Jealousy Incarnate (2016)

Emotional rollercoaster

I decided to watch Jealousy Incarnate because of Gong Hyo Jin. The thing I love was the topic of "Men having breast cancer" that was rare to be talked on a show. I was giving my attention towards it and In my opinion, it made the drama look beneficial and unique. The doctor and Nurse was the two characters I loved after Main Leads. I love all the characters, songs and the news workplace. Even though Hwa Sin is an actor in real life, He nailed being a news anchor here.

The Ppal Dang's moms were annoying to me at first but I felt happy seeing how two of them got along. Chi Yeol reminds me of myself at times. Pyo Nari's one sided love to Hwa Sin for three years and then the life becomes messy just because of Hwa Sin realizing his true feelings to her lately was frustrating.

I was hoping Pyo Na Ri to be together with Jeong Woon, but I realized her true feelings were always with Hwa Sin and I changed my perspective towards Hwa Jin then. The love triangle happened just because of a one small mistake and they suffered long cause of that. The fact that got my attention was the friendship and love battle. It was good to see Jeong Woon and Hwa Sin finally realizes the value of friendship and went back to be best friends.

Although this would be a too much at the beginning, I loved the theme and message this gives out.

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The name of the show should have TRIANGLES

I have very mixed feeling about this drama...
First of all the synopsis is completely wrong both of the leads were never COMPETETERS!!!

Every one in the review section loved the love triangles and that is what frustrated me!! Though as said it was unique.
The SML and FL had soooooo many good moments and unique bonding that it was very odd that he lost in the end

It was almost like FL toyed with both of their feelings...I mean how could she live with both of them and look at them with that gaze..

The show rarely had peaceful moments when one comes the other runs away..I didn't get it at all..and it happened more than four times!!!!

There were also few characters whose existence was just a prop...for example step mother of FL and FL brothers friend..

The show is full of triangles(two people fighting for one..aaahhhhhh!!!)
FL ,ML and SML
FL, ML and SFL
Papl gam, FL brother and his friend
Two sister in laws of ML and chef
Two sister-in-law of ML and papl gam
Two sister in law and brother of ML
SML, his fiance and FL
And I don't know if there are more but this is more than asked

I just hated the part where both were fighting for FL...it was made in such way

You won't hate it you would love it but would find it problematic in few ways
It was filmed great
SML is what you ll pity the most..he looked on the verge of crying on their wedding day
You could always tell he loved her more and the chemistry was better...

I guess ML won cause he had been her crush for three years..it was deep rooted or else there was no chance!!

Even after all this you would like it root for both ML and SML
It was never boring
It talked really well on prejudice about males having breast cancer
It also has very much detail about journalism
The kisses are best
And all the characters are somehow related to each other in a very genius way
I felt bad for SML as he remained lonely as always

But give it a watch...

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Que grata sorpresa

Esta serie me encanto, no porque su trama fuera extraordinaria, novedosa, me gusto porque es la tipica trama contada de una manera muy cómica. Yo rara vez me rio mucho en comedias romantica, pero esta esta muy bien echa, y creo que tiene que ver mucho con los actores, que sabían darle el tono adecuado para lograrlo. Siempre tengo que dejar pasar esa comedia exagerada, que ponen para cubrir el otro lado de la serie que es muy tragico. Aquí no fue así, realmente todo fluía.
Todas las historias estaban muy bien entrelazadas, ademas que el casting era maravilloso, actrices geniales, bueno eso pasa por ver una serie vieja después de haber visto muchas mas actuales.
El triangulo amoroso, fue muy bien construido y muy bien terminado, los ame.
Claro de verdad que Jo Jung Suk, es muy bueno, puede ser lo mas sarcástico posible, luego lo mas serio y saber que nos esta haciendo reir, y remata haciendonos llorar a mares con su tristeza, es genial.
Si quieren ver algo light, entretenido y romantico, esta es una muy buena opción

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Hwa Sin is a tad aggressive at times but it was refreshing to see a more complex character than in other kdramas. I like to think he saw Na Ri as an equal in his workplace and treated her as such but it depends on your perspective. Jo Jung Suk's acting saved the character with his microexpressions really. Did get boring around episodes 15-17 but hang in there it's an excellent lighthearted comedy from start to finish. Jung Won was pretty bland and poker face all the time so no second lead syndrome for me here. Also absolutely loved the soundtrack! I have it on repeat.

