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The League of Refunded Kids

Kim Ahyeon lives in hiding with 3 other young adults who are seemingly happy and enjoying each other’s company. Refered as “Big Sister” by the other 3, Kim Ahyeon is like a leader of their small team of misfits. Unable to go to school or work, they rely a lot on “Uncle”, the one who pulled them out from the brink of death. They are the refunded adopted kids, abandoned and discarded when their adoptive parents got tired of them or their performance fall short from the parent’s expectation - termed as defective. “Uncle” is the one who handles the refund, by chucking them into a barrel filled with cement, although he did this without knowing the content of the bags he’s given to handle. He saves another refunded child of 11years old, but a phonecall from the kid to his mom turned their world upside down, turning the little hidden group into fugitives from the law and the secret organization who sells babies. Realizing they would not be able to lead a normal life if they keep running, especially after Uncle goes missing and presumebly dead, Ahyeon decided to track the mastermind of the secret organization and expose them to the public.

I like that the little group isnt portrayed to be some superpowered or super genius kids despite them being genetically-engineered. They can fight, they can handle guns, all thanks to Uncle’s training, but theyre still prone to injuries, emotional outbursts and reckless actions that most young adults do. When injured, they don’t just get up and goes on running or fighting as if those injuries are just a scratch like in most action dramas, they actually stayed down and rendered immobile for a period of time.

All the actors performed really well, even the little guy Siwon. Well almost all, I find the guy who played Kim Sihee’s chief bodyguard to be very wooden despite granted with extra screentime of his character’s background, which i felt unnecessary. His background did not add anything to the whole plot, i still failed to see why he came to be so attached to Kim Sihee despite knowing he is expendable in her eyes. This guy tried so hard to look cool and tough, and still fail to look his part.

Overall the fightings are great, the plot is engaging and they don’t waste too much time on flashbacks. Managed to finish this under 24 hours so I guess it’s pretty okay.

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When the Cunning Meets the Shrewd

Lets meet Shen Hexi the resurrected shrewd and ruthless woman, and Xiao Huayong the forever frail and cunning crown prince. Both needed to tread the jagged path of the court and palace and learnt to dabble between what they intend people to see of them, and what they really are. Both are very calculative and strategically crafty. Shen Hexi is a commandery princess summoned by the emperor to the capital from the Northwest frontier to marry a prince. She sets her objective in stone right from the start, to marry a prince who would guarantee the safety of herself and her clan, one who would never have their power hungry interests clash with the survival of her family. Although she found the delicate crown prince counting days to his end to fit this role, the crown prince found himself drowned in the love for Shen Hexi, and contemplate whether to satisfy his greed by marrying her to spend the remaining short years he has on his life with, or avoid her from becoming a widow and face palace intrigue all alone altogether, all while he is investigating about the real culprit behind his poisoning when he was a child.

I am always a sucker at harem power struggle and this show has one of the most satisfying inner palace face-off ever. The FL being an extremely shrewd and ruthless right from the start makes sure no one could trample her after being resurrected into She Hexi’s body. She does not need a hero to swoop her off her feet and fend dangers for her, because she strategically lays her groundwork before going into any fight at all. She doesn’t need to wield a spear or a sword, all she needed is to grasp the will of the people around her, a true political heroine. Meng Ziyi excelled in this, since she’s had a share on playing similar role in Blossom, though Shen Hexi is, in my opinion, waaay better than Dou Zhao when it comes to ruthlessness. She set clear objectives and boundaries, lets people know and understand this, and she never gets swayed by smooth-talking, pleading or threatening.

This is the second time that i saw He Yu and he carried the ML character really well. I am actually surprised to realize he was actually Furong Jun from Legend of Shenli. I definitely did not recognize him until I checked out his MDL page after i finished the show. Anyway, the Crown Prince is written to be extremely meticulous, crafty and intelligent, but what I like the most is how he manoeuvred around his siblings to eliminate their chances at FL’s hand. And i totally love the fact that he’d act coquetishly with Fifth Prince Xiao Changqing at some point of the show despite being at odds with each other, acting like a real baby brother with that little cheeky voice,”Help me bandage the wound, it’s painful, brother,” 😆 or “brother, i am hungry,” and then provoke him the next minute. He’s like the youngest brother who is showered with most love by the parents and goes off playing pranks with his lesser-favoured brothers and shout victim to get away. This character is very shameless, be it using his illness to curry favour or get away with anything, or gaslighting people to get them go with his plans. It’s honestly a fun amid grey flag character. I can’t particularly stand possessive ML so I am glad he snapped out of it quickly after or else i might have dropped this. It’s amazing how in sync the Crown Prince is with Shen Hexi once theyre together. And how he carefully wove his intricate net of people all over the place so she would never run out of help to maneouvre around the court is exceedingly brilliant and sweet at the same time.

