WARNING: SEXUAL ASSAULT!
PLEASE READ BEFORE WATCHINGAs a warning to women that have trauma or problems with it like me, around episode 3/4, the main male lead assaults the female lead. He kisses her without permission and pins her against the wall, knowing she has trauma and an emotional disorder, then laughed at her fear and anxiety. Up until this point, the story had been quite good, but this was definitely a deal breaker for me, especially since they were actually talking about the importance of consent earlier in episode 3. The acting was incredible though, and it was a very high quality drama, which I'm sure many people would enjoy.
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Best, most progressive drama I have ever seen
Where do I even start with this? I'm head-over-heels in love with this show. When I read the summary I was really hesitant, because I thought it was going to be very difficult to watch because of the shallow messages and old-fashioned ideas it may send across. Boy, was I wrong! I have not watched a drama this progressive... ever! Not only did it have extremely body-positive messages, it also pointed out harmful many gender stereotypes throughout the series in a very subtle but pointed way. Overall I never felt like the show said that plastic surgery was a bad thing, and many times it was shown in a relatively positive light. What I really enjoyed though was that they never truly showed the female leads (Im Soo Hyun) face before she had the surgery, so they wouldn't be calling any specific facial features ugly.The acting was also phenomenal. I am now completely in love with Cha Eun Woo's character. The kindness he displayed made me swoon! At times the female lead was a bit awkward which, for me, made it a tiny bit uncomfortable, but honestly, thats one of the only criticisms I have of this show.
However, I would 100% watch this drama again, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good romance drama! I cannot get over how immensely progressive and beautiful the storyline of this drama is. This is a story not about forgiving others but forgiving yourself. It's a story not only about finding love in others, but about finding it within yourself. I really love that the last line was "who cares? do what you want"
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I am almost mad at myself for spending so much time watching this drama. The only reason I'm not is because the premise was really good. The story had so much potential but was sadly completely ruined for me by Ha Suk Jin's character. This is the first drama I've completed where I truly hated the male lead. He treated Park Ha Sun's character so horribly, and just when I started to accept him as her love interest (note: ACCEPT, not support), he turned around and made me wish he would disappear. I've never watched a drama that made me think: "there's no way this couple would last". I don't know how he would ever earn her trust back after all he did to her.
On another note, the acting was wonderful! Even the supporting actors were phenomenal. I particularly enjoyed the three students' characters. They were great comedic relief without turning the characters into a joke or making them one dimensional.
I enjoyed the music as well! Although most of the soundtrack is instrumental, I actually downloaded some onto my phone I liked it so much.
I probably would have rated this much higher if the ML didn't piss me off so much, but other than that it was enjoyable (mainly due to the supporting characters).
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Sexual Assault Warning!
PLEASE READ BEFORE WATCHING!There is sexual assault in this drama. I know many people are unable to watch that and its important to warn them about it.
This is such a hard drama to watch. I remember feeling the same way when reading the manga, Boys over Flowers, this is based off of. The male lead and main romantic interest, Dao Ming Si, is so difficult to root for. On multiple occasions he assaults the female lead, Shan Cai, threatens her, manipulates her, bullies her, and is an overall jerk. He shows so many signs of being abusive towards her (and normalising this kind of behaviour can be very dangerous to the people who watch it. It’s a very toxic representation of romance) that I'm really considering dropping it, just like I did with the manga. There are many times when you're supposed to feel sorry for Si but I really just couldn't because he didn't deserve to be pitied. Actually, all 4 boys used Shan Cai for their own means, and she was the only character who I actually felt sorry for.
However, the acting is fantastic on all accounts. All actors portrayed their characters well, especially the male and female leads. There was also a great variety of music, so it wasn't just the same 2 songs playing on repeat like so many other dramas have. I would never rewatch it though, because of the reasons above.
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