Pure Entertainment!!

I am not usually a wuxia fan and have not many shows so the entire review is from my personal enjoyment of the show. No major spoilers as such but may have some minor ones. My motivation to start this was pure Lee Jae Wook tbh. I had seen him in WWW and the moment he came to the screen I was drawn to him the entire time.

Watching the initial episodes, I was half heartedly expecting this show to be a political scheming war between a destined king (Jang Uk) Vs Wannabe King (CP) Vs Actual king who is soon dying, with some magical elements. Yeah I had my biases going in but I was wrong. The setup was beautiful and I was actually drawn to the story for about 4-5 episodes. The show had some cool cliffhangers which make me crave for the next episode. The CGI elements were dope and whenever Naksu drew her sword made me major goosebumps.

That's where my complaint started. It had an interesting setup, Jang Uk born under King's Star and destined for greater things and on the other side deadly assassin Naksu soul swapped as Mu Deok. Their journey to start from scratch to finding about their truths was an intriguing plot for me which despite not being an unique one however if done right makes it interesting. After a point it became a battle of mere words. The storylines being reiterated for God knows how many times. One by one each character got to know the secrets and repeating the same thing made me scream like dude we got the story now move on. The whole Ep 19 was a summary of the story line for the nth time, no kidding.

My highest disappointment with the show is how they underplayed Naksu. They gave us a badass heroine who eventually became nothing but a maid. I get the motive behind it as they wanted to come up with the whole arc of hers but they did a major injustice. Not only hers, infact so many other characters who were supposed to be this great mages protecting the Capital and what not became a meek observer of the plot. They bought 0 contribution to the story which makes you question their purpose. During emergent situation the mages like Yul, Park Jin and even the Crown Prince did nothing making me scream like aren't you suppose to be powerful? Now for the king, I mean they take the most competitive "admission test" to appoint a servant seriously but chose the most stupid person as the king who was the last to find out what was going on. I know they added all this for drama purpose but I can't help laughing at this absurdity.

The cast did justice to their roles and no complaints on the acting front. For the romance aspect honestly I was not interested and majorly skipped all the scenes except the ones with the main couple. It was unnecessary and cringey to some extent. Action scenes were cool but were limited like Jang Uk and Naksu using one only Tansu move whenever they fight. Maybe we will see more in S2 as the setup is different here.

Overall the story was repetitive and was cliched down a lot to attract the crowd however it was still an entertaining watch for me. I am up for S2 and not taking the loopholes of the story tooo seriously.

*Ending Spoiler here*
I wonder how will they bring up Naksu's body which was burnt earlier. I suppose it was Jin's family who saved Mu Deok at the end as the mother was giving instruction to bring her alive, so I think maybe one of them saved her body or something. And Jang Uk rising from the ashes was my favorite scene of the show. Ahh LJW eyes!

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Average at its best!

The reason is that it felt superficial and like it was making fool of the viewers. It didn't stir up the emotions I was expecting to feel from a stressed single mother-son bond. Maybe on paper I get it but intellectually I am not convinced.

A rather simple example to prove that would be the story of the pigs. Like the whole show the mother was preachy about how she cared about her pigs especially mother pigs. But logically if you think they were raising them to sell and have them slaughtered for food. So how am I suppose to enjoy the metaphorical relationship between the human mother and pig mother which is present throughout the drama. It is funny and a petty example, I know but I can't get my head around it (you will know how serious they were about their pigs through the drama!).

So besides this major point (haha) there was hardly anything in the script to comment. If you are an avid drama watcher then the story is guessable from ep 1 itself. The suspense element is not that strong really. The relationship between the leads thought started angsty get fuzzed out pretty quickly and there was nothing to explore. If at all the son felt too much of a mumma's boy to be enjoyed as a manly ML . As much I loved all the actors and was hyping up for the show, it didn’t deliver.

The villians again felt cartoonish not evil. Again one of the villian was supposed person with high power and whatnot but it was quite convenient to defeat him which contradicts the fact that he is like the most powerful person to beat.
I mean there are serious consequences to that in real life if the President is impreached and I know drama is suppose to be fiction but having some logic won't hurt. K-dramas needs to up their king/President characters in my opinion.

Overall I don't regret watching it and the acting was fine but I'll forget about it quickly. It recommended only if you want a filler drama for timepass.

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A beginning full of mysteries and questions ends to big nothing.

