Beatrice

Leaps without thinking

It would have been great if there was equal care in the writing of the story as there were in the crafting of the various death scenes that range from heart breaking to cool looking. It feels like the show was more of vehicle to serve showing off the effects than the effects serving the story. That works for an attractive trailer, but not a satisfying story. A majority of the plot progression relied on the characters making the most frustratingly unintelligent decisions or things that just make no sense at all.

Dream's actress whose overacting when it comes to portraying peppiness was easier to be overlooked in her previous role in the romcom My Love Mix Up, but is particularly off putting in this story that needs a more grounded performance. Dew who plays Night has potential, but he has yet to find that breakthrough in the limits of his emotional range. The romance between Night and Dream has no inherent chemistry, though it does make internal story sense that the extremely isolated and lonely Night would fall for someone who cares about him and constantly around him. Aside from that, there isn't any kind of bond that develop between them aside from proximity that makes them worth rooting for.

Night knows Dream doesn't care about boundaries for good or ill, always forcing her way into his life and has already has penchant stumbling into traffic on a regular day, but instead of telling her to just give him space for one day or that he's leaving town for that time or something, he does it in the worse way possible, especially when she's already shown up at his house. He himself shouts for her to leave and then realizes she's exposed to being run over by cars and decides to driver her home himself instead of going back to his house where it's closer to ride out the final destination curse that is also affecting Day and Ozone. This is the only accident where it's not her fault, but Ozone running into the path of the car. All the other times is either her dropping glass on the kitchen floor then slipping from rushing, her slipping from rushing down the emergency stairs with no particular reason to run, and then her rushing into traffic towards Ozone. She is a danger to herself.

Ozone at least has an excuse for running into traffic as he's already sensitive from his autism, but also even more so with the disorientation of fear and the universe signals. He knows from his vision dreams later to not rush forward, just calling out to Night from a safe distance of the on coming traffic. His familial bond and relationship with Day is the heart of the story. Ozone's actor Gun is a fantastic actor and while the GMMTV shows are extremely hit or miss, especially ones that are contractually ship pairing based, his performances are always the best. Pond who plays Day is serviceable. Day is the one who utilizes the most sense comparatively in the entire show. He remains kind and amiable despite living through all the familial losses that Day has. It was really lovely how he models patiently interacting and communicating with Ozone instead of being angry or forceful to get Ozone to do what he wants.

I like the scene where his co-worker shop clerk calls his cousin a dimwit, so he counters by quizzing the clerk which planet the sticker from the blind box that Ozone definitely knows is, which the clerk can't answer. He's a film major who has an open mind and kind heart, but not necessarily the skills or scientific mind needed to break the curse on his own. Night is the one studying medical science to prevent deaths, but he's very closed minded and defeatist. Even when change literally hits him like a car crash in the form of Day and Ozone that results in zero deaths for the first time in his life, he refuses to work together with Day for way too long. When he finally does, he's able to decipher Ozone's drawings that contain messages from the universe that's trying to be helpful. Also as an aspiring doctor, Night immediately agrees that passing the curse on to two innocent women who will immediately die, followed by all the loved ones of the surviving children every 4 years sounds great even though he has 4 years to figure out if there is an alternative or not. He only chickens out when he's facing experimenting on an actual woman without her consent.

Props to Dream for immediately breaking up with Night and for Professor/Dr. Wiwat's wife and daughter for immediately leaving after learning about his essentially knowing serial killing via curse on their unwitting behalf. Dr. Kit goes about trying to communicate with Day and Ozone in the most traumatizing, criminal way possible made all the worse with the reveal that he is a doctor who should know better than to treat a neurotypical person, let alone an autistic person like that. He didn't even try the regular way of just straight up talking like regular person. He knows that a Leap Day curse sufferer would want to know some more information already. Just approach Day when he's not around Night or if it really must be Ozone, talk to him nicely whenever he's waiting for Day to get out of class and Dream isn't there either.

It's interesting that there were Americans that were researching the Leap Day curse, implying that it's a worldwide phenomena. There wasn't much information on how far that research went before they let Wiwat know that passing on the curse that will cause a whole other two groups of people to die works. Did they try going to shamans? Did they try passing the curse to pregnant lab rats? Did Night's mom die at midnight and the Leap Day curse is only completed by force when Wiwat induced Day's mom's labour at noon and that's why people only noticed his suspicious misconduct for Day's birth? Also despite the first episode suggesting the curse works in a final destination kind of way, most of the time it's just an act of god style randomness. The heart attack and even the kdrama car of doom is fine. But the razor blade materializing in Ozone's noodles that Day personally made himself is nonsensical, especially when there was the broken fan blades from earlier that would have at least made some kind of sense. And as I mentioned before Dream just hurts herself by her near deadly clumsiness.

There is an uncomfortable trope of neuero atypical people having magical abilities that Ozone falls into, but the show supposes that him being a direct target and his mind is just different enough to be able to hear a force that opposes the destructive energy of the curse. The force seems to seek to protect Ozone in particular, pretty much telling Day that he needs to die for Ozone to be okay. It was set up by a social worker at the beginning that Day's aunt and uncle didn't leave much money behind for Ozone and that Day would need to get a job to provide for them both. Though never said by the show, Day probably thought sacrificing himself would be better because Night who had pretty much become family at that point after living together for 4 years at Night's house would be able to take care of Ozone. Dream's family is also in a dire economical circumstance as explained by a phone call that Night overhears, explaining why they never travelled to visit her even though she's been hospitalized for very extreme accidents more than once. Day had suspected it's what the universe was asking of him, but rather than discussing with anyone else, he kept it to himself and decided to be the noble idiot trope.

