Oh My Venus (2015)

I want more of Henry Lau's cuteness and Shin Min Ah's dimples!

I think this drama would have worked better in a shorter format, maybe 12 episodes instead of 16? And we could have cut the whole thing with the exes (ex friend and ex boyfriend). They both had kinda sucky personalities and their story line wasn't very interesting at all.

However, overall this drama was very cute and between the leads' chemistry and the bromance, I enjoyed it a lot. Shin Min Ah's dimples are utterly adorable, and this show had a lot of bare chests and skinship! It's always a treat to see a main couple who looks comfortable together and all the hugs and little touches. Even if it's thoroughly innocent, it's always so nice to get those glimpses of physical closeness.

But the best part, for me, was Herny Lau. He completely stole every scene he was in. His sunny disposition and mishmash of Korean and English were so cute! The true MVP.

Read More

I loved everything about this! A few weeks ago I was cruising through Viki and found this drama with great recommendations and reviews, so I started playing it and super happy I did. This drama makes you feel every emotion - you are sad and hurt one moment and then the next you are pumped, motivated, and happy! I honestly thought that this would easily be a 4/5 drama, but it went over and above. I loved the main character how regardless what was happening in her life, she knew that it is ok to be sad for a second and cry it out, but she also knew that eventually she would need to get out of that funk and work towards her happiness. Honestly, I would love to have an ounce of her positiveness and motivation. I loved her outlook in life, that no matter what happens, you can achieve anything. She had a catchphrase that she would always tell John Kim - If you are only baring it, you haven't reached your limit. That hit home for me and it is the perfect motivation booster. I loved the slow burning romance between the two mains especially when John Kim, the cool strong personal trainer guy that was a hardass with everyone, turns into this guy with this sweet middle school crush on our main girl. It was super sweet to see them interact and honestly their chemistry was through the roof. Not only was their (romance) chemistry through the roof, but I loved the chemistry overall between John Kim and his little friend group. You could tell how much love they all had for one another, especially through some VERY difficult times as you will see int he drama. I believe that one of my favorite things about dramas is not only loving the main characters, but also falling in love with the minor ones as well. I remember when I first started getting into dramas and how I fell in love with LoveO2O not only because of how much love Nai had for WeiWei, but also the love that Nai's roommates had for one another. I have yet to watch another drama where I have seen this much love and closeness between friends, until I watched this one. They had me giggling one moment and tearing up the next because of how much they support one another. But of course, like every drama, there were a few things I didn't enjoy, but try weren't enough for me to give this drama a lower score. I didn't like how John Kim had zero relationship with his step mother and half brother. Like yes, you are sad over your mother's death when you were a child, and you haven't seen your family for A WHILE, but they are family. Your stepmom just wants to be part of the family, and your half brother literally just wants to be a son and a brother. No reason for you to ignore them. Another thing I didn't like was how whenever John was at his absolute lowest points, he didn't want Kang Joo-Eun near him. I get it, he doesn't want her to see him hurting because he couldn't bare to see her cry, especially since he has been alone facing everything on his own his whole life. So I am not mad at him, but there was one scene in this drama that I wasn't super excited about and I don't know how I would have reacted if I was the main girl. The last thing I wasn't super pumped about was how we were kind of following multiple love stories, one of them involving Kang Joo-Eun's ex boyfriend of 15 years and Kang Joo-Eun's childhood friend who we believe in the beginning broke them up. I was happy they got their happily ever after, but I disliked how much the writers wanted us to care about their relationship. I'm still not sold on Kang Joo-Eun's ex boyfriend because I felt like even after he did so many things, he was forgiven automatically. He didn't do crazy things, but he helped some crazy people do them. Overall, loved this drama and I recommend this to anyone and everyone!! It's a great drama about friendship, family, romance, and finding what motivates you most in the world and using that to be the best person you can be! Honestly, it made me stop and think about myself and what I am working towards and how to get there.

