This review may contain spoilers
This show left me in a tight spot. If you look at the show summary, you can tell the storyline is lame. And it's actually lame, how the heck a student ends up with a shaman? However, they transformed the lame story piece by piece into a beautiful and fun parts. Each part of the story is enjoyable, and it has a generous amount of comedy. The comedy quality is really good and consistent here, thanks to Park Seong A, Pyo Ji Ho, The Flower Master Shaman, and all the casts playing them. Then when you try to think about all of it by connecting each piece of the show into one story you'll start to think it's lame again, especially on the last two episodes. Looks like they've lost it from there.The casts delivered this story beautifully. Cho Yi Hyun was astonishingly excellent in this show, she played the highschooler and shaman very well and fun. Cha Kang Yoon also did a great job. Choo Young Woo was also good, although I prefer the Bong Su version of him rather than the original Gyeon U.
This show lacks of backstory telling. The backstory of each characters were rarely told, several even left behing. I can't understand why Seong A actual parents left her when she was their "moneymaker". They didn't told us what made Gyeon U family tied so hard to Yeom Hwa, and where's the closure between Gyeon U and his family? Pyo Ji Ho was often left behind, and even had no backstory. His parents didn't even attend his graduation, I wonder why. It looked like he had been put aside especially since Seong A left the school. Yeom Hwa accused General Dong Cheon of resenting her after separating her from her deceased baby, but what kind of "resentment" was never clear.
This show has good music. Overall it's very funny and fun to watch and rewatch, even though the storyline could make you scratch your head.
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Flawed, but a heartfelt story
Characters:Characters were overall very good and well balanced. We had complex male and female leads with Seong-A and Gyeon-U. Yeomhwa as the villain was very interesting, but I felt like her character arc didn’t have enough time to unfold properly. I also didn’t fully understand her backstory because it was never explicitly explained what happened between her and her spiritual mother.
I really liked our second lead Ji-Ho, who was selfless all the time and basically a loyal puppy. I also really liked the chemistry between all the characters. Not just the leads, but also the mother-daughter bond was really nice. The classmates had great dynamics as well, especially Do Yeon and Seong-A, which surprised me in a good way. I would say the characters themselves are the strongest part of this drama.
But let’s move on to the parts where it could have been better.
Story:
The concept and idea behind the drama were nice, but what I didn’t like was that they didn’t really follow the main thread of the story. At first, everything was about saving Gyeon-U from his death, but they kind of resolved that halfway through. Keeping that conflict until the end would have made the drama much stronger and kept the tension alive. Instead, the focus shifted and things became messy.
There were a lot of plot holes, and characters like Ji-Ho suddenly didn’t act like themselves anymore. This was especially apparent when he went to Yeomhwa to find a solution for his friend. Why didn’t he just communicate with his friends instead, especially when he already thought Yeomhwa was sketchy? A lot of things suddenly stopped making sense, which was unfortunate.
I also felt like the main leads didn’t really develop as characters. They weren’t flawed enough to gain or learn something significant along the way. After the halfway point, some plot points also started repeating themselves, like Bong-Su first inhabiting Gyeon-U’s body and then later Seong-A’s.
It also didn’t feel like much was truly at stake. The first time Bong-Su appeared, I thought that would be the end for our group, but he ended up being a little child. The same thing happened when he later possessed Seong-A. I thought, “Okay, now our group is really in trouble,” but again nothing serious happened. Because of that, it always felt like there wouldn’t be real consequences, which made the tension weaker.
Other than that, I liked the ending. It was a happy ending, even though our spiritual mother died in the end, which made me really sad.
Production:
Production-wise, it was good. I liked some of the OSTs, and the cinematography was nice.
Final Words:
Overall, it’s a cute drama to watch if you enjoy bonding with the characters. Even though it has quite a few flaws, it still grew on me and ended up being a nice heartfelt watch.
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Cheap trashy SOAPY soap dangerous fantasy for teenagers
OK..... teenagers love "interesting" stuff but this kdrama is plain DANGEROUS, as it portrays some scary and dangerous things that are not to be meddled with. This is beyond Hogwarts and into the realm of soemthing super creepy and infectiously dangerous.There are much more high quality fantasy stories for teenagers, like Twinkling Watermellon etc
Here we have the FL talking with puckered lips and affectionating yet chasing life or death situations
and the dude not acting much, yeah he is handsome but he is more handsome when he smiles and talks etc when he is more ALIVE
ML is acually more fun as the evil deity. And FL too...
