I loved the casts they all fit the characters that they played in this drama. It's not really so romantic.. It's about LIFE, YOUNG LOVE, I'd say. Learning how to forgive and face the world. I really love both main lead actors. They really fit together.
Although, at first I didn't like it because it seemed boring but as you go through all episodes It'll be interesting.
For me, It's a MUST WATCH drama :))
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It has a great story line that will get you hooked every single episode, the story was very entertaining and never fail me to think what will happen next.
As well as the actors, Park Shin Hye did a great job in this series, her acting has improved so much and her transition for her image from cute, jolly Lee Gyu Won--to gloomy, sad Go Dok Mi is truly remarkable! The same as Yoon Shi Yoon (we all know that he's a great!) He's really a versatile actor he can do melodrama and now comedy. He deserves a great praise with this drama. The other cast were great too, you'll definitely remember them because each character is portrayed amazingly.
And for the music, people say that this drama lacks music. Well for me, I really don't think so. I think the music really math the mood of every scene and no to mention Park Shin Hye sang also one of the OST, which she always did every drama so i think it is a great OST too.
I'm watching this drama for the 2nd time, and i think you'll rewatch it again not just because of the great characters ad great acting but the story has a lot of lessons about life.
I recommend this to all! It's a must watch and definitely one of the best dramas in 2013!
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Overall,the drama has done excellent due to the cast. Even though the story is somewhat fussy, what makes you watch till the last episode is the acting and the comedy! Yoon Shi Yoon has done an incredible job by feeling his character and portraying it amazingly.The "Ajumma!!!" call out was a bliss! His acting is the best part. The second lead is quite good too doing all the serious and comedy scene side by side. Dong Hoon, is tall with right amount of height and style statement. And well Watanabe Sir is a great cook by which people in the neighborhood got along.
Coming to Park Shin Hye, I have always liked her. Apart from her child actor roles, she's been doing this cheerful roles but in this she comes out very differently by acting like a girl who is traumatized by her past and is scared to face the world. Doing the right amount of actions, the actress surely challenges her profession.
The comical acting of the cast makes this serial light and fun loving. Atleast watch it once. Because its medium. Not that serious, not that funny. Just medium, meaning a safe journey.
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it's light & lovely & gives you joy in every moment watching
has no over doses of anything , no over reactions or complicated & twisted story line
simply about how can love changes a person , not making him\her a completely different person but about how can love making the wrong things in you changes to better , how can love make you really open to the world.
the scores tell what I think of cast & story , but I have to say I really loved the music it was as soft as touching as it should ever be , & really lifted the scenes up , but I'm just not a person who can watch the same thing twice
this is true romance and true comedy & you wont feel any stupidity or regretting watching it at any point.
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Just watched the ending and I will surely miss this drama..
One thing I really love is the soundtracks... they really fit the scenes that they were played..
The story itself was amazing and somewhat diff from your typical drama.. In the beginning things may seem predictable but it totally went to a diff direction than I thought it would..
In many parts of the drama I keep wondering who will she end up with?? Just when you think you are right .. BAM~! something happens and then your like " OK I have no ides who she's gonna end up now" ..
Que-Geum's personality really rubbed off on me and I usually find myself acting like him.. (jumping up and down and running around like a kid) ...
At the end of every episode it just makes you want to keep watching.. to know what will happen next.. if your predictions are right or wrong..
Shed quite a lot of tears than usual.. (IDK.. maybe its just me...) and ran around the house several times when something big happens..
Overall this Drama goes into my Top Fave List~!!!
