Family life

It our fate already decided, or do we have the power to change it? That is what this drama tackles.

This was billed as a romance, and there was some, but it took a backseat to the family dynamics. That's not necessarily a bad thing. A story about a blended family, with a kind of "us against the world" view. The older brother basically gives up his life to raise his siblings (this actor and his overacting were my only problem with the actors). His unhappiness is palpable, as is his frustration with trying to get the youngest sibling to agree to go to university. You can sense the love that each family member has for the other.

I wasn't, however, fully on board for the romance. Nanao seemed SO much older than Sota, so Sota often seemed like a puppy dog around her. I also felt that the fact that they were in love but had been raised as siblings was glossed over. No one seemed to have a problem with it.

Fukushi Sota as Mikoto was sweet and endearing. The weight he felt by having the "power" he had was interesting. To know someone's destiny and not know how to change it would be so scary and frustrating. Nanao as Sara was beautiful, but again, I felt she was too old for this role. Yokohama Ryusei as Ai - he's a very charismatic actor and I struggled to remember that he was not the lead in the show.

So, all in all, it wasn't a bad show. I actually liked the pacing of it, slow and strangely calming.

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Pretty good coming-of-age story

I struggled at the beginning as I usually do with Chinese dramas - I hate the dubbing, the writing can be awkward, and the acting can be mediocre. Added to that, I didn't care for the character of Su Can Can - why do they tend to make the FL appear stupid and/or inept so often? She's bad at school, she manipulates her desk mate, she has no immune system, apparently, because if she got even a hint of a chill, she got sick, oh, and HOW MANY TIMES did she sprain her ankle?!?! That's it, I'm finished with my rant.

Once I got a few episodes in, I just sat back, relaxed and enjoyed. This was a quiet show that you can settle into. There are no evil characters, just one (in my opinion) sightly irritating character, no bullying per se, and the friendships are lovely. This show also has the advantage that it takes place over a 10-year period, so we got to see long past high school. We saw the growth in each character that was realistic. For the most part, I think I could have been friends with them.

My favorite part of this show was Zhao Yi Qin as Lian Tian Ye. Typical tsundere character with kind of a bad boy vibe, he was quiet and caring, and there was never any vacillating with him. He knew who he cared about, and nothing was going to change that. He had an intense look about him that drew me in.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS:
Opportunities missed - he always saved the wrappers from the candies that she gave him. I thought that would be addressed, but maybe it ended up on the cutting room floor.
When he came back from America after she graduated - I thought that would have been much more effective if it had all been in her imagination.
Her keys falling in the grate that her ring had fallen into - was there supposed to be a tie-in?
END POTENTIAL SPOILERS.

All-in-all, I enjoyed this drama. I can't say that it was absolutely one of my favorites, but I did enjoy it and was glad I watched it. The ending was good and got me choked up a bit.

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This one surprised me, in a good way

I love this show!! So Ji Sub could read the phone book and I would love it. Seo In Guk, pretty much the same thing. I love them both. Gong Hyo Jin was excellent - she was pretty over the top in the first few episodes and then kind of settled into her character. I've watched this multiple times and enjoyed it each time.

I really liked the paranormal aspects of the show. Normally, that might not be something that I'm drawn to, but I could really feel the FL's angst/fear/exhaustion of having a "gift" that she considered a curse. Her loneliness was another thing that was almost palpable - to be forced to keep yourself apart from everyone was so sad, and that emotion was demonstrated so well.

There was a lot of humor in this show as well. When you've got two characters that don't exactly know what to do with each other, that could go in either direction. Thankfully, the writers knew what to do with the characters and I enjoyed the ride.

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This is an enjoyable show to watch

I watched this a while back. It was a very good show, excellent chemistry between the leads. I just went back and watched it again and I had to lower my rating. She was a MESS! Stalker-like behavior, needy, doormat. He, however, was wonderful. I did enjoy the storyline, and there were a lot of parts that I enjoyed a lot. I liked the work aspect of the story a lot more than I thought I would, since I'm usually all about the romance, and there were some VERY good scenes of them together, but again, my lowered rating is basically because of the behaviors of the FL - so, as an actress, she did a great job. All of the actors were terrific.

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Unexpectedly emotional

What I liked:
-The episodes in the middle. Some of the storylines were delved into more deeply and I really began to care about the characters.
-The friendships. The show started with each character being sort of an island unto themselves. They didn't care about one another, there were a lot of people being mean to each other. I liked how the show focused on one specific character and showed how the others came alongside that person to help them.
-A special teacher that cared about the students and helped them.

