DramaHeroine

The only thing that keeps this film from being 100% perfect in my eyes (well, minus an incident or two of perverted humor, which I always find pretty tasteless) is the lack of a romantically intimate moment at the end, ie. a kiss, a long embrace, the main couple walking off hand in hand, something. Of course, it doesn't actually matter that this doesn't happen. The movie works perfectly well on it's own without any of those things. I'm just an out and out sucker for rom-coms that end with an intimate, romantic moment of some kind, and this movie doesn't have that sort of ending.

Don't misunderstand. The leads do end up together, and it's really cute (and pretty hilarious) how it comes about, so don't read the above and think that this is some sort of flaw in the movie, because it's not. I just have specific expectations with my rom-coms, and this movie hit all of them expect this one.

Moving on from my ramblings though, lol. This movie is laugh-out-loud hilarious, features two leads with bang-on chemistry and great repartee, a fun and funny premise, very much a Korean teen rom-com classic. It will probably feel dated to some people as at this point, we've pretty much all seen a lot of what it has to offer already. But I personally think it's one of the best from it's time, and stands the test of time pretty dang well, so I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys these sorts of films and even those who maybe generally don't.

It's a fun time all around.

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Just like I did with the first season of this web drama, I'm giving this season an overall rating of 7.5 based on my personal enjoyment of it, not based on the overall quality. In terms of overall quality, this season is a solid 10. It just didn't grip me the way I want drama's to, so I took some points off for overall enjoyment.

As far as what the story is like, it's the same setup as season one. Slice of life told in a series of vignettes with food playing an important role. There are more yummy looking recipes that I wish I had the desire and motivation to make myself (alas, I have made a lifetime vow against cooking as we are mortal enemies), and the female lead is as interesting and relatable as she was in the first season.

If you watched the first season and liked it, you will enjoy this season.

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I actually wrote a review for this drama ages ago that has since mysteriously disappeared (not sure what happened to it?), so here it is again.

This is a fun, heartwarming, and informative drama. I say informative, because little facts and bits of knowledge about Kyoto and famous sites there are sprinkled throughout. I quite like this as it adds to the travel aspect of the story in a way that is natural and interesting. The characters are all quite charming and fun to watch as they interact with each other on screen. I enjoyed watching them band together to plan trips and support each other during difficult situations. The female lead is fantastic, but Watanabe is an actress who could make any character likable, so no surprise there. The male lead is handsome and likable but can also be a bit too 'woah is me, I don't know how to do anything, I need someone to fix it for me.' You really want him to pull himself up by his bootstraps and work some stuff out.

The lack of what felt like a very real, potential romance is what drove me up the wall though, and I won't lie and say that that didn't have an affect on my rating. If a romance is hinted at or promised in the story between characters I would like to see together, it makes me pretty mad when nothing comes of it, even if it's a realistic and well-written plot decision. Even if the hinting is so light as to not be worth paying any attention to. Romance is definitely the number 1 reason I watch Asian dramas, so if you fail me on that....it's gonna have a negative impact on the rest of the drama for me, even if it's not deserved.

I'm downgrading this drama some mainly because while I liked the story, it didn't necessarily grip me every episode, and I was ultimately really disappointed by the lack of romance between the leads. Perhaps that is unfair, and if lack of romance isn't an issue for you, then by all means ignore this portion of my review. But it's a big deal for me, and I can't write a review without taking it into account. It was a nice story, but it didn't deliver on quite everything I hoped it would.

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I've become very, very picky about my dramas in recent years. I know exactly what I like and exactly what I don't, and I simply cannot tolerate stories that don't suit my tastes anymore. Compare this to me from when I first got into dramas, or from just 3-4 years ago, the me who wanted to watch literally every drama ever made and couldn't drop a drama because of the intense guilt it made her feel. I would watch dramas I didn't even like. I would watch dramas that made me Miserable. I wanted to consume everything, and I felt like a failure when I couldn't.

I've come a long way since then.

And I can say today with certainty, that this drama ticks each and every one of my drama requirement boxes.

Conflict that feels real and relatable and like it serves a purpose in the overall story? Check!
Characters that I can love deeply or love to hate deeply? Check!
Something in the premise that is deeply personal to me and relates to my own life in some way? Check!
Really, bloody good romance? Check, check!

