Isso Se Chama Amor (2023)

Korean parents or How To Ruin Your Kids' Lives!

If we are to draw conclusions about the korean society from their dramas, I'd say it is the parents who are destroying it by controlling kids under the guise of "it's for YOUR own good (and for MY reputation in the neighbourhood)!" Korea has a very big problem with birth rate which is amongst ,if not THE lowest in the world! Why? Just look how Korean parents suffocate and try to control their children making them utterly miserable and unwilling to procreate by trying hard not to merry or/and have children.

This drama is one glaring testimony of it. The kids are miserable and are forced to suffer and pay for their parents' sins. And why is that? Because the society won't let them do otherwise: everyone is busibody, making judgements on other people's lives and being afraid to be free and live their life the way they want it in order to be happy. In all these dramas, kids are forced to live up to demands and ambitions of the parents. Resulting in a lot of unhappiness and misery. But the appearances are saved and that is what seems to be the most important to parents. The appearances and not their own children's happiness. So sad!

Call It Love talks about three such families.
One is destroyed by a father abandoning them following an affair. The three children were left to fend for themselves and protect their mother. The person really left in charge was the middle child when she was 17, ruining her life, sports career and any feelings of happiness.
The second one is the pharmacist under constant scrutiny from his parents who are demanding of him to get married which he finds more and more difficult to avoid.
The third is a CEO of fair organizers' company whose mother's philandering ways have made him miserable, taciturn and withdrawn.
Their interactions make for the most of this wonderful and beautiful drama.

This is my favourite kind of drama, slow burn, slice of life. While I was watching it, I was constantly reminded of My Mister not because of the plot but because of the overall feeling and the pace of both dramas which are identical. Here the misery overflows. Both main characters are poster children for unhappy, miserable, unsmiling people. Being with each other, gives them an inkling of what happiness might look like. If only, as one of them says so at one point, they were all alone in the world!

But there were not only parents working hard in ruining the kids' lives. There was also an older sister who did her best to ruin further her younger sister's already miserable existence with her jealousy and envy. That one drove me mad: she took out her own insecurities and pounced on her sister when she was the most vulnerable instead of supporting her, she decided, all of a sudden, to act as adult she never was before! And of course she failed miserably but she achieved her goal of making her sister even more unhappy. She tried to make amends later but it was too little to late!

The pace is extremely slow but not for a minute, I found it boring! It flowed, slowly but it moved on forward. This slow pace, made me take notice and really admire cinematography. It was stunning. The colours were all dull, subdued, just like the feeling of the drama. The amazing part was framing of scenes both in technical aspect and literal one. There were some very interesting camera angles: from above and as well cutting the actors practicall off, making them very small and low on the screen and therefore making them almost disappear in the surroundings. There were many travelling shots: camera moving at a constant speed straight left to right to left or zooming in and out. And mostly there were real frames around actors in scenes: windows, walls etc. creating a photo frame !

I know absolutely nothing about cinematography and camera work but I notice things. And this drama is worth watching for this!

The actors were perfect. The music sad as prescribed! It was a perfect slow burn melodrama /slice of life. I was debating with myself whether to give it 9.5 or 10 which almost never happens with me! Since I consider that nothing is ever perfect though this was approaching it!

And then they went on and ruined a perfect slow burn drama with a trope filled last episode. The writers decided to go down the well trodden path of break up and time skip which were both completely unnecessary with the awful sister adding another layer of contempt for her sister by trying to make amends a year too late! Thank god for the youngest brother who seemed to be less affected by grown ups' (i.e. parents'!) problems and decided to act as Cupid.

Misery loves company! And this drama kept me company!

One more word of wisdom from the main character: When I feel down, I look up other people's lives on line and realize I am not that bad off, that there are people much more unhappy than myself.

