De Volta às Raízes (2023)

Healing

One thing is annoyingly becoming common in romantic comedies which is a love connection happening when leads are growing. This may used ignite spark at the beginning but now it is the biggest turn off. This is the biggest loophole for Sam Dal and Young Pil story. They have been unconditionally and irrevocably in love only to break up at the age of thirty. Love does not fade and enmity does not make them sour. You know what's going to happen next.

The story is a perfect amalgamation of love, enmity and humor. The friendship of the five who gets along even after staying apart all these years will tear you. Even though it is a love that we know, watching the journey through various nooks and holes makes it a beautiful watch. The pain, the relief, the healing, the joy and absolute love all around. A warm slice of life drama about home, family and relationships.

Leia Mais

It is a truly beautiful drama.

This was one of the dramas that make it feel close to real life.
-The casting is amazing, like literally the best. The actors did not dissapoint at all. They deliverd all the emotions that was needed.
-The story is pretty good. It is not bad, but could have been better. Especially with the time travel. but despite this it was was a very heartfelt and emotional story. I cried a lot bcos the characters were either relatable or had a very sad story. Especially the main character they had such a sad yet heart-touching romance.
~ Every actor and actresses did a very good job especilly Kim Mi-Kyung. I always love her characters. and Ji Chang-Wook. I
have yet any other dramas with the FL.
~ The only character I despised but ended forgiving is Young-Pil's father. Like it was just annoying seeing him hate everyone
becouse of his pain and grief. Like no one told not to mourn for his late wife, but dening others to mourn was just wrong. But at
the end of it all I was glad that he came around.
~ Don't even get me started with that b*tch Eun-Ju, I hate the character . The actor is good to portray the character for me to
despise this much. But to some extent I feel like she complemented the story, bcos without her Sam-Dal and Young-pil won't
have met each other that soon.
- The ost's were all so good. I particularly love the scene where there were fights and everything would be in slow motion and a song would be playing in the backgroung. It made so entertaining.

Overall this drama was one of the best releases of last yr.
I fell in love with the show. I also enjoyed it.
I would really recommend to others.

Leia Mais

A Mixed Bag of Emotions: Ji Chang Wook Shines, but Empowerment and Chemistry Fall Short

I recently immersed myself in Welcome to Samdal-ri, eager to witness the brilliance of Ji Chang Wook's acting prowess after watching him in Healer. While he undoubtedly delivered a stellar performance that left me in awe, I couldn't help but feel a void in terms of female empowerment and on-screen chemistry.

Ji Chang Wook's portrayal was nothing short of captivating. His nuanced expressions, impeccable delivery, and undeniable charisma added depth to the character, making it difficult to look away. His acting prowess alone almost carried the entire show for me, and I applaud his dedication to his craft.

However, the storyline left me yearning for more when it came to female empowerment. Despite the potential for a strong, empowering female lead, the narrative fell short of delivering a character who could stand on equal footing with Ji Chang Wook's. It felt like a missed opportunity to showcase a more balanced dynamic between the male and female characters. I guess her wanting to lean on him was literal.

The chemistry, unfortunately, failed to ignite the screen. While both actors individually gave commendable performances, their on-screen connection lacked the spark that could have elevated the romantic aspects of the plot. This absence of palpable chemistry and incomplete storylines (like what happened to Sazal Kim's character Man-Su) left me somewhat detached and wanting more.

While the show had its moments, the missed opportunities in character development and resolution left me with mixed feelings about the overall viewing experience.

Leia Mais

A healing bittersweet story about leaving home to chase your dreams.

I just finished watching this drama and on my personal experience, this has been such a journey, I watched a lot of tiktoks about it but never got the chance until now. As the headline says its a story with a healing message of learning to come back home when there is the need, leaving for your dreams might not be easy but coming back its not easier either.
I loved the cast, it was awesome watching actors that were closer to the ages of them, for me with such a beautiful story the ost could be so much prettier.
Definitely a rewatch or watch if you want to have a sense of healing.

