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Gu Family Book korean drama review
Completed
Gu Family Book
11 people found this review helpful
by maymaymaymay
Jun 26, 2013
24 of 24 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 7.0
This was one of the first dramas I actually started watching the day it aired and actually kept up with the casting info and the teasers and whatnot, and it was really interesting (to me) how my feelings towards this show changed. I started out excited and anticipating the next episode with bated breath, but I slowly began to lose interest in this drama. When did I become uninterested, really? The plotlines I cared about were thrown away and the plotlines that bored me to tears became the central point of the story. I was going to rate "Gu Family Book" as a 7, but the ending made it up for me. I know not many of you watchers really liked the ending, but I actually really loved it and at least this drama left me feeling satisfied. Story: My main issue with the story was that this drama was marketed as Kang Chi's journey to become human. I wanted to see a drama with that sort of adventure and life-changing journey. I didn't want to watch a drama where the writer became lazy towards the end and wasted a bunch of episodes on useless plot machinations and filler episodes where the villain just twirls his mustache at his evil schemes that serve no purpose to advance the plot. Not to mentions the plotlines that were just shoved aside without a legitimate ending. In the beginning, the story was actually interesting and fun, but the writers bit off more than they could chew here and really had no idea how to give us the story they were marketing and instead gave us the story they could. While I do wish I had gotten what I wanted, I actually won't complain with the story we received because it honestly wasn't that bad- just too stretched out for the 24 episodes. I feel like 16 or 20 episodes would have been enough here. Acting: Lee Seung Gi was great, as always. Yoo Yeon Sook was good in his role even though his character went nowhere and I'll definitely keep an eye out for Lee Yoo Bi. I'm glad Choi Jin Hyuk is getting the attention he deserves from his role here, and I'll definitely watch "Heirs" for him. He and Lee Yeon Hee had really good chemistry and have since joined my actor OTPs. Sung Joon is one of my favorite actors, so I might be a bit biased in saying this but he felt utterly wasted here. Not that his character was bad, it's just that any other actor could have played Gon. "Gu Family Book" wasn't very good as far as subtle characterization went, so there really wasn't much Sung Joon could put into Gon. However, I will always rewatch this drama for his facial expressions. What I really want to talk about here is Suzy. It's been really gratifying to watch her acting become better since her "Dream High" days, but I feel like she'll never be an amazing actress. Suzy is a really likable person and can be very versatile, but she;ll never break that emotional wall that'll make me believe she's *actually* her character and not just acting her. Dam Yeo-wool was a good character for Suzy to play because they both have that likable feel to them, but at the same time Yeo-wool wasn't as badass as she was on paper simply because Suzy couldn't make me believe in her. Plus, her chemistry with Lee Seung Gi wasn't of the romantic sort, more like your comfortable oppa-dongsaeng sort. I still give props to Suzy for trying, though. You could tell she really was giving her all into this drama. Music: This OST was just your standard drama OST. Full of angsty sad songs with wonderful voices that I like listening to but I just can't bring myself to put them on my iPod. It was, however, used brilliantly and in all the right places. Rewatch Value: As stated earlier, I will forever rewatch just for Gon's scenes. And the first two episodes with Choi Jin Hyuk and Lee Yeon Hee. Plus, the cinematography was gorgeous here. I love it when directors know exactly how to milk a scene for the full impact, so I'll be rewatching not for the storyline, but for the beautiful shots and directing. Overall: Hmm... I might recommend this drama to someone if they seem like they'll like it. But otherwise I'll probably just mention it in passing. I feel like "Gu Family Book" will ultimately just fade from my memory, simply because while it was good, it wasn't GREAT to me. (Just because it annoys me when people do this, by "Is this review helpful to you?" it means, "did this review provide you with a detailed opinion?" NOT "did this review agree with YOUR opinion?" I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but seriously. Can you guys just put aside your personal opinions on this drama and see if I provided something detailed an well writing and not something like "OMG THIS DRAMA WAS AMAZING!!!111".)
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