Everything-in-one-pan sort of comfort food.

I was trying to work out why this one blew up and got the attention it did. And I don’t think I was the only one, I think the whole company were probably a little surprised too. So what I came up with was that they managed to find the perfect recipe for how to appeal to the maximum number of possible audiences - a producer’s dream. And how, imo, did they do it?

By cherry picking from all the genres and eliminating the potential bitterness before making a judicious blend of sweetness, with a twist of out-of-the-ordinary, that is just sufficient to stimulate almost everyone’s tastebuds. It has the ingredients of a melo without excessive wailing (well it does get a bit wet though, just note the title…); a romcom without cringeworthy comedy (mostly); a makjang without full-blown psychosis (just regular hysteria); a conspiracy without frustrating mystery (but a few too many conveniences), and a slice-of-life romance (plus free homilies) without the plodding reality.

It manages to be a very clever balance of light and dark. Nothing stands out as particularly noteworthy in itself, but put together it becomes great comfort food. Somewhat like all our beloved, over-rated national dishes that tempt the foreigner into disappointment because they expect Michelin stars and it turns out to be your grandma’s cooking.

Overall, it failed to really impress in the creatively inventive/awesome stakes but it delivered a solid script; credible good characters (aside from the ML being ex-special services, puleeeeease…he would have been breakfast); dastardly bad characters and some hearty performances, especially from the leads (and a personal favourite, the shameless rum flip, Grace, played by Kim Ju Ryoung). However it stumbled on the plot front probably because it had too many chickens on the rotisserie. It worked well until about episode eleven, but then the plot began to curdle in certain areas as the focus shifted more to the melo. By the last two episodes, it was shredded and went into makjang meltdown followed by a layer cake of all the genres piled on top.

So, to sum up, if you want the equivalent of a Jamie Oliver everything-in-one-pan sort of meal, you have found it. It’s finger-licking quality with good home grown meat and veggies plus a grating of cheese. Such a thing is hard to achieve so credit to those concerned. It’s the sort of comfort food you’re happy to come home to, but not up there for a gourmet night out or a revelatory culinary experience.

‘Nuff said. There’s already at least 6 pages of “reviews”, posted well before it finished airing!

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Missed the pocket by a mile

There are mild spoilers in this review, but nothing that will spoil the story.

I promise, I gave up on watching romcoms. I really did. But this was a romance drama and I’ve seen some good ones of those. “Lighter and Princess” for instance wasn’t half bad (even though a friend of mine dubbed it lighter and ashtray— you know who you are…) but I’m afraid this one really didn’t make the cut. So if you are going to feel sensitive about a beloved actor, then this review will probably rile you up and is best passed over. Spend your day happily elsewhere. We all have different opinions and I’ve explained my serious reasons, albeit in a somewhat flippant tone.

I’m not a great fan of the standard tsundere type. “We can talk to each other any time if we have anything to say.” Actual quote from Ep 15, albeit in translation. I sort of hope that it lost something in the process there. To me, someone who can’t talk about what they feel is a bit of a red flag. And the way he stared at her at the start was really creepy stalker stuff. Later he makes life changing decisions which he doesn’t discusses with her and she’s the last to know. The character simply wasn’t my type. But putting that aside, Leo Wu did a good job with Lin Yi Yang, and the chemistry was visible in his face right from the start.

But out of what did all this romance spring? There was no witty dialogue going on, no flirtation to lighten the mood. Love seemed to conveniently blossom out of thin air. Followed by a lot on him chasing her, and her pushing him away whilst being pouty petulant. Did the writers actually know why they “fell in love”? It sort of didn’t seem like they did.

Ok, setting the why question aside, and to be fair, I’ve fallen in love for no reason I could explain to myself. To start off with, the romance was pretty cute. It ticked all the standard boxes, as well as all the cliché boxes and all the stating the obvious boxes and a whole bunch of the cringe boxes. It’s really the only reason to watch the drama at all, and you will just about get it in real time, inching inexorably forward, through every tiny nuance. But that’s Chinese romance drama so if I don’t like it, I should just stfu and not watch it! (There, said it for you.) There’s a lot of defensive play nestling up against the cushions and the occasional escaping from an impossible snooker, but they ping around the table and drop the 9-ball without going in off. After about eight episodes I’m kinda over it but I hung in there. Then they really start straying into a sort of toxic, sacrificial relationship dynamic where A (him) relentlessly does everything for B (her), and she takes it all and doesn’t seem to do anything much in return except sleep a lot and cry prettily. Romantic? More Red Flag waving as far as I was concerned.

Which leads me into Yin Guo’s character (Zhao Jin Mai). Take a pound of sugar, some marshmallows and a handful of pink and fluffy with a great big dollop of childish sulky, petulance and a large spoonful of wet weekend; stir constantly for 30 episodes and it should come out pretty much the same as it went in. Really, couldn’t they have written a little bit of an edge in there somewhere. She was supposed to be a competitive sportswoman with an ice queen attitude in her games. I’m afraid that was wishful thinking, ‘cause nowhere did I actually find any believable link between those two supposed sides of her. There’s an internal stillness and concentration that is present in any professional sportsperson, that is born of single-mindedness and dedication, and I just couldn’t see that in Zhao Jin Mai’s eyes or in her character. Leo Wu made a much more convincing job of lining himself up down the cue.

