waiting for the day i ugly cry at the ending...

LOVE IT! friends to lovers has always been my favorite trope (and when said friends are played by kim tae ri and nam joo hyuk, you can't help but love it even more)! particularly, what this drama does SO well (that other youth dramas fail to do) is the gradual growth in maturity both characters experience coupled with its realism: from achieving ones dreams to struggling with hardship, i truly truly related with the raw sentiments expressed by the absolutely wonderful main cast. felt myself slogging through the first couple of episodes, but stuck with it and found myself watching one my favorite on screen couples of all time. but i've been putting off the heartbreak for a year now... one day i'll subject myself to the suffering that is the last two episodes...

Leia Mais

TRULY enthralling

no matter how hard i resist, every couple of months i always find myself returning back to this drama. i cannot express in words how much i adore it. not only was i sitting on the edge of my seat every episode as their romance blossomed, but i also took away about an invaluable lesson about prioritizing love vs. oneself. the progression of the storyline was FANTASTIC and so well executed. from the characterization to soundtrack to acting to plot, each and every individual who contributed to this drama absolutely killed it. the red sleeve is truly the greatest sageuk and one of the most well-written kdramas of all time!

Leia Mais

my dearest vs. the red sleeve

i have two words only: absolutely mindblowing!

much has been analyzed about my dearest solely itself, but i wanted to use this review to stir conversation and draw some comparisons to another fantastic (and may i dare add, even more intriguing) sageuk-- the red sleeve-- in order to encapsulate my frustrations with the storyline of my dearest's main couple and where i see room for improvement.

(warning: some major spoilers ahead for the red sleeve).

1) equality of contributions in their relationship.

what the red sleeve does so well, even amidst a severe power imbalance between a crown prince and his court maid, is demonstrate that the ML and FL view each other as equals. despite the FL's lowly status of a court maid, she saves the ML on multiple occasions that made my heart SWOON, which ultimately restores balance to their power dynamic and also, reaffirms their mutual love for each other. that is what makes the love between them so discernible to the audience. i could FEEL it in my toes.

on the other hand, what was so frustrating in my dearest is jang-hyun's constant unreciprocated affection toward gil-chae. though both shows have this period of "unrequited love" from the MLs to the FLs, although refusing to become the crown prince's concubine, the red sleeve's FL constantly contributed to their relationship and protected the prince as much as the prince is protecting her, which made their affection for each other palpable. although the FL denies her feelings for him, you can see through her facade and really feel her love for him even with their massive gap in social status (which i'll delve into later). as for my dearest, although jang-hyun's love for gil-chae was so painstakingly obvious, i never felt as if gil-chae reciprocated it. the discrepancy between number of times he has protected her vs. the number of times she has protected him is just too large to imagine gil-chae loving jang-hyun with the same intensity and depth in which he loves her. honestly, as part 2 progressed, i started to pity jang-hyun immensely for his all-consuming passion for someone who seemed like she was indebted to him rather than her being in love. i also think this inequality in their respective contributions to their relationship is made worse with the durations of both shows. TRS is 17 episodes in compared to MD's 21, which may have helped me overcome the excruciating unrequited love phase and hang on to TRS's story much more than MD's.

2) the driving obstacle toward their relationships

in the red sleeve, we've always understood why the main couple could not be together; as a concubine, the FL would lose her freedom and be entirely devoted to a man who simply cannot be entirely devoted to her. what made their story so tragic is that their circumstances are entirely out of their control; it was fate that made the FL a court lady and the ML a prince. in addition, the pay-off of the couple finally getting together was truly rewarding in that the audience finally witnesses how becoming a concubine heartbreakingly stripped the FL of her personality and charm. the regret that she feels for giving in to the prince is tangible. the warning that she has been alerting both the prince and the audience over the entire course of the drama has finally (and tragically) come to fruition.

however, for my dearest, the obstacles that inhibited their relationship was the intervention of other characters as well as a simple lack of communication. to me, rather than tragic, these roadblocks were frustrating. to prove to gil-chae that he truly truly was committed to her, jang-hyun should've told her about the dozens of pairs of floral shoes he purchased during his agonizing time in simyang. to show jang-hyun that she was in love with him, gil-chae should've cleared up that his "younger brother" literally told her that he was dead, and also that she was staying with officer gu because she had a duty to her family, not because she didn't love him. their poor communication eventually lead to misunderstandings and it was KILLING me. furthermore, i never felt as if the pay-off of jang-hyun and gil-chae getting back together was as satisfying because their entire story was soon marred with hardship that seemed if it had no end.

despite these frustrations, my dearest has been an absolute roller-coaster exploring love in its most pure, raw, and honest shapes and sizes. jang-hyun's love and devotion toward gil-chae was so admirable. and alas, despite both being sageuks, the red sleeve and my dearest are two completely separate shows with separate romances featuring separate issues of the time period. either way, i highly highly recommend my dearest to those looking for a truly epic, slow-burn love story!

(on a final note, i wish men like jang-hyun were real.)

Leia Mais

HE SHOULD'VE MOVED OUT!

just a public service announcement to inform you that i have transformed into a d1 yim si-wan fan!

no but seriously this show had me TWEAKING at ungodly hours of the night; truly a testament to the extremely eerie (and well-executed) ambience that this show exhibited! i really enjoyed how the premise of the show was rather simple-- broke guy moves into cheap apartment inhabited by interesting neighbors-- but the story kept on building in complexity as we realize the true identities of surrounding characters. it also held a great balance between gorey, adrenaline-boosting moments and subtle commentary on the fragility of the human condition; how does societal ostracization and suppression of anger make one go mad? i ended up skipping through a few of the episodes towards the end (the show was starting to get slow and i just wanted to watch joon-woo go cuckoo crazy ASAP), but episode 10 was truly such a satisfying pay-off-- THAT TWIST! overall, highly highly recommend for those looking to scratch that hannibal itch and/or a nuanced and very, very bloody thriller.

Leia Mais

the art of getting by

a beautiful depiction of two ordinary people with an entangled, complicated history navigating hardship. i particularly found the ML's portrayal of loneliness so well executed and quite relatable in some aspects. screenwriting was BRILLIANT; both main leads truly understood one another with such quiet intensity. docking a star and a half as the satisfaction following their separation sequence doesn't really pay off as much as i would've liked, and i felt as if the FL lost her spark and spunkiness toward the end of the drama, but i HIGHLY recommend this drama to anyone who enjoys a mature, slow-burn romance!

Leia Mais

prepare to cry every episode!

do not be deterred by bad reviews; what an absolutely groundbreaking and incredibly brave k-drama. i particularly admire how the show dismantles stereotypes surrounding mental health and suicide (especially in south korea where such topics are taboo), and is unafraid to cover difficult, sensitive themes (e.g. the atrocious mistreatment of comfort women). furthermore, whilst nailing perfectly the acting and somber plotlines, the drama's romantic storyline was personally the most heartbreaking sequence of the show-- episode 13 hit me like a wrecking ball. overall, HIGHLY recommend this drama for anyone who needs a good cry!

Leia Mais