pomegranate

Whether you watch or not (the drama's main selling point is their lead couple. They have a good enemies-lovers dynamic with good visuals and chemistry. If you like them based off fan edits or the first few episodes, then you can continue to watch just for them only.)

However, my warning is for the user named "SonGKangDeek" that replied to you. That guy is a classic uncouth low life troll who has repeatedly used extremely crass language to harass actresses and attack them personally. He's also a jobless bitter basement dweller- because he's apparently been consistently active on this page for about 2+ years.

QOT being compared to a crime thriller is hilarious. I have yet to watch art of Sarah. But lmao, I thought atleast all the people who enjoyed QoT (including me) were aware that it's like enjoying Penthouse lol.

Intelligent writing.... intelligent characters.... it is not. If anything it only works by making everyone and everything around them dumb. Thus the leads appear smarter.

Lovely Runner is worse lmao. FL is as stupid as an eggplant with the emotional maturity of a kindergartener and not the 30+ year old woman she is supposed to be. Every other character, including the ML, are her plot devices with no autonomy.

Really.... are we really using Queen of Tears as a standard/measure for intelligent writing?

It was an entertaining watch no doubt. But the writing? Especially in the last quarter? If anything, the first 6 episodes were far stronger than the last 6 episodes.

I'm sorry, but, you really need to expand your filmography before you start to insult someone for not liking something you did. And especially for a drama that resorts to makjang writing.

For that matter, your other examples..... Lovely Runner's writing is an equal mess. The show itself has charm. But if you were to just be reading it as a plain script ? You'd see a lot more issues. I won't go into the glorification of red flags. But I'm sure atleast, even die hard fans can recognise how sloppy the villain plot was. (Dude was just a pathetic taxi driver who preys on easy vulnerable targets at night with no connections, no accomplices nor special knowledge. Yet he wins repeatedly against a time traveller who has the ability to pause time even if she only ever uses it the once to sneak into a teenage boy's room, and then later murder a top celebrity staying at a 7 star hotel suite. I'm sure Korea Tourism department were pulling their hair out with that last one.)

I'm not going to defend CLOY's overall writing. But there's overall no distinct difference between that and your reasons for why QoT or Lovely Runner were loved by audience.

Scenic filmography, attractive OSTs, famous actors/ production team, and finally some key plot point for emotional engagement.

CLOY's emotional engagement primarily banks on the very real divide between the North and South sections of the Korean country (both "countries" officially still claim to be a single one that is simply "occupied illegally" by a government the other does not recognise). There's families that are still separated by the border and remember the people left behind. Just because that aspect did not resonate with you, doesn't mean it did not for the audience at the time of its release. Similarly, whatever emotional aspected hit you in the feels for the dramas you consider superior, can be equally not good enough to overlook the flaws for other people who watched.

FYI- the writer for CLOY and QoT is the same person. And at the time of QoT's release there was a lot of comparison between the two dramas. As it's by the same writer, the writing style is similar, and you'll notice certain overlaps between the two dramas from the writing standpoint.

So the amnesia starts in Germany- where she's gone for her typical kdrama "foreign magic treatment" with her husband who's been in contact with this doctor for months.

- [ ] She and her husband have a heart to heart- they're already on good terms and back in love by now. She has him promise to be there when she wakes up. Evil dude manages to get him arrested whilst his wife is in the middle of surgery. She wakes up, with no memories but only vaguely remembering her love/the promise he made her to be at her bedside. For no legit reason, the villain is somehow allowed to be by her bedside (in this world class German hospital) when she wakes up. He manages to also get his hands on her journal, that she was still writing in until right before her surgery. So the dude now knows what to say to her to get her to believe him. He uses some vague public photos of them together to claim to be her husband lol. And then they both fly back to Korea together, with her family greeting her and him at the airport. Saying nothing to her but looking worried. They are all well aware that he's evil and after their money. They also know about the husband's unfair arrest and basically are relying on him to get free himself from the prosecution. (They rely on her husband a lot for everything lol. He's their legal advisor in their company. She's the CEO. Between them, they carry all the brain cells in the entire family. The grandfather- the man who originally built chaebol company from the ground is the stupidest somehow.)

Husband manages to free himself. Amnesiac FL still doesn't fall for the SML/villain and then I forgot but there's some other dramatic confrontations leading to the ending.

Oh no, unfortunately the amnesia mess happens in the messier second half.

I don't mind the amnesia itself. That trope is like one of my guilty pleasures when executed right. It's everything surrounding it that was physically painful to watch (because it made no sense). Like for starters, jobless yet concerned billionaires leaving their dying daughter/sister to get treated alone and then still sitting back and filing their nails in worry when her husband is unexpectedly taken away from her bedside, she wakes up with memory loss and a known and hated enemy is taking advantage of her.

