Backstreet Rookie (2020)

An Amazing Light-Hearted Romance Comedy

This is now one of my top favorite K-dramas.

It's a romantic comedy that is funny, light-hearted but has some drama to move the plot forward, **amazing** FL who is so cute and loyal, and a really funny/cool ML. Their chemistry was really nice too and the romance was sweet. The fight scenes were also so well done with the special effects and coordination.

If you're looking for something comedic (but not too goofy), with romance (but not melodramatic or too heavy), and great production quality, then I highly recommend.

Also, I heard that there were offensive parts to some people, but I really don't understand why because I loved every single episode and was not offended in the slightest. It's meant to be a fun show, not serious.

Will absolutely rewatch this series when I want to smile and have a good laugh.
Rewatch value 10/10
Story 10/10
Acting 10/10
Music 10/10
Overall 10/10

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enjoyable!!!

banyak org review ni drakor smua karakter utamanya red flag, dan jujur gwe lumayan setuju sih..... pacar si cowok gajujur + main belakang, si cowok terlalu baik sama cwek lain jadinya salah paham mulu, terakhir si pegawai cwek emg udh naksir dr dulu jadinya seneng kl ada problem antar cowok-pacarnya akeowkowkwow. but besides of that, menurut gw ini seru sih dan cukup entertaining. biasanya gw nonton drakor 16 eps tu 3 hari, tp ini bs tamat 2 hari doang bjir kek???? karena sebagus itu coy???? plotny ok sih, cuma solusi permasalahannya tuh pada di ending semua. even jadiannya jg di ending cong ????? paling yg bikin gw agak gmn gitu pas part romancenya nanti diulang sampe 3-4x gitu gw jadi kayak????? njirlah ?‍??‍??‍? OH ya trus karakter si yoojung ni kek apa ya dikit2 lari dari masalah kek gwe emosi bgt????? kabur dari rumah mulu cok untung di akhir insaf, kl ga udh gwe gibeng ni orang ??????

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HIGHLY RECOMMENDED; Light-hearted, Family-friendly| 40% Slice of Life, 40% Rom, 20% Com.

Before anything else, I sincerely ask you to put aside any preconception created by any other kdrama viewers/webtoon readers (myself included) and please kindly give this drama a try; two 60-minute episodes to be safe. As your own opinion is the only thing that matters to you.

Though sometimes it has unrealistic scenes, purely for comedic purposes, its ability to depict the aspects of our daily life is flawless. "Backstreet Rookie" will bring you through an emotional rollercoaster without the cliche elements of which you always see sci-fi dramas. The Flow of the story is GOOD albeit can be better, same for Character Development. This unfortunately is the case for almost all dramas due to the time restriction. Acting/Casts are EXCELLENT as no role is dispensable. Chemistry between lead roles is EXCELLENT. The experienced Ji Chang Wook in addition to the talented Kim Yoo Jung created a KILLER combination. Music Choice is EXCELLENT and they go very well with their specified scenes. I must have listened to the OSTs a hundred times. Overall: 10/10; I wish there will be more dramas like this or a Season 2.
I am willing to fund the original author of "Backstreet Rookie" $10,000 to create more pieces like this and have them made into dramas.

Like many Kdrama fans, I am a picky person when it comes to deciding which drama is worth my time and health(binge-watching). However, I can confidently say that "Backstreet Rookie" is one of my favorite if not my favorite K-drama. I have already watched it 3 times and it always brings the same emotions every single time; excitement, sadness, optimism and motivation in life. Whenever I feel like I am incompetent and unmotivated, I always come back to this drama to find myself and my own value as a human being.

Thank you for reading
TDopa

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Not bad at all

It was definitely not a bad watch. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t show them kissing at the end. Is it the age gap? They had a kissing scene at the beginning tho.

Honestly I kinda just started to watch this because I really liked the cast. At first I was a bit skeptical about the age gap but their chemistry really grew on me. I hope to see Kim Yoo-Jung in more dramas. I think she is about to hit her prime years. And Ji Chang Wook is still the best looking male actor in my opinion. Overall this is definitely not in the top dramas list but more of a chill drama.

