burhaa aadmi

You missed NOTHING - except a Drama in which "friends" literally STOLE HER HOUSE AND HER MONEY AND GOT AWAY WITH IT. Just thinking about the Drama makes me break out in a rage rash all over again

5 out of 8 are firm favourites, and of course number 1, featuring the happy union of two
Gooners, is pretty near perfect! :)

Yeah, don't get me started on K Drama cable episode length - J dorama norms win hands down!

"..this year was prison Playbook" slightly OT, but a Korean friend who watches basically NO K Dramas loved that one, he said it depicted Korean prison life very well, reminding him of his time in one.

Oh, Nobunaga Concerto definitely not a romance, but still the romance arc in it was great- which made the SP so VERY hard to watch :(

Here, teachers get sent to prison for getting into romantic relationships with underage students, but one of my favourite J-romance dramas DOES involve a teacher, the delightfully slow and delicate Hayako Sensei. My other faves would be Bara No Nai Hanaya (although the real otp are the father and daughter), Date , Takane No Hana and Nigeru Wa Haji.
Several of my favourite J romances are not primarily focused on romance, but still deliver such satisfying romantic arcs. Nobunaga Concerto a prime example(waaaah!), along with Okitegami Kyouko no Bibouroku(sigh!). Then there are two where the love affair is mostly with the city, Tokyo Sentimental (only partly subbed, sadly, I had the pleasure of QCing the eps that were subbed), and A Sharply Graceful Girl. From your list above, the one that appeals most is Natsu no Koi wa Nijiiro ni Kagayaku , I will add that one to my watchlist, thanks!

I just want to say thanks for sharing an honest review. It gets a bit tedious seeing practically every Drama getting 9s or 10s, even utter drek like this one, your score was refreshing. I dropped it after only 2, so I'm impressed you lasted for 6. :)

Interesting you should say that - although Takane No Hana's 2018 release was recent, looking at the related lists others shared, it confirmed my feeling that this a trope not frequently used in recent years - several from 15+ years ago, not so many in the last 5. Like you, I'd like to see it revisited more often.

Thanks for pointing that out - I did say I was guessing, badly, it would seem :)

I don't think it's a spoiler when talking about a character introduced in episode 4 of 24.

Yes, exactly. That's what I mean by lazy writing. Rather than craft a credible story, with the "battle between good and evil" a real struggle with wins and losses on both sides before the dénouement, they take the lazy way out and let this out of control sadist get away with absolutely everything for 11 episodes. In real life, stuff doesn't always go right for the bad guys either, but with rare exceptions like Stranger/Forest of Secrets, K Dramas don't acknowledge that and we get the sort of absurdity we saw here. Which is even more aggravating in a Drama that's SUPPOSED to be a love story. Le sigh!

Gaaah! Why is that STUPID "brother" in EVERY SINGLE SCENE with her? Just Fly off and DIE, PLEASE

5 episodes in and there's NOWHERE NEAR enough fluff. That "brother" of hers is bringing out the murderer in me, I just want him to sod off back to wherever, and the whole revenge-stalker paparazzo storyline is tedious. Fluff is fluff, like Put Your Head on My Shoulder, Le Coup de Foudre, A Love So Beautiful. If there isn't a BIG shift soon in the ratio of sweet fun fluff to aggravating needless angst arcs, this one's headed for the drop bin

I definitely agree that the 2nds in High Society stole the show, but I don't see what was so surprising about the end.

Again, a guess, but like BoF not being included, maybe because it's a remake of a Japanese original? The list is K-Dramas, so maybe they decided to use only Korean originals, not remakes from other sources.

Maybe it wasn't included because it was a remake of a Japanese original, Hana Yori Dango? That's just a guess, but it is a possible explanation.

Exactly! It's lazy sloppy writing, and is tonally wrong for what's essentially a sweet love story. But it's an aggravatingly common K Drama trope, letting the bad guys get away with basically EVERYTHING, until the final episode.

Takane No Hana, with the lovely Ishihara Satomi, is one you might enjoy. Also, a blast from the past, Take Care of the Young Lady, a Yoon Eun Hye drama.

That's why I didn't specify the trauma - *something* bad happening to one of the leads is an almost guaranteed trope in a romance Drama.

"What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim to me is unwatchable (dropped). If you’re ok with sexist shows like Madmen, then you wouldn’t mind how overbearing, sexist, chauvinistic, and overbearing the ML CEO is, but I couldn’t stomach it (I know, there’s a reason for his behavior, but he’s so unlikeable, that I simply couldn’t care less about his reasons). "
I gave you a like for this. I actually stuck it out to the end in case he and it got better, they did not. Even at the very end, she was STILL calling him boss. Ugh, so very ugh, you were wise to drop. I really wish I had.