Sarangay
Brazil
This review may contain spoilers
Pretty good but should've been shorter
True Beauty is a pretty good show if you're looking for a nice rom-com to fill you with warmth, not if you're looking for a great criticism of society, so keep that in mind if you want to watch it.This drama really made me all fuzzy inside and it's pretty engaging for the most part, if you're looking for something easy to binge-watch. The focus is obviously the romance, although I appreciated the writers included a nice message about beauty and self-acceptance. I really enjoyed that in the end Ju Gyeong decided to stop wearing make up all the time and became more comfortable with herself, I mean to be honest she wasn't even ugly to begin with but ok. I also liked the portrayal of women here, like how the FL likes rock music and horror comics and that didn't stop her from also being girly and taking a interest in make up, or how her older sister wasn't super "feminine" in a traditional way and how she took the initiative in her relationship.
The acting is solid overall. The FL is ok for the most part, but her helplesness, her exaggerated kindness and her being dense all the time get old fast. For the male leads, I didn't have I huge preference of one over the other. To be honest I shipped Ju Gyeong with Suho because they're cute together but also cause it's pretty obvious from the start they're gonna end up together. I mean, Suho is the first one to see her without make up on and doesn't judge her for that, not to mention how they met as kids. I think they have good chemistry together, although I gotta say my sympathy for Seo Jun grew a lot towards the end.
One thing that I also loved about this drama is that they actually made Suho and Seo Jun friends again. It's really annoying how some dramas tend to end the friendship between two guys because they crush on the same girl. Suho reconnecting with his father was also nice, they could've gone much depper into that plotline, though.
But now I guess I should adress the things I didn't like. I hate how they butchered Soo Jin's character. I loved her in the beginning, but they simply decided to make her into the crazy bitch ou of nowhere. And her "redemption" in the end? We don't even see it happening, she just comes back and apologises and that's it. Also why did everyone act that her relationship with her father wasn't that serious? Like wtf???
One of my main gripes with True Beauty is that it simply runs out of a plot a bit after the halfway mark. My interest started to drop a little and the characters started to irritate me cause the writers made them self-sabotage a lot just to create conflict and keep the story going even though there was nothing else to tell.
That aside, True Beauty is a pretty nice and lighthearted show to watch and if that's what you are into, then I definitely recommend it!
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Min Kyu is a nice and charming lead who deviates from the most commom stereotypes for K drama CEOs, however his character is a bit too naive for someone who's supposed to be a genius. Ji Ah is a very cool and nice leading lady, she has a backbone and although the drama states many times she has a low IQ, she's not dumb or idiotic. The secondary characters are nice, Pi and Ji Ah's best friend specially stood out to me, even though they weren't that developed. The second lead, however, was quite meddlesome and self-centered in many moments, besides having no chemistry with the fl, making the love triangle basically useless.
The story is nothing memorable. The subplot of the company scheming was ok. What really put me off was the second half of this drama. I honestly wish the whole robot shenanigans had lasted longer because it was the most entertaining to me. After that the drama has a very abrupt tone shift and starts to drag more and becomes way too angsty and melodramatic, it gets harder to watch as the inital rom-com aspect almost disappears. Even so, I still recommend this drama for everyone who likes romance featuring some lightly fantastic elements.
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A lighthearted, quick drama
I had no expectations when I went into this, but was pleasantly surprised by an enjoyable, cute drama. It's very simple and short so there's not much to say. The leads had a nice chemistry and the development of their relationship was nice to watch, specially considering they were childhood friends, it all flowed very naturally. Also, as it's very short, the story goes straight to the point so you don't have to waste time with fillers or unnecessary melodrama.To sum it up, it's good, but not memorable in any way. A nice choice for an in-between drama to unwind.
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The acting is great, I was very impressed by Nam Joo Hyuk's performance during more emotional scenes considerng I'd never seen him before. I also want to point out the OST From Now On, which is super bubbly and uplifting, it fit in with the whole concept of the show perfectly.
