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Misrepresentation
I know not many will see this review, but I believe it's important to point something out.When writing a story with supernatural elements, you have to represent those elements in an accurate and realistic way so that they don't become inaccuracies in terms of real instances that would exist in this reality.
For example, Angels are supernatural beings that are supposed to obey and follow God's will no matter what. Biblically speaking, that's the correct view of how angels behave. Demons on the other hand rebelled against God and do everything that is against His will.
I could go on lecturing about the reality of God, His will, angels and demons, but you get the point.
The drama itself has many flaws, not just the misrepresentation I already mentioned.
The characters are filled with hypocrisy and don't make logical sense at times. For example, the main lead always has a grudge against the "deity" because she believes he was unfair to her. However, before that, she did not even believe in his existence even though she has witnessed supernatural events first-hand!
Kim Dan, Hu and Gil opposed God's views and always seemed to question Him and even trying to rebel against him at times, and despite the clear warnings they have received, they kept rebelling.....which is completely INNACURATE to how actual angels behave! No angels can become human or vice-versa, thus the reason why the drama falls short in story-telling. Also if the above characters were truly angels, they would have a direct communication with God Himself, but God was portrayed as a silent sadist that had no connection with his angels.
Evil characters were too obvious. The acting was passively boring. Romance was artificial.
And most importantly...the camera work. Why the heck do Korean dramas nowadays incorporate the SHAKY CAMERA cliche in every single instance of the series. To make it look dramatic? It wasn't! To make it look intense? You may have fooled some. I believe that all the positive 10/10 reviews are coming from those that only watched the drama for the visuals of the main lead Kim Dan and Yeo Seo and their poor romance.
It was a drama that could go in great directions but it took one of the worst ones. To me this drama felt more like an experiment for the visual effects artists than for the actual story elements and their reality.
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Bafflingly high rating for a waste of time
I began this drama with high hopes - it was set up with a premise that was something different, that I hasn't seen before.Then as the episodes went on, it just devolved into garbage and more and more cliched tropes were introduced. They even added the (AWFUL) "met as children" trope despite this contradicting the whole premise of the show.
Actually, there were other things that didn't make sense too...like the second male lead who likes the female lead because she *look like* (but isn't) a reincarnation of his old girlfriend??
The way the storyline inexplicably fell into place with a happy ending - despite the characters receiving divine warning about disaster and punishment - just didn't make any sense either.
There are only a couple of worthwhile things about this show - L as the lead is pretty good, the actors who portray the female lead's nasty family are pretty good and the mystery about the sabotage at the dance company was interesting (I was annoyed that the perpetrators mostly didn't face any consequences though?). Also the music was pretty good (although repetitive).
Hye Sun Shin gives a decent performance as the female lead, but I think she was miscast, as her character is supposed to only be 23 and she looks her age of 30 (and was specifically playing a 30 year old in her previous series).
There were definitely some entertaining aspects of this show (I managed to watch through the whole thing), but they get overshadowed by the all the plotholes, needless annoying tropes, and melodrama; so by the end of the (overlong) 16 episodes I was just left wondering why I bothered with this mess.
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The Waffley Bit - The two main leads were amazing, having already seen Shin Hye Sun in "30 but 17" I was already expecting great work from her, but hadn't seen "L" in anything before. Shin Hye Sun was just fantastic showing a wide range of her character work from the stone cold ice queen, mean and cruel at the start, to the warm, loving and friendly character later and then to the hysterical, crying and pitiful character further on, with plenty in between. It's worth rewatching just to remind yourself how her character progresses so much - after you've seen her "lights up the room" smiles and "nervous breakdown" crying it's worth reminding yourself of the emotionless cold hearted character she rendered at the start. L was fantastic too, and if i'm honest I appreciated his work more than I expected I would, nothing wooden or plastic about his performance at all, it was spot on. Other characters were largely as expected, though I did appreciate the butler played by Woo Hee Jin, an interesting character who makes out that she is constantly put out of her way by Yeon Seo, but is always there beside her protecting her.
Music was just stunning, this one is all about a ballerina so you can expect some fantastic ballet performances and lots of classical music to go with it (but not enough to put off those who don't enjoy it, don't worry :) ). Where the normal OST style tracks are they were mostly brilliant, some really notable tracks i'm looking forward to hearing again separately. The only exception for me was one track that starts with "1, 2 and 1,2,3.4" in the vocals - at least a couple of times this was played over the top of someone talking and its mere presence simply highlighted to me just how often it got played (at least for a while anyway until they seemed to stop using it at all). Producers - don't talk over your actors!
