WISH YOU: Your Melody From My Heart is a Korean BL drama about an aspiring musician. The protagonist is at the start of a promising career, but he faces various obstacles along the way. He also meets his biggest fan, who develops romantic feelings that may or may not be reciprocated.
As a BL series, Wish You is packaged excellently with gorgeous cinematography and beautiful music. Unfortunately, the romance here is severely lacking in depth with little development. You'll get all style and no substance in this very basic love story.
Wish You Summary
Title:
위시 유 : 나의 마음속 너의 멜로디
Series Info:
South Korea (2020)
Genre:
Romance
About:
Wish You is a cute & sweet BL drama.
Plot
Sang Yi is a dreamy and idealistic young man with a deep passion for music. One night, he encounters a talented street musician with a mesmerizing voice, and Sang-Yi becomes smitten with him like it was love at first sight. Sang Yi just happens to work for a music talent agency, and it is based on his recommendation that the company recruits this unknown up-and-coming musician.
While In Soo is eager to launch his career, he does have a musician's temperament and isn't fully cooperative with his company's demands. Sang Yi is given the responsibility to babysit In Soo, making sure that he remains on track until his solo debut. However, In Soo's journey is full of unexpected roadblocks, especially as Sang Yi develops romantic feelings for his new client.
Wish You was initially released as an eight-episode BL series, but was also released in a movie version, which came out later. Apparently, the movie has some extra scenes, but it's pretty much the same content as the series, just combined into one big package.
Wish You Characters
Sang Yi Lee Sang (이상) Lee Sang Instagram
Sang Yi is a music lover and a hopeless daydreamer. A lover of music, he becomes mesmerized with In Soo after hearing him perform a song. To be honest, I spent the first few minutes wondering if Sang Yi's character was of sound mind, just because he seems a little…dazed. Turns out he's just very introverted and embarrassingly shy.
In Soo Kang In Soo (강인수) Kang In Soo Instagram
In Soo is a talented musician with a clear artistic vision. He doesn't care about record sales or making money, as long as his songs get heard by the public. He has the temperament of a musician, and can be a little moody and uncompromising. However, he is willing to listen to reason, especially if it comes from Sang Yi.
Yoo Jin Su Bin (수빈)
Yoo Jin is Sang Yi's boss, who gives him a work promotion and a gentle push towards In Soo. Her character is like a fairy godmother to Sang Yi and always finds a way to help out this little gayling.
Min Seong Baek Seo Bin (백서빈)
Min Seong is In Soo's best friend and unofficial manager. Cheeky and good-spirited, he is one of In Soo's biggest cheerleaders before Sang Yi arrived.
Cast highlights
- In Soo's actor starred in the Korean BL drama Nobleman Ryu's Wedding as the lead actor. Sang Yi's actor also appeared in the same series, taking on a guest role in one of the episodes.
Wish You Review
Review
Drama Review Score: 6.3
I don't know why Wish You took so long to get to the main plot. On paper, there was so much storytelling potential about a young musician launching his career with a talent agency. What should've been the focus of the story took forever to start. The plot meanders for the first 30 minutes, making a big deal about the serendipity between the two leads, but Sang Yi and In Soo still haven't met each other at this point of the movie. What are you waiting for? Let's speed things along and get the real story started already!
Sorry, I'm a little heated just because I see so much potential in Wish You. The cinematography is gorgeous, the soundtrack is a bop, and the atmosphere is extremely chill. I see all the foundations of a great movie, but it couldn't compensate for the BL story, which is sadly the most lacklustre part.
I don't think I can recommend Wish You in its current state. I only wished the movie was as good as it looked. Ultimately, Wish You was a bit disappointing and fell below my expectations. However, it's still a watchable BL film with some enjoyable moments, even if the bigger story might feel underwhelming.
I mean this in the sincerest and most supportive way, but I'd like them to try again with the story. Same premise and same actors, but take the feedback, rework the weaker components, and tap into the potential I know this BL drama has.
📖 How is the story?
OK story
I don't think the premise or even the story itself was bad. I maintain the stance that the movie had lots of promise. Wish You just needed to know how to tell their story better. Start by trimming out the filler and focusing more on character development.
💕 How is the romance?
Poor romance
The biggest problem is that the romance felt rushed and undeveloped. Sang Yi and In Soo hadn't spent enough time together to be making such bold proclamations of love. These guys barely even knew each other, and I'm not convinced by their nonexistent whirlwind romance.
Instead of showing us a montage of their romantic moments passing by, can we actually see them in action? The best part about a BL drama is seeing how the guys fall in love, and I feel like I got robbed of that.
We needed way more relationships scenes to establish Sang Yi and In Soo as a legitimate couple. It's not enough to have the leads make doe eyes at each other and then kiss. Show us their interactions. Highlight their personalities. Give us cute couple moments between them. I feel like I got none of that from their romance in the movie.
🎭 How is the acting?
OK acting
The actors were fine and did a decent job with the material they were given. I don't know if this constitutes as a performance, but I thought Sang Yi's actor looked very telegenic throughout the movie. Sometimes, he has this vague deer-in-the-headlights expression on his face, but it looks good on him weirdly enough.
🍆 Is there any nudity?
Shirtless scene
There's a scene where In Soo shows off his shirtless torso, and WOW. His body is killer. 🔥 You would answer the door without a shirt too, if you had In Soo's body.
I was also pretty shocked after learning about the actor's age and did not expect him to be in his early thirties. What is his cryogenic beauty routine?
🎯 Are there any triggers?
Workplace drama
There was some aggravating workplace drama. Also, the situation between In Soo and his controlling dad should've been a trigger, but they introduced this conflict so late in the movie that it barely had time to register.
⭐ What's the best part?
Cinematography
On a more positive note, Wish You is visually stunning. Everything looks so pretty in this movie. The cinematography is beautiful, and you can tell the scene compositions were planned with care. One thing that stood out to me is the lighting, which seems like an unusual thing to point out, but the movie makes clever use of lighting effects to set the ambiance in a scene.
The way the light shone through the window, the lamp colours that changed intensity based on the mood, like I know this stuff doesn't happen by chance. Whoever worked on this movie, just know there's at least one person appreciative of your efforts behind the scenes. The cinematographer did a splendid job making every scene look its best.
📝 What would you change?
Better storytelling
A better script that's tighter, sharper, and moves at a much faster pace. Let's have the main characters meet within the first five minutes, start In Soo's music career in the next five minutes, and roll on a barrage of relationship scenes for the rest of the movie. They also could've introduced the tension with In Soo's father much earlier, elaborated on the drama more, and gave us an actual satisfying resolution in the final arc of the movie.
Wish You Information
Links
- MyDramaList Wish You MyDramaList
- Viki Wish You on Viki
- YouTube Wish You YouTube
Idol Romance
Idol Romance is a Korean BL studio that made Wish You (2020), Nobleman Ryu's Wedding (2021), The Tasty Florida (2021), and Tinted With You (2021). It also produced Once Again (2022) and Roommates of Poongduck 304 (2022).
Yet again I do agree with your analysis of this series. Really nice to look at but if it was going to develop at such slow pace at the beginning, it needed at least another 8 episodes more in order to develop more the relationship and also, maybe, do something dramatic with the father issue. As it was, when it finished with that beautiful shot of the rooftops, I was like… what was that? that was it? what? what?…. 'cos I felt kinda shortchanged and I needed more…In Soo is 33 in this film??? really? he best tell me his beauty routine ffs!!!