Twinkling Watermelon

just watch it

Twinkling Watermelon is a heartwarming and emotionally rich K-drama that masterfully blends time travel, music, and family dynamics. Directed by Son Jung Hyun, this drama aired in 2023 and quickly captured the hearts of viewers with its unique storyline, nostalgic 90s setting, and strong character development.

The story follows Ha Eun Gyeol (played by Ryeoun), a high school student who is a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults). Despite growing up in a deaf family, he has a deep passion for music, especially playing the guitar. His life takes an unexpected turn when he stumbles upon a mysterious music shop and is transported back in time to 1995. There, he meets his teenage father, Ha Yi Chan (Choi Hyun Wook), a free-spirited and enthusiastic student who dreams of becoming a rock star. Eun Gyeol decides to form a band with his young father and names it "Watermelon Sugar," hoping to guide him toward a better future. However, he soon realizes that changing the past isn't as simple as it seems.

One of the most remarkable aspects of Twinkling Watermelon is its ability to balance multiple themes. At its core, the drama is about family, love, and sacrifice. It highlights the struggles and misunderstandings between generations, especially between a hearing son and his deaf parents. Eun Gyeol's emotional journey of understanding and appreciating his family is deeply touching. The drama also explores the beauty of music as a universal language that connects people beyond barriers.

The performances in this drama are exceptional. Ryeoun delivers a heartfelt portrayal of Eun Gyeol, making the audience deeply connect with his struggles and emotions. Choi Hyun Wook brings charm and energy to his role as Yi Chan, capturing the carefree yet passionate nature of a 90s teenager. Seol In Ah and Shin Eun Soo also shine as the female leads, adding depth to the romantic and friendship aspects of the story. The chemistry between the characters feels natural, making their interactions even more engaging.

The time-travel element is handled well, creating an intriguing mix of past and present. Unlike many dramas where time travel is overly complicated, Twinkling Watermelon keeps it simple and meaningful. It allows viewers to reflect on how small choices can shape the future. The nostalgic 90s setting, with its vintage aesthetics and classic rock music, adds to the drama’s charm. The soundtrack is another highlight, featuring both original songs

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I believe the makers of this misunderstood who the main characters are…

This was amazing, I actually watched it twice before finishing the last EP cause I wanted to watch it with my sister before finishing it.

I enjoyed pretty much every part of this each time. I cried, I laughed…

This could have been a 10/10 drama, but the ending made that impossible. It wasn’t a terrible ending. Just way too much missing. Too many unanswered questions, leaving me vastly dissatisfied. This is the first time I believe a drama might need another episode, just to actually make the story be complete.

This in part had to do with the fact that I was watching this thing for what appears to have been the „side couple“, which for me was 100% absolutely the center of the whole series and they should have 100% elaborated a lot more on that.

Overall I still 100% recommend watching this though.

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Mastercall

It has been a staple ever since I remember, that K-dramas are associated with, corny, mid, pacey, and shallow stories on the level of every other bland soap opera trash show. With all the rosey plots that have the same characters, the same build-ups, and the same resolution. They feel like lazy reskins of otherwise, very boring third-grade media releases. Or so I thought, prior to watching Twinkling Watermelon.

Before watching, or even attempting to give this show a go, I was recommended to do so, but to avoid looking at any posters, or reading the synopsis, or even looking up the tags or the genre. I went completely and utterly blind on the show, and I think, that was the best way to experience it, as those mentioned give off way too much about the whole mystery running the narrative.

Think of it as the coming-of-age story that would change your outlook on all sorts of levels. Family, friendship, education, compassion, and dreams.

For me, this show taught me not just about life, but also that I shouldn't underestimate Korean dramas anymore, because this has been peak television.

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I feel like I want to eat watermelon too

when I saw the dragon studio logo, I was obviously going to watch the drama. At first I wasn't interested but there are lots of videos on TikTok showing footage of the drama which looks warm.

