K-Drama Review: Cantabile Tomorrow (vs J-drama version) - 2015

For the sake my curiosity, because I love Nodame Cantabile (I watched its dorama, anime and reading its manga), this drama was I anticipated last year. Though I was little bit disappointed because IU wasn't chosen as main role *IU was chosen one of few candidates*, I still wanted to watch this drama anyway.

Title: Cantabile Tomorrow 내일도 칸타빌레

Also known as	Nae-il's Cantabile Tomorrow's Cantabile
Genre	Romance Comedy Drama Classical music
Based on	Nodame Cantabile by Tomoko Ninomiya
Written by	Park Pil-joo Shin Jae-won
Directed by	Han Sang-woo Lee Jung-mi
Starring	Joo Won Shim Eun-kyung
Country of origin	South Korea
Original language(s)	Korean
No. of episodes	16
Production
Executiveproducer(s)	Hwang Eui-kyung
Producer(s)	Kim Jin-won Park Woo-ram
Location(s)	South Korea Salzburg
Productioncompany(s)	Group Eight DramaFever
Broadcast
Original channel	Korean Broadcasting System
Original run	October 13, 2014 – December 2, 2014
Chronology
Preceded by	Discovery of Love
Followed by	Healer
Related shows	Nodame Cantabile (2006)

CAST

• Joo Won as Cha Yoo-jin
• Shim Eun-kyung as Seol Nae-il
• Park Bo-gum as Lee Yoon-hoo
• Bae Min-jung as Jung Shi-won
• Go Kyung-pyo as Yoo Il-rak
• Min Do-hee as Choi Min-hee
• Jang Se-hyun as Ma Soo-min
• Baek Yoon-sik as Franz Stresemann
• Lee Byung-joon as Do Kang-jae
• Ye Ji-won as Song Mi-na

STORY

Cha Yoo-jin (Joo Won), an arrogant, multilingual perfectionist, is the top student at Han Eum College of Music and has secret ambitions to become a conductor. Born into a musical family, he is talented in piano and violin and once lived abroad in the music capitals of the world as a young boy (namely Prague), but is trapped in Japan because of his childhood phobia of airplanes and the ocean. In contrast, Seol Nae-il (Shim Eun-Kyung), is a piano student at Han Eum, notorious for messiness and eccentric behavior. Despite being very talented, Nae-il prefers to play by ear rather than according to the musical score; thus, she is regarded as sloppy and playful.

When they meet by accident, Nae-il quickly falls in love, but it takes much longer for Yoo-jin to even begin to appreciate Nae il's unusual qualities. Their relationship causes them both to develop and grow. Along the way, they meet some crazy people (like Yoo Il-Rak, Ma Soo Min, Choi Min Hee, and Stresemann) and make lasting friendships. Because of Nae-il, Yoo Jin gets the opportunity to lead a student orchestra and begins to have a broader appreciation of people's musical abilities. Because of Yoo-jin, Nae-il faces her fears and enters a piano competition. Opportunities open up as both begin taking risks, stretching themselves far more than they ever thought possible.

(story I quoted from Nodame Cantabile's wiki page, and changed their names)

First Script Reading of Cantabile Tomorrow

My First Impression

I'm impressed with Yoo Jin's nice apartment and his nice cooking skill :p Naeil is so lucky, because she got prestige to taste Yoo Jin's cooking. AnywayThe story line is much similar with the j-drama and manga. It's interesting though it's little bit boring somehow (maybe because classical songs were often played throughout the drama). The story is getting interesting around eps 4-5 ^_^

Mini Min Hee, Yoo Il Rak, Yoon Ho, Soo Min

Anyway, after watched this drama, I'm kinda liking Tiny G's Do Hee.. she's so cute ^.^

Joo Won is handsome too XD I realized he had also taken main roles in Baker King Kim Takgu and 7th Grade Civil Servant (these dramas look intriguing, but I don't think I'll have time to watch them, since I still have a long watching list. LOL)

Naeil and Yoo Jin during the filming

the childish and sloppy Naeil

Duet of Yoo Jin & Naeil in early episodes.

"UWAAAA ORABANG~~~♥♥♥"

FYI, Orabang 오라방 means Oppa 오빠, in Jeju Dialect. 

