Do You Like Brahms 브람스를 좋아하세요? - Review

 

Title: Do You Like Brahms? 브람스를 좋아하세요?

Genre: Friendship, Music, Romance

Release: 2020

Starring (Main Cast): 

Kim Min Jae as Park Joon Young

Park Eun Bin as Chae Song Ah

Kim Sung Chul as Han Hyun Ho

Park Ji Hyun as Lee Jung Kyung

Director: Yo Young Min

Writer: Ryu Bo Ri

Rakuten Viki Rating: 9.3/10

IMDb Rating: 7.7/10

Audience Rating: 4.9/5

MyDramaList Rating: 8.1/10

Rakuten Viki Synopsis: Click Here

Watch with VIKIPASS Plus on Rakuten VIKI: Do You Like Brahms? 

Episodes: 16 (abt. 1 hour each)

Content Rating: PG-13

Violence: Low - yelling

Sexual Content: Mild - kissing, hugging (I don't recall any verbal references)

Language: Mild to none (may depend on where you watch)

Ending: Happy, satisfying (for the most part)

My Synopsis

Chae Song Ah has a deep passion for violin, but unfortunately had a late start in life. Struggling to pursue her dream against the odds of time and talent, and her family's wishes, she is accepted into a music college. There she hears the gifted pianist, Park Joon Young, play and is moved deeply by his music. Park Joon Young, though extremely talented, struggles with finding joy in his music. Being in love with his best friend's girlfriend, an incident occurs that makes things extremely uncomfortable for them all. During this time, he meets Chae Song Ah, and together they form a friendship that comforts them both. As their feelings grow, he must find a way to separate himself from his past long-term love before it ruins his relationship with everyone he holds dear.

Trailer

My Review: 8.5/10

I was a little torn on this drama as there were some things I really liked about it, and some things I really didn't. And, honestly, what I expected not to like and to like were very different from how I actually ended up feeling while watching. So, I feel I must rate this on several things and kind of divide this up differently than I normally do. For this section I will divide it into what I liked, and what I didn't. My "What I didn't Like" section will contain a spoiler that I will mark... just to give you a heads up.

What I liked:

1. To be honest, as a violinist with some piano training as well, I was VERY hesitant to watch this. Musicians are considered picky because of our criticism of poor musical acting, but the truth is... if you watch a drama with bad actors, it is distracting. Same for us! If the musical acting is bad, it is distracting. VERY distracting. If it is only a scene or two... I bite my tongue and bear it. But, this I knew would be full of scenes that could be horrible for me to watch. However... I was very pleasantly surprised and have to say that this is by far the best musical acting I have seen. For one, they chose an actor who can actually play piano. Huge bonus points for the director on that one. Two, the violinist were trained extensively on the violin prior to filming and it shows. Excellent! Whoever worked with them... You are amazing! To the actresses... you guys are amazing as well! 

2. I loved the fact that both of our main characters were introverts, and a bit socially awkward. I can relate! And, I feel a good portion of musicians can as well.

3. I did like the relationship and chemistry between the two main actors. It was cute and even a little awkward, which was also cute.

What I didn't like:

1. I felt the actual story/plotline was weak and not super well defined. It was character driven, and very frustrating to me at times. There was more than one character driven plot occurring and I didn't really like the story other than the sweet romantic moments between the main characters. This really docked points on this drama for me. Acting - excellent; story - meh.

2. In addition to the poor story was the missed opportunity. I felt instead of filling the potential to encourage the dreams of musicians, it was actually discouraging. With the great musical acting I thought that they really could have actually appealed to musicians and encouraged them... but that was not how it went. A huge failure on the writer's part, in my opinion. That brings me to my spoiler alert section below: 

*SPOILER ALERT*

The story unfortunately backs the belief that if you weren't born with an incredible gift for music, then there isn't any hope for you. Our poor main girl character, started late in life. Yet, for the short amount of time learning, she really was an incredible player. But, in the end, everyone who discouraged her wins, and she gives up her dream. Sad. I was hoping to be uplifted by her success, but was seriously let down. Also, I don't know if this is the culture... but, more than once they mention people deciding that they couldn't have a career in music and so they tearfully gave up their instruments completely. What?? In the end Song Ah says goodbye to her violin forever and will never play again. She is advised to give it up slowly (as if weening herself off a drug) and then sell the violin. Why?? She loves that violin. Is there a law that you can't keep your violin and play for yourself and your own pleasure? I don't get it. It was doubly heart crushing to me as I could NEVER imagine doing that myself. I love playing violin and will continue to do so whether there is anyone to hear me or not. I don't know... but it seemed they missed a great opportunity to encourage people's pursuit of their dreams. 

