not Brussels, not the procedure for refugees

I'm not really sure what the intention of this movie was.
First, for anyone located in Europe who has been in and knows different major cities, it's immediately visible that they did not shoot this movie in Brussels. I meanwhile found out it was Budapest. Very different city and vibes, it's just weird. I guess it would be like Euopreans would shoot a movie that is supposed to take place in Seoul and they instead shoot it in Thailand? Why?

Next thing, apart from me just knowing that (as basic general knowledge) I even rechecked it: if you arrive as a refugee in Brussels, yes, then you have to fill in an applications, you will get an interpreter who helps you through these paper basics and then? - you will not just get send out to the streets to live rough, eat mouldy food out of dustbins, sleep in dirty public toilets and as the interpreter said in the movie you 'just have to hang in there for a year' until any kind of decison is made. That's just nonsense. I will quote this now from the official website, it says there: 'when the applicant has made his application for international protection, he can ask Fedasil for accomodation in a reception center, material help, as well as social, legal and medical guidance. There are about 50 reception centers in Belgium. They are run either by Fedasil or partners like the Red Cross.These centers are open centers and each of them offers the same service for new arrivals: accomodation, guidance, support in daily life.'

So what exactly was all that storyline of the main character stumbling wet and hurt and hungry and dirty through suppossed (but not) Brussels, only meeting criminals who beat him up, steal from him and that's it? And the movie is visibly set in the year 2023?

Also the female lead character was totally unrealistic. If you live a rough and drug-ridden life in these kind of circles, you do not have full shiny wavy fresh washed hair and a clear-skinned flawless face. People who (have to) live like that look veeeery different. Also there is no way she is totally addcited to h and whatever else from that pimp guy, and then all of a sudden she isn't and works at a nice beach resort in the last scene. And I could list at least 10 more rather nonsensical things, I don't even know where to start and end here.

So, wow, I was actually looking forward to this movie as the story sounded interesting but whoever made ths movie totally ruined it.

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really bad

in short:
this was not a season 2 following up a very good season 1 of this show.

-they kept the original characters just as a strange framework on the edges, instead about 40 new characters were introduced, none of I cared for at all.

-it seemed like they writers sat together just making up ever new gruesome scenes ( oh oh, and let's do some kind of a zombi bride, we haven't done that, let's add to too!!)

-no real storyline, instead lots of torture porn (with what is going on in the real world? I really don't want to see little toddlers being hunted with bows and being shot in the back - just NO! Unnecessary for the story and just to show crass content for the sake of it)

-almost nothing of the actual main character Song Kang? He is not really in that show, oh except for these few porn-leaning scenes fighting bare'backed' and soaked in blood in slow motion.

-the only original character that had more screen time was Eun-yu. Character development: zero. She is just running around looking broody and cold and kind of like a knock-off tomb raider. I also didn't really get why so much of the storyline was hung up on her desperately wanting to find her brother- the same brother she actually hated through all season one and as they were siblings not even remotely close anyways. And now she suddenly risks her life and that of others to find him, or what is left of him. Didn't make much sense to me.

result: I'll stick with the brilliant season 1,and I certainly won't watch season 3, as there is no way to make a sensible storyline of the mess that was supposed to be a season 2.

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a good try with some major flaws

I quite liked this drama, and had it stayed on course like it started with the first 2 episodes, my rating would have been much higher.
I liked the focus on mental health issues, especially as it is such an important topic in South Korea for known reasons.
They did well in the start, and I enjoyed the visual creations of different disorders, to make it tangible for people who don't know much about it.

Sadly it also had several flaws in the later episodes. First I have to admit that I was more interested in the side lovestory than the that of the main characters - I really like Chang Ryul, he was brilliant in 'my name' and it such a versatile actor.

The main flaws for me were different ones though:
the drama wanted to show different mental health issues with example stories. One of the first stories was a 43-year-old woman who was so opressed by her highly intrusive and invasive mother that she totally lost it and was in the closed ward of the psychiatry now. Very realistic example so far. But the drama wanted to show solutions veeery simplified. We hear that the woman hates grapes, a food her mother constantly brings her and says she'd always loved gapes. This is the peg for the problematic situation, the woman screams at her mother that she always hated grapes and because of that overboarding behaviour of the mother she 'wasn't even able to order a cup of coffee somewhere herself at the age of 43'.

