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People can’t seem to help but rave about New Years Resolutions lately. So how bout this, I’ll join in on the fun myself and say MY own resolution is gonna be to review more dramas in 2018. Sound good? Yes? I’m glad, Hip Hip HOOOORAY!!! On a serious note however, I’ve really been noticing how Kdrama reviews have been non existent on my blog these days. O_O Not sure how I let it get to this point but I do wanna make up for the lack of content. To do this I’ve been thinking of going back to review my top dramas of 2017. To revisit hits like Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, Fight For My Way, Live Up To Your Name, Go Back Couple, to name a few. I think I’d be cool.

Currently I’m toying with the idea of reviewing 1 of these per week, on Sundays possibly Mondays even. Whatever I do decide to ultimately go with, one thing is for certain at least, today I’m gonna get this ball rollin’ again! A-huh you heard me and I can’t think of a better show than Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-Joo to start with. Might as well kick off the new year on the highest most positive note possible. 🙂 Although before I can truly jump in and give my full thoughts I think a brief summary of the drama is in order:

No worries the main points of this drama are fairly simple. Going in you’ll have a humorous, super sweet, “Coming of Age” tale, that’s got a “slow burn” of a romance to it. With your main characters being a female weightlifter called Bok-joo, and the other being Joon-hyung a male collegiate swimmer. The drama pretty much follows these people on their day to day struggles, as they go on their journeys to self discovery, meanwhile learning they may share a past too(cute plot point), and of course finding love along the way.

It’s mostly fluffy throughout and not the kind off show to get cray cray on you like some other dramas out there have been known to. You see with this you won’t be finding any terminal illnesses, typical rich people problems, surprise siblings popping out of thin air, or amnesia(thank goodness for that by the way), etc. No no at all, in other words there’s NO UNNECESSARY drama in general here. At most maybe you’ll get some love triangle action but even then not really.

That’s cuz at its core if you really wanna get down to it and be more specific, is about overcoming the every day struggles of COLLEGE ATHLETES. Like Joon-hyung getting over a past trauma that has stagnated his swimming career over the years or Bok-joo having to juggle between her dating life, self-image, and sport. And it’s precisely due to this more lowkey streamlined nature that I think it makes an easy watch for newbies out there. Because apart from some heartbreaking moments peppered throughout this will mostly give you nice doses of happy feelz at a nice and snappy pace instead. 😀

As a matter of fact I can guarantee you’ll have a fun time watching this. It just doesn’t get any more smile inducing than with Bok-joo and Joon-hyung’s relationship. They have a fun quirky dynamic, and it’s never tiring seeing them tease and fight to get the upper hand on each other when simply hanging out chillin’ like everyday people. 😉 And also there’s plenty of excitement in getting to see their characters organically grow through all the phases before officially settling on the titles of “gf/bf”.  I’d go as far to say that to me was it’s greatest strength by far, and what has set it apart from a lot of the other dramas I’ve been into lately. It was just so nice to have two leads who were pro active and who could talk about their problems freely and openly on friendly terms.

Pretty much what I’m getting at is that the writing and performances for these characters were really down to earth. Viewers are bound to find them relatable and appreciate the solid foundation in their friendship that the drama sets up before starting any romance threads. Which I don’t know about you, but I find that fantastic because those sort of relationships are the best in my eyes. Think about it. It makes tons more sense to fall for someone you have slowly learned to trust and have grown to depend on over time more than a “love at first sight.” I’d like to think that way. Then you also had the natural chemistry on top of it all. You could totally see why the two decided to date once upon a time. Yeah, they really dated for realz. 😀

Anyways, enough on the relationship angle. Although it feels as if I could very well spend days talking about it. Instead let’s now move on to the production values real quick because I feel they outta be praised more often than they are. For starters, I think the cinematography is surprisingly solid for this type of show, which for lack of a better word I’ll admit is kinda “straightforward.” It is a true to life slice of life drama and not fantasy or sci-f afterall. Doesn’t keep it from having some artsy shots tho, specially for the kiss scenes. There’s one in particular that takes place in the snow that I feel looks magical like something out of the drama Goblin.

Then following that up you got the OST too and again is much better than you would expect for this kind of show. Fun fact, I decided to watch this drama BECAUSE I stumbled on the drama MV for the track I’ll Pick You Up . It was such a great song that blended so well with the cute footage of the two that I couldn’t resist. Overall the show had good music to give it a lighthearted tone while not making it overly jokey which is much appreciated. It was almost more in line with what you would expect with a quirky indie film soundtrack. Here check out one of them. This one is called Permeate:

 

 

Also before I close this out let me not forget to mention the supporting characters in this. That would be such a tragedy because they were ALL absolutely delightful, funny, and a bright spot that helped fully flesh out the drama world our main characters inhabited. For example, even the secondary romantic interests weren’t horrible in this. Ok maybe Song Shi-ho bothered me at first but I thought I got were she was coming from by the end. That and I appreciated her having her own passion and separate set of problems to deal with. Though it could be she didn’t bother me because our female lead was able to hold her own against her and didn’t take her nonsense in the slightest. 😆 Props to having a female protagonist who sticks up for herself!

As for the Bok-joo’s crew, I don’t think I would ever tire of their endless hijinks, supportive behavior, all around pure-heartedness and would obviously never tire of hearing them all say the word “sweeeg~” either lol. If I had any complaints, it would only be that I wished we got them and Joon-hyung’s friends to be more intertwined with our main couple’s love story. Oh and also that I wished we got even more of some of these characters featured in their own side stories. Specifically I’m talkin’ about Seon Ok(one of Bok-joo’s main friends) and Tae Kwon’s(Joon hyung’s best friend) love line. I felt that had sooooooo muuuuuuch potential if you ask me. The two were adorkable together from the moment they met and deserved a more closed ending than what we got. I think the only fair thing to do now is for them to give us a spin-off with them as the leads. Yup only logical thing for them to do…lol

Well that’s all from me folks. Have any of you watched it or been thinking of watching it? I know when it was originally airing it didn’t fair so good in the ratings because it had the task of going up against Legend of the Blue Sea, and yeah it’s hard to stand a chance against Lee Min Ho’s and Jun Ji Hyun’s combined star power. However it is one of those shows that’s become an instant cult classic and it seems like 99.99% of all who watch it fall in love with it. 🙂

It’s a 9/10 drama for me.

 

#Trailer