Yanno when I first watched the Japanese adaptation of Signal, I really can't help noticing that there was at least one case that were in the original that weren't included in the Japanese version. I usually assume that it's because Jdrama tend to have shorter runs so when adapting from Kdramas that had twice the usual length, some parts from the original would have to be omitted.

To be fair, I never expected the series to revisit the case--heck, I didn't think that the Japanese adaptation would even have a sequel, so when the movie and sp was announced I was very delighted.

So the case that haven't appeared in the jdrama made appearance in this sp, which was the case of a woman who was supposed to be dead end up actually still alive. It's interesting to see how the case was rewritten in the sp to be set much later than in the original. So instead of this case being the origin as to how the secret evidence of corruption came to light, it end up becoming a way to reveal the truth of the death of one of the corrupt officers.

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If you can go back into the past and do things differently, would you do it? That's basically the premise of the story as we're introduced to a couple who married at a young age and later on faced with an unbelievable situation due to a bad misunderstanding. So when a freak incident sent them back into the past, such thing would have been a great miracle.

This drama is really great at telling a story on how a couple who once had great love for each other was able to reconcile again after revisiting the past and recalling what was it about each other that they loved so much. Only in kdrama would you see a situation where one would receive a divine intervention to reset your life and set things right. And through an unexpected way even!

As usual, Jang Nara is the queen of romcom dramas. It's really great to see her as Ma Jinjoo as we see her life unfolds in the drama. She really looks good with Son Hojun, it wouldn't have crossed your mind that there was a big age gap between them. Nara do tend to have great chemistry with her costars regardless of how old or young they were compared to her.

That said, this is probably the first drama that I don't really mind seeing Jang Kiyong in it. Seriously his character in Born Again really affected my first impression of him to discourage me from even wanting to check out any of his other dramas. But Jang's character in this drama was pretty decent so I guess it's fine.

Really love how the many different couple relationships had been written and how it doesn't feel out of place to see these people grow close together. This drama was really pleasant to watch. But that said, there was still quite a lot of tearjerking scenes, you can't help yourself but relate to them. Love the fact how they did end up changing the future slightly after their return back into the past.

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Been a while since I've seen Jin Goo in dramas so it's a delight to see him in a new project. I haven't been watching anything with Jin Goo since Descendant of the Sun, so I might as well do it now.

The plot had the feel of Die Hard and 24 with a bit of a serial killer vibe on the side so I thought that this drama would be quite a thrill. Sadly though, the more I'm following each episode the more I feel that the drama was quite a letdown. Casting-wise I do still think that they were doing a good job within the scope of the drama though I have to say that I'm not quite impressed with the writing. In a way, the format of the drama being aired one episode per week may have an effect in lessening the suspense felt after each episode but the writing also did nothing much to improve the whole experience. I doubt even if one was to wait and marathon the episode at one go that it'd make any difference since the writing was THAT ridiculous. I feel sad for the cast since they do appear to be doing their best to act in this drama yet the writer just wasted their potential. I mean, you got Jin Goo and Ha Dokwon in this drama amongst others, but why did you make them be part of this shitshow?

It really felt as if the whole plot was written to be overly complicated unnecessarily just so that drama can have many ridiculous things happen within one whole day. But unfortunately, this was not the case for the drama. Arguably, some of the twists may be quite brilliant if executed properly. A lot of the time, many of the key scenes were poorly timed and choppily edited. And the whole 'superior' thing only really starts to crop up near the end as if the writer just remembered the title of the drama. I mean, as much as Penthouse's plot was ridiculous, it was at least fun compared to this brain-stunting drama.

Honestly, I'm just watching the drama because of Jin Goo and Ha Dokwon and also because I might as well finish watching the show till the end since I already reached the end. Unless you don't mind feeling frustrated for the entire duration of the drama, you may need to think twice about watching this drama. Unless your faves are in here... maybe.

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I usually don't watch school dramas unless there's a secondary plot that can convince me to watch them as they tend to be slice of life dramas centering around students and teachers. I actually had glimpses of the drama few years ago on KBS World but it didn't grab me back then. So when KBS World decide to reair the drama after about 6+ years, I might as well take my time to finally watch this properly.

