Blue Birthday

Don't waste your time here. The story was interesting but the execution was very poor. Their acting sucks. Yeri and Hong Seok had the chemistry tho. They all need improvements. 8.6/10.

Korean Mini Series 'Blue Birthday' is a nice blend of mystery and time travel fantasy. However, it didn't prevail in other areas.

That is, as most of the drama takes place in high school, after the main lead goes back in time to prevent her best friend's death, the whole school romance feeling, as well as the enjoyment of young friendship and, of course, the nostalgia factor, were lacking. And the action and thriller scenes provided by the mystery case did not aid to hide those mistakes well enough and they did end up being missed.

That said, the drama had its good moments. The fantasy element was well done and didn't get confusing. The performances were all top-notch too and enjoyable.

So, overall, 6 out of 10.

This drama is way better than I ever expected. Usually short dramas like this are a bit dull and predictable but this is completely the opposite.

It is a low budget drama and you can tell but I think this storyline benefits from it. There's no unnecessary dragging and it never gets boring. The script is extremely compelling and it will keep you glued to the screen until the end.

Its a very smart way if using time travel for this love story with the thriller twist to it. Very fresh.

The emotions and feelings of the main characters are palpable and you will root for them in their fight against the past. I love their unbreakable bond and how sweet their chemistry is.

You don't want to miss this one out!

Decided to watch this because the plot description reminded me of Lovely Runner. The acting was good. The story itself was pretty simplistic and predictable. It's not as complex or dramatic as I was anticipating it would be. Despite the plot being about death and remorse, it was pretty lighthearted. I would consider this a more relaxed or "easy" show to watch. The episodes are only 20 minutes. The villains I found to be uninteresting, they were stereotypically evil without much substance. I enjoyed the friendship/romance between the leads. The show does have a happy ending. Overall liked it but won't recommend to others.

This web series shows the big production houses how to do it. While I couldn't find anything on production costs, I assume since it was a web series, it was probably done on a shoestring budget. And while it had some issues, overall I felt it was a very good series. This young set of actors did a great job. Especially Kim Ye-rim as I believe this was her first lead role. And they actually did time travel fairly well with the burning of the photos as a trigger mechanism being an interesting twist.

I also loved how the epilogue of each episode provided a short 'time travel rule' that had been a part of that episode followed by a scene showing the photo used being taken.

That said, as with all shows that deal with time travel, there is some suspension-of-disbelief required (above that necessary for time travel to exist in the first place). While for most of the series they actually deal with the time travel extremely well. The rules governing how it works are reveled in a consistent manner as the series progresses and consequences for changes in the past are believable and fit within the rules. But in the last few episodes, they get a little sloppy with the rules and gloss over some paradox issues...nothing terrible but a little sloppy.

I also thought the climatic fight scene between Seo-jun and the 'villain' was rather weak with his actions contributing to the result just as much as the villain's.

Finally, while I enjoyed the series and thought it quite good and entertaining, it did not grab me like a great series would. I never felt the urge to complete just one more episode...watching the next day would be good enough. I don't know specifically what was missing that it did not have that hard hook. But, even without that, it was still very good and I'd recommend giving it a try.