Melo Movie

Some movies are exciting and keep us late into the night, eager to see how the plot will unfold next. Others are a slow burn but can be watched over and over because of all the subtle details and commentaries you discover rewatch after rewatch.

Melo Movie leans closer to the latter. If you are looking for a plot driven story, I urge you to consider watching this through a different lens. Because this movie has authentic, deeply layered characters and takes us on a beautiful exploration of love and relationships.

Choi Woo-shik's talent is well utilized as the male lead as he expertly balances his bubbly charm while masking deep-seated struggles of loneliness and sadness. Park Bo-Young is also well-cast as the tough-exteriored female lead who secretly harbors an unmet need for love. Even this description of both lead characters feels shallow and unjust as they each display all of the emotions and facets of a real person, oftentimes with a simple look or gesture. You feel like you know these people or, better yet, ARE these people. The rest of the cast similarly have their distinct personalities, motivations, flaws, and strengths. Kim Jae-Wook, in particular, is a scene stealer, showcasing a bittersweet brotherly love. Each episode unveils a new layer to each of them as well.

The second deceiving quality about this series is the implication of what a "melo" or "love" story consists of. As someone who consumes both Western pop-culture and plenty of K-Dramas, we often come to expect a love story to focus on the lead couple's trials and tribulations on their way to (hopefully) a happy ending. This series does plenty of that, but through the relationship of the lead couple, we are also introduced to an interwoven ecosystem of the relationships around them, and you start to realize this story is about love in ALL of its iterations. Many will ask, "Does this have a happy ending?" Without spoiling it, one can say yes and no. Much like life, some relationships flourish while others end. But each love story: parent/child, romantic, platonic, sibling - they all evolve. This is not a story where Evil is defeated and Good triumphs, or even where the underdog beats the alpha to get the girl. It's a very realistic, grounded exploration of relationships.

For some, this could be hard to enjoy because it does not offer the escapism that we may come to expect from fictional TV. Instead, it is a mirror, showing us what love looks like in every form. From the characters to the cinematography, to the music, and the color scheme: every artistic choice of Melo Movie tells a love story. It reminds us that love can hurt us, love can leave us, but love can also heal us, and love can bring us to new adventures.

Melo Movie reminds us that love - for all its ups and downs- is a gift. And in this world, where headlines often highlight acts of hate - I'm happy to slow down for a bit and reflect on love with this series.

Disclaimer: I'm bad at English so I use AI to translate my review.

Summary: Just watch it and let it sink in because, in reality, it's complex and not overly melodramatic.

This series is intricate and tries to tell more than it can fully explain. You can enjoy watching it more than once because there are many symbols for you to decode. If you're a hardcore fan of series that delve into the philosophy of life, you'll love it and want to rewatch it, at least once more.

The romance part is just a way to lighten the heavy nature of the story and serves as a tool for the writer to tell the narrative. In the end, the series tries to take us on a journey to learn about the differences and the subtleties of life's transitions. I think the Male Lead (ML) performed excellently, living up to his reputation, while the Female Lead (FL) was standard. I didn't feel any disconnect in their performances.

I rate this series very highly because I don't see it as a romance series. If you're looking for a good romance series that will make you cry over a romantic relationship, there are definitely better ones out there. But if you're searching for a series that explores philosophical themes of life, this one will definitely be top of mind. It even gives off more of a J-Series vibe than a K-Series one.

I really enjoyed this series. While the title implies melodrama, it is definitely not overly melodramatic. But it is about relationships and contains the full spectrum - new love, broken love, familial love, grief and heartbreak. It will take you on an emotional rollercoaster. And even though it is only 10 episodes long, it does a great job of providing ample time to fully develop each of these sub-threads and seeing them thru to a satisfying ending.

I felt the chemistry between both couples, Moo-bi & Gyeom and Joo-ah & Si-jun was fantastic as was the other relationship pairings - Gyeom & Jun; Gyeom & Si-jun and even Gyeom/Jeong-hoo and Moo-bi/Joo-ah. I especially enjoyed the short scene in ep8 with Gyeom and Si-jun. I felt they nailed the representation of a long time, close male friendship perfectly in how they interacted in that situation.

That said, I did feel the writers were very lazy with the setup for the tension between Moo-bi and Gyeom. Especially in the confrontation between them in ep2. There is no reason he wouldn't have just explained what happened and settled the issue right away.

I also wasn't thrilled with the all-too-common kdrama 'stalking' trope used in ep1 and somewhat in later episodes. While there was nothing sinister about it, she does clearly tell him to leave her alone several times and he persists in ignoring her requests until finally wearing her down. Not a great example on male / female relationships.

But I recommend just ignoring those details and enjoying everything else in the series. The acting is fantastic and the storyline engaging. Even though it is very early in the year, I feel this will be one of my favorite kdramas of 2025....and if not, that only means we are in for a great year of entertainment.

Love the main actors- but very slow start and slow development of characters. Story-line was good, but seemed to take a long time to get there. Not sure about main character's chemistry-seemed more like "friend" vibe/connection.

Second lead's romance had better "romantic" connection but got tired of male's constant sadness over being left behind, and hard to follow what was really happening between them.

Entertaining though if you can get through first few very slow moving episodes. Held my interest to see where the story would go. Was just a bit more hopeful that this series would be more engaging.

...in this series and steals every scene he's in, but his cuteness isn't all he offers as the second half gets deeper and he really gets to show off his acting chops.

If you're expecting something silly & lighthearted, you'll get that, but way more too, as there are explorations of loss, grief, depression, loneliness & vulnerability.

The series follows lovable Go Gyeom, (Woo-sik) a seemingly happy go lucky young man who can charm the birds from the trees, who falls for Kim Moo-bi, (Park Bo-young ) an aloof assistant director who carries the weight of the world on her shoulders, and who isn't willing to let love into her life for fear of being left.

Is Go Gyeom as carefree as he seems? Why is Kim Moo-bi as she is? The supporting cast are excellent as we delve into the family & friendship dynamics of the 2 main characters. I laughed & I cried, I cried quite a bit actually, but I found this series to be delightful & at the same time, thoughtful & meaningful. Shout out to the writer & director for pulling this off.

I absolutely recommend this.