Lucky Romance

Lucky Romance

7/10

Lucky Romance

Genre:                             Episodes: 16                          Year: 2016

Romance 

Comedy

Synopsis:

After the death of her parents and an accident that places her little sister in a comatose state, Shim Bo Nui believes she is a symbol of bad luck that will bring misfortune and suffering to those around her. She relies heavily on superstition and the predictions of a fortune teller. As her sister’s health deteriorates, Shim Bo Nui’s Shaman tells her that the only way to save her sister is to spend one night with a man born in the year of the tiger. The only tiger Bo Nui is able to find is Je Soo Ho, a genius game developer who cares little for interpersonal relationships and shuts himself away from the world.

Cast:

Hwang Jung Eum (Shim Bo Nui)

Ryu Joon Yoel (Je Soo Ho)

Lee Soo Hyuk (Gary Choi)

Lee Chung Ah (Amy Han)

Jung Sang Hoon (Han Ryang Ha)

Lee Cho Hee (Lee Dal Nim)

Na Young Hee (Yang Hee Ae)

General Thoughts:

It’s a remarkably interesting drama given its complete and utter lack of plot. I don’t jest. There’s none. The quirky catch that Bo Nui must sleep with a man born in the year of the tiger is abandoned after the first couple of episodes, used only as a tool to have our main leads actually interact with one another. 

Because they didn't actually need to  sleep sleep together

Rather than the drama being a story of a woman embarking on a bizarre quest to save her sister, it becomes the story of a young man who learns how to love and connect with the world around him. Which is pretty darn cute. 

I could watch that all day long. Which I did. Several times.

I went in expecting the drama to be all about Bo Nui wooing Soo Ho and all the hilarious situations that would be results of her attempts, and the gradual realisation that she was actually falling for the man for real- much like ‘Oh My Ghostess’. Instead, what I got was Soo Ho falling hard and adorably fast and having to try to convince Bo Nui that she deserved happiness for herself. Happiness of course equalling Soo Ho. And surprisingly I wasn’t disappointed at the turn this drama took. I’m very used to Hwang Jung Eum being the main lead of a series, with heroes often taking a backseat. It was refreshing to have our hero being the one who was making all the moves and being the star of he show. Which he totally was. Because after Soo Ho fell into his complete love for Bo Nui, Ryu Joon Yeol just let loose. His acting was phenomenal and wonderfully believable- even as his character shifted between detached, mathematical genius, and adorable puppy in love. These shifts in character were acted out so seamlessly that it never seemed out of character when Soo Ho was excited or giddy or acting completely like a high school kid in love- because Ryu Joon Yeol had always been able to express the way Soo Ho kept that detachment and isolation as a front, and a protection for himself to prevent getting hurt. But once you get past that front, he’s all cuddles and feelings and complete wonderfulness. 

So snoodley 

As for Hwang Jung Eum…well it wasn’t her best performance ever. And that’s through no fault of her own. Shim Bo Nui was just not a character that developed very much, and it’s hard to stay connected to a character that refuses to change in even the slightest, even when their situation changes. 

Hard to dislike her when she makes our hero act so cute

All Bo Nui’s development happened off-screen during the time skip (to which- ugh), and she only seemed all the more immobile when you had Soo Ho doing such a fantastic job of adapting and opening up beside her. Points do go to Hwang Jung Eum for making Bo Nui at least a likeable character. On paper our heroine doesn’t look all that great- a superstitious woman who thinks everyone she comes in contact with will suffer misfortune and never seeks out her own happiness. Yeah, doesn’t sound like a super fun heroine, does it? And yet, through Hwang Jung Eum’s performance and the early focus on Bo Nui, we see her vulnerability and the circumstances that led her to this point. While the script gives us insight into Bo Nui’s situation, Hwang Jung Eum shows a saddened, valuable character, and you truly do want her to find happiness for herself. But as the drama progresses, f*cks given for Bo Nui decrease, because Soo Ho is awesome and Soo Ho is wonderful and if your superstitions are getting in the way of beloved Soo Ho’s happiness, then up yours. Moving on to side characters- there’s really not a lot to say. Lee Soo Hyuk and Lee Chung Ah were cast as typical secondary characters. 

Guess how many f*cks I give. I'll give you a hint- it's not a lot.

