In my no-live-watches moment, many of you suggested I “get outside” or “read a book.” By that did you mean, stay inside, watch dramas, and contemplate other people reading books like their lives depended on it?
@hopefulromantic I did also watch “Mission: Possible” and am very much looking forward to the full-length drama sequel that seems to be in the works!? The two lead characters were hilarious–I’d never seen Lee Sun-bin in anything before and she was an utter delight as a straightman–and I also loved how she and KYK were shown to be as evenly matched in fighting prowess as the patriarchy will allow. 😉
YAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!! 😆🙌🎉✨️ Mission: Possible is, quite literally, my favorite action-comedy!!! KYK and LSB are such a good match with their comedy timing (and physical comedy). She is SO funny. I also really enjoy the fighting scenes and that the movie lets them both have their moments! I haven’t heard anything about a sequel (the drama spinoff or another movie) for a while, so I’m still hoping they’ll follow through and give us more!! 😬
I’m glad you’re enjoying this drama, Seon-ha!!! Midnight, I felt similarly to you about this one. But, I was glad I watched it since it’s a Beanie classic!
How can you two be bored when the 2ML looks and acts like a cross between Ji Chang-wook and Jo Han-chul!!?? That alone keeps me gripped as my mind does a constant string of double-takes…
WHOA WHOA WHOA Ji Chang-wook + Jo Han-chul !! 🤯 You’re right!! I think this was a drama I had hyped up SO MUCH in my mind based on Beanie love that the poor thing had no chance of living up to that 😅 But the leads were undeniably adorable!
The 2ML ruined this one for me. In fact, I wanted to pummel the screen every time the 2ML appeared. Its a miracle my t.v. wasn’t broken while watching this.
He’s not your type, huh, @hacja? You’re more a Ju Ji-hoon guy? Strong and silent?
I love the 2ML and sort of think it wouldn’t be the worst thing if he prevailed. Boong-do could go back to where he belongs, taking responsibility for as many women as he can possibly convince to accept him along the way.
Well, of course I’m always watching kdramas for male role models, especially ones from the Joseon era.
No, seriously (not really) the show opens with with the 2ML trying to pull the curtain so everyone sees the FL naked, snickering like a character from the classic 1980s film, Porky’s Pimpin’ Pee Wee. He’s constantly condescending to her, then at one point, as I recall, he actually physically abuses her, striking her in anger. So no role model for me!
I guess the one thing in his favor is that he’s not one of those perfect 2MLs that causes you to wonder why the FL chooses the really boring Joseon time traveler instead!
It always seems to me that, with possible exception of Goblin, Yoo In-na plays too submissive a character in her dramas. She’s certainly one of the most beautiful actresses around.
While trying my hardest to do the work of getting over a number of recent drama disappointments, I was remembering the work of this young actor, Moon Sung-hyun, in the earliest episodes of Beauty and Mr. Romantic. He played the younger version of the ML, Go Pil-seung, back when he had his original name, Go Dae-cheong. Don’t ask why the change. It was stupid plot armor.
At any rate, a quick scan of Moon Sung-hyun’s career so far shows that he has played the “younger version” of an eye-popping list of older actors. He’s only 18 now, but check it out. He has played a younger:
He played a younger Hwang Min-hyun in Alchemy of Souls.
I first noticed him in Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha with my girl Oh Ye-ju. For some reason, I don’t remember him in Vincenzo, although as a younger Ok Taec-yeon, he should’ve had a prominent role. I’ll have to rewatch.
I’ve seen him in five of those dramas. He has some range, and he’s made an impression each time, although I have to admit that in Alchemy, it was mostly for being very pretty and not very expressive. But since that matched Minhyun’s portrayal of the character perfectly – good job, Moon Sung-hyun!
And whatever that was, was not at all what I expected. I can’t say I loved it, and I certainly didn’t hate it…but, it was a bit, a bit, like uncomfortable Nam Ja-yeon psychological pain TMI. I hope she finds someone to talk about all this with.
What in the parasocial relationship was this? I mean we can’t even call it a parasocial relationship but something entirely weird. I thought they were going the Extraordinary you route but the show just ended there. We’re not getting more episodes right? Again I liked HJ as JY’s ML better here.
That’s because of the development of the romance in NGNL.
But you can think of this one as a unrelated drama, imo. Most of it is fantasy (nothing truly to related to NGNL).
The FL is fantasizing about a mixture of real people in her life throughout SuOL. That’s cool; women are allowed to do that, obvs.
But the plot of NGNL has these fantasy people and real people separated, but the plot of SuOL sort of conflates them in ways that suggest that the FL is mixing up her dad, her “idealized” version of her first love, and this completely fictionalized version of Lee Sang-yi’s character.
You don’t get that conflation so much if you don’t already know the plot of NGNL. It’s there, but just not as prominent.
If I didn’t have the context from NGNL, I’d struggle to understand who these characters are, what they do, and how they relate to each other. It reminds me in that way of some web dramas with their short run times and compressed narratives. At the same time, it’s clearly its own separate show, with a very different approach to storytelling.
I found it to be a good palate-cleanser after NGNL’s disappointing final episode, but that won’t matter to you.
The way the police let their personal interests and relationships compromise their professionalism and affect their investigation methods, as well as the way small-town dynamics inevitably mix up the personal and the professional, are common to a lot of police/legal kdramas. This one focuses on those themes as much as it does on the murder mysteries. There is one episode where the investigation relies partly on amateurs, but that’s in a “who can we trust?” situation and for me at least it isn’t so unrealistic as to spoil the show’s overall brilliance.
Do you mean when Jae-yi goes on that hilarious misbegotten “stake-out” with Ji-hoon? The levity brought by her face when she realizes that she’s not catching a killer but instead only revealing something embarrassing about a long-time acquaintance was so great, though!
@attiton To be honest, I don’t remember a lot about this drama 😅 Mainly, the egg scene because the BTS was pretty fun and his car.
But my vaguely feeling, it was this drama brought anything new to the genre (old-young cop team, and of course the famous serial kiler), the investigation was very messy, the characters were written purposely not very likable… But it was intense and the actors were great. The direction was pretty good too.
One of the things I most appreciate about the writing in this show is that the dialogue sounds like people, not drama characters – and each character is given their own voice, with almost no stock characters who remain so and who serve only a narrative purpose. There’s neither extensive expository “conversation” nor a refusal to respond to others, to correct a mistake or challenge an assumption, when it would be natural to do so. Dong-shik does the least assumption-challenging and he’s maddening because he wants to be. He lets those (false?) accusations hang in the air to force his interlocutors to think about them, and about what else they may have gotten wrong.
Beyond Evil is a most impressive drama in recent years. I consider it being “the parts are greater than the sum” as opposed to “the sum is greater than the parts”.
As @midnight and others noted, the acting from side to main characters is universally good and Shin Ha-kyun is phenomenal. I always wonder whether the script was written for him specifically.
What I like most, besides acting, is how well each character is thrashed out and becomes a ‘distinct’ person that you’d remember for a long time. I watched it twice as binge-watch in the year when the drama came out. Now, three years later, all those characters remain vivid in my mind – that’s a real strength and accomplishment.
It is however not an all rounded masterpiece – comparable to Stranger / Forest of Secrets – as let down by its writing and the plot construct. I still find the police investigation is written poorly – not that we are looking for a flawless investigation as after all it’s a story about sub-par investigation leading to injustice. But bad investigation still needs good storytelling to make it convincing. That aspect of the story just glided by fleetingly without depth or precision. If you look at FoS 1 and FoS 2, you can already picture Lee Soo-yeon’s white board and spaghetti map linking plots and characters with glove-fit tightness. Here, the loose plot writing unfortunately fails to take this drama to the next level of greatness – a brilliant drama nonetheless. Thought-provoking too!
I’m pretty sure from her comments that @attiton has not finished the show, so it would be a kindness to avoid commenting on how it ends – especially when it’s on her fanwall, so she can’t help seeing the notifications. I’ve had a show spoiled for me this way and it really took the enjoyment out of it.
I disagree with your conclusions. I think it would be boring if all police dramas were about being like “real police.” This drama stretched reality to make something even better than a boring police procedural
Sorry if you thought I was saying that it had to be a ‘real police procedural’. That is not at all what I was trying to convey.
Drama is an art form of interpretation of stories and characters. There are unlimited ways to do it with no fixed formula. Beyond Evil excels in creating a compelling story with equally compelling characters that the excellent cast had brought them to life. Where it falls short of is the uneven writing in that there are the very good parts (or heavier emphasis on) what the writer wants to tell with however less attention on the background – or what the writer considers to be – secondary stuff. The good parts are thus very good, making the weak parts looking weaker.
As an audience, I just thought, for example, there should be better explanation or more scenes on why the initial investigation was botched – is it due to personal issues or laziness on the part of the police or some black hands behind and so forth? Such coverage could really enrich the context of the story development leading to justified sympathy or otherwise for those affected by the poorly executed investigation.
I never consider this drama a police procedural. I’d classify it primarily a character study dressed as a psycho thriller. The story is really about those characters caught in the traps created by themselves or others and have to live through the consequences. There are so many things we can unpack and enjoy in unpacking / witnessing how they get off the traps or get further down the abyss. Beyond Evil is without doubt a superb drama and praise-worthy but somehow miss the mark of becoming an all time master piece due to the uneven writing.
The initial investigation was botched because the local Police Chief (the big bad Dad Han Gi-Hwan) called it off publicly, shockingly and intentionally. The level of public surprise was even written up in the newspapers, something we were shown directly. He was selfishly covering up his own mistake. There was no mystery about it.
It ended just as catastrophically. I don’t know what happened there, but it wasn’t fun, almost none of the loose ends are tied, and I find myself LESS interested in Spice Up Our Love than I was when i woke up.
I’m actually creeped out that she repeated her mother’s words welcoming a SON home when taking Ji-uk back.
Also did he put that ring on her in her sleep? Wae what why? She sure didn’t know she had it on her finger–who was drunk and what happened to my wonderful show???
I made this gif but never posted it, but I am now having strange daydream/fantasies of doing this to the writer.
That’s right Secretary Yeo. Thumbs-up.
(It also pisses me off that Gyu-hyun references the “secret dodgeball” thing in episode 12, but there was no need for him to have been told about that. Why/when narratively would he have found that out?? GAH. Who cares. Sometime. By someone. For some reason.)
The BP comparison is spot-on. I had exactly the same experience – watching with disbelief as the runtime dwindled, waiting and waiting for the OTP to come back, cursing the time spent dawdling through nonsense with characters acting uncharacteristically and ‘comic’ diversions that were neither comic nor diverting, and finally, bitterly realizing that this IS all we get.
As Bok-you said, it didn’t give the story an ending, it just put the brakes on it.
The first twenty minutes were absolutely heartrending, which was well-done and “fine” but not what was at the heart of this show. I feel like this reeks of “writer who needs to make a point syndrome.” For a moment, I thought the end was going to be as bad as HeartBeat with Ji-uk dying in a plane crash and the abandonment issues would be magnified to INFINITY.
Then time-skip soup and then scenes and scenes of all the other couples and relationships that felt, as you say, like “stuff getting in the way.” How dare they make me not care about these other people?????
My eyes were literally bugging out in disbelief as I saw the time counter running down, and they’re spending it in Busan or Hell with 2 characters I had ZERO interest in from the beginning… And then after all that, to get like 30 secs of main leads at the very end talking platitudes to each other… I swear, I was going nuclear when I watched it…
I’m so upset. It could have been PERFECT but nah, now I can’t even rewatch it because of that lame ending. Hae-yeong is still demoted, why? And she has to go back to FU to beg for an investment when he was the one who ruined her career. Then so much time was allocated to the second couple when they’re already getting a 2 episode special. I feel robbed 🙁
I agree. Hae-yeong made some CRAZY decisions that did not befit her character–both romantically (Choose to abandon someone with abandonment issues that you also completely understand??? What???) and in her work-life (Striking out on her own in a TANTRUM without a clear plan and only an untested developer–handsome though he may be–at her side??)
I really liked our second couple, too, but the time we spent on them would have been better spent elsewhere, like explaining why Jang was so beholden to Chaebol Mom…or just more screentime of Hae-yeong coming to understand that she needs to rely on people and then going to find Ji-uk on her OWN. Jebal, writernim. It wasn’t gonna be hard!
Oh, as for rewatching–I had a thought about that too here while writhing in “drama ending failure” pain. If you stop with the second couple’s hospital kiss in episode 11 (1h8m), it is a just fine ending to the whole drama…
I think that’s gonna be my advice to folks who ask if they should watch this. “Yes, it’s a modern classic. It ends at 1h8m into episode 11.” 😂
Having just seen the last two episodes, I’m not sure I’d even give it that much. Maybe sometime in episode 10. Also, if they wanted to end with all 3 women without men, I’d have been fine with it in a way. But they went the opposite way. Sadly, for the main couple Ji-uk was a good comic foil, but in the end like many kdrama men, he was an emotional and physical whimp. You could tell that when he woke up in bed with the FL and his arms looked like matchsticks in a t-shirt. He would have looked so much better in a post-coital sweater! Kim Dae Young might be hot, but he’s not hot enough to post on my fan wall, that’s for sure. The writer realized this, and decided to end it without any romantic reunion.
You know, I hate to say this, but its partly the Mom problem again. Kdrama writers have problems with their Moms. But I’d so much rather have a self-centered Mom than a Mom who dies and is sentimentally remembered in a way that that destroys the complex feelings that made her character more interesting than most kdrama moms. So I’ll just remember the Mom as someone who adopted promiscuously just so she could feel good about herself. In other words, a self-centered, exploiting Mom, who nevertheless did some good. In fact there’s a lot to remember about this drama, if you just forget the last 2 episodes.
Honestly ending wasn’t perfect but I didn’t find it bad. They surely could’ve added few more episodes and showed more consequences than the result in the final episode, still for a light hearted drama I don’t hate it. And I think she let him go because he was always keeping promises never living and making decisions on his own. That was the right move, and this separation gave them the clarity him the opportunity to meet his family. And CEO investing was obviously his repentance and seong starting her company was also good. But I wished they kept the comedy out of it. It felt out of place. The ending for characters were good but the execution went bad and rushed. They needed few more episodes.
Manhole. In some circles, this 2017 series is known to be one of the worst, most nonsensical, K-dramas ever made. That it stars Kim Jae-Jung, also of more recent Bad Memory Eraser fame, might suggest that he curses/can’t pick scripts.
Folks, I’m here to tell you that I don’t think it’s the case.
The more I think about BME, the less I can put it’s sheer magnificent nonsensitude onto him as an actor–although if he was actually one of the producers, then, maybe.
But I went into Manhole expecting drivel, but what I got was an absolutely charming take on A Christmas Carol but focused on romantic, rather than brotherly, love.
Now, I need to admit two things straight-up:
1. KJJ was really one of the most hammy of over-actors for the first four episodes or so. It was painful. I thought this was going to be what everyone was having a problem with. But once he settled into pathos–JUST LIKE in BME–he was fiiine. He’s a handsome enough guy and all he really had to do was be head-over-heels in love with Uee for 16 episodes. Anyone can do that. And he did.
2. I watched the whole thing at 2x.
You might be thinking, “Seon-ha, this last admission is a BIG caveat!!” To which I respond, yeah, it is. If there really is something wrong with this drama it’s that it totally felt about the right length at eight, not 16, hours. It was slooow and there would have been hours of pent up frustration ending at a lot of shouting, “JUST FUCKING SAY ‘I LOVE YOU,’ ASSHOLE!!! What is your PROBLEM!!!” But at 2x, it felt only like mere minutes and also–you had to realy focus up to understand what’s going on so it’s really quite easy not to get caught up in the whole “arc of history.”
But, y’all, I even cried at a few scenes, even though people sounded like chipmunks and moved around like the Keystone Cops (it wasn’t for KJJ, though 🤓). I CARED about whether or not our OTP ended up together, and there were also TWO other side relationships involved–one, might I mention, that was an unresolved love triangle with none other than Lee Sang-yi at one vertex. This was not only his FIRST drama, folks, but he SINGS. Quite a bit. Sometimes in English.
