haven't had as much fun with a romcom in a long time

I usually don't write reviews, because most of the times my opinion is already depicted in some way or another.

yet, i find this drama/comedy to be highly underrated in comparison and just wondered why. i admit, i edited this review after the final episode, deducting 0.5 points solely for the last episode (chantal_789 does have a point). up until then i still think it's a near-10.

i've had my fill of kdramas (check my watchlist), especially comedy romances, which is one of my favourite genres and so enjoyable when done right. but a lot of times i left only somewhat satisfied or even dropped the show altogether, not even bothering with ratings. why? because the experience i'm looking for is something, i can sincerely relate to. as a very average person in a very average life, with it's very unique situations. and i believe it's the same for the majority of the audience. that means, it needs to be a mature, but light hearted enough romance to be comedic at times and to be able to resolve all day life's natural twists and turns without the need to bloat up the story, install extra drama to justify the run time or the extra good looking leads.

this show is exactly that: a very well written, acted and executed romcom on the backdrop of a good-enough crime story with a breeze of magic. and it took me by surprise, how enjoyable it turned out!

why the surprise?
* the matrix for your usual romcom is expected to be quite formualic. and it absolutely is.
* too many genres mashed up (comedy-slash-romance-slash-crime-slash-fantasy)
* the magical aspects of story lines to me are always like wild cards, because often they're just end up being used to cover for badly written stories or superficial characters
* lastly and strongly, the male lead to me is neither very attractive (not sure, what the people in the comment section mean by him being excused by his good looks...) nor is he depicting a very likeable character. he's definitely not one of my fav actors nor characters to begin with.

yet, as mentioned above: when done the right way, such generic settings or unlikeable characters still allow great romcoms. and here we are!

the comedy aspects are so spot on in so many ways, that this show turns out to be genuinely funny: the usual quirky sound effects are supporting, not disturbing, all the usual over reacting is contained to a matching situation and grounded in character so it's - apart from maybe in the final ep - kind of naturally funny by design and not already annoying or completely unbearable, the comedic awkwardness of the unlikely love interests is backed up by enough sincerity and authenticity, so that resolve easily happens through the context of the situations they find themselves in.

the actors easily stretch that scope of at times awkwardly silly character traits, arriving at the sincerity of their own individual personalities just right on time to ground their act into a human one and the story setting into a believable one. that only works with the right chemistry (although the male lead hides it well :D)

the female leads switching act is absolutely fun to follow. they must've had a blast while filming this!

some people seemed to have a problem with the pacing. i am easily bored and hate waiting for weekly episode releases. stuff that doesn't add up or lacks gets dropped or skipped. the shows where i did neither are 9.5 and up on my list. this one i found spot on and totally loved it like that. because - in all actuality - such a stiff and somewhat slow hearted male character gradually easing up, matched up with a situation like the female lead's one turning her rather outgoing personality all shy-ish and hesitant ('cause who in their right mind would think it'd be fair to drop a 60-year old self with all the consequences on someone they love and would possibly spend the rest of their life with!) - made it all the more believable and resolved the story in a much more natural way than a lot of comparable situations i have seen on screen. so i actually enjoyed the story running in circles at times with so many funny details - like that totally random blue knit sweater with the cat logo in ep 13. gotta love the hint!

the magical aspect is offering a supportive and fun background for some of the comedy related aspects and character development, yet is not misused to cover up unbelievable stretches to make things work. i admit, up until the last few ep i wasn't really sure, what the cat-thing was all about. but neither was the lead on her journey to understand exactly why all this had happened to her. so we kind of were put in her shoes by that, which i also really liked as a detail =^.^=

unless stuff like music or cinematography and such really stands out, i don't even realize it while watching. but in this one the music really matched the whole experience. totally fun use of recurring, very distinct themes.

so, if you're looking for a good one to laugh hard at times, but want the love story to be a believable one, the suspense not to be cheap and you don't mind some groundhog-day magic or that generic mismatch-love-triangle, dig in. and forget, that you have seen this a 1.000 times before. because you haven't :)

