- It's fun, dark and full of mystery. Plus has an amazing story that twists and turns. Keeps you on the EDGE your seat and wanting answers! So many moments I was like WHAT? WHO?
-It breaks the mold of usual K-dramas, it is definitely mature (adult) and not afraid of doing so! Despite explicit scenes it maintains a high level of quality throughout.
- The acting! I have so much respect for the actresses for taking on such challenging roles. They were phenomenal.
- The cinematography! Wow, the mood lighting, camera angles that draw you in, beautiful sets and locations. All were so wonderfully styled, you can't hep but find yourself immersed in the world of mistress.
- The FASHION. The designers and stylist did an amazing job at giving each actress their own unique style. Personally I loved what the character of Han jung won wore.
- The sound? I know a weird one but the shows maintains this high clarity of sound throughout, like tapping of heels, typing on phones. It all comes together to almost be asmr? I can't really describe why but it just works!
Now the only, ONLY thing I would change..... is the music. While the overall scoring generally goes well with the scenes, there can be moments where it can seem "too much" or out of place. While the soundtrack is great it's just the selection of scenes with certain music that just sometimes is off putting? But this can be unnoticeable and I don't think it affects the overall quality of the show.
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The thing is, this is a remake so essentially it can’t really get the credit for the story and all those things that are the show’s saving grace. Because basically the creators were handed an already tried and tested recipe along with extensive steps of preparation. All they had to do was follow the steps and cook a dish putting their own flavor on it. Unfortunately, for this drama the materials used were not very fresh and so the resulting dish came out to be rather bland.
By materials used, I ofcourse mean the characters. If I were to say, that the people telling this story were more or less hollow with zero to very little development, I wouldn’t be really off the mark. The show centers on four best friends with “scandalous” lives (which in my opinion were less scandalous and more “pathetic” but we will come on to that later) who have a murder mystery on their hands. Despite there being four of them, it’s very clear that Jang Se Yeon- single mother/widower- was the main protagonist which in Mistress translates to being the main simpleton of the lot of them.
If we somehow ignore the fact, that for the most part she was a bumbling fumbling idiot who literally had her mouth parted open like a sputtering fish all the freaking time, we still won’t find her character likeable. See, here’s the thing if you are going to show me a mother who is dumb enough to leave her child in the care of a babysitter for more than 24 hours, repeatedly trusting said babysitter after she has been proven to be a shady ass a couple of times, leaving your child unattended in parks, hotels, shopping malls e.t.c, spending literally no time with your child to the extent that you’re unaware your child is freaking dying and then in the next second you’re going to feed me the “concerned mother who loves her child to no end” bullshit where I am supposed to sympathize with the “suffering” she has to go through in order to save her child from all those nasty villains- sorry, but I’m not buying it. And before you bring up the “oh but she is a single mother who has to work to pay the bills and that keeps her busy” shit with me- she works in a stupid ass cafe as a barista which is conveniently ALWAYS empty. For fuck’s sake, say no more.
I have to like my characters in order to feel for their ordeals and with these half-wits I was just like you all are so damn frustratingly dumb that if you insist on making your beds, I urge you to please lie in them and never get up. The other two in the brainless bunch consist of a therapist (who is like a walking talking cardboard because of how dull she is) and a supposedly tech savvy/law-savvy stalker -(?) somebody please tell me her damn profession- whose sole purpose in life is unsuccessfully tailing people and looking pretty. No depth to either of them, their career is used as plot devices and they are there just for the sake of being there.
The only redeemable out of the four is our resident school teacher and husband cheater. She is the one who grows the most, acts the best and has the most interesting personality. But ofcourse not enough screen-time to make a difference. There are some love interests who are meh. The antagonists are more or less meh, except one of them (the shady babysitter lol). And the show itself is also pretty much MEH.
The best thing about this was the sound-track. I loved some of the songs and the instrumentals. The drama is also pretty racy for South Korean standards what with all the random sex scenes which were just funny for me because they were there- like the characters- just for the sake of being there, contributing zero to the plot.
