RandomShell
The energetic and loyal, no skill main character we all come to love as he grows into the countries best swordsman.
The good looking, dark, painfilled cool best friend with a sad past and inevitable fate.
The dorky, funny, weird, tomboyish, emotionless sub characters.
Evil minds and brainless henchmen.
The royal pain in the grass who has no royal power and is just a puppet of evil.
The hero goes through a lot of pain and learns many lessons before he becomes the best, while his best friend follows the opposite path to the dark side believing it's his destiny.
There are a lot of fighting scenes, blood and killing. People will die, both good and evil while some fight death like little cockroaches. While lighting up the drama with a bit of comedy and friendship, the romance is limited and so is the skinship. This is a story focused on corruption, loyalty, destiny and finding one self, paced in a slow manner with stories from the characters birth, child years, teenage years and adult years.
I gave this drama a generous 3/10. Beause even though everything was complete horse weed, I couldn't stop watching and I was always entertained or moved.
The bad things about this drama:
The special effects are ridiculously bad and not very believable.
The fighting scenes look very fake sometimes.
The acting was average.
The script was not very well written. Some dialogue was awkward or unnecessary.
The directing was not good since it sometimes made the story fall apart.
Some scenes were badly cut or were really not needed.
Logic dies now and then for entertainment purposes.
The story was confusing because they often went off track.
If you can see past these points then please give this drama a chance. The original soundtrack was one of the best I have ever heard and some scenes are like beautiful artwork that you can't forget!
ENJOY!!!!
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You will encounter a lot of gore and unpleasant scenes. If you are sensitive to people stabbing themselves, eating their own limbs, hanging themselves or other goreful activities, DON'T watch this.
There is no romance. The main characters will slowly get closer but it's all in a nightmare like fight to avenge their families and each other.
This is not a light watch. It is bingable but it's not something you'd watch to feel happy. The story is very dark, sad and deep and plays a lot on the negative elements and emotions of people.
The acting was great and the story was interesting. Although one or two episodes felt a bit draggy, every single episode was an important part of the unraveling of the mystery. I love how they never once left the main road, instead we watched things happen on the road side and each happening was a sign, telling us where to turn next.
BUT NO DRAMA IS PERFECT.
The ending was not to my liking. To be honest, I had worked out, what I thought was a great theory, but in the end I was wrong and I'm okay with that as long as you give me something better. Instead, I felt like the writers randomly added an extra plot twist, just because, and then filmed a few extra scenes to back up their new change of course. I would have forgiven them for that if they had not ruined the potential of a brilliant ending in the next set of scenes! This is the only part of the story where the writers broke their own rules and the laws of nature just to have a happy ending which is why this drama is not a 10.
ENJOY!!!
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- This drama has a lot of heartbreaking scenes as each characters past is revealed BUT it is not a melodramatic cry-fest. Instead, it has a very bright and energetic approach. There is quite a lot of comedic scenes and the characters are very childish, lovable and extremely cute.
- Trauma. All characters have some type of trauma that keeps them from happiness so all the conflicts will be centered around the different events that scarred each person and how they work through it.
- The romance is a part of the main plot but it never uses the plot for more romantic scenes. It's like the ending had already been decided and writers were working in romantic scenes instead of making unrealistic events so that the characters can get closer. It was all natural.
- The characters will grow and develop throughout the drama and it gives off the feeling of coming home after a very long trip that lasted a life time.
- This is a high budget, well made, well written, well progressed drama. There were no plot holes that bothered me and things felt very realistic.
- A bearable love triangle with not too much screen time and a good ending that will wreck ships. The first male lead was was an acceptable defeat for people with second lead syndrome. (If you did have SLS, watch Queen of the ring)
I was expecting a lot of short cutting in the story for the sake of the romance but I was surprised when I found out how different it was. This is not your typical romance drama where the plot is supporting the love between two leads. This is more of a healing drama, showing the hardship of different people supporting each other to achieve happiness.
ENJOYYYYY!!
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Content.
- The kind of comedy that makes you feel secondhand embarrassment, face palm or fold double with laughter.
- Beautiful moments between friends, family and love interests.
- The reality behind chasing your dream
- Some really ridiculous adults
- Amazing acting.
- The right amount of romance.
This show was great in so many ways. Although it may feel dragged out sometimes, all the characters had their own special personalities with the realistic touch of being dirty, imperfect, insane, loving and constantly in need of money. The chemistry was good and the back stories were right where we needed them. All the lose ends were tied at the end and left me with a feeling of nostalgia and happiness every time I think back. I hope you will feel the same.
ENJOY!!
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....because she wore ONE shirt for this entire drama, with the the print "Stupid Hoe" .....
