Venus de Altădată (2015)

I am glad to conclude 2018 with this drama. It was cute, entertaining and informative. I learned a thing or two about hypothyroidism and nutritional science. Some have mentioned that this drama is fat shaming but I beg to differ. The show was honest in telling how society view and treats fat people, a lot of cringy parts I have to admit but honest nevertheless . What I didn’t like was how it treated losing weight as just plain strict diet and exercise instead of lifestyle choices and ultimately lifestyle change, but then again this is a drama not a life coaching show. It could have been such a good platform for it though.

I liked how the main female lead sets her goals, sets her mind, and then WORKS HARD for it, this includes achieving her dream of becoming a lawyer. It is hard and she has lapses but this is where her “village” picks up their cue and helps her out. I should say very cute, very supportive, and very loyal village :D. Her superior/friend’s reason for hating her is shallow, it wasn’t the female lead’s fault that the blind date was a jerk. Quite honestly I felt her story about not being able to bear a child was unnecessary apart from informing viewers that this is a side effect of an unhealthy way of losing weight. That and the tons of flashbacks felt forced. I get the tap tap premise but NO communication for a year is very harsh and unrealistic really.

For the acting, I give everyone 2 thumbs up except So Ji Sub. He gets my standing ovation! Working in the rehab profession myself I see how hard motivated people push themselves to work (physically and mentally) and oh my, SJS researched his part well! I felt his pain and his resolve with every grunt and every bead of sweat. I mean there is working out in the gym and then there’s working out in rehab and he nailed it!

Music was so so and for rewatch value, yes! This will be one of my faves and yes I highly recommend you to watch this cute drama, it may even motivate you to make healthier choices in 2019 :)

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simply amazing

i really liked this drama. not only does it have a great story to tell, but it's also really charming, funny and leaves a great impact on you. i personally think it's an amazing idea to teach others about psychological diseases as well, and i appreciated that. the music was amazing, always fit in at the right moments and simply expressed a lot of things that made me feel like i was a part of the drama myself (i'm quite sad the whistle tune isn't a song tho ;-;). the chemistry between the main characters was very visibly strong and i liked that, too. it's my new favourite drama as of now :)

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disappointment of the year...

Man, I was so excited to watch this drama because I heard so many good things about So Ji Sub and was loving Shin Min Ah in Homecha, but these two great actors just ended up picking an absolutely horrible script. I already knew that 2014-2017 was a dark time for dramas (at least in my opinion) in terms of the same overused cliches in all romcoms, but this drama is just something else entirely. As someone who had her own share of issues with food and exercise, I was really hoping that this drama would present some good information on leading a healthy lifestyle, however Oh My Venus just ended up reinforcing all the common lies of korean diet culture and I was hugely disappointed with this drama because of this first and foremost. I won’t go into detail since it’s going to feel like beating a dead horse at this point (I left a comment with a majority of my complaints in the comment section) so I will address the storytelling issues in this review instead. This drama greatly suffers from what I call the “leads getting together too soon in a drama where the only storyline is the romance between the main leads” syndrome. The title is a work in progress. Basically this drama made a grave mistake of getting the leads together extremely early and had no more story or conflict left to tell. Everything else that followed after the couple got together just felt like meaningless filler. They should have seriously considered ending this drama at 10 episodes, but Korea for some reason has a weird 16 episode quota. I am one of those weird people that was rooting for the second leads, and their relationship actually had some conflicts and issues which I honestly appreciated in the never-ending sea of happiness and fluff that was the rest of the drama. And maybe a little because I could relate to Oh Sujin just a little bit. I don’t think I even need to mention the weird separation at episode 13 because what even was that? I usually get mad at these things but I was so apathetic to everything by episode 10 that I just kind of didn’t even care. Still, it’s hella weird and I would have 100% given the ML a hard time about it if I was the FL. This last one is a very personal complaint because I haven’t seen anybody say it here, but I honestly preferred the second lead couple to the main couple. Not exactly because their love line was any healthier, more interesting, etc. It’s genuinely because they just had more substance. Their characters felt a million times more fleshed out than the main couple. They actually had flaws. All that Yeongho and Jueun had to offer was never-ending love and understanding for one another. Sounds healthy and it probably was, but damn it I was so bored when I was watching them. There was zero tension, zero everything. It just felt too easy and too similar to everything else I’ve seen in kdramas. They were too perfect, too understanding, too nice. Everything about them felt so vanilla that I found it hard to ship them. They were too generic and honestly just became really boring once they lost their personalities after getting together. That’s it. That’s the review. Oh my venus is too overhyped and I’m too burnt out from writing college essays to care about wrapping up this review nicely. So yeah. There’s way better dramas out there so don’t waste your time with this.

