"Give us the power and courage to swim safely throughout this life"

It's the way everyone knew since the very first ep that Myunghee would be gone and Heetae would be left alone exactly like it was portrayed, YET we still kept watching till the end... Masochism. I don't know what broke me the most but I know I had been crying since the second half of ep 9.

When older Heetae took off his watch and his scars showed, when he tried to drown himself... Wow. I don't think there are many dramas that portray failed suicide attempts in such a subtle, respectful and realistic way without romanticizing it.

I projected a lot on this show since my country has been in protests similar to Gwangju Uprisings, although ti a lower extent. But still, police and military abuse is shown. So seeing Sooryeon being so eager to help even though she knew that her individual actions wouldn't change much... It's so inspiring. When she said "even though we can't change what's happening, there are things that we can do." Those small actions save lives. Even if they don't change the future or the current situation, there still will be at least one life saved. And that will make it worth it.

When Soochan said he felt ashamed that he was released because of connections, that he felt comfortable in his cozy and warm bed while he didn't even know if the people arrested with him were alive or not and that made him take the decision on his hands and serve and help the wounded... I'm so glad both of them survived.

Towards the end when Heetae sees the posters attributing the protests to North spies... I can't imagine how much things like that hurt the people that suffered through the protests, those who lost loved ones in the hands of their own army.

Also, when Myungsoo's immediate reaction to seeing soldiers hurting their own people was, "the North has invaded us" and wondering, "why would our own army hurt our people?" Such a realistic way of showing how the government turns against all logic and harms their own people they sore to protect.

This was such an incredibly beautiful story, and it had the perfect length to finish it in an amazing way without including unnecessary or filler scenes.

They approached so many sides of the Uprising, so many victims in their own jobs/labors/activities, so many people helping each other to believe in a better future.

"In the face of the storm, the only thing we could do was hold each other's hands so that we won't lose each other."

I really cried my eyes out to this.

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The perfect drama to glorify toxicity

Just why in the world would they make Jaeeon in ep9 show his true colors and how he was never serious about Nabi, how he was absolutely shitty towards Dohyeok, how he asked her out just because he wanted to "win" over Dohyeok, make him yell at her, twist her wrist, actually harass her, sl*t shame her for being in a fwb with him, mock Dohyeok and so much more, AND she even threw him off her life, just for this crappy, mediocre and incredibly dangerous ending?
This isn't even about which ship won at the end or shipping anymore at all, it's about an awfully dangerous message that this drama sends. They're saying "it doesn't matter if they guy you like is toxic, a potential abuser and player, and if you're gonna get hurt, just go for it because he has a nice d!ck!!"
This is seriously such a huge waste of cast, potential, and everything. This drama could've been one of the best if they properly showed how NOT to act in a toxic relationship, but at the end of the day all they did was literally glorify an abuser and cheater. Like someone else said, the writers were progressive enough to write about same sex relationships, friends with benefits, open relationship, but were unable to give the leads a proper ending? If the writers of Love Alarm couldn't make Sunoh end up with Jojo even though Sunoh was a thousand times a better option than Jaeeon, why would Nevertheless writers do something like this, and why would the webtoon creator even allow this, AND why would Song Kang and Sohee do this too? From the interviews, they looked like they didn't approve of Jaeeon (as they should) and kept rooting for Nabi to snap out of it.
Honestly, this is all so disappointing. Someone should cut out all Soljiwan's scenes for anyone interested in the Girl Love plot without having to go through the painful experience of this drama. Bitna and Gyuhyun had so much more development than Nabi and Jaeeon despite the awful screentime cut. A seriously awful drama. Only giving 2.5 stars for Jonghyeop and each supporting couple only (and .5 for the sunbaes).

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'Nobody Knows' is a crime drama about finding one's life purpose and fulfillment. This is not your typical crime kdrama in which you will spend about 80% of the time trying to find the clues that will lead you to the killer or culprit. It's very common in some crime dramas like '365: Repeat The Year' or 'Memorist' for the audience to be as clueless as the cast and actually 'work together' to solve the cases and find the killer/culprit. Most crime dramas make you break your head to think who could be the culprit and that's a considerable part of the plot and the fun of the drama.

However, what stood out about 'Nobody Knows' for me is that this is not the type of culprit-hunting kdrama. We actually see the culprit as the culprit in a rather early stage of the drama and we get to know him as a character much earlier than when the police even starts suspecting this person. And still, it does not take the fun out of it because 'Nobody Knows' manages to deliver a perfectly-written story with nothing but outstanding acting, plot, greatly likable characters and an amazing character development and self-growth.

Cha Young Jin is a detective whose life changed when her best friend was brutally murdered by a serial killer and she decides to spend her life trying to find the killer. I can't imagine how strong you must be to make your life be absolutely about finding a killer and to succeed at work because of that one goal. She threw everyone out of her life in order to fulfill this goal. While doing so, she was shown as a cold-hearted woman who let nobody in her life, but there was a kid who touched her heart and she opened the door for him. I love the fact that even though she was this tough woman since the very beginning of the drama, we could always see how warm and caring she was about Eun Ho, and that's something I truly loved about her character.

Go Eun Ho is the strongest middle schooler that I have ever seen in a kdrama. We usually just have school dramas about high school, kids that are almost about to graduate and start college, etc., but here we see a kid in middle school who happens to have such a powerful energy to change everyone around him. He turned Cha Young Jin into a person who was not closed to her feelings anymore, he made Dong Myung stop being a bully, Min Sung gain confidence and stand up for himself, his homeroom teacher Lee Sun Woo realize his previous mistakes and gave him a new opportunity to be a good teacher; he was powerful enough to even change his mom. This boy is the purest, softest and strongest kid ever, as he didn't let his hardships outshine his kind personality. Such a beautiful kid.

I loved every other side character that was directly or indirectly related to Young Jin or Eun Ho. Lee Sun Woo's crush on Young Jin was undeniable and even though we did not get anything, not even a tiny hint that could make us think that they may start a romantic relationship, there's no way that anyone can make me think that Sun Woo wasn't head over hills for Young Jin and wanted to be much more than whatever their relationship was about. I loved how supportive and willing to cooperate he always was, he also made sure that as far as his scope went, he could be of use to resolve the cases. The actor is so tiny and cute but this character had such a strong personality and was absolutely lovely.

Dong Myung and Min Sung were the best friends that Eun Ho could ever have, as they were never perfect and never even intended to be, but they were mature enough to own up for their mistakes and try to do better in life; and all of this was thanks to Go Eun Ho. He really changed everyone around him and these two boys will forever thank him for helping them become the good kids that they are. I really loved the three friends dynamic and how worried and caring they were all about each other.

