Aramintai

Controversial drama with a disappointing ending

This drama has a stellar cast and production quality is superb, but the plot and message behind it are very controversial, to say the least.

The first 4 episodes were a solid 9, though heavy-handed, insensitive religious patronizing can be clearly seen from the very beginning. But after episode 5 it rapidly went downhill. Episode 6 was like those countless crime dramas about exaggerated corruption and untouchable chaebols with over the top acting and resolutions. Very meh.
And the last two episodes were drilling on the same message - suicide is a selfish act, it's not about you, you should keep on suffering for the sake of others. The only insightful part was about a suicidal salary man, who basically started the chain of events that lead ML to his own suicide - it showed ML the ugly reality of that dream he so desperately wanted to have, the one the government and society kept on brainwashing him to strive for ever since he went to school. But they never delved anywhere further with that. Instead of guilt shaming ML with his mother for the whole episode they should have explored what ML really wanted in life. How can he be true to himself like he said he wanted to? Is being a cog in an uncaring corporate machine what people really should strive for in life? Just such a waste of potential here narrative wise.

But as it is, this drama didn't try looking into the cause, didn't try to resolve any of the problems SK's society has that leads people to commit a staggering amount of suicides every year, like poverty and unemployment, it just tried to guilt shame suiciders through religious and societal dogmas. Makes one think that it was sponsored by SK's government, which seems to be impotent in solving this serious country wide issue and now just resorts to such cheap shots like this drama. Maybe it will work better on Asian audience with their traditionally communal mentality, but it's a very hard sell for individualistic West.

The suicide topic here is viewed from such a narrow perspective it really started to piss me off by the end. No exploration of mental health state of suicidal people or various circumstances that lead to this hard decision. Yeah, in ML's case perhaps he was too rash in attempting suicide since he had a caring mother and a girlfriend (though seeing how lonely he was with his problems at the beginning, these people have shown him lack of moral support when he really needed it, and his mother was later shown hoarding money for him, which she should have given him years ago to help cover his education debts he was paying off for many years). But what about people who have no such people in their lives? What about terminally ill/severely crippled/mentally unwell people who see themselves as a burden to their relatives and society? What about kids being beaten by their own drunkard parents and nobody cares? What about people who are living in miserable poverty with no hope for a better future? They should also keep on suffering for the sake of others and their country or go to hell? So many unique lives with unique problems, but this drama had no compassion or desire to explore any of that. It's like that cartoon meme: Nope, stop talking, go to hell.

As for the ending, well, ML got a second chance in life and that's a win (?). But consequently it also invalidated everything ML did in other people’s bodies and all those who were supposed to die will die, including his girlfriend, and all the bad guys, including two serial killer psychos, will still be walking scott free.
So all in all, this drama just left me kinda perplexed as to how to score it, because, on the one hand, the quality and cast were superb, but controversial message and disappointing ending made me feel like I've wasted my time watching this.
I guess I'll score episodes 1-5 with 8.5 and 6-8 with 7.0.

Read More

Fresh and funny first half, cliche and dumb later half

It was a solid 8 in the first half of the drama because of the witty, on point humor. But then it turned into your typical murder crime drama, with dumb leads to boot, which became more apparent as episodes went on. So, of course, many people died before the culprit was caught and even that was through sheer luck and out of the grave help of a single smart side character. Some deaths could have even be prevented if characters weren't acting atrociously dumb, especially near the end of the drama. It was frustrating to watch how clumsily it was resolved.
The culprit wasn't revealed too early as it often happens in such dramas, which is nice, but showrunners did start giving heavy hints in late episodes and after most of the suspects were killed not many characters were left to suspect anyway. The motive was very meh, considering that the culprit character didn't give any serial killer vibes until he was caught and there was no sus behavior in his past.

I also didn't like that for a few episodes the drama veered into a side story that basically lead to nowhere. I'm talking about FL mother's and assemblyman's story - a sudden end, no justice for those who got killed and cheated of their money. And then this story was promptly swept under a rug. Left a feeling of it being a filler.

And lastly, I didn't like that showrunners decided to shoehorn sudden romance between ML and FL in like 1.5 episodes left to go. Was completely unnecessarily and at that point felt unbelievable. And I guess FL wasn't really into SML, even though she was running after him and making googly eyes at him like a stupid cow for most of the drama.

And here's a list of very stupid things that went on at the end of the drama that made me lower the score:
-FL has several victims' blood on her hands.
She could have saved the cafe waitress in the field by asking the whole bus for help. The culprit was among them, but he wouldn't have been able to kill the victim with a crowd around.
She could have saved the assemblyman and her grandpa as well by telling the police she saw the culprit in exact same raincoat, with exact same knife about to backstab the assemblyman. But she dismissed that he might have been the actual killer by listening to his sappy lie. Lolwut, woman? Not to mention that no matter what his intentions were, serial or not, he was about to stab a man!
And last victim is SML. Because of her stupid irresistible desire to meet him no matter what time of day it is and that a serial killer is on the loose, she agreed to meet with him late at night far away from residential houses, and without telling ML. Then, even though she said she believed him, she of course ran away from him when he ran after her to show her the murder knife.

-FL also was made frustratingly very dumb near the end of the show in general. Walking at night alone, being uncooperative because her love interest may be the killer, slapping ML and blaming him (serious wtf moment) for so many victims, the list goes on...At least in the end she apologized to ML.

-ML should have arrested SML for the farmer's death right then and there after he saw blood on his hand and because SML's house was very close to where ML lost the killer. But instead ML let him go and let that rare, concrete evidence, with no psychic mumbo jumbo, go to waste. That was very dumb on ML's part.

-SML's behavior throughout the drama was very frustrating as well. One can say that it was his suspicious, antagonistic, secretive and uncooperative behavior that got him killed in the end. He may have been smart to figure out the killer first, but his aloofness and inability to trust people didn't help his case whatsoever.

-The farmer with psychic powers was basically asking for it. Ffs, why'd you be grabbing a leg of a person you strongly suspect to be the killer in the middle of the night in a remote area?

So considering all of the above I can't give it more than 7.0. The humor was funny and memorable though, while it lasted.