The drama solves this over 40-year old problem situation with deeply ingrained toxic behaviours with just telling the mother once, so she brings other fruits for her next visit, and soon later mother and daughter happily leave the hospital, like best friends.
Erm, nope, this is not how things are in reality. People don't change like that and longlastig toxic relationship patterns don't change from one day to the other, just because someone says 'bring different fruits.'
The show oversimplified complicated issues that need lots of work (and the willingness of all people involved - that is where most things fail before they even started) and time to get any change, and often even with lots of effort this change never comes. That's reality, the drama wanted to show good endings of most cases, but that's just far from reality obviously.

Same with the ML and his panic attacks. Those are severe too and he had them for many years. Again, it just takes one or two people talking to him with some few friendly words, and yippie, he says 'oh yes, right, I have to address this, I go to the doc, get this treated with meds and my life will be fine.' Again, naaah, if you have severe panic disorder for sucha a long time, you do not just listen to a few friendly words from a friend and then go and solve this. If you have severe anxiety, you are also afraid of things like medication, of doctors who will 'judge' you, of others hearing from your problem etc. It just doesn't work that easy in reality sadly.

Another unrealistic thing was that our main FL, who works as a psychiatric nurse, suddenly has severe depression herself.
Well, that can of course happen, as depression can hit pretty much everyone.
Her depression is major though, so major that she walks in front of a truck to die. She ends up in the closed ward herself and is deep down the depression spiral for a while.

She finally gets out of it and...the older main nurse then begs her to come back and work again in the psychriatic ward. That's of course nice but at least in my country and others I lived in, it would be impossible. If you have a history of attempted suicide and major mental health issues yourself, there would be no way then that you could work again in such position - for your own safety and those of your patients.

Back to the lovestory of the side characters. It was a nice story, wealthy man falls in love with a very poor nurse. The drama left out major issues in Korea, like, what would his wealthy parents say to this choice? We do not get any information about his family, only some few things he says which imply the 'golden spoon' (so does his super spacious and very expensive appartment)

So, after fighting to gain her trust for quite a while, she finally is willing to date him, awkwardly though, but still. He even supports her abandoning her supertoxic 'person who accidentally gave birth to her' (I don't want to call such people mothers) - which is a good idea. But then, things speed up in a totally different direction, obviously trying to make the young woman, now free of her money problems and the toxic mother, a happy, independent person. She quits her nurse job all of a sudden, and wants to become a dancer on a cruise ship and leave the nice guy, who, of course, is also super willing to let her go away for a full year? I didn't find that credible at all. It often happens that K-dramas want to show this kind of 'woman does what she wants'-thing- but rarely have I seen cases where this went believable and smooth instead of doggerel and unrealistic like here.

All in all, it was a good start, it's good K-dramas try to openly focus on mental health issues, but they just don't get it right in the details yet.

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just doesn't work for me

the tearjerking story of the two kids in the first episode strangely didn't touch me at all. It's really strage, as the story itself of violent parents is definitely something normally getting to me, but here - nothing. I also didn't find the two actors very convincing, and it just seemed... 'invented' and also exaggerated, especially when they are on that ship to flee, and that very young boy gets beaten almost to death by the girl's psycho dad. I didn't understand, why he didn't just tell the girl on the ship when he saw her father outside at the port, they both could easily have hidden in the ships toilet until it had taken off, and nothing bad would have happened? Next thing, the boy super tragically leaves the girl without warning her, and then he is the one going straight towards her dad at the port and bringing his attention to them both, thus confirming with his behaviour the girl is on the ship? Then we see how is is badly beaten, holding the aggro-dad off from going onto the ship... we see how the ship with the still clueless girl is finally leaving the port - and then all of a sudden, the dad is on the ship? How?? How did he even get on, without a ticket, and when the ship had actually already taken off? Didn't make any sense to me and it all seemed to be a forced story to make it extra extra tragic.

The dad can then even chase his daughter like a serial killer all around that huge ship without anyone hindering him? No personell there? No security? After he almost killed a boy for all to see at the port, leaving him there presumably dead?
The girl jumps into the water to escape the dad - cut - she is alone on a remote island.
There she has some interesting items, tea pots and whatnot, no one knows wherefrom she has all these things as she actually dropped the huge bagpack that was filled with all the good stuff on the ship, when she ran from her father.

