User reviews

First of all, I cannot rave enough about the acting. The casting for this show seems just perfect and everyone, from the main characters to those with smaller parts, truly bring this story to life. Some may feel that this is just a regurgitation of same story about a socially stigmatized single mother trying to raise her son the best way she knows how in a rural setting and finding love along the way. However, the rich character development and great acting make it seem like something original. Rather than trying to grab the audience's attention with fast-paced action and shock element, just for the sake of shocking, the story builds interest through empathy. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in taking a glimpse into the lives of these fascinating characters and becoming immersed in their daily lives; sometimes exciting, sometimes mundane, like real life.

I think that this drama is hilarious, warm. The plot might be simple but it does show to us what people nowadays think about single mother. How sad the reality is :( This drama tells us that status is doesn't matter. You can have a dream, you can fall in love. Age, status doesn't matter. Those actors actually nailed it! Kang Haneul delivered the characters so well, same goes to the kid. He acts really well! I'm totally amazed!

Been addicted to tv. And am an Aussie who strains the eyes to read the scripts. This one is up there. Well casted , well produced and I wish Aus or USA or UK tv producers had the talent Koreans have

I love it and recommend to all who want to see some simple old school romance

They **** you up your mum & dad as Phillip Larkin says. The story of Dongbaek and her 8 year old son, she was deserted as a child by her single mother and carries a lot of baggage and insecurities. There is a side story of a serial killer but the main focus of the series is the struggles of Dongbaek and how people can be so cruel about how they perceive others. It is well acted and I have to mention just how good the son is played. Their is also a character who is a social media star and the cruelty of trolls is touched upon. The main love interest comes from a policeman who is not very smart but carries his heart on his sleeve. A beautiful touching story which should remind us all not to judge others until we have walked a mile in their shoes.

Motherhood, fatherhood, childhood, love, sacrifices, humility, kindness, simplicity, crime solving, good music, good acting, lovely elderly characters, social media addiction, lack of money and much more you will find in this slow pace but very good story. Give it a try. A special mention to the acting of Kang Ha Neul awarded best actor of 2019 in this drama😍

Could have been better if the screenwriting were to be nundged a little inorder to make the viewer little less frustrated.

Oh wow, at first I was surprised it won over CLOY at the 56th Baeksang Arts Awards (Oscars/Emmys of Korea) but now that I've seen it, I can genuinely say that When the Camellia Blooms truly deserved the 4 Awards out of its 8 nominations. I guess what made it stand out from the rest of the kdramas is its great and realistic screenplay. Glad to have watched this amazing drama.

I can't emphasize enough how I love and annoyed at Kang Haneul's character. I think he delivered it perfectly and the role suits him well. I also like all the supporting characters especially the landlord and the lawyer. The acting of the child and the mothers are awesome. The location is perfect for the neighborhood ahjummas. However, the story is slow-paced, Hyang mis acting is nah and I sometimes don't like the acting of the female lead or sometimes I like it, hard to tell. I liked it but not that much.

Great show with a great story and cast. I've never seen a show like this one before. in that it was mostly drama and comedy with just a splash of intense chilling suspense. I found it very odd to watch a show that made me laugh and cry most of the time, but then occasionally remind be that I should be terrified. But I ended up loving it to the very end. The supporting characters were especially lovable, even more so than the main ones!

Well let's be honest there are a lot of irretating characters in this series and the plot is so slow and boring.

The main actor is very very irretating and over romantic without reason but after some ep i get used of it.. the main couple was somehow weird and everything is so cringe between them too.

Also the kid is so spoiled , i tried to understand and explain his actions against other people but after some ep he just becoming more and more irretaing and aggresive wihout a special reason !

Futher I liked some second characters like mr No and his wife , at first i was bored of them but i really liked them at the end.

I liked some parts of the mystery and i also find some scenes really good and funny.

However i predected from the 5 ep the joker but it is okay ... i would also prefer the whole case about joker to be somehow better without any plot hole....

Last but not least the ex of the main actress ... well i could write a better story for him .. it was really pity that everyone was against him , yes i know that he did a lot of ''bad'' things in his past but he tried his best in order to be a good father !