Story - this bit is a bit mixed. Overall I really enjoyed it. It's not without its issues though. Some times things are just glossed over - you go from one state of relationship to another in the blink of an eye and there's no reason or explanation as to how it happened. One minute characters are at loggerheads and the next they've figured it out and made up... There's more good than bad, and the bad isn't really that bad it's more just a case of taking something on faith really. There's a heavy Christian religious theme to it - but that ought to be expected - and one of the things I was hoping they'd develop was the burden humanity places on God, why does He permit bad things to happen to good people? The question comes up, but it never really gets any kind of answer or development. There's plenty of fist shaking to the sky but then later on when Angel Dan narrates his final views it's verging on as "thats just how it is, and i'm suddenly fine with that where i wasn't before". I think this would have been a great opportunity to explore these elements further even if only in the context of discussing thoughts and views (I should say I'm not a religious person myself perhaps, but I still appreciate religious elements in stories, whatever religion it might be).
There's some similarities that can be drawn between some of the key elements of this drama and "You who came from the stars", particularly the two leads who get together but inevitably know there's a clock ticking where they will be ripped apart. Another element that I found good in this similar to "stars" was where the couple are joyously happy, but you, and they, know they are racing towards that cliff - it's a bittersweet time and represented well.
The conclusion is... there? But it wasn't particularly clear and as with numerous other times in the story - lacking even simple explanation, I mean they're standing under the tree, how about a leaf falling with a simple note from God to Dan and Yeon Seo just to put a "bow" on it. I also don't like how they left the butler's view of Dan shredded to pieces - given the final few minutes i'm sure it would have repaired, but that just left a sour taste.
So... finally? Yep, worth a watch, it's not flawless by any means, but it's still worth the time to watch it in my view. Rewatch is quite high because I don't think knowing the ending really affects your enjoyment too much, and in fact as I said earlier, watching the full range of Shin Hye Sun's performance again has to be worth the time.
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The best k drama for romance and love,hands down
So I’ve watched a lot k dramas for love,romance and comedy and I have to say in terms of love and romance this one for me did it better than all of the k dramas I’ve watched before it and this is mainly down to these two main characters.they play there roles extremely well and you can genuinely feel how much they care and love one another,can’t remember any show making me smile numerous times just because of what’s happening between them two and there was plenty of times where I had tears in my eyes,the female lead is so cuteIt’s unreal the way she says “Dan” the sideline story is good but the main reason this k drama is special for me is because of the leads,there enough to have you go through 16 episodes no problem,if your on the fence about watching this and you like the pure “romance” dramas you NEED to watch this, it’s a top 5 for me
Quick side note the ending I don’t think I’ve ever been as happy at a ending in a K drama if I’m honest I thought they’d never be able to touch again,couldn’t stop smiling
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Imagine if someone wrote a story with your family in it although they changed all of your families personalities, they even added someone who isn't even in your family (reincarnation). My family is something I hold very dear to me, if someone misrepresented them in a harmful way I definitely wouldn't like it. That's how I feel about my beliefs.
Other than that, it wasn't totally bad. I enjoyed it.
Angel Dan had a cute personality and the ballet was pleasing to watch.
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The genre sticks to what it is supposed to be and by that I mean you get an ounce of comedy drama and romance, it's really worth the watch, I can't even explain in words how perfect the soundtrack is, it really adds up flavor to the series. If you're hesitating on watching this, please don't, I've watched countless of dramas and I can say this is different from the stereotypical plot that dramas often have, it is somehow new with a minimal touch of cliche but it's really enjoyable and addictive. I can't wait for it to be finished, I really wish for an epic ending.
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Potential lost in a pile of ridiculous plot devices
The story is pretty simple and pretty interesting at first. Kim Dan is an angel, who for helping a human was sent to earth with a mission to make Lee Yeon Seo fall in love. The problem is that Yeon Seo is a bitter ballerina who doesn’t seem to be interested in love. In a weird and very “drama like” turn of events Yeon Seo falls in Kim Dan and that’s a big no no for an angel to fall in love with a human.So I have a pretty big problem with this drama. It promised a lot but it fall through somewhere in the middle. We didn’t get any more character development and were stuck with a barely mildly interesting ones. The conflicts were not progressing fast enough and basically till the end the action was dragging.
The thing that I can see as a positive was main characters relationship. It seemed mature enough for the most part, so we didn’t get much misunderstandings that could result in dragging the plot even more. All conflicts between them were somehow managed pretty quickly. We don’t have to watch five episodes of understatements only because one of them decided to to share some detail (you know the thing the dramas do). Their love seemed to be pretty haste but considering the circumstances it was understandable.
