Rezensionen von Park_Min

Impressively, it was a meaty 167 episodes daily drama that left me with conflicting feelings. To get some positives out of the way, I much appreciate the roughness and scuffiness of older dailies over the jaded cleanliness and overly-sanitized modern dailies. It's a good thing that conflicts don't last a long time in this lengthy drama, but this also created a problem I'll talk about later. The drama took advantage of its length in regards to the main point of tension with the objecting parents of the ML, simply, let the girl hang around long enough until they get used to her. Now, let's get into the underlying problems. There was a love triangle involving the 70ish elderly father, his 50ish son, and the restaurant lady, I've never seen such an absurd, trashy and distasteful love triangle like this one before. It's shocking how much screen time they dedicated to that which was for almost the entire runtime. Due to its length, the drama was somewhat divided into 2 halves that were different enough to consider one a downgrade over the other. The exact point that split it into 2 halves was when the pseudo love triangle/square over the FL was resolved. In comparison, the most glaring difference was with the characters' writing of the duo Uk Yeong & Yun Jeong, they made them dumb, quirky, and borderline retarded, just because they were out of the circling conflicts from the first half and had no other roles to justify their existence in the drama. It's clear that its length was problematic. There was a shocking lack of material to fill the runtime. Initially, it had many small side plots that seemed promising but were completely dropped off after a handful of episodes, for example, the rouge sister Yun Ji and her ostracized family. There was only 2 main plotlines running in parallel, whatever was the FL involved in and the repulsive elderly love triangle. This could've been easily fixed since they already had enough pieces laid out. For example, give Shin Hyeong a full family background dynamic to interact with everyone rather than being a random employee with no attachments to anything, replace the elderly love triangle with another involving Wu Suk and other characters, despite the established premise but giving the female lead some familial connections would strengthen her character's existence, and lastly give the lead couples more problems to overcome rather than a couple of elongated ones. Finally, there was a huge lack of affection from the female lead while the male lead was always loud, clear and persistent about his love, she couldn't reciprocate his feeling with the same level if any at all, leaving a constant weird imbalance in their relationship. As if she was pressured to accept his love and run with it, nonetheless, this was less of a problem later on. At the end of the day and despite everything, this was just an okay vanilla daily drama.

Right from the first 8 minutes introduction they failed to.... no, just failed. The entire story's setup involving the kids was absurd even for a silly makjang. It quickly became apparent that the drama was attempting to do something different from other daily makjang but the execution was nothing but comical, even while adding hints of unintentional parody. I couldn't stand how the drama was structured with its storytelling, it was really tiring how every single key information had 3 layers of truths that kept throwing the blame onto 3 parties. It was really exhausting repeating the same pattern 30-40 times. There's a lot to be said while breaking down everything but I would be repeating myself so here are some random bits. I found it particularly cringe when characters called themselves and each others witches with nicknames, for example 'The White-Haired Witch'. Despite being the face of the drama, Yoo Kyung's lifelong revenge wasn't finalized due to some events which is disappointing. It felt like the male lead suddenly confessed his love with no proper build up or showing prior interest beyond some sympathy, it happened too early in the story even though he was a womanizer a couple of episodes ago. Moreover, the male lead was mostly useless and didn't play as big of a part as most of the other characters. Midway through he was just there wasting time while occasionally being an unfunny clown. I guess he was just there to give the female lead a hug every now and then. On the flip side, the other male lead, Ji Ho, was in every other scene more than any character in the drama. One last thing, the overall vibe and tone later on was very detached and different from the few first episodes (after the kids story setup). If I had to mention something positive other than the cinematography being up to the modern standard with the majority of projects, that would be how secrets don't linger for too long which is because of the aforementioned repeated pattern.

Whip out your makjang bingo card (easy misunderstandings, cut short scenes/dialogues, holding back when scolded, wrongfully convicted, extremely incompetent police, extremely capable characters with pulling any string, eavesdropping at the right moment like a superpower, triple birth secret, pseudo incest, comeback as rich, fake death, too many crimes with little to no punishment... ) honestly you could fill a stack of bingo cards. Given its length there was obvious planning issues, the drama hit a major road block at episode 66 and had to hard press the reset button, setting everything back 20 steps. That wasn't enough as the drama, once again, soft hit the reset button at episode 105 and one more time at episode 114 to buy more time. This drama wasn't different from the ones alike it at all but there was a serious drop in overall quality in the second half. It got seriously sloppy and lacked the slightest attention to details. One example is how important scenes are empty, such as the company's 30th celebration had a couple of tables and only the family was there, yet they were delivering a speech as if it was a major event for the entire company. Another one with the investors voting where they showed only one investor. There were many other examples were the drama needed to hire a few random extras to fill some gaps. On a side note, where did Bae Dal Bong disappear? Per usual, character stop showing up suddenly with no explanation has become a normal occurrence with modern daily makjangs. I could go on forever but everything can be boiled down to the fact that if the drama kept its consistency from the first half it wouldn't have been as bad. One final thing, while Uhm Hyun Kyung is mostly fine but she lacked a tiny bit of oomph to better sell the revenge story here.

