Lilly

The show is like eating soft bread / uncooked toast. You think it would be something substantial, but it's full of air and not actually filling.

There are so many wrong things with this one, I don't even know where to start.

1. It has the most insufferable FL, both as a character and as an actress—at least for the first half of the show.
As a character, she just sits there doing nothing when everyone else fights. She hides behind ML and doesn't even lift a finger to help improve a dire situation. When ML is not there, she runs to SML for help.
As an actress, she keeps acting with an open mouth like a dead fish, pretending that this is attractive or that it shows skill, when it actually shows that she has no clue about how to naturally act and that she's full of self-importance.
In the second part of the show, her acting improved a bit. However, there was no consistent growth for her character, not even in regard to the power level, which changed from scene to scene depending on what the writers needed in that moment. Her dead fish open mouth appeared less but was still present until the end of the show, together with her laziness in doing something productive in a critical situation.

2. Neo / Hou Ming Hao is one of my favorite actors, but he's terribly wasted in this drama, even if he does what he's best at: being a super-powerful and mesmerizing demon lord. In this specific role, he simply feels unmotivated. Perhaps he got bored of being typecast (I hope not, as he's very yummy to look at when he unleashes his inner demon), or perhaps he simply can't act properly with this FL. No wonder, considering the stuff I mentioned above.
Plus, for several episodes in a row, I almost forgot that we have an ML, as during this story arc, he has a total screentime of mere seconds.

3. Most of the side characters are extremely lame. Unfunny. Unattractive. Forced acting.
The best is A Li / Mountain Elf (played by Chen Xin Hai), both as a character and as an acting performance. Unfortunately, he's a side character that exists only for one short story arc.
Also great is the child actor for Zi Xiu (no MDL page at the moment). He has a great stage presence, is very confident in his acting performance, and the character is also very well written. I'm excited to see him grow up as an actor and hopefully pick up some ML roles later on.
A decent one is Xiao Ming / Xiao Mu (played by Guo Yun Qi), who actually puts some effort into his deliveries and does a good job at playing two different characters.
The trio that appears in the last episodes (Qiong Qi, Teng She and Ao Hen) is very cute and well acted—sadly, their screentime is way too low. I would 100% watch a full show with their funny dynamics. Ao Hen (played by Dai Xu) was by far my favorite; he gives strong Murong Jing He vibes (The Double, played by Liu Xue Yi)
For the rest of the cast, I couldn't care less.

4. The main couple has the chemistry of two dead fish; no wonder at that, though, with the FL actually always acting like one. I'm pretty sure it's not Neo's fault for this, as we clearly see that he's far from being shy with other partners, but with this FL he simply can't have any emotion range. Even in Back from the Brink, where he was rather unexperienced at emotional scenes, he still had much better chemistry than here.
We even went to watch an all-kisses video of Road Home and it was evidently there too that the ML was the only one doing some kind of effort, and she only kind of endured it. In some of their kiss scenes, she looked like she'd been taken to the slaughterhouse instead of being swooned into her lover's arms.
Although the main couple shared a lot of scenes, in many of which they exchanged warm smiles, their relationship remained platonic at best, with the FL acting more like an older sister towards ML, always nagging him and ordering him around. When standard drama tropes like underwater air transfer are acted through a "kiss" that has their mouths 1 cm apart, you kind of know already that you shouldn't expect any romantic involvement. I don't mind dramas where the skinship is low, but in this case, the FL gave me the feeling that she avoids touching ML as if he had some sort of contagious disease. That's far from conveying any kind of romance.

5. The plot. I normally don't mind plot holes or nonsensical stuff, but some parts of this plot are so idiotic that I have no words. Again, at the center of the idiocy is usually the FL character, so no wonder at that.
The ending is the most idiotic part of it. The plots remain unresolved. The only story arc that gets some closure is resolved in the most awkward way possible.
The time travelling/time rewriting trope is nonsensical throughout the whole show.

6. Production values: for a high-budget drama like this, styling and continuity mistakes are much too often encountered.
For one scene, both ML and FL completely change their attire midway, perhaps because it was filmed some other day and then glued together later.

