Love Rain (Korean, Drama)

It's really cute to watch. But story moves a bit slow and makes us a bit bored. But since the characters are cute, you would enjoy watching it.

The story is quiet simple. In 1970s, a couple meet in college and falls in love, but then because of circumstances separates from each other. At present, their kids meet and falls in love... But the older couple, meets again, and is trying to give their love a second chance, but this is becoming hindrance in their children's love life...

The first part (past) gives us a different feel and the second part (present) gives us another kind of feel. You will like both.
 If you like soft slow moving romantic films you will certainly like the first half. The people whose favourite films include, 'The classic', 'Lover's Concerto', or even 'Love Phobia' will certainly like the sad but romantic first half. Like we are watching an old film, listening to old music or something like that. It is soft...and pure. Innocent and cute.
The first half touches like a feather.

The second half is a fun filled ride, and gives us a blast of cuteness. A different feel, but enjoyable.

But the problem is that in the second half you will find all the old generation people as hindrance to fun or irritating. Well, at least I felt so...Also, when older In-ha and Yoon-ah's scene's came I was really getting bored. I just wanted to see Jun and Ha-na...Why the hell do I have to bear with In-ha, and Yoon-ah? Well, I don't know if everyone who see Love rain will feel so or not. But I found the scenes of older In-ha and Yoon-ah extremely slow and a bit boring.
But It's worth to watch Jun and Han-na though. Coz they are so cute and hence we will find their scenes entertaining. Also Seon-ho is kind of really cute. Even Tae-sung is stud enough to look at.

The concept of romance is so cliché but cute  in this. Actually too sweet and romantic that we will feel diabetic from the extra sweetness. But that is just in a good way.
The old favourite line from Eric Segal's Love story - "Love is never having to say sorry', is used in this drama a lot.

Also it was sort of fun to watch every actor's double role. They have entirely different personalities in the 70s and present day. So it is like sort of entertaining for the viewers.

Technical Details : The drama is of 20 episodes and each episode is of about 1 hr long.

Characters :

1970s

Soe In-ha : A shy and reserved boy. He is in art class and is a painter. But he never paint any portraits and paints only landscapes. He says he will paint the portrait of only one person and that will be ther girl he will fall in love with. And till now, In-ha has never fallen for any girl.
In-ha is also a singer, and a music composer, and a lyrics writer. He and his friends Lee Dhong-mook, and Kim Chang-mo are in a band trio and runs a show in the college pub.
According to In-ha, it will only take him 3 seconds to fall in love. And then he meets Yoon-ah...and falls for her.

Im Yoon-ah : A soft spoken, shy but really beautiful girl who studies home economics in the university. Her parents are both dead. She has no friends, and she doesn't talk much. So she sits and writes in her diary in the garden. She is a good hearted girl and likes to help everyone, and she doesn't even know how to be rude to anyone. She likes to be polite and handle things in a way that won't hurt others around her.
But when loves comes in her way, it's bound that someone will get hurt...

Lee Dhong-wook : The medical student in the University and In-ha's best friend, and member of the trio band. The rumour is that he will like the exactly same thing as In-ha likes.
He has a lively and happy and charming personality. He likes to talk a lot and will make anyone fall for him. He likes to take actions rather than wait for fate to happen.
So when he likes the exact same girl that In-ha likes, without knowing that In-ha likes her, he has already taken actions to make her his...

Kim Chang-mo : A guy from a village, and member of the trio band. He doesn't have money, so likes to eat free food from other's plates and by others money. He doesn't look really good and doesn't have any charming personality. He is a fool and dresses shabbily. He is nothing compared to In-ha or Dhong-wook. But he is in band and people like him for his voice, and ability to sing.

Bheak Hye-jung : A girl that is really good friends with the trio band. She has a lively personality  but she doesn't really have a pleasing personality coz she can be kind of jealous and possessive  She has a crush on In-ha since a while. So she doesn't like it when Yoon-ah ad In-ha gets closer...

