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When a sociopath falls in love...
I normally don't like Kdramas, I'll just throw that out there. Most are too melodramatic and Disney level cheesy for my taste. So, there are very few that I can finish, but I couldn't stop watching this one. Maybe I was a cheese in a trap, because I found the male lead, Yoo Jung, one of the most interesting characters I've seen in a Kdrama. He wasn't there as just some good-looking hood ornament that has blinders on for no one else but the fl. No, this male lead had depth and was sinister. There was clearly something wrong with him from the beginning, an inner anger bubbling just beneath the surface, and only the fl, Hong Seol, could see it. How intriguing...If you're like me and usually root for the villian in a movie and find them far more entertaining than the vanilla hero, than "Cheese in the trap" might be for you. It had a psychological aspect that I loved, where the show could have easily been a thriller. It's dark in various places and really explores why we as humans act/react to certain situations and the people around us. I got a kick at the mind games Yoo Jung would play on various characters and the ultimate chaos that would ensue. This dude fought with his cunning mind and not his fists. (Actually, he did get in a physical fight once lol). Now I know you're probably saying, but there are several male leads in dramas that are cold, insufferable douches, so what makes Yoo Jung's character any different? Well, in short, Yoo Jung I strongly believe is a sociopath and it's more or less implied several times in the show. He isn't a misogynist jerk like we've seen time and again in other romance dramas, he's actually quite a gentleman to Hong Seol and treats her well. But lord help you if you try to get between these two love birds. I believe Jung's flawed character worked in Cheese in the trap because he never intentionally tried to hurt Seol while they were dating, and the characters he did try to harm let's be honest had it coming.
I also really liked the female lead in this drama. Hong Seol is not the typical wimpy, weak, dumb fl that is so often found in romance shows. She's smart and hard working. She doesn't need saving, hallelujah for that! How many dramas have I seen now that had cringy soapy situations happen for the sole reason to have a fl need saving by a man. I've even seen several shows where the fl can't seem to walk upright without tripping every 5 seconds. It's tiring! So seeing a capable lead like Seol is refreshing. She commutes for hours on train, she works, she studies, and she can walk in a straight line without crashing into the ml like some kind of cartoon character. Aaahhh..and best of all she's likable and real! Her character did seem to dissapear a bit though toward the middle of this show, but no biggie. I also, had little issue with 2nd ml. He was a good guy but not boring and was given enough screen time for viewers to care about him. He seemed to be a real contender to win over the fl. I also loved his off the rails gold digging sister. She provided a lot of comedic moments and was a pretty good villain in her own right. Even with all the crap she pulled, I still wanted her to have a good ending and I'm glad she did.
Now I love lists, so here I will list the things I normally hate in Kdramas and how "Cheese in the Trap" measures up:
1.) Horrific sound effects used way too often. Usually barn yard animal sounds like a goat etc. Very distracting..
(Cheese in the trap): None. Happily there are no annoying sound effects.
2.)Toilet humor
(Cheese in trap): None
3.)Repeated too often songs from OST that are below average and by the end of 16 episodes make you want to pull your hair out.
(Cheese in the Trap): Great diverse OST. Each song fits scenes well and wasn't repeated too much.
4.) Too much yelling. Most Kdramas I've watched had every character barking/shouting out their lines.
(Cheese in the trap): Some yelling by side characters including elders but not too much to give you a headache.
5.) Love triangle
(Cheese In the trap): Yes, however it didn't bother me for some reason maybe this is due to good writing..
6.) Hiding/over hearing convos a character wasn't supppose to know about.
(Cheese in the Trap): This happens a lot and no one ever notices the person eavesdropping.
7.) Annoying side characters.
(Cheese in the Trap): Most of the characters are likable.
8.)Great start..draggy middle..wtf ending!
(Cheese In the trap): Great start, a bit draggy middle, pretty realistic ending. Many romantics would probably hate the kinda open ended ending this show had, but I didn't. Jung really hurt a lot of people. The man destroyed lives, he couldn't simply walk hand in hand into the sunset with Seol lol. There relationship was far more complicated than that.
Overall 9.5/10.
It cracks me up that this show's been labeled "the worst drama in history" and it's the one Kdrama I really loved. Haha go figure.
