Destined with You (2023)

Another drama that I found started off with me hooked, but as it went on started losing me more and more. Lots of plot holes and things that are skipped over for the sake of the plot. Plus you know we have to have the stalker mystery that doesn't fit in at all! I think this would've been a perfect drama to make 12 episodes and have it finish on the happy end it did without all of the messy in between.

It veers away from the magic box/spells of it all and starts on a love triangle story line for most of the drama. I do not find these tropes interesting and it's not in this one. It really took away from the story in places where we could've been getting more background on Hong Jo and Shin Yu instead of shoving it all in towards the end of the series.

A lot of tropes, but the romance scenes are worth it at some points. I love Rowoon's acting and he definitely keeps you watching for the chemistry he brings. I loved his character and the charming side that he brought out in this drama. The other characters fell flat for me and the side stories weren't enough to keep me interested.

Romance scenes almost make it worth it, especially the few episodes towards the end (12-14) where their backstories are finally revealed. The rest not so much.

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Not Good Enough

Korean Drama '' Destined With You '' is a fantasy romantic comedy with some drama towards the ending.

The drama starts out quite intriguing, with the two leads displaying smooth banter between them and the comedy being subtle but enjoyable. The chemistry of the couple, in addition, was what carried the drama forward and let things progress. So, when it comes to the romance, the drama did things right.

Where, however, failed was with everything else. As the drama progressed, the story started being random. The love triangle got messy and confusing, the fantasy element was simply out of hand, and the last episodes tried to wrap up everything and fill two hours with spontaneous scenes of domestic bliss.

At least the performances were enjoyable till the very end.

So, overall, four out of ten.

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Watch it for Rowoon's visuals

Destined With You is okay, but I have a few issues with it. My biggest complaint is why the second female lead has to be an insufferable, cartoonish villain. Similar to 'She Would Never Know', the second female lead has to be the villain of the story to make the audience admire the female lead. Why deprive the audience of a serious moral conundrum? I think the drama would be a little better if Na-yeon (Yura) were a likable character.

It is easy to pair Shin-yu (Rowoon) with Hong-jo (Jo Bo-ah), not because of the destiny thing they tried to pull, but mostly because the other alternative is a horrible human being, a bully. I also feel that Jae-kyung's (Ha Jun) character is underutilized. The saving grace of this show is of course Rowoon and its cinematography and the beautiful scenery. Even though it is sometimes heavily edited, it still gives the show an ethereal feel.

All in all, it's not that bad.

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light and entertaining

Past and present collide in this rom-com about a city lawyer with a mysterious ancient curse and a civil servant with whom he shares an "unseverable destiny". If you are undecided on whether to watch a modern or costume drama, this show will deliver both.

While there are all the usual ingredients of a rom-com, this show is more entertaining than average. There wasn't the usual shy, denial of feelings, but rather a full on "Sorry - Not Sorry!" head first dive into love. Shin Yu believes he is under a love spell cast by Hong Jo and struggles to fight it. "You're not pretty, but you are to me!" It's a funny internal battle between a newly awakened heart and a seasoned analytical brain. A few scenes were too slow but, before you get too bored, the story manages to move along with hints into previous lives, dark magic, murder and suspense. However, the draggy scenes were during the modern portion of the show and I felt more time could've been spent on the historical back story. Rowoon and Jo Bo Ah change pace smoothly and maintain their chemistry between the two settings.

The overall cast is very funny and work well with each other. However, it was almost uncomfortable seeing Park Kyung Hye being very over the top; she has had better roles. The comic timing between the 2 ML's as they compete against each other in 1 of 2 intersected triangles is spot on. It's also nice to see two decidedly unglamorous people in their own romantic story arc; it counters the expectation that only young and beautiful people can fall in love. Rowoon, noticeably freakishly tall (his height is mentioned several times), is good at comic scenes and his fans won't be disappointed. He is maturing into a decent dramatic actor as well.

If you're not looking for anything too profound, this show is light and entertaining to watch.

