Tell Me It's Love (2023)

Beautiful Leads drowning in Melodrama tropes

Melodrama is not my thing but I've been waiting for this pairing so.... I powered through.

Positives:
1. ML & FL pairing. He's tall & a model. She's tall & a model. It's basically hotness overload.
2. Sibling dynamic
3. That Rich Friend

Negatives: ALL the Melodrama tropes:
1. The walking dead. Sad people living but dead inside
2. Slow .... everything, talking, walking, reacting.....
3. Standing & staring .....
4. Wrist pull & save you from some kind of running vehicle
5. The comeback desperate ex
6. FF flashback moments overload

Yes I get it, it's supposed to connect 2 lonely sad people making their slow burn love more beautiful. I think the pair worked for melodrama lovers.

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Call it Satisfying

When I finished Call it Love I I honestly felt like I was satisfied in a well that was a grand days work kinda way as opposed to oh my god im totally blown away kind of way. But yet i look back at this as time well spent it kind of grows on you and you go through a certain kind of coming to terns with whats happening along with the characters.

At times this drama really had me moved and totally absorbed and at times I was feeling this is getting dull only for it to pull away from the edge and remain engaging and it makes you interested to hear what others thought.

Pros:
Some great chatacters and exploration of same and a sense of understanding them gradually in a satisfying way.

A really good fairly realistic story not OTT and well brought together. I genuinely felt any number of endings would satisfy me no anxiety re a happy vs sad vs open ending a few episodes out as the story was making sense to me (eventually) regardless.

The Secondary characters were all really engaging and not filler material and no really extreme characters (though some might say close to)

For a drama with virtually no comedy it was still not gratituosly depressing.

Some genuinely powerful moments.

The normalised and gentle treatnent of sister struggle with mental health issue, note not a central part of plot but nicely introduced and explored with subtlety and normality.

Cons

The leads at times were too monotonous and almost unable to express any emotions outside of a narrow range of stoic silence and underlying sadness.

The FL in particular some of her scenes were like oh come on say something, its actually getting weird now. Tropes were not rampant in this script apart from the miscommunication/no communication between leads trope which weared just a little at times.

The chemistry between leads lacked i felt I dont know if it was directing acting or both but it was a bit too low key to match where they get too in their relationship. However this may be because this was not just a story about romance it was that and a bit more so even the romance had to be in balance.

To put it simply the acting was anazing to capture a certain tyoe of mood or moment which was then repeated a lot so while many fekt the acting was great i felt it was within a narrow range and not mind blowing sorry.

The use of the split scene then flash back was done really well except maybe a bit too often esoecially where verbal communication was sparse it was at times a long wait to find out what was actually said when.

Overall I feel like this is really really a great watch but maybe not all in one go. I have a fulfulling sense of satisfaction even though at times i was not sure what to make of it. Somehow this drama didnt neccessarily always go they way I wanted and yet i never felt cheated or had an oh i hate this type of story moment. I still havent settled on a no for my rating im curious what people feel.

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This show made me buy a years worth Disney+ subscriptions, and I absolutely don’t regret it

Honestly I've kept my eyes on this show ever since Disney announced it their 2022 December promotional events in Singapore (the synopsis they gave back then made sure this show was going to be in my watclist)
Not since last years' My Liberation Note I've see a slowburn k-drama done right until this dropped in Feb this year.
Please don't all consider it an overrating when I say that Dongjin has made it to top 4 in my list of Best-kdrama-men-ever list (you'll know why he has become such a favourite of mine, if you decided of watching the show)

The CINEMATOGRAPHY- This is best I've seen in any show in any language.. seriously its stellar... the framing and shots contribute to the chracters development and understanding the chracters feelings...it will be hard for other shows to top this level of intricacy..

The OSTs also were an achievements especially Roy Kim's Flower and Moon Song...

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It's okay, if you are in the mood for some moodiness.

Honestly this is nowhere near as bad as the makjangish and super silly setup would suggest.
I have two big problems with the show.
The first is that the OTP romance is not very believable. I think acting shortfalls are definitely part of this issue & the chemistry was just not enough for me to fully immerse myself in their relationship.
The second is that the ending is extremely low effort. There was all this crying/suffering/hardship & then everything just worked out senselessly, also following the always annoying separation followed by a 1 minute happy ending formula. It's better than people dying I suppose, but not by much. I don't know if this was live filming or not, but it sure feels like it. Then again, it's quite normal for kdrama writers to not give a fork about well thought out endings, so that could be it. (This is pretty much the industry standard now, if anything.) On a positive note a well thought out, reasonable ending would've been exorbitantly difficult with the setting we've had, so perhaps embracing the silly is not the worst thing in the world. I would hugely prefer though if writers made scripts that can be wrapped up in a way that makes sense, instead of making convoluted messes & then just yolo-ing the ending.

