The Girl Who Sees Smells (2015) User Reviews

Interesting plot, great villain!

[ymousnona123 · 6/10 · 23 February 2016]

I really wanted to give this show a better rating, but I just could not get myself to do it.

I want to start out by stating that I really like the idea that somebody could see scents, and that this ability could be used to solve crimes. I also really enjoyed the bit of romance in this drama as it wasn't too cliché. It wasn't anything like a rich guy falling for a poor girl, and it's them against the world. There were no evil mothers or possible lovers. I enjoyed the main characters' on-screen chemistry, although it did start to fade a bit as the show gets closer to its end.

So, why did I give this show a 6? I love K-Dramas, and I have watched tons of them! I am okay with a show being completely over-the-top and cheesy, but it just didn't work here.

I feel like this TV show could have been a lot stronger, but the writers got lazy near the end. There are so many plot holes that it would take me forever to write down every single one of them. The detectives are portrayed as childish and incompetent. I could not force myself to like the lead actress, as her character was extremely dumb. A lot of the bad things could have been prevented if the characters used some common sense. Also, it seems that, at times, the writers forgot that Oh Cho Rim could see smells! The only person that kept me watching the show was Nam Goong Min. He carried this show! He is an amazing actor, and his role as the villain was believable. His character was also written very well, and it seems he was the only smart cookie in the entire jar. He was classy, sophisticated, cunning, and scary all at the same time.

I am disappointed that the villain's back story was just an analysis, and not something that the audience gets to hear from his own mouth. I would have loved to hear more about him, as he is the most interesting character in the show. The romance bit dragged on too long for my taste (even though, I mostly prefer to watch rom-coms).

Overall, I was intrigued to finish watching the drama and I did enjoy it. There were times when it was frustrating to watch, but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't recommend this drama. Just take it in for what it is, and enjoy it!

I want to live in Seoul like you

[alaningle7 · 7/10 · 17 November 2020]

A character who can feel no pain, a character who can see smells and a character with face blindness are all part of this comedy thriller. A detective trying to track down a serial killer teams up with a girl also linked with the same killer. It has its amusing moments and a fair share of drama as the serial killer leaves barcodes on his victims bodies. Well acted by the cast but would have been better if episodes were reduced as it drags out at the end too much.

It was OK.

[shareen_shany · 8/10 · 23 January 2022]

It's an ok drama. After watching now the 3rd drama with the leading actress, not in favour of her. Liked her in the "Bride of Halbaek" though, it fits her in that drama but here, she was supposed to be a comedian but she is not funny. Continued watching is mainly for the lead actor. He played his role well. He is funny, serious, intelligent cop!

But they don't really have chemistry together, it feels forced!

Perfect villain. Incompetent cops

[paulinairawanzhao · 9/10 · 22 August 2020]

On episode 9 now and giving it 9 stars for keeping me interested to continue watching. I'm an ardent fan of Shin Se-Kyung. But it is the villain that makes the whole story interesting.

Easygoing romantic drama!

[taishor · 7/10 · 3 August 2022]

Easygoing, almost childish, romantic, drama, character lost memory, character lost family member, protect family, murder, serial killer nearby, family, sister, police, special investigation team, marriage, return of the villain.

Unique but believable premise

[leahcubed · 10/10 · 20 January 2020]

As a student, Choi Eun-seol (Shin Se-kyung) is a witness to her parent's murder. The killer, who turns out to be the infamous "Barcode serial killer" attempts to kill Eun-seol who gets away but is hit by a car during her escape. The accident leaves Eun-seol in a coma with little hope of waking up or recovery. The same tie Eun-seol is admitted, Choi Moo-gak (Park Yoo-chun) goes to the hospital to see his young sister who had been in a minor traffic accident. Moo-gak is shocked and devastated to find his young sister lifeless in the hospital bed with her throat slit. Miraculously, about a half year later, Eun-seol emerges from the coma. There are three things that are different about her when she wakes up 1. One of her eyes has turned green 2. She cannot remember anything 3. She is able to visually see smells with her green eye. Moo-gak was so devastated by his sister's death that he was unable to sleep or eat and winds up fainting and being close to death for a period of 10 days, and wakes up to find he has lost his sense of pain, smell and taste. After his sister's death, Moo-gak became a police officer and aspired to be a detective. Eun-sol aspires to be a comedic actress. When the two fatefully cross paths they discover each needs something fro the other. Without senses, Moo-gak needs Eun-sol's ability to smell and use it as a tracking method and Eun-sol needs a partner for her acting skit in order to advance with the troupe she has associated with.

