I don’t usually watch rom-coms but this one is by far the best and I just about died laughing through all 12…
Don't know if you've already seen it or not, but if this is your kind of drama, I think you would love Shopping King Louie. One of the only romcoms I've ever rated a 9 or above. Completely fun and adorable.
I gave it an 8. I rated it that high because it's adorable, funny, the soundtrack supports the scenes and enhances them (mostly), the pacing is pretty good. Also, no one's performance was bad or distracting.
I didn't rate it any higher than that for a few reasons: One, there are kilig moments in the drama, but they peter out by about midway through and it turns less spicy and more sweet. Kind of loses it's edge. Two, the major kiss/skinship scene between ML and FL for whatever reason doesn't have much chemistry behind it. Also the other kiss scenes between ML and FL were just passable. The 2ML is a better kisser than the ML! Three, there is a tired kind of a feel to the plot devices used in the last quarter of the drama and the ending wasn't totally satisfactory. And four, whoever did costume direction and style direction for this drama has bad taste. The ML's grandfather had a great look, the others no so much. The general aesthetics of the show weren't bad. They just weren't good.
I would recommend this as a fun watch, but I wouldn't be telling people 'OMG you HAVE to watch this!' It's not some masterpiece work of art or anything.
Just finished this, gave it a 6.0... the only reason I rated it that high was because "steamy kiss" tag is accurate. But there's only ONE truly fiery kiss. The chemistry is there. But everything else was kind of here there and everywhere. The aesthetic and style direction are tres tragique. Plot is weird and draggy but passable.
This is IMO a well-balanced, solid watch. The funny bits are funny enough, the kisses and chemistry are decent, the ending doesn't suck, the aesthetics - while lo-budget - are still pleasing enough. The ost is okay (sometimes steps on key moments, sometimes too repetitious but not that bad). The plot is kinda interesting and cool, and the script is fine.
I agree with the assessment of others here that the reason this stands out as a better drama, is the casting and acting. Every single actor is awesome in their role.
This was awesome. There were a few things wrong, but that's all just nitpicking. The acting and screenwriting were A+. The psychology of the characters was spot on. The dialogue was spot on. The pacing was just a touch slow, but not too bad. The aesthetics were pretty good. IMO the major fault was only that the last 2 episodes did that thing that the last 2 kdrama episodes nearly always do (where it seems like things are suddenly disjointed and the momentum of the drama tumbles off a cliff), that the FL is not kissing properly in the kiss scenes, the kilig moments run dry by about 2/3 of the way through. This drama had all the angst you could ever want, and was very heavy on the romance... but awfully skimpy on the spice.
One of the things I found refreshing about this drama was that the way the characters told truths and lies was NOT like a typical k-drama where the entire plot hinges on the characters not communicating or being honest about something totally unrealistic and/or idiotic. All the truths are well placed and well stated, and the lies are understandable, logical lies.
I also enjoyed that there's an undercurrent of twistedness running through the story. It's very subtle, but it's still palpable.
I was ready to give this drama a 9 or 10 all the way through the show, til I watched episode 14-16. The drama's concluding episodes knocked my rating down to an 8.5 because of the terrible kisses (not the ML's fault btw) and the way the ending petered out in a way that didn't match the overall tone of the show. Basically it needed less memories-montages, less OST, less anticipatory suspense, and more spice, more heat, more resolution.
The main reason to watch this drama is for the incredible acting and beautiful plot that unfolds.
I am on the third episode, does the FL get better? She is currently annoying me so much I am ready to drop this.
i felt the exact same way at that point in the show, and I continued to give her character dirty looks every now and then up through maybe episode 6-8. The point of her behavior is that they are going to shape that terrible attitude into a defensive wall that you will slowly watch come down, and as it does you begin to view her as a normal decent pleasant human being.
I hate to say it, because the acting was so good on everyone's part, but the FL had to really pull some difficult performances from herself to make this drama happen so well and some aspects of her character extended her talents in a way that challenged her as an actress. The writers wrote her a part, and she executed the role to the best of her ability. Once I was done watching, I thought that she had done a very good job of it. It cannot have been easy to try to keep up with Jo In Sung, but she does.
