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A healing experience
Let me just start by saying that I rarely write reviews (I think my last review was for Mystic Pop-up Bar last year lol) but this show, especially the three main characters, have won a very special place in my heart so I couldn't not write my thoughts on AADSIG.I honestly started watching this show without properly reading the summary; I had only knew this was based on a webtoon and after I watched the teasers I decided to give it a shot and boy am I grateful I did.
This has got to be my personal favorite kdrama of 2021 so far (and I'm not sure another show could top it). Don't get me wrong, AADSIG is by no means perfect, but I can't help but love this show with all my heart even though there were some things I wish were changed or added.
What I loved the most about this drama was how realistic it was in showing the struggles common people go through every day. We see different characters, each with their personal story and each one carrying a burden that makes them feel suffocated and like they can't go on. The most beautiful thing for me was to see how all these broken characters came together and with time, patience, understanding, and love they were able to help each other realize they were not alone, that it was okay to rely on others and that even though life is hard, the sun always rises after a storm and people can overcome their difficulties.
I felt I could perfectly relate to these characters and to the struggles they went through. Watching this show was a healing experience for me because through the characters I was able to see parts of myself I don't want to think about many times. Especially with So Bin, I felt deeply connected to her because I'm also an extremely shy person who can't stand being in the spotlight. Particularly I could understand her when she struggled so much to get closer to Yeo Joon and she felt scared that maybe he didn't want her to get closer to him. I'm also an insecure person who many times thinks I'm bothering others (even though I "know" they love me), I find it difficult to get closer because I'm afraid I'm being a nuisance or I'm intruding or overstepping. And the fact that I could see myself in her was one of the reasons why I felt disappointed that the show didn't give So Bin more room to grow, they didn't develop her character in more depth. I wish they'd showed more about her past, more about how she dealt with her insecurities and overcame her anxiety and fears, and more of her and Joon simply being honest and open to each other (particularly him) and helping each other grow and overcome their wounds. Sadly, that's the main reason why I can't give 10 stars to the show.
Nevertheless, the depiction of friendship in this show has got to be the most beautiful I've ever seen in kdrama, especially between the two male leads. And I know there are many people who were hoping this would be a bl but I just need to say I'm glad it wasn't because I think not everything needs to be about romantic relationships (be it same or different sex). In the society I live in, men are raised learning that talking about feelings, being vulnerable in front of someone else and showing you emotions are things they shouldn't do because "these are things that women do", so many men just suppress their feeling and bottle everything up and they have a hard time confiding in their friends about emotional matters, in fact, it is not "well seen" if they do that. So seeing Joon and Soo Hyun listening to each other's problems and supporting each other emotionally just gives me so much happiness because I think that's what friends should do, that's what friendships should be like (and we know that between women this is common, but between men, it isn't). So I was pleased to see such a healthy and positive representation of male friendship, they really went and said f*ck toxic masculinity and I'm LIVING FOR IT.
Finally, the acting of this show was simply BRILLIANT. Props to every single one of the cast members and especially the main trio. This was the second time I watched Bae In Hyuk acting and I completely fell in love with him. This was my first time watching Kang Min Ah and she did amazing, I think she's such an outstanding actress. As for Park Ji Hoon, I had seen only one other project of him but I hadn't realized the depth of his acting talent. This boy CAN act, he's incredible, definitely my favorite this time, I particularly enjoyed the emotion he conveyed during those scenes where we saw his trauma, especially that one scene in which the two bullies get into a fight with Soo Hyun because of the group project and Joon tries to stop them. His performance simply blew my mind. I'll definitely be waiting for these actors' next projects and I'll be rooting for them, there's already a spot reserved for their characters and them in my heart.
Thank you to all the cast, production team, and staff who worked so hard in making this beautiful drama. I'm so grateful I found this show when I really needed it, now when I'm going through a hard time for not being sure of what future holds for me. Thank you to these precious characters for giving me so much comfort and making me feel safe and at peace with myself. Thank you for reminding me that not having all the answers to everything is okay, that I don't need to be in control of everything that happens in life, that it is okay to reach out for help, that I should treasure those who are close to me, and that no matter what, I can overcome whatever challenges and difficulties life throws at me, with the help of those who love and care for me.
I'm uploading this without really proofreading, so I apologize for any possible mistakes I may have made. Thank you for reading this far, and I hope that wherever you are, you never forget how precious and important you are in this world.
