While I was
looking for a kdrama to review I wasn’t really looking for a romantic comedy.
Sometimes with the lighter kdramas I am not sure whether to take a scene
seriously or laugh at how ridiculous the situation might seem. I am going to have
to go with romantic comedy in the first half of the episode rather than serious
drama because of the seriously cheesy nature of the scenes. In parts there were
added sparkly graphics to add emphasis to the cheese which shouldn’t belong in
a serious drama. So yeah, it was a light-hearted beginning to the series that
was leaning on the silly side.
The episode did
take a serious turn which felt suddenly cold because although what happened was
reasonably predictable, it went against the momentum of the scenes. What
impressed me at this stage was the amount of grief on display. The actors were
given an adequate amount of time to grieve without it being a prolonged process
and by kdrama standards, the amount of screen time devoted to grief as
remarkably short.
Highlights:
For me, if the
drama had stayed light hearted comedy all the way thought, I would stop here
and not watch anymore unless other reviews give the show a lot of kudos.
However the introduction of potential to develop the character of the lead
protagonist and to a lesser extent unravelling backstory of the mysterious lady
gives me two reasons to continue watching the show. My completely unfounded
theory on the mystery lady is that she is JKS’s long lost adopted half-brother
who lost their memory and is posing as a girl to gain entrance into an elite cosmetics
school.
Acting:
I have given the
quiet nod to Jang Keun-Suk acting ability previously, while I was not overly impressed
with the dramas themselves, his acting is solid. JKS knows how to hold a scene
together by portraying underlying emotions subtlety. It felt like he brought his A game to the
first episode and the script let him down by not being epic enough.
Sound:
For me this was
a weakness, some of the music they played to ( this is my theory why they chose
this music at that time anyhow ) emphasize emotion was just wrong. The crazy 80s
tempo of the music would turn what could be serious contemplation into
something farcical.
Imagery:
Sets were
plausible without being overly dramatic. There was a car chase scene and the
indicators on one of the cars looked as though it was set to random. The car
was chasing another yet when it turned left the right indicator would light up
and when it turned right the opposite indicator went off.
n.b
Decided to make
it a review format instead of a recap as there is a bunch of people recapping
and I would rather just discuss what happened instead of typing out every
detail of what happened.
Yay my first
review complete… :D
