DramaHeroine

I don't think it ended as strong as it started (it began to drag a bit in the last quarter, lost the darker edge it started out with, and certain plot points weren't given as much attention as they deserved), but I enjoyed it for what it was and what it aspired to be. Hell Joseon is a real place, and I felt the characters pain each time they tried, failed, then pulled themselves back up to try again. I ended up being more invested in the secondary couple than the main couple (cause they were just too dang cute), but I appreciated the main couple's struggles in their relationship and how they supported each other and held each other up when one was falling apart.

I wouldn't watch it again, but I'm glad I watched it at least once.

Read More

As I get older (about to be 33 soon), I find myself becoming more and more drawn to dramas that tell stories about adult women (ie. women in their late 20's and early to mid 30's). Some of this obviously comes with being older myself and wanting to watch characters my age in relatable situations and circumstances. Some of it is my drama tastes changing and maturing over time. (I still love most of the same genre's and tropes, etc. that I did when I was younger, but my tastes have expanded in some areas and shrunk in some others.) As such, I've been on a bit of a mission the last few years to watch more of these particular types of dramas, and this drama is one of the first of this type that I watched.

And I have to be honest and say the story left me feeling very disappointed.

Maybe I'm just stupid, but I didn't get the vibe from this drama that it was going to be the type of story that didn't give you a romantic ending. I watched with bated breath to see which suitor our female lead would ultimately choose, knowing in my heart it had to be her co-worker, because they were so clearly right for each other.

And then she chose no one.

I didn't get it. I didn't understand. The female lead had such strong chemistry and compatibility with her co-worker. They were so clearly in it deep for each other. And she had spent the majority of the drama wishing to find someone she could be with. The trajectory was clear.

What compounded my frustration was how uninterested and uninvested in the other female leads stories and love lives I was. I pushed through their parts of the drama, not because I really cared all that much about what happened to them but in dedication to the main couple. And then at the last minute, the female lead decides she wants to be a 'cool single lady' instead of finally find love?

I didn't invest all that time and energy into the drama for an ending like that.

Blegh, I say. Just blegh.

Read More

2023 Review:

I watched this drama for the first time back in 2016 (I think), and while I enjoyed a lot of things about it, I also remembered kind of forcing myself to overlook some aspects of the story. So when I decided to rewatch it recently, I was unsure how things would go.

Guys, the way they made this drama work should not have been possible.

There were absolutely places where I cringed my way through, but then the writers would pull me right back in and make me root for the main couple. The male lead would do something egregious, and I would want to shake him into pieces, then he’d give this heartfelt and meaningful apology, and he would MEAN it. Or the writers would give a really darn good explanation for his behavior that really made you understand him. Or they’d just make him so dang likable and sympathetic. The romance gave me plenty of frustration, but it also worked its way right into the depths of my heart.

One thing that was consistently nice about this drama was seeing the female lead getting so much joy out of her work and working so hard towards her goals. She clearly loves teaching and is very good at it. Then at the end of the drama, when the leads love is tested and she decides to quit her job in order to prove she’s worthy to marry the male lead, he is actually upset by her decision. I was honestly surprised by this reaction, as I assumed he would eventually expect her to quit. But then we find out that he doesn’t want that at all, and it made me very happy.

Granted, them registering their marriage right before she moves to New York in the final episode for an undetermined amount of time (the drama never tells us how long she’s going to be gone) makes no practical sense whatsoever, but this is a drama where you just have to go where the writers are taking you, and by that point, I was on board that train, lol.

I’m sure I’ll watch this again someday in the future, and I’m sure the same moments will make me cringe, and I’m sure the drama will win be back over every single time. I fully understand that there will be other viewers who won’t be able to deal with the male lead in this drama, and I totally get it. But just like Takane won over Junko’s heart, this drama won over mine.

Read More

I love it! I love it! I love it! I WAS PUMPING MY FISTS AT THE END I WAS SO HAPPY!

Oh drama, how I love you. Let me count the ways.

You were fun and engaging. Your characters were bang on fabulous. Your story went in so many unexpected directions.

I love everything about you. (I'm totally glossing over the wooden acting that other reviewers have brought up, because everything else about this little show was so much fun.)

I even don't mind how you made me intensely anxious half the time cause the female lead kept doing things that seemed to be totally screwing everything up, and all I wanted was for her to make better life choices. You made up for it all in the end.

Dramaworld, you are perfection. Will you marry me?

Read More

I love this movie’s sense of humor, especially the video tapes that play a large role in the story (you'll have to watch the movie to know just what I'm talking about). They are this great combination of campy and tongue-in-cheek. If they were real and available for purchase somewhere, I would buy them. Just because they are so hilarious. My biggest complaint with this movie is that some of the logic employed by the lead characters (particularly the male lead) is Stupid. He accuses the female lead of using him even though it was quite clear (at least to me) that she was merely trying to learn how to be more assertive. (Not to mention the male lead was a womanizer who used people all the time. Hello pot. Meet kettle.) But overall, this is a fun, lighthearted film, and I'm glad I gave it a viewing.

(Music is 1 because I don't remember what the music was like.)

Read More

There's one reason why I finished this drama, and two reasons why I thought about quitting.

Hanae is the reason I finished.

