This show made me buy a years worth Disney+ subscriptions, and I absolutely don’t regret it
Honestly I've kept my eyes on this show ever since Disney announced it their 2022 December promotional events in Singapore (the synopsis they gave back then made sure this show was going to be in my watclist)Not since last years' My Liberation Note I've see a slowburn k-drama done right until this dropped in Feb this year.
Please don't all consider it an overrating when I say that Dongjin has made it to top 4 in my list of Best-kdrama-men-ever list (you'll know why he has become such a favourite of mine, if you decided of watching the show)
The CINEMATOGRAPHY- This is best I've seen in any show in any language.. seriously its stellar... the framing and shots contribute to the chracters development and understanding the chracters feelings...it will be hard for other shows to top this level of intricacy..
The OSTs also were an achievements especially Roy Kim's Flower and Moon Song...
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Only watched it for KYK
So dreamy, KYK. I only watched the drama to watch him. Kdrama fixation.Don't care if he emotes two dimensionally or whatever else people are complaining about. Just happy to see him glide by and watch that face!
The FL was also lovely and the rest of the cast was the good, underplayed k drama actors who are actually the unsung pillars.
I must commend that lady who plays the wicked mother.
Did not check what her actual name and age is, but she is gorgeous.
Not sure how she ended up consistently playing a philandering wicked mother - have seen her in atleast 3 dramas doing the same wicked stuff.
But she has the courage to continually play the terribly villainous mother and excels in her negative craft.
This drama needed a lot more intimacy because the slow burn is fiery but ends with cold water.
There was ample room for it but it was wasted with just despair longing.
Needs a serious fix.
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female lead’s wardrobe was terrible!
I loved everything about this storyline but I absolutely hated that wardrobe design made the female main character dress like a 15 year old high school kid throughout the whole movie, made the love connection unbelievable. I wish they would have dressed her more mature, more feminine. Ceo in suits and always handsome falling for a part timer in baggy pants and XL sweatshirt did not convince me of their affection for one another.Unfortunately, my rating went down significantly because of it.
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Started off great...
First review oof but this show honestly started out so great like yes it was slow but it was ✨️ artistically slow✨️so i acc enjoyed wvey second of it.. for the first few episodes... and then i was skipping 20 mins in to the following episodes after like ep six and NOTHING WAS HAPPENING like im sorry but theres only so much you can draaaaggggg the artsy slowness. Dont get me wrong its so cinematically beautiful, the shots were *chefs kiss* but the pacing and plot ...Was this review helpful to you?
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It's okay, if you are in the mood for some moodiness.
Honestly this is nowhere near as bad as the makjangish and super silly setup would suggest.I have two big problems with the show.
The first is that the OTP romance is not very believable. I think acting shortfalls are definitely part of this issue & the chemistry was just not enough for me to fully immerse myself in their relationship.
The second is that the ending is extremely low effort. There was all this crying/suffering/hardship & then everything just worked out senselessly, also following the always annoying separation followed by a 1 minute happy ending formula. It's better than people dying I suppose, but not by much. I don't know if this was live filming or not, but it sure feels like it. Then again, it's quite normal for kdrama writers to not give a fork about well thought out endings, so that could be it. (This is pretty much the industry standard now, if anything.) On a positive note a well thought out, reasonable ending would've been exorbitantly difficult with the setting we've had, so perhaps embracing the silly is not the worst thing in the world. I would hugely prefer though if writers made scripts that can be wrapped up in a way that makes sense, instead of making convoluted messes & then just yolo-ing the ending.
As for what I liked.. There is a lot of reasonably well written dialog existing outside of the plot-driving conversations. I liked the moody presentation & the pink filter was part of that too I suppose. I liked the visuals on my color calibrated displays, but I can see why someone would hate this, if watching the show on an LG oled TV or a Galaxy phone..
The OST is pretty good too!
