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This review may contain spoilers
A quick recap of Go Ahead without the emotional depth
When you create a remake especially of such a heartfelt story which I personally have rewatched 5 times it is inevitable to make comparisons and drawing parallels from the original storyline. While the original story had a longer play time it was obvious that some parts might be cut out from the original script but it didnt necessarily have to cut off the emotions. I just didnt feel the stress the children went through in the first few episodes, couldnt feel the childishness and the bond they had as teens, couldnt feel the pressure which pushed them to leave their hometowns at 18, couldnt feel the growing distance between them. All those scenes were simply shown like a DVD player on 2x speed. Go Ahead made me feel the struggles , the pain and the love that was there.Going into character breakdown while Li jian jian had this childishness as a teen and a childish maturity as a grown up, her growth was evident, her confusions seemed vali but the Korean version simply broke it down to a naive kid losing the essence of the high spirited kid Li jian jian was and simply bringing in a regular girl. I mean right after Kim san ha ("Ling Xiao" in Go Ahead) confessed she was waiting for his texts the next day. Thats not what Jian jian would do, she would rather run away and hide while Ling Xiao finds her, that was the core and they ruined it.
Coming to Yang/Kang Hae Jun (He Zi Qiu), I believe they didn't really want to portray his side of the story, all they wanted to focus is the romance of Ju won and San Ha beacuse as far as at ep11 i dont see the pretentious facade ZiQiu had to hide the fact he was struggling. The moment when Jian Jian gave Zi Qiu some cash he just burst out in anger coz he had receieved more than enough and wanted to give back now, and Jian jian's offer just made him look pathetic but Hae Jun didnt even hesitate when Ju Won gave him her Card to buy clothes and shoes (i dont know if its a cultural thing, but i think chinese and korean people have similar east asian values). I think this is a point from whereon the character outline of Ziqiu in the korean version totally changes up.
Coming to the last main character that is Kim San Ha (Ling Xiao), while his story remains more or less same with all incidents except choice of career its shown in a very rushed manner, in the original version his mother's character would simply frustrate you to the extent that your heart sinks for Ling Xiao, but even though San Ha had the same struggles the rush makes it seem like he got things pretty easily, he got the girl quick after confession, he got the father's approval rather fast and his mother stopped bothering him pretty quickly and left, it was all too fast and lacking in details.
Overall, I think they failed to copy the essence of the original which had great comic timing and emotional depth topped by the beautiful character sketch and background music. I cant recall any tune that was memorable from this series. I wont deny that the ending few episodes (ep 11 to 16) did make me happy and made me smile, but i would credit that to the cuteness of Hae jun and his girlfriend falling for each other and other events surrounding it. Actually these few eps were just a long happy ending that makes the viewer happy.
In conclusion if you truly want an emotionally rich show watch " GO AHEAD" , if you want a quick binge and lightly mooded show watch "FAMILY BY CHOICE".
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Lacked the Emotions
After the whole lot of yourube shorts recommendation of this Film I finally watched it. Its a fun plot with good acting but I feel it might have done better as a Drama wherein the writers could have shown more deeply into the emotions of the main and side characters....i just couldnt feel the presence of side characters and their importance. Also some characters were so annoying like i just fast forwarded at so many points..... I just couldnt feel any emotions building up in me.... neither to laugh or to cry or pure rage....at certain points i did find it Gross though.Maybe a deeper insight into as to why the main leads changed so much after marriage would have been interesting
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It Keeps you Hooked on and The ending was done right
I think its my first review or maybe a review I am writing after ages. I found this drama after a long slump period but I am so happy that I found this. The story is about time-travel and enlightenment. Naturally it has the laughter and tears for you. Its a Medical drama so it has the Life-Death equations. The Script keeps you curious, though there were parts in ep 5 6 and 7 where I might have dropped the show the curiosity of whats gonna happen now kept me going.The part that makes me the Happiest is that they left us with very satisfying Finale.....which is rather rare....So I absolutely Loved it
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