That was one Hell of a Ride.

Don't be afraid because this is an old Drama.I know 2006 sounds scary but is totally worth it.
Writers back then did their very best to surprise the audience and keep us hooked with such intriguing stories.

It is really hard to write a review for this because even the tiny detail can be such a major spoiler and ain't any fun if you have spoiled!
Even the synopsis is a spoiler in my opinion.But have it as a compass while watching it.
It is not an easy-silly to pass time Drama.Ofc nothing's wrong with this kind of dramas,lol,just saying that you have to pay attention,especially to the characters,because as episodes passing by,more details will be unraveled.Every scene matters,take it as a jigsaw piece,keep it at the back of your head and when you gather all the pieces put them together to form the whole picture.

The first episode didn't really pull me in and i thought is a waste of time to spend over 14 hrs for some school drama and some teen romance.Of course i was mistaken,because Bump Off Lover is nothing like this.
As usual we've been introduced to the characters and the story was building up ep by ep.We clearly see that the twins has totally opposite personalities.
Big sister is the extrovert one.Loud,smart,always the good student,the perfect daughter.
The younger one is the introvert,sweet and shy,kinda passive, the weakling character.
So,given those infos even from episode one,inside my head i formed whos good and whos evil.And when the younger sister died,my first thought was"such a pity it had to be the sweet girl instead of her sister"

How wrong i was.Im still laughing at myself of being such a naive.
To give you the general picture,this drama has similar vibes to Pretty Little Liars!If you know,you know! 😜

The story has few deaths/suicides/murders and all are connected to each other somehow.
Some parts has the "who is the murderer" vibes.And then our interest is focusing to "when" and mostly "why " all these happened.Is a Drama you can't relax.Always keep your mind on motion.

Everything starts when the big sister wants to know why her sis died so she starts her own investigation.During the process nasty secrets revealed.
There are secrets.Many dark,deep,scary secrets.Everyone has their own.And as those secrets coming up to the surface ,the characters have to deal with their struggles and their fears. Betrayals.Hypocrisy.Adultery.Deception.
The Twin's family is not the model family everyone thinks it is.
Digging deeper,always there is more dirt!

Kids can be scary.Adults can be vulnerable.The main characters,portrayed in such depth and this is one of the reasons the drama is so good,along with the story itself.The writer is not afraid to show the dark side of the human soul.The Devil usually hides behind sweet smiles.

Another thing that highly impressed me was the amount of profound,intelligent and provoking quotes the drama has.
After few episodes i had a notebook nearby to write them down!
It was a very clever use for the storytelling, giving us more insights of the characters.Really loved this detail.

"I once said 99 true words, no one believed me. I once said a single lie, everyone believed me. From then on, I realized that we are living a life full of lies."

"A Beast called Desire"

"Love and betrayal co-exist. It doesn't mean that if you betrayed the one you love, you love him less. Nor does it mean that if you love someone, you will not betray him…"

"Envy and admiration are the same. It's just that people believe that admiration sounds less evil…"

"I spent my life destroying other people's lives, little did I know that I destroyed my own life as well.."
Few of the many!

I can't praise this drama enough.I could write more and much more and give you detais about all the twists and turns and all the excitement the drama gave me.I urge you to explore it by yourself.
Is a story that comes full circle at the end.
You will not regret watching it.

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Predictable yet full of Fun.

This is probably the most predictable KDrama i have ever watched.Definetely it won't win any award for its originality.
But i had so much fun watching it and at the end this is all that matters.

Cons:
A very basic story and plot.Predictable as hell.We are 10 steps ahead of it and can tell how the story will go on at any time.No suspense and thrilling moments.
Flat and one-dimension characters,lacking depth.Not so much of a character development either.
Familiar faces playing familiar characters,the villains in this case.Once you see them you already know they play scummy chars.No surprises.

Pros:
Nice,upbeat and catchy songs.Gives a cheer-up vibe,liked it.
Smooth direction and cinematography.
Good and natural acting.
Is only 12 episodes.
Familiar faces,as a plus.Know what to expect from their performances.
Bad-ass Female characters,in their own way.Always nice to see strong, independent women.
A well balanced Drama between Action and Comedy.
Many fighting scenes and even more funny moments.
Enjoyable and entertaining.
Great chemistry.The team was hilarious.Has many sweet and touching moments too.
Predictable, yes.But Holy Sh*t that twist in the final episode was really wow.I didn't see that coming.Credits for that.

As i always say, first check the Genres and the Tags.
When we see the words Prosecutors,Law,Corruption etc,most likely we expect a very heavy Drama.
"Bad Prosecutor" is not one of those.Is light,funny and easy to watch.
Grab a bucket of Popcorn and have a nice Weekend!

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Close to perfection.

