About a very famous and beautiful Korean actress who’s filming a drama in Japan. During that time, she falls in love with her very caring bodyguard.Spoiler ahead.

This was mostly good drama. There were parts of the story that just make me roll my eyes, but I enjoyed it overall. The bodyguard guy is funny when he complains all the time (and he’s very handsome XD) and fulfilling the actress’ orders. The comedic parts amuse me a lot too. The progress of the romance was cute and felt unforced too. Very gradual, it felt natural. But when the romance was realized, the writers did not handle it well, imo. It was quite a mess, storyline-wise, from episode 8 onwards. I fast forwarded most of the side stories. 

I started watching because of Nishijima Hidetoshi, but towards the end when the problem became “love between a famous person and common person” I couldn’t help but think about the upcoming Papa wa Idol. I watched Mukodono years ago, so I don’t remember how it ended or if I was satisfied. The later episodes’ storywriting was just all over the place, about overcoming the status difference. And it made me worry about Papa wa Idol, because it’s just too easy to become so cliched and make you go WTF?!! in resolving that conflict. In this drama, it took a while for the characters to become in love with each other and in Papa wa Idol the premise would be that they’re already married, so they’re not the same but, in 99 Nichi, once they acknowledge the love, problems arise. That’s to be expected but how the resolution went about just about makes this a not so enjoyable drama, while the first 7 eps are good and fun. First a paparazzi caught them kissing, then the famous actress push away the guy so that he won’t be harassed by the media. Then a force staged-kissing for PR (with another actor). But at the press con the actress just can’t lie and says she’s gonna quit acting after the drama and admits the love with the bodyguard. Then since the management is angry, she moved out of her hotel and got a humble apartment. This is when the bodyguard realizes she’s a star, can’t live like just anybody, and she’s too good in acting to quit. Both of them realizes their dynamic is a little awkward now, unlike when they were star and her bodyguard. So the bodyguard talks to the press, answers their questions and announces that once the drama filming is done (the 99 day period) their romance is over. Of course they stick together in the end anyway. 

My main gripe was that it’s soooo roundabout. And cliched imo. The scenes were not badly acted at all but I fast forwarded most of the crying/separating parts. It’s probably inevitable but I’m hoping Papa wa Idol won’t be very cliched. Another thing that annoyed me was the earlier episodes had plenty of the signature strings ballad of Korean dramas. Like, the scenes aren’t even that sad. I don’t know if I got used to it during the later episodes or they reduced it.