JoJo

Too much of a good thing

First of all, I'm stunned I was able to watch 33 ~one-hour episodes of a love story that was resolved in the first few.

The story is mostly about nothing, except Chinese culture and gastronomy. It's more of a postcard with THREE group trips and not much else. The group dynamic was disturbing a lot of the times. Even I was embarrassed for all the couples. The group was funny but too nosy and always there.

The main thing I have to point out is why are 30 yo men after college girls? That was probably one of the things that irked me the most. I don't find it cute or appropriate. They're in completely different stages in life. That's how manipulation starts in abusive relationships. He doesn't let her do anything with all the "surprises". He didn't even let her savour her graduation and had to put the wedding and their relationship at the centre of such an important time for her. He was, many times, condescending and that upset me a bit.

The pacing in this show is non-existent. I'm surprised, tho, that they didn't have more flashbacks and were able to fill most of the time with new scenes. There were many cute scenes, many funny scenes and the cultural themes were interesting. They presented the world of voice acting and traditional singing quite well.

Besides being able, for someone out of uni, to think they'll be able to buy a house (is the Chinese economy that good?), the other hard thing to believe is all the cooking. It looks like Instagram reel cooking and not real cooking. Everything is fast. All the dishes are done in no time. Taking over a restaurant's kitchen instead of eating with his friends is absurd as is ending up cooking for her family when he was the main guest. Who invites someone for dinner and has absolutely nothing prepared? Where do all the ingredients appear from, is he like Jesus with the fishes? Why would they buy something they didn't know how to cook?

I'm not familiar with what more recent Chinese dramas are doing but waiting 19 episodes for a kiss when they've been dating since episode 8 is absolutely uncanny. It was mostly a friendship until then, only after it was pointed out to them that it was indeed like a friendship did things start to heat up between them.

There isn't much more to say about the story because there wasn't much of a story. Everyone is nice and everything is good and there are no obstacles and the obstacles that are probably what, in real life, would end this relationship - like the fact that someone who is a doctor who has a second job and a university student who doesn't study and is mostly a supermarket clerk - aren't shown to us. It's good to have a sweet drama but too much of a good thing isn't necessarily good. There was no need for 33 episodes.

The voices are amazing. The performances both of the voice acting and the singing are fantastic. It made me curious about that world. The male lead has a voice that can move mountains.

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A backhanded compliment

It's amazing how insidious misogyny actually is. At first sight, this might be perceived as a drama about strong and progressive women, a feminist one, even. It couldn't be farther from the truth.

"She's not like other girls" is taken to another level by making the ML physically repulsed by all other women because he was hurt by his first love. While FL is telling us that women shouldn't be seen as the damsels in distress, ML is pilling all other women into airhead gold diggers. This does more of a disservice to women than anything else. We need to be extraordinary to be considered as human.

Even the director had a one dimensional idea of women. He changes the story once he figures out that ONE extraordinary woman exists. He, somehow, is inspired by this new breed of woman he never seen before, even if there was a woman doing the stunts before.

FL's mother made me so sad. The mother is happy her daughter is respected by her significant other. She said if she would be respected by her husband, she wouldn't have to write the book she did. Why didn't she get a divorce instead. Why show her daughter she has to endure disrespect. Instead of crying for her daughter not suffering the same fate, she could take her fate into her own hands. But only Mi Ran is an extraordinary woman, as we know these misogynistic dramas disguised as progressive only have space for one extraordinary woman, or we would all be just women with a multitude within ourselves that made us more than just stereotypes misogynistic men think all women are.

It sounds so bad talking about women as gold-diggers in a country like South Korea where, until very recently, women weren't even allowed to own property. [South Korean law decreeing women’s rights to equal inheritance came into effect on January 13, 1990 - YES, FUCKING 1990!!!!] That's mostly an incel trope, spread by men who don't even own anything worth taking. Most women who enter relationships with rich men are financially abused and controlled and a lot of them, the ones who believe the men will take care of them because they love them and bear their children, end up in either a situation of domestic violence or end up broke with children to care for.

This drama seems to try to slyly push misogynistic rhetoric that has the whole world descend into fascism, while cosplaying as representation for badass women. The writer should check his biases.

The second leads aren't any better. Her friend falls for a guy only based on his looks. She's portrayed as a shallow, defenceless woman who always gets used by men. How is the SML out of her league? He's just a player and she has low self-esteem. We all know you can't "fix" a player.

It only takes being in love to adhere to romantic stereotypes. Stereotypes exist for a reason but they're also the ones upholding the gender inequality that harms all of us and puts so many women's lives at risk.
They also managed to throw in there the trope that men are bad but NOT ALL MEN. "Don't lump me up with all the others who treated you badly just because I knowingly treat women as if they're disposable". She clearly has low self-esteem and ended up with yet another manipulator disguised and a changed good guy.

