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Kyle
Jamaica
Pass The Verge of Excellent
On The Verge of Insanity is probably one of the best dramas of this year. From the beginning the audience is asked to settle in for a story with a gentler pace and eased into the world of the Hamyeong Electronics. Anchored by two interesting and very different leads in Mr Choi and Miss Dang ( wonderfully performed by Jung Jae Young and Moon So Ri respectively) the show transcends it's loose synopsis and becomes something more.An engaging watch littered with characters you'll care about (one you'll particularly hate) and scenario's that seem real though
with consequences sometimes questionable. There's a lot to love in these 16 hours.
Writing wise this shows is aided will by the sense of movement within the story. Of character entering positions and exiting, climbing the corporate ladder and being dragged down. Where shows in a similar vein like Misaeng lean more into ironing out business jargon, OTVI while not dismissing those, puts it's character and interpersonal drama to the forefront. Which in a few instances might have been to the detriment of the other. Those instances are few however and hardly weigh this story down.
It goes without saying the cast delivered excellently on their performances. Firmly lead by seasoned veterans particularly personal favourite Jung Jae Young and established if not before certainly now younger talents.
Visually, the show is solid with a few particularly beautiful shots and nice colour grading that adds quite a bit more visual interest. Admittedly to a story that would not have realistically demanded much grand cinematography. It's all the more interesting then that this is the work of a first time director yet nothing feels amateur about it.
Musically the show was pretty inoffensive with quite a few but no standout insert tracks to me at least. The stand out track was the jazzy outro track which will most certainly get stuck in your head.
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Needlessly Frustrating
This was a frustratingly stupid mess. This could have literally been solved within the first hour if it weren't for the absolutely idiotic behaviour of nearly everyone. The police were asinine and so were many of the core characters. The mother leaving out after the first encounter was face palming silly and a whole assortment of other ridiculous foolishness this movies gets up to that I'll spare you due to spoilers.Perhaps the worst part of this movie was it's attempts at supposed messaging and social commentary. Primarily as it set up some of the silliest and most unbelievable scenarios to comment on the treatment of the disabled. A woman frantically running, screaming and being pursued by a man with blood all over him would set off literally everybody's red flags.
But oh no she can't speak so clearly she's deranged and we won't give her the time of day. THIS WOULD LITERALLY NEVER HAPPEN IN REAL LIFE.
The acting was fine, the music reasonably forgettable but I expected nothing less. This movie should have just been in the Door Lock, Blind school of inoffensive thriller that is just tightly written and done but some how they managed to make an absolute mess of it.
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The best of this drama was left in the Bossam Sack
It's a shame really. This drama sounded so good when I first saw it and for a while it was relatively enjoyable even with some early flaws.But as this show went on, those problems just kept adding up. The wasteful storylines, the frustrating back and forths, constant narrative meandering; it was just getting to much to ignore. So far into the drama at episode 17 the straws finally broke this camel's back.
Finishing this was a labour of completionism and that's how we end up here. A sad whimper of a finish for what could have been a thoroughly engaging show. It's a 6 for me. Lower than my usual 7-7.5 realm of " not horrible bad but certainly watchable shows". Meaning I'm not confident in recommending you watch this. Try Maids instead
The acting was serviceable from most parties not anything much to write home about althought the Cha Dol child actor performed well.
Music wise a few of the Pansori sounding track were nice everything else felt very stock music.
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"Kamijo Ren no longer exists"
As one rarely engaged in the world of J-drama my initial interest in this show was completely coincidental. Upon the end of the show I can surely call it a happy one. Sakura No Tou is at it's heart Kamijo Ren's bitter battle for revenge. Shrouded in grey, the actions and scheming necessary to achieve these results will leave one questioning the legitimacy of his attempts while reminding us that the ones he faces are no angels either. Brilliantly acted, the performances of all involved create an immersive experience , aided by focused script and equally focused direction.Both opening and ending scores were great and certainly memorable. While the ending did have a somewhat questionable conclusions (the final half of the final episode while metaphorically satisfying, the results from it feel rather tepid) it does not discount the wider greatest on display.
