Really Cute
The beginning of the series is largely taken up with a bullying plotline that isn't very pleasant to watch, made worse by the implication that the main character's foster brother has not done anything about this for 3 years. The manhwa makes it clear that he didn't know about it, but that's not at all apparent in the series. The story builds up some dramatic tensions that are more or less handwaved away, so once the boys are together there's really nothing left to say, yet the series continues, leading to an underwhelming finale.So, All wrapped up,
It was a nice little try at the drama. It seems like something someone in school would make or would make for one of those "make in an X amount of time" events. Please no speed running, it needs more story/plot and not to be so rushed. The soundtrack probably needs to be less distracting and choppy. Also absolutely nothing against the actors, Maybe pick actors who are more comfortable with being cast or more experienced with BL? It could make things seem a little less awkward. I'm only saying that because they seemed awkward and stiff during the drama at times.
Overall: it is watchable and sort of cute in a very cringe sort of way, thankfully its a short so one sitting is good enough to watch it.
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Taeseong.. sculpted like a dream... everything else a nightmare
I am a bit exaggerating ofc. Nightmare is more extreme than this show was. This show was no curves or extremes. Blant and blah.Story is non existent. Acting was also mediocre.
Two brothers from different mothers fell in love. There is a hitch. But so mild that I was left in meh mode throughout.
But props to little emotion evoked by the adopted son. I felt that little inner child that wanted to satisfy the adoptive mother. It hurt a bit. Also fluffy and supportive friends were cute, also the friend with good English. I notice you, okay?
Also, the first lead, the real son, Taeseong. What in the sometimes Yibo - sometimes Win-win combination was that?? God bless, all I gotta say.. his looks got better and better from episode to episode.. cleansing my eyes and keeping my attention until the very end. Many things were cringe but kissing scenes were not. To be expected from older actors but I was expecting nothing really.
Very uncontroversial, low stakes and unmemorable watch.
However it is just fine, you will not feel particularly disappointed, going back to beginning of my review. Is it worth it cos of the super handsome lead? It is 8eps but for me -- Not really.
That is it! Let's move on... although Taeseong.
Enjoy your day!
And thanks for reading.
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Why is this series included in the Top BL in 2022??
The story didn't focus on the emotional aspect but what I love in this drama is that it stays on its lane. The story isn't forced. This is a typical love story but has done perfectly compared to other BL dramas. The actors did their respective roles. They acted as what their characters must be. The only problem I have in high school dramas is the bullying. Is bullying that harsh in Korea?Why is this series included in the Top BL in 2022??? It is because it deserves to be.
I'm not pushing you to watch this series, but if you don't have any kdramas to watch, watching Cherry Blossoms After Winter will not waste your time.
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BL high school romance, interesting content not developed enough because of time constraints
This drama is centred around the relationship of two high-schoolers that live together and develop feeling for each other.The biggest flaw of the show is its shortness: there were so many good elements to the story that I really wish that the drama would have been longer to develop them more. It would have made the romance more believable if the pacing had been more balanced. All the narrative arcs were interesting in a way but it missed the mark sometimes as their developments were a bit too rushed and superficial.
The two main leads did a convincing job and the growth of the relationship of their characters was cute to follow. Maybe there was not enough pining and tension but it is clearly because of the script rather than the actors' fault. The side characters were properly fleshed out, even with not a lot of screen time, I was interested in their interactions with the two main protagonists.
I love the soundtrack of this drama: the opening song was great and overall every piece of music in the story was really pleasant to listen to. Production-wise, the show was pretty with some iconic scenes (most of them being shown in the opening generic which was a bit of a spoiler but also was great to watch those moments again at the start of each episode).
I would recommend this to people looking for a BL high school romance with a cohabitation trope. It might not be that memorable, but it is a cute short watch.
