Good, in theory

I love me a good office romance. I also love when the woman is strong without being a witch. The man falls first? Yes, please. I was so looking forward to watching this one, but unfortunately the execution wasn't that good.

Aviis Zhong - she is absolutely gorgeous, and I'll admit I was a little enthralled with her. She started out very strong, then she began to show some good signs of vulnerability, but then she kind of fell apart for me.

Wes Lo - I think my biggest issue concerning him were the random, strange camera angles. Extreme close ups tended to make him look very cartoonish. I'm not into stalker behavior, but I was willing to overlook it to a certain extent since it furthered the storyline. Sometimes he was very attractive (in looks and in actions), but then other times he was more like a buffoon (especially in the strange way he walked (I know, strange thing to focus on).

The leads had some cute scenes together, but I didn't feel chemistry. I also wasn't able to ever figure out why they liked each other. We never got to see a progression of their feelings. Add to that some open-eyed, fish kisses and I wasn't believing them as a couple.

The storyline for the assistant that became somewhat of a psycho...terrible!

In no world would I ever feel the need to watch this again.

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What fun!

I decided to watch this so I could see Mamiya Shotaro in a lead role, and he was completely different than in other roles in which I've seen. Loud, mean, uncouth, brash, driven, set-apart - these are words you could use to drive his character. And you would, at the beginning. Wait until you are further into the movie, and you'll think caring, hidden depths and thoughtful, not only in his outward actions, but in the way he he was going through life.

He and the FL had such a fun relationship. This would NOT be a healthy relationship in the real world, but when played for laughs it absolutely worked. Never have two people been more in sync than when they are screaming at each other! I'm going to do some research to see if the two actors have worked together before. I would love to see them together in something else to see if the chemistry is still there.

I loved how this movie focused on the main couple and everyone else pretty much faded into the background. They were there solely to bring the spotlight to the main couple.

I'll be honest, I don't remember the music. I was too busy laughing and enjoying the movie.

I will definitely re-watch this movie when I just need an hour or so of fun.

I would recommend this movie, absolutely!

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Slow, beautiful film

The concept was original, the cinematography was wonderful, the acting was stellar, the music was haunting. I remember seeing the American remake (The Lake House), but I could never forget that they were actors in a movie, because they were famous. This was completely different.

Though I've seen both of the main actors in other works, I was completely immersed in this story. Let's start with the locations, the architecture, the cinematography. The film was full of shades of blue, fog, mist, and water, all that gave the strong feeling of calm, quiet, and mystery. The house on the lake, I think anyone would want to live there. The house, far from everyone and everything, gave the feeling of loneliness, and to a certain, degree, depression. The character of Kim Eun Ju (Jun Ji Hyun) was just full of loneliness. She'd been unsuccessful in love, wasn't doing too well in moving on, and if I'm honest, a little irritating in that she wanted to hold on to her putz of a husband. Han Sung Hyun (Lee Jung Jae) gave off the vibe of a real loner. Someone told him early on that he needed to learn how to open his heart. He seemed perfectly content in his solitary life, yet something was missing.

The two communicate across time, and Sung Hyun even addressed the improbability in that Cola, the cutest dog ever, was in two places at once. We get to know these two better through their correspondence and I really hoped there would be a happy ending for them.

The haunting song, Must Say Goodbye, was played throughout this movie, sometimes instrumental, sometimes with words. It was beautiful and went perfectly with the movie.

I would probably not rewatch this movie, since I know what happens, but I would definitely recommend it. A warning, this is a slow movie. Not much happens, but in a world that seems to be moving at warp speed, it was nice to sit back and enjoy the slow ride.

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Finding and chasing your dreams

Spoilers (slight) at the end -

This was a take-off of The Devil Wears Prada. However, here we get some of the back story as to why the Devil Boss is the ways she is. It totally humanized her, and I found that her story arc was my favorite of the whole show.

The romance was somewhat cute, but I found myself with SLS. I think it was because the FL kept referring to the ML as a puppy, and he just seemed somewhat immature to me. They were a cute couple, but I didn't see much chemistry.

As for the FL, I think I could have warmed to her more if they hadn't made her so bumbling. Constant rookie mistakes that would have gotten her fired, talking back to bosses (which also would have gotten her fired), and the clumsiness were all a bit much.

The potential rival for the ML's affections was a nice change of pace. The usual formula wasn't used here, which I appreciated.


