1have you ever watched a drama that makes you so happy that you want to become a better person? 'a poem a day' felt like home to me. it made me feel like i really belong somewhere.
story:
the story was nothing that... impressive? at least at first sight. there is no much drama, pressure, it doesn't make you nervous about what will happen next. but it gives you a warm feeling, it makes you happy. it was interesting for me, although i have no interest in physiotherapy.
the romance between je wook and bo young was one of the most beautiful romantic stories i've ever seen in kdramas. i know, i've read in many comments, a lot of people find it boring, too 'formal', but no, it was just real. they were one normal couple. they loved each others, they supported each other, there were hugs and kisses, so i didn't really understand why some people thought that their relationship was unnatural. it just felt real.
another thing i have to mention is the patients stories. i cried my eyes out, they just felt too real.
i really liked the poems. they were so beautiful and they perfectly matched with the story.
but i was slightly disappointed in the end, i think some things should have happend but this doesn't change the fact that the story is good.
characters:
woo bo young - oh, our beautiful female lead. she was just a good person, she was trying to do her job right and to help the patients to recover. she truly cared about them. the thing i liked the most in her it's that she wasn't trying to hide her sensitivity. bo young was a strong female lead in one word.
ye je wook - i haven't seen a person who likes giving advices as much as him lol. he seemed cold in the beginning but after that you can see what a warm person he actually is. he treated everyone with respect and he was always telling what he thinks, he was honest with himself and with the others.
shin min ho - you either like him or you don't. personally, i like him. yes, sometimes he acted childishly, he had no sense of responsibility but at the end, he made the right decision no matter how hard it was for him. yes, he was sometimes selfish, but aren't we all like that? when we fall in love we want the person to have eyes only for us, we don't want to let him/her go. so how can we blame minho for that?
the side characters were really funny and pleasent to watch. their had their own hardships but they always found a way to endure it. i like seeing their character development, escpecially han joo yong's. i like how his friendship with dae band developed in a really good way.
acting:
the cast was completely new for me, the only actor who i knew was seo hyun chul.
i have no much to say, the acting was perfect. there wasn't anyone whose acting seemed unnatural, they all did a great job.
music:
beautiful ost, i love all of the songs. they suited the drama really well and they made it even better.
overall:
11/10 if you ask me. i like dramas that are close to reality and 'a poem a day' was a masterpiece for me. totally recommended!
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-Woo Bo Young was such a great lead! She was a ray of sunshine and such a genuine person without being ditsy! She still had flaws though, but I think those flaws made me like her even more. She’s what really made me stick with the show. I rooted for her the entire time!
-The whole cast of characters–even the meaner ones–were really fun. It was really entertaining to watch all their interactions and antics. I also liked how they all had their own things going on in their lives.
-The setting was unique in the sense that I don’t think there’s been a kdrama about physical therapists before! It was really fun to get a glimpse into that world.
-The use of poetry was also super unique and creative and it was incorporated in the drama really well.
Dislikes:
-There didn’t seem to be a plot to me. Besides the romance, I didn’t really understand what direction this show was trying to go.
-Going off of that, I think the show started off really great but then started focusing on the wrong things which ended up being its downfall. For example, the love triangle felt very unnecessary and didn’t really do anything for the plot or for the characters involved in it. Another example is that the show spent so much time developing Minho and Bo Young’s relationship and not enough on Bo Young’s relationship with Dr. Ye which left me feeling confused on who the show was trying to make me root for.
-The show should have focused on all the characters and their individual problems. It did at first, which was why I was so hooked at the beginning, but then it fizzled out. Characters’ problems were pushed under the rug halfway through and virtually forgotten about. Because of that, the majority of the characters end up not really doing anything to add to the bigger picture of the show, and they felt like they were just there to fill up time. What I wanted to see: Minho dealing with his family issues and the fact that they forced him into a career path that he isn’t interested in; Nam Woo working his ass so he can get a job; Yoon Joo trying to figure out how to deal with her loneliness and learning how to be vulnerable with others, etc.
-Dr Ye, despite being one of the leads, was one of the most underdeveloped characters of the entire cast! I still don’t really understand his character or what drives him. Who is he outside of work? I wanted to know more about his break up and see him trying to heal more from it. I liked his character but I needed to know more in order to be fully invested in him. The show did give him some more character development in the last two episodes, but honestly, by then it was too late since everything was wrapping up.
