Mi-Rae's Choice

I'm feeling a lot of things right now and happy is the least of them. The last episode of this drama has given us four people, three parallel universes, two men, and a baby. If I was feeling more creative I would make that singable to "The Twelve Days of Christmas", but I'm not, so that is what you get.

This drama had a lot of potential and I was enjoying it. There was time travel, Yoon Eun Hye, Jung Yong Hwa, weird noises when people cursed, and just general silliness. By the end though, it got a little repetitive and it was all I could do to not hit my computer and yell at the people because, seriously, why doesn't anyone tell Mi Rae anything? Do you realize how many things could have been solved had everyone not treated her like she was five? *heavy sighing*

The story made me think of Full House a little in the sense that the male lead is a giant man child and somehow everything is the female leads fault even if it totally wasn't. Granted, it wasn't as bad as Full House (thank goodness) but it was similar.

The story

Our story is about Na Mi Rae, she is 32 years old and works at a call center and has to deal with the stupid people that call in. One day she finds herself on the street, and not in some metaphorical way, she actually meets her future self.

Future Na Mi Rae says that she has come to help present Na Mi Rae have a better life than the one that she is fated to have. Something that I wondered all throughout the drama is where the heck did Ahjumma get all of her clothes. Unless she brought a Marry Poppins bag with her there is no way that she could have had as many wonderful clothes as she did.

We learn that Mi Rae marries the announcer Kim Shin and their marriage doesn't go well and Ahjumma looses the person that she loves the most in life and she is going to stop that from happening. Her plan is to get Mi Rae to marry Park Se Joo instead, the heir to the YBS broadcasting company who is masquerading as a VJ.

With the help of Ahjumma, Mi Rae quits her job at the call center, and rather spectacularly at that, and joins a production team at YBS, much to Ahjumma's dismay because that is where Kim Shin works. To make matters worse, Mi Rae and Kim Shin are on the same team. Also on this team are Park Se Joo, Mi Rae's older brother (who is not happy about his sister's choice), and Seo Yoo Kyung, doesn't that sound like a party.

Mi Rae's brother was also in I Miss You with Yoon Eun Hye and I'm glad that he still has his fabulous hair. 

That is the main story of the drama and it sounds really good, but, like I said, no one tells Mi Rae anything and everyone is keeping all of these secrets and it gets ridiculous. The writer started out strong but by the end, I don't think that he really knew what to do with the story that he had created.

The characters 

Lee Dong Gun as Kim Shin 

 

That sensor thing, I wish that it hadn't gone away so soon. I'm not sure how I feel about Kim Shin. I'm actually not sure how I feel about most of this cast of characters to be perfectly honest. He was just so full of himself and attacked other before he had all of his facts straight, it was hard for him to be completely likeable. I could see that he was a good person, but sometimes I was surprised there was enough room in his house for both him and his ego.

He did grow a lot as a character and that was nice to see, but I couldn't unconditionally love him by the end. I was so irritated by the choices that he had made throughout the drama and the way that he treated some people. I want to like him but his personality throws me off a lot. 

Yoon Eun Hye as Na Mi Rae

That hair.......I just wanted to go at it with a hair dryer and a can of mousse because that is really all it needed. The number one problem is that it wasn't styled, but that is the concept of most female leads, unkempt.

I love Yoon Eun Hye, I do, she is my favorite female actress, but I was not a fan of Na Mi Rae. She was the type of person who let everyone else decide her future and she was so indecisive about everything, it was a little ridiculous. She really only made two decisions in the whole drama, to become a writer in the beginning and then standing up to Grandma in the end.

She did have some good moments while working in the broadcasting station, but overall, she was a little useless and that is too bad.

Jung Yong Hwa as Park Se Joo 

Hello there you beautiful human being. It was too funny that he got a halo in one of the first scenes that we see him in to not use this picture. Se Joo was also a character that wasn't the best, but I did like him better that Mi Rae and Shin. This drama was one of the rare cases where I like the second leads better than the main leads.

I liked that Se Joo wasn't your typical chaebol and didn't think that he deserved everything on a silver plate. He started low and stayed there until his grandma made him come back to the top. Then when he did get to the top he tried to make reforms, even if they weren't the best ideas. He tried though and that is what counts.

Another thing that I both liked and disliked about him is that he wasn't the second male lead that sat back and pined about the woman that he wanted. He took the initiative and made advances toward her. That is something that I didn't like though because he was kind of pushy. I understand that he saw his opportunity and wanted to jump on it, but he needed to take a chill pill.

Han Chae Ah as Seo Yoo Kyung 

When I first met Yoo Kyung I didn't like her, I guess it comes with the Second Female Lead territory. She had far too much aegyo and she was also rude to Mi Rae and I was not having it. As her character developed though, I found out more about her personality and what a hard worker she was and what she put up with.

She was also the only person who acted instead of being acted upon. She thought that Ahjumma was weird so she did a little investigative work and learned a lot of information. She also put up with Se Joo's crap like a pro even though every time she saw him you could see that her heart was breaking. She is probably the only person that I wanted to be happy without any underlying uncertainty.

The ending

Spoilers! Close your eyes! Look away!

May I just say that I am not impressed right now. This drama did what Nail Salon Paris did couple wise, but then Mi-Rae took it a step farther and didn't even tell us who she ended up with. I have no words to correctly express the disgust that I am feeling right now. 

What was the whole point of the story if we don't know what happens in the end? Did Ahjumma really change the future, even if it wasn't hers? That being said, future Mi Rae never buried that box, Yoon Eun Hye Mi Rae did, so how did it get to Ahjumma? Anything that happened to Mi Rae after Ahjumma came doesn't affect Ahjumma so there is no way that she could have received that box. My brain hurts.

