1
JeA
Mars
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Not quite there but getting so close to being perfect.
Acting: Cast were one of the winning cards of this drama, even small/guest roles were done very nicely. Main point of the story is a case and the people connected to it in 1997 and 2010 and characterization, make up and acting together make you feel the years passed and the changes in the appearance and personality of the people involved. I seldom remember a drama showing time change this delicately.Story: My problem with whodunit stories, either in writing or on screen is that they tend to spend more than 95% of their length circling around who has done it then the short remaining time is spent on a hasty "Why" and "How" . I don't know if it's because the creators are afraid it becomes boring after the culprit is exposed so they keep them hidden as long as then can or else but the important part here is "hasty wrap up". From 4th ep. and Yang Zhe's introduction until 21th ep. by emphasising on both his personal traits like interest in European paintings, amateur drawing, writing detective novels, etc and parallels between his behaviour and Lu and Wei's descriptions of a serial murderer doing things like asking around to get information on their case or going away and stop killing, the writers made him a perfect suspect, "The only suspect" for at least 18 eps. I lost believe in his guilt before his return in the '10 timeline but still they did everything they could, even the smallest details (e.g. having him living in the same neighborhood as the murderer and coming home at midnight, Ning being wary of him, killing Hong violently on the night YM stood him up to gave him anger) to keep us focusing on him, they even gave him a knife in an isolated place only to forget his existence after a harsh arrest just like Lu did. I didn't want a full story of his life or what did he do if he didn't have a company but his subplot could've been solved much earlier and more graceful. On the contrary a good unassuming suspect like Guapi was wasted away hurriedly like that. They could've very well use his similiar surname to Wu Jia to play this father and son game a bit more, instead of getting divine police instinct in the last 2 episodes and know the culprit on the spot. Two good plot twists was done with in a blink.
Anyway, the '97 timeline was wrapped up nicely by reaching the first episode point but at the end, the original murderer's thoughts and motives remained largely unanswered, like his interest in drawing, paintings, detective fiction, etc, Specially as he used the hole on his mother's face to compare how the victims' faces would look in her picture. How did he even chose them? Lu ordered his subordinates to investigate his background family but it was never mentioned again, there wasn't a glimpse of his notes too. Here we had a character that barely talked more than 5,6 sentences throughout the drama with a mysterious past but they killed him off in flashbacks without shedding anymore light on him other than being a monster.( personally when they said he disappeared, I thought WJ must've killed him)
Lastly: although the story took its time with pacing, going between the past and the present wasn't disjointed or boring but rather uneventful. I think the suspects were too few, there were barely one suspect for every death and they were cleared quickly. Copycat crime was a nice diversion but still there wasn't enough suspense to keep up the thrill. Also, I didn't understand why Lu and YM had to go through all the bothers to get an official divorce and stay a couple when they could easily just live separated. Ning only needed a relaxed home.
P.S: Out of seven deaths, two unattended ones excluded, I liked Liu Meng's posture the best. When Wei called the others to watch it from behind the frame, the lights, the set and the music were just great.
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Wasted potential
Story had a strong premise, strong characters and an exciting revenge plot but the writer's tendency or better said obsession with the shock value, over the top plotlines and insanely unpredictable plot twists ruined it midway into the drama.I've seen enough Makjangs to know one should turn off their brain cells and logic to be able to enjoy them so illogical things aren't my main problems here.
The biggest problem with this story is the revelation of the main character's identity. I was hoping for a villain vs villain revenge plot and the struggle to see who's worse but instead we got a psychopathic villain with daddy issues vs himself like some person with bipolar personality disorder whose different personas are each other's arch enemies. I was truly disappointed by this plot twist and drama lost its initial intrigue.
Acting was good as far as screaming and jumping around goes, but still they did well in emotional scenes as well.
Music isn't anything especial. I liked background musics and opening theme but the songs, I did not. They were too melo and slow for such a drama that ends at a tense cliff hanger every episode. I'd like something faster and louder.
It doesn't worth a rewatch unless you want to watch S2 and would like to remember details before that.
