Sweet Stranger and Me (2016)

I don't understand why there's so much hate for this drama, I was really put off by the comment but honestly just give it a go!
I watched this purely for Kim Young Kwang, I was thinking i'll just skip through to see his face and itll be fine but honestly? this wasnt a bad drama at all!

Don't get me wrong it is not a Perfect drama nor is it up in my absolute faves but it delivers every aspect of a great drama with a decent simple storyline.

The acting isnt too bad, it's actually pretty believable..!
Each character no matter minor they were, played their part very well and fulfilled their character's role.

This drama had it's comedic moments, family teary moments, a bit of mystery to it which isn't dragged out, secrets are let out at the right time and it helps move the story a long, there's a bit of tension, the romance is cute and it was an enjoyable watch.

I didn't have to skip any of this drama, I was content with the beginning, middle and end. But I was thoroughly affected by the comments I saw below and I'm glad I still went ahead and watched it!

I probably won't watch this again no, purely because I know what happens in it now and the pull isn't strong like my 10 score dramas but it's one that makes me happy to be reminded of it, a chilled out easy drama to watch :)

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Why a 5/10?

On my rating scale, this means « just boring ». When I started it, I had high expectations. The setting was interesting, this was supposed to be a cohabitation drama with a sort of forbidden love we're not used to see. There was even another interesting twist with a lot of potential to bring in some action, the male mc background. Yet, they managed to make it all sooo pointless.



Romance & comedy

I never watched a drama with so little chemistry between the leads. I don't even think it's the actors fault. How can there be nearly no skinship in a cohabitation drama? Just erase the kiss scene and they could have been real step-father and daughter for all I care! All they talked about was how to keep their land and make dumplings. There was nearly no tension between them, you can only expect some cutesy if you like it.



Highlight on the second male lead

On the other side, Lee Soo Hyuk's story was much more interesting. I actually enjoyed his scenes with Shin Se Hwi, his sister in the drama, more than the two leads together. He was a breath of fresh air. At least, I had fun watching him and he's probably the only reason why I managed to finish this drama. (That and because I watched it while it was airing.) On a side note, red really suits this actor. One more thing, if you don't like love triangles, this drama might still please you. Hong Na Ri never gives lawyer Kwon Deok Bong a real chance, neither does Go Nan Gil with anyone.



Background story

This is hard to describe without giving some spoilers, but I'll try. Let's just say that Go Nan Gil past is sure to bring some troubles, dangerous troubles. With that, you can expect him to save the damsel in distress while fighting in front of her, right? Don't. He does fight from time to time and, just because he's good at fighting, everyone seems afraid of him. But come on! His opponents could just try to kill him, it's not like they actually care about life. They could also try to hurt Hong Na Ri, but they don't think of it. With that, another potential interesting story just fell flat.



Music

That's one of the few things I liked. It was fresh, light-hearted and put me in a good mood.

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SHORT REVIEW, SPOILERS

The lack of love and harsh criticism of this drama made me think 20 times about watching it. But I’m so glad I gave it a chance. Sweet Stranger & Me is more dramatic than really rom-com. There is a little dose of cheesiness, but once you get to know the backstory of the leads it takes an entirely different turn. Could it be one of the reasons people disliked and dropped it ? Since it wasn’t what was expected. I thought I would laugh all throughout the show but it took a dark turn quite quickly. Ironically, this unexpected turn of events is what actually kept me interested.

STRONG POINTS : The plot itself. It is… a bit strange ? I’d even say a little controversial. The whole family situation made a few viewers uncomfortable, however once you understand the motives behind the choices of the characters, this situation makes perfect sense. The leads are good actors. In fact, all the actors of this drama are doing a great job. Ko Nan Gil pushed Hong Na Ri to stay true to herself. He's a very supportive guy.

WEAK POINTS : The love story evolves too rapidly. The female lead trusts too fast too soon, she seems wise on the surface but makes decisions like a kid. And towards the end the drama gets a bit draggy. The music is forgettable.

OVERALL : Not revolutionary but not bad or boring either. Of course it’s not phenomenal, but it’s just one of those shows to binge watch when you have time to kill at home on a stormy day, the kind that I typically rate “7 to 7.5”, as in entertaining enough.

