Dee
Georgia, USA
This one is not that novel.
Oh, sure, it sounds like it at first. How many times has Pygmalion been remade as a teen romance, after all? Hot boy turns nerdy girl into beautiful princess and falls in love in spite of himself, right?
Wrong.
I keep seeing people saying "the plot is cliche, very ordinary". The premise may be cliche. But I felt the way the premise was implemented in the story line isn't cliche at all. This story isn't really about Nobuta becoming pretty or popular. It's about three people who learn to open up with each other and develop one of the most beautiful friendships between them I've ever had the pleasure to watch.
Honestly, I wasn't sure about it at first. One of the characters, Akira, was off-putting to me because his behavior is just bizarre - but he grows on you. And at first Shuji comes off as...kind of a jerk who hides behind a nice-guy facade, but as the story progresses you find out he's not, at all. He's just as scared and lonely and human as the other two, but they've each built their own armor to protect themselves. It's when the armor begins to crack that the story really gets good. Nobuta is your typical weird, loner girl...but even she turns out to have some hidden depths. The ending was amazing and left me teary-eyed, but in a good way for a change. I highly recommend watching this one, especially if you like high-school stories, or stories about a trio of friends. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
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Q Series: Life Plan A and B
8 mensen vonden deze beoordeling nuttig
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When I decided to watch this, I wasn't really sure what to expect based on comments and reviews - but I decided to watch it anyway out of curiosity and because...well, just look at Lee Joon Gi! Do I need any other reason?What I found was a love story. Not a friendship, not a bromance - but a love story. If Gong Gil had been a woman rather than an effeminate man, I think there is no doubt that it would be considered a love story by anyone who watched it. Just because he was a man, doesn't mean it isn't. Jang Seng is very protective of him, in the way that someone is protective of someone they love very deeply. When they are torn apart by the king's obsession with Gong Gil, they both obviously suffer for it. And Jang Seng is jealous and angry when he sees that Gong Gil isn't unmoved by the king. He even tells the king, after openly mocking him again, to kill him because he has nothing left to lose - because he'd already lost Gong Gil - he either had to leave him behind, or stay and be forced to watch the king use him as a playtoy. The king's response is a punishment other than death - and I think the reason why is obvious.
It's really hard to review this without going into spoilers, and hard to describe what I found so moving about this movie. I thought the acting was excellent. The king is at the same time horrifyingly creepy and pitiable after more of his story is revealed. The trust and partnership between Gong Gil and Jang Seng is beautiful. Lee Joon Gi seems to have received Best New Actor awards in several programs for this role, and deservedly so - his innocence and emotions are conveyed wonderfully. The music didn't particularly stand-out to me, but it sets the mood in the background for the emotions being portrayed - especially in the final scenes. And I give it a high rewatch mark because I think some of the nuances are probably difficult to pick up on the first time around - even if it may not be the easiest film to rewatch.
This film should have the "tragedy" tag added to it. Don't go into it expecting a happy ending. Of course that seems to be par for the course for movies in this genre. Also, the minstrels shows are quite bawdy, so if you're easily offended by crude humor, you probably won't enjoy it.
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Not crazy about this one. It has potential but I think the story was a little too rushed. And it ends in a trope that I've now seen in at least 4 dramas or movies so I'm kinda tired of it. Don't read on if you are completely opposed to vague spoilers that don't go into detail.Sigh. We get it already. Forbidden love = tragic ending. Can we at least have a different kind of tragic ending? This is probably meant to be a tear-jerker but when you can see the ending coming a mile away it's not as effective.
I found the relationship between the two rivals more interesting than the forbidden love angle. It's obvious they used to be friends (you don't fight in tandem with someone like that unless you've done it before and have a rhythm and communication with them, right?), now they're not. Seems like there was more story there that could have been explored.
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I think this one is seriously underrated by a lot of people - probably because they went into it with expectations. I went into it with low expectations and I was actually pleasantly surprised.First off, I think this is miscategorized as romance. There is some romantic content - but the focus of this drama really isn't romance, and I think the summary and the title both illustrate that. Instead it is more of an office-drama and focuses on the different interpersonal relationships among the employees - many of a romantic nature, but it also focuses very heavily on Noda Naoko's relationships with the women she works with, just as the summary says - she has become their big sister and spends a lot of her time at work advising and guiding her juniors both in their careers and in their love lives.
