July Watched

This month was an interesting month for dramas. There was hate, love, a lot of laughing and tears while watching them, so even if not all dramas in July were 10/10, they have brought me a lot of emotions.

Do you agree with my opinions?

First impression: I need the second episode to know if I want to continue

Last impression: It was cute overall

Synopsis: Han Geum Ju, who considered herself a perfectly sensible drinker, is diagnosed with alcohol dependency and finally decides to get sober. In her decision to become sober, she meets Seo Ui Jun, her kind high school best friend who became heartless. Ui Jun is unsympathetic towards Geum Ju's alcohol dependency, which triggers her to figure out what happened to him. (Mydramalist)

Everyone in their reviews mentions how the first episodes were good, but it dragged on, and here I come with another unpopular opinion.

Personally, after the first episode, I considered dropping the drama. It was okay, and I already have a lot of things to watch, so the question was whether it's worth staying. However, the second episode was better and made me watch more.

The plot was quite refreshing compared to other dramas in the way that it talked a lot about alcoholism (what it does to people, and trying to stay sober). In every drama, you will always see characters drinking soju or beer, and even the trope where the female lead gets drunk and the male lead gives her a piggyback is so popular. So this drama was a bit different in that aspect.

I didn't have much love for the characters. Sometimes they annoyed me, but as a couple, Geum Ju and Ui Jun were really cute.

More than the main story, I enjoyed the second couple (Hyeon Ju and Seon Uk). I wish they had more screentime and less drama surrounding their storyline.

I don't have much problem with the series; it was fun and easy to watch. It gets a bit worse in the last episodes with Ui Jun's father, but it didn't matter much as it was my background story.

Mild spoilers: Also, we never talked about Ui Jun's problem with drinking. There is a scene where it shows that his fridge is full of soju, but we never circle back to it.

7/10

First impression: Everything looks interesting from the main case to the more unique, smaller case

Last impression: It did its job as a mystery drama

Synopsis: Ten years ago I Na's uncle was brutally murdered. I Na was the sole witness to the crime, but instead of being treated as a victim, she found herself under suspicion. Han Saem, the lead investigator at the time, was convinced that she was behind her uncle's death. Now, a decade later, she has become a profiler and is helping out by examining a crime scene. As they dig deeper into the past, they begin to unravel the dark truth behind her uncle's murder. (Mydramalist)

I enjoyed this drama a lot. The mystery was interesting, it had me questioning what the motive was and how much we can actually trust I Na. I had a few suspicions that went nowhere, but the drama did well with red herrings.

There are some points that I and other viewers are questioning. We never got to see how the killer planned murders, and some of the points in their story are weird.

But it didn't kill the good mystery.

A lot of people didn't like the characters from what I saw, especially I Na. I have nothing against her; she was in her own world, but I enjoyed her conversations with other characters.

The male lead is on the quieter side, while investigating, he unveils his character, his true colours. I never shipped those two, and I'm happy the director didn't include romance, but as partners, investigators, they balanced each other well.

If you like mystery dramas, a bit clichéd ones, where someone gets killed in a mansion, and someone has to be a killer. I think this drama might work for you.

9/10

First impression: Boring, but someone said that the second episode is better

Last impression: It is still very boring

Synopsis: No Mu Jin, a labour attorney, is barely scraping by, worrying about rent. While snooping around an industrial site with content creators Ko Gyeon U and Na Hui Ja, he gets into an accident. To survive, Mu Jin signs a contract with a mysterious being, but then, he starts seeing ghosts who died unjustly. (Mydramalist)

What made me continue watching was that the second episode was better.

It had a side story that was interesting to watch, and it had its fun moments. From then on, the series continues with the same structure: Mu Jin sees a ghost, finds out what is happening to him, and tries to help them.

I don't want to discredit the screenwriter because the stories of workers are heartfelt and need to be heard. We are probably like the students from one of the episodes; until it doesn't touches us, we don't care much.

However, the last story was too over the top. It took 3 episodes to resolve everything, and it was tiring. Constant shouting and chaos are not my cup of tea.

The characters are okay. They tried to help everyone and were nice, but they didn't have much growth, and the only personality trait was being loud. Sometimes, by the end of the series, an annoying character would grow on me, but this time it was the opposite. I feel like they were more and more frustrated.

It just needed a bit more polishing with the characters, jokes and storylines. They brought more personal story to Mu Jin when it was 20 minutes left, and it felt rushed. But rather than needing more episodes, it needed a better structure.

5/10

First impression: I found a lot of things that I could relate to.

Last impression: It was a hard but heartwarming journey.

Synopsis: Twin sisters Yoo Mi Ji and Yoo Mi Rae differ in everything except their faces. Mi Ji has ended her short heyday as a promising track and field athlete and is currently living a free-spirited life. On the other hand, Mi Rae, who has been walking the path of the elite, is a perfectionist working at a public corporation. The twins, physically identical but leading starkly different lives, embark on a bold charade, switching lives for some undisclosed reason. (Mydramalist)

I related to the characters. I understood their stories and was amused from time to time, but something did not fully hit.

The plot of the story is interesting, how different twins change their lives, but from the very start, it never felt like they were pretending to be one another. Of course, for Mi Ji, it didn't matter because Mi Rae didn't have any friends in her life and was being shoved in the workplace. However, I don't understand how nobody understood that Mi Rae was in town when she was acting more like herself, not Mi Ji.

I'm sorry, but it bothered me a lot.