The whole drama is full of misogynistic tropes. It's almost impossible to stumble into a scene without one. Such a waste of a good soundtrack.

About the last episode, asking her to marry him in public without discussing it with her is the ultimate misogynistic move and it happened twice in this very short drama. Asking someone out or asking to marry them in public is a way of pressuring someone you know might not accept into a relationship without giving them the grace of denying it with all the freedom they should have, without feeling pressured.

Breaking up in front of the whole press is something else, that was a very predictable and unnecessary ending. Being a slut was, somehow, too much, she was doing it for the justice. That's, again, misogyny. It should be OK if she was a slut, it would be her decision and it doesn't affect her value as a person at all. Men don't band like that to defend women, like they show her co-workers doing, much less a woman's "reputation". They only do it for their bros. It felt like a "backhanded compliment" anyway. She was now worthy of dating a "good" man.

It's very disappointing to get promised a strong, badass woman and spend the whole drama showing us how she's not like other girls and ending it with the prospect of her being tamed. She said she doesn't want to get married and have children because she doesn't like the marriage culture in South Korea yet they hint she will be tamed. EVERYWHERE I LOOK THERE'S MISOGYNY! It's OK for women to not want to get married and have kids, for whatever reason or even no reason at all. This is just another attempt at seLling us the control of women as something cute and desirable. IT IS NOT!

On another note, South Korea also needs to work on their parasocial relationships. It's not normal for fans to control the private lives of actors and idols. Everyone should be entitled to their privacy and to do whatever the fuck they want with their lives, so long they're not hurting anyone.

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Run Away

Save yourself!
Run Away would be a better name since this drama seems to run away from every point it makes as soon as it touches it.
I really wanted to like this drama. I wanted to like the characters but I couldn't care less what happened to them after the first few episodes.

This drama seems to be written on the spot without an overall look. Every episode seems to run in an unexpected direction that doesn’t tie in with the previous or the next one in a meaningful way. After a certain point, it seems more like a never-ending advert than a drama.

What puzzled me the most was that the characters' personalities didn’t seem to match their actions a lot of the time. FL was extremely straightforward, brave and insightful, yet she couldn’t be honest with ML and would speak in riddles and makeup problems and misunderstandings. I honestly don't know how their relationship worked or why they fell in love. No, pity doesn't lead to love. Not healthy love, at least. Empathy and pity are very different.

A lot of the plot points seemed so useless. She invited him to stay over so he wouldn't be alone, yet didn’t make him company. They lived in completely different time zones. How can you fall in love with someone you hardly have contact with? They're also very different and don't have anything in common. "Opposites attract" only tends to work for batteries.
They seemed like friends most of the time. There was no spark, there was no relationship. They seemed like colleagues at times who were sharing the same space out of obligation.

The second leads' relationship also doesn't make any sense at all. The CEO isn't likeable. There's no reason for the constant breakups. It makes no sense how someone with a congenital heart disease drinks a whole bottle of whisky at least once a week.
At first I thought she would drive him away because of her disease, but in the end, she drove him away for no reason at all. If she had to be destroyed in her line of business, she would have already by being (falsely) outed as a lesbian.

Also, the art always pertains to the artist even after it's sold. A Renoir doesn’t stop being a Renoir just because he's dead or because it was sold.

What I hate the most is that the man who used his whole family for personal gain was forgiven in the end. Didn't they learn anything?

There's too much that doesn't make any sense at all. It's not even worth mentioning. With such a good cast I was expecting something better, something different. Maybe this drama just isn't for me.

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Pretty on the outside, not much value on the inside

I really hate it when the media treats women as if we have an expiration date.
The body of a 20yo isn't much different of a body of a 30yo. This is evident on the way they treat the women and the men in this drama. There's no talk about going back to your 20's body or on how they can't do certain movements anymore. They're 30, not 60!

All this seems ageist and misogynist. The whole blame for the "cheating" was on the woman as if a man has no responsibility when he dates someone. He was the one with the girlfriend, he had to know how to respect his relationship and not the person who didn't know he had someone in his life.

The drama is called how to be thirty yet everyone except for the 24 yo and the film director seem so childish.
The ML was in a half-arsed relationship. He fell back in love with the FL and ended his relationship to start a new one, which is the right thing to do. Yes, when he slept with the FL he was still in a relationship (that's not very clear because he's seen ending things with the girlfriend several times) and could have held off of doing that until after but I don't think it's the big deal they make it in the drama. The FL didn't know about the girlfriend at the time so it's not her fault.

