Big

Big

5/10

Big

Genre:                                   Episodes: 16                                   Year: 2012

Romance

Comedy

Fantasy

Synopsis:

Gil Da Ran is a substitute teacher engaged to Seo Yoon Jae- a kind, well-mannered doctor. Kang Kyung Joon is a young, immature student from the US who transfers into Da Ran’s school around the same time her fiancée starts to become strangely distant. After a car accident involving both Yoon Jae and Kyung Joon, Kyung Joon wakes in the body of Yoon Jae, while Yoon Jae remains in the comatose body of Kyung Joon.

Cast:

Gong Yoo (Seo Yoon Jae/Kang Kyung Joon)

Lee Min Jung (Gil Da Ran)

Shin Won Ho (Kang Kyun Joon)

Bae Suzy (Jang Ma Ri)

Jang Hee Jin (Lee Se Young)

Baek Sung Hyun (Gil Choong Shik)

General Thoughts:

I started this drama for Gong Yoo and the great cover. I had heard some critiques of the series, but bravely ventured forth regardless. For the first, let’s say half, of the drama it was great. After that… not so much.

Rather accurate representation of the direction of this drama

The first episode is marvelous. We get introduced to everyone- boring but gorgeous Yoon Jae, gorgeously childish Kyung Joon, and the girl. It’s fairly evident where the drama is heading with the tension between Da Ran and her fiancée and the spark between her and her student. It’s a nice substantial, action-packed first episode that is a great start for the series. However, as the drama progresses it begins to lose steam. After about the midway point

Coming Soon: B*tch Who Can't Make Up Her Mind

they should have changed the title to ‘B*tch Who Can’t Make Up Her Mind’. Because that is all we get for a long while. Gil Da Ran is engaged, Gil Da Ran is not engaged, Gil Da Ran likes Kyung Joon, Gil Da Ran is going to force herself to not like Kyung Joon. Eish. The drama really missed out on capitalizing on some great plot devices. While Da Ran always refers to Kyung Joon as a ‘kid’, there is never really a cute period where she allows him to be close to her under the guise of ‘he's young and I’m looking after him’. While she does hold this sentiment, she still keeps him at arms length because she views him as a ‘man’? I don’t know. Missed opportunity. I also think it was a mistake to leave Yoon Jae in a coma for so long. We missed out on what could have been some fantastic awkwardness and confusion and given us an idea of why she moved from Yoon Jae to Kyung Joon (apart from the fact that one was conscious and the other wasn’t). Us viewers weren’t given much about Seo Yoon Jae at all, besides some quick flashbacks and Da Ran reminiscing. Again, as is common with many rom-com K-Dramas, there wasn’t much going on story-wise apart from the feelings of the leads- until about two-thirds in where it got very ‘Days of Our Lives’ with fake parents and siblings and secret DNA tests.

It's a miracle I didn't shoot anyone after finishing this drama

 What Was Great:

As Usual, Gong Yoo:

He even impresses himself sometimes

Despite what a bore this series became Gong Yoo is still exceptional. His acting is perfect, and similarly to ‘Hello My Teacher’ he superbly channels the angst-filled schoolboy.

The Brother!:

In K-Drama land we are plagued with people who can’t make up their minds on who to love. Whether it’s a love-triangle or denying their feelings for the greater good, there is always some obstacle. I think this is why characters who wear their hearts on their sleeves are so well loved- and in this series we get two! While Kyung Joon is stubborn on his feelings for his clueless teacher, we also have Gil Choong Shik who actively pursues Jang Ma Ri- despite her complete obliviousness and devotion to another man. It’s cute, it’s funny, and it’s fantastic to watch him attempt (and fail) to be cool in front of his crush.

Lovely Love:

The couple scenes with Kyung Joon and Da Ran are acceptably adorable. Nothing outstanding as far as K-Dramas go, but good enough. These scenes bought a great sense of light-heartedness to the drama. However, I would’ve loved to see more couple moments as apposed to awkward pre-relationship mode.

Gong Yoo carrying Lee Min Jung like he carried this drama

60% of each episode

Family Drama:

The goings on between the Seo family and locating Kang Kyung Joon’s father were an effective way to add something new to the rather slow-moving, minimalistic plot. Though I’m not sure how much of my attraction toward this plot development was actual interest, and how much is relief that I’m not looking at Da Ran putting on, staring at, or taking off her damn ring.

