Reviews

Must watch.

This was surprisingly good. I really loved it. I was hesitant based on the synopsis but I’m glad that I watched it. It was very unique. The storyline was one that I’d never seen so I was definitely always wondering what would happen. I think the build up was good. There were few and short lived misunderstandings. Things were cleared up well and the ending was great.

Bold ML and a clever FL. The chemistry was one scene which made it even better.

You’ll get the obsessive person, the scheming person, the vengeful person, the deceiver, the lover, the chemistry, loyalty, brotherhood, good fight scenes and I do mean gooood. ML was a beast. Love, love, loved it.

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JUST DON'T DO IT. First of all they made the very big mistake of airing this along side Kill Me, Heal Me (brilliant drama btw). Secondly the writing made absolutely no sense what to ever. 85% of the drama was spent chasing a freaking criminal that could have been caught by ep 4 then you factor in the very annoying a female lead that pisses you off with every move she makes. then the other 15% was just pure bullshitry for the lack of a better word.

The drama was doomed to fail from the beginning. As it progressed the episodes got harder and harder to sit through and by episode 15 i was at my wits end with it. The 2 characters being played by Hyun Bin were annoying too. I don't think there was a likable character in this drama.

The acting made me want shed tears. It was that horrible ugh.
writing= 0
acting = -2
characters= -10
waste of time= PRICELESS (I WANT MY TIME BACK)

Final thought is that this is yet another drama that was a complete waste of time....And im a fan or Hyun Bin

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A Perfectly Written and Directed Thriller/Suspense Drama with Versatile Acting!

As a Yoo Seung Ho’s die-hard fan, I had been waiting for this drama to air since the casting news last year.

Here are my thoughts about this drama, divided into 3 categories:

1. The Plot

I haven’t found a truly good thriller/suspense Kdrama for a while (I was in a Kdrama slump for almost 2 years). Just like why Yoo Seungho picked up this drama, one of the reasons I decided to watch it is also out of ‘curiosity’.

This kind of plot is quite unusual (as expected from Yoo Seungho’s dramas, most of the time). Kidnapping a FRIEND for ransom money? I’m totally bought!

And this drama gave me the tense that I needed. Every episode ends with scenes that left me feeling shocked and intrigued. It reminds me of Yoo Seungho’s previous thriller drama, “Memorist”, in some ways, especially the camera movements.

2. The Character-Building

I love that every character, from main to side characters, have their own roles that are useful to the story development. Nothing feels unnecessary. Then again, it’s only 8 episodes. I don’t think there’re rooms for fillers.

The main characters make me feel what they feel, especially Lee Junseong (Yoo Seungho). His life is so miserable that it pains my heart to watch his parts. He still has a pure soul though he has been tested a lot in his life.

Song Jaehyo (Kim Donghwi), how he starts to be out of his rational mind when his whole life depends on the money. We can’t help but pity him because of his poor situations.

Park Minwoo (Yoo Soobin), he was used to being taken advantage of for money since high school. He’s physically weak, and people see him as a fool, when in fact he’s not. He has a kind heart and trusts people that treat him good.

3. The Acting

YOO SEUNG HO. The authentic, versatile, and trustworthy actor that he is. His eye acting, his facial expressions, his body movements, his voice control in every situation, how he shifts from action to emotional scenes. Smooth. PERFECT!

Of course, I will not discredit other actors, especially Yoo Soobin and Kim Donghwi. They amaze me the most at scenes that show their ‘desperation’. Yoo Soobin’s cries when he was begging to be spared. Kim Donghwi’s voice intonation when his mind becomes more distorted.

So yes, I am truly satisfied with everything about this drama, so far.

I genuinely hope that it will end on a high note, though I am curious about the ending and how their friendship will become after the whole kidnapping events.

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Thoroughly dissapointing

Hear me out.
If I watched this show 4 or 5 years ago I would be impressed and would've probably given it a 9 or something. After all, "serious" shows with a dark undertone are somewhat rare in the kdrama landscape yet they're my absolute favorite thing to watch. Shows like Stranger and Signal tick all my boxes: Serious, investigative, no random forced love tropes, some subtle humor between the characters at times without ruining the seriousness, etc etc. Through the Darkness follows this pattern, so I should adore this show right? Right?