Other aspects of the story were interesting. Rosa's (restaurant lady) background was quite predictable when you get some of the details, but her storyline still broke something in me.

For the characters, I could relate more to Mi Rae, and maybe that's why I felt closer to her and her story with the strawberry farm guy. I saw some comments that he was boring because he had already achieved everything he wanted in life; there was nothing more to learn for him compared to the other characters.

He brought peace to Mi Rae when needed and showed that she could do things herself. He was at the end of the journey, but that didn't make him worse or better; he was there to help his partner. I would have loved more scenes of them together. I was even leaning towards them a bit more than Mi Ji and Ho Su.

Talking about those two, they were great. I feel like both of them had a chance to learn something new about each other and the world, and grew together through their experiences. I had my issues, how some things were handled, but they managed to restore it by the 12th episode quite well.

I don't know, I feel some closeness towards the drama, but some things made me want more. However, it does make me feel better knowing that some characters wait till 30 to get their lives together, because I'm still wandering around.

9/10

First impression: Where did unhingeness disappear??

Last impression: This is not what I wanted...

Synopsis: University student K is an ordinary young woman, but one day, she finds herself in her favourite romance novel set during historical times. Cha Seon Chaek spends one night with Yi Beon, the lead male character in the novel. No matter how hard Cha Seon Chaek tries, Yi Beon’s love always finds its way back to her. (Mydramalist)

I have a lot of thoughts about this drama. Whenever I watch a drama where I've read the webtoon/original material, I think about the biases that I might have. This time, at least I see that other people have the same thoughts, only from watching the drama.

At first, I didn't think of this drama as bad. Yes, it has changes that I didn't like (you can read it in my post Webtoon VS K-drama), but I wasn't bothered by them and had some funny moments.

As the story went, it started to crumble. The characters didn't have any personalities, even with their backstories, and it gave performative feminism. The scenes were supposed to make the female characters look more badass, but they came out stereotypical.

The storyline was quite boring, and even with only 12 episodes, some of the moments were a drag. For example, the prince was playing a game; the sequence is useless. It was about 10 minutes? That could have been well spent creating some kind of relationships between characters.

I was not very fond of the main actors either. They weren't terrible, but I couldn't see them as the characters. Other actors were more believable, but they were useless, or needed, but without personality.

The biggest mistake of the drama was that it started treating itself not like a fantasy novel but like a sageuk. It's always so sad to see great work turn into whatever this was.

3/10

First impression: The women are so fun, and I'm glad they quickly connected.

Last impression: I feel content with the way it's ended. Not the best, not the worst.

Synopsis: It is about 4 housewives who are overwhelmed with housework, ignored by others, and who sometimes have to put aside their dreams for the sake of their families, solving cases by listening to the stories of victims who have been overlooked and tracking down evidence in their daily lives. (Mydramalist)

If you've watched this drama, I have to applaud you because the subtitles are awful. Hopefully, someone will do a better version of it.

From the premise, it is quite easy to imagine what will happen in the drama next, and it has some quite intriguing parts. I liked how it went from something simple: finding out who the husband is cheating with, a neighbour who is parking anywhere. Later, to have darker themes.

There were some cases that I was less interested in, the cases where they overreacted a bit, but there was always something fun or touching going on.

The lead women are incredible. They all have their struggles and personalities, which connected quite easily with each other. My only problem was the men surrounding them. I could not stand the husbands.

One of them is always hiding behind his family, and the other is moaning and only asks about the daughter. Even if they brought some cute moments from time to time, it was not enough to calm my frustration.

This is a good mystery drama, which leans more towards comedy. The housewives were there to bring justice to the neighbourhood. I didn't fully realise who the murderer was because I was pretty occupied with the red herring, but it was a good reveal.

There is also a second season announced for the drama, so I will look forward to that!

7.5/10

First impression: This is going to destroy me.

Last impression: This was beautiful.

Synopsis: Lee Je Ha received worldwide attention for his debut film and was called a genius. Over the past 5 years, he has not worked on anything. Deciding to end his 5-year hiatus, he begins to work on his second film. While researching the movie, Lee Je Ha meets Lee Da Eum. She is an aspiring actress and suffers from a rare, incurable disease. Lee Da Eum advises Lee Je Ha on his movie and becomes interested in the script. As they work on the romance movie together, Lee Je Ha and Lee Da Eum form a romantic relationship. (Mydramalist)

The story, the acting were amazing to witness. All the characters felt real, and I loved the warmth that each of them brought. Even characters with less screentime were not overlooked, and still had their little story.

From that only I knew that it's going to be hard to say goodbye to all of them after the drama ends. And it is hard.

It was interesting to watch the storyline unfold as the movie was being filmed. Usually, we only get very little snippets if the drama has anything to do with filming, but this one went full in. It did feel like watching behind the scenes.

Our Movie is a drama that is a bit difficult to watch at times, at least for me. It talks about great topics, but it can be on the slower side, and I have to be in the mood for that. In one way, I feel like I should have saved this only for those times, but on the other hand, I was too curious to see the end. It's either binge-watching this or saving it and slowly savouring every moment with Lee Je Ha and Lee Da Eum.

This is definitely my problem: sometimes I get bored in the scenes as they're slow and just talking. It didn't ruin anything, but made me not give it a whole 10.

Though episode 12 has brought my attention back, it was beautifully shot, and I couldn't turn away as every moment counted.

9.5/10