Meru

One of the best Underdog stories in K-Dramas

I seriously loved everything about this drama from beginning to end!!! It kinda reminded me a little bit of Itaewon Class with the revenge story, the dads being involved and the ML’s dad actually dying from the beginning, the unconventional beauty of the female lead, the group of people they’re working together with and building a found family with them… just sooo many similarities, there was absolutely NO WAY I wouldn’t love this drama! 😍😍😍

First of all, it starts off with Tae-poong leading this carefree life, always wearing the hottest clothes, dancing in Apgujeong Clubs like an idol (that he is in real life 😂), and getting into fights with his arch enemy Hyun-Jin 😂😂😂
His look in this first half of the drama was among the hottest looks I have seen in a K-Drama actor! I was seriously obsessed with his blond highlights, silver bracelets and leather jackets, it still lives rentfree in my head 😂😂😂

Then the next part of the drama, basically the majority happens after his father dies. That part I would divide it into 0 + 4 parts, based on the products they sell and with each product they earn another one of their former colleagues to join them again.

Part 0: Everyone is still together and they still have the fabrics that they had ordered before the father died I think. This was also before Tae-poong lost his home. Basically, this story arc shows how everything slowly crumbles: the work, and his home.

Part 1: Now it is only Kang Tae-Poong And Mi-seon and they decide to sell the work shoes they found in Busan and how they are getting involved with the Busan Gang members and save the life of the man who invented the shoes. This was one of my favorite parts of the drama. I still wonder if the shoes arrived at their destination and what happened to the guy 😂 They didn’t really show him at the end anymore. Also the video they made was phenomenal 😂😂😂super 90s coded!!!

Part 2: This part was my favorite part!!! the helmets that they sell in Thailand!!! 🇹🇭 😂😂
Go Majin joins them and lands in prison 😂😂😂 I was sooo annoyed with him in these episodes tho!!! He was being a misogynistic idiot and he treated Mi-Seon so rudely I was actually happy when he landed in prison 😂😂😂 And the measures they took to get him out with the pictures and all and then Mi-Seon DROPPPPPPING it all into the rivvverrr!!!! I was SOOOO MADDDD!!! I was screaming at her actually 😂😂😂
AND THEN OMG!!! Junho singing at that party!!!! omggg!!! And ofc their kisssss!!!! GYAAAAHHHH!!!! I was swooooooninnggggg sooooo hardddd!!!!! 😍😍😍 What a smooth talker!!! and the way he said “how lucky you are to have a guy like me crushing on you” omgggg i would have melted and then slapped him for saying that and then melted again 😂😂😂 we need more men like that in our lives!!! Thailand arc was just superior!!

Part 3: The glovessss!!!! In this part So many things happened. Mr Bae went to Indonesia, there were a lot of scenes at the government office, Tae-poong and Mi-Seon were in a church trying to get one of the former workers to come back. A lot was happening in this arc. The promissory note with Mrs. Cha spying on them was also happening here. And on top of that the fire broke out!!! It was CRAZY!!! a crazy arc!!! But I enjoyed every second of it.

Part 4: The last part was shorter compared to the others and it led to the finale. They got involved with Mr. Bae’s father and tried to sell security cameras. In this arc they also found the promissory note and before that Hyun-Jin started acting like a REAL asshole! The actor did such a good job at playing one of the worst villains in K-Dramaland. Also, it was funny how Hyun-Jin’s English was so much better than that foreigner Alex’ English 😂😂😂 I didn’t understand ANYTHING he said in English 😂😂😂

The end was a bit different than what I had imagined. I didn’t expect Tae-poong to save Mr. Pyo. And then for Mr. Pyo to go and lock up his own son!!! Wow! Crazy but I can understand since Hyun-Jin was a danger to so many people around him. Definitely an unexpected ending!

I loved seeing all the office workers together at the end walking down the road! it warmed my heart! A perfect ending to a great drama!!!

Other things I liked were:

1. Mi-ho and Nam-mo’s cute little relationship! 🥰 Mi-ho legit looked like a supermodel from the 90s!!! And their wedding at the end was so cuteee!!!

2. Tae-poong’s mom 🥹🥹🥹 Such a sweet woman!!!

3. Mi-Seon’s family 🥹🥹🥹 The grandma was soooo funnyyy!!! sometimes she was so senile, mixing people from the past up with people from the present 😂 but then sometimes she would say the wisest things hahahah 😂😂😂 Like when Mi-Ho was crying over Nam-mo and the halmoni was like “Why would you cry over a man?” or sth 😂😂😂 That was one of my favorite scenes!!! And Beom in his Taekwondo suit 😂😂😂He was the CUTESTTTTT!!! CHUBBIESTTTT!!! SWEEEEETEST KDRAMA BOY EVVVERRRRR 🥹🥹🥹I swear he looked like he could be Sunwoo’s little brotther from Reply 1988 😂😂😂 The way he always grinned melted my heart I wanted to cryyyy!!!! 😭😭😭

Things I didn’t like:
Nam-mo’s mom PISSED me off when she suddenly was against Mi-ho dating her son!!! I seriously didn’t get her point! Did she thing her son was a chaebol or a prince??? and she the Queen? Like she acted like they were soooo rich!!! In reality they had no money either!!! Mi-ho’s family lived in a bigger house than they probably did… I was so fed up with her 😖

All in all, I loved this drama and would recommend it to everyone!

