6
Passable...
Couldn't feel much chemistry between any of the trio. There was a lot of roaming around. I would prefer a little bit of more structure. The romance was its weakest part, forced and way too delayed. Maybe if they removed it and took it in a different direction would be better? It's still a passable watch.Was this review helpful to you?
Awful beginning...
The first 23 episodes were really painful to get through, mainly because they are flashbacks with the young version of the cast. The flashbacks didn't add anything to the story and they could have been easily summed up in 3-4 episodes. Even after the flashbacks there was barely anything happening. It's almost just a slice of life until the last portion. Relationships were awful and unnecessarily tangled in a love square where none had any emotional weight by the end. The drama has one of the most awkward endings, you can feel the characters melting from awkwardness. Even if I disregarded the flashbacks and the relationships, there wasn't anything else appealing to me, not even the cast performance. You might like if you are looking for a slice of life set in 1970.Was this review helpful to you?
Fine...
Extremely slow and full of endlessly recycled events, 64 episodes for two main stories that is Ji Young shenanigans and the search of that brain-dead father. At least it was heartwarming smooth sailing for the leads, not much conflict you only see them love each other for the 100th time. I didn't like how the drama made the female lead as if she came from an alien planet and just started to learn about the human race. On the other hand, the ending left many things unfinished despite this long run, the last episode was dedicated to a 4-years time skip and yet that didn't accomplish much. Why have it then? The drama is fine but it felt empty for a 64 episodes drama. P.S. the leads' kid doesn't resemble them at all!Was this review helpful to you?
Okay-ish
You may think it's a medical drama like any other medical one but it leans heavily on the business/political aspect while being in a hospital setting. So don't expect the typical medical formula of patients/cases every few episodes.There was a scene where every single doctor and personal in the hospital gathering to watch one operation, who's running the hospital then? The drama failed to keep hold of my attention since it didn't have any interesting elements other than the male lead being a semi bad guy. Some plot lines left unfinished or untouched like the infidelity one. The ending and the last two episodes felt forced to provoke some emotions and leave a stronger lasting impression by the viewers since all the prior episodes were lacking.
The drama had one of the weakest performances I've seen from Lee Sun Kyun. Keep in mind if you wanted to watch it that the remaster version, although it looks slightly better, it chops off scenes from every single episode.
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Not good...
Well, it's obvious for everyone that Do Jin Woo is the worst part about this drama, every second Jin Woo appeared on screen it felt revolting. In fact, you may include Jin Woo and Seol Ah plot line as a whole in general. I highly doubt anyway would like Seol Ah ending. Looking at what the writer did to Jin Woo and Seol Ah plot line and looking at her previous works, I'm starting to see a pattern. Is it safe to assume it's a reflection of her own life?It's not like the drama didn't have other problems. The drama was interesting for the first few episodes prior to the 9-years time skip, it gave off promising vibes with good build up then became utterly soulless, monotone and even got hit with a massive downgrade in overall quality. Maybe about 90% of the drama was uneventful, things kept going in circles with little to zero progression.
The writing was straight up bad and inconsistent. Some parts you can notice the writer is trying to create some logic but most of the time the writer end up doing the exact opposite. Most of the side stories were weak due to the lack of investment in liking any character, since none of them stands out anyway. This also made the size of the cast feel smaller than it is.
The ending as well was flat, lukewarm and lacked a meaningful conclusion to any character.
Chung Ah and Joon Hwi ending was too quick, while the other characters got a "whatever bs" kind of ending. It's really a shame what this drama ended up being since the beginning was too good, a massive bait and switch tactic.
If you can't stand single digit IQ characters then you should avoid this drama.
2.5/10
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Too ambitious but...
Nothing new, the usual human lives vs profit in medical dramas. Actually, it was less medical and more like a business drama in a hospital setting. Something was strange about filmography. The color palette doesn't seem to be consistent sometimes. The soundtrack at times can be too loud and in your face.I wasn't interested in the brothers' storyline, it felt out of place compared to what's going on in the drama. His brother took everything from him, his past and future potential relationships, even his sanity. His existent in the story really bothered me. I wish the drama had stuck to the hospital stuff only. I get they were trying to give the ML as much character as possible but that could have been done through his actions rather than his background. The drama tries to diversify itself even more by including a few brief romances but they also felt misplaced. The ending was a small tiny win for the hospital but the cycle continues....
That's the thing, it's too ambitious and tries to do it all at once by expanding and stretching its corners but eventually it fails.
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Lots of talented familiar faces
If you are a first time watcher I suggest grabbing the Bluray version since it got few minutes extra content with every episode + small epilogue revealing a short emotional monologue or just a cute cut of a scene.I knew what I was getting myself into yet I can't help but feel it's overrated. It's good but not great.
The good: Lots of talented familiar faces, big diverse cast. Great acting. Enjoyable contrast between the leads. Female lead personality reminds me of Han Ye Seul role in Couple or Trouble.
