Man to Man (2017)

I would like the preface this review with two points: I have only come to watch K-dramas the last half year or so and it is possible that some of my gripes with this drama spawn from cultural differences.

For myself some of the appeal of K-dramas is the that when extremely cliche characters or moments appear, the cheese somehow charms me despite my skepticism. Unfortunately, for most of Man to Man, there were too many problems to be balanced by its few strengths.

My first complaint, which some others have addressed, is the chemistry between the leads. I don't have problem with how Cha Do Ha was acted, but how she interacted with K. I can't recall a single instance where I really bought into the relationship between the two leads. I will differ from many others' opinion here as the bromance between K and Yeo Woon Gwang also didn't jive with me. It suffered from the same problem as the lead romance in that it felt abrupt and completely forced. It just felt like there was a relationship time skip the audience wasn't privy to.

On the other hand, every secondary relationship I bought hook, line, and sinker. The acting by the cast felt solid and their work is what got me through the show. Interactions between most characters was believable with some real tension to match. I particularly enjoyed the moments between Song Mi Eun and Yeo Woon Gwang. I would also say that each actor made good use of any solo time in front of the camera. I never found myself doubting their characters, just the interactions between the leads. Their strong performances never achieve excellence for me, but I don't feel like it's the casts' fault.

It was the writing that never sat well with me. I can forgive egregious plot holes, of which there were many, if there is great character interaction or development, but with the strongest character interactions being outside the main leads, the relationships struggled to make up for the flawed story. Almost every plot device used to further the show could have been solved in much easier and less convoluted way, which is fine. I came into this somewhat expecting it since it's a k-drama, but the show also had the problem of approaching many things with the subtlety of a mallet to the face.

Which is probably my biggest problem with the show. I am unsure if this stems from cultural differences, but the show kept telling me how to think and feel and that kept breaking my immersion. Bros don't have to repeatedly tell me they're bros; I should be able to gather that watching their awesome interactions and general bro-yness. The music was much the same way. While the music themes may not have been poor in choice, their execution was god awful. I am a firm believer that music when used well, or consciously not used for that matter, greatly enhances the audience's feelings. Instead, the timing and volume of the music felt like the director was screaming at me "GET HYPE!" at occasionally silly times or worse yet, during a later scene in the show "YOU FEEL SAD NOW!". Uhm no?

This show reminded me a lot of one of my favourite shows thematically which may have contributed to my poorer opinion of this show due to the comparison. I've seen a strong romance, great character development, and a reasonable plot all wrapped in a spy action/comedy. I was more than willing to overlook that show's flaws because of its strengths. As good as this cast was, they were given some very poor material to work with and in the end, they really couldn't save it.

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Didn't not expect this drama to be this bad. The main story didn't seem
like something crazily interesting, but still, the first episode was
promising. However, the drama was tiring, with a boring plot that
dragged on and on, with no actual twists, no chemistry between the
actors (not even the couple was good) and no humour. That resulted to
prevent me finishing this one, and I rarely leave dramas like that. I
mean, I was able to force myself to watch to the beautiful you, when
the plot got so predictable and boring, I could feel hours of my life
being wasted for nothing. But this drama was even worse. Maybe I was
expecting more out of it, as the cast was maned by seriously good
actors. So, what happened? I blame most of it on the story that was an
actual mess. So, 2 out of 10.

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Is this the best show on the planet? No.
Is the plot cliche and predictable? Pretty much.
Did I enjoy it? I definitely did.

I have struggled to love and like Kim Min Jung's character. And it kind of ruined the romance part-development of the show. But it had great comedic elements to it amid all the action. I found myself waiting for a new episode each week on Netflix. And it was an enjoyable watch.

This isn't for everyone and many will critique it, but even so I would recommend everyone to give this show a try. It starts off slow and develops over time. Maybe a bit jumping over some character and plot developments at times what make it a bit hard to believe. But hey, rarely any is perfect. And this drama kind of managed to get me back into the kdrama land, from which I had disappeared for years. So, it clearly isn't a bad watch!

The bromance is the greatest part. I just loved it!!

