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TTEOTM compelled me to make my first MDL review
Till the End of the Moon (TTEOTM) was adapted from a DARK ROMANCE novel literally entitled, "Black Moonlight Guaranteed Bad Ending Script". Please let that clue you in but not deter you from watching the drama.The story mostly follows the plot of the source material. On the toxicity of the ML and FL, the drama does not even compare to how cruel these characters are to each other in the novel. I do not defend toxic relationships in real life but this fictional premise is set up for the characters to hate and love in equal measures. Li Susu, who saw the annihilation of the sects and the destruction caused by Devil God, was sent back to kill evil fetus Tantai Jin. While drama Tantai Jin is more sympathetic, it doesn't remove the fact that his existence means eventual destruction. Li Susu is ruthless because their love, hate, and personal desires are secondary compared to the saving of the Three Realms. The inherent conflict is already there.
Xianxias are influenced by the philosophies of Taoism and Buddhism thus showing concepts like Yin and Yang, severing worldly desires to attain immortality, and living in harmony with the universe.
These are overarching themes that go beyond the typical love story and the reason why the drama ended so.
I personally thought the editing of the first quarter of the drama was on point but suffered from occasional editing issues after that due to the regulation change. The Bo're Dream arc should have been shortened to flesh out the mortal and immortal arcs more. It would have been nice if more focus on the resolutions of different storylines was made, too. However, the story was mostly intact and comprehensible.
The acting of most of the cast is unassailable. Luo Yunxi and Bailu embodied the different characters they portrayed with such deftness. It was amazing to see the nuances in their behaviors and mannerisms so you can tell them apart not just because of the costumes.
Speaking of which, these are perhaps some of the most beautiful and impactful costumes I've seen. The designer drew inspiration from different Chinese cultural elements and really brought forth the resurgence of the Dunhuang style.
The CGI was outstanding especially in the battle scenes and the sceneries for the different realms. I do not know what standards people have for special effects but I have seen several xianxias and TTEOTM has one of the best.
The OST and scoring were fine but nothing to rave about. There were occasional jarring use of that romcom style song that I personally thought didn't suit the drama as a whole. I do recall two specific scenes that had perfect use of soundtrack - Black Bird for the Water Festival scene and the OST used for the farewell talk between TTJ and LSS in the last episode. Those gave me goosebumps.
As for the rewatch value, let me just say that in my years of drama watching, I have not rewatched any because I feel the time I have spent watching it once is enough already. However with TTEOTM, I have not only rewatched scenes but entire episodes so that I can fully appreciate the details. I am even planning to rewatch the entire thing from the first episode. LOL!
Many of us here watched TTEOTM and know that it has its highs and lows. We love it because, even with its flaws, it resonates with us. It is perfectly imperfect and it is one for the books.
P.S. Many of us still can't over it and if it is true for you too, please join us in our friendly forum community. 😊
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Dramas like these are tough to review. Really. It's not BAD so much as...lame. The story is lame, the acting is lame, EVERYTHING is lame. You could see that the director REALLY, REALLY wanted to paint this grandiose picture of the leads' life amidst the (admittedly beautiful) backdrop of the Shanghai skyline, but fell flat when a cold dose of reality set in: it isn't interesting enough. Had the story fallen into the hands of a talented writer, it could have been so much more. The potential was there. I could see brief glimpses of it when they tried narrating how exactly the female lead ended up getting amnesia and forgetting our male lead (this isn't a spoiler, btw, the description is just half done.) But after the first few minutes of the first episode- poof! We have to wait for MANY, MANY more episodes of unnecessary yammering and plot fillers to get to the actual point. And when it does- it still doesn't.
52 episodes for what could essentially be condensed into a 10 episode drama is excruciatingly painful. Each scene, each event and each action is stretched like a rubber band pulled far apart by nothing but prayer. Each episode was 40 minutes. 40-freaking-minutes. At one point early on in the show, the male lead tries persuading the female to join the contest (yeah, that's another thing they don't mention in the description) for 2 EPISODES! Hell, screw the writers, I would get massively unimaginative if I had to fill 52 episodes of this thing.
