The Third Charm

This drama will show you the reality of relationships.

I was moved the very first time I finished this. Now, After watching it the second time around, I am deeply moved enough to make me write a review.

What I love about this drama is its rawness- it shows you the start, process and end of a relationship in a very realistic way. I particularly appreciate the fact that it made me realize many things as i watched further, making me relate to many particular instances.

Relationships aren’t grand. It may start on a simple day, when one person touched you at a time you needed it the most. We saw this with the main leads. The end of a relationship doesn’t also always have to be grand. It can simply start due to petty fights and mistrust. And once it gets tiring, the little things become enough reasons to end everything. This reality was very much shown as we saw the leads journey through love.

I also love how the style and mood of the story changed as they grew older, showing how growing up erases the “fairytale” expectations from relationships. When youngjae and joonyoung first met, it was cute and sweet. When they met the second time around, we saw the honeymoon phase and the death of the said phase. When they saw each other for the third time, we saw a more mature take on relationships from both parties. It was truly a joy seeing this.

I loved everything about this show. The rawness. The writing. The acting, mygoodness the writing. The cinematography. The music. Hay, I loved it way too much.

I think it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’re patient enough to truly journey with a very realisting love story, watch this.

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WASTING TIME WATCHING IF U GOT BETTER SHOWS , WATCH OTHERS.

THE STORY IS BORING, WHY THE MAIN ACTRESS HAVE TO BREAK UP WITH THE MAIN THEN BREAK UP WITH THE 2ND ONE, THEN WANT TO FIND THE 1ST ONE AGAIN. SO WISHY WASHY CANNOT MAKE UP HER MIND. AND WHY THE MAIN ACTOR WANTS TO BREAK UP WITH THE 2ND MAIN BECOS OF THE 1ST MAIN ACTRESS. SO BOLIAO. IN REAL LIFE BREAK UP MEANS NVR SEE EACH OTHER ANYMORE. WHETHER ACCIDENTLY ONOT. SO ROMANTIC MEH. CHANGE HERE N THERE. STUPID STORY. IF U GOT NOTHING TO DO THEN WATCH LOR. ELSE FIND ANOTHER SHOW. HAHA. I SEE ONLY BECOS OF SEO KANG JOON, LOL .
DONT LIKE THE MAIN ACTRESS. CANNOT MAKE UP HER MIND AND CHANGE HERE N THERE. LOTS OF BORING PPL IN THE SHOW. NOT EVEN INTERESTING.

NEVER SAYS WHY THEY SEPARATED, THEN THEY HAVE NEW PARTNERS BUT ALSO DID NOT END UP WITH NEW PARTNERS OR TOGETHER.

IS THERE A MAN WHO WOULD CONTINUE TO CHASE AFTER A WOMAN WHO HURT HIM N STILL WANT TO BE WITH HER.

WHY HE CANNOT CARRY ON WITH THE 2ND LEAD AS SHE COULD BE MORE SUITABLE FOR HIM.

ENDING NOT SATISFACTORY.
NEVER SAYS WHY THEY SEPARATED, THEN THEY HAVE NEW PARTNERS BUT ALSO DID NOT END UP WITH NEW PARTNERS OR TOGETHER.

IS THERE A MAN WHO WOULD CONTINUE TO CHASE AFTER A WOMAN WHO HURT HIM N STILL WANT TO BE WITH HER.

WHY HE CANNOT CARRY ON WITH THE 2ND LEAD AS SHE COULD BE MORE SUITABLE FOR HIM.

ENDING NOT SATISFACTORY.

