A Beautiful Romance
If you want to watch a love story you will never forget then watch this one. If you don’t get goosebumps a dozen times and cry with emotion you not a romantic. I saw this series on a friend's favorite list, so I decided to watch it. I am so glad that I did. Shin Kye Sun and Kim Myung Soo were absolutely amazing and had on-screen chemistry that glowed like a brilliant light. Shin Key Sun is so good at portraying unique romances, like Mr. Queen for example. Her acting ability stuns me at times. I would highly recommend this series.There was drama, smiles, and all the romance you can handle. The supporting actors were great. Each one giving life to a great script. The music was fantastic pulling the emotional strings just when it was needed. I was totally immersed for all 32 episodes. Angel’s Last Mission: Love is now on my all-time favorites list.
And finally, a huge thanks to the Subtitle masters at Viki. Without the subtitles, I would have missed out on one of the most touching dramas I’ve ever seen. I am in your debt.
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Watched in 2 days, was worth it, would miss a meal to binge again.
Hi! Let me thought-dump on you why I think you should watch Angel's Last Mission: Love:(First review, no spoilers, here we go!)
I came across this drama quite out of chance. I just had a few K-Drama jealousy compilation videos autoplaying on YouTube in the background while I did some work, and I happened to look at the screen when a scene from Angel's Last Mission: Love was playing (Yes, I had to type out the entire title, deserved!!). Weirdly, the lead's chemistry in that brief scene captivate me enough to look into it a bit more, even going as far as checking the YouTube video's description to get the title - crazy, I know, who even checks those anymore?! Regardless, that alone should tell you just how lovely the main relationship in the show truly is. I went into this show blindly, without knowing much more past the synopsis + scene I watched, and I could not be more glad that I did; almost every episode kept me reeling at the edge of my seat.
In general, the acting in this show was wonderfully done. Shin Hye-Sun's ability to create a soft spot in any viewer's heart for truly any type of character is nothing but admirable. However, I've seen that her performance being incredible is the general consensus, so I won't spend too much time on this, past saying that casting her in this drama was nothing short of the perfect choice. Whether you are a fan of hers from beforehand (or not) by the end of this you most definitely will be. If you are a fan of hers, you cannot pass up the chance to refresh yourself of her versatility! Yeon Seo is one of the most dynamic, yet consistently resilient, female leads I have watched. You will not be disappointed!
Other than this, I really don't get why so many people were let down by Kim Myungsoo's work! Throughout the show, Myungsoo's portrayal of Dan always had me rooting for him. Myungsoo manages to convey a strange type of "purity" through Dan that I find was vital for his angelical character; something I can't imagine could be imitated by some of the top actors we know and love! If anything, the only thing I would have to be seriously nitpicky to find a fault in would be some of the crying scenes - I will admit in some of the initial ones (first 2) they could've been more natural - but by the end of the show, (1 I can think of in particular) he truly outdid himself. Because of this, I'd have to say that no one should take any review that accounts his "bad acting" as a reason to not watch. I can guarantee, at the end of the day, no one is searching for an Oscar worthy performance - so you will most definitely be satisfied. His sincerity in delivery, unmatchable chemistry with Hyesun, & genuine acting, etc. are more than enough reasons to watch, and judge him for yourself.
Lee Dong-Gun was no joke as Ji Kang Woo, either! Even right now, reading this, I have a lingering dislike for Kangwoo that I don't see leaving me any time soon. I guess that speaks for itself, getting a viewer to hate a character takes just as much skill as getting a viewer to love one, after all! I will say, I never felt he held too much chemistry with either of the actresses we see him with, but that could easily be explained away through intentional characterization. I don't want to write an essay about every other cast member, so I will simply leave it as what I said before; they all definitely get the job done.
I wish I didn't spend so much time writing about the actors so I could show my love for the story! The drama does a great job at portraying the some very real issues such as: (as I saw a fellow reviewer state) "Why do bad things happen to good people?", faith, and "Avoiding the Unavoidable." The capriciousness of one's preset fate & going against our nature are two themes greatly portrayed in the plot, something I find many of us could relate to. In general, the plot is simply beautiful, and may even leave you with a lingering sense of appreciation for humans, and human nature as a whole. The pacing plot-wise is just right, with problems surfacing & being dealt with over the course of the episodes. However, I believe (and I don't say this just because I wanted much more runtime) some scenes ended almost too quickly - at times I felt that a few scenes still had more meat to them than the editors/director/whoever allowed. Unlike other dramas, I didn't feel like there were any episodes that dragged on, and at no point does the plot feel slow.