Read More

Very mediocre drama

Mediocre.
-Nonsensical title and kinda misleading poster.
-The plot was too dragged out, I'd say about 6 episodes too many.
-The plot was mostly about politics and full of beaten to death cliche tropes seen in practically every saeguk out there, nothing fresh. If you can't write a captivating period drama story then go fantasy, or at least throw some zombies into the mix to spice things up!
-A very slow burn romance and lack of romantic chemistry between the main leads.
-Misrepresentation of FL's character. She was presented as a fighter and genius detective in the beginning, but then was degraded into a passive sidekick to ML, who along with another male detective character basically solved all the mysteries. They took inspiration from the og novel, but def no wheels were reinvented here.
-SML was so boring and lacking presence compared to ML, FL didn't even give him a good second look after meeting ML. I guess no one was having second lead syndromes here.
-Some ridiculous bs about the immortal fish and queen's rise to power, don't even want to go there further.
-Obligatory and as always unnecessary time skip and rushed ending! This just triggers me all the time in kdramas. ML wasted 10 minutes of the last episode literally digging holes. Should have showed more scenes about what happened to everybody in the end, most of the stuff was just alluded to or announced and then it was the end.

Secondary couple was the only highlight, they were funny and cute together all the time. So i guess 6.5 overall from me.

Read More

Dragged out sequel to a dragged out prequel

CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD!

First of all, I gotta say that I liked romantic chemistry between og Naksu (played by GYJ) and Uk way more than when she was played by JSM. And I liked that the overall story ended on a happy ending, which it desperately needed after part 1's devastating ending. For these two factors I'm willing to forgive a lot of things that were done quite sloppily in part 2, for example:

1. Dragged out FL's amnesia plot and repetitive misunderstandings.
The villains took a bit of a back seat this time around, the main course of part 2 was rekindling the relationship between the leads who, due to FL's amnesia and different looking body, couldn't recognize each other. Very cliche, but not a bad thing in itself. However, for 8 episodes straight the plot was basically going around in circles like this:
-ML says something cold and nasty to FL,
-she gets upset and leaves,
-ML regrets his harsh words and runs after her,
-they reunite until ML has another bout of unjustified cruelty towards FL.
Only in the last 2 episodes the plot finally kicked into high gear and the good guys swiftly, if a bit hamfistedly, dealt with all their problems.

2. Most characters' intelligence got dumbed down compared to part 1.
For the sake of dragging out the drama and misunderstandings they were frequently shown unable to add 2 and 2 together and unable to finish their line of thought when suspecting someone.
-For example, ML, who was very bright and quick to catch on in part 1, in part 2 couldn't figure out that FL is Naksu even with heavy hints given to him since part 1. He couldn't even catch on immediately after she basically spelled it out for him and showed her blue eye marks.
-Another example is Jin Mu immediately recognizing Naksu's face, but not investigating this very suspicious occurence further after simply examining her aura and learning she's a priestess, not a mage.
And the list goes on...

3. Contrived new rules and plot devices that contradict already established lore.
Master Lee, the blatant writers insert, almost every episode kept sparingly throwing newly invented sh*t into the fan to keep the audience in suspence and characters scrambling. Some plot holes remain open because of it:
-Naksu for whatever reason disappearing from JBY's body (that even looks like her now) when she regains her memories, of all things. Why didn't she disappear earlier when she was Mu-Deok? Unclear. But in the end, even her disappearance turned out to be a lie and she simply took a back seat temporarily for Jin Seol Ran to fulfill her duty.
-The fire bird being the original reason Jinyowon was built - no mention of it whatsover in part 1. Was this bird the cause of drought 200 years ago? How was it even captured? Nobody knows...
- The previously established lore stated that only priestesses with divine magic can perform the rain ritual and that it is being kept in Jinyowon. But no, apparently Jin Mu, a mage, had it ready all along and could perform it himself.
-200 years old Jin Seol Ran, who apparently didn't die as was mentioned in part 1, had planned this whole thing all along, so that Naksu and Uk could get together, protect the ice stone and defeat the fire bird, because she could forsee the future. I get Uk being the King's Star with superpowers, but why the heck JSR needed Naksu's soul stuck together with hers in JBY's body still remains unclear.
And the list goes on...

4. The villains overstayed their welcome.
Jin Mu, a very cautios and clever villain in part 1, in part 2 turned into a tired cliche of a tropey mustache twirling, maniacally laughing villain. But his schemes somehow kept working because the good guys, as was mentioned above, were intellectually dumbed down and kept being unmotivated to finish him off until the very end. No smart shaman this time around to boss him around, so he had to contend with dumb sidekicks, creepy crazy queen and greedy grandpas who wanted to live forever. And they all died like total dumbasses, because they grossly underestimated ML's power.

5. Naksu never regained her mage powers.
No badass Naksu expertly wielding sword and magic from S01E01. In the end she was lucky enough to stay in JBY's body through JBY/JSR's grace and kept that body's divine powers, which turned out to be pretty lame, compared. But at least she survived, I guess that's a win.

6. Promised indepth exploration of side characters' stories was a lie.
Most of the time was wasted on retired Park Jin cooking "black matter" to everyone's dismay, while much needed screen time for characters such as Park Dang Gu and Jin Cho Yeon was cut to a minimum. Even Crown Prince got overshadowed by a turtle, of all things.

7. Cheap fake deaths for drama's sake.
In the end none of the good guys died, the audience got duped again just for cheap nail biting thrills. This lessened ending impact by a lot, as the stakes turned out to be pretty minimal. But at least master Lee did something useful for once.

8. ML's reactions to learning that FL is Naksu and that she'll soon disappear were underwhelming.
I dunno what happened to LJW there, but I wasn't feeling any impact from those scenes and he didn't look emotional enough. He looked more like blank faced Yul, but even Yul was more emotional when he learned FL is Naksu.

9. Last episode was a bit rushed, erratic and weirdly edited.
Technically, on paper everything was done right, but somehow still left a feeling of being rushed.
I dunno what it was, but I think it's was an amalgamation of these factors:
-Weird, out of order editing;
-Erratic characters behavior, especially the villains;
-Lackluster CGI, baffling lack of extras in fighting scenes;
-Lack of impact in general - endgame buildup was ruined by ML who, after finally accepting his destiny of a total Mary Sue (aka. King's Star), practically singlehandedly smashed all the villains and that overhyped fire bird as easy as pie without breaking a sweat;
-Too much focus on side characters' endings instead of the main leads and even those were of barely satisfactory length.

Also, I think that leads wedding should have happened at the end of the story when all the issues were resolved, not when FL was about to disappear. It looked out of place considering their current circumstances and reminded too much of part 1 ending, when they were in denial and carelessly making future plans and marriage.

