Melancholia (2021)

Mixed feelings... but don't be put off by the teacher-student relationship in the synopsis

Is this series worth watching... yes and no. There was huge potential in the story but that got cut half-way through.

If you worry about the student-teacher relationship that is mentioned in the plot summary - don't be! She is a dedicated teacher that finds a way to engage her student who has immense potential. There is no romance involved whatsoever. Does he have a crush on her? Well, not exactly. She is the one who understands him and reignites his interest in maths. Do his feelings change later? Yes, but then he's an adult and as he says in one episode. He had enough time to really analyse his emotions and deal with them.

I think we really need to see their relationship from the maths perspective. Their minds work alike. Even before they first meet, they are in a maths group chat together, solving problems. She realises that the way he sees the world is in mathematical formulas when she sees the photos he takes. She loves art and the hidden maths inside those artworks. They are two peas in a pot that connect through their understanding of maths. This is also the huge potential of the series. In the beginning we're sometimes shown how he actually sees the world. Analysing structures and forms constantly. Basically, he seems like a savant, he cannot not see those maths formulas in the world around him. Sadly this plot line got entirely lost in the second half. Which is a pity.

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THIS IS A STUDENT/TEACHER DRAMA | DON'T WATCH IF YOU'RE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH IT

Unfortunately, viewers are giving the drama bad ratings because of the type of story it contains.
But this doesn't make sense, because from the description you can think that it'll contain something in that regard.

This is a beautiful story come to life by great acting. This is a Student/Teacher story, BUT NOT inappropriate at all in our eyes. We interpreted it as them having mutual respect for each other and love for math whilst in school. Please do give it a try, BUT only if you're comfortable with this type of relationship. We're not going to give spoilers. We will however say that this was a hidden gem we're glad we discovered.

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“A Melancholic Fail”

The listless and uninspiring female lead Im Soo-jung, who apparently has been in the entertainment industry for 20 years and has surprisingly won a Best Actress award in the past, is the reason why “Melancholia” is a melancholic flop for me. It’s baffling how, after all the many years of experience and exposure she has had, she displays this level of “lazy acting” that is really burdensome to watch. Her aura here is very much like her demeanor in “Search: WWW” - unappealing and dreary. Her face is lifeless and devoid of any expression no matter what emotion she’s going through. She is enormously outshined by junior cast members and a wrong match for the powerful acting consistently shown by the male lead Lee Do-hyeon, who is much younger and less experienced than her. This awful mismatch is a major distraction and the main reason why I’m giving this drama series a low rating.

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plot that failed horribly just after a good start

It started with very good two episodes or so that's it then it became just normal crush from a teenage kid with sad past and good teacher that helped him overcome his grief then it became an obsession from the student towards the teacher then it backfired on them both ,, the teacher didn't do anything wrong , may be she overlooked the obsession that the kid developed towards her because she liked his mathematical brain ,,, then the drama suddenly jumped four years into future and the kid became adult so now he's allowed to love his teacher ,, he couldn't find her so he became a teacher himself to avenge her from the people that wronged her , ,,, of course that's not smart at all from math Genius then he find his teacher is doing the same but from far hahaha then he started chasing her again ,, they went round and round each other with no affair or love scenes or any actual romance it became dull and very boring turned into revenge plot that is failing too
By the way ,, the first few episodes they tried to make math fun and enjoyable to learn but the writer lost his IQ on the way didn't mention math or did any smart moves after that hahaha
so after 13 episodes all we got is a very annoying characters who are very bad towards each other and two main leads who are lost and trying to get back at the bad people but failing miserably that's it
You won't get anything from this drama but what i've said above
good luck

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Good Enough

Korean Drama '' Melancholia '' is a school drama.

The series has a dark academia feel to it, with the two leads truly engrossed with their science, being in love with math and willing to make new leaps in their field.

The school drama, in addition, was neat, even though, halfway through the drama, got boring and some twists were being repeated. The romance, on the other hand, was nicely handled and was subtle, though the love triangle was forced.