Was it not great that he just made the decision himself? Yes. Is it worse that the show chickens out and cheapens his sacrifice with a coma reveal? Yes. It opens more questions, like is the solution then to arrest the heart, resuscitate, and induce a coma? Did the force lie or did the interpret it wrong, that all four of them could have just left together all along if resuscitating worked all along? It would have been better if the show stuck to it's guns, having the purgatory wearing shirt Day be dead, but his spirit stuck in the weird in between place until the souls of his friends and family join him after living full lives and they move on together. But no good grade for the wishy washy concept that we get instead.

Read More

Choppy, repetitive, and forgot to include it's lead character

There were interesting story elements, but overall the script felt like it needed more time to bake in terms of pacing and build up for various plot points, as well as the development for the characters and their relationships. The first part of the season was extremely bogged down with fanservice scenes in place of actual character interactions that both deepens the connections and advances the story. There is so much wasted time that was needed for the immense cast that the season decided all gets an arc. That is everyone except for the main character Babe who essentially becomes a side lined, supporting love interest.

Most of Babe's scenes are just the aforementioned fanservice scenes. Aside from the scenes having to do with just sex or his relationship, he got to investigate Willy who is constantly sexually harassing him, but then even that plot gets folded into Charlie's and he is shut out. It's not until the final few episodes that Babe is finally in on the action when the entire cast is on the same page that we see why he's the lead character to begin with. What a waste of a second season to not further develop Babe's story from the first season, especially with the rare talent they have in Pavel is so incredibly underused who has a great range from emotional to action, it's mind boggling.

There are scenes that seems like it's missing and the direction of reactions of characters to certain moments don't match the severity of the situation. When Chris the scientist appears, Babe just assumes he's Way and Pete tries to go hug him. Babe is at least showing some shock, but Pete is way too calm. Nut breaths so much life into Chris, he eats the role up. I'm impressed how he's able to emit such dignified sass in his body language and line delivery. I love his rare scenes with Pavel, not only because Babe finally gets to interact with the rest of the world, but they have each have someone else who is also an good actor to react off of.

Later Dean crashes his race car and he's assumed dead, but everyone again is way under reacting. He and his kidnapped comatose self becomes the impetus for Alan to approach Tony and get powers from the serum. I thought Tony broke him out of jail, but he's not wanted by the police and is able to race for some reason. Jeff and Alan are in a carousel of characters, but especially for their storyline taking turns doing the stupid thing of keeping important information from each other. It's especially egregious because they used Alan at the beginning of the season teach the lesson that you should do that and he ends up doing that for the whole rest of the season. There was no particular pay off to Alan getting super strength other than his neck issue that no long requires surgery.

One of the rare positive change from the first season is that Charlie's overly cutesy acting got toned down, which makes his scenes more bearable to watch now. He's still so extremely green especially in all the scenes with Pavel. The show not only hits the secret twin trope with Chris and Way, but then gives Charlie amnesia. There is some build up to it at least, but the scenes just don't hit the emotional notes as it's a rehash of more of the same relationship angst through the entire season already. That's another result of the show not giving Babe something else to do and saving the heaviest of the relationship friction for the amnesia plot.

The first season showed the chemistry and potential of Kenta and Pete, but that's not explored here, which is not totally a bad thing. Kenta's story line probably plays out the best. He's in what essentially feels like the A plot that Babe should have been doing. Smoking is gross, but the scene where he shows up in front of Pete is pure aura. His investigation into Tony is dynamic compared to the stand still that the rest of the characters are stuck in. His pairing with Kim is surprisingly good with Kim's confident assertiveness, the ability to be observant, and thoughtfulness actually help Kenta open up. The fight scene that ends up with Kim showing up in a car to send goons flying off while he does donuts around Kenta was so cool. This is what the season could have been. There isn't really any romantic chemistry on immediate vibes with these characters, which I think might be both on the direction on Kim's actor's part to just give a bit more spark, but Kenta and Kim get to organically develop with their interactions in the story and it works. It was kind of weird that Kim leaves Kenta with a bro pat to the shoulder though they kept kissing. But it makes sense for Kenta to figure out who he is with the freedom he has now before jumping into a relationship.

Sonic and North's relationship or rather lack of is such a waste of screentime. Winner being turned into Tony's right hand man could have been very interesting, but there was no development there and they just let him get away despite torturing Kenta and doing murders. I think I saw him at Babe and Charlie's wedding at the end but I'm not sure. Kenta should have been allowed at least a punch before Winner slinks away. Willy also had the potential for a much more fleshed out interesting story as he's revealed to also be a victim of Tony's. It's also revealed that his creepiness towards Babe is 100% just him, Tony didn't tell him to do that. Babe seems to have a weird soft spot for him as well, being extremely forgiving. I think he was also at the wedding. The whole season seems really mismanaged somehow, the script all over the place. The cinematography of the show was always good though, they and the actors deserved better writing and directing to work with.

Read More

Strongest as a mystery thriller treasure hunt. Unbearable as a Romcom

None of the promo materials that I saw indicated this was a treasure hunt, which makes it so much more interesting that the undercover highschooler teacher romance, which is as creepy as it sounds whenever the story dipped into that plot line that also grinds the pacing to a halt. It is the worst part of the show which unfortunately means more often than not the female lead who is the teacher in the equation is the worst part. She is a terrible teacher not noticing the actual bullying occurring in her classroom while being extremely violent with the male lead who she thinks is a teenager and violating boundaries by showing up at his house on short notice. Once she learns he's NIH undercover, both of their brains go out the window. They are always out drinking together or touching hands, they are just courting a student teacher scandal.

