Superb fighting scenes marred by the lame ending

If you enjoy scene after scene of gratuitous violence and non-stop action, this is the show for you. My name is the korean equivalent of badass female fighter shows like atomic blonde, kill bill etc and it does not disappoint in this regard. The fight choreography is stunning; there isn't a dull moment in this show. The acting too is excellent with Han so hee and Park hee soon pulling off their roles perfectly. I must say I did not really notice han so hee in the world of the married, but she has definitely captured my attention now with her range (also because she's the main character here but ya lol).

Plot wise it is a fairly standard revenge film and nothing too groundbreaking happens. You can probably guess the ending after the first few episodes. There are some glaring plot holes that will make you go "huh?" but the action makes up for it. A very random romance scene occurs in the last ep which in my opinion was highly unnecessary and did not do anything but make me laugh when the guy literally died a few scenes later. Apart from that, the ending was also a letdown and felt flat. So Jiwoo has accomplished her one and only life goal which was to get revenge for her father but in the process ruined her whole life and actually killed quite a few people. I was honestly expecting her to commit suicide because what else does she have to live for? Well apparently not! She apparently faked her death?? And is just roaming around? At least show her become the new gang boss of Dongcheon or something. Her committing suicide would probably have ended the show in a more satisfying way (to me at least), as it will continue to follow along the lines of how revenge will consume you and you will only turn into a monster morality lesson that they were trying to preach at the end. To be fair I am not a fan of open-ended endings but if you do not mind (and are willing to overlook the fact that she got away with murdering several people) you may not have an issue with this ending.

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wasted potential; crashed and burned with the same old lame tropes and plot holes

Let me preface this by saying that I'm not usually one to watch romcoms, but the premise drew me in. The first few eps were hilarious too so I decided to give it a shot. Alas! it was downhill from there. Like many other reviews here mentioned, the premise is interesting and refreshing. A genderbent version of the typical "cold rich CEO" and "long suffering wife" trope seemed intriguing to me, and it was until the villains were revealed.

The villains' (Moh Seul Hee, Eun Sung, Grace (??) and Da Hye) plans and machinations were portrayed so confusingly and nonsensically I had to turn my brain off in order to understand how they were intending to takeover the company. After the villains were revealed, the IQ levels of the Hong family immediately dropped several notches and they were bested. Does this even make logical sense?? This is a 3rd generation chaebol family and yet they were behaving like idiots. This does not fit the supposed backstory of Chairman Hong who supposedly went from shining shoes to building this empire. Would an astute businessman fall prey to such schemes so easily? I would think not. Of course, thankfully we have Baek Hyun Woo who still retains his superior intellect and rescues his ex(??) in laws almost singlehandedly.

I felt sympathetic to Baek Hyun Woo at the start. He was portrayed as a long-suffering son in law who in constantly undermined at home and work by Hae In and her family. I felt for him really; he is supposed to be the male version of the typical korean daughters in law being mistreated by their in-laws and ignored by their husbands. Unlike most viewers, I found the writing and portrayal of his character genuine and hilarious when realizing that he would soon be released from his predicament by Hae In's timely (or not?) death. To me, those were the most hilarious parts of the drama. Part of it is due to how hard it is to like Hae In as a person. She is portrayed as a cold and stoic CEO who almost constantly masks her emotions. She seemingly cares for Hyun Woo but rarely expresses it. She is blunt and puts him down at work publicly. It honestly is a miracle their marriage lasted 3 years. I was curious to see what made him fall in love with her in the beginning but we never really get that. We never really get any scenes on how they mended their marriage either; sure her cancer diagnosis was the catalyst but it felt like the foundation they were trying to rebuild their relationship on was never shown. Instead we get makjang tropes of multiple car crashes, MULTIPLE childhood connection tropes and ridiculous random car chase scenes.

