Terribly Overrated Misery P×rn

Let me say it straight: this drama is bad and doesn't deserve the overblown ratings. "What the hell, Tate? Are you even human? Do you have a heart? How can you say that about the sweetest little sob story of an elderly man pursuing ballet?!" Well, that's the thing. The writer took a tear-jerking concept and wrote a very lazy, sanitized, redundant, non-conflicted in of itself screenplay that relies completely on evoking the feeling of pity from the viewers. The cheesy mellow overbearing piano soundtracks make the impression twice worse. This K-drama is bordering with misery porn.

Everybody is trying to make it in this world. Everybody is fighting their own battles. In the beginning, it's fairly interesting to see how the 70 y.o. Deok Chul is maneuvering between his health issues and his disapproving family to learn ballet. But in the end we don't get a story of a resilient man, all we get is "look how much he loves ballet and how hard it must be for him, poor grandpa!" Lee Chae Rok is not an interesting character either. He is a kind boy who's always helping the grandpa out and waits for a breakthrough in ballet that doesn't seem to be his top priority. I'm especially disappointed in the supporting characters, the Deok Chul's granddaughter who leaves a job to seek her calling and Deok Chul's son who retires from medicine and wanders around town in his old Crocs. Neither of them get a satisfying ending because they both settle in a conventional place making the whole plot line feel like a teenage angst.

Not to mention that to prioritize the grandpa's safety while he's learning ballet there would have to be at least a physiotherapist in the room. Stretching can be traumatic even for young and healthy people. How can a literal boy make a training program for an elderly person when he has no qualifications in the medical field? In this case I would like the retired son to be involved, it would benefit the story.

I would not recommend the show to the fans of psychological dramas and to the fans of Song Kang because he doesn't seem as the main character here. All the complicated ballet dancing scenes are shot with a stunt double even though the actor was committed to learning ballet for 6 months prior. It's just not worth it.

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진짜 이상하지? 사랑해서 결혼하는데, 결혼하면 왜 사랑은 안 하지?

Here goes the most viewed tvN drama in history, and I still can't take it seriously because I just watched Kim Soo Hyeon dance in trash bags in Dream High. Whatever way you look at it, the drama was bound to succeed because of the stellar cast, the two fantastic Kims who acted their souls out, the top crew, and the huge budget of ₩56 billion that allowed shooting in actual Germany and detailed portrayal of the luxurious life of the elite.

I find it curious that this type of K-dramas about millionaires and their inconceivable affairs seem to dominate the viewership ratings, e.g. Sky Castle, The Heirs, The World of the Married, Reborn Rich, Sandglass. It's obvious that tired working class people on weekends want to immerse themselves in the lives of those who knock on no doors. That explains why Twinkling Watermelon and Lovely Runner struggle on cable TV. But compared to the 2022 Reborn Rich, Queen of Tears is also a hundred times better in writing and production quality.

The most memorable character for me is Hong Soo Cheol. Not usually found in dramas, a big character transformation is assigned once again to the actor Kwak Dong Yeon by the director Kim Hee Won (as was Jang Han Seo in Vincenzo). His character is a vivid and adorable illustration to the change of mindset that the Hong family goes through in the story. This is the best part of the drama made with good humor and inventive situations that place the spoiled Hong heirs in a challenging unfamiliar setting. Kwak Dong Yeon is an amazing actor and needs to be protected at all costs!

Many viewers complain about the uninspired ending, but I think due to the genre and popularity it had to end this way and play safe. The story is also filled with sentimental distractions that bear no significance, e.g. Hyeon Woo saving Hae In in the water when they were kids. She might as well have been saved by anyone else and nothing would've change between them.

Of course I couldn't miss the light homage to the Cassano family and THE VINCENZO CAMEO HOLY SHIT. Thank you Kim Hee Won for letting us know he's doing well!

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당신이 좋은 이유? 그저 그 사람이라서. 바로 너라서.

I started this first part of the Reply family hoping to get to the bottom of the odious goat bleating sound effect that all the three dramas were riddled with. Needless to mention I didn't find its origins. It just exists. But I was very surprised to stumble upon a respectful representation of gay character Joon Hee. It would probably be a lot to ask for a happy ending of his love line in 2013, but at least there were no mocking or deliberately "awkward" situations to make fun of his feelings.