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?Expires Before Episode 10 °6.4° °somewhat good°

A brief encounter with Dae Hyun, our saintly male lead, prompts orphan, Jung Saet Byul (who is currently raising her younger sister) to fall in love. He goes on with his day, but she is smitten for life. Fast forward 3 years and she goes to work for him at his convenience store. While people of her status are overlooked by the world, she manages to distinguish herself with her hard work and intelligence. She, °inconveniently, puts the hook-kick to his love life, however, through a series of misunderstandings and other blocks. There is no mistaken understanding when it comes to her, though: She's marked him for clearance; °her clearance to purchase him°, that is.

Rated 7.6 on MDL, BSR is much like unexpired convenience store fare - edible, somewhat good, but not very good. It degrades from being pleasant to being a bit of a chore in the last third. Knowing what I now know, would I go back and watch it again for the first time? That's almost a coin flipper. My answer is "no", but many people will enjoy watching this show - for good reason. Everyone is entitled to their form of wind-down entertainment, and BSR has obviously done the job for many viewers who have received it well. There are gems tucked away like Korean beef and fresh green onion in the ramen. They have plenty of good ingredients, but they didn't incorporate them well. Just go into it with your eyes open(ha!). If your enjoyment level starts declining, know that it doesn't get better later. It fizzles and flattens.

Let's talk about the fizzle first. They have fun with the girl fights. There's Flying Kicks and flying bodies all over the place. They even do the Matrix Reloaded burst-out-of-the-pile-up. They have animation overlay to show eyes with hearts or to bleep out some language. All of it's cute and fun. I was thrilled with the first couple episodes.

They lay out clear character contrast in the opening shots of ep1. She's leading a gang brawl. He's saving a kitten. (Gimme the perfect combo, indeed!) Sadly, he doesn't notice her for 2/3 of the show. Forget her, °I was frustrated! Most viewers want to see him take notice in little ways early on - let's get those dogs on the warming rollers! It takes a while for them to get toasty, right? It's a pity that all we see is his pity, or his overlooking her. Very gradually, they bond - soon the two communicate naturally by intricate hand ✌?✊️ signals. Nobody else can understand, but they somehow do. It's one of the cutest things about the show.

There's a handful of excellent scenes… brilliant really. "Let me go through the expired goods," she says, when the girlfriend walks in the store. He goes to a college reunion and everyone is practically dressed in monotone. They look a boring bunch. He has the most color in a pale green sweater, which could signify that he's still green. He's still a bit naive. She doesn't have a HS diploma, but she is not green. She loves green things and flowera, though. Our FL knows the meaning of every flower. I loved it and it makes me want to learn more of them. We will see each female lead have a talk with the other that leads to a situational change. It's skillful mirroring. Kdrams love the ♥️?. (It's not a love triangle if a third party is interested in one of them, but they only have eyes for eachother, is it?) There's some truly funny moments that are muted, slightly, by other clumsy humor attempts that fail. The closing of episode 12 is fresh - stunning, even.

The best thing about BSR is Kim Yoo Jung playing Jung Saet Byul. She's gorgeous. Her smile is brighter than sunshine. If she went past the freezers she could "melt all that stuff". Also, she can wear tan or white and look good, which shouldn't be allowed - I hate her, lol. Her friends are likable, as is the ML's BFF. The secondary romance is painfully goofy at times, but overall I enjoyed that couple more. Kim Sun Young as Kong Boon Hee, Dae Hyun's mother, is a blast. She commands the screen. Watching her makes me happy. I suppose I'm a true fan.

