This review may contain spoilers
It was anticlimactic...
***DISCLAIMER: These are just my thoughts while watching the show. We don’t have to agree and I’m not here to argue with anyone.***Tropes: sports romance, boxing, age gap, coming of age, grumpy/sunshine.
Idk... this was one of those dramas I started out of boredom. To be fair I felt like the entire drama was slow and the romance was subpar / lackluster. It only started getting interesting with the betting ring and when the men kept on kidnapping him and threatening him but they did not do enough to really develop that plot and make it compelling. Then with ML best friend dying... that just felt like a lazy way for the writer to give him some trauma so he'd turn over a new leaf and try to exit the rigged games he was participating in. I just felt depleted after all that and then to see FL lose the match at the end and not be able to end her career and retire on a high note sucked. The ending was not good, to put it nicely. I felt like that kiss high key came out of nowhere... I feel like it ended with more questions rather than answers. Like what exactly happened to the ML, why did the gun shot go off, why was ML bleeding, why did he disappear for months?
Usually I am one of those people who enjoys a reformed bad guy because he met a girl but this just completely missed the mark with me. Not to mention the FLs first relationship / bf just pissed me right off... he basically was using her so he wouldn't be unemployed then he turned around and became an agent? Spare me... if I was in sports I would not go to that man or trust him with anything.
I really wanted to rate this higher because I enjoyed Lee Sang Yeob's acting... I really feel like he put a lot of effort into his character and during his scenes you could feel the emotion dripping from the screen. It must have something to do with his really expressive eyes. Not to mention, he's good looking and has this floppy puppy dog thing about his mannerisms. His smirk / smile got me every-time and I really empathized with his character and wanted to see him win and get out of the mess he was in. But again, one man is not able to carry an entire show. I thought that the villain, Mr Kim Oh Bok (Park Ji Hwan) also did a good job of selling the role of the menacing ring leader of sorts and the FLs dad (Kim Hyung Mook) was also a scene stealer. I feel like this was Kim So Hye's debut in acting.. with that did she did ok for a first project but there are aspects of her acting that she can improve. Having said that, I'm sure she'll improve as she takes on more roles or receives more training.
Overall, I would not rewatch this drama and I'd say it is forgettable and I probably won't remember it much in the next couple of months. Nevertheless it was a good distraction and kind of kept me entertained when I had nothing else to watch.
I'd really rate this a 5.5/10 but I rounded it up to 6/10 because I did enjoy the acting and storyline to an extent... it's just that it could have been better executed and developed.
Would I recommend it to others? No, probably not. Unless you are a Sang Yeob fan and want to watch for his scenes, there's really no point. I'm not going to say anything else but if you don't trust my opinion then you should watch it and come to your own conclusions / judgments.
Anyway, thanks for reading and happy watching!
❤️
Was this review helpful to you?
When the mains deliver, but the setup is underwhelming…
I’m not gonna pretend like I started this drama with hopes of getting a high quality inspirational tale of overcoming your struggles, finding support in people around you, dealing with your trauma and fears, but I am glad the drama delivered in that area. Why did I start it though? For Lee Yang Seob’s face, and his face only. And here I also got what I asked for - damn he looks fine.Here’s the thing, My Lovely Boxer is just a drama that completely lacks balance. It switches between a heartwarming slice of life focused on the character development and makjang mafia and I’m just confused why. The whole rigged bets set up was so underdeveloped, overdramatic and distracting, I’m here asking - was there really no better way to force Tae Young and Gwon Sook into working together? Every time the focus shifted towards Kim Oh Bok I wanted to scream “NO ONE CARES!”.
If only we’ve got more information about him, if they actually tried to develop the main villain into a complex and interesting character. But no, he was there as the most cliche and empty plot device and I’m not happy. And he is not the only bad character that sucked writing wise - same goes for Gwon Sook’s father. I am sorry, but his crimes were too severe for an off-screen character development. I’m not buying it. You cannot give a character off screen development and then act as if it’s all good, it’s not.
That said, I did enjoy most of the plots not related to the bets and the father in any meaningful way. The development of trust and support between Tae Young and Gwon Sook was amazing. Her dealing with her past and being strong enough to face it - great. Every friendship she makes - loved it. Wish we'd seen more Han Ah Reum, since for me she was one of the more relatable and interesting characters.
Acting truly varied depending on the actor. Both Lee Sang Yeob and Kim So Hye did an amazing job portraying the main characters. On the other hand, Kim Jin Woo did not impress me with his delivery. Random observation, but there were also two extra actors in the last episode playing members of the rigged bets ring, and let me tell you, that was some high level of wooden acting and robot delivery.