Uh Oh:

Kyung Joon’s sporadic English and adorable catchphrase gave great individuality to his character- not to mention it was charmingly funny. It was also a great help in cluing in the audience as to who was in Yoon Jae’s body. Both Gong Yoo and Shin Won Ho suited the English very well, and it never came across unnatural. I would watch that first episode over and over again just to hear Shin Won Ho say ‘Uh oh’ and ‘stupid’ a million times.

Top English skills

What Wasn’t:

Annoying American:

Hopeless, but cute

I really love Bae Suzy but I HATED her in this. Her character is whiny, annoying, manipulative and selfish. All traits that I tend to find myself not loving in a person. While it is endearing for some to wear their hearts on their sleeve (Choong Shik), in this case it’s just pure irritating. We are all well aware (and so is she) that Kyung Joon is not interested and that he is heading towards a mutual relationship with another girl. And yet here’s Ma Ri butting in, making things complicated, and on multiple occasions really hurting her supposed ‘love’- but she doesn’t seem to care how miserable he is as long as he’s hers. Boo- I really dislike this type of girl and didn’t find her cute at all.

Most awkward thing ever

Coma, Coma, Coma:

I don’t know whose decision it was to leave Seo Yoon Jae/Kang Kyun Joon’s body in a coma for so long but it totally blowed. We got about 5 minutes of Shin Won Ho, which was a

He got real good at doing nothing

total disappointment as I adored him in ‘Bachelor’s Vegetable Store’ and was looking forward to seeing him in another drama. Granted, his 5 minutes were amazing, but it was such a shame that after his stellar performance all he got to do was lie down with his eyes closed. The coma also really restricted Seo Yoon Jae’s character, as all we really saw him in were flashbacks, so we never got to truly grasp who he was.

Memory Loss:

I am not a fan of memory loss in K-Dramas at the best of times, and the use of it here was just awful. It really served no purpose and I don’t know why it had to be done at all- as the whole period where the memory was lost was glazed over in a time-skip.

Time Skip:

Speaking of time-skips, I’m not a fan of those either; and this drama had not one, but two time-skips. It was even more ridiculous that these travels through time added nothing extra to the drama except as a way for explaining why people weren’t mad at each other. Time heals all. Except my hatred for time-skips.

Episode 15:

I don’t think anyone anywhere enjoyed what a clusterf*ck this episode was. Nobody made any sense. I mean really, hurting your girlfriend with fake amnesia to cover up potential future amnesia that may hurt her later? No, no, don’t do that. Would it not make more sense to just be like ‘Hey, there’s a good chance I may not remember you when I wake up, so let’s cuddle and snog and live it up while we can’?

Gil Da Ran looking for her dignity

Plus we have Ma Ri being an ass and trying (and in some cases succeeding) to manipulate people in the most OBVIOUS ways. Not to mention more or less everything that occurs in this episode is undone in the next.

WHERE IS SHIN?:

For the most part, the final episode was doing an acceptable job of clearing up the complete slop that was episode 15, when suddenly along comes the worst ending ever. I had read that it was a completely sucky ending and thought I was prepared, but no. They don’t use Shin Won Ho. While it might have been a little jarring to see Shin Won Ho acting Kyung Joon after 15 hours of Gong Yoo- it is what we all wanted. It’s a year later, they’ve swapped bodies successfully, Gil Da Ran even calls him Kang Kyung Joon. But it’s still Gong Yoo acting him! While we don’t get a shot of his face, we aren’t stupid- we know Gong Yoo’s hands, chest and silhouette. Definitely the first time I was disappointed to see Gong Yoo on my screen.

WHY? WHY? WHYYYYYY?

The whole sucky, time-skippy last episode could have picked up what was left of its dignity if it had just given us that one scene we’d all been waiting for: Lee Min Jung and Shin Won Ho kissing or holding hands or even just standing under the umbrella. But instead we got Gong Yoo’s arm. This drama is like a terrible date that you stick out right to the end, but then no one gets off.

Re-Watch?

I am going to re-watch the first episode and then pretend the rest of this drama does not exist. 

I won't lie, there were some cute scenes