‘Our Blues’ Star Studded K-drama leaves a message for the viewers Review

My rating: 8.5/10, IMDB 8.6/10, MyDramaList:8.6/10

“One message that we must never forget: That we weren’t born into this world to suffer or feel miserable. We were born for one purpose: to be happy. We wish everyone happiness!”

-Our Blues, K-drama Netflix/TvN

I came across the Star-studded Netflix K-drama ‘Our Blues” when it was first released on Netflix and had to add it to my list. I wasn’t in a good place to watch a highly emotional drama at that time and finally got around to doing it a few weeks ago. Boy, am I glad that I finally got around to watching this K-drama because it’s definitely worth it. To give you some context, I haven’t really been able to finish a K-drama in a while now. For some reason, I would lose interest by around episode 8 of each drama series but ‘Our Blues’ kept my interest throughout the series. I was hooked from the beginning to end.

Our Blues is a 2022 K-drama starring Lee Byung-hun, Shin Min-a, Cha Seung-won, Lee Jung-eun, Uhm Jung-hwa, Han Ji-min, and Kim Woo-bin. The series revolves around the everyday moments filled with sweetness and bitter realities of the occupants of Jeju Island. The series consists of 20 episodes, each focusing on different occupants of the island. The K-drama is currently available to stream on Netflix.

According to the end scene, the message of the story was intended as such: One message that we must never forget: That we weren’t born into this world to suffer or feel miserable. We were born for one purpose: to be happy. We wish everyone happiness!

The Burning Questions:

1. What’s my Overall Rating?
   • Overall, I’d give Our Blues an 8.5/10.
2. Would I recommend it to someone?
   • Yes, I would definitely recommend this to anyone wanting a fresh drama. It’s not like the normal K-Drama with a bunch of romance and nonsense drama put in. This gives me ‘My Mister‘ vibes, maybe not as great but similar. It has all the elements. Be prepared to cry though!
3. Would I watch ‘Our Blues’ again?
   • Yes, I think it’s a great story and could definitely see myself watching it again. I might have to wait a year or two but would definitely come back to watch it again.
4. Did I like the story?
   • Yes! I loved that it didn’t center on just one issues and/or couple but incorporates many different topics that we deal with in our normal lives. It’s about having meaningful relationships with our loved ones whether its romance, family/parents, or just friends. I LOVED that it centers around these group of people who mean something to each other in varies ways.
5. How long did it take for me to finish this TV show?
   • ‘Our Blues’ took me about 2 weeks to finish for varies reasons. First, it has 20 episodes which is larger than it’s normal K-drama that have 16 episodes. Another reasons is that it’s emotionally packed content. I have a limit of how many episodes I can watch. I usually averaged about 2 episodes each day because of of the high emotional content. For me, finishing a drama in 2 weeks is actually pretty good!

Likes:

1. The Acting: The acting in this tv show is phenomenal. What else can you expect from the star-studded cast? There wasn’t any actor in this show that I thought that didn’t do a good job in their role.
2. The compilation of ALL the stories: I loved that this story doesn’t just center on one person but multiple people. For someone that gets bored very easily, this kept my attention very well. I loved that I could have 2 or 3 episodes for each small story and then be able to focus on another one in the later episodes. Even with the compilations, the writer managed to have a beginning, middle, and end to the whole story.
3. Socially Unacceptable Topics: It’s not everyday that K-dramas take on socially unacceptable topics. This show does a good job of portraying most of the social deviant topics like teen pregnancies, depression, and down syndrome stereotypes. In order to get over these biased opinions, we need to bring the topics forward for everyone to acknowledge, only then can we come up with a solution to the problem.

Dislikes:

1. The stories don’t really align with the message of the story. While I loved the idea for the message of the story: The fact that we are all here to be happy. I didn’t really get that from the tv show. The message I got from the K-Drama was that live is tough for everyone so cherish every moment you have with each other. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a great message.
2. The down syndrome storyline. One ‘normal’ sister is so cruel to the other sister who has down syndrome. If that story was meant to make me feel bad for the normal sister, I didn’t. I did not like her! She’s awful to her sister, leaves her at the subway, and doesn’t acknowledge all the bad things her sister goes through. All she does is feel bad for herself for having a sister with down syndrome. She made me very angry.

There are just some of the small amount of things that I liked and disliked about this K-drama. I loved the message but felt like it failed to be delivered by the show. I would definitely watch it again and recommend it to anyone that liked K-Drama to watch it but be prepared for a rollercoaster of emotions that will make you laugh one minute and cry the next. The show depicts everyday life with all of it’s complexities very well.

Let me know in the comments below if you’ve watched ‘Our Blues’ and what you thought about it? Did you like it?

Thanks for reading

-Navi