Sweet 18 is about an arranged marriage between an 18 year old sassy high school girl named Yoon Jung-Sook and a 28 year old Prosecutor named Kwan Hyuk-Joon. Fun fact: The two main leads actually dated in real life. Also this drama was Han Ji Hye's first leading role.
The drama begins with two traditional elder men in the early to mid 1980s and the two make a contract stating that their grandchildren will marry each other. When the contract is signed, the two old men start to laugh like they just planned something sinister which made me laugh along with them. Fast forward eighteen years later and then the story begins...
Lets start off with Jung-Sook. She's the type of girl that doesn't care about school, has no interest in college, and generally just likes to go clubbing and drinking with her friends (much to the dismay of her mother played by veteran actress Kim Hae Sook). One day her and her friends decide to skip school and end up being chased by one of the school guards. They end up separating and Jung-Sook runs into a man (Hyuk-Joon) who is wearing a hanbok. She falls to the ground and is about to make a rude comment but is instantly frozen in her spot. Hyuk-Joon stands there holding up a fan that is blocking the lower half of his face and Jung-Sook just stays on the ground... mesmerized by him and watches as he walks away. If you can't tell what just happened then I'll say that she just fell in love.
It sounds cheesy, and it is, but its a good kind of cheesy that makes you chuckle. Jung-Sook is relatively the same for the first couple of episodes and even though she can be sarcastic and naive at times there's just this charm about her that I can't really explain. She just grows on you and you end up liking her nonetheless. Even though she's only 18 years old and has no real experience with relationships, let alone marriage, you admire her for the fact that she is willing to try and make matters work. Her relationship with Hyuk-Joon's grandfather, who refuses to wear anything else but a hanbok, is cute as both scheme different ways to make Hyuk-Joon a proper husband.
Now we go to Hyuk-Joon. The man is all about work and no nonsense. He remembers the first time he encountered Jung-Sook. But, he remembers the event in a very different way. Instead of her being frozen and gazing upon him, he remembers her berating him and shooing him away. As they say, there are two sides to every story. Both of them have to have the truth in there... right? Right. Hyuk-Joon rebels against the marriage in the beginning stating that arranged marriages are outdated. But he loses out to Jung-Sook's persistence and does it to appease his grandfather's wishes. When the two get married, he's not the greatest husband in the world and makes up excuses to avoid going to bed with Jung-Sook.
Now you're probably saying "What kind of marriage is this?!". Well, here comes along grandpa to set matters straight. You really do have to love the grandfather in this drama. He's the one that knocks sense into those that are too stubborn to work matters through.
There is one thing that I have to say about Hyuk-Joon. Despite the fact that he wasn't fond of the idea of marriage, let alone with a rebel girl like Jung-Sook, he respects it. How? There's a part in the drama where his ex-girlfriend Moon Ga Young (played by Lee Da Hae) makes an appearance and becomes a supporting character for the rest of the drama. She's upset with the fact that he doesn't want to talk with her or hang out. And he tells her this (more or less) "I don't want to be seen with you without my wife. I don't want her to be hurt." From there on I respected him and enjoyed the events that lead up to him finally realizing that he truly does love Jung-Sook and that he was just being Mr.Stubborn.
There are parts of the drama that are over the top (specifically some fight scenes) and I'm sure some of you will roll your eyes at them but I found it all in good fun. I can't really say if there is anything that I disliked about the drama. I was entertained from beginning to end. Essentially the whole story is about two opposites who try and work out their differences within their marriage and see what it truly means to love and respect one another.
The supporting characters are fun to see and watch like Hyuk-Joon's older sister and his best friend Jongchan(who likes to poke fun at Hyuk-Joon's marriage but nevertheless respects it). You'll probably find his sister and ex-girlfriend annoying for a time though as they keep butting into the marriage.
The music is kinda crazy but catchy. I can hear the main theme playing in my head at the moment.
Overall, give the drama a chance and I'm sure you won't be disappointed. Hope you all enjoyed this long review!
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I watched this a long time ago when I was a little girl who knows nothing about K-dramas. My grandmother was watching it so I tagged along.
