nowwatchingseoul
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Good movie, underwhelming ending.
Let me start by saying that I'm not a movie watcher, i prefer series. The fact that this movie got SO hyped up and it got La palme d'or of Cannes Festival??? I just had to watch it. I just had to see it from my eyes. So I watched this with high expectations. I might repeat myself at times, sorry in advance.This movie was really good on the overall and the story started off great but it fell into an underwhelming conclusion to me. At first you can briefly see the struggle of a poor family but that is still somehow happy. Then a opportunity kicks in. Recommandations over recommandations and at this time it started to get unrealistic for me. "The Care" ? Seriously ? The rich husband looked suspicious about the card but didn't even bother enough to look up the agency on Google?? (or Naver... whatever). From the moment he got introduced on the screen I thought he was the one that'll discover everything. I thought he would be the one smarter than everybody. The rich family trusted EVERY move the poor family made without second-guessing, like... IT WAS SO EASY! There was not one time where they almost got caught or whatever (the night after the camping got cancelled doesn't count because they didn't get noticed AT ALL, didn't make a noise and just came out smoothly). The wife literally believed everything they would say. The whole process of settling the poor family into a job in the house looked so... smooth. The way they succeeded to kick out the housekeeper who has been working in the house for YEARS and had multiple and different superiors living there. Really unrealistic. Like... just over RECOMMANDATIONS ? "It's better to take recommandations from someone you know" the rich wife says. GIRL. YOU DON'T KNOW ANY OF THEM. You could be ganging up a group of professionnal robbers in your house and you wouldn't even know !
The little story of the guy falling in love with the rich family's daughter (sorry i don't remember any of the names, except for Min) was just a filler, that's what it was. The first time they kissed was so random, so out of the blue. Their relationship was so hard to understand, like didn't she like her former and REAL tutor? Anyways.
This is when the former housekeeper came back that the movie started to take a weird and graphic turn. The poor family were so drunk but somehow became sober. First of all we never got to know why and how she had bruises on her face. Why was she acting like that when while she still had her job she was always composed and not "scary sounding". If I was in the poor family's place I would have never opened the door or at least I would've told the former housekeeper to come back tomorrow morning because what in the world ? You have been fired, and when the bosses are not here, you come back at an unexpected hour because you "forgot something"? And on top of that my whole poor family that the bosses don't know about is here, plus the house is looking a hot mess? Sorry but you are not coming in. But of course they let her in, there wouldn't be no "story" then. I think they could've turned the story a whole other way still though. That moment where the former housekeeper was imitating north-korean anchorwomen saying "Our Leader KJU" and stuff really threw me off for some reason lol. I know it was dark humor and i completely LOVE dark humor but that one wasn't for me haha. First of all it was not that funny and on top that they were keeping a family as hostages WHILE making the joke.
Then after that, everything seems to be there for shock value's sake. EVERYTHING. The way they tied the former housekeeper and her husband and threw them in the basement, when they could've told them to leave because they had already deleted the video from the phone ? Her crazy husband ? I mean you haven't seen the light of the day for 4 years it might understandable but still. The sex scene that they made lasted for SO loooonggg. We haven't even seen how embarrassed Min, her brother and her dad were during this because they had to hear it all. All we seen was the rich husband and wife getting into it, when the real thing about it was the family's reaction but we didn't see it. Or it was too short and the sex scene was on screen for too long.
Then after that you got the scene where the poor family's semi basement got flooded with water from the rain. It was almost like director of the movie wanted to force an emotional reaction out of me. Like they were saying "right there, this is the scene where you're supposed to feel extremely bad. FEEL BAD NOW". Ok, I did feel bad but not like it was the end of the world you know? When in fact yes, I was supposed to feel bad like it was the end for them, because they lost most of their belongings and getting everything back will be hard even though they're getting paid. But the way they pushed that onto me resulted to me just being like "aw, i feel bad but they'll be alright. ok, next scene" like it was just a phase for me when for the family it was traumatic and so hard to process. And i was supposed to feel the trauma and the hardship with them, but I didn't, I was just looking from the "other side". It frustrated me so much because I relate to this family situation (I'm not that poor but I'm LIGHT YEARS away from being rich) regarding the way they almost lost everything, but the feeling it gave was like I was a stranger to what they were going through when in reality I'm not. And it's so sad that, i felt distanced from the family and didn't really "root" for them? More like "If they succeed I'm happy, if they don't that's just their fault".