The series also provides a glimpse of a number of different types of romantic relationships - a long-term affair between a female employee and her boss, two people just beginning a flirtation/dating relationship, newlyweds, unrequited one-way attraction, younger woman/older man, attraction to a friend's husband, arranged dating, relationship between a man and a divorced woman, unhappily married couple...they're all in here. So to call this drama a romance is really doing it a disservice. Anyone going into this drama with the expectation of grand, sweeping romance will be highly disappointed.
Thirdly, if you're going into this with expectations of this being a noona romance and seeing Akanishi Jin playing the younger, romantic swain who sweeps the cute but older woman off her feet - you're setting yourself up for disappointment. Noda Naoko's love-life is a tangled mess. Her parents are desperate for her to get married and have begun the process of arranging blind dates with potential marriage candidates for her. Unfortunately, she has an encounter with a Knight in Shining Armor on the train one evening - but he's wearing a ring, and turns out to be the husband of a woman she once worked with and later develops a friendship with. Finally, there's this cute younger new guy at work who slowly develops a crush on her that she can't help responding to, so she's being pulled in several different directions and makes missteps along the way - and some of them wind up being very painful and embarrassing for her.
Vague spoilers below - because one of the things people seem to take issue with in this drama is the ending, so if you don't want any info about the ending at all, don't read any further.
This is really more a story of how Naoko comes to the realization that her life isn't over just because she's over 30 and not yet married - and that marriage isn't the ultimate goal of her life or something that will give her life meaning, but merely one of the many events along the journey. And with that in mind - seeing her walk down the aisle with someone at the end of the drama, or even cementing a relationship with any of these guys would have been a disingenuous ending and would have undermined the foundation laid in the 9 prior episodes. The entire point of the drama is that "A MAN" isn't going to make Naoko happy - she must learn to find happiness herself.
Story - 9, because I think it's a lot deeper than people give it credit for. Music - 6. Not sure why they went with We Will Rock You - that was a little weird, and other than that, it's a little off in some places and clashes with what's going on (deeply romantic classical music in some places that just didn't fit). Cast is 9 because I love Shinohara Ryoko - she's awesome. Akinishi is pretty to look at - but I don't consider him a stellar actor. I liked him better in the movie Bandage, probably because that character was less of a stretch. However, he does give the awkward junior with an undesirable crush on his senpai (?) some believability so I'll give him a pass for that. Rewatch value: 4. To be honest, the things I like to rewatch usually are the heart-fluttering romantic moments. There are scenes in my favorites that I rewatch over and over. I didn't really come up with many of those moments in this one. Enjoyed it a lot the first time through, though.
So. If you're looking for a heart-warming noona-romance, this isn't it. But that doesn't mean you should automatically skip it, either.
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I don't *dislike* it. It was cute and had some sweet and funny moments, and I found the stories of the supporting characters interesting - but not riveting. Yuya is a genuine, lovable, goofy sweetheart, and I can certainly empathize with Minami the earnest workaholic doing her best to get ahead, but still missing something, somehow. However...the romance itself just didn't do much for me. I didn't really feel a lot of romantic chemistry between the two leads. I saw more of an older sister/mentor vibe, honestly.
Maybe it's not fair to compare to other dramas, but in Last Cinderella, I really believed Hiroto fell completely for Sakura in spite of himself, and she for him. In Witch's Romance, I totally believed that Dong Ha was a goner for Ji Yeon, even if I might not have been completely as convinced that she was as totally gone on him - I at least believed she had the hots for him. Whether or not she felt he was her "forever" person, they still had plenty of chemistry. I just didn't get that here - and these characters didn't even have that large an age difference to overcome - 8 or 9 years at the most. The other couples had 15 years (and in reality, the actors had larger gaps, 17 and 19 years respectively, whereas the actors in Sapuri are only 9 years apart (though I guess the argument could be made that the maturity difference between 20 and 28 is larger than between 25 and 39...).
I did like that I was honestly still guessing by the end in which direction this triangle would resolve. I saw more chemistry between Minami and Ogiwara (and he's younger than she is, too, just not so much), even though we're probably "supposed" to root for Yuya. Ogiwara isn't a bad guy - but he admits he's not necessarily a nice guy, either. I was surprised to find I liked him as well as I liked Yuya, even if he was indecisive.
