This review may contain spoilers
:)
Descendants of the Sun has always been a drama I wanted to watch because of the positive reviews, but when I eventually got around to watching it, I was utterly dissatisfied. I'm sure others agree that this drama has been overhyped. This is because the drama was overall difficult to watch.The ML: much to my surprise, this character was quite intriguing. The actor was able to successfully portray two of the character's characteristics (the vulnerable and serious trait). But the cheesiness was overpowering, and there were instances when his persona was intended to be cool but did the opposite.
The FL: The FL: The idea of this character being an outspoken female doctor who cares deeply about her patients, coworkers, and boyfriend was fantastic, but the actor's performance was not convincing. Rather than all of the positive aspects of her character that I mentioned, this actress's performance made the character come across as petulant in a way. And it was difficult to empathize with her since she constantly came off as pathetic.
The main couple: Because I knew the actors who played these roles were dating at the time, I had high hopes for their chemistry, but I was disappointed yet again. Maybe it's because I'm not a huge believer in love at first sight, but their relationship growth was quite complicated, and I believe it was due to a lot of going back and forth in the relationship. And there was a scene (or maybe more) in the drama where the ML kissed the FL but she didn't kiss back. She basically stands there like a statue, without moving a muscle, and the fact that the ML continued kissing was honestly disturbing.
The second couple: I would usually skip over the first lead couple to the second lead since they were so cute and really spared some of the drama for me, but they had a lot of misconceptions and hurdles in their relationship that I felt were repetitious, so I'll give them a 7/10.
The overall story had a lot of potentials, but the romance was more of a detriment than a positive for me. So that's that.
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Refreshing Idea, but needs more focus on characters.
There were quite many things to love about Taxi Driver, and I hate that I couldn't agree on giving a higher rating, but the things I did love include:- The idea of getting revenge through a Taxi was a very refreshing idea and the comfort the victims felt when the main character, Doki listens to their stories warmed my heart a lot.
- The main character, Doki was also very complex, and not to even mention the actor's portrayal of this character's weaknesses, strengths, actions, and even reasonings was really good.
- The awareness each of their cases raised, watching the victims tell their struggles was very heartbreaking but the fact that these cases actually occur in real life allowed us as viewers to see why we should try as possible to be better or more supportive of victims who go through horrifying things as such.
- The villain, Beak Sun Mi, was a very complex character who knew what she wanted and was smart enough to get her hands on it.
- Both of the FLs. One of them was Go Eun, Go Eun had a bad backstory that made her physically and emotionally unstable, yet despite this, she was able to get herself up and fight for what she desired, demonstrating her strength. I absolutely loved that.
On the other hand, despite the fact that she was despised by the majority of viewers, I adored Hana's character because she had such an independent demeanor and a stubborn intellect that made me fall in love with her right away. And she was just despised by the majority of spectators since she held a different belief than the Blue Bird Team.
Things I disliked:
- The founder of the Blue Bird team, Jang Sung Chul had very little intricacy or steady composition. Yes, he was brilliant enough to form the team, but given that all he did was get angry, he seemed to me to be a self-pitying, anger-driven man who wasn't even smart. For example, when Beak Sun Mi was exposed to be the villain as the series progressed, I was unhappy that he hadn't seen it coming. It didn't make sense; he was working with a lady who could murder him with the flick of a finger, and he had no leverage to defend himself and his crew. His supposed personality traits of being intelligent and intimidating had nothing to do with 90% of the things his character performed.
- Stripping Go Eun of the follow-up of her backstory. I enjoyed Go Eun's character and was surprised to see that she had a background, but I'm pleased she did. Unfortunately, almost nothing happened with her after her backstory episodes; I mean, she's one of the main characters, so a backstory should've been inevitable; it was almost as if they'd forgotten about her.
- Hana's wasted potential. As much as I like her character's steadiness and independence, I despised how long it took the scriptwriter to put her on the team. Her joining the team was something I expected to happen even before the drama aired, but they took much too long to do so. Hana was a clever person who understood her way around the law, therefore I believe she could have protected the team better even if the law didn't punish the offenders harshly enough. They could've also given her character a more interesting backstory.
I recommend this but if you're like me you'll have difficulties wrapping your head around the unsteady development of some of the characters.
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Arthdal Chronicles Part 3: The Prelude to All Legends
2 people found this review helpful
The Concept Is Unusual In Kdrama But The Plot Was Lacking.
I was very excited before watching this drama since I had never seen a kdrama with such a concept (the timeline), however, in the end, the plot/theme about destiny and political thrill was very basic.The actors, without a doubt, delivered amazing performances, and as someone who has never been a huge fan of Song Joong Ki, I was very impressed with how effectively he handled both of his roles.
