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Started strong. But didn't finish that way.
The first few episodes I really enjoyed, there was a lot of whimsy with the four cupids and how they went about their job. And I liked the storyline of a Cupid who falls in love with a mortal.But the serial killer murder mystery attached to it felt a little too serious and dark for how it started. I hadn't seen the FL in any main roles before, I found if she was doing something that required emotion, her eyes go dead, especially when she smiles. I don't know if she has Botox or filler or something but there is no expression happening on that part of her face
And her character made so many bad decisions that it was hard to watch, at one point when she gets beaten up and I didn't feel sorry for her. Every time someone tells her to stay safe and not go outside she continues to go outside. Until the point they want her to evacuate a car, and then she won't and almost dies again. I found that part of the storyline so frustrating.
Maybe because I disliked her character and the way that she portrayed it so much I didn't feel that there was much chemistry between the two of them. At one point he asked to spend the night and I went into it thinking it was platonic until the moment that it obviously wasn't. And even then it seemed odd to see them together.
The ML is easy to like, I think he was cast well. I would have enjoyed it more if they didn't have such a sinister murder storyline tied to it and would have kept it whimsical the way it started. Either that or start it a lot less whimsically and make it have more thriller vibes.
Also the little girls bedroom at the end, that sheep in the teepee is super creepy. And that might have been the strangest thing that has rhymed that I've ever written.
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As bad as Jeon Jong-seo's veneers.
I made some notes as I was watching it because I had questions, and some of the things I found answers to, other things are still a mystery.And I'm all in with a spoilers on this one so be warned.
Why did Do-Hans boyfriend get beaten up, when his family doesn't know he's gay? I never found the answer to that, I assumed the people that went and threatened the boyfriend were people that his grandfather hired? But since he kept saying nobody in his family knew he was gay, I don't know who threatened his boyfriend.
Ji-Han and the car accident. So the mother left her husband and had 2 more kids, did I miss the part where these children had a father in the picture? What happened to him? Jow did the reporter driving the car get involved in all of this? And her ex-husband was chasing her and caused the accident, but somehow the grandfather blames himself for that. And hates Ji-Han for know reason. And the father is still hanging around I thought? Why isn't all of this animosity directed at him, since he did a hit-and-run.
Why did Ji-Han come on so strong that he was going to seduce her away from his older brother, only to then freak out when he had feelings for her and have such a guilt trip about betraying his brother?
Why does he want his brother to run the company when his brother doesn't want to and he doesn't seem to want to either?
And after all of that tumultuousness why is the grandfather like yeah I don't care if family doesn't run the company anymore.
Where did Ji-Han go for a year? What was he doing all that time?
Why in the end does it show her getting married to someone else and Ji-Han showing up and running away with her? That was incomprehensible.
I've seen the FL in Ballerina. And she seemed well cast for that, her features are kind of sharp and she's not very expressive which made her seem tougher and kind of emotionally stunted. I did not like how she portrayed the character in this drama. She really does not emote, and I don't speak Korean but I know words, and I couldn't understand her, was she mumbling? I need to ask a native speaker because her voice was really hard for me to track. And I'm not kidding about those veneers they were distracting me so badly because she couldn't fit her mouth over them. Whoever styled her gave her the boxiest outfits, stringy hair, they really downplayed her attractiveness. I think another actress would have been a lot more cohesive for this role, I don't think this is her genre.
She had this wonderful capacity for ad libbing or stepping into a role with confidence and I wish they would have played that up more, because that part was interesting when she used her skill set like that.
It was bizarre that she was faking a marriage to her friend, but they never spoke, they never even pretended to like each other, it was so incongruous. There should have been some scenes where they awkwardly held hands or made some attempt to be into their own wedding. But really all we saw was her trying on dresses and him saying she looked nice. They really needed to add some connection there between those two characters.
Sometimes I'll lose focus in a drama and miss some key points, so they might have stated the answers to some of the questions that I had but I truly don't know 🤷
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Sometimes opposites shouldn't attract.
By episode 12 my interest had waned, by episode 14 I felt like I was slogging through the end with just the determination to want to mark it as completed.I was quite surprised when some of the giant issues were resolved by episode 6, and I thought what now? What are they going to do now we've run out of plot. And that was the case.
They had Park Hyung Shik really lean into his cuteness, reminiscent of his character from Strong Girl. Park Shin Hye's character is so straight laced and unemotional it feels like it's wasted on her. And she rarely reciprocates, he was always chasing after her for one crumb of affection. It didn't work and felt unbelievable.
Personally I've never seen Park Shin Hye in a role that wasn't the same as all her other roles. And this was no different. Park Hyung Shik did have some very emotionally dramatic moments even an ugly cry, but a lot of it was just a compilation of roles that we've already seen him play. However he's fun to watch, I felt like he was carrying the entire drama except for some of the supporting cast members.
The actor that played her little brother was interesting, he was a little bit of a scoundrel and yet he had a lot of redeeming qualities. The doctor that ends up with her friend was so awkward in a Dad joke way. In America single parents abound, but I know it's a little bit more of an issue in Korea so I was glad they portrayed that.
