When My Love Blooms

This drama is truly catchy. Sweet. Simply beautiful. Can't stop watching. I'm in love. Another Lee Bo-Young's best performance after "Mother".

I liked: the back and forth between our lead couple from the young to the older. Well written and filmed. Music good (although they could have turned down the melodramatic strings in the background a bit- sounded a bit old), acting very good, especially the young couple. Their chemistry was contagious. As with most Kdramas, a lot is repeated or reframed and, in this case, it slows the story down a bit. If you've seen Itaewon Class, you will possibly have some flashbacks but it's not a bad thing. Overall, worth the time. FYI, I will rate a fim/series a 5 if it is average enjoyable. No rating inflation here. 6 means above average enjoyable.

This is a story of second chances. Ji Soo fell madly in love with her college senior Jae Hyun, attracted by his idealism and activism as a protest leader even at the cost of his future. Their first love was the best time of their lives but ultimately they broke up for reasons we only find out much later.

Some 20 years later, we find Ji Soo as a financially struggling single mom who divorced her lawyer husband and gave up alimony and child support in exchange for sole custody of her son. The first few episodes were a difficult watch, as we see our heroine very different from the cheerful and carefree college girl she once was, now into her forties with no college diploma, no professional full-time job and practically no family to support her. While her friendship with ex-blue collar collegues who lost their job reveals her integrity and sense of social justice, alas it also underscores her vulnerable position in society.

What happened to her first love, her well-off family, her college education? What of her first marriage and why she sent her son to a faraway private school she can ill afford and expose both of them to abuse from classmates and snobbish school moms who look down on them because of their social status?

Then we meet Jae Hyun, now VP of a powerful chaebol who just finished his prison sentence for financial fraud. As viewers we can only wonder how the former idealistic student activist turned into the heartless capitalist he is today, with a reputation as a ruthless executive who unfairly fired many employees and contract workers. Then we learn his marriage is failing and his relationship with his chairman father-in-law is about to turn into a full-blown corporate war. Is there more to him than his appearance? Can he ever redeem himself for betraying his own ideals so blatantly?

Then our two former lovers unexpectedly meet. Not too surprisingly they both have lingering feeling for each other though he is way more upfront and warm towards her than she is to him. While he is rich and (in)famous and very caring for her after all these years, we aren't quite convinced he is the right Prince Charming who would rescue his first love from her misery, since he is a married man with a terrible reputation. Will her heart overlook the sins of this idealist-turned-corporate-shark simply because of her nostalgia for her lost first love?

Could this be her last chance to happiness and if so at what price? Or would this lead her down a path she is not prepared to take, till she realizes he is no longer the person she fell in love with almost a lifetime ago?

As usual, Lee Bo Young excels in her portrayal of an intelligent, stoic, upright but financially poor woman who can withstand any abuse to protect the ones she loves. What a beautiful and wonderful actress. The other leads also perform well, especially Jeon So Nee who gives the young Ji Soo an impressive sense of strong will and toughness under the facet of her fragile appearance, girlish innocence and teenage cheerfulness. The supporting actors are good too though they have much less of an impact, as Ji Soo and Jae Hyun only have eyes for each other.

While this show doesn't break any new ground, the story is well told with good pace and without too much dramatic incoherence. Personally, I wish the script writer would have made Jae Hyun's CEO wife a more balanced character with at least some redeeming qualities. It would have made Jae Hyun's decision just a tad more difficult and interesting. As it is, I have enjoyed this show, despite the angsts one usually has to go through with these kinds of melodrama.

Blame it on the snow

Han "Jae" Hyun & Yoon "Ji" Soo have a record. He's getting out of prison in ep1 (he took the fall for the chairman), and she's explaining why she works menial jobs even though she /almost/ got her college degree (her family record is tarnished). They also have a record with e/o: They dated in college, but that was 20 yrs ago.

