Spring Waltz Review
Jae-ha is a genius pianist with a politician father, loving mother, good manager and successful fiancé. However, Jae-ha isn't the Jae-ha his fiancé, Lee-Na, remembers in her childhood. Park Eun-young was a sickly child whose mother worked to earn money so that she could have an operation to save her life. Before her illness became worst, Su-ho, the son of a gambler is left in their care as his father disappears. Su-ho and Eun-young establish a relationship and spend most of the time looking for crystals on a beach in their village since Eun-young is very skilled at making crystal ornaments with shells. When Su-ho's father returns, Eun-young falls ill and is sent to the hospital. The money her mother saved for her operation disappears as well as Su-ho's father. From there, many misfortunes befall the two friends such as death, separation, and misunderstandings. What becomes of poor Eun-young and her close relationship with Su-ho? What's their relationship with Jae-ha? How does Daniel Henney's character, Philip, play into this whole thing?
The story dragged a bit in the beginning and then really rushed at the end. I wouldn't say that it had the best story (like the director, Yoon Seok-Ho's previous works, Summer Scent and Autumn Tale) ever but it was okay. It was kind of cute and sad, but very typical of other dramas in that it included that love triangle with two people loving the same person but on one side it's unrequited. At least, I was able to sit through the entire drama. Most of it was predictable like who was going to end up with whom and how each characters reaction would be having seen this or hearing that. There weren't any parts where I was so moved or saddened to the point that tears came running down my face but that may have been because the story wasn't very strong or truly creative (harsh, I know).
Spring Waltz provides a couple new faces into the drama scene. The two main leads Jae-ha (Seo Do-young) and Eun-young (Seo Do-young) are decent new actors. Eun-young is very good at expressing happiness but she's not very good at expressing shock or disappointment, even confusion towards the end of the drama when everything is revealed. What appears in her face is like she's just staring at the ground. Seo Do-young acts well as a piano prodigy with his cold, loner persona, so I wasn't very disappointed with him. Philip, played by Daniel Henney was probably the reason for me being attracted to this drama considering the fact that he's a gorgeous model turned actor gaining fame in Korea; HOWEVER, I was truly disappointed after watching the drama. Sure, I fell in love with his "Prince Charming" personality in the drama but with his constant switch between English, German, and Korean when speaking to the other characters; I was just not getting it. Truly made you wonder whether the other characters understood him at all. For instance, he'd speak in German to a character that could speak German and then switch to English when it's obvious the German-speaking person can't speak a drop of English. It's great he can speak all those languages but just stick with one, dude. On to Lee-na…I personally think that she did very well acting as the fiancé of Jae-ha. She was sweet, elegant, and successful. When she got jealous, you hated her for the things she did and just wanted to smack her across the face so I'd have to give her props for doing such a nice job being the antagonist.
In total, there are 20 episodes for Spring Waltz. A bit too long. The middle was slow and uninteresting and towards the end, everything was just rushed, but that could be a good thing because I was getting tired of this jealousy issue and switch between languages.
This drama provided drama and romance. The drama was like any one seen in other K-dramas with love squares: man vs. man for one girl and woman vs. woman for one guy. The romance wasn't very strong between the two characters. I mean they were cute together and all but there was no real passion. Maybe it was the actors' inexperience in acting but I just didn't feel it. I felt friendship and that was it.
Since I'm a classical music fan, I really liked the background music. It was calming and enjoyable. It fit well with the fact that the main character was a pianist. The music also went along with the beautiful scenery of Germany and the islands in Korea.
If you haven't seen the other dramas created by director Yoon Seok-Ho, I guess I'd recommend it to you; otherwise, I'd skip it. It's kind of a disappointment after watching Autumn Tale which had a really good story line as well as characters (and actors woohoo!). I have yet to finish Summer Scent and to start Winter Sonata but so far, the stories are appealing and I haven't yet lost interest. Spring Waltz wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great. I'm looking for greatness! This one was just okay…Anyways, if you happen to be a diehard fan of Daniel Henney, then sure, watch Spring Waltz. You'll get a glimpse of Henney's charms and skills in speaking different languages in this drama. Also watch it for the beautiful scenery and music. It's very soothing.
Written by Chiyuffie
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Spring Waltz Cast Seo Do Young 서도영 as Yoon Jaeha 윤재하
Han Hyo Joo 한효주 as Park Eun-young 박은영
Daniel Henney as Phillip 필립
Lee So Yeon 이소연 as Song Inna 송이나