Amastris Dratwka

The 2nd episode just as good as the first. I know it doesn't need to be repeated but, I'm gonna repeat it again anyway. SJK is all grown up now. He exudes manliness in this and not just that but the confidence to back it all up. His actions, dialogue, and flirtations are all crisp and on point...

I think I'm one of the few that get SHK's character and her acting. She's doing just as well as SJK, imo. I think with the OST it's hard to forget that they've just met and haven't even had a proper date. I won't add spoilers but just as his character embodies the manliness needed to portray a Special Forces leader, SHK embodies the unrefined commoner who has worked hard all her life only to be disappointed by people with privlege and power usurping her dreams. She's tainted by it in the way that she lives "in the real world" and is cynical but not so tainted that she's not honest with herself and her emotions. She is forthright... and as weird as SJK's character thinks she is, and is why there's an attraction to begin with and, yes, he's the one putting it out there because she's the cautious one.... and I think as an OTP they are playing their levels just right....

The reason this all works is because the pacing for the first 2 episodes is just on point. I enjoy each and every moment and the story is unfolding like a beautiful flower. These two are a really unique combination for K-Dramas at present. I'm happy with the pairing.

Okay, so in like the first 15 minutes Lee Kwang Soo shows up and I'm like, "what is this??? Is there even a drama that Song Joong Ki has been in that he isn't in also???" I often wonder if there is a clause in SJK's contract that says LKS has to have a supporting role.... and then I see the end credits and discover it was a "guest" appearance. Even so, what is that?? lol....

On another note, this 1st episode included pretty much all the trailers we've seen and, in total it was daebak, and the acting chops of everyone involved was jjang. That is all.

You are a savior. Today is my birthday and you just gave me the best gift ever with this link. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

There's a lot of newbie actors in this drama.

Maybe not nation wide but in the area they were filming they most certainly were interested. I saw the Greek news broadcast and the locals hovered around the production on a regular basis. Not because they are K-Drama fans but because they were interested in this big filming production that including FOREIGN military assets on Greek soil. The local news covered it so they were aware of exactly what was going on and could feel safe they were not being "invaded" or something. lol... I guess it's understandable as well since the production started there around September, 2015 within months of an influx of refugees flooding the country as well.

This is a quote from the wikipedia site for the drama: "According to some Greek news portals and blogs, filming has mainly taken place in Zakynthos, Arachova and Lemnos.[19]..." I suspect if "nobody" was interested they wouldn't put anything about it on "blogs" or "news portals" from which wikipedia writers obtained information about the filming.

I saw a news broadcast from Greece about this drama. The Greeks were all over this production. Lots of military assets were brought in and so Greek citizens were clearly interested in what was going on and why South Korean military were in their country. They showed Song Joong Ki bts and all. It was utterly epic with a big budget... best part of the news??? They said they filmed "16" episodes there which means the entirety of this show was overseas, away from the prying eyes of drama lovers and their ridiculous influence. ;)

Sorry, I'm a native English speaker so maybe the way I express things is not fully clear to non-English speakers. I said I was "under the impression", that means I'm not 100% sure but from what I read and heard it was available there. Sorry, I stand corrected and my "impression" was inaccurate. ;) Didn't mean to have you waste your time.

This movie isn't technically romantic. This story is a classic regarding our computer, money-driven, deadline driven age where everything needs to be done yesterday and the workaholics it creates.

What I like about this movie is it drives home the concept of balance. Everything in life is a balancing act and healthy living isn't overdoing any one thing. You need moderation across the board and you need to live experiencing a little bit of everything, and the quality of your life is always pushing you to see that reality. How successful you are at it are based on the choices you make... and honestly, there's no real right answer... there's really only the answer that works for you.

I'm surprised that this has already got reviews since it isn't over. I mean, I understand why it happens, but it's just that you cannot really completely review a drama that isn't done when the reviews are done at 15 - 30 episodes of a 50 episode drama.

On another note, I almost never watch dramas until they are complete because I have no patience to wait if it ends up being something I really enjoy. I KNEW that this drama was gonna be fabulous, merely for the following: 1. The writers and directors are the best of the best of epic Korean Dramas 2. The whole complete cast are some of the biggest names with great reputations. 3. Yoo Ah In... need I say more?

When I was watching WGM with Gong Seung Yeon, a newbie, and Lee Jong Hyun and heard towards the end that she was going to play Yoo Ah In's wife in this series, I was so excited for her. To have your name attached with such an epic drama, and one where it is not even finished and people are saying it will be the best sageuk of the decade, is such an honor for her. I knew that good things were going to come to her.