Side male who loves our heroine and pushes his feelings on her even if she has less than zero interest. Only enough character to see that he’s a likeable dude, but not too likeable that you feel all torn up when he’s kicked to the curb for our very likeable hero. Side female who’s basically a b*tch and will do anything to win the love of our hero. Given a half-assed redemption at the end that’s only deemed passable as she’s not always a total b*tch. Then there’s Dal Nim and Ryang Ha who are given to us for the laughs- which is just as well because there’s not a lot of laughs coming from anywhere else, apart from Soo Ho’s complete inability to hide his feelings. 

And OMG the bromance was top stuff

Because when the melo kicks in between our main couple (as it inevitably does), it kicks hard. And in all too predictable ways. The plot was really nothing more than how adorable can Ryu Joon Yeol be? And how can we have this make the slightest bit of sense in the minimal story we’ve actually set up?

What Was Great:

Ryu Joon Yeol as Soo Ho:

I want one

Show carrier for sure. Who cares about the heroine’s struggles with her perception of herself? Who cares about Gary or Amy or any of the other characters we’re mildly introduced to? Who cares about building and releasing some game? Who cares about some guy hacking said game? No one. Because Soo Ho is all we really want to watch. Because we love our tin-man. And tin-man goes on a journey to discover his heart and finds a girl to give it to along the way. And he does it in the cutest way imaginable. 

It Was Cute:

Much of the cute came from Ryu Joon Yeol. In whatever scene he was in he was able to give us happy, warm, fuzzy feelings. Whether he was jumping in excitement from one text, trying to find an outfit to wear on his date, or gossiping about love with Ryang Ah like high school girls, he always did it in the best way possible. The relationship between our two leads was adorable in every way and perfectly captured that honeymoon phase of dating. Sure, there wasn’t a lot of story movement, but there’s something weirdly enjoyable about watching two cute people be so happy and in love. 

I really, really want one

What Wasn’t:

That Melo:

It’s not hardcore melo- it’s your typical rom-com melo. Melo that’s caused by people being idiots and melo that can only be healed by the gradual passing of time (which of course we don’t get to see). 

Noble Idiot in 3...2...1...

From about the half-way point you can see the Noble Idiocy coming. You can see it from a mile off. You can see it from China. You can see it all the way down here is Aus. There is no way that this series was going to end without our heroine f*cking off into the void and breaking our tin-man’s newfound heart. Ohhhhmygod lame. While it probably is one of the most justifiable uses of the Noble Idiot Disappearance, this plot device has just become so ridiculously overused that everyone can see it coming, and we’ve all watched in a million times before. Sure, it’s understandable that Bo Nui bolts at the first sign of trouble because you know what, a lot of real sh*tty things have happened around her in a short space of time and she has a d*uchey shaman telling her she is the root of all evil. But if you just up and leave right after our hero seriously injures himself while saving your life- probs not gonna like you. Especially if you leave him unconscious and bleeding in the street without taking him to a hospital. If the whole point of your vanishing is to save the man, you might want to check that the poor bugger isn’t actually dead already. Just sayin’. Then to follow the dreaded Noble Idiocy card we get the dreaded time skip. A year passes and magically Bo Nui has come to accept that she isn’t the cause of all death and destruction and she is allowed to be happy with a man she loves. 

More or less my reaction whenever I see that 'X Years Later' tag

How did she get to this healthy mental state? I wouldn’t be able to tell you because I didn’t see it happen. She just does. And then rejoins Soo Ho for a magical reunion of happy feelings and love and wonder and enchantment. Because obviously Soo Ho feels no hurt or resentment for being ditched for a whole year while Bo Nui sorts herself out on her own. That would be ridiculous. K-Drama once again shows us that a year is really nothing when faced with true love. Because while Bo Nui’s whole character can be entirely redeveloped over the course of a year, it’s inevitable that nothing will change in her relationship with Soo Ho. That would be silly.

That Plot:

The black hole in the series. There’s no ongoing plot besides the relationship development (which was adorable, thank goodness), and the game development- which no one actually cared about. 

