More Alice in Wonderland than Little Women

Loosely based on Little Women is the sort of loose that happens when the elastic in your trackies gives way and they drop to your ankles in a wrinkled heap. Yes they are still trackies, but not obviously so. I spent the first episode distracted by trying to unsuccessfully work out how this drama maps to the book. But I was looking in the wrong place, because, although there are parallels to be found, the map is really in the theme: the significance of money.

This is fundamentally a story about money and its sidekick—power (the perennial obsessions of K-dramas, well maybe most dramas actually…). How and why it shapes lives, morals, choices and character. How poverty shapes your mentality and expectations. What you are willing to let it buy and what that does to your integrity. What risks you are willing to take to acquire and keep it. Under what conditions you will let it go. The price that your decisions exact from both you and those around you.

It puts the protectors, helpers, underminers and benefactors of the wealthy centre stage and examines their motives and desires. This is a rare perspective and I can only remember it being the centre of a drama in one other totally brilliant case, “Secret Love Affair” (if you are interested in this aspect, watch SLA, it will not disappoint, although it’s not a thriller).

As you can guess by now, it is not the plot that makes this drama special, (more about that later) although you can simply watch it as a thriller. It’s the examination and unfolding of motive behind the fight for freedom and opportunity in a world that values money over the individual. A society that insists we fight for limited resources to fulfil not only our dreams but our basic survival as well.

It’s almost impossible for us to imagine a society not based on money. But money itself is not of course concretely real, it is simply a universally accepted system of sharing resources that becomes meaningless if we lose trust in it. It is the illusion around which our reality and dreams are built. And if you are going to be fanciful, you could watch this drama as a commentary on the system’s strengths and weaknesses and the approach people take to best work it. Given that it is compulsory to engage in this system, the question as to what is morally acceptable and what is personally justified is core to the unfolding of the narrative.

Having said all that, there are problems in my opinion with how the drama is written and presented. There’s a vibe of the sisters being ordinary people (a reference to Little Women perhaps) who are unwittingly and sometimes unwillingly mixed up in something big.

However, through most of the drama, the sisters don’t display enough realistic, long-term emotional reactions to support their ordinariness in the extraordinary and violent situations that surround them. In a normal thriller we suspend disbelief because the whole thing is not related to any recognisable reality in the first place. Here, particularly in the middle section, I am being made aware of the gap between quasi normality and the world of the story with the result that I am also very aware of suspending my disbelief. And at times I found the approach is not subtle enough to make it work.

Because the women are presented as relative amateurs, there are moments that stretched my credulity to breaking point. For instance, without any preparation and seemingly without backup, they are willing to confront people they think are probably murderers. There are scenes where professionals who would never disclose information to anyone let alone the naive woman in front of them, disclose it. Etc, etc.

There’s an odd mix of the ordinary, the extraordinary and the completely surreal. The more surreal it gets the less the ordinary women at the heart of it are credible. It turns into conspiracy theory central with hallucinogens thrown in for good measure. Whether this was intended as a reflection of the madness that money creates in people is debatable.

The plot gets increasingly bizarre and takes off in strange directions and at times loses impetus. This has a fragmenting effect which leaks tension and can be frustrating. But at other times the sense of confusion and powerlessness is very effective in putting you into the shoes of the protagonists.

Overall, this is an ambitious drama and when it works it really works, and when it doesn’t, it really doesn’t. I’m someone who is prepared to put up with stuff not always working well if an attempt is being made to experiment with something new and different. I think this drama tries to do that, so I was happy to give it the benefit of the doubt, but even my goodwill was tested beyond its limits by the end.

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.

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Cosy comfortable with a shot of blood

Once you get through the obligatory starter course of processed cheese, the first four or five episodes turn into a gentle, warm, carefully observed drama-romance with credible characters. Then the romance stretches like melted mozzarella for a number of episodes before just about righting itself; the cottage cheese style comedy tries to spice itself up with some hot chilli crime and the plot turns into gruyere, with holes so big you could run a mouse through them. Unfortunately, I could see where it was headed like I had a grandstand view down a wormhole.

Okay, let’s put some spoiler-free depth to those claims.

First the romance. This is a noona romance and visibly so. I have no problem with the age of the FL, or the fact that the characters are played by actors with at least 10 years between them. But at times I found myself wincing because in the script the FL acts more like the ML’s mother than anything else and at one point the ML behaves like a teenager, and those things I did have a problem with. However, once the romance got going things settled down a bit, but there is precious little chemistry going on. It’s all very cosy and comfortable, so be prepared for that.

It seems that the writer wants to give the drama a bit of weight and chose to do it in two ways. One of which definitely added something—educational child abuse in pursuit of excellence. Because of the setting in a tutoring academy it was fully explored and provided some real depth by documenting the impact on the students. This part of the drama was good and was credible alongside the romance. But the other theme—heavy-duty-crime—really didn’t mesh well and was totally unnecessary imo. Also the execution of that whole plot thread was obvious and clumsy.

