12
30
4
Poia
Italy
Let's talk about politics!
Last year I started this drama with the expectation of an epic revenge-historical story given the high ratings and reviews. However, the drama turned out to be more of a political story than a historical drama and being too boring for my personal taste it ended up on my drop list. This year I decided to give it a second chance trying to put my prejudices aside, but the drama did not pay off my patience and proved to be an extremely overrated title.
The promise of revenge in a historical setting is transformed from the first episodes into a political drama told through the dialogues of the characters. I cannot declare in a review that the drama is boring and that this type of directing is not good because it depends on personal taste, but I can judge if the directing is suitable for the type of story being told and the answer is NO.
As I always say, a drama can have the best story in the world but it is useless if it is told badly, and the storytelling chosen for NIF is bad. Not only is the action reduced to a minimum, but a large part of the story is told through the dialogues of the characters, listening to them or rather by reading the subtitles, we will discover facts and/or people that we have not yet seen on the screen and, in some cases, we will never see. Add to this a story that is not as exceptional as many say.
The protagonist is a strategist acclaimed by many since he has been planning his revenge for years, thanks to a dense network of spies. He is also afflicted by a disease of which very little is revealed to us for the sole purpose of being able to then exploit it for twists related to pills and various poisons. In addition, he refuses to reveal his identity to his allies even when some of them still discover the truth, the reasons behind it is the same as above, being able to exploit the relationship of friendship, trust, and distrust that is created precisely because of his false identity.
From this type of protagonist, who can only fight with the intellect and not with brute force, I expected refined strategic plans, instead, he actually limits himself to waiting for his enemies to get into trouble, when this happens, he maneuvers the court to bring them down and replace them with trusted people. Being enemies of high rank, the punishments they go against are summed up in exile or loss of rank - political power, leaving the viewer with a sense of dissatisfaction, as the main purpose would theoretically be revenge.
The more the story progresses, the more we realize that the protagonist is infallible, even in the few moments of difficulty, which obviously occur when he is unable to act due to his illness, we already know that he will be able to get away with it. All this makes the story particularly tedious, but also predictable and above all unexciting, since we already know that there will be no serious consequences for the enemies and that the ML will win at the end. Rinse and repeat for 54 episodes and you will start to not feel anything for anyone, included for those few twists plot placed along the way.
Overall, the author is one of those who makes everything fit together in a convenient way and the story develops in a very repetitive pattern, including the characterization of the characters. The clever and lazy style of the author stands out particularly in the ending, where not knowing which alternative to choose, he proposes both, with a protagonist that in the penultimate episode declares one thing and then does the opposite in the final episode.
Add a non-existent romance, some stupid characters to the point that the protagonist always has to explain to them the reason for his actions, villains of little depth, more annoying than bad, and what remains? Great cinematography, music, and good acting, definitely not enough to balance almost 54 hours of political chatting.
Overall, NIF is a political drama where conspiracy rules instead of revenge that it takes courage to call it such since the main purpose was actually to bring justice to innocently slaughtered people. The convenient writing that passes itself off as intellectual and the direction that uses dialogue to tell a story that should be shown have damaged the entire production. Cinematography, music, and acting are saved, but they are not worth the hours it takes to finish it.
The promise of revenge in a historical setting is transformed from the first episodes into a political drama told through the dialogues of the characters. I cannot declare in a review that the drama is boring and that this type of directing is not good because it depends on personal taste, but I can judge if the directing is suitable for the type of story being told and the answer is NO.
As I always say, a drama can have the best story in the world but it is useless if it is told badly, and the storytelling chosen for NIF is bad. Not only is the action reduced to a minimum, but a large part of the story is told through the dialogues of the characters, listening to them or rather by reading the subtitles, we will discover facts and/or people that we have not yet seen on the screen and, in some cases, we will never see. Add to this a story that is not as exceptional as many say.
The protagonist is a strategist acclaimed by many since he has been planning his revenge for years, thanks to a dense network of spies. He is also afflicted by a disease of which very little is revealed to us for the sole purpose of being able to then exploit it for twists related to pills and various poisons. In addition, he refuses to reveal his identity to his allies even when some of them still discover the truth, the reasons behind it is the same as above, being able to exploit the relationship of friendship, trust, and distrust that is created precisely because of his false identity.
From this type of protagonist, who can only fight with the intellect and not with brute force, I expected refined strategic plans, instead, he actually limits himself to waiting for his enemies to get into trouble, when this happens, he maneuvers the court to bring them down and replace them with trusted people. Being enemies of high rank, the punishments they go against are summed up in exile or loss of rank - political power, leaving the viewer with a sense of dissatisfaction, as the main purpose would theoretically be revenge.
The more the story progresses, the more we realize that the protagonist is infallible, even in the few moments of difficulty, which obviously occur when he is unable to act due to his illness, we already know that he will be able to get away with it. All this makes the story particularly tedious, but also predictable and above all unexciting, since we already know that there will be no serious consequences for the enemies and that the ML will win at the end. Rinse and repeat for 54 episodes and you will start to not feel anything for anyone, included for those few twists plot placed along the way.
Overall, the author is one of those who makes everything fit together in a convenient way and the story develops in a very repetitive pattern, including the characterization of the characters. The clever and lazy style of the author stands out particularly in the ending, where not knowing which alternative to choose, he proposes both, with a protagonist that in the penultimate episode declares one thing and then does the opposite in the final episode.
Add a non-existent romance, some stupid characters to the point that the protagonist always has to explain to them the reason for his actions, villains of little depth, more annoying than bad, and what remains? Great cinematography, music, and good acting, definitely not enough to balance almost 54 hours of political chatting.
Overall, NIF is a political drama where conspiracy rules instead of revenge that it takes courage to call it such since the main purpose was actually to bring justice to innocently slaughtered people. The convenient writing that passes itself off as intellectual and the direction that uses dialogue to tell a story that should be shown have damaged the entire production. Cinematography, music, and acting are saved, but they are not worth the hours it takes to finish it.
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