When the Phone Rings

It starts with a situation, then becomes a story.

I knew that they only have 12 episodes, so the show will be fast paced. But this one really didn't give me enough time to breathe. The first half of episode 1 is all about world building. And they delivered it really well. They give all information in just the first 30-40 minutes, The personality, the couple relation, and the side characters. Thriller shows usually use hooks, to make the story more thrilling, but they used conflicts. As every episode you definitely will be conflicted.
Let's talk about it's negative first,
The only thing I want to complain about is its lazy screenplay in the finale episode, the scene holds too much information the whole Argan sequence needs to be stretched, to understand it in more depth. Only this one problem made the show worse. The lazy screenplay just decreased the whole quality of the show
Now it's positive,
1. Having a mature approach in the direction, of how they developed the understanding, after resolving all the miscommunication and misunderstandings between them.
2. Acting, All actors did an amazing job in portraying their role. Yoo Yeonseok and Chae Soo Bin you guys proved You are the best choice for this role. The one gem whom I wanted to highlight is our Kidnapper Park Jae Yun you deserve all the praise, The way you adapted your character was amazing. Same with all the senior experienced actors less screen time but huge impact.
3. The chemistry between the leads is amazing as in the first half there was zero lines between them it was one side conversation, still they managed to show that chemistry....
4. The thing I liked the most is that they didn't add too many unnecessary supporting characters in the plot, also the amount of screentime they gave to second leads is decent. Because half of the dramas in 2024, second leads were the highlight of the show and got more praised than the main leads.
5. The technical aspects of the show the sound design, cinematography, OST's were amazing. The OST made the scenes 10× better.
6. The last but not the least is a well written villain, Believe it or not the writing of Villain is 100% perfect. A psychopath who likes to play with peoples life by killing them, He gets thrill from doing that. But in Heeju's Sa Eon (Baek Yu Yeon's) case the whole situation is different.
Psychopath accomplished what He longed for He wanted to ruin Baek Yu Yeon and He accomplished that not physically but mentally this time. He made Baek Yu Yeon lose his mind that he stopped thinking rationally and started being dumb and acting cowardly.
The Romance of drama is divided into 4 parts
From Suspenseful/Thriller Romance, The starting of everything where the initial stage of the caring nature of Baek Sa Eon first appears.To slow burn which unfolds gradually, with the characters moving from emotional distance and mistrust to connection and reconciliation over time. To the psychological where romance emerges as a product of healing and understanding, with characters emotional states, traumas, and inner conflicts. To mature phase, where narrative focuses on a marriage rather than a budding love story, emphasizing the complexities and struggles of maintaining and rediscovering love in an established relationship.
Its not a perfect but a good show you can enjoy, it'll entertain you. And will not make you bore...

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OH MY GWAD!!! HEAR ME OUT!

GUYS I'm just so behind bcz of my exams but i can't stop myself from yapping about this anymore, i have watched only 5 episodes and the spoilers, acting, story, ost and EVERYTHING IS PERFECT and i have probably never got excited about a kdrama THIS MUCH before, every minute of this kdrama is amazing till now and I'm not dropping it. If a kdrama is getting me into only first few episodes like this... it's really A HIT. ALSO, I GOT AN UNHEALTHY OBSESSION. This is the best kdrama of this year for me!!! If you still haven't watched it or think it's not worth it, what are you doing with your life man?? JUST GO AHEAD AND WATCH IT BRUH 🎀😭😭✋🏻

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An entertaining drama with good visuals and acting

You can say whatever you want, criticize the story, age difference, loopholes, etc
But you can't deny that this drama appeals to the general public and garners high reviews because it's an entertaining story: NO it isn't realistic, it's a typical drama, and has a Netflix stamp on it, etc ...

BUT the characters are likable, with redeeming quality. The violence is not excessive.
The acting and chemistry were good. Yes, there were some cringy moments.

Ep 12 was unnecessary/nonsensical drama. But hey, let them add some fillers as the actor/actress really deserve some more screen time together! :-) I'll watch 13 for their kids' story too!

I didn't feel as if it was wasting my time. I felt entertained.
I am still giving a 10 despite all the loopholes and incredible scenarios. It's like comic story but it's entertaining.

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Love it!

This was one of my favorite shows ever. I know there has been a lot of controversies regarding the last episodes but I genuinely believe that Netflix mistranslated the subtitles. While I agree that even if it was mistranslated, it wasn’t necessary to involved those two countries, I do want to give the writers the benefit of the doubt that it was well intended. It could have been executed a lot better.

All that aside, while the last episode was wild I truly did enjoy it and loved the whole series. The actors, cast and crew did an amazing job. The styling was perfect too. I haven’t had a drama made me feel this way like at all and I’ve been watching kdramas since I was 6, and I’m 25 now. I also don’t rewatch shows but I’ve already started rewatching this.

