Sageuk for beginners!

I just finished watching this kdrama and I have to say I enjoyed it more than I anticipated.
When I started it, it was without any expectations, I just needed something to watch for relaxation after a long day. It brought me exactly that-relaxation and a good laugh. Characters are likable and relatable so I am sure you won't have problem with them.

What I liked the most was the fact that there was no plot dragging and miscommunication that usually occurs in sageuks and then prolong until the last minute. Everything was wrapped up nicely and there were no loose ends and unanswered questions.

Cast had great chemistry and did their best in portraying their characters. I was really sad to see that it was not as hyped as expected on social media, but I think there were more factors that contributed to that which couldn't be avoided.

I'd definitely recommend this kdrama to kdrama newbies and also people who usually don't enjoy period dramas. I am convinced that people who don't like sageuks didn't watch good ones so I guess this is your sign to give this drama try.

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Unexpected disappointment

I usually don't write reviews here, I use my twitter account to simply send my random thoughts during the watching party, but I am afraid this one deserves a greater explanation than 2-3 sentences I can squeeze in a tweet.

Back when this drama was airing, many of my friends were watching and praising it. I was asked on multiple occasions why I don't give it a try, and at first, it was because I was busy, but later on I found out it's a sports drama which is usually not my cup of tea. Lately, I've been more into cdramas so I decided to finally give this drama a try. Everyone and their mothers loved it, I should too, right?

Hah, how wrong I was.

I won't lie, the first 2 episodes were actually entertaining, I loved the idea of a guy who randomly saw this pretty girl and fell in love with her at first sight. I found their initial awkwardness around each other cute and realistic, but as time progressed, instead of dissipating, that awkwardness became more and more evident.

There was too much staring and almost 0 communication between them. Every time they had one of their staring parties, I had to divert my eyes because I was physically uncomfortable with it. The lack of communication between them was also killing me because how are you so madly liking someone, but not knowing anything about them except the basic info? They could be a total nuthouse, as opposed to their good looks, aren't you interested in finding out more? They even brought it up multiple times, asking each other why are they so quiet and that raised my first red flag because they literally had so many things to talk about (billiards, moving from China, uni life, adaptation to new surroundings, heck even weather talk would do), but they opted to keep their mouth stuffed with food with a sprinkle of bizarre staring on top (the lack of music in staring scenes made it even creepier).

We got a glimpse of ML's traumatic past which could possibly be a reason for his rather cold and seemingly unbothered behavior, but at the same time, he seems to get along with everyone - every random character that spawned out of nowhere had nothing but good words about him, treating him and taking care of him. So, if you managed to make them like you, why are you now blanking in front of the girl you like? Math ain't mathing.

FL's behavior also didn't really make any sense, but I guess it had to be like that for the sake of the plot. Moving in with the first guy you met on another continent seems like the start of a horror movie to me.

And my last, and probably the weirdest reason I dropped it is the age gap. Now, I watched HL before, and for some reason, I didn't really mind the age gap, but I just can't get over it here. I tried multiple times to forget it, but it just kept pestering me to the point that I started associating their lack of talk with their age difference which made me hate it even more.

I know I dropped this early and that there is plenty more room for it to get better, but I literally can't force myself through it anymore. I had a really high expectations and they weren't met so I should stop torturing myself and ruining the image for the people who actually loved it. The cast was actually good, I loved Zhao Jinmai in Reset and this whole review has nothing with them, but their characters, but even they couldn't make me stay. OST and pretty city shots are also a bonus, but they're not the ones I am ready to sacrifice 25 hours for.

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