School dramas tend to be also be a coming of age dramas where you see stories of kids learning about life and grow into fine adults. Master of Study was like this too, in fact at first glance the drama had some similar vibe with the likes of GTO and Gokusen dramas. Like Baekhyeon was a rebellious troublemaker whose only living family was his grandmother, Chandu was from a well-off family but he had zero interest in study, Pulip's mother runs a bar, Bonggu was often bullied by his classmates due to his appearance and Yunjeong's parents both divorced and remarried leaving her to fend for herself on her own. This and the fact that all five kids belong in the lowest class and the worst school just screams at you as a typical setting of a lot of school dramas featuring delinquent kids. But that's as far as comparison goes.

Something I like about Master of Study was the fact that aside from being a drama about a former delinquent trying to get five students from his former school to start studying hard to enrol into a very good college, the drama also include tips to help students to pick up some study skills to improve themselves. And it had a great message about how even the most problematic kid can bring about great achievement if you're patient enough to listen to them and guide them on the right paths.

Seungho as Hwang Baekhyeon was really a right call. He really played the role of a proud highschool delinquent who's rough in appearance but a softie to his grandmother to perfection. I really love his character so much, he's such a charmer. Whenever I see Baekhyeon cry or trying his hardest not to cry after being scolded harshly by his teachers, my heart really goes to him. Even more when his grandmother got really sick and Baekhyeon really broke down in tears. It was a pity that Seungho didn't get Top Excellence award for his performance as Baekhyeon back then because personally, I felt that he really performed well. I mean as much as the story focused on the Seokho trying to get the five problematic students to Cheonha, the main character that really carried the whole story was Baekhyeon. If not because of the conflict between Kang Seokho and Baekhyeon, a lot of things in the drama wouldn't have happened the way it has. As much as Seokho's intervention affected the attitudes of the teachers and students of Byungmoon High, Baekhyeon's growth and hardship do influence the other kids and special class teachers to also do their best in achieving their goals. And having both Kim Sooro and Yoo Seungho play the respective characters were really a good choice. Sooro and Seungho really made a pretty good combo together.

And I also love the character of Ms Han Sujeong played by Bae Doona. She's really a very good teacher to the five students from the special class. Ms Han's growth from being an English teacher who hasn't quite gain any respect her student into a very passionate teacher who'd go all out to support her students was really great. I really love the relationship Ms Han had with her students especially with Baekhyeon. Not to mention that the parallel between Seokho's relationship with his teacher and Sujeong's relationship with Baekhyeon and how that reflect on the way Seokho act around them, made the characters very relatable. As in, Kang Seokho seeing himself in Baekhyeon and that gave him the strong motivation to want to be a good mentor to Baehyeon and it was endearing to see how the two started to became close despite how much the two tend to clash with each other.

I love the fact that this drama showed how one could try making learning such an enjoyable experience and show that it's not impossible to achieve good grades as long as you have the determination to study hard to achieve it. Somehow now I felt like watching or read the original Dragon Zakura series. Because the story setting was that endearing.

While some may argue that some of the study method shown in the drama was pretty extreme and illogical, pay in mind that the story was about someone trying to get five students who needed to catch up on 5+ years worth of school learning in one year in order to score well on their entrance exams. That goal alone was almost impossible at first glance so if there's any way to even achieve such feats would be by using really extreme study methods.

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I took quite a bit of time to finish watching this drama but I'm glad that I finally did. This is a sweet and beautiful drama, thanks to Shin Sekyung and Cha Eunwoo and lighthearted enough to be enjoyed while also having some serious bits of plot here and there and at the end. But mind you, as much as the drama was about historians doing their jobs, the setting itself was quite fictional; as in there weren't any such king that have been dethroned in the way depicted in this drama and no female historian were ever established. And while some of the key scenes like the arrival of Christianity to Joseon, the beginning of the vaccination practices of treating small poxes as well as groups taking interest in science were based on real life events, the events didn't actually happen as it's portrayed in the drama. So as long as you're aware of that, you should be able to enjoy this drama as it is.

So far to date, there weren’t any other dramas that actually focused on historians in the time period and the kind of work they do. I mean, you do see them in some other stories but they rarely became the central role. Because of that, it was interesting to see how such profession could have functioned during the Joseon period. And I have to say that it was interesting to see how the early methods to vaccination to treat a disease first started or how the process of compiling daily records of the palace were compiled into annals.

