Live Up to Your Name (2017)

Lovely romance that keeps you smiling through to the epilogue!

Live Up To Your Name has been on my PTW on Netflix for wayyyy too long XD. I'm not sure why I didn't watch it sooner, but after finishing it, I'm mad at my past-self for not watching it sooner! Haha! It *did* take between 4-6 episodes for me to get really invested in the story, but after that, I was thoroughly hooked!

Being a daughter of immigrants, the way the MMC, Heo Im, struggled with the modern day culture and language made me giggle often as I could easily identify with the struggles he encountered while adjusted to the foreign modern world! His many moments of adjustment while in the modern world sincerely helped maintain a balanced tone and mood - it never got too dark or sad!

The comedy, time spent in each world, practiced medicine, and romance are really well balanced throughout this entire drama, even weaving some historical facts in there to give context. The ending was very good too, which I was happy about (I was worried there for a second, "I thought this was a happy ending!" 'XD).

I really liked that they go back and forth between worlds - the time spent in the past was personally very meaningful to me, and especially humbling to the FMC, Yeon Kyung.
My favorite arc of the story was when interacting with the Japanese General, General Sayaka, especially when saving the children!

Live Up To Your Name is a lovely romance - I would 100% recommend it! The main actors, Kim Nam Gil and Kim Ah Joong have great chemistry, which makes their romance and tension all the spicier! It's got great comedy, not bogged down by too much corporate business politics, and a smashing OST (the instrumentals especially are fantastic - "Fate" by Yoo Jonghyun is my favorite!).

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Live Up to Your Shame

Things can get really muddy when talking about the science of acupuncture, although this is a fantasy but to try and push one narrative over the other this desperately is a tough sell in this scenario. I don't think the drama managed to navigate mixed medicine practices from a modern medicine point of view successfully. In fact, the entire thing was dropped very quickly a few episodes later without being brought up again. So why did they ever bother? The first 5 episodes were enjoyable without overbearing time-travel cliches. However, everything turned to worse with episode 6, that's where they introduced your typical mundane cheese of someone who traveled in time. At this exact point, there was a harsh shift in the story, everything slowed down, and a plethora of extreme suspension of disbelief elements in contrast to the world building they had established were thrown in. Although we got brief hints of the story at the beginning from her grandpa and that one prisoner but it felt like it won't address these points until the last few episodes and that turned out to be true. Although I enjoyed the first 5 episodes but the rest were just disappointing.

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Medical doctors shift between past and future to become better people.

"Live Up To Your Name" is a concoction of genres by the fine alchemists at TVn, proposing to you the following scenario: what if a historical figure of traditional Korean medicine - Heo Im - managed to time travel to 21st Century South Korea? What would he do? Since scholars in Joseon kept no record of other prominent time travellers ("Queen in Hyun's Man" and "Faith"), we as viewers are once again regaled with the nowadays uncommon drama story of a proficient figure trying to work out what a television is, or why carriages somehow go extremely fast without any horses pulling them.

Uniting both humour, time travel, and romance aspects of the story is the medical theme: "Live Up To Your Name" presents a sensationalist clash between hard boiled rational medical science against traditional Korean medicine in form of acupuncture. To a certain extent it conforms to contemporary tendencies of displaying distrust towards medical science for various reasons (in most cases unsubstantiated) and looking to alternative medicine as a solution. This becomes the focus point in the starting rivalry between the lead characters, Dr. Heo Im and Choi Yeon Kyung, as they act as representatives of both worlds. This rivalry slowly but steadily progresses into a dynamic relationship with complicated feelings getting entangled and their personal growth taking turns at improving. While some episodes act as filler and may stall the main plot, I can't say I felt this was an annoying impediment as pacing quickly jumped back into action. Perhaps more disappointing is the ending itself not because of how it ends but rather the time that is dedicated to it -- not enough in my opinion.

On the acting department Kim Nam Gil and Kim Ah Joong are remarkable in their performance as the leading actors, as well as the remaining main cast and support roles. Special shout out to Choi Chun Sool for playing a loveable yet extraordinarily grumpy grandfather. The lead actors clearly put a lot of effort into their characters, and there is an undeniable chemistry with a few spicy scenes that may result in a feverish state that may require medical assistance or acupuncture.

The weakest part of "Live Up To Your Name" is its soundtrack as it offers nothing out of the ordinary and it's mostly unnoticeable. I personally found the intro song out of touch with the story itself and rather rough on the ear but I am sure other viewers will appreciate the rough rock intro.

Does it have re-watch value? With 16 episodes, each 60 minutes long, I would say it depends heavily on the viewer and how good their memory is. "Live Up to Your Name" is a peculiar blend of genres set on entertaining you with the old world versus the new world of medicine in mind and while the leading characters cement this story and provide you with several hours of entertainment, once you are done with Heo Im and Choi Yeon Kyung a return trip won't be happening any time soon.