There’s a fashion at the moment to try mixed genres, but it rarely succeeds. Okay I admit, it could be that I just need to change, get with the program and embrace something new, but … I think that there are genres for a reason. And that’s because any drama is an exaggeration of life in a certain direction. The imaginary world created by a romance is fundamentally different to that of a crime thriller because it is designed to evoke different emotions and responses. Things that are credible in one world aren’t in the other. When you mix the genres it’s like being emotionally and psychologically pulled in opposite directions so that you twang like a rubber band from one to the other. In the time it takes to cut to the next scene the viewer has to heave out one universe and drag in another. Jeez, it wears me out…

A bunch of corrupt mothers were required to fulfil both the comedy and the serious commentary on educational abuse. But neither the writing, nor the acting/directing was subtle or clever enough to exploit this killer opportunity for black humour. Satire is an art-form, and anyone who wants to check it out at its absolute best should watch “Heard it through the Grapevine”. Here it was mostly a clumsy mish-mash.

Hwang Bo Ra was delicious again as the mercurial but minor character, Lee Mi Ok. She could have made a much better job of the self proclaimed leader of the mother’s group than Kim Sun Young and brought out the dark humour. She is such an underrated actor imo. Lee Chae Min as the student Lee Seon Jae and Jang Young Nam as his mother were notable, and the scenes between them were little gems. He’s a Song Kang lookalike but with acting ability… In general the performances were really good and that is what kept this drama afloat for me.

To quote Skitc’s excellent review for “Stranger’s Again”— beware the trebuchet!!!! Another traffic accident. Really!!!

Okay if you are a writer in need of ideas of how to injure someone in an urban environment that doesn’t involve a car, here are some pointers (feel free to add more in the comments below)
• bitten by a zombie escapee from “Happiness”;
• pushed down a manhole into the sewer;
• Dorothy’d into the sky by a tornado;
• half encased in setting concrete;
• an eye gouged out by a drone;
• garrotted by a kite string;
• savaged by a flurry of rabid hamsters.

F**king anything pleeeeeease except being hit by a car.

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.

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Scored well until it started kicking own goals.

As the famous football quote says: this is a game of two halves and it’s not over until it’s over.

This perennially loved theme has always found an audience, from “Shirley Valentine” onwards; the dutiful, middle-aged woman waking up from the self-imposed drudgery and finding she has no-one to blame but herself, then kicking over the traces and fighting back.

In the first half, it takes some standard comedy tropes and situations and gives them a refreshing twist. It’s not outstanding in any way, there’s no spectacular cinematography, or deep, complex characterisations, or an innovative script or striking editing, yet the first half ticks every box as a great, enjoyable watch. It’s funny without being obvious, observant without being self-conscious, clever without being pretentious. It’s a great all-round show that slides seamlessly from comedy to drama to melo and back again, maintaining exactly the right degree to remain balanced and credible.

Then after half time, the team comes back and who knows what happened in the locker rooms in those fifteen minutes? Because things start to go pear shaped during the obligatory away-from-home scenes in episodes 9 & 10 after which they pretty well fall apart in episode 11 and continue on kicking own goals from there.

The plot really got pushed way beyond its limits. It went hunting for bottomless pits to fall into and whenever it couldn’t find one wheeled in an excavator and dug it out until, by the end, the pitch looked like a opal mine site at Coober Pedy. The overblown comedy and melo burrowed deeper and deeper until the whole thing pretty much collapsed into a sink hole.

The team managed to scramble up to the surface again for the last twenty minutes, but by that time, it really was all over.

There was absolutely no real need to keep upping the ante, there was already plenty to work with in the relationships laid down at the start. But everyone was literally dragged through the operating room for emergency surgery that singularly failed to revive a show gasping for air.

Having said that, in amongst all the manufactured chaos were some nice performances.

Although Uhm Jung Hwa gives a convincing performance as the unconfident and self-doubting Dr Cha, I feel she was somewhat overshadowed by Kim Byung Chul as her scheming husband, who has fantastic comic timing and plays in to all the “total bastard husband” expectations that you may have. Another actor who stood out for me was Song Ji Ho who beautifully captured the conflicted son.

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.

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Netflix "realism" predominates.

Netflix has a definite style of youthful romance which may not be to everyone’s taste. The characters (not necessarily the plot) are more realistic and less “wholesome” or formal than the one’s coming out of Korean television. More willing to mess with the standard norms and to be concerned with the realities of things like depression. Less afraid to explore the uncertainties of youth, which make it more afraid of the finality of rejection than living with the denial of feelings or unfulfilled desires.

The production style here is more akin to “Nevertheless”, although the storyline is totally different. It has a greater emphasis on showing more realistic reactions and character traits, such as smoking, swearing or anxiety attacks. The characters are often much less sure of themselves and can display behaviour that is obvious red flags, such as a dangerous tendency to want to be violent, or being caught up in abusive relationships. The actual impact that these situations have on an individual is more honestly portrayed. Often K-dramas gloss over the effects of trauma and create miraculous and timely recoveries so that the sense of a moral correctness, or fairytale happy-ever-after can be preserved. Whereas this story takes place amongst the uncertainties and messiness of life.

