Merupan

Worth watching for the acting

I was very excited when I started watching this drama because of Woo Dohwan who is basically one of my favorite actors (yes he is handsome but his acting skills are pretty amazing too).

At the beginning, I was really intrigued about his character Hae Jo. And the first half of the drama was really exciting and fun!!! the whole chase through the country, the drama, the funny moments were on point, if only the drama had continued like that…

Basically, after they got rescued from the island and came back to Seoul everything went down the drain…
In my opinion there was a lot of unnecessary drama and the plot was not moving on. The main lead was sulking and treating Jae Mi like trash and it kept on going back and forth. I got quite bored during a few episodes to be honest…
And then the scene when Hae Jo leaves Jae Mi in front of her mother’s door and runs away! Why??? Why did he have to run away??? I was sooo confused! What was the point anyway if you were gonna go back to Seoul afterwards? I thought he was gonna start his journey to look for his father with Heung but no they just went back to Seoul!!! I got really annoyed tbh and I also got annoyed at Jae Mi a couple of times. At the beginning she was acting like a spoiled child, punching Hae Jo and telling him to die etc. I think thats a little bit too much to say to someone, no matter how shitty they treated you…
Ofc I was also a little bit annoyed at Hae Jo at times. Why did he have to agree to kidnap the first woman from her wedding? And why did he say such mean things to Jae Mi in their first relationship? And then being so egocentric and kidnapping her and throwing away her shoes etc.
In general I also found it kinda sad how quickly and easily Jae Mi got over Heung and the treatment of his mother and how easy it was for her to move on and fall in love with Hae Jo again… I don’t think she was really in love with him… he was just a nice man she wanted to have kids with…

And finally, I was reallyyyy annoyed about how the drama started with the search for Hae Jo’s father but was never finished!!!! Like what was the point of watching (except for Woo Dohwan’s naked upper body)??? We already knew how it was gonna end (him dying in the snow) so what other new information did we gain??? I was very confused and quite disappointed to be honest…

The storyline is definitely lacking and most of the characters were very problematic too. However here are some good points:

1. The quotes: Hae Jo had some impressive quotes and it brought me to tears many times.
2. In general it did have some tearjerking moments. I dont understand why the movie’s genre is romance/comedy… it is more of a drama imo.
3. The acting skills!!! Like no matter how annoying some characters were, the actors brought them to life sooo well and authentically… Kudos to all of these high class actors.
4. The music especially the instrumental one in dramatically sad scenes (for example when Hae Jobwas dying in the snow). It was one of the reasons I got hooked on the show. The music, directing and screenplay were done sooo well!!! I couldn’t stop thinking about it…

In general I think it is okay to watch it if you are interested but be prepared for some toxic characters and relationships…

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Looks aren’t everything

Single’s Inferno is proof that just being skinny/strong and beautiful/handsome isn’t everything.
Si An really might be the most beautiful woman from season 4 (although I personally would have chased Ji yeon), however this season shows that the most beautiful people are also the most toxic at the same time…
Jun Seo too! from his looks he was soooo my type and at the beginning I thought he was really funny and cute. And then seeing how he evolved into this a**hole, getting drunk and being touchy with Si An in bed 🤯🤯🤯
From the guys, Teo was the only proper guy!!! i wish him and Youjin would have started dating!!! they would have been the perfect couple!!!!
Well, yet another disappointing singles inferno season! season 2 was the best one so far i think!

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The best dating show ever made!!!!

