Forest (2020)

The most striking thing about this drama is the visuals, being set in Gangwon province and in the forests there's just tree's in almost every scene. It's got a really unique visual presence compared to most dramas.

Didn't get quite what I was expecting from early descriptions though - so, it's roughly: FL gets sent to the country hospital as punishment, ML turns up with a view to buying the place up for a resort, joins the rescue team to get more knowledge, conspiracies happen, fires happen, bad people do bad things etc. :) I should write them for a living don't ya think? :-P

I enjoyed the main storylines and the romance between the ML and FL but there did seem a couple of times that the FL just decided to move on from a previous issue and forgive rather than it feeling like things had been properly worked out...

The bad guy was really quite deranged and I enjoyed (in a 'throw popcorn at the tv' kinda way) when he was on-screen.

There's lots of touching moments, since it's based around a village suffering from problems and a 119 rescue team.

Park Hae Jin had a commanding presence as always and worked will with the scenes and script, whether he was in mega business-man mode, loving boyfriend mode, or action-man rescue team mode.

Jo Bo Ah - this is the first drama i've seen her in so I need to see more (i'll do that, just for you all, i can take it :) ) to get a broader view but i'm tentatively impressed with what I saw. There were some aspects where she seems to be smiling as she delivers her lines that I didn't think smiling was quite the right thing - so it felt out of sync - but - I enjoyed her performance more overall.

I really enjoyed the side couple with the police officer Oh Bo Mi - while the male in that couple was ok, I thought her character and how she played it was brilliant and then the play-off between her and the FL was great too.

Overall it's a great watch, even if you don't gel with the story for some reason, there's some gorgeous scenery and just a generally quite different feel to it than other dramas due it taking place in the depths of the forests in Gangwon-do.

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Forest.
No spoilers ahead
*There are many Negative talkers about this drama I will like to tell them that it is a perfect drama with a great story and a perfect cast.
When you will start watching this drama you will feel like it is boring and it is not moving forward but trust me that's the main point to build a perfect plot for the story and after when you will come across more episodes you will feel like it is amazing*

For me, this drama was perfect it has everything that I need in a drama romance, slight action, business, and stunts and much more that you can not imagine.

It was a great journey to watch all the episode from the beginning without escaping anything and watching perfectly.

I personally enjoyed watching it.

Now for the story......
Kang San Hyuk(our male lead) is the CEO of the investment company RLI. He disguises himself as a rescue worker with the 911 special rescue team to find out about a development project of the forest.
He has memory issues, and cannot remember key details about his childhood and longs to unlock the secrets of his past.
Jung Yeong Jae(female lead) was a resident of a surgical hospital who wanted to succeed. However, due to an unexpected incident, this ace doctor was sent to a deserted hospital in the middle of nowhere: Miryeong Forest.
“Forest,” tells the story of a man who has everything except a heart and a woman who has lost everything except her heart. They have what seems like serendipitous moments, but they meet in a mysterious forest – and the pair feel strangely drawn to one another.
What is the key role the forest plays in their intertwined destinies…


Peace out.
Aniket Yadav
@theaniketyadav

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Beautifully filmed

I think the star of this show was the forest. It was beautifully filmed, and time seemed to shift whenever anyone was in the forest. I could feel myself relaxing along with the characters. And if I lived in that house in the middle of that forest, I would never leave.

I loved the story between the lead characters. Their relationship spoke to being stronger together, and power of love in the healing process. The symbolism of the healing power of the forest was apparent. Park Hae Jin and Jo Bo Ah did an excellent job. Both main characters were wound pretty tight, but spending time in the forest and with each other softened them, but ultimately made them stronger. They were so cute together, there were a couple of scenes with loving baby talk that I just had to watch multiple times! Seeing Park Hae Jin being playful was worth the price of admission! Their kisses were very lovely (especially the stethoscope kiss!).

Especially creepy bad guy - the actor did a wonderful job, he was really hard to watch and seriously gave me the heebie-jeebies!

