My first 10/10 kdrama

That's right, after watching 21 dramas, this show is my highest rated one. There is everything to love about this show, with few to none critiques. This show has so many fun and emotional scenes, and it highlights the beauty and fleetingness of youth. Just to be clear, this show is a story, as in a chapter in the past. It is clear that is the case in the first few episodes. The characters are no longer in Hee-Do's life. That is why I was confused why everyone hated the ending, because it was a really great ending. But for my non spoiler part of this review, this show had it all. It was a sports, romance, coming of age drama all in one. It also was one of the best friendship dramas I have seen. Fantastic character chemistry with really fun moments that make you feel young and like you are the characters made this show so special. Also a phenomenal OST of both fun and emotional songs really made this such a well rounded show that absolutely everybody should watch. This show was never slow, and often times really exciting and emotional. I could not wait each Saturday and Sunday morning to watch the new episodes, so to anyone considering, please watch this Twenty-Five Twenty One.

SPOILER TIME: The ending was meant to read us the final lines in the Yi-Jin chapter of her life. We knew it would not be a happily ever after ending because the daughter did not appear to know a lot about Yi-Jin, meaning he was not the father. Also, we do not always need a happily ever after, they are fun but sometimes predictable. This was a nuanced ending, a bittersweet if you will. This show in its entirety was Hee-Do's reflection on a story of beautiful friendships, her first love, and the end of her youth. I know the ending did not tell us who her husband was, but it kind of did not matter. He was a random person, and we kind of already knew that. I would rather them not have spent time explaining who the random person was when at the end of the day, he was just a random person. I would much rather spend the last episode seeing Ji-Woong and Yu-Rim get engaged, and see how Yi-Jin and Hee-Do ended their story.

Read More

A Compelling Story About the Meaning of a Home

It is hard to watch this show and not compare it to Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, I would be lying if I said there are not glaring similarities. The story revolves around a female protagonist who leaves Seoul and goes to a small, tight-knit, sea-faring town on Jeju Island; then they meet a hometown hero guy who loves living there and knows all of the ins and outs of the town. I will say, as I kept watching Welcome to Samdal-ri, it began to stand out and become its own show. The two leads worked really well today, and I loved the hopeless romantic aspect that Yong-Pil (Ji CHang-Wook) brought to the story, he never gave up on the one girl he always loved and it was really sweet to see.
One of my favorite aspects of this kdrama was the townsfolk, they brought it all to life. Each character had their own backstory, how they had "failed" one way or another and ended back in Samdal-ri. They each had their quirks and that made it very fun to watch. The music was also quite good, and I have only good things to say about everyone's acting. There were certainly some clichés, and the character transformations were predicable, albeit done quite well. Also, the Hae-Yal and Hae-Yeul mother-daughter relationship was brilliant and surprisingly moving, but I won't further elaborate for spoiler reasons.
The best part of Welcome to Samdal-ri was the message: the importance of home and a place to return to. It does not matter if it is small and quiet, a home is the place that you know, and the place that knows your. It is usually a "who," as opposed to a "where." It is ok to venture beyond your original home, but there is so much value in a safe place to return to, and that is why I loved the final episode of this show: it really drove this message home in a beautiful way. Whether you are growing up and venturing out in the world, or if you are old and live the same life every day, this show is for you, and this message was beautifully told.

Read More

Underrated

I am truly shocked that this show did not receive more recognition or love. It has everything a kdrama needs: the classic "kdrama moments," a great OST, and really fantastic characters. Not only that, this show does not feel like a generic kdrama, and it really pushes some boundaries. The main leads felt like very real people, and the story felt original and lacked clichés. I won't spoil anything, but you will watch this show and realize that Run On has characters and subjects that break typical kdrama norms. Soo-Young as the second female lead did a stellar job, and the love story between the second leads was fantastic, especially towards the end. You may think this is just another kdrama, but no, this one makes an effort to be different and stand out, which is why I recommend watching Run On. Some moments may be slow, but I encourage everyone to stick with it and see where the show goes, because I doubt it'll disappoint.