If you've read any of my other reviews, then this won't be a surprise, but I like mousy, awkward, shy, weird, inexperienced, insecure, insert similar descriptions here, female leads. They don't have to be all of these things, but any one or more of them will likely pique my interest. Hanae has most of these traits. She's also played by an actress (Ayase Haruka) whose acting I particularly enjoy, and I think she plays the character very well.

Another thing I like, when it is done well, is characters with really over-active imaginations that we get to peek into. (I'm a very much in-my-head sort of person, so I find this relatable as hell, lol.) Hanae is a good example of this sort of character. She did occasionally veer into the melodramatic, but I found her mini-freakouts entertaining and endearing.

I don't think it's unrealistic for someone in their 30's to be so inexperienced, which is a popular complaint about this drama on its MDL page. Nor do I think it is embarrassing to be so inexperienced, although I can relate to characters who feel ashamed or embarrassed about it. I enjoyed the drama's focus on everything around dating and relationships being new and kind of scary to Hanae as well as watching her stumble her way through all of it.

The romance itself starts out enjoyable. The age gap isn't my favorite, and Yuuto is more mature for his age than is believable, but he's a very likable character (that's probably thanks to the actor playing him), so I didn't mind that he behaved in ways that weren't totally realistic for a university student. I don't really remember what made him pursue Hanae, but he's very forthright and firm about his interest, and they are genuinely cute together.

By the end of the drama, however, the romance had become a paint-by-numbers. All of the most interesting things about the two of them as a couple are the warm/fuzzy feelings you get because this good-looking young man likes her, Hanae's freak-outs and navigating her inexperience, and a pretty strong conflict of life goals that is never truly resolved. (I'll talk about that later.) As an actual couple...they're pretty meh.

Surprisingly, this isn't one of the reasons I thought about quitting this drama. Reason number one is the love triangle.

The writers reallllly play with the possibility of Hanae choosing Yuu in the second half of the drama. There's a whole episode or so where she starts to think about how much easier it is for her to communicate with him, how comfortable she is with him to the point of being able to get angry to his face. She even starts to feel attraction toward him. The drama really hones in on how compatible they are for each other to the point that I genuinely wondered if the drama was going to pull a switcheroo and have the two of them end up together instead. It definitely would have made sense for the story. (And I honestly would have liked it, lol.)

Unfortunately, Yuu is never a real character. He seems to be interested in Hanae early on but chooses to give her advice on her relationship with Yuuto. He starts acting like he's going to genuinely compete for her affections and even bucks up to our young male lead before ultimately backing away for no discernible reason. There's a short period where Yuu and Hanae spend a little bonding time together, which is cute if predictable, then there's the whole section where Hanae starts to waver over what to do about her love life (due, in part, because Yuu full-on proposes to her in a very swooooony way).

But he's an unformed character in a gimpy love-triangle in a drama that thought they would throw in a whole plot arch where they show you just how compatible they would be before yanking the possibility away.

Which leads me to the main reason I thought about quitting this drama.

Hanae clearly wants to get married. And not in some distant date in the future but sometime a lot sooner. This is a fair desire, and one I'm prone to wish for the leads if applicable. But when the female lead being with the male lead means the female lead having to put that desire off for several years, that's a reason for the relationship to end. A situation like Hanae and Yuu's might seem doable in the short term, but in the long term, Hanae's likely going to be dealing with a lot of hurt and disappointment, because she won't be getting what she longs for.

Ultimately, the drama quits on its female lead. It takes her through the learning curves of navigating a dating relationship, but doesn't give her the tools at the end to say 'I know what I want, and I'm not going to settle.' I find that unsatisfying.

In my view, here are so many noona romances out there, including some that have done the themes of this drama better. I would definitely recommend watching those. But if you do like mousy female leads and don't mind noona romances that ignore the stickier aspects of a noona romance, then this drama might be for you.

Read More

2013 Review:

This web drama is very over the top and ridiculous. At first, the ridiculous seemed to be just that, ridiculous. There was no clear motive behind any of the main characters behavior. And that was perfectly fine. Sometimes you just need to watch something funny and not have to think about it. But as the story went along, the drama revealed a surprising amount of heart.

Each young man is a caricature of a stereotype layered on top of said stereotype. There’s the brain, the ‘charismatic star’ (whatever that means), the artist, the sportsman, and the flower boy. Together they create an entirely hilarious and unique set of characters that you just can’t help but love.

In other words, they are adorable. Really inappropriate, but adorable.

Kim So Eun pretty much embodies the awkward, shy, quiet high school girl. She’s adorable and real and someone I totally would have been friends with if she had gone to my school. If my loud voice and opinionated and argumentative ways didn’t scare her off first, that is.

The interesting thing about this web drama is that for about the first four or five episodes, you really have no idea who the female lead could end up with. She could end up with any of them. She could end up with none of them. With most dramas, the romantic set up is clear. This character is going to end up with this character. I appreciated how After School subverted this typical drama set up.

They did trick you later on in the series as the lead started to fall for one of the boys while two of them started to fall for her. Of course, it didn’t really matter who you liked better because….

She doesn’t end up with anyone, lol.

