외대한 나라 - 아스달의 시작

I recommend this drama who like epic fantasy or high fantasy. This might not be on the same level as lotr but still they are doing a great job! I loved this drama and this part 3 in particular.

Turned out this being the 3rd part of the first season! And 2 more seasons ahead :) that’s great because the biggest fault for this drama was being too grand but too short.

This part 3 turned out to be amazing. It had many epic scenes, lots of action from the protagonists. The story is very full. They did great work with world building and showing the epic-ness :) it was quite better than the other two parts even.

Characters are very great here. There are many and it maybe hard to remember them all for some people but they are all interesting. I especially love women in this drama as they are strong and cool. And the secondary characters also are very memorable.

Music: well Ailee’s powerful voice always gives goosebumps.

There are some bad sides to this drama and it’s mostly again because of time. Some storylines and some characters disappear as soon as they appear. Before I told this would have been solved if they had more episodes but as there are more seasons ahead I can’t say that anymore. The only excuse will be that worldbuilding is hard, they wanted to create something grand and put in as much as they could. And well actually they are doing a great job at it. Like 90 percent.

I can’t wait for next season!
I need more epic-ness before they return!

I don’t usually rewatch dramas but I feel like rewatching this one.

Score is 9.5 and 0.5 is a bonus for epic scenes. So 10 :)
나 모리의 미아 너이들에게 주문을 곤다. 이 드라마를 보아라. Lol
I really like the epic way of talking :)

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I recommend this drama to anyone who loves historical fantasies.
I don't recommend it to people who like mostly lovely bubbly romcoms.
What I didn't like:
- seasons.... lol so meaningless, why separate it into seasons... ><
-too many names at the begging might be overwhelming plus the first episode is hectic as it doesn't show "passed...years" every time they time-skip.
What i liked:
- the story. It's different from what we usually see so i like it.
- twists and turns.
-costumes
-scenery

Overall I liked this first half of the drama :) but the whole season is more like an intro. and the real stuff will start i guess in the second. the story is nice and it gets more and more interesting later. as I said it is more like an intro and it gets power mostly during the 6th episode. However many historical dramas (and not only) have long introductions that are necessary for us to learn about characters, so it was okay for me. I liked this first season. The only thing is left is for the second and especially the last to be great. because an ending can ruin a drama lol. the first season is nice though.

MYTHOLOGY:
This series are based on Korean mythology about Dangun, who is considered the founder of Koreans. you can read about him on the internet. It is set in Ancient Jeoson and about Korea's first nation and Bronze Age. The myth depicts a story how a Heaven's Son comes to Korean Peninsula and makes The First Kingdom. Because he was the second or third son and couldn't become the ruler of Heaven. He lands on Great White Mountain. Later a Tiger and Bear come to him and ask him to turn them into human. So he tells them to go and eat mugwort and garlic only during 100 days or something. The Tiger gives up in the middle. But the bear eat's it and becomes a woman. The bear woman and Heaven's son have a child, Dangun. Dangun becomes the first real ruler of korea. Actually people say that he symbolizes a human as he was born from meeting of a spirit and an animal. Also he symbolizes the start of Bronze age in Korea. later he goes into a mountain and his spirit rests there. Well there are several versions and in one of them the capital they make is called Asadal. To compare it to the drama Dangun must be the Aramun Haesseula in the drama. Nheantals are the tiger tribe and Sarams (which means literally "human/person" in Korean) are the bear tribe. As you can see in the first episode, Naeanthals come to the meeting with tiger fur, tiger skulls, and Sanung Niruha (at the time ruler of Sarams) wears a bear mask. So this drama took this myth about creation of Koreans and made a fantasy :)

I think the production team just made several mistakes and that's why got so much criticism and low ratings. maybe im wrong, this is just my opinion but:1. they made this show come out not long after GoT ended.... many fans fresh from GoT came to this and saw many similarities. However historical fantasies all have similar clothes and similar power struggle. This series are based on Korean mythology. 2. they overestimated viewers lol I think many were not ready to get a different-like kinda a bit European setting fantasy from Korea. And were just too used to that the Korea usually does historicals mostly in Jeoson or Georyo (and sometimes Silla).

So if you are interested in this genre, don't let these things stop you from trying :) watch till the 4th or 5th episode and then decide if you like it or not :)

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First of all if you like mystery/thriller genres then dive in. If you like ghost future/ghost/death-seeing powers then again dive in. For comparison there are other OCN dramas like Missing noir M, Duel, Voice, Signal, Save Me, etc. If you liked these dramas you may also like this one.

Now, on to the review.
Firstly, I wanted to write a review because i saw that there are not many reviews and more importantly I think this drama was a little overlooked. Maybe because of the subs that came out so late and are still not so "good".

Story: It's a complex story, that many drama fans may have seen. A scary case that happened a long time ago, a new case that triggered the memories of the old one nowadays, and people who start to investigate it. However this drama is not so simple. Why? Because the story can't go on without characters that start to build it. That is why I want to talk about characters here. Out female lead is a strong policewoman. She is tomboyish and lives happily with her father, but we start the drama already knowing her past. I will not talk about the past but it's super creepy and scary. What is important here is that she can see people's death. well actually not only. She has a fortune telling power from her grandmother. On the other hand we have chic elite detective. His favorite phrase is "do you like science?". As you can guess from it he is someone who believes in science, is great in deduction and may other stuff. So these two get together and try to solve scary mysteries. As the detective says as a joke, she shoots a fantasy and he shoots a scientific crime drama. But together it become super great!Here I want to say a bit about Black it may sound similar. However it is not similar at all. I didn't think about Black even a single moment while watching this drama. Black had a very complex story and even the people who made it messed up in the end because of it. The girl was crying till the end. And the story lost it's logical thread, but had a promising start. Here, everything is different. The female officer is strong. she doesn't cry all the time. If something tragic happens she overcomes it and fight bravely. she is also physically strong and can beat many men. The male lead is also strong physically. (capable police :D) And she doesn't think she is cursed. She accepted her power. She is sad, that she can't save some, but she still tries. She is also smart! And as I said the male lead is somewhat a genius. And more importantly the story is logical till the end. Her powers only grow, and she uses them well. Male Lead also Uses his brain very well, and the story comes to a logical conclusion. So If you didn't like black, Doesn't mean you will not like this one. And visa versa. I can't leave out the second lead who played prosecutor. As he said himself you can't figure out he is good or bad, which makes you curious to see more of him. A man who strong and soft at the same time. You can't really tell what is he. But of course later you start to see other sides of him. The villain character where also interesting. Especially the "small" villains that go used by others. The story starts of as really creepy (like Save me) it gets creepier as the main leads visit a strange island. Later you get used to it and the entangled information slowly reveals itself more and more. Also the little homeless squad :D Honestly I totally loved them!! they played some big roles in this story and they were also a nice breath of fresh air.

Acting: The acting was great! I was seeing the female lead for the first time but she was great!! I was so tired of this super cute, weak ladies who always get in the way and cry. She played very well and her voice was great especially when she was telling the prophesies. The actor of male lead also pulled of smart, cheeky, genius, scientific, sad, angry, serious, stupid character lol. he was annoying at first, for me, but he was great later. The prosecutor (second lead). I saw this actor for the first time in Rebel and I loved him! Here I loved him even more. He pulled off all those complex emotions the character was having - guilt, heart scars from tragic childhood, fear, loyalty, willpower, desire to live, anger, love and more. The villains were good as expected, the veteran actors always end up getting all the hate XD
the "small" villains also did great. They had to show many other emotions and pulled it off fantastically. The homeless squad and other policemen also acted well.

