Sarann55
UK
The writers seem to have done an excellent job of delineating someone whose life has disintegrated and with it, almost, his mind, and they should be congratulated. However there are many weaknesses in the plot - the villain has NO redeeming qualities at ALL, and no charm either. ALL the inmates of Jisung's cell are lovely cuddly blokes just waiting there to go straight - not even any real tension between them in those cramped quarters. No.
There are 18 eps of villainous success before a final denouement in the last few moment. The Korean legal and prison system appear to be a colossal waste of time. Everyone is falling over themselves to prostrate themselves for gain - with no shame- and apparently no one actually monitoring the services.
Watching the catalog of more and more crimes mounting up became frankly tiring - they were so predictable too, and that was boring.
Nearly every character apart from JiSung was pretty weakly written - almost caricatures, though many of them were actually quite fondly defined.
The kids were well played but experienced child actors, and the chemistry between them and their adults was good - the grown ups looked as if they actually enjoyed the children - mostly they managed to avoid the saccharine infancy that sickens me.
I found JiSung mesmerising in this, and I rewatched it solely for his performance. Some lovely character actors too, including familiar faces, and they were fun, but this is ALL about JiSoo.
Only a phrase or two about the music. The word Trowel comes to mind. Or Shovel. Too heavy, too loud, and in your face, ramping up tension that should not need it - and very little variation in how tension is created - volume and drummish pace. You now, sometimes silence is more impactful? Not much of that here. But hey, that's just me. And this series is not so new so maybe this aspect is dated. But ... no.
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This drama is as mad as a box of frogs but that's OK
First of all - this is like nothing I've seen before - very original, and interesting to see it incorporating mental trauma as a central feature of the plot. The exploration of that element was interesting, and the device to depict it was effective, but in fact most of what it says about mental illness and manipulation is pretty inaccurate. However, the entire plot depended on it, and mostly the madness was shown in a benevolent way, so I could forgive the nonsense.There are massive plot holes, numerous plot twists, which I eventually found both predictable and a bit annoying. Seen worse though.
Acting was as always fantastic, music was good too. The star of the whole show was the developing relationship between So Yeol and K. It was both hilarious and touching and developed into a real (and unsurprising, really) attachment and eventual integration. Very nice. This drama made me laugh out loud, which is rare, but it was also a very forceful thriller. Completely unrealistic of course. The performances of DongWook and HaJoon were outstanding, and their chemistry unmatched - while the other characters were great, I wanted to see more of this pair together. Watch this for them if for nothing else.
The baddy is truly evil. Truly. Well imagined, and well-portrayed. At first appears very benevolent, but I spotted him almost immediately as the most qualified to do what was done. Not sure if that affects the enjoyment or not - he was actually officially "revealed" a little while after that - to my quietly smug satisfaction.
The details on exactly how he is brought down were not exactly clear to me - I don;t think that was me either - I think they really glossed over it. Quite a few other things were only just sketched in, and we had to take them on trust. Depending on the balance of those details with the forward thrust of the drama, that's a bit of a weakness for me. However that probably kept the drama quite short and avoided episodes dragging or being slow, so it may be not a bad thing.
Overall, though I found it a bit frustrating I enjoyed many aspects of this show - especially the two male leads. I would quite like to have a benevolent K in my life too.
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Eventually watched it, eventually enjoyed it.
I had this drama on my watch list for literally years, and was really very conflicted about whether to watch it at all. I dislike horror, finding most of it fake, and many of the manifestations of spirits very cliched and boring. It is also too often depressingly predictable.When I did decide to watch, I had massive reservations about the premise, but also quite strongly disliked the female lead - an excellent actress, but I have too often seen her play the same long-suffering, passive, devoted, courageous but self-effacing female who has to be abused for too long before she is eventually considered worthy of the attention of a self-aggrandising narcissistic male. That's neither good writing nor a model for good relationships, and frankly it worries me what people think is a good example for minds and emotions to learn from
Because of this, I struggled with this drama in the first few episodes. I simply could not understand Tae Yang, as she whined and simpered, yet she seemed also to find it mindlessly funny. It was annoying, and I would have happily slapped her upside the head to see if we could drill a bit of sense into her. It wasn't that I could not see the situation she was in, or the fear she was battling, but her antics in relation to Jun Won were just awful, and not particularly believable. Believability though is pretty redundant here.