Then the way the movie ended ? I was really underwhelmed. You're gonna tell me that it's not weird ? That all of a sudden there's blood, screams, panic everywhere ? Which for me, there was no panic or fear at all, i was just there with a big "WTF" in my mind. Because WTF ? Sudden stabbing, sudden horror and blood everywhere, it felt so rushed and poorly done. I just felt like the director didn't know how to end the movie and he didn't want it to be boring, so he just said "Ok guys! You know what ? Let's kill or at least try to kill everybody!" "Boss, this is not a horror movie" "I don't care, we must shock the audience, they won't see this one coming haha". Well, i surely did not see that coming and I wish the ending never came out like that. And also the dad stabbing the rich husband because he couldn't stand how he would always make a stanky face when he was smelling an unpleasant odor?? That was so random but also so hilarious at the same time. I understood the dad but at the same time i didn't? The only reaction he had after those remarks was to literally STAB him? Not yell at him, not punch him, not beat him to death? But STAB HIM??? So he was like "So we smell bad? Ok let me stab you." WHAT IN THE ACTUAL WORLD ??? Then he went hiding in the basement and when the situation died down during days after, he started sending Morse code messages not knowing if anyone would see it but somehow his son did. And son succeeded in translating a whole long letter in Morse code, wow, impressive. Anyways.
As for the characters, I didn't get attached to anyone. Because they ALL seemed so cartoonish. I couldn't take any of them seriously. I don't know if this is how the director intended the movie to be like, but this is why I don't remember any of their names. Except for Min (the poor family's sister), she was the only character that seemed real ! The director/writer could've added more depth into the characters especially the rich family. Like I said it was like they were only showing the poor family struggles and pushed the "feel bad, feel sorry, feel sad" agenda on us. And they didn't show the underground of the rich family and just was like "this rich family is living so well, we don't care about them.". They just looked like pure jokes being naïve and easy-to-use.
The rich husband's voice sounded like Buzz Lightyear for some reason, i don't know if it was the actor's real voice but it was very cartoonish. Him getting irritated everytime getting asked "but you love your wife, right?" it was funny lol. The "over" parts with his son were funny too. The former housekeeper, cartoonish. Her husband, cartoonish. The poor family (except for Min) felt bland and felt like they were just doing things for the sake of doing. When you make plan that is supposed to succeed, everybody in their right mind knows that you need to make a "plan B" in case anything goes south. They knew how to handle everything but somehow, one thing went wrong and they all lost their "right mind". This is one of the moments that made this movie unrealistic. And then the dad started saying "in life it's better not to have a plan", yes so easy to say that now that your plan backfired... my oh my.
The way this movie showed us the differences of poor and rich lives was very distinct. But I'm not sure why it got so many awards because it didn't make us emotionally involved. It didn't really show us the harsh and violent reality of being poor or the cruel and calculating world of rich people. It was almost like they polished the fact of being poor and polished being rich. It didn't show us how ok, they are two different worlds but both of them are hard in their own ways (of course having no money is harder, but you get what I mean). Instead it was a constant slander to rich families, constant mocking on them, constant minimizing their story as much as possible to make the poor family the only focus. But they failed all the way through because the poor family didn't make me feel anything enough to disregard the rich family like the director wanted me to. They made their poor life look so easy to handle? We never seen the dad, brother or Min break down once, they just looked sad. Especially when they seen their house flooded, Min sat down on her overflowing toilets and started smocking?? And i know it was to make us understand that this is something they're kind of used to but damn... A real, authentic reaction matching the situation, that is all I ask for. Also the way they handled the former housekeeper and her husband looked like they have been doing this for years, they didn't panic to the point of not knowing what to do or leaving anything behind, this poor family was full of professionnal scammers, they didn't get caught. Not even almost. Anyways.