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It is worth watching
When I started watching it, I didn't know that story will turn out to be this good. It was an intense and light drama at one time. I don't feel like waiting before watching next episode. I am binge watching this. It highlights an issue that, at an age, all of us might have felt, i.e, biased parents or unjust siblings, however in this drama family is way too toxic and annoying. I initially felt that male lead (Yeo Jun) was psychopath but i was wrong :). He is such a sweet guy who is being tormented. Both leads are so cute and they suit each other a lot. Their acting made it more realistic and interesting. The drama is about college students, hence we can relate and understand the story well. Although I have not finished watching it yet I couldn't help writing a review. The romantic scenes, true/fake friendship and family drama, it was a perfect blend of everything that I can expect from a drama. Moreover, I loved its OSTs.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Youth is not all bright colours.
I am sucker for a good bl but bromance also fills my cup. This series has amplr of that. What i liked most are the non abrupt developments but at the same time I disliked "little" they addressed on the mental remedies of the issues presented.But I must consider that this is a short series, and it is pretty well done in terms of that.
Awesome acting.. Very happy for Bae In hyuk getting big roles in big serieses coz i saw so many webdrama with him starring and i wished that he gets recognized soon.
Ost Rocks as well
Recommended.
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One of the best plot kdrama stories !!
Still can't get over it. I have watched it repwatedly many times. Indeed one of the best series I have ever watched. The actors, the stories and most specially the sound tracks. I have all them in my personal music box. I hope they get to be available in Netflix... Likewise, I hope there is second season.. Highly recommended! Park Jihoon and Bae In Hyuk ate definitely the stars of these show. Their acting prowess and friendship is what the world needs.. Genuine friendship even though they come from different walks of life...Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Must watch drama!!
I don't know why people are being negative for this drama..But leave everything either it's 'bout webtoon or whatever....The only thing which is important that you'll definitely enjoy watching this drama...This is 'bout the difficulties, traumas, anxiety we face during our 20s. And if you say the storyline is from somewhere else...So what if it is, it's giving good message afterall. And I don't think sharing right and good things with lots of people is wrong thing to do. And also, apart from that the acting casts are very good..You'll not get bored. I am personally saying..I started liking Park ji hoon after watching this drama...And I can't wait to see, coming episodes...It's really hard to wait...I love this drama.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
It's been done before
i've never read the webtoon so didn't know what to expect, but this was just a bit of a let down. When I read the description I expected a fresh take on college life yet relatable. I got none of those. It was cliche, boring and the main leads acting as times, made me cringe.I also felt that the fl had literally no character. I get she's meant to be 'average' but she made it quite uninteresting for me to watch.
The only storyline I was kinda invested in was Soo hyun's and Young ran but even that left me disappointed.
Also i felt that Minjoo in this drama was so unnecessary, like the character added nothing to the plot.
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Average to below average drama Nothing special
It's a typical coming of age . Nothing really stood out me. It's the same old story. If you are a huge fan of any of the cast members than watch or its not a must watch or anything. I have nothing bad to say about this drama if you have nothing to watch n you really have to watch something then you can or else you can skip there is nothing you will be missing out on in my opinion. It's an ok drama. It's no age of youth. Bae In-hyuk stood out to me just a little. I hope he gets better roles in future.Update after watching till ep 10.
So basically as I said if have nothing to watch you can watch this so funny thing I had nothing to watch So I continued to watch it. N I stand by the fact that its nothing new. Episode 7,8, 9 are solid, well made and grabbed my attention & curiosity. The first 6 episodes of this series are hard to get by but 7, 8 and 9 are worth it. LOOKING FORWARD TO MORE OF Bae In-hyuk . He is an actor in the making.
And lastly, some people took my review as I was bashing the drama so i would just clarify I never once said its a bad drama its NOTHING NEW and among so many unique and wonderful out of the box dramas it doesn't stand out in 2021 . N yes I have high standards for this genre as alot can be explored in the "coming of age" category and we have seen many masterpieces in this genre. Making everyone a traumatized character doesn't always make the tale relatable or " coming of age" material.
