Charming92
Greece
Short version: If you enjoy thriller/mysteries with suspence and action packed scenes with various plot twists that will keep you at the edge of your seat, this is highly recommended. A good watch.
Long Version: Well... not so much.....
So... what we have here? We have a super ambitious drama on our hands. If i had one word to describe vagabond that word would be ambitious.
I'll take the time to carefully present both positive and negative points of this drama, so we can decide on the final score together.
THE GOOD
First thing that comes to mind when i think of Vagabond is scheming and plot twists. The drama starts as a revenge story about an uncle who wants to avenge the death of his nephew. Been there done that. It evolves in SO much more than this, leaving, what this seems to be at the end, a very small detail to be a mere plot device to start the plot. The drama evolves rapidly, including the police force, the NIS, the korean government, several multinational companies and even terrorist organizations...
I was disgusted and yet amazed at the filthyness of the government and pretty much the system of every sector depicted here. I loved to hate these people, the thing that made this drama a hit for me and will be kept memorable for! I can see, however, how this might be too much for some people to swallow and stand by to watch.
More specifically, Including and exploiting a country's own government and police force and pretty much everything legal, showing their worst possible face was especially hard to sit by and watch, but i can easily say this was the drama's highlight. I can applaud the writer for actually going as far as incrimination and even -if i may say- humiliating government executives, striving to show how everything is and -mainly- everyone is rotten to the core. Manipulation of people all in the name of power. *applauds*
Moreover, the drama is packed with fight scenes, which were... well executed, i admit, but... we've definitely seen better.
Furthermore, it has 16 episodes and around 32 plot twists. If it gets one thing right it is that you are kept at the edge of your seat like ALL THE FREAKING time, which makes the drama very binge-worthy! The twists were well delivered, both time-wise and plot wise. Some of them were kind of expected, but all of them were welcome, even if they touched upon the "tiring" territory more or less.
*thinks hard*
Ah! Well written.... villains! This might be more of a personal preference but i figured the villains were greatly written and quite well sustained throughout the episodes. They kept their -pretty questionable- values till the end and it was very fulfilling to watch.
All in all, a thriller/mystery like Vagabonds in its very core seems to be suspenseful and intriguing. If the drama achieved something this is it. There wasn't a dull moment and that is very much appreciated!
THE BAD
First of all, the drama suffered, like pretty much every drama of this genre, of terribly convenient writing, inconsistencies, superhuman main characters, and a very very experimental/unfulfilling ending.
In more detail, starting from the first episode, i just couldnt ignore the ridiculous superhuman main male lead role. Excessively unnecessary to the point it actually ruined half of the fight scenes for me. There is no reason for the male lead to be superman, if i wanted to watch superman i'd go watch.... superman. Ridiculous and way too overdone.
Moreover, the number of good vs bad people. Bish... come on. I get the plot twists and i expect half of "the good" guys change territories halfway through the show, but it was again way too overdone here. This in combination with the fact that the good guys were extremely naive and gullible, while the bad guys were cunning and smart and.... dunno... normal people, made this a whole lot more unrealistic. I get the overdramatization but you can't present me such wholesome bad guys and such stupid heroes and expect me to root for the heroes just for trying to do the right thing. Nope, that ain't me.
I wasn't the biggest fun of the fight scenes camera work. Shaking the camera during the action because.... they believe i'd feel like being there? Meh, no i ain't 12. Sorry
Dramas like this are known for not having any romance involved. That is a good thing in my book. While Vagabond didn't -thank god- have any proper romance development, there were quite a few *moments* between the main characters. I have to admit they were cute and they kind of served a purpose, but other than the comic relief and the cuteness they didn't bring anything to the table other than that.
All in all, many were the times i rolled my eyes so hard my eyes were almost stucked at the back of my head because of the stupidity and the directional choices for the characters. I dare to say that the drama, by its end, has developed in so many levels that it can arguably be expanded in its own francise with multiple seasons/movies. All this raw potential never get explored but instead we get some half assed final episode that tries to do too much and while it does succeed to a certain degree, it pains me to say that i can personally write a 22 episode season based on this ending that we will never see.