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However, after episode 9 or so, I watched this solely for Baek in Ho and his sister, Baek In Ha. I disliked Hong Seol, (and this is just my personal preference) but I cannot stand her being sweet, naive and innocent. The romance between Hong Seol and Yoo Jung had no chemistry, and I constantly felt like Yoo Jung was out of place, like he didn't belong in college because of his personality and the way he was portrayed. This might have been intentional because of his past and his original personality. He's a cold and strange character who only opens up to Hong Seol.
When the backstory of Yoo Jung was revealed, I was kind of disappointed. I had been expecting something great because of all the tension previous episodes had built up. It just made me dislike Yoo Jung and think of him as a guy with a lot of issues even more. The fact that Hong Seol never pushed him away and just proceeded to hug him after seeing him do something immoral really ticked me off. This couple didn't move me.
The acting was decent. Park Hae Jin pulled off his role perfectly, and I've never seen Kim Go Eun before, but even though I didn't like her character, she was played well. Seo Kang Joon captured my heart and Lee Sung Kyung portrayed Baek In Ha very well. At first, In Ha was annoying, but later on, I ended up liking her and In Ho more than Seol and Yoo Jung. In Ha was incredibly cute and childish and her character really added dynamic to the drama.
While there is a lot of controversy about the ending, I feel like it wasn't the worst thing that could have happened, and I was pretty satisfied with how everything turned out. I do have to say that it was a little rushed, as some more time could have been spent in showcasing Yoo Jung's father's role in Yoo Jung's life.
Music could have been better. I barely noticed anything except for the selection of piano pieces. The OSTs were so lowkey that it didn't really make an impact. If I heard an OST being played, I probably wouldn't be able to identify it as a CIIT OST because all the songs were just typically chill to me.
Decent drama overall, but Hong Seol and Yoo Jung just weren't my cup of tea.
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I finished the series within three days. Then, I had to take a one-hour breather before I could write this review because I couldn't form coherent sentences.
I didn't read the webtoon so please don't judge me but I couldn't understand why some people thought the story went downhill midway. For me, it didn't. It got darker yet at the same time had more substance. The scary part though was that I'm convinced that the writer and the actors were able to show logic out of insanity. What does that make me?
Anyway, here are the actors who are to blame if ever I get admitted:
1. Park Hae Jin - except for MLFTS, I haven't seen any of his other projects although I've planned to watch Bad Guys for a while now. MLFTS really didn't do much for me if not for his performance as the second male lead. I thought he could be the next Gong Yoo. This series intensified that belief. From the beginning until the end, his character was simply captivating. I was torn between loving Yoo Jung and being cautious of him. His character was so strange and so complex and PHJ portrayed him brilliantly.
2. Lee Sung Kyung - there had been a lot of issues about her overacting in this series. I'm sorry but I have to disagree. LSK's portrayal as Baek In Ha is possibly the best I've ever seen her do. I first saw her in Doctors and thought she was so-so if not a bit annoying. Imagine my surprise when I saw her as Kim Bok Joo. Gone was the stylish chaebol. She was instead replaced by a short-tempered and impulsive eating machine. Now combine the two personas and add a little bit of crazy to the mix. The result? A completely flawed character that you want to hate and pity at the same time.
3. Ji Yoon Ho - I first saw him in Sweet Stranger and Me and thought he was rather cute. He wasn't cute at all in this series though. He portrayed his role quite well that I can't wait to see him with bigger roles.
In case the other three escape, here are the rest of the reasons behind my strange behavior:
Seo Kang Joon - Baek In Ho is probably the only normal person among the main characters. He easily captured the hearts and sympathy of the viewers and even though I love PHJ, I seriously wouldn't resent it if In Ho ended up with Seol.
Kim Go Eun - I still maintain that Hong Seol isn't as innocent and normal as she pretends to be. She has her own air of cruelty around her; enough for her to plot her own revenge or look the other way when her boyfriend does it for her. On a lighter note, can someone give KGE a break already! If she isn't surrounded by a goblin, a reaper, and ghosts, then it's another kind of crazies!
Nam Joo Hyuk - Eun Tak and Bo Ra's characters and romance were so heartwarming. NJH is simply so adorable! Can I adopt him?
I almost forgot the amazing portrayal of Lee Na Yoon as mini In Ha. She definitely had the same expressions as LSK, don't you agree?
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Could have been better!
