This review may contain spoilers
perfect romance drama...
It is love at first sight for pharmacist Ji Ho (Jung Hae In) with Jeong In (Han Ji Min) when she steps in his pharmacy for a hangover cure. The cliche here is that she is already in a relationship that has gone to the stage of marriage discussion and he is a single dad. The story revolves around how they overcome the hurdles around them and take the chance, to be honest with their love for each other.Ji-ho and Jeong-in realize how difficult it would be to have a relationship with each other, so they intend to leave it be. However, tension builds between the two as Ji-ho cannot deny his feelings for Jeong-in and Jeong-in struggles to suppress her feelings for Ji-ho. There are many times where she calls him and wants to meet with him for no apparent reason. After some time, she decides to follow her heart. Both Ji-ho and Jeong-in have to make uncomfortable decisions, and the road for them is never easy as they prove to their parents and friends the sincerity of their feelings.
One Spring Night is not a typical K-drama, it is a thought-provoking series that will make you question and reflect on realities for what they are. If you like slow-burn stories that grow on you slowly but deeply, please watch this show, and you will be all set for an emotional ride.
More detailed review here: https://bookswithnatasa.home.blog/2021/07/10/should-watch-20-one-spring-night/
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This review may contain spoilers
One Long, Repetitive Spring Night
This drama started out promising but quickly became insufferable. Before I get into the negative, I want to give some credit where it's due. All the actors were phenomenal and when the main couple finally became a couple, their chemistry was great. They were honestly so cute together, although I do think they fell a bit fast. The music wasn't my vibe, but it fit the drama well. I also loved the sisterly bonds and all the women supporting women in this drama. With that aside, I will now get into the bad. For one, the FL was totally unlikeable and I don't think she was meant to be. To start, she was often hypocritical and ambivalent. She would say she hates lying and yet she bent the truth, told white lies, concealed information, and told flat out lies. We're also told over and over again how she's such a catch and such a great woman, but I feel like much of that is just empty words and not really supported until much later in the drama when we see her with the ML and ML's child. She's strong minded, for sure, but she often wavers in her actions and it's so frustrating seeing her back and forth and having to read between the lines. I also often try to put aside cultural differences in kdramas because I think it's not fair to judge standards based off what they are in America. However, the parental control and patriarchal bs in this drama was just so over the top. The amount of times the FL told the second ML she was breaking up with him and did not want him and he flat out refused and was determined that they were still together was just absurd. I mean varieties of this situation were repeated over and over again throughout the show and it was just nauseating. The amount of people, mostly men, that thought they had a right to decide who the FL should be with, going so far as to force her into a loveless marriage, was just insane. I also know divorce is taboo (even in America it is for some groups), but it was just also infuriating seeing the FL's sister going around in circles trying to get divorced throughout the whole drama and having her father ignore her husband's abuse and deny permission for a divorce. Come to think of it, the sister's husband also denied the end of the relationship too, and that plot was repeated over and over to no end. Nevertheless, I feel like I really tried to give this drama a fair shot. I kept waiting for it to pick up the pace and stop recycling, and it did improve a little (which is why I kept going), but I overall I was just dissatisfied.Was this review helpful to you?
A Note for Western Audiences
Here's the thing. The central points of conflict--the suffocating stigma attached to being a single parent in Korea, and the rigid sense of filial respect and duty leading to a lack of autonomy in personal decisions--has no direct translation to Western culture. (Honestly, if someone wanted to respond with an in-depth explanation of these values and how they influenced decisions, that would be helpful and so very appreciated. I'm particularly confused by characters hiding their sometimes significant difficulties from those who would support them—in other words, the noble sacrifice trope. Our main couple's more mutually supportive dynamic feels obvious to me, a Westerner, and not like the anomaly/cultural shift they're fighting for, so I'd like to learn more about what I'm missing.)That said, to an extent it doesn't matter if you don't entirely get it. The stakes are clear and high, and the characters act consistently based on their values. Assuming you have even a basic and vague understanding of the two central societal expectations, you can understand in a broad sense how A leads to C, even if you don't understand the murky nuances of B.
The fact that OSN's main strength is exploring the murky and nuanced B is a double-edged sword. As others have noted, this story is a masterclass in realism, just with the guaranteed (and, I found, highly satisfying) HEA. While the slow, gentle pacing was essential for the story, in the long close-ups I often wished I could listen to the FL's and ML's internal monologues. So in some respects, I wonder if this wouldn't have worked better (at least for those less familiar with Korean culture) as a book. Yet maybe not being fully aware of the characters' internal life enhanced the story. Yes, it could be frustrating, but it was also true to life. We often DON'T know what others are thinking, even those we know best.