In the very end, i think Vagabond's own ambition destroyed it, or -let's not be so harsh- kind of killed it from within.
ACTING
Unpopular opinion: All the sub characters were better than the 2 leads.
Suzy has come a long way, and was a pleasure to watch, but she has a long way to go still.
Lee Seung Gi.... was good... But that is pretty much it, which leaves a lot to be desired next to supporting characters like Moon Jeong Hee who was... to die for in her particular role.
Finishing the hat, let's keep this simple. You like suspenseful dramas, with numerous plot twists that will not leave you keep calm for a split second? You don't mind switching off your mind and overlooking exaggerated siliness? You enjoy bad guys doing their thing the worst way possible? Then this drama is for you. I can easily recommend it, but know what you are getting into. For everyone else, this would most probably be a no. I don't regret watching it, mainly because of the world building, but over than that, this was cheap and unfulfilling.
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Story
The drama throws you in the 70s in the first 4 episodes. I can't tell i was very excited since i know nothing about Korea in the 70s, but it does a splendid work setting up the atmposphere. Episodes 5-20 fast-foward to 2012.
The main concept of the story is how painful first love can be, and i think, i can safely say, we can all relate at least to a certain extent. That feeling of adversity due to not being able to be with the one you love. It targets questions such us, 'should i put myself and my needs above everyone else and think only of me or put them first and look at the bigger picture?' .The show i think, tells us that being selfish to a certain point is acceptable and ok. In the very end, who will think of our happiness if not us first?
The drama centers 2 romances, 2 couples. First couple is the one from the 70s which.. didn't work back then but their love isn't dead, and the 2nd one is a younger couple in 2012. Plot twist? The younger couple is actually the son and daughter of the older one. Best thing about this drama: the romance.
The main story, even though nothing extraordinary, plays a lot with your feelings, it crawls in that grey area of what is wrong and right, making every decision even more difficult. The romance was satisfying but still i can't say that the drama was intruiging and interesting to watch. On the contrary it was rather boring, tedius and stretched.
Apart from that, it couldn't really decide what it wanted to be, the older couple was from start to finish the main melo plot of the story. The younger couple though... had some very fluffy rom-com scenes that i can understand how people might like them, but i didn't. I signed up for a melodrama and those scenes weren't welcome. The 2nd half of the drama was heavier melo but it was difficult to watch because of the constant back and forth in the script. I think the drama wanted to attract as many viewers as possible but it ended up being inconsistent and unstable.
Funny how many people argued that the older couple had too much screen time. I disagree. The main focus of the drama should have been the older couple, not the younger... It started with them, it was them from the very beginning... sadly the drama not only put them slowly in the secondary seat but even used them as a plot device to keep the younger couple apart. Chemistry wise, i can't say that the young couple had any, while the older one... sparks everywhere.
Moreover, the drama introduced some super irrelevant and borderline annoying secondary characters that brought nothing new to the drama, were just used as comedic relief or just conveniently to fill the episodes to 60 minutes.
Overall the drama was difficult to watch. The combination of tedium and constant melodrama due to miscommunication became old fast. It tried to be overdramatic but funny, while show 2 stories that are entangled and give a happy closure to both. I'm sorry but that was definitely not doable, it tried to do too much in the wrong way. In my opinion, it would have been better if the drama had stayed in the 70s. I found myself many times in later episodes asking for the original story to comeback, it was sincere and beautiful, something that the later episodes failed to maintain.
Acting
First time watching Yoona act, and because of the overwhelming hate i've actually been avoid watching this for over a year. Well, as expected, the hate is unreasonable. Yoona won't be winning any awards for her performance here, but none of the actors will. She was really great on par with everyone else, and to be honest, she was way better than i initially expected. Only error i can point out is her cringy crying, other than that i actually enjoyed watching her a lot.
First time watching Jang Geun Suk too. He was really good, he can definitely act, i wasn't swayed the way i want a male lead to affect me, but his performance was certainly great.
Special mention to my personal favourite who made me shed a lot of tears, Jung Ji Yeong. The man was emotional beyond imagination. I loved him deeply and his beautiful character!
