People With Flaws

People With Flaws

6/10

People With Flaws

Genre:                                Episodes: 16                          Year: 2020

Romance

Comedy

Synopsis:

After his love confession was rejected because he was ugly and fat, Lee Kang Woo has become a handsome man who takes good care of his appearance. Joo Seo Yeon is a woman who has come to dislike handsome men due to the trouble she went through growing up with three handsome brothers. The two clash when Kang Woo becomes the Head Director at the school where Seo Yeon works.

Cast:

Oh Yeon Seo

Ahn Jae Hyun (Lee Kang Woo)

Kim Seul Gi (Kim Mi Kyung)

Gu Won (Lee Min Hyuk)

Heo Jeong Min (Park Hyun Soo)

Min Woo Hyuk (Joo Won Jae)

Cha In Ha (Joo Won Suk)

Jaeyong (Joo Seo Joon)

General Thoughts:

For my first drama of 2020 and my first drama back after my big hiatus, I was really hoping to snag a drama that was engaging, yet lighthearted, with a good cast and endearing characters. I know, it’s a lot to ask for in a drama. And ‘People With Flaws’ was unfortunately not that drama.

Not great, not horrendous

It wasn’t terrible, but it was just missing that special something that a show needs to make it stand out amongst the onslaught of K-Dramas we get every year. The plot in ‘People With Flaws’ moved very slowly, mainly choosing to focus on the relationship between the two leads, which itself was moving at a slow pace, and had a fair amount of back-and-forth going on.

This show was pretty but kinda plain

Coming from watching a huge string of plot-heavy Western shows (such as ‘The Witcher’), I struggled a bit with the slow pacing of the show. Perhaps if there had been a bit more going on with the characters, I could have stomached the pacing a bit better, but overall there wasn’t actually a lot going on with Seo Yeon and Kang Woo. I don’t really think that either Oh Yeon Seo nor Ahn Jae Hyun are particularly brilliant actors, but thought that they managed the characters well here. I do think that Oh Yeon Seo is much better at comedy than she is at anything else, so the slightly slapstciky, exaggerated humour of the show suited her well and played to her strengths, giving Seo Yeon a cute, quirky nature. I think I have only ever seen Ahn Jae Hyun play rich, arrogant men who think they are the most handsome thing on the planet (which I always find a bit hard to swallow because while Ahn Jae Hyun is by no means an unattractive man, he is just not my style). To be honest, he isn't the most…expressive actor. Cold, emotionless rich dudes seem very in his comfort zone. Thankfully, Ahn Jae Hyun broke out of that comfort zone a fair bit here, joining in on the comedic side of things. While I wasn’t sold on his performance all the time, I think it was a great step out for him to broaden his scope and develop his abilities a bit more.

This is the Ahn Jae Hyun I'm used to

And he’s put on weight which is GREAT- he looked much healthier than usual and, in my humble opinion, better. The chemistry between the leads wasn’t awful but it wasn’t good either. I find one of the more important things in a rom-com is the chemistry- I can sit through a bloody awful show but still find enjoyment in it if the chemistry between the leads is absolutely crackling (case en point- ‘Strong Woman Do Bong Soon’).

Did I only start this drama for Kim Seul Gi? Yes, yes I did.

There just wasn’t that sizzle between Ahn Jae Hyun and Oh Yeon Seo, and unfortunately I do think the drama suffered a bit for it, due to their relationship being the centre of the show. The support characters however, were acted very well. Kim Seul Gi is one of my favourite actresses, and she delivered a really charming second lead. Mi Kyung felt layered and fleshed out, and Kim Seul Gi was so good at delivering the comedy without ever taking it too far. She brought a chirpy quirkiness to Mi Kyung that instantly drew me into the character and made me want to see more of her on screen. Heo Jeong Min I usually find very good, but I do occasionally feel that he takes the comedy too far which can take away from the realism of the character. However, here he was absolutely brilliant. He brought the same energy to his character that Kim Seul Gi brought to hers, which made them one hell of an interesting pair. Won Jae’s bumbling attempts to seduce Mi Kyung while actually ending up insulting her were hilarious and extremely fun to watch. The two of them coming together over Kang Woo and Seo Yeon messy relationship felt organic and unforced, and helped along by Won Jae’s gentle care of her while her mother was unwell it felt like a natural conclusion for Mi Kyung to open up and start liking Woo Jae in return.

