While You Were Sleeping (2017) is a pleasant and well acted Korean drama, written by the same scriptwriter, Park Hye Ran, who wrote the masterpiece I Hear Your Voice, & both dramas starred the same attractive young male lead actor, Lee Jong Suk (Pinocchio, Secret Garden, W, Dr. Stranger). Both dramas had elements of fantasy about them -- in one Lee Jong Suk"s character could read people"s thoughts when they looked into his eyes, and in the other he could enter the dreams of his soon khổng lồ be girlfriend, played by Bae Suzy (Dream High, Big) và learn about & protect her from negative events that could potentially harm her or cost her her life, or that of her friends and loved ones.
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While You Were Sleeping was a fully pre-produced television series. Filming began in February 2017 and Lee Jong Suk joined the cast in March. The drama finished filming on July 27 at Paju, after five months of intense shooting.Despite the fantasy-themed similarities of both dramas, written by the same writer, in my opinion it is I Hear Your Voice which remains the superior of the two dramas by far. Although I love Lee Jong Suk to lớn bits as an actor it"s very clear to lớn me, as each of his new dramas go by, that it will be practically impossible for him to top the superiority of I Hear Your Voice in his drama repertoire. I have hopes for that eventually khổng lồ happen, given the general excellence of Korean drama productions, but so far? No go. His chemistry with Bae Suzy was nice here but could not compare one iota to his superb chemistry with the far better actress Lee Bo Young in I Hear Your Voice. Theirs was a sexier relationship as well; maybe Lee Jong Suk simply does better when the actresses cast opposite him are several years older than he is -- they cause him khổng lồ come up khổng lồ their performance levels in maturity and to improve as an actor. This was the case in the short drama special he made in 2012, as well, titled When I Was The Prettiest: the actress he starred opposite there was much older than he was, but their passionate chemistry in that drama was far juicier than his chemistry with Bae Suzy here.
To be sure, While You Were Sleeping has a lot lớn enjoy about it, especially in the first four episodes, which breezed along at a great pace, but the action suddenly seemed khổng lồ lag and become more conventional và predicable when certain supporting or cameo actors disappeared for quite awhile, lượt thích when my favorite teen actress Kim So Hyun (The Suspicious Housekeeper, Goblin, Page Turner) suddenly up và disappeared, or when the young actor Nam da Reum (The Suspicious Housekeeper, Pinocchio), who played Lee Jong Suk"s character when a teenager, vanished for long stretches except for flashback scenes. I"ve loved watching this kid actor for years, lớn me he is the next Seung Ho Yoo on the K-drama horizon, và every time he appeared in a crucial scene I was riveted khổng lồ my seat.
Speaking of Seung Ho Yoo, his performance as a lawyer / prosecutor was far more seriously contemplative in Remember (2016) than Lee Jong Suk"s here in While You Were Sleeping, và Seung Ho Yoo is several years younger than Lee Jong Suk, lớn boot! I really think the writer was between a rock and a hard place here considering the casting of Bae Suzy, who seems khổng lồ be better at comedy than drama. Given the seriousness of several of the situations in this drama it may have been a finer drama if they laid off the comedy khổng lồ a large extent and focused more on melodrama, just lượt thích the superior Remember did. In that respect even I Hear Your Voice achieved a far better blend of melodrama with comedy than While You Were Sleeping. The occasional comedy never overwhelmed the main serious theme of that drama.
The Story: Jung Jae Chan (Lee Jong Suk) is a young, new prosecutor who, despite being a bit cold on the surface, has a good heart và a good eye for bringing righteousness and justice to various legal cases, & he lives with his younger brother who is still in school, Jung Seung Won (Shin Jae Ha, Page Turner).
Jae Chan quickly và inexplicably takes a liking to lớn his new, pretty & perky neighbor phái nam Hong Joo (Bae Suzy), an inexperienced, often unemployed reporter living with her mother Yoon Moon Sun (Hwang Young Hee) who runs a pork restaurant, and whose disturbing dreams serve as a reflection of future events to warn her about potential dangers to her life.
