UncreativeName

I am very...whelmed by this drama. At a 40 min/ep runtime with only 4 episodes, it's doing a good job of pushing things along. At the same time, it's not some groundbreaking new genre or take.

Thank you for the kind words about the review!

I agree that the there's often a lot of rushed endings about Kdramas. What surprises me even more about 2521 is the fact that most of the episodes were already pre-produced, so I can only conclude that the ending was sincerely planned and that honestly disappoints me even more.

I'm finding that people genuinely don't understand this. They chose to film the drama in such a way that the ending was not guaranteed to be one way or another and I would suggest they kept it ambigious on purpose. An obvious sad ending would be like the movie 500 Days of Summer: the narrator straight up tells you this is not a love a story and the movie pulls no punches in letting you know they don't end up together. 2521 teased us for a long time: even the line near the end, congratulations on your wedding, wasn't definitive.

Please be good, please be good, please be good...

I can't help but think it was the same thing that happened with How I Met Your Mother: it seems like they also didn't expect it to become as big as it did. Then, when the time came to end it, they committed to the original ending, which didn't feel organic anymore since everyone invested so much time and energy in the show.

Sometimes Kdrama writers change the story in significant ways due to audience feedback and it's really jarring. It was clear that 2521 wasn't going to be that show as the showrunners stuck to their careful plan. But if there's any show where I wish they did that... it's 2521.

I'm late to the party on this one. Only watched up to Episode 12.

...but knowing how this ends and the controversy surrounding the ending makes me not want to finish this. To me, the issue isn't whether or not it was a happy ending, but the execution of it. These front few episodes have been so masterfully done: little details that come back in future episodes to mean something, an OST that invokes the right mood of the 90s, keeping us at the edge of your seat with a compelling mystery, etc.

But the ending doesn't seem to care. That mystery? It was apparently an accident: who the dad is/what happened to the him in the present? Irrelevant I guess, as this was "always about Baek Yi Jin and Na Hee Do's fleeting first love." Then why keep viewers hooked by teasing this "will-they-wont-they" end up together? I honestly feel insulted, as if they manipulated viewer emotions just to keep up a high rating

Character consistency? Also irrelevant. I get it: the plot wants to be about a first love that didn't work out due to realistic reasons. That's allowed. But then, how "realistic" is it that the characters don't naturally develop towards the ending? Your female lead is someone that NEVER COMPROMISES. That's baked into her DNA/backstory. She never gave up with fencing, etc. But you're telling me that her grand first love didn't work out partly because life was leading their long distance relationship to grow apart (allowed)....but then she turned around and ended up in basically a long distance relationship with her HUSBAND. Really? (And this goes back to my issue with manipulation above: we have to ASSUME he's a devoted/not devoted husband because we are intentionally not shown him. 'Cause in the 2020s, clearly video chat exists etc. But he "can't come back so he has to quarantine from COVID." I guess). Then you have a male lead: loyalty to his family and friends is baked into his DNA. Everything he did as a young man was in the name of clearing his family of guilt and bringing them together. Remember the scene when he pays back one of his dad's ex employees with his meager salary? But as an adult...oh actually my job is my main priority as I live overseas. This Na Hee Do girl? She's just another love of mine I guess.

It's about the hand not fitting the glove. I personally think that any stories that need to be "explained away" by non-canon theories are bad stories. And that's what I think this one is. "We don't know what Na Hee Do's relationship with her husband is." Yes, you are absolutely right. We don't. Therefore, isn't something like that worth spending a few minutes to explain in the last episode?

Ug, for a show as carefully crafted as this one, it's highly frustrating to me that they didn't seem to stick the ending.

Alright, as I'm a guy I'm gonna go ahead and say it: all of us have learned how to hide....things...that we don't want people to see. If you're unsophisticated, you use a "New Folder" in some nondescript place *wink wink*.

...so the fact that the female lead can just walk over to his un-password protected laptop and just find the male lead's secret pining folders of her. Yeah...This guy needs to up his cybersecurity game.

