Hi! School Love On

Hi! School Love On

6/10

Hi! School Love On 

Genre:                                   Episodes: 20                                   Year: 2015

Romance

School

Fantasy

Synopsis:

Shin Woo Hyun and Hwang Sung Yeol are two high school boys who come from broken families. Woo Hyun is involved in what should have been a fatal accident, but an angel- invisible to all others, saves his life. Due to interfering in the natural order and saving a human who was supposed to die, the angel loses her immortality and becomes human. She gives herself the name Lee Seul Bi, and not knowing any other humans, follows Woo Hyun. The two begin to attend a new school together, the same school that Sung Yeol attends, and attempt to hide Seul Bi’s true identity from the other students. 

Cast:

Nam Woo Hyun (Shin Woo Hyun)

Kim Sae Ron (Lee Seul Bi)

Lee Sung Yeol (Hwang Sung Yeol)

Choi Soo Rin (An Ji Hye)

Lee Chang Joo (Jeon Byung Chul/Sunbae)

Na Hae Ryung (Lee Ye Na)

Kim Young Jae (Choi Jae Suk)

General Thoughts:

It was nice to see a group of younger, less experienced actors having a go. The acting wasn’t necessarily all brilliant, but it got the job done and I wouldn’t go as far as saying anyone was explicitly bad. Except maybe Choi Soo Rin who didn’t appear to bring her A-game to set.

Just look at all the fresh faced cuties

Kim Sae Ron gave an enjoyable performance as the naïve angel suddenly stuck on earth, and her innocence and complete love for Woo Hyun were totally believable. The two Infinite boys also gave convincing performances- a little weak at some points, but mostly they delivered the required emotions nicely.

♫Brooooomance- nothin' really gay about it ♫

The pre-existing closeness was easy to see in scenes of boy-bonding and definitely gave the bromance an authentic feel. The whole supporting cast delivered believable, interesting and enjoyable performances- my interest was piqued by a fair few of them and I look forward to seeing this new generation of K-Drama actors grow and develop. Now on to the story. It’s a quirky fantasy-romance that’s a little unusual (in the good way). Along with the actors, the story felt fresh and new and happily managed to avoid a whole lot of K-Drama clichés- I know! A high school romance that avoided clichés! I was surprised too. The plot takes off at a zippy pace, with our main couple facing a lot of obstacles early on, which did wonders in presenting a solid picture of who our characters were. The issues faced by our three main characters felt believable and realistic (give or take some angel shenanigans) for high school students with broken and confusing family dynamics. However, it really felt like there was no need for the drama to be 20 episodes long.

Conflict- what a CAKEastrophy

Unfortunately the length of the drama did cause it to drag in places where it should have been building conflict, and it lost a fair amount of its momentum. The cinematography was beautiful and the music wasn’t terrible.

What Was Great:

Cinematography:

Every scene in this drama was simply visually stunning. There was not a wasted shot in the whole drama. It really gave off the feel that all the staff working on the series sat down for every scene and thoroughly hashed out what setting, angle, lighting and distance would give them the most appealing image. It was wonderful.

Actually one of the prettiest dramas out

Even when characters were just talking, rather than having one angle and one shot of the conversation, we get gorgeous light and shadow, and different face shots of our characters. It was definitely one of the most beautiful, visually appealing dramas I have ever watched.

Jealousy is always funny

Humour:

Despite the uncontrollable amout of angst that surfaced in this drama, there was a lot of fantastic humour going on. The writers really capitalised on Seul Bi gaining most of her knowledge on humans from dramas, which lead to mass hilarity born from her innocence and misunderstandings. The two main teachers (while a little irritating and not so relevant plot-wise) also brought about a lot of laughs. The joy of watching an over 40 bromance. The first-human-turned-angel was a hoot- he really displayed how funny not giving a f*ck is. The undying affections and constant advances from one of Jae Suk’s lackeys towards Lee Da Yul was never boring to watch. I could have happily watched a whole drama centred solely on those two characters.

I vote for a whole drama about these two ↑

Bubblegum Kiss:

I always find the most enjoyable and memorable K-Drama kisses are ones that are a little unique. There’s something different about them that makes them easily stand out. If you can make a good, recognisable parody from just one kiss- you’ve got a successful kiss scene on your hands. We have the Coffee Kiss (Secret Garden), Cola Kiss (Lie to Me), Candy Kiss (IRIS), Frozen Kiss (My Love from the Stars), and now- the Bubblegum Kiss.

Let's not think about the mess that gum would've made

Magic:

The real magic is love. Lol jks, there's legit magic

Magic is great. Magic in dramas is great. It adds that little bit of ‘wow’. Throughout the whole series we got little snippets of the supernatural and it was delightful. Sure, it wasn’t a main point, but it was enjoyable whenever there was a little bit of angel spookiness going on.

What Wasn’t:

20 is Too Long:

There just wasn’t enough plot to sustain the drama for 20 episodes. There just wasn’t. The series also tended to focus on the less important parts than it should have. Rather than seeing development between Woo Hyun and Sung Yeol- we see Sung Yeol being a d*ck. Rather than seeing An Ji Hye struggle with what son she should look after- we see Sung Yeol being a d*ck. 

I feel sad for you- but you're still a butt

Rather than seeing the danger surrounding Seul Bi due to increasing suspicion- we see, you guessed it, Sung Yeol being a d*ck. In all honesty, there wasn’t a whole lot of reason given as to why Sung Yeol had turned into a sloppy, angst-filled mess, so it wasn’t entertaining to watch. It felt far too much like the writers didn’t have enough material to last the whole run, so they just filled a bunch of episodes with poor Sung Yeol being an asshole. The middle of the drama felt long and drawn out, and yet the ending still felt rushed. Again, it was basically one of those dramas where everything was fixed because all our antagonists suddenly decided they didn’t want to be meanies anymore. It was a little awkward.

Broken Bromance:

The key to this whole drama was basically the bromance. When the bromance was going strong the series moved along at a nice pace- plot and characters developed, and it was interesting to watch. When the bromance faltered and all Woo Hyun and Sung Yeol did was fight- momentum dwindled, our characters lost focus, and it was just plain frustrating.

The Infinite dorm room must be a lot of fun

Again, a lot of the problems here stemmed from the fact that we weren’t given sufficient information about what was up Sung Yeol’s butt. The step-mum/birth-mum thing just didn’t seem to justify what a knob Sung Yeol was becoming. Woo Hyun’s character was nothing if consistent- it was a shame his bandmate’s character was so all over the shop.

Re-watch?

Nah. The cinematography was by far the highlight of the drama, but that alone doesn’t warrant another watch. It was sweet, simple and enjoyable the first time around- so I’ll just leave it at that.

Basically my life