2)Storyline/Plot:
I still remember it clearly even though it was a long time, the story was interestig to watch an at that time since I haven't seen stories like this before.
Positive points:
*Learning about family and responsibility while trying to to hold into your loved one was a good theme to follow.
*The events were nicely made; you can find romance and some action moments (since the lead actor is a prosecutor) plus there were some moments were the drama took interesting turns.
*The romace wasn't excessive, it's the light type of romance: Not too deep, not too clumsy.
Negative points:
*The storyline felt pushed sometimes which made it lose its natural aspect.
*Some parts felt unnecessary while others felt missing.
*It could've been much better if the events were more exciting.
Story: 6.5/10
3) Acting/Cast:
*The lead actress was clumsy and sometimes funny, I liked her perseverance and her great willpower to make her husband happy and all but I can't say that she's a great actress since you would feel like she's pushing herself to act: that was really annoying to watch.
*The lead actor was the mature type with a manly character plus he has to handel his little bride.
*The chemistry between leads was good but not great; it could have been much better if they pushed it a little.
*Supporting roles were somehow annoying but they didn't ruin the general concept.
Cast: 6/10
Acting: 5.5/10
4) The ending:
It was acceptable and likeable while being normal.
The ending: 7/10.
5) My impression (How did it affect me):
*It can be considered as an old drama since it was one of my first watched K-dramas so no hard judges over it.
*I was entertained while I watched it so no regrets plus I was sort of attracted by the drama at the time.
My impression: 8/10
6) Overall:
*If you like old/young relationships then this is for you.
*If you like rom-coms then you may like this.
*If you like clumsy lead females then you may want to give this a try.
Overall: 7/10.
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Mostly the plot sticks to the theme of the couple learning about love, family and responsibilities that come with it. The development of the lead characters and their relationship to each other is shown well.
The nature of the relationship between the lead couple in this drama reminded me occasionally of the lead couple in 'It Started With A Kiss 2' (Naive girl,mature guy). But the similarity is only at an outer level,as the characters are different in both.
The actors were good- all except for the lead actress. She was attractive and it would have made a big difference if only she had toned down the over acting. She was trying too hard to play up to the role of the naive/innocent teenage girl, and it was unnatural to watch. In contrast, the male lead actor was just right in emoting- that was a relief.
Another relief was that that though the negative characters are there, their 'evil'ness doesn't amount to much and towards the end, even becomes humorous.
I liked how the drama,while it deals with heavy family stuff, tries to set a middle tone about compromise between responsibilities and individual preferences.
The drama ends on a positive note. The message they end the drama with is beautiful.
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Acting- The two leads had a cute chemistry. They didn't have a lot of emotional scenes so I cant judge thier acting skills. I really hated Lee Da Hee in this. She plays an awful villian. Shes better in her comedic roles.
Music- Average cheesy OST
Rewatch Value- You could probably watch it again when your bored and if you finished watching all the best dramas.
Overall- Cute but forgettable drama.
