Life on Mars (2018)

Crime solving goodness with wonderful characters!

I've never watched the original version of this show so purely based on this kdrama I think it's amazing! The different mysteries are interesting and enaging but what really makes this drama worthwhile is the characters. The way the characters develop and their friendship grows is really satisfying and fun to watch. The only two problems I have is that I think there could have been just a tiny bit more romance with Mrs.Yoon and the end of the drama feels like it is setting up for a season 2 and therefore it leaves some unanswered questions. I feel doubtful that there ever will be a season 2 so i don't think it should have ended like that but regardless I really enjoyed the final episode despite some plotholes.

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Solid

I'm not a fan of the writing style that pushes the viewers too hard to interpret and speculate. You're expected to accept whatever is present to you. If writers were to do so, they need a better structure and understanding of world building. Take for example the British series Utopia, it does it brilliantly.

The director must really love the Dolly zoom, although it looked good but I wish there was more visual variations even at the cost of it being experimental. You are already pushing your skill ceiling in all departments so why not shoot for the moon?

Anyway, it's a solid watch and will probably appeal to everyone.

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I have a really high expectation for the drama because it received so many great reviews. it doesn't disappoint me but it didn't quite fulfil my expectation as well. pros first, since this is a police investigation drama, the cases must be interesting, and it did. the cases were good and keep me guessing what will happen next. the acting were amazing, every cast did a really great job in acting their roles. the romance were subtle which is good, because i feel like if there's more than this it will feel kinda awkward. okay the cons, the time travel wasn't stressed enough, i feel like the present wasn't talk about enough. the whole, is this a reality or a dream, means the present wasn't supposed to be completely cut off but they did. the chemistry between the team is really important but i can't feel it here, and the bromance was meh as well. the storyline kinda feels draggy in the middle. all in all, it was a decent drama for me

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kebahagiaan yang sebenarnya?

alur ceritanya menurutku menarik banget, awalnya aku ngerasa kok boring banget ya tapi pas udah ke masa lalu tiba-tiba jadi KOK SERU BANGET?

pertama, taejoo kayaknya kurang darah karena lemes terus, jarang makan dan ansos. tapi kalau aku di posisi taejoo kayaknya aku juga bakal begitu, bahkan gak akan bisa mikir apa-apa, bayangin aja baru dibunuh tiba-tiba ada di masa lalu dan dapet rekan kerja yang ngeselin.

sifat dongcheol sama yongki di awal tuh ngeselin banget, apa apa pake otot, bahkan aku mikir gak pantes deh mereka jadi polisi terutama yongki soalnya dia juga sering ngerendahin nayoung. di masa lalu ternyata parah banget misoginis sama patriarkinya.

hal yang aku bingung kenapa taejoo yang berusaha keras buat balik ke masa depan lagi malah nyerah di masa depan dan milih kembali ke masa lalu? mungkin dia nyaman sama lingkungan dia masa lalu, tapi apa dia gak sayang sama keluarganya yang selalu ngasih dia semangat selama koma? padahal dia udah berhasil nangkep pelaku aslinya di masa depan. sedangkan di masa lalu pun dia selalu denial kalau dia suka sama lingkungan di masa lalu.

but ya udah mungkin menurut taejoo pas di masa depan dia udah gak ada rasa karena terbiasa jadi taejoo di masa lalu, mungkin emang dalam hati kecilnya, dia nemuin kebahagiaan yang gak dia temuin di masa depan. bahkan meski dia gak harus bareng sama keluarga dan orang tersayangnya dari masa depan.

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It's a journey

Having watched Signal before this, I can’t help but compare.

Both are different in a sense. Signal had more impactful flashbacks and every case was linked together but Life of Mars was more a journey, you’ll not only fall more in love with the characters’ personalities, but watching each of them grow for the better is so heartwarming. The climax builds up until the very end. It’s more lighthearted with sprinkles of humour and simpler cases. You just hope the team stays together. The ending is kinda sad, it depends on how you interpret it.

The only reason I wouldn't rewatch it because I've already watched the ending and it wouldn't be as good as the first time.

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Please don’t hesitate to watch this.

Okay where do I start. I don’t have the talent to write reviews but I’ve always found them helpful so I’ll write one for y’all. Let’s start I guess?

(Disclaimer: I haven’t watched the original series so I can’t compare the remake value :)

Everything. Everything about this drama was perfect. I didn’t have very high expectations but this drama was beyond anything I could have expected. IT MADE SENSE, which is a BIG achievement considering the drama somewhat dealt with space and time continuum.

I’ve watched a handful of dramas that messed around with the past and future, and everytime I end up feeling a bit disappointed with the drama. Dramas like signal and kairos have gotten an 8/10 from me, but the fact that the drama basically existed on a belief or like the main character just being special enough to get a miracle, kind of ticked me off ngl. But I couldn’t complain since that literally was the entire plot. And that is exactly what I expected from this. That a detective trying to solve an on going serial murder case and then magically transporting back in time to solve the case before the a dozen of other people get killed. Ya know fixing the problem at its source. But no. It wasn’t like that. The plot almost had no holes, why stuff happened made sense. (I’m really trying so hard not to spoil.)

