The Director Who Buys Me Dinner

I hate everything. :'(((

What was that ending??? I just finished the last episode and I am so....frustrated. And upset. That doesn't mean it's a bad ending. On the contrary, it was a very good ending. They get a reset. But at what cost?

If you take out all the credits and previous episode scenes and such, you get maybe an hours worth of scenes. Honestly, that's not enough to flesh out what could be a really good story. Like Denis. What's up with him? There's so much more there than we get to see. And whatever fate that decided to make a "child of God" have to suffer as he did, not to mention the suffering of Yu Dam.....I mean, I could come up with parallels between this story and Christianity, but I don't think that is where they were going with this. There's so much of the story missing or only hinted at, and you have to fill in the blanks. I honestly feel that I wouldn't be quite so upset if I had more of Denis' backstory and an explanation of his current role within their work and private lives.

The acting was phenomenal in my opinion. Especially Jang You Sung, the actor who played Denis. I've never seen someone actually make me feel like I was watching a caged animal in human form. And the pain and anger and panic that he portrayed was amazing! But also, Park Young Woon and Park Jeong Woo did fabulous jobs in emoting so many different emotions, just in that short time frame.

I have so many questions......

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I had high hopes for this!!

Unfortunately, I think this show was just too short to really give the story enough life. They're was such an interesting premise, but I wanted them to go deeper into the story. I'm also not completely sure why the artist has the issues that he does, that wasn't explained at all. I suspect he was the archer in the past, but that alone wouldn't explain his anxiety or why the employee can calm him down and seems to share his energy with him.

For the most part I enjoyed the series, it just felt like so much was missing and felt incomplete. I'm not sure if that's because the writer never fully fleshed it out, or because the series didn't the the budget to do more than a basic representation. I haven't read the source material to know.

I would still recommend it though, there's enough here to keep you entertained for the hour and a half run time for the entire series.

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you will smile, cry and blush

the beggining feels a little rushed, some scenes that won't be developed, but after the third episode it becomes making more sense. the final episode is so unexpected, it was a surprise and plot twisting. the last scene melted my heart and made me run out of tears.

it is a good drama, for me it's the one that had more similarities with the hetero general dramas. an amazing experience.

don't let the others reviews scary you, watch it and see it by yourself, it's worth it!!!

why this review has to be that long? I will add that the actor that plays Min YuDam is SO pretty.

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I'm left frustrated because this just needed more time ?

Does this series deserve an 8/10? Probably not. But will I give it an 8? Absolutely.

Hear me out. There is seriously only one real annoying flaw with this production that's hindering it significantly: the runtime. The two minute recaps at the start of every 15-minute episode was too much. We only really got around 11 minutes of content (give or take) because of those recaps, the intro, credits, and the next episode's teasers.

The issue is that this storyline has too much depth for 110 minutes. It needed longer to really develop the characters and the depth of their emotions. Not going to lie, the only reason I ended up connecting to their relationship is because of how great the acting was. Denis' character also didn't get the development or explanations the audience needed. I'm 99% sure the reason he started acting out the way he did was because he was the one to kill Dongbaek in his past life (based on his eyes and his present actions). However, their are certainly people who simply won't come to that conclusion themselves since it wasn't fleshed out enough.

I didn't mind the ending. I would have loved if Yoodam recovered his lost memories but I also like how they concluded the show, so I'm not too upset.

This k-bl is honestly a lot better than some others which have been airing recently... (*cough* oh my assistant *cough*) because at least we got better kisses--well one great kiss and others that were mediocre--and great chemistry and great acting and a unique plot. But it definitely could have been SO much better with a longer runtime 😭

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Tasty though not completely filling

It's always interesting to see high concepts play out for romantic dramas, immediately kicking into action with high stakes, date or die. For a fantasy to be immersive without too much distraction, there needs to be in world explanation for important story elements.