However, I felt that this show suffered from too many episodes - it was so drawn out I fast forwarded through a lot of it toward the end, and the ending, as is unfortunately commonplace in Korean dramas, was too rushed.

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It's a nice cliche Kdrama

It's a nice cliche kdrama.
The actor who plays Kang San Hyuk is very handsome and takes most of the attention, despite his acting skill which are not outstanding. I didn't like a lot of the directing. The effects were not well done, the medical stuff was poor, storyline at most medium. The forest was very beautiful, but from the tenth episode on, all the scenes seems to be recorded at the same spots. Sometimes it was necessary, because of the storyline, but it mostly wasn't.

Not sure if this is a SPOILER. Be aware.

It starts with a funny/curious begging. The two main characters start hating each other. Then they end up living together. More funny situations. Love happens. Dramatic stuff. Cute stuff. More dramatic stuff. Happy ending.

END SPOILER

Still I watched it all the way to the end. What can I say... I like forests. And the main actor. Definitely his face was a great incentive.

English is not my first language. Don't hate me.

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It's actually been a while since I finished the drama. Started it when it was airing... And couldn't bear to keep watching the debacle that it was.
Going through the reviews, it was shocking to me how many people enjoyed it. And I can see the visual appeal, for all its faults the drama is gorgeous. I didn't search for the place the drama was shot - because everything surrounding this watching experience is downright traumatic at this point - but it really is stunning. The synopsis was also quite interesting and promising. The story was simply not what we had been expecting.

First off, so many things were unrealistic. The Main Lead, for example, is supposed to be CEO (from what I remember) and becomes a firefighter while still having the same responsibilities ? I get that Miryeong was part of his new project but that doesn't mean he has the time to have an entire other job, right ? Speaking of the Miryeong Project, it seemed only very briefly explained for the major part of the drama, when it was the main point of the story. Worse, the main character put everything on the line for it, when he didn't himself know what they were after - the discovery comes much, much later on in the story. But maybe that's just me not remembering correctly, I'll let it slide.
Aside from that, throughout the entire drama, plotlines were dropped and picked up episodes later, when we have forgotten why it's important in the first place. If it is that essential to the situation, why not show it to the viewer ? Instead, it was put to the side for when there might be a use to it, it felt very unnatural to watch.
Not to mention the introduction of new characters we are expected to care for in the last part of the story. Characters who were essential to the story. The main reason San Hyuk was bearing a trauma was the death of his sister. We learned that in the last episodes. Instead of being uncovered gradually, the trauma plot line was dropped for a while and came back for the last part. Does it sound terrible to you ? Because it is.

Let's move on to the characters. Which, for the most part, were majorly dislikable. I don't remember being particularly impressed by the acting, but it's been a while so I won't say anything about that.
I found both of the leads very prideful and pretentious. Young Jae was at times completely dismissive of other people's feelings, or traumas. San Hyuk was appallingly manipulative throughout the whole story, put his business project before anything else ; and stayed that way until maybe the very end of the drama. The whole purpose of this kind of story is to show the character's evolution, their thought process slowly shifting. We didn't get that, and it's a pity because it would have made a huge impact on the story.
Doctor Park - who worked at Miryeong hospital - was despicable, continuously refused to treat his patients, was filled with jealousy towards Young Jae and treated her badly for, well, basically being there.
The two likable characters would be Oh Bo Mi and Choi Chang. From what I remember their story line was cute, and it was a much needed breath of fresh air in the drama.

Finally, we come to the last episodes. Where their traumas simply disappear and are never heard of again. Granted, I don't work in the medical field. I'm just, you know, an average educated citizen who knows that psychology doesn't work that way. Facing your trauma doesn't mean it will magically disappear in a day. It takes work, effort, and a lot of patience. And even in the best case scenario, you would still have traces of it. They threw logic out of the window to prioritize the rebirth idea, which can work fine for other viewers, I understand that completely, but it honestly pissed me off.

I'll end with the one positive thing about the drama - aside from the seriously stunning scenery. The OST was quite nice, and I applaud the artists involved for uplifting the drama a bit. I only remember the main track if I'm being honest, but I'll just do myself a favor and presume the whole track list was fire.