Read More

This Hidden Gem is a Must-Watch

This show told such an amazing story, and I am so glad that this show was created. This show began as a fun dating story, with the twist of the character switch, but as the story went on, this show got way more complex. The love deepened, but the turmoil of the era also intensified. To put it simply, this kdrama told the beautiful story of two lovers who just wanted to be together, but were caught up in a storm that tried to tear them apart. This idea is not particularly unique, but this show did it amazingly. Also, the show did a good job with getting the audience invested in the characters, I know I was invested and I was really rooting for the characters. The villain in this show was also perhaps one of the best villains in a kdrama I have seen, I truly hated them. With a strong OST and great characters, this show is a must watch. The setting also makes this show both unique and so fascinating. The student protests and the Gwangju uprisings were so interesting to watch, and it evoked a lot of passion and fire from the audience, so if you watch this I promise you will definitely feel something. This review will not do Youth of May justice, but I urge everyone to find a way to watch this show, it was never boring, and the story arc is done so well that this will not disappoint.

Read More

An Enjoyable Show Nonetheless

For some reason I really wanted to watch this show, like it was on my watchlist for the longest time. The show started off very interesting, and I really liked the plot. Yes, it is a little bit like Goblin, but this is still a good show that is unique. I really really thought this show had a stellar OST, not only were the singers all big names, but the songs were also very good. I will start out with my critiques, the reason why I gave this an 8.5 was because this show was very enjoyable, but it was not "next level." It really tried to be and succeeded in some ways, but it was a little predictable and was not some of the other next level kdramas that I have seen. What I did like was that it was a little thought provoking. It really made the audience wonder: what would I do if I had 100 days to live? In general, this show let you put yourself in the shoes of Dong-Kyung, and it made us wonder what we would do given her situation. With the character of Doom, he was not the most likeable male protagonist, and certain traits were overdone, but it did not compromise the show. I was expecting to see him show off his godly powers more, but he was more human than expected. I think that while Park Bo-Young did do an amazing job, the love triangle between the secondary characters did it for me. That was surprisingly interesting, and that kept me gripped and happy to watch it. The main love story was good, but the love triangle was really fun for some reason. Overall this show was good, it was more than simple, but not quite complex and mind blowing. I would recommend it to watch, and it is not hard to watch since episode lengths hardly exceed an hour for the most part. The love triangle and the role and character of the little girl deity was really cool to watch, so I would say give this show a try.

Read More

Everything You Want In a Kdrama

I almost never give 10/10s, but I can say this show wholeheartedly deserved it. Shin Hye-Sun as Ban Ji-Eum carried this show; that is not to say that the other actors weren't good (they undoubtedly were), but her character/acting was so good. I loved watching her hint that she was Ju-Won in the past life, as opposed to directly telling Seo-Ha. She did that part so well by being so sly and intelligent, yet also confident. That was so much fun to watch, and the main lead romance plot was one of the best I have seen in a kdrama. It got me so engaged, and the way the plot went, it was so entertaining to watch play out. Nearly every episode had at least one scene that was so brilliantly done, and the entertainment of watching Ji-Eum play Seo-Ha in addition to the unfolding story of the two mysterious characters made it so I could not wait for the new episodes to be released on the weekends. The romance was superbly done, and the historical mystery aspect of this kdrama really took this show to the next level. I cannot express how much I loved this show, and this will forever be one of the first shows I recommend to people if they are looking for a good kdrama, regardless of whether they are a seasoned koreaboo or a new fan wanting to get into it. 

Read More

Making Extraordinary Out Of The Most Ordinary

Not everyone is going to like this show, but man I did. If you are looking for a classic kdrama with flashy leads and romantic kdrama moments like CLOY, this is not it. But if you are looking for a perfect ordinary slice-of-life story that feels so real, this is it. My Liberation Notes revolves around perhaps the most ordinary family I have come across in Korean television. This is not however a story where ordinary people meet a rich CEO or a handsome demigod, no, they remain ordinary and interact with the local alcoholic. So I would advise going into this show knowing that, and also that this kdrama is slow. Yes it is slow, it is hard to deny that, but if you stick with it and aren't mentally in a hurry, then it pays off so well. The messages in this story are something that feels so real. It is about normal adults living their lives but failing to find fulfillment, and they sort of drift through their lives in a state of mundanity and repetition. You have to watch it to really understand what I am talking about, but it really should resonate with many people. These people are not really traumatized or deeply depressed, they are just sick of the state of their lives and want to find something deep. The Liberation Club in the show where this topic is discussed was done very well, and I actually wished they had more of it.
I keep using the word "ordinary" because this show is amazing because it takes the ordinary and makes it great: that is the strength of this show. It does not rely on cliches or fiction, it builds a hyper-realistic setting, and turns it into something amazing. Yes, a lot of this show is a family silently eating dinner at dusk, and in the beginning there is remarkably little dialogue, but this review cannot do it justice. If you want something new in a drama, and are willing to be patient, this show is very memorable and will deliver something truly special and resounding to so many, especially in the world we live in.