No plot, but bags of cute

There was enough in the character development of Bo Nui that showed she was seriously willing to change from being a superstitious nut-job into someone who relies on herself and her partner, but that was swept under the rug as the writers opted for Noble Idiocy. Had the writers made more of an effort to make Bo Nui’s struggle feel more real to us, perhaps the drama could have been a little more engaging. Sure, Ryu Joon Yeol was engaging enough on his own- but imagine if you’d added a kick-ass heroine with the will to change, who painfully goes against years of instinct and steps outside her comfort zone. That would have been cool. The drama could have gradually doled out the steps Bo Nui took sever her reliance on superstition throughout the whole series (rather than in that one year we skipped over and didn’t get to see), and probably would have made for a much more substantial plot. Because the actual plot is weak as washing.

Please Kick Out Those Stupid Characters:

Shaman Goo Shin. Won Dae Hae. Two completely sucky characters that for some reason kept appearing on my screen. Goo Shin is basically the devil in Bo Nui’s ear- telling her she lame and that everything she touches will die. Yeah, what an ass. 

That guy sucks big time 

His motivations are totally unclear. Does he actually believe this to be true and is telling Bo Nui to protect the people around her? Or is he he telling her this so that she keeps returning to him for talismans and fortunes? 

This guy also sucks big time

I don’t really care either way, but I was waiting for some sort of comeuppance for the mean Shaman. He was the only real sort of villain we had as our hacker remained pretty anonymous and only impacted the release of the game, rather than our main characters the way Shaman did. But no- no big kick of karma for Shaman. Nothing like that. Then there’s Dae Hae. He is literally the reason why Bo Nui thinks she’s bad luck. Almost all recent bad things can be traced back to Dae Hae. Sure, he had nothing to do with Bo Nui’s parents’ deaths or her sister’s coma but he sure as hell was responsible for Daebak Soft going under. Oh yeah, he also let the hacker in to mess with Soo Ho’s game and destroy his career- the event that reignited Bo Nui’s doubt after she’d been learning to trust Soo Ho and not Shaman man. Again, no kick of karma for Dae Hae. No, he gets to join the team that reopens Daebak Soft and continues to work under Soo Ho. I’m not a superstitious person- but that dude is lazy and plain unreliable. He would have no such place on my team. Sadly, these two characters did manage to sap a bit of fun from the series, particularly when they managed to walk away from all the events unscathed.   

Re-watch?

Not a chance. I didn’t know that Ryu Joon Yeol could be that cute, and I’m super glad I found out. But I feel like if I watch the series again it’ll just make me painfully realise that ‘holy sh*t, nothing happens in this drama’.

So very, very cute

She Was Pretty

She Was Pretty

6/10

She Was Pretty 

Genre:                                   Episodes: 16                                   Year: 2015

Romance

Comedy

Synopsis:

Kim Hye Jin and Ji Sung Joon were first loves when they were children, but after Sung Joon’s family moves away the two lose contact. Hye Jin was a popular, pretty young girl while Sung Joon was chubby and bullied. Many years later the two meet again as adults. Hye Jin is jobless and has lost her childhood beauty, so is embarrassed to face Sung Joon who has become handsome and successful. She asks her beautiful friend Min Ha Ri to pretend to be her for one day and end all ties with Sung Joon. 

Cast:

Hwang Jung Eum (Kim Hye Jin)

Park Seo Joon (Ji Sung Joon)

Choi Siwon (Kim Shin Hyuk)

Go Joon Hee (Min Ha Ri)

General Thoughts:

‘She Was Pretty’ is to ‘Kill Me, Heal Me’ what ‘Heartstrings’ was to ‘You’re Beautiful’. It takes the lead actress from a very successful drama and pairs her with the second male lead of said drama, with less plot and less chemistry. Personally it took me a long time to begin to root for any of our characters, and even then the characters flip-flopped around so much that I was pretty emotionally uninvested with all of them.

Oh, can't you just feel the love?

The pure saving grace of this drama is Choi Siwon. Sure, Park Seo Joon was handsome and delivered his cute scenes well, but his character, Ji Sung Joon, was rather bland and a tad lacking. We were a significant way through the drama before poor Sung Joon even had scenes that weren’t just him yelling or looking disdainfully at our heroine.