Overall, this show was entertaining to watch, but the lack of character development for the majority of the characters and the lack of plot left me feeling majorly dissatisfied.
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This review may contain spoilers
I had high hopes for this drama since many have recommended it, but it left me feeling disappointed by how great it could have been.First, the female lead could have been a strong woman, but ended up being weak, immature, and too reliant on others around her. Seeing how the whole drama mainly surrounded her life, seeing her rise from her trials strongly would have been satisfying, but she ended up being a weak female, crying at almost every episode, being chased around by guys. I saw no growth in her character for the entire 16 episodes.
Second, there was no chemistry at all between the main couple. It felt like their “love story” felt too rushed. They reminded me more of a “sunbae” relationship, where distance should have been kept because no warmth arose between them.
Next, the second lead had the most character development, from an immature, spoiled kid, to a mature one who started caring for someone before himself. It would have made more sense had he ended up with the female lead, but ya, the drama decided to do another Barney Stinson - the one who had the most satisfying character change because of love, but ended up being left behind and going back to being his immature old self. Sigh.
If there’s one thing that made me stay, it’s definitely the use of poetry as a central theme of how each episode would go. The stories of the minor (very minor) characters in each episode made me tear up from time to time, alongside with the poems which were the main focus of the whole drama.
The side stories were more captivating than the main story plot, that should say something about this drama.
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A journey to become a better person.
A Fresh Start!I untangled the twisted knot.
I also took out the thorn.
Without lingering attachment or regret...
I straightened out my passion.
I let the twisted relationship go.
With a lighthearted feeling and a confident mindset...
I erased yesterday with the hope of tomorrow.
One of the strengths of this drama as it's name 'Poems' which also makes it different and unique from other dramas. It's a journey to become a better person which is represented and executed with touch of poems in very realistic way. This drama teaches us many things. 'Never judge book by it's cover' although you won't like many characters in the start but when you explore them and there backstories every character is realistic and likable. If you are finding just a typical rom com then it's not the place cause it's more than just romance...it's a warm hearting and feel good drama.
There isn't anything extraordinary or amazing in it but still it's definitely worth watching. Every episode every story has it's lesson, lesson of life sometimes even bitter truth. It was good, slow paced but I really enjoyed...
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I won’t post the poster for the drama because honestly? It’s not memorable. Also, I don’t want.
I will also add a disclaimer: I like Lee Yubi and I also like poetry.I will also add that poetry loses a lot (everything) in translation or maybe I am just uncultured. I don’t know.
But honestly, A Poem a Day had a strong start but oh my god, it was boring.
-_-
That was me as I waited for something to happen. And it did, often, but not the kind of thing that I wanted to see. I mean, initially it was cute? Bo Young was cute even without a personality. She had some personality, I suppose but no opinions, nothing that grabbed me by the collar and demanded I give her my ardent support.
The romance was cute for a while until the second lead became super annoying and I was hardpressed not to throw something at my screen leaving myself without a medium in which to watch things which would have been TRAGIC. I resisted, thank goodness.
The major issue I had with this drama was that it felt contrived. Rather than allowing the story to breathe, it tried too hard to be something without going the proper distance. It tried to be meaningful without actually putting in the effort to be meaningful.
As an example, i give you one of the later episodes in which we are introduced to a doctor who works too hard and has a stroke and finds himself in the same situation his patients were in. Bo Young feels heartbroken for him as is her brand and cries and whatnot. Which is fine. On paper, this sounds like solid stuff to tug at heartstrings. HOWEVER, this doctor is entirely without weight. They introduce him in the same episode that he is a paragon of virtue, has a stroke, and deals with his diminished capabilities.
There is no progression of his character, however slight it is; we don’t see him from the beginning. We don’t see Bo Young’s admiration for him until he is used as an obvious plot device so his struggle, his story feels hollow and without the emotional payoff it would have had had this character been present in whatever quantity from the very beginning.
This is not the only time the author does things heavy-handedly and as a writer, I found her/his/their obvious manipulations to be discordant. The poetry too while beautiful in the language of origin feels extraneous to me. I wish they had used few poems and dedicated more time to a single one, perhaps uniting the themes among the characters.
This drama was among my least favourite but hey, at least I got to see Nam Woo and his alligator. I found his story about poverty and love to be the most compelling. He was the best thing about this drama, to be quite honest. Okay, that and the friendship between the Bo Young, Minho, and Nam Woo. I wish they could have removed the romance entirely and focused on the friendship between these three people. The drama would have been so much stronger for it.