The characters are nice, I liked both of Bok Joo's friends, although I think their backgorund could've been more explored and they also did a good job with Shi Ho, setting her as some sort of antagonist but also showing her life struggles so she wouldn't feel like just a bitchy, salty ex. Tae Kwon was also a fun, charming character and Bok Joo's uncle served well as comic relief.
As for the leads, Bok Joo is a good female protagonist. She has some spine and I loved how the writers explored her lack of femininity in order to pursue a weightlifting career. I must admit that during the whole subplot of her crush on the doctor she turned quite obnoxious. I get that's the first time she fell in love, but she was 20 already and still acted as a 12 year old. She makes some questionable decisions but is still a nice, relatable character.
Joon Hyung is is funny and seemingly imature, but as the drama progresses he really shows a very sensitive and level-headed side of him, making the character totally swoon-worthy. He is super sweet and his chemistry with the fl was also splendid. I honestly think their relationship is one of the healthiest and with the best progress in dramas. They start as just elementary school acquaintances, then they start to get closer, becoming proper friends until they finally get into a romantic relationship. They're constantly communicating, advising and helping each other through their individual problems, sincerely a delight to watch.
Definitely recommend this to everyone, a must watch for romantic k drama enthusiasts
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Onto the actual review, this drama is not good. The plot is basically a bunch of clichés thrown together in the worst way possible. It's boring and overly dramatic at certain points, with probably the worst love triangle I've ever seen.
The characters are all terrible. The female lead is probably the worst I've watched in a drama. I get that the she goes through tough times, but I felt all she did was cry all the time as if that was her only personality trait. She had no spine and just served as everyone's doormat, it was frustrating to see.
And then we have Kim Tan. The way he was always manhandling the fl and forcing her into situations she clearly didn't like made me extremely uncomfortable when I watched them interact. The main couple had no chemistry together and honestly their kiss scenes were pure cringe. I don't think Park Shin-Hye is necessarily a bad actress, but sis can't act a proper kiss scene to save her life. The first time it happened it looked like Lee Min Ho was kissing a wall or something which just makes it weird to watch. The only reason I accepted them together is because the second lead is literally a psychopath, bullying the fl and trying to make her life a living hell, I still can't believe people shipped them.
The only good thing about it was the fact that young Park Hyung-Sik is in it, but this definitely doesn't make this show worth to watch.
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Tae Hee starts off being a nice female protagonist, seeming strong, independent and level-headed. But as the story progresses she becomes just a love-sick, pathetic girl. Honestly I don't understand how someone like her would be with Shi Hyun when he's constantly lying and humiliating her in front of his friends. The worst part is that she's the one who runs back to him all the time like a lap dog and forgives him even though he does like the bare minimum to apologize.
There's not much to say bout Shi Hyun, other than I think he'd fit better in an actual rom-com. Soo Ji is just a terrible person. She's an egoist and a hypocrite, which I think makes her fit perfectly the initial dark theme of the plot, but becomes basically unbearable as the story transitions into more romance. Se Joo was the only one I would bear see on the screen, he was interesting and he at least had some common sense unlike everyone else.
To sum it up, this drama isn't terrible, but it didn't deliver what it originally promised, so that's why many people (including me) were left annoyed and disappointed.
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Great start, but a not-so-great execution
Only God knows how I wanted to like this drama. I even gave it a second chance after putting it on-hold for almost two years, but unfortunately it fell flat to me.Since this drama was focused more on the plot and the thriller instead of romance, I'll be more strict judging the story than I usually am cause I had very high expectations for this.
This is not the type of show that'll keep you at the edge of your seat, as it's slow paced and the story takes its time to develop. The first two or three episodes are amazing, all very engaging and efficient at establishing the mystery and the main characters personalities and connections without giving too much away. But after that the drama shifts its focus from the murder mystery and the story looses traction really fast. There were also some dumb plotholes here and there. Jin Gook is constantly withholding important information from his sister just for the sake of creating misunderstanding and keeping the plot going. He also does some poor detective job sometimes, like why would you just leave an important clue you found behind when it's highly likely the suspect will have easy access to it and obviously try to get rid of it? Or how people see someone who clearly attempted suicide and do nothing about it. Also the fact that Jin Kang and Cho Rong dated is completely irrelevant, they don't even act like a couple afterwards (at least not until the point I watched) so why even bother with it?
