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I never read Sir Conan Doyle's Sherlock series so I can't say how any versions of Sherlock played up to it's book predecessors but I will say the Japanese version lacked some depth in many many ways.I've seen several British versions of Sherlock and enjoyed those. I even enjoyed the US version with Jeremy Miller and Lucy Lu.
When I saw that the Japanese had their version I had to watch.
The first episode was great. I liked how it started off but by the third episode everything became predictable before I can say predictable. There was no mystery in each episode as to 'who dunnit'.
Dean Fujioka's version of Sherlock was good. We didn't learn his backstory until the very last episode. I don't know why Iwata Takanori's character was there. His verion of Watson was so bad! He didn't add anything to the series. The kid who got info for Fuijoka's character was way better than Takanori.
I really despised the detective's character. He was another character that made the series less desirable to watch. The guy who played as the fake Moriya was also really really weak. I didn't understand what his purpose was. The last episode had me scratching my head. It was truly a waste of a watch.
I stuck this out because I've been hooked on Korean dramas. I've enjoyed a lot of Kdramas but is trying to expand my dramas to Chinese and Japanese as well but for some odd reason these two just don't have the skill Koreans have. It's hard trying to like other genres when dramas like this is given.
I just hope they're done with this series. Leaving it as a cliff hanger makes me hope they won't bring back a part two.
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I'm just going to sum up my review by keeping it short and simple. People who do others wrong with no remorse don't know or understand how it feels until it happens to them. That's what I truly loved about this series. Justice was served in every way one could imagine.
The only thing that I hated about this series is that it came to an end and I seriously doubt a sequel will be in the makings.
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Loosely Based Off Of The US Show
I watched Criminal Minds when it first aired in 2005. I didn't miss not one episode. When they played the last season in 2018 I was kind of crushed because that was my go-to show. It was the only show I watched for years.When I saw a Korean version-with some fighting in it-I had to see for myself if it's something I could watch and yes! All of the episodes that were shown were loosely based off the American version. The only difference was that some of the episodes carried over which was nice.
The downside was that some of the characters that were portrayed from the American version were weak. Especially the doctor who was suppose to portray Dr. Spencer Reid, and the computer genius that portrayed Penelope Garcia was even worse. Nobody can compare these characters and the Korean version tried and failed miserably. I only liked Lee Joon Gi/Kim Hyun Joon and Son Hyun Joo/Kang Gi Hyung.
The American version lasted about 13 years....the Korean version only 20 episodes. I wonder if they will have a second season. I will be game if they do.
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A Must Watch
I just finished watching this series and I have to say for some odd reason I'm ready to rewatch this again and I usually don't rewatch Korean dramas I've seen.The main character who I'm not familiar with was truly bad a* throughout the whole series. The whole cast had this special chemistry that made me want to watch all of this in one setting.
The fighting scenes were so top notch that I went into kid mode and kept rewinding and squealing...Sad I know but if anyone has watched this there's one particular scene where fighting occurs that threw me for a loop. That person became my favorite.
I'm not really big into female Korean actresses but the female cop was awesome. Except for the 'hip hop' scenes. Yeah, I cringed and was glad she didn't 'rap' too often.
The comedy in this had me rewinding and watching over and over. I never knew so many tears could come out of my eyes in every episode.
Since I'm not good with names, especially foreign names I'm just going to say the guy with the bob was my favorite. Poor guy got kicked and bounced up so fast only to fall the way he stood had me in tears!
Even the bumbling cop who surprised me throughout the series.
My least favorite of course were the bad guys but I also wasn't too fond of the prosecutor. Her constant 'Phoenix Sun' got on my nerves. Maybe it was the way her voice sounded. I hate female voices that are high and squeaky...ugh!
I definitely loved the fact that this was just comedy, mystery, and action. No sappy romances anywhere! These are my new descriptions for anything Korean right now.
Now that this one is done....going to find another to watch. Hope it's like this one.
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Glad I read the spoilers first
So I ended up adding this to my watch list on Netflix and was curious as to why it got a low rating. Usually when I come across a low rating Kdrama I will watch it to see if it was as bad as other people said it was.I did come across a few low scoring dramas and I enjoyed those.
Somehow I wish I didn't read some of the reviews that contained spoilers and somehow I'm glad I did. I hate when I come across a drama and is in love with the cast's character choices that make them enjoyable as a character only to have them die. Several reviews stated that the side main characters die. I now can't bring myself to finish watching this.
I was thinking about dropping this drama anyway because about the 7th episode, the drama starts to go awry. It turns into a lovey dovey drama that really kills the vibe for me. The second villain was already killing my mood because of the constant grinning/smiling and the senseless killings that was starting to take place. Plus he was able to jump out of a high floor building and land on his feet and pick up a guy like he was a piece of paper...That to me had me rolling my eyes and asking myself is this where this drama is going?