Read More

I honestly have absolutely no idea why anyone would rate this show anything lower to be honest. This show is a hidden gem that's a work of art with such a cliche story; minus the she was pretty in the beginning. Girl is a little overweight, get's heart broken and wants to lose weight to better herself, not for revenge which is a huge thing to me but also this is a show that has no love triangle which I adore with all my heart honestly. I absolutely LOVE Henry Lau as well, dude is wonderful and hilarious. But I loved how sweet the male lead is even though he's got so much going on and I liked the female lead; there was nothing wrong about her. Screw the annoying ex boyfriend and the annoying old best friend but other than that, great story, wonderful connection and chemistry, an awesome story all together. DANG, also, I absolutely love the OST. It's just good all around like come on, it's downloaded to the max. This show is just straight wonderful.

Read More

This was my first South Korean drama. I never thought that I would fall in love with K-Drama in this way! I love everything: the OST, the characters, the way of acting, the emotions they transmit to you.
I love the endings a little less ... finding a satisfactory one is like making a lottery. Sooner or later I will get used to it ... or maybe not!
Right now Oh my Venus is in rewatch, because I'm also starting my sister in this world.
Kang Joo-eun is a girl who was envied by young girls and desired by boys when she was young. A perfect physique and two dimples to be passed out. But nevertheless, she never boasted about it, even when she was offered to participate in Miss Korea. She wanted to become a lawyer, and there is nothing Kang Joo-eun cannot do! If you put something in your head, the world falls, she will do it.
We find her years later, with the same determination as always, but dozed off from the routine that has been created in her life. A stable job and a 15 year old boyfriend.
To awaken her will be a series of circumstances that will make her cross paths with Kim Young-ho over and over again.
And here girls, prepare the tissues, because there will be a need, but really a lot!
A relationship of extreme trust will be established between the two, which will gradually solidify and reach a tremendously deep bond.
In addition to the two of them, Oh my Venus is surrounded by characters who all have a particular story behind them, none are superficial or poorly characterized.
Kim Ji-woong will literally make you die of laughter, I think it was he who conquered my sister! You cannot look at it except with heart-shaped eyes.
A sore point concerns the ending: unfortunately the last episode was really disappointing! Such a Drama could not end this way. I had enormous expectations regarding the last episode. In short, I was back from episodes of desperate crying. I deserved a finish that satisfied me 100% and instead I found myself turning up my nose. Such a pity.
It's still worth seeing it ... and seeing it again ... and seeing it again!

Read More

I am glad to conclude 2018 with this drama. It was cute, entertaining and informative. I learned a thing or two about hypothyroidism and nutritional science. Some have mentioned that this drama is fat shaming but I beg to differ. The show was honest in telling how society view and treats fat people, a lot of cringy parts I have to admit but honest nevertheless . What I didn’t like was how it treated losing weight as just plain strict diet and exercise instead of lifestyle choices and ultimately lifestyle change, but then again this is a drama not a life coaching show. It could have been such a good platform for it though.

I liked how the main female lead sets her goals, sets her mind, and then WORKS HARD for it, this includes achieving her dream of becoming a lawyer. It is hard and she has lapses but this is where her “village” picks up their cue and helps her out. I should say very cute, very supportive, and very loyal village :D. Her superior/friend’s reason for hating her is shallow, it wasn’t the female lead’s fault that the blind date was a jerk. Quite honestly I felt her story about not being able to bear a child was unnecessary apart from informing viewers that this is a side effect of an unhealthy way of losing weight. That and the tons of flashbacks felt forced. I get the tap tap premise but NO communication for a year is very harsh and unrealistic really.

For the acting, I give everyone 2 thumbs up except So Ji Sub. He gets my standing ovation! Working in the rehab profession myself I see how hard motivated people push themselves to work (physically and mentally) and oh my, SJS researched his part well! I felt his pain and his resolve with every grunt and every bead of sweat. I mean there is working out in the gym and then there’s working out in rehab and he nailed it!

Music was so so and for rewatch value, yes! This will be one of my faves and yes I highly recommend you to watch this cute drama, it may even motivate you to make healthier choices in 2019 :)

Read More

simply amazing

i really liked this drama. not only does it have a great story to tell, but it's also really charming, funny and leaves a great impact on you. i personally think it's an amazing idea to teach others about psychological diseases as well, and i appreciated that. the music was amazing, always fit in at the right moments and simply expressed a lot of things that made me feel like i was a part of the drama myself (i'm quite sad the whistle tune isn't a song tho ;-;). the chemistry between the main characters was very visibly strong and i liked that, too. it's my new favourite drama as of now :)

Read More

disappointment of the year...