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Truly one of the best Kdramas of 2024

When the Phone Rings has everything in it: sadness, Happiness, and a Thriller. It is a complete package. The acting of the entire cast was top-notch. From the start, the show gave the Wattpad-coded vibes. Yet the last episode was a little boring, especially the Argan part, which I felt was really unnecessary. Instead of that, if we had been shown a little story of the Second lead's love, it would have been better. Nonetheless, the show gave everything and had a very good pacing. Neither too slow to become boring nor too fast to leave many loopholes.
The OST was beautiful and catchy. I will give a little less on the rewatch value because for me it was a one-time watch as there were many plot twists and not many couple scenes of the main leads.
To anyone wishing to start it, do watch it without hesitation. Hands off it was a very good show.

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Best show ever for the first 10 episodes

I was absolutely hooked on this show from the first episode. Even my husband who doesn’t care for Korean shows was hooked. The actors were phenomenal. The story was thrilling, fast paced and kept you guessing. It was so intense that it was almost stressful to watch. Loved everything about it. I’d say it’s the best show I’ve seen in a long time.
And then.. the ending just got weird. It’s like the writers of episode 12 didn’t even read the scripts for the first 10 episodes. Episode 11 was a bit out there, but they could have saved it. Episode 12 seemed to change the original story line and none of it made sense. Major cliffhanger events from episode 11 were completely ignored in episode 12. The events in episode 12 referenced a history that was never really mentioned in the previous episodes. Who got shot? Who died? How the hell did they end up THERE?!?! How is he involved with those groups? None of it made any sense. This would have been an easy 10/10 until the very end.

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it a nice movie

This Drama is the savior of those failed to capture the heart of many kdrama fan like me. The turns and twist can makes you want more of it, the casting I mean the undeniable chemistry of the leads is quite amazing, before it aires some says it will fail as the leads age gap is huge but they prove it wrong. I watched 3 episodes, and I am already waiting for the next, there is a mystery from the past that connects the leads, and crazy how my intuition saying that the leads college friend is the mystery guy.This drama challenge the power of my intuition. Let see after more eps revealed. I hope the prod and director handle it well and not over cooked it. Kudos! we also feel the sparks between the two, it’s nice to be in love, much nicer if secretly.

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Junk food but somewhat tasty

The base plot of marriage of convenience and male lead having a secret crush on his wife was good. Chasing a serial killer along with ongoing development of romance between them, didn't make story boring. Some scene were idiotic that you can just laugh them off like him going to Argan so he can punish himself, i really laughed a lot at this one. It was also idiotic that how he has a crush on her but acted like a sworn enemy with her in those 3 years. The things he said to her were really mean, I don't think I would ever develop feelings for someone like him. I couldn't empathize with the male lead, so kiss scenes and any any other romantic scenes between them felt boring too. Maybe they should have explained more of his side or his feelings for her or some secret acts which shows his true feelings to make us sympathies for him.

The supporting cast was really good and none of the character from their was annoying. I managed to watch it till the end on binge and by fast forwarding some scenes that felt boring. Don't regret watching it but won't regret not watching it too.

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Feels like three different dramas in one

I seriously don’t understand the hype around this drama! I watched it because it got such good reviews! It looked like it would be an exciting drama and yes in some parts it was quite exciting (which is the main reason for getting any points).

First of all, I really disliked all the phone calls. It was so ridiculous after a while and sorry but it was not exciting at all! It was quite boring and lame tbh…

After Paik Sa-Eon finally finds out that the caller is his wife the drama starts picking up pace. They now team up to find the culprit and the back story with the Childcare Center and the missing children is being thematized now. Here I also wanna mention that Sangwoo and Yuri were my favorite couple and I really liked how we were fooled into thinking that Sangwoo was gonna be a bad guy but in the end he was so cool and smart and I wish we found out more about his past and the missing children case…
Park Do Jae was my favorite character from episode one and after a while I was getting a hunch that he was the accomplice. I feel like the drama gave a lot of clues for that and tbh if you were surprised by that then you are not paying enough attention to the scenes.
However I also thought that his missing twin brother was gonna be Paik Sa-Eon which he wasnt and I thought that was lame!!! How much MORE exciting and shocking it would have been!!!! In the end he was just the son of the old guy which I didn’t quite understand how it was not further explained!!! Like who is the mother?? What happened to her?? How?? Also, strange but in the end he is the brother of the man who was his fake father??? So many questions that I was hoping to get answers for in the Final Episode.

Which brings me to the main reason why I bumped the drama from initially 7 to finally 4 points… Not only were so many of my questions unanswered, but also we suddenly have the Final Episode of a seemingly completely different drama here!!!! 🤯 This last episode made absolutely NO SENSE to me whatsoever!!!! Like ok he is punishing himself but for what??? He didn’t kill the brother!!! And then why did he have to go to Argan? And omg all those ridiculous scenes with the rebels and her being kidnapped ughhh cringe!!! And him punishing himself for his “sins”??? What sins??? he is acting as if he was the one who wanted to kill the brother!!! Ughhh so much drama for nothing! No sorry but the last episode made me so angry!!!! AND it made me cringe!!! in general there were a lot of cringe-worthy scenes in the whole drama but the final episode just took the crown!!!!

That’s basically it!!! The only good points about this drama is the big secret that the Paik family was hiding with the switched out sons and the missing children case. In general that part of the drama kinda took the main spotlight and turned into the main plot for me so that we soon forgot about those anonymous phone calls, which in the end leads me to the drama title being a bad match for this story…

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