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Not recommended
I am being generous today and giving it 6 stars for the actors sake, but its below average in every other way.Screenplay: The story had significant pacing issues (very slow in the beginning to everything moved too fast near the end). The story didnt make much sense whatsoever. Like when did Tae Seong start liking Hae Bom? He says 12 years, but how is that even possible? They are only 18 now.. So essentially they were each other's best and first friends but they stopped communicating at some point and grew apart even though they lived together? How did the mom feel about this? The reason for the lack of communication is also pretty stupid imo: I liked you, so I didnt want to be near you. What?? If you love somebody as much as Tae Seong loved Hae Bom, you would want to be around him every waking minute. Hae Bom was so awkward and uncomfortable around Tae Seong it was super hard to watch the beginning and kinda confusing why he would act that way since they live together. Hereon the plot moved quite fast and I completely detest the non-con scene that came soon after. There was no excuse for that and I also didnt like the follow up: "Is liking me too much to ask?" Yes, it is. This dialogue was essentially forcing our already weak ML into being forced into a relationship out of misplaced sense of friendship and loyalty. At this point even us viewers are unclear if Hae Bom has romantic feelings for Tae Seong which would bring the non-con scene look more like assault than momentary passion. The mom sees this and does nothing, thats so weird. I am not sure if its the bad editing or bad story telling, but what parent witnesses the assault and just does nothing about it? They are both your sons, ma'am. Further down the line, the mom becomes alcoholic somehow and starts having a strained relationship with her own son (is this because of the assault? is this because he took help from her ex-husband? is this because she saw the leads kiss? none of this is clearly explained). I am at least happy Tae Seong regretted his actions and Hae Bom confessed he truly loves Tae Seong between all this mess. 2/10
Production: extremely bad camera work (shaky, blair witch angles) and editing was so bad that makes scene transitions seem very choppy and not smooth. There were some scenes that didnt make any sense at all and doesnt contribute to the story. Like why did Hae Bom randomly enter the bathroom where Tae Seong was showering? The sets and scenary was quite good. Many low budget Korean BLs just takes place in a single bedroom apartment or a park, but this one had multiple settings and a beautiful house & apartment. 2/10
Acting: Not bad. Either the actors were extremely uncomfortable with each other in the beginning or it was just them acting that way for their roles, it was clear their "relationship" became comfortable as the series progressed. Still not the best acting, but I loved how much they grew during the series. I could believe they were a couple by the end of the show, considering how awkward they were initially. 8/10
OST: Lots of english songs, prefer Korean ones. I didnt care for it much, average, nothing memorable. 5/10
Overall: 6/10, but should be 4/10. There are better BLs out there and I wish these actors got a better script.
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Too short, or too much in short time
Beware of time jumps. I loved the acting. I felt like they conveyed their feelings. I was confused a lot of times, either by time jumps, scene cuts or just not having some things clear from the beginning. Tae Sung suddenly realizing Hae Bom is going to be away, or the fact that we had no idea how Tae Sung felt, it was a bit confusing. Either the show needed to be a lot longer or cut around the endges to make it shorter.I completely recommend rewatching because you can watch it knowing the intent behind, but the pacing it was off.
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Old Fashioned but Enjoyable Bromance
The Korean film industry is second to none in production values and "Cherry Blossoms After Winter" is no exception. The music is a stand-out here. There are none of the usual distractions of multiple plots and, for the most part, the drama avoids most of the BL cliches. But Korean BL dramas are still pretty conservative, compared to those coming from Thailand and the Philippines. We get many excellent kissing scenes but nothing more, which is a bit of a let-down after 8 episodes. The Korean BL drama "Mr. Heart" ingeniously implied sexual intimacy by putting the characters in a jjimjilbang (Korean bath house) -- even while that drama, ironically, barely had a kissing scene. The mother's concern about homophobic prejudice is a plot point that is now out of date. Presumably the script is taken from an existing novel that may very well be 10-20 years old. At least the actress who plays the Mom manages to rise above the 2-dimensional character cliche, as written. Overall, "Cherry Blossoms..." is a highly enjoyable bromance with wonderful music, beautiful photography and passionate acting.Was this review helpful to you?
Beautifull story.
I liked this story, I watched it in one go.The story is simple but still covers enough points and problems to make it interesting.
Ok and Kang are great together, their chemistry is just perfect.
The only problem i had was that it felt a bit rushed, some scene's felt cut off.
But overall, very nice. I will probably watch this again.
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Worth a watch
I like to see how the love grew and one bashful guy became bold and stood up for his lover and their relationship. I liked it, and have rewatched it a few times. I think its pretty good. The two main actors were good but nothing outstanding. the story seemed a bit off; don't know how to explain what i felt.Was this review helpful to you?
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krork
this drama..is adopted from a manhwa...and usually manhwas are super long...so it's just simply impossible for the makers to fir everything into mere 8 eps...and deliver a godd storythe drama feels a bit cut out from between...
the first 2 episodes were literally boring n pointless for me because I just couldn't understand why taesung was behaving in that way...but then later in ep3 the misunderstanding was cleared and it gave reasoning to taesungs actions in tha first 2 episodes...the story upto ep 4 or 5 was okay..
but after that it just feels boring cringey and too stiff...the scenes which are supposed to make u blush actually made me cringe...like that scene where taesung was eating something (cream bun I suppose) and the filling was dripping so haebom just bit the other end to prevent the filling from coming out..it just seemed cringe to me
as for the acting..not to be rude to any of the actors but I really did not like the acting of anyyyyy actor...now i haven't watched other dramas of any of these actors so idk about their overall acting ...but in this drama it was not good
as for the story..as I said already it was adopted from a manhwa..ig the original manhwa has about 140 achapters so clearly...the flow of the story in the manhwa will be much smoother...in the drama I feel...the makers have just simply like..picked some scenes from manhwa which they thought wd serve as gr8 fanservixe and they just put it up there in each episode due to which everything felt weirdly cut off
so i wd not suggest watching this drama...you should just go for the webtoon because I feel the webtoon or manhwa serves a lot better than the drama...