As for what I liked.. There is a lot of reasonably well written dialog existing outside of the plot-driving conversations. I liked the moody presentation & the pink filter was part of that too I suppose. I liked the visuals on my color calibrated displays, but I can see why someone would hate this, if watching the show on an LG oled TV or a Galaxy phone..
The OST is pretty good too!

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Emocionante

Primeiro quero dizer que esse drama é uma obra prima, e dizendo que esse não é meu gênero favorito. Melodramas são sempre parados demais e nada acontece, e sim, geralmente acho cansativo.
Agora esse?
Maratonei os 10 primeiros episódios em 24 h, foi muitíssimo intenso a minha imersão na história deles.

Já conhecia os atores principais em dramas de comédia, e a princípio foi estranho ver como eles conseguem passar tanto, no silêncio, no olhar, ... amo isso.
Mas o principal aqui que me fez viver nessa história é o quanto ela é imersiva. Talvez eu esteja em uma fase que me identifico um pouco com os 5 personagens principais. Então sou um pouco influenciada.
Mas tendo consciência que sou apreciadora de cinema, gostar de plano sequência, bela fotografia e um som bem trabalhado.
É tudo tão lindo.

A música de fundo preenche um vazio que cada um deles passam, e tem um ruído que lembra muito uma notificação. Como se uma má notícia tivesse chegado. No entanto, tudo continua igual.
Acho isso maravilhoso!

Já citei o quanto os atores se entregam aqui. É tão bonito de ver. E não tem choro (pelo menos comigo), é melancólico, sim, mas não de chorar e se compadecer por cada um.

Agora a fotografia é uma das mais bem trabalhadas de tudo que vi.
Cada frame bem escolhido.
Como o posicionamento dos personagem onde estão mais próximo do outro e eles são enquadrados a direita e esquerda da tela. Como uma foto dividida, onde as pessoas estão bem pertinho. Ou quando no início são indiferente e um está no centro e o outro mais a borda da tela.
Ou quando eles estão a frente da porta e a luminaria parace um infinito corredor, em alusão ao caminho que ainda tem que percorrer.
E ainda tem toda uma paleta de cores mudando as estações, nos fazendo perceber que o tempo mudou não só pelas peças de roupa, mas também pelas cores.

Posso ter viajado um pouquinho, mas essa é uma obra prima. Ainda não sei como vai terminar.
Bem ou mal, tudo está sendo nem construído. Cada um com seu momento de tela.
Só estão vivendo como nós com todas as dificuldades.

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This is a feel-good revenge drama, but honestly the revenge is forgotten about early into the show. While it starts out strong, I felt myself skipping through a lot of the smaller storylines that are weaved throughout. There are no secret murderers in this slice of life, but many love triangles, relationships, dating and finding yourself going on.

One thing that needs to be pointed out is: Lee Sung Kyung... Wow! She did such an incredible job in this drama. The character of Woo Joo is amazing and I kept seeing myself in her so much. A strong, beautiful, focused woman who doesn't back down to life and the people who walk all over her. The way she holds herself and the way she speaks yet cares about everyone around her, especially her family all really helped me relate to her. I loved her acting so much with Woo Joo. The emptiness that you get from her in the beginning and even towards the end that all ends whenever she is around Dong Jin. It's incredible, honestly. I can't think of another actress that has had me so wowed from a drama in a while.

Now for the story, I did love the main plot going on that followed with the lead's relationship, but I really didn't care for all of the siblings stories playing out. I found Woo Joo's sister to be kind of annoying and it was hard for me to follow her relationships or sink any emotion into them at all. Especially when it started to become a 3 person love triangle that I just couldn't follow. Jun was basically in love with her and Woo Joo, so the whole thing seemed pretty weird. I was finally glad when it all settled and they wrapped it up. The brother's story is really a backseat honestly and doesn't really serve a purpose to the overall plot other than him wanting to follow their father's career path and not the one Woo Joo set up for him. As for the lead story line, it was pretty dragged out and I hate when dramas wait until episode 15-16 to start dropping truth bombs that prevent us from getting more of the relationship we watched for. This one does exactly that.. I felt like right when it was starting to get to the happier part of everything, it came crashing down with them trying to wrap up the house story.

I do slightly find the step-sibling relationship slightly weird, but it was easy to look past when you realize they didn't know each other at all in their lives growing up. His mom just so happened to marry her dad. I just found it really weird that was the main story line going on with them also having a romance.

I could see myself re-watching this if I wanted to watch a nice melodrama slice of life. One that gets you thinking about life and its ups and downs. It was almost a favorite for me, but the slow pace of everything with the story just didn't grasp me as much as others have. It's still such a good watch.