Production value was fine. There were some editing issues - hands positions not matching between cuts, but nothing too in your face. Pretty much a standard Korean drama quality.
Overall, it was a fine watch I don’t regret finishing, but you would also not catch me recommending it to others.
Was this review helpful to you?
Hard hitting drama that punches above its weight
The start of the show is impactful and really hits you in the feels. There are so much latent angst and comments on our value system. Does winner really take it all?This show is not for the faint of heart. There are angst and pain on multiple levels, both physical and psychological. It impacts on an individual as well as societal level when it broadens to involves organised crime.
There is a hint of Itaewon Class in this show even though the core subjects are quite different. The David vs Goliath battle is all too real. I must give credit to k-dramas for their ability to make this type of impactful drama without padding it out with meaningless tripes.
This is not an idle boast as acting, writing and direction are all top-notch. Key actors put up wonderful performances. These are demanding roles. Most of them are flawed, damaged, and hurting. The direction is great. It is effective both for the pensive scenes as well as the action scenes. This is rounded out by a script full of textures and nuances. The show’s main theme of healing is universal though. It is not hard for this drama to resonate with its audiences.
To emphasize this point, the show is full of confrontations. Both in and out of the boxing ring. There are lots of metaphors and life lessons to work through as we peel back the layers. Of course, it would be a rare k-drama to do without any romance, and this is no exception. There are several, both past and present but the one between our leads is the most poignant.
While the pacing overall is good and lively, it does slow in the last quarter. The earlier build up to the big fight seem to deflate the closer it got to the actual event. This is to be expected as the show must shift focus to address the match fixing plot. However, the resolution offered feels superficial. Consider the ML is a hapless victim for the bulk of the show, his one-man crusade completely turns the tide and supplants police investigations. It is too fantastic to be believable. Of course, that is not the end of this sorry saga. This is when the show goes all in for the impactful and explosive finale. To say the show hits you in the feels would be like calling Ali just a bruiser.
I really don’t want to spoil the last episode, so I’ll just say go watch it. However, the actual last few minutes feels a bit disjointed. It is as if the ending was changed due to reactions after test screening. Watch it and see if you agree with me and my friend, Love movies. ;)
It is only 12 eps long and it is more than worth your time. Acting, production and OST are all a cut above. Rewatch is possible but I think a highlight reel will be more palatable for me as I need to watch my blood pressure.
Was this review helpful to you?
Individuality that grew on me as the show progressed.
At first I was not convinced by this drama, but it drew me in. Mainly because it told the story straight and didn’t try to avoid or gloss over the character failings. It has the feeling of something outside the normal Kdrama style of story. Perhaps that comes from being an adaptation of a novel. Novelists are often freer to express themselves and less pressured to the accepted norms of the entertainment industry.This is not for the morally squeamish. If you like your male leads to be whiter than white this is not the drama for you. It is not afraid to dabble in the sort of dirty dealings that are the bread and butter of competitive and cutthroat industries like sport.
It has a simple straightforward plot which showcases the character development that forms the heart of the story. This is a strength in the second half of the show, but for me it didn’t work well in the first half.
At the beginning the FL appears too innocent for the traumas that she had experienced when young. This made it difficult to fully believe in the relationships and interactions she had with others. She is a character that knows how to use aggression to win, however, when she is harassed she doesn’t fight back but allows herself to be pushed into something that she could have escaped from. I think that more insight was needed into her internal feelings and reasonings to make this part work. However, increasingly, Kim So Hye came to the table and visibly grew up.
Lee Sang Yeob (an actor I like watching) convinced as the unscrupulous agent, but I had to do some hard work to overcome the ambivalence created by some of his character’s actions early on. Congrats to the director for not forcing the melo too much. It helped to keep the viewer grounded in the reality of the story.
A quick shout out for Park Ji Hwan, who made a great job of the hypocritical asshole villain. My skin crawled every time he was on screen.
If you have come for the romance, you will probably be disappointed. It is there but not in the forefront. This is more a story about shining a light on yourself, facing your weaknesses, taking responsibility and changing. I didn’t find the romance part of it particularly convincing. But having said that, I did feel that Kim So Hye found the innocence of the character early on in this regard and played it sweetly.
Finally, a quibble that I have, and this goes for a number of sports/action type shows, is that the industry requirement for female actors to be rake thin means that their body types are not credible for the physicality which these roles demand. In reality, bantam weight boxers are pretty muscled up, so there is constantly a huge credibility gap to be negotiated.