I already knew how good the Japanese are with producing dating shows after the success they gained through shows like Terrace House. But this one was on a whole different level! It was definitely way shorter than Terrace House but SO much fun to watch! There was NEVER a dull moment although everything felt very realistic and mature and I feel like it was probably not scripted at all (which is common for Japanese reality TV which is the reason why they feel so genuine and real).
First of all, the concept itself was so unique and sounded really fun!!! Something I myself would have loved to do too!
But I liked it that not everything was led to fate and the production team came up with fun challenges and tasks like the Wish Letter or the Last Letter.
Another thing I liked is that this show is not only a dating show but ALSO a travel show!!! They even have their own guide books and everytime the members go to a different city there is some information about each place! And since Nice has always been on my travel list it got even stronger to visit now after watching this show! 😍
The cute little animations were such a fun extra too 😍 absolutely loved everything about it!!!!
Last but not least, I happened to love ALL participants in this show! At the beginning I wasn’t so sure of some people like Mimi or Kensuke but we saw their feeling amd vulnerability and most importantly unique character. Each participant was sooo amazingly unique! This was something we dont see from other popular dating shows like Single’s Inferno where everyone is just being superficial and all the conversations are boring af 😅😅😅
Seriously everyone, go watch this!!!!

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More than just a Melo

I had high expectations for this drama and they were exceeded!!!
So first of all, the term “Melo” seems to have a totally different meaning in Korean than it does in English. In English it refers to a subgenre of drama usually based on the plot of romance or family problems, involving exaggerated expression of emotions and characters. In Korean however it seems to just refer to classical romance movies. So before watching this drama, this should be made clear.

It’s just as Mubee says at the end: her life with him felt like a movie - sometimes a family drama, an action comedy or a melo (aka romance). And thats exactly how I would describe it too (minus the action).

Basically this drama shows people and their dark sides, how they grow together, their relationships with each other - whether family, friends or lovers. It’s about love, sadness, death, grief, self-doubt, loneliness, pursuit of love, and most importantly the love for movies and how movies can bring people together in life.

I loved this drama so much it is hard to decide where to start and end. I cried AND laughed a lot. Choi Woo-Sik is such an amazing actor! I loved all his roles so far! And then the actor who plays his brother!!!! OMG!!!! While I was watching I felt like he seemed familiar… and it is the “Japanese” guy from Coffee Prince!!!!! Aka my favorite part of that annoying drama 😅 And then he had yet another amazing role!!! omgggg his scenes with Gyeom made me cry the hardest!!! He was such an amazing character and I was DEVASTATED when he dieddddd 😭😭😭
Then with Mubee I liked her first, then I didn’t know how to feel about her, but in the end of the drama I liked how she turned out. I just mostly couldn’t relate to her (which is often my problem with most female leads in kdrama that i cannot relate to most of them).
My favorite female character however was Ju-A 😍 I loved her and even tho her relationship with her ex seemed toxic at times, I was curios about them and how they would end up. Definitely a unique and unexpected twist that they decided to go seperate ways. I felt really sad for the ex too as he cried so much and felt hopeless and like a failure… I am glad he got a good ending.

Other than the topics of romance and comedy, I was actually surprised to see a lot of themes revolving around the topic of death. First it came with Mubee’s father’s death. Then we heard director Ma talk about it. And then very unexpectedly Jun’s suicide attempt!!! At the beginning I didnt quite understand whether it was suicide attempt or some illness that caused the accident. But there should definitely be a trigger warning before the drama starts.
Then we also hear Mubee and Gyeom talk about their secrets. That was one of my favorite scenes. I think it showed human vulnerability and the hardships of life very well!

All in all I totally recommend this drama! Loved the soundtrack too!

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best streetfight kdrama ever

I cried, screamed and howled so much while watching this drama omg!!! it was a ride!!!
definitely not for the faint-hearted! episode 5 absolutely KILLED me!!!
in general i really loved the story and how excitement was being built up through every episode. the actors matched really well to their roles as well! I was positively surprised when i saw choi siwon in this too 😂
the fighting scenes were insane and watching my husband woo dohwan being fierce and cute at the same time drove me crazyyyy!
There were a few things that I was confused about or that didnt make much sense to me:
1. I wished Hyeonju would have come back at the end of the season.
2. I didn’t quite understand why they had the need to kidnap Mr. Oh 🤔 still doesnt make sense to me…

All in all it was a good show! Absolutely NO romance happening in this drama which was very refreshing and exactly what i needed!
One of the few dramas i would rewatch!