***CONTENT***
~ Recommended for ~
- Negatives -
+ Positives +
= Summary =
Recommended for ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
People who enjoy sweet romance moments, love triangles, team spirit and light conflict would love this. It's your typical Korean high school flick with all the usual elements that make a child friendly romance drama. If you're feeling tired of deep, dark plots and reality hitting too hard, relax your heart and your mind with this very brainless, bingable, ROMANCE, sports, creation.
Negatives ---------------------------------------------------
- The acting is not very good.
- Even though the plot wasn't original they could have given it an original twist, but they didn't.
- There is a SMALL character development but not really memorable.
- The pace was uncomfortable things were happening in a very hasty manner.
- It's supposed to be a drama focusing on sports but the romance stole the spotlight.
- Some scene cuts were very random
- The characters were hollow
Positives ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ It was ridiculously easy to binge watch.
+ The romance scenes were cute even though they were kind of random.
+ Even though the script could have used more work, the shots were pretty good.
+ This can still be enjoyed if you want to rest your brain and just smile.
Summary ==============================
Each episode is about 15 minutes and there are 20 episodes in total. If this was a 30 min episode drama, it would get cut down to about 10 episodes, which is more than enough to get a good story across and introduce the characters well enough for us to feel and sympathize with them. Sadly, this drama does NOT do that.
For a 2016 drama it is pretty out-dated and it has countless cliché scenes that have been done too many times before. There is a fine line between cheesy re-runs and classic heart flutter.
The acting was not that good but I feel like the writers are to blame for that. The characters were not very well developed and most of them didn't even have a back story, which I feel is kind of sad. A deeper connection with the people in focus would have lifted this series so much.
I will not allow the lack of episodes or time, excuse the fact that this drama lacks in detail. Instead of all the unnecessary romance scenes or unneeded conflict, they could have given the drama more depth.
So this was a review of ROMANCE with a sprinkle of volley boll
ENJOY!
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... Because the passion level went from 0 to 9000 in a second...
Note to all the confused people:
This is NOT a movie about homosexuals, it is NOT YAOI and it is NOT BL.
This is a movie about two straight males who perform method acting to become closer with their roles. In other words they do things to trick their own mind into being who they portray in the play.
This will start off very innocently with a veteran actor starring in the same theater play as the idol, Young Woo who shows no interest or passion at the first few readings. I honestly don't know why it starts off like that because a few minutes in, he suddenly starts to show a lot of passion and the writers didn't do a very good job explaining the process or the reason. He just suddenly loves it which is why this movie got a 9/10.
But once you get passed that...
This movie starts off very bright and innocent with a comfortable pace that gives off kind of a dreamy feel. The writers succeeded very well in making a calm atmosphere for the viewer without using dragged out scenes or unnecessary shots. It wont leave the audience soothed for too long before it takes a dramatic and dark turn that will keep you at the edge of your seat.
The way the writers have mixed the main leads dialogues with their characters dialogues is the most genius thing I have ever experienced. It makes it difficult to tell if the person is acting as their theater persona or if they actually mean what they're saying. Because the characters themselves are not sure whether they are acting or not, reality and theater slowly sink into one another and become one world of confusion.
There will be a few kissing scenes between the two male leads but this shouldn't be something to warn about. it helps convince the viewer of the feelings involved and gives a harder impact once we near the climax so do not fear it.
I recommend this to people who like watching mind twisting and dark movies. You will definitely have to pay attention and try to understand both the actors and the characters. This is not a light watch but rather something to prepare your heart for.
ENJOY!!!
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One of the most toxic "fixes" to mental illness I've ever seen.
SUMMARYThis drama glosses over the severity of mental illness by presenting it as something momentary that you can get over in a minute. It overestimates a mentally ill persons abilities to recover from it and it never encourages medical or professional help as it never recognizes suicidal tendencies as part of a severe illness in the first place.
It's unaware of the different diagnosis it's presenting symptoms of which becomes a problem as it treats every case similarly. Insult the person and tell them to become stronger, give them a near death experience, encourage them with words and then the person is cured and will never try to commit suicide again. An extremely damaging and unrealistic approach to encourage people to use on suicidal or suffering individuals. Even if the approach would consist of only positive encouragement, the writers are still not recognizing that this needs medical attention once the person has survived their first suicide attempt.
This drama was created to spread awareness and lower the stigma around mental health issues but instead, what this drama is basically doing is encouraging and validating the toxic out look Korean people have on mental illness and invalidating the suffering and trauma, individuals had to go through to become suicidal.
