The drama has a good start. It has an adorable male and female. They have a lot of cute scenes together. Their bond evolves from friendship to love.
There are not a lot of cross-dressing modern-day dramas so I was very excited to see it. The story is nice and the acting of the cast is great. Everyone did an amazing job.
The one thing I did not like was the pace of the drama. I felt the drama was quite slow with a lot of fillers. Even though there were some moments I enjoyed in the episode, the drama felt too long. Hence I dropped it.
To summarize, it is an enjoyable drama that you can watch if you like slow-paced dramas.
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Marathoned this series.
Of course it was slow and boring at times, and I didn't really like the side characters romance because it quite annoyed me a bit. Except for that japanese guy, that guy was awesome. Anyway, it's still worth the the slow parts, also because of how lovely the actors are, especially the main girl!
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I really liked the story. Gong Yoo and Yoon Eun Hye definitely need to do another k-drama, or even a movie, together. They're awesome! <3
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The Worst Cross Dressing/Gender Bending Series I've Seen
**Disclaimer... This is just my opinion. Everyone has one and they are all valid. I know that I'm in the minority when it comes to this series. I appreciate all of the hard work that goes into making these dramas.**I watched this series because I liked Gong Yoo in Goblin. I had high hopes for it because of the positive reviews I had seen. Unfortunately those hopes were dashed almost immediately. The acting was good but the writing wasn't.
The female lead character is so uncouth that I can barely find words to express it. She didn't grow up starving alone on a deserted island but she acts like she did. She takes gluttony to the extreme with a complete lack of table manners and common decency. One or two scenes of her eating would have been more than sufficient to get the point across but there are far too many of them. She is aggressive, rude, selfish, arrogant, ignorant and ultimately, to me, unlikeable that I found it very difficult to care about the main couple. Yes, she is hard working, tough and loyal (in a sense) but that isn't enough to balance out the rest.
The characters and their relationships are unhealthy. There is lying, cheating, using, abusing, stalking, etc. but a general lack of what most people would define as real love. That and a lack of chemistry between the main characters. For all of those reasons I couldn't get invested in this drama and couldn't wait to be done with it.
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Lying about 'insert lie here' past the point of it being logical. JUST TELL THE TRUTH ALREADY!
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Interesting premise but slow pacing
I have to say I watched this 12 years after it was first released so I'm comparing this drama to all the good dramas that have come out in the recent years.I was really excited to watch this drama because of the hype. Everyone was giving it 10/10 which made me want to watch it even more. The first few episodes had so much potential. I was laughing and was very intrigued but to my disappointment, it only lasted for the first few episodes. The pacing is way too slow. They showed unnecessary scenes to fill out the episodes.
There was so much angst between the main leads. The male lead was a jerk. He was treating her like a piece of trash. That's not how you treat someone that you like. But still she liked him. If I was her, I would have dumped him. She was still very patient with him.
I would shorten the episodes to have a better pacing. I couldn't finish it. Just very boring.
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This review may contain spoilers
A drama full of toxic characters
First of all, I was intrigued by this Drama because it sounded like a Korean version of the Japanese amine Ouran High School Host Club. 😂 Sadly, it was way lacking in terms of plot and relatable characters.At the beginning, the Drama was fun and interesting, with her trying to live by as a guy and not getting found out. And although there were some scenes where I was thinking to myself “ok damn that shit js homophobic as fck”, I was considering that maybe it was a realistic presentation of how old people might view homophobia (yes the doctor scene).
However it got kinda boring after her real gender was being revealed and even more boring after it turned all lovey-dovey.
Many people were getting annoyed at Eun-chan for keeping her gender a secret for so long and i guess even if it wasn’t neccessary in the end, I can kinda understand why she did that in order to keep her job. I found the way that Han-Gyeol was treating Eun-chan way more toxic tbh. Especially when he was trying to manipulate her not to go to italy bcs he stayed in Korea bcs of her so she cannot go either 🤦🏼♀️ I was facepalming myself so many times! Oh and also Inwas getting mad and annoyed at him for trying to force her into marrying him after only knowing each other for like 3 months, and then the majority of that time was even based on a lie too…
Also I gotta say: Almost all the men in this Drama were toxic AF!!!! Including the main lead!!!! Getting angry at him/her all the time, bossing her around and trying to control her. He was very manipulative and I seriously dunno why she fell in love with him so much… I kinda wished she would have gotten together with Han Sung and Yoo Joo with Han Gyeol…
And Yoo Joo herself was toxic in different ways as well. Super egoistic and self-centered, being with Han-Sung but kept on flirting with Han Gyeol knowing very well he had a crush on her! In general their interactions were just cringe af!!! They were literally acting like a couple and at the beginning I was actually confused about who she really loved. I realized it when she found out about Han-Sung’s crush on Eun-chan. And the way she reacted to it. Like I get it what he did was wrong af but what she was doing with Han Gyeol all the time wasn’t much more different either… And then also after she got pregnant she was still acting like a teenager. Like Why tf are you drinking alcohol when you are pregnant??? Idk but I really had the ick toward her…
However the worst character of this drama was probably Jin Ha-Rim the worst kind of wanna-be fckboy ever!!! He was so annoying and istg he deserved a good beating! i hated him so much!!! like it’s none of your business if a girl has a flat chest, doesn’t wear make up or has or doesn’t have sex with her boyfriend!!!! Him and Han Gyeol were one of the main reasons I started hating this drama towards the end…
Min-Yeop was lowkey annoying too. A pathetic clingy gorilla baby who then went on and listened to the suggestions of a playboy. And Eun-Sae wasn’t better! What a toxic bitch!!! If I had a sister like that I would have slapped her! what an embarrassment! no seriously tho, who came up with these characters??? I have never seen so many toxic characters and relationships in one Drama alone!!!
