Kim Jung Young

Review: My Perfect Stranger

| kfangurl

THE SHORT VERDICT:

A surprisingly engaging, heartfelt time travel mystery that stays nicely consistent, from start to finish.

Yes, Show’s production values lean basic, and yes, the 80’s characters can sometimes be a bit too loud and theatrical, but once you adjust your viewing lens and expectations around these, this turns into a pretty strong watch.

Show more than makes up for its shortcomings with how much heart it has, and, importantly, manages to finish strong, instead of petering out at the end, as some time travel stories have been known to do.

Would recommend.

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Dropped: River Where The Moon Rises

| kfangurl

So full disclosure, I didn’t hard drop this show. I just.. wandered off from it, after 4 episodes, and never managed to go back to it.

In the interest of closure, I’m writing a Dropped post, and will describe my experience with the show in this post, just to give you an idea of my impressions of its various working parts. I suppose you could think of this as a First Impressions sort of post; that works too.

If you have more experience with this show than I do (ie, you watched the whole thing, or at least, more than the 4 episodes that I watched), please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, to help everyone else decide if it’s a show worth checking out?

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Review: Racket Boys

| kfangurl

THE SHORT VERDICT:

Essentially, Show is a diamond in the rough; emphasis on diamond, and emphasis on rough, heh.

Show is rough around the edges, with one of those rough edges being a pretty scattered sort of approach to storytelling, but the warmth and community feels that it delivers are so good, and so strong, that you end up being more than willing to look past Show’s shortcomings.

The young cast really shines in this, and the adult characters are mostly there as sources of guidance and support, and that’s one of the things that I enjoy most about this show.

Our young crew is earnest and competent, and all-around believable, not only as their individual characters, but as the team that they form.

The stand-out for me, though, is Tang Joon Sang, whose character kinda functions as our protagonist. He really brings a lot of dimension to the role.

Wholesome and quite excellent, in spite of its flaws.

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Review: Do You Like Brahms?

| kfangurl

THE SHORT VERDICT:

A restrained, loving study of music, characters, and their relationships, Do You Like Brahms? boasts characters that are carefully and tenderly drawn, relationships that feel patiently and organically grown, and a narrative filled with music-related touches that demonstrate an understanding of and empathy for musicians.

Our cast is very solid all-around, with each actor bringing their character to life in a way that feels real and believable.

I loved extra, our sweet, bashful, very well-matched OTP, played by Kim Min Jae and Park Eun Bin.

Not only is their romance handled thoughtfully, their individual journeys as musicians and as people, are teased out carefully too.

A very enjoyable ride, particularly if you identify as an introvert &/or a musician.

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