A Hundred Memories

IF ALL CHARACTERS CAN BE MASS MURDERED FOR AN UGLY PLOT, THIS SHOW WILL BE THE PRIME EXAMPLE.

I’ll analyse characters with my perspective for you, because there is no plot. Only assassinated characters. This will be my review.

1. YEONG RYE:
uhmmm…. sigh! I liked her so much as the drama began. But I’m telling you she feels like this two-faced green flag wrapped not so green flag. Do you get it? It’s more like, to her, Jeong Hui’s sacrifices never mattered. On the surface she missed her. Inside she didn’t like how JH came back for her friendship and love. I get that YR and Jae Pil have now become closer but she freakin KNEW that her best friend liked him and he liked her as well. You broke the girl code dude. Could’ve not longed for his love when she got to know that they both liked each other or at least, when JH left because of you!!

I’m not saying that just because JH has done so many sacrifices, now YR must be grateful to her till eternity and clean her feet or something, but YR could’ve really chosen not to still harbour feelings for her best friend’s boyfriend. Her own feelings were more important than anyone else’s. She said goodbye to her first love, but never truly did. On the surface she sacrificed, but never really did. Felt like a show. And I think there are many such things like that. MISS KOREA!!! It was your friend’s dream all along. You knew it. No, the scholarship excuse doesn’t suffice.

YR’s character felt so shallow. I felt like she is something, but was portrayed to look like something else. Just because she is the FL the writers wanted her to look nice at the end, so they made JH the bish. But to me, YR felt like the real problem here. The writers just forcefully tried to install that she is the HERO. But it felt like a hollow well.

2. JEONG HUI:
What is she? God’s most unfavourite child or something? Like bro… is she even human at this point? Sacrificing her most important life choices left and right as if she is Jesus or smthg. Didn’t girl start off as someone who has a backbone? Now the writers don’t want her to become a bigger emotional ride on people’s minds cuz she is not the FL, so they turn her arc and make her the villain? What in the world??? SHE EFFIN DESERVES HAPPINESS!!! Tell me one character in this huge ahh casted drama that would choose JH over everyone else? Girl is like STRONG STRONG to choose these people over and over. She DESERVES the best…. away from all these people and drama. And gorforsaken for once she blurted her trauma, she is made to look like the villain? Everyone blames her and looks at her like she is guilty? Ew… they were never her people and she gave away everything she had for these very people. SAD.

3. JAEP PIL:
He is not the red flag. Sure. But definitely someone who feels things just for the sake of feeling things. All the bond that he shared with JH meant nothing to him. He was fully aware that she she still liked him before she had to leave everything and go. So now no feelings, bye???? Then YR. He wants her because he wants to pay back for what she has done to him and his family. More like repayment of loan with interest than love. It’s like he ticked boxes. We are compatible because I don’t eat tomato, she takes mine. Okay. She took care of my father. Okay. She loved me first. Okay. All boxes ticked. And then, oh competition! I must win. So let’s repay and win??? If this is real life, I swear they’ll get separated sooner or later because there was never love from his side. When the repayment is enough, there will be nothing left. I felt bad for YR in this thing because she deserved love. Not a conditional clause.

4. JEONG HYUN:
??? What happened to my Mr. Cool? His character had so much potential. But because he was not casted for the main lead, he shall suffer. No other reason. Character development what? This is character deterioration. Man had seven years to get closer to YR. He went away? Why? I understand JH for being away for seven years, but what reason did this man have? He loved her but didn’t put the effort at the right time. Anyway, his character felt like he was being reduced just because he is not the male lead.

5. YEONG SIK:
Consitently the only good guy. Bro doesn’t lift a finger tho. Never goes and puts efforts to get the girl. He just waits until she gets exhausted and comes to him. IDK if I had to feel good for him waiting and helping her when no one is there or bad because he never actively took the stand to show his love. He is just there in the background eating popcorn. He’s like- “Tell me when all of this drama is over. Things will fall in their places. I don’t have to do anything.” What in the ‘Eat Five Star and Do Nothing’ is this??? But I can never hate him. I felt like he was the only consistently been character out of the plethora of them. I only wished that he got involved a bit more.

6. MA SEONG CHEOL:
Play that ‘Eh? Eh? Ehhhhhh??? Ehhhhhhhhh!!!’ sound please. So much happened with this guy, but no one knows why it happened because it was never shown. I loved his character in the first half, it brought all the fun. But again, bro was sidelined. Then they came up with a new story for him. And no fly was convinced. How did he go from loving one woman to the other? It was only iterated that he likes taking care of the child so now he wants to take care of the child’s mom. The end??