The plot is the cheesiest possible soapy soap - so many twists and turns that are .... makjang to the max...and worse.... all kinds of curses and ghosts etc
and the soap of love loyalty betrayal etc
fascinatingly flasy trashy hodge podge that doesnt lead anywhere nor improves anything.
Actually ... this is exactly like Harry Potter stories. Lots of stuff happens and actually nothing important happens. IT IS TRASH CONTENT
Yeah if you are a teenager you might like it but this is not a quality teenage drama
And just one word of warning, this drama exposes you to some images and concepts that you should not be fooling around with. It is actually quite dangerous. Like ... ojiba board or something. DO NOT MEDDLE WHERE YOU SHOULD NOT
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Be that as it may, I forced myself to get over it and continued watching. I am on episode 5 and I am loving this show. It's got emotional moments for sure and it's got beautiful romance. Worth a watch. The two leads are so cute together and there's chemistry between them.
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An interesting look into Shamanism with excellent performance by the whole cast
Subjective Gut Rating: 8.75I had a surprisingly fun time watching “Head over Heels”. I wasn’t expecting much despite the general positive reviews and I also didn’t pay much attention to the synopsis. All I knew it’s that the female lead is a shaman and the drama was set in high school.
It turns out “Head over Heels” kept my attention and interests almost throughout all 12 episodes in my 2-day binge session. It has a great combination of shamanism, high school friendship and romance, mixed with tragic childhoods that work well with the shamanism and exorcism themes in the drama.
The acting is great. I’ve seen the leads in previous dramas before, but never thought their acting was excellent (they weren’t bad). But I have to say, both Cho Yi Hyun and Choo Young Woo are excellent. They play roles that appear to be typical high school students. However, their characters are more than meets the eye, but layered and display different personalities based on who they are interacting with. Emotional scenes are heartbreaking, yet sweet scenes are heartwarming. They toy with my emotions quite a big in this drama. They are also pleasing visually, and have great chemistry together. Cha Kang Yoon is adorable as the second male lead, and though his character might not be as challenging, he is pretty good himself. The veterans do not disappoint, especially when you have everyone’s favorite ahjumma Kim Mi Kyung and the always funny Yoon Byung Hee. Choo Ja Hyun being the villain of the show really tested my patience and that’s of course in part because of the great acting.
Another aspect I really enjoy is the focus of shamanism. I’ve seen other K-dramas with shamans, but I don’t think I’ve seen one with such a strong theme and focus. I enjoy watching and learning the culture, rites, and costumes. The dance done by the female leads with the lanterns was beautiful. The rituals look like it’s a lot of work, physically and mentally. I have no way of knowing how accurate the portrayal of shamans is, but I enjoy every aspect of it shown in the drama.
The romance is sweet, even though I am not a fan of love at first sight. At least there’s a reason why FL needs and wants to approach ML. Mmm… not sure if I would categorize the romance as slow burn but if you want to see the leads together, you will need to be patient. I also don’t think there are enough cute and fluffy scenes, especially after a somewhat long wait. There is of course, a sweet and adorable 2ML. But the love triangle is healthy and supportive. In fact, the bromance between the male leads is fantastic. The trio really are best friends and they are very supportive of each other through thick and thin.
If I have to criticize, the writing in the last few episodes was not as strong and tight when the focus switches to the villain. Even though the leads are still very much part of this plot, I felt the villain’s story took up too much screen time and I didn’t feel like I got a proper background story. We had a few flashbacks but not enough to persuade me that her actions are justified. It was difficult for me to feel sympathetic to her situation. Her constant lies became repetitive and I wonder why any of the characters continue to believe her. At one point, I thought she was de-shamanize (can’t be a shaman anymore) yet she continues to perform evil rituals and cast evil spells. Did I miss something? The evil spirit was introduced as something truly horrific and then we got… Bong Su? Definitely not what I was expecting, and I also felt the writing of his story lacks fluidity and clarity.
