michelleoc

Touching stories

I loved the different story lines and the back stories they told about the deceased. There was something so sad about each story - life circumstances, dying alone, that really got to me. I do wish they had covered a more diverse socioeconomic aspect of the deaths, they all seemed to have died in squalor, which made things even more sad.

Lee Se Hoon as Cho Sang Gu was believable as someone on the spectrum, though I felt he made more eye contact and was more engaged than people with Asperger's are usually. I do wish they had tried to figure out a way for us to get to know him better. We got to know his story, which I loved, but I didn't know him any better at the end than I did at the beginning.

Ji Jin Hee as Sang Gu's father was wonderful. The character was well-written, and he played him with such love. I enjoyed their scenes together throughout the whole series. Maybe that was the only way we could get to know Sang Gu, to see his interactions with his father even at the end of the show.

Tang Jun San as Sang Gu's uncle was excellent. A man with a violent, lonely and troubled past is thrown into a family and he doesn't quite know what to do. His character arc was wonderful, and for the most part, he played him in a very understated way, letting us feel his emotions through his body language, his facial, and his eyes. That tough guy exterior with the squishy inside is so fun to watch, especially when that person has no idea what to do with those emotions.

My complaints? 1) Is there a reason to drop the F bomb so much, especially when the guy is saying "Aish". We get the idea. I know that most people don't seem to be bothered by language, but I don't like it. 2) The cage fighting boss got away - possibly for a second season? I'm hoping not, that was my least favorite storyline. 3) Abrupt open ending. Again, possibly for a second season.

Overall, this was a quiet, emotional watch for me.

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Unexpectedly emotional

What I liked:
-The episodes in the middle. Some of the storylines were delved into more deeply and I really began to care about the characters.
-The friendships. The show started with each character being sort of an island unto themselves. They didn't care about one another, there were a lot of people being mean to each other. I liked how the show focused on one specific character and showed how the others came alongside that person to help them.
-A special teacher that cared about the students and helped them.

What I didn't like:
-I almost dropped this show early on because the FL was such a mess.
-The irrational storyline. The ML doesn't go to college and stays another year in high school, why? His father, I'm sure, had to pay for his schooling, yet he had no idea what his son was doing?
-The unprofessional, bullying teachers and administrators.
-The kids live at school, and it keeps getting drilled into us how much time they have to spend studying. They'd have more time for schoolwork if they didn't have to clean the classrooms/hallways, sweep the sidewalks, and handwash their clothes in the sink. Oh, and eating standing up?
-Unnecessary rival shows up for a few episodes.
-There were so many characters, and some of the storylines were never fully fleshed out.
-Abrupt, 10-year time jump
-THE ENDING, my gosh the ending!!!! I know that the romance was secondary, but the ending broke my romance-loving heart.

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Short and basic

I tend to get excited when I come across a show with fewer episodes, as so many of the dramas have an inordinate amount of filler. Unfortunately, for me, this one was only able to scratch the surface of the characters and their personalities. The relationship between the father and daughter was very sweet, but the romance between the main couple was very lacking. The anxiety issues of the female lead moved along at a very quick rate, from being crippling to being totally fine, without really working through the issue completely, because of time constraints.

I enjoyed watching both of the actors, but I just wish the story had time to develop their relationship better.

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As good as season 1, except for the plot holes

The story was full of twists and turns, but there were so very, very many names to keep track of! Each bad guy was worse than the last and it seemed like every sentence named at least three people. Lots of corruption, which you get used to seeing in Korean dramas, but this one, by the end of the series, people that had been in prison for serious crimes got out scott-free. That was bothersome to me. There was also a storyline where a young woman had a crush on Ji Hyuk - this went on for multiple episodes, and then she fell off the face of the earth. I would like a season three, with more focus on a specific number of characters, rather than just throwing everything but the kitchen sink in.

I LOVED the relationships between the cops. Lots of humor and heart were put into their storylines. One thing I especially appreciated was the way that Oh Ji Hyuk was written (both in season one and season two). I loved that they didn't have him become stupid over a woman. He always had a plan and the character stayed true to himself throughout.

Special kudos, in my opinion go out to Kim Hyo Kin as Cheon Na Na and Choi Dae Hoon as Cheon Sang Woo. Hyo Kin was brilliant as Na Na, my eyes were trained on her in every scene she was in. I would have liked to see her further lose control at the end, that part felt very rushed. Dae Hoon as Sang Woo. I loved him in Crash Landing on You, and he played a completely different character here. He, too, had a lot of chilling moments. Unfortunately, it wasn't until the end when we got to see a little of his playfulness, and I would have liked to have seen more.