The drama turned out to be very different from its initial premise, setup and introduction. Things were changing too frequently and taking a different direction at every turn, this can be both a good and a bad thing. The Aries maiden, horseback riding, school dynamics, and the 'dark family secret', all became irrelevant after a few episodes. The main focus was on the love triangle with the pseudo delinquent guy. While the transition wasn't necessarily bad but I wish they kept exploring the initial elements, especially the Aries maiden dynamic and horseback riding. That Aries theme song definitely stuck in my head. One thing that stood out was how everything was interconnected which allowed the drama to draw all kinds of parallels between what was going on. The writing was surprisingly good and multilayered which saved the drama with the change of directions, however, it still has its flaws with handling many of the side characters. The biggest misstep was the inclusion of that one male teacher, it was very unnecessary, it didn't fit any part of the story and done more harm than not. Despite some problems here and there it was a decent drama from the 80s.

Beautiful Life (2000) was an emotionally charged drama that struck a familiar chord reminiscent of other ones like it for its textbook depiction of love, loss, and resilience, but it wasn't without its flaws. At its heart, the story was anchored by the chemistry between Takuya Kimura's charming yet understated portrayal of Shuji and Takako Tokiwa's luminous performance as Kyoko, a woman whose physical limitations were treated with admirable sensitivity for its time. The drama's beauty lay in its quiet moments, Kyoko's defiant joy, Shuji's evolving tenderness, and the unspoken melancholy of ordinary life brushed with rising pain. However, its emotional power often bordered on manipulation, with tear-jerking sequences and swelling musical cues that risked reducing a nuanced relationship to a mere tragedy. Fortunately, this was only most applicable to the last 3 episodes. Additionally, while the drama broke ground by portraying a disabled FL in a leading role, it sometimes leaned into idealized tropes, framing Kyoko's struggles more as narrative devices to drive Shuji's growth rather than delving deeper into her agency and identity despite being a leading character. The pacing, too, occasionally faltered, with melodramatic stretches that risked to undercut the rawness of its central theme. In a different world, I would love to see them continue exploring the relationship without the terminal illness element since it was somewhat cut short to accommodate for the writer's predetermined plan. On another note, a few things were planted but neglected and ended up being underutilized. For example, it was foreshadowed multiple times how Shuji was the son of a famous hospital director/CEO and coming from a family of doctors but that didn't play a role later on, nor the anticipated involvement of his family which remained anonymous. Many things were either missing or unfinished at the cost of fleshing out the story and its characters just to reach the highly emotional familiar moments. For all of its shortcomings, Beautiful Life captured something universally human: the poignancy of love in the face of fate. It was imperfectly told and profound, a drama which, even as one wished it had dared to be bolder, lingered on in the heart, at least for a little while.

Update: I watched and wrote my comment a few days before the news broke out. I'm in utter disbelief upon hearing the news of Nakayama Miho passing away at the young age of 54. During the past couple of weeks I went into a binge-watch of all her projects from the 80s and 90s, she was a truly striking, talented and fun actress that gave a unique signature to all the projects she's been in. It's unfortunate what has happened and she will be missed dearly. Rest in peace, mama idol!

The drama mirrored the reality of its time with idols culture, ironically, nothing changed since the 80s. Given the setup, the formula was pretty clear with how things were going to be laid out. Each episode gave a focus to one of the characters while cycling through some jokes. Most of these episodes were alright in general but some of the running jokes lasted a bit too long. Take for example the constant interruption of the married leads' 'first night alone' which lasted for several episodes. In fact, they never showed that the leads were actually just sleeping together even after marriage, aside from being together in a bedroom. The female lead's age probably had something to do with that. Instead of wasting time on that and other similar things, they could've gave a reasonable showcase to how they met, fell in love and decided to marry. Anyway, the drama had good dynamics between the characters, nostalgia inducing OST and 80s vibes so it was decent enough.