The thing that actually was pretty glacial was the pacing. If you remove the PP from each episode in Helsinki, you’re left with about 5 minutes of real action. I like slow paced dramas but you really have to plumb the character depth to make them work. Unfortunately, here, character exploration was limited to squirming, shyness and ludicrous amounts of hesitancy for at least the first eight episodes. They needed way more variations in dynamics in their relationship to make it interesting and engaging.

There were a lot of characters who just seemed to hang around like loose red balls after the break, getting in the way of a clear view of the black. Not at all enough plot to go round for sooooo many characters. They could have cut the acting budget by half with very little effort and no-one would have noticed. And what is that first rule of writing? — never introduce a character without a well defined and clear purpose. Take Meng Xiao Dong (Wang Xing Yue) for instance and his maybe/maybe-not relationship. It was hinted at and never really explored or resolved so why was it there at all? And it wasn’t like they were short of time.

The lack of any real plot or serious character development meant that the forward momentum was sadly lacking and it became tedious and boring, with each episode pretty much indistinguishable from the previous one.

My final beef is Lin Yi Yang crying poor and it turns out “all” he has is 55,000 US$ and ownership of a billiard hall. Give me strength, I’m lmao at this point. It’s like crying poor because you can’t afford your annual holiday in San Tropez. What planet are people on? Definitely not mine, I’m telling you that. It’s a complete misuse of the word and an absolute insult to a whole world of people who struggle to live their lives and support their families with three less noughts in their bank accounts.

If you enjoyed Road Home, then you will find this a slight step up. The production values in this one were actually reasonable. It was well lit and in focus!

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An insightful look into messy relationships

Sorting the proverbial wheat from the chaff of MDL low-rated dramas is always hard. But this is one of those totally underrated dramas that probably got low marks because it does not portray mr and ms perfect living HEA. Instead it explores the messy dynamics of grown up relationships and the strange choices we sometimes make that lead us into places we did not even realise existed.

If you’ve been round the clock a couple of times there’s going to be moments in this drama that bring a wry, knowing smile to your face, that are probably totally inexplicable to the inexperienced. And that’s what makes this drama work for me: the writer knows what he is writing about and it shows.

It explores the blindness that exists in all of us when we fail to realise that other people, even those we are intimate with, live in a world that is separate from our own. They are different, yet we do not clock those differences but make assumptions about what they think and feel based on what we ourselves experience, or the mistaken perceptions we have of them.

The reasons why people stay together isn’t always obvious and the hidden needs which outweigh the disadvantages, hurts and confusions are given an airing. The drama reveals and explores the overinflated price we are willing to pay to hang onto our emotional vulnerabilities so that we don’t have face them and what happens when we decide not to meet the cost any more.

Four characters, in two couples, with fundamental flaws are forced to face themselves, learn about their partners and embrace the responsibility they bear for their three-wheeled relationship going round in circles and falling apart.

This is an awesome cast, totally capable of revealing the comedy and the pathos with equal ease. Lee El and Son Suk Ku, who appeared together in the brilliant My Liberation Notes, are joined by Bae Doo Na and Cha Tae Hyun (who is new to me). They all have a handle on how to unroll a character and dig into the murky undercurrents and here is no exception. Although they all add something to the night sky, Bae Doo Na outshines the other stars in the constellation. Her ability to take you through the whole range of emotions and fully realise the character written in the script is outstanding.

Ultimately it’s an optimistic drama that manages to keep its head above the heaviness that such a topic could fall into, and that’s credit to the writer Moon Jeong Min who ensures a healthy vein of dry humour runs through the storyline. It carries the viewer through the difficulties that the reality of the situation demands and offers some light relief in whimsical arguments often fuelled by jealousy and competitiveness. In the hands of a capable cast, this is just a delight.

The script is sometimes patchy and meandering, and the symmetries that kick in about three quarters through are almost a stretch too far, but tbh I was willing to ride with it because it was so well acted. It can be whimsical and the number of coincidences goes from being off-putting to sort of deliberate, such that the whole thing is an intricate tangle of relationships which ravel and unravel around each other.

Moon Jeong Min’s insight into the female characters is praiseworthy and if anything, he wrote them better than the male characters. He was ably assisted by the director, Soo Hyun KI, who struck the right note with the melo such that when it needed to bite the impact had not been forestalled by previously overcooked emotions. Each character had their moment of intensity and it did not go to waste.

Overall this drama is not outstanding but well worth watching. If you are looking for dreams, go elsewhere, but if you like an honest view on messy human relationships between ordinary people with a dash of insight it will not disappoint.