I think I might have enjoyed the soundtrack as much as I did the drama. I gave this a low re-watch rating because, although in many of the dramas I like I find moments that I'm happy to rewind again and again (a really good kiss, a confession that makes my heart flutter...) but in this one...not so much, I"m sorry to say. If you like noona romances and are looking for a light romantic comedy to while away a few hours, this one is watchable, but it probably won't make it to your favorite list.
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But this story is about much more than the romance between Kaede and Yusuke. A very large part of it is the friendship that slowly develops between Ji-Ho and Kaede as Ji-Ho manages to draw Kaede out of her shell, and between Ji-Ho and Yusuke, too, as she helps him try to overcome his own shyness. And part of it is Ji-Ho's own story - she's struggling to overcome tragedy in her own life, and helping Kaede and Yusuke is her way of trying to come to terms with her own pain.
Fair warning - by the end, I doubt you will have dry eyes. The movie that starts out as a rom-com becomes more of a tear-jerker - but in a good way, as I found the ending really touching. If you're a fan of romance and/or movies that focus on female friendship, but don't mind shedding some tears along the way, you'll probably enjoy this film very much.
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But I stuck it through and I'm glad I did. I think anyone who remembers the pangs of their first true love and how overwhelming it was will feel for these two characters - especially anyone who has ever suffered a really painful breakup when that love ended. There were moments that seemed like nods to Romeo + Juliet (the movie from 1996, which I've always had a soft spot for despite the fact that a lot of people hated it) - the water wall where they see each other at the party, the fall into the pool. The balcony. There's even a character that turns out to be a "Paris" type - father approved.
Anyway, I'm also a sucker for dramas where the lead is a good man - and Hiroto is certainly that. He doesn't belittle or bully Nao, though at first he is rather aloof. He has a world of responsibility on his shoulders at age 20 and takes it very seriously - he wasn't looking for a grand romance, and he's mature enough to know that because of the difference in their status, falling in love with Nao is probably a mistake - but he can't help it.
"Cool Whispers" is lovely to listen to, so I enjoyed the music, too, and unlike the last drama I watched with Kame as the lead, I felt he had good chemistry with Ayase Haruka here. Maybe not wall-banging, toe-curling chemistry - but sweet first love type chemistry at least. If you like sweet romantic stories with a side of angst, give this one a shot.
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I came back to this because I just recently finished watching Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, which I loved, and I saw that Park Hyung Sik was one of the main characters. I adored him in SWDBS and I thought he had terrific chemistry with the actress in that drama. I thought I would probably enjoy him in this and figured I could handle a case of second-lead syndrome if need be.
Second-lead syndrome was not a problem here. Honestly, I didn't really care which couple wound up together, which is unusual for me. The moments that should have been toe-tingling and heart-fluttering...weren't. I don't know if it was just that I didn't care about the characters or none of them had any chemistry together, or what. I've seen both male leads in other dramas and loved them and thought they had wonderful chemistry with their female leads. I never imagined I'd be uninterested in whether or not either of them wound up with the female lead in this drama, but I absolutely wasn't.
I think the main problem with this drama is they had maybe 12 episodes worth of material and stretched it out into a 20 episode drama, which was a mistake. There was waaaay too much time spent on navel-gazing, introspection and flashbacks. Flashbacks are great if used carefully. But with this drama...instead of flashing back to scenes involving the characters' pasts, which would have been far more interesting (and they do a few of these, just not nearly enough of them), we would get a scene with some kind of conversation or conflict between some characters and then they would go their separate ways and then each character by him or herself would rehash that scene or conversation again alone. Yawn. And this happened multiple times in every single episode, so by the time you hit episode 14 or so (or before, if your tolerance is lower than mine), you start hitting the fast-forward button in order to actually get to the point where *something* happens again.
I watched it to the end. It wasn't painful, it was just...meh. The second couple is cute, and I was interested in what happened with them, moreso than the main triangle. I wish more time had been spent on Ji Soo's background or Won Young's background. I also wish they had spent more time on developing the Hwarang and cementing the bonds between those characters. Doing more with the Won Hwa might have helped, too. They introduced the concept late in the show and then don't really go anywhere with it other than use it as a plot device that really didn't make a lot of sense.
