Disclaimer: this is a review, and as such it contains spoilers of the whole series. Please proceed to read at your own risk if you still plan on watching this show or if you haven’t finished it yet. You have been warned.

Perfect and Casual
(完美先生和差不多小姐 / Wánměi Xiānshēng Hé Chā Bù Duō Xiǎojiě / Mr. Perfect and Ms. Almost)
MyDramaList rating: 7.0/10

Hello there! Just thought I’d drop off one more review before the end of the month since I’ve been putting off finishing this drama in-between lots of other activities. I’m still waiting for my final thesis grade and I’m preparing to translate a novel, and I need to apply for a couple of grants to start, so my mind has been a bit distracted. But I didn’t want to take too long to finish this since I got really into it from the start and I realized that taking too much time in-between kind of pulled me out of that. In any case, here we are! The eleventh show my Spin the Wheel app picked out for me was this Chinese romantic comedy! I’ll say from the bat that I really liked it. I’m usually a bit sceptical about Chinese romcoms since they tend to be more conservative and stereotypical, but this one made me really excited while watching it, so that was great. Without any further ado, let’s get started!

Perfect and Casual is a Mango TV Chinese drama series with 24 episodes of about 45 minutes each. It tells the love story of Yun Shu (played by Xu Ruo Han) and Zhang Si Nian (played by Wei Zhe Ming).
Yun Shu is a college student majoring in Statistics who’s about to defend her thesis and graduate. Besides her studies, her big passion is drawing comics. She has an older sister named Yun Lan (played by Ma Yu Ting) who is a lawyer and who is currently working abroad. In her absence, Yun Shu is supposed to secure a place for the two of them to live together when Yun Lan comes back. Luckily, they have a cousin working in real estate who is able to secure an amazing deal for a house; an offer that’s almost too good to be true. Yun Shu is asked to sign the contract and transfer the entire amount of money on the morning of her thesis defense, which causes her to be late for the latter and fail her defense by default. Turns out luck really isn’t on her side at all, because not only does her new job not allow her to start working without her thesis approval, she also finds out that the house she bought already belongs to someone else – her cousin scammed her out of 2 million yuan and disappeared without a trace.
To make matters even more awkward, the house she was supposed to start living in belongs to none other than the professor who failed her thesis defense, Zhang Si Nian. Si Nian is Yun Shu’s teacher in Statistics, a highly skilled mathematician whose goal it is to win the Fields mathematician prize before he turns 35. Not only is he a genius in maths and statistics, his whole personality seems to be built on formulas and scientific explanations. He calculates every single detail of his life – you could say that if mathematics would have a human form, it would look like him. He does everything with his head and not his heart, and this also influences his inability to truly empathize with people. The only person Si Nian truly cares about with his heart is his grandfather, Zhang Mao Zhi (Cui Ke Fa), who is in treatment at the hospital for his stage 4 cancer (or a cancerous disease at any rate).
Despite the fact that Si Nian initially doesn’t even want to help Yun Shu out in her situation, he quickly realizes that without his help, she’ll keep trusting the wrong people. In contrast to him, Yun Shu is empathetic to a fault; she doesn’t even want to report her cousin to the police because he’s family. On first glance one could say that this makes her incredibly naive and clueless about the world, but it all really comes back to her genuine trust in the goodness of people. On the other hand, Si Nian always weighs the risks and dangers of putting his trust in people and therefore rarely relies on others.
After some initial turbulence, these two polar opposites somehow manage to find a common goal: Si Nian is only able to persuade his grandfather to undergo surgery if he introduces him to a girlfriend, and Yun Shu needs to prove her independence and responsibility to her sister and find a solid place to stay to get her issues in order. They strike up an agreement for sharing the house, which then evolves into a marital contract when grandfather’s deteriorating health becomes a bigger issue.

Apart from the main couple, the story also features side stories about Yun Shu’s older sister Yun Lan and her romance with popular actor Lu Yu (Dai Yun Fan) and the on-and-off relationship between Yun Shu’s two closest friends Gao Zhi Yi (Zhao Luo Ran) and Lin Nuo (Sheng Gang Shuai).

After the first few episodes, this series already got me excited because it reminded me a lot of Because This is My First Life. The premise was also reminiscent of shows like Good Morning Call and Put Your Head on My Shoulder in which the main leads get scammed into sharing a house or just end up living with someone else. In any case, this story had several of my favorite ingredients: a slowburn romance and a detached guy versus attached girl trope. I always love it when the naive bubbly girl manages to tear down the walls of the meticulous cold guy, and the main couple of this series did a great job at pacing out that slowburn. Honestly, it’s been a while since a romcom (especially a Chinese one) got me all giggling and kicking my feet during romantic scenes. The swoon really got to me and I lived for it.

I’d like to go through the main characters one by one, starting by the main couple. Overall I thought the characters in this show were all very well-written and acted out. They were all connected but still living their separate lives with their own issues and troubles. It’s always nice to see side characters exist as their own persons when they aren’t hanging out with the main leads.
I really liked Yun Shu. While she appeared to be very clumzy and naive in the beginning, falling for scam after scam, she really grew and matured throughout the show and I applauded her choices more than once. When she realized her feelings for Si Nian, or “Mr. Zhang” as she consistently kept calling him (even after they get married), I found it so relatable to see her go back and forth between “he probably doesn’t feel the same” and “but could he possibly feel the same?” and the scene where he basically confronted her with the fact that he just saw her as contractual party B was very painful. However, I really loved how she responded to it. I kind of relate to how she kept her feelings to herself rather than confront him with it, because that’s usually how I deal with one-sided crushes as well. Rather than becoming all weepy and pathetic she actually pulled herself together after just one night and immediately moved out to create a physical and psychological distance from him. I really respected her decision to physically remove herself from the house in order to give herself the distance and space needed to get over him without neglecting the agreed upon activities such as visiting grandfather together. She really went, “okay, if it’s really just a contractual partnership you want, then don’t expect me to keep clinging onto you either”. And of course, this turned out to be the trigger Si Nian’s feelings for her, because as soon as she was gone he started thinking and worrying about her more. I just loved how she dealt with her feelings and immediately moved out and found herself a new job, proving to him how capable she was on her own. As soon as she let go of her attachment to him, she immediately started attracting new people like Lawyer Meng as well. I guess it just goes to show that living your own life in your own way will, in one way or another, always bring the right people on your path. In the end, it was only a matter of time before Si Nian realized that what he felt for her was actual love, and then she still met him in the middle. When they were finally together and her temp job at the law firm ended, she was even able to switch to her true passion, drawing comics. She really came a long way into finally finding what she really wanted to do, and that’s another thing I related to. The scene where her friends and family threw her a surprise party for getting into the comic art studio and she just looked around at everyone with tears in her eyes, barely believing how blessed she was with so much love and support around her, was really touching.
I also loved that, while the appearance of another woman who was pining for Si Nian’s may have caused some anxiety for Yun Shu, she never became scared that Si Nian might leave her. It happens so often that, even in fully established relationships and marriages, one of the leads remains suspicious of the other’s interactions with other (wo)men, but I’m so glad when she stood up to Chu Chu like, “I respect you and all, but Si Nian and I are married and in love and I don’t need to hear from you that we aren’t a good fit, have a nice day”. I loved how she stood up for herself there, that was one moment where I realized how much she’d grown and how much confidence she’d built up naturally throughout the story. Another scene that showed how much she’d matured was when the shady cousin suddenly reappeared and had the audacity to pull Yun Shu into his other debts as well. Like, seriously, you scam your own niece out of 2 million yuan and then you just expect her to pay another 100,000 yuan for you? What the heck was wrong with this guy? I was so glad that Yun Shu saw this BS for what it was and was ready to just walk out on him there and then. When she decided to stay, it was only because he was family – she never paid a single coin for him and this was all the more powerful because I just know she would’ve helped him out if she had still been the same person as when he scammed her in the first place. Honestly I was kind of worried that she might fold but I’m so happy she didn’t, because this again proved how much she’d grown and how much better she’d become at standing up for herself. After all, it didn’t make any sense for her to pay for what he got himself into.
One final thing that I applauded was that, even though she did end up staying with Si Nian in the end, she did tell him honestly that she wanted to go to Japan to work at her favorite cartoonist’s studio. I was afraid that she was just going to drop it because she felt bad for leaving him behind and that she’d keep saying it was all right even though she really wanted to go. I preferred this way, that she changed her mind on her own and decided not to go instead of being forced to give up her dream because of someone else’s priorities. It was really sweet how supportive Si Nian was of her going to Japan, and I felt like the fact that he had wanted her to go strengthened Yun Shu’s resolve to stay even more.
All in all I think that Yun Shu was a very well-written character and she also evolved really naturally throughout the story. I found myself rooting for her all the way, because she was so likable and good. Although she never lost her empathy and trust in people, she did become better at standing up to people and setting boundaries, and that was really satisfying to watch.

I love how we gradually got to see Si Nian lowering his walls, because what came out of that was the purest cinnamonroll ever. I am so weak for characters like him, lol. It was just so endearing to see how he became aware of the fact that his feelings and actions towards Yun Shu weren’t just related to the contract but out of genuine concern for her wellbeing. I loved the scenes in which he caught himself staring at her and becoming aware of his heightened heart rate. He tried to keep dismissing it with his mathematician’s mindset, but he really couldn’t help himself in the end. Truthfully, the scenes where he started keeping an eye on her while she was working at the supermarket and started getting suspicious of her relationship with Lawyer Meng were quite typical, but I’m glad he finally came eye to eye with his true feelings when he did. It was balanced out just long enough for it not to become tedious, in my opinion. Honestly, you can’t tell me he fell for her only after confirming his heart rate through those scientific results – I don’t even remember what that was about to be honest – because he started acting like a jealous boyfriend way before that. He was literally and physically putting himself between Yun Shu and Lawyer Meng time and time again, like who was he trying to kid? But what I loved about him the most was that he consistently respected Yun Shu in everything she did. He respected her choices and decisions and even though he always offered to help her out, he also always accepted her when she asked for the time and space to deal with things by herself. I don’t remember a single time when he forced himself or his mindset on her. She was like a beam of sunlight to him, she broke him out of his rusty walls and he loved her so much for it. The way he looked at her, so full of fondness, just warmed my heart. His love went way further than just wanting to be intimate – he literally became her number one supporter throughout everything she strived to accomplish: the cartoons, going to Japan, acing her thesis defense the second time round. It was a really nice full circle moment when the show ended with Yun Shu’s second attempt to defend her thesis and he just grabbed her hand and ran with her to the building so she wouldn’t be late this time 🥹. That was really sweet. Si Nian was really sweet. Even in their intimacy and romance, he kept reflecting on his own shortcomings when it came to feel and express feeling. I loved how he was like, “I’m very inexperienced in romance, so let me do more research first”. He really wanted to do well for Yun Shu and that in itself was the most romantic thing ever.
I really loved seeing Si Nian’s character grow from a complete robot to a very warm human being. We already know from the start that he has it in him to care for people when looking at his relationship with his grandfather, but it was nice to see him allow himself some TLC as well.

I guess it’s no surprise that the romance between Yun Shu and Si Nian was one of my favorite things about this show. As I mentioned earlier, they got me old school giggling like a teenager with their slowburn and I just loved their subtle intimacy. The random and sneaky kisses were ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥 I love it when a couple just becomes so mutually confident in what they have that they don’t even look around to notice other people looking their way. They got so comfortable with each other in their daily life that I didn’t even mind that it stayed at a couple of kisses. Admittedly, I did feel like they were building up to a bit more passion because they kept getting interrupted at some point, and so I was a little disappointed when they just skipped over the bed scene like that, but even without that kind of passion their chemistry was very addictive to watch. Yun Shu had me every single time she called Si Nian by his first name too, because she usually referred to him as “Mr. Zhang”. I believe Si Nian kissed her for the first time when she casually called him by his name on the phone, and that gave me all sorts of butterflies. Every single scene of them together had me like 😊🤭. It’s been a while since I enjoyed watching a main couple this much.

Moving on to Yun Shu’s accomplished lawyer sister, Yun Lan. Yun Lan is a real business lady and puts work before everything. She’s quite rigid with Yun Shu as well, although this does stem from a certain protectiveness towards her. If we thought Yun Shu and Si Nian were opposites, it seems like the writers thought it would be funny to give Yun Lan a complete polar opposite of her own. When Yun Shu and Si Nian are planning their (at the time still purely contractual) wedding, Yun Lan is summoned as Yun Shu’s Best Lady, while Si Nian invites his childhood friend Lu Yu, who is now a famous and popular actor, as his Best Man. What the soon-to-be-wedded couple doesn’t know is that Yun Lan and Lu Yu have actually met before. More than that, they’ve had a one night stand together – after which Yun Lan disappeared without even leaving a note. Despite her attempts to avoid him they inevitably meet again at the wedding and Lu Yu immediately continues to pursue her.
As practical and business-minded as Yun Lan was, I didn’t find it hard to understand why being with Lu Yu made her feel avoidant, initially. It was clear that she was trying to suppress how much she really liked him, but the scenes in which they couldn’t even walk the street without him getting surrounded by picture-demanding fans definitely struck a chord. I know for a fact that I would never be able to date a celebrity and deal with the risk of constantly being a target of gossip and potential scandal. Since Yun Lan usually had no trouble speaking her mind, I guess the fact that she kept quiet and preferred to silently remove herself from the situation had to do with the fact that it made her insecure, and she didn’t want to give in to that? That’s what it seemed like to me, anyway. And honestly, even though I feel like Yun Lan could’ve expressed that in words more clearly to Lu Yu, I thought he could’ve been a bit more considerate in that aspect as well. I get that it was normal for him, but it wasn’t right of him to just expect her to be okay with that without even addressing it. I found it hard to believe that, even after she did tell him that she didn’t feel comfortable in his fan-filled world, he would still propose to her in public like that at the end, surrounded by people filming it without her consent, even yelling out loud that he’d heard she was pregnant. I thought that was quite insensitive of him, to be honest. I totally understood why she made something up in order to flee the scene and go somewhere more private.
In any case, I felt like, even though her character was first introduced as a kind of catalyst to Yun Shu’s – since the housing problem needed to be fixed before she came back – she really got her own storyline apart from Yun Shu and the two only met up a couple of times throughout the story. Despite her tsundere personality I like to believe that Yun Lan was a very caring older sister to Yun Shu who kept worrying about her while simultaneously letting her figure stuff out by herself.
I thought her dynamic with Lu Yu was quite interesting as well. At times she was clearly the more dominant person, putting him in his place and not giving him what he wanted. But then there were also times when she got all shy and coy to hide her embarrassment from him while he was beside himself with joy in her presence. Their relationship definitely lacked the amount of build-up and development of Yun Shu’s and Si Nian’s, and I do admit that I was less invested in their love story, but it was still cute enough.

Lu Yu was basically just a puppy, lol. Apart from being a good actor he didn’t hesitate to chase after what he wanted and he never gave up on Yun Lan. He may have been a bit too spontaneous and impulsive at times, but it always came from a good place. One thing that I would’ve liked to see more of was a bit of backstory regarding his friendship with Si Nian, though. I just couldn’t really imagine the two of them befriending each other. Maybe I forgot about it, but I only remember the grandfather talking about their compatibility in the final episode, and that wasn’t enough for me to fathom their friendship, lol. Like, it was just very random that Si Nian, who always kept to himself, happened to be friends with one of the most well-known people in the country 😂. The two of them made a very odd pair, haha.
Apart from what I previously talked about, how I thought Lu Yu could be a bit oblivious to how his status would influence his dating life, I can’t deny that he was a good person. He really loved Yun Lan and he never wanted to hurt her. I found it a bit out of character for him to just break up with her over that lawsuit without hearing her side of the story first, but it was very typical of him to run back to her immediately after hearing how she basically saved him through that agreement. Although I tend to appreciate uncomplicated characters like him, I guess I still would’ve liked a bit more depth when it came to him, or at least a little bit more reflection when it came to how his fame impacted Yun Lan in their relationship.

Moving on to the next relationship depicted in the series: Zhi Yi and Lin Nuo. Zhi Yi, nicknamed “Yi Yi”, and Lin Nuo are Yun Shu’s closest friends. They always met on campus but they were all in different departments so I guess they must have known each other from earlier on. It’s revealed from the get-go that Yi Yi and Lin Nuo are exes; they used to date and broke up, but Lin Nuo still seems to have some lingering feelings towards Yi Yi. The two of them bicker a lot and there is undeniably some tension between the two of them, but Yi Yi is actively dating one guy after the next. Yun Shu often ends up in the middle of their bickering, but she’s always encouraging them to get along.
The thing that I found most interesting about the relationship between Yi Yi and Lin Nuo was that it was the most realistic (and problematic) in the show. Apart from the two previously discussed surprising but fateful matches, it was nice to also see a relationship that didn’t work out so great.
I’d like to start with Yi Yi, since I think she was the biggest factor in where things went wrong. So Yi Yi is a very bubbly “girly” girl, she cares about her appearance and knows how to wrap guys around her finger. When everything is going well and she’s in a good mood, she’s the nicest and most supportive friend ever. I liked her friendship with Yun Shu, they clicked very naturally despite being so different. Still, Yi Yi also has a different side to her: she’s stubborn and gets suspicious quite easy. Once she suspects something, she tends to jump to conclusions and end things before even hearing the other person out. Throughout the story, there are two instances of this happening, which both lead to the break-up of a relationship that could’ve been perfectly normal. First of all, Gu Xiao. There was nothing wrong with him. He may have seemed like a bit of a player – mostly through Lin Nuo’s perspective – but there was actually nothing wrong with him. He was serious about Yi Yi and never meant to hurt her.
His situation where he was pretending to still be with his ex only to reassure his ex’s mom who was in the hospital reminded me of a movie I watched recently, called Sliding Doors. Of course he should’ve just told Yi Yi about it in advance or at least take her opinion about it into consideration (knowing Yi Yi, she would’ve probably objected to him getting involved in it in the first place). Of course he should’ve immediately cleared things up when his ex blatantly introduced herself to Yi Yi as his girlfriend. But Yi Yi also didn’t give him the chance to talk. If she’d heard him out and understood that he was just putting up an act for his ex’s mom, things might have been different. Or not, because she did say at some point that she wanted to believe him. In any case, I really didn’t like how she just jumped on Lin Nuo as a rebound after that, even when Gu Xiao was still trying to apologize and explain it to her. What’s worse, I honestly felt like she was just trying to distract herself from Gu Xiao. When they played that “answer without thinking” game she literally said Gu Xiao’s name and not Lin Nuo’s. Lin Nuo had all the reason in the world to be upset about that because he really liked her and she couldn’t even pretend to reciprocate it. When they got back together she was the one who got the ick and became uncomfortable, but instead of figuring out her own feelings and trying to put into words what she felt for Lin Nuo, she just sabotaged their relationship by putting it all on Lin Nuo. She really did him dirty, breaking up with him because she walked on him getting his freaking finger bandaged by a female colleague. It felt like she was just looking for a way out of the relationship and created a reason to break up with him and blame him for it. That was really nasty of her.
The scene where she crashed at Yun Shu’s and Si Nian’s place reminded me of a very similar situation in Put Your Head on My Shoulder, where the FL’s best friend also crashed at the main couple’s place after a break-up and kept asking the FL to stay with her even though the ML and FL kind of wanted to get it on, lol. I found that scene a bit slapsticky to be honest, with Yun Shu trying to sneak out without Yi Yi noticing. She could’ve just told her she had to go to the bathroom – I don’t think Yi Yi would’ve come after her and dragged her away from Si Nian. Anyways, Yi Yi became all gloomy and dramatic after that.
I was actually really proud of Lin Nuo for standing up to her when she came crawling back to him at the end. She came back all weepy like, “I know I made a mistake, I’m so sorry” and he was like, “Girl, you took me for granted and I’m not just getting back together with you like this.” That was really strong of him, especially since he’d been the one who was all over her in the beginning.
Although I did like Yi Yi as Yun Shu’s supportive friend, I really didn’t like how she treated Lin Nuo and dealt with her relationships. Lin Nuo, on the other hand, kind of grew on me throughout the story. He was right to move away from her, because this instead made Yi Yi more determined to right her wrongs with him. It’s kind of suggested that they make up at the end, when Yi Yi told him she’d chase him all the way to Africa.
By the way, I found it kind of typical that the brochure Yi Yi looked at just said “Africa” and not any specific country in Africa. Like, they are aware that Africa is a continent, not a country, right? I can understand that Lin Nuo, who also lied about going with his female colleague, wouldn’t even give her the specifics of where exactly in Africa he was going, but that she just went “I’ll find you in Africa” without even thinking about where to go was kind of typical to me.
In any case, I liked the dynamic of Yun Shu, Yi Yi and Lin Nuo as friends, and it would’ve been cute if Yi Yi and Lin Nuo had gotten back together, but not like that. Not as a rebound or a result of taking someone for granted. Yi Yi literally gave Lin Nuo new (false) hope only to crush it again. She really should’ve figured out her own feelings better before jumping into a new relationship with him, because it was very clearly a way to distract her mind from Gu Xiao. Lin Nuo deserved better and I’m glad he cut himself free from Yi Yi at the end. Their text messages at the end seemed to suggest that Yi Yi was going to win him back and they’d probably end up together again, but I’m kind of happy it cut off at a point where Lin Nuo was still distancing himself from her. While it was about time for her to show some effort and initiative, I honestly wouldn’t really care either way if they got back together or not.

And then there are two characters that I wanted to discuss that are basically the “love rivals” in the story, even though neither of them ever really stood a chance. Although they both turned out to be okay people, I still had a problem with the way both of them started meddling with the relationship between Yun Shu and Si Nian.
First of all, Lawyer Meng Ren (played by Qi Han). He basically appears out of nowhere when Yun Shu is working at a supermarket after moving away from Si Nian and offers her a job at his law firm. Although he was initially asked to do this by Si Nian, Meng Ren starts developing feelings for Yun Shu himself in the process. His advances are strengthened by his knowledge of their contractual marriage, and he just assumes that means they don’t actually have feelings for each other and that he can just sweep Yun Shu off her feet. Honestly, he came on a bit too strong in my opinion. It was kind of awkward seeing him put out all these romantic gestures knowing that Yun Shu didn’t have feelings for him at all. Still, when she clearly told him she loved Si Nian, he didn’t bother her again – he accepted his defeat graciously and I appreciated that about him.
On the other hand, there was Lin Chu Chu (played by Sheng Lang Xi), Si Nian’s former studymate. They both studied mathematics abroad and bonded there, so they became quite close and got to know each other’s personalities (and peculiarities) well. Si Nian had always told her that his only goal in life was to win the Fields prize and that he would never even consider a relationship before he’d achieved that because it would only distract him. I guess that must have put her at ease since that meant she didn’t have to worry about him starting anything with anyone. When she returned to China several months later and became Si Nian’s colleague at the university, she probably expected to pick up from where they left. Imagine her surprise when she found out he didn’t just fall in love in that short time but even got married!
Honestly, I should’ve known from the start that Chu Chu was a meddler – she’s literally introduced butting into a couple’s business, telling them to just hold hands already. Yun Shu and Yi Yi witness this and are immediately filled with admiration for her grace and bravery (I would’ve told her to mind her own business, but hey, who am I). Chu Chu and Yun Shu have another friendly encounter later and start forming a nice friendship before they find out who they both are to Si Nian. Again, I thought Yun Shu was so empathic and relatable in her way of dealing with it, how she just came out and told Chu Chu that she really couldn’t have known that the guy she’d been telling her about was Si Nian. Like, her response was the most logical in that situation. From Chu Chu’s side, things got even more awkward, as she was on the losing end of course and she somehow just can’t understand how Si Nian fell for Yun Shu, who was so different from him. What bothered me the most about Chu Chu was that she just claimed ownership of Si Nian by going all “I’ve known him much longer and liked him first” and started butting into their relationship. Honestly, by the time she showed up, Yun Shu and Si Nian had already dismissed their initial contract because they’d fallen for each other for real, so who was she to suddenly burst in and go all “but you’re on a contract, you’re not actually suitable for each other” on them? Who was she to tell both of them that they weren’t right for each other? You’d think that was something they’d be able to figure out for themselves! 🤷🏻‍♀️ I already mentioned it but I really loved how Yun Shu stood up against her when she did that. Their contract and relationship had nothing to do with her and the contract was already a thing of the past by then, so why did she feel like she had the right to wave that in their faces? Admittedly, when Si Nian just started making out with Yun Shu in front of her I was like, “ouch 🥲” but I guess that was really the only way to make her back off? In any case, it was good that it didn’t sour her relationships with either of them entirely and she moved on with her life, but I really didn’t appreciate her meddling that much.

Finally, I want to talk a little bit about grandpa Zhang, because he was the sweetest man ever. I feel like he knew way more than he was given credit for, and it may not have even mattered to him how Si Nian and Yun Shu got together. He just knew they were perfect for each other from the moment he met Yun Shu. He was the first (and initially only) person who saw through their differences before he even saw them together. I think it was really nice that he immediately identified Yun Shu as a suitable partner because he must have known exactly what kind of person Si Nian needed, more than Si Nian himself would ever care to admit. I’m glad he made it through the series and didn’t pass away somewhere along the line – it was as if Si Nian and Yun Shu’s relationship literally kept him alive. He was such a nice character. I also loved how he immediately urged for Yun Shu to go fulfill her dreams in Japan even though that would mean he and Si Nian wouldn’t get to see her for a while. For someone who kept wanting the two of them to be together, it was extra heartwarming to see how much he also supported Yun Shu’s personal goals and dreams. He was the best grandpa.❤️

While the story in its entirety was well-structured and balanced out, I did feel like the ending was cut off a bit abruptly and we don’t get closure for all the characters. What happened with grandpa’s treatment? Why did Lawyer Meng suddenly just disappear from the story towards the end? What was the deal with Yi Yi and Lin Nuo’s ending? Although I appreciated a recap of the main couple’s journey at the end, there was still too much that I wanted wrapped up, so the ending felt a bit rushed to me, also with the very hasty “bed scene” and all that. It was as if the writers suddenly felt the pressure of having to add one last passionate gesture but realized they didn’t have enough time to add a full scene so they just created a silly transition to skip over it and get it over with. In any case, apart from the ending I really enjoyed the story and the romance between Yun Shu and Si Nian.

As it was quite a simple story with a simple cast of characters, I think I’ve mentioned most of my thoughts and criticisms on the characters and the story by now, so let’s look at the title next. I wanted to point this out because I sometimes like clarifying titles, especially when the original and English titles are different. I liked how they stuck with a similar title in English this time. In my experience, Chinese dramas usually have very long original titles which then get translated into English as a super short and generic title, sometimes even a single word (looking at you, Crush 👀). The English title “Perfect and Casual” has a summarizing ring to it, as if to describe a person or relationship that is both perfect and casual. However, when looking at the Chinese title, it may have been more fitting for the English to put the terms opposite one another more, like “Perfect versus Casual”, because it’s meant to indicate Si Nian (Mr. Perfect) and Yun Shu (Ms. Casual). It’s even clarified in the final episode through Si Nian’s narration of how Yun Shu’s “casual” ended up making his life “perfect”. I think it’s a very sweet and suitable title, although I would’ve liked to get a better definition of “casual”. I believe Yun Shu mentions somewhere in the beginning that “Ms. Casual” is her actual nickname, but it’s not that she’s casual as in that she doesn’t put effort into anything – maybe only in the beginning when her ambitions aren’t that high yet. I think that it relates more to how she’s less rigid than Si Nian, so I’m not actually sure if “casual” would be the correct term. It’s not as if “perfect” and “casual” are antonyms, something casual can also be perfect. I’m probably reading into it way more than necessary again, but I just like thinking about this kind of stuff, lol. I just need everything to make sense. 😂

Time for the cast comments! I didn’t know a single actor in this show, which isn’t uncommon as I don’t watch that many Chinese dramas. I thought that overall, the acting was very good and sincere. There wasn’t any kind of overacting that really stuck out to me or annoyed me as far as I can remember. Of course, the dubbing will always remain a thing (I saw that MDL even credited Lu Yu’s voice-over, I hadn’t seen that before!), but the voices suited the actors very well so I barely noticed it.

Xu Ruo Han reminded me of a whole bunch of people, from Jung So Min to Da Hyun from TWICE. I really liked her performance as Yun Shu. It doesn’t happen that often that the female lead is actually my favorite character, but this was definitely the case here. She played the role so naturally and sympathetically that, even when Yun Shu continuously kept getting into trouble, I never once got frustrated with her. I think it was really impressive how she managed to convey the character’s sentiment without making her pitiful.
I saw on MDL that this was actually her first drama! She made her debut in 2020 and has now appeared in four of five shows in the past few years. I really want to see more of her acting now. She was really natural and showed great chemistry with the male lead. She’s going on my new favorite actresses list!

Something about Wei Zhe Ming (or Miles Wei)’s facial structure reminds me of Hwan Woong from ONEUS? 😂 I have the strangest face associations, I know. Anyways, I really liked seeing him portray multiple sides of his acting in this show. He did a great job and gradually melting for his female co-star, haha. Seriously, the way he would look at her gave me butterflies! And it was super endearing to see him build Si Nian’s character and allowing him to get a bit more straightforward in showing his affection to Yun Shu. I repeat: I lived for their chemistry, haha. None of it felt uncharacteristic or awkward. Even in the scenes that were supposed to be awkward, he was just really endearing. I think I actually have some other shows with him on my list, so I’m excited to see more of his acting. I really liked his performance and the way he portrayed his character in this show.

I think Ma Yu Ting (whose stage name is apparently “Marguax”?), was typecasted very well for the role of Yun Lan. I think she did a good job at balancing Yun Lan’s confidence at the workplace with her insecurity in the romance field. Although I did think her chemistry with Lu Yu’s actor was cute and they even had a passionate kissing scene before the main couple did, the build-up in their relationship still felt a bit off to me for some reason. I felt like their relationship was pasted-on a little bit more than the main couple’s. I guess that had to do with the fact that we don’t see them develop as much as the main couple and we only get occasional glimpses of different scenes in their relationship, so it felt a bit more fragmented. In any case, I think she was a good choice for the role and she really nailed the layers behind Yun Lan’s tsundere personality.

I’m not really surprised to see that there’s a bit of an age gap between Yun Lan and Lu Yu’s actors – it’s only four years but Lu Yu definitely felt much younger to me than Yun Lan, although their ages are never really revealed throughout the show. In any case, Dai Yun Fan was very well casted as the cheeky Lu Yu. The dynamic between this secondary couple was very interesting, in a different way than the main couple, and I know that that can work very well, but for some reason it didn’t really grab my attention that much. I’ve already mentioned it before, but I would’ve liked to see a bit more depth in Lu Yu’s character, and also in the actor’s performance. Like, it was nice that he was so uncomplicated, but it took away that extra layer that the main couple did have. In fact I found him more befitting of the description “casual” than Yun Shu because of this lack of depth. Also in terms of his naivety when it came to considering how Yun Lan would feel about entering his world of stardom – that would’ve been a great aspect to his character that they could’ve explored and worked out more in order to give him some self-reflection, for example. Of course, that’s part of the writing so I can’t really blame the actor for that. His scenes with Yun Lan were cute and he did a good job portraying Lu Yu’s puppy-like excitement. Although their relationship could’ve been established a little bit better in my opinion, I still liked their dynamic.

I’ve said all I needed to say about Yi Yi, but I do want to compliment the actress Zhao Luo Ran for making her so insufferable, lol. You can say whatever you want, but she went all in with the dramatics and the waterworks without going over the top – in fact, she really shaped Yi Yi as someone that we’ve probably all met before. What I liked about her at least was that there were so many different sides to her. The actress definitely got to show off her acting skills and emotional range. She was a very diverse and refreshing character in a way, even though she definitely didn’t know how to deal with her feelings, lol. As aggravating as they can be, we need characters like her in dramas, especially because despite everything, she was still a very good friend to Yun Shu. I respect that she put so much into her performance, it really paid of. A character can only be genuinely annoying when the actor does a good job, and she definitely did that.

I don’t know why, but Sheng Gang Shuai had something of Nam Joo Hyuk about him that I couldn’t quite shake off. From the start I was worried that he would only be the friend/sad ex who kept trying to win Yi Yi back to no avail, so I’m glad at least he got a bit more character development. The way he rejected Yi Yi when she came crawling back to him made me respect his character a lot. It takes a lot to say no to someone that used to have you wrapped around their finger (been there), so it was very satisfying to see him stand his ground at the end. He was a very sympathetic character and his heart was in the right place. I liked that they didn’t make him a pushover when it came to Yi Yi. Lin Nuo really deserved to treated better. In any case, I thought the actor portrayed Lin Nuo in a very bright and sincere way.

With regards to the “love rivals”, I definitely liked Lawyer Meng better than Chu Chu. I think Qi Han (or Hank Qi) did a good job portraying Meng Ren’s efforts while already knowing he didn’t stand a chance. Finally a guy whose pride didn’t obstruct him from moving on! I love seeing a male character that accepts his defeat with honor rather than spite. His sincere care for Yun Shu was also reflected in how he still helped her out with her cousin’s case after she’d rejected him. The man rented out a restaurant and sang and played the piano for a woman who was in a hurry to go home to her husband, and still he managed not to lose face. When Yun Shu (again, very satisfyingly) told him she was still in love with Si Nian, he very graciously stepped away. Again, I’m not entirely sure how Lawyer Meng and Si Nian were acquainted because it also seemed like they were old friends or at least knew each other from before (maybe this was mentioned and I forgot about it, in that case never mind). As with Lu Yu, I would’ve liked a bit more backstory on him and I also found it strange that he just disappeared towards the end. But the actor did a good job and managed to portray Lawyer Meng very sympathetically, despite being a love rival.

Sheng Lang Xi (or Joy Sheng) also looked really familiar to me, but I haven’t seen anything with her. She was introduced as a very gracious and kind character – although I would probably not have appreciated her telling me and my crush to just “hold hands already” – but she really lost some credit points when she started acting all “but but but Si Nian was supposed to be mine”. The fact that she went to nag about it to Lawyer Meng and even he was like “let it go, girl” was pretty funny. Anyways, as occasionally annoying as she was, the actress still portrayed her quite gracefully and I couldn’t find it in me to dislike her completely. I think it’s very difficult to portray a character with problematic tendencies and still make them come across as sympathetic, so she definitely did a good job at that.

I just discovered that Cui Ke Fa also played the ML’s grandfather in Master Devil Do Not Kiss Me! The guy who kept forcing him and the FL to get married. 🥲 As persistent as he was in that, I really loved his portrayal of grandpa Zhang. I really loved his and Si Nian’s relationship. I have to admit I don’t really remember the whole backstory of what happened to Si Nian’s parents, but his grandpa took such good care of him and always made sure to protect him from hurt and harm. I remember him hugging young Si Nian in that flashback, and how he read him that story and made him believe his mom had become a mermaid to ease the pain of losing her – that was all so heartwrenching and it really clicked with how much he meant to Si Nian. I love how Si Nian called him “Academic Zhang” and how they talked about scientific explanations together. I believe grandpa Zhang knew his grandson better than he knew himself, and that was topped off by his judgement of Yun Shu as the ideal partner for him. He was such a precious character, and the actor portrayed him with such sincerity – I couldn’t help but love him.