The acting is Terrible. The capital T was intentional. Is Ma Ke supposed to be attractive? I don't know. All the female supporting characters in the show seem to think so. He certainly wasn't a good (or even decent) actor. Guan Gabrielle was good as long as she didn't do anything because, in many ways, she was a worse actor than Ma Ke. The supporting characters are so utterly forgettable and recycled from other dramas they aren't even worth a mention.
Lastly, the female lead is supposed to be like, the best dancer (or something?) in the university she attended in California but SUCKS everytime we see an actual performance of hers. One of the judges instantly takes a liking to her because she reminds her of herself and (even though she ruthlessly denies it all the time) gives SO much leeway to the stupid shit our female lead does. Heck, even during this 'really important performance', she chooses the female lead's team that performed some boring shadow act with minimal dance over an actually decently choreographed, power-packed team in a DANCE COMPETITION. Why? Because the her team had actual "heart" and understood "the value of a team."
Yeah, give me a break.
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I cannot believe how they ruined such a good cast and potential plot. The first ten episodes were exciting and really made me think "wow this could be one of my favorite dramas of the year", but no. It goes downhill to the point you have no idea what they are trying to prove or show. Unless you enjoy a psychotic guy falling in love with a girl with no values or even common sense, then do not torture yourself mentally by watching this. At the beginning of the drama I was one of those people who defended the female lead despite her playing two guys because I thought she was gonna grow and change. How could you make a vow to your fiancé that you will always love and be with him even in another lifetime and go love the person that stabbed him to death?? Not only that she made him look like a fool for saving her and loving her unconditionally; she acts like a block of ice and runs to the psychotic guy hugging him and talking to him like he's some type of angel. What is the point of this drama? To show that eternal love doesn't exist? To show that stalking someone and murdering is okay? To show that the "bad guy" can get the girl? WTH like I don't even know how someone approved this drama to be filmed after reading the script. I also don't know why the actors especially Lee Soo Hyuk would want to participate in such chaos and nonsense. I finally understand why this drama received very low ratings in Korea and now even on MDL. For your own good and sanity do not watch this drama. Was this review helpful to you?
The overall story is about two people who encountered hardship in their youth uniting to establish their own sense of love, justice and peace. I am so thrilled that the leads were both charming and smart. There were no senseless games or fights just pure witty and authentic commitment, love and determination.
I would put this series up there with ten miles of peach blossoms and the lengend of fuyao. No cliffhangers, just clean and clear and amazing ending.
Hats off to the young female actress who played “Rong’er” she has some skills. I’ll definitely look for her in future films.
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Either way, a waste!
Having watched the original show “Jane the Virgin”, I was, at first, a bit hesitant because I liked that. But then I thought I should check out how the Kdrama essence changes it. And I am sadly (not really) declaring that they did fail and this was entirely a horrible attempt. It was obvious to compare this with the previous but then I thought I should actually consider it as a separate show because things must have changed with given circumstances, which did happen. Either way, it did disappoint.Developed by ‘Studio S’ & ‘Lifetime’ and produced by ‘Group 8”, “Woori the Virgin” is a comedy melodrama plus partly romcom drama, adopted from the American satire telenovela “Jane the Virgin”. Written by Jang Ah Mi and directed by Jung Jung Hwa, the drama was broadcasted on SBS TV and internationally distributed by “Viu” in limited countries. Notably, this is not a remake of the original show, rather an adaptation since all the 5 seasons from have been summed into a single season. Also, the show reunites Sung Hoon and Im Soo Hyang after 6 years who, again, happen to have debuted together 11 years ago.
Oh Woo Ri (Im Soo Hyang), daughter to a single mother and raised alongside her grandmother, is a woman in early 30s who has been virgin due to her religious beliefs. During a regular checkup, she gets pregnant due to medical malpractice at her OB-GYN clinic. To her surprise, the sperm owner turns out to be a man Rafael (Sung Hoon) with whom she had a momentary fling five years back. As she decides to keep the baby and the story follows the consequences and unfamiliar events she faces.
Lee Kang Jae (Shin Dong Wook) is Woori’s boyfriend and a detective. Other familiar faces in the story in various major roles were: Hong Eun Hee, Yun Won Kyung, Kim Soo Ro, Lee Do Yeon, Nam Mi Jung, Hong Ji Yoon, Joo Jin Mo and Yun Woon Kyung.
