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What a lovable mess this show is.
I don’t think I have any brain cells left to write this review, but at least I’m truly happy. I’m not even sure my brain can grasp what I have just watched.This drama is a pure form of entertainment. Name a trope, and you will find it here: hidden identity, crossdressing, male lead going from borderline psychopath to cute lovely sweet boy with the power of love, poisoning, double poisoning, fake identities, making masks from human faces, crucifying people on torture devices, raping girls on the wedding night (which was amazingly called "doing the nasty" in the show), almost biting someone's lips off... and there is more.
I love the separate cases the main leads dealt with, BUT the main plot that unfolded as the drama progressed was weak. I truly couldn't care less about all the past events. Maybe if it was shown as more of a vital part of the drama itself, I would be more engaged.
Our main leads were truly an amazing duo. After we got past Lu Yi abusing his position to abuse Jin Xia (dude literally kicking her injured leg at the beginning episodes) the romance became truly adorable. Enemies to lovers is one of my favorite tropes, but the fact they made it into "enemies to lovers to enemies to lovers" just made me laugh my ass off.
That said, Jin Xia was an awesome character. She was smart, driven, hardworking, brave (when the situation needed it), forgiving but also funny and a bit over the top. I could not stop smiling whenever she was on the screen. She is just one of the characters that make you happy as you watch them grow.
I also appreciate the fact that the 2nd lead was so useless and annoying. Xie Xiao made the watch so much easier for me. No need to fear SLS. It won't happen.
I wished we saw more of Yan Shi Fan. I wanted to see more of his behind the scene schemes. There was something about how he dealt with things and interacted with people that made me more curious and interested, but I didn't get enough. I mean, the drama went into some details about his character. For example, I know he has a foot fetish: 6.6 inches is the best length. I just wished he was more integral to the story in the first half. Sometimes he was completely gone for a few episodes which made him less scary and imposing.
That said, the whole cast did a great job with the acting. Nothing felt over the top. The emotions were clearly visible and fitting for the scenes. I definitely felt the chemistry between all the characters and couples.
Objectively speaking, though, I should not rate it higher than 5. Some plot lines were just lazy. Whole Chun Yu Min story is questionable at best. Some directing choices were ridiculous. The underwater scenes (which also made me call the show "underwater wuxia") were iconic bad. This is CGI level -100. The weird close ups on characters' eyes were more often than not, too much and made me feel uncomfortable.
But... the show is what it is. It was crazy fun. I did not laugh so bad for ages. Binge watched it in a few days. Once I started watching, I could not stop. The entertainment value is as high as it can get. And for that, I don't feel bad about giving it 7.5. Not to mention, the opening soundtrack is beautiful.
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I just couldn't comprehend how stupid the characters were. They were making dumb decisions for the sake of plot and I could not take it. While in the second half I could excuse the wife and her odd behavior, her decisions in the first 30 minutes have no explanation. Min Ho was not better, probably worse. He knew his wife's condition, and mother's dementia. He was literally asking for trouble when he ignored the problem in the first place.
Last 30 minutes? Literally comedy. I did not laugh so bad in quite some time. Especially one mirror scene - it was gold. The intent was probably to scare me, but ain't with stuff like that. They just... went too far. I always say it with horrors: sometimes showing less is more.
The acting was really good. Especially impressed with Shin Rin Ah's performance. Truly chilling. I mean, it's not that hard to make kids seem creepy, but she was especially good at it.
The movie was shot in a beautiful way. Some editing could have been better, especially closer to the ending, but all in all the quality of the production was good.
Overall, the movie felt lazy. The idea behind it was entertaining and interesting, since I adore all the horror folklore based movies, but the presentation was quite... messy. And I don't even want to talk about that ending.
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The story of how a sense of support can give you a ray of hope for better tomorrow and strength to work your way up. Overcoming the struggles, accepting defeat and putting it behind you so you can move forward. Welcoming someone into your world and heart and being able to say goodbye. This movie has quite a lot of truly emotional messages wrapped in a nice, simple storyline with a big heart.