I don’t know what happened with this drama? Why are there more scenes with the SKJ (2nd male lead) as compared with PHJ (male lead)? The first few episodes were intriguing that’s why I got hooked on it. However as the drama progresses, I’ve noticed that the story focuses more on Seo Kang-joon (Baek In-ho) rather than on Park Hae-jin (Yoo Jung). With the male lead’s fewer scenes, it was no surprise that audience had difficulty recognizing his character and its development. It would have been better if more scenes were given to the leads. The few romantic scenes between them were not enough to build a solid chemistry. I’ve read some BTS drama regarding CITT. I think this behind-the-scenes drama affected the quality of the show.This would have been a good drama if the characters were established properly. There should’ve been more scenes that showed the development of male lead character as well as the romantic scenes between the leads. Good ending for the support cast but not for the leads. I was disappointed with the ending. It’s ambiguous and it felt rushed. It just showed the past romantic scenes of the leads as fillers. A simple interaction between them will suffice to give audience a decent ending.
Acting was good. I find Jang Bo-ra and Kwon Eun-taek’s romance cute as well as their friendship with Hong Seol. Character devt for male lead is poor. Too much focus on the 2nd male lead. Few romantic scenes between the leads. Music is alright. Will not rewatch this.
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The characters really brought this story to ahead. If that was a good or bad thing, I don't know at this time. They all had flaws. There was no perfect character, in fact none of them were close to being perfect and I think that was by far the biggest challenge the writer had to make because you have all these characters with separate goals and motivations and it's hard to gel them into one coherent message or theme.
At the base, you have college students that are trying to get by and shape who and what they want to be. But then there are characters that have emotional baggage they've been carrying and haven't really expressed to others and if you combine that with all the external elements like family and love then things tend to get blurred.
Was the message that everyone should understand each other? That everyone shouldn't keep things bottled up inside so not to hurt others or that everyone should express themselves freely even if knowing it would turn out bad. There was really no answer and it was severely needed to give some sort of closure to the story given how absurdly abrupt it ended.
Overall, it needed a clear message and a clearer answer and because it didn't. You get mixed reviews and confusion and even anger because an audience watched for 16 hours and never got a pay off.
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I mean I watched it because I saw the cast, there was like Seo Kang-joon, Nam Joo-hyuk & Lee Sung-Kyung which were all really good actors and characters were really funny to watch how different they could be.
But I think I didn't really like how the story of the two main actors Kim Go-eun & Park Hae-joon ended up like, I don't know, I think it was a little confusing and I just didn't like how it ended. I finished watching the whole thing just to see how it would have ended up but, I don't think I liked it very much.
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The worst 2nd lead syndrome
Story was decent, so was the female lead and 2nd male lead. However, this is the worst kind of 2nd lead syndrome.. not only does the female lead have much better chemistry with the 2nd male lead, but the male lead she ends up with is a piece of trash, his past does not excuse his actions. Maybe because i skipped a lot of the scenes between the two leads, but I don't even remember when the male lead actually started liking the female lead... I only felt it in the final episode.Kim Goeun really carried this show with her amazing acting
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The actors (especially KGE & PHJ) were amazing and played their parts really well, even in the episodes I didn't really enjoy, I thought almost everyone did a good job, but LSK's character was crazy. I almost had to fast forward thru the scenes with her in them, they were painful. I guess she did a good job portratying a spoiled rotten vengeful crazy person, but still painful.
It all started sliding downhill and fell off my list in a hurry. Ep 10-14 were kind of a mess. There were moments of greatness, that kept me hanging on, but it was a struggle. Then they hit rock bottom with the ending. What kind of ending was that? Anyway, best I can give it is a 3 because the beginning was so good.
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Interesting enough though, this show kept me hooked from start to finish -- for the wrong reasons. I feel like the more I got into the show, the less I cared about the characters because I really just wanted to see justice, because let's face the cold truth here, everyone minus maybe 3 people, did Seol completely wrong and dirty.
The story was really interesting, there is no way I'll say it wasn't. While it was your typical drama, it did have it's uniqueness in it's own way. I also really loved everyone's acting in this show except Sung Kyung (In Ha) don't come at me, I love her acting....in other things but in this show I felt like she was extremely over dramatic and walked like a zombie half the time and when she stood she reminded me of a Monster High doll. Remember how they used to be bent weird like something was wrong with their spines? Lol That is what she reminded me of.
I hated probably 98% of the characters. I loved Seol and her 2 friends, --oh, and her brother. That's it. I wish more friendships where like that though. No matter what she went through they were always there for her... even the small bit when they were mad at each other. Lol Those kinds of friendships are so rare.
