I was all over the place with Melo Holic – didn’t like it, liked it, didn’t like it… A guy with mind reading abilities meets a girl with a split personality (Dissociative Identity Disorder). It sounded entertaining, to say the least, so I excitedly turned it on. I was a bit confused and bored with the first two episodes, which isn’t good when the show only has ten. However, I stuck with it and it did get better. Things were progressing nicely until the whole thing took a nose dive when the writer chose to give it an ending I really disliked. Bad beginning, bad ending… not a great drama.
While walking in the rain one night, Yoo Eun-Ho is hit from behind and knocked to the ground. Barely conscious, he grabs hold of his attacker’s ankle and gets a quick glance at the face before the person gets away. When Eun-Ho wakes up in the hospital he discovers he has a remarkable gift – he can hear the thoughts of females if he touches them with his right hand! Although there’s positive things about his new power, there’s also a down side – imagine being able to hear everything that’s going on in your partners head while you’re getting physical with them. So romance is pretty much non-existent in Eun-Ho life, until he meets Han Ye-Ri. Because of his mind-reading ability he knows she’s honest and straightforward, which are qualities he admires, and Eun-Ho falls for the down-to-earth gal. But Ye-Ri is hiding something, or rather someone. What will Eun-Ho do when he discovers Ye-Ri has another person inside her?
Yoo Eun-Ho is an unlucky-in-love guy. His girlfriend left him for another man, saying he didn’t know a woman’s heart. But once he returns from his mandatory military service he becomes the man all the girls are after. Eun-Ho is a psychology major and a very close friend of the psychology professor, Kim Joo-Seung. They are very much like family, in fact Joo-Seung is the only person aware of Eun-Ho’s ability to hear women’s thoughts.
Han Ye-Ri was dumped by her boyfriend. Actually, he just disappeared so I guess you can call it dumped. Joo Yeo-Jin is Ye-Ri’s best friend and the only one that knows about her multiple personalities. Ye-Ri is an unpretentious, simple young woman who pretty much keeps to herself. She’s also very intelligent and a psychology student.
Han Joo-Ri is Ye-Ri’s other personality. Joo-Ri is loud, boisterous, tough, and sexy -the exact opposite of Ye-Ri. She’s not a bad person but she does deliberately do her best to keep men away from Ye-Ri.
Jung Yun-Ho (better known by his stage name U-Know) hoped to be a prosecutor when he was young but instead formed a dance team called A+ with a few friends and began entering competitions while in middle school. They won first place at an Annual SM Best Competition and he signed with SM Entertainment. While still in training he had surgery on his throat because of a hormonal imbalance. Yun-Ho was part of four different groups which all ended up disbanding. At just 15 years old he was chosen to be a rapper and backup dancer for Dana’s single debut and toured with her. The following year he became a backup dancer for Shinhwa. Then, a few days before the end of 2003 he debuted as a member of TVXQ. His dancing abilities earned him the title “The Dancing King” from critics. Most impressive is the fact that he was the only Asian performer invited to Michael Jackson’s tribute concert This is It. He received part of his training in Los Angeles and Las Vegas along side people who have worked closely with Michael Jackson. The man’s not just talented he’s also smart – he’s fluent in Japanese, graduated from Myongji University, and is perusing a master’s degree at Chungwoon University. He branched out into acting in 2005 and has performed on stage, in film, and on TV. Sadly, while Yun-Ho was filming a variety show he ingested a drink that an anti-fan had laced with super glue! He was taken to the hospital but refused to press charges saying it “affected [him] more mentally than physically.” Yun-Ho began his mandatory military service in 2015 and was given the Best Recruit award. Then, in 2016 he was honored as a Special Warrior. Yoo Eun-Ho is his first acting role since his discharge in April of 2017.
Thirty year old Kyung Soo-Jin, who plays the part of both Han Ye-Ri and Han Joo-Ri, has been acting since 2012. She’s been in five films, 15 TV dramas, and six music videos. Her first starring role was in the drama TV Novel: Eunhui. I most recently saw her playing the anorexic rhythmic gymnast in Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-Joo. Sorry, but I don’t know any more about her than that.
There’s more to this drama than just the love story between Eun-Ho and Ye-Ri. The writer wove in a murder mystery that the couple accidentally gets involved in. You see, the night Eun-Ho was attacked, a woman was murdered fairly close to where Eun-Ho was. Because he’s unable to remember what his attacker looked like, no one has ever been arrested for the crime and Eun-Ho happens to think the person that attacked him might be the serial killer the police have been after for years.
If you’re looking for a good romance Kdrama that deals with Dissociative Identity Disorder consider Kill Me, Heal Me and/or Hyde, Jekyll, Me. Both of those shows are wonderful romances (worthy of tears) and the latter even throws in a murder mystery for good measure. Melo Holic is ten hours long. Just double that and you’ll be able to watch a superb psychological Kdrama. (Hyde, Jekyll, Me and Kill Me Heal Me are each 20 hours.)
I’m not sure if there were inaccuracies or if the show just wasn’t long enough to explain everything coherently. When the mystery finally started to unravel I began thinking – okay, you explained “A” with “B” but “B” doesn’t make any sense. I also had a very hard time with Eun-Ho being able to take part in someone’s memories. I’ll go along with the idea of mind-reading but actually stepping into someone’s mind and participating was too much of a stretch for me to indulge in.
I’d really like to be able to go into this drama (which is based on the webcomic of the same name, by Team Getname) in more depth but that would be a major spoiler. If you’d like to discuss it or ask me questions, e-mail me and I’ll be happy to elaborate on why I wasn’t thrilled with this mystery romance.
Melo Holic‘s music is very good but Say I Love You, performed by Park Ji-Min, was way overplayed to the point of almost being monotonous. Kim EZ solos the song By Your Side. The girl has a way of whispering a song that sounds so comforting. Yoo Yeon-Jung of Cosmic Girls performs the drama’s upbeat opening song, Meloholic. Falling You is one of those cutesy-type songs that accompanies scenes the director was hoping you’d say “awwww” at. The Temperature At That Time, happens to be my favorite song on the soundtrack. It somehow brings an intensity of feeling with it, especially as it heads into the crescendo. The music is what creates the feeling while Martin Smith’s voice is the frosting on the cake. Great song.
As for scenery, there’s a great scene at an amusement park and some on the beach. There’s also quite a few at the university and several at Professor Kim’s house. The show takes place during the summertime so the outside shots are colorful and warm. I wasn’t thrilled with the obvious green screen used for the scenes on the building overlooking a huge drop into the ocean. It was just too fake looking to inspire that unsettling, dangerous feeling I’m sure the director was going for. Oh well.
Melo Holic held such promise in my imagination but was a minor crash and burn in all reality. A lot of it is entertaining but too much of it falls short of good. My advice?… don’t feel bad if you never get around to this one. Sorry, just my opinion.
Score: 4.5
The Good:
Kyung Soo-Jin’s acting
The character of Eun-Ho has some great qualities
Soundtrack
Scenery
The Bad:
The confusing first two episodes
The ending
Eun-Ho interacting with someone’s memories
Not engrossing enough to spend ten hours on
Heart and Seoul 