Man to Man (2017)

the female lead mainly ruined my impression of the romance

To be honest this is the kind of drama that starts off really fresh and cool with a cool agent, but starts getting so draggy I rather wash my socks.
For the cast, I think that all the characters were all really decent and especially Park Hae Jin since I'm a pretty big fan of him. However, the main problem really lies on the female lead which is really just a walking nuisance that I simply do not understand why anyone would ever fall for. Yes, it may be her bubbly personality or whatever cuteness that is supposed to be potrayed. Most of the time when the leads get hurt it would either be her just being brainless or her thinking that her actions were even useful. At the start, it was quite obvious that she was genuinely interested in the male lead but she seems to be playing hard to get far to much needed which is what makes me question what is attractive about her. Afterwards, when agent k was exposed for being a ghost agent and that all his actions were just part of his job, she got really sad when she was the one playing hard to get at first??? ok I think that the write focuses too much on making her the cause of many troubles they face.
For the ending, it was quite expected since the male lead was an agent. So in conclusion, if u are interested in a questionable romance that has no link, chemistry, or any flow, u could totally watch it for the action and cool of the male lead. -_-

Lire davantage

A nice drama with woefully poor rounding off of character arcs and main story

Firstly liked all 3 leads yes including FL. I thought she was perfect for ML could totally ship them and the writing let them down especially the ending.

The action and general production were good premise was great execution really poor.

My biggest single issue was the story arc of the 2ML and his ex. We are clearly shown they are in love in the past, then suddenly she marries a chaebol. It is not explained but the hint is it was something weird like she had no choice. This feeling is reinforced all throughout she is always looking out for him and he obviously is not over her and was obviously heartbroken when it happened. So what they do with this intriguing plot line. Answer NOTHING. Unbelievably we never find out what happened and why she left him like that.

But there is worse. Her husband is basically a total bastard the villain of the piece. He threatens her is a violent psychopath and controls her by threatening not to let him see her son. He hates that she even indirectly cares about 2ML. She also helps bring him down he is clearly portrayed up to a point as her enemy her captor not lover or husband

But then unbelievably in the endgame she goes to prison with divorce papers and instead of having her triumphant moment of telling him where to go. She tears them up he smiles she nods sympathetically and says we will wait until hes older at least. Total character assassination IMO.

The only comment in the script to explain this even remotely. Is when her friend tells someone she has a complicated relationship with both men but cares for them both in her own way. Eh no not complicated one guy loved you with his whole heart the other guy "took" you and was a psycho.

Her last interaction with the 2ML is pathetic no closure no explanation. He just lets her off the hook and she is as smug and unapologetic as ever.
This epitomised the whole problem with the drama great cast great premise terible execution and poor script. Its like halfway through they backed out of dealing with the 2ML past and just threw in this terrible endgame for him and his ex

That alone was enough to ruin it. This was not a 2ndry couple this was a main lead it made me regret watching it.

That and the MCs incomplete ending as well which was really unsatisfying.

Lire davantage

I would like the preface this review with two points: I have only come to watch K-dramas the last half year or so and it is possible that some of my gripes with this drama spawn from cultural differences.

For myself some of the appeal of K-dramas is the that when extremely cliche characters or moments appear, the cheese somehow charms me despite my skepticism. Unfortunately, for most of Man to Man, there were too many problems to be balanced by its few strengths.

My first complaint, which some others have addressed, is the chemistry between the leads. I don't have problem with how Cha Do Ha was acted, but how she interacted with K. I can't recall a single instance where I really bought into the relationship between the two leads. I will differ from many others' opinion here as the bromance between K and Yeo Woon Gwang also didn't jive with me. It suffered from the same problem as the lead romance in that it felt abrupt and completely forced. It just felt like there was a relationship time skip the audience wasn't privy to.

On the other hand, every secondary relationship I bought hook, line, and sinker. The acting by the cast felt solid and their work is what got me through the show. Interactions between most characters was believable with some real tension to match. I particularly enjoyed the moments between Song Mi Eun and Yeo Woon Gwang. I would also say that each actor made good use of any solo time in front of the camera. I never found myself doubting their characters, just the interactions between the leads. Their strong performances never achieve excellence for me, but I don't feel like it's the casts' fault.