I did like the two main characters. The main male lead was just so adorable for some odd reason but as several reviewers stated the majority of the side characters die so what's the point of finishing this drama?
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I liked how they introduced each gang but I didn't understand what their purpose was. Especially the gang that had their hideout in a high school and that it was suppose to be a school but it was just run by a gang.
I made it to season 1 episode 6 before I decided to call it quits. I don't know, but it seems like this Japanese drama was trying to imitate the style of Korean action dramas but they failed miserably.
High & Low The Worst is right. It was the worst drama that I watched and there's two seasons and four movies of this.
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Korean dramas are starting to wan for me. I haven't found a drama without giving it bad ratings or just plain dropping it. This is stemming from me trying to avoid rom-coms which Korea has more than I can stomach. It's because of that the reason why I've hit a Korean drama slump. I haven't been able to find anything good since last September!!!This drama as always started off strong. But then each episode after that drags on about this dysfunctional family's lives. The only interesting thing about this drama was the two little kids. They were fun to watch but they had to have the little girl act like a love sick puppy which was adorable to some point.
The MML & MFL didn't bring much to this drama. I like the MFL in Sell Your Haunted House. I could watch that drama over and over. Even though I dropped this drama I don't know if she fights in this drama.
This drama does heavily focus on the family bond hence the title but it just dragged on and on about the husband sneaking off once every episode and assassinating someone. He and his wife always trying to conceive but keep failing. Then the wife's I hate you moments...Then out of the blue the MFL is the culprit of trying to undo what her husband is trying to accomplish. I stopped watching after that. I found myself just skimming through each episode and realizing I wasn't missing anything.
I told myself that I was going finish watching this series after I reset my brain from watching each ad nauseam episode but I haven't been back to watch it. I think I stopped after episode 6...I'm not sure. I usually wait till episode 5 to determine if I should finish or not. I tried to make it but I guess it's not going to work out... Just like the rest of the dramas I've been lucking out on.
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Oh wow this series was truly horrible!I don't know if it's because of the stoic main lead or the unkempt extreme goofiness of the second male lead. Either way these two shouldn't do anything else together. It didn't work for what the writer was trying to convey in my opinion.
The cinematography was horrible. The first episode looked like a person's first attempt at film making and it looked like a cheap and cheesy detective show and from what I've seen, it didn't lose any of those aspects.
There's no chemistry in any of the cast members. I did like the police chief but everybody else was just there just to be there.
Each episodes that I made it through was dry. I tried to make it to the 5th episode but couldn't. The music didn't help either. It was too loud and upbeat in the wrong places.
The constant phone calls the mother was making to her son at inopportune moments got old really quick. It became annoying.
If I was to tell you about the plots in each episode I couldn't. I kept losing interest and found looking out the window more interesting than what I was watching.
I don't know how this series got high marks. If I was to rate this from a negative standpoint then it deserves a 10 all around.
Guess I'll be sticking to the Korean dramas.
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This drama was made over 10 years ago and I wonder if all the Korean dramas were this SLOW back then!!! By golly each episode moved at a snail's pace. It seemed like it was over an hour!
I watched because the main male lead was the guy from Fiery Priest. I don't know his name but I think it's Kim-somebody. I wanted to see this because I know he has some mad Tae Kwon Do skills and he showed a little in the first episode so I was thinking yes, this will be one of those dramas that will have fighting scenes in it.
Nope! By the fourth episode I told myself to give it one more shot and if nobody does any fighting then I'm dropping it. Not only that, they had that cliche romance in it. Oh my gosh I want to rip my eyes out for the sappiness!!!
If this series was aiming for the plot I wonder how many episodes it would take to actually get to the point. All through the 5 episodes it just focused on two guys having a crush on one girl. Then when the preview of the 6th episode showing everybody fighting over one girl and the main guy, it made me want to hurl insults at whoever thought this was a good drama.
It's dubbed as a thriller, melodrama and romance but there's no thriller in it. It's predominately romance and yes this is why I avoid Korean dramas that have romance in it. I'm so disappointed right now because it's already hard enough trying to find my style of drama without the romance and that makes my chances of finding that slim and nil.
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I tried
I'm one of the few who found this to be a true dud. I tried to make it but by the 4th episode I was done.From the episodes I've seen all it was was sappy romance between the ML & FL which was faker than aspertame. I couldn't stomach the lovey dovey crap with no action.
When I want to see a Korean Drama I want fighting, action, comedy. Not rom-com stuff. I'm so not into that!
There have been a lot of favorites for me but I'm also finding a lot of duds. This was one of them.
