Good Enough
Korean Drama '' The Kidnapping Day '' is an intense thriller with a sensitive side.The drama starts off quite strongly, with the pair of kidnapper-child being enjoyable to follow, as they start bonding and forming a somewhat family. Their relationship was also what kept things going when the drama started flaking as well.
Actually, towards the ending, the drama's twists were a bit over the top and, again, the strong duo were there to save the day, even if the rest of the characters were frustrating to follow.
The performances, finally, were all great.
So, overall, six out of ten.
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Well worth watching.
This drama kept me watching and had to force myself to go to sleep or I would have stayed up all night. The two main characters were great. Very interesting plot which kept me guessing. Yuna performed this role just excellent for such a young age. At first I just thought she was older but looked really young and that is the reason she was selected. I looked her up and she is actually very young. She a great performer.Yoon Kye Sang also did a great job. He must have gained weight for this role. He looks totally different. Loved his performance. Great job on the writing of this story.
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the drama was so much better than i expected !!
actually when i started this drama i didn't expect it be a really good drama , cause there weren't so many reviews about it and it didn't seem like a lot of people have watched it but as i started the drama the drama just kept getting better and better , i have watched a bunch of thriller dramas , and they start good but then they get worse by the end and it gets boring but this drama was far from that cause it was good from the start and it kept track of the story , it ended quite good too , i binge watched it in two days and i wanted to to know what will happen till the very end , so it was a really interesting drama to me and i loved it ,i loved the characters and the story too , there wasn't something that big that i disliked i just wish there would be season too ..Was this review helpful to you?
Monologuing
This will circle back to "The Kidnapping Day" but it will be a bit of a scenic route.It's easy to pinpoint the scene that transformed Bill Murray from one of many cast contributors on an after-dark weekend sketch comedy show. Sure, he was already known as one of the charter members of Saturday Night Live but he was anything but a bankable movie star. But one modestly budgeted, lightly raunchy summer camp comedy changed that. In the late 1970's and early 1980's, the summer camp setting was became one of Hollywood's favorite locations for everything from horror to teen drama to comedy. In 1979, the poor ragtag kids camp up against the rich, spoiled kids on the other side of the lake was the basis for one such movie. In "Meatballs", Bill Murray played the first of the many iterations of the sardonic, sarcastic, lazy, laconic and acidic cool loner. And like in many other of these roles, the centerpiece of the role is an extended monologue where he sheds his aloofness and delivers a fiery speech to rally his followers to new heights.
The rest of "Meatballs"? Pretty generic stuff. But the monologue from Murray is spectacular. Much of it is simply repeating over and over and over again "It just doesn't matter!". Screaming the same phrase at the top of his lungs. It just doesn't matter. Repeatedly. It just doesn't matter. Again and again and again.
It just doesn't matter.
"The Kidnapping Day" is a drama, unsurprisingly, about a kidnapping. Myeong Jun, a dad down on his luck with a critically sick daughter, kidnaps Ro Hee, the daughter of a rich doctor, hoping to ransom er for enough money to pay for his daughter's surgery. But nothing goes as planned because nothing in Myeong Jun's life does. As things spiral out of control, there's almost everything but aliens and ghosts and mermaids thrown in. Murders. Crooked police. Power hungry wealthy families. Stoic killers. Mouthy bad guys. Unethical medical experimentation. Orphanages. Slums. Mansions. Hospitals. Boats. Beaches. There's so many elements that it's impossible to coherently piece them together.
It just doesn't matter.
The rich family floats in and out when necessary as a plot device but they're mostly there to advance some forward action by the bad guy. The bad guy is basically a mouthy venture capitalist. He's not a flop as a villain, but it's a fairly generic character. The crooked cops are even less prominent than the rich family.
It just doesn't matter.
Kim Sang Ho plays a critical support role but the script asks far too little of him and it's one of his least compelling performances. The problem is less severe with Kim Shin Rok's Hye Eun (Myeong Jun's ex wife). She's meant to be a morally ambiguous character, part regretful mother and part brilliant schemer. But the mother side is never convincing and the schemer side rarely makes sense. If she's supposed to be in hiding, why would she wear some of the most garish outfits in the Eastern Hemisphere? Why has she anticipated so many things but left an absolutely vital item unaddressed until far too late? And for a character that viewers should be on the fence about, she's indefatigably unlikable. The performance by Shin Rok is solid but she's too often asked to do things with the character that are, even in the most charitable light, confounding.