Now for the cast. The entire cast was just amazing? The way the executed the plot ooof. I was blown away by the child actor (who I guess was 6 at the time) the way he didn’t seem even the slightest bit awkward and how emotions felt and looked so real. Istg. He was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I guess out of all the other child actors I’ve seen so far, he’s got to be one of my favourite.

From the main cast, I already knew and loved two. One of course being the reason why I watched the drama in the first place; the new love of my life (lmao) — Jung Kyung Ho. Honestly am I the only one that feels he’s underrated? Like how is it that only this year, I’ve learned about him when I’ve been watching kdramas since late 2014? But anywho after watching prison playbook, I wanted to go on a jkh marathon, I guess this is the start. Hospital playlist has been on my watchlist since forever, now I got three reasons to watch that (Jung kyung ho, Jo Jung Suk and Yoo Yeon seok.)

Other than him I knew Park Sung Woong, I don’t remember all his projects that I’ve watched but I remember that I loved his role in “the smile has left your eye.”(8/10) So I knew he’s a really good actor and I guess action dramas really is his shit. I just know that Captain Kang will forever stay in my heart. He really does make you feel so attached. The bromance between him and pretty much everyone else was beautiful.

(Ooof. I just realised that they both are in another drama together. It doesn’t have high ratings but eeek. I’m still going to build up high expectations. )

Lastly hmmm. Production and set. So pretty. I’ve always loved watching or seeing things from the 80s/90s so this drama really was the treat. I think the only other drama where I’ve seen such a plot was Melting me softly (8.5/10)

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a promising premise wrapped in brutality

this show would be great if it weren't for the egregious and unrepentant police brutality. half of the cast is the one doling out the violence, and the other half happily defends the violence and remains friends with the perpetrators.

you might, like me, hope that they will learn through taejoo that violence is not the answer, that they are violating people's human rights, and doing way more harm than good. this seems to be the obvious arc from the first episode, as taejoo is introduced as a whistleblower for police violence/incompetence, and won't let someone go to prison with tampered-with/false evidence. that is an extremely likeable character. and yet, instead taejoo learns that sometimes, beating people into confessing (a method that does not work, there's a reason you cannot use confessions gained from torture) and creating false evidence is necessary. even the most reprehensible character, the asshole cop who's name i can't even remember because i hated him so much, who perpetuates rape culture, wouldn't help a woman being stalked if the others hadn't forced him, and nearly kills a man from "interrogating him" is one we are supposed to see as "the good guy". he's supposed to be a likeable rapscallion because at least he gets the job done. this is not background violence, or an uncritical portrayal of the police - when given the option of how to portray this violence, they explicitly defend it and double down on it each and every time.

because i have a brain, i can watch a drama that has cops beating people up, or intentionally disregarding proper procedure; most cop dramas (even asian dramas) contain these things, it's part and parcel of being a cop drama and being copaganda. it's in the cops' best interest for you to think that them having to do things legally is impeding "justice". but in those dramas i can think critically and understand that that is wrong, and not root for those characters, and most of the time it isn't the point of the drama. in fact, cop dramas are one of my favourite genres. i loved signal, and hoped this show would be similar!

but even thinking critically with this drama, and acknowledging the biases it is predisposed to have, i cannot defend it nor enjoy it. having watched all the episodes, none of which were aided by the egregious (and often-times comical) violence done by the police in every single episode, there's no conclusion to come to other than that this is the message we are intended to come away with - police have to beat people, and fake evidence, and torture people, because otherwise 'bad people' would be on the streets. bad people hurt people and deserve to be in prison no matter what it takes, and their human rights get in the way of that. but when a cop hurts someone, it's good, because they're a cop, and the bad people need to end up in prison.

i could talk about how i liked the characters, and the acting, but there's no character on earth that would let me look past such horrible violence and messaging, and i don't think this show really deserves the praise.

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Good watch

I'm not familiar with the main character but I'm pretty sure I seen him in something other than a Korean drama but I can't remember. I watched this mainly because of Park Sung Woong who played chief Kang Dong Cheol and Go Gyu Pil who played the owner of that tavern. These two have grown on me since I started watching Korean dramas last year.

I was going to watch this last year but I had watched The Tunnel-which I loved-and Signal-which was OK. Seeing that this one almost had the same premise, I put Life On Mars on the back burner for the moment.

This series was a bit slow which I was OK with because I was able to take my time and watch. Towards the end the episodes were a bit shorter which went by fast so I ended up being able to watching the last six episodes in one day.

I began watching these Korean dramas for the action, drama, comedy, and chemistry and this one had all the above.

I liked the way they did this. It gave me a glimpse of what a person could experience while being in a coma.

