Cherry Blossoms after Winter (2022)

Shaky start but blossoms sweetly

I enjoy how HaeBom grew and changed as a characters, starting with a doormat personality, but grew to stand up for himself and take the initiative to do things that will make himself happy rather than defer to other people's will. I really like how the costume department very subtly changed up his styling and wardrobe as he matured and got more confident.

I feel the worst for HaeBom who lost his family and was so thoroughly rejected and given a cold shoulder by his only friend for 12 years while living in the same house. TaeSung is partly to blame for HaeBom becoming like this although he rejected HaeBom becoming his brother because he already knew he loved him in a different way even as a child, 12 years of not being friends with him left HaeBom isolated.

Even though HaeBom is the one with the most changes, kudos to TaeSung's steadfast love and support once he snaps out of his 12 years of frosty coldness when he realizes he may forever separate from HaeBom once they go into university. He really is the one that loves HaeBom the most in this world. He did learn that he enjoy baking too, good for him.

EunSun is a single mom who works hard and loves both her kids and even though she had a hard time accepting them as a couple immediately, it came from fearing that they will have a hard time in society rather from hatred within herself. TaeSung's besties are great, it's nice to see his guy friend YoungHee so accepting and encouraging.

I was happy to see HaeBom be the one proposing even though TaeSung was the first to say he would later, there is no binary separation of roles for them. It's also sweet that this couple gets that far whereas most k bl/lgbt dramas are loves pretty much end the story of when the couple has just gotten together.

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A feel good series with no angst and drama

For no reason that I can think of I have been ignoring this series but finally I decided to give it a watch and I am glad that I did. This series is kind of different from many other BL series that I have watched. So what makes this one different

Story: In simple terms it's about two boys that live under the same roof, stay aloof from one another but certain circumstances brings them together and love blossoms. Since it is an 8 episode series things move at a faster pace. Limitedtime is being spent to show the backstories of the 2 main characters and in more ways than one their personalities are relatable. The story could have been fleshed out but due to lack of time they decided to cut to the chase and just show the bare minimum. Like there being a bully in school tormenting one of the leads and you feel you have your antagonist but then he is no where to be found after a couple of episodes

No 3rd Act break-up: Every love story usually goes through the 3rd act break-up. Misunderstanding, family or society pressure, conflict between the leads and many other reasons are shown almost close to the ending for the 2 leads to break-up and then they get together in the final episode. There is no problem in showing that, its just that with limited episodes it always seems rushed. In this series we feel that we are nearing the third act break-up thanks to the mom but then no such thing occurs. The 2 leads always remain together. It was new and refreshing and I was happy about that but also it made me feel that the idea was to not show any drama. So I was glad but not content with this

In conclusion, the 2 actors did a fabulous job and showed great chemistry together. The story could have been managed well with certain parts fleshed out like the bully and the flower shop owner. But if you are looking for a no non-sense, less drama show that do give this one a chance. You will come out feeling good

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want cute actors and sweet story - perfect series

I just love this series from episode first episode to last. One of the best series in my list.

The story is perfect.Its short and sweet. It is also the perfect series for beginners. You will understand the meaning of shoes and sweet by watching this series. It's not much emotional but a bit emotional. But there is 10000% sweetness.

The actors are the best. Bottom is cute , innocent, sweet??. Top is hot, aggressive and protective??. As every series their acting is also damn good.

10000001% worth to watch it . Trust me you will not waste your time .

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"Love comes in many forms and is different for everyone"

I think this was my second or third time watching this BL but my opinion didn't change... and if it did, it only got better 'cause I think this series is one of that type of show that grows in us.
This series is so cute and easy to watch, I love the chemistry between the actors and the way that the history flows is amazing.
TaeSung is really something, he's so hard to read I think that if it didn't had some TaeSung "povs" I would keep living my life without knowing what he was really thinking about. Even though he was this way, his love for HaeBom was always so honest that it hurted sometimes seeing him "admire" HaeBom from afar. Something that I don't understand and didn't enjoyed on the series was the way he changed after he started dating HaeBom... like, I know love change us but that was a bit too much, hide your feelings for someone is hard but that justifies why he was so cold for everyone all the time, after he confessed his feelings for HaeBom we saw a different face of TaeSung, not only towards his boyfriend but with everyone, including his mom with whom he didn't had a great relationship.
HaeBom, just like Troye Sivan says "Baby, you're my angel", this is exactly what I feel about him, he's so precious but he's kinda dumb and slow hahahhaha, he's a softie baby if I could keep him in my pijama's pocket I would do it, he deserves being protected at all costs and no one is better to do that than his hottie boyfie ahahhh
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I really like this series, it makes me feel confortable and loved at some point I don't know how to explain it, it kinda feels like home...

