terribly executed

terrible. 0/10. giving it a six in my rating list just because sun oh wouldn’t want me to rate him lower than that and i love him too much. anything else: hated it.
the lights? what the fuck was up with that, director-nim.
the plotholes? smol boy comes wandering around after five years of minding his own business and instead of giving solutions he creates more problems. also where did he come from. where did he go. did he create the spear for the giggles, because that was the most useless tool i've ever seen.
the male main character? most boring, flat acting i've ever seen. at least you can actually tell apart emotions with sun oh.
kim flipping jojo? yeas dear go ahead and realize you've been a terrible main character and then proceed to do NOTHING to fix that. talk about character development there. poorly executed if you ask me.
this was a drama about choices; let me tell you, those were the most boring and terrible choices i've ever seen. breaking the boy's heart for nothing? bad choice. using the shild? bad choice. not contacting CDG to get your shield removed and instead using the dumb spear tool? terrible choice.
the reasons behind the whole thing were also ridiculous. "oh yeah you disappeared from his potentials when you kissed sun oh bc you were in lOvE with hye young." what shitty explanation is that. at least make it believable.
all in all i'm going to pretend like this whole show did not happen. wasted two years of my life waiting for it only to find out i hate it, after all.

Read More

So... let's talk about the Korean dramas' compulsive use of romance

Is anyone going to mention the romance in this drama is completely superfluous and the drama would work even without her, or...?
Let me explain this in a better way.

The drama is clearly about youth, insecurities and how to grow into your skin when you're 20 something and you have no idea what to do with your life, and you're not an adult but the world requires you to be one. This is simple, very clear. I think the drama does a good job portraying youth without hiding the "bad parts". Its happy ending and general ending brightness is, of course, a product of the Korean drama standards (The smile left your eyes look away, I'm not talking about you sweetie), but it's not over the top, considering the drama kept things light even when they really, really were not.

Now, the romance. It's deadends after deadends, and the only relationship that works out is somehow the most boring one out of all the possible combinations. Not to mention -- and brace yourself, this might be a hot take if you were rooting for Soobin and Jun (if there was anything to actually... root for?) -- Nam Soohyun did more for Jun's character development than Kim Soobin (you know, Jun's actual girlfriend...? Yeah, her) could ever do. I'm not saying the relationship between Soobin and Jun could have *not* happened and things would've gone exactly like they did, but that's exactly what I'm saying. If Soobin stayed a friend and helped Jun as a friend, would much have changed? Nah. Don't think so.

(And if we're being completely honest -- which, we are, it's the internet, whatever), what could have *actually* improved the drama and/or the character development of our young Jun would have been a relationship with Soohyun himself. Especially after he finds out he actually already has a hyung that loves him, you know. Imagine that. Hell, I was waiting on it since episode 1 and thought Soobin would end up with Soohyun, but it's fine. It's whatever.)

In conclusion: good cast, good choices in terms of cinematographic experience (those scenes of Soohyun and Jun bickering in their house??? Soohyun dressed in brown and standing against a darker background while Jun is sitting at his pristine kitchen table with his angelic blond hair and his cute white sweater? Yeah. Poetic cinema if you ask me). Good music, although not always on point. Just the right amount of characters, albeit some being completely useless and/or not well rounded (like that girl... the third roommate, whatshername).

I love being reminded that every 20-something year old in the world has absolutely no clue of what they're doing. Even the fictional ones.

Read More