ksig22
This review may contain spoilers
A Realistic Romance that Doesnt Feel Very Realistic By the End
This drama is shot beautifully and well acted. The OST might be the best part of the show. Up to a certain point the romance is a warm hug with no cliche misunderstandings. Then the dreaded kdrama episodes 12-16 hit this show like a white kdrama truck. Everything was going too well in the show, so the director needed to spice things up by adding in unnecessary melodrama that didn't fit the characters or tone they were building.
This brings me to my biggest point of contention with the drama: the breakup. Its realistic for couples to breakup over misunderstandings and miscommunication. My problem doesn't lie with the breakup, even if its a kdrama cliche, rather the problem is the writing and character assassination that took place to get there. There is a way to write the FL becoming unhappy with the relationship as she moves on from the honeymoon phase. The show presents the FL as nice, caring, thoughtful, and a sweet person in every single scene until episode 12 when she becomes completely different. Her actions don't make sense, she becomes bitter and depressed like she is a scorned lover. The show tries to tell us that the barrier to communication was the reason, but to the audience it seems like she just fell out of love. This would be fine if the show's message is about appreciating the time you spent together and loving in spite of knowing the end, but the show doesn't stop there! In the last 5 minutes we get a ham fisted monologue (in a play) and then the couple is back together. The writers clearly didnt know how to properly get the couple to break up in a realistic manner, and then we also get a patch work reconciliation at the end. Either the show should've put more effort in showing the audience why and how the FL eventually grew distant or they needed the couple to break up for good and have the last episode with them reconciling and moving forward without each other.
The overall plot of this drama hinges on the "fire event" during their college years. So much of the ML's, 2FL's, and weird friend's motivations and character makeup begin from this traumatic event. Unfortunately like many kdramas that try to play up a large traumatic event in a character's past, the actual event is messy, borderline nonsensical, incoherent mumbo jumbo. Ultimately it led to me questioning why we needed a random unknown stalker who whistles, why the friend side character (whose name I cant even remember) is even needed in this story, why the ML and FL didn't just communicate or read the police report of such a big event? Sure, the FL admits she was looking for an excuse to run away in the end, but there are so many leaps in logic that we, the audience, have to jump over to get to where we are in the present day story.
I enjoyed the side romances in this show. Jinwoo's class was hysterical and the best side characters in the show. The FL's roommate and her brother's romance was enjoyable too, but it was clearly there to pad out the run time to 16 episodes because they are never mentioned again after they become a couple and have no relevance to the overall story or the ML/FL romance. I was expecting something from Modam because he had such a strong negative first impression of Jinwoo, but nothing comes from that. Also, Jinwoo's reunion with his birth mother was very well acted and well earned.
Its a very slow drama. I think it's worth watching for the cinematography, OST, and the first half of the show. I didn't love the main couple as much as I wanted to, but other's may feel differently and consequently you may love the show much more than I did.
This brings me to my biggest point of contention with the drama: the breakup. Its realistic for couples to breakup over misunderstandings and miscommunication. My problem doesn't lie with the breakup, even if its a kdrama cliche, rather the problem is the writing and character assassination that took place to get there. There is a way to write the FL becoming unhappy with the relationship as she moves on from the honeymoon phase. The show presents the FL as nice, caring, thoughtful, and a sweet person in every single scene until episode 12 when she becomes completely different. Her actions don't make sense, she becomes bitter and depressed like she is a scorned lover. The show tries to tell us that the barrier to communication was the reason, but to the audience it seems like she just fell out of love. This would be fine if the show's message is about appreciating the time you spent together and loving in spite of knowing the end, but the show doesn't stop there! In the last 5 minutes we get a ham fisted monologue (in a play) and then the couple is back together. The writers clearly didnt know how to properly get the couple to break up in a realistic manner, and then we also get a patch work reconciliation at the end. Either the show should've put more effort in showing the audience why and how the FL eventually grew distant or they needed the couple to break up for good and have the last episode with them reconciling and moving forward without each other.
The overall plot of this drama hinges on the "fire event" during their college years. So much of the ML's, 2FL's, and weird friend's motivations and character makeup begin from this traumatic event. Unfortunately like many kdramas that try to play up a large traumatic event in a character's past, the actual event is messy, borderline nonsensical, incoherent mumbo jumbo. Ultimately it led to me questioning why we needed a random unknown stalker who whistles, why the friend side character (whose name I cant even remember) is even needed in this story, why the ML and FL didn't just communicate or read the police report of such a big event? Sure, the FL admits she was looking for an excuse to run away in the end, but there are so many leaps in logic that we, the audience, have to jump over to get to where we are in the present day story.
I enjoyed the side romances in this show. Jinwoo's class was hysterical and the best side characters in the show. The FL's roommate and her brother's romance was enjoyable too, but it was clearly there to pad out the run time to 16 episodes because they are never mentioned again after they become a couple and have no relevance to the overall story or the ML/FL romance. I was expecting something from Modam because he had such a strong negative first impression of Jinwoo, but nothing comes from that. Also, Jinwoo's reunion with his birth mother was very well acted and well earned.
Its a very slow drama. I think it's worth watching for the cinematography, OST, and the first half of the show. I didn't love the main couple as much as I wanted to, but other's may feel differently and consequently you may love the show much more than I did.
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