Reviews

This is a retro romcom that hasn't lost any of it's charm! I was very skeptical when starting to watch this. I was afraid it would be too dated, or too long, but It was neither. This show features a great ensemble cast, and leads with amazing chemistry. I think it rivals any modern romcom, in spite the fact that it relies on so many drama clichés.

Maybe it was a little more innovative at the time, but the story is super basic by today's standards. Super cute curly-haired Dalja is anxious about getting older, when she ends up getting involved in a pretend relationship with a much younger and carefree Tae Bong. Their story involves everything you expect, including a classic relationship contract, but that still didn't stop me from loving watching their story unfold. Dalja's constant complaints about being old were annoying, and some of her fantasies are super cheesy, but she is an extremely likable character. Chae Rim did a good job of making her naive without being extremely annoying. She matched perfectly with Lee Min Ki's much edgier portrayal of Kang Tae Bong. Tae Bong has a mischievous charm that makes him very crush worthy. His eyes were very red, as if he was always high, or had bad allergies, but the looks he would give Dalja made it impossible for her (and I) not to fall for him. Their kissing moments left a lot to be desired, but I expect that from a drama this old. Their chemistry alone makes the show good enough to watch, but there is also an amazing supporting cast.

What I love most about the supporting cast is that I had no idea how significant, and interesting they would become. On the surface they are stereotypical... the playboy, the cool egotistical host, the perfect on paper second lead, the scary boss (with the awesome glasses)... but each of these characters end up being way more complicated, and significant. I adored Lee Hye Young as Seon Joo, who I expected to hate, but won me over. Gong Hyung Jin was great too, even if his hair was distractingly stupid. I even loved some of the more minor characters, like Jang Young Nam as Ki Joong's psycho wife. The minor storylines were also entertaining, so they never felt like filler, and they helped to make the 22 episodes not drag for me.

Even though I really liked the writing, if there was a kdrama trope checklist, this drama would almost check every box. The drama is however clever enough to make fun of that fact several times during some of the show's "if this were a drama" moments. It also plays off of some of Dalja's romanticized ideas about romance. Still, it's super predictable at every turn, but the cast is so good that knowing what will happen didn't stop me from wanting to see it happen. My only real complaint is that, although I liked the endings for the supporting characters, I didn't love the ending for the main couple. I rolled my eyes several times during the last 2 episodes, but It did however leave me wanting more, which I guess is a good thing.

The OST for this show is also a good one, and matches the mood of the show well. The main song definitely got stuck in my head! But it's the illustrations that really steal the show! I looooooved the artwork, which was a really nice touch, and captured the characters and stories well.

Overall this is a drama cute enough to stand the test of time. I could see myself watching this again just because the characters are so fun. I really liked the theme of true love vs expectations of love as well. I highly recommend Dal Ja's Spring to anyone who avoids retro dramas... I think you may also be pleasantly surprised.

Leia Mais

I love this so much... at first i thought that this would be a senseless RomCom that i'll drop within 3 episodes but the truth was that i was really addicted to this couple so much... their chimestry is so good! so perfect for each other...! The cast was fantastic i never watched a drama with Jo In Sung but his smile just melted and melted my heart!
The Ost's? oh boy... are amazing and perfect for the time! "Best Luck" by Chen (from EXO) and "Ifeel you" by Hong Dae Kwang are so addicting... it makes you sing even if you don't know what the hell are you singing!

Leia Mais

Glad I watched this because it taught me so much more about human-nature and what we as people are really capable of, given the circumstances, we are potentially good or evil, as seen by the male lead and how he manipulates and justifies the "cheese" and those who willingly fall into their own "trap", which for a long time he will not take not even partial responsibility for.

What a strange, strange drama. Cheese in the trap started off with such a different, eary and chilly feel, which indicates brilliant acting from the leads and supporting siblings. However, you soon start to feel that the brilliant acting from the leads is downplayed because of the lack of character development. It made me really appreciate the importance of Baek InHo and Baek InHa's predicament which ended up in happiness and self-fulfilment.

They go from having growing pains to finally being able to detach themselves and start new lives in the final episode, the leads however, had an unsatisfactory ending. I usually like to be objective and don't really mind how the ending is, as long as the characters THEMSELVES find self-fulfilment at the end. This leads me to wonder what the entire point of the past 15 episodes was while watching episode 16.

