Acting: 7
Storyline: 6.5
Overall: 7
Grade: C+
Starring:
Park Si Hoo 박시후/朴施厚 as Yoo Philip 刘弼立
Song Ji Hyo 송지효/ 宋智孝as Ou Eul Soon 吳乙蕣
Lee Gi Kwang 이기광/ 李起光 as Lee Sung Joon 李成钟
Ham Eun Jung 함은정/ 咸𤨒晶 as Shin Yoon Ah申允儿
Choi Yeo Jin 최여진/崔汝珍 as Ki Eun Young 奇恩英
Jang Young Nam 张英南 as Kim Ok Hee 金玉姬
Hwang Sun Hee 황선희/ 黄善熙 as Kim Ra Yun 金罗妍
Ji Seung Hyun 지승현/ 池承炫 as Sa Dong Cheol 徐东哲
Supernatural/paranormal/fantasy dramas have been receiving much love from viewers worldwide. Some examples include “My Love from the Star”, “Goblin”, “Legend of the Blue Sea”, “The Master’s Sun”, “Oh My Ghost”, “W – Two Worlds”, “Black”, “Korean Odyssey”.
Ever since the overwhelming success of “The Master’s Sun”, we face a shortage of Suspense-Thriller-Rom-Coms with a tinge of dark humour (that grip your hearts). There were probably a few attempts, but none really satisfied that innate desire like “Master’s Sun” did. “Lovely Horribly” is a combination of “Master’s Sun” and “W- Two Worlds”, where it has defined its unique genre. I would say it is a good attempt and effort, but still lack in some ways.
You would be intrigued to find out more from the very 1st episode, with many mysteries and questions waiting to be unraveled. It has a mixture of ill-fated destiny, ghosts, unknown powers of the supernatural, zero-sum romance, thriller, suspense, comedy, and how eerily that tragic events in the script would eventually become reality.
To add on to the already “over brimming” pot of drama genres, the one element that makes this drama stand out, is the zero-sum fate of our lead couple.
It piques your interest to want to find out if it were the supernatural forces, ill fated destiny, or humans who caused this “zero-sum” fate.
They are polar opposites – when one is enjoying all the success, luck, happiness in life, the other would be extremely down on luck and be plagued with misfortunes.
How should these 2 persons co-exist then?
If only 1 between the 2 can live on, who will it be?
It is believed (at least in the drama) that if they are together, one would eventually cause the death of the other.
The initial 7 to 10 episodes were fast-paced and full of suspense. You just cannot stop watching 1 episode after another. However, it fails to live up to its expectations for the last few episodes.
Viewers may start to get weary after the story begins to unravel and you kind of know where the plot is leading you to.
Many characters in the drama harbour dark secrets and have their own agenda.
It makes you wonder, if the unknown like supernatural beings are scarier than human beings or vice versa. As you age, you would fear for the safety of your loved ones more than other things.
“Lovely Horribly” was the Grand Prize winner of KBS’s drama and miniseries screenwriting competition in 2017. There has been mixed reviews about this drama, but personally I enjoyed it very much and feel that it’s worth a watch.
Great CGI and Sound Effects
The great CGI and sound effects attribute to how the drama has managed to grip audience’s interest.
The “tock tock” sounds of the high heels, the landslide, murder cases, errie music and dark runways were all portrayed very well. I watched 80% of this drama during wee hours and I must say, it was so SHIOK, especially during the 1st few episodes when it was packed with mysterious and eerie elements, a lot of bizarre happenings and left you lingering for more.
You never know what’s gonna come next for the 1st half of the drama. You would also applaud at how they could all link one seemingly small scene to big incidents.
The 2 leads’ Funny Interactions and Quirky Romance
It’s cute watching how these 2 loggerheads bicker and slowly fell in love with each other. The chemistry is there but not compelling enough to make you totally believe in the “I will die for you” rationale.
I love the funny interactions whereby Eul Soon would always be Philip’s life savior, be it during the “stabbing” incident, landslide and many more, where he would clutch on to her and find ways to make her stay around till the end of the drama filming.
The one scene that Philip trimmed Eul Soon’s messy hair for her would send ripples through your heart.