The main nostalgic attraction point of the drama is the first wave of K-pop with H.O.T. and SECHSKIES and cultivated insanity of K-pop fandoms. The female lead Shi Won spends a considerable amount of runtime in lines to concerts and fan meetings and makes it a part of her personality. The male lead Yoon Jae though spends most of the time struggling to confess his feelings to Shi Won, and by the end it gets quite annoying and stagnant. There is a lot of charm from the supporting characters because the writers don't shy away from portraying teenage awkwardness in relationships and "inappropriate" obsessions like porn tapes that influence their perception of dating.

I cannot leave out a giant walking screaming red flag that the teacher Yoon Tae Woong is. All the drama he is almost grooming Shi Won and buys her attention with expensive gifts so she, a high school student, would agree to date him, a rich adult man working at her school because Tae Woong's previous girlfriend was Shi Won's older sister who died. It's fucked up. And you know, it's obvious why Shi Won is susceptible to his grooming. Her own father is so crazy entitled that he finds it appropriate to tell his daughter she looks awful and to shave her hair for any "wrongdoing", and the boys in the drama agree with him. The grooming is portrayed as romantic and totally normal behavior while the dad's repulsive character is portrayed as humorous and caring. No, thank you, don't drag this shit to the next generation of K-dramas please.

If I had to rate the Reply series, it would go like this:
1. Reply 1988
2. Reply 1997
3. Reply 1994
If you have watched 1988 you don't have to look into the other ones as they're on absolutely incomparable levels of quality and you won't find anything new. But Reply 1997 is much more laid-back and gives you the vibes of both 2013 and 1997. It's a double nostalgia shot.

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배신을 하면 공멸하지만 협동을 하면 모두에게 이익이 되는 심리게임.

Were you a strategic mastermind in high school? Intelligent enough to build and maintain your own little North Korea in your class and astute enough to instigate a rebellion and tear the empire down? Was your entire school full of lesbians? I don't think so. And that's why we have K-dramas - to see these wild exciting plots come to life!

Since the emphasis on the "game" is stated right in the drama title, I felt compelled to compare just how much of a game was the bullying system that Baek Ha Rin created. If we take Johan Huizinga's play theory, the first element of the equation doesn't seem to match. In his definition, a play:
1. Is a voluntary activity.
2. Separated from ordinary life.
3. Has a distinct location and duration.
4. Demands absolute order.
5. Connected with no material interest.

But weren't you free to not download the Pyramid Game app? Myeong Ja Eun automatically becomes one of the victims when she declines to participate in the voting. If you're punished for not playing, that's not really a game anymore, is it? If Pyramid Game was never a game in the first place, it means that Ha Rin's superiority to the rest of the class was superficial, she wasn't even a charismatic leader. This imitation of freedom is often executed in authoritarian and totalitarian states, and all of them are held up by fear, not the mythical "respect" for the dictator.

Rather than having to deal with a consolidated cult, Seong Soo Ji parachutes in a fertile soil for a coup d'etat, and it makes her task in the drama easier. The main part of the story is Soo Ji navigating her way through the new class in the all-girls school that she transferred to. The whole drama is one big trigger warning for violence and school bullying, and you should consider that before watching. The scenes of violence evoked such primary rage in me, good thing they are only on screen. The scale of violence is almost equal to The Glory, and the eerily smooth intro with cool colors and definite shapes is certainly inspired by it.

The best part of the drama is THE GIRLS. Literally every communication between any of them is low-key or high-key sapphic. Our fantastic couple Lim Ye Rim and Shim Eun Jeong steal the spotlight every other episode. Bona's fiery eyes were a whole another character on their own, but my favorite actress is Oh Se Eun playing a firecracker Song Jae Hyeong with a thing for muscular shoulders. She's such a playful and bright little fox, she caught my attention earlier with her memorable performance in Duty After School.

There are many things that felt off in this drama, including the superficial introduction of the prisoner's dilemma, and there's a lot I can't put my finger on. But I don't feel the need to emphasize the bad parts if this beautiful lesbian world is spinning and making us happy!

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Uninspired and average

With such a crazy praise I definitely expected so much more. Of course, it's a good movie, but 1h 40m of two people meeting and parting wasn't a life-changing experience for me. The story tries to break away from romcom, but ends up just being "rom" without "com".

Although I found it quite fun how it doesn't take me any effort anymore to switch between English and Korean. I swore at Arthur "If you want to understand her dreams so much just learn damn the language" and "배고파'밖에 몰라?" I also swore at Nora for disregarding her husband so badly and at Hae Seong for being so indecisive and passive. He doesn't deserve Nora, he didn't bother to lift his butt up 12 years ago, so why now?