The acting was amazing. Jo Jung Suk has this ability to make me hate his character with my whole heart at first, to later make me love and adore him. Doo Sik's treatment of Doo Young at the beginning got my blood boiling, but the gradual and solid character development done with his character made me care for him far more than I expected.
Do Kyung Soo's scene after the final match broke me for a few good minutes. It amazes me how natural he is with the craft of acting. Kim Kang Hyun's character was a lighter touch to the story, perfectly balancing the comedy and drama. Even Park Shin Hye did a good job, portraying a coach who is not willing to give up on Doo Young.
Overall, I didn't expect to like it that much, but I truly fell for its charm and the well written characters. The portrayal of mental struggle after facing a tragedy was done in a realistic way that made me feel the pain the characters' were showing. Rather than painfully sad, it's a touching story that will make you cry your eyes off, but won't leave you in a depressive mood.
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The greatest thing about this drama is how small the cast is and how natural and well built are the interactions between everyone. We only have three characters in the special missing person team: Soo Hyeon, Dae Yeong and Seo Jun and it makes perfect sense. Special team that has to be mobile while they take cases from many different places, why would there be more people? With high profile cases like the ones they dealt with, they would simply work with local police if they needed back up.
I truly enjoyed the set up. The dynamics between the characters were good - every one of them had a distinctive but realistic personality and they all played off of each other well. I also want to praise Seon Jun’s character. They could have easily made her hacker and nothing more. The girl has a brain of her own though. She does not just wait to “google” whatever the detectives ask her, she does the investigation too and helps solve cases.
Sadly, in my opinion, there were some mistakes made in the planning. The first case the group has taken was so amazing, interesting and attention grabbing, all the rest felt a bit flat. From Kang Ha Neul’s performance, to the “saw” like setting of the crime scenes, up to the mind games and plot twists - everything was perfect. All the rest though...they were still good, but nowhere near as good as the first one.
The writers also strongly hinted at a big mystery around Soo Hyeon, but as the drama progressed, we got barely any new information about it, and the attention to it was brought back only around episode 7. It was never properly explained nor concluded. You could say this plot hole was deeper than the Mariana Trench. It would be far better if we got some small hints here and there. I felt like the writers forgot about the subplot they themselves introduced.
Concerning that plot line, the writers could have played a bit more into the forming relationship and trust issues between Soo Hyeon and Dae Yeong. The culmination of the “bonding” was not as impactful as it could have been and how they dealt with the aftermath was quite poor.
Even with some of the flaws I saw in the drama, I still would say it’s a show worth checking out. The overall plot was well paced, the cases seemed realistic (for the Korean crime shows), most of them had nicely planned plot twists, some more, some less predictable. The production value was fine, some typical crime show mistakes like looking for clues in a room with really dark sunglasses on (sure he saw a lot with them on), but not big enough to make anyone frustrated, annoyed and angry.
That ending though… it was something else.
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The movie drops us into the plot from both the introduction scene and the first scene with our female lead. We have no time to adjust to the creepiness of it. The anxious feeling increases with every scene shot in that small apartment, making the viewer feel paranoid and claustrophobic.
Kyung Min is not exactly the smartest character ever. She makes many mistakes and jumps to conclusions too fast, but wouldn't that make her more relatable and realistic? That said, the lack of either fight or flight response in some scenes was quite frustrating to watch.
My biggest complain character wise: how lazy and dumb the detective was. The conclusions he came up with made no sense taking into consideration circumstances.
Plot wise, there were few moments that surprised me, small twists I did not see coming. I kept questioning and guessing who the mysterious man is, and always failed with my predictions, every character fitted the creep quite well.
Overall, it was quite an enjoyable movie. The pacing was good, though some work related scenes were not necessary since they did not bring anything new either character or plot wise. Adding some more sequences of the man "intruding" would be better, since these were the most atmospheric and well shot.
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The chemistry between the whole cast was amazing. Not only the romance felt real, but all the interactions between the rest of the characters were realistic and well portrayed.
