Orange Marmalade (2015)

Honestly, I have a love-hate relationship with this drama. After every episode, I would crib about how much of time I've wasted and how I could've been watching something else, instead but come next week...I watched it again. With that in mind, I'll try to be as objective as possible in my review but take my moments of criticism with a pinch of salt.

Orange Marmalade has an interesting take on an amalgamation of cliches - you have high school romance, Joseon era romance, love triangles, love squares, vampires falling for humans and vice versa, accident-followed-by-amnesia - anything and everything cliched is here. And yet, it's got an impressive take on things. Issues like discrimination, friendship, acceptance and maturity show up frequently here.

Story:
As many have said before, the drama can be split into 3 parts: High School Part 1 (HS1), Joseon Era (JE) and High School Part 2 (HS2). I liked HS2 a lot more than HS1, because HS1 seemed more rushed to me than HS2, if that's even possible! JE was actually enjoyable to me, believe it or not. I liked watching it but more so because of the relationship between Jaemin and Shihoo. In the HS2 part, I have a certain weakness for Ara - maybe it's because I find her relatable? The HS parts, both 1 and 2 could have been developed more and tied in better with the JE section and we could have had more character development - mostly Shihoo and Ara!

Acting/Cast:
Unfortunately, the show really takes hits here. I gave it a 6, because it's barely above average to me. Yeo Jingoo does well in his role, however his restraint comes through as bland, which is definitely a problem. Still, I think it was good and he did well. Unfortunately, Seolhyun was really weak in her role and it really takes much away from the drama when the lead is not on a good level. Her visuals were perfect but her acting left much to be desired.

Onto better things! Lee Jonghyun - what can you not do, seriously?? Even though I came in here as a Boice and expected to be biased, Jonghyun really did almost meet my expectations. He wasn't spectacular but he did well in portraying traits which I felt defined Shihoo - the delinquent bad boy brashness and aloofness which later translates to a reticence and maybe even awkwardness? Gil Eunhye is gorgeous as Ara and she really does justice to the role - ah, why do I like Ara so much...? I also enjoyed Park Guntae's character a lot - he kind of looks like BTOB's Lee Changsub to me? Or is it just me? Seriously, the supporting cast really made me watch on!

Music:
Cute but not memorable. The main song that Orange Marmalade performs sounds very much like an anime OST and honestly, I don't remember much else about the drama's music. Though, special mention to the flute piece that played in the JE part - I loved that!

Rewatch Value:
Once is enough for me.

Overall:
While it wasn't utterly disappointing, it wasn't quite the best, either. The reason the rating went down was because of a lack of character development and partially due to weak acting. I think most of the epiosdes were hit-or-miss for me but with the last episode being a total hit - I'm glad I went through with it!

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