All in all, I really enjoyed this. I loved the romantic development between the main couple the most, but I also thought the side stories and supporting characters were all very well-written. They all played a part in the main couple’s story as much as in their own, and I really liked that. There were some typical things here and there, some characters had more depth than other, some relationships were better established than others and I still feel like the ending was cut short a bit, but in general I had a good time watching this. I always find it hard to find Chinese romcoms that are just right in balancing the romantic development and don’t get too stereotypical, so this was a very nice surprise and I agree with the relatively high rating on MDL as well.

Despite the simplicity of this story, I took two days to write this review. I just couldn’t get into the right mindset for some reason, and it was nice to allow myself the extra time. I might do that more often in the future as I get busy with my translating project and other activities I have planned in the running towards my new career goals. In any case, thanks for reading the whole thing again. I hope to come across nice unexpected shows like this more often. I’m very curious what my next watch will be, so stay tuned with me!

Bye-bee! x

Disclaimer: this is a review, and as such it contains spoilers of the whole series. Please proceed to read at your own risk if you still plan on watching this show or if you haven’t finished it yet. You have been warned.

Disclaimer: this is a review, and as such it contains spoilers of the whole series. Please proceed to read at your own risk if you still plan on watching this show or if you haven’t finished it yet. You have been warned.

Emperor or Boss
(陛下在左, 老板在右 / Bìxià Zài Zuǒ, Lǎobǎn Zài Yòu / His Majesty On the Left, My Boss On the Right)
MyDramaList rating: 6.0/10

Hi everyone! Maybe it’s a bit sooner than expected, but I’m sharing another review! I passed my final assignments, which means I basically passed my MA, so what better celebration is there to review another show! The ninth show my Spin-the-Wheel app picked out for me was another short one, so I was able to finish it quite quickly. I liked that it was another Chinese one – my app is really good at switching things up and I’m here for it. As with my previous watch, I didn’t exactly remember when I put this show on my list or why, but I’m always in for a cute romance story so I went in with an open mind. In hindsight I think it was quite silly and cute, even though it lacked depth and I couldn’t really wrap my head around some things. In any case, I’m excited to share my views on it, so let’s go!

Emperor or Boss is a Chinese Mango TV drama series, and there are three different ways to watch it: in 18 episodes of about 15 minutes, in 6 episodes of about 35 minutes, or in 3 episodes of about an hour. I watched it in the format of 6 episodes on BiliBili. The story is about a young woman named Fu Bao (played by Dawn Chen/Chen Fang Tong), who works at an acting agency. On the night of her 24th birthday, she is drinking alone in the storage room at work when she finds an authentic-looking notebook. On the cover it says “The Wishing Notebook”, and that whatever you write in it will come true. In a lonely and drunken daze, Fu Bao writes that she’d like to fall in love with someone as handsome as her boss Wei Lai (played by Ye Xiao Wei). The next morning, she wakes up in her own bed – next to her boss. Shook by the fact that the wish she wrote in the notebook came true – that is, if a suggested night together equals falling in love – she looks for it again, and that’s when suddenly a strange man in traditional attire confronts her. He claims to be Li Ming Shi (played by Yang Ze), the Emperor of the Li State, and his notebook somehow ended up in this world. The only way he can go back to his own world and time is if his name is written in the notebook by the last mentioned person, which, thanks to Fu Bao, is now her boss, Wei Lai. However, Fu Bao just happens to be needing an actor to step in at an audition and Li Ming Shi seems like the perfect candidate – it also happens to be a historical drama they’re casting for. She promises that as long as Ming Shi takes the audition, she’ll ask Wei Lai to write his name in the book so he can return to his own world. However, Ming Shi actually gets hired for the acting job and now has to finish the filming of the drama. Fu Bao, acting as his agent, allows him to stay at her apartment for the time being. The two get close and eventually fall in love. Meanwhile, as a result of waking up next to her that one time, her boss Wei Lai also develops feelings for Fu Bao. The three end up in a love triangle and the series’ title basically sums up the main question: will Fu Bao choose the Emperor or her boss?

To dive right in to my first impressions, I thought that the way it started was all over the place. It starts with Li Ming Shi being chased by his brother and some assassins in a forest, introducing their fight about the notebook before it disappears in a flash of light. Then suddenly the notebook is a prop in the storage where Fu Bao finds it. It also brushes over her waking up next to her boss as a kind of comical but meaningless event. Nothing is explained about how or why the book ended up years into the future, or how Li Ming Shi himself managed to travel there. It’s never even established which dynasty he’s from or whether he realizes he’s travelled through time. They both just seem to accept that they are apparently from “different worlds”.
Although the buildup in the relationship between Fu Bao and Li Ming Shi was quite cute, there was a lot that I would’ve liked to have established more clearly between the two of them. Fu Bao initially doesn’t really seem to take Li Ming Shi seriously when he explains that he’s from way back when. Even after she agrees to let him stay in her apartment, she keeps getting surprised by the fact that he doesn’t know how to use any modern-day utensils, or that flipping a switch to put on the light is like magic to him. She just treats him like any other person: she gets him hooked on bubble tea and instant noodles and just lets him wander around the drama set. It seemed to me as if she wasn’t even that interested in learning more about where he came from or what the whole deal was with the notebook. Her first intentions with him are quite selfish: she needs an actor to fill in for a role, and she holds the promise of asking Wei Lai to write his name over his head while accommodating him until the filming is done. In the meantime, Ming Shi gets more and more used to living in this new world and shows that he’s a quick learner when it comes to using a smartphone and playing video games.
While these two grow naturally closer as they spend so much time together at home and work, Wei Lai’s feelings for Fu Bao are growing as well. He’s not sure from when it started, but it does seem like mysteriously waking up next to her did the trick. From that point on, he’s constantly trying to get alone with Fu Bao. Fu Bao, however, interprets all his advances as ways to tease her or to take advantage of her as her boss.

Honestly, this was another weird thing, because the three are so clearly set up as a love triangle, but I don’t think Wei Lai ever really stood a chance. I don’t think Fu Bao had feelings for him, even when she wrote in that notebook. The summaries I’ve found on different drama source websites are quite misleading too, to be honest. I read somewhere that she wrote that she wanted to sleep with her boss, but the subtitles that I watched clearly stated that she wanted to fall in love with someone “as handsome as him”. How this manifested itself in the two of them waking up next to each other in Fu Bao’s bed – I don’t know, but it definitely instigated Wei Lai’s feelings for her. Still, I’d only call something a love triangle when there is at least a chance for both parties, and in this case Fu Bao’s feelings for Ming Shi developed so naturally that Wei Lai was pretty much just making a fool of himself with his numerous attempts. It actually became a bit awkward to watch at some point, like he just didn’t want to see what was right in front of him, and he kept convincing himself that Fu Bao was into him. I really didn’t like that he became so desperate, even when Fu Bao and Ming Shi had literally conveyed their eternal love for each other right in front of him (which did make me feel for Wei Lai a little, to be honest). You know a love is not sincere when a guy comes to you pleading that he’ll give you more of this and that than the guy you’re dating, as if that’s what it’s about and not your own feelings. So yeah, I don’t think Wei Lai went about it the right way. It would’ve probably been different if he’d been more considerate of Fu Bao’s feelings and not just his own.

Admittedly, despite the many sappy lovey-dovey parts, I really liked it when Fu Bao and Ming Shi finally officially got together, because then suddenly it took a turn I did not expect in this show. The unicorns and rainbows suddenly turned into some serious passion and fire! It actually made it more exciting for me to see how the two immediately became so physically intimate after they professed their mutual love. They literally couldn’t keep their hands or lips off each other! I saw a funny comment on MDL that said, “Those Sailor Moon sheets saw some thangs!” 😂 If that ain’t that the truth! I honestly didn’t expect this level of intimacy in a show that started out as such an innocent romantic comedy. There have been series in which the mutual love confession led to a sappiness that became too much even for me (looking at you, Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha 👀), but I actually thought it was very cute how affectionate Ming Shi became. Like, he went through a really natural development from dignified and stoic to such a smooth-talker! The way he just slipped in flirty lines, like “You are my whole world” and “Because I met you”?? Honestly, the scene where he blow-dried her hair and lifted her onto the basin got me like 😳😳 because it was so smooth?? I actually thought the fact they became super lovey-dovey really fitted the vibe of their relationship so far, they went from friends to lovers without any prior expectations and then just let it happen. I liked that.

Of course the show isn’t complete without some stupid person trying to ruin everyone’s day. One of the other actors from the drama that Ming Shi is doing, a guy named Robert (for some reason), just can’t deal with the fact that Ming Shi is a better actor than him. He goes to despicable lengths to try and “disqualify” Ming Shi, in which he actually endangers his life: he literally loosens the rope holding Ming Shi as he’s hanging midair for an action scene, risking a very high and dangerous fall. Luckily he gets fired for it (I’d say attempted murder but okay), but he comes back in the end because of his eternal grudge against Ming Shi (a sore loser is what he is). When Ming Shi’s older brother Li Ming Qian (played by Wang Zi Ting) – the one who was chasing him in the forest for the notebook in the first episode – also suddenly finds his way to the future, Robert makes a deal with him. He can get Ming Qian to where his little brother is so he can kill him (?!) and then he strives to keep the notebook for himself.
Robert is the kind of person who can’t stand being confronted with the fact that other people are better than him. Don’t be like Robert.

This leads me to another point I would’ve liked to get more clarity on: what was the deal about the two brothers and the notebook? It was established that Ming Qian had super vengeful feelings towards his younger brother for some reason, probably because he got to be the Emperor, but then I’m like, isn’t the older sibling usually next in line? Did the older brother do something that cost him his chance at succession? I didn’t really get why he constantly fought Ming Shi and even wanted to kill him for real. Some brotherly feelings! I get that the notebook had the power of making wishes come true, but was that the main reason or was it just a plot tool? I really would’ve liked some more backstory about how the relationship between the two brothers soured, because now I just had to assume it was what it was without any context to judge the situation for myself. In terms of narrative, the fact that there was no substantial context regarding their upbringing or relationship only made it more extreme that Ming Qian actually wanted to kill his younger brother. No redemption arc for him, no insight into what he’d been through, nope, he was just depicted as a merciless villain and I found that a pity.

All in all, I guess my major criticism would be the lack of character context or backstories. We don’t learn anything about who Fu Bao is, how she came to be an agent at that agency or what kind of environment she grew up in. There is no indication of any family members or friends outside of her workplace. I personally like to have a bit more substantial evidence of how the FL has lived her life leading up to the fateful day she meets her soulmate.
The only character that we get a little bit of context from is Ming Shi, and that revelation brought so much to his character for me. At some point in the last part of the show he tells Fu Bao about how he was brought up, how he always had to live by the rules and wasn’t allowed to even put a single toe out of line. Heck, he wasn’t allowed to eat more than three bites of any kind of food. This little bit of backstory added so much to how his character transformed and how thankful he must have been for Fu Bao to take him into her world and show him what it was like to eat and do whatever he wanted. I couldn’t blame him for not wanting to go back – screw being the Emperor if you can’t even binge-eat your favorite food! It wasn’t much, and I still would’ve liked to know more about his family history, but it was something.
I also really would’ve liked more context on the work relationship between Fu Bao and Wei Lai in advance of the events of the show. How long had they known each other and worked together? Were there any feelings between them before or did that really just fall out of the sky because of the notebook? There are so many things that I wanted to know. Without any context of what their dynamic was originally like, I guess it was just extra awkward to see Wei Lai suddenly coming onto Fu Bao like that. Also, I honestly couldn’t even tell what he was like as a boss because there wasn’t a single scene of him doing his regular job in-between all the advances and interrupting sweet moments between Fu Bao and Ming Shi. Like, if you write a character as the boss of a company, at least support that with some visual evidence rather than just letting him throw around some phrases like, “I have the power to fire you! I’m your boss”. That didn’t really help in building his character, either.
Apart from that, I just wanted to know how the whole timeslip/world-skipping thing worked. Like, which one was it? How and why did the notebook end up in Fu Bao’s time/world? How did Ming Shi and Ming Qian both manage to follow it to Fu Bao’s time/world? Why was it necessary to write their names in the book to bring them back when it wasn’t necessary to enable them to travel through time/worlds? Like, ANY kind of explanation on the different times/worlds would’ve been welcome. It was the last aspect of the story to leave ambiguous, in my opinion, but they still ended up doing just that.
Generally speaking, some more explanation, backstory and context would’ve really helped to put things into perspective more, because the lack of it made a lot of things quite random and awkward.

The final criticism I have is related to the ending. It’s not the first time I’ve a Chinese drama end this way. The main couple is somehow separated and then in the end someone who looks exactly like the ML suddenly pops back up in the FL’s life. I can’t describe it very well, but I remember a similar ending in Flipped, where the ML’s actor suddenly appeared as a “new employee” who just happened to look exactly like the ML. I never know what to think of it. After creating such a dramatic separation scene and showing how Fu Bao and Ming Shi were both crying their eyes out dealing with the loneliness they each had to face when they went back to their own worlds, what was up with the ending of Ming Shi suddenly returning as a “new employee” at the company? Like, if you were just going to reunite them that easily, why make their separation so dramatic? Also, was he really Ming Shi or someone who was the spitting image of him? From the way he was smiling at Fu Bao, you’d think it was him and that he remembered her as she did him, but did no one else recognize him then? Was everyone else’s memory wiped or something? I was so confused when Fu Bao suddenly woke up at that storage room and time seemed to have reverted to her 24th birthday, with the notebook still there, but with the introduction of this “new employee”. Like, what the hell happened? I really didn’t follow the ending. It was a pity because I was sincerely touched by the scene before that, when Fu Bao saw Ming Shi everywhere in her house and she started singing that love song of hers, imagining him to sing along with her while tears were welling up in her eyes. That scene was so touching! 🥺 And then she suddenly woke up back at the start of the show and I was like, wait what?! Don’t tell me everything was a dream?! Did none of it actually happen and did the “new employee” just appear as the person Fu Bao wished for in the notebook? If anyone has a clue of what I’m not getting, please enlighten me, cause I really don’t know what to make of it.

Since it’s such a short show and I’ve already covered all the main events, I just want to give two final shoutouts to supporting characters that I liked.
First of all, Wei Lai’s assistant Du Zi Teng (played by An Qin Fu). I really liked this guy, he was so funny. I loved how he immediately knew Wei Lai was into Fu Bao, and he was just a very friendly figure to everyone. His character brought a really nice energy to the show.
I also really liked Ming Shi’s co-star from the historical drama, He Tao (played by Meng Jia Xin). I loved her friendship with Fu Bao, it was so nice that Fu Bao had a sincere ally on set who would stand up for her. I would’ve liked to see even more of their friendship, though.

You know you’ve written a very short review when you reach the cast comments and think, wow, I’m here already? 😂 That’s the thing with short dramas, they make for very short reviews that are easy and fast to write! I didn’t actually know any of the actors from this show, but I still want to give some comments because I do like getting to know new faces.

Dawn Chen/Chen Fang Tong reminded me SO much of Jang Na Ra. Her little face with the round eyes – she could’ve been her double in Baby-faced Beauty and no-one would’ve known the difference. In the beginning I was a bit confused by the way she portrayed Fu Bao, as in that it was unclear to me what her intentions were with Wei Lai and Ming Shi. But this got better throughout the series and in the end there were some moments where I was genuinely touched by her performance. She seemed so casual and worryfree from the start that I wasn’t sure if she’d get to show us any emotional depth, but they kept that as a surprise for the end, I suppose. I believe there’s at least one other show with her on my watchlist so I’ll be glad to see her in some other series as well. I’m really curious to see her as a different type of character. All in all I thought she was very cute and I came to like her acting more and more throughout the story.

While I was snooping through Yang Ze’s MDL list, I ended up finding some other shows with him that sounded interesting so I put them on my list as well, haha. I think he probably portrayed the development of his character the best out of everyone, undeniably helped by his outward transformation. Although honestly I really didn’t like the short hair and I didn’t really understand why his hair got cut in the first place because he literally had the same hairstyle in the historical drama as he did in real life?? At the end of the series I couldn’t even remember him being all stoic and serious in the beginning. It was nice to get a little bit of backstory about his upbringing, I thought that was a really sweet moment between them. I think that, because his character was fleshed out the most, it automatically made him the character I liked most out of everyone. I wasn’t surprised to see that he’s done a lot of historical dramas, it suits him very well. I’m very curious to see him in some more modern-day shows as a ‘regular’ person too, though.

In my head, Wei Lai’s face was like a combination of Lee Min Ho and Baek Hyun from EXO, lol. I was a bit disappointed when the kind of love he portrayed for Fu Bao turned out to be so shallow. At some point he even got a bit dominant to the point where I was like, uhm, sir, will you kindly back off now? 🙅🏻‍♀️
(Also, Alexa, please play the Charlie Curtis-Beard remix of Brooksie’s “Dude, She’s Just Not Into You”.) Like, it’s not that he ever truly crossed her boundaries or treated her with disrespect, but he was very arrogant in assuming she’d been flirting with him and would just happily throw herself into his arms the second he’d tell her he was interested. When he waited for her with that bouquet of roses in his office I was like… 😬😬 this COULD have been very romantic, but… I’m afraid it’s not. Sorry bro. 🥲 Apart from his very typical dominant male behavior, I did like it when he came out with the pink lightsaber at the end, lol. Even though he got knocked out almost immediately, he came to Fu Bao’s rescue after officially giving up on pursuing her, so that was nice of him. I’m curious to see him portray other characters now!

You may have noticed that I didn’t mention the actor’s name when I discussed Robert, but that’s because I’m not 100% sure MDL credited the correct person. They have him credited as Liu Ze Yu, but the picture that goes with it looks nothing like the guy in the show, so I’m not sure if the picture is wrong or if he was miscredited. Unfortunately every drama source site I’ve checked has a very incomplete cast list for this show so I can’t cross-reference it. Not that I really want to include his character in my cast comments, but I was kind of curious because the actor looked familiar to me.

All in all, I think Emperor or Boss is a very light, silly and cute story that is definitely not to be taken too seriously. To quote one of the comments on MDL, “A silly goofy little drama. Don’t think. Look at the pretty people. Enjoy.” 😂 As someone who personally prefers some more depth and character building, it was a bit too light and shallow for me, but I did really like the chemistry between Fu Bao and Ming Shi and the ending did make the show a bit more interesting for me. I also liked that they used the cute opening song (“By Chance You” by H.K. Group, Lon and Shang Chen) in the show as something that Fu Bao wrote herself which included all kinds of things she associated with love, and how Ming Shi started to use the lyrics as a reference list for what they could do on dates 🥺🥺 I thought that was really sweet.

I’m going to enjoy my free summer to the max now – which of course means that I’m striving to watch a bunch more dramas! I gotta keep up with my reputation of 20+ dramas per year here! No but seriously, I’m really happy to be free from college for the last time and get to catch up on all my creative hobbies and favorite pastimes. You’ll see the next review appear sometime soon!

Until then, bye-bee! x

Disclaimer: this is a review, and as such it contains spoilers of the whole series. Please proceed to read at your own risk if you still plan on watching this show or if you haven’t finished it yet. You have been warned.

Yonder
(욘더 / Yondeo)
MyDramaList rating: 7.0/10

Hey everyone! I’m very glad to have found a moment to share another review with you. I’m currently in the last weeks of my MA and since I’ve submitted my final assignments I finally found some more time to watch series. The eighth show my Spin the Wheel app picked out also happened to be a very short one, so I was able to get through it quite quickly in-between my final assignment submissions. I must say that I didn’t remember this particular title or when I put it on my list, but it definitely must have had to do with the science-fiction theme and the fact that Han Ji Min plays the female lead, as she’s one of my favorite Korean actresses. I went through some mixed feelings while watching this, because while it looks absolutely stunning and has great acting in it, throughout the show the message wasn’t really clear to me. The ending did confirm my thoughts on it though, and for that I’m still giving it a fairly high rating. Let’s get on with it!

Yonder is a TVING K-Drama mini series with 6 episodes of about 35 minutes. It takes place in the near future – somewhere in the 2030s. The first episode starts off by stating that, “following the new law on euthanasia in 2032, a social system was put in place to face death.” We meet magazine reporter Kim Jae Hyun (played by Shin Ha Kyun) right before this new euthanasia procedure is administered to his terminally ill wife Cha Yi Hoo (played by Han Ji Min), who’s suffering from heart cancer. Moments before the procedure is set into motion, a mysterious woman (played by Lee Jung Eun) visits their house, asking for a moment alone with the patient. Jae Hyun has no idea who she is or what she’s there for, but Yi Hoo assures him that she invited her. The woman places a kind of chip behind Yi Hoo’s ear and only leaves Jae Hyun a business card, introducing herself as Seiren before departing without another word. The euthanasia proceeds as planned and Jae Hyun forgets about the strange visit as he has to bury his wife and is thrown into grief.
Not long after the burial, he receives an email – from Yi Hoo. Although he initially believes it to be scam, he quickly realizes it’s coming from the same company Seiren claimed to be from, BY N BY. When forensics contact Jae Hyun as well to ask about the chip they found on Yi Hoo after taking her body in, Jae Hyun deducts that Yi Hoo must have made some sort of contract with BY N BY – and is now apparently sending him video messages from the afterlife.
With the help of some friends, including Hacker Park (played by Bae Yoo Ram), his editor-in-chief (played by Choi Deok Moon) and forensics doctor Cho Eun (played by Joo Bo Bi), Jae Hyun is able to get in contact with the alleged creator of this company, Dr. K (played by Jung Jin Young). It turns out that Dr. K – who himself only ever appears as a hologram for some reason – created a digital world in which people can “design” their own afterlife based on the memories they choose to retain from their lives.
When Jae Hyun decides to visit BY N BY, he gets the chance to meet Yi Hoo again, but he is too disturbed and convinced that it’s all fake to appreciate the reunion. However, this changes when he meets some other people who regularly visit their deceased loved ones at BY N BY. One of them is a young girl named Peach (played by Yoon Yi Re), who lost her father and is more than happy to have found a way to keep spending time with him. She is a strong supporter of Dr. K’s ideas and invites Jae Hyun to meet some more people who are in the same situation. Just when Jae Hyun starts getting used to the idea of BY N BY, a new phenomenon presents itself in the shape of Yonder – the actual afterlife.

As an in-between note I just want to clarify the difference between BY N BY and Yonder the way I understood it – feel free to correct me if you believe I got it wrong. BY N BY basically stores holographic images of a deceased person with a fraction of their memories from when they were alive. They’re like avatars of the real people, you can’t physically touch them. Also, as a living person you can visit them by going through some sort of barrier to cross over to them and you can only stay for a specific period of time. Yonder, on the other hand, is the actual afterlife where the deceased go after passing away, where they basically live peacefully in their personally designed heaven where no time passes. In order to get to Yonder, you have to be dead, you can’t just visit there for a while as a living person, which is the main difference between Yonder and BY N BY.
In a way, BY N BY is like a “front office” to Yonder, introducing the living to the possibility of being reunited with their lost loved ones, like a preview. What makes this system most problematic is that BY N BY also offers the opportunity to make this reunion final.

Things start going awry when the avatars in BY N BY start encouraging their living relatives to come join them in Yonder. It starts with Peach – her father invites her to come live with him forever. It’s sad that Jae Hyun might have been able to talk more sense into her if he hadn’t been interrupted by the chance to interview Dr. K himself. That same night Cho Eun contacts him to say that Peach unalived herself, leaving a note to Jae Hyun saying that she’s sorry but that she has nothing left to live for without her dad. Shockingly, the other people he met from Peach’ circle quickly follow suit – apparently everyone prefers to die to be reunited with their loved ones over trying to make their own living without them. If that isn’t bad enough, the promotion of Yonder as the ideal heaven that promises a better life after death leads to a spike in euthanasia applications and suicides. Despite being so sceptical of BY N BY and Yonder and Dr. K, Jae Hyun eventually decides to join the trend and go live with Yi Hoo in Yonder.

One of the aspects I found hard to grasp in the story was why Jae Hyun suddenly changed tack. It was clear that he was initially very disturbed by the whole idea of BY N BY and Yonder, and he even called Seiren and Dr. K out on how they exploited people’s grief and memories of their loved ones from the start. When he noticed people committing suicide all over the place, he seemed genuinely alarmed – for good reason. Still, he followed them and was genuinely happy to be with Yi Hoo again for a while, as if he suddenly forgot all his (more than valid) skeptical thoughts.
The fact that I found it hard to determine his exact thought process also had to do with the fact that many things were kept very vague and abstract in the story’s narrative. Besides the amount of silent acting, I found many dialogues very cryptic – I generally couldn’t really tell what people were thinking. This in turn only added to the unpredictable nature of the characters and, consequently, the story. It really took “never let them know your next move” to a new level.

I honestly started doubting everything the moment Jae Hyun decided to go to Yonder. The entire time I was with him on how toxic it all was, how “keeping the dead alive” defeated the purpose of dealing with loss and grief and accepting death. Not only that, BY N BY and Yonder actually made money out of people’s grief, encouraging them to keep holding onto it rather than process their loss and move on. I think this was very toxic. I mean come on, to actually take advantage of someone’s grief by creating an avatar of their lost one who actively persuades them to come over to the other side? It’s even disrespectful to the dead, in a way. I don’t believe for a second that Yi Hoo or any of the other deceased people would ask their alive relatives to willingly give up their lives to join them in death.
What I also found intriguing was that apparently Yonder was so real to the deceased that they almost started forgetting they were dead themselves. When Yi Hoo got upset about the fact that their baby wasn’t growing and Jae Hyun also didn’t understand why this was happening, I was like, what? Have you seriously forgotten that you’re in the afterlife? You think new life is going to grow within death? The whole purpose of Yonder was to create a peaceful environment where every single day was the same. I thought it was weird that Jae Hyun, despite already acknowledging the repetitive elements in Yonder, didn’t even realize that no, of course his baby wasn’t going to grow. It never lived in the first place. It was only there because Yi Hoo designed it that way, regretting the fact that she never got to give birth because of her illness.

In the end I was relieved that Jae Hyun got brought back to life and confronted Seiren with the fact that what she was doing was wrong and that she needed to shut Yonder down. Even when it was revealed that Seiren was Dr. K’s wife, and that Dr. K himself was actually in Yonder with their teenage daughter, I couldn’t understand how she could’ve developed Yonder into what it became. When Jae Hyun confronts her in the final episode, it’s like she doesn’t even acknowledge what’s truly happening. She just keeps using the explanation that she built Yonder to accommodate the deceased, but she doesn’t seem to grasp that it isn’t just about people who are already dead. She is actually encouraging people to die, “exploiting people’s feelings to market a fake heaven”, to quote Hacker Park.
In my opinion, there was a different way this could’ve worked. I believe it would give many people a sense of relief to see their deceased loved ones live in a peaceful afterlife without feeling the need to join them. BY N BY could’ve just offered solace, it could’ve just existed to show people that their loved ones passed on happily and provide them with the comforting prospect that, when their time comes, they will be able to join them in that peaceful place. I honestly believe that Yonder may have been established with that initial purpose, but that it took on such extreme proportions because in reality, Seiren herself couldn’t deal with the loss of her husband and daughter.
The way this series portrayed how people kept clinging on to their lost ones, choosing to join them in death rather than cherish their shared memories and move on, was very painful to watch. It just made me feel like Peach and the others all fell victim to BY N BY’s marketing scheme, they literally gave up their lives for the ultimate form of escapism.
In the end, the thing I liked the most about the story was the final message about how memories are made valuable through the fact that you can’t return to them. You will never be able to relive them the same way, apart from replaying them in your head. BY N BY allowed people to relive the entire experience of those memories by recreating the exact environment, sounds, smells and feelings, but that in itself defeats the purpose of having a precious memory to hold onto, especially when someone passes away. What are we without memories? We deal with our losses because we have memories of our times with the ones we lost and those memories help us move on in the end.

Despite my confusion regarding the fact that Jae Hyun gave up his life to go to Yonder, I do feel like he needed the experience of spending time there to come to his final realization. The ultimate message of the story eventually comes down to what he tells Seiren before he turns his back on BY N BY for good: “Every person has a door they can’t close on their own, and you need to have someone to close that door for you.” Yi Hoo had said it to him and he’d repeated it before, but it wasn’t until he said it to Seiren at the end that it really hit me. I think this phrase depicts loss perfectly: when someone passes, they always leave something behind, and it’s up to the remaining relatives to deal with that in order to finally close the metaphorical door they left open. After actually spending time with his wife in the afterlife and realizing that even Yonder had its imperfections, Jae Hyun came to the conclusion that he really just needed to leave his wife behind him. He needed to get closure by “closing the door” his wife left open for him. So in that sense, I thought the ending was very powerful because it came back to the original perspective on how unnatural BY N BY’s proceedings were. Jae Hyun just needed to see for himself what Yonder exactly entailed before he could make the final decision.

All in all, I feel like this series would’ve fitted very well within the anthology of SF8 because of its vibe, setting and Black Mirror-esque qualities. I was particularly reminded of the BM episode “Be Right Back”, where a woman gets a clone of her deceased lover but eventually realizes that even something that looks exactly like him can never truly take his place. I was also reminded of the American series Upload, which, despite being a predominantly comical show, also features a system that “uploads” avatars of deceased people to a perfect resort-like afterlife – where their living relatives can also visit them by using a kind of VR-suit.
In hindsight, I do feel like the way Yonder depicts an ethically problematic way of dealing with grief adds to the powerful message of the story – that it’s important to cherish the memories of your deceased loved ones, but also keep them as just that: memories. The fact that they died isn’t going to change, and you’ll have to close the door at some point, but that doesn’t mean you’ll have to forget about them for good. It’s a complicated process; it’s messy and it’s raw and it makes you sway between indulging in your grief and trying to get over it. I think this series did a good job at depicting that chaos through Jae Hyun’s experiences.

To mention some more practical or technical aspects of the show that I liked: as I mentioned in the beginning, it looked absolutely stunning. From the hauntingly beautiful opening sequence to the shots throughout, it’s a cinematographical masterpiece. Additionally, the music gave me goosebumps in all the right ways. I especially loved the song played during the end credits called “DIVER” by Sondia. I thought it was reminiscent of songs like “Orbit” by Hwasa from The King: Eternal Monarch and “Adrenaline” by Solar from Vincenzo (which I didn’t even watch but I love me a good MAMAMOO K-Drama OST). In general, the series was of amazing cinematographic and musical quality, and the acting was very convincing as well.

I would say the only thing that occasionally bothered me a little was the consistently slow pace of the story and the way in which the characters interacted with each other. I would’ve liked maybe a bit more variety in pace and dynamic between both events and people. The ambiguity of certain dialogues also made it hard to follow things sometimes. For example, at some point it is suggested that Jae Hyun isn’t completely honest with his own feelings, and we also see a flashback in which Yi Hoo tells him this, suggesting that this was already the case before she died. In what way he wasn’t honest with his own feelings, I don’t know. I don’t think it had to do with the fact that he was only acting defensive towards BY N BY but actually yearned to get back in touch with his wife in the afterlife, since he kept coming back to the unethical nature of the service Yi Hoo signed up for.
Also, what exactly was that liquid that Yi Hoo got in Yonder when she snapped after realizing her baby wouldn’t grow? She was admitted to some sort of clinic because she got upset – something that isn’t supposed to happen in Yonder – and then they gave her some sort of medicine to take “when she didn’t feel happy anymore, and that it would take her somewhere dark again.” After they both drink it, Yi Hoo is seen closing her eyes while Jae Hyun is brought back to life. Does that mean that medicine took Yi Hoo to an even deeper layer of death? As in, beyond Yonder, where she really wouldn’t experience any feeling again? Where did it end for her and why did it bring Jae Hyun back to life?
It may have just been me, but I personally need these things spelled out to me otherwise I just won’t understand what’s going on. It also bothered me that no one, not Seiren or Dr. K, could give a clear factual answer to what Yonder actually was. Like, there must have been a simple definition, but they kept beating around the bush and stating cryptic statements. I couldn’t blame Jae Hyun for getting agitated because heck, how hard could it be to just call it by its name? While the lack of clear definitions regarding the concepts of BY N BY and Yonder did challenge me to make sense of them myself, I still would’ve liked some more clarity on the truth. Speaking of more clarity, I would’ve really liked to get some regarding Yi Hoo as well. Since she dies so early into the show, we basically only get to know her through Jae Hyun’s memories of her. We never get to see her thought process in deciding to sign up for BY N BY, and we never find out how she really feels about everything. It’s like she only exists in the show as a fragment of Jae Hyun’s memory where she’s depicted only as he wants to remember her – which again, is also kind of the point, I guess. In any case, I’m just trying to say that while I respect the ambiguity within the show, because it illustrates perfectly how things aren’t just black-and-white sometimes, I personally would’ve liked to get more explanation on what was happening for my own better understanding.

I’ll move on to some cast comments now, which probably won’t take up much space because the short duration of the show also facilitates a fairly small cast of characters.

While I haven’t seen any other dramas with Shin Ha Kyun, I realize that I know him from the movie Inseparable Bros, where he plays a physically incapacitated genius. I think he did a really good job in Yonder. The difference between Jae Hyun’s behavior and expressions in his flashbacks with Yi Hoo and after losing her are the perfect depiction of how losing someone important can just suck out the life and joy from someone. It was really nice to see him smile so widely and goof around with his wife in their shared memories together, all the more because it stood in such contrast with his personality at the start of the show, right before his wife is put down. After making the connection with his performance in Inseparable Bros I know he’s also a great comical actor, and I’m very curious to see more of his acting.

As I mentioned in my introduction, Han Ji Min is one of my favorite Korean actresses and I’ve loved her in everything I’ve seen her in so far. From Rooftop Prince to Hyde, Jekyll, Me to Wife I Know to The Light in Your Eyes and Our Blues, and there’s more series on my list that I’m very much looking forward to. Even though the majority of her scenes where of her character when she wasn’t alive anymore, she still managed to put so much into Yi Hoo’s character. I especially loved the flashback scenes of their worryfree time together, when they’d stroll down a Christmas market or went swimming. Those scenes were so important because they gave much needed insight into the relationship between Jae Hyun and Yi Hoo, how they interacted and experienced valuable moments together. After she got “uploaded” to BY N BY, I found it much harder to gauge her character because she seemed very different from her bubbly self when she was still alive. I have to admit I didn’t understand half of what she told Jae Hyun because it was so cryptic. She couldn’t say what she was, exactly, and even when Jae Hyun asked her what Yonder was, she only answered with “the place I’m in right now, the place where you aren’t”, like, riddle me that! Despite the fact that I would’ve liked to get a more definitive image of her character, I think Han Ji Min did an amazing job portraying a wide variety of emotions again, so this series definitely didn’t have any negative impact on her position on my faves list. I’m really excited for the next thing I’ll get to see her in!

