No words can describe the feelings “The Red Sleeve” gave me

But I will try.

“The Red Sleeve” felt like hymn of love,
but also, like condemnation of love.

"The red sleeve" is the perfect rendering of the dual nature of love, of its bittersweet reality.

At moments it made me laugh my heart out, at moments it made me cry. Sometimes I was over the moon, filled with joy or my blood was boiling to the point I wanted to punch the screen. I was amazed, I was entertained, I was disappointed. “The Red Sleeve” was a pleasant and thrilling ride that offered me all kinds of feelings, positive or negative ones.

The Story

“The Red Sleeve” is a historical romance drama of 17 episodes. The story is based on the novel “The Red Sleeve Cuff” by Kim Mi Kang and revolves around the relationship of court maid Sung Deok Im and Crown Prince Yi San.

The story is also based on historical events and figures. As I’m not an expert in Korean history and I haven’t read the novel, I can’t analyze this any further. For anyone who wants to know more I will comment on my review- comment the link of the MDL discussion thread “Drama vs Novel (vs History)”. This contains spoilers so I’d advise you to read after you’ve watched the drama.

Even though the story is romance-centered, it deals also with other things that make the drama quite interesting, like the life of the court maids, the fairies of the palace. From their point of view, the story manages to show how the institutions of the palace work but also, the sad and brutal reality of it : the intrigue, the political corruption, the inequality, the devaluation of human life.

In addition to the above, another benefit “The Red Sleeve” has, is that although it starts with a very common romance trope, generally it doesn’t contain a lot of cliché romance scenes. Thus, I believe that even if you’re not into romance dramas, you can give “The Red Sleeve” a chance and you may be satisfied with the outcome. I’m not really a fan of historical or romance-centered dramas and yet, “The Red Sleeve” kept my attention till the very end.

The Pace

The pace of the drama is neither fast or slow, it’s something in between and varies from episode to episode. Thus, I think the pace is just right and manages to keep you unbored. I also noticed that after an intense, thrilling and serious episode, the next episode is mild and relaxing, like it is a comic relief. That creates balance in the drama’s tension and makes it pleasant to watch.

It has to be mentioned that some comic reliefs and serious scenes also exist inside the intense and the mild episodes respectively. These changes between funny and serious are well structured and not abrupt so they don’t destroy the drama’s serious and melodramatic tone. Not everyone though likes this kind of alteration, even if it is well made, so if you belong to this category, you may be a little disturb from time to time.


The Storytelling

I don’t know if it is because the drama is based on a novel, or the screenwriter did a very good job or because of something else, but the storytelling is beautiful.

There is harmony between every situation and relationship, everything is perfectly tied together creating perfect coherence. The story slowly and unsuspectingly escalates, comes and hits you unexpectedly. Watching the last episodes and realizing how much has happened and how every character and situation has changed was a shocking experience.

The greatest thing about the storytelling is how poetic it is. This drama has one of the best scripts I have ever come across. The dialogues and monologues are so impactful and powerful,full of beautiful words. The feelings and thoughts of the characters are very well imprinted that can touch the audience and make them feel the same as the characters. Reading the subtitles of this drama was so appealing that even someone who hates reading subtitles would enjoy it.


The Characters

The characters are very well written. There isn’t any dull character, almost everyone has a multidimensional personality and depth. Everyone has their own purpose, acts accordingly and ultimately, it is their actions that determine their fate. Even if some characters had bad intentions, you can’t define them as villains because they weren’t completely bad people, they were just humans.

I like many of the characters but I especially like Sung Deok Im, the definition of the “strong female lead”. Sung Deok Im is smart and she has her way with words. She used her charms to survive in a very tough environment. She is confident, fearless, independent and she always puts her logic over her feelings. Her acts are very mature and thoughtful so she is a person to rely on.

The Acting

I was impressed by the acting and I was completely satisfied with the result the whole cast provided. All the actors did a great job.

The two main leads, Lee Se Young and Lee Jun Ho had perfect chemistry and their performances were breathtaking. I have seen many dramas of Lee Se Young and she has never disappointed me, she is always on point, as she was in this drama too. It was the first time I saw Lee Jun Ho and his acting surprised me. In the future, I will see more of his dramas.

My favorite actor was Lee Deok Hwa (King Yeongjo), he was remarkable. I was captivated by his solid performance. His reactions was so natural that made me predict something that happened later.

The Production

What I liked about “The Red Sleeve” the most, was its production. “The Red Sleeve” is technically perfect from all the aspects. Everything is so well made; the production is indeed very meticulous. The directing contains beautiful cinematography with the artistic shots of nature, vivid colors that made the drama visually stunning. This directing combined with the soundtrack, created thrilling and romantic scenes that made my body shivering and sad scenes that made me want to cry a river.

Conclusion

I believe that “The Red Sleeve” is one of the dramas that you know from the first episodes if you like it or not. The technical aspects of the drama are very decent; everything else depends on personal taste. For me, “The Red Sleeve” was pure art from all perspectives. This drama has a lot of beautiful moments that stole my heart and I will always remember. It was indeed a delightful journey.


I hope if you watch it, you will experience the same feelings as I did.

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Do you want revenge regardless of the price?

Dark, suspenseful, violence and heartbreaking, “My Name” tells a story of a woman who lost her father and then she chose to lose herself in order to take revenge.

“My Name” is an action thriller with the revenge trope as a main theme so the story doesn’t have much depth and it’s somehow predictable but overall, the drama is entertaining. It has many good action scenes and the choreographed fights are very well executed. The gore is also very realistic so trigger-warning: “My Name” has extreme violence that may not be suitable for everyone.

The story is also well written and it doesn’t lose its interest. The pace is good, not too slow nor too fast and it can be binged-watched easily. The length of 8 episodes is good enough to tell the whole story without leaving anything untold and without making the viewers bored or tired of it.

What was really likable about the story was the building of the protagonist’s character. Yoon Ji Woo has a powerful spirit within an unpowerful body which she eventually manages to build up after living, or better surviving, in a very brutal environment. She is indeed a very dynamic woman who doesn’t let anything or anyone keep her away from her goal, revenge. Seeing her journey through Han so Hee’s surprisingly good portrayal was satisfying and thrilling.

The relationship dynamics in the drama are also impressive. Yoo Ji Woo’s and Choi Moo Jin’s relationship was very unique and special. Their chemistry was perfect and there was always a tension and a mystery between them. Yoo Ji Woo’s and Jeon Pil Do’s relationship was also good and well written. Their relationship played an important role in Yoon ji Woo’s character’s final set up.

The production is of course decent, as we expected from a Netflix original show. The shots, the sceneries, the camera’s transitions during the action/fight scenes were all very well made and everything was on point. The music was very suitable and gave the right mood to the audience in every scene but personally I think that it wasn’t so memorable. All in all, it’s obvious that the production team and the actors worked very hard for this drama.



“My Name” has a lot of good elements that make it a decent drama. However, as its plot is very common, I can’t say that it was an exceptional drama but it’s good enough if you want to see an action mini-series where the main lead is a strong woman who is willing to sacrifice everything in order to succeed.

Last but not least, the way she is realizing what’s the price she has to pay for her revenge which slowly became the purpose of her life and imprisoned her, was very heartbreaking and, personally speaking, the strongest moment of the drama. Is revenge really what we should be seeking for? Is it worth it?

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"I detest young offenders"

"Offender, Criminal, Killer" what comes to your mind when you hear these words?

Maybe, a maniac, a psycho or a monster and disgusting adult human being? But what about a child? In most of the drama/movies we see adults committing crimes, but young offenders exist too.

And this is what "Juvenile Justice" wants to remind us, that criminals can be anyone, even a little child. "Juvenile Justice" deals with a very interesting, yet very difficult and provoking theme. Fortunately, though, the drama succeeded in managing its heavy theme and ended up a very eye-opening drama for me.