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not that great

drama had a great start but with every timeskip change they just make the FL more pitiable and made everyone sick idgi i finished hoping it to get better bec i did like the 2 lead actors but to no avail. rly regret watching and wasting time.

both of the leads had some questionable qualities like the girl is always so unlikeable, guy is so petty and obsessive.... they do not match at all how they dragged it for 16 episodes idk

the sister and lead guys's best friend as well were so weirdly matched couldve seen more character development in the sister throughout. the lead girls best friend and brother as well.... writers literally just spun a dice and made them both sick

lol not a coherent review but this has been the first time i watched a drama so badly written i feel bad for all the actors lol

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Recommended watch

This has been on my watchlist for a while and when I saw it was leaving Netflix I jumped on the chance to watch it before it is gone. Thankfully I did not read the reviews before watching it. Only after finishing did I skim some of them and I understand the perspective that maybe this didn't have a "message". It reminds me of J-drama where it depicts reality and wont always carry a message or lesson. AND THAT IS OK!
Personally I connected so much with this drama, first because I have a close family member who also became a quadriplegic after an accident, so I can grieve the loss of what could have been. Of the difficulties and the process of healing physically, emotionally and even the healing that wont ever happen but you learn to accept so you can have some peace. This circled back towards the end when Ju-ran was sick and he comforted her as well. I learned that crying is part of being comforted, I dont have to always smile and feel relief. It is ok to cry as it is a type of comfort.
I've also been through a gestational loss so I could kind of understand and cry along with Yeong-jae. Oh then pain! Of course it's nice to have a happy ending where they dont suffer any losses, and end up together without much pain. But for me this was a therapy session, feeling understood and seen through a drama. I appreciated this so much and I needed a good crying session.

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Really annoying

Honestly, the drama was good but throughout the entire thing, I found myself asking why the male lead is such a dumbass. If your girlfriend is going out with other men, dump her. It's that simple. She has dinner alone with another guy? Dump her. Imagine if a guy did that if he went to dinner with another woman, his girlfriend would be fuming. I hate this double standard, for men it's not ok but for women it's ok? No sir. Again, this is my advice if you want to live a happy life: If your girlfriend has male friends that she goes out with just the two of them, DUMP her. Also in the drama at some point, the male lead asked her to put herself in his shoes and asked precisely this, if the roles were reversed and she agreed she would get mad. Then again, if she knew it and she did it on purpose, it's malicious intent. Don't date this type of woman. And I'm not going off just on women here, don't date this type of man either. If you're in a relationship, be loyal, and make it clear to third parties that you're taken and you're not interested. Something that the female lead fails to do in this drama, she keeps both men on their toes. This really annoyed me.

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A lukewarm "charm"...

She is a resolute hairdresser with versatile looks who can look both attractive or not, depending (ironically enough) on the haircut, and make-up... He is an average guy with average looks (he looks especially horrendous with the perm she makes him wear early on) who has his first kiss with her, which she iniciates, after which he falls DESPERATELY in love with her and cannot forget her even after 10 years or so. When they reunite, they clear the old misunderstandings and she lets the guy know that she really liked him back, too. Which makes him totally happy and they start dating (or dating again), with him acting like a desperate dog most of the time (he is a cop now, so he's only cool in the moments when he's arresting bad guys, etc.) and with her alternating between being annoyed/moved by it.

During their "second charm", whenever the hairdresser crosses paths with an attractive guy, it puts a strain on her relationship, because her cop boyfriend gets easily jealous and insecure. She breaks it off with him at one point. When there is nothing, the focus shifts on the secondary characters, but I never cared and skipped all of them.

Basically, nothing major really happens in this drama for more than ten long episodes (as far as I watched), only loads of super sweet romantic song/s keep playing. The drama uses summarizing montages of the previous scenes since early in the story, they come after each minor conclusion, and sometimes before conclusion is reached. It's like someone wanted us to watch MVs of the drama DURING the drama. Often I opened an episode and after watching like six or seven minutes of it, I lost my (mild) interest. I progressed only very slowly.

After the break-up in episode 10, episode 11 consists of us watching mainly the guy alone, and he is not very charismatic. Scenes of him traveling, sleeping, eating, learning to cook (gee, is this going to be a cooking show on the top of everything else I "like"?) create such a lukewarm atmosphere I did not even care that somewhere in the middle of it he got another girlfriend. Episode ends up on a cliffhanger with the hairdresser's return. But I had enough.

I'm not staying for the third charm.

