kdramakitty

The site I watched it on no longer exists, sorry :(

Yeah, this is probably up there with the worst second lead syndrome I’ve ever experienced too lol so I definitely understand you dropping it! Because I hate suffering from SMLS I try to like the main lead, but I also couldn’t really get on board with Yuwen Yue. I actually elaborate on it in my review on my tumblr in case you’re curious: https://kdramakitty.tumblr.com/post/619233999931555840
No worries about commenting late, I was happy to see your comment! 😊

I agree, Deok Im’s voicelessness bothered me towards the end. Especially with the three year time skip I thought her feelings could be ambiguous too. I also thought Hong Deok Ro was underutilized, which was a shame as he was one of the most interesting characters. And I also agree that excellent acting isn’t the same thing as character growth. We only really see Deok Im become more serious and depressed without much insight into her thoughts about what’s going on. Once again I think the time skip really hurt any sense of character development.

Oof kudos to you for having your first article be about really contentious issues! I don't fully agree with your rationale in a few places but I think it's good you're bringing this stuff up. The portrayal of autism and mental health bugged me in It's Okay To Not Be Okay. Not just Sang Tae but the other people at the mental institution. I was glad when the drama pivoted to focusing more on the 'fairy tale' aspect of the story and romance rather than attempting to focus on the mental health aspect. I appreciate that they did show the burden of caregiving and how Kang Tae was struggling rather than painting over it, though I agree that they defaulted to stereotypes. Overall the story was compelling and had some good aspects, but especially the front end had some not great scenes that made me feel crappy about how they were stereotyping autistic people and people with mental health issues.

I think with quite a few of these dramas the story tends to take place over decades. Thus, we may begin with the characters in their early 20s, but end up when they are in their 40s. So instead of casting two different actors, they use the same one. I do think that a lot of people’s points about famous names and years of talent being factors are good points as well. But I’ve generally been pretty okay with actors looking older, since within 10 episodes we will likely have a time skip to when they are older. This applies to historical and fantasy cdramas though, modern day dramas (especially those set in high school) have hardly any excuse.

It’s all so true :((((((( some of these are probably why I think I’m a little tired of romcom kdramas. Or I have to skip through the unnecessary drama that they add at the end cause they couldn’t figure out how else to fill up the runtime.

Lol I am rewatching this show and I am having ALL of these thoughts. It’s immensely frustrating and I low key hate parts of it, but goshdarnit the acting and characters and cinematography and music are just so good.

Such a good list!! I still haven't seen anything like Circle since it came out :'(