The idea of this group of young men continuing their club in honor of their dead friend was very touching though. Granted, the dead friend they were doing all of the missions for came off as kind of a jerk to me once we finally met him. ‘Hey, Kang Joon, don’t like this girl you clearly like, because…I like her. And obviously, I have more right to like her then you do. Cause that’s how friendship works!’ *fake smile and hold up a thumb* No. That’s not how friendship works.

But they’re teenagers, and teenagers don’t act rationally when they have crushes, so what are you gonna do?

I do need to add a caveat/warning here. There is a mini storyline part of the way through that involves a joke making light of child molestation. I don’t remember it being a very long moment in the story, but the joke is legitimately offensive.

All in all, this is an odd little web drama. And that is definitely the highest compliment. With the exception of the molestation story, and the fact that the female lead doesn’t actually end up with anyone, I loved everything about this show. Every five seconds I was bursting into laughter. Every five seconds I was going ‘This is such a weird show.’ Every five seconds I was a little offended by the boys and some of their behavior. I marathoned the whole thing in two days. It took me two days, because I was trying to be responsible and not spend my entire weekend in front of my computer screen. (That and I needed a break after the molestation episode.)

I highly recommend this drama for anyone who loves stories that play with stereotypes and that have an over the top sense of humor. It’s a fun watch.

Read More

It seems like a lot of people really love this drama. Having now finished it, I can see why. I can't say I really love this drama as there are flaws in the execution, but I did enjoy a lot of things about it as the story has some interesting story mechanics/concepts, and there are some genuinely good twists.

Xiao En is a fabulous female lead in the first half. She finds herself in the middle of a romance novel and takes full advantage of this to hilarious effect. Nothing's too embarrassing for her to try, she expertly handles the villains and their shady behavior, and she goes after absolutely everything she wants (principally the male leads heart), ultimately succeeding in turning herself into the female lead of the story. It's all incredibly charming and laugh out loud funny. But then she wakes back up in the real world, and the story takes a bit of a nosedive into mope-land for a time. On the one hand, I get it. Xiao En's spent 3 months (I think it was 3 months?) falling in love with a book character and making herself at home in the book universe. Then she wakes up and is brought back to reality that none of it was real, none of it actually happened (although I feel there should have been more awareness on her part about this), and she mourns everything she's lost. She just...mourns longer than I think she had a right to.

It's unclear how much of Situ Aoran's personality is the book character and how much is actually Tian Xing, because the drama doesn't tell us, but for my part, the male lead is bland as toast in the novel world. Seriously. Situ Aoran is incredibly uninteresting, lol. Tian Xing is an improvement, and there are glimpses of him having an actual personality, but we don't get to spend nearly as much time getting to know him as we do Situ Aoran, so it's hard to know just what he's like. (Maybe some of Xiao En's mourning period could have been spent on developing Tian Xing as a character and building a relationship between them instead.......)

Chu Chu, the female lead turned second female lead, has an unusual if also kind of stereotypical character trajectory, as she goes from being the male leads love interest to one of the villains of the story. I personally can't decide if this was a good writing choice or not. On the one hand, there are a lot of reasons this makes sense. Her role in the story is essentially snatched away from her, which would understandably be upsetting, especially if you're one of the leads in a romance novel. It's also a clever story twist to switch the roles of the female and second female leads in this way. But a number of viewers didn't like it, and part of me doesn't like it as well. The evil second female lead has been one of the most common tropes in Asian dramas for a long time, to the point that a lot of drama lovers are sick and tired of it. It's not uncommon today to see people complain about mean female characters in a drama even when they serve an important and appropriate purpose in a story. For me, it's hard to reconcile my feelings on this writing choice, so I've decided not to spend too much time thinking about it.

Qing Feng is, as they often are in these types of rom-coms, an absolutely lovely second male lead. He does everything right, is honorable and kind and a loyal friend, and he has a very hard time of it, lol. What sets him apart from so many other second male leads though is that while he starts the drama liking Chu Chu then switches his affections to Xiao En, his true love...actually isn't even in this novel at all. This is an incredibly unique twist that works well (even if I have a few quibbles around it). It can get hard watching so many lovely second male leads end up alone at the end of the drama, but that is luckily not a problem with this drama. Since the woman he really loves is from a different novel, you don't have to be sad for him that it didn't work out with Chu Chu or Xiao En, because Xiao En is such a good friend that once she gets back to the real world, she doesn't rest until he gets his happy ending. (This is one of those drama exceptions where a second male lead gets an ending that is truly deserving of his wonderfulness.)

The part of the drama that is the most flawed is all of the business and family drama. The real-world storyline around Tian Xing's family and his father's company could be a real slog, and I did a lot of skipping/fast forwarding through it during much of the first half of the drama. The business machinations and family drama were simultaneously boring and irritating. But then the sister's plotline became both interesting and quite heartbreaking, and I found myself slowly becoming invested in the family dysfunction. There's a lot of bitterness and distrust and hurtful behavior to go around, and it makes for a very sad family portrait. It may have been the actress portrayal (probably) that helped bring me around, but I felt a lot of sympathy for the sister. (Not enough to forgive any of her behavior but definitely enough to understand her better and hope she will change her ways and live her life differently.) I didn't have any hope for the rest of Tian Xing's family, sadly. Mom does have the tiniest bit of an epiphany about the role she's played towards the end, which is good, but I honestly was too apathetic about her to feel very invested in her change of heart.