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main idea -how not to behave with other people so as not to lose love and not hurt anyone

The drama made a double impression on me .. Idk if anyone reads the reviews but I will share .. Positive (to a greater extent) in the image of the main character Jooyoung and negative in the image of Young Jin, her behavior and attitude towards people in general .. At first it may seem that she is a good girl with a lot of problems and she feels sorry for her, but with each episode when the true character of the heroine is revealed, it becomes clear that the main egoist is she who thinks only about herself and does not take into account the feelings of people who love her .. trauma is trauma, but others must be respected .. I I’m not sorry for Yongjin .. how many people suffered because of her, how many people offended her actions, and even more so her ex-boyfriend whom she treated carelessly .. but when she saw him with another girl in the hospital, she immediately decided to leave although he was honest with her and nothing did bad .. to put it mildly, such an image of the heroine is not pleasant and repulsive to me. l, although he wanted to scream and quietly cried alone .. he was in so much pain! He always tried to understand her and do whatever she wanted! .. I sincerely felt sorry for the main character who in this drama is the ideal of a man (well, he is drawn to the ideal for the time being), even if not an alpha male, but sincerely loving and caring for his girlfriend .. she didn’t even let him finish when he probably wanted to invite her to marry and decided to part with him .. disgusting! she married the one she avoided, in the end, because of her mistake, she divorced the doctor .. how many people she had to break the fate of people!? to realize that time was lost and there was no need to leave Jooyoung initially .. and after a while she appeared out of nowhere and decided to return to him .. thereby testing his feelings for the girl he was going to marry .. that's because of people like her, but in life there are many of them, either men or women, but with a character like hers who simply play with the feelings of others without thinking about the latter, believing that they will be forgiven for everything and will always wait for them .. a big mistake. if Jooyoung was stronger in character and found the strength to forget her realizing her true attitude towards him, it would be great .. would not hurt another person who has nothing to do with it at all .. I think people like Yongjin should not be given in life they have a 2nd chance, because after a while they will also leave, marry another and then when it doesn’t work out they want to return to where they used to be loved and jealous .. not realizing that every person is a person and his feelings must be respected, reckoned with and thought before doing something if it concerns the feelings of another person. I don’t think that lovers should all forgive each other. fear? when she exchanges it for another again because she doesn’t like something ?! Both are involved in the relationship, and not one of them always drags them on itself ..
will update.
Although Jooyoung is not without sin.. might also wonder if he really loves his new girlfriend.. remember himself. Put yourself in her place regarding how Young Jin did to him in the past.. he does the same unfair thing to his girlfriend, hurts her.. ironic? Hmm maybe but then you don't feel sorry for him anymore for the past pain that he experienced himself .. this is the mistake of most people .. instead of sorting out their feelings before starting a new relationship, they use others like a pill .. , take risks and cripple life to others .., in turn, others do the same with the rest ... people are not a toy, but only a few remember this. So I would have waited for my Yongjin alone ..
Yonji's problem is that she has no dialogue. She expects everyone to understand her, but in fact she just wants it to be as she wants, but she doesn’t seek to understand others .. it’s already disgusting .. I don’t like this character of people .. what’s the fun not to say it straight, talk about my feelings people are not magicians to guess .. I don’t even feel sorry for her in the story .. all this is a matter of her stupidity .. while everyone did everything for her, she imagined herself to be God knows who, although she played the role of a victim by manipulating the feelings of others. Climbs into someone else's life knowing that the wedding ... it already depends on the character of the guy, of course, he is strong or a rag .. decide who he loves and not torturing himself or others (such a burden frankly annoys me, I don’t like people who do not understand their feelings, who they drag others into the swamp and then they all leave it like a draft). It’s hard to understand what the director’s idea was, but as for me, he probably wanted to show how not to behave with other people so as not to lose love and not hurt anyone .. I want to is to believe .. and not to promote stupidity in relationships ...