The bad: Long, really long! It takes forever for something significant to happen. Given its length, too much screen time was given to the main leads that the rest feels like less than a support character. You have a big cast full of diverse characters and mini sub stories yet barely anything shown from that. That's something I find modern dramas does better.
Male lead powers are problematic element that only leads to a weaker writing with plot holes.
The ugly: The villain character is just not good. It's the weakest part of the drama. Feels like there is a big contrast between how his character was written and the rest of the script.
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Poor 19
This was a meaty 167 episodes daily drama that left me with conflicting feelings. To get some positives out of the way, I much appreciate the roughness and scuffiness of older dailies over the jaded cleanliness and overly-sanitized modern dailies. It's a good thing that conflicts don't last a long time in this lengthy drama, but this also created a problem I'll talk about later. The drama took advantage of its length in regards to the main point of tension with the objecting parents of the ML, simply, let the girl hang around long enough until they get used to her. Now, let's get into the underlying problems. There was a love triangle involving the 70ish elderly father, his 50ish son, and the restaurant lady, I've never seen such an absurd, trashy and distasteful love triangle like this one before. It's shocking how much screen time they dedicated to that which was for almost the entire runtime. Due to its length, the drama was somewhat divided into 2 halves that were different enough to consider one a downgrade over the other. The exact point that split it into 2 halves was when the pseudo love triangle/square over the FL was resolved. In comparison, the most glaring difference was with the characters' writing of the duo Uk Yeong & Yun Jeong, they made them dumb, quirky, and borderline retarded, just because they were out of the circling conflicts from the first half and had no other roles to justify their existence in the drama. It's clear that its length was problematic. There was a shocking lack of material to fill the runtime. Initially, it had many small side plots that seemed promising but were completely dropped off after a handful of episodes, for example, the rouge sister Yun Ji and her ostracized family. There was only 2 main plotlines running in parallel, whatever was the FL involved in and the repulsive elderly love triangle. This could've been easily fixed since they already had enough pieces laid out. For example, give Shin Hyeong a full family background dynamic to interact with everyone rather than being a random employee with no attachments to anything, replace the elderly love triangle with another involving Wu Suk and other characters, despite the established premise but giving the female lead some familial connections would strengthen her character's existence, and lastly give the lead couples more problems to overcome rather than a couple of elongated ones. Finally, there was a huge lack of affection from the female lead while the male lead was always loud, clear and persistent about his love, she couldn't reciprocate his feeling with the same level if any at all, leaving a constant weird imbalance in their relationship. As if she was pressured to accept his love and run with it, nonetheless, this was less of a problem later on. At the end of the day and despite everything, this was just an okay vanilla daily drama.Was this review helpful to you?
A Handful of Missed Opportunities
Beautiful Life (2000) was an emotionally charged drama that struck a familiar chord reminiscent of other ones like it for its textbook depiction of love, loss, and resilience, but it wasn’t without its flaws. At its heart, the story was anchored by the chemistry between Takuya Kimura’s charming yet understated portrayal of Shuji and Takako Tokiwa’s luminous performance as Kyoko, a woman whose physical limitations were treated with admirable sensitivity for its time. The drama’s beauty lay in its quiet moments, Kyoko's defiant joy, Shuji's evolving tenderness, and the unspoken melancholy of ordinary life brushed with rising pain. However, its emotional power often bordered on manipulation, with tear-jerking sequences and swelling musical cues that risked reducing a nuanced relationship to a mere tragedy. Fortunately, this was only most applicable to the last 3 episodes. Additionally, while the drama broke ground by portraying a disabled FL in a leading role, it sometimes leaned into idealized tropes, framing Kyoko’s struggles more as narrative devices to drive Shuji’s growth rather than delving deeper into her agency and identity despite being a leading character. The pacing, too, occasionally faltered, with melodramatic stretches that risked to undercut the rawness of its central theme. In a different world, I would love to see them continue exploring the relationship without the terminal illness element since it was somewhat cut short to accommodate for the writer's predetermined plan. On another note, a few things were planted but neglected and ended up being underutilized. For example, it was foreshadowed multiple times how Shuji was the son of a famous hospital director/CEO and coming from a family of doctors but that didn't play a role later on, nor the anticipated involvement of his family which remained anonymous. Many things were either missing or unfinished at the cost of fleshing out the story and its characters just to reach the highly emotional familiar moments. For all of its shortcomings, Beautiful Life captured something universally human: the poignancy of love in the face of fate. It was imperfectly told and profound, a drama which, even as one wished it had dared to be bolder, lingered on in the heart, at least for a little while.Was this review helpful to you?