Another cut, and it's 15 years later, so we jumped from around 2008 to 2023. Interestingly enough our now 15 years older island girl has a great haircut with nice longer wavy bangs - one wonders how she managed that all alone? Even more, she still has that same set of clothing, the only clothing she had actually for 15 (fifteen!!) years, and these clothes are perfectly fine, not torn, or ripped, colours not washed out =D

So, after these 15 long years, finally, and no one knows why it didn't happen all the years before, some dorkies with their drones are suddenly there, and our island girl is supposed to see the first human after those many years alone. They take her back into civilisation and .... I re-checked like how long was she supposed to be gone? And since when, which year? So, she was lost there since 2008. A rather modern time I'd say? Yet, when she is back in the city, she suddenly acts like a person from rather 1800, not 2008, trying to use a water tap in the bathroom, not knowing how to actually use it and then spreading water all around the bathroom like an idiot? Did she not know water taps back in 2008? they make her seem like she grew up in the jungle since she was a toddler, why?

And I could go on with these things...I really like Park Eun-bin, she had some great dramas in the past and she is good actress, but here, the story is so lacking basic sense, even she can't save it for me.

I am really annoyed meanwhile that many promising new dramas do not pay attention to anything concering logic and intelligence. Things don't have to be perfect but the mistakes just can't be that obvious and jumping at me like that, at least I get so annoyed and distracted I don't want to go on watching at all.

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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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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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a bit flat but...

not entirely happy with this...I really liked 'my liberation notes' (same director) and I normally like both leads, Lee Min-ki particularly.
That said, this one has some weaknesses for me. Han Ji-min not only has the same haircut as in 'the light in your eyes', she also plays the exact infantile way . While it made sense in the mentioned other drama due to her just looking much older than she was, it doesn't make sense to me here.

So the character here lost her mum at a young age, had a tough time then, still managed to become a vet which must have been tough, very adult environments to get through, her character is now 35 and steadily acts like a 6 year-old girl, why? With her history there is no room for her being like that. Also her character being steadily dressed like a toddler (really, it looks like toddler's clothes adult size) - It's bearable, but at times just too much.

Main problem is, the main characters stay quite flat. The vet is childish and rather annyoing, and there is not any other sides to her. Lee Min-ki's role is a broody, upfront officer who is pissed he was transfered to that little weirdo town. His acting is good as always, but also his character is thin yet.
I don't care for any of the side characters. And it's just a lot of slapstick that is not to everyone's taste.

I'll keep on watching after having seen episode 3, where the story improved a bit and got more substance, and Lee Min-ki is enough to keep watching anyways - at least for me =D

(and I couldn't disagree more with another reviewer here: yes, it's the same director as 'my liberation notes' - if you liked 'my liberation notes' for its rather philosophical and melancholic storytelling, you might particularly NOT like this new drama, which is the total opposite.)

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not again

I liked the first season of this show for several reasons. It was an important topic to show the partly awful circumstances in the Korean military. It's a topic that was still taboo and it was important to show the (for the show probably) worst sides of the system and what consequences it has on individuals who had to endure all of it, and what non-consequences it had on those responsible for it.
Also it had great acting from several actors, the soundtrack was good, the background story of Jung Hae-in's charcater made sense, it all climaxed in a horrible finale in the last episode of season one - great.

Soooo, as with so many formats, they smelled money when the first season was extremely successful and popular - and effed it up with the second season. Everything just goes on, the bullying starts again in the first minutes of the first epsiode of season 2, - sorry, I am not masochistic, I really do not want to watch another several episodes again seeing people being the nastiest and lowest of the low to each other - I got that message that this is an extreme problem in the Korean military, and the tragedy behind this IN FULL in the first season. I'm not into torture porn.

The story and script are getting weird and unlogical in sesaon two, time jumps back and forth, conspiracy stuff, some severe plot holes, oh, and as some icing on top at least Hae-in without a shirt - sorry, not enough.

It seems like (as in so many other cases where a first season of a show was great) that they just wanted to milk the success no matter what and the second season just lacks in every aspect.

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Could have been good if it had any message

when I had watched the first two episodes I was hopeful that, given the sheer absurdity of so called 'influencers' this drama would have a message like 'poeple, look, we show you how utterly moronic the whole 'social' media and 'influencer' industry is.
Something like 'look, it's all fake, these people are all fake (it did show that to some extend in the beginning) and that whole system is nothing else but a very modern, modified form of prostitution. Stop consuming this nonsense, stop spendig your precious lifetime in front of screens following and unfollowing artifical product -'people' who would tell you to buy anything as long as they get free loads and tons of money for it, yes, they would even advertise fresh poop to you.'
But no, sadly it was just a simple revenge story taking all this nonsense very serious instead of understanding this is not only not real life, it's actually not life at all, it's morally and spiritually dead, artificial things coming from deeply corrupted, greedy, spiritually dead people who don't give an ef about you except for you making them rich and feeding their ego with a totally absurd admiration of complete strangers.

