• Welcome to Drama Land #1: ANDANTE

    ~ ANDANTE ~

     

    Welcome to Drama Land #1: ANDANTE

     

    ~ 16/20 ~

    TITLE: Andante

    COUNTRY: South Korea

    DIRECTOR: Park Gi Ho

    SCREENWRITER: Park Sun Ja, Kwon Ki Kyung

    GENRES: Comedy, Romance, Youth, Drama, Melodrama

    EPISODES: 16

    AIRED: September 24th, 2017 – January 7th, 2018

    ORIGINAL NETWORK: KBS1

    DURATION: 60 mins per episode

    WHERE TO WATCH: Kissasian, Dramacool

     

    Main Cast

    • Kim Jong-in (aka Kai from EXO) as Lee Shi Kyung
    • Lee Ye Hyun as Lee Shi Young
    • Kim Jin-Kyung as Kim Bom
    • Baek Chul Min as Park Ga Ram

    Supporting Cast

    • Jeon Mi-Seon as Oh Jung Won (Shi Kyung and Shi Young’s mother)
    • Seong Byeong Sook as Kim Deok Boon (Shi Kyung and Shi Young’s grandmother)

     

    Brief Resume

    Andante tells the story of a slacker city kid, Lee Shi Kyung, and his sister, Lee Shi Young, who are suddenly transferred to a high school in the countryside. They move out with their mother, Oh Jung Won, and end up living in their grandmother’s house, a grandmother who doesn’t seem to get along with her daughter-in-law and who’s reluctant in welcoming her and her two children in her house (but ends up doing it). While our two high schoolers have trouble adjusting to their strange new surroundings, they will be able to count on their new friends Park Ga Ram, the town’s golden boy, and a mysterious girl, Kim Bom. Together, they will understand the true meaning of life and love.

    The story itself is pretty down to earth with a lot of real issues being discussed such as illness and love in all its aspects. The romance is not too cheesy thanks to the unconventional character of Bom and the incredibly stupid but loving character of Shi Kyung. And as the story goes on, each character has its time to shine and we get to know more about everybody’s secret garden. If you you’re an adept of rom-com dramas, this one is for you.

    MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

    The new surroundings of our two high schoolers are, to say the least, strange. First thing Shi Kyoung notices when arriving to the countryside is a girl hanging on a tree branch. The action takes mainly place in the school where students lay down in their coffin, pretending to “rehearse” their funerals” and the hospice, where Shi Kyung’s mother will work as a caretaker. In this hospice are many ill people, and I like how we get to know their stories, how did they end up here, what are their relationships with their family and how some of them preferred to go through their illness alone not to make their loved ones suffer.

    The ending is predictable and expected. Bom loses her fight against brain cancer, Shi Kyung is devastated, but in the end, this happens in our everyday life. People die from cancer every day, and of course their loved ones are deeply affected. But life goes on. The only heartbreaking thing is that everybody had the time to prepare themselves as they knew about Bom's condition, but Bom died only two episodes after Shi Kyung found out.

     

    Diving deeper into the characters

    Lee Shi Kyung

    Kai’s character, Lee Shi Kyung, is a typical high schooler who doesn’t care about school and grades, but rather how to conquer the heart of that mysterious girl who tickled his curiosity. It’s really easy to get attached to him, maybe because he’s desperately trying to recall memories of his dead father, and maybe because even if he’s really clueless about real issues in life he still has a big heart and wants to help everyone starting from Bom.

    MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

    There’s this scene in episode 14 where Bom and Shi Kyung are eating together and Bom can’t grab her fork because her hand starts trembling. Shi Kyung doesn’t notice anything and she asks him to feed her while hiding her hand under the table. This almost made me cry. Shi Kyung can sometimes make you cringe and I know it can bother some people (I think of one scene in particular where after discovering Bom’s brain cancer, Shi Kyung runs to the school and starts screaming and throwing everything in the air but in such a cringy way), but it didn’t seem forced to me. I think it’s because Kai has this “funny side” of Shi Kyung in him. If he’s not on stage, Kai can be really shy and can goof around a lot so I think he embraced Shi Kyung’s role really well.

    Finally, his relationship with his mother is the typical relationship any son could have with his mother, as well as his relationship with his sister and his grandmother so this really adds to the realistic aspect of the drama.

