Cherry Blossoms After Winter (2022)

Beautiful

a really beautiful show with a rating too low tbh. it's a really good one for Korea, casting was fab, no MAJOR drama but I quite liked that. it was a good one for a sad and lazy afternoon.
please don't be turned off by some of these really extreme reviews I don't think some of them are justified at all. we all have our own taste but some are just missing the point

*slight spoiler*

I especially liked the characters of the friend and mother and how they were explored. I think the friend was just so lovely and shows the more accepting modern Korea slowly arising whereas the mother showed rhe fear and conflict the older generations fear for their children

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Overall, this is one of the better K-BL dramas. It is focused on telling a tight story, where every scene is meaningful, and all characters have their part in the plot.

It's a slow and gentle story -- both the school bullying and short violence in the beginning and the initial coldness of Tae Seong's make the thawing of feelings and the beginning warmth between the couple clearer.

I really like the progression of the story, the pacing is right, the camera work is solid. I like that the young men change their hair style and their clothing when starting university. I also think both their body language changes with their changing feeling, though that point is more subtle.

There's one thing I wish would have been different. I feel that the sets and the colour palette of this series are very cool, too white, sometimes even a bit sterile. While this makes sense in the beginning (Hae Bom's room looks more like a guest room than a teenager's room -- but then again, he feels like a guest in this house), I would have like a shift to warmer colours in later episodes -- spring colours to go with the plot. Unfortunately, Tae Seong and Hae Bom's flat still looks impersonal and cold -- personal effects, a bit of untidyness could have helped. The strings of lighting, I'm sorry to say, only feel artificial to me. Still, this is something that I only can put in words now, after having watched this series several times, so it's really only a minor thing.

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One of My Favorite Korean BL’s

I love this series so much from the acting to the story and all the in between. This is one of my feel good BL’s because even though there is a bit of drama it’s handled very quickly. I pray and hope to see the leads in another project soon. The supporting cast was also stellar. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

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Full Bloom

This series was so sweet and fluffy, I loved it. The bullying of course irritated me but that's the point so great job to the actors on their part. I know this was a story about two boys raised together but the fact Haebom always addressed Taesung's mom as Tae's mom and not "our mom" helped with the weirdness of that part of it. I was able to see them as just childhood friends living together(With the subs from Viki anyways, i don't know if it's subbed differently anywhere else). I only wish Yonghee got his own happy ending though it was hinted at in the end cause he turned out to be my fave. The mom lowkey annoyed me with thinking about herself and what others thought instead of their happiness but I know she meant well. Anyways, cute quick watch. I recommend it.

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Cute and wholesome

Wholesome. That's the word. I binge watched this and enjoyed it. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

UNCOMPLICATED. After being disappointed with so many (mostly Thai) BL series this year -- with wacky and incomprehensible storylines -- this South Korean BL was refreshing in its simplicity. I like you, you like me, let's get together. Nice.

NICE FRIENDS. I enjoyed that the friends were supportive of their relationship, and there wasn't a big deal made of "ooooohh, you're gaaayy" [except for the villain, but he was disposed of quickly].

NO "I'M ACTUALLY STRAIGHT, I'M JUST GAY FOR YOU." Thank you for that. Thai BLs, please take notice. There was no past girlfriend that was trying to hold on to her man. And Taesung made it clear that he had no interest in girls and never did.

SHORT EPISODES. No wasted time. If anything, they could have shortened the series by one or two episodes.

CONS

SECOND HALF LESS GOOD. I really loved the series up until university. It wasn't bad afterward, just a bit less interesting.

NOT ENOUGH BACKGROUND DETAILS. They tried to give us the backstory, I guess. Would have liked to know more about Haebom's parents, how Taesung managed to go for THAT many years ignoring Haebom... I wouldn't have minded knowing more about the bully as well.

Overall, it was enjoyable and I liked the chemistry between the main couple.

8.0 from me.