I am an avid fan of mystery genre and by that I want to imply that I have read and seen TONS of books & movies.
So I was not really expecting much when I started this as I feel I have seen it all but the initial episodes were actually interesting. I got engrossed in the murder mystery. It gave us many questions and despite knowing the answers to some, I was patiently waiting for the story to reveal the same. However in the end, there were no answers given to some of the questions or worse a lazy simple answer! Hence, now I don't really get the point of the story.
.
*Spoiler here*
My take on the story:
1. The reasons for the killings were not stated and no having mommy issues don't count as an excuse. Having a crazy mother doesn't automatically imply why he killed those women who had no connection to him whatsoever.
2. They pretty much ruled out the suspects quickly and through process of elimination anyone can guess who was the murderer.
3. I was expecting a female accomplice as well like a psychological thriller type towards the end but that was not the case [maybe my mind ran too much].
4. They never explained what happened to the third murder/ the girl whose body wasn't found.
5. The time travel rules sucked. Initially so much drama on why they shouldn't be messing with the timeline later became very convenient to change the course of time.
6. ML could have simply gone to the time and location of the deaths and find out who the killer was. Simple!
*End Spoiler here*

I was not into the romance so it didn't matter to me whether the couples had chemistry. Acting was fine for some characters however the bad guy was terrible I feel. ML's mother victim acting was worse.

If you like me have seen a lot of mystery dramas, I suggest you to skip this one.
However if you can handle a simple explanation to the questions then go ahead, as I said it did have a lot of captivating scenes to keep you hooked.

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Call it yawn saga!

I enjoyed it less than I assumed I would. Slice of life is my jam and I was looking forward for this show. The initial 6-7 episodes were the best and I didn't want to stop binging. From there onwards, the show became a big nothing. The middle section was still bearable with few draggy scenes which can be saved by ff. Towards the end, particularly 13-15 I lost interest.

For the MC, I liked the premise buildup. A FL captured by her past with spunky attitude and a ML , kind and caring, who would suffer in silence rather than lashing it out on others. The mood was intense whenever they were on screen and I couldn't wait for them to be together already. To some extent, i was able to relate Dong Jin with my experiences and how I am on some level similar to that. His stooped shoulders spoke about him more than his dialogues. I am sucker for still scenes. Scenes with silence have a certain healing element to them. And I have no complaint about the slow burn. But I was frustrated when the show went from a healing slice of life to what would happen if the secret is out. Also, I saw some comments on them being step siblings and its gross. Well I think it would depend on the culture itself. There are a certain section of culture where cousins are allowed to marry each other. Similarly, I think in Korea its not of a big issue if they are from different family registers and different surname. It could my understanding gap though.

Different from the comments on the second couple, I enjoyed them more than the leads and was got interested in their story in latter half. Their dynamic was organic and I wish it could have been explored more and in a better way. I liked how the communication flew naturally between them with no lies, Perhaps this is the best kind of relationship in my eyes, two people who have nothing to hide and can work it out with communication.

Also, there was less romance scenes. By that I mean not skinship moments rather the vibe you get when two people are in love. The smile, heart fluttering excitement when you see your partner, all that was lacking. Even after the couples getting together we get more sad vibes with scenes like them walking--standing staring at each other--crying -- or random scenes from office with them just sitting and working.

To add to the dragginess, the remaining set of characters bought nothing to the table. Heeja was insane beyond comprehension and my brain wanted to just skip her scenes, Minyoung had some depth in the middle when they were exploring why she broke up. I was not entirely convinced with arc, I understood where she was coming from and Hani did okay yet I didn't find much depth. The office politics was a yawn fest. The drama with FL mother was another cliche low value addition to the story. For somebody who was supposed to be sick, she was quite energetic and ignorant on her children's well being. Left them to survive on their own then coming and demanding they consider her feelings in all their decisions felt selfish because of which I was not able to sympathize with her. Sunwoo was a good though and I liked the friendship displayed.

As I said, my biggest complaint is that most of the scenes were bland and filled with will-he- find- out the secret and guilty FL which served no purpose, From meaningful conversations it became a crying fest soon. And the breakup was forced just to manufacture the feeling of longingness in the viewers.

I know a lot of people enjoyed the show but it didn't gel with me. Like I understood in a logical way yet it didn't hit me on an emotional level. For the first half it would be 8/10 but the second half is more like 2/10.