Main Takeway for Drama Dorks: I can totally recommend Manhole, especially at 2x, if you want to see how much the structure of the script matters in relation to the acting, the actual cadence of the words, and the cinematography. I was easily able to follow what was happening in this twisty-turny, time-travel script at 2x…and still actually came to care a great deal about the characters as well. I felt like I really knew all seven of our central characters and their decisions, no matter the timeline, added to their interest and complexity.
I might even recommend Manhole, full-stop. Beanies, give it some thought. Kocowa has the 2x option.
You know, looking at my own gif I have something to add. It would have been easy for this drama to have been only about how the ML comes to realize how important it is to express his feelings, but it doesn’t actually stop there. Our FL is also given an arc of change that befits her own insecurities and needs…it’s a little late, and sort of a dollar short, but it’s there. In fact, ALL of the characters come to realize a little bit of the, “God bless us…everyone” Christmas Carol quality of this drama, and I really appreciated it.
EVEN the villain. That his punishment was [redacted] should have pissed me off, but it really didn’t.
If anyone else has seen this drama, I’ll be happy to discuss it!!
I have not seen this drama, but I love reading your review! I also love the fact that you watched Bad Memory, looked at KKJ’s filmography, and wanted to know if it’s a fluke or a pattern. That’s dedication! 👏👏👏
characters, instead of declaring things, are truly trying to go deeper into who someone is, their choices and logic. they are sort of reviewing their own behavior too. they also don´t wail or steam with anger or feel entitled, instead they are concentrating on the positive and how they can grow or move forward. but tbh I dont like the older brother. yet.
SP0ILER ALERT:
LOL, but when it was bad, it was very, very bad. I will give the writers (because there had to be more than one, maybe even AI was employed) credit. They were consistent. The serious scenes between the two couples and painter were quite good. The comedic scenes especially where an over indulgence in alcohol were involved were generally not good. Two exceptions. 1. In the last episode the confrontation between Jun-won and Mom I think would have been better if he was sober at the time with the same heart breaking dialogue. He did a bit of a backslide when he sobered up. 2. The scene of the boys taking Mom on an impromptu excursion was quite funny from scooping up Mom to having her help push the car.
Credit must go to the folks responsible for the music. Excellent OST.
I would add a “would that it were” #3 to that list: I very much wish the boys hadn’t shown up and dragged the girls away from a drunken carousing session with Mom, rocking out to instrumental music, wine, soju and beer…. 😉
I loved a good 50% of this show better than any other serious-leaning rom-com I’ve ever seen. I will just remember those parts!
I would agree with #3. (I wonder how many takes that scene (dragging them away) took lol?) Btw, I counted the bottles on the table that the girls knocked back at their Somaek session: 10 (presumably 5 large bottles of beer and 5 bottles of soju (didn’t catch the soju cap color). Whatever, a lot of alcohol.
That’s a real critique of the show for me! Almost all dramas have excessive and unreasonable drinking scenes, but this one was the absolute worst showing quantities of drinking that are actually deadly. I’m thinking mainly of the first “I’ll drink you under the table” sequence with Ju-won and Seong-min. I think there were 4-6 bottles of HARD liquor on that table by the time the group was done. In the restaurant this week, it would appear that those two men sloshed back four entire bottles of wine. Frankly irresponsible representation, IMO.
If they got drunk, they were just people who could hold their liquor. If they only got slightly less sharp, … I have known people like that. One bottle would make me have to be rolled home in a wheel barrow. But for a lot of people, two bottles is just slightly more than their usual goodnight cap.
I’m laughing because of second-hand embarrassment while watching the karaoke sequence in episode 9.
And I’m sure the actors were cracking themselves up too.
That was excruciating. Watching on mute was the only way I could get through it. Noraebang scenes, if they must happen, should either feature someone unexpectedly singing beautifully (Yoon Hyun-min in Bora!) or last 10 seconds, tops. And Lee Hyun-woo can sing, dammit! Wasted opportunity right there.
Despite the drunk scene, I actually thought this last episode was one of the better happy ending/wrap up episodes I’ve seen. The mother’s opposition was successfully resolved–unlike many villainous kdrama mothers, she was shown to actually love her sons but she wasn’t beyond somehow turning the marriage to the advantage of her company, so she didn’t transform unrealistically. Meanwhile, the FL showed how smart she was–and for me, that’s what made this show, the intelligence of the female lead–by not taking so much offense at the mother in law’s proposal that she didn’t turn it to her own advantage. Her workaholic nature wasn’t glossed over, and so there were real life tensions about wedding planning — yet you didn’t get the feeling that a divorce was in the offing after only a year of marriage, because there was a heartfelt redeclaration of love between the characters that seemed totally earned. As for the rest of the plot, there was no rushed summary of events, the wedding and the happy ever after seemed totally justified and the voiceover did not give a pretentious moral of the story, more a “fairytales can come true” lesson which totally fit the unambitious and low-key nature of the story. It was actually a pretty sweet show in the end, one I don’t regret watching at all.
I quite liked this entire drama, Fairy Godfather (again…this time for Ju-won!!!) and all. And I was serious above that I’ll almost certainly only remember the parts that were simply outstanding. One of these parts, as you so carefully point out, was the characterization of Yoon-seo…who was one of the most complex, sophisticated women I’ve seen in K-dramas to date.
And they even made fun of her tacit female-can-do-know-wrong beatification there when the light shone through the window and Ju-won and Ji-seok had to shield their eyes from her glory. That was simply perfection. Perfection.
As for the mom, I adored the way both her daughters-in-law saw her as a whole woman and showed that woman to her sons. It’s hard to turn that corner. That it had to be the girls’ job was, slightly tedious, but hey…we never usually talk about it at all, so I’ll take it. But what I really think that might have all been about is that scene where MSM and Yoon Park pick her up and carry her playfully out of the house for a road trip–who wouldn’t want to be her in that moment?? 😉
I will not write a screed on the final week of Beauty and Mr. Romantic. I will not.
I would instead like to close out the last 25 weeks of my life (+ a few more for the break during the Olympics) with a little dignity. Look at this delightful scene.
It was the type of show, though, that usually decided that showing blood flying through the air in slow-motion was what we wanted to see.
It was the type of show, see below (or here) that could not even hire voice actors who spoke English well.
Whereas Bad Memory Eraser was a kind of bad that seemed unreasonable to exist–almost, even, inexplicable–Beauty and Mr. Romantic ended in what might be best described as a kind of bad that was intentionally hurtful.
I have decided that the writer, who cannot POSSIBLY have been the only person responsible for the way this show fell apart into a quagmire of traditional values and a type of plot-point-soup I’ve never seen before (EVER), was using Do-ra’s paralysis as a metaphor:
We, the audience, are Pil-seung. And she, paralyzed, by the producers/investors in this drama, wanted us to get as far away from her as possible.
It’s a deal. I’m sorry that this happened to you, but it’s time for us to part ways.
I don’t think I’ve seen a Weekender that doesn’t eventually collapse under the weight of its own creaking conservatism but this was somehow worse because of its early subversive critiques of exactly that.
I’m still reeling a little from this episode’s subtext that violent howling mobs are fine as long as they’re going after people you don’t like rather than yourself.
Episode 50 a complete shit-show of half-baked ideas about “right and wrong.” I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but I’m still mystified by Jin-dan’s father and mother, trying to convince Jin-dan of some form of filial piety, in prison??
And, super-spoiler (so sorry–but I hope you’ll forgive me), part of me thinks that the writer refused to have our lead couple get married out of spite for what’s happened to this drama. No happily ever after for them–they’ll never get married because Do-ra can never be seen to be unavailable.
I find it hard to believe that a Weekender had two people produce babies without a wedding band but I outright laughed at the reinforcement of the new conservative obsession with women having babies.
Sorta. That’s their engagement party before they both up and moved to the US-of-A. Do-jun out of nowhere won a big-deal architecture prize despite never really being given the opportunity to, you know, do any architectural practice or have a degree in architecture…so he’s moving back to the States to, uh, learn how to be an architect.
🤦♀️
On the other hand, that seems to be a true happyend for them – they are together, Dojun doing what he wanted… and most importantly, they are far far away from theose awful families!
With all the BME pain I felt yesterday, I forgot the most important gif of all. Thank heavens for my notes!!! I\’ve decided, in retrospect, that this was Lee Jong-won giving us all a signal, a bit like using a wireless credit card terminal to send messages by charging successive small transactions in amounts like \”119\” and other numbers that, in Korean, translate into words something a bit like old pager codes.
143 right back you too, LJW. We\’re coming for you. I hope Brewing Romance is a BIG hit.
Isn’t it now going under the much improved title: BREWING LOVE? The original title DRUNKEN ROMANCE was practically a deal breaker for me. With BREWING LOVE I am now fully onboard. I just have to hope ENA will license this to Viki because if it was going to be on Netflix we would have heard about it by now.
It\’s over, folks. It\’s over. I have the honest-to-goodness shakes. I cannot believe what just happened to me, and by extension, the entire viewing audience of Bad Memory Eraser. How could that have been what they decided to air? How did that actually happen at all??
I\’m starting with the obligatory Shin-shot because that\’s why you\’re all here.
But…then…how to express what episodes 15 and 16 were like? It\’s like trying to describe the taste of banana–or avocado. 🥑😉
Here\’s a first stab (in the eye). I\’d like to thank this drama for showing us what it really looks like after you drink 8 bottles of soju. I quite literally went out and bought some soju after finishing these episodes today, just so that I could fall into this sort of disrepair. Who needs rosy cheeks and piggy-back rides??? I vote for covering my windows with newspaper and eating Pringles until I pass out.
The title of this image is \”You\’ve GOT to be shitting me.\” Whose fault was all of this? The mothers\’??? Can we blame the mothers of the creators of this drama…for THIS DRAMA??
That\’s right show. Just like this.
A few more, in the comments. It was like necessary therapy making these images.
OK. WHAT?? The whole point of the plot was that there were unintended side-effects and that’s why Goon had to go through all of this and why everyone else was doing what they were doing. THAT WAS THE PLOT! WHAT, now??
OKOK. So if this is the case, who wants to bet with me that it was actually the fact that Goon hit his head on that metal box when falling off the Han River bridge that caused the whole change in his personality??? NOTHING the doctors did made any difference whatsoever. They just opened and closed his skull a few times. And then collect awards for “ointment for the brain” or some shit. Gahd.
My theory: the entire drama takes place in Gun’s imagination in the few seconds between when he hits his head on the bridge and when he hits the water. An entire show in REM stage. Ambrose Bierce, take a bow.
The meeting on the bridge is a hallucination he has as he’s finally learning to walk again THREE YEARS LATER.
Lee Jong-won once sat in a photo studio, wearing a leather jacket and sunglasses, holding a fluffy dog who was also dressed in leather. That really happened one time.
In the final episode both our boys are wearing leather jackets. Based on @hacja’s sex-sweater theory, and the apparent repellent properties of leather, neither of them will get laid.
At a certain point, one has to assume that the decision about what lyrics to put on the screen was happening by someone who needed to lighten the mood.
My mood was lightened by the extended scene of the MLs’ parents tangoing to NO MUSIC AT ALL. I think the music director went on strike toward the end. This show has the oddest combination of lovely vocal OSTs and terrible incidental music, culminating in a Dramatic Heroic Theme as the murderer … picks up a stuffed bunny.
So….and I am not being snarky here but curious…should I assume that every time I see a LA Dodgers hat its PPL? or a reference to Stanford?
And is there any other PPL in this drama?
Wearing random university shirts is a thing in real life, so my first thought was they picked a random american university.
Michigan State has a reputable medical school, seems like a bad fit for PPL. But then, it sounds like ANY PPL, would’ve been a bad fit for this drama.
Oh, but I was being nothing but snarky! Apologies.
That’s a real good point about actual PPL, though. No, I don’t think there was any? There was a prominent vacuum in the Goon Agency/Apartment…but certainly no food PPL. Oh, there was that one bracelet, but I have NO idea the brand!
There is lots. All dramas have it. The laxative, the beauty products, the car (not the classic Mercedes, unless it was)… I am sure there were others, but whenever I try to remember the drama, I feel like I want to vomit.
@attiton I don’t know definitely but, the label would have been covered if it wasn’t. Like how arbucks only exists in kdrama world. Also, do we consider clothing/wardrobe PPL? Bubble slippers are in my Amazon shopping cart, but they aren’t the exact ones from this drama.
Also, the electric people did something to my meter on Friday and I have had no hot water for two days now. I think it is effecting my sense of humour.
There was a requisite Kopiko. I don’t feel like looking up whether that laxative was real or not. I was wondering if those therapy machines at the tennis center were also real. The car, that was nominally the brothers car, was definitely one. But you raise a good point, what product would want to be associated with this drama, with the exception of a laxative?
If you’ve seen these episodes, you know what is happening here. Well, at least, you will have seen it. The more I think about the more THAT THIS IS HOW I FEEL. I’m just waiting on the other side of the screen for “ajumma” to return. Will she ever come back? Who knows.
I have more, but I just can’t. I honestly can’t. How about that timeskip, folks? Or the closet? Or when Shin comes home from school?
And then, just like that, it’s over. No explanation. The end.
But when it happened, weren’t you at all like, “No. Shit. WAEWHY? Wasn’t Goon just NOT getting in a cab? Why didn’t he get into the cab? Why are we here three years later!? Why are we at an awards ceremony? Oh, wait, Goon is fine? Why is he fine. What the hell!!”
It was bad, but the completely unnecessary breakup to kiss transition all in 10 minutes was the most jarring and confusing part of the drama. That sequence made me give up.
I’m baffled. I’m laughing. Thank you for sharing this experience with us! 😂 GOLD MEDAL to Seon-ha for not only completing this drama (*which seems to have been adapted from a fragment of one of the Greek playwrights who never gained fame and popularity and which was rediscovered and sold on the dark web as something “never been done before” for struggling writers*), but also giffing it!🏅 Applause!!! 👏👏👏
I mean, I don’t deserve too much praise for finishing. I can imagine that a goodly number of people have been thinking, “If it’s so terrible why don’t you just drop it, LADY?” And, they’d have a point.
But BME wrapped around from “so bad that it felt like a waste of my time” to “so, SO bad I’d never had an experience like this,” and sort of found a type of contact high.
The last 20 minutes especially were so–uh–disjoint and confusing that when it was over, I just stared at my screen for a good five minutes wondering what to do with my life. I can’t even express to you the “no reason for this” nature of the last scene of our couple on the “bridge of first love.” NOW I’M THINKING ABOUT IT AGAIN AND WANT TO MELT INTO A PUDDLE.
😂😂😂 I literally can’t wait to read the recap and see if it helps to make any sense of these images 😆 I mean, even the fact that recaps, by their nature, condense, simplify, and provide structure to a drama’s episodes and I STILL feel like I don’t have a real sense of what this was supposed to be about… just think about all the steps that needed to be ok’d, approved, and MONEY allocated for this to happen! The mind boggles.
I wonder how Kim Jae-joong always chooses the worst stories… It’s a gift? He doesn’t like good dramas? He’s completely stupid? It’s his only way to earn money?
I think of KJJ here as bank. I don’t know if he’s the money behind this, but it sure seems so. He was actually ACTING when everyone else had checked out. Well, Lee Jong-won kept trying until the last 10 minutes and, frankly, Yang Hye-Ji (who I’ve loved, LOVED since Nevertheless,) acted her heart out too…all the way until the end, on that tiny, tiny screen.
To you, Seon-ha, to every beanie who finished this, and, especially, to @solstices who couldn’t escape even if they wanted to and have to try to make sense of this finale and write about it: You’ve worked hard. XOXO for y’all.
Seon-ha, I know you didn’t post it out of love, but I truly enjoyed your posts about this show. Thank you.
“Lovely Me” is how the subs translated that. Not bad, all things considered. But, honestly…go watch why the dad made those sweatshirts. It’s because his masculinity was impaired by his, um, inability to do things.
Um, yeah. Anyway, thanks for the encouragement!!! I love lots of things I shouldn’t.
🤣 Where is my memory eraser, dammit? I felt like I needed a brainwash, a shower, and 8 bottles of soju after finishing. And I saw something that shade of blue again a few hours later and started twitching involuntarily.
