6
Weak attempt for a sports-themed drama
It's an oversaturated manufactured cheap emotional bait that lacked the genuine human connection and necessary depth but rather opted out for easily digestible cliches. Most of the cast, especially the younger ones, were desperately overacting in an attempt to translate the youth energy to screen but it came off as fake most of the time. The actual sports scenes were average at best, it's themed around the sport but not the sport itself. Most scenes with a sweaty face, the sweat looked as fake as it can be. It's so damn laughable that some scenes the neck was sweaty but the face was perfectly dry! The cast didn't do a good job in showing the physical exhaustion of performing the sport whether it was while training or competing. Again, making the sports scenes even more fake. What's up with the drama trying so hard to pair every boy with a girl? Really unnecessary. This drama would have fared infinitely better as a standalone one-off movie. The drama really highlighted the "bad" in badminton. Going into this I had the slightest tiniest bits of hope to get something that can be remotely and ever so slightly similar to "Ping Pong the Animation" but I quickly realized within a few minutes it wouldn't be the case.Was this review helpful to you?
Weaker than expected
It's good enough but not that good! It's highly rated so it's only natural to get into it with high expectations, unfortunately, it became quickly evident what kind of show I'll be getting. As a life drama, it lacked the essence of genuine human connection and eventually dipped in mediocrity trying to achieve that artificially by adopting quick, dry and cutthroat life cliches lacking nuances, depth, relevant characterization and thematic attachment. Aside from the 2 main characters, none of the side cast was interesting the slightest and clearly had the absolute minimal amount of effort put into them which is why the drama may come off as boring sometimes. Speaking of effort, the soundtrack was abysmal if you are watching it from Netflix! They clearly didn't give any attention to it and slapped in some royalty free default tracks because it's easier for Netflix to distribute it world wide. The TV version had real music and songs which is really important for a drama of this theme. Stupid Netflix as always. One more thing, the drama has this habits of sprinkling in a handful of random mini stories for the side characters that doesn't get attention for more than 2 scenes or contribute to the overall narrative in a desperate attempt to buff up the drama. The only noteworthy thing about this drama is having an elderly cast getting the spotlight which we don't see often, otherwise, it's a bland collection of life drama cliches with the occasional nice moments.Was this review helpful to you?
How!
The lack of resemblance between the younger and older versions of the cast was striking. This drama was like one of those scuffed TV Novels, just a tad bit detached from reality, trying to mimic humans but not quite there yet. The drama consistently followed a peculiar and sporadic direction, which hampers any potential for viewer engagement. This inconsistency, coupled with incoherent pacing, weak plot elements, and dull execution, contributes to a well packaged disappointment. The drama fails to deliver something substantial, leaving viewers longing for literally anything worthy. Furthermore, the drama features one of the most underwhelming last episodes, further adding to the sense of disillusionment. It almost made me reach the point of detest if it wasn't for some of the cast's performance. Highly not recommended!Was this review helpful to you?
Okay...
The usual makjang drama nothing new nothing special. You stick around to watch them go mental and laugh at the absurdity. However, this one got a really unlikable male lead. The guy feels so out of place and had zero chemistry with anyone around him even himself. On the other hand, Shin So Yool was the female lead, she always caught my attention playing support roles so it was nice seeing her as the lead. She did good. The drama lacked a consistent plot line, even the main one was scattered and mostly felt as if there were no persistent goal and antagonist. At the same time, too many side plots ended up being underdeveloped and neglected later on, like the delusional FL's father one.Was this review helpful to you?
.
The little kid stood out the most in the entire thing. The villain and the corporation arc were very lame, they wanted the drama to have some tension but it would have been better without. It just made it ever more generic. Also, it wasn't a good role for Ahn Nae Sang. Other than the kid and the food I can't see much good left in it. It shares some similarities with Couple or Trouble (2006) except that one was much better and definitely more enjoyable.Was this review helpful to you?
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.
Was this review helpful to you?
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
Was this review helpful to you?
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.
Was this review helpful to you?
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.
Was this review helpful to you?
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.
Was this review helpful to you?