Leia Mais

highly underrated gem!

i don't understand how so many mediocre or worse ratings are amongst the most supported. this is one rare gem of a show. so much so, that i was left utterly in awe of it, re-watching it straight away - a first for me.

i highly recommend it to people who liked “call it love” and “the glory” in particular. it’s kind of a mixture of both: more eerie and mysterious than the first (back stories are only slowly uncovered and it's also a whos-done-it), less clear-cut revenge and more healing and genuine romance between broken people than the latter.

everything in this show is done on such a nuanced and subtle level, that it was utterly disarming to experience.

rarely will you come across a show, where everything - from the story, dialogue, cinematography, the way the scenes are cut, the music (or lack of it) up to the acting - is mend together so masterfully that it can create such a pain drenched, twisted and at times eerie atmosphere only for it to be genuinely saved by the tender grace of two characters. the simplicity of this truth - innocence is not lost but being buried within us and therefore resurrectable, if we are mindful enough - is uncovered breathtakingly slow.

the trunk is a show that depicts - and very elegantly so - the difference of deeply hurting people choosing obsession and self destruction over the untwisted path of wanting to love genuinely, longing for one's own return to innocence. slowly, and only bit by bit, unraveling the consequences of the leads’ choices, light is shed on on how fated relationships can play into one's own healing process if one is conscious enough to recognize and allow them into one's life.

i tend to rather dislike how the idea of fated human bonds is used and depicted in stories as it is often boiled down to the hollow idea of this one-in-a life-time-match of eternal love, that needs to culminate in a lifetime’s happy marriage to count as such. i don't deny fate. but depictions hardly match my experience of it. this one does. for love alone in and of itself is eternal by nature. it's also not exclusive or single minded. it just doesn't flow as humans wish. its nature is to be left free so it can flow towards you in it’s own time and way. you can’t control or force it, yet it’s the most common human thing to try bend the will of the one’s closest to us towards what we want. making them stay by our side by whichever means posible, so we’re not lonely, is the first step towards that. much later, tainted by pain, anger and our own history with each other, we are no longer able to see what we once loved in our counter parts. or ourselves. but cynically enough we seem unable to let go to let love find the ones involved again, clinging to that one person beside us, now merely a stand-in, a reminder of the beauty we once found in eachother and deep down long for. and we know, yet we choose to sacrifice everything towards this left over illusion of it.

one massively complex matter to work through! but the trunk manages brilliantly.

it very distinctively shows, where boundaries lie within a loving relationship to be able to keep alive and around what we love within each other. and they apply to any kind of emotional state we are in. orbitting around the fl, an excellently written and acted character, who perfectly balances her strength with vulnerability, it understands exactly where a person ends and anothers begin and what it needs from one side to the other to keep a relationship in whichever state a healthy one. deeply hurt and despite her own impactful history on relationship/marriage, with the smallest of movements, the least words said, the fl knows exactly how to stay herself in every situation she's placed in, simultaneously creating a surrounding where others are put into place or shown what belonged to them before it was taken from them. it’s nothing other than stunning to watch the stage being cleaned up by that. it's much different from doing it by controlling it. hence, the tango - a perfectly matching metaphor. such as the trunk.

the development of the show is slow, there’s only a few brawl-ish scenes and there’s no real suspense. so it mainly runs on subtleness. so you do have to like that. but, and in defense: it never ran boring as i have experienced it with other slow-burners.

last, i should mention that for asian standards it should be quite mature in terms of nudity/bed scenes. not so extraordinary for western standards, though. as a western raised watcher i think the physical aspect of a relationship has equal impact as the emotional ones towards the quality of the bond between people and is an important aspect to recognize underlying dynamics of couples - exactly as is shown very excellently by comparison of all couples depicted. so in my eyes it’s a necessity to understand the message carried throughout the story.

masterpiece, no less. so, enjoy!

ps. and one tiny hint towards expectations: the trunk acts more like a metaphore than as the keeper of the big secret to be revealed. so keep an open mind and you won't feel betrayed!

Leia Mais