1This review may contain spoilers
OH THE FEELS!!! And OH THE ORIGINALITY!!! And OH THE AWESOME LEADING MAN AND SUPPORTING CAST OF CHARACTERS!!! Those are the reasons Ho Gu’s Love (HGL) is getting this review from me. After I finished watching HGL I immediately gave it a 10, then I let it soak in a while and let my objective mind take over and bumped it down to 9.5, but really it’s more like a 9.9 with the only flaw being that so much of the plot had to depend on just simple misunderstandings (like 16 hours of Three’s Company). I felt that after a while it might have been better served for at least one of the misunderstandings to have been cleared up a little sooner, and they became so silly as to almost be a parody of themselves within the drama, as though it was self-aware as to what absurd lengths the misunderstandings had gone (which actually made it better for me). That said the feels and the cast and the characters and the originality were just so on point that they overcame this flaw and then bounded past it like a bullet train past a horse and buggy. So without further ado, here is why Ho Gu’s Love is one of my favorite Kdramas of all time.1. Originality: Yes, I consider originality an essential element of a great Kdrama. HGL had many elements we don’t normally see in Kdramas including decent treatment of normally risqué themes (all of which I’m not going to name because spoilers). It also frequently upended my expectations of how the plot would play out, with a particular bit at the end that I was surprised by when I really thought it would go another direction to give a more pat Kdrama moment (once again, you have to see it to know what I mean). Also, there are amazing parental characters that behave in such refreshingly awesome ways.
2. Characters: Oh the characters. I am so in love with HO GU I just cannot stand it. He really is one of the best leading men characters of all time. The writer (and the actor, to be discussed next) took a character that could have been just a fool and just a sicky sweet guy and made him so real and warm that it truly is a feat of genius. I think what is most amazing about Ho Gu and the way he is written and acted is that he makes everyone else in the world look like the fool that they think he is. It’s like he has got it right and we are all wrong. Even when he shows flaws like being a little too clingy or nosy, it’s okay because sometimes in real life our emotions do override our rational and that can happen in the moment. And then at the end he even grows. There’s never been a character like him before.
a. Do Hee: She rubbed me a bit wrong at first, but by the end I was totally in love with her. She really is pretty awesome!
b. Byun Kang Chul: Speaking of rubbing me wrong at first. There are people that dropped this drama because they hated him so much. To them I say WAIT! Nothing is as it seems! He is wonderful and his growth in the drama is the greatest; don’t judge after just a few eps. You are totally wrong!
c. Ho Kyung: BAD ASS!
d. Do Hee’s Baby: The cutest baby in the history of Kdramas.
e. The Support(ive) Cast: The greatest parents ever (Ho Gu’s)! Parents that show a lot of growth. Funny and kind friends who also have lives of their own and aren’t just props. It all results in just the sweetest extended family you’ve ever seen!
3. Acting: Awesome across the board! Even Uee who I previously didn’t think much of was wonderful in her way. And Im Seulong, who I found almost mesmerizing in Mandate of Heaven as the king, was even better here. He really is good and I expect great things from him in the future. He can do drama or comedy with equal aplomb. And his physical comedy is just hilarious. The supporting actors and actresses are all good, especially the parents and the actress that plays Ho Kyung.
But Choi Woo Shik, for him I don’t know if there are words. He is a star. He is wonderful in every way. Without him the character of Ho Gu would have failed with a thud. CWS is PERFECT in this drama with no flaws. When he cries, I cry. When he laughs and smiles, I laugh and smile. When he is intense, I burn and when he does physical comedy, I laugh until my nose runs. He brings Ho Gu so much life and warmth and spirit and even gravitas for a character that on paper would have none. I love him in this. I love him so much it hurts!
4. Plot and Writing: As I said earlier, there is a little weakness here where the plot depends too much on misunderstandings, but the originality and the dialog and the twists more than make up for that weakness. I know this was based on a manhwa so it’s not an original story and I have not read the manhwa so I don’t know how much this deviates, but I think the writing was really top notch. Once again a cable channel brings home the bacon where so many network shows fail miserably.