The treasure hunt however is quite interesting, I really enjoy the clues being hidden in tales of ghostly hauntings that also mirror the real life school bullying of Hae Jeong and his classmates. The villain of the treasure hunt storyline is amazing. She is both cunning and unsettling that other kdrama villains think they are. The way she picks apart her daughter's self esteem, what she does with a steak knife to her own wrist in front of her daughter who freaked out at the photoshoot refusing to expose her scarred wrists, what she quotes about a slavery era book. Her daughter being cruel to Hae Seong's sister who just accepts it in order to be kind to the girl she saw with the scarred wrists. Later when she beats up a kid in the rest room who badmouthed her daughter in front of her and she chastises him to watch his mouth around elders while banging her own head on the mirror is so unhinged.

The romance is so forced, the drama would have been stronger without it. The secondary romance was also terrible and never funny even though it was supposed to be comic relief moments. The spy versus mastermind dynamic between Hae Jeong and Myeong Ju is so much more electric to see . I don't know if it's because I just didn't catch it, but I didn't see any specific branding on the sandwich shop until ep 4, which is a funny mini background mystery until it's revealed to be Qiuznos. The end where Hae Jeong points a gun at Myeong Ju only to hand it over to the same woman clearly having a dangerous mental health episode where she's already threatening the entire class of kids with oil and fire, was ridiculous. He's otherwise smart enough most of the time. I like that he clocked the principal truly caring about Myeong Ju and Ye Na and urged him not to enable her anymore.

The treasure hunt ending in Hae Jeong getting closure in finding out what happened to his father is meaningful. It's lovely that the cute little star motif between him and his father leads him to the gold his dad hid. All of his classmates showing up at his father's funeral was sweet. He got to remake his high school experience that was so terrible he got a GED instead the first time. His adopted father and son relationship with his uncle is also really sweet. I loved the moment he supported his decision to quit high school and was the one suggesting the GED. His annoyance at the thought that his adopted sister Yu Jeong may become his colleague is funny because he was colleagues with his adopted dad. Though there were still elements that I enjoyed, the momentum of the mystery and the pacing of the story really fell apart towards the end. It might have been a tighter with a few episodes less.

Read More

Dragons and Compassion for wronged Spirits

Eastern dragon lore is really underutilized as far as supernatural entities in fantasy stories go, so it's cool to see when it happens. I really like how Yeo Ri has multiple skills, shaman, optician, glasses maker to make ends meet. Her relationship with Gang Cheol is interesting. From both the way he and his brother Bibi behaves, they are forces of nature who just so happen to have enough moral overlap to be targeting elder humans with evil in their hearts to consume, but otherwise don't have or need to be exactly understanding of humans and their needs. Yeo Ri is one of the rare people who can see Gang Cheol in his deity spirit form and both he and his brother are quite childish in their interactions. Gang Cheol grows and matures once he's in Yoon Gap's body and actually learns to care about others through growing relationships with them, only then and also learning the truth about his intentions does Yeo Ri finally see him in new light. I like how the Eight Feet Spirit confronted him about how he's a deity but he focused on ascension rather than intervening in the slaughter of the village below that night. It's technically true and he made the sacrifice to heal the trapped spirits and he himself is freed from Yoon Gap's body that he was trapped in, but of course gets to make the choice to live out the days of being Yeo Ri's guardian spirit and husband.

I feel sorry for Yoon Gap, he was tempted by evil, but still overcame it, having to leave the short life he had with everyone who loved him, his mom, the King, and Yeo Ri who really did initially like him back to be continued by Gang Cheol instead. It was so tragic that he became a foreign spirit in his own revitalized corpse. It was cool to see the distinct differences in the relationships with the same people that Gang Cheol has. The King found an equal that he can be a bit silly around in Gang Cheol who does not have to be held to the same etiquette as regular humans. It's so funny when the King cannot hold back his annoyance when he sees Gang Cheol doing the full etiquette while undercover that he actually knows how. It was nice to see the King legitimately love his queen and told the doctor to prioritize saving her over the fetus. Sadly she passes away. Her character is one thing the show could have done better to give more characterization to so that her death would have more emotional impact on the audience. All she got to do was cry or stare lovingly at her husband and son. The head eunuch is a wonderful scene stealer. He's always annoyed at Gang Cheol's lack of decorum, but he so thoughtfully gives the best sweets in the palace for him and tells Gang Cheol the story of his own loss of his sibling to comfort Gang Cheol who grieves for Bibi. Gang Cheol's relationship with Yoon Gap's mom is also sweet, adopting him as another son after Yoon Gap moves on as a spirit, becoming grandmother to his and Yeo Ri's daughter.

There's a scene where Gang Cheol buys Yeo Ri a fur head cover and it's the most distracting, fake looking polyester product ever, totally looking bad over the otherwise very solid costuming and props that surrounds it. The weakest storyline of the show is the Queen Dowager. She's totally complicit in enabling the evil shaman for the explicit reason of coveting the throne for her rapist son. The show spent way too long on her grief and sorrow when he gets sacrificed by the shaman for his spirit to be consumed by the Eight Feet Spirit. I don't care about the rapist and his scheming mother, I rather the screen time to be given for the Queen consort to get some more personality or the murdered palace maiden in the well who really enjoys a friendship with Yeo Ri to the point she doesn't want to move yet at the end of the story. There seems to be a rise of shamanism dramas and films. The core of the use of it is compassion in finding the source of the "evil" spirit's pain and to alleviate it so they can be at peace and leave the humans that they deemed to have wronged them alone. The dramas often take a more optimistic justice served against the living perpetrators than the films do. I hope to see more dragon stories too, there is a well of possibilities and interesting narratives there to be explored.

Read More

Silly but Slow Isekai

I only meant to watch a couple episodes, but the audacious main character and how she got herself in and out of situations kept me watching for more. The pacing unfortunately grinded down to pretty unbearably slow towards around the ep 9 when a new character was introduced.