On the overall, the actors did well, the scene were well shot. There were plenty of unnecessary and filler scenes in my opinion but it's okay i guess...? I didn't really pay attention to the music so it might mean that it fitted every scene really well. The story was SO genius at first but it ended so catastrophically. So graphic for no reason and so confusing. It would be a 7.5 for me.
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I don't know how to feel about that one
I really liked this drama because it actually taught me a lot and got me interested in new things. The way it kind of hints the 체벌 (chaebol) lifestyle. It was interesting and it raised a lot of questions and curiosity. Do rich people actually commit the worst crimes and get away with it ? I mean of course but I'd think of tax fraud, theft, manipulation and threats on other individuals, not ACTUAL murder and violence you know?It also showed me a lot in terms of motherhood and fatherhood. Even if it's not your biological mother, if she raised you, loves you with her whole heart and protects at all costs, she is still your mother. It unveiled about thirst for power too, wanting everything to be yours can lead you to your worst days, even death.
The whole drama and the story made me think of telenovelas so much lmao. Like it was a family centered series, with secrets, mystery and stuff. It was really fun to watch. Each story of each main character was really touching in some way, they all had a history and an answer to why they were acting the way they did.
Han Soohyuk and Kim Yuyeon's story about her being a maid and the rich youngest son falling for her was unnecessary in my opinion and it was SO cliché and basic. Like girl, we've seen this story happen over and over again in rich families. It can't be happening everytime! And in my opinion it was so badly made, you're going to tell me that the fact they exchanged rooms made them fall in love??? That was so unrealistic like wtf lol. It was so unrealistic to me because the girl is poor, she has to make money at all costs, one of her parents is sick, she has to do anything to keep them alive and like she said it was her highest paying job. Okay, she got kicked out once, but taking the risk to be kicked out a second time??? UNREALISTIC. And she DID get kicked out a second time by his dad lmao. Anyways, i feel like their story was just a filler.
The end of the drama was okay, i liked it i guess. There's still some of the points that I'm confused about tho...
My rate : 7/10 ; It wasn't one of those series that got me excited ENOUGH. The time travels were getting confusing at some points. Like at a time we would be 14 days after the murder and then we would switch to 2 days before without a warning sometime ?
If you love telenovelas, family feud based series in the first place, i recommand it heavily. But to the general public, it's not good enough to be recommended. Like i won't bully you to watch it lol. Plus i didn't get attached to the characters, i just felt so bad for them.
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Reflection Of You : A "hard-to-watch" drama
I'll go through the positive things since there's not so many in my review.The actors played their characters really well because they were so annoying and i hated everybody so much so i'll give them that.
The cinematography was SO good. Especially the scenes that were filmed in the heath field in "Ireland", in the Cliffs of Moher and in the house too. I love these kind of natural, windy, "middle-of-nowhere" places and it made me want to visit the way it was filmed SO well.
The camera work was really well-done, sometimes the way it was dramatic was so good. For example when Woojae passionately kissed Huiju in the gallery during his wedding. This scene was so emotional, i could feel ALL their sorrow, their desperation, i literally could feel any heartbreaking emotions through that scene, it wasn't just a kiss. And this is why the camera was good. The way they would film Huiju in the streets from every angle when she feels persecuted really portrayed the feeling of being chased down and having nowhere to go. I loved it.
The authenticity of this drama is not being disregarded, it felt real because i felt bad for no one. Usually there's always someone that you feel bad for but here everybody did some crap in the past or IS just a piece of crap. So I'm not going to lie, it felt real on that side.
Now let's get to the real talk.