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Pure Inspiration

I was so immersed and invested in that chaotic disorganized shooting, whoah, this is such a tribute to all filmmakers! This is why I don't ever watch behind the scenes of my favorite shows and films, because I love watching the crew doing their job professionally and I get obsessed with it.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE how it starts with a shitty low-budget zombie short generously irrigated with orange blood and you think "wtf is this junk", but by the end you see how much effort and human resources actually went into making that junk and how much fun the crew had, and you realize that having good time is the true value of filmmaking no matter how messy the result is. Anyone who participated in any kind of production will relate to this. I feel so inspired!

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"I did not lie to you. English lie is hard"

The best way to wrap up this film would be to interweave the two stories about the unsuccessful Japanese writer and the unfortunate Korean actress so that the woman all this time has been the character in the writer's novel, to end with the interview with the journalist scene. It would make a great complete story. Right now you're going for it, but it just doesn't feel eloquent.

🔸I'm very offended that they repeat several times that writing and acting is lying, and then don't explore that claim.

Let's break it down. What is the purpose of lying? To conceal some unpleasant information, to manipulate somebody. What is the purpose of acting/writing? To open up your feelings, to be honest, to conduct them to the audience - which some may argue is also a sort of manipulation. Both acting/writing and lying require special skills to make people believe. If you believe in things that don't exist and you're telling about them, then it's not really lying, it's your own truth. So let's examine this similarity! Let's go from here. Seriously, guys, what you're so busy with slacking off on this gold mine of a story?!?

And why is the title translated as "Worst Woman" if it is actually "Worst Day"? The perspective changes from the perspective of Eun Hee to some misogynistic one, as Eun Hee is such a "bad" partner for both of her toxic exes.

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Not bad enough!

This show is what theater kids rehab looks like. And you know, I'm not complaining. They had good time, I had good time. We're even.

Chicken Nugget doesn't necessarily shoot for the moon, nor does it classify as absurdism - more like fooling around. You could ask the producers why did they make this drama, and they would most probably answer "Because we wanted to and we could", and this would be completely fair. But for me personally, Ryu Seung Ryong's affiliation with fried chicken will never go away after this.

But why? Still, why? The conflicts in the plot were very forced, like the most idiotic scene of the fight with aliens. Aliens also had no reason popping up in Joseon. And why, at all, was this long story about Kim Yoo Jeong being a chicken nugget told? The last episode basically pushed the red button and erased all the remaining significance of the drama. It's telling you almost straight out that you wasted 5 hours of your life for nothing. "Thank you, dear viewers, you may go home now."

The chicken intro though is such a killer 🔥

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The dull middle child of Reply

This is the specimen of the famous Reply trilogy that I highly DO NOT recommend dedicating your time to. There is neither the charm of the first Reply 1997 nor the emotional complexity of the hit Reply 1988. Nor there was created an ambient nostalgic vibe to keep it afloat.

🔸Even though this boring middle child of the trilogy was twice as big as its seonbae 1997 and hit 10% viewership rating, it essentially has nothing to say but offer a demographic group some historical recap to ponder upon. The years 1994-1995 were memorable for South Korea as the era of 삐삐 pagers and rapid progress, but I didn't see much life in the screenplay that would shadow that global change on the characters. There are also no good period needle drops - not a single song I wanted to hear more than once!

The characters have their moments, but during the 90% of the unjustifiably long runtime they are very predictable, vague and boring. Never did I feel any human connection with them but in one episode with the medical student Bing Geu Re who couldn't bear the dread of pursuing his parents dream and wanted to follow his own calling. The writers ruined that storyline later, and it felt like they killed all the hope for this drama. Many viewers will also find the actress Go Ara playing Na Jeong inauthentic and ungenuine, or simply annoying. Not to mention the romantic storyline and a kiss played by an 18 y.o. girl and a 30+ grownup actor.

Although, one good thing about the casting is that all the actors in the hasuk were born in the provinces and spoke authentic saturi. I enjoyed hearing it so much!

🔸I am particularly dissatisfied with the drama because my own parents belong to the generation that "saw both the analog and digital world", albeit not in Korea. To be young in the early 90s was a very challenging and exciting experience. I was hoping to see that enthusiasm, ardour and rebellion, and also the life circumstances that made the young adults mature so fast. I was hoping I could understand my parents better. Unfortunately, the drama brushed all over the underlying events and emotions confining barely to the trite question "who will Na Jeong be married to".