Like what? You can't afford a plane ticket to Germany? Are your mouths sealed shut? Where's your army of lawyers and powerful chaebol connections that always exist for these type of characters no matter how much financial or legal trouble they are in? Also, why is some German hospital just nodding along to some random dude appearing and claiming to be her (what exactly? new husband??) and allowing him to be next to a very sensitive and vulnerable patient when all these past months her only legal guardian you guys have talked to and seen has been her husband? Who was right there before she heads into the operating room? Atleast call her parents or something- whoever else is listed as her next legal guardian when you see her husband be arrested (on what grounds again?). Not just blindly accept the dude that her husband was shouting whilst being dragged away.

People often mistake the "I can save him/her" or the "I'm the special exception to him/her" types as fully innocent victims when often these people are just as toxic as the "bad boy/girl" they are obsessed with. (eg; the FL in Nevertheless, who actively wanted to date or just sleep with a known player that likes no strings attached).

Jun Seo was a fully toxic and as bad a person as the reviewer claims Ah Jin to be.

The only truly innocent victim in the drama was In Gang.

Jae Ho - he was like the FL in Cheese in the Trap (manwha ending version) . Fully aware by the end of what he was getting into and who he was doing it for but accepting his decisions and feelings as his own. Thereby, his character achieved independence from Ah Jin.

The cafe boss - whilst he was manipulated into thinking he was murdering someone else- he still did the deed. So he does hold accountability for his actions (lest you argue that Nazi soldiers were completely innocent because they manipulated/pressured into murdering innocent people). Also, although the target was switched.... there was no real difference in character or level of threat between Ah Jin's psycho homicidal pedo father and the stalker criminal the boss thought he was saving her from. Which is why, after a long time, his character does manage to find peace and didn't pop back up in Ah Jin's life to take revenge (he totally could've and been justified and even Ah Jin expected that). But he broke off that toxic cycle and took independence of himself and his actions.

Oh yeah, the dreaded "l0v3 kimbap triangle" 🤣

Now that you remind me of it, it did exist on some level in the drama. However the third party (male) is also one of the primary + final antagonists, and the FL has never given a shit for him, e v e r. (Except for that one time they hurriedly stuffed in the amnesia plotline and he pretended to be her husband). - see this is part of the total makjang behaviour. It makes no sense, amnesiac patients aren't isolated from their actual family and legal guardians. Patients aren't left alone in the first place. Not when your family is stinking rich and can easily afford to travel to whatever corner of the Earth you're getting treated at.)

He had way better romantic chemistry with Shin Eun Soo in Twinkling Watermelon (although that was sweet, innocent young love plot). So I think it's a mix of playing a character he does not fit in and feels too young for, general cliched bland writing, and the awkward noona+sunbae factor.

I mean when a drama becomes very dear to me and I love the characters - I'm also going to love the actors for portraying them. I may not have liked them in their other past projects but for the time being, I'd still be wishing to see them again in better stuff and better acting if only due to the attachment I hold for them playing my favourite characters in my new favourite drama. I may even want to see the cast reunited.

So I can't imagine a toxic mentality where I come out loving something and yet feel inferior and hate to one half of something I loved. That's not love. You literally cannot love a couple if you despise one half of it.

By the way, I also feel sour for Lovely Runner. I did genuinely enjoy it when I watched it- but in a mild, TV entertainment value like many other kdramas that I personally think were shit once I was done with them. I dislike most of all the multiple red flags and tone deaf attitude to serious real life problems in Lovely Runner's writing. Which is glaring once you look past the actors, fluff and funny.

It's a makjang. A very bling bling, shiny expensive with some pretty OSTs and Hallyu stars makjang. If you go in with that expectation, it's not terrible. The core plot is about an almost divorced couple falling back in love. With a bit of gender twist in that the female is the tsundere chaebol.

If you want actual characters with depth, a logical storyline, a complex villain, or green flag romantic leads- then give up on this drama right now. There's one scene in particular from ep 1? Where celebrating your spouse's upcoming death is portrayed as humour- thus, you know now that this is not a green flag romance. Due to the typical drama style of writing, the development of the leads or their relationship lacks the necessary communication it deserves realistically and certain significant points are brushed over. However it's works well enough for dramaland.

Imo first half is more enjoyable and genuine than the second half. As we get closer to the ending all plot points from cancer to the villains are laughably solved in a weekend drama style.

So far, the only 100% non-toxic page on the entirety of MDL.

(Ofcourse that will only last until the drama actually airs. I think I'm gonna miss ribbing the ever elusive extending release of this wickedly named drama sequel).

