Melo Movie || Kdrama Review

Is it just me or are most of the Kdramas not making a mark nowadays?

I got tired of rewatching old Kdramas that I like and opened Netflix hoping that I'd see a new Kdrama that might be a good one. I saw the poster for Melo Movie and clicked on it, without even reading about it. Maybe I should have because Melo Movie disappointed me so much.

There are many reviews that praise this Kdrama because of the "refreshing" view or portrayal of grief. However, I didn't enjoy any of that. It has to be shown well for me to enjoy it.

what is Melo Movie about?

To me, term "Melo" refers to "Melodrama" but it turns out that in South Korea, they use it to refer to love stories. Hence, this Kdrama is a love story. The title also refers to the setting of the Kdrama, which is the movie-making industry.

Ko Gyeom loves movies and wants to be in the film industry. He has watched pretty much every movie and has big opinions on what works and what doesn't. The only thing he loves more than movies is his brother, whom he looks up to and worships as if he's god. Gyeom is charming, bright, and an extrovert. People around him can't help getting caught in his influence because he seems to light up every room he steps into and easily becomes friends with everyone.

Kim Mu-bee's name is a play on the Korean pronunciation of the word "movie", setting her destiny to be among movies. Her dad was passionate about movies like Ko Gyeom and often prioritized his work over Mu-bee. After he passes away due to overworking, she wants to prove that one can succeed in the industry without overworking themselves. She likes being alone and is a bit rude to anyone who tries to get close to her.

Gyeom and Mu-bee just begin dating when Gyeom suddenly disappears. They reconnect years later as changed people with careers that work against each other. Although they try to fight it, they're still drawn to each other. However, to make their relationship work, they'll have to face their demons and past.

Other than the above 2, there's a second storyline between Gyeom's high school friends who break up after 7 years. They reconnect around the same time as Gyeom and Mu-bee. This is another second-chance love story where they have still want to be in love but might just have to accept that they don't work together.

Melo Movie is supposed to be a fun yet emotional story about people chasing their ambitions, falling in love, reunion romances, and facing hard truths.

my review

I didn't like a single aspect of this Kdrama. Believe me, I tried to think of anything that I liked enough to mention it even as a footnote but nothing came to mind. This review might have spoilers, I suggest you read it anyway because I don't think you should watch the show.

the characters

We have got to talk about the characters first. They're the source of most of the problems.

Kim Mu-bee's dad is her only personality. I expected main characters to have layers. They should have a big defining characteristic (if not more) and multiple small things. There should be a mix of happy and sad things. However, Kim Mu-bee had only one characteristic.

There's daddy issues. Then there's Kim Mu-bee Everything, every single thing, that she does relates back to how he prioritized films over her. Her career choice, her social choices, and even why she avoid relationships—they all lead back to her father. Nothing she did or thought was due to something else. She didn't have any passions. She's in the film industry out of spite but even her spite didn't come through well.

At the end of the Kdrama, Kim Mu-bee addresses how she has always seen her father and didn't realize that she had a mother too. See, that would have been really good character development if she also had something else in her life, even if she found it after that realisation. Maybe she's finally passionate about films or she learns of something that can replace her spite for her father. But there was nothing.

Honestly, if you remove her issues with her father, there's nothing to Kim Mu-bee. When it was revealed that she became a successful film director after a time jump, I did not believe it. It didn't seem possible! She has no opinions and suddenly, she knows what it takes to make a great film? She's not even social. Is it really believable that a young woman who is rude to everyone and has no friends becomes a director in five years? As a 20 or 30-something year old? Please.

Here's the thing: maybe there are more layers to her. Maybe she does have great opinions and knows how to make films. But we don't see it! It's not even alluded to in dialogue. Absolutely no one praises her or even notices her beyond when she's in front of them. How did she become a director? Doesn't making a film for the first time, especially as a woman, require a lot of ambition and drive? She doesn't have either.

In fact, the drama specifically poses this problem to her. The investor for her second film backs out and suddenly she has no funds, so she quits. Just like that. People push her to fight for it and one person even says that if she wants to make it in the film industry, she has to fight to tell her stories. Someone please tell me how she did not have any issue making her first movie that we see her overcoming first hurdle for her second film.

