Irene
This is one of the best noona romances, proving that love knows no age boundaries. Park Seo Joon and Uhm Jung Hwa's chemistry is off the charts crazy good in this drama. You can't help but smile at the couple's cute bantering and tension. The 14 year age gap (and 19 in real life) doesn't seem real based on how believable the romance scenes are executed. Great writing, directing, and acting across the board. Uhm Jung Hwa looks really good and had great outfits throughout the drama. Actually, I really enjoyed the style choices by all of the cast and the outfits really added to each character's personality.
The middle of the story dragged too much, with the return of the ex-fiancee. If you can make it past that, you will be rewarded with lots of smiley and fuzzy sweet moments at the end.
Good use of sound effects. Loved all of the supporting cast and their storylines as well. Yoon Hyun Min shines in his comedic acting here.
Really enjoyed this drama. For feel-good moments, watch the beginning and the end.
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I appreciated that the story depicted is more realistic than that of many rom-coms out there. People held realistic jobs. Working relationships are realistic too, no unreasonable boss or stab-in-the-back villainous colleague here, which made the office scenes a bit boring yet thankfully not frustrating to watch either
What's interesting is that the 4 main females' perspectives of love were all challenged. How do you find yourself, be true to yourself and your values, yet still find a fulfilling and thrilling romantic partner? It seems each of the women has their own view of the type of men they want but realize that love will find them only after they stop trying to change the men, but either change themselves or find someone new who is a better fit for their values. To me, that is way more realistic than many dramas that transform the tsundere man to a lovesick fool once he meets the main girl.
Lots of sweet kisses in this drama, even for rewatching it in 2017. The directorial decision to freeze frames as photos with narratives spoken over them was extremely annoying to me. I guess the director wanted to go for a nostalgic feel but I felt it was overdone and didn't add to the overall drama.
I did enjoy it as a lighthearted drama that you can watch before bedtime, as it isn't an action or thriller drama that keeps you alert through the night.
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For someone who has been watching dramas for a long time, you will find that while the premise is quite interesting, the storyline and villains are quite predictable.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed it. The first few episodes are the best because the SSH and KTH had good dialogue and the repeated meetings between the strangers were believable and cute. There was character development throughout the drama between the two main leads.
Watch this for cute moments and skip the predictable villains that pop up throughout.
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The BGM really resembled that of Healer's, which I enjoyed. The acting by the leads was top notch. I watched this for the romance and not for the business / corporate takeover aspects. The beginning of the drama had a good story flowing but became a mess towards the end of the drama as the writers tried to wrap everything up neatly in the last 2 episodes. However, the ending felt rushed and as a viewer, I felt robbed of the potential cute romantic scenes between the leads... I would have been more satisfied if I got to watch more cute scenes by the leads.
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A really non-scary horror genre drama that is pretty procedural. The main leads have very cute chemistry (which is to be expected given the real life age difference) that never progressed past cutesy love.
Taecyeon was also very cute in this and I thought there was a good job by the casting. His acting is a bit stiff but worked well in this context as the boy who can see ghosts all his life.
Villain's acting was excellent and was often creeped out.
Also a very satisfying ending with great support cast as well.
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A 100x times better than the CW-adaptation (girl and her father in the past communicated via radio).
A lot of people loved Kim Hye Soo in her role as the main female lead but I really did not enjoy her acting in this. Her eyes are expressive for sure but too much eye acting made it feel she was a creepier character than she really was. I enjoyed the main male leads' acting in this
The wrap-up was satisfying. A show I've been consistently recommending to my non-kdrama watching friends as a hope to get them into watching kdramas!
It's usually really hard for me to watch shows with little to no romance but this show succeeded by making me watch it all the way through.
Overall, a really solid show if you are into great writing, execution, and acting. One of the most recommendable shows of 2016 for sure.
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Watch this if you are in the mood for a mystery waiting to be unveiled, a swoon worthy romance, spunky female lead, and time for binging!
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This review may contain spoilers
The actors did their best
Of the various web Cdramas that are now all the rage, this one is watchable, for the nice set and music.However, watch out. The story spirals downhill after the ML’s wedding.
There is very little character development and a number of unaddressed plot holes.
Throughout the whole time I’m thinking if this ML exists in modern times he’d be a real jerk, hardly likeable. None of the characters are very likeable, except for the ML’s second in command, who coincidentally is also the best looking actor on set.
For some reason, the scriptwriters did not write any real villains in the story, just a lot of annoying characters. This meant that the real conflict of the story is the series of misunderstandings and lies between the ML and FL. This gets old after the first few episodes.
If you want to watch a ML that gets jealous and subsequent cute romantic scenes then this is the show for you.
I did make it until the very end, which I can’t say for most of the other web dramas out there. For that, I want to acknowledge the actors, who did the best with the story that they had.
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Misses:
- NJH's acting just didn't have enough gravitas to portray a thousand+ year old water god. Although he did try.
- Actually, non of the gods were given reasonable interpretations as beings that have been around for thousands of years. Kind of like watching the American "Supernatural"'s minor gods (immature and powerless)
- Did not fully explore the cool fantasy aspects (use of godly power on earth)
- Habaek's quest was either poorly written or poorly executed, because no satisfaction to viewer whatsoever (in other words, I was not invested in what Habaek was on earth to do, like, at all)
- loveline lacked chemistry (which has already been criticized by many)
Gave the music a higher rating because I enjoyed the music at the opening of every ep, haha.
