Fantastic

Fantastic

8/10

Fantastic

Genre:                                  Episodes: 16                                 Year: 2016

Romance

Comedy

Melodrama

Synopsis:

Lee So Hye is a popular drama writer who has just started production on her latest series ‘Hitman’. Against her wishes, the lead role goes to Ryu Hae Sung, a popular, handsome actor who can’t actually act well. When So Hye is diagnosed with cancer, she decides to live the rest of her life, no matter how short, to the fullest.

Cast:

Kim Hyun Joo (Lee So Hye)

Joo Sang Wook (Ryu Hae Sung)

Kim Tae Hoon (Hong Joon Ki)

Park Shi Yeon (Baek Seol)

Ji Soo (Kim Sang Wook)

Jo Jae Yoon (Oh Chang Suk)

Kim Young Min (Choi Jin Tae)

Kim Jung Nan (Choi Jin Suk)

Kim Jae Hwa (Jo Mi Sun)

General Thoughts:

How can a drama about cancer be so fun to watch? Admittedly, the drama wasn’t all happy and fun all the time, but it managed to hit this strange balance of being heartwarming at the same time as heartbreaking.

I don't know what to do with my emotions

The writers did an excellent job, as I was riding every wave of emotion they wanted me to. I was sad when I was supposed to feel sad, happy when I was supposed to feel happy, and frustrated when I was supposed to feel frustrated. K-Dramas can often come off a bit heavy-handed in the way they try and manipulate your emotions, but ‘Fantastic’ had such a gradual pacing that you didn’t realise you liked these characters until you were already in love with them. There were so many things the drama did right, but by far my favourite was the way they handled the love-triangle.

Unexpected bros

The men didn’t hate each other just for liking the same girl, and they didn’t fight over So Hye like a scrap of meat. Both Hae Sung and Joon Ki respected So Hye enough to let her make her own decision, and never resorted to pettiness or bringing each other down. In fact, it was quite the opposite, where the men also had a deep respect for each other, and gave each other as much of a fair chance as they could- meaning they could remain friends even as So Hye dated Hae Sung.

He's just so loveable

And what a beautiful friendship it was. I all-round just loved Hae Sung as a character, but the moment he truly blew me away was at Joon Ki’s party to fulfil his bucket list. Only a really wonderful man can look at his friend with that much love while his friend is looking at that man’s finance in the same way. Granted, Joon Ki was dying and this was on of his last wishes, but it was still such a selfless act for Hae Sung to give Joon Ki that day with So Hye. And Joon Ki himself was a pretty magical character. Even though he loved So Hye, he was constantly supporting Hae Sung, and teaching him the best ways to respond in medical situations that were bound to arise for So Hye. The bromance was beautiful because it didn’t feel forced and it wasn’t set up as though it was one of the drama’s highlights, even though it was. Hae Sung and Joon Ki has a steady, natural relationship that was so fun, and so sad to watch unfold. The writers did an amazing job in the way they handled Joon Ki’s death. We’d had a couple of scares, so we knew the event was going to happen eventually, and having Joon Ki plan his funeral with Hae Sung was a beautiful way to get us ready for his inevitable departure.

So much love. So much cancer.

So while Joon Ki’s death was extremely sad, it also managed to snag a bit of a happy note, in that Joon Ki had accomplished all the things he wanted to, and spent the last of his days loving and being loved by his friends. Having such a complete story arc for Joon Ki that ended with his death also meant that it didn’t feel like a cop-out when So Hye didn’t die in the series.

Because she will die- it's just a matter of when

Through Joon Ki we saw how So Hye was most likely to die, so we all knew it would happen, but it didn’t have to happen right there in Episode 16. While the finale ended up perhaps a little too neat and happy for some people (I personally loved it), it was always in the back of our minds that So Hye could die just as suddenly as Joon Ki did- even though we weren’t going to be around to see it. I enjoyed the happiness of the episode (and the fact that So Hye didn’t die) because I felt like Hae Sung earned a bit of happiness. Sure, it’s not realistic in the slightest- you can be the most supportive husband ever and cancer can still kill your wife, but in a K-drama I do enjoy that little bit of magic now and then. Hae Sung went through so much all series long, and always stood as a firm, constant support for So Hye. And I must admit that So Hye wasn’t always the nicest to him and tended to flip-flop around, making supporting her that much more difficult. So I adored the way she was quietly supporting and cheering on Hae Sung in the last script-reading, which was a lovely juxtaposition to the first script-reading where she laughed at and embarrassed Hae Sung. Overall the thing I’m most glad about with the finale is that everyone was just carrying on with their normal lives.