The main conflict is, obviously, the break down of the leads marriage. I was very pleased to see the writers make things fair and even. Instead of the breakdown of their marriage being all one person's fault, it's a series of, mostly unintentional, things on both sides that built up over time. Neither character is really at fault or really a bad guy. They just became caught up in their own little worlds and forgot how to communicate with each other, and things began to fall apart from there.

There's a heavy focus on the relationship between our female lead and her mother, something that becomes one of the driving forces behind the entire story, and deservedly so. Their relationship is the foundation on which the female leads life is ultimately built, and it's through her second chance at spending time with her mother that a lot of the healing for her in the future comes out of.

With the exception of one character, there's no one you ever come to hate, or even dislike, in the story. Every character is someone you want to see happy and successful in life. And the person you hate is very much a love to hate character, and it brings you immense joy to see them knocked down several pegs.

And finally (with one caveat) I would say the finale is literal perfection. Everything plays out exactly as it should with every character getting the ending they deserve. (Except for two characters who's future's we don't get to see and it would have been nice to know what happened to them, but it's a flaw I can forgive since everything else about the finale is so well done.) I honestly can't remember if I've seen another drama with an ending so perfectly executed.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes their stories more on the realistic and relatable side, as it is both of these things. This is a satisfying watch.

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This drama...

...is heavy.

Imagine Misaeng (Incomplete Life) but more depressing and hopeless. Kind of like getting sucked into a black hole and not dying.

And now that I've made you feel terrible about life, let me explain to you why you should watch this drama for Exactly this reason.

You're going to become attached to these characters. Dong Hoon and Ji An's lives are heartrendingly bleak and miserable and unfair, and the drama does not shy away from this fact. Instead, this is the driving force behind everything that happens in the story.

You're gonna hope anxiously that they will get some sort of relief, respite, redemption, restoration, justice. (I wish I could think of a word starting with r that means the same thing as justice.)

And you're going to find yourself frequently disappointed. Sometimes outraged.

What I'm saying is you're gonna feel bad while watching this drama, but you're gonna like it, so you might as well go ahead and watch it already.

So just go ahead and watch it already.

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If you've ever seen the Thai movie, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, and you enjoyed it, you will absolutely enjoy this movie. (If you haven't seen Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Get On That!!!) Crazy Little Thing Called Love had a bit of an indie film feel to me, which Our Times doesn't, and both movies are slightly different in theme (although mostly due to having male leads with very different personalities), but the feelings they manage to express are very much universal and keenly felt in both stories. They manage to capture much of what it's like to be young and insecure and confused and hopeful and in love.

This isn't a joint review of Crazy Little Thing and Our Times though, so let me talk about what you're actually here for.

Our Times is a ten-star movie.  Wonderful acting, wonderful story-telling, wonderful heart, wonderful soul, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. (Not to mention Wang Darren is very good looking and cheeky and has a smirk for days, and I now want to watch as many of his movies and TV shows and bath soap commercials as I can. Hell, sell me dishtowels! I use paper plates almost exclusively, but by golly, if he sells it to me, I will find a use for it!)

I don't really know what else to say other than this movie just ticked all my boxes.

I do have to bring back the joint review for just a second though to say that while I didn't like the teen actors in Crazy Little Thing playing their characters as adults at all and felt like it took me out of the movie at a crucial moment, I strangely had the entirely opposite feeling with Our Times. I found myself alternating between wishing that the actors who played the leads as teens had played them as adults as well or wishing they had resolved the story while they were still teens and never shown them all grown up. I was just so Attached to their teen selves, their personalities, their mannerisms, their facial expressions. They were so affecting in their performances that I felt like I was being dragged out of the story while watching the adults. The adults were also on screen for so little that it almost seemed pointless for them to even be there. I'm not saying this makes it bad a movie, or it will keep you from enjoying it. I think most people probably wouldn't have any issues with it. I'm just saying I was way too invested in these teens to want to be away from them, and this is why I've given the story a 9.0 instead of a ten.

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I'm having a hard time writing up a review for this drama. I certainly did not hate it. It has much to commend itself. But the romance was so incredibly slow, and I found that to be a very draining viewing experience. I wanted them together so bad, and the writers were just like 'Yeah. Maybe later.'