Being in the middle of the drama I felt pretty underwhelmed with it. The story was barely there, characters painfully simple, their actions repetitive. I kind of liked Ji Kang Woo at first, with the whole idea of him being the fallen age for loving woman who looks like Lee Yeon Seo. But honestly, all he did was to obsess over her. This and him being exaggerated ballet perfectionist was his only character trait.
About actors I can only tell about wasted potential of Shin Hae Sun, who I know is great actress. But here I think she had her wings clipped by poor writing of her character. Kim Myung Soo at first gave me very strong Park Seo Joon vibes with his mannerisms but soon it turns out that he has pretty much the same face for all the emotions so I found his performance average at best.
Background characters including bad guys here were sometimes so uninteresting and one dimensional that even towards the end I had trouble telling who’s who.
So drama that started as a pretty neat idea and story about getting a person from the bottom and helping her finding true love turned out to be this pile of ridiculous plot devices that just seemed to be there just to fill the time somehow.
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Sobbing
Wow,I think this k-drama beats everything I watched till now. I cried at every episode.This drama has all,comedy,tragedy,romance, everything. I cannot wait to see the next episodes so I can make a longer review. I'm dying here to see what's next. I'm glad that I gived it a chance so I could see this awesome drama.Update: After all this waiting I could see the last eps. I think I cried enough to fill a river. This drama was so beautiful, just like the actors who played so well I do not think I cried so much to other dramas, but that was special. I've seen a lot of kdramas but that was different. There were many sad moments, but also many fun and happy. It's a relief for me that it had a happy ending.Wow,everyone who didn't watch this drama need to stop from whatever they do and watch this drama because it will be the most beautiful drama they would ever watch. I wish I could give 1000000 stars and my heart,but for now the only thing I can do is a good review, 10 stars and send it to others so I do not miss a drama like that, nor have words to describe it. This drama and all actors deserve an award and I hope they'll get it.
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Watched in 2 days, was worth it, would miss a meal to binge again.
Hi! Let me thought-dump on you why I think you should watch Angel's Last Mission: Love:(First review, no spoilers, here we go!)
I came across this drama quite out of chance. I just had a few K-Drama jealousy compilation videos autoplaying on YouTube in the background while I did some work, and I happened to look at the screen when a scene from Angel's Last Mission: Love was playing (Yes, I had to type out the entire title, deserved!!). Weirdly, the lead's chemistry in that brief scene captivate me enough to look into it a bit more, even going as far as checking the YouTube video's description to get the title - crazy, I know, who even checks those anymore?! Regardless, that alone should tell you just how lovely the main relationship in the show truly is. I went into this show blindly, without knowing much more past the synopsis + scene I watched, and I could not be more glad that I did; almost every episode kept me reeling at the edge of my seat.
In general, the acting in this show was wonderfully done. Shin Hye-Sun's ability to create a soft spot in any viewer's heart for truly any type of character is nothing but admirable. However, I've seen that her performance being incredible is the general consensus, so I won't spend too much time on this, past saying that casting her in this drama was nothing short of the perfect choice. Whether you are a fan of hers from beforehand (or not) by the end of this you most definitely will be. If you are a fan of hers, you cannot pass up the chance to refresh yourself of her versatility! Yeon Seo is one of the most dynamic, yet consistently resilient, female leads I have watched. You will not be disappointed!
Other than this, I really don't get why so many people were let down by Kim Myungsoo's work! Throughout the show, Myungsoo's portrayal of Dan always had me rooting for him. Myungsoo manages to convey a strange type of "purity" through Dan that I find was vital for his angelical character; something I can't imagine could be imitated by some of the top actors we know and love! If anything, the only thing I would have to be seriously nitpicky to find a fault in would be some of the crying scenes - I will admit in some of the initial ones (first 2) they could've been more natural - but by the end of the show, (1 I can think of in particular) he truly outdid himself. Because of this, I'd have to say that no one should take any review that accounts his "bad acting" as a reason to not watch. I can guarantee, at the end of the day, no one is searching for an Oscar worthy performance - so you will most definitely be satisfied. His sincerity in delivery, unmatchable chemistry with Hyesun, & genuine acting, etc. are more than enough reasons to watch, and judge him for yourself.
Lee Dong-Gun was no joke as Ji Kang Woo, either! Even right now, reading this, I have a lingering dislike for Kangwoo that I don't see leaving me any time soon. I guess that speaks for itself, getting a viewer to hate a character takes just as much skill as getting a viewer to love one, after all! I will say, I never felt he held too much chemistry with either of the actresses we see him with, but that could easily be explained away through intentional characterization. I don't want to write an essay about every other cast member, so I will simply leave it as what I said before; they all definitely get the job done.
