IronDeficientSeal

Exceeded my expectations

First, I want to start by saying how enjoyable this watch was for me, from the comedic moments to the romantic, heartfelt ones. There are many aspects I want to discuss, so I’ve broken them down.

Male Lead:
I was initially concerned about the actor playing a CEO typa role, but I was relying heavily on his acting skills. However, he absolutely nailed his role! His character was also very fun and bubbly. I was getting really tired of how, in many kdramas, these types of characters are usually part of a side couple, but in this case, he was the MAIN ROLE! I also loved how he was an otaku and stayed true to that throughout the entire show. It was so wholesome.

Female Lead:
I honestly loved her throughout all the episodes because, personally, I found all the decisions she made to be very reasonable, which is apparently a very unpopular opinion. She was a character still maturing and aiming for financial stability for herself and her family, so it made sense for her to be hesitant about the relationship. Her character design was also very satisfying because it was refreshing to see a woman who could actually stand up for herself and for justice!

Trope:
I’m always so terrified of office romances because they tend to be filled with stereotypical tropes. This show had its fair share of them, but the approach and resolutions made it stand out to me. Two examples really highlighted this: One was when the male lead told the female lead to go abroad. I was worried it was going to lead to an argument, but instead, they COMMUNICATED and understood each other's intentions. Another example was when the male lead publicly announced his otaku persona to the world, without force or blackmail. It was so satisfying because he was truly ready to embrace what he loves without shame.

Message:
From what I interpreted, the overall message of this drama is about work-life balance and how corporate life can make you neglect your hobbies and interests, forcing you into the “beige” theory. Seeing the male lead being shunned for his hobbies and interests, which made him different, highlights the oppression within the corporate industry. Also, at the end of the show, our female lead finally decides to explore her hobbies and interests, and those scenes were so adorable. I love her so much!

Disadvantages:
I didn’t give this a perfect rating because I wasn’t a fan of the side couple’s story. It was just so boring and really dragged out. They had the same problem, and it was repeated throughout the show. Also, the male lead’s grandma felt rather empty. Her entire purpose seemed to be that she was still grieving, but her 180 felt really unnatural to me.

Overall:
This show was such a great mix of comedy, romance, and slice of life it was an incredibly enjoyable watch! Since I watched it weekly, I can’t really say if it would be fun enough to watch in one sitting (probably not).

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Wholesome but lacked something

The romance was sure wholesome and the the use of using sign language for communication was surely unique but the plot was really lacking...


The sister of the main girl was very important character mainly because of her large amount of screen time. Her story that she is a girl who likes swimming but feels pressured by her sister to do really well (go to the Olympics). Despite all of that her story felt so badly executed cause the fact that it took her nearly dying in the fire and a couple of days of separation and a 5 minutes talk to fix all of that was annoying. I felt like it was sooooo rushed to give time for the romance.

And yes the romance was cute however I felt like they didn't explore the main leads at all. Because the main guy and girl's personality felt so dry to me, there was nothing much I could even type about them apart from the fact they are adorable.

Random but why has Korean television have such a hatred for main characters having a physical disability, because it either instantly gets cured / eventually or it was just a 'misunderstanding'.

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They are so adorable but what the fuck is going on with that killer!

Lets talk about the positive cause the ROMANCE is ROMANCING! I love the couple so much and everything about them! I was blushing and kicking my feet every scene the ml and fl showed up!!! The back in time thing was so interesting as well, filled with comedy and romance was so fun to watch!

HOWEVER what the fuck was going on with the mystery side cause it would have been interesting if we actually found out the motive behind the killer/kidnapper! Cause we know nothing about him apart from the fact that he is a killer on the lose... It really ruined the show cause the whole purpose of the show was to catch the killer and live happily ever after but we got nothing out of him apart from plot. It felt really dry and annoying and the ending irritated me and lowkey ruined the whole show for me...

BUT the ml and fl are so adorable and definitely raised my standards!

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I have finally decided to drop this drama...

Many may be confused why I waited every week for the episodes and then just gave up on episode 10, so I want to clearly want to explain my thought on this narrative.

This story felt like a slice of life comedy since no matter what dramatic situation the character was in there was a bit of a comical twist as well as a deep topic with a dark turn.