Music: Creepy stuff owes it's creepiness mostly to music. XD well there is also camerawork. But you know those sounds that are usually in scary movies. they help to build the atmosphere here. But thank God it's not much. so It's ok. If you don't like scary stuff like me, don't worry it's not scary (it's like Save me).

This drama has adult cast. These actors are not young. But actually that is a plus for this drama. All the actors were great in it. And the plot actually captured me from the first scenes, because of it's creepiness. xDD

The cons, I think, are the subs!
This drama wasn't subbed when it was airing, maybe this is the reason it was overlooked at that time. Now it is subbed, but at the time a I am writing this the subs are a mess. I mean on the website where I watched it, the subs finally appeared, but they are very very bad. So I guess many people tried to watch it, but the subs were so out of the context that are very difficult to understand. I understand a little bit Korean, but there were parts I couldn't understand and the subs weren't of help. The genders are mixed, women are men and visa versa. From one point all the names started to appear in Chinese. Later that female lead's name Kim Dan was appearing as "altar" "small altar" or "gold altar" lol and there were part were the subs just told whatever. especially on the last episode. in all the important scenes there was written a nonsense. xD
What I was trying to say is don't give up on this drama because of the subs. :)

Overall it was a good drama, worth watching. I don't regret one bit. If you are wonder to watch it or no, I suggest giving it a try. The actual story begins two years from the events happening on the first two episodes. So try to keep on at least until that. Around 3rd or 4th ep. :)

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Bulldog

This drama is a japanese anime, japanese detectives style, if you know what i mean :)
If you like comedy and crime genre give it a try :) but if you like romance i won't recommend this drama as you won't find any romance here :)

I think i'll go ahead and give this a 10, it was not absolutely perfect but to be honest when i am thinking about the reasons to give it less i can't find any! Story was good, acting was good, music was awesome.

Story:
I truly enjoyed it from beginning till end! I'd say this was mostly a character driven story. But the cases were really interesting, with several side cases and one last main case. All had this little twists that you could have guessed but may have thought you are overthinking it (like i thought xDD) still were nice/funny to see. I want to say hilarious twists but yeah it might not be appropriate xDD still even the last two ep twist was very funny/creepy xD really japanese anime style. :) The whole show was was kind of "cliche-not-very-cliche-and-funny-way" if i can describe it this way. Plus I loved the "try to be cool but not really cool" style of the show xD

Characters:
The characters were the highlight of this show! I loved how the characters didn't change at all. I LOVE how there was absolutely no crying, pity, revenge on the personal level and the usual stuff. I loved the comedy!
to give you a little sneak:
We have a show producer Kang Moo Young, who has a horse sound ringtone and not only (i want that ringtone, it's hilarious). She is very messy, reckless, doesn't think much when going straight into criminals lair, and cares mostly about her show's ratings, she can do anything for those ratings. We have seen many reckless characters but she was a bit different, she wasn't strong but her recklessness was justified by the whole comedy and her "obsession" with ratings. Plus she is strong-headed so she wasn't ever crying for real and waiting for her prince charming to save her.
We have also the other main character who is a police detective, trying to solve all the cases. All would have been quite "normal and usual" if not for his money! He is a detective but he is rich! he doesn't act like rich though so anyone looking at him will think he is homeless lol. He also has this little squad that helps him sometimes to solve cases, plus he is strong himself. He does have an old case that he wants to solve but it's not the usual revenge trope. Just a case that he couldn't solve and wants to solve as he knows who is who.
Now we have side characters and the highlights of this show! :)
Teddy Jeong! a small bar owner, with asthma, but extremely strong. He and his two cool employees were the real MVPs of this drama. I LOVED them. He was a very great character mostly seen in japanese animes/dramas xD Absolutely cool! you know when the coolness just pours out of a character. But it was not the forced coolness of a young handsome actor. He looked extremely funny so all the coolness was hilarious but it was real xD The extremely loyal, extremely strong Teddy!
I really liked Tak Won's character too! Another character straight out of a japanese anime/drama. A private detective profiler that wants to be cool and was cool long time ago, but is not really cool right now and is always trying to sell his items from his pyramidal organization. It's hilarious! He is very smart when it comes to profiling but is super week, loves cameras, and is trying to sell his teas to everyone he sees.
And last but not least, we have a mortician, who was once working as a forensic, examining bodies. Now he is just preparing bodies (putting makeup on them) for funerals. He loves dead bodies. And loves makeup... xD He also has a high school daughter who doesn't like him much. He can sleep in the fridge for bodies and his wide place for examination is a perfect place to gather and discuss cases. xD
The characters were perfectly acted!

And of course Music! ending songs were Perfect XDDD very funny! like i said, japanese anime style xD

It was really great! I'd love to see a second season with Team Bulldog! XD it was funny xD

P.S. I never rewatch dramas so i put a random number in there

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I wasn't expecting much of this drama and just started it because I was bored of other dramas I was watching.
And it was amazing!!! This drama captured me from the start and the message it had behind of this all (maybe I made that message up myself) was awesome. About self awareness, about finding yourself, in real life too, once your character develops you start to act a certain way, and sometimes you say things you don't want to and do things you don't want to, while you never do or say things you want to. Slowly loosing yourself in this hectic world and living through your karma without a way to escape. So becoming self aware makes you raise a big question "why the hell do I need to act this way? I want to make my own fate". And then you also start realizing how you can be an extra in someone's life, and even overall. And how hard it is to change the written scenario. How we may have past lives and our actions there may have led to the stuff happening here and all. Also how after becoming self-aware people get separated from normal society as they notice more and they become alone but how friendships here if they come they are much deeper.
Anyway I really liked this strong message at the start and was amazed at this drama and Dan Oh who was trying to change her fate. However the webtoon originally doesn't make dan oh a fate-changer from the start, all she wants is to find first love. In the drama however we get this strong Dan Oh who wants of course first love too but rather she wants to find someone who will change her destiny. That strong Dan Oh quickly changes into cute Dan Oh saying Haru Haru Haru all the time. At fist i loved it!! It was super cute but by the end it got too repetitive for me.
Haru comes into the scene and is like super mysterious. I loved the mystery around him it was very interesting. I loved his interactions with Dan Oh. I loved their love story! They had such a cute chemistry. Again his character became shallow and repetitive at the end. (IN the manhwa story itself extra is always shallow I understand that, and why it could be like that, but that also made many people like the "second lead")
Beak Kyung was an annoying jerk at the start. I loved him because I liked the actor in the WWW search. But here he was likable at the start for me. But at the end he redeems himself and becomes the most interesting character i guess.
The other side characters and the side "lead" characters were amazing. Like Lee Do Hwa and Yo Joo Da <3
However there were this meaningless love triangles, that became repetitive at the end.
The story got around HaruXDan Oh, Bake Kyung watching from afar, and the heart decease... Maybe they made it like that because it will be hard for them to get the mystery of that world BUT it would have been soo great if they gave us answers like "why did they become self aware in the first place? Who is the writer? Why is he drawing the same characters over and over and over again with no creativity at all? What is that hole? Why did other certain characters become aware...? Will they be stuck in this loop forever till the unoriginal writer dies? How did this world become kinda real in the first place? Why is the manhwa found in this world? Why does Haru draw so well? etc etc etc so many questions and all left unanswered.
I think my expectations just got too high because of the amazing start. It was going better and better each week jumping over my expectations even higher and higher. But the in the later part of the drama it all went downhill sadly.

