A Deeply Touching Romantic Comedy That’s a Feast for Your Eyes, Ears, Brain, and Heart
❤️ Beautiful smart leads ✔️❤️ Beautiful acting ✔️
❤️ Beautiful touching deep story & writing ✔️
❤️ Beautiful romance ✔️
❤️ Beautiful OSTs ✔️
❤️ Beautiful locations ✔️
❤️ Beautiful cinematography ✔️
❤️ Beautiful directing ✔️
❤️ Beautiful (mostly ;) outfits, accessories, and styling ✔️
We’ve been blessed to get two amazing romantic comedies from Shin Hye Sun as the lead in a row. Hopefully many many more. Though her characters and circumstances could not be more different in ALML from 30 but 17, her amazing acting talent and skill at being able to touch your heart are the same. I didn’t think I could love a show more than 30 but 17, but I do with this show. They are 1a and 1b in my book.
If Lee Yeon Seo was played by a less talented likeable actress she could have easily been cartoonish and insufferable . Yet somehow Shin Hye Sun managed to make her a sympathetic bada**. It’s so rare to get such a strong KDrama female lead who says and does exactly what’s on her (and our) minds. Dan could have been a silly empty character yet Kim Myung Soo makes him hilarious and heroic. The main leads are amazing onscreen from their hilarious bickering to deeply touching moments. Some of their kisses in later episodes will make you blush and flutter your heart with their chemistry. My only complaints about this show are that there aren’t more episodes and the entire show can’t just be only the two of them on screen. I know the latter is unrealistic but that’s how much I love this OTP.
This show asks some touching and deep questions about God and why bad things happen to good people. The journeys the main characters take to find those answers will make you weep and touch your heart as well as tickle your funny bone. You will not regret investing your time and heart into this show.
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Next I cannot express enough how much I loved the music for this drama as I felt it matched perfectly with it and find myself tearing up everytime I hear the song pray whenever a dramatic moment happens.
As for the acting of the two main roles I would say that Shin Hye Sun did an exceptional job at portraying her character and everytime in her dances whenever she would want to express her emotions. As for L I know some mentioned that they disliked his acting but as for me I though he was perfect for the role of a fun-loving and kindhearted angel and together they made a perfect couple with an unbreakable bond.
I’m not sure how others thought the ending was for them but as for me I am definitely not dissatisfied with the way that it ended as I liked them a lot together but I would of liked to see them be a classic tragic love story that makes you feel emotionally sad but warms your heart when you think of how tough their love was.
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Pleasant, but not impressive
PROS:- strong start
- adorable leads, great chemistry & emotion
- beautiful music
- Shin Hye-Sun's outfits and appearance
- ballet scenes
- acting overall
CONS:
- weak second half (except for last two eps)
- flat (two-dimensional) side characters
- predictable ending
- nonprogressive storyline
- too many back and forth scenes
It was an okay drama, I liked it mainly for the leads' chemistry and especially Shin Hye-Sun's screen presence. L as Dan was surprisingly cute. However, somewhere around the second half I felt like the story wasn't really moving forward. The focus had shifted from the female lead's path and ballet to...yeah, well that's the question. The ending was nice, but couldn't compensate for the lacking second half.
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This review may contain spoilers
A strong first half that dwindled into the biggest disappointment of this year
For something to 'disappoint' you, you must have had high expectations of it to begin with. And with the way this show started off, many would not have been unreasonable to see its vast potential and expect the show to live up to that potential throughout its duration.By episode 4, the writer had a rich plot and a set of decently shaded, fascinating characters that were just begging to have their stories told. What started off as a tale of a prickly girl learning to live again with the help of a happy-go-lucky boy-angel dissolved into a hapless mess about two star-crossed lovers being forced apart by a wholly unsympathetic diety whose intentions nobody in this drama understood (not even the writer it seems).
It’s just...GOOD GOD...it had so much going for it you know?!? One of the biggest mistakes this drama made was when it shifted the focus off the female lead’s journey, i.e. her return to ballet, her scheming relatives, her emotional growth, and instead onto the ill-constructed love story between her and the male lead.
Being a romance, a love connection between the two was imminent. But I just wished it had been executed and drawn out better. Not only did it seem to come completely out of left-field, but also Dan and Yeon Seo's relationship was never explored to the extent where it would be believable that they were truly as crazy about each other as depicted in the drama. When does companionship equal passionate love? All I saw was a budding friendship that suddenly turned into a love-or-die kind of affair, which was jarring at best.