As we trickled through the episodes even her annoying mannerisms and glitches gathered a little charm, and Jung Won's arrogance was tempered. The innocent double-entendres of her need for his body were a small and quiet joy, as were their discussions of her seduction later on. I started to enjoy their company as each of them became more the person they were supposed to be. All the other characters and cast were well rounded and well realised too. I really feel that writers did a good job, painting characters and plot by means of excellent dialog, which was (once people stopped whinging) a delight.
The acting was excellent - from everyone involved. I've tried to think critically and pick a hole somewhere, in any performance, but I can't. When I watch something and find an actor's performance weak or jarring I often have to stand back and consider how well the role was written or directed, because that is often the real weakness. I really enjoy that I never had to even think about that here.
Ghosts do nothing for me - too often under-written and cliched - but it was nice that here the ghosts were in themselves characters, with motivation and pain and tasks they had to finish, and that many of them actually developed and were ready to move on. Those wee sub-plots and stories for the ghosts were all pretty enjoyable and satisfying. I was also very impressed by how this series actually touches on a number of serious issues which in Korean society are taboo, and love that it is done quietly, with little actual drama, but great kindness and acceptance.
The weakest ghost story for me was certainly the main device, that of trying to resolve the mystery of the kidnap and the whereabouts of the ransom. When that was finally settled it was something of a damp squib. The drama needed something a bit more meaty that we could actually care about - by the time this resolution came around it was completely irrelevant and did not change anything for any of the characters, except "Hana" - though that was a bit satisfying - self-satisfied smirk removed from that face at last!
Pacing was good - 17 episodes is an odd length, and thankfully they didn't try to pad it out to make 20 boring or repetitive episodes! 17 good episodes is excellent!
Music plays a massive role - often it gets on my nerves. Here the music wasn't always the awful soupy strings which sometimes make me feel slightly sick and dizzy, imagining all those violinists' elbows working back and forth as if they're stirring a massive bowl of porridge, and some of it was quite pleasant. It even seemed as if some of the songs carried the story of someone's inner processing, but since Netflix doesn't translate lyrics, that is really anybody's guess, and for me they were pretty irrelevant. Might have made 16 episodes without all that. That said, the music was often far too prominent - so that on those occasions when a conversation wasn't set against a "soundtrack" it offered an oasis of clarity and light - what a relief. The soundtrack was at times oppressive - like musac. Sorry. Could have done without most of it.
This became a much better drama than I at first expected, and I did massively enjoy myself, had a great time with all the major and minor characters.
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On the whole I enjoyed this drama, though it of course is not perfect. However, when I try to put down my thoughts and reactions, all I manage is a bit of a ramble that makes this sound worse than it was. But for what it's worth, here it is ....
The idea didn't at first appeal to me, but in fact I think that it was quite well handled. Someone said that they had Park Gwan Ho adjust far too easily into the 2016 world, and could have made much more of the culture shock, and I agree. They completely glossed over the impact of the mobile phone on a Detective who worked for 10 years with only paper forms, or police radio to rely on. They made no reference to the fact that in 30 years, laws and police procedure will have changed enormously. But that's not what this series is about, though I think there should have been more acknowledgement of it, and also appreciation of some of the "old-fashioned" skills.
The serial killer/police/psychologist triad is not particularly new, and it was all OK. Disappointing to see the tired old really boring device of the killer targeting the female profiler AGAIN!
I found it unbelievable that in 1986 Korea did not know about serial killers. I can believe that the authorities did not want them to get any publicity, but I absolutely believe that the police would have known about them. These were not stupid nor venal uncaring men.
Another issue really, for me, is the pacing. There were long pauses in dialog and plot. Lots of fists flying around in the dark where you can't really see what's happening, fruitless chases through twisting alleys. I'm not even going to touch on the plot holes, which I was happy enough to ignore. FF came into play a lot.
What I did enjoy was the tiny hints about 1980s attitudes rubbing up against the 2010s - really there should have been many many more of these - the nearest we get to any sense there is an issue is the joke that Gwan Ho needs to go for training (which he DID need, but never happens).
I also very much liked the "bromance" between Guan Ho and Sun Jae - and with the rest of the team too.
