Castaway Diva (2023)

PURSUING DREAMS with DRIVE and PERSISTENCE

Dreams can take us in many directions towards a goal. Sometimes, along the way, there are obstacles: Jealousy, Greed, Self-Destruction; Self-Discovery, Survival, Triumph! “Castaway Diva” is that story. It deals with the struggles of family, and how they interact on a scale of imperfection and dysfunction, to unity and joy. It shows how misunderstandings, low self-esteem, selfishness, and loss of confidence can hamper one’s professional growth and development. It highlights surpassing those defeating thoughts, by undergoing introspection, towards survival and success. I liked the show’s definition of family-whether it be biological, career, components of the wilds, or whatever. In the end, it’s about feeling whole. I thought the initial episodes had an element of goofiness. I debated if it was the English dubbing, or simply the role of the characters. It just appeared incongruous. In the end, I was enlightened by the show. And although extended minutes to each hour, I liked that there were only 12 episodes.

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cute..

Castaway diva is a coming-of-age Korean drama. It deals with heavy topics such as domestic abuse but pursuing dreams despite such hardships. While it only has 12 episodes, each episode is about 80 minutes long amounting to a standard drama.

What I liked:
• character development- Most characters seemed to go through a character development. Both Woo-hak and Bo-geol (Kiho) learned to express their emotions and not take people for granted. Mok-ha matured and stopped running from her problems. Yoon Ranjoo started trusting others and became less concerned with money and fame. And I could go on.
• solid acting- I had relatively high expectations for the acting performances, since I knew all the actors are fabulous. I think it is safe to say that they didn’t disappoint though the real applause goes to the child actors, who did an incredible job.

what I disliked:
• highly unrealistic- This drama tries to be somewhat relatable and showcase various obstacles one has to overcome. However, it fails to do that because of the situations that are just way too difficult to imagine. Additionally, this results in several plot holes as well. The idea of someone surviving on an abandoned island for 15 years in it of itself is already absurd, but the fl is shown wearing various kinds of clothes. Where did she get them, when she jumped in the water without any things on hand? Personally, I found the plotline with the male lead’s father a bit over the top, too. This is a shame, since it discredits aspects of the drama that were actually really well done and relatable.
• the murder attempt (ep 11)- I thought this was so unnecessary, cliché and unrealistic. I understand that it was supposed to be a way of giving the characters’ development, but neither did I find it interesting nor touching.
• Yoon Ranjoo- I just found her really annoying a lot of the time.. In my opinion, she was even more reckless and immature than Mok-ha..
• low rewatch value- This isn’t a huge setback, but I don’t really see myself ever rewatching Castaway diva, as it feels like a one time watch. I don’t think that rewatching it would give me anything new.


Overall, Castaway diva was a nice watch full of both emotional and cute moments. Having said that, I don’t think it was too memorable and there are better kdramas out there.

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It's a bit disappointing from kdrama writer giant Park Hye Ryun, still this is no Start-Up.

Screenwriter Park Hye Ryun is responsible for 3 dramas on my all time top 10 list. Because of that even though Start-Up was a huge disappointment I let the comment section's hype get to me.
What's good news I suppose that this is far far better than Start-Up. (Which I may have dropped half way or so in, I'm not even sure anymore)
Anyhow the plots and themes in Castaway Diva are very much Park Hye Ryun-like, despite the fact that she is not the only writer, probably the other writer Eun Yeol contributed more to dialog, I don't know. Anyway anyone who has watched the big three dramas I mentioned before (While You Were Sleeping, Pinocchio, I Hear Your Voice) will find many subplots & the general direction of the story in this drama oddly familiar. Near the finale there is a pretty iconic scene that is 1:1 While You Were Sleeping as well. Not that I mind this too much, Park Hye Ryun always heavily built and iterated from her previous works in all her dramas and I absolutely adored them..
So you might ask, why did I rate the writing at 5.5? Well, out of all the preproduced (non live filmed) dramas this was perhaps the most inconsistent (that I can recall anyway). To me it seems like the writers shaped the plot assuming that the general audience won't remember the minutiae of what they've seen 2-4-6 weeks ago. Unluckily for me I binge watched this over the course of 4 days during long daily workout sessions, as such in almost every episode I had several moments where I was rolling my eyes at all the gaslighting that has been presented to me. Also even if I ignore the plot itself and look at the various world building elements, the drama is -even by kdrama romcom standards- just incredibly poorly researched. Pretty much every little detail about the Island was wrong. I understand this is fiction, but it would not have been very hard to ask someone well versed in wilderness survival to give the writers some tips & to use common sense. (I could list countless things here, but just to say a few: potatoes, FL's well groomed-ness, swimming in baggy sweatpants/shirts, the shoes)
The biggest writing related pain point though is that this is like a romcom with most of the romance ripped out of it, but the rest of the things are left as they would be in a really silly drama about a cat shapeshifter or something else like that.
Anyway I did not really feel the leads bonding at any point in time, as opposed to the second lead doing some of that. Basically the love triangle here is very similar to what we've seen in While You Were Sleeping, but with the amazing main romance missing, if that even makes sense xD (meaning the second ML is not a nuisance, it's just this is so weird overall)
If you are curious what a good romance-less romance drama is like, take a look at the cdrama Reset.

