6
Not that good!
It's 10 episodes too long, cut it in half! Feels like a copy from every other time-travel joseon era drama, especially "Queen In Hyun's Man (2012)" which shares great similarities. In comparison, "Queen In Hyun's Man (2012)" was better than this thin lukewarm copycat.A lot of things are thrown at you and you are meant to accept them without questioning or whatsoever. Se Na is a generic pitiful villain with no character. Diluted story, poorly executed. The chemistry is often too awkward between them. Don't get me started on the script/romance/characters/editing, all of which were distasteful. It's a shame, these kind of drama are the ones that get popular. 4.75/10
Don't watch it from NETFLIX, they cut scenes from every episodes. Watch the TV or Blu-ray version.
Was this review helpful to you?
Actually Deceitful
The drama fell short of its promising premise, stumbling through a maze of poorly executed plotlines and lackluster character development. It didn't take more than a few episodes, after the first couple of cases, to show its cracks, the narrative was disjointed, as if the writers couldn't decide which direction to take. Once the main case with Kyung Ja & Jay was brought to the front, the story went haywire. The drama failed to maintain a cohesive storyline after that. The main antagonists motivations were a total joke of a writing, let alone, the unhinged obsession of an adult over a little girl. While it's clear the creators aimed for a clever blend of mystery and drama, the execution fell flat, leaving more frustration than entertainment.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?
Courtless Behaviour
At a first glance, the drama got a commendable cast bringing adequate performance to their character. The initial events and the 4 first episodes were eye catching, interesting and kept you looking forward to see where the story is going. However, the story just didn't quite measure up. It's like they've got all the right ingredients, but the recipe just doesn't come together. They very rarely went to court after that, it turned into mystery/investigation. They were also building a mystery around the male lead trying to insinuate something else about his character but that got boring really fast for how obvious and lazy their attempts were. Finally, the last 2 episodes and the climax were weak in general for a finale, nothing interesting or appealing came out of them. Don't expect much beyond the initial few episodes and the decent cast.Was this review helpful to you?
Good enough...
This was an enjoyable mystery-comedy drama full of character and style. The main leading actor and actress Cho Yeo Jung & Go Jun were the perfect cast for their character, completely embodying the character to bring it to its full potential. The mystery element was good and kept going for its entire runtime but this delayed a lot of things to the last episode which made it feel cramped. This also resulted in slow pacing which almost turned it stale. The last episode could've been done better, the 2nd half of the last episode was going all over the place and a bit too unfocused. Meanwhile, the ending was purely done that way to leave a stronger impression, so it's not meant to be taken serious or to be over analyzed.Was this review helpful to you?
Dissapointment!
Interesting premise but horrible execution. Unfortunately it ended up being disappointing especially with how they handled both leads' characters. Aside from the main story, the side cases, investigations, and side villains all were mediocre anyway. The team doesn't matter, they were rarely shown, they had no existing persona, everything was led by and from the perspective of Tae Seok and they don't have any meaningful contribution even for the small cases. Which is why you can't consider this drama as one of those team investigation ones. Dare I say the drama was "less than average"!Was this review helpful to you?
A tough one to get through....
Misery stemmed from uncontrollable oppression is justifiable but self-inflicting misery is questionable and down right annoying and exhausting to sympathize with, which this drama absolutely love to slap the viewers with. Needless to say, the writing is definitely not its strongest suit. Still an attractive piece from the 90s. Korean production was still primitive compared to the pioneers at the time, and this drama was amongst the first big breakthroughs. Which makes me wonder why wasn't it remastered yet despite being a significant piece.Was this review helpful to you?
Meh...
The thing with the cast is that both male leads actors don't seem to be a good fit to be leads, I mean they always occupy 2nd-lead/support roles in their other projects for a reason. The mother-daughter relationship and dynamic was average at best and was only brought up in the last chunk of episodes probably because the main focus was on hiding the other unrelated secrets. The ending was too short and quick. It bothers me with these 50+ hours daily drama that the director can't just push for a proper send off despite having all the time in the world.Was this review helpful to you?
Okay but lacks a lot....
Well, the drama is a little bit different but ends up following the same footsteps of its melodrama predecessors, mainly after the 1st half. The drama is definitely one of the tamer ones, the writer just doesn't let things get too far even when things have all the right to be fully escalated. This is why the envelop of forgiveness was aggressively pushed beyond its limits. This is also why the drama had a very very long 12 episodes epilogue just to stress on that one single point. This is also why you may see the influx of positive comments. This is also why feelings in general became disingenuous at the end.
