Found footage horror genre is not an easy one to execute well. There are many mistakes that can be made, and this movie avoided almost all of them.

The premise of the plot is quite simple: a group of young adults goes to a haunted location to film some spooky stuff and things go wrong. To sell such a story and make it believable you need few elements.

REASON
Why these people and that specific location? Here we have Ha Joon being the "captain" of the ghost hunting team bringing a group of selected people into one of the top 7 scariest places. It's not hard to believe that a group of haunted houses and ghost enthusiasts would sign up to go to such a location, especially since money was also involved. This setting makes it easier for us to believe this story could happen. There are plenty of youtubers doing just that.

CAST
The chemistry between the characters was amazing. While some people might say that the beginning part was boring and a bit too long, I'd like to say it was necessary. We got to know what are the dynamics between different characters, their motivation and style of acting and communicating. All the characters were relatable and easy to like which made the stakes much higher. I wanted them to survive.

That said, making a horror movie believable in the style of Blair Witch Project and using actors' names for the characters works only if the actors are not well known. Here it did not make much sense. I see no reasons why the fictional characters did not get original names since it's not like the writing, nor a production team really wanted to play on that "believability" aspect like it happened with BWP.

ENDING
Why no one searched for the kids? Why no one was concerned with what was going on? Why did none of the viewers call the police as they were watching? All of those questions have been answered in a simple yet quite clever way in one of the last scenes in the tent. Since they used a "live broadcast" as a way to showcase the found footage trope, I was afraid it would be hard to give it a reasonable ending, yet the writer and director made it work.

Overall, it was a nice horror movie. There were quite a few moments that made me scared. It wasn't heavy on cheap jump-scares, but instead they created a nice atmosphere and did a good job of playing with the different lights and shadows to make a viewer question if they saw something or not. While some scenes at the ending were unnecessary for me, and cheapened the movie a bit, I still believe it was a watch worth my time.

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There is not much to say, except for a fun ad. Visually great, as expected - they wanted to show off how amazing the camera on that phone is.

The story itself was surprisingly solid. Silly, leading more to comedy than horror, but still decent in both writing and presentation. It’s also refreshing to see a morally questionable character in the main role. The acting was also fine, no major complaints.

The concept itself was great and personally, I think it’s worth a full length movie. There is so much that can be done with it with more screen time, good script writer and decent budget.

Overall, for an ad, really good.

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Asian horror movies creators have to start using their imagination a bit more. How many times can we get horror about the vengeful spirit of a woman that was either betrayed or abused and then died in an unjust way? Too many movies are more or less a copy paste of the same story with few details changed, and this one is no different.

You can still have a fun horror movie even with a basic story, sadly the writing here was just not that strong. They did not really establish anything. One hour into the film I still did not get all the characters' motivations. Why was the female lead even assuming there were any issues with the paintings? Why did she think from the start they were haunted? It’s not like they can give me exciting plot twists with such a basic set up, so why not just explain it from the start?

Thing that frustrated me the most about Cracked was how they played ominous music for random and normal moments. A woman is standing in the background? Cue the scary sounds… She did nothing. There was no real foreshadowing. Nothing.

Also, that ending? I don’t know how I feel about it. Kind of makes me annoyed knowing the full story.

Not all was bad. It had quite a few fun visual moments. They even used the kid to deliver some eerie body horror. Last 30 minutes were just comedy. There was one scene that almost made me cry from laughing. I just did not see that coming at all. Acting was also good. Compliments go to Nina - with kid actors it's either hit or miss, and I think she did quite a good job here.

Overall, decent. It made me question “why” a lot of things were happening a few too many times, but overall, even if I was not that satisfied with the ending, it did give a closure to more or less everything they introduced.

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Well written piece on rangers and poorly executed thriller mystery.

The drama did a lot of things well, but failed in a similar number. The plots surrounding the daily work and the challenges of rangers, the team bonding - all done in an excellent manner that made me care about these characters and their struggles. On the other hand, the whole supernatural murder mystery was so mediocre and poorly written, I am surprised it came from the same author as Signal.

What was the problem with the mystery? Starting from the bad pacing - sometimes we had a whole episode focusing on the case, sometimes it was completely overshadowed by other issues and not addressed at all. It never felt like a big part of the overall plot, never made me curious what the truth is behind the past events, nor who the killer is. By the end, when the story was finally explained, all I could think was: ok. It’s not like with the revelation of the murderer everything in the plot clicked into the right place, all hints made a complete picture. We were told close to nothing during the show, so the end fell flat.