I’m torn about the rating, but because there are so few K-dramas that successfully deal with this topic in a realistic and sensitive manner, I’ve decided to be generous

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A never ending struggle to the end and not just for them…

I'll apologise in advance, this isn't going to be my best review I simply can't find the enthusiasm to go into any depth.

I never thought it was going to finish. And by the time we did end up at the beach, I was less than interested and definitely not convinced. I felt like I’d been dragged kicking and screaming through a series of fragmented plot-lines, rushed developments and overused clichés. Amnesia once is unfortunate, twice is unforgivable and tbh I got to the point of hoping to be touched with it myself…

The actors battled hard against an ever loosening plot, but were unable to save it falling apart into a weird time-loop at the end. The costumes were very pretty and far too clean, and the cinematography was also pretty.

An attempt to be epic that simply became unmanageable.

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A drama with potential, let down by lack of finesse.

The writer, Noh Ji Sul, penned the full-on, tear-stained melo, Scent of a Woman and also 100 Days My Prince (which I haven’t seen). Here we have out and out romcom for the first half and melo-drama for the last part. It’s worth noting that the genre tags are romance and drama, not romcom. It seems she likes extremes and she mixes them here in line with the current trend of fudging genres.

Being used to fixed genres it can sit uncomfortably when they are blended. A great deal of viewer enjoyment comes from having expectations fulfilled. When they are not the viewer is pulled out of the world of the story to deal with their own reactions. You can see it reflected in the comments section for this show. However, in the constant search for something new and different I can see this trend continuing and no doubt we will all adjust our expectations accordingly.

This story is set in two different time periods but the movement between them is somewhat random. Sometimes there are links via dreams, other times were are just catapulted back, which felt disjointed. Some visual/cinematic clues would have gone a long way to smooth the jumps and wouldn’t have been hard to implement. Just part of the overall lack of finesse I mentioned in the subject line.

Even in the present, the timeline was repeatedly twisted up. Once or twice will have the desired effect of increasing tension, but when used too much, you know you are being manipulated and it becomes annoying.

The plot in the past could have occupied a whole drama in itself but was rushed through. I felt the balance in the overall story was off, particularly as I spent the first five episodes twiddling my thumbs in the present time waiting for something to happen. If the writer, and later, the director/editor had decided on a more even weight and distribution throughout between past and present it would have woven a better and more compelling story.

I was puzzled in the first two thirds of the show why they should like each other at all. There were very few interactions that could build attraction and yet all of a sudden there was undying love. Later on the chemistry really worked and drew me in, becoming much more believable. But the viewer needed more ground to stand on early in the piece to give it credibility and a more clever weaving in of the backstory would have solved the problem.

The opening episodes are really at a romcom level, and the action is highly exaggerated to suit that type of presentation. But it does tend to undermine the credibility of the emotions to the point that I felt character integrity was being sacrificed for the sake of a joke. Whereas at the end credibility was sacrificed for a somewhat ridiculous stalker plot.

Rowoon has been very busy in some top-rated dramas in the last few years and he’s not stopping. Is he more than a pretty face? Well he does a decent job here, although his perfect good looks need to be ruffled a little more to really convince. I liked Jo Bo Ah’s performance better, and she is also an actor on the rise with some noteworthy performances on her CV.

In supporting roles, Park Kyung Hye gave a brilliant comedic performance as the desperate Son Sae Byeol, deliciously contorting her face like a slapped arse for most of the time. And Hyun Bong Sik oozed as the slightly sleazy manager Gong Seo Gu.

The cinematography in the historical section is beautifully done, with great use of colour and contrast. There’s some traditional fireworks and those scenes were very beautiful. I’d really love to see those myself - one for the bucket list…

What’s the line between accepted notation and cliché? Is it a matter of viewer perception? For me the accepted notations, such as flickering lights meaning spooky etc, were just too frequent not to fall into tired cliché. There was a distinct lack of imagination and freshness in dealing with the supernatural aspects which really should be laid at the door of the director. As far as the script goes, there’s not a lot of subtlety. It gets the job done rather than looking for novelty. You won’t have to read between any lines here.

Finally, it really isn’t hard to decide what season a drama takes place in. And here it was all over the place. People wearing shorts at Christmas, everything full green and verdant in the depths of winter. Talking about being cold and then hanging out outside. Just unnecessary, sloppy production.

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Individuality that grew on me as the show progressed.

At first I was not convinced by this drama, but it drew me in. Mainly because it told the story straight and didn’t try to avoid or gloss over the character failings. It has the feeling of something outside the normal Kdrama style of story. Perhaps that comes from being an adaptation of a novel. Novelists are often freer to express themselves and less pressured to the accepted norms of the entertainment industry.

This is not for the morally squeamish. If you like your male leads to be whiter than white this is not the drama for you. It is not afraid to dabble in the sort of dirty dealings that are the bread and butter of competitive and cutthroat industries like sport.

It has a simple straightforward plot which showcases the character development that forms the heart of the story. This is a strength in the second half of the show, but for me it didn’t work well in the first half.

