Reviews

This was actually pretty funny and surprisingly touching at times. I guess I'll write a quick review since no one else has and apparently I liked it more than most people.

Rundown of good and bad: I liked the animated segments. I didn't quite get the exact parallels between them and the main character's real life at times, but maybe I'm just slow, haha. They didn't do a very good job of explaining why the relationship of the two leads wasn't working at the beginning, so it helped that the stakes were higher because of the "death wish" conditions. Otherwise I would not have cared if they got together or not. However, the "death wish" idea was pretty imaginative and propelled the story forward quite well.

The acting is good; the music is fine, but was mostly notable to me because it really, really reminded me of something and it finally came to me. The main song they used in this drama special is also present in a slightly reworked version in Ojakgyo Brothers, which was also on KBS just a year later.

Anyway, this is a quirky little drama special and I'm glad I finally got around to watching it.

Leia Mais

Joo Jin Mo is one of my favorites. In the role of Ji Eun Ho he demonstrated a greater acting range than I had seen in his other works. As a peevish, spoiled actor he still managed to be adorable. Kim Se Rang's performance as Eun Dong was good. Not sure if she had previous experience in a lead role but the portrayal as an amnesiac was believable. Although I found her romantic moments with JJM somewhat lacking. Perhaps her acting at these moments in the drama simply paled in comparison.to JJM.
Supporting cast was excellent - Kim Yoo-ri in her usual role as a "B". Kim Tae-Hoon as the bad guy whho simply misunderstood.
Score was poignant at just the right moments with great clarinet soul.
Could have been one of the GREAT melodramas in KDrama Land except the ending fell totally and completely flat. Did the writers quit after Episode 14? Still one of the best of 2016. I have rewatched this twice already. If you like angst and yearning this one is for you!

Leia Mais

I dropped this drama just before episode ten. I'd heard about all of the controversy and how they went totally off script in the second half, so I did a bad thing I always tell myself not to do and then do anyway, and I went and looked up some spoilers. Mainly for the last episode.

And I was just not down for that ending.

I'm giving this a ten, because what I watched was phenomenal, and if there hadn't ended up being such a big controversy, I probably would have finished this drama. Heck, part of me still really wants to go back and finish it, but the other part knows I'll get to the end and just be filled with rage by the ending.

If you know about the controversy and the ending and still want to give this drama a shot, please do. Because it really has a lot to commend itself.

Just prepare yourself for this train to fly fully off the rails and down a canyon halfway through.

Leia Mais

I have to say, this is a very endearing drama, and not as slow as I am used from Taiwanese standards.

It has a basic setting like Boys over Flowers, but it is quite different in many aspects.
Here are the points, that stood out to me:

1) The romance is very light for the first half or so, and gets more attention later on, but it never develops to such a single focused matter like in Korean dramas. That is due to
2) the wide range off different relationships that are here depicted. Although we have a main couple, it is more of an emotional network that is portrayed throughout the series
3) The main female character is naive, but to a believable extent, and she shows her martail arts skills throughout the series - which is nice, since many dramas portray strong femal characters as badass in the first two or so episodes and then let them transform to more tamed ones.
4) The mood stays light, until the last 5 episodes or so. Even then, when death happens at last, it is not as heavy as it is usually.

Aaaahhh... all in all - this drama has it ALL, but in a much more lighthearted way.
I really enjoyed it, especially the funny scenes.

Leia Mais

It's really, really short, and honestly could have used another episode or two to really flesh out the story, but it's sweet and light and the leads are quite likable, so I ignored the stories imperfections.

Kai's acting alternates between Really Terrible and eh, he's not too bad, but honestly, none of us are really here for his acting anyway. He's a cutie patootie, and I wanted him and our female lead together.

I'm not ever going to rewatch this, but it was an enjoyable watch, and you'll probably enjoy it too.

(Music is 1 because I don't remember what the music was like.)

