I know I am in the minority but somehow this drama failed to hit the spot like similarly themed dramas (When the Weather is Fine, My Mister etc) did. I found it the healing bit well done,very realistic but unfortunately the heart of the story - the Moon Soo–Gang Doo relationship/romance - failed to work for me.
I found Won Jin A - the FL - to be very bland and flat in her portrayal of Moon Soo. She had very little chemistry going on with both MLs and when things got emotionally intense, midpoint onward it got even worse with her blank expressions and one note reactions failing to get me engaged, often taking me out. And all that awkwardness during kiss/skinship scenes was just awful to watch.
Lee Jun Ho on the contrary was excellent as usual. He did a wonderful job portraying a self destructive and reckless Gang Doo who finds no reason for living except to pay off his debt and bicker with his beloved halmoni, but slowly finds Moon Soo enough reason to make an effort to live and heal.
Script-wise, I though the writer did a great job examining how the trauma of the accident affected different people in different ways. What I did have trouble was the noble idiocy trope ruining large parts of the 2nd half.
This was a solid crime show and the first 12 episodes were really engaging and intriguing. There were 2 reveals…
The doctor being Sang Eui felt right but him getting addicted just because JJG took away Jun Seo felt really silly when it was high school/20 years old childish jealously.
Also JJG getting Chairman to confess was badly written. Such a wily man wouldnt acknowledge regardless of the provocation.
This was a solid crime show and the first 12 episodes were really engaging and intriguing. There were 2 reveals that felt poorly done but that apart,, the plotting worked. More under spoiler
The best thing about the drama are the performances. Ji Sung is a given but the others that stood out include Kwon Yul (his final monologue!!), Kim Kyung Nam and Lee Kang Wook.
As a Kim Nam Gil fan, I was rather late, but finally watched this! Silly and goofy, this drama picked me up from a sorta kdrama slump. The humour was unabashedly slapstick and OTT which got too much at times but bearable. The pace was fast and plotting reasonably tight so you remained engaged. The fights were awesome with Go Jun's being the most amazing...shows he's a pro.
What I didnt like was the drama not managing tonal shifts. The cases dealt with pretty serious shit. Which meant that the drama randomly shifts between comedy and melo which felt abrupt. Some tracks got resolved too easily to keep the comedy going which felt wrong. In Chief Kim it wasnt literally life or death so the comedy seemed to blend more smoothly than here.
Performances - all around decent. Kim Nam Gil's surprisingly good at comedy but I have to say he overdid the cutesy/goofy bits in places. I personally was again most impressed by Go Jun - fantastic actor.
The first half is incredibly good but loses its way after that. The initial episodes will hold your attention…
The memory loss twist came out of the left field and IMO the weird shift in narrative styling happened here onwards. So much became a montage and no real story. And that final healing showdown was rather silly. Then the next tonal shift of the corporate battle was again so abrupt. Until then, we never hear of Dongyuan being in trouble and then suddenly it is on the brink of bankruptcy??! And Quan becoming the villain w/o Old Nie knowing was so lame and predictable. Bad writing.
The biggest issue of the drama is that the actor leads Wallace and Li Xiao Ran both look their age ie 40s. Visually this does not match with the story - the ML & FL separated when they just finished schooling & are heading to college, have been apart for 7 years current time, so they are in their late 20s. No way do Wallace & Li Xiao Ran look that age range, or even 30s. The only reason I didnt see that very obvious plot twist of Pingping being his child!!
Until the backstory is revealed I genuinely though the leads were in their late 30s and Yusheng still yearning over her was really romantic though surprising. But 7 years is nothing
The first half is incredibly good but loses its way after that. The initial episodes will hold your attention fast with the chemistry between leads, the angst and the mystery. But after that we get two plot shifts and both felt very abrupt. The drama has lots of regular melodrama tropes but the show runners did a wonderful job of keeping it realistic . But maybe the tone got too underplayed - after all I AM watching a melodrama!! The directors chose to gloss over many conversations which would have drawn viewers more into the narrative as things started unfurling in the 2nd half. More thoughts under spoiler on this.
Performance wise Wallace Chung takes it away. His is the most pitiful character, suffering from both his father's actions and his lover's reactions albeit much warranted. Wallace plays Yusheng Nie with a lot of sensitivity and feeling. Wonderful.
The FL I think played her character - a weary, disillusioned woman - with grace. I wish she was more communicative of her feelings but I guess her rough life gave her no chance.
Rewatched after 5 years and many many dramas - Before We Get Married still holds up. The magic I felt is still…
Chu Kehaun’s deep, abiding love for Weiwei still moves me. As does Weiwei’s desperate effort to do the right thing to save her relationship with Haoyi despite falling more and more in love with Kehaun. Feels very human.
