This review may contain spoilers
Started strong but went downhill
The first ten episodes are interesting and engaging. Love how they put more backstory about a run away renowned badminton athlete which hinder her to play badminton. But after the 10 episodes, it got draggy. The conflict between Taeyang and Junyoung could be resolved in earlier episode without making it repetitive. I was excited to see Taeyang play again and her playing without feeling guilty but instead they give us more drama and less badminton scenes. The only thing that keeps me going is the chemistry between the leads and the other players. Park Juhyun really gives an amazing potrayal as a used to be famous badminton player who now feels guilty to even to play because the conflict she has with her best friend and how she's having this inner problem within herself because her mother left her and she got adopted, and she feels that her adopted parents will abandon her if she fails to play badminton. Chae Jeonghyeop also gives a neat potrayal as Park Taejun, a skilled badminton player living under the shadow of his sister success. I hate how his parents, especially his mother, treats him. He and Taeyang find comfort and love on each other. Both Juhyung and Jeonghyeop have good chemistry with each other. On the other hand, I don't really feel the chemistry between Yook Junghwan and Lee Yoomin. It's too bad that I don't feel the excitement to watch after the 10th episode, really wish it could be better.Was this review helpful to you?
How to Make a Very Solid Breakfast Sandwich
"Love All Play" is like a hearty egg, sausage and cheese sandwich at a neighborhood diner. It doesn't take a culinary school trained chef or a Michelin star restaurant to plate a terrific one. But there are a couple of things that separate an average one from a very good one. First, there's no great sandwich without outstanding bread. It should be freshly baked. None of the spongy, preservative-stuffed, plastic-bagged tasteless kind. The eggs and cheese just have to be fine. But the sausage can't be. It should be spicy and savory with plenty of silky fats.In "Love All Play", the fresh bread is a bevy of likable, complex and organic characters from the two leads and going deep in to the supporting roster of characters.
The spicy meat is an astonishingly strong cast that has a few recognizable faces, but no high-powered stars.
Is the plot a brilliant, novel one with twists and turns and surprises and reveals and climactic moments? No. It certainly places enough credible obstacles in the way of the happiness of the various characters to keep a modest amount of tension going, but there's nothing here that hasn't been seen dozens of times in other dramas.
Is the production value on that viewers will confuse with Bong Joon Ho? That's a very firm "No.". There's a nice theme song and the editing is fine. But the badminton scenes are nauseatingly repetitive. The wardrobe is mostly athletic warmups. In fact, there's nothing in the production design, makeup, hair, lighting, sound, photography, etc. that's noticeable.
Despite such non-noteworthiness, Chae Jong Hyeop is an unfiltered delight as Tae Joon. It's hard to think of a more warmhearted, selfless, strong and mature male protagonist. In fact, if there's a less than credible moment, it would be where Tae Yang's father has any doubts about his character. Is he too good to be true? Perhaps, but there's enough of a self-destructive, reckless element to him that Tae Joon doesn't seem inhuman.
Park Ju Hyun may not have the natural charisma that Chae Jong Hyeop exhibits, but she's a marvelous complement. Park Ji Hyun is scintillating as her Jun Young has to be very delicately layered with resentments and damages and hopes and dreams. This review could list just about every other member of the cast and try to find some unique and effusive praise for each of them. If there is a weak member, it would be In Gyo Jin as an assistant coach who comes across too erratically from one scene to the next.
Special mention, however, must be made for Choi Seung Yoon and Jo Soo Hyang. They are [chef's kiss] pure, distilled magic in virtually every moment they are together on screen. If there is a spinoff of "Love All Play", it must be featuring these two. Or give them their own new concept.
It should be a simple formula. Wonderful, multi-dimensional characters with a solid cast and simply put them in a room and let them have at it. Unfortunately, those two ingredients are trickier than they look. Props to this production for accomplishing it with aplomb here.
Recommended and highly.
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Melodrama with some sports and romance elements
This started off quite well; it had a lot of promise and I liked it better than 2521 ( which I dropped at Ep 14) It’s not a rom-com, that’s why I say it’s a melodrama- which means there’s a lot of crying, relationship problems, unresolved past issues and wait... more crying.The FL is an ex-national team badminton player. She “ran away” for three years because of an incident and has never resolved it. The ML is a promising badminton player who had been hiding behind his sister’s shadow his whole life and is desperate for his parents and the world’s attention. Both found solace and comfort in each other, and eventually love starts to develop. They are quite cute together, and there is some skinship ;) but it’s not the centre of the storyline.
