A Gentleman's Dignity (2012)

I probably should give this drama a 9/10 but I think it wouldn't be right. Not because it was not good or something, but because my feeling tells me that I would overrate it if I gave it a 9 or even a 10.

This drama was definitely one of the most enjoyable dramas I have watched and I honestly have to say that it's been a long time that I felt so good about a drama. I had to love very often because the characters were just amazing and funny and lovable and I just had to root for them. I fangirled so much during watching this drama.
The best thing about it is definitely the bromance. But I am generally speaking a sucker for bromance. I enjoy watching dramas with bromance more than romance. This kind of brotherly romance is just so sincere and honest that you can't help but love it. Especially since the person's involved are all men over the age of 40 who are behaving like teenage boys in the bodies of grown-up men.

I don't know what to say right now. I am still high from watching this drama and I just can't describe with words how much I liked it. Moreover I am probably not objective because this last episode was just amazing and I am still not over it. So if you want to know if this is your cup of tea or not I recommend you to watch this and judge for yourselves. have a good time!

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Okay, so you know how when you are watching some dramas and there are so many parts that you skip through and at the end you are like okay i should have stopped at episode 5 and skipped to the end???

Well this is so not it. I swear i watched every last second of this drama because it was so good. You forget that these are men in their 40's and you just fall in love with all of them and the whole cast. It was so funny and at the same time there were some serious parts too. While watching this i dont know what it is but you feel the emotions of all the characters. May be i was too invested in it or it was just that good. I would definitely re-watch this and if i can i totally have to own a copy of it.

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??? WATCH IT.......IT IS TOTALLY WORTH IT. BEST DRAMA CHOICE I MADE THIS WEE. (and yes i am yelling cos it's that good....lol)

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I’m not sure why this drama is rated so high, its not fantastic, its just all right. Contrary to usual reviews…this is mine.


Story:::7/10
Story is of a typical playboy trying to get with a girl who he starts to fall in love with. However, the story also revolves around his other three friends as well and their love lives. There isn’t anything fantastic about the story. Its just that these guys are older, and that is always a factor that is brought up in the plot. Story development is enjoyable, kind of drags along. I didn’t watch this in one sitting, I ended up watching this drama over 2 weeks..which is a really long time to finish a drama for me. However, that being said, this story is not at all a let-down. It really makes you laugh out loud at some points which is a really surprising. I haven’t lolled in a drama for a while.

Characters/Acting::: 8/10
The characters are pretty awesome. The four guys when they’re together actually come across as four really close friends since highschool. These guys have solid acting. The ladies are pretty solid aswell. The main female lead is pretty awesome when she gets bummed out. Its pretty hilarious. There is a lot of female crying in this drama. Sorry, crying isn’t the right word..balling is probably more fitting. These women open their mouths and wail the wail of a thousand new widows in one sitting. Its frightening, because it is actually…. Legitimately being passed on to the viewer as a ‘sad moment’…how can it be sad, when their tears causes you to laugh?

Music:::7/10

Matched the mood, not good enough to add to my playlist though.

Rewatch? Wouldn’t…I never rewatch.

Overall:: 7/10

Lire davantage

Cultural and ethical confusion

This drama had so much potential. It was very funny in parts, the relationship between the 4 friends is awesome. Each of their love lives is also distinct.
The one stand out actor was the 24-year old sister who is in love with the older oppa, her brothers friend.

However the ethical dilemma seemed very hypocritical. It really killed the beauty of this drama.
As a global audience,not very familiar with the delicate nuances of Korean culture, I found it very hypocritical.

It's okay and acceptable if a young college girl in her twenties sleeps with a minimum of 4 men, best friends at that.
But it's not okay for a 40 year old single man, who has a son from a previous relationship, to date a 30 plus woman?
Because the society is going to label this 30 plus woman?? But is approving of young college women to indulge rampantly in sex?

This logic blew me. It killed the essence of the drama.

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Personally i watched it every night before i sleep to reward myself for studying for the exams. To me this drama is just nice: not too addictive, but not too boring. So despite the fact that i am a huge drama addict, i manage to contain those emotions. But it is light-hearted, topped up with a number of humorous and witty scenes which amuse you. Definitely a good drama which made me feel alot better after all the hectic studying.

The main highlight of the drama is how it can successfully incorporate humour and wit into the urban context. Period and supernatural dramas are the popular ones these days. The audience taste is getting greedier. However this drama manage to be on par with those supernatural dramas despite its urban context and the fact that its leads are not idols but actors and actresses in their 40s and 30s (other than Me Ahri and CNBlue's Jonghyun).

I like the prolouges more than the actual drama though, I find them more conhesive and I like how in those few minutes, the deep friendship between the F44 and their thoughts of being in their 40s can be conveyed. Every prolouge portrays something different, and i never get bored from them! I especially like the one where Yoon’s wife pass away. Not much lines needed, but simply….. touching. It really cringes my heart. Although I have always preferred comedic scenes, this touching prologue wins hands down.

I personally like Yoon and Me Ahri’s love story more than the other 3. If only more emphasis can be given to their love story, i would have enjoyed the drama alot more. I admit i got so impatient that i skipped other characters’ parts to watch Me Ahri and Yoon’s scenes. Maybe because their love story is the most interesting and the most hard-to-get one, since they have the age factor and most importantly, the 'friend vs love' problem between yoon and tae san. It is also rare for dramas to have such a unique couple, and their scenes are very fresh to me.