I took japanese in my compulsory educational years. As far as enunciation, once you learned the vowels it was rather easy. For Korean, I'm even embarrassed and find it difficult to enunciate their syllables because they don't match exactly the consonant letters they're supposedly representing in romanization. You seriously can't perfectly romanize the language. Due to this fact, I suspect, it is utterly difficult for Germanic and Slavic language speakers to speak Korean as it is for a Korean to speak other languages as well. I'm sure we sound horrible when we try to say please, sorry, thank you, ....thankfully "I love you" is pretty easy though.

I recently finished watching The Last Woman Standing that also stars Shu Qi, and was stunned by the OTP's kiss being behind a screen in silhouette. No kiss was ever shared by the couple which seemed rather peculiar considering the storyline.

Looking into her background I discovered she comes from HK & at the start of her career she was in Cat 3 soft porn movies. She's rumored to have been dating on & off the director of Into the Badland, Stephen Fung, who is also from HK, for about 18 years. Not sure what it is about these HK men but there are press speculations that the reason he won't "marry" her is because his family, and I believe he comes from wealth, do not accept her past history of being in Playboy magazine. So, all of her movies or dramas in the present, contractually, will not allow for any physical interaction with her co-star. Why they still have her as a main lead for a romantic genre, I don't know.. .but if your like your romance dramas/movies to, at least, end with a kiss scene, then you shouldn't watch her. You won't get one. Not saying she's bad in romances and it's not worth it.. just saying, if you expect physical intimacy, you'll be very disappointed.

What I wanna know before watching this is if Luhan is as good as Seung Ho was in the original version.

Wow! It's my birthday as well. So many people born on this day. We share it with the creator of Apple Corp, Steve Jobs, may he rest in peace.

I was really happy with this drama until it turned 70/30 more serious and went to the USA. I'm from the USA, so I'm not hating. It's just that the turn in the nice balance between romance and mystery wasn't as good.

For me, I liked the Taiwanese version the most.. especially because of Season 2. I think I liked season 2 the most because they were finally so much more affectionate with each other. In Season 1, like the manga, they only really kiss the 3 times, after high school, when she's asleep so she doesn't remember it, & when he decides to marry her. The Thai version he was kissing her all over the place, which also was a reason I felt he was douchy. How do you kiss her then ignore her or go to another girl, with no justifiable reason? It's not like the Thai version had his dad's business in peril. It's just that Nana's father was his partner and they had business connection and TenTen admitted he didn't want to work in the company so his dad was just thinking about who will succeed them. He told Tenten she was coming, that's it. His dad left it 100% completely up to Tenten to decide what he'd do because of that. So here's this dude who just celebrated his birthday and kisses Taliw without any pretences, no instagation on her part with joking each other or jealousy, just simply because he likes her, and cares about her.... and then he goes cold and ignores her, talks to her like crap, and starts seeing his "EX"-girlfriend without saying a word to her, his own mom, or anyone else? No explanation for it. Nothing. I get that the writers were trying to portray him as over-emotional and super jealous but , for me, that ruined his character in various ways. Also Making Taliw more level-headed and less obsesed lead to them reworking the kiss in the rain scene which is the central epic moment we all expect. Yeah, we see him kissing her dozens of times and for Mike & Aom it's adorable, but for this storyline, it makes him look fickle as hell.

It's these reasons that I don't honestly understand how people can say that Tenten is much nicer in this version... Yeah, at some point in the middle for about 10 seconds... then he is a complete jerk in the last 5-6 episodes for no justifiable reason. For me, it just makes him a much worse person, no matter how "caring" this drama tried to portray him.

So, yeah... I like the Taiwanese version, so far, the best because of their 2nd season depiction and the staying true to Kaoru's manga as written.

No... Kaoru is the **writer** not Kotoko, the main character in this drama. No one dies in the end. What I meant was that the ending of the **manga**, the original book that these dramas are based upon was **unfinished**. It was not **completed** because the story writer died suddenly of a household slip & fall accident. Thus, versions that have a final ending will either have to decide to leave their drama "open ended" or create their own ending to their liking. What I meant to say was the the Taiwanese version decided to make the drama from start to finish as close to every chapter of Kaoru's book, thus, leaving it open ended exactly where Kaoru stopped writing the story.

Due to specific issues with Viki's Kiss Me Subbing manager, it won't be subbed until next week. We all just have to wait for it because all subbing sites are just copying VIki's translations and it's, so far, the only site doing subbing for this show.

I have told people originally when we were waiting at episode 17 that you could supplement the subbing by going to a recapping site that essentially tells you wait happens long with portions of the main dialogue translated. My suggestion is to first watch it raw, THEN read the recap, and finally watch the episode again. To me, it was actually even better because I got to see their expressions 100% without the distraction of reading subbing...