Having said all that, I truly had a fun time watching “Head over Heels”. The engaging plot, excellent acting, great friendship far outweigh my problem with the writing in the last quarter of the drama. It also toys with my emotions 'beautifully' by making me laugh, grin, and cry. Objectively, this drama might not be worth my 8.75 rating, but from an entertainment perspective, it deserves it.
Completed: 8/7/2025 Review #611
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Made for a Teenage Audience
Already after the first episode, it becomes clear the series is obviously aimed primarily at a teenage audience.Apparently, there was no real synopsis at all; it seems to me that it was being made up on the fly during filming—otherwise. Compared to a theme like shamanism, one could say that "The Book of Our Destiny" with Ro Woon etc... actually looks like great . At least there was a simple but quite charming plot and a likable main couple—Ro Woon and Cho Bo-a. Here, they cast young, still-rising actors (the guy, yes, has some interesting projects, but he looks thirty, while the girl looks eighteen; the combination is completely unconvincing).
This shamanic storytelling, aimed primarily at teenagers, offers nothing truly worthwhile. Two excellent actresses—Kim Mi-kyung and Chu Ja-hyun—seem to have participated only for the paycheck. On top of that, the school setting is already pretty tiresome. They clearly released this project right after "Hunted Palace" to capture the same “vibes” . From a popularity standpoint, it may have worked, but definitely not for me.
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A high school love story with a twist of horror
A shaman girl (Park Seong A) and a student, living a secret dual life at school and her home. Her aegyo is commendable, it matches her face and voice. She has a lovable family which includes her spirit mother and a care taker who's a child at heart.Our male lead (Bae Gyeon U) entered with a boring and sad face, but his frowning face evolves to a smiley one, thanks to our seong a. Keeping him alive is seong a's goal as she fell in love at first sight, she's ready fight every ghosts to keep him alive for 21 days. Gyeon U's grandmother is his only family, but there's more to his story which is yet to known.
Second lead (Pyo Ji Ho) is ready give us a heartbreak with his cute & courageous gesture towards almost everyone however more towards seong a. Just a hunch that he might have a lot of scenes in the future either as a rescuer or as a destroyer, waiting is what we are left with.
Villain smile (Yeom Hwa) is very creepy, I don't remember her from any other dramas, let's what to come towards our cute love birds.
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Waste of time.
Fun till about episode 7 or so, then it becomes so stupid with plot holes so big, it deserves to be studied.So congratulations to Head Over Heels for being the first ever Studio Dragon work that I dropped midway.
Also it's 2025, stop giving a romance story an unnecessary dumb triangle like this.
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This review may contain spoilers
I enjoyed it! Very cute and fun Series!
I actually really enjoyed this series our start off by saying everyone keeps mentioning the last two episodes aren’t as good and that they tanked?? I personally didn’t see it??The series is a whole was just cute sweet bit funny a few tense moments and I did cry in the last two episodes but overall it was really sweet. All the characters and then the love triangle the way it all got tied up in the last two episodes was really really sweet throughout you kind of liked one character than liked another and I really liked the general when she passed. That did make me cry and I’m so glad heaven an earthly fairy survived and they got their little happy ever after.!!
Yeah, I’m not really sure why everyone said the last two episodes weren’t very good. I just watched them and they were really good. They answered most of the questions okay Bongsu had a really quick ending he just said goodbye and that was it and why didn’t understand it? It looked like he didn’t know his name?? But he was a child so I kind of forgave him for that and all worked out in the end!
Would definitely recommend this drama if you’re wanting something cute, funny fast paced bit of romance but a bit of fantasy as well.
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THIS IS WHAT I NEEDED!!
