5
11
cityhunter
the fucking shire
watchable
this was my first republican era (?) drama. i was a little surprised by the level of mostly realistic violence. i dont object to it and it's pretty mild, i'm just not used to seeing it in C-dramas.the cast are all serviceable. the ML is both charismatic and problematic. the story is engaging, but not particularly well done or creative. it gives serious paperback romance novel energy.
this is a short review b/c there's not much to say. it's not spectacular, but it knows the assignment and got the job done with what was there.
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a swing and an, unfortunate, but probably well intentioned miss.
the premise seems to have been "good doctor, but with lawyers." and it did not go well.they never seemed to quite get into a good rhythm with the problem of the week structure. the k-drama penchant for caring more about the audience's emotional reaction than story telling is on full display, inflicting a fatal wound to a narrative already beleaguered by bad choices. with every case and every client they couldn't stop themselves falling into tropes. They tried to make their main stream, culturally accepted points of view seem progressive, radical even, but with all the nuance, craft and situational awareness of an 80's after school special.
and that's before i even mention the irresponsible and lazy depiction of autism.
if you can over look some "oof" the romance is cute. The acting is good and the characters who get development are interesting, sometimes even funny.
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unremarkable
The narrative is unimaginative. That's fine for a rom com. i wouldnt call this as a rom com, though. there are a handful of moments that i think were supposed to be funny, but even they didnt land.Little effort is made to establish emotional connections between characters, and like with the attempts at comedy, they don't work. The performances also fail to convey any sense of emotional connection between any of the characters, much less the leads. As such, when plot complications arose i don't feel like there are any stakes and i felt no satisfaction at events that were supposed to be emotional pay off moments.
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Character, not plot, drives this story
this is character driven and the main characters both exist in a space saturated with despair so you get long stretches where it feels like nothing is happening b/c it's just shots of people speaking quietly and being sad.and that was mostly fine. but.. Li Xiao Ran isnt as dynamic in her profound melancholy as Wallace Chung so it's harder to connect to her character. she has 3 expressions and speaks so close to monotone that it's often impossible to read her emotions aside from "she sad". it doesnt feel like purposeful characterization either b/c she is like that with her 6 year old son as well.
the last 5 eps go off the rails. it's so different in purpose and tone that you almost get the feeling it's not what the writer had originally intended.
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doing nothing with a whole lot
there are a lot of writers in drama land who don't understand sci-fi/ fantasy as a genre and ugh does it show. my greatest disappointment is the failure to even touch the potential uses of color.this story is ALL about color but they decided not to use color to tell their story. yes there are a handful of scenes where Yeon Woo is discovering color but the editor/director/ cinematographer never use color by itself to convey ANYTHING about the story. the color tones are pretty much always true to life or greyscale. they even fail to really dig into the greyscale and teach us anything deeper about Yeon Woo.
the most interesting, but least convincing , element of color rush was the Mono/probe dynamic. The explanation is bare and the implementation is inconsistent. it's little more than a plot device and an excuse to use some surprisingly competent CGI. it feels like a waste to have such a potent bit of story in your hands and then not do anything with it, just like the failure to utilize color.
The plot mostly meanders in circles. this makes the stakes feel less urgent and less real until you roll up on one of the many "whoa, that escalated quickly" moments
if you like BL and you enjoy or don't mind the fantasy elements the problems are pretty much self limiting so i'd call that worth a watch.
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bad writing ruins a good idea
super disappointed. such a cool concept.They get so bogged down in the minutia of this love story that they forget to flesh out the fascinating mythology. the apocalypse is nigh and we're playing house? the environment is one the brink of supernatural collapse? lets go to work at the travel agency! They also spend an absolutely mind numbing amount of time on characters that amount to little more than set dressing with lines. Sometimes these drawn out threads of story or pointless characters intersect with the plot but when that happens it feels less like an intentional choice from a skillful writer or editor and more like "why not use one of the people floating around the office doing nothing?"
few of the characters are compelling. the ones that are lost to bad development- or no development. the villains feel flat and unconnected to their stated motivation.
the acting is....passable i guess.
Alice Ke is the only one who really shines. But she's just doing the best she can with a criminally undeveloped character. she can't act a good character arc into existence. Joanne Tseng is Joanne Tseng. if you've seen her in anything else, you've seen her in this. they are the only two worth mentioning. everyone else just sort of showed up and clocked in.
in conclusion the bones of this are interesting. The mythology is vibrant and will be new to most viewers but it's poorly utilized. Rainless Love in a Godless Land leans too hard on modern Taiwanese romance tropes, a choice that eats away at the magic of the story. Weak writing and acting that ranges from ok to lackluster further dull what should have been a spectacularly different gem of a drama.
