Mr. Plankton (2024)

Tragically Beautiful..

Mr. Plankton was a total gem from start to finish.. It truly set a high standard.. Delivered quality in every departments.. From start to finish there were no bad scenes.. No bad characters.. And not a single bad performance from any of the actors.. Each actor brought depth and authenticity to their role.. Made them essential to the story no matter how small their screentime is.. Cinematography was impressive.. The romance was just chaotic.. Messy and yet strangely perfect.. They were a chaotic couple.. And funny even when they shouldnt be.. And come on what more can you expect from a drama that had two marriages in the first episode and The ML kidnapped both the brides.. It was a rollercoaster of chaos and fun..

The first scene itself screamed ' No happy ending here '.. And that was actually the way to go.. The entire story leading to that last moment.. ' His Death '.. That was the perfect ending.. No miracle cure.. Nothing magical.. Just a journey filled with Love..
Comedy and Pure Messy Romance..

At one point.. I genuinely feared that WDH wasnt just acting.. Maybe he was actually going through something himself.. He was that good.. He was really living the character..

The scene where Jae Mi kissed Hae Jo at that the bus stop after kidnapping him from the hospital honestly didnt feel like it was scripted.. It felt real.. As real as it can be.. Such a perfect moment..

And the last scene..

" In the end.. You are the final scene of my life.. I guess that means i had a pretty good life.. "

What a powerful way to end the story.. The ending was expected but heartbreaking nonetheless..

Overall.. Another strong contender for drama of the year.. Loved the characters journey and their warm connection and relationship with each other.. WDH certainly deserves an award for his performance here.. And kudos to the writer for that ending.. This drama is going to stay with me for a long time..

They entered our lives so effortlessly.. And in just ten episodes.. They left us shattered and aching..

Read More

Woo Do-Hwan never fails!

Woo Do-Hwan never fails to please!

My two top Korean actors right now are Woo Do Hwan and Lee Do-Hyun.

I first saw WDH in Save Me and my favourite ones out of his dramas would have to be:

My Country and Bloodhounds.

With Mr Plankton I really enjoyed it for the first 7 episodes and then I'm not sure where it quite started turning for me, but it did.

I hesitated to watch this drama because I knew the fate of his character and didn't want to go through that all again like with My Country.

With Mr Plankton the ending was sad, but not as devastatingly sad for me like what happened in My Country for some reason.

Have seen others of his dramas in full like: Save Me, Tempted and Mad Dog which I really enjoyed as well.

As for Joseon Attorney (4-6 episodes) and King Eternal Monarch (half) and didn't mind these either except maybe Joseon Attorney would probably be the least liked one out of them all. Not because of him, but rather the story itself.

King Monarch I would probably finish only he isn't the male lead.

In regards to Mr Plankton it is about the main character being diagnosed with a terminal disease (less than 3 months to live) so he goes on this personal journey to find his real father only decides to kidnap his ex girlfriend at the start just as she is about to get married with a gang on his tail out for revenge.

It has a great mix of humour, a solid story line, drama, action, a sad or bittersweet feel, romance and adventure.

The music is so so - nothing really stood out like Stay With Me (Goblin) or Butterflies (Wedding Impossible).

A major dislike for me would be the female in this as she got on my nerves with her crying - it is the worst, also, her hissy fits. I really wish I could have reached through the screen to slap her out of it. Really annoying!!! Far too many scenes for my liking and she grated me the wrong way as she sounded terrible. Couldn't stand it! Her other scenes were mostly fine - just the sobbing and hysterics were irritating. Terrible! She really did come across as being idiotic quite a bit of the time which was unfortunate - I'm not sure what he saw in her. Another minor peeve was the way she ran. Weird!

Wouldn't it be something to have a female that is mature even when annoyed yet sassy, full of spunk, charismatic and adorable even if not dropdead gorgeous. Just not a cry baby, nagger, whiner or screamer.

I need a female actor that can pull it off like WDH, who in my humble opinion, is one the BEST actors in the industry for crying, laughing and emoting expressions and feelings. His crying or sobbing scenes in My Country were believable, but especially that one scene inside the room with that silk item and his name embroidered on it probably due to the significance of what it meant.

Simply the BEST!!!

The gut wrenching moments in this drama definitely have momentum, but not as impactful as two specific scenes in My Country.

