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Pay no attention to the drama poster -it's Melancholy & All the females have jagged edges
Melancholy & hard to warm up to. Female Characters all have jagged edges to themSee the Smiling couple on the Movie Ad ? They don't do that for 98% of the movie.
The actress actually does not have a black short haircut, but has long reddish brown hair throughout.
The theme is heartbreak from lost loves & how hard it is to move on. Sounds unenticing ? Well, it gets deep about why are we obsessed with things. Male lead can't remember that his girlfriend is dead but instead thinks that she left him. He meets another girl in a library. The ending is sort of happy but what comes before it is all heavy stuff.
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Navigating an unpleasant swamp of gooey drama & despair
This has sweet moments but there's never any viable reason for the romance & this drama has tropes (especially over bearing males) that haven't aged well, so it's hard to fully embrace it. While the drama implies that it's the female lead that has the mental issues, there are alot of characters that even more messed up. They tried way too hard to connect the leads & so it felt very contrived. [Some of the characters themselves express disbelief at the connections!] While at first the lead's relationship is tested they weather it well. But the writers pile on the difficulties resulting in too many break ups & make ups for my patience. The tone of the last half of the drama is maudlin. Yes, there is a happy ending, but we have to go through an unpleasant swamp of gooey drama & despair with the characters first , [with a detour off the main story to the uninteresting storyline of the policeman, a poorly written character who isn't able to figure himself out.]A big negative was the overbearing lead males, thier glaringly rude attitudes & for all they say they care; they both push the female lead around alot.
*****Spoiler*****
Any sweetness in the lead's romance turned a bit sour for me when (somewhat drunk) they sleep together early on in the series- It's an important plot point for what follows, but still, it kills the warm fuzzies that had been building because they don't even like each other, [indeed the female lead is infatuated with the policeman !]
male lead's sister) is really really annoying for most the series
******Heavy Spoiler:
they went too far in making the female lead connected to the male lead's past- yes it was a plot twist, but the male lead's mother & grandfather have been cruel to the female lead [blaming her for a past accident], knowing full well that she is not at fault!
How are we to be convinced that it's right for the male lead to choose his family over his lover, when it is that very family that has neglected , lied to & driven his love away from him with lies?
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I don't give out a 10 score easily. well balanced drama. Female lead evolves
I probably have seen 3 or 4 dramas that I've deemed worthy of a perfect score, so this is one of the "elite"I've watched this in 2018, then in 2020 & then again in 2025
Briefly :
Good story, good ending, good acting. I was really impressed with the good balance between drama, action, suspense, romance & light heartedness.
Sometimes it got a little too intense for me [I don't enjoy family drama & intense violence] And many episodes ended with intensity. The characters had interesting idiosyncrasies & there was good character, relationship & plot development & resolution. I almost want to say the this is the perfect drama, but there were some negatives.
For instance;
they overused/overplayed the song Eternal love. English is my first language, so I noticed that there were times when the song was playing and the sentiments of the scene were all wrong.
Also, on my 3 rewatch, I found the female lead's character to be dislikeable. it took me to almost half way through the series to warm up to her. Not sure why she only irritated me AFTER already seeing the series twice ! I can only speculate that after seeing alot more dramas , I had developed different preferences & became pickier in what the ideal female lead should be (?) I think that the writer's wrote her poorly in the first episodes but redeemed her character by having her mature & grow, becoming less selfish, etc.
It did seem that they left a bit of an opening for a sequel
**spoiler**
(I mean they they defeated the bad guys but not the next tier of bad guys that were puppeteering the whole movement so really, ARE they safe ?)
Rewatch a 4th time ? definitely !
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Grey areas of morality. A boatload of trauma & creepy. Alot of crying +Tragic twist
This was a huge disappointment. I really, really, REALLY wanted to like it.I would have avoided it altogether if the reviews had been more thorough!
Here's the key:
the genre.