Sure enough, when I watched episode 1, this drama was already very interesting. Maybe the plot was a little slow in episode 1 and almost made me distracted, but in episode 2 it started to get more interesting.

I appreciate the acting of all the actors in this drama which is very soulful and beautiful. The sign language they displayed really made me want to remember the sign language lessons I had studied.

I really enjoyed the acting, ost, storyline, production and all the details. I hope this drama will get an award because it is very beautiful and heartwarming.

thank you to all the crew and cast for creating this very beautiful drama.

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Good Enough

Korean Drama '' Twinkling Watermelon '' is a slice of life, music, and fantasy drama.

The drama uses time travel to its fullest, smoothly using it to push the story forward, without forgetting about it once the plot starts unfolding. Rather, it is always there, and spices up the story here and there.

Also, the family drama was at its finest, intense enough to keep things dramatic, but also with sensitivity and sweetness throughout the family interactions.

The music, in addition, was pretty enjoyable, as were the performances by everyone in the cast. And even though the romance was cheesy and not its strongest suit, it was nice enough.

So, overall, seven out of ten.

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A High Quality Drama But The Emotional Weight Is Not As Consistently Strong As You Would Hope.

I’ll start by saying I put off watching this one. I purposely did not watch it while it was airing. There are certain dramas that I know I won’t get the most out of them if I don’t watch them at a time I am most receptive to them.

Disclaimer * I don’t think this was the most receptive time either, even though I enjoyed watching it. I plan to watch it again in the future to see if I can get more out of it.

That said, for now I think it is a 9/10 drama and not a 9.5 or a 10/10 drama. The positives for me are what makes it a 9/10 and not the usual 8.5/10 that I give to solid k-dramas is that it is a heartfelt story, the plot is pretty solid and the acting is pretty good. The reason I won’t elaborate on the positives is because I’ll be honest; apart from recognising it as a solid production, this story did not get me as deep as it ought to have. I’ll go into why I think this was.

Starting from episode 2, although I was aware that time travelling was involved, the abrupt introduction of the time traveling element at the end of ep 2 felt like a sharp turn transition wise. It was not smooth at all. It was like being in a race car and suddenly making an extreme turn with little to no preparation, except this was done with the theme. Usually in dramas that include fantasy, they sprinkle a little bit of the fantasy elements in the lead up to the full blown reveal of the fantastical part of the drama. With this one, it was almost two full hours of a slice of life family drama that seemed rudely interrupted by the fantasy element suddenly being dropped in. And this was my reaction as someone who WAS waiting and expecting the fantasy element.

Another thing was, I couldn’t help but feel like this drama was an amalgamation of several movies, music and popular culture storylines and references, all pieced together. It made a huge chunk of the drama feel like a knock-off, ensuring that I could never really get into it as all I could think was, “they’re copying so and so”. I don’t mind things serving as an inspiration for others but you really have to make it your own and create something new with it, but with this drama, a lot of the concepts and scenes seemed borrowed. Whenever I was drawn into the drama, I’d notice that a scene or concept resembled something else and it would immediately take me out of the scene.

I have a minor point to make about the way the scenes were cut/edited together. It didn’t affect the majority of the drama much, as it fit that youth-indie style type of visual aesthetic but when it came to the emotional scenes, it felt somewhat choppy aka not-so-smooth transitions. It meant that the emotions didn’t hit fully 100% because the viewers weren’t able to sit with those scenes and absorb the depths of emotions before it suddenly changed to another scene. Typically for emotional scenes to work best, there needs to be a build up of emotional tension that is finally released and the cameras should not cut away in the middle of that emotion being expressed. For example, the cameras should not cut away in the middle of someone’s heartbreaking crying scene as it’s like cutting off the climax of emotion right at the top, which results in an immediate plateauing of the emotional weight built up when our focus is shifted to another scene. Instead it should be like a hill with a slow rise to the climatic top and a smooth decent to the other side of that intense emotion. This must be done in order to properly build and sustain the emotional weight of what the characters are experiencing and their plight, to help forge the bond between the viewer and the character and to allow the viewer to really connect to what the character is feeling.