The writing and the performance of the character Yi Gyu is so bad. He could have been more interesting have actually known the person that Seon Chaek before her current incarnation. He's just so cartoonishly over the top greasy with no nuance and it doesn't help his whole plot is the boring political business. The women are all good, especially the twist villain arc of the former female lead Eun Ae, her determination to succeed turning dark. Hwa Seon the bully got pretty funny after she was stuck in a more humbling situation without being humbled at all, just huffing at the injustice that's now directed at her.

I really like that the original Seon Chaek actually gets to live on in the real world as she wants instead of her existence being over ridden. I love that so much that the original soul gets recognition in the story having seen so many where it doesn't. I like that the main couple aren't squeamish around sex, because it's so annoying to see two grown adults act stupid in kdramas when it comes to consensual intimacy. I would have liked if the main lead was shown to have improved his manners towards other people. He was completely awful to Eun Ae, a complete stranger at the beginning when he had no reason to be. It would be nice to see him have some change to people other than the woman he's in love with.

Read More

Brisk with room for more

The concept of the series revolves around the different type of sexual relations, from the positive to the heinous crimes that human beings engage in along with a supernatural twist, the fantasy aspect of which comes to a full boil that leaves the possibilities of more story to be told to explore the lore, and the interpersonal impact on the world after the events of the final episode.

The entity that masterminded the events to unfold is fascinating with the further powerset they have that is revealed. The series kinda waffles between sex positivity and slut shaming the detective for humor. I like that they showed Hyeon Hop getting to experience safe, consensual sex, with someone her own age without exploitative scenes. I do hope there will be another season, but the parent channel seems to often end shows this way and I haven't seen second seasons happening yet.

Read More

Intro to resisting systemic corruption

Every strike Yun Ga Min lays against a variety of bullies is a cathartic release of power that we all wish we had to defend ourselves. The beat down scenes are very well set up in each situation. It's so funny how he accidentally became a martial arts savant on his path to do everything to boost his chances on finally getting good grades. The only muscle that is the most resistant to strengthening in the poor guy's body is his brain alas. He may not be smart, but he his heart and tenacity is inspiring to the people that he cultivates a supportive circle that inspires them to stand up to the corrupt school and bully system they are trapped in that also goes beyond it. It's also important to note that Yun Ga Min comes from a middle class background in comparison to his economically disadvantaged schoolmates. Their financial insecure status is a key point that is taken advantaged of by the rich kid Pi Han Ul who is a rotten apple fallen from the rotten violent rich businessman gangster tree.

I like that teacher Lee acknowledges that violence is a legitimate self defense reaction to when the student is facing violent behavior and detective Na acknowledge the limitation to how much he's able to help them. Ms Lee has zero fighting skills and knew from the start her mentor was stabbed to death and she still went to this school and took a stabbing to protect her student from a murder charge and faced down many attempted murders. She went into her personal mission with eyes open to the danger. It does seem she healed from the stab wound really fast. It's also good that the Study Group doesn't just have Ga Min as the only protector, Ji U and to a lesser degree but better than Se Hyeon and Hui Won, though Se Hyeon is a pretty quick study, able to to swiftly follow both Ga Min and Ga Min's mom's direction to fight bullies. Se Hyeon might be an all rounder in brains and brawns with more training. Hui Won has potential as well, knocking down a bully american football tackle style. If there is a season two, it would be nice to see the group train up in all stats, both grades and fighting. Sun Cheol just wanting to study and his grandfather learning something new until he died are both very moving stories.

It's eye rolling that of Ga Min's mom, the director of the Tae Kwon Do association would be knocked out with a severe injury despite so many other characters getting worse hits and just shrugging it off. This was ultimately unnecessary as it didn't change Ga Min's character trajectory in anyway and she recovered just fine anyways. The drama leaves some dangling threads like Ga Min's master that his mom banned him from meeting anymore and possibly more to do with Han Ul's father and of course the kids who are only first and second years getting into college. I hope Sun Cheol who is already a senior gets into college as well. I hope this show gets another season to finish out the story.

Read More

Loses steam half way and dragged on too long

Han Joon is very entertaining as solves crime in the guise of a shaman with his own sharp deductive skills augmented by his misfit team comprising as his computer savvy sister Hye Joon, his brawler buddy barista, and pretty boy cafe host who kinda disappears as the plot gets serious. He's the best part of the show with the range to balance comedy with heartbreaking angst. The few scenes that he had with the late prosecutor best friend Jae Jung that was murdered showed a million times more chemistry than any of the scenes he has with the female lead love interest Jae Hee/Jangmi who is woefully miscast as she does not have the acting skills to either be funny or be serious let alone traverse the tone in between and it doesn't help that the writing for her characterization is atrocious. She's just violent and refuses to think with any kind of reasoning even though supposedly she closes a lot of cases. She just beats gangs up with brute force, with no detective problem solving skills. Her best relationship is actually her friendship with her sunbae that she is the superior of with them finding mutual respect for each other.

People saying the drama is not meant to be taken seriously sound like they are watching a whole different show, like a best friend being burned alive before their eyes haha? Victims of rape and murder, haha? They have the comedy moments which work best in all the dynamics outside of the chemistry-less romance that grinds the pacing down to a halt and serious subject matter as well. 18 episodes drags on for way too long for the show which should have been 12 episodes max. The writing for even the best character starts getting messy like Han Joon's either being very good at fighting to suddenly not being good whenever the plot needs it. Han Joon not knowing Jae hee was Jangmi is really nonsensical too with how he can read people and Hye Joon can dig up dirt with her tech skills. The casting for the characters with age gaps make zero sense either. Jae Hee's actress is the same age as Han Joon, but she looks a lot older even though his character was an adult when she was a kid. If it's just to make it so he wouldn't recognize her, they could have been both around the similar age as kids instead. The shaman auntie Im is supposed to be older being an adult already when her goon and her boss were kids, but they look way older than her as adults.

