Happiness (2021)

The Meaning of Happiness

I really enjoyed watching this drama. Zombies/infectious disease, police/military, romance, family values! This drama hit many of my favorite elements in 12 1 hr episodes..
Acting
The main leads are childhood acquaintances and it’s your standard boy likes girl while girl is ignorant of boys feelings. The male lead really nails the looks of burning intensity. I could tell from the first episodes that he really cares about her even though he claimed not to. The female lead relies upon him and he truly is her source of happiness. Putting two people in a survival situation brings all types of feelings to the surface. I’m glad she didn’t deny them once she understood the direction of her heart.
There were many villains. The infected people or zombie like people actually weren’t the most evil. This how really displays how the evil of human nature can make people more of a mo step than even zombies. We saw many different types of greed surface as the characters are quarantined inside an apartment complex.
Storytelling
I would have liked this element to be more expanded. We spend a lot of time with the charectors in group discussion. There are a few side stories of adultery, drug dealing, and murder. I would have preferred to delve into those stories more and how this virus affected them vs. group discussions in the gym. I loved that these were the traditional zombies and this happened in a post Covid atmosphere….you can see how nonchalant the residents are because of past experience in dealing with the pandemic. For this reason, many people were more cautious but some also treated the virus like they already knew what to do.
Production
This was a nicely done show. I can tell that effort was placed on making scenes as realistic as possible without going overboard. The scenes primarily happened in 2 locations..the complex and the shutdown school…there was a fair amount of blood shed but it limited use of weapons.
Rewatch value
I’d binge this again in a year.

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Sae Bom & Yi Hyun's fight for Happiness

or should I say — "watching them together is our Happiness"

This drama brings out many versions of humans. It shows how layered this society is… I met a mix variety of people here, those who will help others selflessly, those who may save themselves first selfishly, those who think money is God & everything can be bought even in case of emergency… There are those few confused characters too who are in a great dilemma that if they should help or not…

The drama also depicts that Class discrimination between people from upper & lower class can survive even in such chaos… so the more I started to love the leads, the more HATE I had in my mind for those extra mean characters… by hate I mean I wanted them to just die... If you want to watch this, you need enough patience for annoying side characters.

Han Hyo Joo (as ~ Yoon Sae Bom) is an anti-terrorism trainer & someone who is selfless & fearless. She is kinda reckless at times but she is straightforward. I loved the way she kicks, I was like "Oh my God, that was so smooth!" Definitely a very good Strong female lead. But she doesn't falls under the category of Smart female leads for me cause her decisions were all hasty, without consideration.

Park Hyung Sik (as ~ Jung Yi Hyun) is a detective & a former baseball player who has courage and knows when to use his cop & sportsman skills. He is righteous & strong. PHS has definitely got good action skills. That car slide scene is something I saw repeatedly again and again. He is good at no matter what role he plays. Happiness as Hyung Sik's comeback drama is perfect.

The chemistry of the leads is like so pure. They understand & support each other. They are like one team. No forced romantic moments considering a total action-thriller drama. So, No exaggeration of romance. Just a simple couple who pretended to be a couple but actually love each other a lot deep in heart. Their bond is just precious. I wish these two get more chances of cooperation cause look at them, they look so good together…!! And I'll stop fangirling now haha.

Jo Woo Jim (as ~ Han Tae Seok) is a military informant who wants to help everyone. He plays the hard cold guy role in front of everyone but is actually very caring at heart. There has to be someone who takes the tough decisions & be bad, he chose himself for that. There's one scene when I just screamed that "Oh God, HE IS SO COOL"…… well, there's PHS Oppa in this drama so shouldn't I just cheer up for him more but No, Character-wise, I loved Han Tae Seok more…

Keeping us hooked up… This isn't draggy at all… just a simple zombie drama that goes "little" in-depth with the characters but from the enjoyment point of view, I was personally enjoying watching it. It wasn't very scary in terms of visuals but it did make me nervous about what is going to happen next.

I think I am gonna miss the rooftop of this drama, I just feel very attached to it, I wonder what's so special about that place… then, my only complain here was that I wish they gave more background story for the characters first so that we can connect to them…

Overall, I loved this drama and just that it's thriller and I basically know all the facts now, so I won't rewatch this but what a nice ride this was… Give it a try if it suits your drama taste…

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