At the beginning the FL appears too innocent for the traumas that she had experienced when young. This made it difficult to fully believe in the relationships and interactions she had with others. She is a character that knows how to use aggression to win, however, when she is harassed she doesn’t fight back but allows herself to be pushed into something that she could have escaped from. I think that more insight was needed into her internal feelings and reasonings to make this part work. However, increasingly, Kim So Hye came to the table and visibly grew up.

Lee Sang Yeob (an actor I like watching) convinced as the unscrupulous agent, but I had to do some hard work to overcome the ambivalence created by some of his character’s actions early on. Congrats to the director for not forcing the melo too much. It helped to keep the viewer grounded in the reality of the story.

A quick shout out for Park Ji Hwan, who made a great job of the hypocritical asshole villain. My skin crawled every time he was on screen.

If you have come for the romance, you will probably be disappointed. It is there but not in the forefront. This is more a story about shining a light on yourself, facing your weaknesses, taking responsibility and changing. I didn’t find the romance part of it particularly convincing. But having said that, I did feel that Kim So Hye found the innocence of the character early on in this regard and played it sweetly.

Finally, a quibble that I have, and this goes for a number of sports/action type shows, is that the industry requirement for female actors to be rake thin means that their body types are not credible for the physicality which these roles demand. In reality, bantam weight boxers are pretty muscled up, so there is constantly a huge credibility gap to be negotiated.

Overall, not a brilliant show, but with enough edge to make it stand out as individual.

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Let down by a random plot

It seems that quite a number of dramas I’m watching at the moment have a lot going for them but are let down or even ruined by inadequate plot structure and this one is no exception.

So what went right?

Well the first half of the drama worked well for me. The premise for this show was good and could provide plenty of opportunities for tension. It gave a credible necessity for the superpower which featured throughout the unfolding layers of the plot.

The driving force behind the story was well handled, of being wrongfully accused and the resultant lack of trust destroying a life. It created sympathy for the character, Kim Do Ha, played by Hwang Min Hyun, as he struggled to release himself from the hole he had crawled into. I liked his performance but I can imagine that it was just a bit too underplayed for some. However, I wasn’t very enthused by Kim So Hyun’s performance as Kim Sol Hee. I think an opportunity was missed here (either by the actor or the director, or both) to beef up the character a bit. Given her character’s background, she could well have shown more edge. The blandness didn’t help the chemistry between the leads which was tepid rather than fiery. I think the most notable performances came from Yun Ji On as Deuk Chan and Lee Si Woo as Syaon.

There was enough differentiation in the secondary cast to keep me interested but that leads me into a discussion of how the plot was handled, because as far as minor characters went, the cup runneth over…

Nothing is more unsatisfying than loose plotting that requires an army of insignificant characters whose only purpose is to pass on information, overhear conversations or create contrived meetings. Knowing characters are being introduced for these purposes alone really gets annoying. Their fragmented stories float around the central plot like misshapen asteroids.

It smacks of the writer having a problem with the flow of information because of a lack of forward planning, and rather than thinking creatively, just introducing a convenient character to solve the problem. Sol Hee’s parents for instance had little impact on the plot and could have been easily dispensed with. Then there were journalists, gangsters, shopkeepers, composers, security guards and on and on.

Getting rid of most of them could have helped to change the story from an XXXL baggy sweatshirt and trackies into a designer suit. There was a lack of sophistication and it simply wasn’t sleek enough to create and maintain the tension, slobbing around like it had all the room in the world. The plot was fairly predictable from early on but the playing out of it was padded with over-complicated details (such as the rings) which failed to convince and required uncharacteristic motivations.

The flow wasn’t smooth either, with false resolutions splitting the whole story into segments sandwiched together with filler episodes. It felt like a revolving door that was clumsy and repetitive in nature.

So it’s back, yet again, to my favourite saying: Less is more. The real skill in plotting is to weave something close fitting with a few characters. Keeping things tight so that the viewer is wrapped up and has nowhere to turn to escape the tension. Then occasionally loosening a belt to allow them to breathe, before cinching it up again by a couple of notches. OK, I’ll accept that’s a bit OTT, it wasn’t ever supposed to be Through the Darkness. But the principle still holds and it could have been a much better drama with a little more attention and an editor’s blue pencil.

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Gone with the Wind, My Dearest…

It’s worth noting that the genre tags on MDL are historical, romance, drama, melodrama and not comedy, because even though the start has all the hallmarks of a romcom, as it progresses it gets a great deal more serious. I didn’t find the transition in Episode 4 altogether convincing and that is probably because the contrast in tone and overall production style between the start and what was to come is so marked that I couldn’t reconcile them. By the end, the impression was that I had watched two different dramas. Yes I do get that the writer wanted a contrast between peace and war, but for me, the frivolous approach to the opening didn’t lay a credible foundation for what was to come.