Recommend/Rewatch
This one is difficult to recommend. This is straight up adressed to melodrama-romance fans. If you are a hard-core romantic, you'll like it. Other than that, just move on. Recommended with a grain of salt. I doubt i will ever rewatch this.
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Ok, don't get me wrong, love affairs was a good drama in every way and I enjoyed it. It's just that my expectations partly ruined the drama for me. I expected to watch hirugao again with Korean actors and what I got instead was a Korean version of it. Admittedly, when I started seeing the drama as a separate thing, my pleasure increased so note to everyone who watched the original and liked it. In retrospect, the positives, ultimately, outweigh the negatives which makes this a worthy drama.
Before I delve deeper into the aforesaid pro and cons, i should give a general idea of the drama for those who have completely no idea what this is about. Love affairs is a romance (melo)drama with the trope of infidelity mixed to keep things interesting. There are two companion stories going on, based on the female leads. Both women having their own affairs, depicted from completely different mindsets of completely different people. First story is almost completely based on romance, while the second story is a bit more harsh and stays closer to reality in my opinion.
THE GOOD
First of all, my favourite part of the drama, the poetic monologues and continuous symbolisms. Not something easy to miss. The main female lead, who is an aspiring writer, gives constant poetic, inspiring, beautifully written and moving monologues in the background, based on love, its positive and negative effects along with the pain of loving someone unavailable and forbidden. In the same lines goes the symbolism, also quite easy to catch, with virtues like love and faith being likened to places, beings ect symbolizing the sad reality of the characters. Obvious but very sweet and idyllic setting a scenic atmosphere.
I generally appreciated how the drama kept the original's base story and general idea. I acknowledged how they tried to recreate scenes, sceneries, even designs and decorations from the original, adding plot devices that, truth be told, made the drama only better. They extended an 11 episodes drama in a 16 full hour drama quite successfully. It wasn't really boring, and even when it was dragging, the episodes were easy to watch.
The drama in its core wants to deal with the concept of happiness. It wants to set that as our personal goal and work towards that. Taking a leaf from hirugao’s original book, it sets its tone in two failed marriages, trying to showcase how people settle down for the wrong reasons ending up unhappy and then how they try to battle with that everlasting soul-eating dissatisfaction. The message, sadly, doesn't make its way across all the time, but I appreciate how they tried to keep the core message of the original story.
I especially liked how they introduced more perspectives than the people only directly affected by the affair, showing a more widened idea of infidelity's repercussions. There were character additions to intensify the drama and bring comic relief, while others were given more prominent roles that its original Japanese counterpart. They all made sense and were successfully executed. No complaints here.
The romance takes the main wheel in the drama. For those who like romance, this will be a pro. Everything happens by the book, there are a lot of cliches though, which might turn some people off.
Finally, as far as music is concerned, they tried to pull some “secret love affair” classic music atmosphere here, which was, on the whole, also quite successful.
Generally, the drama tries to (sometimes successfully sometimes not) give a more artistic feel to the plot with monologues, symbolisms and sophisticated music. Effort taken under consideration!
At this point let me give a shoutout to the 2nd couple’s storyline. Ye Ji Won's character and general plot was saved from the Over-koreanization and stayed quite true to its roots of finding yourself, growing up, understand past mistakes, and working towards happiness through a path of difficult choices that will ultimately help you grow and mature. I especially appreciated certain scenes that were magnified by her luscious acting, showing that the choice of our significant other should be based on a person that will help us and inspire us to work harder towards our dreams and not be an emotional and energy vampire that just sucks the life out of us. This is the core foundation of walking towards happiness and this storyline beautifully showed that. Being this drama's saving grace, this story line had the realness the drama demanded, the amount of drama that was appropriate, the load of pain that made sense and the much needed and deserved character development that just made you love and root for her till the end!
Thankfully, the drama offers the aforementioned rightful development for all its characters by the end (despite being quite frustrating till that point). Ending in a very positive note that we should live and be happy for us, follow our dreams, not let anyone dictate our lives. Happiness comes firstly from within. The ending was healing.
