Brogana Sunfrog

Fun with some Quirky characters & alot of full length staged songs

This could almost be called a musical as the characters sing alot of songs on a stage of one sort or another. The music is fine for the most part, but I was more interested in the plot. I would have liked this better if the music had just been snippets instead of full length songs. Mukai Osamu shines (he literally seems to glow) as the male lead who benevolently wears a fixed smile throughout the drama. He's attractive, & in character, so he can get away with that! I felt that they kept trying to make female lead Kamishiraishi Moka look & act very young. This drama is a bit of fluff that tries to make the plot about how songs/singing can bring peace to the world (no, seriously the goal is world peace...through music)
There are some quirky characters that show up every so often giving the drama a circus vibe when unsettling Avu Chan & Sekiguchi Mandy are on screen. The over all story is heart warming & the conclusion unsurprising,
though I have to say, as a character, you're a wussy if you choose to be a mentor/facilitator in the modern world over standing as tactician with your king (in the past) to fight wars!

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An "old school drama" that still has more charm than many newer dramas

I put off watching this for a long time because years ago I saw Lee Min Ho in Boys over Flowers -which I hated. I didn't think much of his acting or his appearance, so I avoided anything he was in. Then in 2020 I inadvertently watched The King Eternal Monarch & was struck at how much his acting had improved. I liked that drama so much that made me open to watching this drama when it popped up for "free" on Netflix. Yes, this drama is dated. And you kind of have to ignore the fact that all the actors ( that are playing 17 & 18 year old high school students) are actually in thier early to mid 20s ! Which is problematical as the story should be about college students, but the plot needs them to be believably old enough for serious relationships, but also young enough to be powerless to do much about it (being minors & all )

It does have the posturing male stereotype and the "old school "format & the characters don't do anything really surprising, But, I was also watching the drama The Potato lab the same month as I was watching this & I have to say that though the male lead in the Potato lab was very attractive (to my personal taste), I found myself enjoying & wanting to watch The Heirs more! ( I finally ended up dropping the Potato lab). WHY!? With all it's faults : being dated, not so great music & stereotypes that haven't aged well, the story & production value is still good. There is also a sweetness about it & an evolution of characters that is very appealing. I like that many of the main characters are equally invested in thier relationships. I like the equality of feelings & regard of the male & female characters for each other!

It doesn't hurt that it is stuffed with handsome men [Lee min ho, Kim Woo Bin, Choi Jin Hyuk , Park Hyung Sik & alot of others]

Park Shin Jye also brings her usual pretty & perky self to the drama with her consistent range of skills.
If you have a stomach for the older dramas like My girlfriend is a guhmio or Secret garden, or if you are just finding the newer dramas too unbalanced & crass, this might just hit the spot for you.

Be warned : you will encounter the ever stupid : " I will leave you because I love you" trope as well as the distant cold parent.
but silver lining, there is no time skip !
Ah, the OST :
Lee Chang Min's song "moments" is used WAY too much to the point that you loose the feeling they are trying to convey, and Park Jan Hye's song "Love is feeling" is a bit annoying but not as annoying as the female lead's childish sounding "Story" . The OST is redeemed by the other songs as well as the decent if not stellar "painful love" song sung by the male lead .

The end is happy for all the main characters & they try to tidy up the relationships by doing a really lame look into the imagined future (10 years forward!) that really gives you nothing more than a visual & not actually any new information

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Non traditional happy ending. Story not exactly the same as the 2015 version

I watched the 2015 version:"My Little lover "before I watched this & so I was expecting this to be the same story (with the same ending). The 2015 version does NOT end the same. It took awhile for me to get into this version as the male lead looked (to me) like he was in 6th grade so imagine my confusion when he invites his girlfriend on an over night (intimate) getaway ! Much later they reveal that he is supposed to be 18. I deducted points for things in this drama, like :

1) The grandfather ,a father & a male teacher are physically abusive to highschool aged kids.

2) A female student makes bold sexual statements to a boy student. I think the point was to show a test of loyalty.

3) too much talk about sex & then a young girl mentions (to her brother)that an older girl has big breasts . All that just was uncomfortable & unnecessary.

I did not like the girl lead in the 2015 version, but I think I still like it better because it was a nicer story with a MUCH better ending. This version's ending really left me annoyed. If you like traditional happy endings, this is will leave you frustrated.