The OSTs for this drama are not as impressive as that of Secret Garden though. The pace is not concise enough too, I almost lost interest halfway through. But this drama makes me reflect alot more than SG about the urban issues and problems we face which are very prominent in our urban lifes, which made up for the loopholes. It may not be so 'fairytale' like many supernatural dramas, but because of this very reason it is very fresh to watch. It feels good to be realistic for awhile and take a break from 'fairytales', where we see handsome and pretty leads all day which satisfy our tastes.

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It has everything going for it albeit a wet cardboard of a female lead

A Gentleman’s Dignity sparks some conflicting feelings for me.

Let me first start with the positive . This is a very funny show. I literally laughed out loud in every episode and I can watch a comedy stone faced. The F40 are comical , immature but ironically enlightened. They know life is tough and for that reason ,they refused to grow up . So to remedy their dilemma - they each decided to live life as uncomplicated as they knew how but ironically invited in complication much to the comical amusement of the story.

The male cast is superb with Jang Dong Gun exquisite and dashing as always and Kim Min Jong adding just the right balance of somber yet funny. Special mention to Kim Su Ro with his physical performance which almost ended in a shout or tussle and Lee Jong Hyeok interpretation of Jung Rok left me in stitches 99.9% of the time. Their friendship was goals .Male cast was SOLID.

As for the ladies - oh dear ! I know bad acting , irritation , stiffness and just overall itchiness because I saw Kim Ha - Neul act as Yi Soo. Terrible . And her presence is the sole reason why A Gentleman’s Dignity does not score a 10/10 in my book. As for the other ladies Yoon Se - ah was vaguely commendabke if we are to be kind and Yoon Jin - yi was equally vaguely appreciated . Female cast was WEAK.

There’s also some some typical KDrama weary sadness spun in there that put me off a bit . Plus I had a tendency to drop it and come back after a while .Its so predictable so it doesn’t keep you on your feet but it’s a rare species in the K Drama field so that sort of made up for it.

BUT JANG DONG GUN SAVED THE SHOW.PERIOD,

Another reason why I rate it highly is because the ending is satisfying and touching . I was very happy for everyone that I did shed a tear.

The music was excellent and the story arches flowed quite naturally . The OST is actually one of my favorites to date.

As for rewatch value - conflictingly enough , the rewatch capital is quite strong. Just fast forward the Kim Na Heul when she’s by herself and one may be fine because this show was funny , stylish and cute.

Lire davantage

I've watched over over 50 dramas in the 8 years I've been watching them and by far A Gentleman's dignity is my favorite.

Honestly, there's so much to love about this drama. It's not overly tropey. The characters act their age most of the time. Misunderstandings aren't major plot points. It has some cheesy moments but what drama doesn't.

I equally love all the characters. They feel like real people going about their lives. They have flaws but what person doesn't.

I could go on for ages about what I love about this drama. But what it comes down to is that for it's the perfect drama. I've rewatched it several times and each time I find new things to love.

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Kim Eun Sook is a huge name in the kdrama industry. We could argue how well deserved that is or not. While I do think Goblin is still the best kdrama ever produced, I'm not sure if the script & more specifically the plot is why. With that said Gentleman's Dignity to me is by far the worst of her works I've seen so far. There are so many problems with the script that it's difficult to list them all & frankly this drama isn't really worth watching in 2023. (which I just did for the first time) You could argue that it's just dated & I'm looking at this with the wrong mindset, but then why do I find Secret Garden being so much better in every way imaginable despite being 2 years older?

Even if I ignore the miscellaneous problems with the plot, the base setting itself is already bleeding from multiple wounds. Out of the 4 male leads two of them are just the baddies, one of them -started out as- a womanizer & another just threw away her lover like a trash bag, because he has fallen in love with someone else. To me If I cannot empathize with the most important characters, then it will be difficult to enjoy any drama. (the other 3 try to help cover up the cheating as well, but then suddenly he is not really a cheater, because the writer decided to completely rewrite his personality to fit the plot direction)
There is also a lot of backward crap about Korean society that I always hated in kdramas.

I could even say this is basically the gutted version of a typical -bad- family drama. By gutted I mean most of the fluff is removed & there are no plotlines involving the elderly. However the whole shebang with a long lost first love & a mysterious high school kid returning home to Korea plot seems very typical.
Also what is Kim Woo Bin doing in this drama? Did they just cast him as eye candy & created a very random inconsequential role for him?

There are some reasonably funny moments, but overall the comedy is not very convincing.

(Much like Secret Garden this drama too has some really cool iconic outfits..)

So yes, I cannot recommend watching this, there are far better retro titles out there. Even the ancient My Girl from 2005 is a far more enjoyable drama than this.

Lire davantage

big fat piece of nothing, with the occasional sexist remarks

I am baffled with how this drama has such a high score here, let me explain

THE ROMANCE
The romance on the center is between an emotionally stunted manchild who fails to pull off eyeliner and a carbon copy of every naive virginal female lead who is Not Like Other Girls and suddenly becomes pretty by wearing heels.

THE BOYS
I see people praising the gang of men, four middle aged men who have nothing to do but critise women, cheat on them, negging a 20-year-old girl, and being typical uninspiring assholes.

THEY KNOCKED A GIRL UP
It has a 'plot twist' when kim woo bin's character is introduced, which is cliche and entirely predictable

THE ONLY PERSON WHO CAN ACT
i like kim ha neul even here , she is so charming that it almost makes it worth it. ALMOST. if you also like her i'd recommend 18 again, Blind and my personal favourite, Misbehavior

ENDING REMARKS
i'm taking into consideration the year it was released, so i'm giving it some slack. but really, don't waste your time on this polished turd when there are dozens of unique and inspiring kdramas out there

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