One is always so full of himself and thinks that the world revolves around him, the other is always doing her best to help others despite she’s in a plight. It’s interesting to see how they both try to compromise and complement each other like many real-life couples would.
Also, could their Love stand the test of all those major obstacles in life?
It seems that Park Si Hoo is a little restrained in expressing the role. 不是放得很开. It somehow just felt like enacting similar roles he had in the past, as a rich guy with bad attitude. Or rather, 90% of the Korean Drama Male Leads have such character. I can’t feel the depth of his love for Eul Soon as compared to Eun Soon’s love and sacrifices for him.
This is Park Si Hoo’s 3rd drama after he returned to the small screen with “Neighbourhood Hero” and “My Golden Life”.
Both leads have a certain level of good chemistry (though not overwhelming) and funny moments, but perhaps most audience including myself, have not forgotten about the big case that happened 5 years ago. It is no longer that convincing for Park Si Hoo to play such “decent” roles, but it doesn’t affect my decision to continue watching his dramas. There isn’t much 发挥空间 for him in this drama, except to add some tinge of comedic elements.
I enjoyed his older dramas such as “Princess Prosecutor” and “Cheongdamdong Alice” more.
“Confessions of a Murderer” is probably his best role till date. Taking on more 讨喜 roles is perhaps an effort to salvage his image, so that more audience would be receptive in watching the dramas he starred in. However, he should probably try out more exciting roles for growth in his acting career.
It’s just like how Joo Ji Hoon’s image fell into a bottomless pit after he was caught taking drugs. The well known Goong Prince has now switched to more mature and difficult roles. He has “revived” his popularity with “Along with the Gods”and “Dark Figure of Crime”.
Song Ji Hyo has always been a natural and versatile actress, since “Wishing Stairs”, “Princess Hours”, “Emergency Couple”. She has the good looks, intelligence, wittiness and the ability to act with her heart. She has been a well-loved ACE in Running Man and even without makeup, she is voted as one of the most beautiful actresses in Korea.
She had messy hair, no makeup on for half the drama, had the worst of luck, no true friends or family members with her. She was an aspiring script writer whose best friend had betrayed her. She finally got some recognition with the script for “鬼, 神的爱”.
However, unfortunate and tragic incidents have been occurring ever since the start of filming and she was forced to stop writing. She wouldn’t give up since this is her “baby”, but when things got way out of hand and out of control, which would even affect her own safety, she then stopped to ponder.
From time to time, your heart would cringe when you see how sad her life has been and some of the flash backs with her foster mother.
值得一提的 Supporting Roles
This drama wouldn’t have kept up to its good raves and exciting pace without the help of the very important supporting roles.
Jang Young Nam as Kim Ok Hee – The key person to link through the story.
As a mum to both of them (birth mother and foster mother), we see how she sacrificed for her children and took the pains to make sure both of them would be safe, whether she was alive or dead. You can feel yourself pitying her at times.
Lee Ki Gwang’s role as Lee Sung Joong, a PD who has a hidden ability to see ghosts is a good addition. Otherwise, it would be too boring when no one else could see or hear the supernatural existence, to find meaning to link one incident to another.
His acting is so-so compared to the rest, but it is one important role to help Eul Soon to face up to the realities in her life and to overcome them. He’s Eul Soon’s “Black Knight” – the one who will always support her and catch her back whenever things happen.
In many ways, he is much more matured than Philip and can protect Eul Soon from harm.
Eun Jung always has her way in making her 坏女人 roles very convincing. She does irritate the hell out of you as someone who is over possessive over the man she loves and would do anything for him. No one could stand in her way. If she couldn’t have him, no one else deserves to.
Yoon Ah has her beliefs that if you are able to sacrifice everything and be able to do anything for the man you like, that’s true love. However, that’s just being super obsessive. It not only turned her to be super irrational, she also did not feel a tinge of remorse or guilt for what she has done in the name of “love”.
We enjoyed her “bad woman” role in this drama and feel that she has a lot of potential to unleash in future works.
Choi Yeo Jin assumes the role of successful scriptwriter Ki Eun Yong, who actually betrayed her best friend, Eul Soon, by stealing her script.
