MinJi23

A joy watching all 12 episodes - rare these days

First thing: I do NOT agree that this storyline has any real similarity to 'breaking bad'. Yes, there is someone with cancer, and yes somone else is starting to sell drugs out of desperation - but that's about all the similarity there is.

As for the story so far: a middle-class housewife with a teenage daughter and a office type husband finds herself in sudden misery as it turns out her husband has not only used up all money that was there, but also indepted the family without telling her. Not enough, she then finds out her husband has cancer, he has known it for at least a year and used all that money to pay his medical bills but things went wrong when he specualted with bitcoin and lost everthing.

Their house is soon up for auction and her daughter threates to leave school while all family and aquaintances are not willing or able to help out financially. Accidentally, a drug dealer on the run leaves a bag full of crystal meth at her house. She first doesn't know what the stuff is, but seeing the news she realises it's drugs, but does not want to make use of it.The woman is desperate and starts to work as cleaning lady in a hip night club. Out of desperation she tries to find the local drug dealer there to sell the crystal to him to get the money to save the house and her husband. It turns out the drug dealer in the club is her daughter's art teacher to both parties' surprise. They make a deal so she provides the drugs and he sells them to the club customers.

I watched the frist two episodes and wasn't bored at any time (rare meanwhile). I really liked (as often before) Kim Young Kwang in this role as he is able to switch from friendly arts teacher to precise and calculating drug dealer without a problem. He is also able to deliver the role of the drug dealer believably. (I am saying that because there were several dramas in the past two years with drug topics where otherwise good male actors just couldn't pull these roles off believably).

The preview for the thrid episode showed that there will be conflict between the FL and ML and that he even threatens to kill her. Again, I can't really see much similarities to 'breaking bad' - the storyline seems to unfold very differently as of yet.

Kim Young Kwang is totally carrying this drama, his acting is fabulous and it's even a joy to watch him losing his temper, - and comparing his acting here and in 'call it love' - I'd dare say he can play any role and I'll fully believe he is the respective character.

The story has a nice tempo, and I laughed so much at the end of episde 3 realising what stunt the FL has pulled 😆...not a boring second in this,

Several rather unexpected twists came up, and what the writers did is they kind of condesed all the tentacles drug dealings can have, how they might affect even more remote people who either do not want to be involved or don't even know they are involved.


So after the last episode aired today, I can say I enjoyed all these 12 episodes until the end. There was once again a really nasty plot twist in the very end, and the writers left an open ending to maybe follow up with a second seaon? We'll see...
My final vote for this is 9.0. While I enjoyed the whole show, the last episodes had some minor weaknesses. The baddy police guy? He would not have survived that long. The ML hit him full force with her car and he would at least have had a broken pelvis, broken legs a broken back if he would have survived that at all. It started getting unrealistic concerining this character when he walked out of the hospital after this car hit two days after this happened. No way on earth.

He didn't really have time to recover and in the final showdown later he is hurt and bruised all over, he limps, and he gets beaten in the face and head severely and - doesn't go down! The guy is 50+ and one hit like that to the head would send him unconscious. Instead he gets up over and over again like the terminator, he even gets deeply stabbed in the thigh tiwce or thrice and he STILL walks somewhere - nah, they really overdid it concerning this for the sake of creating a longlasting showdown scene. He would have been dead for ages at that point.
Also, in the same scenes the other police act like fools all the time, letting him get away over and over again. That being said, the rest of the show was so good, I can overlook this weakness (as it is one happening very often in K-dramas with lots of action scenes)

Several actors delivered really strong performances, Kim Young-kwang naturally, but also side characters like the daughter, the cancer-stricken father and the totally crazy druggy CEO were really good.

I have to admit I did not know Lee Young-ae before from any other roles, but once again it bothered me for the sake of the actual storyline ( a more low-income housewife and mother living the rather simple and humble life and helping out in a supermarket for small money out of necessity) that an actress has her face to frozen by b-tox etc, that she actully has no mimics left. It was so very obvious that it didn't fit the role actually -a woman with that life history would never have the means to steadily have such procedures done. And there were many scenes when she was either (trying) laughing, crying etc, and her face and features did not move at all. So, again, I don't even know her from anything else or earlier, but this often bothers me watching actresses playing roles in their end 40s or even 50s, and they simply have no mimics left which flaws their actually great performances otherwise. I really wish there wasn't so much pressure for actresses to go this far, I'm sure Lee Young-ae would look fantatsic and even better without all this. (and I know what I'm talking about, I'm 46 myself and I know about the inner pressure concering looks when they slowly start to fade)

Conclusion: I really enjoyed this drama, it's an interesting and probably quite current topic in many countries, including South Korea, and the writers did a good job writing an interesting storyline that kept me hooked for the full 12 episodes. I would definitely watch a second season if there was one to come and I seriously hope Mr. Lee Gyeong changed his final mind and instead decided to just curse his fucked up family to hell.

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Not an 'any of the tag words' - story, but a beautiful adult love story

I just finished watching this in one go and just want to say that this is one of the most beautiful love stories I have seen yet.