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First of all I should say I wasn't in a drama mood at all when I decided to watch this oneSo I didn't expect much
But surprise ... It was more than brilliant
Every thing about this drama was amazing
Starting from a strong plot , nice characters written well , smooth story , psychological problems , amazing cute bromance till the romance between both leads
Inspite of having dark side for each character in the drama but it was very funny and joyful
it captures you till the end
I loved every minute watching it
The only thing that bothered me much
That soo hyun was so stubborn like a mule
And I didn't know if he love young ran or mi Joon
I wanted clear end for soo hyun romance life
I wished a lot he ended up with young ran
But he was too rational to get into relationship while he had all these problems
But when you love someone really you can't control yourself
That's why I think he didn't love her more than a friend
Frustrating and so disappointing 🥺😔💔
Highly recommended ❤️❤️❤️
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Life Lessons
Before writing this review, I came across many other reviews regarding this series. Many of them focused on general aspects like story, characters, plot etc. But according to me this series is really a different one. Lets begin with the title itself. " At a distance, Spring is Green". Youth is something considered to be the "Spring season" in every ones life. People will experience different emotions during this stage. So generally youth is full of spring, but at a distance. In reality it is the most struggling period in ones life. Struggle with career, money, compromise everything. So youth is not that springful. It carries lots of pain and struggles. This is what exactly the series is all about. Three main characters, depicts three different life situations. Joon, even though he is rich, and has all luxuries in life, he does not have a faithful person in his life. He is always in need of affection and love. What does this shows? Money and luxuries cant assure you happiness. Isn't it a very striking reality. Many of us are running behind money, without even realizing that money alone cant make you the happiest person. Coming to the next male lead, he is sacrificing himself. He thinks that a person who is poor, is not just poor. He doesn't even have the freedom or don't have the right to dream. But the positive aspect is that he is struggling with all odds to have a happy life. Then comes the female lead, She is hardworking. As Jonn says, " you are the only one person who does not know how perfect you are". She lacks confidence. She is not able to realize herself. But the most positive part is three leads coming together and sharing their moments, helping and caring each other.The drama is very different, as it focuses to convey many harsh realities of life. Apart from usual clich'es and melodramas, this is definitely a must watch series. As rightly pointed out at the beginning of the series, At a distance Spring is Green. Go closer and observe, you will see something different. So viewers go to the depth of the series to see what it really contains.
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it's just an ordinary story and that's why it's gorgeous
Oh, guys, At a Distance, Spring Is Green is a show which really surprised me and I finished it (so that’s another suprise because these days I am having hard time to complete my „currently watching dramas“). I should somehow warn you – this story doesn’t contain many action, drama or something like… (I don’t even know how I should name it) big boom? Maybe. The thing which matters the most here is ordinary life of students who tries to find themselves and create friendships between each other. And this story takes a lot of time. So if you don’t like stories which flow slowly and you don’t want to see ordinary plots, this definitely won’t be your cup of coffee. Yeah, and one thing we should clear, it is not a BL. But I think everyone would probably think this way when they watched first or maybe second episode.I am not gonna lie. I found this drama on Viki, when I just didn’t have energy to do other things I needed to do and I actually thought this would have be some funny rom com. Drama which will not give me anything special. Oh man, how wrong I was!
From the beggining, we watch many characters, but the main ones are three. The boy, Yeo Joon, who wants to be loved by everyone because he has problems in his family, the only way out for him is to be popular, but then he realizes he wants to be loved truly. Then the boy, Nam Soo Hyun, who is poor, he needs to work all the time for paying all of his expensives, he is actually very nice, but he doesn’t want to owe something to someone so he only relies on himself and tries to stay away from people. And then our last main character, So Bin, the girl who gives up easily, doesn’t know exactly what she wants in her life, but her probably only desire (and that’s only my opinion) is to be happy and more confident than she is.
What should I say, I really love characters and the vibe of the story. I wouldn’t say that characters are described badly. I know many people assume that So Bin is the most bland character and that she doesn’t have an identity… that’s maybe a true, but if we look at it from another side, aren’t in our lives also people who are somehow bland? Who just don’t know what they should do? They are not happy, nor sad, they are just living something which should be their life. I saw me from five years ago in her. I actually like So Bin’s character because for me she was very refreshing to see – she just didn’t know what was going on with her, she had many weaknesses like her easily giving up thing and many others. So for me this idea was perfect - to describe ordinary life.
Although sometimes you just don’t like the characters you will say "this is a life, girl, you can’t be okay with everyone", so after that you again aprecciate the ordinary story which has a lot to say. I think there is a magic of this drama.
Only thing I just didn’t like that much was a bit of romantic part here (Mi Joo), but I understand what producers wanted to say to us. But for me, this was a thing which didn’t have to be here. However, again, I am here saying, this is a life and there aren’t always things we want to see. Maybe even this part is somehow valuable for me.
The vibe of the story just hits totally different and I am living for that. How I mentioned before, the storyline flows slowly because we have chance to see character‘s developments and because it is slow, that character’s change makes sense.
For acting skills, let’s appreciate Ji Hoon, please. I watched Love Revolution half a year ago and it was very fun. There I got to know Ji Hoon’s acting and I was impressed. But here, he again does amazing job and I am shocked. I can't wait for other dramas with him!
Also I really love music background. There are many songs which are stuck in my head right now and I need to download them to my phone.