Compared to Eun Jung, she is on a totally different level. You would really dislike her in this drama. All the unscrupulous things that she would do to succeed would make you cringe. I also like the last few episodes where she “sold” her soul in order to be able to write better than Eul Soon.
For the entire time, I thought the guy who acted as Sa Dong Cheol was Shin Sung Rok (the villain in “My Love from the Stars”). My apologies but Ji Seung Hyun seriously resembles him quite a lot.
Nonetheless, I do like how he depicted his character as a group mate who turned jealous and sour over Philip’s success and felt that Philip was responsible for the plight he is in, which included stealing his love and causing her death.
He was a ruthless killer (yet has a sad story of his own).You would get to pity him a little towards the end.
Isn’t this mentality just so true to everyday life?
Sometimes, we feel that our “misfortunes” are caused by other people. It’s always easier to blame others for the “plight” that you are in, than to really seek inner answers, which you already have.
Hwang Sun Hee takes on the role of Philip’s ex-girlfriend, Kim Ra Yun, who died in a fire accident. She’s back to seek revenge on all those responsible for her death.
You would empathise with her character. When Philip was at the peak of his career and had to keep their relationship under wraps, many people tried to sow discord between the 2 of them. It was because of his lack of trust in her, that partly contributed to her death.
We often hear people who have broken up mention that, they regret not having a little more trust in their other halves, or having the courage to just thrash things out. Reality may be entirely different from what we thought.
You definitely need Inspiration to Write
This is something I totally agree with both Scriptwriters Ou Eul Soon and Eun Young.
There are times when your inspiration and ideas would flow nonstop and you can just keep typing on the keyboard for ideas. There are also many occasions whereby you can stare at the screen for days or hours and nothing seems to flow out of your head.
There are dramas and concert reviews that I would spend days or even weeks on writing. Some are so thought-evoking that you have so much to write and you need to start jotting down small small points when they come to mind, even when you are on the go.
There are times when you rack your brains and you do not know what to write.
Since this is a personal blog, I do not have the pressure to “force” myself to write after watching every drama or concert, or even set a word count for myself. I skipped writing about some dramas because I really don’t feel much about them. I probably can still write a little, but the depth of content would turn out vastly different.
Meaningful Quotes that kept replaying in your head
There was one particular scene in Episode 6 which I found to have very meaningful quotes and life philosophies. Eul Soon said that the series of weird and misfortunate incidents were all due to coincidences.
PD Lee said to Eul Soon:
“偶然不存在的。都是选择。偶然以及命运，都不存在什么无可奈何，因为一切都是我们的选择。所以，选择改变了，结局也会跟着改变。”
Coincidences do not exist, they are all choices. There’s no such thing as being “helpless” when it comes to “Coincidence” and “Destiny”. It all boils down to our individual choices. If you choose to change something, the end result would also change.
It seems like a 当头棒喝. Human beings often relate/ attribute whatever that has happened (that’s beyond our logical thinking) to a coincidence or fate/destiny.
However, it is like a “butterfly effect” in life. When you make a conscious decision, it will affect how things will eventually fold out. If you chose to do something differently, the end result would have been different as well.
It is just like playing different scenarios in your head and you chose one that you feel is right.
What did we learn about “Love” in this drama?
It comes in all forms and magnitudes and you can’t really measure if someone is getting the short end of the stick. It’s natural that we feel unfair if we love someone more than they love us, because we would end up the ones making more sacrifices in the end. This would lead you into doubting the other party’s love for you.
Such is love. It cannot be seen, can never be balanced at a 50:50 ratio, and may change any time.
Too much possessiveness not just brings about destruction to others, but also to you.
We need to learn to let go at times, when we feel that we couldn’t take it anymore.
It’s just that we never realised how strong we all are, till being strong is the only way.
To sum it up, if you enjoy some thrills and even chills along the way when chasing a drama, loves to also laugh out loud at rom-coms and have an investigative desire to solve mysteries, this is certainly one drama worth watching.
It still remains exciting till the very end, just that you would have satisfied most, if not all of your curiosity by then.
We shall wait for the day, whereby we can have another drama that can be on par with, or surpass “The Master’s Sun”.
I bet many would be screaming “YES!” if we can have Season 2 for “The Master’s Sun” too.