(I wish I meet a man like Que-geum someday.. )
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This review may contain spoilers
I'll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum in my review.A detour before the actual review cause this has been stuck in my head for a while: As a whole, FLOWER BOY NEXT DOOR is phenomenal. It truly is of its time, I don't think it could have been made at any other point, from the aesthetics to the casting and tone. The early 10s (really any time before 2015) was a weird time for Korean dramas, at least stylistically. From the early to late aughts (07/08) melodramas were all the rage, so many dramas during this time were melodramas or melodrama-lite. This is not to say that there weren't any silly or cutesy dramas, they just tended to be less popular or not as critically successful; they tended to be backed less and associated with pre-teen/teenaged girls, who, as an audience, weren't taken that seriously. The dramas that did get made tended to bet on I'm-in-a-boy-band actors, who may be chosen for their looks or potential monetary popularity over their ability to act or suitability and chemistry in their role (this isn't just for dramas directed for teens during this time, but I don't want to do more research and work so let's move on), and who, most likely, didn't hold any prestige (this doesn't mean that they can't be successes, but the companies didn't necessarily care about the quality of the content so larger budgets tended to be allocated elsewhere). (Think of dramas like YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL or GOONG, things primarily targeted at a younger audience that have an extremely different aesthetic from something like A LOVE TO KILL or QUE SERA SERA.) This was the model until a little drama called BOYS OVER FLOWERS came out. I cannot stress enough how much of a surprise knockout hit BOF was, and then everything attempted to be BOF 2.0. It, for better or worse (I personally think worse), changed the way, for a period of time, dramas were made, from the tone to the overall aesthetic and editing of dramas, it even changed what were popular forms of acting styles. Corny dramas have always existed but BOYS OVER FLOWERS is in a category all of its own. Its influence can be seen in an earlier Flower Boy installment, FLOWER BOY RAMEN SHOP (can we all think about how insane this drama was for a moment). By the time FLOWER BOY NEXT DOOR came out (2013) the style popularized by BOF was starting to die down, though you still remnants in various facets of FBND, especially through the occasionally weird tone shift of straight melodrama that was slowly coming back (though in a different form) and the extremely goofy comedy popularized by BOF. So what I'm saying is that this drama is BOYS OVER FLOWERS impact.
Story: As I explained before, due to the tone shifts in FLOWER BOY NEXT DOOR from extreme comedy to intense drama, at times to the detriment to the show as a whole, lead to some of the less good parts of FBND. While I agree that some of the plotlines are 100% unnecessary, a number of the plotlines, even the ones I particularly hate involving the worst character on the show, add to the story the show is telling. This is the story of an extremely damaged woman, Go Dok Mi, who pushes the world away as a means of protecting herself and her learning how to heal and exist in a world that will inevitably hurt you through the help of her manic pixie dream boy neighbor and immediate best friend, Enrique. The drama adds to the tension and creates a contrast to the ridiculous comedy, going from the almost naive beliefs of not just Enrique but also Go Dok Mi herself, and even some of the other side characters, to the stark reality of their lives. This story is one of my favorites of all the dramas made during this post-BOF craze, and I personally think that it did the bubbly, eccentric aesthetic that was popular post-BOF the best.
Acting/Casting: FBND’s casting is phenomenal, it must be said. There is not an off choice in the main cast, even the side characters are well cast. I’ll go through the important cast members and work up to the main leads: First up, Park Soo Jin as Cha Do Hwi, the female lead’s ex-best friend and bully. Park Soo Jin was perfect for this role; not only did she portray this character as a genuinely not nice person but also as a complex person who has many, many flaws. You never necessarily feel like she’s a decent person but you do feel pity for her and how she became who she is in the show, trading her best friend for hollow happiness that did not last, desperately clinging onto the popularity she had in high school, It’s a shame that Park Soo Jin retired after 2013, I truly think she is an amazing actress and would have been the perfect villain-heroine lead. Go Kyung Po as Oh Dong Hoon is phenomenal in comedy and subtlety, which would eventually lead to him getting a slew of leading roles from 2015-2017. While he is great, let’s talk about the second half of his comedic duo on this show. Kim Seul Gi as the deputy manager. Can we talk? In one word: iconic. In many words: one of the best comedic performances of 2013. She steals the show; it is absolutely disgusting that she has not been offered the leading role in a rom-com yet. Kim Ji Hoon portrays Oh Jin Rak, the worst character on the show (like as a character, intentionally, not acting-wise). Even when I first watched FBND back when it originally aired his character did not appeal to me, the way his character acts and thinks, especially in comparison to the male lead, is repulsive. In part, this is intentional within the story, comparing him to Enrique, Oh Jin Rak is obsessive and possessive of Gok Dok Mi, not seeing her as a complex person but rather as a blank canvas to paint all of his fantasies onto. Let’s move on to the main leads - first up, Yoon Shi Yoon as Enrique Geum, the charismatic, silly game developer. This is a career highlight for Yoon Shi Yoon, he is so amazing in this drama, it shows how talented an actor he is. Listen, most actors would have not been able to pull off this level of comedy and still make it seem like you want them to be your boyfriend, but Yoon Shi Yoon was able to pull it off. Finally, Park Shin Hye as Go Dok Mi. There was no way this role would have been a bad career choice for her, it is meaty and makes her seem relatable. The year this came out, 2013, was also a career highpoint for her, as this is the year she also starred as a lead in HEIRS. I personally think it is a travesty that her work in this is overlooked for HEIRS, she plays a traumatized, anxious, bitter woman with such skill and it makes sense why she continually gets lead roles in dramas when you see her in this.
