This review may contain spoilers
Plot + review
Plot: Hyun Soo, a loner high school student who lost his entire family in a terrible accident. He moves to an old apartment complex called Green Home. His quiet life is soon disturbed by strange incidents that start occurring in his apartment, and throughout Korea. As people start to turn into monsters trying to wipe out humanity. People inside the apartment are trapped inside the building, realizing that monsters are lurking everywhere outside. Hyun Soo and other residents shield themselves inside the building in the hope of surviving as long as they can.Main: Cha Hyun-soo, is a suicidal high school student who moves into 1410 in Green Home. He finds himself caught in the middle of an apocalypse, he later gains the powers of the infected after merging with the beast inside him and becoming a superpowered being.
Review: This is one of my favorite kdrama. It was sooo good. I loved Hyun-Soo because he was so strong. He was half-human and half-monster, so he became super strong. And protected everyone until the end. My favorite part was when he was going to become a monster but the man saved him and comforted him. It was really sad, I cried, but it is still my favorite part.
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This review may contain spoilers
A promising first season.
I will make this short review. This is the story of Cha Hyun Soo and the residents of his building. One day suddenly people turn into monsters and they have to survive in this building at all costs.To be honest, it's the typical kind of series with the monsters. Besides, I would have liked the monsters to have less CGI and more prosthetics, but it's probably a question of budget. We discover that among the people who transform, they can keep a human part and reason but for that they must fight in their mind to not give up to the monsters, it's a curse.
This is what Hyun Soo does, he resists and becomes a special kind of monster, very valuable. I don't want to reveal too much, but I like the story they found for him, and it's not just people fighting in a building against monsters. Many people die, and the essence of the series is our protagonists creating a community and trying to survive day to day, sometimes without water or electricity.
So the script is quite simple. On the other hand, they added characters over time that made the series finale interesting and further, which holds promise for future seasons.
I also want to mention that Song Kang did a good job in his acting again, I wouldn't say he showed it all, but this series is really a stepping stone for him and his future career. He is really talented.
If I had to summarize, it's not a super complicated story, it's more based on action and the survival of the characters, it is nice.
So I'm looking forward to the sequel.
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A-C-T-I-O-N
I knew that there was action but WOW. I felt every moment- every second, it was like i was playing with the actors(I COULD PLAY A DEAD BODY AND I WOULD BE HAPPY)
◇The ost was perfect for the drama and ..... BewhY(k-rapper) you never disappoint♡
◇The acting was very good & the story was interesting
◇The only thing that i was not sure was the way they will make and show the 'monsters' like i was afraid if the monsters was too 'fake' but i was wrong.
You don't know how happy i was when i saw that the monsters look like monsters (it sounds funny but i hope you understand what i mean)
Then i realized that the production was amazing
And OF COURSE I RECCOMADED it !!!!!
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This review may contain spoilers
Such an Entertianing Dystopia, with character you will love!
I LOVE plots that are character-driven, I'm willing to watch any plot as long as the characters are written well. For me Sweet Home did just that, I can't begin to explain how much I adore the main character, he's just a loveable person who's also mentally strong and goes through so much trouble that you have to love him. It honestly hurt watching a lot of my favourite characters die, because I really started to feel a connection to them and the relationships they had with each other. To be honest, I did find some deaths unnecessary (especially the death of the leader at the end). I was also confused as to why two characters turn out to be working for the government at the end?? So the plot definitely can be confusing, but I loved the group so much that I was willing to forgive them for that.I also did find the CGI a little funny at parts, when there was too much lighting or the monsters were too big, the CGI looked quite awkward. But for the most part, it was okay. And oh my god I hate that stupid Warriors song they use, it did not fit at all. I wish they had used another song.
Aside from the CGI bits and the weird music at times. I really liked the pacing of this show, I love a good 10-episode story because it means that each episode is exciting--and it really was! I found that each episode kept me hooked and made me want to keep watching. Even in the short span, the characters are developed really well. I found that each character changes, mostly positively, through each episode as the audience gets to see them interact with the group. It really felt like everyone wanted to help each other, despite the struggles.
