Kate Travelera

Showing posts with label korean drama review. Show all posts

Our Blues is one star-studded drama. If you're an avid K-drama viewer, you will notice that most of the casts in this drama are already well-known or big names in the industry. Despite this, I was not too excited to watch this one for the story/plot is not so clear to me but I'm glad that I did! Our Blues actually turned out to be one of my favorite slice-of-life Korean dramas up to date.

This drama is mainly about the residents of Jeju Island, whose lives are almost connected with everyone, since they've lived there most of their lives. It's considered a life drama for in every episode, they tackle the life story of each one of the drama characters. The different stories shows us relatable scenarios that most of us may have encountered in our own lives. I think it was a good idea to start off the drama with the return of Eun Hee's first love. This episode made me reminisce also the good times of experiencing your first crush or first love. They also showed us the immeasurable love and desire of a father to give the best he could for his daughter despite hardships and sacrifices. That lesson that it's okay to aim higher but you should also know when it's time to give up or at least accept when your current circumstances shows you the limitations of what you could provide. They also showed us the tendency of people to judge someone based on hearsay without knowing first the whole story. You see this is what made this drama into the list of my favorites, it's about the lessons and takeaways that we can get from each story/episode. The drama gives off a feeling of nostalgia and the great acting performances from each of the actors adds more to this.

I actually enjoyed all different stories and episodes but I'll just share some of my favorite ones. One is the story about In kwon and Ho sik, the close friends who strangely turned into enemies. The back story showed us how simple miscommunication and wrong timings may ruin a really great friendship. Also the story of Young ok and her twin sister with down syndrome. I'm glad that most Korean dramas now also shows awareness about people with special needs and disabilities. My most favorite is the story about the grandmother Do shim and her grand daughter. Her story and how painful it must be for a mother to lose most of her children during their young age. How the two had to adapt with each other when circumstances made Do shim need to temporarily care for her grand daughter, when her only remaining alive son even got into an accident and was currently fighting for his life. This is a spoiler but the scene about them showing the 100 moons to the granddaughter made me cry buckets. Their story also made me miss my own grandmother.

Our Blues is definitely one of the best dramas the industry offered us this year. They way they told each life stories made us feel as if we're actually living them ourselves. Each actors made us immersed and able relate to each of the characters in the local neighborhood of Jeju Island. The sceneries of course is also a great addition to each of their heartwarming stories. Just be prepared to tear up at some of the episodes but all tears dropped is definitely worth it. Hope you all won't miss out watching this drama.

My love for this drama "Yumi's Cells" is evident that's why I'm dedicating my recent blog posts about the show. This drama may look simple and ordinary to some, but if you actually invest your time in watching each episode with an open mind and digest it fully, then you will realize that the drama plot is deeper than you originally thought of.

As a fan of Korean dramas for almost 12 years now, I've noticed a trend most of them. They have the tendency not to start strongly, enough to keep you hooked starting from the first episode. Most of the Korean dramas gets better at around episode 4 onwards, when it already gets to establish the story and the conflicts. The surprising thing about this drama though is that it started strongly even at the first episode, and keeps on getting better on the next ones. This drama is light, relatable, funny, cute and will make you wish that you're also in love. Not only that, if you dig deeper into each line and situation per episode, you will realize that not only these situations are relatable but it will also make you think about yourself too. Thinking how you may have reacted considering if you're the one in that situation hence, making you discover things about yourself too. With our constant busy lives, I'm sure most of us forget to take time to reflect on our actions and thoughts. Watching this drama will make you do that, unconsciously.

As I did some thinking after every episode, I would like to share the life's realities shown in the drama and the realizations that dawned on me.