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Did I enjoy it more or am I frustated more?

So we finally had the last chapter and gosh it was a journey. Tbh I neither liked it very much nor hated it. I had no expectation to begin with and just wanted to watch it for entertainment so it didn't hit me as much.

It was evident that the script was solid, unfortunately the way it was executed on screen was illogical and rushed. I believe on paper the story would have been more enjoyed and since the drama had to be fitted in a certain amount of time it became a parody of random scenes. The editing in the second half was very bad. I wanted to root for the USP of the show. The fantasy elements of soul shifting, different energy levels, Jang Uk arc as the protector of the stone, Naksu as an assassin, tragic love story b/w soul shifter and killer of soul shifters was supposed to be the USP in my opinion.
Had they stick to their strengths, the show could have been very different. But no they had to use cheap methods to gain attention.

The storyline became JUST SO DUMB. I ff a lot of Jin Mu's scenes, he was so bad that I skipped most of his dialogues and saved my time and energy.
Also I feel few scenes were "referenced" from other famous movies/drama which didn't fit to this story and failed to be executed properly. Some of which which I noticed-
1. Jang Uk wraiths shown in his room> quite similar to Harry Potter dementors.
2. In EP 1 or 2, there was an underwater soul shifter> I was half expecting it to be similar as Black Panther's Talocan but they dropped it pretty fast without much explanation. I was up for an army of underwater soul shifters hehe.
3. When Jang Uk locked Jin Mu in the secret room> similar to the power of mirror dimension of Dr Strange.
4. Jang Uk super sonic speed when he entered Jinwoyon in Ep 1> similar to Quicksilver in Avengers Age of Ultron.
5. Army of the dead aka soul shifters> Obviously GOT. Infact the intro song was very similar to the one of GOT.

I enjoyed Crown Prince scenes- The "Why did Jang Uk cared for my turtle" was silly yet funny. Sadly he was cut off from the VFX budget and didn't get any fight scenes. Further the transition from serious to funny scenes was well done.
I liked the OST "Scars leave beautiful trace" .

The most frustrating arc was Bu Yeon/Naksu/Mudoek/ Jeol Seo Ran/ Chu Yeon ufffff. The great assassin and priestess was merely said on paper. Infact the entire story was told on paper with nothing actually done. I can list all of them but its pointless and quite obvious for those who have already seen.

The acting was mostly good except for the villain. The main casts were an eye candy, just one complaint- why did they shot romantic scenes with so much anger. Dude that was the most serious wedding I have ever seen! Also CP confessing that he liked Naksu and was angry at Uk for having what he wanted was so understated. Uk reaction to finding out Naksu was all the more understated.

In conclusion, did I regret watching it? No because it had potential. Will I recommend or add it as my best watch? Definitely No for obvious reasons everyone felt.

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Use of aesthetics to cover a lacking story

Honestly, I was not very keen to watch this drama but given the ratings & hype I decided to give it a try. Visually the drama is very pleasing. I liked the first half where it told a story of a young girl having one sided crush on an elder guy who happens to be her brother's best friend. It reminded me of my childhood when I had a similar type of crush. There were scenes which was so relatable such as when she found his name spelling like the excitement was so real! I suddenly recalled those moments when I was 19-20 y.o and my entire day used to be blooming just because I found my crush's info- his full name or fb profile. So yeah it felt so so like a normal crush story.

The second half however was meh and i ff/skipped a lot. There were two reasons for that:

A. The storyline was bland. There was nothing going on plot wise. The leads just met in different clothes & different ambience with flashbacks which was shown like 15 mins ago. Their conversations were like that of a constipated person. The entire line of side characters were made just to make the relationship arc shine which felt redundant. They wasted resources on actors which had no purpose and could have been done by one actor alone. The scope was so limited.

B. The infantilizing of the FL was way worse compared to other dramas. ML attended her PTM, buy pads for her, changed her shoes, cooks and clean for her, picks her from office basically treat her like a 5 yr old. FL parents controlled her too much, yeah one can say this is common in Asian families but that makes you a kid and not a person suitable for romance drama. This portrayal of women is not new in dramaland and has been a constant hit amongst audience so I won't waste my energy on saying like please give us a semi-independent FL or least someone with half a dime of brain, so i'll let it go.

My recommendation- go for a mature plot , there are plenty ones out there. This is not worth it no matter how good looking the cast is and how aesthetically good the production.