This kind of drama I needed and I didn't regret Watching it plus I am so happy that I watched this. You will also be not regretting watching it.OVERVIEW:
Basically his drama is based on shamans who are the people who help people to get way from spirits and ghost. The main characters names are Seong-A (female lead) who is a shaman , Gyeong-U(male lead) who don't like all these shaman things and don't believe in all these. Jiho(female lead bestfriend) who knows that seong A id a shaman and they have been together since 10th grade he helped seong A a lot he also likes her secretly.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
Like I said earlier that he doesn't believe in all these shaman things but he have only 21 days to live and there is also a spirit after him. So one day him and his grandmother came to Seong A(the female lead) she was in her shaman costume and had a mask on her face. So when they came in she fell in love with him at first sight it's the case SHE FELL FIRST AND HE FELL HARDER. So her grandmother asked her favour that please save his grandson(Gyeong U the male lead) let him live more than 21 days or like let him have a normal lifeline like a normal person she asked her mother who is also a shaman to help him and her mother said yes because seong A loves him. The next day when she was in school a new transfree student came in and it was him gyeong U. She was trying to be his friend because he was very introvert and she also tells about him to his bsf jiho.
After some days she was going after him and her bsf they had a trio as their friend circle they three was always together even though gyeong u always find them annoying but had so much with them only.
MAIN PART STARTS HERE:
There is a house in their town and in that house there is a really dangerous evil spirit(they assumed that it was dangerous) everyday they went their outside the house and tried their best to trap that evil spirit in that house (it is already in there but they are just doing extra things to trap that Evil spirit in the house and kill that evil spirit). After some days, both of them the male lead and female lead confessed each other their feelings and they are in relationship I know they are already in relationship but so many things are coming in their way in the upcoming episodes.
One day one of their classmates were running from his father and went into that house but he doesn't knew that there is some kind of evil spirit in there. So seong A, gyeong U and jiho got to know and seong A ran then after her gyeong U ran and after him jiho ran. Then seong A got into that house (now it's the part where the real drama starts). As I told you that gyeong U and jiho ran after seong A so seong A got into that house because shamans can enter that house but a normal person can but they have to struggle to open that and seong A's mother and other shamans heard this news and ran towards her. Gyeong U open that door with so much force he saw she was trying to drag their friend who went their without knowing he goes to help her and door suddenly the door closed so she ran towards door to open it and when she turned around she saw that in a short period of time the evil spirit got into gyeong U. She was so scared then the evil spirit touched her then gyeong U came back so in the conclusion when gyeong U body comes in contact with seong A the body will become of gyeong U and when he loses contact with him he becomes the evil spirit.
After a while so many things happened let me tell you guys the key points:-
•Seong A named the evil spirit Bong su.
•Bong su started liking Seong A
•Jiho confessed his feelings for seong A but she rejected him but they stayed friends
•A second lead couple came the friend who went into that house he and their classmate.
•The friends in their class started to like Bong su more than gyeong U but they didn't knew a evil spirit got into him.
•There was a scene where the teacher asked them what is their dream? So seong A written To attend graduation ceremony but the fate even took that from her I'll tell you why.
After 3 yrs, seong A disappeared because she thought if she'll be gone everything will gone and after she left the evil spirit was gone from gyeong U body and she returned after 3 yrs but she was very very very changed because bong-su got into her body now then it went into gyeong u's body again(reading this must be very boring but when you will watch the drama you will be amazed and you want to watch these kind of dramas.
LET'S RATE IT IN DIFFERENT THINGS:-
1. Story - The story is very different and veryyyyyyyyy amazing like I want more dramas like this.
2. Acting/Casting - The acting of both leads are very Good and the acting of the male lead was like very good I want him to have an award for his role and for his acting.
3. Music - I don't usually talk about music a lot but the music was good as far I heard it.
4. Re-watch Value - This drama is very good that I want to watch it more and more again and again and whenever my mood is ruined I'll watch it.
This drama is very good like you will feel like you want to watch more dramas like this.
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An original way of telling a story about the true meaning of family
I really loved how well everything is written in all aspects—plot, storytelling, dialogue and even the pacing. This really allowed the actors to show their full potential and so I'm not surprised that, in my opinion, this is the best Cho Yihyun's best work to date and one of my favorite dramas that featured the legendary Kim Migyung.It's not always you get a story that uses shamanism as basis for the story and its main characters, and this drama is one of the very few—if not the only—instance where it is used in a modern context instead of a historical/sageuk drama context. I loved how they used many elements and components of it to tell a story of family, reconciliation, romance, trauma and healing which gave me something very new and original from how other dramas of similar genres and topics would tell this type of story.
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