We get a few seconds in present day and then we're whisked back to 1993. They meet as the police are scattering a college protest on the 13th anniversary of the 1980 protests against the military dictatorship ruling Korea at the time. These events inspired the partly true/partly fictional film A Taxi Driver-8.4 (staring Song Kang Ho from Parasite-9), which depicts how roughly 3,000 Koreans ended up missing, dead, or presumed dead due to the government's brutal response to the Gwanju demonstrations. 13 years later, the government was still covering it up. Per Wiki "The movement preceded other democratic movements during the late 1980s that pressured the regime into democratic reforms and paved the way for the election of President Kim Dae-jung in 1997, the first opposition candidate to win the office." From their meeting we toggle back and forth in time.

She pursued him. He was only interested in studies and activism. FF To 2020, he's gone to the dark side. He's a corporate big wheel, and was 'rewarded' with a ticket to the /big house/. Now out, and breathing the free air again, he claims he's only interested in enjoying his life as much as possible. In the toggling, we see history repeating itself in ring-theory fashion while their backstory unfolds gradually through ep11.

WMLB is a 2020 release that is rated 85 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 16 65-minute episodes. Who would like WMLB? One must be right-brain heavy, or moderately emotional (a self-described "romantic," perhaps) to appreciate this show. Otherwise, all those pesky tears (not that I cried) will just grate the wrong way. WMLB is slow-paced and dripping with sentimentality from the script, to the facial expressions, to the OST. The plot is soapy melodrama. They fall in love in college. She disappears on him. Well into the show, we don't know why this happened, though hints emerge to point at possible family tensions. He's been looking for her ever since she disappeared. At some point, though, he faltered and married the daughter of a chaebol. There are hints that he was in dire need of funds, but also other hints that his moves are not random.

20 years forward there's a pile of refuse that is keeping them separated. First of all, he's married. Secondly, he's married to the conglomerate that owns the business that she's actively protesting against. Third, it looks like if he walks away from his rich wife, he'll walk away with just his underwear. Finally, they each have a son, though she is divorced. Their sons happened to go to school together, and his son is a cruel bully toward her son, which is how they meet up again. The bullying is so oppressive that her son, Young-Min, finally throws a chair at his tormentor. This leads to the couple's reunion (in the principal's office) and subsequent run-ins with Jae's family. His wife is outraged and wants to make a big deal out of it, while Jae insists they let the school incident slide.

"The fun in your life probably got cut in half," Ji remarks, when she learns that he doesn't eat ramen much anymore. She's now cr@ppy-poor, and he's cr@ppy-rich. They're both alone and miserable. Just as Ji dogged his steps in the past, never looking to the right or the left, now that Jae has found her again, he's doing it right back to her.

Lee Bo Young is the FL. In Mine-8 she plays a cool Grace Kelly type who could dress a person down with precision. It's a good show and she's the best thing in it. In WMLB, she's been beaten down by life and is emotionally damaged. When we toggle back to her teens we'll see that her father was a cold-hearted tyrant. When her relationship with Jae was cut off, she ended up marrying the wrong man. Each heartbreak was like a sledgehammer to the head, so now she holds her neck stiffly, with head forward and slightly down-turned. She looks like she needs a cervical fusion. It may be good acting, however it's still unpleasant. I want to shake her loose. She starts loosening up a tad in ep11. That's a long way in.

Yoo Ji Tae from The Devil Judge & Oldboy-9 is the ML, Jae. "You seem like a different person than the one I used to know," Ji remarks. Mr. Yoo, as Jae, is delish. The chairman's assessment of his daughter's husband? " No one is better at getting rid of people." He used to take the losing side, but now, instead of demanding justice, he specializes in neutralizing contrarians. His wife describes him as an Iceman who never smiles. He is stoic, indeed. His wife, Jang Seo-Kyeong (Park Si-Yeon from Birthcare Center-8.2), is the typical spoiled riche. She's beautiful on the outside, but her insides are rotted. They are married, but very much alone. He did his time alone. She decided to do his time NOT-alone.

There's several fantastic child actors in WMLB. The protags' kids are played by Park Min-Su & Ko Woo-Rim and they practically give a masters class. Park Jin Young (The Devil Judge) & Jeon So Nee (Parasyte: The Grey-6.9 - She's fabulous) are the couple in 1993.