This next paragraph will be dedicated to all the plot holes that I seriously couldn't stand. First of all, Hae In's illness is just so...fake. She has a couple of symptoms that only flare up at the most convenient times and looks in the pink of health despite being literally at death's door. Like seriously, whenever she is at the hospital for checks or whatever, she is always sashaying around like she's walking down a runway. I get that its a drama and that it would be impossible to really look THAT sick, but its hard to feel sympathy for someone supposedly going to die when they are still strutting around in the pink of health! Her brain surgery thing was the most fake thing too. Going in with full face of makeup and HAIR and somehow "losing" her memory but still retaining the ability to walk/talk/eat and returning to work after 1 month... I know I'm nitpicking when this isn't a medical drama but this is a major plot point which the show hinges heavily on so some realism would be good here. I'm not even going to talk about the car accident tropes because yeesh. Lastly, those darn childhood connection tropes, which I honestly HATE the most because it adds NOTHING to the plot. In fact, I feel it demeans the love between the characters. I want the characters to be in a relationship because they CHOSE each other and would go through heaven and hell to make that choice, not because fate ordained them to and the choice is already made for them. That is such a cop out. So if they are fated to be together forever why even bother with anything? Why bother with treatment? Why bother with saving the marriage? if it's meant to be it's meant to be you know what I mean? Since they are fated to be lovers they wouldn't need to save their marriage because they would be together till the end anyway. Lame.

The story is honestly the weakest point of the show. Acting, music, cinematography are all top notch and I'm not going into it because all the other reviews are already singing their praises. The last thing I need to get off my chest is the ending. If I were the scripwriter, I would write that Hae In dies in the end. I seriously cannot believe that she lives. And I always think back to this quote from a western medical drama: dying changes everything, almost dying changes nothing. After the surgery, Hae In loses her memory but somehow reverts back to her old personality (partly due to Eun Sung?). Almost dying wouldn't change anything about the relationship; Hae In is an ambitious person and would probably get over the health scare and return to chasing her trillion dollar club goal, leaving Hyun Woo by the wayside again. The fundamental issues that broke their marriage down were never addressed (miscarriage, communication issues etc) and Hae In can't remember it anyway. The whole treatment thing felt like just pure fanservice to appease the fans and to keep viewership numbers up. If Hae In dies, it would be more impactful in the grand scheme of reflecting on her relationship with Hyun Woo and also her family. I feel like it could have tied in with the scene at her grandfather's funeral quite nicely. And of course realistically, with a 3 month death sentence no treatment would usually be available. But that's just me lol, I just wanted to get this off my chest because this premise had a lot of wasted potential.

In summary, watch for the acting. The plot just goes downhill after ep 6? If you like makjang you would like this.

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Before getting into the review, I would first like to commend Kim Taeri's acting. She is simply phenomenal in portraying essentially 2 different characters. This is my first time watching her (have been meaning to get around to watching The handmaiden...) and I'm simply blown away.

Now on to the plot, I would say it's pretty innovative of the writer to craft a horror story based on traditional Korean folklore. I'm not Korean, and I found it quite educational to learn about the different traditions and how they compare with the traditions from my culture. With that being said, I'm not quite a fan of how plot-driven this show is - it resulted in a lack of character development for everyone except the FL and ML. This series is only 12 episodes; 4 less than the usual length of a standard Kdrama but the showrunners still decided to be ambitious and squeezed in other minor sub plots in the first few episodes. Some of them ended up being rushed through and inadequately explained (the case involving parents abusing and keeping the existence of their daughter for no reason). it also resulted in the minor characters being severely under-developed. For instance, it was never explained why haesang's grandma was so obsessed with becoming rich. She was never shown using her money and spent her days reading books. And godd, don't get me started on Hongsae. He had a RBF throughout the show and an attitude worse than a teenager going through puberty. I would have rather he died instead of Munchun. Oh, and Sanyeong's mother as well. I guessed she was supposed to be portrayed as a weakling so the audience would feel more for Sanyeong's suffering but lord it was overdone. I ended up hoping she would just kick the bucket because she was not helping at all. It was never really explained why she ended up the way she is - only briefly implied that she might have been traumatised from having a miscarriage and then finding out her mother died right after. But I wished she would have been written in a more sympathetic way.