Park Geun Hyung as Jung In Beom as the grandfather - I want to be related to him! I love the respect that Do Chang and his ward had for him. Those scenes were lovely.

I did enjoy watching this show, but I couldn't binge it, because each episode made me a nervous wreck! It was time well-spent.

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A pure joy to watch

I'm not normally a fan of reality tv. I started watching this to give myself a break between dramas. I'm so glad I did! I smiled through the whole thing. I've loved all the actors in the works I've seen them in, and I may have to go back and re-watch the specific dramas represented by these actors.

The games/competitions were so much fun to watch, especially at the pool. Between the actors having water dumped on them or being thrown into the pool, I found myself laughing out loud.

One of the reasons I started watching Korean dramas was that they seem to be so respectful, and I'm fascinated by their culture. Seeing these young actors getting permission to stop using honorifics, bowing to one another and their politeness, showed me that this is not something just seen in their dramas, but intrinsic to their culture.

I also got a question answered that I've had since I started watching Korean shows. Do girls really talk about how handsome men are right in front of them? Yes, they do! I thought that surely it was something that was put into dramas for effect, but the women were very verbal in how much they liked the actors and how attractive they thought they were.

And, in the last episode, when the little girl came in with her mom, all of the actors were just enamored by the "baby". That was so cute. So, to finish, I can highly recommend this show for some time of fun entertainment. This is the first time I've wished for a Season 2 for any show that I've watched!

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Touching film

If I'd had to rate this movie halfway through, I would have probably given it a MUCH lower score, purely based on my dissatisfaction with the character of Li Peiru. She was drunk (a lot), selfish, a user, AND she thought she was "all that and a bag of chips". I struggle to watch things when the main characters have no redeeming value.

That said, by the end, my opinion had changed drastically.

ACTING: The acting was top-notch by everyone, especially Liu Ye as Fang Zhengdong. He was such a lovely character - upstanding, caring (for friends, family, co-workers and public that he encountered in his job), yet terribly lonely. His micro-expressions were spot-on. His love for Li Peiru was so strong, so pure, yet you could see that he didn't quite understand it. As his health deteriorated, the way he displayed the anger, the paranoia and the fear really made me cry. Shu Qi as Li Peiru sometimes felt to me that she was overacting, but once her character finally arched to a reasonable human being, watching her awaken to actual caring emotions for others was wonderful to watch.

STORY: This was a story that addressed so many different emotions, most of which we, as the audience, can identify with. I loved watching the inevitable transfer of power, going from someone that takes care of everyone else, to knowing that you will need to be taken care of. It was a romance deeply felt between the main characters and their efforts to determine what was important and what they were willing to do for love.

This movie really got me in the feels.

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Maybe it was just overhyped to me

It seems like EVERYONE loved this show, it's possible that I could be nothing less than disappointed. And I was very disappointed. There were some positives, and I'll get those taken care of first.

Seo In Guk as Yoon Yoon Jae - I love him as an actor. He's got that cool, serious look about him; his smiles are few and far between, the intense stares always serve him well. I liked his character as whole. I loved when he realized he liked her, and his support of his brother, as well as his friendship with Kang Jun Hee were extremely special. SPOILER HERE - when he discovered that Jun Hee liked him, I really appreciated that he didn't treat him any differently and he still loved him as his friend, just as he had all along. END SPOILER.

Hoya as Kang Jun Hee - I don't know if it was the actor or the storyline that I liked in this instance, but I must say that this was my favorite story arc of the entire show. And I do not watch BL, so it wasn't due to that. He played the role with such sensitivity, and he valued his friendship with Yoon Jae, as well as Yoon Jae's happiness over his own. I'm so tired of characters that will do anything the can to get the person to like them, at the expense of the other person's happiness. To me, that's not love, that's obsession.

So, that's it on what I liked. On the other side of the coin:

Jung Eun Ji as Sung Shi Won - there was never a time in this entire show that I liked her character. She was pouty, immature and abrasive, and I couldn't understand why ANYONE would like her. Plus, I felt like she was playing the older brother, she didn't like him but still dated him. I could never tell when she started liking Yoon Jae, and even once she supposedly did, she was never nice to him.
Lee Si Eun as Bang Sung Jae - this character was irritating throughout the whole show.

Brothers and Shi Won storyline - older brother was just TOO old, so that storyline was creepy for me.

Lack of chemistry between the leads. Partially, this was due to their antagonistic love/hate relationship (which was not healthy, by the way), but I didn't see the attraction between them AT ALL.