What bothered me the most, though, was the romance between Jin Kang and Moo Young. I wasn't aware there would be romance in this drama when I first started it and honestly I hated every second of it. I'm sorry but they don't share anything in commom besides their tragic past, every time they meet they fight so how am I supposed to believe they could actually fall for each other? I just wanted the plot to reverse back to the murder mystery and stay away from that relationship cause it was, at least to me, extremely uninteresting to see. I love Moo Young, he's a very unique male lead, cunning, stoic and whose motivations are hard to grasp at first which makes him very engaging to watch, but he is not good as a love interest. Realistically nobody would want to be in a relationship with someone so annoying and hard to figure out with that devil-may-care attitude of his, specially not someone who's initially so level-headed and mature like Jin Kang so that's why I couldn't immerse myself in the story anymore.
The acting is top-notch, though. After seeing So In Guk in Shopping King Louis I was extremely surprised by his portrayal of a polar opposite character here, it was astounding. Jung So Min does a very good job as well and I think all the cast is pretty good with their acting. The soundtrack is also great, it helps to create a very eerie and enigmatic atmosphere throughout the narrative.
All in all it's definitely not terrible, but it was a great disappointment to me. I unfortunately read a spoiler about the Japanese drama and I thought it was a really unexpected revelation, which would've potentially made this drama worth watching, but I just couldn't keep myself interested enough to get to the end. Even so, I'd still recommend it for people who wish to see some drama with a different atmosphere from your typical Korean romance.
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This review may contain spoilers
Soyeon you're my queen
This will have major spoilers, so be warned.Honestly, I only watched this because I was out on a trip with friends and one of them suggested this show for us. I have to say I was surprised about how much Single's Inferno gripped my attention, even though there isn't nearly as much drama or hook ups as western dating shows, but maybe this is part of the charm.
The premise and format of the show are probably what I had more issues with and I think a lot of people seem to agree with this: first, the show should've been longer. Nine days is just not enough for the contestants to get to know each other properly, hence it felt like some of them stayed with a certain person because they didn't have time to interact with the others; second, they shouldn't have added more people later on. These participants (specially the girls) barely got to talk with the others and were always being pushed aside, I honestly felt bad for them. On the other hand, I liked that they had to compete in tasks to get the chance to choose someone to go to Paradise, and the Paradise/Inferno dynamic also served to spice things up a bit.
Now, onto the constestants. First and foremost I just want to state that Soyeon deserved so much better. She was the most mature person there by far and I trully appreciated how honest and straight-forward she was. It was a shame she wasn't even considered an option for most of the man there and I think it's porbably because she doesn't fit the korean beauty standard. I get the feeling she mainly just ended up with Jintaek cause she had no other option. He was kinda of a dick to her, like don't get me wrong, it's alright to want to meet other participants and be open to other possibilities, but he did it in the wrong way. He just hid everything from Soyeon and even talked shit about her in his date with Jiyeon. Not to mention his ridiculous chest hair, I mean if you're gonna shave, just shave everything dude, don't make drawings with your body hair.
But Sehoon was the one that irritated me the most. He was such a spoiled brat. Soyeon was actually his ideal type (someone with attitude and who expresses herself), but just because she was the one to give him actually good advice about Jiyeon coming from a place of concern, that somehow offended him cause it hurt his fragile man ego, I guess. Also, his obsession with Jiyeon was NOT ok. The hosts kept praising him as if his persistency is a good thing, when in reality it was just creepy. She was giving him clear signs that she wasn't interested and yet he kept pursuing her. It just reminded me of the old narrative tha women actually mean yes when they say no, so you just have to keep pushing and that's just a red flag. Jiyeon was pretty smart, though, so I think the only reason she put up with Sehoon in the end was to get a free pass to Paradise.