THE BAD
Even though this was a pleasant watch, I cannot overlook the fact that almost instantly I got disappointed by the direction this took and ended up quite infuriated in half of the characters for reactions and choices that felt completely foreign (even laughable) to me, for the sake of (unnecessary) drama.
Now comparisons are bound to happen. The original featured some perfectly shaped, well rounded, deeply setted in reality characters, showing each side even when it didn't really want you to take their sides (their= the cheated individuals – aka hirugao was more precise and neutral).
For the sake of romance, the Korean version failed to do that. I never really saw the cheated characters as people. To me they were degraded to mere plot devices so as to keep the main couple apart. I wholeheartedly disliked this. Hirugao respected everyone and did not reduce any character to a caricature version of a human being for the sake of romance. This should not be the intention of infidelity dramas.
Speaking about romance, I disliked it for the most part. All the cliches in the book won't make me root for a couple who pretty much has no chemistry just because they run in the rain together, sorry. I need and demand more.
Moreover, misuse of the concept of adultery. Adultery is here used as a mere plot device to keep the main couple apart and nothing more. There is much more to all of this that being a reason for the main characters to hurt for not being with their loved one. The drama does show a more widened spectrum of its consequences like the society's backlash but it still focuses too much on the romantic part. I needed more.
What's more, too much back and forth. Especially during the middle episodes the story of the main couple kept going in circles till the end, ending up to it dragging and I just never got the characters Choices. I get that this is the Korean culture and shit is different but this just felt over exaggerated again for the sake of romance drama. I've seen a big number of adultery dramas to know that things aren't (or aren't supposed to be) like that anymore. Too much effort to dramatize the wrong, in my opinion, situations (aka the romance).
It is obvious I think that my main problem here was over focus on the romance and this is why I said in the beginning, if you like romance, this is for you. Mishandled in my opinion, over-koreanized to the point it lost part of it’s original charm, without finding new life as a Korean drama. A lot of missed opportunities.
ACTING
Well… the acting overall was ok, there was sadly limited chemistry between the Main leads and I have to admit that park ha sun's crying scenes weren't very satisfying or even believable. That being said, Ye Ji Won completely saved it being her usual flawless self.
RECOMMEND
Long story short, you into some romance melo and you enjoy adultery without it being too harsh or serious? Give this a try. In my honest opinion there are many better infidelity dramas out there if you’re into that. Between this and the Japanese version, the Japanese is seas ahead, but it depends on the viewer as well. It's not a bad watch if you are a fan of the genre or just have nothing else to watch.
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Love (Ft. Marriage and Divorce)
I think it can be safely said that S. Korea is a conservative country of timid nature, or at least that is what they like to present. Taking this as a fact, I can easily call this drama revolutionary, not in terms of story-telling, concept or development , but rather in the form of radical society re-formation - if I'm allowed that term.Love (Ft. Marriage and Divorce)'s writer has earned by deepest respect, because of how she tackled the concept of adultery in a very conservatives society, and managed to create a hit out of it without putting any classic kdrama troops in it - revenge, melodrama, sad backstories, excuses, makjang shit, nor Americanizing the genre by selling sex. Love (Ft. Marriage and Divorce) is a true kdrama but does not feel at all like one. No magic romance, no flashbacks, no sad back stories, no melo, no funny comic relief, no antagonist ect. Sounds boring? Yeah, i cannot argue with that. So if this sounds boring to you, you can really ignore this drama and move on with your life. However, if you think you are ready to watch something different and/or have gone through something similar in your life please do watch this, it's not profound but it's so well crafted that will, and i strongly believe it, win you over.
First things first. The drama doesn't glorify cheating husbands. It doesn't want to glorify adultery. What it wants to do is normalize the idea that infidelity is part of life -and it is, if we want to face it or not- and, at its very core, normalize divorce - which is also all around us (but maybe still a taboo is korea?). The drama basically conveys the message that making a mistake in choosing a partner, can happen, and that is ok. The question is what we do about that. And this is where the drama (could) become unbearable to watch. It's just too real. Too real for the average viewer, who wants to shut their mind off and watch a fairytale, to deal with. However it's so intense in the most soothing way. I was shocked at the amount of messages it relays in the form of everyday life situations. Could be considered a boring drama by most, but it targets mature audiences. At the very end I do believe, you need to have felt that (infidelity), to understand it, but it's a great way to learn about human relationships too.