Their bickering was pretty fun

Unlike our second female lead, our second male lead didn’t quite hit the same sweet spot. Originally Min Hyuk was a sweet and endearing character, and his luring of Seo Yeon with food was cute and funny. For a good stint of the show I had a fair amount of Second Male Lead Syndrome, and was with Mi Kyung in cheering for him ending up with Seo Yeon rather than Kang Woo.

Kind felt like the writer sometimes forgot who the lead was...

But as the story progressed and it became clear that Seo Yeon had fallen for Kang Woo, it felt like the show didn’t exactly know what to do with Min Hyuk. They sort of toyed with the idea of Min Hyuk being a bad guy and booting Kang Woo out of the company and trying to steal his girl while he was at it- but honestly, it was a very half-assed attempt. It felt like a very round about way for getting Kang Woo out of the school, which he kind of needed to be for the next stage of the story. Then once the show was wrapping up, the writers decided to have Min Hyuk bow out of the running for Seo Yeon’s affections (even though he was out of that race from a long time ago), and then disappear off to some foreign country. Yup. Classic way of getting rid of the second lead- just ship him off overseas, that’ll do it. Gu Won did a great job of acting out Min Hyuk though. He had the perfect amount of cool mixed with awkwardness, and even while the show was toying with Min Hyuk being an *sshole, Gu Won was able to inject a level of pitifulness and regret into his character which prevented him from becoming too unlikeable (though he did come quite close).

Mi Kyung being a passive observer caught in the middle was just fab

The acting from Seo Yeon’s brothers was all fabulous, with Cha In Ha being a particular standout. He was able to bring a serious, sombre tone to his storyline, but could also use the seriousness of his character for comedic effect when playing the protective big brother role.

Kang Hee was so bad*ss

Min Wook Hyuk was great as comedic support, and I really enjoyed the scenes he was given. He didn’t have to foray too much into any serious acting, so I’m not sure how he’d fare for more emotional scenes, but he had good comedic timing and cute chemistry with Hwang Wool Seul Hye. Jaeyong is apparently an idol, which I couldn’t tell from his acting which is a good sign. While he wasn’t a standout, he gave a consistent, believable performance, and if he continues gradually building his experience I think he could become quite a good actor. On the female side, Hwang Woo Seul Hye was fabulous as the chaebol heir with a crush on the useless, but kindhearted, gold digger. I think it can be tricky giving a female character typical male characteristics (such as assertiveness and confidence) and not have them come off arrogant or irritating, but Hwang Woo Seul Hye was so good at balancing her character’s diligence and determination with her compassion and empathy that Kang Hee became a worthy Girl Crush character. Shin Do Hyun and Joo Hae Eun both gave good performances of their characters, but both also had so little screen time that it’s a little hard to comment to much more on their actual acting ability. 

What Was Great:

Variety of Characters:

There were a huuuuuge number of characters in this show, and all of them were interesting and unique. Having such a large number of characters meant that we got to see a variety of different relationships, and provided ways for our characters to show different sides of themselves.

These brothers improved every scene they were in

Our heroine was the tough gym teacher at school and with Kang Woo, but at home she’s the very loved younger sister of two protective older brothers. Making one of the older brothers gay was also an interesting and enjoyable move the writers made. In a society that isn’t exactly openly accepting of homosexuality,