I didn't hate this drama (almost though) but i didn't like it neither. Because i was always on the verge to either put it on hold or literally just drop it. I rarely drop series and shows, unless they are literally boring in every way possible. And this drama was indeed boring and predictable, the story was boring, the characters were boring and really predictable, almost everything was boring. The only thing that kept me watching this, is that I just wanted to see how this story will end, that's it. Because even though, the basic "cheating of the wife and the son that is not the father's son and the girl who seeks revenge because the wife stole her husband" story was so typical and... boring ? You just still wanna see what's next. It's like a beef going on in highschool between 2 students and you overhear it, you wanna know what happened because it's entertaining (and because you're nosy too lol) but if you don't get to know the end of the story, you wouldn't care. Same here.
I had no connection to ANY character whatsoever, they're ALL evil. Huiju is just a cheater, a liar, an entitled brat. How are you going to feel like a victim when you literally destroyed people that are around you ? You cheated on your husband with the husband of your supposed to be BEST FRIEND, brought them to their wedding photoshoot, acted like you were happy for Haewon when in reality you were not at all. You lied to your husband about him being the father of your son, you lied to your mother-in-law when you know the thing she absolutely doesn't forgive is cheating. You use your power to get what you want all the time. Also the way she ran away from Ireland with Hosu, leaving Woojae behind and leaving with his passeport ? Imagine if someone does that to you, in a country where you don't know no one. No money, no phone, no passeport. In the countryside of an unknown country. Evil. She deserves all the bullying Haewon and her mother-in-law put her through, sorry not sorry. Plus, she has the weirdest facial expressions. When she's supposed to be sad she smiles, when she's surprised she smiles, when she's scared she smiles, when people insult her she smiles and it's... WEIRD ? Especially right before the kiss scene with Woojae, when he pulls her, turns around and she has a weird expression on her face. Between confusion, anger and happiness because she smiles??? Anyway. But she's really willing to do anything for her kids in general and i respect that.
I understood Haewon at first, she's hurt and often when you're hurt, revenge is something that crosses all minds. But she's doing too much. She's obsessive, she's crazy. The way she uses Juyeong just because she's poor and stuff is so out of place and evil. And it's not like she was using her for a noble cause, she's using her for her personal revenge. Juyeong only does what Haewon tells her to because HW makes unfounded promises to her and that's messed up. Haewon helps Juyeong and her dad legally just to mess with the An family and be on their way, that's it. She ends up putting him to jail anyway. She uses people like pawns and it pisses me off. She's so obsessed with Woojae, it's clear he doesn't like her the slightest but like she says, she "holds him down". Even on the Arts University days we could all see that he didn't like her. Maybe he already knew how twisted she was. But little did i know he was worse. The way she comes about her revenge is not it all. Using children that didn't have to do anything with your miserable life ??? Evil. And the way she always speaks in quotes like she's some wise woman when she's the worst human being you can ever encounter. Plus, she keeps saying that people turned her that way, excuse me girl ? We all make our own choices. It's not like your mom and grandfather raised you to be the disgusting person you are today, YOU decided to be that way. It's crazy how she doesn't take any accountability for nothing.
Woojae is as much evil. Before and after he lost his memories. He never cared about Haewon, NEVER. Even when he lost his memories, he didn't care. When he didn't have his memories, he had this habit of always saying sorry like it would make the cut for everything. He was never sorry because of what he did to Haewon or he was never sorry about meeting with Huiju on numerous times when he knew that made his wife uncomfortable. He was sorry only because he made her sad or mad. It was giving "sorry that you feel this way" and not "I'm sorry for not thinking my actions through and causing the pain i caused, i will reflect on my deeds". All he did was in the intention of regaining HIS memories, all he did was in the intention of satisfying HIMSELF. He doesn't care about how others may feel. He doesn't care about how he hurt anyone. And that's pretty much with every character in this show. They're all selfish. I'm so glad he's dead, for once Lisa did the right thing.
I hated Lisa character, she always has an attitude for no reason most of the times. She's mean, obnoxious, doesn't care about others. She treats Juyeong so poorly and then goes around saying that Juyeong is the bad guy... See what power can do ? She doesn't like her father for whatever reason when he's the one who literally almost never let her down. When she watched Haewon and woojae's wedding video, she overreacted in my opinion. It felt like she was the one being cheated on, i was like "are you in love with woojae or what ? you don't even care about your father like that to be throwing so much of a fit, so what's the matter?". I don't know if it's the actress but she overreacts pretty much often. Anyways.