I've watched hundreds of dramas so far, and aside from one other drama, I've never felt so strongly that my time would be better used for watching birds hopping on rooftops instead of this. At least they would have more chemistry than the main couple.

Things that I liked:
- The story arc from ep. 26-30. The acting was much better than the rest of the show, and with that, the chemistry improved. It was finally satisfying to watch the dynamics between the main couple.
- FL's styling in ep. 33-36.
- For once SML is not obsessed with FL and has his own story arc and romance plot. Even though his partner is also various degrees of uncharming.
- The trio that appears towards the end of the show.
- All scenes with Zhuyu herb were adorable.

Which episode has the most minutes of fighting / action scenes?

After the truth was revealed, he did not continue to manipulate her. Not only did he realize his mistake but he also started to better himself, learning how to respect others' choices and give them the freedom they need. FL was indeed emotionally affected from believing for some weeks that she was ill until the truth was revealed, but there was no other bodily damage because no surgery was performed. I am not saying that what he did is ok or that it can be considered a white lie, I'm just saying that this drama is about growth from a psychological perspective and is not meant to be a fluffy / light rom-com as it seems to be expected by many here.

After reading a lot of comments and negative reviews about this drama, I was expecting it to be quite terrible, but still decided to fully watch it. I'm glad that I did, and honestly it feels like I watched a completely different show than all the people rating it with a 1.

Most complaints are about ML being a manipulative person. While it is true to some extent, few seem to understand that the actual essence of the drama is overcoming his controlling nature through love. His character growth is amazing, and the controlling side is nearly not as offensive as people perceive it. His actions come from him being deeply in love with the FL and willing to do anything to be with her, however, it doesn't take much for him to understand that although he loves her very much, the way he expresses this love is wrong. From that point on, he starts correcting his mistakes and the best aspect of the drama is that he finds a a way to be highly protective and devoted to her while also remaining true to his character (or rather, not giving up on his own identity). It's not that he tunes down his controlling side, but he learns how to give her the freedom and respect that she needs, while gaining a good discernment about when he should / should not exert his controlling nature. Meanwhile, the FL is very supportive and her love for him is what powers up his whole transformation. The FL is a smart, strong-willed character, a very good match for keeping the ML in check with her kind and forgiving nature.

Although the two seasons can be watched independently of each other, the second season is much weaker than the first. It loses all the beautiful meanings pictured by S1 and becomes an average drama, even one on the low-budget spectrum. It's less entertaining than S1. The ML retains the character from S1 only partially (only in some scenes, while in others he makes a fool of himself in public which goes very much against his rich CEO demeanor) but at the same time he's much less controlling than S1 which could be a bonus for some viewers. The music is quite annoying. S2 gives more exposure to side characters, but S1's interactions / storylines of these characters are more interesting.

I don't understand why this drama gets so much hate from the comments and reviews. I think it was pretty great. It does have some flaws, but it's surely much better than the reviews picture it.

I love all the roles that Lee Jong Suk takes on, as they're usually characters of superior intelligence, highly competent, very carefree and playful. They fit him really well and this role was no exception.
On the contrary, I think it showcased his acting talents even more than usual. Having your face covered with a mask for half of the show during all those surgery scenes really made me understand how good of an actor he is, being able to convey so much emotion only through his eyes, a tilt of the head, a reassuring blink etc. In the rest of the scenes he's his usual mix of playful yet wise person, friendly and compassionate, who doesn't hold any grudges and is not driven by revenge.

Park Hae Jin is also rather typecast into the role of semi-villain with a warm heart buried under an icy-cold surface. This role also fits him like a glove, and because of that I consider him to be a great choice for the character of Han Jae Joon. I only wish that this duo was given more screen time and a better focus on the frenemy type of relationship that they have.

While Lee Jong Suk and Park Hae Jin were driving the drama, both female characters were quite a disappointment.
Jin Se Yeon's character was extremely boring, and it seemed that her acting was really forced, especially after the first 2 episodes.
Kang So Ra at least seems to be a better actress that Jin Se Yeon (it's my first time seeing these two actresses in a drama) but I also didn't manage to get invested in her character at all.