Weiwei failing to acknowledge what is very obvious to others - that she & Kehaun undeniably have feelings for each other - is annoying as ever, but we have to understand who she is. Weiwei thinks of herself as someone living her life as per her values and principles. To be swept away by someone chasing her while neither are “free” agents is surely unacceptable by her rules. That’s why she fights her feelings so desperately and refuses to give up on her relationship with Haoyi. Kehaun obviously was emotionally dead before meeting Weiwei. He remained with Ziyuan through sheer apathy. The abortion issue should have made him leave, but I suspect he continued between not wanting to abandon her given his promise to her mother and comfortable routine. As he says later, meeting Weiwei made him realise what he was missing.
The issues I noticed the first time around did bother me this time too. 1] Kehaun gets a little too forceful at times. 2] Much of the corporate stuff in the second half is written primarily to ramp up the melodrama and does get a bit too much but ok, dramas are dramas, I can deal with it.
Puff, Jasper and Steven were phenomenal. The scene between Weiwei and Haoyi after his forced proposal is amazing acting wise. As I said in my comment years earlier, Kefei is the friend anyone would want to have, and Phoebe does an excellent job showing us a flawed but fiercely loyal and lovable character.
Rewatched after 5 years and many many dramas - Before We Get Married still holds up. The magic I felt is still very much there. The chemistry between the leads is still mesmerizing and no other drama for me matches the sizzle these two have on screen. Oh the looks they share, such feeling in them. More thoughts below:
I had to drop at ep 10. Zhao Lu Si is a good actress but unfortunately for 2 reasons I never felt drawn by her performance 1) Her dubbing voice - it consistently feels divorced from the scenes. Plus I want to give her a tissue and ask her to blow her nose properly before speaking 2) She is never natural and at ease. I dunno if its how she chose to portray her character (never seen her in anything else) but through 10 episodes I never stopped feeling that she's putting on an act.
The pacing is a real drag at times, and I didnt warm up to the serial problem solving superwoman narrative style. The only thing interesting was the sisters' relationship, but it wasnt enough to keep me going.
I love that J-doramas are fearless in what they explore and usually look forward to their unusual plots but I…
The first half treaded the line and I was fine with it. But the plot twist turned things upside down and I could still make sense of it. His grief, his guilt.
Shiori's advances towards Shibata on his return was to be expected - after all she does tell him back in one of the early episodes that she loved him. But we never do see Shibata's thinking or may be I missed cues. Was it always Shiori - and Kahori was just a cover/convenience? It would fit because he connects with Shiori first and it only later that he is swept away by lust by Kahori. The deep grief for Kahori... what was that then? Or did he develop feelings for Shiori after their parting in the island? I could not deconstruct Shibata and that affected my viewing. Why does he insist on going back into prison. Was it to cut time while he waited for Shiori to become of age? Was it as punishment for himself for loving Shiori 'that way'? It basically felt like he was directionless and threw away his life on the altar of the mother -daughter pair. One big problem was Yamada Maiko's acting. Absolutely no soul in her performance so the drama largely lost me in the latter episodes. Anyway. the acting of the others - Toyokawa Etsushi , Natsukawa Yui, Sano Shiro and Nagasaku Hiromi - was superb enough to keep me going.
Maybe Im too pragmatic to get it. Regardless, the stunning scenic shots of Japan were in itself worthy of a watch.
I love that J-doramas are fearless in what they explore and usually look forward to their unusual plots but I have to say this didnt work for me. Largely because it did not made sense to me. I may be called too 'uptight' for saying this but the way it ended felt weird. Trust me I usually love complicated plotlines. More under spoilers
This turned out to be a surprisingly good watch! We have a genuinely well-written FL , a charming ML with his own arc, a lovely sismance of three friends.
I found the FL abrasive and rude esp in the early episodes, but it gets toned down in a bit and even though her character growth is minimal she does get better in the end. What I did love was the character remains well defined till the end - she is strong, confident and smart even if a little too brash. The ML is well-matched and they make an awesome team after they join hands in the 2nd half. Fantastic chemistry and I thought their banter was great fun. NGL, would have liked more skinship - what we saw was yummy. I anyway love Wang Yang so I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Zhi Qiu's arc was the other one I quite enjoyed. I really liked to see the couple navigate very normal marital issues and their love & support was just lovely. Her personal growth story was also welldone. XuanXuan drove me batty - I skipped most of her aegyo scenes as the character & the actor got annoying. The cheating husband was predictable but the takedown was fun. Her character growth was significant but still just ok to watch.
