You know that party game where someone starts out telling a story and after they say the first sentence the person sitting next to them makes up the next sentence, and so on? The story, almost always, ends up being disjointed, amateurish, and lacking in depth. The Romantic Movement: Seoul made me think of that game. It was more like a junior high school film class project than a webdrama.
Min Hyo-Rin plays a character by the same name. But unlike her character in Triple she just didn’t have anything to grab on to with this role. Yes, we feel sorry for Hyo-Rin but we just don’t know her well enough to care all that much. She’s a gal whose man has done her wrong and now she has to re-adjust her priorities and go on with her daily life without him.
This show had a few different directors. It’s not like one quit and they hired another, and then the second was fired and a third came up to bat. No. It was actually planned that way from the beginning. I think that may have been part of the reason this show didn’t flow well. It just seemed sort of choppy. And what was chosen to be filmed seemed a bit inconsequential – why show us a close-up shot of a piece of pizza in a microwave? If the point was to let us know she was alone, show her eating the pizza alone. A shot of pizza warming up is pretty boring. Another thing I didn’t care for was having the characters talk to the audience. Discovery of Romance did that but we find out, in the end, there was reason for it. It was an important part of the story. This show just does it for no apparent reason other than to break up the flow of the story. To me, the cool thing about film is that we can SEE the story. Don’t just TELL me what’s happening – SHOW me. There wasn’t much of an ending, either.
Can the music earn this webdrama a few points? Maybe, if it had any. Most of the time the music is absent, and when we do get to hear some, it’s just soft background music, usually at the end of each episode. I can’t remember a single song with lyrics. Filming locations are pretty boring, as well. A pitiful hallway in a tiny, old art gallery; a bench at an empty park; a cramped office; stairs in an apartment building; the corner of a small restaurant; home… not much more than that. Oh, wait… they do show Hyo-Rin at the love locks wall at Namsan Tower. Woo hoo!
This show is based on the novel The Romantic Movement by Swiss author Alain de Botton. The show isn’t long at all – nine episodes at about five minutes a piece. It’s always difficult for a webdrama to get an audience feeling involved because each episode is so short. People who’ve only known each other for a month aren’t as close as people who have spent years together. So the fleeting length of this drama hinders us from seeing these people as little more than make-believe characters on a flat screen. Some things can fix that, though, like an interesting plot, great acting, solid writing, personable characters, enhancing music, pleasant scenery… The problem with this webdrama was it lacked all those things.
Because everyone is different, I’m sure there are people who like this show. I’m just not one of them. Even though this webdrama is less than an hour long, in my opinion, it’s not worth your time. If you’re thinking of watching The Romantic Movement: Seoul because you want to see a romantic love story, my suggestion to you is… use that 45 minutes to start watching It’s Okay, That’s Love.
Score: 1.5
The Good:
Min Hyo-Rin
Ha Jae-Suk (very minor role)
The Bad:
Uninteresting plot
Dull writing
Confusing directing
Very little music
Boring filming locations
Lacks a professional feel
Heart and Seoul 