Backstreet Rookie

Lots of misunderstanding

Well, this drama is little good overall, but compairing to other Ji Chang Wook's work's it may be low. I did not get hooked on as the drama as it continues. In the first episode you get to know the flow of drama, like when will drama end. The second female lead is little annoying. It is written in the summary that Jung Saet Byul has the boys lined up, but except Kang Ji Wook no other boy is interested in her rather lot of boys are scared of her. The romance between Jung Saet Byul and Choi Dae Hyun is very slow at start but as soon as Choi Dae Hyun breaks up with his girlfriend it jumps to direct Choi Dae Hyun confessing to Jung Saet Byul in 2-3 episodes. Jung Saet Byul is shown crying often.
Overall, its slow burn romance with lot of complications and misunderstandings.

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I have very mixed feelings about this drama. I initially started to watch the show because I love Kim Yoo Jung in Clean with a Passion. She's only 22 and yet she acts so well and beyond her age. I will watch anything she is in. I'm a fan of Ji Chang Wook, but his dramas are hits or miss with me. I know there is a 12 year age difference, but I kind of wished they got a cast a touch closer in age.

1.) I didn't like the comedy aspect of the show. I felt like it's very angsty driven / miscommunication driven / tension filled comedy. You have the typical annoying family, the lazy bum best friend and main lead chasing after the annoying ex. There really wasn't anything making me hold on to the show. I need "cute" scenes.

2.) I didn't like the pacing of the show. There was a lot of tension between the two leads and like the other reviewers commented it's awhile before they both see each other romantically. It's a one-sided crush for a LONG time. I couldn't stand that.

3.) A few reviews touch on this, but some don't and I think it's worth mentioning. As an American, I let a lot of things slide because it's a difference in culture. Like when I watch a C drama and they nick name one of their characters "fatty". Okay I get it in a C drama, but that would not fly in American. We are touchy like that.

So the racist undertones in the drama is a little uncomfortable. I should explain that I am Asian - American, so I understand cultural differences, but this is 2021 people. I'm not watching a Kdrama from 20 years ago. I was really surprised they had a Korean actor with dredge locks and displayed as someone who is "dirty" and doesn't bathe. It added no value to the drama and it also acted as a "comedy" filler.

Don't write a character to fill in a time spot in a drama. It needs to have value and heart. That's my two cents on the subject.

4.) This is a minor spoiler, but they didn't even kiss. I can't stand that in dramas. It's just as bad when C dramas do a fake kissing. What's the point in watching a rom com if I can't even get a slight peck on the lips?

I like to see more rom coms where the writing is based on mutual respect and kindness. You don't always have to make people annoying and mean to make "tension". There are clever ways to add tension and in a non-annoying and non-racist way. (like I said, that's my two cents)

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not the worst, but not the best

i found the 'romance' scenes to be cute. although the age difference does seem a bit odd to me, im not too sure. its not the worst romance drama out there. this drama does have problematic scenes and stuff to it, like others have said. it was good in the beginning and then dragged on by the end. i would say this drama was meh, i had higher hopes for it in terms of romance scenes compared to everything else.

the way the last episode ended, wasn't enough in my opinion. maybe theres another season coming?? i hope?? because it felt like there was more to come or to see, like there was another episode to watch. i wouldn't personally rewatch this just for the purpose and reasoning that it bored me a bit in the middle of the season. but definitely not the worse drama ever.

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I watched this to see Kim Yoojung noona, I fell in love with her after I see her in Young Actors' Retreat.

What comes to my mind after finished it is this drama should've been less than 10 episodes, because after 2nd or 3rd episode which was very funny, after that it's tripped and becoming all draggy, at least till 10th or 11th episode because that's when the story started to get a bit better and give all kinds of feeling like emotional, heartwarming, sweet, etc. the problem was just kinda rushed when approaching the end.

I gotta say, I enjoyed this, I get what I want to see, Kim Yoojung noona really delivers, but also this drama can't be taken seriously, the material they had is undercooked, that's why despite the great thing I said & they did a bit well at some point, they still ended up with many pointless episodes, the leads should've been in a better show.

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I love it

Like the headline already states, I loved it. It was funny and overall just everything I was looking for in a Kdrama. Even the little ‘crazy crazy’ between scenes they’d play was stuck in my mind long after I’ve already finished the show, and I still miss it. The main couple was cute and the other characters were just as interesting. I don’t think there was a single episode where I got bored. It wasn’t just a single story unfolding, it was so complex, the main couple wasn’t together at the start, the ML had a gf, the parents of the ML were constantly bickering, the Female Lead’s background story was just as interesting, and her sister’s story was too.

I’ve seen a lot of people complain about Daeksil and that he was portrayed as dirty because of his ethnicity, but honestly I think they weren’t calling his ethnicity dirty, they were calling webtoon artists dirty, which is a stereotype that has always existed even for manga artists etc.. Atleast I thought it was like that and it makes more sense to me personally. Some people found it problematic that the FL was only 17(?) when she kissed ML (18+?), and honestly I can’t comment on that I didn’t really focus on that so I don’t know how old they were, but FL iniated the first kiss, so ML wasn’t a pedo for that. Some say she sexually assaulted him by kissing him without consent, which is understandable, but in the end it’s the person that was kissed that can decide how they feel about it, and the kdrama made it work because it’s a comedy. This doesn’t mean you should go around kissing people without consent, god no, it’s a comedy, everyone already knows not to go around kissing people without having consent and that’s why I feel like it’s not that big of a bummer that it happened in the kdrama (it’s a serious offence in real life, don’t go around kissing people without asking!!!). Atleast it’s not enough of a bummer not to watch it.