Once the character she's playing mellows out and becomes more vulnerable, she begins to fit her role better and her acting talent can shine through more, imo. I think that's probably because she relates more on a personal level with the person that her FL character becomes, and doesn't relate as much to the nasty woman she has to play at the start.
If you give this show an honest chance, I think you won't be left wanting your money back. There's no draggy parts. So if you can just let go and let the plot unfold, you get to see what the writers and actors were trying to show you without any slogging through crappy episodes to get there.
The acting is incredible in this. All of it. The screenwriting is excellent. There are some scenes that just completely achieve transcendence. The artistic value and actual plot content of this drama I cannot recommend enough. It has everything. The OST is not intrusive, it doesnt drag. It has total continuity of flow all the way throughout. Every episode layers something new into the story. I'm completely impressed.
I gave this a 9 instead of a 10. And that was because there were massive technical flaws, and some messages about psychiatric care that I don't think should be promoted. In any other drama, I would have knocked a lot of points off my rating for that. But it cannot be ignored that the breathtaking acting performances and masterful execution of this drama put it in a class of it's own, so I can't give it anything lower than a 9. It's rare that a k drama romance achieves this level of artistic beauty.
this is a straight love triangle story, but a sort of good one... there's pros and cons. The cons first: the ost intrudes on key points in the show at times in a way that totally kills the mood, very sparse on the kiss scenes and kilig, rushed ending, and a fair bit of unnecessary dragging in the show. The pros: plenty of cute romantic sassy moments (if that is your thing), the few kiss scenes are moderately spicy, nothing drags too much or is too over the top, the ML and 2ML are hot, the FL is not annoying, and the plot is sort of twisted in a way that reminds me a teensy bit of Kakafukaka. It's totally NOT like Kakafukaka overall as a show, but there are some situations that have a little bit of a warped sexiness to them.
production is very aesthetically pleasing, supporting cast is excellent and enjoyable. ML and FL were OK but not great. No kilig anywhere. A few passable kiss scenes. Plot keeps moving at a pretty good pace and I ended up finishing it kind of quickly. But the plot was not my kind of thing, ending was not my kind of thing. Overall, I think this was a little bit of a jumbled up mess with some good actors in it.
The first four episodes have an odd, juvenile sort of a feel to them that made me consider dropping. But it definitely picks up after that, and the story is good enough to keep you engaged. Ending wasn't really fabulous, but ok. Pros, excellent OST and decent enough cast, aesthetics and production are very stylish and clean, enjoyable fight sequences. Cons, a little bit simplistic overall, not spicy at all, only one actually good kiss scene, a touch on the draggy side, not the most satisfying ending episode ever made.
I saw such great reviews, so I started watching, but I dropped about halfway through because it started to totally lose it's charisma. I found that the romance of the first 8 or so episodes that everybody had really talked up, just didn't 'do it' for me. I felt no kilig, not a lot of chemistry, not a lot of spice. I don't really get the draw of this drama.
The first half of this drama was pretty good - not great, but pretty good. But the back half of this drama went totally off the rails. What started off as a romance, suddenly dropped the romantic element almost entirely and it became some kind of bad action/political intrigue drama.
Good points: FL was cute, 2ML was very good looking, the "bad guys" come in different shades of bad... some are only sort of bad while others are evil to the bone. I liked how many of the antagonists of the drama aren't all bad and don't overact to the point where you want to reach through the screen and smack them. The FEW kiss scenes are somewhat spicy so that's nice. The aesthetics and costume design are really nice, considering how most c-drama style is tres tragique. OST does not step on key scenes in the show, it blends in nicely. 2FL has a kind of interesting love triangle dynamic.
Bad points: Very few kiss scenes. FL is incredibly stupid. ML's hotness factor is only average. Japanese are portrayed as horrible people with a rather broad brush. A lot of totally unnecessary sepia memory flashbacks. One of the more prominent characters gets r*ped not once but twice, and there was no need for that crap in the plot, they could have left it out... it brought a darkness to the drama that it didn't need. Not a very gripping secondary plotline (politics & spies) that completely dominates the drama's second half.
