A Thousand Kisses
Just wanted to put a warning for this drama, because I was one of those who were fooled to watch this drama but in the end having nothing but disgust and regret for wasting my time.
I watched it because I liked Ji Hyun Woo in Queen Inhyun's Man (now that drama is a must see), so I was eager to look up other dramas with him and was happy to find another drama he was starring in as a lead. In the beginning, the show was promising and you'll get hooked by the sweet lovestories about those two couples, Woo Bin and Joo Young, Woo Jin and Joo Mi, and you wanted to see how they would fight together and overcome all the obstacle along their path...
However, from about the middle of the drama, I started to lose respect for Woo Bin (Ji Hyun Woo's character), because... is he a man or not? Why can't he act like one then?
At first, he seemed to know what he wanted and didn't want to give up on his love with Joo Young, with a fighting-spirit all along, he seemed to be able to stand up for her - even though he could never tell his mother to shup up. T_T But then, after they broke up, he had to start dating his ex (who was this annoying, pushing hag) just because she was nagging him and he felt bad for her, but I understood it that he was disliking her during the whole drama because she had cheated on him back when they were dating years ago, so why did he give in now??? I wonder, why must he date and even prepare for marriage when he was still heartbroken and he didn't even like that bitch? He thought they had slept with each other when he was drunk, but what's the big deal? He made love to Joo Young and yet they broke their engagement, so why would he care so much about the ex-girlfriend, it's not like she was a virgin or something he had to take responsibility for...
Joo Young, also in the end, annoyed me to no end; she was really pathetic, never standing up for herself, always thinking she was worthless and no good, a door mat (but with some principles). The only one she would yell at was Woo Bin, but in front of others she was meak and could only take all the shit and afterwards she would hide and cry. At first, I felt sorry for her, but in the end, I just skipped all those crying scenes. Felt like she had brought that on herself sometimes. And of course she was the one who wanted to break up. A couple of times. It felt like he was the only one fighting, not only against all those who wanted them to separate, but also fighting to persuade her, to convince her to stay with him...
The intrigues was ridiculous (lost mother, now mother-in-law, parents history makes it impossible for the kids to be together - says who? It's only the parents and the elder generation in the drama who think it's a problem!) and not very engaging, most characters were annoying, some more annoying than others, for example the mothers and the sisters (to Woo Bin and Woo Jin). I can’t understand why they had to drag it out and fill the episodes with the same events and intrigues and dialogs over and over again (every time Joo Young was sad, Woo Bin would drive her to the harbour and then they sat in the car and talked and cried), and put in a lot of characters you don’t even care about, like Joo Young’s exhusband and his lovelife, like Woo Bin’s sister’s lovestory, I mean, who cares whom that annoying spoilt woman ends up with? I was hoping for her to have a change of attitude in the end, but why should I cheer for her and care about her lovestory when she was such an awful person?
But I guess the thing that turned me off most was still Woo Bin's characters downfall, when he started to be this gutless, pushover thing, when he couldn’t stand up for himself, never could raise his voice and tell his mother, his sister and that hag to ex-girlfriend what he thought and just tell them to cut it off. When he started to go out with the ex I stopped watching…
I tried to watch the ending though, hoping they would wrap the story up a bit in the end, but it was a sorry excuse.
The best thing in this drama was the little son, he was adorable. But sadly, you can’t enjoy a drama for just one character or even two or three. I had to root for Joo Mi and Woo Jin also, they were a really cute couple together.
If you ask me, I would give this drama a minus in rating, except for the first episodes. You're free to watch it of course, but don't say I didn't warn you. There are lots of other much better dramas to go by. Just saying.