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Only for Jo Bo Ah

Only for Jo Bo Ah, If you are not satisfied in this drama you can watch her in Tale of the Nine-Tailed
The story is not complicated
But the director, screenplay makes it complicated
Actor and actors are done their best
As usual [ Jo Bo Ah ] her cute acting in screen presence is mesmerising to me
First 7 episodes you must be patience from 8th episode the drama becomes interested
Thankfully Drama has happy and good ending
May be part 2 for destined with you if there is chance
So don't worry worth to watch
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In the past life and in this life.. I love you.

Thumbs up from my mom to Rowoon for being handsome ahaha

Might not be a big hit, but it was a good drama.
I started watching not expecting much, I'm new to these actors, the story might not sound new, but I don't pay too much attention to pointless comparison these days, since everything depends on actors and production team and they managed to keep me interested and the last half I simply binged. Strictly speaking there are always hit and misses, but speaking truthfully it's not as horrible as some people say.

What I considered to be good.
Acting. I had no idea who Rowoon was before watching and I must say he has the face and skills for you to remember him on the screen. What can I do, who doesn't like handsome guys. Oh! And so far the only actor I've seen who could act drunk so well ahaha like honestly when it comes to drinking or being sleepy many actors don't look drunk at all. You can put a ton of blush on their faces, but they can't do it, but his scenes were on spot ahaha. Same for Bo Ah. Although it wasn't her fault there was so much emphasis on her acting shy at the beginning, which was later dropped, but overall she did a good job with her role. I noticed he acted with actresses older then him in several dramas? :)
All other actors did a good job too.

Romance. I'm not against characters having prior relationships. It's not a bad thing having a character who is not a blank piece of paper when it comes to love/relationships. This is why I found the initial entanglement interesting. After all the mistake Hong Jo made gave a strong sense of "fate". And from initial almost enmity they came to love. Tbh those episodes when he couldn't control himself were quite funny, because we could see the rational and emotional sides clash constantly. Eventually her life was filled with him and his life with her and their feelings shifted in the direction towards each other. On screen chemistry was great :)

As for the storyline. You need to watch it completely to see the writer's idea. I think the story would have tasted really different if the backstory (past life) would have been dumped from the get go. Basically, we as viewers get the glimpse of the past life together with the characters themselves, which was quite fine. And if someone says something about sub-plot.. *sigh* don't you see why it was brought up. If not this it would have been something else because what should have happened must come, don't forget the settings of the curse after all. I try to speak spoiler-free as much as possible and keep things vague.

PS: The only thing I couldn't get was actually HongJo's co-workers. They acted vile and I couldn't wrap my head around why. You can justify it by saying that because she reported Gong, who in return kept mentioning her, they might have accumulated negative feelings towards her, but this was the part that felt fake to me. Maybe because despite justification I couldn't get why they acted like that, so it felt forced.

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A wonderful surprise

I wanted to watch it because of Rowoon whom I had seen in other dramas before and whose performance I always admired .
The beginning of Destined with you is slow and Rowoon 's part of an upright , haughty and stiff lawyer , who 's always sour looking did not inspire confidence . I thought it might be a rom com but there was little evidence of that . But then the plot developed into a thrilling , engaging , intense love story , with suspense , compelling supernatural mystery , which had me on edge until the end when everything is very well tied up together . it has a happy ending and I would say well deserved for the main characters after all they went through ! I would watch it again .

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Do not care about bad rewiews here, it's worth the watch

At the start, I thought that wasn't that much worth my time, even though I've been a huge Rowoon fan (also SF9) for the past years, and I've also been influenced by the other reviews there, but decided to give it a try!
Honestly, not the best 2023 drama, but is well done. Loved their chemistry, also the support roles actors and actresses did a really good job, the storyline is dumb and that is why is good, is supposed to be a lighthearted drama that doesn't need to be taken seriously. I love some random phrases of Rowoon and the bickering with the second lead, also his parents are hilarious in certain moments.
I would give a solid 8 to this!