Moving on to another favorite actress, I was really happy to see Lee Jung Eun in this. She’s featured alongside Han Ji Min multiple times, in Wife I Know, The Light in Your Eyes (where she played her mom) and in Our Blues as well. Besides that I’ve seen her in King of High School, Who Are You: School 2015, Oh My Ghostess, Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo, Tomorrow With You and Fight For My Way, and of course the movie Parasite. I’m sure I’ll see her in many more shows, old or new. She’s always such a familiar face and she always delivers a stellar performance. Despite Seiren’s disputable choices in developing Yonder, I can’t deny that she performed the role very well. Seiren may have been quite stoic, but it’s not as if there was no emotion behind it. Especially in the final confrontation scene, it was clear to see that Jae Hyun prompted her to think twice about the true repercussions of creating Yonder. Similar to Yi Hoo, I would’ve liked to see some more character building in Seiren. Like, was that even her real name? What was her life like with her husband and daughter when they were still together? We only see her in one flashback, standing at her daughter’s grave, but she never actually talks about her experiences or emotions throughout the whole process of developing the company based on her husband’s ideas, for example. She remains kind of an enigma, and while that does have its charm, I think it would’ve evoked more empathy for her character if there had been a bit more immersion into her psyche. I think this has more to do with the writing of the character, because Lee Jung Eun’s performance was still great.

Bae Yoo Ram was another familiar face that I thought was a very welcome addition to the cast of Yonder. In series with dark themes it’s always nice to have a light and uncomplicated character that adds a little humor and perspective to the whole thing without it becoming too much. I’ve seen him in a couple of movies such as Midnight Runners and Be With You, but also in dramas like Producer, Oh My Ghostess and Run On. I liked Hacker Park a lot, not just for the humor he brought but also because he was one of the people that kept Jae Hyun grounded and connected to the world of the living. He was there the moment he came back to life and I think he was also one of the few people who never felt the need to go to Yonder despite clearly not having many people to spend his life with. I liked that he was the one to throw the truth about Yonder’s purpose into Seiren’s face at the end. He was a really nice character and I liked how he kind of started making advances on Cho Eun at the end by saying he’d “close the door for her”, that was cute.

Yoon Yi Re hasn’t actually been in that many projects so far, I only see two movies and three series on her repertoire. I’ve seen 20th Century Girl but I have to admit I don’t remember her from there. I still have some shows with her on my watchlist, so I hope I’ll get to see more of her. Peach – or Yoon Soo In, as she eventually reveals her real name to be – was kind of a tragic character. She wasn’t able to let go of her father and decided she’d be happier clinging onto him forever in a bubble afterlife universe instead of exploring her potential in the many years she still had to live out her life. You might say she was “weak”, but I think to say that would be to truly underestimate the way losing a loved one – especially a parent you didn’t get to spend much time with before – can weigh you down. I think that for Peach, she didn’t just have to move on from her dad, she had to move on from the truth that she never got to know him properly, and that’s why the opportunity to reconnect with him must have resonated with her so much. Still, it was sad to see such a young and bright person utter that she didn’t have anyone else besides her father – how lonely must she have truly been behind that bubbly exterior? I think the actress did a very good job in portraying that friction between her cheerfulness and darkness. I hope I get to see more performances of her in the future!

To sum up this review, I think this was a short but powerful series. Although I struggled to find a way to relate to the mindsets that were depicted in this show while I was watching it, in hindsight I feel like the problematics of the depicted issues are actually part of the message. I feel like this may have made for a good movie or drama special or anthology episode as well. I personally would’ve liked it even more if some parts had been defined a bit more clearly and there would’ve been a little more flesh to the characters in terms of background. With just a bit more information on how Jae Hyun met Yi Hoo or Hacker Park, on his profession as a magazine editor, and on the history of Yonder through the relationship between Seiren and Dr. K/Jang Jin Ho. With a little bit more context, it would’ve probably blown me away even more. Still, I was very impressed with the depiction of the story, including its cinematography and soundtrack. I’m all for discovering hidden gems while going through my watchlist, and this was definitely one of them.
I think the ultimate message of the story really has to do with the fact that grief is a complicated and painful process and it affects everyone differently. The ideal way to deal with it is to accept that you’ll never be able to meet with them again and make peace with the fact that you’ll be left with only memories. Still, those memories are worth so much, as they are proof that the people who left are never truly forgotten, and they ensure that they’ll always be with you in an intangible way. They would want you to move on and find a way to move through their absence, and it’s best to honor that wish with everything you’ve got.

Thanks again for reading through this review until the end! I’ll be moving on to my next watch soon, so keep an eye out for the next mystery review!
Until then, bye-bee! x

Disclaimer: this is a review, and as such it contains spoilers of the whole series. Please proceed to read at your own risk if you still plan on watching this show or if you haven’t finished it yet. You have been warned.

Douse Mou Nigerarenai
(どうせもう逃げられない / I Can’t Run Away Anymore Anyway)
MyDramaList rating: 5.5/10

Hiya! I actually didn’t expect to be able to upload a final review before the end of this month and I was initially planning to leave this review until after my deadline in June. However, since I went through it so quickly and frankly just wanted to get it over with, I decided to devote my final vacant afternoon of the month to finish it. For the next series my Wheel of Fortune app picked out, I watched this short little romance drama which probably made it onto my list after I read the synopsis and thought it might prove to be interesting. As it’s been a while since I watched any simple cute romcoms, I was hoping it would raise my giddy spirits a bit. Unfortunately, I’ll have to say right off the bat that for my seventh watch this year, it didn’t turn out to be a Lucky Number Seven. This will be a relatively negative review, so be prepared.

Douse Mou Nigerarenai is a Japanese MBS drama that consists of 9 episodes of about 24 minutes. It’s based on the manga series of the same name by Kazui Kazumi. The story starts when main characters Sakisaka Takumi (played by Shirasu Jin) and Nodakura Naho (played by Yokota Mayuu) meet for the first time. As he gets into a fight with his date in public, Takumi drags Naho – whom he sees staring at the spectacle from a near distance – into the conversation and introduces her to his date as his new girlfriend (🚩). After the date has stomped off, Naho gets mad at him for 1. being so rude to his date and 2. for using her for his own convenience like that. Despite her anger, she still gives him her handkerchief to ease the spot where he got slapped. That same afternoon, the two meet again under unexpected circumstances – Naho was actually on her way to a job interview at Takumi’s company.
Takumi is a photographer who got famous for a photo called “A World With You”, with which he won a prestigious advertisement design award. Now, five years after that win, he owns a tiny company called Solo Design which provides designs for all sorts of things, from plush toys to tableware to food packaging.
With only temp experience, Naho means to take a short-term job before she joins a permanent office job, as it’s her dream to become an ‘OL’, which is a common Japanese term for a typical office lady. However, it doesn’t take long for Takumi to hire her as a full-time employee at Solo Design after Naho is tricked by her ‘friend’ and misses the entrance test for a company they were planning on entering together. Despite the small hiring budget of Solo Design and the fact that Naho’s tasks are way too small for a permanent contract, she is able to stay on at Takumi’s company.
While Takumi initially starts out teasing Naho a lot for her naivety and unbreakable positivity, for example for nicknaming her ‘Norakura Aho’ (‘aho’ means idiot; 🚩), Naho comes to see that behind that bad boy attitude, there’s also a soft side to her new boss. It doesn’t take long for the two to develop an attachment to each other, which starts from Takumi’s warnings regarding Naho’s habit to trust everyone way too easily. However, when the two start getting closer, a traumatic incident from Takumi’s past pops up and this causes him to start distancing himself from her.

Just to get this out of the way, this was possibly one of the most toxic relationships I’ve seen in a Japanese drama so far. Nothing about it was romantic to me. It was problematic and messy and if I were Naho I would’ve just let Takumi deal with his own shit by himself. Still, for the sake of this review I’ll try my best to remain objective and reflect on both characters’ perspectives.
Starting with Naho, what struck me as unusual from the start was that the story wasn’t written from her perspective. The synopsis illustrated her as the main protagonist, but the story actually starts from Takumi’s perspective. Naho is introduced as a very bright and forward-looking person, with the additional trait of having blind faith in everyone and being positive to a fault. She can even be described as a bit immature, because she also lets herself get teased very easily and tends to pout about it rather than actually stand up for herself. Despite the (very) occasional rebuttal, she has the habit of blaming herself a lot for things that aren’t hers to take on. Apart from these basic characteristics, I generally found it very hard to gauge her as a character since she doesn’t have much inner dialogue and the viewers also don’t get much insight into her psyche from the get-go as she barely talks about what she really feels when we’re just getting to know her character. We also don’t get any information about her family or background, so it was hard to pinpoint where she might have developed her naive and positive habits, for example. Any kind of backstory to support how she turned out the way she did would have been welcome, because without that she was really just a blank slate to me that I had to start filling in by myself, and this didn’t really help in building empathy and understanding for her.
Takumi is introduced as a typical bad boy who just plays around with women but has no intention of settling down for something serious (🚩). His first response to meeting Naho is to flirt around and fluster her, playing into her naivety (🚩). This in itself was alarming to me, because it felt like he just hired her to joke around with her. Seriously, taping her slippers to the floor so she’ll fall over? Making her run errands with a piece of paper that says “I’m an idiot” pasted to her back? What are we, ten? 🙄🚩 To switch up this childish behavior and keep Naho by his side, he would suddenly show a different, more caring side, for example in standing up for her against the ‘friend’ that tricked her into losing that permanent job opportunity. He’d be all like, “You’re way too gullible, I’ll protect you” (🚩). Heck, he even freaking KISSED her out of blue, without consent, just to make the point of, “See, there’s bad people like me who’ll just take advantage of you”. 🚩🚩🚩 I would’ve been out of the office at that point, but unfortunately, this actually gets Naho attracted to him more and more. No matter how fickle he is in his treatment of her – teasing her one moment, then drawing her closer the next – Naho just can’t stop developing feelings for him. It even goes so far that she starts blaming herself for not being able to support him properly in his trauma which has literally nothing to do with her.

Before going into the most problematic aspect of the story – Takumi’s trauma – I’d like to introduce the few characters that I did actually like in this show: the other employees from Solo Design. When Naho starts working there, she joins a team of two colleagues besides Takumi: Amari Takehiko (played by Kusakawa Takuya) and Urae Sayaka (played by Ishida Nicole). A third colleague named Fukasawa Kaoru (played by Asaka Koudai) joins in a bit later. Amari and Urae are immediately very warm and welcoming to Naho and they really validate her presence in the office. When Naho at some point decides to leave because she feels bad about hogging a permanent employee spot, Urae immediately states that she can’t get things done without her and the whole team tries to persuade Takumi to reject her resignation.
I also liked the short arc about Urae debating to go solo and how this brought about some honesty from Takumi’s side. This was one of the few instances where I felt like an event in the office actually contributed to the main characters’ development while it simultaneously highlighted a supporting character in a relevant way. I wish there would have been some tiny arc around Amari as well, as he was kind of left behind in that regard. Anyways, it was nice getting to know at least Urae a bit better.
I had slightly mixed feelings about Kaoru at the beginning, mostly because of his ‘fun’ habit to tell Naho to take her clothes off as a joke 😒 . However, his character’s additional purpose was established when it was revealed that he knew more about Takumi’s past and he was the person who could tell Naho about it when Takumi decided to keep his distance from her.
Another supporting character that I liked was Takumi’s niece Tsubasa (played by Honda Miyu), purely because she was the only person in his family who didn’t think of him as problematic and just liked him as a nice uncle in an uncomplicated way.

It’s time to go into what messed up the story the most for me. From the start, it’s revealed through short flashbacks that Takumi has a past with the woman in his famous photo “A World With You”. The photo features a woman with short hair holding a young dog in a field of flowers. When Naho first enters Solo Design, she is immediately warned by Urae not to talk about the story behind the photo and Takumi’s past in general (🚩). Takumi also seems to have withdrawal symptoms whenever it’s raining, which kind of reminded me of the ML’s trauma from A Business Proposal.
It’s eventually revealed that the woman in the picture, Chiharu (played by Kobayashi Ryoko), was his older brother’s wife and that Takumi had been in love with her (🚩). She tragically died after she and Takumi got into a car accident in the rain one time. Apart from Takumi’s guilt regarding her death (he was driving and therefore he claims he killed her), there seems to be something else behind his lingering attachment to her. Ultimately, Naho learns that, on the night before the accident, Chiharu came to visit Takumi at his house. She appeared on his doorstep, drenched and dejected, and told him she’d slept with her company’s boss in order to get promoted. She ended up at Takumi’s place because she felt too scared and ashamed to face her husband.

Okay, so listen. I get that Takumi wanted to lift some weight off of Chiharu at that point. Seeing the woman he loved in that state must have been awful and I get that he just wanted to help her in whatever way possible. Honestly, I get that. But seriously, how the FUCK did he come up with the idea to take the place of the person she slept with in her story? Why couldn’t he have just promised to keep her secret and help her cover it up or something? Like, how did this solution make it any better? He literally complicated the situation by taking on part of the blame and creating a reason for his brother to hate the both of them rather than just his wife in case he found out. It just didn’t make sense to me why Takumi felt the need to put some of that blame onto himself. Also, as if that wasn’t bad enough, he actually chose to use the opportunity to confess his feelings for Chiharu right there and then. She was sitting on his couch, completely soaked and in tears, filled with shame, and he thought it would be a good chance to tell her that he would do everything to protect her – he even started KISSING her, like, what the heck was he thinking?! It actually made the situation go from bad to worse.
Just when I thought that was the worst of it, I was only more disturbed by Chiharu’s reaction. Not only did she allow Takumi to ‘kiss it better’ (she even started kissing him back 😒 ), in the car the next morning she even told Takumi that she was happy to hear his confession! Like, girl, what?! Are you seriously going along with this right now? Despite defending her actions with her boss, she was in a very delicate situation and state, and I also don’t know for sure why she came to Takumi or if she expected anything from him. Still, fact remains that she went along with his idiotic idea and didn’t even reject him when he expressed his true feelings for her while she was married to his brother. They were both at fault. I said what I said. 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

So yeah, Takumi has been carrying the guilt of Chiharu’s death with him the entire time and that, in combination with the blame he put on himself for covering up her secret, has been the main reason why he’s never allowed himself to be happy. That’s why he constantly keeps distancing himself from Naho, even after drawing her in time and time again. It’s like, he would admit to liking her and kiss her only to come back the next day to tell her that he’s changed his mind and they can’t be together. It’s all connected to his self-victimization and the fact that he’s punishing himself over and over again for what happened to Chiharu. Everything combined just made the situation super unhealthy and problematic. On the other hand, Naho didn’t make it any better because she in turn also started self-victimizing by constantly blaming herself for not being able to help him. The way their relationship kept building on their respective victim complexes was so toxic it actually became hard to watch. At some point I just kept yelling at Naho to remove herself from the situation because it wasn’t doing either of them any good and Takumi really need to get his shit together first. The simple truth was that he started something new when he was still stuck on his dead first love in several messy ways. It was actually painful to watch him change his mind every other day, confusing the shit out of Naho and hurting her again and again in the process. The worst thing was that, even when Naho was like “I’ve decided to give up on him for real!”, I knew he was going to come back and she was going to fold again and they would end up “happily ever after” without actually resolving anything. Every single time that he pushed her away and then came back to hug her again I was like 🤬🤬🤬 That pattern just kept repeating and it’s also exactly what happened in the end.

What contributed largely to the messy storyline was the writing. Apart from complicating situations such as what happened between Takumi and Chiharu, some dialogues also just didn’t make any sense. As I said, Takumi started changing his mind every other day about what his intentions with Naho were. There was this one ‘official’ confession scene where he told her he liked her (not for the first time, by the way) and kissed her and then the next day he sat her down to reject her again saying he “thought about it for a very long time”. Bro, you confessed to her YESTERDAY. Unless your definition of ‘a very long time’ is one day, this doesn’t make any sense. Naho confirmed this, as she should’ve, by getting super confused and saying that “this is really sudden” because yeah, IT WAS. His feelings literally changed overnight. These kinds of conversations kept repeating and it just got exhausting to watch.
Also, in the final episode when Takumi finally ‘officially officially’ confesses to Naho, he says that patching things up with his brother “made him fully realize that Chiharu was gone and how much he missed her for the first time”. Dude literally spent five years stuck on his feelings for her, punishing himself for her death and now he suddenly says, “Wow, I just realized for the first time that she’s gone and how I miss her”. What the fuck was that about?
Finally, there were several red flags that went up during and after the final confession. When asking Naho to be his forever, Takumi didn’t just rattle on about how much he still missed Chiharu and wished he could spend time with her, he also ‘proposed’ with the words “Please give yourself to me”. ?!?! Until the very end he STILL had the audacity to expect her to devote herself to him even after confirming that he STILL missed Chiharu. In the short and unimpressive scene after that, which shows them in the foreplay of officially sleeping together for the first time, he literally tells Naho that he’ll “love her (or “make love to her” 👀 ; the Japanese language can be quite ambiguous) enough to make up for all the times he made her cry by herself”. 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩 🚩🚩
Seriously, on the scale of J-Drama love confessions, this one gets a -10 out of 10. I’m gonna run out of red flags.

There were only a few moments where I felt that Naho had a backbone, but she’d always revert to her apologetic self afterwards, and that was a real waste.
I liked how she made Takumi face up to Urae when she was debating on quitting. It was nice to see Takumi becoming the puppy, turning to Naho to ask if he did it right.
Also, although I liked how certain she became of her own feelings for Takumi at some point, it felt kind of weird and out of place when she suddenly went dominant on him, grabbing him by the tie and kissing him first, leaving him uncharacteristically flustered. It was like, even though she did stand up for herself at times, it was very inconsistent and she never retained that attitude for longer than an episode.
Another example was that, even though I thought it was a powerful move of her to cut her hair after Takumi had said that that was the only thing he liked about her, it still didn’t have any lingering effect on her character development.
As we are on the topic of Naho’s hair, I’d just like to take this opportunity to say that I hated what they did with it. In the first couple of episodes, Naho has long hair and she always wears it really cutely, either in a braid or a ponytail. Despite feeling proud of her for actually cutting her hair – because I thought it was so brave of her to actually try to ‘cut’ herself free of Takumi – this was quickly diminished by the fact that they didn’t just cut the actress’ hair and tried to make it work. They actually gave her a typical black bob-style wig and a super sloppy and ill-cut one at that. Like, at least make it look like her actual hair!
I also find it a bit weird that they decided to feature Naho with her long hair on the series’ poster. Admittedly, the long hair looks way better, but she only has that hairstyle for the first couple of episodes. Since I got used to the bob-style wig which she has for more than half of the series until the end, seeing the poster was kind of weird. I actually had to do a double-take to make sure it was really her.

All in all, I think the relationship depicted in this drama was very problematic. Takumi was a walking red flag and though Naho didn’t deserve to get dragged into it, she actively started involving herself into it. While it could be seen as touching that someone goes through so much to help their loved one through their trauma, fact remains that it’s not up to them to fix it. You can only stand by someone for so long without letting it affect your own mental health. Naho literally became miserable because of Takumi and vice versa. The last couple of episodes were just the two of them crying whenever Takumi decided to push Naho away again. In my opinion, they were not healthy for each other and the few ‘cute’ moments they had together didn’t make up for anything.
In positive terms, I do think we should give it to Naho that her loyalty and feelings towards Takumi were so strong that she was prepared to go through all of that to be with him. On Takumi’s side, he really just needed to face his demons and he probably wouldn’t have been able to do it without Naho, despite the fact that it took so many painful situations to get there. I just didn’t like how they kept feeding their own and each other’s sense of self-victimization. As a result, I did not feel anything for them, not when they smiled at each other or when they were breaking their own hearts. The drama became so unnecessarily heavy because of all the crying and needless self-blaming in the second half that I started wanting them to either just cut ties and move on with their own lives or for Takumi to resolve his feelings as soon as possible to at least give Naho some peace of mind.

My biggest issue with this series is that it was probably written to be a heartfelt love story between a pure girl and a troubled guy. The opening sequence depicted a cute little kitten and a big strong tiger, which probably meant to symbolize Naho and Takumi, respectively. Naho’s brightness was meant to light up Takumi’s darkness. Honestly, I liked Naho more in the beginning of the series, before she developed feelings for Takumi, because then she was still very bright in her positivity and she visibly managed to surprise and impress Takumi with her straightforward attitude. It was a shame that she actually ended up getting dragged into his darkness with him.
As if the story and the depicted relationship in this series aren’t toxic enough, I actually find the title of this drama very red flaggy as well. I know that this drama is based on a manga series – and I hope that the manga at least builds up their relationship a bit more steadily and healthily – but seriously, to feature two people in such a toxic cycle of self-victimization and then title it “I Can’t Run Away From It Anymore Anyway”? Although there was no mentioning of the title throughout the series, I can actually picture Naho responding to Takumi’s proposal with “Sure, I’ll give myself to you, because I can’t run away from it anymore anyway.” 🤡 The fact that I can picture her saying it with a genuinely happy smile on her face worries me.

To end on a positive note, I really liked the ending theme, Thermocline by Momosumomosu. It’s a very cute song.

Since this is such a short review, I’m going to add a small cast comments section. I actually didn’t know any of the actors in this show, which was a first!
I don’t know what it was, but something in Shirasu Jin’s face reminds me of Song Joong Gi. I’ve seen him before in Gakkou no Kaidan, Eigyou Buchou Kira Natsuko, Totsuzen Desu Ga, Ashita Kekkon Shimasu, Kizoku Tantei and Erased, although I don’t remember him from any of these (sorry). Apparently we’re the same age! When I looked up more information about him I learned that he recently got married to a woman six years his senior.
Apart from the fact that I didn’t feel much for his character Takumi, I have to admit that his acting was good, especially when it came to his crying scenes. He’s done a whole bunch of dramas so maybe I’ll come across something in the future where he portrays a less problematic character.

I just found out Yokota Mayuu was in 3-nen A-gumi and I hate that I can’t remember her character! But that must mean that she has way more up her acting sleeve, because everyone in 3A was great. Watching her in this show really made me hope that she was a better actress and that the passiveness in her character was solely due to the poor writing of the series. I would’ve just liked to see her portray more expressions in this show, because she really just went from 😊 to 🥺 with no in-betweens. There are at least three more series with her on my list, so I know I’ll get see more of her and I’m actually looking forward to that.

Apparently I’ve seen Asaka Koudai before in Boku no Yabai Tsuma, but it’s been too long so I don’t remember him from there. There are so many Japanese dramas that I watched before I started writing reviews, so I barely remember anyone from those. I wish there could’ve been a bit more consistency in his character. Despite his eventual revelation as a plot-relevant character who know more about what happened to Takumi in the past, he was introduced as a kind of comical and even slightly perverted character, with this “Take off your clothes! 📸” joke. In the end, he only made this joke three times before it disappeared from the dialogue completely and he was suddenly attributed a more serious part. Still, he was a good person and his acting was fine, so I don’t have much more to comment on.

Ishida Nicole looks so familiar to me, but I don’t think I’ve seen her in anything before. Despite being a side character and only getting so much screentime, I actually really liked her performance. She just had a nice presence within the Solo Design studio and it helped to get a little arc about her character and how she came to work at the company. I hope I get to see her in more dramas in the future!

I would’ve liked to see some more action revolving around Kusakawa Takuya’s character Amari. The actor was also in Tantei no Tantei but, as with almost all of the beforementioned Japanese dramas, I barely remember anything about that, let alone the supporting cast. It would’ve been nice if Amari could’ve also gotten a tiny arc like Urae, at least to explain how he’d ended up at Solo Design. In a short series with such a limited cast as this, I think it’s good to explore whatever characters you have. I would’ve liked some more scenes with Amari and Urae in-between all the drama going on between the main leads. A more occasional pallet cleanser would have been very welcome. I see that he’s also done a whole bunch of dramas starting from 2008 so chances are I might come across him again in a future watch.

I’m going to leave it at that for the cast comments and, consequently, this review. I went through it really fast and I’m honestly going to say that I’m glad it’s over. I didn’t enjoy the story or the romance as much as I’d hoped – I was basically just wrecking my brain in confusion because so little things made sense, lol. Still, it managed to make me curious to the original story and if it did anything, it was to make me watch more series with these actors just to confirm that they participated in better written projects than this.
As always, I don’t know what my next watch is going to be, but the review will at least have to wait until mid-June because of my final deadline.

Until next time! x

Disclaimer: this is a review, and as such it contains spoilers of the whole series. Please proceed to read at your own risk if you still plan on watching this show or if you haven’t finished it yet. You have been warned.

Sashidashinin wa, Dare desu ka?
(差出人は、誰ですか？/ Who is the Sender?)
MyDramaList rating: 7.0/10

Heya-heya-ho! Just wanted to drop one more review before the end of the month and before I get busy with my final college assignments! I’m really liking how my Spin the Wheel app is picking out these varying series that I wouldn’t have been able to get to this soon otherwise. This show proved to be another hidden gem which I enjoyed a lot and I can’t wait to share my thoughts and feelings about it. I didn’t exactly know what it was going to be about before I started but I never expected it would be wholesome in the end – it actually made me tear up a couple of times. I’ve really missed feeling getting this touched by a drama. It’s been a while since I got really caught up in something and I had a really good time watching it, so this will be a pretty positive review. Now, without further ado, let’s start!

Sashidashinin wa, Dare desu ka? is a TBS Japanese drama with a unique format of 40 episodes of 15 minutes, which makes it incredibly addictive and bingeable. The story focusses on Class 2-D of Arakawa High School and their homeroom teacher Tachibana Junta (played by Emoto Tokio). At the start of the first semester of their second year, Tachibana suddenly announces a new element to their homeroom class – something he calls the “Letter Game”. Basically, every single student in their class has to submit at least one handwritten letter to another classmate that contains their honest feelings about something. There are no conditions on what the message should contain, so it can either be positive or negative, and the sender doesn’t have to sign their name under it. The only rule is that, if even one student doesn’t send in a letter before the end of the second semester, the whole class will fail the year.
The main character that the story follows is Kuwazuru Mitsuki (played by Kouzawa Sara). She lives with her extremely lovey-dovey parents (Shimada Tamayo and Kaneko Noboru) and cat, and is childhood friends with her classmate Mitarai Ken (played by Komagine Kiita). While it is revealed that she used to be very outspoken and used to protect Ken from being bullied when they were little, she has become quite timid and now prefers to stay in the background. Her favorite snacks are Cat Potato chips, which she often goes to buy at the convenience store. Her best friend from the same class is Saeki Ayaka (played by Otake Aika) and she has a secret crush on the quiet and mysterious boy in class, Ichinose Touya (played by Fujiwara Taiyu). All in all, she gets along with everyone and lives a peaceful life, but that all starts to change when the Letter Game starts. Suddenly, brutally honest feelings and secrets come to light which only start adding up to the rising tensions within the class. Soon, the question of who sent the letter will turn out to be less important than the issue of communicating and resolving issues between people.

First of all, let me say that this show gave me major 3-nen A-gumi vibes. Even though Sashidashinin is much milder – the kids aren’t held hostage and there’s no threat of killing anyone (I was half expecting Tachibana to go, “If even one of you doesn’t submit a letter before the end of the year, you will all die“) – the elements of the eccentric homeroom teacher (who turned out to be terminally ill), the increasing tensions within the class and the fact that the whole Letter Game was tied to getting the students to spend less time venting their unfiltered feelings on social media really took me back. On the other hand, I think Sashidashinin did a really good job of creating a situation that enabled these kids to open up to each other in a very healthy way. Even when the letters started revealing dark secrets and things got intense, it always ultimately led to honesty and genuine conversations and I loved how the students initiated that all by themselves. Even though Sashidashinin only focussed on a specific group of students within the class (3-nen A-gumi highlighted every single classmate), it was more than enough to build sympathy for everyone and it actually made me like every single person in the end.
Despite the fact that I was really invested in the story and I couldn’t stop binging it, there was one thing that obstructed me from getting “too into it”, and that had to do with the episode format. I honestly feel like I would’ve gotten more emotionally immersed in it if the episodes had been longer and included more content. Having to jump out of it and click on the next episode after every ten minutes broke the flow for me a little bit. Although I still really enjoyed the story and indulged in all the (spilled) tea between the students, I feel like they would’ve been able to build up the tension in certain arcs better in slightly longer episodes. I definitely wouldn’t have been as immersed in 3-nen A-gumi if it would’ve had this format. I think the format played a big part in keeping the series quite light and mild, even though some of the revealed secrets were pretty intense.

I’d like to go over some of the mainly featured characters and their respective stories/secrets that were revealed through the Letter Game.
To switch things up, I’d like to start with Tachibana, the teacher. The whole truth about his decision to start the Letter Game is revealed in the last couple of episodes through flashbacks after he’s already passed away. Throughout the story there are several clear hints that indicate that he is sick, mostly the amount of time he spends with the school nurse, Obata Kimi (Susuki Miyuki). At some point he tells the class that he was inspired by the suicide letter from some famous athlete in which he was finally able to share all his honest feelings to his family members. However, in reality it all started when Tachibana discovered the words “I want to die” on one of his students’ career questionnaires. The forms was anonymous, so he started the Letter Game in order to make his students express their honest feelings and identify who’d written that message in the process. He realized what a lousy teacher he’d been and now that he knew he only had three more months to live, he wanted to make one final attempt to get his students to tear themselves away from their phone screens and communicate openly with each other.
Regarding Tachibana as a person, not much is revealed. We only learn about his motives for the Letter Game after he’s already passed, and we see that he’s concerned for his students’ wellbeing in-between his erratic outbursts and casual dismissals of their problems. Other than that, we don’t get to know him very well, which adds to the enigmatic element of his character. I don’t think he was meant to be a mysterious character per se, because the students also seemed to feel comfortable enough around him, but he kind of made himself stand out more as an eccentric figure after announcing the Letter Game. As I mentioned before, his character reminded me a bit of Suda Masaki’s character from 3-nen A-gumi because even though he freaked everyone out at some point, he still managed to get everyone to be deeply touched by his actions in the end.
I personally would’ve liked to get a bit more information on him as a person, and also on his relationship with Kimi-sensei. I really loved their friendship and even how it was suggested they may have been romantically involved. He was such a different person when he spoke with her and I would’ve liked to get to know him a bit better and not just after he already passed away. But all in all, I thought the way he was portrayed, silently watching the chaos unfold while hoping that everyone would make it out okay, was quite powerful. Unlike the teacher in 3-nen A-gumi, apart from reading the letters out loud he deliberately stayed away and left his students to patch things up by themselves, and that was probably the best way to fix it. By not taking the initiative to solve whatever issue was raised by the letters, he managed to make everyone aware of each other’s situations and get them to stop relying on adults for solutions. It was a really good strategy which could’ve also gone completely sideways.

Ironically, even though Mitsuki is the only student who ends up not submitting a letter, she still ends up playing a very central role in the majority of her classmates’ “letter experiences”. What I thought was so good about this show from the start was how it depicted typical teenage anxiety when it came to friendships, amplified by the influence of social media. Although the overall vibe in class 2-D was great, we are immediately introduced to strained relationships as well, for example in how Hikari has started to crop her former friend Hana out of her Insta photos. It made for a very strong start of the show to see Mitsuki react to herself being cropped out of a picture by her best friend Ayaka, and this worry was immediately amplified by her reception of a letter saying, “I hate you so much”. Little signs that indicate something is wrong while the other person is acting like nothing happened can only drive you crazy with anxiety and confusion, and confronting that weird tension is always scary. However, Mitsuki takes the leap and this not only brings her closer to her best friend, but also to herself.
I think Mitsuki was a very well-written character, all in all. Despite her being such a typical teenager and student, I also thought that her backstory justified very well why and how she became the person she was and how realizing this made her reconnect with her past self. The information that she used to be super upfront and basically got diminished by other people’s negative opinions about her outspokenness really helped me empathize with her. Although it was clearly difficult for her, she really became more open about her feelings and she started talking things through rather than just pretending everything was fine to spare everyone else’s feelings. As she so fittingly says, just trying to get along with everyone without talking about what’s important is basically the same as ignoring people’s feelings. I found it really wholesome to watch how she learned from the lessons the Letter Game and her classmates taught her, and how she used them to reflect and grow as a person.
The only thing that kept puzzling me is how the heck she was related to her parents, lol. Her mom and dad were basically a lovey-dovey comedy duo and Mitsuki was so reserved in contrast. Admittedly, her home situation was super warm and loving, but sometimes I really found myself wondering how Mitsuki could be the product of those two, lol. I really loved her cat, by the way.

I think Ayaka may have been my favorite character in the show. She was such a good friend and she dealt with everything so maturely, even when things got tense and awkward. I loved the way in which she came clean about cropping Mitsuki out of that picture and how she just wanted her to rely on her more. Despite being a typical moodmaker and always acting cheerful and unconcerned, Ayaka was incredibly invested in her friends’ situations and feelings. I have to admit I was kind of scared that her walking in on Mitsuki and Ikuru after she’d told Mitsuki she liked him would burst another bubble, but it was so mature of her to trust her friend instead of lashing out at her. She didn’t even confront Mitsuki or get angry at her for keeping it from her. Their friendship was so wholesome and I loved it.
Besides standing up for Mitsuki when she got that hate letter, Ayaka also proved her solidarity to her classmates in other ways. Although it was very ballsy of her, she actually exposed Hikari’s domestic abuse. This really put Hikari on the spot and I understood why she got angry at first – imagine this suddenly being brought up through an anonymous letter in front of the entire class. But I found it so touching that Ayaka had actually caught her hidden video message and immediately decided to find a way to help her. Others might have seen it and decided to stay away from it, but Ayaka actually went around asking people for advice and searching for solutions. She ended up playing a major part in getting Hikari to safety in the end. The fact that she was prepared to get herself involved in trying to save a classmate/friend was such a redeeming characteristic of her. She kept standing up for her friends, she kept supporting everyone’s crushes even when her own didn’t work out, and she kept supporting her classmates through everything. She was literally the best person.

