A New Leaf (2014)

There was a potential. A great one.
Premise was intriguing, cast was excellent and first two episodes were a good start.
But.
Most of that potential was left unused.
When we hear that story starts with a man who used devious means to reach his current high status, and then in an accident lost all his memories but his knowledge of the law, regaining his conscience and facing his past wrongs that he doesn't remember, we usually assume that there are lots of psychological and emotional elements in the story. And while there are some it's not the amount we were promised in the summary. Still many of us would have been satisfied even with the legal part of the drama being in the highlight if we were given good explanations about lots of technical terms and complicated law cases. As it is I often felt like they were speaking some unknown alien language.

Drama was cut off by two episodes and it is really obvious at the end. Many things were left unresolved.

Still I liked this drama. My rating would have gone below 5.5 if I haven't.
Kim Myung Min is an amazing actor. He delivered his part very well.
Oh Jung Se is the actor I saw for the first time in this drama and I'm looking forward to see more from him.
Park Min Young wasn't a weak link, she did good. Her character was likable and not overly naive or damsel in distress like in some of her other dramas.
There are almost no eye-candy here but there are ear-candies. We have three actors with amazing voices in the same drama: Kim Myung Min, Jin Yi Han and Kim Sang Joong.

This had a potential to be one of the best for this year, and because of that potential I feel a bit betrayed. If complicated cases where explained better and human element was more present this would have been very interesting drama to watch this year.

I would recommend this drama to people who understand business and law, to all of you who like to watch dramas with those themes, also Kim Myung Min's fans and people who like to listen to some great voices.
If you are only looking for a romance skip this one. Romance here is in traces and not enough explored though that may be because the drama was cut short by two episodes. On the other hand too much romance would have ruined this drama.

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It started really well and was quite interesting in the beginning but my interest dwindled towards the last few episodes. This drama left me with one question: What happened? It felt prematurely ended and left me a bit disappointed. It's supposed to be a drama and I had a narrative for an ending. I guess it's mainly because the last few episodes dealt with matters that were beyond my understanding: Accounts, stocks, mergers and acquisitions in legalize. Perhaps, if I was a native speaking Korean, I would be able to understand better because I can follow the conversation. As it was, there were times when the subs were coming so fast my eyes were getting strained from reading.
Anyway, there is no question as to how well KMM portrayed his role. I feel bad though that "Jeon Ji Won's "(JYH) character was not completely fleshed out. I enjoyed listening to the two arguing in court, not for the content but for their voices.
I may re-watch, perhaps, just to try and understand what al the talk was about.
This is not a drama for everyone unless you are KMM fan.

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Initially this "drama" started out with a punch. It was gripping with a very worthy storyline.

Somehow, things got foggy and loosely written and it lost the appeal. It should have been longer than 16 episodes. The ending was certainly hurried and in my opinion incomplete. It's a shame because the cast was certainly capable of more. I feel that the writers and/ or perhaps the network let us down because of prior scheduling commitments. In future, perhaps room for more episodes should be provided in network scheduling, or more experienced writers to conclude storyline in an effective manner.

I would recommend watching it only because it is somewhat unpredictable with a very talented cast. Re-watch value is high as it would finally have all subs available, thus providing viewers with a better comprehension.

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First of - The law setting just got me. It goes usually along with much suspense and thrills, also a frew unexpected twists. This time it was the same. The storyline was flowing along nicely, coming up with interesting characters and developments.

As for the acting - It was okay. The main cast sure did a good job, also some of the side characters, which made me smile a few times because of the situational comedy or the cold-blooded (and by times quite brilliant) ideas. Kkk.

Now to my one and only "complain", if one even can call it that:

There have been a few things in the end, that seemed to be resolved just too rushed (after they had been build up all along). E.g. Some characters just disappeared, the viewer didn't get any hint of their doings from point x, the romantic sideline came over too forced to be somewhat natural, even if one looks at relationships with a straight point of view, and the ending case just lost his appeal out of the blue, if compared to the starting cases. Thos things seemed simply unfortunate, but leading to a decreasing of the rating in my case. Sighs!

All in all it's a good watch mature viewers won't regret, but just geeting hopes too high up along the flow might lead to a small disappointment in the end. You get drama, you get thrills, you get acceptable acting skills shown and likeable characters, from whom a few sadly kind of end up in circles.

Anyways, the quotes just gave me my good first impression back! So, it's a clear 8.

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This Drama has a STORY.

It’s written very well and makes you watching with intense attention. Kim Myung Min is great, his character has two faces, before and after amnesia, and well, it isn’t the only amnesia in this show :)

It’s a classic law drama and there are some difficult and complicated cases with financiers, but also some murders for ‘normal’ viewers. The second half of the drama it’s hard to follow because of heavy financial and economical slang. But we also have some funny moments with Oh Jung Se and then we can breathe a little.

There are two women: Park Min Young—supposed to be a main lead, and fiancee (Chae Jung An). The fiancee is obviously a deeper and more interesting character. The director wants to rescue Park Min Young giving her more screen time, but I think it isn't effective.
Judge Jeon Ji Won (played by Kim Ji Han, loved by everyone Tal Tal) is enigmatic, is he good or bad? You don’t know and you have to wait to the end.

Trying to solve sophisticated financial vocabulary, you can wonder if the screenwriter plays with us and gives us the recipe to create a huge fiscal scam..., but it is not true, right?
I recommend this drama for everyone who loves justice, law, court and handsome judges.

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I’m going to have to watch again

I had to watch the ending a couple times because I didn’t know what to make of the ending. So I thought and thought about it and found I loved it so much I almost cried. I wish I could explain how moving the relationship between father and son at the end versus pre amnesia. Oh my gosh. Kim Myung Min and Choi Ii Hwa as father and son. So few words needed to be spoken. Kim Seo Joo had me sobbing when his father Kim Shin Ii tells him he was always proud of him he just didn’t agree with his son’s work.

So for me the story wasn’t in the works of lawyers protecting conglomerates as it was in how Kim Seo Joo was more like his father than I expected. That they found their way back to each other.

I’m going to have to watch it again.

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