As "Juvenile Justice" it's a law drama which deals with many inhuman crimes (and it's also a Netflix original drama), it's an R-rated drama, which contains a lot of violence, gore scenes but mainly, it contains a lot of scenes that may upset psychologically some viewers. In addition, the drama doesn't contain any funny moments, or comic reliefs and its pace it's slow too. Thus, the drama is indeed a heavy and difficult watch, it will punch you in the stomach without any pity for 10 hours straight. Therefore, be very careful when you make your decision to watch it.

The story

The story revolves around the Juvenile Judge Shim Eun Seok. Through her eyes we are able to see how Juvenile Justice works on many different cases and affects the involved ones and that's the biggest advantage of the drama.It approaches its topic from many different aspects and shows the two sides of the coin of crime but also the law system.

It has to be mentioned though, that the number of different cases may have a negative effect on some viewers because they won't like all the cases the same as the cases aren't on the same level and some are more interesting than others. Despite this fact, I believed that all the cases offer something valuable to the story and also, that the story's coherence is great as every event of the story is very well connected with the other so the overall story is very balanced.

The story starts with a shocking abominable and macabre case which gives a strong and promising start. The middle cases are milder but the story doesn't lose its interest neither becomes tedious and repetitive. The story throughout its whole run, asks moral questions and tries to make the viewers think of various different situations and dilemmas. The final case, the story’s finale, gives a decent and powerful closure. The story indeed leaves the best for the end as from all the cases, the last one is the most suitable for closure . Thus, the story manages to end without the feeling of being rushed or unfinished. To my surprise, Netflix made a (maybe) one season kdrama that is complete and I'm very glad and relieved about this.

There's a high possibility that the first case and some others are inspired and lightly based on real cases which have happened in Korea and I personally really appreciate it. It's very interesting to see how writers use real events to deliver their messages and basically, to see the impact these events had on them. In addition, the story feels more down to earth and more realistic. Korean dramas and movies have their way of making excellent and entertaining stories based on real events. Fortunately, "Juvenile Justice" is one of these stories. More details about the cases in the spoiler comment on this review (because they are, of course, spoilers).

The characters & acting

Almost all the characters of the drama have depth and their personalities are very well built. Their actions are always composed of their life experiences, scars, insecurities and the drama explored with success the reasons behind their behavior. None of the characters is perfect, everyone made mistakes and some learnt through them, some not. It’s pretty amazing how the drama made so many well written characters and developed their personalities through the story, this is very rare to see.

And of course, the actors did an amazing job portraying these complex characters. I couldn't be more satisfied with their performances. Their feelings were on point and the characters really came to life and took shape. There was also great chemistry between the actors that made the characters more bound and the drama complete and more impactful.

The production

Production is the last ingredient of a drama. It's the finishing touch that will make the drama more appealing. The "Juvenile Justice" 's production, as far as the directing is concerned, isn't one of Netflix's top-notch and artistic ones, but still, it's great and gives the drama the right tone and atmosphere, making the drama very decent and beautiful. The music is wonderful, full of emotions. It gives the right tone in every scene and it never feels off. The music is the cherry on top of the drama, giving you the last push to fall in love with it.

