Mostly watched this for Kim Go Eun and I have no regrets. This wasn’t the best drama by any means, but the realistic take on relationships is quite nice since it’s so unique to kdramas. I still prefer my over-the-top “you are my everything” kdrama romances, but this drama was a nice change of pace. Although I’m not the person to go for slice-of-life dramas like this since I have a tendency to get bored as soon as the leads get together in the drama, Yumi’s cells stayed pretty interesting throughout its 14 episodes. I don’t think the ending was anybody’s favorite, but I look forward to a second season to watch Yumi mature and find new romances. (I totally spoiled myself before the drama even aired but what else is new)

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Masterpiece

I was honestly not expecting much from this drama because I rarely find myself enjoying “popular” and high rated dramas because I always have unrealistically high expectations for them. Even though I wasn’t a big fan of the drama initially because the pace was a little too slow for my liking, the characters grew on me, and the thickening plot was soon keeping my interest very well despite the fact that the pace was staying consistently slow. At one point, I actually started enjoying the slow pace because it fit well with the melancholy yet incredibly healing mood. By the end, I was so emotionally invested in the drama that I had to put it down for a little while because it was destroying me emotionally (in the best way possible!) and I had to distance myself before I had a breakdown. The music was absolutely phenomenal, and I think I have listened to the full version of the theme song at least 30 times since I started watching this drama. It’s hard to put into words how much this drama impacted my life. I can’t say I hated any character because they all had good reasons to do what they did (except the psychopath maybe lol). There were no stupid fights, breakups, misunderstandings, and other relationship drama that I oh-so-despise. Overall, this drama is an absolute masterpiece and it deserves all the good ratings and reviews that it got. I’m so glad I decided to watch this gem!

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I hold this drama very dear to my heart because I’m also a weightlifter and feel a connection to Kim Bok Joo because of that. The couple in this drama is probably one of my most favorite couples ever because their dynamic is absolutely off the charts. This is that perfect slice of life drama that has a plot and does an amazing job of exploring its characters’ personalities. There was absolutely nothing problematic about this drama and I looked forward to watching it every single day. The angst was very minimal (essentially nonexistent), so that’s a huuuge plus for me because I have a really bad tendency to absorb all the characters’ emotions when I watch a drama. When something bad happens, I also end up having a really bad day. It just sucks for everyone. WFKBJ is like a sweet tablespoon of pure sugar: it’s super sweet, pure, and makes me want to watch it again and again for the wonderful ensemble of characters and its wholesome plot.

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I really have to stop getting my hopes up so high

To be honest, I had much grander expectations for Coffee Prince. For a drama that I constantly hear about from every single person in the kdrama community, it wasn’t nearly as impressive as some people made it out to be.

What I liked: There was great comedy and bromance in this drama. I loved how this drama handled particular tropes such as the disapproving grandmother and the time skip slash study abroad trope. They were handled very maturely and the characters were always very supportive of each other. The grandmother wasn’t actually scheming to ruin Eun Chan’s life and accepted her rather quickly into the family. The second leads had a very wild (shall I say) romance and I honestly thought for the longest time that they wouldn’t end up together. It was very refreshing to see two people love each other but lack faith/loyalty and struggle to communicate with one another sometimes.

What I disliked: Too much fighting/conflict. It left a bad taste in my mouth. I understand that the whole romance is supposed to be “hate to love” or whatever but I honestly get attached to characters so easily and so deeply that I always feel emotionally drained when they fight or get into too much conflict. Additionally, this drama lost traction at the end for me and I had to pretty much force myself to finish the last few episodes. It was the same problem I see in a lot of dramas where there was just no more storyline to tell after the leads got together. When a drama lacks a proper side story to back up the romance and the romance is at the forefront of the drama, it’s not wise for writers to have the leads get together as early as, say, episode 11. Because then what are we to do with the remaining 5 hours of the drama? Oh right, create more stupid conflicts and filler conversations and events. Dramas such as The King: Eternal Monarch and Doom at Your Service pull off having the leads get together early on because the romance is never the primary conflict of the drama. Rather, it is more of a catalyst for that primary conflict. On the other end, dramas like 30 But 17 and Gangnam Beauty with less storyline work great and don’t lose traction at the end because the leads do not confess their feelings until the last few episodes. After that, both dramas simply spend a couple episodes tying up loose ends and showing us some fun scenes with the couples.

