KDRAMALOVE KOREAN DRAMA REVIEWS



Everyday Loves

One of the best Korean web dramas I've seen since I first started watching K-dramas in 2006, Everyday Loves (2017) surprised me on many levels. I was expecting a typical people-in-their-twenties romantic melodrama with touches of comedy flaring up occasionally to lighten the mood of the story, but the script turned out to have a bit more depth to it than most web K-dramas.

I also fell in love with the lead actress Lim Do Yoon, who had such a strong resemblance to far more well-known actress Park Min Young (from I'll Go To You When The Weather Is Nice, 2020), that I kept shaking my head in disbelief! She even sounded like her! It was uncanny! And then in episode one there was a moment when I ROARED with laughter when the subtitle in this 2017 show turned out to be a premonition for Park Min Young's romantic drama in 2020 that I had loved so much! (Someone in Korea please put them in a drama together playing sisters!).

Production values were very savvy in this drama. Action took place in a middle-class city area. None of the characters were rich so - what a relief! - they didn't dress like they had money, they didn't act like they had money, they didn't pretend that they had money. (That's one of the reasons I was so impressed with the very first K-drama I ever watched in 2006, I'm Sorry, I Love You - because the characters who were poor dressed like they were poor, they didn't carry the latest cell phones, they lived in drab apartments or in basements and they slept on the floor because they couldn't afford beds). Similar realism applied here in Everyday Loves, and it was SO refreshing! Their surroundings were rather drab, but their emotional and intellectual lives weren't! (I can't stand the shows where poor characters dress and act like they're millionaires, with the latest cell phones costing over a thousand dollars and driving sports cars they couldn't possibly afford. Puh-lease!)

When this drama ended in ten short episodes, I wanted more. I didn't want to say goodbye. (Always the best sign that a drama has "hit the right spot" in your heart).

The Story:

Pretty and perky Jung Jin (Lim Do Yoon) resigns from the small publishing company she had worked in for three years with her fiance, after he suddenly dumped her because he claimed his mother didn't like her and didn't want her to marry him. She says goodbye to her best girl friend at the company and leaves with a box full of personal belongings, feeling all too pathetic and sad. Now she has to find a new job, but it won't be easy, and she knows money will be tight for her for awhile; she'll have to live on cheap ramen and soju for the time being. Getting tipsy on occasion helps to lessen her pain, and she has several crying sessions to help relieve stress. Thankfully a nearby convenience store sells these food and drink items at a discount and she shows up there several times a day to get the items she needs, living on her savings.

At the same time we meet a 27 year old man, an artist, who has been struggling financially, for various reasons, and he takes a job at this convenience store. His name is Hyun Sung (Jeong In Tae, who had a rather strange resemblance to the more experienced, famous actor Choi Jin Hyuk when he was young and starting out as an actor). He lives in the same neighborhood too, with his best friend (Wong Seong Yeon).

One day Jung Jin shows up at the store wearing big round glasses, which shakes up Hyun Sung behind the counter because, we find out later, he had a girlfriend who had died in a car crash and she had worn big round glasses too. The two of them keep running into each other at the convenience store, and in the neighborhood in general, and he slowly begins to care about her welfare; he can see she is unhappy, even though she puts on a brave front. She starts to like the attention he gives to her, and a tentative friendship between them begins.

One day Hyun Sung even follows her and sees her have a meeting with her ex-boyfriend. The jerk gives her his ring and says he is newly engaged to someone and doesn't need it anymore. He insists she not come to his wedding because it would be embarrassing (as if she would want to anyway, full of himself, wasn't he?!). Jung Jin is in despair again. On the rebound, this plucky girl decides to buy a bicycle, so she can get some exercise, since it's supposedly good for helping with fighting depression. She goes out to a nearby park in order to practice her cycling - she has never learned to ride a bike before, and she's afraid! She happens to meet Hyun Sung there, and he decides to teach her how to ride the bike. This brings them even closer and they start to feel joy in their lives again - but will it last? Hyun Sung has a young girl following him who has a big crush on him (Kim Ro Eun), and she determines to break this new couple up, even though Hyun Sung had tried to gently discourage her from liking him for a long, long time.

Watching The Ex-Boyfriend Hurt Her Again

So here we have a hurting woman, Jung Jin, who was dumped by someone she loved. We also have Hyun Sung, who tragically lost someone he loved. Does he only care for Jung Jin because she reminds him of his dead love? Will they be able to put all their former misery into the past, and fall in love again? Or does shady fate have other plans for their lives?

If you like a beautiful slow-growing romance with a lot of intensity then this web drama, Everyday Loves, is one you should not miss. I'm definitely going to be watching it again someday. I cannot believe the lead actress isn't a Star. She is fabulous! Enjoy!

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