I have to agree with other people when they said that the story unraveled SO slowly. But i feel like this was made on purpose to maybe make us feel "comfortable" like Hujui felt all these years and then in the end brutally hit us with all this "pain". But the slow pace made me wanna drop at anytime so i guess it's not a good thing for this drama.
But i was so disappointed with the ending. If I was Huiju, I would've told everything to my husband at this point. She didn't even kill Woojae, it was LISA!! I'm sure he would've understand because he once tried to kill Woojae too. And he would've protected her and Lisa, I'm sure. The way it ended was so boring omg. And I really felt bad for her husband. She should have told him what was up, through a letter at least. She just "disappears" in Korea and have a new job. Which is to me pretty unrealistic??? How you are a pretty known painter/artist, everybody have seen your face but you still get to work and walk in streets without hiding. IN THE SAME COUNTRY. And it's not like she's in the countryside now, no she might be in Busan, Daegu or some place like that. The way Hyeongseong looked for her, he would've found her? Anyways. The end sucks.
On the other hand, the OST was IMMACULATE. It added something more to the scene. It really suited the drama. "I am lost" by Lee Seungyoon and Moving Away by Savina and drones were my absolute favorite songs.
On the overall I'll rate this a 6.5, i didn't really like this drama. I didn't feel any connection to anything and i remembered all the characters names because i hated them. It's the first time ever that I don't like any of the main cast, even the supporting cast. If it wasn't for the acting, the immaculate cinematography (especially the Ireland shots) and the OST, i would've gave it a 5. I don't recommend this drama but I'm not keeping people from watching it, because it is definitely an experience.
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Imawa no Kuni no Arisu Season 1
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Don't watch Squid Game first.
Ok, i liked the series it was really good but there's just something missing.I know there's a manga about it but i never read it and i don't plan to honestly.
I came in here with really high expectations because people in my entourage and people on the internet said that Squid Game was over hyped and that Alice in borderland was in fact better. I watched SG when it came out and really, no death game, no series of that genre was better than this... STILL.
Maybe if SG never came out AIB would've been the best series of that genre out there no discussion, but SG ate AIB up sorry not sorry.
First off, how the story takes off makes no sense. Literally no sense. Arisu doesn't even really go at it with his brother or father to leave, he just finds an excuse to get off the game and leave. And then he says that he got "kicked out"... What ? No, your spoiled ass didn't get kicked out, you ran away like an ungrateful kid.
Then you got Karube kissing his boss wife, seems like it's not the first time but oh my oh my, he suddenly gets beat up and fired THAT day. At least with Arisu we somehow got a hint of his background but with Karube it was like "ok, he has a job but we need to make him leave the job and show that the 3 bestfriends are all losers in some way"???? A whole bunch of nonsense put together.
Talking about their friendship, it was boring. Really boring. None of them are funny or interesting. The only one that was at the very least charismatic was Karube and I think he made the whole friendship.
It took half of the first episode to really get into it and i don't mind taking time to really set the story up. But now stories were boring, briefly cut to let place to 3 boring guys struggling to find something to do (pretty sure the director did that just so he can gain more minutes because he didn't know what to do). Then the story starts with electrical power just cutting off, phones too, people disappearing. To me that was really unrealistic and it's an overused method to start a death game story. It's always either you see people but they don't see you or people disappear. Always that "isolating" start.
Arisu is the character that pissed me the most off, especially during the 7 Hearts game in the botanical garden. He ran away with the wolf "mask/title" and then hid and acted like he was sorry and then when only 3 minutes were remaining, he suddenly "changed" his mind. But at the same time i was glad he was there during certain games. And also can we talk about Shibuki? She was so useless omg. Can somebody just tell me what did she do for the story? Except explaining some of the rules they could've figured out themselves ? If the story went without her, it would've made absolutely no difference.
