Expected more
The romance was close to none and I didn't feel any chemistry between the leads. None of the characters called out to me, nor did I find any of them charming.I started watching for HyungSik's face value, the main male actor, and kinda stayed for the intrigue. The resolution was however a bit disappointing.
The people who were persecuted in the past now killed and hurt a lot of innocent people. I especially don't understand why the queen was so set in making the Crown Prince's life hell, when he didn't have any fault in anything.
The female lead was supposedly a genius detective, but other than her revealing the hand - blood thing at the beginning, she didn't make any other discoveries all throughout the show. Even the coroner was the one who uncovered the twin secret.
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Full of hope; if you like sageuks and don't mind investing some time in a slower plot!
Wow! I did not expect to love this one as much as I did. It caught me by surprise, but I think this is going to be one of my top all-time dramas.If you haven't watched a lot of sageuks (or, if the only ones you've watched lean more towards fast-paced comedy like Mr. Queen or Forbidden Marriage) I would not recommend this to start with. It is a bit slower, and I think I have only recently grown to love the genre enough that I appreciate this about it. If I were going to pick one to compare it to, I would say Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung - it strikes me as less intense than a lot of traditional sageuks when it comes to the plot, but it also it may not be as "fun" as some of the more recent historical dramas have been.
The mystery plot (and detective teamwork) was actually really intriguing and made a lot of the political portions of the drama much more refreshing than they could have been. I especially enjoyed the first chunk of the drama that had almost a contained mystery plot for each episode, and then those pieces all slowly came together for the main storyline. That being said, there were some episodes where the discoveries were dragged out to such a degree, that it made it hard to continue to be in suspense. I think this drama's greatest flaw is just that they overextended the main plot, and did not give the main romance much time to grow. I think if they had leaned into the romance a bit more, it would have balanced out those slow portions of the mystery.
That being said, where this drama really shines is the main cast. Park Hyung-Sik was AMAZING in this drama. If you are a fan of his, this drama is worth watching just for his acting. His character leans a bit more restrained (which like, is pretty par for the course for a Crown Prince character) but PHS managed to communicate so much emotion just with his eyes and body language. Also, those fight scenes omg!
Jeon So-nee and her character were immaculate. She was incredibly vibrant on screen and just captivated me in every scene she was in. My only complaint is we didn't get enough of her character in action! She was clearly incredibly intelligent and skilled, and her detective work was some of my favorite scenes. I wanted more of it (like what we had in the first few episodes of the series). Also, again, those fight scenes omg!
PHS and JSN together were great. Their banter was great, their chemistry was great, I adored it all. I just wish there was more. As I said above, I think it would've filled the gaps a bit more. Like, in some of the later scenes, there was potential for an amazing reunion moment, but it wasn't there! I think because they were so great together, those moments where there was potential to take their chemistry (even slow-burn chemistry) to the next level, really stood out. Also, the whole detective team was great, and there was some amazing character development in this show (looking at you, Sergeant)!
The ending was optimistic and full of hope in a way you don't see in a lot of historical dramas. It left me teary-eyed, just thinking of how far they had all come.
If you like historical dramas and don't mind investing some time in slow (but largely intentional) pacing, I highly recommend it.
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Slow burn, story twists just my thing
So many ppl think this story is boring and slow burn, too confusing and just stupid.I however disagree. I enjoy the slow burn and twists (although I saw many coming - not telling because I don't want to spoil it). Many great shows are too fast for my liking because they only had 16-20 episodes...I just hope they won't rush it in the end.
• Storyline gets 8/10 points from me. I like me a good crime, but: -1 because I would have liked for "Eunuch Go" to solve more crimes and get into a competion with Han Sung On and another -1 because I'd like to have more funny skits - but I get it...for the show to include these two points they'd have to make it a family drama ?
• Acting gets 10/10. I'm just a huge Hyun Shik fan. I just enjoy watching him. Joen So Nee and Pyo Ye Jin are great actresses, I enjoy all scenes with them. The other 3 male characters have far too little appearances, but those too, I like. All other side characters are either very likable or in vilains cases - great to hate ? shows how amazing their acting skills are.
I would recommend this drama to anyone who likes slow burns and many twists. Others...watch it or don't - but don't say you haven't been warned or just wait till all episodes are out and binge.
Sooo. Let's wait for the next episode - I can hardly wait....sooo excited ❤️
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Tae-sun Lee Steals the Show!
