Snowdrop

Highly Recommended

If this drama continues to be this interesting until the end, I will definitely add it to my very short list of favorite kdramas of all time, which includes D.P., My Mister, Prison Playbook, Reply 1988 and Misaeng: Incomplete Life.

So far, the story is very interesting and every episode leaves me hanging and wanting for more. All the actors are amazing. Blackpink Jisoo is doing a great job for a rookie actress. Tbh, I didn't expect much from her since this is her first lead role and only had cameos in her acting resume. But I did find her acting to be very natural. Jung Haein is phenomenal, as always! I can see why he was cast as Im Sooho: he has the duality of being charming and innocent-looking one moment, and then turning cold and ruthless the next. I love that he is getting roles that show his range and versatility. He is an actor who can convey a myriad of emotions through his eyes.

I'm aware of the controversy surrounding the drama but I hope people will give it a watch and then judge for yourselves if the allegations are true. So far, I didn't see any glorification of North Korea, the regime at the time and the ANSP. They're clearly the bad guys here.

I hope it doesn't get cancelled as it's a compelling drama. The story is very interesting, and with its many twists and turns, you really have no clue which way it will go. The production is top-tier. The cinematography is outstanding. The OST is beautiful. I highly recommend it!

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Not one to miss out on

I personally did not expect a lot from this drama and to be honest I was hesitant to watch this drama considering the fog of controversies this drama was surrounded by. I totally understand the sensitivities of the South Korean citizens and can see how problematic and insensitive this drama might come off for those that lived through this period of time however for what it's worth when it is viewed from an unbiased point this drama is absolutely edge-of-the-seat riveting.

I cannot even imagine the amount of thought and effort that the whole team would have put into creating this drama. We're in the 8th episode and I still have no idea where the story is going. The way the drama is unfolding is a perfect example of clever storytelling. I think we're still too early to pass on whether the plot is a success or not but it has got me thinking about it more than I want to.

In terms of acting, Jung Hae-in stole my heart since he had side character roles and he is the king of melodramas so to see him take up challenging roles like in D.P. and Snowdrop fills me with pride. I see this guy and think "he's one to look out for." He rose up my list so fast so it's fair to say that 90 percent of the reason I am watching this is for him lol.

Now, I read a lot of comments on the net saying Jisoo needs to improve her acting but I can assure y'all that Jisoo has done a stellar job so far so if you're afraid of being disappointed by her don't be because she has done amazing. This isn't to say that she's delivered a performance that is at a veteran level, don't get me wrong but for a rookie actor (literally her first drama) she's done absolutely amazing.
At times her expressions are a little stiff and in terms of micro-expressions and body language she could do better but I'm proud of her for taking up such a difficult role and giving her all.

All in all, the casting is perfect. Shoutout to Kim Hye-yoon and Kim Min-kyu for being so freaking good at portraying their characters.

The OSTs
The intro is so soothing (unlike the drama itself damnit). The track list so far is good. There isn't any I'm particularly obsessed with presently but the soundtrack is really good. Jehwi, one of my favourites, did absolutely amazing as always.

Re-watch value
I cant help but go back and re-watch clips of the drama but maybe that's because I have to compensate for waiting for each episode so for now, a 10.

Overall
Don't skip it. DO NOT. It's so good trust me.

Also R.I.P Kim Mi-soo. you will be remembered and I hope you are at peace now.

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Good acting earns extraaa stars for this drama.

7 episodes have been released till now. I write this as I wait for the next episode to air.
(Might be too soon to comment but I am boreeeddd.)
So far, the drama has been engaging. I wouldn't say it is a great drama but it has been good. The premise of the drama is the good old "falling for the forbidden" trope. However, the story has been different. The actions and mentality of people when faced with difficult situations has been written and portrayed well. The genre of drama is romance and melo, do not expect thrill, which is a mistake I did, lol. I expected some thrill in tense moments and twists. And though there are plot twists, they are not presented in a thrilling way rather in a realistic way. You will like it if you like realistic narration of story. I personally love dRaMaaaa :D
The director has done a good job of making me both love and hate Im Sooho's character. Jung Haein is stunning as usual. I personally love him in negative roles and that was the major reason for starting this drama. His cold, death stares add bonus stars to this drama. You see, I didn't have enough of him as the bad guy in Prison Playbook.
Queen Jisoo portrays the innocence of Yeong-ro with ease. I really really hope she does more dramas. She can carry the idol-actor status as perfectly as IU, Yoona and Suzy do.
The politicians and their wives are all hateful and played to perfection by the veterans.
Yoo In-na is as beautiful as ever. Kim Hye yoon is very convincing as Boon-ok who is annoying and rude but also, pitiful (think Ye-seo from Sky Castle). Jang Seung-jo is "The Good Detective" (hehe, pun intended). All other side characters have been cast perfectly, from Jisoo's roommates to hall director Pi to even the security guy at the dorm. Also, I was happy to see Kim Min-kyu. ;)
Cinematography and set design are amazing as usual.
Overall, it is a one time watch. Although I am sure I'll keep coming back to watch fmvs of Soo-ho and Yeong-ro.

