This review may contain spoilers
The casting and the graphics used were too awsm
It's so good K-drama I just need another season which will further extend the story where NAKSU / JIN BU YEON finds the relics and JANG UK will capture them and new world arises with new enemies / monsters. Damn good casting. Comedy with crown prince is too cringe.Was this review helpful to you?
An WONDERFUL MASTERPIECE OF 2022&2023
The show may started without much fuss or hype but it created massive waves with new faces ,by giving chance by acknowledging their talent and they definitely haven't let down. S1 OR S2 both have pros and some cons but if you ask me if its worth to watch it and i can say ur time won't be wastedActing of leads was definitely good and change in female lead is understandable JSM played a strict teacher who cares and loves his pupil,while being ruthless and agonizing over love and revenge,while S2 GYJ played a innocent soul who loves her husband and persistent in her love with man with no heart and after all challenge and success choose to sacrifice herself for the world (world where he lives) and LJW showed what a man can become if he puts his mind, Hardwork, dedication ,and strong will to achieve a goal, and how to love someone with no heart in S1 and how live to with hope and how to be responsible, how not give in to darkness
Other characters was all played so well because we don't even remember some supporting characters name in some dramas but here every one is memorable
STORY IT definitely the best of 2022&2023 don't know if we can get good drama in future but this drama will be remembered whenever we think of 2022 it was a mix of comedy, romance, action, thriller there may some cons but it's only visible if we wanna nitpick about it and Music is pleasing to ear both s2 & S1 RE-WATCH VALUE IS 100%
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Brilliant cast and edge of your seat suspense
The emotional rollercoaster this show has taken me on has been spectacular! Though the second part was a tad slow at first, the writers managed to keep us in suspense until the very last 2 episodes on how everything will come together. So for those watching and worrying, just sit back and let go of your anxiety and have fun with every moment.Go Youn Jung had very big shoes to fill after Jung So Min charmed us with her sass and wit in season 1. But this season is not about the actress replacing the other. It is about growth and change. What you will get it hints of the same character yet different. And the main moments are the chemistry between the male and female lead. We also see hints of the special connection she has with the other male characters.
Crown Prince Go Won has been a lovely character once again. And Jin Mu has been the bad guy this show needed.
The only flaws with the show are the slow momentum, much less action and CGI. However, the ending will still leave you satisfied.
The OST of this show is one of the best! I can listen to it on repeat endlessly.
This show is worth rewatching and probably one of the few shows that I actually went back and saw multiple times in the process of waiting. Will definitely recommend it and whoever I did recommend the series to, have thoroughly enjoyed it. Hope you do too!
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One of my all time favorite dramas
I'm not ready to let go...Impressive how much this story touched me and how important these characters became to me.
I think that in the end that's what matters, the power that fiction has to make us dream and hope. So, even with the slips that occurred along the way, Alchemy Of Souls remains special.
I won't go into too much detail about what bothered me, especially in this second part, but I can say that I wasn't satisfied with the direction of the lack of memory plot. I also thought that the secondary characters and plots were poorly utilized, but the Hong sisters were lucky enough to create two great protagonists and they made up for what wasn't well worked.
And there's also the ending. We were all desperate, it's true, we thought it would be a tragic ending full of tears, but I'm so happy that it was the opposite, I couldn't be more satisfied, therefore, the taste that remains in the end is the best possible.
Jang Uk and Cho Yeong, thank you for being amazing and thank you to the entire cast, crew and production for bringing us this drama that will surely go down as one of the most important dramas ever produced...
I will miss you!
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Lacks impact and lore
If you’re in it for the world building, you will find this sequel to be entirely unimpressive. Light and Shadow is filled with parallel scenes from the first season, and while the interactions and appearances of our favourite characters are fun, the lack of fantasy elements which the first part had is missing in this one. A lot of the story revolves around the amnesia plot which gets too dragged after a point. The whole soul switching but single body element with Master Lee making episode wise appearances to give us cryptic comments was frustrating. The main antagonist remains from the first season, but he’s really not that smart or amazing to be taken as a real foe for our leads. The story could have been much shorter because by the time we get to the actual lord part, it’s just a rushed closure.Overall it doesn’t quite live up to its initial promise, but is a decent watch if you decide to give up on consistency. The best parts about this drama was the acting and the interactions, could have been amazing but falls short of it.
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IF YOU'RE NOT WATCHING THIS? WHY????
Seriously,Been a fan of Korean dramas since 2008 and I am such a trash for Fantasy genres and this just SLAYS everything.
