Kdrama 2020

A Love So Beautiful (Kdrama Version Review & Summary)

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• Genre: Modern Romance, Youth, Life
• Release Date: 28 December 2020
• Origin: South Korea; Remake of Chinese popular, A Love So Beautiful
• Kdrama: 24 Episodes
• Available: Netflix

Cast

• Kim Yo Han as Cha Heon (Jiang Chen)
• So Ju Yeon as Shin So Yi (Xiao Xi)
• Yeo Hoe Yun as Wo Dae Sung (Bo Sung)
• Jo Hye Joo as Kang Ha Young (Jing Xiao)
• Jung Jin Hwan as Jin Hwan (Lu Yang)
• Park Ji Won as Hee Ji (Li Wei)
• Seong Hye Min as Moon Sook Hee (Teacher)
• Seo Ji Soo as Doctor (Dr Su)

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This is exciting, I am looking forward to watching this to compare it with the now-classic original A Love So Beautiful Chinese drama which made a star of Shen Yue and Hu Yi Tian.

The kdrama cast has big shoes to fill.  Shen Yue and Hu Yi Tian have made their drama so watchable that it would be hard to think of some other cast playing their original roles.

Be that as it may, I would be watching this kdrama when it comes on 28 December 2020.

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Episode 1

What can I say?

It is a tad boring. Lifeless!

I was so looking forward to this version to relive the Xiao Xi and Jiang Chen experience but I am afraid, I did not find it here.

So Yu Yeon was overacting for cuteness overload but only came across as irritating.  I supposed because she is 26 in real life as opposed to a 19-20-year-old Shen Yue when she played Xiao Xi.

You can see a natural expression of first love with young Shen Yue in Xiao Xi’s bubbly personality wrapped in awkwardness and uncertainty of youth.  It was in her eyes and smile.

I did not see any sweet moment and I had not even smiled, not even once.

But I did finish it and thank goodness it is fairly short.

Anyway as the original, it started with Cha Yeon and Shin So Yi with the rest of their classmates sweeping the schoolyard.

So Yui confessed to Cha Yeon that she likes him to which he replied “I don’t like you.”

Then she retreated to rethink her strategy and decided to go for a love letter.  She was helped by Jin Hwan, who is her best friend at this point.

She was outside alone thinking outloud how to confess to Cha Yeon again in the strongest possible way; including threatening him to break his bones if he still refuses to go out with her when she was interrupted by a new face in the school.

He commented that that school sounded like a scary place.

She concurred that it was a scary place.

The new boy said that they will be brothers from then on.

The boy turned up in her class as their new classmate.  He intimated that he was close to So Yi which made Cha Yeon miffed.

So Yi was caught with a love letter during class.  The teacher humiliated her but Cha Yeon stood up for her, saying that the teacher was violating So Yi human right, blah blah blah.

Cha Yeon got punished but the whole class joined in because the love letter was actually lyrics to a song.

Tedious, but having said that I shall give it another try with the next episode.

Episode 2

I really wish this drama gets better but I am disappointed with episode 2 as well.

There is no spark at all.  Even the Xiao Xi’s charismatic parents were given a very mundane version in this kdrama.

Anyway, in this episode, Cha Yeon’s essay about his deceased father was read in class by So Yi as tasked by their teacher.

It was Cha Yeon’s dad’s death anniversary which was missed by his mother and brother as they could not return to Korea; his young brother was ill.

So Yi went to the market to buy fruits for the remembrance but when she got to Cha Yeon’s house, he had already prepared everything and was in the middle of the ritual.

So Yi was upset that he had already started without her.

When he told her to go away because she was being a pain, she threw her bag of fruits next to the makeshift altar and went.

But she can’t keep away, she went back to Cha Yeon’s house and was surprised that his door was not locked.

She found him sleeping on the settee.  She can’t help herself, she just had to touch his sleeping face and found that he was running a fever.

She put a cold compress against his forehead.

Again, she leaned over the sleeping boy as she found his burning lips so deliciously tempting. LOL

Thank goodness Cha Yeon woke up otherwise he would have been sexually harassed.  LOL

Dae Sung invited So Yi, Ha Yang and Jin Hwan to watch him in the competition.

He only came second because he had hurt his shoulder when he protected the clumsy So Yi when she almost fell against a tree.  He presented the medal to her because he was charmed that she was enthusiastic on cheering him.  He promised her that he will upgrade the medal to a gold one next time.

There is no chemistry between So Yi and Cha Yeon at the moment but she has with Dae Sung.

Episode 3

It is the election for the class president where So Yi stood for the position, she at first tied with Hee Ji until Cha Yeon turned up and voted for Hee Ji.

So Yi became the vice president.  But she was so upset with Cha Yeon, she kicked him on the shin.

Her first task as a vice was to collate all the monies for t-shirts for the class. She put it between the pages her language notebook which she then submitted to the teacher.

Hee Ji told her that she would need the money soon.

So Yi looked for it but realised what she did.

So it was left to Cha Yeon to take it back from the staff room..

She then tried to resign after confessing that she lost the money until it was found by Cha Yeon.

After three episodes, I would say this drama is not bad but I would not say it is any good either.

I am watching this as some sort of masochistic desire to like it as much as I loved the original. LOL

Episode 4

It was a sport’s day at the school.  There was  a rather sizeable prize money for the winning team which was good enough reason for So Yi and Ha Young to enter and win the prize.

So Yi wanted money to buy Cha Yeon a birthday gift andd Ha Young wanted to buy her father a gift as well.

Though So Yi was rather hopeless at jumping hurdles, Dae Sung dressed up as a mascot teddy bear and ran along with So Yi to the winning finish line.

So Yi gave the bear a hug not knowing that it was Dae Sung.

Dae Sung realised that he was crushing on So Yi.