It's all well and good preparing for death, but also prepare for if she lives another 5 years, okay?

All series long we’ve seen our characters act as if So Hye could drop dead any second, which left me feeling a bit conflicted. While it’s good to be prepared for that, I felt like our characters were ignoring the possibility and not preparing for the event of So Hye actually living longer than was expected (like how Joon Ki lived five years longer than medical science said he would).

He was like a cute meerkat always popping out his window

So I truly loved how our characters finally seemed to reach this balance of yes, So Hye (and in fact any one of them) could die the next day, but they could also live on together for quite some time. Taking a step back from our main characters, the support was just as wonderful. Ji Soo once again slays it as the puppy with a noona crush, but it was enjoyable to see him cast as a character that was a little older, and so was able to assist his noona and actually be viewed as a man. Seol herself was a great character to watch as her character has such a gradual, but steadily built conflict. While her explosion at her in-laws couldn’t seem to come soon enough, it was ever so satisfying when it finally came. I love that Seol never actually had an affair with Sang Wook, but it was his adoration of her and his certainty that Seol deserved to be loved that gave Seol the courage to finally step away from her oppressive and abusive in-laws. The cover for Ji Soo's illness flowed smoothly and you wouldn't pick him being absent unless you already knew. His character's relationship with Seol flowed smoothly despite the slight interruption, so I'm glad he and the writers/producers/director let him have time off early to recover, and he was able to make a quick return to the show and finish up his great role. As for the in-laws themselves they were great antagonists for the story.

In-laws. What a bunch of bastards.

So Hye and Hae Sung had enough drama between them simply due to So Hye’s cancer, so it was a relief that the drama chose to focus on mainly external conflicts (mostly in the form of Jin Sook) for our main couple. Jin Sook and her brother were haughty, arrogant and insanely dislikable- but as we could see their downfall coming a mile-off it was easy to watch them have their small victories because we all knew that soon enough Hae Sung and Seol would win the big, final showdown (which they did- yay!). This crappy family wasn’t so dislikable that they sucked the fun out of the drama (as some villains tend to do), but they were a consistent force to compete against and eventually beat. As much as I loved this drama and its characters and writing, I did find the editing choices to be a bit odd at times.

What kind of weird ass editing choice was this?

There were some symbolic dream-scenes that didn’t really make a lot of sense (why the doll crying tears of blood as a puppet collapses? Just why?) and some edited scenes that could have been presented better (why am I getting a split-screen face close-up of of two people talking when they’re standing right next to each other in the scene?). But everything else was good.

What Was Great:

Hye Sung:

The two leads were always great- both the acting and the characters themselves. While I’m not usually a huge fan of the first-love scenario, I didn’t mind in this case as it meant we got to skip the awkward getting-to-know-each-other phase (which is cute and has its own merits) for the much more emotionally investing I-don’t-care-if-you’re-dying relationship.

Skipped straight to snogging- what a win

While it’s fun watching our characters get to know each other, in this case it makes for much neater narrative flow that our leads already know and understand each other, and thus it makes sense for Hae Sung to stay and deal with So Hye’s cancer- because he’s loved her for so long already that her illness can’t change that.

Just be happy forever (until cancer kicks you in the nuts)

The balance between angst and happy in the relationship was done well, because with cancer there’s obviously going to be angst kicking in somewhere. I’m glad we got So Hye’s noble idiot-ing out the way fairly early as it meant that it was unlikely the she was going to run away again later in the drama. Having her back away from Hae Sung early in the piece rather than later meant that we could be understanding of So Hye’s decision rather than frustrated by it. It made logical sense for her to pull away from Hae Sung before their relationship started if she knew she was sick, and made Hae Sung’s choice to stand by her that much more meaningful- because they hadn’t really started their relationship at that point, so it was Hae Sung choosing to go into the relationship with all the information, rather than having it sprung on him several months down the track after he was already invested (when it would have made him the bad guy for leaving). While I would have appreciated So Hye doing a little bit more for Hae Sung (he seemed to be putting in about 80% of the effort), it did highlight what an excellent man he was. He was so sweet and caring and just plain wonderful.

It's all so cute, but it's also so sad

It’s been quite a while since I’ve watched a drama and had the male lead really grab me (I’ve been having a bit of second male lead syndrome lately), but I must say that I fell in love with Hae Sung right away. He was brilliant as an innocent man-child, and it was those qualities that really helped him take care of So Hye.