To those of you who might yet click on this because of Seon-ha’s giffing gift, I’d like to say that she accurately portrays this show, but because she has a great sense of humor, she makes these 2 episodes seem fun in a way. They were not. In fact the penultimate episode was extremely unpleasant, and the end, even with its 3 year time skip (couldn’t it have been a 40 year time skip, so we picked up every one up when they were elderly) was terrible in resolving any of the issues even tangentially raised in the story.
I wish I could make a funny joke about this, but I can’t. I finished it and kind of felt embarrassed at myself for wasting my time with it, although as I’ve said, I do think its one of the worst kdramas ever made, so that’s some kind of historical achievement. Anyway, since this is her page, I would like to thank @attiton for, uh, bringing attention to this drama???? (But why I am saying that?)
Welcome to Samdal-ri, for @hopefulromantic. That bottom one is one my favorite gifs I\’ve ever made. I feel it\’s not only adorbs on its own merits, but sums up those two so well!
Eeeeee!!!! Thank youuuuuuuu!!!! 🤗❤️😁🙌🌞👍👏👏👏❤️✨️🤩 Aww that’s so sweet… I love these gifs; they just perfectly capture the essence of these characters. I really, really enjoyed this drama. I really emotionally connected with Shin Hye-sun’s FL, and this is just peak Ji Chang-wook loveliness ❤️ The setup is “standard,” but they have such solid, solid actors for these roles that everyone was really brought to life. I love our leads, her family, her friends (*the Power Rangers!!*), Yong-pil (❤️), and how cathartic this kind of storyline can be when done with sincerity. Thank you for the gif gifts!!! 🤗❤️
Yes it was so strange she was all excited about hosting the DB book club and she disappeared before it took place and I have not seen anything from here since then and that was mid July🤔
I just realised this was the original Love next door drama. I think this one was best done as a binge watch to avoid frustration with some of the annoying plots being dragged out.
Having just finished the big motherblaming episode of the so-named drama and in spite of having all that cheerful domestic violence in common, Samdal-ri is just so much better. It helps that it is understandable that she would want to be with the ML because SaMdaL-ri is 1) charming and 2) hot, and 3) has no competition really worth mentioning. Three things you def can’t say about the ML Next Door.
G-d your GIFs reminded me how much I hated this show. But, you know, different people like different things. Also, as you highlighted, it did have hot guys behaving cutely, and as we all know, that’s all that is necessary to make viewers squee!
Well, it was at first mainly just visual. When KYD made that eyebrow move, my mind shouted, “Ju Ji-hoon!!!” I didn’t think it was a direct Hyena reference, and still don’t–but the guys’ faces mean more or less the same thing in the context of these two dramas, which is pretty much what Yoon Hee-jae says there, “We shouldn’t but I really want to, and you might too…should we?” One of these guys gets his wish 😉
I have become certain this past year that young actors are tasked (or encouraged) to watch veteran actors’ acting clips constantly. I keep seeing so many of the older generation’s mannerisms, movements, and inflections in the younger generation, it feels like they have watched them so much they are mirroring them unknownly.
I love it actually. It shows that the younger actors work so much, and I kinda see it as them paying respect to their sunbaes.
Its amazing that you’d remember this slight furrowing of the brow that they both do. How did you pick up on and recall that? You must be a cinematographer! Of course, all I remember from Hyena is Kim Hye-soo, but even there I remember certain, other, things and not her expression in scenes.
Anyway, I have to say that just as you highlighted Rowoon’s expression in scenes in a way that impressed me with his acting, so here Kim Young Dae’s romantic gaze is really effective, and makes me give him more credit, at least as a romantic lead. I did like him in Shooting Stars, but he was outshone in Extraordinary You by his male costars, and he was weighed down by bad scripts and sageuky nonsense in his other dramas.
Well, I suspect that the same reasons you remember Kim Hye-soo in that drama helped me remember here 😁. No, truly, when Ju Ji-hoon did it the first time it was so striking that I’ve not ever been able to forget it–or the kiss that comes after, which is a part of this scene that surely you remember as well.
KYD’s no Rowoon, but he’ll do. Though, I really, really love his take on physical comedy including comedic facial expressions. Here’s another for ya!
And, while we’re at it, here’s the thing you were mentioning the other day. It was right next to the above image in my library:
One thing that always struck me about this scene–and this scene I do remember quite well–is her understandable irritation at being constantly touched. But I understand why he is doing it, as well, so its actually a much better way of showing feelings after sleeping together for the first time than having one or the other partners being really embarrassed and hiding beneath the sheet. I’m glad he stopped constantly touching her though, otherwise that relationship wouldn’t have lasted until the end of the show!
Yes, even when you’re a lot in love, if you cant even move your elbows while idk chopping onions or whatevs … for the moron leaning towards … ALL your sides at once! … it just stops being adorable very soon.
No, there’s a huge difference between a back hug, with the head resting on the shoulders and you stay that way for a while, comfortably, and a back cling with a neck nuzzle. The latter allows only one type of “cooking,” that doesn’t involve food, at least, normally.
Ju Ji-Hoon‘s eyes in that scene though! INTENSE. 🔥🔥 So much emotion. All the built up tension – would she open up to him? But also you can almost see in the back of his head he secretly couldn’t believe his luck of being there at that crucial moment and was tentatively hopeful, while telling himself this was a bad, bad idea – but still wanting to – but would she… GAH! 💯
I felt a little bit robbed of more scenes like this between them in the later episodes. 😶
👏👏 So cool you made that connection! Must rewatch both scenes for science now.
Oh, there are a lot of places where this comparison breaks down…your point is quite well taken. Another BIG difference, of course, is also to be found in the mental state of the woman in question. But, for sending you back (for science!) to see those scenes (especially Hyena), I offer ZERO apologies. 😏
Are you of the opinion that the (totally agree!!) crappy relationship ending of Hyena was about Covid filming restrictions? I just couldn’t see why they would have them act like KIDS by the end. I didn’t need them back in a committed relationship–although I wouldn’t have been against it–but it was truly disappointing what they did do.
I watched HYENA much later than when it originally aired, and until then had already noticed people stating there were covid restrictions towards the end of filming. So I kinda expected that development and excused everything, too… 🤔 (Still I hoped until the end that there would be something… more. LOL!)
The ending was meh given their chemistry!
I\’m telling you. Lee Sang-yi can sell a relationship with a ROCK. Love ya Kim Young-dae, but you\’re simply out-acted here.
The ensemble physical comedy of this drama is also simply masterful. Here, maybe the edge goes to KYD! 😉
No, for realz…What did y\’all decide these two were acting out? I thought elephant…but then maybe it turns into harpooning a seal??? Or is flailing dude a fish on a hook?
I just like that they all can shine. 😊
And I personally like KYD here a lot, I think he fits the role, he often surprises me with better delivery than what I expect… and the director knows what to do with him. 😁
(Like the director with Suzy in While You Were Sleeping. )
Gah! I’m just showing my colors left-right-and-center here. I have trouble enjoying dramas about high school, so I haven’t seen Extraordinary You either.
Since I’m in full confession mode, may I also now admit that there are times when I’ve been writing a comment about Kim Young-dae (the actor) and my fingers actually type out Gong Tae-sung (the character from Sh**ting Stars), subconsciously thinking that’s his actual name, so strong is my conflation.
First, I admit to not liking Waikiki and now all this!! Maybe I’ve never actually seen a single K-drama and I’m just a rando using ChatGPT.
Though I would argue @attiton that Extraordinary You is not the typical high school drama. The first part had me in stitches because it is all about TROPES of a romantic (well, yes, high school) kdrama/manga.
I think it was @enriquequierecagar who said something like they could make 10 spin-offs with different groups of characters together and it would be still be fun. No matter who we’ve got on screen, this show is never boring haha
I’d say elephant having a good day until he’s disrupted by a gazelle (or a ballet dancer doing it for the ‘gram)
I was wondering that myself. It had to be scene in water the way they were swaying, and the guy with the tie as his nose might have been a fisherman- so your guess of harpooning a seal or a whale, might be right. It must be a reference to some movie or show, but I don’t know how we could find out. The balletic move the guy who was “shot” was really impressive!
How about this, then…thinking through what @moomoomoondog said…what if the whole charade from both the guys is a safari and therefore an “Africa” reference to Sh**ting Stars??
I think we’ve got it. The elephant, a famous thespian, putting on show for his fans, turns violent when the gazelle tries to steal the spotlight. Thus, he is a shooting star.
It’s one of Kipling’s own illustrations of his Just So stories. And one of the stranger illustrations – He drew very few people (luckily) and other animals that he drew looked more like real animals.But the jumping fellow in the gif above reminded me of this kangaroo, not of any other kangaroo.
And well, I dearly love most of those Just So stories and it was not very pleasant to grow up and find out the author was super incredibly terribly racist.
Oh, what could have been…. Hugs.
I dropped the show the moment Selfish Momster was taking over again (and there was too much screaming… and underdevelopement of other characters… ).
And I so wanted Jindan to have a redemption arc! Oh well.
Let’s meet in the Iron Family thread! 🙋♀️
For my own therapeutic needs, I may post some more gifs of Jin-dan in this thread later today. It was nice to see him in a hoodie for once, at very least. That we all actually know precisely how his bottom molars are not quite aligned with one another because of the amount of wide-mouthed shouting he did into the camera…will need to be neither here nor there. 😊
We’ll see if I make it to Iron Family. I may need to pass the baton for a bit.
Eonni cameo!! Squee. I love Baek Ji-won in everything she does. Even the difficult stuff.
I was an inconsolable puddle of tears on the floor after episode 7 of this incredibly, desperately uneven drama. I was glad episode 8 put us on the obvious path to conlcusion next week, though.
You are on a roll so why not. This is my favorite Yoon Park performance. He obviously is having fun with this role. Sojin looks to be enjoying herself also. Their twirl, dip and catch move was tropishly enjoyable.
(Btw, if Dad does show up, cameo by Choi Min-soo).
Oh, I’d love that cameo! I wish we knew more about Sojin’s inner monologue, but I do agree that the two of them seem to be having a blast. She’s charming his pants off (not that they weren’t already off for most of this drama so far!!! 🤣)
This is the type of show where you get distracted by random huge teddy bears sitting on hotel benches. What\’s it doing there? Is it going to get up and attach Sae-yan? Will this be the serial killer we\’ve all be hoping for (SPOILER: No, he\’s coming later and with a mwahahaha-twist)? Or is it that they needed to cover up something on set and so the prop master was like, \”Fuck it. Let\’s just put a stuffed animal there.\” Yeah, that gets my vote.
It\’s also the type of show that has you think thoughts like, \”Wait? After that super-creepy father-daughter DATE (gah-ew-gahh!!!), does she know she\’s been kidnapped? And why does her father kidnapper let her have a knife? And, yes, actually, shouldn\’t the show apologize for being fracking insane just like this guy???
Y’all. These three shots were within like THREE MINUTES of one another. Lee Jong-won deserves a medal for the number of times he must have obeyed the director’s command, “Look MORE wistful, man! You can do it!”
HAHAHA 😆 That’s hilarious. I legitimately assumed there had been a reason, even mentioned in passing (“ah, it’s cold,” *cape time*) for that wardrobe choice that occurs OVER A SPAN OF TIME, judging from the day-to-night progression… but wardrobe was just like *meh who cares* 🤣🙈
We are left to infer that he found those clothes in the tent that he bought–with cash–from a couple who were leaving the campsite he’d wandered onto with no explanation of how he got there. Does that help?
He’d lost his own coat because he tried to save this one kid from some bullies, but it turned out that the kid he saved WAS the bully, so he had to give the “nice” kid his coat…that had all his money and his ID in it PLOT POINT.
Lol @attiton you are correct; that explanation somehow makes things worse 😆 There’s almost a logical absurdity to things, in that the things most divorced from reality are the reasons WHY and the means HOW. It’s like if aliens tried to write a Kdrama script and everything is just a leeeetle bit off…
I decided it was his “sleep cape” over his “sleep poncho.” I actually have a whole scene–invented in my mind–about how he decided to wear them, why, and in what order.
Ngl, I anxiously clicked on comments hoping to find his gifs!! So thank you.
I hope cape blanket quilt is not the new fashion.
Those hands will look pretty holding a beer glass than that pan. Just saying. #BrewingLoveComePalliPalli
It dawns on me that the last pair of episodes will almost certainly see Shin come to Gun’s rescue, because that would be the most tedious thing they could think of. You can get ready for stern-faced Shin and “I love you, hyung!!” Shin next week.
I haven’t seen episode 14 yet, so I haven’t been able to experience the full, mind blowing incoherence of this week, but did she actually sleep with him in that tent? If not, why did she stay the night?
There’s so much to say, but I’ll just leave these words here, translated from the OST:
“the silent streets are filled with countless thoughts, and the wounds inside them”
If you are asking such questions, this show may be for you!!! Shin is like a Commedia dell’arte character…a desperate, love-sad clown. It’s impressive, if you allow it.
This shot is so dumb. It’s so dumb. GAH!!!! I need to share it with others so my pain is lessened. 왜why왜왜왜왜왜? It’s supposed to be funny, but it’s really not. In context, it’s even less funny. What the kids say next…isn’t FUNNY.
And you thought that having three of these loving shots of LJW’s face in the comment above meant I was done. Nope. Please let this be the last one of these, show. Please. Jebal. Let’s have the series end with a smile.
Alright, now that I’ve seen episode 14, we have the “science” rearing its ugly head. Its too bad Korea is not an advanced country, with actual medical and scientific protocols, and is ruled by evil “doctors” who do Frankenstein like operations without their patient’s approval.
When Gun just ran in, unaccompanied, into that operating theater staffed by a lone doctor clearly there to perform (surprise!!!) surgery on him, I about lost my shit. Why, though? Why did I expect anything else?
What if, in the end, the ML kills the FL in a fit of re-un-lobotomized rage? Would that not be the most satisfying ending?
I think this show has now also stolen my human dignity.
Remember the good old days? When we were all complaining about all the weird poop/sexual kinks the writer loaded into the story? It feels like a decade ago.
Aaaaactually, now that you mention it, did either of you (@hacja too) think that the writers actually missed an amazing opportunity for a long, long diarrhea gag after the lead couple go to that super cheap-and-dirty $6/plate buffet restaurant??
It’s like they’ve even lost their way on the potty humor. C’mon guys! The audience can’t do ALL the work here 🤓🚽
They sure did set him up as the sweetest lil’ guy that you, frankily, probably didn’t really want to date. Even if Song Kang weren’t there standing in for the “actual” bad guy who’s definitely gonna hurt you…
But then, kablammo. “Riiiiiight.” I hear that in the webtoon Song Kang truly is the unrepentant player he appears to be rather than becoming a (speciously) reformed man who appears able to commit, as in the drama.
However, in the drama, Eun-han here is the only one that dumps the FL on her butt for another woman. Embarrassingly. And in public. For the one who got away, even.
Ha. This was the true origin of my insistence that these two actors look A LOT alike. I know it’s controversial, but look at the evidence I have gathered!!!
They are not playing brothers or even cousins. In fact, I don’t even think they share screentime. LJH is the FL’s hoobae at art school and a puppy-dog-esque admirer of her and her artwork…they date for a bit while she is trying to decide if she wants a “nice guy.” But, lo, at an event, she shows up for a date and he basically says, “The girl I liked in high school is now interested in me, so I’m dumping you.” This all happens by episode 3.
After that, the foil for Song Kang’s bad-boy-nature becomes CJH who is a childhood friend of the FL (I believe I recall) and HE pursues her as an actual good guy (doesn’t dump her in public, for instance 😂). I’ve already spoiled the ending up above, but he doesn’t win out. Mr. I-Know-I’m-Hottie-Mc-Hotness does.
I swear I spent the second half of the drama periodically mistrusting CJH because I felt like he’d already dumped the FL back in episode 3, though!!! 😂
So funny! I had no idea this drama was the origin, but I have to say that I was tricked once again. Pics 1, 2, and 3 totally made me double take and I had to jump over to MDL to confirm the casting. They most definitely bear a strong resemblance to each other. 😍 I don’t know much about the story here, but I appreciated the explanation of the characters 🤗
This little dance is stuck in my head like a catchy song.
As is this sneaky-sneaky little silent-movie villain work.