Leia Mais

These 2 friends who have grown as a brother and sister, they like each other but, she goes to Seoul while he stay at Jeju island. After 8 years she come back to the home family with her 2 sisters and niece and they meet again. Theirs feelings are the same that in the past but also another mate love her.
Great acting of Ji Chang Wook with his fast speech, his smile and the deep voice.
Many things are great: the cast, some gestures (for example the niece that take the shirt of her grandmother), I love when he call her mom "omma", the fact of a multi parenting (two mother each), the relationship of these 3 sisters, the boy friendship like power rangers, when these fishing's women (Haenyeo) drive their quads, the "adult" niece, the kindness of the new couple of dolphin boy and the little sister,...
I informed me about the activity of these "Haenyeo" and I learnt is so precious in Jeju that since 2016 become a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Leia Mais

Well paced heartwarming romantic series with small town, friends to lovers and revenge elements

9/10 is my rating. This is a 2023/2024 South Korean romantic comedy with 16, 70 minute episodes.

First I provide a unique synopsis then review.

Synopsis

Cho Yong-pil (Ji Chang-wook) and Cho Sam-dal (Shin Hye-sun) were childhood friends who grew up in a small community on Jeju Island. The adults termed them soul mates as they were born minutes apart on the same day. And their life follows the trajectory of that destined fate as close friends as children then a young couple later on. An incident drives them apart and lead both to separately pursue their dreams. Yong-pil remains on the island as a weather forecaster to fulfill his dream of providing accurate forecasts so that others will not die from weather events as his mother did. While brilliant in his field, he is a thorn in the side of the other forecasters as he is very vociferous in his demands for perfection in forecasting. Many of the youth from the Island are eager to escape that limited geography and make their mark in big city Seoul. Sam-dal also wants to escape the small town and is determined to thrive in Seoul. After much hardship, Samdal finally becomes a highly successful fashion photographer known under the professional name Cho Eun-hye. At the peak of her career, she is in the circles with all the top celebrities as a highly demanded artistic and entertainment photographer. A series of events causes Cho Eun hye’s professional and personal life to completely come apart. Samdal decides to take a pause on her career and leave the city that now felt like it turned on her. Her hometown has always been her safe haven filled with all the people she was once very close to. When Samdal and Yongpil find themselves back in the same circles, they discover their feelings for each other never died. With two very different dreams is there a way for them to be together without sacrificing their own life goals? Can Samdal prove her innocence and re-establish her career?

Review

This is a really good romantic drama with friends to lovers, coming of age and even revenge elements. People who grew up in an island culture or in a small town will relate to a lot of the content. It is an overall feel good romance served up with slices of small town life. The small insights into Haenyeo (female diver) culture is a bonus.

Spoilers

Yong pil’s dad Cho Sang-tae (Yu Oh seong), was so emotionally and physically abusive to others I seriously disliked the character. It was satisfying, in the last few episodes, when the rest let loose in him. Look she wasn’t just your wife she was my best friend, my mother etc. You are not the only one grieving. I wish someone had said your wife would have hated this. He was obsessed with her leading up to them being together and was obsessed with her after she died. Blaming her best friend when his wife as an adult who chose to go was misplaced anger. He was such a cruel selfish person, I was glad he came around for the other characters but I did not feel there was any redemption for him.

The assistant who falsely accused her was eventually revealed as a liar. That was great to get to see some justice served. A little bit more about her and the fall out of her misdeeds would have been better as so much of Samdal’s story centered around her assistant’s lies.

I loved the story with her older sister and ex husband who so clearly still loved each other but had been driven apart by his horrible family. I would have liked to see them get remarried.

The chemistry between Shin Hye sun and Ji Chang wook was surprising. I just never pictured them together as they typically choose very different scripts. But they are both such great actors it was completely believable. I became a fan Of Ji Chang wook from his action shows but this sweet boy next door role worked perfectly too which just shows his diversity.



#WelcometoSandalRi

#JiChangwook

#ShinHyeSun

Leia Mais

This felt like watching a shortened family drama. Most of the side couple content has been removed & they focused on the family conflict and the main couple, but it still had that family drama presentation. I think this could have worked better in the 50 episode format as well. Not because I would have wanted more of the same, but rather had the side couples each gotten a couple episode's worth of screen time I think the annoying things could have been far less pronounced and we had so many sidelined characters with immense rom-comedy potential, or I don't know we could have watched the younger sister training as a haenyo..

The biggest problems I've had with this drama are the absurdity of the old breakup & the absurdity of the decade long unrequited loves. Of course I found the toxic dad extremely annoying & his sudden change of heart ridiculous as well, but that is ultimately just one bad episode of 16, so that would not have been a deal breaker.

Overall I would say that this drama has been a bit sloppily executed. The cast is absolutely amazing, but many of the actors did not take this very seriously & immersion breaking performances were not corrected. In case there is a problem, it's the director's job to call out the ng, in this drama they settled for "barely acceptable" way too many times. This is very common with family dramas, but those are typically far lower budget, so the lower production values are to be expected.

