pomegranate

Sometimes you don’t watch romcoms for their plot. The plot is irrelevant. If you like the main couple together and you find them and the other characters entertaining, you enjoy the drama. I can understand being critical and disappointed with the plot in these shows, I used to be too. But I liked King The Land, classic 2010s romcom feels with a healthy pretty couple (with some really annoying side characters) and absolutely no plot to speak of. And I remembered that while the plot in Strong Woman Do Bong Soon had been actually bonkers and years later I didn’t get why it was rated so highly when it’s nothing without that lead cast. I finally understood that well, they Are the plot lol. Their chemistry had been adorable, they’re both cute looking and I did remember loving them as a couple.

My demon has a lot of tropes put together:

•Enemies to lovers
•Bodyguard romance
•CEO romance
•Contract Marriage
•Chaebol business makjang
•Superpowers / supernatural figure/ fantasy (& that obvious Goblin reference)
•Past life connection/reincarnation
•^Amnesiac character
•Dead parents x_x
•Loyal secretaries/butlers
•Obsessed SFL
•Nice SML (that you still can’t trust lol because what if…) until the bromance happens
•Secret office romance that’s not actually a secret
•Secret IdentityTM that everyone knows
•In your face PPL
•Revenge/murder mystery in the background that’s just there for thriller aspect/move story forward
•Last minute sort of break/patch up or dying & reviving main leads lol
•Character reactions representing the fans watching the drama

It may lack creativity but that is not always needed, and despite that it is recycling dozens of done and tried cliches/classics, it can be considered an original piece of work because it is not just a plain copy of any one drama, but rather lots of themes put together.

There’s a reason why something becomes a trope or a cliche. It’s because people enjoy it. Simply for the entertainment value and/or the nostalgia. And it gives all those tropes you (secretly) miss in a single drama.

If this drama had taken itself too seriously and the characters had spent a lot of time angst-ing over their circumstances or it had been serious about it’s plot, then I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much. But it keeps a consistent light tone. There’s Angst Moments yes, because those are also tropes we miss, and to give a breather from the fluff/fan service but I really liked that they don’t dwell long on them and resolve things quickly.

I also appreciated the characters being unapologetically themselves. It’s a little more honest. You have endless magic powers and undying youth ? Ofcourse you love it, no whining about how lonely, unloved or misfit you are. (He was antisocial yet outgoing, so you don’t worry about him remaining immortal).
You’re stinking rich, successful and hot? Yeah, you’re going to dress like a runway model and not in misfit rags and acknowledge how pretty and successful you are.
You’re obsessed with a guy who won’t look at you the way you want him to? Yeah, you’re not pretending like you wouldn’t do it again if you had the chance. You’re just giving up because you know it’s not going to work.

(Also that moment where the butler asks the male lead what he thinks his profession actually is, and my guy happily proudly replies “being my wife’s husband!” lol. I mean that’s basically how characters act in most romcoms. They don’t Have a JoB. Except being in love. Or signing random papers to keep up the pretence of “work commitments that are earning my very high income”. And an immortal individual that has magic powers would be even more jobless).

Because I only rate things on this toxic website 1 or 10. My actual rating for this drama would be something like 8. I’ll have to dock a point for how they handled the dad villain, because it was very inconsistent and plot holey within the defined rules of its own universe. And the last couple episodes before finale were drag. But I appreciate ML kept his powers in the end, because I can’t imagine either of the characters being able to survive happily without overwhelming anxiety after all those close calls without access to any powers for the rest of their life.

I found this article quite a thoughtful interesting read, even if you haven’t seen the drama: https://seoulbeats.com/2024/01/my-demon-choices-and-consequences/

Are you talking about my rating or of those calling it a masterpiece?

Personally I watched it for the fantasy romcom genre. I’ve loved or enjoyed most of those Kdramas in the genre, and this one’s plot gave me nostalgia. Not new, and very predictable, to outright ridiculous by the end but still fun enough in its comforting predictability.

I liked it for the main couple primarily. Always appreciate a bit of Lee Sang Yi, the OSTs/ cinematography were engaging, and the older secretory couple were funny. I think it’s my first time seeing that actress play a comedic/light role. And that young villain kid dude was unexpectedly complex. Also liked the gangster dude’s character development.

I didn’t care much for the lead’s visuals initially. I disliked Song Kang before watching this. (Mostly just knew him from S2 of Love Alarm really. Thought he was mid actor and didn’t find him attractive either). I found the fashion choices somewhat questionable in this drama, but like put it down to being a character trait. They’re attractive yes but I mostly got endeared to them as a couple. It was a healthy couple when it could have easily been a power imbalance or their enemy to lover trope could have easily been toxic but their fights never lasted for more than a few hours.

