Cinderella and the Four Knights

"Cinderella and The Four Knights" is a modern Cinderella story.

Ha Won is a poor girl who lives with her stepmother and stepsister, who constantly mistreat her. Her father is always away from home for work and when he shows up, he doesn't even acknowledge Ha Won's presence, almost as if he despises her. Even so, the girl is happy, working in several different places to earn money to go to college. One day her life changes completely when she meets Hyun Min, who pays her to pretend to be his fake fiancee.

After that, Hyun Min's grandfather hires her to work in his house to help his grandchildren become better people. It is at this moment that Ha Won enters her own fairy tale, living with four princes or knights: the rich and spoiled Hyun Min, the grumpy and cold Ji Woon, the lonely musician Seo Woo and their grandfather's secretary Yoon Sung. During the drama, Ha Won has to complete some missions and only if she succeeds will she be able to continue living in the house. This thing about the missions reminded me a lot of the drama "Atashinchi no Danshi".

The development of the drama is great, it reminded me a lot of "Boys Over Flowers", mainly because of Ha Won's personality. I love main characters like that, strong women who don't care about appearances and have their own attitude. Ha Won is very captivating. The romance between her and Ji Woon is so cute, it was really fun to see their relationship change from hate to friendship and then to love. The couple has great chemistry on screen. Of course there would be opposition from the family to the relationship between the two, just because their grandfather hired her to work in the house, it doesn't mean he would accept her as his grandson's girlfriend. Thank goodness in the end he ended up giving in, when he discovered that there was a deeper connection between the two, Ha Won and Ji Woon's mothers met, in fact Ha Won's mother tried to save Ji Woon's mother and ended up dying too.

At first I thought the drama would continue with a romance between her and Hyun Min, but all of this was just a kick start to the real romance that was about to emerge and by having this crush on Ha Won, Hyun Min was also able to understand and accept his true feelings for Hye Ji. Hyun Min's confession, in which he is rejected by Ha Won and for the whole world to see, was really a reality check for him, but it was so fun! HAHAHA'

If you are a fan of kdramas, this is a drama that you need to watch. It is a Cinderella story, yes, but even with the cliches it is an incredible experience. It is not the story of a girl falling in love with a rich boy and changing her life, but of a girl who was looking for someone to love her, who would be by her side so she would not be alone anymore and isn't that what we all want?

The soundtrack is wonderful, "For You", "My Romeo" and "How To Find Love" are very addictive songs <3

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wtf was going on in this show

i dont know who woke up one day and thought "yeah itd be a great idea to make a kdrama of 4 cousins who HATE each other fall in love with the same girl" ????????? like bffr. i thought this was gonna be something similar to the 3 musketeers ... oh boy i was so wrong. this kdrama was not even memorable which says a lot about its impact ..... but what i can tell u is that it was not the best. the female lead is an orphan, broke, and randomly runs into the grandfather of the 4 cousins and ofc he decides "yeah this broke sensitive emotional girl can definitely be the mediator for family drama even tho her own family hates her!!!!" again ???????? oh and ofc he bribes her with money to do it all .... anyway all of the cousins have a distinct personality but yk what im still curious about to this day ... the 4th man who "likes" her wasnt even like ..... showed??????? the first cousin is this guy who has beef with his ex gf ... and she also happens to be the best friend of another cousin (who is the male lead) .... and he uses the female lead to make his ex gf jealous but then actually ends up liking her ??? like damn bro pick a struggle please ... and the male lead (surprise surprise is who she ends up with) is the typical stereotypical "badass" like no ... bro i rewatched the trailer the other day and why the hell was he beating up a gang at a high school im so confused??????? why is there even a gang????? these are rich ass men wtf are you doing there ??????? he was also so rude to the female lead so idk why she was so damn attached to him .... and he was so nice to his best friend like ugh ew red flag .... please it was just too much. ... and the 3rd cousin was a singer/song writer and lowkey the nicest but NOOO OBVI she didnt get with him ... ok but the thing is idfk who the 4th guy was?????? like god i hope it wasnt the grandfather .... anyway there was so much about this show that was interesting like the 2nd female lead ..... she drowned one time ???? and the acting was bad like ok i get it its hard to act like ur drowning but i genuinely couldnt tell if the character was purposely drowning to get her exs attention (cuz he was there) or if the actor couldnt act like she was drowning .... anyway yeah this show was just so ... interesting ... but the ost did eat MYY ONNNEEEEE ANNND ONLLY YOOOOU yeah id rewatch just to talk shit ngl but other than that yeah its not worth it dont waste ur time

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A Cute Watch For What It Is

As a long time K-Drama fan, I pick my dramas on actors I like, or if it's a general genre I enjoy. I am an absolute sucker for rom-coms. Rom-coms are such a hit or miss in the K-Drama world. I walked into this one with zero expectations and actually enjoyed it. If you take it for what it is, it's a cute drama.

With that said ... ONTO THE REVIEW!!

Story wise, I thought it was an absolute mess. it started off with this cute build up to the idea of "Cinderella" and a quirky montage/backstory of each of the characters.