I cannot emphasize enough how this drama just loses ALL it's momentum and completely drops off a cliff in the 2nd half. It's like it's not even the same show. Last 3 episodes were horrible and boring in equal measure, and way too many people die. Approzimately zero romance in final few episodes.
All in all, I gave it a 6. Which for me is pretty low.
it's an intriguing and terrible snarl of both very very good qualities, and very very bad qualities that makes it hard to sort out what the heck you are watching.
If you can't withstand massive amounts of cringe, do NOT watch this drama. The wardrobe and interiors have TRAGIC lack of fashion sense. And I mean tragic. There is only one song on the OST and you will hear it over and over again til you want to beat your head against a wall. Some of the dialogue is cringe as well, but in it's defense... many things that emotional young people say are cringe in RL. So at least if the dialogue is cringe, it is nevertheless somewhat realistic.
The acting is solid from the ML/FL and they are well cast. There is some chemistry, and there are plentiful kiss scenes. The kiss scenes are moderately spicy, no dead fish.
The challenges of dating someone with a mental illness are well portrayed in many respects. For instance the ML is so clingy and possessive that it's borderline yandere and for the first half of the drama, you kind of wonder whether he's going to go truly psycho at any moment. So he's a figure that is both attractive and scary at the same time. The challenges the FL deals with in trying to have a romance with him do reflect the RL challenges someone would have with this kind of situation.
The ending is NOT a realistic portrayal of mental illness... but that happens often in asian dramas, because they have to wrap up the show somehow.
The 2ML/2FL story is sort of awful, it leaves a lot to be desired. Nothing outside of the ML/FL storyline is very well developed. It leaves the plot looking very pared down to it's basic elements and kind of minimalist.
This drama ramps up, so some of the best scenes and best acting are in the last 5 episodes or so. If you can make it past the first 10 episodes, it gets easier and more interesting to watch. All in all, I think the actors got some great acting experience and a chance to display their talent, and there is enough promise in the plot and basic script that it would make an excellent re-make if it was in the hands of more competent producers and writers.
I can't tell anyone to watch it because it was too awful. I can't tell anyone not to watch it because it was too good. All in all, watching this is like being repeatedly low-voltage tazered, doused in nacho cheese, absinthe and fruit loops, and then forced to ride bumper cars with garden gnomes at a Rick Astley concert in a wal mart parking lot while being beat over the head with a loaf of french bread.
I thought this was as good as TMOPB but for different reasons. TMOPB ends strong, and has spicier scenes in it and a better casted ML. I thought the problems with TMOPB were that by the end of the drama, I only care about what happens to the 2ML/2FL... the cgi was pretty bad... the aesthetics were beautiful but a teensy bit on the cheesy side... and the storylines-inside-a-storyline were frustrating.
With this drama, the aesthetics are a bit darker with a little more realism, the entire cast is beautiful with excellent acting, the cgi was much better, and the story was more complex and unfolded at a more natural pace, the actors were freer to express subtle and complex emotions. There is a 2ML/2FL romance, but it does not overshadow the main couple.
This show is in the top 3 worst 2ML syndromes I've ever had. But it's not entirely unpleasant. There's a problem with the fact that the 2ML is markedly hotter than the ML. But the ML does a good job adding charisma and emotion to his performance and so it's sort of tolerable that the two are held up for comparison with eachother.
FL is adorable and perfectly cast, and most of the rest of the characters are also.
The biggest problem I have with this show is in the last 2 episodes. The show started strong, and stayed strong throughout the entire drama, and then the last few episodes just fizzled. You do get a happy ending. But it leaves questions, and it is a rushed last-minute happy ending and I don't like those. Lots of minutes of the last episodes were filled with people being miserable and longing for someone, when they could have used those minutes to flesh out happy endings and tie up loose ends, show the fates of the characters.