All in all, I did enjoy Coffee Prince for what it was, but I feel the quality of the drama was blown quite a bit out of proportion when it is not as perfect as we all make it seem. We all love Gong Yoo, but even he can’t save a drama from bad pacing and (sometimes) bad writing.

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She's a 10/10!!!

I’ve had my eye on 18 Again for a while now ever since I was looking for kdramas to watch on reddit, and I only began watching it on a whim as I was going through my MyDramaList “Plan to Watch” list and picking titles at random. Needless to say, watching this drama was perhaps one of the best decisions of my life. I absolutely loved all the characters and felt like every single one of them went through a massive change throughout the story. I loved seeing my favorite actors like Lee Do Hyun and Yoon Sang Hyun on screen again, and I also found some new favorite actors to fangirl over. This type of genre is a complete guilty pleasure for me, and I’m glad that it lived up to my expectations all the way to the end. I didn’t feel like any scenes were filler, contrary to some opinions, and I really enjoyed the slice of life type of storytelling. I cried quite a bit watching this drama and was very invested in the storyline. It’s very hard for me to put into words how much I like this drama, because I’m mostly used to complaining about a drama’s low points in my reviews, and there really aren’t any in this one that I can think of off the top of my head. Rest assured, this will be one of the best things you have ever watched.

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A masterpiece that could have used a better start

First off, disregard any prior predictions or judgements about the nature of this drama, because you’re gonna be wrong. Coming into this, I was expecting a sweet romance between an author and a psychiatrist. Sure, originally that’s exactly what it was, but the last few episodes of this drama took me completely by surprise in the best way possible. I cried buckets of tears and felt so much pain for the characters, especially our male lead. The topics that this drama discusses are so rarely pictured in film, especially Korean, and I really appreciate that a drama can discuss mental health in such an eye opening and heartwarming way. This drama has really taught me that love, not only the love between the leads, can help us overcome our fears and mental obstacles. Watching this drama was a truly beautiful experience. While I would have loved to give this drama a higher rating, I have to admit that my strong feelings for this drama only really appeared after episode 10. Prior to the climax of the drama, I was quite bored and annoyed by the story. It felt like nothing much had happened at all, and the romance between the leads kind of appeared out of nowhere. Despite the drama acknowledging that Hye Soo is a selfish person, I still hated the way she treated the male lead most of the time. It felt like he was constantly tiptoeing around her trying not to make her mad, and I couldn’t really get into that type of relationship dynamic. In contrast to how she was acting, ML’s declarations of love had me questioning if he and I were looking at two different people, because I would have been done with her shit a long time ago. Despite all this, she definitely redeemed herself as a character in the last half of the drama, but I felt it was worth a mention anyway. If you rewatch the drama, you can really pick up on the hints that the show was giving the viewers about what will happen in the later episodes, especially the visit to Hye Soo’s friend’s sick wife. I can still remember the discussions that the characters had about the beauty of love despite a person’s mental illnesses that might make it difficult for their partner. Overall, if you disregard the slow beginning and the infuriating leads in the first half, this drama is truly a gem that I would recommend to anyone.

