Cheer Up

What a surprise!

TBH I came across this drama accidently and was interested enough to check it out of curiosity and boy.. I was pleasantly surprised by how such a simple story can actually hooked you in. I went to finish all remaining episodes in a heartbeat, and now I can't wait for the next one.

The Story
The story of youth and growth are easily one of my favourite trope. The story of cheering squad makes it more interesting and added with the mystery elements, OK I'm sold. The mysterious parts are not annoyingly discouraging and it was pretty engaging as the story slowly reveals its secrets and twists adequately, so that us viewers can keep on guessing.

I love the epilogue parts. Although I can predict most of it but still it charms me as it should be.

The Casts
The main characters are likable from the get go. The FL is brilliant (ISTG, she is similar to Kim Go-Eun). She is strong yet vulnerable and quirky at the same time. I love her as a whole. The ML also good however he is pretty reserved, and sometimes he was overshadowed by the vibrant energy that FL brings. Overall casts are pretty good.

The Music
Pretty good.

Will I re-watch this series?
Yes. The cheering really got me. >___<

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Fantastic characters trapped in a drab plot

Those first few episodes started out, quite simply, very strong. And then they started to add a bunch of different elements and the final result was a huge cast that was trapped in a story that just tries to do far too much.

From the very beginning I knew that Do Haeyi would become one of my favorite female leads of all time. It wasn't just that she was so fun and bubbly, but also that she was full of paradoxes — She's fun and bubbly but also straightforward, hardworking, prideful, and VERY realistic. Her personality is so relatable and I loved her dynamic with all her family and friends.

I even quite enjoyed the love triangle because it was very clearly about Haeyi's values and choosing between money or love.

As the episodes went on, it just...lost the plot. Parental and class issues are great topics and it was really where the drama shined. I think it could've done completely without the thriller subplot because it always teetered on the line between being an actual legit thriller, and something that was not so different from any other youth drama with an annoying saboteur character.

The love triangle also got so insanely draggy; it was like Groundhog Day seeing the FL reject the SML, just to have him say he's okay with one-sided love, just to go back to chasing her and getting upset when another rejection comes.

Add to the mix THREE side ships (two of which I marginally care about and one which I thought was a waste of time considering how many scenes they got) and I just felt like we were getting bits and pieces of subplots but never the full story. Everything felt half-baked and we barely got to see any cheering.

In tidbits this drama has fantastic scenes and great lines of insightful dialogue that will make you think. In the last two episodes, I absolutely did cry my eyes out when the story returned to the issue of money and life's priorities, and it made me think that it was such a shame that the drama veered away from that and decided to focus on a love triangle and treat it like a random kdrama FL trapped between two MLs, both of which I did not care for.

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Worst drama I've seen lately

A drama that failed because the hottest topic was "which male character should the female lead end up with"

"Cheer Up" had everything to be the best college drama of 2022, except a good script. The focus on the love triangle was tedious and unnecessary, while supporting characters had better stories than the main cast, they were barely explored. A wasted potential for a cast full of rising stars from hit dramas, I really waited a lot of this for being Han JiHyun's first lead role.

I liked it at the beginning, the cheerleader set up was their strongest point but it was put aside to center in the mystery that literally doesn't make sense, everything at the end is thrown into a bad joke. As for the main characters, they barely have development. Hae Yi is immature and takes bad decisions, the no solved Sun Ho's obsession for Hae Yi is the worst, it made the love triangle tedious and annoying, JungWoo has no personality nor an interesting background, like he is so plain... no one of them is memorable neither lovable. The main couple breaking up in the last episodes, writer reallydid the bare minimum.

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don't listen to the haters (even though they have a point)

Cheer Up is a drama that I am so glad I finished despite the negative reviews and the several setbacks. I initially dropped this mid first-episode but picked it up again out of boredom and as an attempt to get out of my kdrama-watching slump, and it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

STORY - 7.5/10

The main themes of Cheer Up are youth, romance and friendship. In those aspects, Cheer Up portrayed these concepts very well. Though the exposure we get to this story was not something that immediately caught my attention, the writing and the strong foundations of the relationships between characters, romantic, platonic and familial, how they developed and how the story progressed definitely kept my attention. The mystery aspect was interesting, and I liked how they tried to make it as unpredictable as possible – they would pin obvious suspects that would make us think certain characters were the culprit, when in fact all of them were wrong. There were plenty of twists and turns that, unlike a lot of other mystery plotlines in other romance dramas, felt like they were planned from the beginning, and I enjoyed how everything started to tie in together perfectly.

