TheJ
Earth
After finally being pushed to her limit, and after more than one failed suicide attempt, she does the last thing she feels she can do to live a happy life. The story following the surgery is about her journey to accepting her new self while not completely forgetting her old self.
Acting/Cast: I loved the acting and the cast.
Kim Ah Joong did an amazing job of portraying an overweight person, and an amazing job of portraying the skinny person she becomes. In most shows/movies like that, the girl is instantly 500% more confident, while Kim Ah Joong still had to get used to people not gawking at her for being the "ugly, fat chick." Even little things, like learning to walk in heels, were a joy to watch.
I'm still unsure about Joo Jin Mo's character. He seemed to have two different opinions depending on who he was with, so I wasn't really sure what think about him. I suppose, if I ignore the fact that his character confused me, I can easily say his acting was amazing.
Music: Loved the music throughout the movie.
Rewatch Value: I could definitely see myself rewatching this movie often. Definitely. The last 10 minutes or so of the movie (mostly the speech in particular) had me bawling. Just full-on bawling.
Overall: Overall, even though I loved the movie, I had to give it an 8.
While the character herself makes it known that the surgery is for herself, and not for anybody else, it doesn't erase the fact that, ultimately, this was a movie about a person who's life becomes better only after becoming pretty in society's eye. It's just not the type of message I enjoy seeing in the media.
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Acting/Cast - Before this even came out, I was already waiting in anticipation because I absolutely love So Ji Sub and Lee Yeon Hee. I was definitely not disappointed. Those two, as well as the rest of the cast, did an amazing job in their roles. The good guy roles, as well as the bad guy roles, were very believable.
Music - This was probably one of my favorite parts. The first half of the drama or so, you hear 'The Phantom of the Opera' a lot, and that song is incredible. Then there was the instrumental 'GHOST' that played a lot that I thought was fantastic. The rest of the songs + instrumentals played throughout were amazing as well.
Rewatch Value - I don't really like to rewatch dramas often, but I could definitely imagine myself watching this one again at some point in the future.
Overall - Overall, this whole drama, I think, is perfect. Like most dramas, it had its ups and downs, but I feel like the pros far outweighed the cons. There are two factors that really set this drama apart from other dramas for me.
1) The main focus of this drama wasn't a love story. In other dramas, that's almost always either a main story, or it becomes on 1/4 of the way through.
2) It didn't spend the whole time dragging on with one storyline. There were a few smaller ones tossed in that kept it interesting without taking away from the drama as a whole.
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It moved along at a nice speed for me. It seemed to slow up a little bit when they got their extension from 16 to 18 episodes, and all of the added flashbacks made it a tad boring at times, but nothing that I couldn't ignore.
Acting/Cast: Loved them. Loved all of them. This would definitely be one of my favorite casts in a drama.
I'd never seen anything with Kim Myung Min before, and this drama definitely made me regret it. He played his bad-boy-the-gets-nicer role perfectly. He always had this air of total confidence, and it was just really awesome to watch in action.
This was the second time I'd watched anything with Jung Ryeo Won in it, and while I wasn't really a fan of her in that, I loved her in this.
Siwon though. That man just made this drama for me. Whenever he was on the screen, I could always count on laughing. Always. He was hilarious, he was adorable, and he was hilarious (yep, I'm saying that twice). And he had this laugh that was completely infectious. If you could watch this, listen to him laugh, and not find yourself smiling, I'd be shocked.
This was also a first for Oh Ji Eun for me. She didn't make her entrance into the show until almost the halfway mark, but that didn't stop me from loving her all the same.
When they were all together, for me, the chemistry was undeniable. Even the actors in the smaller roles of this show were amazing for me.
Music: I loved the OST for this show. That's really all I can say about that.
Rewatch Value: With the cast and the story being different than a lot of other dramas out there, I could definitely see myself watching this more than once in the future. Hell, I could see myself rewatching it multiple times just for Siwon's laugh.
Overall: Overall, I gave the show a 10. Like I said, it had some cliche obstacles, but it was fun (for me) to watch the main characters trample over them when they happened.
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One thing I can say about this show is that it was amazing at making me emotional. I don't cry often when watching dramas unless I'm really touched, but I found myself in tears often while watching this show. Future shows like this need to pay attention to this show. Hiring actors instead of idols makes a world of difference.