Of course, some drama lovers really enjoy the sit and wait style of romance, and if that's your thing, then this drama is for you. I just couldn't figure out why these two people who clearly were in it deep for each other couldn't learn to use their words and Say so.

Luckily, where the romance sort of left me hanging, the rest of the drama was quite enjoyable. I loved the whole office battle plot line and the heavy focus on friendship and what it actually means to be a friend. I definitely consider that part of the drama's plot to be one of its major strengths.

And while I found the female lead at times infuriating, I didn't hate her. I just wanted to prod her with a stick sometimes, lol. I quite liked the male lead and his tenacious go get it attitude about basically everything. Except when it came to romance, and then I wanted to be like 'Look. The drama's not giving me a clear justification for your behavior here, so how bout you help a sister out and tell me Why you aren't making a move on this girl already? Please and thanks I love you bye.'

So like I said, if you enjoy the sit and wait style of romance story, you will like this drama. If you like your romance to move a little faster than a snail, you might find this drama a little frustrating at times to watch.

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I did not read the manga this drama is based on (I didn't know there was a manga until I read other people's reviews), so I can't tell you how good or bad of an adaptation it is. But as a viewer who has not read the manga and was experiencing the story for the first time, I thought this drama was superb, very heartwarming and sweet. (I also loved that there was a Lolita character, as I also wear Lolita.)

If you read and loved the manga, you will probably agree with the other reviewers. If you have not read the manga, then I suggest giving this drama a chance. I think you'll find yourself liking it.

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Updated Review 2022:

Over the last few years, I've begun to re-watch some of my favorite dramas, the ones I've loved and cherished since I first watched them, and each time, I'm anxiously hoping they'll still live up to those feelings. So far, I've been very lucky. I've remembered why I loved a drama so much and my love for it has been renewed. I've even re-watched a couple dramas that I didn't like/didn't get the first time and discovered that the problem had actually been me all along. I finished my most recent re-watch, Weightlifting Fairy, this past week, a drama I utterly adored the first time I watched it, and I'm happy to say that the streak of good drama re-watches has not been broken.

First off, I have a newfound appreciation for everything that goes on outside of the romance. I was once one of those drama lovers who (mostly) only cared about romance, and while I didn't have anything I disliked about Weightlifting Fairy the first time I watched it, I definitely didn't give the other plotlines the attention they deserved. But now that I'm more seasoned and have developed an appreciation for stories that aren't solely about love, I found each separate plotline equally engaging to watch. There are no lulls or plot holes or draggy story points. From getting a glimpse into the weightlifting world to the heartbreaking struggles of the second female lead, there isn't a single plotline that ever feels wasteful or like a detour from the purpose of the drama. They all tie together and complement each other to provide meaningful contributions to the overarching messages of the drama. And I can't forget to talk about the characters, all of whom I love. Each and every one of them is charming and fun, Bok Joo and Joon Hyeong and their group of friend's chief among them.

But I think the thing I love most about this drama is the way it makes me feel. It's uplifting and hopeful and deeply earnest. There are heartbreaks and struggles to go around but threaded throughout is a sense of optimism and possibility, a belief in tomorrow. The story tells us this is hard, but the characters can overcome it. You can overcome it too. And I like stories that make me feel that way.

In closing, I'll leave you with this. There's a certain feeling I want to get from a drama once the story is over and there are no more episodes left to watch, a feeling that kind of takes over your body, your being, and for a moment, you and that feeling are the same. I don't know what you would call this feeling or how to describe it. Maybe peacefulness or satisfaction or a sense of completion but tinged with sadness that it's over. All I know is this drama left me feeling this feeling both times I watched it.

Weightlifting Fairy is a story filled with sweet moments and lovely characters and a genuine sense of earnestness, and I love it for it.

Original Review:
There's a certain feeling I want to get from a drama once the story is over and there are no more episodes left to watch, a feeling that kind of takes over your body, your being, and for a moment, you and that feeling are the same. I don't know what you would call this feeling or how to describe it. Maybe peacefulness or satisfaction or a sense of completion but tinged with sadness that it's all over. All I know is this drama left me feeling this feeling, and I don't get to say that often.

There are no lulls or plot holes or draggy story points. Only sweet moments and lovely characters and a sense of earnestness. And honestly, that's really all you need.

