This review may contain spoilers
I thought this show would be good but it wasn't really enjoyable at all. The first episode seemed decent but after that, the show went to hell. I found 90% of the characters extremely annoying and I wanted to drop this drama so bad but I managed to finish it. Go Dok-Mi seemed to be interesting at first but in later episodes, she became so wimpy and annoying. I felt like she had no backbone and always seemed to cry alot. Enrique is cute but also really annoying but he's a good person, I liked the second lead at first but towards the middle of the drama, he became even worse than Enrique. I didn't care about the romance at all and didn't felt any chemistry at all between the leads.
At times, the show became really boring and nothing interesting was happening. The ending was meh and predictable but I didn't care because I was finally finished with the drama.
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Hours of watching a depressed person
This show irritated me on so many levels! The story was so simplistic, which in and of itself wasn't a problem, but there was SO MUCH TIME of watching the main couple walking around, her being depressed, him trying to cheer her up. I didn't have problems with the actors (though Park Shin Hye does tend to stick with the doe-eyed somewhat unhappy girl), but the characters were so tremendously irritating!The character of Go Dok Mi is a recluse as a result of something in her past, WAY in her past. She seemed to be someone that wallowed in her misery, so it was hard to like her or root for her. She seriously should have sought counseling. Throughout the whole show, I felt like I was watching Eeyore whenever she was on screen. I was starting to feel like I needed to take antidepressants.
The character of Enrique Geum - I didn't like him at all. He was hyper, extremely immature, pouty, talked fast and yelled a lot. I never was able to warm up to him, even up to the end.
The character of Oh Jin Rok - I loved this character and he was the saving grace for this drama, as far as I was concerned. Deep, quiet, abiding love. Always wanting Dok Mi to be happy. He was the maturity that this show needed.
All of the women side characters were awful and were typical trope-filled caricatures - evil, manipulative, lying, bullying.
I felt there was no chemistry between the leads. She was too cold, her was too immature. Sure, he finally got her out of her apartment, but I didn't feel them growing toward one another, or even in their separate lives. Two kisses, one really staged, the one at the end was better.
The time jump, that apparently has to be in EVERY Asian drama, was poorly handled. In this day of cell phones and air travel, him being gone for over a year made no sense, especially since they both had jobs where they could literally work anywhere.
So, this one is a definite NO on the rewatch list for me!
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I liked the characters, especially the main one since i could relate to her in more than a few ways. I liked the script i believe more than the actual plot, tehe. It really had great moments and sayings and what i really liked about it is that it was close to realistic. I'm not talking about the main plot here, just the little things. It wasn't over exagarated like boys over flowers (i mean come on kidnapping a girl on a daily basis and being a complete jerk towards her until she falls in love with you?). Anyway i really recommend watching this drama, it's quite short, interesting and...fun? I don't know it's late and i literally just finished watching it :')
Enjoy
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Slow but nice, I guess
*outline*This is perfect for you if you like a more slow take in a relationship, or even if you thirst for drama, drama, and drama. Honestly, I don't find myself ever coming back to this series and I also doubt I'd ever recommend it to a friend or anything. As I mentioned, the story was quite slow and it also made me feel like it was going nowhere half the time. However, I do feel the ending sort of made up for the very dry episodes. I might've liked this drama if I were a K-drama enthusiast beginner, so that may be the reason I felt it wasn't quite up to the bar for me.
*thorough*
STORY : It had a very cliche touch to it, one of those 'quite girl, loud boy' sort of relationships, and even the climax and all were quite cliche. I sort of expected what was going to happen next. I mentioned it was quite slow, and I wasn't joking. I asked myself a few times throughout 'what am I doing here? why are the characters so dense and annoying'. And getting these thoughts aren't a good sign when watching a drama. I also took a few breaks in between the drama for weeks at a time. I feel like 16 episodes were way too much, and the episodes were unnecessarily long too. Making the drama a lot more shorter would've made the story much more interesting for me. But otherwise, I felt nothing... I didn't get into the story a lot of the time either.
ACTING/CAST : But I have to say, the actors did pretty well in playing out their roles. There wasn't much to the story line, but every character definitely had a story to tell. That part made the drama a little more interesting, and it motivated me to keep going half the time. I do wish that some of the characters had a better ending though.
MUSIC : The music did absolutely nothing for me. I didn't vibe with it and it didn't even suit the drama. It was way too upbeat and the repetitiveness almost became a little bit annoying, but that's just my take on it. There was hardly any chance to the music, it was the same/similar throughout. But I almost felt empathetic at times during the drama, so the themes behind some scenes must've been decent enough.