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A Classic

Wow, so I finished this drama in less than 3 days, and I have to say that it was one heck of a wild ride. I haven’t watched any other drama that is more than 10 years old besides BoF, and this drama far outshines BoF in my opinion. Still, while I definitely enjoyed this drama (duh, I finished 20 hours of content in less than 72 hours) I still had a few problems with it that I couldn’t really ignore, which I’ll talk about now. First and foremost, I feel like this drama was just too long. When a really long drama has a very quick pace and a narrow plot, we run into a problem where the characters experience one misfortune after the other, leading the drama to become, well, a little too dramatic. The conflicts in this drama felt never-ending, and I would have given this drama 16 episodes at most since some plot arcs were just incredibly cliche and a little out of place, even. I haven’t had this problem with many dramas, but some of the side conflicts were quite boring to me and I had to speed up the video in order to get through those bits a little faster. A couple that stood out to me were the pointless scenes with Han Tae Sun (yeah, I love Lee Jong Seok, but his character in Secret Garden was just not it), mostly because I felt his character didn’t really add anything to the overall plot, and, on a similar note, the whole storyline with Oska’s plagiarism scandal. Just honestly pretty boring and pointless to me. The last thing is not really a complaint rather than a personal preference, but I felt like Ju Weon’s neediness for Ra Im was a little bit ridiculous. Like, come on, it was basically stalker level. I didn’t mind it too much since she liked him back, but it would have been pretty problematic if those two weren’t the main leads, I’m just saying. Overall though, I love the actors (Hyun Binnnnnn!!!) and the extremely wholesome character development and relationships among all of the characters. Yoo In Na acting as Ah Young was a really nice surprise. I swear, this woman doesn’t age! The ending was very wholesome overall - it’s not often that we see our leads have children and get the storybook happy ending, and I was HERE for it. Despite the flaws, I’d say this drama is definitely a classic, and I’m very glad I watched it.

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Pretty much what I expected

Um wow lol that was really bad. On a more serious note, I definitely felt peer pressured into watching this drama by the kdrama community, since pretty much everyone and their mother watched this drama at some point or another. It was full of cliches, annoying characters, cringey acting, and lots and lots of drama, but I still found myself kind of loving the whole thing. It got to the point where it was just so bad that it got good, you know? Geum Jan Di definitely made me almost rip my hair out at times because of how passive she was most of the drama with her feelings, and there’s a certain level of immaturity in Gu Joon Pyo that never went away. Still, this kdrama reminded me of the old days when I used to stay up all night reading bad Wattpad romance books just like this one, so watching Boys Over Flowers really sent me back to my early teens when I read these cliche love stories. Because of this, I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy BOF, because I definitely had a lot of fun with this drama. However, by no means was this drama high quality. A classic, though? It for sure is. I thought that the OST was pretty catchy overall, and the only thing that sort of bothered me at the end (besides all the cliches, although I have a sweet spot for the amnesia cliche so I can’t hate that one) was the fact that the conflict with the mother never really got resolved. Like yeah, we see her lovingly watching her son on the television with her husband, but I was hoping for a more direct confrontation where she admitted how much of a jerk she was for putting Geum Jan Di through so much trouble. Anyhow, while I by no means think this drama is good, it definitely has a place in my heart, and I really can’t hate on such a classic without feeling at least a little guilty. Therefore, I will still recommend this drama to anyone because it’s honestly just a classic that was the start of many people’s kdrama obsession.