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raw, realistic, unique

First I'm 19 - which I think is very important in how I view this drama. This drama was recommended because I liked the drama Because This Is My First Life. I don't like time skips, but they were well executed in the drama. The cinematography of the whole thing was very beautiful. It didn't have a lot of unnecessary monologues and relied on implications, which as a viewer I love and appreciate. It portrayed the stages of a relationship really well and I really like how realistic it was. There were happy moments, and struggling moments too. I think the solid background of personalities in both characters also helped in understanding what was happening. For instance, I personally don't get people who dwell and give everything they have on a certain loved one. That said, the male lead giving up both his chemical major, and his police officer career because he wanted to move on was confusing for me. However, it showed a lot about him growing as a person. He was obsessed with planning and him suddenly going out of his plan said something about the shift in perspective. Him being like that seems to be understandable too considering that his personality showed that he was bac at social interaction. This was the first time he felt strong emotions towards a person, and this person appeared twice. She basically was his first love which he experienced twice. Their impact on each other is that strong as shown in the drama. When he was with his second girlfriend, it showed that he loves her. Female lead also shows how happy she was with her family. There's a saying that first loves last forever and no matter what happens, they'll always remain special. Seeing each other again 5 years after a break up does give mixed feelings. Maybe it's because they didn't have proper closure which is why they struggled identifying these mixed feelings. When main dude wanted to help her, as she visibly needed help, he wanted to do so without hurting people around him long-term. That caused him and his cop girlfriend to break off their marriage. As a 19 year old teenager, I didn't get this part. It was a jerk move but then in the end, it showed that sure there may be lingering feelings but he didn't end it to get back together. It just so happened that at that time, female lead needed help and the only person that can help her was main lead - that's because he knew many things about her life. To be honest, it would have been nice if her ex husband ended up helping her because although they did get a divorce, he did love her at some point and could understand her as well as main dude can BUT because he also caused her a lot of pain, it just can't happen. The ending showed that they were both healing through the help of each other. In the end, the drama wasn't necessarily a romance drama. It showed a realistic relationship that has many ups and downs. I really like how it ended with a quote. I also like how it ended with them finally getting the closure and relationship (not romantic) they wanted. Male lead ended up flying to New York as a chef - no more drastic changes in career paths, just him trying to become a better version of himself. Female lead is as happy with her life now as she continue to look after her brother, her bestfriend, and herself. The ending showed that although they both obviously aren't fully healed, they were able to lean to each other and get back up again. That said, the ending showed that people around you can push you to heal yourself but at the end of the day, healing is effective when you do it to yourself.

Side note from the main story though, I love male lead's sister a lot. Her independence, view in life, and how she carries herself in a traditional, and patriarchal society was very refreshing. Everything aside, I love the casting here. Both mains are very amazing at portraying implied emotions. I just really love how so many things were implied through symbolisms and never actually narrate it. Production is very 100/100 ! As a k-drama fan I am in love with it. The story can be stretched out more for better understanding of the situation but the main plot, thought, or intention was really nice.

Anyways, I believe that people will view this differently depending on their priorities and age. This is my rating a view for this drama as a 19 year old student, with no romantic relationship experience at all. In a few years I do wanna rewatch this again and evaluate it again from the perspective and mindset of that current age. See you guys in a few years!

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Conpletely Different from Start to Finish

This show was a rollercoaster to say the least! I will try to condense my thoughts by the 3 parts of the show.

Beginning:
Absolutely loved the beginning. They start off as college students at the age of 20 and their romance initially starts. The show begins really lighthearted and fun and I ship the couple the most at this point. I was upset when FL breaks ML heart because I felt like he didn’t deserve that.
Once we get brought back to the present we find out she broke up with him, not because of the falling out but because her brother has an accident that leaves him disabled for the rest of his life.

In this new chapter of their life where they’re 27 and doing well in their successful careers they find their way back to each other. Although I like their college romance the best, this part is pretty good too. It’s filled with so much fluff so I can’t complain, but then the problems start to arise…

Middle:
Once the 2nd ML is introduced the show starts losing it for me. One, I’m already not a fan of love triangles. Love triangles usually consist of some rando trying to get between a relationship, I don’t find that romantic, I find it disrespectful. And that’s what happens in this case. Korea is so obsessed with characters staying “true to themselves” and sayibg their feelings, but in the States, a guy going after another guy’s girl is just disrescpectful and would’ve been nipped in the bud. My issues with the FL starts here. She knew her boyfriend was getting jealous and that the 2ML liked her but she insisted on some weird friendship instead of shutting him down completely. It just pisses me off!

