Daxtreme
Quebec, Canada
That being said, this show is garbage, even if it has its moments. And I usually don't notice those things too much, but the casual racism on display here is sickening. It's so unsubtle...
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Fight Choreography - 65/100 | Over-the-top silly fights that make no sense, but they're funny and aren't actually bad. I'm not sure if there is more fighting in the latter episodes, I didn't stick around to find out. Somehow the lead actress is a black belt in Taekwondo and it's obvious she has training. Doesn't make the fights great though. Just passable. Blame the team behind the camera.
I'm not even gonna bother scoring the rest as I dropped it. Not watching this would be my advice.
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A bit of a frustrating watch but it has a brilliant concept
So this is sometimes incredibly dumb. Outrageously so.But it has a brilliant concept.
The biggest problem with this show is that the protagonist is… a fool. In the opening scenes, he loses all his money but it's his fault for investing in such an obvious scam. He loses his apartment because he lost all his money which was his fault. He loses his girlfriend for being literally too dumb to know and/or remember who her brother was after 7 (seven!!) years of dating. Who confuses the brother of their girlfriend with a potential lover after 7 years of relationship?
Only a fool.
Basically, we're meant to root for him because of the bad things happening to him, but he's not a down-on-his-luck guy, he's just an incredibly dense guy. Even when Death tells him how stuff works he catches on later than most would. She literally tells him that he is a dumbfuck. How are we supposed to root for him? Rofl.
Maybe it's just me who has a hard time rooting for idiots.
However, it's still entertaining to watch his progress, and he does have great character development.
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Stunts - 68/100
Narrative - 77/100 | It's a shame because this started out mostly great, like amazing even, the main character notwithstanding. What's most frustrating is that a majority of the glaring issues in this show are easy, minor fixes to the script. But they end up hurting the whole thing quite badly.
Fight Choreography - 68/100 | Decently brutal.
Enjoyment - 68/100 | I can see an alternate reality in which this show is a masterpiece and everybody (including me) would be raving about it. Sadly, it is not, at least to me. Too many lost opportunities. It was always at least mildly interesting though.
The school episode was particularly gripping. Leagues ahead of the others. Loved it, the student actor was amazing.
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This review may contain spoilers
Had huge potential, is only decent
First episode was mostly boring. But then the plot got going and I got into it. So this showed lots of promise as it was always entertaining.I generally dislike when the adult characters know each other from childhood, and sadly it is no different here. The weakest point of this drama.
The male lead had not much of an active role in the overall plot. Like maybe he could have helped in the shadows more.
The female lead reminds me a bit of Leslie Knope from Parks and Recreation. Lovely, bubbly, almost a caricature, but fun to watch and to root for because beneath the goofy surface there is a genuine character. Until… there isn't.
This series, in its quest to subvert expectations, forgot that when characters have no dreams, no aspirations, no motivations, we cease to root for them. It's a mortal sin committed by this series. I recognize that it was all in the name of good writing, but it doesn't make for a great story. And it sadly is what happens to the main character played by Nana. She has no motivation whatsoever by the end (the show just… forgot about the reason why she entered the race in the first place: to get $50 000), and it never gets resolved. And it never gets replaced. She has literally no reason to do anything by the end except prop up other characters.
The lead character doesn't get her cake, and doesn't eat it either. Reverse uno! Except it's a terrible one. She got in as a public servant only to get an easy $50k, but then as the series progresses, she keeps working for no money because she believes in the work she's doing, instead of caring only about money. But then, she… gives up and leaves public office. With no plan. She didn't get her money either.
Because of this, what we get is a garbage ending amounting to a bunch of nothing where any and all side characters get a better ending than the freaking main character of the show.
The wasted potential here is huge as this could have genuinely been awesome in the hands of someone who didn't just promptly forget about the main character's motivations halfway through, because the writing was genuinely good for most of the episodes.
Oh well. There goes nothing. What's funny though is that it was still a decent watch.