Music: This drama is an example of how music and sound design/editing can enhance the quality and experience of a drama. I wish I had a rant for this section, but when it’s good, it’s good.
Rewatch Value: Yes! 100% percent. Every time I rewatch it, I come away with something new; it is always engaging for me. (Keep in mind I'm biased, but this drama is genuinely fun so give it a try.)
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Above all, I connected with Park Shin Hye's character the most, even if I'm not a big fan of the actress. She did a pretty good job either way. And I appreciate that she is a little different from many female characters we usually see in k-dramas.
What can I say about Yoon Si Yoon? I had never seen anything from him even though I had read lots of praising about his work. And such deserved praising I must say. His acting style -even his physique, somewhat- remind me a lot of Lee Joon Gi's: he can go from adorably goofy in funny scenes to intensely dramatic in melo. His Enrique Geum should be a classic drama character, even if I cringed and felt second hand embarrassment everytime he tried to speak Spanish (Spanish is my second language).
The actors in supporting roles where also great, especially Kim Ji Hoon and Kim Seul Gi. However Watanabe's story felt like something just to fill up. His character doesn't add much to the plot and is a little stereotyped.
Likewise, Park Soo Jin is really good at playing bitchy characters, but I feel sorry for her because it seems that she's only offered this type of roles. Besides, I really hate this cliché character in dramas.
Anyway, she was funny in this, at least at the beginning.
But what I enjoyed the most were the dialogues between the OTP, which really helped building up the characters, their relationship and also the one with the second male lead.
All in all, I really enjoyed this, even though I'm sad because I feel it's a little underrated.
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Story: At first, I found Dok Mi to be overly sensitive. She locked herself up just because Do Hwi abandoned her. I expected my views of her to change over time, but that never really happened. The story only briefly mentions how Dok Mi's family abandoned her, but it never goes into specifics. I felt that after episode 12, the show could have dealt with her family instead of the overused go abroad arc. That way, I could have sympathized with her some more.
Acting: Yoon Shi Yoon and Kim Ji Hoon were pretty awesome in their roles. Enrique appeared to be a really hard character to play, but Yoon pulled it off without making Enrique seem too unrealistic and annoying. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of characters like Enrique because actors can't really pull them off that well. The actors make the character too annoying or too hyper, so it was nice to see what a character like that was supposed to be like. Jin Rak was that type of guy we all want but can never find, but his love wasn't as perfect as we'd like to believe. He was in love with the *idea* of Dok Mi- the perfect, innocent girl he thought her to be, not who she really was. Kim Ji Hoon was really good at portraying all the different emotions Jin Rak faced through his journey of learning about love. Kim Seul Gi and Go Kyung Pyo were adorable and well matched, Kouki Mizuta wasn't particularly amazing in delivering his lines (they felt forced at times), but he was good. Park Shin Hye is a difficult actress to rate because she fulfills expectations, but she doesn't really go beyond them. She's not particularly good when it comes to the more romantic aspects of dramas, and at times you could tell that she was forcing herself. She's one of those actresses who you don't really see as having a life outside of acting, and you don't really get a feel for what sort of person she is. In a way, that made it easier for her to play Dok Mi.
Music: The music was nice, but it wasn't amazing- to me, at least. It was kind of like something you would expect from a drama like this. Cute, a bit unoriginal, but kind of forgettable.
Rewatch Value: I don't exactly see myself rewatching this in the enar future. I might, but at the same time I don't think I will.
Overall: The story drags on in the last quarter, but the rest of this drama is pitch perfect. It's filled with interesting characters and is beautifully directed.
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