LittleEggplant
Frightening Cohabitation
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Similar to Tale of The Nine-tailed, Kiss Goblin, The Bride of HaBaek
A lot of comedy and fluffy romance but very few fantasy elements, lots of unexplained events and plotholes. The female actors were good, the male actors were average to below average in terms of realistic portrayal of emotions, character growth, etc. (although all of them are eye-candy so 10/10 for that).My biggest problem with the drama: the writing was simply lazy. It is the typical fantasy formula - male lead is some kind of an immortal creature (and old af), he meets a mortal girl and falls in love, only for them to be separated by some circumstances stripped of any logic, usually involving the male lead having to "keep his distance" from the female, in order to "protect her".
We get the typical cliches: female-male roommates, "the three musketeers" friend group, wrist grabbing, arm around the shoulder in "you're-my-woman "style, female tripping whenever the male lead is around (not even once did any of the other characters fall down, haha)., unrequited love, 20-year-old who has never been in a romantic relationship/ never kissed/ had sex, clueless about women male lead, etc, etc...
What I liked about the drama was that the female lead wasn't shy when it came to calling out people who disrespected her, and (thankfully) the male lead didn't have to interfere to "protect" her from the bullies.
Overall, it's your typical rom-com with a pinch of fantasy (to explain why total strangers from the opposite gender decide to live together). The soundtrack was so-so - neither awful nor memorable. The cinematography was of good quality.
I'd say it's the perfect drama for someone who's never watched the genre and isn't familiar with the tropes or for pre-teens/ teens, who want to see angsty strong females and their handsome boyfriends.
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Marvellous acting and production, historically inacurrate storytelling
To be honest, when just starting to watch this drama, I had absolutely no idea about the historical events behind it (and how distorted they were in the k-drama). I wholeheartedly agree that the show's writer failed to recreate the tragedy of the real events and heavily sugarcoated the hostage situation. That's why my review is solely about the acting, character development, and plot resolution(taking into consideration that the plot is historically inaccurate and acknowledging the real events that happened in 1987).Moving on to the actual review [SPOILERS]:
I am in a love-hate relationship with this show.
What I loved:
1. The acting.
Everything about the cast was perfect.
Jung Hae In killed it. I can't think of anyone better for his role. Soo-ho was such a three-dimensional character, that you rarely see in k-dramas. He had his cute/mischievous side (first episode, when he met Yeong-Ro), his love for his country, men, and family, his stoicism when he had to do his duties, his soft side (for Yeong-Ro). He had his weaknesses, his doubts, and mistakes. He was not perfect, but that made him a real person.
Great debut performance for Jisoo. While her character wasn't as colourful and multi-dimensional as Hae In's, she still did well portraying a college girl's emotions through such a traumatic event. Sad and crying scenes were realistic. I expected more action and character development from Yeong-Ro, she is one of the main leads after all, but that's not Jisoo's fault.
Yoo In A - Loved her in "The spies who loved me", loved her here too. She deserves to be included in the "main leads" list. Kang Cheong A was dare I say, the second most important character after Soo-ho.
Gang Seung Jo as Lee Kang Mo. This was my first time watching him on-screen, and I instantly fell in love! I'm looking forward to watching a drama where he is the main lead.
Kim Hye Yoon as Boon Ok - Wow! When someone plays a villain, and you grow to hate the character - that means the actor is marvellous.
2. The production and decor - I loved the costumes. Not sure how historically accurate they are, but they look convincing enough. Even though the setting was only the dorm, the way each room was decorated, and the consistency was good (when it came to object placement and character's costumes).
The whole series was a pleasure to the eyes, make-up wasn't over the top and was relatively consistent - all the characters' injuries "stayed" in the same place throughout episodes and didn't magically disappear two days after the hero got them (like in some dramas, a character is punched in the face, his eyes and face swollen and everything, but after two days everything is healed like magic).
What I hated:
1. Eun Young Ro's step-mother, Nam Tae Il's wife, and the ANSP political drama as a whole.
2. Lots of things were left hanging at the end. I know the ending was rushed because they had to cut out a big part of the drama due to controversies. However, I would've liked to know what happened to Kang Cheong A, the college girls, and most importantly So-Hoo's SISTER.
What I didn't hate, but I also didn't love:
1. The love story - Sorry. It has nothing to do with the actors. They have amazing chemistry. It's just that the whole falling in love while being held hostage didn't seem too convincing. After episode 3, the main leads barely got on screen together, and the few times they were together, Yeong-Ro was crying about something. She didn't contribute to their relationship (with Soo-ho) in any way. I felt like it was more of a brother-sister like love, not so romantic.
Maybe you are wondering why I'm giving this show an 8.5/10 and not a lower rating (considering the historical inaccuracies). Well, this was one of the few dramas, in which I haven't fast-forwarded. It managed to keep me interested from the start, till the end.
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