If you searched up romcom in a dictionary, A Love So Beautiful would probably be the accompanying definition. It's everything people would want in one, filled with lots of cheesy romance and cute fluffy scenes. The interactions between our leads are super cute to watch, and a lot of what happens makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside. Like I mentioned in my initial thoughts post, the nature of this drama plus its short runtime made it feel more like a high quality web drama than something on cable TV. This worked especially well for this series, probably due to the crazy number of high school romcom web dramas populating the Internet. Without further ado, let's dive right in.
SERIES RETROSPECT AND REVIEW (SPOILER ALERT)
As I watched this drama, I kept saying the same thing with a stupid huge smile plastered across my face. Shin Sol-i is unironically and undoubtedly the cutest female lead out of all the K-dramas I've seen thus far. So Ju-yeon has done an excellent job in portraying the youthful innocence of Sol-i's high school days as well as how lovestruck she is throughout her journey into adulthood. I've seen lots of cute K-drama female leads like Eun Bong-hee from Suspicious Partner or Eun Dan-oh from Extraordinary You but nothing can top Sol-i. She's absolutely adorable and almost all of her character interactions put a smile on my face. She's one of those characters you simply can't hate, even if she's sort of the stereotypical romcom heroine, who's bubbly personality contrasts with the colder male lead.
With that out of the way, I want to talk a bit about the nature of the drama. I said earlier that this was very much a high quality web drama and I stand by this statement. Everything about this screams web drama, from the short run time to the way the story unfolds. I said the same thing with Lovestruck in the City but there's a stark difference between the two. With the previous drama, while also having short episodes, the story was far more similar to what a normal drama might be like, whereas with A Love So Beautiful, the plot sort of jumps around every few episodes. We'll get maybe 2 episodes focusing on one plotline before fast forwarding to the next. In fact, there're quite a lot of time-skips throughout this drama, with the story spanning more than a decade from their high school days in 2006 to their present adulthood. While we have an underlying idea, which was Sol-i chasing after Heon while he acts all indifferent, with second male lead Dae-seong vying for her attention, the drama doesn't necessarily stick to one story to follow that idea and instead jumps around to different events in our leads' lives.
While the good point about this is that we don't get bogged down by lots of "unnecessary" plot details, it also unfortunately means that we don't get very developed stories. Don't get me wrong, I was thoroughly entertained by everything that was going on on screen but because everything moved so fast and we jumped forward in time so much, we didn't really get as much development. In truth, I think it would've been nice if the drama purely focused on our leads' high school years rather than delving into their adulthood as well. Of course, this drama is based on an older Chinese production of the same name and as such, needs to follow a certain formula. Speaking of that, I'm genuinely surprised by how similar many of the scenes are in both dramas, like I expected some similarities but not this many. It's quite interesting to see, even though I've never watched the actual Chinese drama myself.
Of course, just like with the source material, the core of this drama is its characters and how they interact with one another. I can describe this is with one word, wholesome. Despite the fact that it's a high school romcom filled with teenage angst, I was generally very happy to see our leads interacting with each other. Because of her adorable nature, Sol-i is really good friends with the rest of the leads and everything with her in it is just so engaging. In contrast to her is Cha Heon, who is without a doubt a tsundere, which is a character that initially comes off as cold and distant but reveals a warmhearted side as time goes by. Heon is a pretty reserved and quiet character throughout most of the drama, falling into the usual K-drama trope of the strong silent male lead, a perfect debut role for WEi's Kim Yo-han because it doesn't call for too much flexibility. We don't actually get too much explanation to Heon's cold nature, all we know is that his father is dead and he seems to be somewhat neglected by his mother (although she doesn't do it intentionally), who's more preoccupied with caring for his much younger brother.
What I liked about Heon is that his distant behaviour doesn't come as being a total jerk (although he does act like a bit of a dick in certain scenes), rather he just seems like a really awkward introvert. He doesn't know how to express his feelings, especially his love for Sol-i, so he just kind of brushes it off. It causes loads of misunderstandings, some having far more consequences in the grand scheme of things but as the drama goes on, character development dictates Heon opening up to those around him. Even after he became much more open as a character, he was still generally the silent one and so whenever there're scenes that calls for him to act silly or behave in a manner different from how we usually see him, it's super hilarious. I liked seeing him as a couple with Sol-i, whether it was because of the adorable height difference or their contrasting personalities, they were a cute couple.