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Yes to more dramas like this. Yes to realistic and relatable characters, yes to engaging and well thought out plots, and yes to tackling real-life issues. Taking on male breast cancer was massive, and I appreciate the drama writers willingness to go there. Pyo Na Ri was this fascinating combination of confident, vulnerable, honest, bold, and self-aware. Hwa Shin and Jung Won were two fascinating love interests with a heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking, friendship. The make-up of this drama is almost flawless.

I only have 3 complaints.

1) The three-way cohabitation nonsense that comes a little past the halfway mark (three-way not to be confused with the sexual term).

2) The kiss at the hospital between Na Ri and Hwa Shin when Na Ri and Jung Won are tentatively dating.

3) That silly song/dance at the wedding in the finale.

The first two are important. The last one isn't a big deal. (I just thought the scene was hilariously stupid.)

The cohabitation is never really justified by the writers and lasts waaaay longer than necessary, but the kiss is addressed as being a very poor and inappropriate decision that has consequences. Unfortunately, the character's responses to the kiss is to create said, weird, three-way cohabitation arrangement that is just awkward and uncomfortable and annoying to watch. (I recommend finding a unique way to watch those episodes to ensure you don't go nuts.)

Even in these frustrating moments when you don't really understand what exactly the writers think they are doing though, they found a way to make these characters feel real and believable, like people you want to root for.

I recommend this drama, and I might even rewatch it some day.

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I hate long rom coms. They tend to drag out within the last few episodes in a long list of misunderstandings / "will they won't they"s. So when I saw this was 24 episodes, I was quite hesitant. The title wasn't that appealing either, since we all know what jealousy brings into a drama... right?
WRONG.

Thanks to the top review here about this drama being messy in a good way, I decided to give this a shot. And I'm so glad I did or I would have missed out on this wonderful piece of work.

Yes, you have the typical tropes of someone getting cancer, a rich chaebol's mother playing dirty to ruin her son's middle class girlfriend, rich mother offering a girl money to leave her son, a female lead being caught between two men, etc. But instead of these being the source of draggy-ness, what the scriptwriters gave us was this whole feels trip of "oh, typical trope appears, sigh" and "holy crap did this really just solve the problem?!?!" within 1-2 episodes of each other. The drama is filled with unexpected (and hilarious) resolutions to things, and the fact that all the lead characters are mature adults who make reasonable choices makes it so much better than your typical rom com.

The flashback way of presenting new information also fits perfectly in terms of helping the audience understand what happened that led to the characters making these decisions (without being confusing or repetitive). The emotions also flow very well because of this style.

Let's talk about the two male leads. Second male lead is pretty much a perfect man, but second male lead syndrome didn't happen for me. We see very clearly how *despite the second male lead is, on paper, so much better than the first male lead,* the female lead struggles in between them. We see very early on how the first male lead is flawed -- but he is flawed not in the jerk-y manner, but instead in a way that we can't help but love. So by midway I was rooting 100% for the first male lead (and this says a lot because I'm a chronic warm/nice second male lead syndrome patient). The scriptwriter gave all our lead characters -- as well as the supporting characters -- multidimensional personalities and growth lines. Character development in this drama was superb -- both romantically and professionally. The 24-episode format, and the fact that the script doesn't waste time on unnecessary trope-dwelling, gave the writers time to do that.

The word "jealousy" makes a beautiful appearance in the drama, over and over again. It underlies the answer to one of the biggest questions in the drama. Also, you will not only see one love triangle, but (at least) three -- and a lot of the characters' choices are indeed made based on jealousy. However, the relationships aren't really messy in a bad way (again, 24-episode format helped give things more time to develop) and how things get resolved is also super worth looking forward to.

Now to comment on the acting-- both Jo Jung-suk and Gong Hyo-jin are extremely seasoned actors in the industry, and they really brought the lead characters to life. Second male lead Go Kyung-pyo may be young compared to the two leads, but his mature acting gave perfect chemistry to his relationship with the female lead (11 years older) as well as his bromance with the male lead (10 years older). The casting of other characters is also perfect -- Park Jin-joo (Nurse Oh) is legit best supporting cast in all the dramas she's in! I also especially love Seo Ji-hye (announcer Hong Hye-won). This is my third drama of hers (Crash Landing On You, Dinner Mate, now this), and every time I see her on the screen she is a completely different character. Her character here is super cool -- I thought she'd be a typical second female lead who plays dirty (again, typical rom com expectation), but the way she handled things is so lovable. It's just a shame how she never got any screen time with our Kim Jung-hyun (who plays female lead's younger brother) -- Crash Landing On You fans would understand why this is sad.

