I'm Not a Robot (2017)

I'd rewatch this one for comfort!

I thought the premise of this drama was a little odd when I first started watching it, but it's so well produced/acted that it ended up not making me cringe.

All in all, I'd say this drama is mostly funny and cute. There isn't really a big villain, or fighting sequences and explosions, but there are many funny interactions among the characters, or based on the fact that the lead is so sure the girl truly is a robot. I'd recommend it to anyone that enjoys a bit of a cliche, some romance and a light storyline. I'll probably rewatch it when I need some comfy entertainment after a long day.

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I watched this show after a friend suggested we watch it together. We were eating ice cream and I was pausing the episodes every ten seconds because every time I saw the main lead my heart would almost stop. His smile is heartbreaking.

I do see the flaws in the plot: unrealistic at times, inconclusive ending for some characters, the way the main lead got over things so abruptly (this is a spoiler-free review so I won't talk about it here). Apart from some plot holes, the ost was rather underwhelming. One song kept playing, over and over again. I get that's the main couple's track and the song itself wasn't bad at all. But after some time it got bothering and took some magic away from the big moments, which I think is the opposite an OST should do. The acing was great but not the absolute best. The main leads did an amazing job at the more emotional scenes though!

Although I noticed all these negative points, there's something SO special about this show that simply makes our hearts race, really. I couldn't stop thinking about it when I wasn't watching it so I watched the whole thing in two days, even finishing it before my friend who watched the first few episodes with me (which is a miracle btw).
The robot was the cutest thing ever, the female lead was sooooo likeable and talented, the main lead was so stunning and amazing at acting that I will never forget his face and name again, the side-characters and their development were great... The show was very well casted.
Honestly, some of my ratings are purely based on how many feelings the show gave me and that's okay. This is a perfect example of an imperfect drama that simply captures your heart and ends up on your top favourites list.

Definitely worth rewatching and rewatching and rewatching. I wish more people had given it a chance, it really deserves more love and praise.

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One of my All Time Favorites

10/10 is my rating. 2017/2018 South Korean Drama spanning 32 episodes (~30 minutes per episode). Yoo Seung-ho plays the male lead, Kim Min-kyu who developed a life-threatening allergy to skin contact with other people due to childhood tragedy.  He is the wealthy chairman of a company and lives his life in near complete isolation due to his allergy.  His nickname is baton because he carries an extendable baton, in the rare instances when he is out, to insure people stay at “arms” distance.  A team of researchers have developed a very life like robot named AG-3 and Min-Kyu is scheduled to test it.  The robot is modeled after the female lead, Jo Ji-Ah, as she is the ex-girlfriend of the head robotic scientist.  The team is depending on Min-kyu’s positive impression of the robot for funding for their research.  When the test is scheduled to begin an accident short circuits the robot and there is no time to get her fully back online in time for the test.  Jo Ji-Ah (Chae Soo-Bin) who is an inventor with many failed projects and huge debt agrees to play the role of the robot until they can repair the robot and swap out.  To make it believable she is given special contacts that tie her to the real AG-3 who is able to provide the level of information on topics expected of a robot (such as what is the weather report, current stock prices, or calculate this complex equation). AG-3 becomes the first friend Min-kyu has had in 15 years and the confidence he begins to feel allows him to venture out from his isolation.  The intrigue rises as Min-Kyu suffers from conflicting feels of love for what he believes to be a robot (although it seems his heart senses what his mind does not acknowledge.  Jo Ji-Ah begins to see past the gruff exterior to the beautiful person within and also begins to love Min-Kyu. 

Spoiler 🚨 I read this did not rate high when it was aired.  I found the 32 episodes just flew by and I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end.  The male and female lead are just beautiful together and you can completely see why and how they would fall in love.  There were love triangles, a mystery, suspense and comedy – all the things I have come to love in Asian Dramas.  I have found, in general, that Asian Dramas end a bit different than American romances in that it either goes beyond “happily ever after” or simply fails to neatly wrap everything up.  This one did a great job of balancing that.  I think this has moved to my number one slot for Asian Dramas thus far – it has a unique premise, fully developed characters, a believable scenario and is just fun to watch. 

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The concept is cute, the main characters are adorable.

