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Decent adaptation of a masterpiece
My Mister is my favourite kdrama of all time. Expectations were sky-high for this adaptation, and Loving Strangers mostly delivers. The core of the story is the warmth of the unconditional friendship that develops between the leads. While I don't think the leads have exactly as much chemistry or dynamism as the original, they have enough to make this a good watch.
The plot of this adaptation mainly mirrors the original with some story differences. The pacing feels faster, as many of the longer dialogues are shortened. There isn't as much philosophizing. The neighbourhood vibe is less important. Jiaqi doesn't introspect as much as Dong Hoon. The downside of all this is that Jiaqi is more difficult to understand as a character than his kdrama equivalent. He is a very withdrawn character and even colder to his wife than Dong Hoon.
Once the emotional sparks finally get lit, Loving Strangers became a really good drama. But for me, that took almost 20 episodes. The original starts slow as well, but it ramped up more quickly. A huge factor is the music, which doesn't do enough to set the mood and at times feels out of place.
The writer of My Mister, Park Hae Young, has a lot to say in her dramas about the mental health struggles that people go through. Loving Strangers has all the same events as My Mister, but the deletion of certain dialogues means that it doesn't answer the 'why' question. We simply don't get the same detail about Jiaqi's motivations and worldview that we get from Dong Hoon. He felt more lifeless and closed off.
To be fair to Mark Chao, I think he's playing his role very accurately and did justice to what was on the page. The script just makes it harder to grasp him. Similarly, I think Zhang Zi Feng also played her role well. Her character just wasn't written to have as much agency and fierceness as IU's.
Even the positive changes made in the adaptation are more about fixing possible plot holes than trying to write a deeper story. Both the CEO and the loan shark character are better sketched out here than in the original. I kind of expected this as soon as I saw Zhang Xin Cheng (imo the most talented actor in this cast) playing the loan shark, since he's great at playing these more raw characters. Unfortunately this isn't the type of drama where a villain's performance is critical.
For fans of My Mister, I think this is still worth watching to see a different interpretation of the roles.
The plot of this adaptation mainly mirrors the original with some story differences. The pacing feels faster, as many of the longer dialogues are shortened. There isn't as much philosophizing. The neighbourhood vibe is less important. Jiaqi doesn't introspect as much as Dong Hoon. The downside of all this is that Jiaqi is more difficult to understand as a character than his kdrama equivalent. He is a very withdrawn character and even colder to his wife than Dong Hoon.
Once the emotional sparks finally get lit, Loving Strangers became a really good drama. But for me, that took almost 20 episodes. The original starts slow as well, but it ramped up more quickly. A huge factor is the music, which doesn't do enough to set the mood and at times feels out of place.
The writer of My Mister, Park Hae Young, has a lot to say in her dramas about the mental health struggles that people go through. Loving Strangers has all the same events as My Mister, but the deletion of certain dialogues means that it doesn't answer the 'why' question. We simply don't get the same detail about Jiaqi's motivations and worldview that we get from Dong Hoon. He felt more lifeless and closed off.
To be fair to Mark Chao, I think he's playing his role very accurately and did justice to what was on the page. The script just makes it harder to grasp him. Similarly, I think Zhang Zi Feng also played her role well. Her character just wasn't written to have as much agency and fierceness as IU's.
Even the positive changes made in the adaptation are more about fixing possible plot holes than trying to write a deeper story. Both the CEO and the loan shark character are better sketched out here than in the original. I kind of expected this as soon as I saw Zhang Xin Cheng (imo the most talented actor in this cast) playing the loan shark, since he's great at playing these more raw characters. Unfortunately this isn't the type of drama where a villain's performance is critical.
For fans of My Mister, I think this is still worth watching to see a different interpretation of the roles.
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