Leia Mais

A feel-good series with an endearing CL

The story of a girl (FL = Lee Sung Kyung) thrown out of her home with her brother and sister by her father's last wife after his death. She wants revenge, goes to work with the son of the bad wife, ML = Kim Young Kwan. She thought the son was shameless like his mother, but she soon discovers that this is not the case and her business is facing difficulties. She couldn't stop to boss him around and they tend to be attracted to each other.

PROS:
+ A duo of great actors, Lee Sung Kyung and Kim Young Kwan, who bring their characters to life with great talent. This couple is very endearing and shows great chemistry.
+ This is a slow-burn story on the daily life of employees, on family, friendship.
+ OSTs are sweet, pleasant and amplify emotions.
+ Narration is dynamic, without lenght
+ the drama allows us to discover some magnificent landscapes (it makes me want to go to Korea ;)

CONS:
- The character of the mother is detestable, a little excessive, but I suppose parents like that exist in real life.

=> Don't hesitate, it's a touching and comforting drama.

Leia Mais

What Do You Call Love?

I took my time writing this review because I wanted to digest such a wonderfully well executed drama.

We all have high expectations when watching these dramas. Why? Because we invest so many hours each week watching episodes. This drama is a hidden gem that you will definitely want to watch. The title, "Call It Love" you are drawn to it because we see these two beautiful people looking at each other and think what a great love story, I'm getting ready to watch. Which it is but, it isn't your "traditional" love story; we all think of as, Boy meets girl. They fall in love. Couple has issues with their families, an adversary to break up the couple, couple gets back together, and, in the end, true love prevails. In my opinion this isn't that type of love story.

Lee Sung Kyung as Shim Woo Joo is our main character that has decided to make things right by seeking revenge and getting justice in the loss of their family home. She does this by getting close and working at the same company as Han Dong Jin. Seeing Shim Woo Joo for the first time, you see a woman that has eyes that are expressionless, you can't read her due to the aloofness. She has a coldness that emulates her every fiber along with her no-filter type of personality which I believe is her mechanism to keep people at bay. But there is another side that she saves and hides which is a supportive, caring, loving individual that has such pain that you want to just want to wrap your arms around her. The first few minutes of just seeing her I could tell she would give us a performance to remember. And she did in spades!

Kim Young Kwang as Han Dong Jin was the male lead that was in some respects a man that had the "weight of the world" on him. He was reserved, quiet, thoughtful, and loved his mother unconditionally, which was his weakness and his downfall. When he found out everything that Shim Woo Joo had done, he felt more pain and sorrow for what his mother had done to Shim Woo Joo's family. So as the saying goes, "the sins of his mother" became the "sins of the son" which HE willingly accepted because of his love for his mother. But then after all was said and done, we got to see him go his journey of self-discovery and eventual happiness. Another poignant performance which held you.

Lee Sung Kyung and Kim Young Kwang in this drama were so well suited and cast. Each scene they were in together just held us all in the palm of their hands relishing such thought-provoking performances. We didn't even need them to speak because them not speaking made us get to see the emotions that their silence portrayed to us their every gesture, look, glance, smile, and we were so honored to be a part of those beautiful moments by this extraordinary couple.

There were so many nuances that touch you but two in particular for me.

The first was when Shim Woo Joo's mother was meeting Han Dong Jin's mother at the home which her husband had left to the children, and it was first time they were meeting. This to me was a pivotal moment for Shim Woo Joo's mother because she had the flashback to when she left the house and smashed the potted plant at the bottom of the stairs. Her remembering this, and seeing her expression, the sigh that she let out, meant she had finally left all those emotions of her husband leaving her with that smashed potted plant all those years ago. She now had the strength to confront this woman that no longer held any meaning to what had happened.