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Story: Jung Sook & Hyuk Joon's grandparents had arranged for them to be married when they grew up (there is a 10yr age gap between them) - When they find out his grandpa & her mother plan on keeping that arrangement - you can imagine the hilarity it will bring. It's a very fun, quirky, easy, sweet, and romantic drama to watch whenever you feel like it - I fall in love with it over and over again whenever I decide to re-watch it <3
Cast: Jung Sook (Han Ji Hye) she starts off as an 18 year old immature school-girl who had fallen in love with a man she met in passing - she sees him wearing traditional clothing and carrying an old piece of literature and develops a one-sided love on him - she later becomes his wife & her character growth and maturing start to show. Hyuk Joon (Lee Dong Gun) a 28 year old Prosecutor and firstborn son of a clan (people who follow the old traditions) he decides to marry Jung Sook and we slowly start seeing him falling in love with her^^ Prosecutor Suh (Hyuk Joon's friend and co-worker) he always cracks me up with his laughter ;D He was a great supporting character ;) Ga Young (Lee Da Hae) she plays the ex who wants him back - she's hateful at first but later turns out to be rather funny with her scheming ways :p (when she is fighting with Hyuk Joon's sister) it's quite entertaining ;) Grandpa - I loved him all the way until the end... All of Jung Sook's friends are entertaining^^
Music: Some of the funniest music I've heard in drama-land and a few American songs that I love like: Kiss Me Darling By Blink and Stupid Cupid by Mandy Moore <3
Re-watch Value: 10 - I just finished it for the 3rd time and enjoyed it just as much as if I had watched it for the first time ;D
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I have this penchant for liking Romantic Comedy genres, so this caught my interest. The pacing of the story was alright for a light rom-com genre. The humor was placed in all episodes but dwindled in the latter part, which happens to almost all Kdrama rom-com, where the show’s atmosphere turns into a more serious note then suddenly pulls back into comedy right before it ends. I would say I continued on watching this because of all the cute. Since I was still a teenager back then, I had this whimsical feeling of falling in love with a man 10 times older than me. This is the drama where I also first discovered the actress Lee Dae Hae who played as Moon Ga-young, Hyuk-joon’s ex- girl friend. Having watched this drama made me appreciate Han Ji-Hye and Lee Dong Gun’s tandem. The music was definitely a plus point in here, I love the back ground melody, opening and closing theme songs which I could still remember in my head until today.
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I loved the grandfather's relationship with the lead actress, It's so cute how he has her back. The romance is filled with mixture of silly, tender, frustrating, and sweet moments...I found myself laughing on more than one occasion in several episodes. Overall it has some magic in it still worthy of a marathon weekend. It may not be as polished as Kdramas of today but sometimes stepping back in time has value....Go ahead...Add it to your rainy weekend watch list.
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Story: 9.5/10
The story was an easy 9.5 out of 10 for me, when you are watching Sweet 18 you're so captivated by the story line that you ease by the episodes one by one. When you first start off with the show, some people are probably thinking that this is going to be a regular romantic comedy drama, but if you keep on watching there is more to the story as time goes on.
Acting/Cast: 9.5/10
The acting and cast gets another easy 9.5 out of 10 for me. I don't know what it was about this cast, but whenever everyone had interacted with each other I could feel all the emotions and the feels that were coming through my phone screen. I loved the relationship between Kwon Hyeok Jun and Yoon Jung Sook, when cute couple had interacted with each other I remember just fan girling for about five minutes before having to watch a scene. The chemistry between both of the actors felt so real, but you can't blame them because they both dated each other in real life. In all I loved the acting and the cast so much because of the actors and actresses abilities but also had their emotions had affected my emotions.
Music: 8.5/10
The music was fun to listen to and I could heard a lot of American songs that I had knew, but sometimes I felt the music would not match up with the scene that had been playing.
Rewatch value: 9.5/10
The rewatch value is am obvious high for me, it was funny, romantic, beautiful, and down right just an amazing drama, so if you have not seen this drama take my word on it is amazing and wonderful and you will not be disappointed.
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One of the masterpiece drama
This is a story about an 18 year old girl named Yoon Jung-Sook meeting the man of her dreams who is 10 years her senior. Kwon Hyuk-joon is a prosecutor in Seoul and incidentally the man whom Jung-Sook fell in love with. Unknown to both of them, they were already betrothed to each other by their families when they were younger. The story evolved in this plot with lots of mishaps especially in Jung-Sook’s side.through this drama one can understand traditional values is essential of better society.
Korean elders plays an important role for keeping their blood or clan alive.
this drama can be a research material for proposing co-living interdependency which this modern era lacks.
how Grand parenting environment and co-expectation lead one life to understand the search of purpose
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This review may contain spoilers
Super Sweet Story
This drama melted my heart. The arranged marriage story is not new, but what's different here was that both people honored the arrangement and tried to make it work. Granted initially more effort from the wife than the husband. But I was totally impressed and hooked when the husband showed extreme consideration for his wife when he rejected the other woman's attempt to spend time with him.For an 18-yr old, the wife showed sufficient maturity to call out the lack of effort the husband was making in the beginning and sort of woke him up. The story did a good job balancing between showing the impact of the 10-yr age gap while also showing how the romance was possible and growing despite such difference.
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