This fourth reason was the most jarring for me. I have to preface this by saying I’m not trying to assume what’s best for the hearing impaired community, I’m coming at this solely from the perspective of someone who knows what storytelling mechanisms resonate with an audience. That being said, the thing about this drama that made it the hardest for me to get into it was the fact that they dubbed the deaf characters. I can understand from a practical pov why this was done but surely someone in the creative chair should have known how much of the connection and the power of the performances of the actors playing the deaf characters would have been lost by doing this. If you don’t understand what I mean, go watch CODA and tell me that by having the focus of communication solely on the deaf characters’ facial expressions, the movements of their hands and only the silence to convey their ‘lines’; you didn’t feel everything they signed just a little more deeply. That you didn’t feel the frantic and the hard hitting angry signing or the soft signing in tender moments that much more. That you couldn’t feel the frustration of the characters through their hands more than with a dubbed voice overlayed on top to explain what they are saying. I’m sure it was useful for Korean viewers to not have to read subtitles but I’d argue they lost some of the power of the performance by doing this. Of course, I’m not saying you shouldn’t have dubbing. I understand that having dubbed dramas makes it more accessible for different types of audiences such as vision impaired viewers. I’m not saying dubbing should not be available. Just like I’m not saying subtitles should not be available. I know these are both very useful features for making dramas more accessible to others. What I’m saying is that these should have been optional and the drama should have been released un-dubbed with the option to select dubbing as needed, as you do with subtitles.

If at the end of this you are wondering why I rated it so highly if I had so many critiques. It’s because of three things. One, this drama had excellent characterisation. Like truly excellent (especially the father and son). Two, I did enjoy watching it. It won’t make it on my favourites list but I really did enjoy it. And three, I like to give dramas and movies their dues. Even if I don’t fall in love with a drama, I still rate them objectively by what they have to offer and what they do well. This drama was a solid, above average and at times, truly above average, drama.

If you ask me what could have made it a 10/10, I’d say, not rushing past the emotional scenes too quickly, not dubbing the deaf characters and finally; trusting the foundation of the story more - which was a story about a boy’s love for his father and vice versa, while grappling with the difficulties of being a CODA. If they did this without trying to borrow from other films, dramas, music or American popular culture; it could have been a 10/10 drama that stayed with me.

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solid show with great actors

I binged this show in 2 days!!! I was totally hooked!!! I seriously adored all of the actors, every one of them played their parts really really well (especially the young cast) !!!!!

HOWEVER, I found parts of it a little cliche, I honestly expected a better soundtrack for a show about music, and I didn't like the ending. The ending felt very rushed and like they just wanted to put a bow on top of everything all pretty without doing all the effort to get there. I actually didn't hate the love triangle in this show, I felt the time-travel aspect put enough of a twist on it so it wasn't too cliche. I also sincerely appreciate how the love triangle didn't last for the entire show like many others do. I felt like the plot got a little messy in the fourth quarter, but it was acceptable, there really is no way to make a time travel show not have plot holes and weirdness going on. I also felt like they kind of overdid it with the connections thing, like not everyone has to be connected in weird ways... sometimes people just live unrelated lives.

BUT I still found many many things I loved about this show. I loved how good the actors were and I felt like (as someone who isn't deaf and knows exactly 0 deaf people) it was good representation of deaf people and the struggles they face. I really liked
Ha Eun Gyeol's character arc, and Ryeoun's acting was quite good. He really mastered his character and I felt that he wholly cared only about the others, without a hint of selfishness (for the most part). . I also sincerely loved every single second that Ha Yi Chan was on screen (he's so hot). I felt that Choi Hyun Wook absolutely devoured this role, like there wasn't a single time during the entire length of the show where I felt like his acting was off. Same thing for Shin Eun Soo she absolutely ate up this role and perfectly conveyed her character in every single scene. Seol In Ah's acting was good, but I didn't feel the same greatness that the other actors delivered. I really can't pick anything out in particular that I thought was bad or wrong, but her vibe wasn't quite there as much as the others.

