More Than Friends

MTF pulls up a chair alongside a band of boozers & toast the twenties. Wu-Yeon, Yeong-Hui & Jin-Ju were fused 🔗by combat in the HS arena. Now it's 10 years post graduation, when everybody thinks they have it figured out, but virtually no one does. They're learning to navigate adult jobs, situations and relationships. The 3 girls have a lifetime bond from their early HS years, so when Yeong-Hui paired up with her BF, his friends came along as chasers to round out a 6-pack: 1 couple + 4 drinking buddies.

Wu-Yeon/Wu has a most-of-life crush on Su, who has declared them to be in friendzone🛑... more than twice, or thrice (or double on ice) for a full decade. Su drops into town & mixes her up, only to exit without leaving a gratuity. That forever leaves Wu forlorn & in need of liquid relief, which leads to slurpee vms on Su's phone. She's a serial drunk-dialer, & her friends are so hungover it. Su might be their friend, but he drags the party down.

This brings us to now. Su is back in town, and once again sends signals to Wu that appear encouraging (is it finally happy hour?), only to flip the table on her once more. Again. As soon as Wu moves on to someone else, Su suddenly declares💔feelings for.... Guess who.

Yeong-Hui/Hu is 1/2 of the couple mixed within the group. She and her BF struggle to face life's hardships and muddled family pressures, while trying to stay strong together. The only true struggle is that Yeong-Hui refuses to accept that the man she loves can truly accept her: She's too poor and her family is always in trouble: She will only drag him down.

Jin-Ju struggles with loneliness. Her life, without love, is a drag.

Like Su's tepid but oddly encouraging actions, the director and writer always give the viewer enough reason to order another round. When it seems slow, MTF is still oddly relaxing (I'll have another one like that, please). When the characters cause viewers to froth and gag over frustrating, micro-brewed behavior, a basis for the behavior will be tapped (usually related to pain), or the director's craft will show thru. At other times it almost seems that director, Choi Sung Bum (My ID Is Gangnam Beauty-7.5) wants the audience to get frustrated with these likable barflies. He wouldn't do that though, would he? It looks like a hearty "sure-nuff !" from the outside looking in, even with beer goggles. MrisChoi is creative with floaters and shots at the audience, daring us to lose our patience in the same way we do when we can't catch the bartender's eye on a busy night. We definitely want to shake and not stir some of these loiterers, particularly Hu, Wu and Su. It's a mercy that we can't reach into the TV and crack a bottle over their heads, smh.

Their stories dial-in to several themes, including:

☂ Scars from thoughtlessness

☂ Pain's effects on emotional health, incl toxic Parent-child relationships & self-inflicted wounds

☂ Surviving 1sided💘 - They all go through it

☂ Struggles in 💘 can emanate from faulty suppositions

☂ The sinking loneliness of selfishness vs the buoyancy of generous & committed 💘

MTF also offers paths to resolution: Love is opening, giving & accepting. Maturity is learning to be unselfish, even when it hurts. Especially then.

For a few episodes, it was difficult to tell if it was worth the wait for last call. There were a generous pours of quality exchanges, metaphors, quotes, ironies, basically the usual for the better Kdramas. The ones they do well are outstanding, if not superbly divine. 75% into the show, I had only been looking at it thru narrowed eyes in low light, waiting for the moment a glass would shatter and MTF would be easily swept away & forgotten. However, by ep15, I felt like a regular with the gang at the pour-it-all-out-house. Unexpectedly, real tears started flowing. Inner conflict overflowed next over the proper rating: 7? Am I looking at this thru the bottom of the glass? An absolutely stunning conversation put the answer into focus - MTF has buoyancy. It is refreshing, and it dazzles when it catches the light.

There's a spill of latent (submerged) emotions in MTF's examination of the 3 women and the challenges they stare down from across the table in their quest for: Love, financial independence, and the most elusive honesty-to-self. MTF opens their circle and invites the viewer in. Like with any relationship, the show leaves room to allow the viewers to drop in and raise a glass, even though we must hold back the urge to smash a soju bottle over some noggins.

This is more of a drama than a romance, and it is a worthy one. The cast is smooth and fluid; not a sour in the bunch. Ong Seong-Wu exhibits a truly great performance as Su. Be prepared for the slower cadence with anything that helps bring relaxation, and watch them blend, stir, and shake their lives.

QUOTES🗣

Words are like boomerangs. They come back at you. (Aigoo. HEAR, youngins!)

Emotions are determined by the person on the receiving end. (Isn't perspective & timing everything?)

I'm afraid you will use the wounds you received as a shield & grow up a warped adult.

Back views are the saddest

〰🖍 IMHO

🎬7.5 🎭7.5 🖋〰 8 (This is the writer's first credited work, so we've been promised future brilliance) 💓7 🦋5 🤔8 🌞5 🎨7 🔚8

Age 15+

Re-📺? ✅ yes

I've also done a spoiler review.