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Amazing

So, I just finished this drama last night after binging it. This drama is amazing I loveeee the plot, it did start making me mad how long they were making dongjin suffer from his mothers actions (the family). They only had one kiss... and only had .1 second of a happy ending. I didn't care for the second lead couple whatsoever, I actually hated them, a lot. But overall the plot was amazing, the acting was great for the most part ( mainly kyk did a v good job ) the ost was okay. This drama was actually the only drama I've cried so hard for, literally cried at least once every episode, saddest episode has to be the episode where Dongjin was about to get hit by a car.(ep. 4/5 i think). I don't know I feel like dongjin is a very relatable character. woojoo was a great character too, i just hated how she basically let her family control her dating life for the whole drama, she did overall have great character development. Still sad for dongjin, he had to suffer the entire drama. One last thing, the main couple was amazing but I feel like a lot of their scenes were a bit awkward and wish they had a bit more skinship and cute moments rather than just the last 1 second of the drama.

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Well acted, somewhat problematic romance drama

There is a lot that is really good in this drama. The acting is really good, the script flows pretty well, and there is in my opinion strong chemistry between the main characters. The problems lie more in the directing. There is massive overuse of flashbacks which end up placing a very heavy handed forced third person omniscience over many of the emotional scenes. This shortchanges the actors, the cinematography, and the script leaving the watchers unable to be interpreters. Also the massive use of song tracks and backing music again does not suggest, it pushes towards emotions not always earned.

It is a family drama in addition to being a romance, in fact it is arguably more the former. I guess, I would call this a relationship drama- it is about how the many interconnected lives evolve. I do recommend this if you are in the right mood to have a good story a bit forced on you.

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A subtle and well written melo

This was my intro back to dramas after a good 8-month hiatus and the bar was set pretty high after completing this. The has the elements of a melodrama but told in an almost slice-of-life way that makes it entertaining but still easy to digest.

I think the best of this drama are the characters and, of course, the actors who brought them to life. I was looking for a female lead like Woo Jo. I love her straightforward (but not entitled) attitude. I like that she is not perfect. She is very flawed and frequently gets called out on her flaws but still very likable and relatable. I like how, though the ML’s character, she calls out the hypocrisies and fake “nice person” behavior we often see in drama and real life. LSK does an excellent job portraying her. I really liked our male lead and how gentle he was. It was nice to see how our leads matured and changed because of each other. In fact, I loved how all the characters stayed consistent while being allowed natural development as the episodes progressed. I really appreciate the story that was told. Given the character set-ups, they had a lot of opportunities to turn to annoying cliches (unnecessary love triangles or misunderstandings) but they didn't. In fact, it kind of feels like the story that could be told when you take away cliches. This lets the show explore its themes in a more mature and meaningful way, especially the concept of revenge.

The execution was decently good. There were a couple time the camera work, although on theme with the vibe, would feel a little slow, or an angled or artistic shot would be a second too long. Plus, the filter felt a little dark at times; I appreciated the daytime shots more. The music fit the mood of the drama well but not memorable outside of the drama.

Overall, this is a very well written and acted "subtle melo" with strong character development.

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Good Enough

Korean Drama " Call It Love " is a melodrama with interesting cinematography and a story focusing on family bonds and an unconventional love story.

The drama, first of all, has inspirational cinematography, with a pink filter for the real-time timeline, while using harsh lighting for the flashbacks with stretched frames. The mood of the drama is also enjoyable, atmospheric, and chill.

On the other hand, the story was quite intense, even though the drama presented it in a more relaxing tone. Therefore, and even though it was reaching its end, it felt like there should be more episodes, as the story didn't seem to have kicked in or reached its climax, when the emotions burst and the melodrama reaches its peak. Rather, it felt anticlimactic and rushed.

As for the performances, everyone did a good job with their characters.

So, overall, seven out of ten.

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Call It Love (2023) – I just love this “melodrama” with a “slice of life” genre drama which is one of my favorite genres in Korean drama world. This drama is either you will not like it or you will love it, since I found reviews on this on tiktok that they don't find this appealing but others also says that they like it a lot and I am one of those that like this drama a lot. I cried together with the characters. I think the personalities that the main leads have shown in the drama is unusual in the korean drama world and that is why I felt attached to the characters. The drama also touches family, as well as depression. The pacing is for me normal that it feels reality. I really like this korean drama and I am thankful that it is one of the first dramas I have watched this 2023.

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Eccentric Emotional Rollercoaster ride In DARK

This drama is OOOZING with Emotional Spikes. [!!]

It will stir you deep through your heart and make you feel the pain the character goes through.

The casts did justice to their roles. You can't see them act, they lived as the character.

You hate the character bcoz they manipulate your emotions, not because of the plot.

You would see darkest part of each character and you will eventually understand them. This drama best describes the true nature of human selfishness and people's feebleness.

lonely people can understand this drama much better.. it resonates with you

This drama deserves Major awards for the cast performance and the direction.

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