CONCLUSION:
So, did Alchemy of Souls require 2 parts for a complete story? Personally, I don't think so, part 1 already suffered from pacing issues, but in part 2 they've dragged the plot out even more and added lots of new plot holes, to boot. If the writers kept the plot tight, I think they could have ended the story in one season.
But then again, I really liked GYJ's Naksu character and I liked that she too got plenty of time to shine, like JSM did in part 1.
All the rest of the cast, LJW especially, did a really excellent job as well and part 2's overall production value was still through the roof.
Flaws and all, Alchemy of Souls is still a very memorable and gripping kdrama, with a beautiful love story, that I'm sure will be remembered for years to come as a great classic. There's nothing quite like it in kdramaworld right now and I hope it will be an inspiration for more quality dramas like this. Overall, I'm giving part 2 a generous 8 out of 10.

Read More

Overhyped and underwhelming

This show started very promisingly but barely delivered anything by the end. Things were going well until around episode 11 and then went downhill with that weird trip to Jeju island and never recovered. Last two episodes were crammed with cases again and closure for the characters was rushed at breakneck speed.
All in all:
1. FL's character development barely progressed both professionally and personally. There were dropped sub plots that she may become more independent from her father, start cooking for herself, maybe go to work to a law firm that is closer to her principles - all were dropped. In the end, writers still managed to fall into a stereotype trap and convey the wrong idea about autistic people. Irl not all of them are savants, not all of them are treated so nicely at work, not all of them are so cute and therefore well liked. In the end, it became just another tropey story about a genius "detective/lawyer/prosecutor" with a quirk.
2. Some characters like ML were not given any background or character development at all. Some characters, like Min Woo and Soo Yeon had their characters as if completely swapped with someone else. FL's dad barely did anything for the plot, FL's mom is still a bitch - no family relationship development whatsoever. Some characters like FL's friend and friend's boss were relegated to sad and dumb comic reliefs. All in all, side characters of this drama has got to be one of the most underdeveloped I've ever seen in a kdrama.
2. Law side of the drama was weak and amateurish. Irl cases are not won simply by remembering a clause from a law book or looking up precedents, irl everyone looks them up prior going to court. Other attorneys and even some judges here are made so exaggeratingly dumb compared to FL, just to show how smart she is, it's simply embarassing. Some cases weren't even worth going to court, their arguments were on the surface and could have been resolved with a simple legal consultation. A few cases raised some serious social issues but writers didn't have the balls to give their definitive opinion on them, leaving the justice of their verdicts up to the audience to mull over.
3. Romance was very weak. Yes, it's cutesy and fluffy, actors are handsome and professional. But ML basically is just a prop put in there to love FL and be conveniently perfect to care for her for some reason. Was it her looks, or constant whale talk that made him fall in love with her? Not much was talked about when they interacted with each other and it made this whole romance look superficial and not convincing. Their break-up was dumb af and dragged unnecessarily for 3 episodes too long. And barely any time was given to their reconciliation and next to none to their further relationship. ML wasn't even introduced to FL's father. This is not how you give a satisfying closure to a romance arc.

All in all just one big overhyped trainwreck. But hey, they still have a chance to fix all this in season 2! But I'm not holding my breath.

P.S. The only ones worthy of praise were the actors, they did a very admirable job, especially PEB. And production value of this kdrama is very good as well, props to the production team. But sadly even they couldn't pull off the impossible with this kind of script.

Read More

An underrated gem, one of the best rom-coms out there

A year and many kdramas later I finally got to write a review about this drama - imho, it's still one of the best rom-com kdramas out there, very underrated. It flew under the radar when it aired due to lack of proper promotion and because there were other overhyped and frankly overrated dramas airing at around that time, like A Business Proposal, for example.

Yes, on the surface it has your typical boss and secretary premise, but the plot itself is far from being generic, it's actually quite unpredictable. The first giveaway is in the premise itself - FL learns that she doesn't have much time left to live and ML is in danger of being murdered by somebody (don't worry about it being scary sounding though, nobody's actually going to die and it has a very happy ending). As the episodes unfold, this drama breaks away from the stereotypes and cliches you'd expect, and turns them on their heads in a creative and hilarious fashion.
This drama doesn't rush character exposition, but doses it expertly throughout the episodes. It has a rather slow start to give time for characters introduction and to show the crux of their problems. So after the first few heavy episodes you can't really say anything definitive as to where this is going. But after everything is established and the plot starts moving in full swing you'll see that this is a rom-com at its finest, with lots of unpredictable situations and funny moments that are very entertaining to watch. And while it's not some brainy mystery thriller that the audience has to solve, there are elements of that here as well. This drama mixes familiar tropes in a rather unpredictable and surprisingly balanced way, and doesn't falter or fall off until the very end. The narrative is strong and well thought out. And it rewards viewers who paid attention by meaningfully referencing and shedding new light on earlier events and dialogues in later episodes.

The two biggest points of this drama are:
- a strong overall message of redemption and forgiveness;
- an absolutely fantastic character development.

ML initially comes off as cold hearted, arrogant jerk with nasty temper and terrifying boss aura, who bullies his secretaries for nothing (for which FL makes him pay for later). But later it turns out that he's just a lonely, miserable guy who was backstabbed and abandoned too many times throughout his whole life. With such bad attitude and due to complicated past with some of the characters, ML becomes a target of ire of many antagonists, who gang up on ML to ruin and even kill him. And there were a lot of them for various reasons - revenge, competitor elimination, jealousy, financial problems, etc. Some were justified, but as the plot unfolds it is revealed that mostly he was made a scapegoat for other people's problems. This drama's doing well at showcasing that people generally are flawed, selfish, egotistic and like to put the blame on someone else, instead of themselves, because it's easier. But it was all done on purpose for ML's and their character development, as most of these characters in the end will come to realize that they were in the wrong and will make amends. So even though ML comes off first as a real cold bastard, the drama does a good job at portraying the why of it and his eventual path to redemption.

FL initially comes off as unassuming, timid, hard working girl, with presence that of a wind in ML's company. But after she learns the dire news of her imminent death due to health issues, she decides to put the blame on ML for being a giant stress generator source for her for over a year, which reasonably could have exacerbated her illness. With nothing to lose, she decides to go out with a bang and to take revenge on ML before she dies. To help FL with this endeavor fate conviniently throws her a great opportunity, enabled by one big mistake made by ML. While being hospitalized after an attempt on his life was made on a fateful day X, ML decides to fake his amnesia to expose the suspects. FL uses this to her advantage and pretends to be his fiancee to gain full access to his body, so to speak. And from here on out hilarity ensues as she starts implementing her revenge in an unfazed, zany fashion and ML has no choice but to suffer through all of it, lest his cover is blown.