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the flaws of Korean schools and society

A perfect episodic drama that displays the flaws of Korean schools and society throughout 10 episodes, each episode showing us another unique problem that happens not only in Korean school and society but globally. All told in a humorous yet dark way of storytelling.
As there are a lot of mainly Korean issues handled in this drama too, most of the themes can be applied to countries and schools everywhere: bullying, drug abuse, and game addiction are only a few of the major topics displayed.
Each episode deals with a new problem portrayed by another school.

Episode 1: Bullying by a spoiled son of a powerful politician who thinks he can get away with everything. All teachers and students are too scared to do anything. This issue seems to be the most common problem at schools in Korea.

Episode 2: The rise of school gangs who focus more on making quick money by being thugs than on studyinf for a proper job. Thus interfering with the interests of students who actually wanna study properly instead of becoming thugs. One of the ERPB members got introduced here too, Bong Geun-Dae who is a hacker and goes undercover at this school full of delinquents. This was one of the episodes that seemed the most over-the-top and is probably less common in Korea but might be more relatable to people abroad especially the US. It was quite a funny episode tho and the two main thugs were very handsome, one of them looking like Choi Siwon 😂😂😂

Episode 3: This episode deals with defamation of teachers caused by students who are active and popular on social media, and gain power through their followers and by sharing videos and articles online which causes them to manipulate everyone around them. Defamation and online manipulation also seem to be a uniquely Korean phenomenon that also happen a lot at school and from which both students and teachers suffer from. The third member of the ERPB, Im Han-Rim got introduced in this episode too! And I am obsessed with her from the first second!

Episode 4: This episode shows the bribing and manipulation of teachers and hagwons by the influential parents of students. This seems to happen a lot in Korea as well, parents pressuring teachers, those teachers then mistreating less-influential students who are smarter than the kids of influential parents. Up to the leaking of exam materials and answers…

Episode 5: This episode deals with the issue of parents pressuring teachers to favor their kids and it is shown through an elementary school where students don’t have much power but it is the parents that are causing problems for teachers, harrassing them, interfering in their personal lives and even stalking and physically and mentally abusing them. To the point that many teachers commit suicide. I think something like this actually happened in real life in Korea once when a teacher committed suicide due to the pressure from parents.

Episode 6: This episode is about juvenile delinquents and how they partake in violence, theft, and even drug abuse. Because they are still underaged they cannot go to prison. The ERPB changes the rules tho and sends them to a prison. This one was one of the darkest episodes so far. From this episode on, we also start seeing more of how these schools are all connected to drug dealing and drug abuse and all of this then connecting to the ML’s past trauma of loosing his wife who got murdered by a student.

Episode 7: This episode was about game addiction and gambling. This was one of the more unrealistic episodes too. I think debt in itself, especially to loan sharks seems to be a common thing in Korea or at least in K-Dramas. But I personally cannot imagine that this episode was a realistic depiction of it. Not saying it doesn’t happen. I am sure it does but i dont think it’s as common as some other things like bullying or pressure from parents.

Episode 8: This episode shows the pressure that students get from parents who want their kids to get into good schools like SKY or med / law school. I think this was one of the most realistic episodes and again we have the issue of drug abuse tied in this one too and how even mothers buy it for their kids just to see good results… I really wanted someone to slap that mother! she ticked me off soooo much!!!

Episode 9 +10: These two episodes take place at the same school, namely the one where the ML’s wife used to work at and also died by the hands of one of the students. The first of the two episodes is about exploitative bullying in which a group of students use one student to access all his online accounts without paying him. Which seemed a bit unrealistic too bcs how can a kid have so much access to money / a bank account or credit card ? This kind of exploitation does happen I think but more in cases of a rich student who is a loser and becomes the cash cow of the perpetrators… However, I liked how it all les up to the showdown in the last episode! I also liked how the heroes rarely had to lose and always came back with a smart way to get out of the accusations towards them. At the end they were even suspended too but they still came back in a satisfying way! I love dramas that do that! It might not be realistic but it is so cathartic! It makes me feel relieved and happy and thats what matters when watching drama!

In general, I loved the story, the realistic issues being presented in a somewhat unrealistic yet cathartic way, and ofc the characters! The 4 main characters of the ERPB were all so cool and fun and unique. Each of them had a different power and used it in a smart way! It was so pleasing to watch it every episode! I also think that this drama would actually be a great re-watch! It’s fun, satisfying but also dark with deep, serious topics being discussed. As a teacher myself I approve.
It had a controversial theme nonetheless but not even by the end of the drama, you will fully agree with the ERPB’s actions they take against students… It does such a good job at convincing the audience of their opinion 😂😂😂
Loved it! 10/10!!! Everyone has to watch!