The director, Lee Jeong Hyo, has a string of hits in the last 5 years, including “Crash Landing on You” and “Romance is a Bonus Book”. Here he has adopted a less predictable style. He likes to observe the reactions on the actors faces and Bae Suzy is well worth looking at as she successfully conveys her inner emotions. Yang Se Jong is less convincing, but his character is lacking light and shade in the writing and it is very much a cypher and a foil for Doona. For me, the ML character is too young to be believable and as a result is played more mature. In general, his circumstances and themes were under-explored. At this length, the drama could easily have opted to focus only on the leads and gone deeper. There was plenty of material, particularly on Doona’s side to do so.

Instead, they chose to introduce secondary characters and subplots that did not hold up particularly well. There was an air of plot convenience about them with insufficient integration between their characters and the lead story. The script for these subplots, particularly between Lee Won Jun (Yang Se Jong) and his old flame, disappointingly often slipped into the banal and trite.

One annoying detail was that the continuity was bad. The weather and costumes were very mixed up. People wearing summer outfits in early spring and full tree foliage with snow. I’m prepared to overlook bright sunshine and rain, as that is often unavoidable due to a shooting schedule. But deciding on the season and dressing appropriately is something that should be unified.

There were some deliberate attempts at stylistic cinematography - especially towards the end. The breaking up the images into multiple rectangles (there’ll be a technical term for this, sorry not really my speciality). The use of a lot of close up reaction shots. It had a modern feel. Slightly smokey images, with the edge taken off by using less saturated colour, and moody lighting, nicely played into the slightly sombre tone of the piece. Greys, blues and browns predominate. The spare use of music carries emotional weight because it is unusual to have no background sounds.

Overall, for me, there was a lot to like about this production regarding the central characters and storyline, but the subplots and details let it down. It was an emotional 8, but a rational 7.5.

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A very watchable production in a difficult to get right genre.

What I like is that this show presents something different, it wasn’t perfect but it was refreshing. The weight is absolutely on the character interactions and with plenty of quirkiness below the surface there is no lack of material to work with.

It occupies the sort of territory that Summer Strike tried to do, but does it much more successfully. Sitting in the overlap of a Venn diagram that includes the genre sets: slice of life, romance, crime mystery, drama and comedy. The cost of inhabiting this territory is that nothing is really dominant and arresting for your attention and the overall effect is a kind of bumbling along warm and fuzzy.

It probably worked better as a webtoon, delivered in bite sized chunks, where the overall flow of the narrative was not so important. Although there was an ongoing plot, it didn’t quite have the punch that it could have had as the relationships took precedence. Neither did it venture into too much darkness, preferring half-lit shadows for its tone. It was slow to take off and the pacing in general is uneven. It sort of lurches along and when it does eventually bite, it’s more of a nip at the ankles than a chunk out of your leg.

The characters are what carry this piece and they have light and shade too, which is what makes them interesting and relatable. I can imagine that some people may find the character Park Jin Hong (older ML) a little creepy at first but he was played with sincerity by Ann Jae Wook. The mother, excellently played by Joon Hae Jin, is an imperfect character whom some viewers might take exception to. I warmed to her, even though I didn't necessarily like her. Her relationship with her daughter played by Choi Soo Young, was especially good, both in the writing and the acting. The rest of the support cast also played their roles convincingly.

The comedy is not overcooked and there are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments to lighten the mood and carry you along. The romance is gentle and the melo was handled with sensitivity, especially at the end. The cinematography and OST follow suit being pleasing but nothing spectacular.

High five to the director for finding the right note and not overplaying his hand. This is the first time I have seen his work. The writer, Min Sun Ae, has no other credits listed on MDL. If this was a first outing for her then I think she did a very creditable job with dialogue if not the pacing.

Overall I liked this drama. It’s not a stand-out special but weighs in as a watchable drama in a blended genre that is difficult to get right.

What my rating means: 8+ A great drama with interesting content and good writing, direction, acting, OST, cinematography. But didn’t quite have the requisite sparkle to bump it into my all-time fave list. Worth watching.



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Sexed up Corporate Finance

In an imperfect world where your capital is reputation, of necessity the currency must be moral ambiguity. Honesty and compassion come at a price and the decision about who is going to pay that becomes a war of survival. This formed the core of the plot and was explored through the attitudes of the various characters who ranged from deepest black through shades of grey to the blinding light of our hero. There was not a great deal of subtlety in the exposition of this theme which often felt contrived, but it did offer you plenty to think and reflect on.

This is a new angle on corruption for me and perhaps for K-drama land. The introduction of a new world requires explanations that don’t have to be made where the viewer is already familiar with procedures, concepts and terminology (for instance in the police). So the script is necessarily clunky and unrealistic as the actors are required to provide a Corporate Finance for Dummies guide to the tangled complexities of accountancy. So expect to pay attention to keep up with the threats going down in the plot. (Unless, of course, you’re a certified corporate accountant, and then you can snort and laugh your way through the inevitable distortions of drama-la-la-land.) But for most of us there will be Side Effects—머리 아프다 (my head hurts).

It gets away with a lot of OTT stuff because tbh I was concentrating so hard on what was going down that I didn’t have enough brain power to clock all the sleights of hand and magical illusions going on. But of course, we are gifted with a spectacularly clever rookie ML who manages to navigate some fairly incredible situations in this tightly plotted thriller. The end is never really in doubt, and the great reveal half way through is about as surprising as porridge for breakfast, but it manages to create a thrilling ride nevertheless. Until the ending that is. Wtf were the last two episodes? Totally random. Totally unsatisfying. Totally messed up.