Update: I watched and wrote my comment a few days before the news broke out. I'm in utter disbelief upon hearing the news of Nakayama Miho passing away at the young age of 54. During the past couple of weeks I went into a binge-watch of all her projects from the 80s and 90s, she was a truly striking, talented and fun actress that gave a unique signature to all the projects she's been in. It's unfortunate what has happened and she will be missed dearly. Rest in peace, mama idol!

Following the success or appeal (?) of Mama wa Idol (1987) the leads returned for another run, they even brought some of the side cast like the neighbor who still have her eyes on the male lead. In fact, the entire thing felt like a carbon copy of its predecessor, from the cast to the setup, story, dynamics, characters, jaded jokes, setting and production. They were seriously trying too hard to make it as similar as possible without offering anything new. Nakayama Miho is still trying to be a mother of children not of her own while suffering from the same interrupted intimacy trope in every episode. I couldn't find a single thing that might nudge this over Mama wa Idol, they should've aimed to improve over or at least not repeat the same mistakes.

This slice-of-life drama was a quirky concoction of midlife crises, emotional constipation, and nostalgia. It's not going to set your pulse racing or redefine the genre, but it got enough charm to keep you interested, for the most parts. The story follows Motoko, a 34-year-old woman whose life got a kick in the pants when her friend absconded with 300 million yen. Then, there was a sexually frustrated manga artist, a melancholic professor, and an emotionally stunted young landlord. It was basically the setup for a comedic entanglement, but instead, you get slow-burning introspection with the occasional dash of the familiar Japanese absurdity. There's something hypnotic about watching these women fumble their way to self-discovery, finding happiness in their mundane fractured lives. It had this warm nostalgic glow all over it but that couldn't save it from some inconsistencies and shortcomings. Particularly with its 2nd half where the drama already exhausted most of the personal stories around the housemates and what left was a lot of emptiness. There was an opportunity to dedicate an episode for the young landlord since she was the fourth wheel in the dynamic. Suika was the kind of drama that doesn't try too hard to impress, and somehow that was its biggest charm. It wasn't revolutionary, but if you're in the mood for a contemplative drama with a few laughs and a lot of heart, this one might be worth it.

At the surface, the drama explored the abuse cases as expected from reading the synopsis, however, the rabbit hole was much deeper than initially thought. Each episode peeled one layer after another with more haunting revelations up until the last episode. I was worried we would be presented with a superficial showcase of some traumas but the drama actually took its time with each of leads' struggles and constructed a solid story. Although it went off the rails a little bit at the end but nothing too outrageous. I would've hoped if the ending was more grounded but one can look at it serving a theatrical over-exaggeration for the final act. Moreover, the constant jumping back and forth between different periods could've been done better. The side abuse cases didn't hold up compared to what the leads were going through nor did they blend well with the story. Aside from the intense cruelty, that one menacing soundtrack caught my attention. It's the same soundtrack that was used in Silent Hill 2 (White Noiz) which is strange because it's not the same composer. It definitely gave the drama a unique signature that was absolutely chilling whenever it played, though they almost didn't use it in the last couple of episodes.

Amazing first episode that was masterfully crafted to kick start the story and prepare it to venture in all kinds of directions. There was a slight decline in the writing moving forward but it kept holding its own weight for awhile. That prison warden was quite the character. The OST was pretty decent. There was also some glaring inconsistencies like the alcoholic father suddenly becoming sober just to get to the next point in the story. However, the drama hit a major unsalvageable road block. Specifically at the beginning of the last 1/3 of the drama. It turned the drama into cheap vapid melodrama diminishing any merits it previously established for the past 8 episodes. The ending was questionable at best, it didn't really allow for real conversations to be had. It's really unfortunate after it had a very solid run before flipping the switch.

The drama started with enough intrigue to keep me curious for where it was heading. However, it quickly became apparent what type of drama this was going to be. Things were messy and over bloated with way too many plotlines that were forcefully connected to the mother's pregnancy to give the illusion of a grand story. Most of these plotlines didn't get the treatment they deserve and were brushed off hastily, take for example the younger daughter at school. On the other hand, the older brother story with the gang business and whatnot was just seriously stupid writing that didn't mix well with the overall story at all. The drama was also painfully filled with extreme cliches at every turn, scene and dialogue, which the Japanese consider mandatory for every 'family' drama. If we were to focus on the mother (and maybe eldest daughter?) then the drama is decent enough.

