TeleriFerchNyfain
The premise sets up the whole show in the first episode - it's semi-serious but with some tongue in cheek at first, but then it just dissolves into fun LOL once our hero decides that diary is his!
Yoon Si Yoon just does this duality thing perfectly - his ability to morph into whatever movie psycho he finds useful to 'recall' his past as a 'predator' had me laughing through out. So smoothly done, the time perfect, lovely to watch! And the music fit the action as well.
Our REAL psychopath, again, very well acted indeed. Kudos to Park Sung Hoon for bringing this character to life, with his confused looks and hidden glee LOL The writers created a well-rounded character here, with motivations and weaknesses, rather than a pure evil, flat stock villain. We understood why he behaved the way he did, without sympathizing with him much (although his DADDY, well, enough to drive anyone to some kind of hell)
I loved our two wanna-be detectives - the lead girl did such a great job! That character showed lots of strength and resolve, while her partner was not just a foil for jokes but a fun character on his own merits.
I also loved the soft-hearted gangster LOL
Our little Victon boy Jung Su Bin did quite well in the few parts of the drama where his character had a main part. That made me smile :D
The plot moved along nicely, hit all the major issues & in the end resolved almost all of them, and managed to never change into some makjang mess in the middle - every time I thought it might, the writers turned the tables & amused me :D Someone in a review lamented this - but in fact it's a strong point of this drama - it is a COMEDY after all!!!!
I highly recommend this drama and I may actually put it on my rewatch list :D
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I enjoyed the tension between the two main leads as well. Our prosecutor learned a bit about thinking outside the box, & remembering that suspects have rights & stories ie are human.
I really do not understand why this didn't do better. It should have.
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I really have NO problems with complicated family trees - those who do might not like this. Also it IS a melodrama so if that bothers you don't watch this LOL
I say hats off to the Thai director/producers - I did not realize until half-way thru the drama that ALL the grandsons are actually members of a Thai Pop group (9x9)!!!! That says a lot about their acting talent overall in fact. I know one of them was in Love Sick so is a proven actor, but all of them did splendidly :D
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But I have been bothered more & more by Lee Ha Na - I always did like her but not so much now. This really became obvious as I watched this version - because I MUCH prefer the Thai actress!!!
That said, the story is pretty much the same. I feel some details were left out of this one, but it wasn't terribly noticeable until the last episode, where our killer's back story wasn't filled in as much, nor was the hunt for his lair as exciting. Not sure why since both had the same number of episodes.
Our male lead did a great job of being a crazy obsessed cop, & our killer really outdid himself - neither were quite as good as the Korean leads, but they still managed to put their own unique take on their characters.
I found this very watchable, and entertaining - I'd highly recommend it to anyone, in fact.
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I binge watched the first 10 episodes and finished the entire thing in 3 days. So yeah, amazing remake LOL
The two main leads just nailed it. Totally believed in their characters. I prefer the second lead and the lead girl here over the ones in the KDrama, in fact! Although Choi Jin Hyuk is irreplaceable LOL
The storyline remains enthralling and compelling, as do the emotional tugs on the heart. The villain might be even more chilling in this one, at least more actively menacing. The entire atmosphere of this remake just fit the story excellently.
I solidly support this drama and highly recommend it :D
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This review may contain spoilers
This drama starts out as if it's a wish-fulfillment fantasy, ie an older woman who's gained weight and whose husband has lost interest in her gets a magic perfume to turn her back into her younger self.We've all of us had this fantasy, admit it. All those crying 'fat shaming' etc must either be too young to understand or not being honest with ourselves. In fact, it's not our heroine being fat so much as being 40 and out of shape - her dream was to be a runway model, and she's too OLD, no matter what shape she's in! The fashion industry does fat-shame to the point it wants anorexic androgynous young models - for real. I do believe there's a movement on to change this to a point, but we ain't there yet.
That aside, this turns out NOT to be fixated on this fantasy. In fact, it's more about dissecting said fantasy, and seeing how it works out in (semi) reality. The drama does flashbacks that show that in HIS youth our hero had the self-image problems, in fact.
The drama deals with other issues as well. Fan/saesang behavior, and toxic netizens, come under fire, as well as the dichotomy between the image of celebrities versus the actual persons.
All this sounds heavy, but in fact this drama had me laughing every single episode LOL Shin Se Rok has a comedic talent and his expressions and body language are spot-on. Everybody else in the cast acted as his straight man at some point or other :D I personally loved the interations with his half-brother LOL
The biggest amazement for me was the two lead actresses. I love Ha Jae Sook - and she had a leading role here :D Her younger self, Go Won Hee, totally impressed me. I still can't believe she's only 23 - there was a gravitas to her acting in this role that was definitely not there in the other dramas I've seen her in - I totally, completely believed she was a 40 year old rejuvenated because of her acting! Her facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, all of it convinced me. She's only a year older than the girl playing the daughter, but at NO point did I feel that the two were the same age at all.