5. THE FEELS! What puts this drama over the top for me in terms of love and awesomeness though is the feels. I laughed; I cried; I laughed; I cried. I did those things over and over again, episode after episode. I can watch whole dramas and never laugh out loud or cry like a baby; I did both every week with this show. Maybe it touched me more deeply because I have a 16 mo baby. I don’t know. But I will never forget the emotions this show made me feel for as long as I watch Kdramas.
So there you have it. Stop whatever you are doing now and go watch this drama. It is nearly perfect and where it isn’t perfect, the intangibles make up for it. And if you love great acting, you have to see Choi Woo Shik in this. You are really depriving yourself otherwise.
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From the first airing, I'm already fall in love with it because of the light story
But after a few episodes, the story is not light like I think before
The plot is like make viewers guessing what happen here and make me really curious what happens next! I like the plot that make me curious
Amazing acting from the casts. Especially Choi Woo Sik and Lee Soo Kyung. Uee and Seulong acting is improved too here
And I love almost all of the soundtrack
Well, the drama is really worth to watch if you want a romance comedy although Do Do Hee character is a bit annoying at first. But I love it!
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When I first came to Japan, I had no idea about their original sweets. Most of their media also focus mostly on western pastries (specially French). There was one particular shop I go to and they sell all kind of sweet stuffs, I picked up something that looked like a chocolate muffin one day. Little did I know what was waiting next! Rest assured, it was not a chocolate muffin. It was a wagashi Manju bun with red bean filling, a mouthful of surprise! Is it the best thing I've ever tested? Not sure but it was damn good, couple it with surprise effect, it was one of best experience! I go to that shop every other day to pick up a few of them :)
This drama was like a manju bun hidden among all these vanilla, chocolate pastries. I was just looking forward to kill a couple of hours with a rom-com, ended up spending two days straight in front of my laptop, with a leg cramp, dry eyes and a warm heart (in between, I managed to drag my thesis to hell, that's another story).
Moral of the drama:
'Love will come through, it's just waiting for you' - Travis
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In a lot of ways this is a conventional rom-com, but the love stories themselves are definitely unconventional. Sure there is a love triangle, that turns into a rectangle, but it's a refreshing approach that got me more invested with each episode. There's also one main character, who doesn't say a word, who was the true star of this love story, at least to me.
The cast is really awesome, though I will admit that my least favorite was Uee. She did a good job, but I just didn't like her as much as the other main characters. I admit that her "revised" look was distracting. I can't really say anything bad about her performance, but I was only interested in seeing her on screen with Choi Woo Shik, who she did have great chemistry with.
Choi Woo Shik, on the other hand, totally won me over. I thought he would be too silly to take seriously, at first, but he was the perfect balance of sweetness, and seriousness, to make me fall for Hoo Goo's charm. Im Seul Ong won me over too, when I swore I would hate him. Kang Cheol flips conventional arrogance on it's head, which makes him an awesome character. My favorite cast member turned out to be Lee Soo Kyung, who I was surprised to see was so much younger than the rest of the cast. She was so good as Ho Gyeong, also the only character that I liked from the very beginning, and I am looking forward to seeing much more from her.
I should also give an honorable mention to Ho Goo's parents, who I thought were really great too! The cast, as a whole, really had great chemistry too!
Even though I loved the cast, and the love stories, I could not give the story a super high score. To me, even with all it's originality, there were a few too many clichés, and preachy moments. Though I would consider this a light drama, it does touch on some very serious topics, though only lightly. I'm sure certain topics are more serious when considering Korean culture. I wonder if any controversial moments went over my head because of cultural differences. I am sure being American is what made some of the moments feel so preachy to me.
The music? Well, it didn't really stand out to me, which makes it neither good, nor bad.