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This review may contain spoilers
HAEBOM AND TAESUNG ACTING SO GOOD!!
series ini bagus banget serius, peran haebom yang polos dan pemalu disandingin sama taesung yang cool dan to the point bikin mereka makin serasi? biasanya kalau nonton ep 1 kita belum dapet feel dan harus pengenalan dulu, tapi pas aku tonton baru ep 1 langsung kepincut ? akting sedihnya haebom dapet banget fell nya beneran bagus banget beliau akting, soft spoken mereka berdua juga lucu pol, lembut nya mereka berdua ?dan ini pasti relate sama kehidupan karena sebagai seorang ibu pastinya kaget ngeliat anak kita bisa jatuh cinta sama segender, tapi akhirnya ibunya bisa buka pikiran buat nerima. recommend banget serius ♥️
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friends to lovers ? amo
mais uma vez eu aqui defendendo o friends to lovers!!!eu não sei o que aconteceu pra eu ter largado esse daqui no passado mas estou feliz que colocaram ele na minha tl (em comemoração aos 2 anos de lançamento) e eu pude dá uma chance novamente. eu já disse em uma review aqui antes que como friends to lovers tem um ponto incrível que é a evolução de um amor que sempre foi genuíno e bonito. a relação entre o haebom e o taesung não é uma das melhores mas é possível se observar ali o carinho e a preocupação que eles tem entre si. quando o amor evolui para algo romântico é difícil não se pegar com borboletas na barriga enquanto se torce para os dois. a história tem uma passagem de tempo muito rápida mas eles conseguiram fazer algo coerente com isso, os personagens (quase todos) são um amor e a interação entre eles é algo divertido de ser ver. um ponto alto fora o romance é a relação de ambos meninos com a sra Ha, é uma relação de respeito, gratidão e amor materno. no geral é uma boa história de se acompanhar.
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super cute! feels like a fanfic come true
I remember when I was a teenager, I used to write and read fanfics about my favourite idols (don’t ask who, i die of embarrassment thinking about it now).this feels exactly like a fanfic come true and the entire filming and production was great. it constantly felt like there was a… sepia filter over, romantic constantly.
while there definitely are parts that are meh, like the weak ML being extremely weak (it really got quite annoying at times). but overall, I’d say this is a drama to watch curled up on your couch on a rainy day to just heal your heart and warm you up.
issues are quickly solved and every other moment is just candy like (ok one moment wasn’t).
it’s a really simple drama, 8 episodes revolving around the mains which is great in this situation, extremely easy watch, super cute.
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This review may contain spoilers
Too short, or too much in short time
Beware of time jumps. I loved the acting. I felt like they conveyed their feelings. I was confused a lot of times, either by time jumps, scene cuts or just not having some things clear from the beginning. Tae Sung suddenly realizing Hae Bom is going to be away, or the fact that we had no idea how Tae Sung felt, it was a bit confusing. Either the show needed to be a lot longer or cut around the endges to make it shorter.I completely recommend rewatching because you can watch it knowing the intent behind, but the pacing it was off.
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Old Fashioned but Enjoyable Bromance
The Korean film industry is second to none in production values and "Cherry Blossoms After Winter" is no exception. The music is a stand-out here. There are none of the usual distractions of multiple plots and, for the most part, the drama avoids most of the BL cliches. But Korean BL dramas are still pretty conservative, compared to those coming from Thailand and the Philippines. We get many excellent kissing scenes but nothing more, which is a bit of a let-down after 8 episodes. The Korean BL drama "Mr. Heart" ingeniously implied sexual intimacy by putting the characters in a jjimjilbang (Korean bath house) -- even while that drama, ironically, barely had a kissing scene. The mother's concern about homophobic prejudice is a plot point that is now out of date. Presumably the script is taken from an existing novel that may very well be 10-20 years old. At least the actress who plays the Mom manages to rise above the 2-dimensional character cliche, as written. Overall, "Cherry Blossoms..." is a highly enjoyable bromance with wonderful music, beautiful photography and passionate acting.Was this review helpful to you?
