WHAT I WAS HAPPY ABOUT (without trying to spoil anything):
Kang Ji Hwan's performance and his character. When I first saw him I thought I wasn't going to like him;he looked stiff, boring and mean. But I found out that I was wrong and I was soo happy that I was. This is the first drama I have seen him in and It makes me want to look for other things that he's been in. I liked that the 'love triangle' focused more on the future potential relationship aspects as opposed to the entire drama being about the leads getting over their past loves before they even notice or become aware of the person in front of them.
HOWEVER:
Like most others, I agree that this drama was a bit on the long side which is strange seeing as how it's the standard 16 episodes. I got up to episode 13 and then put it on hold. I do plan to finish it but I tend to binge-watch dramas (as I am sure most do) and at that point I just had to stop.
Switching gears slightly: Another thing I was happy to discover was that Sung Joon was not as annoying as I thought he'd be in other dramas, it was just this one. I watched I Need Romance 3 and I LOVED HIM in that so it was just this drama and his character who annoyed me. And I guess that's just a good sign that he's a great actor, right? ^__^
Hope my rants were helpful. x
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This is so annoying, and so sad.
Like everyone before me already pointed out, the lead actors did a brilliant job here. They are so natural together, it's a pleasure to watch them interact.
But even cute has its limit, at least for me. I didn't know of the writer switch until the last episode, but the difference was evident. What used to be a quirky, funny, sweet and sexy script suddenly turned into a sugary, childish, cutie cute one, with these two chirping to each other for the duration of six, never-ending episodes.
When mutual love has been loudly declared, the lie has come into the open, the antagonists are out of the games, what is left in terms of expectations? Who cares what they eat and when or how many times they hold hands?
Somehow, they used all their good cards at the beginning of the game, only to drag it with uninteresting little scenes till the end. By the third ice-cream I was ready to smear it on the face of the director.
Also, I was left wondering what happened to the majority of the characters? Were they sucked into some drama black hole, or sent en masse to Paris where they are happily eating escargots?
The music was somehow schizophrenic. At the beginning I though it was horrid, with those very childish pop songs used at every turn. Then it improved a lot, it became more varied and able to enhance the feelings. At times it was hilariously chosen. Then it changed again and became a simple background sound, which I forgot a few minutes after it was played.
Re-watch value is obviously low, unless something heavy hits me on the head and I think this drama's only got 11 episodes.
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The main reason was Yoon Eun Hye since I like her acting in romantic comedy roles.
2) Storyline/Plot:
*This is your usual rich-poor romantic comedy; a lot of cheesy scenes in here.
Positive Points:
*The cinematography was appreciated in here; it had many great backgrounds all the way through.
*Main Genres:
--->Comedy: I can’t literally say that it was very funny but it was acceptable on the general scale. There were some hilarious scenes every once in awhile but they weren’t very special.
You’re probably wondering why I mentioned it as a positive point while I stated many negatives; because the drama wasn’t that boring.
Negative Points:
--->Romance: It was very common. Let’s be honest, everyone of you saw a rich-poor romantic story, an arrogant and Cinderella, a hopeless triangle and I am sure that you’ve seen a contract drama before that’s why this drama’s romantic development had nothing extraordinary to talk about. Anyway, that’s how the majority of Korean rom-coms are set.
*This drama’s storyline was really predictable; there weren’t any events that felt surprising or special.
*Near the ending, the story became annoyingly dragged.
Story: 5/10.
3) Acting/Cast:
*The reason I started this drama was Yoon Eun Hye and I wasn’t disappointed with her performance. She’s a skilful actress that knows how to portray romantic comedy roles.
Kang Ji Hwan had respectable acting skills too but he wasn’t that great compared to Eun Hye.
Other actors weren’t very special, no exceptional feelings about any of them.
*As for character Ah Jung and Ki joon were ordinary main characters that you can find in any other Korean romantic comedy. Well, extra credits for Ah Jung as she felt more interesting than Ki Joon.
*Other characters were normal and up to standard but common.