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girl revenge
Way too generic. Girl's mom gets killed, then she wants revenge. It's a TV movie (split into 3 episodes) so it feels fairly cheap when watching, mostly because of the sound mixing._________________________________________
Stunts - 65/100 | Han Groo doesn't have what it takes to be an action star. She does try and she can take hits though, I'll give her that.
Narrative - 40/100 | Cheap writing will always remain cheap writing.
Fight Choreography - 66/100 | There was an attempt. Just about decent, if I'm being generous.
Enjoyment - 30/100 | C-tier knockoff drama of La Femme Nikita. Only for genre completionists.
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Easily the most toxic relationship in all the kdrama I've watched.
Another one to add to the "pretty good early episodes but that's it" pile. Except this time, the 1st episode is actually hot garbage, then the next few episodes become surprisingly great once the script is flipped on its head, and after that, we're back to bad again.Amazing to me how typical kdrama have had the same format of 16 episodes of 1 hour each for decades at this point…
And yet, most writers continuously can't manage to hit the 16 episodes count without adding pointless bloat. It's really not that complicated, just add side story elements that are relevant to the main narrative instead of boring slapstick that has nothing to do with it.
This one also has the additional problem of wanting to delay the main romance so much (because they hate each other) that eventually it becomes entirely impossible that they'd ever fall for each other. Their mutual dislike has been a central part of their character for too long, which is also an undesirable side effect of my point above on bloat. If they had properly mapped the story, this wouldn't have happened.
But it was doomed to fail anyway because they made the male lead way too toxic, like irreparably so. Somehow even worse than in Secret Garden and that's saying quite something.
It's a bit of a shame because the lead actors Kim Jae-wook and Krystal Jung were great, but their characters sucked. Unless your thing is emotionally and psychologically abusive men (I'm not judging)... don't watch this.
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A step-down from the first but still good!
A step-down from the first despite all the elements that made the first one great still being present. Just hugely less interesting in general. Still good however._________________________________________
Stunts - 75/100
Narrative - 63/100 | I said the first one had no real narrative but this one goes one step further. The girls are mainly just talking and arguing, because this time they're forbidden from killing. So not much happens. So it ends up just being boring because we know they can't kill, which is what gave the first movie a delightfully unpredictable inclination. The duo of guys are also the worst assassins I've ever seen. At least a dozen times they had the perfect opportunity to kill and yet… didn't. They were mildly funny though.
Fight Choreography - 87/100 | There are longer fights, which is what I wished for after watching the first, but while they're still great, they're not quite as great.
Enjoyment - 66/100 | Gotta love the mascot fight and a couple visual gags, this is when this movie reminds us of why we're watching it. But the first one had a lot more of those moments.
I will watch the third installment when it comes out but will be readjusting my expectations. In any case it's gonna be worth it for the action alone. Like this one!
Main Fighters: Saori Izawa, Joey Iwanaga
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Dark comedy (sprinkled with action) at its finest
Was this movie made for me or something?It's a dark comedy, utterly cynical movie about 2 deadly jaded assassin girls—that look anything but—living a boring but strange life in-between jobs that culminates in an utterly awesome final fight the likes of which you rarely see due to a functional choice of choreography I very much approve of.
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Stunts - 80/100 | Everything contained in the paragraph above is why I loved this movie. The rest is gravy.
Narrative - 80/100 | If you think you wanna watch a movie where 2 bored assassins do literally nothing except an occasional murder (and waste time in-between), then you'll probably enjoy this. Otherwise, you'll probably dislike this. I enjoyed it because their lack of purpose in life was a sight to see and Mahiro was strangely captivating as a character. Also because of the recurring funny little gags with the objects falling out of place, I've always loved those kinds of small visual gags. I don't know, it came together nicely for me.
Fight Choreography - 90/100 | The final fight is choreographed to look real instead of looking choreographed, an odd contradiction that works when done properly. Action choreographer Kensuke Sonomura will be one to watch for sure.
Enjoyment - 90/100 | Needed more fights. Needed better sound mixing for the guns in the 3rd act. More of this please. Thank you.
