The Happy Loner (2017)

I'm gonna make this simple and sweet because frankly I am a pretty lazy writer.
As a viewer of 'Individualist, Ms. Ji Young,' I can say I was able to connect to it's likeness in portraying mental illness on a personal level. I found myself hearing the female lead spout words I have said before myself. I have struggled with mental illness my whole life, and although it is not directly mentioned in this show it is blatantly there in it's rawest form. The need of being in a relationship with someone...or the complete opposite... The need to protect yourself by pushing everyone away...Wanting a relationship but having the fight or flight response kicking in the moment you feel you could be hurt. Flight always being the end result because it seems easier compared to being hurt. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Watching this series was extremely personal for me and I feel that it was done beautifully. I am not sure how the experience of watching will be for those who do not understand or have a mental illness... but I can be sure that anybody who can even relate a little bit will definitely love this show. Hopefully this lazy and short review might help one of you out there. If you decide to watch, I really hope you enjoy!

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Maybe this is just not a format I like, but for me The Happy Loner left me feeling underwhelmed. This is like watching a rom-com literally in fast forward and only stopping at certain scenes. Things escalate quickly, when they normally would take time to develop, so I had a hard time relating to and caring for the characters completely. The story is pretty simple, so it's not as if it needed more time to be told, and even felt draggy at moments, so it must be that I didn't like the story or characters enough.



The concept is simple. 2 neighbors who are complete opposites, one who avoids people, and one who is overly friendly and clingy, end up getting involved in each other's lives. The "Happy Loner" Ji Yeong, who I think Min Hyo Rin did an excellent job of playing, is often relatable in her extreme melancholy... I'm talking emo levels off the charts... but I have mixed feelings about the character's development. I initially liked her cold and abrasive style, and then seeing moments where she becomes more vulnerable, but by the end I felt like they just wanted a certain ending and made her fit accordingly. Gong Myung plays Byeok Soo, a character who should have annoyed me more, but he grew on me, and I ended up really liking him. What didn't grow on me was their romance, and that's probably the biggest problem. I did think they made a cute enough couple, but with not enough chemistry to justify where the story was heading and how quickly it got there. Instead of being moves, I rolled my eyes.



Now, If you have ever felt so depressed you wanted to be cut off from human contact, or if you have ever been in a relationship with an extremely guarded or emotionally unavailable person, there will probably be moments and words that resonate in this drama. However, the scenes themselves often felt kinda shallow, which didn't match with the depth I think a story like this deserves. More time was spent on their insignificant exes than on their backstories, which weren't made to be significant enough. Oh, and don't get me started on the unethical sharing of the psychiatrist, which was extremely annoying. And that reminds me to mention the supporting cast... almost every single one of them was completely forgettable. They were more like cardboard cutouts just there to move the story along.



The short story aspect makes it hard to mention much specifically without "spoilers", but I will just say that if I enjoyed this more my rewatch score would be much higher.



Overall, I wanted to like this more than I did. There is a hint of what could have been a much better drama, but since it's only 2 episodes it's still worth a watch if you're curious enough about the subject of dating when you have issues.

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*UNPOPULAR OPINION*

This was kinda a waste of time. I absolutely love neighbours dramas so i'm annoyed that this wasn't what i wanted even if it seemed that it had everything i was looking for.
The writers did an awful job with the characters and the plot.
One had a bitchy personality while the other acted like a 4 year old kid. You can be an invidualist and not act like the rudest human being in the world (i mean,i understand her background but still.) I'm an introvert myself but i couldn't really relate with the story.
And if the acting was better i would've probably enjoyed it a little more,but that was not the case.
The male lead was bearable(at times) but the woman was excruciating to watch,and it wasn't just her acting tho,it was just the way the writers made her character. You're supposed to relate or half like the female lead in dramas but she almost looked and seemed like a bipolar villain. The writers tried to make the viewers emotional about her background in the last 15 minutes but honey,i didn't buy it. I already had enough of her in the last 2h so nothing was gonna make me change my mind. Not even a sad childhood.
And now the cherry on the top,the plot. It looked like they added scenes just for filling. *sigh* But the kiss they shared was bomb,so that was a plus. (thank god the kiss was decent because i deserved something that actually made me excited about the main couple)

Overall,i feel bad for leaving a bad review knowing the cast probably worked hard on this mini drama. But sadly it wasn't my cup of tea.

