Suflete Pereche (2013)

This one surprised me, in a good way

I love this show!! So Ji Sub could read the phone book and I would love it. Seo In Guk, pretty much the same thing. I love them both. Gong Hyo Jin was excellent - she was pretty over the top in the first few episodes and then kind of settled into her character. I've watched this multiple times and enjoyed it each time.

I really liked the paranormal aspects of the show. Normally, that might not be something that I'm drawn to, but I could really feel the FL's angst/fear/exhaustion of having a "gift" that she considered a curse. Her loneliness was another thing that was almost palpable - to be forced to keep yourself apart from everyone was so sad, and that emotion was demonstrated so well.

There was a lot of humor in this show as well. When you've got two characters that don't exactly know what to do with each other, that could go in either direction. Thankfully, the writers knew what to do with the characters and I enjoyed the ride.

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Usually, this is not my genre (the show is a bit on the horror side and, except for vampire stuff, I get scared quite easily), but I was so attracted by the cast (I love both So Ji Sub and Gong Hyo Jin) that I decided to give it a chance.
The show is overall lovely, although in my humble opinion it drags itself out too much.
So Ji-Sub and Gong Hyo Jin are simply amazing together, all my stars are for them. They really have great chemistry but, most of all, they're so good. The same story acted by someone else could've been much worse, but they can make any plot believable and enjoyable.

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Tae Gong Shil was the "Tae Yang" aka. big sun in her class. She was pretty, smart and had many friends until one day she had a terrible accident. She was in a coma and after she woke up, she could see ghosts. Being scared of them, she wasn't able to sleep and stayed at home all day to prevent running into ghosts that wouldn't leave her alone until she helped them. But this fact changes one day, when she meets Ju Jung Won. Whenever he touches her, the ghosts disappear. To use him as a shelter, she actually starts working at the shopping mall he owns and slowly he gets dragged into her world.

At first I was really scared of this drama. The ghosts look awful at first and I really understand why Gong Sil would be scared. But in the end, I got used to them and started to like the stories of the ghosts. They definitely are one of the good parts in this drama, since they never disappear. It's always about ghosts, not just some excuse or decoration around a main romance story.

Also, all the side characters are lovable. At first you might think you will end up disliking some of them, but it's really nice to see them come and go and add a bit to the story. They are all lovable characters.

What was lacking again is the ending. This drama was made by the Hong sisters, who also made My girlfriend is a Gumhio, You're Beautiful, Big, etc. and most of the time, I have a big problem with their endings. This time I didn't actually have a problem with it, it's just that it was lacking compared to the rest of the show. It might or might not be because of the one episode they had to add. They actually managed well to add one episode, the story still was interesting and cute. But I felt like it dragged and should've ended at some earlier point. Especially since the excitement level at the end was just too low for my taste. Where normally one episode wraps everything up, it felt like there were three wrap up episodes.

But on the good side, I was really happy while watching this drama. I would even say it's as nice as Greatest Love, since they didn't mess up the story (like in Gumiho or Big...).

My biggest reason for loving this drama is the acting. They are all just so great and lovely. My favorite part is when Ju Jung Won starts to talk to things he can't see. It just made his character 1000% more adorable and made him look so much in love with Gong Sil.

All in all, I don't regret watching it and even though it might not be as much a 10* drama as other dramas I've rated it still among them, it was still too good to rate it worse, especially after going back and comparing it with other Hong Sister dramas. Last but not least: please don't be scared of the ghosts in this drama! You will get used to them and they are all nice.