I understand people wanting to give it a go, and there are a lot who seem to be enjoying it so it's a matter of opinion I guess. To me it was unbearable, the same way another drama I enjoyed would be terrible to someone else. What I can recommend, though, is that you give it a try and if you feel it's not your thing, then it's okay, you can just move on to another story which will be much more compelling to you.
I also applaud the co-watchers who were in as much pain as I was. Their comments were gold, and maybe the reason why I stuck with this drama.

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I loved all of the breathtaking outdoor scenes!

This drama is full of your usual cliche drama tropes. A rich arrogant chaebol goes undercover as a rescuer in a rustic country town and falls for a sweet innocent local doctor. And of course they’re forced to cohabitate. Then there’s also the cliche trauma in the past they both suffer from but can’t remember. What saves this drama is the talent of the two lead actors, their romance, and the amazing outdoor scenery.

The two lead actors have some amazing chemistry with real kisses and lots of skinship. They do this romance right by not going too fast nor too slow. They slowly get to know one another and bond over their tragic pasts with their families. But along the way there’s lots of moments where you can feel the sparks.

Then there’s the lush green valleys, rolling hills, picturesque mountains, and clear streams that tons of the scenes are filmed in. The beautiful outdoor settings for this drama breathes life into it and really sets it apart. I loved the parts where they ride bikes through the beautiful trees and lush foliage. And they did a lot of that.

But not everything about this drama is good. The editing, especially in the beginning, was kind of choppy. In one scene it goes from rescuing someone on a mountain, to treating a patient in a helicopter, to suddenly being in the hospitals ER operating on some random patient. And all of this happened in about the span of 5 minutes. I was so confused I had to go back and look at it again to figure out what happened. But fortunately the editing improved vastly after that. Also, they tease the lost memory thing for way too long. And they don’t give you enough information about the lost memories and childhood trauma to keep your interest going. So about halfway through the drama I lost some of my excitement about it. Fortunately, if you can get past the slow part in the middle, the last 10-12 episodes get more interesting as time goes by. And since the episodes are only 30 minutes each it wasn’t too hard to push through and get to the good parts. So hang in there, it does get much better. And it’s definitely worth watching. There are car chases, kidnappings, pretty good fight scenes, and lots of political intrigue. And then all of the past memories resurface which is pretty interesting too.

I like that there was no annoying love triangle. And the side couple was really cute. Overall it’s a good drama. It won’t be in my top ten but it’s not at the bottom with the worst ones either. It’s just a pretty decent drama that I’m glad I watched. I would recommend watching it.

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First of all, let me just say this drama already lost points for me when they made Kang San Hyuk a CEO. Normally this wouldn't be a huge deal but I had this as "plan to watch" because before the drama aired, the original plot made me think Kang San Hyuk would, from the beginning, be a rescue squad member in order to find out about his past. This sounded interesting to me but little to my knowledge, once the first episode aired, I was confused and disappointed how they had to make this about corporation & business and thus, that's how we have our villain here because of your typical corrupt corporation & business, who by the way seems very useless in this drama with little appearances until past the 2nd half of this drama. This was something I didn't care for and frankly the boring part of this drama. Any scenes that was about business was boring to me and there were a lot of them.

This was also the reason why I couldn't like Kang San Hyuk to the fullest. That corporate mind, the using of the rescue squad team to benefit himself was a downside to his character. No real growth for this character until maybe the very end which is a bummer. The other characters were okay for me. I usually see some bad acting in dramas but I wasn't really bother with Jo Bo Ah's acting compared to other people. I thought she did a good job portraying her character of Young Jae. Though Bo Mi was annoying, I kinda like her character. She was very courageous and did things that many may not be fond of her doing but she attempt to make changes to help out the forest and village. By the way, I never understood why Young Jae & Bo Mi hated each other. Though the writer showed a scene of their past life together, I felt like their hatred for each other was pointless and unnecessary. They should've been best friends from the start. Of course, my favorite character is Choi Chang. He's just very likable in this drama from start to finish. You just can't skip a scene if he's in it.