Lots of focus on business part which I had nor problems with - the plotting was solid so it felt cohesive and all the bits nicely linked together right to the conclusion (very rare in dramas) which kept things consistently interesting.
Overall, a recommend watch for those looking for 30+ business + mature romance drama
QH ends with 11.7% rating, pretty decent I think. This was my first airing daily and the first time I actively participated in discussions. All in all, a very enjoyable watch - thanks to the QH team and you guys here!
Yes this has been a great watch even with its flaws. I have only watched 3 other dailies other than this one (have…
Thanks so much for the recs. Ive heard of a few but only had Yellow Boots & Two Mothers in my PTW. Adding the rest. I really wish I could find Yellow Boots somewhere in high res. Im dying to watch it but only DC used to have in 360p, even thats gone now. :(
Dare I say that this is one of THE *BEST* daily dramas in recent years that I've watched? The last one I genuinely…
Yes this has been a great watch even with its flaws.
I have only watched 3 other dailies other than this one (have dropped a few I tried out) and all have been good makjangs. I loved Promise, my first daily which I only picked up because I adored Lee Yu Ri in My Father is Strange. I marathon watched Miss Mermaid earlier this year (246 eps, with lots of FF) - Jang Seo Hee is outstanding & the first 100 eps were an amazing watch.
The third one Sunny Again Tomorrow is actually by the same writer as QH (Tae Ho starred in it as SML) and was quite an enjoyable watch though Seol In Ah was a bit raw in it. It was not as intense as QH and I would recommend it for someone looking for a light-ish makjang.
Im now wondering if I should watch the upcoming drama ( Lee II Hwa is great) or pick up Vengeance of the Bride that Im seeing mentioned often!!! Im hoarding Temptation of Wife :)
I found Won Jin A - the FL - to be very bland and flat in her portrayal of Moon Soo. She had very little chemistry going on with both MLs and when things got emotionally intense, midpoint onward it got even worse with her blank expressions and one note reactions failing to get me engaged, often taking me out. And all that awkwardness during kiss/skinship scenes was just awful to watch.
Lee Jun Ho on the contrary was excellent as usual. He did a wonderful job portraying a self destructive and reckless Gang Doo who finds no reason for living except to pay off his debt and bicker with his beloved halmoni, but slowly finds Moon Soo enough reason to make an effort to live and heal.
Script-wise, I though the writer did a great job examining how the trauma of the accident affected different people in different ways. What I did have trouble was the noble idiocy trope ruining large parts of the 2nd half.
Also JJG getting Chairman to confess was badly written. Such a wily man wouldnt acknowledge regardless of the provocation.
The best thing about the drama are the performances. Ji Sung is a given but the others that stood out include Kwon Yul (his final monologue!!), Kim Kyung Nam and Lee Kang Wook.
What I didnt like was the drama not managing tonal shifts. The cases dealt with pretty serious shit. Which meant that the drama randomly shifts between comedy and melo which felt abrupt. Some tracks got resolved too easily to keep the comedy going which felt wrong. In Chief Kim it wasnt literally life or death so the comedy seemed to blend more smoothly than here.
Performances - all around decent. Kim Nam Gil's surprisingly good at comedy but I have to say he overdid the cutesy/goofy bits in places. I personally was again most impressed by Go Jun - fantastic actor.
The biggest issue of the drama is that the actor leads Wallace and Li Xiao Ran both look their age ie 40s.
Visually this does not match with the story - the ML & FL separated when they just finished schooling & are heading to college, have been apart for 7 years current time, so they are in their late 20s. No way do Wallace & Li Xiao Ran look that age range, or even 30s. The only reason I didnt see that very obvious plot twist of Pingping being his child!!
Until the backstory is revealed I genuinely though the leads were in their late 30s and Yusheng still yearning over her was really romantic though surprising. But 7 years is nothing
The drama has lots of regular melodrama tropes but the show runners did a wonderful job of keeping it realistic . But maybe the tone got too underplayed - after all I AM watching a melodrama!! The directors chose to gloss over many conversations which would have drawn viewers more into the narrative as things started unfurling in the 2nd half. More thoughts under spoiler on this.
Performance wise Wallace Chung takes it away. His is the most pitiful character, suffering from both his father's actions and his lover's reactions albeit much warranted. Wallace plays Yusheng Nie with a lot of sensitivity and feeling. Wonderful.
The FL I think played her character - a weary, disillusioned woman - with grace. I wish she was more communicative of her feelings but I guess her rough life gave her no chance.