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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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Trigger Warning needed!!!

All in all I really enjoyed this drama. It shows the struggles of teenage boys in Korea I assume who might have to fear the possibility of getting bullied. However, some aspects of the story seemed a bit over-exaggerated to me. Also there were some things that just didn’t make sense to me or made me so angry and confused.

First, the good things were the overall story and the beautiful friendship that was being told. This drama also showed the reality of loneliness and how different people dealt with it differently and somehow all became friends. In general I also really liked all the different characters we saw.

Now to the not so good things about this drama and why I “only” gave it an 8.
First of all tho, ! TRIGGER WARNING ! People having a hard time watching shows that show bullying and domestic violence should probably not watch this drama.

So at the beginning the drama was going well. Basically up until Gil-su was caught the drama was a 10 for me. After that, when Beom-seok started acting out I was getting a bit frustrated with him. Did he really get jealous of Su-Ho because of the girl????? I just don’t understand! He should have used the money to pay the fighter to beat up his fake father! I did feel sorry for Beom-Seok too but thats not a valid excuse to try to injure or even kill one of your old best friends!!! just because he was giving some attention to a girl and following her instagram etc? Idk I got really annoyed and he kinda destroyed the drama for me a bit. His behaviour was so childish I just couldn’t comprehend…
I think the producers should have continued the Gil-su storyline maybe by involving some other gangsters. This waa maybe we could have seen the bullies and the three boys working together to fight for justice and then somehow overcome the bullying. Maybe the handsome cousin could have appeared more too (I was sad he didn’t show up anymore…)

Also tbh some scenes were too exaggerated and confusing especially towards the end. What happened to Su-Ho??? Did he die??? I didn’t really understand it!!!

I will be watching season 2 for sure hoping for some old faces to come back. I really really liked Su-Ho tho so if he really died then I will be SO sad…

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Fun and scary at the same time

This drama made me laugh SOOOO much!!!! 😂😂😂 The plot was super interesting and the characters were likeable too. Apart from the old lady, all actors were unknown to me but they did a great job acting.
Some scenes where she is hiding were sometimes a bit over-the-top and exaggerated but still super funny!
I liked that they added a scary / suspenseful side to the drama with the murders and disappearances too. It was easy to finish it because I just kept wanting to watch it.
Also the problems of the main female lead were very relatable to me and in general I really liked her and was totally rooting for her!
Loved this drama! would recommend it to everyone to watch!

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What would you do if you got a visit from your younger self

To be honest, when I first started watching this drama I thought it was gonna be a fail. the cringey squid dance at the beginning and how frustrated I was over how her family was treating her despite knowing how much she must have been suffering in pain.
Luckily things started getting more interesting slowly with the different characters showing up and seeing how all of their pasts and presents are entertwined. A bit cliche but always a fun trope.
I also liked seeing how the main female lead has evolved in the course of the drama. Some of her struggles were very relatable for me personally especially the job and money issues is something that probably a lot of people especially millennials go through.
In general just the whole idea of meeting your younger self made me wonder and reflect: What would my younger self say about my life?
I also liked the company drama and the typical kdrama intrigues happening. The fact that it was a snack company made it even funnier!

Some things I didn’t like as much were the overly exaggerated imaginations of the characters. Although Yu-Hyeon’s unrealistic fantasies were quite hilarious tho.
I also didn’t like the ageism issues going on. Like come on, 37 ist not that old!!! I don’t know if the drama was criticizing ageism as well or just portraying the reality of Korea and how Koreans fear the fact of getting old and see it as something shameful especially for women.

All in all it was a fun, exciting watch that oftrn made me cry quite a lot.