This one…is just for folks who wonder if they really slap people out of the blue on weekenders. They do. There\’s usually no kelp or anything though. But do note that ISH was very careful to make sure her hair was off her cheek to ensure that the most slappiest-slap could take place! That\’s commitment.
Seon-ha
October 7, 2024 at 6:11 AM
In my no-live-watches moment, many of you suggested I “get outside” or “read a book.” By that did you mean, stay inside, watch dramas, and contemplate other people reading books like their lives depended on it?
Queen & I [Queen In-hyun’s Man], episode 5.
Seon-ha
October 7, 2024 at 6:14 AM
@hopefulromantic I did also watch “Mission: Possible” and am very much looking forward to the full-length drama sequel that seems to be in the works!? The two lead characters were hilarious–I’d never seen Lee Sun-bin in anything before and she was an utter delight as a straightman–and I also loved how she and KYK were shown to be as evenly matched in fighting prowess as the patriarchy will allow. 😉
HopefulRomantic 🦋 Tigermoth 🦞
October 7, 2024 at 7:07 AM
YAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!! 😆🙌🎉✨️ Mission: Possible is, quite literally, my favorite action-comedy!!! KYK and LSB are such a good match with their comedy timing (and physical comedy). She is SO funny. I also really enjoy the fighting scenes and that the movie lets them both have their moments! I haven’t heard anything about a sequel (the drama spinoff or another movie) for a while, so I’m still hoping they’ll follow through and give us more!! 😬
Midnight
October 7, 2024 at 7:11 AM
Glad that you liked it! 🤩👍
HopefulRomantic 🦋 Tigermoth 🦞
October 7, 2024 at 4:16 PM
Lol I rewatched it again today 😂
Midnight
October 7, 2024 at 7:14 AM
I’m one of the very few people who was completely bored and exasperated with this show. Hope you have a better experience.
Seon-ha
October 7, 2024 at 7:17 AM
I’m loving it. 😎
HopefulRomantic 🦋 Tigermoth 🦞
October 7, 2024 at 7:41 AM
I’m glad you’re enjoying this drama, Seon-ha!!! Midnight, I felt similarly to you about this one. But, I was glad I watched it since it’s a Beanie classic!
Seon-ha
October 7, 2024 at 7:43 AM
How can you two be bored when the 2ML looks and acts like a cross between Ji Chang-wook and Jo Han-chul!!?? That alone keeps me gripped as my mind does a constant string of double-takes…
HopefulRomantic 🦋 Tigermoth 🦞
October 7, 2024 at 7:54 AM
WHOA WHOA WHOA Ji Chang-wook + Jo Han-chul !! 🤯 You’re right!! I think this was a drama I had hyped up SO MUCH in my mind based on Beanie love that the poor thing had no chance of living up to that 😅 But the leads were undeniably adorable!
Midnight
October 7, 2024 at 8:18 AM
😄😄😄
I love time-travel, I was having fun in the first half, just not loving it as much as others. Then it became Yoo In Na crying incessantly for hours.
hacja
October 8, 2024 at 9:28 AM
The 2ML ruined this one for me. In fact, I wanted to pummel the screen every time the 2ML appeared. Its a miracle my t.v. wasn’t broken while watching this.
Seon-ha
October 8, 2024 at 10:05 AM
He’s not your type, huh, @hacja? You’re more a Ju Ji-hoon guy? Strong and silent?
I love the 2ML and sort of think it wouldn’t be the worst thing if he prevailed. Boong-do could go back to where he belongs, taking responsibility for as many women as he can possibly convince to accept him along the way.
hacja
October 8, 2024 at 10:44 AM
Well, of course I’m always watching kdramas for male role models, especially ones from the Joseon era.
No, seriously (not really) the show opens with with the 2ML trying to pull the curtain so everyone sees the FL naked, snickering like a character from the classic 1980s film, Porky’s Pimpin’ Pee Wee. He’s constantly condescending to her, then at one point, as I recall, he actually physically abuses her, striking her in anger. So no role model for me!
I guess the one thing in his favor is that he’s not one of those perfect 2MLs that causes you to wonder why the FL chooses the really boring Joseon time traveler instead!
It always seems to me that, with possible exception of Goblin, Yoo In-na plays too submissive a character in her dramas. She’s certainly one of the most beautiful actresses around.
Seon-ha
October 8, 2024 at 10:49 AM
Like this, @hacja ?
And, yes, the 2ML is not a gentleman. No squirty bottles or endearing uses of his tongue and eyebrows to make commentary.
Seon-ha
October 6, 2024 at 8:51 AM
While trying my hardest to do the work of getting over a number of recent drama disappointments, I was remembering the work of this young actor, Moon Sung-hyun, in the earliest episodes of Beauty and Mr. Romantic. He played the younger version of the ML, Go Pil-seung, back when he had his original name, Go Dae-cheong. Don’t ask why the change. It was stupid plot armor.
At any rate, a quick scan of Moon Sung-hyun’s career so far shows that he has played the “younger version” of an eye-popping list of older actors. He’s only 18 now, but check it out. He has played a younger:
➡Ji Hyun-woo (BMR)
➡Kim Soo-hyun (QoT)
➡Namkoong Min (My Dearest 2)
➡Yoo Yeon-seok (Interest of Love)
➡Kim Nam-hee (Reborn Rich)
➡Lee Jae-wook (Alchemy of Souls)
➡Kim Young-dae (Sh**ting Stars)
➡Kim Seon-ho (Hometown Cha3)
He was really endearing in BMR, and I hope that he finds happy footing as he moves ahead in his career.
panshel
October 6, 2024 at 9:06 AM
He played a younger Hwang Min-hyun in Alchemy of Souls.
I first noticed him in Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha with my girl Oh Ye-ju. For some reason, I don’t remember him in Vincenzo, although as a younger Ok Taec-yeon, he should’ve had a prominent role. I’ll have to rewatch.
Seon-ha
October 6, 2024 at 9:11 AM
Yes, right, I mistyped. Certainly closer in appearance to a younger Min-hyun than a younger Taec, that’s for sure.
HopefulRomantic 🦋 Tigermoth 🦞
October 6, 2024 at 9:20 AM
That’s a very impressive resume!
Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
October 6, 2024 at 9:37 AM
Comment was deleted
Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
October 6, 2024 at 9:38 AM
I’ve seen him in five of those dramas. He has some range, and he’s made an impression each time, although I have to admit that in Alchemy, it was mostly for being very pretty and not very expressive. But since that matched Minhyun’s portrayal of the character perfectly – good job, Moon Sung-hyun!
alasecond
October 6, 2024 at 10:28 PM
lol.. royal burn for MH ! good one
Isa is always time travelling
October 6, 2024 at 10:05 AM
I have seen him in Vincenzo, Hometown Cha, Shooting Stars, Alchemy, and My Dearest 1 and 2 (I actually remember him well there).
And he is also in The Queen’s umbrella, which I have on my list.
Seon-ha
October 5, 2024 at 2:08 PM
This all really was adorable. I look forward all three of these actors’ next projects. One of which is coming next month…!!
Spice up Our Love, BTS after episode 2 credits.
alasecond
October 5, 2024 at 7:27 PM
what is coming next month?
Seon-ha
October 6, 2024 at 6:19 AM
Han Ji-hyun will be starring alongside Lee Min-ki in Face Me.
alasecond
October 6, 2024 at 8:24 AM
they just did 1st table read.. are they going to air the drama so soon?
Seon-ha
October 6, 2024 at 8:53 AM
https://dramabeans.com/2024/10/plastic-surgeon-lee-min-ki-solves-a-case-in-face-me/
Seon-ha
October 3, 2024 at 7:57 AM
I may have put off a project to watch Spice up Our Love…
Seon-ha
October 3, 2024 at 7:58 AM
And whatever that was, was not at all what I expected. I can’t say I loved it, and I certainly didn’t hate it…but, it was a bit, a bit, like uncomfortable Nam Ja-yeon psychological pain TMI. I hope she finds someone to talk about all this with.
wapz
October 3, 2024 at 2:54 PM
What in the parasocial relationship was this? I mean we can’t even call it a parasocial relationship but something entirely weird. I thought they were going the Extraordinary you route but the show just ended there. We’re not getting more episodes right? Again I liked HJ as JY’s ML better here.
Seon-ha
October 3, 2024 at 6:03 PM
This is all we get.
RenOIshi
October 3, 2024 at 6:07 PM
So do I HAVE to watch NGNL to watch this?
Seon-ha
October 3, 2024 at 6:08 PM
No, I wouldn’t say so. It’s probably way less weird that way, actually.
tabong
October 3, 2024 at 7:31 PM
Exactly.
Because this low-key made me feel weird about NGNL.
RenOIshi
October 3, 2024 at 10:54 PM
Okay more questions: why?
PS: if it’s not clear already I haven’t watched NGNL and have no plans to.
tabong
October 4, 2024 at 12:19 AM
That’s because of the development of the romance in NGNL.
But you can think of this one as a unrelated drama, imo. Most of it is fantasy (nothing truly to related to NGNL).
Seon-ha
October 4, 2024 at 8:30 AM
The FL is fantasizing about a mixture of real people in her life throughout SuOL. That’s cool; women are allowed to do that, obvs.
But the plot of NGNL has these fantasy people and real people separated, but the plot of SuOL sort of conflates them in ways that suggest that the FL is mixing up her dad, her “idealized” version of her first love, and this completely fictionalized version of Lee Sang-yi’s character.
You don’t get that conflation so much if you don’t already know the plot of NGNL. It’s there, but just not as prominent.
Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
October 4, 2024 at 2:08 PM
If I didn’t have the context from NGNL, I’d struggle to understand who these characters are, what they do, and how they relate to each other. It reminds me in that way of some web dramas with their short run times and compressed narratives. At the same time, it’s clearly its own separate show, with a very different approach to storytelling.
I found it to be a good palate-cleanser after NGNL’s disappointing final episode, but that won’t matter to you.
Reply1988 -❣️Mother Bean❣️
October 4, 2024 at 11:45 AM
Sorry just jumping in her to congratulate you on levelling up🥳 Have fun with those dance moves you have some great company.
Seon-ha
October 4, 2024 at 12:00 PM
Thanks, Reply…I knew you’d take notice. 🥰
Seon-ha
October 1, 2024 at 10:19 AM
I’d never need any other praise again, if were Han Ju-won and I got this nod.
Beyond Evil, a show that easily rivals Stranger in quality of writing and tone-setting, episode 11.
Midnight
October 1, 2024 at 10:35 AM
Tone-setting,yes, definitely. Writing… not a fan. At all. Sorry.
Kurama
October 1, 2024 at 12:10 PM
Yeah, I didn’t like how the characters investigate in this drama. They were so unprofessionnal.
Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
October 1, 2024 at 12:30 PM
The way the police let their personal interests and relationships compromise their professionalism and affect their investigation methods, as well as the way small-town dynamics inevitably mix up the personal and the professional, are common to a lot of police/legal kdramas. This one focuses on those themes as much as it does on the murder mysteries. There is one episode where the investigation relies partly on amateurs, but that’s in a “who can we trust?” situation and for me at least it isn’t so unrealistic as to spoil the show’s overall brilliance.
Seon-ha
October 1, 2024 at 12:38 PM
Do you mean when Jae-yi goes on that hilarious misbegotten “stake-out” with Ji-hoon? The levity brought by her face when she realizes that she’s not catching a killer but instead only revealing something embarrassing about a long-time acquaintance was so great, though!
Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
October 1, 2024 at 12:40 PM
Yup. So funny. There’s not a lot of humor in this show but when there is, it hits.
Kurama
October 1, 2024 at 12:45 PM
But the beginning was the cop choosing a villain then trying to match the evidences instead to follow the evidences and to find the villain…
Yeah, it’s common in a lot of police dramas and it’s always frustrating. But for me, the writing wasn’t the best, it was more the actors.
Seon-ha
October 1, 2024 at 12:46 PM
By “writing” do you mean “plot construction?”
Kurama
October 2, 2024 at 12:17 AM
@attiton To be honest, I don’t remember a lot about this drama 😅 Mainly, the egg scene because the BTS was pretty fun and his car.
But my vaguely feeling, it was this drama brought anything new to the genre (old-young cop team, and of course the famous serial kiler), the investigation was very messy, the characters were written purposely not very likable… But it was intense and the actors were great. The direction was pretty good too.
Seon-ha
October 3, 2024 at 8:51 AM
So what you didn’t like was that it wasn’t the way you would have written it?
Kurama
October 3, 2024 at 10:41 AM
no, because I didn’t feel anything except frustration by watching it.
Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
October 1, 2024 at 12:13 PM
One of the things I most appreciate about the writing in this show is that the dialogue sounds like people, not drama characters – and each character is given their own voice, with almost no stock characters who remain so and who serve only a narrative purpose. There’s neither extensive expository “conversation” nor a refusal to respond to others, to correct a mistake or challenge an assumption, when it would be natural to do so. Dong-shik does the least assumption-challenging and he’s maddening because he wants to be. He lets those (false?) accusations hang in the air to force his interlocutors to think about them, and about what else they may have gotten wrong.
Seon-ha
October 1, 2024 at 12:32 PM
…and everyone–every last person–is a Monster of sorts either out here in reality or in the hell that is their own minds.
Midnight
October 1, 2024 at 1:21 PM
My 2 short reviews, just because:
Ep 5:
https://www.dramabeans.com/members/midnight/activity/1341558/
Ep 16:
https://www.dramabeans.com/members/midnight/activity/1342580/
(For when you finish it)
Seon-ha
October 1, 2024 at 1:24 PM
Thank you for adding context.
wonhwa
October 1, 2024 at 6:47 PM
I thought this was an extraordinary show, with some of the most compelling character arcs I’ve seen in a drama. Hope you enjoy the rest of it!
PYC
October 2, 2024 at 9:11 AM
Beyond Evil is a most impressive drama in recent years. I consider it being “the parts are greater than the sum” as opposed to “the sum is greater than the parts”.
As @midnight and others noted, the acting from side to main characters is universally good and Shin Ha-kyun is phenomenal. I always wonder whether the script was written for him specifically.
What I like most, besides acting, is how well each character is thrashed out and becomes a ‘distinct’ person that you’d remember for a long time. I watched it twice as binge-watch in the year when the drama came out. Now, three years later, all those characters remain vivid in my mind – that’s a real strength and accomplishment.
It is however not an all rounded masterpiece – comparable to Stranger / Forest of Secrets – as let down by its writing and the plot construct. I still find the police investigation is written poorly – not that we are looking for a flawless investigation as after all it’s a story about sub-par investigation leading to injustice. But bad investigation still needs good storytelling to make it convincing. That aspect of the story just glided by fleetingly without depth or precision. If you look at FoS 1 and FoS 2, you can already picture Lee Soo-yeon’s white board and spaghetti map linking plots and characters with glove-fit tightness. Here, the loose plot writing unfortunately fails to take this drama to the next level of greatness – a brilliant drama nonetheless. Thought-provoking too!
After you finish Beyond Evil, you may like tocheck out the review by our esteemed Beanie, @Lee Tenant, at her website: https://invisibledragon.leetennant.com/2021/07/08/open-thread-beyond-evil-episode-13-16-end/
Midnight
October 2, 2024 at 9:22 AM
Comment was deleted
Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
October 2, 2024 at 9:42 AM
I’m pretty sure from her comments that @attiton has not finished the show, so it would be a kindness to avoid commenting on how it ends – especially when it’s on her fanwall, so she can’t help seeing the notifications. I’ve had a show spoiled for me this way and it really took the enjoyment out of it.
Midnight
October 2, 2024 at 9:50 AM
I was careful to note when posting the links, but completely forgot this time 🤦🏻♀️ Thanks for the reminder
Seon-ha
October 3, 2024 at 8:50 AM
I disagree with your conclusions. I think it would be boring if all police dramas were about being like “real police.” This drama stretched reality to make something even better than a boring police procedural
PYC
October 3, 2024 at 9:46 AM
Sorry if you thought I was saying that it had to be a ‘real police procedural’. That is not at all what I was trying to convey.
Drama is an art form of interpretation of stories and characters. There are unlimited ways to do it with no fixed formula. Beyond Evil excels in creating a compelling story with equally compelling characters that the excellent cast had brought them to life. Where it falls short of is the uneven writing in that there are the very good parts (or heavier emphasis on) what the writer wants to tell with however less attention on the background – or what the writer considers to be – secondary stuff. The good parts are thus very good, making the weak parts looking weaker.