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The Challenges of Romance

I start my reviews by revealing that I don’t speak a word of Korean. For that reason, I rely on the acting (facial expressions and body language), the music, and the sub-titles when I watch a show.
The storyline was unique, interesting with enough twists and turns to make it well worth the watch. The supporting characters were well placed and added to the overall experience. I especially liked the character Do Yeo-Yoo (Jo Bo-Ah). She was quirky, wild, and lovable all at once. Kwon Duk-Bong (Lee Soo-hyuk), the competitor for Hong Na-Ri’s (Soo-Ae) affections, was so good at his pursuit that it drove me crazy. The action scenes were exciting and added to the overall experience.
My favorite genre is romance. I always pay particular attention to the romantic relationship between two souls that meet as strangers. In this case, the meeting was in no way the normal man meets woman. I understand that the character Go Nan-Gil (Kim Young-Kwang) was her stepfather when they met. The development of the relationship was slow and sometimes excruciating. Was it meant to be that way? I think it was, so I let it flow and enjoyed the banter between the two. However, it felt awkward even in the end. A Na-Ri’s facial expression that should have said, “I love you,” gave me the “am I doing the right thing” feeling. The kisses sometimes looked just as awkward. But if you think I didn’t like Soo-Ae’s performance, you are wrong. I loved the strength of her character. The trials they went through to get to the man/woman relationship were challenging. She never gave up, and that gave her a warm, loving glow that fit the final scenes. I like shows that push my senses, and this one did.

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How the heck can this plot go from action-oriented to fluffy at the end, puzzles me. It almost became like another drama because everything seems to miraculously smooth out, after the all the crimes that happen. The plot just went downhill, the leading couple, acted like teenagers and it was just too fluffy for the age they are portraying. Cruel City was more realistic in portraying gang life, I don't know the whole thing just did not mesh right. It is still watchable but at the end, I felt like what the heck did I just watch? At least with other dramas like "You're Beautiful" you know from the get go, that it is a romcom but this one was just from thug life ------ romcom, it did not work for me.

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Sweet Stranger and Me started off with a lot of potential - especially for a show with such a cringey sounding premise. I mean...girl falls for her stepfather?? Say what? But as you get into the story, you'll be telling people..."but it's not really LIKE that!" I don't want to give away the plot, but it's not as icky as the summary makes it sound at ALL.

I was drawn to this show and only gave it a chance because of Kim Young Kwang. He won me over in Go Ho's Starry Night, and I needed to see something else he was in. Luckily for me, this show was starting just about the same time as I finished the other. For me, he was the best thing about this show. I think that I would have dropped it completely about 3/4 of the way through if it had not been for his cute little smiles and Nan Gil's "heart eyes" for Na Ri. Soo Ae's acting didn't blow me away, but she wasn't horrible. Lee Soo Hyuk plays the second lead, and as always plays so aloof that it's hard to get a read on him. Jo Bo Ah as Yeo Joo was easy to hate at first, but she grew on me. However, I read that several were just annoyed by her altogether. The bad part is that the writers sort of just forgot to give her a reason to even be in the story after the first few episodes. It really felt like she was tacked on to the rest of the group with no real reason to even be in their midst any longer. She just kept showing up for no explainable reason.

The writers also set up a way more interesting story than we received in the end. It started off fairly strong and then sort of petered out as it wore on. I wouldn't re-watch this and I would only recommend it to KYK fans if you just REALLY need to watch him in something. I was pretty disappointed in how this one played out.

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The first half of this drama was really good. The second half, however, gets a little tiring and boring. The twists are obvious and not interesting, the love triangle is seriously weak and the romance gets a little held back by so many events and eventually, loses its power and gets boring as well. Other than that, the drama as a whole was funny, especially the times when the guy acted like an old man, had some interesting parts and the performances were good, though I would have preferred the leading lady to have acted more active when pretending to be happy (she smiled, but her eyes were boring). So, 4.5 out of 10.

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Not Much Comment

This was a disappointing drama.

Though I got curious reading the synopsis, the story line as I progressed watching was weak. The plot did not create sufficient interest and watching each episode was quite a chore, though the first few episodes were acceptable as one is trying to discover what is going on. The script could not even help the actors save the day and as for the Director, no comment. I find other reviewers have given their fair share of comments, so I have not much to say and just do the scoring.

However, Park Soo Ae is as beautiful always and this drama helped me discover actor Kim Yoong Kwang (better late than never)!

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I dropped it half way and I rarely drop anything

4/10 is my rating. This is a 2016 South Korean Romantic Comedy drama with 16, ~60 minute episodes. Also known under the title "The Man Living in Our House."

First I provide a unique synopsis then review

Synopsis

Leading the glamorous life of a flight attendant Hong Na-ri (Soo Ae) and with a handsome fiance, Na Ri feels like she has it all.  But her life crumbles apart when her mother Shin Jung-im (Kim Mi-sook) unexpectedly dies, she discovers her fiance, Jong Dong-jin (Kim Ji-hoon) is cheating with her co-worker Do Yeo-joo (Jo Bo-ah) and the house she thought she inherited went to a step-dad, Go Nan-gil (Kim Young-kwang) she did not know she had. At first Na-ri is started by this stranger/step-dad who is possibly younger than her and definitely younger than her mother.  She doubts his motives and cannot understand why her mother hid her relationship and left everything to this stranger.  But, as the layers start to peel back, Na-ri learns that her and Nan-gil have a much deeper past than she realized. 