Getting to one of the highlights of this drama: Baek Sang Ho. This man! What a masterpiece of character and portrayal he was. At first I did think he was suspicious or probably just very crazy and creepy (like when Young Jin and Sang Ho were at Millennium Hotel's rooftop in the very first episodes and he said that he hoped Eun Ho was pushed instead of jumping by himself because that would be much more traumatic for Young Jin --hinting a possible suicide), so it was a nice surprise to slowly reveal all his madness and get to know his thought process, how everything he did had a meaning and it was to make someone suffer as much as they can. Baek Sang Ho was a traumatized kid, and although trauma definitely does not justify crimes, he was definitely not 100% to blame for becoming this psycho. When BSH and CYJ were again at the rooftop in ep 16 and he saw how YJ saved him because of Eun Ho (basically), he was reminded of his dark past and wondered if his life would've been different if he had been saved by CYJ... I almost felt for him. At the core, he was still a human (like the detective later said) and had human emotions that were suppressed by another psycho and turned him into one himself. Nonetheless, BSH was definitely perfectly built character and Park Hoon's portrayal was academy-award worthy.

Every other side character that was part of this amazing cast and drama had a reason to exist and that's one of the many things that I loved about this drama. I thought multiple times that it was just amazing how everything was connected and how every character added something either to the stigmata murders, or Eun Ho's case. Baek Sang Ho's villain squad, the violent cases team, Eun Ho's mom Tae Hyung, the school director, etc. All these characters contributed to make this such an amazing crime drama that is worth every single minute of your time. Definitely one of the best 2020 K-Dramas and one of the best in general too.

As an ending note, I'm not giving this drama a full score because there were some very little plot details that I am not satisfied about, like whatever happened with Young Jin's parents, or how Baek Sang Ho saved Bae Sun Ah (it was never revealed); and also I'm not sure if it was during the whole drama or just by the end, but the editing felt too off for me in the last eps. There were a couple of continuity errors that put me off: simple things like if a chair was placed in some way in scene A but then the camera changes and the chair is in a completely different position, or a character posture in the same context, the content of the glasses being different in one camera vs another, etc. Also, the action scenes by the end were not very fluent (Young Jin's fights against Doo Shik and Hee Dong), time lapses were not shown properly... I studied TV production for about 2 years so I know a bit about these things, which makes me pay attention and spot this kind of mistakes and that's why I'm giving it 9.0. But overall, it's definitely such an amazing drama worth watched.

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"The world will turn colorless"

*** Contains a few spoilers***

Honestly loved it so much. It left me sad and with an immense void in my heart but also satisfied? It's such a beautiful movie.


When Jianqing said "if Ian couldn't find Kelly at the end, then the world will turn colorless" and the next scene is Xiaoxiao putting on earrings for him in a colorless picture. The cinematography of this movie is so detailed and simple, yet mindblowing, I love it.

Also this dialogue:

Jianqing: We have everything in the end.

Xiaoxiao: Just not each other.

Bitch that shit HURTED. HURTED MUCH.

The way they still cared for each other after all those years makes me so sad and it reminded me of this American movie 'Before Sunset' because I watched it only a couple days ago and I was kind of hoping for their romance to develop like Jesse and Celine's but it'd have been wrong to wish for an affair right...? Unless...

The scene of Jianqing's dad letter to Xiaoxiao absolutely wrecked me up, do NOT touch parents being abandoned by their children and expect me not to cry.

I love how this movie's whole plot is surrounded and greatly affected by their poor status, however, poverty is never seen romantically and Jianqing's dad even mentions something like "do you think you can do anything now just because you're rich." What a wise man.

Also, the whole game was a love letter and a confession to the world, how would their lives have been if only he got on the train or if she looked for him after watching his interview about his game... 

Anyway, this is probably one of my fav sad romantic movies that i'll rewatch in the future if I'm in the mood to bet sad.

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Absolutely disappointing and a huge waste of time

There are so many better BLs and even every KBL I've watched has been better than this. People claim this one didn't have much budget but it's the KBL with the best production I have seen. The idea and universe they built was pretty great and it could have been developed so much better.

The acting was absolutely off-putting, the way Yoo Han immediately got touchy and weirdly into Yeon Woo made it so uncomfortable to watch. They didn't build any type of momentum because they were strangely skinship-y in a way no one ever is. Yeon Woo was evidently disturbed by everything but they never really developed it; his actions towards everything eere exaggerated and his reactions were like those of a madman. We know nothing about Yoo Han other than what was rushly showed on ep 8. There was no chemistry between the leads whatsoever and every 'sweet' moment was ruined by excessive glamorizing of the scenes.

Overall, the show had a great premise and a truly amazing concept with the Monos, Probes, color rush, social problematic, etc., but it was terribly developed and totally ruined.

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Unexplainable thriller, and definitely not a social commentary

I'm going to be honest, I started this movie only because of Siwan, and since the plot seemed interesting, I thought it would be worth watching it beyond the fact that I love to watch Siwan's shows and movies. However, I must say that his performance (and Chun Woohee's) in this movie was the only thing that kept me watching it.

If you want to watch 'Unlocked' looking for a movie that criticizes our society's dependence on smartphones and technology, don't. This is not a social commentary and it doesn't approach the topic like that. This is a movie about a psychopath with no background story or reason to kill, and once again, shallow female relationships that make you wonder if these writers have ever seen women in real life.

I'm going to start with the fact that it bothers me personally that psychological thrillers these days - and by these days I mean in the past several years - are all about male psychopaths with a nonsensical obsession to kill young women. No, I'm not saying that we should give these psychopaths a troubled childhood in order to justify their actions as adults. I'm saying that a story should have a reason to be, whatever it might be. But lately, kdrama writers, and those at Netflix in particular, seem to be making these stories about killing women just for shock value and nothing else. The fact that the reason 'Oh Junyoung' killed these women was just because they dropped their phones is the weakest and most boring reason I've seen in this type of dramas, and that's a lot to say considering that I keep thinking about the drama 'Somebody', which I feel the same way and worse about (if you watched it, you would know what I'm talking about).

Now, another bothersome plot point about this movie is the fact that the killer is always smarter than everyone and can anticipate every move, action, and thought from his victims, making it impossible for them to ever escape their fate. But then again, this wouldn't be so irksome if the writers provided the psychopath with at least a reason to kill or an explanation as to why he's doing what he's doing and why he's so good at it. In this drama, however, we don't even have a name for our killer, which wouldn't be that much of a problem if we at least had any type of information about his background or what he did before the movie started rolling. The only thing that we know is that he impersonated the detective's son and wanted to frame him for his murders. But why? Why did he start impersonating this man? How did they meet? Why was the detective so mad at his son? Why do the writers give us information about the detective's wife and their family situation in general, when it won't even be resolved or explained, or even shown what the link between all this is? The killer wasn't even actually the detective's son, so why do we even need to know this, when we won't know who our killer is or what his reasons are at all? Who did the killer have a grudge against to be going around doing all this, to begin with? There's absolutely no explanation for anything ever and the more I think about this movie, the more questions pop up in my head that will never be answered.

Moving onto the female characters, this is probably what makes me the most upset. The female lead had her phone hacked and discovered it, but the first thing she does is blame her best friend after consulting a man that she met two days ago, and against whom her father warned her. It's kind of annoying how she dismissed the very reasonable concerns of her dad, but I won't even get into that. What I will question, though, is, why do you live in a house without a code? Why does your best friend scare you about having someone breaking into your house? Why do you believe a man you met two days ago over your best friend since middle school? Why does your best friend get immediately upset with you and decide to cut contact with you for a misunderstanding you had in a moment of extreme distress after your life was literally ruined by some psychopath? I don't understand why they made their friendship so shallow and ridiculous that you would decide to cut contact with your friend. Yes, I would also be absolutely hurt if my best friend suspected me of pulling such a horrible thing on her, but to go beyond that and warn her to never contact me again, and leave her all on her own to deal with such a dangerous situation... It pisses me off to think that these writers think women would do that.

