Mais Que Amigos (2020)

Simple and beautiful

There are many different kinds of dramas coming out nowadays and while that's great and exciting, sometimes it's nice to sit back, take a pause and watch something that reminds us of the kind of shows we first fell in love with.
The story is not something new, it's tried and tested and it works, it's beautiful but what makes this drama great for me is the small moments between the leads.
Moments of old friendships with the kind of bond that can only form over time.
This drama is also fast paced so there aren't any dull moments and the OST oh my god I cannot express how much I love the soundtrack <3
Furthermore, the leads look great together and have amazing chemistry.

The direction, music direction, acting, storyline everything put together is just beautiful and makes you feel like you are in love.

Leia Mais

love this drama♥♥

I really liked the drama and I don't understand how I didn't see it until now, the drama contains a realistic life story of teenagers and adults, a story of the right timing in the lives of all couples (both the teenagers and the adults, children / parents) the opportunities that are lost due to bad timing, the drama Touches the depths of the soul and touches on issues such as divorce, marriage, relationships between parents and children, love between couples and between parents (what is love - sacrifice is given), friendship, caring feelings and sensitivity to others. Great acting by all the characters. The characters manage to convey to the viewer the spectrum of emotions, from joy to design in a phenomenal way. I highly recommend watching it and reading between the lines of the wonderful script, which is conveyed to the viewer both through the photographer (his photos and photographs) and through the proverbs (calligraphy) she writes on the postcards.
I have only one comment regarding the length of the drama, in my opinion they could have shortened it to 12 episodes and still would not have detracted from the message of the drama, and the plot would not have been damaged.

Leia Mais

The story of a woman who confronts an unrequited love with all her heart.

~A missed opportunity turns into a regret. If there are no more opportunities to miss, I'll make sure to create some myself.~
~In a world of misunderstandings, it's dangerous to make assumptions about others. So you should ask the question yourself. You should hear the answer directly.~
~Love has to touch someone's inner confidence. Then love won't be dragged down by the other, but will draw the other to you.~

---

From this review: https://kdramadiary.com/kdrama-review/more-than-friends-kdrama-review/ "More than Friends Affirms How Despite The Tears, Experiencing Love Is Life's Greatest Bliss", "One of the best written Korean Dramas this year, More Than Friends has taken its viewers to stage of love that are equal parts blissful and painful - but ultimately the sweetest in between.", "It's interesting to note that More Than Friends is that one drama with such harrowing problems, yet there is not even one single villain present in the story. Remarkably conceived with an amazing cast who owned their roles to the hilt, this series evidently is one of my top drama picks this season."

---

I thoroughly enjoyed this JTBC romance, as is often the case, and it left a lasting impression on me. I would recommend it to you if you are looking for a romance that's not necessarily simple and cute, for some it will be more a source of annoyance and boredom than anything else (it's a slow burn and it's far from being a frustration-free drama), or even depressing because yes, it's sad, but in my case I found it more interesting and I was totally hooked. While the drama might seem rather light, it is actually quite heavy.

I really liked the atmosphere, the meaningful and thought-provoking dialogues, the quotes, the narration, the literature, the calligraphy and photography, the cinematography and music, the tense moments and camera movements, the way they end the episodes, the many well-placed metaphors related to fairy tales (I even read an entire analysis to understand one in episode 8, Lee Soo compared to the Little Mermaid at that very moment surprisingly makes so much sense), the parallels, the play on words, even the episode titles, there are so many details I can't list them all.

I would like to add that never before has a drama made me want to visit South Korea, and Seoul in particular, so much. I felt like I was discovering the city as I watched. They did a great job of blending photography with calligraphy. It's rare that I'm so captivated or even amazed by the work aspect of a drama, but this was more than successful. Just like in "Now, We Are Breaking Up", where the male lead is also a photographer while the female lead is a stylist. So in the end, the match-up was really different. Knowing that here we have a very different male lead, he's cold, withdrawn and solitary whereas the one in NWBU is warm and sociable.

I started watching during my stay in Brittany (region in France), so I might as well tell you that I've stayed in the travel mood with this drama.

Lee Soo is quite a sad and annoying character at first, he has a lot of flaws but that's what makes him interesting and he has a beautiful evolution.