I liked some of the performances in this, notably L (Kim Myung Soo) who turned in a great angry young man and Choi Jin Hyun as his sunbae. Unfortunately the female parts had less depth and relied more on caricature but the relationship between Yeonwoo and L had it’s sweet moments.

Not compulsive viewing but an honourable rating which deems it worth watching mid-week after a long hard day.

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A cerebral appreciation rather than an emotional enthusiasm. An intelligent watch.

If court intrigue is your thing, then you won’t get better than this. Half of the script is concerned with the delicate manoeuvring required to send indirect layered messages that have different meanings to different people, whilst the other half is concerned with bringing about the downfall of your enemies whilst keeping your hands clean. It’s an elaborate dance in which no-one touches anyone directly, but guides their steps by blocking or revealing pathways. A sinister pavane where one wrong step can lead to a blind alley, death and disaster.

In a world where there is no real warmth, compassion or security,
emotional manipulation is raised to an art form and the devastating results displayed. This is contrasted with the cool, rational manoeuvring of the female lead, abetted early on by the Grandmother, which is outwardly praised as moral righteousness, but owes a great deal to power playing and more subtle manipulation. It is scheming that uses the predictable weaknesses of others to bring about their downfall. It is revenge served ice cold and does the moral character of our heroine no real favours.

In this suffocating world of just a handful of families, there is a sense of the overbearing weight of society and the machinations necessary to survive in it. In particular it focuses on the role of women and the means by which they can find and assume power, though ostensibly in a powerless situation.

The world of the men is less well crafted and believable than the domestic setting of the women. Whereas the female parts had an almost slice of life feel, the script for the men is not edgy enough. In the main their lines and performances are far too soft and “nice” for the characters that are being portrayed. No such sleight of hand was shown with the female characters and they emerge much more forcefully and credibly, triggering ambivalence in the viewer.

The overall complexity is down to a magnificent script which is full of subtlety and cleverness. Even in translation there is a clear sense of having to read between the lines and there is plenty of brainwork to be done to fully appreciate all the undercurrents. This is not the sort of thing that you approach in your pyjamas, curled up on the sofa half asleep after a long hard day at work.

I had a problem with the casting of Feng Shao Feng as the ML, I thought he was too old for the part. Unlike Kim Tae Ri who dropped some 13 years in “25-21” and totally convinced me that she was a teenager using her body language and mannerisms, FSF’s acting didn’t convincingly portray the energy of youth (my calculation was that the character was in his late twenties, early thirties at most), or the hard core determination that was his stated character. He was unconvincing as a reformed ne’er do well and ruthless soldier with a streak of rashness, and seemed more like a pleasant, middle aged burgher.

All praise though to Zhao Li Ying who was hardly ever off screen and put in a great performance as Ming Lan—the wolf in sheep’s clothing. She was more than ably supported by the other cast members and there was plenty of character differentiation to give a credible feeling of a real world dynamic. it is really fair to say that this is a magnificent ensemble piece.

It has that epic quality of “War and Peace” with a large cast of characters, grouped in families, that wonder on and off the stage when required to inch the plot forward. Everything takes a circuitous route, even, or perhaps especially, the romance. But unlike most examples, the obligatory indirectness does not feel manufactured here but natural. And the relationship of the two leads is a joy.

It was designed to be shown once a day and the slow pace of daily life would really suit this unfolding. It’s not the sort of show that you can easily binge and is better taken in smaller bites of a few episodes at a time. Because the pace is so slow the plot is almost fully realised, but occasionally there were important scenes that were papered over or not shown, leaving an unnecessary sense of dissatisfaction. Neither was I a fan of how the complete final plot line was constructed.

On the down side, it is very long and repeatedly showcases the same type of scenario. I must admit that after episode 50 I was getting a little weary and had to muster up some determination to continue. Not least because it needed a bit more variation in pace and setting to liven up the overwhelmingly cerebral work that I was doing and the plot also became fragmented and uncohesive. But it picked up about ten episodes later and proved, yet again, it wasn’t afraid of the dark side. Displaying both the physical and the mental savagery necessary to survive and thrive. But to be honest, I was flagging and found the last haul to the end a bit of an effort. I think that splitting it into two series would have helped me considerably.

Although the historical aspects are well realised, the military settings in the story are less credible and it obviously never had the budget to be an action spectacular. In the midst of such realism however, the impossible sword fights, miraculous escapes and sporting competitions (which all end without a hair or a belt out of place) stand out as somewhat ridiculous. But heh, I’m not going to nitpick here when the overall quality is good.

Cinematography-wise, the slice of life approach is beautifully realised in muted colours and subtle lighting that help to give the feeling that you are a part of the family. In the hands of lesser cinematographers and lighting designers, filming in dark interiors can appear dull and murky, but so skilful is the lighting, that the faces are always highlighted in a way that seems natural without disturbing the muted note of the surroundings. The bright colours of the costumes also lift the atmosphere and provide contrast to the browns and greys of the environment.