Overall

"Juvenile Justice" is a very tough watch and not an easy ride. Still, the things this drama will make you feel and think are countless. If you believe you can bear its cruelty, then "Juvenile Justice" really deserves a try because from the story, to acting, to production, this drama has the whole package. For me, "Juvenile Justice" is the first Netflix original kdrama I loved after "D.P. " and I'm glad I watched it.

~~~Epilogue~~~

"I detest young offenders". Young people are the future of humanity, humanity’s hope. When they behave like adults and commit crimes, the world loses its hope and everything becomes darker. Why do young people commit crimes? How can someone so young do such a macabre thing? Can we teach them what is good and what is wrong? Can we set them back to the right path? In the end, is it their fault or ours?

"I detest young offenders" because they are showing me how cruel the world is and how we fail to protect them.

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Take a walk and look around, there’s something wrong in my Hometown

A few minutes of the first episode are enough to make you realize that a veil of mystery covers this small rural town. This mystery is going to stick up until the very end and that’s what makes Hometown special.


Watching Hometown is like walking in a fog, you walk around the Hometown without seeing anything. You’re searching and trying to understand your surroundings, the truth behind everything, only by touching and hearing. After feeling parts of the truth, you think you have understood what’s going on, but you haven’t. You can’t see the whole picture, because everything is blurred. Even the area between supernatural and realistic is grey. Before you realize it, you find yourself lost wandering through the episodes like the residents are wandering around like lost souls in Hometown.


You have to be patient; the fog can’t be dissolved right away. Hometown is a slow-burn drama and it takes time for the story to build up. Many things happen in the episodes but the main plot does not escalate quickly. The storytelling consists of many timelines that in due course of time meet and become one. It can be a little confusing at first so you have to pay attention, but the moment all the timelines are joined you will feel a sense of satisfaction and everything will be more understandable.


Watching Hometown while it was ongoing helped a lot to process the events, make theories and, of course, to not get bored because of its slow-paced rhythm. Thus, I don’t really recommend binge-watching this drama, take your time.


As the story leaves many things in the dark until the end, the main concern is whether the story will lead somewhere eventually or not. All I can say without spoilers is that Hometown has a decent closure but not the grand finale I personally expected it to have. My feelings are mixed towards its ending so I believe everyone will have different impressions about it depending on what they expect to see.


The production

What makes this drama glow is the production. The directing is meticulous with almost excellent shots, beautiful scenery and on point scene transitions. The color palette that has been used in the drama consists of mainly dark and moody colors that fit perfectly with the mysterious vibes of the drama. The music is remarkable and definitely gives the right atmosphere and tension to the drama.


The acting of this drama made me feel something very rare, almost unprecedented. The character portrayal from all the actors was so convincing that during the episodes, I didn’t see actors on the screen, I only saw characters. Even the younger selves of the main characters didn’t seem to be different actors, but the same person. This left me actually pretty impressed and was one of the reasons I really enjoyed this drama.


Overall, Hometown is a very well executed drama from all the perspectives. The only thing that lags a little, is the story towards the ending. For someone who likes thrillers and mysteries, Hometown is going to be a thrilling but weird ride at the same time.

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A simple and ordinary story told with the most imaginative way

 Stories with many plot-twists, complicated storytelling are most of the times what we are looking for because they can easily catch our attention. However, a simple story can be good if it’s done right and in a creative way. That’s the case with “Yumi’s cells”.

“Yumi’s cells” is a romcom but not a common one. It’s a light drama that everyone who loves romcoms can see and enjoy. If you have a bad day, “Yumi’s cells” will bring a smile to your face and brighten up your day. To be fair though, “Yumi’s cells” is not everyone’s cup of tea. The things which make the story enjoyable and unique can also work the other way around. Let’s see what these things are.

The story

 “Yumi’s cells” tells the story of Yumi and her brain cells. Yumi is an ordinary girl, living an ordinary life. We are basically seeing Yumi’s love life and her daily struggles. There’s nothing special about Yumi’s life, nothing extreme or mind blowing is going to happen, so why is this story special? Here is where Yumi’s cells come into the picture.

There are plenty of stories where biological functions of the human body were explained as actions of small creatures living inside the human body. These small creatures can be portraying cells, organs, emotions and so on. In Yumi’s cells they are portraying her cells. Through the cells we see Yumi’s thoughts, emotions, habits, how she is making her decisions and literally everything about her character.

The whole philosophy behind cells’ actions is very creative and well written. Cells' thoughts and actions are very natural and spontaneous and it’s quite amazing how the impact of these is working on Yumi. It feels accurate and at some point, very realistic. Thus, the watchers can easily relate with Yumi and feel all kinds of her emotions and understand completely the cause of her actions. Apart from this, there is also a very funny perspective about the cause of many behaviors and also allegories of some body functions that makes the story really funny and enjoyable.
 
The Webtoon

The story is based on a webtoon by the same name, written by Donggeon Lee. The webtoon contains 512 episodes and the original run was from April 1st 2015 to November 13th 2020. The drama’s first season consists of chapters 1 until 206 of the webtoon. As I have read the webtoon, I have to mention some differences that make the drama good or bad at some points.

The storyline hasn’t changed much, the milestones of Yumi’s life are all there. One main difference is that they have cut many scenes from the cells and added more to the humans. That way, the screen time between cells and humans is balanced which is a good thing cause the story focused more to Yumi and not to the cells like the webtoon. They also cut some episodes from webtoon that were fillers. Thus, the story is more fast paced than the webtoon.

However, cutting many scenes is also a problem as it destroys the natural flow of the story. The story is moving way too fast and it doesn’t leave any space for the relationships’ dynamics to develop. That’s why some situations seem a little bit rushed or/and forced.

A personal negative about the cutting scenes is that many of them are my favorite parts of the story. I was excited to watch these particular scenes on the drama but they never appeared so it’s only logical that I was sad and disappointed about it.
 
Another difference is that they reconstructed some scenes by combining two or three different chapters of the webtoon as the please, without chronological order. They also added some extra scenes that haven’t been on the webtoon. This was expected to happen, as it happens all the time with the webtoon adaptations. Some of the episodes that have many changes are 5,6 and 7.

I don’t mind changes, if they don’t affect the story and the characters as much. There is one thing that bothered me, a lot. They made Yumi a liar and that pushed her into very awkward situations, many times and, of course, created unnecessary drama. Yumi is a very honest person and that destroyed her image a lot.
 
 
The production

Making a live action for the Yumi’s cells wasn’t an easy task. That’s because they had to mix live action with animation which is very risky. Fortunately, I think they combined these two genres perfectly. 

As I said before, they cut many scenes from the cells and added more to the humans so there was a balance between the animation and the live action. That way, the watchers didn’t get tired of the animation scenes. The scene transitions between the animation and the live action were also very well executed and discreet which also helped the viewers to get used to the animation. The first two episodes will feel a little off but after them, you will enjoy watching this combination.  

The animation style that has been used is 3D animation. Before watching the drama I had my doubts if the animation would turn out bad or good. After watching the drama though, I can say that the animators have done a very good and detailed job and I was very satisfied with the result. The only reason to dislike the animation I think would be because some people generally don’t like animation or are experts and see all the errors a common eye like mine can’t see.




Overall, Yumi’s Cells is not the romcom we usually get to see in dramaland (especially in kdramas). It had some flaws and I wasn’t fully satisfied with the adaptation but I’m happy that now more people know about this unique story. I hope in the future we will see more romcoms that won’t follow the usual clichés and give us something fresh and beautiful, like Yumi’s Cells did.

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Definition of military's reality

D.P. is a short drama but it still manages to be entertaining and bring up some real military life issues at the same time.


It has a lot of dark, raw, gore and emotional moments, thus it’s not a light drama. However, there are also action and some stress-relief scenes perfectly balanced which make the drama easier to watch without destroying the serious tone of it. As the episodes go by, the atmosphere gets heavier and heavier. The ground is being prepared for the most intense moment of the series: the finale.

The production is pretty decent and meticulous so D.P. is pleasant to watch. There are many nice sceneries, shots, scene transitions and also, the colors and filters of the drama have been selected carefully.

The main color is yellow, the color of madness, sickness, mental illness, egoism, betrayal and caution. The more serious and dark scenes have basically cool colors but in general, D.P. is full of vivid colors similar to a comic’s color palette. The colors, in combination with the old styled (mainly jazz) soundtrack of the series, give a retro vibe. It feels like an old comic is brought to life. Every scene is like a moving comic frame and every scene transition is like turning the page.

The acting is remarkable and almost all the characters are interesting and well-written. Every actor did a great job at portraying a different character of the military corps and all of them look quite realistic. The two main characters, Ahn Joon Ho, the newbie-robot soldier who is doing everything by the book, and Han Ho Yul, the warmhearted, social and funny person that everyone wants as a friend, created a very dynamic duo.

D.P. did actually a pretty good job at highlighting the raw reality of the military and the mental deterioration that causes to humans. Enlisting in the military is like entering another reality, the reality of war. There, public laws do not exist. Human rights do not exist, only the law of the superior, the law of the powerful. Military training tries to simulate the conditions of war by letting bullying and harassment be without punishment. Although this is limited now, it still remains, and this has to change.

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“Violent delights have violent ends”

Emerging from the darkness, covered in brutality, comes the King of Pigs and whispers “There is no creature in the world more cruel than human being”. And just like this, it haunts you. It makes sure that watching this drama will be something you won’t forget anytime soon.

‘The King of Pigs’ is a psychological thriller drama that is, as already implied, not for the light-hearted. It contains a lot of violent, gore and psychologically heavy scenes which make it almost unbearable to watch. Prepare yourself, because what you are about to watch is a very rough ride.

The story

The drama’s story is based on a 93 minutes animation film ‘The King of Pigs’ by Yeon Sang Ho which is also based on a true story. As I’ve watched the animation film too, I can say that the drama is lightly based on it. Actually, it feels like the drama took the original story, evolved it and ended up making its own and unique story. Thus, there is no point in comparing them.

Without giving away the plot, the story deals with the trauma caused by intra-school violence and how it affects the victim and the perpetrator. Specifically, the story explores a series of events of school violence which took place 20 years ago and the results of these events in the present.

The uniqueness of the story is that it doesn’t refer to these events passively, as something that happened in the past, but as something that started in the past and is still progressing. In other words, the story emphasizes on the dynamic nature of these events and successfully manages to show how greatly the victims were stigmatized and how even the perpetrators were affected by it.

The story denotes that an act of violence is not a simple act. It’s an act which opens the Pandora's box and destroys everyone involved without an exception, because an action always provokes a greater reaction. Thus, in the end, “these violent delights” can only “have violent ends”.

Moving on to the structure, the story has great coherence. As the story is dealing with trauma, it has many flashbacks that interrupt the present story. The transitions from the present to the past were very meticulously made so they don’t end up as tedious flashbacks but on the other hand, they help the story develop and escalate making the story impactful.

The story’s pace can’t be called fact paced because the events don’t unfold quickly yet, as the episodes are very tense, it can’t be called slow paced either. What is certain, is that the drama pace is balanced and manages to keep your attention until the very end.

Lastly, it has to be noted that the story isn’t perfect. In fact, it has some minor flaws as some illogical things occur. Fortunately, they don’t affect the general plot and also, they can easily be ignored or pass unnoticed by the audience.

The production

From my point of view, the production of the drama is almost flawless. ‘The King of Pigs’ is one of the most well-made and well-executed dramas I've ever watched. The directing is on point and manages to perfectly render the dark tone of the story’s theme. The drama consists of beautiful frames, great scene transitions and camera angles which combined with the dark color palette, make the drama visually stunning. The drama’s soundtrack is the cherry on top, as it works as the last stimulus which makes you shudder and frequents you emotionally with the moment.

As far as the acting is concerned, every actor did a pretty good and decent job as every emotion was delivered with great success, the interpretations felt very realistic to the point that the scenes became more traumatic and tense. Both Kim Dong Wook and Kim Sung Gyu had great chemistry and were great in their roles. It has to be mentioned though, that the young actors, especially Choi Hyun Jin, Sim Hyun Seo and Lee Chan Yoo, stole the show.

Conclusion

‘The King of Pigs’ is technically speaking, a very decent drama which deals with a very sensitive and heavy theme. Thus, it is a drama you can’t watch easily just for enjoyment and also, it may not be to everyone’s liking. If you are a thriller lover, I believe that you should give ‘The King of Pigs’ a try. For me, ‘The King of Pigs’ is a very impactful and unique drama that really deserved my time.

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Why does Mouse have a brilliant plot? Why is Mouse a masterpiece?

**Spoiler free part**

‘Mouse’ is a unique drama. It took some risks and avoided clichés. That’s why many people like it and many don't. It’s dark, raw with many murders, many killers and without any romantic aspect. If you’re more into romcoms or if you can’t bear something so dark, then maybe ‘Mouse’ isn't for you. Also, keep in mind that even though ‘Mouse’ is based on some scientific facts, it’s scientifically inaccurate (sci-fi). If that disturbs you, I'd advise you to not watch ‘Mouse’ as you’re not going to like it.

‘Mouse’ has a very complicated plot that’s a little difficult to keep up with. It’s a drama that you have to think about and not a light-watch drama. All the characters are related somehow with each other or with the main events and everything plays an important role for the plot. Thus, you have to pay attention to every detail otherwise you’ll end up being lost.

At first, you’ll have many questions and you won’t understand a thing, until the time comes and you’ll see that everything makes sense. And then, you’ll also realize that ‘Mouse’ doesn’t really have plot-twists. All the episodes were full of clues, from start to finish. Everything was predefined, but you couldn’t see it because you were blind.

Many people would think that the story is overdrawn with plot holes and maybe they drop the drama. In fact though, ‘Mouse’ doesn't have plot holes. It's a drama you have to definitely watch until the end to get all the answers and understand it, so don't drop it for this reason, keep going.


Now, to justify why ‘Mouse’ is brilliant, I’ll analyze the plot further . Those who have already watched ‘Mouse’ can keep reading. Those who haven’t can come back after they’ve finished.









*WARNING SLOILERS*
*READ THE ANALYSIS BELOW ON YOYR OWN RESPONISIBILITY*

