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If the drama never had Son Seok Koo...

These days I tend to hear words like toxic, red flags etc on the internet a lot to which I anticipate if were made in a drama it would be this. Its easy to criticize sitting at home behind a screen where in real world the production team works so hard for, so I tried to empathize with the efforts of the people involved while speaking up. But the level of annoyance I had watching this made me compel to come up with a negative review. The major reason for show's popularity in my opinion was the actor SSK charms (and I am not unharmed btw for if he looks into the screen and I die blushing; hot would be an understatement for this man ) So here I am taking off my SSK lens and asking viewers to take the story as what it is.

The good parts for me was the quality of direction and dialogues (whatever little it had). The silences around the characters were beautiful. The one who stood out the most was Change Hee. By no means he was any different or dare I say likeable to any extent. It was the depth of Chang Hee which was portrayed through his monologues which touched me. He knew life was not what he wanted and he exactly knew why. It takes so much of strength to admit your own shortcomings and blame no one but oneself for it. Given the choice to betray the family and live life on his own terms he would still be there doing his part for the family. He was this kind of a person and the actor suited him well. Such kind of complex character could have been done by a veteran only and respect of Lee Min Ki skills.

Coming to the sisters, one who thought being in love was her only purpose and another who complained how her parents did nothing for her yet when a man who never spoke a word to her bought her all the happiness she ever lacked. Seriously what?! If the main motive of the story was to address the superficiality and taken it as issue, I would have been up for it. However what it did was to romanticize this which really got on my nerves. Even towards the end Mi Jung and Ki Jung never admitted how mean they were to their parents who btw sacrificed so much for their kids and got nothing. The actors were good but the script lacked I guess.

I am choosing to remain silent for Mr Gu's character, period.

There was a concept of the Liberation club which was unique and intriguing, more became a club of people coming together, crying they have an issue (which btw the viewers were already aware before the formation of the club) and then nothing. What do you expect me to do? Empathize with random bunch of persons crying ?

Anyway if you want a good slice of life drama, there are way better ones out there. The very core of this drama was bs for me and would never recommend it in my sanity.

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A preachy story with a broody Min Hyuk in a convertible ~~~

The story started with our FL trying to make a living while being curious about the life of the influencers. Slowly she is pulled into their world, then from then it was a loop of Seo Ari being bullied-Min Hyuk in his broodiness suave coming to her rescue-antagonists bitching about her-then she making a comeback-repeat. The initial comment they made where FL is arguing with an influencer about having hate comments or digital image on sns is no big deal to cut to in the end FL trying to commit suicide because of same reasons. It was preachy and hypocritical.

Acting wise it was okay and I think antagonists did a way better job than the main people. They truly annoyed me. Uri smiley Min Hyuk became a sexy chaebol flashing his million dollar suit & convertible. The scene where he removes his shoes was oh my God so extraaa. Rich people in Korea do you really do that? And you call that a tradition? If not then that was way over extra.. Lol.. There were some facepalm moments too, say after the club incident the FL was like a person is dying and rich people don't care blah blah , cut to next scene she came home and started celebrating her increase in followers. Seriously the production should review what they are editing!! Another one where she finds out the guy is dead and cut to next scene she is in a convertible holding hands with Min Hyuk. Then she asks him to drop her nearby because she wants some fresh air to which our hero opens his car roof of the convertible. That was some ultra cringy flex dude.

Netflx making comments on about how business are feeding off audience attention felt superficial to me. I mean the business itself does that. Anyway its an okay show just showing off its production value because they can afford to. You may or may not like it, its your preference. The story seemed to be written in a rush to attain viewership rating by flexing brands & "it" culture.

TMI- I feel dramas are stereotyping rich, chaebols, influencers too much. Hate comments online are a serious issue and I don't think being a celebrity would automatically entitle you to hate based on limited information. I don't know I may be wrong but that's how I feel about it.

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Romanticizing cheating is a huge no no for me!

I still remember the first time I watched Titanic and how it felt. Rewatching it several times gave me the same amount of heartbreak and jitters despite knowing the ending. Logically I know there was a good chance the ending could have been different yet it never stole the thunder of the movie for me. My emotions were still very strong.
I want to compare this experience it to this drama where the production, acting and music were superb to be compared to a classic. The initial 3-4 episodes I felt the sense of longing along with the characters. Though the story of a poor divorcee mother and her lost love is no unique plot, I was still invested in the episodes. Somewhere in the middle the story collapsed and it was just so bad I couldn’t like the show anymore.