Something that I still don't understand is why there were so many guys after Jia. She had the personality of an ice cube and couldn't keep a conversation going to save her own life. I guess they were into her because she kinda fit the korean beauty standard and cause they thought she had a misteryous personality, but it's not like that, she just didn't have anything interesting going on in her head to say or do. Also, she was kind of a bitch with Hyeonjoong. He was totally into her and they were basically already in a relationship, but she kept throwing herself at Hyunseung and never clarified anything untill the end. At least she was honest with Sihoon, although he didn't get the message at all. He was very stalker-ish and even followed her on her dates with Hyeonjoong, like what the hell???
There's not much to say about Junsik and Yeawon since they felt more like extras and barely showed up. Still, I sympathised with her and really hoped she would end up with Hyunseung.
Overall, a pretty good kick start for korean dating/reality show format, definitely recommend people to wacth it if they are into some tea and specially if they have someone else to watch with.
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Bad plot with bad characters
This drama is pretty bad. The beginning was ok, I found it interesting because K dramas usually don't discuss about sex so openly and even less about one night stands, but the show just misses the oportunity to make an interesting aproach to the theme. You'd also think that a female lead for this type of story would be empowered and liberated, but she's just the classic wall plant K drama protagonist. Seriously, she has no personality and is so passive, she never actively chooses what she wants to do, instead she's always being pushed into situations by other's choices while she (barely) reacts to everyhting around her. She could be replaced by a bed lamp and it wouldn't change anything in the drama.The male lead is also a flat, stereotypical character. I got mad at him cause he was constantly using his position as CEO or whatever to get the fl to do what he wanted and the only reason she was ok with it was because he's hot and rich. All of the other characters are also one-dimensional and are there only to fill space, because they're ultimately irrelevant. The single one I cared about was the protagonist's best friend, but he almost never showed up.
It's very irritating how most conflict arises from mere lack of communication (which could easily be fixed if the protagonists weren't so stupid) and the constant indecision of the fl make the story hard to digest.
I'm still giving this a 5 cause there's some nice fluffy scenes so I get how some people might like this, but I sincerely don't recommend this to anyone.
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Oh, and don't even get me started on that stupid lighter hypnosis thingy, it was such a cheap plot device it made me feel like the drama was underestimating my intelligence.
Another thing, which just killed the drama for me, is the protagonists. I don't know who thought making the female lead behave like a 10 year old was a good idea, cause frankly it enraged me. I get that she is a mermaid so it's natural she doesn't act like a human and is more naive, but the writers literally made her a dumbass. How am I suppose to believe this womam managed to learn korean in one night by just watching dramas when she displays the IQ of a banana. Seriously, I hate the ml but I couldn't exactly blame him on not wanting to shelter her after she erased his memory and basically swam halfway across the globe for him without even thinking of a plan to get closer to him.
The male protagonist is even worse, though. He is so overbearing and possessive to the point he even becomes abusive. Like he forbids the fl of wearing certain clothes, puts a curfew on her and even stalks her. Honestly I don't know if Lee Min Ho chooses to play rich jerks or if it's just coincidence, but all his characters are horrible people.
Honestly, the story that takes place in the past with their past reincarnations or whatever is much more interesting to me, cause at least the leads there had some common sense and were more likable. It's a shame they weren't the focus of the drama, otherwise this show could've been much better.
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This review may contain spoilers
Well paced and with interesting ideas
Honestly, I think the pacing and the structure of this drama is one its strongest points. With a lot of dramas, they simply run out of plot halfway through, making them boring and hard to finish. This one, however, spreads the plot points out pretty well, so there's always some drama or loose end to look forward to resolve next.The last episode ties everything really nicely. Other positive aspects are the OST, which is very emotional, borderline melancholic, with a special shot out to Say You Love Me. The acting is also solid. As someone who watched earlier works of Kim Yoojung, it's nice to see her evolution. Song Kang also manages to imprint a lot of charm to a character that might who, otherwise, could easily be considered annoying and callous (at the beginning, since as the story progresses he shows some loser energy that I rather like). The both of them have a lot of chemistry together, too.
