Wan and Song Hwa are the piggies of the group, constantly eating more than their weight in food. They thought about food, talked about food, and planned what they would eat next.

Sung Hwa as a bad singer. This was so cute to watch and hear, especially since she has such a lovely singing voice.

All the music. I REALLY appreciated that they said what the songs were and who was performing them. I also liked that the actors did a lot of the music.

The medical aspect of the show was often heart wrenching, but it was more about the characters than the medicine.

*If I had to voice one complaint, it would be that, as a health care worker, the first thing we learn is how to talk to patients, compared to other medical staff. The doctors in this show often used medical jargon that no layman would be able to understand. But, that's just a slight blip in an otherwise stellar show.

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It's okay, if you are in the mood for some moodiness.

Honestly this is nowhere near as bad as the makjangish and super silly setup would suggest.
I have two big problems with the show.
The first is that the OTP romance is not very believable. I think acting shortfalls are definitely part of this issue & the chemistry was just not enough for me to fully immerse myself in their relationship.
The second is that the ending is extremely low effort. There was all this crying/suffering/hardship & then everything just worked out senselessly, also following the always annoying separation followed by a 1 minute happy ending formula. It's better than people dying I suppose, but not by much. I don't know if this was live filming or not, but it sure feels like it. Then again, it's quite normal for kdrama writers to not give a fork about well thought out endings, so that could be it. (This is pretty much the industry standard now, if anything.) On a positive note a well thought out, reasonable ending would've been exorbitantly difficult with the setting we've had, so perhaps embracing the silly is not the worst thing in the world. I would hugely prefer though if writers made scripts that can be wrapped up in a way that makes sense, instead of making convoluted messes & then just yolo-ing the ending.

As for what I liked.. There is a lot of reasonably well written dialog existing outside of the plot-driving conversations. I liked the moody presentation & the pink filter was part of that too I suppose. I liked the visuals on my color calibrated displays, but I can see why someone would hate this, if watching the show on an LG oled TV or a Galaxy phone..
The OST is pretty good too!

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To be frank, I almost dropped this during the first episode: not another bullying series, I thought! And >>I do not like stories about bullied kids in school. There is so much such tragedies in real life: why watch a drama which does not provide a real , practical answer to the problem not the idealistic one, like here. But more about that later. Even though I wanted to drop it, I decided to finish at least the first episode at the end of which I thought I saw a huge twist. Unfortunately, I saw wrong but it made me continue watching and I actually finished it in three days!

This is a story of a teacher who wants to let the world know why one of his students killed herself and in order to achieve this, he takes a whole class hostage. Over the course of 10 days (=10 episodes), the truth slowly comes out revealing the ugliness behind the "innocent faces of children" and the "teachers' sacred mission". Spoiler alert! The kids are extremely cruel to each other, and the teachers don't give a damn!

The drama is well plotted and paced: the characters' stories and their connections with the deceased girl are revealed slowly. The suspense is palpable and the story is believable. Unfortunately everything falls apart in the idealistic and completely improbable ending: trying to speak to people's soft and reasonable side when everyone knows it is just talking in the wind. It is really silly. And even though what he says is truth, the facts are obvious, we also know that you cannot change people's base feelings, primeval instincts and insecurities and incite them to be nice to each other.

The acting is amazing with the best being, of course Suda Masaki. The rest of the cast of kids, are all pretty awesome!

The production looked a bit cheap: the camera work was really cold and clinical (digital cameras?). They probably did not have a big budget therefore the number of extras is very limited (only look at the number of parents who are there pestering the police: about 10! for 29 students? Where are the others? Calmly going about their daily life waiting for the police to free their child and send them home? As you can see this bothered me very much!!!). Another issue I have with this drama is the music. I liked it a lot but most of the time it seemed like they did not know what to do with it: they played the wrong music at the wrong time: very disconcerting! This is something I noticed in a number of j dramas, the wrong kind of music....