I love how comfortable they are together. It made me feel warm and comfy. One thing they bond over is the classic movie, Love Letter/Koibumi (1953). It was directed by a woman, Kinuyo Tanaka, and is said to be technically excellent. We can thank JAPANONFILM for the write-up. "Briefly, an ex-sailor scraping by on the occasional translation is offered a job writing letters in English from Japanese women to the American soldiers with whom they slept during the Occupation... Eventually, of course, the woman he loved before the war comes in. His attempt to cope with his love on one hand and her past on the other occupy the rest of the movie, in a complex emotional relationship that is also in a subtle way quite political and racial. The issue for both of them is not just that she slept with other men but that she slept with Americans (she says only one, but a late meeting with a group of street prostitutes suggests otherwise)." Consequently, WMLB has the soundtrack and feel of a movie from the mid-20th. It's an old-timey melodrama, complete with violin music. The movie, Love Letter, deals with moral compromise out of necessity in post-war chaos, particularly what the 'Have-nots' must do to survive in the face of the indifferent oppression of the 'Haves'. Same for WMLB.

WMLB shows us how anger and fear steal peace, love & joy. 'Does your heart have to run slowly?' 'Once it starts to run, it's not easy to stop it,' says Ji. That inertia works in all directions: love or hate, joy or sorrow, fear or confidence, anger or contentment. Toxic and controlling parents are another theme. Their love was crushed when they were kids. I hate that her father dies right after he finally realizes he was wrong. Couldn't they have some nice years together? It's very bitter. Another theme is that one can't maintain a good relationship with a selfish human. "This is my way of love," says Jae's wife. No doubt, she's selfish, spoiled, and grossly entitled. She's also a legitimate victim in this show. Being a victim doesn't always make a person right, and even a person who is right is never 100% right. No human ever is. Selfish people are keenly aware of the love they want to receive, yet it doesn't even occur to them to try and /give/ that sort of love.

It isn't perfect. WMLB is simple. Nearly everything works out in the end. Many of the bad actors want to do better, going forward. By ep7 it was clear that the show has too many flashbacks. I tried to roll with them, telling myself they intended a relaxing effect, but I had to start hitting the ff button. The chairman missed some background info about a key player until the trap had been sprung on him. It's an unlikely scenario, and it's problematic to the script.

WMLB keeps a steady temperature like a yogurt maker. It stays in that 97°-99° range, never getting too hot or cold. Am I calling it tepid? Perhaps a tad, but it is more good than not, and it's low anxiety. It's one of many shows that could have easily been better with a pinch better direction and editing, less flashbacks, and an inch or 2 of more depth. The acting is actually superb. This is my only exposure to this director, and when one looks at Son Jung Hyun's body of work, he's been steadily going in the right direction. His low marks are his first works and his highest rated works are his 3 most recent: Should We Kiss First?, Mental Coach Jegal, and Twinkling Watermelon @ a whopping 9.2 on Awiki. He has skills and he is getting better with age ~ just like the romance in WMLB. Screenwriter: Jun Hee Young is just getting started. For a 1st effort, this is good, and her work should bloom in the future, too.

QUOTES 📢

You win a fight by knocking down your opponent, not by holding out and enduring.

It's probably not about how to endure it but how to accept it.

I poise myself on my toes, but I just can't see you. Sometimes my wait lasts longer, and I feel resentment towards you. High up in the sky, fleecy clouds drift away. What song should I sing to reach your ears? We didn't meet, so we can't be parted. Even though we are not parted, I still can't hold your hand. So when my wait lasts longer like this, I feel bigger resentment towards you. ~A Korean poem~

〰🖍 IMHO

📣6.8 📝7.3 🎭7.5 💓6 🦋5 🎨7 🎵/🔊7.8 🔚7 ▪ 🌞5 ⚡3 😅2 😭4.5 😱3.5 😯2 🤢2.5 🤔4 💤3

Poli-wagging 3/10

The soundtrack is beautiful. Shazams: Someday We Will Meet Again by KLANG; If You Just Love by Han Dong Geun

Age 12+ Rated TV-15

Re-📺? No

Recs

Misaeng-9.1 My Liberation Diary-8.9 Mother-8.8 My Mister-9.5, When the Weather is Fine-9.

Ah the drama was very sweet and heart warming, i loved it 🖤