Would I watch it again? Sure! Some of the charm will be lost, now that I know what's happening, but there are so many moments that I could watch again. Immediately after the last episode, I had the urge to flash back to my favorite scenes (I'm still laughing about one kiss reaction in particular).
Overall, I would recommend this drama, especially to those looking for a good love story. It's also a much funnier, and lighter drama than the subject matter suggests. They don't take certain topics as far as they could have gone, but I applaud them for going there at all. I also liked the ending, and what it had to say about relationships in general.
I say, give it a chance, and wait until at least episode 5, if you're not convinced that you will like it. It took me about that long to really get into it, and now that it's over, I really miss it. Add me among those who consider this an underrated drama. I'm so glad I found out about it.
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So what was so extraordinary about Ho Goo's love? The drama without straying away too far from the usual kdrama cliches, like archetype characters, or absurd coinsidences and ridiculous comedy, manages to deliver something unique, be different and adress specific issues that not only are taboo when it comes to the dramaland but also ignored and overlooked in reality as well.
Ho Goo's love doesn't shy away from several problems that are incriminated by society like unexpected pregnancy, different sexual orientation, plastic beauty, single mothers working and taking care of their family simultaneously. As well as adressing several society issues like domestic psychological abuse, sexual assault, bullying, dating-sexual abuse, suiside - i can seriously go on. Sounds pretty heavy already?
Well, you can rest assured, it's not. It centers around Ho Goo, an adorkable character and his crazy life full of coincidence and absurd situations. His first love reappears after 6 years but this time she has a secret and everything just keeps getting more and more tangled from there.
The drama actually comes off as way too cute, even fluffy. It relies a lot on comedy but this is exactly what i loved so much about it. The perfect blend of absurd and hilarious coincidences that might make you raise your eyebrow a bit, together with the severity and intensity of all those society issues that people tend to turn a blind to. The drama is a perfect mixture of melodrama and comedy, one of the best i've watched. It starts focusing on comedy and it gradually turns to darker themes without losing its funny spark.
I have to admit that the characters were a little difficult to warm up to. The whole drama actually was hard to get used to. The characters are ridiculous, the situations are bizarre and they take some time to become likeable and feel real/acceptable. The drama gets drastically better after the midway point and it gets seriously addicting too. The main reason i don't rate it higher besides the warming-up-to-the-characters and the unreal coincidences parts, is that i felt that they over-ridiculed a few very serious matters and it felt borderline offensive. However, this was the best way to showcase them without making it too sad, appeal to a larger audience and still send a few messages along the way.
I have only positive things to say about the acting. It wasn't exceptional but it was satisfying.
Choi Woo Sik, exceeded my expections, but i doubt i even had any coming in. He was hilarious and absolutely adorable. A perfect fit for this role. Uee's performance was spectacular, she aced her dramatic scenes, more than anything else. Lee Soo Kyung needs more roles. She was entertaining beyond imagination. Im Seul Ong was another pleasant surprise, his performance was realistic in a questionable character, and always amusing. The whole supporting cast was amazing.
Overall the drama is not the masterpiece of our time, but it's definitely worth checking out. It brings something old and something new together and the results are commendable! I'd recommend this to everyone feeling like watching a significant but still light rom com. Rom com fans will enjoy this immensely, while melodrama fans if you ever feel like something more light-hearted than usual, this is a great choice.
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This review may contain spoilers
Feeling super conflicted about this drama
I just finished Hogu's Love (2015) and wow do I feel conflicted about this drama. It tells the story of the unlikely romance between Ho Gu, a loveable self described squid (someone who just drifts along in life), and Do Do Hui, a beautiful woman who is a medal winning competitive swimmer.The parts of this drama that worked were wonderful but the parts that didn't work were so bad that they almost ruined the whole thing.
