BelindaA
This review may contain spoilers
K-Drama in its true form
Yes, I am very late to this fest. Yes, I loved it. Descendants of the Sun served pretty much everything that made me watch K-Dramas in the first place: An emotional OST, cheesy slow-mo scenes, swoon-worthy characters and an over-dramatic plot.
I am aware that the plot was over-dramatic - one or two fewer disasters would’ve been fine. But then again I think the drama is very self-aware, which was made obvious with the last scene, where they wanted to enjoy a nice wedding dinner and then ANOTHER huge catastrophe happened. The ending was super fun and tongue-in-cheek, I loved it.
Yoo Si Jin made my knees weak. While a uniform makes every man immediately more handsome and desirable, it was his easy confidence and bluntness that made his character so incredibly attractive. He was not playing games or beating around the bush. But I found Seo Dae Yong just as attractive and lovable. If I was a character in the drama, I would’ve probably gone for him, not gonna lie.
Onew’s role was super annoying, I hated him and his plot line and it was one of the reasons I didn’t give this a 10/10. It was such unnecessary drama. If he didn’t have a pregnant wife back home, I would’ve thought there was gonna be a romantic side-plot with him and the patient he abandoned - why else would they be so dramatic about each other? Plus, they had insane chemistry. But since that wasn’t gonna happen, the plot line was super pointless and overly dramatic. Props to Onew though, he’s a good actor and managed to make me hate his character.
I wish there were subtitles for the English parts because I basically couldn’t understand anyone except David McInnis. And I’m not just talking about the Korean actors - most of the white actors were just as bad. And even if someone’s pronunciation was ok, by the time my brain realized it had to switch to English, I'd already missed what they were saying.
Serious props to David McInnis, though. I think he is the only good non-Korean actor I’ve ever seen in K-Dramas. (I realize he has Korean heritage but he grew up in the US.)
Most actors who play non-Korean characters in K-Dramas are white dudes (and dudettes) who emigrated to Korea because their acting was too bad to land a role in the West. It’s honestly my biggest pet peeve about K-Dramas and it is still happening today (cough Squid Game cough). Even if it’s just a guest role, please hire actual actors with some talent and not just the next best white dude you can find in Korea - thanks.
Anyway, David McInnis actually is a talented actor and contributed to the drama. The same can’t be said about the other non-Korean actors in this.
(Shoutout to Anupan Tripathi though, I loved seeing him for a moment as „man who gives the shoe to Dr. Kang“ lol.)
Anyway, Descendants of the Sun has some flaws, such as bad actors in guest roles, an annoying side-plot and hard-to-understand English, but it gave me all the feels and made me both squeal and cry. K-Drama cheesiness at its best.
I am aware that the plot was over-dramatic - one or two fewer disasters would’ve been fine. But then again I think the drama is very self-aware, which was made obvious with the last scene, where they wanted to enjoy a nice wedding dinner and then ANOTHER huge catastrophe happened. The ending was super fun and tongue-in-cheek, I loved it.
Yoo Si Jin made my knees weak. While a uniform makes every man immediately more handsome and desirable, it was his easy confidence and bluntness that made his character so incredibly attractive. He was not playing games or beating around the bush. But I found Seo Dae Yong just as attractive and lovable. If I was a character in the drama, I would’ve probably gone for him, not gonna lie.
Onew’s role was super annoying, I hated him and his plot line and it was one of the reasons I didn’t give this a 10/10. It was such unnecessary drama. If he didn’t have a pregnant wife back home, I would’ve thought there was gonna be a romantic side-plot with him and the patient he abandoned - why else would they be so dramatic about each other? Plus, they had insane chemistry. But since that wasn’t gonna happen, the plot line was super pointless and overly dramatic. Props to Onew though, he’s a good actor and managed to make me hate his character.
I wish there were subtitles for the English parts because I basically couldn’t understand anyone except David McInnis. And I’m not just talking about the Korean actors - most of the white actors were just as bad. And even if someone’s pronunciation was ok, by the time my brain realized it had to switch to English, I'd already missed what they were saying.
Serious props to David McInnis, though. I think he is the only good non-Korean actor I’ve ever seen in K-Dramas. (I realize he has Korean heritage but he grew up in the US.)
Most actors who play non-Korean characters in K-Dramas are white dudes (and dudettes) who emigrated to Korea because their acting was too bad to land a role in the West. It’s honestly my biggest pet peeve about K-Dramas and it is still happening today (cough Squid Game cough). Even if it’s just a guest role, please hire actual actors with some talent and not just the next best white dude you can find in Korea - thanks.
Anyway, David McInnis actually is a talented actor and contributed to the drama. The same can’t be said about the other non-Korean actors in this.
(Shoutout to Anupan Tripathi though, I loved seeing him for a moment as „man who gives the shoe to Dr. Kang“ lol.)
Anyway, Descendants of the Sun has some flaws, such as bad actors in guest roles, an annoying side-plot and hard-to-understand English, but it gave me all the feels and made me both squeal and cry. K-Drama cheesiness at its best.
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