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ball dropped
Born Again has a very interesting concept but suffers greatly from poor execution.Many of the "fate" connections feel contrived for effect. Other things just happen out of left field with little or no explanation. You end up with several cluttered stories the writers are trying to mash together by brute force . There are several flaccid attempts at misdirection but the plot is such a jumbled mess of things that don't really connect or make very little sense that there is no satisfaction when they the misdirection is revealed. Ending are hard, so it's not surprising the entire last episode felt like the interns took over and just yakked up some melodramatic nonsense. i did get the distinct vibe that the ending was supposed to be some how profound. it wasnt. just more mess.
Character development, for those who get it at all, is highly inconsistent and often nonsensical. At one point or another every single character of consequence does at least one thing that is at odds with their characterization. you even get some of it with characters who do little to drive the plot. The worst character development by far has to go to Ha Eun/ Sa Bin. She is little more than a McGuffin. That could be for the best since Jin Se Yeon has the emotional range of a mascot costume. Aside from her barely adequate performance the rest of the cast did very well with the poorly written nonsense they handed.
I'm not above dropping a drama, but i got through this mostly on the performances and the hope that the show would rise to the potential of the concept. i don't feel it did.
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The Pretty Mess and False Advertisement
**there are plenty of reviews that say nice things about this drama. i even agree with some of it. this is not that review. **Of all the things Dali and the Cocky Prince tries and fails to be about (which is a lot ) it fails the hardest at being about art. This is about Art the way any office drama is about the industry it takes place in. If I'm being honest I've seen office dramas do better in that regard. Any time one of the characters has to talk about art in a way that does not apply directly to their job they sound like 12 year olds being asked why art is important to them- in front of their art teacher. For a show that takes place largely in an art gallery there is very little attention paid to the art. This would not be a problem except the show sort of sold itself as being very much about art. if this was the biggest problem they may have been able to over come it but this is just the beginning.
Both the show and Dali were advertised and quirky and upbeat. For most of the show Dali is a wet rag of a person sullenly trudging through her problems, dragging the viewer along with her as we wait to see which male character is going to solve the thing for her this time. That's not fun. it's not quirky. it is NOT up beat. it's dull, repetitive and disappointing.
The plot is cluttered and groaning under the weight of so many characters it might even give a daily drama writer pause. the central conflict isnt really central, being itself about too many things and offering a patch work of villains. Because there are so many of none of these villains get enough development so their motivations stay shallow and often don't match the vitriol of their actions. A similar problem plagues some of our good guys too. Won Tak for example exists solely for plot convenience. his development is thin and his relationship with Dali is incredibly inconsistent with the development that they do have.
given these other issues weird editing might seem like a nit pick but i assure you it's not. there is at least one, often more, distractingly bad editing choice in every episode. We've got pointless and poorly executed spit screens, we've got flash backs the reek of ret con, we've got really weird effects and pacing that is constantly being wrecked by waaay too long close ups of the aforementioned sullen Dali. like, i get it, she's sad, her life sucks. but i got that three episodes and fifteen lingering close ups ago. stop. PLEASE. And for the love of all things holy step away from the photo shop painting texture brush or whatever that abomination is. If this show wasnt supposed to be about art it might not bother me as bad but simply applying that texture over scenes completely misses the point and the beauty of highly textured brush strokes.
the chemistry is good though...and the over all production design is spectacular. if only they had put as much effort into the substance as they did into the looks.
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it's an 8 in family drama land.
if you're here for the romance...i don't know what to tell you. other than, prepare for disappointment. Heo Yi Jae (FL) is not a good actress. like she's crying and there is no emotion on her face bad. Hyun Soo is extremely poorly written. Ma Doo Jin (ML..maybe? it's debatable) isn't much better as a character but actor Cha Do Jin brings a better performance (but not by much)the reason to watch is the revenge plot. that's where all the great characters and great performances are and it's really the driving force of the show. honestly with a little tweaking they could have nixed the romance altogether and had a show i probably would have given a 10. i felt it was wrapped up well, though i was worried for the last 10 eps that they were going to pull something stupid.
Shim Ji Ho is stellar in this. i wish he got more serious roles. he would slay.
if you like a daily dramas and makjang and you're willing to look past some flaws then this is worth the watch.