That being said, while I enjoyed most of this, there were some things that bugged me constantly. The one thing that never sat right with me about this show was how the class was portrayed. When you listen to K-Pop for a long time, one thing you notice a lot is that music videos about school get banned instantly the second someone thinks they see even a hint of violence. I'm not a fan of hypocrites, so to see a show aired where school violence is such a major event (even though I understand this is how schools are there), it's incredibly irritating.
Another thing that bugged me a lot was the way the writers went about making certain things happen. In order to make sure misunderstandings would occur, they'd always set it up in a way that was horrible to watch because it made absolutely no sense. Somebody would suddenly do something they would never do otherwise, and you just know that it's happening for the sole reason of making the misunderstanding seem true.
Now then, as much as I disliked all of that (and some other things that I feel are too small to be mentioned), I was absolutely in love with this cast. Their chemistry and the ways they interacted with each other were a joy to watch. I had absolutely no trouble believing any of it. It really helped that almost the entire cast was given a backstory of their own. When you give an actor a reason to act like they do, it lets you connect with them and that, in turn, makes their acting believable.
The music for this show was okay. I wasn't blown away by anything, but it wasn't horrible either.
If I were going to rewatch this, it would be in the distant future, and I'd be doing a lot of skipping. Especially the ending. The ending for this drama was, by far, one of the least satisfying endings I have ever seen. That alone almost had me giving this drama a score of 7 instead of the 8 I gave it.
Overall, the drama wasn't as mind-blowing as people were making it out to be. There were a lot of times during the first 2-4 episodes where I was seriously considering dropping it. If I had watched this as it was airing instead of waiting as long as I had to start it, I can almost guarantee that I wouldn't have finished.
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Even though it was made almost 9 years ago, I had to take off some points for some serious loopholes in the story. It seemed like, after the first 30-40 minutes, the story was just dropped. They had went from not liking each other to suddenly using cute nicknames so fast that you could get whiplash. There was never a hint of them liking each other, so it just felt off. Once I got over it though, it wasn't too bad.
The first half hour or so was definitely the best part of this movie though. I had to keep pausing because I was laughing so hard that I couldn't even hear what they were saying.
Acting/Cast: I'm already a big fan of both Kim Jae Won and Ha Ji Won, and while this didn't really make me feel better or worse about my like of Kim Jae Won (although seeing that body was a nice surprise), my love for Ha Ji Won definitely grew.
Even though Ha Ji Won was 25/26 when she filmed this (which I still can't believe while watching the movie), she pulled off her role as a teenager flawlessly.
Kim Jae Won was amazing in his role of self-absorbed rich boy.
I personally think they meshed well when on screen. The love-hate relationship they had going on was believable.
Music: I enjoyed the music throughout the movie.
Rewatch Value: Like I said, there were some things that just didn't make sense to me throughout the movie, so it's not something I'd want to give another try. At least not for a while.
Overall: It had its ups and it had its down. The chemistry between the leads made up for a lot of the downs. The beginning and ending also made up for the downs.
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Acting/Cast: I said in the last one that I loved Fujiwara Tatsuya and Matsuyama Kenichi as Light and L, and that definitely didn't change while watching this movie.
Toda Erika got more time in this one, as was expected, and I liked her in her role as Misa as well. In the manga/anime, my opinion on Misa always varied. I'd love her one second and then really dislike her the next. Toda Erika managed to make it so I was a Misa fan from start to finish.
Music: Again, I don't remember much of the music in this movie. The only song I can remember, other than the suspenseful music they sometimes tossed in, was a RHCP song.
Rewatch Value: I scored it one higher than the first movie because, like I said, I definitely enjoyed this one more.
Overall: Overall, I loved it. The ending in the manga had me kind of sad. The ending in the anime had me crying. The ending of the movie actually had me bawling.
My only complaint with this movie, other than that damn RHCP song, is that it seemed a little anticlimactic. The ending felt like it was too fast at times, and then too slow at times, but in the end, it was still anticlimactic.
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Before I even started watching this, I started its story score with a 10 because it isn't a common type of drama (at least not that I see). No clichés tossed into each episode, no rich mothers who hate the one you're dating, nobody having to dump you because it looks bad for their family's company, etc. That will always get you a good score from me.