In k-drama, Naeil comes from Jeju Island and enrolled into Han Eum Music Academy in Seoul. She always been overly excited and exaggerating in many ways in this drama :p LOL

Yoo Jin forced himself to clean up the dumpster. This part is so funny XD

Rising Star's members

First concert of S-Ochestra

Cantabile Tomorrow's TRIVIA

Differences between k-drama & j-drama version

• In first episode, Yoo jin left his shirt at Naeil's room, while actually in manga and j-drama Chiaki left his belt.
• K-drama is less comical compared to the j-drama version.
• Naeil is expressing her emotions more in physical gesture and childish facial expression, while Nodame express her emotions more in unusual facial expressions and strange words like "Gyabo~" "Iyaannn"
• IMHO Naeil is more annoying than Nodame in terms of lingering Yoojin everywhere XDD
• Chiaki do smoke (not an addict), while Yoojin not.
• Chiaki is characteriscally more fierce than Yoojin, and often do abusive actions towards Nodame (in comical way, of course)
• Stresseman in j-drama is a pervert weird old man, while Stresseman in k-drama isn't pervert at all.
• The song that chosen for First S-Ochestra's performance is different between k-drama and j-drama
• In kdrama, Il Rak's Dad owns western cuisine restaurant, in j-drama Mine 's dad owns chinese restaurant
• In manga & j-drama, Nodame has other classmate friends that don't joined S-Ochestra
• In j-drama, when Chiaki performed with A-Oke, he played the piano and Stresseman becomes the conductor. In k-drama, Chiaki becomes the conductor himself, and the one who played piano is Korean famour pianist Son Soo-ji
• There are many comical scenes in j-drama, like flying Nodame, slapping motions, punching motions. While in k-drama, they don't use physical abusive things :p
• There are loads of bureaucracy and conflicts issues in Han Eum, while you can't find the bureaucracy conflict in the j-drama version
• In k-drama, S Oke was forced to get disbanded by Han Eum, in j-drama S Oke disband themselves because some of them are graduating from school soon
• In j-drama, the first Rising Star's orchestra is oboe concert, not violin concert.
• In j-drama, the concertmaster of Rising Star is Miki Kiyora (Violin) and Kuroki (Oboe), not Yoo Il-Rak (Violin)
• In j-drama, the one who falls in love with Nodame is Kuroki (Oboe), while in k-drama that man is Yoon Hoo (Cello)
• In k-drama, Yoon Ho is a gentleman, in j-drama, Kikuchi (Cello) is a playboy.
• Because Nodame wanted to be a kindergarten teacher, she asked Eto-sensei to complete Fart Exercise Song's choreography. In k-drama, Nae-il asked the strict teacher to complete Fart Song's chord
• After cured from his trauma, the first flight of Chiaki is flight to Hokkaido (accompanied by Mine), while the first flight of Yoo jin is flight to Jeju (to pick up Nae-il).
• In k-drama, Yoojin's mom appears a lot, while in j-drama Chiaki's mom only appears few times
• In k-drama, the killer teacher in Naeil's childhood (that left wound in her heart) is a woman, while in j-drama the killer teacher is a man. Not forget to mention that there's Yuuto appearance in j-drama, Nodame's old friend.
• In k-drama, Rising Star's members are too good looking (like K-pop idols), while in j-drama the members are not equally good looking (more realistic, LOL)
• In k-drama, Naeil has another talent aside of music, she can sew. In j-drama, Nodame didn't sew at all.
• In j-drama, Nodame adores an anime called "Puri Gorota" and has obsession to Puri Gorota dolls and other stuffs. Meanwhile in k-drama, Naeil owns rabbit dolls that she loves so much.

Actually there are some classical songs of choice in k-drama version that differs from j-drama version, but I was too lazy to check them all one by one :p

My Thoughts About This Drama

In a nutshell, this drama is NOT 100% based on manga, there are many differences between the real story and the drama itself. Cantabile Tomorrow has light and fun story, still good to watch. I think this drama isn't bad, I quite enjoyed it! Little bit boring in the middle of story due to many drama scenes, but its story is line getting interesting as we reach the end of episode :D

Pros (+)

+ Light and fun story

+ Entertaining visually and hearing

+ Contains lots of morale lessons

+ Nice chemistry between Yoo Jin & Naeil

Cons (-)

- Quite much conflict and drama

- There are amount of differences between k-drama version with its real story

Rating: 7/10

So, anyone here loves Nodame Cantabile as well? ^___^