User Not Found (2021)

Self Acceptance vs Social Acceptance

I watched this drama with little expectation. The only one that attracted me is the unique title which started with @Account Has Been Deleted (@계정을 삭제하였습니다) to User Not Found. There is a connection between the drama title with this review title I will explain in the end.

STORY
There are three plots in this drama according to its genres:

Youth/School Genre: Coming of Age/Growing Up
The drama focuses on the first Female Lead who, no matter how boring her character is, represents many of viewers’ common personalities. She is quiet, introverts, shy, compares herself with others, fantasizes a lot, and mostly in desperate need of social acceptance of her new classmates. So this is shy Yoo Min Jae (played by Shin So Hyun) or we call it Pop-Min (as her friends call her later) to distinguish her from the other Yoo Min Jae. Pop-Min is transferred in the second year of highschool to a new school. On the first day she already freaked out of not being be able to find friends in any group no matter she tries, as she experienced in the past schools. Unexpectedly, some girls mistaken her for a Yoo Min Jae, who is a popular fashionista and a social influencer on Instagram. Pop-Min just accepts her ‘luck’ by saying nothing. However, since she’s not confident enough to carry out the lie, the pressure is enough to get her thinking of “disappearing from this world”.

Romance Genre: Slow Burn
And this is where Male Lead Shin Yi Joon comes in. No, he’s not a knight in the shining armor. He overhears her saying it by the bridge. No, she doesn’t try to jump and kill herself. Later, we find he had the same thought before. Thus, a friendship begins base on the same understanding and sympathy between Pop-Min and Yi Joon. Yi Joon, surprisingly, is not the typical ML in romance dramas. He is equally quiet and shy, but he doesn’t give a damn about what other people think or say about him. Something happened to him in the past.

The romance is slow burn, mostly due to Pop-Min and her secret that she’s hesitated with Yi Joon. No love triangle, no annoying second lead. There is a little misunderstanding that resolves quickly.

Drama Genre: Past trauma
The knight in the shining armor for Pop-Min is actually in the form of the other Yoo Min Jae (Han Ye Ji) or we call her Moo-Min. Something happens in the past that makes her transfer to... Pop-Min’s school, in fact, to her class. But Moo-Min disguises as a plain Jane. She just wants to go to school as quietly as possible until graduation. Of course, she’s surprised there is Pop-Min who uses her Ig identity. An agreement strikes between the two Min Jaes to swap identities, and an unlikely friendship begins.

There are other character’s past traumatic experiences that shape how they think and do in this drama.

ACTING
You can’t expect much expertise from newbies. Since the nature of Pop-Min and Yi Joon are basically quiet and shy characters, there are a lot of scenes that look draggy, showing how these two characters think and act. Audiences are mostly root over other lively characters in this drama. And that what makes me disappointed is actually the production of this drama, as explained below.

PRODUCTION
I mean, though the actors are newbies, but with good directing, a rookie actor can bring up a character no matter how hard it is. But I guess the director is a noob too. The story is not based on a novel or manhwa, where dialogues can have a powerful source from. There are a lot of monologues of what characters think, that are not as interesting as dialogues between two characters. Therefore, I’m not impressed with the scriptwriting too.

VISUAL
A bunch of characters with eye candies, nothing to complain. Even Pop-Min is pretty, in my opinion, far from an appearance of a girl who supposedly regular and has low self-esteem. The cinematography is okay too, despite of most location is their highschool. I like the costume of Moo-Min when she’s in her own fashionable self.

OST
- G=ONE & Jang Daegyeom “Lamose”
- Jo Jin Ho and Kino from Pentagon “A-HA!”
- Saula “Love Confession”. Bae Jin Young, the actor who played as the ML, covered this song for his love confession to Pop-Min.

Fortunately, the drama ends with character growth of Pop-Min. She becomes self-confident, especially when the story of what happened to the popular Yoo Min Jae (Moo-Min) comes out and the ‘undercover’ Pop-Min is affected. Many viewers are disappointed at the ending of the drama in which doesn’t really resolve Moo-Min’s problem. But since the drama actually centers of Pop-Min, not Moo-Min, it ends up well in my opinion. No, the forever strong Moo-Min has already resolved her own problems. No need to clarify the misunderstanding of what happened to her from the authority side and public. And this is what I like about this drama. The theme is growing up without having other support system than your school friends, when the other supporting system (parents, teachers, older characters) is not available. The matter brought up by this drama is learning how to choose genuine friends wisely.