Hwang In-sook : A cute and lively girl. She is Yoon-ah's friend.She had a crush on In-ha at first. But then after becoming friends with the trio and Hye-jung, her crush becomes Chang-mo. But Chang-mo never returns her obvious and evident signs of love.



Present day (2012)

Soe Jun : Soe In-ha's son. He is a famous photographer, and has the most arrogant personality. He is a womaniser and boasts that any woman will fall in love with him in three seconds. He likes to put him fort in every situation and gives himself a lot of importance in his mine. Pride and arrogance and self importance filled in him in many quantity.
He had to go through a lot when his parents divorced. Although he was really close with his dad when he was small, he and his dad doesn't talk much after the divorce. He considers his father's first love the guilty person in this situation and hence hates first love and concepts like romance.






Jung Han-na : Yoon-ah's daughter. She is a gardening student and has a very cute and lively and loud personality. She is unlike her mother and is a happy and smart person.
She has always heard her about her mom's first love, and she admires In-ha from what she had heard, and want her mother to meet In-ha once again. Since her dad died when she was too young, she doesn't remember her dad. Hence she likes to think about her mother's first love, and imagine reuniting her mom with that person.

Lee Seon-ho : Dhong-wook's son. He also had the exactly opposite behaviour as of Dong-wook. While Dhong-wook was charming and lively and lady-killer type, Seon-ho is a calm and loving personality. He is also a doctor. But since he is of soft personality he doesn't take fees from patients and is even willing to go stalking the patients if anyone refuse to come for treatment in time. He is that much good at heart. He wants everyone's happiness.
His one week point is that if he feels sorry for any girl, he will fall for that girl. And by his personality he will feel sympathy for any person for the slightest reason and feel bad for that person.

Han Tae-sung : Han-na's senior while in university, and her kind of friend. But Han-na doesn't know that actually he is super rich. He fears that if she knows that he is actually rich and that he owns the botanical garden where her mom works in, she won't be so comfortable around him.
Han-na has a secret crush on Tae-sung. And Tae-sung also likes Han-na, but she doesn't know it. And then circumstances separates them. When Tae-sung is finally ready to claim Han-na, her heart already belongs to Jun.

Soe In-ha : He has become an art professor now. And had divorced his wife Hye-jung. He had never forgotten Yoon-ah, and still loves her from the bottom of his heart. Still is the shy and awkward person he was. He tries not to hurt people, but end up hurting his ex-wife and son.

Im Yoon-Ah : She works in a botanical garden now, and tends to plants. She had taken this liking to plants from her late husband, with whom she was happy, even though it was only for a short while. She is now a loving and yet smart mother. She is also protective.
All she has in this world is Han-na.

Lee Mi-ho : Dhong-wook's daughter and Seon-ho's younger sister. She loves Jun since she was a Kid and always roams around him claiming her love. But Jun just thinks of her as a kid, or more like an irritating sister. She is also a professional model.

Baek Hye-jung : She had married In-ha after In-ha and Yoon-ah separated  She and In-ha are divorced now. She has still not gotten over In-ha, and still has not accepted the fact that love can't be imposed  created, or controlled or forgotten. She complains that In-ha never tried to love her and always hurt her. She had made her self to be a complaining, bickering, alcoholic middle aged woman. She is also really protective of her son, and like to keep Jun to herself.

Jo Soo : Jun's assistant. He is a poor young man who always have to suffer Jun's arrogant personality. He is a loveable guy on the whole. And he always supports Han-na

Kim Jeon-syul : Chang mo's nephew and Jun, Seon-ho and Mi-ho's self claimed childhood friend. Actually in childhood they did used to play with each other when Jun, Seon-ho and Mi-ho visited Chang-mo's village. But  in reality, they used to hate Jeon-syul coz he was so irritating and he always teased and them or made trouble for them.
Now Jeon-syul who wants to become a rock singer, has run away from his village and come to live with his uncle. When Chang-mo also kicks him out he comes to Jun and Seon-ho proclaiming to be their childhood friend.
He has an annoying personality, yet is kind of innocently cute.

