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I was looking for great chemistry and if that's all you want this will be a perfect drama for you.
The ML and FL lead are very beliveable. I never had a problem with their pairing. That being said it was the only thing going for the show. The acting by some was just not good. the writing was half assed the whole reason for the FL leads bad luck was laughable. The side charachters never develop they stay annoying beginning to end. Even when they try to show growth their charachters are written around cliches so they can never actually grow. namely the cousin and Ha Im
The male lead was very insensitive to the fact that the love of his wife would like to know if he's okay or not. She didn't need to know where he went but he could have spent a couple days saying good bye instead of leaving her to worry about whether he was alive or dead.
The female lead was written very cutesy. It worked well for the actress it did feel forced at some points
The show could have been wrapped up in 14 eps and have the same effect.
I wouldnt recommend this unless you are a fan of the ML and/or FL.
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I think that would be quite accurate.
This was such a lovely, heartwarming and captivating story. The poster doesn't give away a serious vibe. But when you get to know the story, it actually fits perfectly. It captures the tragic theme and still remains somewhat happy. The further you watch, the heavier it gets, and yet it doesn't weigh you down. Even though it makes your heart ache, it keeps its joyful atmosphere and spark of hope. The tragic that lies beneath only seeps in with small drops, and only at the end you feel its heavy scope while it wrenches your heart.
Amnesia is one of the most hated tropes in dramas, but Devilish Joy made it its main force. I'm not that much against memory loss in stories, but I admit that I was skeptical in the beginning. They tried to explain how it worked for the main lead, yet I didn't completely understood. And since I work in the medical field, it shreds my heart into pieces when they use words like "atrophy". It's as if you cross the ocean with a small boat and forget your paddles at the beach. Later on I could somewhat grasp a rough sketch of the big invisible "monster" without getting too many details that would might have confused me eventually. In the end though, it doesn't even matter if you know the smallest cogwheel because other more important things come to the fore.
So, despite my initial doubts, the story cast a spell over me. So much that I desperately wished for a wonder to come. The cast lashed out and comforted me at the same time. Most of it a big hug though.
The music, the side characters and most of all the main leads played a big harmonic part in the story and turned the drama into something precious. I'm glad the focus stayed on that one important relationship facing that illness. The leads were plain great here. Their acting felt very natural and nonchalant, their relationship felt mature and sensual, yet fragile.
Who would have thought that this drama became one of my absolute favorites. One of the better surprises in a long time. For the sake of a composed and touching story, it made me overlook tiny irregularities and small makjang elements.
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so so~
This drama is very light with some basic storylines and overused aspects. It's a filler, nothing too special.The whole drama was shot beautifully and the scenes were all super aesthetic starting from the intro itself. The starting episode was the only time I actually felt the main couple were cute, after that the chemistry just decreased with each episode. The support characters like the best friend nan joo, secretary and also the second lead couple saved the drama from literally dying. They were the only reason I watched. Personally my favourite character is nan joo, her character had such a nice relationship and she was confident, supportive and kind no matter what! Yang woo jin the secretary was also so cute and protective of the male lead, loved him. The second leads were the reason I watched the drama for like 5 episodes in the middle. The acting that I really I enjoyed was of jung soo kyo (kim bum soo), truly such great performance by him! The characters were actually pretty cute. The male lead was swoon worthy and the female lead was kind and cute always.
The first episode was the most chaotic and messy episode of a show I have watched in my life. The writer really added as much as you can possibly add in an hour time slot,so remarkable, how did she do that?
The story contains the same old drama troupes, we have a memory loss, a white truck of death, misunderstandings, crazy Chaebols chasing for money and power, some (alot) hiding of burdens and choosing to do everything by themselves to not hurt the other etc etc.
The story has literally no logic what so ever just keep your brain from working and take it as it comes.
The osts were from bad to mediocre. Nothing much to talk about I enjoyed 2 out of 6.
Overall a forgettable drama (pun intended), but it was entertaining didn't hate it.
