burhaa aadmi

It's nice to see "Be Melodramatic" get mentioned in the comments, but a relatively recent Drama that it seems no one has mentioned is the OUTSTANDING "Goodbye to Goodbye". That Drama is ALL about the women, the lead pair are actually (prospective) mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. The Drama revolves around them, and their relationship with each other and with other women. The men (including the one involved in a loveline) are very much secondary characters

An excellent review, nicely highlighting many of the reasons why I dropped this misogynistic abomination. "Strong" women in K Dramas almost always need rescuing by the male leads, and the casting of the female lead shows that this was never going to be an exception. As you point out, her physical build is all wrong to be remotely credible as a weightlifter.

I'm looking forward to checking this out for Lee Joo Bin, who impressed me in Be Melodramatic

As someone who dropped the Drama halfway, I'm just happy to finally see someone else responding to the article with anything other than gushing, fawning, uncritical adulation. :)

Interesting review, thanks. It's been so long since I watched it that I didn't remember their ages, but since Lee Min Ki was 32 when the Drama was made, I have no problem with thinking of him as 38. I discovered just last week that a dear Korean friend I thought was 36-37 is actually only 31-32 (I haven't told him!), so the age stated seems credible to me.

You made it much further than I did, I dropped after 10 :)

If you do, be aware that the tone of the second half is VERY different. It's effectively a different Drama. No more fun and laughter and sweet jokes, just LOTS of death and misery. Pretty much everyone except the leads dies, most of them horribly and graphically. It's why I dropped at halfway, once the per episode body count started to skyrocket.

" if a cliché is done right, it can be entertaining enough." Brava for this! Like you, I enjoyed "Touch Your Heart" for similar reasons. It was nothing new, but it delivered the tropes competently and credibly, thanks to the leads. Sometmies it's nice to sit back and know exactly what you're going to get. :)

Also, yay for another plug for Be Melodramatic - although I found the lead couple underwhelming and unengaging, I loved the doco maker and her frenemy/subject

2019 was a mehdiocre year for me, 17 2019 K-Dramas completed, nothing higher than an 8.5 from me. On the upside, only one dropped, the slaughterfest that was "Tale of Nokdu", while the two Dramas that did score highest for me, Search:WWW (8.5) and Be Melodramatic (8)did make the list above.

Yep, me too - I'd just started ep 2 when I stumbled on the big secret, and dropped instantly, after recoiling in revulsion.

"The large secret the husband kept from the wife felt really wrong and kind of silly" - more than silly, it was a vicious lie, cruel and utterly psychotic. The very very worst kind of stalker, definitely creepy, nothing "borderline" about it.

"It's a shame" that other people don't share your personal preferences? "darker dramas are the best"? That last statement is a common refrain among many J-dorama fans, it seems. As if pain, misery, violence and death intrinsically and automatically make a drama "better".

The simple reality is, whether you watch 1000 litres of tears or Nigeru wa Haji, it's still a choice made for one's own entertainment. Some people find blood, pain, angst and violence entertaining, others don't The content alone does not make one genre qualitatively better.

Excellent review, thanks for the heads up. I tried marking your review as "helpful", but the system wouldn't accept it.

Another handy use for my secondary phone number - get verified here while protecting my primary number. Thank you.

Oh, DO check it out, it's very good. And apart from the miracle of no-shave neurosurgery, very credible overall too.

Of course, the correct answer would have been: "It is if the writer says so"
"Punch" is one of my all-time favourite K Dramas, and solidly written overall, but it still amuses me that KRW's character had major neurosurgery to attempt tumour removal WITHOUT LOSING HIS HAIR :D

I hope you do try it again. For me, I didn't click with the leads' story, and FF'd through most of it. But I really enjoyed the documentary film maker's arc. It was the most interesting part of the Drama for me, and involved the most growth

It is if it's metastatic

If I could give your post multiples hearts for "Auditory Hallucination" I would. :)

And I'm not on Kocowa's map :)