Man, I was so excited to watch this drama because I heard so many good things about So Ji Sub and was loving Shin Min Ah in Homecha, but these two great actors just ended up picking an absolutely horrible script. I already knew that 2014-2017 was a dark time for dramas (at least in my opinion) in terms of the same overused cliches in all romcoms, but this drama is just something else entirely. As someone who had her own share of issues with food and exercise, I was really hoping that this drama would present some good information on leading a healthy lifestyle, however Oh My Venus just ended up reinforcing all the common lies of korean diet culture and I was hugely disappointed with this drama because of this first and foremost. I won’t go into detail since it’s going to feel like beating a dead horse at this point (I left a comment with a majority of my complaints in the comment section) so I will address the storytelling issues in this review instead. This drama greatly suffers from what I call the “leads getting together too soon in a drama where the only storyline is the romance between the main leads” syndrome. The title is a work in progress. Basically this drama made a grave mistake of getting the leads together extremely early and had no more story or conflict left to tell. Everything else that followed after the couple got together just felt like meaningless filler. They should have seriously considered ending this drama at 10 episodes, but Korea for some reason has a weird 16 episode quota. I am one of those weird people that was rooting for the second leads, and their relationship actually had some conflicts and issues which I honestly appreciated in the never-ending sea of happiness and fluff that was the rest of the drama. And maybe a little because I could relate to Oh Sujin just a little bit. I don’t think I even need to mention the weird separation at episode 13 because what even was that? I usually get mad at these things but I was so apathetic to everything by episode 10 that I just kind of didn’t even care. Still, it’s hella weird and I would have 100% given the ML a hard time about it if I was the FL. This last one is a very personal complaint because I haven’t seen anybody say it here, but I honestly preferred the second lead couple to the main couple. Not exactly because their love line was any healthier, more interesting, etc. It’s genuinely because they just had more substance. Their characters felt a million times more fleshed out than the main couple. They actually had flaws. All that Yeongho and Jueun had to offer was never-ending love and understanding for one another. Sounds healthy and it probably was, but damn it I was so bored when I was watching them. There was zero tension, zero everything. It just felt too easy and too similar to everything else I’ve seen in kdramas. They were too perfect, too understanding, too nice. Everything about them felt so vanilla that I found it hard to ship them. They were too generic and honestly just became really boring once they lost their personalities after getting together. That’s it. That’s the review. Oh my venus is too overhyped and I’m too burnt out from writing college essays to care about wrapping up this review nicely. So yeah. There’s way better dramas out there so don’t waste your time with this.

Read More

Loved this one. Total transformation

9/10 is my rating. This is a 2015 South Korean drama with 16 episodes. Having a painful and debilitating childhood illness, Kim Young-Ho (So Ji-Sub) is now a personal trainer to Hollywood stars. Although he has stayed away from Korea because he and his father do not get along, he returns to avoid a scandal that erupts in America with one of his clients. Kang Joo-eun (Shin Min-A) is a 33 year old layer who was recently dumped by her 15 year boyfriend and finds that her physique is not what it once was. In her younger years she was a locally famous beauty who was even encouraged to try for miss Korea. After finding out about Kim Young-Ho's secret identity, she strikes a deal with him to help her transform back into the slender beauty she once was.