Though the ending is kinda what I expected it to be... the uninteresting expectation lol. At the start everything i thought was wrong and i was sooo excited about it! I love when a drama doesn't go with my expectations but rather it goes higher. It quickly became the only drama i was looking forward each week and the thoughts that it might the best drama of 2019 crossed my mind too. But at the end it just went to the cliche direction.

Now the cast and actors did an amazing job!!! I loved each of them. I met some of the in other dramas and they didn't disappoint!! The characters were really great too!!
The plot had an amazing message and idea at the start, but couldn't execute it well. It went MUCH better than the webtoon but at the end it just returned to the webtoon..

OST was awesome!! I loved the themes I loved the songs!! I loved the love story at the start and was screaming all around xD

Overall:
It was a great drama and one of those that have super promising start and go downhill in the middle, however this one didn't fall as deep as many others do so I still rated it high because the performances and the execution was great. It just went to the kinda cliche and sad direction.

I don't usually rewatch dramas so i put a random number in there.

What I liked:
1.Self awareness message
2. Dan oh who wanted to change her fate
3. Mysterious Haru
4. All the second and side characters
5. Music
6. Idea
7. Love story

What I didn't like:
1. Repetitiveness
2. Dan Oh and Haru at the end
3. Baek Kyung at the start
4. draggy-ness at the end
5. ending
6. unanswered questions!!

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Disclaimer: all written below is just my opinion. I tried to be as objective as possible.
(Viki is full of reviews on this drama i'm surprised there are not many in here. and surprised it doesn't have a high rating)

Let me start by saying that I loved this drama!! It is about family, justice, righteousness! I don't usually watch long episode dramas, however I started it without knowing that it will be a 50 ep drama, but I was so hooked after the first ep, that I couldn't stop. Watching it every week was like a torture lol so I put it on hold and then picked it up again. I didn't give it a 10 for some reasons, I will talk about them below.

I want to start with the words Dol Mok said by the end of the drama: "The law now is like a very huge net that lets go of all the big fish that lives in a castle, and it becomes a very tight net that doesn't let go even of the smallest fish that is outside of the castle. The society where law protects only the ones that live in a castle and makes others crumble is a rotten society, and won't last long. So I want it to change with this judgement today."

Story: I think this is the strongest point of this drama! The plot summary doesn't say anything about it actually. This is a story about the descendants of Korean Heroic troops a little squad of about 5 people, lead by General Baek San, that fought for independence during the Japanese occupation of Korea. And the Pro_Japanese family that actually betrayed Korea. It's about the unfairness, how the traitors back then, live a luxurious life for 3 generations, while the heroes that brought freedom to Korea live in poverty for 3 generations. However the 4th generation came to change the tables and to bring justice to the world! The title - good thief, bad thief sounds in Korean like "doduk nom, doduk nim", which can be also translated as punk thief and Mr. Thief. The so called Mr. Thieves are the powerful rich people that steal money from poor people, evade taxes, embezzle money etc. and the punk thief is our main hero who is like a modern Robin Hood, stealing from bad giving to poor (not exactly but something like this). Going back to the story: It had so much twists and turns so 50 ep were just enough for it. To be a little more honest the last 5 eps may be a little slower than the rest and could have been fit into 3 eps (one of the reasons to that i didn't rate 10), but the rest 45 eps were not slow imo. each episode ending with such a turn that I couldn't wait to watch what is next.
the story starts when the main lead was 4 years old, therefore the story focuses on their parents and how everything happened. I know many people avoid long flashbacks, backstories, but this was really necessary for us to fully understand the characters. Also some say that the first half of the drama is slow while the action starts in the second half. for this I want to say that the first half of the drama is where all the knots are getting tied and secrets appear, while the second half is where they start to untie the knots and unveil the secrets. Therefore the second part would have never been there without the first. Personally I liked the first half of the drama a lot. As much as the second. The story continues on and we see the the main hero as 10 year old, and here again many tragedies happen. After this we go on to were our lead is in a high school (this is where adult actors show up), again they show us little part of their past, because this is were the lead decides what to do in the future. All these stories were so interesting and so freaking heart-wrenching, I cried my eyes out during the whole backstory. Because it shows us a never ending unfairness, powerlessness and dark tunnel without a light or exit. The villains are super annoying and so bad that makes you wonder how can people be like this. The story goes around a coward that tries to save his children. About betrayals, greed and unfairness. But among all of these we see such a nice, kind and warm family that makes you want to cry. From the 10/11th episode they finally grow up into 29 year old young people. This is where we finally see how our hero becomes a Thief (Robin Hood, Hong gil dong, Kaito Kid). The poor kids grew up and many set up on the path of revenge. And slowly they start to learn about the present, and about their past, and about the people who fought for independence in 1984 or something.

Genres: I wanted to address this too as I saw many comments saying there are too many genres in this drama. From one perspective yes, this drama is suspense, action, crime, family with a splash of history, romance and comedy The main characters are prosecutors and lawyers, policewoman who became an investigator in prosecution, Thief, and villains of a conglomerate. It might also be a little of a makjang drama, because all of the birth secret and stuff and the villains' families. They also sing here couple of times. The romance is not a cliche love triangle. it starts as one but then it changes and we see that there is no room for triangles or squares, because the main characters are too much in love with each other! (btw I am also in love with Jang Dol Mok the lead <3) And finally the comedy is a nice breather among the heavy stuff, as Dol Mok says let's laugh a bit, even if like this. (kinda sloppy translation from Korean)