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Beautiful but not perfect, that's how I would summarize this drama.
This drama is only two episodes and it needed only two episodes.
This is not the best romance drama I ever saw or the most original one or the most exciting one.
But this was nicely done, straightforward, poetic, real and just... beautiful.

Just as the synopsis says, this is the story of a woman who is afraid of being in a relationship (of any kind) with other people and a man who is afraid of being alone. This is the story of how they clash, their differences and their similarities. This is the story about human relationships (of any kind).

This is a character driven story. The characters are real. I loved and hated the main female lead. I hated her weaknesses as they looked too similar to mine. I loved them because they made her more human, relatable. I liked how she evolved in the span of those 2 hours and enjoyed seeing her grow. From my point of view, the male lead was less developed than the female lead and didn't grow much but he was likable and real enough. I would have appreciated seeing him grow too but I liked how he helped the female lead grow.

The acting was good. The main cast managed to bring to life the main characters. Kudos to them.

The music didn't play a very big role, it was mainly a way for the female lead to escape from the reality. I liked the piano piece but there was nothing really memorable to me when it comes to the music in this drama.

This drama has flaws: some part can feel boring (a little bit), aside from the main leads all the other characters are rather 2d, we could have gone further into the male lead character and I don't know but it just didn't feel perfect overall. My rating may seem a bit high with all those flaws.
However, I enjoyed the psychological aspect of the story and this was more than a love story. This was also about discovering oneself and overcoming the past. Also, just something about the female lead struck a chord in me. That's why I gave this a 9/10.

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This was such a cute story. A little less than 2 hours on the whole thing, so you can basically watch it as a film even. At first I thought Gong Myung's character didn't suit him but by the second episode I was smitten by him. It was really cute how he slowly started getting Hyo Rin's out of her shell. Normally I hate noona romance stuff but in this you could barely feel it. Min Hyo Rin's character was so realtable for me as I'm introvert too and how she barely showed her emotions was one of the quirks I loved in her character. Watching how she slowly dropped her guard was the fun part of the story. One of those really cute feel good dramas.

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The description is sparse, but I honestly think that it's all you need to know before you watch the drama. It's best to get to know the characters as you watch, because it's how I appreciated Jiyoung and Byuksoo and how human and relatable they felt. Their personalities are polar opposities - Byuksoo can't go without companionship, while Jiyoung prefers to be left alone no matter what the situation. I was wondering how they'd be thrown together and it turned out to be one of my favorite scenes.

They both grow and learn from each other, which the show managed to showcase so well in such little time and while I wish the ending was more fleshed out, I still think it's perfect for their story.  Watch if you like heartfelt stories, a cute romance, and an even cuter cat.

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Story: Despite being a romance, this mini series was more than just a love story; It's about life and is a realistic representation of childhood trauma and how that can affect you in your adulthood. As someone who related a bit to Ji Young, I appreciated that the subject wasn't taken lightly and was actually the main focus of the drama. I don't think I've seen another drama that covered this topic so well like Individualistic Ms Ji. Young. While it wasn't perfect and had a couple of flaws, it was a beautiful story about a girl who underwent so much by herself, and met a guy who changed everything. While he didn't fix her like a lot of romances tend to show, he made her realize how lonely and sad she actually was and that she needed help.

Acting/Cast: Ji Young was a very real and relatable character, I think Min Hyo Rin's acting made this even more believable. She struggled a lot in her childhood due to family issues and developed in a way that forced her to isolate herself and become an "individualist". Her development throughout the story was realistic for a 2 hour run time. Gong Myung's character, Byeok Soo was less focused on which I found a bit disappointing. We didn't get much into his past and whether he recovered or not, which I found to be a flaw, but despite that, both of the leads we're similar in a way that made them compatible. They we're both lonely, but had different ways of dealing with it, which is why they worked so well together, even if it was hard sometimes. The only other thing I dislike about this drama besides Breok Soo's character development was Ji Youngs psychiatrist, but maybe that's just me.