My second biggest problem with this show is a distinct lack of spice.
I thought it was good enough to rate at a 9. Point off for mismatched ML and somewhat stupid ending.
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I didn't rate it any higher than that for a few reasons: One, there are kilig moments in the drama, but they peter out by about midway through and it turns less spicy and more sweet. Kind of loses it's edge. Two, the major kiss/skinship scene between ML and FL for whatever reason doesn't have much chemistry behind it. Also the other kiss scenes between ML and FL were just passable. The 2ML is a better kisser than the ML! Three, there is a tired kind of a feel to the plot devices used in the last quarter of the drama and the ending wasn't totally satisfactory. And four, whoever did costume direction and style direction for this drama has bad taste. The ML's grandfather had a great look, the others no so much. The general aesthetics of the show weren't bad. They just weren't good.
I would recommend this as a fun watch, but I wouldn't be telling people 'OMG you HAVE to watch this!' It's not some masterpiece work of art or anything.
I agree with the assessment of others here that the reason this stands out as a better drama, is the casting and acting. Every single actor is awesome in their role.
One of the things I found refreshing about this drama was that the way the characters told truths and lies was NOT like a typical k-drama where the entire plot hinges on the characters not communicating or being honest about something totally unrealistic and/or idiotic. All the truths are well placed and well stated, and the lies are understandable, logical lies.
I also enjoyed that there's an undercurrent of twistedness running through the story. It's very subtle, but it's still palpable.
I was ready to give this drama a 9 or 10 all the way through the show, til I watched episode 14-16. The drama's concluding episodes knocked my rating down to an 8.5 because of the terrible kisses (not the ML's fault btw) and the way the ending petered out in a way that didn't match the overall tone of the show. Basically it needed less memories-montages, less OST, less anticipatory suspense, and more spice, more heat, more resolution.
The main reason to watch this drama is for the incredible acting and beautiful plot that unfolds.
I hate to say it, because the acting was so good on everyone's part, but the FL had to really pull some difficult performances from herself to make this drama happen so well and some aspects of her character extended her talents in a way that challenged her as an actress. The writers wrote her a part, and she executed the role to the best of her ability. Once I was done watching, I thought that she had done a very good job of it. It cannot have been easy to try to keep up with Jo In Sung, but she does.
Once the character she's playing mellows out and becomes more vulnerable, she begins to fit her role better and her acting talent can shine through more, imo. I think that's probably because she relates more on a personal level with the person that her FL character becomes, and doesn't relate as much to the nasty woman she has to play at the start.
If you give this show an honest chance, I think you won't be left wanting your money back. There's no draggy parts. So if you can just let go and let the plot unfold, you get to see what the writers and actors were trying to show you without any slogging through crappy episodes to get there.
WHOA
The acting is incredible in this. All of it. The screenwriting is excellent. There are some scenes that just completely achieve transcendence. The artistic value and actual plot content of this drama I cannot recommend enough. It has everything. The OST is not intrusive, it doesnt drag. It has total continuity of flow all the way throughout. Every episode layers something new into the story. I'm completely impressed.
I gave this a 9 instead of a 10. And that was because there were massive technical flaws, and some messages about psychiatric care that I don't think should be promoted. In any other drama, I would have knocked a lot of points off my rating for that. But it cannot be ignored that the breathtaking acting performances and masterful execution of this drama put it in a class of it's own, so I can't give it anything lower than a 9. It's rare that a k drama romance achieves this level of artistic beauty.
I'm giving it a 7 with a moderate rewatch value.
Good points: FL was cute, 2ML was very good looking, the "bad guys" come in different shades of bad... some are only sort of bad while others are evil to the bone. I liked how many of the antagonists of the drama aren't all bad and don't overact to the point where you want to reach through the screen and smack them. The FEW kiss scenes are somewhat spicy so that's nice. The aesthetics and costume design are really nice, considering how most c-drama style is tres tragique. OST does not step on key scenes in the show, it blends in nicely. 2FL has a kind of interesting love triangle dynamic.