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A cuddly piece of euphoria

So apparently you can summon your distant lover by playing a Conan Gray song to him. I'll make sure to try that out. Happy Valentines, my single friends!

🔸No matter how much you're lost in life, if you are with the right people everything else will come along. This incredible, thoughtful, sensual and inspiring work of art is a rare collaboration between a Korean and a foreign director Baek Inu and Werner du Plessis. It is coming-of-age genre, and explores such themes as adapting to the new environment (Ji Hyeon in Seoul), processing traumas (Jae Won and his depression), trying to live up to someone's expectations and finding your inner strength. You can tell right away that creating a safe space for queer people was the priority for this BL. There are no triggering scenes, hate speech, rejections based on orientation, but instead there are many understanding friends that support the main characters along the way. You can safely watch this drama. Without a single explicit frame, sexual tension and intimacy flood the screen in all the right moments. I'm hypnotized.

Stunning, stunning performances of Lim Ji Seob and Oh Joon Taek! Their expressions are so subtle, and you can feel little electrical sparks lighting between them on screen. From now on, I demand to see these actors in big successful projects only!

🔸The drama feels especially real because it's not isolated from the real world. It is full of references to such movies as I'm a Cyborg, But That's Okay or Hedwig and The Angry Inch, or the influential needle drop The Story by Conan Gray. Several quirky characters like the English-speaking bartender or the cheerful cashier with the K-Trot USB are always surprising and bring diversity to the table even if their influence is insignificant. I imagine this richness is the result of the collaboration. In this case, I'd love more international projects in Korea.

🔸As for the title "The Eighth Sense", I think it's nothing more than an homage to the creator's favorite movie The Sixth Sense. The plot is not even vaguely resembling the 2001 thriller. The only thing they have in common is the main character having counseling sessions about his mental struggles. From the other angle, the title doesn't make any sense as well. Eun Ji, the supporting character, says: "I realized the five senses weren't everything. Just follow your senses. Who knows what might happen?" But what are the other seven senses then? I feel like this particular line just appears out of nowhere to justify the title.

But hey, now I finally learned how to spell "eighth"!

🔸The Eighth Sense is by far the most vibrant and living K-drama (not just as a BL) that doesn't have that manufactured TV production touch. I actually felt a little bit high watching it (hahah) from how much I related and how bad I wanted to be in that campfire circle with the surfing club folks. I wish the cast and the crew good luck and a big success in the future!

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철들수록 꿈이 사라지는 거면, 나는 그냥 철들기를 포기할라고.

Dear friends, behold, the finest historical specimen of the Golden Age* of Korean dramas: Fight For My Way! Insanely cute and funny, just as much problematic.

🔸"I'm dating you, and why do you have to do everything your own way?" While the drama is literally called "My Way" and sends the message of embracing your own desires and independence, this message arrives twisted when it came through the hours of childish interactions between the characters who try to make their romantic partners comply with their whims. But this message doesn't come out of thin air, and the exceptional rating of 13.8% demonstrate what was amusing for the Korean society in 2017 and what was its itch.

This drama characterized by a radical intolerance to others' choices, and that intolerance is often presented as humorous or romantic. But tell me, please, if your partner said this to you, would you think of it as romantic?

- "If you do martial arts again we break up. We won't stay friends either and will never see each other again". (Says someone who is dating them and supposed to support and encourage).

- "I'm not going to marry anyone else, and if my burn gets infected I will die, so come apply the ointment today". (Says someone who got broken up with and doesn't want to let their partner go).

- "Why are you wearing such a short skirt?! Every man will look at your beautiful legs. Go and change right now!!!" (Says a male character to a female character)

The writer doesn't ever trust the characters to be truly self-reliant. She keeps glueing them together when they part their own ways, and this defies the whole narrative of the drama. The most interesting character is the aspiring announcer Choi Ae Ra. She doesn't have a documented proof of her talent and support system like the athlete Dong Man with his medals and a coach. She has to take many rejections and be flexible to achieve her goal, and I love a story like that. Unfortunately, her career didn't get a lot of runtime comparing to Dong Man and the romantic plot. It's such a big lose.

"철들수록 꿈이 사라지는 거면, 나는 그냥 철들기를 포기할라고. 그냥 남 보라고 철든 척 할 필요도 없고, 아끼면 다 똥되는 거고."

🔸The itch of finding a fulfilling career and pursuing your true passion is still very much present today, and it only grows bigger as Gen Z is entering the work force. But I hope that all these toxic traits in K-dramas are left in the past. Let's support K-dramas that don't romanticize manipulation!