The plot was very fine for me. It keep me interested for the full length, as it had several unexpected plot twists and in the end it all made sense. Unlike other comments / reviews, there was no turning point where I could say "ok, it goes down the drain from now on"; it maintained pretty much the same intensity for the whole 20 episodes. I'm also not sure where exactly the plot holes that others complain about are, because for me the whole story and characters remained consistent. Some things were left off-screen, others things were somewhat unbelievable, but neither of these elements seemed essential for the comprehension of the storyline.

Aside from dr Moon who was quite funny (I enjoyed his scenes), most of the other support characters were various degrees of lame. However, unlike other dramas, this one didn't focus on their storylines just so that it fills up the screen time with something. On the contrary, they were given rather little screen time for their personal issues, the focus being strongly on the main characters instead - which I appreciated a lot.

Have you watched A Korean Odyssey yet? She shows great versatility in there, and I think that's by far her best drama. Otherwise I find her rather expressionless and she seems to choose only cold-ish roles because she can't really express much emotion. In the related talk show she was also most of the time expressionless, so I guess it's just the way she is as a person.

For the main leads: yes.
For the secondary couple: left to the interpretation of the viewer, but hinting towards a yes.
For the third couple: unknown / unexplained (they did not wrap up their storyline).

I decided to watch this drama because of the high ratings and because I simply couldn't find a single negative post about it while scrolling through the MDL comments. I rather disliked watching Reply 1988 (or simply put: it didn't offend me but it was straight-up boring), and considering that this drama is made by the same screenwriter - director duo, I anticipated it to be pretty much the same; knowing this in advance, I didn't really expect much of it.

However, it turned out to be a massive let-down. I understand that the whole appeal of the this drama are the fuzzy feelings that the friendships between the prisoners give you, the kind and supportive acts between the characters and ultimately the idea that it's the little things the make a difference. It's a slice-of-life kind-of drama after all, so there's all that in it. But for me, any kind of emotion that I dared to feel while watching was instantly massacred by the atrocious writing. I'm not one to be bothered by plot holes and inconsistencies in the story, and I usually don't care much about these as long as the final product is decent, I'm also quite forgiving to mistakes in direction or writing and I take these with a little bit of humor rather than a judgmental stare, but the faults of this drama were so many, and so outrageous that not even a person like me could bare them.

The characters change personalities in a matter of seconds; from episode to episode you get the same actor but playing a new random role, at the whim of the writer. There's no such thing as a progression between these states, a redemption arc or anything else that triggers this change - it's all just random. The ML for example constantly shows that he is simple-minded and not very intelligent throughout the whole drama yet in 2-3 episodes he somehow develops a great intellect and comes up with a brilliant plan to expose the villains.
Story lines that are started in one episode are then completely forgotten afterwards, they're not even closed or referenced again in later episodes. It's a complete time waste and an insult to the viewer because it just leads to... nothing.
Main characters are wiped without any reason, and even without showing to the viewer what happens to them afterwards. All you get is just a sentence: "oh, he was transferred" - after you, as a viewer, perhaps got attached to them after following their development for 75% of the screen time. Instead, unlikeable characters are brought back for the reason of... no reason. Just because we had those actors lying around, so let's just come up with some scenes for them.
Everyone's most favorite character gets a massive turn of events towards the end of the drama, and it's not even makjang, it's truly stupid. Personally, I disliked that character yet I was still offended by the little respect that the writer showed towards them.
Oh and let's not forget how the first 2 episodes are a completely different drama, with almost 0 connection to the rest.
Aside from all these things, there are countless details that just don't make sense but which I decided to not dwell on for my own sanity. Everything is just simply bad, and the little good that exists in this drama is ruined by the sheer amount of "WTF is this".

I tried to wrap my mind around it for hours, but I just can't understand this high rating. Most of my watched dramas are rated somewhere between 8.5 and 10, and I very rarely give a drama a lower rating than 8. This one got a 3 from me and even that might be a bit too generous. Too bad, since the actors did a great job - even though Jung Hae In's (Captain Yoo Jung Woo) and Krystal Jung's (Kim Ji Ho) potential seemed wasted in here. Choi Moo Sung (Kim Min Chul) was his usual teddybear-y, likeable kind-of-role, and Jung Kyung Ho (Lee Joon Ho) was also enjoyable (it was my first time seeing him).