What else?

I really enjoyed the bond that was made on the road trip back to Seoul between the Heir and character played by WDH - the bromance was fantastic and seemed better than what was between WDH and the main female lead at times!

WDH has a beautiful laugh, way of chuckling and tantalising manner with particular words or expressions.

Him and only him!

Anyways, Mr Plankton is recommended for those that like a good mix of everything, but after episode 7 it doesn't seem as exciting and seems rushed or done so as not to leave any loose ends. But...done so without depth.

Maybe one loose end actually - I don't remember seeing anything about the test results of the 3rd candidate. 🧐

Read More

Balancing angst and comedy

Combining the angsty plot of terminal illness while also trying to maintain loud and slapstick humor is a very difficult feat but Mr. Plankton managed to do it extremely well. The humorous scenes are laugh-out-loud funny, while the sad scenes still hit really hard, and I never felt like I was getting whiplash between them.

As much as I love green flag MLs, I do think several kdramas have overcorrected recently; it's actually refreshing to get a drama that gives both its leads stories that have equal weight, and to see an ML that has more purpose than to just be in love with the FL. With that being said, Hae-jo's character is absolutely the best part of this show, and WDH plays him to perfection.

I feel a little more mixed on the other characters, to be honest. While I liked Jae-mi's plot, I wish we focused more on her desire to be a mother and have a family. The flashback we got of her at the orphanage is extremely touching. Instead, it seems like we get a lot of her relationship with Eo Heung and his mother. I don't necessarily dislike this, but it's weird. The drama does a fantastic job of making Heung a sympathetic character. His capacity for love is so great and his relationship with his mother goes through such important development, but I still never quite felt the emotions of it, not when Jae-mi and Hae-jo's dynamic is so strong and heart-wrenching. I also felt liek the love triangle was dragged out just a little too long; we saw clips of Jae-mi/Heung and they're cute but as a viewer I never once believed that they belonged together.

I did, however, still enjoy the humorous scenes with the three of them, and I almost wish we got a longer road trip type plot, with a new character (Gi-ho, Bong-suk) joining them in the car ride to each next sperm donor. It would have made the party scene at the end feel more meaningful, because I actually don't think we saw them spend much time together before then.

Overall, I think the first half worked better for me. Something about the bickering and the chaos was just so fun, whereas the last few episodes seems to have Hae-jo leaving Jae-mi stranded as a plot point multiple times. The ending also needed to be extended a little longer for things to get tied up. The plot is pretty outlandish — sometimes it works because it absolutely leans into it, and sometimes I had to remind myself "this is a DRAMA and that's why Hae-jo is still allowed to drive." Either way, it's fun.

Read More

Mr. Plankton Review - ZyKuu

"Two drifters embark on their final trip together" - The story is very chaotic but entertaining, and there are many valuable life lessons taught throughout the show. The cast was sweet and sour for me. I am a huge fan on the main lead Hae-jo, I thought he played his role well and was the most excellent amongst the cast. The female lead Jae-mi was wonderful as well and she really displayed her acting ability. Their romantic chemistry was great. Other roles that I enjoyed were Bong-suk and KKari. I found them to be great side characters that added to every moment and made the show more memorable. The OST was good and I was pleased by the shows aesthetic. This drama is somewhat random, but everything ties together neatly. The show is very eventful, and the lessons taught within are golden.

Read More

"There's no way you can be lost if you don't set a destination"

Mr. Plankton told the story of three wounded people finding love and reconciliation down a messy, uneven path. Woo Do Hwan can make any role compelling and he had some heavy lifting to do in the early episodes of this drama, thankfully he’d been working out.

Hae Jo and Gi Ho run a boys for hire service, picking whatever jobs Hae Jo thinks will be fun. Hae Jo was emotionally abandoned as a child due to a mistake at an IVF facility and seems to have no love to give. The entrepreneurs take on a job of “kidnapping” a bride which goes south really quick and ends with Hae Jo discovering he has three months to live. He decides to search for his biological father to try and make some sense of his life and in the process kidnaps another bride for real. Soon he has the first bride’s villainous gangster groom after him as well as the second bride’s loving groom.