Weiwei failing to acknowledge what is very obvious to others - that she & Kehaun undeniably have feelings for each other - is annoying as ever, but we have to understand who she is. Weiwei thinks of herself as someone living her life as per her values and principles. To be swept away by someone chasing her while neither are “free” agents is surely unacceptable by her rules. That’s why she fights her feelings so desperately and refuses to give up on her relationship with Haoyi.
Kehaun obviously was emotionally dead before meeting Weiwei. He remained with Ziyuan through sheer apathy. The abortion issue should have made him leave, but I suspect he continued between not wanting to abandon her given his promise to her mother and comfortable routine. As he says later, meeting Weiwei made him realise what he was missing.
The issues I noticed the first time around did bother me this time too. 1] Kehaun gets a little too forceful at times. 2] Much of the corporate stuff in the second half is written primarily to ramp up the melodrama and does get a bit too much but ok, dramas are dramas, I can deal with it.
Puff, Jasper and Steven were phenomenal. The scene between Weiwei and Haoyi after his forced proposal is amazing acting wise.
As I said in my comment years earlier, Kefei is the friend anyone would want to have, and Phoebe does an excellent job showing us a flawed but fiercely loyal and lovable character.
More thoughts below:
Zhao Lu Si is a good actress but unfortunately for 2 reasons I never felt drawn by her performance 1) Her dubbing voice - it consistently feels divorced from the scenes. Plus I want to give her a tissue and ask her to blow her nose properly before speaking
2) She is never natural and at ease. I dunno if its how she chose to portray her character (never seen her in anything else) but through 10 episodes I never stopped feeling that she's putting on an act.
The pacing is a real drag at times, and I didnt warm up to the serial problem solving superwoman narrative style.
The only thing interesting was the sisters' relationship, but it wasnt enough to keep me going.
Shiori's advances towards Shibata on his return was to be expected - after all she does tell him back in one of the early episodes that she loved him. But we never do see Shibata's thinking or may be I missed cues. Was it always Shiori - and Kahori was just a cover/convenience? It would fit because he connects with Shiori first and it only later that he is swept away by lust by Kahori. The deep grief for Kahori... what was that then? Or did he develop feelings for Shiori after their parting in the island?
I could not deconstruct Shibata and that affected my viewing. Why does he insist on going back into prison. Was it to cut time while he waited for Shiori to become of age? Was it as punishment for himself for loving Shiori 'that way'? It basically felt like he was directionless and threw away his life on the altar of the mother -daughter pair.
One big problem was Yamada Maiko's acting. Absolutely no soul in her performance so the drama largely lost me in the latter episodes. Anyway. the acting of the others - Toyokawa Etsushi , Natsukawa Yui, Sano Shiro and Nagasaku Hiromi - was superb enough to keep me going.
Maybe Im too pragmatic to get it. Regardless, the stunning scenic shots of Japan were in itself worthy of a watch.
I found the FL abrasive and rude esp in the early episodes, but it gets toned down in a bit and even though her character growth is minimal she does get better in the end. What I did love was the character remains well defined till the end - she is strong, confident and smart even if a little too brash. The ML is well-matched and they make an awesome team after they join hands in the 2nd half. Fantastic chemistry and I thought their banter was great fun. NGL, would have liked more skinship - what we saw was yummy. I anyway love Wang Yang so I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Zhi Qiu's arc was the other one I quite enjoyed. I really liked to see the couple navigate very normal marital issues and their love & support was just lovely. Her personal growth story was also welldone.
XuanXuan drove me batty - I skipped most of her aegyo scenes as the character & the actor got annoying. The cheating husband was predictable but the takedown was fun. Her character growth was significant but still just ok to watch.
Lots of focus on business part which I had nor problems with - the plotting was solid so it felt cohesive and all the bits nicely linked together right to the conclusion (very rare in dramas) which kept things consistently interesting.
Overall, a recommend watch for those looking for 30+ business + mature romance drama
I have only watched 3 other dailies other than this one (have dropped a few I tried out) and all have been good makjangs. I loved Promise, my first daily which I only picked up because I adored Lee Yu Ri in My Father is Strange. I marathon watched Miss Mermaid earlier this year (246 eps, with lots of FF) - Jang Seo Hee is outstanding & the first 100 eps were an amazing watch.
The third one Sunny Again Tomorrow is actually by the same writer as QH (Tae Ho starred in it as SML) and was quite an enjoyable watch though Seol In Ah was a bit raw in it. It was not as intense as QH and I would recommend it for someone looking for a light-ish makjang.
Im now wondering if I should watch the upcoming drama ( Lee II Hwa is great) or pick up Vengeance of the Bride that Im seeing mentioned often!!! Im hoarding Temptation of Wife :)