Prietena Surorii Mele (2018)

Do you like watching people walk?

Walking in the rain? On a sunny day? At night? To the store? To work? Home from work? Down hallways between apartments?

Or maybe you prefer people standing... On rooftops, contemplating. At elevators, waiting. At curbsides, flagging taxis.

THEN THIS IS THE SHOW FOR YOU!

And none of that walking is marred by any dialogue! You simply have lots of time to embrace the visual of walking and standing, often with uninterrupted camera shots void of any close-ups to capture facial expressions.

I saw an interview where HB and SYJ were asked what they did to prepare for CLOY. He had to bulk up at the gym, work with a dialect coach, and learn piano. She said she had to learn to be funny so she watched a lot of comedies. At the time, I thought she had it easier, but now I can see that might not have been the case. There are maybe 2 amusing scenes in all 16 episodes. This is truly a MELODRAMA.

The show takes itself very seriously. It addresses age-difference dating, sexual harassment in the workplace, infidelity, stalking, and persisting discrimination between families of different social status. I wish it were compressed to 8 or 12 episodes. Or if some of the subplots were dropped, it could have been an enjoyable movie.

The first half is slightly better paced, and the chemistry between the leads is strong. Jung Have In is adorable. The acting from the entire cast is really superb. Jang So Yeon (who you may recognize as the wire tapper's wife from CLOY) won Best Supporting for her role at a number of award ceremonies. If you want to skip the second half, I've provided spoilers below.

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The ex-boyfriend never returns after they successfully do the cell phone exchange. FL goes on blind date to appease her mother without telling ML. Her BFF sees her on the blind date and they fight. ML pretty upset about it too when he learns but not as much as his sister. Meanwhile, mom kicks FL out of the family house. She is trying to find a place but they are all scuzzy (unclear how ML and the BFF can have such nice apartments but FL, whose home gave her back all the rent she's paid over the last decade cannot). ML decides it is best for them to move in together; FL rejects that. Then, given the sexual harassment lawsuit, he decides they should up and leave and go to USA -- and gets his boss to reassign him. She's pissed at that, plus she just finally signed for an apartment, and they break up.
Meanwhile, at work, FL gets threatened by corporate lawyer that they will drag her through the mud if she persists with sexual harassment claim. She blackmails her boss with telling him she will go to his family with the video and an audio recording of him admitting he did wrong. He agrees to post a letter of apology on the company bulletin board. The more senior boss gets away with it all. When the promotion list comes out, the other women get real promotions and she gets a lateral assignment to a new position outside of the corporate office at the logistics warehouse.
Skip ahead a few years... FL still working at the warehouse and living solo in her apartment. Her closest friend from work has quit CoffeeBAY and has opened a restaurant on Jeju island. The FL's younger brother is getting married and ML returns from USA for the wedding. FL has new boyfriend that mom approves of but he leaves wedding to attend business deal and she sees ML and gets all flustered. He is still pining for her.
FL tries talking with her old BFF but she will not forgive her. FL decides to break it off with new boyfriend and to quit job and move to JeJu island to help with her colleague's restaurant there. ML is packing to return to USA and hears the recording he made on his phone. He tracks her down to JeJu island and they hug in the rain. Presumably she will go to USA with him this time but really the future is left wide open.

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Turn Down the sound

I'm never a reviewer. I cant take this apart piece by piece. But i will try to make my recommendation as to how to watch this.
The story unfolds beautifully and kept my attention immediately.
You will see people that seem to genuinely interact with each other. you will see long pauses and long hesitations in the dialogue. It is stretched almost to a breaking point. you will hang on their every word.

Do not be afraid. Luckily the subtitles can keep up - very easily. If you are listening for their dialogue, you will not be able to hear it because of the poorly inserted music. I believe it is all in English and I know it is loud. The music drowns out the voices. I hated the monotonal singer Rachael Yamagata covers and really bad Bruce Willis singing Save the Last Dance For Me. If I never hear Stand By Your Man again, it will be too soon. This show ruined some songs for me.
After learning to turn down the music and letting the sound just quietly go on in the background, I read and watched this drama.
The style and wardrobe are minimal and drab. They practically sleep in their coats. And sleep in their clothes. It never improves until the absolute last scene.
The end two episodes were disappointing. I rewatched them hoping that i was missing something. I wasn't. But I would rewatch the drama again.

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Beautiful yet bewildering

This show was always on my list of things to watch but continuously shelved in favour of something else. But then, having watched One Spring Night, I decided to finally give this a go.

The show is divided into three parts: a very good beginning, an excellent middle but then a lacklustre ending that collapses in its own contradictions and frustrating character decisions. I enjoyed the budding romance between Jun-Hai and Jina-a and really liked the social commentary on why certain people are looked down upon. The growing conflict between Jina-a and her family regarding her personal life boils once they find out. On that front, the show does really well.

