ItsAMe

Well, that was on purpose. I thought that was obvious. My goal was to correct what I felt was wrong, not to persuade you of liking this drama. Other people reading your comment, especially people who haven't watched many K-dramas yet, should not ignore this drama just because somebody falsely claimed that new dramas were better "nowadays".

I recently watched this drama and don't agree that it is lacking "nowadays". I watched quite a few newer dramas with unnecessary romance, NPC lead characters, basically no ideas left as of episode 12 or 13 to 16, bad fighting choreography, story all over the place, and a rushed ending. This isn't something exclusive to this drama let alone older dramas in general.

You don't have to like Cruel City but claiming that this drama was lacking "nowadays" sounds as if you don't know many newer dramas.

What do you define as feminist/anti-feminist? Mary Sue?

This drama wasn't anti-gay. The MLs did "gay" stuff on the couch together without any fear it could be mistaken for being gay gay. Their fear started when the rumours started. Remember those three Youtubers? Their only goal was to scandalise everything to cancel people. Later, FL stated that being gay was not a crime. You can assume that being gay was accepted by the lead characters but not by society. Otherwise, the media would not try to make a big deal out of ML still being single.

Also, it would be irrealistic to make being gay fine and not to cancel the ML immediately based on gay rumours just to cancel him later because of rumours about his girlfriend's dating history.

Homosexuality, especially male homosexuality, IS still a massive stigma in Korea and many other parts of the world. Western propaganda and Western cancel culture will not change that. If those societies decide to become (more) queer friendly, they will become more queer friendly. Also, let's not forget that Asians in Asia make Asian dramas for Asians in Asia. They tell the stories they want to watch (= sell). Asian dramas are not Hollywood stories just with Asian actors in it. The Western viewership is still very small compared to the non-Western viewership in general. We don't give them enough money to include our own ideas on morality and display "representation".

1. When ML is laughing, we see many crow's feet around his eyes. FL is an experienced lawyer, thus certainly not in her early 20s anymore. Choi Soo-jin is an aging actress in an industry favouring much younger people. I think you are right about the target audience. The love story is still relevant for younger people, though.

2. I agree with you. The "hate" in this "Love to hate you" drama was a bit short. After FL made a mistake, she decided to be nice to him. And then, they were already in love.

3. Yep, same as 2). It felt as if the authors felt they made a mistake which they wanted to sweep under the carpet.

I hoped there would be more "hate" such as teasing, pulling more tricks on each other, and so on, but all in all, I enjoyed this drama. The characters were sweet, and I liked the non-toxic ex-bf.

Well, yes, the authors obviously had interesting ideas for this character but rushed through them. The drama would not lack anything if Moon Sang-tae had just been severely disabled and mute.

Nevertheless, I think that the actor (Oh Jung-se) delievered an amazing performance. I enjoyed seeing how much effort he put into portraying this character. Without him, I probably would have been constantly annoyed by Moon Sang-tae.

Well, giving in to peer pressure is never a waste of time because the goal is to please other people. Ask yourself why you want to watch this drama: because of other people or because of entertainment? If you didn't enjoy the first episodes and if there isn't anything in this drama you are curious about, drop it. That's fine. There are tens of thousands of other dramas out there. Find one you enjoy more. :)

I completed episode 9 or something like that. I'm thinking about dropping the drama too. :/

I agree with everything you wrote about this drama. The transitions were fantastic at the beginning of this drama but then it'll become quite normal. In my personal opinion, the most interesting part about this drama is Moon Sang-tae because it's a unique role, and Oh Jung-se did a really great job portraying this character. The rest is more or less as you would probably expect it. I completed this drama because of Oh Jung-se and because of the cinematography and the visuals, not because of the story let alone the romance. (I'm not that into the "good guy falls in love with toxic bitch" trope.)

I hope this helped you a bit and didn't reveal too much. :)

I agree with your interpretation. For many, many years, Hyun-nam had been too weak to leave her husband. Even at his funeral she wore the dress he demanded her to wear. She knows that she's free but she is only starting to realise what it truely means. She cried for him but also for herself, saying goodbye to her past life. In my opinion, this role had an unusual depth and was fairly convincing.