As an audience, I just thought, for example, there should be better explanation or more scenes on why the initial investigation was botched – is it due to personal issues or laziness on the part of the police or some black hands behind and so forth? Such coverage could really enrich the context of the story development leading to justified sympathy or otherwise for those affected by the poorly executed investigation.
I never consider this drama a police procedural. I’d classify it primarily a character study dressed as a psycho thriller. The story is really about those characters caught in the traps created by themselves or others and have to live through the consequences. There are so many things we can unpack and enjoy in unpacking / witnessing how they get off the traps or get further down the abyss. Beyond Evil is without doubt a superb drama and praise-worthy but somehow miss the mark of becoming an all time master piece due to the uneven writing.
Seon-ha
October 3, 2024 at 9:52 AM
The initial investigation was botched because the local Police Chief (the big bad Dad Han Gi-Hwan) called it off publicly, shockingly and intentionally. The level of public surprise was even written up in the newspapers, something we were shown directly. He was selfishly covering up his own mistake. There was no mystery about it.
Seon-ha
October 1, 2024 at 7:43 AM
Not only did NGNL constantly reference Business Proposal…
Seon-ha
October 1, 2024 at 7:44 AM
It ended just as catastrophically. I don’t know what happened there, but it wasn’t fun, almost none of the loose ends are tied, and I find myself LESS interested in Spice Up Our Love than I was when i woke up.
Very disappointing.
Seon-ha
October 1, 2024 at 7:51 AM
I’m actually creeped out that she repeated her mother’s words welcoming a SON home when taking Ji-uk back.
Also did he put that ring on her in her sleep? Wae what why? She sure didn’t know she had it on her finger–who was drunk and what happened to my wonderful show???
Seon-ha
October 1, 2024 at 10:26 AM
I made this gif but never posted it, but I am now having strange daydream/fantasies of doing this to the writer.
That’s right Secretary Yeo. Thumbs-up.
(It also pisses me off that Gyu-hyun references the “secret dodgeball” thing in episode 12, but there was no need for him to have been told about that. Why/when narratively would he have found that out?? GAH. Who cares. Sometime. By someone. For some reason.)
panshel
October 2, 2024 at 12:22 AM
Right after the soccer game in ep 9, two of the orphanage boys spilled the beans about playing dodgeball to Gyu-hyun.
Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
October 1, 2024 at 7:51 AM
They had ONE JOB, and they botched it.
The BP comparison is spot-on. I had exactly the same experience – watching with disbelief as the runtime dwindled, waiting and waiting for the OTP to come back, cursing the time spent dawdling through nonsense with characters acting uncharacteristically and ‘comic’ diversions that were neither comic nor diverting, and finally, bitterly realizing that this IS all we get.
As Bok-you said, it didn’t give the story an ending, it just put the brakes on it.
Seon-ha
October 1, 2024 at 8:09 AM
The first twenty minutes were absolutely heartrending, which was well-done and “fine” but not what was at the heart of this show. I feel like this reeks of “writer who needs to make a point syndrome.” For a moment, I thought the end was going to be as bad as HeartBeat with Ji-uk dying in a plane crash and the abandonment issues would be magnified to INFINITY.
Then time-skip soup and then scenes and scenes of all the other couples and relationships that felt, as you say, like “stuff getting in the way.” How dare they make me not care about these other people?????
Procrasti-NationFirstCitizen
October 2, 2024 at 2:06 AM
My eyes were literally bugging out in disbelief as I saw the time counter running down, and they’re spending it in Busan or Hell with 2 characters I had ZERO interest in from the beginning… And then after all that, to get like 30 secs of main leads at the very end talking platitudes to each other… I swear, I was going nuclear when I watched it…
vienibenmio
October 1, 2024 at 8:13 AM
Given how HPL fell apart, I’ve been bracing myself for a bad ending
Seon-ha
October 1, 2024 at 8:20 AM
Your couple gets a lot of screen time, so you can look forward to that!!
seyhan
October 1, 2024 at 8:18 AM
I’m so upset. It could have been PERFECT but nah, now I can’t even rewatch it because of that lame ending. Hae-yeong is still demoted, why? And she has to go back to FU to beg for an investment when he was the one who ruined her career. Then so much time was allocated to the second couple when they’re already getting a 2 episode special. I feel robbed 🙁
Seon-ha
October 1, 2024 at 8:24 AM
I agree. Hae-yeong made some CRAZY decisions that did not befit her character–both romantically (Choose to abandon someone with abandonment issues that you also completely understand??? What???) and in her work-life (Striking out on her own in a TANTRUM without a clear plan and only an untested developer–handsome though he may be–at her side??)
I really liked our second couple, too, but the time we spent on them would have been better spent elsewhere, like explaining why Jang was so beholden to Chaebol Mom…or just more screentime of Hae-yeong coming to understand that she needs to rely on people and then going to find Ji-uk on her OWN. Jebal, writernim. It wasn’t gonna be hard!
Seon-ha
October 1, 2024 at 8:27 AM
Oh, as for rewatching–I had a thought about that too here while writhing in “drama ending failure” pain. If you stop with the second couple’s hospital kiss in episode 11 (1h8m), it is a just fine ending to the whole drama…
I think that’s gonna be my advice to folks who ask if they should watch this. “Yes, it’s a modern classic. It ends at 1h8m into episode 11.” 😂
Unaspirated
October 1, 2024 at 8:54 AM
*scanning through the comments looking for…* Ah! Bingo! Thanks! I’d much rather watch an 11 episode good drama and pretend the rest never happened.
Midnight
October 1, 2024 at 1:44 PM
Thanks for the tip 👌
hacja
October 1, 2024 at 10:08 PM
Having just seen the last two episodes, I’m not sure I’d even give it that much. Maybe sometime in episode 10. Also, if they wanted to end with all 3 women without men, I’d have been fine with it in a way. But they went the opposite way. Sadly, for the main couple Ji-uk was a good comic foil, but in the end like many kdrama men, he was an emotional and physical whimp. You could tell that when he woke up in bed with the FL and his arms looked like matchsticks in a t-shirt. He would have looked so much better in a post-coital sweater! Kim Dae Young might be hot, but he’s not hot enough to post on my fan wall, that’s for sure. The writer realized this, and decided to end it without any romantic reunion.
You know, I hate to say this, but its partly the Mom problem again. Kdrama writers have problems with their Moms. But I’d so much rather have a self-centered Mom than a Mom who dies and is sentimentally remembered in a way that that destroys the complex feelings that made her character more interesting than most kdrama moms. So I’ll just remember the Mom as someone who adopted promiscuously just so she could feel good about herself. In other words, a self-centered, exploiting Mom, who nevertheless did some good. In fact there’s a lot to remember about this drama, if you just forget the last 2 episodes.
seyhan
October 1, 2024 at 8:35 AM
Hae-yeong going to Ji-uk for a change would have been perfect, I’d love that. Instead we got the welcome home son scene sigh.
Skiee
October 1, 2024 at 11:04 AM
Honestly ending wasn’t perfect but I didn’t find it bad. They surely could’ve added few more episodes and showed more consequences than the result in the final episode, still for a light hearted drama I don’t hate it. And I think she let him go because he was always keeping promises never living and making decisions on his own. That was the right move, and this separation gave them the clarity him the opportunity to meet his family. And CEO investing was obviously his repentance and seong starting her company was also good. But I wished they kept the comedy out of it. It felt out of place. The ending for characters were good but the execution went bad and rushed. They needed few more episodes.
Seon-ha
September 30, 2024 at 2:06 PM
Manhole. In some circles, this 2017 series is known to be one of the worst, most nonsensical, K-dramas ever made. That it stars Kim Jae-Jung, also of more recent Bad Memory Eraser fame, might suggest that he curses/can’t pick scripts.
Folks, I’m here to tell you that I don’t think it’s the case.
The more I think about BME, the less I can put it’s sheer magnificent nonsensitude onto him as an actor–although if he was actually one of the producers, then, maybe.
But I went into Manhole expecting drivel, but what I got was an absolutely charming take on A Christmas Carol but focused on romantic, rather than brotherly, love.
Now, I need to admit two things straight-up:
1. KJJ was really one of the most hammy of over-actors for the first four episodes or so. It was painful. I thought this was going to be what everyone was having a problem with. But once he settled into pathos–JUST LIKE in BME–he was fiiine. He’s a handsome enough guy and all he really had to do was be head-over-heels in love with Uee for 16 episodes. Anyone can do that. And he did.
2. I watched the whole thing at 2x.
You might be thinking, “Seon-ha, this last admission is a BIG caveat!!” To which I respond, yeah, it is. If there really is something wrong with this drama it’s that it totally felt about the right length at eight, not 16, hours. It was slooow and there would have been hours of pent up frustration ending at a lot of shouting, “JUST FUCKING SAY ‘I LOVE YOU,’ ASSHOLE!!! What is your PROBLEM!!!” But at 2x, it felt only like mere minutes and also–you had to realy focus up to understand what’s going on so it’s really quite easy not to get caught up in the whole “arc of history.”
But, y’all, I even cried at a few scenes, even though people sounded like chipmunks and moved around like the Keystone Cops (it wasn’t for KJJ, though 🤓). I CARED about whether or not our OTP ended up together, and there were also TWO other side relationships involved–one, might I mention, that was an unresolved love triangle with none other than Lee Sang-yi at one vertex. This was not only his FIRST drama, folks, but he SINGS. Quite a bit. Sometimes in English.
Main Takeway for Drama Dorks: I can totally recommend Manhole, especially at 2x, if you want to see how much the structure of the script matters in relation to the acting, the actual cadence of the words, and the cinematography. I was easily able to follow what was happening in this twisty-turny, time-travel script at 2x…and still actually came to care a great deal about the characters as well. I felt like I really knew all seven of our central characters and their decisions, no matter the timeline, added to their interest and complexity.
I might even recommend Manhole, full-stop. Beanies, give it some thought. Kocowa has the 2x option.
Seon-ha
September 30, 2024 at 2:11 PM
You know, looking at my own gif I have something to add. It would have been easy for this drama to have been only about how the ML comes to realize how important it is to express his feelings, but it doesn’t actually stop there. Our FL is also given an arc of change that befits her own insecurities and needs…it’s a little late, and sort of a dollar short, but it’s there. In fact, ALL of the characters come to realize a little bit of the, “God bless us…everyone” Christmas Carol quality of this drama, and I really appreciated it.
EVEN the villain. That his punishment was [redacted] should have pissed me off, but it really didn’t.
If anyone else has seen this drama, I’ll be happy to discuss it!!
HopefulRomantic 🦋 Tigermoth 🦞
September 30, 2024 at 2:34 PM
I have not seen this drama, but I love reading your review! I also love the fact that you watched Bad Memory, looked at KKJ’s filmography, and wanted to know if it’s a fluke or a pattern. That’s dedication! 👏👏👏
Midnight
September 30, 2024 at 8:20 PM
This was soooo surprising and lovely to read!! 😂👌👌
I haven’t seen Manhole, but the amount of hatred and snark it received I really thought it would rival BME!
I’m very glad that you were happily entertained 😊😊
Kurama
September 30, 2024 at 9:23 PM
Hum…. yeah no.
But nice try! 😅
Seon-ha
September 23, 2024 at 2:20 PM
Uh-oh. NGNL, episode 9.
Seon-ha
September 23, 2024 at 2:22 PM
Bloodhounds, episode 1.
Seon-ha
September 23, 2024 at 5:52 AM
When it was good, it was very, very good… Cinderella at 2AM, episode 10.
redfox
September 23, 2024 at 6:49 AM
I actually find this drama pretty good.
Seon-ha
September 23, 2024 at 7:10 AM
Cool! What do you like best about it? What do you think it’s doing well?
redfox
September 23, 2024 at 1:05 PM
characters, instead of declaring things, are truly trying to go deeper into who someone is, their choices and logic. they are sort of reviewing their own behavior too. they also don´t wail or steam with anger or feel entitled, instead they are concentrating on the positive and how they can grow or move forward. but tbh I dont like the older brother. yet.
Seon-ha
September 23, 2024 at 2:01 PM
He is pretty annoying until the very last episode, IMO, but then he garners some charisma…through the exact mechanism you detail! 👍
bong-soo
September 23, 2024 at 7:33 AM
Comment was deleted
bong-soo
September 23, 2024 at 7:34 AM
I should have started with SP0ILER ALERT.
bong-soo
September 23, 2024 at 7:45 AM
SP0ILER ALERT:
LOL, but when it was bad, it was very, very bad. I will give the writers (because there had to be more than one, maybe even AI was employed) credit. They were consistent. The serious scenes between the two couples and painter were quite good. The comedic scenes especially where an over indulgence in alcohol were involved were generally not good. Two exceptions. 1. In the last episode the confrontation between Jun-won and Mom I think would have been better if he was sober at the time with the same heart breaking dialogue. He did a bit of a backslide when he sobered up. 2. The scene of the boys taking Mom on an impromptu excursion was quite funny from scooping up Mom to having her help push the car.
Credit must go to the folks responsible for the music. Excellent OST.
Seon-ha
September 23, 2024 at 8:02 AM
The OST is amazing, I completely agree.
I would add a “would that it were” #3 to that list: I very much wish the boys hadn’t shown up and dragged the girls away from a drunken carousing session with Mom, rocking out to instrumental music, wine, soju and beer…. 😉
I loved a good 50% of this show better than any other serious-leaning rom-com I’ve ever seen. I will just remember those parts!
bong-soo
September 23, 2024 at 8:15 AM
I would agree with #3. (I wonder how many takes that scene (dragging them away) took lol?) Btw, I counted the bottles on the table that the girls knocked back at their Somaek session: 10 (presumably 5 large bottles of beer and 5 bottles of soju (didn’t catch the soju cap color). Whatever, a lot of alcohol.
Seon-ha
September 23, 2024 at 8:19 AM
That’s a real critique of the show for me! Almost all dramas have excessive and unreasonable drinking scenes, but this one was the absolute worst showing quantities of drinking that are actually deadly. I’m thinking mainly of the first “I’ll drink you under the table” sequence with Ju-won and Seong-min. I think there were 4-6 bottles of HARD liquor on that table by the time the group was done. In the restaurant this week, it would appear that those two men sloshed back four entire bottles of wine. Frankly irresponsible representation, IMO.
bong-soo
September 23, 2024 at 8:43 AM
Totally absurd. It begs the question. are the writers all teetotalers who never drank alcohol or are they super high functioning alcoholics?
DK-Drama 🫘 Giffing n Space Cadetting🍉🌱
September 24, 2024 at 2:45 PM
If they got drunk, they were just people who could hold their liquor. If they only got slightly less sharp, … I have known people like that. One bottle would make me have to be rolled home in a wheel barrow. But for a lot of people, two bottles is just slightly more than their usual goodnight cap.
Seon-ha
September 24, 2024 at 3:50 PM
I guess the Danes drink the kerosene when the liquor runs out, then?? 😂
Two bottles of wine, much less two bottles of whiskey, is not liver-salve.
Isa is always time travelling
September 23, 2024 at 8:07 AM
I’m laughing because of second-hand embarrassment while watching the karaoke sequence in episode 9.
And I’m sure the actors were cracking themselves up too.
Seon-ha
September 23, 2024 at 8:11 AM
That was supremely horribly cringey. 😂 Yoon-seo (or was it Shin Hyun-bin??) was an excellent stand-in for my **eeeek what is happening** feeling!!!
Isa is always time travelling
September 23, 2024 at 8:27 AM
Supremely horribly cringey is accurate 😅😂
The truth is I was feeling a mixture of tenderness, shame and pity for the actors.
Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
September 23, 2024 at 10:10 AM
That was excruciating. Watching on mute was the only way I could get through it. Noraebang scenes, if they must happen, should either feature someone unexpectedly singing beautifully (Yoon Hyun-min in Bora!) or last 10 seconds, tops. And Lee Hyun-woo can sing, dammit! Wasted opportunity right there.