Though I must say the star couple is actually the side couple Captain Bu Shulin and Vice Minister Cui Jinbai. To see the reverse-courting by Captain Bu on Cui is totally hilarious, especially when she did it only to use him as a shield against the courting from the noble ladies. The fact that she’s only after him for something non romance-related is fun to watch, especially when her male disguise is very convincing and she looks nothing feminine at all. Her height and sharp, chiselled facial feature contributed a lot to this, which most actresses who have played cross dressing roles lack of. The voice didnt sound deep enough for a man but she really did better than most cross-dressing actress i’ve seen so far, though i am not too sure if she dubbed her own voice or not. She also maintained a masculine mannerism throughout the disguise and never faltered even once. I am very impressed with the actress. How this character tries to get away when Cui finally reciprocated afterwards was even more hilarious. They’re really fun to watch.

There are a lot of familiar faces here, i spotted those who played Xia Jingshi from Fated Hearts, Yu Qianqian from Pursuit of Jade, Gu Yu from Vendetta of An, Shen Muyue from Legend of Shenli. I am ecstatic to see Jeremy Xu who played Gu Mudan from Whispers of Fate and most recently Peter Ho who also played FL’s father in Key to the Phoenix Heart which I dropped right before starting on this show. They all gave an exceptional performance and I adore them very much.

There were more romance scenes than action/physical fights here, and there wasn’t as much palace intrigue as I anticipated, too bad for that. Not sure how the novel went, but I felt that there was so much more potential for this show to expand of the court power struggles and physical fights by the seemingly-delicate-but-actually-skillfully-strong crown prince. I just feel that it could have been a more engaging plot than it really is, instead of focusing on the main couple courtship which was really boring to me. But on a side note, i liked both characters enough not to use the FF button too much. 😆

Regardless, I enjoyed this show.

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Too Much of a Downer

Won Miho forced herself to train so she could awaken Wonjeong’s powers and stop people around her from dropping dead, but her progress is interrupted when Guntang used a demon to make her feel guilty for the deaths of people she cherished, up to the point of being suicidal. Van managed to come to the rescue just in time but sustained severe injuries. As they bide their time to recuperate by hiding from Guntang and his demon army, more people are getting hurt as Guntang becomes out of control.

Honestly, the vibe as i watched this is similar to Alice in Borderland sequels. The plot doesnt make sense due to considerable plotholes, the pacing is too damn slow and the storyline became more boring with each episode. The FL character also went downhill so passionately. 😒 i get that she’s griefstricken that the people she loves got hurt because of her, and that she’s distraught aboit the possibility of losing her current identity once Wonjeong fully awakens. But come on, all the crying is just too excessive and over the top. I took such a long time to finish each episode, I had to keep pausing it and distract myself with something else just to keep myself from dropping it altogether due to lost of interest. It was truly a pain for me to finish this one despite being only 6 episodes. With other shows I normally finish within 8-10hours 🙊 while this one took 2 days 😵‍💫

The SML maintained his streak of uselessness throughout the show up until the final episode. Only in the final one did he eventually became a teenie wee bit helpful for the showdown between humans and demons, after somehow being bestowed with divine power. Ironically it was the short clip of this Father Johan wielding the jedi-like sword that led me to the series, only to find this character a mere feast to eye and nothing more. I get that he cant be compared to ML the half demon, of course theyre not in the same league since he’s just a human, but come on, he’s so useless that even when he just needed keep an eye on FL so she doesnt fall for Gungtan’s tricks again, he still fails the task. Tsk tsk. Cant even keep an eye on 1 most important person of the whole story when that’s the sole reason why he travelled thousands of miles from Italy.

They maintain their impressive performance on the makeup and CGI though.

Anyway, i just realized I may not be fond of Korean ghost-busting demon-hunting fantasy stories. Almost all received low rating from me. The only show that got above 9 rating had been Alchemy of Souls, the rest falls below 7. 🤷🏻‍♀️ maybe this genre for kdrama is just not my cup of tea.

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Weird Storyline but Great Action

So demons from all over the world (or maybe only in korean peninsula?) are all being squared up and confined in a place called Tamra in Jeju Island, and Wonjeong is supposed to be the saviour of all mankind who creates the seal and barrier that keeps them in a hole, all chained up underground. But before she trained herself up to build the barrier, monks of that time made it a practice to create demon slayers from small boys by pouring the lust demon’s blood into their spine. Of all boys, only two survived the grueling and cruel process to became half demons, Van and Gungtan. Theyre supposed to kill lust demons to keep humans safe with the demon superpower that they possess, problem is it was not a choice they made. Apparently, Van eventually killed Wonjeong but she managed to seal all demons underground, all but Van. Hundreds (or thousands?) years later, the barrier starts to crack and some lust demons escape. Van made it a mission to hunt every one of them until Wonjeong’s reincarnation awakens her memory and powers to reseal the demons again. Won Mi Ho is the reincarnated Wonjeong, the only daughter of a business moghul in Korea. As she is becoming a target for lust demons upon her arrival in Jeju, Van inadvertently came to be hired as her bodyguard, awaiting for her to fulfill the promise she made to him and atoning himself for accidentally killing her back then.