Story line :

1970s
In-ha meets Yoon-ah in college. It was love at first sight for him. And more over this is the first time that shy and reserved personality In-ha is falling for a girl. He is unsure what to do. He tries to do things to make Yoon-ah notice him.
Accidently, he picks up the diary Yoon-ah dropped and takes it home and reads it, and finds out all about her. He reads how her parents are dead, how her dad used to like the book 'the little prince', and how her parents always liked the book 'The love Story' by Eric Segal, and like the sentence  'Love is never having to say sorry'. She has written that she wants to see the movie version of the book which is realising soon.
In-ha reads all this and falls more and more in love with her. He tries to read the book, 'the little prince' and Yoon-ah notice it and so on.
Yoon-ah's friend In-sook tells her about In-ha that how popular he is and that he is rumoured to have a fiancée that his parents decided for him. In-ha who was over hearing at once tell them that he doesn't have any fiancée.
On a rainy day, In-ha see Yoon-ah standing without an umbrella  He ask her to wait, and goes and searches and finds an umbrella. But that doesn't stay open, unless you clutch at it's top. But still they share the umbrella and walks in rain.
Even Yoon-ah falls for In-ha then...
In-ha ask her out to see the movie 'The love Story', and Yoon-an becomes happy since she wanted to see the movie and didn't know with whom to watch. She agrees to go with him.
Then Dhong-wook randomly meet Yoon-ah, and ask her out on the same movie. She refuses. Dong-wook say she is offended that she doesn't remember their first meeting, and than he challenges that if they meet again, she should come with him for the movie.
Apparently months back, Yoon-ah had noticed a cut on Dhong-wook's finger who was standing at the bus stop, and had tied a band-aid to his hand. Though Yoon-ah has forgotten all about that already, Dhong-wook remembers it and he had liked her ever since.

Dhong-wook ask Hye-jung to bring Yoon-ah to a group date kind of thing where they can meet. Hye-jung brings Yoon-ha and In-sook to the pub and Yoon-ah is happy to see In-ha. But as In-ha realises that the girl his best friend Dhong-wook likes is Yoon-ah, he is in fix. He can't betray his long time friend. He starts to behave distantly to Yoon-ah from then on.
Yoon-ah is hurt. She likes In-ha, but he behaves as if he doesn't care about her at all. She doesn't understand it.
Then Hye-jung tell she that she has a crush on In-ha. This puts Yoon-ah in more trouble and confusion.
But in-ha and Yoon-ah can't run from their emotions for long.
In-ha has previously told people that he will draw portrait of only the person he will fall in love with. he has drawn Yoon-ah's portrait  and has hidden it in his locker. Chang-mo finds this one day in accident and finds out all about In-ha's feelings and gets confused about what to do.
But soon In-ha and Yoon-ah comes to a point where they just want to stop caring about 'not hurting other people' and want to just think about themselves. They unite.

At the same time, Hye-jung sees the portrait of Yoon-ah that In-ha drew and feel betrayed. She yells at In-ha and Yoon-ah for hurting her and Dong-wook. She also tells Yoon-ah that In-ha had been reading her diary and that is the only reason that he knows her likes and dislikes, and it is not destiny as she thinks. Yoon-ah is hurt by this, but only slightly.
Dong-wook though feels hurt, tells nothing.
Around that time, Yoon-ah discovers that she has Tuberculosis, in a very dangerous stage.
She doesn't want to tell this to In-ha.She breaks up with him giving no valid reasons other than that their being together is too inconvenient after all this what happened  She tells him that maybe she didn't love him that much after all. She says she may have just felt it's destiny coz In-ha knew her likes and dislikes, but now she knows that it was just because he had been reading her diary. So she says she has to break-up with him because maybe there was never love.
In-ha is hurt. But he calls her to his last concert. She comes, but In-ha gets caught by army for writing revolutionary songs. And he is supposed to serve his army duty early as punishment. In-ha never meets Yoon-ah that day. But Dong-wook see her coughing blood, and he comes to know about her secret. She begs to Dhong-wook to not tell In-ha, and that she and her grandmother is going to USA to her uncle for her treatment.
Yoon-ha leaves. And Dhong-wook can't hide the fact from In-ha and tells him that Yoon-ha has gone to USA for her treatment as In-ha's train leaves for going to army. He tells him that she may come back, and that he just have to wait...

