Brogana Sunfrog

"fluffy" escapism but The amount of flashbacks can be disorienting

I have watched this 2 times, this is my first review 1/2020
[update will follow this review]
I watched this because I read reviews that said it was light on the drama & a relatively easy going "fluffy" escapism series. now that I've seen it I have to agree. I rank it up there with Love Cuisine in the light hearted category, but not as "fluffy" as Love O2O , which I consider to be the ultimate easy going, no stress drama series! There are 4 negative things about Shopping King Louis that keep it from being a 10.
1) music: English is my first language , so the English songs were really, REALLY cringey, annoying, & embarrassing .
2) main couple plot stalls completely somewhere after episode 13 & suddenly the plots of most all the side characters are focused on (but alot were un resolved!). This diverted the momentum & the last episodes seemed to drag on.
3) unattractive eating: the characters stuffing their faces in messy way-disgusting, not cute.
4) the plot points you are most interested in are not satisfactorily resolved.(specifically the ending)
Rewatch value: I would/ will : & I bought it!
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2025 Updated Review:
Yes, the English songs DO still annoy me, especially when they are used at odd times for example: Sinatra's song My Way, was not appropriate for a memorandum montage for the character it was used .
The amount of flashbacks can be disorienting & sometimes I started an episode & wondered where it was in the time line as new episodes do not pick up where the last episode left off.
The last few episodes try WAY too hard to make connections for the lead couple . Sadly, though the end is sweet it doesn't leave you on an emotional high.
Seo In Guk is brilliantly engaging , they just didn't let him "evolve" enough/ Regardless , the leads are a delight & a treat to watch. Seo In Guk especially expresses himself extremely well.

read on if you want to read
****Spoilers*****
Louis hits his head an alarming number of times-it was like" ah let's have him hit his head & get back a few more memories ! [Yikes!] Yoon Sang Hyun, (the second male lead), starts out as the best second lead of any drama- recognizing that he is NOT "the One" before the leads figure out they are in love,& he seems to take it like a man & be on thier side until the writers decide they need more episodes, so they make him pathetic, goofy & hastily give him a female lead doppelganger for his very own at the end.[By the way, He CAN sing !!]

I could have stopped happily when the whole group was in Busan at the dock where emotions are high

WHO hit the burglar over the head with the hammer? & the burglar was not trying to hurt Louis, he was (should have been) looking for Louis' treasure box. Also, Louis never really seems to become an adult . Instead he comes across as a bit mentally challenged, like he's seems stuck in 6 year old mode,(though his body IS very manly & he does want to be intimate.) .There is a happy ending as there is a proposal "of sorts", but there is no grand romantic gesture or soaring romantic ending, just a quiet ah, isn't that cute moment.

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Cute & lighthearted series

Cute & lighthearted series wastes precious minutes on the band & the evil female singing, but over all was really nice.
Unfortunate digestive joke in the beginning had me cringing as my culture does not find any humor in anything poop related. Tropes, but they are on the fluffy side such as people having intersected lives in their past that they didn't realize. Satisfying ending without any expression of affection .
On first viewing I gave it 7/10
it could have been better but it was short & sweet at least & not long & drawn out painfully putting us through the wringer

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I rewatched this 5 months after my first viewing. & would rate it a 7.5 on second viewing
though male lead keeps this at a solid 9.
I saw a trailer on youtube & it looked good, but I had already dropped the "parent" drama : "NO Love No gain" ( too raunchy for me ) so I was hesitant to take a chance on this.
It IS "spicey", with bedroom settings, shirtless & lingerie moments, but it isn't sexually serious. It was way more fun, cute AND romantic than what little I saw of No Love no gain. I could do without the alpha female lead trope though .The ending could have been fleshed out better as the female lead seems quite confused about who exactly it is that she likes.( a real guy or a composite of traits ?) But taken as fantasy, don't try to over think it or the lack of explanation as to why the hater did what he did will leave you hanging with questions.

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breezy enjoyable no stress micro mini series.