I was just about to start writing my own review for Strong Woman Do Bong Soon when yours scrolled past me and the first sentences already caught my attention. I don't usually read other reviews before I post my own thoughts, so that I don't get influenced by others' opinions, but this time your writing style and the ideas conveyed made me unable to stop reading it until the end.

I've never encountered a review that expresses my own thoughts so damn accurately! You managed to cover absolutely everything I had planned to write, and in a very similar way to my own writing style.

Needless to say, I absolutely love this review!

It's basically the 2h-long "Life Tour" concert of the band Mayday, sprinkled with a couple of movie-like action scenes that have the 5 members dressed up as superheroes saving the Earth from an alien invasion, and topped with some flashy visual effects. These scenes are an integral part of the concert and were broadcasted as such on the giant screens, but we get to see them in full HD.

I've never heard about the band before stumbling upon this movie, but I don't regret watching it. While the story is very cliché and predictable, and a lot of details are waived off, I did have a good time listening to their rock-style music. The actual "movie" part takes around 10-15 minutes in total, the rest is their performance on stage (unfortunately the audio doesn't seem to be live, judging by the poor lip sync).

We will probably never know why Tae kept his luggage in Jimin's room even if Tae slept in a different room and even a different house.

The talk between JK and Tae seemed to me to be extremely scripted, given that it's so different than their usual interactions.

Great show!
Watching the special episodes is a must. They're called "Behind-the-Scene" but in fact they are just extra scenes that were not included in the original release, and which add new funny situations; some of them also explain some details from the main episodes. I used this playlist to watch all the content in fairly good quality:
https://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x6ur7r

Overall, it's a pretty well done movie and quite entertaining to watch, even for a person who isn't a sports fan. It focuses a lot on the competitive side of the characters, what drives them forward, their sacrifices, their struggle to balance their personal life with their professional one and how to be friends and support each other while also being rivals in the race.
There's very little romance between the female lead and the male leads; apart from a couple of scenes and some very secondary plot lines, there's no romantic buildup, but there's a subtle yet very strong bromance between the two / three male leads.

The drama has 16 episodes (forming one single season), and it seems that only Viki splits them in 2. The episodes are merged together, at least on Netflix / Dramacool / WeTV / SBS and there's no break / cliffhanger between the two parts, the scene is not interrupted in anyway.

Despite not having a very rich plot, nor many story twists, this drama was for me an absolutely lovely experience and easily managed to get a spot in my top 10 all time favorites - the ones that I could rewatch any time, over and over again.

It's simply so refreshing to not have to survive all these tropes that create unnecessary sadness for the viewer, like the leads hiding their feelings towards each other or even denying them for the sake of protecting their loved one, or parents that try to bribe against the relationship in order to destroy it, or simply the rollercoaster of breaking up and getting back again.

The leads are so honest in their feelings and although shy, they do express these feelings towards each other without any doubt or uncertainty. There's no lying, no hiding, just the natural timidness of a first love. And all the cast is fully supportive of their relationship (and also towards each other), even the villains are pretty weak and they don't manage to substantially affect the connection between the leads. ​ This drama is full of innocence, positivity and feel-good, from the beginning till the end.

In a nutshell, it's a story that focuses on healing old wounds, and maturing through love, but also one that tries to deliver some life lessons which could be pretty impactful for people who are receptive towards inspirational quotes and words of wisdom. The cast is great and the chemistry between the actors is really awesome. I didn't know Yang Se Jong before this drama, but after watching him perform, I couldn't think of any other male actor that would fit this role better than him - his acting managed to deliver the perfect mix of innocence, introspection, maturity, decision making and handsomeness that his character was gifted with; and to top it all, his smile can light up the whole scene. 😍

I just watched the drama and there's at least once training / sport-related scene in every episode, sometimes even lengthy ones that spawn over several minutes - this aside from the actual main focus of the drama, which is also sport-related and the fact that this subject comes often in the discussions between the characters. I would say that it the time aspect is rather minor, while the sport aspect is pretty strong.