Oh My Venus (2015)

It's Fine

Being a huge fan of both So Ji Sub and Shin Min Ah, I decided to give this drama a try. I personally am not a fan of makeovers or transformation dramas, because the emphasis is usually put on the exterior rather than understanding the underlying problems.

I did find that the main leads had good enough chemistry together and their personalities made their interactions entertaining. I appreciate that their relationship was not about a previous overweight woman winning over a man that rejected but rather two people getting to know each other and accepting their differences in personality and lifestyle. At points, the show might seem a bit superficial and perhaps insensitive toward the main female character, but I think the writers did an ok job portraying the struggles of trying to change and engaging in a healthy lifestyle, by showing slow progress, further highlighting the focus on health instead of instant results just for the sake of crazy beauty standards.

Other than that I don't think this drama had much else to offer. I didn't find the overall plot interesting and it seemed to lack direction. It tried to cover a bunch of different topics without actually delving deeper into any of them. It failed to develop and properly integrate the different issues it tried to cover and quickly fell into an abundance of fluffy and cliché romantic scenes that in my view don't really suit two grown adults. Overall I did find some episodes were well done, but I can't say I would rewatch this drama.

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I wasn't expecting much when I started this drama. In fact, I almost stopped watching because it did seem a little bit fatphobic in the first episode. I liked that they turned that a little and made it more about her health instead of only her weight as a superficial beauty standard. I liked that the male mc told her that she was more beautiful when she was healthier instead of saying when she was thinner. I also liked the secondary characters. They didn't feel as 2D as you see in another kdramas, specially her ex-friend, with the ex-boyfriend I still believe he is an ass, but the actress who played the ex-friend made me pity her and respect her even if she wasn't exactly my fav person.
I didn't like how they treated the physical abuse case, rehabilitation doesn't always work and sometimes you're exposing the victim again to more abuse. I wish the scene in which she advised that to the victim didn't exist. I also felt that that scene of them as children wasn't necessary, but I can't say I disliked it, it's just that I'm a little tired by now that it seems EVERY kdrama couple knew each other as children for some reason or another.
Howerall, I don't think this is the most complex or unique drama, but it's a good drama to watch with sad and deep momments that aren't exaggerated and diverse characters.

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Perfect RomCom

Story: A trainer in US who needed to stay low-key and encountered an unhealthy woman on the way back to Korea. The plot is pretty much easy to understand as it was well-paced with proper dialogues. Although I had minor issues with some of the events, I just can’t help but shrug it off because the drama was too entertaining and fluffy.

Acting: They all did great. Mostly convincing with light drama yet full of love, sincerity and optimism. Fire chemistry of Coach & Venus, and at the same time, they have great chemistry with Mr. Min, Mr. Muscles and Mr. Cutie.

Music: I love Henry Lau’s voice. The songs are very catchy and cute while the music for sad scenes was just right.

Rewatch Value: Definitely a 10. When I was bored at home, I wanted to watch something light and funny and stumbled upon this on the recommendation list. I told myself, if the first episode wasn’t good, I will skip this one(prior to this, I have watched Romance is a bonus book but unfortunately felt flat for me). Surprisingly I ended up watching the whole 8 episodes in one sitting, but I gotta sleep and work you know. If I need something fun and romantic, I will definitely rewatch this one.

Overall: I might have some questions with how they came up with some of the plot but after watching the whole drama, it made me feel giddy and at the same time, understanding of how some people choose to hide their pain. This series talked about health, pain, family, love, hope and hard work. There were too many quotable lines. The dialogues were simple yet direct while the message was precise with a lot of lessons. Whenever I think of this drama, I start correcting my posture and think about my health. It’s not about being thin, because the main actress they chose isn’t skinny at all. Being sexy and beautiful is about being healthy physically, mentally and emotionally. The personalities of the main leads weren’t perfect but they strive to be the best person they can be despite the sufferings or challenges in life. They were each other’s band-aids/lucky charms and at the same time respects each other’s personal time. Like how he understood leaving her alone in the rain, she also left him alone to cater his own pain. Sometimes we have /want to do things on our own. Some people may want to be a support for others, there are those who prefer to be alone. The growth of their relationship and knowing that sharing pain would hurt less, however, was only emphasized at the end. Although we didn’t see the process of them sharing pain, they understood what it meant and we still got the cutest ending. It felt a bit rushed, especially to the other characters but I was still okay with it because I never got bored with every episode. Overall, this was a well-directed romantic comedy and the best kdrama that I have watched this year.

