High-end Crush

Campy & Comical! This mini romcom made me laugh!

Likes: Jung Il Woo, period! His flabbergasted expressions made me laugh, His acting and comic timing was excellent. Same goes for Lee Sieon who also made me laugh with his line deliveries

Dislikes: the IDOL acting, esp Bora...Ooof, very green, very very green

This mini romcom was exactly what I was looking for to beat the mediocrity of dramas as of late. I just didn't feel like investing time into another long drama that would probably only have small pockets of scenes that I would like. This hit the sweet spot for me at this period in time. It's silly, short (15min eps), funny, and lighthearted!

It's campy sure, but it works. Jung Il Woo shines in this drama. His portrayal of the narcissistic loony CEO of an entertainment company made me laugh. It's a predictable role, but he was able to interject some unexpected gestures, expressions, and lines that made me crack up. It's a hard tone to balance, and he did it well which makes me think he's very talented or had a good director.

Another person who shined was Lee Sieon. We expect Sieon to be funny, but again he somehow surprised me with the direction with some of his lines. I loved the antagonistic bromance between the two.

As for the FL, she was the straight character and served her purpose fine. I wouldn't say there were loads of chemistry ,but it worked. The only drawback of this mini drama was the IDOL acting, especially Bora who was too green and lacked the skills to be convincing. Also, I found her voice very annoying, but all in all, a minor flaw in an otherwise delightful romcom.

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Terrible

I really enjoyed the fist hour of this show, yet since it is broken into 20 minute segments per episode, I finished it easily….and that is a good thing. If this had been 16+ hours my rating would -10. However, this is a very short drama that relies on the comedy from ML because the FL is a terrible actress. This is like the third drama I have watched with her as the FL, and I can confidently say she has only three expressions. The ONLY reason I am giving this 5.5 stars is the ML is great, and he tries his best, but even his phenomenal talent can’t work with a blank, expressionless stare. 😒

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HEADS UP: Please dont look for a great script or plot in this drama. This is a short light hearted drama with cute funny fluffy romance which u can definitely enjoy. This is not for u if u are looking for a great plot with so much drama, twists, turns, mysteries and action sequence. Dont expect too much and cry later in reviews.

MALE LEAD : jung il wook omg his acting was flawless. usually in all the dramas, female lead gets all the cute facial expressions but its quite opposite in this drama. jung il gets the role to express all the emotions. i didnt know he could be so funny.
The only thing i felt awkward was how come they made him to wear shorts. i mean long coat, formal shirt, tie with that shorts😂😂 why i mean why??? not sure whthr its a fashion thing in korea!

FEMALE LEAD: she doesnt have much role to play. she just looked like a doll till the end since all the acting part was done by jung il wook.

BORE OR NOT : no, its not at all boring. its funny and cute but some people might not like this kind of comedy. Some might find it lame or boring. Personally, i enjoyed it.

SUBTITLES: yea it was messed up around epi18. its not completely disabled. only few sentences are not subbed for me but definitely we can figure out wats happening. its not that bad.

WORTH A TRY: yes yes yes. This is not something that u started off and felt bored and wanna drop it halfway. even if u feel bored, u can definitely watch till the end coz its really short. Technically, u are not really wasting much of ur time. u can complete it in a day or two.

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I love Jung Il Woo, but his character was not very nice. Lots of yelling going on in this show - he definitely has anger issues. Early on in the series she knew that she liked him, but was in denial? She kept pushing him away, even after he got over himself and confessed. I liked the short episodes, but that meant that the editing was kind of choppy and some scenes weren't played out to their conclusion, for example at the dance club when he was trying to make her jealous. There were times when I thought, "Of course she doesn't like you, you're a jerk!" But then other times he was vulnerable and I would forgive him anything! The scene where he was supposedly crying wasn't played right, it seemed more like a funny scene, and I don't think they meant it to be that way. And to the costume designers, what the heck was with all the outfits with him wearing shorts?!?! A pink striped suit with shorts. A dress shirt, trench coat and shorts. It was a ridiculous look every time.

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Nothing new but so much fun!

A classic tale of a cold rich man who falls for a sweet country girl. They clash. They kiss and live happily ever after. THE END

When I discovered web dramas a few years ago (I am a fairly recent drama watcher!), this drama was practically on top of every list. So I started watching it and dropped it immediately after about 10min. >The overbearing CEO and the goody two shoes country bumpkin were too much to bear. I never planned to pick it up again until recently I read a review which changed my mind. Maybe at the time I was not ready to watch it due to the utter lack of familiarity with Korean entertainment. This time around, it is so different.