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The Cherry isn't Blossoming
Short Review:Enjoyable series if you're looking for mindless fluff and eye candies on your screen. The actors are the highlight of the series, but everything else falls flat. Pacing is bad - story is too big to fit into 160 minutes. This could have worked better if each episodes were 50 minutes long OR if they made it into two seasons. Cinematography has its moments, but every shot in the classroom was amateurish at best. I usually don't mind bad cinematography but this one was particularly jarring to me. I do have to say though, this is a series I will still enjoy rewatching because the actors were just captivating together. But you do have to be quite forgiving of its flaws if you want to truly enjoy the series.
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I kinda feel amazing this day! That Korean BL series/movie are growing in this movie industry. You know, amidst racist and discrimination they gave us something realistic ideas and stories.I just watched 3 episodes and I can't wait for the rest to come. I'm so excited to what happens next, so better not expect the unexpected. I'm looking forward for their love story 💗
And I'm sorry to say but I have to share this one!😆
Spoiler- it's funny to think that haebom drinking the coffee cup lid backward 😆 - LOL I know it's an "as if" drinking coffee scene but it happens thrice like wtf, they should've done better.
Anyways, small details like these can ruin the authenticity of acting.
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it's ok (but frustrating & a bit boring)
As of now I haven't finished watching it yet but I couldn't wait to write this review - unfortunately not for a good reason. At first i was really excited to watch it, it had been on my watchlist for some time now and i had heard good things about it! The storyline seemed simple and typical and i was curious as to how this drama would interpret the highschool romance story that we all know and love so much!There's the typical damsel in distress ML and the shining knight in armour love interest, the wacky friends, the bullies etc. etc. nothing wild over there or particularly interesting or outstanding. and that's not a problem at all! what was a problem was the execution of it. I think perhaps because of the title and the synopsis i was expecting some darker themes and some more drama and personal conflict between the two ML which we were not given. I blame this on the short runtime.
And with this I don't mean the episode 11 curse thai BL have but i mean that i would have liked it if they showed more of what the characters were feeling and what that made them do or think.., which brings us to the acting. The acting was alright for the story as it did not delve too deep so it didnt require a lot and it is watchable but sometimes leaves you wanting more. the two ML are handsome enough to save it but it saddens me that they didn't use their full potential. there is some chemistry between the two ML and plenty of fluff, but i think the tension and the chemistry could have been more present if some of the scenes where we feel this tension and chemistry, weren't cut off so soon!!! for example, the part where they share the cream bun: it was cut off very suddenly and not discussed at all in the next episode! we as the audience do not get 'closure' from that and we do not know how the characters feel after that which is frustrating. It made some of the transitions feel too rushed and the pacing was also affected by this in my opinion. It also left me unable to connect properly to the ML. Why give us chemistry/tension if it will not have consequences for their relationship? shouldn't it drive the story forward?
Perhaps an uncut version would have shown us more? Who knows...
I did like the ensemble cast a lot! the bullies were believable, the friends really did seem to like each other and had great banter, but also cared about each other and the mom was amazingly sweet and admirable, especially for taking in the son of one of her friends - I would've loved to see more of her and haebom's mom.
what i also liked was the lighting and the setting. It was a pretty series.
All in all, it is not the best bl drama out there, but still a fun watch if you're not looking to invest too much and just like fluff. it's just kind of boring (which is worse than being offensive tbh).
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one of the best slow burn
Honestly, when I first watched this on Viki and I was like about to watch it right and I got through like a few minutes of it and then I was like not like I don’t wanna watch this like it’s not really like interesting to me right and like the characters aren’t hot and then it was the other day where I saw an edit of it and I was like oh my God like I need to watch this and after I got through that like five minute mark I was like this has caught my eye like it is so good and it’s a slow burn but also one of the main characters has had a crush on the other main character for 12 years and it’s just really well scripted and I think the acting is super good and it’s like so cutie like it’s one of those drawers that’s like oh like how sweet like that is actually adorable and like I’m hate suborn romances I hate them so much but this is one of the very few that I can actually deal withand it’s just so good I love this scripting and the character development. They did really well with the character development and just like the little like hin parts like they’ll say something like at the first part of the show and then it will come up again in this really cool way like during the end of the showWas this review helpful to you?
Just Light Fluff Splattered With Cuteness
Sometimes stories that are told on a quiet level are soulful and impactful. This story, while told softly and quietly, is not. It is told so quietly that you barely hear it above a whisper. What I mean by that is, the love that connects the two main characters is only visible for fleeting moments and mostly hidden away. There are no high-highs or low-lows in this series. We honestly never get to know what makes these two truly adorably enchanting guys tick. This series showed no signs of strong emotions throughout thus giving it more of a feel of acting out parts rather than feeling the parts.Was this review helpful to you?
Very cozy series
The series is very cozy and warm and brings a smile to my face....even thought the camera angles of shooting the drama could have been way better but overall this drama is a must watch for bl fans. The acting was good and storyline was also interesting and pleasant. It has only 8 episodes so its perfect for people who are very busy and don't have so much time to watch dramas(for example me)Was this review helpful to you?