Just to throw in my useless opinion, I think the first half of the drama, as you get to see the leads grow together, is nothing short of a masterpiece. The build-up of a relationship is always my favorite part, which obviously comes down to preference, and Yeon-seo & Dan never disappointed. This is NOT to say the second half was not just as wonderful - like I said, it always comes down to preference, and I loved the entirety of the show just the same!
Let me wrap this review up before I write an entire essay (yes, I could definitely go on more & more about how great this show is!) by saying that this is definitely worth a watch. What initially was but a short clip I saw on YouTube quickly became a 2 day binge, and I absolutely have no regrets. OST, setting, and cinematography is breathtaking. Main couple is one of my favorites. Plot left me crying buckets. Again, the only drawback is that I wish there was just a bit more - but I guess that if this drama has taught me anything, it's that we should appreciate moments for what they were, beautiful fleeting bits of amazingness! In the future, I hope I forget enough about this show so I can re-watch again.
Give this drama a shot! I guarantee you will at least enjoy yourself 100% - something that, as you watch, you will learn is everything that matters! If you don't, feel free to come back here and yell at me, I'd love to hear other perspectives~
Perfect 10 for me. Watch it! Thank you for reading! ♥
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Misrepresentation
I know not many will see this review, but I believe it's important to point something out.When writing a story with supernatural elements, you have to represent those elements in an accurate and realistic way so that they don't become inaccuracies in terms of real instances that would exist in this reality.
For example, Angels are supernatural beings that are supposed to obey and follow God's will no matter what. Biblically speaking, that's the correct view of how angels behave. Demons on the other hand rebelled against God and do everything that is against His will.
I could go on lecturing about the reality of God, His will, angels and demons, but you get the point.
The drama itself has many flaws, not just the misrepresentation I already mentioned.
The characters are filled with hypocrisy and don't make logical sense at times. For example, the main lead always has a grudge against the "deity" because she believes he was unfair to her. However, before that, she did not even believe in his existence even though she has witnessed supernatural events first-hand!
Kim Dan, Hu and Gil opposed God's views and always seemed to question Him and even trying to rebel against him at times, and despite the clear warnings they have received, they kept rebelling.....which is completely INNACURATE to how actual angels behave! No angels can become human or vice-versa, thus the reason why the drama falls short in story-telling. Also if the above characters were truly angels, they would have a direct communication with God Himself, but God was portrayed as a silent sadist that had no connection with his angels.
Evil characters were too obvious. The acting was passively boring. Romance was artificial.
And most importantly...the camera work. Why the heck do Korean dramas nowadays incorporate the SHAKY CAMERA cliche in every single instance of the series. To make it look dramatic? It wasn't! To make it look intense? You may have fooled some. I believe that all the positive 10/10 reviews are coming from those that only watched the drama for the visuals of the main lead Kim Dan and Yeo Seo and their poor romance.
It was a drama that could go in great directions but it took one of the worst ones. To me this drama felt more like an experiment for the visual effects artists than for the actual story elements and their reality.
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Bafflingly high rating for a waste of time
I began this drama with high hopes - it was set up with a premise that was something different, that I hasn't seen before.Then as the episodes went on, it just devolved into garbage and more and more cliched tropes were introduced. They even added the (AWFUL) "met as children" trope despite this contradicting the whole premise of the show.
Actually, there were other things that didn't make sense too...like the second male lead who likes the female lead because she *look like* (but isn't) a reincarnation of his old girlfriend??
The way the storyline inexplicably fell into place with a happy ending - despite the characters receiving divine warning about disaster and punishment - just didn't make any sense either.
There are only a couple of worthwhile things about this show - L as the lead is pretty good, the actors who portray the female lead's nasty family are pretty good and the mystery about the sabotage at the dance company was interesting (I was annoyed that the perpetrators mostly didn't face any consequences though?). Also the music was pretty good (although repetitive).
Hye Sun Shin gives a decent performance as the female lead, but I think she was miscast, as her character is supposed to only be 23 and she looks her age of 30 (and was specifically playing a 30 year old in her previous series).
There were definitely some entertaining aspects of this show (I managed to watch through the whole thing), but they get overshadowed by the all the plotholes, needless annoying tropes, and melodrama; so by the end of the (overlong) 16 episodes I was just left wondering why I bothered with this mess.
