catherine
A slow burn
It took me a long time to get into this — I rarely watch historical dramas, much less something so heavy, so I had a lot of trouble with the character tree and not really understanding what the backstory was.About 25 episodes in, however, I really started to hit my stride. I was really interested in how the different plots would unfold, and especially in the tension between the main characters Mei Changsu and Jingyan as we gradually got a few identity reveals — none of them disappointed.
Overall, I ended up really enjoying this one and would probably enjoy it a little more had it not been for the ending, which I understand thematically but still feels tacked on. It always feels kind of underwhelming when a drama adds a mini plot after the main one is over. It feels unexplained and rushed, and I really will just…pretend it doesn’t exist, to be honest.
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Secrets in the Hot Spring
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Surprisingly funny and endearing
Surprisingly funny and endearing. I still don't think the comedy genre is really my thing — it's honestly just a little too slapstick and loud for me most of the time and Taiwan is a really big culprit of this — but this was still better than expected. The trio has really good chemistry together and it's what makes the movie.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Inferior to the prequel
On a surface level, I don't think either this film nor the first film were that unique — the premise and plot development is all relatively expected. But while Part 1 had a really powerful screen presence from its main characters, Part 2 opts for a more cliche, unspeaking "fish-out-of-water" superpowered lead, who doesn't really stand out from the overwhelming number of side characters (there like like four different antagonist groups) who all have the same "badass bad guy" personality.The plot itself does feel less directed. Whereas there was a clear goal in the first one, this one felt much more passive; we spent basically the entire movie waiting for the bad guys to catch up to where our main characters were, siting still.
With that being said, as someone who understands both English and Mandarin, I did not really enjoy either of those groups. The English sounded fine, but the acting was not good, and it was very annoying to hear "Chief! Chief!" every other line. The Mandarin just did not sound good.
I think the final thing that just made this film feel more unserious was the special effects. There was something very nerve-wracking about all the Part 1 fights being up close and personal, even though everyone had super strength. It made everything scarier and bloodier. In this one, they opt for something in the vein of what the kdramas Strong Woman Bong-soon and Strong Girl Nam-soon went for — people getting punched and flying back 500 feet. It feels more comedic and doesn't at all match the serious tone the film seems to want to go for.
While I didn't dislike the main character, she was just...fine, especially in contrast to the main character from Part 1. In fact, it was amazing how much screen presence Ko Ja-yoon had when she finally appeared, and I realized I'd rather have gotten a story about her journey to getting where she is now, rather than time jumping to her return.
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Interesting premise but...
I felt like the premise was really interesting and there was a lot of potential for this to become a really thrilling mystery, but it suffers from something that many mid-2010s dramas do, which is that the romance and the attempts to smush the leads together hinders the show's ability to be darker.The romantic set-up is a very common kdrama one: childhoods connected by tragedy. I'm fine with this, but the ML's story was just so much more interesting and the chemistry with his brother and the serial killer so much more intriguing that all his scenes with the FL felt just so "blah," as if they were going through the motions.
With that being said, the trio — Lee Hyun, Min, and Lee Jun Young — were absolutely the best part of the show. Their performances were very convincing, and there was a lot of tension in all their shared scenes, and I was also really excited to how the story would play out.
On the other hand, I think the individual cases were fine, but didn't really grab me; in fact, they were a little vague at times, or it just didn't that high stakes. It didn't really help that the FL felt very reactive throughout, never really planning or investigating anything until it was right under her nose, both when it came to individual cases and with the overarching plot.
Now, the ending really does leave a lot to be desired. I felt like they rushed through it (which a lot of kdramas fall victim to) and it focused on giving us unnecessary closure for the romance instead of for the more interesting thriller plot.
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It doesn't really say anything new about anything, and this kind of "what if" romance has also been done before. Nevertheless, the film is absolutely successful in being mellow and slice-of-life, and it definitely shows that subtlety is a strength of Asian cinema.
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Girl from Nowhere: The Series
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Captivating...but too much girl-on-girl hate
So I didn't realize, before going into this, that there was a supernatural element to it. It definitely added a lot to the show's intrigue and made Nanno a very (satisfyingly) overpowered character, though I found I had to suspend disbelief several times. The anthology aspect of the drama also added a lot to that, knowing that she would win and everything would start over in the next episode.The downside of an anthology, however, is that there are always stronger and weaker episodes — and in this case I think the show front-loaded its stronger ones. My favorites were The Ugly Truth, and Social Love, with maybe Lost & Found as an honorable mention. The weaker ones were the three at the end before the finale: Trap, Thank You Teacher, and Rank.
