Snowdrop Review: Kim Hye-Yoon's Volatile Portrayal Overshadows Jung Hae-in and BLACKPINK's Jisoo's Chemistry In This K-drama Series (LatestLY Exclusive)

Snowdrop review: Before we begin, let's make it clear that this review is based on two episodes of the K-drama series made available to us by Disney+ Hotstar. So Snowdrop, as the name doesn't suggest, is not about falling in love during a snowfall but is set in 1987 Korea during the democracy movement. It's one of the historic moments for the nation and that's exactly why Snowdrop got embroiled in a controversy for alleged wrongful representation. Snowdrop: 5 Fan Theories About The K-drama That Are Going Viral On Twitter.

Im Soo-ho (Jung Hae-in) and Eun Young-ro (Jisoo) meet during a Group Dating activity. While Soo-ho is a reluctant participant, Young-ro and her friends are more than just willing. But Kye Boon-ok (Kim Hye-yoon) butts in and ends up with Soo-ho instead of Young-ro. Later, Young-ro bumps into him again on the same day and assumes he is a protestor when she finds him hiding from the authorities. She sympathises with him as her brother was also a protestor once. So one day later, when he climbs up to her room at her university dorm covered in blood, Young-ro decides to hide him, no questions asked. The rest is how Young-ro tries to sneak him the essentials while also falling hard for him. But Soo-ho has other plans.

With Snowdrop, it seems you will have to decide what you want to watch the series for. Is it to know about the 1987 movement, the South-North divide or the romance between the leads? Once you make up your mind, the experience might get a bit smoother. Reading up on the uprising beforehand might help too. There's a lot of information to capture in these two episodes alone. Maybe the dubbed Hindi version will help, with subtitles pause and play was our thing. The episodes made us wonder what is the director or the writer aiming here: a doomed romance or what happened during the movement?

If it's the north-south divide, there's so much happening in that regards that you might get confused who works for whom. If it's the romance, it is still in nascent stage so you are yet to get butterfly in the stomach moments. But we didn't really observe any spark as the chemistry between Jisoo and Jung Hae-in is quite tepid. Even their meet cute doesn't really make you go AWWW either.

A few things that had our hearts are the presence of only two telephones in a dorm of over 200 girls. This reminded us of the time we stayed in a hostel of over 300 girls with just one Telephone to talk to anybody and everybody, if you know what we mean. Yelling the name of the person and the said person running to receive it as if their life depended on it...such great memories. Clearly, Asians are alike! The costumes are quite pretty as well. Snowdrop Controversy: Jung Hae-in and Jisoo’s South Korean Show Aired on JTBC Faces Blacklash Over ‘Historical Distortion’.

What comes across as a huge sore point is the length of the episodes. They are over an hour long and thus drags at times. It gets quite exhausting. The scene where the girls of Room 207 try to hide Young-ro sneaking in after the curfew hours to avoid punishment goes on forever. The dormitory in itself seems like a mansion and the director makes sure each and every corner is captured, sometimes a little too much.

Watch the trailer of Snowdrop here:

So far, Jung Hae-in and Jisoo have yet to make a mark with their individual roles and their love story. While Hae-in looks perfect for the role as the guy with a handsome face who can fool anybody, Jisoo, although fresh and sweet, has much to show still. But we feel she could become the surprise. It was so refreshing to watch Yoo In-na in the role of Kang Cheong Ya, a surgeon where she doesn't have to just look good, smile and crack funny one-liners.  She is sharp woman, a mistress to Secretary-General of the Aemin Party and former Director of the ANSP, Nam Tae-il. Do watch out for this character, we have a feeling she would be damn cool to watch.

But the one who shined bright in these two episodes is Kim Hye-yoon. Her portrayal of Kye Boon-ok, although controversial as depicted by the Korean press, is very eye-catchy. She seems like a person who can switch loyalties anytime she wants to. Kim Hye-yoon brings the intrigue factor perfectly. She is shifty and always have some plot playing up in her head. While it seems like an extension to her over excited role from Extraordinary You, there could be many other layers to peel here.

Yay!

-Kim Hye-yoon

-Nostalgia match with India

-Promise of romance between the lead

Nay!

-Long episodes

-over-indulgent scenes

-Too much information

Final Thoughts:

Snowdrop seems a bit confused what it intends to be. Whether it's about a doomed romance between two people separated by borders or a tale on the 1987 movement in Korea. Probably, the upcoming episodes will give a better idea. Snowdrop streams on Disney+ Hotstar.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 09, 2022 08:14 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).