The first half of the drama is focused more on FL and her inner turmoil. I really liked FL's somber, self-reflecting scenes in the first seven episodes, as well as ML's gradual shift of attitude towards her starting from around episode 6, as they start spending a lot of time together. And though the later part of the drama is focused more on ML's redemption arc, the writers didn't forget about FL in later episodes either. Though her main problem is effectively resolved in the first half of the show and she turns back to her kind and nice self, she gains a newfound courage and profound realization how she should be living her life from now on, and starts pursuing her dreams in earnest. This all helps immensely to resolve ML's problems in the second part, as she's there to support him and lead him in the right direction. This plot division seems very deliberate, as one plot point leads to the resolution of another. It couldn't have happened in parallel if FL was still dealing with her problem till the very end and continued having crazy bouts with ML, however hilarious they were.

Once the leads clear their misunderstandings, stop hating each other and find themselves falling for each other, they are all in for one another. No dumb break-ups, time skips or LDR. It is very sweet.
That this drama basically has no love triangles is a big plus for me as well. The leads have eyes only for each other here. ML's delulu ex, with zero second chances given, ends up being just another one of the antagonists.

So all in all, I liked how the show gradually showed their character growth and how competently all the plot points led to a satisfying conclusion, with a moral to the story even. Not every drama out there can boast the same.
Maybe the list of people having a grudge against ML could have been shorter, especially considering that most of them were not out there to get him for his nasty demeanor, but for their own selfish reasons. But I think it was done deliberately for that explosive dramatic culmination in the later episodes.

So, a great drama overall, definitely worth the watch. Starts a bit slow in the first few episodes, but gets really good later and doesn't let go until the very end. Nothing is rushed, for once, and the ending is very satisfying. The first half of the show where the leads were at each other's throats was absolutely hilarious, with pinnacle pillow fight being simply iconic. And the second half of the show was full of surprising revelations and sweet moments.
I think ML's actor did a formidable job here at playing a competent, but terrifying boss on the outside and lonely, betrayed guy on the inside. I absolutely loved his performance. In many rom-coms of this type actors can't pull off a proper boss role, they often turn up either too soft or too dumb to be convincing. But here he practically had that aura about him.
One might say that everything that happened to ML in this drama was accumulated bad karma, but he came out of it a better man in the end. And it's funny that it was the timid and introverted FL of all people, who mustered her courage due to her life changing circumstance and stopped putting up with his scumbaggery, that was the catalyst of ML's change for the better. I wasn't a fan of FL's actress before, but she really grew on me here.

Not giving this drama a perfect score only because some side characters in this drama were pretty useless/underutilized and more often than not were wasting screen time. For example, the gossiping ex-secretary club or goofy FL's brother and girl friend couple. And also, be prepared for good old staple of all contemporary kdramas - PPLs in your face.

Read More

Intricate world, great characters, unpredictable story, but pacing is inconsistent

WARNING: Don't watch this separately from part 2 if you can't handle sad endings, because it has a crazy angsty plot twist in the end akin to "red wedding" from GoT!

Other than that this drama has a great mix of genres - fantasy, drama, comedy, action. The world is intricately built, all characters are given enough time to introduce themselves and most lead characters have great character development. The plot is very complicated and twisted, with deliberate hints about late spoilers dropped for attentive watchers from early episodes. It will keep you hooked and guessing what will happen next without you actually being able to figure it out, so unpredictable it is.
However, in later half of the show for the sake of dragging it out to 20 episodes the plot started to stall and meander around the issues with no real resolutions until the last two episodes, where everything was dumped on the audience - a common problem of many kdramas that just have no sense of pace and don't know how to end themselves properly. Some sub-plots especially took an egregious amount of screen time, like that "fake Bu-Yeon" plot. The ending was shocking for sheer shock value with lots of unresolved dangling loose ends. The sins of FL, who's occupying the body of an innocent girl, finally caught up with her in the end, but said innocent girl was done dirty, she didn't deserve any of this. In any case, stay tuned for part 2 to see the real ending, they're not done yet.

The cast did a stellar job at portraying their characters. Special props for FL who played a difficult 3 in 1 role.

OST and production value of this drama are also through the roof.

Overall, an 8.5. A very solid and unique kind of drama. But I can't give it a higher score in good conscience because of the problems with the plot I highlighted above.

Read More

Interesting detective drama with heavy dark themes

This is a well written historical detective drama set in the Tang dynasty period, that tells the story of the Palace Investigation Bureau investigator FL, who seeks to find the truth behind her family's massacre that was pinned on her father, the prince of Duan.

PREMISE:
This main plot is intertwined with mysterious cases that FL investigates with the astronomer ML and her Bureau colleagues at the palace grounds and beyond. These cases expose some very heavy and dark themes relevant even to this day and are quite thought provoking - lack of rights and laws protecting women, bullying, abuse, forced labor at illegal brothels, misogyny at work, crazy cults exploiting people for money, etc.
And the main theme is clearly shown throughout the whole drama - there is no justice to be found at the palace. "The fish rots from the head" - the emperor himself cannot uphold the law by showing favoritism and so it trickles down through the ranks, with powerful covering for each other, while powerless having nowhere to turn to for justice. So victims often take matters into their own hands and enact their lawless revenge, consequences be damned. So cases often start by investigating an already happened crime of revenge, instead of an initial crime.
These cases also gradually lead to a thought that ruthless path of revenge always ends up in tragedy, and it comes into play when FL finally gets a chance at her own revenge on the main villain.

FEMALE LEAD:
Being the sole survivor of a branch of the royal family and a close relative, FL is favored by the emperor and has many privileges as a county princess. But she doesn't care about status, power or court schemes - her life's single goal is revenge. She's very jaded, sharp witted, even more sharp tongued, reckless and excellent at reading people. She's also an expert martial artist who was trained by the Bureau's boss since childhood. Her charisma and drive to seek justice command respect and loyalty from her colleagues. FL is not without flaws though: she suffers from survivor's guilt with self-destructive tendencies, which makes her push people away and not value her life. But overall, this character's concept is so cool and FL plays it so well it heavy lifts the whole drama.