There is now a well established practice of sugar-coating a 21C story with pretty costumes and sets borrowed from an earlier era and dumping all the inconvenient things like the contemporaneous social rules and attitudes. The opening three episodes of this production sit very squarely in that camp. The costumes and sets are far too rich, clean and bright for the period and the social interactions are so far from the 17C that they had to script a line about how this village had lax attitudes to contact between men and women.

The story then transitions into sweeping epic mode and does a very creditable job of fulfilling the demands of flawed characters, poisoned chalices and lesser of two evils choices. At heart it is a love story and the character development of the two lead characters is the thread that binds it all together. This first part focuses more on how war and difficulty transforms our heroine from petulant, manipulative teenager to a strong and capable woman. And I suspect that the second half will focus on the male protagonist whose character also needs to grow somewhat.

The plot surrounding this love story is the politics of the time, which is given a creditable depth with a side serving of weeping melo. My gripe, which is not overly huge, is that the love story and the politics were not quite enmeshed enough for me. As a result it felt a little fragmented. The male protagonist was half-heartedly twisted into the political plot, which was correct for his character, but not helpful for overall cohesion.

I did enjoy the range of characters which offered the actors a chance to get their teeth into them with varying degrees of success. Namkoong Min can be smooth, slippery and enticing anywhere, and I think that Ahn Yun Jin stepped up to the plate with the later episodes, but her performance was a little patchy in places. Perhaps because of the irreconcilable styles I mentioned earlier. Another notable performance for me was Choi Young Woo as the barbarian general.

The music was a mixed bag. I liked the opening sequence, the low camera angle, the muted tones and the silence followed by strains of music that had echoes of history in it. But we soon graduated to the hackneyed swelling strings and a full-on Kolly-Bollywood dance. In general, the music disappointed. The introduction to the unsurpassable singer (Ryang Eum) in the story just felt ordinary to me, although later instances were more convincing. There were however, some good OST ballads, mostly used for the ending credits.

Overall, it would be churlish to call this production average. What stops it from being exceptional is the uneven writing that created a somewhat bumpy ride. However, it was good enough for me to want to embark on part 2 when it arrives.

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A very watchable production in a difficult to get right genre.

What I like is that this show presents something different, it wasn’t perfect but it was refreshing. The weight is absolutely on the character interactions and with plenty of quirkiness below the surface there is no lack of material to work with.

It occupies the sort of territory that Summer Strike tried to do, but does it much more successfully. Sitting in the overlap of a Venn diagram that includes the genre sets: slice of life, romance, crime mystery, drama and comedy. The cost of inhabiting this territory is that nothing is really dominant and arresting for your attention and the overall effect is a kind of bumbling along warm and fuzzy.

It probably worked better as a webtoon, delivered in bite sized chunks, where the overall flow of the narrative was not so important. Although there was an ongoing plot, it didn’t quite have the punch that it could have had as the relationships took precedence. Neither did it venture into too much darkness, preferring half-lit shadows for its tone. It was slow to take off and the pacing in general is uneven. It sort of lurches along and when it does eventually bite, it’s more of a nip at the ankles than a chunk out of your leg.

The characters are what carry this piece and they have light and shade too, which is what makes them interesting and relatable. I can imagine that some people may find the character Park Jin Hong (older ML) a little creepy at first but he was played with sincerity by Ann Jae Wook. The mother, excellently played by Joon Hae Jin, is an imperfect character whom some viewers might take exception to. I warmed to her, even though I didn't necessarily like her. Her relationship with her daughter played by Choi Soo Young, was especially good, both in the writing and the acting. The rest of the support cast also played their roles convincingly.

The comedy is not overcooked and there are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments to lighten the mood and carry you along. The romance is gentle and the melo was handled with sensitivity, especially at the end. The cinematography and OST follow suit being pleasing but nothing spectacular.

High five to the director for finding the right note and not overplaying his hand. This is the first time I have seen his work. The writer, Min Sun Ae, has no other credits listed on MDL. If this was a first outing for her then I think she did a very creditable job with dialogue if not the pacing.

Overall I liked this drama. It’s not a stand-out special but weighs in as a watchable drama in a blended genre that is difficult to get right.

What my rating means: 8+ A great drama with interesting content and good writing, direction, acting, OST, cinematography. But didn’t quite have the requisite sparkle to bump it into my all-time fave list. Worth watching.



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Every vacuous cliché in every vacuous episode

When you’ve already hit the record for maximum clichés in an episode in the first week of broadcasting, you know where it’s going. Recycled cheese.

Accidentally falling into ML’s arms? Check: so many times I lost count.
Toilet joke. Check: in your face x 2
Mean work colleagues. Check: 100% all round.
Ridiculously unbelievable “heroism”— look no rope. Check: (give me strength).
Umbrella in the rain scene. Check x 2
Pulling FL out of the path of an oncoming scooter: Check.
FL carried bride-style for no good reason. Check x 2
Wall to wall, endless, inappropriate PP. Check.