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i love the female lead. She's smart and determined without resorting to over the top "strong female lead" tropes.
the acting is pretty good but there are moments where Lin Liu Di shows he's not as good as his co-stars. it throws off the vibe but not much and not for long.
i love Chris Wu but here he feels a touch miscast, or maybe it's just the direction or his performance. the character seems to have wanted to be animated and lively, but Wu's portrayal is muted and occasionally joyless.
still a great drama though.
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the main leads are great, so much so that the 2nd leads just annoyed me. Why were we spending screen time on them when we could have been watching Win and Wan Neung? Their chemistry was amazing. Wan Wan is a truely diabolical villian, even if he is a caricarture and very static. there are some really great supporting actors who did fantastic things with poorly written roles. Lukpit and Tom were really no more than the animal side kicks from a Disney movie, there to show us how we should feel and make us laugh a bit. the actors brought a lot to their respective roles even if the characters did tend to disappear for long stretches only reappearing to make story telling easier.
the only song that sticks out is what i think is the OTP's theme, it's song by a woman and it's lovely with just enough pep to make it stick in your head in a good way.
i will totally rewatch this. maybe tomorrow. it's one of only a handful of thai dramas i've watched and i hear it's actually quite a bit different than your standard Lakorn. if Thailand keeps making such delightful rom coms i will definitely watch.
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Bong Sun is really the second female lead, her character fading into the background next the the boisterous and interesting Shin Soon Ae. The actress that played Bo Young did an excellent job capturing the energy of Soon Ae, who was so fantastically portrayed by Kim Suel Gi that i hope we'll get to see more of her in the future. Jo Jung Suk was perfectly serviceable. His character was a little blah which made it easy for him to be showed up by characters like Joon and Kyung Mo, both of whom i spent most of the show wishing were the leads.
i cant remember any of the music now, so that means it was neither annoying or fantastic. even though i'm a rewatcher i dont see my self coming back to this any time soon there were a few plot choices made that i felt brought down the over all quality of the drama, it was so nearly perfect these stung even more, and i'm not interested in reliving that.
overall great drama certainly worth your time if you enjoy rom com.
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the comedy was spot on. Sung Hoon was a lot funnier than i remember him being. he's usually a middling actor for me but i thought he did really well in this show. his timing and facial expressions were much improved over his earlier work, most of which was heavy draw out makjang. in fact, this show is great for Sung Hoon fans who cant deal with makjang. you get to fan girl without sacrificing 100 hours of your life.
this was my first time seeing kim jae kyung. she did a great job. i liked her, she played her character well and she's gorgeous and hilarious.
BUT the reason this show gets an 8 instead of a 10 is that it really felt like our leads were in different relationships, if not on different shows. Jae Kyung never seemed to be able to match Sung Hoon's level of emotion or interest when the script so clearly called for it. it was like listening to a duet with one singer belting it out as if as the feels would split his soul if they didn't get out and then the other is drunk at a norrebang.
unfortunately alot of the other actors performances felt that way as well. maybe it was the limited screen time, maybe it was the writing, maybe the actors just didn't feel like belting it out for what was certainly a minor role. but i've seen actors do more with less, so i'm counting it against them.
the music felt like an after thought and i wouldn't remember any of it if i heard it again, except for one song. i think it's american and every so often the 1st few bars would play and annoy me because i cant for the life of me remember the name of the song or even how it goes.
rewatch value is a little iffy, i guess it depends on if you like to rewatch and why you do. i could certainyl see myself rewatching this at some point.
overall it's definitely worth the watch, especially if rom com is your thing.
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as far as the cast is concerned there's nothing not to like. i thought Rainie did great, i almost didnt recognize her! George Hu's role was so different than what i'm used to seeing from him, but as always he brought his a-game and was a delight. Chin King, ever the bit player, needs his own show. someone should get on that. i am not a Jiro fan girl - bear with me i'm making a point. sure the guy isnt ugly, heck he's even kinda cute i guess. this is the second Jiro drama i've watched. with TGH, like drama go go go- which it's been a while since i completed- i certainly wasnt watching because i thought Jiro Wang was a hottie. Jiro has something entirely different, charm. by the end of this show Jiro had me thouroughly charmed.
the music was catchy enough, i'm not rushing to download it but it didnt annoy me. i do have to admit that i probably wont rewatch TGH. i do like to rewatch my favorite shows, but this wont make the cut. truely awesome romantic comedies make your heart flutter and i got no flutter here.
i'd wanted to watch this for a few years and was very happy to see that Viki had good vid quality and subs.i dont feel like it wasted my time, so if you like romantic comedies i do reccomend To Get Her.
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the actors were great but i just got so sick of watching them dance around the same issues for five or more episodes. the drama i finished bore almost no resemblance to the drama i started.
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