One of the Korean Dramas of all time

My Love from the Star is a korean drama. It ticks all criteria that a korean drama should have. It is korean and it is dramatic.

Amongst korean dramas, I have seen op characters that some how walk into table corners or have inconsistent powers, I have seen insufferable characters or characters with annoying traits, and I have seen some stupid decision making from main leads in the story.

But I have not experienced a show, where they manage to contain all of these, creating main leads so inconsistent, insufferable and idiotic all at the same time.
The main characters, despite having the potential for depth, are often reduced to stereotypical roles.
The female lead has no redeeming factors. Apart from the show making us feel slightly sympathetic for her, she's mainly a bit of an inconsiderate and stupid bitch. Not only that, she treats her "friends" and coworkers like shit and kinda expects the world to kinda just bend to her will. She probably doesnt even consider them her friends or consider her coworkers as humans. She has major main character syndrome and its infuriating.

The male lead has zero reason to like her. It is wish fulfilment/fantasy that a guy that lived as long as this dude, would legitimately fall in love with this doll. There aint no way.
The chemistry between them seems so forced. Like bro was all about the bachelor life and suddenly dropped all standards when he saw this girl acting like an adult infant. And this isn't even mentioning that this dude is lowkey an asshole.

Many characters display annoying traits that make it difficult to root for them. From insufferable arrogance to nonsensical decision-making, these traits are more irritating than endearing.


Character development
Three characters are interesting, the rest are pretty insufferable.
At least there was some redemption for the guy that totally stalked the female lead for several years, cuz he did end up clutching up at the end. Lowkey mvp.
Same with Sunny's brother. He was pretty interesting. Its a shame that there couldn't be more screentime for him.
The fake dad is a nice guy, understanding and chill. Bro's wise and funny. Good shit.
Also idk what happened with Sunny's character. They couldn't decide whether she was gonna be a bitch or a friend or a bitch. If they just fleshed it out more, it could have actually been kinda interesting.
I would say that the characters dont even exist to drive the plot, because there is no plot.
However, this would be a lie. There is a plot. Its just really dumb and forced. At any point, the male lead could have just done some investigation into horse tranq bro or like idk, get someone to drop a brick on bros head.

Special effects
They special for sure.
Instead of being like epic and make you feel abit more immersed, it breaks immersion and looks goofy as shit.

Plot
The majority of the story didnt make any sense.
Especially horse tranq guy. Bro has no sense of fear.
The male lead has god-like powers but sometimes doesn't make sense.
The female lead is like stupid as shit but also can be Sherlock at random moments. And even then she says it with no awareness at all that shes alone with the killer in a room.
I don't think the female lead even realises who the killer is or why shes being targeted for the entire show. Like wtf

The 21 hr runtime was kinda insane. considering the story can be condensed into
Actor dies -> FL gets framed for it -> ML falls in love cuz he feels bad or something idfk -> real murderer tries to kill FL -> ML ends up solving everything without FL even realising -> ML and FL have their romance -> ML dips -> ML comes back


The music was quite nice and carried the enjoyment of the show.
The acting was also pretty good by most of the side characters. The main characters felt either very stiff or caricatures of stereotypes, which ended up being goofy. Which is still enjoyable in its own way.


Honestly, with abit more development around the romance and the consequences of either of the main characters dieing, this could have redeemed the show.
Give us a sad ending you cowards.
If they killed one of them off at the end, that shit would have been peak.

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Our Mafia

Our Times manages to execute a variety of cliche conventions and provide a light hearted, feel good movie.

The story was pretty fun to watch and was very easy to follow.
Despite having the cliches, they are executed well, with teenage looking teenagers and decent acting. Though there are some parts where bad or subpar acting stands out. Most of it was solid especially on the more emotional scenes.

Music and ost solid as hell. Iconic. 10/10.

The first time I heard of this film, I was watching it with my cousins and my aunt. The scene we were watching was when Ayuan drowned. My cousin proceeded to blurt out, why is he called Ayuan, he can't even swim that far. He should have been called Ajin. Yuan means far, jin means close. That is all.

The film starts off as a solid 7-8 aNd as the story progresses, this shit builds into like a solid 8.5. And then theres like this 10 minute window where it turned into a solid 9.5. Very well executed. Also was very happy they addressed some real world concerns such as consequences of head injury. There was alot of foreshadowing and pay off from earlier scenes in the film that made it very very satisfying to watch.

Solid as hell.
Really enjoyed the film.

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We are Korean Gobolin

Gobolin could have been shortened to a 8 episode story. There was a lot of fluff and misunderstandings which end up extending the runtime a lot.
The best part of the show was the ghosts stories. Some of the characters/world building was pretty inconsistent but the show doesnt really take itself too seriously anyway so its fine. Its mostly a fun watch with some emotional highs and lows. The forshadowing and symbolism throughout the show is pretty well done. Dalkom coffee and subway making their return in this show as well.

