Alchemy of Souls Season 2: Light and Shadow (2022)

A must watch kdrama before you ?

the best kdrama!! chief kiss ? their acting was on top especially go young jung and lee jae wook. Perfect ending, perfect casting, perfect everything!! Every episode was not boring I got verryyy entertained and I literally force all of my friends to watch this masterpiece and I will not stop recording this to everyone I know. You have to watch this kdrama before you die, so you can peacefully and happily hehe love love. A big thank you to the Hong sisters for giving us the perfect ending I can't believe that its over? how can i move on??? from that perfect masterpiece

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"FOR THE BURNING CHEMISTRY!!"

This season again as well was worth my watch and didn't disappointed me soo much.
This season was more of the chemistry and focused more on the growing love between the leads more stronger than before. To be honest season 1 was really good in aspect of story but for chemistry season 2 defeated S1. Lee Jae Wook & Go Yoon Jung poured out their hearts into making such a beautiful and heart wrenching pairing, there chemistry bursts out from episode 1 itself you could feel it. I really loved the way they made them slowly fall for each other without realizing that they are falling twice but this time harder. Every single minute is worth watching.

Apart from the romance, I think this season lacked in the development of the main story that they continued from S1. Story development felt a little slow paced according to the number of episodes it had but still didn't failed to capture our mind and kept us curious till the end. I only have one complaint that is the last two episodes felt rushed that made me feel nothing while watching them and that's sad for me as I was really invested in this drama with my heart so its quite disappointing to feel this way while watching it end. Still I am happy for giving us a perfect and the satisfying ending we were expecting it to have. Thank you soo much!

At last A BIG THANX TO ALL THE CAST for giving us such magnificent performances I am in love with each one of them. Their efforts are amazing. Especially Lee Jae Wook, this man ate his character and left no crumbs, his transformation from S1 to S2 is worth appreciation. This man soo naturally developed his acting through his character or I would say along with his character, he really impressed me. From the light version of Jang Uk to the dark version this journey was soo startling, THANK YOU SOO MUCH AGAIN LEE JAE WOOK for accepting this role and bringing it to life, he is one of the reason why I started this drama.
Go Yoon Jung is no more less, she really did a great job in bringing Cho Yeong/Naksu to life. Thanx to her we got to see a different side of a badass assassin Naksu i.e., this soft bubbly and cheerful Yeong. I fell soo much for her character and enjoyed watching her play this role. I am looking forward to her future projects.

Also thanx to the director for presenting breathtaking cinematography and to the writers for not disappointing us again with a tragic ending(hehe), thanx to everyone for giving this drama soo much of efforts and energy and bringing it to life.
Thank you soo much!!!

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As much as I want to see bad ass Naksu, I’m satisfied with the ending because when I think about it again, Cho Yeong was forced to be assassin by Jin Mu for her revenge. She already got her revenge, so she doesn’t need to be Naksu anymore. JBY’s body wasn’t train for a fight and relatively smaller, so for Yeong to be able to be like Naksu would take her lots of trainings. She didn’t want it because that kind life is not important anymore which is why she said to Uk that she has priestess power, she doesn’t need to get that power to climb the tree when she has Uk by her side.

I know some people find it kinda disappointing that she lives as JBY, but I guess it’s needed to keep peace among everyone and she still has the divine power of seeing energy and Jin’s blood. As long as Uk knows who she is, I think it’s fine that she doesn’t have to claim back her name.

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Overrated for people looking for something else in kdrama nowadays

I cannot say anything about cgi, music or performances. Even tho, no music was good enough for me to remember over the time. And some performances could have been way better but the directing allow them to act « not that well ».

But what I regret is that drama starts off with a very interesting plot and cool special effect we rarely see in dramas. The cinematography is beautiful too.

And then, little by little, we fall in the trap of a standard k-drama plot, which, nowadays especially, is only for fan services for idols and nice looking actors rather than a real plot, complexity, suspense, or without being complexe, something opposed to what we are used to. I mean if you look at it has nothing surprising to offer. Nor great plot or message to tell.

But I guess we call kdramas for a reason and kdrama fans for a reason too as I see the ratings.