REWATCH VALUE : I've already mentioned I doubt I'd ever come back to this drama. It's very difficult for me to see myself ever missing it either. I wouldn't recommend it either. However, I might to a friend who wants to explore different cliches or more depth to the story. It isn't boring, it's just very slow.
*p.s.*
This is my personal take on things, but I would say the same thing even if someone asked me about the drama a few months or even years later. It might be because I'm used to this kind of plot already, but it just wasn't a drama I could vibe with. Again; it wasn't boring, it was just very slow.
*recommendations*
Park Shin Hye: 'The Heirs', 'Pinocchio', 'You're Beautiful'
She's an amazing actress, definitely go check out her other works :)
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This review may contain spoilers
Oh god, this drama just annoyed me more and more every episode. I could see why some people enjoyed this show, but oh god I’m surprised I didn’t pull all my hair out by the end of the showLikes:
The first 3 episodes were really enjoyable ngl. By the first episode it pulls you in. Most of the cast was also very enjoyable (besides Park Shin Hye’s role but we’ll get into that later). Enrique was so adorable and his spirits lifted up most of the show. He’s honestly the main reason why I kept going. Oh Jin Rak was also pretty cool, annoying at some times, but I did feel bad for him. I liked Enrique more, but I wouldn’t have been mad if he ended up with Dok Mi. I also liked the secondary couple between Kim Seulgi and Go Kyung Pyo, in fact, I actually liked them more than the actual main couple. The show also has some good moments, mainly when it was comedic and happy and stuff. Too bad most of those moments were short lived since Dok Mi always ALWAYS seemed to weigh down the light mood. The show did give me a few laughs at times and there was some really cute moments between the main couple.
Dislikes:
Dok Mi oh mY GOD. At first, I was intrigued by her, and in a way I could relate to her (besides the whole spying-on-a-guy thing). The whole being anti social and crap was laughable at first, and I would think of myself at some moments, but after a while it just got plain annoying. She’d do this whole push-and-pull thing with Enrique. One day she’ll like him and then like an hour later, something will like go off in her brain and she’d ignore him. She also had like little to no character development. So how she was in episode 1, she was almost the same in like episode 13. The only thing that changed was the whole stalking ordeal, but it really wasn’t that big of an issue. I honestly found her more and more annoying every episode. Also Do Hwi was just, ugh. Instead of just 1 irritating female character let’s just add 2 in the show while we’re at it. Do Hwi had no purpose and was just there to make things annoying. These two characters pissed me off the most and it makes it even worse that one of them is literally the protagonist so I could barely enjoy the show without rolling my eyes. There also wasn’t really much of a story, which I didn’t really mind that much, but (SPOILER) the last 4-5 episodes about Enrique going to Spain was pretty much useless and was kinda just there to keep the show going. (SPOILER END). This show could’ve been a lot better if it was a web drama or if it was like 12 episodes instead of 16.
Overall:
This show does has some good points, but there was so many things weighing it down that I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I anticipated it to be. That is not to say that other wouldn’t enjoy it. I found some moments of the show cute, and Enrique was just so adorable that he really carried the whole show. The plot is simple, so don’t expect a whole mind-blowing story. The OST is not really ground-breaking. I didn’t really pay attention to it. It’s not terribly though. Overall, if you can deal with the annoying push-and-pull relationship then you might like this show. If you can’t, stay faaaarrrrr away from this drama.
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Loved the ML
It's kinda hard for me to rate this one. Up until around the halfway point, it was quite good and I enjoyed it (7/10). Then, things started going downhill FAST. It was like the story was already over, but since they still had 6 more episodes or so to do, they started creating dumb drama only for drama's sake. To the point I actually rage quit it, and it took me nearly a week to come back to it. All the characters became idiots (4/10).Also, this show has to have one of the most selfish FL I've ever seen in any romance drama ever. I found her character to be extremely unlikable. Especially when contrasted with the ML who was a selfless, vulnerable, considerate little fluff ball of chaotic sunshine.
The last episode partially made up for all of the bad writing decisions, since it was a festival of cuteness and had me smiling basically the whole time (8/10), but not enough for me to actually recommend anyone watches this.
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This review may contain spoilers
[Note: I usually do not add reviews as I am not as fluent in english as I'd like to be for such.]Flower Box Next Door is a decent to good RomCom - if it ended at episodes 16s beginning/opening sequence. Overall all actors did a good job on their characters, if anything the characters themselves were a problem of mine even though that's excluding literally everyone but Enrique and Daehwi.
Personally I liked this drama because it somehow felt like I could relate to it to some extent as Dokmi and Jinrak have something to them I feel connected to - never been loved, having been an outsider, rather being by themselves than in a crowd and such. But it wasn't just charachteristics like this that made me fall for it in the first place. I was intrigued by its romantic triangle - that ultimately did go until episode 16 - but also the sometimes rather unusual way of joking and how they got them across.