Characters (Acting/Cast): The Characters where sooo complex in this drama. We see their whole past so we can see how many sides they have, and there is so much character development going on! Let's start from villains :D They were amazing! The Hong clan (LOL) - Pro-Japanese family that tries to find the ancient artifacts the Heroic Corps have hidden. Hong il Kwon - a very very bad old man! funny how he changes a little at the end. The older sister Hong Mi Ae and her son Yoon Ho.....(I will not talk about the husband) Omg.... They were soooooo annoying and super stupid at first, I hated them so much during the whole childhood part... kicking, beating, bribing, yelling.... gosh... however when Yoon Ho got older I started to like the character, and by the end of the drama he was great XDD haha so funny XDD same goes for the crazy Hong Mi Ae who was like super bad and annoying, but by the end of the drama I started to really like her parts as they were a very funny comic relief XD lol. The next are the little sister Hong Shin Ae, her daughter Hwa Yeong, and finally her husband the chief prosecutor Yoon Joong Te! they started of as dignified family but in the end couldn't escape the greed that run in the family. Hwa Yeong is your average rich mean girl. I won't talk much here. I want to applaud for Yoon Joong Te as he did a totally amazing job as a villain! and the last scene with him and the gold bird was great. It had a really nice message! There are also small villains like Choi Tae Seok and Choi Kang gyu who are the kind of people who do stuff for money and all. But in the end both of them played a big role in the story. I totally hated Choi Tae Seok at first but later I started to kinda like him. Choi Kang gyu was annoying, stupid and poor XD
Now to our good characters :D First of all is our dear main hero Jang Dol Mok/Kim Soo Hyun!!!! Standing ovation to Ji Hyun woo! To be honest I didn't like him at first. during the childhood part I thought it's a girl, and it was a shock to learn he is boy XD I also didn't think he will be the main lead. XD And the adult actor... I saw him in queen in hyun's man and didn't like him, I also saw him in angry mom (here i liked him though). But as the drama went on... I fell in love with the character Jang Dol Mok!! A Perfect man! As someone said he is the type that attracts women like a honey can attract bees ROFL. After going through so much he grew up so well! Such an affectionate man! His super warm relationship with his father and brother and others is just very sweet!! <3 <3 He has sooo much different licences! and is very strong! so precious! <3 My Ideal type!! <3 I can talk about him all day long but i'll stop here XD next is Jang Pan Soo and his wife! :D the father of jang dol mok, this actor received an award for this role! he was amazing at portraying a warm and kind coward, who cries a lot. The whole drama starts with him coming out of prison and going back to his family. He is a small town thief, that stole a little bread to feed his family, but got caught. he is one of the descendants so he tries to apply to some kind of charity foundation that can give money to the descendants of the heroic squad. However he gets himself in a BIG trouble after doing this. In the end he becomes the foster father of Jang Dol Mok. I havn't seen such a warm cute father-son relationship is a drama yet. Now Han Joon Hee prosecutor or Jang Mi Jae. the childhood version of him was played by Nam Da Reum, who is everywhere XD Han Jonn Hee's adult version was that kind of person, who does what he believes and is very very stubborn. However as he learns the truth he changes for the good. he still fights for what he believes in, but now he joins his brother to uncover all the crimes that the bad people were doing. I started to like him very much later :D The brothers relationship is also one of the most warmest relationships i have ever seen. <3 <3 I want to say just a little bit about the side characters. The grandmother and Master Kwon that appear during the high school days of Jang Dol Mok are like cherries on a cake at that time xD gosh, the appearance of Kung Fu master was kinda strange and funny at first XD but it was really refreshing and they became the characters I love. <3 San Woon Yul becomes the house where Jang Dol Mok and his father and many other people start to live and become a very cute, warm, big family! <3 . Shorry plays Dol Mok's friend who helps him with work. he brings comedy to this drama. And we also get many other side characters that play a big role in the whole story. However sometimes the appearance of those characters is quite random, that makes you wonder if they are really necessary, but they indeed are! I will not talk about them much so that it won't be a spoiler xD. Next is the father of our female lead, detective Kang seong il! He playes a big part during the backstory. a corrupt detective that does everything to raise his cute daughter alone, however he gets himself into a mess while investigating a certain case. Now finally onto his daughter, the female lead, played by SeoHyun (her first main role), Kang So Ju! yes, her name is after soju lol and she like soju. I think, many don't like the romance in this drama because of her, also the whole drama ... well.... She was great during high school, a strong, happy girl with glasses. and seohyun played her well. the problem starts later XD While being a 29 year old girl So Ju keeps being strong, loud, happy girl, just without glasses. That is her character and I don't think that the problem was the acting. the acting is ok. But this character get super annoying. There actually people who didn't find her annoying at all and liked her, so I think you should judge yourself, after watching the drama. For me she was very annoying and always doing what she shouldn't do, her way of thinking resembled han joon hee prosecutor at fisrt, very stubborn and righteous, thinking that law is everything and everyone needs to protect it. She is right actually! very right! however the law couldn't do anything against all those powerful people. She really gets in the way and all her decisions are stupid. Maybe all of that came from not knowing a lot. Because later when she learns all the truths and after getting in the way really hard, she starts to change!! :D she become less annoying, and finally starts to help. she becomes a really good partner for our Dol Moki. the thing is that for me her character was so annoying in the middle of the drama, that it made me think that she doesn't deserve Dol Mok, and seeing how she changed for the good didn't make me feel satisfied with the character, but somehow relieved. You know, like thinking: "Gosh, finally she does something normal!!!" . This is only my opinion however, you might really like the happy, strong So Ju. :) It is more like a warning in case you don't like her. XDD So wait till the end, and she will become good. XD
Music: Well the music complemented the drama a lot. It gave that old feeling of 90s at first and later. I also liked the songs the characters sang during the drama. The song that father and sons sang, also the song that so ju's father sang her, and then Dol Moki kept on singing to her (gosh he also sang and played guitar, and cooked well, and played chess and.... omg i need to stop)
Rewatch value: I don't usually rewatch dramas, but due to complicated-ness and richness of the story I gave it a high rewatch value.

Overall: This drama was a real roller-coaster. With many characters, many genres, many twists and turns. It was paced really well. The story goes on really fast, not slow at all. I suggest watching it when you have time, because watching it with just 2 eps a week might make you feel it as a boring drama. The first episode might be a little slow at first, but it gets intense from the middle of it. However prepare yourself as the first 10 episodes are super sad, the high school era has a little bit of a bright side, but it still has super sad and unfair moments. I really cried a lot. Later it gets better, because our kids grow up and are no longer those powerless poor little children. They become strong powerful adults with very kind and warm hearts. And the real action with the thief "J" and all starts from 11th ep. From about 25th ep they start to learn the truth, so the fight gets more intense. However romance also starts to bloom.
To add one more thing that maybe a little of a spoiler!! So go down to the next part, if you don’t want it. In this drama they also emphasized the respect towards women during the wedding scene. In traditional Korean wedding woman bows 3 times and the man 2. But here they did it so that both of them will bow 3 times, saying that in 21 century men also should show respect and not only women, to show that they will become friends and companions to go together from now on. I really liked it!

And finally the ending is satisfying. :D they finished all the story-lines they started and showed the "end" of all the main characters and some main-side-characters.

So if you are wondering to watch this drama or not, give a try to about 17 eps and only then decide to drop it or watch till the 50th. I don't regret the time I spent on this. It has been a day since I finished it, and I am thinking about all the characters, especially Dol Mok, and don't want to watch anything else yet.

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It was nice :) haha interesting concept. not the best for me though lol
Story is interesting had a lot of potential but I think they didn't use the whole potential of it. Better watch it without huge expectations. It turns into a mystery/detective with a bit of comedy and a tiny bit of fantasy. At first i didn't like it because they were too fixed on korean norms of beauty and ugly. However later they do say that all the people liked the guy before too who was ugly at the time. And the girl was beautiful but a bit annoying lol. Well Park bo Yeong is not ugly at all so idk why they consider her ugly but i guess they made her a haircut that doesn't suit her well.
Anyway the concept of abyss was nice, the cameo while giving out the abyss was also nice haha. idk why they call them aliens. They could have made the whole story much better with that concept but they failed to do it. As a mystery it wasn't bad. not the Best, but not the Worst either. They could have explained it more, much more... but they left everything unexplained.
the side character couple was cute. i liked that detective-mido couple the most haha.
i didn't like that they made the ending like that so i skipped most of it. But still it was happy ending so all good. wish they could explain more about the homeless person and what happened during the gap. it felt rushed in that way. or rather... felt like they had nothing to say so they made se yeon fall asleep in the middle lol
actually i skipped a lot of scenes as they were all lovely bubbly when there is a killer walking around. lol

What i liked:
- ahn hyo seob (but i think he is still too green for a lead)
- a hilarious scenes when abyss was with killer (they could have made it even funnier, but i think i just thought all the funny stuff to myself that's why found it hilarious)
- Male Lead Cha Min's mother! lol (would have thought she is that cliche mean rich mother but they made all those things very funny lol she was great, i loved when she said "bring Food!!!")

What i didn't like:
- Plot (which i liked it it was not made well, i think the writers themselves didnt get how to use it)
- Acting (well idk... i dint like it much)
- Too much romance in the later part of the drama which should have been intense
- Ending (it was a happy ending!!! but it had many things not explained, i'd say VERY not explained. but kinda a DOTS like ending again)
- Beauty/Ugly norms lol

Overall:

I can't say i liked this drama, but i can't say i hated it either. I'd say you can try it to see for yourself, because I didn't like it mostly cause i like different genres.... well i do like mystery the most, but for me this was more romance than mystery. So it was ok, not bad, but not very good for me.

