The title already warns the viewer about what kind of relationship to expect, but it was even worse than I thought. This is sibling rivalry, and jealousy, at it's most toxic. There are some sweet, & amusing, moments, but it's mainly a revenge drama. Those in the mood for comedy should know that Lee Cho in's story is a depressing one.
The reason to watch this is So Ji Sub. He's intense, heartbreaking, charming, and he thankfully likes to linger in the shower ; ) I had no interest in watching an extreme hospital drama, which this show basically is, but he grabbed my interest from the start. As Cho In, he goes through an intense emotional transformation, and the beauty of his performance is the complexity in it. When parts of this drama became a little too over the top for me, So Ji Sub would bring just as much excitement while keeping it grounded in his honest portrayal. From episode 1- 20 he reminded me why he is one of my favorites. But seriously, did they really have to shoot him in the head AGAIN? And that's just the beginning...
I would definitely rate So Ji Sub's acting as a 10, but I had mixed feelings about the rest of the cast.
Shin Hyun Joon as Lee Seon-Woo, plays a worthy evil rival. I blame writers for giving his character barely any room for sympathy, but his performance was strong. I think he occasionally relied too much on wild eyed-stares, which sometimes came across as overacting. Overall I'd still give his performance a 9. He has one scene in particular, with So Ji Sub, towards the end of the series, that was absolutely heartbreaking. Their relationship is the core of this show, so his ability to match So Ji Sub's intensity is a huge plus.
In general, the evil characters are written to be cartoonishly evil, so over acting can' t be blamed on the actors. The biggest victim of this is Kim Hae Sook, who's character only makes sense if she is a violent sociopath. The same goes for Baek Seung Hyun as Choi Chi Soo. Their performances do add to the suspense, but I found their actions too unbelievable, even for K-Drama. They definitely portray characters that you can hate completely, but they were also let off the hook too easily, and way too many times, for my taste.
Out of the supporting cast I loved Lee Cho In's bromance with Oh Kang Chul. They share a lot of great action moments together, and touching bonding scenes. I also love the cute relationship between Drs Kim Hyun Joo & Kim Jin Geun, which added some much needed light moments. The most underrated performance is definitely Jang Yong, who had some great acting moments using just his eyes & finger.
I had mixed emotions about Han Ji Min as Oh Young Ji. I liked her chemistry with So Ji Sub from the start, and that it walked a fine line between flirty, and almost platonic playfulness. Eventually I grew bored with her being wide-eyed, and naive. For a character who was supposed to be so street smart, defected from the North, and survived on her own, she seemed way too dumb. At the same time, her innocence was sometimes cute when she was the victim of Cho In's spontaneous charm, and a few of their romantic moments are worth rewatching. This is also the first time I've seen her have a first kiss scene that didn't completely suck. That must be the power of So Ji Sub! lol.
The most disappointing character to me was Chae Jung Ahn as Kim Seo Yeon. She hit all the emotional notes, and cried very well, but she bored me. This is surprising since, unlike many of the other character's, Kim Seo Yeon was actually written with some depth. Her opening "love" scenes with Cho In felt flat, and lacked any chemistry. Her moments with Seon-Woo were written to move me, but they didn't. He seemed more like her stalker than someone she actually cared about. The fact that I didn't like her character, made the whole love triangle/square storyline a lot less effective for me.
I'm still not sure about recommending this drama or not. As much as I have complained about the writing, I must say that both the direction, and the soundtrack, are great! Fans of suspense may want to check this out, because the excitement over the uncertainty of what will happen next is consistent from beginning to end. Fans of So Ji Sub should definitely watch this because it's imperfections are worth sitting through in order to watch him be awesome for 20 episodes. I admit that I was never bored, but If another actor was in So Ji Sub's place I probably would have dropped it early on. I also can't see myself watching this again, unless I'm in desperate need of a So Ji Sub fix.
Wait, have I mentioned that I really like So Ji Sub? ; p
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Story 10/10 : WOW! JUST WOW. The story is very unique(at least for me). It intertwines both the past and the modern time in a very, very interesting and easily understandable way.