The drama does touch on important but delicate subjects, such as domestic violence, class discrimination and child abuse in a way that I can appreciate. Although charcaters like Dogyeong and his mother, despite having done terrible things and facing the dire consequences of their actions, still receive some sympathy in the last episode, after all, they were also victims of and abusive father/husband.
I think the drama has some interesting concepts as well. The way God is portrayed is very interesting and refreshing, as more of a neutral being who's there to acompany hmanity on our journey rather than interfere. Although they play with the idea of fate, I appreciate that the writers also highlight our choices are what makes our fate. The whole implementation of demons and Christian concepts is cool, not something I've seen much in dramas before. The endings the characters get feel very much like some sort of divine or biblical retribution, the "punish the wicked and reward the just" sort of thing, which makes sense with the religious themes.
I had only some minor gripes with the drama as a whole. Honetly, the fact that everyone seems to be made of titanium and simply refuses to die bothered me quite a bit. People are involved in car accidents, explosions, jump from buildings and still somehow survive. Also, I wish the whole demon lore would've been better explored. Guwon seems to be the only demon to exist, except he's only 200 years old and the concept of demons has existed much before that. Also, how come demons were once humanity's guardian's and suddenly became entities to tempt them and send them to hell? What changed exactly?
The female rivalry was also extremely annoying. It's such a tired concept, please. At least Gayoung got a redemption later. I think sometimes the drama makes the characters a bit dumb just to propel the plot forward. Dohee gets multiple attempts on her life, and she still walks around alone just so the culprit can get to her. But, honestly, these negative points are, mostly, minor things and didn't damage my experience much.
Also, can I just say, Seokhoon is a cutie and I'd totally watch a drama where he's the male lead! If the story was about him and Dohee I'd have liked it just the same. At least he got a good ending. The endings in general are very satisfying, I think. So this drama is definitely a big recommendation to everyone!
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Finally a fantasy drama that doesn't forget about the "fantasy" part
Finally writing this after rewatching the show and I can say it's just as good as I remembered. W stands out to me because it's probably the only fantasy/romance drama that actually develops the plot in a satisfying way, since most of the time the fantasy element only works as a set up or to make the romance a little more interesting, but it's not properly explored. So, as a fantasy fan, I was delighted, but not without some criticism.The plot is very original and quite gripping. Who hasn't thought of entering the world of a beloved book or movie, being able to interact with their favorite characters? But I like that in this drama, this encounter is portrayed not as just fun and games, but the fl also gets into a lot of trouble because of it. The writers do a good job in building the suspense, making you anticipate every episode. There's also some good action scenes and the worldbuilding is pretty great, although there's a point where things get a bit messy. They start to create so many rules regarding the manhwa and how the other world works it feels like they are taking things out of a hat. There's also some minor plotholes, however they didn't bother me that much.
Even though I really enjoy the plot of this drama, I have to say the romance was kinda meh. Since they spend so much time developing the fantastic story, the romance is left aside and it's honestly hard to believe the two leads would love each other so much, specially Kang Cheol, when they had almost no proper establishment of their romantic feelings. The leads also lack chemistry in some scenes because the acting on both parts is simply unconvincing and comes across as very artificial. I love Lee Jong Suk but damn, it almost felt like he was being held at gunpoint in certain fluffy parts.
Outside of that, Lee Jong Suk has a very consistant acting. At first I was a bit bothered that his character seemed so perfect, but in the context of the drama that makes perfect sense, considering he was a fictional character created to be that way. I was actually quite pleased that Kang Cheol showed his intelligence many times, cause in some dramas the ml is only said to be smart but never shows us that. His arc is interesting, a simple fictional character that develops a will and conscience and tries to break free from his pre-determined fate. Yeon Joo on the other hand is very annoying. It enrages me this habit that Kdrama writers have of making the fl always inferior, even if they have a prestigious job they're not actually good at it, just like with Yeon Joo. She's a doctor but she's not really that good of a doctor, like c'mon! She doesn't need to be a genius, but being as dumb as she is she would've never graduated med school in the first place. The way she just stares like a gawking fish in most situations is pathetic.