The chemistry between Kang San Hyuk & Jung Young Jae seemed forced at first. They didn't seem like there was a connection but it did get better as you dive deeper into the drama. I grew to liking their moments and their scenes probably at the halfway point. The writers also made it seemed like there was going to be a love triangle but it seems like they may have scrapped that idea and just continue with second leads being together, which by the way seems very odd to me, but at the same time I thought they had a lot of cute moments together.

Editing was kinda not good for this drama. What I mean is from episode to episode, the transition was kinda weird, to the point where you were somewhat confused on what happened when starting an episode. It's get a little better later but the beginning, wow, very messy. You have to take time to let it in to realize what's going on.

Ending felt rushed in terms of Young Jae getting over her panic attack at the very last minute. That could've been handled better like a few episodes ago but otherwise a very satisfying ending.

Had this drama initially started with Kang San Hyuk as a rescue squad team member and told his story with his voice-over monologue and had they got rid of the corporation & business aspect of this drama, then this drama would've excel well, but because this wasn't the case, I think this may be why the ratings were low.

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Were they even trying?

The entire drama and the main couple's relationship was built entirely around bonding over their each others trauma. Not necessarily bad but it felt it was purposely designed that way to manipulate the viewers' emotions forcefully. This was pretty obvious from the very beginning with how they portrayed and handled the female lead's boyfriend. You would fell for their trap if you were a newcomer. The music choices were odd and mostly cheap, in addition, the dubstep soundtrack was completely unfitting. Anyway, if it wasn't for the forestry scenery then the drama wouldn't have had much to offer. Throwing in two attractive leads together isn't enough anymore.

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Forest has a pretty simple concept: it's a getaway/healing drama set primarily in the mysterious Miryeong forest, shot primarily in the stunning Gangwon province of South Korea. It exhausts a few tropes, for sure, but it's still an enjoyable watch overall. The story is somewhat on the predictable side and the writing definitely could have been improved but I understand what their goal was with the series. The chemistry between the leads is quite good and their scenes are probably the biggest selling point of the drama. I see that it's getting an incredible amount of hate online when the truth is that many other shows are full of faults and unrealistic plot development that get overlooked. My bottom line is that it could have been a lot better but it's stil a nice enough show.

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A fun watch for sure!

I actually DID enjoy the show. I laughed a lot and the chemistry/skinship was NO joke. So I loved it JUST for those two reasons alone & would recommend it.
However, even though I usually LOVE a cold CEO type character brought to warmth by a FL, this show portrayed the ML's character was too "I have a multiple personality disorder" and not a gradual change/thawing that I usually see/prefer in this type of show. It was like day/night light-switch fast changes back and forth that may have been my "major" gripe with this show. <3
So... this show was good and enjoyable, but it was also messy messy with SO MUCH going on in one show. Was the writer wishy washy on what type of drama he wanted to create so he just jammed it ALL into one? Possibly.
Oh and one thing I wondered about... in a spoiler comment below.
The FL had a burn scar on her, right? They made a point to show it several times and make it seem like they leads had a "forgotten past" that they would eventually remember, but never did. Since the ML had a fire in his past he couldn't remember and she had a burn scar... it just seemed like that was what the writers were hinting at, but changed their minds??? Am I the only one who thought the little girl in the forest was going to end up being the FL? *shrugs*

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One of the Most beautiful drama I've ever seen.
Beauty of the FOREST will make you forget everything and you'll feel like you are there till the end. I've seen so many dramas but this is one is special.
Everything is Unique, Concept is awesome and Most importantly dialogues of this drama were amazing.How beautifully this drama has been written, you can understand when you'll watch it.
Loved leads chemistry and their characters,second leads were Cute. Well written script and I loved how nicely this drama ends.You should definitely watch it if you want something different and mesmerizing.
Lots of love from India to everyone who's involved in this beautiful drama.??♥️

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