Hidden gem!

I didn’t look for the title, the title found me. And simply, if you liked WWW, you will love this one, me thinks. It’s not sugar coated romcom, and it’s beautifully written, directed and acted. A gem!
The series give you very well developed characters, the actors for me portrayed the resolution and hope of youth and the struggles and complicated world the older generation have. It created a circus of relationships, clashing those, who always have everything, their games, and contrast this world with the one of other people. They both have their struggles and truth and it’s interesting how you are guided to also the see both side fairly.
Despite all, there is a simple, pure love born out of being connected, truly connected, with someone. Haven’t finished the drama(2ep to go), but I loved it so far.
Why not 10 for me - mainly because I’m a bit tired to be shown that we have to bare the responsibilities of age - we all need to be free at some point, to hell everything else, we need to breath (I secretly hope that’s what will happen in the last two episodes) So I’m holding my horses:-)

(By comparison with Now we are breaking up, 100% better!)

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It’s a strange one!

Thru out the 9 episodes I had an out of body experience - all of my senses were challenged - familiar actors, familiar names, and completely out of line clothes, buildings and actions!
The cast - Kim Nam Gil played Kim Nam Gil, and I loved it, he spent half of the film showing his action skills (no complains from me!) and the other half looking like he’s just waken up.
Lee Ho Jung is spectacular and absolutely killed it! This lady is ridiculously talented - she jumps effortlessly thru genres and make waves wherever she goes. Very brave in industry where most are locked to particular roles. She demand the attention in all her frames!
You Jae Ming is delight to watch, as usual. A great actor - another frame stealer! Lee Hyun Wook is so good at playing the bad guys, you can trust him to deliver a character you will hate. The only person I didn’t like is Seo Hyun- by comparison to the heavy weight she was colourless for me. And how can you forget the firework that Cha Chung Hwa is!

Story - not much new aspects in the story really, we’ve seen it before.

Fantastic cinematography - pleasure to watch!

So to not so good - I solution their bravery with the Western aspect, however, I hated it!
What a strange experience!

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To any “Prison brea” fans

It will be an easy review to write, as I’m a big Prison break fan - and this drama is so worth watching!!
Maybe because I tried watching Lawless lawyers last week, which left me really disappointed, Crime puzzle grabbed me tight - massive contrast between the two dramas. Crime puzzle’s script is very tight, consistent and the story - so well balanced. At no point you can relax.
The cast is really successful to - Yoon Kye Sang was the perfect fit for this role..he was fab in Chocolate so I wasn’t sure how he will fit in action story - but hey, he carrying the character very well! This handsome man can do it all it seems!
You need to prepare yourself for a large amount of gruesome scenes/fighting and tones of blood. But these are skilfully balanced with humane emotions and struggles as the story develops.
Beautifully presented for me, pleasure to watch, and most importantly, not “over cooked”. Just perfect!

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That was a BIG disappointment!

I gave it a go, as I loved SI1&SI2 - how could the producers put this as season three?!
Nothing worked for me.
Cast - largely boring and shallow characters - both women and men. In previous years we had a great mix of ages, professions and personalities. This time on women’s side these was team Miss Korea vs one basketball player (who were the rest of the men again?)
Location - in season 1&2 the participants had much more space - I appreciate it’s the inferno but turning it into Bog Brother is not very interesting for me. The hotel was not that nice as the ones before - had a tiny tab and they had to eat around a coffee table…something just didn’t add up..
Stories - generally very bitty; the only story I kind of liked was cafe owner&young model. The basketball player triangle was centre of all proceedings out of desperation for me - I’m sure that should there have been more interesting men characters, this would have not happened! He was portrayed as shallow, unconvincing and unreliable man - what got omitted from the edits that is SO charming about you?!
I’m not sure if the editing was bad or this season was generally just boring, but there was no much really interesting relationships. For the first time I actually rewarded forward a programme just to see key moments..and these extremely long pauses - who needs that many and that long?!
The best thing - although painful to watch sometimes - was the studio team who was commenting..
Bring them back!

What a disappointment!

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What a surprise that was!

Will start with the story
Very gripping and new to me (and I’m a filmoman!) - and surprisingly, it felt fresh and new. I didn’t see the twist with the second car crash coming. The way the story came together in ep15 was brilliant.
Slightly cheesy romantic end, but they made it very quick and lasted the only 5mins at the end of ep16, so easily digestible.
Acting -absolutely fabulous! Tight, on point and beautiful delivered. I’d have loved to see more behind the scenes and enjoy the process!
I hope all of them are paid well - some supporting actors played the same charecters I’ve seen them play before , but as the back line was so busy, this didn’t spoil the joy of watching.
If there is something that annoyed me, was the SJK outfits - I mean who was in charge of these??
Apart from that, concentrating on their faces, and you will be taken for a great ride!

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Implicit explanation of an implicit idea

Since ep5 I’ve been shouting at TV. The story is infuriating.
Absolutely infuriating. Throwing in a few class differences, sexism issues, bad biz practices doesn’t make it a good story!

What a sh*t character she has!
Her character is beyond comprehension. She came across so bad to me! He is a bit better, but not much!

What saved it for me was the acting.
Kudos to the two leads, it carried a story that could have easily be done in a film!! And all supporting roles were good.

It will be interesting to see if people who can watch it in one go think - watching it weekly was ok, tho the writes ears are probably burning!

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WTF was that?!

Disclaimer - massive Song and Jang’s fan. However!
WTF was that - I can swear the story each episode have the same back bone - reminiscence, some very artificial urgency in the company, followed by some small drama, his dead brother gf fit, followed by his mum or her mum fit, back to the couple, and the episodes generally finish with them reminiscence.