I'm sad that this drama is over, and I'll probably need a few days to recover.

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If you're looking for something cute and easy to watch that requires low-commitment, then this is a good drama for you.

Yoon Jeong Sook is feisty, brave, opinionated, and doesn’t let Kwon Hyuk Joon boss her around. I loved everything about her, even if she mellowed a bit towards the end. Hyuk Joon is a genuinely stand up guy. He definitely has a, ‘I’m a man. You’re a woman. We should fulfill those roles' attitude, but there’s a sense of decency about him that makes you like him. I hated most of the members of Kwon Hyuk Joon’s family (except for precious grandpa, even if he went on about Ji Hye fulfilling her duties as a wife a little too much) as there was always a lot of talk about being a ‘good wife’ and having lots of babies, etc., and Yoon Jeong Sook definitely gets put through the ringer a couple times, but there whining and complaining and trying to manipulate from behind the scenes has no impact on our main characters and their lives, so it's easy to tune out.

What makes this drama so easy to watch, at least for me, is that from the get go, I wanted our leads together. They just made sense as a couple. There’s some really great chemistry between them, enough chemistry in fact, that our leads eventually got married to each other in real life. Granted, they got divorced later on in real life too, but I don’t think that has any bearing on the future of our dramas characters.

Right?

Overall, it was an adorable drama. It wasn't perfect, but it kept me coming back. So if you're looking for something fun that you can watch without too much stress or aggravation, I would definitely recommend this one. I don’t consider this one of my favorites, but I definitely think it was worth the watch.


Super short review coming through!

Fluffy and cute, and I wouldn't rewatch it even if I rewatched dramas, because his family drove me insane.

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I honestly don't know how to explain this dramas plot. There were confusing birth secrets. (Illegitimate children everywhere. Everywhere illegitimate children.) There were too many women for Ma Te to learn from and not enough time spent with each of them. There was a password/passcode thing that ended up serving no purpose. There were corporate machinations that ended up just being confusing and silly. (And really, really boring.) And there was no romance, absolutely none, until the very end of the drama. And by That point, the story had fallen completely flat and the only reason I was sticking around was for Bo Tong.

First, I don’t like Ma Te. He started out as your typical 'good-looking' guy who thinks he's the bees knees, God's gift to humanity, the greatest thing since sliced bread, and to be fair, he's clearly never had anyone tell him otherwise so why shouldn't he believe that about himself? But really, he was pretty boring...and annoying...and kind of dumb. (And not the slightest bit attractive but what do I know. [They would give him a nice hairstyle, and I'd start to come around, then they'd screw it all up by turning his hair into a mop. Seriously, who was coming up with those hairstyles?!])

But he wasn't an awful character. In many ways, he was a good character. He was arrogant in a way that was sort of comical. Every time something didn't work out how he wanted, I was pumping my fists in excitement. His character was at his best when he was failing.

But failure came very rarely for Ma Te. Things were way too easy for him. Every woman he encountered fell for him. Every time he faced some kind of challenge at the company, it miraculously worked out in his favor. Granted, it was often because someone else with actual power and influence fixed things, but even then, Ma Te got all the credit.

He did get a 'final hour' emotional growth spurt, but it was completely unearned and I disliked him too much by then to care.

As for the entire conceit of the drama, the women (minus Bo Tong), each felt alternatively dynamic and boring. Sometimes the lesson Ma Te was meant to learn from them was clear, and other times I was scratching my head wondering why this random woman had wandered onto my screen where she clearly did not belong.

Then there's David. David broke my heart with all his heartbreaking wonderfulness. Which made it Oh So Frustrating when he turned into That character. You know the one. You’ll find them in every Asian drama known to man. They’ve been rejected. They’ve been turned down. They’ve been ignored. The lead has made their stance known, and it’s time for them to raise the white flag. But they refuse to let go.

I don’t know if the writer’s were just so in love with David that the only way for them to justify not giving him the girl was to make him look like a baby so they didn't have to feel bad about their choice or if they were just suffering from such an acute case of second lead feels that they got temporarily lost in those feelings, but they spent so much time on Bo Tong and David and David's inability to just move on that they did next to nothing to move Bo Tong and Ma Te's relationship along. And you might say at this point in the review 'That's hypocritical. You like Bo Tong, and she's every bit as much That character as David, so what gives?' What gives is I like stories where the jerky, self-important character gets a dose of their own medicine and finds themselves falling for someone they think is beneath them and through falling for them learns to be a not terrible person anymore, and you can't make me feel bad about that, so there.