The first few episodes were difficult for me because I had real concerns about the lack of consent on Jae Mi’s part when Hae Jo kidnapped her. Despite having a past, it came across as problematic. Of course, eventually their shared loved and Woo Do Hwan’s gorgeous face and body convinced her to help him on his parental quest, but that doesn’t negate the kidnapping. Jae Mi’s fiancé, Heung, became hopelessly entangled in their lives. I actually liked Heung. While he had mommy issues due to an overbearing mother, he was a good man who genuinely loved Jae Mi and didn’t deserve to have a front row seat to Hae Jo and Jae Mi’s burgeoning love story. Gi Ho, who became embroiled with the gangsters searching for Hae Jo suffered greatly for his loyalty and friendship which went all but unacknowledged.

Now that I’ve stated the things that didn’t work for me, here’s what did. I’m a sucker for reconciliation stories and found families. Once everyone was mutually onboard the crazy train without a destination, the story worked better. Hae Jo discovered that his family was not the only one with problems. Heung began to develop enough confidence to defy his overbearing mother. Jae Mi came to understand that she had worth. And all three would have their eyes opened to the love all around them.

Woo Do Hwan’s performance was mesmerizing even when Hae Jo behaved liked a self-centered jerk. He has a way of making any character sympathetic and did the same here which was a momentous task as Hae Jo spent much of his time hurting others. Oh Jung Se had the difficult job of making a middle-aged man who could not stand up to his mother likeable. Heung was such a compassionate character that he could set aside his own feelings and respect Jae Mi’s choices. The character that downgraded this drama for me was Jae Mi. I found the writing for her and the acting grating. Jae Mi spent much of her time yelling or acting childlike which caused me to hit the mute button numerous times per episode. All three characters were complicated and flawed, having been wounded by their parents. All three were on a journey towards love, growth, and forgiveness. Though much of the growth was understandable, there was some that felt unearned.

Mr. Plankton was an uneven drama with moments of humor, sorrow, and love driven by Woo Do Hwan’s compelling performance. The specter of Death lingered in the shadows from beginning to end. Hae Jo’s vision of what was important cleared as his final days approached. Family isn’t always what we’re born into, sometimes it’s what we make it.

“Never set a destination. Just let your instincts take the lead for you. That way you’ll never lose your path.”

11 November 2024

Read More

Emotional tug-of-war

Netflix might have let me down with some of its releases this year, but Mr. Plankton completely turned that around. It proved to be one of those rare dramas that kept me engaged from start to finish,I wasn’t bored for a single second. The story of Hae Jo’s journey felt so genuine, and each moment added depth to his character.

The countryside visuals were a huge plus, creating a beautiful, immersive setting that perfectly matched the mood of the story.The acting was fantastic, too. Shin Ha-kyun brought incredible depth to Hae Jo, making his journey feel real and relatable. The cast overall added so much heart to the story.


Still, I have mixed feelings. If it weren’t for the kind of cheating element, I’d be even more invested, though I’m not sure if I’d fully call it cheating—it’s a bit ambiguous.

Another thing I don’t fully get is why dramas feel the need to start with miserable characters only to end on a similarly sad note.

But even with that, the pacing was excellent, making every minute worth watching.

Read More

I liked it until it lost me

TRIGGER WARNINGS of this series: Infertility issues, illness, death.
Comedy is on the thinner side and there is also melodrama.

Looking at the ratings of this drama I feel like I watched a different one than everyone else.
I really wanted to like this series because the premise and the start had potential and there are things I liked in the portrayal of flawed characters that don't do the best of things, but sadly this just progressively lost me as episodes went on and things started to annoy me.

Overall my main two issues here are:
The execution of the plot is a mess at times, it wants to do too many things at the same time but none are necessarily solved or are just there for the pure chaos of it, it got kind of boring. I certainly didn't expect to find this show boring considering its length and how much I wanted to like it because the characters are not presented as perfect like in many other dramas. At points I felt kind of disappointed in myself for not finding it engaging enough but I literally fell asleep a few times, and I never fall asleep with series or movies. Funny enough is how I didn't even bother in going back and I don't feel I missed anything even though I missed in total probably about an hour and a half or a bit more of the total series.
Until the later episodes most of it it's just going and coming from places without enough of a substance to me, felt like a lot of padding. They're just looking for the potential father while he's dragging the girl around and the other two are following them, and the scenes with SML's mother and all that I still don't know what they added to the plot.