But it's problems are namely two things: lack of attention to different subplots that have little interaction with each other, and basically character stupidity. I'm going to focus on the latter first. I don't understand the hell Jina-a gets from everyone, especially her best friend who, only few episodes earlier witnessed Jina-a being sexually assaulted. There's a bewildering lack of empathy amongst the support characters for what Jina-a is enduring. But both Jun-hai and Jina-a are frustrating for acting like martys, paragons of suffering who just silently endure all abuse yet reprimand each other for these very same things. Jina-a's ex-boyfriend was a serial creep, yet Jina-a's method was to keep ignoring and enduring as his behaviour got worse. Her habit of keeping things a secret from Jun-hai, knowing he'd be annoyed, only to then apologise later sheepishly knowing he'd be too seduced to stay angry, these things didn't sit well. She has a tendency to allow conflicts to fester through her passivity, be it with her family, her best friend or even in the workplace.

Jun-hai is similarly frustrating in his inability to convey to his sister that he wants freedom to make his own choices, in his persistence in silently tolerating things knowing fully well this upsets Jina-a even more. I really didn't like the pressures he put on her regarding her housing problem. I loathed how he was in many ways crippling her independence.

The other thing the show suffers from is the lack of connectivity between different subplots, although perhaps it's intentional to show that no-one understands what Jina-a goes through. The workplace conflict was extremely interesting but it only ever got 10 or 15 minutes in any given episode and this just was never enough time.

I became really frustrated with the show towards the end. Both the lead characters simply are not likeable enough.

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I can feel coffee's smell thinking about that drama

"Stand by your man and show the world you love him.."
"Sometimes it's hard to be a woman.." - these songs were absolutely catchy that after almost a year I can still hear them well in my head, but honestly they started to be annoying after few episodes.

The acting of her mother was so good that I was close to crush my screen to not hear her yelling and not see her awful face. That actress impressed me the most. The story about those two was very interesting, I really like the development of it and the presence of coffee industry which is personally really interesting for me. That was the first drama I watched and then I started to love korean's history and culture. I will defnitely come back to it. Although the story was a little bit too long and the last few episodes were a bit boring. This is the only disatvantage of that show.

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O związku, troszkę bardziej przyziemnie.

Jessu, jak generalnie lubie dramy gdzie związek/miłość ukazana jest jak najbardziej w zbliżony realistyczny sposób.
Ostatnio w tym stylu oglądałam "I need romance" i jak na moją średnio pokaźną listę, dopiero teraz miałam wrażenie że mega przyjemne wrażenia się powtórzą. I tak było, gdzieś do połowy? maratonu, bo po przełamaniu pierwszych lodów przez Jinę i Joon Heeiego atmosfera zaczyna wyparowywać.
Nagłe problemy w związku? Nie, to tylko zwyczajny brak większej fabuły. Oczywiście nie jest to żadna nowość ażeby seria była w głównej mierze na temat związku głównej pary bohaterów i wątków pobocznych do dekoracji, o ile odcinki trwają między 40-60 min. W tym przypadku nie wiem co komuś strzeliło do głowy by odcinek rozciągnąć do do aż prawie półtoragodzinnego seansu. Szybko można wywnioskować że zaloty, umizgi i całuski J&J po prostu nie wystarczają. Ba! nawet wątki poboczne na dłuższą metę nie potrafią wypełnić dziury i zapewnić oglądającemu na tyle zaciekawienia by wytrwał tę naprawdę przeciągniętą historyjkę do końca.
I tak się stało w moim przypadku. Z początku była oczarowana, bo może adrenalina mi nie skakała co odcinek, miło było popatrzyć na kolejne love story tym razem w wydaniu bardziej przyziemnym, w którym chociażby para nie odgrywa całowania się ze ścianą >.> Kiedy największe atrakcje odcinka przemijały resztę zwyczajnie odechciało się oglądać. Wiele momentów musiała przewijać,bo ślimacze tempo nie dało się ratować już żadnym problemem gdy czujesz że z tej dramy w sumie to nic nie wynika i donikąd prowadzi. Nawet jakiegoś nadzwyczajnego endingu. Nawet jakiejś puenty, myśli na później. Kilka ładnych widoków w melodię Omary Portuondo.

Myślę, że pozycja zadowoli ludzi po związkowych przejściach z racji tego że"może?" się trochę w tym odnajdą...
Dla przeciętniaków, najważniejsze w tej dramie jest te kilka uroków i o ile im to wystarczy tak długo myślę że się ucieszą miłością pod kropelkami deszczu :)

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Felt Lost

I agree with a lot of the reviews on here in that i loved where this shows head was that for the first six to eight episodes. And then... things got murky. It may be because I don't understand all the complexities and nuances of Korean culture, but I felt kind of lost I wasn't sure where this story was going. One minute it was love and butterflies and the next minute it's screaming and I just felt like none of the story lines were really finished. Be it the romance part, the family part, or the sexual harassment in the office part. I felt like all of these parts of the story where only partly covered and never truly finished in the end this kind of left me shaking my head wondering what had actually happened. I'm not sorry i finished this show and overall i enjoyed it.