What I enjoyed about the drama were the characters. Seo Yi Kang is for sure one of the more exciting characters to watch. Her determination and skill set made me want to root for her. Not to mention her amazing chemistry with Kang Hyun Jo. Being on the subject of the characters, Hyun Jo was such a waste of Joo Ji Hoon’s talent. He barely felt like a supporting character.

That said, the show was carried on the backs of the supporting cast. For me, the fun part has been to watch the rangers just do their work, bicker and interact with each other as they perform their duties. What I find curious - with the majority of the rangers being male, the writer decided to kill the few female rangers we were able to see.

The performance that stood out the most to me was Oh Jung Se’s portrayal of Jung Goo Young. The only storyline that truly made me feel sad, the only character I wanted to see happy, the only part of the plot that I was able to connect to on a deeper level. Yes, I had fun watching others too, but the depth of emotions they were able to evoke in me never got even close to Oh Jung Se.

Production value was obviously high. The shots of the mountain were breathtaking and a true feast for the eyes. Some initial CGI and green screen were questionable, but the use of special effects was better executed later on. Is the show being beautiful enough, though? Technically speaking, I can search for YouTube videos of the mountains and get a similar experience.

Overall, I feel like Jirisan ended on a disappointing note. It did not mix well the realistic approach of the rangers’ experience with a serial killer on the loose supernatural plot. I don’t even want to think about Disney ending with everyone being cured of whatever problem they had.

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Interesting take on a typical procedural crime show.

In all honesty, I had a hard time getting into this drama. The first 3 episodes seemed like a retelling of the same old crime stories we have seen in many shows, with details and settings changed here and there. But as the plot progressed, and we got more puzzle pieces about what was truly happening, that's when I got invested.

In 8 episodes, the show was able to tell an interesting tale on humans' motivations, desperation, morality and despair. Why do we do what we do? What are the lasting consequences of our actions? How can our good intention turn into tragedy that, at times, is impossible to fix? How twisted one's mind can be.

The majority of the characters started quite unlikeable. They are morally gray - driven by their own agendas, showing how much of a hypocrite they can be. And yet, as the drama progresses, I ended up appreciating their flaws, which made them more relatable and real. Not to mention a rare case of getting a lead with Asperger, presented in a realistic way. Oftentimes dramas present people with Asperger as either incapable of living a successful life, or having extremely specialized skills on a level unobtainable by the general public (basically making them savants) - making the Asperger the core characteristic of the person. Glad it's not the case here.

The Victims' Game was also visually stunning. Granted, it might be too much for people who don't like gore, as they don't shy away from gruesome images of the corpses. The set design was perfect, and I truly appreciate how much work has been put into making it reflect reality in a great detail.

Each episode ends with behind the scene footage explaining the process of creating the drama. It shows how each cast member, writer, director and staff truly treated the story with care and tried to present the best possible result, with the help of many professionals from various fields of work.

The last episode was truly cherry on top, and became one of my favorite conclusions to any show ever. In my eyes, it was truly a perfectly directed and written ending for the series.

Overall, as long as you survive the first few episodes, and start to see the big picture, you will most likely love it. Surprisingly, I believe this show would be even more enjoyable as a rewatch. Knowing the full story would allow me to appreciate the individual episodes more.

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Not interesting enough for the frustration it caused. So what to do when it picks up only in the last 6 episodes?

Truth to be told, I had it in my dropped list for a good year before I decided to give it another shot. Why did I drop it in the first place? I did not care about any of the characters. Sadly, till the end, none of the main heroes/antiheroes convinced me to root for them. The true stars and scene stealers for me were: Sun Min Shik, Lee Jae Joon, Jung Ui Shik and Oh Jung Hee, while both Na Yi Ji and Han So Geum felt like undercooked ramyeon with no spice. They were boring, while the other characters were simply fun to watch them redeem themselves or at least bring some dynamics on the screen. I wish the final team formed earlier, because the interactions between them were the highlight of each episode.