I enjoyed the main romance and how it developed. It felt so natural to me, in all of its mess and constant turns, in Haeyi’s constant confusion and Jungwoo’s reluctance. And I love, love the dialogue towards the end where Jungwoo tells Haeyi that she shouldn’t suffer alone. “Two is better than one.” It really defined the way I perceive their love for each other; the kind that perseveres, the kind that heals, and most importantly, the kind that holds your hand through even and especially the most difficult of days.

The friendship and the found family dynamic formed within Theia was something that also really stuck with me. I love found family dynamics – in fact, it’s a running theme in almost all my favourite media – and the one formed here definitely did not disappoint. I loved that they didn’t just focus on the romance and also placed importance on the friendships and comradery between the characters. It was extremely heartwarming as well as necessary for us, the viewers, to get a full scope of how much they’ve grown closer as a team.

I loved the ending. It was so beautifully done, and it definitely touched my heart. I loved the side couples, even though it funnily enough felt like a case of “pairing the spares”, I love that they at least built up enough chemistry to make me root for them. My favourite side couple had to be Minjae (who I felt was let off the hook too easily for what he did, but it is what it is) and Sunja. They were so cute, and I wish they had more screen time to fully delve into their development as a pairing. Also, am I the only one who caught the nicknames they gave each other? Sun and Min-min? They’re adorable.

Now, my main issue with the drama’s storyline is something everyone else has been complaining about. And that, you guessed it, is the love triangle. I don’t particularly care for love triangles anymore, but this one really took the cake. In fact, the love triangle was the very thing that made it difficult for me to continue, especially when Junho was at his worst. Let it be known that I did NOT like Junho, though he is definitely an interesting and complex character, just like the FL and ML, and has room to mature. He had no awareness of boundaries, even when Haeyi rejected him properly and indirectly countless times. Since the beginning, he was only chasing after her relentlessly because he couldn’t get over the fact that she was the only girl he couldn’t win over – then after the rejections, the fact that she lay out her baggage and the reasons she couldn’t like him back, he falls even more in love with her. It’s insane, and it ruined a drama I would’ve rated even higher if not for the frustrating dynamic he added onto the show.

Alongside this, there were a lot of plot holes in the mystery part of the story that I didn’t quite understand. A lot of things either didn’t add up or weren’t properly explained, when I wish they were. However, they weren’t bad enough to ultimately deter my experience watching this show further than it already had.

Overall, I feel like the strength of Cheer Up were its characters. Which makes sense, as once again, it ties in with the core themes of the show.

ACTING/CAST - 9/10

Han Jihyun and Bae Inhyuk absolutely pulled off their respective roles. The last I saw of Inhyuk was in My Roommate is a Gumiho, where he played a second male lead eerily similar (and just as annoying) as Sunho. However, I loved how he allowed a character like Jungwoo (who seldom allowed himself emotion) an ample amount of complexity to understand who he was as a person. In fact, I think if it weren’t for how well he played Jungwoo, he wouldn’t have become one of my favorite MLs in kdramas yet.

As for Han Jihyun, her acting was 100% my favorite out of all the other characters in the show, perhaps mainly because of her role as the protagonist. I love how diverse she can be in her facial expressions, and played the role of Haeyi perfectly.

I have nothing to say for the rest of the cast, as they all pulled it off perfectly. I hope Kim Hyunjin goes through the rite of passage and gets casted as a good ML just like Bae Inhyuk did, LOL. He acted very well.

MUSIC - 8/10

Most songs, mainly the cheer songs, are iconic and memorable, considering music is one of the integral aspects to what they do as a cheer squad. ‘Higher’ is still stuck in my head.