All kids of cute

I enjoyed that the show not only introduced a gay character, but also went as far as to challenge the idea of the ‘typical gay man’. I’m not sure if South Korea has the same stereotype as the West, but Won Suk was a very masculine character, which isn’t really how the West paints gay characters. Won Suk got one of the more interesting side-stories, and his assistance in helping Ho Dol feel comfortable coming out was charming and so, so cute. I really enjoyed Won Jae’s storyline too and his romance with Kang Hee. The older siblings had a sense of responsibility that the younger siblings didn’t have to deal with, and it was interesting to watch that play out, though I do wish that the show didn’t bench their romance at the end. I'm still not even sure why they did- I know in the 80s it was frowned upon in Korea for siblings to date their sibling’s sibling (confusing wording, I know), but is it still? And Won Jae and Seo Yeon aren’t even blood related anyway, so I was a bit in the dark as to what was preventing Won Jae and Kang Hee from dating, particularly when it seemed like they were planning on continuing their relationship once Kang Woo and Seo Yeon were married.

I'm rooting for you!

Joo Hee and Seo Joon didn’t really have too much going on story-wise, but they had a cute bickering dynamic that was always enjoyable to watch on screen. I really enjoyed that Kang Woo’s family wasn’t your typical K-Drama chaebol family, and found them quite funny in the scenes they were given. Small things, such as Grandma saying she let Mum marry her son because she was rich, and Dad getting scolded at work by Kang Hee for playing games instead of working served to inject a lightheartedness into Kang Woo’s family that matched the tone of this show really well.

Could be cute, could be creepy

Jang Mi was a really interesting character, and for quite a while there I wasn’t sure which direction the drama was taking her in, though I am relieved that they didn’t make her into a creepy stalker. Her story of becoming self-confident enough to stand up to her abusive mother was interesting and a good wrap up to her character, but I do wish we’d gotten a bit more of her journey throughout the show. The weird twin swap thing that was going on with Kang Woo’s psychologist I could have done without though.

What Wasn’t:

Too Much Focus on OTP:

Where I felt this show really let itself down is that it had all these interesting characters with all these good actors playing them, and then didn’t do too much with them.

They were just...not that cute

While we were still treated to scenes of the side characters here and there, the leads dominated the screen time. Had something actually been happening between the leads this might not have been such a big deal, but all that really happened is: Kang Woo realised he still liked Seo Yeon, Seo Yeon started falling for Kang Woo, Seo Yeon realised Kang Woo was somewhat involved in the death of her parents, Kang Woo realised he was somewhat involved in the death of Seo Yeon’s parents, they both decide to date anyway. Yup. Not exactly 16 episodes worth of content. And yet we were constantly subjected to the two leads going through the motions and emotions in excruciating detail, while more interesting plots involving the other characters were delegated to the sidelines. As the drama progressed I really started to feel oversaturated by the leads, and it gave a sense of sameness to the episodes as they went by. Sure, the situation might be slightly different, but Kang Woo and Seo Yeon’s reactions tended to be pretty similar.

The moping in this show was killing meeeeee

Aspects of the main couple that could have been glossed over in order to give more screen time to another character were instead focused on and stretched out. Did we really need to delegate two and a half episodes to whether Seo Yeon and Kang Woo were going to sleep together?

Recommend?

Nope, as far as rom-coms go there is nothing in this drama that makes it standout above any other show.

Meandering and mediocre

Hwayugi

Hwayugi

6.5/10

Hwayugi

Genre:                                    Episodes: 20                                         Year: 2018

Romance

Fantasy

Synopsis:

Jin Seon Mi is a girl who can see evil spirits. As a child she released a deity, Son Oh Gong, from his prison. As a reward, Oh Gong offers to come to her aid and fight evil spirits whenever she calls his name, but also removes the memory of his name from her mind. As an adult, Seon Mi meets Oh Gong again, and uses a magical bracelet to trick Oh Gong into loving her so that he will protect her.

Cast:

Lee Seung Gi (Son Oh Gong)

Oh Yeon Seo (Jin Seon Mi)

Cha Seung Won (Woo Ma Wang)

Lee Hong Ki (PK)

Lee El (Ma Ji Young)

Lee Se Young (Bu Ja/Ah Sa Nyeo)

Yoon Bo Ra (Alice)

Jang Gwang (Yoon Dae Shik)

Sung Ji Ru (Soon Bo Ri)

Sung Hyuk (Winter General/Summer Fairy)

Song Jong Ho (Kang Dae Sung)

One (Hong Hae Ah)

General Thoughts:

I feel like this drama should have been better than it was. There were so many elements in it that were really, really good, but then there were also quite a lot of parts that were below standard.