Plot development was the entire problem with the drama. The remake was a bad idea; they could have made a story based on the concept but they went for an adaptation, making foolish decisions. The pilot episode did its job of creating an impression at the end but the episode, as its own, was not very pleasant. However, the furtherance following that and the set of events became interesting with plenty of comic elements and revelations done for the major characters. To my disappointment, it didn’t last long; it seemed smooth till 5th but what happened in 6th and the way the episode ended, I was skeptical about the rest of the show, because it hadn’t even reached its interval.
With only the crime scandal and the main culprit left to be unveiled, everything else became stupid and not worth of watching as soon as the 7th episode started. I can’t say that the mystery plot and the investigation process kept me engaged, it’s just I wanted to know the culprit’s face even when the show had already fallen through, that’s it. It kept getting stupider and logic-less towards the ending and for my habit of not being able to leave anything unfinished, I watched 7th-14th at 3x, ngl.
Emphasizing on my opinion, once again, adaptation isn’t an easy job as it seems. Even if the audience doesn’t expect you to justify the originality, as a writer, you must be careful not to mislay the essence of what’s been presented earlier, which the debutant Jang Ah Mi jakka-nim clearly failed to accomplish. First of all, the idea to adapt a 5 seasoned show was stupid to begin with; secondly, it could have simply referred to the story and created one of their own; finally, bringing all the 5 seasons into one was where they stooped to rock-bottom.
With not being able to create something noteworthy in his almost 15 year caarrer, Jung Jung Hwa PD-nim has again failed to bring another drama to justice. The flow of direction was inconsistent, very much. Things like screenplay management, sound editing and screen editing might have been handled to par but the erratic pacing and irregular development come as annoyances. While the first half was smooth and worth the patience, the latter half becomes too rushed in order to include everything within the predetermined quota. Imo, they could have made to more episodes, minimizing the damage.
Composed by Choi Seung Kwon, the show has a total of 5 OSTs and my ‘Kdrama OST Sucker’ heart couldn’t bring itself to love any single of them. I would say ‘”I’m In Love” by Sin Ye Young was the only likable track which also fits to the drama. While “Gosh” by Jessi is a fabulous track individually, this has no particular essence to be contributed to the show. Other 3 tracks are: “Sunday to Monday” by Woody and “I’m goin’ crazy” which has both male & female versions, sung by Kim Bum Soo & Lee Young Hyun, respectively.
What I liked…
Nothing really
What I didn’t like…
# Sung Hoon’s acting doesn’t improve remarkably even though he has been acting for a while and his irregular casting should be the reason, but it’s obvious he isn’t getting many offers bcs there seems no will power to improve. He could utilize his time in taking classes. (Some of y’all will come at me foe this but fact never changes.)
# Character arcs for many were shoddy; not even the 3 leads had anything significance. Flaws make characters realistic but for a 14 episode fictional drama there were way too many flaws, provided they didn’t have a single fraction of development. In the second half, it wasn’t even funny rather ridiculous.
# Kang Jae’s character was horribly written with no particular sense. As a cop, he didn’t show any trait that would make him a good detective. The number of times he and his wit failed, implied his incompetency and also showed how incapable the police is. In short, this was so very unrealistic and had no logic.
# Chemistry between the 2 possible pairs were zero. While Im Soo Hyang did click with one showing little compatibility, pairing her up with the other was so useless and was presented with cliché elements as fillers only. The original show was convincing, but as the culture and essence have changed with the remake, the same felt extremely stupid here.
# The illogical plot devices were irritating in the sense that they did repeat few just to stall time and match the timelines of different subplots. Then, they used some just to fill the gaps created due to the removal of major events from the original show. Finally, the way of representation was choppy.
Final remarks... Overally, “Woori the Virgin” is not only a bad remake but also a poor quality show if you don’t take the original show into consoider. I came here knowing I might get bored but the stupidity and failures have made me mad. I understand the low budget is where the problems stem from but we have seen enough such cases, where makers have aced the race despite every hurdles. Since the show has way too many cons and almost no pro, I decline to acknowledge it as an average show, even. Don’t watch.