I don't watch any of the modern, copy and paste feminised BL dramas for many reasons I don't want to elaborate.
But I watched this and was deeply moved by the way this story was told, and by the fact it was NOT about cheap, repetitive, one-dimensional, childish, unrealistic romance mainly made for teenage girls.

In fact, this was not about sex and cheap butterflies in the stomach triggers at all. It was about human relationships and it was about love in different shades, and life coming in between in all sort of ways. I was touched by many things in this, by the FL with the story of her childhood with a mother who completely ignored her as well as I was touched by the main male characters and especially the last few episodes.

I also liked it was multilingual and shot in different countries, one of them my home country even. I loved that the two male lead looked ordinary, in a way of their natural complexion instead of chalky white makeup and pink lipstick. I liked that their hair was messy when they got up in the morning, that they had dark circles under their eyes when they were stressed and desperate. I simply liked they looked like real people for a change.
This was not something to watch in between or for escapism and feeling better, many things here were without words and explanations. Many things were about reading the room, about glances, about guessing what a character might think in one moment or another, so, in short, it was something for people with brains - which I crave so much and which is so very rare these days.

Of all the actors I only knew Ok Taecyeon, whom I liked because he was in one of the first dramas I watched and liked about ten years ago.
I think his role as Jo-han here was by far his most serious, adult and actingwise his best role.
I enjoyed this a lot and will certainly rewatch it some time.

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how it could be...

this series is something for the heart, and for following the thought of how it could be in a world where most people care, are considerate and willing to be selfless for others.
It has a serious undertone as the topic of death or imminent death is the main subject of the show, but with the idea of fulfilling last wishes of dying patients it manages to produce many heartwarming and touching scenes with final goodbyes.

As I said in the headline, it's a version of the world where people would really care with all their heart to guide dying patients until the very end, to fulfill their last wishes, to give them the most positive farewell possible in that situation.
It's what most of us would wish for and mos of us know in hopsitals and even hospices the reality is a different one (most of the time at least)
Here you can watch how wonderful it could be in a different version of reality - I really enjoyed that!

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Good start, no follow-up

Oh well, first off, I really like Lim Yoona, I think she was exceptinoally good in 'King the land'. One of her qualities for me is that she dares to play comedy roles, something most beautiful Korean actresses rather don't do as it often isn't elegant as a given. She does play comedy, and given a good storyline and director, I think she is doing it very well.

So, I started to watch 'Bon Appetit', and the first two episodes didn't disappoint, it was funny, the slaptstick wasn't too much, and the banter between the FL and the ML was interesting.
So, taken into account that this of course is a fantasy drama with time travel, I don't feel the need to look for historic accuracy in this and watched it for fun.

Sadly, from epidose 3 on, I realised that the actual very thin plot of this show after the good intro episodes is just 'there is a cooking competition in every episode'. There is modern dishes filmed in food porn style, and there is historic figures tasting the modern delicious stuff and having orgasmic experiences every single time. That .- is funny once, but if that is all that happens in every episode that's just not enough.

It's also a bit absurd that the writers created these unbelievable stories over and over again why the FL has to compete in cooking in every episode. I took it when she had to compete against the former royal cooks, ok. But now some Chinese royal is there and things are actually about trade dealings and all of a sudden it's a cooking competion again because the Chinese guest said he doesn't like Joseon food? So what? That doesn't have any gravity for the trade dealings, but they somehow managed to absurdly build a plot where the future of the Joseon empire lies upon the FL and her cooking. Nah, sorry, that's just nonsese and flat storytelling with no creativity and no real plot.

And, not knowing the ML at all, I have to say he is not good enough an actor to carry this historic role for my personal taste. His acting actually seems a bit forced and has no depth as I can hear he is acting and is not able to give the historic Korean lines naturally. Maybe I am biased though, as I had just rewatched 'the red sleeve' where the ML was absolutely convincing in his historic ruler role and even brought me to tears.
So sadly, I'm dropping this, I'd rather rewatch 'king the land' again, where Yoona could shine with her comedic talent placed in a good storytelling.

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not sure about this...

so, as my favourite male actor is Park Hee-soon, I was waiting for this drama quite eagerly.
Also several other great actors on the starring list, so I started watching this and...
...I don't know... story is known from other formats before with some variations (x men etc.), the story starts veeery slowly, and I was just waiting for something to... happen really? I have seen 8 episodes yet, not Park Hee-soon in sight? Is he really in this drama?
Not sure about the storyline either, so genetically gifted people have genetically gifted kids and they try to hide and protect them from the evil forces of the North? I will give this another chance and watch some more episodes, but as of yet I am a bit underwhelmed.

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well, you get what it says ;)

so, I got to find this comparably older movie from 2014, because I lately finally watched 'because this is my first life' - yes, real life is crappy these days for many and a friend highly recommended this drama as one with the perfect 'everything is good, poeple are good and all will be fine in the end' dramas - so I watched - and - saw Lee Min-ki for the first time.

I liked him in that drama, but not exclsuively because I (really) liked this specific drama, but because I really liked his vibe, which is rather edgy and dark in a restrained way. Even in that friendly role and unintended.
I thought that all the time, and I really enjoyed that although the script writers tried hard, he just never looked like the typical babyface , unrealistically nice and 'no intentions' guy, but instead very classically manly.
So, I checked what else he has done, and seeing the 'emperor' movie in the list plus seeing Park Sung-woong in it too, I checked further.