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This drama was huge before and I did watch this because of the hype. Shin Min Ah and So Ji Sub as leads is a once in a lifetime occurrence so it was a must for me to watch the drama. With the genre of romantic-comedy, it was an okay and good drama. The incorporation of transformation is also a good plotline for me. The chemistry of the leads is also undeniable. One of the things that made this drama enjoyable as well is the bromance. I did feel that this is not one of the best dramas I have seen. It falls on the okay drama and I would recommend this especially to beginners.

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I want more of Henry Lau's cuteness and Shin Min Ah's dimples!

I think this drama would have worked better in a shorter format, maybe 12 episodes instead of 16? And we could have cut the whole thing with the exes (ex friend and ex boyfriend). They both had kinda sucky personalities and their story line wasn't very interesting at all.

However, overall this drama was very cute and between the leads' chemistry and the bromance, I enjoyed it a lot. Shin Min Ah's dimples are utterly adorable, and this show had a lot of bare chests and skinship! It's always a treat to see a main couple who looks comfortable together and all the hugs and little touches. Even if it's thoroughly innocent, it's always so nice to get those glimpses of physical closeness.

But the best part, for me, was Herny Lau. He completely stole every scene he was in. His sunny disposition and mishmash of Korean and English were so cute! The true MVP.

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I loved everything about this! A few weeks ago I was cruising through Viki and found this drama with great recommendations and reviews, so I started playing it and super happy I did. This drama makes you feel every emotion - you are sad and hurt one moment and then the next you are pumped, motivated, and happy! I honestly thought that this would easily be a 4/5 drama, but it went over and above. I loved the main character how regardless what was happening in her life, she knew that it is ok to be sad for a second and cry it out, but she also knew that eventually she would need to get out of that funk and work towards her happiness. Honestly, I would love to have an ounce of her positiveness and motivation. I loved her outlook in life, that no matter what happens, you can achieve anything. She had a catchphrase that she would always tell John Kim - If you are only baring it, you haven't reached your limit. That hit home for me and it is the perfect motivation booster. I loved the slow burning romance between the two mains especially when John Kim, the cool strong personal trainer guy that was a hardass with everyone, turns into this guy with this sweet middle school crush on our main girl. It was super sweet to see them interact and honestly their chemistry was through the roof. Not only was their (romance) chemistry through the roof, but I loved the chemistry overall between John Kim and his little friend group. You could tell how much love they all had for one another, especially through some VERY difficult times as you will see int he drama. I believe that one of my favorite things about dramas is not only loving the main characters, but also falling in love with the minor ones as well. I remember when I first started getting into dramas and how I fell in love with LoveO2O not only because of how much love Nai had for WeiWei, but also the love that Nai's roommates had for one another. I have yet to watch another drama where I have seen this much love and closeness between friends, until I watched this one. They had me giggling one moment and tearing up the next because of how much they support one another. But of course, like every drama, there were a few things I didn't enjoy, but try weren't enough for me to give this drama a lower score. I didn't like how John Kim had zero relationship with his step mother and half brother. Like yes, you are sad over your mother's death when you were a child, and you haven't seen your family for A WHILE, but they are family. Your stepmom just wants to be part of the family, and your half brother literally just wants to be a son and a brother. No reason for you to ignore them. Another thing I didn't like was how whenever John was at his absolute lowest points, he didn't want Kang Joo-Eun near him. I get it, he doesn't want her to see him hurting because he couldn't bare to see her cry, especially since he has been alone facing everything on his own his whole life. So I am not mad at him, but there was one scene in this drama that I wasn't super excited about and I don't know how I would have reacted if I was the main girl. The last thing I wasn't super pumped about was how we were kind of following multiple love stories, one of them involving Kang Joo-Eun's ex boyfriend of 15 years and Kang Joo-Eun's childhood friend who we believe in the beginning broke them up. I was happy they got their happily ever after, but I disliked how much the writers wanted us to care about their relationship. I'm still not sold on Kang Joo-Eun's ex boyfriend because I felt like even after he did so many things, he was forgiven automatically. He didn't do crazy things, but he helped some crazy people do them. Overall, loved this drama and I recommend this to anyone and everyone!! It's a great drama about friendship, family, romance, and finding what motivates you most in the world and using that to be the best person you can be! Honestly, it made me stop and think about myself and what I am working towards and how to get there.

