XingBack

while I watching the last ep I wondered if rating the plot as 10 would be biased.. I wanted to give this an overall 10 from the start because I really loved everything, but I could say that the plot was slightly "too convenient" for the writers.

If one looks at this as a historical, it follows the basic pattern for that genre; the lonely paranoid king, the birth secret, the "we can't be together for so and so reasons" and the desire for the crown.
But this drama actually dealt with those cliches really well. I could say it was the "model" way of dealing with it. for one, Dong Joo was actually used to her full potential as a female lead, she was stubborn, jaded and "too careful of attachments", but she was independent, she worked hard to hone her "fighting skills" and they actually USED those skills for the greater good of the plot! also she had a great balance of when to be "cold" vs "cute" during the development of the romance.

Nokdu, well what can I say about dear sweet Nokdu... for starters, he is now my num1 favorite male lead character ever! I love the "sweet" kind, but I don't think they are as widely written as the "Nice Male Lead" tag says they are :)
if one is not as sweet, cute, playful, and easily sulky as Nokdu then they are not the "nice" type..
I can go on and on about his characteristics, but I'll talk about Lady Kim instead ;p
SHE was the main point of this drama, "the wind that carried the plot?", I wish they used her more but seeing her again at the end really made my day (and the decision to give this a 10 easier ;p )

overall I think this great a "Newbie Friendly" drama one can suggest to friends that want to start kdramas, especially for historical genres that might seem too heavy for a newbie.

The ost was also full of amazing mood makers I need to listen to separately and add to my favorite ost list ;p


my rewatch values are either a 1 or 10, and though I might skip the heavy stuff here, I'd LOVE to watch my favorite couple Nokdu and Dongjoo!❤

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watch until 01:39:00 ONLY!

the poster was misleading, I thought I'd see han jiwan with the precious baby but she was the adult vr ;)
basically the first half, the first hour and a half was beautiful, Park So Yi was SO AMAZING! her crying was on point and her smiles lit up the world!

the story between this unlikely "family" was cliche but so touching that I just loved watching them until suddenly she became a teen then an adult and boom the story lost it's charm ;(



suddenly right after she called him dad the writer made him get into an accident and they lost him for 10 YEARS! then one day she remembers the nickname she gave him (10 years later!) and that's how they found him! sick and locked up in a mental hospital where he couldn't function! and before his accident suddenly had a terminal disease! what ridiculous blood boiling plot move!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

then in the ending credit she was getting married and had him marry her off and called it a happy ending when he didn't even REMEMBER his name let alone talk! how heart breakingly cheap!!!!!!!!!!!

I did hope it'd be sweet and funny for a rewatch but no, just no

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I love love loved this, the simple healing slow winter mood was perfect. the couple dynamics was beautiful, but I think they failed to balance that and the "melo" feel..

when the drama started we had a looming dark cloud. Mok Hae Won left the city to "get away" from something traumatizing, and Im Eun Sub had a "dark" past, but as the drama progressed both stories felt too simple?

Mok Hae Won story was that her workplace didn't appreciate/mistreated her and Im Eun Sub's parents weren't his real parents.
also, when we finally reached Im Eun Sub's arc, he just met his uncle and made it seem like he's being forced to leave the village and he had to make a big decision, either he leaves or Mok Hae Won would leave him becasue apparently just becasue she lived in the city for a while it meant that she isn't supposed to be able to choose to stay..

then fast forward to the end, and suddenly she breaks up with him and moves to the city, as if they couldn't keep it long distance until she figured out her own "feelings" with her mom/aunts arc... as if her problems was with him ;/

speaking of the mom/aunt. from the mom's letter in the last ep, it seems like the husband was beating her for atleast 10 years, and yet Mok Hae Won was still upset that he was accidentally killed (also, why couldn't they just talk it out! lay everything on the table), sure she loved her sweet dad, but he was a psychopath, and they didn't mean to kill him...
and this is why I think it gets messy, the writers didn't balance it well, they got greedy for melo and forced breakups..


I loved the book club meetings, but again it felt like most of those characters were just fillers.
Im Hwi was kinda really annoying, she forced her crush on people, that's not normal. of course they'll run away.. she was kinda the opposite of Im Eun Sub who kept his feelings hidden for 10+ years xD
but this is what I liked about Mok Hae Won x Im Eun Sub. sure the long time crush might get weird, but when they met again he was subtle about his care, and Mok Hae Won naturally fell for his sweet caring side.
and she was such a normal person in a relationship while Im Eun Sub was the easily flustered type and they made a sweet couple.