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A story about Love, Resistance, Passion, and Identity

Omg! What a ride this drama has been!!!
Every episode was like a movie and there were 24 of them!!!!

The storytelling: topnotch!
Character design: each and every character was relevant for the story to unfold and develop!
Cast: The level and skills of the actors were insane!!! Before watching this drama I knew these actors were one of a kind but after watching this I see them in a totally different light…
OST: INSANE! Each and every track still plays in my head like a musicbox… Can’t stop thinking about this drama!
Historical significance: The main plot being the Japanese occupation of Korea and the significance of the Righteous Army, this drama depicts not only human struggles of the characters we see and their connection to their homeland (Korea aka Joseon), but also this drama helps to understand how and why the Korean people nowadays are so passionate and proud of their country…
This was the best way to romanticize patriotism…

What a masterpiece!!!
If you are interested in Korea this drama is a must!!!

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Great story with a few plotholes

After 2 years I have finally managed to watch this drama! It’s been hyped a lot and I understand it. The story is very captivating, their romance is bittersweet and swoony. The soundtrack is among the best I have seen in a K-Drama so far. And obviously, the cast is stellar! Especially Byeon Woo-Seok is out of this world!!!! His yearning gaze full of love, longing and sadness got me in my feels while watching this drama too.

The cinematography and color editing of this drama was so beautiful! Especially when it was set in the past! It reminded me a lot of 25 21, especially at the beginning of the drama.

There were quite a lot of funny, laugh-out-loud moments as well! Melon Musk absolutely KILLED me 😂😂😂 Can never get over this phrase 😂😂😂

Now to some things that bothered me and kept me from rating this drama a 10/10:

1. What was with the serial killer thing??? It made no sense whatsoever! Also his background was not explained at all. Why was he after Sol? Just a coincidence?? It all felt so random to me that I couldn’t quite get excited about the kidnapping scenes…

2. When Sungjae is being stabbed by the killer and falls off the cliff and dies, the drama spins to the future / current time and somehow it seemed like she said that “it has been years since Sun-Jae had died but I was still trying ti live a normal life” or sth like that. It seemed to me that Sunjae had died but in reality she went back in time one last time and changed the past in a way that they had never met so he wouldn’t die for her… I found that a bit confusing and I think they could have done a better job explaining it…

3. The second couple aka her brother and bestie was sooooo annoying and useless! Did we really need all those annoying scenes?? 😖😖😖 I cringef everytime I had to watch them. Or just any scene her brother was in! He was SO annoying!!!! I wished Hyeon-ju had gotten together with Bae In-hyeok instead 😅😅😅

In general I liked the drama but I think it could have been shorter without the serial killer plotline and the secondary couple scenes…

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Funny and swoony

This was the kind of light, fun but swoony rom-com we have been waiting for! No neccessary drama! And disputes and misunderstandings were cleared quickly. The ML’s past traumas were very legit too. It was interesting to watch them overcome those traumas together. Well-written, well-acted with a little bit of absurdity, a lot of swoon and plenty of fun! 😂 I also loved to see the found family aspect of the school and neighborhood. And the end with the pictures from all the different episodes was really cute! A great way to start and end the drama!
The only gripe I had was that Sejin and her brothet were lowkey annoying 😅 I also didn’t understand why Hangyul liked her tbh…

Nevertheless a great romcom to watch as a palate cleanser!

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A quick and fun watch!

With 16 x 35 min episodes, this drama would be a great binge!

The plot is interesting and fun too, filled with a lot of relatable characters, all dealing with their own, unique set of emotions and struggles.

I also think depicting the topic of BL web novels is quite progressive for Korea. They actually portrayed the intolerance towards LGBT+ in Korean society when the evil students described Eui-Ju as creepy for making up such stories, and the representatives of the school showed their Homophobic colors during the disciplinary meeting as well. At first I found it a bit disappointing that nobody adressed their blatant homophobia, but then again, it would probably be very unrealistic since Koreans in today’s society would never dare adress it either, whether they agree or disagree. So I think the drama was actually more realistic than most of us had thought.

I also liked the question of identity theft for a fictional work and the gray zone of whether or not that is ok. In the end I think it is okay to base book characters on real people bcs art imitates life. But I can also see how and why some people would be against it.

Other than that, I liked that the drama didn’t end up with a teacher-student relationship or else I would have given it 0 points.
The childhood connection was kinda weird tho! imagine having that with your math teacher!!! Wtf? 😂😂😂
Also, her goodbye at the end was a bit cringey too. Sounded almost like she was his girlfriend 😅

Other than that it was a really cute drama!

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First time seeing Park Minyoung in a dark thriller

This drama came as a surprise. I was really intrigued by the plot. It first took me a while to get into the story. The first episode was actually quite intriguing and it definitely started with a bang.
The beginning was intriguing, especially the creept music got me hooked. I was also lowkey shocked about Park Minyoung’s appearance. She looks soooo skinny in this drama that it gives her a haggard, skeleton-like appearance which was more scary than attractive to me. idk if she lost weight bcs of this role or bcs of beauty standards, but I found her much more beautiful in her usual weight. She literally looked sick in this drama which somehow made sense because she was mentally struggling, so the fact that she didn’t look healthy supported the reveal later in the drama.