Missed chance, could have been great had it shown the absurdity of our times regarding this topic.

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light-hearted, funny, with a well-known storyline

first of, it's nice to see a classic rom-com n the midst of all the bullying, torturing, high violence and crime dramas that were rather predominant in the past months.

This one seems rather a classic rom-com, with decent casting and actors, carefree music and a classic storyline too.
That said, - after watching the first two episodes - it is all pretty known concerning the story and the way it's constructed.
Although there were some rather funny scenes in yet both episodes, I did find myself thinking aw, they stole this part of the story here or there. The whole plot with her accidentally thinking he is a pervert? Saw that in 'suspicious partner'.
Her having this kind of girl clique where all is rosy all the time between three women? Saw that often elsewhere. And so on. So yeah, we all knw all the cliche K-drama scenes, and yes in this drama they used all of them once and again.

I was waiting for this drama mainly because of Lee Jun-ho, as I found him to be brilliant in 'the red sleeve' and really good in 'rain or shine' too. I get the idea of his role here is the brooding/sad and rather arrogant chaebol heir, and after a bit of a slow start concerning the actual acting, I do see the idea of his character after episode 4, and it's quite light-hearted and funny to watch him (and please don't beat me, I just think Lee Jun-ho is too thin now, he looks gaunt to me and not healthy. I know it's the trend for male Korean actors to achieve that but for me, at a certain point, it starts looking bothersome and I find myself thinking 'jeez he does not look healthy there' while watching).

The character of Yoon-ah is likeable and cute, and slowly getting a bit more substance after the first three episodes. The interaction between her and Lee Jun-ho is easy-going, it's nice seeing the characters bantering all the time and it's obvious both actors have known each other for a long time and probably like each others company.

The plot remains well-known from many other dramas (episode 4 just had the typical 'sad in the rain, he brings the umbrella'-scene) but it's enjoyable anyways, even if it's yet pretty clear what's probably coming next.
Right now I'm just enjoying that it is light-hearted, funny and carefree entertainment taking my mind off the day and any kind of worries. If you are looking for this kind of show, this one might suit you well!

EDIT I:

After having watched 10 episodes:
a big thanks to the creators of this drama for one specific thing: thank you for showing a young couple newly in love ACTING like couples do when they are head over heels. They gaze at each other, they want to touch each other and they want to kiss and seek every chance to spend time together. And I think it's a first that in a drama a couple kisses in a frequency that I'd consider normal at that stage. And even more, it's real kisses both want to share and it's shown like that.


EDIT II:

After episode 15:
how unnecessary was this episode ending? I guess I know what the writers are up to in the last episode (She meant quitting the hotel, not the relationship), but this last scene was sooo unrelatistic. She would never have just said these sentences without any context. She came to that restaurant that evening, even saying and remembering how they ate there for the first time on her birthday etc, seeing and knowing he planned something special for the night, him being nervous etc. So if she would really call it quits with him, totally out of the blue at that moment? She'd be a total psycho contradicting every single aspect of how her character was portrayed yet. So really, writers, was that necessary and in such bad style?
So, given I am right with my idea of what she actually wanted to say about quitting - her hotel job -realistically she would have said something like: 'I have to say something important too. I am very grateful I could work in such a high position in the hotel and I have given it a long and good thought. But I feel misplaced. I hope you understand and support me when I want to do something new.'