Lee Jang Woo was wasted potential. he was a normal friend not involved in a main love triangle, he had a normal beautiful friendship with Im Eun Sub. he was kinda the outgoing vr of Im Eun Sub. and he also had his own 10+ one sided crush and he was too good for that girl. unlike Mok Hae Won, she knew Lee Jang Woo liked her consistently ever since they were in highschool and she always teased him about that, while never actually looking at him, and it took her 0.1 seconds to suddenly "fall" in love ;/ and then she blamed him for not saying those things the 1st time he confessed ;/

anyway, the ost was nice and I never rewatch stuff :)

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great cgi, solid plot and reasoning though it is repetitive and obvious. the horror elements were nice and best of all it's always great to have kickass female characters and villains.
it's also refreshing that the "husband" is the one who ends up hurt while the fl is the one chasing evil

Uhm Ji Won is an amazing actress, she's versatile and totally believable in her role. Jeong Ji So is like a Kyoko, better at dark roles, though she looked more like an idol than her awful drama. Jung Moon Sung is not the "typical" hot tall buff ml but he's 1000% better and totally admirable, as someone who fights with all his strength, someone who doesn't fear the fact that his wife is a total kickass boss and also doesn't mind staying in the sidelines.
it's so so rare to see a happy, alive, married couple in dramaland, honestly I love them~


the revelation, the villain and the end are all predictable, but walking corpses that steal/drive taxis and fall from staircases? scary and a nice enough twist on brainless zombies

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that little girl carried this whole movie! jingoo of course did a great job but the little smiles, the pouts and the tears of that baby were so PRECIOUS!
I don't usually applaud the directors but the credit does go to the directors here too. they captured the emotions so well. whenever they zoomed in on her precious little hand trying to find her way, her little precious breathing sounds, the subtle signs of connection between them and the way she gradually opened up and they became a "family", it was all just so beautiful! TT_TT

these kinds of plots happened often. "cold" tortured guy who's after money and the precious lost baby and that can be a cheap plot move, but the vulnerability of them was so loud and clear here
Jae Shik had nothing in his life and Eun Hye had no one, though the money seemed to spark Jae Shik's motivation, from the moment he saw her it was like he saw himself, lost and alone that he couldn't leave her

the journey starts simple, he wants to pretend she's his daughter but the plot moves right away when he finds out she has nothing he can take so he again looks for another option which leads to a different tone of journey when they go to the country side to search for her mother's aunt, and that kinda turns into a cute little camping trip where they meet new people on the way

the movie did end with alot of questions unanswered, I mean he did kinda "kidnap" her, just because she had no one to report her didn't change it.
though they did show that scene with the dad that implied he really didn't want her and was "selling" her away to Jae Shik, I'm even surprised he could walk into the orphanage and give her away when he had no legal right on her.

in the end, with the subtle hints of romance with Yeon Joo and the youtube vid, I like to think their bond touched people and they help them out and they might even start a movement to get her illness more noticed. that scene where the center's principle was so detached on the subject of "she can take classes for deaf and blind courses" and he was like but she can't see or hear! and that lady didn't even try to come up with a solution (or ask when his relationship with her was xD)

this is the most wholesome movie I watched in a long time though❣ I went in with no expectations, I mean movies with kids are usually heartwarming and this was so emotinal TT_TT

all in all, I cried, I smiled and I CRIED at that ending scene ;( I wanted more

that little baby looks so much like Kim Hae Sook xD

my favorite parts were, the rain scene! how sweet was that!, when he grabbed her hand! when she smiled knowing his back home but then pouted when he didn't show her that he's home uwu and her crying scene was 100000%

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from 8.5 to a 9.5

the plot is kinda like Kim Young Min's story in Crash Landing on You. Dae Kwon was assigned to spy on Lee Eui Shik so he moves into the house next door with fellow agents Dong Shik and Young Chul. what follows next is a funny, unexpected heartwarming journey.

the story isn't original and tbh I still wonder was it really like that? did they control the country and tortured anyone who questioned it?
it kinda feels so easy to say "those people are dictators". why do they have so much power when the public outnumbers them?

the movie was long but it was really well balanced, the 1st half was a funny bromance sequence and the 2nd half became a fight for their rights and it ended nicely too that I really enjoyed it.

the only things I didn't like was 1- the poop jokes, 2- the excessive poop sounds, and the fact that 3- even if their villain seemed to possess ultimate power, it kinda ended too fast. like the fact that they did so much and got away with it and in the end there was no closure for that..