What Worked:
1. The Female Lead: I loved Do Do Hui because she's a FL that you don't often see in Kdramas: at the start she's cold, harsh and aloof but as you get to know her you understand why: people are always treating her as an object of desire or trying to get something from her and she doesn't have anyone in her life who she can trust. I've seen people say they hate her which is kind of a bummer because she's one of the most complex and interesting FL's I've seen in a long time
2. The Second Male Lead: Byeon Kang Cheol was a fantastic character who got saddled with a shitty storyline. I still loved him because he was kind of ridiculous but he grew a lot over the course of the drama, evolving from a vain lawyer living a sterile and lonely life to a person who enjoyed eating raw squid and soju and singing at the noraebang with friends. The actor did a fantastic job playing him.
3. Supporting Cast: Hogu's parents, his friends, Byeon Kang Cheol's parents and his secretary were all terrific and added a lot to their scenes.
4. Creative Storytelling and Humor: There's a lot of slapsticky humor which is normally not my kind of thing but I loved most of it. There's also a lot of creative fantasy sequences and one epic scene where high school boys brawling over a naked drawing of the FL fall into poses from famous paintings. Hogu's squid meltdown (you have to see it to understand what I mean) was another epic moment.
What Was So-So
1. Ho Gu was a frustrating character. Sometimes he was sweet and adorable and other times I wanted to strangle him because he kept being presumptuous and sticking his nose where it didn't belong. It was especially galling when he did things without asking Do Do Hui first. I will say it got better as the character evolved and matured. His final reconciliation with Do Do Hui was lovely.
What Didn't Work At All
1. The drama brings up serious issues like sexual assault, abortion, single motherhood, suicide, slut shaming, etc. The problem is it either deals with them perfunctorily (for example, leaving the assault trial for the very end of the last episode) or really poorly (very negative messages about abortion which I did not need to see when the US has abortion access being destroyed). There's also a major Coffee Prince-esque storyline that played is he or isn't he gay for the entire drama and it's wildly insensitive. I kept shouting at my screen JUST LET HIM BE GAY, GAWD.
2. Ho Gu's sister was manipulative and a raging asshole with a violent streak and I never liked her.
Do I recommend you watch this?
Maybe. You'd have to be willing to overlook a lot, esp. the gay identity storyline, but the characters are mostly wonderful and the relationship between Ho Gu and Do Do Hui is incredibly heartwarming. I tend to drop dramas very easily but this one hooked me from beginning to end and that's saying something.
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Not your usual rom-com drama
It is a rom-com drama. But it isn't a typical one. Sure it follows the typical boy likes girl and girl likes boy line of every rom-com drama created ever, but it also has some materials that doesn't truly follow the norm of basic rom-com dramas.This drama makes the viewers question some of the basic views in relationship that they take for granted. It tackles some fundamental problems that a couple may face in a certain situation in their relationship.
In this drama the ML is not the usual cool or rich dude. Here the ML is a ordinary and sensitive guy. The FL is portrayed as a cool woman with strong personality. The cast did very good in depicting their emotions in different situations.
The drama has some comedy to it. But it also hits the viewers in the emotional department too. The plot is not bad and the flow was quiet smooth. The second leads had good potential to them but I found it a bit lacking, but you will see why when you watch the drama. This drama was unique in this part too and it made for some fun situations.
Overall if you are tired of watching regular rom-com dramas and want to change the pace with something new in the genre then this drama isn't a bad choice. I would definitely recommend it.
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This review may contain spoilers
Probably the best 16-episode drama I've ever seen. The best rom/com series I've ever started. The interactions between the protagonist Ho Goo and his sister, and ever so loving parents were amazing. Ho Goo's friends and how they developed to become a huge circle of loving friends nearing the end surrounding the *SPOILER* -------Baby.
