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Private Lives korean drama review
Completed
Private Lives
8 people found this review helpful
by Poia Flower Award1
Nov 28, 2020
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 2
Overall 8.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 6.0

A scam within a scam!

What happens when a group of scammers seek revenge and become embroiled in a scam that has roots in high political circles? This is the premise of Private Lives.

On the surface, Private Lives might seem like the classic crime-team where several people collaborate to try to get what they want. In reality, the drama leads us to discover a political thriller where the scammers act as if they were the players of the game, unaware that they are pawns manipulated by powers that are far above them. When some of these pawns decide to go their own way, things get complicated unleashing a trail of action and revenge that leads to unpredictable events for the viewer.

If the direction favors us by trying to focus on individual characters, even with beautiful cinematic cuts, the editing decides instead to respect the 2020 trend. Even Private Lives has in fact chosen to tell its story in a NON-linear way, this means many different timelines that overlap each other to the point of proposing flashbacks in matryoshka style. I do not deny that following the plot during the broadcast was quite difficult, especially for those like me who follow many dramas at the same time, for this reason, I think that this title is more suitable for a good binge-watch.

As mentioned above, the drama tells us the story of five scammers who try to survive, but who gets involved in a plot bigger than them that gets further complicated when old wrongs and grudges lead them to act alone, often one against the other, rather than joining forces. Although I appreciated this type of concept, I must say that the drama suffers a little from the lack of team-bonding that usually accompanies this type of storyline. In the same way, I appreciated the idea of ​​introducing a bit of romance, but I must report that the plot is so twisted that there was no room to develop this element properly. On the other hand, the interpretation of the cast is excellent. In the face of these two underdeveloped elements, the romance and the bond between the characters, they still managed to propose crazy chemistry on the screen.

Along with the acting, among the positive elements, I certainly include the cuts of scenography and the excellent camera work, especially during action scenes. The script, which although it did not go where I wanted, still managed to propose an interesting and captivating plot. For the record, I must say that the quality of the episodes is fluctuating, almost always one is quieter while the other reveals important plot implications. The soundtrack goes well with the rhythm of the drama, but in my opinion, was a bit repetitive with the usual 4 songs.

Overall Private Lives managed to tell a story of scammers in a very different and eventful way, the cast gave their all to convey all those emotions on the screen that are easy to lose sight of when the plot is so full of events and secondary characters. . Unfortunately, it fails on the editing front as this production too, has chosen to overturn the narrative chronological order.

- Translated from my Italian review -
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