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Jung Yup is unlike the usual "heroes" in a story like this, he was sloppy, he was worried about his own life, at 1st he didn't think about the kids but just his job, so that kinda gave it a nice approach. he wasn't a hotshot smart capable lawyer everyone listened to.
he was so sloppy he was the easiest adult the kids could approach ;(

everyone thinks "it's non of my business" or "someone else will interfere" and honestly that's the most heartbreaking part ;(
I thought if child services got involved they'd have the full authority to take the kids away from abusive parents.. if neighbors don't talk, if cops can't arrest abusers, if there's no punishment by law, then who protects those kids!
at the end of the movie they wrote "usually they get off with a warning or a fine", so unless kids DIE, NO ONE helps them!

and honestly only 16 years.. how was that ruled accidental death? it wasn't planned murder, but an adult hitting a 6 year old that severely is a murderer!

if dabinie was younger she'd have died too, her parents were worst than serial killers.. I'm glad they didn't charge Jung Yup with kidnapping ;(
it makes you wonder though, they found evidence, they got lucky, but what if they couldn't prove it? "she's lying", "there's no eyewitnesses", or even worse if the parents were rich or with a psychopathic lawyer, they'd have walked free..

I wish they showed the neighbors stepping in, or anything to say those people were responsible too. sure cops wouldn't do anything, but atleast just call...

what a cruel world we live in.. even if we see parents spanking their kids in public or yell at them we think "it's their kid, we can't do anything"



when I read the synopsis, and saw how her brother was supposedly a "ill-mannered" kid, I thought the sister was going to kill him so the step mom stops getting angry, tbh that'd have been scarier/more heartbreaking.
so even if this was based on a true story, it has been done before but it still made me cry. the directing though felt off.

I wonder what happened though, was she adopted by the lawyer? by his sister? or was she in an orphanage?

oh yeah, Jang Ho was such a charming little boy and a total scene stealer. he looked like any other happy kid but he was really caring, he worried for dabin and he was a big help in everything! such a precious baby!

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I watched this as part of my yooteo week and I have to say I had zero expectations but I was so pleasantly surprised, I'm not sure if they were supposedly highschoolers or college kids though, because if it was the 1st then non of them looked their age and that makes things super awkward xD

the story revolves around a camp made for koreans who grew up outside of korea so they could learn about their heritage and so at the start we just had a bunch of rebels who wanted to party and have fun, ie they were nothing like what "normal" korean kids were.

they wore weird clothes, they talked weird, they didn't respect the rules but as the story went by it was like layer after layer of emotional revelations and honestly the bonds and friendships that came out of this was so pure I kinda wish they made a drama out of this.

for "koreans" the kids were weird, but for those kids they had to adapt to their new homes to survive those cultures and now they were thrown back to yet another culture they didn't understand but the catch was this one is their supposed "real" home

I actually laughed several times and I teared up a few times too overall I think for relatively "unknown" actors and actresses they did really well

I never rewatch stuff and they used several 80s classics so the ost was nice too

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this was kinda a mix of My Fellow Citizens and Liar Liar. the 1st half of the story was slightly boring and the overall plot was basic, but their comedy sense was gold and they got a brownie point when they showed "Ju Sang Suk" being brutally honest doesn't mean she's a heartless person, that tub scene was both sweet and hilarious xD

speaking of Ra Mi Ran she was basically the heart and soul of this I can't imagine a better actress that could've pulled both a heartless sweet and hilarious personality.
I've never seen Kim Mu Yeol in a comedic role before and he also did a great job, plus the son was a nice character too.

the music is basic, and I never rewatch stuff though I would recommend it to people who look for a fun easy watch

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I'm really not used to jdrama formats, and faces, so it took me a while to invested in this. by eps4 or 5 I realized that this is more than just "Kokoro Kurosawa changing her life's path and going through a new foreign one"..

usually in kdramas they'd focus on the main lead and the romance, so this was a nice fresh outlook. it was about more than just Kokoro Kurosawa and the mains, it was about more than just one mangaka and yet it was not episodic.