The twist on who the true serial killer is was nicely done having telegraphed it all the way when Prosecutor Cha ignored Han Joon's witness statement regarding the scar. He had better chemistry with the female lead which led to the disturbing reveal of his affections for her due to seeing her flounder in her search for her brother's killer and relying on his seeming kindness in helping her. He was otherwise the prototypical good guy drama character other wise. I think it would have been even more devastating if a friendship was played up with Han Joon and the others more too in the superfluous 18 episode runtime.

Read More

Humanity over Political Agendas

Moving is like a full season of western broadcast shows of yore like Heroes with 20 of 40 something minute episodes, except with possibly a bigger budget and better fight scenes. Heroes was allergic to the big fight scenes, closing the door when the fighters finally meet for it to happen off screen, but that's a whole other review. Han Hyo Joo is put to great use here as Lee Mi Hyeon, way better than Happiness where she was pushed to a back seat to the male lead once the romance entered the story. I'm always glad that she shifted to action based roles because she both humanizes her character with great acting while making her characters cool with great fight scenes. It's so fascinating that even with the no make up make up to give flaws and pores to her face to age her character to look older as her actual age difference with the actor who plays her son is just 11 years with her playing older and him playing younger, she still looks stunningly gorgeous. I really enjoyed how her character uses her supervision and hearing in conjunction with her top secret agent skills and quick thinking to eliminate her foes. The trick shot with the reflective surfaces and her rapid fire snow balls on the security cams were great. It's kinda sad though her son Bong Seok had inherited both his parent's powersets of flight and the super vision/hearing, he did not inherit his mom's survival instincts, though part of it could be due to her not teaching him what to watch out for and just to hide himself and keep himself down. He got lucky Frank was momentarily called off.

The drama does not take a position that any political entity that are using superpowered individuals are in the right, all of them are either complicit or the same in using these people as expendable pawns in their political ploys. The enemy combatants who were soldiers or agents needed to be stopped but they aren't allowed to be a one dimensional villain. Frank is assassinating the super power retirees who mostly have either complicated or very loving relationships with their children, on orders from the CIA, but he's show to feel bad when he goes to the funeral service of the woman he murdered to track down and kill her child, but finds that she's a great mother to many adopted children who felt just as loved by her as their sister that was her biological child. Frank was also technically and adopted child having been taken and trained through inhumane treatment by the CIA. Doo Sik thought he was sparing the North Korean soldier's lives by shooting them in an area that gives them the greatest chance to recover from if they get medical attention in time, but the soldier that was begging him not to enter the North Korean leader's room was not to protect the leader, but to protect all the soldiers from the consequence, which was execution which was what happened to all the other soldiers that survived. He then is tasked to cruelly brute force suspected superpowered individuals to awaken their powers by forcing off a cliff, to use their powers or die. If they manage to survive, they are forced to serve their country or their family's would die.

Some of these people were from the prison holes who would form a comraderies including one with Doo Sik who was caught in his second attack on North Korea that would lead to him finally being able to escape to reunite with his family. It's pretty ridiculous that he didn't bother to mask or do anything to hide his identity or country of origin, especially when he intended to leave a ton of witnesses alive during his first attack. He always showed a hubris in bucking his agency's protocols like not bothering to hide his identity to even his partner by only using code names, but he really though that would be fine on an assassination assignment in a foreign country. Absolutely ridiculous. Doo Sik was released by a fellow superpowered flying person. The variety of powers being limited to flying, strength, electricity, super hearing/vision is interesting, fast healing is interesting as well. It seems to be confined unless the off spring is from two super people thus giving them a combo. I'm shocked non of the agencies had breeding programs and they didn't know that the super abilities could be passed down to offspring until they saw toddler Ganghoon toss toss the swat team out of the apartment. Maybe that will be in the alleged season 2. Even though Ju Won lost an eye in the fight against the North Korean agents still adopting the big healing powered guy after that guy lost his only friend and was found sobbing by Hui Soo was sweet. Maybe Frank will eventually join their self healing family too. It's part of the ending which felt very rushed including Doo Sik killing director Min, Frank being alive, and other things. I respected it though because it has all the vibes of a show that found out it got cancelled and won't be getting further seasons and wanted to close off some plot lines the best it can like Pushing Daises.

Read More

Sampler bites of zombie survival personalities

The film certainly does feature action, but most of it are snapshots of how regular people would fare or do when suddenly trapped in a building during a zombie epidemic and a straightforward tale of survival. The pov character is a random guy Joon Woo who very unfortunately slacked off on getting the groceries at the worst time. No particular special skills, but very online. The one time where the penchant to post personal information online works out as it turns out to be extremely important to the outcome of his survival. Also helping is that he's very lucky to happen to be living across from an outdoorsy woman Yoo Bin who still has all her gear despite the trauma she suffered from a fall three years ago. That's pretty much all we get to know about her aside from seeing her cleverly save Joon Woo from suicide with a laser pointer and tenaciously barreling through the zombies to get to him. The third and final resident survivor is a desperate husband in denial stage Bae Soo who drugs and tries to feed Yoo Bin to his zombie wife. That's a huge blow to the two of them who consider euthanasia and suicide by gun before the helicopters really show up despite them thinking Bae Soo was just lying to them. The government broadcast implies that Joon Woo's social media posts was what saved them as it was how the rescue copters knew which roof tops to look for them. It's unwittingly about a balance of hobbies, the gamer guy and the hiker girl, working together to get to safety.