What I didn't like:
-I almost dropped this show early on because the FL was such a mess.
-The irrational storyline. The ML doesn't go to college and stays another year in high school, why? His father, I'm sure, had to pay for his schooling, yet he had no idea what his son was doing?
-The unprofessional, bullying teachers and administrators.
-The kids live at school, and it keeps getting drilled into us how much time they have to spend studying. They'd have more time for schoolwork if they didn't have to clean the classrooms/hallways, sweep the sidewalks, and handwash their clothes in the sink. Oh, and eating standing up?
-Unnecessary rival shows up for a few episodes.
-There were so many characters, and some of the storylines were never fully fleshed out.
-Abrupt, 10-year time jump
-THE ENDING, my gosh the ending!!!! I know that the romance was secondary, but the ending broke my romance-loving heart.

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Watch it for Kim Gun Woo

Call me superficial, but the main selling point of this movie was Kim Gun Woo. Not only physically attractive, but the character he portrayed here was just lovely. The poor guy that gets taken for granted because he's a good guy, but who you'd really want to be your boyfriend.

Jasper Cho's acting tends to be a bit "much", but here I'm not sure if it was his acting or the writing.

Fluffy, fluffy romantic comedy. It's an easy watch, I spent my time trying to guess how long it was going to take the FL to figure things out. I have to be honest, I liked her portrayal of a totally nice woman.

My complaint for this movie was the language. I realize that most people are probably not bothered by it, but the use of the "F" bomb always shows a laziness of writing for me. There are many other words that could be used.

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No chemistry, toxic relationships

Let me start with the high points. The music and the use of "Some Day My Prince Will Come" were really cute. For me, that's the end of the high points.

Characters: FL is just beautiful. However, as is the case with a lot of Japanese shows, she's got absolutely no self-esteem. Falls in love for apparently no discernible reason. Willing to be treated poorly, on an ongoing basis. ML had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. He couldn't even be called tsundere, because there was no warmth hidden deep within him. He treated her terrible, always berating her in front of others, then says he wants to date her with an eye toward marriage?!?! No woman with any spine would take him up on that ridiculous offer. Responses to his questionable offer were rolling around in my head as the movie went on.

Story/actor: I found the acting of the ML to be severely lacking. However, in his defense, was he just written that way? This man showed absolutely no emotions throughout the entire movie.

Chemistry: None, zilch, zero, nada. Actually, she had more chemistry with her childhood friend, so consequently that relationship made so much more sense.

Thank goodness this was a movie and not a series. If it was a series, I probably would have dropped it.

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Could have seriously used some character development

This movie played like they had taken a long drama, cut out all the important parts, and then edited in a way that didn't make much sense. The couple goes from barely looking at each other to holding hands, and all of a sudden, they are a couple. I had to back it up a couple of times, thinking that I'd fallen asleep and missed something.

We don't really know or learn anything about either of the main characters. He's a doctor, professional, non-emotional. She is studying physics? Why? Do we care? Does it have anything to do with the storyline? They really never talk to one another. She finds out he's leaving the country for six months from someone else.

Dubbing continues to be an issue for me in C-dramas. There HAS to be more than one woman in China that can do dubbing. Her voice is so high, childish, and irritating and I've heard it in so many shows. It really takes me out of the drama.

The storyline with the dad and him trying to marry her off was over the top and just irritating.

In general, I found the acting in this drama lacking. Wooden characters or over-acting, take your pick.

The high point? The fact that it was a movie and not a long drama so I can move on.

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Cute, easy watch

There was nothing earthshaking here. The story was simple, the acting was okay, I don't even remember if there was music in it, and based on the fact that I have a "to watch" list a mile long, I won't watch this again. Having said that, it was a cute movie, taken from the young man's point of view. He's loved this girl forever and they run into each other again when he transfers schools (in this day and age of technology, how and why they lost track of each other is a mystery). There's the obligatory second ML, but not really much drama there, either.

What I liked about this movie was everything he was willing to do for her to make her smile, to further her career, etc. He often found himself being swept WAY out of his comfort zone. That was fun to watch.

It was a low angst movie and enjoyable to watch.

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Forgettable

This movie, for me, was very forgettable. Seriously, I watched it two days ago and I can hardly remember it.

Positives:
Beautiful scenery
No angst

Otherwise:
Not much going on. A lot of longing looks, but too much space with no dialogue. As is the case with so many Japanese dramas, the girl likes the boy immediately, for no apparent reason other than he's breathing. There isn't much character development for us to feel like we know anyone. There was zero chemistry between the lead characters. For me, this movie kind of acted like a lobotomy, to completely empty my brain before watching something else. I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it, but I didn't care about it at all.

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Could have been so much better!

I liked the concept and I appreciated that they didn't have the hidden identity between the main couple last for too long. The couple was cute together.

However, her not wanting to tell anyone else her true identity throughout the whole show got old fast. She had the "I'm not good enough for you" vibe going on (she actually verbalized it a couple of times) and that made me feel, through her inferiority complex, that she didn't love him like she should/claimed.