Cast/Acting 10/10: The cast was lovable and the actors made that happen extremely well .
Music 8/10: The music was great and served its purpose quite well. However, it wasn't 10/10 material for me. Just my personal opinion, don't know why or how, but thats just how I feel.
Rewatch Value 5/10: I'm not a rewatcher so I most likely wont watch this movie again.
Overall 10/10: This movie stunned me. I don't know how to describe it, but it was amazing. It's not action packed, but more about friendship and the effect of years on people. I especially enjoyed their transformations.
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A nice simple story with just enough surprises to keep you interested and a good cast of characters mean that you are left with a nice warm feeling at the end and not emotionally drained.
If you are unsure about this drama, I would recommend that you give it a chance as although it is mainly about family there is a small romance plot and a slightly disturbed character to keep people with all tastes happy.
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Picking up Vampire Host, I didn't have too much expectations about it. All I basically expected upon watching it was just to pass some time. What I didn't expect however, Was that already in the first episode I would be completely addicted to the drama. A drama based on the Bloodhound manga by the mangaka Yuki Kaori. I will be writing a spoilerless review.Rion Kanou is a 17 year old girl, And a great friend to her friend. One day she recieves a voice mail from her best friend who abrubtly got cut off. All she could hear from the voicemail was the sound of her friends really shaken up voice, And her saying that the person who has her captive is a real vampire. Not believing in vampires Rion's suspicions automatically leads her to a themed host club downtown, Where she meets the young Suou. Suou is refusing to have anything to do with her best friends dissapearance which makes Rion more sure that he is the person behind it. Leaving herself indebted by breaking a valueable wine bottle, She starts working in the host club and by a call of fate she finds out the truth of Suou. This fated encounter eventually leading her into a dangerous journey ahead filled with new encounters, Dangers, Sadness, Happiness, Laughter, Fear and some romance. It doesn't seem like something special when you first watch it, But when you've watched it for a bit things definately becomes more original aswell as entertaining.
The soundtrack isn't too special. Its fitting that of a short drama, But it doesn't stand out especially much to the point of needing to be bragged about.
Vampire Host is definately not a drama you should miss out on. If you like romance, comedy, vampires and ofcourse the supernatural-genre, this will be a mustlove for you. They have however decided to keep parts of this drama somewhat alike the vampire stereotype due to the manga. Allthough things might get exaggerated often in the series, Its a part of its charm..
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it's a simple story line but quite touching, it's very realistic in the way it was filmed
despite not a huge amount happening in the film, the story has stuck in my mind and i think i'm going to watch this again soon :)
overall, i think it's one to watch if you want something that is quite simple yet a nice watch at the same time :)
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this was one of the first dramas i ever watched and will always remain one of my favourites and one that i can watch over and over again without losing interest
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it's seriously emotional, and the fact it's based on a real girl and what she went through facing the disease, it makes it so much more emotional.
All the characters are well acted and easy to believe, i cried in every episode and it left me heartbroken but inspired at the same time
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So why did I like this? It just sounds so cliché...
Like, you know: Meeting someone through e-mails and loving him while hating the real life person yaddayadda...
Still this drama leaves a very warm feeling. It's nothing you have never seen before, that is for sure. But it provides a lot of memorable scenes and you gradually get to know and love all the characters (well, all except one... which is the "boku"guy.... He's too weird to like. Too weird... Believe me.)
And at least one character will totally surprise you at the end of the show.
Also there are some e-mail messages that I'll never forget in my whole life. Haven't forgotten them for 5 years, so I guess, I'll remember them in another 5 years too~ Some very very wonderful lines written by both of them that make you start to think about life itself and about love.
The music is not that great. But there is that once piano piece that keeps returning nearly every episode and that I loved so much.
And it actually has an important role~ But that you have to find out yourself.
The whole show is really slow paced. 12 episodes, a few e-mails and a lot of meeting-people in between. Still you don't get bored with it. Rather you want to see more of the two main characters spending some time together.