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Loved this one. Total transformation

9/10 is my rating. This is a 2015 South Korean drama with 16 episodes. Having a painful and debilitating childhood illness, Kim Young-Ho (So Ji-Sub) is now a personal trainer to Hollywood stars. Although he has stayed away from Korea because he and his father do not get along, he returns to avoid a scandal that erupts in America with one of his clients. Kang Joo-eun (Shin Min-A) is a 33 year old layer who was recently dumped by her 15 year boyfriend and finds that her physique is not what it once was. In her younger years she was a locally famous beauty who was even encouraged to try for miss Korea. After finding out about Kim Young-Ho's secret identity, she strikes a deal with him to help her transform back into the slender beauty she once was.

Spoiler ? I really liked this one as I could identify with it on so many levels. I struggle with my weight and have Hashimotos (hypothyroidism) so that was a compelling and interesting element. Some might have felt there was fat shaming going on but I do not think it always helps to hide the elephant in the room. I have always felt if I was able to line myself up with a lifestyle trainer who was a good fit for me (it would have to be a balance between empathy and suck it up sister) I could have the success I have various times on the yo yo. It's like a new type of night in shining armor he is a medical expert so he well knows what she needs to do to cure her body. I liked how you could see their feelings toward each other growing over time. I loved his two “sons” and the way they were with the female lead. She became like their surrogate mother/older sister. I loved when she would “fall off the wagon” and sometimes it was like “treat day” and other times it was no – really you don't need to eat that. She was a kind person regardless of what she looked like and it definitely showed that. I liked the “we all have our struggles” message and how you can do whatever you set your mind to. I also like the way her relationship between her, her boyfriend, and long time female friend evolved over time. The male lead was willing to fight for their love without hesitation (he was going to take Grandma ON). But he didn't need to because Grandma saw all she needed to in terms of knowing that was the right girl for her grandson. I liked that our girl was an ethical lawyer and how they pointed out weak points in the law (such as stalking). It was just a great, feel good, movie for me. If you are overly sensitive to people calling it how it is (you have some weight to lose) you may not like that aspect of this or it may spoil the movie for you. But if you get the connection between weight, hypothyroidism and health and feel that those that care about you should help on that journey – you will.

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Most of this was absolutely brilliant, with a great story, a fantastic couple with superb chemistry and some really good characters around them. Acting was top notch, the music was good (particularly the short "whistle" instrumental that you can't get on the OST sadly). But it ran out of steam, at a very minimum the last episode was almost entirely unnecessary and I was just watching it largely waiting for it to end so I could mark it off as completed, nothing really happened.

The general premise for this one was one that had me concerned and while i originally added it to my list because it's the same actress from Tomorrow With You, but the topic of the female lead being overweight had me a bit concerned just because it's so easy to be really negative about it - and as an overweight person (all my own fault, not claiming that the universe has it against me or anything), I just don't find that kind of thing entertaining to watch.

Happy to say that I felt the topic of obesity was actually covered really well, with an underlying message that "what's inside matters more than what's outside". She's getting blood tests, not just checking her weight, fixing her diet and changing other aspects of her life like how and when she sleeps, integrating exercise into her life - losing weight is a lot more than just "eat less" and that's very well covered in this. There is another character, Soo-jin, who starts out overweight and by the time the main thrust of the story starts she's swapped with the main character and is now slim - but as the story progresses you can see she's not really taken care of "within" and is really not healthy as a result.

I really enjoyed the chemistry of the two characters, they work well together and were a joy to watch.

I thought that the wrist-grabs on this one were over the top - bordering on assault - dragging her by her wrist somewhere or yanking her around really quickly and suddenly. I know that the wrist-grab is a thing in Korea but this was one of the more extreme examples i've seen in KDrama and it looked really unpleasant.

I was also a little disappointed that in this story he basically re-arranges his life to help her, it's wonderful how much time and effort he puts into helping her turn her life around - but when it comes to his own problems, he completely locks her out and she has no way to help, he doesn't like seeing the people around him hurting and the best thing anyone can do to help him is to leave him to suffer on his own. I don't like that message at all, i'd have been so much happier if he'd taken a brave step to let her in and lean on her for the support that she was so desperate to give.