It's a pity this show is compared to Goblin a lot because to me they are two completely different shows. Goblin asks more existential questions, while BOTWG is more about human love, both family and romantic. Well, theoretically, if BOTWG was better executed, could have been about human love.
Overall, a show that had a lot of wasted potential.
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What it means to be a champion
A drama worth your time. Best in its genre of e-sports.Great pacing, great characters, and the music so “hot blooded” that the music stays with you long after the show ends.
As many have said, you need to suspend your understanding of science for this drama. It’s not really a show that is about time travel or technological advances. Instead, it’s a drama about pursuing your dreams and having the mentality of a winner, and using these plot devices such as time travel to deliver it to us. Never accept defeat, and do everything possible to become a champion but not at the expense of doing the wrong thing or hurting others.
There are a lot of things packed into these 36 episodes - from friendships to romantic love to family, from many social issues like domestic abuse to self acceptance to societal views of gaming. Lots of wacky and humorous moments. I cried through a number of episodes too.
In life, we must get up again after we fall, and we continue on. This was the core theme of the show.
Excellent scriptwriting. Whoever wrote all the inspiring speeches should get a raise. Of course no drama is perfect. There are a lot of unresolved minor plots that didn’t get addressed at the end (as viewers you just assume these scenes happened offline) but it didn’t interfere with the overall message that the show aimed to deliver. Solid acting across the cast and all of the action shots must have been very tiring, but exciting to watch the finished product.
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Love between two adults
A very good story that showed how two people grew and fell in love with each other. Mature, adult relationship. No silly misunderstandings or drama for the sake of drama here. The secondary relationships, such as the one between the doctor and the widower was also well done. Quite a bit of justice was given to the careers of special forces and military doctors. I enjoyed the various arcs where the ML and FL had to resolve problems at their work. The action scenes were also well done, and gave excitement.The failing aspects of this story lie in the way the villains are depicted. I am not able to resonate with the villains at all. They tried to add some depth to the villainous second male lead but either due to the bad writing or acting I was not able to get any of it. The drama tried to depict the female lead’s friend as someone imperfect with flaws but again, failed to get the viewers to like or even understand her.
Music was so so, nothing that I can remember now that I stopped watching.
I very much enjoyed the performance across the cast. Watch it if you enjoy watching adults find love while pursuing meaning and value filled lives!
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Charming, with a takeaway lesson
Super cute drama, with lots of fluff. Solid acting across the cast. Decent storyline.Female lead is well done, as you root for her every step of the way. Even though she may act cutesy, you see she is not a dumb girl and she works very hard to advance her career.
Second male lead is super attractive!
The colleagues are the main points of conflict in the drama and while annoying, the plot lines do wrap up by the end of the drama.
The overarching plot about publishing novels is also a refreshing one, and a great setting for a fluffy enjoyable romcom. Highly recommend.
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The story was well constructed. The scams were always clever. Use of music was very effective. A good cast.
However, despite not having any complaints about any individual aspect of the drama (acting, writing, directing were all solid), it was hard for me to be invested in the drama. Because the story was very fast-paced (a lot of time passes in the drama) and there are many players, it becomes hard to be invested in the success of any individual character. It almost felt drawn out, like a 2 hour movie stretched to 16 hours. Something just feels missing. Perhaps the villains were too one-dimensional, or the supporting con-artists were treated like plot devices that moved cons along.
Seo In Guk and Ma Dong Seok were great. I enjoyed Seo In Guk's acting as he pulled off multiple characters as a con-man.
I am impressed with the overall premise and how the story played out, yet I am hesitant to recommend it unless you enjoy movies like Ocean's Eleven. No romance in this. Subtle bromance.
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While there is character development, and the characters do a good job portraying their various roles, the show focused largely on revealing the many sides of humanity as they face a natural disaster.
In this drama, you will see the many sides of humanity revealed: the selfish, the survivor, the helpful, the self-sacrificial.
There are also plenty of frustrating characters bent on misunderstanding our protagonist. And one-dimensional villains. Sometimes I don't mind these types of antagonists but after watching so many kdramas, these types of characters get old.
As far as disaster dramas go, this is the first I've seen in a korean production and I was impressed with what was filmed given the production value. As far as medical dramas go, this is an average drama. There are lots of cute between the two main leads, but never progresses too far (and for good reason, they are focused on saving peoples' lives in the midst of disaster!) Story moves along at a nice pace, could have been cut to 16 episodes though.
Overall, a decent drama. Watch if you want to watch disaster scenes. If you love medical dramas, then this is okay too, but there are better ones out there.
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The story for this drama has one of my favorite tropes: poor girl takes over rich girl's identity and meets rich boy and falls in love. The story has a rather realistic execution to it, as the female lead is characterized as someone who doesn't have a lot of gumption, isn't good at lying, and is constantly fearful of being found out as a fraud. The first 10 eps were frustrating to watch because this characterization makes you feel a lot of second-hand embarrassment. Later on in the drama the female lead finally grows some backbone and the overall drama becomes less annoying. Similarly, many of the supporting cast is also frustrating to watch and I had to fast forward through. I will acknowledge that the drama applies a realistic spin to an unrealistic premise - which differentiates from many other similar dramas.
The love between the main leads is believable. The story does tie up nicely.
Overall, a decent melodrama, especially for someone like me who doesn't particularly like melos.
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