Overall, not a brilliant show, but with enough edge to make it stand out as individual.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
A story about daring to see yourself for who you really are
This was mostly Kwonsuk's story.A young adult who got robbed of her childhood and potentially happy teenage life when she was basically forced into the ruthless boxing "training" by her own father. Here is where I agree with most other watchers when i say that the redemption arc for the abusive father was at the least uncomfortable to witness. I cannot fathom how within three years someone could change so drastically and this is the one part that doesn't make complete sense to me.
But other than that, I find myself in complete disagreement with other unsatisfied commenters and reviewers.
First of all, I believe that the characters and the choices they made throughout the series were very well written. I could understand all of them because this series portrayed various types of people, all completely different ot one another and all very human. We were shown their weak, embarassing, humble, beautiful, youthful, selfish and loving sides in these 12 episodes. To me they were simply very realistic. A person isn't just good or bad in real life, nor is anyone in the series. Specifically, at the beginning, Taeyoung seemed to think he was pretty self aware, calling himself scum multiple times and seemingly owning up to his fuck-ups. But only after the situation with his friend did he realize how heavy the responsibilities he carries are. Every choice he made after that realization made it a tiny bit easier for him to live with himself, because the guilt won't ever leave him completely, but he knew for sure how to tell right from wrong after experiencing all that pain along with all the beautiful and enlightening moments with Suk.
KwonSuk too had only ever glanced towards the true consequences that her running awat had brought onto her. It was too scary to look at directly. The offer made by Taeyoung at the start of the seires was only accepted by her because she thought it was her only way to stop feeling so scared all the time. After a while she thankfully realised the offer was a one in a lifetime opportunity to right the wrongs of the past. To be brave and do her very best, in order not to regret anything anymore.
(Honestly it was a relief to hear her say multiple times that she hated boxing and putting some blame on her father. If she had blamed herself for the way she turned out I would be really disappointed ngl.)
As for the romance I really don't get other commenters. As we all know, girly had no time or opportunities to ever date and all that when she was young. Which only makes it that much more obvious why she seemed so starstruck by that other idiot. She fell fast and hard, since it was her first time. She simply wanted to enjoy everything that came with that experience and luckily recovered quickly after it was over. But man, to me it OBVIOUS she would come to develop real, strong and uncontrolable feelings for Taeyoung. It was bound to happen. He was the asshole that gave her the solution that she thought she needed to her neverending problem. But he was also the one that fought for her to make sure the situation got turnt completely around and stayed by her side, in any way he could, in order to watch her fulfill her dream and start feeling happy again. He didn't care if she hated him or if something happened to him. He was everything she needed at all those times. (Plus, Sangyeob in this role is so damn charming, I was holding my breath at every scene with him.)
Taeyoung too found something so bright and pure in Kwonsuk's strength and resilience that he was determined to distance himself from her. He didn't want to tarnish her in any way. And only after he had somewhat redeemed himself and stopped the self-punishing, he decided to approach her again. So my point here would be that I could never think the romance was "forced" in this drama. It was slow paced and a bit painful, just as it often is in real life.
Lastly, some people said it undermined the sport. I knew nothing much about boxing before this drama and to me it seemed that it was something sacred basically. From how hard Kwonsuk worked on it even though she wholeheartedly hated it to how other boxers considered her a traitor after her running away causing damage to the sport's prestige, it was clear how seriously everyone took the sport. I'm considering starting classes as we speak.
All in all, between the light, humorous scenes, the romantic first-times, the heartbreaking moments of being forced to face yourself and the violent and hateful sides of that industry, I really enjoyed this drama. (I think I could write so much more about other important points but this is too much already, I apologize)
Was this review helpful to you?
Insightful and a beautiful drama
It was the best decision to start watching this drama. It taught me that whatever you are doing, you should give your all. Even if you will fail, you will still be happy with yourself that you worked hard and you gave your 100%. I will highly recommend to watch this drama.The chemistry between the ML and the FL was great. Even when they were bickering with each other, it felt so cute.
The last episode was tremendous. The fight was great and the drama ended the right way it should be. And how they squeezed the leads love story into the last three minutes of the drama was amazing, somehow it passed the muster.
At last, highly satisfied with this drama, it was a worth watch and maybe someday I’ll watch it again to gain strength when I’m feeling down haha.
Was this review helpful to you?
Good Enough
Korean Drama '' My Lovely Boxer '' is a sports drama focusing on the relationship between the athlete and her manager.The drama did a good job showing the girl's story, her struggles with her family and, especially, her dad, her dilemma when it came to her sport, with a love-hate relationship, her battle with the media and the sudden fame that deprived her of any personal space, and her isolation from others. So, when it came to her story, the drama did her justice.