I watched the kdrama partially while my father was in the hospital and I thought I was deadly ill (which I wasn’t, hypochondria(fear of illness)), but it got me through that time and took my mind off the world for a long while. It holds a special place in my heart and I have recommended it to friends. it’s overall a great kdrama, I love it so so much. I’d recommend it 100%, I think I’d even go as far as to say it’s my favourite K-drama.

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super light kdrama with cute couple

I just watched the last episode of backstreet rookie, and I really liked the kdrama. Honestly, it's a thousand times better than I thought it would be, despite all the negative comments. It's one of those light and funny kdramas with a cute couple. I really enjoyed it.

At first, I didn't like the male lead character, but as the kdrama progressed, I started to like him. And let's not forget about the female lead character, she's so adorable, I really liked her a lot.


I really loved the mother of the male lead character, even though she's toxic with her husband( and here, she's awful), she's amazing with the female lead character. And the supporting couple is good too, they're that cringe-worthy couple that's actually enjoyable."

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Definitely more innocent than the source material

I had heard such mixed reviews on this show that I wasn't sure if I wanted to watch it, but I finally decided to give it a go. It was much better than the bad reviews said - not perfect by any means, but it was fairly enjoyable. I looked up the source material, and I will say that it was definitely more innocent. I'm not sure what all the deviations were because I only looked at the first episode of the manga (which is very NSFW! Just a warning!) I know some people found the age gap "problematic" (I'm really starting to hate the over-use of that word. LOL!) but the show was pretty PG so that didn't really bother me. Backstreet Rookie is a simple love story set in a convenience store for the majority of the drama. There were some manga-like moments also that reminded me a bit of some things from Strong Woman Do Bong Soon. Saet Byul falls for Dae Hyun at first sight while she's still in high school when he's just been dumped by his girlfriend. They don't see each other again for 3 years, when she's 22 - no longer a minor. DH is in a very one-sided relationship with a rich girl that takes advantage of his naivety and good heart. SB has her own issues, having to leave school to finish raising her sister after their dad dies. She answers DH's ad for a part-time worker and they gradually become closer as they work together. There's not a really heavy plot, and it's just some cute bit of fluff. Watch it if you want something not too taxing on the brain! :)

Kim Yoo Jung as Saet Byul was super freaking adorable! Such a sunshine-y character that she made me smile every time she was on screen - she really was the one to give this show life. Ji Chang Wook was kind of under-whelming as Dae Hyun, but I suspect that it was because his character was such a mild mannered, nice guy that made it seem that way. *shrug* I also have to say that I really don't care for Han Sun Hwa (playing Yeon Joo). This is the third (at least) show I've watched her in and she always ends up playing the most annoying characters that I've developed a distaste for her. Kim Sun Young as Dae Hyun's mother, Boon Hee, has her stereotypical loudness that I've come to expect from her. I liked her character over-all, but I really wish she would tone down the yelling a bit in her dramas. She's a great actress and doesn't need to resort to such cheap tactics. I still thought her character was warm, loving, and genuine underneath all the bluster.

I enjoyed the music, but nothing stood out as really special either. It was good though.

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A Decent drama not a binge watch Rom-Com

This drama is not a bad one as comments on the page state. It's like okay! I felt like it dragged too much like some episodes really felt like filler and the story not moving around and stuck at the same point. I expected a lot of humor, comedy, and a decent amount of romance . But, None of them are present in the drama. The acting was good. It's like the screenplay is underdeveloped, with not much plot . They just dragged because they want to reach the 16 episode mark. So final remarks are Just a time-passing drama and didn't have any memorable moments or funny ones and don't have the rewatch value. Don't expect too much from this just watch without any expectation it will be a good time-passing drama. That's it!

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I only beared to watch it for Ji Changwook and Kim Yoojung

Last year I said I won't watch this kdrama, because I saw all the controversies and I was indeed dissapointed. I LOOOOVE Ji Changwook, he's the reason I started watching kdramas and I have watched almost all his works, but I said I won't watch this one. However I changed my mind after reading some reviews here and not on twitter and I said I will watch the first episodes and if it's too much to handle I will drop it. But then I finished it...

I will start by saying it is indeed problematic, actually that one character doing blackface/ blackfishing and perpetuating negative and wrong stereotypes about black people is unacceptable and has ruined the whole drama.
About the controversy with the kiss of a minor to an adult and asking for cigarettes, I don't see it as big as the blackface because such kisses exist in other kdramas too, in western dramas etc. So if they have put a 19+ rating (because it has sexual refferences in some episodes) and not 15+ it would have been better.

Overall I enjoyed the story of the main leads and the family and nothing else, most side characters annoyed me a lot, the problematic guy would have been annoying even without the doing blackface, the sister of the male lead was extra annoying as well and didn't actually give much to the story. So my rating of 7.5 is only for the main leads and for the nice message that you can find happiness without doing a fancy job and marrying someone rich.

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Less Romance between main couple

Just given 10 stars because of KYJ otherwise its a total timewaste as there is less of romance between main couple and story revolves around Yeon Ju mostly,Dal Sik and other characters first time I am seeing in a series that main couple's screen time is less than other characters. I was waiting every time that they will date each other but they don't do.I was also waiting that she will tell him why she left the job first time(around 7th episode) and after that he will hate yeon ju and they both will date but story is so boring that they didn't even kiss till the last of the series.

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