Nevertheless, the characters of the drama were interesting to follow and had chemistry. The performances by everyone in the cast were smooth and nicely executed as well.

So, overall, six out of ten.

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Engaging, interesting, and romantic in a non-traditional sense

This is my first drama review, and the reason why I decided to write one is because I would love to increase the rating of this show. Without any spoilers, this story spans years of uncovering a corrupt school system that benefits the rich and silences those who challenge the system. But it's also a love story, but not just romantic. I initially started watching it because of the noona-romance premise, but this is honestly not the best description of the love described in this show.

It's a love story about friendship between and among generations of educators, students, and mathematicians. It's a love story about minds that understand each other without ever having to physically interact to stimulate passion. There's no insta-love or insta-lust in this story. It's love in a really pure, innocent form.

I usually don't care about the politics in Korean dramas, and I typically avoid them and stray toward rom-coms. BUT, since the politics were interwoven so intimately with the main characters, you had to follow along with the politics to see how it would affect our MCs. So it didn't feel draggy (though I did skip many of the political conversations in the first 6 episodes,) But once the time jump occurred, following the politics became necessary to understand how our MCs would achieve justice for what was wronged. It was actually pretty interesting and I found myself skipping the political scenes less and less the more our MCs got involved. And by the end, I was cheering whenever something was uncovered.

This is not a traditional "romance" drama with lots of physically affectionate scenes. But this is a romance of minds, of understandings brought by healthy communication (by the end, at least), and of the idea of found family. Please give it a shot. I'm so glad I did.

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inimah upgradenya sky castle banget. bedanya, premis utama melancholia ini dikasih bumbu-bumbu romansa. selain itu, kalau di sky castle cuma dikasih unjuk 'persaingan' doang, di melancholia ini ditambah lagi detail yang menurut w oke banget; yaitu dengan mengambil fokus lebih pada matematika. walopun yang nonton kaga paham-paham amat, tapi lumayan keren lah ya keliatannya wkwkwk.

secara keseluruhan mengkisahkan gelora asmara jiwa muda yang masih tetep kekeuh sama cinta pertamanya. satu yang disayangkan adalah kenapa mesti kisah cinta murid dan guru sih? mungkin lee dohyun yang mainin perannya emang udah dewasa, cuman kan di cerita ini dia masih pake seragam sekolah wicis anak di bawah umur banget. anggap lah kalau dia kelas dua sma, berarti umurnya masih 17 tahun. kalau bu ji yoonsu, karena dari awal gapernah disebut berapa usianya, gue taksir pas masih ngajar seungyoo pasti umurnya di atas 25 tahun mengingat dia juga salah satu guru berpengalaman. sebenernya oke-oke aja lah kalau buat cinta monyet, tapi ternyata ini serius??? karakter bu ji yoonsu si dah bener yak, bu guru banget. keliatan berpengalamannya teh. cuma emang si baek seungyoo aje yang baper akut.

tapi kemudian mereka emang ketemu lagi pas seungyoo dah dewasa. cuma ya gimana yak? gelagatnya manisss lucu gemesss siii tapi tetep aja ada rasa getek-geteknya gitu kek ngerti gak maksud gue? aowkaowkaowkaok

sebenernya gue ngarepin banget drama ini berakhir dengan cara yang sama kayak yang ada di drama record of youth; jalan masing-masing bukan berarti bikin keduanya ngga bahagia. cuma ternyata penulis melancholia lebih mau menunjukkan kuatnya takdir kalau ibu ji yoonsu sama bpak baek seungyoo emang jodoh--mreka ketemu lagi dan lagi sampai akhirnya kayaknya memutuskan hidup bersama deh.

menurut gue kayaknya drama ini bakal lebih oke kalau mengangkat cerita anak kuliahan dibanding anak sma. selain itu beberapa waktu ke belakang ini kdrama lagi krisis cerita anak kuliahan banget ga sii? zuzur agak bozen sama cerita sma, terlalu hiiiihh gemesss sama kenaifan mereka.