Example:
One of the fl sister is in a polyamorous relationship, the fl found out and thought one of the sister's partners was cheating and beat him up with rage (filmed in a comical way from the exaggerated attacks comical) then finds out she is pregnant.
Another of her sister wrote spicy novels and a the CEO finds out his mum read it so spammed it with hate from shock. While serving his community service from the hate comments their romance arc started but then it touched on the sisters trauma with the harshness of the comments leading to her abusive dad.
In conclusion the side plot bought in dark situations from everyday life but added some comical element to not make the side story not too dark.

Or some stories are just comical e.g the fl planning a wedding just to get her cheating ex boyfriend's wedding money back

But all of these drastically contrasted the main plot e.g. the potential chaebol that became an orphan who is now looking for revenge is just deeply contrasts all the other topics written in the show and makes it seem so dramatic because it really stuck out for me. Which was not funny, just serious and very stereotypical. I think this just really put me off because they primarily shifted the focus to that plot which annoyed me.

In summary this is MY OPINION about this drama, I honestly found the main plot , the whole chaebol thingy just so boring because it is a very saturated market and has been around since for ever so I got bored and decided to drop it...

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What the actual fuck did I watch

I watched this whole drama in one sitting and hated every single episode. I mean the first couple was lowkey cute but what do you mean he cured his depression cause he fell in love... They took mental health very lightly and made him love driven which was weird cause he was depressed from losing his lover. Also I think the female character was used as a pity character that out male lead fell for because of her 'hardship' aka forced to be a gold digger. I feel like the writer inflicted every trauma to this female lead which just made her boring. And this whole loop thing was pretty cool, him being able to back in time is pretty cool as well. And honestly their romance felt forced so yeah... didn't like this. + the daughter and the male lead needs therapy!!! Please 😭😭😭😭

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Zhong miaoyi has my heart ???

I am the biggest fan of anything to do with travelling back in time to high school and noticing and realising things you would have never known from the past.

The main girl is adorable and she is so funny and cute. One thing I love about her character is that she can be a total cutie and smart at the same time (something writers have a hard time putting together). She was such a breath of fresh air and I found her so comical and funny! It's so fun seeing a female lead with logic!!!!

The main guy is like any stereotypical guy in chinese high school dramas, cold and smart. However, he really isn't THAT mean and holds actual decent human manners 😱😱😱. Nah but like fr his little actions that seems really cold painted this whole plot of him being a victim of abuse and trapped in these circumstances and wanting to escape. This explains his flinching and lack of wanting to stay close + his will to study. And I was really afraid that his abuse trauma was going to be treated as something that just appears when needed to. And in the beginning it was nice seeing the build up and little details to his character. HOWEVER this was all forgotten about after he moved in with the female lead. His trauma was basically never bought up for the rest of the drama.

The second male lead ( WHyyyyyyy ThERe WaS NO NeEd) was used just to lengthen the plot, he liked her then got rejected (basic cannon plot). He really didn't add anything to the plot apart from pressure the male lead to act on his feelings quicker.

But the last couple of episodes was so beautiful to watch! When she discovered how to go back to the future and wanted to never leave the past + the side effects was so interesting to watch! That's when the drama began to pick up again!!!

Overall I did enjoy watching this drama, the cute interactions between the female lead and male lead was so fun to watch ( I was curious though if she had any proper close friends). The romance was so fluffy and refreshing I genially did enjoy it.
However I found myself skipping a lot around the end... BUT the last couple of episodes were so fun to watch.

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Cliché trope done right!

First of all I want to say that I personally don't like the trope of 'reunion romance' but I genially think this drama portrayed it very well.

First of all our female lead is a girl who is still not over her first love, since she spent most of her youth chasing him . He left without an explanation which led her to question why he left, which she ended up blaming herself (encouraged by her trauma of her parents abandoning her). Her breakup with her ex left such a toll that her looking at her past just reminded her of him so she ended up blocking her past and forgetting memories of her high school days (memories of the male lead). I really liked her as a character and seeing her growth was very satisfying. She started of as a character who tried sorting all of her problems on her own and barely exploring her feelings. After meeting the male lead, not only did he remind her of past memories but also pursued her first.

The male lead was honestly such an adorable character who has liked the female lead for a long time. He has been living under his mother's control, since the mother holds very controlling behaviour from a response from her trauma of her ex-husband. After meeting the female lead, he falls in love deeply, since now as an adult he can pursue her. He is a very understanding character and his happiest memories of his youth was with her, the memories she can't remember.