That aside, the drama also had some romcom elements like the romance between Prince Dowon and the rookie historian Goo Haeryung, which also had some kinda triangle with a senior historian Min Uwon. There were also a few other pairs like the relationship between the Crown Prince with fellow rookie historian Song Sahui, amongst a few others. And it was fun to see how the characters juggle between doing their job and romance as well as deciding where should their loyalties stand as the historians fought in making sure that history was written and recorded accurately.

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Wasn't planning to watch this remake to be honest, but I guess things just happened. I mean I just happened to find this remake movie so I might as well watch it. I have to say that of the two remakes of Blind, this version followed the original much more closely compared to the Japanese one. Not just in the base plotline but also in the way certain scenes were filmed. But I guess it's inevitable to see how similar the movie was directed, considering this film was directed by the same person who directed the original Blind.

That said, even as this remake was very similar to the original and not as loosely adapted as it had been with the Japanese version, there were still some details that were written differently. As the screenwriter for this movie would've added or changed certain elements of the plot to appeal to the Chinese audience. And for people who have seen the original and the Japanese remake, noticing the different details have to be one of the things that will stood out to you.

For one, the dead brother in this movie was written to be an aspiring singer instead of a b-boy. The way the brother died was similar to the original except the part where instead of a handcuff, the brother was tied to the car with a chain. The motive for the killer also slightly changed and written to have a bit more connection to Xiaoxing. As with the latter Japanese remake, this movie also incorporated the use of social medias and dating apps. Which wasn't in the original. In a way, this Chinese remake was like a cross between the Korean original and the Japanese remake, even when the latter was made much later than this version.

Lin Zhong was written to be a young skater, and I guess that's what influenced the Japanese remake to have Haruma being a skateboarder. And rather than the orphanage being that place of memories for our main witness and her late brother, this movie changed it into an old villa.

It was interesting to see what kind of details were presented differently in this remake compared to the original. The obvious ones being Xiaoxing and Lin Zhong's initial report on what they noticed and saw during the hit-and-run case. Like a lot of the details that originally was revealed and found out much later ended up being laid out from the very start, which kind of removing a bit of the mystery from the original movie. Other than that would be the subway chase from the original being changed into a chase inside an empty mall in this remake. Unlike the original and the Japanese remake, this Chinese version didn't reveal whether or not Xiaoxing did decide to resume her police training nor have Lin Zhong aspire to follow her same footstep. And the casualties in both Korean and Japanese version met different fates in this movie, in which while in itself shouldn't be bad, it makes me wonder what's the point of the killer still being referred to as a serial killer when his part was changed so much that he didn't really kill most of his victims.

Overall, watching this remake was interesting. It was nice to pick up on the different details and similar visual cues and compare how the different remakes recreate the scenes from the original movie. On its own, the movie was fine as it is. But if you love and enjoyed the original Blind, then you may end up finding this movie a bit lacking. Compared to this remake, the original was portrayed to be much more mysterious. There were parts in the original that were written to be very vague while this remake revealed some details much more clearly.

Though, having said that... I'm not sure why this remake decide to change the killer's motivation... as well as the fact that he hadn't end up killing any of his victims but people who ended up caught in his action and trying to create more connection to the blind witness, which did not exist in the original. But that aside, the movie was fine on its own. There's quite an overuse of a certain song that I first heard from the movie Storm Riders but that's it.

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I guess it's a fine remake

Since I was on a roll and found out that Blind had a remake (actually there were two more but I haven't watched the Chinese or the Hindi one), I thought that I might as well watch this remake as well. Since I'm no stranger to seeing remake of Korean movies or dramas into Japanese (and vice versa) I do get curious as to how the remake would turn out. Especially as Japanese remakes do try to give their own spin to the shows they were based on. But since I've already seen the original, it's unavoidable that there will be some comparison to the original.

Like the original movie, Blind Witness also deals with a serial kidnapper who killed unsuspecting women and crossed paths with a blind woman and a young boy who ended up witnessing his deeds. Safe to say on that level, the original and remake share a common trait. But aside from that, this movie was as different to the original as it was similar.

