itwillneverbefar

He has such good comedic timing though, shame to waste it. He can be so funny, but istg rarely gets to show it in roles these days.

Having issues with substance abuse is NOT a moral failing or criminal, it's a mental health issue. I'm so happy he got whatever help he needed and will be eating up our screens again, he's been my GOAT since I watched Secret Love Affair and Six Flying Dragons in the same year, no one was doing it like YAI when he was active

This is like the anti-Master's Sun where she could only NOT see ghosts when she touched the ML lol. Which I prefer cause if she can't even touch the ML there gonna be noooo skinship

It's so refreshing for a FL to have boundaries with the 2ML for the first time ever in a K drama ISTG. Like no she is not gonna take you back after you abandoned her, yes she will make that very clear even if you refuse to listen, no you cannot just show up and barge into her apartment any time you want, no you can't just throw out marriage suddenly as a last ditch effort and have her believe you again. I kept expecting her to do the classic trope of giving in or not standing up for herself and was sooo pleasantly surprised when she held her ground.

I'm also really wondering what's going on with the ML, like why does he become a complete robot like that at work? Why does he have such tight control over his life? He really does need the carefree energy Ji Yun brings

I loved that so much.

It's not tho... The way the FL handles the 2ML is actually super mature and refreshing. It's more about her finding new love after having been with the 2ML in the past

I've seen women I know do wayyy worse than this, like I've seen them throw huge public fits trying to get a man to choose them over another girl. It's sad, but it's unfortunately true to life. And the writer didn't include this as a good example for women to follow, it's clearly showing a character at their low point and showing people what NOT to be like.

I was thinking about that today too! Even though he's played similar characters on paper, the actual characterization here isn't like what we've seen before from him.

Yeah I feel like there's a weird disconnect where they're clearly attracted to and drawn to eachother and also admire the other in a work sense, and sometimes act like they like each other, but then other times both act like complete strangers and there's no real rhyme or reason to it so it feels jarring, and it felt more pronounced in ep 3 for me.

That was sooo embarrassing. But man, I've never done that, but I've embarrassed myself for men before too so I felt sorry for her. I'm hoping she has a good arc cause she is starting at rock bottom

It's been tooooo long since we've had a music-focused drama. So looking forward to this

Too many people seem to a expect things to be spelled out too much. Shows like this are meant to be thought about and considered and digested, instead of having exposition heavy scenes where they say "so this is why this person did this, and this is why they did this, and this is what actually happened here, and here's how this all wraps up neatly" etc. Esp when one of the main characters is purposely designed to have confusing, unreliable, and vague motivations that don't resolve or are categorized cleanly ever. Like that's the whole point. This story begs you to look a bit deeper and come to your own conclusions.

Yeah, same, there was something always slightly menacing behind Lee Kang's eyes, but still I kept thinking "but what if?" or wondering if certain parts were somehow true, and so even when we found out that it was all made up it still felt kinda crazy and shocking.

This show wasn't perfect and could have been better executed here or there, but I look at this like how they judge gymnastics or ice skating--what is the starting value based on the ambitions? I would rather have a hundred shows like this that explored deep themes, tried something challenging , and didn't stick every single landing, than another unambitious rom com that relies on tropes and will they wont they tension to hook people and give people an easy story to digest. I wish there were more dramas like this, tbh.

Choi Hyun Wook managed to play about 5 or 6 different characters and I'm still not sure which was the real Lee Kang, Maybe they all are. I spent so much of the story staring at his face, trying to see if he would give away any clues (kudos to the director for so often trusting in his actor and allowing us to sit with his expressions ), but couldn't ever figure out exactly what was going on in his mind. One scene I was sure he was a sociopath, the next I was sure he was just a normal kid, the next I was sure he was actually trying to help Mun Oh in the end.