Seon-ha
September 23, 2024 at 10:19 AM
I’d actually welcome that “K-Drama Treasure Hunt,” frankly: “Find those examples where people, unexpectedly, kick ass at noraebang.”
Then we could demand timestamps and go listen. Lee Sang-yi in HometownCha3. Rowoon in DWY…
hacja
September 23, 2024 at 12:29 PM
Despite the drunk scene, I actually thought this last episode was one of the better happy ending/wrap up episodes I’ve seen. The mother’s opposition was successfully resolved–unlike many villainous kdrama mothers, she was shown to actually love her sons but she wasn’t beyond somehow turning the marriage to the advantage of her company, so she didn’t transform unrealistically. Meanwhile, the FL showed how smart she was–and for me, that’s what made this show, the intelligence of the female lead–by not taking so much offense at the mother in law’s proposal that she didn’t turn it to her own advantage. Her workaholic nature wasn’t glossed over, and so there were real life tensions about wedding planning — yet you didn’t get the feeling that a divorce was in the offing after only a year of marriage, because there was a heartfelt redeclaration of love between the characters that seemed totally earned. As for the rest of the plot, there was no rushed summary of events, the wedding and the happy ever after seemed totally justified and the voiceover did not give a pretentious moral of the story, more a “fairytales can come true” lesson which totally fit the unambitious and low-key nature of the story. It was actually a pretty sweet show in the end, one I don’t regret watching at all.
Seon-ha
September 23, 2024 at 1:08 PM
I quite liked this entire drama, Fairy Godfather (again…this time for Ju-won!!!) and all. And I was serious above that I’ll almost certainly only remember the parts that were simply outstanding. One of these parts, as you so carefully point out, was the characterization of Yoon-seo…who was one of the most complex, sophisticated women I’ve seen in K-dramas to date.
And they even made fun of her tacit female-can-do-know-wrong beatification there when the light shone through the window and Ju-won and Ji-seok had to shield their eyes from her glory. That was simply perfection. Perfection.
As for the mom, I adored the way both her daughters-in-law saw her as a whole woman and showed that woman to her sons. It’s hard to turn that corner. That it had to be the girls’ job was, slightly tedious, but hey…we never usually talk about it at all, so I’ll take it. But what I really think that might have all been about is that scene where MSM and Yoon Park pick her up and carry her playfully out of the house for a road trip–who wouldn’t want to be her in that moment?? 😉
DK-Drama 🫘 Giffing n Space Cadetting🍉🌱
September 24, 2024 at 2:41 PM
😮😟😢😢😭😭😭 A plant!?! 🪴 No! 😭😭😭
Seon-ha
September 22, 2024 at 11:39 AM
I will not write a screed on the final week of Beauty and Mr. Romantic. I will not.
I would instead like to close out the last 25 weeks of my life (+ a few more for the break during the Olympics) with a little dignity. Look at this delightful scene.
It was the type of show, though, that usually decided that showing blood flying through the air in slow-motion was what we wanted to see.
It was the type of show, see below (or here) that could not even hire voice actors who spoke English well.
Whereas Bad Memory Eraser was a kind of bad that seemed unreasonable to exist–almost, even, inexplicable–Beauty and Mr. Romantic ended in what might be best described as a kind of bad that was intentionally hurtful.
I have decided that the writer, who cannot POSSIBLY have been the only person responsible for the way this show fell apart into a quagmire of traditional values and a type of plot-point-soup I’ve never seen before (EVER), was using Do-ra’s paralysis as a metaphor:
It’s a deal. I’m sorry that this happened to you, but it’s time for us to part ways.
vienibenmio
September 22, 2024 at 11:55 AM
This is how I felt after the first and only weekender I’ve ever watched
LT is Irresistibly Indifferent and reminded of the slow march of death
September 22, 2024 at 1:40 PM
I don’t think I’ve seen a Weekender that doesn’t eventually collapse under the weight of its own creaking conservatism but this was somehow worse because of its early subversive critiques of exactly that.
I’m still reeling a little from this episode’s subtext that violent howling mobs are fine as long as they’re going after people you don’t like rather than yourself.
Seon-ha
September 22, 2024 at 3:12 PM
Episode 50 a complete shit-show of half-baked ideas about “right and wrong.” I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but I’m still mystified by Jin-dan’s father and mother, trying to convince Jin-dan of some form of filial piety, in prison??
And, super-spoiler (so sorry–but I hope you’ll forgive me), part of me thinks that the writer refused to have our lead couple get married out of spite for what’s happened to this drama. No happily ever after for them–they’ll never get married because Do-ra can never be seen to be unavailable.
Seon-ha
September 23, 2024 at 9:45 AM
OH MY LORD There was an epilogue I didn’t see before after the first set of still images on set.
It made everything much, much worse. Ma-ri still doesn’t know how children are made? Do-jun is encouraged with a “Fighting??”
I’m now absolutely furious.
LT is Irresistibly Indifferent and reminded of the slow march of death
September 23, 2024 at 12:34 PM
Conservatism is gross, we all know this.
LT is Irresistibly Indifferent and reminded of the slow march of death
September 23, 2024 at 12:33 PM
I find it hard to believe that a Weekender had two people produce babies without a wedding band but I outright laughed at the reinforcement of the new conservative obsession with women having babies.
Twins for me, twins for you, twins for everyone!
Dorotka
September 22, 2024 at 3:33 PM
Oh, but I see there was that one wedding we all wished for! 🎊
Seon-ha
September 22, 2024 at 3:36 PM
Sorta. That’s their engagement party before they both up and moved to the US-of-A. Do-jun out of nowhere won a big-deal architecture prize despite never really being given the opportunity to, you know, do any architectural practice or have a degree in architecture…so he’s moving back to the States to, uh, learn how to be an architect.
Dorotka
September 22, 2024 at 3:41 PM
🤦♀️
On the other hand, that seems to be a true happyend for them – they are together, Dojun doing what he wanted… and most importantly, they are far far away from theose awful families!
bbstl 🧹
September 23, 2024 at 8:58 AM
omg “a kind of bad that was intentionally hurtful”, Wowie. 😆
Seon-ha
September 22, 2024 at 6:06 AM
With all the BME pain I felt yesterday, I forgot the most important gif of all. Thank heavens for my notes!!! I\’ve decided, in retrospect, that this was Lee Jong-won giving us all a signal, a bit like using a wireless credit card terminal to send messages by charging successive small transactions in amounts like \”119\” and other numbers that, in Korean, translate into words something a bit like old pager codes.
143 right back you too, LJW. We\’re coming for you. I hope Brewing Romance is a BIG hit.
DK-Drama 🫘 Giffing n Space Cadetting🍉🌱
September 22, 2024 at 8:48 AM
Sweet!
Isa is always time travelling
September 22, 2024 at 10:05 AM
I really like him and I’m looking forward to watching him in Brewing Romance (please, be good 🙏).
bong-soo
September 22, 2024 at 10:42 AM
Isn’t it now going under the much improved title: BREWING LOVE? The original title DRUNKEN ROMANCE was practically a deal breaker for me. With BREWING LOVE I am now fully onboard. I just have to hope ENA will license this to Viki because if it was going to be on Netflix we would have heard about it by now.
hacja
September 22, 2024 at 9:09 PM
I am always impressed at your visual acuity, noticing things that even if I watched a show multiple times I wouldn’t see.
But, your talent aside, you are right: while this might be interpreted as an SOS , I think its a reassurance to his fans: I WILL SURVIVE.
Seon-ha
September 21, 2024 at 1:45 PM
It\’s over, folks. It\’s over. I have the honest-to-goodness shakes. I cannot believe what just happened to me, and by extension, the entire viewing audience of Bad Memory Eraser. How could that have been what they decided to air? How did that actually happen at all??
I\’m starting with the obligatory Shin-shot because that\’s why you\’re all here.
But…then…how to express what episodes 15 and 16 were like? It\’s like trying to describe the taste of banana–or avocado. 🥑😉
Here\’s a first stab (in the eye). I\’d like to thank this drama for showing us what it really looks like after you drink 8 bottles of soju. I quite literally went out and bought some soju after finishing these episodes today, just so that I could fall into this sort of disrepair. Who needs rosy cheeks and piggy-back rides??? I vote for covering my windows with newspaper and eating Pringles until I pass out.
The title of this image is \”You\’ve GOT to be shitting me.\” Whose fault was all of this? The mothers\’??? Can we blame the mothers of the creators of this drama…for THIS DRAMA??
That\’s right show. Just like this.
A few more, in the comments. It was like necessary therapy making these images.
Bad Memory Eraser, episodes 15-16.
Seon-ha
September 21, 2024 at 1:46 PM
OK. WHAT?? The whole point of the plot was that there were unintended side-effects and that’s why Goon had to go through all of this and why everyone else was doing what they were doing. THAT WAS THE PLOT! WHAT, now??
OKOK. So if this is the case, who wants to bet with me that it was actually the fact that Goon hit his head on that metal box when falling off the Han River bridge that caused the whole change in his personality??? NOTHING the doctors did made any difference whatsoever. They just opened and closed his skull a few times. And then collect awards for “ointment for the brain” or some shit. Gahd.
Mr Everything
September 21, 2024 at 2:49 PM
So, it was a 16 episode PPL for brain ointment…
Seon-ha
September 21, 2024 at 4:34 PM
“It’s like a bicycle…for the mind.”
Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
September 22, 2024 at 1:03 AM
My theory: the entire drama takes place in Gun’s imagination in the few seconds between when he hits his head on the bridge and when he hits the water. An entire show in REM stage. Ambrose Bierce, take a bow.
The meeting on the bridge is a hallucination he has as he’s finally learning to walk again THREE YEARS LATER.
Seon-ha
September 21, 2024 at 1:47 PM
These portraits are both worth a pause. Just…pause.
Seon-ha
September 21, 2024 at 2:06 PM
Lee Jong-won once sat in a photo studio, wearing a leather jacket and sunglasses, holding a fluffy dog who was also dressed in leather. That really happened one time.
Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
September 22, 2024 at 12:52 AM
In the final episode both our boys are wearing leather jackets. Based on @hacja’s sex-sweater theory, and the apparent repellent properties of leather, neither of them will get laid.
Cori
September 22, 2024 at 8:23 AM
Insult to injury, it looks like the poodle wore it better
Seon-ha
September 22, 2024 at 11:00 AM
True dat.
Seon-ha
September 21, 2024 at 1:47 PM
At a certain point, one has to assume that the decision about what lyrics to put on the screen was happening by someone who needed to lighten the mood.
Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
September 22, 2024 at 12:47 AM
My mood was lightened by the extended scene of the MLs’ parents tangoing to NO MUSIC AT ALL. I think the music director went on strike toward the end. This show has the oddest combination of lovely vocal OSTs and terrible incidental music, culminating in a Dramatic Heroic Theme as the murderer … picks up a stuffed bunny.
Seon-ha
September 22, 2024 at 5:54 AM
Margo of the Resilient Lip Gloss
September 22, 2024 at 7:36 AM
So many unanswered questions.
For instance, why Michigan State?
Seon-ha
September 22, 2024 at 7:46 AM
PPL?
Margo of the Resilient Lip Gloss
September 22, 2024 at 8:04 AM
So….and I am not being snarky here but curious…should I assume that every time I see a LA Dodgers hat its PPL? or a reference to Stanford?
And is there any other PPL in this drama?
Wearing random university shirts is a thing in real life, so my first thought was they picked a random american university.
Michigan State has a reputable medical school, seems like a bad fit for PPL. But then, it sounds like ANY PPL, would’ve been a bad fit for this drama.
Seon-ha
September 22, 2024 at 8:17 AM
Oh, but I was being nothing but snarky! Apologies.
That’s a real good point about actual PPL, though. No, I don’t think there was any? There was a prominent vacuum in the Goon Agency/Apartment…but certainly no food PPL. Oh, there was that one bracelet, but I have NO idea the brand!
@hacja @mreverything @elinor Do you remember any?
Mr Everything
September 22, 2024 at 10:21 AM
There is lots. All dramas have it. The laxative, the beauty products, the car (not the classic Mercedes, unless it was)… I am sure there were others, but whenever I try to remember the drama, I feel like I want to vomit.
Seon-ha
September 22, 2024 at 10:58 AM
@mreverything You’re saying that laxative was REAL?
Mr Everything
September 22, 2024 at 12:01 PM
@attiton I don’t know definitely but, the label would have been covered if it wasn’t. Like how arbucks only exists in kdrama world. Also, do we consider clothing/wardrobe PPL? Bubble slippers are in my Amazon shopping cart, but they aren’t the exact ones from this drama.
Margo of the Resilient Lip Gloss
September 22, 2024 at 8:20 AM
I think a snark emoji is needed.
Margo of the Resilient Lip Gloss
September 22, 2024 at 8:22 AM
Also, the electric people did something to my meter on Friday and I have had no hot water for two days now. I think it is effecting my sense of humour.
Seon-ha
September 22, 2024 at 10:59 AM
I’m sorry to hear about your water, @fancypants!! That sounds really uncomfortable. I hope things are repaired very soon.
hacja
September 22, 2024 at 11:11 AM
There was a requisite Kopiko. I don’t feel like looking up whether that laxative was real or not. I was wondering if those therapy machines at the tennis center were also real. The car, that was nominally the brothers car, was definitely one. But you raise a good point, what product would want to be associated with this drama, with the exception of a laxative?
Seon-ha
September 22, 2024 at 11:28 AM
BUT IF YOU DON’T GO BACK, WHO WILL SAVE COLAAAAAAAA????
Seon-ha
September 21, 2024 at 1:47 PM
If you’ve seen these episodes, you know what is happening here. Well, at least, you will have seen it. The more I think about the more THAT THIS IS HOW I FEEL. I’m just waiting on the other side of the screen for “ajumma” to return. Will she ever come back? Who knows.
I have more, but I just can’t. I honestly can’t. How about that timeskip, folks? Or the closet? Or when Shin comes home from school?
And then, just like that, it’s over. No explanation. The end.
Mr Everything
September 21, 2024 at 2:37 PM
For the first time in kdrama history, the time skip was not the worst part of this drama.
Seon-ha
September 21, 2024 at 4:27 PM
But when it happened, weren’t you at all like, “No. Shit. WAEWHY? Wasn’t Goon just NOT getting in a cab? Why didn’t he get into the cab? Why are we here three years later!? Why are we at an awards ceremony? Oh, wait, Goon is fine? Why is he fine. What the hell!!”
No? Only me?
Mr Everything
September 22, 2024 at 10:24 AM
It was bad, but the completely unnecessary breakup to kiss transition all in 10 minutes was the most jarring and confusing part of the drama. That sequence made me give up.
Seon-ha
September 22, 2024 at 11:53 AM
First love, my ass.
HopefulRomantic 🦋 Tigermoth 🦞
September 21, 2024 at 2:05 PM
I’m baffled. I’m laughing. Thank you for sharing this experience with us! 😂 GOLD MEDAL to Seon-ha for not only completing this drama (*which seems to have been adapted from a fragment of one of the Greek playwrights who never gained fame and popularity and which was rediscovered and sold on the dark web as something “never been done before” for struggling writers*), but also giffing it!🏅 Applause!!! 👏👏👏
Seon-ha
September 21, 2024 at 2:11 PM
I mean, I don’t deserve too much praise for finishing. I can imagine that a goodly number of people have been thinking, “If it’s so terrible why don’t you just drop it, LADY?” And, they’d have a point.
But BME wrapped around from “so bad that it felt like a waste of my time” to “so, SO bad I’d never had an experience like this,” and sort of found a type of contact high.
The last 20 minutes especially were so–uh–disjoint and confusing that when it was over, I just stared at my screen for a good five minutes wondering what to do with my life. I can’t even express to you the “no reason for this” nature of the last scene of our couple on the “bridge of first love.” NOW I’M THINKING ABOUT IT AGAIN AND WANT TO MELT INTO A PUDDLE.
HopefulRomantic 🦋 Tigermoth 🦞
September 21, 2024 at 2:15 PM
😂😂😂 I literally can’t wait to read the recap and see if it helps to make any sense of these images 😆 I mean, even the fact that recaps, by their nature, condense, simplify, and provide structure to a drama’s episodes and I STILL feel like I don’t have a real sense of what this was supposed to be about… just think about all the steps that needed to be ok’d, approved, and MONEY allocated for this to happen! The mind boggles.
