Why is everyone yelling in this drama??? I know they are overly dramatic but every conversation is... Character yells, another yells back, continues to yell as the previous 'yeller' leaves while yelling. Why are they ALL. SO. LOUD???? The entire drama is one tone of yelling.
Genuine question but are y'all disappointed with the drama because it didn't meet expectations? If so, what expectations…
Actually, I went into it expecting a slice of life drama (which is my favourite genre). Misaeng, Be Melodramatic etc are some of my favourite dramas of all time. I just found the writing and dialogue very dull. It wasn't entertaining enough. This should have been a movie instead a 16 episode drama. They had no content for 16 episodes and that was painfully obvious. But the thing that really killed it was the lack of chemistry between the actors. They all looked like they were forced to act in it. - I wish they didn't have the romance storyline at all and just focused on HJ, his family and his career.
I know what's wrong with this drama. No matter what the emotion, whether they are angry, happy or sad... everyone is calm, and that made them quite robotic. They calmly talk, they calmly discuss everything and they respectfully leave. The only people who showed some semblance of natural body language and therefore who were not robotic were HJ's brother, his father, his grandfather, his manager, HH's sister and Jin Woo. They played their roles naturally while everyone else stood stiffly and recited their lines with emotion.
I can't believe it took until episode 13 for the pacing to improve, storytelling to get better and for the characters to exude some chemistry. I see improvement on the horizon.
It's more like I question why the writer chose to have scenes like that between a man and a woman who is his mother's double rather than between his mother's double and his father, which would have made more sense. It's obvious the writer is doing a fake love triangle between the character, his best friend, and his mother's double... which is weird and unnecessary in the overall plot. They didn't have to have any shirtless scenes between them at all.
His shirtless scenes where her eyes linger on his bare chest (which has happened twice now) and those close contact 'let me help you with that as I lean against your back' scenes are way out of place for me. She keeps staring at his body and getting flustered. It's weird.
About the cliché, can you mention one kdrama that had the same plot? I cant think of any even tho i watch a lot…
From what I see the biggest criticism regarding the series is that it's mostly boring. Almost everyone agrees that the best aspect of the story is Hye Joon's career, and I too wish that was 80% of the storyline with the rest of the 20% dedicated to his family. I love the scenes regarding his career growth, and his scenes with his manager, grandfather, and Hae Hyo and Jin Woo. Unfortunately... the career is focused on 20% - 30% of the time (and 5% of that is always on makeup for a role), while we follow Jung Ha's life, Hae Hyo's mother and Tae Soo. They take up too much screen time with the predictable storylines. I understand that the show is trying to be well-rounded, especially because a person's rise in stardom has nothing much to it, but I'm honestly bored with ALL these scenes except for Hye Joon's career and seeing how his family handles it. I mean, if modeling to acting is the main storyline that should be the main meal, not the side dish.
I think the show's main problem is the lack of chemistry between most of the characters. If there was chemistry, even the mundane scenes will be swooned about because people would find them interesting, but because of the lack of chemistry, and the writing being forced, people are bored.
I'm watching Dodosolsollalasol right now and it's a show with an abundance of chemistry between the characters. It really shows the empty space between the characters in Record of Youth, in comparison.
Ok... Where to start.... Right... From the beginning i guess.... When this started i was skeptical as to how would…
Those last two episodes made me rate the drama an 8 too. There is something romantic about them longing for each other but knowing nothing can happen because they have his family between them. It's very rare to see people consciously choose family over a love in a drama.
I can't believe I enjoyed this painful, depressing story, but I get it. The selfish continue living their lives happily taking from others and the selfless are left drained.
Kudos to the writer because unlike most dramas I understood every character, their motivations, and why the toxic people never reflect on their actions and change their ways (which is a kdrama staple - they either become understanding or they are taken down), while others have to learn to cut the toxic people out of their lives. They all saw this experience as a regret. Ye Ji regretted not waiting for Hwan, Hwan regretted Jin choosing Ye Ji, Jin regretted doing what he did and his mother doesn't regret anything. She's happy even though both of her sons are miserable as she still takes from her weak husband. She's a parasite who never gets her comeuppance for what she did to Ye Ji - Like real life.