The description said dark, classical gangster flick, lots of blood, brutal, and adult content.
So firstly, for all those complaining here: please read the description first. If you don't like this kind of content don't watch it instead of complaining afterwards.
But now, to the movie finally:

Movie:

So, I expceted a certain setting but I was utterly surprised after only five minutes in. Yes, there is lots of blood, knives, rather nice cinematography with the flickering lights in the dark. And then there is real adult content? In a Korean movie? Real passion, real kisses, and - you know, - the real stuff, like poeple really do it at times? A woman making the real sounds, not that fake high pitched mouse squeeking stuff? I almost fell off my chair, - in a Korean movie? I really did not expect that and found it to be a nice surprise for a change.

That said, the rest is also what the description said - it's a noir gangster movie set in Busan, ( if you speak Korean it's nice hearing the actors speaking with that accent as in this gangster setting, this accent gives the right vibe)
it has all the cliches, games and betting, brothels, gangster bosses in big cars and expensive suits, lots of minions willingly going into rather unrealistic knife fights with lots of bloody action.
The music seems fitting as it felt a little dated, almost 80s like with that synthi-sound. ( so seemed Lee Min-kis hairdo with that perm, but also this fitted that role)

The whole movie seems just like a glimpse into this kind of gangster world, which, in the end, is a shark tank, the one on top always has to fear to be killed so another one can take his place.
It's all about money and yes, women who, in these settings ( and that sadly is realistic) are nothing but convenience used and abused and trying to survive somehow.

And no, it's just not the movie where you start with feministic ideas, it's simply the truth for many women in many countries who for whatever reason, find themselves in such (or way worse) life settings. I found the actress played that part convincing, having to do things she hates, using what means she can, always being threatened, and of course being sad and unhappy.
Still she at least finds short passion with Lee Hwan, they transport that first moment immediate (almost animal-) attraction feeling very convincingly. And no, there is no happy end for neither of them, in such settings there is no place for happy endings, at least that was realistic.

As for unrealistic parts: the knife scenes where nicely coreographed but far from reality. Even further from reality is the idea that a lanky ex baseball player like Lee Hwan suddenly has self defense abilities topping the best gangsters, him being outnumbered by 15 large blokes with knives and he takes them all down - yeah, no way of course, but, again, typical for these kind of movies.
There was dialouge, yes, cliche dialogue, but good enough to watch the whole movie. ( and this goes SO much worse, and in newer productions, please go watch 2022 'project wolf hunting' if you want the worst ;)

Result:

knowing what I will probably get I enjoyed this, and watched the whole movie without fast forwarding (which I did many times with actions flicks worse that this)

I was impressed by Lee Min-ki, as he can convincingly play that cruel, cold, psycho guy with a death stare one might still feel drawn to .
As I said he gives off that very reserved and restrained vibe, but there is some little dark intensity underneath, (also in interviews) which I find rather appealing and interesting in a very classical, manly way. I meanwhile saw another drama with him ('liberation notes') with yet another completely different acting vibe, so he for sure can play very versatile roles, and is obviously brave enough to simply not be yet another polished 'little boy' actor.

So, if you can just enjoy these kind of movies - brain off, - with all the typical stuff, gangsters, fights, dark vibes, - give it a go.
It's not brilliant, nothing for your intellect, it's just what it is and says to be and for that comparably enjoyable.

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outstanding acting, classic drama story

I can imagine this drama is not to everyones liking as , for a K-drama, it is rather dark and at some points uncomfortable.
Although it has some very minor flaws I find it rather outstanding all in all

+ Seo In-Guk is simply fantastic in this role. I didn't know him before and after having watched some dramas for the past two years I think this was the first male lead who completely convinced me to be that person he portrays. When I was watching this I really believed this very person would exist like this, and I could not imagine him to be any way different. There are other actors I like and they are good, but in their roles I always see the real person they are, when you watch interviews with them.
Here it was very authentic. The fact his character was difficult and at times mean and cold made it even more realistic for me, as in general, people tend to be like this. They have their personal troubles and deficites, they can be mean and sometimes, not always, they might have a good side too. But in the end, they are caught in their own ways and can't get out of their own skin and troubles. And that often leads into disaster, for themselves and if one gets close to them, for others too. That is what is shown here for me and that makes it believable. Uncomfortable, dark, but believable.