For starters, this remake showed us a bit more of Natsume's former life as she undergoes several trainings as an officer. Unlike Soo-ah who we're already introduced as a police officer in-training, we barely get to see what she's like before aside from a childhood memory and a past recording of her university admission with her family. In contrast, the remake didn't really show much about Daiki before he died aside from Natsume dragging him home from an outing with his friends and the sequence leading up to the accident. The relation between the two were also different. While Soo-ah and Donghyun weren't actual siblings, Natsume and Daiki were. The same can be said for their mother. The accidents that killed the younger brother was also different. The accident in the original was much more traumatic and tragic to Soo-ah but in this remake the accident played out to be much more simplified. In both cases, Soo-ah and Natsume blamed themselves for their brother's death though Soo-ah was expelled from university while Natsume quit.

The circumstances in which the witnesses cross paths with the killer were also different. Unlike Soo-ah, Natsume wasn't targeted by the killer; and instead of a hit-and-run case, the victim was already being kidnapped in the car as Haruma ended up being the one who was almost hit by a car. While in the original the police had reacted much quicker after finding out that a missing case coincide with a statement given by Soo-ah, in this remake, the realisation that this is a criminal case happened much more slower due to the different setting in which the missing cases were unknown to the public. Social media also was much more prominent in this remake as the original dealt with a much more conventional method of gathering information as well as conventional media reporting. Unlike the original, Natsume and Haruma did a lot more investigation by themselves instead of aiding/leaving it to the police. And the biggest difference of all would be the kidnapper himself. While the general MO of the killer still remained the same, the identity of the killer was different. The murders were different as well: in the original it was a typical serial kidnapping and murder while in this remake, the murders were actually a copycat murder from another closed case involving kidnapping and ritualistic murders.

Nevertheless, there was still some elements and plot devices that remained the same. Although the order of events and outcomes were written differently, there were still some familiar scenes. Mainly the killer's attempt to kill the secondary witness, the confrontation between the killer and the first investigator, the chase at the subway station and the final confrontations between the killers and the two witnesses.

Regardless, this remake had its own charm too. Though if you have seen the original movie, this remake may feel a bit underwhelming for you. In any case, it's been a long while since I saw any of Mahhi's recent acting works since his Gaim days. so it's a pleasure to see him in this movie.

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This movie was amazing! Having watched Midnight, I had more interest in looking for other stories that feature a similar scenario. And lo... this movie came to my attention. And considering the movie also feature Seungho as one of the leads as well as this movie turned out to be Bogum's debut work... well I have to say that my interest was captured.

I have to say that this was the first time I'm seeing Kim Haneul in a crime thriller and I'm really loving it. She really did a great job portraying a blind person who used to be a police cadet. I have to say the same regarding Seungho. While I think I recall somewhere about him feeling that his earlier acting works weren't that much good, I'd like to say that I disagree. I like his character here as Giseob. And I also like the dynamics between Kim Haneul and Seungho as two unlikely witness to a crime in progress who later grew closer in a sibling-like relationship.

There are quite a few things that I really liked about this movie. First thing though, was the fact that Soo-ah had not given up in readmitting herself to police university after being expelled for breaking rules and using handcuffs on her brother (which leads to his death). I like the fact that the people around her (like her head mother, Detective Jo and later even Giseob) were also supportive of her, believing that her disability was not a weakness and that it was those words of encouragement that kept her back on her feet when she almost lost belief in herself. I like how the suspense element and conflict were written in a very realistic and believable way.

The mystery and suspense was quite thrilling as our witnesses and attending police officer join together to identify the serial killer. Any fans of psychological thriller would be able to enjoy this movie. And this movie, like Midnight, also gave us a glimpse of how people with disabilities live their life and deal with the challenges that arise from it. Aside from the crime thriller element, the writing on the characters were done well and allows you to relate with their life stories and plight.

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Was randomly looking up stuff to watch and thought that I might as well watch an old movie when Seungho was much younger. And since it's a murder mystery, that's another plus point.

I have to say that it's interesting to see Yoo Seungho, Kang Sora and few other familiar faces looking a lot younger than I usually see them. And it amused me to see Park Chulmin in this movie as well, acting as Junghoon's teacher.

Half of me wished that this movie could've been much longer, like there are some parts that I wished had been elaborated further but it served the purpose. The mystery of the true killer wasn't really too complicated yet still kept me guessing until the end. The movie really provide quite a suspense with the chases by a secondary suspect and later the actual killer as Dajung and Junghoon tried to escape with their lives.

Like I mentioned earlier, there was quite a few loose ends remained unresolved, in which it may feel like watching an incomplete story but overall still an entertaining thriller.