Well, here's where my problems with it come in. This show is essentially a way, way worse Mindhunter. Where Mindhunter is one of the best shows ever made, masterfully painting real world killers on your screen, showing how the earliest forms of profiling took form, how the agents came to certain conclusion, Through the Darkness also attempts to do this exact formula, and misses the mark on literally all of these points.

The killers are just your typical edgy skinny dudes who are angry and evil, the start of profiling in Korea apparently boils down to "I know you're smart, here's an American book, let's catch baddies", and the way the "genius" profiler comes to conclusions during cases in this show is just straight up laughable cause he always just magically solves the case cause he's just so smart.

I tried loving this, I really did. The first couple episodes I thought this was on track to be my next big kdrama love, but it then rapidly dawned on me that this was just laughable. I know comparing it to a show like Mindhunter which has a budget so big that even Netflix didn't wanna invest in it anymore, and a genius director like Fincher is maybe a bit harsh, but while watching this show it's clear how much inspiration they took from it, yet executed things you don't even need a huge budget for so annoyingly bad, that I just can't recommend this show.

If you like darker kdramas I guess you could give it a shot and see for yourself, the vast majority of other reviewers did seem to like it, but I will take the liberty to say that the average reviewer on this website, me 3+ years ago included, rates mediocre shows way too high compared to other websites.

5/10, dropped after 7 and a half episodes cause I just can't be bothered spending my free time on this any longer.

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Okay so, as someone who watched a bunch of c dramas, proud to say that this show is one of the worst one yet. I've watched countless tucao(vidoes of complaints) about this c drama. There's certain things that the writer wrote that I believe is just...disgusting.
Some tucao videos that I watched(chinese subs):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqPj1X_uRME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2sk1QMcnxo&t=2s

I wanted to start off by saying, the overall rating for this show in china is from 2.1-2.5(I believe). I think this shows enough of how people think about this show.
Something I absolutely disliked about the show is how the male lead had like 3 love interest. The doctor, his ex, and of course female lead. ML(male lead) kept thinking about his ex girlfriend(who passed) while being with two girls. Like bro, please make up your mind. I find it so stupid how he already had many interactions with the doctor and Fl but he was still thinking about his ex girlfriend. Until one night he imagined his ex girlfriend telling him to find his true love. Uhm... okay....Something else I wanted to say is that there were so many disturbing moves that zhang han did in the show that disgusted me. He sexually harrassed FL, yet she was still calm, he pulled her bra strap????

The start of the c drama was pretty typical in most c drama- male lead went to the wrong hotel room and ended up with the female lead, then FL got scared and started running around calling for people , and then wow ML fell ontop of Fl and kissed. In addition, FL wanted ML to fake being his boyfriend. This completely ruined the show for me because the ML follows up with, his rules of fake dating. "You have to take care of me, have to follow whatever I say, and you have to understand what im trying to tell you based off of my expression(how i'm looking at you)." Uhm.....do i even have to say anything. Understand how you guys are working together, but these rules are way to unfair. Like following the rule of "you have to follow whatever I say." FL has her own thoughts too, she shouldn't be following all of your instructions.
(forgot to point out- when you just start the show, you'll see the 4 ML running in the rain on the race track by themself. This was to show how they were when they were younger, but I can't see how they portray teenagers. Looked more like my uncles running together trying to get mcdonalds.）

Many of the lines that Zhang han says in the show annoyed me a lot. When they ML and FL started fake dating, they missed the elevator for work together and FL suggested to take the staircase, but ML thinks it was an excuse of wanting to be with ML. In addition, ML made Fl watch a drama about a girlfriend taking care of her boyfriend and said "you have to learn from this girlfriend."

please go away.