The girlfriend was a brat and the ML said so and he was right, that was proven with her attempt to ruin the FL's career. When someone breaks up with you, you respect it.

When FL has a conversation with the ex-girlfriend at the end, the blame goes around between them and is not direct at who certainly has the blame which is the ML.l, if there were any blame at all.
To me, it seems like it probably even isn't his blame. It looks like he tried to end things with the GF several times but she didn't respect his wishes.


Anyway, this is not what being thirty is. I'm older than that and I honestly can't tell what being thirty is. Probably is what the Caffe lady was, spending a big amount of time with someone you found out you don't connect with and then staying off jumping from relationship to relationship to really figure out what you want in life.

The best part about this were the visuals, the fact that they don't hide that adults have sex and the friendship between the three women.

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It didn't reach Hwansu

I feel cheated. I was promised a badass heroine and it wasn't delivered.
She started as a puppet, ordered around by dark powers that lied to her, and ended as a puppet. In the middle, we had to watch her be tamed and subservient.

In the end, we find out it wasn't her body that was too weak, after all. She never tried to retrieve her energy, she never trained her body or abilities. She accepted her it was her fate, somehow. She didn't even try to find out who that body belonged to, even if she knew it reacted weirdly when inside the sorceresses place and even knowing the soul she met inside was blind and she knew the sorceress who disappeared was also blind. She's so smart and yet can't figure that out or be curious about that? She was a secondary character used to advance the path of her 도련님. They tamed her, destroyed her story and even turned her into another plot device. She didn't even get the ice stone.

I would have preferred this story without the main romance. The lore is great and interesting, the characters are fun and funny, the production and special effects were great. I was expecting more. I didn't even mind the slow pace and the episodes where it didn't seem like anything happened. It was fun to watch, I just wished it made sense as a story of a couple and not as a story of one chosen one.
The main romance didn't make sense. They had so much time, yet they didn't develop the connection between the two. The whole time we see FL trying to get ML get killed with no second thought and then with a second thought. There wasn't a true connection between both of them. There was a more thoughtful and present connection with both the other love interests. It also baffles me that she had so many love interests. What's the point? Does she only exist if she's valuable in the eyes of men?

It seemed like a very misogynistic take. We started with a powerful woman, who was certainly bad but had her reasons and could be turned to the other side, and ended up with a trad wife, about to marry her young lord. Why is it that in a made up world that looks a lot like Joseon we get the traditional contemporary wedding experience?

Anyway, it was good but it was also disappointing. Let's see what part 2 brings.

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It doesn't make sense

Wishful thinking shouldn't bring back your loved ones even in a fantasy story. This is a time travelling story which has absolutely no rules to the time travelling and breaks the very few ones it has when they find it convenient. The maid being left in the future is ok, while changing any other aspect affects the course of history? Such a proficient maid, with so much action in the story, would certainly affect the course of the story.
You never truly know the device or the set of factors that make them travel through time. At times, it seems like it's the watch, or the magical lady, or the water, or the tree. In the end, it was his wishful thinking. It doesn't make sense.
It also doesn't make sense that everyone has their corresponding person in the future, except for the FL and the maid. And the only person important to the action who isn't in Joseon is the ML's secretary.
They also couldn't decide if the ML was a completely different person or a reincarnation of her Joseon husband. If he truly was a reincarnation of her husband, like it's suggested several times, her not loving her original husband once she got back doesn't make any sense, since she loved him from the start.

I don't mind the evil grandpa, it was a good twist, but, again, it lacks consistency. If the stepmother wasn't evil and was trying to protect the ML in the present, that should have been mirrored in the past, since they repeated countless times that the past was repeating itself.

It could have been a better drama if they had dealt with the inconsistencies.

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Glitters Everywhere

They didn't have to do her like that.
I was expecting a different kind of story, still dealing with the struggles of coming out but I wasn't expecting women to be the butt of the joke and a mattress for men's shortcomings.

Yes, coming out is hard. Loving someone is hard, and sometimes bad decisions are made, but betraying the person who loves you the most and has supported you throughout her life and expecting her to take care of you while you build yourself up again after also destroying her and her trust in yourself? That's too cruel and I can't stand for it.

I don't believe in forgiveness. It's okay to be angry and sad when you're betrayed. She also needs to process her feelings and she's not allowed to because she has to appease the guilt in someone else's mind. She deserved better.

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Most of all, it's calm

I'm writing a review exclusively because I can't get over the fact that a partner (or any other person) reading a private diary is framed as cute. It's not cute, it's a violation of privacy. Being someone's partner doesn't give you the right to their privacy.