Surprisingly atrocious! To start, reading the synopsis would give you all the spoilers you need as it will play out exactly as suggested. Given the supposed 'moral' dilemma, the drama resulted to shifting genres at around episode 9 to diverge the attention from the characters' relationships when it reached a pivotal moment, which is why we ended up with a corporate corruption plot. This was the main reason why the plot crumbled under its own weight, because the writers couldn't follow through with what they created. Well, it was problematic from the beginning, there was simply little to no room to navigate such a set up for a story where the FL fell in love with her brother-in-law immediately after her sister's death. The plot wasn't particularly unique but other ones at least had a reasonable justification by utilizing a time-skip or concealed identity. All of that doesn't come close to the tone deaf ending where the entire cast were casually hanging out at the bar as the credit rolled.

The drama's main plot revolves around a woman whose one defining characteristic is being perpetually sad. Why is she sad? Who knows! The writers certainly didn't seem to. Maybe because the men in her life are about as reliable as a dial-up internet connection, or maybe it's because the script was clearly written by someone going through a mid-life crisis and decided, "You know what's relatable? Pain. Just... constant, nonsensical pain." Nothing really makes sense, it was unbelievably dull as everything kept going in empty circles through the same events. Every man and woman were interested in the leads for some reason. Breakup was an expected element in such a plot but it was seriously poorly executed. It's the type of breakup you might see in an anime at the first slight misunderstanding, justified by a cheap trope rather than proper character writing. Why would their love be so great? The leads romantic chemistry has all the fire and passion of a wet sponge, it just couldn't sell the viewers on the long distance relationship and love. The drama was just a bloated, meandering, self-indulgent slog that mistakes misery for profundity.

Imagine a love triangle that's less about romance and more about how spectacularly uncomfortable and contrived things can get. A plot that goes absolutely nowhere for a full fat 11 episodes. A blind man could recognize and see the outcome of this empty mess at first glance. It was unbelievably obvious from the beginning that Tsubasa will refuse to choose between the two. Well, it was also obvious this wasn't meant to be serious drama comedic, light and playful play on the given situation, however, the execution was the farthest thing from displaying such needed attributes. The storyline teetered between laughably implausible and downright tedious. It's a joyful love story, yet it lacked love, logic, joy or likable characters. The male characters were too damn one-dimensional, they make cardboard cutouts look like complex psychological studies. I've seen more emotional depth in a traffic report. All things considered, the dram was still not as bad as Nakayama Miho's other project "Suteki na Kataomoi (1990)".

This drama proved to be much worse than expected and ended up being my least favorite Nakayama Miho project thus far. It's a 90s slog that moves at the pace of a drunken snail trying to cross a busy freeway. It got some charm buried under all the emptiness and shortcomings, but you'll need an archaeological dig to find it. The plot was full of second-hand cringe distilled into indigestible form and the lack of chemistry was shocking and deadly with all of her male co-stars! The supporting cast fares slightly better but they were clearly there just to pad out the runtime. To be fair, it's not all bad. The drama did occasionally capture the bittersweet pain of unrequited love but those moments were few and far between, and they were buried under so much fluff and filler that you'll wonder if they were worth the effort.

For 100 episodes sitcom, it needed a bit larger cast with a few more plotlines. This is why there was some irrelevant guests episodes in the middle parts. After these parts, there was also a weird shift happening. They removed the canned laughter and promptly replaced the mother fairy with a grandmother with no valid explanation. The character replacement wasn't good and messed up the dynamic with the fairies since the grandmother had the opposite personality. Some other characters also promptly disappeared but with no replacement. Most of the material involving the younger cast members was mostly bad, however, the rest managed to make up for that. On the bright side, the twin brothers, fairies and Tae Hee had a good dynamic going on. Some running jokes were pretty decent. Cha In Pyo and Hwang Woo Seul Hye were a great choice to play their respective characters. The wrap up could've been better but it was decent as is.

Sexy, unique, provocative and silly. It's quite rare to have a drama with adult rating let alone a long running sitcom. What makes matter ever rarer than it already is, the consistency of the adult theming in a long running format. Usually, these type of shows drop the rating to +15 or something after a few episodes. Basically, the typical bait and switch tactic. The current video quality is super scuffed, unfortunately, I don't see this show getting a proper quality release as it was even neglected by its broadcasting network. Although it had a decent variety in stories and characters but it needed more consistent plotlines running from start to finish. It also needed a better introduction because it threw us right in with barely any introduction of the characters and setting. Anyway, while it had a handful of shortcomings but it offered something new and entertaining.