Now, a little bit about the drama itself. It revolves around couples, married couples. At the center we get 3 couples (in their 30s, 40s and 50s) and as supporting characters we get 2 couples in their 60s+ and a single man. Basically this is a story about relationships, love and the marriage or divorce that could come out of it. One couple phases irreconcilable differences, one is the seemingly perfect couple with a perfect life, and the last one basically features male middle life crisis. As for the supporting cast, they show the other side of the spectrum in which marriage has seemingly succeeded but.... not that much - and then if married life sucks so much is the sworn single man actually happy?
Yes, brace yourselves, EVERYBODY is cheating or has been cheated on in reality or platonically. Does it really matter? No. The drama takes its story seriously, doesn't excuse what is happening, doesn't make it funny, or dramatic. It is solely character driven so do not expect any huge revelation mid way or any major back story to drop and wow you. What should wow you though is the characterization and character building.
The drama can be broken down in 2 parts. First 8 episodes, final 8 episodes. I could roughly say the first 8 episodes show what happens after the wife learns about their husband's questionable extramarital activities and the 2nd part how the husband gets there. However, the midway mark honestly made me sincerely reckon what happened in the writer's mind. Wouldn't be a stretch to say that it soft-reboots midway. At the same time it does feel like it was on purpose just to see the same thing from other perspectives. The drama isn't biased towards anybody, which was a magnificent way of story-development. It shows different sides of the same characters- layering them, and then it lets you understand and pick sides. I felt like the jury in a court room. I felt like a psychology major in couple's therapy 101. Magnificent development.
We get to see many different sides and stories of adultery. Reasons, thoughts behind it. Different examples, different perspectives. I loved how characters i liked or felt close to in the first half, i grew to detest in the 2nd and vice versa.
The drama made me evaluate several times what is wrong and what is actually worse than wrong. Made me think and rethink what I accept as "decent behavior" and obviously relays the message that things are way more complicated than "you cheated you a bad person, you can burn in hell" at the same time without excusing or glorifying a single thing. Simultaneously, I loved he constant play with the grey area of what is right and wrong. Cheating or getting in the middle of a couple is a bad thing, but does that automatically make you a bad person? Choosing a person to become your partner for life and then realizing you made a mistake. Is marriage a one time thing? Is it like jail? Are you forced to stay with that person forever because you married them, or you had children. And, is forcing yourself to stay with that person just because of all the aforementioned reasons, the recipe for a happy life? Deep shit right there.
I honestly applauded the drama in some subtle - or not- mainly female-targeted points like: take care of your self, strive for personal success, love yourself. It strays away from the classic expectations the korean (and not only) society has of women who basically revolve around family and housekeeping. Yas gurl, me approves.
I sincerely enjoyed some archetype cliches that were swapped here (dad is angry at a son cheating while mom is understand - we expect men to be more understanding of men cheating and women to not be. Women being the "man" of the relationship, caring and providing ect). There are no archetypes in real life and we shouldn't expect real people to act like that. There should be no exception based on gender
In its core i think the drama wants to change norm when it comes to marriage and relationships in general. I think this is something that the Korean general public needs to move from the "taboo" side to normal way of life. Yes cheating sucks, but could happen. What happens after that is what matters. The goal is for us to be happy and relationships don't always work the way we want them to. The drama deals with that in the best way possible. Totally worth the investment - just know what you are getting yourself into.
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STORY
The meaning of story was about money, its power, how it rules over people's lives, not only by the literal meaning (using money to survive/live better, more comfortably) but how money can define us, make us ashamed of ourselves or proud with no particular reason. The slow revolves around loan sharks and the people behind them who do the dirty work the the debtors can't pay up. In this story with loan sharks the main couple gets sucked in. The fiancee of the male lead suddenly disappears and he tries to find her. The description of the show tells you like 10% of the story. I originally didn't have much interest in watching this because i wondered how can they drag an idea like that for 16 episodes.