In my opinion, the series got interesting only from episode 7... meaning the end since there's 8 episodes. I just feel like the rest was so passive, nothing was really happening. Chota was a really passive character, if the friendship was just Arisu and Karube, it would've made no difference as well.
Japan really has a thing for sects. Chota's story was about that, and "The Beach" was definitely a sect or just had a sect-ish vibe.
The way you would see every other girl in bikinis, being victims of attempted rape really made me uncomfortable.
This series felt like there was no story whatsoever, especially for the main characters. I don't even like any of them. Like i said it got interesting from episode 7 to 8 and the male lead wasn't there for most of it. That tells a lot.
The set up was good, i can't really say anything on that. It's just Tokyo streets, they are really cool. Fortunately we got to see other players because if it was the 3 guys from the beginning all along... i don't know.
The actors did really bad acting in my opinion. They succeeded to carry the show but I wasn't really sold about it.
I'm definitely going to compare this with Squid Game because almost every AIB fans i talked to literally DRAGGED it.
I think Squid Game was better. First of all, in AIB, Arisu is from a rich family, he can stay home and not do anything, it won't affect anything, so i don't feel bad or any type of way for him. In SG, the game was made for the players to naturally reveal their true self, while in AIB it felt like they had no choice but act evil. The story of each character in SG was meaningful and left a memory on you, while in AIB you could get stories about a girl that loves her father??? Ok? Or a bullied boy that grew into a villain... Ok?? Still want you dead tho. Unnecessary moments like that made me mad. Or you could get sex/nudity scenes that absolutely nobody needed to see. Like wtf does it add to the story? I'm talking about you Shibuki.
The series (AIB) lacked action and suspense in my opinion. During most of the games i wasn't really impressed. I had a little tension because the games were difficult to clear but that's it. I didn't sweat, I wasn't stressed out, I didn't feel any pressure. It was just like watching white wall, not impressed. And it's really sad because i LOVE feeling stressed out and pressured because this indicates that the show is really good to me.
On the overall, I'll leave a 7.5/10. The show is definitely good but if I recommend this to someone that seen Squid Game first, they're definitely going to be disappointed. So i suggest watching this first and then SG.
Oh and if in season 2 it happens to be all a virtual game imagined or being played by Arisu or anothe person it would be the most boring series i've ever seen hands down.
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I highly recommend this drama
(Commentary mainly characters focused)Gosh... I'm going to start by saying that this drama is really worth watching. You might not like it at first but it was worth the wait for me. I usually don't like watching weekly, i mostly binge watch but now i really had to keep up because it was SO GOOD.
The actors, the sets, the color grading too !! (we don't talk about the color grading enough) they were all immaculate. The action scenes were so well-done and the emotional scenes too.
I usually don't like the romance genre but a little bit more of it would've not hurt anyone in my opinion. When Youngro and Suho kissed, I thought I would feel their love for each other more. But I just saw their relationship like they were siblings. They looked like they cared for each other like siblings, not like lovers. Also this drama sometimes made 2 characters kinda "like" each other but not really give them the time to actually develop anything, *cough* Bunok and Gyeokchan *cough*.
I didn't mind almost the whole drama being shot in the dorm, they're hostages so it made sense to me. It would've been so makjang of the director and writer if they had Youngro and Suho escaping, dodging a rain of bullets from the SWAT and then continue the drama outside the dorm. So unrealistic lol.
But thank God, there were some scenes outside of the dorm because it would've gotten a little claustrophobic.
Speaking of outside the dorm, I personally have a thing for villains in general. I love hating them and sometimes they end up being my favorite character. In this drama my favorite character wasn't a villain but i literally LOVED to hate Nam Taeil. I'm sorry but this man was so hilarious! The way he scared everyone around him had me dead lol. Especially when he was with Eun Changsu, Changsu was speaking gently to Suho trying not to make things worse. And then you have Nam Taeil yelling at Suho, calling him "stupid communist" and all the names of the world lmaoooo. When he got arrested and Mr. An was being too confident while had lost 300 millions from Code 1's funds and got on his knees begging Taeil to save him. And then Taeil wanted to slap him hard but An was scared so he slapped him gently and then he said "thank you sir" hahaha omg this was so funny. He literally said thank you for not being slapped hard. Or when Taeil was getting beat up and then received an order from the president, everybody instantly feared him and he regained his confidence. And then beat the hell out the one in the black trenchcoat lmaoooo i was so dead.