I wish it had been just a smidge more exciting

I missed the Hong Sisters’ last drama ‘Warm and Cozy’ as I just heard so many terrible things about it, but I did catch ‘Big’. I’ve also seen a lot of their better works, and I think ‘Hwayugi’ falls somewhere in the middle. It’s not one of their best, but it’s not one of their worst either.

I don't like fantasy, I LOVE it

I’m not sure how much of the world-building they took from the original Chinese novel, but that was one of the better aspects to the show. The way these deities and demons were so naturally disguised in society was brilliant and I loved all the fantasy elements of the characters’ powers and limitations and all the various rules in place from heaven. The heavenly hierarchy was interesting, though mildly confusing at times, but it made all the interactions between our characters fun. The characters were all extremely unique and interesting, and were really the draw for this drama (because there wasn’t really a lot going on in the plot). The different demons were delightful, and each had a story of their own. Having all these personalities interacting was exciting and fun, however after a time it did get a little stagnant. ‘Hwayugi’ was a drama that needed a big plot to move it, as we had all these big characters with big powers. However, as the drama progressed and we got used to the way the characters interacted with each other (Oh Gong and Seon Mi’s push and pull, Oh Gong and Ma Wang’s bickering bromance etc) there was no big force that really pushed our characters into any sort of action- which led to a huge slow in momentum and my interest starting to fade.

I much prefer the pull over the push

The acting was pretty good all around, with the Hong sisters drawing on a lot of actors from their previous dramas. Of course, these actors were brilliant in their previous roles, and so they did well again. Cha Seung Won was hilarious as the bull demon running an entertainment agency.

He's just so hilarious

While his false bravado was slightly reminiscent of his character in ‘Greatest Love’ he managed to add an air of superiority that made Ma Wang feel like a brand new character. Cha Seung Won has such great comedic timing, and such fabulously humorous chemistry with others that sometimes I find it hard to believe that he was ever a serious actor. But then in the heavy, serious scenes he really switches over and shows you what he’s capable of- raw and rich emotion. PK’s character had quite a few similarities to Jeremy in ‘You’re Beautiful’, but similarly to Cha Seung Won, Lee Hong Ki managed to add a unique flavour in his representation of the character that prevented PK from becoming a Jeremy copy-paste. Lee Hong Ki added a bunch of arrogance and tonnes down his innocence for this role, and I really enjoyed the PK he brought out. I’ve not had good experiences with Lee Se Young in the past, after hating her character in ‘The Best Hit’. I really thought she had little to no acting talent at all after seeing her in that drama, and I was happy to be proven wrong here.

She ended up being one of my favourite characters

Lee Se Young was delightful and extremely likeable as our zombie, Bu Ja. She was cute and funny and did an excellent job at bringing in zombie-ish characteristics- such as her slowed speech. Despite how odd these characteristics might have been, Lee Se Young was very natural and made them feel like an authentic part of her character,

Gross yet funny

and I didn’t feel her acting as much as I did in ‘Best Hit’. Her transition to Sa Nyeo was believable and she played the priestess well. However, I do find that she lacks that appeal that makes me intrigued by her whether I like her character or not (something an actress like Lee El has in spades). While there was nothing wrong with her performance as Sa Nyeo, I wasn’t nearly as interested as I was when she was playing Bu Ja- though I think a large part is simply that the character wasn’t as entertaining. I thought One was a bit of a scene stealer, and the cheeky, rebellious grandson role suit him well. The weakest link in the cast was definitely Oh Yeon Seo. She’s gained a lot of popularity recently, and I remember finding her hilarious in ‘Come Back, Ajusshi’, but I really didn't feel it here. There were so many moments when I could see her acting in the scene, and I found that she very rarely seemed natural. Seon Mi was a horrifically boring character on paper (typical useless heroine who is only there to be loved by the hero), and I feel Oh Yeon Seo really struggled trying to give her some life. Sadly, her chemistry with Lee Seung Gi was pretty flat, so I didn’t really buy the romance. She seemed to only have one sweet smiling expression and it just felt kinda fake.