One of the characters that I found most interesting to dissect was Narita Ikuru (played by Sakurai Kaito). He’s revealed to be the son of a big construction company’s director who grew up in a wealthy family. I guess this initially made him popular on a shallow level as people just liked to ask him for things since he was rich. He would offer to host birthday parties for his friends in his family’s buildings and things like that. Besides that, his big passion is soccer, which he started pursuing with professional ambitions. He’s introduced as the most popular guy in class, and Ayaka has a blatant crush on him.
What made him such an interesting character to me was his duality. On the one hand, he’s depicted as an incredibly cool guy and caring friend. He treats the girls in his class especially respectfully and always offers to help people out when they express their worries and troubles. After Mitsuki receives her hate letter, he constantly asks her if she’s okay and offers to find the culprit for her, and he also acts like a protective older brother to Hikari. This respectful and genuine side of him has attracted a lot of affection from girls around him, but he never plays around with anyone. When Ayaka confesses to him the first time, he apologizes and seems to be genuinely touched even though he doesn’t feel the same. Their friendship doesn’t get strained because he exudes such a genuine and caring energy. In contrast to this soft side, Ikuru can also be seen as kind of a bully. He always sleeps through class and asks others to make his homework for him, and he blatantly bullies his classmate Baba Hiroto (Kubozuka Airu). This duality made him a really intriguing character to gauge, because he really didn’t seem like a bad guy.
His image ultimately started to crumble when someone exposed him with a letter that revealed to the whole class that his family’s business went bankrupt and he also quit playing soccer. Despite everyone’s expectations, Ikuru may have actually been the one suffering the most all this time.
Through an initial letter stating that he’s been bullying his classmate, it’s revealed that Ikuru and Baba are actually childhood friends. With Ikuru pursuing soccer and Baba pursuing shogi – a form of Japanese chess – they started out rooting for each other and having each other’s back, but when Baba kept losing tournaments he started criticizing Ikuru for retaining such a carefree and positive mindset when he wasn’t even as ambitious as him. This caused their friendship to become strained and Ikuru started venting all of his frustrations from his home situation onto his old friend without actually meaning to. I honestly found the arc about their friendship very heartwarming, because you could also see how frustrated Baba had become in constantly being bullied by the friend he still cared about so much. It actually made me tear up when Ikuru finally read Baba’s letter and bowed his head to him in apology in class. Men expressing emotion still gets me.
In their final expressions to Tachibana during his funeral, Ikuru admits that he was the one who wrote “I want to die” on that form. I just found it so heart-wrenching that, for the guy who was always reaching out to his friends and classmates to rely on him, it was the hardest thing to reach out himself. Still, he really grew as a person and it was so satisfying to see how he started talking things out with his male friends as well. I personally found it surprising that he only admitted to having feelings for Mitsuki after she told him that it didn’t matter what he did because he would always be himself. I actually thought he had feelings for her from the start, lol. Despite his genuine intentions, the kabedon and immediate unconsented attempt to kiss Mitsuki before even getting a response from her did surprise me, but he definitely redeemed himself by how he handled her rejection. The fact that he let it go so respectfully and told her he would root for her no matter what was such green flag behavior. He was a really good guy and I’m glad that we got to see his emotional development in this story, especially because he was made out to be the toughest guy in the crowd.

Another character whose duality intriguid me was Ichinose Touya. I think it’s safe to say he went through the biggest character development out of everyone. In class, he’s the silent and stoic study genius who never really engages with everyone. If this had been an anime, he would be the dreamy guy you spot reading a book against a fluttering curtain with cherry blossoms drifting around him. We are introduced to him through Mitsuki’s eyes, whose curiosity in him quickly turns into a crush. As dreamy and mysterious as he might seem, there’s actually a very serious backstory to Ichinose’s character. He lost his father recently and now has to help his single working mother to take care of his two younger siblings. This situation has inevitably caused him to grow up very fast, and now he’s just focussing on getting through school and working hard at his part-time job in order to take care of his family. His situation has led him to avoid other ‘unimportant’ things such as participating in events and dating – he simply can’t afford to think about enjoying leisure activities at the moment. Despite this, Ichinose has a very surprising side to him which he only shows outside of school after he finishes his part-time job. He spends the final hours of his day skateboarding and rapping on the streets. The manager of the gas station he works at is a professional rapper (Cypress Ueno) and it’s clear that Ichinose really admires him. Although he means to keep this side of him a secret, he inevitably ends up bumping into Mitsuki one night and she is more than happy to have a shared secret with him. Through this first encounter, the two gradually become a bit closer and throughout the story Ichinose learns to open up more in class as well. He starts showing more surprising sides of him and participating in social events more as well.
The buildup in the relationship between Mitsuki and Ichinose was one of my favorite dynamics in this show. The more he became certain of his feelings for her, the cuter Ichinose became and it was so adorable to see him try and get friendlier with her. It happened so gradually and naturally but it didn’t take away the euphoric effect when they FINALLY confessed their mutual feelings for each other in the final episode. Admittedly, I didn’t like that he temporarily reverted back to his original ‘leave me alone/it’s none of your business’ attitude towards Mitsuki after his mom collapsed, especially when he’d JUST admitted that he wanted to get to know her better. Still, it just made the way Tachibana and his classmates made him face the fact that he was allowed to be a kid for a bit longer and didn’t have to take on all his family’s responsibility by himself extra moving. Realizing how literally every single person in the room had his back must have meant a great deal, especially since he was so used to avoiding getting involved with anyone in the beginning. I really loved the person Ichinose became when he finally let go of those heavy responsibilities he felt towards his family. It was so sweet to see him finally allow himself to actually be interested in Mitsuki and express that to her, even though it still took him some time to act on it. The way he asked her permission to send her a message on LINE had my heart🥹. Seriously, what a cinnamon roll.

On a side note, I just want to mention how much I loved Mr. Harada from the gas station, the rapper manager. He was awesome. He talked like Killer Bee from Naruto.😂 I loved how he would encourage both Ichinose and Ikuru to talk things out like ‘real men’. On the other hand I thought it was hilarious how he just owned up to the fact that he had no romantic experience whatsoever and would be of no help when it came to advise on women. He’d be like, ‘Bro, I ain’t got nothin’ for ya there. Peace out.’✌🏻😂

The storyline that probably touched me the most was Ken’s. Seriously, bless Ken. As mentioned before, he’s Mitsuki’s childhood friend and classmate and he’s often depicted playing basketball, either at school or by himself in the evening. In the beginning, he’s often shown asking Mitsuki to walk to or from school together and being disappointed when she rejects him, and this is later revealed to be connected to the fact that she doesn’t want Ichinose to see her walk home with another guy. While it would’ve been predictable to interpret Ken’s approaches as an expression of interest towards Mitsuki, this is called into question when it’s revealed that he used to date her classmate Momoko (Ohira Kurumi). They even get back together at some point. Throughout the story, Mitsuki often talks to him about her feelings for Ichinose and he’s always there to lend a listening ear and a supporting shoulder. However, things are not as they seem.
I just want to take this opportunity to say that I was so proud of myself for calling this. I don’t even know exactly when it was, but I definitely knew by the time he started crying when Momoko kissed him during the school trip. I just KNEW it and I’m so happy it played out the way it did. It just makes me so grateful when Japanese dramas include LGBTQA+ issues in their stories and normalize it, because it still feels like such a general taboo in Japanese society.
At some point in the beginning, Ichinose receives a love letter through the Letter Game which is beautifully written and mentions a book called Night on the Galactic Railroad (which is also a main reference point in the show Gisou Furin). Towards the end of the series, Mitsuki finds the book in the library and sees that, several weeks after Ichinose borrowed it, Ken did as well. Instead of creating an awkward situation of confronting Ken with this and people making fun or something, the show treated the topic in such a heartwarming and normalizing way and it actually made me cry. First of all, because Ichinose is a walking green flag. He already figured out the letter had come from Ken but never confronted him or made him feel embarrassed about it. ON THE CONTRARY. During the afterparty of their second year graduation, he actually insists on dancing with him. Not just because they were picked out as dance partners but because he actually wanted to. Seeing him be so accepting and respectful of Ken’s feelings for him despite not being able to reciprocate them was so freaking touching. I was so happy for Ken that his feelings were validated like that. Also seeing Mitsuki express to him that she’d always be his ally…😭 this whole arc was just so wholesome and I loved it. Ken was so freaking brave for sending Ichinose that letter, even if it was anonymous, asking him if he could just keep loving him in secret. It was so fulfilling how everyone who knew validated his feelings so much. He was just Ken and he was Kenough.

Which brings me to Momoko, because despite her fickle attitude in the beginning it can’t be denied that she made a huge sacrifice for Ken. I thought their shared (secret) bond was really touching. At some point towards the end it’s revealed that Momoko had a part-time job as a cosplay model, but she quit after a creepy otaku client got handsy with her. It’s not explained in detail what happened, but I guess we can fill it in by ourselves – it ended up traumatizing her. Still, she could never bring herself to delete her social account because she had a lot of fans waiting for her to make a comeback with new cosplay shoots. When she returned to school, Ken was always the person that sought her out and she ended up trusting him enough to share her secret with him. His constant support made her fall for him and they started dating, but then he suddenly broke up with her. Momoko eventually figured out by herself that he fancied guys and she offered to be his beard despite the fact that she was still genuinely in love with him. Seriously, her feelings were still so strong after they broke up that she became bitter about how friendly Mitsuki was with him, and she ended up sending her that hate letter. As much as I didn’t particularly like her in the beginning, I started liking her more during Hikari’s arc, because that’s when she admitted about Mitsuki’s letter and she just became much more likable. I did feel like something was off when she and Ken started dating again and when it was revealed that she was basically acting as his beard it just clicked. It hit hard that she sacrificed her feelings in order to protect him, after he’d been there for her after that traumatic experience. Still, it did confirm that she had a good heart and cared a lot about her friends.

I’ve already mentioned her a couple of times, but I also want to devote a paragraph to Hikari’s story. Hiiragi Hikari (played by Umakoshi Yuri) is initially depicted as this super bright girl who also works part-time at the students’ regular meetup diner, Bunny’s. She has a blatant crush on Ikuru and she occasionally lets a sneery side shine through, for example when Ikuru pays a lot of attention to Mitsuki or when it comes to her classmate Hana, with whom she’s apparently had a fallout before the start of the series. She also really loves gossip and is very active on social media. She can be described as a bit nosy, as well: she has the habit of secretly filming people and then sharing that as a buzz, which doesn’t always go down well. In any case, she never lets anything slip that would suggest her to be a victim of DV.
I know that in Ayaka’s paragraph I mentioned that I understood Hikari for getting angry at her for exposing her secret like that, but on the other hand I also found it confusing. After all, she reached out herself by uploading a video of her dad coming at her with the words “Help me”. By doing that, did she really not mean for anyone to figure out that it was her? Why else would you upload a video like that? In any case, the arc in which they ended up getting her out of her parents’ house and Tachibana telling her she did so well on her own for so long had me choked up as well. Apart from the fact that this experience really helped her mature, I think she was also one of the people who needed to learn the risks of freely spouting stuff online the most. Considering this, it made all the more sense that she was the one crying the most at Tachibana’s funeral, because he had played such a big part in that lesson for her. If it hadn’t been for him and the Letter Game, nothing would’ve changed for her. I loved that they brought these reasonings back in the students’ respective responses to Tachibana’s passing, because they all related to him in different ways.

Finally, I’ll say something about the most ‘buzzing’ couple of class 2-D: Hana and Yutaro. Watanabe Hana (Utsumi Seiko) and Moro Yutaro (Miura Ryota) had their own livestream channel together, called ‘Hanataro Channel’. When the Letter Game started they often shared details about the daily letters on their channel, which not everyone liked. I’m actually not sure if they were a real couple or that they were pretending to be one for the channel – or both. I believe the reason they broke up at some point was because Yutaro was seeing different girls or something – which I found kind of hard to believe seeing how blatantly unserious he was. Anyways, not long after breaking up, Hana comes to the discovery that she’s pregnant. Not gonna lie, my first reaction to this was, “right, of course, because a teenage pregnancy was the only type of drama we didn’t have yet in this classroom🥲”. But I actually really like what they did with this plotline. After trying time and time again to get Yutaro to talk about it and accept that she intended to give birth to the baby, Hana actually mustered up the strength to take her fate into her own hands. If he was not going to own up to his responsibility, then she was going to raise the child by herself without him.
Honestly, while I wanted to slap Yutaro in the face multiple times, I still found his character so well-written. He was so typically the kind of guy that’s in that phase of trying to act cool but who just can’t own up to it when things get serious. Admittedly, it’s more than valid that he didn’t feel ready to take responsibility for being a father, but he was just so immature about it. He didn’t just literally run away everytime she tried to talk to him, but he also had the audacity to straightout tell her to get an abortion before even asking about her feelings or even properly reflecting on the matter himself. I was so, so, SO proud of Hana for letting him go even though she still loved him. Also, when he had that letter he’d written to himself read out like that and still came back to take responsibility, it was such a freaking power move of Hana to be like, “Yeah, PASS.” I loved her for calling him out for the fact that he was just trying to take responsibility despite still not being ready for it. This made me respect her so much more than if she’d been like, “Yay, now everything is well between us again🥰”. I loved how she took on the responsibility for her baby the SECOND she found out she was pregnant and how she just moved on by herself when Yutaro couldn’t do the same. She was so freaking strong throughout it all and I was really proud of her maturity compared to his. All respects to Hana-chan!🫡

While these were the characters that were predominantly featured throughout the events the Letter Game brought on, there were also some fun side characters that added to the atmosphere in class, like Nogi Shizuka (Nasu Hohomi) who kept falling in love with every single guy in class and Matsuo Akito (Shiroma Taiyou), the class clown who was all muscles but no brain. I also liked that there was some ethnical diversity – I believe two of the students were mixed-race. A general shoutout to the show for inclusion!

All in all, despite the unique format I think this show did a really good job building its characters’ stories and personalities, they justified everyone’s feelings and created a show in which communicating openly was central. I really love it when dramas use their platforms to advocate for honest connections and shine light on the risks and dangers of spouting your unfiltered thoughts online. Although I was mentally preparing myself for an escalation like in 3-nen A-gumi, I was really touched by the way the Letter Game actually enabled openhearted conversations about topics they’d otherwise never felt comfortable bringing up. Shortly after Tachibana shared the “I want to die” message with them, the class went on a school trip and I remember a group of students gathered around a campfire and started sharing experiences about times when they went through something that made them ‘want to die’. Not to share exciting buzzing stories, but to actually relate to one another and not feel alone. I thought that was really beautiful because talking about serious things really helped them to understand each other better. Everything that happened through the Letter Game ultimately helped to bring the class together more closely than before and I thought it was a really powerful thing. It actually made me want to start writing letters to convey my true feelings to certain people, because it would come across much more genuinely than through a text or DM. I really appreciated the openness with which this show dealt with all sorts of topics, from typical teenage misunderstandings to family troubles and future responsibilities. Rather than adding these elements in for shock value – which many Japanese series tend to do and just makes everything overdramatic and angsty without adding any actual depth to the story – I really felt like this series had the educating purpose of making certain topics discussable and highlighting the importance of honest communication. I can’t remember a Japanese series which centered so much on talking about one’s feelings, and especially encouraged it among its male characters. It was a very enjoyable and touching watching experience. It’s been a while since a Japanese show both made me laugh out loud and wipe away a tear every now and then. I found it incredibly wholesome and I liked the way the writers didn’t settle for standard solutions. It would have been so typical for the censored and conservative nature of Asian dramas in general to problematize Ken’s queerness or Hana’s decision to take full responsibility for her pregnancy without the support of the father. Topics like this need to be talked about more openly to become less of a taboo, and shows like this are such a beacon of hope for that.

I’m really glad I got to watch this when I did because it lifted my spirits in this time of widespread worldly crisis. I just wished we could all focus on what’s most important: talking and really listening to each other. Besides being a typically enjoyable romantic high school story, the discussion of contemporary issues for the sake of promoting their importance in this social media-peppered society made it even more resonating and valuable. You never know what someone is struggling with and sometimes something as simple as a handwritten letter might be able to save a person in whatever way. You’re never too cool or mature to rely on people around you when you can’t get out of a situation by yourself. No matter how hard it is to ask for help, you’re never alone and sometimes support manifests itself in unexpected ways, from unexpected people. I’ve personally also learned that my friends tend to be grateful and appreciative when I open up to them, especially because everyone knows how hard it can be. This show definitely teaches a very important lesson and I would absolutely recommend it.

Having said that, I actually feel like this is a good point to end my review. I know I usually include cast comments but for some reason it doesn’t feel necessary in this case. Apart from Emoto Tokio, who I’ve previously seen in Watashi, Teiji de Kaerimasu, all actors were new to me and I saw that a majority of them haven’t done much besides this project. Overall, I think everyone did a really great job. Sure, there were some typical cringy Japanese acting habits here and there, but all in all I think everyone had great chemistry and the acting was pretty natural. Despite the usual tendency to act overly dramatic and angsty, the actors all remained very sincere and credible in their delivery.
Because of its parallels with 3-nen A-gumi, this show made me realize that I really like stories like this, where a group of people is put in a situation that makes them open up and be honest about their feelings. Of course there will be drama and tensions and nasty confrontations, but in the end it will all contribute to a better and safer atmosphere. I guess it all comes down to the fact that I’m a sucker for open communication, and for men who aren’t afraid to show emotion amongst each other.

Although I’m going to start on my next show right after publishing this review, I’m going to be busy with my final college assignments in the next few weeks so I don’t know when I’ll be back with a new review. Just to inform you and keep you on your toes in case you’re keeping track of my review activities, lol.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to put my honest feelings in a letter.

Until next time!
xx

Disclaimer: this is a review, and as such it contains spoilers of the whole series. Please proceed to read at your own risk if you still plan on watching this show or if you haven’t finished it yet. You have been warned.

The Secret Life of My Secretary
(초면에 사랑합니다 / Chomyeon-e Saranghabmida / Love At First Sight)
MyDramaList rating: 6.5/10

Hello hello hello! It’s review time again! I’m so glad that my schedule is a bit less busy than the past few months and I was able to watch this (and some other shows) without too many breaks in-between. I was really excited when my Wheel of Fortune app landed on this show because it’s been on my list for ages and I was ready for a new cute office romance story. It had some actors that I was familiar with and I had only seen some minor clips of it before (mostly just the iconic Veronica Park introduction). Apart from that, I had no idea what the story was about and I like going into something without any idea of what to expect, so that was nice. Of course I’m going to be sharing my thoughts and opinions in more detail throughout this review, but all in all I can say that I found it enjoyable. Although it was a bit silly and unserious at times and lacked some depth here and there, there were cute and touching moments and I found it amusing to watch.

The Secret Life of My Secretary is an SBS K-Drama which you can either watch as 32 back-to-back episodes of 35 minutes or as 16 episodes of about an hour. I watched it in the latter format on KissAsian. The story is about Jung Gal Hee (played by Jin Ki Joo), who works as a secretary for Director Do Min Ik (played by Kim Young Kwang) at T&T Mobile, a mobile media company. Despite being the middle child, after losing both her parents Gal Hee was put in charge of taking care of her two siblings. In order to take care of her older brother Joong Hee (Seo Dong Won), who is blind, and send her younger sister Nam Hee (Kim Ji Min) to study abroad, Gal Hee has devoted all of her energy and focus in her job as a secretary. She’s worked herself to the bone under Do Min Ik for the past year, even sacrificing her own meals in order to get everything in order for her demanding boss. With her signature appearance and characteristic red cardigan, everyone has come to refer to her as the OG minion of the company. What’s kept her patient throughout her job is her family motto: “One moment of patience may ward off great disaster.” She strongly believes that as long as she remains patient and keeps her head down, she will ultimately be rewarded for it.
Her boss, Do Min Ik, is one of the head directors of the company. His mother Shim Hae Ra (Jung Ae Ri) is the Chairman and his uncle Shim Ha Yong (Kim Min Sang) is the CEO. However, Min Ik is not actually blood-related to his mother and uncle – he was born out of an affair on his father’s side. After his father passed away he was kept in the family but never completely accepted as a member of it. He, his mother and uncle are basically putting up a show of a happy harmonious family for the public (reminiscent of the male lead’s family situation in Radio Romance). After surviving the accident that killed his father (if I understand correctly) at the age of seven, Min Ik severely hurt his head and had a surgical clip installed. Ever since then he’s been very cautious about getting into any kind of situation where he could get hurt. Apart from that, having been raised in such a ‘pretense’ family environment and being betrayed by a very trusted secretary once, Min Ik has closed off his heart and trust to anyone he hasn’t known for an extended period of time. After the secretary betrayal he has also consistently taken on a new secretary every year, never extending any contracts. His most trusted person at present is his childhood friend Gi Dae Joo (played by Goo Ja Sung), who also works as a director at T&T. Min Ik’s main talent is that he is excellent at reading people and remembering faces and names after only meeting someone once.
Despite Gal Hee’s devoted service and strong belief in her family motto, she faces a harsh disappointment when she too is fired after her one-year contract ends. However, her anger towards her boss is short-lived when she witnesses him getting attacked by a masked person and taking a serious fall from a balcony.
Due to this fall, the clip in Min Ik’s head moves and results in a serious case of prosapognosia – the inability to see or read people’s faces. In fact, it’s so serious that he stops being able to see people’s faces altogether, they just turn into blank canvases, which causes him a lot of anxiety and stress. That is, until Gal Hee appears, because for some reason, she’s the only person whose face he can still see. It turns out that, because of her consistently familiar appearance, the image of her in her signature red cardigan was imprinted on him. With Gal Hee literally being the only ‘familiar face’ around, Min Ik begs her to stay on as his secretary for as long as he has trouble seeing people’s faces.

I typically mention comments on the series’ title at the end of reviews, but I just wanted to point out that I really like the original Korean title, ‘Love at First Sight’, as it directly refers to the cognitive error aspect of the series. The English title ‘The Secret Life of My Secretary’ refers more to the misunderstanding that occurs once Min Ik’s prosapognosia causes a mix-up between Gal Hee and his blind date, Veronica Park (played by Kim Jae Kyung). I still think ‘the secret life’ may not be an entirely appropriate reference, because it’s not like Gal Hee is actively impersonating Veronica Park as a secret second identity or anything. It’s more A Business Proposal than Her Private Life, if you get my drift. Gal Hee gets herself into trouble which results in her having to pretend to be someone else to her boss. So yeah, I actually like the Korean title a bit better as it is both a play on a common expression and refers to the sight-related issue in the story.

At some point, shortly after Min Ik stops being able to see faces, his mother sends him on a blind date. She and Park Seok Ja (Baek Hyun Joo), the CEO of Park Group which owns the several “CinePark” cinemas, decide that, because they have a son and daughter of the same age, their children should meet. Min Ik’s intended blind date will be Park Group’s eccentric heiress Veronica Park (NEVER to be named by her original name Park Ok Soon!), who is not only renowned for her critical eye regarding movies, but also for her notorious reputation with men. Her nickname is literally ‘Suction Pump’, as she ‘sucks in’ men and goes through them in a very quick succession.
Gal Hee actually worked as Veronica Park’s secretary before she came to T&T, and she is NOT keen on seeing her more often, so she really hopes her boss won’t date her. However, because of a mix-up with a different appointment at a different meet-up place, Veronica mistakenly ends up going to the wrong hotel and meets Min Ik’s friend Dae Joo instead, for whom she falls immediately. Anxious to fix the mistake, Gal Hee (who was just about to go clubbing with some other secretaries and therefore happened to be all dressed up) goes to the hotel Min Ik is waiting at to tell him about the mix-up. Instead, Min Ik mistakes her for Veronica Park because of her outfit – he doesn’t recognize Gal Hee without her cardigan and there wouldn’t be a reason for her to turn up at his blind date dressed like that. Meeting her boss like that, Gal Hee succumbs to the temptation of finally being on the receiving side – to have someone serve her and cater to her instead of the other way around. Just for one night, she thinks, I’ll allow myself to have a fancy dinner with my handsome boss. The idea is to repel Min Ik from wanting to see Veronica Park again, so she tries her best to come across as extravagantly and off-putting as possible, but the caring secretary in her still ends up being considerate enough to make him interested in her. As expected, it doesn’t stop at ‘just one night’. As Min Ik’s feelings for her version of Veronica Park increase while he simultaneously starts trusting her more and more as his secretary, Gal Hee ends up stuck in a web of lies and pretense. It only gets more messy when she starts developing romantic feelings for her boss herself.

All in all, the central trope of this drama is the classic ‘one time mix-up leads to lie that keeps growing bigger and bigger until it explodes’. It reminded me a lot of shows like I’m Not a Robot (where the male lead also had some sort of handicap and starts relying on the female lead) and A Business Proposal, (where it also all starts with a blind date that leads to a misunderstanding, and the repelling actually leads to increased interest on the male lead’s part). In this case, the problematic part is that Min Ik actually couldn’t see faces, so it felt extra wrong that this was taken advantage of.
Besides the main storyline of Min Ik and Gal Hee/fake Veronica Park, there’s also the love story between the real Veronica Park and Dae Joo. While Dae Joo initially only approaches Veronica Park for work reasons, Veronica Park’s infatuation with him ultimately results in affection from his side as well.
Apart from the romantic storylines, there’s a third supporting plot in which Dae Joo’s secretary and aunt Lee Eul Wang (played by Jang So Yeon) secretly started a fund to compensate drivers and secretaries within the company who suffered from bad treatment or actual injuries on account of their bosses, with money that was illegally obtained by the company through bribes and wasteful expenses.

Much according to Min Ik’s wavering trust in people, we as viewers are put on the wrong path and led to suspect the wrong people from the get-go. We see Dae Joo meeting up with Min Ik’s uncle in secret. We see Dae Joo inviting Min Ik to their special boat where Min Ik is then surprise-attacked. We see Dae Joo is spotted interacting with the masked guy on CCTV and we see him getting his alibi debunked. Everything points towards the suspicion that Dae Joo has something to do with the attack on Min Ik, and this is only emphasized when he suddenly raises his hand against Min Ik during a vote concerning Min Ik’s potential presidency. Min Ik’s prosapognosia is a very inconvenient factor in the police investigation, because even though he saw the guy’s face during the attack, he’s now not even able to recognize him if he were standing right in front of him. This, again, is taken advantage of. Shortly after the incident, Min Ik is appointed a new driver, Eun Jung Soo (Choi Tae Hwan), unaware that this is the same man who attacked him and caused him to fall. Seeing Dae Joo and Jung Soo’s short interactions at the company, it’s suggested that they know each other and/or are in cahoots with each other. It’s all very suspicious.
The only ‘villain’ character that remains consistently bad throughout the series is Min Ik’s uncle, Shim Hae Yong, because he takes every opportunity to use anything he can against Min Ik. Finding out his nephew has a severe cognitive illness is the best news he can get.
My point is that in this regard, we as viewers are very much led to sympathize with Min Ik as he now can’t even rely on his talent of reading people and determining who is on his side anymore. He can’t even recognize the people he grew up with, so this hits him very hard. Again, it reminded me a lot of the male lead’s situation in I’m Not a Robot because he actually developed an illness which was directly linked to his ability to trust people.

I’d like to go over the four main characters of the series in a bit more detail before I elaborate on some minor characters and my more critical opinions of the story.
First of all, Gal Hee. From the moment we are introduced to her, we can see that she is a very caring sister who is willing to sacrifice her own (mental) health to work herself to the bone to provide for her siblings. After her mother died when she was nineteen, she has bulldozered on working as a secretary for many demanding bosses, accepting her fate as a minion while believing that one day she would be rewarded for her persistence and patience. That in itself already shows a lot of determination. You almost wouldn’t expect it from the way she presents herself and how submissively she acts, but she actually does have a backbone. This is also shown initially when Min Ik asks her to come back as her secretary after firing her, because she doesn’t hesitate to voice her disagreement with the situation and she doesn’t shy away from standing up for herself on how hard she works. What I liked about her was that, contrarily to my expectations when she was first introduced, she wasn’t as much of a passive insecure heroine as I thought she would be. Usually, when characters are portrayed like her, this is immediately linked to an image of being ‘unattractive’. Despite the stark contrast between how Gal Hee looked and how she dressed up as Veronica Park, there wasn’t any recurring element of Gal Hee being put down for her looks per se, so that was nice. She also didn’t keep putting herself down compared to other women, she really stuck to herself and her own strengths and that was admirable. The simple fact that she got angry at Min Ik for firing her because she knew she was worth more than that was so great.
It was nice that it didn’t start out as a romantic story with one party already harboring feelings, because it would’ve been so frustrating to see Min Ik’s behavior at the beginning being condoned through rose-colored glasses. He actually treated her like a doormat, I couldn’t believe he actually made her apply his lip balm for him and called her away from her own meals to feed his office fish. Of course, once the whole fake Veronica Park thing was set in motion, things became messy and complicated because she just couldn’t bring herself to tell the truth and put an end to it. On this topic there’s actually something I need to reflect on, because I usually tend to get too frustrated with characters that start making up excuses so they won’t have to tell the truth. I remember how frustrated I was while watching Gisou Furin because the female lead was getting so stupid in ‘missing’ every opportunity to be honest. In the scene where Min Ik came to confront Gal Hee with the fact she’d been lying to him when she was just planning on telling him and all she could do was apologize, I was all, ‘well if that’s all you’re gonna say he’s never going to understand!!’ I remember being frustrated with Gal Hee for not standing up for herself more in that situation. But then, when she got back home and had another ‘talk’ with her mother, she came back to it and admitted that she hated how she couldn’t say anything else even though she prepared a whole speech, and that actually took away my frustration. Additionally, I’m also in a situation at the moment where I’m not 100% honest about my feelings for someone out of fear that it might ruin things, and I can admit that it’s definitely NOT always a matter of ‘if you wanted to, you would’ve done it already’. I actually started relating to keeping quiet about some things more than I did before. Still, when it involves actively tricking someone and lying to them about pretending to be someone else, it’s a bit different, but at least I stopped getting too annoyed with Gal Hee’s struggles in trying to muster up the courage to tell him.
I liked Gal Hee’s ‘talks’ with her mom, by the way, especially because it tied in with the fact that she was still relying on her mother’s presence so much when trying to take care of her siblings. I thought it was really sweet that she made up an image of her mom to go to for comfort when she was feeling down. In the end it made me feel like Gal Hee was making up sweet and encouraging words from her mother as a way to keep picking up the pieces by herself. When in the last episode her mother told her that she wouldn’t come back now that Gal Hee had another person to seek comfort with, that pretty much confirmed it for me.

I think it’s safe to say that Do Min Ik is the character that goes through the most significant development in this show. I really liked how gradual his development occurred, how it just went from an inconvenient situation to him actually realizing how important it was to keep his friends close while not closing himself off from everyone. He went through a very traumatic experience, not only physically from the fall but also mentally as he suddenly couldn’t see faces anymore and that made him feel so incredibly lonely. Imagine being alone in a crowd of people you don’t know and suddenly seeing one friendly familiar face, the only one you can make out well enough to ask for help – that’s the kind of person Gal Hee became to him. To be honest, I wondered about his true feelings for his secretary for a long time before he started thinking about it himself. There were just some things he did and said to her that really didn’t seem like things a boss would do/say to his secretary without any meaning behind it. Sometimes he’d look and smile at her and I would be like, bro, that’s definitely not how a boss should look at his secretary when he merely just ‘appreciates her work’.😏
You could say that the prosapognosia ultimately led him to develop feelings for Gal Hee. He had no one else he trusted enough to rely on besides her, and I honestly don’t feel like anything would’ve blossomed between them if they’d just parted ways after she was fired. In that regard, it wasn’t a typical ‘meant to be’ romance story, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing – it would’ve been even more typical if it had been revealed that their pasts were also linked in some way. But I still found it interesting to realize that if it weren’t for the prosapognosia, they would probably never have grown closer. Min Ik started developing feelings for Gal Hee next to his blooming feelings for (fake) Veronica Park, so I don’t feel like it only started after Gal Hee pretended to be his blind date.
I saw a lot of synopses of this show that described Min Ik as a ‘cold-hearted boss’, but I actually don’t agree with that. He seemed to be a very mischievous person from the start. Even when he called Gal Hee over and asked her to do all kinds of tedious stuff, there was always a twinkle in his eye that made me feel as if he just liked teasing her. He may have only started becoming aware of everything she did for him later on, but I don’t actually feel like he thought she wasn’t good at her job. He may have held onto her purely because of his prosapognosia, but remember that he also ended up coming to that company sports event that he never went to and even did a piggyback ride with her, purely because she (unknowingly) persuaded him to come. Even though he was going to fire her, he still did something she wanted, to show at least some appreciation for her. I just don’t agree with the use of ‘cold-hearted’ here because that’s not what he was. If you look at his relationships, with his mother and uncle and Dae Joo, you can see that he cares a lot and it actually hurts him to mistrust them. I personally think his upbringing didn’t make him a cold person, but rather someone who hid how much he actually wanted to trust and rely on someone. After being betrayed by a secretary once, I think he just became more cautious in getting attached and started setting boundaries by only employing secretaties for a single year. I think he just spent a very long time trying to protect himself (from both people and situations that might (physically) hurt him) whilst maintaining a cheerful and sharp-witted attitude. He never seemed cold-hearted or shallow to me from the start. Think about it: he literally couldn’t see faces. He fell for (fake) Veronica Park without even knowing what she looked like. His entire attraction to her was based on Gal Hee’s considerateness and kindness, not on her looks. Of course, he kept thinking about what she looked like and how pretty she must be, but he still fell for her without knowing. Falling so hard for someone purely based on their actions and personality is quite rare, because looks always play at least a little part, whether we want to accept that or not. On the other hand, he also fell for Gal Hee knowing what she looked like and didn’t even care that she was his secretary when he finally admitted his feelings for her. All in all, I just want to say that Min Ik wasn’t as bad of a guy as he was made out to be. He lost his most defining ability and fell into a pit of anxiety and loneliness, only to fall in love with what he thought were two different women whose faces he couldn’t even see. He went through a lot of emotional rollercoasters and ended up resenting a lot of people who (sometimes inadvertently) caused him all this, and still he could find it in himself to forgive Gal Hee and even support her when she joined the secretary hunger strike protest against his own presidency. He literally gave up his own chance of becoming the next president so he could get Gal Hee to eat something. You can say a lot about him, but not that he was ‘cold-hearted’.

You may have noticed that so far I’ve referred to Veronica Park by her full name and not just by calling her ‘Veronica’. There’s a simple reason for that: Veronica Park is not just a name. It’s a statement. As I mentioned in my introduction, I’d only ever seen clips of Veronica Park’s iconic self-introduction before I started watching this show. I had no idea who she was going to be – for all I knew she was the female lead. I know that she’s a very popular character and I’ve seen many comments saying that they finished the show because of her. I’d like to contribute to that.
Veronica Park is introduced as a very strong caricatural character, from the way she talks to the way she walks. Her use of exaggerated gestures and expressions immediately causes her to appear as a comical character. I have to admit that I was a bit sceptical in the beginning because I don’t really care for characters that are comical for the sake of being comical. If she’d continued to remain such a caricature, I probably would’ve gotten a bit tired of it eventually. However, she grew on me more than I expected, especially after finding out that Gal Hee had been impersonating her. I am so glad that they motivated her personality with the story of how she never thought anyone would go the extra mile for her. Everyone she met was always just interested in her money and heritage to her family’s company so she just gave up on finding something genuine and started having fun. The side of her that came out during the part where she confronted Gal Hee with the impersonation and tried to convince Dae Joo of her true feelings for him was my favorite. I really loved seeing that mature side of her come out there, it really made me respect her character a lot. She was probably the last character you’d expect a heavy background story from and although it wasn’t that heavy, it was still enough to make her character more appealing to me, so I’m grateful for that. Apart from that I also came to like the eccentric ways in which she tried to seduce Dae Joo. She somehow managed to be vulnerable by completely going for it and that actually made me want to try being more honest and direct about my own feelings as well. She won Dae Joo over by being her genuine messy and funky self, no shame and no regrets, and I think that’s something to be admired for. I also loved how unapologetically crazy she was together with her mother. I mean, you could see where she got it from, lol. I loved how her mother also introduced her to Min Ik’s mother as ‘I have a crazy daughter available’, lol. Like, even her mom didn’t try to hide that she was eccentric or try to make her behave differently, and I really liked their dynamic.

