Snowdrop (2021)

NOT a romance

I'll repeat again to anyone who is checking the reviews before watching the show: This is NOT a romance drama. I know it's the first tag but IT'S WRONG !!! Don't expect fluff and angst related to feelings, or clichés. This is a political thriller and a MELOdrama.

Is the romance nice ?
Meh. But it came as a savior for me because the start of this drama was SO boring. It was also really pure and it might not make much sense but it kept me hanging.

Is the rest worth it ?
There were so many plot holes... There were situations they should have adressed but decided to dismiss in order to tell us more about side characters you don't care about.

It is worth watching it ?
Yes. The songs were beautiful, the filming and editing too. The amount of work they put in everything but the plot was amazing. I know it sounds mean, but it was impossible for me to relate to anyone.
I originally wanted to give it a 5.5/10 but I did appreciate the main characters, acting, songs and filming.

Leia Mais

A lot of potential

I really tried to like this. Despite the controversies, my problem was pacing more than anything else. I really enjoyed the story and most of the characters, but for me, the latter 3 episodes lost its luster.

I do give a ton of praise to Jung Hae In and Yoo In Na, their acting was amazing. Also, not a bad debut from Jisoo even though the majority of her work was weeping. The Sky Castle ladies were rather boring, but in the end served a funny purpose in the penultimate episode. Hana and Gang-mu were another bright spot for me. As I think back, there was a lot of great scenes and moments, but some of it dragged on too much.

Leia Mais

My first written review so here it goes;

Oh wow, what a ride this has been! Where to start from?
As much as there has been a huge rollercoaster before this drama has even begun, the amount of hate and love it recieved was definitely there. A lot of people still won't watch this due to controversies but the ones that have decided to watch it, along with me, it was definitely a rollercoaster of lots of emotions.
The angst between every character. The way the actors portrayed every single character they played in this drama.
Jung Hae In never disappoints in his dramas and neither did he disappoint in this one.
Hopefully, we will see Jisoo in more dramas in future with different roles that challenge her in her acting career.
I personally liked the plot of the drama, if you skip some boring scenes here and there, and the way in every episode you couldn't know what would happen. Lots of plot twists that made people raise their eyebrows. Aside from the sad parts of this drama, there were lots of funny scenes that were just dumped into episodes randomly which lifted up the mood of the drama.
If you're a fan of Money Heist (not comparing) and you don't mind that the background and place stays the same in most episodes then this might be the drama for you.
If you shine the light into the negative side- From the whole controversy of using real characters and things that happened during that year; It was an incredibly sensitive and loaded topic when it came to all of this.
Now that it has ended, more people will be educated on someone elses culture, style and life. Hopefully, there won't be more controversies on dramas in near or far away future.
The cast however did an amazing job and I loved every single one of them, hope we see more of them in the future!

Leia Mais

I'm sorry but...

Yeah I agree, Jisoo is goddessly pretty. But this drama is rotten. It has a bad plot while getting controversies in South Korea itself. Here are some suggestions before you read the pros and cons.

Suggestion:
- Crash Landing on You's plot has a lot of better ending/conflict resolutions than this one.
- If you are looking for an action-romance drama, one of the best is titled "Flower of Evil".
- If you aren't a fan of Jisoo, I don't recommend you to watch this drama.

Pros:
- Jisoo's acting is pretty good in her debut-as-main-female-lead.
- The filming set (Hosu Women University Dormitory) is one of the best in K-Drama history. I can say the dormitory is on the same level as Hotel Del Luna.
- The OSTs really match with the drama's theme. I love the opening and ending (choirs) soundtrack!

Cons:
- Don't expect much from its "action" aspect. This is a really cheap romance drama. The couple is busy hugging each other on the battlefield while defending themselves from the enemy's attack.
- Inconsistent character. Young Ro is portrayed as a girl who is afraid of bullets, but she comes back to the battlefield just to meet her beloved one.
- Titan-sized plot hole. Yes, there won't be a season 2, so the hole is forever there leaving watchers confused.
- Worst conflict resolution. In episode 16, the plot skips much. You won't know how the antagonist side gets defeated.
- The plot is not solid. Too many lovey-dovey scenes, staring at each other's eyes too long accompanied by the OSTs, etc. You can even skip these kinds of plots without losing the story. I skipped much too.
- This drama itself has controversies and already got canceled by Koreans. So, I believe the writer is too afraid to make the plot become how it's supposed to be.
- The political talks are really hard to understand (at least for me) :(
- *

*will be added if I remember what to write.