Overall I would say this was such an entertaining show, it's definitely sad and gorey, but the acting and the pacing are exceptional.
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A webtoon reader dream come true!
At first, when I watched the trailer to this drama, it caught me off guard since it's my first time seeing Korea taking on a thriller and horror story from a webtoon and make it into live-action. It intrigued me to watch it as it's something fresh for me. And boy was I blown away by it. Instead of getting the horror content that I was expecting, it gave me the CHARACTERS, STORY, PLOT, and FEELS. (and yes I won't give any spoilers in my reviews no worries)Story/Plot:
It started with our main character going through some things that I can say some of the young adults do go through in high school. It's not something many people talk about and starting the story with such a character is right off the bat very different from the other stories I have watched. (Take note: I didn't read the webtoon but I know of its existence.) The high tension of the story immediately starts in the first episode, it brought me along the ride as the episodes progress. The pacing of the drama is just right, there are no moments in the drama that are just fillers or unnecessary. Each moment has meaning and it adds to the story! The logic and reality of the story are alright, not out of the blue but pretty understandable.
Character:
Besides the main character development throughout the story, the other characters are so good! I ended up loving a lot of the side characters. When you have a good story, good characters, what can go wrong? I enjoyed all the scenes of the other characters, it's heartwarming to see how the characters bond together in the situations they were put in. I won't say too much about the characters because by doing so I would have to dive into spoilers :') but really they are the highlights of the story for me.
Action:
The fighting sequence really blew me away! I did not expect high-quality visual effects. What happens if you fuse Korean drama and one of the Hollywood visual effects? SWEET HOME! It's just breathtaking to see the monsters in such well-produced CGI. Hands down to the people behind this production. The fighting sequences make me on the edge of my seat every time! Really well done on this part!
Overall:
Although the genre is considered thriller and horror, I see it more as a character-driven story. There were so many heartwarming moments between the characters and it made me connect with them more. The sad and funny parts with the characters are very memorable from this drama. I love the horror but these sides of the drama really were the ones that made me got hooked on it. Some warning for those weak-hearted souls out there, there will be some deaths in this drama that made me bawled my eyes out in the end.
So if you have read this long review till the end, might as well give this a try! It's a really good watch and thank you for reading this review as well hehe xD
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Big budget kdrama with an identity crisis and terrible soundtrack
Here's the thing. The webtoon is REALLY good, so this had a lot to live up to. I thought the casting was good for what they were going for, and the actors performed really well. I was really happy with changes they made too - eg. adding the firefighter character, changing characters' personalities, etc. Naturally, the source material for the story was also good. The special effects were excellent for a kdrama.Story, cast and acting: 8.5.
However, the music/OST/soundtrack choices single-handedly ruined this for me. You could not pay me to rewatch this. I do not even understand WHY these choices were made. It was like self-sabotage. Why would you do this to an amazing drama based on a cult classic webtoon?! It was literally a guaranteed success. How did you mess this up???? Subjectively, I like the songs. Hell, I have listened to these songs myself. But objectively? The soundtrack is not at all suitable for Sweet Home. It's literal 'hypebeast' / clubbing / gaming montage music.
They repeatedly used Warriors by Imagine Dragons in almost every episode.
Fighting a terrifying monster? Warriors.
Nearly dying? Warriors.
Walking through the corridors in fear? Warriors.
Tragic death of a beloved character (that REALLY needed a sad OST)? Warriors!
Warriors, warriors, warriors. I am sick of a song I used to like now. It just wasn't suitable, but they used it to death probably because the license cost an extortionate amount. It just messed up the atmosphere and vibe of the whole show. I.e. You should be feeling sad - someone just died brutally - but you're struggling to feel anything about it because 'AS A CHILDDD you would wait! And WATCH FROM FAR AWAYYYY... !' hype League battle music is blasting in your ears during their death scene. The music choices just cheapened the whole show, which is genuinely unfortunate given how much effort was otherwise put into this. Never before have I had such respect for OST/music choices in shows and movies. I didn't realise it had such a huge effect until now. And this isn't just me - it's such a hugely common criticism on Korean and English discussion boards for this kdrama (see below, credit in brackets). WHY did they do this???!?!?!
