Vara Noastră Iubită (2021)

Our year hasn’t ended yet.

Originally written on Apr 02, 2022

K-Dramas are so dumb, in a good way. Our Beloved Summer is the perfect example. After the first episode, it is incredibly predictable how the story is going to develop. You know right away that they’re getting back together. It’s obvious some people are going to try to come between them. Things from their past are coming back to haunt them. It’s all so... by the numbers. Yet, it’s still so much fun to watch and find out if you’re right or if the show has some surprises in store for you.

Our Beloved Summer is such a good comfort watch. Its premise is very interesting, following two people, Kook Yeon-su and Choi Ung, who met each other while shooting a documentary many years ago. Things turned sour, which led to them losing touch. It’s a lot of fun to see how they change throughout the years, growing up while growing more and more apart. When faith leads them to each other again, their adventure starts anew, and it’s very sweet to see them try to figure out their past and try to salvage whatever’s left of their broken relationship.

As with a lot of K-Dramas, Our Beloved Summer is a couple of episodes too long. When it seems that the story is nearing its end, a wrench gets thrown into the works to stretch it out considerably. This should’ve been 12, maybe 13 episodes tops, which would’ve helped a lot with the pacing. Yet, by the time the credits rolled, I wish I could spend more time with these people, because they are just so much fun.

"Everyone has unforgettable memories from a certain year of their life. They cherish those memories so much that it lasts a lifetime. And our year hasn’t ended yet."

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good to see a couple of enemies became a couple with full of romance

drama ini tuh punya kelebihan yang ga dipunyain romcom drama lainnya, dari segi musik, cinematography nya, cerita, alur, cast, bahkan lebih dari kata bagusssss........... pokonya kalian pecinta rom-com, harus nonton ini karena mereka segemoy ituuuu...palagi kalau kalian udah nonton the witch part I atau habis nonton drama ini baru nonton film itu bakal ngerti dahhh, pokonya choi wooshik sama kim dami chemistrynya sangat diancungi jempol ... trus pokonya seru banget, aku udah rewatch dari satu tahun lalu ga selesai selesai, rewatch terussss saking serunya, ini tuh salah satu drama yang buat diriku hampa setelah nonton episode terakhir ... pokonya harus nonton iniii

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Food for the heart, food for the soul

"Our Beloved Summer" is HOW a slow-burn, romance drama should be done. It sunk its emotional hooks into my heart and never let go – and remains my bar for a good drama of this genre. The writing is thoughtful and witty, the acting is nuanced, the language of love is conveyed through beautiful cinematography instead of endless prattle, but the best part is what's under the hood.

Using the reality documentary as a narrative tool, the story of Choi Woong (Choi Woo-shik) and Kook Yeon-soo (Kim Da-mi) comes to life through this unique lens. It grounds this love story squarely in the age of digital and connects it to a young demographic.

It's roughly divided into 3 phases: the puppy love of teenagers, the tumultuous and tortured relationship of twenty somethings, and the hard realities of professionals dealing with career and adulthood. But there's another invisible division to the storyline: on-cam and off-cam. The docu cam follows them all throughout capturing the milestones of the couples' lives. Off cam, the storytelling becomes more eloquent, telling us what REALLY happens BTS.

In an age when most K-dramas are mindless time-sucks, "Our Beloved Summer" is a worthy investment in time. It offers so much more to deconstruct than just relationships. its about growing up. It's about the dumb luck of success and failure that happens despite your laziness or hard work. It's about vulnerability and art. It's about the futility of ambition in a career-obsessed society. It's about how loving adopted parents trump a biological father who chickens out.

The documentary narrative tool also gives viewers the BEST ending I've seen in a while in a K-drama with that garden scene where it's stated that they've gotten married (thank God no marching-down-the-aisle scene) and it's time for the next installment of their reality show.

Here are the other things I love about this series:

• Best acting by far by a male and female lead – and at this point, I've watched a lot. Choi Woo-shik IS Woong – his subtle acting makes a loser character lovable and multi-dimensional, while Kim Da-mi pulls off the hard feat of making an obnoxious character like Yeon-soo relatable, even sympathy-worthy. In the end, I understood her, even though she is the most flawed character in the series and the main source of heartache. I am also surprised that I didn’t hate the dominant-woman/weak-man dynamic of the lovers – while I love strong women leads, I hate irrational ones – and Yeon-soo can be irrational. And until Woong, I have never empathized with a weak, spoiled male lead, let alone stay with him on his journey to finding his passion. I guess that’s a testament to Woo-shik’s superb acting.