Other than that it was a drama that transmitted a lot of calm despite all the traumatic events it dealt with.

The supporting cast was excellent and without them, this drama would be reduced to almost nothing since I don't find the main characters remarkable or important enough to the action. To me, it would make more sense if the drama was set from the aunt's point of view.

There are some things in life that can never be amended. Not even time can do that. Time can't amend treason or violence. I don't understand the love for a physically abusive parent and it doesn't make a difference who stepped on the gas pedal. It was self-defence from someone who was threatening their lives and had already made their lives miserable for so many years. I do see a reason for the aunt's actions, she was hit too and her sister's and her life were in danger. It's very logical to me. Even if the lead's father had never hit the aunt, she had every right to protect her sister. Her sister's bruises hurt her as well, it's surprising to see that the mother's bruises didn't hurt the daughter. Her loving father is the same person that tried to kill her mother and her aunt and that's not something you can separate from that person, it's the same father.

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Meh not meow

The beginning was promising but it turned into something else.
As soon as she realised who Hong Jo is she becomes distant and annoying. I almost dropped it right then and there. I honestly should have since it doesn't get any better.

The ending wasn't satisfactory at all. Cat live up to almost 20 years. If he was 3 at the ending, will they live in limbo for 17 years more waiting for the occasional Hong Jo appearance.

The second couple was honestly cuter. I loved that she's shy yet she's had life experience and they don't portray her as a 30yo damsel.

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It's not love

This isn't Crazy Love, this is everyone is an *ssh*le but they seem to have apparently good reasons to be one, or so they think.
They even try to reform someone who did a hit and run over a bet and someone who left his best friend to die with absolutely no reaction whatsoever and even fed him something that could potentially kill him.

The main male lead is an *ssh*le and only stops being one after someone threatens to take "something" he thinks belongs to him. He then turns into the complete opposite by letting people who betray him gain his complete trust just because they feel bad or are crying. He's seen as a rational, logical person and all the logic goes out the window.

This would have been great as a shorter story and one where both leads don't end up together. We can't give a pass to guys who are rude, egotistical and arrogant just because they're hot and have money. There's absolutely nothing likable about him, he just has a difficult past. So do a lot of people and they don't go around being an absolute menace to others, especially staff.

To make things worse, as per usual, the female lead goes from being opinionated and strong to being a decorative vase on the night table. In the last episode we can't almost hear her voice from how low her voice got. The crazy is left to a demonstration of possession in the last episode.

As if this wasn't enough, the mystery culprit had so many layers that it made me lose interest completely. When we found out, I was ready to give up on the drama.

I don't like Disney in the kdrama world, we should leave things separate. You don't have to reform everybody, toxic masculinity is not desirable, women aren't meant to be tamed, suicide and mental health problems aren't excuses to commit crimes, the happy ending one should hope for is not always a ring or marriage, it can be choosing oneself.

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Closure

Alchemy of Souls 2 was basically a Jang Uk runway show. I won't complain about that part, he's good at it.
I missed the fantastic sword fights, he didn't even need those anymore, since he was the most powerful person around.

I believe the drama gave us some sort of closure, even if it felt like a totally different drama most times. There are still many things that don't make sense. The lack of the main actress does make it harder for it to make sense. They showed a loving FL, something the FL from the first season didn't manage to be. It gave closure to the love story but it felt unnatural to the character and the previous story.

The storytelling got worse, since this is a much shorter drama. All the flashbacks and going back in the story were frustrating. It were 10 episodes, yet it felt like the story was rushed because they kept going back and sometimes even letting the characters tell what had happened this season, instead of showing it.

The telling rather than the showing is a problem in more ways than just this one. The whole show they showed us Jang Uk didn't recognise Naksu, yet in the last episodes he says he recognised her from the start, just like he did the first time. NO, HE DIDN'T!!! One of my main issues with this drama is that almost no one recognised Naksu. Most mages from Songrim saw Naksu while she was held there and a whole lot of them fought her. How could they not recognise her? Expecting her to be dead isn't enough of an excuse and only three years had passed, it's not a lot of time. They made up a lot of excuses as plot devices and that's a part of why the story doesn't hold up. In fact, every time Naksu showed herself in Jin Bu Yeon, he doubted her and couldn't even find the hints he was given. He appears to fall in love with this fourth person who isn't Mu Deok, Jin Bu Yeon or even Naksu. Maybe that's why she ends the show with yet another name.

I don't believe one season is better than the other, I believe they're on par with each other. I had some fun watching this one as well, despite the shortcomings and the sexism, nothing different from the first season.