EN examples: "Can't wait to laugh my ass off at a scene that's meant to make me sad", "Editor must be a huge league of legends fan, which is where this song should have stayed", "The song made me laugh at every scene they had such good graphics but the music f!cked the whole action scene" (-r*ddit)
KR examples: "...어울리지 않고 몰입을 떨어뜨린다..." (-데일리안), "하아... #이매진드래곤스 의 #워리어스 나올때마다 폭소터졌고 손가락 없어지는줄... 개민망." (-필쏘굿).
This drama had the potential to be terrifying and disturbing and deeply emotional but it just sort of fell flat. Like it's GOOD (bar the song choices, please stop, never do this again), but it seemed to suffer an identity crisis. The show didn't focus as much on the monsters. I'm not sure if that was to save on special effects budget or what, but it was a missed opportunity IMO and consequently led to a sort of slice-of-life vibe with too much comedy, before suddenly switching things up in the last two episodes.
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A Homerun (pun intended)
Story: Monster epidemic that turns our desires into literal monstrosities (both malevolent and benevolent) sweeps Korea if not the rest of the world. A group of tenants are stranded in their building with danger lurking both inside and outside. As in every good zombie/similar story, it's all about human condition with monsters (of any kind) being the commentary on humans.Acting: Impeccable. From children to seniors, everyone did a bang on job. Deaths hurt us because characters are so engaging and earned our care. It's hard to praise individuals when everyone gave it all. Also, male eye candy ahoy: Song Kang, Lee Do-hyun, Lee Jin-wook and very special mention MASSIVE SPOILER DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU Hyun'soo's transformation into winged monster/angel of death sooo hot OMG! SPOILER END
Music: I honestly don't remember. Some death metal?
Rewatch Value: High or even Mandatory. There are many things that are worth revisiting especially episodes 7 - 10 and a scene that I strongly recommend pausing and watching frame by frame to understand the twist . MASSIVE SPOILER AHEAD DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU The very last scene reveals the true identity of the Goo Monster who posses dead bodies. That's the rich student who bullied Hyung-Soo in highschool. I noticed that some fans didn't get this and only figured out that Goo possessed Sang-Wook's body but not who Goo really is. To prove that Goo is the Bully, I paused the scene showing how Goo came to be (the experiment scene) and played it frame by frame. It's the same actor who played the Bully. They deliberately keep his face in the shadows, but when you pause and study frames you'll see it's his hair and face. Also, he is the only one who knows that Hyun Soo's full name is Cha Hyun Soo. No one in the building calls him by his family name Cha, only by his given name Hyun Soo. SPOILER ENDS
Overall: After a somewhat rocky introduction, the drama picks up the steam from episode 4 and gets better and better with 7 - 10 being exceptional. It's a rollercoaster ride that will leave you emotionally drained and annoyed that you have to wait for Season 2 after THAT cliffhanger.
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Less Emotional Connections To Make
The story was fine, actors are great, amazing setting of the whole show itself, manageable visual effects but something was off about the shallow characters for me. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't connect or even care for them! Maybe it was just me but because of this drawback, I wasn't able to appreciate the good in the drama! Had to discontinue.They did touch a few sensitive subjects, a few emotional scenarios but they didn't have that 'punch in the gut' kind of effect on me. Only because I felt no sort of attachment with the characters, not even the main leads.
And then there's the messy direction halfway in the show. I had to literally play back the scenes to understand what actually happened. Some really important moments were rushed into and really damaged the vibe of the show for me.
The ost was amazing but like the majority of viewers, I too felt that it didn't always match the ongoing scene.
Much more could have been done with the wide array of pretty convincing actors but both the direction and the story didn't use them well.
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Sweet Home lacks good direction, script and pacing. This is a slow and boring show.