At the beginning, everyone was naturally suspecting her, including the audience, but the more we saw of her and the other characters the more we realized that she was innocent, especially when she tried to commit suicide at the ex-fiancee’s funeral.

I started to suspect her male bestie Eun-hyuk pretty soon. However I did change my theory when Baek Jun-Beom appeared more and more so I thought he was the main villain. But then he died and I was back at Eun-hyuk again.
And ofc I suspected the CEO Kim too, especially after the scene she goes into her vault and creepily admires the painting of Seol-Ah’s dad… That’s when I realized that sth was wrong with her. Tbh she also reallyyyyy looked like a psychopath anyway…

Definitely a crazy reveal at the end. Tbh all the art forgery stuff got a bit too much for me in the end but luckily it was not the main plot in the drama.

I also thought it was soooo sad that her bestie was the culprit… like, I really felt for Eun-hyuk, his sister and Seol-Ah’s childhood stories and how much pain they must have suffered 🥺🥺🥺 Eun-Hyuk was such a cute boy! He didn’t deserve all that… It was sad that he had an abusive father and a mother who abandoned him 🥺🥺🥺 It really shows how parental love or neglect or violence can form a child’s future… And although I can understand how Seol-Ah must have felt and that she can never forgive him, I was lowkey hoping for redemption… The suicide was sad but I think the only solution for the mess he created… soooo so sad! At least she knows that she never killed her parents…

Although the end was wrapped up nicely, there were still some things I didn’t understand / like. For example, why did Eun-hyuk not shoot the ML immediately?
Also, how did the ceo know that it was him who set the fire?? Did she peak from the window?
Anyway, I give this drama an 8/10 for the great message, amazing soundtrack, and a clean wrap up at the end. ☺️I loved the message that we never know what everyone is going through. And no matter how beautiful, successful or desirable someone seems, there is always something that they are hurting from. It’s a great reminder to not judge people.

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A different kind of love story

This drama was interesting. Definitely the most impressive role I have seen IU in. Thinking about how Lee Sun-kyun could probably act his role out so easily in this because he seemed to be depressed in real life too, makes me really sad… Him comitting suicide a few years ago gives this drama an even heavier tone…

First of all, let’s talk about the story:
For me personally, the story was not very relatable. The office intrigues were a bit too much for me. The married couple struggles, cheating and complicated family dynamics were things I couldn’t relate to. Ji An’s situation with the debt and murder were also extreme cases that neither I nor most people can relate to. Despite all these factors that made it hard for me to relate to, this drama captivated me in a differen way from typical dramas.

I was curious: What will happen to Ji An? How will she develop a bond with Dong Hoon? What will happen to the office intrigues? Will the cheating be found out?
But what captivated me the most was the unique relationship between Ji An and Dong Hoon. It’s so different from your typical romantic K-Drama relationship. Their relationship is not based on romantic love or family love or love between friends. I think their love for each other is that of two depressed people who have forgotten how to love themselves. They are each other’s mirror. By trying to love the other, they are slowly learning how to love themselves. They couldn’t love themselves but seeing how there was another person more pitiful than themselves, they made it their mission to try and love someone as pitiful or even more pitiful than them. By protecting and loving that other person brings them closer to trying to love themselves…

This drama also had a lot of beautiful quotes. Not to mention the incredible soundtrack!!! Grown Ups by Sondia is a song that will always make me cry immediately and I will have scenes of the drama in my head: them on the train going home, her crying over his pain while listening to him breathe heavily, his voice expressing his deep emotional state, her crying on the bridge…

The acting of all characters in this drama was top-notch! It’s rare to see so much quality in one place.

The cinematography is fantastic too. Especially the scenes when they get drunk at their go-to bar with the blurry vision kind of filming impressed me. The state of being drunk but not fully happy… when life feels so heavy that even alcohol can’t make it feel sweet… it was captured so well in that cinematography…

Sadly there were some things that bothered me a bit.
Apart from the office intrigue I already mentioned, I was a bit annoyed by the brothers, especially Gi-hoon. Also his relationship with the actress was kinda random. I did like the actress and her pov on things. She had some good quotes as well but I didn’t quite understand how their relationship fit into the drama.

Also the drama was a bit too much male-oriented. There were a lot of male-based struggles and povs.

Although I loved Jeonghui, I found her obsessive love for the monk a bit unrelatable. I didn’t quite understand why she was still not over him after 20 years. I would have wished some more explanation. What kind of love did they have that made her still not get over him. And what was the reason for him to leave such a love behind and become a monk.

All in all, the drama was wrapped up well in the end. The found family was heart-warming in the end and the message of the drama was just chef’s kiss!
My Mister made me want to start a K-Drama quotes journal so I might have to do that soon

I can only recommend this drama to everyone!