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Choi Jin Hyuk is tall, handsome, and he has this crazy deep voice. I have seen him in a few dramas and he does not disappoint. It was my first time seeing Song Ha Yoon in anything related to TV or film but boy is she really, really good. She is a compact explosion of great beauty with immense empathy; she also has a great smile and laugh. The two leads had an enormous and scintillating on-screen chemistry that was constantly displayed in their playful and loving exchanges.
Jin Hyuk revealed his many talents besides acting; he has a major song that he sings as a primary track in the series entitled "Forgotten." I also loved the song by U-Mb5 entitled "Took Took." Finally, the characters played by Lee Ho Won and Lee Joo Yeon were super cute and complemented the lead characters in helping to make this story very entertaining and a real winner. You will certainly enjoy watching this drama and it will warm your heart.
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Reviewing after watching it again!
Wonderful movie about the power of love, the strength of memories and connections between lovers. The actors were all very good. Choi Jin Hyuk continues to impress me - that deep voice! I loved all the emotion he put into his character, the seriousness, the playfulness, the loneliness, the feeling of loss. Song Ha Yoon was very good as well. Her character was strong and resilient without being hard. These two had off-the-charts chemistry! Multiple very good kissing scenes. Very cute ending. The actor that played his cousin was very good - his character was often over the top, but when he saw his mother for what she was, his betrayal was heart-wrenching. Beautiful scenery and I loved the visual of her wearing different white outfits throughout the show. It really helped to show her innocence/sweetness, especially in light of all that she had gone through. Choi Jin Hyuk did singing for the soundtrack - bonus!Was this review helpful to you?
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It's pretty normal for dramas to have messy storylines, when they are doing live filming, however according to Wikipedia this drama was fully preproduced. For that reason I do not understand why would they even start filming a story written as poorly as this one. There are lots of things that make no sense in regards to the ML's condition, like his daily routine, if I try REALLY hard to understand, then I could maybe accept how he can wake up every day & instead of being confused he just casually reads his later diary entries & then meets ppl & he acts all comfortable with them. Anyway this entire "I have the memories, I just cannot access them, but instinct... " should have been communicated much better with us viewers early on. Even if the fake science behind his illness is all wrong, I could have been okay with all this really, but for a preproduced drama the pacing is all wrong, they made 3-4 episodes worth of filler content that served very little purpose & then we got a super rushed ending that was like 20 minutes long, but could have been an amazing 2 hours. Also the first episode is noticeably lower quality than the other 15 episodes, I was considering dropping the drama 30 minutes in. There were a lot of drama cliches used, I mean A LOT, the meaningless childhood storyline especially stands out.So why 7 stars & not 4? Well, the romance was cute. The chemistry could have been better, but it was not bad at all and the leads had some pretty awesome moments together. I wanted to watch some fluffy romance & this show did deliver on that front. The villains were just a decoration, they did not do much to make me annoyed. I expected a lot of makjang, but both of the main villains were dealt with effortlessly & none of their attack plots were long, or very distracting. It's nice that the love square was quickly dismantled early on.
The OST was okay, nothing special though.
I don't know about rewatching it, I probably won't!
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The first episode of this drama has given me an unatracting opening. The illness of the lead male and how he fell in love with an actress is a kind of common story I found in K-drama but it's the worst I think. How they fell in love and how they suddenly got kissing are really difficult to be understand as logic plot. I didn't get the chemistry between the lead male and lead female. The acting of the casts can be see so so, they seem are not really included into the deeper of the story. The plot was soo booring. The ending of the story can be guessed and nothing's specialized at all. I really don't recommend this drama to my firends Was this review helpful to you?
It was quite interesting at first and I really wanted to see what had happened that night but the more the plot was proceeding the more boring it would get. Like another user said "Devilish Joy is a drama packed with cliche and corny scenes." I have to admit that after the 6th episode I had to fast forward most parts and eventually drop it.
Also , I don't think there was really a chemistry between the main leads or at least it wasn't ideal for me. The only character I really liked was Hoya's. He was really funny.