This is the face you make when you can't slap someone who deserves it because it's not 'mature'. This is not an in love face.

I found myself really wishing that Seon Mi had been given more supernatural powers or given more to do in the plot so that Oh Yeon Seo had something else to do other than struggle to look like she was in love with Lee Seung Gi.

A part of me is still pretty disappointed Ma Wang never got horns

The CGI started out pretty well (ignoring the colossal f*ck-up where they aired a half finished episode because they were so far behind on editing). Son Oh Gong’s fire and disappearing and reappearing were awesome, and I adored the demons’ red eyes. The scent of Seon Mi’s blood was done well too- it can be pretty tricky to put a scent into a visual format, but I thought that ‘Hwayugi’ did a pretty convincing job. Maybe they blew their budget on the earlier stuff because after  a while it just seemed like the CGI went downhill. Fast. Ma Wang’s 100 years of suffering was brought down to a few poorly done lights and the big, bad dragon that was supposed to bring about the end of the world was pretty laughable. After how much talk had been going on about what a monstrosity this black dragon was going to be, the final result was definitely a bit lacklustre. One aspect of the show that was brilliant throughout was the soundtrack. As a non-Korean speaking viewer, OSTs that rely on lyrical ballads all end up sounding a bit the same. The soundtrack to ‘Hwayugi' was filled with interesting and easily recognisable songs.

Cue the badass soundtrack

Not only would I be able recognise these songs outside of the drama, but within the drama they served to heighten the mood and give us a hint about what was to fallow. Say if Track 1 played then I knew Oh Gong was about to unleash his powers and get reckless, or if it was Track 2 it meant his feelings for Seon Mi were growing. While some aspects of the drama were a little less exciting than the blockbuster we were promised, the soundtrack carried more than its weight and was undoubtably epic.

What Was Great:

Monkey King:

Did you think I’d forgotten to take about Son Oh Gong played by the dynamic Lee Seung Gi? No, I was just saving it for now.

♫ I don't want to, why should I? How much will you give me? ♫

While I’ve liked Lee Seung Gi in the past, I’ve never quite understood what it was about him that made people lose their minds. I get it now. This was the perfect casting for him and a brilliant way to mark his return from the army.

I am 100 times more into Lee Seung Gi after this drama

Oh Gong’s childish and arrogant ways suited Lee Seung Gi ridiculously well (in a good way), and he gave the character an amazingly endearing vibe for someone who was so…well…so annoying. By all rights Oh Gong should be unlikeable- he’s selfish, rebellious, self-centred- and yet Lee Seung Gi makes all these totally negative traits seem fun and sexy. It’s the perfect example of the bad-boy. You know he’s no good, but you just can’t help loving him. The geumganggo was a nice plot device to tie Oh Gong to the heroine, but Oh Gong was still well aware that he didn’t really love Seon Mi. Lee Seung Gi was brilliant at portraying these totally conflicting feelings of wanting to be near Seon Mi but also wanting nothing to do with her. Having him whine endlessly while he followed her around was just delightful, and of course it was extra fun to watch him slowly start to fall in love for real. Lee Seung Gi matched every emotion of Oh Gong’s perfectly, and we could easily see all his desires and fears that came about due to the geumganggo. His bickering relationship with Ma Wang was always fun, and the two actors had great chemistry (more so than the actual romance).

May bromance never die

While I wasn’t always on board with the main love-line, I was at least convinced that Oh Gong was in love with Seon Mi. All in all, I think a large part of what made this drama watchable was the mischievous nature of our Monkey King hero, and his perfect portrayal by Lee Seung Gi.

What Wasn’t:

Lame Conflicts:

The biggest issue this drama had is that all its problems were so easy to solve. And often had loopholes. The first time I really felt this was during Ma Wang’s 1000 years of suffering.

