Autumn Concerto/Next Stop, Happiness

I really had high hopes for this one. Given its high ratings, I expected to see an endearing love story that can truly touch the heart.

Turned out, it’s a real drag. At least so far.

If you’ve been a fan of Korean dramas, and have seen Save Your Last Dancer for Me, Full House, Wonderful Life and Winter Sonata, well, then this one will strike you as an odd hybrid of all these dramas. It’s like putting Shrek, Nemo, Garfield and Cinderella into one pot and then churn out a Shnegarella.


As for the two leads, credits must be given to them for making a great effort to be the character. We see convincing acting from both of them. However, the chemistry is just missing. The physical tension is just not there. At least for me. I've seem a good number of on-screen couples with sizzling chemistry that can completely sweep the audience off feet. Those couples can really make your stomach churn and your heart ach for them. This is just not such a couple. When they cried their hearts out for each other, the only emotion I had was annoyance that I had to resist the urge to pick up the remote and fast-forward the scene. However, I might be a stand-alone oddball because rumor has it that thousands of fans are so touched by their “connection” that they have voiced their great desire for the two leads to get together. In real life.

Blah.

Well, maybe the reason is the actress has never worked for me. And the “Mu-Chen” type of damsel-in-distress role just absolutely gets on my nerves. I must have tried to watch Choi Jiwoo in Winter Sonata 100 times and yet I still have not been able to get through episode 5 (I absolutely adored her as Lee Mari in Star's Lover though). Seriously, this is 2010 for God’s sake. If you get beaten, you kick back. Tears and keeping quiet so the antagonists can stab your back are just so 1990.

Vanness is fine except he really needs to work on his Chinese pronunciation. I think the supporting male and female leads did a great job here. I ended up liking them more than the main leads.

YET, the crown jewel of this drama is him:

This little guy managed to make me cry for almost every other scene he’s in. The tearjearker and the cutest boy EVER!