FINAL THOUGTS:
It was definitely worth the watch and I might recommend this to friends and such. It was a fantastic coming of age story and it was very touching. The time travel was much better executed than many other similar shows, and overall I enjoyed this show. I wasn't bored once!!

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Viva La Vida! ✨

This was my first time travel drama, and it surely did not disappoint!

I thought it would be a simple story of a boy travelling back to the past to meet his parents with a bunch of crackhead moments, but this was a tearjerker. :')

Things I loved:
- I SOOOO LOVEEE both the female leads. Both have such strong characters !!!
- The chaotic relationship between Eun Gyeol and his father!
- The family dynamic between the bandmates!
The friendship that was made even if it started out as a chaos between them
- Episode 15!
- The OSTs! Chef's kiss! Shining was so good!
- RYEOUN! He got my heart tbh.

Even though he wasn't able to change the fact that his father lost his hearing, he absolutely changed how he viewed life from then on and got him to enjoy what he actually loved. He also helped his mother which was my favorite scene, by the way.

Everything about this drama was seriously worth the hype despite its minimal flaws.

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I wondered what people found about this series to rate it so high. After a few episodes, I've become a bit of a fan of this cast. The time travel thing is a bit of an overused plot, but the story remains cute and unique.

Only one person in this family can hear and speak, the brother and parents are deaf. He loves playing the guitar and making music but feels guilty towards his father who wants him to become a doctor. “Ottokee?” Please the father or follow his dream?
He has a flashback to the past and finds himself in 1995, he meets his young parents and wants to avoid an accident to change the future of his family for the better, but he must be very careful, otherwise there could be big problems, such as the possibility of not being born .

I really liked the guy Ha Eun Gyeol (actor Ryeoun), a great guy between Park Bo Gum and Cha Eun Woo.

Interesting to see sign language. I also appreciated all characters and the beautiful songs.
For those who don't know, the singer of Spine9 is a singer of iKon.

PS: I was wondering what the watermelon was in the title and I discovered that it refers to Frida Kahlo's last painting, called "Viva la Vida" which had watermelons as its subject.

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If Back to the Future Was Made in Korea...

I know Twinkling Watermelon is a highly rated K-drama. It's even branded as one of the best K-dramas ever made. But frankly, I think it's just above-average good. Probably one of the better ones out there but definitely not flawless or even close to being up there with the best, imho. It's still pretty good and worth the watch, though.

First off, this is a Koreanized version of Back to the Future. Yes, yes, they are not completely the same. I'm not saying it's a Korean remake of this Hollywood classic nor do I think it's a copycat. But they did take the plot of the first Back to the Future film, tweaked it, mixed in some undeniable Korean flavors (gochujang and sesame oil and everything), and then added a social commentary about physical disabilities to make a family oriented drama that's moving and heartwarming with memorable characters and wonderful life lessons. Yes, I did like this drama to an extent. But it was more because of the characters. Despite its flaws, it was an entertaining watch.