EDIT III

After the final episode:
ok, that last episode was like pure sugar coating, nothing but sugar, I even found myself laughing out loud. =D
I think this was the most unrealistic positive drama I have watched yet, everything that happened in this episode has absolutely nothing to do with reality - but that was the whole idea of this drama, and if you want TOTAL reality escape with everything fluffy and nice - that's what you should watch on steady repeat =D

I don't know where to start: apart from the MANY product placements, even in slow motion (common, the chaebol heir wears Dior 'sauvage'? Never would someone like that wear a cheap drugstore perfume - just as an example...) - sadly, people are not like that (or maybe my rather longer lifetime taught me otherwise;). That bitchy sister of Gu Won? She would never change. People who are that evil and nasty, remain that way, and when they get older it gets worse, never better. His father? Would have NEVER accepted his choice of a wife, ever. In reality the son would have probably lost his heir status, he would have never gotten the leading position in that hotel. And his father would not have shown up at the wedding and wished him well.
His mother would probably not haven shown up again in his lifetime... and so on, and so on. In the real world, most people are selfish, nasty, and they do not change. So, this drama really over-egged the puddig concerning unrealistic, but I enjoyed it exactly because of this =)

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good start, good visuals, mediocre plot, unrealistic fight scenes

-this one started out promising. I was impressed by the boxing scenes in the first episode which were (both, the training scenens and the actual tournament scenes) rather realistic and well done. I was hoping the drama would stick to the idea of keeping the fight scenes realistic to some degree. Sadly that was not the case. The further the drama progressed, the worse the rather elongated fight scenes got.
Let me put it like this: yes, a real boxer can take a certain amount of rather strong blows to the head and take it. But also this is limited. Someone who is particularly not a professional boxer, like the main villain Kim Myeong-Gil for example? It is rather ridiculous that he gets full force blows to the head coming from a professional boxer about 20 times in a row, and he just gets up and hits back and even runs away. Plus the villain is in his 50s. Someone not used to these blows and that age? Gets one, maybe two strong blows and is knocked out cold - or actually dead.

- similar unrealistic scenes sadly with one of the main characters - Hong Woo-Jin. In the really brutal attack he suffers in the middle of the drama? He is beaten, he has a severe heavily bleeding wound (or several) in his abdomen, stomach etc. , he is left there in a burning building with heavy smoke he inhaled given he was still breathing. He would have been dead there. He gets to a hospital nonetheless, again is bleeding so heavily no one could survive it, - and survives. And even more unrealistic is that someone who had suffered these severe, extremely damaging injuries, can get as flexible, fit and strong again as shown later. Even if, by a total miracle, he would have survived these catastrophic injuries he would not have been able to stand multiple super strong opponents fights like shown afterwards. In fact, if he really had survived he could have been happy if he after a longer while would have been able to walk straight, to go to the loo normaly, to use the parts of his body (muslces, tendons etc.) that were actually crashed and destroyed to a decent degree. Never would he have been able to train like a bodybuilding maniac with full power and flexibility.
(and to add that too: none of both main characters would have any teeth left, neither their small, straight beautiful noses. Their faces would have visible and lasting heavy damage, Woo Do-hwan's character already after the extreme face headbutt he receieved from that troll guy in the beginning. If happened as shown, all teeth would be broken out, nose would be broken)

- the plot started out ok, showing the mean business of loan sharks and how they terrorize people which actually really happens in South Korea. It later got a bit confusing as to why certain things happen or don't happen, which was gilded with even more rather violent action scenens and fights. I have to mentione 'my name' once again, which had heavy fight scenes as well, but they were comparably brilliant, stayed at least realistic to some degree most of the time and didn't need to be so excessive to overshadow weaknesses in the plot as there, the plot was strong and intelligent.

-Woo Do-hwans character Kim Gun-Woo...oh well, someone who has witnessed the sheer evil of what happened to his mother, then to the granddad and his then best friend? Someone like that is not still like a naive puppy most of the time, it doesn't really make sense to me. f you have seen such things, survived them and decided to take up the fight against highest organised crime,you simply can't be like a 5-year-old good boy most of the time, it wouldn't work.

- I personally didn't feel any real chemistry between the characters, especially the girl, Kim Hyeon-Ju, seemed strangely artificial and 'created' to me.

I was waiting for this drama eagerly as I really liked Woo Do-Hwan in 'the king, eternal monarch'. In 'bloodhounds' now he got an impressive body for the drama, and it's obvious he had real boxing training. Sadly I didn't feel his character was real, due to the rather mediocre plot, and rather artificial connection between all the characters.

-I also thought it was just too much violence at some points hiding the weak plot, - all in all, it couldn't convince me, I didn't like the whole 'mood' in the drama and wouldn't feel like watching it again.

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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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beautiful start into a melancholic love story but then...

after finishing this drama today I'm sad to say it jut get's a shaky 6 in the end - when it was almost a 9 for the first few episodes.

Why is that?