As many had already mentioned, using amnesia as a breakup plot device is overdone. Since nowadays I have watched a lot of dramas where “going to US” is a trendy breakup point, I certainly didn’t mind amnesia. Just she has been dating him for ages and everyone knew about it, obviously they would have pictures, mementos etc etc and it just didn’t made sense that she never found out about him.

Women are women’s worst enemy was evident in this drama as apparently every woman around Yae was there to create distress. Her greedy mother who passes the entire time safely for hiding such information and never been confronted upon. The MIL was just too disgusting and I want such people to rot in hell (wont waste my words on her). Her ex- husband was a wuss, mumma’s boy and cheater combined in one. I wanted him to face some kind of backlash and was so annoyed when he got a happy ending.

Harumichi’s love triangle was a tough one. I personally hate storyline that sugarcoats cheating. And when he cheated on her fiancé before their wedding, that moment I was completely turned off by the drama. I wanted to sympathize with Tsunemei’s character but girl had no backbone. Instead of standing up for herself, she threw herself into a marriage to avoid breakup at any cost. Please its 2023 (2022 for drama) for God sake can we please get some brainy females characters already?! I am tired of such characters where they throw themselves to support dickheads in the name of love. She should have left a long time back when the guy was running from commitment. The nuance of the “first love” was totally destroyed because of this.

The teenage romance between the son and the dancer was so-so. Coming to the main couple, the titanic scene was very cute. I liked how they spent time on their individual journey apart from the romance. However, they had very few scenes together and it was mostly in flashbacks. The young romance was good enough. The transitions, again as everyone mentioned, was too chaotic sometimes. There were barely any romantic moments between the older couples. She regaining her memories was underwhelming and the events following that was so cliché.
All in all, I don’t regret watching it but won’t recommend it to anyone. It could have been great if they worked on the logic in the script and had more balancing elements to suit the melo theme.

P.S. The random sex scene and Harumichi’s pilot scenes were cringy in my opinion. It was just added to make the hero look cool and didn’t suit the down to earth vibe of the drama at all.

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If you want romance in the air

Usually I cant complete C romantic dramas without losing patience, but this is one of those few exception. Yes it has its flaws but overall I feel its a decent melo drama. I would recommend if you are ok with such kind of genre. The outline of the show is pretty basic like any other melodramas however the execution is different. The dialogues felt rich, acting by the main leads was lively and romance was flirty. The first half the show [1-14] was good and engaging. Infact during the first few episodes I used to feel like an hour had passed by though in reality only 15-20 mins would have gone. The conversations between the leads made me wanna listen to them. Middle section [15-22 ep] of the drama was a total makjang and looked like forcefully added in the storyline to create drama. The latter section was draggy with unnecessary arcs and a mild revenge story, only saving grace being the romance section of the leads. I fast forwarded a lot here. I legit had no interest on the side characters romance and their so called life and friendship element which was added for filler purpose.

I want to add my two cents for some of the hyped points of this drama:

1. Male Lead- He has been hyped as a bad bad guy who hardly care. What I felt was completely the opposite. Yes he was not one of the goody caring angelic of a person but seemed a real person to me. He advocated education and importance of practical experience. With his background. instead of bullying or indulging in bad habits like alcoholism, he worked his ass off to start his own company to the extent his health got weak. He never once emotionally blackmailed the FL and on many occasions expressed he will support and respect whatever decision she takes. Not being talkative is not a toxic trait in my opinion. He was closed and had trust issues yes but that's normal. In the middle though his arc deviated and they added the "breakup because obviously we need drama" trope leaving him bad and toxic. But in general I liked his character.

2. Female Lead- See I don't need all my FL to be sassy, bold and loud. I am open to understand different natures though I despise damsel in distress characters. Here I liked the FL, she was hard working, obedient, naïve, loyal and her best quality being straightforward in her communication. She always spoke her mind and went to clear out things without creating unnecessary drama. However on few occasions I wished she would have sorted out the matter herself instead of relying on the ML's intelligence . Her dependency on the ML was alarming though. He was like the center of her universe to the point that she could not handle the breakup. Something I disagree to.