Along with that, when male lead got with female lead, he confessed his love to her at where he cried for his ex girlfriend. He said a bunch of stuff abt his ex and why he couldnt' get w her until now. Bro, please remember that ZHANGHAN WROTE THE SCRIPT! and so, suddenly FL decided to get with ML and thats when ML started to talk more about his ex and told his entire back story about his ex. After wards, he asked FL, "you're not uncomfortable with me telling you about this right?" My god, I will literally wish santa to make FL say "i am uncomfortable." but because zhanghan wrote the script.. he made FL say "no it's fine" WHAT????? This just isn't realistic.

fast foward, they are delivering deserts to customers, and wow if you look at that! they started to tease each other and run around. FL was running after ML, ML had the deserst in the bag while runnig around crazy. And suddenly he felt unwell and FL said, "you have low blood sugar?" And this girl SHE PULLED OUT THE DESERT FOR THE CUSTOMER, THE CUSTOMER, AND SAID "we delievered a whole day, and we didn't even try the food.” Did you pay for the food? Are you the customer? And there she was feeding the ML the customers food.

bro this is such a fucked up show and plot

There is a lot more stuff that I can talk about but I'm going to stop here.

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An adaptation from a romance novel done right and then some...

Firstly let me clarify - this is NOT an E-sports drama.

This is a love story between two adults working in two very different fields who happen to come together because of a shared hobby, in this case a game. So if you are here because of GGS, Love O2o, GYH, King's Avatar, Love Scenery or FIYS and are expecting a lot of gaming you will be sorely disappointed.

On the other hand, if you are looking for adult protagonists with mature issues like finances, career, family and lastly - the search for that ever elusive life partner, then this drama is for you!

This is a slow burn that explores more about the ML than our FL. Being an engineer myself as well as in the same age group as our protagonists I found this drama to be pretty realistic and equally brilliant!

All the fans of Josei - this drama is perfect for you!

Story:

The romance starts slow but progresses naturally. I am happy with the pace though some might find it slow but it's the slowness that makes you stop and appreciate the stories of the supporting characters as well as the beautiful cinematography.

The story definitely focuses more on Yu Tu's life than on Jing Jing's. I liked that as I am not an actress and I wouldn't be able relate to her life. While Yu Tu is a normal fellow and I wasn't expecting to be so invested in his character.

The existential crisis that he is going through resonated so well with me - personally as well as through seeing mutual friends. There are many high achievers that have felt a career slump or questioned their life choices after reaching their 30s and this drama is showing the perspectives of different people so well. I could even relate with the conversations that were being held between YT and his colleagues or friends.

QJJ, our FL is mature, successful and not clingy. She is the emotional support to YT's internal inferno. Their love is quiet and takes you on a journey.

The supporting cast is also great. The FL's manager is sensible and not an EXTRA-character who restricts the FL from dating, etc. And though the ML is a typical smart, taciturn and handsome fellow he is suffering from typical career issues which are highly atypical in C-Dramaland.

FYI - There has been a dearth of slow motion scenes where the FL/ML just stare at each other vacantly or the ML touches the FL and the camera pans around them for 1 minute showing them from ten different angles. You can watch this drama just for this reason alone!!

Acting:

While the awkwardness of their (YT + QJJ) first encounter was a bit uncomfortable to digest, their subsequent encounters really grew on me and I felt their relationship was more realistic than other dramas that I have watched.

Both the leads did a great job of representing the emotions of adults that are meeting their school classmate after a long time. I am not a fan of childish/dumb/cutesy FLs and I specially liked the way the QJJ is handling her long forgotten crush like an adult as opposed to in an OTT/immature way.

Yu Tu was wooden in the initial episodes but becomes really expressive after he officially gets together with QJJ. If you've read the novel you would know that his character is the typical taciturn fellow though I would have preferred the screenwriter change the characterisation a bit to show us the anguish he is feeling regarding his life choices initially.

I also liked the acting by all of the supporting characters. Shout out to YT's Ex - she was someone you can really understand and probably know such a person in real life as well.