Because verbal abuse is sooooo sexy

Whereas Kim Shin Hyuk (Choi Siwon) was vibrant and hilarious from the get-go. He was always sweet towards our leading lady (which does more to endear a character than when he tells her she’s retarded) and gave the impression that he was deeply fond of her for who she was- not what she did or what she looked like. Now our leading lady…was…loud. Generally speaking, I like Hwang Jung Eum as an actress- she can be very, very good. But she can also come across as a little overacted and shrieky. Which is unfortunately how she appeared for a good portion of this drama. What only increased this irritation at her loudness was the fact that she turned so soft and refused to defend herself in front of Sung Joon’s harsh, and often uncalled for, criticism. This did tone down as the drama progressed on, and by the time our leads started falling for each other, Hye Jin was acting like a normal human being. Sadly, the volume did pick up a little again in the last few episodes. The supporting cast were acceptable enough, but did fade into the background quite a lot. Except for our four main characters no one else got much screen time or development. But we did have that office couple development which was adorable.

Cutely random interlude

In regards to the plot, there’s basically none to speak of. In regards to the soundtrack, I remember nothing except for ‘Close To You’ by the Carpenters- and you can hardly credit the drama for that.

What Was Great:

American Prince Choi Siwon:

What a show carrier. Initially, I cared nothing for our leading man- I was all for Siwon. Sometimes I forget what all the fuss is about (I know- blasphemy!), but then I watch him in something, anything, and I completely remember why the world is filled with so much Siwon love.

Prince Choi Siwon- the pinnacle of sophistication

Choi Siwon has previously displayed that he is a capable actor, but in this drama he fits so comfortably into his character that it was pure magic. I can’t even imagine any other actor as goofy, childish Kim Shin Hyuk. Much of the beauty of the character was Siwon’s natural charm and adorable dorkiness. You can’t deny it- the man just oozes charisma (no matter how goofy he's being).

I really like you as a human, Choi Siwon

However, Siwon was able to alter these personal traits and present them in a way that was distinctly ‘Un-Siwon-ish’. You never thought you were watching Siwon in a drama-world (as you do with some other idol-actors) because he was completely able to throw himself into character and become an entirely different person. He nailed all the smaller parts of acting his character too- it was easy to tell when Shin Hyuk was childishly happy and when he was pretending to be childishly happy, all by minute movements in Choi Siwon’s expressions. To go along with the Prince of Idol-Actors, we had Kim Shin Hyuk- who was just an amazing character. He was delightfully goofy and funny, but had a whole lot of depth going on beneath the surface. Sure, we weren’t exactly made privy to what that depth was, but you could tell it was there. He always appreciated and looked out for our heroine, and found her perfect the way she was- unlike the rest of the world that wanted to change her. He also appeared to love her for who she was presently, as he didn’t have a romanticised view of her due to past love the way Sung Joon did. Shin Hyuk always seemed to be one step ahead of everyone else- knowing exactly what was going on and urging other characters, in a gentle yet convincing way, to face their issues and tell the truth. Thank God. Because all that hiding and lying just gets old after a while.

It's Choi Siwon- of course he gets shirtless at least once

Combining this gorgeous character with gorgeous Siwon was just a recipe for Mass Second Lead Syndrome (sorry Park Seo Joon). If the fans needed ‘She Was Pretty’ to satisfy their couple-craving after ‘Kill Me, Heal Me’, I think we’re going to need another drama now starring Hwang Jang Eum and Choi Siwon. We promise we can wait the five million years (21 months) it takes for Siwon to get out of military service.

Girlfriends:

It’s painfully rare for K-Dramas to showcase two close female friends. There’s an abundance of bromances in the dramas, however girl friends don’t seem to happen often. Instead, we usually only get b*tchy, competitive love rivals as our second female leads, with the heroine’s friends being relegated to much smaller support roles.

Yay for quality female friendships

However, here we have a delightful example of how sweet and touching friendship can be between women in K-Drama land. It’s not just the boy love rivals who can be buddies- girls can to it too! All in all, I really enjoyed the character of Ha Ri. Right from the start we see that she is not nearly as superficial as her stunning appearance would lead you to believe, as she promptly kicks out a male friend for commenting negatively about Hye Jin’s looks.