Honestly, I would have given this series a 9 if not for the ending. The acting is great all around (even for the poorly developed side characters, their actors did all they could) and the cinematography, directing and sound design were great. But the ending... to me it came on too strongly as some anti-suicide PSA peppered with cliches of how important it is to love yourself. With the context of Korea's high suicide rate, I guess this makes sense but I can't help but feel like korean audiences would see through the hypocrisy. The only reason why Sanyeong was able to "love herself" and "want to live" was because she was finally free of her capitalistic burdens. With her huge inheritance from her dead grandma and father, she was free to finally do whatever she wanted to do in life. And all of this would not have been possible without the help of the ghost, who gave her the riches through exploiting her weakness and killing those she hated. Without the ghost, she would have still been stuck doing manual labour part time jobs! In fact, she would be blind, poor, and stuck with her lousy-ass mother. Hell, without the ghost, she would not even have known of the existence of her father and grandmother, and criminals such as Haesang's grandma and the voice phishing guys would still be alive. So that whole spiel about preventing the ghost from exploiting her weakness seems through loving herself more while trying to kill the very thing that enabled you to remove the weakness from your life seems very ungrateful and hypocritical.

The other reviews for this show are quite positive and I think I'm the only who gets the "ick" from the cheery ass ending. Oh well, but its on par of the course for kdramas which usually start off strong but end poorly. I do still think this is worth a watch though, especially if you're a Kim Taeri fan.

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WTF Did I just watch?!

From the poster, I expected some "forbidden love" kind of scenes between Hyoju and Hyeyong but instead what we get is a cold Hyoju and a strangely one sided obsessiveness from Hyeyong that doesn't end up anywhere. I really could not stand Hyeyong as a character - the way she behaved was so STRANGE and awkward and I hated her hairstyle. Her lines were strange, her reaction to basically being sexually assaulted (had upskirt pics taken of her and circulated) was strange and her clinginess towards Hyoju was never properly addressed and made her come across like an idiot instead. The plot creaked by at an excruciatingly slow pace and it was unbearable despite being only 1.5 hr long. I also could not wrap my head around how 2 teachers could be so attracted to a student that does not even ooze an ounce of charisma. Are Korean teachers so sexually pent up they literally cave in at the mere flirtation of a young(er) male? Because this show does nothing to show how Jae Ha even manages to win over both these 2 women's hearts.

Honestly, I dont even know what to say about this movie. It was trying to come across as provocative in the most conservative way possible (not a scene of nudity despite 3 sex scenes) so it was like watching a kid friendly porno. Oh and that "murder" scene was possibly the most PG scene of someone getting seriously burned ever. Plot doesn't make much sense and is too goddamn slow, Hyeyong is so fking annoying, acting is alright but nothing to write home about. Is this worth a watch? Maybe, if you've exhausted all other means of entertainment. Would I recommend this? Absolutely not, and if you're in the "mood" for more "scandalous" type of shows I would suggest watching a western show instead because Korean movies are really too sanitized.

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A good ole revenge flick

If you're having a bad day and want to watch some baddies get their ass kicked, this is the show for you. Good acting with great fight choreography. Plot is fairly straightfoward as it's basically a feel good story of vigilantes helping victims get revenge. One gripe I have of the show is Esom's character, which i feel was not really well developed, it was like the writers did not know what to do with her. In the original comic her role didn't exist so that is probably why her character did not really get much development. Without her character the show would not have made much difference but i guess the producers wanted to show somebody on the "right" side of the law.

On the other hand, I reallly really liked cha ji yeon in this show, she was so charismatic and embodied her character so well despite not usually acting in dramas (she is a musical theatre actor). Looking forward to more of her work.

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Killing Eve ripoff gone wrong

This show was touted as a Korean remake of Killing Eve and well, it isn't wrong. If you've watched Killing Eve, the similarities are there: female police officer/law enforcement agent goes on a cat and mouse chase with a female serial killer/assassin (in killing eve). This show takes on a more quirky/light hearted tone compared to Killing eve, which in my opinion doesn't work in its favor. "K" the female serial killer, is basically Villanelle but quirkier and less charismatic. Her "quirkiness" was played up too much it made it too over the top and unbelievable. This was actually the main reason I dropped the show. K's overacting was just grating on my nerves too much. The plot was also not sufficiently interesting to get me hooked on the show and make me able to look past the awful overacting. Koo and team already established that K was the killer around ep 4/5 so there wasn't anything left to compel me to continue. Also, the people who K was targeting were bad people, so it was kinda a good thing as well? I personally like a good revenge story so I didn't care to see K get apprehended. There was also some backstory about Koo's husband's suicide but it was meh.

