I've just started this. So far, it's a decent watch albeit a tad slow moving. It's so obviously inspired by Back to the Future especially giving prominence to the mad guitar skills. I was motivated to go and watch clips of Michael J. Fox playing guitar for Johnny B. Goode. It is fascinating what the writer has done with some of the elements of the original and developed different aspects to give it a SK flavour.
Five episodes in and it's already much better than Les Interpretes -- which is one of the biggest waste of time and human resources in the history of C dramas.
Not a fan of noble idiocy on principle BUT I don't mind the show because I have a background in applied linguistics and TESOL and there are overlapping issues up for debate. Of course applying Jane Austen's Persuasion template to the romance doesn't translate comfortably here. The male lead's broken-hearted petulance is rather silly. From an educator's point of view, I'm not convinced that AI is a magic bullet for language acquisition but Google Translate was pretty handy on my last overseas trip on a functional level.
But the most important thing is that I like Chen Xingxu.
Sakura is both intensely cringey and adorable at the same time. This is such an old school J drama and unabashedly a trope fest. It's ridiculously cheesy. Yet I find myself grinning from ear to ear.
I've loved Sato Takeru since his Bloody Monday days.
in last couple of hours, someone just did a massive review upvoting and downvoting campaign. probably mad that…
I honestly don't understand this obsession with users propping up their favourite shows with these kinds of strategies -- playing the system and the numbers game. Do they have money invested in this show? The cast and the crew have been paid for this and another season has already been approved. Sooner or later the hype will die down and people will make up their own minds as to whether this works for them or not.
I don't usually criticize opinions here but the statement that Yong-pil's life has been entirely revolved around Sam-dal is downright silly. In fact, it's a gross mischaracterization. From everything we've seen it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. If his life has been built entirely around her, he would have given Dad the proverbial middle finger and followed Sam-dal to the ends of the earth. He could have gone to Seoul (and other exotic locations already) -- many times over with all kinds of job offers on the table. But he went along with the break up and stayed with his father instead. If anything, it is more accurate to say that his entire life has revolved around his father, Mi-ja and the island especially seen in the way he is desperate to insist on accurate weather forecasting of Jeju with the higher ups. The truth is Yong-pil would be considered a good Asian son putting duty/obligation before love and paid the price for it. There's no doubt he's been hoping for reconciliation between the parties concerned being the optimist that he is. It's Jane Austen's Persuasion with the roles reversed.
This is an old school K drama. The desire line 100% reflects that.
I think Zhou Ye is a decent enough actress but the whole cutesy act does get a bit old after a while. As you said in another post further up, it's not a good look for not just her but him as well. On top of that she's amenable to every single thing. In a normal relationship there has to be some pushback. The problem is that neither of them really have any kind of arc that warrants 33 episodes that has them at the centre. If he for example was going through some kind of existential crisis or struggling with both professions or that she was struggling to get recognized, this would be a far more interesting show. But it feels like she's incredibly lucky and he's superman. It's Screenwriting 101 to have a desire line -- a goal.
I've pretty much given up on the show. I can listen to the music on YouTube.
I disagree. There are many, many shows with conflict that are objectively great shows. Shows like this with basically…
I don't understand what it is exactly that you're disagreeing with in my post. I did make caveats in what I said in terms of length, the characters and the lack of character development. I did say low conflict romance that peaks early -- not low conflict shows in general. Meet Yourself is a great show because it doesn't focus on the main romance or just the leads. It has multiple character arcs that all intersect. Even though the leads don't have much conflict, there is a bit of push and pull and there's conflict elsewhere in the show. Here the support characters feel like they're mostly dancing around the leads and singing praises to them. When the well isn't very deep it tends to dry up quickly.
From where I'm looking, most (if not all ) of the problems with this show stem from the weak script and/or direction. The people in charge don't seem to know how to properly integrate the monster story with the human stories. There's a monster running loose around the place and yet people are waving guns around making empty threats while also having conversations like a normal break in and break out from a garden variety military installation. Then of course they feel the need to prop up a fledgling attraction -- one sided initially and then we're led to believe that it's mutual when the build up from Chae-ok's side is non-existent.
It's as if all the characters, the scenario are presented purely to highlight particular wartime atrocities. Like pieces on a chessboard that are moved around accordingly. Also often in ways that don't really make sense. The sequence of events is so obviously out of kilter. Take for example, large numbers have already been killed by the creature and yet the Japanese soldiers saunter around with no sense of urgency about what's going on in between the attacks. The soldiers at the bottom of the food chain should be terrified but they just carry on as usual like the monster is a nothingburger in between attacks. They should have far more important things to do to fortify their defences than make menacing gestures against Chae-ok for refusing to speak Japanese. But but... the show has to sledgehammer home the point that there's no difference between the creature and the invaders right at this very moment. It's just silly.
By pretty much the fourth episode, everything is known to the audience and it all becomes a waiting game. There's so much waste of side characters too. Wi Ha-joon's in particular.
Honestly this is probably the best short drama that I've ever seen. Most of them are pretty low quality and ridiculously choppy but the production values of this one is relatively decent. The costuming is surprisingly good. The leads not only have great chemistry but they can deliver a charming performance. There are the usual nutty things but honestly some of the storytelling here is better than some of the bigger productions I saw in 2023.
4 
It is fascinating what the writer has done with some of the elements of the original and developed different aspects to give it a SK flavour.
Not a fan of noble idiocy on principle BUT I don't mind the show because I have a background in applied linguistics and TESOL and there are overlapping issues up for debate. Of course applying Jane Austen's Persuasion template to the romance doesn't translate comfortably here. The male lead's broken-hearted petulance is rather silly. From an educator's point of view, I'm not convinced that AI is a magic bullet for language acquisition but Google Translate was pretty handy on my last overseas trip on a functional level.
But the most important thing is that I like Chen Xingxu.
I've loved Sato Takeru since his Bloody Monday days.
The truth is Yong-pil would be considered a good Asian son putting duty/obligation before love and paid the price for it. There's no doubt he's been hoping for reconciliation between the parties concerned being the optimist that he is. It's Jane Austen's Persuasion with the roles reversed.
This is an old school K drama. The desire line 100% reflects that.
But I am a little concerned about the pedagogical underpinnings of the show.
I've pretty much given up on the show. I can listen to the music on YouTube.
It's as if all the characters, the scenario are presented purely to highlight particular wartime atrocities. Like pieces on a chessboard that are moved around accordingly. Also often in ways that don't really make sense. The sequence of events is so obviously out of kilter. Take for example, large numbers have already been killed by the creature and yet the Japanese soldiers saunter around with no sense of urgency about what's going on in between the attacks. The soldiers at the bottom of the food chain should be terrified but they just carry on as usual like the monster is a nothingburger in between attacks. They should have far more important things to do to fortify their defences than make menacing gestures against Chae-ok for refusing to speak Japanese. But but... the show has to sledgehammer home the point that there's no difference between the creature and the invaders right at this very moment. It's just silly.
By pretty much the fourth episode, everything is known to the audience and it all becomes a waiting game. There's so much waste of side characters too. Wi Ha-joon's in particular.
There are the usual nutty things but honestly some of the storytelling here is better than some of the bigger productions I saw in 2023.