I'm neither a movie person nor am I experienced in writing reviews. But I got a chance to watch this movie in Seoul today with English subtitles and really came to like it a lot, so I want to give it a try while the impressions are still fresh.

I went into the film not really knowing what it was about but being somewhat curious, since it's critically acclaimed and was received very positively here in Korea. It's even said that there were people who watched it over hundred times because they liked it so much!

To break it down, the film is about a young girl - Eunhee - living in Seoul in 1994, struggling with all kinds of problems that come with human relationships. She is the youngest of three, growing up in a somewhat disfunctional but probably quite typical family - fighting parents, a brother that hits her, a rebellious sister, who secretly dates and stays out the night against her parent's will. Eunhee rather draws manga than to study hard like her parents want her to, she has to confront unreliable friends and lovers, and overall is trying to find out how she is supposed to live her life, apart from the expectations that society confronts her with. The focus always stays on Eunhee. She is the person leading us through the year 1994.

The big reason I liked this movie so much is because I related deeply to the protagonist Eunhee. Of course a lot of things happen to her that I never experienced - some things are quite Korea-specific, for example. But then there also more universal struggles Eunhee has to face to which probably many young girls can relate to: the overall feeling of being a little lost, discovering the flaws and struggles of the people around her, learning to stand up for herself, trying to find people that accept and love her for who she is opposed to all the indifference and criticism that she grew up in, and of course fighting parents and annoying siblings.

One part that really hit home for me was when Eunhee one evening witnesses her the parents fighting, blaming each other for the misery of their children, with everything ending in violence and tears. Then, at the next day, she finds them both sitting in front of the TV in daylight, laughing together at the same jokes, as if never anything happened. Eunhee just looks at them, with a certain numbness in her expression.

Another thing the movie nailed was the multi-layered depiction of the characters close to Eunhee. The mother, father and brother all had scenes where they said something bad that made you hate them in this moment. But, at another point, you learn that even though they are wrong in many things, they after all care deeply about the two young girls in the family - even though they can't express it properly. It's not an excuse, they say and do things that are plain wrong, but you come to realize that they, like all of us, simply are imperfect humans, after all.

The movie was filmed beautifully, with the camera sometimes resting on a particular point, in order to really capture the atmosphere of the moment. A little artsy, but never over the top, just enough to deepen the impression. For the acting, I didn't discover any awkwardness. It was flawless for me (but I'm really no expert here).

If I had to criticize anything, it would the small plotline about Eunhees romantic relationship to another girl. The other girl was really sweet and the relationship cute, but it ends very abruptly in a way that made the audience go "Huh?" (- Eunhee: But didn't you say you like me? - Other girl: But ... that was last semester). Maybe they didn't had a better idea how to wrap this up.

The review is already long as it is, but I have to say it again. It was wonderful to have a movie with a protagonist that you can relate to. The movie industry is still heavily men-dominated (in Korea just like in the US), so they naturally like to tell stories about other fellow men. Meanwhile little girls are normally deemed not interesting enough to tell stories about them - especially not the quiet, struggling ones. Here I finally had a story in which I could discover some parts of myself in. I think this is why "House of Hummingbird" touched me so deeply.

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This review will be much too long but CM was just so good

Now that I'm done I don't feel ready to write a review. My thoughts are still all over the place. But I want to write it while my memories are still fresh so here we go.

Short version because no one will read the long one: It was great. I joined the fun at episode 7 and for every new episode from then on, every Thursday evening I bought tons of snacks and then celebrated and indulged in the new episode with all my heart. For a few days or weeks it really lifted me up, kept me going and made my days bright in a time where I didn't have many happy moments in my life. I will be thankful for this drama for a long time. Kurosawa and Adachi were such a sweet and heartwarming couple. Today I ordered some printed photos of those two that I will stuck to my wall like the hopeless fangirl I am T_T

Long version: Okay so where do I start. I normally never re-watch anything. If there is a super great series, once every two years or so, I maybe re-watch something once or twice tops. This drama? At six times I stopped counting lol.

I don't think I have to add more about the acting. Machidas acting skills almost seemed too good to be true for such a small niche production. And Akaso is newer to acting but he did a great job as well. He managed to portray Adachis awkward moments just as well as his braver sides.