• In terms of pacing, I wasn’t bored by this – the dialogue was mostly fast-paced with only a few lags. But it still cements my view that romances, no matter how well directed or scripted, are stretched at 16 episodes at 1 hour each. Even this gem of a script lags a little in the middle like that forced vacation in a secluded mountain resort. Still, that episode redeemed itself with the bicycle scene and that heart-wrenching kiss-in-the-rain hilltop shot that is simply gorgeous.

• The love triangle is so well-crafted and so well-interwoven my heart bleeds for the other Woong (Kim Ji-woong). Despite the fact that he’s hot and the physical opposite of Woo-shik's character, it’s clear why the female lead fell for Choi Woong – he oozes brooding charm and vulnerability, and complements her like water to fire.

• The sub-plot of Ji-woong’s mom is the only unsatisfactory storyline for me, but that’s a minor complaint.

• Kudos to the scriptwriter that the subplot of the second love triangle featuring the girl idol doesn't deteriorate into hackneyed. (Her story even manages to make a statement on cancel culture.) Even the "confrontation" scenes between this character and the female lead are sad but not sappy and circumvents the cliche of fighting females.

• I am thankful the showrunners did not belabor the LDR – no tired drama there, just mature people dealing with distance.

• The adoptive parents and grandmother are so well-scripted and cast: folksy-smart, angelic, loud or sharp-tongued at times, and never one-dimensional the way peripheral characters go. Even the subplot of Woong's biological father hanging around him skirted the usual melodrama.

Over-all, "Our Beloved Summer" is epic in its ambition to tell an intelligent urban love story through nearly three decades. And it succeeds in delivering the swoons (because in the end that's why we watch romances, right?) without the guilt of saccharine trope.

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A gentle touch to your heart

I strongly believe that showing true emotions should be the main concern of any love story. Can you tell if someone is in love if they don't say a word? If they just stood there looking at each other, would you tell if that was true love?

Luckily, this was the main goal of this show: to bring you into the perspective of someone who is in love with their complete opposite. As cliché as it may sound, opposites do attract each other in most cases.

Of course, there were things that could have been fixed in order to make this truly masterful piece of a love story. For example, the secondary characters are not really relatable, and sometimes you may even feel bored by them. But when the two main characters were put together in the same frame, you immediately forgot about everything else, and you were driven into a wonderful place, and you wish with all your heart that this kind of love happened to you at least once.

The soundtrack of this show is now in my top 10. So I can't really praise it that much without looking like a fan, but I do have to say that it was perfectly matched with some scenes, which resulted in them being engraved in my memory.

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Incredibly Well Done - But Not a RomCom

I don’t have a lot to add beyond what other reviewers have already said. But I’d thought I’d make a few points to perhaps make it easier for folks to make a decision to watch, or not.

This series is not a RomCom. While there are comedic moments, most of the time this is more of a drama. There is lot of sadness as things don’t go well for the main couple. The picture on the movie's page makes the couple look super happy. This was not the case for many episodes.

Having said that, there are quite a few positives aspects to the story. For example the ML’s family is a very positive storyline (with some backstory, or course).

The storyline is intricate and well crafted. The different threads weave seamlessly together and come together well at the end.

The acting is really good. I think this was a tough assignment for the actors, but they pulled it off so well. I’d also call out the casting as superb.

I think I could point out a few things I would like to have seen come together a bit differently, but that does not at affect my recommendation. Despite the fact I thought this might not be my cup of tea:

If you OK with a story that some might consider a bit “slow” and that is not very happy a lot of time, then by all means watch this series. It is well done, well acted, and quite touching. I give it a 9/10 rating.

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Continuación del webtoon

Cuando terminé de leer el webtoon de Aquel año nuestro quise ver de inmediato el k-krama. Me sorprendió gratamente que el mismo fuera una continuación de la historia del webtoon diez años después de donde nos quedamos.
Eso hizo que cada capítulo no supiera de qué iba a tratar, en el dorama nos enteramos que ellos cortan, pero vamos a ver si pueden darle una segunda oportunidad al amor ahora que son mas maduros y aprendieron mucho de sus vidas. Me encantó la historia, la música (aunque a veces demasiado repetitiva) y la manera en que profundizaron en los personajes cosa que el webtoon no hubo tanto detalle. Aquí sí, hace que los entiendas mejor, por qué actuaron y actúan de tal modo.
Muy bello, lo recomiendo ?.

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"Uma vida sem amor é como um ano sem verão."

Drama lindo do início ao fim. OST impecável. História que aquece o coração. Amei!