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I honestly have absolutely no idea why anyone would rate this show anything lower to be honest. This show is a hidden gem that's a work of art with such a cliche story; minus the she was pretty in the beginning. Girl is a little overweight, get's heart broken and wants to lose weight to better herself, not for revenge which is a huge thing to me but also this is a show that has no love triangle which I adore with all my heart honestly. I absolutely LOVE Henry Lau as well, dude is wonderful and hilarious. But I loved how sweet the male lead is even though he's got so much going on and I liked the female lead; there was nothing wrong about her. Screw the annoying ex boyfriend and the annoying old best friend but other than that, great story, wonderful connection and chemistry, an awesome story all together. DANG, also, I absolutely love the OST. It's just good all around like come on, it's downloaded to the max. This show is just straight wonderful.

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This was my first South Korean drama. I never thought that I would fall in love with K-Drama in this way! I love everything: the OST, the characters, the way of acting, the emotions they transmit to you.
I love the endings a little less ... finding a satisfactory one is like making a lottery. Sooner or later I will get used to it ... or maybe not!
Right now Oh my Venus is in rewatch, because I'm also starting my sister in this world.
Kang Joo-eun is a girl who was envied by young girls and desired by boys when she was young. A perfect physique and two dimples to be passed out. But nevertheless, she never boasted about it, even when she was offered to participate in Miss Korea. She wanted to become a lawyer, and there is nothing Kang Joo-eun cannot do! If you put something in your head, the world falls, she will do it.
We find her years later, with the same determination as always, but dozed off from the routine that has been created in her life. A stable job and a 15 year old boyfriend.
To awaken her will be a series of circumstances that will make her cross paths with Kim Young-ho over and over again.
And here girls, prepare the tissues, because there will be a need, but really a lot!
A relationship of extreme trust will be established between the two, which will gradually solidify and reach a tremendously deep bond.
In addition to the two of them, Oh my Venus is surrounded by characters who all have a particular story behind them, none are superficial or poorly characterized.
Kim Ji-woong will literally make you die of laughter, I think it was he who conquered my sister! You cannot look at it except with heart-shaped eyes.
A sore point concerns the ending: unfortunately the last episode was really disappointing! Such a Drama could not end this way. I had enormous expectations regarding the last episode. In short, I was back from episodes of desperate crying. I deserved a finish that satisfied me 100% and instead I found myself turning up my nose. Such a pity.
It's still worth seeing it ... and seeing it again ... and seeing it again!

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I am glad to conclude 2018 with this drama. It was cute, entertaining and informative. I learned a thing or two about hypothyroidism and nutritional science. Some have mentioned that this drama is fat shaming but I beg to differ. The show was honest in telling how society view and treats fat people, a lot of cringy parts I have to admit but honest nevertheless . What I didn’t like was how it treated losing weight as just plain strict diet and exercise instead of lifestyle choices and ultimately lifestyle change, but then again this is a drama not a life coaching show. It could have been such a good platform for it though.