MALE LEAD:
After the murdered princess case reveals that a celestial prophecy was involved, the emperor orders ML, who is the deputy director of the Astronomical Bureau, to help FL. He's FL's antipode - a level-headed, gentle, book smart scholar with very good memory and some unconventional knowledge, but no fighting skills (though he ends up saving FL way more often that her). ML starts rather stiff here, probably due to sheltered upbringing and secluded scholar's job. His family also holds a secret to FL's tragic past, so on his father's orders ML begrudgingly tries to avoid FL in the beginning, acting distant, so that she won't recognize him. But they very quickly get on the right foot while solving cases, and his desire to help FL find the truth, as well as their growing relationship eventually bring heavy emotions out of him down the line. His patient and understanding character complements FL's difficult character greatly here. And though this drama is female centric, with role reversal going on here, it never degrades male characters by making them look inferior to female ones, so it's another plus.

ROMANCE:
Together the leads complement each other's strengths and weaknesses nicely to successfully solve these mysterious and often elaborately staged cases. And as they get to spend time together and know each other better, they develop romantic feelings towards each other. This drama has a very sweet and realistic romantic sub-plot, even though it's not the main focus of the drama. Romance here is a slow burn based on gradually gained mutual trust, respect and understanding, rather than simple physical attraction. The leads are like those mandarin ducks, often cited in Chinese poetry, that just clicked together.

SIDE CHARACTERS:
The support cast here is also quite strong, from FL's awesome grandpa mentor and her good friends at the Bureau, to a colorful host of concubines and staff living in the palace, to the very divisive character of the emperor himself. He may not be the villain here, but his flaws and weaknesses drive ripples through all the stories of this drama.

VILLAINS:
There are many nasty, sometimes truly monstrous villains that get exposed in the cases, but the main villain behind FL's family massacre is not active until later episodes, when FL starts circling closer to the truth. And even then the drama manages to keep you guessing whether he's working alone, or there are some other powerful people in cohoots with him. I'd say he's the main letdown of this whole drama, because while being known to be very smart and calculating, in the end he turns into a dumbass with a penchant for cliche villain expositions, whom FL eventually cleverly outsmarts to deal beautiful poetic justice. Yea, he's a classic villain of that era, with too many irl examples to count, but they could have made him smarter.
Another questionable thing here is that the drama presents another villain in the last two episodes, who was working behind the scenes to eliminate the main villain and his whole clan. And even though FL uses his schemes against him to deal with the main villain herself, that new powerful villain's shadow looms over the whole happy ending as there's a season 2 teaser (which is already announced) with him after the credits of the last episode.

CONCLUSION:
Overall, this drama is well paced, even though it's clear that some episodes were cut due to total episode count being shortened. Some scenes are abruptly cut, especially in the beginning of the drama and perhaps the last two episodes. But nothing important was lost, the drama is easy to follow if you pay attention and everybody got closure at the end with as happy ending as one can get considering the tone of this drama. I've read that cut content mostly involved some side characters' backstories and wasn't important to the main plot.

I also liked that the drama doesn't waste your time with empty talk or useless side characters taking up screen time.
And it rewards those who paid attention with meaningful dialogues coming into play in later episodes.
It also benefits from a second watch - you may notice how some plot points were set up from the very beginning. Made me appreciate the well thought out plot even more.

The drama also has high production value with expensive sets, superb costumes, well choreographed fights and very beautiful music. OST here really stands out. And some of FL's embroidered costumes likely cost as much as a whole episode of some cheaper dramas.

All in all, I give it an 8.5. Even with its flaws concerning the main villain and unfortunate episode cuts, its story, characters and music are memorable and quite charming, despite the dark, mature themes being exposed here.

Read More

A problematic and contrived "whodunit" insipired by real life tragic events

This drama turned out to be several episodes too many and just like in classic Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" the whodunit mystery overshadowed the real life tragedy that was the basis of this problematic story. There's no real respect for the irl victims of the tragedy that inspired this story - their fictional representations here are shown in a very negative light with no sane character alive.

And aside from annoying contrivances and switcheroos, the whodunit mystery didn't manage to reinvent the wheel here at all - whom everyone thought the most sus since the start were basically it.

And lastly, as soon as the villains went for the innocent victims, which was their agreed plan since the beginning, they lost all my sympathy. There were many ways to get revenge legally, especially with professional position they were in, but they blew it on senseless violence that begat only more violence.

I dunno, a 7 from me, I guess. Actors tried their best.

Read More

Korean take on "She-Hulk: Misandry At Law"

Very overrated, 6.5 overall from me.
1. Too much bashing on men. It feels like Western feminist agenda creeped into this kdrama.
2. Unlikable, unrelatable "She-Hulk" of an FL. Her acting in romantic scenes also wasn't very convincing. Or maybe it's because a hard-headed, jaded, misandric character like hers made me question her feelings towards ML until the very end.
3. Cliche, brooding ML with tropey mental trauma, which of course only FL was able to "cure" 🙄. And since she's so special somehow out of the blue, of course he immediately falls in love with her. A bit better acting than FL, but still pretty meh overall, wasn't getting top star vibes from him.
4. Additional baggage from their family experiences also was offputting - every other family has issues like that, it's nothing special, and children don't become an exaggerated mess like these two. The way they tried so hard to shoehorn all of their problematic behaviour to bad, but rather trivial experiences of the past still makes me wish that they would just go see a therapist or something.
5. The plot itself also was nothing to write home about. A typical rom-com, if a bit outlandish (mostly because of FL) and cringey (ML's delulu ex contribution).

Read More

A typical historical romance drama with a fresh twist

This would have been another one of those typical historical romance cdramas with wronged leads, lots of scheming for revenge, and court intrigue if it wasn't for one big twist - FL here suffers from severe psychological trauma and is an unreliable narrator. Add to that ML having a physical disability, and you get a dire mix of trauma dumping from the crippled leads in this drama, driving most of the plot. All in all, this drama is around 10% romance, 40% scheming, 50% trauma. So if you're looking mainly for romance here, you may be disappointed.

TL;DR:
POSITIVES:
- Very interesting FL character's concept
- Stellar Lishan mountain arc
- FL's cunning revenge schemes
- Different POVs and clever use of unreliable narration from FL's perspective
- Beautiful OST

NEGATIVES:
- Very lackluster, prudishly filmed romance
- Some big, forced angst for the sake of moving the plot
- Convoluted plot device
- Uncompelling, boring villains
- The plot is not easy to follow due to how it was filmed
- Lots of forgettable side characters

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FEMALE LEAD:
FL here is a genius level scholar, martial arts pro, experienced medical expert, skilled painter, savvy businesswoman, wise beyond her years and progressive, yet also kind, selfless and generally liked by all. She's also very cunning and plots elaborate schemes like a veteran strategist. She'd definitely fall into a typical Mary Sue category, but it's easy to close your eyes on all that because of her severe mental trauma.