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Like my title reads this drama was pretty much in the middle of the road for me because while I didn't hate it, I certainly didn't love it. The highlight of this show was the OSTs and that should say something. I can't really complain about the casting because the actors really did justice to their roles but sadly it wasn't enough for me. While it's not really a spoiler, it is a detail about the show nonetheless about my biggest complaint which might have notched the show up a half star more, is the lack of body doubles. The show is about ballerinas and there is going to be dancing. How can you not have body doubles to do the heavy lifting when it came to skills scenes. It frustrated me to no end to watch the two dance leads fake their way through dance pieces when they clearly had no background in ballet. I would have forgiven minor faking but the director's decision to forgo a professional dancer to properly showcase the art form left me horrified. There were clearly opportunities to showcase a talent and make it look like either of the two front ballerinas but alas I was left wanting. In the end this made the drama feel a bit unprofessional in my book and highlighted some short-comings which is either laziness or cheap production.
In summation while it was clearly not a work of art, it probably paid the bills so I guess you can call it good Fluff material.
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Had potential but didn’t hit
really enjoyed the beginning of this series as it had a promising storyline to it after a few episodes I tend to of found it quite cringe and was way to much crying so made it unjoyable to watch also they portrayed it to the main female lead to be a ballerina but there was hardly any ballet more so jsut emotional dancing which takes from the fact of the series however I actually enjoyed the man angel main lead good loved his acting also loved everyone else’s acting overall would recommend to watch however rewatching I hardly doubt for myselfVond je deze recentie nuttig?
The Waffley Bit - The two main leads were amazing, having already seen Shin Hye Sun in "30 but 17" I was already expecting great work from her, but hadn't seen "L" in anything before. Shin Hye Sun was just fantastic showing a wide range of her character work from the stone cold ice queen, mean and cruel at the start, to the warm, loving and friendly character later and then to the hysterical, crying and pitiful character further on, with plenty in between. It's worth rewatching just to remind yourself how her character progresses so much - after you've seen her "lights up the room" smiles and "nervous breakdown" crying it's worth reminding yourself of the emotionless cold hearted character she rendered at the start. L was fantastic too, and if i'm honest I appreciated his work more than I expected I would, nothing wooden or plastic about his performance at all, it was spot on. Other characters were largely as expected, though I did appreciate the butler played by Woo Hee Jin, an interesting character who makes out that she is constantly put out of her way by Yeon Seo, but is always there beside her protecting her.
Music was just stunning, this one is all about a ballerina so you can expect some fantastic ballet performances and lots of classical music to go with it (but not enough to put off those who don't enjoy it, don't worry :) ). Where the normal OST style tracks are they were mostly brilliant, some really notable tracks i'm looking forward to hearing again separately. The only exception for me was one track that starts with "1, 2 and 1,2,3.4" in the vocals - at least a couple of times this was played over the top of someone talking and its mere presence simply highlighted to me just how often it got played (at least for a while anyway until they seemed to stop using it at all). Producers - don't talk over your actors!
Story - this bit is a bit mixed. Overall I really enjoyed it. It's not without its issues though. Some times things are just glossed over - you go from one state of relationship to another in the blink of an eye and there's no reason or explanation as to how it happened. One minute characters are at loggerheads and the next they've figured it out and made up... There's more good than bad, and the bad isn't really that bad it's more just a case of taking something on faith really. There's a heavy Christian religious theme to it - but that ought to be expected - and one of the things I was hoping they'd develop was the burden humanity places on God, why does He permit bad things to happen to good people? The question comes up, but it never really gets any kind of answer or development. There's plenty of fist shaking to the sky but then later on when Angel Dan narrates his final views it's verging on as "thats just how it is, and i'm suddenly fine with that where i wasn't before". I think this would have been a great opportunity to explore these elements further even if only in the context of discussing thoughts and views (I should say I'm not a religious person myself perhaps, but I still appreciate religious elements in stories, whatever religion it might be).
There's some similarities that can be drawn between some of the key elements of this drama and "You who came from the stars", particularly the two leads who get together but inevitably know there's a clock ticking where they will be ripped apart. Another element that I found good in this similar to "stars" was where the couple are joyously happy, but you, and they, know they are racing towards that cliff - it's a bittersweet time and represented well.