You have your typical side couples, side teammates who initially hate you, treat you badly then after a long while start to stand up for you and encourage you. Some issues with the writing and characters eg the coach. Head coach and assistant coach are pretty incompetent- very old school kind of training, not encouraging nor inspiring. [Spoiler: Male doubles team- one player pushed his partner to the floor, grabbed his racket to hit the shuttlecock. Umm.. I don’t think that kind of play is EVER allowed on the court. End spoiler]
Initially rated it a 8/10, now dropping it to a 7.5. It’s getting kinda slow and draggy. Let’s see how it develops and ends. ;)
Update: Ending was a nice wrap up of all characters. I still didn’t like the mother: it remained quite draggy throughout the last 5 episodes which was unfortunate. I did complete it but ff here and there.
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Downhill after a great start
I was hooked to this story mainly because of our ML. Their interactions and conversations felt so inviting and you will find yourself rooting for them from the get go. The overall casts are good. The dynamics is chaotic but interesting.However the premise of Badminton really drops the ball on this. Idk whether its normal for an athlete to have booze once in a while during training, or such controversy has ever really occured in RL , but I do know for a fact that if you want to excell as a great athlete, of any sport, alchohol is a big NO-NO. So the big plot of this story really didn't sink in with me coz I'm a badminton fan myself in RL. So yeah since the big secret was out I keep FF through all the shenanigans. I could not relate to it coz it didnt feel real. Yes, you reap what you sow, but knowingly that it will jeopardize you in the end doesn't really resonates with me especially if you are an athlete.
I enjoy the beginning, happy in the middle, but puzzled towards the end. Wish it would have been better.
As always; Would I watch this whole drama again? No.
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One of the weaker rom coms of 2022
I´m a sucker for well-made rom coms. Even if they are full of clichés, I actually don´t really care as long as they are successfully played out. Of course chemistry between the lead characters and supporting cast are a must; story line, strong and/or witty writing, great acting and well developed main characters with an appealing arc are also a must.Unfortunately Love All Play does not check all the boxes, actually it only has two things going on for it, great acting and great chemistry from the leading actors, the rest ìs MIA.
I´m surprised I´m saying this because I loved the opening two episodes, the set up and badmigton as the background was just very promising. I fooled myself thinking that if Love All Play was half as good as Racket Boys I was in for a treat, but oh boy oh boy it turned out just as bad, if not worse, than other recent droppable series such as 2521, Forecasting Love and Weather, Business Proposal, Our Beloved Summer, Shitting Stars, etc… list goes on. You got the point.
In 2022 the only two shows that I have actually enjoyed are Crazy Love and My Liberation Notes (which is not considered a rom com, but a slice of life).
What a waste of talent in Love All Play seriously. I really hope that Park Ju Hyun choses better projects with great characters in the future since I consider her one of the most talented and promising actresses of South Korea. Her portrayal of Bae Gyu Ri in Extracurricular set the bar quite high for herself and positioned herself as an actress capable of playing intense and complex characters. So I have to say that Love All Play is a total letdown.
Would I rewatch it or try to finish the series? No way in hell.
Would I recommend it to others? If you really don´t have a choice or if you´re brain dead, yes go ahead.
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Such a fun watch! Light and breezy
This sort of reminds me of Weightlifting Fairy in tone...light and easy to watch. It's a sports romcom that doesn't take itself too seriously. It's more about a story about forgiveness and falling in love than the journey and growth of becoming the best at badminton.Likes: For sure, Park Ju Hyun and Chae Jong Hyeop as the leads. Both are entirely charming in their own way. I like that they are not super famous because I feel like you can see their characters more. Park Ju Hyun has a tomboyish athletic look which is not typical in female leads, but I like that. It's more relatable. Also, I can't pinpoint why I feel like this...but she comes off like she may have a bit of a smart ass side to her which immediately makes me like her. hahaha. She was perfect as Tae Yang.