ALCHEMY OF SOULS, thank you for gracing my year, 2022 and a week in 2023 with such an amazing story, amazing cast, and tear-jerking osts. This has been one of the best series for me and will continue to be. ❤️
I will forever be grateful to have known this series and become a fully-pledge GO YOUNJUNG & JUNG SO MIN fan.
ALCHEMY OF SOULS,
UNTIL THE END...
🌸💍
(Rating this not just for PART 2 but also PART 1.. You have to watch from season 1 to season 2)
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This review may contain spoilers
I highly awaited the second season , the cast ,the soundtrack were so good in the previous part ,so i had high expectations for this one. The last half of the last episode of season 1 was like a dream , i kept waiting them to wake-up and change the final , i cried a lot but i was also hopeful . For a better understanding, i recommend to watch the first part ,to see the growth of the characters, couse each and every single one of them has his particularly and unique story even if they are connected. The plot is catchy, you don't know what's gonna happen even if you think u have the idea . The final looked a bit rushed and i didn't had the time to process the events but at least it had the well awaited happy ending .The designs ,the clothing line is full of life (other than Jung Uk's ,his were all black) . I have no words for ost ,you can feel everything listening to it . With this project you can see the acting improvement of Lee Jae Wook , Go Yoon Jung and the others. I highly recommend to watch whenever you have the time .
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Nothing much to rave about but certainly an interesting wrap-up
This is a sequel to the Alchemy of Souls with an open-ended and frustrating ending. At the end of the first series, Jang Uk was killed but was resurrected by the Ice Stone. Three years later in this sequel, he becomes a soul shifter killer, hunting down the remains of those who had escaped in the first series. While hunting a soul shifter, he runs into a beautiful woman who is held captive by her mother and begs him to help her escaped.This sequel pales in comparison to the first. There are not much to look forward to. The identities are all revealed even that of this new Jin Bu-yeon is revealed to the audience. I thought the writer should hold on a few more episodes before doing that. I guess it is all to quickly allay the frustrations of those who watched the first series watching MuDeok died.
It becomes a bit of a drag - the identity of the new Jin Bu-yeon is known to the audience but not the characters involved. Jang Uk is in the dark and so are a lot of people in the drama. So the story revolves around them finding out one by one, and also how the 'righteous' people turn to the dark side.
I watched it as I wanted to know how it would all ends. So if you have already watched the first series, you would want to watch this one too.
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chemistry was good...
Not up to the level of part 1 but surely a finest quality maintained part 2. Hats off to hong sisters for an amazing fantasy story. Yet again they proved that no one can beat them when it comes to this genre. Amazingly written beautiful screenplay.Part 2 was so rushed that I felt. Also Naksu couldn't beat the bold mudeok's performance and charisma she created in Part1. It's about the actor not about the character. Just because she is super good looking doesn't mean she can climb up to the level of mudeok. Of course she did her part decently but mudeok always comes first.
The story is the main important part which i really enjoyed apart from anything. Every episode was a different experience from one another. So many characters also have very complicated situations, tensions, and even more beautiful fantasy elements. For example jinyoon relics, the four seasons, the magic of mages, Soul ejector, the kings star,ice stone, Fire bird and more... Also there are some beautiful romantic scenes with some nice osts..
Lee jae wook and his strong comeback after the disaster Do do sol sol la la sol was 🔥 also others. Everyone was superb. I don't know how you will feel when you binge all at once. But it was a wonderful ongoing experience for me.
Overall Alchemy of Soul is brilliant. Maybe you guys have different opinions about the Ending, As i said earlier compared to part 1 am not completely satisfied with part 2 but it was decent. Maybe they rushed things or lost the flow in the finale Episodes... Anyway.. definitely give it a try...