Editing/poor differentiation between time periods - sometimes they told you what year it was, sometimes it was a small time period between the scenes, but I didn't think things ran cohesively through the story. For example, in one scene, they weren't even friends at that time, but he called her his girlfriend. She dragged him away, saying they needed to talk, and the next scene cut to something completely different. From what I could tell, the talk, where they would explain why he was calling her his girlfriend, never happened.

Language - I'll be honest, I don't understand why, even if curse words are used, they need to be translated. I don't like to hear them or read them. Men calling the girls B*tches - never a good thing.

Needless to say, I couldn't recommend this show to anyone, but I'm glad it was so famous, if for no other reason than to introduce others to Seo In Guk.

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Binge worthy!

Wow! If I could just stop my review here, I would, but since a certain number of characters are required, I'll expound a little bit. First, the time loop premise - there are so many ways that it could have gone terribly wrong, the worst being feeling like everything is being re-hashed over and over. They did not fall into that trap, instead each loop was just a little bit different than the last, with us the audience, learning right along with the main characters. As I was watching, I felt that this was a really fresh take on the concept of deja vu.

Acting - the main characters did an excellent job. As I find in most Chinese dramas, the ancillaries suffer from overacting and the terrible dubbed voices. I could forgive it here because the whole story just kept moving so fast.

There was a touch of romance to the story, and it, by necessity, took a back seat to all the action. I really felt like the main characters were drawn together because of their experiences, but their relationship was very believable. I felt like if they met under ordinary circumstances, they would still be drawn to one another.

This show gets you to thinking about, if you could go back and change things, or set them right, how would you go about it? What would you be willing to do?

I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of watching this.

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Calming

This movie is very calming and relaxing. It invites you to leave your daily cares and watch the simple lives of people in a small town. It's beautifully filmed and edited. I could almost feel my blood pressure dropping as I watched this. I felt absolutely nothing intrinsically wrong with it, just personally I felt like nothing was happening, and that's on me.

The actors did a fine job. Of course, they weren't actually required to do anything much anyway.

I don't remember the music.

I won't rewatch, simply because I have so much on my list already. Though, to be fair, I might want to give it another chance when my mental state is in a somewhat different place.

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Should have had half as many episodes

This drama was entirely too long. I fast forwarded through a lot of it, because I didn't really care what was going on. I was watching for the romance, and it never fully developed. So many missed opportunities!

Shen Yue as Tong Xiao You. I love this actress. I liked the character's strength, honesty, and loyalty. However, I felt that so often she was a doormat for the ML.

Jerry Yan as Lu Xing Ching. I wasn't bothered by the age disparity. I was, however, bothered by the character of Lu Xing Ching. He wasn't a nice guy, he didn't treat her well. He was emotionally closed off and unwilling to open up to her. I think that if I was her (or actually anyone that had some self-respect) I would have given up on him. Why did she love him? He was no prize. The dubbing was especially bad for this character. He, for the most part, sounded like he was talking while stricken with lockjaw. He overacted when he was required to cry. And, considering that the character was supposed to be a famous clothing designer, the clothes he wore were the WORST. And i think he only had three outfits.

Wei Zhe Ming as Lu Yan Zhi. I loved this character, and I felt that he and Xiao You would have been better together. I don't normally ship the FL with the 2ML, but I totally did in this one. He was a terrific character, just a totally nice guy. His love for her was true, and more than anything, he wanted her to be happy. To be honest, there were times that I thought she acted like she liked him more than the ML.

I liked the second couple, and we got a wedding.

One open-eyed fish kiss and one good kiss. The couple spent more time apart than they did together, so I felt that the chemistry was lacking.

I did like the side stories of the family dynamics, which I don't normally care for. But they were more interesting than the romance.

Sweet ending.

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Finding and chasing your dreams

Spoilers (slight) at the end -

This was a take-off of The Devil Wears Prada. However, here we get some of the back story as to why the Devil Boss is the ways she is. It totally humanized her, and I found that her story arc was my favorite of the whole show.

The romance was somewhat cute, but I found myself with SLS. I think it was because the FL kept referring to the ML as a puppy, and he just seemed somewhat immature to me. They were a cute couple, but I didn't see much chemistry.

As for the FL, I think I could have warmed to her more if they hadn't made her so bumbling. Constant rookie mistakes that would have gotten her fired, talking back to bosses (which also would have gotten her fired), and the clumsiness were all a bit much.

The potential rival for the ML's affections was a nice change of pace. The usual formula wasn't used here, which I appreciated.


