Tell Me It's Love (2023)

Overall a very satisfying experinece

The Story:

It is basically a melodrama about two star crossed lovers. Basically, Dong Jin's mother and Woo Joo's father had an affair. Woo Joo's father left his family and married Dong Jin's mother. Upon's his death, he left the family home to Dong Jin's mother resulting in Woo Joo wanting the house back. She wants to approach Dong Jin to get the house back but believes that he is selfish just like his mother and seeks revenge by joining his company.

The Good:
- The acting. Every actor is excellent in this drama and they truly make you feel for their character even the evil stepmother near the end. Most of time, they will portray their emotions through their body language and eyes. The way they would just look at each other is just so noteworthy. A lot of the time they communicate less through words and more through the body language cause both Woo Joo and Dong Jin are quiet people who are dealing with their own emotional issues . I cannot fault anyone's acting in this so a solid 10/10
- The overall atmosphere / tone: Most of the characters in this drama are going through some emotional trauma and it communicated very well through the overall colour grading, the way they walk, the way they react to happy / sad news, the way some of the shots are so still and the stillness of some scenes.
-Realistic portrayal: Now, not everything in this drama is portrayed realistically but most of the things that happen are pretty realistic. Ex: How people develop a relationship, how people fall in love, how families usually influence one's decisions in life, etc
-The character development: The way the characters develop, their relationships change and the way they react to things depending on their personality was very good. Also, a few of them learn life lessons and some give them depending on their experience.
- Forgiveness: One of the biggest takeaways from the this drama is how important it is to forgive someone so you can lead a more happy/ healthy life.

The Bad:
- The pacing: This is more of a character heavy drama rather than a plot heavy drama so the pacing of the drama varies depending on what the emotional state of the characters. The beginning is really slow cause you are being introduced to the characters and their situations. Once I made it through midway of the first episode, I pretty much binged through the 6 -7 episodes and then the drama was pretty much dragging with the indecision of the characters and how you were basically waiting for the bomb to drop. Then, it somewhat picked up pace again only to slow down again till the end. There are shots / scenes which are drawn longer than necessary. I sometimes found myself wanting to skip them cause it was just dragging the story
- The ex-girlfriend: I feel like she was just added to the story for more drama and nothing else. I did not like her character nor felt sympathy towards her. She could not have been in this story and it would have changed nothing. A good thing is that she did not get more screen time.
- The cliche evil stepmom: When this drama was going for some realism, they went for the evil stepmom and her evil sidekick. They are no redeeming qualities to her until near the end. In a drama where most characters are realistic, she with her sidekick just seemed to be so out of place. Her motivations are never shown/ given. She is just who she is and we are supposed to accept it. She never has a moment where she explains her actions.
- The ending: For a drama that loves to drag out certain scenes, they pretty much gave a very rushed ending in the very last 1 -2 minutes. I personally would have liked some sort of epilogue, conversation, or something solid. It is a satisfying ending but not a perfect ending. Considering all that happened, I just wanted a few more minutes to wrap everything up.

So, overall 8.5 / 10. Give this one a try if you like slow paced star crossed romance, characters going through emotional trauma and excellent acting from everyone.

Leia Mais

This drama is endearing

For once I really enjoyed following and watching a Korean drama. The story has nothing extraordinary and the characters are quite common but the actors are good and the direction is excellent. The scriptwriter had the intelligence to build a solid plot that does not evolve into unnecessarily complex events. But it is especially thanks to the direction that this series is of great quality. I have rarely seen a story so well filmed and edited. It was a real pleasure to watch some scenes. It happened several times to me to go back to see again certain sequences. Everything is excellent: the choice of shots, the lighting, the way of filming the places and the characters, the editing, etc.
We too often forget that a story, however good it may be on paper, will never make a good movie without a solid direction.
I have two criticisms to make. First of all, the music. It is sometimes too present and seems to underline too strongly the emotions of the characters. The other negative point concerns some lengths and some sequences are not really useful to the story. The last episode has a too predictable content. It was not necessary. This drama would be much better in 12 episodes.