That's why this drama is so frustrating. Nothing really changes but one thing: Ye Ji finally has her mother back and a true family, and she leaves the toxic foster family behind.
[LONG POST WARNING!!] It's really normal, though, in kdramas, for them to use the inequality of new/fledgling/hopeful…
Haha. Yep, the amount of character development we delve into is insane. lol.
I do get your point of the bruised ego, but I have to disagree regarding the gender bias. To make it a true gender flip, the only thing that should change is their gender, not their circumstances. (Eg:- Na Eun would be a psychiatrist and Kang Woo would be an aspiring writer).
Based on the above, my opinion would still stand, mainly because getting published is something literally based on recommendation. If your work is not recommended to publishers, the chances of them hearing about it is rare, mainly because they have countless assistants who do the groundwork of reading books and dismissing them before they actually get a chance of getting read by the people who could publish it.
Kang Woo went about it wrong though. He made it seem shady by hiding it, which doesn't make sense. He could have recommended her writing and since it amounted to something, told her. Or if he had been honest, like a proper psychiatrist and said, "Hey, I know this person, he might be interested, would you like a try?" and Na Eun said, "No, I don't want any help from you," because of her bruised ego, that would have been the end of it. To me, Kang Woo should not be a psychiatrist. He's clearly horrible at it.
I guess my main argument is that Na Eun overreacted to getting her work recommended, when she should have really reacted to the fact that he chose to hide it for some reason.... Which was to create drama.
About the cliché, can you mention one kdrama that had the same plot? I cant think of any even tho i watch a lot…
Here are some of the clichés.
1. Love triangle where one person clearly has no chance because the other two like each other but tries to get involved anyway. (Eg:- Lonely Enough to Love, Backstreet Rookie, Cinderella and the Four Knights, The King: Eternal Monarch etc)
2. Best friends/brothers with a sturdy relationship end up fighting because of a girl. (Eg:- Boys Over Flowers, Extraordinary You, Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo, To All The Boys Who Loved Me etc)
3. A rags to riches story where an antagonist tries to stop the hero from succeeding just because of some silly reason connected to pride. (eg:- Itaewon Class, My Strange Hero, Lawless Lawyer, Hot Stove League, Into the Ring etc)
4. The girl's relationship with the boy somehow having a negative aspect to his success and therefore they are told to hide it. (Eg:- Do You Like Brahms?, Full House, Love in the Moonlight, and the inverse, Encounter etc. )
5. The parent of the rich kid dictating who her children can date/marry. (Eg:- Boys Over Flowers, Cheese in the Trap, The Heirs, Cinderella and the Four Knights etc)
I know that kdramas are, by definition, cliché, and that is partly why we love them, but for the writing style in this show, I would have much preferred a more realistic take on things. Eg:- No love triangle but friendship based storytelling, the conflicts HJ suffers are not because of meddlesome people like his ex-girlfriend and his former agent, but rather actual problems celebrities suffer from trolls, stalkers, depression etc. This is the kind of show where you don't need a badly written villain. It would have been so much better if we watched HJ and HH try to succeed in this business only. The rest of the storylines are too forced, predictable and boring.
I can't quite put my finger on what is wrong with this drama. I think it's a combination of a few things.
1. Forced writing - It's a writing style that is trying too hard to be cool and woke. It's the type of writing where they tell you how the characters feel rather than show it, which makes the dialogue seem shallow and forced.
2. It's cliché - Great cast, great production, but the storyline is something we have seen a million times. There is nothing new or unique about the story.
3. - Failing Goals - The show is trying so hard to be relevant to young people, but it's no Itaewon Class. There's quite a few time jumps so we don't spend enough time with characters as they struggle. The story is fast forwarded again and again so we, as the audience, don't connect with any of the characters.
The show seems to me like an empty shell. But I keep watching it, hoping it will get better.
P.S. - No one does longing better than Kim Min Jae.
I think the show's main problem is the lack of chemistry between most of the characters. If there was chemistry, even the mundane scenes will be swooned about because people would find them interesting, but because of the lack of chemistry, and the writing being forced, people are bored.
