The tvN Sat-Sun time slot tends to be trendier K-dramas and this one is as old-school as it gets. When My Love Blooms is every way a throwback to one of the most famous K-dramas of all time Winter Sonata, the young love thwarted with a second chance two decades later, except without the amnesia and having the leads in their thirties playing their high school counterparts heh. Starring Yoo Ji Tae and Lee Bo Young, there is nothing wrong with the drama other than it feels disjointed – the adults are fantastic with a quiet and slow burn but the college roles played by Jinyoung and Jeon So Ni bore me endlessly.
It’s hard to get invested in them because they don’t have great chemistry, are very limited at acting, and the drama chooses to keep interspersing their portions through the present day reunion of the leads who are so much more interesting. This would work better if the drama spent the first two episodes on the college lovebirds before switching to their adult versions and having us root for their second chance. Ratings wise the drama started at 5.431% but the latest episode 4 brought in 4.209%. Initial impressions through 4 episodes I’d say this is a pleasantly engaging drama to watch on weekends with prepping dinner.
That is your only issue…Yoo Ji Tae’s character is basically cheating emotionally on his wife with Lee Bo Young here…the wife doesn’t seem particularly bad person to me, lonely, used to getting her way no matter what yes, bad person, no….hard pass!
@Gem
I agree with your comment. I think Koala’s rather harsh with her assessment. All four leads – younger and older counterparts – are doing their job well and playing their parts with charisma and charm. However, the subject matter is distasteful to me. I don’t condone cheating or extramarital affairs in any form. The fact that the lead male character is still married is a huge turn off – it would have been better if he were divorced or widowed. The female lead divorced her husband for cheating, so is the drama setting her up to have an extramarital affair? And the fact that the male lead’s wife cheated on him with a model while he was in prison, still doesn’t make it right. I love slow burn dramas, but I think I’m going to drop this one.
Also Lee Bo Young is candiest of candies out there at this point. Come on, has a rap sheet, divorced, Mother-in-law slaps him, father used to hate her, ex-husband wants to take the primary custody of her son, son is getting bullied, she is poor, she can’t find job, she had soda/red wine thrown at her twice already, her shoes broke twice……..it is ridiculous at this point.
Do we know her ex cheated? I must have missed that. In the court scene the judge said the spot was his fault. I sort of wondered if he cheated or was abusive to her or their son.
Abusive made the most sense to me. It would explain why she was so adamant about getting sole custody of their kid.
OMG, you save me from that kind of plot.
so you missed that the wife is a b** who bought him with her money to defy her father and shes been cheating with a model ?
marriage if not real and fake is just a contract and i dont believe in contracts
and seriously we are not in the age of anna karenina to keep bashing adultery cause it happens a lot in life and many ppl found their happiness and true others through it … try reading the brilliant ( many a splendoured thing ) by han suyin about her affair with a married british man its nothing short of brilliant…
I disagree. I like to watch the scenes with the young lovers more. It’s quite fresh and lovely. Plus, maybe in my subconscious I am already rejecting the possibility of the guy cheating.
Also, LBY’s face is so very different from her Save the Last Dance for Me days. It’s like another person there.
She’s older, that’s all. She may have done some work to her face when she was younger, but now she just looks like an older version of herself in the past few dramas she acted in. And I love the younger actors, they’re fresh and charming.
wow you left all plastic women in korea and came from one of the rare natural ones.. how about you research her childhood photos.. she looks like a dead ringer for her 8 year old self besides you cant tell that a woman can grow more beautiful with age huh ?
It opposite for me i prefers the chemistry of the younger leads
ohh i’d prefer the college couple anytime. haha. Jinyoung’s chemistry with JSN here is better compare to his previous works. as of now, this is the only on-going drama i’m watching.
I dont know what is the different between the husband in this drama and the husband in The World of Married, they are both cheating, right? ?
If they are seeing other people please get divorce first, or they are being selfish when they think they are falling in love for shit.
Anyway Jin Young is such fresh and pretty boy ?
Right now the younger counterpart flashback makes me want them to get back together but given the situation the leading man is in(present time), I preferred he reassess his life and chose life/career decision that make who he is instead of this unhappy life that he is in right now. The leading lady need to not get involve in his marriage as well.
Adultery, or cheating is a huge turn-off for me, does not matter what kind of excuses, cheating is cheating. If you are unhappy with your marriage, divorce then move on with your life. By having emotionally or physical attach to another person beside your spouse is completely wrong.
I read seldom such a harsh assessment by ockoala. And I need to disagree!
So far this drama is great!
The speed and the overall art of storytelling might some remember of old drama times, but if that’s the case – what’s so bad about?
The cast is great, the storyline is interesting and works and the cinematography is amazing. It’s a feast for my eyes sometimes.
I was hooked after the first 30 minutes! (Most of the time I need two or three episodes to connect with a drama)
I like the parts with the younger and the order versions of the protagonists equally. Both have great chemistry in my eyes!
At the moment I recommend it wholeheartedly.
Same! If I stopped watching every drama that used a worn out trope- there would be no dramas left.
In judging a drama- Do I grin when it’s supposed to be funny, do I cry along with our leads? Does it make me *feel* and resonate emotionally? Am I bummed when the credits roll and I have to wait a week to see what happens next? So far this drama just works for me.
I don’t see LBY’s character as a Candy. I expected this to be a straight Cinderella story where he pulls her out of poverty and into his world. So far, it’s more the opposite. He’s shown as the character who made the more cowardly choices in a harsh life. He’s the one who needs saving.
The younger version relationship is a turn off for me. I have daughters of marrying age and I like telling them (and same age readers of this blog) not to put such a burden of hero worship love to another. You have to think for yourself! And I have a son, too, and I dread to think that he could enter into such a relationship of utter dependence by another. I’m still watching to see if there’s logical basis of transformation of their personalities in their adult years.
Lol..looks like we are watching different drama. The younger romance plot is sooooo sweet. Not at all boring.
agree
agreeeeee
it is gud drama
I am another who likes this Drama too.
Whether Yoo Ji-tae and Lee Bo-young, or the younger versions of them –
U am invested in the story.
Beats World of the Married for me since this drama came along – Married for me, is too full of makjang moments.
Too many are cheating in World of The Married. The husband, the neighbour, the other Chairman wife who first consulted with her about the STD … the wives who pretend it’s all ok, and to delude themselves.
I don’t think they are in the cheating territory yet. though if emotions are not managed properly they would get there. For now I understand Jae hyun’s actions, he just met his first love that left abruptly, without any explanation. So there was obviously no closure at the point the breakup happened, it would be quite unrealistic to expect Him to just walk away from her. Dealing with these emotions is what i expect in the next episodes, I’d be so disappointed if they actually make them cheat.
Right now I’m enjoying the story and the acting of both timelines, i even prefer the younger romance story, the actors really captured the innocence of that romance. Fingers crossed till Saturday for me.
its a good show with brilliant leads … …. at least it has a korean flavor not some borrowed absurd marriage drama from the uk