It started out legitimately sad

This was Ma Wang’s whole story. He loves this girl, sh*t happens in heaven and she’s getting however many reincarnations of suffering. Ma Wang finally finds her and offers to take her punishment (like why didn’t he just do that to begin with?) and we get a lame light-show,

That...that's it?

a couple of minutes pain for Ma Wang paired with short-lived blindness and…that’s it. For what a big windup the show had to Ma Wang’s big sacrifice, he didn’t actually have to sacrifice all that much. From what I can tell, apart from a brief discomfort Ma Wang’s life really wasn’t altered that much after taking one thousand years of pain. It just didn’t seem all that painful is all I’m sayin’. Then we had this to-ing and fro-ing with taking off the geumganggo and we had so many close calls and spent SO MUCH TIME with Seon Mi and Oh Gong deliberating if they were going to take it off that I really stopped caring if they would or not. If you tease something that many times, you’re going to wear out my patience. And I don’t have a lot of it to begin with. By the time the geumganggo finally came off I really didn’t care. We all knew that Oh Gong loved Seon Mi for real- even Seon Mi knew and she’s pretty bloody dense. The biggest and stupidest and most annoying conflict in this drama was actually the main one. All series long we’ve been told that Oh Gong has to kill Seon Mi, and all drama long I’ve been (sort of) interested to see how/if they’d get around this rather large stumbling block in their relationship.

The bell is a lie

Where the drama really started to lose my interest was after it introduced Sa Nyeo. She came right after some other spirit that tried stealing the geumganggo and thus Oh Gong’s love,

Bring back Bu Ja

so I was super underwhelmed when Sa Nyeo seemed to be going for Oh Gong’s love too. Like, we’ve just seen that- give us something new. Sa Nyeo’s arrival of course meant there was no more Bu Ja, and it turns out that PK and Octopus Prince are kinda boring when Bu Ja’s not around- so not only did we lose Bu Ja, we pretty much lost the others too. Things happen and Sa Nyeo decides to call a dragon for Dae Sung, and turns out it’s going to be this giant black dragon that ends the world. So far I can roll with it. But then the characters all start discussing the end of the world (which we’ve been hearing about for around 7 or 8 episodes now) and it's mentioned that only Sa Nyeo can call the world-destroying dragon. Um, hello? Just kill Sa Nyeo while she’s in the body of a weak zombie then. Problemo solved. But no. No one does this. No one really entertains this notion at all. These super wise godly beings who have lived for thousands of years decide that the best course of action is to wait until the dragon is summoned and then try and fight it. Like what the actual f*ck people.

You should have done this AGES AGO

I just couldn’t take the situation seriously from that point on because all I could think about while the characters were discussing how tragic and awful this situation was was that they could literally just kill the only person capable of summoning the dragon and be done with it.

It doesn't even do anything! Just kinda floats around menacingly.

 Sure the dragon is still technically there, but if you just keep getting rid of the people able to summon it (who are way weaker then the dragon itself) isn’t that the easier option? Anyway after a lot of mumbo jumbo bullsh*t the dragon gets summoned and Seon Min is stabbed by Dae Sung. Like really, if you’re going to kill a main character at least put some effort into it. It was like they forgot they were killing Seon Mi off and just squished it in there in the most random way possible. Maybe I would have felt some emotion over Seon Mi’s demise had Oh Gong somehow been cornered into killing her, but no. Also, Dae Sung killing Seon Mi also means that the whole death bell fate scenario was just blatantly wrong. In my not so humble opinion, this drama could have been way more interesting if a lot less time had been spent on the dragon summoning (which was super underwhelming with terrible CGI).

A journey through the underworld to save her soul sounds way more interesting than what I just sat through

Maybe instead of having Seon Mi die at the end and not even seeing Oh Gong's search to find her the show could have condensed the whole series into the first half or two-thirds and then ended with Oh Gong’s journey to the underworld to rescue the girl he loves. That would have been cool. 

Recommend?

If you want to know what the fuss is with Lee Seung Gi then I totally recommend this drama. Otherwise, no.

At least the cast was good