Spoiler ? I really liked this one as I could identify with it on so many levels. I struggle with my weight and have Hashimotos (hypothyroidism) so that was a compelling and interesting element. Some might have felt there was fat shaming going on but I do not think it always helps to hide the elephant in the room. I have always felt if I was able to line myself up with a lifestyle trainer who was a good fit for me (it would have to be a balance between empathy and suck it up sister) I could have the success I have various times on the yo yo. It's like a new type of night in shining armor he is a medical expert so he well knows what she needs to do to cure her body. I liked how you could see their feelings toward each other growing over time. I loved his two “sons” and the way they were with the female lead. She became like their surrogate mother/older sister. I loved when she would “fall off the wagon” and sometimes it was like “treat day” and other times it was no – really you don't need to eat that. She was a kind person regardless of what she looked like and it definitely showed that. I liked the “we all have our struggles” message and how you can do whatever you set your mind to. I also like the way her relationship between her, her boyfriend, and long time female friend evolved over time. The male lead was willing to fight for their love without hesitation (he was going to take Grandma ON). But he didn't need to because Grandma saw all she needed to in terms of knowing that was the right girl for her grandson. I liked that our girl was an ethical lawyer and how they pointed out weak points in the law (such as stalking). It was just a great, feel good, movie for me. If you are overly sensitive to people calling it how it is (you have some weight to lose) you may not like that aspect of this or it may spoil the movie for you. But if you get the connection between weight, hypothyroidism and health and feel that those that care about you should help on that journey – you will.

Read More

Most of this was absolutely brilliant, with a great story, a fantastic couple with superb chemistry and some really good characters around them. Acting was top notch, the music was good (particularly the short "whistle" instrumental that you can't get on the OST sadly). But it ran out of steam, at a very minimum the last episode was almost entirely unnecessary and I was just watching it largely waiting for it to end so I could mark it off as completed, nothing really happened.

The general premise for this one was one that had me concerned and while i originally added it to my list because it's the same actress from Tomorrow With You, but the topic of the female lead being overweight had me a bit concerned just because it's so easy to be really negative about it - and as an overweight person (all my own fault, not claiming that the universe has it against me or anything), I just don't find that kind of thing entertaining to watch.

Happy to say that I felt the topic of obesity was actually covered really well, with an underlying message that "what's inside matters more than what's outside". She's getting blood tests, not just checking her weight, fixing her diet and changing other aspects of her life like how and when she sleeps, integrating exercise into her life - losing weight is a lot more than just "eat less" and that's very well covered in this. There is another character, Soo-jin, who starts out overweight and by the time the main thrust of the story starts she's swapped with the main character and is now slim - but as the story progresses you can see she's not really taken care of "within" and is really not healthy as a result.

I really enjoyed the chemistry of the two characters, they work well together and were a joy to watch.

I thought that the wrist-grabs on this one were over the top - bordering on assault - dragging her by her wrist somewhere or yanking her around really quickly and suddenly. I know that the wrist-grab is a thing in Korea but this was one of the more extreme examples i've seen in KDrama and it looked really unpleasant.

I was also a little disappointed that in this story he basically re-arranges his life to help her, it's wonderful how much time and effort he puts into helping her turn her life around - but when it comes to his own problems, he completely locks her out and she has no way to help, he doesn't like seeing the people around him hurting and the best thing anyone can do to help him is to leave him to suffer on his own. I don't like that message at all, i'd have been so much happier if he'd taken a brave step to let her in and lean on her for the support that she was so desperate to give.

The final scene literally had me laugh out loud, I *have* to assume it was put on at the end purely for the "lols" and to tick off the standard kdrama elements - for no good reason at all, without any prior commentary to allude to it, suddenly, you find out that for a brief moment, they knew each other as kids. It adds nothing, it's completely pointless :) I don't consider this a spoiler because, well, uhm, it was pointless. :)

Summary - Up until the last couple of episodes this was one of my favourites, but it ran out of steam and just started rambling at the end. Some of the side plots didn't feel like they had good conclusions, but the main thrust of the story with the central couple was warm and good to watch. The "extravagant dowry" demand from the grand mother was nicely handled too, but i'll not say more on that one :)

Read More

My only regret is not watching it sooner

This was such a refreshing drama.

The main leads had a healthy relationship and were not afraid to express their love for each other. They flirted and acted cute but not in an overly annoying way.

The side characters were goofy and funny. They created great opportunity for the main leads to be happy with each other.

The 2ML and 2FL had their own issues but they did not try to create trouble for the main couple. It was good to watch a drama with no love triangles or a side characters trying to break up the main leads.

Although it's a transformation story about losing weight, the message is clear - you are sexy when you are healthy.

Read More