So I don't know if it's just a regional thing, but if you watched the same version as I did, you got English lyrics which I agree were just....terrible. They clearly tried to translate the Korean as literally as possible as the effect was...not as good.

The song is way more palatable to me in Korean form: https://youtu.be/V0omMKoA4jQ

What made them re-dub it in English? A question I don't know the answer to...I can't help but think Disney had influence over the production and led it...not the right way. The Korean lyrics aren't mind blowing to me either, but I find the delivery much more palatable...

Thanks, I didn't even know that was possible

I'm still trying to gather my thoughts around this one, but I just finished watching this Kdrama and I REALLY enjoyed it. I'm actually surprised at some of the stuff that people took issue with for this show: I would have thought that since it's poking fun at old Kdramas, it would be acceptable, but I guess not.

I don't know if I'm alone in thinking this, but I still can't help but wish this site had more safeguards/checks against meaningless reviews/scores. I love the original Taiwanese story, and hope that this Korean remake does well, but how can this movie get a 10/10 before the movie has even come out (or maybe even finished post-production)? I wish there were some feature to stop these pre-emptive reviews - they only serve to mess up the scores once the thing actually comes out.

Like, most Kdramas seem heavily weighted by first impression: I noticed almost all mainstream Kdramas end up in the ~7-10 score range, which doesn't really help anyone when all the scores blend together on a 0-10 scale.

I'm curious why you think that My Mister's ending implies that introversion is bad or that the characters changed into being extraverted at the end. For me, I genuinely didn't see it that way: I saw Ji Anh's change as more that her faith in humanity was restored through the support of all the characters who helped her through her hardships. I didn't get the sense that she suddenly became a social butterfly, but that instead, she finally saw the value in having those meaningless, courtesy interactions that we usually have with other people (like acknowledging the person she's giving files to at work, etc.) and could also interact with others if she chose to (like going out with her coworkers to get a coffee/lunch).

Like, personally, I identify as being introverted, but to me, that means that I value a few, deep relationships over A LOT of deep relationships (or even just a lot of shallow, relationships). I don't go out of my way to strike up conversations with strangers or attend bustling parties, but I still try to treat acquaintances with a base level of acknowledgement with "hi, hello, etc." I also don't think that extraversion is naturally "good" (but I acknowledge that here in the US, our corporate culture especially STRONGLY prefers extraverts over intraverts). But I also can't deny the power of help from others - it could be as little as friends who share study notes for exams or as much as a close friend that offers you comfort in a dire time.

I also don't think the story could have ended with her overcoming adversity on her own: one of the big messages I thought came across with the story is that yes, humans are dicks in various ways (stereotyping based on shallow determinations, infidelity, manipulation for selfish gain, etc.) but that humans are ALSO compassionate in various ways (buying dinner with no real agenda, providing emotional comfort with no real agenda, etc.)

Personally...I would bet on it. I would guess it's going to be a fairly straightforward fall-in-love story

I can only describe this show as "really confused." I think I'm going to watch it through to the end since I've stuck with it so far but it just really doesn't know what it wants to be:

-It started out with the unique idea of just overdramatizing weather forecasting, which although kinda ridiculous (it's as if they have huge influence over other government organizations/the workings of their entire country, but in reality a lot of the stuff must be cold, boring, uninteresting science that comes out as recommendations), was actually really interesting. But after the first few episodes, it seems to have completely abandoned delving into this and just turning it into vague analogies to the characters' feelings interactions.

-It's not clear to me at all what the message of the main leads', including the exes, romance is or where it is going. Marriage is bad? Marriage is good? Cheaters never prosper? Cheaters are people too and have their own problems? It's weird because I feel like the story shifts its tone on a whim and I'm not quite sure where they want us to focus their attention on

-The side stories are kinda just...there and not really cohesive to the whole story IMO. Like, there is not really a "theme" to it: they are just there to kill time. Divorced sister probably-falls-in-love-with this other side character. Estranged dad has issues reconnecting with his daughter and wife. Unconfident young coworker is...not confident. Dedicated mother and career woman has trouble with work-life balance. I don't know how all this ties together other than "they are humans and their all have their own stories." It just doesn't quite work.

