Simply because this is an action drama, I just love watching action dramas and IRIS seemed to be the right choice at the time.
2) Storyline/Plot:
The general storyline was written in a good way, there were a lot of interesting cliffhangers all over the drama, action-suspense packed with romance thrown every once in awhile.
Postive Points:
*Being an action drama that's full of suspense isn't something new yet to see this type of drama in the Korean industry is rare that's why it would feel appealing.
*Main Genres:
--->Action: Considering the fact that this is an action drama, it contained many fighting scenes which were attracting to watch. The action element was set in a way that would make the viewers anxious about the next fighting development. Well, martial arts scenes were practically absent, only guns and free wrestling yet it felt right for this kind of drama plus fighting all over the drama was cool to follow.
--->Suspense: The suspense element wasn't very interesting like the action element yet that doesn't deny the fact that it had an important effect through the drama and the story's development. It's true that it wasn't present ever since the beginning but the fact that it got extended every episode was a smart move to make the audience wonder about what will happen next.
--->Romance: I wouldn't say it's fully a positive point but it was the right amount for an intense drama because in action-suspense dramas, too much romance would ruin the whole plot. Here, romance participated in the story's development by making it more captivating.
Negative Points:
*The negative points that I can think of are related to the suspense element; it's true that I previously mentioned it in the positive points column and it's true that suspense made this drama more interesting yet when there is suspgense and mystery there should be "truth revealing" at/near the end but that wasn't the case here. Yes, we get to know many things but it was left open in an annoying way.
Story: 9/10.
3) Acting/Cast:
*Lee Byung Hun:
I am not very familiar with him as an actor so I wondered if he could pull off an intense role, I also kept questioning his ability in delivering emotions through his acting and the answer was: Good action actor, I liked his skills whether in action or in the dramatical scenes (even though there weren't many).
Kim Hyun Jun was an ordinary action lead male character, I can't think of something special about his character since I've seen it many times before yet it wasn't boring nor usual to watch. I enjoyed his scenes especially his action scenes because he had some respectable action moves.
*Kim Tae Hee:
I like this actress but I believe that her previous roles weren't that interesting therefore I was happy to find her in an action drama with a an intense role. I wanted to confirm her skills and I am satisfied; her perfomance was good enough to make me like her even more.
Choi Seung Hee was an acceptable character, it's true that her action scenes weren't that special and I wanted her to be more strong yet it was good enough to keep the entertainment.
*Other Cast:
As for other main roles, I believe that they were satisfying as actors and characters. Supporting roles were good, I have no complains about them. I specially liked the second lead female as an actress and as a character.
*Relationships:
--->Friendship: I liked the realationship between Hyun Jun and Sa Won all the way through the drama whether it was bromance or conflicts. The friendship between Hyun Jun and Kim Sun Hwa was good too, it's one of the fewest times that I liked the relationship between the lead male and the second lead female.
--->Romance: There was great chemistry between the main roles, the romantic scenes between Hyun Jun and Seung Hee were always good to watch.
--->The Triangle: It was different and much better from other usual boring Korean triangles.
Cast: 8.5/10
Acting: 9/10.
4) The ending:
Don't expect too much from the ending, it's one of the storyline's flaws since it doesn't answer the suspense questions yet it's expected for this intense drama. The ending will leave with lots of questions, it could be considered as an open ending or maybe they're preparing questions for a second season or a film, in that case I wouldn't consider it as an ending.
The ending's rating 7/10.
5) My impression (How did it affect me):
*Usually, an action drama is always interesting for me but this drama had great bonuses: Romance and suspense, which means that I fully enjoyed it from the beginning till the end.
*There's no chance that you will get bored while watching this drama. You can consider it as a thrilling ride that will take you through amazing events and awesome action scenes.
*Is this drama memorable: Yes it is, the fact that it is one of the fewest Korean action dramas, I think it worth a spot in my "unforgettable dramas list" and I am still hoping for a second season, I think it would be good.
My impression: 9/10
6) Overall:
*If you like action-suspense dramas then you need to watch this.
*If you like action dramas with romance thrown in it then IRIS will fit your taste.
*IRIS is a drama that you need to watch when you're looking for a respectable action story with lots of mystery and suspense and let's not forget that it has great main roles.
Overall: 9/10.
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Today? Iris is in my top dramas, with a 10 as note.
Why? because for me it was absolutely amazing.
*Acting: FLAWLESS and impressive
*Music: Great
*Story: Great, with a lot of suspense, cuteness, humour, real emotions
*Couple: incredible chemistry
*Kisses: OH MY GOD! (my favourite kiss EVER is in this drama (Ep 3), equally placed with the tiptoe kiss of Queen In Hyun's Man)
I laughed, cried, smiled with the characters. It was hard not to watch the next episode just after finishing one as it was very intense.
and you know what? when I rewatched Iris, I had the exact same feelings and reactions! isn't that amazing? ^^
in short: REALLY love it!
