STOP STEREOTYPING BALLET FOR GOD'S SAKE!!! (pun unintended)

!!Disclaimer¡¡
This review is based on my personal opinion/experience while watching, you're free to agree/disagree with it. This review is based on a professional's POV so it might be a bit harsh/critiquing. It will also be quite long so if you're not into that go ahead and skip reading it.


Ok look, I love Shin hye sun and L and I definitely think L improved a little when it comes to his acting, but as an ex-ballerina/dancer this was all sorts of offensive to me, it might be because I have a personal attachment to such theme but this series just did ballet really dirty you cannot fathom how annoyed I am rn. I literally had to ignore all my frustration at this to keep watching because let me tell you, if you're a ballet dancer like me, you'll be really disappointed. My annoyance at the plot didn't just stop at the ballet part, it stretches even farther than that and I'll get to why later, but for now, I'll start off with some troublesome aspects and why this is such a bad example of how ballet actually is.


So first thing first, WHY isn't Bo mi the FL? Ik Hye sun is the better one in terms of acting (objectively speaking) but Bo mi is an actual dancer with an actual feel to what being a ballerina is like, her occupying that role should've -operative word here being should've- been the most logical thing to go with, the scenes with Hye sun's "dancing" were painful to watch, her lines and movements were so stiff I was physically cringing, and the fact that the scenes with the stunt double were very obviously not her made me want to effing SCREAM! And don't get me started at the fact that they put her in pointe shoes in some scenes cuz I'll combust. Don't forget the absolutely horrifying "Giselle" parts because that just really threw me off, and if you think I'm exaggerating then go watch the drama's portrayal of the scene where Giselle goes mad and compare it to the version performed by Natalia Osipova (who's an actual super talented ballerina btw) and you'll see what I mean. We can't forget the stereotyping and the misrepresentation of the ballet community cuz boi I'm about to- (┛ಠ_ಠ)┛彡┻━┻
For example: when that weird woman Elena(?) or whatever, put glass shards in Nina's pointe shoes (don't EVER do that at home kids), when Yeon seo kept dancing with her bloodied feet (just a quick info, healthy ballet dancers don't usually bleed just from standing en pointe and dancing for soo long, the blood is usually the result of toenails falling off (yes this is an actual thing) or at least that's the case in my years of experience), Nina going to throw up right after she ate while with the director guy (ik there are people who actually do that but let me tell you, if you're doing something like this in ballet 1# people will immediately find out and 2# you'll be disqualified from participating in any sort of performances coming up, kinda like a suspension. I'm not sure if it's the case with every dance school, but the ones I trained at didn't allow such thing. Also, the fact that this specific scene heavily implies that Nina has an ED and that it was never mentioned afterwards left a bitter aftertaste in my mouth like, you're just gonna throw this in there and never talk about it again? Do y'all not realize how insensitive and upsetting it is for someone struggling with similar issues to see their personal struggle be taken so lightly and just never talked about?)....etc.
I might be nitpicking here but honestly it's just really that frustrating to me. If the ballet part was just a fleeting thing mentioned here and there for the sake of the plot then I might have let it pass, but because ballet plays a major role in the storyline it riled me up to no end so I couldn't just let it go. Now that I finally got that off of my chest, let's proceed with the actual review.


Plot/storyline:
The idea of this plot is not bad, it has a really good core idea but being good at executing such plot concept and having a good plot concept are two totally different things. The story started off really strong, with Dan trying to make the cold stone hearted Yeon seo open up to others again, and how he only had around a 100 days to fulfill his mission or else he'll turn to ash or whatever, but that plot just seemed to be tossed outta the window because what follows after episode 6-7 was just disastrous. The way they tried to force their nonsensical logic in our faces made me want to laugh tbh, like how in the world do you expect me to believe that she had her comeback after not 3 years, not even 2 years, but 2 MONTHS mind you she literally started dancing again immediately after she sustained an injury from a car accident, and has not actually danced in more than 2 years(?). I get that this is fantasy but at least make it logical, especially since she's the human one here, not Dan. Let's not forget the cliche cruel abusive family, the murders that were barely talked about, the attempted murders, the workplace abuse Yeon seo's staff suffered working under her and the whole plotline with our good ol' second male lead (whom I have forgotten his name) and his not so subtle obsession with Yeon seo cuz she's a carbon copy of his dead lover, and the cherry on top, the fact that almost all of this, happened in the span of a hundred days only.... yeah no, that's a big fat Nay from me.
Despite the amount of disturbing and upsetting stuff going on with this drama, there were still some stuff that I liked, like their wedding scene, the scenes with Mr Jo and when Dan saved Yeon seo in the very beginning, among others. So plot: a solid 5.


Characters/cast:
I'm honestly very conflicted about this section here. Some actors I liked and some just made me want to bang my head on a wall. They all tried their best and I really respect them for that, but the fact that the whole script was illogical made it hard for me to actually be invested in anyone. If I had to pick the best actor/actress out of the whole cast (imo ofc) I'm gonna have to go with Gil eun hye. She was probably my favourite one here. The way she portrayed Yeon seo's psychotic cousin Ru na and her obsession with her sister Nina made me admire the actress the most, as for my least favorite I would have to say L. He tends to overreact in some scenes and his emotions are sometimes not very convincing, don't get me wrong, I love L, but to me his acting was still lacking in here especially if you compare it to that if his in meow, my secret boy. If I had to rate some of the more prominent cast it would be like the following:
▪Shin Hye Sun: A-
▪Kim Myung Soo (L): B+
▪Kim Bo Mi: A
▪Gil Eun Hye: A+
▪Lee Dong Gun: A-


Music/Osts:
I'm a huge fan of the soundtrack ngl, especially Chai's oh my angel and O.When's stay. I also kinda liked how they didn't stick to the usual classical music even tho I missed its presence in here lol. But yeah, the soundtrack was definitely the most enjoyable thing about this show.



Production:
This was surprisingly actually aesthetic and the outfits looked quite lovely and I'm actually pleased with it for the most part. HOWEVER, I was somewhat disappointed with the very little attention to details at some scenes, especially when it's about ballet, like the way they had Nina's And Yeon seo's hair down while they were dancing in a couple of scene (ik it's only that time when they were competing against each other, but still, if my teacher saw me like that I'll be booted to the next galaxy), the ballerinas not having a dress code (that was weird to me tbh, especially since this is supposed to be a very well known company for ballet, and yes, before anyone asks, dress code is a thing in ballet).....etc.
To be fair, if you're not a dancer you might not care about such details, but I had to point them out because I'm very much pet peeved so, you can probably ignore them if you don't have any previous experience in ballet/dancing and don't really care about such things.



Overall, this drama could have been better, a lot better really. The soundtrack and Eun hye were the only things keeping me from throwing this whole thing outta the window, and even those weren't enough to make me want to continue watching (I did finish it tho but only because I wanted to see where they were going with this). I tried to be objective in this review, but that proved to be really hard. Honestly this drama is not THAT bad, my review might make it seem like it's the worst thing you'll ever watch but it's really not, it's just that I'm a very passionate person when it comes to stuff that I really love and ballet is no exception here. If you're interested in watching it please don't let my review discourage you, this is just subjective viewing and you might probably like it more than I did, but if you are someone like me who pays attention to certain details, I would advise you to keep your bar at its lowest here because this would really get on your nerves, especially if you're going in with the same high expectations I had.

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