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Drama Special Series Season 1: White Christmas korean drama review
Completed
Drama Special Series Season 1: White Christmas
1 people found this review helpful
by daisy
Nov 15, 2019
8 of 8 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 10
Story 10.0
Acting/Cast 10.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 10.0
This review may contain spoilers

More than shirtless boys frolicking in the snow

I feel like this one will stick with me forever.

I don't think a lot of people would like White Christmas.

It's slow and dark.

There's no romance or intentional comedy.

It's shot in 60 fps.

It's snowing the entire time.

But I love love love this show. It's so good. 10/10 if you like slow, deep & psychological film with that weird nostalgia for the time it was set. It's 2019 now, so the clothes, phones, music, ways of interacting in 2011 become a feature you can't ignore.

Most epic scenes are followed by Arcade Fire, literally. That just seals it in that time period.

You also can't ignore the era back then that was shooting every drama in 60 frames per second. The hd soap opera effect with barely edited audio.

The characters are acted out brilliantly. I can never put my finger on why this film does so much for my interest. It feels like it could easily be a play on a stage. Like you are watching more of a play of dialogues and monologues rather than a film.

It's psychological and strange.

The question it explores the entire time is;

"Are monsters created or are they born that way?"

A boy enters a boarding school and finds a journal hidden in his room from the previous student.

That student had been driven to suicide by a group of students and one teacher.

The new boy plots revenge on behalf of the dead kid.

These characters stay behind at school during Christmas break.

The revenge kind of goes to hell when a serial killer shows up in the guise of a doctor whose car crashed.

They're trapped in the school for eight days because an avalanche blocks roads & phones don't even work.

There's not a single one of them who is mentally stable if not actually psychotic.

By the end I realized these characters and their dynamics around the concept of "trust" really affected me.

You see this struggle between hope, despair and escapism along with character developments that make it even more difficult to ever forget. I watched this two months ago and my mind still wanders to what happened with the kids in White Christmas.

The camera placements were so unique and these things are ultimately what gives psychological dramas their "feel." The snow everywhere was a huge part of the frames used for the isolation, awe and hopelessness felt by the characters.

The scene cuts into flashbacks felt painful to take in while watching the story unfold. To realize how fucked up these kids all are.

The characters are what makes this whole show great. They are almost slightly exaggerated into their traits and behaviours. Taking their emotions nearly too far in most scenes. And the quiet between those scenes is even more beautifully depicted. The actors made all of it seamless.

The ending of White Christmas is brilliantly dark, hands down. Endings have such a huge effect on the entire experience of taking in any series, always with the potential to ruin everything. The ending here ruins nothing and feels awesome to watch after all they had been through. For the mindfucks the entire drama delivered in every episode.
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