Seon-ha
September 21, 2024 at 2:17 PM
@solstices, hwaiting!!!
Mr Everything
September 21, 2024 at 2:57 PM
Your posts are 75% of the reason I finished this drama (FFing the entire ending)
Seon-ha
September 21, 2024 at 4:28 PM
I take ZERO responsibility for your life choices!!!! Thanks for your support, though. 👍
Kurama
September 21, 2024 at 3:32 PM
I wonder how Kim Jae-joong always chooses the worst stories… It’s a gift? He doesn’t like good dramas? He’s completely stupid? It’s his only way to earn money?
Congratulations, you won a bean!
Seon-ha
September 21, 2024 at 4:31 PM
Thank you, @kurama, from the bottom of my heart.
I think of KJJ here as bank. I don’t know if he’s the money behind this, but it sure seems so. He was actually ACTING when everyone else had checked out. Well, Lee Jong-won kept trying until the last 10 minutes and, frankly, Yang Hye-Ji (who I’ve loved, LOVED since Nevertheless,) acted her heart out too…all the way until the end, on that tiny, tiny screen.
tabong
September 21, 2024 at 4:52 PM
To you, Seon-ha, to every beanie who finished this, and, especially, to @solstices who couldn’t escape even if they wanted to and have to try to make sense of this finale and write about it: You’ve worked hard. XOXO for y’all.
Seon-ha, I know you didn’t post it out of love, but I truly enjoyed your posts about this show. Thank you.
Love, 사랑스러운 나
Seon-ha
September 21, 2024 at 6:07 PM
“Lovely Me” is how the subs translated that. Not bad, all things considered. But, honestly…go watch why the dad made those sweatshirts. It’s because his masculinity was impaired by his, um, inability to do things.
Um, yeah. Anyway, thanks for the encouragement!!! I love lots of things I shouldn’t.
tabong
September 21, 2024 at 11:55 PM
Oh, I thought the Eraser had worked a bit too well on them so they needed sweatshirts to remember who they are…
But that makes sense too.
Keep loving!! Fighting!
Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
September 22, 2024 at 12:58 AM
🤣 Where is my memory eraser, dammit? I felt like I needed a brainwash, a shower, and 8 bottles of soju after finishing. And I saw something that shade of blue again a few hours later and started twitching involuntarily.
zindigo
September 21, 2024 at 5:52 PM
Just WOW. This totally and completely makes my experience of Missing Crown Prince seem like a cake walk. Still, I feel you chingu, I feel you.
hacja
September 21, 2024 at 11:19 PM
To those of you who might yet click on this because of Seon-ha’s giffing gift, I’d like to say that she accurately portrays this show, but because she has a great sense of humor, she makes these 2 episodes seem fun in a way. They were not. In fact the penultimate episode was extremely unpleasant, and the end, even with its 3 year time skip (couldn’t it have been a 40 year time skip, so we picked up every one up when they were elderly) was terrible in resolving any of the issues even tangentially raised in the story.
I wish I could make a funny joke about this, but I can’t. I finished it and kind of felt embarrassed at myself for wasting my time with it, although as I’ve said, I do think its one of the worst kdramas ever made, so that’s some kind of historical achievement. Anyway, since this is her page, I would like to thank @attiton for, uh, bringing attention to this drama???? (But why I am saying that?)
Seon-ha
September 22, 2024 at 5:52 AM
Seon-ha
September 20, 2024 at 5:51 PM
Welcome to Samdal-ri, for @hopefulromantic. That bottom one is one my favorite gifs I\’ve ever made. I feel it\’s not only adorbs on its own merits, but sums up those two so well!
Seon-ha
September 20, 2024 at 5:53 PM
Also, that’s still so totally Song Kang.
HopefulRomantic 🦋 Tigermoth 🦞
September 20, 2024 at 6:20 PM
It really does look like Song Kang 👀
HopefulRomantic 🦋 Tigermoth 🦞
September 20, 2024 at 6:19 PM
Eeeeee!!!! Thank youuuuuuuu!!!! 🤗❤️😁🙌🌞👍👏👏👏❤️✨️🤩 Aww that’s so sweet… I love these gifs; they just perfectly capture the essence of these characters. I really, really enjoyed this drama. I really emotionally connected with Shin Hye-sun’s FL, and this is just peak Ji Chang-wook loveliness ❤️ The setup is “standard,” but they have such solid, solid actors for these roles that everyone was really brought to life. I love our leads, her family, her friends (*the Power Rangers!!*), Yong-pil (❤️), and how cathartic this kind of storyline can be when done with sincerity. Thank you for the gif gifts!!! 🤗❤️
Seon-ha
September 20, 2024 at 6:22 PM
Anytime 😉
HopefulRomantic 🦋 Tigermoth 🦞
September 20, 2024 at 6:27 PM
Aww the finger guns!!! 😆 👉👉
Seon-ha
September 21, 2024 at 5:31 AM
Quick aside…have you heard from @lapislazulii at all?
Hi, Lapis, if you ever see this? Hope you’re OK!
HopefulRomantic 🦋 Tigermoth 🦞
September 21, 2024 at 5:44 AM
No, I haven’t, and I’ve been wondering about her 😟 I hope you’re doing OK, Lapis, and that life has just been super busy!! ❤️
Reply1988 -❣️Mother Bean❣️
September 21, 2024 at 8:38 AM
Yes it was so strange she was all excited about hosting the DB book club and she disappeared before it took place and I have not seen anything from here since then and that was mid July🤔
Reply1988 -❣️Mother Bean❣️
September 20, 2024 at 8:47 PM
I just realised this was the original Love next door drama. I think this one was best done as a binge watch to avoid frustration with some of the annoying plots being dragged out.
Seon-ha
September 21, 2024 at 5:18 AM
DK-Drama 🫘 Giffing n Space Cadetting🍉🌱
September 21, 2024 at 2:16 PM
Having just finished the big motherblaming episode of the so-named drama and in spite of having all that cheerful domestic violence in common, Samdal-ri is just so much better. It helps that it is understandable that she would want to be with the ML because SaMdaL-ri is 1) charming and 2) hot, and 3) has no competition really worth mentioning. Three things you def can’t say about the ML Next Door.
DK-Drama 🫘 Giffing n Space Cadetting🍉🌱
September 21, 2024 at 2:19 PM
This was an answer to “I just realised this was the original Love next door drama”, and therefore, with “so-named” I mean “Love Next Door”:
hacja
September 20, 2024 at 9:52 PM
G-d your GIFs reminded me how much I hated this show. But, you know, different people like different things. Also, as you highlighted, it did have hot guys behaving cutely, and as we all know, that’s all that is necessary to make viewers squee!
Seon-ha
September 21, 2024 at 5:15 AM
Reply1988 -❣️Mother Bean❣️
September 21, 2024 at 8:39 AM
This person took the joy from the watch until he suddenly woke up and smelled the coffee.
Seon-ha
September 19, 2024 at 6:24 AM
This comparison has been stuck in my head for two days. No Gain No Love and Hyena, both episode 8.
Midnight
September 19, 2024 at 7:20 AM
Is the comparison favorable or unfavorable
Seon-ha
September 19, 2024 at 7:26 AM
Well, it was at first mainly just visual. When KYD made that eyebrow move, my mind shouted, “Ju Ji-hoon!!!” I didn’t think it was a direct Hyena reference, and still don’t–but the guys’ faces mean more or less the same thing in the context of these two dramas, which is pretty much what Yoon Hee-jae says there, “We shouldn’t but I really want to, and you might too…should we?” One of these guys gets his wish 😉
Midnight
September 19, 2024 at 7:47 AM
Nice 👌
I have become certain this past year that young actors are tasked (or encouraged) to watch veteran actors’ acting clips constantly. I keep seeing so many of the older generation’s mannerisms, movements, and inflections in the younger generation, it feels like they have watched them so much they are mirroring them unknownly.
I love it actually. It shows that the younger actors work so much, and I kinda see it as them paying respect to their sunbaes.
hacja
September 19, 2024 at 7:51 AM
Its amazing that you’d remember this slight furrowing of the brow that they both do. How did you pick up on and recall that? You must be a cinematographer! Of course, all I remember from Hyena is Kim Hye-soo, but even there I remember certain, other, things and not her expression in scenes.
Anyway, I have to say that just as you highlighted Rowoon’s expression in scenes in a way that impressed me with his acting, so here Kim Young Dae’s romantic gaze is really effective, and makes me give him more credit, at least as a romantic lead. I did like him in Shooting Stars, but he was outshone in Extraordinary You by his male costars, and he was weighed down by bad scripts and sageuky nonsense in his other dramas.
Seon-ha
September 19, 2024 at 8:03 AM
Well, I suspect that the same reasons you remember Kim Hye-soo in that drama helped me remember here 😁. No, truly, when Ju Ji-hoon did it the first time it was so striking that I’ve not ever been able to forget it–or the kiss that comes after, which is a part of this scene that surely you remember as well.
KYD’s no Rowoon, but he’ll do. Though, I really, really love his take on physical comedy including comedic facial expressions. Here’s another for ya!
And, while we’re at it, here’s the thing you were mentioning the other day. It was right next to the above image in my library:
hacja
September 19, 2024 at 10:51 AM
One thing that always struck me about this scene–and this scene I do remember quite well–is her understandable irritation at being constantly touched. But I understand why he is doing it, as well, so its actually a much better way of showing feelings after sleeping together for the first time than having one or the other partners being really embarrassed and hiding beneath the sheet. I’m glad he stopped constantly touching her though, otherwise that relationship wouldn’t have lasted until the end of the show!
DK-Drama 🫘 Giffing n Space Cadetting🍉🌱
September 19, 2024 at 12:06 PM
Yes, even when you’re a lot in love, if you cant even move your elbows while idk chopping onions or whatevs … for the moron leaning towards … ALL your sides at once! … it just stops being adorable very soon.
Seon-ha
September 19, 2024 at 12:23 PM
You wanted male back-hug intimacy in the kitchen…you get said intimacy in the kitchen! Maybe it’s not so great after all?
hacja
September 19, 2024 at 1:10 PM
No, there’s a huge difference between a back hug, with the head resting on the shoulders and you stay that way for a while, comfortably, and a back cling with a neck nuzzle. The latter allows only one type of “cooking,” that doesn’t involve food, at least, normally.
DK-Drama 🫘 Giffing n Space Cadetting🍉🌱
September 19, 2024 at 12:11 PM
You are so right! And I thought is was a but surprising and special, that expression. But is has travelled from face to face, I see now!
DK-Drama 🫘 Giffing n Space Cadetting🍉🌱
September 19, 2024 at 12:36 PM
I mean “a bit”. A bit surprising.
sonai
September 19, 2024 at 1:22 PM
Ju Ji-Hoon‘s eyes in that scene though! INTENSE. 🔥🔥 So much emotion. All the built up tension – would she open up to him? But also you can almost see in the back of his head he secretly couldn’t believe his luck of being there at that crucial moment and was tentatively hopeful, while telling himself this was a bad, bad idea – but still wanting to – but would she… GAH! 💯
I felt a little bit robbed of more scenes like this between them in the later episodes. 😶
👏👏 So cool you made that connection! Must rewatch both scenes for science now.
Seon-ha
September 19, 2024 at 1:39 PM
Oh, there are a lot of places where this comparison breaks down…your point is quite well taken. Another BIG difference, of course, is also to be found in the mental state of the woman in question. But, for sending you back (for science!) to see those scenes (especially Hyena), I offer ZERO apologies. 😏
Are you of the opinion that the (totally agree!!) crappy relationship ending of Hyena was about Covid filming restrictions? I just couldn’t see why they would have them act like KIDS by the end. I didn’t need them back in a committed relationship–although I wouldn’t have been against it–but it was truly disappointing what they did do.
sonai
September 19, 2024 at 2:18 PM
I watched HYENA much later than when it originally aired, and until then had already noticed people stating there were covid restrictions towards the end of filming. So I kinda expected that development and excused everything, too… 🤔 (Still I hoped until the end that there would be something… more. LOL!)
The ending was meh given their chemistry!
Purely for science (and zero apologies either):
Seon-ha
September 17, 2024 at 9:22 AM
I\’m telling you. Lee Sang-yi can sell a relationship with a ROCK. Love ya Kim Young-dae, but you\’re simply out-acted here.
The ensemble physical comedy of this drama is also simply masterful. Here, maybe the edge goes to KYD! 😉
No, for realz…What did y\’all decide these two were acting out? I thought elephant…but then maybe it turns into harpooning a seal??? Or is flailing dude a fish on a hook?
NGNL, aka Not Gonna Lie, episode 7.
vienibenmio
September 17, 2024 at 9:53 AM
I find Gyu-hyun faaaar more interesting than Ji-uk; I think part of it is also the writing, but acting is definitely part of it
Seon-ha
September 17, 2024 at 11:43 AM
They’re both great characters. I look forward to hearing the word “hyung” come out of Ji-uk’s mouth if/when the day comes!
Dorotka
September 17, 2024 at 11:35 AM
I just like that they all can shine. 😊
And I personally like KYD here a lot, I think he fits the role, he often surprises me with better delivery than what I expect… and the director knows what to do with him. 😁
(Like the director with Suzy in While You Were Sleeping. )
Seon-ha
September 17, 2024 at 11:43 AM
I like KYD in everything I’ve been able to watch him in 😉…but in that scene, all I thought was, “Wow, how can you not fall for this guy, Ji-uk?”
Dorotka
September 17, 2024 at 12:13 PM
😁 I’m a fan… but… ehm… he does have some limitations… 😁
Have you watched him in Cheat On Me if You Can? I totally fell for him there. 😍
They are a nice couple, Lucifer and Mr. Volunteer. 😄
Seon-ha
September 17, 2024 at 12:28 PM
I have NOT seen that **heads over to MDL to learn more** GETS TOTALLY DISTRACTED…OMG…have you seen KYD’s headshot on MDL? He’s an infant!
Dorotka
September 17, 2024 at 12:50 PM
You don’t remember him from Extraordinary You? In his strawberry pullover?? 😄
Seon-ha
September 17, 2024 at 1:03 PM
Gah! I’m just showing my colors left-right-and-center here. I have trouble enjoying dramas about high school, so I haven’t seen Extraordinary You either.
Since I’m in full confession mode, may I also now admit that there are times when I’ve been writing a comment about Kim Young-dae (the actor) and my fingers actually type out Gong Tae-sung (the character from Sh**ting Stars), subconsciously thinking that’s his actual name, so strong is my conflation.
First, I admit to not liking Waikiki and now all this!! Maybe I’ve never actually seen a single K-drama and I’m just a rando using ChatGPT.
It’s always possible!! 😁
Dorotka
September 17, 2024 at 1:18 PM
😄😄
Dorotka
September 17, 2024 at 1:26 PM
Though I would argue @attiton that Extraordinary You is not the typical high school drama. The first part had me in stitches because it is all about TROPES of a romantic (well, yes, high school) kdrama/manga.
vienibenmio
September 17, 2024 at 12:06 PM
This is my first time seeing KYD in a role, and I like him a lot more than I thought I would.
Cori
September 17, 2024 at 1:14 PM
I think it was @enriquequierecagar who said something like they could make 10 spin-offs with different groups of characters together and it would be still be fun. No matter who we’ve got on screen, this show is never boring haha
I’d say elephant having a good day until he’s disrupted by a gazelle (or a ballet dancer doing it for the ‘gram)
Seon-ha
September 17, 2024 at 1:20 PM
Oooh…love gazelle!! I buy it. Or even a gazelle doing ballet for the ‘gram? 😂
Cori
September 17, 2024 at 2:12 PM
Plausible 😂
hacja
September 17, 2024 at 1:39 PM
I was wondering that myself. It had to be scene in water the way they were swaying, and the guy with the tie as his nose might have been a fisherman- so your guess of harpooning a seal or a whale, might be right. It must be a reference to some movie or show, but I don’t know how we could find out. The balletic move the guy who was “shot” was really impressive!
Seon-ha
September 17, 2024 at 1:49 PM
How about this, then…thinking through what @moomoomoondog said…what if the whole charade from both the guys is a safari and therefore an “Africa” reference to Sh**ting Stars??
hacja
September 17, 2024 at 2:04 PM
What about just a reference to “Shooting Stars” itself?