 

 3. The love hexagon, or maybe double triange(?), thing. Ugh. This was one of the most frustrating love webs. It wasn't just a triangle it was a mess. Love triangles stress me out as it is, but this was nuts... and it messes everyone up. So much for friendships! Sheesh. 

4. There were times where I wondered what actually was the draw between our two main characters. I liked it at first, but then Song Ah got frustrating to me as she constantly mistrusted Joon Young, who was literally like the most perfect guy. Anyway. 

Park Joon Young

The pianist Park Joon Young was played by Kim Min Jae. I really do like this guy as an actor. I have seen him once before in Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency and I really liked him in that role. It was awesome to learn that he has some piano training and did play some of the pieces in this drama on his own. Nice to have an actual pianist be the actor. His character was probably my favorite. He was genuinely a good person who seemed to be the recipient of everything that could go wrong. His only crime was secretly loving his best friend's girlfriend. He never acted on it, nor planned to. However, the girl ends up developing feelings for him and acting on them, and though he pushes her away and refuses her, he still bears the brunt of everything. He continues to bear that throughout the drama from pretty much everyone. It felt like one thing after another for him in which he was the innocent but always got the wrong end of the stick.

Chae Song Ah

Park Eun Bin played the leading lady role of Chae Song Ah. She is an excellent actress and I was very happy with her portrayal of a violinist. I could tell that she had studied hard to make the playing appear real. Again, kudos to those who put so much effort into making this believable for us musicians as well! Her character I was torn on. I liked her and yet, I felt I struggled sometimes with seeing why Park Joon Young liked her so much. Especially as the story progressed and there was so much distrust, no matter what he told her. Apart from the love story, she was a struggling violinist. Having more passion than most she worked hard to be good enough to make it her career. However, people constantly discourage her and use her, and her "teacher" at the college was worthless. But, she fights and fights for what she wants most in life. She also starts the drama with a secret crush on her best friend's crush. Which also causes a bunch of conflict once it gets out. However, the actress did a great job with the role for the most part. I just felt the character she played could have been written better.

Park Joon Young and Chae Song Ah - Couple Chemistry

There really were some sweet moments between the main characters. It kept me watching and hoping. It just seemed that so much went wrong for them. But, the actors did have good chemistry during these moments. And, I admit that I did wonder if Kim Min Jae may have had a little bit of a crush on Park Eun Bin in real life. Probably it is just that he is very good at that loving look... and kissing.

Episode 11 was probably my favorite in their relationship. Which is where this scene above comes from. It was sweet and I felt that Joon Young finally was able to open up about himself. It was a very heart-warming episode and I came out of it feeling hopeful about the drama and a newfound love for the characters.

Han Hyun Ho and Lee Jung Kyung

These two were Joon Young's closest friends. Lee Jung Kyung (Park Ji Hyun) was his secret love and Han Hyun Ho (Kim Sung Chul), her boyfriend. When Jung Kyung comes to one of his concerts in the states she suddenly kisses him and it becomes the start of the downhill slide. Joon Young pushes her away because he knows that is the right thing to do, but she pursues him even harder and the closeness of the three friends begin to crumble.

Hyun Ho loves Jung Kyung with all his heart and her leaving him to pursue his best friend nearly crushes him. He is always so good to her and to be honest, I really couldn't find much to like about Jung Kyung. She proves herself to be unworthy of either of them as she about destroys the life of them both over her stupid selfish feelings. The actors themselves did a good job, though. And, Park Ji Hyun was fabulous in her violin acting even getting down the looseness in her bowing hand that is even hard to accomplish for those who have had years of training. Again, acting in this drama was excellent... story... was not my favorite.

I won't go into anymore of the characters at this point, since I covered the main ones. So, in conclusion, I do feel that part of my dislike of this drama is personal preference. I am not a huge fan of love triangles. Especially ones that cause a lot of drama and break up friends. This one had two of those going on. And, it felt like the main plot was the love triangle. Maybe it was? Anyway, it did receive decent reviews and I don't want to discourage anyone from watching. Would I recommend it? Yeah, I guess. I do feel I enjoyed watching the main characters' chemistry, and the great musical acting. It would be worth a watch. But, if you really are not a fan of frustrating love triangles, then this is NOT for you. Trust me. 

As a bonus here is Kim Min Jae playing Schumann's Traumerei (an important piece in Do You Like Brahms?) at the SBS Awards. :)

Awards Won

(at the time of this posting)

Park Eun Bin - 2020 - Top Excellence Award, Actress in a Miniseries Fantasy/Romance Drama (SBS Drama Awards)

Kim Min Jae - 2020 - Excellence Award, Actor in a Miniseries Fantasy/Romance Drama (SBS Drama Awards)

Park Eun Bin and Kim Min Jae - 2020 - Best Couple Award (SBS Drama Awards)

안녕! - 줄스