Overall:

I am in love with this drama. This is one of my favourite C-Dramas of all time. I just really appreciated the mature romance and it helped that all of the characters were believable. Kudos to the scriptwriter and director for seamlessly incorporating the epilogues from the novel and adding extra scenes as well as some memorable dialogue to make this a cohesive story!

The desert scenes were a special favourite of mine!! Some beautiful shots are captured in this drama!
What a wonderful drama!! A 10/10 for me. Definitely going to have withdrawal from this.

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Started to watch as filler...regretted it soooooo much

There was a reason why I never watched "Woori the Virgin" or "Graceful Family" on Viki and this drama confirmed it.
Never will I ever watch another drama with this FL!
I started as there were no dramas airing I was watching on the day an episode came out. Based on the synopsis it was the filler drama to something better came along.

This drama would be soooooo much better without the FL. I caught myself watching the NON MOVEMENT! of the FL top lip and area above.

FL should not accept scripts/dramas if it requires her to laugh or cry. These were the most cringe worth scenes in this drama.
The emotion the FL was trying to convey to me in the scene was lost to me as I got the fake feeling.
Like someone offering you a taste of a dish and it is horrible beyond description. However you have to fake a smile of enjoyment with no teeth wondering how can you not swallow.
Personally this drama was a waste of funding with the FL.
FL is so lucky I am not a casting agent as she would only get parts where she does not open her mouth to speak. Ideally living statue parts should be her absolute limit in any drama.

The profession of the FL was inconsistent. FL was suppose to be an emergency doctor, however when situations arose where emergency medical treatment was required, FL lead was hopeless. Emergency doctors have to think quick, the FL character never did for any situation. For this story they should have said FL was an office adminstrator with no medical knowledge, this would have been more believable.

Apart from FL I thought the story was OK, there were a few jokes which made me laugh. Other actors were good I believed they were the characters they portrayed.

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My Mini Back-Story:

Wow, it's been a while since I've written a review. I'm sorry that this one won't be as long as my previous ones.

Now, going into this drama I was very excited because when was the last time that Jeon Ji Hyun was in a drama eh? She's coupled up with Kim Soo Hyun too! That sounds like an advantage there already.


Storyline:

In general, the storyline seemed to be unsure of where it was heading. I felt like the first half of the drama felt different than the second half of the drama. I mentioned in the comments that starting around episode 12 to 21, everything felt generic and repetitive. To be honest, I cannot differentiate between what happened in that episode and the previous episode. It got to the point where it was that bad. I got tired of the bickerings and the reminiscence revolving around the two main protagonists. It was like as if the writers were actually feeding us cheese at that point! All I remember is how Cheon Song Yi followed Do Min Joo like crazy then she cries in her room and he hears. It was cute at first, but then it was just like, "Am I supposed to laugh because I've seen this countless of times previously". They kept saying the same thing over and over. Instead of all of that, the writers could have simply made us learn more about our beloved characters by adding substance and background to them.

Moreover, the beginning of each episode where Do Min Joon was in the Joseon period did not correlate to the current scenes IMO. Sometimes they added those in certain episodes, and some episodes did not even have that.

Characters/Acting:

Another thing that bothered me was that, did Cheon Song Yi know that Do Min Joo was the guy she was waiting for since forever? They made so much emphasis of that at the beginning but there was no correlation afterwards. Also, Se Mi's character was weird. She was being b*tchy then all of a sudden became thrown out of the script. What was her purpose? If the two second leading characters were not in this drama, it would have not made a difference!

The thing that bothered me the most about the drama was Lee Jae Kyung. How on Earth did he master all those evil plans? I have no clue. I know this is a drama, but at least make some sense! Even when he was captured at the end, he still blabbered child play stuff. Who defends themselves like that? I'm sure you guys know what I'm talking about if you've seen the last elevator scene before he was sent away. That just ruined the drama for me and it made me realize all the other fatal errors.

