Sin Embargo (2021)

It was good however the ending was bad. There was never really an explanation to why the male lead act the way he does so his redemption in the end felt very cheap and unearned. The story was too one sided solely focusing on the female lead when what drives most of the exciting part of the story was the male lead. The ending was fairytale like. However, given the circumstances that the male lead never really got to open himself up to the female lead, it is more realistic if they didn't get back together in the end. On the other hand, their happy ending would have felt good if the male lead just had a proper redemption.

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Don't listen to the haters!

It seems I have an unpopular opinion regarding this kdrama. I really enjoyed it!
The chemistry between the two main leads and the hyperrealism was great to see. It isn't your typical soft, fluffy romance. If that is what you are looking for you will like the relationship between the lesbian side couple (who are adorable) or boycott the show completely.
I read the webtoon after finishing the drama adaption and I have to say I didn't like it, it was very choppy, and felt like the story wasn't really going anywhere. It was then abruptly ended with a rushed, thrown-together ending (I believe the author had a certain reason to cut it short).
In the webtoon the ML is very one-dimensional and although he is 'nice' to girls he has a coldness in his eyes throughout the story. In the drama Song Kang did a great job at portraying the aloofness of Park Jae Eon, he also portrayed a lot of emotion with his eyes. which wasn't seen in the webtoon, and even when Park Jae Eon would act a certain way you could see the emotion in his eyes of how he really felt but wouldn't acknowledge or be honest with Na Bit about.
In the webtoon the FL is assertive, she starts a consensual sexual relationship with a man and when he crosses the line she moves on to someone else. In the drama Han So Hee portrayed Yoo Na Bi as assertive at times but also composed. She starts a consensual sexual relationship with a man she is attracted to, it isn't until other people start to find out that she feels what can only be described as shame for her actions.
Having a consensual adult sexual relationship is not 'toxic'. I've seen a lot of people throwing this word around when describing this kdrama. If you want to have consensual casual sex with one person or multiple people that is not toxic, as long as those within that relationship understand that it is casual sex. Which, within this drama is understood by both Park Jae Eon and Yoo Na Bi when starting their friends with benefits relationship.
Getting personal here, I had a casual relationship similar to the leads in this show when I was in my early twenties. Unfortunately, it didn't work out, like most casual relationships but that's just reality. Who watches a fictional kdrama that doesn't end on a happy note?
If the drama adaption had ended the way the webtoon did it would have been abrupt, perplexing, and gone against the direction of the drama. It also would have been unwarranted for potato boy, as he deserved better than someone who had feelings for someone else.
I would have liked to see the drama carry on a little to see some insight into what a relationship between the leads would be like but unfortunately, you don't see if Na Bi gets to go to Paris or if Park Jae Eon takes the scholarship in America. I guess it's left up to the imagination how their relationship progresses or fails, following their middle finger to society's standards when they decided to continue their relationship despite what other people's opinions on it were.

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Nevertheless, it's not for me.

The webtoon have realistic and better ending, why the directors changed it?

This drama made me say "stupid girl" like million times.. LOL.

Well, i know in real life many people might have that kind of relationship and make the same choice. But THIS IS DRAMA. I believe a movie or series should give the audience enlightenment, lesson to be learned, motivation, a mirror to ourselves, and all that jazz..
I imagine if some audiences who watched this have the same situation, they'd feel relate, and choosing to go with like FL is only natural.
This drama doesn't teach us to be realistic, the message is "if u love someone just go for it even if u know it's toxic and will screw u later. And yeah, just blow away the good handsome guy who really love u!" or " Listen to your heart, if u love him, go for it, even if he might be a womanizer in disguise" .. 😂😂😂😂

Despite the story line, other things are pretty good, like the cinematography and such. However this could end in 6 episodes instead of 10.

But hey, this is just my personal opinion. If u like it, it's your right.

Nevertheless, it's not for me.

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Fighting through the frustration to find at least 1-2 likeable characters to hang on to

I'll start by saying that I have not read the manhwa which this drama was based on and will therefore base my review solely on what I've experienced through the drama version of it. The review will be rather long, as my frustrations with this drama were many, and you will see me using the realistic-unrealistic argument a lot. That is because I've seen way too many people trying to excuse how badly the plot develops by it being "realistic", which is something I very strongly disagree with.

The main problem with Nevertheless, in my opinion, is that I barely found any character likeable, which would have been reason enough for me to at least reach the last episode naturally. On the contrary, the frustration that was slowly and steadily building up since the first episode from nearly every character's actions grew almost unbearable nearing the end and I was ready to give up at any point, honestly.