I liked all of the characters except for the female...Oy! Her facial expressions always made her look like she'd been goosed and her voice was annoying. I found myself cringing every time she said something.
I did like how they made her bad a** but then they turned around and made her weak. Ugh!!

I'm glad there was no cliche romance in this!!

I will say I wasn't too thrilled about the last two episodes. That's the problem I've noticed with these Korean dramas. It's like the writers don't know how to end their final episodes. It didn't make any sense. They made it seem as if the main character who was in a coma had dreams of the past which actually did happen, then he wakes from the coma only to be disappointed with the present and then was able to go back to the past?? My question is did he ever come out of the coma or did he commit suicide? The epilogue made it seem as if they were going to have a sequel. Since this was 2.5 years ago I highly doubt it.

I hate when Korea leave stuff like this up in the air.

All in all, I'm glad I remembered to watch this. In my opinion The Tunnel was better but this one was also good to watch.

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some people were satisfied with its ending, i was not one of them

NOOOOOO!

that ending literally ruined me :(

i know some of you are satisfied with that ending, but i am definitely not one of them. i'll explain.

first of all, i feel like there was so much thrill in the chase for the manicure serial killer, either in 2018 or in 1988 (that also involves the brother duo, Kim Min Seok and Kim Hyun Seok, as well as some mysteries surrounding the ML's traumatic childhood, or his father).

however, around ep. 14 to conclusion when Captain Dong Cheol was suddenly entangled in a murder case, and the real culprit turned out to be Chief of Seoul Police Station who got transferred to Insung, Ahn Min Sik, i feel like the story became slightly disconnected. Ahn Min Sik is a murderer cum corrupt police officer in 1988, but in 2018 he's actually the head neurosurgeon that operated on Han Tae Joo.

(of course by 1988, i mean his dream/hallucination in a state of comatose)

so i feel like that part about him was so random and didn't connect well to the rest of the story that preceded it.

also, instead of creating a lingering feeling after that conclusion, the ending actually wrecked me like crazy. it reminds me of IU's song Eight (ft. SUGA) that has a cheerful tone with very sad undertone (about her friends that passed away).

in this case, we seemed to enjoy a glimpse of Han Tae Joo reuniting with his teammates in 1988, but actually before that he jumped off a rooftop to give up the 2018 life.

of course i read comments speculating that he has never indeed woke up from his comatose state in 2018, therefore the last two episodes (ep. 15-16) of him successfully catching the serial killer brother duo were insinuating that it was a dream inside a dream, and that he's actually still unconscious.

plus, the fact that we were told that his teammates in 1988 actually died in the gang members attack, so i felt like the conclusion has only declined even more, or become sadder than it should be.

WHAT WOULD HAVE MADE THE PERFECT DRAMA for me would be if his present/reality is even more blurred than it is being presented. for instance, we started the first episode with Han Tae Joo waking up from his nap after reading case files of cold cases in 2018, and then waking up suddenly in the year 1988 after being shot in the head.

alternatively, the story could have also been written in the opposite way. he and his prosecutor/detective ex-girlfriend lost the criminal in 1988 and he was shot/badly injured, thus dreams of traveling (or actually tele-transported physically) into the future of 2018 where he meets his team members in that era. although the ending would be such that they may not stay together, at least all of them need not die during a mission.

welpppp! THAT SOUNDS EXACTLY LIKE WHAT TUNNEL IS, HAHAHAHA. no wonder i liked that drama so much, the chase was very intense from start to end.

//

basically my point is, i tried to imagine a different way of telling the story in a way that would arrive at a happier ending that i would have liked more, but yes it's difficult as i realise it'd lose its unique retro charm and flavour, and would be more/exactly like Tunnel.

i'd better stop complaining LOL, as the more i write would probably make me look like i am making a fool of myself, lmao.

some people say they would have loved a more concrete show of romance in this, as Yoon Na Yeong is such a catch. i agree. i love the team's camaraderie and i understand that what Han Tae Joo is dealing with constantly is too chaotic for him to return her love interest, but i feel like the scriptwriters could have at least given them more sweet moments for us to look back and cherish.

because the romance factor is almost completely lacking, and the serial killer chase is like a one-off suspense-type thrill, i feel like this drama does not have very high rewatchable value, at least in my book.

i am glad for the journey this was, BUT THAT ENDING RUINED ME.

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Surprised!

This is a okay drama. It has great story and the production is good, and the casting is very good (the male lead is debatable). After watching this drama, regretfully I do not remember much; to write this review. The Best and the thing I found very nice is its representation of women without vilifying the men in this drama, it has the perfect balance while It went through this issue, not a huge topic;

Welcome back to my Page, how are you guys doing? Nothing great is going through my life except for the fact that, I fell Into a huge well, filled with frogs, snakes and scorpions. Though it looked like a cave filled with all the shiny things...

I have nothing, the truth is I got nothing on this drama to write a review that is interesting (released it while writing this review), going to watch the original!

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