* It's the Platinum Age now, post-Netflix. Don't you think?

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?A BL with a red flag

With such high ratings for this BL (8.9 on MDL), the last thing I expected was its worldbuilding to fall apart in the very first episode. And not just worldbuilding, but the basic character development as well. Yeo Woon changing his attitude in a blink of an eye while Myeong Ha, who's mission in the game is to make Yeo Woon happy, keeps treating him condescendingly. I can also recall the choice for Myeong Ha in the game to save either Yeo Woon or the grandma from death, and it makes no sense. Why would the game which goal is to make Yeo Woon happy offer to kill him? Ridiculous.

🚩Another disturbing issue is Myeong Ha's behavior in confronting the homophobic bullies at school. Myeong Ha kisses the offender on the lips saying "Now you're gay too", therefore demonizing the sexual orientation, and by that moment we don't even know if he is gay too or not. This scene hit me in the head with such internalized homophobia and made me feel uncomfortable to watch the rest while that issue of Myeong Ha is never mentioned again. Aren't BLs supposed to be a safe space at least for gay people? Isn't it one of their purpose along with entertaining heterosexual girls?

By comments of confusion from other viewers, I'm not the only one. There is enough runtime for the show to unfold, 8 episodes for 30-40 minutes, but it doesn't use it right. I genuinely cannot understand why the drama has so many fans if the quality of writing is absolutely incomparable with such BLs that are immersive from the very first scene, e.g. The Eighth Sense, 2023, or the shorter one with the similar concept of videogame dating Our Dating Sim, also released in 2023.

🔸The BL K-drama attempts to tackle such topics as loneliness, ability to rely on another person and ask for help, life regret, and even suicide. However it doesn't go further simply stating them, as the writer doesn't have enough skill to unfold such complicated issues. Especially if you're about to watch this BL with the amazing Death's Game in mind, you will hardly be moved by the plot of Myeong Ha making value of his life in other people.

Overall, there are parts to love about this BL drama, like the adorable actors, but the atrocious and problematic writing doesn't contribute to the mood at all.

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Marking The Milestones In History

In the scenes of military violence towards peaceful Gwangju citizens, people who are being brutally beaten do not scream. They're filmed dancing. These disoriented civilians are waltzing to the dizzy dance of panic and agony. The drama Sandglass is uniquely lyrical in its approach to cinematography. With chunky old cameras and 4:3 aspect ratio, it seamlessly exercises dramatic hard shadows, Dutch angles, daring close-ups, insertions of archival footage, camera circling around the characters, overall rather bold moves for an old TV production. But it's only one of its merits. Stay with me here.

"Remember what they teach you at school? Our country is a democratic state and belongs to our people. But such illiterate people like me can't even protect themselves."

🔸Why was it named Sandglass? An hourglass is sometimes associated with impermanence of life and inevitability of death. The drama does talk about death and fate, particularly in the perspective of the people who remained alive. It talks about the survivors, the witnesses, the participants of one terrible period in South Korean history - the authoritarian rule and the Gwangju Uprising of 1980 - and their collective trauma. While the bloody suppression of the uprising is one of the focal points that changes the life of the main character Woo Seok, who was ordered as a soldier to shoot at civilians, it only acts as an attempt to release the tension between the regular citizens and the controlling state. The plot of the drama describes the continuing struggles of the main characters with the dehumanizing government institutions - the indoctrinating concentration camp that Tae Soo had to go through (similar has remained in North Korea to this day), and torturing in jail that Hye Rin was subjected to for not naming other students in opposition. After witnessing all that terror, the lives of the characters could never remain the way they were before.

"그 다음은 문제야. 그 다음 어떻게 사는지 잊지 마라."

🔸The key success element of Sandglass, as I see it, was the perfect timing of its release. 1995 was an extraordinary year for South Korea full of political scandals exposing the structural corruption that had long flourished in the country. The year was marked with the unprecedented arrests of two former presidents: Noh Tae Woo, following the scandal about his giant slush fund, and Jeon Doo Hwan who was responsible for the violent suppression in Gwangju. It was the year of a significant leap in SK's transition to democracy, and, to move forward, historical reflection was needed. Addressing the old political issues helped the Korean society come to terms with its authoritarian past and move on.