If you are into soft and cliche romances then you can watch it but it is nothing special though...

The story starts bad for me. The policeman (main man lead) was so cringe and annoying at the first episodes. I really wanted to skip his scenes! He behaved like a child. Moreover, I didn't manage to feel the chemistry between the main leads. There was no romance for me. I think ,it would be better without the "love story".

Concerning the woman lead , I really like her acting skills. However it was incredibly annoying to see her complaining the whole time about her bad luck, her hard life, having to raise a child by herself, and so on, when the whole time she keeps the child a secret from the baby's dad for 7 years.

The positive part was the serial killer story. It was interesting and I like the mystery. However , it ends up really bad and boring. The final episode was one of the worst.

Concluding , I could say that the whole drama had some good moments, but in general , I couldn't watch it again. A lot of moral messages make you think about family relationships and happiness in your life.

Beautiful story, I have loved every minute of the story. The characters are very loveable and the story is one of a kind. For me the best story I have been seeing so far.

" When the camelia blooms " was a nice blend of slice of life and mystery.

The drama had, first of all, great performances, especially from the three main actors and actress. The characters were pretty interesting too. Another thing that worked for them was the mystery. Although the episode before the last on seemed like it had wrapped up everything, the last one was pretty intense and had a nice, unpredictable twist. The romance, in addition, was good at first, but, honestly, it got a bit boring towards the ending. But the family drama was just right.

So, overall, eight out of ten.

The best thing about this show is the care given to each of the many characters so that they all are quite sympathetic, even side characters like the mother, the part timer kleptomaniac and the baseball player biological father. The supporting characters have interesting back stories. The killer mystery is involving till the end and isn't that predictable. Some top notch acting here. KHN succeeds in making his impulsive policeman character likeable when he could have easily been annoying by overacting. The leading lady Go doesn't look too old for him even though she is older in real life. The child actor playing the son Pil Gu gives a touching performance. Mr No is played expertly by Oh Jung Se.

For the 2019/20 shows, this one isn't as perfect as Crash Landing by any means. Some scenes are unnecessary and repetitive and there is a lot of crying and exaggerated emotional scenes. The backwards forwards thing slows things down. But it kept me interested for most of the 20 episodes. One of the better K dramas of the last few years.

It is a slow-burn drama but it builds up after a couple of episodes and it gets better and better towards the end. I love the story about single mothers and the camaraderie between neighbors. They tackled a lot of social issues which is very relevant now. Good scriptwriting and the setting was also beautiful. Plus the man with a drone was the best! No wonder they won a lot of awards.

This drama is hard to rate. It was refreshing to see a different slice of Korean life beyond the hustle and bustle of Seoul. The acting is mostly very good. Young-sik is my favourite leading male in a K-drama thus far. He's an absolute chaotic weirdo, in the best possible way. However the three things I struggled with the most were: 1. The pacing - there honestly didn't need to be that many episodes. As a result, the series often felt very uneven. 2. The mystery around the Joker - it's a bit anti-climactic and doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense 3. This can probably be chalked up to cultural differences, but the constant labouring over the fact that Dong-Baek is a single mother and *gasp* sells alcohol. You'd think the woman was engaged in organ harvesting for the black market based on the way some of the peripheral characters carried on. It was both hard to watch and, as a point of tension, was overly relied on. We know she's an outcast, we know everyone's favourite hobby is sl*t-shaming Dong-Baek. Maybe if they'd spent less time driving this point home and more time on the Joker element of the narrative, it would be more satisfying.

In summary despite a lot of potential, it's mostly good but frustratingly doesn't quite knock it out of the park (baseball reference LOL).

This is my favorite drama thus far because the characters are not just characters. The writers really did a great job in creating human-like characters, that aren't just surface-level ones. It also requires a lot of speculation which makes this drama a lot more fun to watch. Definitely RECOMMENDED!

It was all around a good production with great acting but one major flaw. The writers gave these adult characters (police, lawyer, politician, business owner) insanely low IQ and no common sense. There is a looming threat and they cant add 1+1 to save their lives. It was so frustrating from around episode 8 onward. I'm not expecting some genius level mind games going on in this small town romance thriller, but man please just some common sense for at least the police investigating a serial killer? They event state at one point all the police went to college... I can't believe it.