-this drama started sooo promising, good story with some kind of a fresh twist I like -
a male lead character who is handsome, rather rich but still very unhappy and lonely in his life. As a counterpart, a female lead character who is stubborn, painfully straight forward, but rather strong willed.
This is a mix I have rarely seenin K-dramas yet, and I feel it's refreshing and realistic to show that men, also handsome, rather successful men, can be unhappy and lonely and hurt.

The story was progressing rather slowly from the beginning and I did like that pace as the main characters neeed the time to find ways to reach each other, it only makes sense in all the story context.
I found the pace and development perfect until episode 7. From episode 8 on and I was a little worried that due to the fact this has 16 episodes, it suddenly started to drag.

The lead characters both around at least 30 or even 40, first needed some very understandable time to become aware of their feelings for each other, given they are both shy people when it comes to personal emotions, and given the difficult circumstances.
But from episodes 8 on we got more and more if these dragging scenes, the characters just standing around in slo-mo forever looking sad, or walking along a street in slo-mo. looking sad etc. It felt like time fillers to me from a certain point

We had the lead characters confessing their feelings for / to each other from episodes 8 to 10, they go camping together sleeping in the same small tent and spending the night there (the writers just completely leaving out what happened there? What did they talk about? how did they say good night? how did they interact? how was the next morning waking up togther etc. etc?)
We even have them spending a real night together as lovers, the fl openly confessing her love to the ml and then? Nothing, the next day these two people, who are not teenagers but between 30 and 40 years old and very good looking both of them, act like 13- year old teeagers, awkward, cold, distanced, even like they don't know each other personally? I didn't find that convincing.

(In reality: These two lead characters have been drawn to each other for what feels like forever. They finally spend the night together. Yeah, you know what would happen after that? If you ever had that situation yourself with such a prolonged...'forepaly', you know exactly that hormones are in crazy mode after spending such first night finally, and there is no way these two people would act like strangers and all cold the next day. Normally, after all that and confessing to each other, you search the next possible time window to spend more time together and you definitely interact differently, even when it's small things, and you look at each other differently.)

After epsiode 12 the dragging gets worse. There are so many silent scenes in slow motion repeating themselves, where you see either the ml or the fl walking down any street suuuperslowly (especially the fl), looking dazed and sad, or the ml sitting somewhere (either his appartment, a noodle shop or his office) looking blank and sad.
It was just too much of that slow motion walking and looking sad for me. You can use that to accentuate important moments, or moments of real daze and sadness, but when it is used like here the effect wears off and it feels artficial and annoying.

So, the story unfolds, the ml finally hears that the fl is the daughter of his dead stepdad and one of the siblings who got thrown out of their house because of his bitchy, nasty mother. He tries everything to clear the situation, even gets them the house back.
His mother, remaining the nastiest person, gets forgiveness from everyone (which I find HIGHLY unbelievable, especially because she did not change one bit and was just a bit softer for a short moment because she felt pity for herself for having been caught.) What happens to her in the end? We don't really get to know.

I found the last two episodes even worse to be honest. Apart from lots more dragging slow-mo scenes, we suddenly see the pharmacy guy getting together with the fl's older sister - which felt forced to me. I didn't feel like that could have really happened like it did, simply because the pharmacy guy had strong feelings for the fl for years. Suddenly switching to her sister felt strange to me.

So, back to the leads; after all is cleared, surprisingly everyone forgave the ml's awful mother, the siblings get back the house etc - and our leads? - still do a supertragic ' we have to seperate, goodbye forever' - ending of their relationship at a point when it's not necessary anymore? Oo (All of it by the way with both of them having almost robotic blank and sad facial expressions all the time, even when they are alone with each other in the woods.) Ok, even if so, and although I don't get why at that point, they don't do it the way most probably would, by particularly _not_ meeting again to not make it even more hurtful, but istead send a message or talk on the phone to say goodbye, - our leads? They go the extra painful length of driving out of Seoul two hours to go to the favourite wooden trail of the ml, walking together in the sunshine at the most romantic place to then really, expresionlessly, saying goodbye in front of the fl's house? No way!

Then, a time jump all of a sudden, one year later. So for some unknown reason the leads really haven't seen each other for a full year. Then, for further unknown reasons, the older sister suddenly tells the flthat their mother kind of forgave the ml already a year ago (which makes me wonder why the mother wouldn't have told the fl herself a long time ago knowing perfectly well how much her daughter is in love with the guy), the brother sets up a meeting of the leads at a rooftop concert, they both get there, the ml has a bunch of flowers, (endless slow motion again Oo) - they smile at each other and?.....THE END?