There's only a tiny bit of romance & only a tiny bit of comedy, but heavy on the Suspense, Thriller, Mystery & investigation. And there is here ALOT of melodrama with so much crying. But mostly, there's a freakin boatload of trauma & creepy. I was hoping for something along the line of Strong woman Bong Soon, or Healer, ( both favorites) but This is less balanced with a tragic twist that ruined the series (for me). The surprise reveal is brilliant, totally unexpected & feels like a knife of betrayal being thrust into the viewer. At that point you simply continue in order to see it revealed for a lie, but no, it becomes a horrible truth. There's SO much back storying in this series. Explaining everyone's tragic history, [trying to squeeze sympathy from you] & it's exhausting. They want the viewer to see that people are not just all bad or all good, but wow! They really "push the envelope"! The end is incredibly disappointing as it tries to leave you on an upbeat/positive note.(Which isn't possible to achieve because of the horrific reveal of that 1 beloved main character). It gives resolution to all the character's stories but has a lame unsatisfying immature resolution to the romances.
Story was very well crafted & had alot of moral issues presented from various sides, which made you think (& be confronted with many grey areas of morality].
I'm a simple person; I want my good guys good. They can be flawed, but only if they are redeemable flaws. Characters who rape ,murder or torture can't be redeemed.
OST: unremarkable. they replayed the main theme too many times .
***Spoilers***
One of the 4 main characters will die. 2 of the "good guys" will be proven to be bad guys. 1 (of the 4)beloved main characters will been shown to have done something horrible, that cannot be fixed & heartbroken you will find yourself screaming : "NOOOO" at the TV screen !
****Heavy spoilers****
Big brother prosecutor is guilty of multiple murders
there's no coming back from that.
Main couple decide to live together at the end. Their dating is mostly implied (with a year of skipping ahead at the end) and for him to take her hands in his & just say :"let's live together" really isn't romantic.
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Unexpectedly deep, Lee Soo Hyuk + (low key) happy ending
free on youtubereminded me of the Mystic Pop up bar [where fallen deity has to complete 1000 good deeds before they can return to heaven ] The tailor Woven, really should have completed his task a long time ago , so it begs the questions ; why all of the sudden is he now just starting to be affected by human emotions & care for them & why this particular human ? It's a nice "bite sized" mini drama that has alot of unexpected depth to it. I felt that it was too short & it was missing an episode. The "romance" is so low key that the drama is over right as you become aware of it. Don't expect any kisses or warm fuzzies with your happy ending, because the drama is not really about the main couple. I was disappointed that the subs were sometimes wrong & the worst part was the title in every episode "Put Your Handsome" which is nonsensical unless you add the little word : "on" . Still, it's well done & earnest in serving up something that while lovely to the eye is also meaningful in message/theme.
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Bromance! Romance-meh
I watched this after seeing other newer dramas with the male leads in it, so that influenced my feelings a bit. I do want to mention though, that smart phones aside, this did not feel "dated", considering it was 7 or so years old.Review:
Firstly; the bromance is WAY more interesting than the romance & the male lead (s) interaction with each other are the most interesting parts. I found the female lead's character annoying & yeah, like everyone has mentioned; her being in high school at the start & also at the end puts a damper on how you feel about the main couple. They really tried hard not to cross inappropriate lines, but still, it is very uncomfortable .
This fun overlooked fact gets an honorable mention for being annoying :
it was ALWAYS fall in Canada- like, could the Goblin control that ???
The frequent Product placement was pretty obvious.
***Heavy Spoilers are necessary to explain my low rating.
1) I hated how the grim reaper's storyline went. OK he gets a happy ending, but it was too little too late for me.
2) I Loathe time skips and this drama has a 9 year one near the end. I get why they put it in, but I hated it & wished it had happened around Ep. 4
3) I never really connected /understood how the female lead was a part of the Goblin's past & his attraction to her was inexplicable to me.
4) we get a happy ending once the Goblin came back from the in-between (or whatever that was), But WHY is he still a Goblin ???? He's still immortal, his lover is not! What is his purpose ?