I just finished this one.Took me 3 days and i never skipped a scene.
So let's dig in:
Music: Very good,thrilling at some points, pulled me in the moments.
Cast/acting/characters:
Excellent choice for all actors.They portrayted their characters the best possible way.No complains here.
Acting top notch!Never felt was fake or they were acting.From main to all support roles everyone did a great job.
My standards are always high and Korean actors/esses rarely disappoint me.
Lets talk about the chars now.For me the only interesting character was only the ML.Dont get me wronged, iam not reffering to acting,just the chars.Apart our main lead all others including the FL and all support chars were common.
Prosecutors,detectives, villains, nothing new,nothing we havent seen dozens of times in similar Kdramas.
That was the reason i felt no chemistry between the ML and the FL,because the FL's char was rather flat.
And thanks God they didnt put any romance (i would have dropped it for sure if they did)
I loved Ml's character(again nothing we already haven't seen)but his char suited nicely the whole story.
He is cold,emotionless,smart,witty.Extra bonus he is so handsome and hot AF you can't take your eyes off him!
What made me loved him the most was his character development and that is why i said he is the only interesting char from the whole show.In my humble opinion the writer should have worked more on this and give us a full progress of his development.But i guess the other chars-especially the FL-couldn't support a side story to show us this.I don't know if i express it right,i hope you get what i mean!
His character reminded me my-forever-beloved Lee Joon Gi,in Flower of evil.(Iam not comparing here but LJG's performance
in FoE is the definition of PERFECT ACTING!When i have time i will write a review on the masterpiece called FoE)Anyways back to our topic.Story/plot:Well scripted,well executed,well performed.But it gets an 8.Sorry i cannot give more and i will explain why,
Well structured and very detailed story,Too detailed with too many infos given,many names invlolved too.
Many times the story was confusing and get me bored.I was hooked episode after episode but at the same time the corruption theme was getting heavier and heavier and at some point i fed up with it
.Each episode pointed at another suspect and this is something that usually overexcites me,but here i dont know why most of the times felt off like you know the writer tried too hard to create suspence.Long story short i wish the drama was more focused on the crime/investigation/whodidit/ than the corruption.But oh well is a Kdrama and we all know Korean's favorite word is...yes!Corruption!Lmao.
16 episodes over 1 hour each was too much to handle.They could have wrapped everything in less.
The ending was more than satisfying and i applause it.I wanted to be more thrilling in a way though!Damn i know this is an almost perfect drama,iam the weirdo one,shoot me!
I know there is a S2 and i will definetelly watch it,but not anytime soon.I had enough of my corruption dose,i will take a break
from the heavy corruption dramas for a while.

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Iam Mad about this!

Yes,you can interpret the title,both ways!

I start this Review by saying that if this production was a Korean one,this Drama would have been a super Hit with extremely high ratings.My feeling is that Koreans would have done this way better!Just saying..

Anyhow,lets move on.

Production/cinematography and direction.Nothing impressive here.Everything was basic and stole something from the "magic" the story has.

Music was ok.Acting was good.But after finishing the series i definitely can say that everything was too little and didn't support the story itself the best way.That's why got a 7,5 instead of 9 or more.
I wanted more intense music themes.More powerful acting.More pain and sorrow!Because the story could backup all of these.I felt the script was failed by all the other factors.I can't explain this better,im sorry!

This one was dragged.15 eps were too many,they could have wrapped everything up within 10 episodes but thats ok.

The story includes 3 incidents.
Murder 23 years ago,3 years ago and present day.
There is a Detective, a Rookie Cop and a public official.
There are victims,murderers,Villains and innocent people involved in a tangled web which goes back to the first murder,23 years ago.

I liked how they tied up all the characters and connected their lives.
I really liked the way they gave us the sort flashbacks of each main char past.It wasn't confusing,tiring or boring.Tip:the flashbacks were presented in a smaller frame.Nice touch!

The story itself is more than exciting.And there are few really "wow" and impressive moments.Not exactly twists and turns but some really shocking revelations.Those scenes needed Drums,open mouths and popped up eyes but No!Somehow they toned down those scenes and i really don't understand why.The characters reacted like "oh well!I have already read the script,no surprises here!" and this passed to the viewers too.I mean wtf!They should have made those scenes more powerful.This ruined half of the Drama to me.

As their budget was for 15 episodes they had material to go deeper to the story and give us some hints of what to expect.And iam referring to the brilliant,excellent and twisted last episode,or better say the last 15 minutes of it which were the main essence of the whole Drama.For those 15 mins deserves a 10 but as i said they managed to ruin it with lame details.
I dont want to spoil anything to you so please do not read any spoilers or do some searching before you watch this.It will be pointless,trust me.