As for how the story was told, it was enjoyable. It wasn't going by so fast that I couldn't keep up, and it wasn't moving at a pace that had me wanting to abuse the skip button. Every now and then, they would toss in a twist; sometimes they were predictable, and sometimes I found myself actually being surprised. The action scenes would keep me on the edge of my seat almost every time, wondering what might happen next. 'Iris' has, without a doubt, my favorite fight between two females as of right now. And one of my favorite kisses in a drama as well.
The acting/cast for this show was amazing. Absolutely amazing. The chemistry was working in all the right places for me. Friendships being made, enemies being discovered, people falling love, etc. were all great to watch in action.
This was the first time I had seen Lee Byung Hun in anything (but can I just say that I had a serious fanboy moment when I saw that we shared the same birthday?), but I found myself loving him instantly. He makes these facial expressions sometimes that just make you melt. When it came to his acting in emotional scenes, it would just tear me apart. If that man would be crying, you could assume I'd be crying as well. And his English! Oh jesus, his English is perfect. I would rewind a scene and rewatch it over and over when he would speak English.
Kim So Yeon has slowly been making her way up my list of favorite Korean actors/actresses, and this role totally pushed her into my top five. With her, I can't really explain what I was crazy about while watching her. She just had this way with her acting that constantly had me wishing I could just hop over to North Korea and befriend her.
Jung Joon Ho has apparently had a guest role in a show I watched before, but since I don't remember that at all, I'm thinking of this as his debut performance for me, and I loved it. He actually looked like he was struggling with trying to be the bad guy while still being good, which I don't often see. Usually people just start off bad or we never really see any kind of transition from good to bad.
The only acting I was really unsure of here was T.O.P's. The only time I really seemed to enjoy his acting was when he wasn't speaking. When he was, it seemed, to me, like he was trying too hard to sound evil, and it just wasn't doing anything for me.
I was 50/50 when it came to the music. I really enjoyed the music during action scenes, while the songs during every other part just didn't sound good to me.
Overall, I started this score off at 10 and took it down two points. While I loved basically all of this, some things just bugged me the whole time. One of the things I couldn't get over was how often they used flashbacks. Even starting from the first few episodes, they happened often, and they were long.
Another thing that really bugged me (and bugs me about most action-y shows) is when main characters (and some side characters) use guns. They can hit absolutely anything or anyone, still or moving, when they're just grunts of a more important person, yet they seem to waste clip after clip shooting an important person without ever hitting them once, and it's incredibly irritating.
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The pace of the story flowed really nicely for me. It didn't jump right into the main plot. It gives you a little while to get used to the characters and sort of get a feel for how they are with each other, which makes it a lot more enjoyable to watch in the end.
I think my only complaint (or at least the only one I can think of right now) would be the sex. There was a lot more than I was originally expecting. The first hour or so is like watching softcore porn. I'm so glad I was watching it by myself, because that would've been incredibly awkward if anybody else had been around.
Acting/Cast: I really liked this cast. A lot. Their chemistry together was amazing.
I'd seen Joo Jin Mo in a couple of things before watching this, and I liked him in those. I absolutely loved him in his role as the king in this though. He's what really made this movie for me. He had me smiling whenever he was happy about something, and when someone would hurt him, it would just break my heart because he looked absolutely crushed. This movie really shot him up on my list of actors to watch.
It's the first time I'd watched Zo In Sung and the second time for Song Ji Hyo, and I was definitely impressed. Zo In Sung looked so torn between his loyalties and his feelings that you just wanted to reach out and hug him at times.
Shim Ji Ho's part was definitely not as big as some of the other actors, but I'd be lying if I said he wasn't one of my favorite characters.
Music: I don't remember much of the music. I did enjoy the music that I do remember though.
Rewatch Value: It's over two hours long and, like I said, a bit on the pornographic side for the first hour or so. I'd need to be in the mood for a Joo Jin Mo movie if I ever wanted to watch this again.
Overall: Overall, it wasn't too bad. There was a bit at the end that they could've done without, and there was a bit of stuff in the middle I didn't really think was necessary, but I don't feel like it took away from the film.
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One thing I really enjoyed about this movie was the twists. Some were incredibly predictable, and some were actually kind of surprising. It was a nice switch to watch something that wasn't totally predictable for once.
Acting/Cast: As I said, I recently discovered how much I love Kim Myung Min's acting, and this movie was no different. He didn't really have as much screen time as I was expecting since he was the male lead, but when he was on screen, he was impressive.