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Apart from what remains of our lives.
What remains of our lives always meets us
In a way that is not at all remarkable.
Though you might not wish to believe it,
It is not at all remarkable.
At its core, this sweet little drama about physical therapists and other people who work at a hospital started as it ended – as a quietly-joyful slice of the ordinary.
Lee You-bi is truly delightful as Woo Bo-young; a contracted physical therapist who wants a full-time job and love in that order. Bo-young finds herself in the middle of a love triangle that launched a full-scale shipping war while the show aired: will she choose the urbane, professional Dr Ye or the childish first love Min Ho? But in the end this show is not about romantic attainment or who ends up with who - rather it's a beat in the lives of ordinary people. And it's in that beat that we find the poetry in the average human soul.
With an alternative - and preferable - title of You Who Forgot Poetry, this is a show about the compromises people make to make a living and the need for us to retain our original aspirations in our lives. As people who opted for a steady, safe income over their dreams, most of us can empathise with the underlying concept of poetry as a metaphor for romance in a petty, silly, vainglorious world.
The show has lots of quirky humour in the vein of a more-subdued Scrubs and elicits its fair share of laughs at the general absurdity of life. But it's in its overall message - that the ordinary can be poetic - that this show is quietly and subtly beautiful in a way that is as unexpected as it is joyful.
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It was essentially slice of life at its best. Nothing extravagant yet nothing too simplistic. I loved loved the poems and let me tell you I am not a big fan of poetry thanks to A-level Literature. But the poems from this drama was absolutely sensational and so heartfelt. I loved how there was a story behind each poem. The drama was quite unique in the way it explored various points and mini stories throughout the series. It was delivered quite well as well. I felt that in each episode, there was always something to take away as a lesson or as something to reflect upon. The story was kept real and relatable but also had its lighthearted and comical scenes, which by-the-way were absolutely amazing. I couldn't stop laughing at various scenes of the drama. Romance wise? It was quite unexpected actually...that is all I am going to say about romance. I am not and will not ruin it for you (it's that good). The only thing I felt the story lacked was how it did not thoroughly explore the development of some of the characters; they were mostly snapshots of what the characters dealt with/did on a daily basis. Particularly with Jang Dong-Yoon's character, I felt it lacked depth and understanding, especially with the way the drama ended. As a viewer, I didn't feel quite connected to his character. But other than that, it was overall a good watch.
Acting/Cast: 10/10
Okay, I don't know about anyone else but for me, the cast was amazing. I think each and every one of the cast played their role really well. Lee Yoo-Bi perfectly suited the female lead with her baby-faced beauty (I can't still believe she's 27?!) and executed the role amazingly. Likewise with the rest of the cast.
Music: 8/10
I don't really have much to say about the music, because I hardly paid attention to it. But overall it was good. Nothing overrated or unsuited. The music matched the atmosphere of the scenes and set the mood perfectly. I particularly liked the soundtrack when the poems were being voiced.
Rewatch value: 8/10
Hell yes. I would definitely come back to watch it again. Maybe not anytime soon.
Overall: 8.5/10
So there. I gave it 8.5/10. I didn't give it the full 10 because I think this drama did have some plot holes. Although all in all, it was a good watch and you will definitely find yourself in love with some of the characters. Like it or not, I would say give it a chance.
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STORY
A Poem a Day is nothing special. There's no big intense driving plot or any big twists, but it IS incredibly easy to watch and full of sentimental value. A Poem a Day tugged on all my heartstrings in the right places and made me giggle too many times to count. There's a real down-to-earth vibe throughout the whole show that translates seamlessly into even the romance which I found very refreshing - and there were no typical kdrama cliches! (Apart from maybe the love triangle but hey, I'm a sucker for those and this one was wrapped up responsibly and realistically! What a surprise right?) It's a casual watch that entwines the stories of not just our main trio but also that of multiple other employees at the hospital with comfortable ease, without relying on dramatics or glaring over-used character flaws that felt fake. Everyone felt relatable and was easy to connect with. To me A Poem a Day is a shining example of just how well 'less is more' can work and it strayed from typical expectations without seeming like it was trying hard at all.
ACTING
I have no complaints here! Lee Joon Hyuk's acting may perhaps seem a little stiff at first but you'll soon realise that that's simply just how his character is. (And I ADORE our awkward and super sensible Doctor Ye. He is one of the main reasons I laughed so much while watching this show, especially towards the end of the series!) All the emotions even down to the subtler ones were portrayed well and I never once had any problems at all absorbing myself in the show.
