Cette critique peut contenir des spoilers
Slice of Life of Entertainment Management and Public Relations with heartwarming romance
9.5/10 is my rating. This is a 2022 South Korean Romantic Comedy with 16, 60 minute episodes.
Most synopsis undersell the complexity of this series. I will give a synopsis first and review in the next paragraph. It is a slice of life of an entertainment agency and exhibits the trials and tribulations of doing public relations and managements for top talent in South Korea. Threaded through is a love story between the agency's top star, Gong Tae-sung (Kim Young-dae) and the agency's most diverse and talented public relations lead Oh Han-byul (Lee Sung-kyung) who also oversees most all functions of the agency. She can solve most crises except when Tae-sung deliberately creates situations to "one up" the girl he used to be a campus couple with, still harbors feelings for, yet wants to pay back for not giving him the level of attention he feels he deserves. Lots of comedic situations, a great lens on this portion of the entertainment industry, great chemistry between the leads, and interactions among friends.
The title of this one is amusing because in English asterisks and other special characters are used to block out letters in curse words. So this title reads quite different for me in my auto correct mind and probably does for many others who American English is their primary language. But, as it turns out, I think this was intentional because, at one point, one of the characters says their job is cleaning up the stars sh**t. So maybe the title is intentional.
Honestly most of the summaries of the plot I read for this failed to do justice to how interesting this is in terms of insight into an entertainment agency. I found myself greatly sympathizing with the managers who had to do the craziest things to appease the stars they managed and they way they emoted along with their various acting talents. For instance, if one of the stars was in a tragic drama, the manager often mirrored the emotional highs and lows of the actor they managed. I liked the playful nature of the relationship between the leads and how they were always trying to get one over on each other which made for a lot of comedic moments. I was disappointed that Lee Jung-Shin was not the lead instead he played entertainment company lawyer Do Soo-Hyeok. Since he is an idol I thought this would be the time he would get a lead role and I am still anxious to see him in a high profile lead role as I have enjoyed watching him so much. He was one of my favorite characters in "Cinderella and the Four Nights" and I thought he would make a great male lead as he played that very emotional role very well. Still Kim Young-dae did such an excellent job it would be hard to complain about his performance. I found his transformation from every day to his acting and modeling look to be quite dramatic. A slight change in hair and some makeup and he went from boy next door handsome to sizzling hot super star. I absolutely loved the way Kim Young-dae played the role. He was so cute in his relationship with her. I could not imagine anyone playing that role better than he did. And, it turned out, the Do Soo-Hyeok character had a very heart warming romance with the female leads friend. I just wished that one had a bit more time and they hadn't spent as much time having Soo-hyeok pine after our female lead as part of that love triangle. He was so much better suited for the reporter friend. There was a romance between two young actors who started out hating each other and fell in love but had to hide it because they both were not long from their debut. That was interesting. The one I could not buy nor care much about was the romance between the female lead's other friend, the relatively new manager, and her sunbae. To me it was an awkward relationship where she seemed like, and he treated her like, more of a younger sister. So I never got the chemistry from them and it felt like a waste of time everytime it switched to their story. I liked both of their roles individually but did not feel anything for them as a couple. So, that and just the fact that practically everyone wound up together with someone detracted from this being perfect. Other than that, I loved everything about it. I liked how they showed the complexity of covering all of the scandals, the pressure on both the agency and the actors, and the tough decision to focus either on love or career when you can't fully have both. Most movies about "idols" or actors falling in love, particularly with normal, non-famous people, it winds up either they have to quit pursuing fame or the romance does not work out. I liked that this showed it doesn't always have to be the case. I know with American actors there are some really long standing Hollywood couples and often those really long relationships are between someone who is famous and someone who is not. There are a couple of exceptions where both are famous but, for the most part, it seems to work out better when one is not famous. I have noticed in real life, with South Korean, there seems to be more forgiveness when it is an actor that winds up with someone not famous than if it is an idol. There is some hope that is changing but there still seems to be less scandal and problems if an actor dates outside of the famous circles than if an "idol" does so. I also found it interesting that his kiss scene was a thing where he had to emphasize that was work. I know with American actors I notice that, when the famous person has a serious relationship with someone, particularly someone that is not famous, they quit taking romantic roles. I just think that few relationships can survive one of the partners having that kind of intimacy even if it is just for work. I can even think of an instance, with one Hollywood couple, where an onscreen romance wound up ending a real life marriage. But they did not elaborate that angle as to whether or not he would continue to take lead romantic roles. Overall I loved this one and highly recommend it to anyone that likes romance, slice of life, or follows any of these actors. I would watch it again as I einjoyed it immensely.