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Could've been better
Drama had fine pace and a decent balance between present and the past. However it only speed up both in plot and thrill from ep10 upward. Between boring and unlikable main leads and bland supporting ones, villains Im Hying Rak and Do Young Gul were the shining stars of "Undercover". One dissapointment for me was Go Yoon Jo, she seemed promising at first but in the end she wasn't that important and her love triangle was unnecessary. Plot twists in later episodes were surprising and kind of sad but well played, even though with all that tention being build from the first episode, ending seemed anticlimactic and unsatisfying. Music wasn't bad but awfully overused. If the main theme wasn't played several times in an episode, it would be better.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
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A family story of love and compassion a little taste of revolution
At first, I'd like to start with a short historical reference. Years before Chinese Communist revolution, Communism was a popular party in my country and one of the most organized parties in our history, most of the elites modern people and majority of university students were either a member or a sympathizer. Even one of the top 5 Marxist Theorists in the world was from our Mars. But now, several decades later it's just a fading memory. While watching this drama I was thinking about how if our Communists could take tips from Chinese ones or Chinese Agents could take tip from ours, history could've been changed. maybe then it would be Chinese poets writing heartful laments about our red glorious revolution!! I guess it's what they call Subjunctive History....:: ( Not that I's a fan of Communism or any associated theories by any means!)OK, Enough history lesson. Let's talk the drama. First I must say that "Lost in 1949" isn't a cheap or badly-done drama. Cinematography, customs. set design, etc are done tastefully and beautiful. From this perceptive it's a 9/10 drama, my problems mostly lies with writing.
Story: It's supposed to be a mystery, spy thriller drama but it's almost neither. It has a pretty decent twist in the last 10 or so episodes. first part of this twist, I was sure of but the second part although not very surprising reality vise, I didn't see it coming. Our FL is under suspicion from 2nd episode and remains so until the very last episode. If it was a 16 or 24 eps long it would be fine, but you have to sit through 46 episodes watching a cat and mouse game which no matter how much dangerous and risky it gets, you're sure that ML/ FL are going to get away by telling some lies and self-victimizing. As saying goes: " You may fool some of the people sometimes but not all the people all the time!" This was exactly what they did all through the show.
Writing is solid with little plot holes and inconsistency but the very core of the story that it's this never ending boring game of SS people putting traps and ML plays smarta** and saves the day is the bane of this drama and killer of all the exciting scenes because you feel no real tension. The focus of the drama is more on how members of a family can take one of their own for granted and only in difficult time or special circumstances find out his/her real value, I have more to say on plot but stop here.
Cast: I've been a fan of Chen Kun for years but not having the patience to sit through a drama specially the long ones, LI49 is the first drama I've watched with him. He is truly the star of this show. His portrayal of twins brothers, so different in style and personality yet so alike is top-notch. and I think the lack of the same quality in his partner's performance make his acting even bolder. His Zhi Cai was a selfless person who all the time sacrificed his own life, happiness and comfort for the other people and his last sacrifice for his family was really touching!
Li Jie was so intelligent yet so ignorant and he managed to depict his kind of lost personality very well.
I didn't know Regina Wan before this and looking up her profile and seeing she's a rather known star with a bunch of awards made me wonder about her . Here she had only 3 damsel in distress, judgmental and poker face expressions. Her Li Wen was a pragmatist who used Zhi Cai as best as she could to reach her goals. I rooted for their friendship but when it started to get romantic, they lost their charm. Not to mention that in my eyes it remained an unrequited love till the end and I just couldn't see Li Wen's romantic love for him. Her feelings for Zhi Cai at the highest seemed to be just friendship and gratitude.
Of course a woman who'd ran away from home and her husband had been her everything for more than a decade falling in love with another man just a short while after his death would be a bit OOC.
Supporting actors were more or less good and carries out their rules very well. I specially like Zhi Cai and Li Na's easy friendship.
Music: I didn't pay much attention to the score but ending title was good.
Rewatch: I think it's one of those one-time-is-more-than-enough dramas.
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A glorified mess
I haven't read the source novel completely, only its synopsis, so I don't know how much liberty the writer has taken in dramatizing it, but given Japaneses' straight to point style and Koreans' tendency to expend and add loads of support characters, I think it's quite changed.Story: Suspence and mystery is tasteful and intriguing. It keeps all suspects at gun point and simultaneously reveals their truth about them. Even despite knowing the ending, watching them back stab and claw at each other was still interesting. Although this intrigue was a double sword. Too much suspense and ambiguous subplots made it rather boring. Ending left many things to be desired, though.
It's more of a binge watching show than a weekly one imo.
Music: The Road had only two theme songs but "Memory" was a great choice and quite relatable to the characters (specially ML's questionable past) and plots. BM was tasteful as well.