Lee Yoo Young as Jae Yi was endearing too, though I'm not sure there was much chemistry - it was OK.
There's not much demand for logic in the police investigations, either, and damn all thought given to rules of evidence or securing a conviction in court. This drama does kinda follow a 1970s The Sweeney interrogation roller-coaster, and there's a lot of men running around without a clear strategy ... going off at half cock. Brain not fully engaged. That got a bit frustrating. Hence quite a bit of FF, too.
There is, for my taste, a bit too much schmaltsy music conveying emotions that the cast are supposed to emote, in place of actual writing, but others may like it. Not me. The emotional 'departures' at the end were a bit too much for me and could have been improved with even a slight consideration to explore the uncertainty of exactly what would/could happen in the jolly old time-space continuum, and whether the future would actually be changed when Guan Ho's does NOT stay disappeared ...
Writing this, I realise it sounds like I didn't enjoy this story, there's such a lot wrong with it. But somehow I did quite like it, and I'm not really sure why. If forced to figure out why, I think the male leads especially, and investigative team have enough charisma to engage the viewer - well, me. There were elements of humour, as well as pain and a range of emotions, very nicely handled (though, again, a bit of FF - sometimes just a bit to slow paced for me).
The pacing is down to the Director and Writer, and yes, I think this drama could have been presented very well in as few as 12 episodes, maybe 14.
The alternative would be to include a range of other cultural issues and "educations" for Guan Ho, and show the kind of investigative skills required when you don't have DNA and technology to bridge the evidential gap. And I don't mean throwing a tant and beating people up, I mean, actually talking to people, listening and persuading them to talk to you and tell you stuff that even they may not know they know ... and then making the connections between apparently unrelated bits of information - we could have had a lot more of that! I wondered if that would make it a different series, but actually I don't think it would have, it would in fact have fitted very well with the premise and enhanced the story a lot.
But, yeah, still, overall, not bad.
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So good I watched it twice.
I don't want to say a lot, because it would take too long to say everything I want to say!This was outstanding. I watched it first perhaps two years ago, and re-watched this weekend. Often a second viewing is less engaging than the first. Not so here.
Well written, well directed, with excellent performances and very good stories, I struggle to find fault with this. I have not watched the US original, but certainly I found these stories original, which always carries weight with me.
I recommend this without reservation.
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The Gangster, The Cop and The Devil
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Watch this for the acting and - some of - the story and direction
Enjoyable serial killer chase, with a novel (to me) factor of alliance between (semi-rogue) police officer and gangster.Plenty of violence, but none of it overly graphic
Well enough written though there is no writer named here, well directed
I enjoyed this : its strongest point are the acting and character work
I find car chases, and chases through random areas rather boring, and of course quite few screen minutes were devoted to these, which I disliked. I also found some of the fight scenes pointless and time-wasting. FF was well used for those.
Some of the plot devices - even though I may not have seen them before in quite this form - felt hackneyed and fake. The internal conflict between police officers suggests (if realistic) that the Korean police system is both flawed and undisciplined. That these were breaking out into fist fights ... well, that felt very artificial and simply like a device to make the film longer without adding any value.
Much more could have been made of forensic investigation, with proper work conducted on the various lairs. and crime scenes. The techniques and lab work didn't need to be shown on screen, but the absence of any such investigation made this drama even shallower
There is no explanation on how the police and prosecution service dealt with the rules of evidence to initially justify retaining the killer, and secondly secure a conviction. Even though the conviction was based almost entirely on the witness statement in court, there were valid arguments to challenge the ID, and that he actually stabbed the witness. No such defence was offered.
So, while enjoyable, the plotting was too shallow for my liking, and leaves the drama less satisfying than it could have been if, say, most of the chase scenes were replaced by evidence, reason and argument.
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Step away ...
Excuse my rant. I'll try to keep it brief. A remake of a Japanese story.This seems more appropriate for 9 year-olds than for anyone who has achieved double digits.
Supposed to be the story of an inexperienced lawyer who is naively trying to be conscientious and ethical, but is roundly abused by everyone, and a mercilessly money-grasping lawyer who never loses a case. Perhaps she's supposed to rub off on him, I dunno. We follow them as they undertake a number of 'hopeless' cases and somehow sweep all logic before them. How? By using emotional appeals, lies, and manipulation that even a three year old would see through.
