title: do you like brahms?
cast: kim min jae, park eun bin, park ji hyun, kim sung chul, lee yoo jin, bae da bin
genre: romantic drama
chae song ah (park eun bin) was a music major student in violin department. she was older than her classmates because she had graduated from business major before going back to school. despite her family's disapproval, she persevered. however, she still came last in her class even though she worked hard. she was about to play in her first orchestra when the conductor decided to kick her out. she wanted to play badly and begged the conductor but he kept on humiliating her. that's when she met park joon young (kim min jae). joon young dropped his music book to stop the conductor from humiliating her even further but she kept getting kicked out from the orchestra. later joon young saw her when she met her friend and when she was going back and protecting her violin case from the rain.
joon young himself was a piano genius that has been playing piano since 6 years old. he won several piano competition that sent him abroad. however, he came second in chopin competition and people start to question his career. his personal life was complicated as well. his father had a habit of being in debt, his mother kept covering from him and asking money from joon young. he used his prize money to pay his father's debt but he didn't know that behind him, his liaison with kyung ho foundation and the foundation CEO's granddaughter has been helping his father as well.
fate brought them together. song ah decided to work at kyung ho foundation as intern during summer break, and joon young who announced that he would go on sabbatical for a year, only agreed to perform on kyung ho's anniversary concert thus he had to practice sometimes at kyung ho's building. song ah herself asked permission to practice during her lunch break, so she had to coordinate with joon young so both of them wouldn't step on each other toes. she was about to get to her practice when she heard joon young played "traumerei" and that moment she felt consoled by his music. anyway, several occasion led us to think that joon young started to have a crush on song ah.
however, problems came when both of them met again at the airport. song ah picked up her mentor as well as her friend, yoon dong yoon (lee yoo jin). she liked him and thanked him for teaching her violin, but her best friend, kang min sung (bae da bin) also like him as well. that's why song ah has kept her feelings to herself. meanwhile, joon young picked up his best friend, a cellist, han hyun ho (kim sung cheol). but he was surprised when he saw CEO's granddaughter, lee jung kyung (park ji hyun) was there as well. hyun ho and jung kyung has been in relationship for the past 10 years, however, at joon young's last recital, jung kyung stopped by and suddenly kissed him after the recital that made joon young confused as he liked jung kyung but he was aware of his condition, so he decided to put some distance between them. talking about double love triangle...
anyway, song ah was put in charge for the trio (joon young, hyun ho and jung kyung) so she met him quite often. that made jung kyung a bit jealous as she saw joon young's attention for song ah. she decided to confess her feeling but joon young declined her. however, hyun ho who didn't know about it at first, found out about it and broke up with jung kyung, leaving the trio on the line. while song ah, after the internship, got back to school and had to decide what to do next. she started to question her choice as well as her feeling as she started to like joon young. she confessed her feeling to joon young, but he told her to wait as he wanted to clear his mind and feeling first. on the side, song ah's professor suggested her to apply for master program and told her that she would be her mentor, only to let song ah did petty tasks as her assistant but she didn't do anything to help song ah improved as violinist. she even let song ah ran here and there to prepare for her chamber concert, making song ah thinking that she was included in the chamber as well but at the end told song ah that she was just her assistant.
while joon young had to face the truth about his father once again. he had to make money to cover his father's debt as he didn't want to keep indebted to the CEO and jung kyung. but jung kyung who tried to tie joon young, kept paying his father's debt behind joon young's knowledge. his agency also ended his contract with the foundation, leaving the foundation in jeopardy as well. however, joon young made his move for song ah and decided to confess his feeling. even he went public about their relationship. however, the piano genius couldn't be with the mere violinist. his new manager told him to break up with song ah or at least kept their relationship quiet. but joon young refused it. the new manager then turned to song ah and pressured her to think about joon young's career. making song ah even downhearted since she found out that jung kyung also made her move to win joon young. joon young himself tried to enter tchaikovsky competition but he had to face his former mentor whom he didn't like. at the end, the mentor betrayed him (he uploaded joon young's playing traumerei to youtube while joon young has promised song ah that he won't play the song again. joon young was playing it for one last time when it was recorded and he tried to take it down before song ah listened it, but jung kyung told song ah about it and made her question joon young's feelings for her) and he decided to sever their relationship for good.
song ah herself was feeling down as she couldn't seem to play her song well. her piano accompanist bailed out on her suddenly. joon young offered to play as her accompanist but song ah refused. joon young himself had promised jung kyung to be her accompanist for her recital to win the professor position in the university. however, she was in feud with her former professor and she had to pull back her application for the position. while hyun ho at first persuaded by the CEO, applied for the professor position as well. but last minute he pulled his application and accepted the offer to play cello in an orchestra abroad. song ah at the end decided to break up with joon young, making them both suffered and got sick.
when joon young was able to pull himself back, he decided to withdraw from the competition and started to play music he didn't want to play before, brahms', song ah's favorites. on the CEO's funeral, song ah met joon young again. didn't want to lose song ah, he offered to play as song ah accompanist on her recital. song ah herself decided she won't play violin again after the graduation. it's quite a shame though as her performance with joon young was quite awesome. anyway, joon young confessed his feeling again on his recital (they were both graduating at the same time, so he had to hold a recital as well) through his music and his words. all songs in his programme were brams, clara and schumann. and after thinking a lot after her recital, song ah decided that she still had feeling for joon young.
at the end we saw joon young and song ah were still going strong. song ah worked for the foundation and joon young kept playing piano again. hyun ho and jung kyung were okay, but they were not back together. the trio was still playing at the concert, only this time for the CEO memorial.
what i like:
- how joon young was quite sure of his feeling. even though he looked shy, but he made all the first move. from trying to be with song ah with the ice cream scene, to accompany her to his hometown. even he was willing to go public about their relationship. i guess it's a shame that jung kyung kept interfering with joon young-song ah's relationship.
- how they try to portray that music is a kind of language. it can comforts you and even speaks your feelings. applause for both kim min jae and park eun bin as they both played the instrument in the drama, though maybe not all scenes, but mostly they played it themselves.
- also they really portrayed the ugliness in the classic music world. how all moms tried to get the best mentor for their children and pushed their children to practice to win competition or to get scholarship. and how music genius can turned to be ordinary as time goes by.
what i don't like:
- too many problems. like the double love triangle. gee.. can't they make it more simple? and also all the tricks between the professors. too many politics.
- sometimes i feel some supporting actors and actresses were not natural. like the one of the moms in the drama, and even jung kyung.
- the drama feels flat. even the conflict is just that. not exploding or whatever. my husband was beside me when there was this scene of joon young and song ah involved in an argument. when it was ended, my husband asked "is that all? that wasn't barely an argument!" hahaha..
rating: 7/10
binge worthy: not really
recommended for: kim min jae's fans, those who like slow pace drama and soothing (unlike penthose, TWOM) and classical music.
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