Heart-breaking but also heart-warming

AHHHHHH!!! I had been putting off watching the Reply series for a long time because I was too scared of my sky-high expectations after hearing over and over again how good it was. In the end I loved it and wasn't disappointed, but I also didn't find myself with a massive drama hangover after it was finished. Disclaimer though: I was born in 1999, grew up in America, and didn't grow up with Korean culture at all, so the references and nostalgia was definitely not as strong for me.

Firstly, I love Shi Won and Yoon Jae to death. I'd been looking for a best friends to lovers drama, and this hit the nail on the head. I loved how different yet compatible they were, and it was super refreshing to have a loud-mouthed, not-afraid-to-stand-up-for-herself female main lead. They're so similar, and yet opposite in the biggest ways: like how he did nothing but think about his crush for years, whereas she found it so easy to confess hers, and when she did, he just stared at her because it's something he could never even think of doing. Honestly, his confession scene was amazing but it broke my heart and for that reason I'm probably never going to watch it again, because it just hurts that much. Overall, the two had an amazing relationship dynamic, and I love that it didn't change all that much after they got together.

The drama had a habit of jumping around, which is understandable considering the premise, but also really confusing for me at first, because I wasn't sure what order the scenes happened in. Because of this, I felt like I was missing pieces of the puzzle when I watched, and there were scenes that I wanted that I never got. For example, I wanted more domestic moments between ALL the friends—like Hak Chan and Sung Jae, who I felt lacked a lot in character development and purpose, especially when I thought Hak Chan was going to be a big character, considering he was THE NEW KID. I always wondered to what extent they knew about Yoon Jae's crush on Shi Won—if they knew at all, and I wanted to see their reactions when they found out they got together. Another thing I never got to see: Yoon Jae's reaction when he found out Shi Won kept the couple ring he gave her all these years.

Now to talk about the time skip. I usually HATE time skips, but I didn't hate this one. I just felt this confusing sort of unsatisfaction. Even after the time skip, I felt like the characters didn't have enough time to develop, because they acted too similar to the way they did six years ago. Luckily, the plot after the time skip didn't drop off like so many other dramas do, but I still feel as though nothing could compare to the school days. Going off of that, I missed the voiceovers and monologues a lot, but I'm glad they brought it back for the last episode. The last episode was also definitely more like a feel-good compilation, though I loved it still for all its adorable moments.

Joon-Hee was another one of my favorites, though he broke my heart over and over again. This drama did an amazing job with being able to make you feel all the feels and letting you know everything without ever saying a word. And Joon-Hee's silence always hurt the most, because it was more than just an unrequited love.

The family and friendships in this were really powerful. I loved how loud and argumentative Shi Won's family was, but when it came down to it and she was going off to college, it became clear how much they cared for each other. Tae Woong and Yoon Jae also had a lot of development in their brother relationship, and I loved that in the end, the episode about the love triangle (ep. 15) wasn't about which couple got together, but about the sacrifices that the brothers had made for each other. In the same episode, though—even though I knew the parallel plot with the parents and the dad's uncle was similar, the character was so new that it almost felt just convenient.

Some things I didn't like:

1. Yoo Jung. I'm sorry, I just found her super annoying and almost unnecessary at times. I liked the little sismance moments (like when she cut her hair in solidarity with Shi Won) but her relationship with Hak Chan made me want to tear my hair out.

2. The relationship between Shi Won and Tae Woong. I was honestly so surprised when he was revealed to be the other part of the love triangle. He never got screentime with Shi Won and they had zero chemistry; putting aside the age difference, add the fact that he dated her dead older sister (a topic which I thought was never sufficiently addressed) and the entire relationship creeped me out, especially when their maturity levels were just so obviously different. It was definitely less weird after the time skip when Shi Won was a grown adult, but when she had just graduated high school and he was giving her apartments and rings while she was crying over a washed t-shirt of her pop idol...I never saw them as anything other than siblings.

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Amazing OST, Story

I read a review of this before going into it, from a person saying that they ended up dropping this because the villains were too conniving and it was too frustrating, so, as someone who gets attached and emotional easily, I was ready to feel the same amount of fury. BUT IT NEVER CAME. The so-called villains were surprisingly three-dimensional and characters who I thought I'd hate ended up with a conscience and even contributed to the humor.

I ended up loving this drama a lot more than I expected, especially the romance aspect. The other parts of the story definitely were not built upon as much, like the backstory of the parents, and I wish that we saw the friends play a bigger role.

I'm also usually not a fan of time jumps, but this one pulled it off surprisingly well, and it pushed me to tears. There's definitely an argument for it being cliche, but I personally enjoyed it nonetheless.