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The series is worth watching again and again ...

I have watched this series for almost 5 times ....even then I m not bored ....this story is not just a school love story .the love Tae song have for hae bom is out of the world....he love him so much .....they both have great chemistry and the height difference is ♥️.....the drama is well directed that no one will get bored in any scenes.....haebom also collected courage to accept his love for Tae song...even...i have doubt that if TS Mom say haebom to break up then he will...but I m glad the writers did not this time......I love both Tae song and Haebom....as well as Tae song friend....

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Too Many Manhwa Concepts for a Live Action Adaptation

Cherry Blossoms After Winter is a nice BL drama, but it has too many manhwa style plot points that it's better left on paper than in live action.

That being said, while most of this review will be a little critical, the drama isn't bad, especially the ending. The drama would be a better anime, rather than a live action.


PLOT:

As an young child, Haebom was left orphaned. However, he was adopted by Taeseong's mother, who was his mom's best friend. Despite Taeseong and Haebom being friends when they were children, after the adoption they grew apart. Taeseong is handsome and very popular, while Haebom feels he is inferior.

In their senior year of high school Taeseong and Haebom are put in the same class, where Taeseong learns that Haebom is being bullied at school. Despite the fact they live together, Taeseong hasn't really communicated with Haebom since his adoption. He feels the need to protect Haebom, while Haebom rejects the offer for protection, saying he only has one more year of high school. Haebom feels very grateful to Taeseong and his family that he doesn't want to cause them any more trouble, and is thinking of moving out after senior year. Taeseong isn't exactly happy about Haebom leaving, nor is he happy that Haebom doesn't mind being bullied.

As stated earlier, this drama has a lot of plot points that are better suited for manhwa or webtoons.
- Childhood Friends to Adopted siblings
- Adopted Sibling Love (Not really incest since they are not blood related)
- Bullying
- Non-con Kisses
- Popular Boy loves Bullied Nerd
- One-sided Love for over 10 years'
- High School Lover's Storyline
- College Lover's Storyline (My favorite!!)

While the plot points above don't hinder the drama, it does feel make it feel unrealistic, especially when you look at how each of the characters are portrayed. Haebom is innocent and naïve. He takes in all of the bullying and is surprisingly positive about it. Taeseong is stoic and has all of the girls screaming at him. He also is very attractive, strong, and rich. Even his mother is kind, caring, supportive, and totally not involved with her children's lives that she doesn't know Taeseong and Haebom haven't spoken to each other in ages and don't get along very well.

However, the magic of BL is still there and this drama is a good one time... or maybe two time watch. Taeseong's love for Haebom and all of the ways Taeseong protects and stands by Haebom is really the stuff of dreams. While I wasn't a fan of the high school storyline, I really enjoyed it once they got into college. In college, Taeseong is more expressive and really becomes a prince. Even Haebom surprises everyone by standing up to Taeseong's mom, and even proposing to Taeseong. Haebom, who had been hiding under Taeseong's love all this time, decided to wear his big boy pants and express his love to Taeseong! Finally!! Haebom makes the ending so adorable and sweet. I wish we had more time to see how them as mature adults, rather than as students.