I also don't understand the writers choice to encourage traumatizing or destroying the "bullies" lives as a punishment for their actions. A study shows that the most likely reason a person becomes a bully is because they have been deprived of a safe space and are suffering from severe trauma or stress. This is a very important detail the show could have brought up. No matter what choices you made in life, if you're suffering from mental illness you should be offered help. Considering that the bully went on to become a public figure, someone who has constant pressure, stress and hate directed at them daily, they're probably in a really bad mental state already and has now, for sure, become more likely to develop suicidal thoughts because of the RM team. Very counter productive for a team that is supposed to lower Koreas suicide rate. This also means that they're spreading a message that you deserve to suffer if I believe you're a bad person even if you too, are a victim of mental illness.
LONG REVIEW
Korea carries one of the worlds highest suicide rates in the world.
Why?
To name only a few reasons; The Korean society was built to perfectly mimic survival of the fittest. Escaping the bottom of the pyramid is nearly impossible and accidentally sliding off the top is a daily risk. People are expected from an early age to become number one at everything but in a country of roughly 52 million people, only one can become number one and everyone else has to fight for the left over money the top 1% hasn't pocketed yet. Being valued at such a surfaced level, the fear, the stress and the pressure is a sure way to cause mental deterioration, so how do people deal with it?
Frankly speaking, they don't.
In Korea, mental illness is not being taken as seriously as it should and a lot of people don't understand what it entails. It's misrepresented in the media too often and constantly associated with insanity, weakness or danger. It's highly stigmatized, looked down upon and going to therapy to get help is still a taboo.
And this drama embodied that toxic mentality perfectly.
The job of the Risk management team is to find suicidal individuals, figure out why they are suicidal and then convince them not to end themselves. And although this drama does a great job with presenting traumatic events, trauma, PTSD and depression it doesn't know that it's doing it and that's a problem. It's a problem because the solution presented to solve the issue at hand minimizes the severity of the situation and enforces the toxic mentality that so many Koreans have when it comes to mental illness. "Just change your attitude and you'll be fine".
Sadly, that's not how it works.
If a person is considering suicide, it's not an impulse thought. In most cases, people have to go through an immense amount of pain and suffering before the thought of not existing enters their mind. And then the thought of not existing becomes comforting. Once it's comforting it usually stays just a thought for most people. "I don't want to exist. I want to die. But I wont." For a person to be pushed beyond this, it takes a lot of additional torment. The comfort of not existing encourages a curiosity in how one could leave this world and then these option make a plan. Lastly, the plan is executed and that's it.
So why does suicide become an option?
It's not because of self pity and it's not because life after death is expectedly better. If a person chooses suicide it's most likely because this person has suffered enough depression that their mental state has been completely reprogrammed into feeling only self loath, misery and loss of importance. Any positive emotion has been unlearned by the brain and any attempted at relearning them will feel fruitless. You're not feeling sorry for yourself but you're feeling sorry for everyone around you that has to put up with your shit. You feel bad because you don't deserve to be here since you're not doing any good for the world anyway and because of your current situation, you're becoming a burden to the ones who once loved you, but don't love you anymore. Of course they don't love you anymore. You don't love you anymore.
Now, with all of this in mind, how good of an idea do you think it is to tell a person standing on the edge of a roof top to "do better", "get over it", "get stronger", "don't be so weak", "You put yourself here"? And how possible would it be that the suicidal person is already thinking it?
How probable do you think it is that putting this person in a near death situation will suddenly change their mind and make them want to live?
How much of an impact do you think making them laugh once (if even possible at all) and then telling them to "smile more" will have on their life?
It would have the same impact as telling a person in a wheel chair to get up and walk it off.
Just like any physical illness, healing takes time. And in severe cases it can take a life time. It takes doctor visits, check ups, diagnosis, medicine, rehabilitation, work, love, support, motivation and all of this might still not be a permanent prevention of having suicidal tendencies. It's a never ending battle between life and death and you need a strong motivator to be willing to put up with such a long lasting fight under such unfavorable circumstances and not be tempted to just give up.
If you've made it this far into my review I want to know if any of these things that I have written about mental illness was communicated to you in any way through this drama.
- Did you realize the severity of the characters mental health issues and what they might be suffering from?
- Where you in anyway informed of how much treatment and work these characters are going to have to go through now that they survived their first suicide attempt?
- Were you presented with what that hard work and struggle might look like?
- Did they ever mention that having a diagnosis is okay?
- Did they ever encourage getting help from professionals?
- Did they ever validate that the people they saved were sick?
- Did you realize that the "bullies" were suffering from mental illness as well?
Personally, nothing I have listed here were things I felt like the drama communicated well.
And the reason I'm asking this is because this drama wasn't made for people suffering from sever mental illness. Those who are still trying to get treated don't want to relive their nightmares through other characters and then be invalidated because they still don't know how to handle things. The people who have gotten treatment don't need to be educated on what to do cause they're already aware of what they need. So the only audience left to influence are the people who either don't suffer from mental illness, or the ones who have untreated mental illness and aren't seeking help for it.
And for those people, I would never recommend watching this drama.
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