SUMMING UP:
Worst plot. All characters are assassinated for the leads to get their ending- a story which doesn’t make sense. Waste of a beautiful cast and potential packed actors. Love you Dami and Shin Ye Eun. This drama can’t overpower my love for you. lol. This drama is more frustrating than healing. Didn’t expect this ridiculousness from a writer like her.I would rate it lower if not for the actors working hard and doing their job and the first half of the drama where the friendship between YR and JH was actually celebrated unlike the second half where all essence of the drama is lost for Hero making rubbish plot. I finished it just because I began watching it. Sick ride. Never recommend.

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So why was Jae Pil here? - An entertaining failure...

The drama that initially presents itself as a story of female friendship, that's how it sets up the plot, that's who they introduce as main characters, that's how the synopsis is written… and yet the way they went about it and told the story got people hating either female leads and fighting who is worse of a friend. There is no real message, there is no clear vision. There are just things happening and a lot of frustration. It was fun, but at the end felt cheap. Like eating fast food - you might enjoy the taste as you eat, but later you suffer from indigestion.

Personally I think there are 3 major flaws in the show that truly could ruin a viewing experience and almost ruined it for me.

First of all - the hard cut that happened with the time jump. By all means you will basically watch 2 completely different shows. All the character development happens behind the scenes and we never witness it, hence who you saw in the first half is not who you follow in the second half. The transition was poorly planned and delivered. They needed to reintroduce all the characters since they are in a completely different point of their lives which, with how many plotlines the drama had anyway, feels like a waste of time. Even though I prefer linear storytelling, I do believe in this case mixing the two timelines throughout the show would be a better way to present the story and make it feel more balanced.

The time jump leads me to the second issue - Yeong Rae and Jae Pil’s relationship. First of all, no it’s not like I disliked them because I wanted him with Jong Hui (I was full on Jong Hui and Yeong Sik shipper). I disliked them, because the way their story was directed and presented was just trash planning that took away all the things that should make me feel something. Sadly they literally skipped all the butterflies inducing moments, all the build up, falling in love, the moments that made them appreciate each other more. We got none of that - just a short one minute flashback. This is NOT how you write romance. Romance is all about feelings. You cannot just tell me he fell in love with her, because she supported him. You need to show me that journey, I need to experience it with the characters. Otherwise I won’t give a shit. And so I did not give a shit about them. Were they cute when they started to date? Sure. Did I care? No really. I guess I didn’t even dislike them, I just did not care at all.

There was literally zero set up for their romance, at least on Jae Pil’s side. He was completely not interested in her in the first half. There were zero romantic feelings. No attraction. So for that love line the whole first half was useless. Young Rae’s story of falling in love was “love from first sight” that could be done in just one episode. And then after the time jump we are told by all the characters around Jae Pil that there is more between them. Everyone is convinced they will date. Everyone tells him to look into his feelings. And I’m sitting in front of the laptop and think: how the fuck did this happen? When? What exactly made him fall for her? Was it gradual? Was it a specific moment that made him see her in a different light? Why aren’t they showing us THAT? And the way they just wanted to cover it all up with a short flashback montage was a pathetic circus of writing.

Going back to the topic of lack of balance - what was the writer thinking when they decided to put all the pain and misfortune on Jong Hui while surrounding Young Rae with all the love and happiness? What kind of sick trauma porn was it? When yet another bad thing happened to Jong Hui, at some point I just started to laugh, because it was purely ridiculous. While for Young Rae the bad things that happened led to better outcomes long term, even if Jong Hui received something good, it then led to more pain. For example - Yeong Rae got fired from work in an unjust way? Right away she got a new better job with far more opportunities. Jong Hui saved someone from attempted suicide and thought she found a new family and home? The mother turns out to be abusive and manipulative. It was just exhausting to see her get slapped in the face by life over and over again, when by all means she did nothing wrong.

I’m just struggling to grasp and understand what this drama is about. What is the message? Because the last minute happy ending cannot erase all that happened for the remaining 11… Personally life lessons I’ve got from it were:

Life is not fair, deal with it no one cares.
Don’t help people, you get screwed in the process - whenever intentionally or not.
Be selfish - at the end of the day your needs should matter the most.
You cannot escape abuse, life be like: out of the frying pan into the fire.
Also abusers are not really bad people, they are good REALLY DEEP INSIDE and you just have to apologize to them.
Even if you find someone that cares for you, they most likely care for someone else more.
There is no real female friendship if a guy is involved as a third party - only more trauma can bring you back together, communication is overrated.
Being ignorant about other people’s suffering will make your life easier.