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Good action scenes but messy writing…

This drama was a whole rollercoaster ride!!!
First, despite the slow and somewhat boring set-up at the beginning, we got a solid first fightinf scene with Gold Bunny in that warehouse where everyone got splattered with paint! i loved the scene where Bogum is fighting inside this cage-like structure that moves around. And then, when the scit department was set up and we got all the ex-olympic athletes in one team solving crime was really fun. The found family aspect was really fun and the way they all fought together and supported each other was really fun too!

However, I soon started to get annoyed really fast with the drama. It started when Hanna suddenly jumped on that truck to bring them all down but got caught and stored in a container to be shipped out into the pacific ocean. I was like “are you really THAT stupid????”

Even before that there were some minor plot holes that had me wondering why and how things turned out like that…

Then, after the tunnel episode, the drama kept getting more and more annoying, boring and unbelievable.
It kept on going from trying to find trucks or containers to trying to find suspicious people to trying to find traitors to trying to find drugs etc etc. It was confusing and frustrating and all the messiness stressed me out.

Also, almost every main character had visual and hearing impairment. I was so sick of seeing the main leads constantly getting dizzy and hearing a high-pitched tone in their ears like COME ON!!!! Was there nothing else you could have thought of??

Not just the messiness of the plot stressed me out but also of some of the characters:

1. Ji Hanna: Apart from her badass gun skills she was getting on my nerves sooo much! she always looked like she was dead inside. And I hated it how she treated Dong-Ju in the beginning. I seriously was not rooting for them. I was shipping him with Drugmon 😂😂😂

2. Min Ju-Yeong: He was the worst written villain ever! We didn’t really understand what his motive was other than greed. Like I get it, one of the aspects of this drama is to show how greed can turn someone into a monster but I feel like it takes more than grees to be able to cold-heartedly kill hundreds of people and even children. I was looking forward to get to see some past trauma or injustice that he experienced but all we saw is how he was studying for an exam as a customs officers and got beaten up bcs he accidentally saw Oh Dollar’s crimes. But he then accepted him into his gang… other than that we didn’t see anything about his past or his possible motives… After that I was really disappointed by the writing of the characters

3. Drugmon’s past: I actually loved Drugmon’s character. I think she was the best written character in this show. Because I loved her so much I wished she had had a better writing for her childhood. It absolutely made 0 sense that the parents who adopted her were soooo addicted to drugs!!!! Before being able to adopt, couples have to go through a lot of tests like mental and health tests. Drug addicts would immediately be uncovered in that case. Also why would drug addicts want to adopt a child???? And then go all the way from America to Korea to do so! Also in order to adopt you need a lot of money but this couple looked like bums and their house looked really bad!!! This was one of the worst cases of background information on character’s past life I have ever seen…

4. Cho Panyeol: This commissioner annoyed the fck out of me!!!! This is all I am gonna say! The punch he got from Dung-Ju was so satisfying 😂

Then, apart from the badly written characters, the numerous (6) product placements were literally the cherry on top! I have NEVER EVER seen so many product placements in one drama!!! the most was The King and even that “only” had 3! But this drama had 6 if I didn’t forget anything: kopiko, nescafe, eggdrop, heart-shaped chicken-kimchi stuff, The probiotic drink and the weird health drink… like… wtf???

Lastly, the en of the drama was kinda messy too, at least when we consider the way that Min Ju-yeong ended up: Who killed him? and why? and how? Also, tbh I wish the police would have left him get killed by the Yakuza! Thats what he deserved, to suffer a long painful death and not being kept alive and fed in a prison…

Well the drama had some good things too:

1. Park Bogum! Do I have to say more? My favorite actor, and he did such a great job in this drama too! I basically kept watching just for him 😂😅😅🫠🫠🫠

2. Kiss scenes: Ok the kiss scenes were HOTTTT!!!! and Park Bogum is a GREAT kisser!!! but in this drama he was literally on fire!!! I have never seen him kiss like that omg!!!

3. Funny scenes: especially the captain and Dong-Ju were hilarious af!!! His screaming was so unhinged I was laughing all the time 😂😂😂

4. Drugmon: I loved her!!!! She was badass and hot and smart and actually she had a good heart. I knew it from the first scene I saw her in and how disgusted she was when she saw the traces of the abused women. That was the moment I was rooting for her 😍😍😍 I am so glad about her ending! At least they got one thing right!

5. Leo: The Korean-Russian mafia boss was LEGENDARY!!!! I wish he was the main villain of this drama and not Min Ju-yeong… I loved him from beginning to end too and I loved his relationship with Drugmon! They were literally like Bonnie and Clyde in Korea! 😂😂😂

6. The OST: the soundtrack was basically better than the drama itself 😂😂😂

7. As mentioned before the fight scenes and also the found family aspect were one of the highlights.

In conclusion you should watch it if you like action and if you are a fan of Park Bogum. If you dont care much about Park Bogum (how dare you!) or if you don’t like action or police dramas then this drama is not for you!