South Koreans were eager for justice after the long decades of censorship and oppression, and Sandglass provided them with that unconditional justice. But the story is not a dream come true - its honesty is brutal. Justice comes for everyone in all forms, even for those characters you wish were left in peace at last. It comes for the mafia leader Lee Jeong Do, it comes for the corrupted officials, it comes for Hye Rin who lost her people to keep her father's casinos, and, finally, justice comes for Tae Soo who "had many chances to turn his life around but always chose the easy way". The ending of Sandglass is very grounding, and it encourages you to rethink your life choices you had the liberty to make. "It only matters what was after. Don't forget how you chose to live".

Sandglass processes the collective trauma in detail. However, it fails in tackling the trauma on a personal level. When Hye Rin was released out of prison she spends several days in her room in deep shock, not eating anything, not responding to anyone. But the next episode she is shown completely fine, and soon you forget that she was actually tortured in there. Another problem is the tedious filling episodes in the middle about the gangs and shady business that aren't emotionally impactful. What I also found weird is the Soviet song "Cranes" being most often played in the scenes with the criminals negotiating their business. The translation of that song tells how the souls of soldiers killed in WW2 fly away as white cranes. Putting the song on during those moments doesn't feel very appropriate. That's why, for me, Sandglass is far from perfection despite all of its brilliance in other parts.

The story of the drama gets even more dark if you take into account the tragic life of its director Kim Jong Hak. After the financial losses from his late projects he was placed under the investigation and commited suicide in 2013. In his honor, Sandglass was rerun on SBS Plus on its original broadcasting schedule - two episodes per night four days a week.

🔸So, in the end, why should you watch this old-time drama existing exclusively in low quality somewhere off streaming platforms?

Because young Lee Jung Jae is hot AF.

Or...

Because it will give you the idea of how vast the impact of politics can be, through the example from modern SK history, and how little control an individual can have of their own life. For those viewers interested in exploring historical Korean identify and shared suffering, often called "Han", it provides a unique lens into the struggles faced by past generations. In its times, the drama also challenged the taboo of criticizing the government and portraying the tragic and unsightly aspects of Korean history. All in all, watch it at least to see how K-dramas developed and what they looked like before.

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An Adorable Staple On Your K-drama Shelf

The main feature of this K-drama: Seo In Guk. Among the cold mysterious male leads Seo In Guk is hands down the hottest. I'm genuinely fascinated by the way he cracks that ice mask with his eyes only. It's damn hypnotizing.

🔸I do believe the drama with a long and confusing title 어느 날 우리 집 현관으로 멸망이 들어왔다 (One day doom entered my house through the front door) has earned its place among the classics. It's a heartwarming and well-executed romance between a human and a supernatural being with actually engaging supporting plots. I love how it teaches us to appreciate the present and the fleeting moments of happiness, because there is no happiness without sorrow and no birth without death. The main theme of death in the drama is handled very well. Tak Dong Gyeong is terminally ill, but it doesn't feel like an intentional tear-jerker. Instead, the story concentrates on her connection with her family and friends and recognition of human relationships. The surreal world of Myeol Mang is also attractive in its emptiness and solace, and you're eager to unravel his true nature as his character evolves. The drama depends on him entirely.

🔸The overall story is pretty standard and predictable for a fantasy/romance, involving the annoying trope of memory erasure, but the way the drama takes you on that journey is worth the time. I didn't notice how fast I finished it considering that it's not packed with action and mind-blowing twists. My complaint remains: the emerging of the contract and its conditions - the key element of the story - wasn't clear from the very beginning and stayed unclear to the very end.

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A Potentially Problematic Tale

Why do I feel like Eun Ji was inspired by Mathilda from Leon?

This is a drama about the intellectually handicapped man wrongly accused of s=xual assault of the little girl he was friends with, and the consequences that come with the societal shame that ruins his life and cuts the ties with the people who communicated with him before. It's definitely on the tear-jerker side as it's supposed to show how certain people are defenseless in front of the world if there is no one ready to help. But, honestly, if there was no evidence proving Seok Gu's innocence, how else would you expect the society to react?

🔸The final shot with Seok Gu looking into the camera and breaking the 4th wall should've never happened. For the ending to be more tear-jerking, it would be much more effective if the camera was far away from him showing his unprotectedness to the world. Breaking the 4th wall you are asking for action, but for which one? Legally, the issue was resolved pretty fairly. Socially, there are enough real s=xual perpetrators already that were let slide because nobody believed they could commit such crimes. I don't think you should have strong faith in each and everyone's innocence, if you're asking us for that.

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