REWATCH VALUE - 6/10

I’m going to be honest, the love triangle focused episodes were already a struggle to get through. I felt like punching the screen because of how much the stupidity bothered me. Definitely wouldn’t want to go through that again, but I would love to relive the cute Jungwoo and Haeyi scenes again.

OVERALL - 8.5/10

A drama that was worth it all despite its imperfections. Definitely for people who’re looking for something to get invested in, both in a good and a bad way.

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Very jumbled and rambling plot line

This show has been on my list for a while, and since I have enjoyed Bae In Hyuk in other things, I figured I'd give it a try. For me, it was torture to get through, and I've never been so happy to finish something in my life. I usually like to give all the positive aspects of a show, regardless of whether I ultimately ended up liking it, but hmmm, can't think of any here.

1) I found the Fl extremely irritating. Her bouncing around and then suddenly pouting about something, pick a mood and stick with it. This might seem like a small thing, but every time she said 안녕하세요 to someone, her voice went up about four octaves and she used this baby, breathy voice that was SO irritating!
2) STRONG triangle. It went on entirely too long and SML kissing her without consent, just no.
3) Why did ML and FL like each other? Never really saw development, they just suddenly liked each other.
4) The mystery. Why? I didn't care for it, and it went on for so long that once I got to the end I didn't care anyway.
5) The one "dance" they did throughout the whole drama. Their rehearsals revolved about that one arm-swinging movement, over and over again.
6) And can we talk about the costuming?! Oh, my gosh, the costume designer should have been forced to wear one of their own designs as punishment. It was really hard to take any of the conversations seriously while they were wearing their cheer costumes, they were so ridiculous. In real life, you would not have anyone want to be on the cheer team unless they were getting paid to wear those costumes. I can't get over how bad they were.

While I may not say run away from this show, I would suggest turning and walking away quickly, and find something better to watch.

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I'm sorry I didn't like it (''´艸`) I'll explain what was distracting me the most first. Because I had no idea how cheering squads in Korea looked like, I was surprised by seeing their costumes, believe it or not, but they are dressed exactly like tamer in circus here, all those jackets and velvet and bling-bling. I know they're supposed to cheer, but I thought of our circus all the time.

There's nothing particularly bad about it actually, but to me it is a passable drama. And I also didn't like it making it into a love triangle, because it is obvious that someone will leave with a broken heart and don't feed me this bs that second male lead is for the audience to love.

The only good part is that Cheer Up managed to reconnect me with kdramas after I saw several cuts from it on YT. I watched several kdramas years ago, but I guess either I was unlucky in my choosing or melodramatic plots were the thing back then and I honestly couldn't watch those. But during this time I felt like I could give it a try and added few dramas in the list and Cheer Up was one of them. I will say my deep thanks to it for that, things changed and I was left amazed on how production grew, cinematography is insane and overall there are gems. Unfortunately, I can't say that Cheer Up is one of them.

I thought the beginning was pretty okay, the university like any other has their own legends and the cheering squad has those too. The intrigue is there after all. I was amazed to find how cheering squads dress and what they do... I mean it's cheering, okay, but I wonder if it's me, but seeing them doing almost the same thing made me wonder, if it's that hard (?_? ) You need stamina, but they felt like going for cheering olympics. I understand it's more about passion and ability to rile up the crowd, to have that presence on stage. I think I'm too far away from it as a foreigner to truly feel the charm of it, I understand the passion, but when you never went through same experience it's hard to relate, my life in uni was bleak too. I also had my main costumes distraction at all times.
The mains were also interesting, Do Hae Yi is so lively and striving, there is nothing bad about wanting to earn and when you have money you can do many things. Park Jung Woo is responsible and serious about the cheering squad, he truly wants it to work, despite the legends. Seemingly different people together start to strive for the same goal. Although Do Hae Yi joined the club for the money, but she came to care about it and it stopped being just a task or a contract. But I particularly don't like when they have the second male lead who also falls in love with FL, but we all know he won't get anything.
I wasn't even mad that both of Hae Yi and Jung Woo acted like children when they came together, very sugary couple. But the sudden twist at the ending I felt not needed. I'm not a fan when they add a sudden illness of the loved ones, like can't you do without it? I thought having a villain who wants the profecy to work is enough for the thrill.
And with the sporty campus love story and thrilling chase after the person behind the scenes I felt like the ending drowned me with so many couples and relationships :'D

My personal favorites were actually Hae Yi and Sun Ho moms. I don't know, they brought me joy, even if you knew that Sun Ho's mom drank not out of happy married life and Hae Yi's mom spent in poverty most of her life. But here they are and keep on going. Aye.