The overbearing cold man is hilarious. The country bumpkin is not as naive as she seems to be. Their push and pull, the bickering with side characters, the idols in training, the rival producer: everything was perfectly synchronized. The CEO & his secretary have an amazing relationship (the bromance is top notch!) and their comic timing is just perfect. I usually do not like comedy dramas from Korea: not my kind of humour with too much slapstick (which I find totally cringy!) but here it was just rather universal, smart with a minimum of body humour and mostly chatter!

The cast of secondary characters was outstanding: from the psychiatrist to the company staff to the idols and even the rivals, they were all fully fleshed out and not superficially just introduced. They were there to help move the story forward but not only: they also changed in contact with the FL.

I loved the FL saying ancient proverbs to encourage herself and the others.

This is a very positive drama, not a single toxic or evil character (the rival producer was just ...funny!), no love triangle, some misunderstandings but solved rather quickly. The story is pretty much straightforward full of usual clichés but dut to its format (15min episodes) no time was wasted on useless plot devices. And even though it did take them 20 episodes to finally get together, it flowed naturally, it was not annoying or boring.

High End Crush is a comedy and should be viewed as such: do not look for a deeper meaning or a criticism of korean idol industry (all idols in training here are kind and sweet and friends with each other!). The music is setting the tone for a comedy.
It was a nice quick watch. If you ever need a palate cleanser after a heavy drama, this one should do the trick!

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Cliche, but not frustrating

Even though this drama definitely had some cliches, it wasn't frustrating to watch, and some scenes were downright hilarious.

With that being said, I don't know if it's just me, but I've had a hard time getting into any of Jung Il Woo's roles—I've only seen him in this and Cinderella and the Four Knights, but in both dramas I found his tsundere character wishy-washy and annoying. This one was a little better because we got to see the story from his perspective as he flailed around trying to deal with his emotions, but from the girl's perspective, I found it downright annoying.

I'm surprised that so many people said they stayed for his acting, because I actually stayed for the main female lead, who stood up for herself and was strong without having to physically be. I loved that scene where none of the "gentlemanly" things the male lead did worked on her, and despite everyone saying that she was from the 18th century, her personality was strong and progressive. For this reason, I wish that the music video she filmed was more interesting than her literally just sitting in a chair and then walking around it once, but it was focused on Monsta X, so I guess that's understandable...

The HUGE amount of slow-motion falls, gazes, and wrist grabs was kind of annoying. I felt like they gave us so many—too many—even before I felt any chemistry between the main characters, and since the episodes were so short already, it was unnecessary to include one or two EVERY episode.

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Short but sweet!

This was adorable! It was cute and sweet and fun to watch. There were no cringey scenes (in my opinion), and we were saved from having to see those horrible cringey hairstyles that K-dramas used to do. And it was awesome seeing Monsta X during their debut days!

This was short so it was easy to binge, especially on days when you want to watch something but don't want it to be too heavy. I would definitely recommend this drama as a palette cleanser between the more serious dramas, or when you want to watch an episode on your lunch break, or when you're laid up in bed with a bad cold. It's not so silly as to be stupid, but it made me laugh out loud a few times. Plus it has it's heartwarming moments. It was also refreshing to see the male lead be the one to get teary-eyed over a crush, rather than having the female doing all the emoting.

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Romcom perfection

If you're hooked to the romcom genre (ahem!) then this drama is boiler plate perfection.
Story is clichéd, situations are cheesy, emotions are typical. None of that matters with this drama because the comedy overules all that stuff.

Every supporting actor had perfect comic timing, however the ones that walked away with the crown were the section chief/ f r iend and the doctor. The friend was brilliant......great bromance!

The music was fun - please please include subtitles for main song lyrics as well.
The chemistry could have been steamier, but well, this was a mini series, so not enough time to develop a sturdy relationship.

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I was interested to this drama because of the cover image and the positive reviews. But after watching 8 episodes I decided to drop it. I'm not talking about cliches or arrogant ML role, I was actually kinda looking for 'bad' ML type after watching so many dramas with nice ML type which become boring. But it's just the the story just meh and there is nothing interesting to tease me to run for the every next episode. After dragging myself to watch episode by episode I just did not want to punish myself when there are still a lot of dramas waiting in my PTW list. Honestly I was looking forward for the actor Jung Il Woo since seeing his great acting in Moon Embracing the Sun. His acting here is good actually, just his character seems so unrealistic, an entertainment industry CEO who falls in love in the first sight to a average looking girl? In the other hand, IMO Yi Ryung character is realistic being a country girl. Despite of negative comments of actress Yin Se Yeon, I think she nailed her role as a 'naive' girl clueless of the modern Seoul, entertainment world and celebrities. Head section Heo and the psychiatrist's acting skills are actually very good too. Too bad, I actually was looking forward to see 'behind the scene' hard work of pop idols.

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