Soon enough this newly attracted young couple begin to lớn realize that they are meeting in dreams & they combine their potent, mysterious talents to solve various criminal cases that come up, like the one affecting another mother-daughter pair (Kim So Hyun and Jang Soo Yeon), who are the victims of an abusive husband-father (Eom Hyo Seop), who keeps avoiding the legal consequences for his abuse because of fast-tracked, ambitious, immoral lawyers lượt thích Lee Yoo Beom (Lee thanh lịch Yeob). Eventually the corrupt Yoo Beom loses that case, his client goes to jail, & the mother-daughter pair are set free. This does not inspire the increasingly criminally insane lawyer Yoo Beom to favor Jae Chan (whom he used khổng lồ tutor in his youth), and his new love interest Hong Joo, whom he had tried to lớn make his own girlfriend first. He carefully plans his revenge against them.
As time goes on, however, Jae Chan becomes a stronger human being & prosecutor, & wins more and more respect from his co-workers, lượt thích his sunbae Choi Dam Dong (Kim Won Hae, below right) and Shin Hee Min (Ko Sung Hee), a wise female prosecutor who often gives Jae Chan useful, worldly advice khổng lồ help him win his cases. Jae Chan and Hong Joo also become fast friends with a young cop named Han Woo Tak (Jung Hae In, above) who also seems lớn have the ability to lớn read dreams, after their paths cross in a car accident that could have been a lot worse for Hong Joo if Jae Chan hadn"t stopped the real culprit (Yoo Beom) after seeing the scary results in HIS dream.
It is soon revealed that this young couple Jae Chan & Hong Joo have something else in common besides dreams -- both of them lost their fathers lớn a criminal, a military deserter (Hong Kyung), when they were teenagers, one on a bus, and one in a convenience store, both had died protecting their children và others, and there might just be a tragic connection there with sunbae Dam Dong.
A lot of the drama having to vì chưng with the scary villain Yoo Beom was frustrating to me; I couldn"t understand why it took so long for others khổng lồ catch on how evil he was, & that he should have NOTHING to do with the legal profession at all. He is fully capable of murder và seems like a total sociopath. A more savvy prosecutor team SHOULD have been able to have him fired và arrested long before so many brutal cases came lớn a head, especially a prosecutor who could see what he really was in his dreams! This was the weakest link of the writing lớn me. I think they suspected that young people would be their primary audience for this drama, so certain legal plot devices could have been glossed over more easily, but those of us who are older, và have seen hundreds of K-dramas know when we see messy writing & know when we see brilliant writing. During most of this drama I was FAR more enamored of a K-drama running concurrently on tv
N: Because This Is My First Life. It almost came khổng lồ the point where it was like pulling teeth for me lớn stay involved with While You Were Sleeping, because the other drama was clearly so superior, & I only did so out of respect for Lee Jong Suk. I really hope his next dramas wow me like his masterpiece I Hear Your Voice did!!!
Completelyobsessed with While You Were Sleeping. I wasn’t interested in watching Korean dramas before but after a lot of insistence from my friend (thanks Sab!) But I finally agreed lớn watch it, & I fell in love with it.
I binged this show in two days & did NOTHING else. The second day was a Monday but I skipped all my classes lớn finish this. It completely drew me in & I could not stop watching it.
First of all, I am NOT talking about the movieWhile You Were Sleepingstarring Sandra Bullock, neither is this a Korean adaptation of it. While talking about it khổng lồ my friends, a few thought I was talking about the movie. So I’m putting this out there.
what is While You Were Sleeping about?
The drama mainly stars phái nam Hong-Joo, Jung Jae-Chan and Han Woo-Tak who have dreams of the future.It started with Hong-Joo but later the other two started getting them as well. Throughout the show we see them trying to lớn change the future into a better one.I got into the show right from the beginning becauseit starts with Hong-Joo dreaming about hugging this guy she’s never seen before, and then he shows up in real life.The first two episodes get you into the concept of predicting dreams, changing paths & get you attached to the characters.
what I loved about the story
Since Jae-Chan is a prosecutor, we follow all of the cases he works on. I absolutely LOVED the mystery & thriller aspect it gave lớn the show. My favourites of it all werethe court scenes. They were sointensethat it kept me to lớn the edge of my seat, especially in the last few episodes. I didn’t evenmovewhen watching the 31st episode* and I felt like I had to work out khổng lồ get my limbs loosened up.The relationships in this drama were BRILLIANT.I adored Hong-Joo’s relationship with her mom right from the start. I also really liked the familial, friendship & work-place dynamics that was shown. Not only did I get invested in the characters individually but I also adored their relationships.