NOW FOR THE RANTING SPOILERS:
This really irritated me. So, the guy kisses her on the forehead, and she is already planning their wedding?! I notice that they tend to do this a lot in Japanese dramas. She can't even ask him to define their relationship. It's called communication, people. But the thing that irked me more than that, this is a woman that had no goals to speak of, finally gets a "dream" and breaks up with him when he is leaving Tokyo to go into the family business! This, to me, made everything we went through a waste of time. I was also bothered how she "saw" him everywhere. It was her choice to break up. Why does it have to be one or the other - a career OR a relationship? Could they have tried to make it work.? Having had a career that was the major focus of my life, at the expense of my relationship - I've discovered that you can't bank on a career.

Another thing that REALLY irritated me, and this happens ALL THE TIME in Asian shows - the time jump. The guy decides that he really wants to pursue photography (this didn't make sense to me because he was already a professional photographer) so we went to Cambodia for three years and didn't contact her ONCE!?!?!?! Granted, phones didn't play a central part in this drama as much as they do in others, but with technology what it is, there is no reason to fall off the grid for years at a time.

Overall, I found this to be a cute and easy show to watch. The romance was lacking chemistry, but I found the Devil Boss storyline to be fresh and well-written.

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Lots of wasted time

I'm not normally a fan of historicals. I feel like there is one script that they use for every historical, just changing the names and the actors - someone in the family trying to kill the monarch, evil people in power (especially high-ranking officials), scraggly beards and moustaches, beautiful costumes, ridiculous hats, sword fighting, kidnapping, bloodshed, mistaken identity, ginormous cast with multiple storylines. This drama kept popping up in my face, so I figured I'd give it a try. If you are die-hard fan of historicals, you'll probably like this. There is no doubt that it was well done, but there was so much filler that the fast forward button and I became very close.
There were many positive things about this drama for me:
The cast, especially -
Rowoon as Jung Ji Woon - do I even need to explain why? I find him to be very charismatic and his acting is understated. I can feel his emotions, and he tends to have very good chemistry with his leading ladies.
Park Eun Bin as Yeon Seon/Lee Hwi/Dam Yi - for me, she was the standout of this drama. I do not like the gender bender genre, because every single one that I have seen has a woman that is so beautiful that there is no way that anyone that can see at all would confuse her with a man. Her features are always soft, and they have her perfectly made up. Park Eun Bin was terrific in this role! First, her stature and her face are such that you could conceivably believe that she was a man. Don't get me wrong, she is absolutely gorgeous, but she was made up so that her face was all hard angles, strong jawline, no puffy cheeks. Add to that, she did a great job of keeping her voice deep, and she had that cold, aloof demeanor down pat. Her movements were very masculine when she was playing the man, as well.
Nam Yoon Su as Lee Hyun - I loved his characterization of unswerving loyalty in the face of having to deny his feelings.
Go Gyu Pil as Hong Bok Dong - He brought a little comedy/lightness to an otherwise heavy show. When I saw the child actor playing this part, I just knew Go Gyu Pil would be playing the adult!

Excellent chemistry between the lead actors. Honestly, if I were to re-watch this, it would be to fast forward through all the intrigues just to watch their love story.

Bottom line - I think that if historical dramas are what you gravitate to, you will probably really like this one.

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For me, it was forgettable

The story line was interesting, but I didn't feel the leads did a very good job when they exchanged souls. So, trying to keep track of who what saying what to who was aggravating. Toward the beginning of the show, when he was already attracted to her, the looks he would give her...sigh! But later they didn't really seem to have that much chemistry. Plus, they fought ALL THE TIME. Hated the evil mother (I know, that was the point, but she continued to have her way, even at the end, hated that). I had watched this on DramaFever and couldn't even remember it, so I watched it again to review it. I now know why I couldn't remember it. Not that impressive. Loved the architecture, even though this was filmed long before WWWSK, it will always be the WWWSK house!

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This is one of those shows that I have watched multiple times. She is just precious. Tiny in stature, but don't mess with her! The chemistry between the two mains was wonderful, and I loved that he seemed to be attracted to her before she was attracted to him. He treats her with such care and respect, I just LOVED their relationship. They were so sweet together, and it was wonderful watching him try to deal with his feelings for her.

Her crying, however. They need to work with her to teach her how to correctly emote when she is crying. I could not take her seriously, and I wanted to laugh during one of the more dramatic scenes of the show. It was not a character flaw, I've seen her in other shows and that's the way she cries.

That said, I did NOT like the side story with the "gangsters" that were in the hospital, and her mom was a nightmare! I felt that the gangster stuff put it over the top into slapstick territory and the ending did, as well.

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