Kind reminder to stay for the epilogues in ep 16 and 22 -- you won't regret it :) The high rewatch value is for the comedic scenes and for the epilogues omg I can't get over ep 22~~

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Rom-Com che offre molto di più…

Se impazzite per i triangoli amorosi, lanciatevi subito a guardare questa serie!
Ho temporeggiato e temporeggiato nel vederlo per via del cast che non mi convinceva, ma devo dire di essermi ricreduta completamente.
Fidatevi, è un must watch!

Trama: non mi aspettavo tanto spessore in una serie rom-com, eppure ci sono tante tematiche importanti trattate sapientemente: il tumore al seno negli uomini; i pregiudizi nel mondo del lavoro per quanto riguarda le donne in generale, ma anche in riferimento a professioni considerate un gradino più basso rispetto ad altre; la concezione della malattia che diventa debilitante anche e soprattutto a livello sociale e professionale, tanto da essere costretti a nasconderla… e potrei andare avanti, perché tra le righe si scopre molto altro.
Il tutto bilanciando la parte comunque gioiosa e spensierata tipica delle commedie romantiche.
È quindi solo un triangolo amoroso?
Certo, occupa gran parte della vicenda, ma senza mai oscurare le tematiche di cui ho parlato sopra.
Ad ogni modo anche questa parte della trama, più romantica, è stata spettacolare ed emozionante come non mai.
E non dimentichiamo la commedia: i momenti di ilarità sono quasi sempre presenti quando si tratta delle dinamiche familiari, davvero spassose e mai banali.

Recitazione: che dire, non conoscevo molto i principali attori maschili, e in verità di primo acchito non mi avevano fatto chissà che impressione.
Eh, mai giudicare un libro dalla sua copertina.
Dico solo, fantastici.
Entrambi hanno interpretato i loro personaggi nei migliori dei modi, rendendo più che evidenti le loro diversità, senza mai risultati noiosi.
Il fatto che poi tra loro vi sia un’amicizia come poche ha reso il tutto ancora più interessante, perché ha ripulito le dinamiche dai soliti cliché di scontri e battibecchi senza senso.
Personalmente ho gradito molto il loro rapporto, fatto di dialoghi onesti e senza tanti giri di parole.
Conoscevo poi l’attrice Gong Hyo Jin e sapevo che non mi avrebbe delusa.
È un ruolo che le è calzato a pennello, anche se devo dire che alla fine ho avuto l’impressione che le mancasse un po’ quella “passione” e “necessità” che ho ritrovato invece nei personaggi maschili durante il corteggiamento.

Complicità protagonisti: eccezionale!
Il più delle volte succede che la coppia principale ruba la scena e il triangolo vada a perdersi quasi subito, così come l’intensità dell’’interazioni.
Qui non succede affatto!
Fino alla fine la protagonista ha una complicità assurda con entrambi e nessuno sembra prevale sull’altro: davvero un sali e scendi di emozioni.

Emozioni: credo che sia una delle serie a tema triangolo che mi ha fatto più emozionare. Ad ogni episodio la tensione è alle stelle, non ci si annoia mai e il cuore batte a mille.

Musiche: la scelta di alcune musiche durante le parti comiche mi ha fatto morire dal ridere; quelle romantiche accompagnavano le scene in maniera sublime.

Love triangle: uno dei migliori triangoli amorosi che abbia mai visto.
Davvero sono rimasta senza parole dall’intensità, fino alle ultime battute.
Di solito le interazioni e le dinamiche alla lunga risultavano noiose oppure si perdevano nel momento in cui la protagonista faceva la sua scelta.
Cosa insolita che ho apprezzato tantissimo è il non prevalere di un rapporto sull’altro.
Nella maggior parte dei casi la coppia principale occupa più della metà delle scene, in questa serie invece il protagonista secondario (che, ahimè, sappiamo non vincerà mai) ha il suo spazio quasi fino alla fine.
Avviso: second lead syndrome assicurata!

Skinship: non è presente in maniera eccessiva, ma ci sono baci, abbracci e la tensione tra i protagonisti amplifica il tutto.
Per dire, non mi sono mai emozionata così tanto in una rom-com.

Ending: a mio avviso il tasto dolente.
Gli ultimi due episodi mi hanno un po’ delusa, perdendo un po’ il pathos che avevo ritrovato per tutta la serie.
Happy ending assicurato, ma mi è mancata quella soddisfazione finale dopo tutto un percorso.
E naturalmente la second lead syndrome aveva già preso il sopravvento. XD
Nel complesso, la serie vale davvero molto… se siete fan di love triangle, ma anche se cercate qualcosa che unisce elementi seri a quelli più spensierati e che vi faccia emozionare e battere il cuore con il suo romanticismo, è quello che fa per voi.