The finale was surprisingly great. Lots of good storytelling choices. From the leads going straight to the courthouse to get married sans wedding ceremony to having a hitchhiking, camp-out honeymoon of all things! (I was seriously expecting that writing choice to not go well, but it was surprisingly romantic and appropriate for our leads.) And the sendoff for Qingfeng was perfection. It made me teary-eyed.

Despite the drama's faults, I understand why so many people love Lost Romance. It pulled off a lot of really good and unexpected twists. It's also just a lot of fun. But don't go into this expecting it to subvert every trope and avoid all the stereotypes of the typical rom-com Asian drama, because while it does subvert a lot of tropes and stereotypes, some are still alive and well in this drama.

Read More

I probably would have given this drama a 9 or 10 if the last four episodes had matched in quality with the first 8. A lot of the MDL comments I saw before going in called the female lead too self-sacrificial, a claim I always take with a grain of salt. I personally find that while there are plenty of legitimate complaints about female leads who will literally lay themselves on the train tracks or burn themselves at the stake or sit themselves in the electric chair for some of the most foolish and unreasonable of reasons, there is also lot of disdain out there for too much kindness in female leads, like if a female lead sacrifices herself or something she wants for another character, even if it's truly a noble sacrifice, she actually Deserves to be laid on those tracks or burned at that stake or put in that electric chair. With this in mind, I decided to go into Usokon open-minded. I truly like kind and self-sacrificial characters, and I'm always happy to see them represented in dramas, so I was hopeful and excited for this drama.

For the first 8 episodes, I can genuinely say Usokon is very solid. I enjoyed the episodes so much, in fact, that I struggled to understand what people had been complaining about. The female lead can be more self-sacrificial and kind than she might need to be, but all of her kindness and sacrifices are for truly kind and worthwhile reasons. She never did anything I found to be outrageous or stupid. I really, really, really liked her. Of course, like most everyone else, I found the male lead charming and adorable and a riot to watch as he acted surreptitiously silly and excited over his feelings for the female lead. The romance was so easy to root for, because the leads were sweet apart and together.

But then came the last four episodes.

I'll just jump straight in and say that a random girl who went on one date with the male lead in high school and who he obviously didn't really like back shows up and is all 'I've loved him for ten years! Give him to me!' (I'm exaggerating a bit, but that was essentially her attitude), and the female lead...acquiesces. Granted, two of our side characters have a heart-to-heart with her telling her she's being foolish and way too self-sacrificial and she sort of, finally, sees some reason, but the whole plot twist is completely unnecessary and leads to a rushed finale where the female lead and the second male lead have to fake a wedding ceremony in order to lure the male lead there, because He is so heartbroken over the female leads behavior that he decides to walk around moping about it. As you can see, this ^ story choice...is a real buzzkill.

Now, I know there are going to be people who disagree with my assessment of the female lead as a character in the first 8 episodes. In response, I can only say that there's a vast difference between sacrificing your job on behalf of for your single-mom co-worker who is struggling to make ends meet and giving up your man because some girl he went on one date with ten years ago shows up saying she's in love with him and she'd very kindly appreciate it if you'd gtfo. The first scenario is relatable and shows just how much the female lead cares about other people's well-being. The second scenario is stupid.

I do have to disagree here with some viewers who have said the female leads nice-to-a-faultness rubs off on the male lead, because I think they missed some important context clues from the flashbacks about his character. He starts liking her when they are children but never makes a move until in his late twenties. The reason? Because he's intimidated by the other friend in their friend group and feels like he has to prove himself in order to be good enough for the female lead. He believes (we never find out if he is right or not) that the female lead likes this other friend, and he (the male lead) doesn't measure up. The whole drama, there's this big, neon sign over the male leads head telling us he struggles with insecurity/self-doubt. This is fine with me, because I think it works for his character, and I really felt for him, but I don't think you can act like his difficulty with expressing his feelings are because of the female leads influence. No, he already had that problem. I will, however, agree that his response to the female lead stepping aside for this nobody girl is pretty dramatic. Why he doesn't confront this girl and be like 'We went on one date. You need to grow up and leave the woman I love alone' is beyond me, but he doesn't, and we all just have to live that.

I honestly went into this drama hopeful that it would be a more positive portrayal of a kind female lead. I don't need, nor do I want, all drama female leads to be super kind, but I would like to see more dramas treat female leads who exhibit such kindness and self-sacrificial behavior with the respect they deserve. True kindness and self-sacrifice, the kind that actually puts good into the world, is not for the faint of heart. It's for the strong.

I'll end my review by saying that if the female leads kindness had continued in the same vein as what we'd seen in the first 8 episodes, my opinion of this drama would be very different. It's amazing how much only 4 episodes can completely change the way you feel about a story, isn't it?

Read More

This is one of those dramas that I wish I had watched when it was airing so I could have joined in with all the drama lovers out there who squealed and swooned and fell in love with these characters and story. It's pretty close to perfect in my books, even if it has a couple flaws here and there.

First off, I was genuinely surprised, given the year She Was Pretty came out, at how consistent the storytelling is, how good the pacing is, and how well-written the characters are, not to mention how delightfully free it is of draggy plot points and noble idiocy and name any another irritating trope you might expect from a Kdrama. Given She Was Pretty came out in 2015, I was expecting some of these oft bemoaned elements to arise, but they never do.