MUSIC
So sweet! The music matches the relaxed and sentimental vibe of the show really well. Accompanied with the readings of poems - which make me want to buy a poetry book! - they may not be something I'm likely to remember in the distant future, but I can bet I'll feel all kinds of sentimental when I happen across them again.
REWATCH VALUE
I actually totally would rewatch this show, given enough time has passed. A Poem a Day possesses such a slice-of-life simplicity and sentimental value that a lot of Kdrama shows just do not have. It was honestly a joy to watch and I full appreciated its simplicity. It might not be for everyone, and I can understand that, but for once I was happy to just relax and not have my mind racing to predict any outcomes or groan at overdone cliches. A Poem a Day is a cute, comfortable series with just the right amount of realistic pains and drama. It felt like I peeking into a few chapters of people's lives and learning some valuable life lessons in the process.
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Over the top but interesting at times
Well this clearly was not really my cup of coffee... It was an ok watch but I did hit that double speed button once or twice and found myself struggling with watching it.... Why? Well let's start with the 3 mains:1. Ms, emotional wreck/cry baby... would probably get emotional from seeing a person she has never met drop their ice cream and will burst in to tears 10 times an episode. Do not get me wrong, it is important to be in touch with ones emotion and I am all for people crying. However this is just over done making me want to have a good talk withe her about how to re-direct those emotions. She also finds comfort in others misfortune... Yes she feels for them but also uses it to cheer herself up... my problems are not as bad as that guys so I should just put myself together... She is naive as **** and keeps getting doupet by the world... Do not get me wrong she does have her fun moments, sweet, caring to the point of obsession, but after seeing her cheer her up with others misfortune I felt that she was not that genuine after all... But I do like her at times she has a beautiful smile and does show an interesting personality from time to time...
2. Mr Playful Jerk on the outside, fluffy marshmallow on the inside... A kid who was never really loved and acts like a 2 year old who has not had their nap... immature but still the boy is very pretty and has the greatest character development of them all... He is overall a person that it is easy to open up to and feel comfortable with.
3. Mr arrogant Icicle on the outside, mature cotton candy on the inside... A Super Physical therapist, mature, good looking and what many would think waaay out of number 1s league... is actually kind of awkward and falls for her kindness and says the words " Should i give you some advice?" over and over again without actually waiting for the other person to answer. This is walking a thin line between funny and just over the top. he is however extremely mature and listen up! He seems to respect and trust the person he. crushes on... a rare gem in Dramaland. But also kind of dull...
The three have these Reply 1988 moments here and there but just not as good...
Non of these seem to have great chemistry....
Then there are some more over the top characters with repetitive lines, over the top behaviour... Making this the perfect drama for you who do not mind over the top characters as it does have some pretty awesome friendships, no one brings out your anger and all seem to have a story to tell...
This may not have been my cup of coffee but I can not give it less than 7 because I can see it is a pretty good drama, but just not for me... For those who wonder why I did not drop it, I was curious about how it would end and if I would get SLS or not...
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That said, the second lead character got shanked in the plot sense. lol. He was bad and then he was good and then he was cute and then all of a sudden he was a jerk again. It was a plot rollercoaster.
If you like poetry, than you will love all the poetry in this drama. I liked it sometimes, but other times, it was just too much. Just like some of the characters. Joo young Joo young and mr. indecisive were just eyerollingly annoying. Funny sometimes, but mostly just over the top.
In the end, the drama gets a pretty high rating from me because I loved the main couple so much. It entertained me and kept my interest. It had some interesting plot twists. It's not one that I will be rewatching anytime soon though. And I deducted points because the ending felt very ... unfinished.
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Here are my favorites parts of the poems.
"It only rained after you left.
The rain turned into heavy rain
and I pictured you sitting on the bus with an upset expression on your face.
I felt my heart becoming sore.
There are times when people can’t be comforted by words.
It only rained after you left,
In every street corner where I send you off."
"I was happy because I met you
And I also suffered because I met you.
When I tossed and turned in bed while hugging a body
That no longer had feelings for me.
As I watched the tree and flowers gradually part ways
It was difficult to stand beside the tree.
It’s like watching yourself become a cruel person.
I was happy because I met you
And I also suffered for a long time because of you."
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