And how could I forget the OST? The music for this is SO GOOD. It'll be stuck in my head forever.

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The acting is so good. Cha Eun Woo is BEAUTIFUL. I have never seen an actor able to express so much in the littlest smile. I know a lot of people complained that the actress for the main female lead was too old, but I didn't have a problem with it. Honestly, I couldn't even tell. And to add to that, a lot of shows have main male leads that are way older than the female lead, and nobody complains about that—so what's with the double standard?

The only minor reason I didn't give this a full 10/10 rating was because I wasn't a huge fan of the way the antagonist was dealt with. While I liked the attempt to give them a backstory and have it be in line with the message of the drama, it was basically all crammed into the last few episodes.

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Mellow and quiet

This is a character-driven drama for sure — if that's your thing, then this drama pretty much does it perfectly. It's just a drama about relationships (family, friends, lovers) and there's never really any outside pressure. The characters and relationships are all pretty unconfrontational; things just happen as they do and this drama is more of a ferris wheel, as opposed to a roller coaster. What that means is that if you prefer a more plot-driven plot, it might feel like the drama is dragging and that there's nothing happening.

With that being said, I definitely skew towards the latter; there were scenes and progressions that I was craving and never really got. At the same time, I really loved how all the characters were portrayed — nobody was over-the-top, there were no true villains, and I liked how even minor side characters had their distinct personalities come through in very little screentime.

Overall, this is just a warm, soft drama — for me, it wasn't a tear-jerker or a heart-wrencher, but it'll make you feel fuzzy and cozy.

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Mostly flashbacks

This had a little conversation between the leads, but it was really mostly flashbacks from the original series, which was cute to watch but nothing new.

I kind of wish we saw more of their lives — what their little family and house look like, what they were doing in their careers, how their friends were doing in their lives and relationships, how their parents were, etc. I do understand different sets and outfits probably weren't in the budget though and that they had limited things to work with.

The little conversation between the director and screenwriter was funny though and it gives me hope for a season 2!

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I’ve seen this film before

I think there’s definitely an audience for this out there — if you are a fan of fantasy mixed into real life and adult romance (think Goblin, Legend of the Blue Sea, My Love From the Star, those classics) I think you’d really enjoy this.

For me, it was just okay. I think I prefer my romance a little more down-to-earth and conversational; a lot of the more flashy scenes where they were saving each other didn’t really have a strong emotional impact on me and felt borrowed from the aforementioned classics, while the more domestic scenes where they were talking to each other or working together were stronger but not enough for these characters to set themselves apart from other dramas.

Additionally, and this is absolutely personal preference, I think I’m just not the biggest fan of linking saeguk and modern plots with the past lives and reincarnation premise. It’s been done to death (See Goblin, and most recently A Good Day To Be A Dog and The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract) and I just can’t find it in myself to care that much about their past story, since that’s all it is: past. Our non-immortal main characters have lived different experiences. I understand how it adds a level of angst to the leads (as if destiny works against them) as well as upping the stakes (from basic company politics, for example, to actual death) but it always just feels like a tangent.

With all that being said, this was just okay. I didn’t care that much for the modern plot about the company, but also didn’t really find the backstory to be all that memorable. The main characters are likable enough; Dohee is strong, and Guwon is a convincing demon that balances between being heartless and hilarious, but overall they’re both kind of cookie cutter characters.

This ended up being sort of “I started it so I might as well finish it” kind of show for me.

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Boring and uninspired

I know this movie received critical acclaim and a lot of people loved the plot twists but wow, it did not click with me at all. I liked how the plot was set up at the start but as the movie went on, it just felt like it was dragging a lot. There were a lot of scenes I didn't care much for, and all of the characters (especially the main guy) just felt very bland and uninteresting to me.

Part of my apathy, though, I know is just a lack of interest in this genre as a whole — I found it really difficult to suspend disbelief when the explanations were reliant on religious mythology, exorcism, and themes like that. If you are a fan of those kinds of movies, you might enjoy this more than I did.

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Nonsensical

This drama started out extremely promising but by the end...it made little to no sense.

The idea of exes being brought together by a dating show is really interesting, and I was really excited for the drama to build on the tension that our leads established in the first episode. Instead, the "dating show" wasn't at all interesting or relevant to any of the subplots that we ran through, and most, if not all, of the characters became very irritating.

The first issue that arose for me was just that the drama didn't take advantage of its "dating show" premise at all. I think it would've been interesting if we'd actually gotten a broad cast of characters that we'd be able to see become friends. Instead, the show changed the dating show to some sort of "throwback" theme where it was the FL and her two friends, plus the ML and his two friends. Six people who were from the same high school. And most importantly, it is NOT a dating show if it's obvious from the very first second what the three pairings are. I don't mind this in general (since all pairings in dramaland are pre-ordained) but every time the characters called it a "dating show" or talked about how it was trending and getting super popular...I just did not believe it at all. I felt like there was zero drama, competition, or anticipation — which is what usually makes a dating show fun. I am a master of suspending my disbelief but I can only go so far.