And on and on and on…

I really looked for something original in there but totally failed to find it. (No actually, come to think of it, the fully and explicitly enunciated English language, “What the Fuck!” in Ep 8 was pretty original.) Even compared to other productions in its genre I don’t think it stands up.

The script is the sort of random mess that doesn’t have any highlights except for the obligatory stepping stones of a common or garden romcom which it forces onto the characters regardless of character integrity. It manufactures ridiculous scenarios in order to include endless PP (episode ten was unbearable, just skip it) or linger endlessly on eyes gazing longingly at each other. A teenage dream fantasy fulfilled at least once in every episode and twice on Sundays. I was just sooooo bored.

The majority of the characters were cookie cutters with no discernable defining characteristics and no opportunities in the script to show depth. Were there secondary relationships? Maybe, it was so long between interactions I’d almost forgotten who the characters were.

So is there a saving grace? Well yes there is, but it’s the only one I can find. Fantastic, sizzling chemistry and eye candy. All those years of idol training haven’t gone to waste, Jun Ho is pose perfect in every close up and Yoon Ah knows very well how to melt into an embrace (no ironing boards here). Seeing as that is probably the number one requirement for many viewers it would probably explain the ridiculously high rating for the show (8.4 at time of writing). Will it up the rating as far as I’m concerned? Well… no.

Maybe I’ve missed the point. Perhaps the whole raison d’être of the genre is to be a sucky blanket of repetitive clichés with no discernible plot to showcase pretty faces, and I’m doing that unforgivable thing of criticising something for what it never set out to be. But I’m stupid enough to live in hope that somehow this genre will one day produce something clever, witty, memorable, funny and original. Just give up why don’t you!!

I think my problem is that I really want a funny-romantic sucky blanket too. Who doesn’t? But just not like this. I want something more sophisticated and worthy of the quality of the actors that star in it. ‘Cause I’ve been a fan of Jun Ho ever since “Just Between Lovers” and consider that the guy can act and has taken on some non-standard roles. (He was the only reason for considering watching this in the first place.) I was cringing with secondary embarrassment for both of the leads at least once an episode. Jeez these guys earn their living.

Okay, next time you see a romcom on my Currently Watching list, kindly do me a huge favour and msge me a reminder that I’m going to spend the entire time rolling my eyes and pushing myself to the end of the episode, so not to bother however much I might want to consider it as a reviewer.

What may rating means: 3+ Totally unbearable, but often compulsively watchable as you really can’t believe that it can be this bad.

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Sexed up Corporate Finance

In an imperfect world where your capital is reputation, of necessity the currency must be moral ambiguity. Honesty and compassion come at a price and the decision about who is going to pay that becomes a war of survival. This formed the core of the plot and was explored through the attitudes of the various characters who ranged from deepest black through shades of grey to the blinding light of our hero. There was not a great deal of subtlety in the exposition of this theme which often felt contrived, but it did offer you plenty to think and reflect on.

This is a new angle on corruption for me and perhaps for K-drama land. The introduction of a new world requires explanations that don’t have to be made where the viewer is already familiar with procedures, concepts and terminology (for instance in the police). So the script is necessarily clunky and unrealistic as the actors are required to provide a Corporate Finance for Dummies guide to the tangled complexities of accountancy. So expect to pay attention to keep up with the threats going down in the plot. (Unless, of course, you’re a certified corporate accountant, and then you can snort and laugh your way through the inevitable distortions of drama-la-la-land.) But for most of us there will be Side Effects—머리 아프다 (my head hurts).

It gets away with a lot of OTT stuff because tbh I was concentrating so hard on what was going down that I didn’t have enough brain power to clock all the sleights of hand and magical illusions going on. But of course, we are gifted with a spectacularly clever rookie ML who manages to navigate some fairly incredible situations in this tightly plotted thriller. The end is never really in doubt, and the great reveal half way through is about as surprising as porridge for breakfast, but it manages to create a thrilling ride nevertheless. Until the ending that is. Wtf were the last two episodes? Totally random. Totally unsatisfying. Totally messed up.

I liked some of the performances in this, notably L (Kim Myung Soo) who turned in a great angry young man and Choi Jin Hyun as his sunbae. Unfortunately the female parts had less depth and relied more on caricature but the relationship between Yeonwoo and L had it’s sweet moments.

Not compulsive viewing but an honourable rating which deems it worth watching mid-week after a long hard day.

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A mixed up jigsaw puzzle that didn’t quite make a beautiful picture

I had reasonably high hopes of this one after the first episode. The characters were intriguing, the scenario showed promise, the acting was good, the cinematography on point. But all that promise was gradually gambled away by a plot that was so clunky you could hear it grinding.

This was a scenario that could have been so good in better hands but unfortunately there was zero finesse to the unfurling of the mystery. It relied totally on incredible coincidences, cringeworthy conveniences, inexplicable premises and unrealistic actions.

