MadelineMaureen

I went into this show with medium to high expectations for another adaptation of a Korean &or Japanese show. 'Kiss Me' is my favorite adaptation of the 'Hana Yori Dango'/'Playful Kiss' series, so I was excited to see how they would changed things up in this one. Oh boy.....I don't even no where to start with how badly they fumbled this.

Over half of the run time is solely focused on a horrible character. The second female lead Faye. She is a horrible human and is exposed as such, but they wanted a moral of "Everyone should be forgiven" so they all still want to be her friend after she does absolutely horrible things to the female lead Lui. Lui isn't a female lead, she is a doormat for Faye to wipe her feet on.

Lui spends more screen time with the 2ML, Saint, than she does with the ML, Guy. Guy has more screen time with the 2ML than he does with the FL. This is a major problem when your show is supposed to be a romance of some kind. There was no romance...the kiss in the last ten second of the last episode looked like someone held a gun to the actress' head. I swear I think they held their breath and when their lips barely touched they were like "that's far enough" and froze there for a few seconds.

Also bonus points to the genius who thought it was a great idea for Guy's mother to have a romantic dinner with her abusive ex because 🌈forgive everything and everyone no matter what🌈
Writers....I want to bill you for my time spent watching this because what in the ever loving HELL was this? Oh gaslighting, manipulating, bullying, physically assaulting, emotional abuse...all forgiven with a simple "my bad". No, just no. Walk away. Don't interact with people like that. That type of toxic behavior does not just magically disappear because you will it so.

I'm going to stop here because I feel like cursing more and I don't know if that would be appreciated by the mods or the minors in the chat. Just as a PSA...kids...don't be a Lui. If someone in your circle is a Faye...run. Do not look back, do not collect 200 dollars. Grab your things and gtfo of that person's life.

3.5/10 because sound track, and I can't hate the actors for the bad writing and direction. I've seen them in better things.

If you enjoyed the OG one don't watch this.
If you can completely forget that it is supposed to be the same or similar story to Gangnam Beauty, by all means go for it. It'll only take you about 10 and a half hours to watch or less if you watch it at a faster speed/skip around.
But I will warn you with a slight vague spoiler....in the last 2 episodes the main leads have MAYBE 10 minutes of screen time together total without the focus of conversation being the 2FL. The rest is completely focused on the 2FL aka the antagonist. The FL had a total of maybe 15ish minutes on screen in the last episode out of 40 minutes.

I didnt wake up in time to watch the last episode before work. but I already know I'm going to need to have a drink when watching that last episode...

He also directed her in Ballarina

the director that asks her if she read/practiced her lines & what's with her today

I dont know why I said woo bin when I know I know soohyuk was the cameo not woo bin. adhd wins again(reading multiple articles one right after the other)

Okay I was right that was Lee Chung Hyun in ep12. Jeon Jong Seo(Ah Jeong)'s real life boyfriend and director.

Honestly it should have been. Maybe they would have fleshed out Do Han a bit more as he seemed very 2D. And showed his relationship more with his brother and best friend. And they could have had more actual romance between the FL and ML once they got together. In the last hour a lot a lot was exposited that could have been shown in some way. They took out character development and what could have been an interesting coup at the company.
Making a supporting character have more dimension also helps round out the lead characters. (Do Han was technically a lead, but he was like a cardboard stand-in to move the plot and nothing more.)

They never really developed his character at all. We never got a reason for his ex being hurt/injured in the flashback(cant remember what episode it was in). The grandfather was the one who had sent him the photos of him in New York, and knew he liked men for the whole show.
Do Han came out about the fake engagement and his sexual orientation in a press conference after his brother tried to take the blame for a love triangle scandal. He then dipped to the airport back to New York.
Show had a year skip. He came back to Seoul for an art exhibit. Ex apologized for his part in Do Han outing himself. Do Han tries to talk Ji Han and Ah Jeong into seeing each other again. Do Han and his grandfather are on good terms. The older half-siblings have chilled out with regards to their younger half-siblings.

This is a warning to new watchers not super spoilery in nature.

Even if I hadn't seen the original Korean version I would be disappointed in how centered a 2FL/antagonist is in what is supposed to be a romance. There is very little actual romance in this "romance". This has the same leave of romance as a middle school centered school drama, where all the actors are underage and thus don't make physical contact.

I only recommend this show to people who truly love the actors in this project. Those who haven't seen the original live action. And to those who have no idea what the source material is whatsoever.

Episode 3, ya'll I am nothing but a puddle of tears. was not expecting that beautiful representation in a period Kdrama...😭😭😭
A mother not only seeing her child, but excepting & embracing them in such a loving & protective way...I gotta go hug my mom real quick after this one.

"Secondary Gay Lead"

Half of them wouldn't have started the show in the first place. We have people halfway through the show still waiting for the LGBTQ+ storyline to start developing taking about bad writing.
& when people are talking about the bad writing they refuse to put their essay in a spoiler tag, ruining the comment section for everyone who is enjoying the show or MIGHT find enjoyment in the show.

I feel like we should put bets down at this point. I feel like groom is going to be Kim Bum or Woo Bin.

Whoever put "Gay Male Lead" as a tag for the show is the main reason for the chaos of this comment section.

Half of it is just people thinking this is a BL drama not realizing it's two male siblings and a lead female and a lavender marriage proposal.
Yes, there is a queer character, but they don't focus or develop his character to the extent that most people cruising the LGBTQ+ tag would enjoy. If that is why you want to watch this show, don't. Go find a nice web drama or a Thai drama to scratch that itch.

can you please put this in a spoiler tag

Tomorrow when the last episode drops put it on 2x the speed to rip the band-aid off, and skip to the last 5-10 minutes to just see the end ending. That's what i did with a drama that I had to bale 10 episodes into a 16 episode show. I got the closure without wasting 6 hours of my life.

PS I did try multiple times to ask people to spoiler tag when discussing plot points or longer comments, but no one cared.

I feel like we deployed reverse thrusters to come in for a landing. Very slow paced compared to previous episodes. It could be because I guessed motives of the grandfather very early on that it felt like a rehash. But I'm glad I was proven correct in why he acts the way he does with Ji Han and the older siblings.
We have less than 10 minutes of the three main leads in the same location. Their conversations for the most part were all over the phone. So that connection was missing. Which is sad when we only have an hour left.
Very somber episode only two scenes would be considered a valve release...ML's brother and sister-in-law, and FL's friends.

Thoughts on episode 11

this is true. I think of the 400+ shows I've watched. I think only a couple handfuls were Kdramas that are 12 episodes...and they were all within the last few years or web dramas so I guess I don't really have a set gauge on their common timing.
But looking at 6 of them either no kiss whatsoever or kiss/confession at episode 8 or later. Had to go look at my notes & the episode guides.