Apart from the disappointing ending which still managed to wrap everything nicely up, I ended up loving this series after almost dropping it, the suspense, the complicated story, the intelligent plotting. A great ride!

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A drama about playing Go? It’s actually kind of cute.

I’m glad I saw Niu Jun Feng in Meet Yourself first, although that was a supporting role, I felt like his acting ability was a lot better. I like seeing him as the carefree music lover, than the stoic stiff Go player in Go into your Heart. With that said, I still enjoyed his character very much.

I haven’t see any drama with Landy Li, but I know she’s in Starry Love and that’s next on my list. I have to say, I’m a fan. She’s super young at 23, but she acts so well and she reminds me a lot like Zhao Lu Si, just really bubbly and has a cute but beautiful presence on camera.

I’m not a huge fan of dramas where one is a reporter and that person tries to get the scoop on the other lead, but in Go into your Heart, it was actually cute. The ML is color blind, but he can see the FL in color and I really loved that story plot. It’s very typical C drama writing and that’s why I love watching my C dramas.

I really liked how they did the fight scenes. Instead of watching two people play Go, they have them do martial arts and it makes the drama fun to watch.

The main leads have great chemistry and I love how effortless their story is. It was REALLY easy to watch and even simple stuff like shopping and making food was treat to feast my eyes on.

I didn’t care too much for the secondary and 3rd storylines. One was a love triangle and the other was a one-sided love. I chimed in a few times here and there when I saw the other stories, but towards the end I started to fast-forward. She didn’t pick the guy I wanted too!

The drama is a bit long at 40 episodes, so you got filler episodes, like a 4th love story pops up. That was a little crazy.

Overall, the heart and spirit of the drama is cute and will put a smile on your face. I would highly suggest just watching the parts that are interesting and skipping the stuff you aren’t interested in.

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Healing and Growth

I think that the focus of this drama was to follow the individual growth of Song San Chuan and Liang You An. Song San Chuan getting over the multiple traumas he had endured were definitely tear inducing moments. I think that's what carried the whole show, watching him struggle, learn, and become the best version of himself.

Because if I'm going to be honest, the romance aspect of this drama was a bust. Felt more like a sensei - student kinda bond than an actual romance. It's also kinda annoying how Song San Chuan was the one bending all over the place for Liang You An. I do get that she's more mature and more experienced in the business. But honestly, the way she acted overall regarding their relationship, especially towards the beginning was just cringey and definitely a red flag in real life.

While I did finish the drama, I couldn't really say that I fully enjoyed it or recommend. It was just okay.

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such a great drama

i'll recommend this drama to literally anyone. even in the first episode, i felt hooked and wanting more. i never felt bored from start to finish, and each episode managed to make me want to see what was going to happen in the story. the casting and acting was absolutely amazing, everyone played their role so well! i also really enjoyed the small moments of romance in the story. it was not too much nor too less. the ml and the fl had such great chemistry throughout the drama and the side characters were equally as interesting. the plot twists executed so well too!! a total recommendation for anyone looking for a drama that will leave them on the edge of their seats. truly a great show to watch!

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This drama is endearing

For once I really enjoyed following and watching a Korean drama. The story has nothing extraordinary and the characters are quite common but the actors are good and the direction is excellent. The scriptwriter had the intelligence to build a solid plot that does not evolve into unnecessarily complex events. But it is especially thanks to the direction that this series is of great quality. I have rarely seen a story so well filmed and edited. It was a real pleasure to watch some scenes. It happened several times to me to go back to see again certain sequences. Everything is excellent: the choice of shots, the lighting, the way of filming the places and the characters, the editing, etc.
We too often forget that a story, however good it may be on paper, will never make a good movie without a solid direction.
I have two criticisms to make. First of all, the music. It is sometimes too present and seems to underline too strongly the emotions of the characters. The other negative point concerns some lengths and some sequences are not really useful to the story. The last episode has a too predictable content. It was not necessary. This drama would be much better in 12 episodes.

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