So for all those complaining that the supporting Baek In Ho as a supporting character got way to much screen time, I am very satisfied with the outcome at least. My time watching his dilemmas was not wasted, because he eventually found his passion again, even his sister had a new beginning.

I've watched enough K-Dramas to figure out all the genres and what is most enjoyable or appealing to me and what genres I need to give more of a chance to because I surprisingly end up enjoying things I thought I would drop. I really wanted to get into more eary and chilly dramas, but this one just couldn't do it for me.

Shout out to everyone who liked it though, everyone is entitled to their own favorite shows!

Leia Mais

This shw is INCREDIBLE!! What a breath of fresh air to the usual K-drama set up. The writing will leave you in absolute stitches and at the same time so many life lessons can be learned.

The four male leads really carried this show and the supporting cast as farmers were so funny in their treatment of the leads that for the first time I might actually watch a K-Drama for the 2nd time.

Whenever I even think of this drama I immediately get a smile on my face while reminiscing the hilarity of Man-Goo's antics!!
Officialy my all time favourite Korean comedy. If anymore can recommend a similar hilarious comedy that is funny from beginning to end , I would appreciate it. ????

Leia Mais

Birth of a Beauty might be aptly renamed "The Tale of Two Dramas," because the second half of this show could not be more different from the first half. And no, that's not particularly good.


STORY
While it started out as a fun rom-com with a campy mystery B-plot, it eventually bought into that campy B-plot completely, abandoning the rom-com aspects that were so strong in the beginning and trying (and mostly failing) to sell itself as a serious thriller drama.

While comparisons can be made to The Count of Monte Cristo, the show itself was more Jekyll and Hyde than anything. This irritating misdirection and mishandling of characters was punctuated by possibly the worst and most unnecessary Noble Idiocy I have yet come across in all of drama. While it's not as insulting as something like Angel Eyes, Birth of a Beauty is still guilty of turning its lead female into a bonehead in order to drum up cheap conflict without having to write something original.

That being said, the premise of the show itself is still not without merit. If you enjoyed The Count of Monte Cristo, you'll enjoy aspects of this as well. A normal, everyday woman is mistreated and, eventually, murdered by those she trusts. Except she survives, transforms herself, and returns to exact retribution on those who did her wrong. However, don't expect it to be as satisfying as Monte Cristo; while that classic slowly seeds his revenge over time and then reveals it mostly in the climax, Birth of a Beauty belabors the revenge plot early on and offers very little satisfying resolution over the course of time. By the time some of the villains have actually tasted justice, I barely noticed, since it was often handled with little dramatic impact and usually the effects of it were only temporary, seeing the villains shortly back to their misdeeds with almost no consequence. Expect to see lots of mustache-twirling here from the innumerable villains and, especially in the back half, multiple minutes per episode of people just looking dramatically at each other after nothing of consequence was said.

You're probably thinking "This sounds worse than a 7/10", but the reason it scored that high is because the romance plot was far superior to the revenge plot. While that, too, was mishandled (badly) in the back half, it was still good enough to keep my wife and I interested throughout. Most viewers will have little trouble buying into the romance here, as JSW and HYS have some SERIOUS chemistry with each other. Not only that, but despite how poorly written the back half is, the resolution and payoff is actually pretty good. While I would have preferred at least an entire episode dedicated to falling action and character send-offs, what you get is good enough.
If, however, you're someone who simply cannot tolerate main characters behaving stupidly, Han Ye Seul's character here will almost certainly have you dropping this before you reach Episode 15.


ACTING/CAST
I never thought I'd see the day where I give a Joo Sang Wook drama less than 8 in this category, but here we are. Not MUCH less than 8, of course, but still. Han Ye Seul is charming and fun, but from what I could see, comedy is her strength. She wasn't bad at all with the dramatic stuff, but I wouldn't say she was good either. Her face seems custom built to smile (literally, perhaps?), and when she is smiling, you could almost really believe that men would follow her around Korea like sheep with a shepherd. However, in her one melo scene, her face contorted so unnaturally that it took both me and my wife right out of the moment. Would definitely love to see more of her in a strictly comedic role. While the aforementioned JSW was, of course, great, even he started dripping into "dry" territory in the back half here. Not his fault; he really just didn't have much to work with in the script. That being said, he is at his comedic BEST in the front half. Many many hilarious moments, the absolute best being when he dresses up as a mariachi with a big fake handlebar mustache and sings (you just have to see it for yourself).