Overall this is the kind of drama that's best watched from the perspective of trying to understand the characters, or even empathize with them. We can't control our feelings, and not everything goes our way, and this drama shows that very well. Like it or not, the way the characters behave was very human. More than just a love story, it's a drama about relationships, be they family, friends, lovers, the misunderstandings we can have about ourselves and others, the difficulties we go through, the mistakes we make and the regrets that go with them... Simply put: life. You have to be patient and not judge the characters too quickly to fully appreciate this drama, because we're all different and nobody is perfect. Of course, it's also a beautiful love story and a drama that warmed my heart, with beautiful morals. It's just not what I'd recommend if that's all you're looking for, the drama shows how complicated love can be etc. If you like slow burn and bittersweet romances with complex characters, then it could be for you. It's pretty quiet and not really "dynamic", though.

Some of the topics are very relevant, but I'll let you watch the drama to find out.

Note that the title of the drama in Korean is "Number of cases (to go from friends to lovers)". When you think about it, the concepts at the heart of the drama are some of the things that drama fans hate the most. The importance of timing is a huge part of the story. However, when it's the very concept of the drama, it changes everything. It's not just the story that creates conflict between the characters, and it's not because of external problems either, but internal ones. I'll take an event at the end of episode 6 as an example. At first it made me perplex, I thought it was too clichéd, even ridiculous. By the end of the episode, I completely changed my mind. I find it incredible that what I thought was stupid ended up impressing me. It was so meaningful and sad. Yet another cliché made its appearance towards the end of the drama, but I knew they would prove me wrong, and that they did. Sure, these are all familiar plot devices, but they're there for a reason—and honestly, it's not like such things don't happen in real life.

OST: The lyrics have a real emotional impact and make so much sense in relation to the story and the characters' feelings, especially as they were really well placed in the scenes. One OST is actually sung by Ong Seong Wu himself, dedicated to his character. The OST is called Late Regret, for those who want to know the name. There's also Spider Lily and Serendipity as interesting titles, since they mean something.

Side note: Yes, the story is frustrating and one could say it goes in circles, but no, it doesn't drag unnecessarily. Yes, Joon Soo deserves better. No, I do not put all the blame on Woo Yeon, and no, he wasn't innocent. What matters is that in the end, the journey was meaningful for everyone. Also, it's funny but not surprising to me how people just go for the simpler, kinder, more extrovert character who's a rich CEO, while I'm here finding Lee Soo much more interesting as an introvert, tsundere type of character. Of course I also loved Joon Soo and especially by the end I felt bad for him, so don't get me wrong.

In conclusion, this is a romance that is clichéd but still stands out from the rest because everything seems so realistic and different from other dramas, right up to the very end. Moreover, the division of the drama into two distinct halves is nothing short of brilliant.

The opening to discover as it does not appear on Viki (it does on Netflix) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKQazSzhFr8

Thank you for reading !

Leia Mais

?Hola a todos, ¿Cómo están? Ayer terminé de ver More Than Friends y tuve la maravillosa idea de traerles una mini reseña al feed.

La serie gira entorno a Kyung Woo Yeon, una calígrafa, y a Lee Soo, un fotógrafo. Ellos son amigos desde la adolescencia, ¿o más que amigos?
Woo Yeon está enamorada de Lee Soo hace die
z años, pero él parece no sentir lo mismo que ella. Durante los 16 capítulos iremos viendo como estos dos amigos viven un amor siempre a destiempo, lleno de malentendidos y complicaciones.

Decidí ver este drama porque me llamó mucho la atención el póster. La empecé sin grandes expectativas, y dentro de todo me llevé una gran sorpresa. Pensé que iba a ser uno de esos doramas que solo se centran en la pareja principal y en nada más, pero por suerte esta serie le da bastante protagonismo a los personajes secundarios, principalmente a las amigas de la protagonista. Es muy interesante ver las distintas personalidades y problemas que tienen cada una de ellas, y te dan ganas de saber más sobre las chicas. Creo que esto es de lo que más me gustó de la serie.

Pasemos a los protagonistas, que son el eje central:
El personaje de Kyung Woo Yeon me gustó mucho, a veces se me hacía un poco “densa” con todo este amor no correspondido, pero en líneas generales me gustó muchísimo, me parecía súper simpática, y me gustó ver cómo con el avance de la serie fue creciendo y aprendiendo a quererse a sí misma.
El personaje de Lee Soo, me pareció ok. Al principio tenía un poco de conflictos con él porque me parecía un poco egoísta, pero con el correr de los capítulos se redimió un poco. Igualmente, no llegué a enamorarme de él.
Por otro lado tenemos a Ohn Jun Soo, el second lead. Cuando apareció yo estaba living con él, tenía todo lo digno de un Second Lead Syndrom, pero a medida que pasaban los episodios se puso medio denso, no entendía un par de cosas que la prota le decía y eso terminó haciendo que pierda todo mi interés en él.

