Perfume (2019)

I'm gonna say it write up, this drama was so much fun. It can be quite funny and that's what I really liked about this drama. It was a perfect way to cool down after work. I can't say I loved every bit of it and it wasn't perfect, but the humor and cast really kept this show going for me and I didn't get bored watching it.

Story (7.5):
So yeah, I have an issue where I constantly drop dramas if they get the slightest bit boring or do something I don't like. But I came back to this one religiously and watched it every day a new episode came out. I know it's not perfect, but it was just good enough and fun enough I can't fault its faults (if that makes any sense).
Primary issues for me are in this section of rating (the story) but I won't spoil anything (hopefully) so read on.

First off, don't worry; fat shaming isn't really an issue in this drama. The first episode might feel a bit wonky, but things get better and it's essential to the whole rest of the plot. This story has got comedic romance, potential love triangles, hidden identities, and crazy exes. It's got the whole gambit, but it seems to take most of them and add its own spin on them so they don't feel crazy. Case in point the main storyline "hidden identity". Sure it's not the first of its kind, but it certainly didn't feel like an overused trope (plus hidden identity tag is one of my favorites).

I think the flaws that detract from the story for me are mostly some underwhelming resolution (mostly in character developments) and throughout there were a few character actions that didn't feel inline with the characters. Also, the number of times the main character faints or is somehow in terrible danger might be a record...

Acting/Cast (9.5):
Let me just say that this drama wouldn't be the same without Shin Sung Rok. There are few other actors I can imagine playing this role. He's hilarious and literally the best part of the drama.
At first I was hesitant about Go Won Hee but she showed me wrong and this pairing was a lot of fun to watch.
I can't point at a bad actor in this drama really. I'll never look at Jo Han Chul the same (I didn't think he had it in him to be that crazy), and was pleasantly surprised with Kim Jin Kyung (as the daughter).
Oh, and you can't forget about Kim Min Kyu. Literal puppy dog. That's the only way I can describe him.

Music (9.0):
Lots of fun tracks in this one and some might go onto some of my playlists. That perfume melody will always cause me to listen for thunder lol.

Rewatch Value (8.0):
Never a fan of rewatching much, I've already rewatched parts of this drama. Lots of fun to be had.

Overall (8.5):
While I can't say it was groundbreaking, a top favorite, or something I'll remember nostalgically, Perfume will be one of those dramas I remember as generating a lot of laughs watching and one that didn't give me much of a headache or worry that it would go horribly wrong. Perfect drama to sit back and relax to.

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Take a chance, and you might be surprised

When this drama first started, there was a lot of talk about fat shaming and how larger body sizes were negatively represented in the show. I have to admit in the first few episodes of this drama it will really seem like that, and it will definitely turn some viewers off into dropping the show but I say give it a chance and you might find yourself with quite a funny and beautiful drama on your hands. The drama quickly matures and revolves around how a woman is able to grow to find the self-agency to act on her own and personal confidence, not by being skinny but by support and love from others.

This is not to say this is a super nuanced story and deserves endless critical acclaim. At certain times the story can get a little absurd, whether it be the mythology of the magical perfume or the "love triangle". Also if you're looking for some Sismance, you will definitely not find it here lol. However, I went along with the ride and was entertained throughout the series from start to end.

Shin Sung Rok is really the star of this drama, and it would definitely would not be the same without him. I've heard of him before but this was the first thing I've ever seen him in, now I fully understand all the love for him and he's become one of my new favourites. He can range from being cute, enraged, heartfelt, to distraught. Go Won Hee was just as good, and I was impressed how despite her age she was able to perfectly embody a woman who is in her 40s. Between the two leads, I really felt the connection and emotions between the two. Ha Jae Sook who plays the real Jae Hee also does a nice job. In the beginning, I wasn't really feeling Kim Min Kyu but he definitely won me over.

If you're considering this drama but are concerned about the low ratings from others or the fat shaming controversy, then I say take a chance with the first few episodes to judge for yourself. You might be find yourself enjoying this drama as much as I did.

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This drama was so much more than I was expecting.

It was lovely and quirky and a much deeper story than the first episode led me to believe. I'm so glad I stayed with it. It's hard to discuss this drama without spoilers, but I'll just say that I cried at the end because they included something I have never seen in a Korean drama before. When you get to that point, you will know, I promise. That representation is so beautiful, because everyone deserves love. You don't have to earn it by young or beautiful or fit.

There were so many messages in this drama, and most of them were on point and fairly nuanced, especially for a romantic comedic fantasy. I am so glad I watched this.

I can't say enough good things about the stars: Shin Sung Rok, Go Ye Won, and Ha Jae Sook. They were magnificent. Sidenote: PLEASE give me more Shin Sung Rok as the romantic lead. His character was adorable and quirky and has landed in my top fave K-drama heroes of all time. I would also like to see Ha Jae Sook as the lead in more dramas, not just as the "before' woman, but someone confident and fabulous.