The soundtrack is simple and effective, supporting the historical aspect without being too literal or noisy. And a shout out to the translation team, who took the time to give helpful comments all the way through.

What my rating means: 8+ A great drama with interesting content and good writing, direction, acting, OST, cinematography. But didn’t quite have the requisite sparkle to bump it into my all-time fave list. Worth watching.

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So much more than just the music

This documentary series describes the K-Pop industry from the inside through interviews with the professionals embedded within it. So they tell the story they want us to hear it and it is how they tell it to themselves. It is not designed to be an exposé, so don’t expect it to poke the vulnerable underbelly. K-Pop from the outside in gets an airing in Ep 6 but it was the least interesting episode and opportunities for insightful constructive critique were largely missed. Having said that, it is a serious piece of work that is thoughtfully structured, clearly developed and well worth watching.

I first got introduced to K-Pop about four years ago, so for me this was an interesting and informative series that provoked a lot of thought. As a long-time consumer of so-called western music and the business models and culture around it, it was really helpful to get an insight like this and confirmed that you cannot look at K-Pop through a western lens, it has to be understood on its own terms. Believe me, Stock Aitken Waterman were just rugrats fumbling with Duplo compared to their contemporary, Lee Soo Man, when he set up SM Entertainment and began conceptualising and building on a Lego Masters scale.

The series reflects on every aspect of the business of K-Pop and the culture it has spawned and is embedded in. From its history to the current world of fandom, how the music is composed, the choreography designed, the idols trained. It explores the clever exploitation of the market and the development of globalisation and how that impacts and changes the domestic market and attitudes. In the final episode it opens windows onto the future and K-Pop’s place in the wider context of a world uniting through digital technology.

The impact of COVID created opportunities for agencies in the sphere of digital marketing and digital creativity. They systematically exploited them to find ways of “connecting to each other directly…that people kind of enter this K-Pop universe that they can experience and enjoy. It’s almost like an immersive metaverse but in real life.” This technological revolution is blurring the distinctions between fans and idols and pushing it down the road of the illusion of a special and “private” reality that includes AI video-game inspired group members. But it is also opening up possibilities for creating like-minded global politico-social action groups that look outwards into the real world to effect change. As one interviewee says “K-Pop agencies are actively leading the industry beyond music”.

The mental pressure on everyone, but particularly the performers, is mentioned fleetingly in Ep 3, but the response (from a sunbae idol) was to push yourself harder. The ethic of always working harder to be better and attain perfection, which is a deliberate selection criteria subsequently nurtured by the agencies, also means that they are selecting for certain types of mental health issues. As was explicitly stated in the documentary, you need to have a certain personality type to survive in this industry. Watching this soon after the tragic death of Moon Bin was particularly poignant and the failure to address this elephant in the room was a glaring shortcoming in the series.

The series provides a great deal to reflect on in terms of how music relates to and reflects the current needs and dreams of society. And how the fundamental nature of business to exploit opportunities for gain has shaped and continues to shape and expand the music industry.

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Rich characters with an intricate but tangled plot.

When there’s nothing much on the table it’s time to plunder the back catalogue and this one from 2013 is definitely a find. Jung Kyung Ho makes a much better crim than a crush and here he shows off his delicious mean side.

What makes this thriller both unusual and worth watching are the performances and the characters. Especially the central trio played by Jung Kyung Ho, Kim Yoo Mi and Choi Moo Sung who put in top notch all-round characterisations. Very few of the characters are two dimensional and the writer, Yoo Sung Yeol, has beautifully crafted the interrelationships that bind the story together. The characters are nuanced and ambiguous rather than good and bad, and what side you are on is not what’s important here. Conflicting loyalties and debts of gratitude jostle with temptations and sacrifices on all sides of the fence.

It was something I had to eat slowly, like a rich chocolate sauce, one mouthful at a time. It makes demands on you to keep up and I like that. Nothing kills the tension more than explaining every twitch and smile. It ups the rewatch value to the maximum, because there is so much in it that is only half-understood. However, although the plot is a good setup, it borders on being way too clever and incestuous—yep that’s the only word for it and you’ll understand if you watch it. For me, in order to accept the incredible in a drama and suspend my disbelief, it needs to be in a balanced proportion and this one repeatedly flirted with the boundaries of credibility, especially in the first half (or maybe I just got used to it later on). However the plot is intricately designed and written (high five to the writer) and fundamentally very good, so I was willing to go the extra mile for it, in spite of the numerous eye-rolling occasions that frustrated and annoyed me. If you do go with it, it offers enough clever opportunities to wind you up like a coiled spring and send you spinning off in various directions.

There is a lot of violence and perhaps too much of it, especially in the early episodes, appears contrived and manipulated in order to increase the threat and tension. I don’t think it really needs to do that. It had enough guts in the basic premise and execution to keep you interested without having to resort to cheap tricks. I lost track of the body count at around episode 5, and it continued on. Hence the large number of small supporting roles, otherwise they would have had no choice but to chew through all the leads half way through!