3. Romance- Logically speaking this kind of romance in real life is not recommended at all. From the perspective of the drama alone, it was enjoyable for me. No shame about admitting that LOL. Good kiss scenes and nobody felt asleep on top of lips (hehe)

The acting felt fresh to me. Usually with such kind of ML persona (giga genius and low EQ and social skills etc etc you know what I mean) we get a block of ice with no expressions as such on the screen. Arthur Chen had added his charm to the character with his smirky smile and hand mannerisms which oddly made me believe that I am seeing a real life human than an on screen character. I don't know how to explain exactly.
The antagonists were caricature-ish and dumb. The friends were immaterial with Rendi and FL best friend (i forgot his name) being the only exception. That Old Zao was whiny and always crying on how LX was better than him and never bowed to him. He was the most annoying for me tbh. And the girls were ready to die for LX without even having a proper conversation with him like girl at least talk to the guy before you do love gaga on him.
FL's parents were so toxic. Initially I understood their dislike for LX and concerns for their daughter as normal but boy how they treated her. I legit wanted to slam them hard. They locked her up when she was clearly in depression, slapped her and emotionally berated her for any decision she takes. Totally horrible. I wished there was some kind of consequence in the drama for them instead of just a small verbal dispute towards the end.

I can go on and on this drama but I'll stop now.. Until next review bye!

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Happy that this drama existed, frustrated with the same plot though

My review has story spoilers so if you are planning to watch this spoiler free then maybe skip my review for now and get back after completing it. It is more of a rant on my end to express how I felt. I would recommend watching it from ep 1-9 only. Rest is just avoidable.

The drama had two segments to it. One segment from Ep 1-9 which was about healing and slice of life elements, then second Ep 10-12 which felt like written by a high school kid. Thankfully its short and manageable.

Imagine a story with all possible k-drama cliches you know and put into one, the result will be summer strike. To quote the cliches:

> A Seoul working class person, tired and bullied by manager. BASICALLY EACH AND EVERY CORPORATE WORKER IN A K-DRAMA
> Let all the parents of the main characters be either irresponsible or dead. HOW WILL THEY ADD TRAUMA TO THE CHARACTERS OTHERWISE RIGHT?
> The dreaded friend of one of the leads who had a gazillion years to confess their feelings yet become bitchy and whiny when main leads fell for each other..... because they expected the lead to magically know their feelings. THIS ONE IS PLAIN LAME.
> Kids bullying each other and the so called good kid gets jailed and cursed. [I am referring to Dae Ho and Bom's scenes of bullying. The teacher/aunt despite of knowing the kids were bullying Bom blamed her for existing. Oh and the aunt's English bf random scene.] DESPERATE MOVE TO CREATE UNFAIR SITUTAION IN A DRAMA 101.
> If there is a kind, amiable and happy halmonie [grandmother] in a show, kill her. Why you may think? Just because an old person dying out of nowhere is sad and tear jerker.
> And here comes the best one- Think about one possible "good" reason for a breakup in k-drama. Answer- Going to US for further studies. Yes millions of people in the continent having breakups and apparently all the Korean production units have mutually decided to use this reason. STOP USING GOING ABROAD AS A BREAKUP PLOT DEVICE...CHEABAL!!! MY SCARS FROM 2521 IS STILL NOT HEALED OKAY.
> With Im Si Wan as the actor, it sometimes became Run On Season 2. I mean most of his scenes in the first half were of running around randomly lol JUST WHY?

Even with its flaws, I enjoyed the scenes in the first segment and never felt bored. Both the actors did a commendable job. ISW was just so good, like there were two scenes when Yeo Reum dressed up and I could literally feel Dae Bom being attracted to her. Such micro expressions from him but so well done. And Kim Seol Hyun , her style was kept plain yet she was sooo beautiful. Even as a woman, I fell for her!

Also, I liked the MC characters. Both YR and DB had this self control to not lash back when people tend to misbehave around them. They had a powerful stance that no matter what happens they will not stoop like others and I actually admire that in them. It may seem they were weak but I think it was just the opposite, Their interactions and chemistry was soothing. I tend to fall for relationships where the two people are comfortable in silence. Too bad there was no romantic moments between them.

One scene from the drama which made home to me was when Jae Hoon was telling YR how him leaving would drift his and Bom's relationship apart and that he is scared. To which YR replies "let those who are drifting apart get drifted, who are hating you hates you. I will remember you as a good person and embrace you with a hug when we meet next" The line was so beautiful. We try so hard to control things which are beyond our control to maintain our "image". But those who are your true friends will wish good things for you and even you meet after them ages, they will happily embrace you with a hug and tell you how much they missed you. This was my fav moment from the drama.