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If I could I would have given this drama 100.
First of all I want to notice the period of time when this drama was aired. Yes, it was during that controversy with South Korean president we all heard. All the stars going to election and posting photo-proofs, that they went there. The time, when the whole nation stood to remove the old president and choose a new one. This perfectly correlated with this dramas story! That is one of the reasons it was so loved in Korea. Actually the ending also shows that. All the lines in the ending scene are all related to the president issue, as it was aired right after elections. I will not give spoilers, so find out what was told at the end of this drama, after watching it till the end :P

So why did I give such scores?

1. Music (OST) - 10
This drama in my opinion has one of the best ost’s I have ever heard. Especially among historical dramas. My favorite has been Six Flying Dragons (for everything), the songs Muiiya, and song of a blue mountain were the best! Here, the whole ost compliments the drama very well, and the lyrics suit the situations. Moreover all of them have this traditional Korean feeling, using the language one usually hears in sageuks. The music was phenomenal in this drama. I’m gonna download it as soon as possible. I want to give this drama The Best OST Award! The epic-ness of the music just can’t be described in words. In totally gave me SFD feels. It is also a nice delight to listen to k-pop star participant Ahn Ye Eun's songs!

2. Acting/Cast/ Characters - 10
To be honest I was both worried and excited that Yoon Kyun Sang will be playing this role. Worried, because, as Moo Hyul in SFD he was amazing, and this role was quite similar to it. Excited, because this would have been his first leading role, and I really wanted a Hong Gil Dong drama. However he was PERFECT for this role. His height and big built, sometimes stupid expressions made me think that this is Hong Gil Dong. Every time there was a scene were we could see many characters it was so funny to see the height difference.
The whole cast did an amazing job, so I want to address some of the characters.

Women:
Yes, women in this drama where fantastic. Honestly I totally hate those whiny woman characters that only cry during the whole drama, wait for their lovers and, more importantly, get in the way!! However this drama was filled with strong-willed women who knew what they want. An ambitious Guiseng who was an artist, an all smiley, talkative strong girl. Gil Dong ‘s mother was also great. These kind of women I also saw in Shine or Go Crazy, they were really smart there. I also want to give a separate credit to extra women in the town. While men were scared to act, women offered their help first!

Villains:
Extra credit for villains, because they did an amazing job portraying them. I loved how the writer showed us the villains from different perspectives. Here I would like to say that the king was the most complex of them all. Historically this king is knows as the most brutal and tyrannical king of Jeoseon. This drama also portraits his inner conflicts. We get to see how he started, how he was like an angry child, but then the drama shows us that all of his traumas, all of his thoughts in the end can’t justify his cruelty.

Hong clan:
Yup! Hong clan was amazing. The 7 generals did great portraying memorable characters, cute thugs that later became heroes. But not only the main people of the Hong clan were great. Extra characters that joined along the way, all the people that got help from them, they all did an amazing job.

Main Characters:
As I said Hong Gil Dong was played perfectly and character development was no joke. However we need to give credit to other main characters than the lead boy. I already wrote about villains, ladies, Hong clan. But I cannot leave out our hero’s father - Amogae! Kim San Joong this year received Daesang ( the biggest/highest award) during the award ceremony for portraying Amogae. I think he also needs to receive the Father Of The Year award. As the drama says, we cannot start the story of Hong Gil Dong without telling his father’s story first. I liked his story so much that it was even difficult to let go of the young versions of all the characters. Even the stars chose as their best scene the scene with Amogae. The scene were even during the reading the whole cast and stuff was moved. Amogae’s way of talking was also so melodic that it was another reason to like him. I loved how Gil Dong later also sometimes talks like him. Slave Amogae was a big pillar in this drama. The other main characters are older brother and sister of Gil Dong who also did a great job. And of course Mori xD haha. After this drama he landed a lead role in School 2017 and later in Laughter in Waikiki. Why? Because he was such a memorable character in this drama that remained in the memories of viewers. Good job.

An amazing character development can also keep one captivated. All the characters changed over time.

3. Story - 10
This writer received the best script award this year. I think this already tells a lot. The interesting part was that it seems she combined two Korean Folk stories that synchronized very well with each other. The story of Hong Gil Dong bandit and thief that helped poor and scolded rich in the 15th century. The equivalent of English Robin Hood. A nice surprise was another Korean folk tale, this time not so based on a real hero but still, appears in old books. Legend of the Mighty Child. Born into a lowly family, such as slaves, a child with wings under his arms, that possesses a mighty strength. In the legend every time a mighty child was born his parents killed him, or made authorities kill him. People say that the wings symbolize Heaven, which in Joeseon was considered something to do with the King ( a son of heaven). However here, it symbolized that the child, born to a slave was actually sent by heaven and do its will. This was unacceptable in Jeoseon, so it is told that, the parents and authorities symbolize the people afraid of changes, afraid of the rebel. However the child is born again and again, even if the stories end tragically, people said that, the legend shows that the child is immortal. And that the desire of a hero, a savior is always there. The writer of this drama, who studied Korean history, combined this two legends into one. Therefore this story depicts the life of a mighty child who has actually survived. Born into a slave family, raisen higher than anyone else.
So the nice thing is that, this drama breaks the historical drama cliches about secret of birth. :D
The other part I love about story is that it tells us about equality. This kind of thoughts were pretty rare in old Jeoseon and Hong Gil Dong had them! He totally expressed that thought in the same way I was always thinking, haha.
Well the story had some great messages in it too. Very interesting and nice quotes, so listening to the is another part of the story that is very cool.

Many tell that this drama is slow at first and starts to roll after about 18th episode. Well in some cases that might be true. The main fight starts in the second half of the drama. However!! I didn’t think of the first half as slow. It was very well written, so many things happened, and it kept you on the edge the whole time. So don’t be afraid if people say it’s slow, as I was. The well written plot keeps you going and going.

The ending was the most perfect ending I have ever seen. Lol and I have seen a lot. Well I’ll correct myself. This was the most perfect ending for me. Because I personally like this kind of endings and they are rare. Especially in historicals. As I said in the beginning it also addresses issue with the president which has even bigger impact.
The story also doesn’t give us any loose ends. However! This part was a tiny bit disappointing because there were actually two little loose ends (that I can explain by my own imagination) but still I would have liked if the drama showed us a little about tiger and the uncle. But! This does not lower the rating of 10, because as I said those two little things can actually be explained by our own imagination.

Romance:
For those who look for romance. There is actually romance here! It shows such a deep, cute, sweet love between leads that I totally loved!!

4. The title - 10
I want to give a credit for the title. Rebel, thief who stole the people!!! Just how epic does it sound!! Amazing! I also love that in the drama they actually use this too!!

5. Rewatch value - 9
This one is low because i don’t usually like re-watching dramas. Actually I don’t rewatch them at all. So this score is pretty high, because the drama didn’t have any annoying and boring parts that I wanted to skip.

Overall I really recommend this drama. If you have liked SFD you will differently like this one! And visa versa.

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ummm extremely illogical

First of all if you like time travel dramas you can watch this, but if you like logical stuff, thinking and analyzing things you might not like it. If you like romance you might not like it either but there are romance hints here and there...

What I liked:
The openings with nice quotes.
The message of time travel not being that much of a good thing.
Acting.

What I disliked:
Everything else lol, to be precise, the plot/story
the inconsistence
the forced hints of romance
the forced "shocking twists"
ages!!