+Jung So-Min was also convincing in her role. She portrayed very well the inner struggles you might have in such situation, the insecurities you might have from hard times in your childhood, the way things went ok for her with being adopted by her 'brother', but how her past still creeps back into her life and drwas her to Kim Moo-young. This drams is also good at showing certain rules of behaviour and manners that one has to know about concerning Korea. Some criticised that Yoo Jin-Kang 'betrayed' her 'best friend' Baek Seung-Ah, but was Seung-Ah really her best friend? I don't think so. It is not explained fully how long these two women have known each other but it is clear that Jin-Kang is older than Seoung-Ah, yet, probably because of her considered poor and bad family background Jin-Kang is almost submissive in her behaviour towards Seoung-Ah - which is quite exceptional given an obvious age difference between the two. If Seoung-Ah wasn't filthy rich and Jin-Kang had a better background, it would normally be the other way around. And Seoung-Ah is using this fact in a gullibly naive way all the time. Kim Moo-young even points it out (and rightly so) when he tells Jin-Kang that not even after Seoung-Ahs mother hit Jin-Kang in public and offended her deeply (and referrs to exactly that poor seen background of hers), Seoung-Ah doesn't even apologise in her next text message but just once again wants to use Jin-Kang as her servant and messenger. Is that Jin-Kangs best friend? I wouldn't think so. It's more a realtionship of power and inferiority as a given by the strong Korean conventions. Was Seoung-Ah a victim? Yes, certainly, a victim of her greedy mother and to some extent of Moo-Young, but she was not a victim of Jin-Kang in my opinion.

I found the almost creepy but strong attraction between Jin-Kang and Moo-Young very understandable, and I could relate to it personally having had such relatioinship myself too in the past. I fully understood for many reasons why those two couldn't get away from each other and also why it was in some way doomed.

+ I think this is still the only drama where the communication between the leads is realistic, as in how it really happens between people who are attracted to each other but come from difficult backgrounds. There is not love at first sight but a strong attraction. There is lots of banter and even anger and frustration - but always still strong attraction that is even growing despite the anger. The conversations these two have in the restaurant scenes and particularly at the end of episode 6 in front of Moo-Young's house? That was a scene so realistic I even held my breath the whole time, eyes wide open because I have been in such situation myself, pretty much exactly like shown here, with even a at least similar talk that left me both attracted and angry and confused and frustrated. Most K-drama couple conversations are dreamy and cute and how everyone would love them to happen but they never really do. This here, that felt real to me many times during many episodes.

+I loved the mood and the small things in the drama. The way Kim Moo-Youngs place looked, the light, the mood. His feelings of desperation, resignation, anger and still the need to somehow connect and try to understand at least some other person. That does not justify all his behaviours of course, but I found it credible. And again, when I was younger I would have fallen exactly for this type too, I would probably even have stood in front of that door of his like Jin-Kang in the end, crying in desperation and beg him to open that door, because I didn't understand his Jekyll & Hyde actions after a steady emotional up and down. But it is exactly like certain real relationships are, and how they end unhappy in one or the other way. And how they are filling you up with an almost hysterical happiness and emotions you wouldn't have considered possible for you, and at the same time they are like energetic black holes exhausting you to an incredible level.

- if I would want to criticise anything then it would firstly be that some circumstances are rather unlikely. The idea that these two kids where from Haesan, one of them got lost somewhere and all of them live almost aroud the corner in a megacity like Seoul more than 20 years later and meet like that - it is very unlikely.

- the scene with the origin of the burn marks wasn't done in a good way. The kids were fully clothed and if that water would have hit them, they would have had some minor burns, but never such large scars for the rest of their lives.

-the whole stabbing scene and the follow-up was a little unbelievable . So Yoo Jin-Kook loses his police cool and while he later says he felt sorry for Moo-Young, he suddenly decided to stab him on a public road. Jin-Kook confesses to his boss who...does nothing actually, doesn't accept his resignation. Then his little sister just acts rather normal after shortly screaming at her brother? Not believable. Her reaction at the first moment was right, she said he must be crazy, and she was scared then and angry especially because she is very much in love with Moo-Young. The next thing would certainly have been that Jin-Kang leaves that house. Jin-Kang would have been afraid of her own brother after his rather surprising and totally crazy actions. I would have wished that whole part would have been done differently or they would have left it out. It would have made much more sense to me if Jin-Kook would have gotten into a rage and then into a fight with Moo-Young, if he had beaten him up maybe. But that stabbing with murder intentions was an unfitting twist here.

Summary: despite these flaws this drama touched me deeply, maybe really because I could relate to the main characters and this kind of relationship so personally.
I will certainly rewatch it at later as this kind of human darkness draws me in sometimes.

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I despair....

... I really do despair because I am eagerly waiting for a K-drama with an intelligent storyline.
The last one I saw in the more action-related theme was 'my name' which was comparably brilliant.
Since then, no matter what is super hyped before release, I take a look into it and despair often after a few minutes in, and get angry because the writers seem to have left their brains at home in bed. Oo

Shortly, why is that the case for 'Black Knight:

1. So there was a huge (and I mean HUGE, as shown) asteroid that hit planet earth around 2030. We are now located in 2071 in South Korea and what we see is total devestation 40 years on. It's claimed that only 1% of people survived the initial hit of the asteroid. Fourty years later there is still no sunlight, extremely polluted air and people can only go outside wearing oxygen masks and they have to buy oxygen for their homes to survive.

What is wrong with this initial picture?