I liked how the main female lead sets her goals, sets her mind, and then WORKS HARD for it, this includes achieving her dream of becoming a lawyer. It is hard and she has lapses but this is where her “village” picks up their cue and helps her out. I should say very cute, very supportive, and very loyal village :D. Her superior/friend’s reason for hating her is shallow, it wasn’t the female lead’s fault that the blind date was a jerk. Quite honestly I felt her story about not being able to bear a child was unnecessary apart from informing viewers that this is a side effect of an unhealthy way of losing weight. That and the tons of flashbacks felt forced. I get the tap tap premise but NO communication for a year is very harsh and unrealistic really.

For the acting, I give everyone 2 thumbs up except So Ji Sub. He gets my standing ovation! Working in the rehab profession myself I see how hard motivated people push themselves to work (physically and mentally) and oh my, SJS researched his part well! I felt his pain and his resolve with every grunt and every bead of sweat. I mean there is working out in the gym and then there’s working out in rehab and he nailed it!

Music was so so and for rewatch value, yes! This will be one of my faves and yes I highly recommend you to watch this cute drama, it may even motivate you to make healthier choices in 2019 :)

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simply amazing

i really liked this drama. not only does it have a great story to tell, but it's also really charming, funny and leaves a great impact on you. i personally think it's an amazing idea to teach others about psychological diseases as well, and i appreciated that. the music was amazing, always fit in at the right moments and simply expressed a lot of things that made me feel like i was a part of the drama myself (i'm quite sad the whistle tune isn't a song tho ;-;). the chemistry between the main characters was very visibly strong and i liked that, too. it's my new favourite drama as of now :)

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disappointment of the year...

Man, I was so excited to watch this drama because I heard so many good things about So Ji Sub and was loving Shin Min Ah in Homecha, but these two great actors just ended up picking an absolutely horrible script. I already knew that 2014-2017 was a dark time for dramas (at least in my opinion) in terms of the same overused cliches in all romcoms, but this drama is just something else entirely. As someone who had her own share of issues with food and exercise, I was really hoping that this drama would present some good information on leading a healthy lifestyle, however Oh My Venus just ended up reinforcing all the common lies of korean diet culture and I was hugely disappointed with this drama because of this first and foremost. I won’t go into detail since it’s going to feel like beating a dead horse at this point (I left a comment with a majority of my complaints in the comment section) so I will address the storytelling issues in this review instead. This drama greatly suffers from what I call the “leads getting together too soon in a drama where the only storyline is the romance between the main leads” syndrome. The title is a work in progress. Basically this drama made a grave mistake of getting the leads together extremely early and had no more story or conflict left to tell. Everything else that followed after the couple got together just felt like meaningless filler. They should have seriously considered ending this drama at 10 episodes, but Korea for some reason has a weird 16 episode quota. I am one of those weird people that was rooting for the second leads, and their relationship actually had some conflicts and issues which I honestly appreciated in the never-ending sea of happiness and fluff that was the rest of the drama. And maybe a little because I could relate to Oh Sujin just a little bit. I don’t think I even need to mention the weird separation at episode 13 because what even was that? I usually get mad at these things but I was so apathetic to everything by episode 10 that I just kind of didn’t even care. Still, it’s hella weird and I would have 100% given the ML a hard time about it if I was the FL. This last one is a very personal complaint because I haven’t seen anybody say it here, but I honestly preferred the second lead couple to the main couple. Not exactly because their love line was any healthier, more interesting, etc. It’s genuinely because they just had more substance. Their characters felt a million times more fleshed out than the main couple. They actually had flaws. All that Yeongho and Jueun had to offer was never-ending love and understanding for one another. Sounds healthy and it probably was, but damn it I was so bored when I was watching them. There was zero tension, zero everything. It just felt too easy and too similar to everything else I’ve seen in kdramas. They were too perfect, too understanding, too nice. Everything about them felt so vanilla that I found it hard to ship them. They were too generic and honestly just became really boring once they lost their personalities after getting together. That’s it. That’s the review. Oh my venus is too overhyped and I’m too burnt out from writing college essays to care about wrapping up this review nicely. So yeah. There’s way better dramas out there so don’t waste your time with this.

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