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I've heard and read very mixed reviews of it, but for me personally it was probably the best thing I could ever imagine (at the time I watched it at least).
This was also one of the first dramas I ever watched, so I didn't have many other dramas to compare it too, and this was the drama that really got me hooked on Korean dramas.
It is absolutely my cup of tea. However, I am well aware that it is not everyones.
I am an action, revenge and romance obsessed person, and having all those things combine into one drama with a on-the-tip-of-your-toes plot filled with twists, angst ridden protagonists, and searing romance that actually went somewhere made me deliriously happy.
Story: While the story may be seen as your typical espionage-revenge plot: main character is the best operative, something bad happens, his love life is ruined, he seeks revenge while a shady organization is out to nuke the whole world... the stereotypical story line ruined nothing for me. Besides, I love that story kind of story line. I mean, what's not to like? There was still enough sub-plot and intrigue that I was hooked and watched every episode completely. Yes I may have been able to see some of what happened coming, but definitely not everything. So what was the story like besides action, romance, and revenge? Well it was chalk full of touching moments, both tragic and bitter-sweet. There were also those moments that I was so mad at the writer that I felt like I wanted to punch someone in the face (ending included), but somehow in a good way, if that makes any sense. But mostly, I loved following Hyun Jun's amazing, heart-wrenching journey. I felt like I could feel every single emotion he did, and that will get me write into my evaluation of the cast.
Acting/Cast: I'm only going to talk about Lee Byung Hun, because OH MY GOD, despite whatever people say about him as a person, Lee Byung Hun's acting BLOWS ME AWAY. I felt like I was standing next to him, watching everything he went through, screaming at his character, Hyun Jun, to pull through his hardships. It was just amazing.
Music: It was perfect. That is all.
Overall: An amazing action packed piece of perfection.
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Before I even started watching this, I started its story score with a 10 because it isn't a common type of drama (at least not that I see). No clichés tossed into each episode, no rich mothers who hate the one you're dating, nobody having to dump you because it looks bad for their family's company, etc. That will always get you a good score from me.
As for how the story was told, it was enjoyable. It wasn't going by so fast that I couldn't keep up, and it wasn't moving at a pace that had me wanting to abuse the skip button. Every now and then, they would toss in a twist; sometimes they were predictable, and sometimes I found myself actually being surprised. The action scenes would keep me on the edge of my seat almost every time, wondering what might happen next. 'Iris' has, without a doubt, my favorite fight between two females as of right now. And one of my favorite kisses in a drama as well.
The acting/cast for this show was amazing. Absolutely amazing. The chemistry was working in all the right places for me. Friendships being made, enemies being discovered, people falling love, etc. were all great to watch in action.
This was the first time I had seen Lee Byung Hun in anything (but can I just say that I had a serious fanboy moment when I saw that we shared the same birthday?), but I found myself loving him instantly. He makes these facial expressions sometimes that just make you melt. When it came to his acting in emotional scenes, it would just tear me apart. If that man would be crying, you could assume I'd be crying as well. And his English! Oh jesus, his English is perfect. I would rewind a scene and rewatch it over and over when he would speak English.
Kim So Yeon has slowly been making her way up my list of favorite Korean actors/actresses, and this role totally pushed her into my top five. With her, I can't really explain what I was crazy about while watching her. She just had this way with her acting that constantly had me wishing I could just hop over to North Korea and befriend her.
Jung Joon Ho has apparently had a guest role in a show I watched before, but since I don't remember that at all, I'm thinking of this as his debut performance for me, and I loved it. He actually looked like he was struggling with trying to be the bad guy while still being good, which I don't often see. Usually people just start off bad or we never really see any kind of transition from good to bad.
The only acting I was really unsure of here was T.O.P's. The only time I really seemed to enjoy his acting was when he wasn't speaking. When he was, it seemed, to me, like he was trying too hard to sound evil, and it just wasn't doing anything for me.
I was 50/50 when it came to the music. I really enjoyed the music during action scenes, while the songs during every other part just didn't sound good to me.
Overall, I started this score off at 10 and took it down two points. While I loved basically all of this, some things just bugged me the whole time. One of the things I couldn't get over was how often they used flashbacks. Even starting from the first few episodes, they happened often, and they were long.
Another thing that really bugged me (and bugs me about most action-y shows) is when main characters (and some side characters) use guns. They can hit absolutely anything or anyone, still or moving, when they're just grunts of a more important person, yet they seem to waste clip after clip shooting an important person without ever hitting them once, and it's incredibly irritating.