I'm...kinda disappointed with this whole thing, because of the insane star power this show has backing in (Director from Where the Camellia Blooms, Screenwriter of the Dr. Romantics, Song Kang/Park Min Young starring, etc.) but it just all...doesn't come together.

Watching this show is depression

Yes

Last chance, really LOL.

Okay, so in the original film, the beginning half of the film appears to be a standard love triangle set in the backdrop of a music school: the male lead played by Jay Chou falls in love with the female lead played by Gwen Lun-Mei. There is another girl, played by Alice Tzeng, who also likes Jay Chou's character. Through misunderstandings, Lun-Mei's character thinks that Jay Chou's character doesn't like her/likes Alice Tzeng's character instead, and disappears.

SUPER SPOILERS FOLLOW HERE. REALLY LAST CHANCE LOL.

Then begins the second half of the film, which slowly reveals the twist, part of the namesake "Secret" of the movie title: it turns out that Lun-Mei's character is from the PAST and has been time traveling to the future (= the present) using a specific piano and some songs - each time she time travels she is only able to see the first person she sees, which explains why she is able to interact with the other main characters and also why some people in the present have no idea who she is. Furthermore, it turns out that Jay Chou's character's dad was her music teacher and watched her mental health decline, in large part due to the love misunderstanding with Jay Chou's character, and also because nobody believed her time travel story, leading to her eventual death. Knowing this in the present, Jay Chou desperately tries to figure out how to communicate with Lun-Mei so that he can tell her it's all a misunderstanding. The movie ends with Jay Chou deducing how to time travel based on stuff that Lun-Mei and his dad told him and urgently trying to play the necessarily song as the building with the piano is literally being demolished -- the ending looks like he succeeded (but honestly is a little open to interpretation)

Honestly, when I watched the Taiwanese movie in 2007, I was expecting some generic movie since it was Jay Chou's first movie project as director, but it turned out to be way better than I anticipated it to be. The ending scene still gives me chills to watch it in 2022 and is still an amazing climax. It's by no means perfect, but I'm certain the remake will do justice to the original.

If they stay true to the OG version, it's super spoilers so I'll go ahead and post another spoiler under this to deter you from reading it lol. I think the OG is definitely worth a watch (and I'll check this Korean remake out too when it comes out) and I think it's a better watch if you don't know the spoilers. If you REALLY want to know, please go ahead and click further: I'll go ahead and write out the entire main plot, which explains why it's a fantasy.

I appreciate your comments, really. To the point of Hae Won's mother, I didn't see it as narcissism, but I can see how it can also be interpreted that way. For me, it was misguided, stoic love - I think she didn't want it coming out that Hae Won's dad was an abuser to protect Hae Won from learning the truth about her dad. Was it the right call? Absolutely not and I think both her and her sister essentially gave up before they even started to fight back against the injustice of going to jail because of life-threatening domestic abuse. They also ignored the particularly obvious fallout that Hae Won would grow up without her mother and not understand why she did what she did (to her, it just looked like her mom killed her dad for no reason, and moreover, she ended up getting bullied because of it). I also think this added to the devastation that Hae Won felt when she finally read her aunt's manuscript/book.

Your point about Hae Won's aunt is also well taken -- she treated her boyfriend like garbage but he still loved her lol.

I think what you said about Bo Young makes sense to me too and I think I just wasn't paying that much attention to the prior scenes. Her desire to reconnect is maybe a selfish need to placate herself so that she's no longer the "bad guy"

Based on your list, I'm going to throw a recommendation at you that may seem like a wildcard: Tomorrow With You. It's a romance with a time-travel twist, but it has the same slow-burn feeling as When the Weather is Fine, with the muted-color cinematography, and the humanistic/character-driven feel. I felt there's a lot of parallels even with the OST. For example, just out Flower: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9t-QVexauQ which gives me similar feels as Like a Winter's Dream, etc. I had some issues with it, so I didn't like it as much, but I suspect you might enjoy it.