~~~Mouse’s inspiration~~~

The writer of Mouse, Choi Ran, was inspired by the Incheon Elementary School Murder case in 2017. There, when the defendant was asked about her difficulties, she answered “The weather is nice but it’s the hardest for me to not see the blossoms”. She didn’t feel any remorse about her actions.

Writer Choi Ran wanted to write a story where a psychopath would gain emotions and feel remorse. In that way, the psychopath would be punished and atoned. Thus, ‘Mouse’ it’s not a usual crime thriller, “it’s a story about salvation”.

The defendant’s phrase was said by the Head Hunter in episode 20.



~~~The Hubris-Atis-Nemesis-Tisis form~~~

Our hero is not a typical main character. He’s not the perfect, flawless, kind guy who is fighting for justice. On the contrary, we can compare him to Homeric heroes of Iliad and Odyssey and review him according to the Hubris-Atis-Nemesis-Tisis form. With that in mind, we can separate ‘Mouse’ into 4 different parts.

1)Hubris- episodes 1-4
If someone behaves arrogantly and insultingly toward the physical, moral rules or the laws of the gods, he is considered to have committed “Hubris”. Our hero hated the Almighty. At first, he killed for revenge. But then, he killed again and again. This time though, he was considering his killings as a judgment and himself as the Almighty, above all humans and gods. He tried to transcend mortal nature, he committed Hubris.

2)Atis- episodes 4-5
Atis is the blurring and blindness of the mind. Our hero was out of control. He murdered on a live-broadcast and wrote “I am the Almighty” with the victim’s blood. That was the darkest and the most macabre part of the series. He showed to everyone how far his craziness can go.

3)Nemesis- episodes 6-7
Nemesis is a life-changer event that sets the ground for Τisis (the final punishment). Even though his plan was perfect he made one mistake. He thought he had got rid of the witness who saw him murdering but he was wrong. When he acknowledged it, it was too late. His encounter with the witness became his Nemesis.

4) a. preparing for Tisis- episodes 7-14
Tisis is the final punishment. After the brain transplant, he woke up with memory loss. During these episodes he believed that he wasn’t the serial killer but a national hero. He came face to face with killers/psychos like him. He started to hate people like them, people like him.

4)b. Tisis 15-20
And when he had hated himself enough, his memories came back. He remembered what he did, but he wasn’t proud anymore, he was full of regrets. In addition, when he committed the murders, an organization was above him, manipulating him. He was never the Almighty. His nemesis had told him “You think you’re a deity? You’re just a psychopath who was born with a mutated gene. We are lab-mice.”. Then was when he understanded those words. What an irony of fate.

Our hero had accepted the punishment and in the end he paid for his crimes and atoned.




~~~“What if we could identify psychos in advance?”~~~

If we could identify psychos in advance, then ‘Mouse’ would happen.

In ‘Mouse’ some people believed that if they could identify psychos in advance, they could create a world without psychopaths, without bad people. The OZ organization was created. They thought the end justifies the means so they killed many people. They thought they could change the world, but they killed more humans than the “psycho-gene human” did.

The “psycho-gene human” wasn’t the problem after all. It was the people’s lack of ethical compass. It was humans’ arrogance.

Did the passing of the law bring eternal peace? No. This isn’t shown directly in the drama, but it’s implied by some scenes (post-credit scene of episode 20 ~ continuation of human experiments~ violation of Bioethics laws, Mouse the Last~ assassination). That’s how ‘Mouse’ dispels the myth it created. It made us realize that being able to identify psychos in advance and eliminate them won’t make the crime disappear. Maybe a second season that deals directly with this issue would make this point even stronger.

At this point, we can make an analogy with the tale “The Wizard Of OZ”. At the end of the tale, it is revealed that the wizard of OZ, the powerful wizard who had founded and ruled the city, was an ordinary old man, a fraud. Respectively, the founder of OZ organization was a fraud, a predator and not a savior and the OZ organization is nothing more than a group of murderers and its beliefs a big scam.



~~~Why did people believe that anyone who has the psycho-gene is a killer?~~~

We know that psycho-genes exist in 'Mouse', but having them doesn’t necessarily make you a killer, only a psycho. We know that not all psychos are killers and not all killers are psychos. There's plenty of scientific research about how psychos' mindset is working in the real world and the writer tried to stay as accurate as she could to this. But despite this, history has also shown that people tend to believe in ridiculous ideas and do inhuman things. The people in the world of ‘Mouse’ aren’t any different.

From the story’s start, we see people believing that a murderer’s child is an evil monster, an upcoming murderer, that all psychopaths are crazy murderers. In other words, we see an easily manipulated crowd full of prejudiced people. Someone promised these people a utopian world without crime and they praised this idea.




~~~ “The Wizard Of OZ” and the main characters. ~~~

The OZ organization isn’t the only thing that reminds us of the tale “The Wizard Of OZ”. In fact, the main characters of ‘Mouse’ have a lot in common with the characters of the tale. Let’s take a close look and see why.

~~The Tin Man : Jung Ba Reum (JBR)
The Tin Man desired heart so he could feel emotions. JBR wanted to not be a monster. In the end, he got feelings and he wasn’t a monster anymore.

~~Dorothy Gale : Oh Bong Yi (OBY)
Dorothy was taken away from her family due to a cyclone. Thus, she began a journey to find her way back home. Likewise, OBY lost her only family. At first, she lost her grandmother and then JBR. In the end, she was alone. We can see her loneliness in the special ‘Mouse: the last’ in the lunch-time scene.

~~Scarecrow : Ko Moo Chi (KMC)
Scarecrow wanted a brain. KMC never had thought clearly after the Head Hunter accident. His mind was trapped on that day. After his interaction with JBR, his mind was free. Now he was a life-wise person and in peace.

~~The Cowardly Lion : Choi Hong So (CHS)
The Lion wanted to be brave. CHS was on the run all her life because she was afraid to face her parents. In the end she took the courage, reunited with her family and took responsibility for her actions.