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its… okay?

i honestly started watching this due to the high amount of people saying it was “cute” and “fluffy” but honestly the only thing i liked about this drama was the main leads.

what confused me at first was the bullies. they start bullying haebom but then all of a sudden they disappear? i get that after the time skip they go because they’re out of highschool but even before the timeskip they just don’t appear anymore.

the acting was pretty good to be honest. the main leads were cute and they portrayed their not so good characters well.

also taesung literally forcing haebom against the wall and nearly choking him was so unnecessary, i get that taesung is in denial of haebom not liking him but it was so weird and made me so uncomfortable. he apologised but that still didnt make me think over the whole situation.

it was obviously low quality and their budget was small but honestly the storyline needs some work.

i wouldnt recommend watching it :)

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Improves with each episode.

Cherry Blossoms After Winter is not anything groundbreaking, it’s something we have seen in one form or the other countless times, but it is cute. Light and fun watch with some questionable directing in the first half.

Here’s the thing, the second half was truly nice. The plot seemed to have the right pace, the scenes did not seem random, the dynamic between the leads was more clear and easy to understand. That said, the first (about) four episodes were just confusing directing wise. The plot was easy to follow, but how the specific scenes did not flow well was at times funny. Characters be talking about going grocery shopping, so I get excited to see some cute shopping scenes, just to get none of that. It felt like quite a number of times they were setting up a specific sequence of scenes, just to give up halfway through, and cut to something completely different.

The characters were fun. Hae Bom had a nice and realistic character development - it was presented in a gradual way. Realistically speaking, Tae Sung was there just to like Hae Bom. Hae Bom was the main character who had to face different external and internal conflicts. Not mad about it. With a short show like that, it’s better to focus more on just one character.

Acting wise, I am okay with what I got. The shock I felt when I found out the ages of the actors was something new. Being in your mid 20’ and 30 and still being a convincing teenage boy? That’s an achievement.

Production, as I said, improved in the second half. The show was better structured. Instead of trying to fit many random scenes in one episode, we get less, but better paced and developed moments and present the dynamics and relationship better.

Overall, I almost dropped it half way through. It just truly jumped around a lot and it felt like random cute scenes put together to create a typical BL show. It’s still a typical BL story, don’t get me wrong, but the quality improved a lot in the second half, and I was actually excited for the new episodes by the end.

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I loved it and now i'm so disappointed :(

I loved this show so much. I know the production wasn't super great but I loved the character chemistry and the softness.
As always I think the "growing up like siblings and falling in love" thing is not something I particularly like, but still.

**SPOILER EP 5**
...But then again with the (almost?) assault story-line? WHY? So unnecessary! Also: so many straight dramas have (at least) questionable consent concepts and then always the BL dramas where it's portrait ..and probably also forgiven later? It just makes me sad...I'm still thinking of erasing that scene out of my my but I don't think I can continue watching it.

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A cute story on a budget

Ahhh okay I admit it, this was super cute! I've bumped into this series multiple times, but because of the prejudice towards the Webtoon I never considered picking this up. But, since I saw many interesting tags, I decided to briefly skip through it- that was until I got so invested that I wanted to watch this properly later, but then in the end I ended up binge-watching the entire thing. I was worried about the "step-sibling" setting, but it turned out to be less awkward than I initially thought. Another thing that turned me off was the scene where Taesung attempts to force himself on Haebom- and I was scared that they would romanticize it, but thankfully they didn't and Taesung condoned for his actions. This wasn't anything great, and the pacing was all over the place- but it was cute and I wouldn't be surprised to catch myself rewatching this someday. One thing that brought me comfort was the healthy relationship both leads had with Taesung's mother.

To me this just didn't make me feel anything or think of anything new. It just exists, it's cute, nothing more nothing less, and it just isn't something I reminisce about, hence the semi-low scoring. Although there isn't much critique I'd give it just lacked something that would tie it all together.

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