OSN has provided a lot of food for thought, and I love it for that. Few K Dramas have that level of depth to them, and seeing the way this drama was directed has provided an important counterpoint that's enabled me to better articulate my loves and frustrations with the genre as a whole.
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love and break up story which should be posible just in asia
One Spring Night (2019) -8,5/10 -kdramaI really loved soundtrack in this one. Mainly Rachael Yamagata songs. They used them very often for alike situations in drama which made it quite consistent and easy to point out.
In this drama I very often felt cultural differences and how :traditional mindset: can fuck up life even drama.
Its quite mature piece and at start I liked maturenes of ML and FL. At start ML was quite decisive and made clear-cut in relationships. At same time FL had mindset to do all right.
Sadly it didnt went like that for long. FL got irresolute and lacked braveness. ML coulnt keep his stance either. Whole drama ended in way :true love: vs whole world.
At some times characters was acting quite mature and made nice and right decisions., but there was time when you as watcher know its bad decision and I believe even main characters knew its bad decision still they went with it cause they wasnt brave enough to push it through opposition.
plot - FL is dating for long time with one guy, but their relationship lacks spark. FL ends up being asked to marry her boyfriend, but she gets cold feet and decides for some kinda :soft break up:.
Meanwhile she meets ML and starts feeling something for him. ML is pharmacist which likes FL, but he is single father and in eyes of public unsuited for relationship.
+- Its story about FL and ML getting together though FL still didnt decisively broke up with her boyfriend and they will have to brave through opposition of FL family, mainly father.
genre - romance
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One of my all time favourites
Finally decided to write a review for this drama, after rewatching 3 times, first watching it in 2019, and then one in each of the next two years.Honestly, one of my top korean dramas. I don't know why I love it so much but it has a special place in my heart so I would 100% recommend it to anyone trying to decide if it is worth the watch!!
Without spoiling too much, honestly Ji-Ho (main male lead) really touch my heart (might be slightly also cause of the actor) I feel like you don't often see much representation of young single dads much in korean dramas, especially being the main character. so this really gripped me in (not to mention the kid is so adorable).
For the Jeong-In (Female lead), I mean I liked her, some people might have different opinions to me but I don't think she did anything wrong, when she fell in love with Ji-Ho despite being in a relationship. Now let me explain, well for the get go we see that she doesn't exactly seem happy in her current relationship, the 'current' boyfriend also shows himself as a douchebag in my opinion, he doesn't seem like a great person at all. which is further confirmed by his actions towards both Jeong-In and Ji-Ho. As well as this he continues to bring Ji-Ho down for being a single parent saying "no women would want him for the reason of him having a child" (this might be a cultural difference, but I don't like it) . I feel like we are meant to not feel sorry for him when she choses to leave him and go to Ji-ho.
Also another part of this drama I fell in love with is the music, honestly if you are not persuaded by the story I mean the music playlist is one of my favourites. Every song fits perfectly with the characters so much so that I find myself visualising different characters as some of the different songs. They fit so well !!!
Overall I love this drama with my heart, I would recommend it if you want a calm drama with a nice romance. :)
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This is what "Something in the rain" should have been
A lot of people draw comparisons of "Something in the rain" with "One spring night", and they'd be right to say that these stories are similar, and they'd be right, both the dramas are very similar. The cast are largely same, and the use of similar soundtracks and the pacing of both dramas give them a similar air, but they're different enough that you will gain something different from both.The fact that the leads in One spring night are handling the problems that they face with mutual respect and with the understanding that both of them are adults and capable of taking care of themselves is quite refreshing. In most dramas, and especially in "Something in..." the relationship dynamic is such that both people are trying to protect the other and this feeds in to the toxic narrative that one should always sacrifice themselves for the other in a romantic relationship for it to be "real".
Apart from this difference in dynamic much of the issues that the drama deals with are different. Of course there is overlap in how families and social standing are involved in romantic relationships between two people, but most of the other topics the drama touches upon differ in either content or execution.
The soundtrack for this Drama is absolutely beautiful, and compliments the scenes perfectly, the production value is good, and the acting is impeccable. So if you want to see a drama which will pull at your heartstrings without frustrating you with the actions of the leads, this is the one you're looking for!
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I don't even know where to start, I'll just say that if you're watching this drama for the romance... don't.