Read More

Art University Coming of Age Story

I love how the cinematography captures the air and space of the various settings. The best kind breaths life into every shot without overtaking it, it's harmonious in the storytelling with the characters who are at the center of them. The tension and the chemistry between the main characters works really well because beyond just the physical attraction, they are navigating learning about themselves through their interaction with each other. I really love that the women in the series have sexual autonomy and aren't shamed for it nor is it exploitative. Both the women and the men get to be three dimensional people exploring life experiences of young adulthood. I really like how their art major is actually part of the story, they go to class and work on their art projects.

Nabi is pressured into sex by her older boyfriend that is a teacher at an academy and is implied to be a mentor if not her teacher at some point who is also controlling and uses her as his model for an explicit art that depicts her completely exposed in every way during an intimate act with her real name attached to it without her consent or knowledge for any part of it. She finally dumps him when another student clues her in that he's also cheating on her with his other academy students. This is her first relationship and a toxic one that she survived to be more wary. She enters a casual relationship with Jae Eon with eyes open as to his preference of not putting a label on their time together. She is fully aware and she gave it a try with consent. Ultimately she wants wants a relationship that is more concrete. I like that she goes out on a date with the freshman and recognizes while it's the regular feeling she enjoys she doesn't have the spark. It doesn't work out because he immediately chooses the girl he's had a crush on for years. Nabi realizes she's a rebound and it stings. He knew that he was her rebound too though when they went on their movie date and she rejected his kiss by laughing. Her high school bestie has the worst timing of everything, he didn't tell her his feelings because she was already with someone, which could be her creepy older first boyfriend. Maybe if he had confessed earlier, a romantic relationship between them might have had a chance. I like that Nabi comes to life in friendships with people and she has kept that spark despite what she had endured. She is no pushover either, when Seol Ah, one of Jae Eon's ambiguous non girlfriends girlfriends comes to campus to be territorial, Nabi tells her not to cut her hair because Jae Eon likes to do it with the hair tied up, that was spicy.

Jae Eon has always had a distant relationship with women beginning with his own mother who is a successful dancer always on the road. He's effortlessly charming and straightforward, but withholds giving away too much of himself which eventually becomes off putting to them women who were initially attracted to his looks. He's always had an obsession with butterflies, keeping a walkable terrarium of them in his apartment. Both Nabi and especially him are very middle class well off, being able to afford being art students with nice apartments provided to them without the struggle that their female TA has to find affordable living quarters. He first sees Nabi when she's in the agony of public humiliation at the exhibit of her creep ex-boyfriend. By chance he runs into her again at the bar and then at the school that he transferred to from a different major because he's legitimately talented in art. He's by all means attentive to her. He learns that his feelings for her is different that when he's with other people, he can't keep her at a distance, he wants to be with her and wants to put a label on the relationship for her. He's not a perfect guy, his jealously seeing her high school bestie show up near her apartment being the partial reason to lead him to this epiphany. When she's not ready, he does his best to help her to reassemble her final project that was smashed due to a freak accident at school, and tearfully keeps his word to leave her alone. That was a beautifully heart wrenching scene. They run into each other at the final project exhibition long after everyone has left. Jae Eon is there to see their finished work with out bothering her while unknowingly granting her wish to see him again. She acknowledges that there will be pain in their relationship. She doesn't idealize him or their relationship, but she's going to be with him.

While they were the most intense relationship in the show, they are partly mirrored by Bit Na, a free spirited person enjoys friendships with attractive men and casual dating as well who is akin to Jae Eon, so it's ironic that Bit Na was the one initially warning Nabi against him, while Kyu Hyun is like Nabi who wants to be treated as more than just a sex partner. Jae Eon asks Kyu Hyun's perspective to understand more of Nabi's point of view. While it's fair that he deserves to be treated better than just for sex, the show could have done a better job showing that he's not in the right to tamp down the rest of her personality. The relationship of the the TAs were very typical kdrama fare with co-habitation to development of romantic feelings. The lesbian storyline with the best friends to lover relationship would have been great if they had gotten even a measly romantic kiss. I really like that their gender was never in question and their realization was developed organically. They should have gotten that kdrama kiss.

Read More

Messy motherhood messaging

The majority of the drama is painting a very three dimensional portrait of Young Soon who endured loss her entire life and to cope with the trauma of her husband's mysterious suicide after they had been abandoned by everyone they trusted, she raises her son to be a weapon of revenge without a specific aim at a person, but rather at the entire Korean justice system, which is a lot of weight on the shoulders of a man let alone a little boy. Instead of filling her son with warmth and understanding, she isolated him from finding joy with her, within himself, or in anyone or anything else, so he'll be single mindedly focused on becoming a powerful prosecutor. She's very lucky that Kang Ho is a born artist who is empathetic and observant and can see the glimpses behind her abusive parenting tactics and realizes the true targets he needs to hunt down for justice for his family who he played in a long game. Those are his true strengths that kept him from hating her for her behavior, which he has every right to no matter her intention as he still carries the emotional scars she inflicted on him. She herself realized the harm she had done only when she was forced to reflect on them after his accident left him with the mindset of a seven year old and he refuses to eat because she always forced him never to be full at meal times so he can stay awake to study. It's shocking he got to grow as tall as he did without much food. The majority of the drama sees Young Soon trying to fast track his physical and mental recovery before she herself succumbs to her stage four stomach cancer. The drama misses out on showing Kang Ho finding himself through his interactions with various people and memories. It was so disappointing that the memories from his 18 year old self when he kissed Mi Joo after saving her from the creep who was harassing her at the hair salon did not move up his mindset from 7 to 18. It's creepy that Mi Joo kept kissing a man with the mind of a 7 year old and he was able to be taken advantaged of by the village thief and loser Sam Sik. Instead of organically unlocking his memories in a meaningful way, of course Kang Ho recovers them after more severe head trauma from saving his mom and Sam Sik from the burning pig farm. Lee Do Hyun did a fantastic job portraying both the Kang Ho who is suffering from the mental regression and the pained adult enacting the 35 year revenge plan which required some difficult to outsiders to understand methods including keeping innocents in jail to save their lives and to cozy up to the company chairman.