I wish I didn't spend so much time writing about the actors so I could show my love for the story! The drama does a great job at portraying the some very real issues such as: (as I saw a fellow reviewer state) "Why do bad things happen to good people?", faith, and "Avoiding the Unavoidable." The capriciousness of one's preset fate & going against our nature are two themes greatly portrayed in the plot, something I find many of us could relate to. In general, the plot is simply beautiful, and may even leave you with a lingering sense of appreciation for humans, and human nature as a whole. The pacing plot-wise is just right, with problems surfacing & being dealt with over the course of the episodes. However, I believe (and I don't say this just because I wanted much more runtime) some scenes ended almost too quickly - at times I felt that a few scenes still had more meat to them than the editors/director/whoever allowed. Unlike other dramas, I didn't feel like there were any episodes that dragged on, and at no point does the plot feel slow.
Just to throw in my useless opinion, I think the first half of the drama, as you get to see the leads grow together, is nothing short of a masterpiece. The build-up of a relationship is always my favorite part, which obviously comes down to preference, and Yeon-seo & Dan never disappointed. This is NOT to say the second half was not just as wonderful - like I said, it always comes down to preference, and I loved the entirety of the show just the same!
Let me wrap this review up before I write an entire essay (yes, I could definitely go on more & more about how great this show is!) by saying that this is definitely worth a watch. What initially was but a short clip I saw on YouTube quickly became a 2 day binge, and I absolutely have no regrets. OST, setting, and cinematography is breathtaking. Main couple is one of my favorites. Plot left me crying buckets. Again, the only drawback is that I wish there was just a bit more - but I guess that if this drama has taught me anything, it's that we should appreciate moments for what they were, beautiful fleeting bits of amazingness! In the future, I hope I forget enough about this show so I can re-watch again.
Give this drama a shot! I guarantee you will at least enjoy yourself 100% - something that, as you watch, you will learn is everything that matters! If you don't, feel free to come back here and yell at me, I'd love to hear other perspectives~
Perfect 10 for me. Watch it! Thank you for reading! ♥
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Soundtrack is just absolutely perfect: eerie, romantic, ethereal, wonderful!
An angel must complete missions before he is allowed to live in heaven. His last mission is to find true love for a blind ballerina, but he ends up falling in love with her and that is not allowed.Everything on screen is really high quality: the cinematography and set design are wonderful, complemented with great acting. The dancing is authentic and wonderful. The way the ballerinas interact is chatty, like the dancing fight over the bar, it was just so realistic.
Shin Hye Sun always embodies her roles perfectly and I’m happily surprised by Kim Myung Soo; His portrayal as a playful angel was very genuine, he really balanced out the female lead, they have such great chemistry! Another major pro and the reason to watch is OST; when the soundtrack starts, it elevates everything to the stereo-level: It’s eerie, romantic, ethereal, wonderful!
Sadly, it started off very strong, but become a chore to finish. There’s few mythology rules that were inconsistent near the end. I enjoy the slow-burn romance but it gets frustrating when the conflict drags and the villains become one-dimensional. The couple was too focused to dive headfirst in the name of love. The finale was extremely anticlimactic and unsatisfying as they use some tropes that I really dislike.
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This review may contain spoilers
Like my title reads this drama was pretty much in the middle of the road for me because while I didn't hate it, I certainly didn't love it. The highlight of this show was the OSTs and that should say something. I can't really complain about the casting because the actors really did justice to their roles but sadly it wasn't enough for me. While it's not really a spoiler, it is a detail about the show nonetheless about my biggest complaint which might have notched the show up a half star more, is the lack of body doubles. The show is about ballerinas and there is going to be dancing. How can you not have body doubles to do the heavy lifting when it came to skills scenes. It frustrated me to no end to watch the two dance leads fake their way through dance pieces when they clearly had no background in ballet. I would have forgiven minor faking but the director's decision to forgo a professional dancer to properly showcase the art form left me horrified. There were clearly opportunities to showcase a talent and make it look like either of the two front ballerinas but alas I was left wanting. In the end this made the drama feel a bit unprofessional in my book and highlighted some short-comings which is either laziness or cheap production.
In summation while it was clearly not a work of art, it probably paid the bills so I guess you can call it good Fluff material.
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Flawed, but a good heartwarming story with a great cast, music, and cinematography overall.