The FL ends up breaking up with the ML for the 2nd time, and I never really understood why. I wasn’t under the impression that she started developing feelings for the 2ML, but she said she felt bad or sorry to the ML, which I’m not sure why she would feel sorry unless her feelings changed.
Anyways, they breakup. This leads the ML to quitting his job and moving to Portugal where he goes to culinary school tk ultimately become a chef. I will like to say from the earlier parts to when they were in a relationship, the ML held too much importance to their relationship. Like he really let it dictate every other aspect of his life and I didn’t find it cute how when he got jealous, instead of talking it out with the FL he would ignore her for days. That is NOT what you do in a relationship?!

Anyways, I liked the storyline of him in Portugal, I just think it was a bit dragged out at times. But in this section of the story is where the 2FL, who was introduced earlier, really comes into play and she confesses her feelings to ML and starts a relationship with him. I actually rather like the 2FL. Unlike a lot of people, I’m never really swayed by 2nd leads, I usually stand in full support for the main couple. But seeing as how the FL broke the ML heart 2x, I liked that the 2FL actually appreciated the ML, and I thought that she was pretty cute.

End:
The third section was a lot! I really struggled to fjnish the show at this point. The show started off so light hearted and comical and changed into 4-5 episodes kf pure depression. Between the revelation of what happened to yhe FL in the 5 years that they were split to the best friend of the FLgetting cancer, I felt so emotionally drained! I DO NOT like the fact that the FL broke the ML heart, but also that she git married to the 2ML! Nit only did they get married, but theh also had a kid together. At this point I nk linger shil the main characters. I feel like she chose her happy ending and it did not contain the ML, the onky reason they’re able to find their way back tk each other is because of the unfortunate events that leads tk the FL’s daughter dying. If it wasn’t for that tragic event, she would’ve been living happily with the 2ML and I feel kike that thought just completely ruins the romance. Not to mention, I actually like the ML with the 2FL, and they’re planning to get married, I had no hopes for the main characters getting back together, but atlas they do… well kinda

I felt like the writes were so lazy in end. I didn’t see any new romance that would have changed the ML’s feelings if he genuinely had loved the 2FL. Which makes me irritated that he would even consider marrying her when he never even loved her. Mind you, he was with her for 4 years and had only been with the FL cummulatively for 4 months?!! Anyways, he just felt pity and care for the FL, which is okay and totally reasonable given the circumstances, but I’f he wasn’t gonna get back together with the FL, why woukd he break up with the 2FL? It really was unfair to the 2FL. I felt like the writers really sucked for making the 2FL back down and basically mutually end things with the ML. It was so unrealistic and anyone could tell she wanted to marry him, but they let him off easy, where any real person would have been livid! Especially her parents! I would’ve have to get him for breaking my daughter’s heart!

Just to note briefly, the side couples were alrigtht. I felt really bad for the friend because she wouldn’t be able to have kids snd that’s all she wanted, bht I liked her relationship with the FL’s brother. And the ML’s sister with the ML’S best friend really pissed me off ngl. I know they were supposed to be comedic relief, which Sang Yi was, but the sister pissed me off from the start of the show to the end!

In the end, I give the show a 7/10. It started off strong, funny and romantic, but just went downhill after a while. The middle section with the ML in Portugal was a bit boring, but it was different so I didn’t mind it too much. For a while, I liked not knowing whether the main charactes would end up together or not, but then I actually hoped that they wouldn’t. In the end, I wasn’t happy with their vague ending because I felt like the FL coontinued to shake up the ML’s life and just her kept influencing him to make some pretty big lif choices but he never had that affect on her. Which reminds me how at the very start of the show he said, she was a woman he should have never met again. I just feel like if he was gonna end things with the 2FL, he could’ve at least gotten back together with the FL. Instea dwe get this vague ending where they really don’t seem to end up together, yet they’re friendly and on good terms, but I doubt that’s the case with the second leads. And it was also sad seeing the FL become a shell of herself because of her loss. I wouldn’t rewatch the show, not unless it was just the first few episodes.

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