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Ballerina is a perfectly adequate female-led South Korean actioner.
Korean revenge. Another one. I'm this close to making a list!_________________________________________
Stunts - 79/100 | Some fine stunts in there, but the actual award here would go to the sound editing in this movie, which was really on-point.
Narrative - 71/100 | It's pointless to try and reinvent the wheel in the revenge genre. Martial arts movie lovers want their martial arts movies to end in a fight scene. Revenge movie lovers want their movies to be about revenge and to end in revenge. That's just how it is. In this one, we've got both, but the movie didn't excel at either.
Fight Choreography - 70/100 | The ending fight scene, although a bit brief, was delightfully chaotic. The rest was messy but still managed to be decent. This is an example of how you can still have good (but definitely not great) fight scenes even if they're over-edited. We can follow what's going on through the cuts.
Enjoyment - 70/100 | If my job as a Producer was to hire a director to make a Korean revenge story that's representative of the genre as a whole with decent action and visuals and a story that's engaging enough, I'd hope and hopefully expect to receive about this in terms of end product. And I'd be fine with it and consider it a job well done and money well spent.
So, basically, thumbs up
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Classic for a reason
This is such a massive underhanded criticism of homophobia that uses heteronormativity to make its point, I love it.Gong Yoo and Yoon Eun-hye. They're so cute! No wonder the former became such a big star in Korea.
The secondary leads are the main reason why I can't give this a perfect score. The character played by Lee Sun-kyun (RIP…) was annoying and the actor didn't do a very good job in my opinion. He was over-acting his scenes and he never came across as believable to me. That was one of his first roles though, as he would go on to have much better roles in the future, namely in Parasite.
However, the others did a good job.
I love it when people mistakenly answer the phone with something other than the phone itself. This time, it's a toy cube. If I remember correctly, the other times I've seen this so far are in Dreaming the Reality (1991) (Sibelle Hu answers a Coca-Cola can) and The Stunt Woman (1996) (Michelle Yeoh answers a brush). These are the only other such instances I can recall right now. Fun gag.
It's strange because, although the writing is a bit forced, contrived and overly dramatic sometimes, I would still praise the writing in this show, mainly because they managed to make realistic, believable characters that feel human and unique. They all have quirks that make them endearing, even if sometimes the story forces them to act in a certain way. It's an odd dichotomy but it is what it is. Imperfect writing can still manage to be absolutely great when it sets its aims high enough.
If you're trying to flee the soap-opera cliché nature of kdrama (especially the OST, this one is refreshingly silent in all the dramatic moments), then this should be your next destination.
I'm not queer and/or LGBTQ+ so it's hard for me to say whether it's good representation.
But it's a killer gender-bender story for sure. Hella hard to beat on that front.
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So I would give this series massive points… for effort.
A Disney+ superhero kdrama that's getting a lot of buzz right now. Alright, is it any good then?It has some interesting ideas, and some pretty neat action beats, but it's disjointed. Too many characters. They try to give a complex backstory to each of them and so it becomes quite bloated due to that.
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Stunts - 70/100 | Like I said above, points for effort. I like that they were really trying here. A bit frustrating to watch the action in this because some of the action is really inspired, but other parts aren't. Lots of CGI. Some of it good, some of it bad.
Narrative - 61/100 | The first half of this show was great to be honest. Really interesting. In the second half though, it stumbles and loses its way by going in a sort of Anthology-lite direction and it loses all narrative momentum.
Fight Choreography - 75/100 | Earlier episodes that weren't so CGI-heavy were the best. Overall it's quite violent.
Enjoyment - 63/100 | You'd think all the episodes focusing on introducing various characters would culminate into something great when all the separate plot points merged, however it simply doesn't. The last episodes felt a bit cheap, forced, and nonsensical. Some individual episodes were great though, like the one focusing on the resilient dad played by Ryu Seung Ryong.
And the ones focusing on Han Hyo-joo, who is simply amazing in this. Same for Zo In-sung playing her husband. Their chemistry is off the charts.
