This review may contain spoilers
beautiful acting, beautiful show
My favorite genre of k-dramas is where adults discover love, their ambitions, and figure out where they fit in society. Melo Movie fit perfectly in that sphere, so I decided to check it out.
It does go the very typical route of using childhood trauma to shape the characters and their stories, but I think the drama created this experience very effectively. The acting from Choi Woo Shik and Park Bo Young is just absolute tearjerkers (as expected), and I enjoyed seeing the actress' relationship with both her family and her passion for her job develop over the course of the show. The drama is good at making you feel the weight of human relationships and how grief affects people differently. I'm also glad they didn't drag the whole ML being an orphan (because that is way overdone in k dramas) and instead chose to focus on his relationship with his brother, which resulted in a beautiful depiction of familial love.
For a show about movies, I'm also not surprised about the cinematic quality. Visually, it's beautiful. The sets are gorgeous. There are also many scenes where I'm sure they're referencing specific iconic films/directors.
On the other hand, I found the characters and their personalities/dynamics to be the shakiest aspect of the show. Especially towards the middle, there's just way too much back-and-forth between the couples. I know it's typical of k-drama characters to play hard-to-get and be ambiguous with their feelings, but I can really only tolerate this if the relationship is clear to the audience. There were multiple times where I was just plain confused -- like did she like him or not?! for 3 episodes straight. Same with the second lead couple -- I don't think it was necessary for them to bicker as much as they did if they were only going to end up separated in the end (although, I was pretty happy about this result).
Overall, this show is moving, heartwarming, and beautiful. It crumbled off in some moments but in the end it held off strong, with characters that all learn from their mistakes and show the audience what it is to live life to the fullest.
It does go the very typical route of using childhood trauma to shape the characters and their stories, but I think the drama created this experience very effectively. The acting from Choi Woo Shik and Park Bo Young is just absolute tearjerkers (as expected), and I enjoyed seeing the actress' relationship with both her family and her passion for her job develop over the course of the show. The drama is good at making you feel the weight of human relationships and how grief affects people differently. I'm also glad they didn't drag the whole ML being an orphan (because that is way overdone in k dramas) and instead chose to focus on his relationship with his brother, which resulted in a beautiful depiction of familial love.
For a show about movies, I'm also not surprised about the cinematic quality. Visually, it's beautiful. The sets are gorgeous. There are also many scenes where I'm sure they're referencing specific iconic films/directors.
On the other hand, I found the characters and their personalities/dynamics to be the shakiest aspect of the show. Especially towards the middle, there's just way too much back-and-forth between the couples. I know it's typical of k-drama characters to play hard-to-get and be ambiguous with their feelings, but I can really only tolerate this if the relationship is clear to the audience. There were multiple times where I was just plain confused -- like did she like him or not?! for 3 episodes straight. Same with the second lead couple -- I don't think it was necessary for them to bicker as much as they did if they were only going to end up separated in the end (although, I was pretty happy about this result).
Overall, this show is moving, heartwarming, and beautiful. It crumbled off in some moments but in the end it held off strong, with characters that all learn from their mistakes and show the audience what it is to live life to the fullest.
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