As for every other character… yuck. His father is contemptible. I want to strangle him every time he's on screen. It's not okay to be that lazy and irresponsible. They get offended when somebody hurts dad's pride. He deserves so much more than hurt feelings! What °pride? ...Pride in what? Breathing? Dae Hyun. He's the ultimate good guy, but they fail to sell "everybody's doormat " as a romantic lead. He is in a current day relationship with a woman when the show begins, and it's a mostly positive relationship; at least, his GF is not the cartoonish villain that they'll often show in romcoms, which is appreciated. He's a wonderful human being, but he's missing sex appeal. He's too wimpy! Ji Chang Wook plays Choi Dae Hyun. He plays a similarly nervous guy who is upended by a woman, in Lovestruck In The City, which is far better than BSR. He's great in K2. It's not the actor's fault, it's how they wrote and directed him.

Our leads' °besties° have instant ✨️ . Their relationship is easily more fun than the primary romance. "If I had love in My heart, I'd want the expiration date to be ten thousand years away." "Just call me ten thousand years." Yep, that's how GMO the dialog can get in the show. To be fair, that's between a pair that is comic relief, and they say a lot of very slurpy things. It's almost slapstick, but hey, they're fun. The director tries to wedge in a little too much nonsense, so the eyes will roll at times.

BSR becomes a bit of a slog to stick with it as the episodes roll on. Despite many nice touches like animation overlay, snappy cutting, and pauses that enhance, they don't have enough content to fill more than 10eps competently. Most of the characters are not relatable enough to truly draw the viewer in, and many of the plot drivers and vignettes are boring. Unfortunately, after the initial taste sensation, the expiration date is met long before the episodes expire.

✏〰 IMHO

RATINGS
Directing 7.2
Writing 5.7
Acting 7
Romance 6
Flutters 4
Art 6.5
Sound & music 7
Ending 7.5

LEVELS
Warmth 6
Action 4.5
Laughs 4.3
Tears 2
Fright 3
Tension T Anxiety 4.5
Thought provocation 4
Snores 4

?72 ?57 ?70 ?60 ?40 ?60 ?45 ⚡ ?/?70 ?43 ?20 ?30 ?45 ?40 ?40 ?75

Age 13+ The show is tame.
No language cautions. They touch on eroticism via the friend's webtoon. Fighting.

Re-watch? Never

{BTW, our ML is BFF with a guy that actually has a tan! Eum Moon Suk plays
Han Dal Shik (Dae Hyun's best friend). He looks so much like a friend of mine (who happens to be Hispanic) that I could only smile and smh every time he appeared on screen. I never plan to go down a rabbit ⚫, but here we go: When you watch East Asian dramas you would think everybody there is paler than Tom Brady, which is tedious. (In my own family there's a South Korean who is darker skinned than the African American. Just sayin...) East Asia's multi-millenia love of pale skin is connected to wealth & status. Field workers are tanned by the sun while the wealthy have a cave-dweller-like vitamin-D deficiency. We will hear Dae Hyun's family talk about their pride more than twice, and that is what it's all about. I am in love with Asian entertainment. I hesitate (or voice qualifiers) before recommending it to my African American friends and family, though, because it's as colorless as the show Friends. People insist on judging people based on things for which we have no control. Is anything more meaningless than a person's looks? Nobody has a choice of parentage or their skin color, so what is there to judge? Furthermore, much of European (and by extension, the USA's) history has been bleached. Early pictorials of Jesus showed a milk-chocolate skin tone until racism gripped the middle ages. Bible scholars will tell you that there aren't any white people in the Bible, except perhaps, some tangential bad actors. (In Poland they never adopted the Caucasian Jesus and kept the old paintings). The legend of the leprechaun was probably based on real-life Africans visiting Europe with gold. Africa was loaded with gold in ancient times, and there were Africans that navigated the world in canoes with gifts and exotic animals. They were masters at reading the sea currents, or the superhighways of the sea. The legend degraded over time to what we see now. That's two examples from a whole universe most people didn't know existed, Other than the good old vices of pride and prejudice, I cannot tell you why our world history has been color-lifted, but it is a fact. So, if we point at the East, three fingers are pointing back at the West. The result is that we remain divided. We should challenge them to open their eyes to the full spectrum of human beauty and diversify more, but also be patient with Asia. We all have deficiencies to work on. I am respectfully and patiently calling them out on this tired old mindset. Let's not start on the way they beat up on orphans…}