It was the writing that never sat well with me. I can forgive egregious plot holes, of which there were many, if there is great character interaction or development, but with the strongest character interactions being outside the main leads, the relationships struggled to make up for the flawed story. Almost every plot device used to further the show could have been solved in much easier and less convoluted way, which is fine. I came into this somewhat expecting it since it's a k-drama, but the show also had the problem of approaching many things with the subtlety of a mallet to the face.

Which is probably my biggest problem with the show. I am unsure if this stems from cultural differences, but the show kept telling me how to think and feel and that kept breaking my immersion. Bros don't have to repeatedly tell me they're bros; I should be able to gather that watching their awesome interactions and general bro-yness. The music was much the same way. While the music themes may not have been poor in choice, their execution was god awful. I am a firm believer that music when used well, or consciously not used for that matter, greatly enhances the audience's feelings. Instead, the timing and volume of the music felt like the director was screaming at me "GET HYPE!" at occasionally silly times or worse yet, during a later scene in the show "YOU FEEL SAD NOW!". Uhm no?

This show reminded me a lot of one of my favourite shows thematically which may have contributed to my poorer opinion of this show due to the comparison. I've seen a strong romance, great character development, and a reasonable plot all wrapped in a spy action/comedy. I was more than willing to overlook that show's flaws because of its strengths. As good as this cast was, they were given some very poor material to work with and in the end, they really couldn't save it.

Lire davantage

Didn't not expect this drama to be this bad. The main story didn't seem
like something crazily interesting, but still, the first episode was
promising. However, the drama was tiring, with a boring plot that
dragged on and on, with no actual twists, no chemistry between the
actors (not even the couple was good) and no humour. That resulted to
prevent me finishing this one, and I rarely leave dramas like that. I
mean, I was able to force myself to watch to the beautiful you, when
the plot got so predictable and boring, I could feel hours of my life
being wasted for nothing. But this drama was even worse. Maybe I was
expecting more out of it, as the cast was maned by seriously good
actors. So, what happened? I blame most of it on the story that was an
actual mess. So, 2 out of 10.

Lire davantage

Is this the best show on the planet? No.
Is the plot cliche and predictable? Pretty much.
Did I enjoy it? I definitely did.

I have struggled to love and like Kim Min Jung's character. And it kind of ruined the romance part-development of the show. But it had great comedic elements to it amid all the action. I found myself waiting for a new episode each week on Netflix. And it was an enjoyable watch.

This isn't for everyone and many will critique it, but even so I would recommend everyone to give this show a try. It starts off slow and develops over time. Maybe a bit jumping over some character and plot developments at times what make it a bit hard to believe. But hey, rarely any is perfect. And this drama kind of managed to get me back into the kdrama land, from which I had disappeared for years. So, it clearly isn't a bad watch!

The bromance is the greatest part. I just loved it!!

Lire davantage

Bromance + Cute Male Lead

This drama is underrated. I highly recommend this to other viewers. It’s actually a good watch in that the plot is interesting enough!

The female lead should be changed though (imo) because she isn’t cute and she isn’t a very good actress (imo).

However, I have always liked the male lead and I thought that I’d give this drama a go for his sake. Surprisingly, the other male lead is rather adorable. He grows on viewers.

Watch because:
- plot is interesting and engaging
- plot is suspenseful
- male lead is swoon-worthy
- second male lead is manly
- bromance is cute

Overall, I’d say watch this because it’s really much better than many other poorly made dramas out there. Watch !

Lire davantage

I watched this as a comedy rather than a drama, and for that reason, I enjoyed it hugely. The bromance was center stage and got laughs out of me almost every time. Yes, some acting was over the top and other times too restrained, but I thought that in each case it fit the personality of the character. Both male leads were really funny and their interactions well done. They could have left the girl-guy romance aspect out of it and it might have been even more entertaining.

I do have to ask this - why on earth when and guy and a girl are kissing, do they look as passionate and invested in the kiss as a couple of dried and salted mackerel at the fish market? It was that bloodless banging together of dead fish lips that made the romance a clinker most of all. I suppose it's cultural.

Lire davantage

This drama have bromance in spades, but I really wish they just focus on that and not forcing any romance into it. The main female character annoys me to death. If only she’s not there, I will definitely give this drama a higher rating.