The story doesn’t have any warmth for me. Mature romance have more, if not less, strength, in this drama all this was lost. The story kept weaving and shifting not being able to find its path.

And, this must be the worst Song’s performance so far - I was ready to forgive her in the first few episodes, but it never improved. I didn’t feel any chemistry between the two - the magazine photo shoots they did have more charm than the 12 episodes I watched.
Was Jang intimidated by Song? It felt to me like he is holding back..acting is definitely the art of acting off someone and Song didn’t give him much to work with.

However, not all is lost - the story of Hwang Chi Sook was so well told, Kim Jojo Heon and Choi Hee Seo did a fantastic job:-) I’m dragging ep12, because I lost any desire to watch it, more of the same...shame really, as it’s visually beautifully shot (clothing, styling), even the OST is okay..

Such a shame!

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Is it just me?

This is not going to be a popular view, just feel I can’t be on my own.

I find it difficult to find anything good about this drama. The story is very predictable and two dimensional - sometimes not a problem, but it’s so full of stereotypes that after two episodes, you feel you’ve seen it 1000 times before. The writers might have had a day off. There was too much details and repetition of one event and yet, there is no investment in how the relationship between the two main character developed. The script is full of overtop scenes, which make no sense as the story doesn’t take me on a journey to the deep - you just get thrown there. The characters are predictable and flat.

The acting is the second bad in this drama for me - I suspect there are many fans of the cast judging by the high rating, but I just kept cringing! This is my first drama with Lee Joon Gi and quite frankly, if this is the extend of his acting skills, it would be my last one to. I love Sto Yae Ji to, but for me there was no chemistry between the two. At all. I just felt like the actors just had some free time and fitted this one in as it is an easy one..

Saying that, there are a few names worth mentioning, as for me, they did their best with the material they were given - Yeo Hye Ran, Ahn Nae Sang and Kim Kwang Gyu.. all three excellent actors!

I really gave it a chance 10/16 hoping it will get better, unfortunately, I got more of the same.

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There is something not quite right

The drama will not offer any deep story or surprising twists - both as story or acting.
The fiery priest plays the same role, Lee Da Hee was tot wrong for the role for me, and Cha Eun Woo pretty much acted just “pretty” with short moments of interesting depth- not his fault at all, someone should have told him; something was missing for me. Still, there is some entertaining value - constantly waiting for the interesting part to start! The last few episodes were better than the first 10
So none of the main cast acting is worth talking about - the supporting cast and the main cast pretty faces carried the drama for me.
I will remember this one for the wrong reasons:

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This was a massive nod to 80s US dramas

What a weak KDrama! Everyone was raving about this drama and I was curious - but it was nothing but a big bow to an awful period of US day time dramas ( reminded me of The Bold and the Beautiful & Dynasty!)
If you fan of these stretched, no eventful, over the top, screaming, weak story dramas - this is your drama!
The drama should be watched in half of the normal volume - and I hope none of the actors lost their voices in the process of filming - there was a LOT of screaming!

Looking for pros - the OST was not tot bad, the CGI was good too, the cast was not bad either. Everything else .arghhhh. You will enjoy the outfits tho - the wardrobe did the best job!


Ps this is the case for all 3 series!

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Is a multi extras blockbuster

The story is predictable, and we seen it any times before. The bit with the Queen being pregnant from. King in very I’ll health for three years was a bonus! ? What makes the drama watchable is the cast and the vying - they did really well there!
It’s a slow burner, so you need to hang in there.

One element of the directing I didn’t enjoy was the scene stretching - absolutely unnecessary in my opinion, the drama would have hold well as 10 ep. The excess of massive zombie scenes gets really boring after a while - I missed the build up really. I think it would have been better if they kept these under control.

One special shout for the main character cast. They are so captivating and relatable, that makes following the story inevitable.

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What a little happy gem!

I’ve been longing for. Decent romcom for well, a long time! The last 12 months saw a number of good melodramas but not a single good romcom! Let’s face it, we need a room com more than anything when the world is going mad!

The story is light, yet gripping and with the right balance and speed - nothing was overworked and too stretched. They didn’t take the married couple or the office couple, nor the divorced couple too far and too cheesy.

The cast is so good and chemistry between the actors was very good for me offering the right punch of goofy and more serious elements. I’m really impressed by the male lead simply because I know the female lead from Gobling and other dramas and she is really good , but he is new on me as a strong lead. Watch your space, I recon he can deliver much more complex roles!
My only complain would be the role of the office admin - it was a bit too cliche and the character came across too childish to be believable for me.

The first film in a long time which will happily rewatch. More like this one, please!

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What were the producers, director& the writers doing?!

I’m only 4 episodes in. However.
The style of writing is repetitive, based on cliches and artificial suspense which throws the viewers as they follow the story and suddenly this unnecessary, over the top and pointless stretch, which feels like time filler.
I’m quite tired of showing women at this bizarre way where they are hopeless or mad..

The one thing that works for this drama is the casting, they probably will carry the annoying writing and the drama will end up being ok, but I wish someone gave them some honest feedback - what were the writers, the producers and the directors thinking?!

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It’s difficult to beat how bad this one is!

I’m not sure this will help anyone, but I kind of felt obliged to write as this one seems to be a long one (32 episodes) !!!

The story is boring and inconsistent - the jumps back/front and sideways make following the characters difficult and eventually one gives up. The characters (main and supporting) often seem to rattle on the screen, the story is simply not strong enough (full of cliches!).
Casting - where do I start - maybe from the main female lead - Hwang-Jung-eum seems to be playing the same character over, and over again in all her dramas. I find it boring and often annoying. I didn’t see any chemistry between the characters - the saving grace in the first 4 episodes must be the cartoon artists.

I prefer to re-watch something good than suffer and watch this one...

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