It's a wonderful romantic drama. If you want to watch something for the heart, it's a good choice. But you have to deal with the slow pace...
Enjoy it~~
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The plot is amazing, it keeps you on your toes and has so many twists and turns, each as unexpected as the next.
At first i thought it would be a predictable show, but i can promise you it's not.
This had me crying of both happiness and sadness, and i will tell you now, if you have any kind of conscience in you, this is guaranteed to make you cry at some point.
Some people feel that the ending is disappointing, though i personally really like the ending (despite the fact they made a new addition to the plot right at the end that they could have expanded on a lot more) i felt that it was an appropriate and well thought out ending :)
I will definitely watch this again at some point, though after watching it once you know the story line, it's one of those shows you can watch again and again and it will still have the same impact and emotion to it.
if you are reading this then i beg you to please watch this show, if not i promise you will be missing out!!
:D
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the 1970's love story wasn't that bad. actually, it's my first time to watch that kind of era, and it was really justifiable 'coz the characters have their job well done in that scenes. then, the modern day puffed geun suk was so handsome in there and yoona as usual was so adorable. it was an overall transformation to both of them. i started to became addicted as episode 5 started and anticipated more on the drama to the extent that I, myself was creating an ending for the story. though, i know it's a little bit predictable, i still prefer to watch it to see how the story goes on. the ending was great and it was very satisfying unlike the other dramas that i have seen there's no such marriage involved. anyway, what i just don't like is that the climax was so long that it took many episodes before they've resolve the problem but then, overall, a great story with such very good and amazing actors and a happy ending of course :)
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I think if there had been more action and actual drama this could have been better. One woman yelling "no you can't date" isn't drama... In many dramas you have one or two people plotting to destroy everything related to the people they are against (like the one parent and/or the one person who was always 'in love' with one of the two main characters.) But in this drama nothing happened, really. Maybe the drama wasn't meant to be as action-packed or detailed as most, but for all the hype about it I was left disappointed. Probably wouldn't watch it again.
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Story: People said that the story was slow.. But hey, Love Rain has the same script writer with Endless Love and Classic. They have the similiar genre actually, especially in first 4 episodes (in the 1970s era).. But as for me, it's perfectly fine. I enjoyed the flow of the story (even though actually I skipped episode 4 and just go through to episode 5). The 1970s story was so fluffy and almost poetic. Classic and romantic. It was different from most of recent dramas (which tend to have romantic comedy genre).
The rest of the episodes (the 2012 era) more likely parted into 2 stories: about Inha-Yoonhee and Joon-Hana. The 2012 stories are not as poetic as the 1970s, but still, it gives the feelings of "classic romance" rather than "romantic comedy". The storyline didn't have much twist, and not much side stories which apart from the main storyline. The story more likely stick with the main storyline and its development. Maybe that's why people becomes bored, because somehow the ending was predictable.
Acting: As usual, Jang Geunsuk was really good (somehow Joon's character remind me of Hwang Taekyung from You're Beautiful.. LOL). There were people who said that Yoona's acting here was terrible, and that her expression was flat. Well, imo, it's not that Yoona can't act, but Hana's character didn't need that much expression. Imo, Yoona already did very well as Hana. Their chemistry also really good.
But why I can't give 10 on score board was because, the older character, not all of them give me the same feeling as when they were younger.
Music: sooo heartwarming, especially Jang Geunsuk's Love Rain :) I definitely will listen to the whole album.
Rewatch value: as I said, because the storyline was slow and pretty predictable, also because there's not much twist, maybe not much of you would like to rewatch this. I, myself, not really rewatch the dramas I've watched. So, yeah..
Overall: This is a great drama, for you, the classic romance fans.. If you're looking for romantic comedy with a lot side stories and a lot of twist, maybe you will drop this drama from the very first episode.
If you can't stand the 1st episode, I suggest you can skip straight to episode 5. You maybe will lost the story a little, but there were plenty of flashbacks so maybe you can catch up with the stories, or maybe you can just focus on Joon-Hana's love line :)
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