Haebom x Taeseong

Haebom and Taeseong are adorable as a couple. During the high school storyline, they are very 2D, stereotypical manhwa characters, but in the college storyline, they grow out of it and become more expressive. In high school, Taeseong wasn't really leading man material. He did have the usual high school kinkga/princely thing going for him, but the moment he non-consensually put his hand on Taeseong, that really ruined his character for me. In college, though, he did redeem himself by being completely devoted to Haeboom without being very overprotective of him, so I enjoyed his character a lot. Haebom, on the other hand, doesn't really have a big character change, so in the ending when he puts on his big boy pants and expresses his love for Taeseong is a little left field for me. It closed the drama nicely, so all's well, but if we got to see him being more expressive leading up to him standing up to Taeseong's mom would have been great. Either way, they are a cute couple.


ACTING:

The acting here isn't very terrible, but Haebom was a little too mousy to be realistic. Other than that the acting was decent. Not terrible, but not great.


MUSIC:

I hated the music choices for most of the drama. The music itself isn't bad, but it felt like the production staff hired a high schooler from the 00s to choose the music. The music choices felt very amateur compared to the rest of the production.


OVERALL:

Cherry Blossoms After Winter was a nice BL. It was fun to watch, but it definitely didn't feel realistic. I would love to see an anime version of this instead though. Taeseong was very cute and adorable once he matured, so I want to see more of him. Also that ending!! I really, really wish we could see more Taeseong and Haebom as adults. Their student lives were dramatic, but their adult lives look like it would be a dream come true. I really would like to see it. We really don't need a second season, but maybe a special episode just to see what happens after the finale episode.

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Very cute, but... (well done spoilers)

TL;DR - If you're wondering whether to watch this or not, I would still recommend you to do it, but be aware that it has some questionable elements.

Let's break down the story first. Actually, let's not do that since the writers already did that. By this I mean that the story is one of the things which I found pretty odd. The plot of the series is very simple. Two childhood friends who live in the same house avoided each other before they turn to lovers. A classical trope, which I'm here for. Where this falls flat (or, more accurately, odd) is in the delivery. There are just too many plot holes for this scenario to work. They've been living together for like 10 years, but they avoided each other the entire time? Sounds pretty unreasonable to me. In fact, not only did they avoid each other at home, but also in school, too? Up to the point where not a single soul knew they lived together? Not even the ML's best friends? I really had to suspend disbelief on this one (and many other things like this). Also, the subplots rarely made sense and some of the scenes felt really weird - to be precise, a lot of the times the story would jump from one situation to another without a thread connecting them. That being said, not all is bad. There's a decent amount of fluff which deepens their romance (before and after they get together), the story does progress beyond high-school, which was nice and kind of unusual to see, etc. The scenes that follow the main storyline do progress the plot, and the romance HIGHLY influences the character arcs, which I believe is the most important thing in the story.

Characters. MC is the cutest little bean for whom, even though he may be a tad too meek throughout the story, you really want to root for. A huge part of that I attribute to the actor's talent. I think his acting skill fascinated me the most. He does "grow up" into a more independent, mature adult, which is lovely to see. Also, this couldn't have been the case without the ML's love for him, which I think is the only way the romance should influence a character's growth. The ML is your standard popular guy in high school, who acts like he doesn't care for the MC, That is, until he learns that they will be separated after the MC turns 18 and leaves his house. He then jumps on the mission to befriend him (again?) and to cultivate a romantic relationship between them. We learn pretty early that he is in love with the MC, and he was really vocal about it, which was refreshing. I hate when the MLs brood for the entire series only to "reveal" they've been in love with the MC since forever. The ML also has a nice character arc, which is basically bonding with his mother (who he doesn't feel the real, motherly love from; which he kind of doesn't). Again, this transformation would not be possible without the MC supporting him. Now onto the negatives; it isn't all peachy, unfortunately. Pretty early they confess to each other and even kiss, but under the influence of alcohol, only for the MC to not remember it the next morning and for the ML to be furious about it. This results in ML literally assaulting MC, which I despised seeing. I cringed so hard, especially because MC was bullied in the school. Luckily (I guess?), ML immediately realised his wrongdoings and apologised, but it still left a bad taste. Also, the mother's "arc" was just not believable. She literally shipped them from the get-go, but when she learned about their relationship, she flips out, attacks them, and starts drinking heavily for literally no reason. Everything we've seen coming from her until that point could only lead us to believe she would accept them instantly. She literally saw them sleeping in the same bed together and was like "yass queens" only to tell how the world would not understand their love 3 minutes later. It didn't make sense, but, oh well.