Other plot points I couldn't stand was that I found it hard to believe that K had so much resources to carry out her various killings, especially the plan where she drugged Koo's 2 team mates and left them to die at sea. Villanelle had some outlandish schemes up her sleeve as well but she was an assassin part of an international organization. While K on the other hand seems decently well off with her aunt being some sort of insurance agent but definitely not chaebol level to have the means to pull off such stunts.

Acting wise: Lee Young Ae is decent as Koo but her performance did not wow me. K's actress on the other hand....ugh. Not sure if it was a production choice to have her overact and turn on her "quirkiness" meter to a million or maybe the actress' acting ability isn't up to standard to be able to portray the character convincingly.

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Great storyline letdown by subpar execution

I really wanted to like this drama. Really. The story/premise is fresh, and serves to highlight the issue of sexual assault and its consequences especially in the context of a conservative, patriarchal society. It is one of the rare few Asian dramas that dares to explore the topic of mental health issues without devolving into the commonly used stereotypes of "crazy" people.

BUT.

The cinematography is just SO UNINSPIRING. Maybe I've just been spoilt by the increase in quality of Kdramas because holy shit, there is a really great difference in how this show is shot and how a typical Kdrama is shot. I'm not sure if this is a budget issue, but it's definitely not something common in Taiwan shows because I've watched several Taiwanese movies and they've never given me this impression. The editing/transitions were also choppy and felt so random at times. Not to mention, the music isn't great and didn't fit in tonally with some of the scenes for e.g. one scene where a young Chen Hsi was confiding in her friend about the sexual assault and a fairly upbeat song was playing in the background. Makes no sense AT ALL and almost seemed like the show was trivializing that moment when if anything, it should be highlighted as one of the pivotal moments in Chen Hsi's life as it was the first time she tells anyone outside of her family of the assault. Lastly, the acting of some of the support characters was kinda bad and the wigs/makeup choices didn't help either.

With all my complaints out of the way, I would like to say that I would still recommend this show to others. Such media is really what Asian societies need to highlight and bring awareness on the pain that sexual assault survivors go through. The #metoo movement didn't really gain traction in Asia as much as in the West, and such shows are really needed to show that it is ok to step out and seek justice and do whatever it takes (legally) to seek closure. The spotlight on the importance of mental health treatment was good as well, even though I wished they went about it in a different way. Chen Hsi was literally giving a PSA on her condition and the importance of therapy which broke the immersion and the ending started to come across as a documentary.

To conclude, even with all its flaws, this show does try its best to transmit a positive message on mental health and sexual assault though the execution could have been better.

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FL has no morals

This show is basically a korean remake of the hit chinese show Bu Bu Jing Xin, so nothing groundbreaking about the plot. BUT in the first 5 eps the FL basically is openly flirting with her cousin's husband while her cousin is on her deathbed. AND the cousin is supposedly ok with it and gives them her blessing to have a relationship with each other. like what the HELL??? nawwwwww. even if the FL did not end up with the guy in the end i just.... couldn't empathize with the FL anymore after that. so i dropped it. i just can't fathom how anyone can feel for the FL after this.

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Overly didactic. but a step in the right direction for women's rights in chinese society

Modern show that highlights women's struggles in the workplace in china. Liu's character tries to subvert expectations of what a woman should be but can come across as overly didactic at times. The third female lead had barely any screentime and I didnt even know she was a lead if she was not on the poster lol. Liu's character was also so overly kind-hearted it was unbelievable. An improvement in modern chinese dramas which are usually filled with cringey romance scenes and toxic relationships. Cinematography and music is good too, was surprised at the quality of this drama. Rewatch value is not high because some scenes are really realistic (if you are asian) so might hit a bit tooo close to home.

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Dumbed down version of Gone Girl

Premise is interesting enough and it starts off fairly strongly. Then the story becomes more and more outlandish... and then everything is revealed and explained down to the very last detail. Why??? Do the filmmakers think the audience are 5 year old kiddos? I would have appreciated for more details to be omitted and the audience be free to come up with their own conclusions for some plot points... and this is coming from someone who hates unexplained endings.