Seriously, I can't stress enough how rare these friendships are in K-Drama

 From the brginning Ha Ri had some pretty big character development, and we were all made aware just how lonely and isolated she was in her family, and that beyond Hye Jin she didn’t have any quality friends. The two girls did a great job at supporting each other throughout whatever was going on in their lives, and while there was a brief patch in the middle of non-communication, they also showed what an impact communication has on a functioning relationship. There were a couple of times the writers seemed to be grasping at straws conflict-wise, and unfortunately Ha Ri copped a couple of blows where she became irritating and distant purely for creating tension in the story. Sadly, this did lessen my love towards her character and as a result, Hye Jin also came off a tad selfish for only wanting to talk about Sung Joon when she wanted too, leaving Ha Ri in a bit of a pickle. Thankfully they managed to wrap up the drama with the repairing of the girls’ relationship and we got to close on cute, happy chick friends.

Makeover Execution:

We all knew that at some point our heroine would get a makeover. There was no way in hell the drama was going to continue Kim Hye Jin’s ‘ugly’ (yeah, whatever) appearance for the whole stretch.

Because she was soooo hideous before

The execution of the makeover, however, really had the potential to ruin the whole series. Had Hye Jin become ‘pretty’ to appease her co-workers or to woo her man-interest the whole drama would have been wrecked, as the general point seemed to be to criticise how society bases a person’s worth on their outward appearance. However, I actually quite enjoyed Hye Jin’s transformation as she did it for herself. She had reached a stage in her life where she wanted a fresh start- she wanted to focus more fully on her career and do the best she could at her job. And when you work for a fashion magazine, well…your looks do kind of matter.

She got the guy so she doesn't have to put effort in her appearance now, right?

It marked a turning point in the series where Hye Jin chose to take care of herself a little better, and stand up for herself a little more. While she appeared confident and comfortable in herself from the start, her makeover was a clear turning point when our heroine started to demand respect and acceptance from not only herself, but those around her. However, I was a little disappointed to see that after our time skip Hye Jin had become ‘de-makeovered’. While it can be viewed as her returning to herself and losing the need to demand respect from peers- because they already respected her for her writing ability, I couldn’t help but feel a tad disappointed. It sort of undid all the good that the makeover had done in the first place, and felt a little as though she prettied herself up to get the guy, and once she had him she could let herself go again. In my mind, Hye Jin’s makeover was her deciding to put a bit more effort into herself- because she was pretty, she just didn’t treat herself like she was, so undoing that fell flat for me. I know a lot of people appreciated her appearance going back to the way it was at the start, but personally I would have preferred her to either remain her ‘pretty’ self, or not get makeovered in the first place.

What Wasn’t:

Chemistry is MIA:

Firstly, I will apologise for the vast amount of comparisions I will make to ‘Kill Me, Heal Me’. Now to begin. After seeing the sparks fly between Hwang Jung Eum and Park Seo Joon in ‘Kill Me, Heal Me’ I was expecting to be absolutely blown away by the chemistry, and subsequent explosion, of these two actors reuniting as the main love-line.

I know which pairing I prefer

But then…they didn’t…sizzle. Why? Why?! I know you can so WHY DIDN’T YOU?! There was believable chemistry between the two child actors, but the sparks fell flat in the adult world. Sure there were cute moments, but they felt a little forced. In ‘KMHM’ we had a vast amount of scenes where these two actors played like children, yet you felt their connection and feeling for each other as adults.

There was cute, but no real 'wow'

It seems the writers of ‘She Was Pretty’ tried to channel this same energy in many of the scenes, but were unable to grab onto the same dynamic. Rather than appearing comfortable and at ease, whenever Hye Jin acted a bit childlike, it felt more like she was trying to cover up her embarrassment or awkwardness. Whenever Sung Joon acted in this way, it came across more as him trying to connect with the Hye Jin in his memories rather than the Hye Jin in front of him. While there was some believable romance between the two, it lacked that addictive quality the two were able to exude in ‘KMHM’, which was a little (a lot) disappointing.

Two Dimensional Characters:

No one was developed. Not one person. Ha Ri and Shin Hyuk came close, but didn’t quite make it there. Once the drama finished, I sat there for a while as it gradually dawned on me that I knew almost nothing about any of our characters.

Hye Jin getting jealous of all Ha Ri's development- wait, is that not what this screenshot is?