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Took me a while to actually start watching this drama, but it had a nice setting and Seungho and Soobin were cute so I might as well. At first, I had to admit that the initial plot of having Minkyu have an allergy to human contact was a bit farfetched. But then I ended up looking up the internet for the possibility of allergies to have connection with mental illness, and surprisingly, there were some studies that imply the likelihood for something like that to happen!

Because of that, I had a renewed interest in this drama. Since it is an interesting scenario where someone could have developed such illness due to some extreme conditions and how one could try to heal someone from it. In that sense, it was actually logical to think that having an android that looked like a real person could help someone who could easily die from a simple touch. It's also an interesting scenario on how AI and robotics could be use to help people in need of help.

I really love Yoo Seungho in this drama. It really felt like he's a perfect fit to play Minkyu and it's hard to imagine someone else who could do this better. And Seungho was really good at playing socially awkward characters to the point of fondness. You just can't help being drawn to his character and sympathising at the kind of lonely life he had endured. And I like how his progress in getting better was written in a way that it was believable and wasn't sudden. I also love how it was depicted like a modern fairy tale on how love helps in healing an illness that was influenced by the mind.

Chae Soobin was really great in this drama, playing the human Ji-A, alongside the android Aji-3. Like you can really tell the difference when she was playing a person and when she's playing a robot. Uhm Kijoon was great as the scientist who created Aji-3, Dr Hong. Since he tend to end up playing villain roles a lot more times than he plays good characters, I really appreciate him not being a villain in this drama lol.

Have to say that as much as the corporate plot was secondary compared to the main romance plot, the former didn't feel like pasted on as some irrelevant background setting. Both of the story plot was pretty balanced and enjoyable.

For those who love the science fiction theme on how robots and AI would want to learn more about humans, this drama was a fascinating watch. As much as the android Aji-3 didn't really do much in the drama, the android was still shown to still be able to learn through the input given by Ji-a, who pretended to be Aji-3. It was interesting to see how all of the accumulated data that Aji-3 then leads to it deciding by herself to choose to return to its rightful home instead of allowing itself to be taken by bad businessman who seek to use her technology for military purposes.

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Yet another drama that revolved around King Gwanghae and the people of his household. When it was announced that Jung Il-woo would be playing Bawoo a single father who worked as someone who bossam widows to allow them to remarry I immediately got taken to the plot. Having first known him from Haechi, I was interested to see some more of his works.

Aside from the whole Bossam plot, I was also intrigued by the plot regarding King Gwanghae and Princess Hwa In. In a way, it made me think about Tale of Nokdu plot. But instead of the story of the king's abandoned son finding love and indirectly involved with the dethronement of King Gwanghae, this time, it was the daughter who had been abandoned. It's was kinda interesting to see a different retelling of what could've happened that led to the dethronement as well as a different portrayal of King Gwanghae in his latter years.

That said, Kwon Yuri did very well in portraying the young widowed Princess Hwa In. Despite this role being her first attempt at a sageuk drama, Yuri managed to bring out the grace and nobility of a royal princess who ended up being widowed even before her marriage.

Jung Il-woo as Bawoo was really wonderful. At first glance, you wouldn't have imagined that this ruffian who kidnaps widows for a living would have such a difficult past, but then the more you see how he lived the more you could understand why he acted that way. I really love the child actor who played his son, they really acted well together. And the story of how this pair of father and son ended up having their lives changed after meeting Princess Hwa In was really so sweet.

I first got to know Shin Hyeonsoo from Ruler and was really surprised that he's in this drama. It was nice to see him playing a different character compared to the one in Ruler. I have to say that the drama had some pretty good casting.

I've heard about the practice of kidnapping widows as brides in some cultures and media so it was interesting to learn there was a proper term for that practice. And as much as the political plot had been prominent throughout the drama, I like how the drama started and ended with someone being bossam-ed. That felt like a good way to wrap up the whole story.

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Kdramas really do need to not put on really ambiguous titles as their English official titles, because I wouldn't have started watching this fun show if I haven't bothered to read about what the story was about actually. I rarely watch much School-type unless I happened to have nothing to watch and it was on TV, which was how I managed to watch the ones I already did. This drama had a similar vibe with Who Are You: School 2015 so I ended up really enjoying this. Not many school kdramas had the revenge theme as the main plot after all, like sure there's always the many inner issues that will get involved but not like this.

