Not who, but why
It's a pretty decent drama. Some might feel that 8 episodes are few too many for this whodunit setting and I agree but the makers of this drama actually pulled it off and delivered an acceptable outcome. I also think that the length of the episodes helped to get a better understanding of the characters involved. Somewhere around halftime the plot does get a little draggy, but nonetheless the suspense was maintained and especially the last two episodes were surprisingly emotional and entertaining.I also liked the cast; even though they embodied the stereotypical suspects and seemed character- less and plain in the first episodes, learning about their possible motives and their background stories made oneself sympathise with them. I especially liked the actress who played Bit Na's mother and overall I think the cast did a pretty good job given the limited scope they had to show 'real' character and emotions.
I liked how in the end the focus wasn't set on who actually did it, but on why someone would feel urged to take such an action.
Worth giving it a watch.
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United family
Likes1. Only 8 episodes but every episode was so good! I love murder mysteries so it was so much fun trying to solve the puzzle. Happy that my initial guesses were almost correct, except for the plan and reasons.
2. The family members started off as distant and sometimes antagonistic but they slowly bonded (or at least learned to understand each other) after everything that has happened. It took the death of the most powerful and toxic member of the family for them to "unite".
3. In the end it didnt matter who killed Inho, what mattered was he was exposed for the kind of monster that he really is. It felt like they were finally free of him when they decided to let go of the inheritance.
Dislikes
I felt bad for what happened to one of them and I wish she/he got (and felt) the recognition he/she rightly deserved.
Rating: 9/10
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Kinda weak
It would have been much better if it was just a movie. Even though it's shorter, they still stretched it significantly. Aside from the initially set up, things didn't really start to move until episode 7.Was this review helpful to you?
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Good Enough
The good thing about Chip In is its length. Eight episodes were just the perfect amount that the story needed, especially since it started dragging towards the ending.Another plus was the characters. They started as spoiled, annoying, possy ones that were almost too easy to suspect. They did have some twists, not all of them though, and thus their motives and a patern about the mystery were all revealed. In addition, they were all interesting and had the same amount of screentime, especially the main ones.
However, the main mystery case was boring. They did try to add some suspense to it, but the pattern of almost cracking it but then not really solving it, got tiring after a while and the whole thing lost its charm. We didn't get to know the main victim-character that well to care for him and his death, something that didn't aid the case.
Finally, the performances were pretty good from everyone in the cast and the cinematography was perfect for creating the mood of the drama.
So, overall, seven out of ten.
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This review may contain spoilers
Grudges and money
Why do they insist on ruining perfectly good dramas with incomprehensible titles? Here they took it a step further and capitalized all letters! Shouting? An abbreviation? What does it mean? Well, you'll find out sometimes halfway through the drama when it becomes obvious that a number of characters unwittingly helped the murderer. They chipped in and therefore the title!And the drama is short and so worth the watch. It is reminiscent of many Agatha Christie's novels where the events are limited in time, location and characters: everything here takes place over a couple of weeks in an isolated house and with eight people! One of those is murdered. Who killed him? Every person had a motive, a very personal motive brought on by a grudge. The reasons for those grudges are all different, but they all stem from the awful nature of the murdered person and his wealth.
There are a lot of secrets revealed as the investigation unfolds, the characters show their real faces and there is no redemption even for the victim, who by all evidence brought in on all by himself. The best and the most likeable character was the victim's mistress, flamboyant, direct and naive in a good-natured way.
The red herrings abound: the wife is suspected on and off the most, there is a lot of backstabbing and lying, so much so that it gets a bit draggy but I guess most characters had to go through "suspect" phase at least once! The only one never suspected was the victim's niece, an apparently self-centred social media addict constantly filming herself but very much aware of what's going on behind her indifferent facade.
Finally, the revelation of the murderer is not as important as the reason for the murder, which turned out to be unexpected!
The production value is high: the acting, the costumes, the cinematography - everything is just right! Some people say it should have been shorter, like a movie kind of short. Yes, possible but it was just fine like this as well since we got to see the characters in depth, they were better fleshed out than any movie could have done. And even though they were mostly clichés, they were clichés well-formed!
Good watch!
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Oh Nara carried the show!
I guess this drama would be so much better if it was made into a 2 hour long movie. It’s a good thing that it wasn’t a 16 episode drama, but it still felt too long for me. I needed to speed it up to 1.75x when watching the episodes.The story is cliche, pretty much like ‘Knives Out’ mixed with ‘Murder on the Orient Express’. It’s not really a plot twist if I may say, since I was able to predict who’s the main culprit at the end. So, I think the story wasn’t as spectacular as I once expected. However, I love the friendship created at the last 2 episodes, how everyone agreed on something together and made an awesome teamwork kinda stuff! I also love the mother-daughter bond!
The acting was so-so. I don’t really know much about the actors and actresses here, except for Oh Nara, Kim Hye Jun and Kim Jung Young. Oh Nara was excellent as usual, she’s naturally funny and incredibly talented in acting. The rest of the actors and actresses which I don’t know did a pretty good job! They succeeded in making me annoyed with their facial expressions and even their portrayal of the story.
Overall, a good drama, but definitely not the best. 6.5/10 ⭐️
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Almost like Clue/Cluedo
This drama reminded me of one of my favourite board games of all time - Cluedo (aka Clue). There was so much mystery, so much tension, so much animosity, it was so close to perfection. I love it when a murder mystery keeps the viewer on their toes for the near entirety of the whole drama. Unfortunately, the police/investigation logic is the reason why the overall score did not get up to a 10/10. Apart from that however, the story was faultless. Normally with these types of mysteries, I know who the culprit is within the first few episodes, and then wait impatiently for the drama to tell the viewer who the killer is. This is why I felt so refreshed watching this. But the actual story was amazing too. The story made sense in the end with the way it involved the characters, which by the way... the characters! Amazingly developed, and by the end, showed that whilst money means alot and is very important, there are still things more important than money.Acting and OST were marvellous, and I wanted to give a special shout out to the way this had been filmed, not only with the scenery and the setting, but the way everything had been planned. Another positive I wanted to mention: the dynamic between each different sort of character. I could probably give so many more reasons, and so many more sentences about how I feel like this is like the Cluedo board game, but I'll leave it at here so you can start watching.
I highly recommend this drama.
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I get when sometimes the main character needs to find the killer becasue the cops are incompetent, but here they just took out the cops becasue they want the household members to do the investigation alone ;/ the cops barely visited the crime scene ;/
they are only limited to the mansion set and they rarely go out so it is way too limited and the number of eps are short but still too long for this kind of setting and plot.
tbh if you take out all the petty suspects it's pretty clear who the killer is and it's funny when two 20 year old girls are the only ones doing the research. also isn't it illegal to release the circumstances of an ongoing crime to the public and let them help with the investigation?
anyway, again with the ep count it's obvious they knew they can't drag it for 16 or even 12 eps, but tbh they only needed 2
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