Viajero

Couldn't disagree more. All the best Korean dramas have been released since 2018 and pretty much everything before 2015 is downright mediocre by today's standards.

I liked this season much better than S2 (the only other one I've watched). I think it's mostly because I liked this cast much better, both as individuals and the couples that ended up together. But the over-the-top product placement was just as annoying and remains a major negative compared to the original Korean Heart Signal.

I was really enjoying this series until it kind of went off the rails towards the end (from reading these comments, I take it this was due to censorship?). I was particularly impressed by Yin Rui as the FL. I'll be looking for her in other shows. It does remind me a bit of 12 Letters, though it isn't nearly at tightly written.

It is. Beginning June 14

I watched the original Chinese film a few months ago on Viki and thought it was pretty good. Quite inspiring and featuring great characters. I'm not sure why they would need to change the story to meet Korean sensibilities. It seemed pretty universal to me.

I find the Japanese rely on the terminal illness trope much more often than the Koreans. And the original version of this movie is Chinese.

Official trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB2D2cl3fEE

Picked this film at random from the available options on a long-haul flight. I'm very glad I did, even though it turned out to be much deeper, more serious, and heart-wrenching than the typical light entertaining coming of age drama I was expecting. It helps that we get a stunningly good performance from Seo Su Bin as the protagonist. It's hard to say more without some major spoilers, but I highly recommend this film.

I finally managed to finish this series after many attempts over the years. It starts very slowly with long stretches of screen time given to prolonged artistic shots of badminton players practising, inter-spaced with a very gradual introduction to the main characters and the backstory leading up to the present. The story does eventually pick up later in the season once the protagonist's old best friend appears on the scene and we finally get a little drama to liven things up. But despite all those scenes of players practising, they never try to generate any suspense from the badminton competitions themselves. Park Ju Hyun and Chae Jong Hyeop make an earnestly cute couple for lovers of slow burn romances. But it was a tough slog for those of us who were looking for a little more.

I thought this show fell far short of 2521 is almost every respect, except perhaps the romance, which did feature more strongly here. Its a complete bust as a sports story, generating zero suspense from the badminton competitions, despite all those overly long stretches of screen time given to prolonged artistic shots of badminton players practising. Even more seriously, it completely fails to delve into the relationship between the two female leads, which was the origin of the main conflict in the story. One of the biggest strengths of 2521 was the evolving relationship between the two female leads.

More often than not I end up disappointed in Lee Jae Wook. But I will always give anything that features Shin Ye Eun at least a try.

It's true that many of the participants do not come off looking particularly good. I wasn’t much of a fan of Daon, but Taeyang, and particularly Hanu, were such complete jerks that in the end I couldn’t help but sympathize with her. Besides, Daon was just playing the game the way it was supposed to be played. Meanwhile, those two are the kind of smug stuck-up players who give guys a bad name. I’m glad Haneul figured this out. Can you imagine one of those jerks as the stepfather to her little daughter?

The rest of the cast was fine. I greatly sympathized with Hanui in particular, though I had to question her insistence in chasing Hanu even after he made it more than clear (and quite rudely) that he didn’t consider her up to his standards. But maybe she was trying to prove something to herself? I suspect she would feel a lot less shame about her past if she were living in my country. After all, and unlike Taeyang, she's long retired and is clearly a very different person now. But I can see why it would be a much bigger problem for her in a country as conservative and paternalistic as South Korea.

It was clear from the structure and casting that this show was going to be more about the drama than trying to generate any deep lasting romantic relationships, and it that, it was quite effective. Among other things, the way the lies were handled helped create considerable suspense. In my opinion, the fact that some of the lies were much more serious than others was part of this, as viewers could never be sure if any particular lie was going to be a dealbreaker.

I liked the way the show ended with a montage illustrating how most of the contestants ended up gravitating towards people who were the opposite of what they said they were looking for at the beginning.

Overall, when it comes to reality dating shows, I would rate Pink Lie a step above Single’s Inferno and both the Korean and Chinese versions of Heart Signal, but well below Nineteen to Twenty, EXchange/Transit (S1 and S2), and My Sibling’s Romance.

I think Taeyang’s secret was much worse. At least Hanui was long retired and was clearly a completley different person than she had been back in her 20's. To put it another way, where I live someone like Hanui is much more likely to find a serious partner interested in marriage than someone like Taeyang. But then, I live in a country that is a lot less paternalistic than South Korea.

I found Ji Yeon to be the most entretaining among the cast, though I'm not sure I would have wanted to date her. My favorite among the guys ended up being Tae-I, but my overall favorite cast member surprisingly ended up being Na Yeon. It does occur to me that this is a bit unfair because as the least emotionally invested, she was able to show her best side throughout. It also probably helps that I found her to be the most physically attractive of the women.

I agree. S2 is one of the few Korean dating shows that actually improved significantly later in the season.

I liked her at first, but completely lost patience with her by the end.

I much preferred this show to Better Late Than Single in almost every way. That show was so full of boring introverts that they ended up focusing all the screentime on the one guy most of the girls were interested in.

Ít's on Viki, at least in my region.

Glad to hear it. They were one of my favorite couples. I just wish they had been given more airtime.