Acting: In main cast, Ji Jin Hee and Kim Hye Eun were great, of course he was too similar to his "Undercover" role.
I've never liked Yoon Se Ah's acting much to be honest. I like her face and voice but her frozen expression with all the time half crying-half smiling pinched face and lips is annoying. (And she's like this in everything I've seen of her) She was no different here. More like a pretty doll than a real person .
Supporting cast here were the real gems. They were believable and well acted.
Rewatch value: I don't think it would be much interesting for the second time. It's dark, creepy and full of unlikable characters. But if you want to binge watch to understand everything it's worth a second watch!
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Lighthearted but boring story of love!
New Year Blues tells the different story of 4 couples, two of them in established relationships trying to fix their problems and the other two getting to know each other and developing emotions. Stories are more like 4 short films by 4 set of crews that instead of being shown separately and in order are edited as a whole but it isn't much disjointed. All other reviews are positive so I think a more mixed one wouldn't hurt!Acting: There wasn't much of a character development or growth in this film and actors did good with what little material they had. I liked their easy portrayals.
Story:1. A policeman protecting a woman from her seemingly psychopath soon-to-be-ex husband.2. The woman is a trainer at the rehab center and one of her trainees is a Snowboard champion who has recently proposed to his girlfriend but there obstacles waiting on their way. 3. The girlfriend works in a greenhouse ad delivers plants to a café run by a single woman whose brother has a travel agency and is going to marry a Chinese girl. But he gets embezzled and his fiancé's high expectations for a grand Chinese wedding and other expenses don't help his case. 4. A man broke up with his girlfriend and tells her to divide their saved money, she takes the money instead and goes to travel agency and buys a trip to Argentina where she meets a rather cold and unfriendly Korean man.....
Characters going to each others' workplaces or working together and the fact that the film didn't stay on a couple for too long help us to grasp the story better and not to lose the process of the others. Except the Argentina plot where the only connection to real story is girl calling travel agency and doing some work in Snowboard competitions ( I didn't get what was her job) and is almost completely separate from the other 3 plots, the other are woven together loosely.
Conclusion: All in all, The New Year Blues, isn't a deep or interesting film that keeps you at the edge of your seat but it's good background entertainment and gives rather positive messages about love, trust, commitment, etc of course if you can sit through all of it without dropping or skipping as it's rather boring and tiring.
Rewatch value: I'm not the kind of person to watch something more than once or twice and this film doesn't include in my exception list so I think once is enough.
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And the winner wasn't love!!
I'd watched the teaser and I'd heard it was a hit so I had very high expectations for this drama but I must admit that it hugely disappointed me!Unlikable MC with little chemistry, repetitive plot, mediocre story, weak, always damsel in distress FL and what the heck villain were the main reasons finishing it became a chore for me!
**Repetitive plot**: I don't like too much slow burn dramas or haters turned to lovers but at the same time I don't like love at the first sight as well, because in my experience dramas of this kind turn to ups and downs, obsessive, jealous love rivals and meaningless melos with a break up and make up every 3 eps to fill their timelines. ATWIL was no exception in this. MC were attracted to each other by the end of ep 2 and were already idiots in love by 10 So what to do to make it lasts through 48 eps? Throwing them into a loop.
**Mediocre story**: Main plot (Everyone being after top marital arts manual) isn't that original and it hasn't been handled very good. Characters aren't very deep and there are several characters who had no impact on story whatsoever, being introduced in an episode only to get killed shortly after.
Marital world plotting against FL is acceptable, but main villain targeting her and trying to kill her even before the start of their animosity was a bit annoying to me. I mean she was a nobody then, if he took a grudge against her after she humiliated him at his banquet it would make more sense.
One other thing that bothered me greatly was that for a wuxia drama it hasdso much talking and very little action. Every episode was full of long and repetitive conversations about the same subjects.
**Weak, always damsel in distress FL**: I started watching from ep2 and she had been saved like twice already. I stopped counting the times ML appeared to save her around ep 12. They stopped counting too, as we don't hear "I'm indebted to you again or it's the nth time you saved me, I'll pay you later" after some times.
She's been characterized so weak and fragile that her fighting scenes are such a joke. She was like, first scene was her choking on her own saliva and ML had to slap her on her back and in the next scene she was flying in the air defeating seasoned leaders of other sects left and right!!
