The More I Watched It, The More I Got Pissed Off

First and foremost, how the hell do you able to mess up such a beautiful idea like this? The idea for this drama is really good, but yet the writer decided to screw it up. This drama should be ended in episode 12, even 8! The third time travel was uneccessary. Also the serial killer idea is really awful. Out of 9 million citizens of Seoul, why did the serial killer had to keep choosing Sol IN ALL OF THE TIMEFRAME? The serial killer in the third time travel already feels unecessary because Sol had dodged it in the second time travel, but maybe they needed it because he killed Sun-Jae in the present. Yet the serial killer should not even show up in the present after the fourth time travel, because the timeframe had been changed! Those two premises are there just only to support the ending that the writer's intended, nothing more. This drama might be too long that they had to add ridiculous things such as the second watch, that one is horrendous! I understand that most K-Dramas has strong start and hollow ending, but I really did not expect this one became silly only after half of the season.

On the contrary, thanks to Hye Yoon, Woo Seok and Geon Hee who played their characters excellently, they literally carried this drama. Overall, this drama is still enjoyable since it brings a lot of morale of the story, but you may get frustrated after watching several episodes.

Read More

A Journey Worth to Ride

It is an amazing story. The build up is slow, but that is life! It is not even a build up, it is a journey of pain, struggle, sorrow, failure, joy, smile, success, everything you have got through that makes you who you are today. It tells us to share our journey with the people around us who loves us, people who we can lean on, people who are willing to hit the rock bottom together with us, and rise back to the peak. It also shows that love is not always about happiness. Sometimes you have to squeeze you blood, sweat and tears to love!

The conflicts in the beginning are really complex and a lot. However, the writer's put everything in mostly correct place. The struggle of each characters: Seok-Ryu's, Seung-Hyo's and even each of the family members are highlighted well. And it really depicts the struggles of a normal person, normal family in real life. They cried for help, they helped each other to solve their problems, and once again, that's life!

For all the comments saying that the romance is dull, I think it's not. It just a different form of romance that they were on. For someone who had known and lived next to each other more than 30 years, I think you can't expect them to have a passionate affection as in other romance dramas. Still, I love how Seok-Ryu could compare everything she had in mind with foods!

On the contrary, I don't really like the character build up of Kang Dan-Ho. He does not seem to have a consistent characteristics. One day he would be very kind and affectionate, the next day he became reluctant and mean and on the other day he became passionate again towards Mo-Eum without any valid and strong reason. I mean people can change, but for someone who had a personal experience, it was too easy for him just to change his mind like that.

The storyline near the end of the series are a bit thin and slow, compared to the complexity at the beginning. I think the storyline was intended for 15 episodes. However they were forced to make it into 16. Also I feel like the writer failed to explore some chance to be developed. I was looking forward to see the result of the school gym renovation. As that place meant a lot to the journey of Seung-Hyo and Seok-Ryu, I was hoping they will create a new moment together there, but nothing happened. Same thing happened to Seung-Hyo's time capsule letter. He picked it up from the trash only to be forgotten! As for the soundtrack, they didn't highlight it well. They should put it more in the important scenes so that it can be more memorable.

For someone with younger age, I think this drama may be boring. But for the older group, a lot of the scene in this drama may relate to your real life. Overall I would REALLY recommend this drama, but for you may have to consider if you want to rewatch, unless you want to feel the pain again, lol.

Read More

They Tried Too Hard

This drama is, as what Min-Ju kept saying to Yong-Ju, "trying to hard". The romance came in very late, and this drama mostly tells you about a business story, or maybe a life at work. I must have high patience because I keep watching it until finish, while I think some people will start dropping it since the build up phase are long and boring. Final two episodes are really the star of this series.

They developed a lot of conflicts during the first half, and still building another more up until episode 10! Thankfully they didn't create a new conflict in the last episode. However as expected, some of the conflicts have rushed resolution, while some other disappeared like dust. For example, the way Min-Ju revealed the fake news by making him turned from a hypersensitivity person into a mind reader which seems unrealistic. Also the idea of this drama focused on each characters own struggles in their past. However they decided to develop more on the office problems. It pushes aside the story that we want to see clearly such as what happened after the death of Min-Ju's mother, why did he try to suicide, and why Yong-Ju gave him a camera. They should develop around those premises, so they can embrace these memories altogether with the one they love in the later stage.

Even this drama is directed by the sama person who direct Business Proposal, it is definitely incomparable. The romance came in late, while the comedy is mostly came from the villagers, thanks to them. As much as I love Se-Jeong, I don't think they cast the leads correctly. For me, she has a cheerful persona that doesn't suit the character with such struggles as Chae Yong-Ju. Second Leads are a really sweet couple, yet they didn't even get a proper character build up. Their love stories are all outshined by all of the "office issues", which are not even related to the main idea of "emotional struggle".