How about the plot? Good-ish. The setting of the revenge was quite new. It's still revolving heavily on the good old "fighting for the company" trope, but since they introduced the prison as a framework for the plot to unfold in, it was more refreshing to follow. Too bad the plot was not consistent in these small details. For example, when needed, the recordings from CCTV were important, other times no one cared for them to be seen. These little things build credibility and give the plot a more realistic feel.

What's more, I have one minor complaint about directing and editing that stood out for me in a quite negative way. So Geum flipped people through her back and it annoyed me. First time it was fun, and the rotation of the camera was a clever trick. Sadly, they repeated it a few times and it lost its charm. If you want to present her as a strong woman who can defend herself, give her some other moves. It's as if she practiced this one move for years in self-defense classes. Lady, this is not enough... show me some punches, twisting arms, breaking legs...

What was the OST again? I cannot remember one song from it... I guess it means they were not that memorable. That said, I loved the peeping sound at the end of the episodes. It got me a bit excited for what was coming in the next one.

Overall, it's a fun revenge story, with two main "good guys" being its weakest part.

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Gwan Hee being the source of entertainment for all.

This was easily the best season of the show. All the changes made in terms of production were spot on - from how the Inferno works, how many times they were going to Paradise, the casting of contestants, the MCs. Great combination for the entertaining watch.

For the cast, you might hate Gwan Hee, you might love Gwan Hee, but it's undeniable he took the girls, the MCs and all of us on a rollercoaster journey of emotions. His whole arc presents like a kdrama plot with decent character development. This old, yet I truly believe he is a child at heart (and maybe the brain lol). Easily emotionally moved, not knowing himself well, egocentric (at times I truly thought it's not like he deliberately was ignoring what others might feel, he simply could not understand and comprehend any other than his own point of view). And yes... I could not hate him. I was frustrated to the core, but he still won my heart.

Realistically speaking, the only truly good guy and the right choice was Choi Min Woo. The most mature, the most honest and straightforward, but in a pleasant manner. Did not pay that much attention to him at first, but by the end, I just wanted him to be happy.

For the girl, two that I ended up loving were Yun Hajeong and Yu Sieun. Hajeong was just a ball of positive energy and amazing humor. Personally, I enjoyed her interactions and relationships/friendships with all contestants. On the other hand Yu Sieun had this good and pure image that felt natural and peaceful. Could just had to root for her.

There were some contestants I could not vibe with by the end: Hanbin, Jinseok and Gyuri. I just honestly have no idea what Hanbin was doing there (I mean I know, the show is great for self-promotion), Jinseok just confused me a lot closer to the end and Gyuri was legit scary.

Another great aspect of the show was the addition of Dex as one of the MCs. He blended perfectly with the previous ones, creating fun chemistry on screen. He also added a new perspective of someone who himself was part of the previous season and knew how it might affect the participants.

Overall, loved it. First season was fun, because it was something new for me. Second was a complete mess, and this one is juts entertaining blessing.

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Nothing better than starting a movie with a heavy “newspaper” exposition :sarcasm:.

They honestly could not decide if they wanted to be a low budget silly horror or a deep social commentary about the overworked hospital staff and dealing with grief. At the end, everything was just cheap and meaningless and not one plot line was explored nor explained.

Saying the movie is based on a true story is a stretch of its own. Xinglin Hospital did not close down because of an unexplained surge in suicides and people setting themselves on fire. Fraudulent records, medical malpractice, and allegations of wrongful death - typical case of poorly run hospital with overworked staff. They could not deal with legal issues with fragmented ownership over the place, hence they closed it down. Not as frightening as what we saw in the movie.

The plot was sadly not the only weak part of the movie. I always say: if you can’t make good special effects, give up and try to work around it. I’m truly tired of seeing ghost creepy snapchat filters in horror movies.

What’s good? All the scenes that did not have any special effects in them were truly pretty, shot in a nice way, with nicely balanced colors. The acting was also decent. Nothing to be amazed by, but also nothing to complain about.

Overall, it’s just not worth it.

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Noble intentions with lackluster execution.

Is tackling important issues enough to praise a drama? For me, no. The more serious topic we want to discuss, the more work and care should be put into creating the content.

Online bullying and harassment is dangerous, mostly because of two reasons: anonymity takes away responsibility, so people are not afraid to exaggerate their negative opinions, and lack of insight into the effects it has on the victim.

The show tried to convince me, it’s just a bunch of normal teenagers who made countless mistakes, because they were not aware of the negative impact their online behavior had. But it was not true. The Comments mixed online and off-line bullying, clearly showing these kids were aware of their actions, they just did not care about the victims.