Chae Jong Hyeop reminds me of a smiley cute Labrador. He has this "good guy" boy next door feel. He first caught my attention in Nevertheless and I'm glad to see him in a leading role. He didn't disappoint and I feel like more good roles will come his way after this.
The two of them have a fun chemistry, the sole reason why I enjoyed this drama so much. I enjoy teasing banter so the first half had me hooked. The second half did get a little more weighed down with oppression. The problem here is that it felt like they were really stretching for these obstacles. Also, I think they should have paid a little more attention to the growth and struggles of being in sports. It felt very downplayed which I wouldn't say I minded that much, but I think a little more personal growth would have fared better. As for the rest of the cast, they felt like caricatures at best. Sometimes funny, sometimes overkill.
Overall, the tone was pretty light imo, even when it got weighed down a little in the second half. It's because the show doesn't really delve down and explore the deeper emotions the characters have. It just barely touches the surface. Some may not like that, but it was fine for me as I just wanted to watch something easy breezy and the chemistry carried the show for me.
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This review may contain spoilers
ML's Smile is What Kept Me Watching!
When they were happy and together, it made me smile a lot. They were such a sweet and supportive team but that was only at the beginning and the end. I really understood when people were saying FL cried a lot, it bothered me a few times but it wasn't that bad. She was having a really hard time. It went down hill as soon as he found out it was his sister that she had the accident. The relationship became all twisty and hard to watch, so much so that I considered dropping it at ep 10. I wish they made that storyline shorter, it was SO hard to watch. They should have gotten them back together before the end of the last episode.The ML was a real one all the way through, he's the greenest flag. The leads really went through it. I would of liked to see more games, we only saw them play together a few times. It would have been nice to have a flashforward at the end, showing them with medals and trophies. Can't believe they didn't show who won the match at the end, like what was the point!? I really wanted to see then win gold together.
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Amazing Chemistry
The best part of this drama is, without question, the chemistry between the two leads. From the very start they had the best kind of relationship — playful bickering, but with the added fact that they were two people who each had their own trauma, who had somehow found each other and the emotional support they hadn't been able to get anywhere else. There was something so beautiful and heart-breaking about every scene with the two of them just being together, something so intimate about the conversations they had whether or not there was any skinship (which we did get, satisfyingly).Other than that, the second and side ships were also fun to watch and had their unique dynamics that added to the story. Even as independent characters, I really liked all the side characters.
The main plot of this drama surrounds Taeyang's past catching up with her, and this really takes center stage in the second half of the show. It was a decent plotline, but I definitely wish that it was resolved sooner because as much as I loved the angst we got between the leads because of it (those super emotionally packed scenes were where I cried BUCKETS), but I felt like the badminton part of the drama started to taper off — there was less about the risks that athletes take and their motivations and goals, but it was more about forgiveness and guilt. I have nothing against this drama veering into melodrama territory but I definitely think it lasted a little too long and we barely got to see any badminton matches, whereas the first half was a lot about the characters training and trying to improve.
With that being said, the ending did feel a little rushed too. I disagree with some of the main themes that the plot ended up seeming to say and wish our two leads had been given more agency; it felt like some plot development either happened out of convenience or they were waiting for other characters to change so that they could make decisions. While I understand that our main leads are simply two very selfless and patient (perhaps to a fault) characters and that Asian culture is very family-centered, if you're more confrontational and about self-interest/self-love (as I am) you might find it frustrating and plot-convenient.
Overall, still a really fun watch for me. Taejun is hands down the best male lead I've watched this year and will go down as one of my permanent favorites. This entire drama is just full of green flag male leads.
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I really enjoyed the character development of some of the characters, especially the ML's sisters.
the drama showed a very natural process of healing and dealing with trauma.
all the characters had a very hopeful ending.
the drama showed us the stories of joining, quitting, rejoining, and retiring from the world of sports in the most realistic way possible.
shout out to the Yunis team for having the most lovable side characters!!
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This review may contain spoilers
WATCH IT or NOT?