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Bromance + Cute Male Lead

This drama is underrated. I highly recommend this to other viewers. It’s actually a good watch in that the plot is interesting enough!

The female lead should be changed though (imo) because she isn’t cute and she isn’t a very good actress (imo).

However, I have always liked the male lead and I thought that I’d give this drama a go for his sake. Surprisingly, the other male lead is rather adorable. He grows on viewers.

Watch because:
- plot is interesting and engaging
- plot is suspenseful
- male lead is swoon-worthy
- second male lead is manly
- bromance is cute

Overall, I’d say watch this because it’s really much better than many other poorly made dramas out there. Watch !

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I watched this as a comedy rather than a drama, and for that reason, I enjoyed it hugely. The bromance was center stage and got laughs out of me almost every time. Yes, some acting was over the top and other times too restrained, but I thought that in each case it fit the personality of the character. Both male leads were really funny and their interactions well done. They could have left the girl-guy romance aspect out of it and it might have been even more entertaining.

I do have to ask this - why on earth when and guy and a girl are kissing, do they look as passionate and invested in the kiss as a couple of dried and salted mackerel at the fish market? It was that bloodless banging together of dead fish lips that made the romance a clinker most of all. I suppose it's cultural.

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This drama have bromance in spades, but I really wish they just focus on that and not forcing any romance into it. The main female character annoys me to death. If only she’s not there, I will definitely give this drama a higher rating.

The story is so cliche, but it’s entertaining and mostly funny. Most of the story really doesn’t make sense and unrealistic. I wish they would take the spy special agent part of the story more serious and realistic since Park Hae Jin is really great for this kind of story. It’s just too over the top and weird most of the time.

I love the bromance between Hae Jin and Park Soo Wong. They have such an amazing chemistry together. Their relationship looks natural and cute. It should be the main focus and main relationship. I really dislike the romance between Hae Jin and the girl, I don’t see why he could fall in love with her, it doesn’t look natural and it’s unbelievable.

Don’t get me started on how bad I think the girl acting is. Her acting is soooo... over the top, unnatural and full of big eyes that doesn’t relay any emotions other than making her look crazy idiotic. Oh and don’t forget all that high pitched screaming. Please just delete her.

The music is ok, nothing that I particularly like.

I would rewatch some scene, especially the interaction between Hae Jin and Soo Wong, but I would definitely skip anything with the girl in it.

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Yes!

This was the second Korean action drama that I watched after watching Rugal. Again as I say in all of my reviews I didn't know Korean dramas existed until watching Rugal last year. After seeing that I tried to find any and every Korean action drama that I could find and this was the second one.

I wasn't familiar with the style of Korean dramas but since then I have found myself steering away from the romance type of dramas. I didn't notice the style last year but now I do. I loved the main character, the second main character, and the main character's partner. These three had the chemistry that I loved. I especially loved the bromance between the 1 & 2nd male characters. There were scenes that had me laughing hard.

I tolerated the female lead up to a certain point. She started off likeable but became a whiny love sick puppy in the end that made me cringe. This was the reason I started migrating away from romance dramas.

The fighting scenes were awesome. I kept going back to those scenes. This had somewhat of a James Bond style to it.

I haven't rewatched any of the action Korean dramas I've seen but sometime in the near future if I'm still alive, I will most definitely rewatch this again.

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The end killed me...

Well, I just finished this drama and...

For me the end is not good. I want romantic plots and not action disguise with strange romance. For that I have HEALER or K2 or ...

There are some good moments. The chemistry between the 2 male leads ( don't think I could call it bromance) is good as the friendship.

OST - didn't get my attention

ACTING - was good, specially the male leads

REWATCH it? - no, never

The plot is boring, the romance is not interesting. I was expecting some more from the secondary couple but I don't get why she didn't divorce her husband. That doesn't make sense even if it was for the kid.
Bad bad bad for me... So there's a person that completely give up any happiness to be a spy and marry and have a kid with a man that is bad, treats her awful and blackmailed her with her child and ...
Stupid to me. How can a pragmatic woman do that?

Don't know what to say about that but, as I was reading some reviews, no one seems to care about that.