    Kim Bom

    The first encounter the viewer has with Kim Bom in the drama is, to say the least, strange. Mysterious, secretive, and bad-ass are the adjectives that came to my mind during the first couple of episodes.

    MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

    But throughout the story we learn that her mother remarried after her father died and doesn’t seem to care about her, that her father died from brain cancer and that she has the same illness and will soon die. You may not like her at first, but in the end, you’ll understand that she’s just a girl who wants to live a life as normal as possible and as long as she can. Kim Jin-kyung (the actress playing the role of Kim Bom) surprised me with her acting skills. Her acting was really credible and she was really in control of her emotions. Whenever she felt sad, I’d feel sad too. Whenever she laughed, I’d laugh too. Whenever she felt lonely, I’d feel lonely too. That’s the power of good acting.

    Shi Young and Ga ram

    Shi Young and Ga ram had their own love story in parallel which I found refreshing. We would escape from Bom’s and Shi Kyung’s touching but heavy relationship and spend some refreshing time with those two.

    MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

    One scene I loved is where Ga ram and Shi Young went to the library after a bicycle lesson for Shi Young and found a lunch box on Shi Young’s seat. It was obviously prepared by Ga Ram and Shi Young was there like “my mother isn’t the type to prepare a lunch box for me”. It’s a small detail but that’s what makes the drama refreshing. And they also each fulfilled the roles of Shi Kyung’s and Bom’s best friends perfectly. In the last four episodes Bom’s condition worsens and she has a seizure in Shi Kyung’s house. She runs to a room and collapses in front of Shi Kyung’s mother who has been taking care of her at the hospice. Shi Young arrives at the scene and her mother tells her to close the door and keep an eye on her brother who still doesn’t know about Bom’s brain cancer. I will always remember the sadness in her eyes to see her friend like this, but most of all to hide everything to her brother.

    Shi Kyung's and Shi Young's mother

    I think this character is my favourite one after Shi Kyung. Not only she was Shi Kyung and Shi Young's mother, but she acted like Bom's mother once she found out her biological mother didn't really care about her. Yes, she was harsh on Shi Kyung because he wasn't the perfect student and because she wanted him to be a bit more like his sister (even the school's supervisor asked Shi Kyung if he really was Shi Young's brother because they were totally different personality-wise but especially grade-wise), but any other mother would've acted like this. She protected him like she could until the end. 

    MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

    There was a scene that particularly touched me in episode 14 where she was talking to Bom's mother about Bom's cancer. She said "I contacted you because you're a fellow mother. I thought you would be heartbroken if you found out after Bom passed away. Now having met you I see I was worried for nothing. Until the last moment of Bom's life, I'll be the one to protect her." The words of a true mother.

    The actress, Jeon Mi-Seon, unfortunately passed away last year due to suicide (she appeared in many popular dramas like Chicago Typewriter, Reply 1988, School 2015 and He is psychometric).

     

    My personal opinion

    I knew about this drama because of Jong-in (aka Kai from EXO) since EXO was, alongside BTS, one of the first Kpop groups I got into. At first I thought it was an excellent dramas without any major flaws to it because I didn't have much experience with Korean Dramas and Asian Dramas in general. But looking back, I think I might have wanted to skip some details. They would sometimes add so many side stories of ill people who were in the hospice that it would make you lose interest and want to go back to the main story. Those side stories might add some “emotional moments” but at the end of the day they would all, more or less, convey the same message.

    MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

    I would’ve also wanted to see more of Bom’s mother. When Shi Kyung’s mother meets with Kim Bom’s mother to tell her about her daughter’s illness, Bom’s mother replies saying that she did everything she could for her but that she reminded her of her lost teen age days because she got pregnant with Bom and married a man she didn’t love. I wanted to see more of her life now and to judge by myself if she was taking that much care of Bom or if she was just living her life as if she didn’t exist.

    Overall, even if the budget didn't seem very consequent, it is a drama that shines through its characters and its storyline despite the lack of complexness. If you just got into Kdramas I highly recommend it to you, and if you have some experience you might get bored but you should still watch it (in my opinion).

    Take care, and I'll see you all soon!

    Love, Swan

     

    Sources: Mydramalist, Wikipedia
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