Tin and Park were neighbors who grew up together. After a family tragedy, Tim now loves with Park and his family. Park is a nurse (or a doctor, I am not sure), older and treat Tin as his younger brother, but Tin has a highest crush on Park and he leaves no opportunity to flirt with Park and keeps finding excuses and reasons to be near to Park. And this playfulness continues for most part of the show. Tin and Park have other childhood friends in the neighbourhood (these are all these characters who are introduced one after other). They are close with Barbie, a feisty tomboy facing a rocky relationship with her dad. Pao is a well-educated teacher pressured by the expectations of his family. Meanwhile, Bai is Pao's trans sister who constantly feels compared to her perfect brother. Tin often clashes with Kana, the belligerent son of the general store owner. The two frenemies don't get along and constantly quarrel. Despite their occasional disagreements, this close-knitted group has been friends for years. They support one another. Back to the couple, in college, Tin starts getting attention by another boy which starts to make Park jealous and he soon realizes that he also may have feelings for Tin. Finally Park confesses that he too likes Tin a lot, but he was always concerned with what people would say since they have always been considered as brothers and whether people will accept their relationship. A beautiful love story begins.
Yes, this love story sound nice and cute, but guess what, it forms probably just 30% of the overall show. There were far, far too many characters. I couldn't even begin to keep track of half the characters and some would pop in and out and it would be like, who are you and why should I care? There are random slice of life scenes thrown in together which are sometimes cute to watch but you are left wondering why am I watching this. The storylines seem clunky and theatrical, from angsty family quarrels to sudden health emergencies. And OMG! Th number of scene that just involved snacking and drinking bubble tea, I was flabbergasted. How can anyone drink so much bubble tea, all the time. Literally nothing happens of first 3-4 episodes. There are random child characters who just adore the simplicity of Tin and spend time with him and thats it. I can go on and on about why this show should don't be watched. There are numerous instances where the show gets very frustrating with its lacklustre writing. It wastes time on pointless filler instead of developing meaningful plots. But the only saving grace of this show was it ws genuinely funny and silly when it came to showing some the friendly interactions between Tin and his frenemy Kana. There is a specific playfulness and realness about their interactions which is fun to watch. Initially Tin's immaturity when it came to flirting with Park was annoying but it eventually grew up on me. It became cheeky, playful and charming in a weird sort of way. The show ends pleasantly as the childhood friends discover love and redefine the meaning of family. The actors are all strictly ok. I wish someone could make a fan edit of just the scenes between Tin, Kana and Park without all th unnecessary hang out stuff and forced melodrama and actually this could have been a cute, boisterous a dn a silly but fun show to watch. But as it stands now, it was a sheer waste of time otherwise. (3.5/10)
PS: Does anyone know what the title of the show means?
Comments
The first 3 or 4 episodes were a total "deja poo" ( = seen this crap before) but then something changed out of the blue, like a different scriptwriter was included in the team, and although I had my reservations, I kept watching, traditionally hoping that the next episode will be better. The major cringe in the first episodes was Tin constantly whining like an entitled spoiled toddler and I felt really sorry for Park having to deal with that. But then again - they over there seem to adore such whining, so it's my personal tragedy.
There was one funny moment, though. For Estonian and Finnish speaking people. The name Kana means "a chicken" in these languages. When two little girls came to the tiny grocery store he was working at and one of them asked "Kana, I need 5 eggs", it was so hilarious coincidence I laughed for a few minutes :D But then I didn't get what happened with Kana and Pao. They kinda talked and communicated like others around them, then that passionate bedroom scene - and then nothing. Meh? Felt like I missed an episode or a prequel or something.
Like you, I also noticed that there were so many additional characters. They had their own stories, but these never made any point to the main couple's storyline. There were really serious issues with the parents of almost all characters, but these were just introduced, not analyzed or solved.
Overall a "deja poo"-fragmented story with gaps and blanks, although the locations were quite nice. Especially the gardens.
It could hav been been good silly-ish show had the focus been on main couple and Kana, but of course these writers (if there were any, at all) needed to bing in ten thousand characters for no reason. Maybe just to create some jobs.
Meanwhile in the green room two more series have reached the finale:
"Sing My Crush" - something new in the storyline, about ownership of a song. Friendship, caring, past issues coming back, and a really amazing cabled sweater (luckily worn by a nice character).
"Tokyo in April is..." - Delicate and engaging. Both protagonists are amazing. Ikebana-style again, less is more and every character has a purpose. The main storyline is trying to find out what happened ten years ago.