In conclusion, as I wrote in the beginning about the connection between the drama title and the review title. There is a scene close to the end in which Moo-Min deletes her Ig account that symbolizes her past. Hence, where the drama title @Account Has Been Deleted or User Not Found comes from. At first I wondered why she deletes the account she has worked hard to build her popular reputation. That’s when the moral of the story comes: self-acceptance is more important than social acceptance. Both Pop-Min and Moo-Min especially (other characters too but not explicit) in the end accept themselves with firm support of each other and true friends.

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It had potential

I was really waiting for this webdrama since the first teaser was released, the story looked promising and the cast pretty cool but it was more disappointing every new episode, the idea is good and they had 22 episodes to develop it, BUT that's where they lacked, the couple started dating in the last episode when we all were waiting for it to happen soon, the main plot was rushed at the end, they lied to all the school but it was resolved easily, the story of Minjae was uncompleted, just flashbacks to try to understand what happened to her and her ex, the introvert Minjae acting was so so, even for a webdrama.

The only highlight for me was the friendship story of the two Minjaes

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Had more to deliver

So, the reason I said that it had more to deliver was because I wasnt happy with everything. I know that it is a web-drama and that it can't have everthing detailed but after the first few episodes it went south. I was really glad when I found out about this drama but it didn't reach my expectation. I likes the two main girls, espacially Yoon Min-Jae played by Han Ye-Ji. She was actually the one who made me watch the whole web drama 'til the end. I did not like the ML at all, he wasn't intresting, the only thing he had was his handsome face. I saw nothing in his role. He was boring. His cousin was much more gripping and for me, he suited the main male lead better. It all was just rushed. The story was just not finished, everything with the ex boyfriend and all happened too fast, it being the main reason to why they actually changed identity. I mean, they shouldn't and things that they wont show futher on, just a waste, could've gon to detail about other things instead.

The best thing in this drama was how well i was filmed and the friendship between the two Min-Jae's. My fav scene is the one in the coffee shop, very wholesome. Other than that, I wouldn't watch this again.

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Chill drama but a main character not believable or even unbearable

the biggest flaw of this drama is the acting of the main actress playing Yoo min Jae. I really had a hard time getting into it and feeling any empathy or friendship for her. Fortunately, the other characters are there to make you want to continue the story. Overall, it's a good drama that can be watched in chill mode and enjoyed. Overall I had a good time. I also have the impression that the beginning of the drama is very long to set up and that the end is closed very quickly. too bad, we don't have all the answers we would like to have and characters therefore go from useful to useless.

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Good Enough

Korean Drama "User Not Found" is a korean web drama with an interesting plot about two girls with the same name, changing identities.

The drama starts off strong, with the introduction of the characters and the slow build up of the friendship between the girls. The story progresses smoothly, with few twists and intrigues, focusing rather on the characters, their feelings and their actions. However, the drama started getting boring and more hectic towards the ending. The conclusion was rushed, and it was anticlimactic and pretty much a letdown. And, in the end, the main character proved to be a boring one, with no personality and just those tiring damsel in distress vibes. The romance was cute, on the other hand, but did not mature nicely.

So, overall, 4 out of 10.

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MIN JAE (THE 'REAL' ONE ) WAS THE REASON I FINISHED IT

It had a very interesting story and had the right amount of mystery in it, but in the end i think they rush to wrap it up so in the last two episodes everything happened so fast and we didnt get an proper explanation for some things. The characters were pretty good but i think that the side one shine more,they had more complicated storylines that keeped you watching. I am not a big fan of the main Min Jae (the introvert one), but i did enjoy her storyline with the main male lead and of course i adored the friendship between her and the other Min Jae, probably that friendship is the reason i gave 8.5 rating, at some points i thought that the other Min Jae had a crush on introvert Min Jae but that wasnt the case. I was in general really confused with the characters relatioships. At first i thought that both males liked introvert Min Jae, but the second male lead never liked her, and then i thought that he liked the other Min Jae but it wasnt confirmed (but i do believe that their last scene where he made fun of her height meant something).
Very important to say that the storyline of Min Jae (the other) is it was so needed, not only because it made her the best character but because this topics are extremly important and people dont talk enough about them.
In general it wasnt a bad drama, but some things were executed poorly
An okay drama to watch.