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The leads make this show
More Zombie content, except now it's… also weirdly a love story. Contrary to other Korean Zombie stuff there isn't much action.And it's just strange. These stories don't usually go like this. Basically, it's a kdrama with a Zombie backdrop. There, let's go with that.
I'm not surprised in the slightest that this was lovely. It was directed by Ahn Gil-ho who was also behind the camera for The Glory, another favorite of mine.
It's a show that keeps you guessing for most of its runtime, lots of twists and unpredictable turns, and although there are a few plot contrivances, and annoying characters, they were never too much for me. I enjoyed how varied and chaotic the characters were, and well, I really liked the leads, who make the show.
Han Hyo-joo in a military uniform… damn girl! What a looker. She's so on point in this. Great leads, in fact. They form a sort of power couple (with Park Hyung-sik playing the other half) and us following their story as they deal with all the bullshit happening around them in the middle of a virus apocalypse is why this show works.
Gonna have to watch Moving now because I need more Han Hyo-joo in my life. She's like a stoic but equally as intense variant of Jun Ji-hyun.
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Woo Young-woo is so wholesome.
The first half had unbelievable writing quality. I especially admired how it simultaneously developed the overall narrative and cases while still finding ways to seamlessly weave in personal development for the main character throughout. And so many intricate details. That was pure genius. As an aspiring writer I'm kinda jealous at the feat they pulled here tbh.Unfortunately, the show couldn't maintain that level of quality in the second half, at which point it settled for… "still pretty damn great".
Massive kudos to the person who made the subs for this on Netflix, a certain Cho Hyun-soo apparently. Good subs help tremendously when listening to foreign media, and these subs were among the best I've ever seen, translating everything that's written on screen flawlessly, and even providing context for some jokes that couldn't translate well from Korean to English.
I'm not sure if a 2nd season of this show really makes sense but hey, I'm open to being wrong.
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Different kind of drama - fast and unpredictable
Starts off nauseating for a few minutes but then settles down quite nicely into a comfortable position.So what does it take to become a celebrity when you've got nothing? Apparently: Instagram, lots of luck, and being hella pretty.
This kdrama puts forward very actual problems and stakes today in 2023, some even coming up as a complete surprise. This series has great plot twists for sure, hard to predict!
The lead mainly acts with her eyes, it's rather interesting. Definitely a change of pace, as generally kdrama stars are all about outward expressiveness, so might not be everyone's cup of tea on that front since she's more reserved.
Unfortunately as exciting and engaging as this drama is, it still has its share of problems, most notably main story events that just plain make no sense. Some characters are tropes on legs while others… subvert those tropes really well? Just uneven all around.
But I'd be lying if I said this show didn't hold my attention from the first episode to the last. It doesn't devolve into excessive melodrama, it's actually fairly tightly paced and well acted. I could have used a couple more episodes to flesh things out which is something I rarely say with kdrama.
But the writing… damn, so contrived. In all, I'd say it's pretty good, but be ready to nod a few times like "ooooookay…?"
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This review may contain spoilers
Classic lovers in opposite camp story done right
imagine wanting to kill yourself in Switzerland but then years later when you actually want to live you're stuck in... North KoreaLmao
Now, this drama isn't perfect, but this is the couple to end all couples. If you didn't believe in the power of love, this drama will rectify that. Their love was so deep and absolute it transcended enemy country borders and could conquer any adversity, and even... break the fourth wall, as apparently being together on-screen wasn't enough for them! Their chemistry was too good.
And so Hyun Bin and Son Ye-jin got married afterwards in real life too. Makes the whole thing even more wholesome and heartwarming.
Life goals.
This is an emotionally stirring drama. Very earnest.
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The script is needlessly convoluted (but kinda neat sometimes to be honest) and also hella bleak, which makes for a weird experience.
But it managed to win me over with an engaging performance by the lead played by Son Ye-jin, and interesting editing.
I'm kind of expecting more with Korean thrillers to be honest. The directing was… uneven.
More focus on the characters and why I should care, please.
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