Leia Mais

After months of having this title on my "to watch" list I decided to watch "Let's Eat" this week, then proceed to the "Let's Eat 2". Therefore, let me tell you, this drama is not only cute but super funny! Almost every episode made me laugh! I loved all the cast, even those who annoyed me slightly, won me over! I adored the two kids, the sister and main cast so much that is why I will continue to 2nd drama now after finishing this one.
Let me tell you, the food makes you hungry, the cast makes you laugh, the story flows nicely and if you are ready to laugh a lot this is a drama to watch or marathon! I have to say, after 2nd episode I honestly had to finish all in 72 hrs, and I did!
If Let's Eat 2 is as good as this one, I can't wait for more to come!!! Honestly, great entertainment here! :) :)

Leia Mais

I really wanted to finish this drama (for a number of reasons). I even attempted to watch it twice, getting a couple of episodes farther along the second time around before ultimately giving up again. And the reason I made it as far as I did (all the way to 2 eps before the end) is because there are a lot of good things about this drama. It has a solid start, a compelling and well paced story, the characters are all interesting and three-dimensional (even the secondary male and female leads), and the female lead is absolutely kickass. (I flippin’ love No Eun Seol. She’s the one thing about the drama I enjoyed during both my attempts to watch. She’s feisty. She’s tough. She’s hard-working. She’s genuine and honest. She’s persistent. She’s a little odd and different (for a Korean woman, anyway.) She’s got a no-nonsense attitude. And she can kick some literal ass.)

But the story was missing one of the number one things I need in a drama to like it. Actual romance.

While I never had a problem believing Cha Ji Heon truly liked No Eun Seol (sometimes I worried he liked her a little Too much, he was so annoying and persistent about it), I never believed she liked him back, and it felt weird watching the writers trying to convince me that she did. There was zero romantic chemistry on her side. Friendship chemistry, sure, but not romantic.

And while Cha Ji Heon was an adorable man-child in the beginning who just needed a steady, guiding hand (in the form of No Eun Seol), he eventually stopped being adorable and just became annoying. I just didn't understand why No Eun Seol would fall in love with him.

I eventually reached a point in the drama where I could no longer figure out No Eun Seol’s motivation for staying at her job. It was clearly no longer worth it. Contrary to what the writers wanted me to believe, there were zero signs that she was starting to like Cha Ji Heon (and he’d started to become persistent in a way that was slowly edging towards stalkerish and creepy), she'd had the job long enough to use it as a reference on her resume, and she definitely could have gotten another job that paid equally as well. If I had been her, I would have just quit and never looked back. Her motivation for staying was clearly meant to be that she had fallen in love with Cha Ji Heon, but I have to call bull on that.

Lack of genuine romance aside, the thing that probably drove me the most nuts was the ‘princess lessons.’ No Eun Seol didn’t want to learn how to arrange flowers and eat with fancy silverware. She didn’t want to learn how to be the ‘perfect wife’ of a CEO. (Which wouldn’t have worked anyway. Women like No Eun Seol just don’t do princess well.) And I didn't want her to have to do any of those things either, so watching her be affectively forced into them was unbearable to watch. If I had believed in the romance, I probably could have overlooked this. I would have been able to put up with the ‘princess lessons’ and the petty fighting between the parents, because I knew our leads truly loved each other and would stand by each other no matter what. But I Didn’t believe in the romance, and that made all the difference.

I do think this is a drama a lot of people would enjoy, so I'm certainly not saying don't watch it. But it left me disappointed and frustrated.

Leia Mais

I remember getting to somewhere around episode 8 or 10 of this drama and posting in the comments on Dramafever (miss you like a lung, Dramafever), ‘Normally, this would be the point when I'd say we were reaching the really difficult part of the drama, but let's be honest. That happened a while ago, lol.’

And it’s true. We get two or three episodes of real, lighthearted bickering and character development in this drama.

Then everything goes downhill.

I can't speak on the overarching plot, because I don't remember most of it, but the thing that made this drama fail so hard for me was the characters.

Xiao Qian was kickass the first few episodes, testifying against Jerry in court and playing that fabulous prank on him at the hotel. But then she started to have feelings for him, and grandma showed up with her terrible wig and controlling behavior, and suddenly, the only thing Xiao Qian had going for her anymore was she was cute.

Jerry was such an interesting character. He was the ultimate snake oil salesman, and it was honestly amazing just how good he was at making people fall all over themselves for him, and then in the same breath, making himself look like a total twat. His pride and arrogance was a double-edged sword, and I loved watching him fall on it.

Blue Lan also made some of the cutest facial expressions and funny little head tilts that I have ever seen. They looked like totally natural mannerisms that just extended out from his character, and I really loved that.