*Appreciated character: Can I say “NONE”? I really don’t have any character that I appreciated here, not even a single one.
*Relationships:
--->Romance: The chemistry felt natural and intriguing; sometimes fluffy and even sexy: it was good to see on screen which is all due to the main actors’ harmony.
--->The triangle: It’s your common Korean triangle with a nice second lead male. Well, the second lead female wasn’t that wicked.
Cast: 7.5/10.
Acting: 8.5/10.
4) The ending:
It was unsurprising and expected plus it had one of the most ordinary ending scenes. Shall I say more?
The ending: 5/10.
5) My impression (How did it affect me):
*It felt like watching a rewind from many dramas that I’ve seen before. I lost the drama’s taste because everything about it was predictable.
*The drama was light but I have to admit that I fast-forward many parts in order to make watching hours manageable.
*Is the drama memorable: No, I don’t think so because it’s too common; nothing special about it.
My conclusion after watching this drama: I need to stop watching Korean romantic comedy for awhile. Taken as a whole, I became so sick of these “same plot” romantic comedies; the whole concept grew to be so dumb to me that’s why I really need to stop watching them or I will lose my “drama mood”.
My impression: 4/10.
6) Overall:
*If you’re a big fan of romantic comedies then you would like this.
*If you’re looking for a unique and mature romantic comedy then don’t watch this.
*Lie to Me was light drama in some ways but it was predictable and full of cliché/cheesy scenes in many ways.
Overall: 5/10
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Lie To Me...It was purely the chemistry between the actors Kang Ji Hwan and Yoon Eun Hye that had me watching. If I based my review simply on the high I got from watching them interact and kiss, my mouse would be hovering over the 10s every time. But I can''t...
The writing was almost abysmal. Even where our leads were concerned. It did their acting such an injustice. The switch around episode 11 did nothing but confuse the watcher and had the actors making, sometimes huge, personality changes that had me scratching my head. I focused solely on scenes with the two leads and had no interest in the plot. You could see so glaringly, where original intended storylines were dropped. Sang Hee and Yoon Joo became useless filler. Characters completely disappear with no explanation. The dramatic tension is pulled from the air and makes almost no sense.
Ultimately, there is nothing that bothers me more than when great actors are wasted by a crappy script. Kang Ji Hwan and Yoon Eun Hye tried their very best. They succeeded in their interactions and I place no blame on their shoulders. I cannot help but compare this to Mary Stayed Out All Night. Same scenereo...Great Cast! ~ Unfortunately wasted.
But here is the thing. I have watched some of these episodes multiple times. I repeatedly watched certain scenes between the to lovebirds because they were so enjoyable to me...And so my final verdict is this. If you want to turn off your brain and watch two actors make falling in love fun, sexy and cute. If you''re stressed and have no will to be critical while watching... Watch This! This pairing really had something magical.
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Story-It isn't original at all. I've been watching dramas for almost 4 years and have seen specially many kdramas, which are all the same. This one isn't and exception. -If you don't want to know anything about the story, DON'T READ THE REST OF THE PARAGRAPH-. In the first 8 episodes there's the leads hating each other but being dragged into common situations which make them start having feelings for each other. There's always the "oppa" girl, and the guy (who is generally hyung of the lead) who befriends the female lead and starts having feelings for her even though he eventually realizes she's the girl his hyung loves. Generally in the 8th or 9th episode the leads confess their feelings for each other and the rest of the drama is them trying to get his family to accept their relationship, because of course, he's always a rich guy and she's always the poor girl. So, that's the basic story-line for every kdrama. I think that most people, like me, accept that and watch it to see how the writers develop the story, the things that will make this drama different. But in this story, it's like the writers used "writing kdramas for dummies". I mean it didn't have anything different. The only scene in the whole drama that I'd rescue is the "cola" scene.
Cast-As I mentioned before, I'm a huge YEH fan. Her characters are always someone you can relate to (being MFL a HUGE exception) and they are very lovable. Kong Ah Jung wasn't the exception. As for KJH, I LMBOed with him in My Girlfriend is an Agent and here too. I also loved Soon Joon as character, but as an actor he only could do funny scenes, in the "sad" scenes I just kept laughing because his acting sucked. Jo Yoon Hee had the typical character that you just hate because she's stalking the male lead, so she didn't really stand out.