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I don't think making fun of the #metoo movement and having men saying they're now afraid to interact with women was a smart move in 2019.
This was just the last drop. Ageism, story holes, unfunny jokes or the old fashioned body comedy. I also don't think they know how amnesia is supposed to work. Also how come can they walk after 20 years of not using their muscles? Even if they're frozen, there has to be some sort of adaptation period.

I really have to talk about ageism.
The actresses playing the leads' mothers are supposed to be in their late 60's from what I can understand, one of the actresses (the girl's mother) is 55 years old in real life and is playing someone who is 60 something but talking as if she's in her late 80's. The woman doesn't even have wrinkles. How are we supposed to know how we'll age if the media doesn't depict ageing accurately? I know it will vary from person to person but we need more realism in the media. They also depict most of the 40-year-olds (his sister, the girl's friends) as if they're walking xmas trees with aboslutely no taste and the need to be flashy to avoid aging. Just stop. Put real women in your dramas already!

Another thing that really got to me was when the leads' brother is praying at the temple. He wishes for his daughter to grow beautiful. Not successful, not happy, not intelligent but beautiful. The girl is sassy, smart and doesn't go by stereotypes. That character should have been treated with more respect.

I really wanted to check out Ji Chang Wook's return but I just can't with this drama. I'm hoping he gets a good one next.

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Too gray, just a little gay

It was a good story but I have some issues mostly with how they decided to tell it.

We have too many fillers and too little context about their relationship. We see more about the functioning of his job than the background of what happened when they were younger.

There are too many questions and no answers. Who made a move when they were younger. How was the reaction. Why did he run? Why was it so difficult to accept him. He had already said they weren't family. He's OK with being gay since he openly says he's having sex with men. I don't seen where the issue lies. They don't even have a relationship with their parents.

It's all way simpler. The character, much as the writer, decided to complicate something that could be way simpler.

The chemistry between the leads was excellent. There was an overall annoyance that was perfectly transmitted but it was too much to enjoy this drama a bit more. Maybe there's a fine line between frustration and annoyance. According to the tittle there should be a little more sadness and a little less frustration.

All in all, it was an interesting watch.

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It lacked conviction

I'll start with what's more obvious for me, they're very incompetent for those who are praised to be the best detectives. The mystery solving part of the drama was very lacking and that's what annoyed me the most.

A lot in this drama lacks conviction and commitment. Deciding to trust someone just because they're supposed to be your friend but had hidden important information from you doesn't seem very sensible for someone in the middle of an investigation. Even when things are blown out of proportion like FL's expulsion, the train of thought associated with everything around it doesn't make much sense.

I couldn’t finish it all, I just watched the last episode. The ending also lacks conviction. It feels like lukewarm water when you're trying to take a shower on a winter day. It's not satisfying

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How about the journey?

I hate how kdramas depict capitalist struggles and the stoicism they attach to it. Suddenly the struggle gets 100 times harder than it already is without the stoicism.
I hope, as a global community, we can all go to the root of the problem so we can move forward as a healthier and more humane society. We're not made for capitalism and we're social animals, we need community, we strive in community.

I don't believe the FL had low self-esteem. Not relying on other people is usually a symptom of trauma. It's usually experienced by people who have, throughout their lives, found out they don't have anyone they can rely on. Having to pay back every help you were offered, means you have had many people let you down and know there are no free lunches. Failing to build trust and friendships as a result is what she would have to overcome. It doesn't make much sense that she can't seem to rely on anyone since she has a very supportive mother and she had received help from a friend. She doesn't seem to know how friendships work. It would have been better to end at episode 5 instead of painting the issues with the relationship in such superficial terms.

The male lead suffered from something very typical of heterosexual men. They don't listen or pay attention and do as they please. Not listening to something someone with trust issues says or goes through furthers the trust gap. Where there's no trust, there can't be a healthy relationship.

Capitalism in action, where your worth is dictated by what you do and how much money you have, will certainly interfer with a normal relationship. A fragile relationship will certainly suffer even more. But, all the money in the world can't get a man to start listening and paying attention. He did, however, show maturity when he proposed to communicate instead of ignoring the issue.

Camiño de Santiago is seen as a spiritual journey and a journey of faith, very closely linked to the Catholic religion and the spiritual struggles of being a Catholic. It felt like they treated the journey as a vacation, we didn't get to see the impact, we saw all the problems solved but we don't even know to which extent. Did she relent all control? Did he start to listen?

It seems weird that she goes on a journey of self discovery with company. I honestly don't understand the message. Is there a message?

Anyway, it made more sense than the first one. I know shorter dramas can be challenging to adequately portray a story. It was a good and fun, at times, drama to watch.

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