The second scene which I believe was so meaningful was when Shim Woo Joo and Han Dong Jin were standing in front of the house and Shim Woo Joo was telling him everything about the revenge that she wanted to take to get the house back. But as in usual fashion for Han Dong Jin he knew that Shim Woo Joo did not mean to hurt him per se, hence him saying to her, "Because you didn't. But in the end, you couldn't take your revenge on me. I wasn't ruined." He wasn't ruined. How profound is that? After everything that had transpired, his only thought was she didn't ruin me. He wasn't feeling any animosity towards her because he had fallen in love with her as she with him.

They both in some respect would have come out of this situation unscathed but there were still ramifications that did follow so they accepted their fate and broke up. But like all things it takes time for everyone to take a beat, step away and just let go of what no longer matters. Love in the end did go full circle bringing the happiness that everyone deserved.

This drama really had so many meanings that everyone of us can take as we see. I fully enjoyed every moment of it. There is so much more I could write but I feel you need to experience this drama for yourself. Take the time and watch it.

And keep in mind as you are watching it; What is your meaning of love? What do you call love? Think about it...

Leia Mais

Too slowww and draggy

I know many reviewers are loving this drama. The whole setting and storyline is great. The acting is fantastic. The delivery.. uhm, this is where it gets draggy. Walking in slow motion like 0.5x speed, 3 different angles of sitting on the bench, or in the kitchen… sigh. Typical kdrama style.

I’m glad Lee Sung Kyung is diversifying her roles, away from the usual romcoms, but I didn’t really like her in this role. Did she pull it off? Yes! Kim Young Kwang also delivered his role well. Maybe 12 episodes would have been better? The general mood was just depressing. I was fast forwarding too much the last few episodes. The ending was realistic, but a happy one ;) No real memorable song in the OST, which is a shame.

It’s a melodrama, real slowwww; so just be prepared before starting this. I will say it’s better than The Interest of Love ;);)

Leia Mais

Stavo perdendo la speranza con i kdrama. Le ultime uscite a parer mio non sono state soddisfacenti, tutt'altro. Poi, in un giorno febbrile, a letto, ho visto il primo episodio. Subito ho avuto paura. Questo drama è lentissimo, è talmente lento che ti sembra di star vivendo lo stesso tempo dei personaggi e mi son detta che 16 episodi erano troppi, che mi avrebbe annoiata a morte. Invece non mi sono nemmeno resa conto del tempo che passava.
Sto scrivendone la recensione al tavolo, in cucina, con le bietole nella padella sul fuoco e una tisana calda al mio fianco. Eppure solo fisicamente son qui. La mia testa è ancora con Sim Woo Joo su quella panchina a chiedersi se avrebbe potuto fare diversamente, se va bene lo stesso, se sarà perdonata, se riuscirà nei suoi intenti. Questo drama è riuscito a farmi toccare corde che non credevo nemmeno di avere. La bravura di Lee Sung-kyung non credevo potesse arrivare a questi livelli e non da meno è stato sicuramente Kim Young-kwang nei panni dell'altro protagonista di questa melodrammatica storia: i loro ruoli, i loro familiari, tutto ciò che li circonda, che li preme e li incatena.
Per la prima volta, credo, se qualcuno mi chiedesse "me lo consigli?" io gli direi "certo!", ma se mi chiedessero il perchè a mio parere debbano vederlo ecco.. A quello non saprei rispondere.

Leia Mais

enemies-to-real lovers

a late review. i watch this when it was airing, without any planning and expectations. i only watched it bcos i want to watch ongoing kdrama, and how i was surprised, this is a very pleasant and satisfying and romantic watch.

i love melodrama romance, when it is done right. and this drama did it well. both sung kyung and young kwang acted very very well in their respective roles, and successfully relayed the feelings of their characters well.

this is a revenge drama, but turned into forgiveness. i love how the drama made the fl hated the ml at first, but since the ml are just sooooo kind and kind and kind, and caring and protective while still respecting boundaries, how wud anyone not fall in love with such character?

i also love how their relationship developed. from slowly trusting each other, protecting each other, slowly falling in love, the silent gaze, the apology, and the comfort that they bring to each other, and the fact that this relationship made both of them a better person. so loveeeeee