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Some Main Roles Could be Better if not for the noob director

The first Minjae act is so awkward she didn't even try huhu when I read the description I thought it would be good but the actress is not it. The real Minjae is good tho. The guy is like a trying hard actor he should practice and train more if he wants to last in this industry>.< It could be better if this was casted right:( the concept could be a unique one. If it weren't for the real 'Minjae' I wouldn't finish this. Also, it has disappointing ending, looked rush maybe because it didn't received the hype because of the leads>.<




Just figured out that most of the main roles are rookie. They can still be better if they practice more, or maybe the directing is at fault as well, such a shame it didn't turn out well

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An enjoyable, easy watch

User Not Found doesn't have a super profound message, storyline or concept per se, but it's not really meant to be that way. It's nothing new, still has the same love triangle plot line, although the love triangle isn't super strong in this one since Hyejun isn't really interested in the main Yoo Minjae. But it's still a refreshing Korean Drama and it also doesn't take too long to watch. Definitely enjoyable for times where you just want to be entertained by something sweet, interesting and quick.

I'll just go through a few of the characters:
Main Yoo Minjae: Super relatable character, I've been in the same position of going to a new school and being scared of not having friends, so seeing her be in that same situation was very understandable. She was very naive though, as is the case with most female k-drama leads unfortunately, but i'm glad she at least had Hyejun and No Min to point out her naiveté and how she shouldn't trust everyone, because Jiwan was such a snake and it was frustrating how much main Minjae didn't see that. I was also kinda scared when she started trusting Hyejun, but she was lucky he ended up being a good person at the end. She grew from that though. At the end she started seeing people for who they were and stood up for herself.

No Min: I loved how confident No Min was and how much she used her experience to see through all the fake people Minjae was dealing with. Their friendship was so refreshing and genuine. I was really curious about what happened to her, and it was really sad what happened, but at least she got to get a bit of justice.

Yijun: I hate to say this but he was really boring. I'm just not into the whole quiet, misunderstood, kind male lead thing. I'd much rather have had Hyejun as the male lead because at least he had a personality, and although he was twisted, he was still interesting. Yijun was alright though, at least him and Minjae had similar interests and he was nice.

Hyejun: I liked his character development. At first I really didn't know what his intentions were, I thought he'd cause problems for Minjae, then realized he just needed real friends and was actually very caring. Although he did some messed up things, his intentions were always good. I think him and Minjae would have been such a cute couple. He was so much more attractive to me than Yijun, him and Minjae had amazing chemistry, he was smart, and he knew her secret from the start.

I would probably not rewatch User Not Found as it's not something I loved, but i did really like it and thought it was very wholesome. The ending was kinda rushed, and it wasn't really clear to me whether they exposed their real identities to their classmates or not, plus I didn't understand why No Min didn't expose her ex, but I liked how Minjae and her gang ended up being genuine friends at the end. 8/10

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Easy, mindless watch with a message

It's a web drama so the episodes are short. I finished this in one day. My expectations weren't very high, so I wasn't disappointed. Most of the actors are new/relatively new, so the acting is kind of stiff and unnatural at times. The male lead was gorgeous, but only had one expression for most of the show.

It's a story about being re-invented accidentally. Would you confess or let it ride? If you have always wanted to be popular and suddenly were, though it literally had nothing do to with you personally, would you tell people the truth? This addressed this issue, as well as the usual teen drama subjects (though in an abbreviated manner) of bullying, gossiping, etc.

I liked the friendships in this drama. Things were definitely not as they appeared to be at all times. Who can you trust? Is it safe to trust anyone with your secrets?

I would say this is a good watch when you need a break from heavier fare.

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Very disappointing

The script seemed promising, but it offers nothing, apart from the performance of a few young idols.

PLOT: 2 FL, arrive, with the same name but a different personality and past. They decide to exchange their profiles. How will they integrate?

PROS:
+ debut of young idols on screen :)
+ Good OSTs
CONS:
- zero story: we get lost in childishness, lies and hypocrisy. And it lasts for 22 episodes (15 minutes, fortunately :)
- The FL is maddeningly naive!!
- Acting skills to improve for everyone
- no chemistry within the CL (together in the finale, only).

=> Lots of skipping... Series that won't help these idols make their debut :(
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Le script semblait prometteur, mais il ne propose rien, hormis la performance de quelques jeunes idoles.

PLOT: 2 FL, arrivent, avec le même nom mais une personnalité et un passé différents. Elles décident d'échanger leur profil. Comment vont-elles s'intégrer ?

PROS:
+ débuts de jeune idoles à l'écran
+ Excellentes OST (idol's drama :)
CONS:
- story nulle : on se perd en enfantillages, en mensonges et en hypocrisie. Et ça traine sur 22 épisodes (de 15 minutes, heureusement :)
- La FL est d'une naïveté exaspérante !!
- Des acting skills à améliorer pour tout le monde
- pas d'alchimie au sein du CL (together dans le final, seulement).

=> Bcp de zapping ... Série qui n'aidera pas ces idoles à faire leurs débuts :(

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