Here's a fable for the underdogs.
SDM follows the overlooked, everyday workers. They deliver when ☃ in winter, and 🔥 in summer, 💦 in spring, and through the lugubrious fall🍂. They are sneered more than cheered. SDM finds them forming a supportive group that gives them all a lift.
Kang-soo is the catalyst. He turns friends and acquaintances into family. His formed-family is contrasted against several actual families in the show that tear eachother apart. The family we choose is often the best we can get.
Kang-soo shows up in town and lands a job at Lively Handmade Noodles. From there, he deconstructs the whole delivery system and then rebuilds it, all while outsmarting the powerful corporate eateries. The storyline is entertaining, though formulaic. I don't see formulaic as the worst criticism, necessarily. Life, and our shared human experience, is usually formulaic. It's the journey that is most important. The journey you will take with this crowd is fun, like a Disney Channel show.
This would be a good show to watch with kids as soon as they can keep up with the subtitles. It reinforces hard work, honor, helping others and living right. In exemplifying all the above, Kang-soo is a perfect role model. He makes loyal friends out of strangers by helping others. He inspires Ji-yoon to follow suit.
The primary romance falls slightly flat. I'm not sure if the cause is the dialogue, the directing, or just a lack of seasoning. Perhaps it's a little of all the above. The secondary characters' relationship was a better story.
SDM is best suited for tweens and teens, and parents won't mind watching along. It is a simple story in the After School Special tradition, and solidly PG/PG-13.
IMHO...
🎬7 🤔5 🎭8 💓5
Suggested Age 10& up.
While we're talking about kids and family viewing, here's some recommendations:
4+ My Neighbor Totoro-8.2, Ponyo-9.1
5+ Balto-8.3
6+ D4DJ-7.5
7+ Cardcaptor Sakura-7.4
8+ Spirited Away-9
9+Trollhunters-9.5 (slightly scary. Worst language is "butt snack")
10+ C🇨🇳 Accidentally in Love-6.5 B-level scripting, acting, and directing, but still fun/strangely relaxing to watch,
Howl's Moving Castle-8.9,
K🇰🇷 A Love So Beautiful-7,
My Dog Skip-8,
K🇰🇷 Part Time Idol-5.5 (suicide addressed),
Paulie-7.4,
Saiki-8,
K🇰🇷Spark-6.4,
11+ Belle-8.5,
K🇰🇷 Flower Boy Next Door-7,
Girls Und Panzer-8.1 (1 each d@mn, he!!),
Labyrinth-7,
C🇨🇳 A Little Thing Called First Love-8.5,
Love Chunibyo And Other Delusions-8.4,
K🇰🇷 The Miracle-7.7,
One Piece-7.5 there is scattered PG-13 language,
Watership Down-8.5
12+ K🇰🇷99 Days With the Superstar-7,
Colourcloud Palace-8,
Farming Life in Another World-7.7,
Goonies l-8,
Here Comes Miss Modern-7.8,
Hotel del Luna 8.4,
Jumanji-9,
K🇰🇷 My ID is Gangnam Beauty-7.5 ,
C🇨🇳 Love Between Fairy & Devil-8.9,
Piano In The Forest l-8,
K🇰🇷 So I Married My Anti-fan-6.8,
Your Lie In April-9
13+ K🇰🇷 Boys Over Flowers-8.3 ~ melodrama to the max;
K🇰🇷 Heirs-7.3,
K🇰🇷 My Shy Boss-6.5,
K🇰🇷 Playful kiss-7.3,
Princess Resurrection-7.6,
Senryu Girl-7.5,
Special A Class-8.2
14+ Toradora-8.5, Princess Principal-8.6.