Also, after the female lead finds out that her phone was hacked, she simply decides to keep using it as if nothing was happening. Girl, the first thing you needed to do was throw it away. At least she came up with a reverse strategy eventually, but I just kept thinking about why she simply decided to keep using her phone after everything that was happening to her.

These dramas and movies written by men about psychopathic serial killers that outsmart their victims all the time, and in which said victims are the dumbest people you'll ever see really gives me an unsettling feeling considering the incredibly high rates of this type of murder in South Korea.

Overall, this isn't the worst movie you'll ever watch, but it's only a movie to watch if you don't have anything else to do and if you don't feel like watching a complicated story. Don't let the thriller tag deceive you into thinking you're down for an actually good psychological thriller because you are really not.

At least Siwan did amazingly as expected, and Chun Woohee was a very good actress. In general, the cast is pretty good and there are many familiar faces if you watch a lot of kdramas, but other than that, this movie is very weak and not really worth your time.

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This drama produced something on me that not many dramas do: an incredible satisfaction that the drama ended. Not because of how nice it made me feel, or how fulfilled it left me, but because I was glad I finally didn't have to keep watching it. I'm a big fan of RDTK1, I loved every single bit of that show and I had no complaints about it. Every character was perfectly developed, the story fit all on its own. Which they completely failed to do here.

As I mentioned previously while commenting on this show, I had to pause episodes multiple times because I was bored and wanted to do something else. Almost all the time after Eps 7-8 I watched this show while doing something else, either playing some game, scrolling on Twitter or simply busying myself while watching it. I'm the type of viewer who focuses her entire attention on whatever she's watching, so to say that I was calmly doing something else while these episodes were rolling is very telling about how this season made me feel. I even skipped a lot of filler scenes which either were not important to the main plot (whatever it was), or would be explained somehow as the drama developed more. I say 'filler scenes', but a lot of them were probably considered important, like parts with Chairman Do and stuff like that.

Even though I was this bored watching this season, I didn't want to drop it at all. I had anticipated this season a lot and it was my first choice to watch as soon as I got some free time. I started Ep 1 quite lost because I had watched S1 only once when it was airing, so I decided to rewatch it to have a fresh memory. I finished it in 2 days pulling all-nighters. I finished writing my review when the sun was rising. That's how invested and involved I was with that season and I wanted to be that emotionally involved with it so that my feelings and memories were fresh to watch this one, but this season didn't compensate that.

I wasn't even considering writing a long review about this drama and I don't feel like getting into details of every thing that I disliked about this season (which were a lot), so I'll just go over a few points quickly.

1. This season was so unnecessarily dramatic for no reason at all. It had more politics than medical stuff, the characters were so problematic without adding much to the plot, Chairman Do was unbearable and he lacked all sense of evil. He simply hated Master Kim because of their past drama and came back with the sole purpose of ruining him and closing Doldam Hospital. At some point I even thought to myself that all the villains were evil to good doctors with no reason at all. Dr. Song coming back as an *ss-licker was incredibly annoying, as I thought he had settled up something from season 1 (since he never left the hospital anyway) and the first episode made it look like that, but he was still a puppet with no reason to live on his own. And S2's version of Dr. Song was Dr. Yang. If Chairman Do didn't exist, he would be the character I hated the most. He was obnoxiously mean to Woo Jin and Eun Jae for no reason at all, he learnt nothing throughout the entire drama and the only important scene he had was when Eun Jae hit him and exploded at him. That was incredibly satisfying.

2. Even though Master Kim is a very likeable character, I didn't agree with some of his decisions and attitudes in this season. Just like Eun Tak said, he never thought Master Kim was wrong up until the moment President Yeo was resuscitated, although that's not what I'm basing this on. He's too self-righteous and incredibly arrogant that you start understanding why other people would find him unbearable. I feel like I'd be a villain in this universe, or someone like Park Min Goo who can't stand him and feels threatened by him, but who eventually (and unreasonably) shifts to his side. One of the scenes that annoyed me the most was when the guy with the accidentally amputated leg didn't want to get surgery because of the expenses. He was considering his family, his life quality which was already damaged with or without the surgery; he knew he couldn't afford the surgery and would be hard for his family. But all Master Kim did was yell at him in front of his wife and son about how coward and weak he was because he put money before his leg. Like, hello! Some people are poor here? Maybe because I've had many economical struggles, but I couldn't avoid getting annoyed at this part. There were other things like this that slightly annoyed me with his self-advocated perfection, but I can't remember everything. With that being said, I don't hate him at all, lol.

3. The romance was absolutely underwhelming. Even though the amount of romance that we got with Kang Dong Joo and Yoon Seo Jung were not enough (for me) and their romance was far from being the center of the show, Seo Woo Jin and Cha Eun Jae couldn't fill their shoes at all. Their romance always felt more like a crush from Woo Jin than anything else. We didn't even have the typical realization from the FL that she likes the ML too. When she was supposed to leave to Geodae H., she naturally talked with Dr. Yun about her frustration because Woo Jin didn't look for he as if it was showed before, as if they had ever talked about it (or hinted they did) at all. We as viewers knew they liked each other more because the drama has a romance tag than anything else, but beyond unfounded suspicions, the doctors and nurses couldn't really tell if it was real or not. Yet, Dr. Yun advises Eun Jae to confess her feelings first and Eun Jae doesn't even give it a second thought? Like when did she even start liking him? The writers could've done all this so much better, but I'll give them a pass because the kiss scene in Ep 16 was really nice and the hug before Eun Jae left was lovely.

4. The character development in S1 is the thing that caught the most my attention, to the point I found myself several times saying out loud, "character development!!!" when Kang Dong Joo or Yoon Seo Jung did admirable things. That, however, was nowhere to be found here. I was looking forward to Eun Jae's character being explored more, there was so much to work with but poor writing made her look like a dramatic b*tch with a rich family. She had the pressure of a family of successful doctors when she didn't even want to be a doctor herself, so she suffered from constant anxiety. They never explained when she started to be nauseous, to begin with. Of course, they showed the morgue scene A LOT to emphasize that's when it all began, but how could she be a surgeon in her second year if she had this trouble all the time? Logically, she either got worse with time, or always had it to the same level, which is impossible in reality because how else would she have performed surgeries all those years? Whatever the case was, it was incredibly disrespectful that they cured her with a placebo and gave zero attention to the fact that she was in desperate need of mental therapy. Surely you can cure many things about yourself if you set your mind on it, but disregarding the need of a psychologist in nothing but a medical drama is ridiculous. I found myself disliking her character so many times because of poor writing and editing, even though I knew she was a strong and goal-driven FL with a lot of potential. But of course they ruined her.