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Beautifully melancholic

Loved this movie! Three lonely people struggling with their own difficult pasts find each other, become friends / lovers. It was so heart-breakingly beautiful! Loved the quotes especially from the two male leads. Loved their acting too. Already knew Yo-han’s actor from Mr. Sunshine but the other main leads were new and they were amazing! I wanna see more of them! Their kiss scene in the snow was one of the most relatable kiss scenes I have seen in movie/dramas.
Highly recommend!

Also heard that there is a book which the drama is based on so that’s definitely going on my tbr!

I won’t say much about the ending. Just watch it!

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A story about female friendship disguised as a legal/ company drama.

Just finished too! Really loved the ending! Tbh I feel like this was basically a drama about the friendship of 4 young women and a little girl 🥹🥹🥹 All the company stuff also happened but basically it was all just a side story or a tool to bring these women together. Thats how I interpret it! 😂😂😂
It was definitely one of the best dramas this year so far. I give it a 9/10. The only thing that bugged me a bit was that some plot lines about the company got too specific and complicated, for example that one part when they are trying to trick Albert’s father with some old bills in Myeongdong??? What was all that about??? I seriously didn’t understand even a bit of that 😂😂😂
I was also sad that Albert and Miss Hong didn’t end up together!!! I need to stalk this actor now because he is hella fine!!!! His lips and his voice omg!!!! 😍😍😍I wanted to see more of him!
I also wanna see more of the actress that played Kang Nora! She was amazing as well as her mom!!! Loved these so much!!! Such an amazing drama about women power!!!! Love love love it!!!! Who run the world?

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Heavy but hopeful!

Before I start going through each detail, I just wanna point out how dramas like this are the reason why I love watching K-Dramas. I think they are the perfect representation of life. The way they mix genres and moods, from dark to cheerful, from thriller to comedy, is just done soooo well! No other type of Drama or movie can do this mix of genres as well as K-Dramas do! Because life is not just constantly sad and tragic or constantly happy and bright. Even for people with mental health issue, there was a time when they were happy, even if for a brief moment. And there will be a time when they heal and become happy again. It’s the same for people who are usually cheerful. They are not cheerful all the time 100%!!! They also feel sadness or even depressed. They can go through grief and even develop mental health issues as well. Life as a human and as an animal as we can see in this drama, is not just always black or white or gray. It is sometimes black, sometimes white, sometimes gray, sometimes yellow or any other color. And I just love how the moods constantly changed in this drama just depending on the characters and the cases.

Let me go through each case individually:

1. School Bully victim:
TV writer who experienced bullying at school meets her bully as an adult who wrote a novel or webtoon about a school bully victim and acts like an angel in front of the person who once was a victim of her bullying.
This chapter was done really well!!! Ro woon’s character was being the goofy idiot but it gave it some comic relief as it will do in future episodes as well. The toilet scene at the end was hilarious 😂😂😂

2. Job market struggles / Being jobless:
This story was about Jun-woong’s friend who kept on failing the police officer exam and struggled finding a job. This actually hit me hard because I also struggled with this issue. I had a few moments in my life when my future was uncertain because I couldn’t find a job for over a year. So I knew exactly how this character felt. It is definitely a feeling of being useless and having no significance in this world by failing to contribute to society. The sad past made it even sadder. I cried a lot in this character’s story. Again, the ending with the chicken was hilarious 😂

3. Loss of a loved one:
In this story arc a runaway soul is trying to save her husband from blaming himself for her death. This was also a very sad story. I think being blamed for someone’s death multiple times can have severe effects on one’s mental health. It was a miracle that he turned out to be a proper and kind person but we can see that music has saved him, or else he would be a goner much sooner. I cried a lot here too especially about the childhood scenes. They ripped my heart apart!!!!

4. War veteran:
This was suchhhh a sad story!!!! Omg I cried soooo sooo much!!!! Lonely, old people who have no one in their lives break my heart. And he was a war veteran on top of that too, living with so much regret!!!! I almost couldn’t bear this episode!!! It destroyeddd meee!!!! And tbh people criticizing the drama because of this scene being patriotic or whatever, my response is that they did not quite understand the identity of Korea and Korean people: As one of the smalles countries in Asia they were always the target of invasion. The fact that Korea still exists today is because of all the humans who defended it during those times of war! Korea never attacked another country like Japan or Germany did. In that case it would be patriotism in a bad way. But the patriotism of Korean people stems from survival, endurance and loyalty to serve for their country as a proud citizen. It is the collective spirit of unification and being there for each other, because they love their country and their people so much and understand each other’s pain because they all shared the same… So the end to this story was nothing but fitting in order to display the loyalty and pride Koreans have for their country.

5. Eating disorder:
This story was one of my favorites. It was also the eeriest because of the way the person saw herself as if she was being possessed. It made me feel very shocked and also sick to my stomach to see how other people idolize looks like this which is based on mental illness and unhealthy eating habits. And the scariest thing is that this is one of the most common mental illnesses in our society nowadays and again it mainly affects women. I also liked how it started out with an error in the system and the reapers didn’t know who the suicidal person was at first. In the end it came down to the two women who had physically very opposite figures. People would initially think that the chubbier woman would wanna kill herself because how can anyone love oneself when they are not skinny. So I really liked how they portrayed this as well: Chubby / non-skinny people can be confident and happy in their body too. It all just came down to what they experienced as kids: The chubby woman used to be skinny in her childhood so she never grew up feeling insecure about her body (which is kinda similar to how I feel in my body nowadays too). Whereas the skinny woman with an eating disorder used to be overweight as a kid and was bullied heavily because of that. Here we have the problem of bullying again which I think together with eating disorders is one main cause for suicide and mental illness. I liked the two different cases and how in the end the chubby woman helped out the skinny woman in developing healthy eating habits.