I'd seen Son Ye Jin in a couple of things before this, and while I wasn't really enjoying her acting in those, I loved her acting in this. She had this constant air of mystery and sexiness, and it was amazing.
As for the cast as a whole, I loved it. I really enjoyed the chemistry going on between them.
Music: I don't remember any music from this movie. I'm not sure if music would've made it better or if the lack of music was nicer, so I just scored it in the middle.
Rewatch Value: I could definitely see myself watching this movie again.
Overall: Overall, even though it wasn't totally fantastic, I really liked the movie. If there's one thing South Korea is good at, it's making me bawl while watching a movie about gangs.
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Now then, on to the review.
Story: The story...was incredibly confusing for the first half hour or so. I was just not sure what was going on. One thing would happen, and that would lead to a flashback, and then we'd be back to the present, but we aren't even sure if it's actually the present or what; seriously, it was confusing.
The speed with which it was told wasn't too horrible. It let's you kind of get used to what's happening before time jumping a few years and leaving you a little confused again.
The story itself isn't really much. Two friends like the same girl and that causes a rift between them that goes on for years. Nothing new.
Acting: The acting wasn't too bad. It was probably the best part of the movie, even if it wasn't that spectacular.
Kim Da Hyun, I feel, did an awesome job in his role. The same goes for Shin Sung Rok. The rest of the cast didn't really do much for me.
Music: Other than one song that seems to get played/sung a lot, I don't remember a single song or any of the music. As for the one song I do remember, I definitely disliked it.
Rewatch Value: I'm not really sure if I'd ever want to watch it again, but I figure I probably wouldn't say no if anybody ever asked me to watch it with them or something.
Overall: Unfortunately, I don't really have much to say about this movie. It didn't really leave a huge impact on me or anything. If you can get over the confusing parts of the movie though, I think you could probably enjoy this a lot more than I did.
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Acting/Cast -10: This was where the drama was fantastic. The acting was so good, that sometimes the main couple actually had me smiling like an idiot because I was so happy. I've already mentioned that I watched this for LSG and Alex, but some of the smaller roles were the ones that had me hooked.
Choi Jae Hwan as Jung Eun Soo was absolutely perfect. By far one of my favorite characters from any drama I've seen. I can't even imagine someone else taking that role.
As for the other supporting actors, they all had their moments. The Italian chefs had me laughing a lot throughout the show.
Music - 9: The music was the next best part about the show. Whenever an instrumental would come on, I would smile and dance along like an idiot.
Rewatch Value: 7: This isn't higher simply because there were a few characters throughout the show that drove me insane. You know the kind; the ones that have you wishing you could reach through the screen and strangle them (all of those people definitely contributed to me scoring the acting/cast so high too).
Overall 9: While the story didn't interest me, the acting, music, and chemistry between every single actor/character more than made up for it.
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Story - 10 : It's definitely a story that interested me. Two babies switched at birth by a vengeful nurse, only to discover later on in life what happened.
Acting/Cast - 10 : This one explains itself if you watch the show. The acting was fantastic. The actors portraying nice characters had you loving them at all times; the actors portraying "villains" had you wishing you had the ability to hit people through your screen.
There was, of course, the few English speaking actors every now and then that took overacting to a whole new level, but you learn to deal with it.
Music - 10 : The OST is absolutely amazing. Every song (and instrumental) is perfect. Their timing with the scenes is perfect.
Rewatch Value - 6 : I think, looking at how many episodes made up this show, this questions answers itself. Maybe, a long time down the road when I have a lot of free time, and desperately need to cry, I'd rethink this decision.
Overall - 9 : Up until secrets started slowly being revealed, it felt like it was moving incredibly slow, but I still found myself hooked. And once everybody knew everybody else's secrets, I found it hard to turn it off.
Like I stated above, if you ever need to watch something that'll have you crying your eyes out more often than not, and you don't mind a bit of a slow story, this show won't disappoint.
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Acting/Cast: I was really quite find of the cast.
I tend to be a bit harsher when watching an idol act in a drama. Since they're trained to sing and dance, and not act, I tend to be wary of them being a lead. Siwon was really a pleasant surprise for me. I'd be lying if I said he didn't actually have me tearing up a few times.
Chae Rim was, in my eyes, spectacular.
Even in the smaller roles, I felt the actors pulled it off fantastically.
