I mention the length because everything has to happen somewhat quickly, but I think Ha Jin and Kang Seok's relationship came together comfortably and believable. However, after a certain revelation things turn ugly. It was poignant and sadly disappointing when Ha Jin rejects Kang Seok. It breaks your heart that she seems to be completely heartless and materialistic no matter what the justification. Then when Kang Seok nearly follows suit in wishing his own sick mother would either get well or die so he can get on with his life really shocks you...but...if we are to be honest with ourselves we likely have been nearly as selfish at some point.
However, in the end both come to their senses, unfortunately for Ha Jin it's too late. Yet, Kang Seok's kindness will forever be Ha Jin'S as he will forever watch over her from a far. A bittersweet end.
As of October 5, 2016 it's on YouTube
https://youtu.be/0NaA_Afyodc
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an early gem
I see a lot of hate for the depressing storyline and ending, but this is the harsh reality of making a living in South Korean society on a middle-class salary (they're not day laborers or entrepreneurs) when your family doesn't have the resources for hospital bills or rental deposits. But remarkably, in just 75 minutes, you're left with the hope that it is possible to give and receive love generously regardless of debt. The two actors do a credible job of making their relationship believable.Not all of the characters are fully fleshed out, but that's ok; you can still understand what drives one character to end everything. The final scene is just heartbreaking.
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I was kind of disappointed with the ending though...I didn't mind the tragic ending, it's just that it was so abrupt and kinda confusing.
The acting could have been better. The main leads were lifeless at times. Especially the female lead. I think they could have done a much better job. Still it wasn't too bad. :)
I hated the music though. The at-times-lifeless acting made the drama special a bit boring but the music made it much worse. >.< The music is one reason why my rating dropped below 8.
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This drama is not just simple boring, it makes the watcher feel tired.
Their acting is not too bad but the story overshadowed all.
Luckily, it is only over 1 hour a little bit so that I finished it.
This special drama is not special at all and is a waste of time.
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This review may contain spoilers
Worst Asian film I have ever watched!
If starts out with a warning that the movie "may not be suitable for those under 15 years of age"...they should changee this to "this movie may not be suitable for those at ANY age"!If I was KBS, I would have my affiliation with this movie REMOVED...
This movie seemed rushed through the most of it; it seemed as if it was thrown together, then someone said "let's go with it" and they filmed it, without correcting the shortcomings. I also cannot believe that Jung So Min pulled off a much better performance on the other KBS special shot 3 years afterward by the name of The Red Teacher (2016). Either the director was better, the script was better or Jung So Min actually learned how to act!
The movie did not allow enough time to develop the characters at all; poor girl not being paid by the company she works for (entirely her fault!) and the guy living above her on the low-income hostel has a job and tutors as well, but every dime he makes goes to caring for his uncoscious mother and bills!
The main female lead's only good part is where a little boy on the light rail system accidentally got some strawberry drink or what on her white dress and she placated him by putting her scarf on around her neck and hiding the strawberry stain on her dress.
Ha Jin (Jung So Min), has a spot on a romantic dating party; after being the most compatible with a person of the opposite sex, the persons gets to choose the contestant she is being paired with, and can choose a love cruise or a rice cooker...Ha Jin chooses the rice cooker, then he offers her a ride home ( even though he CAME on the light rail system with her!) . The anti-herione also carries her heavy rice cooker several blocks in order for him not to know where she lives; neither one knows that they live one floor apart in the same hostel! Kang Seok (Kim Ji Suk) thinks that her standing there afterdropping her off is her being intersted in him as a boyfriend, even though she chose the rice cooker over a week-long lovers'vacation package with him.
What is really pathetic, they could have moved in together, shared rides together and actually "lived" better has she not insisted n hiding where she lived from him.
Our main male lead, is making good money, but bills and an unconscous mother in the hospital are draining all his assets away. The whole show would have been different had she admitted where she lived!
Money problems keep popping up each and every scene; he keeps coming up with unforseen bils, or mises the first few minutes of a tutoring class, and students demand icec cream for the lost time (he has no money whatsoever), and our female lead's company comes up with no delivery of their goods because of a port strike..and the movie goes downhill from there!
Or anti-herione collapses, whether from hunger or stress or what, we ane not told); even then, she makes him let he off at the wrong address again! Finally, he sees her on the street, waiting for a bus and realizes he had not been home yet; following her, he finds out that she lives in he same hostel as him! She seems heartbroken that he now knows she is living in the same building, and he seems to be totally confused with this fact.
As Kang Seok is pouding ion Hi Jins's door wanting to talk to her, the ever-present hostel drunk verbally gives meaning to the whole charade that has been going on: "a new couple birthed in this dump."
Even after saying that he will be in a better situation soon, Hi Jan asks to break up their relatonship; she cannot wait for one of them to get out of poverty; she wants to meet a"rich" man and not a poor person like him...I personally would have dumped her then and there! What is funny, I agree with her analysis of herself!
Our male lead admits that he is afraid of losing her, to the point of wishing his mother wold either wake up or die; after she cannot see things his way, he goes to the hospital and briefly holds the oxygen line crimped on his mother, temporaily blinded by his loss of his girl. After losing his mind temporarily, he starts crying and his sister, unkown to him sleeping in the big chair in teh mother's room with the lights off, comforts him, not knowing this will bethe last time she can.
After this, he makes the ultimate sacrifice to his girlfriend, who I pesonally do not think deserves it: he sells his car, closees all his other meager assets and rents a nice house with a window for her for two years; at the same time, we see his girlfriend in the empty toy comapany offices that has not paid anyone in months, with her belongings being placed in a box to leave.
After walking back to the hostel together, he says he is sending her away, and hands her the address and passcode of the house he sacrificed everything to give to her; his car was sold and his sbank account drained. She says she is going to her mom's in the countryside AFTER he gives her the house! He also tells her that meeing her and falling in love was the best thing that ever happened to him!
What does she do? She heads to thw bus station to go to her mothers!
As she is leaving the hostel (with he ex-boyfriend upstairs in his room), she is passed by the hostel drunk carrying a gasoline can. While she is getting her ticket, she is oblivious to the news saying that a man in his 40s (the drunk) set fire to a hostel killing 10 people. After receiving the ticket and ignoring scenes of the hostel fire on TV news, she gets a call from her mother, lying that nothing is wrong to her mother and saying she is just comlng for a visit!
However, after boarding the bus, her hospital shoes fall out of her case, and she remembers that he said that she was the first thing that he ever wanted was her, and the best thing he ever did was meeting and falling in love with her. With that, she hastily leaves the bus depot leaving her luggage behind!
What is worse is how she repaid him for his last sacrifice for her! Two years later, she finally goes to the house he rented for her for two years, empty for the whole time but complete with a window showing the stars and a fancy pair of high heels shoes, replacing those she lost off her feet as he carried her to the hospital earlier in the film...SHE NEVER USED HIS LAST GIFT!
The last scene is her putting on the replacement shoes on her feet and gazing out the window at a star. He was probably looking down and thinking how stupid he was to befriend her in the first place...I don't know if she is crying or smirking in the ending scene.
RE-WATCH VALUE: Little, if any!
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