Flash Review: Love Cells

December 18, 2014 by kfangurl 10 Comments

At between 6 to 9 minutes per episode and an extended 12-minute finale episode (that’s right, 12 whole minutes!), this little web drama seemed like the perfect little vehicle to kick off the Flash Reviews section on the blog (Thanks again for voting, everyone!).

The only reason this little web drama was even on my radar is because the production kept reminding us in its promotional teasers and write-ups that Jang Hyuk (Eee!) and Kim Woo Bin (Woob~! Eeeee!!) would be “starring.”

I wasn’t even that interested in the story’s premise, to be honest. But the show’s light fluffy tone and its promise of precious k-love screentime was enough to keep me going.

That’s right. I would pretty much watch anything if Woob’s in it.

In a nutshell, this little web drama was pretty much an upside-downside-well-alright-let’s-call-it-even sort of watching experience for me.

My internal dialogue with myself about this web drama would go something like this:

Upside: Woob’s in this! Eee!!

Downside: It’s really mostly just teaser, and we get very, very little real screentime with Woob.

Except for 25 seconds in the first episode and one single proper (yet cheesy and clunky) scene in the finale, I had to be content with glimpses of Woob’s hand. That’s right. I was reduced to looking out for body parts. Talk about over-promising and under-delivering.

Upside: Jang Hyuk’s in this too! As a Jeet Kune Do master, no less! Woot!

Downside: He never gets to say a word. Seriously.

Upside: Still, his cameo adds up to a decent amount of screentime, and he’s even got a tiny little arc of his own. Plus, Jang Hyuk shows off his ability to emote without the need for actual words to leave his lips. Not bad.

Downside: The story is paper-thin and the short overall length doesn’t give a lot of room for proper character development. Another downside: most of the acting falls on the more earnest side of skillful.

Upside: Kim Yoo Jung is likable and quite adorable as Navi, a love cell in human form who desperately wants her human, Dae Choong, to fall in love so that she won’t die.

[SPOILER ALERT]

Downside: I just don’t get the loveline that the show gives her and Dae Choong (a clueless but rather adorkable Park Sun Ho).

I don’t even really consider this a spoiler since any drama fan would be able to see the loveline from a mile away. It’s just, how does that even work? So essentially, Dae Choong falls in love with a part of himself? I don’t even think this is meta for learning to love yourself either.

On top of that, Navi eventually dies, but time-skip later, Dae Choong meets his landlady’s daughter, who – Conveniently and Significantly! – looks just like Navi.

To be honest, that didn’t work as a true happy ending in my books, since he just happened to find her doppelgänger. But ok, I get that this show isn’t really supposed to make a lot of sense.

[END SPOILER]

Upside: It’s not a lot of commitment at about 6-7 minutes per episode on average, so even when the show didn’t make a whole lotta sense, I didn’t feel like I wasted a lot of time.

Plus, if you manage to switch off the ol’ brain, there’s enough cute ‘n fluff, and enough of a very campy Park Joon Hyung making regular cameo appearances as the hilariously hammy big guy advertising Navi’s magical love products, to make it feel like Show’s giving enough bang for your entertainment buck.