I feel the same. It's always the same role: deaf mother of a child who was murdered, and she's desperately seeking justice while being ignored. There is so much potential in that role that could make an interesting story because of the unique struggles but all you see is a bunch of very dramatic scenes with the deaf mother trying to communicate, and that's it. I really don't like it if such unimportant characters get unique traits which don't get explored further. It's just distracting.

Im Ji-yeon was incredible in this drama. Her character was so crazy, full of herself and evil. She felt like a real person and was so easy to hate. I also liked Yeom Hye-ran whose character had a bit more depth than her usual funny, slightly crazy ajumma characters. She really nailed the suffering mother who could not leave her abusive husband.

My favourite actor in this drama was Jung Sung-il, though. He didn't have that much screentime and his character didn't say much but Jung Sung-il's facial expressions told a whole story. He was as phenomenal as Im Ji-yeon.

I really enjoyed this drama because of the great actors. The story itself was okay. A bit too long for my taste. I sometimes didn't know what the FL was actually trying to achieve.

Yes, there is no romance but a solid/professional friendship between ML and FL. If I remember correctly, ML makes some comments that could be interpreted as "he's testing if she's interested as well" but they are rare, and nothing goes beyond that. This drama is definitely not a romcom or something like that.

How many episodes did you watch?

Regarding Venezuela, I can recommend an article in the Miami Harald: "Gripped by desperation, some escape Venezuela crisis by killing themselves, report says".

Let's assume that every country counts the suicides the same way (which is not the case in real life), we still have to consider the circumstances. In Western country, one can quickly get institutionlised or even imprisoned for simply expressing suicidal thoughts. In Western countries, one's family will not get any money from one's life insurance if one commits suicide. One might get excommunicated by one's church, which brings great shame on one's religious family. One's family might get stigmatised and shunned by neighbours and other people.

As you can hopefully see, these are just a few obvious examples of why it might be preferable to cover up a suicide by claiming it was an accident or murder. In Western countries, many people die of an overdosis or drink themselves to death. Who can tell whether it was an accident or intention?

From the aforementioned article on Venezuela: "Suicide cases are routinely labeled something else, said Briceño León."

Back to the initial topic, Patrick Star was talking about actors and Western media coverage, not about normal people.

From what I understood, the ML's lover is not his actual mother cause he's not born yet or so. Whatever that means.

That doesn't mean anything. If you live in a Western country, you probably know that we don't like to talk about death and that we cannot accept that people make their own decisions. We prefer people to suffer or to take drugs (while simultaneously condemning them because they cannot live without drugs), so we feel better about ourselves without too much hassle. Just because our media prefers not to talk about suicide and just because those suicide hotline numbers get spammed everywhere whenever someone's not happy or on drugs, does not mean that our actors live happy lives and die only in accidents or due to cancer. We just don't learn about their struggles, their decision and their suicide.

Maybe because many people cannot distinguish between an actor and his role. Lee Kyung Young IS the bad guy because he portrays bad guys on screen. They wouldn't be upset if he were like that in real life as well. Other actors, especially beautiful young men and women, are expected to be pure angels in real life "as seen in the dramas". Otherwise, their so-called fans turn against them, and all hell breaks loose.

I hope that Yoo Ah-in will get clean and will be allowed/able to proceed his career as an actor after jail time.

A "humble request" is not necessary for me. "Hey, I think your comment reveals too much information. Could you please mark it as a spoiler? Click the 3 dots, click the Spoiler box, click save. Thanks." First the problem, then the solution. The other way round is also fine. I don't care that much about the specific phrasing.

Otherwise, you might come across like one of those toxic people who, unfortunately, gained more power especially during the past two years. They usually have in common that they rarely tell you the problem they identified but presume that you know because they feel that the world revolves around them, their personal needs and problems. To them, it's mainly about themselves and maybe also about problems, usually other people's assumed problems. They are not interested in solutions. Yes, people like these make me angry, which is why I usually try to avoid them unless they pay me.

In this particular case, I was able to guess the problem, though, but that's rather luck.

Have a nice day.
Another "spoiler" cause practice makes perfect. ;)

I'm so happy that this drama had only 8 episodes. The story telling was amazing. No annoying fillers or unnecessary side stories. I watched so many interesting dramas which got extremely boring as of 1/2 or 2/3 because 16+ episodes had to be completed. Let's hope that more dramas will opt for quality before quantity. :)