Lori

Yup. What about it?

Haha yeah it's torture watching an ongoing drama 😂

Here I am entertaining myself with Vincenzo until Episode 11 of WTPR comes out. 🥹 Less than 2 hours more!!! ❤️❤️❤️ I'm quite anxious as we head nearer to the finale. I'm not ready to say goodbye 🥺😞

You don't need to flaunt how grown up you are. I'm 37 yet that doesn't mean that I find this Kdrama too inferior for me. It's all about how you tell the story. I'm sure most people here are "grown up" as well. I enjoyed When the Phone Rings but I also enjoy a wide variety of genres ranging from political thrillers, action, romance, and fantasy. I love this Kdrama because of how it portrayed love between two wounded and traumatized individuals and how they learned to accept each other's worst and trust their partner with their vulnerabilities, which eventually forged a strong bond between them to the point of selflessness and fierce protectiveness for the other. Also, the ML chose forgiveness over resentment for the "betrayal" committed by the FL early in the story mainly because of how much he loved her. Like he said, he could not ever learn how to not love her. It's rare to find a person who can love their partner despite their knowledge of the worst aspect of themselves and after discovering their darkest secrets. That was one of the selling points of the romance for me.

Thank you! 😍🥰

Yeah from the very beginning, we the fandom, have been saying that When the Phone Rings is Wattpad-coded. It has a very fanfic feel so I don't understand why people are expecting more? I already mentioned in my previous comments in other socmed platforms that because it's very Wattpad-ish (the source material is a web novel, what can we expect?), the plot is not groundbreaking. It's filled with cliche and common tropes but it's the story execution and brilliant performances of the lead actors that elevated the quality of this Kdrama for me from the mediocre drama it could've been. Kind of like the classic Boys Over Flowers. It has one of the most overused and most ridiculous makjang storyline in Asian dramas ever but IMHO, the Japanese version in 2005 was the standout among the other versions because of how they executed the story and the acting and chemistry were topnotch. For me, When the Phone Rings is doing well for the romance thriller genre that it truly is.

I was more bothered by the fact that she never broke any of her bones 😅 But I can suspend this disbelief because I love the Kdrama so much haha

It's Friday. Friday. Just two more days before we finally say goodbye to this incredible Kdrama for good 🥹😔💕 Thank you Yoo Yeon Seok, Chae Soo Bin, the rest of the actors, director and crew for a wonderful ride. What a way to end 2024 and welcome 2025 🎉🎊

Bingo, the comment above me got it right. Remember, this was an arranged marriage for political reasons. Like what was mentioned, when the main couple discovered that they had long had feelings for each other, they then entered their honeymoon or dating phase. But initially, theirs was a loveless marriage because initially, it was thought of as merely a business contract between families (that is, until you get further along into the story haha). This was exacerbated by the fact that Hee Joo was supposedly only a "stand-in" for her older stepsister who was the original bride. You're comparing them to a normal couple who fell in love in a "normal" way who got married under normal circumstances. And the level of passion displayed just recently especially by the male lead? Well, he's the guy who has long suppressed his feelings for the female lead for 2 decades. Remember episode 1 where he drank from the very spot where her lipstick left a stain on the wine glass? Very subtle hints of his feelings and desire were already there but he had to keep it under wraps for compelling reasons (which were justified later in the story because it compromised their safety as he previously claimed that his wife was his weakness). And when those feelings and desire finally came out in the open, you could feel the palpability of his passion whenever he kissed her. And she, the same. Despite their title of being husband and wife, they never underwent the usual route for "normal" people where they got to know each other in an intimate way before making the lifetime commitment. In their case, they did a major shortcut and got married before dating. But in the most recent episode (10), Sa Eon planned to propose to Hee Joo and get married properly this time, out of love and in full truth of who he is.

Um, well, it IS a romance thriller. So it's mainly focused on the love story.

You can't skip their scenes because their investigation is directly linked to the backstory of the ML and the main villain. You won't understand much when things start to unfold, especially if you haven't read any spoilers.

YES! But I'm both excited and sad 🥲

Sa Eon was very distant and cold towards Hee Joo on purpose because he wasn't expecting their marriage to last and that he'd have to let her go at some point because his plan to expose his family's secrets/scandals was his priority. Moreover, he didn't think she liked him at all. He always had the impression that Hee Joo only did whatever her mother told her to do so the things she did for him early in their marriage weren't genuine for him. But their dynamics will drastically change after Episode 7 and I personally found the evolution beautiful. I love how they learned to unconditionally accept each other's darkest secrets because as cheesy as it sounds, that's what love is.

No wonder the FL seemed familiar. She was the pregnant lady in Train to Busan 🤣

Just saw the stills for Episode 11 and Gyu Jin is most likely pulling the strings this time. It didn't end yet but I'm going to miss When the Phone Rings already 🥹I didn't expect to love the drama THIS MUCH when I saw the trailer but here we are, thanks to the phenomenal performances of Yoo Yeon Seok, the heart of the show, and the sparkling Chae Soo Bin. Awesome, just awesome 👏🏻🎉🎊 It pulled me out of my Kdrama slump in 2024 even after watching Queen of Tears and the Judge from Hell.

Because in spite of the fanfic/Wattpad storyline, the execution and brilliant acting by both lead actors made this live adaptation far better than the original source material. The writing also made sure that the flow and pacing of the drama focused on how the main plot would unfold. The drama is very straighforward yet intriguing enough to maintain a viewer's interest. No unnecessary arcs. Nothing is wasted.

Compared to Crash Landing On You, I felt that the writing in Queen of Tears was quite messy. There were unnecessary subplots that caused the drama to deviate from the real purpose of the story, which was to discover how the main couple rekindled their love for each other in the beginning. While the FL's brain cancer was a strong starting point in their journey to healing and reconciliation because it brought the FL down to her knees and made her realize her vulnerability as a human being actually capable of dying and not just as the ambitious, callous, unkind powerful CEO of Queen's Group, the aspect of her obsessed stalker didn't really help the main couple dig into their core issues and symptoms, particularly her lack of concern for her husband when it came to how his family treated him, her undermining him at every turn in their professional lives and her miscarriage. The issue about the miscarriage was very important to me because it was supposed to be an issue of loss and grief that they needed to handle together as a family. It's a deep wound that needs to be uncovered in order to be healed. But they completely ignored it later on in the drama and actually forgot about it in the end. I would have wanted a serious and deep heart to heart talk about it between Hyun Woo and Hae In at least once in the second half of the drama.

And lastly, I hate hate HATE that the writer utilized the overused amnesia arc and the villain swooping in and pretending to be the ML. Why did she have to go there? Why?!

I didn't like Queen of Tears as much as I hoped I would. The writing was messy and there were a lot of unnecessary subplots like Eun Sung and his mother. This kind of lost the focus on how the couple should have fixed their differences and issues. Hae In's brain cancer was enough to bring about a change in their relationship dynamics and rekindle their love for each other. I'm still salty that they completely ignored their issue of losing their baby in the drama.

Yeah fake Sa Eon is the real yet illegitimate son of Chairman Jang Ho. I'm suspecting it's Baek Ui Yong who's adopted or something.

They've always liked each other since they were children. Baek Sa Eon, in particular, has loved and cared for Hee Joo for the past 20 years. The kidnapping incident and another "accident" further into the drama are just trigger points for him to finally reveal his feelings for her which have been suppressed by him for the sake of his plan against his family. And when he reveals his true feelings later on, she reciprocates.