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So much better than Season 1

First of all I really don’t understand the people who consider season 1 as brilliant! 😂 Apart from the first 4 episodes not much about season 1 was brilliant!!!
The characters mostly sucked and some of the characters from the beginning never came back which was sad. The story and motivation of the characters was lacking (e.g.: Beom-Seok and why he felt so much hatred towards Su-ho was illogical and annoying which was sad bcs I really didn’t wanna hate Beom-seok bcs I pitied him but in the end I hated him so much!)
The fighting scenes sucked too! it was just mindless kicking and loads of “shibal” exclamations… the violence was mostly boring unless Su-Ho was the one fighting.
And then the end: The worst end ever!!!! I was seriously not happy!!! But I couldn’t just give up on Su-Ho my boy so I ofc immediately watched season 2 as soon as it came out and OMG!!!! I literally finished it in 3 days!!!! Here is why I liked it better than season 1:

1. The new characters were just soooooo much better 😍😍😍I loved all of the three new boys!!! They all had their own unique traits!!! Especially Baku!!! What an amazing character!!! I hope we will see more of them!!! Also Hyun-Tak! Actually I liked the two of them a bit more than Si-Eun 😅
Not only the new friends but also the new villains were awesome!!!!! Baek-Jin was brilliant!!!! To be honest I really wanted to know more about him! As well as that hot psychopath Seong-Je!!!! I lowkey wanna see him fight Su-Ho if there is a Season 3!!!

2. The story line was way more intriguing. Ofc it sounds very unrealistic like why would a gangster use high school studenta for his dirty jobs. Also most of them didnt look like or behave like high school students at all xD That was a bit unrealistic tbh and partly the reason for the point deduction.
The ending was almost perfect tho! I did predict that either Baku or Baek-Jin would die and I guess I was right…

3. The fighting scenes were insane!!! The quality has suddenly improved so much compared to season 1!!! I am so glad they invested more in that!!! Tbh I feel like there were less fighting scenes in total but the existing ones had a higher quality.

Some thinga I thought were unnecessary were Baku joining the Union for a short time and Si-Eun’s accident… I wish they replaced those scenes with more background information on Baku and Baek-Jin.

Other than that I loved season 2 SOOOO MUCHHHHH more!!! Hoping there will be season 3 but judging on how it ended i assume there will be another season…

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Who is the main character?

I really liked the beginning of the drama. The actor Choi Wooshik has become one of my favorites and seeing him in a role like Lee Tang’s was also very different from what I saw him in before (Our Beloved Summer and Melomovie).
I like the beginning of how he is a lost and unsuccessful student working at a covenience store who also used to be a victim of bullying so he has always been having a hard life. The moment he first kills someone and how his anxiety was portrayed in the drama was great!!! it made me feel scared too! And then just the way he got entangled more in othet killings with the blind woman and the two bullies. I wish the rest of the drama went on like this. I loved thinking about the morals and ethics of whether it is ok to kill someone who has done much worse atrocities. The concept reminded me of Death Note tbh and I reallyyyy loved it!!!
However after he moves to another city, and the ex-accomplice of Ro Bin appears, the drama changes drastically! I didn’t like this turn of plot and it actually felt like a completely new drama. We were barely seeing Lee Tang, the main character of the drama anymore… I feel like after watching this the police officer Nan Gam seems more like the actual main character because in the end it’s all about finding the murderer of his father who turns out to he Song Chon…

The beginning of the drama was worth the watch for sure and judging from the end it looks like we will get a season 2! i hope that will be more focused on Lee Tang.

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Best competition and cooking show ever!!!

I will keep it short as I don’t really have any negative things to say about this.
In recent years I haven’t really watched a cooking competition. Last time probably was when I was a kid or teenager. And tbh I never really liked them. They were either too boring or too over the top. But this one was sooooo goooooodddd!!!! Even if we ignore the fact that it is about cooking. Just as a concept of a competition show alone it was great!!! All the challenges they had were super unique and exciting!!! I loved every second of it!
My favorite was the conbini mini challenge and ofc the restaurant challenge where they had all the mukbang creators come and order food 😂😂😂 It was realllyyyy fun to watch that!

