It's aesthetically pleasing to watch, but that's it.
Unfortunately, A Breeze of Love was a let down.
The theme of this drama is pretty much about misunderstandings, and I don't know about you guys but I am so tired of this cliché. As a drama lover though, I've come to accept —not welcome— but just accept misunderstandings because I know it's unavoidable and we need it to build the drama. But I'd just like for the misunderstandings to actually play out in a way that makes sense, not just for the sake of creating angst.
The drama I can draw the closest comparison to, in terms of overall plot, is probably Bon Appetit and Our Dating Sim. These three dramas depict the story of two people who start to form a relationship in highschool/university, get separated suddenly but then they meet again years later and start to rekindle their relationship. ODS was also an 8-episode series of roughly the same 15-minute runtime per episode, but it was able to deliver more than ABOL. Bon Appetit also had more depth to the story but would be unfair to use as a direct comparison since it had a larger runtime. What ODS and BA did much better compared to ABOL is that there was world building, depth to the story and communication. ABOL lacked all of these imo. What we got instead was a short series that was really pretty to watch but didn't offer anything in terms of storyline. It's truly unfortunate because of the good acting from the main leads.
On the note of 'world building' and 'communication', ABOL of course had scenes showing the lives of the main leads at university or with their friends but those scenes were short and still primarily centred around the main couple. And then interestingly enough, because we had less world building, we naturally had a lot more scenes of the main couple, which I would normally be enthusiastic about. However, in this case, those scenes were underutilized. What I mean is, we would have scenes of the main couple together, looking at each other and talking, but it just felt like not much was actually being said. I guess all the slow-mos, voiceovers, and repeated flasbacks didn’t help but even in moments where the couple were together in the present world, I just felt like, for the most part, we weren't getting much information out of them. I would have liked to see the main couple communicate more, especially when they were rekindling their relationship after they reunited, but nope, they didn't dissect what had happened in highschool and why they got separated, instead we just got another misunderstanding that got blown out of proportion yet again. It just felt like there wasn't much character development. There was one scene with a big fight between the couple where their acting skills are truly at their highest form and I really loved it. They were communicating, still not saying exactly what is is that they were angry about, but it was at least something more and I wish we got more of those kind of deep moments.
Although the acting was really good, the chemistry between the leads wasn't really good or bad. It was just there...Definitely not on the same scale as Bon Appetit or ODS. The couple were cute together and mainly because they're such a handsome duo, but that's it.
Honestly I'm sad. I was so stoked for this because the trailer looked so good in terms of production and acting [which I think it did deliver on in these two areas]. The trailer also seemed to give off a serious vibe — like we were going to witness the love story of two people and this big falling out they must have had for one of them to hate the other so much, and the eventual rekindling of their relationship years after their separation. Instead what we got was a basic misunderstanding plot.
The theme of this drama is pretty much about misunderstandings, and I don't know about you guys but I am so tired of this cliché. As a drama lover though, I've come to accept —not welcome— but just accept misunderstandings because I know it's unavoidable and we need it to build the drama. But I'd just like for the misunderstandings to actually play out in a way that makes sense, not just for the sake of creating angst.
The drama I can draw the closest comparison to, in terms of overall plot, is probably Bon Appetit and Our Dating Sim. These three dramas depict the story of two people who start to form a relationship in highschool/university, get separated suddenly but then they meet again years later and start to rekindle their relationship. ODS was also an 8-episode series of roughly the same 15-minute runtime per episode, but it was able to deliver more than ABOL. Bon Appetit also had more depth to the story but would be unfair to use as a direct comparison since it had a larger runtime. What ODS and BA did much better compared to ABOL is that there was world building, depth to the story and communication. ABOL lacked all of these imo. What we got instead was a short series that was really pretty to watch but didn't offer anything in terms of storyline. It's truly unfortunate because of the good acting from the main leads.
On the note of 'world building' and 'communication', ABOL of course had scenes showing the lives of the main leads at university or with their friends but those scenes were short and still primarily centred around the main couple. And then interestingly enough, because we had less world building, we naturally had a lot more scenes of the main couple, which I would normally be enthusiastic about. However, in this case, those scenes were underutilized. What I mean is, we would have scenes of the main couple together, looking at each other and talking, but it just felt like not much was actually being said. I guess all the slow-mos, voiceovers, and repeated flasbacks didn’t help but even in moments where the couple were together in the present world, I just felt like, for the most part, we weren't getting much information out of them. I would have liked to see the main couple communicate more, especially when they were rekindling their relationship after they reunited, but nope, they didn't dissect what had happened in highschool and why they got separated, instead we just got another misunderstanding that got blown out of proportion yet again. It just felt like there wasn't much character development. There was one scene with a big fight between the couple where their acting skills are truly at their highest form and I really loved it. They were communicating, still not saying exactly what is is that they were angry about, but it was at least something more and I wish we got more of those kind of deep moments.
Although the acting was really good, the chemistry between the leads wasn't really good or bad. It was just there...Definitely not on the same scale as Bon Appetit or ODS. The couple were cute together and mainly because they're such a handsome duo, but that's it.
Honestly I'm sad. I was so stoked for this because the trailer looked so good in terms of production and acting [which I think it did deliver on in these two areas]. The trailer also seemed to give off a serious vibe — like we were going to witness the love story of two people and this big falling out they must have had for one of them to hate the other so much, and the eventual rekindling of their relationship years after their separation. Instead what we got was a basic misunderstanding plot.
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