~~Toto : The kitty
Toto is Dorothy’s dog and her only friend. Of course, Toto is here too, but as a little kitty. In episode 14, JBR’s nephew named the kitty JBR gave him Toto. What a funny coincidence…





~~~The dark reality of ‘Mouse’ and the meaning behind the title~~~

In ‘Mouse’ we see human cruelty in all its glory. We see vulnerable people. No one is perfect. We see good people die one after the other. We see people with good intentions killing their savior. We see mothers trying to kill their own kids. We see people dying in the name of science. We see people doing the same mistake and the story repeating itself.

‘Mouse’ is full of irony. It bothers us because, although it has the brain transplant, it feels very real. ‘Mouse’ is showing us that we are all victims of inhumanity, even a killer, even a psycho. Everyone is a “mouse”. Will we be able to escape from our inhumanity? Will we be able to avoid mistakes and not fall again like a rat in the trap? Are we sure about our actions? What if one day we wake up realizing everything we have done was wrong?




Conclusion

‘Mouse’ is one of the best K-Dramas for 2021. I won’t say that it's the best, because everyone has different preferences. What I’ll say though, is that ‘Mouse’ has the most unique story of 2021 K-Dramas. ‘Mouse’s story just hits differently and combined with the right direction, the marvelous interpretations and the on-point soundtrack created a powerful and intense Thriller.

Of course, ‘Mouse’ isn't flawless. At the end of the day, nothing is. But through ‘Mouse’ I saw hardworking people who loved their project and wanted to pass a message. I can’t ignore the details and the creativity that this show has. That’s why, for me, ‘Mouse’ is a masterpiece. Team-Mouse, thank you for not compromising the story for popularity and giving us this drama.



This was long so I want to thank everyone who took the time to read this review and I'm glad if some of you found it helpful.

If you want bonus/sources, see in the comments.

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The “Silent” Show 

“The Silent Sea” tells the story of the critical space mission that will determine the future of planet earth. Even though the drama had its problems, it ended up an enjoyable and interesting ride.

The drama is a mystery horror thriller without any romantic aspect as it only focuses on the mission. Generally speaking, it isn’t creepy as it is gore and (a little) disgusting so I don’t consider it a heavy drama. The drama is also a Sci-Fi and that makes it not everyone’s cup of tea.


~~The Sci-Fi~~

The Sci-Fi of the drama is mainly about Biology, especially Astrobiology. I have to say that I found the Sci-Fi part pretty interesting and it was very well presented and delivered through the episodes. Using Astrobiology was one of the keys to success for the Sci-Fi theme because space is endless, full of mysteries and that lets the human’s imagination arise and make unique stories. Also, as we don’t know many things about space, the Sci-Fi part is more acceptable and less frustrating (unless you are an Astrobiologist I guess).

The Sci-Fi part reminded me of the “Panspermia Hypothesis” which basically says that “life began on Earth when the "seeds" of life, already present in the universe, arrived here from space”. I don’t know if the creators know about this hypothesis but I really like the fact that the resemblance with this hypothesis existed even if it wasn’t on purpose. If you watch the drama, you will understand this resemblance too.


~~The Pace and Storytelling~~

Slow but interesting, without action but suspenseful. This drama is very insidious, even though “silent” it manages to make the louder noise.

“The Silent Sea” is a slow burn drama, but it’s not boring. It takes it’s time to unfold the mystery and to create the right atmosphere. The suspense of the drama is built through the “unknown” factor and the process which will eventually lead to the knowledge and not through the violence and action scenes. Even the music of the drama is slow, mysterious, calm, hypotonic but also very interesting and aesthetically pleasing. As a lover of slow burn dramas, I really appreciate this drama’s aura.

“The Silent Sea” felt like a movie and this is a good but also, a bad thing.

The good thing first, it felt like a 7-hour movie, it was easy to binge and it didn’t lose its interest. The storytelling was very meticulously made. It had a start, a middle and an end united with a very good coherence. In other words, the story is a well-completed chapter.

The bad thing was that as a movie due to the lack of time has some undeveloped parts, “The Silent Sea” has some undeveloped parts too. The main undeveloped thing is the character’s depth. One of the advantages that series have over movies, is that they have the comfort to dedicate time to spend on the character building and on its development. “The Silent Sea” though didn’t dedicate the necessary time on this. All the characters were one-dimensional, even the ones with the backstories, and also, there isn’t any character development.

The second bad thing is the ending. Unfortunately, the story only focuses on the space mission and the mystery behind the accident but not to what happens after. As many movies, “The Silent Sea '' is dedicated to one action but not to the universe that this action is part of. Thus, I believe that “The Silent Sea” might have a second season.


~~Production and Acting~~

I don’t have much to say here, I am fully satisfied with both production and acting. Netflix paid much attention to their last Korean Drama of the year and the result was beautiful. “The Silent Sea” is just visually stunning with neat directing that contains beautiful space sceneries and scene transitions and with good quality VFX and CGI. The acting was great but the actors didn’t have the needed space to develop their portrayal through the drama and reach their full potential. Still, it was so nice to see these lovable actors on the screen again.


~~Overall~~

If you are a lover of Sci-Fi and slow burn dramas, but also a binge watcher, “The Silent Sea” is a very good choice. The story has some mistakes and some loose, rough points but generally, the storytelling is comprehensive in terms of its main theme and quite interesting. I don’t know if you will end up loving the drama or hate it but I believe that this drama will be an entertaining watching experience.

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This drama was like an explosion

The time an explosion happens, what you see from afar is impressive, you are shocked, surprised and curious at the same time. You wonder and you come closer, what you finally see is ruins.

That was the feeling Shadow Beauty gave me. At first, I was really impressed and shocked about how good, thrilling and well executed the story was. But as the episodes were passing through, this first impression slowly faded away.

Shadow Beauty is a web-drama of 13 episodes. The pace of the drama is pretty fast and the small duration of the episodes make the drama very easy to binge-watch.

Although it’s a psychological thriller, it’s a light-watch drama that can be watched by everyone who likes this genre. The drama is somehow thrilling and it keeps its tension till the end but also, the level of frustration is also growing up little by little as the episodes are passing. Romance is also one of the main genres of the story, but the drama isn’t Romance-centered as the romantical relationships aren’t fully explored.

As far as the technical part of the drama is concerned, both the production team and the majority of actors did a pretty good job. What I especially like about the production was the drama’s direction and montage, combined with on-point music which wasn’t unfortunately something memorable but it works well in the building of the drama's tension.

It has to be mentioned that this was the time Shin Dai Gi played the main lead in a drama and she was stunning, I hope we will see her in more main roles from now on. Shadow Beauty was also the first drama as a main lead for Choi Bo Min and the first time I saw him in general and he left me a good first impression.


~~~The webtoon~~~


Shadow Beauty is based on a webtoon by the same name written by Ahum. The webtoon is completed and it consists of 100 main episodes and 25 special episodes. The English translation is still ongoing and until now (December 29th 2021) 78 episodes have been released. The story is about Koo Ae Jin, a girl who has built a fake social media persona called “Genie” and she is basically living a double life.

As I said before, I was very excited and pleased with the first episodes of the drama. Then a certain thing happened that bothered me so I decided to read the original story. Guess what happened, the thing that disturb me wasn’t part of the original story.

I kept reading as well as watching the drama and now that I have finished both (I’ve read until the last published chapter of English translation), let me say the negative (for me) parts of the drama while doing a comparison with the webtoon at the same time (which is spoiler free so don’t worry).


The coherence


The episodes were very few compared to the episodes of the webtoon. To fill the whole story in only 13 episodes a lot of parts were cut and the story was limited. The original story is about Koo Ae Jin’s life in general and not only her school years which the drama contains.

As the drama only focuses on Koo Ae Jin’s school years, it is only logical for the drama writers to change some things and create their own ending of the story. This for me was a disadvantage because by limiting and editing the story, the storytelling ends up becoming incoherent and rough at some parts.

Also, by changing the story, what the author has in mind and the purpose behind the situations fails to be delivered. The story’s main purpose is the Koo Ae Jin’s secret identity and how she will keep it secret when in the webtoon this isn’t the case.


The characters and their relationships


One of the biggest mistakes was the alteration of the characters but also the alteration of the relations between them. My main problem here was the relationship between Koo Ae Jin and Yang Ha Neul which can be described with one phrase as “a hot mess”. Something quite curious that happened between them isn’t part of the original story so it was just something the drama writers came up with to create more drama in the story. This certain thing though makes Yang Ha Neul twisted to the point that her character’s writing seems weak.