Mama wa Idol Reboot
Update: I watched and wrote my comment a few days before the news broke out. I'm in utter disbelief upon hearing the news of Nakayama Miho passing away at the young age of 54. During the past couple of weeks I went into a binge-watch of all her projects from the 80s and 90s, she was a truly striking, talented and fun actress that gave a unique signature to all the projects she's been in. It's unfortunate what has happened and she will be missed dearly. Rest in peace, mama idol!Following the success or appeal (?) of Mama wa Idol (1987) the leads returned for another run, they even brought some of the side cast like the neighbor who still have her eyes on the male lead. In fact, the entire thing felt like a carbon copy of its predecessor, from the cast to the setup, story, dynamics, characters, jaded jokes, setting and production. They were seriously trying too hard to make it as similar as possible without offering anything new. Nakayama Miho is still trying to be a mother of children not of her own while suffering from the same interrupted intimacy trope in every episode. I couldn't find a single thing that might nudge this over Mama wa Idol, they should've aimed to improve over or at least not repeat the same mistakes.
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SUIKA!
This slice-of-life drama was a quirky concoction of midlife crises, emotional constipation, and nostalgia. It’s not going to set your pulse racing or redefine the genre, but it got enough charm to keep you interested, for the most parts. The story follows Motoko, a 34-year-old woman whose life got a kick in the pants when her friend absconded with 300 million yen. Then, there was a sexually frustrated manga artist, a melancholic professor, and an emotionally stunted young landlord. It was basically the setup for a comedic entanglement, but instead, you get slow-burning introspection with the occasional dash of the familiar Japanese absurdity. There’s something hypnotic about watching these women fumble their way to self-discovery, finding happiness in their mundane fractured lives. It had this warm nostalgic glow all over it but that couldn't save it from some inconsistencies and shortcomings. Particularly with its 2nd half where the drama already exhausted most of the personal stories around the housemates and what left was a lot of emptiness. There was an opportunity to dedicate an episode for the young landlord since she was the fourth wheel in the dynamic. Suika was the kind of drama that doesn’t try too hard to impress, and somehow that was its biggest charm. It wasn't revolutionary, but if you’re in the mood for a contemplative drama with a few laughs and a lot of heart, this one might be worth it.Was this review helpful to you?
Fake Messiness
The drama started with enough intrigue to keep me curious for where it was heading. However, it quickly became apparent what type of drama this was going to be. Things were messy and over bloated with way too many plotlines that were forcefully connected to the mother's pregnancy to give the illusion of a grand story. Most of these plotlines didn't get the treatment they deserve and were brushed off hastily, take for example the younger daughter at school. On the other hand, the older brother story with the gang business and whatnot was just seriously stupid writing that didn't mix well with the overall story at all. The drama was also painfully filled with extreme cliches at every turn, scene and dialogue, which the Japanese consider mandatory for every 'family' drama. If we were to focus on the mother (and maybe eldest daughter?) then the drama is decent enough.Was this review helpful to you?
Delusional Love
Surprisingly atrocious! To start, reading the synopsis would give you all the spoilers you need as it will play out exactly as suggested. Given the supposed 'moral' dilemma, the drama resulted to shifting genres at around episode 9 to diverge the attention from the characters' relationships when it reached a pivotal moment, which is why we ended up with a corporate corruption plot. This was the main reason why the plot crumbled under its own weight, because the writers couldn't follow through with what they created. Well, it was problematic from the beginning, there was simply little to no room to navigate such a set up for a story where the FL fell in love with her brother-in-law immediately after her sister's death. The plot wasn't particularly unique but other ones at least had a reasonable justification by utilizing a time-skip or concealed identity. All of that doesn't come close to the tone deaf ending where the entire cast were casually hanging out at the bar as the credit rolled.Was this review helpful to you?
Delinquents, Rise Up!
A ridiculous amount of face slaps with every other scene regardless of age and gender which was very fitting for the 80s vibes. It's a surprisingly good well-written drama, well, for the most part. The drama had a solid run checking all the boxes for its first half, but, for some reason, they couldn't keep the same momentum for its 2nd half. There was a significant drop in quality and the story took weird turns especially with that creepy classmate. Maybe its length was problematic for the writer and he couldn't plan for 18 episodes properly. Even the ending was kind of whatever, not much thought was put into it. I will probably only remember it for its first half. In comparison, the remake was the definition of pure manufactured waste. Utterly shameful to have a remake as that one. Just stick to the original one even with the 2nd half being a bit of a let down.Was this review helpful to you?
Kidz Bop Makjang
This was an attempt to make a melodrama from the kids' perspective and there's a very good reason why there's not many like it. Mainly, because it's utterly absurd to showcase this, especially for events related to the kids between themselves. It's less of a problem when it's between the kids and the adults. When looking at the whole picture with the adults, it's a pretty standard watered down melodrama because of the given theme. It wants to be targeted at kids/teens but it doesn't do a good job in that regard so it end up being stuck in this weird middle ground. Earlier on, the drama had plenty of animation but they stopped doing these because they realized how atrocious and unnecessary these were. The story, cast and performance were all pretty average and lazy.Was this review helpful to you?