I'll admit up front that I don't like bullying, but this show went so far in the other direction it was ridiculous. Ai was good to everyone, and wanted to help everyone out, but unfortunately, her boyfriend seemed to be nowhere on the list of those she wanted to help. His needs always took a backseat to everyone else.

I felt that the end was unsatisfying.

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This is time that I won't get back.

There was so much wrong with this show. The acting was stiff, awkward and awful; though, that might have a lot to do with the script being so bad. The "special effects" of the moving camera were just cheesy, something from the 1950's. The show was like something a high schooler wrote for a school project and filmed in his garage. I love shows about cooking/baking, so I had high hopes for this and was sorely disappointed. The storyline was absolutely repetitive and ridiculous - meet, fall in love, forget, repeat. Lee Se Young's blond hair was very distracting, it was hard to focus on much of anything else. I think certain parts were supposed to be funny, they weren't. No chemistry between characters. WOW! I can't get over how bad this one was!

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A mixed bag, but worth watching

I have a dream, that someday I'll be able to watch a Korean drama that sticks with one genre and commits to it, that said drama will do said drama with excellence. I've been feeling, lately, that every drama throws a little bit of everything into the mix. This show is a drama, romance, comedy, SOL, action, mystery - you name it, it's in there.

I thought the pacing of this show was very good at the outset, though I could have done without the gangster element. I was loving the stories of the hospice workers, as well as the patients. I would have rated this so much higher if they had just planted the storyline there. It was very touching to see how the workers deal with death, and how the families and the patients themselves cope. I found myself very invested, then BAM! Cray-cray ex-girlfriend and the mystery patient in the hospice. These two things really ruined the show for me. These storylines dramatically altered the direction of the show and pulled focus from the important storylines. I was tempted to drop the show at that time (especially since it seemed to go on forever!), but I waited expectantly, hoping it would get back on track. Ultimately it did, but for me it had gone too far to redeem itself.

The acting was exemplary. Ji Chang Wook: the past few things he's been in have been disappointing to me, because of the way his characters were written. I loved him in this. He's got toughness, but an innocence that is charming. I loved him talking under his breath all the time, not quite understanding everything that was going on. He got pulled into the lives of the people in the hospice, almost against his own volition. He seemed surprised at the things that he was doing and feeling. I could really sense his character's growing and developing his own un-biological family. Chang Wook also has an intensity about him: that soulful stare. If for no other reason, I'm glad I watched this show for his acting.
Sung Dong Il: I love him! He's one of those actors that is always lovely to watch. His character in this drama was wonderful.
Park Jin Joo: I didn't even realize early on that this was the actress I was watching. The makeup department did an excellent job. Her character was special, and I loved the process of her fulfilling her last wish.

And, as far as acting AND storyline is concerned: Kil Hae Yeon and Yoo Soon Wong as husband-and-wife hospice workers, was kind of sad, but so touching. The journey of discovery for these characters was surprising, yet spoke to the power of love, as well as the fact that everyone around them became family.

I can still recommend this drama pretty highly, but I just wish the editors had done a better job, edited out the unnecessary storylines, and given us more hospice stories.

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Short and sweet, with a touch of yearning

Two things drew me to this drama: 1) It was a short four episodes. I was feeling the need for a break from the bloated, drawn-out dramas. 2) Park Hyung Sik.

Park Hyung Sik as Han Sun Woo was excellent. He's got that yearning for love thing on lock (he did this really well in Strong Woman Do Bong Soon). He didn't make it obvious immediately to us as the audience, so you could somewhat understand the FL not seeing it. The brevity of the story kept me from feeling that the FL was an idiot not to see his love. We also didn't have to sit through multiple extra storylines that are used as filler.

Though the plot line they developed for them to be living in the same space didn't work for me (how in the world was he, a photographer, supposed to help her write lyrics?), I LOVED his addition to her lyrics at the end, but I just wish the ending hadn't been so abrupt. We didn't get to enjoy them as a couple at all, really.

I liked her mother and her tarot cards. That she could see what was going on, and her reaction to it, was so cute, and just added to the cluelessness of the FL.

This show wasn't anything groundbreaking, but it was good for an evening's easy entertainment.

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The voice!

I'll be the first to say that this wasn't much of a romance. A slow burn that never ignites, perhaps? That being said, I still enjoyed it. The premise was very original and if for no other reason, it's worth watching just to hear Lee Soo Hyuk speak in his deep, mesmerizing voice.

Where he was getting ready to design clothing and feeling the fabrics that were on the mannequin, there was something very sensual about this.

The show was multiple stories, each standing on its own merit. My only complaint is that a few of the women looked an awful lot alike.

It's a short drama, I watched it on YouTube. I would highly suggest watching it, if only for Lee Soo Hyuk. It was good to see him in a leading role.

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