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Aurait pu être bien mieux

Tout est dans le titre, j'ai aimé ce drama mais à mon sens certaines choses m'ont beaucoup gênées et m'ont, je pense, empêchées de profiter à fond de la série.
Tout d'abord, les points positifs: bien que l'on retrouve les clichés de tous les dramas de comédie romantique, l'ajout d'histoires de fantômes est particulièrement palpitante, je me suis intéressé.e à chaque aventure et j'ai été très touché.e pour chacun des dénouements qui ont eu lieu. De plus, on voit bien la progression et le changement des personnages principaux, ils grandissent au travers des épreuves qu'ils affrontent ensemble.
J'ai également aimé le fait que beaucoup de personnages, même très secondaires, possèdent un background et qu'on y fasse référence même un peu. Les acteurs jouent bien leurs rôles et on ne s'ennuie pas pendant les épisodes.
Par contre, et là j'aborde les points qui m'ont dérangés, bien que les acteurs jouent bien, je pense - et c'est un avis tout personnel - que la distribution a été mal faite pour deux d'entre eux. Il s'agit du des lead et second lead masculins. D'après moi, le drama aurait gagné à ce qu'ils soient inversés. Je ne remets pas du tout en cause la façon de jouer de So Si Jub ( Ju Jung Won), je l'ai d'ailleurs beaucoup aimé dans Oh My Venus, mais je trouve que Seo In Guk (Kang Wu) est bien plus charismatique et conviendrait bien plus au rôle que lui et dans le même temps, So Si Jub aurait été parfait en garde du corps.
Ensuite, pour parler de la direction des acteurs, je dois avouer que l'actrice Kim Yu Ri ( Tae Yi Ryeong) m'est apparu particulièrement insupportable tout au long des épisodes, en excluant le dernier, en jouant son rôle de gamine capricieuse qui se met à hurler pour tout et n'importe quoi et qui s'impose a n'importe quel moment de l'histoire. En résumé elle ne fait qu'être agaçante et se rend ainsi dispensable du drama.
Pour finir, je ne dirai pas que je n'ai pas aimé, loin de là mais il ne sera sûrement pas dans ma liste de dramas à revoir un jour, par contre j'irai voir d'autres dramas avec Seo In Guk en lead masculin comme Shopping King Louis, par exemple.

Maintenant, à vous de vous faire votre avis.

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For a while there, I thought this would end up being one of my favorite dramas. The acting was phenomenal. The characters were phenomenal. The story was phenomenal. It was all so phenomenal. It was also one of those rare dramas from my newbie drama days where the stories outside of the romance actually interested me. Normally, I didn't care about so and so's conglomerate or singing career or whatever other boring and cliché overarching story the writers came up with, because I was there for the romance, damn it. But not this drama. I loved the whole idea of there being this woman who could see ghosts, but she doesn't know how to make them go away, and then meeting a random man who had some unexplained ability to get rid of them. It was compelling and tightly plotted, full of the kind of twisted logic only a drama can deliver.

I even got some enjoyment out of Joong Won's kidnapping and betrayal story. The idea of him being kidnapped and simultaneously betrayed by his teenaged girlfriend/teenaged girlfriends evil twin was overdramatic and unrealistic and filled with plotholes, but it had such a great initial setup that I couldn't help but be drawn in. I was excited to see what was going to happen. I totally called the whole thing falling apart long beforehand, so I wasn't surprised when it veered off into left field towards the middle of the drama, but it was still disappointing to see. The whole plotline was total makjang, confusing and silly and hard to follow. Hee Joo, Han Na, Anna, Falanna, Fee Fi Fo, Banana, let's forget about the fact that a teenage girl could not plan out a kidnapping like that (or really any kidnapping) by herself, we were also given very little explanation for Why she did it. At least not a strong one. So your nice twin stole your man without him realizing that was what was happening (although I don't know just how 'nice' that makes her.) Why you gotta kidnap Him for it? It wasn't His fault. The more logical option would have been to just kill your twin and take over her life so you could date Joong Won. Still messed up, but at least the logic follows.

It's in the four main characters and the romance where this drama really shines though.

I liked pretty much all of the leads (minus one) equally. Gong Shil is adorable, hilarious, full of emotional depth, and dogged in her pursuit of relief from ghosts. Her plight was both comical and heartrendingly sad. When she batted away a ghost or reeled back from one in fear, I laughed and felt for her at the same time. Joong Won is obsessive compulsive, highly intelligent, full of emotional depth, and dogged in his pursuit of relief from Gong Shil. His journey of self discovery and growth is superbly done and kept me very invested in his character. He's the same man at the end of the story, same quirks and mannerisms, and yet...he's a completely different person in so many ways.

Kang Woo was too precious for words. Loyal, sweet, adorable, intelligent, in possession of one of the most beautiful faces ever gifted to man, basically the perfect secondary male lead. He doesn't experience any kind of growth, but he doesn't really need to. He's Kang Woo. And once again, let's acknowledge the obvious. Man is DOUBLE FINE. (It's like a double rainbow but better.) Yi Ryung was the only one of the main four that didn't wow me. Spoiled and snobbish and hilarious in the most unintentional ways (intentional on the part of the writers, unintentional on the part of the character), I liked her. But I never loved her. She never experienced the amount of emotional growth and maturity I wanted her to.