Both main leads had a weak performance and even a weaker written character especially the female lead. The actress is just too stiff, the only scenes she showed some expressions was the ones with the baby while the remainder mostly poker face. Her poorly written character suffered greatly due to its saint-like personality. You know how these kind of personalities go in dramas. Anyway, the 1st half was promising but it didn't live up to my expectations.
Was this review helpful to you?
Pain....
This is just... bad. This flat jaded narrative and these one dimensional characters killed my soul. I can't even be bothered to continue writing my comment.Was this review helpful to you?
Almost there....
Suk Bin's mother wasn't punished enough for being less than a subhuman junky nor did Suk Bin himself. Both the female lead and her mother were absolute doormat characters, letting everyone have their way with them and completely surrender passively without even attempting to bite back. Completely infuriating to watch this behavior for 50 episodes. Even at the moment of the reveals if it weren't for the other characters acting on their behalf nothing would have been accomplished. Many characters were introduced but were never done anything with or even appear more than few times like Suk Bin's sister. The leads relationship had a decent attention and screen time in the first half but they were completely neglected in the second half. The drama also needed more characters and stories. The only independent side story was the FL's uncle which sucked anyway. It's safe to assume that the writing was very problematic when it comes to its characters.It seems to be the writer completely forgot about the pink notebook.
Was this review helpful to you?
Decent enough...
The first half was more fun than the latter. Watching Mi Yeon trying to take revenge on Hyo Seop was the best part. In fact, they were the best couple in the series. On the other hand, almost all the other couples were weak and lacked chemistry, especially Sun Ha. Speaking of characters, I was expecting more from Yoo Ha against her in-laws, a bit disappointed.The drama itself is fine, it had its ups and downs, it can be a bit slow sometimes, it had some interesting events, and it had a handful of likeable cast members. It's a casual family drama with little melodrama, most of the conflict was with the in-laws which didn't last that long anyway.
Was this review helpful to you?
Mid...
Very light family drama. No heavy long conflicts, no bad blood, no soap opera cliche and no evil characters lingering around for too long. It doesn't do anything interesting/special nor it is offensive. Generic smooth sailing family drama. The last 40 episodes felt like an extreme stretch. I wanted the leads' relationship to have a stronger presence, it was a bit on the weaker and tamer side. I also wanted a slightly better ending overall.Was this review helpful to you?
NO....
The looks are too deceiving in this one, this is 5% family drama and 95% melodrama with the usual violent violin playing in the background every 2.1 seconds. This is not a family drama and the tag should be removed. For the length the drama had there was barely any story and the writing wasn't passable at all. I was losing my mind because of this "James" plot line, 100 episodes of endless tease and hundreds of close encounters to reveal the father identity. That's mostly the main story, what's even worse is that the exact same scenario step by step is being repeated for another 30 episodes for the grandparents identity. The last 30 episodes were random shenanigans and cringe.This drama definitely had one of the laziest dumbed down writings out there. The writer was relying heavily on the mentally challenged mother to create tension, I lost count how many times a character threaten the mother that result into a problem and people shouting. It also extends to the characters' writing, all of which were bland, one dimensional, single digit IQ and unlikable. The writer was also trying to push her political agenda of pro-life antiabortion so damn hard with multiple extensive dialogues sequences.
Was this review helpful to you?
Great love story.
What's love? This is a mature story about people falling out of love, searching for love and are afraid of love. Great character writing and smooth exchange of dialogue. The subtle comedy was done wonderfully. The drama had a unique sense of direction at times where it expands beyond the conventional realm of drama, it even steps into film territory briefly with film-like shot compositions and witty dialogue. This is the type of drama where whether the couple came back together or not is irrelevant, their love story is what made it worth it. The drama isn't perfect by any means, but it succeed in delivering a well made package. Although I wish if they merged Mi Yeon and Yoo Kyung into one character/story instead of giving each a section in the drama.Lee Ha Na, this is her first acting role in drama or film and she absolutely nailed her performance. She even outshone Son Ye Jin every now and then. I find her, as an actress, is better fit in casual roles like this one over action ones like in "Voice". It would be nice if Voice would just end with season 5 and Lee Ha Na would move to bigger and better projects.
Was this review helpful to you?