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who proposed this drama ??
i suppose this is an unpopular opinion, but i barely tolerated this drama. it requires zero expectations or standards to be watchable, and i couldnt manage that. most people are in love with it and say this drama uses tropes and cliches “properly”, but i didn’t think so at all. they were cringey at best, toxic at worst. i believe dramas have a responsibility to portray relationships mindfully, without romanticizing abusive behaviors that will then influence young viewers. therefore my negative feelings towards this show are mainly directed towards the characterization of the ML and a few other tropes/ideas the show pushes on the audience.
to start: there are hundreds of kdramas with the same “cold rich guy is mean to innocent girl until he falls in love with her because shes so different” plot lines. business proposal is one of them.
the cold ML archetype is overdone and horrifying, and in 2022 i didnt think id have to watch this arrogant, spoiled man literally blackmailing a poor girl into fake dating him and then harassing her about it even at work. imagine if the ML was unattractive or sixty years old, it wouldnt seem so romantic then. but media romanticizes stalking, borderline harassment, pushy men, and this affects how we see relationships and set standards.
specifically, i hated how the show romanticized ML being pushy with FL. his profession of love: “it you reject me again ill ask you out again and again. i wont give up until you like me back” was appalling. first he blackmailed her into fake dating him, then he says he wont give up even if she rejects him? not only is he a powerful wealthy man, hes also her boss. this is the DEFINITION of a power imbalance. no matter her reasoning for saying no, she said no and i would’ve loved to see him respect that choice. it couldve been written that FL realizes her feelings on her own and comes to him, without making it look like he pressured her into the relationship.
and this is not a one time situation: the drama does this with youngseos cousin who keeps pushing herself onto sunghoon who clearly drew a line. notice how in this situation its weird and uncomfortable but with hari and taemu its okay, because we the audience know she secretly harbors feelings. i dont appreciate this show telling viewers that if someone says no, you dont give up.
in the past major dramas such as boys over flowers and heirs, MLs would be pushy and FLs were doormats and this ended in true love. now, we finally have characters setting boundaries and yet STILL dramas say “never give up! no means yes!” i definitely wouldve been a lot more lenient and willing to just watch this as a lighthearted fluffy drama had they not used this male lead archetype.
perhaps you think this doesnt matter. but there are impressionable viewers learning what is acceptable and romantic based on these dramas, no matter how silly or obvious the tropes may seem. even if these dramas are far from reality and are clearly meant to be taken lightly, this all couldve been omitted while still keeping the plot the same.
in terms of writing and production: they didnt spend enough time fleshing out the characters and i just didnt care about them or their romance. there was barely any build up, they saw each other a few times and suddenly he was in love with her. the scene in ep 11 everyone was so excited about felt so random to me and for the first time ever i did NOT want to watch a main couple show be affectionate.
the ML spends half the drama harassing and blackmailing the FL, and the FL spent half the drama lying to him. the characters felt very 2d and they were basically built off the cliches rather than having actual personalities. the side characters like haris old crush and his gf had a single personality trait each and i forgot they existed at all. oh, hari has a brother that shows up once in a while for no reason. all of this i didnt really mind as it was obvious from the start that this drama is not meant to be revolutionary. rather i think the worst part is i didnt feel chemistry between the main leads at all.
overall, this drama is highly predictable and lacks any real depth. i know many people enjoyed it, and thats fine. perhaps you will enjoy it too. but i hope my review tells you what the description and ratings do not.
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a cinematographic thriller with an odd pacing
like most of us, i was hooked by the trailer of 'somebody'. i binged it the day of its release. a dark thriller, involving creepy serial killer kim young kwang and an intriguing kang hae lim ? could we ask for more ?the first episodes were interesting, the impeccable acting and visuals get you very engaged in the story-line. however, after a few episodes, the story arc gets a little dull. a slow paced thriller can be very good when well executed, but in my opinion, the pacing of the scenes in 'somebody' sometimes felt inadequate. some moments lasted too long, and others that we would want to dive deeper into ended abruptly. i also wish they went in more depth into backstories to improve character development. when finishing the drama, i was left with mixed feelings, and wanting to know more.
still, i need to praise all the actor's performances. they are the ones keeping the story compelling from start to finish. kim sum's character is chilling, and yun ho's scenes dreadful ! they really nailed it on their part.
overall, it's an aesthetically pleasing, very well produced (netflix) drama, with flawless acting, so it's still a rather enjoyable watch for anyone into slow thrillers. this drama had a lot of potential, but i feel like the visual quality took over the actual substance and depth of the story.
edit: removed the 'leaving us with many unanswered questions' from the title, as it seemed to confuse people into thinking this drama had an open ending!