Its support roles were fitting the plot and made up for some interesting storylines as well, that even benifited Jinrak's arc. That is where I wanna criticize though. His arc got totally wasted in the end and left me with no words. I grew close to the idea of him and Dokmi ending up together, especially with episode 16s opening. I even could have been fine with them not giving in to it but giving me hope last second and then not pulling through with it just doesn't fit this drama at all. This was both poorly timed and badly delivered.
As for arcs that left me feeling empty: Cha Daehwi is the other - although that is just focussing on her and Jinrak rather than her as evil counterpart to Dokmi. I do not know for what reason but I did like her even though her entire character was based around being a snake, all throughout the show. In the end Jinrak tells her something along the lines of not chasing someone for their past - as Jinrak wasn't born poor - but for the person themself. The writer threw that one under the bus real quick. No idea what to think of her ending but it's confusing completely.
Last but not least - and not regarding their arc but character - Enrique. Man at first he was kinda nice and him challenging this love triangle had a good kick to it but as the show did go on and especially in its second half he just annoyed me. Yoon's actions, how he was written to talk, all of it.
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I loved the story, as someone with social anxiety problems as the female lead, is saw a lot of my self in her, but, i also loved the switch with a loooot of funny scenes.
It's super sad that this drama is underrated, okay, the second lead isn't a god himself, but if you follow witha a good amount odf tattention the whole episodes, you can understand why he is like this!
I absolutely adored the second couple ( i don't spoil anything) it was super sweet and well made up
Yoon Shi Yoon faces made this drama super lighthearted to watched,even if sometimes the episodes tended to being stuck over the same things...
Proabbly not one of my favorites, but really need a chance!!
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Come on it started out with the lead Dok Mi basically spying on her hot neighbor across the way. She knew his schedule and planned her day around it. She even had scary big binoculars to do it. Not cheap fun ones, the real stuff. Bird watching stuff. Bird watching stuff used for a nefarious purposes.
It was a questionable start and I almost tossed in the towel. However, it was really funny. It didn't hurt that Dok Mi and Geum had some decent chemistry. Dok Mi's mental issues and troubled past fascinated me. I wanted to see her overcome the odds, and to rise up like a phoenix as she realized she could now control her life!
Sadly Dok Mi was not truly given a decent chance to do so during the drama. And when she did--and I was fist pumping her victory--confront the person who ruined her life she was smacked down. What the bleep!
That was the problem. Flower Boy Next door didn't know what it wanted to be. Then it tossed in some hot topic issues such as suicide, mental illness, bullying, and just . . . ugh! It was horrible. No lessons where learned and it felt so unsatisfactory. The guilty parties just kept going and being justified. A small tap on the hand when it should have been a sever hand slap. The "villains" should have dealt with some consequences.
It was funny I started this up for Park Shin Hye, I'm a fan, and I thought she'd be awesome as Dok Mi. But I didn't like the way the director lead her, I know she could have did so much better. (I type this as I'm currently watching Pinocchio.) What made me stick through this drama was newcomer (at the time) actress Kim Seul Gi. She played a deputy manager of a Contents-development team.
She was glorious and stole the entire show!! I Watched for her. I yearned for the storyline around her and took any thing I could get. (And it's safe to say she is now one of my favorite actresses.) I thank Flower Boy Next Door for introducing me to her. Thank you. Kim Seul Gi is hilarious and one of the best comedic females I've seen. She's laughable, loveable, and just all kinds of awesome.
Visually this was nice to look at and I enjoyed the fashion. The music was pretty enjoyable. I was singing and humming a lot. Sadly the story didn't hold up. It tried to be too much and tackle issues it didn't really want to tackle. Or tackled them poorly. There were surprising moments where I did love the romance and plenty of fun scenes. Dok Mi was an interesting lead, and while I didn't enjoy how she just took things and didn't get to rise up quite like I had in mind, she wasn't too badly realized. So that was something. The only reason I'm truly happy I watched this was to discover Kim Seul Gi.
Truth is though I dropped this drama in 2013 at episode 13 and didn't care to pick it up again until 2016. I only picked it back up because I had just 3 more episodes left. AND I didn't want to miss out on some good Kim Seul Gi scenes. PEOPLE KIM SEUL GI IS AMAZING!
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all in all, the greatest strength of this movie was that, it has plot depth and heavy in center themes, which means that in the plot, you can clearly distinguish the initial action, climax, and denouement. It is heavy in center theme because the conflict that arises is clearly seen evolving alongside with each character development. Connections are clear. It was a good drama, refreshing, original, and seriously entertaining! (insert Enrique's smile! kyaaaa~~~~)
Flower Boy Next Door Fighting!
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