Sung Moo, though, really deserves some attention. He had the best arc by far, and the actor who played him did a fantastic job in conveying every emotion, I think he even stole the show from the protagonists at some points. The soundtrack is nothing special, though.
All things considered, I think every fantasy lover and people who prefer a more plot-focused story will like W, just don't go into this expecting an unforgettable love story or anything of the sort.
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This review may contain spoilers
Honestly, I have mixed feelings about this show. I started watching it as soon as it was released, then put it on hold and got back to watching it. I almost dropped it once or twice and was going to rate it lower, but I finally gathered the will to finish it and got really conflicted oh what score to give it, and from now on I'm going to try and explain why.The best part of this show for me was when Hong Jo was discovering new things and trying to figure out how to act like a human, it was cute to watch. But after that, specially regarding the middle section of this drama, I felt like I had nothing to hold on to in order to keep me interested. I know the writers tried to push this romance between Sol Ah and Hong Jo, but their relationship felt more like the one of a pet and its owner than of one of lovers, making their "romantic" scenes together awkward to see. Perhaps it would've been better if Hong Jo was a human who could turn into a cat and not the other way around. I honestly never have second lead syndrome, but with this show I was kind of hoping Sol Ah would end up with Jae Son, maybe because he was also one of the characters with the most development through it.
The saving grace of this drama for me was the bittersweet tone in the last few chapters, so much so that I'd rather they kept the ending with the same tone than just pulling a happy ending out of nowhere like they did. They also explored some interesting themes such as the importance of treasuring your moments with your loved ones because some day you might run out of time to do so. The OST was very good, too, with songs that worked well to set the mood for the scenes.
The acting was nothing special, the male leads lacked some emotional range, too. Even so, as I stated before, Jae Son started annoying but grew a lot, becoming one of my favorite characters. Doo Sik was good enough. Ji Eun was a true waste of screen time, though. I honestly don't blame her co-workers for thinking their boss (who was kind of a bitch, by the way) was favoring her since Ji Eun couldn't even communicate in her work environment. She was truly pathetic and even though in the very end it shows she had changed, it all happened off screen so it wasn't rewarding at all to see. Sol Ah is ok for the most part, but she was so quick to jump to conclusions just for the sake of keeping the plot going, it was infuriating. And towards the end she also makes extremely rash decisions like quitting her stable job and turning important oportunities down, it was almost like she was brain-dead.
The plot is very weak. We didn't get any explanations whatsoever, like why did Hong Jo turn into a human in the first place? Can all cats do that or is it just some special ones? Also, the whole subplot of that crazy cat lover was extremely irrelevant and one of the most stupid things I've witnessed, it was super cartoonish the second time around, too.
All things considered, it's not bad. I still don't know if I like this show or not, despite everything it still gave me some warm feelings, so if you're an animal lover like me, you can give it a try and form your own conclusions.
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It has its ups and downs
Like most dramas, I think this show starts out strong, but looses momentum as it continues. There's definitely some pacing issues towards the end and the second half becomes draggy and kinda boring. I just don't know if this show needed 20 episodes. Some conflicts take too long to be resolved, while others get a solution out of nowhere.The story mainly focus on the characters and plot development, while the main couple takes a backseat role most of the time, specially as the drama goes on, but this becomes a problem since the plot starts to show some holes and inconsistencies. Certain choices and circumstances just don't make sense or go completely unexplained whatsoever. The last episode had an interesting tone, but I was disappointed with how everything turned out.