2012

At some Raiway station in Japan, Han-na collides with Jun and her cell phone accidently falls in to Jun's pocket. When Jun is busy with shooting of a diamond jewellery company he finds Han-na's phone ringing in his pocket.
Though Han-na wants to go meet her mother' first love In-ha, who is in Japan for a conference,  she finds her phone gone and wants to get it back. Jun gets irritated by Han-na's pone's noisy ring tone and ask rudely to Han-na to come get it back herself.
Jo Soo finds some jokes in Han-na's mobile and shows to Jun, and though Jun rarely laughs at anything he sits and reads and laughs at it. Then he see something in Han-na's phone.

When Han-na comes to get her cell phone back, Jun is again rude to her. Then he shows the photo of something in Han-na's mobile to her and ask her what that is. Han-na tells him that it is diamond snow. Jun tells her to take her to see that. He wants to shoot it for the diamond ad.
Han-na doesn't want to go to see Diamond snow with Jun, coz there is a belief that if two people see Diamond snow together they will fall in love later. She wanted to see Diamond snow with her crush Tae-sung sunbae. Also she doesn't want to get late for the appointment with Soe In-ha.
But she is left with no choice, since her phone is with Jun. She takes in to see diamond snow. They fights all along the way.
When they at last see Diamond snow, as Jun is clicking photos of it, he sees happy Han-na through the camera, and he takes photo of her as well. He feels something for any girl the first time.
On the way back, they lost their way. And they find them self in a hot-spring resort. Jun tries to lure Han-na like he does with all the girls, but unlike other girls, Han-na doesn't fall for him or his tricks and this leaves a clear mark on him.
But after they get back, they  fights again, and both goes in their own way. But later that night, Jun feels that he can't forget Han-na and goes seeking for her. But a misunderstanding makes Han-na mad at him, and she yells at him that she never wants to see his face ever.
Jo Soo makes fun of Jun that he got rejected by a girl for the first time. Jun gets irritated by that and refuse to admit that he felt something for Han-na. He ask Jo Soo to delete photos of Han-na from his camera.

Months later, Han-na comes back to Korea, and she is trying to find an apartment in Seoul. Then she finds her face printed in fliers of the diamond jewellray shop's ad, and she gets angry by that. She goes to seek jun at his studio, and Jun is shocked to meet her again, and also more shocked to find that Han-na's face is in the flier.
Later when he ask, it occurs that Jo Soo hadn't deleted Han-na's photos coz he found them too pretty to delete, and hence the client used it on the fliers without Jun's permission  Han'na ask Jun to take responsibility  But he just speaks rudely and arrogantly to her. She leaves crying. This is seen my Seon-ho, who feel sorry for Han-na, and as his habit is, falls for the girl whom he feels sorry for.

Han-na finds out that Tae-sung has a fiancée and she is sort of heart broken about this fact. That is when Jun's client insist that he wants Han-na to be the model for his jewellery. Jun comes seeking Han-na asking her to be his model. She agrees.
But still Jun continues to behave rudely to her, and this piss her off, and she tries to walk off. Then Jun tells her that he will be nice to her from then on, and that she had been in his mind always since they first met. She doesn't understand what he means by that.

In-ha and Yoon-ah meets accidently and they sit and chat for a while. Though Yoon-ah is happy in her life, she is still moved by meeting with In-ha. And In-ha who has never once forgotten Yoon-ah, is thinking to give their love a second chance.

Seon-ho offers Han-na a room to live in that is in the building where Jun's studio and Sun-ho's clinic is. Jun propose to Han-na and tells that if she is taking the room she better be prepared for it. She tells him that this is the first time she was proposed to and doesn't give any replay. And when she comes to live in the room, she is shocked to see that Jun lives in the same building, and in-fact in the room next to her.
Then Jun is behaving as if she rejected him. She tells him not to behave like that and humiliate her, while in drunken state. She tells him that it is not like she don't like him, she is just scared coz he is too perfect. He kiss her. She tells that she forgot the kiss the next morning while she has not. Jun ask her to go to a date with him...
But before the date, Jun has to go to his mom, who is sad that In-ha met with Yoon-ah again. Jun is irritated and frustrated by his family drama. But still he comes to the date. And he ask Han-na to tell him a joke. While they are joking and fooling around, Jun kiss Han-na. And they kiss for a while...

