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Wonderful life? I
I resisted watching this drama mainly because it was 100 episodes. I have a tendency to get impatient if it drags on too much. I’m glad I watched.If I hadn’t I would’ve never discovered the actor who portrays Jin Woo, Oh Min Suk. In my opinion he stole the show. So now I’m going to go back and watch Beautiful Now because of him.
I laughed and cried so much.
I knew early on that Seol Ah loved Jin Woo just by how she tended to packing his suitcase for his trip. If she hadn’t loved him she wouldn’t have rushed to the hospital after his accident; nor would she have stayed angry at Jin Woo for more than a year. There were signs she cared because she worried about him; she knew what he liked and didn’t like. Because of pain, anger and her horrible mother in law her love was overshadowed. I always wanted them to get back together and glad they did. I loved it when Tae Rang told her that only she didn’t know she was in love with Jin Woo. Tae Rang ended up being a good friend to her. However, I was pleased that Tae Rang and Jin Woo formed a bromance in the end. I was disappointed that I didn’t get to see more of there relationship before the accident.
The show did get a little slow at times to where I was starting to lose interest. Once Shi Wol was introduced I couldn’t get enough of his story. Lee Tae Sun’s portrayal of Shi Wol just broke my heart most times. A shame Hae Rang was Shi wol’s sister; otherwise I would’ve been okay if Cheong Ah and Shiwol had gotten together.
My other favorite character was Pa Rang. He was just too cute.
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This drama is all about character growth so you’ll feel frustrated with everyone and hate everyone in the first few episodes. Oddly enough, some characters I was sure I’d despise until the end, I’ve grown fond of them, simply due to acting and good storytelling. It’s a long drama and the story does start out slow, so it requires a lot of patience. At the same time, it has many ridiculously dramatic elements (some are more predictable than others), as expected of a weekend melodrama, so if you’re not a fan of either then you’ll probably not enjoy this.
As long as you concentrate on the underlying themes, and the message of the drama — and DON’T skip parts just because you think a scene is irrelevant — then you’ll definitely enjoy this drama and fall in love with the characters the way I have
Edit: this review will get you through up until about episode 60. From around ep. 70 on the plot begins to drag and the characters become more frustrating. Coupled with the poor camera quality, the problematic comment section and their divisive views on Jin Woo/Tae Rang, it’s not really that much of an enjoyable watch anymore. Here’s to hoping the ending is at least satisfying🤞
Final edit: After many months, I’ve finally finished this drama and my rating is back to 10. The ending wrapped everything up so beautifully. Every character was well developed and went through some level of growth over the 100 episodes. I loved the way they handled the themes of bullying, suicide and family relationships. It’s a rollercoaster, and there were definitely points I wanted to get off, but at the end of the ride, it was all worth it. Highly recommend!
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Beautiful Secrets, Wonderful Lies
98 episodes of extremely depressing and miserable content. Everyone is lying at some point even the 2 leads who hide information at times. I don’t think we saw any kind of beautiful or wonderful live until the final 2 episodes which means, this show is overvaluing itself lol. Jin Woo is my favourite and his character is hilarious as the show develops.The mothers all need to do one, I don’t think I’ve been as annoyed at 3 grown women as I have in this show. Especially the blomde witch. The writers seemed to be trippin all over the place, logic was thrown out the window. Don’t get me started on the hospital staff, like hello do you do your job or do the relatives do it for you?!!!
I was so frustrated throughout this drama I was about to give it 1 star but I bumped it to 6 for my guy getting a happy ending.
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This is the first weekend-family Korean drama I've watched! I've attempted to before, a couple times, but ended up concluding that they just weren't my thing. I don't exactly know what pushed me to try and watch this one, I think I saw a comment here on MDL, on the upcoming "Once Again" drama, criticizing this one and curiosity got the best of me, though I'm glad it did. Now I think I understand what the appeal is: you get really attached to the characters (regardless how one-dimensional they can get), their stories and their growth. Though nothing especially interesting happens, just watching their journey becomes enjoyable and pleasing. It gives you a nice feeling of familiarity every time you play a new episode. Also every plot line has interesting aspects so when one becomes momentarily uninteresting the other makes up for it and viceversa.
In any case, with all the previous weekend family dramas I tried (not many though) I never got this attached or cared for the characters this much, so this one must have something special. Maybe how likeable most of the characters are or become eventually. When it ended I surprisingly found myself feeling a little nostalgic and sad.