He really is fantastic

He wore his emotions on his sleeve and was honest with everyone, so it made scenes of him struggling that much more emotional, because he was such a straight-forward open book that we all felt what he was feeling. I was less sold on So Hye than I was on Hae Sung, because we only really knew her as So Hye the Cancer Patient who had a bunch of side-effects and was having her world be turned upside down- so I never really got an exact idea of who she was as an individual pre-cancer. However it was still enjoyable to see her relax into Hae Sung and let him look after her (even if she did have meltdowns at him every now and then). What the writers did well with So Hye's character is that you never left an episode feeling annoyed with her. Even if she’d treated Hae Sung unfairly or said hurtful things to him, by the end of the episode she had apologised and they were back on good terms and I was left with a positive impression of her. By the end So Hye was helping Hae Sung (with his new business and with his acting) so it felt like Hae Sung was getting some looking after as well, rather than it being a one-way street. 

The Magic of Friendship:

There were load of friendships in this drama, the most entertaining one definitely being the three women. K-Dramaland can be a bit stingy with its gal-pals, so its always nice to see a bunch of girls having fun and looking out for each other. And boy did these girls look out for each other.

Friendship fixes everything

I loved that it was her high school girl friends that So Hye reached out to first after hearing her diagnosis, and I adored the way her friends reacted. Even though they’d been out of touch for some years now they were still ready to jump right back into that friendship and take on all the burdens that the others carried. It was doubly great that it wasn’t just So Hye that needed this rekindling of friendship, but Seol as well.

Revenge is a dish best served with two kick-ass friends backing you up

She’d always been unhappy with her family, and we saw moments of her desire to leave it behind. But it was her two friends that gave her the courage and the support to do so. It wasn’t just emotional support that So Hye and Mi Sun gave Seol either. Neither of them thought twice at giving all they had saved up to help Seol pay for her mother’s treatment or give her a place to stay once she left.

Bro-tastic

I think the unsung hero of this drama is definitely Mi Sun. Compared to the other two her life seems pretty easy- she’s married to a lovely man with a smart son and lives happily without cancer or terrible in-laws. Yet Mi Sun is always ready (as is her gorgeous husband) to step outside the happiness of her own to take on the challenges that her friends can’t handle by themselves. Next to the girls we have the bros. The boys were just as cute, but the friendship between them all kicked in pretty late. Joon Ki and Hae Sung had a pretty wonderful friendship from the start, but I found myself waiting for Chang Suk and Pil Ho to get pulled in as well- which they eventually did. I adored that they even got Sang Wook in on the bromance as well, treating him as a friend rather than just a lawyer. It was cute. It was all super cute and super fun to watch and I love these characters so, so much.

What Wasn’t:

Absent Family:

I don’t know why they even bothered introducing So Hye’s family in the beginning of this drama because they were of no importance and never made a reappearance. I guess it made sense to explain away why So Hye wasn’t drowning in money (because her brother and sister kept spending it all) but they really contributed nothing to the drama in the slightest.

Never to be seen again...

So Hye never even told them about her cancer. It didn’t seem like she had a completely hostile relationship with them either, it just seemed like the drama forgot that they existed at all. The only other family we really saw for our heroes was Hae Sung’s grandmother. Admittedly she was super cute, and I loved her easy acceptance of So Hye and her illness saying that healthy people can die just as suddenly as sick ones, but her role was very limited (as was Seol’s mum’s role).

Solid friends, sucky family

The only family that got any extended amount of time was Seol’s in-laws and we all know how sh*t those guys are. While the drama nailed all the friendship dynamics, but it definitely could have built up the family relationships a tad more.

Joon Ki Visions:

What is even going on here?

For the most part I adored the relationship between Joon Ki and So Hye. But I wasn’t sold on So Hye seeing visions of him after he died. Some of them I found passable (like in the prison scene or the last one where he seemed to send her back the living world), but most of them I just found awkward. While I didn’t mind the show exploring So Hye’s grief at losing her close friend, the way it was presented felt like she was longing after him in a way that was more than friendship- particularly when she was ignoring they very live, very present Hae Sung next to her to go after these visions. I think the writers had a good idea behind it, but it could have been executed much, much better.

Re-watch?

Probably not. The pacing of the show is pretty slow, so while I ended up adoring the series and all its wonderful characters I’d need to wait a fair amount of time before considering watching it again.

So much love