We got soo many flashbacks where she feels abandoned by her father, even if he is with her. It is repetitive, but I understand that a point is being made. However, after half of the episodes, why are we still seeing it? Move on! Show her character development! Show anything else about her! She had NO defining moment in the drama (they tried one but it didn't land).

Mu-bee would have been a great character if more about her was shown on screen. Instead, everything that doesn't relate to her issues with her father is not mentioned.

There were many things in the plot that could have been used. Her becoming a director and learning from mistakes. Her looking up to another female director. Her having multiple mentors. There were useful things in the plot but they weren't used well.

I've seen Park Bo-young in other dramas. Her best role was in Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, because the story and directing took advantage of everything the actress has to offer. This role as Kim Mu-bee required nothing.

Ko Gyeom is a better character. He is a more fleshed-out character. He is charming and friendly. He is passionate about movies and loves them so much that he wants to be a part of the industry. He initially tries acting but it doesn't work out and he later becomes a film critic. His love for movies is his big thing.

Other than movies, his life is made up of his brother. He loves his brother. Gyeom lowkey worships the ground his brother walks on and never misses a movie-night session with him. When his brother got into an accident that leaves him disabled, Gyeom forgets everything else (including Mu-bee) and takes care of his brother.

There's more depth to Gyeom. We later learn that he's always cheery and smiling because if he doesn't, he might crumble. He sometimes stays happy to keep his brother Jun happy, who literally lives only for Gyeom. When he has to confront a horrible truth bout Jun, his life shatters and he has to learn to pick himself back up.

Gyeom's character development is good. However. Gyeom's brother Jun's only purpose is to add trauma/depth to Gyeom. Jun doesn't have anything else. I'm serious, that's how the character is written! He doesn't want to live and even tried to kill himself once (the accident that left him paralysed), but if he does live, it's only for Gyeom. Jun doesn't have any friends or anything else going in in his life. Everything Jun does is for Gyeom.

Adding a supporting character for main character's plot is taken to the next level by justifying that it is just how the supporting character is. Jun's personality plays along with the plot. He doesn't have any emotions, at all. He only shows emotion one time when Gyeom finally breaks down. There was nothing, absolutely nothing, to Jun. Why does he not want to live? Why does life not seem appealing to him? Why did he get to the point where Gyeom became the only thing holding him back? We don't know. "That's just how it is."

Jun was a boring character. I liked him in the beginning and even when we get to know his issues. However, there has got to be some depth. After a while, I became annoyed with him and his plot-line. Did he ever try to like life? Did he ever do anything? He never even stands up for himself. You would think that he tries harder to do better for Gyeom but apparently not. At least, we're not shown anything like that.

The secondary characters were super annoying. They had zero growth until maybe the last half an hour of the show. They kept doing the same things over and over that there wasn't a plot.

The secondary characters were Hong Si-jun and Son Ju-a, a couple who broke up after 7 years and reconnected five years after the break up to work together. Hong Si-jun always dreamed of becoming a successful anonymous musician and Ju-a mostly supported him by lowkey babying him. After they break up, Ju-a goes on to become a successful screenwriter while Si-jun is still stuck in his "temp" job with no progress on the music front.

From their break up until the last episode, the show kept doing a will-they-or-won't-they get back together dance. First of all, when they broke up, it came out of nowhere with no explanation. We got an explanation only near the end. Secondly, we don't know why they got together in the first place! They have NO CHEMISTRY. We find out their origin story in the last few episodes and it doesn't help us connect with them at all.

Si-jun pines after her while being jealous of her success. She likes him but doesn't like how he is as a boyfriend. They're forced to work together on a movie which brings many old things to light, but doesn't help the viewers care.

The secondary characters didn't have any depth either. All we know about Si-jun is that he is talented with music and wants to be a musician but has failed so far and his family doesn't support his passion. All we know about Son Ju-a is that she fangirled over Si-jun, broke up with him, and a story she wrote became a movie. The same aspects about them kept being shown.

We did not see Si-jun actually being passionate about music. We barely see Ju-a writing and we don't see her passion for it. We don't see why they stuck together for 7 years and the break up reason, although valid, wasn't shown in time or well enough.