The camera loves all of the faces in this drama and there’s a bucket-load of opportunities for the actors to show off their micro-expressions to good effect. The directing allows time for these revelations and they add greatly to the depth and tension of the drama. The production values really create the moody, dark backdrop so well, with great OST and lighting.

This is a hard one to rate, because when it’s good it’s very, very good, but the plot has so many impossible escapes, incredible coincidences and gaping holes that it can only be realised with huge compromises around credibility. Look it’s way better than average and well worth watching, so I’ll up the rating, but it comes with caveats.

What my rating means: 8+ A great drama with interesting content and good writing, direction, acting, OST, cinematography. But didn’t quite have the requisite sparkle to bump it into my all-time fave list. Worth watching.

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Quirky, surreal, warm and friendly

There is a somewhat bizarre plot which meanders along picking up themes as it goes. We go through digressions into crime, music, friendship, blackmail, betrayal, unrequited love, abuse, possible murder etc, all embedded in a wintry slice-of-life, set two hours drive out of Tokyo. It gathers all the themes together, along with a seemingly random selection of self diagnosed failures as characters (with the obligatory oddball viola player - musician’s joke…), but like strangers at a party, they don’t quite mesh. There is a slightly surreal feel that I am coming to associate with Japanese dramas and it has a strange affinity with Sartre’s play, “No Exit” (Hell is other people) where each of the characters wants something from the others which the others can’t or won’t give them. However, this is not a story about Hell, but about acceptance, both at a personal and an interpersonal level.

It doesn’t really follow a single plot line, but presents sequences of fragmented scenarios that have a thread running through them. Just when you think it’s all fallen apart, it comes back together at the end.

There are some really good performances from the core cast who hook you in and carry you through. The “playing” of the instruments is a bit unconvincingly painful to watch at times, but that’s a constant gripe in many shows that involve musicians and the actors do a good enough job if you don’t look too closely.

A bit like a meal of leftovers, it’s all hashed together, but tastes good! I was in two minds about how to rate it, but in the end enjoyed it enough to bump it up from ordinary to good.

Note the Easter egg squirrel in the final episode, just before the credits :-)

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Great start but fails to live up to early promise

Quirky. This show revels in being slightly off its face all the time. The sort of drunk where everything seems to be totally spot on and making perfect sense to you, but from the outside it really doesn’t hang together coherently in any way at all. So you need to join Koo in her permanent drunken stupor and follow it all from the inside, just accepting the strange leaps of logic and weird dream fantasies. Then it’s a lot of fun and after a couple of episodes things begin to coalesce.

There’s a good villain well played by Kim Hye Joon, and the whole thing has a gorgeous surreal edge to it. Whilst it has obviously taken a heap of inspiration from “Killing Eve”, it has not just copied blindly but found it’s own path and its own cast of characters. Personally, I had a particularly soft spot for Santa. But all of them have something going for them and there’s some great team dynamics.

However, about half way through there were some plot twists and scenes which were somewhat clumsy and things began to seem like a bit of a tangled mess rather than deftly woven threads and the whole thing lost some credibility for me. The pacing was off with long parts that were too detailed and I lost interest and had to push through a bit. Then they rebooted and things came together again in a sort of meandering plot with too many characters to focus on and the necessity for lots of backstory explainy bits, so that it didn’t sustain its early promise.

Perhaps I was looking for some better character development and there were some missed opportunities for more sparks/interactions and relationship development between the female leads. Overall though, there were other good character interactions on all sides and this was definitely its strength but the writer /director couldn’t bring off the action side of it which was far too wordy and slow.

I enjoyed the cinematography and creative use of CGI, not to create breathtaking effects, but to bleed out the colour and smear the images and create an edgy rawness to the visuals. It went a long way to supporting the general craziness of the characters.

The soundtrack was good too; woven into the story so that there were not sudden endings or fadeouts and it all felt nicely tailored with some great songs.

Difficult to rate because although some parts were brilliant it wasn’t quite cohesive enough and the approach began to pall towards the end. In the end I feel 7.5 is about right, although I would score it higher for originality and performances.

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.

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Sherlock Holmes meets Agatha Christie meets Harold Pinter…

I’m fairly new to Japanese drama, so I may not totally have a handle on the styles that govern it, but I must admit that I was more than a tad confused at the start of this one.

At first I thought I had time-travelled back to the 1960s and was watching a play by Harold Pinter. It has that surreal hyper-normality to it, where bizarre things are accepted as totally ordinary and people stand around and willingly listen to long, quasi insightful/philosophical speeches.

Then, half way through the first episode, it takes on a weird Sherlock Holmes homage logical deduction trip (and to be fair the subs team are called 221B Baker Street). Just when I decide the production isn’t going to take itself too seriously (and mercifully I shouldn’t either), it gets really worthy. With tearful remorse and regret for wrongdoing accompanied by a swelling string section. At which point I nearly give up on it.

But seeing as it is still episode one, I think to give it the benefit of the doubt and get to the end. It finishes up comfortably surreal again and continues that way into episode two, which is a complete Agatha Christie style who-dunnit, even down to the country house setting. And it begins to occur to me that if I knew crime novels better, I’d recognise a series of famous authors - Georges Simenon, Micky Spillane, Val McDermid perhaps? However, crime novels are not something I’ve ever been into, so I’ll leave it to aficionados to comment on whether that supposition is true.