If such a huge asteroid would have hit the earth, and as there is so much destruction still seen 40 years later in Korea? People wouldn't just have trouble breathing and wearing some masks ( they often just take off by the way, for having funny little bad stunt fights, talking, whatever), - what would have initially happened would have been that the 25 (at least!) Korean atomic plants would have blown up and they would have had ( and those few who then would have survived still would have) an atomic catastrophe. People couldn't get outside not only because they couldn't breathe much, they would be grilled like a steak outside, there would be no food or drink available as everything would have been highly radiated. But hey, let's totally ignore that Oo

2. So, going on from my point 1 with the radiation - there would be no power nowhere. It's almost funny that in that destructed world they show they all have smart phones, electricity, computer games, driving cars with whatever fuel/gas and everything is shown like that asteroid hit did NOT happen, like technology of the 2020s just went on like there was no interruption - how totally impossible Oo
If the asteroid would have hit like shown, apart from air pollution, no sunlight (which would by the way bring other very bad consequences..) and the rather unimportant total radioactive pollution, no one could generate any kind of working energy. No, not even huge modern high tech wind engines, there would be no infrastructure, no raw materials, no nothing. Everything concerning technology up to the date of the hit would be GONE. Especially funny the scene in the futuristic business room with about a thousand huge telly screens - just funny with no source of electricity. Totally illogical no-brain nonsense.

3. Also other things wouldn't be available, for no one, also not for any 'upper casts'. There would be no world trade of no goods, for a looooong time. They wouldn't have fancy new uniforms, weapons, high tech gear, they woldn't have any kind of high tech clothes with high tech mixed fibres, they wouldn't even have hair dye.

I made it into episode 2 giving it a fair chance, but after seeing the young guy getting shot in the head from behind point blank, and I mean fully hit, and then he... is still alive and can sit in a driving truck? Enough for me, total nonsense.


Other things I didn't like: the 'backstory' isn't only total nonsense like that, they just don't give any real backstory at all. The first episode starts with some action fight scenes that didn't really make sense, in between there is this strange family setting in the house where the siblings (?) banter around, all of it with some kind of clownish slapstick music all of a sudden - wtf?

And I could go on for quite a while. Please K-drama writers, stop this trash story writing that is an insult to anyone with half a living brain cell! K-dramas were so good in the past, any genre of it, there were always good ones with great storylines, intelligent plots, what happened? This one is so bad, if you have ANY basic knowledge of anything, it's unwatchable.

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Good idea - bad realisation

The good:

-I liked the initial idea of this drama - as I think it was all meant like a metaphor for the current state of affairs - in South Korea, but not only, pretty much everywhere around the globe. So with loads of methaphors this drama tries to show in actionpacked pictures and storyline that simply EVERYthing is always about money. And that it seems you only have two choices: either trying to hold up in the rat race and become an ever more selfish, unscrupulous and at times even cruel ahoe to keep up the impossible pace, or cling on to being good and altruistic, but coming with it is a constant lack of money.
I liked this metaphor as it simply describes the dilemma of our current ever more fast-paced times. The whole sci-fi- story here is just wrapped around this message and the ambivalent thought coming with it. That's current affairs and it's a fresh idea.

-acting was partly good (Lee Jun-ho, Lee Chae-min (I didn't like his performance in 'Bon Appetit...', I did like his acting here though), Kim Hye-joon (didn't know her before, liked her acting here), and also bad (Kang Han-na - nope, I know her from other roles where I thought she was rather good, but not this time, everything was over the top and flat for her 'evil' character here, including her bad makeup, hairdo and outfits she couldn't even walk in properly most of the time)


The bad:

- the pacing of the storyline and storytelling was all over the place after episode 2. It was just way too much action, explosions, shootings and no coherrent story to really follow. Also the characters suffered from this, as most of them remained pale and flat, while some had good potential from the first two episodes intro.

-I didn't like the end of this. So at least for me. following the above mentioned metaphor idea, and given that Kang Sang-ung's character even tells the villain, money isn't everything, being special isn't that great, being average (and happy) is - he and his girlfriend simply do get the impossible, unreachable very huge luxurious apartement in the end and give off the message that is so toxic in South Korea and especially Seoul these days - you are only a success and you can only be happy (and only then think about having kids) if you own (as in being able to actually buy) a house or apartment. That's directly contradictory to what he tells the villain before. As the whole show is fantastic anyways I would have prefered an ending with a message matching his own message from before - these two understanding that they have to get out of this crazy hamster wheel and do something completely different - I don't know, move to the countryside and open a bakery? But this way it just feeds the toxic current real narrative - you are nothing without your own house, you are everything with it - and there is nothing in between.


Result:

-watchable once, nice initial idea, but the writers and director didn't follow through with it and lost pace, focus and message

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Brilliant acting, brilliant pholisophical ideas, minor weaknesses

So, after I had dropped this at episode 2 some months ago due to the only but major weakness of this drama - the fight/shooting scenes especially when it involves the main police officer - I gave it a second try because Kim Young Kwang is the second lead and I just had to see it to the end anyways because of that.

pro:

-brilliant acting of many actors in this one, Kim Young Kwang, sure, but also many side characters were so so good in this (the student in the goshiwon who finally lost it and snapped (Woo Ju Hyun), the police station chief when he finds out his daughter died (Kim Won Hae) , the very shy and silent bullied nurse (Kang Chae Young), Son Bo Seung as very friendly and gentle high schooler who snaps at some point understandably, and especially Park Hoon as Koo Jeong Man - fantastic acting, he really left an impression actingwise with me)

-the storyline is very intriguing on many levels. It throws many fundamental questions at you. How are humans in general, and why? What happens if you change fundamental parameters in a human society? What are ancient mass mechanisms and how are they triggered? How are they stopped? I really enjoyed this and found it intelligent and something everyone should spend some time thinking about. How do I see this? How do I feel about it? And the series got me, at some point, when the two bullied high-schoolers snap and one starts a shooting spree, I found myself understanding his actions, and I found myself thinking 'shoot the main bully, he deserves it' - the show intrigued you to feel that way and then question this feeling.