This drama lost all momentum in the end. I loved the original underlying message of working through mental illness, how they took medicine and went to therapy, they got help and they worked on themselves and their issues. That was a great precedent. It feels like there's been a lot more dramas focusing on mental health, and given the high suicide rates in Korea I think that is a very good thing for them to delve into to hopefully encourage people to get help. So the message of that I liked and supported, but this as a whole was very underwhelming
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Matrimonio e Desideri
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There are better revenge dramas out there.
In summary I thought the plot was clumsy and ill conceived.I feel like 80% of it is taken up by people traveling to other destinations to threaten another person, and then all of those people have to travel to another destination to talk about it and repeat.
Also they keep styling her like an elderly teacher from the '80s. She has some of the most ugly outfits that I've seen on a K-drama. The frumpiness is unrelenting.
For the most part the actress has a worried furrowed brow expression, and it becomes so repetitive. The dynamic becomes repetitive. The fact that she continually makes things worse for herself she never plays it smart not harder. She always plays it harder and not smart, it becomes agonizingly frustrating to watch.
They provide a little backstory on some of the antagonists, but not enough for some of their motives. What is the matchmaker ultimately trying to accomplish as she runs her business into the ground, for what? What is the attorney using all her embezzled money on? Why is she so upset with Kang Nam-Sik for mentioning marriage when she's the one who bought him a ring? And it is unforgivable that Seo Hye-Seung had that phone the whole entire time and only got it fixed at the end.
I felt like the kids delivered really solid performances though. But that's not enough to make the whole thing palatable.
There are better revenge dramas out there, this one is just not fulfilling.
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Park's Contract Marriage Story
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I enjoyed it. but had a few questions about the plot.
Overall I really enjoyed this drama.I think Bae In Hyuk was miscast. I like him as an actor but the role needed somebody that was very cold in the beginning, and he doesn't have a commanding presence, he has more golden retriever energy. I still liked watching him, he is adorable and he did a good job with acting.
There were a few things in the plot that confused me:
-I don't really understand the grandfather's full motivation, why he was trying to force his grandson into getting married by pretending that his health was failing, only to have disappeared the original intended bride.
-I think I missed the full explanation of why his mother was in that room and what his grandfather was trying to accomplish.
-They don't go into who the butterfly lady is. unless they did and I missed it, but what was her motivation was for appearing and manipulating things? Was she fate or chaos?
-There were some scenes where it kind of eluded that the present Tae Ha might have had his medication tampered with, or his doctor sabotaging his treatment, but that was never followed up on.
The moon rabbit scene was absolutely one of my favorites, It made me laugh really hard.
I liked that they didn't bog things down too much with her having to learn about the future and how to use things properly. They had to spend a bit of the episodes showing her adjusting, but it didn't get too ridiculous.
And I liked Sa Wol's character, because she was very outspoken and brazen and brought some lightness to the seriousness of the main couple.
It's definitely one that I would recommend to people as an easy to watch rom-com with a little bit of historical drama thrown in.
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Weather and workaholics
I refuse to believe, that there are that many dedicated news reporters assigned to the weather who attend press briefings with the rapt attention and critical eye like it was a major political scandal. I don't know if this is a correct representation of how seriously Korea takes its weather, or if there was a lot of artistic license in how they portrayed it. It's mostly people looking at whirling bits of data on screens, and just not that interesting to watch.I didn't mean to watch back to back dramas with Song Kang, he is not my favorite of the apple cheeked young actors currently making headlines, but he did bring some 🔥🔥🔥🔥 during the romantic parts er....part. He has good shoulders. And I have no objection to how many times he would like to show those bare shoulders on screen.
It was hard to imagine the two of them together, even while watching them be together. The workplace dynamic was anxiety inducing, he's a poor pennyless guy that is homeless and Ha-Kyung offers him a place to live then tracks him down repeatedly and forces him to move in with her. She's also his boss at work who could fire him. At one point she calls him a kid and he angrily retorts that he's an adult and also her man, as he battles for respect.
They're both such workaholics that there is not a lot to them beyond some childhood trauma and the weather. He does have a lot of positive energy, he's thoughtful and helpful. But she is just her job, she's on call and even when she's not she's always thinking about the weather.
There are several discussions where she talks about how she's drawn boundaries between her work and personal life, which is just not true. she's much more severe and petty towards Si-Woo than anybody else. Which just because she's hiding her affection by being horrible to him doesn't make it a better boundary.
I know South Korea is dealing with low birth rates, and I don't feel like this series really helped that cause. For woman who did have children it was mentioned several times that having kids and taking maternity leave ended promising careers. One woman tells the female lead that she should not get married and have kids. Another debates getting an abortion because she doesn't think they can afford to raise one. While her partner fretfully looks up baby related costs to see if he can budget it in.