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So I binge-watched this

I’m not a binge-watching type of person (usually) since I get bored extremely easily, but today I finished 8 episodes of this drama nonstop. It was that interesting to me. “Why the lower-than-expected rating, then?” you ask. I just felt there was a little too much bullshit there at the end. It’s been a while since I watched dramas over 2 years old (excluding Goblin. I’m on this weird “popular drama” kick where I’m trying to watch all the most popular Kdramas since I usually end up picking very unpopular ones to watch) and I kind of actually forgot how trope-y they used to be. To name a few, I saw the long time jump at the end, gunshot wounds, and family drama. I haven’t seen these in a while in a kdrama and boy, was I not excited to see them ever again. The drama itself was wonderful, and (but don’t judge) it was my first Lee Min Ho drama. I loved the whole cast (Ahhhh Shin Hye Seon! I loved you way before Mr. Queen!), and I have always been fascinated with fairy tales and mermaids since I was young, so this drama was totally my thing from the get-go. I laughed and cried so much, and it would be a huge lie to say I didn’t enjoy the experience. I mean, why the heck would I binge this drama in like three days if I didn’t like it? But some things, like Joon Jae trying to control what Cheong wears all the time (this was also a comment I made in 1% of Something), freaking out about her going to THE CLUB with HER FRIENDS, and kind of just blowing up on her all the time in general (I live around a very hotheaded person, so it’s a pretty sore subject), really pissed me off. I understand that the time jump in korean dramas is kind of a staple, but I thought it was entirely unnecessary and kind of killed the mood for me at the end. I mean, you watch these fellas defeat three goddamn villains, and instead of just living out the rest of their lives in peace, Sim Cheong just had to get her stupid heart disease and abandon everyone for three years. I felt like we never got a proper conclusion with her and all of the side characters. I was still left wondering whether or not they remembered her, and I couldn’t for the life of me understand why Joon Jae was being such a dick to her in front of the family when they reunited. All in all, I thought this drama was of very high quality, and while I do have some problems with it, I have to be honest about the fact that I still enjoyed the crap out of it and would recommend it to everyone I know.

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I should probably stop watching melodramas, huh?

The entire time I was watching this movie, I was puzzled as heck because I couldn’t decipher where the plot was going. Instead of building a solid foundation for a love story, this movie seemed to rapidly take me from one timeline to another, with the two leads meeting up in the most unusual ways possible. Now, while the storyline completely disappointed me (just like it disappointed everyone else), I thought that the chemistry between Jung Hae In and Kim Go Eun was TO DIE FOR, and I would love to see the two of them collaborate in another project (hopefully a kdrama. I need more screen time for both of these lovely people!). I will definitely go check out Kim Go Eun’s other works now, because she freaking stole my heart in this movie (No, I haven’t watched Goblin yet as I’m writing this, don’t come for me please ahah).

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Most unrealistic romance

The romantic development of this drama was close to nonexistent, and probably the only reason why Love O2O didn’t get too low of a rating from me is because I actually found myself kind of enjoying the drama in a “it’s so bad it’s good” kind of way. Just let me complain for a little bit, though. The actor playing Xiao Nai was really stiff most of the time. Though the excuse can be made that “it’s just his character,” it still doesn’t justify his utter lack of expression the entire drama. He’s just not a good actor. Frankly, I noticed that lack of acting skill seems to be pretty prevalent in Chinese dramas especially. There’s many problems with Xiao Nai’s character, as well. He seems to completely lack any flaw and is your typical Mary Sue character. It’s boring. Additionally, I found a problem with him declaring Weiwei his girlfriend and then his fiancee ALL without her consent. Pardon, sir, is this not the 20th century? This shit isn’t gonna fly with me. Now on to Bei Weiwei… sigh. I am gonna be honest. I wanted to punch her in the face for the entire duration of the drama. Though the actress seems to at least have a better grasp on acting, Miss Bei Weiwei herself was a completely infuriating character. I won’t go into detail, but her hopeless pranks on Nai and her absolutely ridiculous questions made me face palm many a time. At the beginning, she was also acting very dramatic about her initial interactions with Xiao Nai. Can we also discuss how the entire drama’s plot seems to revolve around random university kids always trying to ruin Weiwei’s reputation and constant misunderstandings? Yeah, it got reeeaally old after the first five times it was used as a plot device. I know I just went off on a major tangent, but overall this drama was pretty decent as far as entertainment value goes. Frankly, I quite enjoyed the video gaming and the video game development aspect of the show. It is what drew me to it in the first place. With that said, I still spent most of my time making fun of the show rather than genuinely enjoying it. Honestly, just go watch Go Go Squid. It’s similar enough to the premise of this drama, and, though it has its own share of problems (see my Go Go Squid review <3) the characters at least have some dimension and personality.