I loved this show so much. The storyline, the twists, the chemistry between the characters -- everything was fabulous. The romance was there, the action was there, the drama was there, and it was beautifully done as a historic piece. However, the one person who stood out to me was Kim Myung-jin played by Tae-sun Lee. I genuinely loved it.I was conflicted, moved, and whereas some are not a fan of the historic dramas having women dressing up as men, I am a fan. It negates the need for a heavy presence of romance while still having it for the protagonists who either knowingly or unknowingly find themselves attracted to a somewhat androgynous character in men's clothing.
I will definitely rewatch it should the occasion arise in the future as it was worth watching once and will be worth watching in the future. :)
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This review may contain spoilers
Blooming Love, Blooming Mysteries
Our Blooming Youth is definitely worth to watch! The cinematography, the vibes, and the Ost, everything is perfect! the romance isn't exaggerated which made me even more amazed at how good the story is. The lead actors have a great chemistry. Park Hyungsik is a brilliant versatile actor who can really capture his audience. ?? OBY is a wonderful beautiful drama! Thumbs up to the whole team!???The chemistry between the lead pair is fabulous. Their romance is very beautiful and very deep. Two lost and wronged souls hold on to each other for redemption - such a beautiful plot. Friendship and trust being the underlying theme, no intimate scenes (very PG), but very subtle meaningful romance throughout. The hero has huge size trust issues and has been trianed to doubt everything to survive and protect himself. The heroine is a smart detective but she is also impulsive, and often acts first and thinks later.
Park Hyung Sik hits it out of the park with this one. Not only he looks every part the Prince (he is gorgeous in this role), but his dreamy, deep eyes are pools of despair, mischief, brilliance, haughtiness, wisdom, rage in turns, and they cloud with confused desire for a girl who is bethothed to his best friend (in a social contract of arranged marriage) and out of his bounds for all means and purpose. 'You must never know'....he tells her at one point, knows he will lose her if he makes one misstep. And yet he would do anything to keep her by his side.
Jeon So nee in a very competant performance - only has eyes for her Crown Prince, she does not even realize that she has started to exist for him, and will do anything to be always by his side, even if that means she will be have to be disguised as a Eunuch for her entire life. Their relationship is a tall climb, peppered by danger and distance that is way more than just physical.
The crime and mystery element is very well placed, the usual political intrigue present as usual (Josean court was known for this, so it would be surprising not to have it) and the loses and the wins by the Crown Prince are innovatively told. It has so much going for it.
The show deals with science, superstition, psycological warfare, social injustice, greed, revenge, all woven with a very cute romance as the backdrop. Most importantly, watch it for a feminist hero who breaks down walls for the badass woman in his life in a suffocating era where women were just mere objects raised to serve social contracts between families. He believes in her mental and physical abilities without any prejudice and treats her as an equal outside of their strict social hierarchy (watch them switch between best of friends to being master-servant in some truly hilarious scenes).
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Beware!! (in the nicest way possible XD)
The series started out really strong in the first 2 episodes and then somehow lost trajectory and progress in the middle ones so it was really boring and lame to watch. I watched it as it aired so at some point i forgot what the actual story/mystery was about. Other times i struggled to finish an entire episode in one sitting.Thank goodness the final episodes redeemed it. It could have easily been a 14-16 episode drama with a shorter duration of episodes.. So if you're planning to binge watch it, don't be annoyed that you may lose the enthusiasm you had when you first started.
Park Hyungsik's acting is the only reason i continued watching tbh and is the only thing I'd ask future watchers to look out for. The female character's acting is superficial and fails to evoke emotions. The princess, the young prince, and the 2nd male lead only get scenes when it's necessary and i would have liked to see them bond more with the female character and the crown prince.
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Mystery and Intrigue!! Love it!!
I am soooo enjoying this drama. I have read reviews from other sites who complain about the "actors not being suited for this drama" or the story is not good or FL is the wrong person to play the part or the production of the drama is terrible. I am loving all the main actors and I think they are managing their roles really well. It is hard today to imagine what they had to go through to prove innocence or guilt in those days. There was no DNA testing, no technological advancements, just old fashion logic and reasoning. We seem to have lost our logic/reasoning these days. It is a story that keeps me interested and wanting to know the true criminals. After working on computers all day, it's refreshing to have to use my brain to think and keep track of all the events happening.Was this review helpful to you?