I already said something about the acting. If you remove the cool stuffs and beauty… it looks very much like an amateur series in terms of performances.

People are going to say that of course the performances are not perfect since we have rookies. But this is the point… if you can clearly see it, how can you give 10/10 to performances ? Also I am not giving a bad rating because the director knew what he was doing and what kind of public he was aiming at. In that sense, performances are very okay.

Should you give it a go ? In order to support CGI yes but other than that, you can live very well without seeing it.

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A letdown

Alchemy of Souls Season 2 suffers massively from bad, contrived writing and a ridiculously pathetic FL that was done dirty. Strangely enough, I don't think the actress switch is the main reason for this. Rather, it's the writing behind her character.

Naksu/Mu-deok/Bu-yeon is the most shamelessly shafted character I've ever seen. We are told—and I forget how many dozens of times we are told this—just how powerful her divine powers are and she does… pretty much nothing of significance! I can understand why Naksu doesn't want to become a warrior again, Jin Mu made her this way, so she rejects that part of herself and it's understandable. But the problem here is that it's actually Naksu's fierce nature that has been lost. Plus, all her powers, her agency, AND her personality have been taken away from her, leaving only a weak, empty shell behind. You don't need to fight with a sword to be a badass, but you certainly need to do… something! This new Naksu character is expressionless and featureless and is the complete opposite of the original Naksu, which makes zero sense as they're supposed to be the same person, amnesia or not. Mu-deok's playful and contentious character is also nowhere to be seen for some reason. In short, Naksu goes from hero… to zero.

The Queen was just baffling too: you can't make me believe that after 10 years of torture and torment she conveniently 'forgot' who was behind her misery, I just can't. Horrible writing. In fact, all the female characters in this show, and especially so this season, are horrendously written and exist only to either be subservient to the male characters, look pretty and be rescued, or just mope around and wait to be impregnated because… they're women I guess? Only men can accomplish anything in this fictional world it would seem, and women cower behind them at every opportunity, which is doubly ironic considering Alchemy of Souls was written by women. I know kdramas aren't exactly a bastion of gender equality, and I can generally tolerate it, but in 2023 this is just frankly embarrassing. Not even a single moment of any single one of those women standing up for themselves. Pathetic. Feels like this was written decades ago.

The male lead was quite nice though, I liked him. It's not his fault that this show is misogynistic crap, he really tried his hardest. He even attempted to propel his co-star to the forefront whenever the opportunity presented itself, to no avail due to the subpar writing. I liked how powerful he was and yet he remained relatable and fun to watch at all times, because he had depth to him. Definitely one redeeming quality of this show was the male lead, and he shines again here in the second season.

Also, the action was, again, well filmed and interesting. I liked the OST too.

There is an incredibly compelling and moving story about power, greed, all-conquering love, and taking control of your life beneath all this bloated nonsense, which is what is so frustrating to me. I wanted this to be good so much.

I'm actually hoping for a remake one day. It certainly would deserve one. This time around… let's not do Naksu dirty, shall we?

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Truly disappointing

I gave a 7 to another drama which was also very hyped (you are my glory), but not even that one disappointed me as much. I expected so much and all I got was:
---- A shallow, silly plot. Plus plot holes galore.
---- Cartoonish villain, and other stupid characters (even leaders like the king, crown prince, queen).
---- No characters' development.
My rating is for the acting of ML and both FLs, the Art Direction, and OST. At least the silver lining with overhyped dramas when my rating differs from the majority, is that it’s easier for me to spot users whose rating also disagree with the majority, so I can add them to my list of members with similar tastes to mine.

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Not so entertaining to watch, except the last two episodes

Go Youn-jung's "replacement" as the main female lead was actually done very well. Initially, I was ready to be disappointed with this shift, but her mannerisms and innocent-looking amnesiac aura made me realize that she was fit for the role. Even I was able to recognize her as Naksu immediately. She was able to retain the charm of Jung So-min while portraying the character of Mu-deok/Naksu (of course, as the role of Naksu was written for Youn-jung). But then again, I was frustrated that she was again relegated to be fragile and more of an eye-candy when in fact, Naksu was a vicious, merciless, yet skillful person in the first place. The amnesia shouldn't have been an excuse. Besides that, She (the actress) definitely was the surprise for this season.