Secondary characters had extremely promising trajectories, which were abandoned halfway through the drama in favour of blander plot elements. Ji Kang Woo, a director at Yeon Seo's ballet company was being set up as a noteworthy second lead, and had a fascinating backstory that could've been used to elevate the fantasy aspect to so much more. Furthermore, he had such an intriguing relationship with the second female lead, Geum Nina, that to not expand on it was a disservice to this entire production. Instead, whatever Nina and Ji Kang Woo had soon dissipated into screeching one-sided love declarations from the former, while the latter coldly brushed her off in favour of the forever-pristine main female lead.
All in all, the writer set up some grand goals for herself and failed to follow them through. The lacklustre ending more or less demonstrated this perfectly, as the main couple are reunited in the last five minutes with no explanation given whatsoever. It's almost disrespectful to the characters and the battle they fought to be with each other in the second half of the drama. What writer is shameless enough to build the entire drama around a singular conflict, only to resolve it with one of the most half-assed endings of all time? Other than the writer of About Time, THIS one.
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This review may contain spoilers
I'm going to try and keep this review short and with only minor spoilers (so beware). Also, I suppose I should mention this is my first review ever.....O.O...Now I'm suddenly a tiny bit nervous. Anyway!....Story:
From the very first episode, this drama had a special "air" about it. Usually, I don't find drama storylines to be unpredictable, but this one was a whirlwind of unpredictability! It was great! - However, I agree with the people who say the story went a little flat in the second half of the show; some parts felt like they fell off the good writing cliff, unfortunately. Also, there were some elements of the story that just didn't "click" for me, they didn't really make any sense and the progress of the storyline came to a halt. That was disappointing but not unforgivable.
Characters:
I liked all the characters and really felt for them. But I do have one bone to pick. I think the villains should have been given better, stronger motives than what was written. Ru Na, in particular, could have been an excellent villain if she had been given a better motive than just "I love my sister". I thought they were going to give her a different route than what she ended up taking. It made her appear one dimensional which was a shame.
Acting:
No complaints! I'm one of those viewers that doesn't understand the hate L got for his acting; I think he portrayed Dan really well!
Music:
BEAUTIFUL! This is one of the best soundtracks I've heard since Goblin.
Overall:
This drama turned out to be a lot more gorgeous than what I originally expected. It has a tragically beautiful feeling to it that will lure you in and keep you guessing. I highly recommend this drama if you haven't seen it yet!
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Story:
The drama is definitely romcom, and the story is fantasy. For ALM:L, the fantasy components work well with the comedy but lacks synergy with the romance and drama as a whole. Even though the titular character is an angel and L is listed first on the cast list, Shin Hye Sun’s human character seems to be the more “main” character and is the catalyst for most of the emotional development of the characters.
I understand that dwelling more on the fantasy components makes it harder to write a coherent story, and this drama suffers from this as it shoehorns/retcons more and more fantasy elements throughout. So, we are left with fantasy which works well as a comedic relief (i.e. Dan’s social ineptitude with humans) but is used poorly as a plot device.
Similar things can be said for the antagonists of the drama. They are almost comically evil to the point where the characters themselves don’t quite understand why the antagonists behave that way. Like the overall story, the antagonists could have both been more logical and fleshed out.
The messy mix of these elements creates multiple visible flaws throughout the story, and viewers may need to think overtime to try to buy the romance that does develop between the main leads. The plot and antagonists more-or-less force the two characters together rather than the two characters finding/understanding one another.
Still, the main leads’ cute moments together highlights the childlike joy that they bring to each other and showcase their chemistry. Just don’t expect to find mature characters or romance. But there is some growth, especially given the extremely immature characters in the first couple of episodes. So on the other hand, don’t be completely turned off by the character in the beginning.
In conclusion, the story starts off with a promising premise and immature characters, but the show struggles to stay coherent through its fantasy setting and under-delivers in meaningful character development and believable romance. ALM:L tries to mix up the classic romcom formula with fantasy and melodrama, but instead leaves the cast struggling through a chaotic plot.