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Can't stop smilling
Finally, there is a Korean drama with a rom-com genre that makes you can't stop smiling without thinking too hard. After watching the first episode, you can't wait to continue watching the next one until it's suddenly the last one.It tells the story of an actor named Nam Kang-Ho who has trauma from his past and thinks women are manipulative creatures. But all his opinions change when he meets a lawyer named Yeo Mi-ran. Because of a scandal, they agree to become contract partners and eventually fall in love with each other.
An adult love story with an on-point storyline it's not boring at all to watch, we want more!! 10 episodes are not enough.
Highly recommended for those who need a light drama on weekends because this drama is a distraction amid Korean dramas lately whose stories are heavy.
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A Great KBL
I really enjoyed watching the series 💯. The series teaches the important of loving oneself properly and how friendship is a very integral part of life. A very realistic ending and a beautiful story but there were so many things I couldn’t understand.Why was his best friend not aware he had Kylie , where was she when he lost his mother and when he almost lost his life, she literally called him to hangout after not long after he lost his mother and we didn’t see her at the funeral . I didn’t really get his story with Habibi too . His friends deserved to know what he had been dealing with at least and they didn’t preach safe sex and how he was having relations with people while having Kylie , I feel like that should have been touched as well. But apart from that I loved it
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Despite vowing not to touch any more Thai BL after the unfolding disaster that was this year, I nonetheless pressed play on TharnType: 7 Years of Dysfunction (sorry, love) and here I am. I know this is the review you have all been waiting for.
Well, it's been seven years since Tharn and Type got together and refused to deal with any of their internal relationship issues. So here we are, kind of tired and muted and a bit sad after seven years of Tharn avoiding conflict because of his fear of rejection and Type being publicly in the closet because he refuses to admit he's gay. The two do nothing but bottle things up, have a kind of passive-aggressive fight and then have sexy times to cover the cracks. I suspect as viewers we're just supposed to enjoy the sexy times and not notice that this relationship is terrible. But it is. It's terrible. I desperately want both of them to break up and go find somebody else better suited to them. Or at least FINALLY deal with the issues in their relationship. Also, Tharn has these moments where he's absolutely f'ing creepy to younger gay men and it only reminds me that he was abused as an adolescent and nobody is doing anything about it. His abuser is practically living at his family's house. But at least he's no longer dating a literal child.
So it's seven years later and Type is struggling at work in probably the only plotline that is possibly about something (there IS a big difference between studying and working and dealing with workplace nonsense can be exhausting). And I'll expand on the implied point here - there is literally nothing else in this drama so far that is about anything. There is no plot. At all. The show is lacklustre and paint by numbers. Even the shoe-horned soft-core porn I'm supposed to be distracted by is phoned in. They devoted actual screentime to Type being jealous over a woman despite his boyfriend being completely 100% gay. And if I touched on the screaming misoygnism of that whole plotline I'd be here all week.
Tharn wants to get married because he think that means that Type will be his possession and can therefore NEVER LEAVE (marriage doesn't work like this, my damaged friend) and Type doesn't want to get married because if he marries a man he might have to admit he's gay and we can't have that because this is Thai BL and we all know GAY IS BAD. And of course you'll remember show completely glossed over this conflict at multiple points even though it's the main one. Possibly if Tharn needs constant emotional reassurance he shouldn't have spent seven years with a man who's already married to his closet and again - these two are TERRIBLE for each other. Break up! Do better. I get it, you love each other. It's not enough!
Since this show is unlikely to be about these two actually working out any of these issues but will inevitably find an external conflict for them to pretend they're a rock under siege then I should bow out now. But if I did then how could I reliably report back that TharnType is a bad show about a dysfunctional couple and you shouldn't bother getting invested.