Music: The music was cute and fit with the scenes, but wasn't anything special.

Re-watch Value: Since this drama is only 2 hours, I wouldn't mind watching this again, but I probably won't, I think it's much better to watch once.

Overall: This mini series is definitely worth the watch it you either want a cute romance or something with a deeper story line or relatable characters. While it wasn't perfect, it was more than enjoyable to watch and had a good look on trauma development.

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Nice romcom, but poor depiction of South Korea's relationship with mental health issues

This was a very nice romcom drama. Short and sweet and just two episodes. Given it was only two episodes they had to rush and fit in a lot of character development within this time. The progression especially is a bit harder to sell with them going from enemies to friends quite quickly.

As a romcom drama I enjoyed it, but in terms of the story it is underwhelming and a bit disappointing that they didn't focus on developing the characters more. A good chunk of time is allotted to portraying their time together and how this became the impetus for her journey of growth and overcoming her depression. I recognise that this sometimes happens but in watching it, it felt like a bad depiction of South Korea's own views on mental health issues. Yes, some antidepressant medication can make you sick from the side effects but there are alternative therapies to try. This movie felt very invalidating of depression within young women and came off as the typical asian mindset of, "you're not depressed you just need a man". It would've been fine if the story had more of the characters developing themselves as with a greater sense of individual identity before ending - so thats why it comes off as disappointing.

For any girl depressed or looking for a nice comforting drama to watch, just remember that you don't need a man to make a happy! There is more to life than just dating and there's nothing wrong with you if that lifestyle does not interest you either as well.

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I find the show simple and cute. Though it tackles the problems with childhood trauma and how it affects the person, they have executed the story lightly. They have shown that there is no shortcut to healing the problem, but rather focus on the person’s realization that being feeling alone is the loneliest thing in the world and seeking help is indeed a solution.

There are some flaws in the story, but enough to consider knowing that the characters portrayed are real in our society. The acting was quite decent and the chemistry developed in a way that made them compatible in the screen.

Overall, this mini-series is not perfect, but worth the watch.

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A Disappointing Romance Drama on the Verge of Being Good

This is a romance with an interesting premise and potential for some great character interactions. Instead what we got was a short, awkwardly paced, and often frustrating experience which couldn't keep it's own momentum. At the beginning we are curious about and rooting for the protagonist, but by the end we are as fed up with her as everyone around her is. Character development jumps lightyears in a few minutes and then drags along for another half hour, and things feel stretched out and rushed all at the same time. Let me explain a little better.

My greatest criticism of this drama (although I have many) is the main character. Listen, I love me an introverted character. I'm not even opposed to those that are outwardly rude (as long as they have a reason, like a backstory or mistaken view about life), but I draw the line when said character cannot develop out of their rudeness, at least in a somewhat believable manner. Not to spoil anything, but the main character makes progress in some scenes only to completely regress in the other. Then, later on, certain developments are maintained, leaving you to always wonder whether the current moment of the story will even matter in the long run. If you can call it a long run.

The pacing of this drama is very poorly done. There are only two hours of total content, so basically a movie, and yet they make it seem like a rushed series. We trade in steady and meaningful character development for tropes and backwards plot lines. Why develop characters further into a believable romance when you can totally backtrack things already established with misunderstandings and tropes? Keep in mind, these tropes that are crammed in there are usually meant for 16 hour full length dramas, and aren't things that can be recovered from in this amount of time.

The worst part is that the potential is frequently visible. Every moment of hesitation we see in the main character before she acts out, every honest dialogue that starts between our romantic leads, and every meaningful change in our character's behavior brings a spark of hope that maybe- just maybe- the series is about to pick up, change is about to happen, and the story will get interesting. It doesn't. The hesitation doesn't turn into later not doing it, but instead into the same amount of hesitation. The honest dialogues are, while not forgotten, lacking in emotional impact in later scenes. The meaningful changes in our characters are, more often than not, just reversed later on in the story. And so it hovers in the awful zone of "almost good" where you can't stop watching in case it gets better but it never does.

I am not going to recommend this drama. I find it disappointing. It's not that it's bad, it's just so almost good that it's painful to watch.

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