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Action scsnes are cool only when you don't know what's next

So far its the coolest action romance i have seen. Its a must watch for drama lovers. Acting is on point. Storyline is too cool to handle. Actors seem to be made for their respective roles. I feel this drama isn't lacking in any aspect. Even the villians are doing their jobs the best. Chemistry between the three leads is just out of the world. I have still many episodes left to be watched but i m totally enjoying it.For a fact i am not much fan of action dramas because they all seem the same. But this one seems to have a completely different storyline. Once in a while even action heros/ secret agents have their hearts beating faster than usual and they sometimes go out of their way to save someone.

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The biggest issues I had with this show were with the storyline. The spy storyline moved pretty quickly in the first three quarters of the show, and it left me wondering how else the writer would fill out the remaining 4 episodes of the show. This resulted in the storyline slowing significantly in the final quarter of the show, and I even felt bored towards the end of the show. It also felt like the show didn't quite know what to do with the romance storyline in the show. There wasn't enough build-up in the romance to keep me invested in the relationship between the 2 main characters.

Ironically, it was the relationship between Park Sung-woong's and Park Hae-jin's character that felt the most rewarding and kept me the most invested.

This was a great cast and they acted the heck out of the script. It was so pleasant to watch Park Sung-woong act as a goofball, since he can most often be seen acting in serious roles (both good guys and villains). Kim Min-jung and Park Hae-jin are drama veterans so they definitely did a great job.

Still an entertaining watch overall.

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One of the most outstanding Kseries I've ever seen!!!

Man to Man is one of the most excellent Kdrama ever, My friends and I went to see this series with very low expectations, and i can honestly say we were dead wrong. had me and my friends laughing the entire series. Also has interesting plot that keeps the series even more exciting, thrilling and worthwhile. A must see as we never stopped laughing. We absolutely loved this ! Me and my hommies Truly enjoyed watching Man to Man. Park hae jin is one of the best korean actor in korea and extremely handsome ! I was most impressed with PHJ range acting. He can be utterly funny and he's superb as an agent. He is great in this series... sexy... handsome....romantic..... and hilarious.

The script, songs and senses of this series are too soothing and beautiful, This serial has got everything. The writing was great and worked perfectly. Additionally, the plot was great. Again, it was original and modern. It really felt different from any other action comedy romance k serial I've seen. This one will make you laugh in all episodes except few episodes which will make you cry. The cast makes an excellent whole and it is hard imagining switching anyone without affecting the whole outcome. OST goes along with the series just great, it just right, it sets the perfect mood for the viewer.

Kim min jung's performance is simply stunning... she's so cute, charming, funny and lovely. I really can't imagine anybody doing the job better than she did. Kim min jung giving one of the warmest, most sincere and funniest performances you'll ever see. i like her too much as the role matches her perfectly. When it comes to the romance with PHJ, I just have to say their relationship is genuine, sweet and absolutely adorable. Their dynamic is very interesting and entertaining. Not only do they provide comedic relief, they are an enjoyable couple too! If, you only really knew? How I felt while watching how cute they are. I go crazy because of them!

If I were you, Don't trust any nonsense negative reviews from horrible disgusting demons. Before I used to believe in them However quite recently my opinion on user reviews changed completely when I decided to watch Man to Man. Awesomeness indeed in this series But what did the other reviews say about this AWESOME series? It didn’t have an impact, nothing's funny and saying anything bad that they didn't know what the hell they are talking about. Plus, Had its moments but it wasn’t that great XDXDXDXDXDXD. After my friends and I completed watching the series, I see how the other stupid user show how rubbish they are. I was blown away by how awesome the series was and how everything was perfect. They explained a lot things that I was wondering about, it had a surprising twist to it and the ending was unexpected but marvelous anyway. There was a time when I honestly believed in the user reviews but after the nonsense they have been pulling about this awesome series I don’t trust them anymore.

Overall this is a surprisingly outstanding Kseries. i really enjoyed watching this. every episode gets better and better. i consider it as one of the best Kseries i've seen. I really recommend this series to everyone because I can guarantee you won't be disappointed!!!

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