Story - 8.0 - The plot is far from original or fast paced, besides I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that a weekend 100 episode drama didn't drag the plot, sometimes some scenes where unjustifiably long and some situations repeated one or two many times. Therefore I skimmed parts (yeah I'm a skim watcher). Nonetheless the characters, story and its end are heartwarming and worth the watch.
I, unexpectedly, really enjoyed Cheong Ah's character and I think she is what makes this drama good. At first I thought she would be your typical Mary Sue but no, she was nice and warm-hearted without being a pushover, and she was forward with her feelings without being too clingy. She wasn't a perfect character and sometimes she made choices I didn't agree with or annoyed me, but she was relatable and I liked her mentality and recilience.
Although for me the best character was Kang Shi Wol, I enjoyed all of his appearances and I wish he had been more relevant to the plot (got major SLS with him but I still liked the OTP).
Cast/Acting - 9.0 - I loved Seol In Ah and Yoon Park though IMO Lee Tae Sun stole the show (rated it a 9 for introducing me to him). Everybody loves Kim Jae Young and I think he has lots of potential but he's still a little wooden/stiff for my taste. Everyone adored Oh Min Suk's acting on this one, and I enjoyed him but I don't think he was as outstanding as I've seen people claim. Everyone else was okay (with some exceptions here and there).
Music - 6.5 -Music wise it wasn't memorable enough for me to even recall the songs, but at least as far as I remember it wasn't distracting or annoying.
Rewatch Value - 7.0 - I mean it's a family very long drama so I probably won't rewatch but I don't rule out visiting some scenes in the future.
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This is a good drama. No doubt about it. Was it heavy? Yes. Was it enjoyable? Well, better than I expected. Though I do think that there were a few things that I didn't really agree with the drama. This review will have some spoilers but not big ones. Though I do recommend you to watch it first or after you decided to drop it because those 100 episodes were quite worth it.// STORY //
I personally liked the story. It touched a quite sensitive subject which is suicide, bullying and cheating/affairs. At the start I really wanted to kinda just drop the drama as to how unfair it was for Kim Cheong Ah as she was suffering so much and the people around her weren't able to understand how she felt, that really made me feel mad towards those around her and sympathetic for her. I really liked how the drama progressed and you could really see how these characters managed to change overtime. Though a genre that I quite disliked is the comedy. I was able to finish this drama in three days because I skipped most of the comnedy skits as i felt like it was quite a ruin to the mood of intensity that the main plot gave off. There were times where the drama made me laugh but I still skipped most of it because I wanted to know what will happen in the main story. The romance for this drama is quite good. I loved i and it was better than my expectations. Seol In Ah was really good at playing her character as she has a very innocent looking face. The drama kept it's intense feeling from the start towards the end. So for the story I think it was made real good and was executed real greatly. (7/10)
// ACTING/CAST //
I can't really say much for the acting and cast as nothing really stood out of the ordinary for me. I think the cast acted out their characters real good and there weren't anything that they lacked, at least from what I noticed. I do think that they chose the main roles nicely as they all seemed perfect for their roles. (8/10)
// MUSIC //
Again there is really not much to comment about the music as non of them stood out for me. Non of the music they chose felt off in each situation either so it ain't bad or outstandingly good either. (7/10)
// REWATCH VALUE//
I probably won't rewatch the drama but I might take some time to look at the romance and comedy as I skipped most of the comedy and enjoyed the romance. (6/10)
// OVERALL //
I would recommend this drama if you want to watch something quite heavy but also enjoy some comedy in it as I believe the producers and director wanted something to kind of cool off from the heavy plot. I wasn't into the idea as much because the heavy plot made me mad lots of times and having that random bit of comedy kinda threw me off a little. So I would rate this drama quite well and better than I expected. Should you watch it? Of course! (7.5/10)
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Poster as well as title doesn't justified the story
First by looking the poster I thought Yoon Park is second lead and in whole drama I was waiting for second leads love story to start and this is not happen so I am disappointed with the ending . Secondly Oh Min Suk as do jin who is second famale lead husband or ex husband ,cheated his wife and frankly he told that he was tired from her but after accident he realised how much he loves his wife and continue to pursue her till her heart not melt so this part I didn't understand and at second side she should never allowed him to come near her as he cheated on her but she always had softer corner for him . Both knew the reality of their relationship that she wanted money that's why she married to a rich man and he thought one day she fall for him in this way they spent 9 years and then he tired form her and had external martial affair . So how one can forget this . Thirdly after one year of the accident ahe felt nothing when he came closed to her but her heart felt something when Yoon park comes near to her and she said him that she like him and never said to her husband ,so all these thing strongly shows that she end up with Yoon Park but .....First leads are the best . Only second lead story is not justified . About tiltle . In whole drama everybody had a pain of the past because they were unhappy from inside but showed some happiness . Everybody is going to through fire of attonment though some of them had not done anything wrong so there was no wonderful life but yes there is beautiful love and my favourite scene is when first male lead wore her rings inbeach finger of her .