But it just felt stretched out for too long.

I didn't quite get the company power struggle stuff and Madame X never gets explained. Aside from meaningless, comedic relief.. what was the point of the two henchmen in black?

You gotta suspend belief because how could he not know she's human with her very normal human facial expressions and body language??

Could have been much better if it had a tighter storyline.

Also I think Dr Hong could have been better cast because all I could think of "he is older by 20 years compared to everyone!"

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I am not a robot general review

In general, the story was good and it was very interesting. It makes a good first drama. I really enjoyed this series at first (since it was my first), but when I watched other dramas, I realized that this drama was missing an "it" factor. I felt as though there weren't any peak moments and the drama was very flat. It could be because the likelihood of this situation happening in real life is low, which sort of made the show unbelievable? Other than that, the actors were well played and you could feel the emotions. I would not watch it again, but if you haven't seen it, you really should.

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This is the best thing since the start of this cold, bleak winter!

I absolutely love everything about this show: the story, the heroine, the hero, the supporting characters... Initially not a big fan of Yoo Seungho but here he got me totally smitten! His ability to convey raw and sincere emotions as if it's the easiest thing in Kdramaland, just blew my mind. Choi Soobin is also perfectly cast in her role as a strong and independent heroine. Her sassiness and cute mannerism made me root for her from the start, whether she was being a human (Ji-a) or a human pretending to be a robot (Aji-3). The supporting characters (the Santa Maria team), were just goofy and great as comedic relief in an already absurd story. It was also endearing to see how each one them open up little by little towards our love-starved hero.

As someone who rarely goes back to already watched shows, I'm not a Robot has a rewatch value of 10/10, this is how much I loved it! The only downside might be that it didn't really have memorable OST's.

WATCH if you love absurd, zany comedy mixed with hard-earned puppy-love romance, DON'T WATCH if you're expecting full force makjang angst.

I'd strongly recommend this to all rom-com lovers. :)

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Wow this is so good, why is it so underrated?

This drama is soooo good! It's so, so, so good. And the ending doesn't screw it all up! Yay! And if like me, you love a KDrama that squeezes your heart and makes you cry (I cry a lot anyway but for this I CRIED) then you'll love this too.

I don't say this lightly but this is a bit Healer-esque - the hero, orphaned and separate from society for his own reasons, learns to get back into society with help from heroine... and also like Healer, wasn't popular domestically but has more fans internationally. Let's give this the love it deserves!!

... and for anyone who loves a great kiss scene this one has so many, the ML does GREAT KISSING.

The FL is really great but the ML KILLS it in this drama. He does all the emotions so well, there is one scene he switches between 5, barely needs any words he just does them all with his face and his eyes. And he has one of the best smiles in KDrama surely?

Other things I really loved:
- The central romance. Every time these guys were on the screen it was great, whether they were bickering, doing banter, all the romance, all the pain, they lit up the screen when they were together. The actors have amazing chemistry and do such great acting with their eyes. The scenes after the "reset" were so painful but so good. The scene where he counts down his fingers to "fold" in the drinking game, totally killed me! The other scene that I loved was also after the reset, he rings "President Cho" and she breaks down as soon as she hears him on the phone, and then in meteor shower scene she admits she if she heard his voice again she wouldn't be able to resist going to find him. *the feels!*
- The way they got to revisit the emotions and their joint story, both in the locked warehouse and in the meteor shower scene were beautiful. Sometimes dramas leave out too much of this opening of hearts of things their characters went through and just jump to the reconciliation scene.
- We never quite knew what was happening, so I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through seeing how the whole story would get resolved.
- The Santa Maria crew were so cute and funny!

Discussion, questions and spoilers below:

- did we ever find out who Madame X is? Did i miss that?
- this drama had very few things that bothered me but one of them was the SUPER BAD English speaking actors. seriously if you're even a semi decent actor get yourself to Korea (and they also need to subtitle the Korean actors who speak english, especially the older ones ;p)
- i wanted to see the scene where he gives her the necklace - but OMG the beach scene (the one I mean where he switches between 5 emotions with so few words)
- and anyone else prefer Pi with curly hair and glasses?!
- oh and i wanted to see the new Aji3 - i was hoping for a cameo from a famous actor :D

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