Iubirea Ochilor Tăi (2024)

Lead chemistry saved this show

The good:
The song "Ikuokukonen" by Omoinotake is an absolute banger. I've been following this band since they made the ost for the "Twittering Birds Never Fly" movie, and I'm glad they got their break with "Ikuokukonen".

Acting:
Chae Jong Hyeop's acting is seriously great! He exudes that golden retriever energy without being cringy, and his subtle acting with his eyes when the tone gets serious makes me emotional. I've been following the producers for the show and Jong Hyeop contributed to some of my favorite scenes!

The Cast:
I've been following the show's Instagram/Twitter/TikTok accounts, and the chemistry between Chae Jong Hyeop and fumi nikaido and with the staff heals me lol.

The Bad:
The story needs a lot of work. I read on the producer's Twitter account that he worked on this story since 2021 and it still needs work. The added drama with Min Ha Na and the book was unnecessary and contrived. They added some lore that had something to do with Ainu people that looks like went nowhere. IDK, the plot is a bit of a mess after episode 5/6.

I see people criticizing the people criticizing the FL's acting, but even Japanese people have been saying it's bad on filmarks.com (which is like the Japanese version of IMDB). I kinda agree, but I feel like it's the fault of the director and how they characterized her character.

Anyways I love Chae Jong Hyeop and he really carried this show for me. Overall I like the show, and its a comfort show for me. Something easy to watch and makes me feel all warm inside lol. I watched episodes 1-3 three times already and Tae-Oh still gives me butterflies in my stomach lol. He smile is to die for.

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Cute moments but cliché, plot all over the place and an annoying FL

I really wanted to give this series a higher rating because it has such cute moments and the premise was interesting at first but especially in the way the writing went it's just not possible.

I'll start with the positives of this show that I liked and that make all the points it has for me. First of all I do think the best acting here was Chae Jong Hyeop and his character although cliché in many aspects was also a softie and I enjoyed his more quirky aspects. The premise of the story was interesting at first and it had enough material to keep going and make a good plot out of it, sadly this was not utilised, so I liked the premise in itself only. I also liked it was a story between a Japanese and Korean and the nuance it added, although in my opinion it could have been used more. I also liked the different environments and also the inclusion of a mention to the ainu, not something you see very often.

In things I didn't like the main ones are for sure the way the plot developed as well as the FL. The acting of FL was very stiff and amiss at times, it was a bit hard to watch but especially the way they decided to make the FL's character was.... UGH, where to even start. It's not only the fact she's immature in her reactions and way of doing things, it's the fact she's supposed to be in a position of responsibility as well. She spent the whole drama letting others do everything for her. Tae Oh is the one that has to push her to tell him she likes him, Hanaoka and Mahiro have to push her to do things during the series as well at different points. In the whole series she has basically done nothing, because even at the end when she finally decides to do something she took so long that someone else has already done it for her. She was a total flowerpot, sorry. Their "more intimate" moments were awkward, at some points I thought might as well Tae Oh be kissing a wall or something. She only put a bit of effort in the last kiss. Sure, I know many shows in Japan don't really kiss more than touching lip area so to speak, but I've seen it done with a lot more grace than hers.
I get it, the girl was rejected once in her teens because of her power, and she has a complex. Universe forbid she had worked it out herself in the more than 10 years since then. Her teen self and 30 year old self are the same I guess. It was just too unrealistic for my taste, but this was not even the worst of it. The worst was Tae Oh still interested in her even though she keeps the on-off game continuously. At some point towards the second half of the show I just wanted to slap her very hard, she was very irritating. This was aggravated by the fact their chemistry was just about and that they didn't match at all. I wished at points the FL had been the girl in the office that spoke some korean, she matched better with Tae Oh's vibe in my opinion.
Obviously at no point FL makes an effort to find out anything about her power or anything, I mean, I can't say much better of the author of the book. Everyone then meddles into the relationship because of a kids book a woman wrote without doing any research whatsoever, she didn't even know what her boyfriend died off? WHAT? haha Absolutely RIDICULOUS! Even when she's telling Hanaoka I kept thinking, ok, but what did the boyfriend die of? Where is the story that links it to her power? It obviously never came since it was all a joke. I had hopes there for a second when they introduced the myth in the ainu's folklore that it would actually have some decent plot for the part of her power, but not at all and it was very disappointing the way everything is solved. The cherry on top is showing Mahiro and the others doing the research so quickly so they can be together and then they don't do it in the end because all of a sudden it didn't matter anymore. Congratulations to the writer for getting paid for writing such a nonsense, it's an achievement.

Hanaoka was the most interesting of the secondary characters but he's underdeveloped as is everyone else. Onoda was interesting as a character but it's also kept very superficial. I didn't like much the acting or character of Mahiro, and it was so stupid when she's told of FL's power and she's scared. Anyone would have thought she had just been told that FL's was a mass murderer or something. Hanaoka learnt of it as an afterthought in the show and didn't think about it two seconds.
Iiyama acting and character is very bad in this show, probably the worst of them all. It's extremely exaggerated and I get it wants to be a bit comical but it's just plain bad and cringy. The main problem I have with him though, it's that early on he's already being introduced as the one that knows something, a bit mysterious under the good and comical façade, but turns out that it was only because he knew of the accident but the actual information about the power of hers is only discovered when FL does and just by reading the same damn children's book. Says a lot about his research skills? Who in their right mind, and even more a researcher, would read a children's book and meddle in someone's relationship because of it? Ridiculous...
The pace in this show was ok the first half but it drags the second half and it's time that could have been used to develop the plot so it wouldn't have been the mess it is.

If you want some cute moments and watch Chae Jong Hyeop being cute and the extremely dedicated boyfriend type then I would say go ahead, it's a good dose of sugar and sometimes you need those. Otherwise if you're interested in the plot I would say this is a miss and to avoid, and that's without even taking into consideration the amount of plotholes and questions it leaves you with. If you don't like annoying main character I would suggest to avoid this too, she was very frustrating to watch most of the time.

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