Sometimes the way the scenes were cut were a bit disorienting wtih them having several cuts in a row for a pretty simple conversation. The music and ost in the show is pretty solid. Really enjoyed the music especially with dramatic scenes.
The slice of life story contains other elements like mystery, romance and manage to blend them well into the show. The only complaint is that there was a lot of unecessary things that happen due to lack of communication.
Some characters actions are also very convenient for the story and are essentially just to advance the plot. The lore of the story is also somewhat inconsistent/doesnt really make sense. Characters being inconsistent to their lore was probably for irony purposes, but was kinda silly.
The acting was very good overall, carrying a lot of the emotional scenes. Especially when the show itself is mostly humour. +1
If the show ended at episode 14, it would have been peak. -1
Because of the scene where they threw out a plate of food because someone put too much spice on it. -1
Ghost stories epic. +1
Dramatic scenes were dramatic, sad scenes were sad, funny scenes were funny.
Good stuff. Very enjoyable.
Overall, Gobolin.

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They cooked

God tier film
This is the perfect tragedy.
There's so many scenes that are cinematic and dialogue that’s well written.

It’s a story with solid character development from the majority of the cast
The misunderstandings aren't contrived and feel natural, especially considering the circumstances of the characters. Not only that, when you get to a certain part of the movie, it recontextualises the whole story and you understand a side that unfolds so naturally and makes so much sense. The peak moments of the film are essentially seen from a mirroring or paralleling perspective, revealing the entire story and showing you everything in detail. It's very well written. There are too many brilliant scenes to count. Cinematography peak.

The main characters make sense and have reasons for their actions, and it makes sense because of their traumatic backgrounds. K and Cream's fear of rejection. The script is so fucking peak. The ending wraps up so well too.

The only off parts are maybe when the cat girl is introduced, but its really not so bad. Shes pretty chill throughout the rest of the movie and is actually kinda interesting. Begins as a caricature, ends up as a real one.
Besides that, there's like one scene that looks goofy cuz of the lighting and that’s it.
Everything else works extremely effectively towards the film

Pretty much all the side characters are fairly likeable and feel like humans, flawed but understandable.
Very strong writing and character development
The ost was very effective and great to listen to, besides the cat girls singing.

This is one of the most slept on films I've ever seen.

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A legend returns from Uruk in this thrilling tale of corporate greed and the entire justice system in Korea being corrupt or something.

The story is a bit quirky. having serious scenes where someone is gruesomely murdered and then the next scene Vincenzo walking into a chair. Or characters doing things very out of character for some slapstick humour. The acting itself is good. Its just over the top to fit in with the humour they were going for.

The music was fairly nice and built tension in scenes well. The ost for the villain was pretty noticeable.

Rewatching the show for me may be abit tilting since theres many moments where Vincenzo is an omnipotent god and can handle like 20 armed men. But then for some reason, he cant handle one guy with a gun when it matters the most. His ability is put up to such a high standard throughout the show and we see him do some insane shit. But when the plot requires it, he kinda just afks, allowing the antagonists to just kill people. Its pretty inconsistent. Some of the characters are also very annoying, like nearly the entire plaza cast is insufferable, especially at the beginning. They get better but would be annoying to have to watch them again.

Overall its a fairly nice show, good production value, entertaining and fun to watch. It does suffer from being a bit dragged out though. Bonus points for including
"He was my everything"

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Descendants of the Mafia

He is her everything


Story has obvious flaws but enjoyable. Sometimes the pacing was abit scuffed. I feel like one of the events that happens feels like its happening over a year or something. When in the show its actually a month or something like that. Character continuity and them referencing things said in previous episodes was quite fun to watch.
Acting was a bit goofy at times. I find that the villains had better acting. The script was funny and well written. Music was peak. Osts were used well to fit the mood of the show or for dramatic purposes.
Minus 1 point for no title drop.
Overall very enjoyable watch. 8/10

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Itaewon, we need to cook

Itaewon, we need to cook.

As a show about revenge, pride it was pretty entertaining and engaging.
There were some points where nothing was really happening or when they bait you into thinking someone will betray someone at the end of the episode. Which was kinda pointless since it would just mean the ending of the plot. The ending is abit unsatisfying, but the lack of compelling subplots, next to a much more engaging main story makes this abit easier to digest.

The development of some of the characters was quite good and made sense most of the time.
The main character is likeable and has a really nice personality, as well as understandable flaws. The acting is quite good, especially from the president of Jangga. The main female character was very iritating to watch because she reminded me of someone I knew. Toni is the best character.

The music is pretty good but not as dramatic or iconic as something like Descendants of the Sun.

The title drop, despite being somewhat organic, was abit lacking and didnt feel as satisfying as some other titledrops.

Overall, an enjoyable watch, which I supplemented with a bag of nongshim shrimp crackers.

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