Let's talk about the things I disliked first. If you've seen the Back to the Future films, you'd recognize the similarities, from the time travel aspect (the main character meeting his parents and getting them to date because he messed things up) to literally changing their lives for the better. There's also a Doc Brown character who takes him back to the past and becomes his mentor. Plus, he happens to be a talented guitarist like Marty McFly and also plays rock 'n roll music that sounds either like the 1950's-60's classic rock featured in BTTF or modern-day K-pop, which sucks because this was set in 1995 when alternative music ruled the airwaves. Sure, they did mention Kurt Cobain, made references to Nirvana, and showed posters of Bon Jovi and album covers of Radiohead's Pablo Honey. But they're no more than just cosmetic add-ons to remind people that the drama is set in the 90's. It doesn't really feel authentic, though. Apart from the pagers, cassette tapes, and vintage computers, it felt like any other K-drama set in the present. I thought maybe they just wrote a script and had to pick a timeline based on the ages of the main characters and their parents when they were teens. Nothing about the plot screamed original to me and I felt that little to no research was done about that era because none of the music they chose for this drama fit the setting. Not to mention they kept talking about Kurt Cobain as if he was still alive. He committed suicide in 1994 due to depression, and he was even rumored to have been murdered by his own wife. So for them to say that they want to be like Kurt who can get all the pretty girls was downright insensitive and ignorant. Also, by 1995, the bands that were making waves worldwide were Smashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam. Kurt's death ended the grunge era and made way to alternative and post-grunge music. I know because I lived through this era. I'm the same age as the parents in this drama and I was a huge rock fan back in the day. So the musical aspect and overall atmosphere really disappointed me because the setting just felt like a studio instead of an actual place, and the vibe just didn't feel like the 90's at all. I also wished they had made Eun Gyeol more skilled at playing the guitar because for a supposed musical genius, his skills weren't very extraordinary. For someone who started playing the guitar at a young age and continued to improve over the years, he should've sounded way better.

Another thing I disliked is the way they handled the time travel. In theory, you can't alter your past by traveling through time and go back to a changed present, rather you'll end up creating an alternate timeline or a different dimension. But since they borrowed the concept from BTTF, the main character ends up changing the past and creating a new future for himself and his loved ones. I don't mind this as much. But they should've corrected what BTTF got wrong, which is making the parents remember Eun Gyeol and putting two and two together. After all, they spent a good amount of time with him, even had pictures of him lying around. They should've seen the resemblance between their son and the guy they used to know, and how they're so alike in personality. That's the part where I had to try hard to suspend my disbelief. Unlike Marty who only spent a few days with his parents, Eun Gyeol actually lived with them, bonded with them, and played a huge part in their lives. He formed a band with his own dad and his friends, and became his mom's savior. How could they have forgotten him? None of them even looked for him when he left? Not even one mention of the Eun Gyeol they knew as teens.

I also think the drama could've been shorter. There were far too many unnecessary scenes and music video-ish montages that are very typical of K-dramas. This is the biggest downside of implementing hour-long 16-episode dramas instead of just choosing the optimum length for a drama depending on the story content. I'm glad that other dramas are dropping this format and going for shorter episodes and run time, it makes the drama more compact and the pacing faster.

But those are the only ones I have complaints about, the rest I actually really enjoyed. The cast, for the most part, are excellent. They played their roles to a tee. Although I thought Choi Hyun Wook as Yi Chan was a bit too extra. I mean, I think he acted great in this but did he have to shout all the time? It was driving me nuts! lol My favorite was the ex-gang member bass player, though. I actually loved the side characters, they were so much fun! And the kid who played young Eun Gyeol really stood out to me. When he cried, I cried. Really good child actor! I hope to see him in future projects.

Even though the story closely resembles that of BTTF, I like that they put their own spin on it and made it obviously Korean. I also appreciate the fact that they pushed the social commentary about prejudism against people with disabilities. I don't think any K-drama has tackled that issue before, so I'm glad they made it an integral part of the plot. We need more social awareness for these kinds of topics. I wasn't too fond of the romance but that's just me. Romance is just not my thing. But I did find myself wanting to watch one episode after another. If I wasn't so busy with work that I only had time to watch a couple of episodes before bed time, I would've binged the whole thing. All in all, this was an enjoyable drama that left me feeling great after completing it. It's a great feel-good family oriented drama that can bring you to tears, but also make you laugh and take you back to a more carefree time.

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