Omgoodness. So I wasted ~15 hours of my life watching Heartstrings, and I will spend another hour ranting about it because that’s how incredulous I am about how much I wasted my time with it.
To start off, though, you have to understand that I realize when I watch a really bad drama; I just always have to finish what I start (well, minus City Hunter, More Charming by the Day, and History of a Salesman). I also realize when things are popular only because they’re addicting, not because they’re good (or because the actors are famous pop celebrities). So 1) I know it’s my own fault for watching Heartstrings, 2) You’re Beautiful was a bad drama with horrible acting and a choppy plot and the lot (and I only say I like it because of the FNC brothers), but 3) I cannot begin to describe how much worse Heartstrings was.
/cue rant/
If I had to describe the drama into one word, it would be inconsistent. There was absolutely no character development and everyone changed too drastically too soon, so it was also really chaotic. Not to mention that there were way too many subplots for a 15-episode drama, which I believe reduced too much airtime that could have been used to resolve the whole lack of proper character development issue. I think the grandpa was the most inconsistent character, because it seemed like the writers/director were on the fence about making him completely strict or a true softie at heart. And I know that that’s what the grandpa was supposed to be, a coldhearted person on the outside and a softie on the inside, but I mean, if he’s willing to chase out his own son to raise up his granddaughter in the way he pleased, he would be a much more stubborn and relentless person than what was portrayed. All he did was yell a lot .__.
The dialogue. Sooo weak. To the point there were probably more scenes where the characters were looking out a window or staring at something in their hands at a desk than actual dialogue scenes. Lol. :| Which leads me on to the acting. OMGOODNESS. I thought Park Shin Hye was a pretty bad actress in You’re Beautiful, but DANG she was a REALLY bad actress in Heartstrings. She lacks facial expressions.. It’s either she’s smiling, pouting, or crying. Everything else pretty much looks like she’s just trying too hard to look cute. Maybe it was just the nature of her character, but whatever it was, her character seemed ever drier than it already was.
The plot. Okay, I have to admit Korean dramas are all predictable, but this was like… a predictability that made me seem like a psychic. I literally predicted their actions and words and even the camera shots exactly as they happened. Either I’ve watched way too many dramas (which I admit I probably have), or this drama was just way too unoriginal. Or both. Lol.
The ending. Ohhhhhhhhhmygoodness. There are very few dramas of which I will be satisfied with their endings, and Heartstrings’ ending was definitely not one of them. If a typical plot line has an introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution, this one had like, a small spike at the end, and plummeted straight down afterward. It was like, “oh, we’ll insert this twist at the end, and then we’ll solve it immediately afterward with no logical progression as to how it could have actually been resolved.” So the ending was typical as well: awkward kiss scene, and then a musical number to finish.
For the culturally inept, dramas/television shows are a good way to analyze the society it comes from, and boy, is Korea superficial. I’ve acknowledged it for a while now, but this… Dang. It actually made me consider how sorry I feel for Korea. More Charming by the Day is a sitcom that I think is also a pathetic show considering appearances and money and whatnot, but for a mainstream, popular drama like Heartstrings, omgoodness, I wish they would realize how much influence this would have on their youth (and others around the world). First of all, there was a scene where Yong Hwa’s character’s sister points to a “chubby” (I put it in quotes because honestly, she wasn’t chubby at all; compared to the other toothpicks around her, yes, but to the average person, no) girl and calls her fat. Park Shin Hye’s character’s rival, Han Hee Joo (played by Woori), showed a “hard-working girl,” who was in fact, a girl obsessive over becoming the “best actor in the nation,” which included being bulimic/anorexic to lose weight. If you’ve seen pictures of the actress Woori, she’s so thin to the point it almost looks like she’s anorexic, just without the sickly part, and she was playing a character desperate to be even skinnier. Next, the character named Sa Rang so openly shared that she was saving money for plastic surgery for her nose. She later gave up that money to donate to the performance stage they had to put on, and it was heralded as some saintly sacrifice (okay, well I’m sort of exaggerating about how much it was glorified, but it was still included in the list of ‘sacrifices people made’ speech by Park Shin Hye’s character). So much superficiality and focus on appearances in this drama…
The music. It was catchy and cute, like all Korean OST’s. I personally don’t think there’s anything special about Park Shin Hye’s singing voice, but apparently there are a lot of people who think otherwise. I honestly sometimes don’t like Yong Hwa’s singing voice either, so it’s hard for me to say I liked any of the songs in the drama. I usually download the OST of the dramas I watch, but this is one I know I won’t get for sure. Although, admittedly, I am very happy they used one of FT Island’s songs (OHOHO;;).
My rant ends here, because I would also like to point out that just because I noticed all these bad things about the drama, I did watch the whole thing. Honestly, most people know they only watch it for the actors who come out, and with Yong Hwa’s exponential growth in popularity because of You’re Beautiful and We Got Married with Seo Hyun, it’s no wonder it’s become a super popular drama. There were a lot of dak-sal scenes that did make me laugh and cringe, and, like, most Korea dramas, it was definitely addicting. Even if I knew everything was going to happen, the cliffhangers still made me click the link for the next episode each time. It was also a slightly pleasant surprise to see Won Bin from FT Island as one of the actors, though he was a bit player and barely had any lines. He’s not much of an actor anyway.. lol;;
So anyway, for the die-hard Yong Hwa and Shin Hye fans out there, by all means, spend the time to watch it; I’m sure you’ll enjoy it just because they have so many dak-sal moments. But for those who aren’t really die-hard fans of any of the characters in the drama. Please. Don’t waste your time like I did. OTL.