Yanno, even after watching Ruler and Seungho's other more recent works it still felt surreal to see him playing older characters, haha. Since he still have that boyish look on him, but I guess it gave him the advantage of still being able to play teenage roles alongside the older version of his character convincingly enough without needing to have a younger actor playing the teenage counterparts. And I still love how the drama can't stop gushing about how handsome Boksu was and it didn't feel out of place. Seungho really brought out the many charms and great quality of Boksu despite his many flaws, and you can really get why people tend to love Boksu even when he's not quite so bright.

I used to watch Jo Bo-ah and especially Kwak Doyeon play older characters in other dramas to the point that I almost always forgot that Seungho and them don't really have very big age gaps between. Have to say that Boksu and Soojung look good together and their love story was pretty cute. And this was the only few times I don't really mind the whole teacher-student couple tropes.

I really love the many supporting characters, especially Teacher Park played by Cheon Hojin who cared a lot about Boksu to the point that he act like a father to Boksu who grew up without one. It's really cute to see Teacher Park being so bashful to Boksu's mom to the point of being adorable.

I really love the many comedic moments; like how Kyunghyun had this internal radar where he could sense his old homeroom teacher approaching him, the funny CSI parody as well as them training the kids to study as if they were trying to train kungfu under Master Wong Feihung's lead. And I love how each even-numbered episode would end in a dramatic tone as the plot progressed towards unexpected outcomes and made one eager to anticipate what happens in the next episode. It really felt like watching really long but engaging movie.

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Every few months, even after finishing the series as it aired years ago and so many other dramas that came after; I'll always end up going back to this drama and rewatch it from the very beginning. This drama, really continued to be one of my most favourite sageuk drama I've ever watched.

As much as the series was supposed to be inspired by the Game of Thrones, being unfamiliar of the series I can't quite relate to it. But I guess all the political in-fighting in this drama kinda mirror the same scenario. The whole scenario of the crown prince having to hide his face behind a mask and ended up being switched with a fake did remind me of Alexander Dumas's The Man in the Iron Mask novel. And that kinda setting being reworked into a sageuk story was what attracted me to watching this drama.

Lee Seon was quite a charming character, and Yoo Seungho really manage to bring out his innocence and strength of character as the crown prince attempts to investigate the reason why he had to hide his face. It was heartwarming to see how much the crown prince grow as he attempts to overcome his trials and tribulations and strive to retain his kind heart. That said, Kim Sohyun who played as Han Gaeun did very well to portray the noblewoman who fell from grace due to the manipulation of the evil Pyeonsoo group. As much as the character did seemed to be just a damsel in distress character, Gaeun turn out to display a different kind of strength as compared to the crown prince.

This drama was the first time I'm seeing Kim Myungsoo playing in a sageuk drama and he did quite well in playing the character of a peasant boy who happened to have a similar sounding name as the crown prince and ended up being forced to become a puppet king. Yoon Sohee as the granddaughter of the leader of Pyeonsoo group, Kim Hwagun was also a great character. It was nice to see how much Hwagun had grown from being just a selfish girl from an evil group into a much more courageous person who decided to oppose her own family in order to protect the person they love. It was really intriguing to see how the dynamics and relationship between the four start changing as the four were being dragged into the political situation.

This drama truly felt so special to me. Having known both Yoo Seungho and Kim Sohyun from their earlier child actor works, it really felt wonderful to see them both playing the leading characters of the drama. Not to mention the amount of other child actors involved in this drama as supporting and background characters, Ruler really felt like a drama series that intend to shine light to the many great acting talents of child actors and former child actors.

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Initially I put this drama as of no interest to me, since I'm usually not fond of cinderella/chaebol plotlines. I mean, aside from a few that I did like, the genre as a whole tend to annoy me somewhat. But then as time passed, I got to see Jung Ilwoo, Park Sodam and Ahn Jaehyun's other works and thought about giving the series a proper look.

And I guess it worked out in the end, as it didn't take long for me to like the characters and premise. For one, I enjoyed this drama much better than The Heirs as the plot here was much more fun to watch. For one thing, as much as Hyunmin was so much of a womanizer and assholey at first glance, he's much better than a certain Kim Tan in that it didn't feel like he's being pretentious for being a rich kid or act disbelievingly flamboyant. And later on Hyunmin's characterization expanded even more to reveal that he wasn't in fact, quite the superficial person that we initially thought of. In that sense, Hyunmin's character was better developed than Kim Tan and that other character the other actor had played prior. As in for one, Hyunmin's action for 'bullying' the person he truly liked was out of their own sense of guilt and felt undeserving of being loved.

