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Renunțate 5/12
See You In My 19th Life
1 oamenii au considerat această recenzie utilă
dec 1, 2023
5 of 12 episoade văzute
Renunțate 0
Per total 6.5
Poveste 6.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Muzică 6.5
Valoarea Revizionării 6.0
Această recenzie poate conține spoilere

Story that doesn’t translate right on screen

I hate to be that person who whines about how dramas fail to live up to its original comics or books. But I really can’t let this review slide because See You in My 19th Life was, is my favorite Webtoon series of all times.

SYiM19L has such an interesting premise. We have Ban Jieum as the female lead who found herself in her trickiest predicament yet - being her own love rival. To be more exact, her 18th reincarnated self was the girl whom Mun Seoha, her love interest, cannot forget. Being someone who can remember all her past 19 lives, would she be able to use her century old wisdom to win Seoha’s heart again?

When I first excitedly tune to the series, I kept telling myself to enjoy my beloved Jieum’s and Seoha’s romance on screen with an open mind. After all, I get that comic storytelling and drama storytelling aren’t exactly alike.

2 episodes in though, I couldn’t help but found myself picking up the webtoon again and put on the comparison lens. After crawling through 5 episodes, my verdict is in, the drama wasn’t appealing enough - even if I were to see it as a separate story.

All in all, the drama version made certain simple plots that already worked well more complex than necessary. I also didn’t enjoy the chemistry between drama version of Jieum and Seoha.

>>>Spoilers alert from here on<<<

1 Changes which weaken the core of what I love about the couple

In the webtoon, Jieum as her 18th reincarnation met Seoha first in the library. Though they didn’t like each other at first, they eventually got to enjoying each other’s company reading books and chitchatting. It was here where Jieum mentioned how she felt more like a 12 year old being around Seoha - and it was an important moment for her considering she had already lived for a century.

Instead of this simplistic meeting in the library and them enjoying each other’s company overtime, their first meetup is changed to the pool, which some element of fate.

Maybe it was trying to add more context to convince us how their love story could transcend 2 lifetimes. Maybe it was trying to add more shared moments that they could use to create that typical dreamy romance vibe that on screen. The pool scene was indeed pretty, but this pretty moment somehow drowned Seoha and Jieum. Added the cliche-y touch, cut away the couple’s unique vibe I love from webtoon. It’s something I appreciate less these days with romance dramas.

Another example of change that didn’t work well for me - was Jieum’s confession to Seoha.

In the webtoon, the confession was simple and pure. Jieum realised she liked Seoha and thought the moment was right to confess. There was an internal monologue shown to us on how Seoha’s actions that day impacted Jieum. It became clear to her that her affection towards Seoha remains romantic in this lifetime as well and thought it was important to confess. So she did. Simple, decisive and clear - like how someone who had lived for 19th life would rightfully do.

In the drama, they made Jieum ran in the rain from her place to Seoha’s (okay she ran to the taxi, then to Seoha’s, in the rain), then babbled to Seoha that she wanted to confess on his birthday because it would made him had a good memory to go by (instead of linking it to Joo Won’s death anniversary). And then, the moment got to predictably get interrupted by a “fake” love rival for a needed tension. I got tired typing this scenario out.

This change diluted the confession.

There were many more scenes like these that dial up the cliche-y moments. But let me move on to my next point.

2. Drama Seoha vs Webtoon Seoha
In the short 5 episodes I watched, I eventually warmed up to Shin Hye Sun’s portrayal of Jieum even when I didn’t like it either, but I sadly can’t say the same for Bo Hyun Ahn’s Seoha.

One of the most fun things about SYiM19L webtoon version was Seoha’s and Jieum’s banters - in particular, Seoha’s reaction to Jieum’s confessions and general remarks. The drama Seoha is too reserved, which dull a lot of the humorous moments I had enjoyed back then when reading the webtoon. The webtoon Seoha wasn’t friendly either, but he had way more reactions to Jieum’s teasing.

Hye Sun’s and Hyun Ahn’s on screen chemistry was also only so so to me. Not enough for me to like them separately from the webtoon version.

3. Jieum’s mystery and the finale
For remaining part episodes, I ended up googled others’ reviews to catch up on the story plot at high level.

If I had disliked the aforementioned changes, I am definitely upset with this one - they made Jieum forget the people in this lifetime too if she wants to break her curse. Whose genius idea is this to add this unnecessary cliche plot? Some critiques already pointed out the loophole on this.