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What a drag
I am baffled by the way this story was told. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to buy this main couple when their interactions were mostly just them staring sadly at each other and sighing with the occasional wrist grabbing. There was so much potential here, but this story dragged so much. Endless scenes of no dialogue or dialogue that the characters took ages to utter. I have liked both main actors in other dramas and think they could have done much better with a better script. There was some chemistry there, but it was completely wasted and I actually bought the secondary couple a lot more than the main one. They actually enjoyed each other's presence and had fun together instead of just moping and being sad together. This should have been a lot shorter than it was or 16 episodes, but with a much better script and interactions between the main characters. Very disappointed in this.Was this review helpful to you?
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This is a feel-good revenge drama, but honestly the revenge is forgotten about early into the show. While it starts out strong, I felt myself skipping through a lot of the smaller storylines that are weaved throughout. There are no secret murderers in this slice of life, but many love triangles, relationships, dating and finding yourself going on. One thing that needs to be pointed out is: Lee Sung Kyung... Wow! She did such an incredible job in this drama. The character of Woo Joo is amazing and I kept seeing myself in her so much. A strong, beautiful, focused woman who doesn't back down to life and the people who walk all over her. The way she holds herself and the way she speaks yet cares about everyone around her, especially her family all really helped me relate to her. I loved her acting so much with Woo Joo. The emptiness that you get from her in the beginning and even towards the end that all ends whenever she is around Dong Jin. It's incredible, honestly. I can't think of another actress that has had me so wowed from a drama in a while.
Now for the story, I did love the main plot going on that followed with the lead's relationship, but I really didn't care for all of the siblings stories playing out. I found Woo Joo's sister to be kind of annoying and it was hard for me to follow her relationships or sink any emotion into them at all. Especially when it started to become a 3 person love triangle that I just couldn't follow. Jun was basically in love with her and Woo Joo, so the whole thing seemed pretty weird. I was finally glad when it all settled and they wrapped it up. The brother's story is really a backseat honestly and doesn't really serve a purpose to the overall plot other than him wanting to follow their father's career path and not the one Woo Joo set up for him. As for the lead story line, it was pretty dragged out and I hate when dramas wait until episode 15-16 to start dropping truth bombs that prevent us from getting more of the relationship we watched for. This one does exactly that.. I felt like right when it was starting to get to the happier part of everything, it came crashing down with them trying to wrap up the house story.
I do slightly find the step-sibling relationship slightly weird, but it was easy to look past when you realize they didn't know each other at all in their lives growing up. His mom just so happened to marry her dad. I just found it really weird that was the main story line going on with them also having a romance.
I could see myself re-watching this if I wanted to watch a nice melodrama slice of life. One that gets you thinking about life and its ups and downs. It was almost a favorite for me, but the slow pace of everything with the story just didn't grasp me as much as others have. It's still such a good watch.
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Amazing
So, I just finished this drama last night after binging it. This drama is amazing I loveeee the plot, it did start making me mad how long they were making dongjin suffer from his mothers actions (the family). They only had one kiss... and only had .1 second of a happy ending. I didn't care for the second lead couple whatsoever, I actually hated them, a lot. But overall the plot was amazing, the acting was great for the most part ( mainly kyk did a v good job ) the ost was okay. This drama was actually the only drama I've cried so hard for, literally cried at least once every episode, saddest episode has to be the episode where Dongjin was about to get hit by a car.(ep. 4/5 i think). I don't know I feel like dongjin is a very relatable character. woojoo was a great character too, i just hated how she basically let her family control her dating life for the whole drama, she did overall have great character development. Still sad for dongjin, he had to suffer the entire drama. One last thing, the main couple was amazing but I feel like a lot of their scenes were a bit awkward and wish they had a bit more skinship and cute moments rather than just the last 1 second of the drama.Was this review helpful to you?
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When revenge & love mix…
A young woman whose life was destroyed by her father’s mistress decides to get revenge by targeting the woman’s son. But when she gets to know him and learns all her beliefs about him are wrong her feelings turn from hate to love. Society and their families would never approve of them being together, so how could these lovers ever get a happy ending?I began this drama without knowing what I was getting into. And honestly, I think that’s the best way to watch this one so I’m not gonna write a very long or detailed review. Everything needs to be discovered by experiencing the joys and pains of these characters right alongside them. So I’ll keep this brief and encourage you to push play if you’re in the mood for a melodrama.