Han-na soon admits her feelings for Jun and they becomes a couple. Jun gifts Han-na a chain and pendant of Diamond snow. And Han-na gives him a small ring that she had meant to give to the guy she fell in love with. Their relationship moves on kind of cutely...

In-ha and Yoon-ah decides to get married.

And one day, Jun comes to know that Han-na is Yoon-ah's daughter. He is heartbroken at the fact... The fate had played a weird game with him. he doesn't know what to do. His father is already going to Yoon-ah, in that state if he dates Yoon-ah's daughter, that will be the biggest blow to his mother. Besides, if In-ha and Yoon-ah marries, Han-na is his step-sister...
But Jun loves Han-na so much that he is not ready to give her up yet. He doesn't know what to do. He is just confused and hurt.

After some days he breaks up with Han-na. Han-na is heartbroken  and she doesn't realise why Jun did that. Through Jun say that he was just playing with her and that eh got bored, Han-na refuse to believe in it. She tries to think of any reason for Jun to hate her all of a sudden and she doesn't come up with any reason. She just cry always and she is hurt.
Jun can't do anything but just watch her hurt.

But soon Han-na also realize that Jun is In-ha's son. She is appealed by the cruelty of fate. But she also can't do anything at the situation. She can't stand against her mother's happiness  She wants her mom to be happy. So she is ready to give up her love...

But moments come when Jun and Han-na are too hurt... Still they are helpless and have no choice. They have to act as siblings or strangers in front of parents...
Their love hurts them beyond measure... But love for their parents have tied them down...
Helplessness...

Love is so intense in this. And the helpless situations of Han-na and Jun just makes us want to cry. That is depicted so beautiful in this drama.
Love is given a new hight here. A new level and new respect.

The visuals of the drama is so beautiful  that some shots feels like taken from a beautiful paining. The music is really good, and almost all the songs in the OST are really cool.

There are only two fact that are are a bit bad sides of this drama...
1. The older IN-ha and Yoon-ah tends to make you hate them. Because you feel they are just in the way of Jun and Han-na. And we feel, 'we want to see Jun and Han-na, why do they keep showing In-ha and Yoon-ah?' And we forget the love we felt for the 70s In-ha and Yoon-ah and tend to get bored and irritated by older versions.
Also they talk so politely to each other (more politely then they were when they were younger) and the story moves so slowly when they are on screen  So it kind of bored me. (Well, this is just my personal opinion  If anyone objects, then they can...)

2. Jang Guen-sook plays type cast in the role of a Jun. He has done the same kind of roles a bunch of times. Jun's character is quiet similar to Guen-sook's roles in films like 'Baby and me', 'You are my Pet', and almost exactly similar to the role in the drama 'You're beautiful'. In fact he plays every arrogant boy character roles with exactly same type of expressions dialogues and the same haughtiness.
(Actually, Jang Guen-sook was asked to play the role of Gu Jun-pyo of Boys over flowers at first. If he had played that, then he had got a lot of same type characters in his hands. And also, Gu Jun-Pyo would not have been this lovable. Actually Min-ho has nailed the character of Gu Jun-pyo and added a cuteness to him, which I am sure Guen-sook can never achieve.
It's not like I hate Guen-sook or anything. But he just plays every arrogant boy the same way. And also puts up weird hair styles. Else he is quiet nice and lovable in all the films and dramas.)

So in short, 'Love Rain' is a quit ok-is drama, but you do tend to get bored at the pats where they show older In-ha and Yoon-ah. Else the younger In-ha and Yoon-ah, and Jun and Han-na are worth dying for cute and lovable. Ane so you will enjoy parts with them.

My ratings of this Drama : 8.5/10

My Top 10 Korean Dramas

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