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The cast is nearly perfect, with the exception of the second female lead. Jae Hee and Han Chae Young have great chemistry as the lead couple. Jae Hee gives a heartfelt and comical performance at the right moments, showing his character's growth from a mollycoddled high school student to a college student who takes ownership of his relationship and makes a stand for Chun Hyang and himself. Han Chae Young feels too mature for the role of a spunky high school student at the start of the show, but she grew on me especially when her character graduates from high school and matures.s
Uhm Tae Woong performs the role quite suavely - an evil second male lead who goes all way out to thwart the relationship. I also grant him a concession because he is the Uhmforce. The second female lead is just mehh for me - in fact out of the four, she's the only one who has no name recognition at this point in time. She just performs the role of antagonist, as written. In fact, she has the kind of face that makes me want to slap her when she comes onscreen. Both second leads are just PURE EVIL.
Like another reviewer said, few characters will emerge from this drama blameless. Most of them have done something to hold the relationship back from progressing - but I wouldn't call them Nice Guy-type dysfunctional. The only two who seem to have common sense and foresight is Ji Hyuk and Mong Ryong's father. Even Dan Hee, who at the start seems to be a harmless and well-meaning friend, but at some point in the show, she started to grate on my nerves.
Pacing of the story starts well. After episode 8, it starts to be frustratingly slow but thankfully picks up towards the end of episode 10. But, the way everything is tied up by the end of the show leaves much to be desired.
The music is just alright. In fact, it gets very repetitive and it becomes obvious that the same tunes are used when certain themes and characters come up in the story. Pretty boring.
The wardrobe for this show, especially Chun Hyang and Mong Ryong, is pretty atrocious on hindsight. I don't understand how these clothes could have been considered trendy during that time. I would not allow anyone I care about to wear them in public.
All in all, even though there are many flaws, the show is spirited and full of heart. It also receives lots of praise since many Korean drama fans started out on this drama, of whom I am one.
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Except the second lead male and the father, I don't believe I will remember anyone of the supporting roles. I had to skip the unwanted parts in order to continue watching this drama because it had many slow events and even fell into dragging
Episode 1-2-17 are the best episodes in the drama.
Anyway, this is a decent drama if you skip the slow parts.
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Fast paced,excellent acting,outstanding music and of course the fantastic writing by the Hong sisters.
The main attraction of the drama is Jae Hee with his wide range of expressions and the great chemistry between him and Han chae young.
The drama is hilarious as well as romantic..ya..the manipulations became very much by the negative characters at certain points but the drama never leaves its feel good quality.
A must watch.....
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If you watch this and are familiar with Winter Sonata, Sorry I Love You, and Full House, scenes in Episode 16 are a parody from those in those dramas. This was an enjoyable ride from beginning to end. Yes, I love all these older classics!!!
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I will start with the "delightful" girl herself. I put delightful in quotes because using that to describe Choon Hyang seems almost sarcastic. Instead she is stubborn, has a bad temper, and usually keeps her true feelings hidden. It would make more sense calling her frustrating b#y@tch Choon Hyang, or by the alternative "Sassy" title, but I guess that can too easily be confused with the movie. I think Han Chae Young did a good job with the character, and made her likable in spite of her flaws. I did think some of the more emotional, and romantic parts fell flat because of her, and though her character is meant to be cold at times, I think it had more to do with her limitations as an actress.
Then there's Jae Hee who plays the rebel she's forced to marry, Lee Mong Ryong. I was not very impressed by Jae Hee's latest drama (Color of Woman), but I really liked him in this. I thought he was extremely charming, and I felt like I was really watching his character mature. He definitely makes a lot of animated faces, but I never found it distracting... ok, maybe it was a little distracting since In my head I couldn't stop referring to him as "Johnny Depp face" (which is definitely a compliment). As a main couple they were cute together, constantly teasing and arguing with each other, but they didn't really have an exciting chemistry. There were a few good romantic moments, but nothing kills the romance for me quicker than a bad onscreen kiss. The way they kissed was as if they were asked to freeze just as their lips touched, and they just held that awkward pose waiting for someone to finally yell "cut". Their emotional moments also often felt forced, so I didn't cry once, which says a lot since I can be a crybaby.
Speaking of nicknames, I kept using a bunch while watching this drama like "psycho-noona", "creepy dirty old man", and "the worst best friend on earth". The supporting cast is filled with extreme characters meant to keep the main couple apart. Their actions were often hard to believe, and aggravatingly annoying. Some of these characters made me angry enough to want to throw things at the screen, which means they did a pretty good job. I thought too many of the supporting characters played one note for too long, and didn't have much depth. I think the Hong Sisters were a little lazy when it came down to the supporting cast as a whole. Maybe the actors should share the blame since I found Uhm Tae Woong to be extremely creepy from the start, even when he was being kind. I thought the one exception was Ahn Suk-hwan, who played Mong Ryong's father, and was my favorite of the bunch. Speaking of parents, what in the world happened with Choon Hyang's mother????!!!
Viewers should expect some signature Hong sisters fantasy, and parody moments. My favorite parts were actually the interludes which refer to the original legend. They were clever, and offered a nice balance to the main story. Towards the end the mood shifts dramatically, as they try really hard (unsuccessfully in my case) to pull at the audiences heart strings. The time line for the story is also pretty ambitious, but I think they made it work. Still, not every episode is created equal, and I definitely prefer the earlier fun ones to the later ones. I did think the ending episode was well done, and was not as predictable as I expected it to be.
Maybe if I saw this first, or closer to when it first came out, I would have liked it more, but honestly I don't think so. I didn't exactly hate it, there are just so many other dramas that I would recommend before this one. The only way I could see myself rewatching this is with friends as we yelled at the screen, & heckled the characters. I can see why those who liked this early on would defend it, but I wanted to give another opinion for latecomers to kdrama like me who are just getting around to watching some of the older dramas. I guess I would recommend this to big fans of the Hong sisters, just so they can see how far they've come.
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acting was really good, emotions lookes really real.
music was great. sweet melody of guitar give some nice emotions
historical scene, was really funny, when wathing them you can realx from whole story
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The drama starts light and really wacky during the first half of the drama. During those episodes, the two protagonists clashes so much they get into multiple trouble with each other. There were so many misunderstanding that it was hard not to laugh with the absurdity of it all and because of those misconceptions, the two protagonists end up getting married. This was not because of love but it’s due to an incident which could ruin both of their family’s reputation. As they both struggle to live harmoniously with each other amid the forced marriage, both eventually realize that they liked each other but was denying it too much. That’s it for the first half, for latter half of the show, it goes much more mature since the main characters grow up as adults with remnants of conflicts which set them apart for some time.
With this story line, it was fun and entertaining. Gave me little room to be bored since the drama would serve the right amount of serious moments then revert to it's old theme. In additional, the actor's are really cute! Given that their age are a bit mature to be seen as high school students, still, the way they acted was really fun to watch.
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