Unlike the webtoon, the drama builds villain/s which Koo Ae Jin conflicts with and that makes the drama another ordinary drama despite the story’s attempts to break the norm. In the webtoon, the characters are mostly gray with their own wounds and mistakes that determine them. During the webtoon’s episodes, you see the characters mature, learn from their mistakes or shrink because of them. The drama didn’t completely fail to show this side of the characters but it didn’t succeed either.

In the webtoon, the main reason why Koo Ae Jin and her backstory are revealed in the early episodes, in the drama this is done at the end of it. This was bad because in the drama, the background of all the other main characters was explored before hers and made somehow the story unfocused on her.


~~~Overall~~~

Generally speaking, Shadow Beauty wasn’t a bad web drama, it was a regular school story with some thrill elements and some quite interesting parts. The finale of the drama is decent and the message that drama wants to get cross is very well delivered. I wish I could have rated this drama higher, but knowing the original story and how it failed to deliver its uniqueness I couldn’t do it.

Shadow Beauty is a story about people who are fighting everyday and conflict with themselves so they can mature, overcome their insecurities and accept themselves. Each character's monologue was a delightful and unique journey. It’s a pity this beautiful side of the story remained in the shadows.

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Hope Dies Last

Even though, sometimes, the first season of a drama doesn’t give you what you want, when a second season is announced, there's always hope for things to get better. As one of the persons who was disappointed by the first season of Alchemy of Souls, but still full of hope & curiosity, I've given AoS's second season a chance, to see what more this story had to offer.


~~S1 vs S2 ~~

World & Rules

In my review of AoS S1 I have written "in AoS the rules/grounds of body sifting are very interesting yet the concept of it somehow lacked". Well, in AoS S2 the rules/grounds of the whole world's structure just lacked.

The world doesn't follow a predetermined setting,a natural flow. In S2 new rules/abilities are constantly added and the only reason behind their existence is because somehow the plot had to move forwards. It's not a bad thing to create rules that help the plot out, but you can't excuse everything that happens because "it's magic" or "it's a fantasy drama not based in reality". Even in fantasy stories there should be grounded and have limitations and everything that's done should have a reasoning behind it.

Winner: S1 The world setting was way better there.

Pace

AoS S2 consists of 10 episodes which is the half amount of the S1 episodes and this helped the drama's pace a lot. S2 has a lot fewer filler scenes than S1 so it's more focused on the story which is actually a good advantage. Generally though, I had to say that the S2's individual pace as a drama wasn't perfect, just not as problematic.

Winner:S2 ? Well...

Story & Development

Having the characters and their relationships already set, the 10 episode-length S2 of AoS is ready to set another thing: the story. But jokes on you! S2 spends most of its time resetting the relationship between the two main characters while it didn't develop the core of the story until the last 2 episodes. In all the other episodes, the things that move the plot forward didn't have as much screen time.

As in S1, the villains were on the background plotting once again and doing nothing. The other relationships between all the other characters are already known from S1 and they made, from time to time, guest appearances in episodes , just to remind that they also exist in the story but they don't evolve further (except some exceptions).


To sum up, S2 was static. The only hot topic was the recreation of the main character's relationship and not what was actually happening in the world of the drama. The reason why this was bad is because it somehow made AoS S2 look like an individual drama that was inspired by AoS S1... Maybe a FanFic??

Winner: Tie. Both seasons lacked in story development and only move forward the very last minute


~~Cancel Writing~~

AoS's story has a very big disadvantage, and will call this problem "cancel writing". It means, when something that is written in the story is canceled by future events, for example, a character is represented to be very strong, but never one in the story was. A character has a curse that can't be broken, but it actually did, with the most easy way possible etc... This is bothering because the events that made you happy or sad and gave an emotional value to the story, got canceled, just like they didn't even happen.

In addition to that, I felt like the writers didn't dare to move the story a little bit further, so that everyone in fandom could be satisfied. Story-unrelated example, when a beloved character stays good and flawless, so that none of the fans is hurt because of their beloved ones behavior.

The above can make the drama boring, because you know that the story is not gonna pass a certain point and pull out something unpredictable and even if an event disturbs the story's waters, it will get canceled. As a result to this, everything in AoS ended as a bit cliche and not out of the box drama.



~~Overall~~

To say something positive about AoS, in both seasons, there were some things that I really enjoyed. In S1, I enjoyed the characters' interactions, the lore of the world. In S2, I appreciated the action scenes and the production behind this drama a lot more. AoS is generally a very well-made drama and no one can say otherwise.

The story had many possibilities to be good, and some of its parts were actually really good. I thought many times that if some things would turn out otherwise, AoS would be excellent in my eyes, but it wasn't. AoS's story never reached its full potential.


In the end, hope dies last, but dies


And just like that, as far as the story is concerned, AoS ends up as something I wouldn't recommend watching.

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An alchemy of genres that went a bit wrong

Take a dose of a classic shonen anime trope and mix it with romcom. Then add some wuxia elements and for the cherry on top, give a historical kpop-like styling and wrap it with a high-quality production. What you’ll end up with, is Alchemy of Souls.

Alchemy of Souls (AoS) is a weird combination of many different tropes & genres which make it definitely stand out as a very unique drama. I believe that’s partly why it gained popularity and is loved by many; it has its own special charm.

AoS is easy to watch and overall, an enjoyable-entertaining ride. It may consist of 20 episodes, but it can be easily binged if you feel like it. Watching this drama while it was airing and discussing events and theories with other watchers made the experience a lot more fun. Thus, I highly recommend watching this drama with company.

~The Story~

Even though I quite enjoyed the drama, story wise I had many issues that disappointed me and I wanted to highlight. The story had a very promising beginning but unfortunately, as unique was the style of this drama, as shallow the story ended up to be.

~~The main concept: body sifting

NOTE: If you don’t mind spoilers, read the first review’s spoiler comment for more details about this matter.

As a concept is nothing new, yet if it’s done right, it can make the story extremely interesting. In AoS the rules/grounds of body sifting are very interesting yet the concept of it somehow lacked.

Firstly, biologically speaking it has plot-holes. Since it’s a purely fantasy drama, I didn’t get bothered by it, I just found it funny. With that move though, it was made clear that what really matters in this concept is the soul and not the body. But did any other actions show that the soul matters more than the body? Well, in general I didn’t feel like they did.

When you play with such themes you have to constantly remember where the soul is coming from and its original form, especially if that form comes back eventually. You have to make clear that a soul is “parasitizing” a body. This can be succeeded with several directing-writing ways. In AoS when at first this “parasitizing” was clear at first but started to get blurry from both the directing and writing side.

From the directing aspect, I wanted more audiovisual stimuli of the original soul’s form. From the writing, I wanted to see the persona I was promised this soul has and its gradual development-changing and confliction, which weren’t really shown. This leads me to my next issue.

~~ Development: Plot & Characters

Some would say that AoS is a slow-burn drama. I would say that to characterize a drama like this, the plot has to move, unlike AoS where honestly, the plot is moving slower than Flash the Sloth from Zootopia. Don’t get me wrong though, AoS is an eventful drama, just most of these events don’t escalate the storytelling, they are fillers.

These filler events were mainly comedic & romantic scenes. The writers made sure they gave the audience a decent amount of juicy funny and romantic scenes which provided exclusive entertainment and made the viewers get more attached with the characters. These scenes didn’t offer anything to the plot, so as the drama was running out of episodes I was wondering “I’m having a good time watching, but what about the story?”. From one point onwards, I couldn’t but constantly get the feeling that the writers wanted to win over viewers’ hearts and extend the series as much as possible rather than make a consistent story.

AoS is a fantasy story that has its mysteries. These mysteries made the story very intriguing to watch and many viewers started theorizing about what would happen next. Sadly, even the mysteries didn’t escalate as they should. For example, one of the main mysteries, which was also a very important part of the story, was noticed and solved pretty early in the story process. Yet, it was “explained” so late to the point that when the director finally presented it as a very intense revelation, it didn’t feel intense at all, because it wasn’t anything new.

About the characters, some of AoS them had likable personalities, others didn’t and very few of them had multidimensional personalities. Many characters were just used as mere plot-subjects, love interests or/and they were very important parts for the story but they were never fully explored. About character development, the two protagonists barely had any, and in fact, they were predictable. It’s really funny how static the characters were when the drama consists of 20 episodes with a duration more than an hour each.

The universe of AoS is very well created, I would gladly see another story from the same universe. But about the character relationships of this universe, everything was predefined, everything was forced. From the start it was made clear who are the bad ones, who are the good ones. Even their appearances and acting were decisive. There was no room for doubt, everything was black and white without them getting mixed and creating a gray area, even if the good guys sometimes did the same things as the bad ones.

~Conclusion~

AoS is a drama in which you’ll enjoy the journey (individual moments) but not the destination (the overall story process). The story started really well but lost its main focus as the episodes were passing. Despite that, AoS can turn out a very good drama depending on what you are looking for. If you want to have a good time, laugh and you don’t really care how the story will turn out, then watching AoS is a very good option. If you want a story with more depth, escalation and more complex writing, then AoS is not what you are looking for.

I would also advise you to not have high expectations while watching AoS, you will enjoy it more that way. I believe the main reason I ended up really disappointed at the drama was that due to the amazing first episodes, I set the bar too high and I expected a lot from its story. In the end, the drama didn’t satisfy my high expectations and I was let down. I want to believe that the second season of AoS, writing wise, ends up better than the first one so the final taste this drama leaves in my mind is a more positive one.

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The Thrilling Trio

Being in a Thriller slump for quite some time, I came across the title “Midnight Thriller” and my curiosity was alarmed. Without even reading the synopsis, I dived in and “Midnight Thriller” ended up to be a surprisingly pleasant and enjoyable watching experience.

“Midnight Thriller” consists of 3 episodes and it’s an anthology of 3 stories. Each story has its strong and weak points and some aspects are done better in one story than another. Overall, all the stories left a good impression on me.

Surprisingly, the production in total is quite meticulous and technically sound, giving the drama quality and at the same time, artistic tones. The only thing lacking is the music which is like the music you hear in an Escape Room with a horror theme or a Haunted House. Despite that, the music still fitted with the drama’s tone perfectly.