5 years before the start of the plot, FL suffered a great tragedy at the scholar academy on mount Lishan, where she lived with her grandfather and other scholars. She survived, but it left a deep scar in her psyche, resulting in a severe case of PTSD, with symptoms such as hallucinating imaginary interlocutors, associating herself as another person, and completely erasing the tragedy from her mind. Her hallucinations come and go on a trigger when she's very stressed.
Because of this, it's very easy to sympathize with her - she's traumatized, her mind is fragile, she's lonely and yearns for family's warmth and somebody to lean onto. She's utterly devoted to ML after marrying him.

She expertly hides her plans and intentions behind all sorts of masks to complete her goals - naive, overly cheerful, impassionate, pitiful...But behind it all she's still that lonely, scared girl, crying her heart out on a desolated mountain.

The plot is heavily centered around FL and, like always in Bai Lu's dramas, she carries the whole drama on her shoulders. Forget about ML, he's just a prop here. Her intriguing, unpredictable character is the main highlight of this drama.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MALE LEAD:
ML here is rather boring, to be honest. It's obvious he's mainly here to love FL and heal her trauma; it's a female-centric drama after all.

He's a typical brave and loyal general prince who got his legs crippled in a war 8 years ago and whose family almost got wiped out on unjust charges of treason. He harbors a grudge towards the same villains as FL and wants to clear his family's name, but in 8 years he hasn't achieved much on that front. Only after FL arrives at his mansion, do things start moving with him. He gets promoted to a prefect position, which allows him to investigate the villains' dealings. But in the end, it's FL who manages to clear his family's name through her scheming.
His character can be described as reserved, brooding, mistrustful and intolerant to pity.

Though very suspicious and wary of people after suffering from his own tragedy, he rather quickly gets enamored with FL, which later gets even a bit obsessive. After she convinces him to heal his legs and he learns of her mental issues, he tries to help her overcome them in return. And in the end, after weathering all the misunderstandings and villains' schemes, he becomes her one constant in the world to lean onto.

However!
One of the major letdowns of this drama also involves ML. To move the plot back to the Lishan mountain, the writers couldn't come up with anything better but to force a blown out of proportion, angsty misunderstanding between the leads. This led to the signing of divorce papers and FL, with all her imaginary friends, leaving back to the mountain. All because ML got into his mind that FL only pitied him and never loved him. He couldn't conceive it could be both. And, bro, you didn't marry for love; she did a lot for you, like, A LOT. But nah, one big misunderstanding and it's "off to the mountain with you, imma divorcing you". If people acted this flippant in marriage all the time, no sane woman would want to get married. It's not a fkn car rent contract.
Thankfully, they didn't drag this for too long. ML hated FL for pitying him, but after learning what happened to her on the mountain, he himself became overwhelmed with pity and rushed after her. The ironic hypocrisy at its best.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PLOT:
The drama starts when FL is ordered to come down from mount Lishan back to her father's scummy family to marry ML in an arranged marriage. She leaves with a mental checklist of things to do:
• to avenge her mother's death;
• to avenge the mountain's graduates, who got persecuted;
• to uncover the edict plot device lost by her mother, which led to ML's family's ruin, and heal ML's crippled legs;
After the marriage, she immediately starts working on these things.
This is the most fun part of the drama - watching this dissonance-inducing character struggle with her mental trauma, all the while enacting her elaborate, cold and calculating revenge plans with precision and guile.

Another, absolutely stellar part of the plot was the Lishan mountain arc - FL elevated this drama to another level with her performance there. Prepare to cry.

Besides the intriguing mystery of FL's past and her revenge schemes, this is a typical historical romance drama - expect to see court intrigue, incessant scheming and plotting, annoying love polygons, etc. If you've seen a dozen such dramas already, there's nothing new to find here, unfortunately.

What they've tried doing cleverly with the plot here is carefully dosing crucial information about the mystery of what happened on mount Lishan, inserting different POVs, and introducing unreliable narration from FL's perspective.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PACING AND PLOT DEVICES:
Unfortunately, some scenes here were weirdly paced and edited, leading to uneven pacing overall. At times haphazard; at times abrupt; at times mulling over something too long; at times dropping names, but not showing who these people are until later; at times showing people, but you've got no clue who they are; lots of "blink and you miss it" plot points.
The drama also got quite draggy in the last couple of episodes, but at least nothing was rushed. Everyone had enough sceen time for their own epilogue and it was a happy ending for the leads.

There are also some very convoluted plot points here.
For example, the general-governor, whose murder was investigated for a long time, had such an egregiously written path to the capital, you can't help but get confused. He was kidnapped by one party, rescued by another, taken by a third, and murdered by a fourth.
And don't even get me started about the edict plot device. I even wrote an explanation with a timeline in discussions about it while trying to connect the missing dots.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

VILLAINS:
There are 3 main villains in this drama, and unfortunately, none of them are anything to write home about.

Marquis is a lapdog of the main villain - the empress dowager. Together, they staged a coup 8 years ago against the Crown Prince and erected the dowager's son as the new emperor. They then intimidated or killed all dissidents and kept on doing that for 8 years, until other factions started digging under them and eroding their bond with court intrigues.
The dowager's scenes mostly are as dull as watching paint dry, maybe because they tried showing her sickly and heavily burdened by regrets over the years.
And the marquis is so dumb and reckless and gets played so often throughout the drama, you'll quickly start questioning how these two even managed to grab and hold onto power.
All in all, these two are one of the major letdowns of this drama - very uncompelling and flat villains.

Then we also have the 3d villain - SML. The son of the killed Crown Prince and a contender to the throne, he's a typical Hamlet-esque character with some very annoying flaws, such as being obsessed with FL, being self-pitying, self-destructive, ruthless and conniving. He's a bit more interesting to watch, but in the later part of the drama he gets swept under the rug for many episodes, only to reappear in the end with predictable rebellion and pathetic death.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SIDE CHARACTERS:
There are also lots of side characters plotting schemes against the villains, against each other, and against the main leads, but it's all been there, seen that. If you want to watch smart court intrigues, this drama definitely is not it, to a point it just starts to get cartoonish at times. They also kept adding a new set of side characters on the regular basis, making the cast very bloated in the end.
Some side characters, like the marquis's sons, were boring and a plain waste of screen time. Some side characters, like the stupid assassin boy and ML's merchant friend+rival kingdom's princess, had such big wasted opportunities in their sublots, it's frankly mind-boggling they weren't utilized.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ROMANCE:
Unfortunately, it was so lackluster and prudishly filmed, it became another one of the major letdowns of the drama.
I've thought about what was so off about it for quite some time and here are my thoughts:

First, in terms of FL, for the bigger half of the drama she so often switched from acting overly cheerful, kind and friendly in one scene only to turn into a stone-faced, cold and calculating mastermind in another, that for the longest time it made me question whether anything she was doing or saying was genuine. So, her budding romance with ML also looked fake and not genuine for a long time. If it was for a purposeful sense of dissonance, it didn't do any favors to the romance subplot. Quite a bit later in the drama, they tried assuring the audience that she loved ML from the beginning by showing her having a teenage crush on him after he saved her one time years ago. But the first impression at that point had already taken deep root, and since it happened years ago, before her suffering mental trauma, it still wasn't convincing enough.

