Casa Cheia (2004)

So I'd watched this as a kid when it aired on a channel in our country, but couldn't finish it and it's been on my mind since. I finally got around to watching all of again and now after having finished a few dramas, I think my kid-self was a little over-excited :P

First, the story wasn't a fresh concept to me. But I won't go around blaming that, there are tonnes of ways to bring novelty to old storylines as well. The characters were nice, believable, a little thick maybe but they don't tick you off as such. The character evolution takes longer than necessary but seeing that the plot didn't have much to go on, it was needed for the characters to get around slowly. One thing I liked was that they didn't try to incorporate everything into a single plot. They could have put in numerous obstacles, all sorts of them but they stuck to a couple of problems that popped up again and again. Which could be tiring as well, frankly. I mean, how many times can you really go through the same procedures again and again?

The lead actors were great. I loved their performances. To be honest, they were the sole reason that kept me going. Regardless of whether they were bickering or yelling or laughing or wallowing, I loved them. Rain brought Young Jae to life. The character of Young Jae is lovable as it is but Rain just made me like him even more. And both Rain and Song Hye Kyo were great together! I've never seen more realistic bickering between couples on any drama yet.

The music was so good! I was really surprised. I don't know why but I didn't think the show would have a good OST, I was so wrong! The main three songs that were repeated throughout the show were catchy, fit the scenes, were good over all.

I don't think I'll watch the show again but there were pretty nice bickering/quarrels between the lead that I might watch again sometimes in the future.

This is supposed to be one of the most famous dramas around and mostly everyone's watched it. But if you haven't and are wondering if you should, you should ask consider the fact that the story in itself isn't great and you won't find amazing twists or such but I'll give you this, the lead is worth watching the show for. If you can put your trust in the lead and want a story that'll leave you with a smile on your face and maybe wet eyes at the end, you can definitely watch this. But if the story and premise, and plot twists are an essential ingredient for a drama to be good for you, maybe you can pass on this one.

Leia Mais

I am being a bit generous here, because I did so love the premise. When I watched the first episode of this, I thought it was beautifully crazy and wacky, which is just what I look for. I like the whole set up for the story.

Now let me continue by saying that if this drama went for, say, 3 episodes, it might score about a 7. But it didn't go for three episodes, it went for 16. So for 16 episodes I had to watch the leads alternately act like idiots, sometimes act like idiots together (those episodes were REALLY special), and do a lot of...cleaning? and cooking?

One of the secondary leads was boring and one was just really easy to dislike. By the end of it I was rooting for the friends, because all the other characters irritated me so much that I no longer cared that they were horrible and shameless, I was just happy that the main characters were getting some sort of payback for their over the top and constant stupidity, even if it was from their horrible vulture friends.

Leia Mais

(WARNING: This review might be a bit biased, courtesy of Rain's character, and not accurate, since I watched this last year before summer).
This drama brings back so many good memories! This was the second drama I watched, and I remember coming home from school and putting off homework just to watch it :P Some events were repetitive or... dumb, and some actions from certain characters left me with a blank face. But I enjoyed putting up with it because Full House is awesome! It is a sweet and funny story, and even if the idea is common in k-dramas, it still has its own unique spark. I think it was Song Hye Gyo's and Rain's chemistry, and, of course, Rain's character, Young Jae! I cannot find any reasons why you could not love him.
All in all, I recommend this to anyone. Why? Even I, a newbie, knows this is a classic. Plus, there's a big possibility that you'll enjoy it.
P.S. To Song Hye Gyo's character: you call those dimwits friends? I'm still doubting your sanity for forgiving them...

Leia Mais

this was my very first korean drama and as a result i'm a korean drama addict. this show is attention grabbing from the very first episode.i know contract marriages are drama cliche and unlikely to happen in real life but the acting of the leads i.e.Rain and song Hye Kyo is so natural that you can actually relate to the characters and feel their joy as well as agony.
Song Hye Kyo, for me , is by far one of the prettiest girls on earth. you'd be missing on some really good story and music, if you still haven't watched this one. "i think i love you" by Byul is one of my favorite korean music.