To me, the story failed to focus on the main idea that should be. Rather than focusing on the idea of healing an emotional struggle itself, they developed too much story around the ML and FL (the office, the work, the village).

Read More

Excellent Spin-Off!

The spin-off from No Gain No Love! This spin-off really shows how good is the second lead story in NGNL. The whole story is excellent and hilarious. HJH and LSY did a fabulous job playing both character. It's great that they made it just into 2 episodes, rather than a series of boring and pointless story. And apparently, this spin-off also explains the reason how Ja-Yeon fell in love with Gyu-Hyun in the parent series.

Though I think they should add 1 episode. It should contain the ending of the novel, since Ja-Yeon wrote the ending after being together with Gyu-Hyun.

I really recommend it! The story is very light and enjoyable. However, I recommend to watch NGNL prior watching this spin-off, so you can understand why Ja-Yeon really hated Gyu-Hyun so much.

Read More

Great Story, Awful Ending

I like this drama. It is a great one, although it's not special. The romance and comedy are mixed up and exectued well. The casts are all good, especially Sang-Yi and Ji-Hyun. Their chemistry is outstanding. They also include a "serial killer" which blends pretty smoothly into the story without making it looks like a way to "simplify everything".

The fact that I enjoy the second lead more somehow indicates that there is a problem with the storyline. The idea of the story is good though. The beginning phase is really slow, I would even say it is boring in the first two episode. They built a lot and complex problems in the beginning. However, the writer decided to develop stories around Hae-Young better than hers, causing the main story about Hae-Young and Ji-Uk to be outshined by other premises. The pace somehow turned fast after Episode 8, and this causes some conflicts to have a plain resolution, or even left behind. Sad that we don't have a chance to see Ja-Yeon story with Bok's family, Ji-Uk's family backstory, or make Hae-Young have a better closure with her mom. I am also a bit disappointed that they decided to add more conflicts near the end, in Episode 11 and 12 (seriously why did they make a conflict in the last episode??), only to have a rushed resolution.

(AND THEY MADE HA-JUN REALLY FINE AFTER HIS FORMER LOVER BECAME HIS EX-BOSS GIRLFRIEND. THAT'S TOTALLY IRRATIONAL!)
I was hoping they will do something with the abused child in the Episode 5, since Hae-Young has "some experience" with it. They also brought up the premise of "CEO should take lunch at the cafetaria", and did nothing about it.

Overall I will still recommend it. It may take time before you can enjoy the story. But I don't think it really match up the hype.

Read More

This is How Rom-Coms Should Be

I don't generally write reviews, but I will start with this one really.

This one will increase the standard of rom-coms! The story is really basic and common in rom-coms, rich ML boss and employee FL couple. The difference in this drama executed it excellently. They don't need silly premises such as "ML and FL are childhood friends" or "FL is being chased by a serial killer". Instead, they use a very basic and straighforward plot, yet unique and entertaining. Since the beginning, I think they have chosen to have more comedy rather than romance, and they maintaned the comedy really well thoughout the episodes. I like that all the romance scenes are not cringe and totally enjoyable. Silly act? They were all silly since the beginning so that's not a problem! The OST is really great. The way they put it as Melomance concert is a great idea (and I really like the Se-Jeong version).

However, I feel that the Yoo-Ra's internet hate comments premise is uneccessary. It makes the last 3 episodes feels bland and loses the grip somehow. I personally think that there should be several stories to be explored rather than having an ending like that. I really want Ha-Ri to have a proper closure with Grandpa. After all, is a Korean Drama Series so the common problem will still be there.

Oh, I wonder what is the ending of Be Strong, Shin Geum Hui.

On top of all, I will definitely still recommend this. Very light story and easy to enjoy. So far still my best rom-com series (I don't watch a lot of rom-coms though).

Read More

Roller Coaster, but It is A Hell of A Ride

Idea is great, execution is great. They put everything in place excellently, and this is the outcome. The storyline is almost perfect. The conflicts are over the places in the beginning, but it's needed and they resolve it quite well. Still I wonder how is Bitna's debt going lol. Character development for romance is a bit slow, but who cares? Who the hell will easily trust a Demon?!?

Park Shin Hye is really the star. She brings the energy into the show. The character of Man Do is hilarious.

Unlike most K-Dramas, this series ends quite strong. Although it is quite a plothole (you get 3 years, but you choose to spend 2 years in an "exile" rather with someone you love???), but it is still a quite well, and not disappointing ending. They have prepared for next season, but I feel that they have to be careful as there isn't much more to explore.

Read More