On another note, I feel like Woo Jin was written much more in detail even though his family drama was unnecessarily complicated when they mixed it with Dr. Bae's family. Nonetheless, I think Woo Jin wasn't done as dirty as Eun Jae and they made him overcome all his insecurities about his family and his place in the world, he learned many lessons and the only time I had this "character development!!!" thought was at almost the end of Ep 16 when he asked for Park Min Goo's help; another character that was done dirty because of lazy writing, as he was a consistent villain with a reason! But they "cured" his evilness in less than 30 minutes. At one moment he was evil, then he cried, then he left, then he became good. All in the same episode, in a matter of minutes. Seriously?

5. The entire plot was pointless. We didn't have much to look forward to, the cliffhangers were boring and confusing. You could drop this drama at any time and it wouldn't really matter because there were little things to anticipate in every episode. They added way too many things, TOO many things everywhere to make it more dense and interesting but they failed to deliver a consistent story like S1. At some point even some characters were too dramatic compared to their selves in S1, like Nurse Oh was going around doing unnecessary dramatic things in the middle of the drama, whining all the time at Master Kim without doing anything important. Manager Jang was given apparently relevant tasks but the only good thing he ever did was to get the list of the doctors and that was it, the rest was him making drama with Nurse Oh. Dr. Jung wasn't given any attention despite him being apart from his family for 3 whole years and was even subtly judged by Master Kim when he was considering going back to Seoul. Again, an egoistic side of Master Kim that is not regarded enough.

Lastly, I must say the only things that kept me going through this drama were Seo Woo Jin, Eun Tak & Ah Reum and the long anticipated cameo of Yang Se Jong. I loved to see Do In Beom smiley, happy with his life, comfortable in Doldam Hospital and helping Master Kim. I loved that welcoming hug, the way Master Kim looked at him like a little boy who grew up was so endearing. I loved the dynamic he had with Woo Jin, when he was testing his skills, when he let Woo Jin do the laparoscopy surgery. That was character development at its finest, but I can't count it here because it involves S1, lol. I completely loved the short screentime he had about his relationship with Ah Reum! It was so nice to see him talk loosely and familiarly with someone for the very first time. Definitely one of the highlights of the drama, and one of the few, lol.

The fact that they kept mentioning Kang Dong Joo and Yoon Seo Jung coming back, and also In Beom saying himself that he would be back probably (and most likely) hints for a S3, but I'm not sure if it will work out at all. Doing a special with the mains from S1 and S2 would be enough to wrap up this story before they end up ruining it.

Anyway, to quickly finish this unexpectedly long review, I won't give it less than 7.0 because despite all this, it had its good moments and I enjoyed some parts but overall it would never be as good as S1 and that's all there is to it.

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'30 but 17' is a lovely drama about self-growth, love, friendship, overcoming hardships, family beyond blood. It talks about so many deep topics with such a pure and innocent approach that melts your heart every episode. The core and root of this drama are sad, a sorrowful story with so many sad parts, but the drama is so beautiful that I watched it with a smile on my face, I laughed out loud so many times, I cried, I felt related to the characters, I felt empowered. I don't have enough words to express how much I loved this drama. Every little thing about this was amazing, every character, the story, the acting, chemistry, music. Everything was simply perfect.

Woo Seo Ri is absolutely one of my favorite female characters. She was strong without trying too hard, she was determined, optimistic, happy. What I loved the most about her character is that she had such a sad life, she lost 13 years of her life, the most important time for most people, she lost her friends, lost contact with her family. She was abandoned in this world and yet she maintained her cheerful and hard-working attitude. The scene where she's seen in the playground sheltering herself from the rain hit so many spots, it was so sad. She went through so much but she didn't let any of her hardships take away what she believed in, who she was. I loved that she didn't have to be a tough character to be strong, and that shows that women don't need to be tough or 'femme fatale' to be considered strong, we can be feminine, girly, innocent, cheerful, and still be strong. I also loved the way she grew as a person as well, a 17-year-old was forced to be 30 and act like an adult, but with the help of her boyfriend, family and friends she was able to grow so much to the point that she even changed her dream, because she was not a young girl who loved to play the violin anymore, but she was an adult who now had different, yet highly meaningful things in her life.

Gong Woo Jin automatically became one of my favorite all-time male characters because of how much he grew as a person, as a man in all of his ways. He was a man who lived his life blaming himself for the death of a girl he didn't even know, until one day he meets someone that opens all the doors for him to find happiness again. He overcomes all of his complexes before knowing who Seo Ri was, which shows that he didn't just grow because of the girl in the past (the one he thought it was, at least), but because he opened the door for who seemed to be a new person in his life. He let himself be happy, and eventually even found forgiveness to himself after clearing up the misunderstanding. The moment when I sobbed with this drama was when he confessed his feelings to Seo Ri after he said he would leave, when he told her that he was sorry for loving her after taking her life away. "I am the one who stole 13 years of your life, but I can't live without you," I loved this scene just so much. Also, when he first told her that he would never leave, that they should be honest to each other and never hide anything, tell things just like they are. The growth he experienced was unmatched. I just wish relationships in real life were this beautiful.

The romance was just so lovely! Gong Woo Jin and Woo Seo Ri loved each other like crazy, they relied on each other every time, they trusted each other with their lives. When Woo Jin first opened up to her at the beach was so beautiful because he was slowly letting her in his life and that was the beginning of his forgiveness. I had to repeat some parts of the romance because of how beautiful it was, the way they interacted with each other, when he held her hand, the way they looked at each other... Sometimes I wonder how can actors and actresses not fall in love for each other when playing such lovely roles. These two ar totally one of my favorite couples as well.

I loved every side character of this story. Yoo Chan was the purest boy ever and I loved his realization of his feelings, how caring he was, the way he struggled to accept that he loved someone so much older, and the way he decided to put an end to those feelings as well. He was so mature and didn't whine nor complain to his uncle because he knew his feelings were just a crush from a teenager. I liked that he was eager to grow faster just to be with Seo Ri, but then he knew that he didn't have to rush things in his life and just live the best way for him to his age. I loved this boy so much. And his friends were just as lovely, I loved their friendship and how they were always there for each other.

I would say Jennifer was my favorite character but everyone in this drama is so perfect and I loved the leads so much that I can't really say I love any side character more than them, but Jennifer was such a beautiful character! Her story was so sad but she still took such good care about all the boys and Seo Ri, she truly loved them all as if they were her own children. When Woo Jin told her that he also once thought he didn't deserve to have good things in his life but that he was wrong and that she also deserved to find those beautiful things, I teared up some bits. I love that this drama shows how depression can affect different people in different ways, but ultimately all of us can overcome those things in our own ways. When Seo Ri hugged her and told her that it was okay not to be okay today, that moment was so emotional. I love that the writers gave Jennifer importance and closure to her sadness even though she did not affect the plot, so I was so happy to see her saying that she would now find beautiful things that she deserves, and then she came back looking completely different and happier; it was so refreshing.

I liked the fact that this drama didn't need a villain to be good or keep you interested in the story. It was about overcoming your hardships, growing as a person and loving the people around you. I thought Director Rim Kim would be a possessive bitch at some points when she was first introduced, that she would fall for Woo Jin and usual kdrama stuff, then I thought she would do bad things to Seo Ri and block her from growing, just other usual kdrama stuff. But I was actually relieved to find that she was simply an insecure woman who despite having it all didn't enjoy the things she had due to the pressure of her family, and finding Seo Ri made her appreciate things better and grow as well. She wasn't a main character but she still had such good character development.