This has been my much-anticipated review of TharnType: 7 Years of Ignoring All Our Real Issues.
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One thing that caught my attention was Seo Joon's acting in certain scenes, which i thought he did a wonderful job with. On the other hand, Hwang Jung Eum, and Siwon. Usually in dramas when they try to act funny, it just doesn't work, but here, i think these two did amazing, because i actually found myself laughing at them occasionally.
All in all, if you're looking for a drama that's light to watch, has those funny side characters that make you laugh with them, and a pleasant atmosphere, this would be it!
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As this show finally came to the end today, after three months of following trainees journey, I thought I would share some of my thoughts and list some of the reasons why it's (in my opinion) the best of all Produce shows.
1. Production quality is really high
YWY is a competition but the production team doesn't make it look like the hunger games. The editing is not evil but actually made me burst out laughing many times and rather on creating unecessary drama, it focused on showing hard work and friendship between trainees and how much the girls supported each other.
The cameramen usually do a really good job and don't suddenly zoom into space or into the back of someone's head while filming.
Stage effects, outfits, makeup etc. (and of course talented trainees) make the performances look proffessional and impressive.
2. Mentors genuinely care about the trainees and give them useful advices
I think that the relationship between mentors and trainees is much closer than in different versions of the show.
It was a great decision to chose Cai Xukun as the main host. He knows what the trainees are going through, because he went through the same experience in Idol Producer so he's able to really empathize with the girls. Despite his young age, he already has admirable knowledge about music and performing and he tries to share this knowledge with the trainees.
Also, I think the panel with Alicia was one of the most useful panels for every trainee/rookie I've seen in Produce shows, because she actually addressed the struggles of 'celebrity life' without sugar-coating anything.
3. The contestants
First of all, the amount of talent the trainees have is insane and I was often impressed by the stage presence of some of the contestants.
The trainees really support each other and their friendships seem so genuine. There's not a single girl who's unlikable and you actually get attached to these girls and wish them best. The girls face hardships during their training but they're still able to keep their spirits up and lighten the mood.
The tone of the show is different from what I saw in Produce101. The contestants don't look like they're going to crumble under pressure. They are not afraid to express their opinion and even joke with their mentors.
4. The message
What I absolutely love about this show is the fact that it supports diversity and girl power. Rather than focusing on being cute and pretty, the girls show that you can be cool, you can have different image but most importantly you can be yourself and keep fighting for your dreams.
In my opinion, especially in Korean shows too much emphasis is put on the visuals.
Honestly I think it would be hard for a contestant with the image like Yu Zhang or Frhanm Shangguan to go far in the Korean Produce and I don't think it would be possible for a girl like Liu Yuxin to reach the top. But in Youth With You I was so happy to see girls who were not 'conventionally pretty', girls who had different styles and personalities.
To put it short: even if you're not interested in survival shows, I think you should give this one a chance.
YWY 2 is over now and I'm really gonna miss it. I wish all the contestans best of luck and of course I can't wait to see The Nine debut.
(Annotation: By using term 'Produce shows' in this review I refer to the shows which follow the same format as original Korean Produce101.)
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Multi-Layered Characters
Originally this was added to the watchlist because I had heard that LYR was doing his first ML role and he'd done a good job playing supporting ones so was curious and I'd seen XRH once before though I wasn't very convinced back then; don't know why. Some of the supporting characters were familiar. But the story itself was interesting and all of the characters were multi-layered.Pros: What set this show apart for me from others I've watched was the fact that this second chance romance brought in the past of the leads first to the episode, than present day including their and the other two couple's participation in the filming of the variety show, that way things were explained and you understood why certain things happened. It seemed to me that all three couples evolved both separately and together as the show wore on. At first you thought FL was a selfish brat because of her actions and in fact she did admit to most of the mistakes from the past as being hers but when you saw her layers of trauma, you understood that though this was a drama, she was still a human being. Favorite character was ML; I like how he was sure of himself, confident, independent and quite obvious that from the two of them he had grown and matured first.