Ultimately, the only thing that made the anguish that was watching this drama the slightest bit worth it, was Bo Tong. I frickin’ love Bo Tong.

Frickin’.

Love.

She was the only consistent character in the entire drama, she had GREAT fashion sense (FIGHT ME ON THAT), she was delightfully quirky and optimistic without being ridiculous, she was over the top, and I loved it.

Also, IU is such a good crier. My gosh.

To sum up, I think it's clear the writers bit off more then they could chew with this story. 10 women was too many. 6 would have been more doable. The lessons Ma Te was supposed to learn from each of them weren't always clear or even interesting. The family drama was ridiculous and confusing and added very little to the overall story. The illegitimate children plot was confusing, and the secret code concept was completely wasted. The business machinations made me roll my eyes. And there was no romance until the final hour. Tell us the truth writers. Did you actually have any sort of plan for this drama? Did you really want Bo Tong and Ma Te to end up together? Does any of it even matter? For my part, the answer is no.

(Rewatch is 1 because I can't choose zero.)

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Updated Review 2022:

Wow. What a difference time (and age (I’m getting old, folks)) makes. I don't remember when I first watched this drama (pretty sure the date for my original review is wrong), but my thoughts today are so vastly different from what they were then, that all I can say is.... I was wrong. Very wrong. Like cringing with embarrassment as I read my old review through my fingers, wrong. (You can also cringe-read that review below this updated one, as I've left it up for posterity's sake.)

Sometimes you have an inaccurate understanding of a stories characters, their motivations, their life experiences, what the writer is trying to convey/portray with their actions, and I would say that was definitely the case for me with this drama. I didn’t connect with any of the characters, including the leads. I found the romance unbelievable (I couldn’t see him falling in love with her, even when I held up a microscope). I wanted to throw the secondary leads into a fire (I mean, what’s new with these old-school dramas, lol). Basically, I DETESTED this drama.

But I was also in my rom-com’s only, don’t really care about what’s happening outside of the romance, only secondary characters who are happy and fun please, phase. There's nothing ultimately wrong with this, in my opinion, and I still very much have that side of me at times, but I’ve definitely changed as a drama-watcher since first watching Personal Taste. I’ve expanded my list of genre’s I’m willing to sit down in front of my computer for, I’ve found I actually enjoy stories that aren’t solely about romance or maybe don’t have romance at all, I’m genuinely interested in all of the side characters and watching their story arc progression, and I’ve even become more open to understanding the ‘evil’ secondary leads and seeing them as 3-dimensional characters rather than simply ‘the bad guy(s) out to stop my OTP.’

I was unsure going into Personal Taste a second time if it was really worth it to give the drama another chance, but I was also very curious to see if my perspective had changed. And I'm here to say that I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying this drama. Not only did I not need a microscope to see the romance, I Liked the main couple. A Lot. All of the stuff with the house and the competition and trying to figure out the perfect design bored me before, but I was firmly invested this time. The heartbreaking circumstances of the death of the female lead’s mother and her subsequent feelings of guilt and self-loathing and worthlessness struck a real chord with me. And believe it or not, I found myself feeling sympathetic for both secondary participants in the drama’s love octopus. The second male lead has a fantastic period of growth in the story where he becomes just plain likable. They kind of ruin it for a bit towards the end, but they do ultimately choose to leave him a redeemed man, which I’m happy with. My sympathy waned over time for the second female lead as the writers don’t do a lot to make her particularly sympathetic, but her motivations made sense to me, and I pitied her to a certain degree.

Overall, this is just a much better drama then I gave it credit for before, and I’m glad I re-watched it, because now I can set the record straight on how I feel about it. I think it’s pretty dang great, and I recommend it.

Original Review:
I don't remember most of what happened in this drama as I found the whole thing completely uninteresting.