I will acquiesce that the conceit of the drama, Hye Jin's best friend pretending to be her, does go on a bit longer than it should, and I felt some frustration with her character for not manning up and admitting to the lie. I empathized and sympathized with her deeply, but I also wanted her to stop putting herself in a situation that was only going to cause everyone hurt. Ultimately though, the drama's main conceit is used in an effective way that doesn't leave you hating any of the characters. I was sad for Ha Ri that she was so desperate for love she would lie, and I walked away from the story very happy that she finally decided to do the thing she really needed to be doing all along which was pursuing her own purpose.

I was admittedly not totally on board with the writing decision to have the OTP get together immediately after Sung Jun discovered that Ha Ri had been impersonating Hye Jin. I knew he would be angry with Ha Ri for what she had done, but I expected him to be angry with Hye Jin as well, since she was the one who asked Ha Ri to pretend to be her initially, and I figured he would assume she had asked Ha Ri to continue the lie as well. In retrospect, having now finished the drama, I'm glad the writers didn't go in that direction, because it would have probably meant last minute shenanigans the story did not need.

I think it is a fair critique to add here that while the first half of the drama spends some time exploring what it means to be the main character and what it means to be a side character with the female lead seeing herself as someone not all that important who just lives on the sidelines, this all kind of disappears for much of the second half. The last couple episodes bring it back in a really lovely way with the female lead deciding to be the main character of her life, but I wish the drama had explored this more before then. For example, I was hoping the drama would show us what it was like for Hye Jin and her family to go through the financial struggles they did and just how that impacted Hye Jin's self-esteem, but the story never goes there, and I don't know why. Of course, the female leads makeover and her honest and determined effort to succeed at her job at the magazine are intended to be an unspoken exploration of the main-character-versus-side-character theme as well as aid in her ultimately deciding to stop standing on the sidelines of her own life, and I think it is all very beautifully done.

The romance is pretty solid. Sung Jun starts off as an unnecessarily harsh boss, but he isn't the sort of jerk that's typical of older Kdrama's. There's no manipulation or abuse toward Hye Jin or cruelty or real insult to her appearance or personality. He is unnecessarily unfair to her in regard to the quality of her work, but he treats all of the magazine employees that way, not just Hye Jin. I do think the drama could have evened things out a bit by showing him being mean to the other employees a little more often, because it does seem a bit like him singling her out at times, but he is still quite mean to the other employees. He's just a little extra mean to her on a few occasions.

Of course, then he begins to fall for her (before the makeover ever happens, which I absolutely love), and he really begins to soften. By the time Ha Ri is caught in her lie, Sung Jun's pretty much gone for Hye Jin and hasn't been even the tiniest bit harsh to her for some time. In fact, he softens with all of the magazine employees over the course of the story and sort of becomes part of the work family.

Some people probably aren't going to like his harshness in the beginning but having lived in Korea for a time myself and knowing a little bit about Korean workplaces, I don't think his behavior is all that out of place, unfortunately. In fact, Sung Jun is downright nice compared to some bosses.

My only complaint with the subplot of the drama, the magazine possibly shutting down, is that the reason for it makes no sense. Businesses close because they're not making money or they're actively losing money or it's a small business and the owners don't want to run it anymore and a variety of similar reasons. No business is going to shut itself down because it's coming in second place in sales compared to another business. Second place...is profitable. Second place...is keeping the lights on. Second place is solid. Despite this illogical aspect of the subplot, the drama does show a strong portrayal of the magazine team working to turn things around, and Most's inevitable ranking as #1 is, in my opinion, appropriately bittersweet. If they had saved the magazine and everything had ended on a perfectly happy note for everyone involved, it would have been way too cliche and tied-together with a bow. Shin Hyeok's sacrifice for the magazine is absolutely beautiful and moving and made the win feel earned rather than simple and easy. It also made me cry.

Speaking of Shin Hyeok, I now understand what all the hype is about around his character. He was a constant ray of sunshine, provided at least half of my smiles while watching, and I loved him So. Dang. Much. It hurt to watch his heart be broken, and it hurt to watch him push through it to still be Hye Jin's friend and to help the magazine survive. If Shin Hyeok were ever to spring from screen as a real, living, breathing human being, I would gladly fill the hole in his heart.

I haven't talked about Hye Jin yet, but I honestly have no end of good things say about her character. Hye Jin is such an 'I'm gonna face whatever comes my way head on' kind of character, and it was so incredibly easy to both like her and root for her. She obviously struggles with her self-esteem due to her appearance, the way people clearly treat her because of her appearance, and the financial struggles her family experienced while she was growing up. But even when she's struggling, she doesn't quit on herself. Some people will think she's too 'positive' and 'upbeat,' that she's not realistic, but it's exactly her positivity and upbeat-ness (and her deep, un-ending well of kindness) that make me like her so much. I personally struggle with depression, finding my purpose, with insecurity and self-loathing. Hye Jin was a timely and hopeful reminder that I Am the main character of my life, and I should never give up. I really quite love her, and I may end up adding her to my favorite female leads of all time.

