Just when I thought I had seen the best of Choi Woo-Shik, Our Beloved Summer came along. He is one of the most emotionally versatile actors in the Korean industry today. As a devoted and die-hard fan of Kdramas, I’ve watched a fair part of romantic dramas, but there is something about Our Beloved Summer that hits differently.
Our Beloved Summer Kdrama offers something unique—a tender and understanding love, growth and the true beauty of second chances. It gave me an unexpected, in-depth healing.
Choi Woo-Shik portraying Choi Ung, was a soft spoken artiste who was insanely in love and struggled with feelings of abandonment from his lover and father. Kim Da-mi portraying Kook Yeon-su, was a sharp and intelligent young girl, who tried to hide her pain and inferiority complex. The series revolves around a bitter breakup between two high schoolers, who are later forced to reunite by fate. It’s also features a love triangle, which adds an emotional depth.
PLOT OVERVIEW- It all started when people from a broadcasting team came to a school, to film a high school documentary featuring two high schoolers, the most brilliant student and the dullest student in class. These students were Choi Ung(the dullest) and Yeon-su(the most brilliant), because of the documentary they were forced to always stay together and do lots of things together. They bickered at each other over the slightest thing, it felt like they couldn’t stand each other at first.
Yeon-su was academically focused while Choi Ung preferred sketching quietly in class. While the documentary was filmed, the unexpected happened—they gradually fell in love, confessed their love and shared their first kiss under the rain. They began dating as high schoolers, everything seemed to be going so well between them until Yeon-su broke up with him without giving a clear reason.
They both began living their lives, Choi Ung became a great successful artist whose work intentionally avoided people, showing his mistrust and emotional distance.
Meanwhile Yeonsu began working at a firm, and taking care of her grandmother.
Ung was an emotionally sensitive person due to his childhood trauma—his biological parents had abandoned him at a tender age and was adopted. His rich adoptive parents loved him like he was their son, they infact gave him the world. Still he carried this quiet, lingering pain and often tried to hide it; his heart broken by Yeon-su deepened the emotional wound.
Yeon-su on the other hand, was from a poor background. Her parents had passed away when she was little, so her grandmother raised her. They were constantly in debts and were harassed by creditors, overwhelmed by this, she broke up with Choi Ung. She didn’t want him to see her vulnerability and the complex she carried, she felt she wasn’t good enough for him.
Years later, the documentary they filmed in secondary school went viral, igniting the demand for a follow-up. So Choi Ung and Yeon-su were forced to reunite to shoot a new documentary. As they spent more time together, they began finding their way back to each other, but was there a possibility that things could work out again between them?
Kim Sung-cheol who portrayed as Kim Ji-ung , was Choi Ung’s childhood friend who had liked Yeon-su since high school but never confessed his feelings , as she was already in love with Choi Ung.
In the course of filming the new documentary after their bitter breakup, Choi Ung and Yeon-su eventually found their way back to each other, resolving past misunderstandings and healing their broken hearts. Choi Ung was no longer the bitter, emotionally distant person he once was and Yeon-su came to understand that Ung and his family loved her just the way she was.
THEY THEN GOT MARRIED.
Rating-
This Our Beloved Summer explores unresolved wounds and personal growth, it is a breath of nostalgic air. This K-drama made me understand that love isn’t always about staying together; sometimes, It’s about becoming better versions of ourselves, so when you meet again in the future, you’re finally ready. And other times, love returns with a quiet knock.
Our Beloved Summer whispers and speaks volume at the same time, if you have ever loved, gotten hurt or trying to figure yourself out, this K-drama is for you. It will feel like a warm and gentle hug to your heart.
It consist of 16 episodes and is available to watch on LokLok app.
A 10/10–a masterpiece of a K-drama!!!
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