The second couple was weird, toxic, and codependent and at the end she became pregnant and somehow you just prayed the child wouldn't become neurotic like his parents. They were my least favorite. The 3rd couple were called the healing couple in the comments and I agree; even though they were both ridiculously shy to the point of social anxiety; they were always a soothing balm to each other and their friends especially once they got together. I also liked that all 6 people even with all of their shortcomings, were such great friends and support systems to each other to the point that the show ended with the 6 traveling around together. Their friendship started in HS and progressed way into adulthood.
The 3.5 annoying people who played either rivals in love or just one completely unhinged chick all stayed as long as necessary and were then sent packing. Ironically even though YS seemed like the most annoying, when giving advice to the other two women during their "dates" set by production, gave the best advice. And really great way everyone took down the unhinged chick in the 2nd to last episode. Also how symbolic that it was SXR that proposed to LXY in the last episode as a close to the chapter; the marriage-phobe realized that's exactly what she wanted and that near death accident made her understand being next of kin is vital when you love someone.
Cons: Obviously this show was lower budget, but it didn't really hurt it. I do wish the SFL was less baby-voiced viper most of the series. Towards the end, I don't understand why the legal proceedings were published on screen. For starters this was fictional and secondly, the unhinged lawyer chick's crimes went beyond "intentional attempted vehicular homicide", yet she wasn't charged for those. Also none of the civil charges were made public. So either get all of the charges or none. Makes zero sense to do what they did. I think things could have been explained better about the show itself, as well as how SQ met her abusive ex husband. The show should have focused more proportionally on the third leads as we don't know much about TML's or TFL's backgrounds or their parents.
Would I recommend it? Yes. This was a different show that you had to watch to understand the multifaceted characters and how they got to where they were. It's a nice modern drama.
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I'm slowly getting back to kdramas, so I picked this one up and at first I was all in. I loved every moment of this show. The acting was top notch and the story, at least in the beginning, was complex and unique.
I loved it!
So why the 7?
Well, what I loved about the show was the complexity of everything and how everyone was flawed. As the show progressed and more secrets were revealed, I thought that it would continue to add to the depth of the characters, instead I got the same kdrama. Rich guy falls in love with poor girl. Poor girl has a guy that likes her and the rich guy has a girl that likes him. Drama ensues.
I can accept that. What I couldn't accept was this love story. Min Hyuk and Yoo Jeong just didn't make any sense as lovers. Min Hyuk had some reverse Stockholm Syndrome where he fell in love with the person he was tormenting. It came about from obsession and then he loves her. It made sense. But for Yoo Jeong to love him back all of a sudden? No. That never made sense and never felt authentic to me. After five years of being harassed and tormented, you don't just suddenly say "I love you too."
I also felt like the story dropped the ball with Do Hoon, who was the most interesting character on the show. He's been brought up in a family that expects him to be the best, but still keep his morals intact. That all changes when he allows Yoo Jeong to take the fall for him. Him getting close to Min Hyuk and trying to destroy him seemed to be his ways of making amends, but in the end I really didn't know what he was doing.
I enjoyed my time watching this and was eagerly waiting for the next episode to appear so I could watch it, but now that everything is said and done, was this really all that different from the rest of the kdramas out there? Kind of, but not really. There's a lot of plot holes and the ending was rushed. I just wasn't satisfied when it was done.
I am in the minority with this, so if you think this might be something you'd like then check it out, but if you are looking for something new in the kdrama world then I don't think you'll find it here.
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Love Story Between a Scorpio and an Aquarius
Wow, what an ending!!! At the beginning of this episode (last episode) I thought this was going to be another amnesia trope but in this case it really worked (also made this entire drama make sense). This is going to put up a serious fight against Crash Landing On You as my favorite drama for the year. I have to say this show surprised me so much. Unlike Crash Landing On You, I came in with normal expectations. One, because I have never watched a show with Lee Joon Gi before despite having watched hundreds of dramas (I know, I know. I have always respected him and admired him but somehow just never watched a k-drama with him in it). On the other hand, I really like Moon Chae Won as an actress. She has never disappointed in any of the dramas she was in. She neve disappointed me in Innocent Man, never disappointed me in Princess Man, never disappointed me in Good Doctor, and has not even disappointed me in Goodbye Mr. Black (yes, that show was a disaster but her acting is spectacular). She has took it to a different level in this drama. Everything just hit so hard in this show and I have never once felt that her character was not insincere or she was acting.And Lee Joon Gi was phenomenal. As a dude, I always thought all of the other k-drama fans (mostly women) have liked him not just because he was a good actor but also handsome. But he killed it in this show. He portrayed a complicated character so well it is unbelievable. This character has showed and experienced every emotion possible to a human being (betrayal, shock, love, guilt, anger, happiness, sadness, jealousness), everything. To show every single emotion without even acting out all of the scenes is just beyong amazing (of course the writing and directing were phenomenal).