In the webtoon, she simply won’t remember them anymore when she reincarnated in her next life. And this made so much more sense. After all, Jieum’s love story with Seoha happened because she remembered her past 18 reincarnated self. If she needs to forget them in this lifetime, what’s their love story without it anymore?

>>>Spoilers ends<<<

This concludes my review on See You in My 19th Life. It failed to capture the key spirits that made the webtoon version popular and enjoyable. The quirky and sassy female lead, the equally lovable male lead, their humourous and heartwarming love journey as well as the occasional nuggets of wisdoms from someone who has lived for centuries on life - I wasn’t able to see them on screen. While I give the production team a benefit of doubt, it’s hard for me to rate this higher than it is.

There were plus points though. The cinematography is great. The actor and actress are great too, even if I don’t felt convinced by their on screen chemistry. Also if you haven’t read the original webtoon like I did, maybe you will be able to enjoy See You in My 19th Life much better than me, without the bias and all.

I will “see y’all” in my next review.

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Completat
Le You Yuan
0 oamenii au considerat această recenzie utilă
nov 27, 2023
40 of 40 episoade văzute
Completat 0
Per total 8.0
Poveste 7.5
Acting/Cast 8.5
Muzică 8.5
Valoarea Revizionării 7.5

Meeting your match

Wonderland of Love (WoL) is a surprising enjoyable ride, following the love story of Li Ni and Cui Lin.

For the review, I will mainly use Cui Lin’s nickname, Ah Ying, when referring to her since this is what Li Ni likes to call her by.

Li Ni’s and Ah Ying’s meet cute began with a fight for food supply and reclaiming of the cities to save the “king” that was being held hostage at capital.

What was intriguing from the get go was the battle of wits between the two of them, who held different armies. Smart and capable as they were, we couldn’t tell who had the upper hand nor who to root for as they competed for the same resources and gain the upper hand.

Li Ni and Ah Ying quickly turned allies when they unwittingly figured they worked more effectively together. The interactions remained fun to follow as they maintained the playful friendly flirtatious rivalry between them. … until the dynamics started to change by episode 16-ish when it seemed like Li Ni became the stronger one, be it from moral code, family power, or affection shown to other.

For the record, I still like Ah Ying a lot. She is one of the cunning, decisive, and likeable female leads that’s hard to come by in an idol drama. The slightly disappointed part to me was the troupe-y plot devices used to create the necessary tension between female and male leads to move the story along.

There were instances I felt that she overused Li Ni’s affection for her and / or she got turned into a weaker party. Was her hidden weapons only used for Li Ni? Where’s the independent cunning female lead we were introduced to at the start? It wasn’t that Ah Ying had the obligations to return Li Ni’s affection the exact same way he was doting her biasedly (on some level) or troupes like obsessive SML cannot be used in stories. It would’ve been nice to see a little more layers in Ah Ying and her development that’s present on Li Ni’s side through their love journey …or maybe I fast forwarded too much to see that side of Ah Ying.

On the other hand though, I recognised that a lot of conflicts they had were realistic and consistent with their characters setup. Li Ni may be loyal, upright and capable - but he is also impulsive and idealistic. Cui Lin is indeed cunning, pragmatic and overbearing - but she is also caring to her loved ones, willing to make the necessary sacrifices for the bigger goal and is resourceful. I guess this made them perfect for each other.

The real pity is the one dimensional supporting characters and slightly draggy plots. With weaker supporting cast, WoL’s story plot were less engaging and felt cliche-ish at some parts. They could’ve totally cut the story to 24 - 26 episodes and it likely would’ve made no difference to the enjoyment of Li Ni’s and Ah Ying’s love story.

Acting wise, I like both Xu Kai’s and Jing Tian’s portrayal of the characters and their chemistry. Believable enough for me to invest in Shi Qi Lang’s and Ah Ying’s romance in WoL. Lovely enough for me to swoon for those romantic moments and ignore the cliche-ness way of showing them on screen.

All in all, WoL is the typical idol drama that has a strong start, which somewhat feel draggy troupey halfpoint, and finishes off with an okay-ish, predictable climax. It’s still an enjoyable drama when one has the right expectations for it.

With both capable leads who are complement to each other in terms of wits and great chemistry, WoL is overall a fun and enjoyable flirtatious idol romance story.

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