I just didn't understand how the leads came to fall for each other (and so fast?? the whole show happens in the span of 3 months). They meet, she is kind of bitchy towards him after he lets her go without paying, they have some kind of spark, and suddenly they're totally obsessed with each other. She memorizes his phone number after he said it *once*. And don't get me wrong, I understand that it sometimes happens that you have an instant connection with someone, but it felt so out of place? 2nd episode and the guy was head over heels for her following like a puppy after she was only mean and dry to him?? and told him she had a boyfriend?? I just did not understand why and how they were so into each other after barely speaking. And what I first thought was the characters acting awkward with each other because they just met, was actually the actors having no chemistry with each other. They did get a bit better by the end, but still. The dialogues between them completely sucked too, so I feel like I can't really blame the actors. There's also the fact that I could never believe the characters were the same age because Jeongmin (FL), looked way older than Jiho (ML), at the end I googled and indeed Han Jimin is 6 years older than Jung Haein. They could've made her character older but I guess that would've been just too much for her family lol.
Then there's the main conflict of the show which is Jeongmin's boyfriend (Kiseok) and their parents. I don't know if all Korean families/people are like this or if it was just being exagerated on the show, but they were really getting on my nerves. Jeongmin's father specially. I get it was pointed out all the time how he was in the wrong, even by his wife, but by the end it was just too much, the man seemed insane. And Kiseok, oh my god. At the beginning I thought, 'well he's kind of a shitty boyfriend but he's not that bad, doesn't deserve his girlfriend emotionally cheating on him'. By the end, I just didn't understand what he was doing. His character didn't make sense. Neither did his father, I could never understand what that man's intentions were.
I enjoyed the relationship between the 3 sisters and their mother a lot though. They always had each other's back. I also liked Jeongmin and Jiho's friends and workmates, loved the dynamic between her sister and his friend lol.
Another thing I didn't enjoy was how 90% of the conversations happened while eating. I know it is a thing in K-Dramas, but in this one it felt way to excessive. I just couldn't catch a break between meals. Please find another place to have a conversation. And the music... probably the most annoying part of the whole show. They had 2 songs that were played over and over again every few scenes. And they felt so out of place most of the time, they didn't really go with the mood. I'm not sure if they were original songs because they were in english? It was weird.
Overall, this drama didn't suck. The story was fine, but the script fucked it over. The actors did a good job with what they had, but it's a shame the leads didn't have any chemistry. The soundtrack was pretty bad.
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content interesting, very slow, kind of everyday life scenery
The theme could have been more developped, but I guess the budget was very very very tight, everything was tight even the end which was exactly the same combinaison of scenes and song we saw at the beginning. Conclusion: the feeling you get while watching this drama is the same as taking a walk around the corner just to go outside a little bit...so, how was your walk really depends on how was your day at work or in general, and how was the weather. What you learnt watching this drama is that when you have a tight budget, just stay frugal and keep eating the same fried chicken while listening the same song.Was this review helpful to you?
Meh … not bad if you don’t have anything else to watch
Started watching simply because people compare it to Something in the Rain, that I loved watching.It was’t bad, but nothing special, a pure 7.5 (not too bad to drop it and not too good to get excited).
THE GOOD
1. Good cast and decent acting
2. Awesome cinematography and music
3. Some breaks in drama cliché (nice to see a supportive mother!)
THE BAD
1. No couples chemistry, for none of the couples including the leads…. It is not bad acting, just they somehow don’t belong together. And, this is the biggest difference with SITR where the chemistry was literally leaking from the screen.
2. Endless dragging into same issue
3. Way too real, almost felt like watching a boring reality show
P.s. I loved the ML special, innocent and playful smile in SITR, and hoped to see it same in OSN, but did not get it :(
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This review may contain spoilers
I ended up really enjoying this drama. It was romantic, very emotional, and had powerful things to say about family and social status and the idea of 'propriety'. There were moments that were just unbelievably tender and felt so real that I almost felt like a voyeur watching real people. I did have some issues with the drama and felt like there were areas where the writing wasn't as good and the pace didn't work for me, but on the whole I can recommend this drama freely to other people with a clear conscience. First of all, I love our leads. I felt like I was falling in love with both of them as the drama went on, which rarely happens to me. Jung Hae In was astounding as Yoo Ji Ho (a character far more nuanced and complex than his role in Something in the Rain) -- he portrayed all the many sides of the character so well. Obviously he was practically born to play puppy-dog sweetness, but he was also so good in the more bold and fierce moments and the vulnerable ones. I felt like there was a depth and softness to him that a lot of male leads never get. I also loved Han Ji Min as Lee Jung In, even though it took some time to get used to her. She also felt like a real person: bold but not reckless, blunt but not rude, prickly but still warm. I would say that initially I felt a bit disconnected from her character, but by the end of the drama I was completely on board. She says she doesn't like adventure, but she's brave and confidant by the end of the drama. I also really enjoyed their relationship. They communicate A LOT and spend a fair amount of time trying to get on the same page with each other, which I enjoyed. It does take some getting used to (a more naturalistic and nuanced portrayal of a relationship), because it's so rare in dramas to see this that it can feel clunky for the viewer. I also felt like they had a very domestic and comfortable chemistry, so I wouldn't describe this drama as 'sexy', but it definitely made you feel very alone watching it as a single person! They are crackling onscreen, but not in the same sultry and sexually charged way as in dramas like Something in the Rain or Before We Get Married.