The dispensing of wisdom continues unabated with transformational moments regularly swooping like shooting stars across the faces of the previously afflicted, as Totono offers alternative versions of truth. The question is, how seriously do you take it? I have to go for a pinch of salt myself, otherwise it’s all just a little bit too simplistic and naive for me. But if sentimental repentance is up your street, this one is definitely for you.

As for the cases, which occupy one or two episodes each; they are never over until they are over. They meander through surreal twist after twist and there always seems to be another surprise lurking under a stone somewhere about five episodes later. And the whole thing has a circularity precipitated by flashbacks that leaves you wanting to go back and watch it again just to check the order of things and how they all relate. Definitely not straightforward or predictable and for that you have to hand it to the writer for the originality of the plot (probably the inspiration of the manga author on which it is based.) It is the beating heart of the drama and the reason to keep watching.

The deliberate unreality extends to a great many things in the series and often the plotholes are enormous and the motivations not credible, so be prepared. The role of the police is not fully integrated and mostly they feel like convenient spare parts bumbling around the central action. As though they need to be included to give the whole thing some semblance of credibility, but their inclusion seems like an unfortunate distracting sideshow. For me the last two episodes didn't quite have enough cohesion to give it the ending it deserved.

The acting is rather static and formal which matches the feel of the production giving it a very cerebral and largely unemotional tone for long periods punctuated by intense outbursts. The notable exception being Onoe Matsuya II (Ikemoto Yuto) who is strangely manic. So I’m not going to praise performances here, although Suda Masaki is engaging as the protagonist, Kunou Totono. There are any number of curious and weird supporting characters that play the criminal antagonists who are strange enough to keep you invested.

The soundtrack utilises a whole range of classical music, from Vivaldi through Beethoven to Rachmaninoff and various stops in between. It is quite intrusive and deliberately loud, and can punctuate the action with emphatic “meaning”. There is also an OST of contemporary songs with explainy lyrics especially for the repentance/realisation scenes. Not to my taste to be honest.

This is a really difficult drama to rate as it has a uniqueness that could well foster a cult following. It was consistent in its approach and managed to successfully walk the edge of credibility, such that I found myself still willing to suspend my disbelief even though it was way out of any normal comfort zone. So even though it was not really something I warmed to, I think it was very successful and skilful in doing what it set out to do, which means it merits a higher rating than I would instinctively give it.

What my rating means: 8+ A great drama with interesting content and good writing, direction, acting, OST, cinematography. But didn’t quite have the requisite sparkle to bump it into my all-time fave list. Worth watching.

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Cute but Superficial

I was a bit underwhelmed by this movie and found it spread too thinly to really realise any depth. It suffered from trying to achieve too much in too little time. The film explored the familiar territory of trying to be and feel normal in a society that does not accept you as such, but without a unique angle to give it originality. The snippets of life and relationship at different stages that we were offered did not really allow me as a viewer to connect with either character and I didn’t feel much chemistry between the actors either.

The love story was sweet and cute but relied on a quirky and often hackneyed script that did not always give credibility to the emotions being expressed. There was little subtlety to be had from the direction and cinematography, which could have better utilised facial expressions and body language to convey the message and the mood instead of the bland and obvious spoken thoughts. I would strongly recommend “Old Fashion Cupcake” as a far superior watch for anyone who enjoys this type of genre and is looking for a more mature approach.

What my rating means: 6+ Some aspects of it were OK but it had serious flaws. It will pass the time but you can find something better.

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Four of a kind but not quite a straight flush

This one is not for the faint hearted, but if you can stomach some relentless violence it’s definitely worth watching. I’m someone who doesn’t like violence much but I was prepared to watch because it was honest and presented realistically without glorification. It was straightforwardly nasty and brutish and the after effects were carefully and realistically created and maintained. However I did find it pretty tough going in places.

Initially set in a dog-eat-dog world of the prison, the character Kim Yo Han does what he has to do to survive. There are no cool heroics, he is at the mercy of vicious overlords and is accordingly vulnerable. This is a stellar performance by Kang Ha Neul whom I last saw in “When the Camelia Blooms”, where his performance also shone like a diamond (even though his character annoyed the hell out of me).

I really liked the writing for this show, whilst maintaining the style of the revenge thriller, it dug deeper into the underbelly of how that anger and pressure both shapes your strengths gnaws away at your integrity. Kang beautifully portrays the anxiety levels and edginess that is an ever present factor in his character’s life. He flinches when doors open and spins to face anyone who approaches him. It draws you into his vulnerability, raising the stakes and the tension and gives insight into the overwhelming pressure to survive.

What this production does in spades is to build and sustain tension. Along with the main character, for a lot of the time you are in the dark, but the threats keep coming from all sides. There was a great balance between the viewer experiencing suspense because they didn’t know what was going to happen, and the viewer creating the tension all by themselves because they did know what was going to happen. This is a writer who knows how to exploit all the angles and does so with a confident touch.