So in conclusion, if you haven’t watched a lot of crime/suspense/thrillers and just want a quick mindless fix, this will work for you but for someone like me who lives and breathes this stuff, not only was it not anything different it was also below standard compared to what’s already there.
Enjoy!
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Just finished the drama and I have to say that this drama is the incredible in the mysery and suspense genre i have previously watched.
The plot,acting and suspense all are so great that i really really recommend this drama.
I watched this drama bychance and i feel that that was a luck for me.I was hooked from Ep1.
There would be some explicit scene in Ep 1 and 2 but after that there are none.
The background music and ost are best.And the moment when some twist came and music is so thrilling. I want to give 11/10 for this drama.
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PS: i gave the rewatch value 1 because once secrets are revealed and the mystery is solved you have no reason for watching the drama again.
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The most unpredictable drama I have seen in a long time
From the first episode I was on the edge of my seat until the very last 20 minutes. This drama was so unpredictable that it had me wondering what was going to happen next all the time. Every time I thought I had the ending figured out they threw in a little titbit that made me more confused than ever. Don't get me wrong it is not a jumble of random thoughts that was just stuck together with sticky tape to fill up the episodes. It's not that the story didn't make sense, it's just kept you guessing all the time.And don't let the name Mistress fool you. There are two explicit scenes in the first two episodes, but nothing serious. But it is about what happens after an affair. The whole story was based around it. If I have to explain it I might give away a few spoilers.
The story revolves around four women and each one's story is interesting, adding to the mystery of the whole drama. You would think having 4 side stories would make the drama long and boring but each woman had a man in her life and it could be any of those men who was murdered in the end. And just as I thought it was this one or that one, they threw in a clue that completely threw me off again.
One thing I can say: don't mess with a bunch of women who are best friends! They stuck together until the very end.
It is one of those where you would like just one more episode. A season 2 would've been great.
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This review may contain spoilers
for one thing it was hard to relate/connect/root for any of the female characters, or even the guys tbh. it was not just that they are "gray", but all of them were either selfish or judgmental..I liked Do Hwa Young and Han Jung Won the most, but one was fooled into cheating and the other cheated with her teacher, and they even threw in some hints of crush from his son's side so everything was just a mess..
Jang Se Yun acted all high and mighty and calm but she's the type one should fear. the moment someone does something she doesn't like she gives them a condescending silent treatment? and I actually don't know if Sang Hoon killed saloon lady or not? and if not then 1- who did? and 2- the way Jang Se Yun treated him and doubted him is exactly what I hated about Jang Se Yun.
but to her defense the writers loved to make everyone looks suspicious that even Sang Hoon and Min Gyu seemed crazy. though after showing that Dong Seok was the one messing with his wife it just makes me wonder why the writers tried to make Min Gyu act obsessive?
also, if Sang Hoon didn't kill saloon lady then he as well should've been acting so shady..
Jung Won was the worse. she cheated on her husband and the acted as if he was to blame, and just becasue her husband cheated first didn't justify her though she didn't even know that. and most of the time she acted as if she was better than her friends and that everyone was out to get her/make her do things for themselves. and though she did do those things, it kinda made her seem self centered..
anyway, now on to the crime/mystery! it was a huge mess xD at 1st I thought their crime happened in the past but knowing that it was the future was a good move..
on the other hand, the other mysteries mostly had nothing to do with each other but they made them seem as if they were connected..
so, the teacher Eun Soo cheated with was killed by Chang Hyun's mom becasue she thought he was the lover of her daughter in law who Chang Hyun was "accused" of killing, and Eun Soo killed up after her to hid her own cheating, then the teacher's son came into the picture and Eun Soo wanted to redeem herself.
but it turns out Dong Seok was the lover but he had nothing to do with either murders? and then Chang Hyun was killed by who? I don't know.. but then Sang Hoon tried to blame Young Dae to bring him out of hiding, and well that was the only "reason" to have so many murders connected with each other..