If you want something new, Sweet Home is one of the TV shows that might entertain you. However, if you want something new with good pacing, direction, script and edits, watch All of Us Are Dead instead.Sweet Home is dry, the plot is stale, and it lacks character and depth. It feels as though the Characters are one dimension and that the show is not driven by plot. I'm not sure how others are able to seat through this and still give this show anything above 7/10. As much as I'm a fan of the Actors and Actresses of this show, the plot was simply boring. The saving grace of this show is the uniqueness, it's not every day you would see a Korean Drama with gore and monsters.
Sweet Home has a good concept but they could have executed this way better. I hope season 2 and 3 gets the engine started.
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So, Not gonna lie, this is actually a pretty good adaption. The thing I loved the most about it is casting choices and the CGI. The cast looks exactly like the ones in the webtoon and if they didn't, they made them look similar but great make-up and while the CGI was hated by a lot of people and I can see why, I still loved it becuase literally every monster looks just like it looked in the webtoon! The CGI isn't used to make the monsters look realistic, it's used to make them look how they were in the original webtoon and props to them cuz they really did well! They are supposed to be unrealistic and sometimes funny!
Another thing that is pretty good about it is that it stays true to the original content to some extent. Yes they have changed a few important things but they still followed the original work quite well. I've seen a LOT of adaptions of my favourite original work, be it a book, webtoon, manga etc etc and most of the adaptions disappointed me but this one didn't. The changes were forgivable in my opinion.
What I did not liked though is that some characters are definitely written and shown differently to the audience than the webtoon. The webtoon goes VERY deep into the psychology of it all and although the drama does that too but it's not as deep as the webtoon and more feels like a normal zombie apocalypse thingy.
Now let's talk about the acting, it was good enough but definitely not mind-blowing. I was expecting song Kang to give me those bad boy vibes who was done wrong by society but they showed him as innocent and a victim since the beginning which took away the fun and enjoyment of it all . Seeing him grow as a person. Although again they did show some of it but the sane depth wasn't there. Song Kang's acting again was good enough. Not bad at all but definitely not super impressive and honestly I feel that about everyone here.
It's actually a good drama if you dobt compare since it has good depth in characters with grear psychological insights but still not as awesome as the webtoon.
Background music was actually good for every situation they were but nothing memorable.
Rewatch value ? Watching the whole drama was re-watching the story for me so I'm definitely not gonna re-watch it lmao
Ok, so in conclusion, if you haven't read the webtoon and enjoy gory things with psychological elements then this is definitely for you!
If you have read the webtoon then you may not enjoy it much but it's still good.
Is it scary ? If you can't watch gory things then don't watch it. Other than that its good. It's not necessarily scary but definitely a lot of blood lmao
Enjoy watching! Thanks for reading my review!
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SWEET HOME
I watched it all in few days. Each episode was so exciting that I had to look at the next one. The first thing I want to say is that this drama is probably not for everyone, but if you are into horrors, gore, blood and monsters you have to watch it!The story was really interesting. I like that despite it was something between action horror mostly for me, it has also psychological meaning in all this. I appreciate it in movies and series, because I'm looking for hidden meaning behind almost everything. The topic itself (humans VS monsters) is great, again we can see here, that sometimes (or every time?) humans are the biggest monsters of all monsters. Still some scenes were a bit confusing, I would like to know more informations about how it works with the transformation. Anyway it's not just basic story about surviving, but also finding hope in dark times and life, connection between people, sacrifice, love and more, which is good to realize especially now in covid. And not gonna lie there were scenes that got me into tears.
I mean the acting was amazing, each character had unique story and you can definitely see big character development here. Song Kang is one of my favorite actors and it was nice to see him in different role type. He played Hyun Soo just perfect in my opinion, innocent and creepy at the same time. I could relate to his feelings so much through the whole series. Not just him, but all roles were handled very well, even those two little kids.
About music yeah I agree with others, that they can add some more songs than Warriors by Imagine Dragons. This one song was repeated and played most, it became a little annoying, still I think it fits the theme so well. So I didn't mind so much.
I rarely rewatch series, but after some time or with someone, I wouldn't mind at all watch it again.
CONCLUSION: If you like this genre, just go for it. I would highly recommend it, for me it was one of the best series of this year probably. In the end, I just said to myself "wow I need a second season"!
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