NOTE: This review is purely subjective.WATCH IT!!! Here's why:
I drool all over when it comes to a good ROM-COM. That's my genre and I simp for it. Add a little bit of SPORT and voila! I love LOVE ALL PLAY! My pals, I am hooked. I loved watching every inch of the episode. The story escalates at a steady pace and is just perf. In terms of characterisation, storyline, plot, theme, mood and tone, and setting the growth is obvious and neat. There are no major hiccups. It is a happy-happy one. The ending is most definitely not rushed or cramped which often is the cast for most romcom dramas. Another reason to watch!
CHARACTERISATION: Where do I even start? Every role has character development and no role was overlooked or was without a purpose. Every role was given priority and was represented well. Every episode reveals the different sides to each character(characterisation) which was interesting to watch because it was never repetitive or boring. Everyone had a growth story.
STORYLINE & PLOT: The storyline and plot itself would not have been unique if it weren't for the different perspectives shown in the drama. I love the faces of the characters and their interactions which elevate the storyline and truly bring life to the plot.
THEME: This drama includes several themes and sport is the main. Other strong themes are sibling relation, love, team spirit, friendship, forgiveness, and chasing one's dream. Some surface-touched or shallow themes include step-sibling bonding, misunderstanding, and social ethics (especially in the sports industry).
MODE & TONE: The acting skills of the cast is everything. I can't imagine a better crew to pull this off so well. Every actor in the drama is doing an excellent job of delivering the emotions and expressing the dialogue in the best way possible. Usually, there's always room for improvement, but bruh! Their acting and this particular drama cast DONT. I mean it because regardless of what scene it is, be it as simple as a sigh or a fall on the ground while playing during a match, everything has been in perfect sync and not awkward at any point at all. I could relate to all the roles at all times and felt super involved with them as well.
SETTING: Revolves around badminton(obviously). I like that they were attentive to the setting and places at which they shot their scenes. It really reflected the sports spirit well. The setting DEF helped in the delivery and the evoking of emotions.
Other comments:
This definitely reminds me of another Kdrama and my all-time favourite RUN ON. However, LOVE ALL PLAY is badminton centered. Every interaction between Park Taejun (1st ML) and Yuk Junghwan (2nd ML) was so precious. I absolutely love their clashes and their competitive spirit until the very end. Especially in episode 8. (Minor detail: In episode 8 between the 17:00-18:00 time stamp, you can clearly see that Taejun's hair has got brown highlights and Junghwan's hair has blue highlights. This slight yet interesting contrast is much like their personality and roles in the drama. One is warm and hot like fire and the other is cool and cold like water/ice. They are like fire and water. Two opposite elements :) The chemistry between the leads is undeniable and will make you go cray cray. The second lead couple will make you swoon buddy. I honestly didn't expect them to hit me this hard but they grew on me without even realising. I love the pairing and how twisted their connections are in general. Their simple relationships from the past seem to have complicated their present but that is the most interesting part. To see how they deal with the situations and move forward to achieve their dreams. This is also highly motivating for me as a viewer or audience.
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All in all, if you were able to read all of the above and if you liked what you read, you will not be disappointed watching this drama.
HAPPY WATCHING!
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go for this already, why are you still reading?
I'm not into sports honestly but this drama is just so good. I can't even explain it in words rn how I am feeling. This is just so good. Park Taejun is a walking Green Flag and Park Taeyang (Juhyun) one of my fav actress since "extracurricular" did not disappoint. The chem was so good. I don't usually write an entire paragraph about how I am feeling for a drama but this is just different. I will not be mentioning any other actresses/actors bcs if i would, the review would be very long. So for Soohyang unnie, she's so good at acting. She made me hate her in school 2015 and she was so good at acting there and it still the same as now. Like bruh are you really her? TT TT love this drama sm 100/10 would rewatch it after a year! Hoping i would kind of forget some part so he next time i watch this i would be surprised again.Was this review helpful to you?
Just mehh boring..
Actually, this drama is good if there are no childish problems. from the start I didn't feel happy about the problems in this drama from everyone who treated FL badly and FL who was very stupid felt guilty because of her own actions even though I don't think it was her fault either but she was too afraid to admit it and through it she made it worse chooses to hide it and prefers to put all the blame on him. On the other hand, ML comes like a warrior prince who wants to help his beloved woman through all trials. I don't know why I don't enjoy and don't like stories like this, even though I like romance dramas and ost dramas, but stories that I think are a waste of time are really unacceptable.Was this review helpful to you?