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take out all the scenes without Jang Keun-suk then you can say: "ah that was worth it"

I am coming [years] late to viewing this. If you are a Jang Keun-suk fan then you may be able to forgive many things but though I did love him in" He is Beautiful" & thought; "how bad could a movie actually be if it has Jang Keun-suk in it"?! I mean I got through" Bel Ami " and was a bit non plussed but it was still enjoyable [if not what I was hoping for]. With "Marry me Mary" , I had high hopes. If you take out all the scenes without Jang Keun-suk, then maybe you could still say; "ah that was worth it" But honestly, this was just a sad disappointment. Even for the date it was made in, it is an impossible premise , But this suffers from the same heavy second lead syndrome that "Boys over Flowers" did [-where you really like the guy who you know will not win, and he will just be left hanging in love limbo.] in this drama, however, It makes no sense as this 2md male lead actually had an interest in the 2nd female lead in the beginning so really they should end up together. "Should" being the key word. They are trying to redefine "happy" ending in light of a modern mindset by pushing hard the message that you can love someone but not want to get married for now or maybe never. OK, but ironically, they didn't actually sell that as a happy ending ! As clingy as he has been, we aren't convinced that Jang Keun-suk 's character actually is capable of such a commitment anyway [, especially given his past record of non commitment]. Female lead spent a great deal of time simply staring sadly instead of talking. So misunderstanding were the fuel of the last few episodes. Sadly, there is not enough fun, fluff, romance or happiness to keep me interested or invested.

*****
If you're going to watch it, you might want to stop after the kiss and the camping trip, because the last 4 episodes don't add anything to the drama

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Bloated drama has too much detail & too many twists & turns

This suffers from a bloated amount of episodes and it stops being interesting after episode 12. Be forewarned there is a good deal of creepy Crime going on but
all the beloved characters will survive, (& yes the leads get thier happy ending) but getting to the last episode will frustrate you & tempt you to fast forward as it get's bogged down with too many twists, turns & details .
what's wrong:
1) The lead's playful relationship gets awkward with a badly written romance . Their first kiss is meh & right after it they (off screen) sleep together. The whole setup- first date and the male lead's sense of entitlement, expectations with no satisfying build up are real turn offs.
2) Non native English speakers playing Americans really tarnish this drama , getting words, grammar & pronunciations really wrong. Bizarrely, most the Americans (located in the American scenes) speak Chinese/Mandarin ! The male lead spent many years in America, graduated from an American College, is a professor AND yet in conversations HE speaks Chinese & The Americans speak English back to him !!??
3) Main male characters keep getting shot and surviving. Maybe just not shoot them so much so often ?

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2nd viewing update; Leads have good chemistry. Rushed ending

free on youtube
At about 67 minutes long, this is almost the perfect length for this story ,though it could have used one more episode episode because the last episode leaves you feeling like you missed something as it rushes the lead's relationship to resolution. Still, this is a bit size K-drama with spunk & romance. . Both leads are appealing with good chemistry.
nice ,clean romance. I've watched this 2 times. Some things detracted keeping this from a higher rating.
1) it seemed low budget as they did a really bad job of making the male lead look "fat" or even chubby in the scenes before his transformation. I mean cotton stuffed in cheeks & over sized clothes did not make him repulsive or even unattractive, just like he had come from the dentist & borrowed his dad's clothes ! (totally still dateable :P )
2 times of viewing this is plenty , though it's pretty forgettable, so never say never.

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Leads have no chemistry with anything other than the food

This was my first Mukbang drama. The food takes up 85%+ of each episode. I initially gave this a 9/10 rating, but some years later, after re watching it, I gave it a 6/10.
3 more years after that I give it about a 5/10
with all viewings: The romance never worked for me. The leads did not have romantic chemistry.
The office bickering was tedious. Usually there is one annoying side character, but here there are 3 here & that is 3 too many. The second female lead was cute to the point of ad nauseum . The male lead is VERY charismatic & mesmerizing to watch (especially when he eats). The female lead was attractive, but her character was shrewish & unpleasant. There was no real premise for any romance, nor did you want them to be romantic.

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Serious topics +Seeking revenge turns you into the same kind of person you hate

I only watched this because I got it free & was curious because V of BTS did one of the songs on the OST. The plot/premise did not sound interesting & it turns out that I should have just passed on this as there was a whole lot not to like.
I don't know what they were thinking here, having the male lead act so woodenly then his hair cut; AHG !!! every other character changed hair style as they aged , but the male lead kept his unattractive hair style to the end !