There's a pretty unbelievable back-story which we are supposed to feel explains the boss's narcissism, but nah.
Our rookie lawyer, who had supposedly decided she would stand up for herself and stop being walked all over, well, to be fair, she sort of does a bit, but is rendered completely speechless by her boss's behaviour which often resembles that of a toddler - actually many toddlers are more mature.
There is also an underlining "thriller" plot, involving an apparently random guy trotting around knifing people almost on a casual basis.
The acting is frankly pretty hammy, the writing is very poor indeed (in my view). I tried to give it a really GOOD chance, because it is clear it's not written for anyone with more than one brain cell. Now, if you like that humour, great, and it may be better written than I can say, and that's fine. But it's just too blunt for me and trying far too hard to stretch what I can bear...
If you like THAT kind of humour, then it might be worth a watch for a laugh, but it is completely unfunny for me.
Oh and the music - not bad in itself, but too loud, too prominent, not fitting the scenes, or else trying too hard to make me cry at fake "emotional" scenes, overall very irritating.
So - no - certainly not for me. Find this really hard to mark because it is so grim: but some of the actors are good actors doing their best with dross - so, I'll stretch this to 3/10 Honestly if I could have given 0 stars in some categories I would have ...
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The Gentleman and the Lady
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A cast of toxic women - a drama that hates nearly every woman on the planet.
After leaving home in frustration that her step mother and her step-brother have yet again lost a lot of money, meaning they will be homeless, a 26-year old woman takes a job as a live in tutor for a 41 year old widowed CEO with 3 kids. You of course realise we can expect them to fall for each other.Not as straightforward as that tho – lots of other business which is frankly annoying. His female 'butler' has designs on him for marriage as she is also the mother of his third child who he and his wife adopted. She 'loves' the CEO (perhaps?) but dotes on the kid, while discriminating against the other two. She is very limiting with all the kids and only when the tutor moves in do they feel understood and life improves.
So far, so predictable – you might think "Edelweiss" any minute, but no.
There are a whole raft of other characters – the CEO's father's mistress and her spoiled princess daughter, the butler, her mother and her mother's friend, the tutor's impoverished family. Somehow, in a city the size of Seoul, they all end up meeting, having relationships, and getting under each other's flesh, sometimes innocently and sometimes (naturally, the richer ones) in order to try to protect what they think they deserve.
I found the behaviour of nearly every single female apart from the FL, the CEO's cook and the child, incredibly toxic. Narcissism and greed abound. They behave like toddlers throwing tantrums and punches. Eventually I realised this is meant to be funny. It wasn't.
I speed watched from Ep18 to 25 and when I checked the episode count to find it was less than half way through, I dropped it.
How can I possibly give this crazy lazy plotting a mark? I did my best to be fair. There are some rather lovely characters but the good ones are weak, living in a cloud cuckoo land where they don't realise they are the only ones who are kind, and the rest, horrendous.
I struggle to give it more than 3/10
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Best in a long time!
I don't do 10s. This is the best rating I've ever given to any drama. At first it was a little hard to like it, because it's like nothing I've seen. Completely character driven, which I love, the dialogue is fast and funny, but in translation and with subtitles it's a little harder to catch the tone of the wit. But witty it is, and sarcastic, and eccentric. Nearly every character is odd in their own way, and some are very unlikable, anti-social, sociopathic - yet I like them. There is hardly any character in this drama who is unlikable - perhaps one, and yet even he has moments of humanity. It did take a little while for this drama to get into its stride, but it is well worth the wait. Much of the drama feels aimless, while characters spend time finding their direction, but as they begin to find their feed, the story begins to blossom, has setbacks, but continues. This is a very human drama, makes me feel warm and fuzzy without being sentimental, and also touches on some real issues which seem to pervade Korean society. It may be unrealistic in some ways (no one seems to be really struggling or overwhelmed by life, for example , but in other ways it shows relationships in down to earth, maybe even humdrum detail, but makes them engaging and beautiful. Can;t recommend it enough.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
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Bitter is the disappointment ....