The music wasn't particularly memorable or unusual, but it was better than nothing...(I love the artist though).
Now for the plot. Half of the first part was slow but bearable because it was mostly about getting to know Arthdal, but it picked up a little in the second half before slowing down again. The second part was when the repetition became worse they would talk about the same things over and over again, about the children that would destroy the world, about Tagon, the antagonist, who didn't have thought of his own, his convoluted love life, and the random characters thrown in with little or no context Not to mention the near-impossibility of character growth.
The whole political issue was nothing out of the ordinary. To be honest, I expected politics in this drama, but it was the same old "I'm going to murder you to acquire power" mentality. No one really used their brains, except Tae Al Ha. Speaking of Al Ha, her father, his death caught me off guard; he had been portrayed as wicked throughout the drama, but right before he dies he is this ambitious guy, that wanted to save his tribe. The problem here is they could've invested more into the mindsets of each key character, which would've prevented the constant confusion.
I can't talk about each character but the overall presentation made the timeline of the story too much of a big deal that they didn't realize it was failing.
The cinematography was one of the things that disappointed me the most; they should've spent more time on the cinematographic concept as well. I wanted to witness the supposedly 'magical' situations as stunning sights at times, but that didn't happen. I wasn't going to say this, but even Hotel Del Luna had a lesser budget had stunning cinematography.
Ultimately, Arthdal Chronicles came through with a new concept but the plot still needs more work. I think a lot of people were so fascinated by the concept that they didn't pay attention to the growth of the plot.
Despite all I've said, I'm still waiting for the second season since I feel it has the potential to improve.
It has the potential to be a masterpiece, but it isn't....well, for now :)
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I liked the ost (a lot it's still on my playlist till today), I liked the mystery, and I liked the comedy (it was cool).
The problem was the FL and ML's relationship as much as I shipped them I didn't like how their relationship obstacles were hindering the investigation process. The story had a lot of potentials, especially the mystery part of it.
I hated the 'both ways love triangle' not only was it getting on my nerves, but it was also unnecessarily like both of the leads already had their personal problems what's with the love triangle. I really liked the ML and Fl's acting it was really forthright and enjoyable to watch.
Another reason I liked this drama was because of the way each character had something to deliver. The romance genre of this drama might have been unnecessary to me but apart from that, the drama was quite fun and thrilling.
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This drama wasn't it...atleast for me
I'm gonna start with the story, the story was very attractive and because of this I was disappointed. I mean who wouldn't like a story with three badass FLs.1) The story/ the ending, in particular, was predictable
2) The team was lacking, what I mean by that is there too many unnecessary obstacles, and almost every now and then the team tries to obtain something they can't lay their hands on it. This was quite frustrating for me to watch.
3)The romance was a whole obstacle of its own, even though I considered Ye Eun (the expert at computer) and the celebrity to be a cute couple I thought the romance between the CEO and the main character was overwhelming considering the fact that she was an agent, and that to someone he knew from the past.
4) As much as I liked the actors, I felt like some of their actings was exaggerated.
5) The drama as a whole was unnecessarily dragged out.
I liked the action scenes and the team leader(Gwan Soo), those were probably the only things that kept me from being distracted while watching this drama. As someone who had been waiting for this drama for a while, I was really disappointed. The writer had us in the beginning but the writer just went astray. I expected something refreshing/new but it turned out this way.
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Problematic
I might be overreacting but this drama is what I would like to call: disappointment + frustration = Junky.This drama started off well, it was quite intriguing considering the fact that I haven't seen a lot of good kdramas this year. But then after one or two eps after eps 5, the disappointment started.
They started adding new information to the drama, which made the drama seem like a whole other drama when I watch the new episodes.
The characters weren't put to good use, take for instance a character like Do Yeon, she was a reporter they could have done a lot of things with her character like bringing awareness to others and getting information. but no they didn't do that. I really despised the way they made it seem like prof. Yoon and Park Jin Gyeom were the only important character. And not only did they do that I feel like they could have made Prof. Yoon's character bring more to the table, they just made it seem like she was nothing without Park Jin Gyeom.
And I also wanted to see more of Prof. Yoon and Do Yeon work together toward the end their teamwork was admirable.
The end was really really unsensible if you'd ask me, anyone, who watched it ould have known it was rushed and while trying to come up with a thrilling idea, the best they could come up with what they gave us.
I would recommend watching the first 5-6 eps and then leave the rest to your imagination If you don't want to be disappointed like I was.
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The songs in this drama were really good, catchy, and sometimes tear-jacking. The theme of teamwork was really enjoyable to watch and I also felt like the romance or slight romance between Suk Ho and Geu Rin was unnecessary but Geu Rin's managing skills were also admirable.
And I especially loved Chan Hee he was such an adorable and wise kid.
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