burhaa aadmi

Another way to look at the timing of the accusation is that the accuser waited until the Drama was finished so that ONLY the actor was affected.
Had the accusation being released earlier, while the Drama was airing, the other cast and all the crew would have been affected, probably losing work immediately. We know this because it's happened, often - Dramas shortened or even abandoned when a lead gets into a major scandal.
The accuser's timing spared a lot of people a lot of pain, but of course the people it spared are people the actor's fans don't care about.

It's not just Domino's that has erased him, several other brands have too, and a press conference that Shin Min Ah was due to hold after the Drama has been cancelled.

I have no problem at all with your opinions, cogently and civilly expressed, but I am interested in the maths. 🙂
You define "Hot Stove League" (which I absolutely LOVED, and share your view of) as "less hyped" than "Mysterious Love" (which I'd never even heard of) when it not only has a higher MDL rating but also nearly twice as many MDL viewers?

I really enjoyed your article A LOT - especially the mention of Well-Intentioned Love. I am literally unable to comprehend how anyone can watch that Drama and think it's cute or romantic after what he did to her, so seeing it called out like you did always makes me happy. 👍😀

A very well written article, thanks! I loved it because it highlights the challenges involved in being a devout fan of romance Dramas who also considers it essential that issues like thse are handled well. Thank you for taking the time to write so cogently about such important ptroblems

" He tricks the object of his obsession into thinking she has cancer and needs to marry him for treatment" This was why I dropped that Drama and scored it -5/10 . Utterly unforgivable and something from which there was no way back to anything resembling a healthy relationship.

I'm interested to note that overall you praise Moonlight for its handling of consent when the Drama often shows the ML imposing his will on the FL by physical coercion - AFTER the scene you mention,. He's shown dragging her the arm or wrist, restraining her from leaving/moving by using physical force to stop her. To me, those are also serious examples on non-consensual behaviour, and in the end the frequency and severity of them led me to drop that Drama too. - that and his repeated physical assaults on his friend, a different form of non-consensual interaction. :)

On a side note, the universality of this sort of behaviour across East Asian Dramas might be reflected in the fact that "pinned up against a wall" has a name derived from its prevalence in J doramas - kabedon.

A nice review! I had the pleasure of QCing the subs on the first 5 episodes of this Drama, and it's a favourite. As you say "forget the romance" - the title I think sows that the real object of his affection is Tokyo. I also agree that Takahata Mitsuki really shines in this - the Drama would be pale without here. As an aside, if the age data for Yoshida Kotaro is accurate, he was actually 54 when playing a 55 year old 🙂

Many of these were too makjang for my palate, but My Father Is Strange was sweet and fun. but if you want to try one that has zero makjang, I highly recommend Yeah, That's How It Is which aired at the same time as as Five Enough. And at the opposite end of the makjang scale, Eonni is Alive (Band of Sisters) has an opening 4 minutes that is approximately 10,999% pure makjang craziness 😁

A wise move.

WR has to rank as among the worst K Drama remakes of TW originals, along with the total butchery of the classic In Time With You by the ghastly Ha Ji Won flop The Time We Were Not in Love.
Sadly, because of the profile of K Dramas, most people think WR is all there is, and never check out the original

Kim Jae Wook has been a favourite of mine since Coffee Prince. Ms Jung was underwhelming in My Lovely Girl, but was for me one of the few bright spots in the Heirs, and also pleasantly surprised me in Player. So I'm going to hope her acting is on an upward growth trajectory, and she'll benefit from working with a seasoned veteran like KJW>

I would recommend it. I've only finished 36 C Dramas (dropped 33) versus 266 completed K Dramas (77 dropped), but in my experience, the only C Drama I've seen so far with truly memorable child actors was My Fated Boy, with the 2 young versions of the OTP. Korea has a long history of really impressive child actors. Also, since you mention that you're a sucker for angst, check out Bara No Nai Hanaya - amazing child actor whose character plays a big part in helping the OTP come together

An interesting article, thanks! I skipped the reference to Moonlight because I'm 1/3 into that now and don't want any possible spoilers 😁

I note very few K Dramas in this list, so if you want a K Drama where powerful child acting is key to binding the OTP do check out Marriage Contract

IDK if you did watch Witch's Romance, but it was a BIG letdown. The writers lost their nerve and had UJH's character behaving like a giggling virginal schoolgirl toward the end, after a promising start. The TW original of which WR is a remake, My Queen, is conservatively 10 million times better :)

Thank you SO MUCH for this warning review. I started this for Song Yiren, but just 6 minutes into episode 1, it was giving off vibes of yet another in the stream of endless CCP "celebration of chauvinism" uber-tsundere barf bag "romcoms" Your review has saved me time AND rage, thank you! The bit about bribing the hotel owner was the clincher. I would have dropped in disgust at that point, thanks to yo, I didn't have to get that far.

Like you, I was excited for Jeong Eun Ji, I loved her in R97 and have been following her Insta updates not knowing what this show was about. I will not be watching. It is very clearly a Drama length CF sponsored by either one alcohol company or the industry as a whole, and actual CFs tied in to the show are already appearing. I'll wait for her next and hope it's less repellent than a celebration of a social sickness.

Punch! The SD card scene is brilliant. Amazing bromance political thriller.

the only part of this comment I disagree with is the "snob" part. There is nothing snobbish at all in being repelled by seeing a social evil portrayed as good thing. Alcohol is fine, and drinking with friends is fun, but Korea's celebration of drinking to literally toxic levels of excess, and even worse of judging someone's character and worth as a person by how much alcohol they can consume, is a hideous and indefensible blight. You are NOT a snob for speaking up against it.

VERY disappointed that SK is making yet another celebration of its excess drinking culture. According to recent statistics, 13 Koreans die every day from excess alcohol consumption, it's horrific that this social, physical and mental harm is celebrated like this.

A fascinating read, thanks! It really does sound like the sort of concept that might translate well, it made me think of Law School. Well done on an interesting and intriguing suggestion.

A question about your casting choices for the male and female adult roles, if I may: The males you've named are all big names in their 40s and very well-respected actors. Is there a reason why you didn't select any of the big name female actors from the same age group? I see that the Klem cast are roughly contemporaneous in age, which fits with the characters they're playing, but your suggestions have quite big gaps in ages, with Seo Ji Hye being closest in age to the male actors listed. No room for female actors of similar status and age to the males, like Jeon Do Yeon, Lee Bo Young, Yoon Se ah, Oh Nara etc?

Thank you for this very helpful review. I watched the first three, but already by then I realised that I just didn't care enough about any of the characters to stick with it

"get more hate than they deserve" - since all entertainment reactions are subjective, it is not possible for any Drama to get "more hate than it deserves", because there is no objective standard for determining how much is too much, or too little. The number of Dramas in this "overhated" list that have countless 10/10 ratings and glowing reviews here at MDL shows that while some may hate them, myriads of others love them. And all of them are correct.