Five Enough (2016)

This is a 54 episode weekend family drama that centers on the main couple, Ahn Jae Wook's Lee Sang Tae, a widower with two children, and So Yoo Jin's Ahn Mi Jung, a divorced mother of three children (two of whom are the same age and friends/classmates with Sang Tae's two kids). They both work at the same company and the central story is them falling in love and marrying and blending their families and all the trials and tribulations that go with that. Being a family drama, there's a lot of pairing up going on here. Sang Tae has two siblings, as well as a sister-in-law, all of whom pair up (not with each other!) as well. My favorite couple is, hands down, Sung Hoon's Kim Sang Min with Shin Hye Sun's Lee Yeon Tae.

I can honestly say that I absolutely binged this show. I watched all 54 episodes in 15 days. It's heart warming, heart wrenching, sometimes ridiculous and over the top, and at least one hair pulling fight scene. As usual, there's a lot of careful not-communicating going on so that people can continue to misunderstand each other as long as possible, but that's really kind of par for the course in kdramas. (It's possible I may have chosen that turn of phrase specifically because Sung Hoon's character is a Model turned Golf Pro.)

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When Sun Hoon ssi Is Your Ultimate Bias

It’s a small world after all. The story revolves around a group of people closely related whether it’s about marriage, first love, love-hate relationship and friendship. Again, just like any Korean drama, this story has proven that South Korea is but one small country that everyone knows everyone and their lives get to intertwined.

Since this drama has 54 episodes and my reason for watching is because of my bias, Sung Hoon, I practically skipped the other character’s storyline and went straight to Kim SangMin(the character played by Sung Hoon). I have watched his recent works and retraced my steps to this 2016 Korean drama of his. I have been watching him in I Live Alone this past few weeks as well. I must say, I like his character here although its a total opposite of his personality in real life. That’s one of the main reason he accepted this project as he admittedly said so in one of his interviews.

His chemistry with his love interest Yeonte/Yeondu (played by Shin Hye Sun) in this drama is shown and the push and pull relationship they have makes this drama all the more interesting. Its cute and hilarious at the same time. It is so fascinating to watch.

WINNING MOMENTS. Since Sung Hoon is my ultimate bias at the moment, I was so flustered watching Episode 24. I couldn’t imagine him confessing like that in front of me and YeonTae’s reaction was just daebak!

This is the cheesiest Korean drama and relationship that I ever watched. I thought Weightlifting Kim Bok Chu or Strong Woman were the cheesiest of the cheesiest but this drama trumps them all. Trust me! I had tons of laughter being a witness to Sangmin’s and Yeonte’s dating tips and know hows!

Note that I didn’t even focus on our main characters in this drama (forgive me readers). But when you watch this drama, you get to understand Korean culture altogether. How people deal with their in-laws and parents. On how they value their parents and in-laws most especially even beyond when the relationship severed by death. One of the main character ,Lee SangTae (played by Ahn Jae Wook) remained to be a good son in-law even after the death of his wife.

THOUGHTS to PONDER: Time ultimately heals all wounds. One just needs to hang in there in any way possible. In a way that you know how. Don’t worry about being judged on how you cope up. Things will get better.

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I never expected a show with so many episodes to hold up so nicely till the end.

I was under the impression that long shows like this would be filled with nonsensical drama and useless cringey plots, but I have to say I was happily shocked.

The story revolves completely around the characters in the show, every episode touches on the lives of each main character, and the character growth of some characters is heartwarming.

The casting choice was so on point that I would smile everytime the couples were on screen, especially yountae-sangmin and taemin-junji .

It's a light hearted family friendly show , that's filled with good vibes , you'll smile days after watching this.

My only complain would be the rushed ending of the show. It felt as if the last 3-4 episodes were completely rushed. While everyone had a very happy ending , the ending showed very little of how much they will be enjoying their futures. I also felt a bit sad for the cheater-best friend couple. Theirs was the saddest ending of everyone, probably the only disheartening couple ending.
All the buildup of emotions, story etc over fifty episodes was quickly done with , which leaves a slight desire for more behind.

9.8/10

Must watch at least once , with your family if possible. Many good lessons to be learnt in here!

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coz it has every kinda emotions especially family lovers, also loners who are neglected by their family would love this...

im telling its rollercoaster experience of life, where you get to learn a lot about life, things like being mother, step mother, father , step father, etc...there's lot more which i haven't mentioned but yeah you get to know about every relationship i guess..........i'm not that really good with words or reviews ,its never my thing but i had to take time to write a review to this drama coz its worth watching ........

n i must tell you that i fell head over heels for my sung hoon, his totally adorable childish acts were so amazing and HE IS my ideal boyfriend AND husband......

so folks i tell you give it a try at least once coz its worth it...

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I used to binge-watch weekend dramas because they are always so slow to start with and you can usually skip 20 episodes without jeopardising your understanding of the story but this was the first one i didn't binge watch, watched every weekend and was happy to wait for the next episodes the following week.

The story itself was not new but i liked the realistic portrayal of different types of families and the struggles they have to face. The difference being is this is set in Korea obviously where certain things run differently compared to if you're western. I found my own beliefs and understanding being questioned and tweaked as the show went on. The child actors were superb, to be able to deliver such realistic emotions...i'm really going to miss this merged family.

All was not perfect though, i like that dramas like this challenge ideas and general societal thinking but at the same time, i can't stand seeing hypocrisy/double standards and was sad to see a part of that go unresolved till the end.

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I've re-watched this drama three times

I have watched a lot of dramas, and I usually get bored, especially with longer dramas (for K-dramas, dramas exceeding the typical 16 episodes). This drama kept me up all night, and I was fully invested in it. I did like the male leads younger sisters relationship more (Yeontae and Sangmin) than the relationship between the main leads. Not because of the lack of chemistry, but maybe because I usually watch romance dramas, rather than family dramas, and found that their relationship was closer to a 'romance drama relationship'. I found myself anticipating their scenes and constantly waiting for their scenes. This drama is extremely well balanced. It has a lot of lighthearted and sweet scenes, but with that being said, there are plenty of scenes that play with your emotions, and may or may not make you shed some tears (I did in fact cry during a handful of scenes, even more so during re-watching the series.)

The Story got a 9.5/10 because as much as I love the show, there were times when I felt that the story lagged a bit, and made me feel a bit bored, I will admit that these moments did not ruin the show for me, or make me dislike the show at all. The plot is honestly really well developed, and the character development were all very nice to watch. Plot holes, and inconsistencies in plots typically annoy me (like What's wrong with Secretary Kim), but I couldn't find any in this show :)

Acting/Cast were all very good, I have no complaints. I absolutely adored Choi Yoo Ri acting as Woo Joo (the female leads youngest daughter).

The music was honestly not too memorable to me. As I'm writing this review, I'm trying to remember what the soundtrack sounded like. I know that it most definitely was not bad at all, but obviously just not something I would listen to for fun.

Re-watch value is an 8/10 because out of all the dramas I've watched, this is one of the two dramas that I've re-watched multiple times in full (as in not just clips). It isn't a 10/10 because when re-watching, I do find that I tend to skip a good amount of scenes, simply because sometimes once is enough. The last time I re-watched this show, was a couple of months ago, and I fully intended to only watch Yeontae and Sangmin scenes (due to the lack of clips I could find), but I found myself forgetting that I was supposed to skip all these scenes, and ended up re-watching the whole show for a third time.

IN CONCLUSION: this drama is great, and I would definitely recommend watching it. I wouldn't get intimidated by the length because it pulls you in, and it is honestly such a great story. If you have some time on your hands, give it a watch!

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