Synopsis:
Ten years after her best friend, Ji Seo Joon played by Yang Heo Seok, commits suicide on her birthday, Oh Ha Rin played by Yeri, makes a wish to return to the worst day of her life. Next thing she knows she opens her eyes to a world in which she has left long behind and there in it is Ji Seo Joon. At first believing it to be a dream when she wakes up she realized it was more than just a dream because her reality in the future had been altered. She quickly returns time and ensure that she saves the life of her best friend.
Review:
Welcome back, if you are a new reader let me explain how I rate my dramas. I rate my dramas on mainly two categories, storytelling, and direction. Under Storytelling, I take into account not just the acting, but the writing, and music as well. It is usually presented as a percentage. Under the category direction, I consider both editing and direction, editing counts for 2 points while direction counts for 3. It'll be out 5. I call them my sticky notes because that tends to be what I write my thoughts on when I'm watching. I gave Blue Birthday a 90% for story telling, the music is fitting but doesn't stick out like Vincenzo's OST, the acting is great with a few moments of bad acting, the plot is the real winner here. Direction received a whopping 5/5 because I have no issue with either the editing nor the direction.
Blue birthday, was something I expected to be good but I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I am. With the conclusion of the series rolling in next week I thought now
would be a great time to tell you all about it so you can join in. Blue Birthday is definitely a bingeable series and it is more than doable. All episodes run about 20 minutes long and it will run complete at 16 episodes.
I know I usually rate the direction lower than the actual storytelling category but I do have to comment both the director and the editors. First, let me say that the series is by no means revolutionary in either it's story or it's cinematography. However, they do present their time travel though an almost dream-like method. In fact, the character herself describes her first jump into the past as a dream. She only remembers closing her eyes and when they open again she's back in high school.
The plot remains loyal throughout the entire series with a few plot twists to keep the audience entertained, but the trajectory of the story remains throughout the episodes. Unlike Alice, the writer has plotted out the story and set rules for it's character's to follow regarding consequences that would follow when tampering with history. They keep the rules simple, you mess with history you pay a price. If you frequently return to tamper with history the price likewise gets higher. Simple rules, easy to follow. Also, because of the length the episodes follow there is very little time for saggy areas. I don't know if the length was done on purpose to keep themselves from failing where other's in the same time traveling genre have failed. If it was, it worked!
The acting is great, the main actress has moments of overacting (meaning she tries too hard) and the main male lead also has moments of bad acting himself, but for the most part they both do well. I suspect the bad acting is due to the fact that the main male character doesn't really have any real moments that cement his Personality. Ji
Seo Joon's personality isn't fleshed out well and functions more like a side character than a main. The same goes for the female lead. While her personality is more fleshed out than others, she still feels two dimensional. Other than her obvious love for the main lead and their friendship why is she so attached to that one man when another one is so obviously in love with her? How did they become friends? I would like their friendship to be developed more. At the moment we know she is in love with him and they are friends but I don't understand why. Anyway, Yeji and Yang Heo Seok both feed well of each other, meaning that their chemistry is good. They are believable as best friends then as their older versions, lovers. I love that kind of storyline, from friends to lovers. It's just a plotting trope I enjoy.
The main villain of the drama is a bit confusing for me. I understand they tried to give the villain a valid reason for hating Ji Seo Joon, but what I don't understand is why kill him? If the antihero wanted to be rid of him they couldn't have found another way than killing him, or perhaps made his crime to the perpetrator worse? Basically they made the main villain seem a bit unhinged, not mentally sound. This is just an easy copout of writing in my opinion. Basically, I didn't like the main villain, they could have come up with something more original than what they created. Other than that I had no other problems with the series.
You can watch the series for free on VIKI, if you know any other way of watching it please leave a link or comment below stating where to go. Let me know what you think of the drama, dear reader. Goodbye, and until next time!