OVERVIEW: While this drama is definitely flawed, it is still worth watching, especially if you're looking for a good heartwarming story with a great cast, amazing soundtracks, and beautiful cinematography. This drama is absolutely beautiful in so many ways and shouldn't be judged or skipped due to some of its weaker points.STORY: I REALLY wanted to give this story a 10/10 when I first started watching this drama, but, after seeing it from beginning to end, I just can't do that. As some people have already pointed out, the story in this drama starts off really strong, but then the plot seems to get lost and confused along the way and there are a lot of things that I kept waiting for the writer to come up with an explanation for by the end, but she never did, sadly. It's really a shame, because the plot is unique, interesting, and moving in many different ways, but the writer is clearly inexperienced and had a hard time linking certain scenes or events together in a logical and coherent way, as well as coming up with reasonable explanations for why and how things work in this fantasy world she created. What I liked about the story/writing the most is that it's great at eliciting an emotional reaction from the audience--it can be extremely funny and make you laugh/smile at times, while also moving you to tears at other times. This is not something that is easy to do, and I think this drama does it VERY well.
However, it's obvious that both the writer and the director "dropped the ball," so to say, when it came to many scenes throughout the drama. Some scenes or events have no logical transitions or explanations, and I felt like I never knew what was supposed to be "real" and what wasn't while I was watching as a result. What's more, it felt like there were a lot of filler scenes as well where certain characters keep having the exact same conversations over and over again, in the same places as well, which was not only redundant, but it took away from time that could have been used to explain what was really going on or to add more meaningful information or hints about what was to come or how things worked in this world. I felt like the story had the potential to be much more complex and interesting than it was, but the writer didn't know how to take things to the next level. Overall, while I really liked the story for this drama a lot, I felt like it didn't deliver on what it promised its viewers. When the trailers for this drama came out, it made it seem like it would be a funny, yet suspenseful, rom-com, and the first few episodes supported this impression. However, after the first few episodes, the drama quickly becomes overly dramatic and doesn't even feel like a rom-com anymore. I feel like if the drama had had a better writer/director, it could have been so much better, but the story as it is is still worth watching regardless.
ACTING/CAST: In my opinion, I felt like the cast was well-chosen for this drama. While some of the supporting characters can be frustrating to watch at times, I feel like that has more to do with the writing than the actors/cast themselves. Unlike what many people keep saying about this drama, though, I do NOT think that Shin Hye Sun "carried this drama on her own." BOTH Shin Hye Sun and Kim Myung Soo give stellar performances in this drama, and BOTH also have some weak acting moments here and there as well. While I too had some issues with Kim Dan's character and Myung Soo's overacting in the beginning, since I have seen Myung Soo act in other dramas I know that isn't how he usually acts and I think the fault is mostly on the writer/director for not giving him better guidance, or for instructing him to act in such a way. As Kim Dan (Kim Myung Soo) matures throughout the story, though, we get to see Myung Soo portray a much more serious, empathetic, and nuanced character, and he absolutely NAILS IT. I cried so many times because of Myung Soo's touching performance, and also laughed just as many times at his comical and animated expressions/reactions. Shin Hye Sun's performance is also impressive in this drama, and, though I am NOT a very huge fan of Shin Hye Sun, I loved her as Lee Yeon Seo. Yeon Seo's character can be so funny and so heartbreaking to watch in this drama, and I found her to be extremely likeable as well, especially in the beginning of the drama. However, Yeon Seo's appeal does sadly diminish somewhat throughout the drama as she falls into a lot of the same, tired female character tropes that you tend to see in dramas. Her character returns to her old self from time to time though and shows everyone what a strong, badass woman she can be. I just wish that her character could have remained that way the whole time, rather than becoming weak and weepy and damsel-in-distress-y in the second half of the drama. In general, I felt like ALL of the characters had some pretty poor acting moments here and there throughout the drama. But, again, I feel like this is the fault of poor writing/directing and not the actors, because they constantly redeem themselves again and again throughout the drama and remind viewers what makes this drama so special.
MUSIC: The music in this drama is AMAZING. It's so beautiful and so perfectly matched to the drama that it really brings out the emotions of the scenes and makes you want to watch them over and over again, not just to see the performances, but also to listen to the touching/catchy songs as well. You will want to listen to the songs from this drama over and over again after you watch it--they're really THAT good.
REWATCH VALUE: While I don't think I'll ever watch the whole series from beginning to end in full again, since there are some parts that are boring/annoying to watch, I have already rewatched certain scenes from the drama several times. This drama is truly addicting and will make you want to rewatch all of the funny, romantic, and moving scenes over and over again.
OVERALL: I recommend this drama to anyone who's looking for a good heartwarming drama or a good tear-jerker to watch. While it certainly has its flaws and is nowhere near perfect, the acting, unique plot, beautiful cinematography, and amazing music are more than enough reasons to watch it.
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