Forest

It's a tricky case. It takes some millennial themes simple and trivial and remakes them in a way that the result is truly worth it. The story of the rich and heartless, cold and bad businessman and the sweet, innocent, brokenhearted - I care about everyone and everything - doctor ... oh yes... The plot has enough side stories in order to make it interesting and hold the viewer, and in addition, they are slowly building the drama tension to the point where you anxiously wait for what is going to happen next, the secrets that 'Forest' is in no hurry to reveal. So, a well-written script, albeit a common theme, with an interesting touch of ecological awareness, nice dialogues which are natural and effortless without clichés. A fantastic Park Hae-Jin, gorgeous and upright, performs his best in a role cut and tailored to its own, that of a cold, heartless, but it also shows another more vulnerable side, which in the most private moments shows feeling as it should. Jo Bo-Ah's amazing, energetic, full of life portrays her role with great success and I think she has good chemistry with the protagonist. The romance does exist but it does not dominate the rest of the story, on the contrary it unravels simultaneously and sometimes triggers action, I think it is just right so it's not cheesy. The second roles are well written and realistically put to life, with O Bo Mi (Jung Yeon-Joo) standing out, I think she has a very interesting role: morally steadfast, politically correct, she is guided by her passion for her job so much that she wants to make the right thing as well as for her love for nature, shy and boisterous, agitator and brawler, stubborn and irreverent head, a character you first hate and then unconditionally surrender to. Furthermore good production - there were ambiguities or imperfections - great music that you can't get enough of. Nice landscapes and views of the forest. Clear messages of support for work of the Fire Brigade and Rescue Teams, in particular, environmental awareness and responsibility. The end was expected and cliché, a little too sweet in order to satisfy the general public. Personally I would opt for a more dramatic ending as the culmination of the dramatic agony that had been building up since the previous episodes, but it's a matter of personal taste !!!

I would rate this K-Drama as 6.5 stars (rounded up to 7), with little that stands out either positively or negatively. It was a pleasant, if generally tepid watch, with nice scenery, acceptable script, and a story and characters which were interesting, but not compelling enough to produce a lot of buy-in (for me).

The one noteworthy point was the ending, where the writers made an obvious effort to tie up all the loose ends for a clear-cut (if slightly unrealistic) conclusion. In short, if you like stories where justice is served, and the power of love changes people for the better, you might go for this one.

ROMANCE RATING: 7/10 * * * The romance in this show generally stays in the "warm fuzzies" category, with 4+ kiss scenes featuring gentle kisses or brief pecks. PHJ and JBA have believable chemistry together (though IMO it could have been even better). Sadly, the only real sexual tension was in a heated, pre-dating kiss scene where the leads are using their heart rate to prove how unaffected they are by each other. It would have been super spicy if not for the sound editing, which failed to adjust the BPMs and therefore made the intent of the scene confusing/ distracting.

Park Hae Jin is so charming, sweet, gentle, attractive, handsome and I like him very much. I feel like watching other kdramas played by him. it's a MUST! Park Hae jin, you charmed me. Oh my God!!!

The entire drama and the main couple's relationship was built entirely around bonding over their each others trauma. Not necessarily bad but it felt it was purposely designed that way to manipulate the viewers' emotions forcefully. This was pretty obvious from the very beginning with how they portrayed and handled the female lead's boyfriend. You would fell for their trap if you were a newcomer. The music choices were odd and mostly cheap, in addition, the dubstep soundtrack was completely unfitting. Anyway, if it wasn't for the forestry scenery then the drama wouldn't have had much to offer. Throwing in two attractive leads together isn't enough anymore.

Wow this may have been the slowest k-drama I have ever watched! The plot moved along at a snail's pace, and while the set up was initially interesting, it felt like it was bogged down by scene after scene of the rescue team and corporate jargon being thrown around to fill the time. I wasn't overly impressed with our couple either; I love both leads as actors but they didn't seem to have a lot of chemistry and nothing very romantic happened to convince me they were a couple. The whole story could have been told in half the amount of time, and the finale was somewhat cartoonish. I ended up skipping through a lot of episodes to important scenes because I wanted to know how the story ended, but I found most of the story to be filler. The only thing that was nice was the scenery of the forest, which created some beautiful camera shots. Other than that this was a huge disappointment, I would skip this one it is just too slow.