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story is good but plot ?

when i read the story ,i loved the concept but when i watched the drama i didn't find myself connected with the plot because with the starting of the drama I didn't see any happiest movement. It started by introducing the main characters , a teacher who is genius in maths and preparing students for some type of competition who had been living with her boyfriend and on the other side a boy who also genius in maths but always kept himself hide frome others . Though he was
sit among the students in a class but never been noticed . Then one day the teacher identified his talent and try to pursue him to take part in the competition but due to his scary past he never wanted to show his talent . Then the teacher helped him to overcome from the past and slowly slowly everybody came to know about him . After the entry of powerful people who were trying to destroyed the teacher and the student's careers . They post their(student and teacher) such pictures which had shown that something was going between them ,may be they are in relation and then many things had happened . At very last of the drama had shown that everything had been solved and they had a happy ending .
i really felt melancholy all the time . All the time sad and sad happened between the main characters. even the background were sad .
i knew the story was about tragedy conspiracy and jealousy and accordingly the music had been given but not even single episode of happiness . In one of the scene the leads went to the beach there also though for the characters they are spending good times with eachother but still i felt melancholy. Literally who has patience to watch the drama till end i recommend this to those.
But i will say the story is good because it had shown how powerful people make the use of power to destroy other person's life because of their willful wish.

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Beautiful Math

Melancholia (2021)

Likes
1. I loved the first 6 episodes when they were still in high school. But episodes 10-13 dragged. They could have cut some of the scenes and made the drama shorter.
2. Loved the relationahip between Seung Yoo and Yoonsu. You can really feel how much they love math. Too bad the present time was focused on the corruption/revenge and not a lot of math.
3. I liked Si-an. She may be an orphan but she grew up well, is smart, happy and is tough to stand against Jina and the bullies. I also liked Jina more than Yerin (she always had this sour face the entire time and was too stubborn and to admit her mistake).
4. Second time to see Jin Kyung play the baddie and i love it. She is so elegant but that maniacal laugh is scary (but not Cheon Seojin level). I also find the feud between the sisters interesting and i was actually rooting for Jungah not Yeonwoo.
5. I also liked Sungjae. I actually wished he and Yoonsu will get back together.

Dislikes
1. I never liked math so although this drama made math sound so beautiful and interesting, i still got lost with all the metaphors about math.
2. I felt that the romance wasn't needed. They could have ended as best friends or teacher-mentor and it still would have been a great ending.

Rating: 8/10

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It seems and feels like a toxic show but it is not. Give it chance.

After watching the 2nd episode i know this drama is off to a good start.

From the beginning there is a romantic air between main leads but i think thats just it,i dont think they will portray anything ROMANTIC before the time skip.

For anyone who is avoiding this drama thinking its a Pedophilic drama or for normalizing cheating on spouse, Dont do it.

The Cast is absolutely stunning with Im So Jung and Lee Do Hyun and many others. The story is about misunderstood scandal and corrupted private schools, not pedo romance.

Even though I'm just a few episodes in, its a good drama with great acting.

DONT AVOID THIS DRAMA THINKING ITS JUST A TOXIC RELATIONSHIP.

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Beautiful tribute to math

Usually I don't write a review but I really needed to do it this time.
Unfortunately I think society is not ready for this type of content, nevertheless this is, until this last episode, a beautiful tribute to math, and a excellent representation how parents and schools are most of the time cutting wings from students due the amount of pressure and strict methods.
Above all, as a neurodivergent, I feel that this is a beautiful representation how our mind works.... The focus, the passion, how we see things.... It's hard to explain but they surely did a great job.
It's a shame that people are too focus on a future relationship between them (that supposedly is going to happen when they're older), ignoring what's really the focus of the story.
It's also a shame the double standards, because in Goblin she was also a student, but didn't have 1/10 of the criticism this one is having.
Society is clearly not ready to this show yet, but it's still a beautiful story nevertheless, so please consider watching it with a open mind, who knows, you may actually enjoy it a lot!

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