I'm also a little mixed on the themes. While I enjoyed the variety in the stories and they do cover several different topics, from class/wealth disparities, to social media, to beauty standards, there's one running theme that's very frustrating to see, and that's girl-on-girl hate. 90% of the episodes have girls attempt murder to set up SA situations with either Nanno or other girls over a boy's affections, and it's a little frustrating that so many plots resorted to this instead of finding new character motivations and exploring other aspects of dark human nature — of which there is much to explore.
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Slow burn of everything
It took me a while to really understand the world-building of it all, but once you do it's so rich I wish I could live in this world and just explore it on my own. The characters are by far the best part of the entire drama. The chemistry between the leads is great and the development of their relationship is gradual and believable.I enjoyed the balance between funny moments and darker plotlines, but the pacing did feel really slow. I don't have a problem with the romantic pacing — after all, slow burn romance is my favorite — but plot-wise I noticed that it took multiple episodes to just get to the next thing. My interest in the secondary and tertiary characters went up and down but for the most part I enjoyed the romantic subplots and how it intertwined with the main story.
I do, however, think that we didn't have to see so much of the villains and their schemes. It started to get a little repetitive and not only was there really no need to follow every tidbit of it, but I also felt like I craved the feeling of suddenly seeing that our protagonists had been outwitted by worthy villains, and it was impossible to get that if we already saw it coming.
Nevertheless, this was a great watch; if I ever rewatch any part of it it'll 100% be Janguk/Mudeok scenes.
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Second half dragfest, but a satisfying conclusion
The drama kind of lost its way in the second half and got draggy — I loved the first few eps and “alternate universes” we got but then it became just about chasing down this single package and a character who was just wayyy too tight-lipped for all the wrong reasons. But what an excellent way to end.In a way it was a lot more simple than I expected; there were no redemption arcs, no being forced to work with a bad guy against a bigger, common enemy. The heroes just did their thing, the bad guys did their thing and that was just kinda it. I’m actually okay with it because redemption arcs are hard to pull off and in the end we got a satisfying “heroes win, bad guys lose,” clean-cut conclusion.
My favorite element is probably the hints of "found family" that we got especially at the end where we saw the leads come together — I really wish they had shown more of it throughout the drama but either way it was really satisfying character growth for both the lead characters.
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Everything a youth revenge drama should be
This is exactly what I wanted from a youth revenge drama — the story was nerve-wracking, the cliffhangers were intense, and the chemistry was top-notch. There is the perfect balance between intense scenes and quiet moments you would expect from two teenagers who were lucky enough to find each other despite all the tension and uncertainty in their lives.I watched each week's episodes with bated breath and I think the pacing was fantastic as well, with bits and pieces of the story being unveiled each episode. The communication between the characters was both intriguing and satisfying and there's even very subtle layers of social commentary around law enforcement if you squint.
Would definitely recommend.
NOTE: I think it's also necessary to say that this drama is not at all an accurate depiction of DID and there are problems with the "evil alter ego" trope — this is still a great watch but everyone should keep that in mind.
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Strong start but gets muddy
After 2-3 episodes, I had the thought — this could potentially go atop my list of favorite dramas. I haven't watched many of the thriller/crime genre, but the set-up was insane, the acting was amazing, and I was just really invested in both parts of the story: Miho's hospital conspiracy and Changho's prison identity. There were already amazing twists and I also loved the balance we got with Miho and Changho's flashbacks — the tone bounced seamlessly between tension and light-hearted nostalgia.I felt like about halfway, the pace of the drama started to drop off and repetitive — many of the episodes had the "you thought the bad guys got the upper hand but actually we knew all along and played them" and after using this trope so much it really felt just like plot armor.
I think the vibes of the show continued to be really thrilling, but I definitely feel like the plot itself wasn't tied up too neatly. Even with the nice parts that came full circle, it was like there was one twist after another or just always more to the mystery the drama preferred to spend time on action and confrontations that would take place without actually clarifying what was going on in the backstory.
I also think that the main female lead didn't click so well with me; I think Yoona's acting has improved a lot since K2 but I still don't feel the same amount of immersion that I did with Lee Jongsuk's acting, which was really just top notch, as expected. But I don't blame the actress completely for this either — I honestly think that the FL's character was written very thinly. Yes, she is quote-endquote the typical "strong female character," but it really feels like that was all she was. Her entire character was standing by her husband and not giving up on solving the mystery, but there was never any personal character development outside of that.
Now, that doesn't necessarily bother me if I think about this drama this way: the only main character in this drama is Changho and the plot is the way he is harshly thrown into a situation where the disparity between the privileged and the unprivileged is extreme. If you watch this drama expecting to find a really twisted conspiracy theory — which is how the first few episodes present it — I think the story will end up feeling a little meh, with underwhelming reveals and confusing plot holes.
Overall, the ending is rushed but I'm pretty satisfied with it.