The "dating show" is also barely a plot point at all, other than serving as an excuse for our main leads to spend time together, and having those little interviews at the end. Instead, the drama rolls through different subplots that take place OUTSIDE of the show, and then every once in a while they say something like "we have to film" and then one of the expected couples goes to a restaurant or something. The show seems to make little sense — inserting stories like a wedding for an elderly rural couple.

When the dating show is relevant to outside subplots, it also just...doesn't make sense. I can overlook the weird situation that forced our female lead from being a producer role to starring in the show and still being behind-the-scenes because that was such a big part of the premise, but when a character becomes the lawyer for someone trying to sue the dating show she's currently on, or any of the second female lead's shenanigans, the conflicts of interest render the dating show setting even less believable.

With that issue aside, however, I just think the plots aren't interesting or well written. It uses tropes like "car accident" and of course the evil second female lead to trigger plots, and with all of these things it just feels like the writing is from a drama that aired in 2010.

I often just find myself thinking that these two main characters...these two people just shouldn't be together.

Beyond the first few episodes, there's very little tension between the pairings. Our main leads get back together extremely fast without ever sitting down and having a mature conversation. Both of them have very valid perspectives — both of them were selfish and either cold or pushy in the past — but in the end it feels like the drama went for a "we just love each other" approach. They say the right things by the end, but it doesn't quite feel earned.

They are both bad at different points in the drama; the FL constantly puts down the ML when he has concerns about a SML who is rude, petty, and very obvious insulting towards him because he wants the FL. It's played off like a "misunderstanding" because she didn't think the SML liked her, but the lack of respect towards the ML and her refusal to listen to his concerns should've been a much bigger deal.

And then the ML does something that is even crazier and unforgivable; the FL's father, who she is no-contact with because he is a horrible person who keeps dating women much younger than him, hosts a FAKE FUNERAL FOR HIMSELF so that the FL will come and give a nice speech about him and he can see her. The ML learns about this event and SAYS NOTHING?? AND JUST LETS THE FL GO TO IT AND GIVE HER SPEECH UNTIL THE FATHER HOPS OUT OF THE BUSHES AND SAYS "GOTCHA"????? The idea that because he did it because he thought it would "be good for her" is absolutely insane to me. If someone ever did that to me I would cut them off right then and there forever; I don't care if they thought it was for my own good or if my parent was on their deathbed — this is a decision that the person needs to make for themselves, especially considering how much trauma the FL had around her father. But the drama just...moves on. The ML says he didn't know about the extent of it, and the FL just insists that she won't love anyone else, despite this pushiness being the exact reason why they'd broken up in the first place, and despite this behavior being just insane in general.

The other two couples are fine, but pretty unmemorable. I think three couples might've been too much and diluted the emotional impact of each. If it were up to me I would cut out the divorced couple, since they're mostly there for comedic relief anyways.

I could go on, but you get the gist. This is a drama that starts out promising but quickly devolves into nonsense. Even the ending scenes where we got mini interviews started out very insightful and revealing in the first few episodes, but ended up feeling out of place because of the "dating show" theme not being clear.

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The Pinnacle of Youth Dramas

Oh my god. I really don't know what I'm going to do with my life now that this show is over.

At first glance this might seem like every other Chinese youth drama — sunshine FL/quiet ML, some grade-obsessed parents, sports day, a playful second couple — but so many things actually made this drama shine above all others.

The first thing is just how the plot really feels like a coming-of-age drama, without being overdramatic or sugary. I know it might be fun and inspiring when we watch a youth drama and a friend group is depressed when they find out someone's transferring schools, only to band together to stop it. But in real life, there are a lot of things outside our control and the only thing you can do is let it happen, know you can get through it, remember everyone still cares for each other at the end of the day — no matter the circumstances. That's what this drama did: physical obstacles were rarely overblown into emotional obstacles. It might sound bittersweet, but the fact that the plot flowed this way made it ten times more relatable to real life.

It really also meant that each character was given their time in the spotlight. Every person dealt with something themselves and everyone else was there to support them. Each person in the friend group had a distinct personality and subplot and it never felt choppy or random. It felt simply like learning more about your friends over time. WIFTY struck a perfect balance between giving its characters freedom and still making them feel inseparable that I don't think I've seen done so well in any other show.