The soundtrack wasn't anything outstanding (well, the angel choir... lol), however I loved the opening and ending songs so much. They were a perfect fit for the atmosphere of the show. I listened to them each *checks last.fm* over 240 times since I started the show.

Now to the story and the characterization, which can't really be looked at seperatly in CM's case, since the plot is so character-driven.
The story overall progressed very well. Especially the first seven episodes where perfect in balancing pacing, tension, fun and serious moments, successes and failures. There were some cliche plot points you see often in BL but if executed well, don't we love most of them anyways? In its basic premise the show isn't doing anything exceptional, but the magic aspect was woven into the story perfectly and everything was well crafted with a lot of thoughts going into every detail.

After episode seven they are technically together which is a dangerous moment for every romance story, since the tension always stems from the question: How and when are they finally going to get together? After this question gets answered I usually lose interest. Scriptwriters often tend to throw in some random relationship problems then, which sometimes works but often doesn't. In CM too this effect is noticable a little bit - the big tension is gone. But thanks to our main couple the episodes stay enjoyable, and very much so. Adachi is still struggeling with his insecurity, the problem with his magic is not yet solved and we're blessed with tons of cute moments. Watching Kurosawa in love is pure therapy. He is so giddy and happy and basically radiates warmth and happiness through you're screen right in your face.

In the last two episodes the show also decides to drop the bomb, so just when one might get too relaxed the show takes the audience on one last wild ride and proves, apart from fluff and cuteness it also can do heavy and intense moments. For some this last turn in the plot worked better than for others. It's true that the last episode is a little rushed and doesn't get deep enough. In episode 11 Adachi has an extreme personal crisis and everything seems lost. But then in episode 12 it is wrapped up relatively quickly in a way we already saw in some previous episodes so the effect wasn't as strong anymore. But it still worked for me. Adachi scrambling his courage together after retreating into his shell for a few days and Kurosawa being so fond of Adachi to understand him completely and forgiving him quickly fits their characterizations very well after all.
Overall I found the ending super cute and satisfying. But I do admit that they could have make it just a tad better with maybe some more time and giving more depth to Adachi's inner conflict.

Maybe a short comment explicitly about the heart of the story, their relationship. Another reason why CM is so beloved is because it makes its audience happy and smiling like idiots on their screens just by seeing those two guys together. The relationship is super cute and absolutely non-toxic. There is a lot of stress on the healthy communication between them, talking about their needs, true feelings and problems that come up. Kurosawa treasures Adachi with all his heart and Adachi fights his insecurities for Kurosawa in turn. The show also tries to be respectful to the LGBT+ community. One side character is portrayed as not being interested in relationships, which was such a great representation as well. I will however say since I'm not myself part of the LGBT+ community I won't attempt to judge if they completely managed to be respectful. There was criticism that the show shied away from labeling itself as BL and from showing more explicit contact between the leads because they tried to appeal to a broad audience that might still have problems with that, which seems a fair critizism.

For the most part this is not a series attempting to portray a realistic relationship. I personally was completely satisfied with the amount of teasing, intimacy and skinship but I admit that a shown kiss would have been a nice-to-have even though I'm not sure if it would have fitted in the pacing of the last episode. At the end, even being non-explicit the two actors created a chemistry and intimacy that is hard to match.

For the end I'll shortly go into the weaknesses of the drama. This show is an easy 10/10 for me but of course like no drama, this one is not perfect as well. I personally didn't like the second couple that much. Adachi's friend Tsuge was somewhat likable but too over the top at many points. His weird noises and this one time where he had stalkerish tendencies made it uncomfortable for me to watch some of his scenes. His later boyfriend is cute but there is not enough depth to his character to make the whole thing work. Funny enough, I still ended up being fond of them at the end but they were definitly nothing great.
Then there is the discussion around the last episode that I already wrote about. I still would give this episode around 9/10 points? But I admit that I probably watched it through rose-colored glasses just because I'm always overwhelmed with Adachi's cuteness and Kurosawa's smile lol.
And ... this is already all the critizism I can think of. Overall the show was super satisfing and just wonderful. It is extremely rare if not unpreceded that a show made me feel so many things.

This is already much too long and I still feel that I didn't even get into the details yet. So for the end, just a few words what this show meant for me personally.