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Cringe Up

This is a sweet drama that has the typical hard working poor female lead meets rich guy who only has eyes for her and other aloof guy in a sweet triangle of cheer giving lots and lots of people sls.

The cheerleading squad looks like something brought straight out of the 70s disco, making me wonder ABBA is that you?

The female lead has more mood swings than red flags in an old k-drama. She spends more time crying than actually cheering up, she has her moments but after cry number 999 I kind of stoped caring... There really is no middle either she is bubbly and bursting with energy or low on the ground crying.

The friendships are slightly predictable but sweet and most of these characters are indeed sweet and dare I say lovable and at times even fun to watch but i guess not enough to make up for all the cringe and meeh twists in this drama. Nothing is really wrapped upp wall either leaving with a bland taste of I will forget this.... Not even Bae In Hyuks dimples could save his boring character. And for those of you who have seen those dimples you probably know that they are what saved this from getting an even lower score.

I am not saying it is all bad, a 7 is still an okay score but it is just not that interesting...

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Wanted to cheer up, left being frustrated...

The drama lacks a solid story plot, let alone the execution of it. May be fun and thrilling for early teens, but young adults like me might not be fond of this drama. 10+ eps for such a futile plot is not what I signed up for.

I initially thought the drama is related to "Cheer up 2015", also known as Sassy Go which starred Jung Eun Ji, turned out it wasn't.

The cheerleading part is not fun to watch either. They do the same cheerleading steps throughout, the same meetings, the same prophecy-related "mystery" which's execution is rather annoying. I personally don't think a school club that has nothing to offer to your life goals is that important where you don't get to sleep (ML said he sleeps only 2-3 hrs ) and risk your college senior life when it's time to be serious about your career and internships. I'm not saying that cheerleading isn't worth making a livelihood, but in this drama, they clearly don't seem to be passionate about it. It's like they're doing it out of compulsion or guilt of leaving the club.

Something that I can't take in even if I try to is - them claiming that they weren't able to keep in touch with Lee Yoo-Min (the previous leader who got into the accident). No one went to the hospital with her after the accident? They legit assumed she died rather than giving her a visit and seeing how she was doing? Okay, even to assume that she died, try to go to her funeral and pay the family a visit?? Fortunately, she didn't lol, shitty-ass friends she got. Let's say they didn't have her address. Try to find it out from the office administration or even her classmates?? Pretty sure a university takes info of such along with the student's family details?? It's just the ML texting her one-sided. If you that anxious, go find her??? Lol, the writer tsk tsk.

The love triangle side of the story is itself undigestable. There is little to no chemistry between the main leads. The second lead himself isn't a strong character. Idk how people are rooting for the ML/SML, I don't feel any connection at all, just a bunch of stares rather than romantic gazes. Bae In Hyuk deserves a better drama than this. It'd have been better if the story stuck to friendship and college life concepts as I do not feel any compassion for the characters. The main leads aren't given much growth/story either. It's all over the place.

I feel like most of the cast look older than their characters, which might be why I can't feel what I'm supposed to. Casting properly aged people to the roles is vital. The seniors look like they're in their 30s rather than in their late teens/early 20s.

Also, very cringe-y to see characters drinking often and acting drunk. It's not cute at all.

They're trying to make the suspense unnecessarily intense with no strong support to the plot.
Might drop (currently in ep 8).

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jin sunho is a b

hate that b jin sunho, he doesn't understand what no means
i screamed at my tv because he's just such an idiot can't even describe it istg

otherwise the show is great, love the main character
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The back-and-forth between the main leads can be annoying...