Acting/Cast:
I’ll mention that this is actually my first drama review and judging this aspect is my weakest area. A quick glance through MyDramaList shows that I focus mainly on romance/romcom dramas, so hopefully I can leave a fairly relatable review here.
Overall, I rate the acting better than the story. However, I do think the story enables the actors by 1) having relatively simple characters and 2) drawing a parallel on and off the ballet stage. The first point is more of a kudos to the cast on their portrayal of the characters. Especially, the antagonist characters lacked depth, but the actors & actresses dutifully conveyed intent with their actions and gave off the impression that there was more underlying their character, which may not always be the case unfortunately.
The second point really enables the acting theatrics in the drama. In another context, Shin Hye Sun could be critiqued for “over acting”. However, the foil between the “story within a story” gives the viewer a different perspective. Yeon Seo’s hysteria does not seem as hysterical in comparison to the ballet that parallels their story. Rather, her “over” acting really connects what is happening on and off the ballet stage. Unfortunately, L gave a weak performance in comparison, although one could attribute it to the weaker writing surrounding the angel. Overall, it is difficult to rate the acting any higher given the limitations of the writing.
Music:
I enjoyed the direction they went with the music because they did not try to sound like a “ballet” (or what I think of as classical music). It stuck to more modern trends, and I have no qualms with it, given my love for kballads. I also like it when a cast member contributes to the OST.
However, it felt like the show relied on the ballad OSTs to convey emotion through its weak writing, which was a disservice to the music. Given the artists that contributed and the quality of the OST, the drama once again under-delivered on using the music to its full potential.
Rewatch Value:
This drama is sufficiently sweet that it may warrant a rewatch on a slow day. However, there are definitely many dramas I would rewatch over this. If you want to see some really immature characters going through more character and romance development, I would recommend “30 but 17” (bonus shoutout for featuring the same Female Lead). Otherwise, it would be hard to rewatch knowing how the story under-delivers and falls apart as it comes to a close.
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It's just that I couldn´t not feel attracted and feel sorry for the hard life of Yeon Seo, besides I love Hye Sun since Still 17 (good drama by the way). The way she brought to life Yeon Seo it was fascinating; evry scene in this I could really feel it and reached my heart.
The romance seemed to me the most pure and cute and tender and funny love of all, and the way Yeon Seo was a hardcore woman but when it came to Kim Dan she was just another normal girl in love. That was just so sweet and cute. And just PERFECT. But that the two were willing to die for each other was heartbreaking. (I seriously thought about stopping going to church lol :P)
I highly recommend this drama it was awesome the plot, the cast, the music, the scenarios, EVERYTHING.
I'm pretty sure that if you see this drama you´ll not be unsatisfied with it. Now I want an angel as boyfriend :)
*add to list of top dramas ever*
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AMAZING DRAMA!!
Yes this drama may not be for everyone but it has so many good points that kept me watching till the end. For starters the story is a cross between melo and romcom, dealing with a Ballerina and an angel who fall in love but is love between an angel and a human possible? Well you'll have to watch to see. The biggest question till the last episode was, will these two have a happy ending because it feels so tragic. The acting was amazing, L has improved so much and Shin Hye Sun did great as always. The leads were well suited to their roles. The soundtrack fit the whole drama perfectly and all the songs were beautiful and made the scenes even more emotional. Make sure you prepare tissues because it did make me bawl a few times. Overall it was a beautiful drama and I highly recommend it!!!!Was this review helpful to you?
Before critiquing some of the show’s more prominent flaws, it is important to clarify that the majority of the cast were brilliant in their performances. In particular, Shin Hye Sun ( who played our female lead, the cynical ballerina Lee Yeon Seo) has always been a versatile actresses within her performances ( The Legend Of The Blue Sea, Stranger and Mr. Queen), however, she truly seemed to capture the the emotions and depth of her character in nearly every scene. ( In addition to this, her months of training in ballet did help to add towards her genuine performance.) Likewise whilst fellow actress Gil Eun Hye’s character Geum Ru Na and Lee Dong Gun’s character Ji Kang Woo could equally be infuriating at times , Eun Hye and Dong Gun certainly gave talented performances onscreen.