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krork
this drama..is adopted from a manhwa...and usually manhwas are super long...so it's just simply impossible for the makers to fir everything into mere 8 eps...and deliver a godd storythe drama feels a bit cut out from between...
the first 2 episodes were literally boring n pointless for me because I just couldn't understand why taesung was behaving in that way...but then later in ep3 the misunderstanding was cleared and it gave reasoning to taesungs actions in tha first 2 episodes...the story upto ep 4 or 5 was okay..
but after that it just feels boring cringey and too stiff...the scenes which are supposed to make u blush actually made me cringe...like that scene where taesung was eating something (cream bun I suppose) and the filling was dripping so haebom just bit the other end to prevent the filling from coming out..it just seemed cringe to me
as for the acting..not to be rude to any of the actors but I really did not like the acting of anyyyyy actor...now i haven't watched other dramas of any of these actors so idk about their overall acting ...but in this drama it was not good
as for the story..as I said already it was adopted from a manhwa..ig the original manhwa has about 140 achapters so clearly...the flow of the story in the manhwa will be much smoother...in the drama I feel...the makers have just simply like..picked some scenes from manhwa which they thought wd serve as gr8 fanservixe and they just put it up there in each episode due to which everything felt weirdly cut off
so i wd not suggest watching this drama...you should just go for the webtoon because I feel the webtoon or manhwa serves a lot better than the drama...
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The Cherry isn't Blossoming
Short Review:Enjoyable series if you're looking for mindless fluff and eye candies on your screen. The actors are the highlight of the series, but everything else falls flat. Pacing is bad - story is too big to fit into 160 minutes. This could have worked better if each episodes were 50 minutes long OR if they made it into two seasons. Cinematography has its moments, but every shot in the classroom was amateurish at best. I usually don't mind bad cinematography but this one was particularly jarring to me. I do have to say though, this is a series I will still enjoy rewatching because the actors were just captivating together. But you do have to be quite forgiving of its flaws if you want to truly enjoy the series.
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A very aesthetic fairy tale that also has some depth
At first, the story is so stereotypical that you would expect to read it in an encyclopedia entry on BL as an example story: sweet little weakling is heavily bullied in school until the savior comes along. And of course, they are stepbrothers. All the good stuff :)But upon closer inspection, some things aren't as stereotypical as you would think - or judging from quite a few very bad reviews here - not as stereotypical as some would want it to be. This is not for you if ...
... you like a simple story stretched out over 12 episodes of 45 minutes each, spelling everything out for you
... you need a clear seme/uke relationship with no deviations
... you are looking for somewhat realistic cinematography or a very realistic story (but please, which BL ever has that?)
To elaborate on the above statements:
- The episodes are 25 minutes each and every episode is a new chapter in their life. So it is somewhat fast-moving and spans over a year or maybe even more. But to me, it was very nicely paced and it is easy to fill in the gaps that you didn't see.
- In the beginning, the smaller boy is indeed the weakling and the tall guy is the strong protector but over time it becomes apparent that the smaller guy is actually the stronger and more confident one. This culminates in the nice twist in the finale. I don't want to spoil, so let me just say: as this is Korean, it is especially nice how being gay is such a non-issue.
- The cinematography and set design and makeup and styling and everything visual in this is just from another world. Everything is in soft pastels, with extremely nice sun-lit views, sun flares and lovely interior design and architecture. And of course he has a part-time job in a flower shop that's straight out of an AI's mind with the perfection level and the pink level set to maximum. So in that regard, it is all very fake. At one point there is an outside scene on the street in an actual neighborhood and it felt a bit out of place to me, as it was - surprise - realistic looking. Some might hate this style, I love it. It is a fluffy fairy tale - enjoy it! The story and how the step-brothers act towards each other and with their mother is also a bit unrealistic at times, but even that for me adds to the positive fairy-tale experience.
Smaller details:
- The two friends are such nice characters, as I said before, especially as this is Korean.
- The smaller actor is so unbelievably good at conveying emotion with his eyes and face: the looks of fear and love and happiness from the tiniest of facial changes are so convincing - at least for me (I have read contrary views on here).
What a blossoming cherry tree is to nature, this piece of art is to BL.
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