In order to win love, you must show your true feelings. It may be hard for many but you really need to take the courage and be straight forward. This is actually what Yumi's love cell said at the end of the first episode.
All of your feelings are valid despite the circumstances.
We have the tendency to be pessimistic when it comes to new opportunities or possibilities for happiness. Just like when hysterious cell appeared and brought havoc to Yumi's thoughts and feelings during her blind date with Woong. It's actually a natural self-defense of most people to be not hurt again,
Love comes unexpectedly and even develops without us realizing at first. They perfectly showed this during the frog scene where Woong's love cell disguised himself as a cute frog to be able to enter Yumi's heart. When inside, he helped restored the cell village of Yumi, erasing the stress and clearing the doubts on Yumi's mind. Eventually, Yumi opened up to the possibility of entertaining Woong.
Men and women can become close friends but there should be limits. This part is about Sae-yi for yes maybe she's acting the same as she used to before with Woong, but her intentions are not pure. If you're a true friend, you must be aware that there are limits on the way you act when he/she is currently in a relationship. This to show respect to your friend's significant other too.
You need to speak up, loud and clear about the issue. When Yumi's cell village became infected with flowers of doubt because of Sae-Yi's actions towards her boyfriend Woong, it eventually led to her leaving and lashing out the reason to Woong thru a phone call. Men are usually clueless about women's feelings and if Yumi did not clearly state the reason why she's feeling that way, Woong may be left wondering with the question of why. Honesty, openness and better communication is important in a relationship.
During arguments with your significant other, one should step up and initiate to make up. Don't let your sulky self and pride take over in what should have been a minor issue if only one took the initiative to address it.
It's normal that sometimes we have the tendency to let our emotions take over in some situations. This is what happened with Yumi during the wedding of her friend where she met her ex-boyfriend. Unfortunately though, letting your emotions take over your rational mind may end up with you doing something that you will eventually regret on. Being cautious is still important and we should do our best not to always let this happen.
Loyalty is important when you're in a relationship but don't let your thinking get way ahead too much. This part was really funny in the drama. Since Yumi is really loyal to Woong, she started not noticing other men and became really cautious around them, doubting their intentions. The funny thing is they showed the men in cartoon stick drawings instead of actual people to make the point more emphasized. If you're too cautious, you may end up missing out on possible new friends or connections.
Honesty is really important in a relationship. You should never lie just to avoid possible confrontations just like what Woong did, not telling Yumi that Sae-Yi moved in the same apartment building as his. When Yumi accidentally found out, she was so hurt and they ended up in a really heated argument.
You need to draw a line about other people's unwanted actions. Just like Woong letting Sae-yi continue with her uncomfortable actions around him that really affected his relationship with Yumi. It's a good thing that Woong had a wake up call and addressed this issue directly with Sae-Yi. Glad that they addressed this long and unresolved ambiguous relationship between them.
Even if you're in a relationship, you should put yourself as top priority for you need balance. So whatever happens, you won't lose yourself in the process. When Yumi's love cell went to visit Woong's cell village, they were surprised to find that Woong's top priority is his self contrary to Yumi always putting her significant other as her top priority. This is a learning for her that is bound to happen.
There are times when you need to stand up for yourself. Your life is yours, you have the freedom of choice in every situation. When Woong stopped Yumi during her upfront talk with Sae-Yi, Yumi was frozen and she wasn't able to respond. This is because Woong is her top priority and not herself. Revising the list made her able to speak up on what she really thinks and feels despite on the possibilities or outcome.
There are past situations and experiences that eventually leads to what ifs and maybes. Regret isn't always a bad thing but it's a normal part of life. It's all about our choices and their repercussions.
Giving genuine compliment to another person goes a long way. It will definitely help that person be inspired to become even more better. Leading him/her to the road to further greatness. Just as what Babi did when he complimented Yumi's writing skills. Her love for writing was resurrected and her confidence got restored.
Considering an uncertain decision, it's common for us to seek advices from the people we value, to borrow and gather more courage. When Yumi was deciding whether to accept the offer to move to the marketing department, she asked around and tried to borrow courage from the people important to her.
It's okay to take a risk but while deciding, you should be ready to accept the possible hardships and obstacles that you might encounter. Yumi was disappointed when Woong didn't encouraged her at first to consider the transfer but he has an explanation based on his current situation. He said that Yumi must be really sure before she accepts that she's ready to face whatever the outcome may be.
You should be open and willingly share your struggles with your significant other. When you're in a relationship, sharing the good times is a must but sharing your problems is even more important. Your partner should always be your source of strength. Woong's unwillingness to be open with Yumi about his struggles due to his pride eventually made bigger problems in their relationship.
Unaddressed issues within a relationship will continue to build up until the small cracks are unrepairable. Decisions to break up doesn't happen in a snap but it's actually because of these accumulated unresolved issues. Like Yumi and Woong, they encountered issues but left them unresolved due to their unwillingness to properly address it. They just brushed off the issue after they both cooled down and not really talked deeper about it.
Your life is yours and it's okay to be alone. Even though loving someone is really great and being in a relationship gives you this unexplainable feeling of completeness, you must not forget to love and prioritize yourself too. You need to live your life as you please and not center everything to your significant other. Yumi had a hard time deciding about the break up because she's afraid to become lonely when she's alone again. That scene where she visited her cell village in her dream and talked to the bulletin manager cell really helped her realize the important matter that she's forgetting when making this decision.
Each relationship whether it ended up badly is important. We may have been hurt deeply but these wounds will heal and become our guide and wisdom in the future. Every experiences gives you learnings that you can carry throughout your life's journey. Helping shaped what you should become in the future.

And lastly,

We are the star of our lives, the main character. Loving others is important but more often than not, self-love is overlooked and forgotten. Self-love is actually essential for a strong foundation of one's genuine happiness, resilience and wellbeing. Yumi eventually learned that her romantic relationships doesn't define her worth as a person nor her whole life, on how she wants to actually live it.

Yumi's Cells is truly a slice of life drama that emits positivity and good vibes to anyone who watches it. It effectively showed to its viewers the thought process of humans, often overlooked and unthought of.

The drama is not really a love story though it shows Yumi's experiences during her romantic relationship. The core of the drama is to show everyone her journey, on how each of these life experiences made her learn, realize and grow as a person.