Sam was a very unusual secondary male lead. He was just as much of an arrogant, self-absorbed prick as our male lead, and in some ways, actually came off far worse then Jerry ever did. Jerry was arrogant and selfish and spoiled, but he was upfront about it. Sam was incredibly shady and underhanded and just way more subtle and sneaky about his arrogance.

He was basically a male lead stuck in a secondary male lead's body, and I wish they had really gone with that concept. But as soon as he developed an interest in Xiao Qian, the character went from spoiled and arrogant to kind and respectful in the span of an episode, and I found myself missing the more sinister version of him.

Amanda was way better as a mother then as a romantic rival. Keeping her son a secret was a terrible idea, but I think the actress did a fantastic job of making her look like a loving, caring, giving mother despite the circumstances. I just can't stand it how the writers forced her character to fall for Jerry. She gave in so easily. And Jerry wasn't even being particularly romantic either. He was more like a flamboyant stalker. Doing a background check on her. (That should have raised some serious red flags.) Showing up to HER birthday party and turning it around so it was all about him. (Seriously! Who shows up to Someone Else's birthday party riding a horse with a clown as an entrance when they aren't getting paid to?!)

Of course, that’s part of what made Jerry such a great character. He was so full of himself that he didn’t even know he was an idiot.

But Xiao Qian’s family was, hands down, my least favorite part of this drama. And grandma was the worst. She needed to go.

Fall off a cliff.

Into the ocean.

Filled with sharks.

I hate her.

In terms of romance, it did some things I liked and a Lot I didn't.

I initially enjoyed the 'two rich, arrogant guys having a face off' bit in the beginning. It was hilarious watching these spoiled, self-absorbed, men fight with each other. But it quickly became boring and repetitive. I wanted one of them (preferably Jerry, seeing as he was the male lead) to grow up and stop acting like a petulant child.

And of course, Jerry had to go and do Everything!!!!! in the romance backwards. Like, how about shutting it down with Amanda before trying to start something with Xiao Qian?

I do like that we didn’t have an epiphany scene where Jerry suddenly realized he liked Xiao Qian. He just came to like her, and there wasn’t any ridiculous fanfare over it. The only problem I have with there not being an epiphany scene is that…I had no idea he liked her until he suddenly started sidling up to her and being all ‘Hey, let’s be more then friends.’ There were glances from him and a couple sexually tense moments, but nothing that made me think ‘He’s definitely fallen for her.’ That build up could have been better.

But what am I saying?

Everything about this drama could have been better.

Leia Mais

I tried so hard to make it to at least to one particular scene in this drama (I'm sure no one is surprised by this, but it was the scene where Terry is shirtless and Da Hua accidentally walks in on him in the bathroom).

I never got there.

This drama didn't know who it's OTP was, and it suffered severely for it. Terry always felt like the clear choice considering how much time he and Da Hua spent together and how Deep he fell for her, but the story could never fully commit to that choice, and I was left looking for a reason to root for them. I needed there to be a reason for Terry and Da Hua to have to be around each other, for them to get to know each other as people, for them to fall for each other, and what I got was the opposite of what I needed.

And I fully place the blame on Da Hua as a character.

Da Hua had no underlying motivation for any of the choices she made. She actively put herself in situations where she was going to be uncomfortable. She actively put herself in situations that Guan Jun was bound to misunderstand and then tried to smooth it all over each and every time. She chose to bail Terry out of the mess he had gotten himself into by lying and creating the contract to begin with. And her determination to finish the ‘contract’ was So. Annoying. It Hurt. Terry was still going to have to tell everyone that Liang Yian was dead thus making the contract pointless and void. She actively did the opposite of what would have been logical in every situation she was presented with.

And before anyone tells me I’m an idiot who clearly didn’t understand the real reason why Da Hua wanted to finish the contract, let me stop you right there.

I know what the drama writers were trying to do. They were trying to trick me into believing that Da Hua wanted to finish the contract because she was falling in love with Terry.

Falling in love with Terry my derrierriere (that is a spelling Choice, not a mistake). While he was clearly starting to have feelings for her, there was no indication from her that she had any interest in him At All. There were no tender glances or accidental touches, no inner monologues about how kind or smart or handsome he was, no lingering in his presence or just generally wanting to be around him all the time. Every time Terry attempted to make a move, Da Hua would practically Fly out of the room, she was so intensely uncomfortable with his attraction to her.