This was an amazing drama. i liked the "magical" element to it where, when she sees smell, it is all colorful and unique. I like the crime and suspense and the way the detectives grew into a great, caring and cohesive team. The romance between the leads was perfect - I could see them together in real life. It is a shame Park Yoo-chun was incarcerated as I enjoy him so much as an actor. I loved him in Roof Top Prince as well. I hope he can get help with his drug issues and is allowed to recover his career. I think as the American fan base grows there will be more foregiveness for these types of things. The title made me hesitate - how the heck can someone SEE smells? But it was "magical" and added such an intersting level to the story that I loved it. If you want a great crime, drama, romance with a unique twist - this would be the one. It ended well too!

Great intrigue

[elbehar · 7/10 · 4 March 2024]

Actors **** Action **** Intrigue ***** Villains ***** Romance ****

Cho Rim (Shin SeKyung) wakes up from a six month coma after getting hit by a car, but whehen she wakes up she doesn't remember what happened nor what her name is. She somehow gains a supernatural power... she can see smells.

Moo Gak (Park YooChun) is a yung detective with not much talent. Unfortunately he looses his younger sister named Eun Seol, to a murderer.

Without knowing their sad and painful family history meet and Cho Rim becomes a big help to Moo Gak and become inseprable.

As time passes she finds out the truth about her past (the death of her parents, the reason of her car accident)

Will their strong bond help them both find the muderrers ?

The Girl Who Sees Scents

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 10 December 2022]

As this Korean series opens a teenage girl returns home and finds herself face to face with a serial killer known as 'The Bar Code Killer' due to the fact that he carves a barcode into his victims' arms. She flees but is hit by a car. In hospital the killer, intending to eliminate the only witness, murders a girl of the same name by mistake. Her brother, Choi Mu-gak, is so traumatised that he loses his senses of taste and smell and the ability to feel pain; later on he becomes a police officer so he can bring the killer to justice. Meanwhile the witness eventually wakes from a coma but has no memory of her life before the accident; she has also gained a strange ability; she can see scents. The retiring officer in charge of the case at the time takes her in as his own daughter and gives her the name Oh Cho-rim. Events a few years later bring them together and she uses her ability to help him solve cases; however neither realises that she is the witness he is seeking. Meanwhile the killer is continuing to kill, unaware that the girl he killed wasn't the witness because he has a condition that means he can't remember faces.

If you want something gritty then this probably won't be for you. However if you want a light hearted crime drama with elements of comedy and romance it is a lot of fun. The identity of the killer is not kept secret. He is shown to the viewer early on and it isn't much longer before the police regard him as the prime suspect... the problem is proving it. Tensions rise nicely as the killer learns the witness is still alive and starts searching for her. The characters are a lot of fun and the cast does an impressive job. Shin Se-kyung and Park Yoo-chun, particularly impress as Oh Cho-rim and Choi Mu-gak; they have a fine chemistry. The special effects used to depict Oh Cho-rim's ability are rather fun aren't over used. Overall I found this to be a lot of fun and would certainly recommend this to fans of light-hearted K-drama.

These comments are based on watching the series in Korean with English subtitles.

Intresting concept but dragging narration

[solomonnow · 6/10 · 6 June 2021]

We can watch it for intresting plot, concept and the villian. But entire love portion becomes speed breakers to the every episode. Any country police can solve this issue in 6-10 episode but the unwanted content dragged to 16 episodes. 15th and 16th episode is completely not related to the entire series and it looks like deleted scenes what editor cut nand thrown out. Except police everyone is so brilliant in the series.

Good in the beginning, annoying second half

[ninchenbienchen · 5/10 · 6 October 2021]

The idea behind the plot - a girl with memory loss who sees scents and a lonely man who can't feel pain after losing his sister - was actually quite original and they really could've turned this into an amazing drama.

But they didn't.

While it started out quite well, it got repetitive, boring and inconsistent towards the second half.

Boring, because it was pretty obvious mid-series who was killer, repetitive because I don't know how many times the killer slipped through their fingers for ridiculous reasons and inconsistent because the whole "girl can see smells" part was suddenly irrelevant in the middle part and never really came up anymore until the very end and because they have left so many loose ends. We never see the two mains perform at the comedy theater. It is unclear to me how the female lead didn't know her parents were dead when she found out about her real identity when she knew that she hasn't seen them for years and she was a witness to a murder case. Like, girl, put two and two together maybe?! Also, the main couple somehow was back to being a couple without really talking about getting back together. It just happened. Umm, okay then.

For lovely villain naamminkoong

[choprasakshi · 10/10 · 18 April 2021]

I love the villain more in this drama i mean i have fallen love with minkoong great drama.