The OTS was ok...but it got repetitive after a while, especially for 20 episodes. The acting was ok. The story was...just ok. It had a lot of potential that just wasn't ever realized. Strong start, bogged way down in the middle, okay wrap up in about the last 2 episodes. I was never on the edge of my seat dying to find out what happened next. Rewatch value is poor, and I'm someone who loves to revisit favorite dramas; there are a number I've watched multiple times. Not this one. One and done. If you like period dramas, like any of the actors in particular, or just want to be entertained by pretty people for a while, give it a go. You might enjoy it more than I did. If you have a low tolerance for repetition, don't bother, you'll just be bored and frustrated after a few episodes.
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So, fun to watch, but know you're probably in for some frustration too - if you don't mind that, go for it and enjoy :)
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Others have posted better summaries than I am capable of, but this is about two people who meet each other, both of whom are at low points in their lives because they see their dreams of professional success fading before their eyes. They meet, become friends and support and encourage each other not to give up on those dreams, even while others around them are discouraging, if not openly interfering with their fight to achieve those dreams. Somewhere along the way...they fall in love, but of course circumstances conspire to keep them apart. Even if you're not a sports fan, this drama is good, lighthearted, romantic fun interspersed with just enough angst.
The only caveat I have to offer for this drama is that the theme song is so damn catchy it will be stuck in your head for days after you've finished watching. Which is ok because I really like it, but if you don't really want to wander around with some Jdrama theme song stuck in your head - you were warned.
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There isn't really anything exciting and new about this drama - it relies on the standard romance tropes. Love triangle. Drunken night out. Piggy back rides. Sudden illness requiring a loved one's tender care. Misunderstandings. Disappearances. Separations. Couple having to live together b/c of unfortunate circumstances. You name it, they're in there. There's also a mystery arc.
However, Kang So Ra and Yoo Yeon Seok's chemistry was off the charts (to me, anyway), so it was easy to root for them to be together (when I wasn't wanting to throw a brick at Geon Woo for being so pigheaded). There are plenty of laugh out loud, funny moments to relieve the tension (especially with Hae Sil and Jung Geun, the secondary couple). The mayor is strange but hilarious. Last but not least, he last two episodes contain one of the most touching confessions I've seen (well, two of them, really), and then what I think is one of the best Kdrama kisses I've seen so far - a sexy, **mutually desired**, passionate kiss - So at the end, I felt putting up with the push/pull antics was worth it.
The secondary pairing is also a lot of fun to watch, and it's also fun to finally see the lead female tell off the evil ex-girlfriend (which seems to be a kind of a rarity so I really enjoyed that bit, too). They share a recipe for something cooked at the end of each show, so that was cute, too. So, while the plot line may not be the most original and it's full of the usual kdrama tropes, it was still a fun, enjoyable romantic comedy. Music is wonderful and they did a good job using it to set the mood in different scenes. My favorites are Butterfly, A Little Closer, and Don't Be Seen. Rewatch value is good - there are several moments I like to rewatch and I will probably watch the whole series again soon. If rom-coms are for you (and I love them), then you'll probably like this one.
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Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo
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Never watched the Chinese version. Probably never will. Not a fan of tragedy or saeguks overall and I knew that going in, but MLSHR sucked me in anyway then chewed me up and spit me out the other side.
Life sucks, then you die. People suck, sometimes inexplicably. It sucks to be king. It sucks to be someone who loves the king. It sucks to be not-the-king. It sucks to be royalty. It sucks to be not royalty. No one in a saeguk is ever happy.
I loved it up until the last two or three episodes where it seemed like everything just unraveled too quickly and without reason. I thought the acting was good, not that I'm a great judge of acting ( I'm good enough to know William Shatner is BAD and that's about it). I enjoyed the soundtrack immensely and thought using modern music for a saeguk was refreshing (but then I liked Romeo + Juliet so what do I know?) I would have been happier with the story if they had used more creative license as opposed to shoehorning the plot into the framework set up by the original. What bothered me most was that 4th prince just seemed to take all his character development and toss it out the window after he became king, as did Hae Soo. She reverted to a damsel in distress that needed saving, he reverted to the wolfdog monster everyone always said he was. If I rewatch, I'll skip the last few eps.
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