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Disappointing story badly told
1/ WHAT I LIKED:- The romance between ML/FL: I liked that the FL was known immediately as a woman by the ML and they quickly developped feelings for each other with the necessity to hide them while being together all the time. It was quite mushy and even corny at times but I enjoyed seeing these two together. There was no romantic moments together before the end but the feelings were there.
- The Love triangle: I liked that it was not tragic or angsty or annoying because the way FL/SML/ML evolved personally in connection with each other was subtly done. Things were pretty clear and honest every time.
- FL and CP's bodyguard relationship was really interesting and fun.
- Some good moments of comedy.
2/ WHAT I DID NOT LIKE:
- The storytelling : This drama greatly suffered from what we see in most draggy drama with 50 episodes: telling the action and events instead of seeing the action and events. One character telling another one what happened that the viewers already know and then it is then told to a third character... It is a waste of time and drags the story for nothing.
Also using a character telling what another characters did and then the consequences and then what he did after... in short all the action, this makes the drama hard to follow especially when there are too many characters and too many things to recall. People cannot keep track of everything. The story becomes messy and hardly understandable if you do not stop at every sentence to understand what is said and almost learnt it by heart or else it is hard to connect things.
- Some things comes out of the blue like deus ex machina to save the day. Like suddenly one character remembers something never suggested before.
- The story is disappointing in the end. All this for that? The bad guy just ends things on a whim and the other bad guy is just grotesque till the end.
3/ CHARACTERS/ CAST:
- CP: interesting guy with good values and sense of justice. Keeps doing good despite the hurdles he meets. Park Hyng Sik did a good job for me. He was an endearing CP despite being not to bright regarding the matters of the heart.
- FL as an eunuch was petite and not very cute. As a noble daughter she was pretty. I liked her strong personality and her interplay with the other main leads. The actress did a decent job.
- SML: felt sorry for him being put in the dark most of the time but the character was noble and loyal.
- TML and TFL : managed to be fun and useful especially towards the end for TML. Their "romance"
was weird though.
- Main Bad guy: Pretty well hidden in the beginning but motives of the character becomes questionable and almost nonsensical and in the end... whoah...What a way to doom yourself.
- Second Bad guy: annoying and grotesque as expected from this actor. His ending was unusually crazy though.
- Bodyguard: Good guy despite some tense moments.
- Loved the princess Ha Yeon
4/ OST:
Nothing to remember.
5/ REWATCH VALUE:
I won't rewatch it.
6/ OVERALL:
I am not sure about this drama in the end. I had huge expectations when I started it but I have to say it soon became draggy and the way the story was told annoyed me to the point I put it on hold and then binge-watched the 7 last eps. Honestly I liked the characters and the actors but I did not enjoyed how things were told. I think its a weird story told in a convoluted messy way. So I would give it a 7.5/10 and I would say watch it if you like the lead actors.
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Fabulous Drama
I totaly loved this DramaGreat Story, Brilliant Acting, Wonderful Settings. Horrible Baddies.
Stunningly beautiful Male Lead who shone every moment. Lovely Female lead.
The Second Pairing of characters were superb and ideal partners.
Sad story of torment from hideous players made you want to step inside the screen and beat them up. This showed how well they acted. All the chracters played their roles well. The Female Lead was also brilliant.
The chemistry between the leads built up beautifully.
I have watched it several times because it makes me feel good.
The second pair were trully funny and added heaps to the Drama. The Mad scientist who brought so much humous was a Joy.
All of their acting was wonderful. In short, It was Great, I loved it.
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In the end the turtle won!
The beginning is slow paced as a turtle in the race. But the slow pace worked very well here. In the end all that character building brought out an excellent plot. The background score is the highlight of this production. Very well composed. As always great performance by all the cast involved. Solid performance from Jung Woong In and Lee Tae Sun. With the suspense, cliffhangers and clever direction made this turtle win the race.p.s: twenty episodes is still little bit overkill but still well deserved.
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One f the best this year 2023
Besides " The Forbidden Marriage" this one " The Blooming Youth" were equally good and exciting drama to watch. The main characters were all great . Some parts are sad, some parts made you laugh, some parts is quite suspense especially that witch part. It is also romatic in a different way that makes it all perfect drama. I guess it is not easy to write the story of this drama, but thanks to the screenwrite, Produce and Director to make it a real excellent Historical darma and the pick of the Main Actor and Actress were real good and suits tham totally . I watched this drama twice cos I love itこれは見るべき素晴らしいドラマです。見逃さず
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