The second worst thing in this drama is once again the obsession with the bloodline. At points I thought it was presenting different ideas here because of the main characters and the plot in general, only to fall into the same silly ideas with the blood and how once you see your parents "you know" just because and unconditional love and blah blah blah. Equally silly was the expectation that some dude that might be his potential father would care about him just because he gave the sperm once, this is when they were theorising what that potential father might do or not for him as well as potential inheritance. And then only in the end to go back to a father that was a piece of s*** and abandoned him back in the time. "Oh, but he did go to the school though!!" someone might say, yeah, and after he was missing he didn't move a finger to find him, and apparently didn't care about her blood daughter either. I get ML needed the closure so to speak, but he said it more in the line of getting back some kind of relationship with him again, what falls again into this korean idea that parents don't do wrong and that at the end of the day everything needs to be forgiven because they're your parents, blood and "unconditional love" again.
The whole series revolves too much around "daddy issues" and I'm not a fan of this plot device.

I get it wanted to be comedy at some points but at times it was simply bad taste to me, like how FL wanted to take that baby in the beginning or when she takes ML from the hospital towards the end.
I also didn't appreciate much the duality of going from comedy to melodrama from one scene to another. I don't like melodrama in general either but I think that the comedy bits fell even more flat at times when straight before or after everyone was having a melodramatic moment. One second they're crying about something and the next it's like it never happened and everyone is happy to then remember and cry again.

There are quite a few side characters for such a short drama and I don't feel any of them was explored in depth what it would be fine if it wasn't because it feels they wanted me to care more about them than I did. SML is explored more but it could have been better in my opinion, his whole personality is more or less following the girl all around for most of the drama and it's progressed quickly to have his ending as it is.

I liked the ML for the mess he is, but I would have liked a tiny bit of growth, why is everyone still following him around when he's trying so hard to push everyone away? just leave him get lost then. It's funny that of all the things he did that was the worst for me, because as a viewer this dynamic got repetitive. He's a bad person but a good character, but I wish there had been some progression and that we didn't get the same dynamics of him rejecting people to then leave to then the others try and follow him, it got old quickly.
FL was ok for the most part until she started annoying me with her extremely childish tantrums, she spends half the show screaming. So she might be a good character again but in her case I didn't enjoy watching her.
Her side of the story is never explored enough anyway, we're given some pieces but there is never more exploration about it. She didn't even ask the bio mother anything either, she just spent the time screaming once again. We're also not given any other answer or even conclusion to her menopause thing, because it's not a black or white topic that it's how they presented it here, she's told, that's the end apparently. Her character in general revolves too much around ML and she's just a girl with two personality traits.

The ending was expected considering how the show starts and still was a bit anti-climactic in my opinion, even more that credits scene with the car driving, it's that FL with ML's body inside or what? It also felt a bit rushed since we got so many bits of their trip in a few scenes, I really wished this had been a good chunk of the drama instead of the thugs pursuing them in the first half for example.

Overall it's not an awful drama and it can be watched. I wouldn't rewatch it personally and I wouldn't recommend to people that wants happy endings, perfect characters nor to those that might be triggered by some of the topics.

Read More

An adventure show with great vives

The show mixes a between a lot of genres and often succeeds in most of the parts it is trying to play. It's main issue is that the show is short with a very simple plot that could have been a 2 hour movie.

The main 3 characters have decent chemistry between each other, one often carrying the other; however, it is often annoying that all of them feel incomplete and don't talk their mind ever. The male lead is dying but refuses to tell anyone and even in the end he does not feel that sick so that story point seemed moot. The female lead had issues getting pregnant but It did not have any meaningful impact in the story and no one really cared at all about the issue. And other the male character was so incompetent in everything that I always ignored him.

It's a shame that none of the plot points mattered and it is just a simple journey/adventure show, where you get to see new things and places. I enjoyed the first few episodes but later nothing seemed to happen between any characters. I was confident after episode 4 or 5 that the main lead is gonna be fine after the show and it is going to be a simple ass ending and I was right. I am not saying it is a bad thing is that I would have loved to have some changes to happen and something of consequence to occur in each episode. And in my opinion nothing was going on.