I also thought Kim Hyun Tae would start some drama and try to take Seo Ri away from Woo Jin and the family, that she would go with him and bring unnecessary drama, but I was so glad again to see how Seo Ri put her family first, how she said she was okay where she was now. Also, loved the confidence with which Woo Jin talked to him and reassured Hyun Tae that Seo Ri was okay, that he was glad Seo Ri had someone who took care of her all these years and that it was okay now; when he said that you're calm when you're not anxious about your feelings! Boy, I love you just too much. The character development of every character in this drama is just so beautiful.

Some bonus parts of this drama that were maybe not that important to others but I noticed and loved (again) is that when Seo Ri was at the airport, she saved Chan without knowing who he was and it's never given importance because it was about Seo Ri and Woo Jin, but then Chan saves Min Kyu, Seo Ri's cousin and I just like that this was such an unimportant small detail that warmed my heart.

This drama was just so perfect to me. There were some little details that I didn't like and which were actually poorly done, like some continuation errors in certain scenes, the editing several times cut the emotions because they kept throwing some unrelated scenes that cut the moments, or the fact that an entire episode could've been cut off if they didn't put so many flashbacks all the time! But these are just some production errors that don't bother me enough to remove the 10/10 that this drama is for me. It's definitely my favorite feel good drama so far and I can't express how much I loved it enough.

I also loved some quotes from Jennifer and one from Woo Jin that I wrote down to include in this review, so I'll leave them below and simply recommend you this drama so much!

"Even if you want to hold onto it or you want it to pass quickly, time is the only thing that will eventually go by. Even the painful times that make people think that it'd be okay to just die now pass eventually. There will come a day when even the painful memories that seemed like they'd never be erased will pass. But if you ignore the time even before this day comes, the important moments will simply be washed away. Even if you regret it, it'd be too late for them." - Jennifer

"Time not only does fly by, but at the same time it's something you can never get back. Anyone's capable of feeling sad about what's already gone. But whether you make that sadness into something regretful or a wonderful memory is entirely up to you." - Jennifer

"Some things just get better as time goes by, but that's not the case when it comes to resolving uncomfortable feelings you have for another person. People mostly fall apart because they don't say enough; they stop themselves from saying the one thing that matters. It's better to put things back to normal before things get worse because of that one thing you didn't say." - Jennifer

"They say, 'When one door to happiness closes, another door to happiness opens up for you.' But many of us are only focused on the closed door and don't even realize that another door has opened up. Perhaps, the other door to happiness might not be something grand or special. Perhaps, the small and trivial things that look insignificant are the other doors to happiness. The small roof window in my room had always been closed since I didn't know it could be opened. She taught me how to open it and then it became another door to happiness. If you don't flop down in front of a closed door, if you take a look at the other door to happiness before it's too late, if you muster up the courage and walk towards it, then perhaps you might be able to find the happiness that you didn't even realize existed." - Gong Woo Jin

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Completely pointless season

I have hundreds of complaints about this season but I don't have the energy to go into detail about everything so I just want to say it was so pointless to make this season if all the 4 leads would end up with their original relationships. Jojo and Hyeyeong had no romantic chemistry whatsoever, she always looked guilty around him and like she was with him just because he liked her and she didn't want to be lonely, other than actually loving him. It made no sense that she didn't stop Sunoh from kissing her if apparently she rang HY's alarm multiple times before that. The whole shield and spear was so stupid, annoyingly pointless and made no sense at all. The closure they gave Sunoh was so dumb too but at least he ended up with someone who actually loves him dearly and made him smile and try to become a better person. But still, he smiled only like 3 or 4 times through the whole show... Everything was so ridiculous, this season was literally unnecessary. The only storyline that actually mattered and was more interesting than whatever went on with the leads was Gulmi, I'm only not giving it 1 star because of her, but even her character can only make it go up as 2 stars.

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Biggest waste of cast and ridiculously high ratings

This was the biggest disappointment in a while, a huge waste of cast and an initial good story. 8.5 is absurdly high for such a mediocre drama. The only good things were Inguk and Boyoung working their ass*s off to try to save whatever mess this was and even their great chemistry and acting couldn't save it. Such an incredible waste of time, resources and cast.

Dawon's character was one of the rare good things in this drama, along with her aunt and Nam Dareum's character. The side romance was weird as f*ck, most boring and laziest I've ever seen. Jiuk was a creep, I never understood why his actions were so encouraged and even romanticized. Him kissing her when they didn't even know each other and only because he "pitied" her is sexual harassment and this drama failed miserably to even hold him accountable for it. Hyunkyu was a literal teenager when he ghosted Jina, and I'm not saying he did the right thing or he "deserved" to end up with her, but he was way too blamed and cornered for an action he did years ago while being an immature kid, whereas Jiuk was already an adult when he kissed 1) a teenager, 2) his younger friend's crush. And no one EVER pointed out how wrong that was... Absolutely ridiculous.

Jina was a great character in every aspect EXCEPT when it came about Jiuk. I don't understand how such a strong and capable female character like her would become stupidly weak and docile with such an annoying man like Jiuk. In real life, a relationship that (1) started like this (2) with a narcissist like Jiuk would never be healthy. My only complaint to Dongkyung is that she liked Jiuk as a boss (when he was weird as f*ck as a boss too) AND supported him to date her friend. Just what the h*ck did this guy do to get people liking him at all. He's a massive creep. I skipped/fast paced most of their scenes ever since ep 12.

The story had so much potential and could've been developed in such a much better way, I bet even Inguk and Boyoung thought this was going to be better and that's why they signed up for it.

The fact that it took about 6-7 eps to properly introduce the story and explain the characters' actions (some people even needed up to ep 12 to understand why Myulmang wanted to destroy the world) clearly shows how poorly written this was and the mess the writer created. So many people were excited about this and even taking notes on the plot because that's how promising it looked, but it soon showed that it would be a hot mess and it was. Inguk is my favorite actor so I had a hard time acknowledging the fact that this drama was awful, but I eventually let my bias aside and embraced that fact.

Inguk and Boyoung looked amazing in every shot, not only together but in their separate scenes. They were both highly likeable characters with great chemistry and realistic actions and doings. I really liked these two together but I wish their pairing would've been in a different and better written drama.

The only reason why I would recommend this drama is for the great chemistry of the leads, but other than that there really isn't anything worth watching about this drama and I seriously can't understand why anyone genuinely liked the story or the ridiculous rating on this website. I'm only giving 1.5 stars (3.0) to the story because it did have great potential and came from a great idea, but the terrible execution won't let me give it any more than that, no matter how much I love Inguk. And my final rating being 6.0 hurts because I really anticipated this drama a lot and Inguk, again, is my favorite actor so it's difficult to be so hard on one of his dramas but nothing could save.

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Unfulfilling youth story

I wrote this as a comment before but I decided to put it as a review too and see how my opinion changes after the drama ends.

