?
we expected a bloody war of greed , lust and power hunger. We wanted smart schemes, unexpected alliances, and plot twists. We wanted a neat and clear character development process, where each one's alter ego surfaces and surprise us.But what we got was simply bland.
Like i said in a comment before, this better be the ground work for a more exciting second season .
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Society in 8 episodes
Note: the rewatch value is only low because i dont rewatch this type of shows.I have enjoyed every second of this show. True it is a mash up of the platform and squid game , so maybe i m being subjective by saying this show was better because , this exact cast hit the nail perfectly for me.
In a very detailed manner, this show depicts life as we know it.
From the moment we r born, our life is partially dictated by our social class, An important factor that gets assigned to each one of us randomly.
Just like the characters picked the cards with no pre notice of the consequences, that absurdity and randomness of that moment is really what we all share in life. A moment that is familiar to all of us. A moment we have no control over, even though they made the choice themselves, we can hardly pin the responsibility of that choice on them. If you believe in luck , then that just might b the answer to this controversy.
Life starts off by randomness and absurdity. Like a cards game, the cards are dealt by chance, what you do with the cards later on is up to you. But if we r being honest , what can you even do when u r dealt a losing hand, just like the 1st floor man. He had his hopes up , just like all poor people, dreaming of climbing the social ladder, and changing their fate.He was dupped by the organizers , and thought that he could change rooms if he had 1 billion. Just like how the bottom class in society is sold fake dreams of going from rags to riches if only they work hard, if only they save up a certain amount of money. Only to find out , their dream is not really attainable. The 1st floor man walking on a tight rope -literaly- was a beautiful metaphorical image of how poor people struggle between life and death , in their journey to the top of the pyramids. The way he kept jumping only to fall in a fiery pit -literaly- and burn away to his death, was a devastating image of desperation.
I find the 3rd floor man the most intriguing one, i assume he reflects the common man in its most common aspect. During the talent show, he had no talent to show, he s not the smartest compared to the 7th floor man , he s not the strongest compared to the 6th floor man . He s not the most candid as the 5th floor woman , he s not the most sly like the 4th floor woman, he s not the bravest like the 2nd floor woman and he s not the cruelest like the 8th floor woman. If he was a drawing , he would be the stickman. easy to draw , with nothing to catch the eye. Simply trying to fit in within the crowd , his strategy was based off not attracting attention, to stay invisible. And i think it s brillant how he was the one to destroy the cameras. By doing so , he stayed true to his motto, to stay invisible.
Throughout the show we see the different ways people within a society organize themselves. They displayed many political regimes and economical currents.
Capitalism: each room had a different income , and the whole concept of the game "time is money" , the consumerism displayed by 8th floor woman ...
Socialism : sharing the work load when they climbed the stairs aswell as sharing the food..
Democracy: voting and sharing ideas as a whole community...
Totalitarianism / dictatorship: When the elite was making all the decisions , while the rest were merely suffering the consequences....
And plenty other concepts were referred to, like slavery, weapon acquisition , technocracy and others... A theme that was most memorable to me , is when the 8th floor woman bought the CCTV tapes of the other players. Just like the elites in our modern society gather data of us , track us, and have us under a microscope through social media, street cameras and satellites ...
The 8th floor woman was the perfect illustration of the rich category. The best part was when she started painting people s pain and then quickly moved on and bought a cute dog. As you may know, the high class people take interest in stupid paintings , spending fortunes of a couple of splashes of paint, pretending that they have deeper meanings, and possibly reflect someone s suffering. They love to run donation parties to help the poor, pretending to sympathize and care, but at the end of the night they all go back to their high towers, to their spoiled cute little pets who get groomed and fed 10 times the salary of the lower class man.
Now, since the game was a show meant to entertain, who r these people that are being entertained? and what were the acts that entertained them the most ?
I dont have an exact answer for the first question, that should be left to
everyone s interpretation.My theory was that the audience were the gods, because when the 1st floor man was floating in the sky, it seemed like he was ascending to the heavens. But this theory seems so far fetched since i can confidently say , the audience was entertained by the most immoral and heinous acts like sex and torture. Which doesnt align much with what
gods represent.
In conclusion, there are alot of things to analyze in this show, many human traits to study, and so much of the human's tragic comedy to think about.
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A man who once owned the world
Just by reading the movie description,if u dont appreciate this genre.. dont watchFor the rest of you who have a mature taste , with a soul made of whiskey mist and leather seats, The type of people who can withstand a heavy cigar smoke , in a black and red room.Then this one is for you.
The music is amazing, it carries an air of sophistication despite the violent and aggressive parameters of the movie.
The love of this gangster man , is unlike what u heard of before.. very innocent and pure... a love that he was never able to express in words, but was translated in his gaze, his walk, his tone and sadly his death.