Kokoro Kurosawa is the only bright bubbly character that's acceptable! she was a ray of sunshine, a force to be reckoned with, she set her goals and worked hard to achieve them, she was clueless but she was not afraid to ask for help and though her coworkers started off rough around the edges they soon became her colleagues she could depend on while they also admired and acknowledged her presence.
I honestly think a kdrama can never achieve this..
also, I adore her, but her outfits were so awful! they were like an old kindergarten teacher's outfits xD also the guys' hairs were a disaster xD

Iokibe Kei was cold but he was a great character and a great mentor and I shipped him with the restaurant owner xD. Koizumi Jun;s growth was so admirable and he matched so well with Kokoro Kurosawa, tbh the only acceptable partner for a cute sunshine should be a cute sunshine and not the cold jerk xD

I found the stories and their connections really heartwarming and well made, but the delivery kinda felt lacking. they had too many character and too little time, tbh I want a 2nd season ;(


p.s I never rewatch stuff, and I don't think jdrama OSTs are as extravagant as kdramas..

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sure the plot is not extraordinary, but they did really well with what they got. the writers knew what they wanted to say and they didn't just throw in one random event after another like the usual "corruption" movies.
Lee Chan Woo was a really interesting male lead, he had a nice backstory of working his way from an uneducated bouncer till he became a ceo(?), and that kinda gave more depth to him. it was also interesting to see yet another side of Park Hae Soo "the actor".
Sung Eun Young was a beautiful smart independent elegant character~ again they gave her a nice backstory to build up the character's actions and I just love when writers/directors actually use the female lead as something more than just a side kick, and Seo Ye Ji is just so beautiful and a great actress (and the reason I watched this)~

I also loved the side characters Kim Sang Soo and Kim Kwan Chul were such SRS..

basically after LCW opened his club he only wanted to live as a happy honest business owner but his righteousness involves him in a big mess that turns into another mess which in turn ends up making a big pile of events, and the movie had a nice pace revolving around this.

I kinda want to compare this to prison playbook or live, not in plot or quality, but like it was a nice outlook to the usual crime/corruptions and the pace was nice too.

also, the cinematography was so pretty, they had this nice purplish undertone how could I not love it~
sometimes I just need movies like this that are not too complicated or too dark but it was not comedic, just fun..
the romance was barely nonexistent but it was such a sweet touch, I kinda shipped them, alot~

I rarely rewatch anything so my values are either a 1 or 10, though this was fun enough for another rewatch~

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this was beautiful! a warm and sweet story about breaking away from people's expectations and prejudice.
the story was kinda like lovely complex. the girl was criticized for being too tall and the guy for being too short, but the whole journey was so relaxing and inspirational.
I shipped them together, but I'm glad they didn't try to force the romance and focused on two friends' growth. the music was super nice, and their last dance was so beautiful, and the end made me tear up❤


my rewatch values are 1 or 10. though this was short and sweet enough for a rewatch ;)

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pre big mouse

1st off I'll say this only "worked" cuz of the actors, mainly lee jong suk. I am a LJS fan, I adore the dude but I'm unbiased when I say his acting improved so much and he carried this on his own
unlike Eve tho where SYJ and the ridiculous makjang were entertaining, this got boring after ep7ish

for acting and character I'll rate them as such

Lee Jong Suk(Park Chang Ho): 10/10, legit carried the show, went from UWU to believable mob boss in 1seconds
Im Yoon Ah(Mi Ho): 8/10 but I enjoyed her time as "minnie mouse". I wish this show was more of a power couple
Kim Joo Heon(Choi Do Ha): 5/10. he was bland the 1st half, unsurprising reveal, over estimated himself and boom he was dead in 1 second
Kwak Dong Yeon(Jerry): 7/10, he was better as the bromance cellmate, got super boring when he was revealed to be a big mouse lanky
Yang Kyung Won(Gong Ji Hoon): 8/10, better psycho villain than doha, 2 overexaggerating psychos in 1 drama gets bland, and he was the crazy one 1st so doha just felt like a copy cat
Ok Ja Yeon(Hyun Joo Hee ): 6/10 seemed more villianis but like miho, the women here were an after thought
Jung Jae Sun(Park Yoon Gab): 8/10, I know the actor as the jijjiri type of evil, so I liked how he got a bigger role and the actor tbh would've been better as real big mouse, he switched between petty villain to power boss well
Real Big Mouse: 3/10, the actor felt bland, his character twist even blander, 99% of the people didn't believe it was him xD
3 VIPs: 1/10. they were a 3in1, they dragged one side kick villain into 3 and made them 3 whiny losers


this show was a fun underdog forced to be the big dog, the prison scenes were fun, but then it all lasted so long that their main fight was just an echo "loooook for pappppeerrrr"
everything was resolved way too quickly, doha big villain that ruined water supply, miho gets sick/dies just as a pawn in the revelation and booooooooooooom, doha is killed

the best parts for me were actually the fact that they were married, but I guess like every other "marriage" in "crime" genres, the wife must die so the husband takes action ;/
this overall felt like a prequel to the story of Park Chang Ho as a real badass big mouse, in a way real big mouse was better off as an organization with no leader, or 1 guy that manipulated ppl, having 1 guy with his own set of organization just for him to die so Park Chang Ho could take over the crown on a silver platter, was all just too simple