The first three-ish episodes of what I thought was the story that would carry the drama quickly fizzled out to unrequited and awkward one-sided love hexagons? The whole premise of "become a family" gets lost, but magically is perfect at the end.

Hye Ji made for a terrible "love triangle antagonist". Her backstory was stale and she was such a third-wheel character with no real potential.

The acting itself, I thought was as good as it can be. Each actor made their character believable and shaped them to the best of their ability and it goes to give them credit to that.

The OST was my jam! Not only did I run and add all the main songs to my spotify, but absolutely sang along each time they made the tune hit during the dramatic scenes.

As for rewatch value, I wouldn't be opposed to playing this in the background while I knit or crocheted. I'd definitely opt to skip some of the fluff episodes.

Overall, coming into this drama with zero expectations and an open-mind, it was cute, quirky and I appreciate the fact that the FL wasn't a helpless, fragile, pretty face.

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HOT MESS

This show is a hot mess! Really.

FOR PEOPLE WHO: want to watch couples with lots of issues, misunderstandings, senseless fights, who like to make things hard for themselves.
It's for people who want to hate watch shows. Really the only reason I finished the series is because I love shouting in frustration at the characters and what a hot mess they were. Especially Naeun's character. Omg so annoying.

NOT FOR PEOPLE WHO: want to watch a decent poor girl, rich boy story. Not for people who want a convincing reverse harem/love triangle/love rectangle relationship. Sure the female lead was nice but.. really?

OVERALL:
I loved hate watching it though but really I won't watch it again. The only reason I'd recommend it to someone else is so that they'll hate watch it too and we can hate comment on it together. Spread the despair. And also, I like the actors but not in this show. I also liked BTOB's song. Anynway, in short, if you want to become even more frustrated, or want to vent your frustration, then watch this and shout at your screen.

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Not a complete waste of time, though that's hardly a compliment...


Story 5.0/10:

The story had potential, but it left a lot of things unresolved while throwing in some tropes towards the end that just seemed try-hard. I'm getting a bit ahead of myself though. I think the show did a decent job of selling the Cinderella piece, Ha Won has been getting the short end of the stick most of her life, she's got the evil step fam, the whole poor status going on, but she's got that spunk, that will to not give up, and despite all of the BS thrown her way, manages to grow into a decent young lady! Unfortunately, I can't say too much more about my thoughts on this title without spoilers, but it was just a middle of the road drama. I honestly watched because there wasn't any other shows on during those days. It had enough to keep me watching until the end, but I did skip over quite a bit as well. It had the forced cohabitation trope, but somehow I still found myself disappointed. There were a couple of scenes that were squee worthy, but overall...meh.


Acting/Cast 6.5/10:

So starting with Jung Il Woo as Kang Ji Woon... I didn't really care for his character, there's the jerkish characters that have a good reason, and then there's just straight up jerks and I felt he leaned moreso in that direction. Not that there weren't good reasons for some of his angst and jerkish ways, but I was unclear about some of his motivations. As far as the acting piece, while I'm not a huge Jung II Woo fan, I feel he does some fine acting, and to be fair none of these characters other than Eun Ha Won seemed to have that much depth to them any way. I've only seen him a couple of other times. The first time I saw him was in "Flower Boy Ramen Shop" (2011), I loved the drama and he had some cool/romantic/squee moments, but really didn't like his character in that either. In "49 Days" (2011) (omg the tears felt like they lasted that long! lol), I think I liked his acting and character best, really top notched. I also saw him in "My Fair Lady" (2009), but again, such an annoying character, that's literally all I can remember thinking back on that dram (though to be fair it was a pretty sub-par drama anyhow. I hope that perhaps I can see him in another good role again soon, I know he can do it. I really need to see "The Moon that Embraces the Sun", I've only ever heard good things about it, I just haven't had the time to watch.


Park So Dam as Eun Ha Won. This was my first time seeing Park So Dam, and I really liked her acting, I always love spunky kiss ass female leads like Eun Ha Won that don't take any shit! I love how she stood up for herself and for others as well. It looks like she's been in a lot more movies than dramas so far, but I really want to make time to see "Beautiful Mind" as I love love love Jang Hyuk, and I'm interested to see her opposite a really good actor (sorry Jung II Woo, no offense!).


Ahn Jae Hyun as Kang Hyun Min. God this character was annoying as hell! Without giving any spoilers away his reasons for doing things....so dumb. I'll just leave it at that. I think I could've looked over the not so great acting if at least I could've liked the character, but alas... to be fair it looks like he's only been an active actor for a few years, but I've been pretty not impressed so far. I think he's okay as a supporting character, like Song Yi's younger brother in "My Love From Another Star" (2013), and Park Tae Il in "You're All Surrounded" (2014). I didn't see him in "Blood" (2015), but I'd heard nothing but terrible reviews and while I usually don't let that deter me from watching something (I do stand by making your own educated decision over just taking a reviewers words for it), but I think I was busy with other dramas and just never got around to it. I'm not sure I will since I'm also not a big fan of Gu Hye Seon (though apparently he is since he married her lol), I liked her in "Boys Over Flowers", and "Angel Eyes" wasn't too bad, but I shudder at the thought of "The Musical" lol. But I digress, I think this drama could've done without his character and would've been just fine.