Because of the misleading events in the beginning of the story, I really wasn’t sure what to think about Dae Joo initially. For me it was mainly because he was already shown having secret dinners with Min Ik’s uncle before I got a good understanding of what kind of person he was. From then on, everything just seemed to point towards him as being suspicious and secretly villainous. Honestly, I kind of judged him for lashing out at Min Ik when he openly confronted him with his suspicions. It couldn’t be denied that the circumstances were suspicious and everything seemed to point to him. Also, it was clear that Min Ik didn’t want to believe it but just needed clarity about the situation. The way Dae Joo started guilt-tripping Min Ik for suspecting him didn’t seem very Dae Joo-like, although I understood how hurt he must have been by the suspicion itself.
Apart from that, Dae Joo was a perfectly pleasant character. Pleasant, leaning on bland, if I may honestly say so. I didn’t really feel much for him throughout the show, only that he was a good friend with a nice personality. I actually feel like he gained more personality throughout his relationship with Veronica Park, although I definitely cringed when he said, “Awesome~!!” in the same way as her in the final episode, lol. She definitely rubbed off on him. But yeah, even his background story was mostly explored through the eyes of his secretary, and he never talked about what losing his mother at a young age was like for him, so there weren’t that many aspects about his character or story that allowed me to get more (emotionally) attached to him. I would’ve liked to get a bit more in-depth information from him about how he was always the poorer friend to Min Ik, or how him having to work his way to the top from a poorer background shaped him as a person. I liked the scene where he gave Min Ik his boat as a kid because he felt bad for how his mother treated him and then later admitted that it was a lie that he gave that boat away willingly. Like, there were some aspects of their friendship that came out that I liked, but I still don’t feel like his character was explored as much as the other three main leads. Everyone else had at least one crying or emotional confession scene, but Dae Joo remained pretty much out of sight in that regard. Although I think that putting him next to Veronica Park made for a very interesting romantic dynamic, I do feel like his character could’ve been attributed more characteristic features or interesting elements, because now he just kind of went along with what happened to the other main characters.

I want to talk a little bit about Lee Eul Wang and her secret secretary organization. It’s revealed at some point that Eul Wang was the sister of Dae Joo’s mother, and that the two sisters used to work for Min Ik’s father. There’s a flashback of the two at Min Ik’s house when he was little, and they were also seen in a flashback running errands for Min Ik’s father at the company, which simultaneously reveals that he didn’t treat them very well. One day, Dae Joo’s mother got into a car accident while trying to save the fish that was meant to be a gift for Min Ik. After losing her sister, Eul Wang decided that she would try to do what she could to compensate drivers and secretaries suffering at the hands of their bosses. She started to intercept items that were bought with bribe money and replaced them with fakes, for example. She managed to get together a group of drivers and secretaries to help her out, ultimately forming the organization Euldoguk.
I remember being very intrigued by her relationship with Dae Joo in the beginning. It seemed like they grew up together although she was clearly older than him, but he still called her ‘noona’ rather than ‘imo’. I do believe that she was his aunt, his mother’s sister, but it’s also not that she took over the motherly care for him or anything. I found it quite mysterious. It was clear that she cared about him more than a secretary would normally are about her boss, and this was later confirmed when she told him she’d promised his mother she would keep protecting him. This also resulted in the fact that a large part of the money from the fish incident was given to his tuition to study abroad. Other than that, Dae Joo didn’t have anything to do with the organization – he didn’t even know it existed – and his previous encounters with Min Ik’s driver were also purely coincidental.
Eun Jung Soo, Min Ik’s attacker-become-driver, was also a victim that Euldoguk strived to protect. He used to be the driver of Min Ik’s uncle, but was mistreated so badly that he got into a traffic accident and ended up at the hospital with several fractures. Seriously, this made me so angry. Shim Ha Yong was literally kicking him in the shoulder from the back seat, screaming at him while they were on the freaking highway. He caused the accident by himself and then proceeded to sue Eun Jung Soo for intending to harm him. Eun Jung Soo didn’t get any compensation for getting hospitalized, and Eul Wang reached out to him. The attack on Min Ik was unintentional, as Eun Jung Soo was only trying to get back a USB stick with the information of Euldoguk that Eul Wang had entrusted to him. After that, Eun Jung Soo met Dae Joo, who just happened to know that Min Ik was in need of a new driver. Eun Jung Soo didn’t even know that the client he was getting introduced to was the same guy he attacked before. In any case, none of it was intentional or part of some plan to undermine Min Ik’s chance at becoming T&T’s new president.
While the last couple of episodes reveal what had truly happened and kind of redeem Eul Wang and Eun Jung Soo’s actions, I still think they could’ve made themselves way less suspicious from the start. While I thought it was nice to have some underlying mystery story to be solved besides the main love stories, I did feel like it could’ve been built up a little better. They made Eun Jung Soo seem like such a suspicious person despite his timidness, and the in-between random scenes of the secretaries running errands for Eul Wang, such as stealing that painting from Shim Ha Yong’s office, were kind of confusing. In hindsight I understand it better, but throughout the rest of the series I couldn’t really find myself to be that invested in what was happening in the background.

Before I move on to my main criticism of the show, I want to devote one last paragraph to the secretaries at Gal Hee’s office. Their bond really reminded me of Jugglers, which is also basically an homage to secretaries who have to bend over backwards for their demanding bosses. Goo Myung Jung (Son San), Ha Ri Ra (Kwon So Hyun) and Boo Se Yeong (Choi Yoon Ra) were three other secretaries that stuck with Gal Hee throughout the show. They were the people Gal Hee was closest to in the office, but they were also active members of Euldoguk without her. I found them a very funny trio and I enjoyed their scenes, especially Myung Jung, she cracked me up.
Speaking of these three, does anyone know what the heck happened to Mo Ha Ni? Ha Ni (Han Ji Seon) was Shim Ha Yong’s secretary and seemingly the secretary Gal Hee was closest to at the office. It seemed like she’d get a much bigger part to play when Shim Ha Yong asked her to keep an eye out for Min Ik and his secretary, and all the more when it was revealed she knew Eun Jung Soo, she even called him ‘oppa’. I was so intrigued by how she could be related to Eun Jung Soo (although now I suppose she just knew from Euldoguk) and if she would go against Gal Hee as Shim Ha Yong’s secretary (again, Jugglers flashback) but she just disappeared altogether! I think the last scene where she appeared was during the funeral where Min Ik momentarily regained his cognitive ability, when she called Eun Jung Soo to get out of there, but after that she never appeared again. That was kind of a bummer. I always find it a bit sloppy when series don’t deal well with the sudden disappearance of a character. Even if an actor is cut from the show halfway through, at least make up an excuse of what happened to them. Sometimes this doesn’t make it better (I remember this happening to a key character in The One and Only and the excuse they made for it was also very sloppy) but don’t just omit an entire character and stop mentioning them altogether after giving them some interesting information that could impact the plot. Maybe not everyone who watched it noticed this, but I did, and I want to know what happened to Ha Ni.😤 Anyways, I liked the secretaries, they were a fun bunch.

I found Min Ik’s mother, Shim Hae Ra (Jung Ae Ri) quite difficult to gauge. In the first flashback we see of her she didn’t seem fond of Min Ik at all, but in the present I couldn’t help but feel like she was hiding the fact she actually developed affection for him. She appeared cold throughout the story and she kept telling him to put up a good show, but in the meantime I felt like she didn’t actually resent him. She even agreed to make his favorite dish for him after he’d be elected president and that wasn’t something they would show off to the public. It was nice that she finally accepted him in the final episode though, when she introduced him as her son to the new housekeeper. I found it hard to determine at what point her feelings might have changed or if they had already changed, but I kept feeling like she at least cared more about him in a sincere way than his uncle did.
Speaking of that uncle, I just need to address him as the official antagonist of the story. What a childish jerk this guy was. He literally didn’t care about Min Ik at all, family or no, he grabbed whatever he could to use against him, including such a delicate issue as his illness. He didn’t even stop to think about how awful it was for his nephew to suffer from this, no, it just meant he wasn’t qualified, ha! Also the way he treated Eun Jung Soo and the other secretaries was just wrong. For a middle-aged man he acted like a spoiled little child. He’d literally point and laugh at someone and then skip away humming as if he just stole another kid’s marbles. Pathetic little man, that guy. I don’t have any good things to say about him, really.

As I also marked down the previous series I watched for being a bit unserious regarding certain topics I hope I don’t seem too uptight about how I review, but I find it important to voice my own perspectives and opinions. I saw that this show got a lot of high ratings on MDL because people loved its unseriousness, so it’s really just a matter of taste. As I mentioned earlier, I had an overall good time watching this, so it’s not that the unseriousness made me dislike it, per se. It’s just a very typical K-Drama with typical tropes and misunderstandings, which has both its charming and frustrating aspects.
I think I felt it the most with Gal Hee’s older brother. The thing is, I felt like the fact that he was blind didn’t actually contribute as much to the story as it could have. The moment Min Ik lost his ability to see faces, I immediately thought that helping him out would actually suit Gal Hee well because she had a brother who couldn’t see. Like, I thought that aspect might have become a significant link to how she would start helping her boss out, because she knew how to treat people who couldn’t see (well). However, I don’t think they actually created a direct link from that at all. I think Gal Hee only once mentioned that she had a blind brother but never really made a connection between him and her boss. I don’t know, it just felt like her brother’s blindness would’ve actually contributed some more to the depth of their relationship or something. Contrarily, the brother was made into quite the comical character. While I was appalled by the fact that Eun Jung Soo literally broke into their house and attacked a blind person for a laptop, the scene suddenly became comical because of Joong Hee’s actions and that changed the whole mood of the situation. It was a serious break-in, but then I suddenly couldn’t take it seriously anymore. I guess I found it a pity that the blind person became the clown. I don’t know if his representation of someone with blindness resonates with some people, but I wasn’t really able to take him very seriously. On the contrary – it started to annoy me a bit at some point. While he was a very loving brother to Gal Hee, and their hugs really warmed my heart, I did start feeling like he was doing it on purpose or something. I wasn’t really sure what to think of his character.
I also had mixed feelings about Nam Hee. She lies to her older siblings that she’s admitted into Pennsylvania University with a fake admission letter, only to hide away and do some auditions to try and become ‘a star’. Like, I understand that she wanted to find a way to contribute to the financial situation and it was sweet that she wanted to do it for Gal Hee because she saw how much her sister was carrying on her own (Backstreet Rookie vibes). Still, I found it a bit random how she ended up at Veronica Park’s place because she didn’t actually do anything there, she was always just sitting around in her office, bickering with her. Gal Hee eventually busts her at a theatre show and then she comes back home and that’s it. I get that they wanted to give Gal Hee’s siblings some storylines of their own, but this again didn’t really add anything to the story for me.
The part in the second-to-last episode where Joong Hee and Nam Hee intrude on Min Ik and Gal Hee’s date, was one of my least favorite ones, lol. I got so annoyed at them for knowingly tagging along and then just changing the trajectory, making it impossible for the two lovers to spend a single moment together. What was that about? Was it a test or something? I was really irritated by their interruptions there, and I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t just allow them to go on a date together. It’s not as if they hadn’t been seeing each other before that, so why the sudden urge to intrude now? Again, maybe I’m just too serious but I didn’t understand why they had to do that.

My general criticism of the show is that I felt like it was a bit sloppy in terms of consistency. I don’t just mean the fact that they omitted a character without explanation, but the plot just felt a bit wobbly to me all in all, as if they went with the flow without paying too much attention to detail. The humor was a bit slapsticky and random and it lacked depth. I don’t like comparing things to each other, but one thing I liked about A Business Proposal for example, was that they used the classical slapsticky jokes and tropes as a kind of reference to the old-school series but supported it with two very solid love stories built on genuine trust and emotional connection. I felt like this series leaned too much on the comicalness of the tropes but struck out on adding a certain layer of depth that I personally would have appreciated.

The main inconsistency for me came from the details of Min Ik’s prosapognosia. When it first happens, we experience it together with Min Ik: first people’s faces start changing and morphing into other people’s faces, and then they disappear altogether, leaving a blank canvas. Even though he sees Gal Hee’s face, he later says that he still can’t read her expressions very well. As in, he can’t see if she’s laughing or crying. But, so, what, does he just see one neutral expression on her face the entire time? One time they were on the beach and Gal Hee was making a really troubled expression because she felt so bad for misleading him, yet she told him that she was smiling very widely because he extended her contract. Like, it was clearly audible from her voice that she wasn’t smiling, but apparently he missed that too? Also, even after it was established that he could only see Gal Hee’s face when she was wearing her red cardigan, there was also one scene where she was wearing the cardigan and he told her he couldn’t see her face. So… I didn’t get a very clear image of what exactly he could and couldn’t see, and how his prosapognosia worked. His doctor started sharing ways with him to increase his blood pressure, as this seemed to help with a different patient, but in the end his ability only came back on three occasions.
His illness is never fully cured, as the final dialogue in the last episode reveals that Min Ik and Gal Hee basically continued to thrive on the short-lived moments where he regains his sight and they can make out whilst he can actually see her face. Doesn’t seem ideal, but hey, if it works for them, who am I to judge? In any case, my point is that, while the prosapognosia was the key instigating event in the series, they sure managed to keep its details and conditions vague until the very end.

To conclude my main analysis, I want to go into a little more detail about things I liked about the relationship between Min Ik and Gal Hee. There were several scenes that I found really sweet and even gave me some butterflies. All in all, I really liked to see Min Ik register the level of considerateness Gal Hee was giving him, even when she was pretending to be Veronica Park. The way she jumped up when she saw him eating peanuts, how she massaged his hands to stop his indigestion. Things that she learned during her work as his secretary now suddenly got a more romantic layer to them, and it was nice to see Min Ik suddenly take in those gestures differently. Receiving this treatment from fake Veronica Park ultimately made him realize that Gal Hee was the one who’d always treated him like that, which made him come to accept his feelings for her. Sure, it was a bit awkward to see him struggle with his feelings for both women, not realizing they were the same person, but I do think that the way he bounced back had a really good build-up to it. The time it took him to forgive Gal Hee was also well-paced, it wasn’t too short or not too long.
The scene that probably gave me the most goosebumps was the scene where he helped her wash her hands in the sink. I don’t know, it was oddly sensual. Also I have a thing for hands. Anyways, it was so weirdly sweet and typical that Gal Hee was the only one going, “uhm, sir?? 😳😳” while he was so focussed going, “no, we have to finish all the steps, Secretary Jung.”😂 I think that was even before he admitted his feelings for her, so it just added to the things he did and said to her that made me sceptical about whether he really didn’t realize his true feelings for her way earlier than that. I mean, he was so incredibly sweet to her. He hugged her and sent her appreciative texts… I mean, I don’t think that’s the norm for typical purely professional boss-secretary relationships.

I’d like to go over some cast comments now!
Since the last association I have with Kim Young Kwang is that of a psycho serial killer, it was kind of refreshing to see him in an innocent romantic comedy again! I’ve seen him in a bunch of shows such as Pinocchio, Go Ho’s Starry Night, Lookout, Room No. 9, and most recently Somebody, and his appearances throughout have ranked him on my list as an actor I always like to see in dramas. I feel like there are so many sides to his acting and it’s nice that he gets to explore a wide variety of roles in his repertoire. I think he had a very nice character presence in this show. It was nice to see Min Ik grow as a person in a very gradual and natural way. I honestly felt for the guy, because there were a lot of shitty aspects to his life and the way he grew up but he couldn’t exactly step away from those things either. In hindsight I really think that he knew his family wouldn’t fully accept him no matter what he did, and that he thought he ended up at least protecting himself by staying out of trouble and keeping people he spent a lot of time with at bay. He needed a caring person like Gal Hee to lower his walls a bit and admit that he needed some real comfort and TLC. I liked seeing Kim Young Kwang in this, it was nice to see a more comical side to his acting again after all the angsty stuff I’ve seen of him lately. I always like seeing him portray different emotions like sadness and fear, because he just naturally exudes confidence.

I’ve seen Jin Ki Joo before in Moon Lovers Scarlet Heart Ryeo and Come and Hug Me. The latter was the first main lead role she landed, and it was nice to see her as the female lead in a romantic comedy, as I hadn’t seen her in that genre before. Can I just say that she has such a cute doll face and the most adorable smile ever? Every time he faced changed into a smile I was like 🤗🤗. Anyways, it was nice seeing her portray the character of Gal Hee, as I had never seen her in something comical before. Come and Hug Me was a love story but with a super intense layer to it so I don’t remember her smiling a lot. It was nice to see a different side of her acting and she surprised me, to be honest. Her emotional scenes in particular were very good, but it was also funny to see her expressions go all over the place in the more comical scenes. Now that I’ve seen her in three completely different roles, I’m curious to see more of her. I’m still a bit new to her even though she has been a leading lady for some time now. I guess I just have to see more of her!

As iconic Veronica Park’s character was, I was actually surprised I didn’t know Kim Jae Kyung from anything else. I see on MDL that she was in Madam Antoine, but I don’t actually remember her from there, it’s too long ago. I think her performance was my favorite in this show. She did a great job at balancing Veronica Park’s eccentricity with the deeper layer that was beneath it and the switch to her more serious acting happened so naturally, it really surprised me. She’s the kind of comical character that I like because despite her caricatural tendencies, she delivered 100%. I’ve said this multiple times before in series, but for me humor only works when the actor isn’t trying to be funny and it’s just the character that takes themself super seriously. In Veronica Park’s case, she may have been a bit cray-cray but she never once apologized for it, she embraced it and the actress embraced it and that’s ultimately what made me love her so much. In fact, she even inspired me in a way, because it actually dawned on me that being unapologetically yourself, not caring what other people say of you, can also attract the right people. I would really like to see Kim Jae Kyung in some other show again, I really loved her performance.

For some reason I expected Goo Ja Sung to be an idol actor or something, but he’s not. He’s the same age as me, I found out! He hasn’t done that many acting jobs yet and I haven’t seen him in anything else. I hope he’ll get more opportunities to act in the future. As I said in my review, his character didn’t leave as strong of an impression on me as the other main leads did. However, I don’t want to blame the actor too much for that, because it mostly has to do with the fact that I feel like the show could’ve given Dae Joo much more to work with in terms of storyline and character development. He remained the same throughout the show and I would’ve really liked to get some more emotional depth from him. His acting was good and I liked the unlikely couple he made with Kim Jae Kyung. I just wanted to get a more insight into his background and perspective of the story.

Ever since I discovered Jang So Yeon in Touch Your Heart, I keep discovering she’s in so many other (older stuff) as well! She also appeared in While You Were Sleeping, Something in the Rain and Crash Landing on You and probably a lot of other shows that are still on my list. I really like her as an actress. She has such a sweet motherly face but I really like when she gets a role that has some edge to it. I liked seeing a bit of that edge in her character Lee Eul Wang, fighting for fair treatment of drivers and secretaries belonging to large companies. Despite the futility of it I really liked her spunk when she started calling Shim Ha Yong out for his mistreatment of his employees and how she was prepared to take all the blame for what she’d done and wouldn’t even judge the others for wanting to stay on with the company. On the other hand, I would’ve like to see her relationship with Dae Joo get established a bit more thoroughly. It kept me guessing as to how exactly they were related and I really liked their dynamic in the few scenes they had together, so I would’ve liked to see a bit more of that. I really like that Jang So Yeon keeps popping up in both new and old shows I watch, it always makes me go, ‘Hey, it’s the lady with the nice face!😀’ I hope I’ll get to see her in more series to come.

Note: I am aware that my cast comments have started to become shorter recently. I’ve started focussing more on the lead actors and only adding comments on specific supporting characters when I really want to give them a special shoutout. In this case I didn’t really feel the need to do that, as I’ve already mentioned the characters in my review. That’s not to say I think the cast was bad! Just thought I’d clarify that.

We’ve reached the end of this review and it took me an entire day, again. To sum up my thoughts about it in one concluding paragraph: I thought it was amusing. I had a fun time watching it, it was a very typical romantic comedy with some occasional emotional and touching moments that added a bit of depth to it. It reminded me a lot of several other shows, which I have also referred to in the review. It was kind of mixture of classic office romance dramas that I’d watched already, so it felt very familiar.
Still, it was a little bit too slapsticky and tropey for my taste and I missed that bit of depth. While I do like me some light and comical stuff without too much drama every once in a while, I would’ve liked to get some more depth and consistency within different aspects of the story. The love stories were all very lovey-dovey and sweet but lacked real passion, I didn’t feel as much chemistry between the respective couples as I would’ve liked, and I feel that that’s because of the light and comical tone of the show. Nothing became too serious or too heavy and that’s definitely not a bad thing, but I guess I was just in the mood for something more serious and passionate. It happens. Still, I don’t want to take away the fact that I found it very entertaining to watch and some scenes really put some things into perspective for me. I’m glad I finally got to watch it.

My hope is that I can’t finish another show before the end of May, but on the other hand this month is going to get a bit busier again with some deadlines (including me finishing my thesis) so we’ll see when I’ll be able to upload the next review! I’m super excited to spin my Wheel of Fortune app to see what’s up next, so I’m going to do that for starters.

Until next time! x

Disclaimer: this is a review, and as such it contains spoilers of the whole series. Please proceed to read at your own risk if you still plan on watching this show or if you haven’t finished it yet. You have been warned.

Café Minamdang
(미남당 / Minamdang)
MyDramaList rating: 6.5/10

Hey-ya-ho, I’m back again before the end of the month to share another review! I’m glad I was able to find time to finish this within a couple of weeks, which is rare these days! I’m going to become more busy the next couple of months until I graduate, so it might not be possible for me to finish as many shows per month as last year.
This is the fourth show my Spin the Wheel app picked out for me and I was able to watch it on Netflix, which allowed a much more enjoyable watching experience than my previous watch. Even though I finished it quite quickly, I still went back-and-forth between other shows in-between as well, so there are bound to be details that aren’t as clear in my memory as I would like. Still, I want to share my thoughts on this show. All in all I’d say it was amusing to watch. It had a nice cast of characters and actors, and I had a good time watching it overall. I look forward to sharing my more detailed opinions in this review!

Café Minamdang is an 18-episode Netflix K-Drama with episodes of about 1 hour and 3 minutes each. The title refers to the café ran by the main character, Nam Han Joon (played by Seo In Gook) and his team. His team consists of his partner and good friend Gong Soo Cheol (Kwak Shi Yang), his younger sister Nam Hye Joon (Kang Mi Na) and their rookie member Jo Na Dan (Baek Seo Hoo). Han Joon and Soo Cheol formerly worked at the police force, Han Joon as a criminal profiler and Soo Cheol as a detective. After both getting dismissed after a certain incident, they eventually decided to start running a new ‘undercover’ private detective agency together with Hye Joon and Na Dan. With Han Joon’s excellent profiling skills, Soo Cheol’s brutal strength, Hye Joon’s genius hacking skills as a former National Intelligence Service employee and Na Dan’s agility and skill to get away with the slightest interference, they’ve started a fake shaman fortune-telling business to cover their ongoing case-solving. Using Café Minamdang as their cover, Han Joon has become famous for his reliable predictions as a shaman, while he’s actually financially extorting his clients. He pretends to be enlightened by the spirits to see the truth about his clients’ situations and while he tells them to stick to certain life styles or rules to ward off spirits of misfortune, he and his team go about solving their clients’ situations for them behind their backs, which results in huge amounts of reward money when their clients come back to tell him that he was right and their troubles did disappear/get solved. All of this to build Han Joon’s reputation as an excellent, reliable and highly skilled shaman. The accuracy of his (self-fulfilled) prophecies has even led to his nickname, “The Miracle of Yeonhae-dong”, which is where the café is located. However, we eventually learn about Han Joon’s true purpose of continuing this detective work even after being dismissed from the force. Six years prior to the start of the story, his best friend Han Jae Jeong (played by Song Jae Rim), who was a prosecutor, was killed by a serial killer Han Joon has come to nickname as “Gopuri”. In Korean shamanism, there is a ritual in which a white cloth is tied into several knots, and the untying of these knots is called gopuri. The signature trademark of this serial killer is that such a gopuri cloth is left at each crime scene, hence the nickname “Gopuri”. This also likely contributed to Han Joon’s decision to use shamanism in his detective façade, as he may have thought it would help him get closer to the killer in one way or another.
On the other hand, we have Han Jae Jeong’s younger sister, Han Jae Hee (played by Oh Yeon Seo), who is a police officer. After her brother was killed and she and her parents moved abroad for a while, she changed her name from Jang Mi to Jae Hee, and is still determined to find out the truth about what happened to her brother. She knows Han Joon as well, as she used to get taekwondo lessons from him when she was a teenager. She had a crush on him at the time, but never got to confess her feelings. Now, so many years later, she’s stunned to meet Han Joon again when the cases they work on keep colliding. Jae Hee’s team, Major Crimes Investigation Division Seven, further consists of Officer Jang Doo Jin (Jung Man Shik), Kim Sang Hyeop (Heo Jae Ho) and rookie Na Gwang Tae (Jung Ha Joon). Another person she becomes close with is Prosecutor Cha Do Won (played by Kwon Soo Hyun), who starts helping out the police team with cases and even develops a crush on Jae Hee. The two get closer throughout the investigation and Jae Hee comes to trust him a lot, even though she never reciprocates his feelings.
The story starts out as a tug-of-war between Han Joon’s Minamdang team and Jae Hee’s police force team as they keep crossing paths while solving the same cases and continuously clashing as they go about it in significantly different ways. Eventually, when Han Joon and Jae Hee finally reveal their respective connections to Han Jae Jeong, they start working together on catching Gopuri. Their relationship also develops from a rivalling one to a romantic one.
The investigation of Gopuri ultimately reveals a lot of shady businesses orchestrated by a group of very influential people and leads the police and Minamdang teams to go after several different suspects, which include Cha Do Won’s older brother Cha Seung Won (Lee Jae Woon), a guy called Goo Tae Soo (Won Hyun Joon) and a mysterious shaman lady called Auntie Im (Jung Da Eun).

Before expressing my main criticisms about the show, I’d like to go over the main characters one by one and discuss them individually in a bit more detail.
First of all, Nam Han Joon. He’s the typical ‘acts silly but has a serious backstory’ type of person. When he’s pretending to be a shaman and running his business, he basically has dollar signs in his eyes at all times. He doesn’t really seem to sincerely sympathize with his clients or other people when it doesn’t bring in money. However, we do get to sympathize with him when we see what he went through when Jae Jeong was killed. Seriously, the scene where he found him in his house and wasn’t able to save him, the way he broke down on the floor crying GUTTED me. These types of scenes in-between the sillyness are initially what got me really interested in the story because I like it when it’s not just comedy. I like it when there’s something serious behind the comedy which drives these characters. I also found it interesting that, despite the constant emphasis on what a genius Han Joon was (be it as a shaman or a profiler) he still remained a human being who made mistakes and didn’t immediately pick up on every single thing. It took him a long time to realize who Gopuri was, after the viewers already got that information. The fact that he also went into something with Soo Cheol and didn’t anticipate beforehand what could go wrong was pretty ironic for someone posing off as a shaman who gives others advice about what to look out for. But in a way, I liked that because it proved that he was just another human being trying his best. He wasn’t a professional detective and certainly no Sherlock Holmes, so of course he still made mistakes. It would’ve been neat if he just picked up on everything automatically and figured out everything from the start, but that wouldn’t have been as thrilling as seeing him fail and having to face his own flaws in the process.
I liked how he became more and more sincere throughout the story as well. He started out as a purely money-obsessed fraud, but through being reunited with Jae Hee and realizing how much his team meant to him, he did have some solid character development. It was nice seeing that, despite his casual behavior, his friends and family meant the world to him, and he carried the guilt of not being able to protect Jae Jeong with him every single day. Honestly, I thought his consistent loyalty to Jae Jeong was very endearing, even when it came to getting his blessing to get romantically involved with Jae Hee. He actually held himself back for his best friend and that also proved how much he meant to him. I thought the way in which they gradually showed his sincerity bit by bit throughout the story was very effective, because in that way it really felt like slowly getting to know him better rather than adding in an abrupt change in his character. It even made me sympathize with his decision to create the purpose of Minamdang. Even though he just seemed to be plain greedy at first, everything he did after Jae Jeong’s murder was in some way connected to catching Gopuri. The fact that it all had a purpose in the end also helped me sympathize with him more, because he was actually working towards something and not just extorting money out of people purely for personal gain.

When we meet Jae Hee for the first time, she’s just been appointed as the new leader of Division Seven of the Major Crime Investigation department. Her nickname at the force is ‘Ghost Han’ because when she gets serious about catching a culprit, she’ll move as swiftly and quickly as a ghost, and this has earned her a reputation as well, even though it’s mostly a scary one. Still, once she and her team mates get to know each other better, they get along just fine. I personally really liked her teamwork with Officer Jang and the mutual respect that grew between them.
I thought the revelation of what she was really like matched Han Joon’s case as well. We first get to know her as this reputed and esteemed police officer, but she too makes a lot of mistakes and judgement errors, and we see that she too is just a regular and flawed human being. She starts caving to Han Joon’s charm again from the moment she’s reunited with him, and basically starts acting like a love-struck girl trying to push away her feelings towards her crush. This side of her stood in stark contrast with the intimidating impression she made during her first introduction. Still, I liked how she too went through a major character development, even though it also included a lot of betrayal and pain while working on her brother’s case and finding out who Gopuri was all this time. I really appreciated that she got a breakdown scene after finding out about Gopuri’s true identity because this must have been so hard for her to accept. To find out her brother was killed by someone she’d trusted and worked so closely with, someone who even confessed his feelings for her. I’m glad they paid attention to that betrayal and made a deal out of it rather than brush it off with a simple “that bastard!✊🏻” and be done with it. It made me sympathize with Jae Hee a lot to see how her trust in people suffered such a blow in that moment.
Admittedly, there were times when I felt like she wasn’t actually as good a police officer as she was made out to be in the beginning, but I also don’t think it’s fair to expect her to pick up on things all the time. It was basically the same as with Han Joon, they had the qualifications to work at the force but that didn’t mean that they were intuitive about every single thing.
One thing I do want to mention that I found kind of ridiculous was the flashback from around the time that Jae Jeong was killed. Jae Hee was still a rookie officer at that point and she and another officer were chasing this lady who’d been stealing strawberries from a greenhouse or something (?). They stumbled upon this suspicious truck that literally had blood trickling out of the back door. As the place in itself was already super remote, making it a perfect hiding spot, I honestly couldn’t believe that they actually went, “Ehh, I certainly hope that’s not blood!” “Yeah, I hope not!” and LEFT without even checking it out. Like, seriously, what was that? The fact that they didn’t even inspect the truck – because it definitely was blood – and just walked away?! Like, at least call back-up or someone else if you don’t want to inspect it by yourselves but don’t just shrug it off and leave it for what it is! 😂 That was the only time I actually doubted Jae Hee as a police officer, lol. Sure, there were other moments where I thought she could’ve thought things through a bit more, but you can’t expect someone to be flawless, even in the police force, so I won’t judge her too much for it. We’re all human beings, after all.

To say something about the relationship between Han Joon and Jae Hee, I thought it was cute. I liked the scenes from before they officially got together, when it was the two of them just holding back the urge to kiss each other, lol. The tension between them built up pretty fast and it created a nice push-and-pull vibe.
One thing that did confuse me was the age difference between them. I don’t actually know how far apart in age they were, but in the flashback of Jae Hee (Jang Mi at the time) getting taekwondo lessons from Han Joon, Jae Hee is actually a teenager. As in, she’s portrayed by a teenage actress (Kim Min Seo) while Han Joon is consistently portrayed by Seo In Gook. In that flashback, it seemed like there was a significant age gap between them, as he looked like an adult while she was clearly still a kid. Moving ahead to the period in which Jae Jeong was murdered, six years prior to the present story, Jae Hee is an adult by now and played by Oh Yeon Seo. So how long ago was the taekwondo lesson flasback scene? And why didn’t they use a younger version actor for Han Joon when clearly about ten years had passed?🤔 Jae Hee must have only been slightly older than his own sister Hye Joon. To look at that flashback scene and picture them as a couple would be kind of inappropriate age-wise, so I’m actually curious about how much they differed in age. This puzzles me all the more since I found out Seo In Gook and Oh Yeon Seo are the same age in real life. Other than that, as with all the romantic relationships in this show, they ended up being very lovey-dovey, talking to each other in baby voices and stuff. Again, since this stood in such stark contrast with how they were introduced as well-reputed impressive people, I found this kind of funny.
What I also found funny was that, despite them both having such close connections to Jae Jeong, they apparently had no idea they were both connected to him. Like, they all knew each other individually but it seemed like Jae Hee/Jang Mi didn’t know her taekwondo teacher was her brother’s best friend and Han Joon didn’t know Jae Hee was Jae Jeong’s little sister. As in, he knew that Jae Jeong had a little sister, but he didn’t know she was the girl he taught taekwondo. I found that a bit odd.