The writer layers character and plot in stages, the emphasis shifting and with it the whole focus and tone. The pace is slow enough for character exploration, but fast enough to keep the interest. Most of the time my hold on the plot was tenuous, but thanks to clever writing, I was keeping up sufficiently to be carried along. Some of the plot twists were obvious but the motivation behind them was obscure and built into a web of hidden connections. At one point Oh Soo Yeon (Lee Yoo Young) says “All of our plans are entangled. If one thing goes wrong then the rest will falter.”

However, the plot can be criticised for over-complication. In order to help the viewer keep abreast of events there is a necessity for frequent use of infill flashbacks to conversations previously seen as well as totally new ones that reveal missing pieces of the jigsaw essential to understand the immediate action. This can feel somewhat clumsy and explainy and interrupts the flow. Also, I did get wearied about three quarters of the way through when the only thing to expect was twist after twist which in itself makes things predictable. As a viewer I was in need of some plain sailing and somewhere stable to lay my allegiance.

There is good characterisation all round, with plenty of ambiguity about good and bad. Along with a stunning performance by Kang Ha Neul other standouts in the cast were Kang Young Seok, Lee Yoo Young and Heo Dong Won. But the standard of acting from everyone was very good as they were given a quality script to work with and a director who didn’t overplay his hand and allowed the dynamics of the story to flourish.

The cinematography is unobtrusive but skilful with a good use of angles and minimal light sources which creates an effective and moody interplay of shadow. It enhances the action without distracting your attention, which in such a complex thriller is essential. Nicely done.

Nothing in the soundtrack stood out for me, but it was sufficiently good to blend into this excellent production without jarring.

Overall, the script, direction, acting, cinematography and editing align to create gut clenching tension in abundance. Even if you don’t know how to play poker, don’t worry it still works.

What my rating means: 8+ A great drama with interesting content and good writing, direction, acting, OST, cinematography. But didn’t quite have the requisite sparkle to bump it into my all-time fave list. Worth watching.

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An undiscovered treasure.

This drama is wonderfully unique and the only other drama I can think of to compare it with is “Misaeng”; but set in the public service rather than the corporate world. It begins as a quintessential comedy of manners; beautifully observed and very funny. There is no slapstick, forced humour or conscious jokes it is all situational comedy requiring an appreciation of what-is-not-said from the viewer. The smile hardly left my face for the first 5 episodes and I often had to stop streaming because I was laughing too much to read the subs.

This is the type of drama that someone who has worked for a while can really appreciate. The office politics are just wonderful and understanding them is 50% of the humour. If you have worked in a setting that interfaces with the public, or community/social work, then the scenarios in this drama will be delightfully reminiscent of how reality can often be more absurd than fiction. The storyline was taken from a book by a rural prosecutor about his experiences and it has retained a very firm grip on reality.

The skilled and acute observation of the writer, the subtle portrayals by the actors and the understated direction tell a very human story, on one side of fraught repressed emotions, petty rivalries, oneupmanship, self delusion, bullying, jealousy and misjudgement; and on the other side, of compassion, dignity, forgiveness, generosity, loyalty, friendship and support.

The story features the relationships and strategies that most people adopt in order to make life easy enough to bear and is mostly about people for whom climbing the ladder is not the most important thing in their life. They just want to keep their heads down, ensure that their salaries drop into their bank accounts every month, and do enough of a good job to keep themselves from being noticed. But underneath there lies a streak of obstinate courage.

The drama starts with everyone just muddling along in comfortable complacency when the supercharged tornado of Cha Myeong Joo breezes in from Seoul to shake up their world. Ambitious, arrogant, abrasive, smug and beautifully played by Jung Ryeo Won, she divides opinion but completely rubs Lee Sun Woong up the wrong way. He is brilliantly portrayed by Lee Sun Kyun and is the notional protagonist. Over the course of the sixteen episodes, through various scenarios of conflict, competition and grudging co-operation, we see the heart that lies beneath the surface of both of these characters. Essentially though, this is an ensemble piece and all of the leads are praiseworthy with no weak links. Each one has their own story and is featured at some point in the show.

The drama presents a variety of case scenarios, sometimes using the lives of the main characters. They vary from the truly tragic to the totally ridiculous and the action can switch from comedy to pathos in a heartbeat. The vein of social commentary that lies underneath brings a serious and compassionate note to the drama adding another layer of richness. As with most Kdramas, corruption rears its head and the resultant cost to everyone is movingly revealed.

The production values on this show are pretty standard and the music is upbeat in the main, borrowing some latin-style rhythms. What sets it apart is a fabulous script and some really top notch performances.

As the show is episodic in nature there is no need to binge it. On the contrary, it is something to be savoured. It has short plot lines that can be munched through a couple of episodes at a time. So curl up on the sofa with your favourite tipple and enjoy the feast along with the cast who eat their way through a mountain of food. A perfect show for a Sunday night.

I was really surprised at the low viewing figures and the lack of reviews in English for this show on MDL. I totally fell in love with it and have rated it really highly for its entertainment value and delicious humour. If you are finding it hard to find, then on VIKI at least, search for it under the title “War of Prosecutors”. It comes highly recommended.

What my rating means: 9+   A drama I totally fell in love with and is endlessly re-watchable. It ticked all the boxes and had some serious wow factor. It would go on my personally recommended list.

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