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The acting is phenomenal. Lee Byung Hun has just moved up in my rankings an actor. His ability to make his character Kim Hyun Jun come alive is exceptional. Not to mention that he is HOT!!! That smile is beautiful. Kim So Yeon as Kim Sun Hwa is my favorite character out of this drama. I am now planning to watch everything that she has been in. She played that character to perfection. I enjoyed Kim Tae Hee, Jung Joon Ho, and Kim Seung Woo also. I had no idea that Kim Seung Woo could be so charismatic. I watch him on the Korean variety show 1N2D where he is funny. It was nice to see him act. Last but certainly not least...TOP...although he didn't say much, who cares. He was totally HOT in this drama. Why do I always like the bad guys? LOL
The music is ok.
I would rewatch this at some point.
If you like action, suspense and romance, then this is the drama to watch. Now on to IRIS 2...I hope it will be as good!!!
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the biggest problem, for me, was that in a drama about super secret super spies the characters often did some VERY conspicous often pointless things. Kim Tae Hee's character is the WORST SPY EVER, which is saying something b/c she is surrounded by other characters that belong in a Spy VS Spy short. even the NSS director has moments that make you scratch your head and not in a good way. 007 is on a beach somewhere drinking his martini, laughing and planning to call Hyun Jun and invite him to come work with some real spies.
next biggest issue for me is Kim Tae Hee and her character. Kim Tae Hee always fails to impress me. this is the 3rd drama i've seen her in and i was hoping that with a meatier role i'd finally see what she could do. and i did, about four or five times. in a 20 episode drama she brought it in a handful of scenes and that was it. the rest of the time she has this pinchy expression or her deadpan smile that irratated me so badly in my princess. of course it's not ALL her fault. some of it has to fall on the writers who some how managed to make a talented, intelligent, strong female spy just as weak and blah as every other k-drama heroine you wished you never had to see again. it probably woulndt be as noticable if she wasnt standing next to Lee Byung Hun. the man is a raw nerve, believably conveying every emotion, no matter how heightened or dramatiic.
my last major complaint is that it all seems to fall apart in the last few episodes. it's as if the director and writers suddenly realized that tightly ploted drama they had created did not leave the characters where they wanted them to be so instead of wrapping up a good drama they slapped together the last hurrah, and it wasnt nearly as well done as the rest.
now we get into less glaring issues. the music. ugh, esp at the begining the music was either in appropriate, jarring, just plain bad or a combination of the three. it gets better in the second half and the instrumentals are great.
this last bit is just me being nit picky. TOP. now dont get me wrong, i adore TOP and i loved watching the 20 minutes he was in this drama. i dont understand why TOP's character was presented as an intragal part of the plot b/c he just isnt. i get that he was included to attract a younger crowd, but his presence is seriously over billed. there were other characters that got a lot more screen time that didnt make the opening credits.
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The OST were awesome (I'm a little bit disappointed though, as Hallelujah by Big Bang was played only two or three times).
And you know what? Before watching I heard that IRIS was quite boring and stupid and almost believed it. That is why remember, NEVER JUDGE ANYTHING JUST BY OTHER'S SAYING! It is better to see once than hear a hundred times about it.
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Before I start off, it should be clear that this review is a bit different from the previous ones. I take a more critical position and compare this series to its international equivalents. The reasons behind this different approach are its large budget (?20 billion), the high ratings it received but most importantly its emulation of American TV series such as 24, the Bourne film series but also the British espionage tv drama Spooks. With these circumstances, I believe it is justified to hold IRIS to different standards than the previous kdrama's that I've reviewed and posted here prior.
With that out of the way, let's start with the positive. When you watch your ordinary Korean drama and then see IRIS, it is a spectacular and refreshing series. It features romantic elements, yet stays clear of aegyo and "oppa!", which when used properly can be entertaining, yet in all honesty get rather annoying after a while. IRIS doesn't suffer from this, nor does it put so much emphasis on South Korea's culture of excessive virtue when it comes to relationships as pretty much all the other rated-15 dramas do (in contrast to many of its excellent films). It is after all an espionage drama, but its worth noting at least that they didn't use the exact same approach as every other drama does.
It does remain a proper Korean drama of course, with its well timed episode endings, the slick looking cast and good soundtrack. Especially industry veteran Baek Ji Young's song Don't Forget is great at evoking emotions from the viewer in the romantic parts. I also liked Shin Seung Hun's Love of Iris and I'm quite sure the people over at /r/kpop will be pleased whenever the music from Big Bang plays (not my particular interest, so I won't touch on that).