I had seen the start of a review from my friend on a FB group we are in. I realised she had mixed feelings, but I liked the premise of the drama and thought it could be interesting. Sadly, on returning after my viewing and reading what she had said, yes, she hated it and she was right. That's OK - we don't always like the same things, and I would still have wanted to check for myself.I made it to half way through Episode 4 before absconding. I'm 67, life's too short.
Disappointing, though - intriguing premise with good potential, and the actors were all great, and somewhat beautiful, which never hurts. If even I had been left in charge of the writing it could have been better!
Instead women are used throughout in the tired old trope of "thrillers" from the last decade to engineer themselves into positions of danger for the so-called thrill of us seeing them nearly get killed. With - to add insult to injury - bead lighting and bad music. The whole plot line was littered with fake after fake after fake. Shoddy nonsense and sad to say this cast was wasted on it.
The plot depends entirely on people making ridiculous decisions and behaving in completely unbelievable ways; on the total inadequacy of the police "investigations"; on random characters doing random things; and on the uncharacteristic ability of FL to kill someone with a razorblade - I just don't believe it's that easy, even if you have had a fetish about killing since you were a child.
I had hoped that at least a good part of the plotline would cover measures taken by the three women to catch the serial killer, but, here, too there was nothing but ineptitude - despite one being a cop, one a genius, and one for goodness' sake a shaman, with "powers".
I also thought that this was a very very sad, prejudiced and unrealistic depiction of someone with Asbergers syndrome. People who live on the spectrum of this disorder face enough prejudice and other issues when trying to build relationships and a life - this did them a disservice which is just shameful.
For me ... 2/10 - pretty people, good actors ... maybe squeeze out a 3 for the presence of nice broad shoulders and a pert bottom. I'm 67 but I'm not dead.
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Engaging but over-plotted
Very slick production, great CGI which does NOT overwhelm either acting or plot (I find in a lot of western films it does both - it's a default for poor writing). Mostly, here, it was very unobtrusive, and used only where needed..Acting as always very impressive - the star prize going to Kim Byung Chul, who just EATS up the role of Sigma, and has some seconds, then dessert..
Well written up to a point ie, where a character is more than just a goon with a gun, they are reasonably well put together, within the frame of this drama..
However, the plot depends on multiple time slips and flashbacks - I gave up trying to follow it, because it made no sense at all and was just too confusing. It was never so confusing I wanted to give up, though, and that says something for the writing and all the rest. But I found it ridiculously over-plotted. It was as if they were spinning it out to 16 eps with too many unnecessary plot twists and flash backs. Including one final one which was completely too many..
Fights were excellent - and Park Shin Hye shone - but there were a few too many for me, and they became predictable and boring - even though very well done!.
And ... the romance. Well this was completely not required for any part of the plot which could have tota;;y managed without it. And I'm sorry to say I saw no chemistry between the characters or the actors. I like a nice snog, but these were pretty work-a-day..
Altogether, an engaging drama - I gave it a 7
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Exorcism rules
I don't know why I watched this - I dislike horror as a genre and it needs to be exceptionally well made or innovative for me to enjoy. This was not exceptionally well made - but I know why I watched - Park Seo Joon Ssi!The plot was fairly standard. The only unusual element was the ML "atheism" which I enjoyed in so far as it existed at all.
The demon was OK if predictable - seemed very standard and actually pretty dull
The lighting budget was extremely low. That seemed very predictable too
None of the characters were well developed, and, while there were opportunities for psychological exploration they were not followed through. I think if there had been more exploration then the frankly manufactured fear could have become much stronger. None of the battles seemed real because they were kinda preplanned.
In addition, from the very start I thought it a shame that the "possessed" were depicted exactly as if having a particularly frightening schizophrenic episode which - before they were understood to be a mental illness and not the embodiment of evil - led to many desperately ill people being tortured by various church authorities (and this still happens in certain cultures). It made me deeply uncomfortable, and the writer/director could have done much better.
I watched this to the end, but frankly fast-forwarded a good 30% of it.
The good things - the acting was excellent from all involved. I thought the SFX were good. Some elements of the design were very pretty - PSJ's wardrobe for example, his car, his bike; the demon's bar looked pretty cool, and the logo was stylish. Trying hard here - hope you appreciate the effort.
If you like this kind of guff, you may enjoy.
