To the End of the World (1998)

This drama started pitiful, then it moved to being disturbing, then went to aggravating and I ended up feeling like a waste of every single second, even though I skipped and fast-forwarded most of the scenes. Other than to revel at what fountain youth Kim Heeson drank for her to look the same since 18 years ago, There is not much to like in this drama.

The Story itself seems cookie cutter melodrama, with rich guy falling for poor girl and having a disapproving parent. But I have always been curious of classic, thus even though this plot has been spun countless times, I choose to dive in.

BIg mistake.

This drama is literally depressing. It was without real upside or positivity. its one pitiable state after another, with main characters being the case of "the stupid, the martyr and the a**hole".

"The Stupid" is the FL. Other than being stupid, she is also without a backbone and the unluckiest girl in the world. She is an orphan who gets harassed by two different guys. She was forced into a relationship against her will, and gets pregnant by force. And she continued to go back to the guy, time and time again, while also going between the other guy for whatever stupid reason. She was like a yoyo, because she had questionable decision making skills throughout the drama.
"The Martyr" is the ML. He loves FL as much as any ML in all Kdramaland, and will do everything for her, but alas he is without any means, power and strategy. He is especially powerless against lacking of common sense & spine of the FL. Bad luck came to him for falling for the FL. The case of the powerless falling for the spineless
"The A**hole" is the SML. he is without a doubt unreconcilable and aggravating coward. His selfishness, cruelty, and love is reprehensible. He should be jailed. Period. Or worse, truck-sama should have come and drove through this guy into brain injury locked in state. I just can't handle his type of character. He is like the usual ML in Lakorn Slap-Kiss. his death carried no satisfaction. He was selfish til the end. His death was an easy way out....

urgh. I cant stress enough just what a bad and aggravating narrative this drama is. there was only one character to root for. The timid girl who was socially awkward but her common sense and the way she stood her ground even in front of all things that may terrify her just was refreshing. she is the 1% in the drama that I give rating to. everything else in the dramas was just so bad.

And so this drama will go down as one of the worst there is.

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Pathetic Themes of Love

The drama started on an objectively stupid and trashy conflict that couldn't have been written by a real human being in 1998. It loosely maximized all imaginary tropes of sadness, depression and angst regardless of how well they can connect them, that's why they slapped a terminal illness in the mix because why not at this point. The drama lacked the slightest minuscule resemblance of any balance. What's even the point? It failed to establish a good argument why the viewers should care, especially for how awful the setup was with both guys. The atrocious attempt to shove in the love triangle and romance of the leads was unbearable and killed any redeeming qualities all at once. This was one of the worst trio leads combination I've seen, surface-level and brain-dead trio entanglement. Forced rape, pregnancy, marriage and domestic abuse by their friend, all treated as something casual and turned a blind eye because exploring any of them, especially rape, would require more nuanced writing. After all of these long-winded commotions the drama shifted its focus to something different within a couple of scenes as if nothing happened. Garbage writing! The female lead was as dry and boring as they could come, easily the worst character in the drama. Even the guests had a better impression. The drama had big cuts and gaps which led to abysmal pacing and disjointed narrative. I had to double check if the drama was actually cut but both TV and DVD releases were the same. At the end of the day, there was a lot to dislike about the drama and little to no likeable elements.

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