The writing is all over the place & there are countless problems with character motivations, personality adjustments and just nonsensical stuff, even for this genre.

Can Triangle haters watch this drama? Well, I'm not sure. The second ML does not really do anything, there are no three way handgrabs and whatnot, but I found his character to be extremely annoying. (It's a poorly written character, doubt any of the triangle lovers would be able to feel SLS for him)

To say something good as well, I found the non-gloomy parts of the drama quite funny & it's nice how it's relatively low on product placements. Jeju Island is the product placement, but this is the best kind there can be :-)

Ah, I almost forgot. While this drama is not very tropy, it's really annoying how 30 somethings who have dated in the past for many years acted like preteens in love & we have even gotten two typical sleep together, but do nothing scenes.

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Based on this review it may not seem like it, but there really was a lot of wasted potential here. They had most of the ingredients to cook a great meal, but unfortunately the cooks were drunk.

Leia Mais

Hometown healing

Jan. 21, 2024

Welcome to Sam-dal ri is definitely that kdrama for healing. Not revenge.

For starters, I know a lot of other people have mentioned how they love how this show gets better as it goes on. And that is so true. I never really expected to love this drama if you asked me around the first few episodes. It is a slower pace slice of life show. It alleviates that fast-life city feeling, as it is set in a small town. You know, as a person who grew up in the city, I kind of feel jealous and I really do want to experience that slower pace type of living.

The plot of the show is amazing, it is pretty good in terms of the story telling and how it was delivered throughout the episodes. I did wish though that the so called "antagonists" got much harsher ending for all the things they have committed. I do know that this is not a revenge drama but regardless, it fell flat in that area.

The cast is amazing and I feel like this drama is very underrated or underrepresented in terms of all the kdramas that on the smae air-time as this one. So please give Welcome to Sam-dal ri the love and recognition it deserves!

Leia Mais

It is ok if you don’t like it

Final review (even tho it is not finished).

I want to say, as the top review says, it is one of fhe drama that you need to see it for yourself to “rate it”. And still, it is one of the kdrama that will be hard to judge as it will take a lot of subjective thoughts (more than other dramas) to say it is good or not.

So my opinion isn’t necessary. But here is what I can tell you. This is not a revenge drama, this is a healing drama. Weirdly enough, not healing for you but for the characters. And this is where it is hard to understand, because we usually make contents for others (viewers) but it feels like it was made for its creator. Like a self letter.

Romance is not the main arc of the drama.

Characters are not meant to be flawless, on the opposite. And this can be extremely irritating, frustrating, want to throw out your screen off the wall sometimes. They are also meant to be disliked. I believe there is a reason but it is too much out of my own speculation to be taken seriously..

Even after knowing all these and pounder everything it is not the best drama or the year and won’t be. Neither will it be the best performances of the whole cast. BUT we appreciate a lot their acting because it is actually a sort of acting demonstration here from everyone.

Now watch it and make your own judgement. Do not let comments influence you. You might love it and if you drop out it is fine too. It is not made for everyone.

Leia Mais

Having a place to return to is an incredible relief

Originally I was not going to watch this series. I had put it on my not interested list and kind of forgot about it. On the day that it began airing, I was talking to my friend and they asked if I was going to watch it. I decided to give episode 1 a try and see how it was going to go and I am so happy that I did. The number of life lessons and eye opening moments I observed, learned, or took to heart throughout this series... I love the message behind the series and just how much it related to me, my situation, and where I am going in life is shocking. "As always, we're going for only as long as our breath allows without being greedy. And whenever we're out of breath, we'll come back to that place."

This kdrama is honestly probably one of my most favorite I have seen, but it is not perfect. I loved so much about it and how I don’t feel as if there were any holes in the plot. Whenever I had a question, it would be answered at some point. There isn’t a difficult to understand premise and it is a super easy watch. The only aspect of the show that really made me feel uneasy and upset was the amount of alcohol consumption. I have watched hundreds of kdrama but I do not think I have seen one with this amount of beer or soju. It seemed at some points all they did in their spare time was consume alcohol.

My favorite character of the series is the Jeju Dolphin Center’s very own Gong Jichan, played by Kim Minchul. I loved the side story with him and learning more about Haeyul and Haedal. If there was a series just for these three, I would watch it.

Leia Mais