#N45Views
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Honestly One of The Best Drama In The Industry
I think this drama is going down in history as one of the best drama ever damn! Where should I start......First of all, The people who are frustrated with the dragging of the plot, having 2 seasons annoyed a lot of netizens, and the switching of the female lead also made a lot of people so frustrated to the point of dropping this drama, accusation of weak female main lead/weak female leads in general, This are all the and..... I quote "the only frustrating/cons bits inthis drama" and I agree half-heartedly BUT have u seen any other masterpiece in the history of film/series that is without a single mistake? As they say, it is always easier to find the small mistakes than to appreciate the actual good parts
lemme tell you
Watching this drama I realized that there might be a lot of dramas/shows/series/movies similar to the concepts of alchemy of souls, the ones that came to mind rn are all the Chinese "wuxia" dramas/movies like Ashes of love, word of honor etc.... they all had this kind of visual effects and similar romance/swordplay.BUT the execution, the plot, the chemistry not just between the main characters but all the secondary couple leads also, the acting, the light-hearted comedy, the ost and the production WERE ALL JUST *chefs kiss* and THIS drama really left this feeling of watching an original fr
-STRONG(at heart) female leads LMAO
I was also a frustrated netizen with the switching of the female lead since we are attached to our gurly Mu Deok/Jin Bu Yeon(Jung So Min) ,her astonishing acting and her freaking adorable face but being real we are all just attached to the character of naksu inside of mu deok and we are afraid of seeing a new character take that place even though logically the new actress (Go young Jung) is the actual main lead it is not replacing but rather going back to the right owners .Also the new fml is as good of a actor and have another adorable looking face but watching this second season really showed me the THE BIG PICTURE and fill in on the confusions, Miss Naksu / Cho Yeong (Go Youn Jung) is the main character of the whole series no matter how you look at it story and the character in general , our gurly mu deok/Jin Bu Yeon was the bgm character for a reason (a lot people did not like the fact she was bg character 4/5th of the show) as u all know in the season 2 it is portrayed clearly that Jin but yeon (trying not to spoil) is a reincarnation of a character and she was not an individual who had only one purpose (can't spoil) that is saving from something ahem ahem... yeah so obv we can understand that she is a being who clearly didn't give 2 f**ks about who is in her body or whatever ppl inside her body is doing 💀 she is a deity for a reason and a powerful one for that matters. And for our actual fml naksu/chae yeon there is a point in this season where we can see the starting character naksu is clearly a revengeful person made up by jin min(villain guy) but chae yeon is a soft-hearted,cheerful,delicate girl and yes even if they are the same person and that strong naksu was someone we all thought was cool but our fml becomes a person who stopped being naksu who was rebellious and liked being always on her own, didn't care who,what,why and just revengeful towards the world in general Turned into this healing person and started being a person who slowly fully depends and rely on jang UK like relying on a shoulder to cry so we can all guess that she did not do any acting/fighting in season due to her finally finding her self and healing .Also prehaps came to a point she didn't want to hurt more people around for her selfishness like she technically stole Jin buyeon's body but thankfully our gurl don't give a sh*t 💀
now for the all the other female supporting characters i think yes it is disappointing some times when they are showing way too much weakness (like towards the plot we can see they don't show the same amount of physical magic power same as the male leads and tends to "sacrifice" their self 💀 which is so furstrating like gurl UR A CLAN LEADER USE UR DAYM POWERS..ETC..) but i think they were all kind of strong in their own ways (mentality?lmao)
-The Acting and The CHEMISTRY *Chef's kiss*
these 2 things in this drama is just so good to the point it's just crazy like jang UK( the lucky bastard) had the luck to make out with both the female leads (Go young Jung and Jung so min ) my guy don't discriminate (I wouldn't either 💀) i have to say the chemistry between them ( Jang UK and the both fmls)is just none better or worse than the other its so crazy to me How his eyes are so much in love and how much the female actors feel like they're the same person,The biggest acting plus point i saw that was common in all the characters is the rawness of emotions in everything they did ,And the eyes! man looking at their eyes there's so much going on there its way too good and enjoyable on a deeper level
-The unhinged humour (LMAO)
bruh I'm bawling my eyes out and then I'm laughing with a runny nose jeez the execution of humour of the drama made me look past the dragging plot
1 thing I'm pretty sure about is there is more to this drama than it meets the eyes and all the furstrations can be explained if U pay attention to the smallest details
Now for the cons that I say poke out like thorns in this perfect field of a master piece "IN MY OPINION"
-The female lead not having a fight after getting all her powers in both bodies, In both the season I was hoping to see more of the little action that was shown in the first EP into something bigger and exciting, I really expected at least one of the FML will show us a real good naksu fight with the villain 😐and that left an empty space in me seriously! I wanted chae yeon in season 2 showing it off with her naksu blade from season 1 but instead we see Jang UK 😭 taking the sword as a souvenir this made me(a horrible feminist for female leads) very disappointed...i think we def should have given a chance to see our naksu+che yeong+mu deok+jin bu yeong powers all mixed and executed beautifully into an K.O fight with SOMEBODY ya know maybe even showing she is more powerful than jang UK ahem..ahemm
-The dragging of the plot is honestly just unnecessary towards the ending but season 2 did add so much closure like it is the big picture
-Maybe too much about romance(I'm talking about the screen play not story or characters ) and less about the main lead's past/future/present the romance and the repetition of all the already done romantic scenes were literally the 2/5th of the drama
and it gets annoying seeing the same romantic scene from like season 1 played like 50 times in season 1 and 2 LMAO
THATS PRETTY MUCH IT ITS JUST A MUST WATCH KDRAMA !