NOW FOR THE RANTING SPOILERS:
This really irritated me. So, the guy kisses her on the forehead, and she is already planning their wedding?! I notice that they tend to do this a lot in Japanese dramas. She can't even ask him to define their relationship. It's called communication, people. But the thing that irked me more than that, this is a woman that had no goals to speak of, finally gets a "dream" and breaks up with him when he is leaving Tokyo to go into the family business! This, to me, made everything we went through a waste of time. I was also bothered how she "saw" him everywhere. It was her choice to break up. Why does it have to be one or the other - a career OR a relationship? Could they have tried to make it work.? Having had a career that was the major focus of my life, at the expense of my relationship - I've discovered that you can't bank on a career.

Another thing that REALLY irritated me, and this happens ALL THE TIME in Asian shows - the time jump. The guy decides that he really wants to pursue photography (this didn't make sense to me because he was already a professional photographer) so we went to Cambodia for three years and didn't contact her ONCE!?!?!?! Granted, phones didn't play a central part in this drama as much as they do in others, but with technology what it is, there is no reason to fall off the grid for years at a time.

Overall, I found this to be a cute and easy show to watch. The romance was lacking chemistry, but I found the Devil Boss storyline to be fresh and well-written.

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Beautifully done

This was a lovely story about love and loss. About how things in our lives can form our characters and affect decisions we make. Mei was the perfect example of this. A tragedy in her life sent her running and she was making some bad decisions. She said herself that she didn't like who she had become.

I really liked how the friends re-connected and enjoyed each other's company. Kota was instrumental in this, and he saw the importance of them leaning on and supporting each other.

The show had the perfect balance of past and present, enough time in the past to know what was happening, but, as Kota said, "not looking in the past". They all realized that the past couldn't be changed but saw the importance of living in the present and following your heart.

I do have to say that the very last scene was a disappointment for me. The friends had all gotten back together again, but what Mei was looking at made me feel like she was still trapped in the past. Possibly not, but that's the way I saw it.

This is a drama that is well worth a watch. Depending upon how much of a crier you are, I suggest you have tissues handy.

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Sweet Japanese adaptation

This was a cute adaptation of She Was Pretty. There were a few minuses for me, but overall, I enjoyed it.

Male lead wasn't nearly as awful in this version. The first few episodes, yes, but then even when he was being a little mean to her, it was because of her work, plus I think he was trying to come to terms with his feelings for her. I really liked that he liked her before her transformation.

In every version of this show, I've had a problem with the friend and what she did. I mean, true friends don't do that. In this version, it bothered me even more, because she just let it get out of hand. And then when she was running away to avoid talking to her friend, that was just too childish.

I didn't have SLS in this version at all, he was just too immature.

One thing about Japanese shows, they spend a LOT of time apologizing to each other. It seemed especially prevalent in this show.

As with most other Asian dramas, there was the obligatory time jump, which I hate. It's always, "I love you and can't live without you, but I'm leaving for a couple of years. See ya!" It was a cute ending, but very rushed.

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Fun movie!

Sometimes you want to watch something that will only take a couple of hours of your time. I was concerned at the beginning of this movie, because it didn't suck me in right away, but I'm glad I hung in there. At about the 15-minute mark it really took off.

Kim Young Kwang as Woo Soo Han is really good. He appeared to be such an idiot, but the writers were able to throw in a few surprises that I didn't see coming. I got a couple of clues of his comedic timing in The Secret Life of My Secretary, and there were numerous laugh-out-loud moments in this movie, from him as well as from others in the cast.

The lead actors had excellent chemistry with one another, in an unexpected way. I don't want to give anything away, but suffice it to say, I was glad to hear that they will be making a Mission Possible 2.

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Thank goodness the episodes were short

I don't mind cliches. Actually, to a certain degree, you can't, if you watch Asian drama. Original storylines are few and far between. However, this drama took the typical new girl/most popular boy and ran with it until I felt like I was parked right in the middle of "Cliche Central". He was the most popular boy in school - we get it. All the girls are falling all over him, they are constantly talking about how much they like him, they are selling tickets to win a date with him, and he's given a ring to 99 different girls. To me, this made the girls seem ridiculous and the male lead look like a jerk. There wasn't any evidence to show how he came to like the new girl and why he was willing to give up his playboy ways. I kept waiting for the obligatory "I bet my friend that I could get you to like me, it started out as a joke," but that never happened. Plus, it's a high school drama, but these kids barely ever went to class. There were festivals, planning for festivals, hanging out on a bench, meeting in a secret room, but not much learning going on. Why did she like him? Never really got that either.

I found the acting in this to be bad, especially by the female lead. She spent a lot of time with a look on her face like she was in pain. Was it an editing issue? Sometimes her facial expressions didn't even go with the story line. That was odd.

So, it's an easy and quick watch if you just want something mindless and you don't expect much.

