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This review may contain spoilers
Great premise that failed to deliver
The kinds of stories that piss me off the most are the ones that had the potential for me to love the most. Great premise, not one but three female leads and great cast especially the veterans, Willy and David. Fun fact: Did you know they’ve both played BL characters before? Figure the GL/BL crowd will flock to here eventually, and y’all might be interested lol. Unfortunately, the execution fell flat. I’m not sure if it’s the directors, writers or the combination of the two just not being able to play on the level as Squid Game and Hunger Games which this story has elements of both.
I am giving this a 7, because it did interest me enough to finish it.
Strengths
Cast. As mentioned, they have an all-star cast who all did a really great job.
The Main Villain. There is one big baddie who is a mystery to the end. The reveal didn’t really surprise me. It made sense that it is this person, and I think most viewers would approve of it being them. Like the person didn’t totally come out of left field and not make sense for it to be that person.
Ending. The ending was satisfying to me. Some viewers may not like it. But given the story, I think it was the most appropriate ending for it to have.
Weaknesses
Camera work. My god it's terrible during the action scenes. Y'all complaining about the camera work in some of the KPop shows. Well, y'all haven't seen this level of bad. I couldn't see who was stabbing who.
Flow and editing. Before the games started, the flow of the story was all over the place for me. It felt like someone took clips from the actual story and slapped them together. I feel like a lot of things were missing in between scenes. We kinda know the girls are fighting to end corruption through 2-3m dialogues. There’s a scene of them fighting a lot of bad guys and it somehow ending. I mean how did they get there. Why are they there? When does the fight even end? It just goes on to the next scene.
Characters – Gonna go by the order they’re listed in the cast.
Fear. This girl is so dumb. You know how some male characters are portrayed to only think with their D. Well, this girl only thinks with her V. I’ll give her one thing though. Never in my life have I seen a female character only think with her V. Homegirl gets f*cked once by Irene and is totally whipped. Irene ignores her afterwards, but she remains smitten. Bear in mind that she’s only ever met Irene ONCE before while she sneers at the actual person who has genuine feelings for her and saved her life. I don’t want to ruin the story for those who haven’t seen this yet, but there is more dumb to her than I’ve already talked about.
Irene. Actually, she is the best character out of the three but unfortunately, they cheapened her like that other GL lead by making her have sex with anyone who wants to f*ck her regardless of gender. They don’t do this with their male leads (OldBoy) but why must every Asian male creator who has a female lead in this type of storyline gotta cheapen them by making them have sex with everyone? It’s like they will choose a female lead only for that purpose. Other than that, she’s the most complex character out of the three with a brain, and I actually like her. Smart and complex characters, whether they’re the heroes or villains, are my weakness.
Run. This girl is also dumb but not on the same level of dumb as Fear. I tend to like badass characters like Irene (sans the sex with everyone thing), but I think most GL viewers will like Run because she’s also “nice” and “sweet”. But for me, this girl risked her BEST FRIEND’S life to save the girl who she only met TWICE and didn’t care if she died. Had Fear’s friend not helped her, her friend would have been strangled to death by some kinda metal torture device and eventually decapitated. Later on, it kinda made sense why she did it but also not make sense. Because not hesitating to risk your BEST FRIEND being DECAPITATED over your guilt for some dumb girl just doesn’t sit well with me.
So there you go. 2 out of the 3 girls are dumb as a rock. But damn, their backstories were so good, and I wish they would have made the 2 girls more likeable and rational.
I think this would have been better as a Netflix series. Unless you have an exceptional director and writers on the project, it's hard to condense these kinds of storylines into 2 hours.
The premise and cast were both really good, but the execution just failed to deliver.
I am giving this a 7, because it did interest me enough to finish it.
Strengths
Cast. As mentioned, they have an all-star cast who all did a really great job.
The Main Villain. There is one big baddie who is a mystery to the end. The reveal didn’t really surprise me. It made sense that it is this person, and I think most viewers would approve of it being them. Like the person didn’t totally come out of left field and not make sense for it to be that person.
Ending. The ending was satisfying to me. Some viewers may not like it. But given the story, I think it was the most appropriate ending for it to have.
Weaknesses
Camera work. My god it's terrible during the action scenes. Y'all complaining about the camera work in some of the KPop shows. Well, y'all haven't seen this level of bad. I couldn't see who was stabbing who.
Flow and editing. Before the games started, the flow of the story was all over the place for me. It felt like someone took clips from the actual story and slapped them together. I feel like a lot of things were missing in between scenes. We kinda know the girls are fighting to end corruption through 2-3m dialogues. There’s a scene of them fighting a lot of bad guys and it somehow ending. I mean how did they get there. Why are they there? When does the fight even end? It just goes on to the next scene.
Characters – Gonna go by the order they’re listed in the cast.
Fear. This girl is so dumb. You know how some male characters are portrayed to only think with their D. Well, this girl only thinks with her V. I’ll give her one thing though. Never in my life have I seen a female character only think with her V. Homegirl gets f*cked once by Irene and is totally whipped. Irene ignores her afterwards, but she remains smitten. Bear in mind that she’s only ever met Irene ONCE before while she sneers at the actual person who has genuine feelings for her and saved her life. I don’t want to ruin the story for those who haven’t seen this yet, but there is more dumb to her than I’ve already talked about.
Irene. Actually, she is the best character out of the three but unfortunately, they cheapened her like that other GL lead by making her have sex with anyone who wants to f*ck her regardless of gender. They don’t do this with their male leads (OldBoy) but why must every Asian male creator who has a female lead in this type of storyline gotta cheapen them by making them have sex with everyone? It’s like they will choose a female lead only for that purpose. Other than that, she’s the most complex character out of the three with a brain, and I actually like her. Smart and complex characters, whether they’re the heroes or villains, are my weakness.
Run. This girl is also dumb but not on the same level of dumb as Fear. I tend to like badass characters like Irene (sans the sex with everyone thing), but I think most GL viewers will like Run because she’s also “nice” and “sweet”. But for me, this girl risked her BEST FRIEND’S life to save the girl who she only met TWICE and didn’t care if she died. Had Fear’s friend not helped her, her friend would have been strangled to death by some kinda metal torture device and eventually decapitated. Later on, it kinda made sense why she did it but also not make sense. Because not hesitating to risk your BEST FRIEND being DECAPITATED over your guilt for some dumb girl just doesn’t sit well with me.
So there you go. 2 out of the 3 girls are dumb as a rock. But damn, their backstories were so good, and I wish they would have made the 2 girls more likeable and rational.
I think this would have been better as a Netflix series. Unless you have an exceptional director and writers on the project, it's hard to condense these kinds of storylines into 2 hours.
The premise and cast were both really good, but the execution just failed to deliver.
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