I should sum it. If you don’t like slow dramas, this won’t be for you (but I said this thing immediatelly when I started write this review). But if you want ordinary drama, where characters try to find themselves, many amazing interactions between characters, just a bit of romantic line, story which will give you something more, this is really great choice. I am still shocked how good it was.
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Broken People Repairs Each Other's Brokenness
In truth, we all need somebody in our time of hurt, someone who will just listen, someone who will grieve with us, and someone who we can open up to and trust so we don't hold it inside and become numb to it. Everyone goes through the brokenness. It's through the support of each other that we can eventually get out of that valley and rise towards the peak.Our main characters in this drama all suffer from brokenness. Jun suffers from loneliness due to abuse and lack of love from his family, so he longs for friendship and will do anything to have people around him, even if it's fake friends. Soo Hyun suffers from financial hardship from trying to support his brother, mother, and his college tuition, so reaching his dreams seem impossible. So Bin has anxiety attacks when she hears people gossip about her due to a childhood trauma of teasing. She also lacks the confidence in herself, as she thinks she's not good enough due to her blaming herself for her mom leaving when she was a child. Though suffering and becoming numb to his brokenness himself, Jun helps them overcome their brokenness, which eventually leads to Soo Hyun and So Bin to help overcome Jun's brokenness.
What this drama was missing for me?
- The character of So Bin: Honestly, her character was very weak for a FL. I get that she was weak character due to past trauma in the beginning but once she overcame that, nothing else happens for her character. She was more of a damsel in distress character as it seems like Jun always have to rescue her. She lacked the FL support for the ML. Even to the end, though she wanted to know, she didn't truly knew Jun's hardship.
- Romance: I felt like this drama didn't need the romance but it was there. Despite the hugs, holding hands, and a few kisses, it still felt lacking for me for our lead couple compared to an average romantic couple, like they seem more like close friends than an actual couple. The chemistry was missing for me.
- Jun's family conclusion: I felt like there wasn't an official ending to Jun's family story but instead, viewers just have to assume he cut ties with his parents and still be connected with his older brother. None of his family members were there in the last episode, except for that phone call from his evil father. This scene of that phone call was why I was so bother by this.
But honestly, I could look over these things because of the great amount of friendship and support our main characters have for each other. There's nothing greater than seeing people, who've been suffering for so long, to finally start the healing process and getting better. Oh yeah, I can't forget the OSTs. Though it's only a few, I love all the OSTs in this drama and it's played very often as well. Though missing a few details toward the end, it's a happy ending and a good drama overall.
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So... let's talk about the Korean dramas' compulsive use of romance
Is anyone going to mention the romance in this drama is completely superfluous and the drama would work even without her, or...?Let me explain this in a better way.
The drama is clearly about youth, insecurities and how to grow into your skin when you're 20 something and you have no idea what to do with your life, and you're not an adult but the world requires you to be one. This is simple, very clear. I think the drama does a good job portraying youth without hiding the "bad parts". Its happy ending and general ending brightness is, of course, a product of the Korean drama standards (The smile left your eyes look away, I'm not talking about you sweetie), but it's not over the top, considering the drama kept things light even when they really, really were not.
Now, the romance. It's deadends after deadends, and the only relationship that works out is somehow the most boring one out of all the possible combinations. Not to mention -- and brace yourself, this might be a hot take if you were rooting for Soobin and Jun (if there was anything to actually... root for?) -- Nam Soohyun did more for Jun's character development than Kim Soobin (you know, Jun's actual girlfriend...? Yeah, her) could ever do. I'm not saying the relationship between Soobin and Jun could have *not* happened and things would've gone exactly like they did, but that's exactly what I'm saying. If Soobin stayed a friend and helped Jun as a friend, would much have changed? Nah. Don't think so.
(And if we're being completely honest -- which, we are, it's the internet, whatever), what could have *actually* improved the drama and/or the character development of our young Jun would have been a relationship with Soohyun himself. Especially after he finds out he actually already has a hyung that loves him, you know. Imagine that. Hell, I was waiting on it since episode 1 and thought Soobin would end up with Soohyun, but it's fine. It's whatever.)
In conclusion: good cast, good choices in terms of cinematographic experience (those scenes of Soohyun and Jun bickering in their house??? Soohyun dressed in brown and standing against a darker background while Jun is sitting at his pristine kitchen table with his angelic blond hair and his cute white sweater? Yeah. Poetic cinema if you ask me). Good music, although not always on point. Just the right amount of characters, albeit some being completely useless and/or not well rounded (like that girl... the third roommate, whatshername).
I love being reminded that every 20-something year old in the world has absolutely no clue of what they're doing. Even the fictional ones.
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