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Danni

Buffalo, NY

Danni

Buffalo, NY
My Lovely Girl korean drama review
Completed
My Lovely Girl
7 people found this review helpful
by Danni
Nov 7, 2014
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 6.5
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 1.0
This review may contain spoilers
I have such mixed feelings regarding this series which my ratings pretty much reflect... here goes... >>>The Story/Writing (6 out of 10): I'm likely to be in the minority, but there came a point where I just didn't like the writing and felt it went horribly wrong. The first half of the series was pretty decent, you have the set up for the love triangle, what I call the "Other Chick", "Other Guy" (which are just the secondary leads, but that's my lingo) and the "Other Other Guy" (the jerk that no one likes who is in love with the "Other Chick"), and the heartbreaking past of our hero and heroine and how fate steps in to bring them together. Everything is going pretty on par with what's expected and then inexplicably our hero just goes nuts. Not literally, but there are two major "WTF?!" moments for me where I was literally yelling "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!? WAEEEEE?!" I was so flabbergasted that I just couldn't even anymore. I can't really say anymore without using spoilers, but by the end of the series, I no longer liked the "hero", Hyun Wook. To be fair, the drama deals with what is apparently a very taboo subject in Korea and so it was hard for me to wrap my mind around what was so wrong. Regardless, I felt the writers wrote themselves into a corner with the hero and then chose to completely disregard his actions to concentrate on another obstacle for the main couple only to completely disregard THAT in the end, a la Heirs (don't even get me started on that series.... I'm afraid to even review that for fear of the hordes of rabid Lee Min Ho fan girls that would come tearing into my doors and reverse defenestrating). It's not even that this show really suffered from the usual problem writers seem to have of how to effectively end a series, but more with it not making sense due to refusing to tackle the real problem, which was the hero's lies and actions regarding his lies. I didn't have secondary lead syndrome, though it begs the question, was the hero trying to force the viewers into it at some points. I felt the "Other Guy", Shi Woo was one of the best secondary leads I've seen in a while, which made the ending that much more of a I can't even. >>>The Acting/Cast (7 out of 10): The biggest draw for me was of course Jung Ji-Hoon (Rain) because I loved him in "Full House"(2004), and I recently started watching "Sang Doo, Let's Go To School" (2003) which started to grow on me. Rain is just bursting with charisma (and of course there's the part where he's really easy on the eyes) and he is seriously a talented entertainer and actor... which is why I feel bad that this was his first drama in 4 years. I feel bad because the writers ruined his character, Hyun Wook. Rain can definitely act and I hope to see him in a lighter rom-com because while he's great at intense, I enjoy his humorous side more, less of Broody Mcbrooderson. I really liked Krystal in "Heirs" combined with her onscreen boyfriend Yoon Chan Yeong (played by the ever adorable Kang Min Hyuk). They were great and what carried that show for me. Now in My Lovely Girl, I'm not sure if it was the fault of the director or that the role was just to big for Krystal to carry, but I felt like her character, Se Na, had little to no romantic chemistry with Hyun Wook, the love of her life. Some called her the Korean Kristen Stewart, but I wouldn't go THAT far (I would if we are talking about Park Gyu Ri from Nail Shop Paris of Horrors though - if you want to know how I REALLY feel please see my review on that atrocity). I felt like Se Na unlike most female leads was more introverted, she didn't bawl when she got emotional, she shed silent tears, you could tell she was holding it in. To be fair though, she said a lot of things that never quite matched her actions though. I would've liked to see more passion towards her man, a little less talk a little more action please (and by that I don't mean sexy times...though there' wouldn't be anything wrong with some lovin'). I'm not going to go through each character, but I think I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Kim Myung Soo (L), as Shi Woo. I liked him in "Master's Sun" (2013); as young Joong Won where I first saw him and I'm looking forward to seeing him in "Shut Up Flower Boy Band" (2012) once I get the chance. His character made the most growth and made the most sense throughout and he was great at portraying that. He starts off as you'd imagine an immature idol would, but he definitely matured leaps and bounds by the end and the lead, Hyun Wook should've been taking notes. I felt the rest of the cast could've been filled by just about any good actor, no one else really stood out - though some were enjoyable to watch. >>>The Music (5 out of a 10): For a show about the music industry it was just a bit ho-hum for me. Not bad, it was nice, but nothing I felt I really needed to download or even really stuck in my head. >>>Re-watch Value (1 out of 10): I will not re-watch or recommend this drama to anyone. I'm not saying it's an entire waste or anything. Some people, actually, the majority seem to love this drama, but in a sea of dramas I feel this easily gets lost and there's nothing special about it. >>>Overall (6.5 out of 10): I didn't feel like I wasted my time watching this, the last 5 or so episodes I was really struggling. I guess not so much with the last two because the thing that bothered me the most that most viewers didn't even seem to think it was a thing, I just decided to pretend didn't happen. But I feel that if you are forced to do that, the writing is pretty bad. Part of me wanted the two to be together, but I think that had more to do with liking Rain, and not at all liking the character he was portraying... which is what makes me wonder if that's the reason so many viewers were so forgiving of the things his character said and did, simply because they were seeing Rain and not Hyun Wook. Or perhaps, trust is not something they find as important in a relationship as I do. I don't know, but I was not really happy with the ending and found the last episode to be fluff that fell completely flat, rather than tying up loose ends of the plot....and some pretty important ones too. Again though, I won't be recommending or re-watching this, but I am looking forward to see Kim Myung Soo and Rain in their next dramas because they are really good actors that deserve a good characters to portray within a good solid story.
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