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Eccessiva

"Eccessiva" è l'aggettivo che per primo mi viene in mente pensando a questa serie. Molti, moltissimi aspetti sono esasperati all'inverosimile. C'è un triangolo amoroso che più triangolo non si può, il modo in cui i due protagonisti si relazionano è spesso esagerato, le liti o le discussioni esagerate, le dichiarazioni pure. C'è troppo, ripetuto, esasperato, che stroppia. Le scenette ridicolo imbarazzanti lo sono in modo smisurato, anche le tematiche che potevano dare spessore alla serie - come viene vista la donna in ambito lavorativo piuttosto che il tumore al seno maschile - vengono affrontate nella stessa maniera. L'ho trovata una serie davvero priva di eleganza, come paragonare una bella canzone a uno schiamazzo da cortile.
Anche i protagonisti mi hanno convinta davvero poco, in particolare l'inviato, la cui presenza paradossalmente è stato il motivo per il quale ho deciso di vedere la serie: dopo averlo molto apprezzato come capitano della guardia reale in "The King 2 hearts" ero curiosa di vederlo cimentarsi in un genere anche diverso, senza quella rigidità e poca espressività che il ruolo un po' gli imponeva. Purtroppo quelle sfumature le ho ritrovate anche in questa serie, credo facciano più parte dell'attore e del suo modo di recitare - piuttosto che caratteristiche del personaggio interpretato. Che dire, sono arrivata non senza fatica alla fine.

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Where to begin? When I discovered this drama almost 2 yrs ago, I wasn't expecting how much I would grow to love this drama. I fell in love with it and still in love with it. I've watched this more than 5x and I never get tired of it. It just has all the feels. The love triangle here was the best. Hands-down best love triangle out of all the dramas I've watched. It's just so hard to choose between these 2 oh so different male leads. Lee Hwa Shin (Jo Jung Suk) was the stubborn/cocky hard-hitting reporter but do everything-for-love type from picking up Pyo Na Ri using the station's chopper to admitting to the entire nation about his illness. Then Ko Jung Won was the sweet, sexy and uber-considerate guy who chose to pursue an ordinary girl despite the huge difference in their social status. The way they express love is so different but they're both intense and sincere. Pyo Na Ri is the unassuming girl who had a three-year crush on Hwa Shin but kept getting rejected and just when she was ready to give up on Hwa Shin and fall in love with his best friend, that's when Hwa Shin realized his feelings for her. I love the internal struggles that the 3 characters went thru. It reminds me how messy love is and how strong the feelings usually are when u first fall in love. I love how the writers was able to seamlessly incorporate their work life into the love story. I love how the two male leads competed with each other but still cared for each others as best friends at the same time. I love how Pyo Na Ri who had no one who loved her in the beginning suddenlu had two men fighting over her. I can't imagine a better cast, the actors have surpassed my expectations. Plus that kissing scene between Jo Jung Suk and Gong Hyo Jin. Just WOW. Jo Jung Suk, what can I say, he's a damn good kisser and the tv screen doesn't lie. I also love the ost! I've lost count how much I've listened to Lovesome. The other characters and storylines are also quite enjoyable. I also love the symbolism with the slippers. I will never get tired of this drama and will always be one of my top favorites.

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you will have a love - hate relationship with this the drama

Good points about the story/ plot/ drama
1-Very light , easy going, full of crazy fun drama, without villains, controlling parents etc
2-Throw light on a very unusual but deadly diseas
3-Shows the competitiveness and drama from behind the camera in the broadcasting industry, also in a very entertaining & engaging, non boring way
4-Deals with mature Issues related to mostly mature people like health, work problems, two timing ,asexuality etc.
5- A drama that is funny but if it were not a rom- com, it could have been easily a very intense Melo drama so writer did a good job by keeping an otherwise heavy story immensely funny
6- All the characters except for 2nd male lead was very realistic, the 2nd male lead was too perfect to be true.
7- One of the most hottest, sensual, sensational kisses from JJS , Gong Hyo Jin is one lucky woman.
8- The best of the best chemistry between main leads,and among all the characters.
9- Absolutely amazing OSTs, step step, would you to come to me, bye autumn are to name a few that leaves in my heart rent free.
10- Amazing bgm. Also very befitting according to the scene requirements.