Other than that, I was generally disappointed with how this season turned out. Yes, it was able to answer the fundamental questions from the first season which is the reason why my score for the story is not that low. But, it was full of plot conveniences that initially confused me (Seo Yul's blood parasite problem being solved right away), followed by prolonged dragging of cliches (amnesia, passive aggresive romance, and noble sacrifice being the top culprits) that could've been compressed by at least 2 episodes, and ended with noticeable plot holes that buffered my brain (Park Jin being able to close the door of Jinyowon despite him not being part of the Jin family, among others). The story shifted for the majority of this season, and it only decided to return to the main story during the last 2 episodes.

I was also upset for that it only had few, but still memorable action scenes in this season, partly because of the prolonged building up of tension rather than the action itself. Although, it was vindicated by the last 2 episodes, as the action scenes were breath taking, still I wanted more. The CGI were also top-notch, but it felt that it was only reserved for said last 2 episodes, and budget was only an afterthought for the rest of the season. The wardrobe here were not as sophisticated as the 1st season, but the accessories and the props (relics) were definitely an upgrade.

Speaking of the prolonged tension build up, it was baffling in that everything could've been solved right away, and even the "ultimate" battle was just finished easily. Jang Uk (Lee Jae-wook) was not even sweating during that "battle". Again, deux ex machina overload all over, which definitely killed the ending's potential to be a future classic. It was as if there was more talk than action. Personally, it might be due to the overexposure of the romance plot and its cliches which felt like filler rather than building blocks of the main story. Still, the last 2 episodes are the saving grace for this series all things considered.

Another gripe is Jin Mu (Jo Jae-yoon). How is he still not captured or even dead already? I wasn't really convinced with the reason behind that, and he just was a plot armor. Not a memorable villain as a character, but great delivery of lines and emotions as an actor.

There were still positive comments here, most notably the improved acting of the Hwang Min-hyeok as Seo Yul. He was now able to expand his acting range here compared to the one-dimensional emotionless acting on the first season. Still, there is room for improvement. Also, it was hilarious to think that the Crown Prince Go Won (Shin Seung-ho) had an unexpected character development. Not only that it was lowkey funny, but it was refreshing for me thinking about it due to its being unforeseen.

All in all, still a disappoinment with how this season turned out. Despite my lackluster reception for the first season, I was still optimistic here because of that cliffhanger. However after watching this, I was able to conclude that this season felt that it had a separate story from its predecessor, and as a series, it looked like it has two stories in one.

My review title for the first season was that it was entertaining to watch...at 2x speed. Here, it would be: not so entertaining to watch, except the last two episodes.

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Amazing fantasy drama after a while

I find the whole series fascinating. But i was still hoping that few more episodes should be added to season 2. Because of less episodes is S2 there are lots of fillers remain. But i Still can't complain, it is a satisfying show.
The lead chemistry is amazing, at first i think jung so min is irreplaceable as FL but Go yoon jung did a nice work in S2 as FL. Definitely give a new arc to naksu character in the limited number of episodes.
Rest of the characters also performed well . Especially the antagonist jin mu really made us hate him to the end.
Totally recommended from me just go for it.

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BEST DRAMA OF 2022.

AOS S1&2 were phenomenal and it was one of those dramas that I would like to re-watch in the future. It was a pack of everything, best of cast, visually and skills as well, best osts, interesting and fun plot and dialogues.
While watching this drama I laughed, cried and again laughed. I am not a fan of historical themed dramas. But this one was different, while keeping the historical essence, it was funny and modern. I loved the costumes and how their looks and costumes changes after the leap.
S1 was great, no doubt. So min gave it a kick start and set a mark of excellence for the drama. She was excellent in action, funny as hell and cried sm because of her.
However, I will say GYJ did an amazing job in S2 because her job was harder. She had to act while also keeping the essence of mudeok and somin while playing her role. People had high expectations from her and many were waiting to throw shade at her. However, she proved those haters wrong with her acting and was like a fluff cotton ball while acting as Buyeon, however her sassiness returned when she got naksu's memories.
This drama gave the most exposure to Jae Wook. He was still a rising star until a while ago, he got some main lead roles but I guess the scripts weren't as good as this. He got to show his high quality performance and was praised by everyone. I hope he will be casted in more.dramas and cannot wait for his next project.