This is somewhat to be expected of a drama of its era, but they definitely don't do a great job of making Hye Jin's skin 'condition' look believable and realistic. Technically, it's not a condition. The drama treats it as the natural way her face looks, and when she has her makeover, one of the characters even comments that she's lost all of her freckles, so I guess that is supposed to be part of what was going on. But it's obvious to everyone watching that that is not how people's faces normally look. I'm truthfully not all that bothered by this so I'm not docking the drama any major points, but I do think they could have gone with a skin condition like rosacea to give it more believability.

Finally, I know Kdrama lovers don't typically like their romance dramas to spend too much time with the characters after they've already gotten together, because it's all about the lead up to the relationship, but I enjoy a good romance where we get to see a couple be a couple (case in point, the Jdrama We Married as a Job), so I loved the finale episode. All of the major plot points of the drama are mostly wrapped up by the next to last episode, so a lot of the finale is our leads being cute together. And they are very cute together, lol. But there was also a really nice amount of focus on Hye Jin pursuing, and succeeding, in her goal to be a writer as well as becoming fully comfortable with her own body, freckles, red cheeks, and all. The three of those things combined make the finale more than worth for it me.

While this drama doesn't quite make it to a perfect ten-out-of-ten rom-com for me, it gets pretty dang close. I'm just sorry I waited so long to watch it. 2015 me really missed out.

Read More

There’s not really a lot to say about this drama, whether positive or negative, but it’s been in the back of my mind since I finished it to write a review, so I will just have to write it in order to get my brain to shut up, lol.

Attention, Love! is a very typical story for its genre. It has its charming and funny moments, but it also has its fare share of frustrating character choices and some wheel-spinning. It’s certainly not the worst offender out there in this regard. You will find much, much worse. And people who enjoy stories that involve lots of pining and characters’ inability to move on will most likely enjoy this one. For my part, I found the enemies to friends’ relationship between the leads in high school fairly sweet and enjoyable. I think that was the strongest portion of the drama, as while their path to friendship is sometimes dramatic (like things often are when you are a teen), it’s not utterly ridiculous, and the characters are pleasant to watch together on screen.

The premise of essentially a future arranged marriage between the leads is really not necessary to the plot as it’s only discussed earlier on in the story and barely ever mentioned as the drama goes on. It also doesn’t have any real impact on the characters apart from the female leads initial dislike of the plan. But then she sees our male lead and has a change of heart, lol. I mostly ignored this part of the plot because its lack of importance in the story makes it very easy to do.

Where the drama starts to wheel-spin is once the leads head off to University. This portion of the drama (which makes up the majority of the rest of the story) is a very long stretch of the female lead pining for something she can’t have and the male lead sending mixed signals over how havable or not havable he is. The frustration this creates for the viewer could have been lessened with some smart usage of the drama’s chosen clichés and tropes. In my personal view, most clichés and tropes you see in dramas are usually fine within themselves. The issue is with how they are used by a story. Here, the trifecta of the female leads pining, the male leads refusal to admit his feelings, and the forced proximity between the two does very little to serve the story. They certainly create tension and jealousy between the leads as they watch each other interacting with other love interests and try to convince themselves that they don’t care, but it does nothing to help our leads grow closer together in any way, particularly the forced proximity.

If you’re going to have your female lead stuck in a loop of pining for a guy who isn’t making himself available, and you are going to force her to live in the same building and on the same floor as him, you’ve got to provide some level of growing openness between them to fuel said pining. The leads should have begun spending more time together at this point, not less. The male lead should have begun to blur the lines between friend and more than a friend. There should have been moments where things almost crossed over into romance. But there’s very little of this. It’s mostly the male lead manipulating things in the background to keep her from moving on but being openly hostile towards his own feelings for the female lead, and at a certain point, you have to ask why he won’t just let her go if the writers don’t intend for him to be a selfish jerk.

It’s this dynamic, the male lead refusing to let the female lead move on and the female lead endlessly pining, that ends up being the most frustrating part of this drama. Otherwise, this drama is very easily watchable. The female leads best friends from high school have a super cute romance that in some ways is far better than the romance between the OTP. The pretty, prissy new friend she makes in University is a super fun character who turns out to be fiercely loyal and protective of those she loves. And the female lead herself is a very determined and go-getter character (outside of her blind spot that is her crush on the male lead). Something I particularly liked about this drama, which I've seen no one talk about, is Shao Xi's natural trajectory from a tomboy who doesn't spend much time on clothes or makeup, to a young woman still every bit as fierce and determined and pretty tomboyish but who also develops a more active and realistic interest in said clothes and makeup. She never felt like a different person to me, just like a young woman growing up and into herself, and I thought it was really well-done.

I wouldn’t say to anyone don’t watch Attention, Love! because this drama might be your thing. Definitely give it a shot if you enjoy pining and male leads who can’t admit their feelings. You might like it. But personally, I think there are better dramas out there. And now that I’ve written my review, I realize I had more to say about this drama than I thought, lol.

(I have to add here that while I didn't love this drama, I did love the remake of "Close to You" that played repeatedly throughout to the point that I eventually bought it. That song is beautiful.)