- Moon Baek - yes, I understand his view of the world too. Given his extreme childhood story and the view he very early had to have about what and how humans are? It's undertandable he feels the way he does. He has cancer too, another joke of fate, after he had it so tough very early on, so he's got nothing to lose really. And in the end he does ask very good and right questions in the last conversation with Lee Do. He does feel Lee Do is kind of self-rightous telling everyone revenge is not the answer and a deceiving feeling - how can he know for other people? Is it really what he feels or is it what he made himself believe he feels because he couldn't go on otherwise? How is it ok he shot a 100 people before and now he shoots one but not the other enemy? I found myself understanding Moon Baek to a rather great extent, and not agreeing with Lee Do on many things to be honest. That doesn't mean Moon Baek isn't a psycho of course, but not everything he says is wrong, the opposite even.

-one of the best scenes psychologically is the one where police chief Cho Hyeon Sik stand before his foe, gun pointing, tears in his eyes, and when Lee Do tries to convince him that pulling that trigger won't help, he says something I feel very true - he says ' I was wrong when I told you that back then, I didn't know anything' (until now, until I MYSELF am suffering this unbearable pain and loss of someone loved through the doing of some scum criminal, NOW I truly undertand that putting such people in jail over and over again does not bring any justice, law is not sufficient this way to bring justice). Very strong acting by Kim Won Hae, he portrayed this pain and anger very believable for me.

-and as the show progresses, more questions come up. What if you really provide guns for just everyone? How would people react? Would it bring any justice? Or would it end in bloody chaos because humans in masses are not able to deal with it? And they depicted that wonderfully, when pro and anti gun people started fighting and even shooting each other. I believe it would be exactly like that would it happen in reality.



cons:

once again the shooting/fighting scenes, in that case of Lee Do. Absolutely ridiculous what they did there =D I know they wanted to make him this ex special op guy, moving silently like a wolf in the shadows taking everyone down, but they really overdid it here. The scenes are so unrealistic it's hard to watch when you know ANYthing about how real situations like these look like ( And I do for some reason). Totally impossible he walks into a small house unarmed and there are about 30 street thugs with knives ( and not afraid to use them full force) and he takes all of them out - no way in hell.

Even more absurd was the scene when Lee Do wants to take down Koo Jeong-man - he has a sniper riffle, runs up to a rooftop ( in an area he does not know by the way!) and while in reality the car with Koo Jeon-man would have been long gone anyways until Lee Do had reached the rooftop, they seriously show him at the edge of the rooftop, with a sniper gun suuuuper far away and trying to hit a VERY fast and unsteady moving vehicle and Lee Do is standing (a sniper NEVER shoots standing, impossible to hit precisely) and shooting a car tire and of course he hits it - Ri di cu lous! Impossible.

And a third one, quite in the end, Lee Do, once again unarmed, and funnily enough fresh from the hospital after he had been shot in the upper body SEVERAL times (which means the man can NOT move normally, let alone fight) is confronted with about 10 guys with loaded machine guns all pointing at him, and again, he takes all these pro guys with machine guns down and out - Laughable of course, he'd be dead in 5 seconds latest.


Conclusion:

I really enjoyed this because it was an intelligent, thought-provoking storyline with a topic everyone is confronted with in the news ever so often all around the globe. It puts you at the spot, making you think how do I see this? What is my opinion and why? Is there a solution? Is it the one or the other option shown here? Or none of both? So as this is so well done, and many actors in this show were more than brilliant I give this a 9 (and if they hadn't f 00ked up the fighting/shooting scenes once again like in so many such showsOo) it would have been a 10 even.
So, if you like action-loaded and tense shows but WITH brain, this one could be for you.

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This is good!

I am generally not even a horror fan, but this series was so thrilling and tense I was glued to the screen through all 10 episodes without a second of being bored or even remotely thinking about fast fowarding. (which I have to admit happens more often lately, when dramas have a good start, and quickly go downhill either with storyline, dragging etc.) I also found it remarkable that (after I have watched several 'end of the world/zombie apocalypse etc. shows in the past years) in this show they at least didn't shy away from the fact that in such circumsatances also the worst in humans comes out and things like rape would happen. Other apocalyptic shows go on for 10 seasons and never even mention it, like it wouldn't happen - and it would!

I do not know the webtoon but I can say pretty much everything in this adaption is perfect for my taste. The storyline, the actors, the soundtrack (phenomal), the production, the lighting, the sets, the special effects, and especially the whole atmosphere created in this huge building - really got me and I felt like I was sitting motionlessly tense watching, only interrupted by really well done monster sequences that got me shrieking out loud.