~~~First story : Friendly Police~~~

Friendly Police is a psychological, mystery thriller story. It was the creepiest and the “weirdest” of the three. The plot is quite predictable, or it isn’t? If you watch it, you’ll decide yourselves and that’s what makes Friendly Police a very unique story. The biggest disadvantage is that the story is very slow paced and it can be tedious. Still, the pace might not affect you so much.

The Acting

The acting was superb, the best of the three stories. The main leads are portraited by Kim Yoon Hye and Jung Jin Won and their chemistry was insane. I have watched KYH in other dramas (Vincenzo, Sh**ting Stars) and yet, her performance in Friendly Police is her best. It was my first time watching JJW and I was amazed, this actor really has some skills.



~~~ Second story : Follower~~~

Follower is a crime, mystery thriller and my favorite story of the drama. As a crime thriller, it gave me strong Agatha Christie vibes. The plot is very well written and executed so as a result, the story has good coherence, pacing so you won’t feel bored at all. The story isn’t predictable but if you are observant, you might suspect what is going on. All in all, this story was very enjoyable to watch and I’d gladly watch it again.

The Acting

The main lead of the story is Cha Ye Run alongside Jo Han Sun and Kim Jung Hwa. CYR was the reason I discovered “Midnight Thriller” as I was searching her filmography. In Follower, she was quite captivating and she delivered her emotions successfully. I think she is a brilliant actress and I’ll keep searching her filmography and hope I will see her in another good drama soon. JHS and KJH did a pretty good job too.



~~~ Third Story : Supermodel~~~

Supermodel is the most suspenseful story of the three and also, the one with the most aesthetic cinematography and directing. The plot is quite interesting and manages to keep you attention till the end as a result of its good pace and structure. The story is far from predictable as you can’t see the ending coming. Honestly, I was quite shocked with the ending.

The Acting

I have to say that I wasn’t as impressed as with the acting of the two previous stories, mainly because of the acting of the supporting characters. The main lead of the story, Lee Shi Ah is, in my opinion, a good actress. Her interpretation in Supermodel was decent and that’s why the third story had in the end a good outcome.



~~~Conclusion~~~

I’m very happy I discovered “Midnight Thriller”. Each of its stories had something to offer me and impressed me in its own way. Even though they weren’t perfect, I was completely satisfied with what I watched and I’m craving for more thrillers now. It’s really a shame that “Midnight Thriller” is undiscovered by many. If you are a thriller lover and want to watch light mini-drama, then “Midnight Thrillers” should be on your radar.

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Well, well, well…

Make some tea, this will take a while…


!!!ALL the spoilers will be warned beforehand!!!

Hellbound is one of the examples where a story with an interesting concept was "bound", not to hell, but to not develop fully so that it could reach its true potential.

Hellbound is a supernatural horror drama not for the light-hearted. Even though Hellbound is not scary, it contains extreme violence and gore which makes it very dark, raw and twisted.

The story revolves around a mysterious phenomenon where some weird creatures burn humans and bind them to Hell. As fast these monsters burn humans, so slow burn the drama is. For a 6-episode length drama, it’s really slow paced. Personally, I like slow paced dramas when this factor helps in building the universe of the story, the atmosphere, the suspense or the characters’ depth. In Hellbound though, nothing of these happens. That’s why I found the whole set up (especially the first 3 episodes) a little boring and I don’t think that the drama can be binged-watched easily as its slowness makes it a very exhausting experience.



~~~What went wrong~~~


The real problem of the story though, it’s not the pace. I think that the story has 2 main problems



~ The Randomness~

DISCLAIMER: ~Randomness~ does not contain spoilers but it describes very generally how the storyline works.


The one problem is the randomness. Many random people were involved in many random situations that led to a random storyline.

Hellbound feels like watching a “collection of stories” which take place in the same universe. The storyline is showing some of the actions/situations of many different people during the crisis, but never you’ll never get to see in depth the character's way of thinking or get to fully know their personalities. Also, you won’t even get to know the whole story for some of them. As a result, you can’t get attached with any of the characters. There are only some cases where you can feel sorry for some of them and that’s it.

In addition, the relationships between the characters feel kind of superficial to me. The fact that you see many people with not a certain relationship between them, strengthened the randomness factor because basically, the drama was just throwing random characters and their stories to your face. The weird thing is that the drama isn’t that long and it didn’t even have these many characters to feel like it’s overdrawn with them and their stories, but it did.



And here is where the critical question arises: among all these characters, who is the protagonist?

I asked myself many times and to my surprise, I couldn’t come up with an answer. In Hellbound there isn’t anyone that you can call “the protagonist” of the story. Thus, as a watcher, you don’t have anyone to follow and process the story with. This is actually the reason that everyone seems irrelevant with each other, there isn’t a protagonist to bound all of them together.

Don’t get me wrong though. Good stories without a certain protagonist can exist but I believe that Hellbound isn't one of them.



~Netflix~

The second problem, that I believe is the most serious one, is Netflix.

Netflix has started to produce more and more Kdramas lately and some of the dramas it has made had huge and global success. Even though I really loved many of them, I have to say that there’s a different aura in these dramas, a more “Netflix” aura that slowly takes the K from Kdrama away.

The main problem I have with Netflix original dramas is the “see you in the second season that isn’t even confirmed that’s gonna happen” thing. As a regular asian-drama watcher, I have been used to watching a drama that has one season with a story that has a start-middle-closure which in the end I like or dislike and then, move on to the next watching adventure. I, and many others I have talked to, like asian-dramas because of this. I’d lie if I’d say that I haven’t liked dramas which have multiple seasons but Netflix has just overdone it lately.


Thus, I started to think if I dislike the fact that Hellbound is another Netflix drama which will have a second season, or if there was something wrong regardless of the fact that Hellbound has to have a second season. The answer here is both.


Hellbound is based on a webtoon by the same name. I haven’t read the webtoon. I don’t know the full story, so I don’t have an opinion about it. Maybe the webtoon is a hidden gem, when I read it, I will see for myself. For now, everything I based this review on is the 6 episodes that I have watched.