She did not like him.

Which was stupid, because…there was a lot to like.

I mean, he was an idiot who agreed to pretend his fiancé wasn’t dead and subsequently dragged someone else into that mess, but he was still an utterly lovely person.

And could we not have gotten some actual exposition on this whole idea of real love verses being enamored with someone’s physical appearance?

I have no problem believing that Terry was actually falling in love with Da Hua as a person and not because she looked like his dead fiancé. And I have no problem believing Guan Jun was also falling in love with her as a person and not because she was suddenly ‘beautiful.’ I think both actors did a good job of making their feelings for her seem believable.

I Do have a problem with there being zero exploration into what it means to be in love with someone verses what it means to be in love with your idea of someone, considering that was one of the major messages of the drama. There were very valid reasons for our lead to question the motives of these two men, and for us, the audience, to do so as well. But the writers never even touched on those reasons accept to mention them in passing. How am I supposed to pick one of them over the other if I don’t actually know if either of them are truly in love with her?

For my part, I did want her with Terry. If only because of how amazingly good the actor was at giving tender, gentle looks in her direction, and because he was a hottie Mchottieson, and because he was just so incredibly nice. (Makes terrible life choices, but he's still very nice.)

But the drama was too frustrating to finish, and I honestly probably could have substituted it with another drama and been much happier.

Leia Mais

Updated Review 2021:

Wow. What a difference a few years (or more) of drama viewing make. I originally watched this drama back when I was still a little baby drama newbie, and it definitely shows in my first review (which I've kept at the bottom of this updated review for you to compare the two with each other). I did not understand this drama or what it was trying to do. At all, lol. After a re-watch (only the second drama I've ever attempted to re-watch and the only drama I've Succeeded in fully re-watching), my feelings have fundamentally altered.

This drama is literally genius. Uproariously funny, office politics intrigue that's actually...intriguing, Yoo Bang and Yeo Chi are Damn. Good. Characters., side characters who feel like family, consistent plot, a side character who Really surprises you with their character progression, extremely well-used aspects of the drama's real-life source material, chock-full of traditional Korean sayings. This is basically a Kdrama classic and required viewing for all Kdrama lovers.

And now that I've given it such glowing praise, let me talk about my complaints, lol.

While I love Yoo Bang and Yeo Chi to pieces, Hang Woo and Woo Hee are definitely the most inconsistent characters out of our main four, and my major complaints about the drama are all related to them.

1) Hang Woo has a deep-seeded desire for revenge that plays an important part in the main plotline of the drama but at some point, said revenge disappears and isn’t mentioned or alluded to or plays any part in the story again until about 3 eps out from the end. It fades from the story in a way that feels natural and realistic, but the writers never give an explanation as to Why Hang Woo doesn’t seem to care about exacting his revenge anymore. He just effectively stops trying to get revenge.

2) Once Hang Woo and Woo Hee start down the path of truly falling for each other (not just flirting/driving each other nuts at every turn/Hang Woo being manipulative), there's very little focus on them actually getting to know each other as people. I found myself wanting to actually See them falling in love with each other, not just be told that that's what happened, and I was disappointed that their entire relationship added up to 'they (adorably) (hilariously) drove each other nuts for ages and now they're in love.'

3) The last three to four eps are not as tightly plotted as the rest of the drama and can be a bit draggy in places. This is mostly to do with Hang Woo's character (and tangentially Woo Hee) because of the aforementioned problem with his plans of revenge disappearing with no explanation then suddenly popping back up to become an important part of the plot again.

I'm not going to say this is one of my favorite dramas, but man do I respect it a lot more than I used to. Contrary to what ignorant, naive, little baby drama newbie me thought, this is a very good drama.

I do not recommend Korean drama newbie's watch this drama as their first, second, third, fourth, or even fifth drama though as there's a lot going on here that you probably won't be able to fully appreciate until you've got a few other dramas under your belt, but you should definitely watch it once you know enough about Korean dramas to really appreciate all of the magnificent things Salaryman did with it's story.


Original Review:
Great at humor. Terrible at drama.

And Hang Woo. Make up your damn mind, son!!!

I've contemplated going back and watching that last episode so many times.

Maybe I will someday.

Then again, maybe I'll just get some ice cream instead.

Leia Mais