That said, like all other relationships, theirs wasn't perfect. We see their lifestyles start to deviate heavily in adulthood, with Heon becoming increasingly busy with his medical studies and Sol-i struggling to get a job with her art skills. They start to drift apart and even though everything seems alright on the surface, it's easy to figure out that they're going to have a falling out soon. That comes when Heon's recommended to head to the US for training and while still undecided, he doesn't consult Sol-i at all. In fact, Sol-i only finds out about this by overhearing some nurses at the hospital he's interning at. Naturally she's hurt that he doesn't even consider her as part of his final decision on whether to go overseas and coupled with the terrible day she was having, they eventually break up. Their love for each other is still strong though and after 3 heartbreaking years apart, they eventually meet again. As K-drama law dictates, they reconcile, and everything's fine and dandy again. I'm kind of with Sol-i in this argument and putting anyone into her shoes, we'd all be mad at Heon for not factoring her into such a lifechanging decision. Even though his character is meant to be the reserved one, this was definitely a poor move on his part.
Unfortunately, they're not one of my favourite K-drama couples purely because of Dae-seong's presence. If you're familiar with K-drama you'll know of the term "second lead syndrome", which usually applies to the second male lead but can also be for the second female lead. Basically there're many dramas out there where the second male lead can be considered to have far more chemistry with the female lead than she does with the male lead but as K-drama law dictates, the second male lead won't get the girl, resulting in viewers feeling super bad for him and getting "second lead syndrome". I've only felt this twice, once with More Than Friends' On Joon-soo and now with Dae-seong here. I'm going to say it right now, Dae-seong deserved better. From the very start, he has been nothing but supportive of Sol-i and her ventures, content with watching her from afar. Even after he catches feelings for her, he continues to behave just like her good friend and never reveals his love for her. Ultimately, even when he finally makes his feelings known to her and he attempts to woo her only to be met with rejection, he never holds it against her and takes a step back, continuing to be the supportive good friend and even actively trying to get Sol-i to reconcile with Heon.
Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike Heon but it's just that Dae-seong was too strong of a second male lead for me to not feel bad for him. He really didn't deserve to be alone in the end, even after he makes it big as a swimmer and a national celebrity. I guess that's why I was a little happy to see that it's heavily implied near the end of the drama that sparks are flying between him and one of Heon's doctor colleagues (who also happens to be a huge fangirl of his). Small consolation for the pain he endured. #Dae-seongdeservedbetter y'all.
Like I said earlier, Heon and Sol-i aren't in my favourite couples list. Oh no, for this drama that honour goes to third male lead Jin-hwan and second female lead Ha-yeong. I made an error in my initial thoughts post that said Ha-yeong was smitten for Jin-hwan because as we find out very quickly, she doesn't have feelings for him initially. She actually has a crush on the school nurse, while Jin-hwan fawns over her. For lack of a better phrase, this man was literally a simp for her. It's actually kind of amusingly sad to watch because even though it's pretty obvious to the audience and to everyone that Jin-hwan's feelings for Ha-yeong are real, she doesn't seem to realise this and thinks he's joking. I felt kind of bad for Jin-hwan when he's being second fiddle to her crush on the school nurse and the worst part is he was completely unaware of it until later in the drama. When he does eventually find out that everything he thought represented her love for him was actually meant for the school nurse, he becomes bitter and avoids Ha-yeong.
What happens next is really weird. The school nurse gets out of the picture because of some plot details I won't touch on and because Jin-hwan's in the hospital to receive treatment for a heart condition, Ha-yeong regularly visits to attempt to help him with schoolwork. He keeps trying to push her away much to her ire but she calms down quick enough, with the pair spending time walking in the hospital grounds. It's at this point where Ha-yeong accepts Jin-hwan's feelings for her and they become a couple. Now, I like their relationship, like I said they're my favourite couple in this series but I was very confused by it. It was super random for Ha-yeong to suddenly change gears and be the one who confirms their relationship because she had spent so long pining for the school nurse that there was no indication whatsoever of her having feelings for Jin-hwan. I'm also a little confused by a particular scene in the drama where Jin-hwan publicly asks Ha-yeong out in front of the rest of their class but that scene is almost non-canon, it's just completely ignored for the rest of the drama.
Apart from those few hiccups, I really liked their relationship because of how generally wholesome and unproblematic they were. Their personalities contrasted really well, Jin-hwan being the meek affable one while Ha-yeong is a tomboy with a short temper, and their interactions were really cute to watch. Jin-hwan is undoubtedly the comic relief of the series and that translates into his relationship as well, making their scenes a riot to watch. I was really happy to see their relationship go strong all the way into adulthood and culminate in their marriage. Absolutely loved this couple.
There's a lot to like about this drama but like I've mentioned countless times, it's very clearly a web drama. Viewers need to understand that distinction before starting because the plot can only be appreciated once we get that out of the way. If we treat this series like a normal drama, we're going to find lots of plot holes that are created by a lack of development and that's caused by the short runtime. It's not meant to be a super well-developed series spanning 16 hour-long episodes like most cable dramas, so treat this drama like you would any of those web dramas you see on YouTube and you'll enjoy it just as much as I did. Everyone loves cute high school romcoms, it's something that touches the hearts of viewers and I'm sure that through this drama, many of us can look back on a time when we too experienced A Love So Beautiful. Thanks for reading.
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