Han Na and Hee Joo's teenage versions were interesting (despite the utter insanity of of the kidnapping and betrayal plot). Unfortunately, adult Hee Joo does not get a pass from me. I'm sure it was explained at some point and I just missed it, but I never understood why she showed back up. What did she want? What was her goal? She'd killed her sister, ruined Joong Won's life, and stole an expensive necklace for fun. (Or did she? I've actually forgotten now.) Did she just want to gloat about it?

In what is a rare turn me for me, I found myself experiencing some heavy second lead feels with this drama. This was particularly distressing to me, as I loved the male lead equally as much. Joong Won and Kang Woo were both perfectly acceptable romance options for Gong Shil, having equally compelling chemistry and relationships with her that were very carefully developed and thought through.

Some people would consider Joong Won a jerk and not worth Gong Shil's time, but I wouldn't classify him that way. If I were in a similar situation as him and someone I'd never met started following me around trying to touch me all the time because the 'ghosts' wouldn't leave them alone...I'd call the police. You really can't call Joong Won a jerk for trying to make a weird, kind of creepy woman leave him alone. Yes, his way(s) of avoiding his feelings for Gong Shil later on in the drama were unfair and not particularly kind, but they weren't intentionally malicious either.

Of course, Kang Woo filled the role of perfect second male lead to perfection, and that's the whole reason I had so much trouble squashing my second lead feels. If he'd had the ability to make the ghosts disappear rather than Joong Won and Gong Shil had shown romantic interest in him, I would have rooted for him instead. But Gong Shil and Joong Won liked each other, and he was the only one who could make the ghosts go away, and I really wanted Gong Shil to not have to see them anymore, so Joong Won...won...in the end. (That is a name ripe for puns.)

Intense second lead feels aside, I would say this romance is very well done. Gong Shil's constant need to be in contact with Joong Won contrasted with his desperate desire to get rid of her provided us with a hilarious give and take situation that I thoroughly enjoyed. And then when the tables were turned and it was him who needed the constant contact, it just made my heart go awwwww. The whole 'I love you, so you have to make sure I don't love you' thing was a surprisingly brilliant and effective plot device, even if incredibly silly character wise. Watching him try to deny his feelings was like watching those kids who take part in those experiments where they have to not eat something for a certain period of time in order to get something better. Only in this case, there was no reason for him to wait for something better, because Gong Shil was already perfect for him.

But the 'I love you. Don't let me love you' plot device eventually turned into a double edged sword, and it soon became obvious to everyone that all Gong Shil and Joong Won really wanted was to be together, and no matter how many reasons they came up with as to why they Couldn't be together, there was just no longer a legitimate reason for them Not to be together. Then it became a waiting game; a long, drawn out, waiting game where the only way to pass the time was to place bets on who would give in first.

And what better time for a third quarter shake up then right when our leads are on the cusp of admitting their undying love for each other. (That is a joke. It was not a good time. It was a bad time. It was terrible. I want my money back.) No, I'm not talking about Joong Won dying and then coming back with no memory of Gong Shil. Surprisingly, after sitting down and working out my feelings about it, I realized that that actually happened at the perfect point in the story.

I'm talking about Mr. 'I can see ghosts too.'

I understand why he was there. The drama was extended unexpectedly, and they needed to fill the extra time. But the characters presence is ultimately unnecessary. He adds nothing to the plot, he doesn't help Gong Shil find any answers, and he has it in his head that he has some kind of romantic claim on her because he met her ghost once. Nah, son. That ain't how that works.

In the end, our leads do still get a happy ending, but they also have to suffer through some rather unnecessary heartache before getting there. And they deliver to the audience what is a super weak-sauce kiss. Maybe the writers thought all the casual touching would be enough to satisfy the audience, but they thought wrong. Lame kiss was lame.

Despite it's faults, this drama does have a lot to commend itself, and I would recommend watching it.

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This is the first drama that had me in fear and also curiousity. At first I thought this will certainly be more of a comedy to me instead of ghost fearing drama. But during the first few minutes, I had already felt the fear of ghost existence around there. With the sound of the thunder and the atmosphere of the whole dark venue, I admit it it was awesome!

However, this drama drag me in it and I am very curious what is going to happen. With this fresh written romantic- comedy ghost drama, I am having anticipation of it and I think I will not get bored of it.

Overall I think that GHJ's and SJS's acting is a wow to me as this is the first time I ever saw them act. Overall I think this will be a good drama.( This is my first time reviewing a drama so I don't know how to, I am just trying it out^^)

PS: The ghosts in it are really scary.

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