It's painful to watch because Jun and Soohyun's story develops in such a much deeper way, they're literally always there for each other when they need someone the most - like they have said, they keep showing each other their worst and what they want to hide the most, both Jun and Soohyun have had outstanding character development thanks to each other, the time spent together and experiences lived. Sobin is sadly an accessory of the ML that literally doesn't contribute anything to his growth. She's surely done things for him and has helped him be more open, but most of his growth is thanks to what he's learned after spending time with Soohyun and growing together.

Soohyun's entire development is thanks to Jun and how Soohyun himself has become more open in front of him. I just really don't see how there's room for a het romance between Sobin and Jun when their relationship is absolutely shallow and simple.

It's also painful to see how dull and poorly written every female character is. Sobin had a backstory and something going on for her but ever since Jun helped her overcome her childhood trauma there is nothing else to make her an interesting character on her own. Like I said, every action of hers at this point simply leads to something related to Jun, showing she's nothing more than a plot accessory of the ML even though she is "the female lead."

Miju is completely shallow, not because of her personality but because everything they made about her is simply having a crush on Soohyun. She lacks any type of depth and character trait, all her screentime is just her having a ridiculous crush on a clearly uninterested guy that has way too much to deal with his life to be even thinking about a relationship.

Youngran is probably the most interesting female character only because she has a personality other than liking a guy, but her screentime is little and she doesn't do much either in the show. Still, her biggest trait is having a crush on her childhood friend too, so it's not like she's properly written or built either.

Chanki being on the drama poster is ridiculous since they don't even give him enough screentime or, again, other personality than being the FL's childhood friend who realizes a bit too late that he also liked his best friend back, which makes no sense anyway because even if you like someone you wouldn't be dating *that* much and doing your friend so dirty even after knowing she had a crush on you (this doesn't make any sense to me).

I can't say I'm not disappointed with the way this drama is developing because I really liked it at the beginning and sadly (and naively) hoped for a romance between the two male leads, but they keep simply bating us and making us believe they will develop something between them, even though their relationship is a lot more interesting than any other character or relationship in the whole drama.

I'm not even talking from a webtoon fan because I didn't read the webtoon (I did see some caps just to confirm it's actually BL), but from a viewer who has eyes and clearly knows that the story between Jun and Soohyun is much better than anything else. I'm not even getting into the fact that they completely stripped a the sexuality off a main character and how the erasure of LGBTQ+ in adapted dramas do a lot more damage than kdrama stans seem to think, I'm literally just complaining about the development of the drama itself as a story on its own.

I was excited at the beginning and liked it a lot, but this week's eps really showed a drop in quality.

-- UPDATE --

So I just finished it and confirmed that many things I wrote above were spot-on and pretty much predicted how this drama would make me feel: unfulfilled.

The way the conflict between the brothers resolved was the most boring and predictive thing in the drama. Jun is supposed to hate his brother because his memories tricked him into thinking that it was his brother who used to beat him up, but it was actually his father. Okay, I understand our memories can trick us and distort our past, affecting our present. That part totally makes sense and I wouldn't complain if they hadn't done Junwan's implication so lazy and mediocre. You're telling me a 10? 12? year old boy told his younger brother that he didn't have a family, traumatizing him forever, just to "protect" him? Wouldn't it have been easier if he just... protected his brother? He could've told him the same thing, that he didn't have a mother or father but he had a brother to rely on, the two of them would've been able to get through the abuse of their father and pressure of their mother in a much better way. This part alone didn't make any sense. On the other side. they left Junwan's story in the vast. Jun told him to live his life from then on so the writers took him off the show.

Jun's reactions were so weird too. The fact that he just kept screaming all the time and had a very scary and aggressive reaction all the time was a little bit off-putting. I can't say it's completely random because I understand that's completely part of someone's trauma, but it kind of put me off sometimes. Also, the fact that his mom never apologized to him or anything at all... Trash.

I don't really want to get into much detail but among the many things that bored me about this drama and made me feel like it was a waste of time was how poorly written the female characters were in this show. None of them had any depth whatsoever other than liking a boy. Sobin had some background story but once her boyfriend helped her overcome her childhood trauma, suddenly her little story disappeared and she became nothing more than The Male Lead's Girlfriend. Every one of her scenes was either with Jun or about Jun (after ep 7. sort of). The last 3 eps could've gone without her with no issue because the writers simply didn't care about her at all.

Also, the way they completely took Miju off the show as soon as she decided to get over her crush is so incredibly mediocre. She started liking Soohyun because she saw him ONCE working, he picked up something she dropped (as it was his job), saw him 4 times more, confessed, got rejected and suddenly her whole world came to pieces. The way she literally told Youngran he was "her everything" even though she new virtually nothing about him other than being a smart sunbae in the business department? That was soooo shallow and unnecessary. Her character was the worst and not because she was a bad person, but because the writers literally gave no fvcks about her after a while either. They based her whole personality in having a crush, so when she decided to get over the crush they plainly and simply took her off the screen. Outrageous.

As I said before, Youngran was the most interesting female character, but even so the only personality they gave her was Having a Crush on her long-time friend. At least they didn't completely remove her from the picture and actually gave her another friend (glad they didn't actually start dating but just stayed as friends) to get over her crush with and show some growth.

I will never stop complaining about how this drama did Jun and Soohyun so dirty. I get it, it's KBS, it's a major TV channel, it aired in prime time, Korea isn't so open to LGBTQ+ stories, the original webtoon doesn't develop a romantic relationship between the two, etc, etc. Yes, all those points are true, but it doesn't make it any less annoying that the whole show could've had more depth and been more interesting if they developed a romantic relationship between these two characters. I can settle with the fact that they were good friends and cared for each other fondly, helped each other grow and all that. I was a cute sight and I won't say I didn't enjoy their friendship. But it would've been so much better, interesting and definitely riskier if they went with a gay romance that wouldn't hurt anyone.

The only way I won't feel robbed and like I wasted 12 hours of my life in this is by thinking that Soohyun was implied to be gay. Wait, I have arguments! Well, first of all, he had two female love interests and chose none. Okay, it may mean he was just not interested, but it's kind of rare to find things like this in a kdrama. Second, Soohyun did admit he liked a person in that field trip. Although the question explicitly said "lower your finger if you like any *girl* here, he rejected the two girls he could be interested in (because he obviously was not into Sobin), so my conclusion is that he actually had a crush on Jun but would not act on it because 1) they're friends, 2) Jun has a girlfriend, 3) he's way too busy with his life to date - of course, this could also be applied to explain why he didn't accept either Miju or Youngran, but this is my coping mechanism and one must do what makes them happy. In my heart, Nam Soohyun is gay in the drama too.

Overall, this drama had great potential and it hooked me well with the first 5 eps, ep 6 was ok but from ep 7 onwards it just got more and more boring. I won't lie, I watched the last 3 eps in 1.5x because it was very lame and boring, especially since they resolved Jun's trauma in such a lazy way that made me simply not any more interested in the show. I fininshed because I love Bae Inhyuk, Park Jihoon's acting was pretty good, and I came this far and good or not, I got invested in the story. However, I will mark it completed here and hopefully forget about it because it was incredibly disappointing.

Citeste mai mult

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD - If you have not watched this show, DO NOT READ unless you want the entire plot to be spoiled for you, and believe me, you don't want that for this drama.