I swear, this drama was so close to dividing by zero it wasn't even funny. I'm surprised the universe didn't just collapse in on itself from all the people meeting themselves. 

In the end, I ship Mi Rae and Se Joo and there is nothing that you can say to convince me that they don't get together. NOTHING!

 

In all seriousness though, I was so done with all of the characters by the end and I was confused as to who should end up with who. I really only wanted Yoo Kyung to be happy because I felt that she deserved it the most because she should have been rewarded for being the only proactive character.

Final thoughts

I didn't hate this drama, it did have it good points and there were a lot of cute moments, but the characters were hard to like and the story was a little muddled in the end.

If someone asked me if they should watch this drama, I don't think that I would say no, but I would warn them that it does let you down story-wise and the ending might make you want to flip a table. It makes me sad.

~ Alora  

I Miss You

This gets a tiny bit spoiler-y, so you have been warned. 

This drama hits you right in the feels, right in the feels I tell you! It is so sad the entire time. This is a drama you should watch in the summer time, when the sun is out a lot, and there are butterflies and rainbows in your life so you can escape the characters sad existence back into your own happy one. Seriously, do not watch this if your life is not going well because theirs really don't go well. Seriously.

First of all, the cast in this drama is Amazing! I think that this is the type of drama that is more for the actors than the audience because it pushes them to the extreme of their own boundaries. Let's move on with the review then.

The writers really pile it on with the first episode. It shows you almost all of the characters and their lives all basically suck. The second episode is a little lighter though and that is nice. This drama is like 80% angst and 20% other. There are some lighter moments in this drama, but they are pretty widely dispersed.

Yeo Jin Goo and Kim So Hyun

I want to talk about the actors first. Yeo Jin Goo and Kim So Hyun are fantastic and I am so glad that they were picked as Yoochun and Yoon Eun Hye's mini me's. The first thing that I saw them in was The Moon that Embraces the Sun and they just continue to get better. I am excited to see what they do in the future. I think that I am going to watch everything that will ever be in ever. Ever.

The story about these two is that they met as children, but he is kidnapped and so is she when she goes after the kidnappers to try and save him. At the warehouse they are at, she is raped. Yeo Jin Goo is able to escape eventually, but he Leaves Her There. Yeah, he leaves her! I know that he is young and afraid, but oh my gosh! I was shocked and appalled that he did that. But if he hadn't done it, we wouldn't have a story, but it was still a jerk thing to do. This is one of the saddest parts in the whole story I think. It is so raw and just utterly heartbreaking to see what they are going through at such a young age.

I might be tearing up right now, no joke

There is one more child actor, (okay technically there is one more, but I don't care about her) and he is adorable, yet evil.

Little Hyung Joon

From the beginning this kid is just a liar and that is all I will say because I have already given stuff away for the kidnapping scene. But yeah, this kid is bad news and it doesn't get any better. You may think that it does, but it doesn't. Oh boy, does it ever not.

The kids finally get the boot in episode five and it is kind of sad because they are such good actors. They do reappear from time to time though so that is a good thing. I was kind of excited that they were leaving though because that means that my favorite actress got to come in, Yoo Eun Hye! This drama also introduced me to Yoo Seung Ho and holy crap that kid is amazing. He is so young and yet he was so believable in his role as the evil and tortured Hyung Joon. 

Yoon Eun Hye and Yoo Seung Ho

At the beginning you think that he is just the victim of what has happened to him and I guess he still is at the end, but as you learn more about him, you are able to see just how far gone he really is. It is horrible to see how far he falls by the end and the sheer emotion that Yoo Seung Ho is able to put into his character is incredible because Hyung Joon has been teetering on such a sharp precipice for such a long time, you wonder how he was able to make it as far as he did.

He's got the crazy eyes

 I think that Soo Yeon and Hyung Joon have one of the most tragic side relationships that I have ever seen in a drama. He lovers her and she loves him, but of course, he loves her more. Their relationship is a lot more than that though because they have been through so much and took care of each other because they were all the other had. That is the basis that the end of the drama is based upon which is what makes it so terribly tragic and probably they point that I shed the most tears at. (If anyone tells me that you didn't cry at the end at the hospital, you are an unfeeling jerk, is all)

Something that had me wondering throughout the whole drama is what is the correct punishment for someone who deserves to be punished? I am reading Tom Sawyer with my eight graders and we talked about the death of Injun Joe and whether or not he deserved what he got. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, go look it up) I think that the same goes for the kidnapper in the beginning and Hyung Joon at the end. They were punished for what they did, but was it too much or was is justified?

If you would excuse me, I have a date with the tissue box

Another question that I feel this drama brings is how much pressure can one person handle? There are so many twists and turns in this drama and just when you feel that maybe a character can be happy something else happens. Some of the characters do snap, but some are able to keep it together, but how damaged are they in the end? Sure, Jung Woo and Soo Yeon end up together, and they are happy, but they are not totally whole, not after everything that they have been through. 

The last thing that I want to mention is the ending of what could have been. Between the hospital scene and this last one at the playground I was so done. Like, so done. I was a mess and it was a good thing that there was no one in the room with me or else it would have been embarrassing for everyone involved. Not that I was sobbing or anything, it was more like those quiet tears that just continually stream down your face as you cover your mouth because you don't know what else to do with yourself.

Should you watch it? I would say yes, but only if you are mentally prepared for this storm of emotions.

What am I watching?

Cruel Palace - War of the Flowers: I am falling behind, but it's so good!

Nail Salon Palace: I'm going to finish the drama, even if it is going down hill fast

Full House: No dramaing this week, I have barely had anytime to breathe, let alone watch dramas