The last shot of the show (before the epilogue scene) was so brilliant, as if Lee Kang was staring directly at the viewer--mocking? Daring? Judging? pleading? We'll never know, because Mun Do will never know, either. I'm really impressed with the work CHW did here. I truly can't imagine another actor his age pulling this off, esp opposite the powerhouse of Choi Min Sik.

Speaking of, Choi Min Sik was truly pitch perfect. The madness we saw by the end felt exactly like the madness we could see twitching just below the surface in the opening of the first episode. He wasn't likable or charming at all, but he was so amazingly compelling. I both felt a little bit of Lee Kang's glee when he finally got his comeuppance, yet still felt sorry for him even though he really was the author of his own undoing.

This is soo worth a watch. It's one of those shows I'm going to be thinking about a year from now still.

I thought that's where the story was going at first, that Lee Kang was going to end up becoming a best selling author by publishing his version of "Notes from the last Row", but I realized by the end that wouldn't honor the theme and wouldn't be right for the story. The whole theme of the story can be summed up in Lee Kang's line to Mun Oh's wife when he said something to the effect that Mun Oh doesn't focus on the right stories. The story itself never mattered to Lee Kang, what mattered to him was proving that to Mun Oh. So it just wouldn't have made sense for his character to the publish a book of stories. That would have been a cool ending for a completely different type of story with a similar overall plot tho.

I am kind of shocked at the low rating. Like I love me a good romcom don't get me wrong, but this was ART, this was CINEMA. And yeah there are some points that could have been executed a bitter better, but the overall story, themes, performances were just so above and beyond anything you'd see in most K dramas. I loved it.

I took it as a kid who lost everything finally finding something/someone to pour all his anger and sadness and loneliness into. And at first it was probably just a vague fantasy in the back of his mind (getting revenge) and something to work towards (getting into the university), and only fully snapped into place when he overheard Se Yun. It's also extremely painful to be completely vulnerable with someone only have that vulnerability discarded and manipulated, esp when he had just lost his parents. That would traumatize any kid.

Good review, I agree with your thoughts in general. I think you misrepresented something though-- Lee Kang didn't spend 12 years writing the stories or orchestrating and planning this plot. I thought the story made pretty clear he had a general resentment that grew over the years with the focus on getting into the university and his anger at Mun Oh the only thing Lee Kang could hold onto in his loneliness (I think the final scene and him coming back to Mun Oh confirms this), but it wasn't until he saw the opportunity with Mun Oh's rival's son that an actual plan snapped into place. And he was kind of winging it from that point onward, the plan developed on the fly. It was Mun Oh that took the story to the revenge to that extreme of a level, not some decades long plan from Lee Kang, as I feel Lee Kang probably would have originally been satisfied with just the stealing of the coding answers, but Mun Oh was still as self-centered and narcissistic and dehumanizing as ever.

I do wish they had foreshadowed their first meeting better. It did feel a little disjointed to suddenly have the biggest twist be something we hadn't even gotten wind of before that point, or been hinted at at all. Lee Kang could even have told just the "feel good" part of story to Mun Oh (not saying it was him) as a way to explain his own interest in telling stories or something, or hinted at the conversation and its impact, that would have made that final twist land a lot harder.

Related to that, the whole point of the story is that we don't know anything about Lee Kang or his real motivations beyond the surface level. After all that, we're left not actually knowing who he is, because Mun Oh, after all their time together, still doesn't know who he is, and the final scene confirms that he never will, he can only see others through the fantasy lens of his own creative thirst. There were times I felt Lee Kang was disappointed in Mun Oh, times I felt he was enjoying watching him suffer, times I felt he was simply laughing at the absurdity of it all, times I wondered if deep down he wanted to push Mun Oh far enough to change. Lee Kang's motivation IS in the story, but it's not a story Mun Oh will ever get to know, so we as the audience can't know it either.

Thanks for the thoughtful review and points for good discussion!

She has a certain charm onscreen that you can't really fake. I think she'd be great as a lead in a romcom

Baeksang nominations for both Chois for this, mark my words.