It's a well written story about love, finding self worth, emotional manipulation and overcoming a trauma. I'm extremely glad I did not read the synopsis, so when it was relieved, Gi Tae is also a gang member, I was honestly surprised and did not see that coming. With the innocent and pure aura Yeon Seung Ho gives off, I could not even imagine him working in such a profession.
With a plot like that, it's easy to make it seem cheap or over the top and way too dramatic than necessary, yet here, it was executed perfectly. I never felt that the situation the main characters are in is ridiculous and unrealistic. Because the whole story was kept local, with a small cast of the characters, it seemed simply believable.
Overall, I am quite surprised I enjoyed the dramas as much as I did. The acting of emotional scenes from both main actors were done in an outstanding way and I could feel the angst oozing from my screen.
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[ Haewa Dal ]
The best quality of this part is the amazing use of sounds and silence. While it does at times rely too heavily on jump scares, some scenes have built an amazing atmosphere with the use of strategically placed silence and slow motion. I was on the edge of my seat and wanted the scene to end because I felt all tense and needed to know what would happen. That's when they stretch it out with slow motion and ambient sounds. This setup was extremely effective.
What's more, I appreciate how the 2nd half of the story rather than going with supernatural horror, showed the true horror of reality and how terrifying people can be.
[ Fear Plane ]
I don't have much to say about this story. It was... boring. The idea itself was nice and it could be used to create an interesting thriller, it just did not work when framed as a horror story. The ending did not make much sense. Neither the human nor the supernatural aspect was scary.
[ Kongji, Patzzi ]
For such a short story there were simply too many elements and it couldn't end right. They should have picked either the rivalry between sister, the husband's story or the supernatural element and developed just one, but well... we can't always have what we ask for. The "scary" scenes were quite funny and ridiculous at times. Definitely overdone with how gruesome they were supposed to look.
[ Ambulance ]
Nothing worse than too much shaky camera in a zombie movie. The plot was as unoriginal as possible. The ending was extremely predictable from the beginning.
Overall, I believe they had nice ideas for all the short stories, but no direction at all. In all of them the human element was supposed to be the true horror. The ghosts and supernatural beings were there just for jump scares. The first story was directed the best, and I would recommend ending the watch on this one.
Since all the stories were directed by different people and plot wise have no connection to each other, we can easily treat them as short separate horror movies, instead of one production.
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The mood of the movie is all over the place. We start with horror and cheap jump scares. Then we move to the introduction of the characters which had a strong slice of life and high school romance feel. With few horror elements, it felt more like a psychological thriller or a story about a girl that cannot deal with a loss and pressure put on her. Then we get back to horror. To put it simply, I have no idea what the production team wanted to make out of it - an entertaining horror movie with jump scares? Psychological horror about losing a friend? Why even add hints of romance? There are also way too many plotlines about ghosts: the friend, owner of the amusement park, a girl from the beginning. At the end, none of them is explained and explored enough for me to care.
Any horror having a group of friends as the cast needs a good chemistry between the characters. This one failed to convince me they even like each other. They did not seem like friends and I could not understand why they would want to hang out together. They needed a group of stereotypical characters, but did not care to explain why and how such different people even connect and befriend each other.
The acting was mediocre and at times over the top. The characters were so poorly written I wanted them to die before they even got to that haunted location. The reason for them to go back to the amusement park was not well explained and built into the story. They showed one scene of Woo Sung doing a live show on the internet and it was supposed to be enough for the setting. It was not.
Overall, boring and messy. Definitely a waste of time.
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This review may contain spoilers
Wasted premise and the cast.
Honestly speaking, almost nothing worked out in this drama. The idea behind it was truly good, but it was never explored enough, not to mention contradicting messages. Your female lead cannot at the same time change her mind about the ML based on their past life, but also be firm about the past being just the past, and her not being the past version of herself (wording might be confusing, sorry).While the whole cast did a good job portraying the characters, there was no chemistry between them. I did not care about the main couple, I did not get second lead syndrome - they all just did not work well together to create some sparks on the screen.