La pareja principal no me disgustó, pero tampoco me encantó. Es cómo que tenían momentos súper cutes, pero no terminó de “matarme” su historia de amor. Lo que sí destaco de ellos, es que notaba que tenían mucha química.
Está lejos de ser uno de mis doramas favoritos, pero si ya no saben qué ver y tienen ganas de algo bastante entretenido y muy bonito visualmente, denle una oportunidad

@altoplottwist

Leia Mais

Reasons why I dont support the love line between the girl and the male lead character

First of all, I would like to say that I don't have nothing against the actors, and all I'm saying it here it's just about the characters.

Good points:
* The support characteres seems to have a background history and they're showing it to the viewrs in a nice and complete way, what make us understand why they act the way they acts, and it its really a good thing since theyre not there just to be the "support characteres".

* The scenes are well produceds and the takes are good to see, the cinematography its on point.

* The OST its on point.

* All characteres have some line that can be taken as "real life lessons" and its showed thorugt theis personalities and the way they had to solve theirs lives struggles.

Bad points:
* For me the main problem of this drama is about the love line being build in a way where the male lead its a jerk one and the female lead it's almost a submissive one who's exccessively good for that problematic guy.
I mean its already 2020 and I think everyone agree that's there no more time to lose with that "old and cringe" history where the "handsome and rich guy is a jerk one, have no education, its cold, and the poor girl will make him "change" and realize that he likes her, but until he realizes it he'll be a total idiot and treat her like a garbage".
I think almost everyone is aware that it's not a "cute thing" anymore, but instead it's a toxic guy building a toxic relationship, and the way they're putting it like if he's the victim its the worst problem.
They should've put this in a way that the viewers would be able to see that is something wrong, but they're letting he acts like that and at the end he will take the girl, so it wents likes "anyways", it's like the message what they're passing through the drama is: "its okay to be a jerk one, you just need to have a reason to act that way" for the guys, and for the girls like, "its okay to be treated like a garbage because the guy its doing it to you just because he don't knows how to deal with his own feelings, but he likes you, he's acting like a bad guy, but he's a good one, right? you just need to be patient and wait for him to realize that he loves you, you just need to support him and his things and be mistreatened a just a bit more right, you can do it for him right?".
Like what????? no one should be treated as this way, its totally bad to see a woman who works, who do her things to make her live having to be at this situation to "win a guy's heart" its totally wrong.
And the fact that this drama it's already predictable and we already know which one she will be in the end it's making it even worse. The male lead have issues with relationships since his parents marriage was a disaster and he's putting all of his trauma into the others, rather than they're his employes or the girl he "likes", he just has no respect for everyone, and keep wanting the female lead to be next to him, he's not good for her, but he don't want to let her go, he wants her next to him even knowing she's suffering from this kinda of relationship, and when she asked to end the firendshipo he went like "no, I want to keep seeing you", but please, she's not his psycoologist or something like this, if hes not ready for love its okay, but he should let her go, and live her life as well.

Leia Mais

Tired, old trope and I don't have time for that.

So, i gave this drama 2 chances. episode 1, then episode 2. I'm not interested in seeing anymore because we all know how it's going to end.

Neither of the 2 leads are likeable.

This entire show is just a case of drawing it out with pointless drama, when we all know the pushover FL is going to end up with the jerk she's had a crush on since she was a schoolgirl. This drama gives me "fake deep" vibes.

You know, its kinda try hard? Like it WANTS to be a really deep, maybe profound romance thing, thats like deep, but thats kinda hard to take seriously when the FL's been pining over a stupid highschool crush for more than 10 years. Like wth? Girl, its been a whole decade. Move on? And the ML is an asshole and I can't get behind him lmao.

it took me 10 seconds to see the second male lead and instantly realize i was going to get second-lead syndrome. the second male lead could have been an entire light post and the same thing would happen ;-; that's how hard it is to root for any of these characters.