I didn't like any of the wives to be honest, but the most hateable one was Taeil's.
At first i hated Jang Hanna but I ended up being tolerant to her because she helped Suho and stuff. But I'm pretty sure that if it wasn't for Gangmu she would have not cared that much. Like she said, she only joined ANSP for him.
I got attached to Suho so much. I love him so much omg. The way he got killed was too harsh for me. I couldn't do it. Hours after watching the last episode, my heart is still aching. From the moment he recorded his tape for Youngro, i knew he was going to die but not like this. They riddled him with bullets, all over his body it was SO hard to watch and Youngro witnessed it all! Oh my God. I was so shocked i couldn't move on from what I just saw. And then when we heard his tape, that was it for me. I started crying. I didn't think I would but damn I did. Even more when he said "I love you".
I love Youngro so much, she went through so much I can't even imagine the pain. Now she has no friends, everybody hates her. But sometimes (just my opinion) she pissed me off. She would do things and I'll be like "girl, why are you doing this ? haven't you gone through enough ? if you want to die just say that." I can name so many examples, when she helped gangmu numerous of times, when she provoked Gyeokchan, when she kept believing that her father would save her (i mean that's understandable), when she went back to save Ms. Oh, when she went BACK to suho while he was fighting for his life. Sometimes I would wonder "If this girl is not afraid of death, why does she always look terrorized lol?". It did bother me the way she was crying every episode, like okay I'm not asking you to be suddenly fierce, it wouldn't be realistic. But just... I would've loved a twist to her character you know ?
The thing with Youngro character that bothered me it was that there was no growth or twist to it. We already knew that Youngro is a girl that is not afraid to stand up for other people. She's brave. We also know that she cares really much about the people around her but that's it. There's nothing really interesting about her. Everyone had a big secret, everyone had some mystery to them. (Like Ko Hyeryeong, i still don't know why she changed her name???) Or everyone had a tragic/meaningful story that built their character to who they are today. Other than being the daughter of ANSP's director (hated by every korean), having an evil stepmom and a caring brother, there was no depth whatsoever. We don't even know how her mom died. It would've been so good if the twist was something like : Youngro is the daughter of powerful government man, she attended military school and her father finally let her attend a normal university. Then she has to hide the fact that she knows how to defend herself or she'll have to display her dad's identity. ANYWAY... (Hyeryeong's voice lol) something along those lines.
Suho didn't really have a character development neither because he always knew what was right and what was wrong and always stood up for himself and others. He did that until the end. But we actually got to know his whole story. How his mom abandoned him, TWICE. The fact that he has a sister, how did he become a NK secret agent. We've seen the depth of his history and how did he become like this. This is why I feel like Youngro was just a bland character with no history before meeting Suho. And I know you don't always have to have a "history" but what i'm saying is that her life wasn't perfect before Suho, so it would've been good if we could dig more into her and actually KNOW her. Because if we're not going to see her grow her character at least build a "better" Youngro and show us how she grew that way.
Everybody had a character growth at some point. Mr. An (from being everybody's dog, to being the ruler, than... being a "dung fly" again", Eun Changsu (from wanting power at all costs but realizing his children are more important), Gyeokchan (to being the heartless and violent spy to being the guy who defends victims and who missed his mom), Kang Chungya (from being the veteran spy for 17 years who would never turn her back to the party to actually betraying them), Lee Gangmu (from being the agent that would do absolutely everything unethical to catch spies to one that now understands people's suffering), Ms. Pi (from being a cold blooded woman to a woman that actually has a painful past and hidden emotions), Bunok (from being hateable and selfish to being understanding and forgiving to people she used to "despise". Everyone but the FL and ML lol. Kinda funny but sad at the same time.