Read More

I'm hesitant to say Youth is better than the original Kdrama, as it's been a while since I watched Age of Youth (I plan on doing a rewatch so I can do a comparison and analysis), but I'm confident in saying that this version is more strongly written and plotted. I adored the original with all my heart, but I would be lying if I said it didn't have flaws. Plotholes, plotlines that don't go anywhere, some story elements that come out of nowhere. Youth manages to address all of those issues while staying pretty closely faithful to the original story And giving it its own feel and vibe as a remake. This version fills in the plot holes, follows through on the dropped plotlines, and gives all of those random story elements purpose. I think I'll probably find I prefer the performances in Age of Youth more once I do a rewatch, but I have to commend this version for the way it handled the flaws in the original without losing what made the original so good.

I’ll start with what is arguably the main character of the original drama, Eun Jae. I don’t remember a lot of the specifics around Eun Jae’s background, why she believed she was a murderer and what exactly actually happened, but I was impressed with how this version took her backstory and expounded upon it, giving us more insight into what was going on in Xiao Chun’s family, etc. I also think this actress gave the best performance of all the actresses in this version and that her performance most likely rivals that of Park Hye Soo from the original. (Will have to rewatch the original to confirm that.) I was really impressed with the way this version made Xiao Chun such a complex character. She’s shy, insecure, socially awkward and uncertain, but there’s a hidden strength that comes out when you don’t expect it. She’s fiercely protective of her mother, feeling (and often being) responsible for her mother’s well-being after her father’s death, and she’s the only one of the girls willing to square off with Gao Lin when he’s holding Chen Chen captive.

Speaking of Chen Chen, I was very pleased with how the writers chose to handle her story in this version. When Ye Eun’s boyfriend held her hostage in the original, viewers were in general agreement that it came out of nowhere. We all remarked among themselves about how unexpected and unbelievable it was, even though the writers were ultimately able to make it work. In the original, Doo Yeong comes across as nothing more than a jerk, a user, someone who would gladly toss her to the side if given the opportunity to date someone he considered ‘better.’ He certainly wouldn’t be happy with Ye Eun breaking up with him, but kidnapping and assault seemed like a bridge too far, even for his jerk self. But when Gao Lin holds Chen Chen hostage in Youth, it doesn’t come out of nowhere. There’s a natural progression to that moment, dropped hints here and there that he feels intensely jealous of her family’s wealth, of how well-liked she is by others, and of his own destructive insecurity and selfishness. You understand what drove him to kidnap and assault her, and when it happens, you’re not completely thrown for a loop and wondering how we got here.

There is one moment in Ni Jin’s story that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, however. Namely when Zhi Qiang attempts to choke her to death in a fit of rage, and for some unexplained reason, she continues to meet with him. Its already illogical for him to blame her for his daughter’s death, as there was nothing she could have done, and it’s not like she herself was trying to drown his daughter. It was simply a sad situation that left many dead and many more devastated. But I can at least understand his motivation, the way his grief would drive him to such desperation. What didn’t make sense was why she continued to meet with him after his attempt to kill her. I think they could have given her a logical reason for doing so, namely her guilt over his daughter’s death and feeling like she deserves to die, but the writers never tie any of this together, so the character choice leaves you scratching your head. I like how their story concludes, however, so I chose to overlook it.

In the original, Ji Won doesn’t get any real backstory or central conflict to work through until season 2, something viewers greatly lamented at the time. And when it did give her that backstory and conflict, it was a real dark downer and not really what the audience was expecting or hoping for. This is perfectly fine for a drama to do, of course. Just because a character is feisty and peppy doesn’t mean they can’t have serious trauma. But the writing choice had the unfortunate result of taking a really fun and feisty character and zapping the life out of her for the majority of season 2. It also inspired the writer to give what was probably the crowd favorite character of the series a premature death in the future (something I refuse to treat as canon, because how dare you). This version takes a different tack with Yi Tong, dropping the dramatic (and traumatic) backstory for something a little more simple but still just as painful for a young person to go through. In this version, Yi Tong has had a habit of telling exaggerated stories since she was a kid, initially as a bid for attention from her often-absent mother, then later as a response to some genuine trauma from being accused of lying about plagiarism when she was actually telling the truth. I honestly think I prefer this backstory/central conflict more, not because I have a problem with stories that address serious topics such as child abuse/assault, but because this version does the work to give this backstory/conflict purpose and meaning. It makes sense that Yi Tong would lie to get her mother’s attention, and it makes sense that she would later use it as a coping mechanism/way to avoid things that make her uncomfortable.

This version does leave three of the four romances on a somewhat open-ended note, which will probably disappoint viewers (it disappoints me), but the way the romances are left is mostly appropriate. All three couples end on a positive note with hints of things progressing in the future (where we, the audience, can’t see them). My one frustration is that we still did not get a conclusion for our feisty Ji Won/Yi Tong and her news club buddy. After the disappointment in the original series, the way the writer set up such a comically intriguing couple only to break all of our hearts by revealing Ji Won’s eventual death and NOT at least compensating us by having the characters get romantically together in the present, I think it was more than fair to expect this version to give the couple a happy ending this time around.

The one thing that I think stops me from calling Youth my favorite version is the performances from the lead actresses. All the performances in this version are solid and strong, but with the exception of the actress for Xiao Chun, I do think I will find myself preferring the performances in the original. I think the performances by Park Hye Soo and He Lan Dou are comparably wonderful and which viewers will prefer will end up being a matter of personal preference, but I have a feeling I’ll equally love both after my rewatch of the original drama.