Leia Mais

I honestly don't know how I finished this series. I think I forced myself to watch it because it had good reviews. I was so bored.

I came to watch it with high expectations because it was considered a staple of the drama industry. I was utterly disappointed. I think the high reviews meant that it was a good drama for its TIME. Meaning that the industry has drastically evolved and improved since then.

I can see that it probably set the standards for future dramas. The typical setting of a nice house. Forcing the main leads to live together while they bicker and banter. One is poor and one is rich. Another side couple with issues. The unnecessary overacting. No passion or lack of any skinship. It has all the clichés of the drama industry and is probably the drama that started it all.

Now I respect those of the older generation who love it and thought it was great. But that is kind of my point - that it was a good drama of its time. Those like me who have watched better newer ones will probably agree that in today's time it lacks depth, characterization, passionate acting, and is riddled with clichés.

Rain's performance was definitely better (by not much) than Song's - whose only trait that I found entertaining was her beauty.

It had so much potential - I mean how many of you out there have fantasized about somehow living with a famous idol/singer?!?
Not my cup of tea.

Leia Mais

I don't think this is really considered as review...or it might be. Not sure. Anyhow here's my personal experience with this drama.

I started to watch this in 2010. So it took me more than one year to finish this one.

I think the drama started out great and it was really cute. But then guess what happened? I didn't find any working mirrors. When I found working mirrors the drama started to repeat things over and over again. Which lead me to get annoyed since in my opinion things between main leads took so long to evolve.

Then this week I decided that I'm gonna finish this drama finally. So on Monday I started from episode 9 and just finished watching episode 16.

I'm glad I finished it because last episode was totally worth all that struggling. I really recommend it to everyone as long as you can get through that the drama repeats the same things a lot and the fact that the clothes are horrible. Especially when it comes to male actors' clothing.

Thanks for reading this so called review :D

Leia Mais

Okay, this has to be by far the best K-Drama I have EVER seen. It was my second K-Drama, the first one i dropped after watching 30 seconds.

So, it's basically about this guy who is a top star and this girl who get's tricked and her house get's sold. The person who bought it just so happens to be that top star guy. To get back the house, she has to have a fake marriage with him. Over time, they end up having feelings for each other, but both are to stubborn to admit it. VERY CUTE and you'll wish it would never end!

I personally think the acting was stupendous, except for bra-girl (you'll see what i mean) she was a pain in the butt. but if you look past her, everything was amazing!!

The music has been sown onto my brain. Nuf' said.

Ummmm, i would definitely rewatch this. I could watch it a hundred times and still enjoy it!

But to explain just how good it was, I couldn't stop thinking about it for a whole month after finishing it, i stayed up till 4am until my dad threatened to chuck me out the window, I cried until i was dehydrated and had to keep pausing it so i could blow my nose and wash my face, i laughed like crazy for no reason when i remembered a funny part (often getting weird looks), and i felt an empty hole in myself after finishing it. I felt like a part of me was missing. (and i NEVER cried before while watching a movie)

Leia Mais

There are many things about Full House that are appealing. Rain and Song Hye Go are very charming. Watching their budding romance can be great fun at times. I found myself watching for their angsty and sometimes comedic interactions to turn to love.

Full House has a typical Kdrama set up that puts the OTP in place to live together, bringing on plenty of antagonism, angst and lots of opportunity for cute moments together.

It's a cute story. I liked it. But I didn't love it like a lot of people who watched it. For me, there were a lot of things that made this drama average. There was not enough plot for me. There came a point where I noticed a lot of house cleaning, lame misunderstandings and not enough reason for these two not to just get together already! What I felt was, even at 16 episodes, it seemed to drag on too long.

But I'm giving this a 7 (great) because the interactions of the OTP entertained me a lot of the time. There were a lot of cute moments and some good chemistry between the couple.