If you want a funny, heartwarming, and unexpectedly profound watch, give this one a try. I absolutely loved it. The episodes only got better and better and it was SO PURE.

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REVIEW:Perfume (2019)

This seems like fun. Miss Fatty has turned into Miss Hottie, even her husband doesn’t recognise her. Anyway he’s a psycho and a pathetic, unfaithful, failure as husband and father. So after 12 hours of slim and gorgeous back to Miss Fatty. Miss Fatty is suicidal and lacks confidence but her hero gave her the special perfume. So for 12 hours she’s a completely different person. What a makeover! I want some of dat.
This is sad and funny at the same time. It is a bit cringy with its continuous fat shaming but if you look into the deeper story there is another message it trying to portray. So overcome your abhorrence of the writers unclear foci and embrace the story of a woman trying to find love and hope in her deepest desires. Embrace your own hope of a better you. Yes its played for laughs. Just take everything with a grain of salt. Its not about you personally.

I feel sorry for the guy who allergies and phobias are the focal point of his life. He is such a petty, arrogant, indifferent person who’s centre of interest is himself. So selfish and unfeeling to the difficulties of others. He needs to change himself and his ideas. Just because he is a talent designer he doesn’t have to lord it over his minions. He forgot all his illness and phobias when he realised she had fallen over a cliff. I wondered how long that would last. No long, soon as she is home he’s back to his normal obsessive and cruel self. How can two adults have a food fight? So funny!

Quote: Someone you meet and love will make you shine so bright like no other

Her reunion dinner with her daughter was so touching and her reunion with her husband was fiery as she wacked him with her bag and attacked him as the big girl after she had changed back from the model. He was chasing after her as the model and didn’t know it was still her as she had changed over. He now know its her and he wants her back now she is back to her young self, young, skinny and beautiful. He even ignoring his mistress who want to marry him. She might change her mind when she find out he’s just a womaniser

Shin Sung Rok/Seo Yi Do(the designer) and Kim Min Kyu/Yun Min Suk(the celebrity and singer) are brothers now both saying that they love Go Won Hee/Min Ye Rin / Min Jae Hee (the model). That a turn up for the book because its episode 16 and we have just found out. Then their is her husband the womaniser would has recognised that the new fabulously beautiful model is none other than his fat wife and he wants her back. She has asked for a divorce.


Go Won Hee/Min Ye Rin / Min Jae Hee she is married (Jo Han Chul/Kim Tae Joon [Jae Hee's husband] and got a boyfriend (Kim Min Kyu/Yun Min Suk) but she is kissing (Shin Sung Rok/Seo Yi Do). Its all got a bit strange. What troubles is this going to stir up.

This is getting crazier and crazier with both her husband, boss and a boyfriend all getting involved in her life of change.


We definitely need some of that Perfume.


Miraculous story about the perfume and why it only worked on her

I loved this drama it so crazy that it works. It will make you laugh. It will make you cry. You won’t be able to stop watching as you sympathise with the woman who wants to live her dream. For all of us bigger women with a skinny woman living inside us.

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This drama IS a tad over the top. Its characters are very expressive and comedic, with a story line that was farfetched. However, it cracked me up AND made me feel for the characters at the same time. Shin Sung Rok was great as the male lead. I’ve only seen him play villians, so this was a nice departure for him. Plus Ha Jae Sook finally got to take a (semi) lead role as the plus sized love interest, which was refreshing. Now here’s for the some what controversy nature of the story… She’s plus sized but uses this perfume to magically transform into not only a thinner version of herself, but a younger version of herself. So unfortunately it plays on the fat tropes and ageist aspects of Korean society that many of us in Western society don’t exactly appreciate in this politically correct society. But I did note that for a Korean drama, they weren’t as bad with the fat jokes as I thought they would be. Don’t get me wrong, there were fat jokes. But I think it’s the way that they handled them within the story and with the character, while still maintaining her dignity as a person and the respect that the love interest still had for her despite her weight. In fact, besides physically noticing a difference in her weight when he was lifting her, it seems like her being plus sized was not really ever an issue for him as far as loving or respecting her went. His biggest problem was feeling torn that he thought he loved “two “ people, the skinny version of her and the older fat version of her. Because apparently weight gain and 20 years will make you look that radically different in the face that people don’t recognize you're the same person. Again there was a bit of unbelievability in the plotline. Overall I was satisfied with the drama though, the comedy aspects and the romance aspects. Even the ending was satisfying because she stayed real to who she was and didn’t magically revert back to a younger thinner version of herself. I liked the character growth and the fact that he loved her truly for herself, which would be the her now not the her from the past. It’s definitely worth watching, I probably won’t watch it again. But it wasn’t a waste of time and I would recommend it