Still, in all the horror story there are serious and good single stories of the main characters.
It even managed to get me crying at one point when Jung Jae-Heon sacrified himself with his spirit true to the very end in all that dystopic mess of a world.

if you generally like the genre I'd say this is yet one of the best shows I've seen and from the first to the last episode.

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Why it is total BS

I'll make this short because this really angered me:

This show is absolute nonsense - why?

1. It's another flick of in slow motion torture porn going on forever and ever - who enjoys watching such sick stuff to such extent?

2. It is ab so lu te nonsense that the FL would look ANYthing like she is shown. In fact she would have been dead a hundred times after how her father is beating her to a bloody pulp. But let's for the sake of it imagine a very petite woman of probably 45kg soaking wet could survive such attacks, and several of them, where a VERY tall, strong man is kicking her into the stomach, groin, chest etc ( Did I mention that it is absolute bs she would survive this?)... so, if she would survive these attacks for some supernatural reasons, she would be scarred EVERYwhere, her face would be scarred up and down, she would have so many broken bones that she probably couldn't walk and stand upright without very lengthy rehab training, if ever at all again, and I laughed out loud after seeing the end of ep. 3, she is practically mushed potatoe in the end, and next scene in ep. 4 she is sitting in a hospital bed just with a little band aid in her still perfectly pretty face - seriously Ef off with this total nonsense!

These shows glamorize super crass violence and make it look like someone like this very tiny woman could just walk away from such attacks and plan any kind of ridiculious revenge while she would have been dead a hundred times. Are people so daft they don't even realise this simple fact? Does anyone know anything about basic physics, and basic knowledge of what a human body can take or not? I doubt the whole freaking mankind if I see something like this receives 8.4 here, absolutely hilarious.


3. Did I say this is bs already? Well, and on top it is a total insult to EVERY real victim of severe domestic violence, and people supporf this and rate it with 9.0 or 10.0.

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sadly a fail for me

I was really looking forward to this as I had watched a few really good dramas with Seo In-guk before, and was wondering about this new show.

Well, this one didn't work for me. The first two episodes had some funny elements although I started to find the side characters annoying because of the massive overacting.
I watched on and for my taste the elements that were meant to be comedy were just way over the top, be it facial expressions, verbal expressions, movements, it all sadly seemed to clowesc for my taste.

I also have to say I don't like the female lead in this role. ( I don't know her from any other shows yet though) She for a change has too few facial expressions and I can't really see her acting qualities in this show. I don't believe for a second that she is a police woman, especially in scenes where she gets hyper emotional, screams like a mad person or beats a man in the hospital bed who has just died and totally loses it, while doctors and colleagues are watching on. Someone with the police can't be that emotional and lose their countenance.

Also I don't buy the lovestory between the leads. It's one of the few shows where I really can't see any chemistry between them: I always felt like I see the actors 'acting while acting'. I'm constantly aware of it. Them just reproducing their lines they learned, I never believe they are really the characters they play or have real conversations.

That sadly goes for the side charcaters too, especially the other couple. Again, way too much overacting, especially the male side character with the way he speaks, when in some situations it's obvious that he can speak normally.
As I think Seo in -Guk was brilliant in other dramas, I can still see why he might have chosen this role now. In the past he was in several rather serious and even tragic roles, - but, and that is the point - in those he was really outstanding. I believed every single second that Kim Moo-young in '100 million stars...' existed, like that person existed for real for example. I still bet doing 'Minamdang' was a lot of fun for all the actors, as it was a funny show and the feeling gets through they might have laughed a lot on set.

I know 'Minamdang' is meant to be comedic but for my taste it it was just too much of these slaptstick elements, so many that I couldn't believe the serious story parts in the background anymore. You can do comedic K-drama and make the characters real and believable to a degree, like in 'suspicious partner' for example. But Cafe Minamdang' just couldn't convince me. At some point I was even fast forwarding and getting impatient for 'something to happen'.
I did enjoy many parts of the soundtrack though.

So, if you are really into slapstick/ hullabaloo shows, this one might be the right thing for you, otherwise, probably not.

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Best thing I have seen in ages

So, for some unknown reason this drama skipped my attention at the end of 2024 and only accidentally I stumbled upon it seeing Park Bo-young in a thumbnail and started watching.

I’ve been watching K-dramas for many years now, but I haven’t seen anything as good as this, not only regarding K-drama, regarding anything I have watched in the past decades.
Just a week ago I wrote a 1.0 review for ‘heavenly every after’ being really frustrated what the writers and director did with an actually interesting and important topic like a possible afterlife. All the things that went wrong there? Were down SO right in ‘Light Shop’. I never gave a drama a 10.0 in every area, this one got the full 10.0 in all of them.

The actors in this are altogether beyond fabulous. I can’t even say who stands out as they all do. The soundtrack is so multifaceted, so sensitive, capturing not only the entire mood in the alley, but also the specific situations of the characters, sometimes only with a few keys played on the piano.