Well the story is pretty straightforward but not without considerable plotholes. Like how did all demons gets sealed except for Van, and the fact that how the heck would Wonjeong really make her promise to free Van and Gungtan come true while doing her job, when the seal itself would also seal them off? She has no knowledge let alone strategy to accomplish this, so it is basically an empty promise. What’s even more confusing, why would the barrier breaking up also weaken Van when Gungtan gets all powerful instead? It just doesnt add up. That little side story of Priest Johan the SML also doesnt add anything to the original plot but mere embellishment of the pretty boy cast since the ML isnt one. I just don’t get his function in the story other than adding more sob childhood as if Van’s and Gungtan’s aren’t enough already. SML is also not powerful at all to keep any of the demons at bay so I really don’t get why his role existed.

The ML is a broody, gloomy character, i mean who isnt with that kind of background and bleak future he has? But I like him anyway, and I like it when he doesnt react to Won Miho’s and Johan’s provocations. Won Miho is okay, she came off like a tough girl in the first 10 minutes of episode 1, but turned into just another damsel-in-distress awaiting for rescue for the rest of the show. I mean yeah her role isnt supposed to be fighting off anything, she’s only responsible for the sealing job so that explains all the screaming and shrieking and panicking whenever the demons tracked her down.

They try to make Gungtan’s role all that mysterious with the group of cultish followers behind him, i guess that will only be explained in season 2. But honestly it just created another “huh” moment for me, exactly like Priest Johan’s role that came from a monastery so far away in Italy to supposedly protect Won Miho (but he failed miserably at it).

I like the action here, all that superpowers being handed out in a platter for me to savour. The demon CGI and makeup is also seamless, especially that transformation on Van and Gungtan. Well done.

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The Unwilling Ghostbuster

The story opens with the King’s crown princes dropping dead one by one, with his third (eh or was it the forth?) prince getting sick and behaving like a possessed kid. The King has no choice but to seek help from the temple, despite not believing in spirits. Kidnapped and later coerced into doing some ghost-busting in the Joseon Royal Palace, Gu-cheon, a freeloader who is recommended by the temple ghost-buster monk, found himself granted by the King with a witty and curious ghost-hearing assistant, court lady Saeng-gang. A ghost busting job that started as the hunt for a pond spirit turned into a battle against an ak-gwi, a spirit with powerful resentment who has killed souls, all while fending themselves against the King who is worried that they would unravel the royal family’s 30yo secret.

This is totally giving off The Haunted Palace vibe, though I must say this is definitely better with the actors not trying too hard at the romance thingy. Exactly the way i like it, if it’s supposed to be horror then do your horror thing and not distract viewers with those cheesy romantic scenes, I aint here to see that. Anywayyy, there are considerable plotholes that left me thinking “huh?” along the way, like how did Gucheon turn into a swordmaster in the spirit world but look like a clutz in the real world, and how the heck did he survive a cut across the throat, but i try not to think too deeply on it. One thing for sure, I liked the main characters Gucheon and Saenggang, a duo that started off suspicious and disliking each other but ended up sticking together even in life and death.

The villains here are really vile with a special kind of class, the King doesnt care about his own kids’ life and death, the Dowager Queen of course cares even little since the King isn’t born from her, though i gotta say, the King’s mother is probably the vilest of all. These characters made me thought why the heck do people fight for the throne so badly just to end up with such dysfunctional family with crooked and unhappy life in the end. Anyway, the actors for villains play their role really well I wished for the cruelest death for each of those characters real bad.

Love the BGM and the CGI is really good here, didnt look cartoonish at all, and that ggeomoksali is too damn cute. Gotta say korean ghostbusters really had the worst occupational hazard of all ghost-busters i’ve seen, they literally had to die first to even start ghost-busting. Not to mention need a lot of first aid kit for those palm cuts and blood loss after each trip 😫 no wonder Gucheon never wanted to be a ghostbuster.

SPOILER BEYOND THIS LINE_________________




The ending gives off kinda mixed vibe. Although i love it cuz the main characters survived, i also hated it because NONE of the villains had the vile endings they shouldve received for all the vile things they had done. Like for real. NONE. Justice definitely doesnt prevail in this story. The powerful remains powerful with just a tiny slap on the wrists. Urggg 😫🙄 So that kinda made me take off some stars off the story.