5) They overused Crush's lovely song
6) they give us a happy ending, but spoil it by throwing in the proverbial "monkey wrench" of putting the lead couples through yet more, MORE pain AND separation before they finally let us have the final, final happy ending. It's like pouring gravy on icecream [make up your mind, one, but not both!!] So these things, added to the other misc. annoying bits , just soured the ending feeling.
rewatch; no- and it kinda breaks my heart to say it
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Ep 1-4 are alot of fun, Flubbed ending
I ALMOST loved this-then they had to switch gears and turn things around so you wonder if it's the same drama at all. The first 4 or so episodes were alot of fun, with the leads playing cat & mouse, a who done it mystery, disguises and clever stories within stories. Then that quirkiness and fun does a full stop and the characters loose thier shine. The series gets fixated on fighting sequences that hilariously end with the female lead deciding she's just had enough & isn't going to wait to be saved. The unraveling the mystery was fun, the actual interaction with the villain is tedious at best (with so much obviously fake blood !). But even that leaves room for a fulfilling happy ending, yet the writers chose to drag things out with inane fillers at the end. This reminded me of Doom at your Service, where the happy ending is given to you at half power in the 2nd to the last episode then fails to follow through ,instead focusing on tying up everyone's story in a bow so that what they end up giving us are crumbs, & not a truly satisfying lead couple moment to end the series with.Spoiler rant:
The Kiss between the leads is so poorly set up and the timing is off ! He's crying, she's standing there and then without any segway, she's in his lap & they are kissing. What !? You feel like; ok it's such a nice kiss that you can forgive them for whatever they cut out that shows how she got into his lap
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Bromantic dramady. Boring surgery scenes. Unsatisfying romances
Rain & Kim Bum give stellar performances in this mostly bromantic dramady. I gave it fewer stars though because I found the surgeries overly long , (SO much squirting blood), & what looked like the same fake skin being sliced open every surgery. Also, I was disappointed that Kim Bum's storyline wasn't given more romantic development. Rain's romance was a bit unsatisfactory ,though it did end happily. It just felt a bit rough & awkward instead of warm fuzzy romantic. Don't expect any kissing in this series. It's all about the hugs. overall the cast did a great job & there was a good balance between the drama (difficulties & obstacles & scary stuff) & the development of the character's relationships. I'm not a fan of hospital dramas, but as with Hospital playlist , this won me over. It's good to see Rain in his acting element ; the bromance & defender of justice genres suite him well.Happy endings for most "good" characters.
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The mysteries are interesting
I watched one episode & thought it was Ok but I then dropped it . A long time later I pricked it up again & used it as a filler in between historical dramas. The mysteries seem a little reused but overall rather interesting. I found the repeated tropes of the male lead writing his ideas on anything at hand to be over used as was the off putting camera zooming into his ear then onto his brain synapsis. The acting was fine, & the chemistry between the 2 leads was fine as well, but the female detective is shrill, loud & annoying (to make sure that we know that they aren't going to have the two of them get romantically involved?) .Season 2 they give us a new female detective that is even more rude & abrasive
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Long speeches, teased romance Machiavellian male lead
Though I rated it rather highly, it's not a rewatch for me.I would have liked it better if Each episode didn't have a dramatic 3-4 min passionate speech shouted (or though a megaphone) addressing corruption, uncaring teachers, bullying & inequality.
22 year old Ex student in wheel chair mentors yet also constantly yells at girl & calls her an idiot (though we are not sure if he actually might like her?)
important Spoilers:
He's planning public suicide in order to ruin the principle's reputation & to get the school shut down, He is thwarted by school girl who she kisses him, confronts the principle who didn't let wheel chair guy graduate. In the end he does AND he is able to over come the mental block to rehabilitation(the lack of which kept him from walking)it ends with them bickering platonically
The subtitles are excellent.
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decent B grade movie is super violent with a weird ending
I liked it-it's a decent "B Grade" movie .-the pace was good, the production quality was good, the cast was good & the action was good BUT it was super violent. It not a huge issue since the movie theme & story is not real life serious. it had a disappointingly weird ending instead of the really happy one you want . Still at least the ending was not the sad heartbreaking one you fear.Was this review helpful to you?