This is pretty light fare. There are some laughs and sweetness that I think might make a good rainy day drama for a lot of people.

Leia Mais

if you enjoy watching romance dramas in which the leads actually like each other, this drama is not for you.

i've heard a lot of good things about this drama, and it's one of my friend's favourite dramas ever, so i went in with high expectations, which almost never goes well, because the thing will eventually disappoint you, even if it is of a high quality.

listen idk i feel like even with the context of "it's an arranged marriage, they don't really like each other" and then "they're secretly in love with each other even though they're not supposed to be" this drama just.. lost me.

it's not okay to be mean to someone because you can't process your feelings for them bro. yeong jae kept acting like an abusive husband who was possessive and jealous and wanted everything done ten minutes ago. if that sounds like an abusive relationship to you, it's because it is an abusive relationship.

and even if you're the most emotionally constipated childish manbaby in the world, you'd still be able to find a way to be nice to the woman you're allegedly in love with, instead of just yelling at her whenever she makes you ~feel things~ and being cruel and mean because god forbid she find out that you don't hate her guts.

at some point, one of the characters (yeong jae's best friend from childhood) tries to tell yeong jae's contract wife that "yeong jae can't express or explain himself too well... so i think i should do it for him." and im like?? what?? this is a GROWN MAN. he is an ADULT. if he can't express himself well then he should go to THERAPY not have his best friend explain his bullshit dklfsfkdsh

tl;dr this show is not as good as people keep saying it is lol.

Leia Mais

I finally managed to watch this drama after always hearing such good things about it. After finishing it, I was left both pleased and disappointed.

The story itself isn't something I really recall seeing before in dramas that I've watched, so I did like that. The length of which it was told though; that needed a change. It was basically 12 episodes or so of the same thing. The show was literally pretty much nothing but "I hate you; I love you; I'm leaving; I'm moving back in." As much as I liked the cast, I almost couldn't make it all the way through this.
Add onto that the fact that the main female lead seemed to switch from a strong lead to a weak lead, and it wasn't really all that people make it out to be.

Acting/Cast: Definitely the best part about this drama, without a doubt.

I absolutely loved Rain in this role. He was, I suppose, the typical bad boy. Movie star, rich, bad attitude; you know how it is. And while those characters are usually the kinds of characters I dislike, I was pretty much crazy about Rain. He had a lot of moments where he'd pout, and it would give you the impression of a hurt puppy, and you couldn't help but love him.

Song Hye Kyo. Loved her. Totally loved her. Her character though, like I stated above, not so much. She seemed to start the show off as a really strong character who didn't take crap from anybody. And as the show went on, she ended up being the typical drama female lead that lets the whole world walk over her all the time. Song Hye Kyo was adorable though.

Kim Sung Soo. In all honesty, it was incredibly hard to focus on the show when he was on the screen. He's just insanely good looking, and it was hard to pay attention to anything but his face. It definitely made his role of "player" believable though.

Han Eun Jung was probably, surprisingly, one of the best acts in the show. You loved to hate her, and hated to love her; but you did both anyway. She took that role and made it hers.

Music: Right now, I can only really remember two songs from the show, and I hated one of them. Wanted to rip my ears off every time it was played.

Rewatch Value: Like I said at the beginning, this show is extremely repetitive. 80% of this drama is nothing but the same thing. It's like they just tossed in some different situations in hopes that you wouldn't notice it.

Overall: Overall, the cast is pretty much the only reason this got an 8 from me. The first and last episodes played a part in that score as well.

Aside from the repetitiveness of the main story, there were less important parts that really bugged me about this show. The main one, without a doubt, was the female lead's best friend. We go through this whole show hearing about her being pregnant (seriously, they talk about her being pregnant almost every time she's there), and even show us a baby at the end, but at no point in this show is she showing. She's stick thin the whole time, and it's really...just blah.

Leia Mais