Young Dae was a crazy mess, but! that ending! I was wondering this since ep6. if they showed Young Dae's body missing and then found somewhere else, then why the heck did the 4 fls still tried to hide his body? I knew from then it meant whatever they did didn't kill him and that there was another murderer, so why?
he was coming out of the water and he had more blood on him. they could've ended it there. and they all seemed to forget Jung Shim was around..
anyway, I also feel cheated that Sang Hoon was alive. all throughout the drama (especially after they showed he was innocent) I hoped he was alive. but for them to make us think he was dead until the last scene was a cheap move. I wondered how his daughter and Jung Shim were running around if one's dad died and the other's mom was a killer, so I mean I'm glad he didn't die but still..
the female centeredness and the fact that it was a "mystery" and short was the only thing working for it..
the ost was nice, it had elaine~ and I never rewatch stuff...
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Mysteries
With what OCN have done with the drama, I found it hard to justify adding the 18+ rating. There was a slight skinship and one quick 30 second vague intimate scene in the first 2 episodes and that was it. The usual bait and switch tactic. Admittedly, it was one of the better attempts from OCN when it comes to creating a mystery drama. However, it quickly went downhill. It felt like the writers were stuffing up the mystery to make it as big as possible, with twists and turns that were more like cheap thrills than actual surprises. It became too bloated to make something coherent. It was hard for the drama to juggle between all of the 4 main characters and their interconnected stories which also affected the dynamic between the four of them. You can notice who ended up being the fourth wheel.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Mistress is a gripping mystery thriller which as the title suggests, revolves around the theme of infidelity or affairs or cheating, call it what you want. The show is written in a way to make you guess the mystery, the who killed whos and so on. Its quite the roller coaster ride of a show and normally, I'm not into shows which have infidelity as a theme. I think my favorite characters would be Se Yeon and Han Sang Hoon. I was shipping them the moment they met. I liked Se Yeong's character since she was the only girl out of the four who didn't have an immoral or adulterous sort of relationship. Although, we find out later that she was the mistress to the Chinese wife without the former even knowing about it. Now, on to Han Sang Hoon. I was rooting for our man Han Sang Hoon despite the show implicating that he is a killer and I was glad to find out that he was innocent and was very happy with the ending where he was alive. As I was watching everyone moving on with their lives after the murder incident, I was literally screaming at my screen "But what about Han Sang Hoon?" and jumped out of sheer joy when they revealed that he was alive. Kudos to the writers for the way that it was presented. Now, as far as writing goes, the show is written well but there's a lot of plot armor in favor of the four girls. Off the top of my head, one plot armor would be the Chines wife killing and taking the blame for killing Kim Young Dae so that the girls can be proven innocent. Another situation would be when Se Yeon was dropped off in front of the police station by the Chinese wife with the cops surrounding her about to catch her, Han Jeong Won was just right there at the right time to rescue her from the cops. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that you feel no sense of danger for the lives of the four girls. Speaking of danger, I'm sure many were viewers like myself were worried about Han Sang Hoon''s life as he was tortured and held captive over the course of the last couple of episodes. It kinda pissed me off how they didn't go look for him any sooner but I suppose that since they weren't sure about Hoon Sang Hoon's motives, I can let that slide. I was frustrated when the two girls try to see if Hoon Sang Hoon was in the abandoned condominium. I literally screamed "INCOMPETENT!" as they were unsuccessful in finding him. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that throughout the later part of the show, I was very worried for Han Sang Hoon's life as opposed to the four girls despite them being manhandled by Kim Young Dae in the final scene of that abandoned condominium.
