Maendorong Ttottos

Mainly because of the beautiful Jeju sceneries and the Haenjeos. We all know and appreciate the good acting of Korean actors and they delivered here too. And the Hong sisters have proven their great writing abilities in many series. Just think about Alchemy of Souls. Unfortunately this doesn't even slightly compare. Unless the aim was to depict dysfunctional couple dynamics. If this was the aim, then they succeeded. Set in a relaxing environment, in a village with a tightly knit community of locals we're presented the stories of several push-pull relationships and love triangles of the members of a rich patchwork family in Jeju for business with a despicable gold digger, the village major and a poor, hard working girl who exiled from Seoul. Of course there's also the hidden family secret and the mandatory guilt complex as well as all the unnecessary misunderstandings caused by lack of open communication.

The story is evolving very slowly with many detours and excruciating push-pull games that might have been ok in the beginning, but get unnerving quite quickly.

So if you like this kind of drama, go for it. You'll get plenty of chances to be upset: at the ML for being such a jerk, at the FL for being such a pushover, at the gold digger for being shame- and ruthless, at the brother for his huge ego, the nosiness of the villagers.... All kind of dysfunctions brilliantly set in contrast to the harmonious environment and soundtrack.

The idea of the series, is so good put the couples are weak it seems so fake.

On one level this is a really nice drama which paints a picture of a very on off love story against the backdrop of a tight knit community on Jeju Island. The performance by Kang So Ra as the female lead is stunningly good. She acts with her whole body and just her expression can convey a huge amount. Unfortunately the male lead Yoo Yeon Sook (who was SO good in Mr Sunshine) is saddled with playing a complete jerk who is so unlikeable you want to shout at the screen! No girl in her right mind would put up with him! We watched it till the end to see what happens and I won't spoil that. Worth watching for the scenery, the nice music and that amazing performance by Kang So Ra. But jeez the guy!

This kdrama was fun to watch. It had its moments where I became quite frustrated at the lead characters but I had to understand that it's the writer/director's vision. Mostly related to the immature nature of the characters. Something I'm still trying to understand about Korean "kdrama" culture portraying women as childish and lacking. Still, the show was fun and entertaining. So Overall it was pretty good.

A lady down on her luck ends up on Jeju island where she inadvertently becomes the owner of a decrepit house, next door to a restaurant called "warm and cozy" which is run by a spoiled rich kid squandering his days. One of the stars of the series is the Island itself but the main star is the female lead Seohyun from Girls Generation who puts in a superb performance. The series is ok but they probably made the male lead too much of a jerk for any sane person to put up with and I found the secondary romance involving his elder brother more enjoyable. It may have benefited from being condensed a little or expansion of the storyline of some of the interesting side characters such as the mayor who was very entertaining.