As for SK. His character was drawn up as a self obsessed arrogant lazy kid, who is very honest about liking his powers/immortality. Could’ve easily been obnoxious or off-putting but it was lighthearted and he got slapped or bullied by everyone around him, which was somewhat satisfying to see and also funny.

I know there’s a lot of cringe, but I didn’t mind the aegyo. Seen it in enough romcoms.

As for the masterpiece thing, well I feel the same way when I see the mdl rating or high praises/ masterpiece comments for Business Proposal. Which is a similar copied wall of cliche with a lead couple I didn’t see any chemistry in.

Whoever thought they were being edgy and funny and cool rebel teen with that casting couch comment for Kim Yoo Jung (on this page), need to shut the fuck up, sit down, have a long hard thought about what the fuck they actually said and then go repeat that sentence to their mother. If you don’t get the chancla treatment I’d be disappointed in your parents parenting.

There’s a difference between simple criticism for a drama and expressing exaggerated or comedic disappointment vs behaving as a vulgar cheap spiteful and hateful excuse of a human being.

Nah that’s typical mdl/ teen language.

Either a drama is Disgurrssting Shiit or it’s Masterpiece. There’s no in between lol.

5/10.
I didn’t cry either. Nor care for majority of the characters.

The only death I found tragic or felt sad and shocked for was the maid side character girl that I still somewhat remember. Rest was like mindless but expected violence. I guess too much tragic for the sake of tragic gets me desensitised quickly, especially when I didn’t much care for or know the characters in the first place.

Couldn’t relate with the female lead’s character, despite that she is supposed to represent us, the target audience (the average young 21st century woman watching this). But I found her much more tolerable in the latter half, after she’s forced to enter the court.

Initially liked the SML better but later just hated him. Male lead was pretty much consistently cold angsty mask guy that ain’t very sane.

I couldn’t get behind the “every dude in here has a crush on this female lead” plot. Even the old king wtf. And it didn’t seem to be a simple, she’s very attractive to look at kind of lust, but they really seemed to like her for her. But like given her character, wouldn’t she naturally rub some of them the wrong way? They’re rich, handsome royals who can get any girl they want, why would this frivolous and insane (for their time period) sounding girl be attractive in their eyes instead of an abomination? My last straw was that pseudo incest plot - the one guy she had a non-romantic and brother/sister bond with gets married to her…

And I had thought I was getting into a time travel plot. So I’d been expecting atleast like a reverse Rooftop Prince reaction to suddenly being dropped in a wildly different culture and era, displaced from the comfort of home. Yet the FL adjusted so fast, if not for the make up plot, I’d believe she was just an eccentric character of that era and not a time displaced woman.

I never understood the calls for a season 2. I thought we’re well used to reincarnation (and reincarnation with memory) plots. Whether they show it for 2 seconds on screen or not, it’s easy enough to imagine a Splash Splash Love ending.

(Forgive me if I got any impressions wrong. It’s been a real hot minute since I watched this drama.)

Your review has me in stitches. 😂 I still keep hearing about this drama to this day, and I’m like, aren’t we grown up now. Did we watch the same thing? Was no one else concerned that there’s not just a love triangle, not even just a love square, but an outright love chuchu train of handsome rich IT. BOYS. of their century. All over this random girl whose only selling point appears to be make up skills.

This was one of my first sageuks, so some of the portrayal of violence, court politics, treatment of women, etc in dark ages Korea, will remain memorable to me. And I appreciate it as my first IU drama, because she goes annoying as hell, to someone pretty serious in the latter half.

But I felt like I was the only that wasn’t heartbroken or moved by any of the deaths in this “saddest drama ever” (except that one sweet maid girl that was beaten/executed to death in a straw mat, that was traumatising to watch for a first time).

Maybe I’d have found it sadder if wasn’t so advertised for being “most tragic story ever”. Or maybe I’d have felt more for the characters simply without the unnecessary extra lovelines between the FL.

2 is quite already more than enough. The last guy really kicked my patience. Because with all the deaths, and with the more melo/tragedy tone entering and that one guy having always thankfully looked at her as an older sister figure, I wasn’t expecting the betrayal of his feelings switching from brotherly to romantic last minute. Low-key pseudo incest plot. 💀

Ahh, yes. This was it. Please never delete this review.

Thank you for reminding me why I hated this drama. Absolutely despise power imbalance couples, particularly direct boss/employee, especially where one is clearly abusing their authority and/or the other is too much of a doormat.

Everyone has a different rating standards…..

This drama doesn’t even have an original plot. And it’s a cheesy chick flick with cookie cutter tropes and characters. So what’s there to even rate the story about ?