Setting up the rules for kissing the birthmark that was the wound site from a previous life to calm some sort of pain that activates is interesting. It is unclear if it's their proximity only that sets off the pain or if Dong Baek always had that pain and only Yudam can cure it. And so much more like a there needs a clearer explanation exactly what went wrong and got Yudam and Dongbaek cursed, was Yudam alive for 300 years consequtively or was he reborn with the same memories, who's the spirit that possessed Dong Baek, did Dong Baek have other life times in between the first and the current, is the heart shaped mark from a different stabbing from one of those other lives or else how did Yudam know about it, is Denis the assassin that killed Dongbaek, why is Denis calmed by Dongbaek, why is he obsessed with him...etc. It's a really fascinating premise, but a lot felt like it was left on the cutting room floor. I like how the past life scenes show Yudam as warm and kind, juxtaposing with his self 300 years later after he has been living on autopilot, how he's been thawing with his time with Dongbaek, and finally he's back to how he was in his first life after he forgets Dongbaek. It's a bittersweet ending that Dongbaek gets to remember first by keeping his memory in this second loop, but Yudam is already interestested so they can start over with Dongbaek explaining what happened to him eventually. They're even that way with Dongbaek not remember their first life either, neither will have the trauma from that life, though Dongbaek will have some from dying in the first loop of the current one.

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AMAZING STORY LINE ...but~

Personally I love the plots of the story. It does have great potentials; like how they are destined for each other, no matter how many curses they encounters. What's more the throwing to several dynasties before was simply on point!

That being said... it was freaking too short! <15minutes long? With recap & OST included?! Seriously! not enough.

I absolutely love the ending; the tension, sadness, worry, heartache, everything! C'est tres bein.

As for the acting concerns, still need more work. Sure they're handsome and cute BUT their chemistry isn't there. Not to mentions the cutting & editing of the drama, /sigh.

I really think this drama could be really nice, if extra time given, better directing and acting skills. Yup, it is a love hate review. welp~

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size matters

this series, more than anything, would benefit from being longer. the base plot here has the potential to be cdrama length. it needs to be fleshed out. i want to know more, i want to dig deeper.
a recast would help. the characters are generally likeable, although very one dimensional (re: need to be fleshed out) but the actors....
the main couple have the least chemistry i've ever seen an on screen couple have. i don't think you can even call it chemistry... algebra maybe. it was genuinely hard at some points to suspend disbelief enough to think these two people would date each other. dennis, both in character and acting, is a whole other can of worms in the worst way.
the ending upset me. deeply. the momentum was there. they threw the whole train off it's track. there was so many better ways to end this series other than basically saying "here, damn. now come up with the rest yourself." just dull and lazy.
despite my complaints, i actually did enjoy watching this series quite a bit. it's short and sweet. minimal commitment, medium reward.

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acting great story has holes

I was skeptical out the show from the other reviews. But if you pay attention there is a reason for the curse and a subtle information how to solve it which happened in the last episode. It wasn’t big or dramatic to make it obvious, just sad

The only hanging piece is Denis. I wish his character was more clear in who he represented. In the episode where he has a melt down his manager made a comment of “you don’t understand I will explain later”; but he never did, which I suspect makes his character here more clear. But it seems to have been left on the cutting room floor when they edited this episode. That was a disappointment even tho he was a supporting character it was still relevant to the storyline.

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Felt kind of rushed

Ok so before I get into this review I want to say that I did like the drama. I may not score it the highest, but that's mostly because it felt like the drama was kept as short as possible and kind if rushed. If the makers had made the episodes a bit longer and explained some stuff a little more I would've probably rated this show a lot higher. The majority of this post will however be me explaining what's wrong with the synopsis, and what it actually should've said.

Now then. I'll start with the story. Like I said above, the story felt kind of rushed. Some things were left to your imagination while the series would've made a lot more sense if these things were explained a bit more/better.