The message in this drama ultimately - your appearance and age do NOT dictate who you are nor your innate loveability. THIS is something that South Korean society as a whole doesn't really embrace yet, and so this drama really emphasizes an area needing improvement :D
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I'm impressed. This drama manages to bring us a classic tragedy, something rarely seen anymore. The tragic hero with the fatal flaw, the misunderstandings where the viewer can easily understand how if only xyz had happened everything could have turned out well, the star-crossed lovers, the sense of inevitability at the end :D Right out of the Greek tradition. Shakespeare would love it.I'm so very happy this did NOT go the same way as the Japanese drama did. Dark, twisted surprise endings are forced endings, and I hate contrived conclusions.
Tragedies and comedies are deeply entwined, BTW. In the classic ones (again, think Shakespeare) the comedies could go horribly wrong at any given moment, while the tragedies could end well 'if only'. This is a reflection of reality, and gives us that cathartic release - there but for luck go I.
That's exactly what this drama gave me. The real tragic figure is the cop who adopted the little girl. He made a mistake, and tried to rectify it, but his tragic error lay in not being honest with her. That continued when he finally found the other child - he was never honest with Moo Young either, until forced. If he'd told either of those kids the truth, the story could have ended well.
Kudos for an excellent adaptation!
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I found the opening scenes, the situation in the present, unnecessarily confusing, but it does set up the situation wanted - ie 2 groups (one NK & one SK) of soldiers sent 400+ years in the past, to the Joseon era, where they meet up with Admiral Yi Sun Sin before he entered the military. Action scenes fighting against Chinese invaders, and heart-warming brotherly bonding occur, as the soldiers try to convince the young Yi Sun Sin that he should give up ginseng smuggling to become the great military strategist he's meant to be. All this does not offer much innovation or new perspectives, but it's very well done and the plot had sufficient twists to make it interesting.
Kong Hyo Jin as the sole female in this film does add some interest overall - not love interest but perspective & comic relief. I'm sure that including her in the story explains the scenario at the beginning. She acts somewhat as a narrator, or at least a narrating presence - she observes rather than plays any active part but she's always interesting to watch.
All in all this did entertain me and even moved me. I thoroughly enjoyed the film.
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I highly recommend this to anyone who is a gamer or who knows one!
The fact that Mama is totally into KDramas (HOYA!!! I saw HOYA!) thrilled me :D I immediately identified with her LOL
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All in all, if you are a fan of CSI type crime shows, this one is likely to engage your interest. The various crimes solved actually occurred, which makes them more interesting than so many of the fictional, contrived murders littering the drama landscape.
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The total stupidity of the ending just infuriated me - not whether sad or happy but the complete, total lack of intelligence, logic, character consistency, left me aghast that I had watched this whole thing for this! I just cannot fathom what these writers were thinking. It's taken 12 years of dramas to produce one that had this badly written & conceived an ending (that would be Missing 9).
So if you must watch everything Rain (a worthy goal), you won't be disappointed if you watch all but the last episode then make up your OWN ending!
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Okay, the premise sounded very interesting, and the drama started out very well. I enjoyed the back and forth between past, plane crash etc, and present. All the characters had substance. Loved it for the first, say, 6 or so episodes.
Then stupidity happened. Lots of it, on the part of the writers and the characters. Failed logic, the frustration of those 'trapped w/psycho killer but too stupid to hide from him" horror films I hate, total leaps of idiocy - I almost stopped watching this by episode 9.
Then it got better, somewhat. The island scenario finished, so the above mentioned stupidity vanished. It became a recognizable suspense plot, complete with scheming chaebols & corrupt prosecutors. Not very original but since the acting was excellent & I like most of the cast I could manage. By episode 14, EUREKA! Some brains emerged! I liked that episode!
Then the writers got hit once again by the stupid bug, which eroded the logical progression of the narrative into increasingly WTF moments, concluding with what has to be the most insane, ridiculous, maddening ending I've ever seen in KDrama.
I had held out hopes of one of our supposed murder victims being resurrected - which would have made as much if not more sense than what the writers forced on us, plus made so many of us much happier - but noooo, that was not to be :(
Do not waste your time on this, really, unless plot actually means nothing to you. On the plus side, the interactions of the characters in this show was excellent - I totally enjoyed watching them as long as I forgot whatever plot point was supposed to be happening.
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The plot made sense, without many holes, and noone acted so completely stupid that I yelled at the TV. So often in these police/spy dramas, you're just going 'call for BACKUP! Tell someone where you're going' etc - but not so much in this one - maybe one incident. But I have to give creds for tight, consistent, logical story-telling :D
And for really awesome fight scenes! Especially Kim Bum fight sequences, but Team Leader there had awesome moments, and so did our lone girl detective, who was blessedly no push-over!
So I recommend this drama to those who prefer action & suspense. Also, this is one to get your male friends/family to watch if you want to show them KDramas are NOT all soaps LOL
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This is not a light, fluffy romcom, nor a makjang melodrama. It's a dark satire that pokes holes in a cliched plotline, while focusing on the toll corruption takes on families and people, from the lowliest to the upper echelon. I enjoyed watching this very much and am sorry to see it go, and wish they hadn't cut 2 episodes.
This fully deserved the Baeksang Award :D
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