Park Sodam here played the main female character Eun Hawon, our titular Cinderella who didn't quite believe in the fairy tale magic. Have to say that I like Ha Won's version of the cinderella trope; in that despite how her life was a mess, she didn't let that get her down. And she can fend for herself too, so as much as her step family treating her badly she never let that bring her down. That said, Jiwoon's character already had his own charm in the kind of angsty boy type. Like he wasn't a family rebel for no reason and his bad relationship with his grandfather stemmed from something that happened in the past. It's not quite the Prince Charming one could've expected but when paired with our cinderella, the two do look good together!

Seriously can't help with the comparison with The Heirs since there was a lot of common elements between these two that kept reminding me. Not to mention Boys Over Flowers, though I'm more into the original JP adaptations and not bothering with the Korean one, especially with the whole 'making the girl miserable' trope. Even then, I have seen a lot of different version of the F4-type tropes in many dramas and some dramas tend to overplay that trope to the point of annoyance. But surprisingly, this drama kept amusing me. There were even moments that I can't help feeling my heart flutter as we see more of the apparent love square between Hyunmin-Ha Won-Jiwoon-Hyeji. Though you might blame that to the very good ost popping out at good timing.

Honestly I never thought I'd end up enjoying this drama a lot. The story elements were pretty balanced in a way that Ha Won's family was like the usual cinderella setting aka the stepmother and stepsister treating her badly and stripping her of any basic neccessities to the point that she needed to be self-reliant. Twist here would be that the dad was lead to think that Ha Won wasn't his child due to a misunderstanding thus overlooking the problems in the household. The issues within the Haneul household was also pretty decently set, like the reasons why the grandsons were in bad terms with the elders was understandable and it wasn't just typical poor people weren't a match with rich people trope (thus they would do their cruealest act to separate the couple). Heck, I like the grandfather and I'm glad that he wasn't written as just a rich old man with shallow personality who only thinks of profit. Also, the way the different people start to care and grow affections in the drama were also written well and the love didn't just happen suddenly and you can really see the chemistry happening between these relationship. Have to say that this was pretty rare in dramas of these tropes as usually the tropes can be exagerated too much, but it was executed very well here without making it feel too cliche'd.

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I finally managed to finish watching this drama and was happy that it turned out to be good. This drama was pretty enjoyable when you can just marathon watch it in one go, cos if you watching it as it air you may end up losing interest in the middle as the tension goes down.

This drama was yet another good show featuring a detective with a supernatural telepathic ability to read minds and to my delight, the drama made good use of the plot idea while also showing realistic reaction of how the public would respond knowing that such a person existed. If anyone had seen He is Psychometric, the story had a similar tone though Memorist had a much more darker and sinister cases and mystery.

I've watched quite a number of dramas by Yoo Seungho and grew to really like his character Dongbaek in this drama. As always Seungho was able to bring out the sincerity of the character and the anguish felt by Dongbaek, enough to make you care about him to keep watching the drama. You just can't help rooting for Dongbaek as he continues to push forward to save lives while also being cornered into unfavourable situations.

That said, at first I wasn't really taken in with Lee Seyoung as the profiler character, Han Sunmi. Though that probably also influenced by my initial impression of the actress from her character in Korean Odyssey, to which I had some mixed feelings about. But once I set that bias aside, I was able to like the character as Han Sunmi's pasts and motivations were unveiled.

The cases featured in Memorist were written quite well. And while there were some pretty hard cases that involved implications of rape as well as religious cult stuff that may be a bit unbearable, the rest of it was pretty fine. The mystery elements as well as supernatural were pretty balanced with the normal detective stuff so it was good enough to draw you more into the story without making it too unbelievable. And I love the fact that as much as there were a lot of corruption in the drama like the many abuse of powers by people of influence, the drama still had a lot of hope for things to become better. And the writing of the Eraser and Executioner character was done so well that it didn't feel out of place when those characters started to be redeemed. Only thing I regret was that I wished the drama could be longer because Dongbaek was really such a lovable character.

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