Also, the synopsis is wrong. Let me explain.
In the synopsis it says that "a child was named after god and was cursed" this is not correct. The child(Dongbeak) was a child of god (so not named after god but just not given any name) and named by his lover(Yudam). Because names hold destiny in this drama, this started a new series of events, which got Dongbeak and Yudam cursed.
The synopsis also states that "after 4 reincarnations the child finds his love in the form of an employee of his company" this is also wrong. Yes, the director finds his love in the form of an employee, but this was not after 4 reincarnations. This was after 300 years of living. And more importantly, it wasn't Dongbeak who was the director, but Yudam.
Dongbeak was reincarnated however, but not 4 times. As far as us was told he was reincarnated only once. While Yudam had to wait 300 years for Dongbeak to be reincarnated.

As said before, this drama felt like it was kept as short as possible. Because of this it felt like a lot of things were left unexplained or just slightly explained. This explanation was sometimes very confusing, yet somehow still enough that you could understand what happened to them and why Yudam is rondomly clinging to Dongbeak. Also because it was kept as short as possible it felt kind of rushed. For example, they fell for eachother way too easy. Like yes, I understand that you had feelings for eachother in the past and seeing each other made you remember these feelings again. But it felt weird to me. I can't properly explain why though.

As for the acting, I loved it. These two had pretty good chemistry. Tho like I said just now, at some points it felt kinda fake to me, that why I only scored it a 7. But since I am used to the acting from Thai dramas, where the acting feels kind of stiff a lot of the time, the acting felt really good to me.

I will probably not watch this one again, though there is still a small chance I would. But I think I'd probably prefer to read the manga again instead.

Considering all of this I score this drama a 7. Because even tho it felt kind of rushed, it was still pretty good. And like I said at the start the majority of this post is just me saying what's wrong with the synopsis, not the story.

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At first I said, "Let's hear about the director." Now I no longer want to hear

At first, I said, "Let's hear about the director." Now I no longer want to hear

I just had some sort of midlife crisis. Because I texted my boyfriend that I love him and that I want him to be real.

Typically dramas do not mess with my head this bad. And the acting in this drama was in no way the best I have ever seen. But something about this fuck me up. Like bad. Like I have been crying bad.

I'll try to be quick. The whole plot and the ending. Where it was all a dream was fucked. It was all a dream that Dongbaek had to remember. Why does he have to carry the burden now? How is this freeing him from Min's graph?

The line: "a name binds you" was so damn deep. Had me rethinking everything I have done until this point. Is it because of the name I was given at birth? How different would my life have been if I were given a different name?

There were a lot of lines that I felt just sat inside my soul...none of which I can directly quote at the moment.

Finally, the background story was soul-crushing. He couldn't save him and now he is paying the price.

However, one thing I noticed is there has to be some sort of age gap between the two of them. I mean bro was a teenager/child when he was def a bit older.

The actor of the director had this soulless look on his face for 75% of the show. I feel like that fucked with me a lot. But I think he just has a lot of Botox to the point where he struggles to pull an expression other than stone-cold. (i could be wrong though since i did not research this whatsoever)

My final verdict is an 8.5/10. I cant go any higher because I wanted more romance and all I got was trauma.

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enjoyable with a certain uniqueness

This was alright! I enjoyed watching, but the characters didn't really grow on me. Which is unfortunate because shows of similar length got me to relate or sympathize with the characters in the same amount of time. As I finished this show, my only thought was "Well, this definitely is an ending." and I was ready to move on.

The story in of itself is quite unique for BLs, but fell a little flat as it requires a lot more depth than these short productions, I believe. So as a viewer, we don't get enough time to explore Yu Dam's pain and understand his despair. This being said - Yu Dam's intentions/memories from the beginning vs the end of the show seem a little iffy and kind of just made to fit the narrative. The Plot: Hole.

I was also disappointed in the character writing of Denis. What the hell ): I would've loved to see more of his character. I feel like he was just a plot device. Side characters usually are, but they really just... made him do things u know? No reason, no explanation. We just kind of have to think our part.

Overall, the acting performance of the cast is average but definitely enjoyable. The production is very good as well, which enhanced the viewing experience for sure. I loved all the little scenes of slight touches and movements.

Let me summarize this review and give you a recommendation:
It's alright. It's worth a binge if you're looking for something lighthearted.

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