However, that can't be said for the romance. If I have to be honest, I wouldn't have minded if it was just a friendship and they had left out any romantic notion between the main leads, as the side couple was cute enough and provided that light and fluffy atmosphere that the drama needed. Alas, the main love story was rushed to feat in the drama, and its progress was rocky with a more or less unsatisfying ending.
In addition, the drama would have benefited if they had added more sports scenes and handled the matches better. Sure, this isn't a sports-focused drama, but some excitement from a boxing match would have enhanced things when the plot started getting boring.
The performances, finally, were enjoyable.
So, overall, five out of ten.
Was this review helpful to you?
Good idea, but the setting was not convincing. Could have been much more hard hitting drama
I really liked the idea of this, but the big hole was the female actors did not look like boxers, even athletes, sprinters have more muscles and abbs, Google female boxers and you will see what a World class female boxer looks like. Covering someone up with multiple layers of clothing and then stripping them off to box convincingly just doesn't work.Good story , but the things to make the setting real were just not there, and no matter how convincing the ML was as a whole it didn't work, and it didn't help that perhaps the most intersting part of the story, match fixing, was at odds with the fuffy young women boxer comeback, which was totally lacking in reality. The irony being that the most real aggression shown was when the ML was being beaten up.
Perhaps the K drama reluctance not let women any thing less than looking pale and perfect, but in a drama about womens boxing, thats just not the look needed.
Was this review helpful to you?
Great drama but could have been better.
Randomly started watching because it's a boxing drama (silly reason to choose a drama, ik)There are so many good elements of the drama. Both So Hye and Sang Yeob did a great job delivering their character well. So Hye looked really cute in it and Sang Yeob was hot as usual? And I really liked the storyline, but they could have done a better job on the production. I feel like the drama was lacking something and I'm not sure as to what it is.
Apart from that, it was a pretty great watch. Had some really good OST, but I don't think I would go for a second watch.
Was this review helpful to you?
LEE SANG YEOB
LEE SANG YEOB AHJUSSIreview will be biased bc I am in love with him.
I love sport shows but I don't how much I loved this one more because of his acting and (face card) but it was entertaining with fair dose of angst. I liked the different storylines and development. It reminded of 2521 in some way and the message coming from it was truly comforting. I cried during the final match.
It'a not the best drama regarding direction, that's for sure. Transition are a bit raw and outdated but I was more focused on the story so I wasn't really bothered even if it could have been an excellent drama with beautiful cinematic.
I'm blind for the age gap and I won't apologise cuz who would not fall for that guy. i was ROOTING for them. ?? (Also I feel directors were really cautious with both which is cool)
Girl were real badass, dad was much of fun. Except for the assistant school director which I disliked (got scared that it would go in a toxic love triangle but thanks god no) it was a great portrait of daily struggles and humain feelings.
Was this review helpful to you?
Unexpectedly Good
Boxing is about the last topic I would have picked to watch, but I noticed the overall favorable comments while this show was running and gave it a shot. It was unexpectedly good. The story was interesting and quite unique, the characters were well developed and I always appreciate a strong female lead. The fact that not all of the characters, including the male lead, were in strict good vs. evil categories was another plus. There was a lot of gray area.The story is actually less about boxing and more about finding yourself and going forward on a path you chose for yourself, not a path someone else chose for you. There are some fight scenes (and I could not help wondering why on earth anybody would consider this fun), but it was not the main focus of the show. The final match was exciting and a perfect ending to the story.
Unexpectedly good was also the slowly developing romance between the two main characters. I usually find enemies-to-lovers plotlines quite entertaining anyway, and this one was very cute. It’s handled in a quiet way, like she tells him to go away, then looks for him when he doesn’t show up for their morning run... ah yes, it was rather adorable. The age gap, and I’m only mentioning it because of a few negative comments, was about 10 fictional years and did not matter one bit. She is an adult and makes her own decisions now. He helps her on the way. They both end up caring for each other vey much. The chemistry between them was great.
I would recommend this show to anyone who enjoys a unique story, appreciates strong female characters, and/or likes a slow burn romance.
Was this review helpful to you?
my favorite k-drama to date!!
this is definitely my favorite k-drama ever and I can proudly say it with no hesitation. Even though I must say that I almost died during the last episode because of stress (THAT WAS SO FUCKING TENSEFUL I HAD TO PAUSE LIKE TEN TIMES). I never watched a k-drama that made me scream, cry, SHIVER, giggle and smile like this one. If you like suspense, and thriller but also a romantic comedy and a inspiring slice of life about sports... this is everything you'll ever need. Now how do I say goodbye to these characters and their world? I think I'll forever treasure Kim Tae-young and Lee Kwon-sook smiles in my heart. Truly a showstopper.Was this review helpful to you?