Music-nothing special, just the theme son.
Rewatch value-I'd never rewatch it, I almost didn't finished it.
Overall- Really generic and commercial, if this is your first drama, you'll probably love it, if you have watched several dramas before this one, you'll be like "oh, again?" or "that's so predictable" or "I watched this scene in..."
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Those who love this drama praise the chemistry between the leads Kang Ji Hwan and Yoon Eun Hye, and even I can't deny that the chemistry between the two was so palpable that it overwhelmed me at times. However, sizzling chemistry does not a good relationship make, and I found nothing compelling about the love between the characters Hyun Gi Joon and Gong Ah Jung. It seemed to consistently coast on a superficial level, especially towards the end when the two just go on cute dates all the time and exchange grating "I miss you sooo muuuuch"'s.
When the relationship takes a last minute dive into depth, I found it to be forced and insincere. That's not the actors' fault. Kang Ji Hwan is terrific, and Yoon Eun Hye is good enough, although I maintain that she's at her best when she's crying (I don't think there's an actress who can cry like Yoon Eun Hye, and she really gets to show off here). Unfortunately, they fell victim to a poor script. Yes, the show switched writers half-way through the series, which accounts for some flaws. However, during the reign of the second writer, the plot was riddled with holes, characters acted without any logic or consistency or they were entirely neglected. There's a secondary story line concerning Ah Jung's father that goes nowhere and adds nothing to the overall story, and the second leads are given such throw away and meaningless resolutions that I can't help but think that the show would have been better off if Sang Hee and Yoon Joo had not been introduced to begin with.
I'm not going to warn you to not watch this drama. Lie to Me has a fervent following, and so clearly there's something here that some drama fans passionately latched on to, and you just might be able to find out what that something is. As for me, I'll just have to declare this a missed connection.
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I give this story an eight because while it's not an original storyline, it's a very cute and captivating story. The actors and actresses however are what really drew me in.
Yoon Eun Hye is an outstanding actress who I've liked since Coffee Prince and Goong and she carries her role well here. What I liked about the female protagonist was that she was strong throughout the story. There were lapses here and there in her character and towards the end, I wanted to smack her a little bit for her indecisiveness but I respected her throughout the story despite her crying jags and drunken fits of temper. Those were hilarious to me though!
As for Kang Ji Hwan, this is the first drama I've seen him in and boy did he blow me away. I won't lie; I hated his character at first and at one point I wished the character would just take a long walk off a short pier. But he managed to win me over and had even me, an ardent lover of all second male leads, rooting for him.
Sung Joon's character got a bit left out in the dust in the wake of Gong Ah Jung and Hyun Ki Joon. But I loved him from episode 1 and if it's one problem I had with this drama was that he ended up getting less and less screen time. Nevertheless, his role here is what got him another fan.
As for the rest of the cast, they did pretty well, all things considered. Special mention goes to Hong Soo Hyun whose character's transition was very good.
The OST for this drama is also AMAZING! There's cute, there's sad and there's absolutely beautiful music on it. A favourite OST for me! Also, there was a lot of Western music here which I was pleasantly surprised to hear.
Another thing about this drama:
KISSING SCENES.
Yes! Finally a female lead who KISSES BACK. Thank the heavens. I can count the number of female characters I've seen actually kiss their man on one hand. Thankfully, there's one more finger up.
Overall, I thought this drama was very good. Definitely worth giving a try.
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Acting was good as the two main leads have great chemistry. Nice OSTs - including the sweet and cute "Love Ice-cream" song. However, it was let down by the poor storyline towards the end. Storyline before the 10th episode was 9/10, story after the 10th episode was 4/10 and the last 3 episodes were 2/10 - very disappointing.
Two short sentences summarized this drama:
You'll get ripped off. You'll get lied to.
Watch with no expectations.
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