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Thrill and crazy

Hit drama You will get different types of thoughts But there in drama different Please watch all episodes of this back street rookie drama I hope who ever watch this drama those hope satisfied...... By I am from India, I am a big fan of kdrama,
comedy and family involvement
All rolls are super ....
Please watch all episodes
Dont give wrong review..!
Hit drama You will get different types of thoughts But there in drama different Please watch all episodes of this train drama I hope who ever watch this drama those hope satisfied...... By I am India I am a big fan of drama

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Promising leads but disappointing results

I only rarely write reviews. I write reviews on two occasions, when I find a series so good that I want to reward it, or when I find a series very disappointing that I want to point it out. This review is the latter case.

First of all, the main problem with this series is the story. The main scene is a convenience store. How on earth is that an appealing environment for a love story? The story is as flat and dull as any convenience store.

Two things that disappoint me the most with this series.
1) It wasted the main actors time. Both of them are a favorite of mine, and I feel like this was a wasted effort. I would much rather see them take on different projects with better results.
2) Ji Chang Wook and Kim Yoo Jung are unlikely to pair up together again, because leads rarely do pair up again in another series. That's disappointing to me because I really like them. However in this series I didn't find any chemistry between them, but I don't know if it's the story or not, maybe it wasn't meant to be. Maybe they got unlucky. There's also a 12 years age difference between the leads that could have had an affect.

At some points in the series I thought this was like a R&R (Rest & Relaxation) project for Ji Chang Wook. Ez work. And thought Kim Yoo Jung drew the short stick when she decided to do this project. One thing I'll say about Kim Yoo Jung, she was lovely in this series, I liked her the most.... her character was most evolved, and her smile makes you forget about the bad script.

But it's sad to write this review because I really admire the main actors.

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Worth the watch (definitely not as bad as everyone says)

Honestly the negative reviews under 5 we’re definitely watchers going into this expecting something super serious. This show has its elements of seriousness, but it’s mostly so unserious it’s hilarious and entertaining. A really easy show to get hooked on and binge watch (I can vouch for this). I’ve gotten many good laughs out of this show, and I’m not someone who would laugh out loud during a show/movie. All I can say is if you need a good laugh, or a break from other long dramas I definitely recommend this. What I can say is doing expect too much & this is the drama for you.

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Meh

I actually expected a lot for this drama. Maybe because its main leads were so promising? IDK but I did and maybe it was my own fault why I was disappointed in it. I tried to give it a chance. A lot of it actually. But I just ended up fast forwarding so much.

The beginning and the end was actually bearable. It was kind of cute in its own special way. It was the middle part that made it feel so dragging. I found all the characters here weak, only one who really stood out was Saet Byul. I think she's the only strong character here with a really good foundation. Everyone else was meh.

The ML was so confused in what he wants that I actually prefer Saet Byul together with her puppy. They look so good together. (Really hoping they get cast in a romcom together). There were a lot of plot holes, the acting sometimes got a bit too much comical, things just got a bit too absurd at times.

Anyway, still good job to the team. Looking forward to everyone's next projects. I hope its a lot better than this one.

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What can I say? Acting wise I have don't question Ji Chang Wook and Kim Yoo Jung talent and the depth of what they could bring to the story. But I do not understand the aim of this drama. Sure, maybe KYJ accepted the drama because it deviates from her usual dramas. Her character is more mature here. We can see how versatile she is that's a fact. JCW on the other hand was just okay in this drama.

Despite all the controversies surrounding this drama with it not being suitable for the masses, there were moments were I really laughed out loud. Some parts were funny. So generally for me, it was okay. Just okay. Not mindboggling but just okay. If I would rate their acting , I would give them perfect points. It was like they wasted what JCW and KYJ could offer for the plot. I would like to see them act again in a better plot.

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