It's a definite recommendation and certainly a great intro into J-drama for the usually uninvolved.
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An all round solid show
Despite the many who earlier raised some concern that Times would only serve as a lukewarm reskinning of Kairos , the drama holds it own pretty well. Taking the same tropes we seen before and executing them satisfyingly enough to warrant an enjoyable watch. The actors all performed brilliantly and the leads worked well off each other, especially when you take into account that for most of the drama they are separated.The time altering element of the drama was fitted to the more thriller like atmosphere and continuity issues if there were any went unnoticed by me. Some seem to have a slight issue with some character decisions with which I agree some what but overall those can be easily internally explained and dont really comprise the story overall. The show was in many ways aided by the decision to cut the episodes pretty aggressively to just around an hour and limiting it to 12 episodes a trend I hope OCN keeps to, to keep thrillers thrilling and not gasping for breath 10 episodes in with 6 hours to spare.
The final episode did employ a bit of a tropey undertone but this wasn't too off-putting.
All in all this one's probably gonna be on my list of favourites for this year and you should try it out too.
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A solid low -budget film
In the tired and true method of confined spaces for cramped spending ,The Basement is a good but all be it tried and trued story. Centered on a family trapped between ground in their basement as nuclear arsenal rain from the sky, the less than happy family must confront their issues to survive. Anchored by believable and reasonably engaging performance, the cold and dingy basement is given new life by the conflicts, quarrelling and depressing odds. A father otherwise absent from his family along his sharp mouthed teenage daughter and wife are forced together by horrific circumstance and ironically to heal.Conceptually we've seen these stories a hundred times over and fundamentally The Basement is reinventing no wheel. Yet, it most certainly justifies it's existence with surprisingly engaging characters aided by their performers. None big enough it seems to even appear on MDL's own ratings but nonetheless deserving of praise.
Obviously a low budget affair the show joins the Saw 1 school of chaining it's contents in a small space with the goal of survival. Though thankful for this cast, the option of disarming is one they would have asked for regarding their external circumstances.
Overall the show delivers exactly what you think it will but nowhere near as annoying by the books as you'd think it would.
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What a trip
Where to even begin with this movie. On its premise this isn't all too unfamiliar of a story adding only the embellishment of a workplace setting. Its your typical female-led stalker/kidnapping thriller somewhere in the likes of a Blind or Door Lock only far inferior.The plot essentially boils down to a woman who is trapped in her workplace by an obsessive admirer in the security guard. They almost try to play it very lightly as a bit of a mystery who the creep will be with a few red herring moments but its pretty apparent from the jump its him.
From there the typically crazy obsessed stalker holds me hostage thing plays out; we've been here before. What truly sends this one of the rails is when they decide to pull a Shyamalan and pull the wackiness twist out of nowhere. Essentially a character we thought was killed as actually just playing along for..........reasons.
They Shyamalan again at the end of the movie when for some reason it seems to get into a kind of PSA on hidden cameras being bad and internet deindividuation bad. In conclusion, it's not that good.
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Dispatch; I Don’t Fire Myself
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An engaging but sometimes slow watch
I Don't Fire Myself presents exactly the situation the prompt describes. An abused and thoroughly discriminated worker is given an ultimatum that leads to her thrust into an unfamiliar working situation which is as unwelcoming as the first. Slowly, perhaps sometimes unbearably slow she begins to acclimatise as ironically she finds the plight of those there to be similarly downtrodden. The film rethreads the paths many now deep into their drama careers have seen as the labour issue consistently brought up in Korea but its message is far from cliche. Though not entirely free from those, such occurrences do not entirely hamper the film at all instead inspire a sign of disappointment that these things persist.The acting performances were all fantastic Yoo Da In does a good job in the lead role as does Oh Jung Se in the supporting. Cinematography wise the film is competently shot with some particularly beautiful imagery centring on the paradoxically deadly transmission towers the characters must brave. All in all, it's good for a one time watch though it might be just as easily skipped.
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