First of all, the Time Theory, that they are using. It's not the linear theory when your action changes the future. But a theory like a tree or something where there are multiple universes and each your action just creates another universe.... well this seems like an excuse to cover up all this inconsistences in-between. Make the writer's life easier. But! it would have been alright, and even very interesting if this whole thing was consistent in itself? but by the end of the drama the time theory get's messed up and sometimes we get a linear one, sometimes not, then again a linear one.
They treat people from the other universe as "different people" with same DNA. then "same people" then "different people" again.... Drama "Train" did much better with universes than this one.

Down here are SPOILERS mostly on the ending. so Beware! But in one word the ending was bad:

The last episode was complete disaster for me as everything explained was going into nowhere. The big mystery was trying hard to be impactful but was there just for the "shock" value. Because there was completely no explanation why was he killing the mother all the time. Why was he in agony? what exactly wanted he to end? If it's like he said and he shouldn't have been born, then just killing himself once would have solved it. But he just kept going to that one day to kill her and not him... why? just because writer wanted a "shock value" on her death. Who wrote that book in the first place? and WHY exactly they kept doing what was written. lol I mean if it's a prophecy it should happen one way or another, but they were just "deciding" to make it the way it's written and nothing in the world was actually forcing them. At least nothing they showed.
I will ignore the fact that all Alice employees suddenly conveniently disappeared just to make a nice battle ground for them for a second.

Now they tell that everything resets (well this was expected thing from the very first ep) BUT somehow that rule doesn't apply to certain people? Why is mother left there when she is a time traveler? Why is he left there when he is a son of time traveler? WHY is born in the first place when his father disappeared into thin air? Why is his personality a little bit changed? Why is the Team Leader Ahjosshi still there when the real one died even before the case with Jin Gyeom's classmate happened? Why he doesn't remember Jin Gyom when everything reset from the birthday, meaning after the whole case with suicide (if we ignore both of them shouldn't be there in the first place)? Why reporter Do Yeon doesn't know him when they were classmates? Why the present Tae Yi remembers him even though she lived a completely different life?? (how is she going to live if she doesn't remember where she went on seminar, what work she has to do now etc etc etc) And more importantly WHY does she even exist if her mother was a time traveler in the first place?? Why is she with her adoptive parents when her father shouldn't have died (if we ignore her mother shouldn't have been there so she shouldn't have been born at all) ? Again why is she adopted by them when they went to that orphanage, but she was taken there by the JG mother and they shouldn't have met in the first place because no time travel anymore?? And WHY does he not thinks that she looks exactly like his mom when he sees her? All he thinks later is "oh it's a girl from my dreams" and then Ta-Da slightly romantic ending.

Like Laugarza said in the comments it would have been a little bit more decent and made more sense if she had met his father Min Hyuk in present day and got pregnant so she could give birth to Jin gyum in 2020. That is of course if we forget Tae Yi was also daughter of a time traveler and should have been reset too!

Also the seem to have spent their whole CGI budget on the first two eps. And then coulnd't even show us the disappearance and appearance of people who are time travelling. Then they spent a little for the last ep. Oh and of course they didn't forget to spend all the remaining funds on the Year Captions. I'd rather have interesting time travel then an interesting caption. lol but this is just random addon, it doesn't affect the drama much.

And Last but not least, the ages. The just said that people there come from 2050. Well, okay. but there are 30-40 year old versions of themselves living in 2020. And they are shown as their past. Well now explain me please how come people from 2050 look like the are 30-40-50 when they have to be 80-90?? And out of all the people the one who actually got old was only the ml? lol If you are 90 in the future and come back to the past, even though that past is a different universe, okay well if you are super futuristic healthy you will live till 120, but look like a 40?? or not die? lol I just don't understand anything at all.

Acting was good, Music was good.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
first of all if you don't want spoiler don't read all the above. Second, I think this drama choose another version of time theory to avoid plot holes but in the end has fallen into a bigger plot hole.
and third, It's not THAT bad. lol It's still an Okay-ish drama that you can enjoy. I was just expecting a lot, plus i love logical stuff, plus the first ep was too promising. I also don't exclude the possibility that it was just me who didn't understand anything and my lack of understanding lead me to not liking this drama.
So you can take a risk, start watching and see if you like :) But I don't think I would recommend this to a friend. But if the friend would still be interested i would say to try it and just beware and not expect much.
"Train" that ended not long before this one did things much better. Though I didn't like it much too, but compared to this one, it worked perfectly with different universes.

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For someone who dislikes political dramas I surprisingly enjoyed this a lot! I started the first episode while playing games and just because i had to wait for something and had nothing better to do, but from the middle this drama made me lift my head, lift my eyes from the phone and stare at the screen. I did skip some parts though as sometimes their talks were getting longer and sometimes i just couldn't understand the political stuff. I can't say this will be my favorite drama, but I can honestly say that I enjoyed it.

What I liked:

- Kang han na and her investigation
-President's wife!!!!!! who i loved her. She was strong and independent! I loved how Park Mu Jin always asked for an advice form her.
-President couple. They were amazing very supportive healthy family!!! Such an amazing relationship!!!!!
-seol ji hwan and his hacking (I totally shipped him with han na kyeong)
-Ji Jin Hee. He acted so well as the president. As someone who is totally not suited in politics and onto someone who is a true leader.
- Secretary Cha xD he was funny they way he anxiously and nervously talked was also funny but it added seasoning to the drama, i liked it.
- the third NIS agent. he was nice
-The guy who dealt with press as spokes person. He was so nice and funny lol
-the political ending it was really well-made

What I didn't like:

-a bit long and a bit boring at times.
-too many dying without answers and without meaning...
-Oh Yeon Seok Assemblyman's driver lol
-Tailor Kim's end
-The investigation ending!!! it was so hopeless and seemed like everything was in vain without proper answers.


I haven't seen the american version and people who have seen it say this drama wasn't good in comparison. But I think they tailored the drama onto Korean Government really well! just from the start and throughout the drama it discussed sensitive issues of Korean government and it was really interesting.
I also enjoyed the investigation part a lot!! It was very interesting to follow their path!
For the ending however i would like to divide my score. 10 for political ending and 6 for the terrorism investigation ending.

Plot was really well balanced the the whole concept of the story is very interesting.
Characters were very interesting and diverse. I loved how in the end we didn't have completely bad characters. All were people! I would like to say a tiny bit about that because in drama "watcher"'s review i told that it was not good because it was grey without characters being good or bad. I think, there they didn't pull it off well, while here so made it really well interesting and balanced. They were not grey they were people with lots of colors in them.
I want to give two Honorable mentions to women! well actually three! The political woman President Yun! Wow she did her job so well! Until the end i didn't know is she good or bad, and I still don't, she is just an ambitious woman, amazing! Wife of our newly made fresh president. She was amazing i totally loved how he always asked for advice! and of course Han Na Kyong agent! she was strong and smart. She kept investigating until the end and it was great!

All the actors did soooo well playing their roles.

Overall the only thing this was lacking is a more satisfying conclusion of the whole terror incident.

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From a Webtoon fan...

Disclaimer: this review is biased. I have been reading this webtoon ongoing right after it came out several months after I finished reading Bastard. I don't like horror but these authors are amazing! I'm a huge fan of this webtoon and was waiting for a new chapter each week, and even bought some early access. So I was veeeery disappointed in the drama... but if you are a webtoon reader like me, try to not compare this to it, and just enjoy the drama as a standalone, even though i know that it will be hard.

There are spoilers in the review if you didn't read the webtoon. So better to not read it.

Side Note for those who don't like Horror like me: Even though the drama was creepy and disgusting, you could easily close your eyes at the most disgusting parts like excessive blood flow or killings/eatings and still enjoy the show.

