Duckk

Oh come on

I was so convinced that Homecha would be my first 10 star of 2022 but it just didn’t happen. The first 10 or so episodes were absolutely incredible and I loved the mellow atmosphere of the show. It was hard to admit its faults even then because I was so in love with the actors and the overall vibe of a romcom set in a middle-of-nowhere seaside village. But the last 6 episodes, and especially the last 4, finally made me realize that Homecha was just a bit overrated. Obviously by my rating you can tell I still had a hard time giving it a lower rating, but that doesn’t stop me from complaining about everything wrong with Homecha (imo) in this review :). I guess let’s just start with the leads. I didn’t really like Hye Jin since the beginning of the drama but I kept telling myself that she would get better but she really didn’t? I felt so bad for Hong when she was dragging him around stores, making him try on suits and do yoga with her. Like ma’am you can tell he hates everything about your bucket list, why are you torturing him? I appreciate that the writers made her distinctly different from him and kept her like that throughout the drama rather than making her turn into someone else like a lot of romcoms do, though. She still kept her expensive style and her city-girl behaviors. But dang, you can do that without dragging your man into it. Hong? Hong’s too perfect. From beginning to end. I was SO hoping that his terrible backstory would include him doing something horrible to a person that caused him to change his entire lifestyle and move to a middle of nowhere town to work a minimum wage job. But no… he unwillingly sells stocks (or shares or something I don’t remember) to an idiot and just so happens to be the only survivor of an accident he didn’t even cause. And I get the whole survivor's guilt and I would have been more willing to believe that he blamed HIMSELF for it despite not really doing much to contribute. What pissed me off the most is the fact that other people blamed him for it. What right does the son have to blame a company employee for being begged into selling only a small portion of the stocks/ shares/ whatever that made his dad broke? Anyways I hate to admit it, but the backstory was the biggest reason why this drama is just ruined for me now. I probably got more angry about it than I should have, but I just couldn’t enjoy the drama after that. Like many kdramas, it got really weak towards the end and I was watching it mostly for the sake of being done with it at that point. I still really enjoyed the beginning parts of homecha and got a bit emotional when everything ended. I definitely think there’s better dramas out there, but this one isn’t bad either.

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disappointment of the year...

Man, I was so excited to watch this drama because I heard so many good things about So Ji Sub and was loving Shin Min Ah in Homecha, but these two great actors just ended up picking an absolutely horrible script. I already knew that 2014-2017 was a dark time for dramas (at least in my opinion) in terms of the same overused cliches in all romcoms, but this drama is just something else entirely. As someone who had her own share of issues with food and exercise, I was really hoping that this drama would present some good information on leading a healthy lifestyle, however Oh My Venus just ended up reinforcing all the common lies of korean diet culture and I was hugely disappointed with this drama because of this first and foremost. I won’t go into detail since it’s going to feel like beating a dead horse at this point (I left a comment with a majority of my complaints in the comment section) so I will address the storytelling issues in this review instead. This drama greatly suffers from what I call the “leads getting together too soon in a drama where the only storyline is the romance between the main leads” syndrome. The title is a work in progress. Basically this drama made a grave mistake of getting the leads together extremely early and had no more story or conflict left to tell. Everything else that followed after the couple got together just felt like meaningless filler. They should have seriously considered ending this drama at 10 episodes, but Korea for some reason has a weird 16 episode quota. I am one of those weird people that was rooting for the second leads, and their relationship actually had some conflicts and issues which I honestly appreciated in the never-ending sea of happiness and fluff that was the rest of the drama. And maybe a little because I could relate to Oh Sujin just a little bit. I don’t think I even need to mention the weird separation at episode 13 because what even was that? I usually get mad at these things but I was so apathetic to everything by episode 10 that I just kind of didn’t even care. Still, it’s hella weird and I would have 100% given the ML a hard time about it if I was the FL. This last one is a very personal complaint because I haven’t seen anybody say it here, but I honestly preferred the second lead couple to the main couple. Not exactly because their love line was any healthier, more interesting, etc. It’s genuinely because they just had more substance. Their characters felt a million times more fleshed out than the main couple. They actually had flaws. All that Yeongho and Jueun had to offer was never-ending love and understanding for one another. Sounds healthy and it probably was, but damn it I was so bored when I was watching them. There was zero tension, zero everything. It just felt too easy and too similar to everything else I’ve seen in kdramas. They were too perfect, too understanding, too nice. Everything about them felt so vanilla that I found it hard to ship them. They were too generic and honestly just became really boring once they lost their personalities after getting together. That’s it. That’s the review. Oh my venus is too overhyped and I’m too burnt out from writing college essays to care about wrapping up this review nicely. So yeah. There’s way better dramas out there so don’t waste your time with this.