Second, while some viewers praised their good communication in the beginning, it mainly involved FL quickly resolving small misunderstandings with ML. But she never told him about or included him in her big revenge schemes. This led to a predictable, but very overblown conflict between the leads when ML learned she was lying to him. For the larger part of the drama they acted like a devoted married couple, but were working and plotting by themselves, never fully trusting each other, until it blew up in their faces.

Third, their relationship development skipped a few steps and never backtracked to pick them up.
Their romance here is a "slice of life", "skipping steps straight to the endgame", "old married couple" type. It lacked passion and sexual tension. ML was shown a few times to be nervous around FL, but she herself was looking like she's oblivious to any of this all the time.
Even when they finally consummated their marriage, it all looked so flat and unenthusiastic, it made me wonder whether anything actually happened there. There are literally two prudish kissing scenes in this drama, with none left for the ending, not to mention any mention about kids.
One could argue there was often something interfering with their romantic life - emotional unavailability from one side or the other, misunderstandings, them being busy with work or scheming. But there were also lots of quiet, peaceful moments that were wasted on day-to-day banalities and hand holding. At one point I was starting to wonder whether ML simply couldn't get it up, lol.

All in all, ML here shows more passion in being jealous and angry at FL's shenanigans, and FL acts most natural when she's executing her schemes and suffering from her trauma. It's possible the actors were uncomfortable with each other and failed to convincingly convey romantic feelings. But I saw these actors in other dramas, and I think romance wise the script simply was a disservice to their acting abilities. Not including a kiss in the final episode of a romance drama is just a crime in itself.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PRODUCTION AND MUSIC:
Compared to some of the recent cdramas, the sets and costumes here are on the cheaper side, but at least they're fresh and new. I'm very tired of seeing the same palace sets in every historical cdrama made in the last 4 years or so. They've also tried stylizing everything with a pretty color palette - you can see it in the filters, sets and all costumes, definitely eye-pleasing.
And the last major highlight of this drama is the music - the background instrumental music is superb, and Zhou Shen's intro delivered as always, and there were some other nice songs here.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CONCLUSION:
This drama sure was a rollercoaster in terms of how to rate it. I went back and forth as the episodes aired. And in the end, I gotta say that overall it's quite good. Some parts of it were simply stellar; some, unfortunately, didn't deliver.
If you're a fan of Bail Lu's work, it's definitely a must watch - compared to her other dramas, it's one of the better ones. She's been on a roll this year with good dramas. Her performance in the Lishan mountain arc will probably net her all the yearly awards, it was so good.
There were some very annoying letdowns in this drama, though, described in detail above, so I had to lower the score a bit. Overall, it's an 8 from me.

P.S. If you want to watch a drama where Bai Lu unquestionably fits her role like a glove, with none of the draggy soap in the plot, go watch her previous drama - Unveil: Jadewind. And it's funny, but even that grim detective drama had more exciting romance than in Mo Li, even though it wasn't the main focus.
For an intelligent court intrigue and revenge drama with well-written complex villains, I'd recommend the recent Legend of Zang Hai.

Read More

Too slow and boring

Unfortunately too slow and boring, with lots of "Captain Obvious" moments that get mulled over for too long. Cases are nothing special to write home about either, if you've seen a decent amount of detective dramas, there's certainly nothing memorable here. Cases are so so in the first part, but they turn into a real snooze fest when the plot moves to the capital. Everybody and they mother (literally) are plotting like uncouth thugs, even the royal family, and it turned this drama into a circus, where you can't take anybody seriously or relate to their problems.

This drama is one of those that quite unsubtly drills feminist ideas, not as blunt as in Blossom, but somewhere close. FL here is a typical Mary Sue, made to stand out among the rest of the cast by dumbing them down. She's made here a super pro out of nowhere, who looks like she was making 10 autopsies a day before the start of the drama. She has a super modern approach to conducting them as well, that wasn't established at all in ancient China, where autopsies were considered a taboo for a long time because of religion. Yet with all that, they somehow forgot to put an apron, a cap and a mask on her - she conducts autopsies in her fancy dresses, inhales the fumes and lets her hair down to swipe all the nasty stuff. Perhaps it was done so as not to obscure FL's pretty face and body, but it looked dumb af and threw all seriousness of autopsy scenes out the window, especially considering other historical cdramas have coroners wear proper work attires. And even in this very same drama there were other coroner guys wearing full set up.
She's also a very knowledgable medic, that puts to shame all the rest. Furthermore, it's like there are no medics or coroners of any decent level at all there, even in the captital. It could have been believable if it was some backwater village, but it's been deliberate and forced here to make the rest look dumb and her to stand out.
So all in all, her background is not believable and feels forced - a sheltered daughter of a judge, who out of nowhere got as if decades of experience as a coroner, a sleuth and a medic. Sure, her father could have told her some, she could have read some books, and got some experience at the medical valley (though she didn't live there for 10 years like the real person she took her persona from did). But it's been made clear she wasn't allowed to conduct real autopsies or investigations before the start of drama.

The actress is also rather stiff and they overdid something with her eyebrows and makeup, making her look older that she actually is.

ML is also pretty meh, your typical pretty boy general (though is so thin and non-muscly, it's rather hard to believe he trains in martial arts), who's got all the power to order people around and allow FL to help him conduct investigations. He got into her out of nowhere very early on, while investigating her fraudulent persona.

Often having FL very conviniently to be present at just the right place to save high ranking people from death, as well as solving cases like no other grants her tons of boons over the span of the story. And ML is fawning over her like a simp basically from the very beginning. If it's your cup of tea for romances, then go for it. Personally, the more it went on, the more cringe it looked.
Dorky side couples weren't interesting either, since most of those young actors were overacting too much.