The story is so cliche, but it’s entertaining and mostly funny. Most of the story really doesn’t make sense and unrealistic. I wish they would take the spy special agent part of the story more serious and realistic since Park Hae Jin is really great for this kind of story. It’s just too over the top and weird most of the time.

I love the bromance between Hae Jin and Park Soo Wong. They have such an amazing chemistry together. Their relationship looks natural and cute. It should be the main focus and main relationship. I really dislike the romance between Hae Jin and the girl, I don’t see why he could fall in love with her, it doesn’t look natural and it’s unbelievable.

Don’t get me started on how bad I think the girl acting is. Her acting is soooo... over the top, unnatural and full of big eyes that doesn’t relay any emotions other than making her look crazy idiotic. Oh and don’t forget all that high pitched screaming. Please just delete her.

The music is ok, nothing that I particularly like.

I would rewatch some scene, especially the interaction between Hae Jin and Soo Wong, but I would definitely skip anything with the girl in it.

Lire davantage

Yes!

This was the second Korean action drama that I watched after watching Rugal. Again as I say in all of my reviews I didn't know Korean dramas existed until watching Rugal last year. After seeing that I tried to find any and every Korean action drama that I could find and this was the second one.

I wasn't familiar with the style of Korean dramas but since then I have found myself steering away from the romance type of dramas. I didn't notice the style last year but now I do. I loved the main character, the second main character, and the main character's partner. These three had the chemistry that I loved. I especially loved the bromance between the 1 & 2nd male characters. There were scenes that had me laughing hard.

I tolerated the female lead up to a certain point. She started off likeable but became a whiny love sick puppy in the end that made me cringe. This was the reason I started migrating away from romance dramas.

The fighting scenes were awesome. I kept going back to those scenes. This had somewhat of a James Bond style to it.

I haven't rewatched any of the action Korean dramas I've seen but sometime in the near future if I'm still alive, I will most definitely rewatch this again.

Lire davantage

The end killed me...

Well, I just finished this drama and...

For me the end is not good. I want romantic plots and not action disguise with strange romance. For that I have HEALER or K2 or ...

There are some good moments. The chemistry between the 2 male leads ( don't think I could call it bromance) is good as the friendship.

OST - didn't get my attention

ACTING - was good, specially the male leads

REWATCH it? - no, never

The plot is boring, the romance is not interesting. I was expecting some more from the secondary couple but I don't get why she didn't divorce her husband. That doesn't make sense even if it was for the kid.
Bad bad bad for me... So there's a person that completely give up any happiness to be a spy and marry and have a kid with a man that is bad, treats her awful and blackmailed her with her child and ...
Stupid to me. How can a pragmatic woman do that?

Don't know what to say about that but, as I was reading some reviews, no one seems to care about that.

Lire davantage

Action scsnes are cool only when you don't know what's next

So far its the coolest action romance i have seen. Its a must watch for drama lovers. Acting is on point. Storyline is too cool to handle. Actors seem to be made for their respective roles. I feel this drama isn't lacking in any aspect. Even the villians are doing their jobs the best. Chemistry between the three leads is just out of the world. I have still many episodes left to be watched but i m totally enjoying it.For a fact i am not much fan of action dramas because they all seem the same. But this one seems to have a completely different storyline. Once in a while even action heros/ secret agents have their hearts beating faster than usual and they sometimes go out of their way to save someone.

Lire davantage

The biggest issues I had with this show were with the storyline. The spy storyline moved pretty quickly in the first three quarters of the show, and it left me wondering how else the writer would fill out the remaining 4 episodes of the show. This resulted in the storyline slowing significantly in the final quarter of the show, and I even felt bored towards the end of the show. It also felt like the show didn't quite know what to do with the romance storyline in the show. There wasn't enough build-up in the romance to keep me invested in the relationship between the 2 main characters.

Ironically, it was the relationship between Park Sung-woong's and Park Hae-jin's character that felt the most rewarding and kept me the most invested.

This was a great cast and they acted the heck out of the script. It was so pleasant to watch Park Sung-woong act as a goofball, since he can most often be seen acting in serious roles (both good guys and villains). Kim Min-jung and Park Hae-jin are drama veterans so they definitely did a great job.

Still an entertaining watch overall.

Lire davantage