Before I was even half way through I stopped caring because everyone was unlikeable ! The main characters ended up being disappointingly unsatisfying un hero like. As for the premise of revenge. Did they intend to show that it turns you into the exact thing that you hate & are fighting against as you waste your life pursuing it when you could move on ? A big negative that jarringly broke the flow of the story was a 4 year time skip [episode 14] . As for Romance: well ,you've got a pentangle ( 5 people) & you don't care about the outcome because they are all behaving badly. Both female leads were unlikeable. Kisses & happy (main couple) ending occurred at the very end, though by the end I wasn't invested in them. Revenge, racism, transgenderism -lots of serious stuff crammed in & it just felt like too much. There is also a good bit of product placement. Park Seo Joon played his character with a CONSTANT blank stare , perpetually petting his own head in confusion [were they implying that he was autistic or had brain trauma?]. At times you could see him channeling his real life friend Kim Taehyung (& doing it spot on) but mostly he showed a very limited variety of expressions . All 6 main characters had thier humanity just burnt away in the acid bath of obsession, hate & revenge . By the end of the drama the male lead straight up says that he literally will do ANY THING (meaning violence) he has to do to save the female lead & puts his friend at risk of prison by telling him to to whatever it takes as well. {it's like everyone is turning to the "dark side" !]
The father nemesis: Yoo Jae Myung' frozen angry face got WAY to much screen time . They presented him as sick & elderly so he should have been wheel chair bound. Female lead Kim Da Mi 's character had some disassociative social disorder. The only person she could summon empathy for was the main male lead & even then she spent a great deal of time vacantly staring up at him while bobbling her head {what was with that !?} . Kim Dong Hee,'s sweet character followed in the footsteps of his mentor & father as he became a heartless, ruthless businessman.(shame on the writers for not making his return to the family business a way to actually support his friend in the end!) Finally, Kwon Na Ra's character was lack luster. There is NO reason why she & the male lead should ever have been a couple- a fact which is brought up more than a few time in the series, Whatever it is that they have, it's not romantic. They are both so selfish that you don't fall for what's supposed to pass for love bread crumbs. The most laughable part is when
**spoiler**

at the end she meets Park Bo Gum in a last minute cameo (to soothe viewers !?) and she instantly goes: yeah, NOW I'm in love ! yup, that's how you do it, bring in someone for the failed at love female lead that is just as handsome as the male lead for her. Funny, though, Park Bo gum looks like a pretty innocent lamb being served to a wolf !

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So much that was depressing or cold , Though Hyun Bin is very watch worthy

Hyun Bin is really watch worthy here, but he is not enough to carry this very disappointing drama. One of His characters is made to look so bad in the beginning that you have to concentrate on his attractive glare in order to get to the later parts where you actually, sort of, somewhat like him. The second persona of his character is shallow & clueless & I was not a fan of his puppy dog character . The female lead is tedious. Her character pig headedly rails against perceived injustices & she verbally attacks & counterattacks giving a piece of her mind to ad nauseum. I think she's just poorly written. It is never explained WHY she has an almost compulsion to gravitate toward a needy person. It seemed like she could have used a good amount of psychoanalysis to get to the root of why she was so fixated. I wanted to & tried to like this series, but there was so much that was depressing or cold about it. We are put through a lengthy tear jerking farewell to the male lead's happy persona. I found the last episodes to be a muddy jumble of a mess before we get to the happy ending.

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Unsatisfying , doesn't hold a candle to season 1. Focus on sick people's stories & surgeries

This season suffered from writer's bloat. It also has some of the most awkward inexplicable romance attractions that build up & then end blandly that I've ever seen in a drama. I was baffled by how much time was spent showing surgeries in progress yet we miss important key parts of the lead's relationships progression. (One lead's crush is given 5 chances in which to convince him to go out with her & we see 1!!!!) I loved the balance of drama to relationship stories in Season 1 so I was disappointed with the mind numbingly long surgeries, explanations of surgeries & tangent stories of random cast members .
In the last 2 episodes it seemed like they were scrambling to create tension by killing off a whole lot of patients, while at the same time quickly get all the lead's relationships tidied up. It was weird & unsatisfying . Also, I swear they reused the same bloody pictures during surgery ! Yes everyone get's a happy ending , just fast forward to them.

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Hot & Cold female lead. The village people are intrusive with too much screen time

The two leads are great & thier dimples work over time, but I never warmed up to the small town residents They are annoying, intrusive & make excuses for each other's bad behavior. They also get way too much unnecessary screen time . Shin Min-a's character ran cold & hot & it was hard to like her at times. There were other times when she would start channeling her " My Girl Friend is Gumiho" & "Oh my Venus" characters, squealing like a teenager .Considering her age, It was a bit off & odd.
I think that this is my least fav role for her-at least the way she is written. Her character is alternately too pushy & too mushy at times. The last few episodes were boring; being taken up with tidying up all the town people's stories- I just didn't care for that at all.

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