I'm watching Dodosolsollalasol right now and it's a show with an abundance of chemistry between the characters. It really shows the empty space between the characters in Record of Youth, in comparison.
Kudos to the writer because unlike most dramas I understood every character, their motivations, and why the toxic people never reflect on their actions and change their ways (which is a kdrama staple - they either become understanding or they are taken down), while others have to learn to cut the toxic people out of their lives. They all saw this experience as a regret. Ye Ji regretted not waiting for Hwan, Hwan regretted Jin choosing Ye Ji, Jin regretted doing what he did and his mother doesn't regret anything. She's happy even though both of her sons are miserable as she still takes from her weak husband. She's a parasite who never gets her comeuppance for what she did to Ye Ji - Like real life.
That's why this drama is so frustrating. Nothing really changes but one thing: Ye Ji finally has her mother back and a true family, and she leaves the toxic foster family behind.
And that's all I care about.
I do get your point of the bruised ego, but I have to disagree regarding the gender bias. To make it a true gender flip, the only thing that should change is their gender, not their circumstances. (Eg:- Na Eun would be a psychiatrist and Kang Woo would be an aspiring writer).
Based on the above, my opinion would still stand, mainly because getting published is something literally based on recommendation. If your work is not recommended to publishers, the chances of them hearing about it is rare, mainly because they have countless assistants who do the groundwork of reading books and dismissing them before they actually get a chance of getting read by the people who could publish it.
Kang Woo went about it wrong though. He made it seem shady by hiding it, which doesn't make sense. He could have recommended her writing and since it amounted to something, told her. Or if he had been honest, like a proper psychiatrist and said, "Hey, I know this person, he might be interested, would you like a try?" and Na Eun said, "No, I don't want any help from you," because of her bruised ego, that would have been the end of it. To me, Kang Woo should not be a psychiatrist. He's clearly horrible at it.
I guess my main argument is that Na Eun overreacted to getting her work recommended, when she should have really reacted to the fact that he chose to hide it for some reason.... Which was to create drama.
1. Love triangle where one person clearly has no chance because the other two like each other but tries to get involved anyway. (Eg:- Lonely Enough to Love, Backstreet Rookie, Cinderella and the Four Knights, The King: Eternal Monarch etc)
2. Best friends/brothers with a sturdy relationship end up fighting because of a girl. (Eg:- Boys Over Flowers, Extraordinary You, Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo, To All The Boys Who Loved Me etc)
3. A rags to riches story where an antagonist tries to stop the hero from succeeding just because of some silly reason connected to pride. (eg:- Itaewon Class, My Strange Hero, Lawless Lawyer, Hot Stove League, Into the Ring etc)
4. The girl's relationship with the boy somehow having a negative aspect to his success and therefore they are told to hide it. (Eg:- Do You Like Brahms?, Full House, Love in the Moonlight, and the inverse, Encounter etc. )
5. The parent of the rich kid dictating who her children can date/marry. (Eg:- Boys Over Flowers, Cheese in the Trap, The Heirs, Cinderella and the Four Knights etc)
I know that kdramas are, by definition, cliché, and that is partly why we love them, but for the writing style in this show, I would have much preferred a more realistic take on things. Eg:- No love triangle but friendship based storytelling, the conflicts HJ suffers are not because of meddlesome people like his ex-girlfriend and his former agent, but rather actual problems celebrities suffer from trolls, stalkers, depression etc. This is the kind of show where you don't need a badly written villain. It would have been so much better if we watched HJ and HH try to succeed in this business only. The rest of the storylines are too forced, predictable and boring.
1. Forced writing - It's a writing style that is trying too hard to be cool and woke. It's the type of writing where they tell you how the characters feel rather than show it, which makes the dialogue seem shallow and forced.
2. It's cliché - Great cast, great production, but the storyline is something we have seen a million times. There is nothing new or unique about the story.
3. - Failing Goals - The show is trying so hard to be relevant to young people, but it's no Itaewon Class. There's quite a few time jumps so we don't spend enough time with characters as they struggle. The story is fast forwarded again and again so we, as the audience, don't connect with any of the characters.
The show seems to me like an empty shell. But I keep watching it, hoping it will get better.