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Welcome to the Battlefield

Working with the Associate Justice Min, Kim Gaon is sent to become Associate Judge for the Live Court with Kang Yohan as the Chief Judge in trying to collect information and evidence to stop Kang Yohan. Kang Yohan is known to be a no-nonsense judge, becoming popular among the citizens as the one who gets the guilty pay despite their powerful background, with the memorable speech, “I am the Authority,”. As Gaon delves into the works of Kang Yohan, especially after bunking in Kang’s mansion after saving him from an explosion blast, Kim Gaon realized things are not exactly the way it seem on the outside. With Kang Yohan and his unconventional way of exercising law, Gaon is faced with dilemma, seeking true justice that makes the guilty pay no matter what it takes even if it means bending the law to his advantage, or stay true to his conscience that urges him to abide by the law that he has been upholding, despite realising that the law is filled with loopholes that the wealthy and powerful could escape with.

It took me some time to get acclimated with Kang Yohan character, he is depicted to be extremely shady who appears to be working for the citizen on the outside but laughing and drinking happily with the wealthy and powerful on the side. I get how conflicted Kim Gaon is, as Kang’s absurdly arrogant with immovable principle character could really make people either despise or worship him. At some point he reminded me of Prosecutor Jang Dohan of the kdrama The Guardians, one who had no qualm of getting his hands dirty and laugh with the devils just so he could put down those devils for good. Kang Yohan is like this, except he doesnt dodge or hide from the devils, he hit them straight head-on by using devilish tactics and measures that other characters with conscience like Kim Gaon and Yoon Soohyeon see him as the evil one and a threat to humanity, completely blinded to the reality that Kang Yohan is the better devil of them all.

I truly love the actress playing Jung Soonah. She really nailed it as the psychopathic biatch that holds enormous grudge against the wealthy and powerful, especially on Kang Yohan as he saw her as who she truly was before she became powerful, a thieving poor little girl. Her moves are as unpredictable as Kang Yohan’s are, it’s really hard to expect what would come next with these two characters. One point they are reliving their past, giving in to each other and the next they would go at each other’s throat with full vengeance. Although this character surprised me around third quarter of the show when she showed a little sympathy for the poor, the kind she was back when she was a girl.

The mindgames here is definitely different than the average thriller mystery revenge kind of show that I’ve seen cuz justice lurks on the grey and dark areas instead of the righteous path, so you can’t really guess even the protagonist’s next move. When I thought I was becoming bored with Kim Gaon and Yoon Soohyeon’s moments, the next scene turned out to be exciting enough that I could not put the episode on hold. But somehow I am disappointed that Detective Yoon’s character isnt more brilliant than she was in the show. I wish she was more than just a pawn in those mindgames.

As usual with korean revenge drama, the evil ones get fitting ending, though it is exceedingly more satisfying here as their deeds are made known to the general public, leaving no room for retribution at all. Some might think the ending is flat or disappointing with regards to Kang Yohan and Kim Gaon, but ultimately this is a story about revenge, it’s not about upholding justice at all. So for me, the ending is good and fitting.

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Came for the Action, Stayed for the Laugh

In the midst of transition between Goryeo and Joseon era, a loyalist soldier Jang Sojeong became a traitor when he went against his commander (who turned to be the future first king of joseon) and had to become a bandit in the mountains. As he led his small army of ex-loyalist bandits, they came upon the news that the Royal Seal bestowed by the Ming Dynasty was swallowed up by a whale on its way back to Joseon and that the navy is searching for it. Seeing this as an opportunity to hold the seal hostage against his ex commander now king, he led his ragtag of mountain bandits to the sea in search for the whale, clashing against the pirate Captain Yeo Wol and her shipmates in their fight against former pirate Captain Soma and the Joseon Navy.

The movie started off on a serious tone when ML had that fight against an army of soldiers during his mutiny, then that scene of Yeo Wol taking over the pirate ship after Soma decided to sell his men out to the Joseon Navy. I never thought this would turn out a comedy instead with the mountain bandits keep getting into mishaps in their efforts to hunt the whale. I laughed non stop, and the seasick pirate-turned-mountain bandit Chul-Bong who had to return to the sea when his chief decided to hunt a whale was the actual star of attraction. The mishaps that happened here looked so natural and fun. The waterwheel scene reminded me of the scene on Pirates of Caribbean though, they must have inspired by it cuz the similarity was too striking.

I love the FL Yeo Wol is such a badass that never really turn into damsel in distress for the sake of making the ML look cool. She has her own story, fights and make decisions that she doesnt falter from just because the ML hoodwinked her.

I love the ML too, he’s fun, he’s tough and he’s a gentleman enough for a bandit. Love seeing his banter with his banditmates. Psst, he’s good looking too!

The ending is somewhat depressing for the whale, but a good ending for the mainleads. Each had their revenge exacted the way they wanted it.

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Unnecessary Sequel

If i thought watching S2 was the screenwriter dumbing me down with those ridiculous philosophycal crap, this S3 made me feel like being zombified by them.