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Unreasonably slow

I actually really liked the start of the show. It was nice cute and i kinda knew that this is not gonna be some hot romance. It would be ok to me if the show was slow but this is just unreasonable. Even after characters get to each other and grow close together the still talk so weirdly and soooo slooooooow. This makes all the dialogs feel extremely unnatural and dragging. Do you really need to put some deep almost phylosophical meaning into every single sentence you say to your loved ones? Idk it just didnt feel real and that was bothering me so much.
And its so annoying because first few episodes were sooo good! Why is that it so often feels like korean screenwriters wrote first few episodes and cooked the rest on the fly? Why is it that the show is awesome at the start and mediocre at best in the end? Its so annoying.
What i liked on this show was development of FL. She is such a good actress and if she didnt have to go trhough such bad dialogues in the end it would bo soo good.
Idk such a wasted potential

Leia Mais

Only watched it for KYK

So dreamy, KYK. I only watched the drama to watch him. Kdrama fixation.
Don't care if he emotes two dimensionally or whatever else people are complaining about. Just happy to see him glide by and watch that face!
The FL was also lovely and the rest of the cast was the good, underplayed k drama actors who are actually the unsung pillars.

I must commend that lady who plays the wicked mother.
Did not check what her actual name and age is, but she is gorgeous.
Not sure how she ended up consistently playing a philandering wicked mother - have seen her in atleast 3 dramas doing the same wicked stuff.
But she has the courage to continually play the terribly villainous mother and excels in her negative craft.

This drama needed a lot more intimacy because the slow burn is fiery but ends with cold water.
There was ample room for it but it was wasted with just despair longing.
Needs a serious fix.

Leia Mais

How could they not get KYK out of his mould?!

I have not much to say - and I’m on ep7 - but I feel the casting&director missed a trick here!

The story is simple, the writer kept the side stories to a minimum. Which is okay if the main story held a bit more weigh - what is killing it for me is the main male character. It’s infuriating that they left KYK to play this two dimensional persona, with no charisma, relatability and non expression ! I just wished I can go and slap him to start acting- he is playing someone depressed and lonely - and I know, those people are hardly two dimensional; character with two impressions
She is a bit better, but not much - I’ve seen her chapter before from her.
The rest of the cast is is ok - the “lower” you go on the pecking order the better then actors actually!
But why no one told him that being tall and handsome is not enough to play a complex character?! Why?!

Leia Mais

Slow Burn Romance tetapi Tidak Membosankan

Awalnya saya tertarik karena Lee Sungkyung dan Kim Youngkwang yang membintangi drama ini. Bahkan saya kira drama ini merupakan drama romantis komedi. Ternyata saat mencari sinopsisnya dan membaca review di Twitter saat drama ini tayang, drama ini merupakan drama dengan genre melodrama - slow burn romance bertemakan balas dendam, namun ujung-ujungnya menjadi cinta. Jujur, saya adalah penikmat drama dengan genre seperti ini, namun kadang saya takut dengan endingnya- karena saya adalah tim happy ending. Tetapi saya memutuskan untuk mencoba menontonnya.

Banyak orang yang mengatakan bahwa alur dari drama ini lambat, namun ternyata setelah saya nonton, saya malah ketagihan! Walau permasalahan antar tokoh utamanya lambat, tetapi banyak masalah lain yang disuguhi, sehingga penonton tidak akan bosan. Berbagai emosi juga ditampilkan, sehingga penonton akan merasakan roller coaster mood. Tentunya ditambah denga chemistry antara si couple tinggi Lee Sungkyung dan Kim Youngkwang yang juara!

Sampai episode yang saya tonton saat ini, keduanya masih minim skinship. Bahkan saat mengobrol pun mereka duduk dengan jarak yang agak jauh dan tidak saling menatap mata, namun tetap berhasil membuat gemas dan gigit jari. Sehabis dibuat gemas dengan interaksi keduanya, penonton akan diingatkan dengan permasalahan utama di antara mereka, yang membuat hati cemas- apakah keduanya bisa bersatu atau tidak. Setelah itu penonton juga akan dibuat marah dan emosi dengan penyebab dari semua masalah ini dimulai. Pokoknya tidak akan menyesal!

Sejauh episode yang saya tonton ini, saya memberikan skor 8.2/10. Di tengah gempuran drama dengan genre yang berat, drama ini bisa sedikit meringankan pikiran dan membantu meluapkan emosi. Belum lagi dengan banjirnya konten fan service dari Lee Sungkyung dan Kim Youngkwang di Instagram, membuat kita semakin gemas dibuatnya. I really recommend u to watch this drama!

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