I loved the parts where the female lead being with the male lead made her remember her memories from high school of being with him and developing a mini little crush on him, which was forgotten over time. Also the communication between the female lead and her best friend was so beautiful, when her best friend realised that the male lead liked the female lead and how the female lead has been rejecting her feelings in thought of her best friend. It truly portrays how strong the friendship was and complicated feelings can be. Plus shows a mature way of dealing with these feelings

I also enjoyed how the female lead and male lead communicated to each other, since the main reason I get put off this trope is the misunderstandings. It was refreshing not seeing a clueless female lead and male lead who resolved arguments through communicating!

The mother being involved, I thought it was definitely presented better than most other dramas, since it allowed the male lead and female lead to communicate more in the relationship and genially express each others thoughts about the relationship.

Also, reading the other reviews I was surprised how people didn't feel the chemistry between the leads because I definitely did.

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Had soooo soooo soooo much potential!

The start was so promising with the female lead struggling to make friends and lacking the social skills and has strong desires to be popular. And the whole finding a phone which reveals everyone real name on 'it' (a fictional anonymous social media) was such an interesting plot and I was so excited but...

The female lead:
So she was something... at the beginning I loved her so much and found her adorable and could understand the things she was doing but after she found the video (which exposed how the male lead was pretending to be a kpop trainee) I started to find her a little out of character. I first noticed this when she starts to blackmail the male lead into helping her 'become popular' but keeps insisting she isn't blackmailing him, which doesn't make it better... I also felt like her growth was non-existent cause at the end she joined the 'popular group' anyways by stalking them and finding out their secrets through the phone then just helping them. Her character had so much potential but then it was all pushed into the 'romance trope' where her character was literally 'I like the male lead and I want to protect him' mode. Like at the end it was all about the male lead's plot...

The male lead:
Okay so Kim Woo Seok needs to stick to the 'cold introverted guy' role cause his acting was... something... His character was so confusing to understand and I don't even know if I should blame his acting or the script. Cause I still don't understand why he helped the female lead 'become popular' when she repeatedly said she wasn't threatening him. And I seriously couldn't tell when he started liking her until the end when they started proper dating. And it was so hypocritical that he gave the main girl girl about how she doesn't have to be popular when he literally become popular because he pretended to be a kpop trainee...

The 'mean' popular girl:
So this girl was a mess and they really just threw her in and out for the plot. She was just their to be a villain and nothing more or less. An example of this is when she was shown really liking the male lead and getting jealous of the female lead but then she was the one who exposed the male lead faking to be a kpop idol. Like the writers were trying everything to make us hate her but it just turned into a mess of a character. Plus her 180 made no sense like where was her character growth?

The social dude that got bullied:
This character only purpose was to be 'saved' by the main leads and that's it... Like the bullies left him with no trauma, no fear and no impact. Like the mean girl, he literally only existed for the main leads...

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This movie was a very heart warming movie which talks about struggles of leaving a bad situation, disability, guilt and romance.

Romance:
The romance was truly rewarding and well paced, I loved how their love grew through time and eventually they dated which was truly warm and made the romance really smooth and got us audience to attach to the main romance very well. I also loved the scene where she gave him a massage and I genially thought it was going to lead to a sex scene but turning into a hug was very satisfying and beautiful to watch. Little moments like these makes the romance feel genuine and gives it a special meaning to the reason they got together which felt natural.

Disability ( WARNING IN THIS PARAGRAPH I TALK ABOUT THE SEXUAL ASSULT SCENE):
It was satisfying to finally see representation of a person who has a disability that is not wealthy and actually has to work and provide for herself, which is more common. One thing I loved about his movie was about how she was represented as and shows the struggle of hardship she faces as a blind person trying to survive in a non adaptable society. This was clearly demonstrated in the scene where she wants to ignore the sexual assault to keep her job, shows the desperation of need this job and also the hardship of even finding on or another one.

Guilt:
I have decided to not write a paragraph on leaving a bad situation, and her rather decided to focus on guilt because it is an interesting topic that was explored in the drama.

The fl felt guilty because she was driving and got distracted leading to her parents dying in a car accident
The ml felt guilty for betting someone up, which led to suicide.

Ignoring the rest of the plot the ml has committed crimes and multiple of them has been assaults. The victims family or the victim never got the justice and instead the ml redemption is him being guilty and praying to god everyday to forgive his sins is crazy. He never even decided to turn him self to the police or even apologies to the victims family which frustrated me because despite him being redeemed since her will likely never perform such actions because of his trauma, the victims never got justice. This movie only focused on the ml and his guilt. I feel like if he actually turned himself in, went to jail and served his time, then he will finally be redeemed but instead we are suppose to feel pity for him because of his trauma but none for the victim and his family?