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strong potential in the storyline... failed to reach its peak
Hated all the characters, hated the chairwoman the most , while hated Yong Guk the least .Oh Wan Su kissing the bodyguard while still technically married, took away all her credibility and the saint image she was given. It was a flagrant error in the plot . embarrassing way to ruin the build up and the purity of her feelings towards her bodyguard. They should v stuck to hugging.
The ending had its good and bad points...
-Yong Guk s death(despite my sympathy for the character, his death was necessary to accentuate the tragic effect), Mr Han and his son in jail were much deserved closures .
-Oh Wan Su reuniting with the bodyguard ruined everything about her character. Despite the different context, she showed how similar she is to the chairwoman. depending on a man , getting too emotionally invested, and simply not being the strong women they were painted to b throughout the show. Very disappointing
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Beautiful self introspection
Idk what expectations i had before watching this , but i ll have to say thay it all went out of the window.The story is engaging , the characters give off a bohemian like aesthetic , they r very captivating , each one of them feels a bit mystical but very real. It was the perfect balance betweem these opposites traits.
The movie was raw buy not crude, very polished and well arranged. At times it felt poetic , yet deep rooted in the reality of each one of us .
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A woman more lustful than a man
Very poised show, the pace , the topic , destined to a mature audience i d say. As you watch , you might feel frustrated by the FL decisions that could seem weak and chaotic but around the end there s a line said by Shizawa " did those men embrace her or did she embrace them" and i think that explains everything that s been going on.Ps:my rewatch value rating is only low because i dont really rewatch stuff
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This review may contain spoilers
This movie made me feel beyond anger
i m someone who likes watching fucked up movies and shows... i have a sense of darkness that i explore through cinema . i v watched many shows displaying messed up shit , and that it is why i checked this one out.This movie didnt evoke any sadness in me , my eyes didnt tear not once . I was too angry to be sad . This movie made so furious. I felt a sense of violence within me ,which is something far from my actual personality.
I just kept getting angry and fucking livid as the movie progressed. Every moment of it, made me clench my fist , curse out loud, and just want to beat up someone.
As an Idol, Jin Young proved himself as an actor with this movie . i genuinely hope he was okay afterwards because playing both twins roles . And experiencing both their feelings is just sick torture and mentally devastating. He did an amazing job as an actor, i sincerely hope he snaps out of this character asap.
About the plot , i have to say i wasnt upset at all about Il Woo s negligence of his retarded brother. He was a kid aswell , he needed guidance and supervision aswell, he was a young boy who was given a burden heavier than he deserves. However I was immensely boiling about that counselor who killed Woo Ioo . the actor was sooo convincing, i knew he was fucked up right from the beginning.
i dont wanna get too deep into the storyline, it will just make me angry all over again. but what i d like to say is , these things do happen in our reality, and special needs people and even sane people get exploited and toyed with . we live in a dark world, and this movie was a crude piece of it
PS: the rewatch value i wanna give is 0. Please dont check this movie unless you can handle it.
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Misunderstood FL, Cuteness overload ML
i like this so far.. the concept is fresh! which is very rare nowadays with the repetitive patterns and plots ..We usely watch romcoms with ppl falling in love and building up their relationship...but what happens after the relationship is established? do they always get married and live happily ever after? i dont think so ... i like how the show is about two people breaking up ... i m pretty sure it s going to be a happy ending and all... but the concept itself is interesting to me... i would absolutely love to see a show where the couple help each other break up , and actually do break up and go separate ways in the end ...Eitherway, this is an enjoyable watch so far... as a noona romance story, i was a little worried bout their chemistry, but i can hardly tell there s an age gap discordance.. they look very much harmonious and lovely to me..
i seen some people not relating to the FL , and how she seemed to easily break up with him... but it s very understandable. As the older one in the relationship, her character is expected to be the more laid back, cool, confident in decision making, responsible and reasonable. She literally has a 100 reason to break with him, but obviously the show is about her finding that one good enough reason to stay with him...
Idk where this show is heading tho lol r they gon spend the entire upcoming eps going on an eating spree?🤣 gettin stalked by his mother and hiding their relationship from their coworkers? ...Dear god i hope not , that sounds so bland ... So possibly the FL will change her mind early in the episodes.. and then maybe they fight together to convince his mother and stuff?
his brother s sub plot looks funny aswell🤣🤣 the sudden underwears while they were drinkin was shocking... i actually think his wife loves him and posts on social media cuz she knows he watches it , so it s her way of communicating with him and keepin him updated with her daily life?
Overall, i m interested to see how will the story progress, hopefully the scriptwriter doesnt find themselves stuck in a loop of confessions and rejections , but instead create a path that hasnt been walked before ..
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A fun snack
It s explicit yes but that is just a fragment of this work. The settings , the era, the actors , the direction ,all these elements made this an absolute success in my opinion. It was very entertaining , very fun to watch ,and very japanese humour like.I liked the director s personality the most, such a firecracker .
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