If all scenes about these two got wiped from the drama, it would make no difference. In fact, it would have been more bearable. By the end, I got so fed up of just seeing their faces that if I could, I'd delete their story myself.

the relationships

Melo Movie is tagged as a rom-com but it doesn't feel like it. It was in the beginning but the tone became sad when Jun had his accident. After that, the light-hearted things were overshadowed with the sad things. There's only so much comedy you can bring into the plot when a brother wants to die and then actually dies, leaving behind someone who has to come to terms with the fact that they didn't actually know their brother and has to live without them now.

I didn't care about the romance. I get what they tried to do with the characters but the chemistry wasn't there. I wasn't convinced that Mu-bee and Gyeom were a good pair. He started liking her only because of her name and kept being around her until she grew to like him back. I didn't see any good base for their relationship, especially since she didn't like movies in the beginning too.

After their started dating again, their relationship was nice because they were actually there for each other during hard times. Instead of the show ending when they start dating, it shows us how they stick together and support each other. I appreciated that part, even though I didn't ship the two of them.

The friendships weren't done well either. Gyeom is best friends with Si-jun but I didn't see them supporting each other much. Both of them were pretty self-centred whenever they were with each other. Friendship is built on spending time together and talking about life and supporting each other. I didn't see any of it. We were told that they're friends and are supposed to believe it even though we don't see it in them.

A fun friendship between Mu-bee and Ju-a was attempted but it didn't come out well. I like the premise: they talk about their woes while drunk but give each other fake details about themselves and delete each other's number immediately after parting only to find out that Mu-bee wants to make a film out of Ju-a's story. They aren't very close friends but they're on a similar wavelength and often call each other out on things.

I wish we saw the friendship fulfilled with them seeking each other out voluntarily just to spend time. Although Ju-a did come to Mu-bee a couple of times, Mu-bee was annoyed with her and didn't want to hang out with her. It's easy to tell that after the movie, they wouldn't talk again if not for having Gyeom as a common person.

The only good relationship shown was of Gyeom and his brother Jun. Mu-bee's relationship with her mom also has growth but it's literally for 10 minutes at the end so it's not enough to be even called a significant relationship.

the plot

The drama was totally plot-driven. Things just happened to the characters and they moped around. We didn't see them take initiative or heal (except for Gyeom). A lot of the actual character development happened off screen and were told to us later. Like Mu-bee making a movie or Ju-a becoming a screen writer. Si-jun becoming a musician was a companion to the reconnection of his and Ju-a. Gyeom becoming a film critic was glossed over with a montage.

The only time I saw characters actually going through something on screen and doing something about it was when Gyeom tried to become an actor in the beginning and when he was grieving over his brother at the end.

It's funny that this drama features talented characters who are in the film industry because it is so dry. Gyeom is a hard film critic and he would have absolutely trashed this show if he saw it. I was bored throughout. I kept waiting to care and for it to get better but it didn't.

The movie-making industry is a big feature in the story. The drama tried to show the magic of the movie industry and how it requires you to fight for the story that you want to say but it didn't come through. The charm of the work wasn't shown. The passion was shown only through Gyeom.

There were so many random flashbacks throughout the drama, until the end. I found most of them repetitive and/or useless. They were too brief to help us connect with the characters. They simply told what happened without letting us connect with what happened to care about it. They often gave us only a part of the information to invoke curiosity but it made me mad because this isn't a mystery to solve.

That's actually the trend with everything: I cared about nothing because enough time wasn't spent on anything. Scenes were too slow but showed only a brief part of the story before switching to something else or a flashback. Things happen, we see the characters' emotional baggage, and next scene.

The direction and storytelling got better in the last few episodes but it was too late. I had become annoyed with every character and every part of the story that a good resolution made the drama "meh" on the bad side instead of turning things around.

overall

After the last scene, I just wanted to vent my annoyance and forget about the drama. Now that I'm done this review, I'm sure that I'll easily forget about it.

The drama wasn't the worst, there are worse dramas that I've seen. However, I didn't like anything about it to be positive about it. Either I hated something or didn't care about it. The few good scenes were overshadowed with the several bad ones.

Like this Reddit review says, if the characters had a bit more substance and chemistry, Melo Movie would have been an amazing watch.

I don't recommend Melo Movie. There are many better dramas that you can see instead (including a few that I'll link below). Watching this was a waste of my time.

check out other Kdramas

let's chat!

Have you watched any show that made you feel like you wasted your time? When do you quit watching shows if you're not liking them? What are some aspects (character development, relationships, etc.) that you care about the most while watching something?