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Dramas raising the boyfriend requirement standards

Freaking love this drama cuz of the plot and the acting. The main guy literally raises the standard bar for men so high it literally doesn't exist, unless obviously in dramas like these :( The plot was different because of the age gap concept and how people around us see and react to people with such big age gaps get together. The romance was really really cute, I mean they had their clique moments but hey, it was totally worth it.

And I would totally tell you to watch this if you're into cute forbidden kinda romance. The music weren't really my kinda music so I wouldn't really say anything about that

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This drama held my heart and squeezed it. Everything about Jin-ah and Joon-Hee’s relationship was so deep and raw. The sincere and bottomless love for each other is poured into every scene, it felt like I was falling in love along with them. I think it was everything about Joon-Hee’s character and Hae-In’s acting that captured my heart, he was so in love with Jin-ah it made me ache, especially when things weren’t going well for them.

The intimacy of the whole drama just added to the emotion over load. The colours were so warm and cozy. Not only this, but some of the shots were filmed through blinds which made it seem like your watching something you shouldn’t be watching. I loved this aspect of the drama.

I had some problems however, one of them being Jin-ah’s controlling parents. I think this is a culture thing, I know that Asian parents can be a bit more controlling than western parents due to their collectivist culture. This is fine but doesn't make it right. It also felt unnecessary at times, especially her mother with her unrelenting dramatic sighs - wow. Jin-ah not challenging this to the extent that she should have also angered me and frustrated me. Going on that blind date - what was she thinking?! I understand not wanting to lose your family but when it costs you your happiness the solution is clear in my opinion.

Also, another problem was how some characters wanted Jin-ah to take responsibility for things that were out of her control, this happened whenever her ex turned up and caused trouble. Joon-Hee as well as her brother got mad about this and directed their anger towards her, which I think is completely wrong. This is the only fault I can find in Joon-Hee’s character, he is still a bean boy in almost every way.

These problems aside my love and emotions towards this drama are strong. This couple has set my expectations very high, RIP my love life.

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The story is good at two-thirds of its entirety.

I just don't feel good about the immature decisions they made and not being able to stand up on their own, even if they're already on the right ages. Also, I don't like the way they keep on lying to each other, even if they are white lies, so to keep bothering the other person. The storyline towards the end looked rushed though which left me thinking whether there would be season 2.

Other than these, the acting and OST are excellent. I love the corporate office and career culture, the restaurant dine-outs and soju sessions, hangover soup, and coffee. I appreciated the Korean hospitality of offering food and drink to visitors and companions.

The chemistry between Joon Hee (Jung Hae In) and Jin Ah (Son Ye Jin) is superb in this story. I love their stolen dates and moments. Joon Hee has a very much teasing and playful character. He draws Jin Ah to the fun and thrills of young, unrequited, and out of the ordinary love. They always find themselves amidst awkward situations where they pretend to hide their feelings from the people around, and this made the early episodes fun to watch.

I'm a fan of honeymoon stages in a relationship so I enjoyed the dating episodes of the story.

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Bons atores, boa historia, mas muitos elementos não necessários

Adorei as atuações, achei todas impecáveis, então não tenho do que reclamar nesse quesito. Porém, alguns pontos na história me fizeram questionar a sua necessidade, pois pareceram jogados apenas para efeito dramático. Acredito que eles poderiam ter se dedicado mais a resolver o drama central envolvendo o casal ao invés de perder tempo o drama extra nos últimos episódios. Torci pelo casal durante todo o percurso, mas algumas atitudes da mocinha me deixaram muito decepcionada e irritada, nem parecia que ela era a mais velha da relação (mais uma vez um ponto que eu acredito que tenha sido para adicionar comoção à trama).

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At first it's fun but over time not so much

This review has spoilers!

This drama doesn't quite follow the most common structure of romance k-dramas, where you usually have some kind of overall plot and even though it's an important part of the show, the romance happens a little bit in the background. I found it interesting how the creators of this show decided to focus almost solely on the relationship of Yoon Jin Ah and Seo Joon Hee. The drama that surrounds them feels like it's there just to add a little bit of suspense, but the show focuses mainly on how their relationship developed, grows, and, well, crashes down. I really enjoyed this aspect, it was cute, made me laugh, made me cry a bit, all good.

Unfortunately, over time:
1. it gets repetitive
2. the soundtrack gets annoying pretty fast
3. the ending felt rushed and borderline lazy.

What I could forgive the easiest is the repetitiveness. I think it could have been edited down a little, the show's editors could have made the pacing a bit better and I don't think it's necessary to have so many flashbacks, where previous scenes are replayed. It would make the episodes shorter which I wouldn't mind at all since they are usually around 1hr and 20 minutes long.

The soundtrack... Listen, I really can't tell if it's because they are songs I already knew and in a language that I understand that it gets annoying or if it's because they are reused So Often throughout even just one episode, that I'm not sure if I can ever listen to these songs again. The songs themselves are good, but the show relies on them a bit too much for my taste.

The worst part about this is the rushed ending. A sudden time jump, which I am already not a fan of, but here it felt like the show was canceled and the writers had to come up with an ending on the spot. It made me really sad and kind of annoyed because even though it technically has a good ending, it's very anticlimactic.

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