6. Suicide scammers:
This part of the drama was probably my least favorite. But I think this was an important part to show that not everyone who is suicidal is a victim or a good person. Sometimes, a suicidal person can also do bad deeds like killing others. In the end suicidal thoughts mostly come from unresolved or untreated mental health issues, some smaller and some bigger. And some people wanna take as many people into death with them as possible. Whether it is people attacking schools, jumping in front of trains or terrorists / suicide bombers: They all have been victims once and tried to survive through life but because of unresolved trauma and having no one who was ready to help them they became violent and dangerous not only to themselves but also to others. This showed the dilemma that the RM Team had to face of having to save everyone trying to commit suicide, regardless being good or bad.

7. Suicidal dog:
Omg this story was SO SAD!!!!! I just couldnt!!! I cried soooo much 😭😭😭Like come on, how do you expect us to not cry when a tiny little dog, A POMERANIAN is involved???? 😭😭😭😭😭 Again, it ripped my heart out!!!! 🥺🥺🥺 No more words!

8. Rape victim:
This one was a tough one. It was made really well tho. I think both the victim’s life before and after the incident and the toll it took on her were portrayed quite realistically. Her relationship with her brother and how they ended up blaming each other ripped my heart apart. Also the way the perpetrator lived his life as a privileged and successful student was quite realistic too as I think most of the time, sexual perpetrators are the kinds of people you would least expect to do such things…
The end of the episode took me out tho, when Jung-gil sets fire to the police truck he is in I fell in love with his acting skills!!!! Like Ro-woon who??? 😂😂😂
I do have one critique point here tho, just a small one and that is how quickly the female character went back to her cheerful self. I mean they probably did it because there is no time in a drama to fully convey the length of the time period it will take for people to recover fully so I get it. But that was a bit too abrupt.

9. Miscarriage:
This story was about the woman who was the rebirth of Ryung-gu’s mom and she becomes suicidal becomes she blames herself for loosing the baby. I heard a lot of stories about women mentally struggling with this. I also have two cousins who went through this and it took a huge toll on their mental health. It definitely made me really sad but the end of this story was so heartwarming! I think this one had one of the best endings.
Also why did no one sue that cheetah woman who literally killed her baby???!?!!! She lost her baby because of that woman who pushed her!!!! I think that was the only thing missing here.

10. Comfort women:
This story was one of the hardest to watch but also in my opinion the most significant one! I have heard a lot of stories about comfort women but never seen it in such detail like in this one episode in this drama. This episode alone makes Tomorrow deserve a 10/10!!! It destroyed me! Ripped my heart into millions of pieces!!!! As a woman and a kids teacher I cannot stand this!!! I didn’t just cry, I also felt sick to my stomach!!! And it made me dislike Japan! It made me dislike having lived in Japan for so long, for having supported Japanese people and the Japanese government for so long, when they have NEVER even once acknowledged their grueling deeds or apologized for the atrocities they have done! Most Japanese people don’t even know about this!!! They don’t teach them at school what Japan did in Korea and China!!!! And if they know they deny it! They say patriotic, propaganda-inducing Koreans made it up!!! I was shocked when I heard some young Japanese people say that!!! And since recently, the more K-Drama I watch the less I wanna stay in Japan… the war crimes they comitted and never apologized for, the ignorance of what they have done just sickens me…

11. Cyber bullying / hate comments:
The last story was about the rebirth of Ryeon’s best friend in her past life who was reborn as a famous idol / actress, and is struggling with fake news about herself and a lot if hate comments online. Anothet issue and cause for suicide that seems to be a huge problem in South Korea is one that cannot be hidden away from the public since it involves celebrities. It was definitely maddening watching this but I thought Ryeon’s behaviour had a lot of flaws in this part and she acted in a way that I had not expected. But I guess it had to be done so that there would be a reason for Jung-il to find out about their past together. Also, the guy from hell looked like Johnny Depp lol 😂😂😂
I definitely didn’t expect this to end like it did but I am not mad. I just wished at the end of the drama they would have shown how the idol friend will end up dating Rowoon 😂😂😂 They teasered that their fates are connected now but they didn’t show how they would end up together 🥲

12. Workplace pressure / Power harassment:
This was the case without Ro woon’s character since he already woke up from his coma and went back to the real world. And ofc he saves yet another person from comitting suicide and he meets Ryeon and Ryung-gu again and omg I laughed so hard 😂😂😂This was literally the perfect ending!
They definitely showed the workplace bullying issue only shortly but I hope that Ro woon’s character can be the savior of this man in this case.
At the end of the episode I would have liked another epilogue, looking into the future when Ro woon and the idol meet again 😂🥺🥺 Sad that didn’t happen! I swear I could have watched two more episodes just about his life and also the changes of the RM Team or seeing who would join them (I want the blond girl from the comfort women episode to join them)!!!