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Is a little chemistry too much to ask?

I found it difficult to suspend disbelief enough to believe that her parents would let her stay by herself to go to school, with Kugayama Shusei living right next door. THEN, there wasn't any build up to their relationship, it was suddenly just there. The main couple was cute together, but I didn't feel any chemistry between them. Poor excuses for kisses, they just looked so fake and awkward. The yelling of the male actors was irritating, it just looks like overacting. Sexism is alive and well in Japanese dramas - the male rating the female on a scale of 1-100, talking to everyone about her looks and lack of boobs - not cool.

Yosuke Sugino as Kugayama Shusei was good. He's got that quiet, deep-thinking thing going on. He was the high point of this movie for me.

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Cute, but nothing special

The male lead was a complete jerk, and I didn't like him talking about sex all the time. It made him seem like too much of a scumbag.

Female lead was written in such a way that she wasn't a doormat, which was refreshing.

The timing of the story was uneven. Not enough for us to see why they liked each other and then the obligatory breakup. I did like her standing up for herself.

I was disappointed in the ending. I felt that she gave up something that was important to her, to be with him. She says at the end that they are high school sophomores?!?! Too much going on for them to be that young. His confession was sweet, and long overdue.

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Easy watch even if you're a scaredy cat

This show had a good premise. I can't watch things that are going to scare me, and I took a chance just because it was a movie. I figured, less chances to be scared. The first few minutes have some scary stuff, but after that it was fine. The concept of ghosts having unfinished business, and a person that can see and interact with ghosts, if it's done right, it can be very entertaining. I'm kind of on the fence about this one. Would it have been better as a series? I don't necessarily think so, because the story was simple and straightforward enough for it to be told in movie form.

I think where this fell short for me was the writing, the directing, the acting, and the sound quality. It felt a lot like I was watching someone's attempts to make a movie for a grade at school. The acting was stiff; however, I don't think that can necessarily be blamed entirely on the actors. The writing and the directing were clunky and didn't flow naturally. Add to that that multiple times the microphones didn't appear to be in the right spot, and this just seemed like the efforts of a beginner team.

It was an okay watch, and I was grateful that it WASN'T a series, because it didn't take up too much of my time.

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Got better at the end

In the middle of the drama, I had to start listing my complaints about what was happening. I never do that, but there was so much I was irritated by. Some of my issues: Soooo many red herrings! Everyone in the whole town is suspicious, and only one person is a culprit. The townspeople seem like cartoon characters, each is more strange than the last. Trying to fit too much in – romance, drama, comedy, thriller, mystery – so much that it doesn’t do any one genre justice. It’s been awhile since I’ve watched something that made me yell at my tv with the implausible things going on. There is a stalker on the loose, but you go wandering in dark alleyways by yourself (every night, it seems). The stalker appears and no one recognizes him?!?!? Her saying, “Let’s end this”. She repeats this in numerous episodes. What are they ending, exactly? They aren’t in a relationship.

Midway through the show, I was thinking that I would probably rate this show a 6, maybe a little higher due to the excellent acting. Upon completion, my rating had to go up. I loved the way they tied up everyone’s storyline and the ending wasn’t totally rushed. It’s been awhile since a drama has made me cry, this one got to me. I got stuck on, how do you move on from a tragedy of that magnitude? I loved the voice over work that let us in on some of the internal dialog of our main couple.
Once we were let in on what happened exactly, the behavior of the townspeople made a lot more sense, and I kind of had to say that I forgave their ridiculous antics from earlier on.

Acting: The acting was good by everyone, though as mentioned before, the townspeople (and her family) were over-the-top. Yeo Jin Goo as Eun Gye Hoon – he does understated very well, because he doesn’t have much facial expression. Expressive eyes, however. And the episode early on where he laughed out loud? So cute! Moon Ga Young as Noh Da Hyun – I love this actress. Her character, I vacillated back and forth between she was full of naivete or she was just stupid. I have to say that her hair bothered me (dyed VERY black). Special mention to Shin Jae Hwi as the stalker – oh my goodness he was excellent and creepy. He had a knack for changing his facial expressions from friendly to dark in just a moment and it made my flesh crawl.
Chemistry: Cute chemistry between the main leads, though, again, too many “let’s break up” moments.

Music: I loved the music. There were some really beautiful songs. But strangely, the standout to me was Unknown World by Janet Suhh – kind of a whispery, nursery rhyme-y scary song played at the end of each cliffhanger episode. I found myself humming that…a lot. I found myself appreciating the music a lot more in the episodes toward the end, when there wasn’t so much going on. It’s a wonderful OST.
Rewatch value: If I need a Eun Gye Hoon or Moon Ga Young fix, I’d watch some of the scenes, but they could have cut this down to 12 episodes to make the writing a bit tighter and the whole drama more enjoyable.