All of this, of course, leads me to our second leads. Wang Ji Hye was probably the second best actor in the show, talent-wise. She handled the subtleties of her character with ease. Again, though, she wasn't given a wide variety of things to do. On the other hand, this is the second drama with Jung Gyu Woon I've seen, and I don't think I've seen his facial expression change once in either drama. He's better here than in Oh My Venus, but only because his character is comically evil. Even with such an extreme character to play, don't expect much from him here.

As for the Supporting Cast, exactly two actors are worth mentioning:
Han Jin Hee plays a stern, loud buffoon for 19 and a half episodes. In his final scene, he is given a touching moment with one of the main characters and he ABSOLUTELY KILLS IT. His character is one of the more interesting and dynamic throughout the plot, despite having very little of consequence to do.
Kang Kyung Hun has the most honest acting moment in the whole show, a throwaway moment barely given time to shine and yet it drew a teardrop or two from both me and my wife.


MUSIC
Weird that I gave this highest marks, but really Wife and I were singing and humming so many different songs from this one. While the incidental music is forgettable, the vocal themes are consistently strong and memorable, especially the opening credits theme, "She" by SHINee. Very catchy.


REWATCH VALUE
The first half is immensely rewatchable, honestly. So many cute and fun moments. High-energy, lots of comedy, lots of intrigue. And the very first episode, particularly, is superbly shot and edited. But that back half of this drama.... ouch. It was hard to get through it once, so I can't imagine trying to watch it again. I remember laughing out loud once because there was one particular reaction shot that I think had to be over 60 seconds long. I'm not exaggerating. The camera just stayed on JSW for forever while he looked serious. I imagined JSW in his head thinking "Uh.... is someone gonna say 'cut'.... sometime?" And that right there is par for the course for the second half of Birth of a Beauty. Lots of reaction shots, lots of people staring at each other, lots of villains twirling their mustaches. Not a lot worth seeing beyond a few decent plot points and, of course, the resolution, which really does manage to satisfy and is worth watching a few times.


All in all, if you're in the mood for a good rom-com, exhaust your other options first. If you're in the mood for a thriller, look elsewhere. If you're in the mood for Joo Sang Wook and you've seen his other dramas, dive right in to this one! Despite my serious complaints, there is still an odd charm to the show; an intangible factor that can still hook a viewer. My wife complained about a lot of it, but at the end said "You know, I still liked this." I can't say I disagree. You may have the same reaction, so don't be afraid to give it a shot.

Leia Mais

Healer is one of the best dramas I’ve seen so far. It has the right balance of romance, comedy, action, suspense, everything you could ask in a drama.

The story is about this guy who calls himself “Healer” who together with a hacker “Ahjumma” does any kind of errands as long as they are paid (anything except murder) no questions asked. The story is full of suspense as to know who is really The Healer and why he does what he does. And for him to discover what happen to his family and why is he living the way he does. Doing his job he meets a young reporter who slowly gets involved with him and with the mystery surrounding him.

I found the acting to be really on spot, they had a great casting. It’s my first time watching Ji Chang Wook in anything but he does great as Healer, he has this serious face when needed and also the comedy part is always fun to watch. Also my first time watching Park Min Young and I found her cute and also tenacious reporter Young Shin very well acted. Yoo Ji Tae was also new to me and really loved him acting as the protective person Healer and Young Shin needed. I have seen Kim Mi Kyung before, on Heirs for example or The Master’s sun, but here she was awesome, she was unrecognizable and I love her!! Ahjumma is one of the best characters ever been on a drama, Kim Mi Kyung will never be the same for me I recently saw her on Oh Hae Young Again, and it made my brain so confused it was like “Ahjumma what are you doing there?? Crying and being a mom?

The OST is awesome I loved to pieces “Eternal Love” it’s on my top 5 of best drama songs. I download it and listen to it every time I’m down. It works like a charm, one of the best songs ever.

Overall this a very gooood drama, highly recommend it and I think you can watch it several times an even though the mystery won’t be a mystery anymore the love story and the goofiness will worth the rewatch.

Leia Mais

This Drama is very light-hearted and cheerful. It made me smile as I kept watching and I didn't think it was boring at any point. The plot twists are interesting because the drama keeps misleading you throughout the episodes and it has a lot of funny moments.
I'm not usually into Romcoms because of all the Clichéd/repetitive scenes we see everywhere , but one of this drama's strong points is that it didn't do that ( a lot ). If anything the romance was cute and warm and all the characters were lovable.