I need more drama writers to take notes from Su Zai Zai, who seems like a typical bubbly FL on the surface but was actually really straightforward, stood up for herself, was smart in her own right, and had her own goals and was realistic in chasing them. She's absolute proof that giving an FL a crush doesn't mean it has to become her entire personality.

Zhang Lu Rang was a fantastic ML too. Once again, he might seem like the typical quiet and smart ML, but he was never mean or rude or overly perfect, and he had his flaws too that SZZ perfectly balanced out. This drama perfectly encapsulated why they belonged together. This was one of the rare dramas where the couples didn't get boring for me after they got together.

In fact, the chemistry is absolutely amazing between both couples, who also had their distinct dynamic and plot development.

Between the friendship warming up your heart and the romance giving me butterflies, there are absolutely no moments in this drama that I would skip. The OST fits perfectly and the cinematography is beautiful. The only bad thing I can say about this drama is that it ends.

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Heart-poundingly fantastic

I was a huge fan of All Of Us Are Dead and that's why I jumped at the chance to watch this; despite that, I went into it with middle-of-the-road expectations, and was actually really surprised by how much I ended up loving it!

I think the biggest hurdle for me was just the sheer load of characters there were. In other ensemble dramas like AOUAD, Alice In Borderland, or Squid Game, characters are either split into different groups with different subplots, or the big group is very quickly whittled down to about five, and then new characters are introduced gradually. Here, we're following the entire class, and even though there are some losses along the way and the occasional split-up, the cast is gigantic and there's about 20 characters you need to pay attention to. A few stand-outs are easy to remember but the rest blur together for a few episodes. Even as I got to learn everyone, I don't think I found a "favorite" the way I did in other shows and that's just mostly because our knowledge of backstories are still pretty thin.

As a result, the drama is more plot-driven, as opposed to character-driven — and whether or not you enjoy that will just be up to personal preference.

After a while, however, I really grew to appreciate that it was a big group because the dynamic of everyone sticking together and growing up in unison was so interesting. You see common classroom dynamics come out in a high-stakes situation and it exemplifies everything I love about the high school survival genre.

For this genre, the show is surprisingly heartfelt. I didn't expect this show to make me emotional but it definitely did by the end. Anxiously awaiting part 2!

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Eccentric lead, Underrated drama

This drama is so underrated. From the very first episode I was captivated by the female lead — there's something about these very eccentric but straightforward and socially unique leads that just feel so relatable and immediately create a different dynamic wherever the drama takes place, which, in this show, is a newsroom.

I really enjoyed the episodic format of this one as well, and it was even more interesting than typical episodic dramas because of how well they tied in the subplots of each side character with different cases. By the end of the show I truly felt like I knew every single person working in that newsroom.

My only criticism is a minor one: I enjoyed the backstory arc of the main female lead, which was revealed about halfway through the way, better than the actual ending arc, which was treated like the finale. It's not a dealbreaker by any means — in fact, logically it makes sense for the story to wrap back around to present day, but I just felt like it wasn't as emotionally hard-hitting.

Overall, I still really enjoyed this drama and I'm sad at how underrated it is.

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Draaaaaaag.

If this was a romance about Dao Ming Si and Shancai, it made no sense that the two of them maybe got about 60 minutes of screentime, with half of that all being in the first episode before everything went to crap.

It's all been said before, but there was absolutely no reason we had to wait 13 episodes for Shancai and DMS to meet again, and then ANOTHER 11 episodes for him to get his memory back, all for nothing to come of it until a 10 minute reconciliation at the end, all without any sort of meaningful communication between them before that.

I could write an entire thesis about why I hate the amnesia trope, and I know the source material is to blame for this arc even existing, but with that being said, I absolutely could not bring myself to care about anything that happened during the amnesia, much less any scenes between Ye Sha and Dao Ming Si. It was refreshing, sure, that she wasn't a manipulative mean girl like in the other versions, but amnesiac DMS was basically scrubbed so clean he wasn't himself. Most of their love story occurred in a world without familial or financial pressures, which made it feel low stakes. And all of that doesn't even compare to the fact that we, as the audience, knew how the story would end anyways and all the wishy-washiness just felt very dragged out.

We also get to see a little bit of Meizuo's romance and Ximen's family arc in this one. I didn't realize that Ximen's romance arc wouldn't get a conclusion (which is slightly disappointing as it was my favorite part of the Korean version), but overall I don't think I had the patience to appreciate either of these side stories because they took up screentime while the main story was still being frustratingly slow.

On the other hand, think my favorite part of this drama has to be Lei. He's come so far since the start of the show, and he got all the meaningful conversations Shancai should've had with DMS. I didn't have SLS in every adaptation of Hana Yori Dango, but this one...oof.

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