But from the start: I started watching this without reading a summary before. I watched the first episode, was mesmerized the whole time and after it finished, I didn’t have the faintest idea what is going on. Just a feeling, much like the shown characters themlseves who just seem confused. Same thing happened with the second episode – I watched it, totally fascinated, but no real idea what is happening there.
And this goes on for a while, until episode 5 at least, when things start clearing up a little bit. This is a philosophically very deep, sensitive and touching take on a possible afterlife realm. Not only humans are there, also loyal pets who, beyond death stand by their humans, not giving up until they are safe.
Human souls are wandering endlessly in the dark alley until they find their way into the light shop. Only there they can find their individual soul light and move on, either to another realm in death, remaining in the limbo alley for longer, or going back to the realm of the living.

Each story of each character is very touching and combined with the extraordinarily good special effects to make the alley tangible for the viewer, I was glued to my screen the full 8 episodes without missing a single second. I think I never watched a drama where this happened. Not only were the individual stories very moving, sometimes heart breaking without any of them being attention seeking or over the top, the whole setting was thought-provoking in a deeply philosophical way, at least for Agnostics like me. Many things I saw there fit my personal vague feelings and thoughts of what might come after death. Many things depicted even fit some personal experiences I have made with death and what might come after this earthly timespan. I guess this specifically struck a chord with me.

Apart from all that I was again very moved by the death-and burial rites in Korea in general, which have so many gestures of acknowledging and respect for the deceased – something that has gone amiss totally in many parts of Europe I know at least. There death is totally avoided, and if it occurs, it’s either an emotionless factorylike thing (concerning the actions of many doctors and nurses), a grim business where profit counts at funeral homes who want to sell you absurdly expensive coffins for tens of thousands of dollars trying to convince you to spend more and more with guilty conscience speeches of the lowest order. How refreshing was it once again to see the morgue director in the hospital in this drama, who talked to every deceased person, called them by their name and told them individually with a bow, what the next step would be. How refreshing was it once again to see there just is one sort of light wooden coffin and the yellowish linen death garments that are so carefully put on the deceased.

In small but important scenes it was shown how utterly important, even life-changing in the literal sense – small gestures of good will, or small gestures of pure spite and evil in life can be. I was almost shaken, (having had a mother-in-law who her whole life through made everyone else’s life pure misery with her never ending spite, hatred and lies) when the anxious mother is waiting in front of the operation theatre after the accident and as a viewer you side with her, you feel for her as her son is in acute danger of dying in there… and then… she grabs this cell phone, the girlfriend of her son desperately tries to call him and his mother, spiteful as she is, sends this message to her, lying, that her son is dead and that it is the girlfriend’s fault he died. This ugly, hateful and nasty gesture in an instant changes your feeling towards this mother. Where there was empathy for her a moment ago, there is only disgust and disbelief about such devilish doing. And this small hateful gesture has direct consequences, not only in this life, as the poor girlfriend is taking her own life right then, also in the afterlife, for both, the girlfriend and her son who is there in limbo. As much as this emotionally bothered me, as good I found it captured what is happening in so many families between mother-in-laws and girlfriends or wives of their sons, and as true it rings to me what consequences, on a much broader sphere such behaviour could possibly have.
But there are so many more scenes, impressions, ideas in this show that touch very important topics for actually everyone as, in fact, everyone will die one day.

I am so happy that that the writers and directors of this drama decided against the current trend of just making another horror – everything explodes-torture porn – what every crass, perverted scene can we make up no one has done yet – etc.-show calculating this will probably reach the broadest most dumbed down audience and make the most money. Instead, they made a sensitive, deeply philosophical, slow-paced show, often without much or any words, where you don’t get spoonfed every little detail, but you have to just wait and feel in and think yourself what could be happening.
I will certainly rewatch this as I think, knowing what it’s about will make me sense more details and make me understand more of the story in a second go.

I recommend this for everyone - well, with a working brain, that is not dumbed down with all the rubbish that is out there in tons, for everyone who does think philosophically about topics like the afterlife with an open mind of what might come there without anyone really knowing.

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fail

it's really hard these days to find good dramas with an action score. I was looking forward to this as Ji Chang-wook is a long time favourite (although I prefer his non-action roles), and Wi Ha-joon was promising in several roles, I really liked his mysterious criminal vibe in 'little women'

That said, after having watched the three first episodes: what a disappointment. I think the first 25 minutes of the first episode was just really bad fight and brawl scenes. And not much else actually.
I'm afraid it didn't really help that I recently rewatched 'my name' with Park Hee-soon as the most charismatic, evil and attractive drug kingpin EVER, with such authenticity it sent shivers down my spine constantly... so, seeing Wi Ha-joon now trying really hard to be an equal character? No chance. I can see him acting while acting here, maybe even trying to copy several things from 'my name'.

The storyline didn't really grip me, lots of fights, flat characters. Young guy wants to take over the area of the old boss guy, so far, so non-exciting.
Ji Chang-wook... I don't know, he is trying hard too here, but I don't buy his character either. All the cursing seems fake, all the smoking too, just everything.
I also don't like the whole atmosphere and vibe this show has.

If you want to watch a brainy, actually deep, and psychologically interesting and multifacetted story, see amazing aesthetic visuals and brilliant, authentic characters, main and side roles with intelligent action included? Watch 'my name'. If you want 30 minutes non-stop bad blood-spatter action and actually good actors trying really hard to fit roles they are not (yet) up to? Watch 'the worst of evil'.

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