I really got attached to unexpected characters like Joo Gyeokchan and Eungcheol. When they died it really made my heart skip beats, especially Gyeokchan's death. I never hated him, he had his reasons to be the way he was but I did think he was too emotionally driven sometimes (especially by anger when someone rub him the wrong way). He was too violent for not so much but I ended up getting used to him and it really hurt me when he died. Rest in peace Gyeokchan. Rest in peace Eungcheol.
The only character I hate still is Bunok, i don't care that she's poor and she lost her sister and stuff. Like girl... Being poor, having it harder than everybody and feeling like you're being treated unfairly does not allow you to be a complete piece of crap, does it? From beginning to end, she was despicable and i don't feel bad for her. She literally hurt everybody around her, like who raised her? When people say "she had her reasons/motives" I'm sorry but no. Her reasons weren't good enough to act like that. Because of being selfish she didn't even know that she helped the man who killed her sister... And she could've killed Ms. Pi if the gun wasn't unloaded. She was hateful to the point of being a whole murderer. See what greed can do ? Anyways haha. But that means the actress made a GREAT job tho.
I saw a lot of people saying the drama was slow paced I don't think it was. It's just that we had to wait every week, i think this is why it felt so long. The story unraveled pretty quickly in my opinion.
My favorite character in this drama was Suho, we saw so many sides of him. Gentle and sweet, brave and threatening, sad and vulnerable. His story was so sad, he got abandoned by the people he trusted the most, meaning Lim Jirok and Choi Suryeon (aka his biological mom). At some point every character around him tried to kill him lol. He went through a lot really, thankfully he had some morals and wasn't brainwashed like Gyeokchan or Mandong. Everytime i see Jung Haein it will remind me of Suho :( Rest in peace King Suho <33
Finally the OST omg. Don't even get me started. I have 2 favorite songs : My friend by Kim Hee Won and If you stay with me by Sung Si Kyung, i literally know the lyrics lmao. They are so good and fit the drama so good.
On the overall, this drama was really good, i recommand it. It's a 9 for me. It's not a 10 because I was kinda disappointed in the FL character (Youngro) and i actually wanted to rewatch but after seeing the end, i don't know lol. I already watched episode 2, two times because i loved that one. The whole drama is worth watching millions of times so i will definitely do so in the future.
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Overly authentic : the reason why it's good
I usually don't like dramas/movies about school bullying because to me, it always looks like they make it look "better" than what it actually is. The bullies end up begging the victim at the very first moves, etc. And it's all the same thing. We know that there's some bullies that don't regret their actions at all. And this drama we got to see the harsh reality of it.I started watching this drama because everybody around me were saying that this drama is what comes closest to how bullying actually is in South-Korea. So I was expecting for something that make me break, a drama that doesn't make me empathize for bullies one bit. And this drama was "The Glory".
The violence of some of these scenes was unbearable. Really. Sometimes I had to look away because it was just too much for me. I never gotten bullied but I was in pain, just watching those. The hot iron, the humiliation, the sexual assaults, everything was too much. Not negatively too much for this drama, but too much because I was thinking "I can't believe that somebody is probably experiencing the same thing or worse, right now as we speak". This is why I really liked this drama, it was harsh, it was real, it wasn't polished.
At first, I didn't really like how she got close to a guy that might be her love interest in the future. Because I thought he was going to try to convince her not to go about her revenge, but he followed through. Even Yeonjin's husband is about to follow through because he's the only one in his right mind.
I liked how we get to see inside the bullies clan and how they actually don't really like each other. How they would look down on their "friends" who have less money than them. How they would throw each other under the bus to save their own ass.
I like how in this drama no one is trying to stop her and tell to be the "bigger person", they ALL understand her, they understand her pain. And they know the people that made her went through it, need and deserve the worst punishment. No matter what is it is.
The devil's flower look up in the sky and the angel's flower look down on the ground. No matter how you interpreted, this saying of that old lady in the first episode is important to retain in all our minds.
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