I've gotten into rewatching this drama myself and have been pondering about your comment. As to why the mom didn't save herself, I think it is a cultural difference: my understanding is there is a lot of mistrust in the Korean justice system, in part due to possible corruption. For instance, even back in 2019, there was a large protest demanding justice reform: https://www.reddit.com/r/korea/comments/daeokw/over_a_million_people_gather_to_protest_for/

It's worth remembering that the Korean justice system is really different from some Western justice systems, such as the Britain or the US. In the case of the US, instead of guilt/innocence being decided by a jury, the judge decides. Moreover, the prosecutors have more power compared to their US counterparts, in that they can directly participate in police investigations (even though US TV glamorizes this, I think in reality, government lawyers don't directly handle the investigations).

My impression is that there may be a "no tolerance" policy to killing others, even if an accident or with the context of domestic abuse. If nothing else, there is another Kdrama, the Lawless Laywer, which makes light of this: in the very first episode, a woman who is suffering from physical abuse is jailed for killing her husband without regard for the context that she was abused. My take is that it stands to reason that both sisters in When the Weather is Fine started on the assumption that someone had to go to prison because they had killed a man (rightly, wrongly, or accidentally). So in that moment, the mom decided she alone would take the fall for everything in order to protect everyone from the truth.

I think it's a shame that this detracted from your enjoyment of the show because I think it really is the impetus of everything: it's the reason why the sister punishes herself (by rejecting her male lover and not taking care of her glaucoma). It's the reason why Hae Won misunderstands her mother (her mother wanted to protect her from the truth of her father, so Hae Won just saw her mom as a cold person who had killed her warm father). It's also the reason Hae Won needs to change schools, etc.

I've also read others who couldn't even give this show a chance because of that, and it's a shame. I truly don't think the novelist/screenwriter were trying to egg on a cliche/subjugate women's rights or anything. I think it was a fictional, somewhat plausible thing that was used as the impetus for all the later things in the story.

For what it's worth, I also didn't have such a strong reaction to Bo Young/the ex-BFF. I saw it as truly a story of misunderstanding: Bo Young made a mistake, albeit a grave mistake, out of spite of the moment, by sharing a secret that was not hers to share. She also misunderstood that Hae Won was actively trying to steal Eun Seob away from her. I genuinely think it was an unfortunate series of events - I don't think that Bo Young really understood the weight of her actions (and the result was truly horrible). In turn, I think Hae Won was completely oblivious to her feelings for Eun Seob and truly did not understand why her best friend would suddenly betray her out of nowhere. But, just like how this drama was trying to imitate real life, I think both Bo Young and Hae Won learned to move past what had happened in their younger days - Bo Young let go of the candle she was holding for Eun Seob and Hae Won was able to re-orient her life and forgive her. I think their reconciliation was pretty darn plausible: Hae Won can't completely forgive her due to all the crap she experienced and Bo Young knows she did wrong, and still owes her big time. It wasn't like they were trying to show that Bo Young saves little puppies or anything -- she acknowledges that she caused a permanent scar, and yet she hopes that someday, they will begin to heal their relationship and maybe become friends again. The door is open, but the future is uncertain.

To me, the greatest joy in watching this drama was how humanistic it felt to me: it was about humans acting like humans. Not every moment was picture perfect and people did things that were wrong or stupid for no particular reason (like Eun Seob straight up ignoring the confession he got for a day/days even though there is no doubt that he has been harboring feelings for her for forever and a day). The lows were lows, like the revelation that yes, that bruise/cut we saw on the mom's legs came from violent, aggressive abuse, and out of some misguided sense of loyalty/love/whatever, the mom didn't leave the husband. However, the highs were high, like the emotional kiss on the mountain or the reconciliation in the final episode -- in a Kdrama world where dramatic departures in the penultimate episode and last minute get-togethers in the last episode are normal, I thought this one handled it really well. But in the end, just like the story of the Blue Bird, I think the main moral was that it's all about your perspective: you can go on a long journey and find nothing, and come home and realize that happiness was there all along.