The conclusion is... there? But it wasn't particularly clear and as with numerous other times in the story - lacking even simple explanation, I mean they're standing under the tree, how about a leaf falling with a simple note from God to Dan and Yeon Seo just to put a "bow" on it. I also don't like how they left the butler's view of Dan shredded to pieces - given the final few minutes i'm sure it would have repaired, but that just left a sour taste.
So... finally? Yep, worth a watch, it's not flawless by any means, but it's still worth the time to watch it in my view. Rewatch is quite high because I don't think knowing the ending really affects your enjoyment too much, and in fact as I said earlier, watching the full range of Shin Hye Sun's performance again has to be worth the time.
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The best k drama for romance and love,hands down
So I’ve watched a lot k dramas for love,romance and comedy and I have to say in terms of love and romance this one for me did it better than all of the k dramas I’ve watched before it and this is mainly down to these two main characters.they play there roles extremely well and you can genuinely feel how much they care and love one another,can’t remember any show making me smile numerous times just because of what’s happening between them two and there was plenty of times where I had tears in my eyes,the female lead is so cuteIt’s unreal the way she says “Dan” the sideline story is good but the main reason this k drama is special for me is because of the leads,there enough to have you go through 16 episodes no problem,if your on the fence about watching this and you like the pure “romance” dramas you NEED to watch this, it’s a top 5 for me
Quick side note the ending I don’t think I’ve ever been as happy at a ending in a K drama if I’m honest I thought they’d never be able to touch again,couldn’t stop smiling
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Imagine if someone wrote a story with your family in it although they changed all of your families personalities, they even added someone who isn't even in your family (reincarnation). My family is something I hold very dear to me, if someone misrepresented them in a harmful way I definitely wouldn't like it. That's how I feel about my beliefs.
Other than that, it wasn't totally bad. I enjoyed it.
Angel Dan had a cute personality and the ballet was pleasing to watch.
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The genre sticks to what it is supposed to be and by that I mean you get an ounce of comedy drama and romance, it's really worth the watch, I can't even explain in words how perfect the soundtrack is, it really adds up flavor to the series. If you're hesitating on watching this, please don't, I've watched countless of dramas and I can say this is different from the stereotypical plot that dramas often have, it is somehow new with a minimal touch of cliche but it's really enjoyable and addictive. I can't wait for it to be finished, I really wish for an epic ending.
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Sobbing
Wow,I think this k-drama beats everything I watched till now. I cried at every episode.This drama has all,comedy,tragedy,romance, everything. I cannot wait to see the next episodes so I can make a longer review. I'm dying here to see what's next. I'm glad that I gived it a chance so I could see this awesome drama.Update: After all this waiting I could see the last eps. I think I cried enough to fill a river. This drama was so beautiful, just like the actors who played so well I do not think I cried so much to other dramas, but that was special. I've seen a lot of kdramas but that was different. There were many sad moments, but also many fun and happy. It's a relief for me that it had a happy ending.Wow,everyone who didn't watch this drama need to stop from whatever they do and watch this drama because it will be the most beautiful drama they would ever watch. I wish I could give 1000000 stars and my heart,but for now the only thing I can do is a good review, 10 stars and send it to others so I do not miss a drama like that, nor have words to describe it. This drama and all actors deserve an award and I hope they'll get it.
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Soundtrack is just absolutely perfect: eerie, romantic, ethereal, wonderful!
An angel must complete missions before he is allowed to live in heaven. His last mission is to find true love for a blind ballerina, but he ends up falling in love with her and that is not allowed.Everything on screen is really high quality: the cinematography and set design are wonderful, complemented with great acting. The dancing is authentic and wonderful. The way the ballerinas interact is chatty, like the dancing fight over the bar, it was just so realistic.
Shin Hye Sun always embodies her roles perfectly and I’m happily surprised by Kim Myung Soo; His portrayal as a playful angel was very genuine, he really balanced out the female lead, they have such great chemistry! Another major pro and the reason to watch is OST; when the soundtrack starts, it elevates everything to the stereo-level: It’s eerie, romantic, ethereal, wonderful!
Sadly, it started off very strong, but become a chore to finish. There’s few mythology rules that were inconsistent near the end. I enjoy the slow-burn romance but it gets frustrating when the conflict drags and the villains become one-dimensional. The couple was too focused to dive headfirst in the name of love. The finale was extremely anticlimactic and unsatisfying as they use some tropes that I really dislike.
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