K-Drama

“Our Blooming Youth” heavily criticized by C-nets, doesn’t live up to expectations?

Once anticipated for being the Korean adaptation of “The Golden Hairpin”, Park Hyung Sik’s K-drama “Our Blooming Youth” did not live up to expectations.

“Our Blooming Youth”, which is the K-drama adaptation of Chinese novel “The Golden Hairpin”, received a lot of attention in the past, particularly for Chinese netizens. It is known that “Our Blooming Youth” stumbled into quite many obstacles before getting to air, due to the original novels having certain details unsuitable for Korean culture. 

Our Blooming Youth thumbnail

In addition, “The Golden Hairpin” was supposed to have a C-drama adaptation as well, but the project has been delayed indefinitely due to controversies surrounding its lead actor, Kris Wu. 

The pilot episode of “Our Blooming Youth”, which aired on a Monday, recorded a decent viewership rating of 4.2%. However, in later episodes, this number experienced an eventual decline, dropping to 3.3% by episode 7. The drama also received a lot of mixed opinions, both from domestic and overseas audiences. 

Our Blooming Youth
Park Hyung Sik in “Our Blooming Youth”

Particularly, in Korea, netizens express both interest and critique in “Our Blooming Youth”. However, in China, the home nation of the original novel, comments regarding the K-drama has gotten quite scathing. “Our Blooming Youth” only scored a meager 5.4 on Chinese film review platform Douban, a lot lower than the average score for K-dramas. According to Chinese netizens, “Our Blooming Youth” has changed too much of the original plot, causing the story to lose its meaning, while leading actress Jeon So Nee isn’t able to convey her character well. The styling of Jeon So Nee, who is supposed to masquerade as a guy, is also deemed “too girly”, while her acting skills are “inferior to supporting actress Pyo Ye Jin”, said netizens. 

Our Blooming Youth
Jeon So Nee in “Our Blooming Youth”

In addition, Chinese netizens even complained about Park Hyung Sik, who assumed the role of the male lead. While they find no issue with his excellent acting, negative comments regarding the actor’s visuals can be found. 

Our Blooming Youth

Below are some comments from netizens on Chinese platform Douban: 

  • I dropped the drama after the 1st episode. The story is boring, there’s nothing outstanding about the cast’s visuals and acting skills
  • They changed too much of the original story, and it isn’t good…
  • Did Park Hyung Sik gain weight? He looks puffy in a lot of scenes 
  • Isn’t the male lead supposed to be the most handsome man in the nation…
  • I wish Pyo Ye Jin can play the female lead instead

Source: Douban, k14

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