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This drama is extremely slow but in the best way, it takes its time rather than dragging anything out and to my surprise I've found they're actually giving us some subtle yet brilliant character development and growth. All their characters - bar one - are not solely perfect or evil, they are real and that's so fun to watch. Admittedly Chung Ah is who I come back for again and again, whether it be her sweet relationship with her best friend, her up and down relationship with her sister, her strained relationship with her father or the beginnings of love with a man who swears he will never date or marry. Seol In Ah is a fantastic actor and having only seen her in Strong Woman, I'm so pleasantly surprised by how well shes managed to carry this drama for me. She plays such a brilliant character and although at the beginning of this drama she was who I watched it for, I am now finding I'm starting to like characters and look forward to seeing characters who I swore I would hate for the entirety of this drama.
Anyway as someone who has never finished a show with over 25 episodes in it (Korean, English, american or otherwise), I know that I will be finishing all 100 episodes of this drama and that makes it pretty good in my books.
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Such bs and disservice to a woman who was cheated on
Started off strong but got sick of it due to very unlikeable characters. I was completely done with this drama once it was clear that they were going in the direction of Seol-ah and the cheating asshole reconciling instead of her and the nice chef getting together grrr. Like what kind of precedent does that establish??? He literally shamelessly cheated on her and let his mother treat her like trash??? Like there is no way that can be redeemable in any way, no matter how much you try to sugarcoat all the shit that happened. And it’s even worse considering how Seol-ah was characterised (at least initially, idk about the later episodes) that I find it hard to believe that she would take back his lame sorry ass??? I'm still so upset at the lost potential. The chef literally made her a better person. I can't help but yell out misogyny because it is so ridiculous. Totally thought this was going to be another weekend drama that I could enjoy and be a nice simple watch but was thrown this bullshit curveball. I know weekend dramas tend to sometimes be unrealistic and bizarre but never this much.Was this review helpful to you?
I hate trailers that spoil anything about the story. But the trailer that I saw only contained what emotions will be there. After watching the teaser trailer ver 2, I couldn't wait.
I started watching it mainly for the parents cast (this isn’t like me, but the performance of those ‘parents’ from other dramas really grabbed my attention) after I saw the trailer and the poster I got this excitement I used to have when I blindly went to watch dramas based on curiosity. I don’t watch ongoing dramas the wait is hard… so I had to wait for almost half of the drama to air.
Just like there is no all-good person in the world, there's no all-bad person either. There is always more than one side. This drama shows some ridiculous acts but justifies how each person feels. It goes very slowly, it is a drams that you might want to pursue, cherish and admire for a longer time. You feel many things watching it. It explores everything in detail not leaving anything out. it makes you cry, laugh, smile, get excited along with them, and sympathize. But you need patience and an open mind to thoroughly enjoy everything about it. Because it is not a shot-like drama or story where the succession of events is fast and you can see progress quickly. In fact, everything goes at a natural pace and everything comes out when it is time.
살짝 is enough sometimes when the alternative is nothing at all. (Kim Cheong Ah's influence ;) )
and I definitely cried a LOT during the first half (quarter).
What I have come to love in long family dramas is that they focus on many things that help us get to know how the characters live, feel etc and not only focus on a defined plot. Although it gets prolonged but it means to engage us with the characters so it always feels better after watching a long drama because you got to know your favourite character better and understand their feelings.
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truth becomes warped, life also becomes warped.
Storyline and dialogue are really connected to real life. Although they lied to her kid's suicide, the relationship also became not so good. I crossed only 27 episodes and every episode has a heart touching message telling how to live a life with no worries. After completing all 100 episodes, I'll come up with a conclusion what happened after 100th episode, but one thing I disliked the most is Kim Seol Ah's mother-in-law behaviour, she is always obsessed with everything and framing her own daughter-in-law in every situation.Was this review helpful to you?
The storyline is somewhat different from others. The domino effect of two families was destined in this story. I’m so glad the writers brought attention to suicide prevention and how it is important to see the red flags. The suicide rate in South Korea is #4 Worldwide. I know 100 episodes is a long watch, but the story had to be told.
Thanking the team who worked hard in making and telling the story of Beautiful Love Wonderful life.
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