Negative points about story/ plot:
1- Uninteresting side stories
2- Not everyone's cup of tea, very controversial for some .
3- One of the most annoying, unbearable lead female role
4- The biggest flaws
* The story and role of 2nd lead is very unnecessarily prolonged that makes at least half of the audience to root for him not for the main lead.
* The writer failed to bring out clearly, the reasons why male lead was a tusendear. she was unable to make a good no of the viewers like the male lead. She should not have made 2nd lead seemingly so perfect that many of the viewers could not connect to 1st male lead.

This drama is not everyone's cup of tea , like I said before especially for them who have over active brains, analyse dramas so critically, do not enjoy the drama for its face value, and don't take a drama as just a drama. And mainly for these reasons many dislike the main lead ,

But there are very few who dislikes female lead and I am one of them. The female lead almost through out the drama acts as a cringy ,puny woman who have no self respect, dignity, has no idea of someone's personal space,has no idea to let go and move on, wish-washy, indecisive on top of that is immature, naive. For me she only redeemed in the last 4-5 episodes and forother 20 episodes a little bit here and there. Even then she has the sympathies of all the viewers because she gets the benefit of being a woman and the portion of woman in the total no of viewers is always in majority.

On the other hand I absolutely loved the male lead who is a loveable jerk, little tusendear, a lot of arrogant ,have inner insecurities,think highly of himself but he cares in his own ways for his loved ones, actually do care for female lead when poses that he doesn't not care for her for various reasons for, he is charming, adorable, sincere, straight forward, all out honesty,sets the same bars for himself that he sets for others, and I was rooting for him because I understand why he acted the way he did. A major credit for it goes to Jo Jung Suk for his phenomenal, extraordinary acting. It was a fun ride to watch Hwashin's character growth.

A lot of viewers got the 2nd lead syndrome but I barely noticed him in my first watch, because for me personally he was very boring and bland. Again he is not a flawless character , he becomes clingy, not ready to move on from the female lead, was so rich but very weak in handling his personal matters, badmouthed his friend all the time in front of female lead to woe her back. But again just because he was good to the female lead and super duper rich so he was a perfect guy who gave some viewers 2nd lead syndrome.

I enjoyed every bit of the main story related to three main characters,it never got draggy, even though I had concerns with female lead but I was overcome with those concerns because female lead character is very realistic and such people like her exist. So the drama never got bored for me, I binged watched it in 3 days, I have rewatched it multiple times, I have saved it and come back to it time and again. I love it for it's crazy light theme, for its realistic characters, it's intense love triangles, it's flow, and for every good point that I mentioned above in the beginning of the review.
I hate it for making less efforts to make some people understand the main lead character and invest in him.

But I would say that this is one and only drama where it makes us to raise questions so very often on the behaviour of different characters but this never fails to stop us from watching it, from enjoying it, from craving for the next episodes.

Acting of every one was top notch except the 2nd male lead,he was good but not as good as others, but the one actor who totally shone , stole the show had to be Jo Jung Seok. I have fallen head over heels for him. He has made a seemingly unpleasant character , a totally loveable character, he made me believe in all of his happiness, insecurities, pain, sufferings, regrets, loneliness. I felt physical pain in my chest whenever he suffered. He made me laugh. He made me understand seemingly hidden reasons for his those actions that were considered unpleasant. This drama was my first time watching him. And If it was not for him, I think I would not be able to love this drama as much as I do now, without him this drama would not be as much interesting for me as it is now. Hwashin is a difficult role to play where he is an ordinary guy with an unlikable personality on paper, so the actor had the daunting task of making him as an endearing, adorable one, also actor had to show his grief and pain but not going full emotional & Melo but with a touch of humour, that is again not easy to act BUT JJS has done a DIVINE job with microexpressions and emotive eyes to fulfill all the needs of the role. I can go & on in praising him but I would like to leave a link here that would prove you how much of a good actor he is and how much of a phenomenal actor he was in Jealousy Incarnate as Lee Hwashin. Don't forget to read the comments down there in the last part of the article.
http://netizenbuzz.blogspot.com/2016/10/kim-soo-hyun-polls-in-as-1-romcom-king.html?m=1
Also, apart from his outstanding acting as Lee Hwashin , I would like to appreciate him for taking on such a difficult role where he actually had to wear a bra. A role that is actually as embarrassing to play as an actor as embarrassing it was shown in the drama for the same reasons, for all the same stigma .

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