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Comecei esse dorama por impulso, não foi por recomendação e eu não conhecia muito bem os atores, apenas vi no catálogo da Netflix e comecei a assistir, mas não me arrependo! Esse dorama definitivamente é um dos melhores de 2023.
A história é sobre reencarnação, vidas passadas e rituais é muito interessante e te deixa curiosa o suficiente pra te prender até o final, todas as cenas foram muito bem feitas e a atuação é perfeita, quero parabenizar especialmente o Rowoon que entregou um show de atuação nesse dorama, fiquei realmente emocionada em diversas cenas por que ele fez parecer tudo muito real. A Jo Bo-ah também entregou uma atuação perfeita nesse dorama, comecei a assistir outro em que ela é a principal e estou bem surpresa com o talento dela. Não posso deixar de comentar sobre a química do casal também, o diretor acertou muito em juntar os dois!
Apesar de ter muitos elogios sobre a história e os atores, eu tenho alguns comentários a fazer, apesar de achar que o casal principal tem muita química e combinam bastante eu realmente não gostei da forma que o Shin-yu tratou a Hong-jo em alguns episódios, em alguns momentos ele coloca ela pra baixo e trata ela de forma ruim sem motivos, e também não pede perdão por isso, outra coisa que eu não gostei também foi a forma que foram enrolando o relacionamento do Shin-yu com a Na-yeon, não acho que era necessário segurar o relacionamento dos dois por 10 episódios, mas entendo que isso na história é mais realista, afinal os dois tiveram um relacionamento longo de 2 anos. Não consigo gostar também de nenhum dos colegas de trabalho da Hong-jo, todos praticaram bullying com ela e acabam bem sem nem um mínimo pedido de desculpas, também não cosegui gostar do Jae-kyung, em algumas cenas eu achei ele muito autoritário sobre a vida da Hong-jo, e de certa forma eu entendo ele não aceitar o relacionamento dela com o Shin-yu no começo, mas ele me parecia muito intrometido e arrogante, não consegui gostar do personagem. Outra coisa também foi a mãe do Shin-yu não acabar se divorciando, eu entendo que isso seria demais para a coreia conservadora, mas acho que seria um final mais feliz e digno pra ela, afinal, ele nem sequer se redimiu, apenas pediu desculpas como se fosse um erro insignificante tratar ela como ninguém durante anos.
Apesar desses defeitos parecerem muitos, são suportáveis e não estragaram a minha experência com o dorama. Me diverti muito assistindo Nosso destino e definitivamente vou recomendar para mais pessoas.

Algo que me surpreendeu muito e eu não poderia deixar de comentar sobre é a cinematrogafia perfeita, em algumas cenas eu me senti assistindo a algum filme no cinema e esse é definitivamente um ponto positivo muito forte nesse dorama.

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Reincarnation & Spells

Everything was so average here with the exception of high production value as it was to be expected.

A tragic forbidden love story between a shaman girl and an aristocrat's son, replays when both are reincarnated 300 years later.

The drama meanders between comedy, romance, tragedy and thriller. The characters were interesting. Rowoon in particular since he went from rigid and too serious lawyer to a funny man in love who believed himself to be under a love spell so he explained repeatedly the symptoms of love. Hilarious. The female lead was the usual K drama heroine: tough, kind and brave in the beginning but loosing every braincell after falling in love and giving us a string of bad decisions and ridiculous actions.

Most of the support characters were the comedy part: her work colleagues were the usual gossiping lot, more annoying than funny and his parents bickering. Then there were the "bad guys" his girlfriend and a gardener. They were the most underdevelopped characters because their motivations for being evil was never really explained. Why was the girlfriend, rich and pretty, so jealous of our FL, poor and stubborn? Why was the gardener so obsessed with the FL, so much so he wanted to have a soul wedding and kill her (what is all that about?)? I liked the second ML, whose character was never really clear: was he honest or power hungry?

What about spells? We never learned if they really worked? They did 300 years ago but not today? And the curse he was put upon apparently disappeared when he died and was brought back! Why? The previous sufferers from the curse also died but the curse remained.

Plotholes galore!

But in spite of that, it was a nice watch, nice cinematography, basic story, correct acting. Just that Rowoon is too tall, so when he puts his head of her shoulders, he looks ridiculous!

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