It also has too many useless side characters that don't contribute much to the story. You gotta pay attention who's who in those sprawling scheming families, with more cartoonish characters introduced every few episodes.

Anyway, overhyped and I'm genuinely disappointed.

Read More

Underrated rom-com gem

This is one of my favorite dramas, I think it's underrated. It's a very cute, lighhearted and funny drama, but there are actually many interesting serious subplots going on there aside from romance story, if you care to dig in. The major one being how a public person's career can be ruined by easily swayed public opinion. It's real, you can see such sad stories about Korean actors and idols quite frequently. And it doesn't matter if allegations are proven wrong, it's still very hard to come back to work in the industry once the public image is ruined. It takes a strong, thick skinned person to overcome this. There are also several interesting legal cases shown throughout the series, a creepy stalker as a villain and funny side plots about law firm's coworkers and ML's friends.

It seems like people are downwoting this show for superficial reasons after dropping it after first two episodes, not giving it a chance, which is a shame.
No, FL is not really a dumb diva, but actually is a strong willed, hard working, kind and quite intelligent woman. But she is a bit of a narcissist, because she knows she's very pretty and has high self-esteem. Her main problem is that she acted in so many TV projects, experiences taken from which sometimes interfere with her sense of reality.
No, ML is not really an emotionless rude ass - he's an introverted, hard working guy, who quite frankly is overworked at his workplace, so he comes initially as very cranky and intolerant towards incompetence and anybody bringing chaos to his boring scheduled life. He also lacks self-awareness and they're both quite naive in some life aspects, and that's what makes it funny.

All the actors nailed it here, not only the main leads, who have great chemistry together and are great actors in general (I actually liked them here much better than in Goblin). But I also was really impressed with all the secondary cast, which is actually rather rare to see. I especially liked two Yeon relatives - law firm's and entertainment agency's CEOs, they were quite funny.

So if you want a nice, feel good drama with a happy ending without tired cliches like love triangles, angst, LDR, sappy childhood traumas, destiny etc. then give it a try. It's actually much better than many more recent overrated dramas, where there's always either some sort of toxic relationship, drama for drama's sake, obligatory love triangles, prolonged misunderstandings, etc. But this one is just a pure and sweet drama with nice characters that you don't have to stress about while watching it.

Read More

Part 1 was better

The preparation stage was long and tough, but the execution was surprisingly easy - after throwing some spicy s*it into the fan, FL simply had to watch how the toxic bully clique basically destroyed themselves.
FL was bluffing a lot though, her plan was not bulletproof, but she counted on rotten nature of those involved and they did not disappoint.
And way too many convenient events, serendipitous to FL's plan, also helped smooth the execution by a lot.
Still, it was satisfying to watch the main plot unfold, how FL's bullies ruined themselves and got what they deserved.

On the minus side, I'm also of the popular opinion that romance was not necessary here. Those two actors just didn't mesh together, and later reveals about ML and his fixation on FL kinda creeped me out. I'd even go so far as to say it ruined what should have been a catharthic ending with that unfinished side plot about ML's revenge.

Most of the cast did a splending job, especially the actress playing spy/housewife, she has some range, I think her role was way tougher to play than FL.
The main evil bitch was great too - loved to hate her.
Her businessman husband was also awesome, he had a lot of presence even though he was just a side character.
Some bad guys were overacting too much though, especially FL's mother.
FL was ok for playing a deadpan character, but I think a bit younger actress may have been better. ML looked like he was miscast, tbh.

Anyway, a good show overall, definitely one of the best revenge dramas out there. No cringey makjang or extreme violence like in some other revenge dramas out there that made me drop them.

Read More

Controversial drama with disappointing ending

Controversial drama with disappointing ending

This drama has stellar cast and production quality is superb, but the plot and message behind it are very controversial, to say the least.

The first 4 episodes were a solid 9, though heavy-handed, insensitive religious patronizing can be clearly seen from the very beginning. But after episode 5 it rapidly went downhill. Episode 6 was like those countless crime dramas about exaggerated corruption and untouchable chaebols with over the top acting and resolutions. Very meh.
And the last two episodes were drilling on the same message - suicide is a selfish act, it's not about you, you should keep on suffering for the sake of others. The only insightful part was about a suicidal salary man, who basically started the chain of events that lead ML to his own suicide - it showed ML the ugly reality of that dream he so desperately wanted to have, the one the government and society kept on brainwashing him to strive for since he went to school. But they never delved anywhere further with that. Instead of guilt shaming ML with his mother for the whole episode they should have explored what ML really wanted in life, how can he be true to himself like he said he wanted to. Is being a cog in an uncaring corporate machine what people really should strive for in life? Just such a waste of potential here narrative wise.

But as it is, this drama didn't try looking into the cause, didn't try to resolve any of the problems SK's society has that leads people to commit a staggering amount of suicides every year, like poverty and unemployment, it just tried to guilt shame suiciders through religious and societal dogmas. Makes one think that it was sponsored by SK's government, who seems to be impotent in solving this serious country wide issue and now just resorts to such cheap shots like this drama. Maybe it will work better on Asian audience with their traditionally communal mentality, but it's a very hard sell for individualistic West.

The suicide topic here is viewed from such narrow perspective, it really started to piss me off by the end. No exploration of mental health state of suicidal people or various circumstances that lead to this hard decision. Yeah, in ML's case perhaps he was too rash in attempting suicide since he had a caring mother and a girlfriend (though seeing how lonely he was with his problems at the beginning, these people have shown him lack of moral support when he really needed it, and his mother was later shown hoarding money for him, which she should have given him years ago to help cover his education debts he was paying off for many years). But what about people who have no such people in their lives? What about terminally ill/severely crippled/mentally unwell people who see themselves as burden to their relatives and society? What about kids being beaten by their own drunkard parents and nobody cares? What about people who are living in miserable poverty with no hope for a better future? They should also keep on suffering for the sake of others and their country or go to hell? So many unique lives with unique problems, but this drama had no compassion or desire to explore any of that. It's like that cartoon meme: Nope, stop talking, go to hell.

As for the ending, well, ML got a second chance in life and that's a win (?). But consequently it also invalidated everything ML did in other people’s bodies and all those who were supposed to die will die, including his girlfriend, and all the bad guys, including two serial killer psychos, will still be walking scott free.
So all in all, this drama just left me kinda perplexed as to how to score it, because, on the one hand, the quality and cast were superb, but controversial message and disappointing ending made me feel like I've wasted my time watching this.
I guess I'll score episodes 1-5 with 8.5 and 6-8 with 7.0.

Read More