Despite the flaws, this drama has good elements and interesting moments. First I think the acting is pretty good overall and I really think the fl looks convincing as a man, unlike other historical dramas with a gender-bender trope. The main couple has chemistry, even if not explored to the fullest and some moments between them feel a bit underwhelming, but they're still cute together.
Although The King's Affection has a lot of tropes that have been done already, they stil work since they're well executed (mostly in the beginning). I specially liked to see how being forced to pretend to be a man influenced Dami's personality and that she was just as smart and strong as the other man around her.
All in all, this drama has potential but some parts are harder to stomach, mainly for being boring. I enjoyed watching most of the time, but it's definitely not a show that left a strong impression on me, I'd recommend you to give a try if you like lighter historical dramas and has some time to spare.
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This review may contain spoilers
Yangmyeong was the real MVP and y'all did him dirty
So, another drama that was really difficult to rate for me. I don't think it's as bad as most top reviews make it out to be, but it's also not nearly as good as it could have been.The beginning was promising and it wasn't really a difficult drama to finish, but the quality definitely drops in the second half of this drama. The main couple becomes particularly annoying, which is sad cause I really liked them initially, but in the end I only finished the drama to know how everything would unfold.
Honestly it really enraged me how Cheon Gi kept making up excuses for Ha Ram, like I know it's not his fault but the dude is still a menace to everyone around him and he tried to kill her multiple times whe he was posessed by Ma Wang. He should totally be imprisoned but somehow Cheon Gi acted like Yangmyeong was some sort of monster when he tried to do that. It's like when any minimal thing happened to Ha Ram and he was separated from Cheon Gi she suddenly could not produce one rational thought anymore and just started crying pathetically. Her only redeeming quality by the end is that she was still determined to finish the King's portrait, even if it was just to save her boyfriend.
One of the main gripes I had with most of the characters (main couple and the other painters from the academy) is that they were against Cheon Gi painting the King's portrait because something bad MIGHT happen to her but none of them really took into consideration that if the demon was not sealed in the painting it would cause havoc everywhere it went and nobody would be able to stop it. Like, they're supposed to be the good guys, but they can't even think about all the innocents that would die and how the country would've been thrown into chaos if the portrait was not finished. This is about the greater good people, seriously, that was so irritating.
The ML was a very difficult character to root for as well. From the beginning he was more of a sinister character, since he just cared about his revenge (even executing it against innocents like hello, Yangmyeong was a child when that happened) and not really caring about the consequences of his acts. Even then I was at least intrigued cause I thought it was a different approach to a male protagonist, but later he becomes even more insufferable as he seems to only care about the female lead and makes stupid decisions because of it.
So basically that's why I kept watching mainly for one chracter: Yangmyeong. He seemed to be the only one with some common sense and who put the wellbeing of the nation and the people first, fighting to complete the Sealing Ceremony and basically saving everyone's lives by doing so. I even think his character was underused towards the end, but he was still one of the best. Damn, how I wish he was the first lead. So I don't think I even have to comment on the epilogue, my boy deserved so much more.
The last character I want to talk about is Sam Sim. She was such an useless old hag lmao. Honestly I couldn't tell if she was trying to help or to be a nuisance. Everything could've been much batter if she intervened when everybody needed her. Like why did she have to wait until Ma Wang got his eyes back to try to stop him during the Sealing Ceremoy????
Although the story was interesting and gripping, it still was full of plot facilitations, holes and they simply kept creating more rules that mostly made no sense or contradicted things stablished previously. It's like the writers just straight up forgot certain characters existed, too.
The CGI was kinda bad but that was to be expected. The OST was good and the acting was pretty good as well, except that the male lead couldn't really act blind. The romance could've been much better if they werent' so annoying and if it was developed properly. I understand they were like soulmates, but I really think the show lacked scenes of them bonding or getting to know each other better.
Overall I did have fun and managed to finish this drama pretty quickly, but honestly I don't know if it's worth a recommendation as it's pretty forgettable and has quite some issues. Some might think my rating is a bit high for this show, but I just don't feel passionately about it to rate it lower to be frank.
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