The love between Do Do Hee and Ho Goo was one of the best I've seen between couples in kdramas. I mean who would stay with your first high school love, even though she's had a baby with another man? and help her through 15 hours of labour? Oh no not me. But Ho Goo did! which is what made it more amazing
They also tackle problems such as homosexuality phobias, sexual assault/rape cases where victims are always on the wrong end of the stick, and many other problems in society. They portray this in a unique way by showing the good side of these societal problems.
Overall it was one of the funniest dramas I've seen to this day, and the most HEART-WARMING drama ever! I'm convinced that I'd probably want to fall in love with someone like Do Do Hee (played by Uee from Afterschool)
Really amazing!!
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Since the beginning of each episode surprised me, the issue addressed by this drama was very familiar with what we see today, not to mention the mood behind it all and how the story of all the characters were intertwined.
Simply loved the Choi Woo Shik, he act really well, him passed all the feelings of happiness, sadness and confusion of the character, he was already an actor who I enjoyed and now I enjoy even more.
If you want a drama to laugh and have fun Goo Ho's love is your drama.
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Rewatch Value: 10
"Ho Goo's love" together with another drama called "Heart to Heart" are probably the best underrated dramas of 2015.
This drama is awesome, original, different, cute and a little gem in its own right.
It starts slow but ooh, you will laugh a lot. There are also serious topics discussed in this drama and the director and the actors did an amazing job.
The leading actors (I know Uee from "You are Beautiful") were really great. There are actors that have great looks and very expressive faces but can't convey emotions. Here you have Uee who has a kind of poker face, portraying an almost aloof character and wow...just watch it for yourself.
I'll definitely recommend to watch this drama. Watch this drama and enjoy the ride.
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The choice of casts was also a great one. Uee and Choi Woo-shik fit perfectly for the role. As we all know Uee can always pull up a strong women role. But she definitely delivered Do Do-hee perfectly that you can feel her pain when watching. Same goes for Woo-shik; his expressions helped a lot in portraying Ho-goo. Which had me wishing him for an award, but Daesang is quite too much. And this is actually a breakthrough role for Woo-shik as his first lead role-drama is a success.
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I went into this drama with the expectation of dropping it in the first five minutes. I kept seeing it pop up on Dramafever, and I kept looking at it, wanting to start it but having this gut feeling that I wasn't going to like it at all. So I finally decided to start it, just so that I could drop it and get it out of my head. But man, almost from the very first minute, I was completely sucked in. And then after the first episode, I knew there was no way I could give up on these characters and their story.
Can I just say, Choi Woo Shik was absolutely made for this role. It never once felt like he was acting, it felt like he was just implicitly Ho Goo. And Ho Goo was this adorable, naive, simple guy that you couldn't help but want to hug a billion times an episode. His heart was always in the right place, and he always put other people's needs first. It was the polar opposite of most lead male characters, who start off bristly and arrogant and only change through the power of love. Ho Goo was innocent and thoughtful, and while love did change him, it only made him into a better, stronger version of something that was already pretty awesome.
Uee, however, felt really flat in her role. I honestly couldn't understand what Ho Goo saw in Do Hee. Why he was willing to do so much for someone that was only slightly better than a wooden plank. There were a few moments where you could really see some potential in her, but for the most part I just kept wishing they had picked someone else for this role. But alas, Ho Goo loved her and I was determined to see them together if it was what he wanted.
The storyline felt really fresh to me. Just when I thought I knew how people would react, what was going to happen in the storyline, someone did something that turned my assumptions on their head. Which is always a pleasant surprise in drama land! The side characters really added to the story. Ho Goo's best friend and his really ripped arms; Do Hee's "first love" and all of his hilarious baggage; Ho Goo's sister and her unrelenting crush on someone who thought she was a boy. All of them added to this perfect recipe of a drama in the most entertaining of ways.
I haven't watched many 2015 dramas, or more to the point I haven't been able to finish many of them, but I think I can easily say that Ho Goo's love is one of the best to come from the crop of dramas this year. It's endearing, and sweet, and the romance in it is adorable if you only focus on Ho Goo's side of it.
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