Overall, I have to sing Youth’s praises for managing to take an already beloved drama and not only not screwing it up, but actually improving upon it in some respects. Many will probably still prefer Age of Youth to Youth, and for understandable reasons. It was such a standout drama for its time with performances that really stick with you. But I think Youth is a remake worthy of a watch and worthy of being loved, regardless of which ends up being your favorite.

Read More

This is the story of a couple of oddballs (well, more than a couple) being odd together, lol. The mannerisms are exaggerated, the scenarios are outlandish, there's a whole side plotline that is five layers of silly, and that's honestly the entire charm of the series. The entire drama is intentionally silly and doesn't take itself seriously. If there's one thing you need to know about it going in, it's that.

Hwang Me Ri is admittedly unlikable for the first half of the drama, coming across as very selfish and thoughtless towards others, while Kang Dae Gu initially comes across as a leach and a slob. But as the story progresses, you begin to like and understand the characters more in spite of themselves. Hwang Me Ri becomes a more sympathetic character around the halfway mark, and Kang Dae Gu quickly proves himself to be a decent guy who's just struggled to find his way.

The story itself is very self-aware, poking fun at its characters and joyfully placing them in awkward or embarrassing situations for the viewers entertainment. The drama does take itself a little too seriously in the last few episodes, wallowing in a little too much 'woah is me' around some particular plot points that didn't need to be such a big deal (especially considering the literal dramatics of some of the drama's earlier events), but it's otherwise a solid drama that's likely to give you some pretty big, roll-your-eyes, belly laughs.

My recommendation for those thinking about watching Merry Mary is to not take anything in this drama too seriously, because you're definitely not meant to. Just go with the flow, and you'll have fun.

Read More

I wasn't going to write a review for this season of Work Later, Drink Now, because, well, it's been hard parsing out my rather jumbled up feelings. Despite the excessive amount of drinking the characters engaged in, I greatly enjoyed season 1, and I was very hopeful and excited for season 2. These girls are a total mess, but they are an endearing mess, and I enjoyed watching them be both messy and heartfelt. But this season was...something else.

The first problem was the arc around Ji Yeon's cancer. It was fine with me that they went to the mountains. I don't even mind that they were 'healing' cancer with nature. Sure, it's not believable, but this is Work Later, Drink Now. Part of the purpose of this drama is putting the girls in somewhat over-the-top situations and watching them respond. But when we were still in the mountains 'curing cancer' by ep. 3, I was ready for the girls to go home. The whole 'healing in the mountains' bit was only going to work for so long, and they stretched it beyond what was reasonable. On top of that, some of the humor in those episodes was both weird and not funny. (The statue grossed me out, frankly.)

The second problem is that the unnecessarily long stay in the mountains completely messed with the pacing of the rest of the season. Everything felt slightly out of whack, like when you watch a video and the sound is constantly ahead or behind of what you're seeing on screen. It was so hard to get a grasp on what this season was meant to be about, what it was meant to be doing, and I was over halfway through before I got a handle on the story.

The third problem was yoga. As in, what exactly was there of value in the entire subplot with Ji Yeon's boss and her boss' brother? They made the plotline work in the end, but for much of the drama, it felt like a weird rabbit trail that took away from more important things that were happening in the story. Sure, the brother and sister had a sweet little reconciliatory family moment at the end, and yes, I felt moved...but why was I supposed to care in the first place?

And this isn't a story complaint, but the CGI in earlier episodes was pretty bad. I was willing to overlook it while they were in the mountains, because you are not training a hog to pose for a camera, but I did not find adding a CGI snake in a later episode necessary. (The events around the snake were equally as unnecessary.) This might seem like a petty, unimportant thing to complain about, as they are the only instances of CGI in the drama, but they stuck out to me because of how bad the CGI was, and if that's what it was going to look like, they should have kept it to as much of a minimum as possible.

But, and here's where I'll give this drama some praise, while everyone else hated how things played out between Ji Goo and Ji Yeon, I think it was some of this season's strongest writing. In fact, most of the seasons strongest writing was in the second half. The conflict between Ji Goo and Ji Yeon, how things played out in both romances, So Hee and her mom dealing with their grief (I have some problems with her mom's choices, but those are not writing complaints), there was just a lot of really good character exploration and development in the second half, and I loved all of it. It was also really, really great to see what these girls were like as kids, their upbringings, and then later as college students and how their friendship began. It gave us a lot of insight into who each of them is.

I wasn't a big fan of everything in the finale, but it was still better than the yoga sibling's plotline and having to spend so much damn time in the mountains, so I'm choosing to overlook it. What I can't overlook though is the incohesiveness of this season. There were some really great moments, some strong character development, some really good romance. There were also some bad writing choices, serious pacing issues, and some really weird and out-of-place gag humor (Ji Yeon loves farting now?). I'm not sure if I would watch a season 3 of this show. I won't say I wouldn't, but I think I definitely need some time in-between this season and another one. Maybe by next winter I'll be ready.

I have to end this review with one question though. Am I the only person wanting to know why they never addressed the final scene of season 1? Or did they address it, and I just missed it?

Read More