Sure, I had a basic understanding of who our characters were right then in that moment, but I had no real idea why they would react in the way they did- I just knew it was consistent with the character profile I’d created in my head. Out of all the characters, Min Ha Ri was probably given the most backstory and was the most developed of the lot. We saw glimpses of her isolation and extreme loneliness and were even given a few snippets of how she got there- crazy step-mum and less-than-helpful father. It explained her love for Hye Jin- who was always looking out for her, and her desire to hold on to Sung Joon- who treated her as a person and not an object (y’know, before he found out she’s not actually his first love and he completely dropped her). Coming in close second was Kim Shin Hyuk. Right from the get-go we knew he had more going on than just the loveable goofball, but sadly most of his development was crammed in right near the end. In a video recording. That played after he vanished. Yup.

Here, have some more Siwon

Our two leads are just…nothing. This wouldn’t have mattered so much if they had been virtually the same as their childhood selves, but they were SO DIFFERENT. Hye Jin went from pretty, popular, well-spoken, well-mannered delight into shrieky, unkempt almost-an-ajumma. Sung Joon went from shy, introverted fat kid to harsh, demanding, short-tempered workaholic. Which is all well and good. After all, the whole drama was about how two first loves change and are unable to recognise each other as adults. But then we should have been given some insight into how and why these changes occurred. But we weren’t. We got nothing, we just had to accept that these people were what our main characters had become and roll with it. Boo to that.

We all saw everything coming

Painfully Predictable:

We all know what’s going to happen. We all know the magazine won’t be discontinued. We all know that the cute, friendly work-mate won’t get the girl. We all know that the guy won’t fall for the beautiful friend. We all know that Hye Jin will get her dream job, and we all know that Sung Joon will get his first love. Seeing as there’s basically no plot, there are basically no surprises. And I’m not arguing that a drama needs surprises to be interesting. I’m just saying that this drama was neither surprising nor interesting. But on the plus side, it also wasn’t downright irritating.

Re-watch?

Not a chance. I came for the romance, I stayed for Siwon, and I nearly left with the hasty departure of Siwon’s character. Park Seo Joon did have his cute moments (boy is he a cutie), but he’s also cute in other shows.

There was just no magic for me

Kill Me, Heal Me

Kill Me, Heal Me

9/10

Kill Me, Heal Me

Genre:                                   Episodes: 20                                   Year: 2015

Romance

Comedy

Mystery

Synopsis:

Cha Do Hyun is a third-generation chaebol, son of the deceased eldest son and his mistress. After a traumatic incident in his childhood, Do Hyun’s mental state is fractured into several pieces as a defence mechanism, and each of these pieces takes on its own distinct personality- otherwise known as multiple personality disorder. Do Hyun’s most violent personality, Shin Se Gi, takes interest in a particular woman, Oh Ri Jin, who happens to be a psychiatrist. Do Hyun hires Ri Jin as his private doctor, so that she can control his many personalities while he works to inherit his family’s company.

Cast:

Ji Sung (Cha Do Hyun/Personalities)

Hwang Jung Eum (Oh Ri Jin)

Park Seo Joon (Oh Ri On)

Kim Young Ae (Se Tae Im)

Kim Yoo Ri (Han Chae Yeon)

Oh Min Seok (Cha Ki Joon)

Shim Hye Jin (Shin Hwa Ran)

General Thoughts:

Oh, the feelings. I love this drama. Let’s be honest, it’s worth watching for Ji Sung’s stellar performance alone, but the plot is absolutely brilliant. There are so many parts of me that want to do comparisons with ‘Hyde, Jekyll, Me’, but I will restrain myself.

How I felt when this drama ended

The cast was brilliant, no faults there- congratulations everyone on a spectacular performance. The script was brilliant, the music was brilliant, it was all brilliant. The slow unveiling of the past connections between our two main leads was both heartbreaking and heart-warming at the same time. It was devastating to watch the brutal effects of these traumatic events start to both break and develop our characters. The drama wasn’t afraid to go into the darker aspects of its plot at all, but still managed to maintain its humour, which saved it from becoming horrendously depressing- a fine line to walk, but executed well. Both our main leads were acted excellently, and had continual development throughout the whole drama.