Anyways, this entire "relationship" is just toxic, the story is going to be the most painful, excruciatingly long CHORE of a drama to finish; and I don't have time for that :) dramas should NEVER turn into a chore for me to dread watching. I'll keep my light-hearted do do sol sol la la sol tyvm. This can stay on the shelves :)

tl;dr nothing that's already been said about this (in all the other low rating reviews) is any different from what i'm sayinG. I just wrote this review anyways, because a 8.0 rating is lowkey deceptive. this drama isn;t worth anyone's time :/ Good production quality and a decent OST can't save bad writing. This is the old, tired trope of childhood friends to lovers, only executed in the nastiest way possible. Hard pass.

Leia Mais

Nothing new, nothing fresh but still watchable!

I think Shin Ye Eun haven't learn anything from her previous project, the Cat drama, I mean, I almost died of frustration and there was nothing in that drama, no logic, no story and above all poor production. SYE choose this drama for reasons only she knows, but this series has same elements as the previous one - unrequited love, suffering, innocent female, stubborn male, poor second lead.

JTBC is best at producing romantic slow place dramas, I love their dreamy settings, use of Jeju Island, raining scenes and subtle interaction between leads. However, it has toxic environment more than it requires. Based on 2 episodes, and my experience, this drama is not going anywhere in terms of creativity and story. Two leads fighting over female lead, and viewers guessing who she will end up with is a trademark plot of Korean TV industry and then there is always feeling of immense sadness for poor second lead.

However, More Than Friends will still be addictive to many, reason? Isn't it obvious? People are more focused on idol boy OSW than the story itself. As long as this Idol boy chasing girl, whom he disregarded earlier and used her as a pawn to satisfy his own feelings only to reject her thrice, for his disbelief in love and dysfunctional family problems. I would slap that person so hard to make them come to senses and then move on with my life.

The production and camerawork of series is beautiful, just like Something In The Rain, cinematography, the raining scenes, and coldness of scenes, is kinda my favourite. There are moments coming to story, that will make female lead suffer more and it is yet to seen whom she would side with. I just hope there is no 2nd female lead. I want this between, ML-FL-2LD.

MTF is more than ok, but less than something interesting. It is a typical tale told thousand times made for demographic falls between 18-24.

Leia Mais

I actually do like the drama of this drama but the biggest fault Is that the male lead is a completely sadistic and cannot be repented at all . The writers try to make us like the relationship between the male lead was and female lead but it was impossible after the first episode. It gets really frustrating to even watch the drama because his character isn’t even human anymore because people can defend that it’s realistic cause people make mistakes but the main lead displays sociopathic behaviours , he wants her for himself but at the same time he doesn’t.it’s like the lives on her sadness.I’d say it’s still worth watching because the support characters stories are interesting and actually very very realistic in today’s society.This is also the greatest second male lead syndrome I’ve felt

Leia Mais

So far...

Up to episode 8 and cant see why there are so many negative reviews! I agree the ML is a jerk but dont agree that the female is a doormat. So far she has spoken back frankly to the ML - rejecting his advances and realistically saying its delusional and only because she has found someone else. She is obv drawn to him but is resisting his advances as she knows she shouldnt trust him. Remarkable self control and self preservation!
Just have to wait and see how the storyline continues....
I feel all the characters are well drawn and acted - they all have weaknesses and flaws as we all do!

Leia Mais

Actually I dropped this drama at first episode but at that time this drama was so popular and I saw lots of short clip from this drama so I continue to watch it again, and starts from the second episode it attracts my attention, each episode give me heartbreaks but then when the story about to connect the main character, then the story become flats for me, it’s still good to watch, I still watch it every week but it gave me different feeling with the first 6 episode, since the first half is pretty good, I’ll still recommend this drama when you don’t know what to watch, it’s pretty worth to watch

Leia Mais

Relationship Through Words

This was a wonderful story that put into words what the heart wants to say. The dialogues were beautiful. So many times I thought to myself, "that was a really neat way to describe that." That was the essence of this drama. The challenging part, and maybe I just don't know the Korean culture very well, but it was dry in light of physical affection. Are Koreans just like that in a relationship? There was passion that was missing in all three couples. Not passionate love making, but just things like grabbing each other, hugging each other spontaneously. They were all just too polite! Believe me, I am a Pride and Prejudice kind of lover. I love words. So it made up for it. But I can understand the critics in their reviews because it seemed we all wanted more. The stand off between a man and a woman and the lack of understanding where each is coming from was greatly depicted. That's what made it a success. So it was worth watching, but once again, being an American, I like passionate displays of affection. Spooning in bed displays more passion than facing each other with an arm politely resting over the other. It seemed contrived. So that's why I couldn't bring it to a 10. But it was enjoyable and worthy of a watch!

Leia Mais