I used to be super insecure and thought lowly of myself, just like Adachi. While I overcame much of it during the past years, there are still parts that I have to work on and where I can see myself in Adachi. Thinking things like: "That's not something 'people like me' can do." Being envious of people who actually have dreams because "I'm just living in a daze".
It was very comforting hearing Kurosawas warm and supportive words to Adachi every time, it was heartwarming to see his unwavering love for Adachi and his determined, unchanging reassurance. It was inspiring and encouraging to see Adachi grow thanks to him, to have him overcome his fears and starting to take the initiative and to communicate because it became so important to him to make the relationship work and Kurosawa happy. I really hope I can take something from this for my future. I think I grew a little bit myself thanks to Cherry Magic. It was a wonderful journey and you can bet I will re-watch this show many times more.

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An ambitious story with potential that failed due to too little time

The show had a promising start: The premise was super fun and interesting, and the first episodes were somewhat addicting even. Overall however the show lacked in execution and acting so that having watched the ending, I'm left with a very mixed impression. The time was simply to short for this kind of story. There were so many elements that were rushed, or introduced in the beginning just to be shoved aside for the relationship later on.

One big issue I had is the acting of the two leads. The main lead was super wooden and failed to bring his character to life, and the other guy's acting I personally liked better but he overdid it with his overly monotonous voice. I don't know if he tried to sound mysterious or seductive or what but it came out as tryhard, flat and simply unnatural. I tried to blend it out but it kept bothering me.

I wasn't too happy with the dialogues either. There were some lines and moments that could have been emotional and impactful but since everything was so rushed and the acting lackluster they mostly came over as cringe and out of place.

The biggest problem certainly was the plot development. Many plot elements were actually introduced with quite much attention and care at the beginning, just to disappear towards the end as if they hadn't been that important after all. They rushed to bring the relationship to a closure, without much regard to all other aspects of the story. To be fair, if they had concentrated more on the plot, there would have been no way to bring the relationship to a satisfying ending in this short amount of time. They had to make a decision and chose the least worse option but with so little time there was no way to execute this story properly. I would have preferred it if they had planned for two seasons from the start and left us in the middle of the story or on a cliffhanger, rather than having this complete but half baked story.

Despite the fun start my conclusion is that due to the poor execution the relation development felt forced and the acting skills were not good enough to save anything. The first episodes were quite addicting thanks to the fun premise, but the last two episodes especially left me disappointed. The plot completely disappeared so that it felt like all the build-up from the first episodes was for nothing, and I found myself not very invested in the characters anymore.

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Sweet but lacks in depth and acting skills

There are a few sweet moments in between but overall the story and especially the relationship between the leads isn't working. The issues lay both in the writing and in the acting.

First just a few words about the acting: Lee Sangs acting is so flat and wooden that I felt absolutely nothing looking at his face. The other guy, Kang In Soo is not outstanding either but much more expressive and breathed some life into the show in a few scenes at least.

The story is very simple. Actually I didn't find the whole premise too bad in itself and it could have worked with characters that have more depth and a more focused story line. Unfortunately neither the side characters nor the main leads are memorable or convincing. The dialogues are quite banal so that it feels a little like the writers are still beginners at their craft. The scenes are sometimes quite random and many aspects aren't properly explored and executed. They throw in a little of this, then a little of that and then a cute line or moment in between. You could blame the lack of time but the plot was simplistic enough that they could have make it work if they would have focused on a few essential aspects.

Of course the production quality is high, as expected for a Kdrama and the songs are nice as well. However the execution is just so typical that scenes that are supposed to be heart-wrenching just feel ordinary and lackluster. It's just you're typical cookie-cutter Kdrama style with your typical choice of camera work, colors and music but without any creativity or innovation. When they had their sad break-up time for almost five minutes during the last episode I did something else and only occasionally checked the tab if they've finally moved on.

Overall the show feels like a flat painting only in base colors, without any shades or highlights or some kind of fine-tuning or nuances added to it. I would have dropped the show around the third episode if it had been any longer. I hope that in upcoming productions they learn to focus more, are a little braver and innovative and get some leads with proper acting skills. They seem to have all the tools needed to make a good show so it would be nice to see them taking that step. (It would also be nice to have a refreshing story for once, without any idols, entertainment stuff or rich people's sons but let's not set the expectations too high lol)

As a conclusion: It's okay to watch this show if you're looking for something short and simple, if you want to kill some time but not get too emotionally invested and just need some random sweet moments thrown at you. But you surely won't miss out on anything if you skip this one.

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