You can give it a 10 for entertainment value if you really enjoyed it. I enjoy dumb romcoms too. Most kdrama fans do. But to get offended over a criticism of a cliche shallow plot of all things…. lol. Go back to Wattpad or TikTok.

I think he means it’s part of the contract marriage / marriage for convenience trope. Just without an expiration date/clause on a written contract.

Bold controversial choices. Good or bad, they make bigger impact. And celebs thrive on being relevant. Looking at his filmography, he either has really loved dramas or overly hated / controversial dramas. Which means even while he’s being criticised to hell for “bad acting/unearned male lead status”, he’s still being a relevant name in the industry. The other reason helping to keep him at peak fame, he works non-stop with multiple main role dramas being released in the same year, alongside non-drama appearances.
So he’s made up for like decade worth of work in quick order before enlistment, after which certain opportunities would be limited.

He gets a lot of flak for his acting abilities and the quick rise to stardom. So, from a media strategic POV, if you just did a random cameo in your first movie appearance (to break into the movie market) and then it’s not a noteworthy appearance or performance, and you’re on hiatus due to enlistment, you need a way to make it memorable or bold enough so that you can more easily reenter the market post-enlistment without unnecessary hate or obstacles like “this guy ain’t good enough an actor to enter this scene, go back to idol dramas”.

Also, I’m sure you’ll love this, but Love Alarm also has a brief appearance of two gay characters, one of which admits to having a crush on the male lead (Jung Garam’s character).

But I want to know what you think of the nude scene in Sweet Home 2. (He’s far from the only one tho, there’s a lot of 🍑 in S2 lol). Are strip shows a sin?

Or what you think of ballerinos. Is it gay? Is a grandfather wearing tights and learning how to dance on his toes kinda gay?

There’s only two possible ways to find that drama worth watching.

Either just watch the first season as a brain off teen flick, with a side hustle of an interesting but neglected sci-fi concept.

Or only watch the second season whilst totally skipping through his character. (still a chick flick).

I think he might be a bit overworked too. Like it’s both doing wonders and bad for his career. Because actors need time to shrug off, rest, recoup, improve and then move into a new character’s skin. Which they can’t do if they don’t a get timeout. But need if they want to tackle different genres and versatile characters.

And through a toxic waste of plain hate comments and some supportive fan comments, I finally found a comment I resonate with.

I wrote him off years ago after seeing a limited amount of his performance in a mostly unlikeable role and believing the loud criticism that’s followed for years.

And now that I have finally decided to watch him (because my hate/prejudice started to melt with his character in My Demon) and go through his filmography to figure out for myself his abilities…

I totally see your point. Some scenes, the more serious type, he portrays a lot of complex emotional depth. In others he just falls completely flat and with his voice tone deaf. And it’s a wavy graph. As in, those great moments didn’t just start to come later in his career, but could be seen in his earlier dramas.

He definitely needs consistency. There’s actual potential, and he’s got guts, is bold. So hopefully, he’ll train that potential.

Edit: He’s also incredibly hardworking, and incredibly busy booked in with back to back dramas. Which may be both a blessing and a curse for his skills.

Because most actors take long breaks in between filming. Which allows them time to properly shrug off their previous character, recover themselves, and then digest a new character. (Especially for the ones that don’t just stick in a comfort niche. Which he doesn’t.)

Also in —Nevertheless, that last art project of a pair of wings he helps with looks to be a pretty close imitation of his one armed dark wing in —Sweet Home. Bringing you full circle ⭕️

-There’s more briefly appearing magic butterflies in My Demon.🦋
-In When the Devil Calls Your Name, his dad sells his soul to the devil.
-Now he’s a demon (devil in Korean) in My Demon, the one busy making contracts and collecting souls.
-At one point in the Devil Calls drama, the female lead makes a wish to save his life, her wish is written down as Salvation on the contract (Gu Won in Korean), which is now his character’s self chosen name in My Demon.

—Gul Mi from Love Alarm really does like him okay. She’s not being shallow just because he’s a hot rich famous model. That’s slander. She loves him when he’s a weak bullied nobody, sweaty, blood and grime covered monster too. She even taught him how to do the middle finger! He’s using it really well against sumo warriors now!

- The reason Hyun Su got bullied was because quote “the sky was clear when I met you” unquote. Is this the reason why he becomes obsessed with forecasting the weather as an adult?



-This guy looks better when his eyes are electric blue or red or even better, just plain black with no whites 🤣

I love drawing up parallels like this from actors filmographies. They often have recurring themes or props or something. Sometimes on purpose.

36 kg for a 37 year old working woman… I’d be like calling a doctor and diet nutrition on board 🤒

You know what she needs?