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This is kind of an odd one to rate for me. Usually I’m the first one to cry when watching a tearjerker (and romcoms too lmao. I shed so many tears for Homecha in the first freaking episode) but this movie just didn’t really make me that emotional. I did tear up pretty good when he told her he loved her in the very last scene of the movie but otherwise my eyes were dry as the Atacama desert. I’m pretty impatient and just coming out of a kdrama slump so the snail-like pace of this movie was not working for me. It was bearable but also really unentertaining. Overall, I will definitely say that it was worth watching despite it not making me all that emotional, and I’d recommend it anyway.

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I’m not the best judge of what constitutes an accurate portrayal of a high school drama since I was sheltered as hell growing up, but I just know deep within my heart that this ain’t it lmao. I feel like the immature portrayal of the characters and the strange insta-lovey romance of the leads is something that is more likely to take place in middle school among barely-teenage 13-year-old kids. Perhaps other dramas’ portrayal of a high school setting was more mature than the reality and this drama is spot on about teenage insta-love and pathetic-looking bullying attempts (once again- this sheltered young adult is not the one to ask), but something felt incredibly off about this drama the entire time that I was watching it. The acting especially just didn’t do it for me. Son Da Eun looked like she was laughing instead of crying, and Seung Hyu’s expressions were crustier than week-old stale bread. I surprisingly enjoyed the darker tone shift in the second half - that part was done pretty nicely. I also really loved Da Eun’s backstory episode (episode 7 I think) and I was honestly more interested in that part than the main story. I think this drama would have been better off without a romance at all, because the one that we got just felt forced and unnatural. Overall, it’s an okay drama that could have been improved with better acting and more realistic relationships. Oh, and a less lame ending.

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I gotta admit I didn’t think I would enjoy this drama as much as I did in the end. I think the first 5-10 episodes were kind of a drag for me, but the characters and the plot grew on me eventually and I loved every moment from then on. Super happy that this was a slow burn in terms of romance because the slow burns keep me engaged longer because of all the suspense. This little group of gamers has honestly wormed its way into my heart, and I was absolutely not ready to let them go at the end. There were definitely tears when the final credits rolled, I’m not gonna lie. It was a very cheesy drama in the best way possible, and I already miss the cast and the story as I’m writing this review. One of the best cdramas I’ve ever watched!

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I watched Go Back Couple after watching 18 Again and was afraid that the dramas were too similar and that I would make some unfair comparisons. Surprisingly, the storylines were quite different, with Go Back Couple focusing on university students’ lives while 18 Again was more focused on the father’s relationships with his children and wife as a high school student. I have to say, I absolutely hated Choi Ban Do in the beginning of the drama, and I’m definitely not alone in this. While he did seem to redeem himself in the last part of the drama and even made me shed some tears for him, I would have liked a little bit more closure with the couple, since I was left with the impression that the two returned to their time mostly because of the child and not because they thoroughly reconciled their differences. I could have also done without the unnecessary “love triangle” since it’s generally very hard for me to root for the second lead when I already know that the married couple will eventually end up back together. Instead of acting as a good friend for the FL like the second FL did for ML, he was mostly just a very annoying obstacle that was exacerbating the misunderstandings and starting unnecessary drama between the leads. It just got a little old after a while. Overall though, this drama was great and did a great job of tying up loose ends and fully exploring the idea of two middle-aged adults turning back into university students. I had a lot of laughs when they acted way older than regular students, and the mother-daughter relationship here was absolutely heartbreaking and beautiful. I’d imagine it would hit very close to home for people whose mothers also passed away. This is a beautiful drama full of amazing life lessons. Just don’t get too mad at the ML, he’s trying his best.