Leia Mais

Capturing story with interesting plot twists

I recommend watching this show
The story is intresting many plot twists
Every episode keeps you on the edge wanting to know what's going to happen next
You should always keep watching till the end and never miss the bonus clips
The cast is well choosen every role is well written
The two main leads Kim Jisoo and Jung Hae-In have great chemistry
Jisoo as her acting debut did very well in portraying Eun young-Ro
All the supporting cast members are world class actors
The Ost of the show is mesmerizing specially at the finaly of every episode it reminds me of Disney's movies
Overall Good show and great actors !

Leia Mais

Worth Watching

Highly recommended. It's not the usual kdrama you expect to see. The acting its really great too but what i liked the most its the story. Different, old but new. It depicts a time in the history of korea that its difficult to see on screen during these years. Of course its not perfect and of course its not depicting the actual historical events or situations but its so well made that you can enter the screen throwing back to that time and feel in someway the pressure and the strict and controversial politics of that korea . Every episode seem to last 5 minutes and you want only to go on and on with the story to know more about the characters and the end, imagining the wrost and the best scenario you can. Loved the bonus scene at the end of the episode for me its like given more dimension to the characters. Hope for an happy ending even though its quite unlikely.

Leia Mais

Too ambitious for its own good...

I'm not going to lie; I dropped this drama after episode 9 and kept myself updated through clips and spoilers. As of now, two episodes are left to be shown. If they should miraculously change this hellish journey to one that seems like a worthwhile experience (at least in retrospect), I might rewrite my review. But if I don't, this is my final verdict on a series that had lots of potential but didn't live up to expectations.

First of all, I feel that for a lead character, Youngro is too passive and useless. Not going to elaborate further on that, you're going to read many comments about how the women of this show are hard to like and how they don't drive the plot forward as much as the male characters. Admittedly, one could say that the men of this show are not exactly likeable either and most of them are power-obsessed and fickle douchebags. But then again, with the majority of the plot playing out in an all-female dormitory, it's disappointing how the screenwriter, who is a woman, decided to turn all the dorm girls into whiny extras. Like I said, even Youngro seems like a side character.

Secondly, while in the beginning I disagreed with people saying they were growing tired of the dorm setting where 90% of the show takes place, by now I've come to feel bored myself. And I'm usually all in for returning to the same locations throughout a drama or a movie because, if efficiently done, that's a perfect way of evoking emotions and bringing depth to a story. You show the same places, but the people inside those walls are subtly different every time which you notice even more because they are set against a space that has remained unchanged. And that space itself becomes iconic after a certain time. Think of Central Perk from "Friends", as an example. But you need well written characters for that and engaging dynamics between them. In "Snowdrop", those are sadly missing and there is nothing else that is interesting or exciting enough to make up for the fact that we are confined to a handful of locations for over 14 hours with such boring company. Neither the political schemes, nor the romance, the friendships, or the personal agendas of these characters make me want to stick around until the end.

That being said, I can only bid this drama farewell with much disappointment because the writer-director duo as well as the actors and actresses (who are insanely talented, don't get me wrong) had made me set my expectations too high. I was especially hoping the show would eventually be able to bury the initial controversy surrounding the project by turning out amazingly thought-through, masterfully directed, cleverly written and politically on point. It didn't do all that for me and I would have been satisfied if at least one of the genres this drama picked up had worked in the end, be it action, romantic melodrama, espionage thriller, political satire, or coming-of-age. Guess the show was too ambitious by trying to be all of that at the same time. Then again, why didn't it work? Did the writer have to change her script midway due to the controversy? Did the production team suddenly realize they would receive an angry response over the politically messed up premise? Did they change the genre from drama to a "black comedy" (or whatever else this strange genre salad is) because of that but didn't have enough time to execute that well enough? I guess we'll never know.