To conclude, the first segment was good yet the last 3 episodes took an absurd turn. The mystery element was lame and was a forced plot device. DB finding out the actual killer only to realize he sent his dad to prison for no reason and losing his mom was totally dark and not addressed properly in the drama. Instead they spent time on one sided crush, breakups, random bullying scenes etc. which was a total waste of time and actors talent.

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A journey of Friendship 100%: Love 0% to Friendship 0%: Love 100% with no intermediate ?

*Non Spoiler Section*

I found about the show through some YT clips and fell for it. So basically I knew about the result before even watching the show. Nonetheless, I didn't enjoy the process less because of that. I think until 9-10 episodes it was an absolute 10 for me, however the amount of stress & frustration I got from the remaining 5 episodes was serious! This show was far different than the dating shows I have watched till now because it felt real. The people there were flawed, talked about their insecurities & hats off to the conversations regarding coming out. This one had more emotions than any other show. I rooted for some characters in the first 9 episodes, post that it kind of became a love triangle mess which was replayed endlessly. Had the show ended then there would not be any difference. Overall I still liked it soooooo much because of 2 people. I will rewatch their clips but I don't think I'll miss the show .



*Spoiler Section*
1. JS & SH- Everyone fav of the shows. Those cutie pies & the sole reason I started the show. I can't help but scream whenever they are together. Two words "Roommate, Hi" and I can't keep calm. The amount of dopamine rush I got from watching these two couldn't even compare with any drama or oppa I have watched till now. The fact that they actually started dating was a rare sight to see from such content. Rooting for them in the future!

2. Jungwook & Younghee- Honestly until 9 episodes I loved them the most. YH was a total mood & JW total solid respectable character. I don't have major issues with the pair, just that it was JW--> YH--> SW endlessly which was stupid. They became a melo drama and honestly felt waste of my time. If they didn't keep on dragging the love triangle or just be themselves, I would not have lost interest. Individually they are good people & I'll look forward to their career.

3. Hyung Joon & Hyung Jin- The drama around them made me laugh hard. I didn't even understand why those two were fighting for the same person. To certain extent I understood Jin's angle as he did what they all were there to do which is date the person you like. Joon's attitude towards the end felt cool and I am glad he rejected the guy. Dude lost the game but won at life. There are way better people for him.

4. Sungwoo & Minsung- Thinking about these two make my blood boil. Honestly before starting the show I watched their content and totally liked them. Just in the show they were a total headache. For SW, initially I understood when he said he wasn't that interested in SH like JS. With YH it made sense with the age gap. But this character tested my patience. All of a sudden he became a drama queen crying over SH whom he himself didn't respond like for ages that to call random people who NEVER flirted or hinted at him. And MS, I disliked him the most. He was the most toxic & selfish guy in the bunch and there is no sugarcoating that. The way he treated Joon was not fair at all. The conversations btw Sungwoo & Minsung made me want to throw my phone and not in a good way. Both were attention seekers who just wanted people to call them endlessly so that they can royally reject those emotions and later make a makjang drama when those people want to give up.

Am I being over emotional about a show? Yes I don't care, I invested my time in these people & felt betrayed.

Overall it's totally recommended for my 2 lovebirds!❤️

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~ Sometimes you find a gem like this ~

With difficulties finding a good drama these days, it was a surprise with this production. The story was well written and had depth. What I loved most about the drama was its well rounded characters. I can't applaud more for how they showed the day to day life of the leads without making it boring and draggy.

The two leads character was well written and executed. The chemistry between them made sense and I could really feel their emotions. Ji Hyun was a simple down to earth boy who knew when to stand up for himself and was adventurous. I liked the people around him and their conversations. The scenes with his bff, Ae ri, restaurant ahjumma and even small moments like him sending pics to his mom about his day to day life felt wholesome.
Jae Won was the life of the party and people loved around being him. He was attractive to the core. And just like not everything that shines is gold, he did carry a lot of emotional baggage from the past. There were so much to peel from his character. Especially the talk around maintaining one's image was fascinating. How often the pressure of having to maintain an image can get to you. I understood him with my whole heart. His equation with Yoon Won was so adorable and I am so happy they explored their friendship with them drinking & chatting stuff.