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Incredible drama that could have used more depth

My love for Yoo Yeon Seok has led me to binge-watch this drama during a really long ride to Missouri, and I was in love from the very first episode. Though I usually always rave about songs with lyrics in kdramas, the instrumentals in this drama impressed me so much and deserve a big shoutout. Despite the wonderful cast of characters and the comforting atmosphere this drama created, I felt like the drama didn’t go enough in depth about some major plot points. When Seo Jung’s PTSD was revealed in the earlier episodes, I was very excited for the possibility that she would be trying to battle her intrusive thoughts for the rest of the drama before coming to terms with her boyfriend’s death. Instead, the issue just disappeared completely as if it never even existed. It was simply used as a plot device at some point in the drama to create tension and potentially get her fired from the hospital. Additionally, I wanted to see Dong Joo develop a relationship with Kim Sa Bu. It feels like not much happened in the way of bonding between any characters, and even the romance felt very incomplete. I was very confused by the ending because I still had so many questions about what would happen next. I simply don’t have the heart to rate this drama any lower because the suspense and the overall atmosphere was absolutely off the charts, but I could have definitely used a lot more character development.

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MY PRECIOUSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Shopping King Louie was an interesting watch, for sure. Despite the cliches and the obligatory break-ups, I still really loved the drama and its over the top humor. The less interesting parts like the politics and evil schemes happened extremely quickly and were over before I could remind myself that I usually hate those kinds of scenes. During the gloomy part of the drama, the atmosphere was still really fluffy and light, which was a very big plus for me, and I tend to feel very down when the atmosphere in a drama is depressing. While I was extremely annoyed by the “I’ve always hated your guts” speech that Bok Sil told Louie, it was never brought up again, to my great relief and extreme confusion. I have to commend the writers for pulling the double amnesia stunt, because the episode that followed was so entertaining and cheesy that my insides practically melted. The main leads themselves were extremely entertaining, especially Louie, who proved to me that femininity can be extremely attractive in a guy. While the last 4 episodes were mainly filler and contributed pretty much nothing to the plot, I somehow still enjoyed myself watching them. This drama had my absolute favorite most incompetent viillain and one of my favorite second lead romance, if only for the extremely childish farting scenes that happened between the characters. I would recommend this drama because of the pure joy I felt watching it. As long as you don’t take it too seriously, you can have lots of laughs while viewing this wonderful drama.

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THAT’S NOT THE PURPOSE OF A TIE, KIM BOONG DO

This drama falls into the category of dramas I call a “fast paced mess” because it involves a lot of events during the entire length of the drama that end up feeling very repetitive and overly angsty to the point that you may stop enjoying the drama altogether. It seems a lot of dramas fall into this trap. Some that I can recall off the top of my head are Boys Over Flowers and Personal Taste. It’s almost like the main, intended storyline happens too fast, so the writers have to tack on unnecessary challenges toward the end of the drama to make it a little bit longer. Frankly, the last 2 episodes of Queen In Hyun’s Man were redundant and a little annoying to watch. Similarly, I felt like the writers had used the “he gets very very injured, teleports 300 years to the future, and gets his ass saved by modern medicine” card a little too many times. I would have loved to see more things happen to the lead characters besides the male lead constantly fighting some hooligans and getting arrows stuck in his chest. For some reason I just felt disconnected from the characters in this drama. Could be the short length, could be the side plot about the political struggle in Kim Boong Do’s timeline taking time out of the necessary character development. I just wasn’t really feeling it I guess? There was lots of blood and lots of lengthy separation that also got quite repetitive towards the end. There’s only so many times I can watch Hui Jin cry about Boong Do disappearing into thin air before I stop caring altogether. I did enjoy the story. I never felt like I was forcing myself to watch it (unless you disregard the last few episodes) but there was just too much unnecessary angst to justify a higher rating than a 7 for this drama. I did cry once so I guess I was quite emotionally invested. All in all, I am left with only one thought that I can’t seem to put to rest: what if he suffocated in a building when switching timelines? Just the thought of him teleporting to the future only to find himself inside a wall or some closed off space is something that I literally can’t stop thinking about. What if he stepped a meter to the right and teleported inside the tree hmm?