~ Update after knowing how the last two episodes went: Sadly, I'd have to give this an even worse rating if I were to include my thoughts on the finale. But I'll just leave my review as it is and leave the final judgment to those who have watched this from start to finish.

Leia Mais

I’m pretty excited about this show at first, but…..

(Sorry for my bad english)

I watched this drama because this drama was Jisoo’s debut drama as an actress. So I’m pretty excited when the first episode came out.
At first (i think eps 1-5) were really good, but the rest eps they were just in a dorm???? I feel like it was too long to just being in a dorm.
And i’m very disappointed with the ending. Since the first episode, I already knew that this drama is going to have a sad ending, but i didn’t expect that the sad ending is this kind of ending (sorry i’m not trying to give spoiler).
So overall, I rated this drama for 6.

Leia Mais

a potentially great love & story, snatched

I wanted to like this more than I did. Jung Hae In's acting is what kept me watching ultimately. His character went through some serious ethical dilemmas and development, and I felt Jung Hae In portrayed it exceptionally well.

This had potential though in terms of story. There were significant points and moral dilemmas being illustrated throughout, but ultimately it just didn't hit the mark aside from Jung Hae In's character (and some characters in relation to him). Though I even attribute that more to his acting skill than the script itself. If they had focused more on the issues/storyline and less on the characters themselves it would have come off a bit better maybe. They spent so much time on the political figures and obnoxious rich scheming mothers / side characters; it was honestly over the top (and without a clear point).

The love story was sweet and had very good chemistry. Though the female lead spent most of her role sobbing. And understandably so, because past the first few episodes...they just made the female lead's character more and more pitiful -- to the point where it seemed like she was just there solely for the male leading character's development and love interest.

They totally extinguished or minimized all of the female lead character's motivating goals and ambitions...and then literally killed off every. single. good family member/friendship/important person in. her. life. Then it didn't really end up giving you any notion of if she was able to go on to lead a content life despite losing literally every. single. thing. Talk about unsatisfying.

I was most disappointed with how they managed the female lead character; it just didn't feel like it did her justice, and it ultimately made the love story less compelling. Because--aside from the male lead's character development in specific ways (and torturing the female lead + all of us viewers)--what was the point really?? There wasn't a strong enough reason for the romance with respect to the story and backdrop of the issues being presented, in the end. Unless the point was to depict tragedy purely, stir moral/inner conflict, or simply pad time.

Not terrible, but not something I'll probably re-watch. You may enjoy it if you like political dramas and tragedies.

Leia Mais

Watch it!!!

First of all, it was very very very good and I recommend you guys to watch it. The ending was very sad. I was kind of expecting this ending but I hoped I was wrong. I cried while watching most of the episodes I wished the ending was more like a happy ending.
Second of all, I heard a lot of people criticizing Jisoo's acting can I know why? Her acting was amazing I really enjoyed this drama, I enjoyed her acting too I hope she act in another drama soo.
Last but not least, Hae In Oppa's acting was amazing as always. We don't have to explain how amazing and wonderful he was. He was perfect as always. I cried a lot while seeing him suffer in the drama and especially the last scene when he died I wish he didn't die, but the drama was amazing thanks to him and his amazing acting skills.
I'd like to think all the actors for their acting skills they were amazing.
love you guys, and watch it definitely watch it.

Leia Mais

Phenomenal series - a heartbreakingly beautiful love story

I just finished watching this kdrama, and one thing I can say is... WOW, what a masterpiece!
The kdrama leaves you sitting at the edge through every episode and plays with your emotions like a roller coaster, which is something not a lot of kdramas succeed in doing.

The last episode left me completely devastated because of Suho's death (and his two comrades), however, it was pretty much expected since he did not go to the ship to leave with Dr. Kang.

I started watching this series with no expectations of Jisoo since this is her first work (?), but I was pleasantly surprised by her exceptional acting. One would never guess that she is a rookie actress.

The only thing I disliked was the fact that about 80% of the series was in the dorm. We did not get a lot of scenes with the ml and fl outside the dorm.

Leia Mais