If we’re going to talk about Cha Do Won, I’m proud to say that I didn’t trust this bastard from the start. At first, I thought this purely had to do with my association regarding the actor, as he also played a sociopath killer in Abyss, and I tried to set aside my bias towards him. But then there were all sorts of situations where he just conveniently disappeared and only ended up supporting Jae Hee from the sidewalk. The scene that sealed the deal for me was when they were still after the person they initially suspected for Jae Jeong’s murder even though Han Joon was convinced it wasn’t him. This suspect was in a hospital bed and Jae Hee and Do Won were watching him. What happened was kind of wild, because they pretty much allowed a suspicious-looking doctor inject something lethal into the guy’s IV-drip and just let him walk away while the suspect immediately showed a strong physical reaction to whatever he’d been injected with. When Jae Hee went after the doctor guy, she left Do Won behind in the room with a single instruction to “Take out the IV-drip and make sure he’s safe!” After the whole ordeal, Do Won had just disappeared completely and, big surprise, he hadn’t taken out the IV-drip. He literally emerged from the shadows as soon as Jae Hee was alone again, being all “aw shucks, we didn’t catch him”. That’s when it started going 🚩🚩🚩 for me. Every time he ‘cooperatively’ went after a bad guy and ‘accidentally’ let him escape, I just went “yeah, right”😒. So yeah, it wasn’t a surprise to me that he turned out to be Gopuri, but there’s still something about the revelation of it that didn’t sit fully right with me. The show used this specific way to introduce new characters by pasting a name tag on them (in an almost comic book kind of way), and this also happened with Do Won, they just pasted ‘GOPURI’ on him and I was like, “oh okay, they’re not even going to beat around the bush about his identity?”😅 At that time I was only 100% certain that he was involved, but not that he himself was Gopuri, so for me it kind of killed the suspense having it revealed like that. Personally, I would’ve liked to first get to the bottom of his involvement with Goo Tae Soo and Auntie Im before just being served the de-mystified truth on a platter. Because now the story became more of a ‘how long until Han Joon and Jae Hee figure it out’ game and it definitely took away part of the thrill in my opinion.
I’m also still a bit confused about Cha Do Won’s timeline. We find out that he’s been a psychopath ever since he was a kid, and after he actually ended up murdering someone his parents hired a specialist in hypnosis therapy to brainwash him and make him forget he did it. Worse, they made him believe that it was actually his older brother Seung Won who did it, because he already had quite violent tendencies at the time. Like, if you’re going to brainwash a murder from a kid’s memory, at least make him believe the victim died tragically in some other way, why was there a need to put it on his brother’s tab? The therapist continued monitoring and hypnotizing young Do Won with a clicker device – the clicking sound triggered him to hold back his urge to kill or physically harm.
When the police and Minamdang teams start looking for dirt on Cha Seung Won as a part of their investigation of the group of influential men involved in an illegal prostitution deal, Han Joon and Jae Hee come across the incident in which Seung Won allegedly killed a kid when he was a teenager. When they visit the building in which this took place together with Do Won, this is where Do Won starts getting weird flashbacks for the first time. It’s almost as if his memory is triggered and he suddenly remembers two versions of the same accident. However, it doesn’t seem like he fully realizes that he did it himself yet – unlike me, who immediately went, “it was him himself, huh”🙄. The way they made that look was that he didn’t actually remember being that psychopath kid and killing someone way back when.
On the other hand, it’s revealed that he basically went around killing people his entire life. While he personally went after people that evaded the law (like a self-appointed vigilante, very fitting for a prosecutor), he made his accomplice Goo Tae Soo kill other people like Jae Jeong, who came too close to the truth and therefore needed to be silenced. So it’s not like brainwashing him into forgetting one specific incident as a kid stopped him from becoming a serial killer. It just made me feel like in the end, the whole brainwashing thing didn’t really amount to anything, even though it was also suggested that he became a serial killer exactly because he found out he’d been brainwashed. As in, he might have turned out okay if they didn’t alter his memory as a kid – well I don’t think so. All in all, it just wasn’t clear to me if he was aware of the fact that he’d been brainwashed as a child. I found it a bit confusing how long he’d been conscious of anything and if maybe he’d remembered everything from the start.

To explain a bit more about his brother, Goo Tae Soo and Auntie Im – here’s what I gathered.
His brother Seung Won was involved in a land development project that involved all a group of influential old men who signed up for an illegal prostitution deal. He was a lawyer and therefore quite influential. While he didn’t get involved in the prostitution deal himself, he did help cover up a bunch of things which made him an accomplice. Having been a bully since childhood, he was also inclined to get violent when things didn’t go his way.
Goo Tae Soo used to be a victim of domestic violence when he was young, and he ended up killing his alcoholic father and setting his own house on fire. While he was very fond of his mother, he walked away from home and was unfortunately picked up by a young Cha Do Won and Auntie Im, who was already by his side then. Do Won immediately appointed him as his ‘magpie’, like a pet, and that’s what he’s been treating him as ever since. Goo Tae Soo was basically manipulated into believing that Do Won and his accomplices were on his side, and he obediently killed anyone that posed a threat to Do Won. What ultimately cost him was his attachment to one of the idol trainees that was selected for the prostitution deal. He got attached to her since she reminded him of his mother, so killing her did actually affect him. The teams figure this out by the shoes the victim was wearing when she was found, as they were identical to the ones his mother wore on an old picture, and they realized they looked alike, they had a similar smile or something like that. I actually pitied Goo Tae Soo a bit because he was definitely done dirty as a human being and he just ended up trusting the wrong people. I did feel for him when they reunited him with his mother at the end and let her come visit him in prison. The way he broke down behind the glass made me empathize with him a little. Not that I condone anything he’s done, absolutely not, but I did feel like he was forced to join the dark side when he was in a very fragile state after the whole ordeal with his dad.
When it comes to Auntie Im, there’s still a lot I don’t understand. Apparently she was once an actual shaman-in-training but got caught doing something illegal and was kicked out, and this made her vicious enough to set her former training temple on fire. I’m still not completely sure how she ended up at Do Won’s side and also how she looked exactly the same in the flashbacks of twenty years prior. Like, in the scene where child Do Won meets teen Goo Tae Soo for the first time, she’s portrayed by the exact same person as in present time when Do Won and Tae Soo are both adults. If she was that much older than Tae Soo in that flashback, she should’ve been a granny in the present time. There’s no explanation about that and any further mystery surrounding her character was debunked when Do Won killed her just to frame Han Joon for it. Anyways, Auntie Im was the person who prepared the gopuri cloths for each execution and we learn that she helped influential people get rid of opponents through voodoo-like rituals, so she was definitely a skilled shaman herself, even though she mainly used her ‘powers’ to help the wrong people. She found out she chose to side with the wrong people too late and died at Do Won’s own hands.

I have to admit that in the part about the land development plan where all those influential people were introduced I found it very hard to keep up with who was who and what was happening. There was a lot of name dropping and I was barely able to figure out what the whole deal with Auntie Im and Cha Seung Won, let alone all the other people that were involved. I hope I at least got it right in essence in the above paragraph. At some point there were just too many involved parties being thrown into the mix and I found it hard to keep track.

To go back to the Minamdang team, we need to talk about Soo Cheol. I think that out of all the characters, Soo Cheol was probably intended as the biggest comic relief character. From the way he talked to the way he walked, there wasn’t much to take seriously. I think he was made to be a caricature of the brute force with the smallest brain, even though his heart was undeniably in the right place. I did wonder what he was like as a police detective before he got dismissed though, because I just can’t picture him in a position of bearing responsibility for the nation. Still, when it came to being loyal, he took the crown. I enjoyed Han Joon and Soo Cheol’s constant bickering and the way they’d always slapped each other’s ass, lol. I found it interesting that they both saw each other as brothers but also always rejoiced when one could get away with something the other couldn’t. There was this playfulness to their friendship, and I feel like even though they did push each other under the bus occasionally, those cases didn’t hold much weight because they both knew each other’s loyalty. They were always there for each other in the moments it truly mattered, and that was the most important thing. Honestly, Soo Cheol covered Han Joon on so many occasions. He pretended to be the café’s shaman so that Han Joon’s very Christian mother wouldn’t get a heart attack. He allowed himself to get kidnapped and beaten unconscious without a second of hesitation. That’s an incredible level of loyalty and I appreciated him for that.

I wanted to know SO BADLY what happened to Hye Joon’s career at the NIS. I don’t even know if she quit or got fired, and how she was even able to still access so many systems from her own room without attracting the attention of the feds. I would’ve liked some more backstory on Hye Joon, to be honest. There were so many interesting things about her that weren’t really explained. For example, how did she get from the NIS to becoming this unhygienic hermit that hacked clients from her room for money? Also, I found her active dating life very contrastive to her image as this floppy girl who didn’t even care to wash her hair once a week and cussed like a sailor. There were constant jokes about how badly she smelled and how dirty she was, but she still managed to present herself as an attractive young woman to the outside world. I would’ve really liked to understand her a bit better as a person. I did like that they established some similarities between her and her brother, for example the mole under their right eye but also how they could lash out and hide their affection for each other behind strong language but always ended up hugging each other while gross-sobbing it out after getting out of a dangerous situation.

I thought the romance that bloomed between Soo Cheol and Hye Joon was really sweet. Sure, it became very lovey-dovey, but I really liked the scene where Hye Joon just kept kissing him until he finally broke and allowed himself to kiss her back. I don’t know, something about the way he resisted to allow himself to finally be lucky in love was really endearing. I also found it quite respectful of him not to immediately throw himself on Hye Joon but instead let her convince him that she was serious about him as well. They were really sweet together.

Jo Na Dan joined the Minamdang team when Han Joon and Soo Cheol helped him and his friend out of a loan shark situation one time and after that he was so impressed with these two hyungs that he wanted to join ‘their club’ at once. As his main task is serving at the café, Na Dan is only asked to carry out small tasks like planting a tracking device somewhere or checking a certain place for evidence when no one else is around. I liked that they didn’t involve him in the most serious cases like Gopuri, because he was still a minor (I think?) and his safety meant a lot to them as well. Na Dan was a very uncomplicated and cheerful boy and I wonder to what extent he was actually aware of the fraud they were committing. In any case, he was mostly at the café to set the mood and entertain the guests, and he was really good at that.
He was such a pure child, I remember when Do Won threw him off the stairs at one point and I went, “NO NOT MY BABY BOY😭”. He was too innocent and pure to get involved in a serial killer case and I kept being afraid something would happen to him. If it were up to me though, I would’ve probably tried to shield him way more from a lot of things than the other Minamdang members did, because they still asked him to do illegal stuff.

For a Major Crime Investigation Division, you could say that a lot of comic relief also came from this place. Especially when it came to Sang Hyeop and Gwang Tae, and I have to say that this actually started to get on my nerves a bit at some point. Officer Jang was the only one who actively joined Jae Hee as a solid partner and came close several times to capturing Goo Tae Soo on his own, actually risking his life. I respected him because he was the only one who didn’t keep screwing things up. Of course he also contributed to the comic relief, but it was more subtle than with the other two guys.
Honestly, at some point I just wondered why Sang Hyeop and Gwang Tae were even included on missions at all, because they always managed to screw things up for the stupidest reasons. I think they were responsible for most of the slapstick action besides Soo Cheol, to the point where it just started to piss me off, lol. I mean come on, how the heck did Gwang Tae manage to down an entire bottle of relaxants on the most important day, when they were literally going to corner Do Won? And how did Sang Hyeop let himself get scared out of his mind by a couple of plastic skeleton dolls, like some kid in a haunted house? How did they follow someone they hadn’t even identified as the actual culprit yet onto a ship without thinking about the fact that it was being boarded for departure and they’d get stuck at sea if they stayed on it for too long? Like, slapstick is slapstick and comedy is comedy, but it still has to keep making sense for police officers to act this way.

Speaking of unthoughtfulness, how did both teams look at Do Won blatantly revealing himself on three different CCTVs and not realize he was trying to lure them there by splitting them up so that he could get to them one by one? That just didn’t make sense to me. He was literally looking into the cameras, basically waving “come and get me” and none of them thought of a better plan to figure out what his actual location was so they could confront him as a group? Of course the additional goal was to save the three people he was still targeting, but it still didn’t make sense to me why they split up the way they did, especially in the case of allowing Hye Joon and Na Dan go out together when the chance that Do Won would appear was so big. There should’ve been at least one (former) police person present in each team. I’m just glad they didn’t get killed.

Apart from these main characters, I want to give one shoutout to some funny side characters that became regulars, and with that I mean Lee Min Gyeong (played by Hwang Woo Seul Hye) and Do Won’s cousin Park Jin Sang (Baek Seung Ik). Min Gyeong was a VIP client of Han Joon who firmly believed in his shaman powers and even tried to pursue him in terms of marriage. Park Jin Sang was in charge of the Joyce entertainment company that ‘provided’ the young women for the prostitution deal. He was Goo Tae Soo’s boss but he didn’t know anything about the deals that were being made with the female trainees at his company. Min Gyeong and Jin Sang were brought together after both being saved by Han Joon’s shaman powers, and they kept appearing together in several scenes, always ready to aide Han Joon. At the end of the show, it’s revealed that they became a couple and even got pregnant, so that was kind of sweet, especially because Min Gyeong was initially so bent on pursuing Han Joon. I just found them a cute side character couple and wanted to mention them.

Now that I’ve presented my character analysis, I’d like to explain my relatively low rating for this show. I’ve seen a lot of really positive reviews and ratings of Café Minamdang and I just want to make clear that I’m not trying to hate on it, not in the least. In fact, I had a really good time watching it, it was amusing while it also had serious parts and great acting, and my general watching experience was good. I’m also very aware that the main point of this show is to not take it too seriously, trust me, I get that. Still, there were some inconsistencies and imbalances between the different genres that threw me off a little bit.
Besides the confusions that I already mentioned in my character analysis, genre-wise I found the constant going back-and-forth between the comedy and the crime a bit weird sometimes. The serial killer case had ties to a lot of very heavy themes like fraud and extortion, but also to sexual abuse and even selling young women overseas for prostitution. While dealing with stuff like that, I sometimes found it a bit distasteful to try and make it ‘funny’ by focussing on the main characters’ dramatic reactions to it.
I remember the police force found out the truth about Kang Eun Hye (the young woman Goo Tae Soo got attached to), who became a victim of the prostitution deal and was eventually found dead in the sewers. This was a very serious case, but then they went and made it ‘funny’ by making Officer Jang burst out in overly dramatic tears about what had happened to her. Like, it just didn’t seem right to make a joke of his reaction like that when he was actually crying about a legitimately horrible thing that had happened to someone. Another example I remember was when the two teams (after they started working together) managed to obtain video footage of how these young women were being raped by the elderly men they were being sent to, and the severity of the footage was again debunked by how everyone just started cussing these men out. Like, of course these men deserved to be cussed out, but the way in which they cussed them out again bordered on exaggerated and comical, so it just didn’t feel genuine. There’s a difference between expressing your disgust about a situation and just going, “those fucking bastards! #$@^%#^#@!! 😤😤” A third example I can think of is when Han Joon came into Hye Joon’s monitoring room and found a lifesize doll version of her strapped up to the ceiling, making it look like she’d been hanged. Like, people actually came into their house to do that to warn them to stay away, threatening Hye Joon’s life like that. While Han Joon and Na Dan initially got a big shock seeing that, after the initial shock it just ended with an overly dramatic reunion when Hye Joon turned out to be okay and after that no one thought back on it even once. Every time they decided to split up or just go after Gopuri in their regular clothes without backup I was like, “uhm, has everyone just forgotten about the hanged Hye Joon doll? Wouldn’t that make you think twice about splitting up and just going after a serial killer empty-handed??” Especially when they split up and left Hye Joon and Na Dan in one team together, that just didn’t make sense to me. They wouldn’t have been able to deal with Do Won on their own. In hindsight it made me feel like they added the hanged doll for shock value and nothing else, because it definitely didn’t raise any more caution among them.
These things actually reminded me of when I watched The One and Only, where they also forced in comedy while the story dealt with a lot of heavy themes. I personally feel like it’s important to remain respectful when you’re dealing with topics like that and make sure you don’t ‘accidentally’ make a joke out of something serious. This might just be me being too serious, but I can’t deny that this didn’t bother me in the slightest.
I mean, even the ending had me going, “ehm okay sure?” when they found a lead to another serial killer case. They actually discovered a severed arm (!) and went skipping out all smiling happily like, “yay, we’re going to solve another serial killing case together, this’ll be fun!😃” So yeah, I had some trouble finding a balance between the different genres. Initially I was really into the Gopuri case and the deeper layer it brought to the story. I guess I just prefer it when people are a bit more serious in detective genres, at least when it comes to the investigation. That’s just my opinion🤷🏻‍♀️. Still, as I said, I had a good time watching the show and it both made me laugh and gave me (good) goosebumps at specific moments, so I’m not going to criticize the use of comedy in the show entirely. I just thought they could’ve created a slightly better balance between the genres and put more sincerity in the characters’ reactions to finding out about all the nasty stuff that was happening.

If I had to describe what this show felt to me genre-wise I would have to say that in terms of serial killer case and investigation it reminded me of Abyss while in terms of comedy and sillyness it reminded me of Wok of Love. I cannot even begin to imagine what combining these two shows into one drama would be like 😂. The overall pace of the show was quite fast, and especially when there were a lot of new names introduced at once I sometimes found it a bit hard to keep track of everything that was happening. Also because of the chaotic vibe of the show, with the Minamdang team members all being so eccentric and everyone being relatively loud and energetic, it was definitely a wild party. I was grateful for the occasional more quiet and serious scenes that brought balance to that energy. It definitely kept me on my toes while watching, and in that sense I can’t deny that it kept me interested until the end.
What I also found remarkable about this show was that it was quite vulgar, as in, there was a lot of un-bleeped swearing and people giving each other the finger, lol. I feel like these things are usually a taboo and therefore censored within K-Dramas, but it was kind of refreshing to embrace the chaotic nature of this show even in terms of language use and openly expressed gestures of dislike.😆

I noticed that the alternative title of this series was “Café Minamdang: Case Note”, and this was also how I put it in my app, but the original Korean title is just “Minamdang”, so I don’t know where the “Case Note” came from. It initally made me think there were multiple seasons or something, but it doesn’t look like there’s another season coming any time soon. The way the show ended, leaving way for the investigation of another serial killer case would potentially allow a second season. Let’s see what happens!
By the way, this was also one of those dramas where I never skipped the opening theme. It was so catchy and made me dance along to it every single time. So, kudos to The Dance of Minamdang by Gonia and Yoo Taepyungyang. I really enjoyed the song, it fit both the shaman theme and the chaotic spirit of the series very well. I’m always happy to credit nice music, especially when it makes me dance.🤗

It was nice to see both familiar and new faces in this show. I don’t usually watch K-Drama with comedy as the main genre, so it was funny seeing these actors go out of their way to show funny sides that I hadn’t necessarily seen before.

I really loved seeing Seo In Gook again. I’ve seen him in several things before, such as The Master’s Sun, King of High School, Shopping King Louie and Abyss. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him in a main lead role instead of a guest appearance or cameo. There’s still some more shows of him on my list, so I’m curious when I’ll get to watch those. I’ve been familiar with Seo In Gook’s comical talent since King of High School, which was the first thing I saw of him that made me immediately fell in love with his face, lol. This drama showcased his comical talent on a whole new level that I hadn’t seen before, though, so that was also nice in a way. I really enjoyed seeing him balance the sillyness with the seriousness and just embrace the chaos at some points. I liked seeing him in this show and I hope I’ll get to see even more sides of his acting in further dramas.

Not me realizing Oh Yeon Seo was the little sister in Baby-faced Beauty! I knew I recognized her from somewhere, but I hadn’t made this connection, lol. I see there are more dramas with her on my watchlist as well, so I’m curious to see those. It’s funny when you know an actor’s face but realize you haven’t actually seen them in (m)any dramas before. I thought she was a very interesting casting choice for Jae Hee because she turned out to be much less tough than I anticipated. I never really know what to expect from female police officer characters in dramas, I just don’t know what they’re supposed to be like. I felt like Jae Hee’s reputation of being Ghost Han sometimes fuelled her and sometimes eluded her, like it wasn’t always consistently present whenever she was investigating a case. There was this time where she had to let herself get kidnapped and then two of her police team members were supposed to free her. Of course Sang Hyeop managed to screw it up by himself, but then Jae Hee suddenly went into Ghost Han mode and just freed herself, like, why did they even make a whole plan based on that she would need to be rescued by two male officers? Little inconsistences like that kept happening which made me question whether channelling The Ghost was something she could do willingly or if it just happened at random times when an emergency arose. Anyways, I did like her acting performance and I liked that the show allowed her to showcase different sides of her acting.

I knew Kwak Shi Yang from Oh My Ghostess where he was the quiet cute cook. He also starred in Chicago Typewriter, Fight For My Way and Clean With Passion For Now. I’m probably going to see him in some other dramas that are still on my list as well. This was the first time I’ve seen him portray such an overly comical character, to the point where it became an actual caricature. Although I wasn’t really sure what to make of him in the beginning, Soo Cheol definitely grew on me as the teddy bear that he was, and I really loved seeing his more sensitive side as well once he and Hye Joon got together. I just can’t unsee the image of this big man squealing as Hye Joon rubbed him behind the ears, lol. He might have been one Hulk of a guy, but he was actually as soft as a mochi. I liked how he managed to maintain the chaos of his character and actually made him so unapologetically awkward that you couldn’t help but love him for it.

I had no idea Kang Mi Na was in this, so that was a nice surprise! I’ve seen her before in 20th Century Boy and Girl, Gyeryong Fairytale and Hotel Del Luna and I hope I get to see her in way more in the future. I’ve known Mi Na since Produce 101, where she and Kim Se Jeong were my two favorites, so I’m always happy to see either of them in a drama. I thought she pulled off the glasses and the red curly hair really well, it actually took me a few moments to realize it was her, lol. Up until now I’ve mainly see her play quirky or sassy high school students, so this was the first time I’ve seen her play an adult – despite her immature tendencies from time to time – and it was also funny to see her as such an outspoken character who didn’t mince her words and also swore a lot. Despite the significant age difference between her and Kwak Shi Yang (13 years – she was 22 when this aired and he 35), their portrayed affection for each other never looked awkward to me. I was actually pretty surprised by how many kisses they shared and how natural they looked together. I liked seeing her in this, I feel like I got to see a whole new side of her acting and I’m super excited to see more of her in the future!

I hadn’t seen Baek Seo Hoo in anything before, but I guess that’s also because he only made his debut as an actor in 2020, after initially being an idol trainee and failing to debut. I found him to be an absolute cinnamon roll in this show, and it’s nice that he got to showcase his talents as Jo Na Dan. He was just such a cute puppy and I wanted to take care of him, lol. I’m so glad nothing bad happened to his character. I hope he’ll get even more chances to act in the future!

As I said, I was immediately cautious when I saw Kwon Soo Hyun in this, and although I hoped I could give him the benefit of the doubt in this show – that playing a sociopathic killer in one series didn’t immediately mean he’d be cast as one in every show I’d see of him – I still had the correct gut feeling about him. Because of his very impacting role in Abyss, I really have to see him in a good character role for a change, because otherwise I fear that I’m going to keep associating him with serial killers forever, lol. Apparently he also appeared in High Society, but I don’t remember from there. I did like seeing him as a nicer guy in the beginning of the show. It was nice to see more affectionate expressions and even smiles on his face before his true identity was revealed. I hope I get to see him as a good character in a show some time, because I’m positive that he’s done more than just evil characters. It would be a waste of talent if he hasn’t been cast as any other type of character, really! But he did a good job in this show, and I can’t deny that he’s really good at flipping the switch between nice guy and psychopath, lol.

Jung Man Shik also looked very familiar to me, even though according to MDL I’ve only seen him before in Me Too, Flower! and I Hear Your Voice, which I don’t remember much of in terms of side characters. But I liked that they included his character here as more than just a comic relief character. It was nice seeing different sides to his acting, even if some were a bit over-dramatic. I have to admit that he did a really good job in the subtle humor department. Apart from that time with the over-dramatic sobbing, he never went too far with acting out the funny parts, unlike the other police officers. He created the image of a very reliable police officer who didn’t shy back from getting into scrapes. Seriously, he was threatened with knives more than anyone in this show, including the time Goo Tae Soo literally held one to his throat. He tried to hold on to him after getting hit by a car and being covered in blood, that’s how determined he was to catch this guy. I really appreciated him as a character, he was just such a good person.

I think I’m going to keep it at this for my cast comments, since these were the people I wanted to comment on the most. There were a lot of supporting characters and guest appearances, but as I mentioned before I had a hard time keeping track of the majority of the people that got involved in the investigation, so this will have to suffice. All in all, I really liked the cast, everyone did a good job. Even when they were written to be overly comical, it was clear that everyone took their characters very seriously and really committed to getting their personalities across, and that definitely bore fruit.
What I liked the most about the main characters in general was that, despite their eccentricity, they were all really just people trying to find their own way and find a community of people to work with. I really loved how, even though Hye Joon was his only real relative, Han Joon always referred to his whole team as his family, to Soo Cheol as his brother and to Hye Joon and Na Dan as ‘the kids’. The feeling of finding and creating a family that doesn’t have to be blood-related was very strong in my opinion, and it was nice to see that through all of the messed up incidents and betrayals, Han Joon and Jae Hee were able to stand firm together. There were a lot of nice moments and I definitely won’t say I disliked it. A lot of series that I rated similarly were ones that I still appreciate for a lot of different things, so it really doesn’t mean I disliked it. I appreciate a good serial killer detective case storyline, and I appreciate good humor when it’s appropriately used, and this series lost me a little bit in trying to find a balance, that’s all.

I’m very curious to my next watch, I’ll be spinning my Wheel of Fortune as soon as I publish this and we’ll see how long it takes for me to post the next review. Thank you if you’ve read through this whole thing and found it entertaining in any way, and I promise I’ll be back soon.

Until next time, bye-bee! x

Disclaimer: this is a review, and as such it contains spoilers of the whole series. Please proceed to read at your own risk if you still plan on watching this show or if you haven’t finished it yet. You have been warned.

Love Under the Moon
( 山月不知心底事 / Shan Yue Bu Shi Xin Di Shi / The Moon Doesn’t Understand My Heart)
MyDramaList rating: 6.0/10

Hey-hey-hoo! It’s been a while! It feels so weird not to write a review at least once a month. Anyways, I’m back with one now! As you can tell from the date of my last review, it took me nearly two full months to finish this drama. It was very lengthy and very slow-paced, and I took a lot of time in-between episodes. Still, I wanted to give it a proper review as I do with everything I watch. This is the third drama series my Wheel of Fortune app picked out for me, and I honestly can’t even remember putting it on my list but it must have been there for a reason! I like that so far the app has picked out three completely different shows from three different countries – it’s getting bonus points for variation for sure! Apart from that I just want to stress that since it took me such a long time to finish this show, not every single detail may be as clear in my memory as I’d like. Having said that, let’s go!

Love Under the Moon is a Chinese Youku drama series with 48 episodes of each 45 minutes (excluding the opening and ending sequences). It follows the development of a couple that grew up in the countryside together, Ye Qian Ze (played by Ou Hao) and Xiang Yuan (played by Victoria Song/Qian Song). Xiang Yuan and her younger sister Xiang Yao (played by Lin Tian Yuan) lost their parents at a young age. Qian Ze and his younger brother Ye Yun (played by Xia Ning Jun) grew up under the care of their single mother, as their father had left them behind to go study and live a new life in the big city after the Cultural Revolution. Qian Ze’s mother (Yang Tong Shu) basically raised all four kids under her own roof, and so they grew up as one big family.
The connection between Qian Ze and Xiang Yuan has been undeniable ever since childhood. Even though they’re not going around telling everyone they’re a couple, there’s just this understanding between them that they’re going to end up together no matter what. As soon as they finish high school, they start referring to each other as their boy/girlfriend matter-of-factly, and no one bats an eye.
One day, Qian Ze’s father, Ye Bing Lin (played by Ding Yong Dai) suddenly turns up with the intention to take Qian Ze back to Guangzhou with him because he’ll have better chances of education there. Qian Ze, who initially doesn’t want anything to do with his father, still ends up moving away with him after being strongly persuaded by his mother and Xiang Yuan. Xiang Yuan is determined to pass her exams with stellar grades so she can come to Guangzhou and study in the same city as Qian Ze. They’ll be together, no matter what. However, tragedy strikes when Qian Ze’s mother passes away while he’s gone, and he ends up having to move in with his father and his new step-family permanently. He initially can’t really get used to his new life in the city, away from Xiang Yuan and his hometown. He’s awkward with his dad and stepmother Jiang Yu Shan (played by Wen Zheng Rong). He only starts to open up because of his step-cousin Dong Ling (played by Sun Yi/Sun Lan Xiu Mei). Dong Ling, also referred to as Ling Ling, was adopted by her aunt (Qian Ze’s stepmother) after her parents passed away (due to an accident I believe). In other words, Dong Ling is Qian Ze’s adopted step-cousin (🤔) but basically she becomes like a little sister to him. Dong Ling is very eager to meet her new ‘older brother/cousin’ and helps him get settled. As she gets to know him better, she eventually starts falling for him, and gets increasingly jealous of his relationship with Xiang Yuan.
Through the years, Xiang Yuan, Ye Yun and Xiang Yao all start moving to Guangzhou to start a new life there, and a lot of things happen to all of them that make them mature, face hardships and create new bonds and connections with people, both professionally and romantically.

The funny thing is that while I was watching this, I was also reading a book on Chinese tea culture that actually referred to a couple of the same places as this drama did. It also started out with an introduction on the Cultural Revolution and it also partially took place in Guangzhou. I believe even the name of the province the main characters grew up in was mentioned, although I don’t remember the name now (something with an ‘A’). Anyways, it did feel like the stars aligned in that respect, as I was suddenly watching and reading two different stories that took place in the same area. The book is ‘The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane’ by Lisa See, in case anyone’s interested.

Honestly, I liked the concept of this series. I’m usually keen on slow-paced stories that focus on the development of the characters and see how they mature as they graduate, become adults and start shaping their own futures. Some examples of series like this are Love til the End of Summer, A Love So Beautiful and With You and for instance First Love: Hatsukoi and Twenty-Five Twenty-One. I love when series have a nostalgic feeling to them and this one had that as well – it starts in the late 1990s, without mobile phones and advanced technology or transport. When Qian Ze moves away to Guangzhou, he and Xiang Yuan initially don’t have a direct way to contact each other. I believe he calls her at school via a payphone once, and that takes a whole lot of time and effort, with an operator and all that. I also really loved the fact that Xiang Yuan had to pass her hand-written letter to a truck driver so that he could bring it to Guangzhou, and how emotional Qian Ze got when he finally received it. It just perfectly captured the pure nostalgia of not knowing when to expect a letter from a loved one and then being completely elated when it finally arrives. Those aspects made it really nostalgic and warm, also because the relationship between the two just persevered so naturally. They would always find a way, no matter how much time it would take, to get in touch with one another.

While I understand that the main message was about showing how strong the love between Qian Ze and Xiang Yuan was and that it could overcome any obstacle, the lack of a storyline beyond that definitely made the show feel very long and dragging. I think it had to do with the pacing as well. Some elements felt a bit random or added-on with the purpose of filling time while the story could’ve been wrapped up much more concisely in my opinion.

Let me just go over the main characters and analyze them a bit more thoroughly.
To start with Xiang Yuan. By the way, I’m aware that she has a two syllable name and ‘Xiang’ is her last name so I might as well call her ‘Yuan’. However, she’s only ever called by her full name ‘Xiang Yuan’ throughout the entire series, even by Qian Ze, so I’m just going to keep it that way. As I’ve mentioned in other reviews as well, it feels weird referring to a certain character by a name that wasn’t used to refer to them in the series. In any case, Xiang Yuan is a very smart and rational girl/woman. She initially studies finances, and throughout college it becomes clear that she has a real knack for business. At some point she starts selling items in her dorm, for example, to earn some side money. She also excels at any internship or job she manages to land. As an adult, she definitely became more serious and she also started challenging Qian Ze more by not choosing his side on every single matter. Still, it was nice that her love for Qian Ze never wavered and their disagreements never reached a point where they would actually consider breaking up.
There were a few times when I didn’t agree with her, even though I understood where she was coming from. The first time was when she persuaded Qian Ze to go to London under the promise that she’d go with him, while she wasn’t actually planning to. It was an agreement she had with his dad to get him to study abroad because Qian Ze wouldn’t listen to his father. The way she went about that was just not right. I mean come on, she literally went all the way up to the gate with him and only fessed up when he noticed she didn’t have any luggage with her. I think it was right of her to be the one to make amends and start emailing him afterwards to show that she was sorry, but I definitely didn’t blame Qian Ze for being angry with her about that. That was just plain betrayal. Also, the time when she walked out of their home-viewing appointment because work was more important to her. Like, I know she was busy and dealing with important things, but it was just a very inconsiderate move. Again, she kind of redeemed herself but it did take her some time to realize the mistake she’d made and how anxious she’d made Qian Ze feel by showing so little interest in their marriage and future together. So yeah, while I generally liked her as a person for her morale and rationale, and I totally understood that she didn’t want to depend too much on the Ye family’s financial support, I did feel like she could’ve been a bit more considerate and thoughtful about Qian Ze’s feelings at times.
I liked the scenes where they would discuss issues together, because they eventually became partners in business as well as in life. I liked how they ended up communicating about things, even though there would be some tension between them and it wouldn’t always end in a hug. I think their relationship, in that respect, was very realistic because it showed that it wasn’t only about the intimate and romantic moments, It was also about actually living together and facing issues together, be it on the work floor or in a more private setting.
I did judge Xiang Yuan a little bit for getting so randomly strict with her younger sister Xiang Yao. I could understand that Xiang Yao was feeling pressured. She didn’t feel as ‘accomplished’ as her older sister, she couldn’t find a proper job to stick to, and then there was also the awkward situation with Ye Yun where she just felt like she didn’t live in the same world as him anymore. And then, when she finally landed a stable job (thanks to Qian Ze) and finally felt happy because she started seeing someone, Xiang Yuan even started criticizing her dating life.

To be completely honest, I felt a bit uncomfortable myself regarding the pairing of Xiang Yao and Teng Jun (Zhao Zhi Gang), but it mostly had to do with the fact that he literally looked like he could’ve been her uncle. I just don’t understand why they couldn’t have casted someone her age. After looking it up I discovered that there’s actually a 15-year age difference between them! When this show aired he was 39 while she was 24! So yeah, that doesn’t really sit right with me.
But it seemed like, in the show, Xiang Yuan’s dissatisfaction with him didn’t even have to do with his age, per se. Other than that he was really sweet and treated Xiang Yao really well, so I didn’t really understand what Xiang Yuan’s beef with him was. Maybe she was just overprotective, which I’d understand, but it just came out of nowhere, especially considering she wasn’t really that involved in her younger sister’s life.

It may have become clear from the previous paragraph, but I was mainly Team Qian Ze during this show. Honestly, what a guy. He definitely took a longer time to mature compared to Xiang Yuan, but I couldn’t really criticize him because I was too softened by his love for Xiang Yuan 😇. Seriously, get yourself a man like Ye Qian Ze. I do think it was good for his character development that Xiang Yuan wasn’t always just agreeing with everything he said and did. Their dynamic would’ve been a lot less interesting to watch if they were just lovey-dovey all the time. The fact that they fought and spent time apart only to realize they really needed each other definitely worked in their favor.
What I liked about Qian Ze was that he was really just living his own life without paying too much attention to other people and their opinions of him. I always really admire this in people, mainly because I’m someone who always, even though I hate it, pays attention to what other people think and say. Qian Ze was a really simple guy and only paid attention to what he was interested in. In the beginning this stood in contrast with Xiang Yuan’s ambitions, as he didn’t really want to take over his dad’s company as long as he could just be happy with his girl. But going through so many experiences and studying abroad and meeting all sorts of people and taking on the responsibility of his father’s company really made him mature.
The only thing I criticized him on was that he could’ve acknowledged the Dong Ling situation way earlier. He was too bent on proving Xiang Yuan wrong and thereby let it escalate a bit. I mean, fair enough, Dong Ling still persevered even after he’d clearly rejected her a couple of times, but it could’ve saved us so many painful situations caused by Dong Ling’s delulu state. I did like how, when he eventually acknowledged the truth, he did everything he could to stay away from her and reject her approaches. Not because he particularly cared about it himself, but because he knew it made Xiang Yuan uncomfortable. He was fine with letting it slide because it didn’t mean anything to him. He’d made clear that he wasn’t interested in her like that, so it didn’t matter to him whether he kept something she’d given him as a present, for example. But what matters is that he was willing to go the extra mile and tell Dong Ling to back off because he wanted Xiang Yuan to feel at ease about the situation, and that was also a big green flag about him.

