amrita828

Oh yes, it sends the wrongest one: "if you smile while enduring, you look prettier" :P
I was beyond furious at this drama message and not only regarding the sexual harrassment issue.

I've come to the conclusion that if you don't get immediately attached to these characters, you never will. The people who loved this drama to the end fell in love with it very early on; those like me, who grew increasingly annoyed by it all, struggled to reach the end without falling asleep and throwing the laptop out of the 10th floor window upon waking up. :S

LOL, good luck with your instalments! :-)
Who knows, it may work for you to digest what's in store next. The half backed conservativeness you so rightly mention will never be cooked the right way.
First they take this glass of water and make an ocean out of it. Then, possibly realizing a 4 years gap between two adults is ludicrous even in their own eyes, they take that same glass of water and this time make it into a deluge of biblical proportions, with a conflict that could be resolved with just a little honesty or an ounce of courage.

I love the two lead actors too. They are both very talented and great to look at. However, on my part I truly need to erase from my memory the characters they play here if I want to appreciate them in their next projects.

P.S. I wanted to slap the brother too. He gets a little better though. At least, in comparison. ;-)

Let's see... there's a talking horse, a group of gangsters who quote Nietzsche, a mysterious ahjumma who sells chewing-gum for an inanely high price, a knife stuck in a door very Excalibur like, two ridiculously handsome male leads ;-) and a leading lady I'd date myself if I weren't already married. :P
In the midst of all this, there's a sweet story of friendship/budding love and a hopefully very satifying revenge. XD

It's hilarious, surprising and I personally find it highly addictive. :)

LOL, very true!
Ironically, that was the shortest walk they had in the whole drama! ;-)

A good friend here on mdl suggested an alternative ending: a loop! They meet again on Jeju and re-do the whole a hundred times until the mother dies of an old age or food poisoned. :P Hahahaha

What, you didn't appreciate the innovative 3 seconds walk in the sunset? :P

A good friend here on MDL (and casually on this feed) told me already after viewing the very first episodes that the plot was not "meaty enough", but I went on hoping for a barbecue that never came. :P
Who knows, it might be different for you, LaRagazza. :)

Lol, thanks DoYouLikeMessi, I'm always glad to entertain. ;-)

Since this is, as you righty say, a rant, it's per definition a very personal outburst. I wouln't want to discourage someone who could enjoy the show, after all. :)

Thank you, kingsqueen. Yes, a shorter lengh would have been beneficial not only for the narration flow, but I for one wouldn't have had the time to stop caring about these characters.

@sun
I'm curious to know what you'll think about the final episode. I'm not so much referring to the ending itself, but to a few parts that made me think "why oh why didn't they do this on episode... 8?"

I'd never thought the characters of a drama could go from decent to unresonable and from bad to worse. I have no idea whatsoever where this thing is going, what we are supposed to feel or why should we even feel something. The turn the already meagre events have taken in the last few episodes, makes me re-consider even the love story. Why are these two supposedly in love? What do they really know about each other? What do they have in common?
Jin-ah keeps on making the most idiotic and at times cruel mistakes, over and over, and every time all she can say is: forgive me. Let's eat. Let's drink. Let's jump in bed.
That's lust, not love. She's immature, often dishonest, and an egoist too. That he keeps on forgiving her is also kind of annoying.
I've come to a point where I wish JH will fly to China, America, Europe, Pluto or wherever and leave that brat behind for good.

Thank YOU, Siensielel! ;-) ;-)

*sigh of relief. I have tried to think of you as knkll, but it proved a little hard, lol.

I agree with you, Cncll (how do you pronounce your nick? :D ).
Here are my 2 cents.

There's a difference between a slow paced filming that lingers on little details and one that simply does not progress plotwise.
Let's take Just Between Lovers as a comparison, since you mention it and since I absolutely adored that one. JBL often focuses on small details - both visual as well as in dialogues - which reveal a lot about the characters, their feelings, their fear and explain why these characters are the way they are. The pace gives you the time to immerse in their world, which is great. Dialogues are deep and meaningful and the plot progresses everything but slowly.

Something in the Rain, on the other hand, has been dealing with the same issue for the last 6 or more episodes now. At times, we see a character running towards a building, entering the building, calling the elevator, waiting for the elevator, entering the elevator, reaching the floor, running to the office... all this, what does it tell us about this character? That (s)he's anxious to reach the floor? That (s)he is in a hurry?
When details become unnecessary to tell a story, the plot progresses too slowly. If we take one episode at a time, in 70 minutes we've had 20 telephone calls, 50 apologies, people running around and others kneeling in front of someone else. Dialogues aren't strong either. They are often left open and too much of their content is left to imagination, covered by some music with the characters laughing, kissing, crying, walking. The viewer's left out.

I too stopped caring. I'll watch it to completion because I want to write a review. Honestly.

And yes, "pensive" is often perceived as high quality. It's always been like this, even in literature. However, not all that is slow is good or deep and not all that is fast is shallow, all the more so when a show is slow because nothing much happens.

I thought you were going to suggest swords at 6 a.m. in the clearing, LOL! ;)

@Jaybird & Minnie
You never at any point sounded abrasive to me. On the contrary, I agree with you: it's the angle we are watching from that differs. :D
It's precisely because I look at these people as fictional characters that I venture at criticizing them. In real life, clearly everyone chooses one's own methods and pace in order to find happiness, self-esteem, love or the whole package.