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tried too hard

this drama tried too hard on three aspects, one it wanted to be "mature", two it wanted a cute "fluffy" romance and three it wanted to pull a move I actually like so I didn't mind xD


one; it's as if cheating and complicated romance makes it more mature. on the other hand this also wanted to show that 30 year olds are still clueless and naive
the thing is, the ML was toxic from the start, he played push and pull with the FL while he was in a relationship. so not only did he keep confusing the FL, he then proceeds to blame her for everything
after she took courage to confess and they spend a night together, he doesn't call! then he goes to her house unannounced and yells at HER for not calling! but even worse after he made her insecure, taken aback, he proceeds to tell her I like you.
that's legit toxic behavior, the problem didn't even start with the fact that he was already dating, he never respected women

after a while they show how all his life girls confessed to him 1st, then he only dated his gf just becasue she was yet another fangirl, so even if their relationship was never serious, it was not an excuse to pursue the FL and confuse her even more while they were "dating"

here the writer wanted that "1st loves don't work out" with a touch of makjang so I actually liked that message xD


the 2nd problem was the second couple, that dude was 21 pretending to be 24 but acted like a 15 year old! I have nothing against age gaps, hani's character too needed a cutie more than a controlling "oppa", but this was a severe case of miscast, I could take his actions, but I could not take the aegyo or the way he talked, I could not believe a 30 year old wants that... there's a difference between age gap and mental gap, they could have a 10 year gap and still match intellectually


the 3rd part was the "2nd lead gets the girl", it's a thing with song jaerim xD I actually not only preferred him, but I'm all on board the "get rid of the jerk ML and choose the sweetie 2ML" :)




a good point would be that this was short but the bad point would be this show repeated scenes way too much ;)

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When the writer makes the main female lead faint in EVERY SINGLE ep, you know there's something wrong here.. for one she's a COP, so one would assume she could atleast try to take cover but nope, she's the target of any and all "accidents"
I am dropping this at ep4 but even after ep6's teaser I saw yet another pic of Ha Neul Ae Gu Reum with closed eyes...


now people could make up all the excuses they want but the ML is miscast, or horribly written. we can assume he's in his mid 30s to early 40s, and since the younger vr seemed to be kinda in a similar age group as the fl, 35 is as young as he could pretend to be.
but imagine, a grown man is so incompetent, the way he reacts to things makes it seem like he's in his teens. he's confused, lost, brooding and worse he loses his temper and storms out like a kid.. ooh yeah the WORST part was when he pushed the fl then also broke the bus station's glass that cut her face and neck.......
I have seen many many "supernatural" themed shows and movies, maybe I even watched teen focused superpower genres even more and non of them act as childish as this 40 year old man
I won't say he's not acting it right, he is pulling off that horrible character but they don't fit each other. if they casted a teen or someone in their early 20s then maayyybe, but I hate that type of character it's just a cheap out of a real in depth struggle


on the other hand I don't get the obsession the FL has with the ML. sure she wants to know about her parents, but he's practically a dead end, there's no need for her to risk her life for him when she could try to arrest him.. he's acting too pitiful and she's way too invested


I actually enjoyed the "evil minions" story more, Choi Yoo Na and Lee Son's convo in ep4 was more interesting than anything else, granted though everything from ep1 till ep4 was a boring repetitive circle.
the evil guys find zio, they have an over exaggerated fight and then they run and run and run, then the fl faints while the ml pouts..


Lee Da Hee, Jung Da Eun and the OST were the best part, though at some points the OST is too flashy as if they're trying to say "look at us, we're a fancy fantasy"

now I'm only dropping this for 2 reasons, one I can't take dahee fainting one more time and two I now have 5 better ongoing shows so I don't need to waste my time on this, though I might pick it up after it ends and skip all the running and whining ;D


I technically dropped this at ep4 (lucky me) but I had my eyes on the ending and they killed both FL and SFL?! WOW, did the writer hate female characters? tbh the FL was so badly written that I new this writer can't write female characters, it's surprising to see that they also wrote the Pirates, but anyway...
what's worse they killed her off by taking a bullet for the ML? that's legit my most hated trope...

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