In conclusion, the show had a bit too small of a plot to not be a movie and be a full fledged series. It is a mini series and it succeeds in doing that. I would have loved the show to have some consequences or some changes in situations between the leads and the people surrounding them as I got super bored after episode 6. But it is a well acted and directed mini show that delivers in what it promises.

Read More

Worth watching for the acting

I was very excited when I started watching this drama because of Woo Dohwan who is basically one of my favorite actors (yes he is handsome but his acting skills are pretty amazing too).

At the beginning, I was really intrigued about his character Hae Jo. And the first half of the drama was really exciting and fun!!! the whole chase through the country, the drama, the funny moments were on point, if only the drama had continued like that…

Basically, after they got rescued from the island and came back to Seoul everything went down the drain…
In my opinion there was a lot of unnecessary drama and the plot was not moving on. The main lead was sulking and treating Jae Mi like trash and it kept on going back and forth. I got quite bored during a few episodes to be honest…
And then the scene when Hae Jo leaves Jae Mi in front of her mother’s door and runs away! Why??? Why did he have to run away??? I was sooo confused! What was the point anyway if you were gonna go back to Seoul afterwards? I thought he was gonna start his journey to look for his father with Heung but no they just went back to Seoul!!! I got really annoyed tbh and I also got annoyed at Jae Mi a couple of times. At the beginning she was acting like a spoiled child, punching Hae Jo and telling him to die etc. I think thats a little bit too much to say to someone, no matter how shitty they treated you…
Ofc I was also a little bit annoyed at Hae Jo at times. Why did he have to agree to kidnap the first woman from her wedding? And why did he say such mean things to Jae Mi in their first relationship? And then being so egocentric and kidnapping her and throwing away her shoes etc.
In general I also found it kinda sad how quickly and easily Jae Mi got over Heung and the treatment of his mother and how easy it was for her to move on and fall in love with Hae Jo again… I don’t think she was really in love with him… he was just a nice man she wanted to have kids with…

And finally, I was reallyyyy annoyed about how the drama started with the search for Hae Jo’s father but was never finished!!!! Like what was the point of watching (except for Woo Dohwan’s naked upper body)??? We already knew how it was gonna end (him dying in the snow) so what other new information did we gain??? I was very confused and quite disappointed to be honest…

The storyline is definitely lacking and most of the characters were very problematic too. However here are some good points:

1. The quotes: Hae Jo had some impressive quotes and it brought me to tears many times.
2. In general it did have some tearjerking moments. I dont understand why the movie’s genre is romance/comedy… it is more of a drama imo.
3. The acting skills!!! Like no matter how annoying some characters were, the actors brought them to life sooo well and authentically… Kudos to all of these high class actors.
4. The music especially the instrumental one in dramatically sad scenes (for example when Hae Jobwas dying in the snow). It was one of the reasons I got hooked on the show. The music, directing and screenplay were done sooo well!!! I couldn’t stop thinking about it…

In general I think it is okay to watch it if you are interested but be prepared for some toxic characters and relationships…

Read More

This show was just meh for me. Yes the acting was great and Woo Do Hwan's emotional journey was something to behold. However, it was just another, childhood trauma series that really wasn't resolved. That's fine but then don't take us on that roller coaster ride. Jae Mi's screeching also got on my nerves.

The pluses of the series are Oh Jung Se. He has always been one of my favorite K actors and he was great here as the sort of jilted fiance. I did like that he was able to let Jae Mi go but he still was grieving that. A more realistic approach to a hard break up.

Lee El. OMG! I love this woman. Absolutely fantastic as Bon Suk, friend and mother figure to Hae Jo. Those scenes in the hospital should get all the supporting actress awards.

Kim Min Seok as Ho Ji was such great comic relief but I also really liked the character.

11/24/24

Read More

I don't know how I feel about this drama

It was an ok drama with a weird set up...

I LOVED the editing and cinematography of this drama. Every shot and scene was something worth studying. My favorite scene from this drama was how Hae Jo met his lil sister, who was looking for her brother. I didn't expect that and it was such a bittersweet surprise that the drama threw. I wish there was a scene where they met later...

Everything else was meh... It felt like at times the drama was going to hit the high that it was seeking and just shine brilliantly but then it just flares off and then just meh... I don't know how else to put it... I felt like this drama was unfinished.

Read More