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Magnificent, Excellent, Perfect and all synonyms as well.

Alchemy of Souls left us back in August 2022 promising it would come back with another season half the size of the original one in December 2022. Were there any high expectations? Of course! Were they met? I realise now that certainly my expectations were low compared to what the second part provided us with.

Part 1 did its thing. Introduced the story and characters to us, made us feel a lot of feelings we did not know we could feel, and left us with a cliffhanger (literally involving a cliff...) that lasted a couple months. The hype for Part 2 was gradually increasing as people started to watch Part 1 right before Part 2 dropped. Everyone, myself included, just wanted to see what happened after that finale.

Story-wise?
Yours truly fully enjoyed it. If I ever complained about it I can't remember anymore what that was about. Of course, sometimes it was a headache trying to understand what was happening, forming theories to keep ourselves busy till the next episode dropped. I am not going to lie and say I wasn't confused sometimes, but there's nothing that was left unexplained (in my opinion).

Character-wise?
I am a huge Jung Somin fan. I was kinda sad she wasn't going to appear in Part 2 but that didn't affect my expectations for the series. Go Younjung absolutely devoured her role. I wanted to see more of her Naksu in Part 1 and I'm so glad we got to see her even for a short 10 episodes. Her Jin Buyeon and her Naksu/Cho Yeong were two entirely different people with the same face, and she managed to convince me that I wasn't looking at the same person.

As for Jaewook, what can I say and where do I even start? He was fantastic. I just couldn't believe Part 2 Jang Uk was the same guy we met during Part 1. Jaewook's acting was just incredible and it played a pivotal role in me liking this part as much as its predecessor.

...

Alchemy of Souls is brilliant. If you haven't watched it, I really am judging you.

[I will continue to write this review later because I pulled an all nighter to watch the finale, definitely not a win for those in the west. But I would gladly do it again.]

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Great Start, Missed Opportunity: Naksu's Revenge Arc Left Unexplored

After eagerly anticipating Season 2 following the gripping Season 1, a cloud of controversy loomed over the news that Jung Somin, who portrayed Naksu/Mudeok, wouldn't return as the main female lead. I'll admit, like many others, I was devastated. Change is hard, especially when we've grown accustomed to a character over 20 episodes. It's easy to forget the original Naksu played by Go Yoon Jung. Nonetheless, I gave it a chance, especially with that tantalizing cliffhanger from the last episode of Season 1 leaving us all curious about the next.

However, Season 2's pace felt sluggish compared to its predecessor. While the story was present, the plot felt disjointed, and it wasn't solely due to the cast changes. I can argue that it largely boiled down to the writing. Go Yoon Jung's portrayal of the original Naksu in Season 1 was good. We yearned to see that same badass assassin in Season 2, but alas, the writers failed to deliver. The Naksu we once knew seemed like a different person after losing her memories, and even upon their return, she never fully reclaimed her former self. This, I believe, was solely due to the chosen plot path.

The writer missed a crucial opportunity by not delving into Naksu's past, especially considering she's the main character from the beginning. We, as viewers, were eagerly awaiting her revenge, longing to witness the truth behind the massacre of her family and Jinmu's manipulation. However, it felt rushed and underexplored. The real Naksu, upon regaining her memories, would have reacted explosively, yet the plot's direction seemed hasty and inadequate for someone who has been manipulated all her life. Where is the justice for Naksu? It feels like we've been cheated. Season 1 focused more on JangUk, and I wish they had dedicated more time to exploring Naksu's origins.

Nevertheless, the series still shines in its effects and the performances of its cast, particularly Go Yoon Jung, who portrayed three characters despite being less experienced and popular. However, there's a lingering disappointment in some areas. We wished the writers had brought back the assassin we loved from Season 1, especially since Yoon Jung is the original Naksu.

While still good overall, Season 2 of the series falls short in some aspects, leaving us with a bittersweet feeling of both satisfaction and disappointment.

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