1. The whole season being triggered by quack professor obsessed with the afterlife, a crackhead enough to take down 2 people for him to get the useless answer that, mindfckingly, he never got til the very end. Like whaaaaaat?

2. A woman with a good husband and happy life who’s so hung up with her lost father that she’s willing to venture into the world she fought so hard to leave just to see him again. Like whaaaaaaat? If he’s dead, you won’t find him in borderland cuz that’s the land between death and life, and it’s not possible that he’s been in between life and death cuz it takes at most 2 minutes of dead heartbeat to traverse between that life and death, and he’s been missing for months (or years). And if he’s alive somewhere in the wilderness, then he would definitely NOT be in borderland. There’s just no way for him to be in the borderland so where is the sense of having Usagi following the professor to go to the afterworld? The professor isnt even a therapist she mightbhave wanted to consult with, so how did he convince her to go with him? She’s that fcked over her father’s disappearance that she’s willing to throw away the good life she has now, the good life that she was convinced her father would want her to have back in season 2, which is the reason why she fought so hard to get back to. How could someone who had gone through that, realize the meaning of life and found happiness suddenly throw everything again to follow this quack professor she knew days before just for the unplausible possibility of finding her dad again in the borderland? Where is the logic and sense in that? That’s a total mindfck the writers did on us the audience there.

3. There is no explanation whatsoever as to how the borderland citizens (the gamemasters) could influence real life people to want to come the afterlife, up to the point of arranging the death games in the real world. Like how? Nothing explains this.

4. The dramatic scenes on this one is even cringier than season 2. Of course why not we just opt for the couple straining themselves trying to hold hands between two moving trains when you can simply just jump across and hug? That gap was a no brainer for Usagi the mountain climber, but nope, lets just try hold hands instead 😒🙄 what a drama trope. And how did this badass spiderman FL suddenly needs to rely on a crippled man to get through the games? Guess japanese shows also suffers from cdrama plague of dumbing/powering down FLs just so the next male character could shine. OMG such cringeful of tropes they threw in there.

5. I dont get the kind of attachment Usagi has on the crippled professor. He offers empty promises, telling Usagi she could find her father in the borderland but when she arrives, she wants to go right back. But when Arisu lays a punch on the bastard when they reunited, she spared no second to come to his defense, yelling that he got them back together cuz he helped her clear the games. What the heck now? Girl, he’s the one who separated you guys in the first place for his own selfish desires, he deserves more than that punch even after he ‘inadvertently’ helped you reunite 😒

6. All that trouble to lure Arisu to stay in borderland as citizen for the gamemaster’s entertainment, then in the end the master of borderland would just let him choose whether to live or to die, whichever he chose would still not make him stay in borderland. What kind of mindfck is thattttt?? So what the hell is the point of this whole shenanigans? 🤬🤬

All the above made me thought the hours i spent on this stupid show was such a waste. There is no point whatsoever of this season’s existence. I shouldve dropped this on season 1. Like for real. I’m gonna go with my first hunch for the next shows. Don’t get reeled in by curiosity, woman!

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Get Ready for some Mindfvck

I cant believe how much yapping this season 2 has, when I can barely stand the preach on season 1. Omg that lengthy talk about leadership, sticking out with friends whatever is so repetitive that I finally used the FF button. ML was so obsessed about getting the answer whether they could leave the game if they finished all the games, when he’s been asking the wrong people with wrong questions. Why ask the citizen player whether they could return to the real world when the citizen’s real world is the borderland? Duh, I fastforwarded so much at season 2 cuz they keep yapping useless things like lamenting their past lives or their regrets or meaning of life. It’s amazing how they would yap yap yap when the time on the game was usually only 15-10-5 minutes left. Those preaching is also much cringe-worthy that i failed to see them as profound at all.

Episode 8 felt like the writer is trying to dumb me down with multiple “jokes” told by Queen of Hearts. The ending made everything seem even more senseless. Is this just another cheap trick to bait people for S3 cuz they never really explain why the heck was everyone having the same borderland experience? This season’s ending seem like yet another of the fantasies that the players are experiencing, it’s a hard sell. I feel like I am being tricked, but since the only reason why I struggled to finish both seasons was to find out who the real mastermind is, I guess I’ll have to endure a little bit more of s3.

There’s a lot of more blood getting spilled in this season, I guess with the weak script they had to do something to keep the audience on edge. More blood, more gory deaths, more gunshots. But no worries, as long as your favourite characters are within the top 5, no matter how many gunshots or slashes or burns they suffer, they would simply survive. The amount of resurrection they did on Aguni and Niragi are so many that I lost track of the numbers. The writer really dumbed the audience down with this one.

I am quite frustrated that I havent found my answer even after enduring 2 seasons. Now i had to watch s3. Duh.

