Angana
This review may contain spoilers
What a rollercoaster ride of action, thriller and emotions!! A Must Watch.
DO NOT RELY ON THE MDL RATING. WATCH THIS DRAMA. YOU WILL NOT REGRET.
Even though I watched this show 2 years later than it was aired, I feel compelled to write this review.
This is easily one of my top favorite Korean action thriller.
I have absolutely no idea why this show has such less rating and what exactly people found illogical in it. But other than getting little dragged in the middle, I have found no issue with this whole series.
Well, considering the people in Rugal have artificial limbs and GPS tracking eyes, the show is as logical as it can be within the premise of their world setting.
To be honest at this point I will never question Choi Jin Hyuk's choice of drama or movie. In my eyes he can do no wrong, be it playing the lead or the second lead. He is not just a handsome pretty face, but also an extremely talented actor and he has proven it in this drama once more.
The Story: The story is easily one of the best part of this show. The twists came completely out of the blue but also made sense when you understand the clarifications they have given in the show. It also broke my heart not just for the male lead Kang Gi Beom played by Choi Jin Hyuk but also for the other members of Rugal who were manipulated into experiments under the guise of justice. This show made no effort to somehow give them happy ending or make the ending all sunshine and rainbows after all the amount of trauma and hardship the 4 main characters went through. It stayed true to the realistic suffering of any trauma survivors, trying to somehow still carry on. And this was probably the most realistic thing about the show, even though it was so heartbreaking and left me wanting at least 3,4 more episodes of them finally living mundane and normal life, happily and content with each other with no more trauma.
The Characters: What I loved the most was the difficult but still sweet bromance between Kang Gi Beom and Han Tae Woong (played by Jo Dong Hyuk). They started off as "alpha male"ish characters who will show no mercy and at the end became each other's support system. It was so satisfying to see Han Tae Woong finally understanding how hurt Kang Gi Beom was and taking his side at the end. The other two characters were also so well written.
Jung Hye In's character Song Mi Na was such a badass lady in this story. And she did not get overshadowed by despite of being the only female teammate with three other male team mates, unlike many other dramas. All the 4 characters were given almost equal importance and a good backstory. It would have been better if Park Sun Ho's character Lee Gwang Chul had a better backstory. But if that happened he would probably not remain as child like as he was in the story, so I am not complaining much.
And most importantly all the actors have acted the characters as realistically as possible. The heroes and the villains alike.
I would however want a little backstory of Bradley, Susan and Doctor Oh and why and how they simply agreed to such human experiments knowing that if the experiments failed the subjects will die.
The Villains: This drama easily have the worst villains among the ones I have ever seen. And the main villain who is shown from the start is not even as bad as the other villains that you will get to know at later stages. Somehow even the main villain could have been forgiven but not the other ones. I personally felt like killing these other villains if it was possible for me to get inside the show. What I mean is the story is that good that at some point you are willing to even forgive the most terrible human but not the ones manipulated and caused so much hurt.
Production: They have done a tremendous job with the cinematography and the graphics. Stating from the visual effects of artificial eyes to action sequences, the drama is extremely well produced. Most of the action sequences are very Matrix like and what a sight to watch. Their was not exactly a OST to remember but the all the background scores and the music were very fitting to the story as well as the action and thriller.
I can keep on writing so much about this show but I will probably also end up giving all spoilers. So long story short, PLEASE WATCH THIS DRAMA.
Even though I watched this show 2 years later than it was aired, I feel compelled to write this review.
This is easily one of my top favorite Korean action thriller.
I have absolutely no idea why this show has such less rating and what exactly people found illogical in it. But other than getting little dragged in the middle, I have found no issue with this whole series.
Well, considering the people in Rugal have artificial limbs and GPS tracking eyes, the show is as logical as it can be within the premise of their world setting.
To be honest at this point I will never question Choi Jin Hyuk's choice of drama or movie. In my eyes he can do no wrong, be it playing the lead or the second lead. He is not just a handsome pretty face, but also an extremely talented actor and he has proven it in this drama once more.
The Story: The story is easily one of the best part of this show. The twists came completely out of the blue but also made sense when you understand the clarifications they have given in the show. It also broke my heart not just for the male lead Kang Gi Beom played by Choi Jin Hyuk but also for the other members of Rugal who were manipulated into experiments under the guise of justice. This show made no effort to somehow give them happy ending or make the ending all sunshine and rainbows after all the amount of trauma and hardship the 4 main characters went through. It stayed true to the realistic suffering of any trauma survivors, trying to somehow still carry on. And this was probably the most realistic thing about the show, even though it was so heartbreaking and left me wanting at least 3,4 more episodes of them finally living mundane and normal life, happily and content with each other with no more trauma.
The Characters: What I loved the most was the difficult but still sweet bromance between Kang Gi Beom and Han Tae Woong (played by Jo Dong Hyuk). They started off as "alpha male"ish characters who will show no mercy and at the end became each other's support system. It was so satisfying to see Han Tae Woong finally understanding how hurt Kang Gi Beom was and taking his side at the end. The other two characters were also so well written.
Jung Hye In's character Song Mi Na was such a badass lady in this story. And she did not get overshadowed by despite of being the only female teammate with three other male team mates, unlike many other dramas. All the 4 characters were given almost equal importance and a good backstory. It would have been better if Park Sun Ho's character Lee Gwang Chul had a better backstory. But if that happened he would probably not remain as child like as he was in the story, so I am not complaining much.
And most importantly all the actors have acted the characters as realistically as possible. The heroes and the villains alike.
I would however want a little backstory of Bradley, Susan and Doctor Oh and why and how they simply agreed to such human experiments knowing that if the experiments failed the subjects will die.
The Villains: This drama easily have the worst villains among the ones I have ever seen. And the main villain who is shown from the start is not even as bad as the other villains that you will get to know at later stages. Somehow even the main villain could have been forgiven but not the other ones. I personally felt like killing these other villains if it was possible for me to get inside the show. What I mean is the story is that good that at some point you are willing to even forgive the most terrible human but not the ones manipulated and caused so much hurt.
Production: They have done a tremendous job with the cinematography and the graphics. Stating from the visual effects of artificial eyes to action sequences, the drama is extremely well produced. Most of the action sequences are very Matrix like and what a sight to watch. Their was not exactly a OST to remember but the all the background scores and the music were very fitting to the story as well as the action and thriller.
I can keep on writing so much about this show but I will probably also end up giving all spoilers. So long story short, PLEASE WATCH THIS DRAMA.
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