I have several issues with this show and there are so many side stories going on that it doesn't flow easily and makes the drama messy.

First, let's talk about the Cheer Team's strict no-dating rule. When it's later revealed what happened to the previous captain and why she left and also the fact that the ML had a crush on her, you understand why the no-dating rule exists. But then we have to watch the ML, Jung Woo, a senior ("sunbae"), have a crush on the FL, Hae Yi, a freshman. There's all this push and pull and flirting back and forth, and then let's keep our distance from each other. I was scratching my head wondering why the hell would the ML, who is now the cheer team's captain, even think of crossing the no-dating rule line after what happened in the past. Not to mention all the suspicious and dangerous things happening in the present. It makes zero sense.

I don't even see any chemistry between the two leads. I'm just annoyed with their back-and-forth and the third love triangle trope keeps dragging on.

Then there's the FL, Hae Yi. I get annoyed at her childish behaviour when it comes to "chasing" the ML. One minute she's happy to chase after him and then when she feels rejected or ignored, her mood changes 180° and she's all sulky. This of hers goes back and forth quite a bit. Let's not even get started on her bad drinking habit and what seems like her irritable bowel syndrome.

Another very poignant fact about the FL is her stance and gripes about money. Her family doesn't have a lot of money so she works multiple jobs and does whatever she can to make money in order to help her brother study at an academy so that he can go to medical school. You can understand why her ex couldn't "handle" her with her penny-pinching and why her brother gets angry with her for always talking about money. The way she's more responsible than her useless mom is annoying too. I hated the scene when her brother ends up at the police station for some kind of fight he got into with another student. The first thing she does is walks into the police station and then goes up to her brother and slaps him HARD, and then kneels and begs for forgiveness from the other party. She doesn't even hear her brother out. That scene was just horrible.

Another horrible scene was one that happened with a female side character, another member of the cheer team. Her ex-boyfriend just walks up to her and slaps her really hard in public because she had "blocked" his phone calls. Sure, she managed to beat him off but still, in reality, in most domestic abuse scenarios, most abusive men are cunning and manipulative and a lot of the time, they don't beat their women in public like that. Most abusers privately beat their victims. I was surprised that the writers went in this direction. I feel like this side story wasn't even really necessary. As if the story was added in as a filler to pass time.

(In regards to both slapping scenes, you can tell the director wanted it really loud and emphasized and it did nothing but leave you hating both the FL and the angry ex-boyfriend.)

The FL has two rich guys who like her... Her ex-boyfriend, Jae Hyuk and a cheer teammate, Sun Ho. Her ex pines after her but is still ashamed of her being poor even though she's hard-working. The SML, Sun Ho, her teammate on the cheer team is really rich and popular and yet likes the FL as she is. He likes the fact that she's a diligent worker. I think that the FL has more chemistry with Sun Ho than with the ML. I dislike the fact that the writers made the FL such a money penny-pincher who works hard but yet doesn't think she can be in the same league or is good enough for Sun Ho because he's so rich. Of course, she doesn't like him for other reasons but her being "poor" shouldn't be a factor. I would rather have her empowered by feeling like she's good enough. Money or no money.

I can't help but keep thinking that the ML who is the FL's "sunbae" should just be that.... a respectful mentor and captain and clearly draw the line at no dating. It's so repetitive to see him try to keep his distance from the FL but as soon as he sees the SML with her, he gets jealous and almost competitive. And not to mention the FL's constant disrespect of Sun Ho's feelings for her. Sometimes she acts so oblivious around him especially when the ML is around. And then she wonders why he walks off or why he's upset. Like, get a clue. I think this is just poor writing and direction.

When they do the cheer practice montage, it's not interesting because the cheer moves look so repetitive with them waving their arms up and down and back and forth and back and forth and back... you get it.

There are all these different stories going on and different characters appearing here and there... the embezzlement, the prophecies, and the mysterious stalker, all the side crushes, he likes her, she likes him, no one likes the other, she's jealous, he's jealous, who is this person now, and back and forth and back and forth it goes... just like their repetitive cheering arms.

(EP 7 as of writing)

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