Cori
September 17, 2024 at 2:20 PM
I think we’ve got it. The elephant, a famous thespian, putting on show for his fans, turns violent when the gazelle tries to steal the spotlight. Thus, he is a shooting star.
DK-Drama 🫘 Giffing n Space Cadetting🍉🌱
September 18, 2024 at 3:38 AM
It’s an Australian Elephant and a Kangaroo, obviously.
DK-Drama 🫘 Giffing n Space Cadetting🍉🌱
September 18, 2024 at 3:43 AM
This kind of kangaroo:
Seon-ha
September 18, 2024 at 5:09 AM
Uh, that whole cartoon seems super suspect…poorly representing both the humans and the animals of the Australian continent.
DK-Drama 🫘 Giffing n Space Cadetting🍉🌱
September 18, 2024 at 11:15 AM
It’s one of Kipling’s own illustrations of his Just So stories. And one of the stranger illustrations – He drew very few people (luckily) and other animals that he drew looked more like real animals.But the jumping fellow in the gif above reminded me of this kangaroo, not of any other kangaroo.
And well, I dearly love most of those Just So stories and it was not very pleasant to grow up and find out the author was super incredibly terribly racist.
DK-Drama 🫘 Giffing n Space Cadetting🍉🌱
September 18, 2024 at 11:20 AM
The people on this illustration are at least part magical, as I recall. I don’t remember the specifics – it’s one of the weirder of the stories.
Seon-ha
September 16, 2024 at 6:20 AM
The descent into madness of Go Dae-chung. BMR, episodes 2, 5, 21, 40, 48.
Seon-ha
September 16, 2024 at 6:25 AM
Everytime I log in to watch BMR on Kocowa, I am confronted with this early press photo for this weekender.
It pisses me off with its promise.
Dorotka
September 16, 2024 at 8:16 AM
Oh, what could have been…. Hugs.
I dropped the show the moment Selfish Momster was taking over again (and there was too much screaming… and underdevelopement of other characters… ).
And I so wanted Jindan to have a redemption arc! Oh well.
Let’s meet in the Iron Family thread! 🙋♀️
Seon-ha
September 16, 2024 at 8:46 AM
For my own therapeutic needs, I may post some more gifs of Jin-dan in this thread later today. It was nice to see him in a hoodie for once, at very least. That we all actually know precisely how his bottom molars are not quite aligned with one another because of the amount of wide-mouthed shouting he did into the camera…will need to be neither here nor there. 😊
We’ll see if I make it to Iron Family. I may need to pass the baton for a bit.
Dorotka
September 16, 2024 at 9:07 AM
😄😄
Oh, don’t get so down and come to Iron Family! I have *whispering to not to jinx it* high hopes with this writer.
Seon-ha
September 16, 2024 at 3:05 PM
Here he is, surprisingly, in glasses and a baseball cap…not a suit!
Here he is in a hoodie, but being a fucking eejut. Of course it’s bait, ya dumbass.
Here he is…GONG…JIN…DAAAAAN!!!
Dorotka
September 16, 2024 at 3:17 PM
Jindaaaaan!!
seyhan
September 16, 2024 at 9:29 AM
This is hilarious imo. I’m treating this drama as a comedy, or like an over the top makjang spoof and it’s really fun that way 😀
Seon-ha
September 16, 2024 at 9:38 AM
Oh, it’s a comedy alright.
seyhan
September 16, 2024 at 10:29 AM
bwahahahahaha I think Jin-dan is my favourite character after Ma-ri. The actor is so goofy.
Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
September 16, 2024 at 3:34 PM
Comment was deleted
Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
September 16, 2024 at 3:35 PM
“Why do you have a plushie?” is ALWAYS a good question.
Seon-ha
September 16, 2024 at 4:00 PM
“Was that your stunt partner?”
Seon-ha
September 15, 2024 at 9:08 AM
🎶🎵I told y\’all the heck so🎵🎶!! I won\’t post a super-duper image spoiler, but I will say it was a nice touch that he, too, thought he was the prince.
Cinderella at 2AM, episodes 7-8.
Seon-ha
September 15, 2024 at 9:08 AM
I was floored here when Yoon Park was still not AT ALL looking like Moon Sang-min’s brother, but then BLAM, I believed it.
Seon-ha
September 15, 2024 at 9:09 AM
Eonni cameo!! Squee. I love Baek Ji-won in everything she does. Even the difficult stuff.
I was an inconsolable puddle of tears on the floor after episode 7 of this incredibly, desperately uneven drama. I was glad episode 8 put us on the obvious path to conlcusion next week, though.
Reply1988 -❣️Mother Bean❣️
September 15, 2024 at 12:08 PM
I thought of you when he said that line. 🫘Beansprout award 🌱 in recognition of your screenwriter in training skills.
bong-soo
September 15, 2024 at 8:02 PM
These two episodes were much better than the previous two.
Will Ju-won’s father make an appearance? Cameo?
Seon-ha
September 16, 2024 at 4:23 AM
There is no father for Prince Charming! Poor guy 😉
What do you think of this theory…Sojin as Yoon Park’s “Princess Charming?”
bong-soo
September 16, 2024 at 6:21 AM
You are on a roll so why not. This is my favorite Yoon Park performance. He obviously is having fun with this role. Sojin looks to be enjoying herself also. Their twirl, dip and catch move was tropishly enjoyable.
(Btw, if Dad does show up, cameo by Choi Min-soo).
Seon-ha
September 16, 2024 at 7:13 AM
Oh, I’d love that cameo! I wish we knew more about Sojin’s inner monologue, but I do agree that the two of them seem to be having a blast. She’s charming his pants off (not that they weren’t already off for most of this drama so far!!! 🤣)
Seon-ha
September 14, 2024 at 10:32 AM
You and us both, mister. You and us both.
This is the type of show where you get distracted by random huge teddy bears sitting on hotel benches. What\’s it doing there? Is it going to get up and attach Sae-yan? Will this be the serial killer we\’ve all be hoping for (SPOILER: No, he\’s coming later and with a mwahahaha-twist)? Or is it that they needed to cover up something on set and so the prop master was like, \”Fuck it. Let\’s just put a stuffed animal there.\” Yeah, that gets my vote.
It\’s also the type of show that has you think thoughts like, \”Wait? After that super-creepy father-daughter DATE (gah-ew-gahh!!!), does she know she\’s been kidnapped? And why does her
fatherkidnapper let her have a knife? And, yes, actually, shouldn\’t the show apologize for being fracking insane just like this guy???Bad Memory Eraser, episodes 13-14.
Seon-ha
September 14, 2024 at 10:32 AM
Y’all. These three shots were within like THREE MINUTES of one another. Lee Jong-won deserves a medal for the number of times he must have obeyed the director’s command, “Look MORE wistful, man! You can do it!”
HopefulRomantic 🦋 Tigermoth 🦞
September 14, 2024 at 11:16 AM
Wearing that cape like a dollar store Batman 🤣🤣🤣 Flapping wistfully in the wind 🙃 Lol
Seon-ha
September 14, 2024 at 11:19 AM
You’re probably wondering, even if only in the back of your mind, why Shin’s dressed like that, aren’t you?
I can’t really explain.
…and let me be clear. It’s not that I don’t want to explain. I literally cannot.
HopefulRomantic 🦋 Tigermoth 🦞
September 14, 2024 at 11:23 AM
HAHAHA 😆 That’s hilarious. I legitimately assumed there had been a reason, even mentioned in passing (“ah, it’s cold,” *cape time*) for that wardrobe choice that occurs OVER A SPAN OF TIME, judging from the day-to-night progression… but wardrobe was just like *meh who cares* 🤣🙈
Seon-ha
September 14, 2024 at 11:30 AM
We are left to infer that he found those clothes in the tent that he bought–with cash–from a couple who were leaving the campsite he’d wandered onto with no explanation of how he got there. Does that help?
He’d lost his own coat because he tried to save this one kid from some bullies, but it turned out that the kid he saved WAS the bully, so he had to give the “nice” kid his coat…that had all his money and his ID in it PLOT POINT.
See? No help.
Seon-ha
September 14, 2024 at 11:31 AM
Also, I’m still laughing about “Dollar Store Batman.” Thanks for that.
HopefulRomantic 🦋 Tigermoth 🦞
September 14, 2024 at 11:38 AM
Lol @attiton you are correct; that explanation somehow makes things worse 😆 There’s almost a logical absurdity to things, in that the things most divorced from reality are the reasons WHY and the means HOW. It’s like if aliens tried to write a Kdrama script and everything is just a leeeetle bit off…
Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
September 14, 2024 at 11:50 AM
Is he wearing a Little Black Dress under it? Or is that a person-sized potholder?
Seon-ha
September 14, 2024 at 12:04 PM
I decided it was his “sleep cape” over his “sleep poncho.” I actually have a whole scene–invented in my mind–about how he decided to wear them, why, and in what order.
Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
September 14, 2024 at 12:38 PM
He’s reviving the tea-cozies-for-people trend from Crash Course in Romance and Kokdu.
Mr Everything
September 14, 2024 at 8:12 PM
Surely, it is a meta commentary on the unhoused and the struggle with mental health. You know because the show is so intellectual…
Blue (@mayhemf)
September 14, 2024 at 1:25 PM
Ngl, I anxiously clicked on comments hoping to find his gifs!! So thank you.
I hope cape blanket quilt is not the new fashion.
Those hands will look pretty holding a beer glass than that pan. Just saying. #BrewingLoveComePalliPalli
Seon-ha
September 14, 2024 at 1:50 PM
Thank the director. I’m just the reporter 🤣
It dawns on me that the last pair of episodes will almost certainly see Shin come to Gun’s rescue, because that would be the most tedious thing they could think of. You can get ready for stern-faced Shin and “I love you, hyung!!” Shin next week.
hacja
September 14, 2024 at 1:44 PM
I haven’t seen episode 14 yet, so I haven’t been able to experience the full, mind blowing incoherence of this week, but did she actually sleep with him in that tent? If not, why did she stay the night?
There’s so much to say, but I’ll just leave these words here, translated from the OST:
“the silent streets are filled with countless thoughts, and the wounds inside them”
Seon-ha
September 14, 2024 at 1:47 PM
There is no such thing as day-night continuity in this drama.
tabong
September 14, 2024 at 2:14 PM
Why does he look so sad when he’s wearing a blanket like it’s a cape? Like, does he expect to be taken seriously right now? 😂
Seon-ha
September 14, 2024 at 2:30 PM
If you are asking such questions, this show may be for you!!! Shin is like a Commedia dell’arte character…a desperate, love-sad clown. It’s impressive, if you allow it.
You can also totally not allow it.
tabong
September 14, 2024 at 2:38 PM
😂😂😂
Seon-ha
September 14, 2024 at 10:32 AM
This shot is so dumb. It’s so dumb. GAH!!!! I need to share it with others so my pain is lessened. 왜why왜왜왜왜왜? It’s supposed to be funny, but it’s really not. In context, it’s even less funny. What the kids say next…isn’t FUNNY.
Seon-ha
September 14, 2024 at 10:33 AM
And you thought that having three of these loving shots of LJW’s face in the comment above meant I was done. Nope. Please let this be the last one of these, show. Please. Jebal. Let’s have the series end with a smile.
Seon-ha
September 14, 2024 at 10:33 AM
That’s it. That’s all. Look at that hostess’s face. That’s how I feel. Why did he hand me this balloon? Why are they leaving? What’s my line? HELP.
TWO…MORE…HOURS, people.
HopefulRomantic 🦋 Tigermoth 🦞
September 14, 2024 at 11:15 AM
Oh myyyyyy you have well and truly earned 👏 that 👏 BEAN!!!! 👏
Mr Everything
September 14, 2024 at 8:16 PM
lol
Seon-ha
September 15, 2024 at 5:44 AM
I think even Ju-yeon’s purse was trying to escape this scene.
hacja
September 14, 2024 at 9:06 PM
Alright, now that I’ve seen episode 14, we have the “science” rearing its ugly head. Its too bad Korea is not an advanced country, with actual medical and scientific protocols, and is ruled by evil “doctors” who do Frankenstein like operations without their patient’s approval.
Seon-ha
September 15, 2024 at 5:43 AM
When Gun just ran in, unaccompanied, into that operating theater staffed by a lone doctor clearly there to perform (surprise!!!) surgery on him, I about lost my shit. Why, though? Why did I expect anything else?
What if, in the end, the ML kills the FL in a fit of re-un-lobotomized rage? Would that not be the most satisfying ending?
I think this show has now also stolen my human dignity.
Mr Everything
September 15, 2024 at 11:35 AM
Remember the good old days? When we were all complaining about all the weird poop/sexual kinks the writer loaded into the story? It feels like a decade ago.
Seon-ha
September 15, 2024 at 11:48 AM
Aaaaactually, now that you mention it, did either of you (@hacja too) think that the writers actually missed an amazing opportunity for a long, long diarrhea gag after the lead couple go to that super cheap-and-dirty $6/plate buffet restaurant??
It’s like they’ve even lost their way on the potty humor. C’mon guys! The audience can’t do ALL the work here 🤓🚽
Mr Everything
September 15, 2024 at 11:59 AM
@attiton The buffet was the inspiration for this comment. Great minds.
Seon-ha
September 10, 2024 at 5:34 AM
Ignoring Song Kang for the moment (or, for some, as you do), one of these
brothersguys is the \”good\” good guy……and one of these guys is the \”baaad\” good-guy.
Which is which still makes me smile. Nevertheless, episodes 3 and 8.
Seon-ha
September 10, 2024 at 5:37 AM
They sure did set him up as the sweetest lil’ guy that you, frankily, probably didn’t really want to date. Even if Song Kang weren’t there standing in for the “actual” bad guy who’s definitely gonna hurt you…
Seon-ha
September 10, 2024 at 5:41 AM
But then, kablammo. “Riiiiiight.” I hear that in the webtoon Song Kang truly is the unrepentant player he appears to be rather than becoming a (speciously) reformed man who appears able to commit, as in the drama.
However, in the drama, Eun-han here is the only one that dumps the FL on her butt for another woman. Embarrassingly. And in public. For the one who got away, even.
zindigo
September 10, 2024 at 1:31 PM
Wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute.
CJH and LJH are BOTH in this drama?! Say it ain’t so. Are they playing siblings? Cousins? What is happening?!! My brain is exploding right now 🤯 😂😂
Seon-ha
September 10, 2024 at 1:41 PM
Ha. This was the true origin of my insistence that these two actors look A LOT alike. I know it’s controversial, but look at the evidence I have gathered!!!
They are not playing brothers or even cousins. In fact, I don’t even think they share screentime. LJH is the FL’s hoobae at art school and a puppy-dog-esque admirer of her and her artwork…they date for a bit while she is trying to decide if she wants a “nice guy.” But, lo, at an event, she shows up for a date and he basically says, “The girl I liked in high school is now interested in me, so I’m dumping you.” This all happens by episode 3.
After that, the foil for Song Kang’s bad-boy-nature becomes CJH who is a childhood friend of the FL (I believe I recall) and HE pursues her as an actual good guy (doesn’t dump her in public, for instance 😂). I’ve already spoiled the ending up above, but he doesn’t win out. Mr. I-Know-I’m-Hottie-Mc-Hotness does.
I swear I spent the second half of the drama periodically mistrusting CJH because I felt like he’d already dumped the FL back in episode 3, though!!! 😂
zindigo
September 10, 2024 at 5:30 PM
So funny! I had no idea this drama was the origin, but I have to say that I was tricked once again. Pics 1, 2, and 3 totally made me double take and I had to jump over to MDL to confirm the casting. They most definitely bear a strong resemblance to each other. 😍 I don’t know much about the story here, but I appreciated the explanation of the characters 🤗
Seon-ha
September 9, 2024 at 5:23 AM
This little dance is stuck in my head like a catchy song.
As is this sneaky-sneaky little silent-movie villain work.
This one…is just for folks who wonder if they really slap people out of the blue on weekenders. They do. There\’s usually no kelp or anything though. But do note that ISH was very careful to make sure her hair was off her cheek to ensure that the most slappiest-slap could take place! That\’s commitment.
BMR, episode 45-46.