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Interim review
One reviewer advised to watch 6 eps before judging, but that's nearly half of this series. I wouldn't say I'm trigger happy about giving up on a dram, but nearly half before it becomes worth while to watch seems a lot. So far I have watched nearly three eps but my frustration is mounting. I wanted to like it, started watching it with great enthusiasm for Jung Hyuk, but ...The acting is good. Love Jang Jyuk, and he nearly pulls this off - and I can imagine that he gets better as his character is revealed more. Other actors are fine too.
It's the writing. I am all for suspending disbelief whenever I possibly can, but, really?
First, ML has no affect at all, but is "allowed" to speak one to one with believed family, to humiliate his colleagues and other staff, as well as hospital managers, without repercussions. We know brilliant doctors get massive leeway for bad behaviour, but at this point he's been involved in 3 or 4 procedures and two of them have been fatal. Not a brilliant record - even though he asserts he did nothing wrong, muck will still stick. He seems to fear his father's opinion - unclear yet why this should be so. His father knows he is a liability and has to hide his condition - he's not stupid : he would have made damn sure that his son knew when and how to read a room (ignoring his own feelings, which he is not supposed to have anyway) and use his intellect to meet the needs of patients AND grieving family. There are just too many holes in the way he interacts with everyone, and frankly it makes me sorry - this was an chance to actually explore a mental condition with some subtlety, but it's badly botched at this point.
The writing. The FL is young, naive to the pint of stupidity, a prig, tries to bulldoze logic with her own over-enthusiastic and frankly ignorant assertions, instead of presenting actual evidence. She baldly states the first death was a murder and expects everyone to drop everything, but she never states - "Look I saw it - he was thrown out of the car after it passed me, and then the same car reversed into him at such seed that he was thrown into my windscreen, it's not something I could either mistake or miss - I work with traffic every day and I am trained to observe driver and vehicle behaviour". At no point does she make any kind of case for searching for the unregistered vehicle (itself a reason to search for the owner). There were no cameras nearby, but she never suggests tracing that vehicle by checking cameras elsewhere and following its route. I'm not trained as a Police person, but even I've seen this on other dramas - a cop should know many more. But she just stamps her little foot. OK she's only a traffic patrol officer, but even basic training should give her enough nouse to know that won't convince anyone. This child is thoroughly annoying and comes over like a spoilt teenager who just wants her own way without putting in any real or sensible effort.
And yet in Ep3, the "brilliant" surgeon - who has realised something is hugely UP, because his patient dies under HIS knife, and it clearly can't be his fault (so he finds out - as if by magic - that there's a medication which has been combined with diabetic meds and will result in death). - decides that he and this traffic cop now need to work together. Of course he's arrogant enough to know he can do it on his own - but why bring her onto his team - all she's done so far is prat about. At his point she is anything but an asset to anyone.
Both the leads are deeply unattractive at this stage, and deeply annoying. Not sure I want to spend much more time with them. I may well continue and watch more of this, and it may get better and I might forgive these crimes, but this is pretty heinously weak and perhaps lazy writing and hard for me to swallow.
If I was writing this the ML might be getting FL on board in order to use her as a disposable pawn, but I doubt it. Sadly I think it would improve things a fair bit! Why are so many women written so weakly - don't get me started on his "fiancee" (great actress badly underused here)!
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High School King of Savvy
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Hard to comment nicely - why do so many people love this?
Doing my best to be fair, especially as I was able to bear watching so little of this drama. But I had two attempts and still found it unwatchable. Why do so many people seem to love it? Beats me!It is aimed at 13years plus. I am 5 times that age, so, obviously, this is not for me. But I saw many clips on YT with LSH and was intrigued, I followed my curiosity and so found myself in this awful position. But .... it was, indeed unbearable to watch! And me, well, I watch many dramas made for young people and even children, but I think that even when I was 13 (and I remember myself quite clearly at that age) I would have found this deeply condescending - and if not that, then still just awful.
First - the cast - are great, but my score there could not be higher because frankly the material could not, with the best will in the world be helped by however excellent the acting.
