Love & Wish (2021)

A more mature story on school bullying, albeit a bit green and cliche around the edges.

My curiosity was peaked by the mention of a male student enduring school bullying as I'm used to seeing more of a damsel in distress-type situation play out in Korean television with the male savior trope a little too played out. It was refreshing to see the roles switched, and I was interested to see it unfold onscreen. I'm not familiar with GOT7 excluding Jinyoung from The Devil Judge, and only because I saw the "IDOL" hashtag and realized he was a band member after the fact. I think he's a fantastic actor and has a beautiful cry face (lol). That said, I only realized Youngjae was a member because of the other reviews here exalting his performance as "perfect" and "amazing." I expected him to blow me away based on their reviews and honestly, had I just watched the show without first seeing their comments, I probably would have had a much higher rating for him. Be that as it may, I came out of the mini-drama fully understanding that he is very green still and thought he did well considering.

The show itself threw me off quite a bit in the first few episodes. It starts off very silly and like a cliche-rom-com with the FL a bit too bubbly and smiley and the music too simplistic and designed for comedic effect. As the series goes on and we're introduced to the antagonists, the tone of the show becomes a bit more serious, and the music shifts into mostly calm and melodic piano. The leader of the bullies was a little over the top and felt more like an evil caricature, and I was more scared by the unhinged ex-girlfriend because of her instability and reactionary anger. The climax of the series was definitely dark (with her slicing at Youngjae's neck) and I thought that scene was excellently done. It caused the hair on my arms to stand on end, and my jaw dropped. I wish the resolution had been given more breathing room, and I thought the time-skip at the end was an overused cop-out. Overall, I wouldn't watch this series again, but I wouldn't say I didn't enjoy it. While Youngjae is certainly green around the edges (and not quite ready for heavy emotional scenes as was evidenced by his pleading scene at the end of Episode 9), I do think he has a bright future in acting ahead of him and will only improve with time and experience with his peers.

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