Juntei todos os títulos dos eps e o filmes referentes hehe:
1. Eu sei o que você fez verão passado
2. 1792 dias de verão (500 days of summer)
3. Dez coisas que eu odeio em você ❤️
4. A garota ou garoto que gostávamos naquela época (tem um filme de Taiwan com esse nome)
5. Um segredo que não pode ser contado (tem um filme tailandês com esse nome)
6. Orgulho e preconceito ❤️
7. Pegue me se for capaz (Prenda-Me se For Capaz)
8. Antes do Pôr do Sol (filme do EUA de 2004)
9. Just friends (Gewoon Vrienden)
10. Hello, my soulmate (filme da própria atriz desse drama haha)
11. Minhas Noites São Mais Lindas Que Seus Dias (filme francês de 1989)
12. Begin Again (Mesmo Se Nada Der Certo)
13. Love Actually (Simplesmente Amor)
14. A Vida é Bela (filme italiano de 99)
15. Três Idiotas (filme indiano de 2009)
16. Our Beloved Summer ❤️

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Overdramatic and unconvincing

This drama has a refreshing synopsis and is aesthetically pleasing, but the execution is incredibly cringey as a woman past her mid-twenties. This drama builds up on the mystery of why both of the characters are so angsty and no longer together. Why they still think about each other, and loved each other. You see how depressed and miserable they are, see flashbacks that gives the viewers a peek at what happened before, but the ultimate reason for it is just so stupid, and unconvincing. The drama tries very hard to be edgy with how they present the character's personalities, which is where the cringe comes in for me. It tries to sell itself as a show that presents a realistic and raw relationship, but nothing about it seems that deep at all, and anyone who has actually been in a relationship could not take their relationship seriously. The FL was rude and dismissive, and the writers just expected the audience to root for her to be with the ML just cause she has family problems? K-dramas thinking that family/mental issues is a good enough excuse for repeatedly treating someone bad needs to come to an end.

For this drama, I just dropped it after they get back together, because it was just so lame and i really did not see a reason to continue watching. Note i had to force myself to even watch that far, because most of the time the drama was so boring and uninteresting, and I don't see how anyone could actually watch it while thinking "wow this is so interesting." I could not care less if the ML and FL even got back together in the first place. Also, the most cringey part of this drama is the weird idol plot line. For a drama that aesthetically is trying to position itself as a realistic slice of life drama, it just felt so out of place to have a random character with bleach blond hair that's an idol...

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A warm hug of a drama to provide comfort this winter

Initially I wasn't planning to write a review but GOD this is so good.
Ep 6 had me crying, screaming, throwing up so let's get into it.

Storyline:
It sets such a different tone to the drama as a whole. The whole idea of ex-lovers uniting after 10 years to reshoot a documentary is so fresh but it had me questioning how it would realistically be possible to convince them to do it. The drama explains it perfectly and additionally makes it entertaining. There are a lot of tropes (it's a romcom what else would you expect) but it's used so perfectly, that it doesn't make you cringe or make it seem 'ordinary'. The main characters are beautifully written, making you sympathize with them for their circumstances and decisions. Yeonsoo is your cold, logical female protagonist who makes small gestures to her loved ones, completely opposite when you compare her with Ung who is laid-back, impulsive and sensitive (in the best way possible). It's so so enjoyable to watch them banter. Kim sungcheol's Jiung is a wonderful character who's personality falls in the middle of both Yeonsoo's and Ung's with his story. There are additional side characters who you love and hate. I HAVE to mention Ung's parents who are literal angels. Something about how welcoming and warmhearted they are makes me tear up.

Cinematography:
It's so aesthetic. The sites where the scenes occur are all beautiful. The yellow filtering adds a beautiful nostalgic, film-like texture to it. The art work is brilliant and the transitions are pretty as well.

Soundtrack:
It's so beautiful and melodic. It just suits the drama perfectly. I love how V's track is the one that always plays during Ung's art scenes. My personal favorite has to be 10cm's 'Drawer'. That track is PERFECT. The little heartbeats before the instrumental starts? BEAUTIFUL.

Dialogue:
Ok I had to make this a separate section from storyline because of how painfully beautiful it is. Episode 6's ending broke me. That one line 'It's us of all people.' You hear that sound? Yeah that's my heart breaking. The contrast in how their dialogue matures, the words that are used in arguments all of it seems so natural. It's probably my favourite element of the drama after its storyline itself.

Acting:
The performances are as expected really good. Yeonsoo's character is something that Kim Dami embodies to the T. (not a spoiler) Than scene in the bathroom was so beautifully portrayed, it refuses to leave my mind. Choi Wooshik is perfect for Ung's character. He gives the character a certain flavor that makes him seem so charming, but I can't quite exactly place what it is. It was so enchanting to see how in the one episode where there's a little flashback montage of Ung's childhood, and I don't know if it was the child actor mirroring Wooshik's mannerisms as Ung or the other way around, but the resemblance is uncanny.

Rewatch value:
I'm resisting the urge to go rewatch it right now and just wait for future episodes. That should say enough.

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