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Clear the Game or Di3

Arisu, Chota and Karube walk out of the building only to find the supposedly bustling city being totally empty, devoid of any living beings whatsoever. They find instructions for them to participate in games where clearing it will reward them with visas - basically pass for them to stay alive. If the visa expires before players manage to join a game, a laser will shoot from the sky straight into their heads, which of course ends said life. As they try to clear each game, Arisu comes across an intriguing girl called Usagi, a mountain climber with superior agility and skill at scaling vertical objects, and both end up sticking with each other to find the game master so they could return to the real world.

Coming from a generation that grew up with Battle Royale and the likes, hardly any scene of this show fazes me, despite them being all bloody and gory. The games are somewhat interesting, but the real motivation for me to finish the show is actually to see the real puppeteers behind those games.

Arisu, although comes from a somewhat well-off family, is not the hero type - he can’t fight, he is not stunningly handsome, he generally panics first and think later, and he used to live his life as a loser back in the real world, being frowned upon by his family as hopeless, thus suffers from considerable low self esteem. He wastes his life with video games and hanging out with equally hopeless friends. So yeah, he is not the ideal hero ML. But one thing he possesses is a very perceptive and quickwitted mind that analyzes situations in a more detailed manner than the usual bloke. This is the only thing that gets him through those games in borderland. You dont get to enjoy an ML who could fight off bad guys or protect his female counterparts. Nope! Scratch that expectation off. Arisu instead gets beaten all bloody quite a lot in here, and he doesnt really lift a finger to fight back. He is a total living punching bag, which sometimes frustrates me to watch as I am more inclined towards physically strong roles. But the show must go on, and my curiosity of the game master trumps my getting cringed at how physically weak the ML is.

Although the ML is weak and rather uninteresting, the females roles here have quite a range of interesting characteristics. We have Usagi the mountain climber, Kuina the black belt transgender, Ann the police forensic lady and Mira the mysterious psycho. The show really picked up when they finally arrived at The Beach that supposedly hold all the answers the players needed. Or so it seem.

Anyway, this is a total survival story, don’t go expecting smooching romance or mindblowing fight choreographs. There are lots of blood, gun shoot-out and knife and sword slashings with occasional racy bedscenes among unimportant characters, and head’ss up for rather icky almost r@pe scene, though. So be advised.

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Brutally Insane Ride You can Barely Breathe

Kwon Yu, an ex national athlete who is now living off his mom who works as hospice worker, quietly wasting away his life by playing video games around the clock. A phonecall offering reward of $300 for returning a phone turned his life into a living hell. The next morning after returning the phone, he wakes up to a police raid, convicted with a crime he knew nothing of, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. He finally decides to escape when his mom died mysteriously amid his appeal. Determined to exonerate himself, he teams up with his online gaming team to track down the men behind his frame-up.

I had to say this is one of the most engaging kmovie I’ve ever watched. The level of blood being spilled in those brutal fight sequences is unimaginable. Ji Changwook is exceedingly phenomenal here, the writer definitely did quite a number on his role - he gets beaten, sexually assaulted, drugged, shot and crashed into non stop. Even when I saw The Worst of Evil, his role had not been as brutally injured as this Kwon Yu. The action and special effects team are astronomically excellent here with those hand-to-hand fights, car chases and explosions. Totally love the car chase especially when the good guys had to work with that tiny compact car compared to beamers and mercedes benz that the villains drive.

The plot twists, the angst, the fury of both good guys and villains as they outwit each other back to back keeps me at the edge of my seat in the whole duration of the movie. Gosh I’d really rewatch this just for the action. As usual, i cant really find any faults with korean actors, they carried their role too well even those with the small parts. I really love the foreigner characters that were ever so small but were actually the tipping point between Kwon Yu getting caught and escaping. Man, the whole production is truly awesome.

I am glad I watched this in movie format compared to the series The Manipulated (also starring Ji Chang Wook), cuz I dont think I can handle the anger and frustration of seeing ML getting assaulted and outwitted by the villains on a longer basis.

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The World from an Autistic Perspective

Woo Young Woo has been having a hard time landing a job after graduating as one of the top students in Seoul National University Law School, simply because she is in the spectrum. Finally a job offer came from a top law firm, Hanbada and she started as a rookie attorney with a 1 year contract, dealing with various cases that teaches her about the world and its workings. Though sometimes bullied by her fellow rookie coworkers or yelled at by clients and senior attorneys, she still manages to learn about love and making concessions, eventually learning the secret behind her father’s simple background that led to her not so simple identity.

First off I just had to give it off to ALL the actors in the cast, from the one who played young Young Woo who appeared less than 15minutes to the mainlead adult Young Woo. Every single one played their roles well and I could really feel the connection between them. The one that hit me tha hardest is how lonely Young Woo’s father’s life had been raising an autistic child all by himself, with absolutely no support system nor job stability, knowing that he is throwing his dreams and life away to make a life for somebody who may never learn how to express her love back at him, his autistic and socially-challenged daughter, Young Woo. Imagine raising a child who could never stand holding hands or hugging you for more than 1 minute, it wouldve been infuriating, especially when youre all alone with no one to confide into or seek warmth from, ie a soulmate. Young Woo’s father deserves the Parent of The Year Award for having that kind of endurance.