I had to really hunt to find this & wondered if it was worth the effort, (it was 9 years old when I watched it) ! Happily, this holds up surprisingly well & does not seem to be dated (no pun intended since it's set in the Josen period!). I'm not super fond of the female lead but they didn't try to make her the typical female lead, so I think the result was that she was a good fit for the part. This could have been longer & way more serious, with easily more drama, but as it stands, it's a breezy enjoyable no stress micro mini series. Perfect for when you don't want to deal with too much drama or invest too much emotion, but simply smile your way through (for the most part) Everything is resolved quickly & they fast forward through the passage of time ,which is refreshing-something you wish other dramas would imitate ! tidy happy ending showing why it's happy, was a nice touch. I'll definitely rewatch

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similar premise to the Korean drama "I am not a Robot but leads lack chemistry

this has a similar premise to the Korean drama "I am not a Robot". It was a short bit of fluff entertainment . The length constricted it so that it felt rushed & somewhat incomplete. There frequently were blurry images used & it lowered the quality of viewing. The female lead's character was shallow, so not really appealing & her switch to caring did not seem genuine. There seemed to be cultural & language difference that really were a big issue, especially for a real relationship, but it was glossed over. Both leads were rather selfish at heart. Also, they had no chemistry

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Ocean's 11 vibe. Leads lack chemistry. recycled fight scenes

I would give it an 8.5/10 for being entertaining, but it lost points for the awkward non romance interactions , having parts I wanted to skip through & for how I feel at the end . This is a bit of a Ocean's 11 vibe. There's alot to like in this series, yet:
1) villain got way too much screen time with close ups of him being gleefully laughing.Alot
2) bodily functions comedy & references-not funny
3) Leads didn't seem certain that they weren't flirting but as they had zero chemistry, it's fine, but somehow it felt like there should be something there, which seemed to be teased but just was awkward
4) under used 2nd male lead
5) useless female added to team late in the game was like an extra wheel on a boat (like why is it even there !?)
6) about 30 min too much fight scenes that felt recycled
7) end felt like there should be a season 2
8) male lead had a double life but his goofy persona should have been an act to throw people off, but ended up being who he really was- he was only cool when he wore the suit-kinda funny, but at the same time disappointing.
9) end was lackluster though "happy".

also Odd : a point blank public service announcement admonishing Korean artifact thieves to return the loot.
10) I would have preferred more light hearted, slight romance with less violence and more artifact stealing

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Tedious & flawed melodrama focuses on friendship

There were so many other dramas I wanted to watch more, but this was free on Netflix so I thought to watch it before it left. It is mostly drama/melodrama. Heavy on friendship. I found the main male leads to be a bit dim when it came to relation ships. The romances were dissatisfying to me as the females were mean, aggressive, physically abusive, pushy & selfish. Everything had to be on thier terms. Their love interests were loooong suffering. There were 2 mothers in this, that were terrible people but were forgiven in the end. I really didn't like the way in which they resolved this. I particularly hate it when main leads swear their undying devotion & to go through anything together only to end up having one or both of them leave, then of course get back together. was just glad to be done with this.

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Rehashing plot line & lead is sulky not tsundere

This did not need to be 10 episodes. Some issues were dealt with more than once it made the characters look stupid. They could have better used the time to fill out & resolve the hollow story of the thug who kept trying to take over their restaurant but it seems that the back story as well as the resolution to that got edited out or the writers just forgot ! Kento Yamazaki's character was anti romantic. Yah, I know this IS fiction, but no one in their right mind would want to spend 6 months much less a whole life with his cold ,sulky character. I'm not sure why his character was so rude & seemed broken when he grew up loved & ignorant of his sad history. I'm also not sure why any female would fall for a guy who is going to hit you more than hug you, rarely say something nice & when he does it's more an insult .That's really messed up. It made for an unsatisfying romance. It was unclear to me why the family register issue could be used as leverage. All they had to do to protect themselves was reveal the truth to each other. Shohei Miura's character ended up being a wishy washy waffle of a guy who seemed like a catch in the beginning but couldn't keep his focus on one girl & doesn't seem to be able to care for any girl more than a little while. I mean he goes so quickly from :"agh ! you broke my heart !" to "ah I'm fine" it gives you whiplash !