The unfolding of a plot is not about what happens, but how it happens and therein lies the skill. How information is revealed in such a way that characters can discover it credibly/naturally and the viewer can gradually see the bigger picture unfolding. But here, it was like the writer didn’t have the patience (or attention to detail) to complete the jigsaw properly, so cut random pieces to fit the gaps and rammed them home. Leaving characters clinging onto the edges like loose pieces that didn’t quite fit anywhere and blue sky questions sitting in the middle of muddy field explanations. It had all the hallmarks of seat-of-your-pants writing rather than well structured and planned writing.

Too much of it relied on inexplicable premises that I continued to hope would be explained, but never were. The hotel plot in the present was not really tied to the plot in the past or maybe I just missed the point. All this increasingly became the focus of my frustration leaving me very little energy to appreciate the good things, which is a shame because there were some really good things.

One thing the writer did get right (ably assisted by the director and the actors) was a cast of interesting and engaging characters. Both the leads played their parts well and created a believable chemistry. I really liked Ahn Dong Gu as the tsundere Ha Do Yoon. This type is always difficult to make sympathetic and he did very well in revealing the emotional undertow of the character. Also an honourable mention for the child actors, particularly Kim Shi Ah who totally captured the enigmatic aura of the 18th incarnation.

I really enjoyed the cinematography in this show. The clever use of angular sets and monochrome environments was notable and there were some stunning set shots throughout.

So overall, if I hadn’t been so distracted by the plot I would have really liked this show and given it a much better rating. If you’re not going to be affected by that, then go ahead and watch, there’s plenty to enjoy.

What my rating means: 6+ Some aspects of it were OK but it had serious flaws. It will pass the time but you can find something better.

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Insightful content with average execution

Don’t be deceived by the impression the first couple of episodes make, this is not a mundane, trope-filled series. On the contrary, it unfolds a complex examination of marriage. The drama places adultery in the wider context of already fractured relationships and explores it as a symptom not a cause.

It rings the changes and thoroughly deals with all sides of the situation, identifying every nuance and plunging into everyone’s complex and conflicted feelings. The excuses, evasions and dishonesty, not only with their partners, but with themselves. The selfishness and procrastination that accompany the slow move towards emotional honesty, self knowledge and self acceptance. It leaves no stone unturned, no nuance uninvestigated. To its credit, I often thought that I knew where it was headed, only to become unsure again. Very much like the real life process of negotiating relationships.

And this is its strength. It is a mature reflection on the fragility and messiness of relationships which can probably only be fully appreciated by people who have some life experience.

However, with so much to pack in, there is little subtlety in the way the next angle is manufactured. We shift from one perspective to the next like factory processes on a conveyor belt and the final episode is one conveyor belt too far imo. You can see the spreadsheet with the plot points divided up into the number of episodes and the flow charts for the character developments. The writing is not quite subtle or smooth enough to be wholly convincing.

Having said that, there is so much material that it could have benefitted from a longer unfolding. This is really not something I say very often, normally I want to get in there with the blue pencil and drastically prune things back. But only eleven, forty-five minute episodes cramps its style. Although I don’t think the writer (Okazaki Satoko) is top notch, I think she has enough skills to have eased the flow if she had been given a longer opportunity.

The performances are mixed. For me, Nao and Nagayama Eita make a much more convincing pairing than the other couple. There is greater transparency to their internal emotions. I found Iwata Takanori unconvincing. The right expression is on his face but the emotion isn’t there in his guts.

With so much opportunity to overplay the melo, it is a credit to the director (Nishitani Hiroshi) that he underplays it in true Japanese fashion. As a result the pathos of the situation is enhanced. But it could have been more so if he had made more use of silence and pauses. Possibly the pressure of time disallowed this.

There’s some inexcusably bad editing, where the screen flashes black in the middle of a scene, possibly where ad breaks have been sloppily removed. And whoever edited the soundtrack should be demoted. Too often it was too loud, too obvious, too repetitive, too random and so noticeably truncated that it was like a shock to the system.

All the way through I was wavering between giving this 7.5 or 8, but in the end, even though the insightful content merited the 8, the execution disappointed.

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.

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Just a little too bland to be thought provoking.

This slice of life film explores the nature of social connections and the difference between aloneness and loneliness. The protagonist, Chihiro, understands how to make attachments and bring people together, but ultimately shies away from the community she enables. Everyone is trying to escape from something and is brought into connection through her, but what else connects them is questionable. Even in the midst of people, Chihiro experiences her separateness and alienation.

It is well observed but not beautifully observed. I didn’t find the insight I was looking for here. Perhaps it was the sanitised personalities of the characters, many of whom had lived difficult lives but didn’t seem to have the resultant rough edges. They didn’t come across as affected or moulded by their experiences, just as mild people unable to find an acceptable social place. We are all moulded by our experiences and this film felt afraid to show that just in case the characters might turn unsympathetic. Chihiro has experienced tough times as a child and young woman, but how or whether that has contributed to her emotional distance, or is perhaps just her personality is never fully explored.

It is the sort of film that asks questions, but doesn’t offer too many answers, which is fine as long as the questions reveal some new perspective or path to travel. For me, that wasn’t really the case.