I was just annoyed at the end, thinking like what? Why? Why didn't the mother tell her way before she forgave the ml? Why didn't they get together after it was all cleared up a year earlier and instead do this reall weird break up scene with the wooden trail? Why all of a sudden can they now meet exactly a year later, why the flowers, why now? What then?

And I just couldn't get past this unchanged behaviour of the leads after they had spent that night together, I felt like I just saw they were actors acting, and that these two people have not spent a night together. You know, when you are in love like that, when there is such longing, and after you have finally spent a night together, knowing the other person intimately, their body, their scent, etc, you just look at each other differently, you act differently etc. It was just obvious it was an artificial script with two actors who played their roles like it was written down, but these two characters didn't really exist and they were not in love or had spend a night a after a long time of longing for each other.

All in all, almost the whole second half of the episodes was rather disappointing and it got worse with every episode. If the writers would have kept the good tension and realistic vibe they had from episode 1-7, It could have been one of the best and most touching stories in a long time then.

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surprising twists for a change

This one surprised me and in a positive way.
I watched it because I am a longtime fan of Park Hee-soon and was glad to see a new drama with him in the lead role.

What is it about? Well, secrets, lies, denial and the ever same muddy downpath of politics.

We get to see a rather shy female lead character who is married to an obviously really nice and considerate husband. He started in politics and for her personal reasons the fl asks her husband for him to keep her out of it and the limelight. He believably promises to do so.

The rather idyllic family picture gets first scratches when their student son is suddenly found dead. We just get clues what could have happened to him but can't be sure. Then, out of nowhere for the couple, the gilrfriend of the son shows up at their doorstep claiming to be pregnant from the deceased. Unwillingly they take her in, also to prevent any image damaging scandal to get out.
Rather slowly, step by further step we find out about the fl's past and what is haunting her, and understandably why she is shy and wants to stay out of the limelight.
Around episode six I was fully sold to the ml being a nice and caring husband and even felt angry towards the fl for not just talking to him and telling him her problem. At that point I couldn't understand why she would not confide in this caring husband of hers. I fully fell for his ways and believed him.

But slowly things start to feel uncertain concerning the ml. Is he really that caring and trustworthy husband? Until epsidode12 I started to feel torn, just like the fl, I was sure he was dishonsest, (and in many ways, especailly _EXcluding_ being unfaithful to her!) I got angry with him and when she confronts him once and again he is so convincingly sad, sounds so truthful and gives such heartfelt explanations that I doubted the feeling of mistrust again Oo

Only in the last four episodes things become clear about the motives and background ties several people have, and it was a first in a long time that I sat in front of the screen being so surprised about the story twists and revelations that come up I even said 'no way! No he did not!' out loud.

Like most I am used to knowing rather fast into a drama who did what, who lies, who betrayed whom. But here I felt so unsure and I was genuinly suprised what happened in the late episodes of this drama, especially concerning the ml who succeeded in luring me in and making be doubt my momentary impression again and again. I just wanted to believe him.

The whole story is also about how rather often women and girls experience vioelence, especially sexual violence and assault, and the rather sad fact that still in many countries the victims are made the guilty ones by society and even police and courts.
The name of the drama 'trolley' is explained quite in the beginning, and in the end makes perfect sense, showing you can only do one good for the cost of another, but never save everyone without losing someone else.
It's a bitter ending with lots of pain, and hurt feelings and some sparks of hope at least.

I highly recommend this if you like dramas that are not obvious and where you won't get everything spoonfed with a verbal explanation. If you are patient enough this drama gets very tense and at least I was not able to pause watching the last 5 episodes, I just had to know what happens next.

I also was (once again, but I might be biased ;) impressed by Park Hee-soon. I first saw him in a movie called 'the scent' many years ago, where, in a completely different setting and mood, he had that ability that although he betrays and does questionable things, I am willing to forgive his character. Same, in a starkly different setting again in 'my name' where in his role as Choi Mu-jin I defintely know he is dangerous and brutal, he still drew me in and I felt sorry for him. This was now the third time, here in a setting as believably caring and loving husband where I just wanted to believe him and even in the very end, after knowing what he did, still felt sorry for him and kind of liked him.
Seems like he as a special psychological thing going and working on me to fall for this and throw my rightly warning ratio overboard.

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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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