In summary, topics/triggers for suicide in this drama were: Bullying, rape, loneliness, Work-related pressure or unfulfillment

I was genuinely sad when this drama ended, I think I had a slight K-Drama hangover! If it wasn’t for currently airing dramas, I wouldn’t be able to start a new one for a few days.
I highly recommend this drama!

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Finally a drama about a teacher’s pov

As a teacher I enjoyed this drama a lot. It’s a mix of comedy and tragic stories. Getting a glimpse into Korea’s extremely competitive education system was very interesting.

Here are the things I especially liked about this drama:

• I liked seeing the lifes of both the adults and the kids. But also seeing the stories of the different families was interesting too and showed how despite the craziness of the comoetition, it is akways the mothers whose only concern is to give the best they can for their children. Ofc what the mothers are doing is toxic and very unethical, but in their obsessive way of thinking, they think that that is the best for their children. And it was nice to see how it was their children who saved them and taught them to be better people. Both Sua’s manic episodes and Sun-jae’s cheating controversy helped their mothers become better people. At this point, I have to say that these two women who played toxic mothers deserve an award!!! What incredible actresses omg! I was both touched and shocked by their performances…

• There were some scenes, especially at the beginning that were sooo hilarious I couldn’t stop laughing 😂😂😂 Kyung-Ho is such a funny actor, the way he always tries to act cool but finds himself in goofy situations killed me 😂😂😂 his facial expressions were gold too! Jae-woo, the autistic brother added a lot to the comedy element too, especially his painfully honest remarks about his sister were hilarious 😂😂😂 His relationship with Chi-yeol was really cute too! I think this actor definitely did a great job in portraying an autistic person. I also felt really sad when the incident in the cafe happened or how sad he got when Hae-e was in the hospital. Those were some of the few scenes I cried a lot

• The warm family dynamics and the question of what truly makes a family warmed my heart a lot in regards to Hae-e’s family 🥹🥹🥹

•I think many people didn’t like the serial killer aspect of the story but I think it added some extra excitement to the story as well as the dangers of being obsessed with a person to the point of comitting crimes. Also how villains can also be gray instead of just evil. The culprit in this drama was also a victim of motherly abuse. I actually felt really sad for him and hoped he would get a redemption arc.

Things that could be better:

• I was actually sad that the murderer did turn out to be the manager of Chi-yeol. I loved the scenes of him playing with Hae-e’s family and taking care of Chi-yeol. I was even shipping him with the bestie of the FL 😂😂😂 I think if he hadn’t developed such a hatred towards the FL then I would have still shipped them despite him being a murderer.
Also it was him who found the Banchan shop.
But I did suspect him at first for the killings because he seemed very protective of Chiyeol and how he said he wished that obsessive girl would just stop coming to his classes and what happens next: She is being killed. So I suspected him first before they tried to lead us into confusion with Sun-jae’s brother.

• I think the dating of Jae-Woo and the bestie was absolutely unnecessary.

• The real mother showing up and Hae-e announcing she would go to Japan with her was all very rushed and random and sudden at the end. And then when the mom disappeared we never got a scene of Hae-e apologizing and explaining why she did that. We also never saw her telling the story of her getting kidnapped. Just because the culprit was dead doesnt mean that Hae-e would be able to overcome her trauma of what happened.

• I hoped for more scenes between Sun-jae and Hae-e.

Most of these things I didn’t like happened in the last two episodes of the drama. So I think the landing was a bit rough but the rest of tge drama was great!!!!

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One of the best book adaptions!

Season 2 started off sad and dramatically with the beginning of WW2 and Isak’s death. Isak is one of my favorite characters in this drama and Steve Noh really played it amazingly well!!! He was the perfect Isak!!! I wished more lovey dovey scenes of him and Sunja but sadly he was in prison and then died so we didn’t get to see him that much 😢🥺🥺

The war scenes were just incredibly terrifying… Watching this drama made me even more grateful for the privileges I enjoyed in my life. It also made me realize how much Korea has been through so far. How much and long they suffered but how fast they managed to rise up and beyond their former perpetrators (Japan)…

The highlight of this season for me was little Mozasu 😂😂😂 He was SO CUTEEEE!!! That little child actor was something else!! 😂 He for sure has a bright future ahead of him 🫶🏻

Tbh this season had a few more boring scenes than the season before. I personally thought Yoseb’s days at the factory before the bomb hit were a bit unnecessary. They did nothing to the plot really. They should have kept it short…

Also Solomon’s path is really worrying… I don’t remember it being so sketchy. I thought he was involved with gambling in the book 🤔🤔🤔

All in all, season 2 seemed to be a bit more accurate to the book.
I wonder if a season 3 will be out soon since this story is not finished 🥺

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