Lee Jung Shin as Kang Seo Woo. I actually liked Seo Woo, but his character had no real purpose IMHO. He was just kinda there, and I did feel bad at one point for certain spoiler filled reasons, but honestly, his character was pretty weak and didn't grow or change in any substantial way as characters should in a story. This looks to be Lee Jung Shin's first main role, so I can forgive some of the stilted acting, but I feel he's got potential. It also rounded out CNBlue members in dramas lol I'd already seen the rest of the guys in one or two dramas a piece I feel like the circle is complete! lol I wouldn't mind seeing him in something else, hopefully something that's got some better writing.


Choi Min Sung as Lee Yoon Sung. I didn't realize until I looked up his filmography that I'd see him in a supporting role as lead waiter in "Pasta" (2010), Aw, he was so adorable! Unfortunately, I haven't caught anything else he's been in, though I hope to. As Lee Yoon Sung I felt he played the stoic character very well, and while I'm sure I'll be in the minority, I honestly had hoped after some early scenes in the show that he would be a romantic interest for our lead female (pls forgive this one spoiler?), but alas he wasn't which was saddening since of the Four Knights, I liked him the most. I also felt that he totally got screwed over for the latter half of the series, but I honestly can't say more without some spoilers...but ugh. I felt like he had some good chemistry with Park So Dam. I'm looking forward to seeing his next drama whatever that might be, and see if I can't find some time to catch him in his earlier roles.

Lastly, Son Na Eun as Park Hye Ji. I'll chalk up her stiff and not so great acting to just being young and early in her craft, with this being her first main role. I haven't seen any of her previous dramas which she was a supporting character in. Her character wasn't so bad in the beginning and I actually felt pretty bad for her, but unfortunately she became highly annoying and whiney and so my empathy and compassion went bye-bye. As a secondary female lead, Park Hye Ji was underwhelming at best. There unfortunately isn't much else to say about her.

With main roles out of the way, there is the supporting cast, but I don't have anything better to say unfortunately. While I rated the acting and casting highest in the categories, it was still pretty much middle of the road, it wasn't the worst I've seen, but wasn't anything to write home about either. I feel like any good actors could've been switched with those cast because there was no real depth to the characters, I'm sure the actors did the best they could. I often say that actors need to step up and it's possible even with poor writing a drama can be decent at the least, and this drama was just ok, but I think that's the best they could've hoped for. Again, so many plotlines were introduced but then dropped or forgotten. smh


Music 5.0/10:

I usually don't have much to say about music. This was nice, felt like it went with the drama, just middle of the road, pleasant, but nothing I felt I need to run to itunes for.


Rewatch Value 0/0:

1 since I can't seem to choose zero. While there were a few moments that were cute or even invoked a squee, it was all pretty forgettable... I couldn't even tel you what those moments were now lol


Overall 5.5/10:

I wouldn't tell someone not to watch it, but I wouldn't recommended it either... but if it was like a choice between this or Nail Shop Paris, then yes, most def watch this. :P

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Why I watched it: Jung Il Woo. That was all I needed.

Was it worth it: Absolutely.

What I liked the most: “The kisses,” she said unapologetically.

What I disliked the most: The music during the “tense” moments got cheesy. I rolled my eyes a few times.

Moment Meter: 6/10 – Lots of moments. The quality of the moments, however, ranges from straight cheese to heart attack.

Other thoughts: I’m a Jung Il Woo fan, because even though he isn’t drop dead gorgeous, he has some flattering angles and a knack for intense acting. Combine that with the fact that he had the tsundere character (like usual), and this was a hit for me. (He’s also a phenomenal on-screen kisser)

Note: Certain actors will automatically make the drama better (for me), so the rest of the review will be biased. Consider yourself warned.

It watched a lot like a reverse-harem anime, which I enjoy from time to time. Park So Dam nailed this role, and has good control over the tones in her voice. I’m not too crazy about Ahn Jae Hyun’s acting. He didn’t do poorly, but I didn’t get as much feeling from him as I did the others, and one of them is a musician before they’re an actor. I liked the story and it moved along well without stagnating too often.

Conclusion: Actor bias boosted this one up for me, so I would have enjoyed it even if it were complete garbage. Was it unpredictable and fresh? Not entirely, but it hit all of those juicy KDrama notes that keep me coming back for more.

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At first I thought this was another typical drama about one woman and several men...not much new there.
But, I was wrong!

Strong cast, great chemistry between all characters, excellent story line which brought out the theme of the drama and none of the episodes felt too long - kept me going from one to the next! There was such a strong chemistry between the leads, and it didn't feel forced at any point and the story didn't fall apart or seem incredulous either.

For once, I thought the OST was good too (though I don't understand Korean) but the music brought out the feelings. The characters were quite true to life without a lot of the melodrama that sometimes goes with dramatizing the difference between rich boys and poor girls thrown into their lot. A clean and sweet drama, full of touching scenes where you just want to go back, re-watch and live the feeling all over again. I don't usually re-watch dramas, but this is going to be one of the ones I will watch again!

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