Admittedly, Kim Myungsoo ( otherwise known by his stage name ‘’ L’’ for the K-Pop boyband INFINITE) has always had a fairly mixed-reputation as an actor by critics. Nevertheless, he seemed to be en par with his costar Hye Sun within his genuinely heartfelt, delivered performance as our kind-hearted angel Dan who gradually helps our female lead to be uplifted from her own pain and suffering.
However, this does naturally moves us onto the more critical issue of the storyline, cliches and characters. The storyline seems to initiate a fairly coherent plot ; the angel Dan is sent to earth as a human after disobeying initial orders, enters Lee Yeon Seo’s life as ”a human”, begins to become her pillar of support, naturally begins to fall in love with her as challenges are evidently raised.
Undeniably, Lee Yeon Seo was an intriguing female lead and character. Initially starting off the series as a ballerina who has fallen from grace after being blinded in an accident, Yeon Seo’s reasons for being often sardonic and austere around the associated individuals within her life were realistically more complicated than simply being one-dimensional. Refreshingly, this did not victimise Yeon Seo as being entirely ‘’ weak’’ or a ‘’ damsel in distress’’, with private revelations of Yeon Seo’s multi-layered feelings of guilt or remorse often after lashing out in earlier scenes . On the other hand, there is the evident plot point early on regarding Yeon Seo ( without spoilers).
Admittedly this is a fantasy series where logic isn’t always a necessity, however, considering the extent of this development for the character, it was oddly thrown-in without explanations. Despite this, Yeon Seo’s greatest development comes in the form of her romantic relationship with Dan as both someone to lean on as well as learn to open-up towards over the course of the series. Whilst undeniably pivotal to characterisation, it never truly made sense towards the entire bond between Yeon Seo and the second male lead Kang Woo in the same intimate way ( although admittedly always more platonic for Yeon Seo) as her relationship and growth with Dan. (Apart from a ‘’ challenge to the plot by adding in cliches’’.)
Before moving onto our main male lead, it is probably important on a side note to address the second leads Kang Woo and Ru Na. Whilst Kang Woo was given the primary purpose as the ‘’ obstacle’’ for Dan’s affections, his revealed backstory did help to break his initial mould with more complicated reasons for being intrigued with the female lead. Meanwhile Ru Na was a fairly unlikeable character in the beginning of the series by her initial enmity against Yeon Seo as a lead ballerina as well as later schemes against the female lead also. Whilst there was slight brought towards Ru Na as a character, her rushed ending alongside Kang Woo felt half-baked and incomplete.
Moving onto our main lead, Dan is a character who could have easily fallen down the trap of rarely breaking from the ‘’ nice male lead ’’ archetype. Thankfully just as viewers got insight into Yeon Seo’s complicated life, Dan was also given some insight behind his seemingly benign and benevolent traits as an angel .However, Dan’s biggest fault as a character came through the implausibilities surrounding his backstory at times, as well as his stunted character growth in parts. Nevertheless similar to Yeon Seo, Dan’s focal point as a character in the series was ensued by his relationship with the respected female lead by equivocally helping to nurture one another’s past wounds .
The ending of the series was undeniably bittersweet with fairly profound moral messages, yet it did feel slightly abridged in parts during the penultimate episode and finale. Overall, the drama was surprisingly heartfelt by most of the characters being able to break out of typical cliches, a surprisingly eclectic OST playlist as well as well-performed performances by the cast who helped to bring these characters to life onscreen. It was not a flawless drama with noticeable inconsistencies of storyline and cliches , but it was an oddly compelling fantasy romance story and definitely worth watching if you’re a fan of romance dramas.
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I will start with Shin Hye Sun, who I loved as such an innocent character in Thirty But Seventeen, but in this drama, she is completely different in the best way! As Lee Yeon Seo she is smart, no-nonsense, and always one step ahead of what's expected of her, and even though she is extremely temperamental it was hard not to like and root for her. In a lot of ways, she plays the role the male lead usually plays in this kind of romcom (rich, mean, but misunderstood), while L plays the role usually given to women (cute and thoughtful enough to win her over). L really is perfectly cast as a charming angel, and although I understand people critiquing some of his more dramatic scenes, I think that what he did right outshined his weaker acting moments... also his dimples... who can deny the power of that dimple whenever he smiled?!! Together I think they had great chemistry, and I especially loved their banter in the beginning. Their melodramatic scenes were less interesting, but I still loved seeing them together, no matter what.