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I did not expect a good and coherent story with this premise, but this was below my already low expectations.
The drama The Beauty Inside was an attempt to replicate the success of the fantastic Another Oh Haeyong and Perfume seems like an attempt to make another Beauty Inside (which was quite entertaining still), the story is very similar, but the drop in quality is just too much. Lee Minky is not a good actor, he can only play one thing, which is essentially himself, but that character was a good fit in This is My first Life & The Beauty Inside as well. Now in Perfume Shin Sung Rok was trying to be Lee Minky essentially, even though it was not terrible, but it wasn't really enough. For reference this actor played the main villain from the classic drama My Lover From the Star, which was actually a great fit for him.. I was already kind of a fan of Go Won Hee, after seeing Welcome to Waikiki 1, but I think she shouldn't have been cast for this. Make no mistake she did pretty well, I just think that this role was miles outside of her comfort zone. A 40 something woman, who wanted to commit suicide, because of all the atrocities life has given her gets to opportunity to become young and beautiful again, sure fine, but the end result shouldn't have been a perky, go lucky Go Woon Hee, I don't think.
Now about the story, it's pretty typical in some ways. We have the dumb puppy second lead type, who just keeps pushing, pushing & pushing. Basically the writers just added the most typical classic kdrama triangle possible. Some common tropes were blatantly copied from famous dramas, for example they've taken the mysterious liquid thing from The Secret Garden (even the set and the music are super similar for those perfume related scenes), then there is the love triangle cohabitation from Jealousy Incarnate and some others.. Also I don't believe that the abusive (ex)husband character needed so much screen time in a romcom like this.

Had the show been really funny I could have ignored most of the above, however it wasn't. The physical gags involving the ajumma form's obesity were almost offensive. I'm fine with watching fat/obese ppl on screen really, but this path of trying to make fun of them isn't very nice, though I do understand that in Korea fat women are shunned quite a bit more than in the west. Overall there were very few really funny moments, which is such a shame with an actress like this, who is basically a comedy goddess, or something along those lines.

Had the romance been good I could still have enjoyed this quite a bit, but the chemistry between the leads was at best average. There are also major problems with how their relationship progressed, or rather regressed at times. There is just so much push pulling. From "I have decided that I love you, even though you are not Her" we go to "I just realized it was Her all along whom I've loved" then rinse and repeat. For those that watched the episodes as they aired this might not have been as annoying, but I watched the entire thing over the course of 2 days.

TLDR: I don't exactly regret watching the drama, but I don't feel that I've had quality entertainment, will never consider rewatching.

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Watching this drama, there was never a dull moment. The characters were very entertaining that every episode was just too funny to miss, especially Seo E Do. Although it was not the ending that I expected, it was still heartwarming. I must say that the drama was able to deliver itself well from start to finish. The writers were also able to perfectly convey the messages and lessons in the drama while maintaining its rom-com theme, which I must say is a job well done.

As for the actors, Shin Sung Rok is just the perfect guy to play Seo E Do, he was able to perfectly depict the character of an eccentric, funny, sweet, and adorable guy all at the same time. He is the very reason why I continued on watching the show in the first place! Without him I don't think this drama will be able to be as interesting as it is. Go Won Hee playing the character of Min Ye Rin, she's just as funny as he is! Playing an old ahjumma in a young woman's body, and bickering the whole time reminds me of her in Eulachacha Waikiki! The both of them have good chemistry too! I had my doubts with the pairing at first because of the age gap and like the height but they just proved me wrong!!

The OSTs were nice and sweet. It perfectly blends during the funny and sweet scenes, but nothing much too memorable for me.

Overall, the drama is as weird as its characters and it will make you question a lot of things but if you let it take you and just enjoy you'll find yourself loving it for its funny, light and meaningful nature.

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Personally, I felt this drama started well, as it portrayed the ways in which a person's self esteem can be destroyed; verbal abuse is mental cruelty.
What I loved: the cast were all excellent and I so enjoyed Shin Sung Rok's portrayal of the churlish, phobia and allergy ridden lead male! He played it really well and shone at the times when he was acting shy, awkward and at odds with himself. He comes across as younger than his actual years.
The message I took from this drama was a positive one; that one doesn't need to be slim or beautiful to be loved. Self belief, self respect, self love all need to come first, as this provides self confidence. It's also how we make others feel about themselves that can affect their feelings toward us.
There was comedy and sadness, with some touching moments.
What I didn't like: the story became too drawn out and I felt like the writer lost their direction. Too many scenes were repeated and some scenarios were ridiculous, even for a fantasy.
Whilst a lot of it was good, the music was all over the place and veered too quickly from moment to moment. (One song that stood out for me though, was Queen's 'Lily of the Valley', a 1974 B-side single that I never expected to hear in a K-drama!)
I loved watching Sung Rok, but this isn't a drama I'd revisit.