'356: Repeat the Year' is a suspenseful thriller drama about a group of people resetting their lives for different reasons. This simple line was basically what made me decide to start this drama (plus, too much time on my hands), as I love deeply time travel plots that stick to their main line and have no apparent or too obvious plot holes. This genre is quite difficult to portray without making this type of mistakes, but I am glad to know that 365RTY managed to deliver such an interesting story until the very end. I bet that if I rewatch this drama soon I'll find inconsistencies or differences between the initial premise and the ending, but I don't think they would be too big to ruin the later events and that's enough for me.

The 12-episodes format was definitely the best choice for this story. I feel like if this had been a 16-episodes drama the plot would've gone lost at some point and we would've gotten many filler scenes that may bore the audience, so I'm glad that it was short, although I will miss it a lot. But still, the pace that this drama had was one of the best things about it, as we were always straight to the point without running in circles or making confusing story lines that would end up in nothing (yes, I'm looking at you, Memorist). At some point I thought I was breaking my head trying to make up theories that would eventually be debunked or were simply not likely, but this was another of the best things about this drama, that you really could never expect what would come, which doesn't happen that often since dramas can usually be easily predicted, but I'm really glad to know this wasn't the case.

Ji Hyung Joo and Shin Ga Hyeon will forever be one of my favorite couples even though there was no explicit romance ever, which makes me only a bit sad. I loved their friendship so much, how they cared about each other and how willing they were to sacrifice themselves for each other. I loved the character development that we had for Ga Hyeon, as she was a particularly dark person (obviously because of what she went through before the reset), but by the end of the drama, we had a very cheerful woman who was determined to solve this case and get her life back. I don't think we got much development about Hyung Joo, but I think he still became more mature and less reckless, more cold-headed, which is very important for a detective.

I noticed that at the last scene, we have a happy and bright Ga Hyeon and I was a bit confused because she was not like that before the reset, so I was thinking that they gave her the same personality that she had before dying in the previous timeline, but then I remembered that the final Ga Hyeon was never paraplegic, so this dark episode was not a part of her memory, therefore she's a happy girl with her cute dog. It's funny to think that Hyung Joo saw 3 types of Ga Hyeon, though. A dark Ga Hyeon on a wheelchair, an abled Ga Hyeon but with dark memories, and finally another abled Ga Hyeon, but with a bright aura. There's no way I won't believe he didn't have at least a crush on her, so I want to think that's a win for him.

My only problem with this drama is the reveal of the culprit. This drama takes about 8 episodes to understand the reason why all the resetters are dying one by one and eventually get to the reveal of a serial killer who happens to be a Violent Crimes Detective who kills people... For no reason? With no killing pattern? A detective serial killer with no pattern or motive... That's high bullshit for me, honestly. I don't think it was likely to make him suddenly a psycho who just started killing by mistake and ended up liking it, having fun doing it. It just doesn't match either Sun Woo's personality, or serial killers at all for that matter. Still, I think they managed to make it make sense because I have heard of rare serial killers who began to kill after doing it by mistake too, so it's not like it can't happen. But I just don't think this "I wanted to see how all of you would keep believing my perfect crime scenes" matches the type of character that Sun Woo was, especially because even after becoming a serial killer he was fond of Hyung Joo. I just don't see a proper character building there and that's like, one of the most important parts of this drama's plot.

But that aside, I loved the spontaneity of this plot and all the twists that we got. I could accurately predict about 20% of this drama, to be honest. Whenever we believed something, at the end of each episode we would find a completely new way to see things and to me, that proved that the writers and director really did an amazing job to create this story, with the exception of Sun Woo's character building.

Every side character was important to the story and I really liked how all of them had a hidden past that was revealed at a peak and crucial time. The most surprising ones for me were definitely Kim Se Rin and Mr. Hwang. I didn't see any of their stories coming, but it was very pleasant to be surprised in that way. Also, until the very end I thought Lee Shin had gone crazy while trying to hold onto her daughter's life and decided to reset these people's lives just to watch them, but it was actually Mr. Hwang's motive, so all of this was so interesting to see.

Also, did anyone notice that Lee Shin decided to hold onto her daughter's life and rode the train which would actually crash in that very day? It's sad to know that she decided to see how her daughter would grow after 6 years of repeating the same year in order to avoid her dying, but they embarked on a train that would end their lives. This "unexpected future" may not have been the best thing to choose, then. I ended up pitying her and Ms. Song, both of them were basically toys of a mastermind.

I always wonder whether our lives are predicted and if what is meant to happen will happen, and what's not will not no matter how much we try, so I really liked about this drama their strong efforts to change their futures that looked like they would always go the same way as if we're trapped in a never-ending loop. Of course, this is fiction and there's time travel involved, so not the best realistic inspiration, but I like to think that our lives and our future depend entirely on what we do today to change our tomorrow. I will take this as a life lesson from this drama and keep trying to change my fate too.

To conclude this review, I just really want to express how much I loved this drama and that I will be missing our favorite detective and writer so much next weeks! I hope Lee Joon Hyuk lands more leading roles because he's a really good actor and cute as f*. I don't really like Nam Ji Hyun, so I hesitated for that reason to watch this drama, but again, I was bored and ended up loving it. But I really liked her character and acting here, so I may give 'Suspicious Partner' and '100 Days My Prince' a try next time.

Citeste mai mult

'A Piece of Your Mind' was one of my highly anticipated 2020 dramas as I love Jung Hae In and Chae Soo Bin a lot and they're both great actors, so I was excited when I found out they'd be pairing for a winter to spring romantic drama, but I should've known since the very first episode that this would be a complete mess.

Episode 1 was incredibly confusing and boring, I didn't understand anything about it but I thought that may be the director's intention, so I thought I'd stick to it and check how the story developed. Episode 2 was a bit better but Episode 3 went back again to being boring and confusing. Then the main leads started getting closer after Episode 4 so it became a tiny little bit interesting. Again, I thought I should just keep watching because how much I liked the leads and also, well, quarantine, so there was not much to do anyways. I said I wouldn't drop any drama this year, so I definitely wanted to keep watching it but it was such a chore to do so, I shouldn't have even started it at all to begin with.

Ha Won and Seo Woo are far from being my favorite couple, contrary to what I would've expected because of how much I love the leads. Their chemistry was definitely there and that's probably the only thing to highlight about their characters, to be very honest. I liked Seo Woo until she started being too nosy and acted up against In Wook, becoming more and more like Ha Won who until the very end I couldn't stand one bit. I don't think I had ever disliked a main character so much, despite loving the actor this much too. He was selfish and jerk-ish at the beginning, and didn't change much towards the end. Sure, they both fell in love and left some of their struggles behind so they sort of moved on, but their characters were still so annoying and boring that even their romantic moments (a simple kiss and a few hugs!) felt boring and produced nothing on me ---I must say this part is very telling about how I feel towards this drama because mostly any main couple interaction makes my heart flutter but I never felt anything with Ha Won and Seo Woo, not even when they were in that cherry blossom path. I was simply not attached to any of them at all.