It's cute and funny and sad and my poor emotions

Oh Ri Jin has a sweet, mildly whacky, character, and is easily likeable without being too bland or unrealistic. Cha Do Hyun is also interesting and likeable enough- at first he does seem a tad boring and vague due to the eccentricities of his other personalities, but as the show goes on, his character develops nicely and he becomes more than just the ‘main personality struggling for control’. None of the other personalities were developed, but this itself was a brilliant move. The fact is, they aren’t separate characters- they are simply parts of Do Hyun’s mind. Their consistent quirky traits and obsessions made them interesting and enjoyable to watch, but prevented the personalities from having a real sense of ‘self’- because in reality they didn’t have one, they were just mirages that Do Hyun created out of simple memories and desires. It was a wise move to continually throw in similarities between Do Hyun and his other personalities to further emphasise this point.

How could you only choose one?

What Was Great:

Ji Sung:

Ten out of ten

So basically Ji Sung is the greatest thing ever. Oh my goodness, that man can act. It was phenomenal. He was 100% believable as all the different personalities- right down to the details. He was never ‘Do Hyun acting like Se Gi’, he simply became Se Gi. His voice, actions, and even tiny movements- the way he walked, the way he held his mouth, the way he turned his head- all were totally different with each personality. Plus he’s handsome. His crackling chemistry with the female lead was also a bonus. The kid actor who played young Cha Do Hyun was fantastic as well.

The Whole Point:

The story, the story, the story. You can have the greatest actors in the world, but without a solid plot you have nothing. Standing behind the radiating wonder that is Ji Sung, we have a thrilling, compelling story. We were always given just the right amount of information with each new episode. The plot was never easy to predict, and never had any lags.

Wasn't afraid to visit some darker scenes

We had an unfortunate episode or two towards the end where our main couple were separated even though they wanted to be together (typical bloody K-Drama), but apart from that the series managed to avoid any irritating or nonsensical plotlines. The issues involving the company were always present, but not in your face- quite often taking a welcome backseat to the much more interesting personality problems. The gradual reveal of the past kept the mystery going strong, while also developing our three main characters nicely. On that point, Oh Ri On was a fantastic character.

Yo Na + Ri On = hilarious

At first, I thought Park Seo Joon was doing a poor job acting the character out, as I kept thinking he was looking at Ri Jin like he was keen on her- not like a brother. And then it was like- OH! That’s the whole point! Good job Park Seo Joon, good job scriptwriters.

Towards the end of the drama when we had the farewells to all the different personalities- well, I won’t lie. It was cheesy. Superb, delicious cheese.

Ain't nothing wrong with a bit of cheese

The way they send off the personalities is predictable, but it’s the way we all wanted it to go. After all the struggle and hurt and suffering, it was nice to sit back and watch our main couple reap the rewards. It was also nice that the reasons why each personality was formed were explained. We were able to guess most of it anyway, but it was still enjoyable to have our different theories confirmed. The science wasn’t close to realistic- it’s not an accurate representation of DID, but who’s watching for the science? The writers kept the rules of personality switching, creation and disappearance consistant, so that’s all that really matters.

The Music:

I don’t know what it was exactly, but I loved the soundtrack. The main song was lovely and catchy, and never felt overused. Most of the music was gorgeous, and just lurked in the background, enhancing the drama and not begging for attention. Well, the main song- Auditory Hallucination grabbed a bit of attention, but it was fantastic so who cares. 

What Wasn’t:

Bad Boy:

Shin Se Gi is great. Characters like Se Gi are why women have relationship issues. Because as much as we wish they did, nice bad boys like Se Gi just don’t exist. I loved everything about Se Gi- his reason for creation, his role as the protector, his holding of the memories.

Exact depiction of why girls like bad boys (the secret is in the guyliner)

But I didn’t like the way Ri Jin interacted with him. Several times she herself admitted that Se Gi was the most hurt and damaged of all Do Hyun’s personalities, and that he needed the most love and comfort. Yet does she ever really love or comfort him? Not really. Most of her interactions with the beloved bad boy were just keeping him from wrecking Do Hyun’s reputation, or trying to call Do Hyun back out. It felt too much like the writers were far too worried about how to logically make Ri Jin fall for Do Hyun over Se Gi, that they just never let any real connection develop between them. Not once in this drama did I honestly believe that Ri Jin cared for Se Gi as a person, or a man.

But...but...how can you NOT love him?!

Re-watch?

Definitely. This is a drama that really pulls at your heartstrings. The fantastic plot paired with a fantastic cast make it in excellent watch. Even though there won’t be any mystery the second time around, it’s worth watching again just for Ji Sung’s incredible performance.

It's actually amazing