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Too slow to be a thriller
Well, I tried. After watching several promising Korean action dramas and hit a drought I turned to this. This is where watching Korean dramas took a downward turn for me.After watching the Memorist, I figured this would be something like that. It kind of was but the FL was nothing short of inspiring to watch. Even the second FL was annoying to watch.
The guy in the wheelchair was just there just to be there. The killer didn't leave nothing to make you want to find out who he was. Beside the fact that the FL was weak in everything she did, it made it easy for me to stop watching altogether. I'm pretty sure I didn't miss anything.
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First and foremost I'm not picky when it comes to binge watching action dramas or any other types of dramas. I've been watching Korean dramas for close to a year and I guess trying to watch a different type of drama have me hitting my head against the wall.
Every episode that I stomached in this series was the same except it involved different suspects. The main male lead had a hangup about illegal opium smuggling and he was trying to track down who was behind the smuggling in every episode. Each time he found a mole they die and the episode gets recycled and then there's another mole who gets caught and die and then that gets recycled to another episode where there's another mole who gets caught and then they....yeah, you get the picture.
The first episode was all over the place for me. Besides the fact that I can't speak a lick of Chinese, the subtitles was so off it made the plot hard to follow. Plus there were times when the text appeared too fast and would jump to the next line of dialogue. I had to pause A LOT just to see what was said and by most of the translations being off I tried to translate myself what the correct English sentence should sound like.
I was also disturbed by the relationship the two main males had. In my opinion it wasn't a 'bromance'. It looked like they were falling in love with each other which is something that I'm truly not interested in seeing. Them touching each others hands and smiling at each other...yeah, that's not bromance.
The cinematography was amazing but the audio was truly weird. It sounded like it was dubbed over in a studio and they just attached the track to the actual episode. You could hear the movement of clothes, breathing-things that would get scrubbed out in audio editing.
I tried to sit through episode ten but as I mentioned earlier about moles getting caught, this was like the other 9 so I just went to find something else.
I think this was the second Chinese drama that I dropped. I have yet to find one that piques my interest. Sadly this one did not.
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While I'm all for different types of dramas and having a vampire one sort of piqued my interest-sort of. I'm no where near being a vampire fan. I never understood the hype and don't know why I tried to watch this.After watching Vampire Detective I should've stopped at that. I only watched that because of the fighting.
This one, from what I saw had minimal fighting in it.
What turned me completely off was the fact that this dude can drink someone's blood and figure out what type of crime happened and where. Besides gagging, I thought this was highly ridiculous.
I liked the detective. If he wasn't in this I think these episodes would've tanked completely. He was the only one that brought 'life' to this series but I couldn't get past the second episode.
The worse part is that there's a second season. Now a lot of other dramas I've watched only have one season and I now know why. Sometimes a second season wouldn't be a good idea. If I wasn't so grossed out by this....yeah, I still wouldn't watch it.
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First thing's first...what's up with the Phantom Of The Opera's theme? It made no sense. Second, I for one could barely look at the main character's face. My head is hurting from trying to avoid looking at him every time his face was on camera. He just had one annoying expression glued to his face and it was annoying to look at.
Third, I was thinking how on earth was the guy who played as the hacker who survived able to have the same face as the main character? When they said they wouldn't be able to get his face right I was thinking yes, I don't have to look at his one facial expression anymore. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. Also it didn't solve the fact that the guy who played as the hacker could look and sound like the main character. It was like a bad job of Face Off.
Fourth, the culprit behind the women's killings made no sense. He kills the people who spread the rumors about his friend for revenge but he doesn't go after the person who actually killed his best friend??
I made it through the 4th episode. I don't think I could make it through the next 16 because trying to avoid looking at someone got my head hurting. I'm just going to give up and find something else.
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This is no where near like the first one
I tried as hard as I could to watch this. It's very slow and all over the place.I'm all for action but all it was in the first two episodes was just guys fighting each other and killing some and for what reason??
I couldn't follow this mainly because they were dropping so many names I couldn't tell who they were talking about. Now I've already stated in several reviews that I suck at names. By this being foreign it makes it even worse for me so when they said some names I was like 'who the heck are they talking about?'
The cinematography in this was absolutely horrible! From dark backgrounds to extreme shaky fighting scenes, this made it even harder to follow.
This series was about political corruption. Then again what Korean drama isn't w/o it's political corruption. That's the only thing I could follow.
There was no chemistry in the cast because nobody cared about anybody. Everybody was just too angry about their own issues and that was it.
When I saw that there was a sequel to the first and I read the plot I told myself I wasn't going to watch this because it didn't reel me in. The only reason I went back on my word was b/c I've hit some Korean drama droughts and decided to give this a shot. I did and it's a drop for me.
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