Dong Ling was definitely the cause of a lot of my frustration while watching this show.
First of all, because it was annoying how persistent she was in trying to woo Qian Ze and kept believing that she could actually break him and Xiang Yuan apart despite facing rejection after rejection. I honestly couldn’t even watch it without feeling secondhand embarrassment at some point. I also just didn’t understand why she kept doing this to herself. She knew Qian Ze loved Xiang Yuan and that he wanted to spend every free moment he had with his girlfriend. Still, whenever she heard someone say they were together, her face would drop and I’d be like, ‘for the umpteenth time, what did you expect?! 🙄’ I can’t believe she kept expecting to hear something different. It got even worse when she went after him to London. It was just so painful to watch that she kept expecting Qian Ze to be happy to see her, while he literally went, ‘what the fuck are you doing here?’ when she suddenly appeared on his doorstep. I really applauded the fact that Qian Ze immediately started looking for a room mate for her because he was not going to live in one house with her, that was really sharp of him. But then she would just chase every single potential room mate away, of course. The final drop was definitely that cup (no pun intended). Seriously, that was next-level obsessive stuff. She literally made Qian Ze a cup with the engraving, ‘you are in my blood, you are the sin of my life‘. 😬 Yikes forever. I’m just glad that was about the last of it before she finally realized she was the one who needed to wake up from her delusion.
Secondly, when she finally got over Qian Ze and finally moved on to live her own life, she just ended up with the worst ending ever. I just couldn’t feel satisfied with how her storyline ended. Honestly, the only thing I wanted was for her to find her own happiness after coming to terms with her own inability to let go of a fruitless pursuit. She was a talented young lady and I honestly believe that she grew and matured a lot, in her own way. It was a very good call to move abroad for a while to get herself together, too. But then what, she ends up offering herself into a transactional marriage just to get the company out of trouble? Was that really the only way to go? Was she really just destined to be miserable? It just didn’t feel fair. No matter how much she annoyed me while she was pursuing Qian Ze, I honestly didn’t wish this kind of ending for her. She deserved better than that.

I have to admit I did end up changing my mind about Qian Ze’s father and stepmother. In the beginning I was worried that they would only care about the company and the family’s reputation. At one point it even seemed like they intended to break Qian Ze and Xiang Yuan apart because they saw how much influence Xiang Yuan had over Qian Ze – in the sense that he always listened to her, not that she ever tried to manipulate him or something. But I liked that they turned out to be good people, and they naturally came to acknowledge their relationship as more than just a youthful infatuation. It was nice to see how Bing Lin came to see Xiang Yuan’s work skills and allowed her to become part of his company not just to do her a favor or hold something over her, but because he actually started trusting her. Heck, he entrusted his entire company to Qian Ze and Xiang Yuan together because he trusted that they would be able to run it. He became much more of a family man throughout the series and I liked that.
I also came to like Jiang Yu Shan more. While I first thought she would get a bit of a nasty streak and maybe start feeding Dong Ling’s delusion by helping her out to break Qian Ze and Xiang Yuan apart, in the end I was kind of touched by her character. Despite her initial stoicness, her true colors really came out after Dong Ling left for Europe and she started missing her so much. I think it was also good of her to slowly start dissuading Dong Ling to stop going after Qian Ze because she saw how much it was damaging her niece. She had such warm motherly feelings for her. Seeing her reaction when Dong Ling phoned her to say she was offering herself up for that marriage only proved that. It was nice seeing her transform into a warmer person.
The only thing I still don’t really understand is why she had to go through that car accident while her husband was recovering from his heart surgery. I assume it was because they needed a reason to call Dong Ling back, but I still found it quite drastic, especially because they dragged it out for so long that she wouldn’t wake up. The only touching moment that came out of it was that we got to see Ye Bing Lin’s genuine sentiment towards her, which he would probably never have expressed in a regular situation.

One other key character that I need to discuss is the main ‘villain’ of the story, Ye Bing Wen (played by Li Chong Xiao). He is Bing Lin’s younger brother and Qian Ze’s uncle. He works as a sales director at Jiang Yuan, the company that belongs to the Ye family and that his older brother is the CEO of. From the very first time we are introduced to him, it is foreshadowed that Qian Ze will ultimately have a fateful but inevitable confrontation with him. Bing Wen himself is recently divorced and is now seeing a younger woman who used to be his assistant, called Liu Yang, also called Xiao Liu (played by Lu Zi). As soon as Bing Lin introduces Qian Ze to the company and starts suggesting that he might take over from him, Bing Wen starts getting nervous. After all, he’s a direct Ye family member who’s worked at the company for so many years – where’s this boy suddenly coming from? Even if they’re directly related, Qian Ze was raised by his mother and only recently brought to Guangzhou. Moreover, he doesn’t even express any interest in running the company. Gradually, as Bing Lin’s health worsens and he keeps depending on Qian Ze and Xiang Yuan more than his younger brother to take command of Jiang Yuan, Bing Wen starts getting more and more annoyed and even starts pulling strings to cause the company trouble so Qian Ze and Xiang Yuan are put in jeopardy. He orchestrates a fight in the factory and a potential hostage situation. He even goes as far as to use a small factory’s steel beams for a big bridge project which leads to actual casualties, as the construction breaks due to the poor quality of the beams. As this project was secured by Xiang Yuan, sabotaging it was just an attempt to make her look bad and cause the company to lose credibility because of her. He even gets his girlfriend Xiao Liu, who has started to work for a different company in the meantime, to aid him in his actions.

Besides these characters, there are also a couple of recurring supporting characters that made up the social circles of the main characters and make several appearances throughout the story. I just want to go over a couple of people that I liked and want to mention.
First of all, Ah Can (played by Bob Li/Bo Li). I don’t exactly remember his relationship with Qian Ze and Xiang Yuan, but he was also someone they grew up with in the countryside. I believe he was like an older brother figure in their neighborhood. He stayed behind after Xiang Yuan left for Guangzhou, and then later suddenly turns up as an assistant to a big business partner Xiang Yuan has to persuade. I believe it was about a bidding which she needed to secure for Jiang Yuan. In any case, she meets Ah Can there and he helps her out a couple of timese. I initially feared that he might get romantically interested in Xiang Yuan, but he never approached her in that way, luckily.
Then there’s Mao Zhi Jie, nicknamed ‘Panzi’ or ‘Fatty’. If there’s anyone I want to give a shoutout here, it’s Zhi Jie. I’m going to refer to him by his actual name because it didn’t sit right with me that they kept calling him ‘Fatty’, even way into adulthood when he became an accomplished businessman. Mao Zhi Jie was probably one, if not the purest character in this story. He was so sweet and naive, and I really hated Dong Ling for taking advantage of him. Dong Ling basically offered to date Zhi Jie because he was Qian Ze’s dorm mate and college friend, and the only reason she kept in touch with him was to ask him about what Qian Ze was doing. I know she ultimately realized that she wasn’t being fair to him, but I’m still mad because she never genuinely apologized to him or confessed that that’s what she used him for and that she never actually liked him. It was so sad to see Zhi Jie get mad at Qian Ze when he started questioning Dong Ling’s intentions with him. It was just so obvious that she wasn’t sincere with him, but he chose not to see it because he liked her so much. He deserved so much better. I was really happy when he came back and turned into such a well-established businessman, and that he even got married to another one of Xiang Yuan’s former college dorm mates. At least he found someone who came to like him for who he was, and didn’t get stuck on him being a bit chubby. Honestly, the fact that, when they were reunited, Dong Ling still referred to him as ‘Fatty’ made me pretty mad. Like, at least look him in the eye and acknowledge how well he turned out. At least feel sorry for doing him so dirty.
The only college dorm mate Xiang Yuan keeps in touch with is Zhang Yue (played by Wan Tong). Zhang Yue is initially the kind of student who never comes back to the dorm, skips all her classes and is more outgoing than bent on studying hard. She and Xiang Yuan first collide when she brings a drunk person with her to the dorm to let them sleep there. After that, when Xiang Yuan starts running a little business within the dorm, she starts helping her by providing her own clothing and accessories as merchandise.
After graduation, Zhang Yue even provides Xiang Yuan with her first job. She’s managed to get her hands on a fiancé who works as a director and Xiang Yuan becomes his assistant. This fiancé, Shen Ju An (played by Danson Tang/Tang Yu Zhe) initially seems like a good enough person and boss, but at some point Xiang Yuan starts getting suspicious of him because he seems to be tied to another woman (I’ll talk about that later).
In any case, I really liked the friendship between Xiang Yuan and Zhang Yue, all the more because you’d never expect these two to remain so close after seeing how they were in college. I also found it an interesting choice of Xiang Yuan to keep quiet about her suspicions towards Shen Ju An. On the one hand I understand that she probably did it because it was something between the two of them and she didn’t have conclusive evidence that anything was going on. But when Zhang Yue started confiding in her that she feared her fiancé might be hiding something from her, I thought it was interesting that she didn’t say anything. I believe she even dissuaded her from having suspicions. But then when it ultimately came out that Xiang Yuan had had her doubts, Zhang Yue also didn’t really get mad at her for keeping quiet. I don’t know how to explain it, I just liked how their friendship worked despite the fact they didn’t even discuss every little thing with each other.

All in all, I generally liked all or at least the majority of the characters. There weren’t too many that it became too chaotic, and it was also nice that not everyone made a comeback because that in itself emphasized how sometimes people just come into your life and leave again without coming back.
For example, Xiang Yuan’s former college classmate Xiao Hua, who chose to let herself be sexually harrassed only to get a permanent position after interning at this finance company.
Then there was that other intern – I believe her name was Su Li? – who did come back after being pretty nasty to Xiang Yuan. She was actually prepared to use the fact that the manager was stalking and sexually harrassing Xiang Yuan against her in case they would choose to keep her when their internship would end. That really made me go, excuse me what? What happened to “girls got to have each other’s backs”?? Anyways, she eventually came back as an ally. I guess it was a good personality trait of Xiang Yuan’s to hold no grudges, but I personally wouldn’t have felt the need to see her again.
There were also a couple of instances were people made a comeback or were re-introduced that I didn’t even recognize anymore. Maybe too much time had passed since their first appearance and I just didn’t remember them, or they were people that hadn’t actually made an appearance before but just happened to be someone the main characters had known from the past. It could get a bit confusing, to be honest. For example that guy that Dong Ling apparently pushed down the stairs when they were kids, the guy she ultimately ended up marrying. When he was introduced, it was in a way that made me think ‘Oh, am I supposed to remember this guy?’ only for it to be revealed that this was his first appearance. To add in a new character to establish a past/childhood link so late in the show was a bit much. I wasn’t really waiting for any new people or storylines to get introduced at that point.

To get back to the ‘Shen Ju An being tied to another woman’ thing, this was probably the one storyline that I could’ve done without. I honestly have no idea what made the writers think it was relevant to show that Shen Ju An had some lingering attachment to his ex. His ex who apparently still thought they were together until he suddenly proposed to Zhang Yue. And instead of cutting ties, he kept claiming he felt sorry or responsible for securing a happy life for her? Seriously, what was that about? He kept going behind Zhang Yue’s back and made up business trips while he was dealing with getting his ex settled somewhere or something. I don’t know what that was about, but in my brutally honest opinion it didn’t need a storyline of its own.

Now that I’ve discussed all the characters that I wanted to mention, I’m going to comment on some elements from the show and my watch experience in particular that contributed to my opinion of the series, from sequences that jumped out to me and details that I liked to things that didn’t make much sense to me or that I found a bit random.
Despite the fact that there were a lot of things that I found a bit chaotic or messy, I thought the overall acting was pretty good and I liked the scenery shots a lot. Especially from the beginning, when they were still in the main characters’ hometown, I think they did a really nice job presenting it as a place they’d always think back on. I always love to see lots of green and mountains compared to typical busy city stories. One thing I always like about Chinese dramas is that their sets always look really neat and clean and they have a lot of beautiful shots of landscapes and skylines. They definitely used a lot of nice-looking sets, and I’m guessing there must have been a significant budget considering the story changed location so many times.
Another point that I’ve already mentioned is that I generally like stories that build over time, where you follow the characters through the years and see the times change, for example through the advancement of technology, the emergence of mobile phones, etcetera. I really loved that karaoke club manager that was always walking around with that unit of a portable phone, that was iconic.
I don’t know the exact time period in which this was set because at the end they were still using flip phones. I guess it must have been from the late 90s to the early 00s, then? I remember having a flip phone around 2004, so I’m guessing it must be around that period. While I generally like this kind of development, I did get confused with the time jumps. There wasn’t really an indication of when time had passed or how many years. I remember for example one time after Xiang Yuan had come to Guangzhou and Ye Bing Lin was like, ‘when I brought you here three years ago’ and I was like, wait, three years have passed already?! The time period between the late 90s and early 00s isn’t very extensive, so it actually seemed like they lived out an entire life in a couple of years. I would’ve liked to get a timeline that was just a little bit clearer.
One thing that also struck me as peculiar was the sporadic narration. Every so often, silent acting was filled in by a female narrator who would explain exactly what the character depicted on screen was thinking and feeling at that moment. It’s not that I minded it per se, but I felt like it wasn’t very consistent. Also, in many cases, it was a bit overkill as I could’ve guessed myself what was going through the character’s head. One time, I believe Bing Wen was making a worried expression and the voice would literally go, “Bing Wen was worried”, so yeah, it wasn’t always necessary. Admittedly, in a way it was nice to have it clarified in detail what the character was thinking, but it also took away from some nice silent emotional acting and it basically filled in spaces that otherwise would’ve allowed the viewers to interpret it by themselves with their own imagination. Also, as I mentioned before when Qian Ze and Bing Wen met for the first time, the narration basically ‘spoiled’ that this encounter would change their lives forever – only for Bing Wen to double-confirm this in the final episode by saying, ‘from the first time I saw you, I knew I would end up doing something like this’. Yeah, we knew that already, because the narration told us so. It just took the option of interpretation and surprise out of a couple of scenes, which was a shame.
Then, and for some reason I find that this always pops up in Chinese dramas in particular: the addition of foreign (aka non-Chinese) cast members. Qian Ze is sent to study abroad in London at some point, where he meets some friends. I don’t know why, but this one guy (I think his name was Blaire?) was for some reason dubbed over in English even though he was originally (probably) also speaking in English. What was also weird was that, when he came to visit Qian Ze in China later on, Qian Ze and Dong Ling were just talking in Chinese in front of him and to him and he was suddenly able to understand everything and even speak Chinese himself while he’d only just spoken in English with Qian Ze before 🤔. Kind of a weird inconsistency thing going on there.
I don’t even think this series used as much dubbing as Chinese dramas usually do, but for some reason, when speaking English, even the foreign cast members were dubbed over. Seriously, how hard is it to find someone who can speak English that doesn’t need to be dubbed over in more English? Now it just looked and sounded super unnatural. I remember there was this one guy at the pub (the one who got shot maybe) who talked in his normal (Irish?) accent without any additional dub, but for the rest… Even Qian Ze himself was dubbed over by himself when speaking in English. These things always seem to happen especially in scenes with foreign characters and it will always baffle me.
Speaking of that intense shooting scene at that bar in London, I’m also not sure what exactly that added. I assumed it was just something that Qian Ze and Dong Ling had to go through together that would maybe bring them closer (or that Dong Ling would keep using against Qian Ze to express how much they’d “been through together”), but other than that I felt like it was pretty much a shock value scene. I also didn’t understand why Qian Ze didn’t tell Xiang Yuan about it, because I’m pretty sure it would’ve shaken her up quite a bit and might’ve even prompted her to come visit him or something. I don’t know, this series was full of random dramatic scenes that didn’t really have much purpose once they were finished. To give another example of this, I specifically remember a scene in which an employee came running into the office, completely covered in blood. Apparently he’d crashed his car in a hurry because he needed to convey the good news that they’d won a bidding or something. Anyways, the whole office just started cheering and I was like, ‘okay so no one is going to acknowledge this guy is literally covered in blood?’ 🤨 Like, why was it necessary for this guy to make such a dramatic bloody entrance when they didn’t even pay any further attention to it? The scene just ended after he announced the good news and that was it. It was just weird to add such an unnecessary dramatic element to that scene.

In terms of my watching experience, it probably wasn’t the best either. I watched it on KissAsian with very poor quality subtitles, which would at parts even be omitted entirely, so I’m sure I missed stuff as well. What also bothered me in the case of this particular fansubbing was that the subtitles contained a lot of typos and spelling errors in the characters’ names and places. This was particularly frustrating because all the names were already so similar and this actually made it hard for me to follow sometimes. I mean, I also don’t know whose idea it was to name the company Jiang Yuan while the female lead’s name was Xiang Yuan, because this in itself already created errors in my brain. So yeah, not a great experience with the fansubs, but of course that stands separately from the series itself. It’s just everything combined that didn’t make it the most enjoyable watch experience for me, I suppose.

Finally, I just need to give a shoutout to Auntie 13, aka the Ara parrot 🦜that refused to move from the balcony of Dong Ling’s late parents’ terrace. It was nice to include that parrot and also have it talk. I love seeing animals that you don’t usually see, it was a nice variation from a pet dog or cat for a change.

Before I go on to the cast comments – I honestly don’t have much more to say about the series – I just want to make one last comment on the title. The English title of this show is ‘Love Under the Moon’, and I couldn’t find a conclusive translation of the original Chinese title apart from ‘The Moon Doesn’t Understand My Heart’. In any case, I don’t really know what the title refers to. If anyone who reads this has an idea, please comment below to let me know! I always like it when the title refers to an aspect that becomes clear throughout the story, but in this case I find the title kind of generic and it also doesn’t really add to my experience of the entire series.

I like going through cast comments of Chinese dramas because I don’t know many Chinese actors and I always like discovering new people.
To start with the main characters, I want to mention from the get-go that I really liked the pairing of co-stars Victoria Song and Ou Hao. I’ve seen comments saying that they didn’t feel any chemistry between them and their love for each other just felt dry, but I really want to disagree. On the contrary, I LIVED for their relationship. Just because they didn’t really have passionate make-out scenes or physically intimate scenes doesn’t mean love has to be dry. I personally found the way they displayed intimacy in such subtle ways very endearing. The way they held hands and arms, the way they smiled while looking into each other’s eyes, the (back) hugs and the way they cuddled up, the way Qian Ze always brushed a strand of Xiang Yuan’s hair out of her face… Those were all extremely sweet and heartwarming displays of affection, and I loved them. I think they had excellent chemistry in their scenes together, and they looked so natural in acting it out, even without the explicit physical intimacy. The only thing that slightly bothered me in the end was that their marriage was rushed in the sense that they got married to settle their assets for the company. I would’ve liked for them to get married without any worries.

I thought Victoria Song was a very nice casting choice for the character of Xiang Yuan, because she had that variety to her that made her appear to be such a mature person. I’d personally say she was a bit more serious than spontaneous, but she definitely balanced out Qian Ze’s whimsicality and in that aspect I thought they were a really nice match. Despite the fact that I didn’t agree with all of her actions, I also had to keep in mind that all she wanted was to just establish a future for herself and her family with her own hands. She could’ve definitely skyrocketed even faster if she’d taken up all of the opportunities that the Ye family presented her with, but she chose to make her own decisions and try to make it by herself even if that meant not spending all of her time with Qian Ze. That should also be rewarded as a gesture of maturity. I thought she balanced the different sides of Xiang Yuan – the one that wanted to be with Qian Ze and the one that knew that she’d had to go against his family in order to keep living her own life independently – very well. I see that there’s at least one other drama with her on my to watch list, and I might add more because it seems like she’s done several romantic comedies 😇.

Ou Hao is the actor I want to compliment the most in this section because I simply adored him. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a male lead act out his love for a woman so genuinely without ever losing his cool. He literally never became cringy and as he also didn’t have the appearance of a guy who’d lose his head over love, I loved the contrast he brought to the table. He portrayed such an endearing combination of boyish naivety and mischief and managed to gradually evolve that into a much more mature and thoughtful man. I honestly fell for him a little bit myself, haha. When I said earlier, ‘get yourself a man like Ye Qian Ze’ I was talking to myself 😂. I really liked his acting and I hope I get to see more of him in the future!

I could’ve sworn I recognized Sun Yi from something, but I haven’t seen anything with her. I think she did a good job as Dong Ling. I don’t want to vent my frustration towards the character onto her, haha. She did a good job portraying Dong Ling’s persistent nature in trying to get out of the ‘little girl/younger sister’ mould. I think that it’s safe to say that she, of all characters, had to work the hardest to be taken seriously, even within her family. I think that it was because she was ‘just a little girl’, that her aunt also didn’t take her crush on Qian Ze as seriously as she should have. I mean, I wouldn’t say it’s uncommon for little girls to develop a crush on an older brother figure, especially if he displays as much protectiveness as Qian Ze. He really cared about Dong Ling as his little sister, and that’s all it would ever be. She should’ve been snapped out of her delusion much earlier. I think it literally took her up to almost 40 episodes before she was finally able to wish Xiang Yuan the best and officially backed off. Her character was probably dealt with in the least satisfying way, as a tool to save a company, so that was a bit of a bummer. But still I think the actress did a good job, particularly in how Dong Ling slowly but surely started to slip deeper into her delusional thoughts – I’m glad she managed to finally see the light in the end.

I know I haven’t talked that much about Ye Yun in my review, but I still want to acknowledge Xia Ning Jun in the cast comments. It seems like Love Under the Moon was only his second drama acting project. I kind of feared that Ye Yun would be forgotten as ‘the second son’ but I’m glad they also brought him to Guangzhou eventually and he managed to secure a proper career of his own. It was so funny to see his arrival at the Ye family house in comparison to when Qian Ze arrived – Ye Yun was super polite and kind even to the housekeeper while it took Qian Ze such a long time to even acknowledge his father’s new family as his own. Ye Yun was definitely a lot more pure and innocent than his older brother, but the two got along great and there wasn’t as much disagreement between the two of them as there was between Xiang Yuan and her younger sister, for example. I did find it a pity that he and Xiang Yao drifted apart though, but I guess it also proved that growing up together doesn’t guarantee a lifelong friendship. I liked how his role developed and how he, in his own way, became a useful asset to his family’s company even though he started his own business. I think Xia Ning Jun did a nice job playing such a contrastive younger brother to Qian Ze.

I honestly really liked Xiang Yao and I think Lin Tian Yuan did a very nice job creating her persona. I feel like her character going her own way away from her childhood family and finding her own happiness despite the fact that she couldn’t secure a lot of money was very meaningful in itself. I liked that there was at least one character who kind of ‘separated’ from the rest to find her own path and who really came to realize that she didn’t belong in the world of the wealthy Ye family. She may have gone through the most tribulations in terms of finding stability in her life, but she was always the most determined to pave her own way and I respect that about her. Just as with Ye Yun, I’m glad they kept her character in the story and fleshed her out more as an individual rather than keep her as ‘the younger sister’. I liked her performance!

I think Ding Yong Dai made a very fitting casting choice as Ye Bing Lin. I honestly came to like his character more and more throughout the story. In the beginning I couldn’t help but think he was this stingy guy who just cared about the succession of his company and didn’t even feel bad for leaving his wife to care for their two sons all on her own. The audacity of him to just turn up and claim custody over his eldest son while he hasn’t even bothered to come see him grow up. But in having Qian Ze over in Guangzhou I believe he also learned a lot and he proved to be a good person through his actions. He even started feeling bad for using Xiang Yuan to talk to Qian Ze when he wanted him to do something he knew his son would refuse. I also found his acting quite enjoyable, with the occasional funny expressions. He also had a really wise look in his eyes, if that makes sense. I liked how he shaped the character of Qian Ze’s father and how he remained optimistic and involved in the company even after he’d retired. I really liked his performance especially in the scene when he scolded Qian Ze and Xiang Yuan for not keeping him in the loop regarding the construction failure disaster. He was really good.

In hindsight I really liked Wen Zheng Rong’s performance as the step-mother as well. As I mentioned earlier in my review, in the beginning I feared that she might become this evil step-mother figure, but she visibly softened and became a much warmer person throughout the series. I especially loved her relationship with Dong Ling, she made it so obvious that she’d adopted her out of genuine care. I honestly found her performance during that phone call at the end 👌🏻STELLAR👌🏻. I think that was the most dramatic but also most sincere expressional acting I’ve seen out of her in this series. How she just started sobbing when Dong Ling told her she’d accepted the marriage proposal. She was literally a mother hearing that her daughter would get something she’d never wanted for her.
I also liked how the relationship between her and Bing Lin was emphasized, that he actually admitted that he was nothing without her eternal support. It was nice to get a bit of ‘inside’ information about their relationship that wasn’t specified in the series itself.

Li Chong Xiao honestly made me laugh a couple of times because his voice occasionally squeaked when he talked 😆. My issue with his character was that his transformation into a bad guy who knowingly did bad things only to spite some youngsters felt a bit forced to me. Sure, his annoyance with Qian Ze’s increasing influence in the company and how he kept feeling undermined by his own family was made blatantly clear throughout, but it just felt like in the end he started to lay it on a bit too thick that he was sick and tired of everything. Also, why did he end up going for Xiang Yuan? He intended to kidnap Xiang Yuan, not Qian Ze, but honestly what would’ve made the difference? He was annoyed by both of them, right? It was clear that he was pissed off at his whole family, brother included, so why take it out on Xiang Yuan of all people? I felt like he just got a bit lost in the end. In the beginning he seemed like a pretty nice guy, and he was also still on good terms with his ex-wife, which suggested he wasn’t an absolute monster. Anyways, I think the actor did a good job all in all.

As I mentioned, I really liked the character of Mao Zhi Jie, and the actor Bai Zhi Jie made all that possible. He just portrayed him as such a genuinely sweet and pure guy. I felt so bad watching him get played by everyone. I really didn’t like how everyone kept calling him ‘Fatty’, it’s just not a cute nickname. I’m really glad he managed to find someone who appreciated his good heart for what it was and he managed to become successful in his own way. I really liked his performance!

Wan Tong was another actress that I thought I might have seen before but I was wrong. I really liked her portrayal of Zhang Yue. She brought a very refreshing energy with her, even though she was only a supporting character. I think that, just as Qian Ze balanced Xiang Yuan out in her seriousness, she too may have been a good friend match for Xiang Yuan for the same reason. I liked that, despite her worryfree attitude and debatable college reputation she still came up on top and scored a rich guy and a good job. I liked how uncomplicated her character was, she just said whatever she felt and I appreciated that. She was a really nice casting choice for the role!

I’m not sure why Danson Tang is listed on top of the supporting characters list on both MDL and DramaWiki, because he wasn’t by far up there with the Ye family members and the most frequently recurring characters. 🤔 Anyways, I had mixed feelings about his character because of his weird lingering relationship with his ex. When he was introduced I was like, there he is, the ‘hot guy’ that’s going to stir up trouble, lol. When Xiang Yuan started working for him I even thought he might start coming on to her as well, but luckily he remained fairly loyal to Zhang Yue. I was just so confused by his deal with his ex and that kind of ruined his character for me, no matter how good his intentions were. Still, can’t blame the actor for the weird writing, of course.

I think that was it for all the characters and cast members I wanted to mention. As I said, this was a pretty tedious watch, it took me two months to get through it and the only thing that kept grabbing my attention was the #goals relationship between the main leads. I really lived for the love they shared, I got butterflies every scene they were together and when they were apart or had a disagreement I just yearned for them to make up again. As summarized by the final narration, it basically came down to the confirmation that, yes, these two must really share a very strong bond of love and trust with each other. Other than that, apart from some attempted scheming and jealousy, not a lot happened. The development of Qian Ze and Xiang Yuan’s relationship throughout periods of time apart and always coming back to each other was taken over by a very lengthy arc that only focussed on work and business and that’s when it kind of stopped grabbing my attention. The way I see it, they could’ve either made it shorter or paced it better so it wouldn’t all lead up to one final dramatic event in the final episode. Admittedly, in the beginning I was wondering if Qian Ze and Xiang Yuan would break up, even for just a little while, due to their differences in ambitions, and would then find their way back to each other again in the end. But even as it neared the end and it became clear that that wasn’t going to happen, it kept giving the confirmation of their love over and over again, until the point where I just thought, ‘i get it! their love is invincible!’ So yeah, as much as I loved their relationship and their unwavering love for each other, there could’ve been more to the story, and the supporting characters and minor additional storylines just didn’t really give me that. All in all, I’d say it’s a decent show, just way too long. If you have 48 episodes, you need to know how to pace it in order to keep the viewers’ concentration span high, and that just wasn’t adapted very well in this series, in my opinion.

I’m really curious as to what my next watch will be, the Wheel of Fortune shall speak again and hopefully it won’t take me too long to finish the next one!

Hopefully until soon, bye-bee! x

Disclaimer: this is a review, and as such it contains spoilers of the whole series. Please proceed to read at your own risk if you still plan on watching this show or if you haven’t finished it yet. You have been warned.

Watashi, Teiji de Kaerimasu
(わたし、定時で帰ります / I’m Going Home At The Regular Time)
MyDramaList rating: 7.0/10

Hiya! Didn’t expect me to squeeze in one last-minute review for January, did you? I certainly didn’t. But it definitely helped that I was finally able to finish all my work for my first semester and had some free time to complete this show in peace and relaxation. This is the second show that came out of my Wheel of Fortune app, and I was immediately excited about it. I remember seeing the trailer for this show in another Japanese drama and putting it on my list straight away. I also liked that my app immediately started mixing shows from different countries! No regrets so far. Anyways, regarding this show, it didn’t take me too long to finish it since it’s quite short – the average length of a Japanese drama – and I found it very interesting. Of course I’m going to elaborate on my thoughts in more detail in this review, but I just wanted to say beforehand that I thought this show did a really great job putting people’s varying views on work and work ethics in perspective. I have to admit that I was a bit surprised that this show came from Japan of all countries, since Japan is known for having such rigid policies when it comes to working and how much you’re supposed to devote yourself to a job or career. Even though I don’t live or work in Japan myself, this series actually gave me hope for more people out there that recognize what’s healthy and what isn’t, and are able to relate to work views that differ from their own.

Watashi, Teiji de Kaerimasu is a 10-episode Japanese drama series with episodes of each about an hour. The story focusses on Higashiyama Yui (played by Yoshitaka Yuriko), a full-time employee at Net Heroes, a company that specializes in creating and producing websites for other companies. Yui maintains a very specific work style in which she leaves exactly at 18:00, the official end of the 9-to-6 work day. As it’s so common for people to stay and work longer, this sets her apart from her co-workers, but everyone respects it because she has a very efficient work style and always manages to finish her tasks for the day on time. When she leaves at 18:00 sharp, Yui usually makes her way to her favorite nearby Chinese restaurant, Shanghai Diner, where the beer is half the usual price until 18:10. Besides leaving at the official time every day, Yui also frequently takes days off, as is recommended by the company. This way, she maintains a healthy balance between her work and private life – after all, she’s close to getting married to her boyfriend Suwa Takumi (played by Nakamaru Yuichi), and this enables her to keep enough time to spend with him. However, a challenge to her peaceful work-life balance appears when Yui’s ex-boyfriend Taneda Kotaro (played by Mukai Osamu) suddenly joins her team, accompanied by their new department head, Fukunaga Seiji (played by Yusuke Santamaria), who strongly encourages the team to put everything they have into their work, even if that means working overtime. His way of managing goes heavily against Yui’s morals, especially when he starts assigning the team to jobs that require almost impossible efforts for little to no company profit.
All in all, the series follows Yui as she gradually gets to know her co-workers a bit better and occasionally faces challenges in dealing with someone’s deviating work views. While the team goes through several clashes and obstacles they ultimately always manage to see eye to eye with one another and learn to respect each other’s different perspectives.

One main thing I liked about this show was that, from the first episode on, it had this ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ concept. I thought it was really powerful to start out with a team of people who all initially kind of judged each other for their respective work styles, but once push came to shove, you learned about everyone’s backgrounds and really came to understand where everyone was coming from. I think it was really characteristic of Yui to always try and find ways to relate to her co-workers. She always tried her best to understand their perspectives, even if she didn’t fully agree with them. I thought she was a really interesting character because she wasn’t even a busybody who got involved in other people’s business on purpose, but she was a very stable factor in the office and people were just drawn to her naturally. She became a safe person to every single co-worker because of her rational way of seeing things, and she always had a way of ultimately making them see reason with other perspectives as well.
I really admired Yui’s patience and ability to negotiate with everyone. I personally wouldn’t have been able to deal with some people, but she remained so professional, even when things started going against her values. Even when she started criticizing people, she never stopped working for what she herself believed in, and that always saved everything in the end.

If I had to summarize it, I’d say that the first half of the series highlights a couple of Yui’s co-workers and their specific circumstances and work ethics, and the second half becomes a bit more strained as they get this impossible project to work on which starts affecting several people’s lives outside of work, including Yui’s. I’d like to go about my review by first talking a bit about all the characters that get highlighted, and then move on to my own thoughts about the general topic of work ethics.

Let me start with our heroine, Yui. Through the first couple of episodes we find out what has made her so eager to avoid working overtime and letting work influence her private life. The thing is, Yui has had several experiences, not only personal but also with people around her, that have led her to believe too much work isn’t healthy. For starters, her own father has always been someone who put work before his family. He would leave family holidays earlier and always say that people should be devoted to their work above everything, not knowing that this attitude put a lot of worry onto his wife and daughter. When she was still with Kotaro, he was exactly the same, and this eventually resulted in him passing out from exhaustion and even saying that work was more important to him than their approaching marriage. Yui also had the personal experience of being so pressured at work that she even got into an accident. After going through all these experiences, she made up her mind on two things. First of all, she never wanted her life to get absorbed by work ever again, and second, she never wanted to be with someone who had the same work ethics as her father. She’d seen with her own eyes how overworking could physically break someone, and vowed to never get into that situation again. Shortly after she’d broken up with Kotaro, she got together with Takumi who, considerate as he was, made sure to always leave work on time and spend quality time with her. He acknowledged Yui’s needs and incorporated those needs into his own life, also because he genuinely wanted to. When we are first introduced to Yui, she seems to be in a good place, she’s happy in her relationship and her work, thanks to her healthy lifestyle.