Onto the second big problem I had with the drama, which is Park Eun Bin, or more specifically her portrayal of castaway Seo Mok Ha. I have seen this actress before shine in Age of Youth. (I don't think she is lacking in skill, in fact she is probably awesome.) Also while in Attorney Woo I very strongly disliked how she acted as an autistic lawyer. There she did the usual Hallyu version of "person struggling with disability" act and probably did it as well as it is possible, but I always found that incredibly offensive in any drama, but I digress. The point I'm trying to make is that someone had the genius idea to not only cast her for this role, but also make this castaway character's portrayal essentially the same, or maybe because this was her next drama after Woo she did not completely recover from that role which she has taken way more seriously as an actor. I suppose instead of all this ranting I could have just said that she is overacting in this one, but it just feels wrong & weird.

The casting in general is not all that great. I love watching good sismances in dramas, but I did not feel that sister chemistry all that much, though all the back and forth in the plot did not help. Nor did FL have good chemistry with ML, but there was barely any time to build on that, so I could be wrong. Though I must admit the evil dads were quite fit for their roles, despite not having seen these supporting actors in evil roles thus far.

Remember how the final 3-4 episodes of Pinocchio were after due to it being a huge success they extended the run from 16 to 20 episodes? Walkaway Diva has ~8 episodes like that, out of 12 which is obviously not great. Earlier I ranted about the writers expecting the audience to forget stuff, now that I think about it, perhaps that could have totally worked on me too, because I don't think I'll remember much of anything of what happened between ep2 and 10 in a couple of weeks.

I apologize for all the rantish walls of text so far, I too am getting tired of writing this review, so I'll quickly list -in no particular order- what I actually liked about the drama:

⌲ Episode 1 is a great short film, with very talented child actors [10/10]
⌲ Everyone is really attractive, with very pleasant, almost hypnotic voices.
⌲ The entertainment industry related procedural parts are usually far far worse. (they avoided many common themes that tend to ruin things in other dramas about idols)
⌲ The parents -adoptive dad+mom- were adorable.
⌲ The OST and all the singing is really really and I mean REALLY good. (though it's annoying that everything is basically lip syncing, because all songs are perfect studio recordings, where there was no effort made to make them live-ish during editing)
⌲ There are no significant misunderstandings.
⌲ It's a high quality production with great photography & across the board great audiovisuals.
⌲ Evil Dad #2 was a relatively high class kdrama villain & did not overstay his welcome. (similar to other Park Hye Ryun villains)
⌲ There were some very satisfying -power-fantasy like- scenes.
⌲ The dialog has some rather great moments, here and there.

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good core story but a bit dragged out

I wasn't sold on the title but PEB’s acting in recent projects(TKA & EAW) influenced me to start this. She is that good.

The plot was pretty original. At its core this is just a story about a girl with a dream and an unexpected friend who helps her achieve that dream. You could say some aspects were unrealistic but the whole “I survived on an island alone for 15 years” thing was done rather well imo. I felt that specifically the plot with Kiho’s dad and LRJ dragged out a bit longer than they should have. Ideally this show could've been 8 eps with far less filler but then it might've run the risk of having a rushed finale. The writer did her best to subvert expectations about which brother was Kiho but it was obvious early on. I did second guess myself a bit as I'm sure others did too.

The characters were good.