One thing I definitely did like about the show though was the female lead. Out of all Hwang Jung Eum’s characters, this one was quite fun. While she made some dumb decisions, all characters in dramas do - It's inevitable.
Another thing that the drama did well was showcasing how marriage is not the only happy ending one can get, and not the only end for a couple that loves each other. Respecting each other’s individuality is an important part of a happy life too.
Sadly, the stakes for the present story were not that high. It’s hard to care about the broken romance between the main characters, when the thing they are trying to prevent is Hyun Joo getting sued. Compare it to death, torture and jail in their past life, it falls short. Not to mention the ridiculousness of Kim Seon Hee’s character. You just don’t try to get your daughter married to the reincarnation of your crush.
So many plot lines, all so boring. The conflicts and problems created for the main couple were truly not that hard to solve, which led me to rolling my eyes, when they made it into a bigger mess than it was.
Was the show beautifully shot? Was it pleasant to the eye? Yes, but at this point, this is a standard in kdramas and not enough to make drama good, interesting, entertaining and worth the watch.
The soundtrack was a rather generic rom-com style. I did enjoy Motte’s So Much Into You, which had a nice sweet sound to it, but that’s the only sound that caught my attention.
Overall, not really worth your time. The only reason I finished it was to find out how ridiculous the plot will be with the mediocre motivation from the villain.
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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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Production mess.
They have overdone it on an impressive level. From ever-changing concept and format to constantly changing rules and games - we had it all, and we had nothing.Being perfectly honest, there was only one episode I truly enjoyed from the beginning till the end - episode 9. All the rest felt extremely messy and not well planned. At some point I started skipping scenes, and just watching the games I was interested in.
The biggest flaw of the show was the lack of strong MCs. While both Lee Soo Geun and Jun Hyun Moo are amazing at leading the shows and games, I feel like they were not given the chance to shine. Most of the time they just felt like regular cast members, and with that there was no one to even try to control the chaos.
The idea behind the show was amazing - mixing psychological war with fun games to find the angel and not let the demons win the reward. For me, they did not dig deep enough into the mind games. Instead of allowing the players to walk around randomly talking to each other, there should have been some rules - exact time and place where you can meet the players to convince them, the chance given for the winning team etc. Sadly, it ended up with everyone just saying “I am an angel” and a guessing game.
Overall, skip this one. The physical games you will get from Running Man, the mind games were not explored and utilized to their full potential. I’d recommend watching episode 9 and, with that, saying goodbye to the show overall.
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If you look for realism, you won’t find it here. The plot is pushed to extremes at times, but it does fit the overall mood and story progression - I never felt like they were going so far just to shock the viewers, all the scenes seemed to match well together.
Surprisingly, with how grim the movie was at times, it left me quite happy and hopeful - we truly dealt with the pandemic way better in real life, compared to authorities in The Flu.
The whole cast did an amazing job portraying the characters - each representing a different reaction to an unexpected and dangerous event occurring. Different motivations led to different actions taken by them. The characters were smart and dumb in a realistic way, so even when they made mistakes, it was understandable.
If I had to complain about anything, I would say Kang Ji Goo was unreasonably heroic and the ending was not satisfying in one specific aspect.
Overall, it got my blood boiling. I was annoyed, but in a good way - I was supposed to be annoyed. Even though I wanted to throw my laptop out of the window, I still kept watching - it truly got me engaged. Would definitely recommend it, just remember: it’s not a realistic story.
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For someone who does not know anything about scientific methods, this would be a really good horror thriller focused on the dark side of humans and their desires, fears and obsessions, with the use of supernatural elements. It was well produced, the set design, costumes and the design for the ghost were truly nice and well prepared.
For anyone who knows a bit about scientific methods... it would be frustratingly dumb and unrealistic, and not because of the ghost and supernatural elements. Here's the thing: you cannot make the main characters people of science (I would call a person who finished medical school one) while making them conduct research as well planned and executed as flat earthers do. Writers should have either made the research more realistic (especially at the beginning, were Wee was not that obsessed and emotionally attached to it - hence he should have been more objective) or made main characters normal people who did not have much to do with science in the first place - then the poorly conducted experiments would make sense.