STORY:
the Bad:
They changed everything from the very start.. They removed Maria, they completely changed Eunhyuk's sister, they took away Eunhyuk's nerdy side, they added a completely new character who is a strong woman firefighter, They focused more on the outside world, while the webtoon focused only on the residents of this place and from their perspective (the characters didnd't know what was going on, just like us), they changed the group of evil people that barged into their apartment complex, They changed Wook and his profession, they changed Dusik's ending (his end was soooooooooooooooo dramatic and special in the webtoon, i was crying my eyes out but here it wasn't), They removed the "NEW" people, they changed the old man fighter girl duo, They changed the overall ending leaving it open for the second season, they added romance where it wasn't and removed romance from where it was, They breezed through some of the important side characters. Not only that, they also didn't focus much on people's thought process when becoming a monster. The inner fight was less, the chemistry between characters was just shoved down to 0. Eunhyuk Hyun, Wook, Jisoo friendship was my favorite but they just removed it completely. This webtoon was one of the best webtoon with character growth and this was not shown well too. Anyway it just seemed that they are making money on the webtoons name, taking the core idea and doing it completely differently.
The Good:
Now if you take this as a standalone and forget about the webtoon. The characters were interesting, the new firefighter girl was cool and she did a lot for the story progress, the showed us some of the reasons why this started happening making it a big conspiracy. Including military and showing us what they are doing too. So we get more information and the thing becomes much bigger. Some great characters were so perfect that they became scene stealers.

Acting/Cast:
the bad: the bad goes not into the acting but the cast, some didn't suit the characters, like Wook. and some were just made up out of nowhere.
the good: the good is of course the acting, because everyone did a great job with it! amazing performance by everyone!
SOUNDTRACK: Warriors by Imagine Dragons? XD well i like the song so it was nice and epic but kinda unexpected and not very suited.

I never rewatch dramas. So i put a random number in there.

Overall:
Compared to the webtoon, this show is very bad. If i was a webtoon writer i would have been enraged.
But if you watch it separate from the webtoon it is good and interesting.

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Who is the father... or why did they break up...or The child actors are awesome!

"My dream is becoming Wonder Woman and not a Cinderella" - Noh Ae Jong

What i liked:
Child Actors!! especially Ha Nee!
Ha nee talking about marrying mom
Noh Ae Jong wishing to be wonder woman and not a cinderella
the family - sismance
Ha neee again
Ha neee 3
Ha nee 4
the gangster father
happy ending/ships for all characters

What I disliked:
Reverse Harem.
most adults.
the writer
plot


This drama is quite a lighthearted comedy about a family that starts to shake a bit after the mom has troubles as work and some potential fathers to her cute daughter start to appear. It does have this mystery of "who is the father" but to be honest the father is easily deduced by looking at the poster. There are two leads and others are just side characters.

I think this drama would have been a gem if done in Hospital Playlist style. Making it a family/sismance drama would have been perfect because noh ae jong's family was really nice! but the Reverse Harem, Father search and all was really unnecessary and not quite a good decision in my opinion. Though of course it all depends on a person and their preferences :)
One might think it's not in the favor of the woman to have many father candidates. And if that is a factor that is stopping you from watching this drama then don't worry! This is a slight spoiler but as many people are telling about this factor i wanted to tell that the female lead didn't have any relationship with other people other than the real father. And everything is mostly those other men's imagination/wishes.
After the father is recognized (which happens pretty soon for the viewers), comes the real big question of this drama! Why did they separate. lol What did the father do or what did the mother do. The big mystery is getting bigger and bigger only to have a very weak reveal. To be honest all the big revelations of recent 2020 dramas were really weak. That, i think, was the biggest thing that i didn't like. The reason could have been solved just by conversation but both refused to talk which led to a kid being raised without father.
At first it is kinda focused on the fact that the daughter Ha Nee doesn't have a father and that focus goes quite long. But i liked a lot that they also showed that Ha Nee was raised perfectly well by her mother and grandmother and was happy with them.

Talking about kids! They are the highlight of this drama! to be honest i started this drama for JI Hyo and i always feel bad for not liking her dramas... but then i continued it for the child actors! I'm in love with the girl who played Ha Nee! She was soooo sweet! she acted perfectly and i loved every second of her scenes! <3 :)

So the story is like 5 for me. it's okayish. 0.5 for Ji Hyo. and 2 for Ha Nee <3 :)

So you can try watching this drama and then decide if you like it or not. It wasn't THAT bad. but it wasn't great either for me at least :) but i still don't regret watching it because i loved the child actors :)

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Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim Is a medical and life drama. I don’t quite recommend it to people who love romance. But overall it’s a good drama and if you are thinking about starting it then give the first season a try : ) If you are coming from the first season and wondering if you should watch the second well. I think first was a bit better. But still you can give this one a try too.

I truly enjoyed first season, but I wasn’t expecting much from the second. I am always skeptical about any seconds in dramas or movies. But the first few episodes were not that bad. I was surprised that it wasn’t bad and they actually gave an explanation about what happened to the previous characters and I liked it.

For shorter review you can scroll down : )

Story:
Story was similar to the previous one. Same villain, same hate (I really don’t understand why people hate on Kim Sabu, but yeah same villain soo…). And many medical cases. Some were obviously made just to show off, some also were made just to trigger the characters. To be honest maybe this could have been done in a less obvious way, but I am no drama writer to judge that. So like a first season we get two young doctors with problems who come to Doldam hospital and under Kim Sabu’s perfect guidance grow wings. Like the female doctor Cha Eun Jae said “fish Koi can grow very big or small depending on the size of the aquarium” well this is just a simpler way of saying what Kim Sabu told before. And the size of aquarium doesn’t necessary mean that you have to work in a big hospital live in a big house and all the prestige and all. Sometimes it can mean the opposite. I enjoyed all the stuff Kim Sabu said during the drama. "The moment you give up, you start looking for excuses. The moment you think you can do it, you start looking for a way" this quote I really loved and even wrote it down, when watching the drama. Even the simple “Come out of that bus already” was truly deep and as a big lover or deep quotes I loved this drama just for that. It was an “ear candy” (if this a right way of saying it).
Sadly many character plotlines are not developed well. They just start very interestingly, then stay at the middle part for quite some time getting draggy, and then suddenly ending without opening up enough. That is the reason why I actually thought that this drama had more episodes and was taken by surprise when it ended. Also this is a Big SPOILER: (jump to characters or shorter review if you don’t want this spoiler) sadly they didn’t show and explain enough of Kim Sabu’s illness. They showed how his hand is healing and happy ending and all but the type of sclerosis he has is serious. I had to look it up because absolutely no one addressed the issue, maybe they thought all the viewers are medical specialists. It said that it’s very serious and doesn’t have a complete cure. But what we get in the drama? Do yoo hwan thinking of using it, throwing a big tantrum like a kid and then kim sabu saying him not making a ruckus out of nothing. Then they should have explained what exactly that illness is. On the other hand I don’t see a point of giving him such a serious illness story-wise if they are not planning to make some dramatic scenes with that. So that was a bit disappointing. End of Big Spoiler!