Review

I wanted to like this one so much. But, I found very little to like about it. I do not recommend it as there are so many better options. If you are super fans of any of the cast maybe watch for them but I cannot recommend it for anything else.

Spoilers

Did it end happy/well? I have no idea. I made it through episode eight then realized there were eight more and could not do it to myself. I rarely drop a show. Out of the nearing 400 I have watched I have dropped only a few. They had confessed to each other and she broke 2nd guys heart, so there did not seem to be anything of substance for the remainder of the show. I was not at all interested in the mafioso loan sharks. So there was not much if substance left to fill eight more episodes.

I disliked the premise, so it is hard for it to improve from there. I thought the whole him being younger yet her stepdad was weird. When I read a synopsis I thought it would seem like that but turn out he was not married to the mom. It is disturbing that a mother figure would marry her son figure. Then he says for half the show that they have to keep up the ruse to keep the sharks at bay but decides half way never mind we will be together and deal with the consequences.

For me the chemistry between the leads was off. There were no longing looks almost kisses or any of that which shows they liked each other all along. So there sudden kiss seemed weird.

I did not like any of the characters. FL was such an absent daughter she did not even know something so important about her mom. And she was so soft on her ex and cheater colleague it annoyed me. The cheating colleague was just completely selfish. She seemed remorseless about ending a nine year relationship. And so fake. The ex also acted remorseless. He apologized but it was such a weak apology and he never said why. The little sister was a creepy psycho. Bth things she did to main girl could have led to death or worse injury. And she doesn’t think she should apologize?

#SweetStrangerandMe  #TheManLivingInOurHouse  #SooAe  #KimYoungKwang  #LeeSooHyuk  #JoBoAh  #KimJiHoon

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This series was soft and sweet. I think that this one is one of the more sincere series that I watch in regards to love and loyalty. The series revolves around the female that was cheated on. She goes home and not only finds her home but someone living in our home. I love the story and how everything played out and it all made so much sense. I really don’t wanna spoil it but what appears to be is not always what really is. This was good. The female lead was strong and smart but a bit annoying at first but it got better. The male lead was handsome, kind, smart and most certainly not a pushover.

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Meh.

This show started out well, but I thought it dragged A LOT in the middle. I did like the premise of the show, the secrets, etc. The male lead was wonderful, and I loved the concept of him loving her practically his entire life. The female lead, I loved her voice, and she is beautiful - her smile is just radiant - but I didn't particularly care for her character. She seemed unnecessarily pouty and kind of stand-offish. The second male lead - I LOVE when the secondary character turns out to be a good guy. They even turned around the second female lead - she was an absolute nightmare at the beginning, but at the end I liked her. The overall story was kind of slow and sometimes boring, and I don't understand why so many Korean dramas have the passage of time just before the end of the show. The characters have to go through so much to get together, and then they just kind of go along on auto pilot. It was a happy ending, just kind of brief and bland. There were a couple of good kisses, but I didn't find this show terribly romantic.

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A beautiful wasted casting

Great casting for this Romantic-Mystery series, with a promising start. But the series quickly becomes boring... Too bad!

PLOT: 1 flight attendant, FL, loses her mother in 1 accident. 1 year later, she realizes that her long-time boyfriend is cheating on her with a colleague. Disappointed, she returns "to her mother's house" to discover that before her death, she had remarried, and that her stepfather, the ML, now owns the restaurant and all of her late mother's property. The ML2, manager of a construction company, offers to help the FL take over this heritage.

+ the actors do what they can, but the story is poorly written, the direction clumsy.
+ OST well suited but not memorable.

=> Lots of skipping despite the performance of actors that I like.
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Super casting pour cette série Romantique -Mystère, avec un début prometteur. Mais la série devient vite ennuyeuse ... Dommage !

PLOT: 1 hôtesse de l'air, la FL, perd sa mère ds 1 accident. 1 an + tard, elle s'aperçoit que son boyfriend de longue date, la trompe avec 1 collègue. Dépitée, elle rentre "chez sa mère" pour découvrir qu'avant sa mort, elle s'était remariée, et que son beau-père, le ML, possède désormais le restaurant et tous les biens de feu sa mère. Le ML2, dirigeant d'1 boite de construction, se propose d'aider la FL à reprendre ce patrimoine.
+ les acteurs font ce qu'ils peuvent, mais la story est mal écrite, la réalisation maladroite.
+ OST bien adaptés mais pas mémorables.

=> Bcp de zapping malgré la performance d'acteurs que j'aime bien.

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