At the forefront of this was Yoo Na Bi, of course. The main character, the one that is supposed to carry most of the show and to draw most of the attention from viewers. I can very well understand and even empathise with her attraction towards Park Jae Eon and how great of a temptation his interest towards her can be, to the point of her wanting to throw her better judgement out the window (which she does multiple times). He was a very handsome and charismatic character, with as much of a mystery to attract your attention and make you vulnerable to his smooth advances. But his f-boy behaviour gave one too many wake-up calls (or rather slaps across the face), to both Na Bi and the viewers, for her ignorance to seem realistic.

What was even more unrealistic was her "friends" directly or indirectly supporting this toxic relationship. That is a special call out to her "best friend" (as was suggested at the first few episodes) Bit Na, who as I understand was even a fan favourite too. There is no way a real friend that was aware of Jae Eon's f-boy tendencies would not be strictly against his involvement with Na Bi and not try to persuade her friend to end this relationship, even with her more progressive view on sexual relationships, because she would have clearly known that that is not what is best for her friend. But Bit Na, on the contrary, looks as if she is having fun watching Na Bi being the victim of this unhealthy push-and-pull game. And as the drama goes on it looks as if she is slowly disappearing from Na Bi's side while the screenwriters develop her own storyline, which also feels unexplained since a good amount of the first half of the show was dedicated in establishing their close friendship. Instead, we watch Yoon Sol and Seo Ji Wan take Bit Na's place as Na Bi's closer friends, which is probably healthier for her since those two look like they would be better friends to her and not as self-centered. Even still, Sol seems to also not hate the idea of Na Bi and Jae Eon's relationship, despite seeing Na Bi being a wreck because of him, which is questionable for her character but I can give her a pass since she found out much later on the whole relationship timeline and I can see a few reasons why she might want to take that approach. The other people from the friend group, including Ji Wan, had no clue so they can be exempted. The conclusion that I arrived to is that Na Bi didn't really have any good friends that she felt she could seek support from and that is probably the saddest part of this story.

Na Bi's inability to resist Jae Eon's aggressive pursuit of her would have been better explained if perhaps we would have gotten a better glimpse at her relationship with her mother and her feeling a lack of attention from her, as well as her possible experiences of growing up in a household with no healthy relationship patterns. What we get instead is a brief scene of a rather important event in Na Bi's life (her mother not only forgetting her birthday but also choosing to spend the day with her romantic partner instead) and nothing more. In fact, the screenwriters do this a lot throughout the series. They quickly brush over important details for the sake of the story moving forward and give more screentime to stylistic filler scenes that may look nice but grow tiring very quickly. That is most evident towards the end of the drama, especially regarding the situation with Na Bi's piece for the final exhibition breaking, which is supposed to be a very shocking and unfortunate incident but is instead solved rather easily in the viewer's eyes within the same episode. Parallel to that, Na Bi's constant struggle with finding the motivation to work and satisfaction with the pieces she creates, which was a major plot point since the beginning, is quickly resolved by Jae Eon being her inspiration in a way that was never really addressed, in my opinion. That is especially vexing for me since I also draw and have had the same struggles as her and I know from experience that finding a solution is rarely that simple or related to anyone else but the artist and their state of mind.

I am definitely not one of those people that wanted Na Bi to end up with Yang Do Hyuk by the end, no matter the fact that he was one of the only unproblematic and wholesome characters. Alas, both being attracted and not attracted to someone is something you simply cannot control, however much you want to. So I cannot really blame Na Bi for not eventually falling for the sweet nature of her childhood friend who was treating her with so much love and care nor for her trying to like him giving him a few false signals along the way. That, too, I find at least realistic.

What I would have prefered was for Na Bi to eventually realise what is best for her and grow enough to move on from Jae Eon and find her own happiness without a romantic relationship, since both her options where not really viable. Noone and, sadly, not even the screenwriters could persuade me in any way that she managed to "change" Jae Eon and that he finally realised he loved her enough to let go of his past ways and completely devote himself to her. That is not only extremely unrealistic but a big loss to the "I can change him!" idea that had us fall victims to f-boys and their ways 15 or so years ago.

On a more positive note, I have to give credit to the drama for featuring a same-sex couple and I can also say I liked the pace of the storyline they created for them. Even though I also found many problems with Ji Wan's characters, both her and Sol where genuine with their feelings towards each other and the plot discreetly highlighted the societal struggles of loving someone of the same sex. I also very much liked how after the two of them get together the people who find out abouth their relationship treat it as something completely normal and I feel it does a lot for lgbtq+ representation on-screen and especially for k-dramas.

In conclusion, despite the production team having rather promising material to create a unique drama, with realistic plot and empowering characters, while also addressing several relationship issues that many people can experience in their lives, they choose to take the standard route, ignoring many key elements to the story along the way and creating unrealistic relationships and unlikeable characters, that not even the beautiful direction and photography can help redeem. I cannot really say how strictly they had to follow the source material and try to confine it in 12 episodes of air-time, but maybe if that was the case it would have probably been better if they left it and found something else instead.