I'm probably on the unpopular opinion side that liked In Wook and Soon Ho's story better than the main couple. I mostly never enjoy the second couple more than the main one, but even though I didn't exactly enjoy the second couple here, it was at least more interesting than the mains to me. In Wook was a depressed man who had his own struggles and were shown all through the drama, but the writers decided to brush him off as a jerk who didn't care about his equally depressed wife simply because he was the second lead. I hated how much they made him be the villain when he was just another victim of one's own mistakes that haunt us forever. He was a kid when he told that lie to Ha Won's mom, so why did no one ever address this for him so he would forgive himself? They just let him struggle to the end until he decided to forgive himself, but the closure that he deserved was never given. Soon Ho wasn't my favorite character either and I don't really like Lee Ha Na's acting, as I have always seen her in characters that are pretty stupid, clueless, intrusive and have 0 tact, so this wasn't the exception, but at least she was part of a more interesting story than the leads. Kim Sung Gyu definitely did a great job with the crumbs he was given, and it's a shame that his character was there simply to thicken the plot.

The side characters served no purpose in anyone's life. The people at Eun Joo's homestay were boring and existed just to fill some scenes and make it look like the drama wasn't only about the main leads, but they were the most unimportant side characters one could ever have, just like Ha Won's co-workers. After they cut the drama down I kept skipping every scene with any side character because they were just so not important and boring that I didn't think there would be a reason for me to keep wasting my time watching them on screen.

The amount of nonsense this drama had stood out incredibly to make me remember it forever. The device was full of b*llsh*t and made no sense at all, it was the main reason why I couldn't enjoy this drama at all. If you're giving me a plot that makes no sense from the get-go I just wont' enjoy it, and that's exactly what this device did to me; it could store someone's personality and memories just by doing some voice tests? What kind of b...? I think the writer saw the many negative reviews about this nonsense so they decided to give it some sort of mediocre explanation by the end when Ha Won said something like it didn't actually have feelings but you needed to stimulate it to make it think it had feelings... That still did not explain why the devices had memories and could recognize whoever tried to trigger it and "wake" whoever the device was made of.

Overall, nothing about this drama made sense to me and I definitely feel like I wasted 12h+ of my time on this solely because of how much I love the leads. I will never recommend this drama and I'll just try to act like it never happened (I bet tVN and the whole cast would do the same, lol). I will never understand how anyone can rate this drama over 7.5 (and that's being very generous), or say it didn't deserve to be cut down, OR that it's the best drama they've ever watched. If you're one of those, I strongly recommend you to watch better things because I assure you there are tons of other things to watch that will actually have an impact in your life, not like this mediocre and half-assed drama.

Citeste mai mult

Just like another user, I will review this miniseries separately because they're all completely different:

1) Love Set: I believe this is the most difficult short film to rate or even describe because it probably looks (or is) meaningless. I understand that cinema doesn't always need to have a meaning and I love directors who understand this and simply film something with no plot or story, it's an interesting point of view about this industry. However, I tried to give it a meaning, and this may be a reach, but to me it was about giving your all to something and how tired or hurt you can get in order to achieve that. We see IU falling down and scratching her knee, one of the tennis balls even hits her chest but she keeps going. She's tired, Doo Na is tired too, but IU wants to keep going because she wants to achieve her goal. However, Doo Na tells her that she wont' marry her father, even though IU lost. I took this as that sometimes you don't even need to work that hard to get something, maybe you just need to let things happen and follow the flow they will naturally have, whether you get it or not, don't try too much or hurt yourself trying to achieve something that may just naturally come to you.

2) Collector: I have to admit that I didn't know where this was going but I was loving it simply for the horrible character that IU was. But as the story progressed, I understood that this was about an abusive relationship. A woman who ghosted her partner for 10 days, a man who was nervous because he couldn't reach her and when she finally appears, he's trying his best not to be a bother, not to show his true emotions and concerns in fear that she may leave again. They spend the entire day together, but she's out of it, she's physically there but her mind and heart are somewhere else. He notices it, but he doesn't want to do anything that may make her go away. Shots from what looks like his mind appear with what seems to be his ex-girlfriend, blaming him for leaving her and telling him he brought this upon himself, he can't complain (someone who made a mistake and went into an abusive relationship trying to convince himself that he deserves the abuse). But at the end of the day he can't hold it any longer and expresses his fears, concerns, emotions. He wants to know what he means to her, but to his misfortune, he's nothing more than just another man in her life, and he knew. She asks him to be cool, to be someone that he's not, to give her something more. He eventually ends up pulling his heart out of his chest, meaning that he was willing to give her everything even if that meant that he would die just so she could be happy. That's the best interpretation of an abusive relationship that I have ever seen. At the end, she's shown with a bag of hearts from other men who she had abused before and she gives him a box with what seems to be himself trapped in his own mind, again, this time his ex is not there. I'd take this as a way to show that after someone gives their all in an abusive relationship they're left alone, tired, drained, with no energy, emotions (heart) to give to another person. Completely loved this one.

3) Kiss Burn: This one was the most fun and light short film, about two girls trying to revenge the mistreatment that one girl's abusive father has done. They try several ways but end up failing with all of them. It's about friendship and discovering new things (kiss, sexual arousal, smoking). They spend a few days trying to do it but at the end they give up and decide to go to the beach to release their stress. A mountain is shown catching fire through the ending scene and the credits, and we learn that the abusive father is a forest fireman, so we can say that the nature's way to avenge the father's abuse is by giving him work(?). To be honest, I couldn't find any deeper meaning in this one, nothing more than just an innocent friendship. Still, loved the acting and story.

4) Walking at Night: This is my favorite short film of the mini series. When I finished it, I literally thought in my head I did an standing ovation because of how vastly beautiful and deep this one was. A story about a couple reminiscing their old times, the times when they fell in love and spent a beautiful time together. However, the boyfriend is suddenly reminded that his girlfriend is dead and what he sees is not real; they're in a dream. I loved the director's portrayal of a dream in black and white, magical and mysterious. The fact that he suddenly remembered that she was dead was so accurate because sometimes when we're on a dream we forget things that happened in reality and suddenly remember them, that's exactly how they portrayed this and I loved it. He asks her why she died and she says that she was lonely, he wants to know if he made her feel like that (in a suicide, the people who are left often blame themselves wondering what wrong they did), she assures him that he was always for her, that it was the people who knew her that made her like that. I don't want to sound like I'm romanticizing suicide in no way, especially not when hers was so brutal, but I do love the perspective they give from a person who committed suicide and how lonely they were that they made this decision. The boyfriend starts to mumble what she said because he doesn't want to forget it when he wakes up, he knows in the dream that it's not his fault but he also knows that he will continue to blame himself if he doesn't remember it when he wakes up. I know many people have done this too, try very hard in the dream to retain as much as possible so that when we wake up we remember it. At some point he's saddened because he won't remember her, but she calms him by saying that at least they are together again. I just think this was way too beautiful, maybe I'm biased because of the topic but I loved it way too much. The quote at the end is the cherry on the cake, "dreams and death lead to nowhere. They will end up nowhere and eventually be forgotten. We are here, but no one will remember us. Everything is gone, and only the night remains."

Overall, I really loved this series. It was art, in the way that it leaves the door open for one's interpretation depending on one's life experiences and conceptions and I just truly love this type of cinema and I'm grateful to IU for portraying these wonderful roles, and also the rest of the cast and crew for all the films.

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