Lookism (2019)

People who are considering watching this drama are probably mostly people who have read the webtoon and are interested in its adaptation to mainstream television. Well, for one thing, come with an open-mind because a lot of main plot points were changed probably to fit the story-line better.

The cast are amazing at representing a lot of elements from the original webtoon like bullying and inequality in the world. This drama brings a fresh take on the already popular webtoon, Lookism. While the drama eliminates many characters from the webtoon in also brings in many new ones whilst keeping the fundamental characters to play their roles.

The plot is enticing and there are enough cliffhangers to leave you hanging by a thread at the end of every episode. It is quite evident that a lot of thoughts was put into the compatibility of the original story-line and how to translate that to mainstream media. It definitely holds enough re-watch potential that I find myself watching previous episodes waiting for the release of the next set of episodes. Also, not to mention, the soundtrack is quite fire and really catchy for a Chinese drama.

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- REVIEW -
One of the few Chinese dramas that I can binge watch and that's saying something -- story is really GOOD! Park Solomon has proven his status as a highly skilled actor - In this drama, he portrayed so many different roles and characters - not only were they impressive, but very believable and passionate. Started this drama because of Park Solomon, I was not disappointed. This drama also had great pacing and a memorable OST (ending).

- STORY -
Story was inspired by the webtoon Lookism. I decided to give it a read after getting into this drama and there were major differences. Despite lots have complained about this drama not following the webtoons, I consider this drama adaption very well done, even better than the webtoons in some aspects. The overall plot is really good but I do have to point out some scenes were kind of off-logic and unbelievable. However, these can be overlooked for the direction of where the plot is trying to go.

- ACTING -
I'm thoroughly impressed by the acting in this series. In fact the best I've seen for a high school youth drama. Park Solomon's duality really shows here with him looking like a sad pathetic puppy to an incredibly confident character. He learned Chinese just for this drama. However, overall the whole supporting casts were very talented as well. As much as I didn't like the chubby WenShuai, his character is made to be pathetic and it was effective.

- MUSIC -
I'm not really picky with OSTs but this drama had good sound design during most scenes and some of the OST was really good and fits with the drama really well. Lookism, the ending OST really really sets the mood for the later half of this drama.

- REWATCH -
Rewatching value is subjective. I really don't rewatch much, but for this drama, I might rewatch a few scenes.

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