Eleison

Whoa, had no idea there were so many gangster rom-com Jdramas! 😂

Have you seen the drunk playground scene? It reminded me of Kim Soo Hyun's "I'm too cute when I'm drunk" scene from Queen of Tears, but even cuter. Ji Hwan's irresistibly adorable in this.

Yes! And he's a plot device, still, but he's not a useless character being used to create extra drama for the sake of drama and filler for a script; his character has a purpose.

And Soju has a high alcohol, content, no? Much stronger stuff than beer, I think. And it always seems to be the drink of choice, at least in Kdramas.

There's also apparently a lot of alcohol intolerance (i.e. people allergic to it) for Koreans, which I didn't know. You'd never know it was a thing from the Kdramas, though!

Episode 10 has been my favorite so far! Even the 2nd lead couple is interesting (I was dying to know what would happen with the "test" Mi Ho did and to see who would find it first 😂, and to watch how they handle the fallout of their discovery), and the little group of guys is adorable (I really enjoy Il Yeong and Hong Gi, in particular) and they're pretty well fleshed out as characters, too.

Haha, he exhibits the noble idiocy of a Victorian damsel... we're so used to seeing female characters portrayed this way, but not we've got a guy, haha.

I DO like how they show him very clumsily trying to go about liking and dating Eun Ha. It's ridiculous to think guys who have never dated would ever be able be perfect at this despite having never practiced. That's silly! If you're going to write a character who's 36 and never dated, you've got to write him at least kind of bad at it to start. The clever way of doing it was to make his mistakes and bumbling adorably cute because he's just SO earnest and true-hearted.

But much of Ji Hwan's arc is him working up the courage, self-esteem and confidence to pursue Eun Ha. Isn't his jealousy and fear he'll lose Eun Ha to another guy how he gains the courage? I struggle to see how Ji Hwan's arc could progress without the 2ML acting as a catalyst for action on our ML's part.

I'm not saying romances always need 2MLs to be good, I'm saying that for this drama, the 2ML seems integral to the plot and development of our leads.

It did bother me that the English translation said the ex-cons' dog was a bulldog, but it's obvious to anyone who knows anything about dog breeds that the dog is a Frenchie; true, the full name is a French Bulldog, but a no one ever calls them "bulldogs," at least not in English. 🤔

When did he lie to her? Keep watching, he'll tell her he's not the guy she was hoping he was.

He's very persistent, but he's not evil or bad; it's just that Seo Ji Hwan has so many Victorian damsel, "I don't deserve her," "I am too dangerous for her to love," etc. complexes as well as ZERO experience pursuing a girl he liked, that he needed some stiff competition to kick him into gear.

Also, after all this stuff about children and their soft spot for them ... they need to show our MC with some of their own. :)

It sounded like something you'd like! Another good one. :)

Also, the drunk playground scene...

I nearly died!

That little hoarse squeak Ji Hwan makes as he walks across the play rope bridge with his arms stretched out...

🤣🤣🤣

Cute, hilariously unexpected, endearing--gosh, never seen anything like it!

Well, he hasn't really done many dramas recently, not compared to most actors his age.

In Episode 5, when Eun Ha is brought home with Seo Ji Hwan to be the ex-cons' tutor, it feels reminiscent of Peter Pan presenting Wendy to the Lost Boys as their new "mother." 😂

Darling.

I remember while it was airing, the responses were mixed. Many thought it was a masterpiece, and just as many thought it was overrated. I can see why people feel both ways about it. I was pretty motivated to watch it until the revenge got too intense for me. I just couldn't watch some of the scenes at the end. They left a bad taste in my mouth.

Well, it's from a similar era.

Haha, when Kdramas go hard on the COM in rom-com, they can feel super cheesy. Once I accepted it was just a part of the genre, I enjoyed them much better. I've also slowly curated my exposure to older dramas, and those tend to have way more of the cheesy humor and misunderstandings, so I'm grateful that at least rom-coms these days aren't cheesy AND low budget. 😂

That said, there's still something cozy about the old dramas, though. They're just different than the more recent dramas, and they have their own charm.

It does have a very serious theme once you get farther into the movie. It can be a bit disturbing, but the friendship still has a very amateur buddy-cop feel to it which pervaded even the darker stuff so I still enjoyed it.

Haha, oh dear, we keep misunderstanding each other because once again I'm super confused. Oh well, it happens! 💁‍♀️ No need to explain; I'll let you figure out for yourself if you'll like it or not without doing any more consulting, haha. Cheers!