Today we bring you our review of tvN’s autumn mini k-drama as part of their tvN Opening project Our Beautiful Summer starring the amazing squad of Yoo Youngjae,Jung Gyuri, Kim Minki, and Son Sangyeon.

I really enjoyed when tvN did the short drama project last time and ended up loving What Are You Doing In The Office? so I was excited to see they were doing these in 2024 as well. I was looking forward to Our Beautiful Summer and My Bra Strap Fell Down the most because the cast? Incredible. They collected some of my favourite underrated actors and actresses and I just had to check them out. Our Beautiful Summer stars B.A.P.’s Yoo Youngjae and Jung Gyuri, as well as Kim Minki and Son Sangyeon who gave me Racket Boys reunion I did not expect in 2024! I think, considering the topic being covered in the drama, Our Beautiful Summer did a solid job of giving us a more positive approach to things, without any major victim blaming (which I hate – yes, Death’s Game, I’m talking about you). Let’s review.

From AsianWiki: Choi Yeo-Reum is a 19-year-old high school student. When her parents were about to get divorced, they fought over having the other person take custody of her. In the end, her mother took her and they lived together. One day, her mother told her “You’re all grown up now. You can live on your own.” Her mother then remarried and left 19-year-old Choi Yeo-Reum. She is now all by herself and moves to her new home. On a summer day, she learns that her birth was a burden to her parents. She feels miserable and wants to die. On the day that she decides to take her own life, she meets her neighbors Na A-Reum, Na Da-Woon, and Na Woo-Ri. They are triplets.

Minor spoilers ahead, warning for mentions of suicide:

Our Beautiful Summer really lured me in with its amazing cast and the promise of a heartwarming yet painful story of second chances. I’m a sucker for found family trope and Our Beautiful Summer offers us both the real and found family storyline, intertwining them the whole way through. From the summary, you can already see that the drama focuses on the struggles of Yeoreum (symbolic title of the drama, don’t you think), who is feeling pushed away from her family and friends and wishes to finally end her own misery. However, the drama is much more complex as the triplets, her new neighbours, are also holding a secret of their own – they’ve lost their fourth sibling the previous year and are all dealing with grief in different ways. I think the story is very emotional and hits close home to everyone who has either felt the way she feels or who has unfortunately lost someone dear to suicide. So, be mindful if this is a topic that would really upset you, however, I’ll say that the story does try its best to move in a positive and warm direction where everyone can try their best to continue their life and not give up on happiness.

Jang Gyuri as Yeoreum was great. I really think she portrayed this character well – she’s a bit mysterious in her suffering, a bit closed-off, but she also managed to show us that with the right people she will easily and gladly open up and try her best to put a smile on their face as well. The triplet squad was also great, as expected from these three actors. I’ve mentioned earlier that I was so happy to see Kim Minki and Son Sangyeon in a drama together again and they did not disappoint. I’m sure others will agree when I say that Kim Minki was the definite scene stealer throughout the drama. However, this also made sense because of his complex relationship with his sister and the way they parted. He spends a solid portion of the drama not speaking at all and somehow still managing to portray a lot of things we could feel easily. I also loved Shin Eunjung who played their mother – she was such a lovely character and brought a whole different warmth and saddness to the story.

Now, I think it’s valid to say that the brothers are all complex and flawed characters on their own. Their relationship with their sister really wasn’t good and I can understand why it was so hard for them to come to the terms with anything regarding her death. They all felt guilty and had many regrets, but on the other hand, we often don’t think that our closest people are going through the absolute worst (especially if they’re good at hiding it) and I feel like they also deserved their second chance, although it doesn’t excuse their behaviour. All three of them deal with grief in their own way and you can see their facade crack so many times until it eventually completely falls down. I spefically liked the scene where they face each other at the playground, even fighting, because I feel like it really shows that you have to communicate what you’re feeling for others to understand it too, and even relate to you. I think the brothers had a solid development throughout the drama and showed good progress.

The best aspect of Our Beautiful Summer really is the found family Yeoreum gets by the end of it. It was heartwarming seeing her open up about her own problems, and have others accept her no matter what. The bonding between her and the siblings’ mom was one of my favourite parts of the story as well and the way someone finally stood up for her after all her suffering. Our Beautiful Summer is a simple story but it’s warm, optimistic (maybe even too much – the ending had me casting a few side eyes at the parents), and pretty well-written. For a storyline spanning onto a bit over 2 hours, it does a great job of making you connect with these characters and rooting for their happy ending and friendship. If you have time, I’d recommend checking it out, especially if slice-of-life is your cup of tea like it is mine. Our Beautiful Summer gets a 8.75/10 from me – for its genre and lenght, it did a great job of telling a whole story.