The acting in this drama, hands down, is superb thanks to Jeon Ji Hyun. She's such a fluid actress. She feels genuine. She reminds me of the protagonist Kim Sam Soon in her acting skills and talking ways. Oh man, Cheon Song Yi is not only beautiful, but she's really funny! Jeon Ji Hyun doesn't try hard at all. She's a treat to watch. She's naturally funny. When she's sad, you also really feel her pain. I cross my fingers that she will be in another drama with a better script!

Kim Soo Hyun was alright in this drama. I liked him, and I enjoyed his scenes, but Jeon Ji Hyun stole all the scenes.

The two supporting casts were dumbed down. They had potential, but not enough credible substance behind their characterization to say much. I feel bad for the actors.

Music:

The songs played in this drama matched well with the scenes. There wasn't a particular song that really stuck to me, but overall the soundtracks were in the moment. It added more emotion to the drama. Lovely.

Bonus:

Cheon Song Yi's fashion and beauty was a huge bonus for me HAHA. I loved her dance of "Will You Marry Me?" by Bruno Mars too. The random spurt of english from both mother and daughter were funny.

Overall:

The plotline was really messy. They built so much on it at the beginning, and they just let it all go near the end with uncertainty. In fact, near the end, it kind of reminded me of "The Time Traveler's Wife" haha!

The characters in this drama were not fleshed out. The acting was not bad at all though.

The songs were well put together as well.

However, I would not rewatch this drama except maybe Cheon Song Yi's scenes.

Overall rating for review: 6.25/10

Purely for entertainment: 6.5/10

My Dramalist rating (avg): 6.375/10

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If this is THE best youth drama, then I'd rather stop watching them.

I'm surprised as to how many people loved this drama & gave it the title of THE best youth drama.

PLOT :
The drama was filled with cliché plot and nothing particularly different to make this drama unique. The only difference between this & other youth dramas is that in this one the FL was a little smart. But, not more than the ML. Still, I'd prefer other dramas over this since the FL being smart or not, doesn't matter much.

This drama solely focused on the leads and failed to develop the story of the side characters. There was too much focus on the MC, which made it even boring. Sometimes, misunderstandings also make a drama a good one. No couple is pure.

They introduced difficulties but ended it real quick which ruined the fun. Sometimes, difficulties is what keeps me going since I love see how they would tackle it.

In a 24eps drama, I don't think there was a need to make them a couple in he 20th ep. Okay, I know since they became couple really late, there were 0 chances of a breakup. But, what was happening before they were a couple was just like a breakup.

ACTING :
Tbh, the FL nailed her character of being cute but shy. The ML's acting was decent & not too annoying. The side characters were good; but my only complaint is that they should've focused on the side couple.

OVERALL :
This drama was boring because its the first time fast forwarded almost al the eps. I would like to say that if you love youth dramas, you can try it out. But this! was definitely not for me. :))

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Hmm. I don't really know what I think about this one.
The Movie critic in me says "It really wasn't very good."
The BL fangirl (by association, I also react similarly to Girl x Girl) in me says "Yay."
The defender of LGBT rights in me, says "It's important."
So which is it? Maybe all above.

The storyline is thin - pretty nonexistent - and the movie flows on a casual feeling, completely character driven. Just that the characters are equally thin and don't push the story forward at all...
They're both cute and endearing, but have no depth, no defining qualities, nothing much.
Pie is stuck up, childish and homophobic. Kim is dorky, meek and a pushover. That's about it.
When they get friendlier with eachother and lose those initial traits, you're left with... kind of nothing.
It feels like the movie is made for the sake of making a movie about two girls that fall in love.
Which, from cinematic POV, is pretty lame. But seen to the message, it IS important.
Even though the topic of social stigma is approached in a very naïve and simplistic way, it's still an issue which needs to be adressed and get attention. Very few stories are told about girls who love girls.
So, in that way, it is an important movie. I think it's able to reach a younger audience very well.

The cast and their actin,g was really bleak. No one shone, although Sucharat Manaying as Pie, made the best performance. Her acting was okay. Tina Jittaleela was totally forgettable and made no impression whatsoever.