The acting was good from everyone. PEB really immerses herself into her characters. Shout out to those kid actors. They really set the emotional tone and brought so much weight to the story with their heavy performances. N surprised me with the few emotional scenes he got. He had a bit more to work with than in Mine. As much as I dislike their characters, the actors depicting Kiho and MH’s dads played their roles really well. I don't like how they ended Bong Wan’s arc. I get that he was never gonna be with his family but his last major actions felt like too much.

The finale was ok but I couldn't help but feel that the longer the show dragged down the worse it became. This was 12 eps and yet I felt even that was too long. I felt similar with Start up. Doesn't mean this wasn't good but waaaaay too much filler. I also didn't care for the progression of RJ’s character. At least at the end we got to see Mokha stand on stage and make it as a big star and that was a bit emotional. PEB did a phenomenal job with the singing. She's in her idol era here and I love to see it.

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chaotic and cheerful family abuse story

this story is about children overcoming abuse from their father. I know a lot of people loved it so much, but I didn't (not as much). why?

1st: 12 episodes seems to be a few, but the duration is 1:20 hour. that means the show has 14 episodes lasting 1h. it's not so far from the usual 16;
2nd: there is a lot of things happening during these 12 episodes: a music star being born, an old music star surviving the decline of her career, 2 families getting rid of their abusive father (this alone should have been enough), and how a young girl got lost on a remote island and how she got rescued, and how she adapted again in the society (this also alone should have been enough). the result is a little bit overwhelming. I really think that the quality of the show would have been better if they chose to focus on less main subjects.
3rd: the music was nice, but I didn't LOVE any of them.

what I loved: the actors were really good, especially the young actors. the atmosphere of the show was very well transmitted. the writer did a very good job sharing his views about the complexities of relationships. you are sometimes very mad at some characters then understand that they had their own reasons and it's forgivable. I think that it can be very interesting to re-watch the show.

audience: not under 15 because there is some violence
when to watch: it's a dense story, watch it on week-end so you'll have some time process it.
even if it's mostly cheerful I didn't find it relaxing.

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I've been struggling this entire year to get hooked on a kdrama, most of the ones I've started seemed promising but when I gave them a chance dissapointed me. I began watching Castaway Diva without really having a lot of expectations, but it quickly grabbed my attention and I devoured it in 3 days.

The acting of the child actors on the first episode was amazing, and really sold me on this show. I liked their future selves, and thought that the reasons they were kept apart were reasonable, instead of just an excuse. I found all of the characters interesting and complex, they felt like actual people. They were not steryotipes or just tropes. There have been some dramas (coughKing the Landcough) in which the characters feel like caricatures and you get tired of seeing them, but I felt the opposite with the characters of Castaway Diva.

The only complaints I have are:

I wish we knew more about what happens with Ran Joo. Like, it seems like she's become the producer of the entertainment firm, but she chose to stay with somebody that she had a romantic relationship with and screwed her over multiple times? I did ship them at the beginning, because I loved the angst of it and there were scenes in which he was considerate towards her, but he went way too far, so I'm a little yikes that she chose to stay on the company that treated her like shit instead of building her own. Or at least have her get part of the ownership of the place so they could co-direct it, something that gave her more power of choice.

I wish we had more of the romance. We only had ONE kiss between the main couple, and not really a lot of scenes in which they're happy or like go on a date together. We've seen A LOT of them supporting each other, which is good to make the relationship believable, but I wish we'd had a few more scenes of them happily together after all the suffering and time apart they went through.

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I just couldn't get to sit another four hours for this drama.

It started off really good and interesting. It's quite refreshing. The plot was kinda unique as we were introduced to a girl who survived 15 years in a deserted island and how she continued to pursue her dream. OSTs too were really great, and I'm surprised Park Eunbin herself sang to some (or all?) of the songs performed in the drama. I also do love the whole moral of the drama — if you want something, it will come to you in one way or another.

However, I lost interest midway, torturing myself to finish the 7th and 8th episode until I decided to drop this. To be honest, I find it cringe; mainly because of the FL and the whole ass love triangle. She was rather more mature when she was 16 than when she turned 31. Also, how quick she had a change of heart. One time she's all willing to be a singer, and the next thing we knew, she's all out supporting her idol like someone who doesn't have a dream for herself. It's like she didn't have that solid character. Another thing is the love line *sigh* I'm sorry for those who loved the romance but it's a no for me. There's no chemistry whatsoever with the ML and FL, their younger selves played it better. And the fact that the other brother literally did more things for the FL than ML himself? But in the end we're forcing that sweet highschool buddies to be together? I'd rather love to see them highlight FL's journey to getting the spotlight rather than unnecessary romance in between.