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I always felt a tad bored by this drama when I watched it - not for any particular reason. Objectively speaking, the plot was solid. The characters were great. We had a wonderful blend of both happy and sad endings for our characters. But for some reason, sitting down and watching this drama felt like such a dull experience. I mostly blame the directing, since the episodes that were dragged out to 90 or more minutes could have fit nicely in a 60 minute format. A lot of the time seemed to be filled up with characters staring into space as the camera focuses on them, or even filler chit-chat that doesn’t really change the plot one way or the other. Take that away, and you’ve got a solid drama. Just because I didn’t have the heart to give this drama a lower rating (since it was exceptionally high quality and the storytelling was incredible) than 8.5 stars, I’m just going to take the slowness as the director’s unfortunate affinity for dragging out the plot rather than his lack of ability to direct a captivating drama. Overall I would recommend this drama. Took me a while to get into and another month to finish, but the overall story was very wholesome and pretty comedic. Love me a good comedy :)

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Oh my, I read so many bad reviews about this drama and was scared to watch it after that. Nevertheless, I decided to give it a shot because I was very curious about the show’s plot. And honestly? I don’t really agree with the people who say that the drama is bad. Frankly, I agree with one thing, and it’s that the acting of the leads was not the best and kind of irritating at times. However, the plot and the messages that this drama presented made the story a lot of fun for me overall. I could really sympathize with Kang Mi Rae in this drama, and all of her actions were justified and came from a place of insecurity. We see two girls, one who turned rotten because of how much she paid attention to looks, and one who became a total empathetic sweetheart because she doesn’t want other people to suffer like she once did. This contrast between the antagonists created a very interesting plot with a lot of “SHE SAID WHAT’ type of drama and barely any stupid breakup/jealousy drama, which I really enjoyed. This type of slice of life drama will always be my favorite: the mundane, day-to-day stories of people where we really get to know them and their wishes and aspirations. This drama discussed a very important issue, and while we didn’t get to see Kang Mi Rae entirely fall in love with her looks or completely stop judging others’ looks, we notice a positive change in her character. Anyhow, it would be quite unrealistic for her to magically get rid of all insecurities, and I’m glad the writers realized that Kang Mi Rae suddenly becoming super confident after years of internalizing the message that she’s a hideous orc is extremely unrealistic and just not how life works out (not that this drama is the most realistic thing, but still). I have to say that Hyun Soo Ah was one of my favorite villains in a kdrama ever, and I ended up really enjoying her on screen more than I probably should. I struggle with very similar issues as her and could empathize with a lot of her actions for that reason. Overall, I’d recommend this drama to anyone who’s willing to overlook slightly cringey acting, because the story that is told in this drama is one worth watching!

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I had finished Mr. Sunshine a couple weeks prior to watching this short drama, and I was craving more historical romance with a tragic ending. This drama also came in handy since I binged it on a long bus ride when I was on a road trip. To keep things short and simple, it was not the tear jerker I sincerely hoped for it to be. Shin Hye Sun and Lee Jong Suk are some of my favorite Korean actors (Shin Hye Sun is actually my favorite actress), and I loved watching them on screen together. However, the storyline just didn’t do it for me. It was pretty dull and dragged out way too much, to the point where I had to check the time remaining in each episode every few minutes out of boredom. The romance, strangely enough, actually ended up being extremely rushed, and I genuinely felt absolutely zero chemistry between Shin Hye Sun and Lee Jong Suk. I’ll give it a higher than average rating for the actors and the beautiful directing, however I wish the storyline was less dull at times. Overall, I would still recommend this to anyone wanting to break out of their comfort zone and try a new genre. This is a short enough drama that I don’t regret watching it in the slightest, despite some obvious drawbacks.

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It was alright, I guess

Story: There were three total romance lines in this drama, and I can truly say that all three of them were very enjoyable and surprisingly realistic. I enjoyed watching the characters struggle against their better judgement and take the leap of faith to get together despite the difficulties they knew they would face. Sadly, besides the romance arcs, I found the rest of the drama rather dull, and it took me quite a few episodes to actually get into and begin to enjoy the storyline. The ending of this drama was perfectly cute and cheesy, just how I like it, and I honestly almost gave this drama an 8/10 because of all the fuzzies I got from the final scene.

Acting/ Cast: I enjoyed both of the leads and their acting. There wasn’t anything glaringly cringey or unrealistic about their acting or the acting of the supporting characters, so I’m pretty happy with the cast of this drama. I thought the chemistry between the leads was so freaking good though. Like, no joke, I was FANNING myself especially during that first kissing scene because HOLY MOLY that was some good camerawork! The only thing that kind of upset me is the female lead’s hideous wig. It took me a LONG time to get to used to that abomination.