Although the story is very simple and straightforward with a pinch of political maneoevre, it still manages to keep my attention on with all those quirky characters they throw in, from the sassy Dong Geurami to the colourful attitudes of judges. I really liked Honju, although he is an extremely green flag that seem too good to be true. It’s somewhat sad to see him constantly giving in to Woo Youngwoo cuz she just couldnt understand social cues, deep down I know he’s going to be father 2.0 if he ever gets together with Youngwoo. Of course it is a good thing for Youngwoo, hey autistic people long for love too, just in their own way that may not seem like love to the ordinary people.

A fun fact that I find unique about the show is there wasnt any true villain in the show, even the horribly selfish and cunning Tae Sumi and Kwon Minwoo eventually redeemed themselves at the end.

The conflicts and tensions here isnt as pressing as other stories i’ve seen, but okay for a moderate-paced family drama. I look forward to Season 2.

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When Crazy Meets Crazy

As a child, Seo Yeoreum (Summer) grew up in hatred and violence as he witnessed his father assaults his mother on constant basis. The final straw was when he saw his mom hang herself but he never moved to help, and eventually blamed himself as his mom’s killer, never managed to catch a sleep and constantly looking for a way to die. He lets himself gets beaten by schoolbullies because the pain takes away the pain of watching his mom die. His mom’s first love, Detective Nam Woo fostered him in out of guilt for not marrying Yeoreum’s mom when he had the chance and he tells Yeoreum to find a girlfriend so he would want to live. Feeling suicidal every single day, Yeoreum constantly gets in trouble and one day the local thugs got their hands on him. Han Gyeowool (Winter) saw the beatings and decided to help, subduing them in a matter of moments with precise skills. As if falling in love at first sight, Yeoreum finally got the deepest sleep since ages ago and found his will to live again. To make matters more interesting, the next day, Gyeowool turned up at Yeoreum’s class as a new transfer student. Things escalated when they were caught yet again in yet another altercation with schoolbullies, both fell from the rooftop and developed amnesia. Gyeowool gets hunted by a group of unknown people when a local reporter printed their news, and Yeoreum gets dragged into the chase.

This show focused more on the trauma survival of both main characters, one with his dysfunctional family tragedy while the other with her forced assassin training as a child. One badly wanted to die to atone while the other was fighting hard to stay alive to get revenge. ML and FL were both uniquely intriguing cases for psychologists, those psych people would literally drool if any of them walked into the clinic. When theyre together they conjured up fantasies to their own liking of how they wanted to live their lives.

However, the production tried too hard to paint the FL as the ultimate final weapon - they put it on the title, they repeated this so many times in the script, but apparently that’s just it - a mere label. A supposedly ultimate assassin, the best ever trained, and yet she cant even pull the trigger to save a life. If she’s really an ultimate weapon, then she should know where on the body to shoot to avoid killing instantly, if they really wanna go by the script of the assassin who never kills. But naaaaahhh. I hit play expecting Arya-like teenage assassin but saw a streetfighter wimp who is quite skilled at hand-to-hand armed combat but cant pull the trigger instead 😒🙄 So much for ultimate weapon. She only grew some spine when she realized her uncle might have been gone. Urggh much to late, sister! Like for real, I wouldnt have nitpicked this if they had just portrayed her as a common child-assassin who escaped the Company with their dirtiest secret in tow, treading the path of seeking revenge.

Honestly i am not really mad that she’s an assassin who cant pull the trigger, it’s just that I expected this ultimate weapon would showcase some awesome combat skills that look extraordinary from the usual streetfight, something like how Teach You a Lesson’s Na Hwajin fights, or even Study Group’s Yun Gamin packs his punches. But nah, she got injured while fighting Yeoreum, and even falls off the building while fighting schoolbullies, so yeah, she fell damn short from my expectation. The only thing extraordinary i could see here is the villain who doesnt feel pain, now thats really something, though they placed him much too late in the plot and appeared no more than half an hour roughly. The cat and mouse chase wouldve been much exciting had he entered the picture earlier. Things got real gory when he steps into the picture, that’s for sure. Definitely not for the faint hearted.

The story is rather shallow and easy to follow, you don’t need your neurons to fire up all over trying to figure out the plot or mysteries. It’s just about a couple of teenagers who found love while trying to stay alive while escaping from a group of demented assassins’ clutches. Dont put too much expectation, there isnt much skinship or action per se, but it is okay to fill your free time, just 8 episodes, it’s over before you even realize it!