This drama gives both pain and comfort. It makes you hurt for all the Leads have endured at the hands of their parents. It shows how much the children suffer from the adults choices. It also shows how you can’t just assume someone’s life is all hunky-dory by viewing it from the outside. We all face pain, we’re all going through stuff. We all need a friend, a confidant, a person who’s on our side no matter what comes.
We all need to love and be loved.
The siblings are lovely. Though they don’t share with each other their daily struggles, they know when the others need them and they step up without fail. They speak in the silence without using words.
The Leads are so good together. They do an amazing job with their gazes, their body movements, their tones. There’s so much being said when neither are speaking. Truly talented cast!
Yes, I would’ve loved to see them more as a couple, but that wasn’t the point of this drama so I can be content with the happy ending we got. Their smiles say it all 💗
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-⬇️ S P O I L E R S 🚫 B E L O W ⬇️-
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The things I always want to know 😏😉…
- First(real)Kiss : ep.12 💋
- Together : ep.12 👩🏻❤️👨🏻
- BreakUp : ep.14 💔
- BackTogether : ep.16 ❤️🩹
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Well acted, somewhat problematic romance drama
There is a lot that is really good in this drama. The acting is really good, the script flows pretty well, and there is in my opinion strong chemistry between the main characters. The problems lie more in the directing. There is massive overuse of flashbacks which end up placing a very heavy handed forced third person omniscience over many of the emotional scenes. This shortchanges the actors, the cinematography, and the script leaving the watchers unable to be interpreters. Also the massive use of song tracks and backing music again does not suggest, it pushes towards emotions not always earned.It is a family drama in addition to being a romance, in fact it is arguably more the former. I guess, I would call this a relationship drama- it is about how the many interconnected lives evolve. I do recommend this if you are in the right mood to have a good story a bit forced on you.
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A subtle and well written melo
This was my intro back to dramas after a good 8-month hiatus and the bar was set pretty high after completing this. The has the elements of a melodrama but told in an almost slice-of-life way that makes it entertaining but still easy to digest.I think the best of this drama are the characters and, of course, the actors who brought them to life. I was looking for a female lead like Woo Jo. I love her straightforward (but not entitled) attitude. I like that she is not perfect. She is very flawed and frequently gets called out on her flaws but still very likable and relatable. I like how, though the ML’s character, she calls out the hypocrisies and fake “nice person” behavior we often see in drama and real life. LSK does an excellent job portraying her. I really liked our male lead and how gentle he was. It was nice to see how our leads matured and changed because of each other. In fact, I loved how all the characters stayed consistent while being allowed natural development as the episodes progressed. I really appreciate the story that was told. Given the character set-ups, they had a lot of opportunities to turn to annoying cliches (unnecessary love triangles or misunderstandings) but they didn't. In fact, it kind of feels like the story that could be told when you take away cliches. This lets the show explore its themes in a more mature and meaningful way, especially the concept of revenge.
The execution was decently good. There were a couple time the camera work, although on theme with the vibe, would feel a little slow, or an angled or artistic shot would be a second too long. Plus, the filter felt a little dark at times; I appreciated the daytime shots more. The music fit the mood of the drama well but not memorable outside of the drama.
Overall, this is a very well written and acted "subtle melo" with strong character development.
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Good Enough
Korean Drama " Call It Love " is a melodrama with interesting cinematography and a story focusing on family bonds and an unconventional love story.The drama, first of all, has inspirational cinematography, with a pink filter for the real-time timeline, while using harsh lighting for the flashbacks with stretched frames. The mood of the drama is also enjoyable, atmospheric, and chill.
On the other hand, the story was quite intense, even though the drama presented it in a more relaxing tone. Therefore, and even though it was reaching its end, it felt like there should be more episodes, as the story didn't seem to have kicked in or reached its climax, when the emotions burst and the melodrama reaches its peak. Rather, it felt anticlimactic and rushed.
As for the performances, everyone did a good job with their characters.
So, overall, seven out of ten.
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