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Just another overrated show.
This show doesn't deserve the 8,7 mark. I'm not the one who can watch a film while blocking my logical sense. The synopsis written here is much better than the storytelling in the show. They need much more details to show us the importance to draft the schoolers as reserve soldiers. Otherwise, it doesn't make any sense. Start from ep2, things got worse, the plot was pure garbage. A student died, but the military & the teacher tried to keep it secret? They didn't even inform his parents? Wth was that? Where was the responsibility? LoL. And suddenly, when they went outside, the streets were empty with no one. I was confused to see how they remained calm, asking "why it's so empty?" Did they evacuate the city? No detail at all, we were left guessing ourselves. In ep3, all the students opted to go home, but they were forbid. No details of how critical outside was. They were warned to be shot if they run. This is insane, it's not a duty but forcing to fight against their will. What government do that to their citizens, especially young & untrained ones? All adults go to the shelters, students fight the aliens. Oh, how sweet. 😂Watch it if you like all the screaming & running, maybe seeing pretty girls shooting guns. But if you care about logical story, avoid it. This is one of the worst kdrama in terms of the story.
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A very slow burning crime psychological drama
Copycat Killer told a story of a serial killer who murdered several women. Enter Guo Xiaoqi, a hardworking and meticulous prosecutor who aimed to solve the case. The acting was not bad. The music was a bit depressing to me. If you think this is a whodunnit mystery tv show, then you're wrong because one of the prepetrator was already shown as early as in ep 4. I dropped this one after ep 8, because it was so slow, bleak & boring i almost fell to sleep.I'll give this a 7 /10.
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Strong from start to finish!
Overall one of the best action fantasy k-drama. The story was about land of Daeho & its mages, fictional world which not existed in history & maps. Jang Gang, one of the best mage was tricked by the king to perform soul shifting. Once done, the dying king impregnated Jang's wife. Years later, Jang Uk, the son had grown up. Jang placed a barrier into his "illegitimate" son so he couldn't be a mage. Jang Uk desperately trying to find a master who could undo the barrier, until he met with Mu Deok, a blind girl which was actually Naksu, an assassin who just soul shifted to avoid death. Strange thing happened to Naksu because she lost all of her powers but regained her sight as Mu Deok. Together, the two made a mutual relationship, to help each other to gain their powers back.The acting was what you could expect from a k-drama. The soundtracks were good. The fx was also not disappointed. The action scenes were exciting. If i had a complain, i noticed that Go Youn Jung performed fighting better than Jung So Min. When I saw JSM's fight, it gave me the c-drama wuxia vibe : lots of close-ups.
I'll give a solid 9/10. It's an amazing show. Recommended.
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Alchemy of Souls Season 2: Light and Shadow
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A bit downgrade from season 1, but still a good show.
The season two consists just 10 episodes, picking up what's left in season one. Three years had passed and our protagonist Jang-uk now became a soul-shifter hunter. He lived thanks to the ice stone inside his body. Ho-gyeong secretly retrieved Mu-deok's lifeless body, and with the help of Master Lee, they succeeded to resurrect her. However, she lost her memories. Jin-mu planned a new scheme to take control of the ice stone, now planning to use the fire bird relic stored in Jinyowon.All the actors/tresses from previous season returned for the show, so their acting quality was as expected.
The soundtracks were good, though i personally prefer the first season's.
Perhaps only two things i will rant about, as the major downgrade from season one. First, the writing. For a ten episode show, i expected it to be faster pace & denser. But here, things only heated after episode five. The first half told us the problem of Jang-uk & Jin Bu-yeon aka Naksu aka Mu-deok (whatever name you like to call her) fake marital status. Occasionally, we saw silly comedic moments of Park Jin & Madam Kim. Well, not so much to tell from ep 1 to 5 which is sad. Also a questionable plot: Master Lee was able to resurrect Mu-deok/Bu-yeon/Naksu back without the ice stone. That didn't make sense. Even Jang-gang needed to use it & that's what make the ice stone so special.
Second, the fighting scenes. There's no single memorable fighting scenes in this one, unlike the first season. Possessed the ice stone inside his body, now Jang-uk was practically invincible, much like Superman. Waving his sword here & there, and the battle was over in seconds. Even the final battle against the fire bird wasn't exciting at all.
Perhaps, best moment was the 100% happy ending, which i feel isn't necessary. Come on, sometimes we need a bit of tragedies for the protagonist's side. Show the antagonists some love! But, yeah they decided to make everyone live, only the poor So-i had to die.. alone. LoL.
My rating for this one is 8,5 to 8,7. Season one deserves a 9.
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No better than Season 1
Maybe like others, i jumped in with high expectation seeing how good the show was in season 1. But then i kinda regret it. Here's the things: The acting was still good like before. The musics were the all reused from the previous season, and this time, it was a bit overused aka too much music playing from time to time. The cases were lame compared to the previous, and unlike the first season which had balance between action & comedy, this time it focused more on comedy side. And the product placement ads for that coffee candy (sigh...)Perhaps the biggest flaw came from the scripts. In season 1, the character Go-eun didn't have much showtime so her unrealistic hacking skill was not too obvious. But not this time. She became like the world's numero uno hacker. It was totally so unrealistic, to a point that she could close a random gate in Vietnam. 🤣 She could hack all things, period.
So, to sum it up, it wasn't better than the season 1. Still a good show, though if you want to watch it.
I'll give the season one 8.5-8.7 score, and this one an 8.
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Perhaps a little overrated.
The premise of this tv show is good, playing with a "time loop" theme which i believe hasn't been done before. The casts are also good. I don't have any complain of their actings. The scenes however, can be boring sometimes, particularly during the police interrogations. I feel a little frustrated seeing the couple trying to hide the time loop reason and telling lies to avoid being suspects. Some of their actions also bear questions, as they seem not cleverer after many trial & errors. Annoying, to see how the couple plus all passangers couldn't handle the two prepetrators, sometimes, just standing there blank.As for the music, i don't have any complain. I enjoy both the intro & outro songs. The biggest letdown are, they don't explain why there's a time loop, and more importantly, why only HeYun suffers the agony later. And there is still a plothole in ep2. The couple used the "pervert" reason to get off the bus the second time. That was exactly the same like the first one, where the bus made an illegal stop. And because of that slight delay, the bus needed to stop at the intersection because of the red light, But why didn't it collide with the oil truck like the first time? Instead, the bus exploded on the bridge.
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Messy storyline
I would love this show if they were presented in neater order. What we have here, let's check: a dystopian world, people struggling to life in harsh environment, everything clouded in dusts, they needed oxygen badly, there were a team of guys who delivered the necessities, called deliverymen or black knights, employed by a big corporation. There were also a deliveryman wannabe kid & a major lady & the conglomerate's ambitious son.Now here the story went on. The kid got shot point blank. Was he dead? No. Turned out he was a mutant. What? Really? Was there any mention of it before? No. Now, they made up things further. The seemingly healthy conglomerate's son was in fact ill. He kidnapped people to use them as test subjects to find the cure. You know exactly how it would connect to the mutant plot, right? But the order of the story was wrong at all.
The fx was good, but sometimes felt cartoonish. No, i don't mean the anime portion in the beginning. The music was average. The acting quality was the same like any other kdrama standard.
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