YazQuan

Just the first 12 episodes.

Happy ending? Not from my POV. When Hong Ju Ran left So did I.

Generally, plot holes of the size and frequency of the ones in this series have me dropping a show like it's a hot rock, but the depth of the characters and the outstanding cast kept me binging Red Swan. There are a lot of gaps in the story and deux ex machina has to be called in when reality and the space/time continuum threaten to get in the way of script absurdities, but I still enjoyed the series.

The entire cast is great, without exception, and they make the show addictively watchable despite its boatload of flaws. I ended up sympathetic to characters I thought I'd hate and hating characters for whom I started out sympathetic.

Kim Ha Neul plays O Wan Su, a self-made rags-to-riches success story. She's a woman determined that other children be spared the fear, uncertainty, and deprivation of her own childhood. Putting herself in a position to realize that goal cost the lives of her loved ones, and puts her own life at risk.

Rain is Seo Do Yun, a former police officer on a mission to solve the murder of his brother cop. His investigation entangles him with O Wan Su when it appears the same killer is gunning for her. Don't ask how we know that, just roll with it.

The two leads hooked me from the get-go. A near foxhole type lust moment between O Wan Su and Seo Do Yun after the sniper incident was smoking, and I loved their restrained intensity and moments of tenderness throughout the series.

Despite how well Rain and Kim Ha-Neul worked as the lead couple, comments on the ML/FL dynamic follow the standard MDL pattern: ML is a perfect swoon worthy hunk whom the inferior-in-every-way FL doesn't deserve or measure up to. That comment pattern is so predictable it ought to be baked into the MDL plot synopses just to save time.

My advice: ignore that drivel.

Some commenters are bothered that Kim Ha-Neul's characterization of O Wan Su wasn't more demonstrative. She's presented with the vulnerable stoicism of a woman who has faced unbearable loss and has no choice but to persevere.

Perhaps Kim Ha-Neul could have played O Wan Su as a weeping damsel, swooning with the vapors, back of her hand pressed melodramatically against her forehead, but O Wan Su has to be strong and relentless to survive, and a strong, relentless woman doesn't have the luxury to wail, flutter, fall apart, or swoon.

One more place I'll diverge from the pack: I thought the ending was perfect.

Not many funny moments in this show, but one made me bark laugh. E6, 16:30, MIL: "Why do you keep doing that?"

It's good. I binge watched. The series has a LOT of plot holes; despite that, the action and cast - everyone perfect for their roles - makes it well worth the time spent.

"am not an ageism person or anti women(as a woman myself)" but let me make an ageist and sexist generalization.

This isn't a romance, but I thought the chemistry between the leads simmered throughout. There was just enough of an attraction to entangle ML/FL into each other's stories, but not so much as to get in the way of the plot.

Kim Ha-Neul plays a character who left Korea in her late teens, spent two years earning a tour card, then 12 years on tour. She returned to Korea, courted, married, and bore a child who would have been about 10-11 at time of this story. Given the timeline, and the intractability of mathematics, the youngest her character could be is mid 40s. That means Kim Ha-Neul was playing her real age at the time the series was produced.

You hit the bullseye of ageism/sexism for claiming an actress is "too old" to play a character who is her same age.

If 2 is an unacceptably high body count for you, then you'll be doing women everywhere a service by staying in your mom's basement a while longer.

You have an active fantasy life. Enjoy your delusions.

Extra points for calling something "simp." You can probably get the incel bonus badge if you designate one of the characters as a "Chad."

"Also it’s shown many times that in his POV he thinks she didn’t want this marriage at all"

Shown where? Certainly not in the first four eps that have aired so far. Looks like we'll get to that later, but that's far from established at this point.

Even so, to me that's a big "so what?" How would showing some basic common decency "force" FL into anything?

Yeah, it has the flavor of an old fashioned bodice ripper romance book where the man is cruel, mean, and a complete jerk, so of course the woman falls in love with his manliness.

Firstly, trolling is a valid hobby, so let's not hate on trolls. Secondly, an equally valid hobby is yanking the chains of those who genuinely believe a man's toxic, asshole behavior is just a cute, harmlessly misguided expression of true love.

Y'all jumping through some serious hoops here to excuse aberrant behavior, so I gotta wonder about your home lives. You may hate me, but your partners will thank me.

Oh, I'm sorry, it seems my answer was unclear. I meant YOU are gaslighting when you say that turning off the machine and telling her she can't have coffee isn't forbidding her to have coffee. Is it only forbidding if he said she can't have coffee until the end of time, not just the end of breakfast?

To go back to start, I said the guy's an ass and every response has been a justification of why it's okay for him to be an ass, or there's some indefinable degree of him doing ass-demonstrating things that can somehow be retroactively absolved if he, at some point, stops being an ass. Okay, if that's your take, but the bottom line is we all agree he's an ass.

You almost gave me whiplash. He absolutely did forbid her to have coffee. Pretending he didn't because it was only "until I say it's okay" or "you don't get coffee when you want it, only when I say you can have it" is not forbidding it, is straight up gaslighting.

Did he/she take your cup away and turn off the machine? If yes, then ass.

That was a lot, but the relevant part is we agree he's an ass.

ML is not, in any manner, indifferent. He is focused on controlling every aspect FL's life with him. This is not debatable because he actually, straight up, out loud said this.

He shows love by letting her have her way? We can't be watching the same series. He won't even let her have coffee when she wants it; she's contractually forbidden from suing for divorce under any circumstances; he demands she take a job with him even though she said she doesn't want it; he contractually forbids her to tell anyone they are married, but it's ok if he does - rules for thee but not for me; and that's just in the first 4 episodes.

If you want to argue that he's paternalistically making all these rules and decisions for what he perceives to be her own good, I won't argue with you, but he's still an ass because he never once in three years asks, but what do you want, honey?

"Everything you do is clumsy" and "You're so ugly right now" is crystal clear, direct communication. A contract that strips FL of any form of equity in their marriage is crystal clear, direct communication. Maybe that spells love to you, but it clearly spells a-s-s to me.

I'm willing to believe that ML is too psychology damaged to realize he's an ass, but that doesn't make him not an ass.

Gosh, I get so excited when I see another movie with my favorite character introduction: successful, talented, ambitious woman needs to be brought down a peg or two by talented, ambitious, irreverent, upstart man with magical intuition or some other pixie dust super power.

Yes, of course, that's sarcasm. I couldn't make it past episode 2 of Samdal-Ri, so it seems my punishment was my psyche guiding me to FL&W next. Because it has Park Min Young I really wanted to like it, but the obviously cheating fiance and smugly sexist insubordinate dampened my willingness to slog it out. For those of you still watching, I hope for your sake it gets better, but I'm not willing to invest my time and energy to find out.