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MattPeddlesden

Kent, UK

MattPeddlesden

Kent, UK
The Innocent Man korean drama review
Completed
The Innocent Man
0 people found this review helpful
by MattPeddlesden
Nov 4, 2019
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 7.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 6.0
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 4.0
Nice guy who so in love with her, he surrenders himself for a murder that she committed and goes to jail for a few years. When he comes out, she's married to a conglomerate big-wig, living the life of luxury and doesn't want a bar of him. That's kinda your basic premise for how this one kicks off.

Picked this one up because having just watched Descendants of the Sun I wanted to see more of Song Joong Ki's work and it's also one of a small number of dramas with Moon Chae Won who I thoroughly enjoyed in Good Doctor.

Leading lady is played by Park Shi Yeon and I found her character to be an almost non-stop sense of annoyance if I'm honest - which is probably what was intended so I'm not saying that's an issue :) The smirky sneer expression on her face almost the entire time just wound me up.

So, this is a revenge story essentially. Starts small, gets bigger. The premise is interesting enough, I can believe that he's so in love with her that he's prepared to put her life ahead of his, love can have a strange affect on us all, though doing so at the expense of abandoning his sick sister who urgently needed taking to the hospital felt immediately like it was a step too far.

My main issue with this one is that the characters just seemed wobbly in their commitment - the leading lady is trying to be vindictive one minute and considering the possibility of giving it up all up for the leading guy in the name of love, and then back to vindictive, and - I couldn't keep up with whether the she was honestly flapping around (which didn't seem in-character for someone so apparently driven) or if it was setting up betrayals - which is sometimes how they worked out. I suspect a bit of both, which just makes it more confusing.

The same was true of the leading man - it was difficult to work out sometimes what HIS intentions were though it wasn't as bad as the lady.

Moon Chae Won's character and performance I am quite conflicted by because I really like her presence on screen but this script just had her flat most of the time. Other reviewers have noted that she starts out looking like a real strong lady in the story but the air is let out of her character and she ends up just flowing along like the rest. A real shame, Chae-Won is a great talent that, in my view, wasn't fully allowed to shine in this story at all.

Memory loss makes for some good tense elements to the story as you wait for the inevitable moment that memory returns and what's real and what's not come to the fore- but until then I did find that the positive happy moments between the leading man and Moon Chae Won's character were very nice to see.

Last couple of scenes are the "years later" conclusion and - well, it was ok. It was a nice "book-end" to finish with.

Second couple - the sister and friend - however - were gloriously brilliant, scenes with either or both of them in were fantastic and one of the highlights for me. I especially liked their conclusion :)

My conclusion? I'm glad I watched it because it did have some great moments however I have zero intention to watch it again

Would I recommend it? If you like the revenge stories then perhaps - they're not my favourite genre (I like them soft and fluffy darn it) - but even then i'd say there are probably better things on your "plan to watch" list. Don't discount it, but don't rush either :)
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