The endless chase of money. It started off with a catching premise with some predictable routes that didn't seem to be enough for a full story in 11 episodes package, which is why they had episodes dedicated to some cases at work. These cases affected the story negativity and caused delays that pushed the main story as far as the last 20 minutes. As you may read from the synopsis, her ex began working at the same company but he has a girlfriend who wouldn't reject his poor status which caused a lot of pointless back and forth. His girlfriend didn't offer something worthy to the dynamic of the trio. Instead of some of the cases, I wanted to see better side characters with stories integrated into the main theme. It was an okay drama but it doesn't have much to offer.

It was really not good. The extreme hyper reactions, interactions and acting were unsettling. I'm familiar with this style from Japanese movies/series themed around life/family but they went totally overboard in this one. It was just too forced and fake at every step of the way, even for a theatrical play. The synopsis talked about entrance exams but that was mostly just for the setup and setting while the rest was about some family problems and cheap affairs baits which all were poorly written from start to finish. Due to the lack of any interesting merits, I found myself examining the 90s set design more often than not.

Compared to the original, this remake was a total flop in every aspect without a single redeeming quality. It's significantly shorter than the original to the point it could only present general outlines of the story, stripping down all the details and relationships. The cast was questionable and their performance was a disappointment. Even the production value is incomparable to the original that came in the 80s! The split personality showcase was just comical here, as well as the FL's relationships with those around here. This remake did nothing but tarnish the original work. Perhaps, it serves as a good example for a bad remake and even a more generalized example to the severe literary and artistic decline of Jdrama in general.

A ridiculous amount of face slaps with every other scene regardless of age and gender which was very fitting for the 80s vibes. It's a surprisingly good well-written drama, well, for the most part. The drama had a solid run checking all the boxes for its first half, but, for some reason, they couldn't keep the same momentum for its 2nd half. There was a significant drop in quality and the story took weird turns especially with that creepy classmate. Maybe its length was problematic for the writer and he couldn't plan for 18 episodes properly. Even the ending was kind of whatever, not much thought was put into it. I will probably only remember it for its first half. In comparison, the remake was the definition of pure manufactured waste. Utterly shameful to have a remake as that one. Just stick to the original one even with the 2nd half being a bit of a let down.

This was an attempt to make a melodrama from the kids' perspective and there's a very good reason why there's not many like it. Mainly, because it's utterly absurd to showcase this, especially for events related to the kids between themselves. It's less of a problem when it's between the kids and the adults. When looking at the whole picture with the adults, it's a pretty standard watered down melodrama because of the given theme. It wants to be targeted at kids/teens but it doesn't do a good job in that regard so it end up being stuck in this weird middle ground. Earlier on, the drama had plenty of animation but they stopped doing these because they realized how atrocious and unnecessary these were. The story, cast and performance were all pretty average and lazy.

They should've removed the boyfriends from the equation and made it about life in general, otherwise it was cheap in its current state. A new profile picture every episode with no change/growth/development between each. Each episode was just a long montage of speed dating a new guy. Nothing connected or clicked in relation to her life. The main character herself wasn't appealing to begin with. Her personal life beyond the relationships had little to no role despite having an introduction that indicated otherwise. There was an attempt to do things differently for the last episode, especially in regard to her childhood, but things were more or less the same. On the bright side, it was shot nicely.

It's surprising this drama managed to go on for 10 full episodes considering the bulk of its content. The drama had a sloppy poor blend of workplace setting, food and a love triangle. The office related events were the worst as these were extremely generic auto generated fillers just to give the illusion that it's a workplace setting. The food scenes were okay at best but nothing stood out even the food shots. The romance was just bland and weird, it was only there because they didn't have anything else to do or show for a story, not even if they were aiming for a slice of life/episodic formula. If anything, they should've cut its runtime in half and double the focus on food.

The anthology brought something special to the table, for the most part. Each episode offered a unique take on romance with a decent story. These weren't just focusing on the thrill of falling in love but also having a rhyme and reason behind them. Cinematography was decent and the low angled framing shots from the 90s are always appreciated. The cast was absolutely stacked, it was only possible because this project came early in their career. I don't see this happening again even with new emerging talents but only time will tell. The pacing was decent for 2 episodes per story, each had the space to unfold and progress reasonably. Nonetheless, not everything was sunshine and rainbows, some stories were a total flop in all aspects from romance to writing, acting, characters and vibes. Case in point, story number 4 "Open Ended" was the worst one and a poor addition to the anthology. On the flip side, the stories "Sunflower, Rose, Miss Hip-hop and Mr. Rock" were amongst the better ones.