"split personality" review

in reality, i hate to rain on somebody's parade, and since a lot of people truly love this drama, i apologize, but what must be said must be said.
i can not relate to this drama but from a truly split personality perspective, since it has the "good, the bad, the ugly" and more. all that the other viewers write about it is mostly true - mind-bogglingly beautiful scenery (the scene where ae-shin is walking with eugine on the icy lake takes your breath away and will stay with you forever etched in your visual and emotional library, whether it's in your brain or in your heart, and the entire story is kind of symbolic of walking on thin ice at all times), in general the choice of sites in the drama can be used for tourism in korea - guaranteed to work even today, the cinematography is up there with the most outstanding dramas and/or movies from all times, the characters especially the main 3 males and the female hotel owner hina are extremely multidimensional, like it is in real life and their continuous development is very satisfying, the acting of all actors is as good as it gets, especially lee byung-hun as eugene choi (i first saw this actor in "all in" while i was chasing after ji sung, and discovered lee byung-hun, and the rest was history... his charisma, his manly charm, his superb acting, his ability to go from extreme toughness to extreme softness - he was raised to my top best korean actors from that moment on) and he does not disappoint in "mr. sunshine", he stays true to himself as an artist, as always gives it his all, and shines with unmistakable inner beauty. one more thing that i noticed, when he gazes at ae-shin or even other people, he slowly blinks just one time, and the blink is like a cat that blinks to his/hers owner expressing love, it's really special, if you know cats. the other actress that i enjoyed very much is of course the adorable, mysterious, badass kim min-jung as kudo hina, she truly kept me on my toes, with her non-ending french designers dresses, hats, jewelry, her quirky intelligence and female intuition, her courage, her undeniable charm. these two characters or i should say actors kept me wanting to see more and more of them, even when i wanted to just leave this show many times throughout, the slow paste of it drove me crazy, the lengthy looking in each others eyes for minutes at a time without any movement or action - i wanted to scream enough already, we get the idea, we are not dumb... the heart breaking good byes between ae-shin and eugen, too many, not justified and always coming back together just to say good bye again - really? some other things that annoyed me to no end i will mention later here... the other two characters that is worth mentioning is yoo yeon-seok as goo dong-mae, perfectly cast in this role, so strong, gorgeous looking, evil, always with endless pain bubbling to the surface, always staying a step ahead of death, and byun yo-han as kim hee- sung, the typical spoiled rich brat, always gambling, loosing and drinking on the account of others. both of these characters, one was born in the lowest class of that society, the other was a son of the richest aristocrats in this area. dong-mae like a ticking bomb on the verge of exploding and taking down all around him no matter how, who or what. kim hee-sung, the aristocrat, who loves all things beautiful, easy going, trying to charm everybody no matter who, making a joke out of any situation. frankly, i did not like these two all the way till the last third of the drama, and then they kind of woke up, tapped into their own morals, grew on me and developed into characters that slowly charmed my heart and i got deeply invested in them all, only to be devastated at the brutal end. the question for me, was it worth spending so many annoying hours of this drama, to finally get to the last third part and especially the last 5 episodes, to finally get so emotionally attached to this characters only to be completely heart broken at the end? i truly did not answer that question yet. and now the most baffling part of this drama - the main female character, ae-shin. i think her character was completely screwed up by the writers, she was the only one one- dimensional as it can be. yes, they wanted to show her burning patriotism for her country and cause, but they deprived her of humanity. wasn't she a physical body like all of us? didn't she have emotions that a woman would express through some kind of affection to the love or her life? the one who gave up ALL that he had in this world for her, his adopted country that he was so proud of, his military career that he loved, his best friend, and finally his own life in exchange of hers. (by the way, eugene choi succeeded somehow to express his love without touching her ever, but it felt like he was stopped by her inner desire to avoid any physicalness) and at all times, there was not a single hug, kiss or any other form of expressing love. how on earth can that be? even when they got married, no hug, no kiss - nothing. and i understand the writers or directors idea of showing extreme patriotism above all, but show at least something... something that would move us and make us believe that she really loves. that was my greatest disappointment and the biggest flaw of this drama. and last but not least i wanted to mention the politics in this drama, that was supposed to be kind of the background to anything else, but took over and became the major part of it. although interesting in terms of korean history (and made me truly hate the japanese cruelty), it was too much of it and became simply boring many times. now that you know "the good, the bad and the ugly" you decide if this drama is for you, if you can tough out to the third part of the drama.

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tears can end the drought anywhere

i love chinese/korean dramas. to start with, i'll admit that i wanted to see this because of ji sung, whom i admire and love as an outstandingly talented actor, with a very high EQ, which he relies on very skillfully while getting into his characters. the first one i saw with him was "kill me, heal me" - and it was "love at first site", i wanted to see more and more of ji sung. so i did quite a few, including his last drama "devil judge", which became one of the best dramas in my book of excellency.
but.. this "secret love" was the first time that i wanted to let it go from the first 4 episodes, sooooooo boring, repetitious. then i must admit, i sort of got sucked in, wanting to know how the writer resolves this or that, where it will go and how the characters will develop and adjust. disappointment is not even a word i would use , by the end i felt a waste of my time, emotions and investment. first of all, it felt more like it had characteristics of a cheap american soap opera rather than one of the korean or chinese dramas that i got to love so much. the amount of tears shed by the main female character and then many others in this drama can easily put an end to any drought anywhere on earth - when it's that much it becomes almost irrelevant. yes, some instances were called for such expression of desperation and sadness, but not ALL the time, non stop. it made this drama very lopsided, if you will. the topic itself had a potential but it was wasted, scattered and definitely underdeveloped (the story itself). after the first 4 episodes it kind of started building steam, but the last 5 episodes it started rapidly deteriorating, really getting NOT SAD, but on my nerves. it almost got us to a conclusion of the worst outcome - greed, money and power win the day, love is in the dust and that is the fate of humanity. thanks god, in the literally last few minutes of the very last episode, the writer got himself/herself up, dusted up, and provided a semi-happy ending, but was this enough payback to the viewer? i think not.
a few words about the acting. top performance from ji sung as expected, and bae soo-bin surprisingly good, but i did not see him in any other production. hwang jung-eum is not consistently good - she is overdramatic in many instances and screeching to the degree that it feels like it's piercing your ear drums (but that's the complaint i had in "kill me heal me" as well.) so i gave an 8 for the acting because of these actors.
in conclusion, i could live without this drama. sorry to all the other reviewers who actually liked it a lot, i am in the minority.