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lead characters delightful, but the secret destroys that so things don't end well

I was really disappointed that while both main characters were delightful, the ending was not. It may be a culture difference.. My world view is that, hope is central to life and lying is selfish & wrong. Hence the reason why this is a bomb.
In a nutshell: girl has secret that will destroy the boy, and it pretty much does.
to explain I have to use spoilers
Guy does not want to fall in love & tried hard not to admit he has. He even tries to not encourage the girl. His father left he & his mother when he was a toddler & his mother had a nervous breakdown & now he has to take care of her.(They show him washing his naked mother!! EU!!! just wrong!!) He lives on a tiny island where people visit or come to train in the military, but no one stays as there is no real economy or much to do (that's modern). He does NOT want to be left again. Along comes a real nice girl, who takes a fancy to him & pursues his affections, knowing that he does not want to set himself up to get hurt (left). She convinces him to enter into a relationship with her by telling him that she is not unfaithful & will never be. Problem: she has lupus & is dying. She does not tell him ! That's selfish !! She is not supposed to go out in the sun as it makes her sicker, but she wants to be with him so much that she spends days out in the sun with him (she could have told him). SO eventually she gets worse, flies off without saying goodbye in person & then dies. Except her twin sister returns to the island pretending to be her dead sister, until he figures it out. She is no substitute for her sister to him, so he becomes a broken hearted faithful visitor to his dead girlfriend's grave. happy ending ? NO !

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Disappointment. More violent/scary stuff than romance+Villain has excess screen time

It's 30 min format just feels a bit weird & it would have been better to have cut it down to 35 episodes . There is more violence & scary stuff than romance. The end reveal ,(about the bad guy ),is brilliant & unexpected BUT this just doesn't feel like a very balanced series.
Ji Chang Wook is incredible with his many nuances. Choi Tae Joon shines, while Nam Ji Hyun does well but her character is written poorly. Kwon Na Ra is irritating & Kim Ye Won's character should have been written out by the 10th episode at the very least. Dong Ha's character is the stuff of nightmares & is in WAY too many episodes, which is my main problem with this series. Negatives out weigh the positives for me. Breaking up & making up trope should be done away with ! Neutralizing the bad guy & then bringing him back again & again & again is just tedious & traumatizing ! Side characters that don't take No for an answer should be done away with as well. I wanted to like this & Ji Chang Wook is So good in this, but there just isn't much that's satisfying beyond his acting. There is a happy ending for the leads & the 2nd leads but the satisfaction is ruined by adding 2 more un necessary episodes AFTER the happy ending which is just lazy writing. I loved Healer but with this series, I had to take breaks every few episodes because it got so dark & violent . How many people have to get stabbed!!??? Pretty disappointed in this

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Light & Fluffy over doses on the "sweet" but fun reality escapism

Pleasant Mindless, very low on drama is a lovely reality distraction . It's fun to watch male lead act cold . Female lead was a bit too childish & over the top cutesy. The parental drama is cringy. The end is happy & there is implied 2 year time skip that you never actually see as they skip right to inexplicably being together happy ending
that doesn't really fill in a whole lot of plot holes .
The time skip & career pursuit at the end felt forced.
I could not find a version online that had consistent sound so be prepared for soundless parts in each episode & also when the characters text it's not subtitled.

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intense ethnic barriers & commonalities is not for the faint hearted

D.O. is incredible & the whole movies is Brilliantly done; great dancing, well acted, But no happy ending. The fault is not in the movie, but in that it was not a movie for me. I am the wrong audience for this very serious story . The trauma that the characters faced will haunt me & perhaps it is meant to be that way, but I am unable to be pragmatic about such things. I would have passed on this important but searing raw portrayal of ethnic barriers & commonalities. I can only imagine how meaningful this is to Koreans, for whom this is recent past for . While I loved the dancing & grew fond of the characters, the intensity of the drama was too much for me....if I had known I would not have watched it because once seen, such things can not be forgotten.(will give me nightmares)

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