Iam not telling you not to watch it.It is really good.I gave a lower rate because iam mad.Because i wanted so much more.Iam greedy,i know.And that is the reason i said i wished this was a Korean Drama.

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Emotional Engaging Brilliant

I watched the movie (Masquerade (2012)) one week ago and i liked the story,so i decided to start the series too. I have seen
Yeo Jin Goo in Beyond evil,liked his performance there and i wanted to see him in something different.

Music:Was on spot at every crucial scene,delivering all the right emotions.

Cast: All actors well chosen for their roles.
Acting: I will repeat myself and i dont care.Every time i write a review in a Kdrama i will always say that the majority of the Korean actors are too talended.After watching tons of series and movies from all over the world, i strongly believe Koreans belong to the very elite.Period.Same applies here.Outstanding performances from everyone.
Story:Interesting,engaging,heartbreaking.Full of hope.Full of despair.Shows how power can corrupt one and inspire another.
Long episodes but the pace is good and the story keeps going.You find yourself looking forward for the next episode without even realizing it!
Until episode 10 the drama was a solid 9.It was a marathon i enjoyed to run.But the last 6 episodes..Oh Gosh!What a ride!A sprint that left me breathless and dried but so satisfied.And the 9 became easily a 10!
The romance-fortunately for my taste-wasnt too heavy.Only in the later episodes was more intense,but the whole time supported the story perfectly.For those who really enjoys long and romantic scenes and the story revolves only around romance might be a bit disappointing.For me was the perfect dose.

Characters: Brilliant,powerful,well written characters with depth,with emotions,with strenghts and weaknesses.You feel their pain and their struggles.You put yourself in their shoes.You seek their revenge and their justice as it was yours!You can even justify the villains's actions,their evil shelves driven by power and money.Every character was substantial and had its importance for the story.Yeo Jin's char.I think this character,this dual role, gave him the opportunity to unfold his talent.This series surely enriched his Cv.
The madness in his eyes as the evil king.The kindness on his face as the good clown!Same face,two different persons,two opposite personalities.Yeo Jin Goo really nailed it!As the clown who had to take king's place he had to make many sacrifices,but walking down this dark and hard path he never lost himself .And that is what i loved the most about this char.He remained pure, he used the unexpected power he got for good.He had a vision and although he was a "fake" king he didnt want his people to suffer!All the way through he made the right choices.Many were hard and even cruel but all were for the best.
But it will be unfair not to praise Kim Sang Kyung as the Chief Royal Secretery(for his acting and his character as well)
He was the one who brought the clown to the palace.He saw the good inside him and felt there might be hope to achieve his dreams for a better nation through the kind-hearted fake king.For me this was the most interesting char and the pilar of the whole story.Eunuch Jo.Another outstanding character,same as Officer Jang.The definition of supportive roles.Without those 2 chars the story would't be complete.I havent mentioned the queen so far not because i forgot about her but because this role was more supportive than main.Her char was the weakest among all.It was the same typical queen role as in every historical Kdrama.No spine,no fire,no dynamic at all.Id love to see her been more energetic and take more decisions and support the king in a more powerful way.
Rewatch value:I gave a 5 because there are too many good Kdramas outthere waiting to be discovered and i only have 1 life and 24hrs per day!
I hope when you decide to watch this to enjoy it as much as i did!

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This is me being ridiculously generous!

Before i start i must say that i gave the story a 9 based ONLY in the description.

You read the synopsis and you are already drooling!You are thinking finally the BL world comes to a new era,dealing with more mature and darker themes!Yupi!!!

You see the cast and you are like: "Ehhmm..maybe..??..No!Ehmmm.i don't know!"

You watch the trailer and you are already second guessing yourself and doubting whether to start watching this or not.

You watch the first episode and you are...speachless!You think the 4 walls of your house are not too many to knock your head at them.
Where to start?I love tattoos.I have mine.But what the heck was that on his back?ugly,tacky and tasteless.
Good thing the Kamol guy is a Top and then poor Kim doesn't have to look at his back!I feel sorry for the actor and the make-up artist!
Wtf with the faucets in this ep?Artistic innovation?Sweet Jesus save me..
I will not talk about directing,lighting.editing AND acting.i will be a total b*tch and i don't want to...
But i will talk about props and especially their s*x toys!I strongly recomment to find another s*x shop a rather expensive one cause those toys look really cheap!As cheap as the BDSM game/scene was.No further comments your Honor!
The only hot in this episode was the burning candles and the outstanding beauty of Cherry.(seriously her beauty is out of this world,but this is a BL we don't talk about gals.lol!)Ok to be fair Kim is a hot and good-looking guy too(not my type but still,haha)
Anyhow i will not bite my nails until next episode.I will be back when the series ends just because inside Pandora's box the last thing is always hope!

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