But it just doesn't matter.
Even Park Sung Hoon who has been on a tear of scintiallating performances in 2023 with terrific performances in "The Glory" and as an unconventional police officer in "Not Others" comes across flat here. It's the maverick cop with a heart of gold. And it's not a fresh take on the archetype.
Guess what? It just doesn't matter.
The plot meanders through the kidnapping, the morally murky medical people, the venture capitalists, the police, the power hungry family and ends up with a weak final confrontation. A cliffhanger from the end of one episode transitions to a completely different place and an almost total absence of a resolution to a main character on the verge of death. The police are dumb when it's convenient that they be dumb. And then they wise up at the most convenient time. The crime scene is abandoned. Literally. The investigators take the bodies and apparently then just leave. It's bizarrely implausible.
One last time. It just doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter because the characters of Ro Hee and Myeong Jun and the performances by Yoon Kye Sang and 12 year old Yuna are transcendent. They are magical when they are together and the moments when they are pulled from each other are heartbreaking. It's an oddball pair, the rich girl from a sheltered life and a guy with a lifetime of fumbling away his chances at every opportunity. For Yoon Kye Sang, it is without question and by a considerable margin his best work of recent vintage. And for Yuna? It's a performance that can hardly be believed to have been rendered by someone of such young age. Among non-romantic relationships that have been portrayed in this genre, it is in acutely rarefied air. And it is why all of the other things just don't matter.
Minor items:
It is always welcome to see Kang Ha Neul in a brief but excellent cameo.
Same with Kim Ki Doo.
Kim Dong Won does a nice job with the nearly mute assassin with unclear loyalties role quite nicely.
It just doesn't matter? Actually, nah. Not at all.
"The Kidnapping Day" is a tremendously entertaining drama thanks to the lead performances and it is highly, highly recommended watch.
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Sobbing rn
Honestly I never expected to root for a wholesome friendship between a kidnapper and his victim until I watched this.Really though, it was so, incredibly engaging and the ending of the eleventh episode absolutely destroyed me. I didn't know how attached I'd get to this show! The acting was so well done and it was fast paced too (good for me because I have a horrible attention span), but I felt as if some parts weren't cleared up at the end? Hoping for a season 2 because wow, that ending left me on a cliffhanger.
Some people didn't like this show, which I can understand, but I adored it. 9.5/10 for me. If you liked Glitch (2022), Parasite (2019) or Revenge of Others (2022), it kinda gave off those vibes for me. Other than that... I have no words, it was so amazing. Hope this can be somewhat helpful :)
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The drama strikes a balance between suspenseful thrills and heartwarming laughs
This drama has a rollercoaster of emotions, with twists and turns that keep you gripping the edge of your seat, but don't worry—it's the kind of rollercoaster that throws in unexpected laughs and heartwarming moments.Our hero, Kim Myeong-joon, is like your friendly neighborhood dad-next-door, except he's facing a mountain of bills and a daughter in need of surgery. In a plot twist that even he probably didn't see coming, he decides to kidnap the daughter of a rich doctor. Enter Choi Ro-Hee, the child prodigy with all the riches but none of the joy. And voila, we've got an oddball pair destined for a wild adventure!
Now, Myeong-joon isn't your typical criminal mastermind. He's more of a 'dad trying his best' kinda guy. And Ro-Hee, the pint-sized genius, adds a dash of brilliance to the mix, imagine a comedic duo navigating the chaos of a kidnapping gone wrong.
But wait, there's more! We've got mysterious family secrets, a murder case, and a sprinkle of hidden motives. It's a K-drama buffet, and you're invited to feast on the suspense and giggles. The plot is as unpredictable as a game of Twister, keeping you on your toes with every unexpected move.
Yoon Kye-sang as Myeong-joon and Yoo Na as Ro-Hee steal the show with their dynamic performances. It's like watching your favorite duo in a buddy-cop comedy, but with a kidnapping twist. The supporting cast adds spice to the mix, creating a full ensemble of characters that'll make you laugh, cry, and gasp in disbelief.
The production team deserves a round of applause for the visual feast they've created. It's not just a drama; it's a visual fiesta with clever chapter titles, quirky doodles, and a soundtrack that's basically the heartbeat of the show.
In the end, "The Kidnapping Day" is not just a drama; it's a rollercoaster adventure filled with heart, humor, and a dash of mystery. So grab your popcorn, settle into your favorite spot, and get ready for a wild ride you won't regret!
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