This could have been great

[barrytookas · 1/10 · 14 December 2020]

I won't go into too much detail here, but this started off looking really interesting and not as rigidly following the typical K-dramas formula that is starting to get a bit old. My biggest problem was that it became more predictable as the episodes mounted up and the situations that were supposed to be nail biters, were so unnaturally manufactured for the sake of drama, I was beginning to hate having to finish watching an episode. The police were unconvincingly clumsy and incompetent, while the serial killer was depicted as being 10 steps ahead of everyone and was equally unbelievable. (the acting was actually first class, but the writing let it down totally). The supernatural ability to see smells is almost non existent during the 13 episodes I have watched so far, where the writers could have made some really interesting plot developments, but it just did not happen. I am at the end of episode 13 and not sure I have the stomach to persevere through the plot holes big enough to drive a house through, and combined with the fact that the last few K-dramas I have watched spend 15 episodes showing how evil the antagonists are only to have them slip away quietly with little or no consequence. While there are few K-dramas that I get to the end of and think, "That was really great", I usually persevere and just accept it for what it is, light entertainment, but frustration with the writing takes away any entertainment value. Don't waste your time.

Loved every minute of this

[leahcubed · 10/10 · 27 January 2020]

As a student, Choi Eun-seol (Shin Se-kyung) is a witness to her parent's murder. The killer, who turns out to be the infamous "Barcode serial killer" attempts to kill Eun-seol who gets away but is hit by a car during her escape. The accident leaves Eun-seol in a coma with little hope of waking up or recovery. The same tie Eun-seol is admitted, Choi Moo-gak (Park Yoo-chun) goes to the hospital to see his young sister who had been in a minor traffic accident. Moo-gak is shocked and devastated to find his young sister lifeless in the hospital bed with her throat slit. Miraculously, about a half year later, Eun-seol emerges from the coma. There are three things that are different about her when she wakes up 1. One of her eyes has turned green 2. She cannot remember anything 3. She is able to visually see smells with her green eye. Moo-gak was so devastated by his sister's death that he was unable to sleep or eat and winds up fainting and being close to death for a period of 10 days, and wakes up to find he has lost his sense of pain, smell and taste. After his sister's death, Moo-gak became a police officer and aspired to be a detective. Eun-sol aspires to be a comedic actress. When the two fatefully cross paths they discover each needs something fro the other. Without senses, Moo-gak needs Eun-sol's ability to smell and use it as a tracking method and Eun-sol needs a partner for her acting skit in order to advance with the troupe she has associated with.

This was an amazing drama. I liked the "magical" element to it where, when she sees smell, it is all colorful and unique. I like the crime and suspense and the way the detectives grew into a great, caring and cohesive team. The romance between the leads was perfect - I could see them together in real life. It is a shame Park Yoo-chun was incarcerated as I enjoy him so much as an actor. I loved him in Roof Top Prince as well. I hope he can get help with his drug issues and is allowed to recover his career. I think as the American fan base grows there will be more foregiveness for these types of things. The title made me hesitate - how the heck can someone SEE smells? But it was "magical" and added such an intersting level to the story that I loved it. If you want a great crime, drama, romance with a unique twist - this would be the one. It ended well too!

Great series

[yankeedoo · 8/10 · 22 November 2020]

Found on Netflix watched in two days. Shame no s2. But as a lot of korean shows u get only 1 season it seems

An Entertaining Series

[soneagu · 10/10 · 7 March 2024]

The series starts with some dumb secondary characters (not their fault, but director's, clearly), who act like aliens on our beloved planet (in the first episode policemen who sit in the car, then perform some circus dumb thingies like stepping on their own foot and stuff, while being later critical of the main character who really tried something), everything is super ok, so there is a clear reason to enjoy it! Shin Se-Kyung is as superb and charismatic as ever, Park Yoo-Chun plays fantastically, and the other actresses/actors are really good as well (like Park Jin-Joo, for example, who I liked a lot in My Private Life).

The antagonist though...

[jackybrown22 · 8/10 · 15 July 2023]

OK, the antagonist should never make you feel sorry for him, like him or be good looking. Min Namkoong make me feel all of those things. This series had someone who could not taste or know when he's full, someone who had face blindness, and someone who could see spells. It was quirky, and unreal, but I liked it. I wish I could give it 7.5 instead of 8, but it's more towards the 8 than the 7. Whenever they were showed the female protagonist seeing a smell, the music they played was reminiscent of the bionic woman. I also think I probably did not need the last episode. I think they were trying to wrap it up in a little bow which was not necessary.