Seon-Gi was the main reason why I kept watching it and I wished he had more screen time 🥺
Also the fact that Eun-chan looked like a young Jungkook was hilarious 😂 To be honest I think she did kinda look like a guy, but more like a 15-year old teenage boy rather than a 24-year old grown man 😂 At the beginning it was funny how everyone treated him like a kid bcs ngl she really looked like a teenage boy, but it kept on getting annoying when they were still treating her like a child after her gender reaveal. Especially when Han Gyeol was still calling her “kiddo” while they were dating… it gave me the pedophile ick tbh ngl! Even she was still calling him boss in the 16th episode! Like come on girl, he is your boyfriend! But in general Seon-Gi, Eun-chan plus Han Sung were the only characters I liked, but I still couldn’t relate to anyone in this drama… A total fail!!! would not recommend.
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Pioneer in its time but it dragged too long
Since this show is considered a classic, I had to watch it. OK, I get the plot that a girl pretends to be a guy to get the job. But after both FL and ML begin to like each other, the show d-r-a-g-g-e-d on unmercifully. I felt bad for the ML who had to question his sexual identity because the FL took her sweet time to tell him she was actually a female. So much overacting (prolonged crying and angst) on FL's part. She cried in EVERY scene in Episodes 11 & most of 12. The show's two female writers just dragged on this topic in true melodramatic form. This "pretending to be gay" scenario was ridiculously drawn out and I blame the writers for their poor screenplay. The writers for "Personal Taste" (starring Lee Min-ho) did a better job at the "pretending to be gay" scenario.The justification for her actions was FL needed the cafe job because she was the breadwinner in the family. In Episode 16, FL mentioned that her mother had never worked. I've only seen her mother eat, shop, and go on dates with the neighborhood butcher who liked her. So how did the mother raise two children in that nice house before FL was old enough to work?
I had seen Gong Yoo in only one other show, Squid Game, so I didn't know much about him. But after watching his performance in this show (especially when he was agonizing about his sexuality for liking Eun Chan), I've come to admire his acting skills. I also appreciate his good looks and strong physique, as displayed in his shirtless after-shower scenes (which now seems to be the norm for all leading males in K-dramas). I will probably watch him in Train to Busan next, even though I dislike zombie movies.
As I mentioned before, about ⅓ into the series, the show began to drag. I had to hit the fast-forward button several times. It irritated me that in the beginning, the SFL kept hanging around the ML while trying to get back together with SML, who is the ML's cousin, knowing full well that ML had a crush on her for 9 years. Is she that brainless and shameless? Then in Episode 11, SFL can't overlook the fact that SML once liked FL so she wanted to break up with him. She is such a hypocrite; after all, she was the one who left SML two years ago and flew to New York to be with another man. I attribute this bad thought process to the poor writing and screenplay by the show's writers.
FL's constant crying especially irritated me - just hurry up and tell him you are a girl, for God's sake, and spare us viewers this frustration! His friend, who also worked at the coffee shop, finally told ML about FL's gender. Of course, ML was furious - who wouldn't be, when everyone but you knows the truth and didn't tell you?! I would have fired the entire staff right then and there!
It didn't get interesting until Episode 9, when the circumstances surrounding ML's birth became suspicious. We find out the real truth in Episode 13, but after that, that whole theme just fizzled out. The writers should have played out that angle more.
The only good things about this show, other than Gong Yoo's performance, are the themes of 1) acceptance of LBGTQs and 2) men coming to the realization that women need to fulfill their own career dreams. In that regard, this show may have been a pioneer in its time in So Korea when broadcasted in 2007.
For me, this series is a "Meh" and I probably won't rewatch it.
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This review may contain spoilers
The Lost Magic. Is Gender Surprise an Asset or a Hindrance?
Wouldn't this story be much better if Go Eun Chan was really a boy? At some point, the fact that she was a girl even started to upset me. Choi Han Gyul's self-doubt and secretly growing love was the most enjoyable part of this drama.The second couple did not interest me at all from the beginning to the end (I fast-forwarded most of their scenes or I would have fallen asleep)
In the first episodes, the warm family environment, good acting and real life events made me feel very peaceful.
Our couple's chemistry was much better when I thought Choi Han Gyul's Go Eun Chan was a boy. When I found out that she was a girl, the chemistry between them decreased. If only they had made him feel that the man actually liked Go Eun Chan's masculine, free, relaxed characters, then it wouldn't really make a difference that she was a girl. But when it was revealed that she was a girl, it made me feel like all the magic was broken.
Oh the endless long chapters. I remember I stopped at some point.
And another thing that drove me crazy was that food was eaten in almost every scene. At some point I started to feel nauseous. I do not recommend watching it on a full stomach. I felt like the cliché of the female lead eating exaggerated food in k-dramas started with this production.
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Average drama...
LIKEStarted off with good vibes and all
Han Sung and Yoo Joo were not too bad together
DISLIKE
Plot slowed down in the middle.. I got bored..
Probably too old a drama...
Not much chemistry between Han Gyul and Eun Chan
MUSIC
Not to my liking
REWATCH VALUE
Five for now
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peak..
A REAL KDRAMAAA the side plot is 1.5x speed material but still pretty good but the main couple.. i felt too many emotions so good I loved it yay. i watched this a while ago so I can’t even rmbr my thoughts but I like how realistic the world feels and how the chracters interact with eachother woah I moved. def my fav kdrama ever and it converted me into a gong yoo fan. i didn’t even like hangyuel at first but gong yoo plays him so well that he became my fav chracter. I watched for eunchan originally and she did not disappoint I rlly liked her as the female lead. yeasss so awesome so good so amazingWas this review helpful to you?