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THE GUY IS NOT IT

First I want to uncover this fl to really explain how trash the ml is

Our female lead is a business driven girl who has the pressure of upholding her family's business while recently suffering from a miscarriage that led her husband to stop talking to her because she removed the baby furniture and didn't explain why like BOY SHE JUST HAD A MISCARRIAGE. Also out ml first presented himself as understanding the fl has a hard time expressing emotions then suddenly he didn't like that for the same exact reason????

Another thing is that when the female lead was dying he was happy since he didn't have file a divorce, cause either the writers are psychopaths or they were very sleep deprived because the I would never wish death or be happy to my greatest enemies , I would probably feel sad that the only time they can have fun and not be stressed about something was when they got diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Plus when she found the divorce contract and got that whole horrendous speech from our ml about how he hates her and wishes death. And it took him being drunk and a ' I actually love her' to clear up that all is crazy.

Also the writers using the female lead's family becoming broke and having to stay with the ml is crazy. Like isn't he also a top lawyer who rose up because of his wife :/

And also childhood trope shit annoys me so fucking much!


Bye Bye lovely people!

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I wanna hug Yi Fan and completely shower her with gift!!!!!!

Okay so watching this because of the Hidden Love series made me think it was going to be a light hearted romance drama but I was definitely wrong...

WARNING I TALK ABOUT SEXUAL ASSAULT + ABUSE

Female Lead:
Never in my life have I cried this much literally every episode and all my tears were for Yi Fan . We are first introduced to her as a character that is a victim of sexual assault and it affects her daily life, her life seems boring and tasteless. You can tell that Yi Fan is currently carrying a lot of unhealed trauma from her living conditions to her reaction to certain behaviours. One thing that I was very grateful for this show was that Yi Fan's trauma was meticulously written as her trauma wasn't glossed over or written with the intend of romance. This show clearly depicted how Yi Fan's actions are impacted from this, for example her zero tolerance for any type of harassment despite the 'mildness' of it or any unconsented and unpredictable physical touch from the opposite gender. From this she's seen as having an hard exterior for her willingness to fight justice and knowing who to cut off and set strict boundaries for herself. Her healing of trauma was centred around her meeting her high school classmate Sang Yan, who she had known before her incident, when she was an innocent child and stopped contact after the incident. This truly made her relook into the past with someone from her past and relook at the wholesome memories that were overshadowed by the trauma she faced. She also managed to find a special someone to care for her and reassure her that she should never doubt the intense things she had to face.

Male Lead:
So San Yang was someone I did not really like at all in the majority beginning of the show. This was mainly because of his lack of awareness of what potentially Yi Fan must have gone through. Especially throughout high school, he literally witnessed her being abused and neglected by her family. His ego was to big and when they reunited he was to focused of the fact that Yi Fan left him. However, it was so satisfying when throughout the show it actually presented why San Yang actually thought like this. One of the main reasons was because he grew up in a very loving family that made him oblivious to how much Yi Fan's family impacted her. His ego grew each time he helped Yi Fan out, for example when he overheard her family say she doesn't deserve food her provides her food and thought that was enough to make sure she's the happiest, which is all good intentions but he thought she wouldn't be impacted from the absence of love from her family because of the love he showed her. Therefore when she breaks their promise of going to the same uni San Yang is truly heart broken since he has done all of this for his love for Yi Fan however she replied with going to a different uni. This point is thoroughly explained when San Yang took accountability and apologised for holding such a big ego and had not considered her feeling at all (this scene literally made me sooooo happy cause I was still a little stingy about his character). Falling in love with Yi Fan 'again' was the main route of his character development since it made him question why she choice to leave and cut off contact and genially improved him as a person.