I also want to mention one scene done towards the kết thúc of the show. It showed parallel scenes of two different times & it was done SO BLOODY WELL.
*there are 32 episodes totally
what I didn"t like
Nothing.
the characters
Nam Hong-Joo
Nam Hong-Joo was a very entertaining character khổng lồ watch.The character played by Suzy is pretty weird, especially in the beginning, which made her endearing. But as the show goes on we see how she tries lớn change the bad future which she reads, how she tries lớn keep her morale up when she’s down & how she pushes through the bad dreams.
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Han Woo-Tak
Now, ALLOW ME to lớn TALK ABOUT MY BAE.Han Woo-Tak was thecutest.We don’t immediately recognize him as a main character but he becomes important pretty soon và I just LOVED watching him.There are many layers to lớn his character which we see as the show goes on, and all of it just made me love him more. During the last few episodes every time he came on screen I made a heart and said “bae”. That’s how much I lượt thích him. Jung Hae-In played him superbly.
Lee Yoo-Bum
Now, onto the other really important character played by Lee Sang-Yeob.Lee Yoo-Bum is “the bad guy”.I didn’t lượt thích him as a person but I loved his character & the depth to it. Throughout the show we watch him playing on the other side of the law against our main three, being cocky and confident.
As I said before,I loved the tiny details of his characterlike him rolling bits of paper when he’s thinking, putting aside his watch when consulting with a paying client và scrubbing his hands with soap vigorously when he’s afraid.
Other recurring characters were great, too. The drama had a way of connecting us with every character in focus. I could go on and on talking about the characters of the show but you’d be here all day.
my favourite songs from the soundtrack
After that talk above about While You Were Sleeping having the PERFECT soundtrack, I HAVE to mention some. Once I finished bingeing the show, I was listening to lớn only this soundtrack for weeks with my #1 favourite changing every few days. All the songs are amazing but these are the best out of them.
discussion (INCLUDES SPOILERS)
If you don’t want lớn get spoiled,click hereto skip to lớn the “overall” concluding section.
Now that I’m done with the spoiler-free part of the review, I really want lớn talk about a few things.
Especially...
plot holes
Here are a few things I wish were spoken about or were elaborated:
Jae-Chan’s dad’s death was spoken about a lot but what about his mom? How did she die? We never really saw her except in one flashback scene and they never told how she died.In episode 10 Hong-Joo saved a girl at the university from being badly burned. Just lượt thích Woo-Tak still felt as if he’d been hit when he didn’t after Jae-Chan saved him, she also felt as if she was burned even though she wasn’t. Why didn’t she get any dreams about Hong-Joo?Did Mr. Choi never get any dreams about Jae-Chan and Hong-Joo in those several years? We all know those two were in a lot of trouble but why didn’t he go to lớn save them any of those times before the fire?
On the same note, why did Jae-Chan not get any dreams during those 13 years before he met Hong-Joo again? How come they started only when they met again?
How did the dreams start for Hong-Joo in the first place?
And now for averyimportant question: why did Jae-Chan have blond hair when he was younger??????????? That looked SO BAD. He could have just had đen hair!
I’ve been thinking about these ever since I finished the show about three weeks back. Let me know in the comments if you have any theories about these!
Also, what about those parallel scenes in episode 31??? The one at the funerals from 13 years back and presently. When Hong-Joo và Jae-Chan cried. It was done so perfectly just lớn make us bawl lượt thích babies?!
Did anyone else also bawl when Hong-Joo cried while Jae-Chan was in the hospital room being recovered? Because I DID. Even though I love Woo-Tak and wished that she chose him just so he’ll be happy, Hong-Joo and Jae-Chan weremeant khổng lồ be. That scene almost killed me. If he died I wouldn’t have recovered for a long time.
overall
I definitely recommend While You Were Sleeping!In fact, I’ve already told quite a few of my friends to watch it (let’s hope they do). Because I loved this drama so much, I got into Kdramas now. Instead of reading books all my không tính tiền time I’m now binge-watching Kdramas.
check out more Kdramas
let"s chat!
Have you watched While You Were Sleeping yet? What are your favourite Kdramas?
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