The storyline - I felt that the switching back and forth between school, ice hockey team, and the company was clunky and ... well pretty awful. Either ice hockey or school could be unnecessary - probably the hockey, for me, but who cares. The premis of a schoolboy standing in for his brother had potential - but .... execution failed big time
I found the writing absolutely abysmal with lazy repetition of over-tired cliches. ALL the females were mindless jerks - and this drama's target is probably young girls - which I find completely shameful. Korea is doing it's young people no favours here. Most of the male adults are petrified idiots unable to think or even form a coherent sentence - the young boys were pretty realistic young boys - idiots, too, but well, they are, and that's perfectly OK.
The FL, is yet another cliche - the dowdy, naive, sexually ignorant nerd unable to stand up straight or walk properly, reduced to taking tiny steps and serial self-humiliation. The ML is OK, but written in a pretty lame way. Both these actors did their best given the material - and, I suspect, the director.
If everything got a lot better later on, I apologise, but you need to KEEP your audience for goodness sake!
LSH (appears to play the only human being on the planet - well, apart from the adoptive dad and grandpa - so far, anyway. all those YT clips make him appear his usual cold but powerful tsundere, but (so far) he is lovely. Those scenes in which he featured were the only ones worth watching for me. And I am only a tentative fan of his.
And, yes, the direction - going for slapstick in a certainly fanciful piece, which would I think have been better served by some subtlety. Men unable to navigate a perfectly functional corridor without legs and arms flailing about in panic, women gossiping and simpering at work, and wearing completely inappropriate clothing which would never be tolerated in most offices, everyone unable to speak properly without stuttering, spluttering, and almost gagging on their lines. This is not down to the actors - this is clumsy direction. Technically it was competent filming, but that's it.
If you want to see "impersonation" dramas done even half way decently there are dozens of for example 1930s and 40s black and white films to model your work on - and those are outstanding, so you only need to get half as good to be a lot better than this. And before you object "but this is for teens" I was watching those films at the age of 9 and I still remember them, or those are American - well, the ML is trying to be an ice hockey star so the culture is clearly transferable! Lazy, lazy, lazy direction. Or production, I dunno where the decisions are driven from but it comes from the top.
I'm very aware that this viewing is a paltry sample to base a review on, but I am deeply disappointed with this drama, and I really did do my best! I skipped the most annoying bits or speed-watched and still I was overwhelmed by the sheer dross of it all. I really wanted to like at least the FL but she was so badly written!
Yes, this is an old drama, and has aged very badly - but it did not need to be THAT bad!
If I had been watching as a 13 year old I would have felt the same. Even if watching it at 10 years I would have felt similarly - at that age the complete lack of a strong female character would have had me legging it at the same point in the drama. I'm sure the FL eventually shows her strength, but young girls need a FL who is quickly engaging, and even if imperfect (all the better actually) admirable in some way, and a body of peers who are engaged, intelligent, yes, struggling perhaps, but not completely brainless ALL THE TIME!!!
If you are one of the apparently many who loved this drama - my reaction to it is no comment on your taste - we are all, thankfully, different!
Rant over. I feel a bit better now.
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First - it turns out to be 50 eps long (I never thought to check first, bottoms!) If it were condensed to about 16 eps it might be a much stronger story, ditching many of the crap characters and focussing instead on the real dilemmas faced by ML and FL.
Second after 4 eps, Every. Single. Character - apart from about 4 of them - is apparently toxic, manipulative, weak, selfish or a narcissist - or a combination of all of the above. Faced with the prospect of 46 more episodes of this, I am absconding.
Third - already I am FF through all those sections not directly involving the ML or FL.
Fourth - I'm not usually affected by poor production values, but most of this looks like it has been done on the very-very-cheap. Not saying that sets actually wobble, but some of them look very close to that.
Fifth - even though I really like the ML, FL and some of the individual characters close to them who display anomalous traits of emotional maturity and honesty, I can't see me putting up with this cliched and trite writing for much longer.
Sixth - There is humour, but it all seems to hang on the atrocious behaviour of those toxic and conniving characters, and as a result I find it deeply unfunny.
Seven - it occurs to me that perhaps the reason this has been all over my FB feed is that it is just rubbish. I feel desperately bad for the actors - many of whom are just great!
So ... NO. I really don't think that with this drama the Real HAS come at all, and nor do I think it will arrive any time soon. Unless you have a particularly masochistic streak, just don't.
Of course, if it's your cup of tea, then that's OK. We're all different.
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