The webtoon’s original run was from August 25, 2019 to September 21, 2020. This means that the story was completed and Netflix could have released the whole story in one go, but it didn’t. This led to the creation of a drama which basically has no story progression. It’s remarkable, the first season ended and it answered literally nothing, on the other hand, it raised more questions than the already existing ones. The first season could have been described as the “backstory” of the Hellbound but it’s nearly the beginning of the story.

Maybe, if Netflix had released the whole story in one go, the progression and the escalation of the story and characters, that was needed, would be there. Unfortunately, Hellbound’s story was bound by Netflix to not develop as it should, and this is really sad. As the story hasn’t ended yet, to see the story’s full potential we have to wait until the second season is released (if it will be released) or read the webtoon instead. For me, Hellbound will be saved if the second season comes to set the record straight and puts everything in its proper place.



~~~What went well~~~


Despite the fact that the storyline is messy, there are some things that I quite liked about Hellbound.


~The concept~

!!WARNING ~The concept~ part contains SPOILERS!!





Hellbound has managed to build a dystopian world that's based on a very -as nonsense as it sounds- realistic depiction of human thought. Humans through the years tried to explain the world and the natural phenomena around them using logic. In the early years though, humans couldn’t understand all of the things around them. Thus, they attributed the nature of these phenomena to God and God’s Will and many times humans were scared by them. A perfect example is Greek mythology. One of the Greek mythology myths is saying that God Zeus was using lighting as a weapon and to punish but in many myths, he didn’t use lightning to punish but to seek solutions.

Likewise, in Hellbound we see people become witnesses to a supernatural phenomenon which they couldn’t explain. In their fear and lack of knowledge they attributed this supernatural phenomenon to God’s Will to punish sinners. At the end of episode 3, Jun Jin Soo explains exactly the feeling of human’s fear to the unknown perfectly.


“Do you honestly believe true justice can be served through man-made law?”. This is the moral question that Hellbound asks through Jun Jin Soo and answers through the 6 episodes of the fist season. Law was made by humans when society was created to ensure harmonious coexistence between people. Of course, nothing man-made is perfect and the same applies to the law. Through the years, humans fight for their rights and always try to improve the law as much as their human nature allows them.

In Hellbound, we see people turn a blind eye to the law and only believe in the God’s Punishment, which was actually the product of human fear. The deviation from legal life led to the creation of Hellbound’s dystopian world. Thus, through this world, Hellbound shows the value and the importance of human law and how humanity would end up without them.







~The production and Acting~

The production is not perfect, but it’s decent enough. It has some generally good cinematography and even though the music was average, it was on point and it fitted very well with the drama’s tone and atmosphere. As the drama has a very dark plot, the colors follow this darkness too so the color palette contains strictly cool colors. The visual FX are very satisfying in general but the VFX I think that lacked in some parts. The CGI of the monsters honestly wasn’t bad, the design of them was only somehow weird and not scary enough. Personally, I didn’t care about the monster’s appearance, I had other things that I didn’t like and found them more serious problems. Last, for the acting, Yoo Ah In was exceptional as always and the other actors acted good enough alongside him. Won Jin Ah's performance as mother and Park Jung Min as a father were really remarkable too and I enjoy watching them a lot.



Conclusion

Hellbound wasn’t good, but it wasn’t very bad either. Everything will depend on the second season. Until then, if you want to watch a horror-thriller series and you don’t care about how complex and well-written the story process is, you would definitely enjoy it.

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Dear time-travel lovers : this web drama is for you

Spoiler-free part

Time travel tropes are very interesting and by using them, unique storylines can be created. When they aren’t used carefully though, unexplained paradoxes and plot-holes appear and create a messy storyline which destroys the watching experience. Fortunately, ‘Blue Birthday’ manage to use the time travel trope the right way.

The story’s concept is pretty simple : a girl is going back to her school years to save her first love who died the day of her birthday. At the end of every episode, rules about time travel are mentioned so it’s easier for the viewers to keep up with the things that are happening. The concept isn’t something new nor very complicated. The story sounds cliché and reminds of many movies, anime or other time-travel series but for some reason, it manages to catch your attention and keep it till the very end. Sometimes, it’s even unpredictable and unique on its own way.

Even though the main genre of the drama is thriller, the atmosphere of the drama is not very dark and moody. Considering also that the plot isn’t that complicated, ‘Blue Birthday’ is a light drama which everyone can watch and enjoy. The romance is also one of the main genres but there aren’t many romantic moments in the drama. Rarely you’ll find a romance-thriller that with two genres are perfectly balanced and ‘Blue Birthday’ isn’t one of them for sure. Maybe that’s the reason why I personally didn’t feel so much chemistry between the 2 main leads but this didn’t make me enjoy the drama less.

Starting without any expectations, this web-drama ended up a pleasant surprise and a very enjoyable ride. Don’t expect to see the masterpiece of time travel trope. Don’t expect to see Oscar-worthy interpretations either as all the actors have just entered as main leads into the dramaland with this drama. Let’s welcome them and hope to see them playing more roles in the future and to always improve their acting skills.

In conclusion, if you want to watch a sort, simple drama about time travel with a well-written plot, then watch and enjoy ‘Blue birthday’. You won’t be disappointed.


Now I have analyzed a theory about the time travel. It will be spoiler free but I’ve also referred the rules the drama has shown through the episodes so better read it after you’ve watched all the episodes.




Just in case WARNING SPOILERS




First these are the rules/facts we have learn through the episodes :

1) Burn the photo and the time travel starts.
2) When there’s tinnitus you go back to the present.
3) Burn a photo and time goes back. But no one can be brough back to life.
4) A changed past affects the present.
5) Time travel is only available on the day of the photo-taking before the midnight.
6) Photos of time travel can’t be copied.
7) Only photos taken with old films and cameras with young Seo Jun enabled time travel.
8) A damaged photo can’t active any time travel.
9) Anyone can have a time travel.
10) Misfortune comes with time travel.
11) Completely faded photos can’t be restored.
12) Changed memories come back when they are activated.
13) More than one person can time travel at the same time.
14) During the time travel, the real time is frozen.
15) According to how you roll it, you’ll get a different number of photos.
16) Someone also has the films and the camera that can enable time travel.

According to the rules and facts of the drama, the kind of time travel we might have here is a multiverse time travel in which there are: one main world, one timeline and many parallel worlds. I have to mention that parallel worlds are not referred in the drama, it’s just my theory.

A parallel world can be created by someone who changed the past. The new-created parallel world becomes the continuation of the main timeline and the present changes. When time travelers go to the present, they go to the new world and not to the present they were before. That explains why they don’t have new memories but they can slowly gain them as they become part of the new world.

The creation of the new parallel world doesn’t mean destruction of the main world, it only means continuation of timeline in the new world. Thus, the main world still exists, as also all the created ones. That’s why the time travelers have also their older memories and can spot the differences the parallel worlds have.

All the time travelers can acknowledge when the world changes, even if they weren’t the ones who change the past. That happens because they have experienced the creation of a parallel world before. They have broken the barrier of space-time, so now, they have different perception of the cosmic reality.

The more the timeline moves to different worlds, the more it diverges from the main world. This brings unbalance to the whole universe and that’s why misfortune comes with the time travel. The cause of misfortune can be also explained as a consequence of the butterfly effect: a small, seemingly insignificant change can cause huge deviations in the course of events, creating a completely different reality.

Last but not least, the photos are like tickets for time travel. No matter how many worlds are created, the numbers of the photos and the owner of them won’t change. All the rules about the photos have been explained clearly through the episodes.

As you see, according to that theory, the time travel trope doesn’t include any paradoxes. Also, there aren’t any plot holes in the sci-fi part of the drama, as everything that happens can be explained, which make the story well-written.

That’s all! I hope my theory makes sense somehow and help the watchers understand better the kind of time travel ‘Blue Birthday’ has. Thank you for reading!

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