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superb acting by main mail character/s

art ( i mean good art, objective art) is food for the soul, whether it's music, visual, film, theater, etc.
the acting of ji sung is that kind of art - an actor who is able to convincingly change from one character to another within a split second, 7 times, and stir up your emotions, your intellect, your imagination - that kind of acting is superb to say the least, that kind of acting is TRUE art and definitely worth your time and investment, if only to see his acting.
it starts a little (or a lot) overdramatic, chaotic, but give it a chance. usually an actor has to get into his/her character and work on it throughout the production. to go from one character to a completely different one 7 times within one production is very difficult, complicated and can be very confusing. but ji sung does it with charm, intelligence, great skill and more. enjoy.

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a lesson to humanity

so where do i start? first of all, i do not throw out the baby with the bath water. i look at the whole picture, script, directing, acting, photography, music, costumes, jewelry, set ups, stage designs...etc. it's art, and each aspect has to support the whole - that's a good piece of art. this drama was THIS KIND of drama. did the drama have problems? hell, yes. but i am yet to see a chinese or korean drama that is perfect. can you? this particular drama - the acting was through the roof, of course i am talking about Ji Sund (Kang Yo-Han) - what a trip! i also enjoyed Kim Min-Jung (Jeong-Seon-a) i think she gave it her all, very special, presenting her evilness to the utmost perfection. i can't imagine anybody doing better than that. and i must mention the young actress Jeon Chaeeun who played Elijah, she impressed me with her arsenal of emotions at such a young age and the ability to express them on screen. Jin Young (Kim Gaon) is a story apart from the others, in my opinion. i believe that he was wrongly cast. his looks are childish and he was too "pretty" for this role, like a decoration or lollypop. but may be that was intentional, to introduce a juxtaposition to Kang Yo-Han, who is all macho in the most beautiful sense, but has a soft inside. i actually never believed that he killed his brother or caused the fire, or killed Kim Gaon's childhood friend. i just didn't feel it was in him. i also was very suspicious of Gaon's professor from the very beginning, who pushed too hard, there was something behind his fight against Yo-Han. i just didn't trust him, and of course he ended up to be the "devil", who betrayed and killed. but back to Kim Gaon. again, opposite Ji Sund, who is the top of the best in this industry, Jim Young appeared to be very weak, in character as well as in acting. so many times, i looked at his eyes, beautiful - yes, but somehow empty, looking for a way to express a certain emotion, idea, or whatever... kind of looking through the "files in his brain", but couldn't find any. Ji Sund, every movement of a finger, slightly raised eyebrow, twitch of the mouth, tilt of his head, posture, thunder in his eyes... i can go on and on, everything is at play. not a single detail missed. you could sense his reach emotional intelligence that he relies on in his work and it totally draws you into his world. i must admit, Gaon somehow remedied himself in the last episode, but that's hardly enough. Gaon's friend, Yoon Soo-Hyun, could have been even better than Gaon, she had the potential, but wasn't given a chance, i felt. so that's a missed opportunity. the rest of the cast was mostly good, but i am not going to go into details.
the script, that many complained, but truly, all or most say they enjoyed, were glued to the screen, participated in the journey, got invested in the storyline... so how can you just dismiss the script? it did something to you, didn't it? was it all realism, of course not. but i already accepted that Asian dramas suffer from lack or realism, logic, even common sense. part of the "charm" if you will. like when Jeon Seon-a goes to the hospital, she suddenly melts, feels sorry for these girls, but i did not believe for a moment that she actually has the capacity to feel compassion. none. or when she kills herself in the last episode. from what we saw from her, she would first kill the president, yes, but then she would kill Yo-han and then probably all the rest. that would be more in line with her character.
all in all, "the devil judge" drama - spectacular, intoxicating, thought provoking, mesmerizing, instantly addictive, insanely engaging and most of all RELEVANT. RELEVANT WHY? the most important to me was the message that this story tries to convey, a kind of moral and ethical directive. if you think that this is a dystopia, think again and look at politics in general. do you remember what the president said about a clean korean race, about emigrants, about a new republic, about his own power... i had goose bumps, i wanted to throw up... did you hear some of the speeches of our own previous american president - that was eerily familiar, same words, same expressions, same sentiment. and he is not the only one. the attacks on the american congress on January 6 this year was not much different than Jukchang (the bamboo stick group - self proclaimed patriots). and in general, there are different democracies now that are simply crashing and burning. if humanity can not gather it's wits and put a stop to it, if they allow these forces to manipulate them, then we are not that far from the dystopia depicted in this drama. we were almost there on january 6, 2021 in our capital in washington. and it seems like this is a call for action. a message like this is much more than a flaw in a script.

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