And then... the 10 year old boy has the social intuition of a professional relationship therapist. What's going on here?

It was boring. Too many sobs and far-fetched tragedies from scratch. The characters' tears seem to have been just endless for a variety of reasons. It is unbearable to look at it. I understand why the show won awards in Korea. But for me it lost out to many other dramas.

The main problem with the show is the premise itself. Gong Hyo-jin was unbearable as the timid single mother, and sometimes even comes off as a green tea b*tch. The premise causes her to behave like this at least once every episode, as if she's some shy, innocent little girl, and not a single mother. It just doesn't work, and it's not an attractive personality trait.

Some storylines on the side were fun to watch, such as Oh Jung-se as wannabe politician No Gyu-tae. His scenes were fun to watch. Yeom Hye-ran also did a good job as his wife. They had good chemistry.

I don't think Son Dam-bi (Hyang-mi) was as bad as others commented, although her storyline was ultimately quite useless and just there to support a different plot point. Her acting was fine.

One of my favorite actresses, Kim Sun-young, only had a small part but her scenes with the rest of ladies from the alley were fun as well. Reminded me a little of her scenes in Crash landing on you.

Another standard good performance from Jeon Bae-soo as well. Fun to watch any scenes he's in.

You'll notice I barely touched on the murder plot. This is because it's fairly trivial, like an after thought and not particularly engaging.

Overall 5/10. Relatively good cast let down by weak story, and one unbearable character.

This was forever on my watch list, but I just kept putting it off. Finally binge watched it in 2 days and loved it! Its a very pleasant, heart warming, at times funny series with a murder and a bit of love triangle thrown in. The lead actors are so brilliant and share quite a nice chemistry too. If you are looking for a light hearted with likeable characters then give this a chance.

Is this a romance, or an exploration of parent child relationships?

It's both. It's actually more the latter. There's loss, longing, loneliness, laughter and love, with scary tension mixed in for good measure. The neighborhood is a character on its own. The place to which they've taken us is so charming. Good directing, good acting, good writing and a good soundtrack all come together beautifully, like Donbaek's pork stir-fry. The romance between the two leads is sweet. The mystery surrounding the murders is also handled very well. Most of the character arcs are satisfying.

Dongbaek is uncomfortably passive and within herself in the first few episodes. Watching her develop... and bloom🌸... is a treat. I've become a big fan of Lee Jeong Eun, Dongbaek's mom. She's a stellar talent and currently my favorite actress. I first saw her in Oh My Ghost which is a romcom that's cooked up to perfection. She, along with the other 3 leads deliver magnificent performances in that show and I have had a love affair with all of them ever since. (The other three are Kim Seul-Gi, Jo Jung-Seok, and Park Bo-Young).

This show is 95% excellent. Here's a complimentary sample of unimportant nitpicks:

🥜It doesn't quite make sense to open a restaurant/bar because you can make one good dish.... .

🥜It would have been fun to see policeman Young Shik catch a few more criminals, but it is understandable that one case started to consume all of his time.

🥜I wasn't pleased with the treatment of Jong Ryul, Pil-Gu's father. It seemed more severe than he deserved. He truly cares for Dongbaek. He never had a chance to know his son. He made mistakes when he was immature, and has since grown up. The reason for the break-up and her attitude toward him is less in focus than other plot lines. I'm glad they didn't make him a cartoonish bad guy, at least. That's a played out stereotype; he has more complexity.

🥜The efforts to catch the Joker had some holes, or flaws. Obvious things that should have been done were not, mostly to maintain the plot.

Any criticisms are easily overlooked due to the overall excellence of the show. Hwang Yong-Sik's energy alone is worth the time spent. Kang Ha-Neul is really terrific as the ML. So grab the peanuts and Soju and enjoy your stay in Ongsan.

QUOTE📢

"I scratched on cement that hasn't hardened." (Meaning that since he's a kid it will mark him, hurt him, and stay with him for life).

〰🖍 IMHO

🎬8 🤔6 🎭8 🦋5 💓 7

Suggested Age 14& up.

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