The leads had Zero chemistry. Like, none. They put in an admirable effort, but it was just not there. Which is disappointing, because more chemistry between them might have made this a better drama for me. (Being able to believe in a romance is key.) But I couldn’t believe in them as a couple, and watching them be romantic with each other quickly went from cute to awkward, and then from awkward to uncomfortable. The final scene…made me want to close my eyes and pretend it wasn’t happening.

I have No idea why this Love Octopus (love triangle) existed. Park Kae In being hung up on him, sure. I can understand that. But why was he so determined to get her back???

HE DIDN'T LIKE HER, FAM.

He should have been tossed in a fire and never seen from again.

The second female lead? I’m honestly not even sure why she dumped the second male lead to begin with since she knew the whole time she was dating him that he was seeing her ‘best friend’ too and didn't seem all that upset about it. Just marry the dude and get it over with. The two of you clearly deserve each other. (Hate is Not a strong enough word to describe how I feel about the secondary leads.)

And does it not seem a little unrealistic that after all those years of living in that house that she would have never moved the pallet out of the middle of her living/dining room and seen that there was a glass floor underneath? Did she never spill her food and have to clean it up? Like ever?

Honestly, the farther away from this drama I get…the more I hate it. Very little chemistry between the leads. The secondary leads were awful. The Love Octopus should not exist. The overarching storyline was uninteresting. The ending was completely awkward and lackluster. And you would think with those two living in close quarters like that, we would get more awkward, romantic, run-ins. But no, the drama denied me that.

This is not worth the watch, in my opinion.

At least her house was pretty though?

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Updated Review 2024:

I understand why I liked this drama so much the first time I watched it. One, it's a noona romance, and I love noona romances. Two, I really like Shinohara Ryoko as an actress, and she plays this character really well. Three, I find messy, awkward, insecure, goofy female leads charming. Four, it's a noona romance, lol. (And there are some legitimately swoon worthy moments in this noona romance.)

But...

There are elements of this noona romance that are problematic. I hate using that word, because it's been so overused the last so many years that I honestly hate the sound of it. But this romance...kind of fits the bill.

To start off, I'm much older now than when I first watched this, much closer in age to the female lead now, and that gives me a very different perspective. I understand the implications now of a much older woman dating someone as young as the male lead. I openly admit that one of my favorite dramas is High School King of Savvy which has a similar age gap, and I love that drama to pieces. But if that drama had cast an actually significantly younger male actor in the lead, I would feel very differently about it. Casting Seo In Guk is what saves Savvy for me.

When you step away from the age gap in Last Cinderella, however, you find other problems. Such as the dynamic between the male lead and his stepsister. They have a frankly bizarre and unhealthy dynamic, and there's one scene specifically that makes the whole thing feel super weird. I actually remember thinking during my first watch through that it might be indicating some degree of incest. After a rewatch, I understand what the scene was intended to convey, but...that was not the way to go about it. But even outside of that moment, the dysfunction definitely bleeds into the female lead's relationships with both male leads in somewhat uncomfortable ways.

Then there's the fact that so much of the male leads motivation for going after the female lead for so much of the drama is just pure selfishness. And then when he starts to develop feelings for her, you don't really know why. Why is he attracted to this much older woman who is honestly kind of a mess? A charming mess, but still a mess. At times, she almost felt like a maternal figure for him, which definitely felt weird.

My main complaint against the second male lead is that he rags on the female lead a lot. This turns a lot of viewers off. But it's obviously that 'I just like to give you a hard time, I don't actually dislike you' and 'I sort of have feelings for you that I don't really want to admit' kind of ragging, which I don't personally mind in dramas. He's that kind of friend you know so well that you just tell each other what you really think. And when he starts to realize his own feelings, it feels very natural and believable. Truthfully, in a better written drama, the female lead would have ended up with the second male lead. Given her desire for marriage and children, how open they are able to be with each other, and how they both have genuine feelings for one other, he really does make the most sense.

Now that I've rewatched it, I find this drama to be kind of meh. It does have its own charm in its own way, so if you're looking for something fluffy where you can turn your brain off and just have a good time, this is a decent drama to go to. But I would definitely recommend turning off your brain.


Original Review:
Ten out of Ten. 2 Thumbs up. All the stars in the sky. I really don't think there are enough superlatives in existence to describe how good this drama is. If it isn't on your must watch list, then Put It On There Right Now!

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