I'm bad at writing review, but i just want to give my appreciation to this drama. it's a meloromance done right. altho i was kinda hesitated or slow in finishing the last 4 eps bcos i hate to see the conflict unfolds but overall the whole drama is very pleasant to watch. i just love it.

thank you, call it love.

ps: pls don't mind my score for the music. i don't really pay attention to the music in the drama, but i just had to put a score. ok byeeeee

Leia Mais

haya

An exciting series that touched every fiber of my soul, but at the same time so that you know what awaits you, I must mention that there is a lot of silence, deep sighs, serious faces and everything is so slow. Still, what is there in this series that despite all these I really liked and was able to watch without skipping ahead? More than that, I couldn't stop watching... sorrow, betrayal, revenge, friendship, loyalty alongside compassion and forgiveness, family and love, a great and touching soundtrack and one happy smile. I recommend watching with a lot of patience

Leia Mais

How do I describe this drama? Well.. Let's call it love

I think I have found my soul genre in the K-Drama land. It's the slow burn, healing dramas which are knitted with gilded threads of bonds that real characters share. And this particular show sits comfortably in the heart of that genre. At first glance, it is a seemingly simple plotline, a reasonable revenge resulting in a shouldn't-but-can't-help-it love trope. But stay long enough, look at it more carefully, and you find yourself mesmerized by the details, the facets of the characters in the story.

I wanted to pick a slow burn romance, which I got to watch - so double thumbs up, but what made me stick around till the end were the stories within story. I loved how the subplots were not treated as fillers but as layers that add to the personality of the character. That is how you understand the person, their actions and also their reactions. The drama is superbly written with the pace so well maintained that you forget the number of episodes you're on, you forget to check the duration left in the episode.

With all that pretext, let me get started on the part I've been itching to talk about. The characters of Shim Woo Joo and Han Dong Jin. Have I seen more lovable, heartwarming, sweet and gentle souls in the dramaland? Rarely. I was ready to plan my own little revenge on the writers if these people did not get the happy ever after that they so truly deserved. Oh the rollercoaster of emotions I felt while watching these two! It did help that Sung Kyung and Young Kwang brought them to life so beautifully, for these two can act! What remains with me long after watching a drama is the story and the work of the actors, and I will surely remember this show for that and far more. The nuances of each scene, the eye contacts, the subtle smiles, the jaw clenches when they had to endure something, I noticed it all and it wasn't even an effort! They could have easily come off as dull, lifeless, two dimensional characters but the heart-stirring performances of Sung Kyung and Young Kwang in addition to the masterful writing has created one of the most charming couple I have seen.

If I have not already stressed enough on the fact that I loved the writing on the show, let me do it some more - it is SOLID. The characters do not break, they evolve. What I mean is that there is a real and tangible curve in the character arcs, because people do not change overnight, they do not gain the heavenly enlightenment within a snap of fingers, they learn and grow, and then learn some more. And believe me, every character in this show has that. They learn and they grow. Even the leads. But that does not change who they are at their cores. This include the not so nice people too. It would be too unreal to have someone who has been vile their whole lives turn into a saint because they have faced the smallest of repercussions of their actions so far. I loved how that was handled. These people were real, with real, raw emotions. They felt pain, anger, hatred, pride, confusion, dilemma, love, distrust, numbness, hope, happiness - and everything in between. And as a viewer, I felt it too.

Do you know the indescribable emotion you feel that makes your heart pound, but also calms you; is liberating, but frustrating too; is exhilarating, but nerve-wrecking at the same time; seems incomprehensible but is in fact also the simplest of truths? There couldn't have been a more perfect title for this show.. For what else can you call it, if not love? :)

Leia Mais

You yearn for the next episodes...