Everyone else can fuck off though. For me my most hated characters were probably In Ha, Stalker Boy, and lazy drunk bitch. I don't care enough to remember their names... and I say that with my whole chest. oh and add on that snobby little bitch she had class with. lol Ol crusty musty ass.
ANYWAY!!! back to the review.
Everything about this show was left open and I hate hate hate hate HATE open endings. This took it to a whole new level though. Because everything was left open. Characters were there then suddenly they weren't? People were with others and just nothing was explained? I get that this was adapted from a webtoon, but that doesn't mean you should leave out information. Lol Especially since these characters were there since episode one. By episode 10 you shouldn't be like "okay well.... we just don't need you anymore" that's not how that works. Lol I mean I'm glad to see them gone but because there was no information on how or where they went, It kinda stressed me out always looking for them because I expected them to come and fuck shit up some more. cuz you know.... fuck happiness? Lol
Speaking of happiness... what kind of damn ending was that? What kind of main character treatment was that? You do on and on about people are using her and she needs to put a stop to it -- then you proceed to use her in manipulative ways. and let's not forget any time she was attacked, somehow it was her fault and if it wasn't her fault they made it super clear they she shouldn't hold it against ol-pwoor-pwiddful-widdle *insert someone's name, there's a list to choose from at this point*. Like wow, okay - she ended up physically injured how many times but still, she should forgive them? All while saying she needs to stop putting up with people's bullshit.
Geez the more I go on about about this the more I want to take away stars. So I better stop here.
All in all, yes the acting was good, the story, while hole-y like swiss cheese, was good. i just wanted more justice. I wanted actual ending.
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Watch it for yourself, and you will quickly see that this is a gem among many other dramas. Yes, ill be the first to say (while i would not have predicted this when watching the series in the beginning) it was imperfect (but really, only in the last few episodes), HOWEVER, as i am the first to drop a show as soon as i think ill be disappointed with the end, I can say that I don't regret watching this show at all and that's primarily because of how strong the series as a whole was.
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Strong Start, Weak Finish
Cheese in the Trap was a drama that started off really strong for me...but ultimately fizzled out toward the halfway mark. I never read the webtoon so I went into this with zero context. CIIT is not the worst drama I have ever watched. Despite its low rating I don’t vehemently loathe everything about it.Going into this I knew the plot was going to be not that exciting since it’s main focus is around college students. Even though they tried to add drama with Seol’s classmates or the plot around Jung’s borderline sociopathic tendencies everything was grounded in reality. And I loved it. As a college student I definitely related to Seol and her struggles. It felt so good to watch a drama where college is the setting and they actually show the struggle of juggling classes, friendships, jobs, and everything else. Nothing was happening plot wise but I was unable to stop watching it. Which leads to my main issue with this whole entire drama: the romance.
I want to start out by saying this: the acting in this was amazing. Everyone gave it their all and it was flawless. However, the characters are what I have an issue with, more so than the messy plot. Seol was a somewhat relatable character (as was Eun Taek and Bo Ra) but no matter how much I tried to force myself I couldn’t root for Jung. In the webtoon I’m sure we got to learn more about his character but in CIIT he felt like a minor character. I was unable to feel anything more than annoyance with his character. His psyche is super fascinating but because the drama pushed the romance I kind of forgot how intriguing he was at the start. Kudos to Park Hae Jin because he played Jung very well.
As for the side characters I adored Baek In Ho. He’s not somehow better that Jung morally or perfect for Seol but he was interesting. He was fleshed out. I grew to love and root for his character early on. I know fans of the webtoon was complaining because In Ho got too much screen time but since he was my favorite character I was okay with it. That’s probably why I didn’t like Jung at all, if he was the lead he should of had more screen time so that the audience can give him a chance.
Baek In Ha was a truly complex and messed up character but once again I found her interesting. In my opinion, The Baek siblings stole the show from their very first scene. With dramas I never ask for perfect characters who never do anything wrong. I just want properly fleshed out characters. We had 16 hours to flesh out Seol and Jung’s relationship but it was not that believable to me. Again, this solely lies in the messy plot.
As for the controversial ending: I liked it. I won’t spoil it but I was okay with what happened because sometimes an open ending is better. It would of felt rushed if they tried to give every character their fairytale ending.
Anyways, Cheese in the Trap was just an okay drama for me. The only thing it had going for me is the side characters (such as Seol’s friends/family + the Baek siblings), the acting, and the emphasis on showing what a college life is actually like. This might be the first drama in awhile where I actively was rooting against the leads to not get together so...do with that what you will.
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