It was interesting to see Ha-Kyung's ex-fiance and his new wife have to deal with the repercussions and aftermath of some of their decisions. And how both main leads really learned a lot about themselves through the process of being cheated on, and what their exes found lacking in their relationships both with them and with their new partners.
I didn't connect with this drama and it makes it seem like being a forecaster is one of the worst jobs to have, which isn't that fun to watch for 16 episodes.
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Benvenuti a Samdal-ri
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Not an addictive watch, but a pleasant one.
Though the main narrative of the story is between the two leads, there is a huge amount of supporting cast members who have their own stories.I enjoyed seeing a group of actresses on the older end that showed camaraderie between women, and a dedication to a skill that is truly dying out.
I also enjoyed the family dynamic of the three tempestuous sisters who were unconventional yet generally a motivating force for good.
Ji Chang-Wook is one of my favorite actors so I'm biased, he is a beautiful man and sometimes I think that doesn't work to his advantage when he wants to play grittier roles, his features are just too delicate. But they managed to make him look approachable, and his character had nuances of expression, a warm playful bravado that fit into the role well and helped it be more believable. And nary an ab muscle was shown.
Shin Hye Sun.... I have a lot of respect for her work, but I find her to be abrasive at times. And that was the case here as well. Though I was invested in her tale of redemption and when she finally was able to clear her name it was quite satisfying. especially with all the loyalty displayed by the supporting characters and how they all banded together. I think that might have been the main theme coming through was that your family and your history will support you because they know who you really are.
At times the pacing seemed slow, but I felt like I was learning a part of Korean history and a different lifestyle versus some of the flashier dramas set in the city. A lot of parts of it were quite wholesome, and I enjoyed that insight. I don't think it would be a drama that I read rewatch because it did not have me at the edge of my seat waiting for each new episode to drop, it was not an addictive watch for me. But it was a pleasant one.
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Come for Choi Jin-Hyuk in eyeliner, stay for the story and acring.
I think Choi Jin Hyuk was a great casting decision, he's tall, thin and looks pretty fetching with black eyeliner and green contacts. He made a convincingly attractive zombie. And he displays some good versatility in this role, there's parts where he's very serious, very emotional, and there's also a lot of physical comedy that he proves really good at doing.This is my first time seeing Park Jo-Hyun in a role, In the very beginning I thought her character was going to be one of those that are always running into trouble and chaos because of bad decisions. But a few episodes in she proves to be really resourceful, persistent and really good at detctive work. I ended up really liking her character. The actress herself has an adorably sweet face, gave a solid performance and I hope she gets cast in more things.
For a series about zombies there wasn't too much gore, there wasn't much romance either, though the two main leads definitely liked each other. They left the ending playfully Open that they might work again together and might be able to find a resolution that would allow them to be together.
And it felt like they kept the momentum going pretty well throughout, I wasn't watching any episodes feeling like they just threw things together to meet the number of episodes. It didn't move me in any particular way, but it was in general a pleasant watching experience.
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Plot was meandering and dragged.
I found this plot to be very tedious....Even when they finally figure out who the killer is, there's a subkiller, and a secondary killer. It just kept going on and on. And there were way way too many old men who look similar to one another.The premise of a prosecutor who does not have access to his emotions is mildly interesting, it doesn't make for compelling viewing when somebody is impassive almost the entire time. I enjoyed Bae Doona's acting, her character was refreshingly unique, and they had a really good on screen professional chemistry.
I couldn't make up my mind if Lee Joon-Hyuk was overacting? But every intense scene where his eyes were bulging out of his head in dramatic reaction to things was entertaining and fun to watch so I guess it doesn't matter in the end.
I did not find this a very enjoyable watching experience all together, but legal dramas aren't my normal genre so I think this one just wasn't for me.
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This one wasn't it for me.
I liked the premise. But towards the end I found it to be dragging a bit. It felt like too many murderers were involved in the plot line.I've come to the conclusion I'm not a Song Kang fan. When I see him interviewed he seems like a nice person, but most of his acting roles I'm not drawn to his character. When he's trying to be whimsical, romantic or silly he seemed so stiff and unnatural. When he was trying to portray being arrogant and aloof that also didn't seem to come naturally. The only times that it felt to me like he was really in character was when he was trying to be the most threatening or bad version of his character.
And I know culturally Korean fashion differs from where I am, but I feel like the costume designer had it out for Song Kang, because so many of his outfits the cut, the color, were so unflattering. That turtleneck in the last episode for instance. And there's one early episode where he's wearing a tan jacket that has a spot of blue tape on the back for quite a few scenes and no one caught it.
I hadn't seen two of the supporting characters in roles before - Lee Sang-Yi and Jo Hye-Joo, and I found myself hoping they would be in more dramas, because they both were a little unusual looking in a way that made them interesting to watch.
I'm not sure why he disintegrated when he did, because he didn't kill anybody. Also he didn't come back as human, so he's just going to hang around while she grows old and dies and he doesn't? That's kind of depressing.
I can't see myself ever rewatching this again in the future, and it's not one that I would recommend.
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