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Harrowing and heartwrenching
This was a really really heavy watch, but in the best way; I really felt emotionally invested in the main characters — both the adults who were doing the right thing against all odds, and for the children who we were watching learn to trust people again and actually act (and laugh) like kids should — and in the outcome of the legal process. In the end, it was a really bittersweet and realistic sort of ending, but it was the best I hoped for and I thought it was perfect.The acting was so good for all the characters, but especially the three kids. I could feel their fear, their pain, and their hope in every single one of their scenes.
There were some parts of the story — more side aspects of complacency — that I wanted to see more of because of the moral greyness, but I understand why it wasn't the focus of the movie and I think the movie did just fine without it.
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Because This is My First Life
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Thoughtful
It's been a long time since such a drama hit close to home and made me question everything I thought about career, marriage, and life in general. There was so much to love here and it's rare to see two characters that are just so respectful of each other's space and opinions.If anything, however, I wish the back end of the drama had the same oomph factor. It felt like the story gave up some of those life lessons that hit me so hard in exchange for the romantic plotlines, and as a twenty-one-year-old, questioning the institution of marriage just wasn't something I could relate as much to.
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I was nervous to start the second half, fearful of it going downhill the way SITR did. But that never happened. I felt like the entire drama was paced well, and I loved the mellow atmosphere. There are some moments I felt were a bit repetitive — after all, how many times does a girl have to say "let's break up"? — but ultimately the slice-of-life feeling was calming.
The best of this drama for me was undoubtedly the sismance. It’s honestly rarer than it should be to see sismance in kdrama, and this one did it beautifully, with the way Jeong-in, Seo-in, and Jae-in all supported each other through everything. The mother was also great in this one, as was Ji-ho’s parents.
Because there was a support system around both of our characters, the drama wasn’t nearly as frustrating to watch, even if we knew there were social stigmas and other disapproving family members and annoying exes that would stand in the way of our main couple.
As a huge fan of friends-to-lovers, I bought into SITR utterly and completely because of how natural they were around each other right off the bat. And because of that reason, it took me a while to love Ji-ho and Jeong-in, who were just so awkward for the first half. As the show went on, they definitely started feeling more natural and I grew to love them. I still feel like the chemistry in SITR’s first half was more heart-fluttering, but OSN did an amazing job of portraying head vs. heart and highlighting the insecurities in a relationship that still exist even if you’re a 100% sure you want to be with someone. Jung Hae-in is amazing at acting "taken aback + in love" and it's adorable every single time.
Jeong-in's character development was subtle, but it was there, and I love the type of female lead that's strong, not in the "can do taekwondo" sense, but in the ability to sure in her convictions and decisions.
Despite that, I think my favorite part of this entire drama was the sub-plot with Seo-in trying to divorce her domestic abuser. It gave me all my crying moments, and doubled down on the sismance moments which gave me all the feels.
I do wish Jae-in got a stronger sub-plot too — personality-wise, she was my favorite out of the three. and it felt like she came back to Korea, said she would find something to do, and just never really did, even though as a sister character she did everything the show called for.
I know a lot of people complained about repetitive OST in SITR and OSN, but I honestly did not have any issue with the songs, which I loved. They added to the mellow mood of the entire drama.
Also: Eun-woo is the most adorable bean ever.
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Ultimately, though, I felt like the plot could have been more. The drama did a good job being subtle with all of the character's backstories, except for GDM's. I don't have an issue with that; in fact, I liked that we got flashbacks that gradually showed us what things were going on. But I felt very unsatisfied with the way they had everything play out. The conversations to explain things all seemed very vague and abstract, and she never said everything I wanted her to.
I felt like the side characters could be fleshed out more as well. The other flower boys also didn't get as much backstory as I wanted — think Shut Up Flower Boy Band, another drama in the Flower series that actually handled the family issues and friendship subplots really well for other characters.
The end of this drama also dipped a little. I felt like it started out very strongly, with a focus on GDM and her seclusion and about how characters grew individually, together. And then they started hitting us with noble idiocy and hurting each other and all the "romance" tropes and external factors to keep our main ship apart...and I just sort of stopped loving it.
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I did feel like the pacing was a little rushed at the end (to be expected for a webdrama) and I definitely liked the second half better than the first. Some of the characters were very hard to get to — as cute as Eun-Sol was sometimes, her perpetual aegyo and general preppiness was something I could not get behind, and her boy-craziness was something I knew I would DESPISE on someone I knew in real life. With that being said, though, she started growing on me when her story got a little darker, and I just wish this was explored more.
I loved Juwon and Yoonsoo as character types, but their background stories were a bit lacking.
Ultimately though, this drama was really not memorable. I can feel like it's kind of drama I'd forget a few weeks later.
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