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Getting to the happy ending is drudgery
Harsh lead female's character that I never could warm up to. Lead male was attractive but his character is not someone to root for. The demon/evil spirt is traumatizingly over the top scary . They catch the "bad guy" &then they brought him back 4 episodes (or so) before the end! (what!!??)The characters had already gone through ALOT so I just felt it was cheap & unnecessary to have them sacrifice , give it their all & it ends up not being enough. The romances were all pretty much settled by then so I felt it had lost the fun & was draining to watch. I dropped this for a few weeks then finished it. Yes there are happy endings for some, but getting there was a bit of drudgery. The pizazz that you got excited about in the first few episodes was long gone
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Ep. 1-8 yes ! Ep 8-12 No !
Leads did well, but the premise & the comedy got lost around Ep. 8. If I ever rewatch this I would stop at the end of episode 7- that's all the happy ending I need. Ep 8-12 are weighed down with maudlin, boring listless characters who do alot of soul searching. Yes, that stuff did tie things up nicely, but in ways that I don't need or care about. [DO I care about the side characters getting an in depth happy ending ? DO I care about 4 main characters getting closure with thier parents ?] This is not a drama that felt like it needed to get all sober & philosophical, sending a pointed message to the audience about mental health. That just made this a drama that seemed bipolar!Was this review helpful to you?
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cringingly saccharine sweet. Unforgivable betrayal ,nonsensical English subs
When I first watched this (early in my drama watching years) it was a completely new thing to me & so I gave it a 10/10 . It was sweet with elements of sacrificial love that wins out. Perseverance in life, career, friendship & love is extolled. True character is held in high esteem, Genuine love is displayed as really knowing & having a true appreciation of significant other, not just a physical attraction.That said, many years & 50+ dramas later now that I re watch it and find it cringingly saccharine sweet. The jumping back & forth from Korean to Mandarin, was super annoying. The sometimes backwards nonsensical, translations/English subtitles with thier wrong gender, bad spelling made watching like a challenge of charades ! To make matters worse, everything that is written (that we are supposed to see ; letters, notes, titles, buildings are not translated! The male lead's wide mouthed grin & sparkling eyes are in stark contrast to the female lead's vacant constant state of confusion .While I still hold that the characters evolve well, the betrayal by the second leads is impossible to forgive.
More in depth spoilers:
The ending, while happy for both couples, it's weird because of the former love triangle. You can plainly see why the couples are best in thier own coupling, but having them all be friends & related at the end is just unpalatable.
Used the amnesia trope twice !!
Kimberley Chen's song "I love you" & the theme song Da Mouth's "Maybe" was played to ad nauseum .
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SO much introspection that it's depressing . Female lead is not likeable
Be prepared, this series suffers from the greatest guy is the second lead syndrome .And Ignore the artwork & the intro, this is NOT a light hearted romance. It deals with deep hurts: parental & friend abandonment ,jealousy, betrayal, slander, suicidal thoughts , social anxiety, deep depression. On the other hand the theme is every woman's fantasy : no matter how dull , depressed or lacking in charm you are, men will want to rescue you, fix you, fix your life & be doggedly devoted no matter how much you push them away. Ugh! The love matches are inexplicable and there's an odd love triangle (that's really a 6 sided love) which isn't as complicated as it is just dumb because it's all due to lack of communication.Let's be honest: the main girl is not loveable. The guys attracted to her are idiots as she's a broken extreme introvert who doesn't want human interaction. She is constantly pushing people away from her & yet also is very needy . She, herself admits that she does not know how to love. Every interaction with her is hard & she doesn't want to expend the energy to even accept love. Still, there are happy endings for many of the characters. I never warmed up to any of the women in the series. The men , though attractive, would need alot of stamina to maintain a relationship with any of the women as they are all prickly & pretty selfish, even in their selflessness.
Spoiler
why would a socially fearful, highly introverted girl even be interested in an effervescent, puppy like guy who is cringingly stuck in constant Aegyo mode over an understanding ,patient & quietly supporting. guy who's been around a long time, proving himself in small but meaningful ways ?
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