He got to experience agency and happiness during his college years with Mi Joo who volunteered to help with the household chores and expenses while he studied. He broke up with her because there's something he can only do himself and offered to tell her why as he reached the time when he had to start his revenge plan, but she refused and kept her pregnancy a secret from him so as to not interrupt the plan that she didn't want him to tell her. She trusted that Kang Ho is doing something so important that he would leave someone he loves to do it. That's an intense trust level that she has with him, but also partially learned behavior from her mom in staying the man she loves no matter what. Sadly her mom's situation was staying in a toxic relationship with her abusive, cheating husband until he died just so her daughters wouldn't be fatherless, a insult that is levied at Kang Ho and also his seven year old twin children Ye Jin and Seo Jin who Mi Joo lies to that their father is a nail salon owner in the US. The twins are the creepily precocious kind, but Ye Jin is smart enough to tell Mi Joo to just get divorced from the man who clearly doesn't care about them and they'll live a good life without them. It's really awful that the drama makes this smart observant 7 year old man crazy and spending the majority of the time obsessed with marrying the guy she doesn't know is her biological father. That's not cute, it's just weird. It's also a big misstep in not showing a scene of Kang Ho finally introducing himself to the twins as their father and Young Soon as their grandmother, having a scene of their family finally formally together before they have the final celebration with the extended village family. There was time that rightly showed the love hate sibling like bond between Young Soon and all the villagers, but shortchanged the bond between the direct family members. Lion the pig also disappeared even though the pig was in the main opening sequence for every ep and was part of the story for so long. Could have shown her giving birth to the piglet that Kang Ho uses to propose at the end or something. Kang Ho also loses his job as a prosecutor and it looks like he becomes a pig farmer like his parents, with no mention of Mi Joo settling her major financial problems after being scammed by her former work best friend. They could have even thrown in a line to tie that up.

The tone of the series is really all over the place. It would go to very dark desperate places like Young Soon contemplating murder suicide to hanging herself to motivate Kang Ho to stand to then the annoying antics of Sam Sik and the bumbling goons who bumbled their way into becoming cabbage farmers. The more serious of the goons becomes a major whistleblower for Kang Ho. Yet again the show was missing a scene where the goon hits the final straw with a hit ordered on him to get him to the whistleblowing point. It was at least a little amusing to see that they found their calling as cabbage growing savants, but Sam Sik was just awful the entire time. A spoiled son that ends the drama having transferred his obsessive infatuation to Ha Young who is serving time for having incriminated herself in order to bring her father down. She's an interesting character who was also spoiled and haughty but melted to Kang Ho's seeming care for her. She does have a soul being haunted by her role in Kang Ho's attempted murder and seeing how corrupt and murderous her father is. She doesn't deserve to have Sam Sik being foisted on her though. The gag that the village chief's wife always covered her face with sheet masks and face masks because she is a Japanese mob boss's daughter didn't go anywhere. Her skills and resources was entirely unutilized and her character was just used as a sight gag the whole time.

Read More

Family fantasy that's also about individual growth and change

It's difficult or impossible to root for the leads of most kdramas to reconcile because the writing simply does not do the work to allow them to learn and confront the core problems that drove them apart in the first place, just skipping through romantic moments and calling it a day. This drama thankfully does have the main characters fully separate so they can gain a new point of view and move forward in their lives before finally understanding and see eye to eye. Da Jung delayed her schooling and working in her dream job in reporting/hosting while Dae Yeong completely abandoned his childhood dreams of becoming a professional basketball player in order for the two to become teen parents to twins. They both aged from still looking like their teen selves through their 20s to looking like they are in their 40s (as their actors are) even though they are supposedly 30s. within a few years (like John and Mary from Supernatural). At least she's pursuing her dream despite, while he's deeply embittered at his dead end job that he turns to drinking away his sorrows and saying the most unforgivable thing he could to his wife in public at their school reunion, blaming her for how his life turned out and forgets about it while being black out drunk. It takes two to conceive and was contraceptives even involved? This snowballs with his other bad behavior into being served divorce papers by Da Jung.

Dae Yeong caches in all the good karma he accumulated in his life both when he get given some magic tea that's implied to be perhaps a mix of science and magic by an mysterious elder that turns him back to his young charismatic handsome self and he has a very rich best friend Deok Jin who can house and pretend to be his father. All the scenes with him makes me wonder if this show was partially sponsored by Disney/Marvel. Deok Jin keeps pursuing Ms. Ok despite her constantly saying no until she agrees to date him at the end. It doesn't matter if she's also a fellow nerd, this is just awful. This storyline is awful when they did the other ones pretty well. Ji Hoon the baseball player was always respectful of Da Jung's space and wishes from beginning to end, being a fantastic friend to her even when she doesn't return his feelings. She in turns gives him observant and experience advice to raise his niece/adopted daughter. He was always the mature adult when ever Dae Yeong was being jealous territorial too and only got stern with him when Dae Yeong looked to be getting inappropriate and violent with a fearful Da Jung. He also had to learn that he can't force people to become parents when they don't want to. Him forcing his daughter's unwilling bio mom to meet her was cruel to both regardless of what she chose to say. It turns out that he had been looking for Dae Yeong as well as he was the one who was able to save the niece's life with his handyman tools by breaking the car window and taking her away from the car before a big truck careened fatally into her father and Ji Hoon's brother's car. It's pretty convenient that they are connected this way, but I'll chalk it up to part of Dae Yeong's magical karma.