The first person in Yui’s team to express disdain towards her work attitude is Mitani Kanako (played by Shishido Kavka). I’m going to refer to her as Mitani, as that’s the name she’s generally referred to in the show and it just feels weird to call her Kanako. Mitani is introduced as quite a rigid employee who holds very strict morals regarding the proper work attitude and she is someone who initially frowns upon Yui’s habit of leaving at 18:00 while the rest of the team continues to work. In the first episode, Net Heroes has just acquired three new young hires and Mitani is assigned to mentor one of them. However, she and her junior just can’t seem to see eye to eye and as they both aren’t initially able to understand each other, the new hire quickly quits, saying that she can’t deal with Mitani. Mitani tirelessly keeps working and asking for more responsibilities even when she comes to work sick.
What it comes down to is that Mitani, through personal negative experiences on the workfloor, has become way too fixated on doing everything right. She initially sees Yui’s work attitude as too casual, thinking that she doesn’t show proper responsibility in leaving before everybody else. However, after properly talking with Yui she comes to see that there are more ways to maintain a healthy lifestyle without getting hyperfixated on work and that it’s absolutely fine to take breaks and days off when you’re not feeling well. As she’d been going through a hard time at her previous workplace, she just developed a mindset that made her a bit too serious when it came to ‘doing things right’, which in her view included coming to work even if you weren’t feeling 100% well and continuing to work until everyone else went home.

What I liked about Mitani was that, although her character did go through a change after developing a closer bond with Yui and the rest of the team, she remained consistently rigid in her own way. She didn’t suddenly start acting differently, she just focussed her work fixation on other things, such as teamwork and maintaining a good bond with her co-workers without micromanaging everything. She also started joining Yui at Shanghai Diner more often. I think she was one of the characters whose perspective was positively affected by Yui and only managed to grow as a person and an employee. She may have seemed as one of the most unlikely people to move away from her rigid views, but I liked that she became a devoted employee and ally to Yui. I think that in her own way she even tried getting more friendly with her outside of work, which seemed like a big step for her to take.

Moving on, I’d like to talk about Shizugatake-senpai – I’m going to refer to her as Yae because it’s much easier to write. Shizugatake Yae (played by Uchida Yuki) used to be Yui’s senior when she first started at Net Heroes, and when she’s introduced in the story she just gave birth to twins. When she returns, she is determined to pick up just where she left off without getting any kind of different treatment just because she’s a working mom now. Her husband Yosuke (Tsubokura Yoshiyuki) – the greenest of flags by the way – took on paternity leave so Yae could return to work. However, her eagerness to return to work and take on as much as possible without prejudice counterproductively only causes her team to get more worried about her. Inevitably, an occasion arises where one of her babies gets sick and her husband isn’t able to take care of it by himself. This is where Yae gets confronted with how naturally challenging it is to combine motherhood with full-time employment.
It’s kind of weird to say but this was actually one of my favorite arcs, just because it was so twisted. I was already aware of the issue that many Japanese companies have regarding women who come back to work after giving birth and I guess that’s why it kind of hit differently. I’ve personally worked at a Japanese company where, sometime after I left, a female Japanese co-worker contacted me to vent about how she basically got fired when she announced that she would get married because she got pregnant. I remember her getting so angry about it, how she was just discarded like ‘well, then you’re of no further use to us’. Furthermore, as I was watching this show I was also reading a book that dealt with themes very similar to this. I just finished a chapter about a woman who was close to getting promoted to head editor of a magazine before she found out she was pregnant, and when she came back to work after giving birth she was told to work in the archiving and documentation department, and that it would be impossible for her to take her previous spot as the head editor position wouldn’t allow her to have her attention divided between work and childcare. It was almost painful to watch how Yae tried to convince everyone that her becoming a mother had nothing to do with her capabilities. The fact that she tried to avoid being treated like that inevitably only strengthened people’s doubts about her, and this only escalated with an increase in occurrences that actually forced her to go home to her family.
Honestly, I was just so glad that Yosuke was there and that he had Yae’s back the entire time. It would’ve become so messy if things would’ve gotten rocky between them. Even when he decided to spend some time in Kumamoto to take care of his mom, he didn’t even pressure Yae to come with him. When Yae ultimately decided to take a break and be with her family for a while, I couldn’t blame her, even if she left at such a crucial moment. Honestly, the project they were working on was a shitshow and it was already starting to affect the employees’ personal lives in a negative way as it was, so I was actually happy that she made that decision. And it was even better when she came back after things had settled down on her side and provided that much needed back-up in the end.

I really liked the relationship between Yae and Yui. You could tell they were really close and had learned to depend on each other a lot during their work together. It was really nice to see how they basically became each other’s confidantes. They probably shared the most of their personal lives with each other than with anyone else in the team, and still managed to maintain a strictly professional relationship on the workfloor. It was really nice to see how Yui’s mindset on her newly adapted work style had been inspired by Yae and how she managed to eventually give that same advice back to her when Yae started becoming more obsessive over proving her capabilities as a working mom. These two ladies together were just such a positive force in the office together, I really loved their friendship.

Another very interesting perspective on work came from the new hire that Yui was put in charge of, Kurusu Taito (played by Izumisawa Yuuki). I’m going to refer to him as Kurusu because that’s what he’s mainly referred to in the show. Kurusu is one of the three new hires introduced at the beginning of the story, and the only one who sticks around after the first episode. What I found interesting in general was the whole notion of how this show acknowledged a difference between the way experienced employees perceived work and the way the new hires did. For younger people, it’s way easier to just quit a job because you can’t get along with a co-worker or because the work is too bothersome. Similar to the other two new hires, Kurusu is initially depicted as someone who sighs ‘Maybe I should just quit…’ quite easily after facing a challenge at work. However, probably because he was assigned to Yui of all people, he’s not let off that easily and he is guided to face his own immaturity and inexperience.
I have to admit I got annoyed with Kurusu several times. Of course he was just a new hire so he lacked maturity in his work and development as an employee, but he initially tended to give up way too easily when something didn’t go his way. He wouldn’t acknowledge his own inexperience and it seemed like he thought everyone (especially Kotaro) was out to get him. He did eventually transform his envy of Kotaro into admiration and a desire to become as capable and reliable as him, but in my opinion he should’ve had a better notion of his own position from the start. Isn’t it normal that your seniors know how to gain a client’s trust better? Isn’t it normal that they can come up with more efficient solutions as a result of making their own mistakes when they first started out? I honestly didn’t really agree with Yui when she kept scolding Kotaro for not giving Kurusu a fair chance. Sure, Kotaro could’ve kept passing everything the client and designer team asked him to Kurusu and told them to only talk to him, but that wouldn’t have led to a good outcome because Kurusu barely knew what he was getting himself into. In my opinion the main issue lay with the fact that Kurusu needed to acknowledge that he still lacked a lot of experience. It was nice that he got assigned the director’s position for that one project, but without going the extra mile to fully grasp the client’s needs he really didn’t come off as very reliable. It was just annoying to see him go ‘okay, then I’ll just quit because you all trust Taneda-san more than me anyway’ every single time someone questioned him in some way.
What redeemed him for me was that, with Yui’s help, he too managed to see reason and acknowledge that Kotaro wasn’t ‘out to get him’. He also came to appreciate Kotaro for his skills and started aspiring to become like him. What did the trick for me in the end was the way Fukunaga started manipulating him and the others to work extra on that ridiculous project, because although Kurusu found his drift in the end, it wasn’t right how his naivety was taken advantage of only to make him work harder.

In terms of people like Kurusu in general, I found it interesting that this show also explored perspectives on the expectations of work. New hires probably go into a new job with certain expectations and ambitions that may be quite naive, and then quickly change their mind when it turns out to be different from what they’d envisioned. They might also make the easy decision to quit and look for something that’s more convenient, because getting hired somewhere else isn’t actually that hard – many companies are short on staff and eager to hire some new young blood. On the one hand you can see that as irresponsible and unprofessional, and I partially agree with that, especially when they don’t even give the job a proper chance and just give up at the slightest inconvenience. On the other hand I also feel like people should be allowed to quit a place where they instantly feel like they don’t fit. I’m glad that at least Kurusu got through his initial objections and ultimately realized this work did actually suit him. Nothing is easy in the beginning, everybody has to start from scratch and everyone develops their skills in their own pace. I think that’s really important to remember, especially before you quickly dismiss or judge someone for not being used to work in the same way as you are.

Another employee that’s highlighted and who ultimately changes his views on work is Azuma Tooru (played by Emoto Tokio). I’ll refer to him as Azuma since, again, that’s what he’s predominantly called throughout the show. Azuma is one of the web programmers in charge of the engineering and design of the websites, I believe. He’s depicted as a bit of an otaku, he has a couple of figurines on his desk and keeps a bit to himself. He’s initially highlighted because the team realizes he has been coming back to the office after clocking out to continue unpaid overtime, and he’s even revealed to be sleeping at the office. What I understood from his character was that he preferred to just be at the office because he didn’t have anything fun to do at home (plus he’s alone), but also that he basically just put in the bare minimum at work. He didn’t really have any ambition to grow within the company or anything like that, but that also stopped him from putting in more effort than necessary. He also lacked some serious people skills, especially when formally meeting with clients. His motivation is temporarily elevated when a new designer temp joins the team, Sakuramiya Ayana (Shimizu Kurumi) and because she’s both friendly to him and genuinely interested in the work he does, her determination in her work starts rubbing off on him and he even asks Yui to teach him her efficient work schedule.
I think Azuma’s issue was a bit less transparent than those of the other highlighted employees. I found it hard to pinpoint what exactly his problem was, other than that he pretty much used work (even unpaid overwork) to fill a gap of loneliness in his life. On the other hand it still didn’t motivate him to think bigger and strive to achieve more. I felt like I understood him on one ground, because I’ve personally had the experience at my last job at a Japanese company that I was pressured into having more ambitions whereas I was happy with just a regular office job. I didn’t want to have to strive to become a manager or something, I was satisfied with my skills as they were, and this ultimately got me fired because my motivation went down each time they pressured me into aiming higher. I did think that ultimately, Azuma became a better and more mature person and employee. He also started getting along better with the rest of the team and he even started judging things with a more critical eye while before he would’ve just done what he was told without thinking twice. He became a much more amiable person who was very easy to work with.

Alongside Azuma’s storyline, we are introduced to another one about the temp, Sakuramiya. I found this a pretty hard part to watch because the guys from that sports company were just so unpleasant. On the other hand, it only strengthened the credibility of this show to go so far as to introduce themes such as power- and sexual harassment on the workfloor. Sakuramiya was hired as a temp to Net Heroes because she had worked with that particular sports company before, but the guys from that company kept inviting her out on activities outside of work hours. Encouraged by Fukunaga, Sakuramiya decided to keep accepting their invitations, until one time it really starts feeling wrong to her. They invite her over to join them for some night jogging and then make her wear this new revealing running outfit for women and even film her while she’s wearing it. The worst thing is that they displayed a mix of power and sexual harassment because while they did tell her ‘You can say no if you don’t want to do it’, they still pressured her. They knew that she wasn’t in any position to say no to them. I hated how they kept doing all these things yet always had a way to turn it around by saying, ‘yeah but she did it out of her free will, we told her she could say no, she was having a great time🤷🏻‍♀️’. It also made my respect for Yui skyrocket because she just got SO angry and it was very unusual for her to get so wound up about something. I was really glad their company just collapsed into itself in the end when all these employees started confessing occurrences of power harassment that had been going on.

Apart from these highlighted characters, I also personally want to highlight the two team members who didn’t get a more elaborate storyline but who were still very important to the team: Kodama Takeshi (Kaji Masaki) and Norimoto Maki (Sasaki Shiho). They were both in charge of designing the websites. Even though their work consisted mostly of creating the final result and weren’t as much involved with the marketing, I thought that they were very well-established characters who asked the right questions and had critical comments at the right moments. Sometimes work teams in dramas are just made up out of people who are there working in the background and only depicted doing as they’re told, but it was nice to see that every single team member contributed to the work equally and had a proper antenna for when things were or weren’t going very well. I really liked the contribution these two characters in particular provided as supporting members of Yui’s team.

I think it’s finally time to talk about Kotaro and Fukunaga and I’m kind of going to discuss them jointly because their characters are pretty intricately connected. While we don’t get to see a lot of flashbacks from when Yui and Kotaro were still together, we do find out that at the time he exhausted himself to the extent of collapsing, Kotaro was working under Fukunaga. Shortly after he collapsed, Kotaro quit Fukunaga’s company (together with many others) and shortly after that, the company itself went bankrupt. I believe it was through some connections with the CEO of Net Heroes that Fukunaga got the opportunity to become the new department head. Now that I think about it, I’m not even sure if Kotaro knew he was getting appointed besides Fukunaga again from the start, or that it came as a surprise to him on their first day. In any case, they have a working history together and Fukunaga never misses a chance to make Kotaro remember how he ‘abandoned’ him before. It makes it increasingly hard for Kotaro to go against him because he’s also known Fukunaga for a long time and is the only one in the team who makes an effort to stand up for him.
To be honest, Fukunaga gave me the ick from the start. The way he would make jokes and smile without any genuine cheer in his eyes just made me go 🚩🚩🚩 Seriously, what was this guy even doing in the office? He barely did anything himself and he only commented on other people’s work and judged them for making certain decisions. He kept guilt-tripping and manipulating people to work harder while he only kept accepting low-profit projects that would lose the company money. His audacity reached the top when he actually started guilt-tripping Yui about how Kotaro had quit his former company because of her. Like, this guy did not know how to keep his nose out of other people’s business. As soon as he felt that Kotaro might strike out on his own he basically threatened him not to ‘abandon’ him again. It was so petty and unprofessional, and it made him such an irresponsible boss. I’m glad at least Yui had the guts to make it clear that she didn’t like him and his way of working and encouraged the others to also think for themselves and tell her when they felt like something was off. The whole Hoshi Jirushi project was such a mess, honestly. The only good thing that happened in the end was that the company’s CEO changed to someone who also didn’t trust Fukunaga. I also really loved the moment when Net Heroes’ CEO left, the only high-up connection Fukunaga had to back him up. Even the CEO was done with his shit, lol. I remember laughing so hard at Fukunaga’s face when they announced he was leaving.
I think Fukunaga was probably the only character that I wasn’t able to relate to whatsoever, even after being given some insight into his backstory. I get that he sacrificed a lot for that previous company only to lose everything, but he definitely didn’t learn from his mistakes.
For Kotaro, I still find him a bit difficult to gauge. Everything we get to know about him is filtered through the perspectives of Yui and Fukunaga, and even until the end he never really reveals what his own true motive was for joining Net Heroes, and if it really was because of Yui. I get that he might still have had lingering feelings for her, as he also explicitly confessed that one time, but I also didn’t find him the type to follow her after they’d broken up. It was clear that they were both awkward when they were reunited and that they’d planned on not seeing each other again. I don’t know, I just find it hard to believe it was an action that came from his will to go after her again, it didn’t seem very Kotaro-like if you ask me. After all, at some point he’s even debating teaming up with a member of their rivalling company and striking out, even if that means he has to leave Fukunaga’s team again. So I really don’t think it was all about Yui. It was definitely nice to see them grow a little bit closer again throughout everything, though. But I was surprised that in the final episode, half a year after Yui broke up with Takumi, he was already suggesting they start living together, like what happened there? Did that mean they got back together or something? I honestly found that a bit weird, because even after they reconciled and Kotaro shared how he felt after Yui collapsed, I still didn’t particularly feel like they fell back in love with one another or anything. So yeah, that was a bit unclear to me at the end. Still, I did feel like Kotaro, despite still having the tendency to get absorbed in his work, did learn from his mistakes and being around Yui and other people who kept caring about how much he worked definitely had some impact on him.

One thing that contributed to Kotaro’s character development was the confrontation with his younger brother Shu (played by Sakurada Dori). When we meet him, Shu is unemployed and stays at home for the most part. We are initially introduced to him through Yui, as she still keeps in touch with him and he occasionally helps her with some background research on certain people and companies. Shu is the first person to warn her about Fukunaga before we even learn about what happened between Kotaro and Fukunaga. From what Shu tells Kurusu when he finds out the latter aspires to become just like his older brother, we learn that Shu also learned the hard way that it wasn’t healthy to adapt the same work style as Kotaro. In Shu’s case, it even almost led him to commit suicide. Contrarily, inspired by Yui, Shu took peace with taking a break from work to settle his thoughts and feelings, and this is what he’s been doing. I found the twist in his character a bit surprising, because he was initially introduced as a quite vulnerable character who even held some grudging feelings towards his older brother.
Kotaro ultimately learned to understand Shu’s feelings better, partially because of his dealings with Kurusu at work. He overhears Shu talking about his experience to Kurusu and Yui and then has to admit he never knew what his younger brother had been going through. Kotaro ultimately comes to acknowledge how much of an impact his way of working ended up having on the people closest to him and it was good to see how he and Shu got on better terms at the end of the series.
I was a bit confused about the purpose of Shu’s character in the beginning, admittedly. I was wondering why he was only written to provide Yui with some helpful outsider information and if that was really the only thing he was doing. But it helped to get his backstory because that put things into perspective for me a little bit. I think it was important to show the negative consequences Kotaro’s bad work habits had on his family, and especially people that looked up to him. In that way, they were able to avoid Kurusu from turning out like Shu. It was nice that Shu offered to talk directly with Kurusu about this, because that meant that he saw the danger of history repeating itself and immediately took action to personally make sure it didn’t. Through that he showed a surprisinly proactive side that I honestly hadn’t expected from him at the beginning.

I have to talk a little bit about Takumi, because he was a very important supporting character to Yui. Honestly, as much as he seemed like a green flag at the beginning, the feeling that he was eventually going to snap kept tugging at me for some reason. He seemed so overly okay and chill with everything, and he even communicated very openly with Yui about how he was still a bit uncomfortable with her and Kotaro working so closely together. I kind of hoped he’d stay that way, but when he snapped at her the first time I couldn’t help but go, ‘yep, there it is, I knew this was coming’. Like, I honestly don’t think Takumi was a bad person. He was super reflective and even took the blame of breaking off the engagement onto himself, although I don’t actually believe he cheated on her. The only link to anything between him and that senior was when she offered to accompany him to the cinema when Yui cancelled that one time, but there was literally no romantic tension between them. I honestly felt like it had more to do with his consistent insecurity towards Kotaro. I mean, he just found out that Kotaro had given her a piggyback ride home after she ran out when they’d had a fight. Instead of confronting her with that and making that the reason, I think he just went over everything in his head and realized he didn’t want to feel like this when he married Yui, no matter how many times she reassured him. The cheating just came way too out of the blue and Takumi wasn’t the kind of guy to do something like that in a drunken mood, he was very responsible.
I honestly quite liked the relationship between Yui and Takumi. They seemed really well-matched, even more so if you considered they worked for rivalling companies. They never discussed work and they always accepted it when the other had to cancel because they just trusted each other that much. I don’t think there was any doubt in Yui’s mind when it came to marrying Takumi, she even came after him because she couldn’t accept him breaking things off so easily. She really liked him and I don’t believe she had any lingering feelings towards Kotaro. It was unfortunate that something came between them, especially for Yui since this was the second engagement in a row that got broken off. But it was good to see that they managed to stay on friendly terms and went their separate ways without any drama.

I think I’ve now discussed all the main characters that were highlighted in this series, so I just want to make some final shoutouts to nice supporting characters.
First of all, Wang Dan, the owner of Shanghai Diner. On a linguistic side note, I know that the Japanese pronunciation of the characters 王丹 is ‘Ou Tan’, but everyone in the show pronounced it as Wan Tan and I personally know someone with the same surname which is written as ‘Wang’ in Chinese, so I’m going to write her name in the Chinese way as Wang Dan. Wang Dan (played by Eguchi Noriko) is the Chinese owner of Yui’s favorite after-work restaurant Shanghai Diner. When she’s not tending to customers she’s typically shown watching Japanese drama series behind the bar, and I really loved how she was just Team Yui all the way. The way she went at Kotaro for dumping Yui every time he came by, lol. She was a very loyal supporting factor in Yui’s life and she just wanted the best for her. I really loved that time when Yui fought with Takumi and just came straight to Shanghai Diner and hugged Wang Dan so tightly. You could tell how much of a comfort person and place Wang Dan and the restaurant had become to her. Wang Dan even came to deliver food to Net Heroes when Yui, Yae and Mitani stopped frequenting because of their overtime, saying that she was losing business because of their absence.
Having a specific go-to bar or restaurant is a typical element in many Japanese dramas, and I always really like it when shows have a place that the characters can frequent to unwind after finishing their daily work. Shanghai Diner became a really special place, and it was all the more fitting that they had their final celebratory dinner there after finishing the Hoshi Jirushi project.

Just to mention one more character before going on to my final thoughts on the main theme of the show, I just want to give a shoutout to Ishiguro Yoshihisa, nicknamed ‘Guro-san’. Guro-san (played by Kinoshita Takayuki) was this big intimidating-looking guy from administration who ended up being a lifesaver to Net Heroes when it came to the Hoshi Jirushi project. Apparently he was Yui and Yae’s boss before, and he was reliable enough to respond to Yui’s criticisms regarding the tight budget they were given by Hoshi Jirushi. Guro-san completely acknowledged Fukunaga’s shady business, and despite not being able to stop the budget from being approved (another pulled string from higher-up), he did end up jumping in to help Yui’s team during a weekend of overtime as he was so incredibly quick and thorough. I really liked that Yui at least had a reasonable guy like him on her side, and he was just a fun character in general. Honestly, anyone who saw through Fukunaga’s BS was on my good people list, but he actually went the extra mile to help Yui’s team out, so that made me respect him a lot.

Now that we’ve gone over all the important characters, I just want to give some personal comments on this show. On the whole, as I mentioned before, I was pleasantly surprised by how the writing of both the story and the characters showed such open-mindedness towards work ethics. It was extremely gratifying to see a Japanese drama series touch on this topic, because I feel like it isn’t talked about enough even though everyone knows how badly people in Japan are forced to work overtime. We all know the images of office employees passed out on the subway or even on the street. The fact that this topic was tackled this way and that it was screenwritten by two women (🙌🏻) was very satisfying.
As someone who personally has experience working for several different Japanese companies, there were a lot of relatable points that hit home for me. I may not have worked within Japan and the companies I worked for did to some extent adapt a European work style, but I still had to answer to and deal with the Japanese headquarters and there were definitely some very typical regulations to take into consideration. I also have a Japanese friend who frequently updates me on the power harassment and toxic environments they have personally experienced on the workfloor. From everyone close to me who’s worked at a Japanese company with a Japanese manager before, the stories are pretty much the same, and not in a particularly positive way. So yeah, it came as a very pleasant surprise that a Japanese drama depicted these familiar issues in this way. I found it very satisfying to see how all kinds of different perspectives were addressed. I think it’s safe to say that the main issue this drama managed to explore was the role of work in a person’s life, and especially what working meant to people. How important it is to maintain a proper balance between work and one’s private life, and how it is ultimately possible for everyone to work efficiently without overtime and still manage to get stuff done. Discovering this improved the work and life productivity levels of every single character in this show. It even comes full circle at the end, when Yui asks her team members what they thought the purpose of work was and they all gave different answers whereas her own answer was, ‘I don’t know’. You could say it’s a combination of every answer. People work for money and their company, but also for their families and for themselves. The most important thing I’m taking with me from this show comes from another brilliant comment of Yui’s: ‘I’m not here because of my company. My company is here because of me.’ It was just so inspiring to see her provide all her team members with the validation that they deserved and how, without getting nosy, she became such an important role model for everyone. It’s so special how some people manage to maintain such humility and are honestly not aware of how much impact their teachings have on others, and Yui was definitely one of those people.

The series was well-balanced throughout, nothing was rushed and the episodes were structured in a way that was very easy to follow. The acting was good, the characters were well established and there were some very powerful dialogues alongside the important themes that were explored.
I noticed that the English title wasn’t literally translated from the Japanese. I guess ‘teiji’ is a bit of a tricky term to translate and therefore people used a transposition to translate it as ‘I Will Not Work Overtime, Period!’, focussing more on the ‘no overtime’ association. While I personally find this translation of the title a bit too strong, I do get that it comes across as more of a statement, and might therefore be suitable as it’s basically Yui’s catchphrase.

It’s time for the cast comments! It was really nice to see a combination of familiar and unfamiliar faces in this series.

I recently saw Yoshitaka Yuriko in Saiai, but I also know her from Tokyo Dogs, Watashi ga Renai Dekinai Riyuu and Tokyo Tarareba Musume. I really liked seeing her quirky and bright side again in this role, even though it was mixed with some stronger emotions. It was nice to see more emotional variety from her, it really shaped Yui as a character, seeing her get genuinely angry in the face of harassment while also seeing her genuinely enjoy her life outside of work. Honestly, I think Yui is a rolemodel to all of us in the way she decided not to let work influence her personal life and to create a healthy balance between the two. She had a really nice chemistry with her co-actors and I think she was a good fit for the role. She never became a passive or pathetic female lead character, she kept standing up for what she believed in and she went to incredible lengths to understand her fellow team mates. The fact that she even went over her own limit and got hurt only to find out what Kotaro must have felt like while working was pretty wild, but also very characteristic of her. I think she may have been one of the most empathic female leads I’ve seen in a series so far. I really liked seeing her as the main lead in this show.

It’s been a while since I saw Mukai Osamu appear in anything! Personal anecdote: I actually saw him in real life once and locked eyes with him through a train window, lol. He came to the city my university is in one time and I remember walking with my friend who also recognized him going, ‘wait isn’t that…’ Good times. Anyways! I’ve seen him appear before in Mei-chan no Shitsuji, Hotaru no Hikari 2 and last year in First Love: Hatsukoi, and in the movies Hanamizuki and Paradise Kiss. I think this might be the first time I’ve seen him in a role that wasn’t completely snobby, lol. I don’t know if it’s just me but I feel like I’ve seen him play a lot of confident and not always friendly guys. Anyways, seeing him as Kotaro was really nice because despite his consistent vagueness about how he was feeling, I think he portrayed a very wide variety of emotions through his face. It was nice seeing him as this guy who appeared to be super chill and aloof but at the same time needed to be rescued from his working ways just as much as everyone else. It was surprising how a guy like him could still let himself be tied down by a manipulative person like Fukunaga, but it did shape his character that he also had this vulnerable and fragile side to him. It was really nice to see him appear in this role.

So Nakamaru Yuichi is from KAT-TUN! I knew the name Nakamaru Yuichi rang a bell but my main associations with the group are Kamenashi Kazuya and Akanishi Jin so I didn’t actually know him, haha. I hadn’t seen anything with him before either, but I thought his portrayal of Takumi was very refreshing. In the beginning he was such a considerate and kind green flag of a boyfriend to Yui, it was very nice how chill he was always so comprehensive regarding her circumstances, even when they were dealing with wedding preparations and she’d get held up for example. As I said though, I did feel like it wasn’t going to last and it was a shame that he got so affected by Yui’s reunion with Kotaro. They could’ve made a very nice couple. Then again, having to hear his mother’s voice every so often would’ve freaked me the hell out, lol. Part of me is glad they didn’t show her reaction when they broke off the engagement. In any case, I still think Takumi was a good guy. He never intended to hurt Yui and the moment he felt like he couldn’t make her happy he put it on himself to break it off. He could’ve been a bit more honest about the true reason, but I never got the idea that he had any true malicious intent. He was very reflective of himself and he thought things through very thoroughly. In the end I guess they were better off separately. He did a nice job on this show, I liked how grounded and realistic he was.

I’ve seen Uchida Yuki before in a show called Naomi to Kanako and there’s at least one other Japanese drama with her on my list. She has such a genuinely warm and friendly face and smile. I think she was a perfect fit for the role of Yae, who’d just become a mother. I also really liked her relationship with her husband Yosuke from what we were shown. If ever there was a green flag of a husband, it was him. Seriously, the scene where he came home after she’d had to take care of the twins by herself all day and she knelt behind him and back-hugged him and he was like 😌 was so touching. Although I did find Yae quite frantic in the beginning when she basically begged people not to treat her any differently from before just because she’d given birth, it was so relatable and understandable why she did it. You could say how hard it was for her and how long it actually took her to allow herself to actually make time for her family. It was clear that that’s really what she wanted to do all along but she just didn’t let herself admit to it because she knew that she was only going to prove people right in their prejudice about her. I think for any woman who’s been in this position or who can imagine being put in this position, Yae is a very representational character. I really liked her performance in this series.

I’ve seen Yusuke Santamaria appear before in Higashino Keigo Mysteries and Tantei no Tantei, although I don’t really remember him from there (it’s been a very long time since I watched those shows). Anyways, I think he did a very good job of giving me the ick throughout the series, lol. I’ve had my fair share of bad bosses and managers, but Fukunaga definitely took the crown. It was almost unbelievable how a guy like him could’ve been promoted as a department head. There were many times in the show that I genuinely wondered what he even did during work hours while everyone else was working their butts off for his neglectable projects. I loved when Yui just gave it to him straight by saying ‘dude, stop manipulating other people to make up for your own incapability’ 💁🏻‍♀️. Although it was good to get a bit of insight about what he had been through himself, I still feel like he learned the least out of everyone. I didn’t find him a very sympathetic character, he was always pointing fingers at others and telling others to do stuff for him. If they’d go against him, he’d use something to manipulate or guilt-trip them into doing it anyway. The way he actually went to have face-to-face dinners with all the team members to tell them to take on all the extra tasks because Yui was getting married soon and they shouldn’t add to her work load 🙄 while he’d literally just gaslighted Yui into putting in extra effort and even working overtime not to add to Kotaro’s work load 🙄 and all the while he himself was just twirling his thumbs in the background. It was so satisfying when the new CEO from Hoshi Jirushi called him out on his BS. Anyways, back to the actor, lol. I guess here it also proved that the actor is doing a good job if they make you sincerely dislike their character, so well done to him!

I didn’t know Shishido Kavka from anything else, but she definitely made a very distinct character out of Mitani. Apart from her appearance and unique hairstyle it was nice how she just managed to adapt that whole rigidness into her movements as well. The way she would just glare at something and go, ‘What about it?’ was pretty funny. I was a bit scared that she might turn a little petty once she found out through Fukunaga that Yui was planning on getting married – it might have felt as if Yui hadn’t opened up to her enough to tell her that even though Mitani had been trying to become friends with her? – but luckily it didn’t go that way. Fukunaga just used it as a way to get Mitani to take on more work instead of Yui as well, just like he did with everyone else. I think once Mitani got closer to Yui after the first episode she became a much more likable character, and it was nice that she even started coming to Shanghai Diner after work herself. I think she portrayed a very interesting character as Mitani.

Apparently Izumisawa Yuuki appeared in an episode of Unnatural, but I don’t think I remember his character from there. He was one of the new faces that I encountered in this drama. I think he fit the role of Kurusu very well, and he certainly did a good job portraying the resentful frustrations towards Kotaro and anyone else who wouldn’t give him a chance to prove himself in a big project. In a way, his immaturity also made his character very realistic because I guess we can all relate to getting super excited to be put in charge of something big only to constantly be interrupted by your seniors on how you’re not doing it right. Although I was annoyed with him a couple of times, his behavior was very understandable. I mainly felt bad for him once he started getting manipulated by Fukunaga to work himself to the bone in order to prove his capability to Kotaro – that was just plain power harassment and taking advantage of his innocence. I’m glad he got to talk with Shu and it was a real show of character from his side that he properly listened and learned from what he was told. I also liked the junior-senior relationship between him and Yui, they had really good teamwork and it was heartwarming to see how much Yui wanted him to thrive in the team. He did a good job!

Apart from some appearances in Shinigami-kun and Dame na Watashi ni Koishite Kudasai which I don’t even remember him from, I see that Emoto Tokio has also appeared in a lot of movies, starting from 2006. I thought Azuma was a really nice character to have around in the series. He just brought a very chill energy and despite his lack of ambition it was nice to see that they gave him enough confidence in his own skills and they didn’t make him into a typical people-shy otaku as Japanese dramas sometimes tend to do. He had a very good supportive presence in the office and a good nose for shady things as well, even though he still needed to learn how to voice his critical opinions a bit better. I thought that the issue that his character was highlighted for was interesting because it wasn’t as linear as the others, there were some dualities to what he was going through and I thought that only made him more realistic as a character. I liked his performance!

The way I sqealed when Sakurada Dori came on screen! I really missed my baby. I’ve seen him so far in Good Morning Call, Koe Koi, Kirawareru Yuuki and Hana Nochi Hare. As I mentioned before, although I was a bit sceptical about Shu’s character at first because I wasn’t sure in what way he was going to contribute, I was ultimately glad to get some more backstory from him and how he even played a part in settling things between Kurusu and Kotaro. In the end he became an important asset in proving to Kotaro that he had really negatively influenced the people around him with his obsessive work behavior. He may not have gotten that much screentime in this show, but it was still nice to see him.

Finally, I want to give a major shoutout to Eguchi Noriko, who played Wang Dan. Watching her reminded me of Takahata Atsuko’s character in Naomi to Kanako, which was amazing. She really cracked me up with her Chinese accent 😆 especially since the only other character I’ve seen her play before this was the super frigid lady from Jimi ni Sugoi! It was a very funny contrast. Actually, that’s not completely true, I’ve also seen her play the abusive mother in Boku Dake ga Inai Machi and she also played a role in Kuragehime. In any case, this was a very fun side of her acting that I hadn’t seen before. I love how she can talk like that with such a straight face, she really has a surprising comical talent. I loved her character.

And with that we have come to the end of this review! I spent another day on it but it was much more relaxing to write than my previous watches. Sometimes I just love watching Japanese dramas since their stories are so straightforward and there’s not too much intricate drama involved. It was definitely a very refreshing show to watch after leaving the fantastical historical realm of Alchemy of Souls which I watched before this. I can’t help but feel like it was a necessary snap back to reality, even though I loved being in the world of magic for as long as I could.

I really liked this show and how realistically it depicted several contemporary issues that have been identified as problematic in Japan’s current society. These topics – of people that work themselves to death, people that are forced to stay after working hours merely to show responsibility to their co-workers, people that find their private lives influenced by their work and aren’t able to rest well because of it, people that are demoted at work simply for having a child and consequently being degraded in terms of capability – all need to be talked about, and even louder for the people in the back. It’s so important that these issues become known and it would be so great if there could be more companies like Net Heroes, where the CEO establishes a proper work ethic that prevents its employees from ever ending up collapsing due to excessive overwork. It is so important that people get to enjoy their lives outside of work and are enabled by their companies to take enough breaks to maintain their health and happiness. Sure, work is important, but it should never become someone’s entire life. Let’s try to decrease the number of people like Kotaro who feel like their lives account to nothing if they don’t have work. We need more happy and healthy people in the world!

Having said that, I’ll bid thee farewell and we’ll find out soon on which show my Wheel of Fortune lands next.

Bye-bee! x