Thanfully the show has SO much more to offer than just a girl who disappears. The story is complicated, everyone is connected somehow. What was really amazing was the development of the story. It gets developed as a mystery in the beginning, but the show doesn't make you question things for a long time. You get rewarded for your patience. You get 1 question answered and 2 pop up, so this keeps happening, combine the mystery element with the FREAKING AMAZING fighting/action scenes and you pretty much get an 10/10 first half. I read people saying the first episodes are boring, i beg to differ. The first episode is rather slow, yes, not boring though. It needs to demostrate quite a few characters and situations, this usually happens. It picks up big time by episode 2 and keeps it up until like episode 7.
I don't have many bad things to say about the show, which makes me wonder why i don't want to rate it higher than 8.5. The show never gets dragged. Yes, they manage to keep up the suspense, not the mystery so much, but the show never gets slow, it always has a goal and it goes for it. Episodes 8-11 were good, but not as *wowing* as the first episodes. Episodes 12-16 are also good, but they got repetitive imo. Not boring, or slow, just repetitive. I mean, at some point i felt like this was never going to end. There is a milestone the leads need to reach, and as soon as they get there, another one appears. It felt like a constant struggle to watch them (especially the male lead). However, i don't blame the show for this, as i said, it doesn't get boring, there is always progress, no unecessary conversations here (this shocked me), i rewinded the show quite a few times to re-read some conversations to understand what happens next. I need to congratulate the writters for a very well crafted story. The only tiny thing i may say is that the show sometimes gave convinient help to the leads to 'win', i mean for example, the male lead could have died 4237497247 times but they were always underestimating him. However, those convinient moments didn't feel forced, or stupid or ridiculous or unrealistic, so i went with them.
Overall, the story was very well crafted, and the development was magnificent, seriously, i loved it, and it had quite a few plot twists along the way. The fact that i got tired of it and i felt it got repetitive, i blame it on the fact that this is not what i usually watch. A fan of this genre wouldn't have any problem keep going at all.
ACTING
I've read so many bad comments about the acting (especially on the 2 female leads) that i was actually expecting some seriously bad acting here, but not at all!
Lee Si Young. I came for her, and she was as flawless as expected. Guys, it isn't her fault her character was naive. Yes, her character was naive and too good of a person for her own good (although, i understand why she was acting like that, considering the circumstanses she was under). LSH gave a wonderful performance again, in a not-so-well-developed character. All i'd wish is for her character to have been more linked to the plot. Her character had almost no impact, and it didn't really feel like a 'lead' character at all. The other female lead (who is listed as 'supporting') had more screen time, and was more important to the story.
Kim Mu Yeol. I didn't know him before this, but he really earned my respect. Amazing actor, his action/fighting scenes were FLAWLESS!!! Better than expected, the guy really was perfect. His emotional and dramatic scenes were also believeable, he was overall great. His character was borderline crazy, but lets say we understand why he was doing what he was doing....
Go Sung Hee. The amount of hate for this actress is beyond me. It just proves that hate is popular. 'Hey a bunch of people said this actress sucks, lets all hate her so we can be accepted by the dramalist society'. GSH won't win any awards for her performance here, but none of the actors will. Maybe i have too low expectations when it comes to acting but, as far as i'm concerned, she gave a solid performance, she was believeable, i've definately seen worse, i don't understand what people didn't like, she was great, i actually liked her a lot, and rooted for her character a lot. She certainly didn't bring the show down at all.
RECOMMEND/REWATCH
If you are a fan of this action/crime/suspense/thriller genre, you will love this. You should definately watch it. If you are more of a rom-com or melo fan like me, thinking about watching it, i'd still recommend it, but don't expect any romance here. There is romance, but plays only a small part in order for the story to progress... Get ready to watch a lot of violence, a lot of bad guys, money talk, nothing cute whatsoever and whatever good and bad comes with this.
Would i rewatch this? Well, the fighting scenes, definately, but overall, it is a tiresome show. Since i am not a fan of this genre i can't say i'd watch it again, but i can see why some people would rewatch it.
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