Speaking of the four girls, I disliked Han Jeong Won a lot simply because she had a one night stand with her fellow teacher just because of a falling out with her husband when her husband didn't even cheat on her that night. We do later find out that he did cheat on her but with a different woman (can't remember her name) but that was long ago. Either way, that doesn't justify her cheating on him with that fellow teacher of hers who turned out to be psychotic yandere until the moment Han Jeong Won's husband slapped the hell out him as it was revealed in the dash cam video. I was laughing out loud when Han Jeong Won was throwing tantrums accusing her husband of infidelity when she basically had sex with her teacher and got pregnant along with it when she didn't even know about her husband's infidelity. Talk about hypocrisy! Watching her psychologically suffer and be miserable was the only satisfaction I could attain from the show. I mean, seriously, if you're not happy with your husband, just get a divorce and then get impregnated by your fellow teacher and do whatever you want but she did all that one night stuff and when her husband asked to start over, she just went on and agreed to start over as if nothing's wrong. She was the creator of her own self-destruction. Sure, it ends with her being a single mother but the journey of her being a single mother was very entertaining due to how much I disliked the character.
On to the Doctor aka Kim Eun Soo who had a very interesting murder mystery arc. Her arc was very entertaining same as Se Yeon. I think these two girls' arcs are my favorite due to how relevant they are to the overarching plot as compared to the other two which kinda felt like side stories or sub-plot. Kim Eun Soo and her teacher's son investigate as to who killed the teacher she had an affair with. The only negative in this arc would be the writers teasing Kim Eun Soo and her teacher's son as a ship. I'm glad they weren't a couple by the end because that would be sort of disturbing. If that did happen, she could actually use the phrase "but thats not how your dad used to do it!" Haha!
Moving on, I found Do Hwa Young's arc to be nothing more than a filler. Her whole arc with the glasses wearing married guy was just could be skipped and didn't contribute much to the main plot as much as Se Yeon and Kim Eun Soo's arcs did. Also, the glasses guy rejects Do Hwa Young's offer to sleep with him saying that she hasn't changed only for him to sleep with her out of the blue the next night. Like what the actual fuck?!
Overall, the show was intense, thrilling and very binge-worthy. Not to mention the mystery surrounding the story. It keeps you guessing and wanting for more. The investigation didn't really make sense at some points in the story but despite its flaws, its a solid show. Great acting, beautiful cinematography and an amazing score!
However, I wish they didn't have to ruin the moment of closure during the final minutes of the show with that phone call and the person behind it. I doubt we'll get a season 2 due to its low ratings. Here's hoping there's a season 2. Cheers! =)
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I expected a soap opera. This show went beyond my expectations.
It's mainly mystery. It's definitely drama. It'll keep you on the edge of your seat. Focus is not on romance. The twists are so much fun!
Watch. This. Now.
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- Everyone is a suspect
- All men are shit
- This drama is FULL of mystery
I have to talk about how every single character is awesome and very well written. The four lead girls slowly get stronger and more independent, plus the friendship between them is so special. The acting was really awesome by everyone.
What describes this drama the better is the dark mystery that it has and the "pressure". Also the music is so epic and the cinematography, the mood lighting, camera angles, beautiful sets and location. I never talk about this, but the fashion was definitely something that got my attention. All those unique clothes were beautiful.
I'm not a fan of mystery, but I loved this drama and I think you should give it a try :P
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It reminded me of SECRET FORREST and WOMAN OF DIGNITY where one dead body sprouted all of the ruckus.
This is how you do a mystery drama (regardless of whether it's a remake or not), it's gripping, nail biting, risque and full of suspense. As the episode went on the lesser I skipped on the scenes because you really have to watch and listen on what's going on, yes it's that good (I even didn't skipped the "chasing" parts which I usually do).
Great tension build up throughout the series, I even find myself solving the mystery along them. All leads and the supporting actors really did a great job, no scenes were left to waste. definitely HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
p.s.
like the other reviewer said, the reason why I rated one star to the rewatch value is because with mystery dramas like this, once the mystery is solved there's just no thrill left anymore to watch it again
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