The victims themselves were not exactly good people either, barely managed to be called gray, with the majority of them committing criminal acts and bullying others themselves. It made it impossible to connect to them on any emotional level.

The show completely missed the mark by the end, mixing different issues and situations that affected the main cast. Was it online bullying? Was it just bullying? Was it family problems? Was it depression? It never tried to show a full picture, but rather put the whole blame on one aspect. They were aware of the complexity, but they tried to direct our attention to just one thing.

That said, The Comments had quite a number of positive aspects. The cast did quite a good job in portraying the characters. Aye showed a whole range of emotions from happiness through the confusion, ending or anger and sadness.

The production value was also nice. They found quite a few ways of showing us the online activity, some emotional scenes were well accompanied with beautiful aesthetics.

Overall, I appreciate the effort, but I wish they tried a bit more to create a cohesive picture that well presents the dangers of the online world.

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Train was a nice crime show with a twist of parallel universes. How many times can we watch serial killer killing and detectives trying to find them, before it gets boring? Adding sci-fi elements to the equation, Train stood out among other crime shows, at least in terms of the concept.

It’s a quite fast paced thrill that will keep you engaged till the last episode. Perfect for a binge watch. The writer plays the differences between characters and their relationship in the two parallel universes well, making me interested in their future encounters and the results of them.

While in most cases I complain that the shows are too long and drag, here I would not mind additional 2 episodes, that could be used to ease me into the story and who the characters are. They hit you with some emotional dialogues and scenes at the beginning, but it’s hard to feel anything, when you don’t yet know and connect to the characters.

What’s more, I do believe the writer and director did not use this unique idea to its full potential. At the end of the day, it felt a bit too much like a normal crime show, where the investigation is tough, because they cannot find all the bodies. The parallel universes idea was not as prominent as I wish it could have been.

It’s hard for me to comment on the acting, since I believe many of the characters were simply miscast. While I adore Yoon Shi Yoon in many of his roles, I did not buy his portrayal of Do Won. Same goes for Kyung Soo Jin and Lee Hang Na. Both talented actresses, for me they just did not fit the roles in this show.

Overall, it’s an interesting plot driven story that escalates quickly and does not slow down till the end. While the show is not a groundbreaking masterpiece, it’s for sure a solid form of entertainment. It builds on the idea of the butterfly effect, where one choice can greatly affect not only your future, but also people around you.

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How short horror movies should be made - a perfect depiction of a passing moment in time.

As someone who hates math, this scenario truly felt like a nightmare. Don't know what was scarier - the dead bodies or the numbers on the paper. It also serves as a good representation of the emotional and psychological pressure Korean students need to face in terms of their education - each score might seem like a life or death situation.

The quality of the practical effects was amazing. We see so much poorly done CGI in horror movies in recent years, it's refreshing to see a well done gore in A Function.

It's definitely one of the best short horror movies I have seen. Highly recommend to everyone, as long as you can handle some gore.

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Basic procedural drama.

I would be lying if I said this drama aged well. It’s nothing less, nothing more than a mix of CSI, Criminal Minds and Dr House - one case by episode with little complexity to the story.

The ideas behind the cases were rather interesting, maybe I just prefer a bit more realistic approach. How many crimes related to rare diseases in such a short period of time happen in a small country like Korea?

While the acting was good, the characters themselves were rather poorly written - there wasn’t much to them. Till the end of the show I knew little about a few team members. Even the main characters had not much to offer. Not to mention the weird out of a blue romantic twist at the end - the chemistry was not that throughout the show.

The editing and camera work are dated. It’s truly all done in the style of the old crime shows, but that was given, taking into consideration the drama aired in 2010. I did not mind the old style production aspect, they had a sentimental value for me.
Since the show focuses on rare diseases, it’s inevitable to include some medical jargon. In more modern shows, all the essential information is usually presented in small text boxes - here, they were part of the dialogues - I am not the biggest fan of that approach. The scenes did not flow well when I kept getting Wikipedia quotes all the time.

Overall, I watched the last few episodes at 1.5x and 2x speed. If the show was longer, I would probably drop it. It might have been a masterpiece in 2010, but it does not hold up for 2021 standards.

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Gold quality of tropes and clichés.