And here’s a thing that made me the most annoyed, frustrated and uncomfortable - I started to dislike Yeong Rae as we got closer to the end of the show. She was in fact a great character - smart, dedicated, brave, driven, caring, adorable, bubbly. She did shine bright. But with how sad and tragic Jong Hui’s life was, I sadly could not enjoy her character. When I knew she was able to lead that life, because Jong Hui protected her in the past. When I knew how bad the aftermath of it was for Jong Hui. How she ended up with no support system, thinking of dying, struggling to survive every day, just to end up in a fake doll house with an abusive adoptive mother… It was hard to be happy for Yeong Rae, when her happiness was unintentionally built on someone else’s suffering. And no, it was not Yeong Rae’s fault at all. It’s not like Jong Hui took the blame for something Yeong Rae did. It’s not like Yeong Rae asked Jong Hui to stab the manager. It was Jong Hui’s choice, but with where it led… There were moments where I wished she did not protect Yeong Rae. And for that feeling I blame the writer. Instead of making me root for both female leads, the writer made me resent one, when she did nothing wrong.

No matter what happened, the story always had to go back and focus on Yeong Rae - she was the forefront of the drama, every main plotline led to her and concluded on her. She was the main character and all the rest were just support. And this is not what I wanted to watch. I wanted to see her and Jong Hui together, as partners, and equals, as individuals with their own stories, that are connected by a close bond.

For the minor issues: unreasonable double standard in terms of abuse. Jong Hui’s mother was justifiably pained in bad light for hitting Jong Hui “and loving her when it fits her, and hitting her when things don’t go her way”, but Jae Pil’s dad was “misunderstood soul that actually cares deeply for Jae Pil and deserves apology from Jae Pil for misunderstanding him for years” - excuse me, but what the fuck? No. He was just abusive and trash. He did not deserve the ridiculous redemption and the scene of Jae Pil crying and apologizing made me feel sick.

On the redemption arc - Jong Hui’s brother gets one too. Why? He literally beat her so bad she almost died and was living in fear for years. And now he is not that bad, because he wants to save her? Nope.

What was the point of wasting screentime on Kim Jeong Sik [Bus driver] in the second half? He served his purpose as a dick and created the set-up for romance between Sang Cheol and Jeong Bu with the adorable little family they created. There was literally no real reason for him to show up in the second half - ZERO.

Go Young Sik not having more presence. We truly needed his brain and maturity more amongst that brainless land of lack of communication and stupid decision making.

I do not understand why Noh Sang Sik decided to only get revenge on Jong Hui. Yeong Rae was the one to screw him over first, Jong Hui got involved to help Yeong Rae, Yeong Rae then was the one to blackmail him with what she knew, so he could not step forward and his life got screwed. Don’t get me wrong, if we go by facts his life got screwed because of his own choices only, but from his messed up head perspective, I just do not understand how he did not blame Yeong Rae at all for any of it.

Ko Yeong Rye in the Miss Korea competition made no sense. There was nothing wrong with Ko Yeong Rye, but the girl is not a Miss Korea type. She does not have to be. Her being part of it made no sense in terms of realism.

Moving on to things I actually enjoyed. First of all, the show was somehow both predictable and unpredictable. I feel like the overall big picture was rather obvious. From episode 2 I knew what the end game was, but what the drama delivered was enough ambiguous content that made it possible to dive deep into delulu land with just enough hope for different ships to happen. They were baiting different relationships so skillfully, creating such a good chemistry between different pairings, I believe there is a fun ship for everyone, even if most of them are Titanics.

The friendship between the female leads in the first half was literally the best part of the whole show. Honestly - they were the best ship at first. The level of care and support they had for each other. The fact they both were willing to give up the guy for the other (adorable, but also dumb. Why not have a proper conversation instead of "sacrificing your feelings” when no one asked for that?). There were nice messages about standing up for yourself and your friend, amazing vibes of found family trope.

The acting was great. Kim Da Mi did a phenomenal job presenting first the truly innocent and shy young version of her character, and then more mature and confident, but just as bubbly as an adult. Shin Ye Eun aced presenting how hurt Jong Hui was, while hiding her feelings and pretending to be strong. I feel bad for Heo Nam Jun, because Jae Pil was rather a mess. The least cohesive and constant character. That said, Nam Jun did what he could with what he was given. His scene where he confronted his father in front of the mother’s grave? Amazing. All the other actors and actresses did as much of a great job as the main three. Acting wise there was honestly no real weak link.

Then we have the styling - perfection. While I loved the wardrobe of Jong Hui in the second half, I want to focus on how all the characters had their own style that fitted their personalities and their lifestyle.

Any and all drinking scenes of Jae Pil, Jeong Hyeon and Yeong Sik. You know what I need? I need them to go back in time and reshoot the show so they can add the aftercredit scenes that last for like 5 minutes of these three chilling and drinking after every episode. Or better, give me a spin off focused on their growing friendship.

Just Ko Yeong Sik. God bless him.

Overall… What a ride. Props for evoking so many feelings in me and making me care so much. Too bad they were mostly negative feelings and they made me care about the wrong things that just made the show more frustrating.

PS. Justice for Jeong Hyeon.

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