Also, I need to make it clear that I don't dislike the actress, who's doing a great job.
Unfortunately, my dissatisfaction with this drama doesn't rest solely on Jin Ah, even though her character's become a major source of frustration to me. There are other reasons, but they are besides the points raised here.

Therefore, I wish you fun in keeping on watching. We'll meet at the end of the road (with pistols, lol). ;)

I see your point, Minnie, and thank you for replying. Many think criticism is a mere sportspoil and would have simply told me to drop the drama. And if I have to give this show some credit, it would be that it creates this kind of debate. :)

Clearly, if we see Jin Ah as a real person, we can recognize and even sympathize with her efforts to have a large, happy family in which everyone's in accord with the other. However, as a dramatized character and main fictional lead, she's not only frustrating but, to me, very disappointing. The fact that by episode 12 her brother and even her father have made bigger steps forward than her is unsatisfying.

I'm disappointed in the speech she gave that pervert collegue of her at the restaurant, attributing her change to the fact that she now has someone she doesn't want to disappoint. I was hoping for a self determination, something like "I've realized you are wrong and I was wrong in never protesting". Otherwise, to solve the harrassment problem at work it would suffice to say "I'm married now, ta-da!"

I'm disappointed in the way she "solved" the psycho ex situation. I'm disappointed she was never sincere to anyone about that whole story, and that she's still hiding so many thing to everyone, including her best friend and her lover.
I'm more than ready to recognize she went through a lot, but by now I was waiting for something better than her accepting to go on a blind date! Not yet happy, she offers to keep JH's father informed about his son, without him knowing? Bad choice and a little egotistical too, since JH isn't a baby and she isn't his mother.

Unfortunately, all these far from small shortcomings paint the picture of a woman I liked in the beginning and sort of despise now. In terms of drama enjoyment, she's one of the main reasons why I'm not liking this show anymore, which is a pity. Basically, she's stumbling more than there's need to.
I agree with you JH isn't perfect either, but to his credit, he's tried to talk things with her more than she has been willing to do. She usually starts pouting, or offers to spend the night with him. End of heart-to-heart.

Yes, that's the point of the drama, but don't you think, perhaps people are complaining exactly about that?
The writer took one issue out of many and decided to build a whole drama around it. Of course we are watching with western eyes, don't we do this always? I think most of us have seen our good share of Asian dramas and we have always discussed the issues raised using our own, personal view of things and possibly experience. Should we suddenly mute our sets of values in order to appreciate this particular drama?

Family opposition to a relationship is far from being a new topic in a drama; what's incredibly frustrating here is that instead of giving us all - western or otherwise - a heroine we can fully empathize with, they decided to go with an anti-heroine who's still willing to compromise with a mother who not only opposes her choices and offends her at every turn, but went as far as to insult a young man she hipocritically compared to her son and deeply hurt her daughter's best friend, belittling the siblings in the face of family circumstances they are in no way responsible for.

Even in a society like that of South Korea where family is the centre of the world, there is a limit that shouldn't be surpassed, that is gratuitously hurting the people you're supposed to love. If the writer wanted us to sympathize with the situation, she wouldn't have made the mother the villain of this story, which means that in their very Korean eyes what that woman is doing is wrong too.

So why should Jin Ah accept it? A grown up woman at this point would stand by her man - isn't this concept repeated ad nauseam via that ever-present song? The drama's almost reaching the end and the heroine of the story has regressed instead of progressing. I see this as bad character writing, sorry.

I'm afraid it's you who must revise the meaning of melodrama, Blackpanther. A melodrama has a most eventful plot, so much so that it becomes over the top. A typical melodrama has got birth secrets, missed encounters by a second, misunderstandings, tricks and whatever can be thrown in to create sensation and pathos.
Yes, Shining Inheritance is a good example of melo, in fact it's everything BUT slow. In The Innocent Man there are so many events, one needs to take notes not to forget them!

Here the story revolves around one issue only, that is the romance and everyone's reaction to it, that's why it's slow. After the crazy car ride with lunatic ex, nothing has moved except mummy dear's tongue.

I agree. The high rate isn't due to the eye-candy alone, unless we tag its whole cinematography as eye-candy.

However, every single drama that gets some attention from episode 1 - for whatever reason - gets high marks at once. The rate skyrockets thanks to people who insist at rating a drama when the pilot is barely over - on what ground is still a mystery to me. I wish they would all wait until the drama is completed before deciding if it's a 10 or a 1.
It takes a long time and a lot of votes to come to a more balanced rate for a show that was labelled as fantastic from the very start, regardless of its ability or failure at keeping the initial promises.

That's a general statement, by the way, I'm not referring to this drama alone. When the next highly anticipated show airs, we will all see the same pattern repeating.

So am I the only one who's bothered by the way the whole sociopath ex boyfriend issue is treated here?

First of all, would any of you step into the car of a man who has repeatedly shown his true colours, who has been stalking you, assaulted you, insulted you in many ways and still hasn't got the message?
And if you were as naive as to do so, would you AGAIN try to solve the problem with a handshake after he's basically tried to kill you?
She should press charges, and at once.
What's her plan? Send his boyfriend and brother to his house again in case the wacko makes another move?

Furthermore, why aren't they discussing this a little more between the two, instead of her pouting and apologizing with aegyo voice for making him worry? If she wants to show she's a grown up woman who can deal with her problems, then do so!

I love romance like anyone else, but I find myself seated here, waiting for some kind of sincere, even pragmatic, explanatory talk between these two that never comes. I get it they are enthusiastically in love, but I'd also love to understand why they are.