PS : The controversy surrounding the drama is not something an international fan can comment on. That is a topic for Koreans.

Rest in peace, Kim Misoo.

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Best drama to end 2021 with love and warmth

It's really a very good drama to be watched with your friends and loved ones. you'll find all the gut filling vibes and with the most adorable leads and support. If you are into tragic drama and all that stuff this drama is a perfect one. So far very nice and decent story with unbelievable twits and turns
Do watch and return the love and support to the stars. The bonus part at the end just steels the whole show and makes heart flutter a lot.. The whole drama is full of extremely beautiful visuals .. hope you all like the drama . A perfect drama to be watched again and again

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Worth watching amidst the controversy

I think that while the set of the drama seems rather limited, I think that it was beautifully done up. I loved the aesthetics and the vibes of the setting and really liked the attention to detail. Each episode is brilliant in its own way and is also very exciting. I also think that the storyline is quite interesting, though I do understand that it is a distortion of history. I would like to make a disclaimer that I watched this drama solely as a fictional show.

Aside from the plot, I love the OSTs. I don't mind that some of them are in English and I think that they are brilliantly written and produced to suit the waltz/slow dancing vibes. However, while I am quite fond of slow-paced dramas, I don't think I can sit through 16 episodes of this again. I hoped to see more of other scenes that depict what it was like in South Korea in the 1980s to 1990s, as I did in other dramas, such as the Reply series, Signal, etc. Overall, I still really enjoyed the drama.

My deepest condolences to the friends and family of Kim Mi-soo.

In summary:
What i liked - set, concept, cast, story, OSTs
What i disliked - limited set (they've been at the school for way too long)

Star of the show: I don't think there was anyone who stood out in particular. I think everyone did a great job.

Rating: 9/10
Watch if you like the aesthetics of the 1980s/early 1990s and Jung Hae-in (and possibly if you're into Stockholm Syndrome)

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not bad, but definitely could have been better!

**edit at the bottom after finishing the whole drama; TLDR: haein is amazing, ending lacked very much and hence points degraded from a previous 10/10 to an 8.5**

loved the first 4 episodes a lot, they showed excellent potential for the story and the characters for the future. haein is an incredible actor and you can tell that from the very first scene, and although jisoo has her weaknesses, not bad for a first drama. the romance and the love story that snowdrop has been marketed for was beautiful, sweet, sad and melancholic, however i felt it took a backseat after the first four episodes. i understand that this was their attempt at exploring character dynamics and a painfully slowburn plot, however, i feel like when the screen wasnt on the two of them the love story wasnt there anymore. the plot itself is weak, and slow paced. slow paced plots are excellent if done well, however the weak plot made the episodes a bit monotonous and predictable. the chemistry of the characters and the 80s timeline, that whole potential felt wasted to a point, and i wish they could have done more with that.

people may disagree, saying they dont think the leads should end up together as the ML took wayy too much advantage of the fl, however, i think even though his redemption is in process and hes not quite there yet, he is very much redeemable and i dont hold anything against the fl for forgiving him. heck, mans trying his best, ill give him that. but the slow path to redemption, i personally enjoy. it gave his character realistic depth, he didnt turn a switch and went from god to bad, but is going through the slow process of unlearning learnt behaviours and asking for forgiveness. he is far from it, at this point in the story (epi 13) but hes getting there.

i think to better understand my review for SD, one can compare it with vagabond. vagabond sets the potential for this drama, SD had the potential to be fully action packed in a historical setting with a painfully slow burn romance that could be felt in every scene, whether the characters were there or not. however, i also wont be too critical of SD considering the mass havoc the knetz made in its production, the poor thing was ridden with unprecedented controversies that it very much did not deserve and i can understand and see the diligence with which the plot was written, so as not to offend any party while still making it enjoyable to the public. its a difficult thing, and i cut them some slack. the writers could have done better, but i understand their situation. its still a pretty good effort, and props to them to pull it off despite the controversies the knetz surrounded it by!

genuinely, despite all its flaws and loopholes, all in all, my fangirl heart enjoyed the drama thoroughly. the visuals, the music, the production was very nice. the ost was beautiful, sad, portrayed the characters angst and yearning really well. also im such a sucker for haein, i have to admit his character was more fleshed out by him and the nuances he portrayed rather than what the plot gave him. props to him as an actor, thoroughly enjoyed his performance. im also a sucker for not good not bad, morally grey male leads finding their way in a complicated world, so i genuinely enjoyed this. give this man more roles like these, he can definitely pull them off.

all in all, imperfect, but beautiful and enjoyable.

