This review may contain spoilers
The chess game of parasitic obsession and fragile egos.
'Notes from the Last Row' is a masterclass in psychological manipulation that left me completely torn between admiration and disappointment.
Heo Mun Oh, a failed, greedy, wrecked writer and Korean literature professor, meets Lee Gang, a talented writer from the last row of his class. Upon the brilliance and intelligence of story narration of the younger, Mun Oh offers one-on-one classes to Lee Kang for improving the younger's knowledge and his own curiosity (to win something in life).
As the story unfolded, it was not just about teaching classes on literature to improve Lee Kang's writing skills but utilizing them to unveil someone's life in literal words, in several prescriptions, and in descriptions, without consent.
I see Heo Mun Oh as an unreliable narrator-character at the start when he bulldozed with Lee Kang's plan of cheating, helping him slip answers to examination questions, just to let Lee Kang continue his assignments, scratching away his own commitment to responsibilities.
Mun Oh's relation with people around him seemed distant and often appeared to be coated.
His bond with his wife, unstable and unlovely, lasted to the end. With his co-workers, he's off on various bases.
I couldn't quite understand how Mun Oh's wife, Cho Hyeon Suk, a psychologist herself, didn't perturb over her husband's distance despite the writer's block, given her own sufferings over many miscarriages and a long period of an unshaken, unconcerned husband.
(Although her emotional exhaustion, keeping up with Mun Oh, is an acceptable coping mechanism.)
I admit that the second episode had me hooked.
Kim Su Hun, a popular writer, had a history of friendship and dreadful moments with Mun Oh, who held the main lead in a long slump of captivity for years.
Nonetheless, it didn't seem like a tragic story to me. Instead, sadly, it looks like Mun Oh destroyed his own career for a friend's derogatory remarks. (I believe there could be more, many more events in his life that might have sparked his ink once again, but only if he allowed himself to sway that way, without lingering, crippling in sulking past.)
The later episodes quite annoyed me and almost tested my patience.
Mun Oh's obsession, thrill, vengeance, and deliberate invasion of Kim Su Hun's life show his desperation and dark yearning to achieve the youthful career he could have had, but the cerebral path he ventured on after the inferior remarks he received is on him. His constant gaslighting and erratic decisions to Lee Kang hindered his progress. Shaped his broken future.
Lee Kang's a menace; his actions, his steady moves, took a toll on the rest of the show. It was not discreet, as Lee Kang's intentions are somehow on the plate, right in front of the nose; one could try to expect his reasons on the whole story of Kim Su Hun, although it was displeasing and troubling at times for the exaggeration of a 20-year-old to keep on imposing himself without a warrant of decent regard, but it was a splendid surprise to realize everything was just his play, a backspace to the real characters we have known—Kim Su Hun, An Eun Ju, Kim Se Yun, and Seon Min Hui.
I had absolutely immersed myself when An Eun Ju got highlighted. It was thrilling to see the new perspective of each character and their little story in the whole play.
Mun Oh at one point blurred his own ethics, responsibilities, and humanity with his perpetual greed, envy, and jealousy.
It wasn't shocking when he asked Lee Kang to write the end of the story, even when they were still unaware of it.
Given how unstable he is from the start with Lee Kang at certain things, denying at the initial stage only to accept and give in to the venturing broken pride of his.
As if, and really as Lee Kang was waiting for the exact call, he used the moments to his own satisfaction, writing a special story and making Mun Oh taste the bittersweet of reality.
However, it didn't meet my expectations when I became aware that Lee Kang's whole doing was just for the mistreatment of Mun Ho 12 years ago. I would have loved to see much more depth and growing insight into the psychological behavior of adult Lee Kang.
I liked Choi Hyun Wook's dynamics with everyone in the drama; regardless of a huge age gap, his unwavering chemistry bonded the strength and quality.
Still, in disappointment with how Mun Oh wasted his years and career, along with his wife's, the ending with his wife satisfied me, but the to-be-continued felt unnecessary. But as of now, as pleasing as it is to see Hyun Wook in a thriller concept and not all stories need pure suspense, I still welcome it.
This story exposes the dark side of creative writing and mentorship.
Not every teacher-student bond is healthy; it can be toxic. It opens the truth of reality, how unresolved trauma and fragile egos play a huge role in lives.
As Mun Oh thinks he is using Lee Gang to live out his successful writing career, he never had, while Lee Kang acts as the ultimate manipulator, feeding Mun Oh's greed and desperation.
The psychological depth of this story is that when you let envy, jealousy, and past insults write your future, you end up destroying not only your own life but also the lives of everyone who loves you.