Mental health issues were dealt in a decent way though I was not really fond of the scenes with the doctor. I haven't experience counselling irl but it felt depressing to hear the doctor talk. SPOILER ALERT*** For example talking about how sad it is when her patients chose to end their life was not something to be discussed to a patient who almost lost his lover's life *** SPOILER ENDS

The chemistry was uff AMAZING. I feel so giddy watching the romance and I don't feel like this in other dramas.

With all praises there were few nitpicks from my end, one being the camera angle. In most of the heavy scenes, the camera was literally closed up on the face of the actors, blocking out other people talking or any background due to which it felt claustrophobic. Editing could have been better but it wasn't bad to spoil the drama for me. It was a pleasurable watch and totally recommended !

P.S. Im Ji Sub playing Jae Won reminded me of Lee Joon Ki and Lee Do Hyun so much. In so many scenes i felt i was watching them.!!

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If pikachu could blast this drama -_-

The sole agenda of writing this review is to deter future watchers like me from watching it. I am amazed as how there were so many positive reviews for this shit show. Okay let me rant.. See I wanted a light fluff drama and chose this. I was not expecting anything and just wanted a simple watch but Oh my God what nonsense I have seen, I wish I could sanitize my eyes. Sometimes I wonder how do they even verbally spell out the scenes..... like director telling the FL "look we have this scene today where you have to go to an office to meet a star and the SML will momentarily go out for some work and you have to break down and cry. Oh but make it look like its his fault.. I mean how could a man ever leave a full grown girl alone and expect to be chosen by her right? Then we will get the hero coming and save the day in a proper securitised building which we won't explain how everyone including the ML breached it because audience watching this wants logic thrown out of the window and THE END"

As you can already sense this drama defies logic, any basic physics knowledge you may ever know and is cringiest to the core.. I have used a lot of my thumb energy trying to fast forward the scenes hoping that it may become better because the starting was decent. The reason for not dropping it was I wanted to explore more of Xia Rui's character who I thought had some angle to it. But that also was ruined by the show. Thanks for that btw. I am more angry at the portrayal of the FL who is weaker than a 10 year old kid rather than the cliches shown. At this point I have accepted chinese dramas as such (heavily rolling my eyes at Love 020). There are VERY rare c dramas portraying women more than a medium of cutesy tagalong for men. Trashing such content to teens who believes in such romance for views HUH!

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Shoutout to the subber for making it worth an experience!

I liked the first half of the drama though the premise being not unique was entertaining. I didn't have any expectation of deep dialogues or great production so it never bothered me that when it failed to deliver on that. I felt it was a very character driven drama so my review is based on the characters alone.

The main guys- Korn was the sweetest person ever. Even when he was being treated badly he never misbehaved and called it out in the best way possible. Knock on the other side was a d*ckhead. He had already cheated on his gf and was not man enough to admit. He picked on random girls at a restaurant, kiss one of them and willingly slept with Korn. Later around ep 10 or 11 he initiated the sex with the kiss but then became a full time diva about this is wrong as he has a gf. The guy had no redemption arc. Least they could have shown was him apologizing for his behavior but no that's too much for his self centered ass. He didn't deserve a guy like Korn -_-

The friends circle was the best part of the show. I loved Fai, Farm, Phu and Yihwa was the MVP. Her attitude where she couldn't care less about the romance but anyhow need revenge on the gf was the best. [this is when she was about to expose PP but Korn didn't care as anyway it will not mend his relationship with Knock]. When she said - "Drink while you can because you won't be able to when you are dead" to Phu was wise & still have me laughing. I need that girl's attitude in life.

Villains lacked motivation and it made me think why the girls were so desperate about the guys, The evil acts were so so and a cliché. I think they made the gf a bitch just to excuse Knock's cheating. Bright's character was really pathetic. He was a guy with a bathroom fetish, creeped me out to my core and I want to arggghhhh slap him , no brainer I skipped majority of his scenes. Farm falling for him and what it did to him in the end was realistic.

The teacher-student relationship had some good moments but was not explored properly.

The kisses were good but overall the story made my head ache so bad. Psychopath would a mild term for the gf. Just that the subber's added comments made it fun and bearable. My suggestion don't watch it on YT because there the added commentary is missing. I won't be recommending this series as despite so many good moments it was a headache.

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