Yi Fan's relationship with her family:
Okay so one of my biggest pet peeve that is apparent in many shows is how despite all the terrible and sometimes criminal act a family does, at the end of the show it's all happy happy and all is forgiven. But in First Frost, it is finally handled realistically and how it should always be handled. Yi Fan and her mother possess a very difficult and strained relationship since after Yi Fan's dad died, her mother needed time alone and made Yi Fan lack a mother figure and made her stay with her neglectful Aunt and that despicable being of a person. Despite all of Yi Fan's plead to be taken back and even opening about how that that despicable being of a person has been sexually assaulting her, her mother brushed it off and was too centred around her life, she neglected Yi Fan. Now Yi Fan's older and her mother has 'settled down' the mother finally wants to start to rebuild the relationship. However, Yi Fan decides to cut off her whole family, including her mother at the end of the show, to symbolise has she's moved from the past and has people she loves now and cares for her. This ending was really satisfying because she clearly states to the mother that when she needed her to most, she wasn't there. Yi Fan says that her mother's daughter has been killed and saying that made a weight leave from Yi Fan's chest.

Yi Fan's dream was to be in ballet, however after that incident that injured her ankles, she is physically unable to reach that dream. In the later episodes when she ran away to Hongkong, she becomes a temporary ballet teacher. This is when us as viewers sees a woman who is so close yet so far from their dreams. This truly made me ugly cry from how much one person can impact ones life. How many people in the world have gone through such intense traumas and still haven't received justice or even allowed to call themselves a victim.

Disadvantage:
I found myself skipping all the scenes with the side couple because it was just so basic, boring and predictable it actually annoyed me how much screen time they took. Also that whole grandpa thingy literally took nearly a whole episode. It was just a really random topic to focus in and did NOTHING to the main plot. Also I genially felt like Yi Fan's and Si Qiao's friendship should have been covered a lot more since this show mainly only focused on romantic relationships and kind of only bought up their friendship when it was convenient. Like when Yi Fan was opening Si Qiao, it was literally cut out and jumped straight into Si Qiao telling Yi Fan she went through a lot and that was it. Also San Yang as a character had literal to no personality or hobbies and kind of just existed for Yi Fan, but this bever bothered me as much because this show was all about Yi Fan and her journey.

Ending:
Okay so despite this being a 'happy ending' I think it is more of a bitter sweet ending. Because yes Yi Fan's perpetrator got arrested, she established her relationship with her family and got with San Yang and even opened up to him. However, this still makes me highly emotionally because despite all her efforts this trauma is still with in her. She still lived through all of this.

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What actually happened

Yes, this drama is a 'out of ordinary' drama were the female lead actually takes the mum's money because of the money despite the fact that the ml is rich af..

SO from my current understanding, I think that the fl wants to be finically independent and priorities her and her brother's wellbeing after being abused by her father who was controlling and trapped her, she wants finically freedom, however her feelings for the ml is conflicting her wants.

BUT what the fuck is this plot, it felt really dragging and unnecessary, both being grown ass adults couldn't just talk about this and break up peacefully cause why was the guy still chasing? It just feels weird cause imagine if the fl actually did not like the ml at all, all of this seems creepy...

+ The acting was strange, I never felt immersed or sensed chemistry from any of the characters apart from the brother and his wife!

And the plot was just sooooooo dragging like they were already dating and I'm sick of the wealth gap problem cause watching 6 episodes of that only being there main conflict is super boring 😭

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I swear if I see another scene with that ugly gym I'm going to go CRAZY

I watched four episodes of this drama and it literally went no where. The the grown adults were acting children in a playpen!

The hate for the main girl was just so repetitive and she was just getting bullied over and over again to the point I became desensitised to it and I just got bored of her being toyed around with. Like I get it, they hate her, and? Like I know bullying exists and it is a topic where we need to bring awareness of but realistically I just know that the female lead will need to gain all of those peoples' respect and it will all end happy and nice like they didn't literally bully someone in their workplace (this is a assumption by the way which is probably 100% true). Like I feel like they were written in a high school setting idk it just gives that vibe.

Also I was so sick and tired of seeing the dorms and the ugly blue gym. The gym was also sooo sooo ugly and I got so sick of it. Like this made me appreciate Racket Boys so so much more than I already did!

The plot was also so messy like I was just so so confused cause characters were just popping in and out and unnecessary side plots were just focused on and it bought nothing. I just was so confused and bored.

The main guy as well just was so strange... Like hear me out. Yeah he was really bubbly/kind/caring/funny (aka nice male lead) but then his childishness really pissed me off at sometimes. Like when he tease the female lead when she's literally in her lowest. Also maybe it's cause my favourite type of male leads are the ones who are nice but also is never hesitant to stand up of the right things to do, so when he was just there while the female lead was going through all that just pissed me of a bit. Like he literally gives middle school boy energy.

Over all I didn't like this drama, found it really boring so I dropped it...

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