I was surprised by how much this drama focuses on social issues. Misogyny, family hierarchy, marriage, domestic violence, divorce, single parenthood, wealth -- these things were all front and centre in the drama, to a degree that I wasn't really expecting. Where I'm from single parenthood and divorce aren't really taboo at all. Getting divorced won't really 'harm your image' and being a single parent doesn't make you some king of social pariah. I didn't really understand what the big deal was until we were halfway through the drama and I realized that these things (at least according to One Spring Night) are still shameful. While that made the drama heavier than I thought it would be (the guilt Ji Ho feels for having 'saddled' Jung In with his shameful reputation as a single dad, the dilemma Jung In's sister faces between her career and getting divorced, the pressure Jung In's family has for her to marry the man she's in a loveless relationship with), but it also made for a very impactful and emotional story. Watching Ji Ho and Jung In face very real obstacles like their parents' disapproval was painful, but it only made their love feel more miraculous and powerful.
Here are the things I didn't like: I found the start of their relationship really uncomfortable. I felt like it took WAY too long for Jung In to really firmly break things off with her boyfriend, and the sneaking around and secret friendship made me very anxious. I know this is par for the course, but their dishonesty both with each other and the other people in their lives was a murky place to begin a relationship and got in the way of me feeling any chemistry between them. I also felt like their actual dialogue in many of those scenes was disjointed and clunky, and the character motivations felt off. After they actual got together and Jung In's more firmly broke up with her boyfriend I felt like his scheming stuck around for way too long. I felt like there were a lot of repetitive scenes in that storyline (I know that to a degree that was the point, but I also felt like there was a point where it just got ridiculous. What! You're meeting him again?? To tell him that you're sorry you broke his heart? Didn't this already happen like FIVE times?). There were definitely some skippable moments.
On the whole, this drama is solid. There is such a powerful central love story here, even if it got off to a rocky start. It's also a very heavy drama, with a lot to say about many social issues. It's a tender and painful depiction of love and families, and finding the balance between our duty to ourselves and our duty to others. A solid 7.5/10
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Shouldn't be compared to Something in the rain
Well, I'm here after watching both Something in the rain (first) and now One spring night. If I haven't seen people comparing the two dramas I wouldn't do it either but I feel I have to after I read some reviews for both dramas. As I said to the review of Something in the rain I don't understand the lower ratings. Both dramas are very good, they are dramas that touch on serious real life problems and analyzing overcoming social and gender stereotypes.Just because the writer of the stories and some actors are the same to both dramas that doesn't mean they are similar. I personally divided them in my head and I formed unbiased opinions for each one. Here's why there are not the same. Something in the rain is intense, it has spark, it's more dynamic while One spring night is more chill, a slow burn and shows much more vulnability from the characters. The romance and chemistry of the 2 main leads in Something in the rain is top-tier, you feel the emotions in your bones, I also felt sad, frustrated and I was unsure about the ending. On the other hand with One spring night I felt more calm, I lowkey expected the ending, and the story is mainly about the conversations between the characters, so it felt like reading a book.
To conclude I liked both dramas but Something in the rain is closer to my taste because I like intense drama and feeling the same emotions with the characters. At the end of the day is all about personal taste, but I suggest to watch both dramas because they talk about very serious issues.
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Actually not bad, I enjoy this show
From the start of watching I had high expectations for this drama and yeah it met my expectations. Even though this drama was released in 2019 and I watched it in 2023, it doesn't feel like old dramas in general. from start to finish I enjoyed watching this drama even though in the final episode I skipped several scenes because I hated Nam Shi Hoo (FL sister's husband) because I think FL sister lacked communication and just remained silent when her husband abused her and in the end it was just being divorced without arresting her husband made me angry. Overall, I like the shooting of this drama, the ost song of this drama, and the cinematics of this drama. I think it's good. even though the ending looks too rushed like we can't see ML get the meet from FL father and can't see ML and FL get married together, but I'm sure this is a happy ending to this drama. Overall I give it a score of 9.Was this review helpful to you?