Music: Loved it. Absolutely loved it. I've actually never really been too interested in Sunny, but every time her song would come on, I would find myself singing along each time. The main balled of the show was just as addictive for me. It would start playing, and I'd be ready to sing along.
Rewatch Value: I finished this drama in less than 48 hours. I managed to spend a whole day watching over half of the show without even realizing it; I was that engrossed.
There aren't many dramas I rewatch, but I thought this drama was incredibly cute, so I'd definitely watch it again.
Overall: Overall, even though I loved the drama, it only gets a 9. I felt the end was really rushed. It definitely would've helped if it had been extended another episode or something. While it didn't really leave anything unanswered, it just kind of left me...dissatisfied.
One of my favorite things about this drama was its lack of every rom-com cliche. It definitely had it's predictable moments; there's no denying that. But the lack of scheming ex-girlfriends and in-laws spending every episode threatening to ruin the leading lady's life was a nice change.
I loved having the little girl as such an important part of the show. I felt like that was really cemented this as a fantastic drama for me. Her interactions with the leads, as well as their interactions with her, were really amazing to watch.
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Once by myself, and once with my mother to get her into K-Dramas (and to see if I liked it any better the 2nd time).
In all honesty, I don't see why people seem to love it so much. Personally, I think they love the good looking actors more than the actual drama.
Story - 7/10. Typical drama cliches all tossed into one drama. After watching "Hana Yori Dango" (which I watched after BoF), I have to wonder what happened. The story was so much better in HYD for me.
Acting/Cast - 8/10. Personally, I'm only giving it an 8 because of the eye candy actors. I wasn't really impressed with the acting at all.
Music - 6/10. There was honestly points where I'd have to mute it because they were replaying the same 2 songs over and over and over.
Rewatch Value - 5/10. As stated above, I think people rewatch it more for the actors than for the actual drama. If gorgeous people interest you more than an enjoyable story, then this is something you could rewatch ofte.
Overall - 6/10. Overall, the drama had some good points, and a lot of bad points. By the end, I was only watching for Kim Hyun Joong and all of the supporting characters.
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The story itself isn't something I really recall seeing before in dramas that I've watched, so I did like that. The length of which it was told though; that needed a change. It was basically 12 episodes or so of the same thing. The show was literally pretty much nothing but "I hate you; I love you; I'm leaving; I'm moving back in." As much as I liked the cast, I almost couldn't make it all the way through this.
Add onto that the fact that the main female lead seemed to switch from a strong lead to a weak lead, and it wasn't really all that people make it out to be.
Acting/Cast: Definitely the best part about this drama, without a doubt.
I absolutely loved Rain in this role. He was, I suppose, the typical bad boy. Movie star, rich, bad attitude; you know how it is. And while those characters are usually the kinds of characters I dislike, I was pretty much crazy about Rain. He had a lot of moments where he'd pout, and it would give you the impression of a hurt puppy, and you couldn't help but love him.
Song Hye Kyo. Loved her. Totally loved her. Her character though, like I stated above, not so much. She seemed to start the show off as a really strong character who didn't take crap from anybody. And as the show went on, she ended up being the typical drama female lead that lets the whole world walk over her all the time. Song Hye Kyo was adorable though.
Kim Sung Soo. In all honesty, it was incredibly hard to focus on the show when he was on the screen. He's just insanely good looking, and it was hard to pay attention to anything but his face. It definitely made his role of "player" believable though.
Han Eun Jung was probably, surprisingly, one of the best acts in the show. You loved to hate her, and hated to love her; but you did both anyway. She took that role and made it hers.
Music: Right now, I can only really remember two songs from the show, and I hated one of them. Wanted to rip my ears off every time it was played.
Rewatch Value: Like I said at the beginning, this show is extremely repetitive. 80% of this drama is nothing but the same thing. It's like they just tossed in some different situations in hopes that you wouldn't notice it.
Overall: Overall, the cast is pretty much the only reason this got an 8 from me. The first and last episodes played a part in that score as well.
Aside from the repetitiveness of the main story, there were less important parts that really bugged me about this show. The main one, without a doubt, was the female lead's best friend. We go through this whole show hearing about her being pregnant (seriously, they talk about her being pregnant almost every time she's there), and even show us a baby at the end, but at no point in this show is she showing. She's stick thin the whole time, and it's really...just blah.
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