The final scene literally had me laugh out loud, I *have* to assume it was put on at the end purely for the "lols" and to tick off the standard kdrama elements - for no good reason at all, without any prior commentary to allude to it, suddenly, you find out that for a brief moment, they knew each other as kids. It adds nothing, it's completely pointless :) I don't consider this a spoiler because, well, uhm, it was pointless. :)

Summary - Up until the last couple of episodes this was one of my favourites, but it ran out of steam and just started rambling at the end. Some of the side plots didn't feel like they had good conclusions, but the main thrust of the story with the central couple was warm and good to watch. The "extravagant dowry" demand from the grand mother was nicely handled too, but i'll not say more on that one :)

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My only regret is not watching it sooner

This was such a refreshing drama.

The main leads had a healthy relationship and were not afraid to express their love for each other. They flirted and acted cute but not in an overly annoying way.

The side characters were goofy and funny. They created great opportunity for the main leads to be happy with each other.

The 2ML and 2FL had their own issues but they did not try to create trouble for the main couple. It was good to watch a drama with no love triangles or a side characters trying to break up the main leads.

Although it's a transformation story about losing weight, the message is clear - you are sexy when you are healthy.

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Sono perplessa

Alloraaaa.. La storia è carina ma non riesco a capire un paio di cose 1 che ce frega a noi della storia d'amore dell'amica con il primo amore della protagonista che l'ha cornificata 2 perche quello èstato un anno in ospedale senza farsi vedere ,ho capito "non voglio che mi vedi cosi" ma un anno? Poi fanno tutte ste scene a favore delle persone con disabilitàe poi trasmettono il messaggio che se sei malato le persone che ti amano di piùnon possono stare al tuo fianco 3 gli ultimo 3 eoisodi luuunghi e troppo pieni di dettagli totalmente inutili 4 ma il clichéalla fine ,me lo hai fatto fini,gia hai allungato il brodo e mo ha fatto due @@ cosi .. Poi mi metti pure sta scena finale banale e inutile e priva di poeticità 5 si guarisce dall iperoidismo in un anno,io shoccata 6 vero che bisogna mangiare bene per noi stessi e la nostra salute e fare sport ma qui fanno passare il messaggio "se sei grasso vieni tradito o non puoi essere amato",vero anche lei orendere 26 kg in due mesi èun pótroppo,ma lui che vuole far allenare la moglie incinta. In 3 episodi mi hanno distruttouna serie. :@

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Esse dorama nem tentou disfarçar a gordofobia, a história e alguns personagens são interessantes se não fosse pelo bullying totalmente desnecessário com uma personagem que só está alguns kilos acima do peso. Entendo que isso é algo muito forma dos costumes de lá e se a pessoa não se encaixar um pouco nos padrões é excluída e motivo de piada, mas é algo extremamente problemático. Conseguiria terminar de assistir se fossem algumas cenas específicas, mas literalmente faz parte da história inteira do dorama, e é uma pena porque temos atores muitos bons e personagens com histórias intrigantes.

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This drama simply makes one happy ^_^

It's about a girl which we first see in her highschool years where she's very popular and pretty. Later on we see her in her adult life which is the complete opposite of her highschool life. Well, she got the job she wanted but she gained weight and is unhappy with her lovelife. By accident she meets Kim Yeong Ho who becomes her personal trainer to get a healthier lifestyle. During the drama they get to know one another better and more than better haha :D

I have to say I watched this drama with lots of joy, sure it was dramatic at some points and actually it speaks about a lot of issues people have such as depression, unhealthy living and scars people have to live with, but they made it so enjoyable to watch!
I loved the chemistry between the main cast although I'm actually not a huge fan of the actors, but they brought so much emotion and feelings across that I couldn't take my eyes off them.
 
I also really liked the supporting roles like Kim Ji Woong and Jang Joon Sung. I loved their character developend and how attached they got to Kang Joo Eun.

The Music was also very good, placed at the right moments, I still have "a beautiful lady" in my ear and can't get it out of my brain xD

I would definitely rewatch this drama just because it makes you smile and it's a beautiful and simple (well "simple" could be argued) romance to fall in love with.

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