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Perfume had an interesting story, not that the main plot was something we haven't watch before.

There was a main hole in the story when it came to the leading lady. Although both actresses were really good and they played the same character perfectly, there were some parts of her story that just didn't feel "real" like she really was going to react like that?

In any case, the love story was good and they had nice chemistry. The love triangle was okay too. However, the ending was just too cliche. At least, character vice, it was interesting.

So, six out of ten.

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Love yourself than expecting others to love us

FIRST IMPRESSION
This drama is a hidden underrated gem with a good casting and amazing story. While it's named PERFUME, I was really curious to know what is this magical perfume because it just makes a fat woman, younger and pretty. we only get to see the fashion industry, full of beautiful clothes and models. But the mystery of PERFUME is solved in the last episode and it is absolute spot on, that's why it worked only on FL, where this came from, and its magical power.

PLOT VIEW
The story is nothing new but still feels fresh for the writing is extraordinary. Bingeing this felt a roller coaster ride full of romance, comedy, and magic. The continuous body changes into fat and calling her the monster was really awful. The FL quickly picks up her dream which she forgot when she got married. It shows how a woman is deprived of her rights just because of looks. we all know this does happen sometimes knowing/unknowingly people react that way to fat peeps.
The ML having so many phobias seemed unnatural but people do have those and SSR played it exceptionally well. He overcomes them with the sheer struggle which is outstanding.
Kim Tae Joon was a manic. He was a jerk cheater husband, a bad father, and everything. When he slaps his daughter, I felt like reporting him to the police. The daughter was excellent and did well in the final episode.

ACTING
The cast and acting are amazing like everyone is spot on.
Shin Sung Rok who had shown only his villain side, is such a surprise. He is rude, bratty yet fragile. He definitely has a vast closet of expressions, I know theatre artists have an excellent aura and he is one of them. SSR's cranky smile for the jealousy is just fab. His wait for true love was actually interesting and it didn’t change for any reason was commendable.
Mi Ye Rin/Min Jae Hee was amazing she did amazingly well as a fat and slim person. She figured out quickly that she need to fulfill her dream than waste her given extra time.
Yun Min Suk was adorable as an idol who makes one burst into laughter whenever he is onscreen. His bickering with SSR is an absolute delight to watch.
Kim Jin Kyung was an absolute model, after reading her biography I get that why. She( in her personal life) had worked hard to be a model a that shows in the drama character too.

MUSIC
Music was clear and pretty soothing, the OST 1, “To Reach” fits well in all the runway sequences. I didn’t get bored listening to it but rather added it to my playlist.

AFTERTHOUGHT
once there is true love it doesn’t matter if they are fat/slim/pretty/ugly. And suicide is not a solution to any problem. Stop feeling guilty and pity for your own body. Rather just appreciate it. If we won't love ourselves nobody else is going to love us.

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It could have been great if they split it into two different stories

I gave a 7.5 because the drama does have strong points. It has a great cast and the romantic and comedic parts are done well.
The strongest point is Shin Sung Rok who is simply brilliant as the male lead, a quirky fashion designer. Hilarious and endearing despite his pompous personality. I liked the female lead(s) as well. Both Min Ye Rin and Min Jae Hee. Kim Min Kyu and Jo Han Chul too do a great job here, the former one as a charming and impossible not to like Hallyu star and the latter one as a despicable husband of the fl.
The weakest point is that the script tries to mix two potentially good stories into one and fails miserably at that.
The first story is mostly told in episodes from 2 to 8. I enjoyed it a lot. It is about a genius and eccentric fashion designer and a rookie model who becomes his muse and the love of his life. Despite being depicted with a lot of humor and hilarious scenes the story is quite poetic and sensual. I like the pairing of Shin Sung Rok and Go Won Hee, they look great together and there are a few steamy scenes.
Now the second story is about a woman whose life is a burden for her because of health issues and a very toxic marriage. The story is how she fights against her own insecurities and her unfaithful husband to become happy. Here too I like the pairing of Ha Jae Sook and Jo Han Chul. They are believable as a married couple in a very problematic marriage.
The issue with the script is that the heroine in both of the stories is one and the same woman. However they not only look different they seem to be two different people. Furthermore the both plots are cut short just to make way for an extremely farfetched main arc story about the first love that conquers it all. That one story is rather lame and unnecessary.
After the good first half the drama looses direction and all its charm completely. I struggled through episodes from 11 up to the very end. But for Shin Sung Rok I would have been hardly able to finish.
The OST is beautiful and dreamy.
I doubt I'll ever rewatch it. Maybe if only some parts of it.

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