Kudos to the cast and the team for this amazing show!
Heo Mun Oh, a failed, greedy, wrecked writer and Korean literature professor, meets Lee Gang, a talented writer from the last row of his class. Upon the brilliance and intelligence of story narration of the younger, Mun Oh offers one-on-one classes to Lee Kang for improving the younger's knowledge and his own curiosity (to win something in life).
As the story unfolded, it was not just about teaching classes on literature to improve Lee Kang's writing skills but utilizing them to unveil someone's life in literal words, in several prescriptions, and in descriptions, without consent.
I see Heo Mun Oh as an unreliable narrator-character at the start when he bulldozed with Lee Kang's plan of cheating, helping him slip answers to examination questions, just to let Lee Kang continue his assignments, scratching away his own commitment to responsibilities.
Mun Oh's relation with people around him seemed distant and often appeared to be coated.
His bond with his wife, unstable and unlovely, lasted to the end. With his co-workers, he's off on various bases.
I couldn't quite understand how Mun Oh's wife, Cho Hyeon Suk, a psychologist herself, didn't perturb over her husband's distance despite the writer's block, given her own sufferings over many miscarriages and a long period of an unshaken, unconcerned husband.
(Although her emotional exhaustion, keeping up with Mun Oh, is an acceptable coping mechanism.)
I admit that the second episode had me hooked.
Kim Su Hun, a popular writer, had a history of friendship and dreadful moments with Mun Oh, who held the main lead in a long slump of captivity for years.
Nonetheless, it didn't seem like a tragic story to me. Instead, sadly, it looks like Mun Oh destroyed his own career for a friend's derogatory remarks. (I believe there could be more, many more events in his life that might have sparked his ink once again, but only if he allowed himself to sway that way, without lingering, crippling in sulking past.)
The later episodes quite annoyed me and almost tested my patience.
Mun Oh's obsession, thrill, vengeance, and deliberate invasion of Kim Su Hun's life show his desperation and dark yearning to achieve the youthful career he could have had, but the cerebral path he ventured on after the inferior remarks he received is on him. His constant gaslighting and erratic decisions to Lee Kang hindered his progress. Shaped his broken future.
Lee Kang's a menace; his actions, his steady moves, took a toll on the rest of the show. It was not discreet, as Lee Kang's intentions are somehow on the plate, right in front of the nose; one could try to expect his reasons on the whole story of Kim Su Hun, although it was displeasing and troubling at times for the exaggeration of a 20-year-old to keep on imposing himself without a warrant of decent regard, but it was a splendid surprise to realize everything was just his play, a backspace to the real characters we have known—Kim Su Hun, An Eun Ju, Kim Se Yun, and Seon Min Hui.
I had absolutely immersed myself when An Eun Ju got highlighted. It was thrilling to see the new perspective of each character and their little story in the whole play.
Mun Oh at one point blurred his own ethics, responsibilities, and humanity with his perpetual greed, envy, and jealousy.
It wasn't shocking when he asked Lee Kang to write the end of the story, even when they were still unaware of it.
Given how unstable he is from the start with Lee Kang at certain things, denying at the initial stage only to accept and give in to the venturing broken pride of his.
As if, and really as Lee Kang was waiting for the exact call, he used the moments to his own satisfaction, writing a special story and making Mun Oh taste the bittersweet of reality.
However, it didn't meet my expectations when I became aware that Lee Kang's whole doing was just for the mistreatment of Mun Ho 12 years ago. I would have loved to see much more depth and growing insight into the psychological behavior of adult Lee Kang.
I liked Choi Hyun Wook's dynamics with everyone in the drama; regardless of a huge age gap, his unwavering chemistry bonded the strength and quality.
Still, in disappointment with how Mun Oh wasted his years and career, along with his wife's, the ending with his wife satisfied me, but the to-be-continued felt unnecessary. But as of now, as pleasing as it is to see Hyun Wook in a thriller concept and not all stories need pure suspense, I still welcome it.
This story exposes the dark side of creative writing and mentorship.
Not every teacher-student bond is healthy; it can be toxic. It opens the truth of reality, how unresolved trauma and fragile egos play a huge role in lives.
As Mun Oh thinks he is using Lee Gang to live out his successful writing career, he never had, while Lee Kang acts as the ultimate manipulator, feeding Mun Oh's greed and desperation.
The psychological depth of this story is that when you let envy, jealousy, and past insults write your future, you end up destroying not only your own life but also the lives of everyone who loves you.
Kudos to the cast and the team for this amazing show!
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