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Healthiest romance ever hands down

Gosh, the leads' romance is so freaking adorable. I couldn't stop smiling every episode that I saw them together. Besides the romance between the leads, there are also a couple other romances that can be seen blooming around in the workplace and made for really adorable side stories. I've never watched a lawyer drama up until this point, despite how popular they are these days, but I was totally shocked at how easy it was to watch this one in spite of the complexity of some of the crimes that were investigated. This makes for a pretty interesting casual watch because it still requires some effort to keep up with the cases, though not so much that it drains you of your energy when you watch it. There is plenty of really well-done comedy that mostly revolves around Oh Yoon Seo's tendency to jump to conclusions and daydream at the wrong times. This created some awkward, toe curling situations that were really hard, but ultimately entertaining to watch. I totally recommend this drama for anyone who loves law firm dramas (and even if you don't, watch it anyway ;)) and romance. This was a great use of my time ? I still think about this drama from time to time…

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Cats and Yoo Seung Ho!

Oh man, this drama just kinda tore my heart into pieces at the end? I told myself I wouldn't cry but what do you know? It happened anyway lmao. As a loving cat mom of an older cat, this drama and Yoo Seung Ho's character connected with me instantly, and I loved the interactions between Bok Gil and Hyun Jong Hyun because it was obvious the character loved his cat more than anything in the world. The drama was really lighthearted and heartwarming the whole time and was just a pleasant watch for me while I was trying to finish a heavier drama at the same time as I was watching this one. Overall, the writers and the actors didn't disappoint, and this ended up being one of my favorite dramas despite how short it was.

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Great start that just went downhill

So this one started off really slow then suddenly propelled the story forward with a bunch of time jumps, which made me pretty upset. There's nothing I hate more than time jumps in dramas, and this one had a crap ton of them. The characters were really lovable and I seriously enjoyed that love triangle despite my usual hatred of them, so kudos to this drama for that. I think the overall mood of this story was really cute and I freaking loved the romance between the two side characters a bunch, but the main romance went kind of 0 to 100 halfway through the drama and kind of killed the suspense for me too early. I still enjoyed it and would recommend it for a very cute and heartwarming experience.

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What a toxic relationship

While I never have very grand expectations for any rom-com Chinese drama I watch (they’re just naturally pretty bad, and I always know this when I start a new one), this drama disappointed me quite a bit! Unhealthy relationships aren’t too uncommon in Chinese dramas (sadly), however I was especially concerned when Situ Mo behaved like an absolute child, shut Gu Weiyi out even though he did nothing wrong, and constantly got mad at him and/or expected him to understand her when she explained absolutely nothing. In the beginning of the drama, I wrote that behavior off as them just getting to know each other and going from love-hate to pure love, however she remained pretty rude and childish the whole drama, and I just can’t stand for that type of relationship dynamic. Gu Weiyi also irritated me with his lies when he tried to get Mo to forgive him. Now, what normal person would see that his girlfriend is pissed off for god knows why and pretend to be drunk, hide her food from her so she would beg for him to get it for him, and just kiss her out of the blue for no reason. I don’t know about y’all, but that is the last thing I’d do if my partner was really angry at me. Besides the clear flaws in the lead characters, I also just had a lot of problems with Fu Pei and Gu Weiyi’s scientist guy friend Zhou Lei. Fu Pei reminded me of every single kid from my high school that acted as if he was the coolest motherfucker in existence and disobeyed authorities to impress the girl he likes. That’s all I will say. Zhou Lei would have been fine if he didn’t constantly suspect everyone of doing something behind his back. It was funny at first, but then it just got plain annoying. Overall, the last 4 minutes of the story were pretty enjoyable to watch (despite the lack of plot in the last 4-5 episodes especially, although the entire story pretty much has no plot) and the soundtrack was pretty nice, though I could do with less cat and dog noises. My parting words are: If you’re into bitchy and immature female leads, as well as loyal, devoted boyfriend characters who don’t have enough sense to dump their toxic girlfriends, boy do I have the drama for you!!!

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