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Just fine for one time watch!

I don't write reviews yet here I am! I have watched more than 100 k dramas and this is the first one which looked liked an adaptation of a drama from Western countries.
Well, long story short, Yo Na Bi (female lead) fell for a red flag and just got broke up in the first episode to guess what - fell for another red flag the male lead Park Jae Eon!!!
She keeps falling for him again and again knowing that she is behaving pathetic and he is a bad news wrapped in a handsome and charming face!! He is that guy who is nice and warm to every girls around and ofcourse good in bed!
While watching this show I literally felt like it's a poor adaptation of Western series, because we don't watch k dramas for this. If I wanna see red flag, I would watch Valeria all over again because the male lead viktor is a fucking hot red flag.
Also if the makers really wanna break the kdrama stereotypes and show steamy scenes then they must know it's a long way for them!
However, I like the charecter development of supporting roles. It's kinda cute.
If you are planning to watch it then be ready for 10 episodes of toxicity and if you don't want to watch then it's okay, you aren't missing anything.

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Nevertheless (2021) - I have read the webtoon version of this drama way before I finished the drama and I could say is that the drama sucks. I mean they should have followed the flow with the manhwa if it is an adaptation. I just felt frustrated with it.

It's a realistic drama for sure but it's too toxic, and I hated the leads so much. If they did follow the webtoon I would have like the drama better and it may have save the drama in its totality.

The actors were just okayish for me as watcher. I'm of course in love with the second male lead again, pretty normal for a korean drama watcher like me.

Webtoon >>>>>>>> Korean Drama

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Unrealistic portrayal of romance

I was looking for more Song Kang dramas since I was quite impressed with his performance in Sweet Home. His wide-spaced doe eyes are so expressive, he makes it hard for you to look away. Unfortunately, this drama was not my favorite so I will move on to Navillera. The unrealistic storyline is what I had trouble with the most. Girls do date guys like Park Jae Eon, and I was one of them. However, they seldom end happily. You see, there is no way a girl can expect to have a friend- with-benefits type of relationship with a guy and expect more from it than what he offers. It never works and no amount of showering him with affection will change the damaged outlook he has on romance or how to properly date someone. You wind up with a mangled heart.

I have to agree with other reviewers that the chemistry was excellent between our main leads. The sexual tension was through the roof and the first 6 episodes were so well written, they made me feel like part of the action. The writers took their time and patiently set up the foreplay even before they got physical. The anticipation was almost unbearable and it made me want to keep watching.

Unfortunately, it starts to unravel at the second half of the drama. The students behave like middle schoolers, constantly preoccupied with each others' business instead of their own. They play spin the bottle, sit around teasing each other about their love lives and act lame teenagers instead of college grads. There were some interesting storylines among the supporting cast and girl love is handled in a dignified way. Kudos to the writers for that! The most disappointing and unsatisfying part is the end because I didn't get a real sense that our ML had really changed. He should have been the one to ask for a second chance, not her. Deep down, I felt it wouldn't last and it's almost alluded to. Young women will gobble up this type of drama, but it doesn't exist in any realm of reality, and giving them the message that it could is irresponsible.

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A guilty pleasure with and unexpected result

It’s my first time writing a review, but I feel the urge to share my feelings after binge watching it.

I didn’t want to watch it because of set up, after being where the FL was it felt too real to watch, but I’m glad I did. I think everyone has at least one of the experiences depicted in the show, with all the red flags and knowing well that it’s not going anywhere, but still jumping into it.

I saw myself in every single decision made by the FL, trying to keep the distance, but failing miserably because of all the attraction.

I know that the drama ended differently than the manhwa, and I was a bit happy that they also got a happy ending for the ML. It healed my scars knowing that it is possible, at least in a drama, to get the bad boy to chose you and for him to try to get better in the process. I really leave my hope that they will have their casual happy ending.

Don’t be afraid to watch it, if you were traumatised like me. Who knows, maybe it’ll heal you as well.

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The aesthetic was flawless

This is a very sexy drama.

It's slow, sensual and very much centered around the relationship (or lack-thereof) of the main couple, so if character driven stories aren't your thing, I don't think you'll like this. Personally, I loved it.

I also quite enjoyed the close-ups on their eyes and mouths and the scenes where they showed parts of the faces and bodies of certain characters, but never the whole person at once. It was very reminiscent of manga or manhwa vignettes. I thought those were very cool directorial choices.

The music went great with the overall chill vibe of the show, and it was fun how butterflies kept coming up in the songs.

Great drama. 10/10 would recommend!

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