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A cerebral appreciation rather than an emotional enthusiasm. An intelligent watch.

If court intrigue is your thing, then you won’t get better than this. Half of the script is concerned with the delicate manoeuvring required to send indirect layered messages that have different meanings to different people, whilst the other half is concerned with bringing about the downfall of your enemies whilst keeping your hands clean. It’s an elaborate dance in which no-one touches anyone directly, but guides their steps by blocking or revealing pathways. A sinister pavane where one wrong step can lead to a blind alley, death and disaster.

In a world where there is no real warmth, compassion or security,
emotional manipulation is raised to an art form and the devastating results displayed. This is contrasted with the cool, rational manoeuvring of the female lead, abetted early on by the Grandmother, which is outwardly praised as moral righteousness, but owes a great deal to power playing and more subtle manipulation. It is scheming that uses the predictable weaknesses of others to bring about their downfall. It is revenge served ice cold and does the moral character of our heroine no real favours.

In this suffocating world of just a handful of families, there is a sense of the overbearing weight of society and the machinations necessary to survive in it. In particular it focuses on the role of women and the means by which they can find and assume power, though ostensibly in a powerless situation.

The world of the men is less well crafted and believable than the domestic setting of the women. Whereas the female parts had an almost slice of life feel, the script for the men is not edgy enough. In the main their lines and performances are far too soft and “nice” for the characters that are being portrayed. No such sleight of hand was shown with the female characters and they emerge much more forcefully and credibly, triggering ambivalence in the viewer.

The overall complexity is down to a magnificent script which is full of subtlety and cleverness. Even in translation there is a clear sense of having to read between the lines and there is plenty of brainwork to be done to fully appreciate all the undercurrents. This is not the sort of thing that you approach in your pyjamas, curled up on the sofa half asleep after a long hard day at work.

I had a problem with the casting of Feng Shao Feng as the ML, I thought he was too old for the part. Unlike Kim Tae Ri who dropped some 13 years in “25-21” and totally convinced me that she was a teenager using her body language and mannerisms, FSF’s acting didn’t convincingly portray the energy of youth (my calculation was that the character was in his late twenties, early thirties at most), or the hard core determination that was his stated character. He was unconvincing as a reformed ne’er do well and ruthless soldier with a streak of rashness, and seemed more like a pleasant, middle aged burgher.

All praise though to Zhao Li Ying who was hardly ever off screen and put in a great performance as Ming Lan—the wolf in sheep’s clothing. She was more than ably supported by the other cast members and there was plenty of character differentiation to give a credible feeling of a real world dynamic. it is really fair to say that this is a magnificent ensemble piece.

It has that epic quality of “War and Peace” with a large cast of characters, grouped in families, that wonder on and off the stage when required to inch the plot forward. Everything takes a circuitous route, even, or perhaps especially, the romance. But unlike most examples, the obligatory indirectness does not feel manufactured here but natural. And the relationship of the two leads is a joy.

It was designed to be shown once a day and the slow pace of daily life would really suit this unfolding. It’s not the sort of show that you can easily binge and is better taken in smaller bites of a few episodes at a time. Because the pace is so slow the plot is almost fully realised, but occasionally there were important scenes that were papered over or not shown, leaving an unnecessary sense of dissatisfaction. Neither was I a fan of how the complete final plot line was constructed.

On the down side, it is very long and repeatedly showcases the same type of scenario. I must admit that after episode 50 I was getting a little weary and had to muster up some determination to continue. Not least because it needed a bit more variation in pace and setting to liven up the overwhelmingly cerebral work that I was doing and the plot also became fragmented and uncohesive. But it picked up about ten episodes later and proved, yet again, it wasn’t afraid of the dark side. Displaying both the physical and the mental savagery necessary to survive and thrive. But to be honest, I was flagging and found the last haul to the end a bit of an effort. I think that splitting it into two series would have helped me considerably.

Although the historical aspects are well realised, the military settings in the story are less credible and it obviously never had the budget to be an action spectacular. In the midst of such realism however, the impossible sword fights, miraculous escapes and sporting competitions (which all end without a hair or a belt out of place) stand out as somewhat ridiculous. But heh, I’m not going to nitpick here when the overall quality is good.

Cinematography-wise, the slice of life approach is beautifully realised in muted colours and subtle lighting that help to give the feeling that you are a part of the family. In the hands of lesser cinematographers and lighting designers, filming in dark interiors can appear dull and murky, but so skilful is the lighting, that the faces are always highlighted in a way that seems natural without disturbing the muted note of the surroundings. The bright colours of the costumes also lift the atmosphere and provide contrast to the browns and greys of the environment.

The soundtrack is simple and effective, supporting the historical aspect without being too literal or noisy. And a shout out to the translation team, who took the time to give helpful comments all the way through.

What my rating means: 8+ A great drama with interesting content and good writing, direction, acting, OST, cinematography. But didn’t quite have the requisite sparkle to bump it into my all-time fave list. Worth watching.

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