The cast is in my opinion a bit of a mixed bunch, when looking at the quality of their performances. Main lead Lee Byung-Hun delivers a good and solid performance, no complaints there. However, female lead Kim Tae-Hee, while extraordinarily beautiful in IRIS, does not perform with conviction. I can't really judge if she's even capable of doing so, as I've only seen her in My Princess so far. I am not too familiar with the works of Jeong Jun-Ho, I'll have to put some work into watching the films in which he features, but he didn't impress me too much. This could partly be blamed on his character, I'm not too sure on that. The 'North Koreans' played by veterans Kim Seung-Woo and Kim So-Yeon do perform excellent and both got their deserved screen time, though in my opinion not enough depth of character and background. The supporting cast is nothing to be impressed about. Comedic relief and every-other-drama/film supporting actor [Yun Ju-Sang](Yun Ju-Sang) as the eccentric scientist just isn't funny or witty and thus missed his goal of adding some lighthearted amusement. It just doesn't work out, just as Lee Jeong-Kil is just another president act, Juni needs some more experience and T.O.P. should just stick to singing and making music. I also am starting to wonder if they even hold auditions for the foreign actors (Japanese cast excluded) that appear in Korean dramas. Do they just invite some friends, business partners or random people from the street? There's little acting going on as soon as you hear English being spoken. IRIS is not alone in this.
Moving on to the production, something that really sets this drama apart from others. On one hand, it can be considered a big step for Korean drama, but for some reason there is no attention to detail. Too much time and money is wasted on exotic locations, but on our NSS computer systems, they'd still make bad use of English (AGREEMENT when it should have said MATCH, or simply spelling errors), I spotted a previous attempt at a car spin on one of the roads and it appears that no one was concerned with how weapons and firefights actually work in reality. While seemingly having so much in common with the Bourne films, no attention was paid to the chase scenes (Let's face it, those are hard to miss in any Bourne film, for shame. Pay attention to detail in the future, Korean drama creators, because this is embarrassing.
While we're at the embarrassments anyway, the story and script is what pull this drama down to a level that it could have stayed above. Nuclear bombs? Biological weapons? Super evil groups with roots everywhere? Come on, this is about as cheesy and predictable as it gets. No points for any originality there, nor does the rest of the story offer any interesting insights. The creators are careful not to let realism get in the way of how this story progresses. They may not have heard of the British drama Spooks, but it is obvious that they should have and watched it intently too. This will not help the Hallyu wave spread beyond East and South East Asia, it is simply not up to par with what other countries have to offer. It could perhaps serve as a stepping stone for future productions, but with domestic ratings this high I doubt they would bother.
For a Korean drama, this is special and perhaps even better than City Hunter. However, IRIS is simply not up to emulating this concept in the same fashion that Western equivalents are able to do this. Where as in My Girlfriend is an Agent, the humor helped to keep it watchable, no such help is available for IRIS.
6/10
http://www.reddit.com/r/KDRAMA/comments/mdowp/iris????_2009kbs_cultural_flunkeyism_610/
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Liked-
I loved the storyline of this drama, you can tell that the plot was well thought out as it flowed nicely, had good pace and you could never tell what was going to happen next.
The acting was also great, although I'm still unsure as to what the point of TOP's character was. He was good at acting badass (but maybe that's because he IS a badass), but I didn't understand his character fully, maybe we weren't meant to. But overall a good cast and FINALLY two characters with chemistry. I'm so tired of dramas were the two romantic interests have no chemistry what so ever. This drama isn't even focused to heavily on the romantic genre but it wipes the floor with chemistry! Plus this drama includes one of the sweetest kisses ever (It will melt your heart!)
Another thing I liked was the use of special effects and the fight scenes. They were well choreographed and it made this drama visually stunning.
Disliked-
The music. To be more specific this one song that plays whenever theirs an intense scene which includes this weird buzzer sound. Like the buzzer sound you get in the board game 'operation' when you hit the sides. Obviously not a deal breaker for a good/bad drama but it REALLY bugged me.
The camera operators. Seriously, would it have killed them to buy a tripod?? I got motion sickness watching this drama. They need to reign themselves in and stop touching the zoom button when a characters face already covers up the screen.
Overall a very good drama and I would recommend if you like action/fight scene and if you're not that fond of cutesy romance dramas with cliche plot lines.
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Perfect acting , perfect cast ( Lee Byung hun and Kim tae hae) and the Story is so original and unpredictable .. it gets better by each episode , it's really touching.
I love how the characters evolved .. and how nothing is like you expect it to be. Until the last minute , you can't really predict the ending.
what's more , the chemistry between the main leads is amazing.
it's worth every second!
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