Bad points: Very few kiss scenes. FL is incredibly stupid. ML's hotness factor is only average. Japanese are portrayed as horrible people with a rather broad brush. A lot of totally unnecessary sepia memory flashbacks. One of the more prominent characters gets r*ped not once but twice, and there was no need for that crap in the plot, they could have left it out... it brought a darkness to the drama that it didn't need. Not a very gripping secondary plotline (politics & spies) that completely dominates the drama's second half.
I cannot emphasize enough how this drama just loses ALL it's momentum and completely drops off a cliff in the 2nd half. It's like it's not even the same show. Last 3 episodes were horrible and boring in equal measure, and way too many people die. Approzimately zero romance in final few episodes.
All in all, I gave it a 6. Which for me is pretty low.
it's an intriguing and terrible snarl of both very very good qualities, and very very bad qualities that makes it hard to sort out what the heck you are watching.
If you can't withstand massive amounts of cringe, do NOT watch this drama. The wardrobe and interiors have TRAGIC lack of fashion sense. And I mean tragic. There is only one song on the OST and you will hear it over and over again til you want to beat your head against a wall. Some of the dialogue is cringe as well, but in it's defense... many things that emotional young people say are cringe in RL. So at least if the dialogue is cringe, it is nevertheless somewhat realistic.
The acting is solid from the ML/FL and they are well cast. There is some chemistry, and there are plentiful kiss scenes. The kiss scenes are moderately spicy, no dead fish.
The challenges of dating someone with a mental illness are well portrayed in many respects. For instance the ML is so clingy and possessive that it's borderline yandere and for the first half of the drama, you kind of wonder whether he's going to go truly psycho at any moment. So he's a figure that is both attractive and scary at the same time. The challenges the FL deals with in trying to have a romance with him do reflect the RL challenges someone would have with this kind of situation.
The ending is NOT a realistic portrayal of mental illness... but that happens often in asian dramas, because they have to wrap up the show somehow.
The 2ML/2FL story is sort of awful, it leaves a lot to be desired. Nothing outside of the ML/FL storyline is very well developed. It leaves the plot looking very pared down to it's basic elements and kind of minimalist.
This drama ramps up, so some of the best scenes and best acting are in the last 5 episodes or so. If you can make it past the first 10 episodes, it gets easier and more interesting to watch. All in all, I think the actors got some great acting experience and a chance to display their talent, and there is enough promise in the plot and basic script that it would make an excellent re-make if it was in the hands of more competent producers and writers.
I can't tell anyone to watch it because it was too awful. I can't tell anyone not to watch it because it was too good. All in all, watching this is like being repeatedly low-voltage tazered, doused in nacho cheese, absinthe and fruit loops, and then forced to ride bumper cars with garden gnomes at a Rick Astley concert in a wal mart parking lot while being beat over the head with a loaf of french bread.
With this drama, the aesthetics are a bit darker with a little more realism, the entire cast is beautiful with excellent acting, the cgi was much better, and the story was more complex and unfolded at a more natural pace, the actors were freer to express subtle and complex emotions. There is a 2ML/2FL romance, but it does not overshadow the main couple.
This show is in the top 3 worst 2ML syndromes I've ever had. But it's not entirely unpleasant. There's a problem with the fact that the 2ML is markedly hotter than the ML. But the ML does a good job adding charisma and emotion to his performance and so it's sort of tolerable that the two are held up for comparison with eachother.
FL is adorable and perfectly cast, and most of the rest of the characters are also.
The biggest problem I have with this show is in the last 2 episodes. The show started strong, and stayed strong throughout the entire drama, and then the last few episodes just fizzled. You do get a happy ending. But it leaves questions, and it is a rushed last-minute happy ending and I don't like those. Lots of minutes of the last episodes were filled with people being miserable and longing for someone, when they could have used those minutes to flesh out happy endings and tie up loose ends, show the fates of the characters.
My second biggest problem with this show is a distinct lack of spice.
I thought it was good enough to rate at a 9. Point off for mismatched ML and somewhat stupid ending.