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You MUST suspend disbelief!

Let's talk about the elephant in the room - one person at 18 and at 28 being in the same place at the same time. Personally, I really had a hard time getting past that. I'm all for fantasy, but something about that just didn't sit right with me. Plus, the teenager liking "the teacher" and the teacher liking the student put me off.

The ML was stuck in a place of regret, of things that he didn't do and didn't say as a teen. If given the chance to change things from your past to rectify your life in the present, would you do things differently? And would you really be able to change things, or is your fate already set? This was an interesting concept and gave a lot of food for thought.

My favorite thing was his relationship with his mother. This was a very sweet and touching story arc.

Interestingly enough, when I saw that it was only 10 episodes, I was glad, because I tend to like shorter shows between the longer, more involved shows. However, 10 episodes was too long for this! It could have been a movie, covered all the pertinent points, and they could have gotten rid of all the time of nothingness.

I thought the actors did a good job, my problem with this was the writing.

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Loved the acting of the main leads however, the characters themselves, not so much

All the acting was good. Rowoon as Chae Hyun Seung and Won Jin Ah as Yoon Song Ah were both excellent, given what they had to work with. I liked their chemistry in the brief amount of time that they were actually together. Lots of cute interactions and good kisses. I also loved Park So Yi as Kang Ha Eun, Hyun Seung's young niece. She was precocious without being obnoxious, and I loved their scenes together especially.

Costuming was good, with generally classy outfits worn in the workplace and out and about. I tend to like office romance stories, and it's a bonus when the office workers are tolerable. I would have liked to have worked with these people. Hardworking and supporting of each other.

Here's where my problems came in: Yoon Song Ah has been in a secret relationship with her boss for two years. She finds out (because Chae Hyun Seung sets her up) that her boss is getting married in a couple of months. I'll address the set-up later. So, she's brokenhearted and mad, yet she tells the boyfriend that she wants to end their relationship, not mentioning that she's found out that he's a two-timing slime ball. He is constantly in her face, wanting to get back together, to the point that he should have had a restraining order out against him. You feel sorry for Song because she's supposedly so in love, but then suddenly decides she liked Hyun Seung - I was never able to see the transition. THEN she decides to go work in Europe for five years and they are going to try the long-distance thing. She never has time for him, so she breaks up with him by trampling all over his feelings. THEN she comes back and wants to get back together with him. This woman was so self-absorbed I had a hard time sympathizing with her. Weak woman.

Chae Hyun Seung had his own issues. In the first episode I thought he was so sweet, pining for Song Ah, but when he set her up for her to find out the truth, that really bothered me. Plus, the fact that he sounded like he was threatening her by saying things like, "You'd better show up" and especially when he wiped the lipstick from her lips and told her not to wear it. Once she knew the truth of the deadbeat boyfriend, Hyun Seung kept after her and after her, one minute saying he'd wait for her, and in the next minute wanting to know if she liked him yet. There were times that he was supposed to look like he was protecting her, but I thought his actions were very high-handed.

As for the side couples: I LOVED the storyline for Lee Jae Woon and Chae Ji Seung. He was immediately smitten, and the things he would do to be in her presence were precious.

Lee Jae Shin and Lee Hyo Joo - rat bastard cheating man that is marrying her because he feels he owes his friend a debt? Wants to get up in the world? I don't know and I don't care. But he stayed with her so she wouldn't kill herself? Weak woman.

Kang Woo Hyeon and Chae Yung Seung - You could tell at the outset that he didn't love her in a romantic way. And they stated that he spends ALL his free time with his friend from school. Once they started to address the possibility of him being gay, he blamed everything on the friend. She said she'd stay with him until he figured out who he was. Weak woman. So, she wasted years on this guy, living with him while he tried to find himself. Once he figured out what he wanted and they divorced, all I could think of was the years she wasted. The scenes with their young daughter when she found out they were getting divorced broke my heart.

The storyline with Song Ah and her mother I absolutely hated. Her mother was a complete and total mess and irritated me to pieces. What this storyline just reinforced to me was the Song Ah saw what her father did and so she was never going to make herself vulnerable to a man. That showed why she kept herself slightly apart from men, but on the other hand she seemed to always need to have a man in her life.

I do have to say that I enjoyed the last couple of episodes, though I couldn't quite forgive her for what she put him through. It's very shallow of me to say, but I was able to forgive quite a bit, just because I had the opportunity to watch Rowoon.

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