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Choi Jin Hyuk is great in this show. Despite what some might say, I actually found his chemistry with Song Ha Yoon very good. You can tell they like each other just from the way they look at each other. He has way more chemistry with the female lead in this drama than with any other female lead I’ve seen him with so far.
On the other hand, I feel that as a character, Song Ha Yoon didn’t leave that big of an impression in this drama. She’s the typical cute female lead with a big heart for Choi Jin Hyuk’s character. While her character undergoes a huge fall from grace (from top celebrity to murder suspect), the details aren’t fleshed out very well, and emotionally there isn’t much depth to her depiction of her character’s suffering.
Honestly, character development for both main leads are passable, but not great.
However, given the unrealistic setting of the drama, it’s best not to over-analyse the logic behind every development, otherwise you won’t enjoy the main leads’ acting! Look past the plot, enjoy their romance and their chemistry, and you’ll have a good time. I enjoyed myself enough, and their kiss scenes really sent me swooning. No regrets.
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Meh. I wasn't too terribly impressed by Devilish Joy. I liked the first half of the drama a lot, but the last 3 episodes just feel flat for me. The one year time jump in the final episode where the MCs are separated just annoyed me because it felt like a cop out. Don't get me wrong, I didn't *want* the MC to die, but at the same time, it doesn't make logical sense that he recovered all of a sudden and after a year of aggressive treatment is okay again. Like, what? I was coming to terms with him dying similarly to how the MC in Uncontrollably Fond died, but Devilish Joy was just too over the top. I don't think they should have made him yo-yo between dying and having a miracle recovery - they should have picked either him dying because there was no treatment OR chose to have him slowly got better over the course of the drama and, in that sense, defied all odds - a steady progress. So the ending really ruined it for me. It was not logical and it used too many convenient plot devices to satisfy hopeless romantics, rather than follow through in their intended plot.I think a drama that did this story much better was Uncontrollably Fond, which is a melancholy romantic drama. SPOILER ALERT FOR UNCONTROLLABLY FOND::::: In Uncontrollably Fond, the MC dies in the end from inoperable terminal brain cancer, which you find out he has in the first episode. The writers don't change their tune half way through the series to decide to let him live. He has his romance while he's slowly dying and he passes away relatively peacefully in the arms of his lover. His lover moves on and it's sad but I really respect how the writers stuck to their guns and made a beautiful story even though the ending is so sad. I sobbed at the end. Please refer to my full review of Uncontrollably Fond if you're curious about it as a whole. :)
In regards to Devilish Joy, what really bothers me is that the writers wrote themselves into a corner (the MC *was* dying and there was no cure) and definitely had no logical way out of it, but then all of a sudden he makes a HUGE recovery and lives happily ever after. Personally, I think the male MC should have been recovering throughout the entire show and had a strong, healthy man for the ending, but that's not how the writers decided to take it. And for that reason alone, the drama suffered immensely.
I did like how the bad guys got what was coming to them, but I also don't think the extreme horribleness of his aunt and the exCEO matched up well with the overall tone of the drama. I feel like the aunt plotting to kill her own nephew was exceptionally morbid and the overall tone of the drama didn't seem to match how awful she was. Also, I still don't get why the exCEO of Joy framed Joy for the death of the actor...it wouldn't have been pinned on the exCEO so why mess up Joy's life? ... Personally, the bad guys were simply too dark for what this drama was trying to make viewers feel (in my opinion) and that made the struggle between good and bad messy and unsatisfying in the end.
The main leads *were* very cute. I really did enjoy their romance for what it was....although, they did NOT look good kissing each other. LMAO. (Also in my humble opinion! XD)
I'm really bashing on Devilish Joy which probably makes it seem like I didn't like anything about it, but I actually enjoyed parts of it (the first half was much stronger and more likable than the second half). For me personally, endings are really important to feel truly satisfied, so with this ending falling so flat, I was truly disappointed since I started out liking it so much.
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