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Great for Family Theme, Mediocre for Action

Kwon Dohoon tries hard to be a good father and husband but his line of work constantly drives a wedge between him and his family, despite him being the family’s major breadwinner. An expert sniper for the National Intelligence Service who is often away from home during important events like his father’s knee surgery and their 10y wedding anniversary, Kwon Dohoon found himself driven into an even tighter spot when his wife Kang Yura misunderstands his relationship with his Chief, the beautiful Oh Chunryun upon her return from their supposedly anniversary vacation turned solo trip. And just as they manage to straighten things out between them, a man named Taegu turned up at their doorstep. Yura introduced him as her cousin but Taegu turned out to be the key to a bigger and darker secret of the nation, threatening to rip apart this second family that she cherished and pushing her to do whatever means necessary to protect them at all cost.

I took up this title expecting Mr & Mrs Smith or The Incredibles kind of show, but it turned out to be a lot like Modern Family instead. The pacing is very slow as theyre more focused on portraying how tight-knit the family is, with Kang Yura acting like a glue to keep the family in order with her husband being constantly out of the picture when important things come up. It took 5 episodes for FL’s backstory to emerge, and the pace only picked up on the action at Episode 7 when FL’s real face resurfaced and bullets and punches flew all over the place.

As opposed to the dramatic hollywood spy/secret agent shows, this drama instead showcased the couple of differing sides to be very calm and collected, diffusing any strain that could ever emerged had this been an american production. Just like how Kwon Dohoon try to be understanding about Oh Chunryun’s background, he did the same with his wife, never mentioning it openly but went directly to be her support by his actions instead. Although I love how maturely understanding their bond is, i do feel quite disappointed that he never talked about it onscreen and they never showed how his team reacted to the new Kang Yura they discovered during an intense shootout at their supposedly covert office.

I totally love the portrayal of Kwon Dohoon although he does act quite like a prick in the early episodes, and Jang Nara is so gorgeous here I didnt want for her to be off the screen at all. Love it even more when she rips her typical gentle wife mask and went Black Widow in last quarter of the show.

I loved how they portrayed the family, but it turned me off when the writer decided that it’s fine to sexualize 7year-old children’s friendship and turn it into an obsession. It’s like seeing a kid beauty pageant that dolls up a bunch of little girls as mature sexy women. It’s gross. I fastforwarded whatever scenes that have Minseo and Boseok cuz it just doesnt bode well with my moral conscience.

Other than that, this is like the usual family drama with a pinch of action.

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Solving the Mystery of the King’s Treasure

A botched mission forced Jeong Haesong and his team to accept an undercover mission to make up for the mishap. The objective is to retrieve a lost stash of goldbars from King Gojeong era that is believed to be hidden at Byeongmun High School by the school’s founder. Going undercover as a student in his foster sister’s class, Jeong Haesong finds himself caught in between saving his new classmate from bullies and suspicion from his homeroom temp teacher Oh Su A that could really blow his cover. Burdened by the weight of his father who went missing on a mission quite like his, Jeong found that there is much bigger scandal in Byeongmun High School that he could ever anticipated and he absolutely needed all hands on deck to stay in school.

I think Seo Kangjun did a well done job portraying Jeong Haesong, a somewhat efficient agent who is also rather hotheaded had not for his foster father An Seokho who is also Team 4 team leader reigning him in. Despite the general air of the show being somewhat comedic, Seo still managed to carry out the grief-stricken scenes when needed, complete with reddened, teary eyes and convincing sobs. I especially love the Team 4 members, the team leader Oh Seokho, the tech support Park Mijeong and clownish member Ko Yeonghun, all seemingly rely a lot on Jeong Haesong’s capability as an NIS agent.

A special shoutout for Kim Shinrock for the successful portrayal of the psychopathic chairwoman of Byeongmun High School director board. She is such a crack in the head that you can’t really expect how far she could go for survival. Her laughs really remind me of a demented serial killer.

I can never understand Korean working culture of groveling to the higher ups even when youre already at retirement age. The kind of groveling they show onscreen isnt for the faint hearted too as one is expected to wait for your boss 24/7 rain or shine night or day as if they don’t have a life, constantly bowing and sucking up to him to the point of putting your pride under their soles, a literal modern slave. It’s utterly mindblowing.

There wasnt as much action as I anticipated from a spy show though. Lots of sleuthing around, and riddle-solving, definitely not enough punches, kicks or bullets flying around. The action choreography isnt much of a wowsie too. I fastforwarded many of the romance scenes. Just not feeling it with the main cast. I loved the interaction between Park Mijeong and Ko Yeonghun though, never skipped a scene. 🤣 their scenes definitely exudes more chemistry that the main couple.

All in all is okay. The plot is really straightforward although not without plotholes. Some scenes did left me dumbfounded, but I treat this like a common entertainment show that doesnt need any logic. Don’t take them seriously and you may enjoy the show.

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