Overall: Even though there are some shortcomings in the story and the characters, I really quite liked the rest of the show. The fluffy scenes are particularly well done and you would absolutely believe that these people love and care for each other. I like seeing them go from kinda-strangers in teenage-hood to lovers all the way into the adulthood, which I rarely see. I'm not sure if I want to rewatch it again, but I'm glad that I watched it this one time.

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THIS IS PERFECT I LOVE IT. LETS JUST TRY

I didn’t expect that it will be good like this.
The show is so fluffy but i also have tears in my heart. Their chemistry is fine. Their acting is not bad. Actually, I can say its pretty good. Especially, Hae-bom his acting got me everytime he appears on screen. The stories are good too. BGM and Supporting actors did a good job. They weren’t ruined series at all. I don’t know if it look like i’m over acting but i’ve watch so many bl (almost 30 drama or more that ) and i did’t like all of them. Cherryblossomsafterwinter gave me a nice vibe? Everything is good for me!

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First things first, both male leads were beautiful and I absolutely adore them together, the height difference, how sweet they were together, ugh I just loved it all. The downfall? There was a part in there where the male lead did apologize for his actions but I personally just don't think an apology was enough because he almost went overboard and I just can't deal with things like that. Other than that? He was nice, protective and sweet to the smaller boy and vice versa and I loved it. I loved that it showed that it can still complicate a parents mind and cause problems, that nothing is always dandy but in the end, it was all worth it and so I loved this. lol

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Cliche and Predictable

**Brief Synopsis**
B (Student): Hae Bom
T (Student): Tae Seong

- Beginning: B and T grew up together with B being T’s adoptive brother. B and T are extremely different. B is shy, introvert and not very good with people. T is tall handsome and popular. Although their relationship in high school isn’t as close as before, T is always looking out for B and would defend him against people who wishes him harm.

- Middle: Because of circumstances, B and T start spending more time together both at home and at school. As a result, the feelings that T had tried to hide start to resurface. B on the other hand really likes T but simply thinks T is a good friend. That all changes then T confesses to him that he wants to be more than friends.

- End: Because the confession came out of the blue, B didn’t agree right away but instead spent some time thinking. But soon he realizes that their time apart was unbearable, and he goes back to find T and agrees to date him. They kiss and start spending time together as a couple. In the last episodes, they start living together and that would have been fine until T’s mother accidentally saw them kiss. At first, she wants them to break up but after T and B expresses their feelings for each other, she agrees to their relationship. The series ends with them happy together.

**My Opinion**

WHAT I LIKED ABOUT IT:
- Relatively small amount of angst. Because the show doesn’t really delve deep in to the characters’ emotional journey to get to where they are in the finale, the angst is pretty superficial. The only angst comes from B not knowing if he should accept T or not.
- They look really cute together and I like how much they care about each other and how happy they are to be in each other’s company.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE ABOUT IT:
- The lack of build up for the relationship. For example, it was never clear why T liked B in the first place or whether B agreed to date T because he liked him or he was afraid to lose him.
- The predictable and cliche plot. There is absolutely no depth in this story. It’s a simple schoolyard romance between two adoptive brothers. The conflict come quick and is resolved quickly with no lasting consequences. Don’t try to apply logic to this tv show. Mindless watching is the best choice.
- Lack of sexual tension. Truth be told, T and B are adorable together but they look more like best friends than lovers. They are just so innocent and so happy just to be in each other’s presence. The affection is there for sure, but it’s less of an adult attraction. They don’t seem to be eager to do any more intimate stuff even when they are along.
- Lack of intimate scenes. Kissing scenes are really cute but would have liked more intimate scenes.
- Acting is a weakness here. This is an idol show and it shows. The lead actors do a good job at portraying emotion some of the time but other times, the acting just feel off. It’s also the case with some of the ensemble cast.
- The dialogues can get so cheesy it was almost painful. There is no depth in their words, just cliche dialogue we hear often in romantic movies.

**Conclusion**
This is a fluffy predictable rom com with no memorable moments.

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