To stop signing up for noona romances, especially with the same character vibe from like her last ten dramas.

She has a solid established fanbase. But her growth as an actor is definitely suffering. Her most well received romances have been with similar age actors. Other dramas, people have enjoyed more the other aspects of the plot than the romance itself.

She also needs to eat and take care of herself. I don’t know what that article about dropping kilos to play a 5 second cancer patient role was about, but it ain’t good. If she’s struggling with some diet problems or mental health, her manager and agency needs to support her to get well.

Okay, if you hate a character, I’d advise to point that out clearly in your words going forwards. Otherwise it can turn easily into one of a sea of malicious comments for actors/actresses that just did their job.

It’s okay and totally normal to want to avoid an actor if their previous drama image is too strong in your mind. Or not trusting/ not liking them in other roles because of that.

As long as it doesn’t turn to insulting them or leaving flames for you know just doing what the director told them to do.

You’re not really supposed to like Park Jae Eon. Or they would have attempted to make his character less mysterious and explored his thoughts and his backstory in more depth.

Replace him with like cake or a donut or fast food joint/ junk food. We/ the female lead know it’s bad for your health. But you’re young, you don’t have the willpower to resist the temptation for long and you know you’ll regret it but it’s a problem for much later. Like when your cholesterol or blood sugar is acting up in your 60s or something. But right now, it’s her YOLO, let go and temporarily party moment because she’s 20 and she doesn’t want to idealise that it could have maybe worked out.

And yes, it’s a sad reality. People can’t break out of bad habits or toxic cycles easily. They have to leave them more than once sometimes for it to stick.

The drama epilogue doesn’t promise a typical wrapped in a bow unrealistic happy ever after. It shows him still being vague when he receives flirting attention, though he rejects the invite. And it shows her being hesitant and second guessing when she sees the safer choice guy again.

Which satisfies me as a viewer that it is not romanticising or rewarding unhealthy.

And I prefer it to the webtoon ending of Na Bi jumping ship to poor potato boy.

She either chooses to go solo, get some therapy maybe, do some soul searching, and be comfortable by herself without a relationship. Or, well as she did, and as many humans do, if she really would rather mingle than be single, go back to Park Jae Eon because she’s not over him yet. Besides, neither she nor audience really know him yet. Because we mostly see the narrative from her perspective, which is unreliable as she is traumatised from (her ex/ mom’s relationships), she’s often relying on hearsay and the man in question doesn’t speak up, but also neither does she.

As long as another innocent third party (second lead guy) isn’t dragged into your toxic mess and used as rebound to get over the male lead.

I agree with you about the dragging slow pace and somewhat boring feel. I think there was too much attempt by the director to give it a “realistic vibe” whilst withholding information.

😅I loved K2 and that was my first Yoona drama (first JCW drama too), but I actually liked her in it. More or less. Blamed the writing more than anything for making her loose agency and become dumb when it initially appeared her character would stand up for herself against the villains around her.

Highlight of that drama though was definitely the other Yoona (Song). Her scenes with JCW and her character development were captivating.

So I guess I’m soft for Yoona. She was like a warmer, less experienced Suzy for me lol. Can’t hate her.

Plotwise, I don’t think there’s much of one in either KTL or Nevertheless. But KTL is far more lighthearted, and sometimes that’s the kind of fluffy fantasy romcom you want to see after dealing with exhausting real life or just in between heavier dramas. It’s definitely only a one time watch, and to be taken in small doses rather than binge watching. The couple is healthy, despite the employer/employee setting, and thats all I need in a romcom with CEO trope. (A reason why I disliked Business Proposal.)

Nevertheless is much more a psychological and character driven drama, but with the characters not growing as much as you would like to prefer and their depth, particularly the ML, not explored as thoroughly. The pacing, directing is also at times quite dull and boring. It has these complex, deeply flawed and interesting characters but doesn’t really take advantage of it in a cinematic sense. It also leaves many things up for interpretation or just implies too subtly for the average watcher to pick up. The drama team doesn’t firmly dedicate itself to any one clear message. So it makes it not everyone’s cup of tea. Whilst also because of the subject matter, invites contention, because everyone has differing life experiences, expectations for a relationship and maturity. So, that makes the drama polarising with the audience.

Happens far too much… Seen people make personal attacks on or even leave hate on various actors social media for roles they have played or dramas they have starred in.

I’m like, have you guys no media literacy or what. They ain’t their character and they ain’t the writer. They’re just people with jobs trying to get by in a cutthroat industry.

Judge them for behaviour and decisions outside of the screen.

💀😅 I think it’s because she keeps doing the same character vibe over and over. So at some point, she loses the organic feel and it becomes clinically manufactured.