I wasn't intending to watch another version of Itazura na Kiss right after finishing one, but Netflix has a limited selection of dramas and this has been in my queue for years. I decided to give it a shot despite generally low reviews... and I liked it.
The story is the same as the last version I watched and it didn't really have anything different going on. I did think it was paced well. I liked that we got to see more of high school before they went to college. I also liked that we got to see some of what happened after a lot of romantic comedies end. It was a little rushed at the end but they did cram in what probably would have been the beginning of a second season if they did those.
What I didn't like was all the fantasy sequences, especially at the beginning. As it tapered off, the few here and there were more tolerable.
I also thought that some of the scenes felt contrived. They just didn't seem to follow a natural progression and it seemed like they said "We have to get this in here" and just made a scene to fit the situation without much thought to the flow.
I liked Jung So Min as Oh Ha Ni. I think it's almost unfair to talk about how stalkery she was because the story itself depends on her being a stalker. What I did like about her was that, despite the fact that she kept coming back, she had the sense to at least be angry and/or upset by the way Baek Seung Jo treated her.
Kim Hyun Joong as Baek Seung Jo wasn't wonderful but he wasn't awful. He was a lot less cold and detached and more deliberately mean. At times he was kind of intolerable and did remind me a little of Lee Shin from Goong (which makes sense seeing they have the same directors) but was not nearly as awful a person. He would do this thing, too, where he walked away and smiled that I thought was cute.
I didn't like second lead at all. The relationship between Ha Ni and Bong Joon Gu was almost non-existent until it became necessary for there to be one. It never seemed like Ha Ni considered him a close friend and I didn't feel any chemistry between the actors. There was way more chemistry between him and Ha Ni's friend, especially Joo Ri. And if Ha Ni was stalking Seung Jo, then Joon Gu was a step away from locking her in a basement.
I enjoyed a lot of the secondary cast. The mother was really fun to watch. I also liked Kyung Soo.
Most of the music didn't register with me. Netflix didn't show the intro so I didn't even hear that song until later. I did like the song from Bye Bye Sea and enjoyed the band playing at the break.
I enjoyed Playful Kiss. It's hard not to compare this one with the other I've seen (Love in Tokyo) because there are things I liked better in this one and things I liked better in the other. But in the end, I liked this one just a little bit more because I liked Ha Ni more. The embarrassing moments that Ha Ni had were less ridiculous and I didn't feel the need to turn it off during those times. I don't know that I'd watch it again, but I enjoyed it while I was watching it.
And on a side note, I love that they did the bear endings.
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