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Not without Flaws but I loved it more than Part 1: Epic and Legendary
I may be in the minority, but I got to say that I loved Alchemy of Souls: Light and Shadow more than I did part one. Yes, maybe the writing wasn't as good as part one as it lacked some of the action and mystery that part one provided us with and concentrated on Uk and Naksu's love story more but since I'm a sucker for romance I was very satisfied with how the story was told. Sure, I had some frustrations as some of the audience at times but hey I'm a sucker for angst and tension between the couple and I feel like the writing here gave me what I needed & wanted. Not to mention the amazing, amazing chemistry between Lee Jae-Wook and Go Yo-Joung. Their intensity is what kept me coming back episode after episode. I also feel like the buildup to when the action finally hits was executed well. I also feel like the writers closed off all the loose ends of season 1 satisfactory. I guess they left it open enough for more but as much as I'd like a S3 I feel like the story is pretty much over and I'm happy with how it ended. My babies got the end that they deserved and for that I'm very thankful considering how part 1 ended haha. Actually, all the characters got the ending that they deserved. Two gripes tho: I feel like the villain deserved a more awful end than he got and Naksu deserved more action in the end than what she got but oh well.
Now let's talk about the acting:
Go-YoJoung- I loved her! I'd say for this being her first lead role she handled it extremely well. I loved how she played Naksu's spunkiness, independence and comedic timing so well. Her portrayal of Naksu's innocent was very well done too. Also her switch to darkness when she remembers who she is? CLAP. This young woman is gonna go far! She's truly talented. I also adored her chemistry with Lee Jae Wook. As mentioned, they really made me feel the love of their characters.
Lee Jae Wook- This young man is exceptional. He really was the standout in this series for me. The way he changes his portrayal of light Jang Uk to dark and broody Jang Uk was amazing. He really made me feel like he was two different characters and not surprising with all Uk had to go thru since the past 3 years. Losing his life and the love of his life is not an easy task. LJW did an incredible job at showing all of Uk's emotions: sadness, confusion, coldness, love and rage. If he won an award for this role he certainly deserved, it. I hope what he did in AoS gets him more leading roles because he deserves them.
As for the rest of the cast they were all good. Made me love all the characters and hate the ones I needed to.
The OST is beautiful, I'm in love with "I'm Sorry" from Ailee, in fact I already listened to it more times than I should lol.
Overall 10/10. And I will be watching this over and over again especially since I don't know what to do with my life now that I finished it. Rewatch coming soon. I highly recommend this series for anyone who loves fantasy, romance, action and mystery. This is definitely one of the best Kdrama's i've watch and is going in my top favorites.
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This review may contain spoilers
Butchered
Season 1 was not perfect. I skipped parts and rolled my eyes more than I care to admit. However, the actors, scenographers and CGI department did a good job, even the montage was adequate. But why, by god, did the writers and the director need to butcher the series as they did in the second season?Having an amnesiac as a main character in the last third of the series (30 episodes in total) is never a good idea. It drastically halted the progression of the story and, in general, Bu-Yeon (who was supposed to be the fearsome Naksu) did nothing of her own volition to propel the plot forward. She was always a maiden in distress.
As a series written by two women, it sadly also had only two human-like and relatable female characters: Ju-Wol and Mu-Deok. All the other women were over the top jealous, over-subserviant, conniving or borderline crazy.
It would have been more satisfying if, at the end of the first season, everyone died and Jin-Mu took the body of a king. Sad, utterly tragic, but what a story it would have been.
If, in the first season, the writers would sometimes forget some of the character traits and made them act against their nature, then in the second season they decided to butcher almost all the characters, which was most evident in Mu-Deok / Bu-Yeon / Naksu. Pardon my French, but frikin Naksu / Mu-Deok could not have been contained for three years in that captivity.
Perhaps, it was too great to expect to see an interesting sword battle between Naksu and Jang Uk in the second season, but to once again be mainly subjected to the drawn-out "love triangle" and to witness the "back and forth" between main lovebirds (as well as the side lovebirds) was extremely, extremely dull.
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