Anyway, if you so choice to do that this way, the link for recapping is:
https://popv.wordpress.com/2015/12/08/kiss-me-episode-20-final/

Yeah, if you were a stickler to the original storyllne of the manga, this version would send you to a very unhappy place. I understood from the beginning that they were choosing to do it different. Aom begged everyone to have an open-mind because they decided that, rather than have it be another version to compare amongst, this one would be unique and give it a 'fresh' flavor. My view was based on this thinking. I think in some ways they succeed but towards the end they got tangled up in how to make it come together yet still keep the central story intact. It was a worry I had from the beginning.

On the other hand, if you are a person who either hated the main character's depiction in the MANGA where the girl is dumb and obsessed and the guy is an unemotional autistic genius but still kind of liked it anyway for the flow of the romance, despite it being annoying to you, this version would probably be your most favorite. Why? Because TenTen is almost TOO emotional, Taliw is simply naive but no where near obsessed, and King isn't a complete dumb stalker with too many emotions he cannot control, but a dude who just really cares about a girl he has known and grown up with most of his life.

....but remember the story was by Kaoru Tada, and that's not how she wrote these characters, for better or worse. Regardless of how you "wished" it would be more like this Thai version, it's still deviates a lot from the manga storyline she wrote. Again, if her story bothered you to begin with, of course, it just goes without saying you'd dislike the Taiwanese version because they said from the start that they would make it as close to the original manga series as they could..... including having the second season end without knowing the final results of Kotoko because Kaoru had a slip and fall accident in the bathroom, hitting her head and died suddenly at a young age without completing this manga. ...the Taiwanese version leaves it right EXACTLY where Kaoru ended it due to her death. So, yeah, this manga was never really fully completed and you just have to take your pick of what you prefer, including the 2nd season ending.

Btw... the trip to that school in the forest was the replacement of the Tennis Club and their excursion. ...which was another bummer because they replaced Taliw's friend when Turbo should have been the one getting sick... and the medicine doctor as the dude who inspires TenTen to be a doctor instead of Taliw herself. I don't even understand why they felt they needed to make these changes unless they just don't play that much tennis in Thailand. lol

There are multiple versions of this, including an anime, and let's not forget the original manga which you could actually read for free online on the manga websites. Anyway, in the original there are various characters. In the Japanese adaptation she's a friend of the family for season 2, so, I suspect that the Thai version kinda used that as its example. But this new rival in the Japanese version was nonexistent in ISWAK 2 or the manga. Also, there's another guy from college that has crush on Kotoko but ends up with Reiko's sister, and season 2 there's another dude nurse that likes Kotoko.

The Taiwanese version is the most accurate to the manga. You had the smart girl who is Kotoko's rival but Naoki rejects her and she gives up on him completely when they get married. Then there's the Sahoko character who is merely the granddaughter of a CEO who is going to infuse money into the family business but under the condition that an arranged marriage happen between her and Naoki. Naoki's dad actually has a heart attack so Naoki feels obligated to comply in order to protect his dad and his family. For the Korean version, she was a combo of Reiko, the smart girl, and Sahoko, the rich granddaughter of the CEO just like in the Japanese Season 1 version.

The problem with this version is that Naoki had never had a girlfriend nor a kiss until Kotoko AND Kotoko never, ever agreed to marry anyone else. She did agree to date since she knew that Naoki would get married and there was no hope for her so she was resigned to try to move on... but when presented with the thought of marrying someone else, she couldn't go through with it and rejected the offer... Kotoko would never lead someone on or pretend with her feels. She made an honest effort to get over Naoki and that was it. [EDIT: Another thing about Nana that bothers me is that in the original he decides to marry her for his dad's sake because he's ill. For the Thai version theres' doesn't seem to be any real reason for him to go here other than a previous childhood promise. For me, when they were trying to make TenTen more emotional and loving, this aspect made him seem more like a douchy jerk, especially in the fact that not even his mom had a clue she'd arrive nor TenTen and his dad's intentions with Nana. It was just a weird interpretation that made both Taliw and TenTen look less sincere.]

So, when it comes to certain version, as far as being true to the manga, I think the Taiwanese version, It Started With A Kiss, is the best, and the Japanese + Thai versions, although still adorable in their own way, deviant a bit too much for my taste. ...and as for the Korean version... I watched it once and it was pretty much forgettable. It was a crappy version. My suggestion is you take a moment to watch both Mischievious Kiss: Love in Tokyo and It Started With A Kiss.... Get a feel for every version. Even this one is worth of a one-time watch regardless of how I bang my head against the wall over the deviations. In the end, Mike and Aom are just too sweet together that it makes up for all of that nonsense. This production is sure lucky they got an addictive couple team.