Thanks for the good songs from this drama though. I'll still listen to them, they're really good.

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Unbalanced, too much of good feelings but still ok...

1/ What I LIKED :
- Childhood version of the leads and the backstory. So good.
- Who is Ki Ho?
- The guy who saved a family by creating a new one. Where this family started from and how they loved and cared for each other...
- FL positiveness and the funny lessons she learnt.
- The mystery regarding the original father, his bad deeds and his demise....
- The two brothers and how they dealt with each other. Especiallly SML and how he took something hard like a brother and like a man.

2/ What I DID NOT LIKE:
- SFL singer... honestly I never liked her character... I liked her mom... but not her.
- FL focusing too much on being with her fav singer to help her in any case...
- Yoo Ran Joo and president Lee.. they dated or not? or they just banged?

3/ OST:
Some very good songs and good moments of music.

4/ REWATCH VALUE:
Honestly? No. No epic moments.

5/OVERALL:
Decent and entertaining but a bit draggy and the ending was too much of unicorns and rainbows. A short and decent drama to binge watch but week in week out I felt it was draggy at times. 8/10.

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Park Eun Bin is very special ,her roles will tell us a our whole life story

Park eun bin is my favourite actress and one of the best actresses. This woman never fails to ace whatever role she plays. So excited for this ❤️ lets see what happens to next epsiode .
I was blown away by the performance of Park Eun Bin in Extraordinary Attorney Woo... and now - she's outstanding in yet another sensational role!!! I can see this will rise to the top of the echelons in pure performance skills.

how she always takes on new challenging roles to grow as an actress. Every drama has been successful as well. ?❤Every time when Park Eun Bin films a new drama, she enriches herself as well. She learns new things, violin, horse riding, guitar, singing, dialect, etc. In some interviews/videos, we know that the practicing/preparation time is almost the same as the filming time. She practices so hard to meet the standard. She actually can choose the project not so demanding, but she intends to choose the project that is meaningful to her. Really admire her and support her!
Only Korean actress who can act and Looks damn natural exactly knows how much to do without being over the top and cringy.Queen Of Versatility Park Eun bin

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A Drama That Inspires You

this drama is not your typical romcom drama.. this is more of a healing slice of life, it's beautiful and the characters shine through the pain ...i think when you go you should be expecting that so go in in the mood for a healing slice of life rather than a romcom

Most reviews I read about it and most comments made me think this was gonna be terrible but it was such a blast I’m so glad I still watched it and didn’t let the bad comments make me biased

in the dramas defense : i don't agree that the name and trailer are misleading, they fit the drama perfectly and stayed true to it pretty well and you understand that there gonna be some trouble ( melodrama and a dark side to the story from the trailer ) , but then again i agree the synopsis is kinda misleading but like from the first and second episode it explains clearly what the drama is going to be and it become clear where it's going... a drama about a castaway survivor who ended up stranded on the island trying to run away from her violent father's abuse and the boy who was going to run away with her who also was a victim of his father's abuse and then searched for her for over 15 years while hiding behind a different name wasn't magically going to somehow be a corny, funny romcom and not have any difficulties/dark side along the way

A drama that inspires you.. the drama truly inspired me and i appreciate what it actually is , i saw the beauty of it and it truly teach you something .. the story here is beautiful. heartwarming and inspiring . it has a message to tell. actually quite a few messages

i cried so much watching this drama it always had a tear falling down my cheek . always in my feels, always rooting for the characters
it makes you realize how you can give without expecting much in return , how you can love and give unconditionally, how some times you finding a meaning in life , doing so , genuine connections here were beautiful and meaningful and they can teach you something

the amount of character development you see in this drama for certain characters is just so good and so worth it , the acting is so excellent and i thibk this drama is better binged thank goodness i waited

and just like that the second half of the drama won me over in ways i can't explain it made the drama go from a 7 to 9 for me , it was very beautiful and well made
after such a perfect satisfying finaleee in such a long timmeeeeeeeeeee and now the 9 nine feels insufficient i so it's def a 9.5

and mok ha is incredible truly precious one of my fave female leads

the acting here is brilliant on behalf of all the cast, the ml did a lot of good acting with his eyes .. so expressive

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