This show also reminds me an article I read half an hour ago about horology (I know this is not related but it kind of is). It was an article about Scorpios and Aquarius. What really stood out was how the two signs have so many obstacles in the way but strangely match up so well. It really seemed to describe this couple.
Do Hyun Su (the Scorpio in this case) does not have a lot of friends. He does not trust people easily. He comes off as off-putting and such a huge jerk. He is hated by everyone as well as society. People do not understand him, they think he is psychopathic. However, as a Scorpio (I am just going to assume his character is a Scorpio-type personality) he can read people easily. Hence why he often manipulated people (he feels emotions but manipulated people simply because he could and it legitimately made sense in his situation). He can read his friend Moo Jin and he can read his Noona. He can certainly read Cha Ji Won as well (the aquarius in this case). Moreover, he cares a lot about the people he loves: his Dad, his Mom, his Sister, his friend, and last but least his wife (also loves his adopted family hence why he was able to be set up by them despite himself being extremely careful and observant, he just loved them too much). He is very family-centric (misses his mom, still loves his dad and even cares about his adoptive family) and loyal (hates betrayals, hence why he wanted to kill the nephew in his mind). However, despite still trusting the people around him, he still cannot trust anyone completely, not even his wife (aggravated by the fact that she is a cop and he is a fugitive). Hence, why he fooled her for so long. However, this drama really pushed him to change (Scorpios don't change easily) to really take a leap of faith and trust his wife completely which he eventually did (however, somewhere he did not know why he trusted her and even doubted his feelings a bit both before the accident and after the accident).
Ok, now back to Cha Ji Won (the aquarius). She is extremely popular with people, is very creative and idealistic. She has a lot of friends but enjoys having her own space. She seems to have a lot of friends but none of them seem to be able to read through her. However, Do Hyun Soo can. Do Hyun Soo finds her creativity and playfulness enjoyable and extremely captivating but he does not know why he likes her (mysterious attraction). He tries extremely hard to figure out everything about her (all of the notes he wrote trying to figure out why she likes something, and all of his effort trying to get her know better). I know it is hypocritical to want to know about someone but hide yourself but Do Hyun Soo is very insecure deep inside (once again aggravated by his complicated past, his fugitive status, and his wife's job). In the end, he seemingly succeeds. But deep inside, he is not only not truly confident that his wife loves him, but not even sure that he likes her (since he does not know why). Cha Ji Won (the aquarius) is also extremely attracted to Do Hyun Soo but she is not 100 percent sure why either. From her point of view, she keeps on expressing her interest (right before they started dating and after the memory loss) but she is getting no response. She is extremely tired but just cannot seem to give up. At the end of this episode, she seemingly gave up but still had some hope somewhere (Hyun Soo could not really go to her in both cases before he was certain that he really liked her).
This all ties back to the final analogy which made everything make sense to me. Hyun Soo, the Greek God who is misunderstood by everyone likes to hang out in his own comfortable space. However, he always has his wife on his mind (Cha Ji Won). He finally realized that just like the Greek God, there was only one person he truly loved and trusted, and that was Cha Ji won.
All right, one more thing. I thought Eun Ha loved her Dad irrationally too much before this episode but it makes sense to me now. She is a shadow of her mom. She is too similar to her mom. WIth the exact same personality and half of her genes, it is easy to see why she loves him. Do Hyun Soo loves her as well which is another parallel to the relationship betwen him and his wife.
TL;DR: Do Hyun Soo and Cha Ji Won seem like they might not be a great fit because of their tumultous relationship but in reality it is all within the process of finding true love. This drama shows that true love is possible and marriage is certainly not the end product of love, not even a child (in fact, it is more likely a new beginning).
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