Music: There wasn’t really much music in this drama besides the intro theme. Can’t say I mind it too much. It’s not out of the ordinary for Chinese dramas to not have an extensive OST, so eh.

Rewatch Value: I don’t think I’m going to ever rewatch this drama. Not because it wasn’t rewatchable, but mostly because I just don’t feel like it is good enough for me to have the urge to watch it again.

Final thoughts: I’d recommend this drama for a casual watching experience. If you have a lot of time to kill, you might enjoy it. Otherwise, it’s nothing special or super impressive, so I’d skip it if you were looking for a high quality drama.

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Absolutely Magical

Hoo boy, I haven’t cried this hard in a while. Angel's Last Mission: Love is the type of drama to put you in a week long slump because of how good it was. And I have no regrets, despite currently being in a major slump thanks to THIS drama. So let's talk about it. I went into this drama purely because of the ratings, Shin Hye Sun, and because it was *finally* taken off the Viki Pass Plus list, meaning I 1. Had no idea what it was about lol and 2. I basically rushed to complete the drama I was watching at the time to start this one. I went into this completely blind (excuse my terrible joke) and came out absolutely in love with everything this drama had to offer. I'll talk about the plot itself last, so just bear with me. I think the casting of this drama was perfectly done, and I honestly cannot imagine anyone but Shin Hye Sun and L playing the lead roles. I had last seen Shin Hye Sun in 30 but 17, and the roles in the two dramas were complete polar opposites, though both of them still had the similarity of a struggling artist "getting back in the saddle after an unfortunate incident" type of backstory. I had not heard of L from any other drama and was at first a bit apprehensive when I heard he was an idol actor. Thankfully, he's just as great of an actor as he is a singer. He was perfect for the role and the chemistry was sizzling! I think the majority of the tears I shed over this drama were all due to the absolutely incredible soundtrack. Every single song connected with me deeply and I especially cried TONS when Pray by KLANG came on during the emotional moments. If I could, I'd give the soundtrack 20/10. I'm not joking when I say that during the past few days I spent recovering from this drama, I listened to the 30 minute OST at least 10 times on repeat. Now, on to the story and the reason why I (really wanted to but) couldn't quite give this drama a full 10 stars. Everything was absolutely perfect, and I had, for a while, considered giving the drama a 10 star rating, but after thinking it over, I realized that the last half of the drama was just not up to par with the first half. That is not to say it was bad, it just wasn't AS good as it could have been and it frankly got a tad repetitive with the forbidden romance. All in all, however, this drama is definitely one I will remember fondly, and I would highly recommend it to everyone.

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Hard to get into, but harder to let go

When I first began this drama, I was really turned off by the ridiculous humor of the show. Not gonna lie, I was also incredibly confused at first and totally had to rewatch the first half hour several times just to understand what was happening. The show starts off in a really *intense* manner with lots of screaming and unnecessary fighting which could deter some viewers from the drama, but it does significantly calm down the farther into the drama you get, much to my relief. And yes, I am sadly one of those people that is going to tell you that the female lead's screaming doesn't get better and DOES get on my nerves just a bit. I learned to deal with it, but I still kinda cringed every time she said something in an unnecessarily loud voice. There wasn't all that much second male lead action going on, and I do believe it would be kinda weird if he ever made a move on her, anyway, so it's all good. The storyline, therefore, almost exclusively focuses on cultivating the relationship between Cha Dohyun and Oh Rijin, although this drama is one heck of a confusing "slow burn" (?can I even call it that, though?) Although I almost left because of the humor, it is what partially made me stay and enjoy the drama. The ridiculousness of it grows on you and the amount of laughs they managed to pull out of Cha Dohyun's mentally illness was surprisingly high. I felt like we got to get to know all the personalities quite a bit, and there was a lot of character development, especially in one personality in particular. They ended up introducing a really complicated family mystery/cover-up story toward the end of the drama, and I cannot lie, they completely lost me and I still cannot for the life of me tell you what the heck went on 21 years ago, cause I tuned out of that storyline QUICK. Overall, though, this drama was worth watching, and it definitely got quite a few laughs out of me. I loved all the characters soo much, and this was just a wonderful blend of angst, humor, and romance. PS: ls Dohyun (or the actor whose name I do not remember) not the HOTTEST freaking person ever? SWOON 🙈

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