There are some dramas, where you keep watching and tears come out without even you knowing. This was such a melodrama. I have prolonged it to watch it later when I should have watched it when it was ongoing. I have never been so connected to the characters and their sufferings before this. This one takes one's feelings and emotions to the next level. What a great cast! Each one has its own personality and overcomings and that's what makes this drama more special. I would recommend someone a 1000 times to watch this melo. Never expected Lee Sungkyung to take up such a role and weave it into her own "Shim woojoo". Also Kim Youngkwang was brilliant as "Han Dongjin", couldn't have asked anyone else to portray his character so precisely. This drama is going to be on my top 10 list definitely.

Leia Mais

Horribly slow plot I regret watching it

I was ready for a slow burn romance. But noone could ever prepare me for this slowmotion walking boring plot.
This was definitely not my style, I wished it had a 5x speed option cuz sometimes I went to my kitchen made a whole dinner, ate, washed dishes, went back and they were STILL silently walking from A to B in the very same scene.

Lee Sungkyung is my fav k-actress I've watched it for her and I have to mention that the acting was spot on. All the main and support characters were fantastic, they played every emotion perfectly.

But it could not save the most boring plot I've ever seen in my life. I always finish everything but this was the most difficult one, I struggled through each and every minute to just please get to the end already.

This show caused my longest k-drama disgust, I couldn't start anything after this cuz it traumatized me and I was affraid to start any show.

Leia Mais

Call it… why, a biggo WHY

WHY would you cast the handsome Kim Young Kwang if you´re gonna use that UGLY pink filter throughout the drama?

WHY would you cast the handsome Kim Young Kwang if you are not going to exploit his charismatic smile and just have him play a one dimensional depressed character? It was interesting and engaging in the early episodes, but it soon got old… to the point where I grew exasperated with him and that´s criminal. I watched the entire The Secret Life Of My Secretary with a big smile, even though it was a stupid romcom with a questionable premise I loved watching Kim Young Kwang. With him alone and his killer smile was so worth it!

WHY would you waste some potentially interesting cinematography with that UGLY pink?

WHY would you introduce great initial characters and midway just let them go to shit?

WHY in the second half of the series everyone took forever to get the words out of their mouths? Especially the leads in the last 4 episodes… my God what the hell happened, were they on Valium or something? Did I miss the part where they visited their psychiatrist and were prescribed a speech impairment drug?

WHY would you turn such a potentially strong, endearing and adorable FL into a wimpy FL?

If writers knew that they had 16 episodes to fill WHY did it feel like they ran out of material and they just went on circles the second half of the series?

WHY the pretentious and repetitive shots? Actors taking turns to eat side by side, actors taking turns to walk side by side, actors taking turns to look at each other from a few meters away, actors taking turns to look at the camera with a solemn face…. You get the point… repetition that made no freaking sense in a non beautiful way because of that UGLY pink filter.

WHY the bland ending?
I read some comments where viewers say that they were satisfied with the ¨happy ending¨ Frankly speaking I didn´t get it or by that time i was too jaded to appreciate it.


And then it got me thinking were they trying to emulate the ending in LOST or were they trying to emulate LOST the entire time? If so, they failed miserably. Actors take note: check out Ryu Joon Yeol and Jeon Do Yeon because that´s how you play a depressed person on the brink of despair. It does´t have to be boring!! In Lost the ending made perfect sense after the things that they had been through. In Call It Love, the ending looks like two slow and dumb people looking at each other, very stupid in my book.

So WHY did I watch this? Because I LOVE Kim Young Kwang and I liked the first half of the series to the point where I was willing to overlook the ugly pink filters.

Please Kim Young Kwang stay away from complex characters they are not for you or work with directors that can really use your strengths to build characters like in Mission Possible, Hello Me, The Secret Life Of My Secretary, The Guardians… playing those characters you were fantastic!!!


P.S. The OST, Flowers by Kim Roy was the true STAR of the series. Stunning!!!!!

Leia Mais