Most synopsis undersell the complexity of this series. I will give a synopsis first and review in the next paragraph. It is a slice of life of an entertainment agency and exhibits the trials and tribulations of doing public relations and managements for top talent in South Korea. Threaded through is a love story between the agency's top star, Gong Tae-sung (Kim Young-dae) and the agency's most diverse and talented public relations lead Oh Han-byul (Lee Sung-kyung) who also oversees most all functions of the agency. She can solve most crises except when Tae-sung deliberately creates situations to "one up" the girl he used to be a campus couple with, still harbors feelings for, yet wants to pay back for not giving him the level of attention he feels he deserves. Lots of comedic situations, a great lens on this portion of the entertainment industry, great chemistry between the leads, and interactions among friends.
The title of this one is amusing because in English asterisks and other special characters are used to block out letters in curse words. So this title reads quite different for me in my auto correct mind and probably does for many others who American English is their primary language. But, as it turns out, I think this was intentional because, at one point, one of the characters says their job is cleaning up the stars sh**t. So maybe the title is intentional.
Honestly most of the summaries of the plot I read for this failed to do justice to how interesting this is in terms of insight into an entertainment agency. I found myself greatly sympathizing with the managers who had to do the craziest things to appease the stars they managed and they way they emoted along with their various acting talents. For instance, if one of the stars was in a tragic drama, the manager often mirrored the emotional highs and lows of the actor they managed. I liked the playful nature of the relationship between the leads and how they were always trying to get one over on each other which made for a lot of comedic moments. I was disappointed that Lee Jung-Shin was not the lead instead he played entertainment company lawyer Do Soo-Hyeok. Since he is an idol I thought this would be the time he would get a lead role and I am still anxious to see him in a high profile lead role as I have enjoyed watching him so much. He was one of my favorite characters in "Cinderella and the Four Nights" and I thought he would make a great male lead as he played that very emotional role very well. Still Kim Young-dae did such an excellent job it would be hard to complain about his performance. I found his transformation from every day to his acting and modeling look to be quite dramatic. A slight change in hair and some makeup and he went from boy next door handsome to sizzling hot super star. I absolutely loved the way Kim Young-dae played the role. He was so cute in his relationship with her. I could not imagine anyone playing that role better than he did. And, it turned out, the Do Soo-Hyeok character had a very heart warming romance with the female leads friend. I just wished that one had a bit more time and they hadn't spent as much time having Soo-hyeok pine after our female lead as part of that love triangle. He was so much better suited for the reporter friend. There was a romance between two young actors who started out hating each other and fell in love but had to hide it because they both were not long from their debut. That was interesting. The one I could not buy nor care much about was the romance between the female lead's other friend, the relatively new manager, and her sunbae. To me it was an awkward relationship where she seemed like, and he treated her like, more of a younger sister. So I never got the chemistry from them and it felt like a waste of time everytime it switched to their story. I liked both of their roles individually but did not feel anything for them as a couple. So, that and just the fact that practically everyone wound up together with someone detracted from this being perfect. Other than that, I loved everything about it. I liked how they showed the complexity of covering all of the scandals, the pressure on both the agency and the actors, and the tough decision to focus either on love or career when you can't fully have both. Most movies about "idols" or actors falling in love, particularly with normal, non-famous people, it winds up either they have to quit pursuing fame or the romance does not work out. I liked that this showed it doesn't always have to be the case. I know with American actors there are some really long standing Hollywood couples and often those really long relationships are between someone who is famous and someone who is not. There are a couple of exceptions where both are famous but, for the most part, it seems to work out better when one is not famous. I have noticed in real life, with South Korean, there seems to be more forgiveness when it is an actor that winds up with someone not famous than if it is an idol. There is some hope that is changing but there still seems to be less scandal and problems if an actor dates outside of the famous circles than if an "idol" does so. I also found it interesting that his kiss scene was a thing where he had to emphasize that was work. I know with American actors I notice that, when the famous person has a serious relationship with someone, particularly someone that is not famous, they quit taking romantic roles. I just think that few relationships can survive one of the partners having that kind of intimacy even if it is just for work. I can even think of an instance, with one Hollywood couple, where an onscreen romance wound up ending a real life marriage. But they did not elaborate that angle as to whether or not he would continue to take lead romantic roles. Overall I loved this one and highly recommend it to anyone that likes romance, slice of life, or follows any of these actors. I would watch it again as I einjoyed it immensely.
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