Many of us like to say we are done with cold misunderstood male leads and naive and nice female leads, but that’s all a big fat lie. We all just hate when it’s done in a trash way. Koi wa Tsuzuku yo Doko Made mo brings us the best that rom-coms can offer, and I gladly, without any complaints, binge watched the whole show in one day.

Yes, Sakura is loud, all over the place and naive. She is also hardworking, pays attention to details and her patients and knows how to fight for what’s important to her.
Yes, Tendo is cold, mean and stoic. He is also cares for his patients, empathetic and driven. Both leads fit into the stereotypical rom-com characters, but represent more than that.

The chemistry between them was amazing. I enjoyed each and every scene they had together, and wished for more. 10 episodes are just not enough!

While the romance is the leading plot, I appreciated how they incorporated different stories in the mix. Yes, everyone gets paired up by the end, and the good old rule of “no one can stay single” exists here too, but I was not mad about it. I watched it for romance, so the more romance I’ve got, the happier I was.

Now, let's be shallow for a second - Sato Takeru is HOT. I mean damn. Could they get anyone better for the role? No. I died. Few times. My poor heart ain’t strong enough to handle him.

The acting was great. It’s truly hard to pull off a role like Sakura and not seem annoying - Kamishiraishi Mone made it happen. I loved the female lead and I was rooting for her during the whole show. I excused every dumb decision and embarrassing moment coz she was impossible for me to dislike and get annoyed or angry at.

The soundtrack is also a bop. All the songs. I wish they turned up the volume a bit though, coz at times I could barely hear the music in the background...

Any complaints? Not really. There are things that others might dislike, like: it’s over the top and amazingly unrealistic. Some rather serious scenes made me laugh a lot with how dramatically they were filmed and edited. There are some characters added ONLY to create some additional conflict, and bring nothing more to the table. And somehow, I liked these aspects too.

Overall, really good rom-com with great chemistry, likeable characters and a perfect amount of 2nd hand embarrassment.

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Comedy in its purest form, since a good 80% of the whole show were comedy bits and funny scenes, at times adding exactly nothing to the overall plot.

And with that, I would definitely recommend it to people who love shows and movies with comedy as their leading genre - it was funny even for someone like me, who is not exactly a comedy fan. The jokes were rather silly, and did not need much brain power to understand, but that’s exactly what we sometimes need.

Plot wise, I was slightly disappointed about the sandwich structure. The show opens with one plot, then the majority of the episodes focus on the crime mystery, to get back to the beginning plotline at the end. I would appreciate a bit more continuity - if they let Moo Young and Sun Ji investigate Moo Young's past more, as they try to solve other cases. Showing me a board with missing posters is not exactly enough. When I finally got the answers about Moo Young's story, it just did not feel connected to the previous episodes.

Big props to Choi Jin Hyuk for taking a risk and picking Zombie Detective as his project. Overexaggerated and slapstick comedy were not exactly themes anyone would associate with him, and it was hard to imagine him portraying a character like Moo Young. And yet, he truly did this role justice.

Sadly, while the acting was on point from the whole cast, some characters just felt redundant - the whole Sun Ji’s family could not exist and it would not change the plot much. Sung Rok and Wang Wey had any significance to the story only in the last act. Most of the characters outside of the mains and police were there just for the “empty” comedy bits.

Overall, I still had quite a good time, laughed a lot and do not regret watching it. The ending might have been a bit anticlimactic, but the journey made up for it.

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A short and fun piece that jabs at BL genre without going too deep into it.

The show is an easy watch - there is no meaningful message nor constructive criticism towards BLs. What we get are 2 hours of jokes based on the well known clichés. And it's honestly all we needed. Not every show needs to be this complex masterpiece - sometimes we need silly comedy to make our day better.

The characters are rather one dimensional, though that's kind of the point. Most are supposed to represent stereotypical BL characters we usually see. Only our main lead acts outside of this BL norm, which brings lots of hilarious scenes on the screen.

The simplicity is actually the charm here. The characters are simple, the plot is simple, the jokes are simple - and it all fits well. I laughed quite a lot of times - Mob's reactions to his surroundings were just too funny to keep a straight face.

Overall, as long as you don't expect anything more than a silly comedy with funny jokes, you will like it. Granted, this is a show dedicated to BL fans - the jokes will fall flat for people who know little about this genre.

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