The rest of the cast was filled with great performances and mediocre performances. I think Lee Dong Gun is a master at playing a sinister 2nd lead, but I feel like he was a better actor than what was written for his character. Woo Hee Jin was great too as the maid/surrogate family. A lot of the villainous characters were made to be super campy and were hard to take seriously because of that. I think the sisters Ni Na and Ru Na were good at playing extreme opposites, but because both characters were so one-note I didn't feel much for them, and they are both major parts of the plot so I should have cared a lot more than I did.
Besides Yeon Seo, the best character and the real MVP of this drama is Kim In Kwon as Archangel Hoo! Not only was he hilarious, but he also had one of the few moments in the drama that actually made me tear up. His chemistry with L was just as entertaining as the main couple in my opinion, and he kept this drama entertaining when the plot and couple drama started to get repetitive and boring. He was definitely a scene stealer and a major highlight in this drama.
I think the plot is where this drama lost its way, which is very disappointing because the early episodes were so strong. Without giving too much away, I will say that I was intrigued by the angel on a mission plot. The set up for this drama did have its fair share of clichés, but I thought the story, in the beginning, was well told. I thought certain elements were very creative (the feather handkerchief especially), and I liked the angel mythology in general. Unfortunately, I don't think the conclusion of this drama was well thought out and so the last half of this drama started to drag and became super redundant and boring by the end. It was also annoying to have so many "rehearsal" scenes when it was clear that Shin Hye Sun is not a great dancer in real life. The earlier dance scenes with Kim Bo Mi, who obviously has ballet experience, made more sense but watching long scenes where Shin Hye Sun would "emote" when she should have been dancing was annoying, and felt like filler to drag out the story more. If this drama was shorter I would have liked it much more, even with a vague ending, but watching the same crying scenes over and over again and the same arguments on repeat made it very hard for me to want to keep watching. I also wonder if the writer got talked out of the original ending because the last episodes definitely seemed thrown together.
Would I watch this again? Maybe. I can see myself watching the beginning and then skipping most scenes until getting to the end. There were many scenes and moments that I liked enough to want to see them again. I also thought the soundtrack was perfect but I still didn't love it enough to want to hear the songs again now that the show is over.
With a couple this cute, I thought this drama would be added to my favorites list for sure. I love a good cheesy fairytale that tugs at the heartstrings! The problem with this drama is that it didn't tug at my heart. I wish I cared more, but by the end, I was just waiting for it to be over. I do think that there is enough good in Angel's Last Mission: Love to justify a recommendation for romance fans. It's not the best this year, but it's far from the worst. It's "tragic romance-lite" for those who like melodrama but don't want to watch something too heavy. Also, did I mention the dimples? I can overlook a lot of plotholes just to see those dimples. They deserve their own drama. If you're looking to find deep meaning at the end of this drama then set your expectations much lower. If you're a ballet fan maybe you will appreciate how the "Giselle" performance parallels with the romance between Angel Dan and Yeon Seo, but to me, the connection felt forced and overdone. The crime plot is also very weak, the explanation for Angel's mission is messy, too many things were left unresolved (seriously, what was up with the crazy dance teacher?), but the love story, even with its flaws, still delivers. At the very least, I hope this sparks a trend for more female lead roles like this! I think their dynamic was a refreshing twist on the same ole thing I love.
So, in the end, I'm glad I completed the mission of watching this till the end, but I won't declare my love! I'd say this drama is more like a summer crush than real love, and I'm satisfied with that.
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BTW it's so good see that how far actors like Shin Hye-sun has come. Starting from minor roles in School 2013 and Highschool King of Savvy to supporting role in Legend of the Blue and then lead roles now. She's a really Amazing Actress with all the hard work she does for every role like learning Ballet for this show. It's commendable. Love her and L.
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Acting? Sub par
Rewatch value? Non existent
Writing? Piss poor
Direction? Meh
Editing? Abysmal
Music? The only saving grace
Honestly, I'm mad at how this show turned out. Imagine making the viewers become unattached to the characters AFTER you made us grow fond of them. It takes talent to screw up this bad. It had HUGE potential to be a masterpiece but bad creative decisions and unoriginal (manipulative) writing completely ruined it.
I'm only giving it a 6 because I genuinely loved the initial episodes and SHS's performance, everything else, including the romance, falls flat.
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