The only thing I didn't like was how 80% of the events were a coincidence. There are way too many coincidental events which made the drama drift away from reality and a bit annoying for me to be honest.

Leia Mais

This story revolves around the good foxes of qing qiu. The drama has several main characters and their own individual stories (mainly about love and saving their tribe) linked all together to form the plot. The casting was decent and Na Zha's acting skills were done well here.

I think the middle of the drama was useless and a waste of time. In my opinion, you only need to watch the first one or two episodes then skip to the last few episodes which has Tao Heng (Na Zha) in it. Her part with Liu Zhang Yan is​ so cute and funny, which I think is probably the only moments worth watching in the entire drama.

It was a pretty average drama. Out of all the fantasy dramas including fox spirits, this drama isn't that great, but not bad enough to consider terrible. Honesty I probably will never rewatch it, or at least not all the episodes. So if you're interested in watching and get bored after watching the first 5-10 episodes skip to the last story (episode 27) of the drama.

Leia Mais

I watched this second time so it's time to write a review. I rarely rate any drama this high.

If you are looking for a story that has action, humour, witty characters and of course, romance then you are going to love this. Now, I usually don't go for military themed dramas or in fact medical dramas either. I just hate to watch political scenes and "we have to explain this medical procedure with a 10-minute scene" kind of dramas so that's why I rarely start any drama with those themes even if it is highly recommended.

So why did I decided to start Descendants of the Sun? When it aired it popped up literally everywhere; in drama sites, discussions, forums etc. I was slowly getting interested because the hype was huge. What finally drew me to watch DotS was a scene where Kang Mo Yeon drives a car, gets into accident and makes calls babbling about how she feels towards everyone. I accidentally saw this scene when it was shown on a variety show and I was like well, that looked somewhat interesting. Next thing I knew, I was watching first episode of DotS.

Don't let first minutes fool you because this show is full of humour, funny moments and romance. Even if story deals with serious issues it takes a bit lighter approach to them than most of military/medical themed dramas. I was hooked after only one episode which happens veeeery rarely. It's difficult to get my attention in just one episode but DotS did it. It was mainly because main couple's chemistry was so good!

Characters are likeable and you can find at least one character you will cheer on. Our main leads are charismatic and shine like no other. There's instant attraction and I like that about drama instead of watching hours and hours of bickering before they slowly come to like each other.

Song Joong Ki does amazing job portraying Captain Yoo Si Jin; he is handsome but adorable at the same time and has pretty good sense of humour as well as he's responsible leader who does not fear to take action. Song Hye Kyo likewise does great job presenting Kang Mo Yeon, a headstrong doctor who is kind at heart.
I loved watching our main couple and their witty dialoque with each other. I have to say I didn't like Song Hye Kyo as an actor before and that was one of the main reasons I was relunctant to watch this drama. But man, I wish I had started this earlier. Now everytime I try to judge and skip a drama based on theme or actor/actress I tell myself "look what happened with Descendants of the sun. It ended up being your favorite drama ever."

Other side characters were important to story, there was no "extra" character filling up some plotline. This was propably one of the hardest dramas to pick which couple you like the best; main or secondary. I instantly took liking to Seo Dae Young and how he can make jokes with that poker face. He has cute serious personality (can I even say it like that :D ). Yoon Myung Ju shines beside Seo Dae Young, I think this is Kim Ji Won's best role so far portraying no nonsense, I get what I want kind of a woman.

From other actors, Onew did pretty amazing job too. Yet again I was surprised by an idol actor. Only thing I didn't like though that his character was too wimpy in one point :/

Ok, the bad guys. They were pointed out pretty much from the start and I think David McInnis was right choice to play the part of ex-soldier turned gangster. He had this dark moody look and when he smirked it just gives chills.
And minor bad guy Jin Yeong Soo played by Jo Jae Yun made me hate him so he did a good job.

Something I didn't like about this drama is hard to find. But if I specifically have to point something out then it's events in episode 15. Hard to explain without spoilers but let's say that writers did one pretty typical korean drama plot twist. Otherwise this drama was really unique, had equal amount of seriousness to it as funny moments and romance. I liked how whole drama was filmed in advance so no viewers or whatsoever could affect how story would progress.

Music was good, especially main theme song stays in your head after you watch episode or two :P

So overall I'd say that give this a chance even if you don't like military or medical dramas. If you for example loved City Hunter drama, I think DotS is kind of similar but even hundred times better. (just my opinion).

Leia Mais