Actually watching this show made me regret not having become a chef too (No I never even had the tiniest of thoughts of becoming a chef in my life 😂). Watching this show made me wanna try cooking more in my daily life. Even try experimenting more with different dishes or recipes. I even considered looking up cooking classes in my area 😂
Each and every chef in this show was seriously incredible!!!! I looked up some of them online and saved their restaurants for my next korea trip(s) as I dont think i can check out everything on one single trip 😂
My favorite contestants were definitely Triple Star, Edward Lee and Self-made Chef. The two female Chinese cuisine chefs were incredible too! I wanted to eat all of their dishes!!! I was going crazy watching that show tbh and I was super jealous of the judges 😂
Speaking of which, I really liked the judges too. They were a good mix. One focused on fine dining and the other on authentic home made food. I wish I could be a judge too.

I loved this show and I hope there will be a season 2!!!

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The most intense competition

I have heard so many good things about Physical 100 before, even from friends who don’t do any workout at all so I decided to watch it as well, especially since I have been hooked on several reality shows and competitions from korea lately I also gave this one a try.

And I am glad I watched as it was super intense and mind boggling! The crazy things the human body can achieve is just insane.
I personally really liked the games they came up with. I think they were very unique. I especially liked the sand moving game. It was so exciting and definitely a gane that was gender-neutral.
The ship moving game left me speechless… How is that possible??? They literally made the impossible possible! Those two games were the best in my opinion.

Then, the last team game had a very unique concept too with the ancient Greek disciplines. Seeing different people do it was interesting. The only downside to these games was that some of them were quite boring to watch 😅 i think they should have cut them shorter. The games that have some running involved were definitely more exciting to watch.

Same with the 4 games for the final. Actually tug of war and the flipping game were quite exciting. But the last two games were too repetitive. The finals should be the most exciting games but again I was bored here too… 😅

The boredom was one thing I didn’t like. Another thing that bothered me was the unfair gender gap and how poorly it was managed. Especially in the one-on-one deathmatch games i saw some men chose women to fight against which is soooo wrong!!! I was really upset about it. I think if a woman wants to choose a man then it should be ok but not every woman would want to fight a man so men should have been prohibited to pick a woman. I definitely feel like they should have regulated the rules more on this one…

In general there were not many contestants that I liked in this one. No one really made a particular impression on me. I was kinda rooting for Tarzan’s team but they were out quickly.
Also I didn’t like the way they chose teams either… It was very unfair. There should have also been a rule about every team having to have at least one female participant…

So all in all it was an interesting show but definitely a lot of things that need to be fixed…

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Best Romance K-Drama ever!

Usually I am not really a huge fan of movies or dramas of the romance genre. This drama however has been so good! Not only the immaculate acting of Park Bogum and Song Kye-Kyo, but in general the characters of the two and the whole plot was just beautiful! I loved how there was not the typical drama and childish fights between the male and female leads like we see in other dramas. Their relationship was just soooo whoolesome! And Soo-hyun’s story was just sooo sadddd! I actually cried watching this drama and usually most romance dramas leave me cold.
One thing I disliked about this drama was that literally ALL the mothers were toxic AF!!!! Like whuat??? I was sooo mad!!!!
But other than that i loved it! So beautiful!

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Cute and relaxing slice of life drama

I enjoyed this drama. It was a nice, fun and innocent story about teenagers and their passion for badminton. I liked how the characters had created this sense of community not only among the players but especially among the villagers. I also really liked all the BTS references 😂😂😂 Those were probably the funniest!!! But in general there were a lot of fun things about this drama.

Some things that got on my nerves was for example the behaviour of Hae Kang. He was way too full of himself. I just couldn’t really identify myself with him, or tbh with any of the othet characters either… Thats mainly the reason why I gave it a lower ranking.
In general I just couldn’t really align with any parts of it.
I also wouldn’t say it was bingeworthy. Like I was fine just watching one episode a week or sth.

Although it didnt get me especially hooked, I would say that the story was still very cute and wholesome.

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