Acting wise it is decent, Zhu Yi Long is great and so are Ni Ni and Janice Man. Would have loved to see more of Huang Zi Qi but her role was quite small in the show. Unfortunately the side characters aren't great and broke the immersion a little. Cinematography wasn't good, plenty of zoom ins and closeup shots that are reminiscent of Indian drama serials lol.

Overall was a really meh movie that was somehow vaguely entertaining but at the same time quite forgettable.

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Most disappointing drama of 2021

On paper, the premise sounds interesting: murder mystery set on the scenic Mount Jiri. Alas! This devolved into some sort supernatural sci-fi about ghosts wandering the mountain. CGI and camera work were extremely bad in the first episode; so much so that I wanted to drop it right there and then. Camera work does NOT do the scenery of Mount Jiri justice. I was honestly appalled by how bad it was; considering that this show had such a large budget. I've read that CGI and directing seem to improve in the later episodes but I did not stick around to find out. If the story had been good I would have stuck around, but sadly no. Plot is haphazard and there are many time skips (pet peeve of mine). Supernatural angle felt so unnecessary as well.

Acting wise it was average. The leads are big name actors but I was not wowed by their performance. Guy spends most of the time in a coma. Supporting characters have too many filler comedic scenes that don't seem to jive with the tone that the drama is going for.

OST was forgettable but I recall I did not like it.

TLDR: Jirisan travel vlogs on youtube are more entertaining than this mess.

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Outlandish plot

The premise was interesting and I thought this would be right up my alley but unfortunately not. First episode started off strong (albeit violently) and my only gripe was the constant time skips that happened in quick succession. Second episode was going well until a barrage of new characters were introduced and I gave up trying to reconcile the adult versions with their kid counterparts. The whole in utero "psychopath test" was starting to annoy me because it seemed way too implausible and far fetched. Maybe if you're able to suspend disbelief but I honestly couldn't. I wouldn't have minded if the show decided to go into the ethics of the whole nature vs nurture debate based on this premise but it decided to veer sharply into sci-fi territory with brain surgeries and whatnot. I threw in the towel at this point since I was watching Beyond Evil at the same time and did not have the time and patience to keep up with the various plot developments of 2 different shows. When I saw the showrunners release a special episode just to clarify the relationships between the characters I realized I made the right choice. It is most definitely NOT a good thing if a show has to dedicate special episodes to make it less confusing to viewers. On the bright side, the acting was excellent, even the kid actors were great.

Conclusion: Watch only if you enjoy brain workouts. If you're looking for a casual serial killer thriller this is not the show for you.

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Kind of boring

So... not sure if I'm just dumb or skipped around too much but I don't quite understand some parts of this show. The gist of plot is about how the Japanese/Nationalist government tries to find a Communist spy within their midst with the codename "Ghost". In order to do so, they decided to lock 5 suspects together in a mansion (lol) and basically "interrogate" (torture) them. None of the characters know who "Ghost" is (except for "Ghost" of course) and can only make educated guesses on who the "Ghost" really is. Hence, what results is a lot of talking, gossiping, and plotting to try and tease out the identity of the "Ghost". This does not make for entertaining viewing when the characters spend chunks of time sitting around a table monologuing and trying to manipulate each other. 38 episodes of this gets old real fast and I had to fast forward so much because I was losing interest. I get that this is a espionage thriller but this is wayyyy too much scheming and talking for a drama. Doesn't help that there is an average of 3 flashbacks per episode to show the backstory of the characters and that is just too many flashbacks come on... Some plot points made zero sense as well. Also, the CGI was horrifically bad and the props looked extremely low budget.

The 2 female characters are Mary Sues. Li Ning Yu especially so with her being beautiful, extremely intelligent, a top rated cryptographer who also coincidentally has 0 flaws. Her relationship with the other female character Gu Xiao Meng was confusing (to me) as she seemed to treat Gu coldly then suddenly revert to being warm and vice versa. It was strange. Chinese social media shipped them together but I don't get it. Censorship like what happened in A couple of Mirrors? Who knows. Actress playing Gu also overacts a fair bit which is cringey.

Conclusion: Plot seems more suited for a movie. Strong propaganda overtones as well considering the time period this drama is set in.

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