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one of the best drama! artists portray their role according to the story, you can feel the pain,happiness and love while watching it.With their love of their profession and their respect for other talents, these bighearted doctors make for a warmly gratifying series to watch. it is gem that need to be found.the roller coaster rides of emotions and a lots of twist and turns of events made this series great.Finally, I love how in this film just when everything seems to finally be going right, it can turn around in an instant. Without giving too much away, there are so many times where you think that heo Im  is finally going to make a good impression but then ends up messing up all over again, sending you into inevitable fits of laughter.  it is a rarity to see an actor who cries very well to express the pain and disappointment brought about by a certain scenario  and heo Im kills it,

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Well I recently completed this drama and will keep it short. As far as the story and plot is concerned this is an amazing drama. Both the main leads of the drama acted well. Wasn't expecting such comic role from Kim nam Gil but he was really great in playing his role as Dr. Heo Im. He was able to transform from good guy to bad and bad to guy very smoothly. He was hilarious at times and even made my heart pound with his chemistry with the female lead.
Tbh i did not like the female lead Kim ah Joon in the start. She seemed to have a cold and sly personality from her look. But as the drama proceeded I loved her acting more. Watching the drma it seems that she took her role very seriously and her relationship with Dr. Heo Im was very touching. Their chemistry will make you cry, love and adore them so much that it will make your heart flutter.
The plot of the drama first started with time travelling but the way both the characters supported each other to build and evolve into a better person was appreciable, i.e. how Dr. Heo Im character changes from a greedy to a selfless person and Yeon Kyung character evolved from a cold hearted person to someone who was empathic towards her patients.  
And the best part of he drama is that despite all the time travel b/w the Josean era and the modern Seoul it had a HAPPY ENDING!

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Loves this drama so much

Been wanting to watch this drama for so long and am so glad I could finally finish watching this. Not just because of Kim Namgil but also because the drama's focusing on Heo Im. Like there's lots of dramas that had a different take on Heo Jun but this one's had Heo Jun as support role.

That said, I like the concept of the drama since this is like the opposite of the theme from JIN (or Dr Jin for the Korean adaptation) so that's an interesting pov. Love the focus on oriental medicine versus modern medicine as you see from the clash between Heo Im and Yeongyeong, where the two eventuality ended up learning about each other and how different their two worlds was.

Kim Namgil as Heo Im was quite an endearing character with his silly and serious side. Not to mention how his path became twisted along the way and after meeting Yeongyeong he started on a journey to recover his true self as a doctor.

I love the fact that the drama not only just focusing on Heo Im, but also Yeongyeong and all the other people around them. And how as both Heo Im and Yeongyeong started learning about each other and became better doctors because of it, and that their changes also affect the people around them as the rest of them also try to be the better versions of themselves. And I love how from beginning to the end the drama continued to remind ourselves to 'live up to our names'.

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Outstanding!

Normally dislike flashbacks and going back in time dramas but this was a well written, believable story. Love 16 episode dramas that don't try to extend the story with too many plots, sub plots and lengthy, wasted dialogue! Current medical and old oriental medical practices was well depicted, entwined with bouts of slapstick comedy and heart wrenching tragedies. Actors well casted, ML and FL had great chemistry! The interesting storyline flowed well and kept me anxious for the ending! Not spoilers but be cautious of several scenes of almost realistic operations and acupuncture! After watching several vengeful, silly, jealousy gone wild with loud non-stop argumentative dramas, this was very refreshing !!!

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This drama was enjoyable from the beginning to end. The characters each grew in many ways through the course of the “crazy destiny” of Heo Im.

The side characters, especially the children, effect the two main leads in their growth in love and in personality.

This is not Faith, nor is it like Queen In Hyun’s Man, but it does have some of the same situations that any time travel show will have.

The music fit the mood throughout and was neither overbearing or under utilized.

It’s too bad we won’t get to see the story teased at the very end of the last episode, after the credits!

Enjoy your marathon!

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Although the story's idea seemed consumed but i thought it was promising
at the beginning i liked, starting from ep 07 i began to lose my interest

the ML many times seemed clumsy and idiot and this was too weird for someone lived in Joseon age
which was a savage time
and a famous cunning doctor like him should have very strong character to know how to deal with greedy nobles at this period
but the contrary happened i saw him weak which i couldn't accept

the romance wasn't great i saw it lukewarm in a weird way
the goodbye between them was cold and when they met again was too cold also for someone who didn't see his love for months

starting from ep 12 every thing was repetitive for me
the reason behind travelling in time was weak

and what i was questioning about a lot was
every time we saw the ML got killed if he was hugging someone this person traveled in time with him
so how he rescued his assistant at the last scene and he traveled alone

i didn't see any character development by the way especially for the ML
only he finds his right way to pursue

this is the first drama ever none of the characters affected me
may be (Lee Jae Won) the FL's colleague
his role was cute

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Leve

Se você procura um drama tranquilo, divertido algo para descansar sua mente então esse drama é para você. Eu realmente me diverti assistindo esse show , confesso que o protagonista masculino foi a razão pela qual vim assistir o drama , mas não me decepcionei com o resto do elenco, os personagens eram agradáveis e simpáticos até os vilões não eram tão irritantes .

Embora nem tudo foi flores , teve momentos que achei bem arrastado e cansativo de assistir , mas teve muitas partes divertidas e fofas e a química do casal principal era ótima.

Em fim se você não tiver muitas expectativas e quer algo fresco eu recomendo sim esse drama.

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