Read More

The Bottom Line: It's Entertaining

The beginning of this show instantly pulled me in, and I was really intrigued. It kind of slowed down for a bit, but the latter portion of this show really heated up and I enjoyed that a lot. To get the bad things out of the way first, this show has flaws. There are some plot oddities, definitely some cheesy acting, and clichés. Some parts were predictable, and I do not know if it was just me but some parts of the plot made me scratch my head and I had some questions. That aside, I did enjoy this show. I was rarely bored, and I was always excited to watch it. The costume design, set design, and the historical aspect of this show was really well done. For me, the love story was not amazing, but the Joseon politics were done very well. I was really invested in the plot surrounding what was going on with the King and his inner circle. I wish they showed more of that, that is one of my complaints, but that is because it was done so well. While some of the elements of this show seem familiar and not super original, the plot surrounding the royal family was very intricate and brought this show up to a higher level. Other praises for this show include good music (both background music and singing), and the villain of this show was truly evil, and that actor did a great job. At the end of the day, this was a fun show to watch. There were many serious moments, and very light moments, all of which were fun to watch. Also a lot of this show was just...cool. I do not know how to describe it more eloquently, but I was watching this and going "wow this is cool." If you are looking for a cool historical drama to sit back and relax to, and not overanalyze, then 100 Days My Prince will entertain you for sure.

Read More

Less Magical, More Gritty

As my title stated, this show is kind of not what I expected. Netflix made this show seem like a magical love story set in the lovely city of Grenada, Spain. I got to say, not really the case. This was sci-fi, a thriller, and a thriller that was surprisingly gritty and dark. I have mixed feelings on this show. Let me first say that I do not regret watching this show, was it was a good show, and it definitely gets an A+ when it comes to originality. This show blends augmented reality with reality, and the rules are very blurred. That is not to say that there are plot holes, but some of the phenomena make you wonder how that happened (because like logic), and you overlook the first few, but there ends up being a lot. I managed to overlook them, as it was just a small distraction anyway. Visually speaking, this show was great. The graphics of the game along with the lovely city of Grenada has to be mentioned, and does make the show more interesting to watch. This show was also not boring, there was lots of action and plot twists, especially in the beginning. Besides some questionable logic, my main critiques are that the love plotline did not work and lots of the show was kind of...depressing. This was surprisingly gritty and dark as I have mentioned, and lots of this show is watching the protagonist slowly hit rock bottom. Not necessarily a bad thing, just not expected. The overall ending and final episodes had some great moments that were fun to watch and gripping, but the final scene did not make sense to me, but I just went with it.
I know I had a lot of critiques, and this show has its imperfections, but the overall concept, visuals, and plotline were good. I did mostly enjoy watching this, and I am happy that I did watch it, so no regrets here.

Read More

Sixteen-Seventeenths of this show is brilliant

I am really not sure why this show has such low ratings, as it was really enjoyable to watch. The plot was simple, but still unique and very fun to watch. There are two timelines, as part of this show is a flashback of events, and those are some of the cutest scenes I have ever witnessed. A lot of this show makes you feel good and warm inside, so a big plus. The thing that makes this show stand out is it's format. It is a mockumentary, and some people do not seem to like it, but it was done well in my opinion. Characters were in a pretend documentary of their life, and it was good because it was a clever way to show each person's perspective on the events that happened. In reality, most of Lovestruck in the City was shot like any other show, and the interview parts were really only there when they needed to be there when it helped the show.
This may sound weird but DO NOT WATCH EPISODE 17. Without any spoilers, that episode is not necessary one bit, and it was just infuriating to watch. Episode 16 is the real finale of this show, nothing else happens in episode 17. So if you do choose to watch episode 17, then just consider it a bonus episode after the finale, which was episode 16. This show was honestly perfect, and destined for a 10/10 (I have never given a show a 10 so I do not take this lightly), however the ending was just so frustrating, so a 9.5 is necessary.
This show was overall so great to watch, and I was addicted. The episodes are shorter (only half an hour), so it is perfect to binge. Some people say they got bored, but I was fully invested every minute so to each its own. I would say to give this show a shot, watch the first episode or two, they are short, and if you like it then stick with it. Also the music was great, both English and Korean songs were featured, so an overall great show with a fittingly great OST.

Read More