**EDIT** after finishing the series...
i was very seriously overlooking the flaws and loopholes of this drama in hopes for a fulfilling ending. i feel like the whole thing was pivoted to its ending, it really depended on how cleanly and beautifully they wrapped up the lose threads they oh so beautifully opened in the first 4 episodes, but alas. that wasnt the case, i dont mind tragic ends but this was just poorly done. no matter how much i think i cant excuse it.

all in all, i still loved it, but for much different reasons now: my guy Jung HaeIn carried the show on his beautiful, beautiful back. plotholes aside, i think JHI did an incredible job as SooHo and he deserves all the credit for this. Jisoo did well for her first project as well but my guy HaeIn really stole the show. watch if you want amazing acting on his end, truly incredible. Yoo InNa too in the end. wow.

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Right person, wrong timeline

Is the one sentence I'd use to describe this drama.

As always, I've been one of the last people to jump onto the trend and hype of this show and I have managed to pick this 3 years after the initial release. I was rather intrigued by the plot as I'm a big fan of historical depictions of the 80s and 90s - it's the nostalgia factor that always pulls me in. This was perfectly translated with the soft colours, music and the overall vibe of this show so the set directors and producers absolutely nailed it. Now addressing the elephant in the room Jisoo - I really didn't expect her to nail this role but my god she better start doing acting full time. Her performance was so captivating and full of emotions. Her eyes were truly windows to her soul, and the way she used them to communicate is something I find actors really struggling to do even after years of acting. That leads us to the chemistry between the Soo Hoo and Young Ro, which was a very intimate watch in the way that they also use body language to communicate. Everything was so delicate and pure between the two and felt like I was peeking into their love a little bit. So their story can only be described as 'right person, wrong timeline' to be.

Well, this will take me a while to recover from. Hoping that the leads can reunite in a different life.

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Don't fuckin watch this mind numbingly stupid romanticizing nazi character drama.

worst drama!

The writer literally lost her direction on the plot after ep 3. I get it that it's all fiction but at least make a hostage situation realistic. Captors letting go of the characters who broke their rules for numerous time, when they would have been shot to death in one go for even moving an inch in a realistic situation. They truly made a hostage situation a comedic situation through this drama. How can you still fcking love a man who put a gun against your head? Falling for a guy who is a terrorist? Romanticizing the captor and literally a figure like nazi? I mean I would have considered the "romance" in this drama but the two leads barely spent a quality time together that would have led a Romeo And Juliet like tale. No chemistry was shown at all through the story. The stupid romance plot was nothing but forced into the viewers' faces with no chemistry between the leads. One day the fl is beating the ml and cursing him for her brother's death and the next day she's kissing the ml who i remind you is a terrorist. Moreover, it looked like the fl was the only one falling for the ml since the beginning. The ml only wanted to return to his home country to his sister who was waiting for him on the other side without showing us he truly felt for the fl. Everything about the romance was only told but never shown.

Then we have dumb female lead who does nothing but create more problems and always wants to bandage people's wounds which is never a problem to the captors. The captors tell her to stay put, but she never listens and does her own will and the captors literally stays put without any action towards the fl. Like really? They give one warning , then says "it's the final warning" and it repeats till the final episode. I haven't seen 1 single hostage situation where captors are that forgiving and so kind. This whole drama is just dumb and has 0 level of intellect.

Oh and the politics? We all know by reading few articles about the ANSP at the time were dangerous, cruel just bloody. But this drama shows us the ANSP people and other politicians are nothing but clowns. Big fat dumbasses who does nothing but fight amongst themselves like toddlers. Childish i must say. Just save yourselves 17 hours of your precious time and skip this whole ass stupid drama and protect yourselves from losing brain.

Also, the revealing of the "suspense" was so rushed lol. I've never seen a useless suspense reveal as boring as this one. Everything happened in 1 go with no major direction or goal. I laughed out loud when The chef of the hostel and that caretaker of the dormitory was revealed to be the spy of Nk. Like seriously, all they were doing was sit in the corner and starting tantrum like a kid here and there. This whole hostage situation could have ended in few episodes but it continued till mid of episode 16. Or the whole hostage situation could have just started in episode 12 or something while building up characters' personality, romance development between the lead characters (even the supporting characters) and giving backgrounds for the existing characters , their past, rather than haphazardly heaping all these important stuffs in the end of the story.

Ps how i wished it was the fl who died instead of the ml cause of her stupidity and annoying fucked up crying scenes that started from ep 4 and continued till ep 16 final scene and she does nothing but just THAT throughout the whole drama.

Should have gotten worst drama of 2021/22 award! Deserved~

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