It's a sweet little story but it's really grossly overrated - 8,1 is far too high a rating.
I gave it 5,5 - i.e. a little bit better than average.
Nothing memorable, but is well worth seeing once. I won't watch it again though.

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This movie is psychodelic and makes you insane with trying to guess what is dream and what is reality. It's shown in the form of sweet fairytale with some lite horror trace. During the movie almost nothing happens, just pieces of dreams illogically messed. After finishing the movie you still barely understand what was happening or don't get it at all. You might still be able to figure out the story somehow. And I think that the story is pretty interesting and unusual. It's just the sreenwriting is nonsense.

The cinematography is somehow pretty here: beautiful nature, people, environment, interactions of the main couple.

We the viewers are also not pleased with absence of the useless hysteric characters (the girl's mother and shaman-woman) which are in almost every Korean movie-drama. Just as annoying as always.Good that there are not many of this kinda scenes.

What's for acting, it was okay. Good main cast. Jung So Min is one of my favorite korean actresses. Though her acting is not perfect, but she is very natural and adorable herself. Hong Jong Hyun,- I don't remember his other works, - but here he flattered my heart. Interactions between their characters, Hye Jung and Hwan, are exciting.

Overall I'd say the movie is rather bad. Though it leaves light and warm feeling, there are also too many of annoying flaws. But I'd advice to watch it. For the story, for Hong Jong Hyun and Jung So Min's exciting intteractions, for the beautiful video-shot. I don't advice it to that who is really fed up with nonsense in korean movies scripts.

Yes, I have kinda contradict impression about this movie.

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Story (10/10): Masked heroes is not exactly the most unique story. In fact, I'd dare to say that the entire story itself is not the most unique; however, the writers have definitely learned how to draw people's attention by making the characteristics of each character unique and loveable. It's no surprise to me seeing as I keep up with the reactions of every new episode. People go from loving to hating certain characters and vise versa. It's incredible. Then there's certain evil characters that you can't help but feel sorry for. Of course, another thing to note is how much women empowerment there is in this drama. Our female lead, played by Ariel Lin, is a strong character even without the typical kung fu skills. She lives and survives through her street smarts and wit. Our male lead, Zhang Bin Bin, is a hero who has a soft spot for the innocent and even the evil sometimes. He kills only when necessary and loves the female lead unconditionally.

Acting/Cast (10/10): So many people started this drama for Zhang Bin Bin. I don't wonder why since he is, not only, handsome but also such a mesmerizing actor. Personally, I started this drama for Ariel Lin. I've been her fan since "It Started With A Kiss" and she actually dropped from the acting scene for a while (probably due to personal life) so newer drama watchers often discredit her in her looks, acting, and even her worth (i.e. saying she isn't good enough to be the female lead, or she isn't good enough to be Zhang Bin Bin's partner). I think the acting in this shows everything I want in a duo. Ariel Lin's acting makes me forget that she is a wife in real life. I would love to see this duo once more. The rest of the cast also does great justice to this drama.

Music (10/10): I am in love with the OST! The intro song is so good. In the beginning, I thought it was a pretty comical intro but as I watch each episode I find myself humming along to this upbeat song. It really matches with our female lead and male lead's personalities and relationship.

Rewatch Value (10/10): I already see the Viki comments in the first episode saying "Rewatching for the nth time", this drama is definitely one that I would rewatch with my family (who also love Ariel Lin) and my friends.

This adds up to an overall (10/10).

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Watch this if you want to lower your brain cells

Just has watched till the end and wow! Really want to demand refund for the time i wasted watching till the end. No spoilers! But don’t use your logic while watching this because it wouldn’t make sense. There is time travel and such, spices up with some love but thats it. They don’t explore the older brother path at all and just focus on the romance. Shin ye acting is just meh, with mong face all the time. They stop making the mc act genius in the middle of the serries and just make him like a dampsell in distress. The final conclusion was also rushed and doesn’t make sense. (What happen with the lottery and all the facilities) how come only human got affected. I blacklisted the name of the scripwritter of this serries so i can skip it if they make another serries. What a waste of budget and netflix slot

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