Characters:
I think it won’t be an exaggeration to call this drama a character driven story. All the supporting character were amazing and Kim Sabu was the best of all. Kim Sabu or Master Kim was again being strong, cool, wise and romantic. His character maybe the biggest reason this drama is getting love by many. Because people like him are rare. And just like all the people who work at Doldam can’t leave that place after finding “peace” and “wings” beside Kim Sabu viewers get captivated by him and find it hard to his side and the Doldam Hospital too. He is the kind of adult whom everyone needs in this world filled with children of any age. Han Seok Kyu’s voice only adds to Kim Sabu’s character. I love the way he talks. So my rating is based mostly on him. Then there are secondary characters like other doctors and nurses. Head nurse Oh is amazing like always the way she call Mr Goo is precious and Mr Goo himself is this hospital’s gem. Bone doctor was a really interesting character I hope they showed more of him and developed his story more. Doctor Jung was also a nice character and I’m sad that he is choosing the hospital over his family no matter how special the hospital is. The nurses were great. And the secondary couple is also very cute. They had some unnecessary crack at the end, but it was resolved quickly. Yoon Ah Reum ssem was so nice. I loved the song she sang at the end by director’s bed. It reminded me of Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana by Smap. A song I really love. No matter how cheesy it is. It’s true. : ) The “bad” side was also very interesting. Dr. Park was a very interesting character. He was grey, but not in a sense of boring. Rather nor good nor bad. I was interesting in his development since the start and his bromance with Kim Sabu, but sadly I had to wait till the last episode for that. The doctors he brought with him were also interesting, especially the anesthesiology Dr. Shim. I was waiting for more development on her side.. The main villain being the same wasn’t that interesting though. We already knew him, and it was quite boring. Like Kim Sabu said his consistency is all that he acknowledges in him, but that consistency was too much so it got to the point of being ridiculous. Do in Bum’s return was really nice I loved seeing him and especially after the actor made is so big. It was a bit too much of showing off. Like several medical cases when he was there only just to show off his skills and make him talk with Seo Woo Jin.
I didn’t mention the main couple until now because just like in the first season I didn’t feel for them. The first season couple though was even worse for me. Maybe because at the time I was watching it I didn’t like both actors (I like them now though). This time I liked both actors but the characters again didn’t make me feel enough for them. They were both introduced very interestingly and I liked the development Cha Eun Jae got, whom I first thought to be crazy to still keep insisting on entering operation rooms, but still that development was not enough. Seo Woo Jin was an interesting character at first but we only had glimpses of his problem and nothing. He never said anything, no one actually said anything, we only know it from some newspaper but we didn’t even get an explanation about how Kim Sabu found that out. Romance was even weaker. I didn’t feel their love and their expressions were kinda forced. Though this might be my biased opinion so don’t let it stop you from watching the drama :)

Some of the OST was great here.

It had some weird editing of an episode ending at a certain scene, then the next episode being a past and then ending at the same scene like the previous episode. (maybe I’m a bit exaggerating, but it was a bit weird). Somehow several shows started to like this kind of editing. I saw this even in variety shows, and even the recent western Witcher was crazy with its pacing. I hope production people realize that this kind of pacing is a bit confusing and linear storytelling is not that boring as it may sound.

Overall the rating I give this drama is high mostly for Kim Sabu, all the great things he said and did and supporting characters. These all is just my style. On the other hand I am not a huge fun of romances so I was just going crazy for Kim Sabu.

Shorter Review:

What I liked:
-Kim Sabu
-Supporting cast
-Returning cast
-Great quotes, life lessons
- Kim Sabu
- Kim Sabu
_secondary couple
-Kim Sabu.

What I didn’t like:
-the main couple
-the main villain
-story development

I don't usually re-watch dramas so I just put a random number in there.

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Here, have this drink and let's listen to your worry!

To be honest i didn't even want to continue this after 2nd episode but Seong Jae was here so i forced myself and I don't regret even one bit! :D
This seemed like a hotel del luna look-a-like at first. But it turned out to be different. Plus in hotel del lune Jang Man Wol was taking all the spotlight while here the two men beside Weol Joo were shining for me :)
I liked how they were listening to problems and helping people solve them. Plus the comedy was nice :)
Choi Won Young stole the show for me! he was sooo incredibly cool here xD I mean i love the man almost everywhere he plays unless he plays a villain xD but he was extremely cool here! <3
And the most important thing is that I am super satisfied with the ending :) I wasn't expecting a so-called "happy ending" for this one and for the last ep i was prepared to cry. You know, the Hotel Del Luna type of ending. But thank you thank you for a Perfect great happy happy happy ending! :D <3 I am very ecstatic for it, I was going to give this drama around 6 but it slowly was going up and finally reached 9 by the end. lol It's not perfect but it was funny, cute, lovely and bubbly.
From all the jokes i can't forget the Apple one xD it was hilarious xD
Plus it was perfect as a 12 ep drama! they started it off well and wrapped it up well. Maybe if it was a 16 or 20 ep drama at this point it would have gotten draggy, as i admit i was fast forwarding a lot. But as a 12 ep drama it was good :)

I would recommend this drama to people who like comedic fantasy with many life lessons. This drama definitely goes to my "Dramas with good messages" list. Also Choi Won Young's role goes to my "best support/second roles" list. :)
Seong Jae's love interest girl was also a nice find for me :)

I never rewatch dramas so i put a random number there.

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First of all I wanted to say, that I’m not into this kind of dramas. Family power struggle and a melodrama. However I enjoyed this drama due to amazing cast and plot twists.

Kang Pil Joo isn’t some child grown at orphanage driven by greed and working at a big company, as stated in the synopsis. He grew up going through lots of struggles until he came to Cheong Ah corporation when he was young. While having wits, guts, physical power he slowly became the most valuable dog of the family. Little did they know that the dog was a tiger cub.
This drama is all about Kang Pil Joo’s long awaited revenge. But what makes it unique is the character himself is coldhearted, calculating, manipulative, always maintaining a poker face. Amazing how Jang Hyuk even with a poker face managed to show such a sea of emotions through his eyes. I’m a fan of Jang Hyuk but never ceases to amaze me with his acting. The lawyer Kang is the biggest strength of this drama. His character is always one step ahead, calculating and manipulating everything. He is the one who sets up the stage, the puppet master. That is why I like the poster of this drama it shows it pretty well.
Romance is mentioned in the genre and based on synopsis many might think that this drama is about Kang Pil Joo and Na Mo Hyeon’s love, but it’s is far from that. This drama is about revenge and Na Mo Hyeon, although an innocent character to the contrast to all the cold hearted characters of Jang family, become a sacrifice, a puppet in Kang Pil Joo’s hands.
Boo Cheon’s character is also very well played. A boy who is not bad, but he also not that good. Sometimes you may dislike him, sometimes sympathize with him. He is complete opposite of Kang Pil Joo, who is strong, with guts, clever, everyone likes him. Boo Cheon is not strong, nor clever, nor has guts. But you can still sympathize with his character. He tried to do good, but it’s difficult for him. However he gets Kang Pil Joo at his side. As Pil Joo’s master he gets his help to reach the chairman’s post.
Jang Mal Rang, Boo Cheon’s mother. Very calculating and manipulative woman as many in this drama. Played fantastically. Her weird relationship with Pil Joo is sometimes disturbing, but you can still see that the clever boy with serious eyes is very precious to her. She trusts him and relies on him. Little does she know that all of that is part of his big revenge plan.
As I said in the beginning I’m not into this kind of shows. So for people like me it can be boring sometimes. Too much talk about company, their stocks and shares. This may have been boring because I am not able to understand all of it.
However Jang Hyuk’ scenes kept me mesmerized the whole drama. The eyes that could speak so loudly, his stance is what kept me watching. And while doing it i was astonished by the great cast of this drama. No wonder they won so many awards.
Many people are talking about the ending. I can’t give any spoilers, but in my opinion the ending was perfect for those characters. Because all of them were who they are, because the story moved like it did, the ending suited the drama really well.

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