Strong Girl Bong-soon

So let's recap. A great main character in the lead, who is (almost) unruffled by anything. I didn't find the male cast that believable at first, but I realized I was wrong after the first few episodes (I love Hyung-sik, haha). The main role here was definitely the love story, and it was super cute and made me giggle and cry at the same time every now and then. I'd say the creators avoided a lot of the usual clichés, at least when it comes to the main characters' relationship. As a viewer, I pretty much got what I wanted and didn't have to roll my eyes at silly misunderstandings and other petty things. Even someone finally got the timing of the first kiss. Plus, they did a nice job – except for maybe two episodes – of lightening the dramatic moments with decent humor. I admire how they were able to naturally jump from one genre to another without it falling apart as a whole. On the contrary, it felt natural, and I say that despite the fact that I found myself almost on edge at one point, grinning like a lunatic and then covering my eyes and not even breathing with the suspense. I just hope I don't come across anything starring Won-hae Kim (the gangster with no teeth and the crazy gay superior) for a while now. I'm just not Korean enough to understand those two roles of his (and I doubt I ever will be). (16.05.2018)

I was going to check out a nice romantic comedy, because that's what Koreans are pretty good at (if you leave out the stupid parts). I figured this one has very good reviews, a lot of people are praising it, so as a relaxing romantic comedy it'll be good enough. Except that... for a few episodes I couldn't figure out why I wasn't enjoying it. Why I still couldn't get hooked, why I couldn't care less what happened next. And then it dawned on me. The script. It was actually pretty bad. It had no ability to ratchet up the intensity, to build to a climax. The whole thing flounders somewhere between a mystery-thriller and a romantic comedy, and it can't for the life of it choose what it's going to be. The stuff that happens outside the main storyline was often about nothing, it didn't lead to anything new or interesting, so it was actually completely pointless. In general, a lot of things happen that don’t make sense. It wasn't stimulating at all, on the contrary it was rather mentally exhausting. Until then I thought the main character was pretty great, she didn't make an unnecessary fuss over some things, but even that changed over time. She was just a childish heroine, cute at times, but definitely not a character I could live through or fall in love with, one I wouldn’t want to part with. On the contrary – I won't miss her. Yes, some of the scenes were fine, cute, good for a sigh. If you adore any of the main trio, you'll probably enjoy it a little more because you can watch them. But maybe it would be better to watch the music videos rather than this whole series. I like this style of humor, but here it either wasn't funny or just didn't work for me. But as you can see, despite all the clichés, stereotypes, cringeworthiness, and weird twists, a lot of people liked the series (I guess it's the ending, overall it's beautifully Cinderella-esque). I wouldn't recommend it, a wasted 16 hours of your life. I'd be more likely to recommend a couple of Korean movies where you get your comedy, fantasy, mystery, thriller, and love from beyond the grave separately. (02.03.2019)