Dae Yeong initially self serving wish to become young again to do what he missed out on became a way to understand his estranged family members. He finally sees all of his negative behavior towards them while his loving actions as Woo Yeong makes them think of Dae Yeong's caring side. His twins Si Ah and Si Yu seem to have zero interest of ever looking at his photos or videos of him when he was young, while in contrast Si Ah's boyfriend who has fond memories of Dae Yeong stepping up to race with him when he was young does and is the only one other than the adults to figure it out. It took Dae Yeong to transform into the body of his former self to stop yelling so much and be a more communicative person, finally getting to know his children fully as the people they have become. His stereotypical macho father outrage at boys being interested in his daughter was awful though, as Si Ah is more than capable of handling herself on that front. I hope both his kids are fully informed about contraceptives though. It's really lovely how the parallels were done between Da Jung and Si Ah's personalities. Da Jung was actually a bad ass that kicked a girl gang down to save the girl that bullied her, turning her into a life long friend and continues kicking ass with further self defense classes with Si Ah. Si Ah is a bit too old to learn the hard way to avoid dark alleys and picking fights in alleys no matter how good a fighter she is, but better late than never.

It was really interesting the way the drama dealt with the various bullies. Both the lawyer and the young anchor were saved by Da Jung fighting people that picked on them like the other bullies and the upskirt filming producer creep. The coach that bullied Deok Jin in high school took bribes due to his father never believing in him and paying his way onto the team. He became an example used by Da Jung to compel the parents to whistleblow together for their kids. This actually made the parent of Ja Seong that was bullying Si Yu for witnessing the bribe become a better dad and so his son becomes a better person too. Dae Yeong's dad didn't give into the bribe because he believed his son's abilities speak for itself. This storyline connects to the all the characters so well. Deok Jin appearing on the news and the anchor describing his incoherence in speaking as evidence of how badly he was beaten up by the coach was so funny. Dae Yeong reunites with his father who also turned to drinking and hitting him after Dae Yeong's mother died. With time and distance, his father had recovered from his grief and was able to change as well. Dae Yeong watching the back of his aged father, both sitting in the senior seating on the bus to driving the bus for work was heartbreaking. He interacts with him a for a few times, before finally revealing himself to his father through the sign language they both learned for Dae Yeong's mother. It's the most moving scene in the series.

I liked that Da Jung got to date Dae Yeong in his young form for a bit. The chemistry between the actors is very nice. Because there was so much change between the characters, it wasn't too disappointing that he switched back to true age after he made the decision to abandon a basketball career a second time, reaffirming what he wants is just life with Da Jung and their family. He even becomes her manager for a while before he becomes a teacher to little kiddos once his own kiddos have gone off to college. I assume it's because she made enough money in her flourishing career to afford to hire a team. The series is only a about 1hr4m most episodes, but each one feels longer than that, but in a good way. It packs in a lot of interpersonal connection and growth than dramas with episodes over 90minutes long. This is why years later when Da Jung and Dae Yeong have found their identities and have learned healthy ways to communicate after disagreements, it makes sense for them to tie the knot once again. Their guests include the mysterious magic elder who also offered Da Jung who helped him across the street a wish, but she didn't take it. I wonder if he offers everyone who helps him a wish, there might be a whole connected universe of magical mayhem stories because of him.

Read More

A thriller of Culpability

The story kicks off with a mystery of all the teens being forced to play Mafia and is propelled with fear of death and bullying at every point. The deaths themselves become spectacles. All of the head hits are impactful, as are the ones where they throw themselves over the railing. The self strangulation one was too silly, they should have rethought that one. Selfish bullies push people to the edge just as much as the assigned Mafia do. Everyone is forced to be complicit participants in someone's death by voting. Friends turn against one another. Kids blame themselves. The selfish flourish until their time is up. Intrepid asthmatic Yeon Seo analyzes the crime scenes and tries to find clues out of this giant, murderous Mafia themed escape room. Aside from her observational skills, she's also special in that there is a force who wants her to see beyond the code.

Jung Won turns out to be this force, a character designed to win the game and causing discord and murder in the wake of it, decided to lose it to save the two players who became her friends instead. She's the virtual stand-in, the virtual ghost of Se Eun who took her only life from bullying. The intense loneliness being targeted everyone around you is truly suffocating and it may be hard to understand by those who have not experienced it themselves. It doesn't matter what type of reason was used to bully her, it mattered that it was the people's attitude and actions or inactions towards her. Her parents took it upon themselves to kidnap her entire class and use them to mentally and physically hurt each other. There is no legal recourse that would give them justice for the daughter they lost. Yeon Seo gets to see the set up she's trapped in so the parents could find out what made Jung Won go against her programming to help. They are unwilling to see that Jung Won/Se Eun has found the feeling of friendship and loyalty that she didn't have before. Jung Won found a catharsis in the game that the parents are not willing to embrace yet outside of it even though they have engineered the repeated suffering of the key perpetrators and bystanders. Jung Won is reset along with the rest and she was not able to free Yeon Seo by letting the citizens win as Yeon Seo is only able to awaken when the parents allow her to. The kids aren't there to learn a lesson, they are just to suffer indefinitely. I wonder if aside from Jung Won, the other roles are randomized? If Yeon Seo is put into the mafia role, what would she do? Ultimately her morality doesn't matter to her jailers. Even Se Eun is trapped in this virtual hell until her parents can find their way out of their grief.

Read More