It was like watching people fight for who is going to get Darwin Award first - both deserve it equally. Since I was frustrated with the set up and the massively flawed and senseless research at the beginning, it was hard for me to connect to the characters and actually care about what will happen to them and how the movie would end.
Overall, if you either: don't know much about scientific method of research or are able to ignore that part of the plot and not put much value to it, you will most likely like it or even love it. Sadly for me, poorly done science done by people, who should know better, frustrates me to the core.
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Self-fulfilling prophecy
Whenever the producers and director of the show like it or not, they influence the end result a lot, and it makes the shows less entertaining to watch. With limited screen time, they have to decide who to show and for how long. Trainees who get more screen time at first get more popular. Because they are popular, the director and editing team adds even more scenes with them, which makes them even more popular - at the end of the day, they are the ones who will debut.⇢ Cast aka the contestants and mentors
I started the show for Lian Huaiwei. He was my favorite in season 3, so I wanted to check his “humble beginnings”. Surprisingly, the one that was the most entertaining was Lay. He was so unintentionally hilarious, it was hard not to like him. All the mentors did well. I could see they truly tried to help the trainees as much as it was possible.
For the contestants themselves… Only a few caught my attention, and it’s mostly because only a few got a fair amount of screen time. Watching the finale, I still did not remember the names of over a half of the trainees… I guess it says a lot.
⇢ Music aka the the performances
There were few performances I liked quite a lot, but for me, the buildup is quite important. I want to see them practicing the songs more, see the progress from the day one of forming a group, to the day they actually perform. Sadly, I did not get much of it.
⇢ Story aka the production
Let’s get real… they did not care that much about the international audience. They did not bother to translate into English the result boards, hence the only way I could find out who won in specific groups was based on the reactions of the trainees. Which is sad, because the competition is the core of the show… but I could not even follow the competition to the fullest because of the lack of translations.
Another thing that bothered me a lot were the volunteering and charity work bits. Don’t get me wrong, the idea was amazing, but it was wasted by adding it to the episodes themselves. It would be far better to make it a separate series like “Charity with Youth” or something like that, with full length episodes just showing the trainees work. By adding the bits to the episodes, the precious time that should be used on showing the teens working to achieve their dreams was wasted. With that, during the elimination, we weren’t even able to hear the thoughts of all the trainees that got to the next round.
What I liked though, was the addition of the Special mentors, who were able to promote the trainees to the next round, even if they did not get enough screen time. It’s fair to leave some space for the professional to “interfere”, since the production is not completely fair to all the trainees to gather the votes from the public.
Overall, I kind of had fun? I laughed quite a few times, even managed to cry here and there. I feel like I was just spoiled by season 3. Not only were there twice as many episodes, but also all the episodes were longer than the ones in season 1 - with that, I was able to get to know and get invested in the trainees and their journey far more.
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Entertaining controlled chaos.
The show was a really good way to get more accustomed to the trainees and get to know them better. Most episodes had a rather simple to follow 3 part structure: pre-game that allowed the trainees to gather clues about werewolves, werewolf game (which is basically mafia), and then the final game with two winners - everything portrayed in a specific setting (hence the costumes the guys were wearing).Not gonna lie, the werewolf/mafia game was my favorite part. I could easily just watch them play the game for one and half hours and it would be entertaining. Sometimes I was amazed how smart, intuitive or observant some of the trainees were, at times I was laughing on the floor because of their dumb mistakes.
The enjoyment of the show and the specific episodes might depend on how much you care and like specific trainees. I would be lying if I said I was equally entertained watching them all - sometimes I felt bored watching some scenes, in other episodes I was crying from laughing so hard and rewatching moments that made me almost die.
Overall, it was for sure fun. You can watch all the episodes, but if you are not that interested, just check the episodes with the trainees you like. Each episode has its own unique plot, so you don’t have to worry about not understanding anything if you skip one or two.
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