**WTH Villain**: What was the matter with him?? He wanted to be a marital artist but was too weak to be? Or he just had gone insane from too few attention and wanted to do something big?? He made no sense to me. By episode 31 everybody knew he was the culprit but they did absolutely nothing. The ones that actually did something either get themselves killed or committed suicide.
**Acting**: I don't have much to say about acting. They were decent, imo. ML was better than FL though. I'm not sure if this was their first leading role or not but if it was, I won't be surprised, they were obvious. They didn't overshadow other people in the scenes. Secondary characters were far better than the leads, even though they didn't have much to do. I didn't like love triangle very much too, it made a fool of two unrequited lovers and they mostly did nothing but pining after the leads.
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Tries its best
Round up: No way out or Outlaws 3 has all of the iconic elements of the previous movies: violent fight as a comic relief, lots of stabbing, a lot more swearing, fast pace, not much of a storyline, a single unarmed person defeating a bunch of armed people, even the truth room BUT .... at the end something's lacking in this one that makes it less enjoyable than the others.A large part of it is about his new team. They lack the charisma and craziness of the previous team who went to fight like mad. 3 of them were outed early and those 2 from Narcos weren't much better. That made fight scenes inferior. Ma Suk Du can only do much by slapping people unconcious. He needs some like minded people around to keep the numbers.
The villain is a nice surprise but for all his evilness is stupid, the kind of psycopathic foolishness that doesn't think just kills. It's a wonder how he'd managed to keep his side business a secret all these years. Maybe the promise of huge money in his last deal had made him mad and desperate, still I didn't like him. The Japanese were usual evil fixers, did good with what they had.
Despite all flaws, I enjoyed it and had a good laugh and I'll watch the future movie(s) because I love this genre but I wouldn't keep my expectations high.
If I want to rewatch, I prefer to rewatch the others.
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A colourful depiction of a dark tale
As a passionate fan of fantasy genre and an old admirer of Chen Kun and Zho Xun, I'd waited patiently for this film to be on Netflix and I wasn't disappointed.....Story: Fantasy worlds and Chinese xianxia with demons (monsters) and human stories has always been attractive to me and I must admit, at least in films, I've been rarely let down. I haven't played the game but "TYYM" has an interesting and involving plot. Story is said nicely and the pace is right so you'd barely feel it's 2 hours long.
Not having any prior knowledge of the story, at the end I was able to grasp characters' thoughts, motives. backgrounds and growth. Characters were introduced well and their first impressions kind of showed their personalities. World building and plot structure is fantastic and believable. Even though, I would've liked it to explore characters more deeply. Also, the film spent too much of the screen time to reach the bridge scene thus the last plot twist after that was a bit bland.
Cast: Chen Kun is excellent as cunning, mysterious yet internally struggling Qingming, he has a boyish aura around him that make him look the perfect young and rather vulnerable half human/half demon. Zhuo Xun is great as calm and powerful Baini as well. Their on screen chemistry and harmony shine as always and over shadow the supporting, younger characters.
CGI: TYYM has excellent and very real CGIs. I've watched too many CGIed films so I have many material to compare and I say it's good! Most of the side characters and nearly all background ones are monsters, despite this animations aren't glaring or cartoonish ( like Chen Kun's other fantasy "Zhong Kui and Snow girl ..."). Animals and demons' features are detailed and fight scenes are choreographed tastefully and artistically. My own favourite was Red Evil Ghost, lol.
All in all I really enjoyed this film and I would like to think the post credit animation means a sequel is in mind, since the world-building was so excellent and characters had potential for more adventures. Maybe in the meantime I would take a chance with the game!
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3 hours of glorious visuals and natural music without the intrruption of the plot!
First I must say that this movie is beautiful, colour palettes, set designs, outside sceneries, everything are mesmerising and so striking. Movie has a one linear plot: "A trained assassin shows heart in a mission, then is sent to kill her former betrothed/cousin." And this is practically the whole story.One glaring thing about this movie is that it's slow, I mean really slow. While I was watching, more than once I noticed a scene has been still for too long and I thought that accidentally I'd paused the video only to see it's playing (*,*) Dialogues are far and between and when a character is talking, he/she speaks sentences with a several seconds pause in-between. Because of the nature of the movie subplots and details are hard to grasp. Acting is superb, they show their characters inner struggles by body language relatively well. All in all even if you don't follow the plot and story, it's a beautiful background while you do your work!
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