I don't think she'd feel stuck just because they'd slept together - her character is much stronger than that. And even married couples can break up when one of them is caught to be cheating. But definitely, she would've been a lot more broken hearted if she'd managed to sleep with that POS and then eventually found out what a dick he was. She'd have been a lot angrier at NJS too for letting her sleep with her cheating boyfriend.

But yeah, that's why the title is History of Losers. Whilst NJS appeared better than his hopeless idiot friends at first, he too is an idiot loser and the four boys' friendship makes more sense. Him and GH both weren't deliberately mean or rude and didn't objectify women or just think with their dicks like the other two, but they had their own serious shortcomings, insecurities and communication problems.

(Also it seems like NJS is self raised with his parents having abandoned him and whilst the girl's father has given him a shelter, he's still been living by himself in their upstairs apartment. So no one's around to knock some sense into him and his priorities are all twisted).

[Meanwhile, as you said in your review, atleast one of the horny dudes went through significant character development and started to learn to communicate and stop thinking with his dick.

The last one was a total lost cause. Dude just got worse and worse and had started out as a nicer appearing kid in the first episode. ]

I'm going to give No Jun Seok's character the benefit of doubt and consider that he didn't tell the girl about the cheating in order to "protect her heart" because she was so excited about her upcoming date night anniversary with the shitty boyfriend.

You know the typical overthinking trope of "I didn't tell you for your own good when in reality I should've told you the truth even if it hurts".

So how's my favourite MDL comment section doing today? (I love all the dead jokes 💀)

I swear it was still atleast 9.1 around the time the Korean remake Time Called You was released. Either a juvenile fan war fought on principles (between team remake vs team original) affected the ratings or it's just a general MDL issue.

They don't really explore much of their original relationship. I'm assuming that she did lose contact with Cheong Ah. Or maybe they became more distanced over the years considering both the lack of physical contact and the lack of close foundation of friendship. They'd only just started to become friends in highschool after all.
Then you factor in the changing era (rapid changes in technology), the lack of ease in keeping long distance contact and both of their tremulous and unstable home situations....

Plus, older divorced mom Se Kyung that had finally stepped foot back on Korean soil and settled there again with her daughter, she was actively avoiding social contact with people who knew her because she was embarrassed about her situation (based off her reaction to that spoiled brat stepsister accidentally finding her ~2023 Korea). She'd become an alcoholic by then too. Long before then.

Same... I'd had issues with the latter half of the drama even on my first watch in its airing year but at the time I'd still been satisfied just enough. But on a recent rewatch, my personal rating of the drama went down a whole lot.

I think my favourite scene still remains the bits where she yells out spoilers which celeb married who lol. I was so disappointed on my first watch that she didn't continue to do that when it was both a hilarious way to break tension and a super useful ability considering she was facing a (an annoying and lame) serial killer plot.

Changing his father's disability (such a huge aspect of his life and what shaped him.... also what a terrible message to deliver as a drama....) was never the reason he went back in time. Weren't you listening to all the characters ? It was only Eun Gyeol himself who gave himself that mission (understandable). But that was never his weight to carry and he can't live in place of his parents, he can't forever protect them from life.

Depends on who you are talking about. If you've been watching with attention, you should know that by episode 8, it is not ahjumma Se Kyung but her identical daughter On Eun Yu who is hanging around now. On Eun Yu doesn't know much about her mother's friends in her Korean high school era. Since her mom permanently emigrated to the US at this time period until her divorce. So as Eun Yu interacts with everyone in the past, she learns more about them.

The real Choi Se Kyung likely knew. As we saw that she bothered to keep in touch with Chung Ah and send her a letter from the US, with another letter promised. Unlike the bratty stepsister "BFF" who said (ep 9) she received no letters from Se Kyung once she left. However, Se Kyung's friendship with Cheong Ah had only just started to bloom when she left for the States. And without Eun Gyeol, Cheong Ah's home situation was terrible and trapped for a longer time. Hence, we didn't see older Se Kyung be in touch with older Cheong Ah in the original 2023.

Yeah.

I didn't enjoy this drama much and found both the leads lacking in their role here.... although writing and direction were cheap AI level.

However the targeted harassment here towards the actress is disgusting. Especially the personal attacks or insulting of her physical looks.

I've been hearing about a fan war between KHY and BWS fans since Lovely Runner aired.... and I don't get it ?

Like that drama was obviously very successful and as a romcom it rides on the ability of main leads' chemistry/likeability as a couple (lord knows the plot and writing had been messed up). So I don't understand why the fans are acting like they are a messy divorced couple lol. Shouldn't both the FL and ML's respective fanbases be cheering on for the other half's future success ?