mopalia
Dreadful after the first few episodes
This, like a number of other K-dramas, starts with the protagonists as children, and then they make the leap to young adults in one episode. The children are great and it's a really promising start. I got totally sucked into it. Sadly, it's a long slide down from there. The characters develop illogically, with strong children becoming dishonest and whiny adults. The female lead is unbelievably boring and flat, with no personality at all. the male she was paired with as a child becomes a whiner. The plot becomes garbled and simply stupid. I"m at ep. 118 and I can't wait for the male lead to die, already. He's a terrible actor. The one bright star in this mess is Han Jung-Ho, who plays a disabled adult. It's the first portrayal of someone with a disability - probably intended as cerebral palsy - is never cringe-worthy and consistent throughout. He deserves a reward. The writer and the rest of the cast isn't worth mention. Why did I watch so much of this? I normally watch a daily dram to go to sleep to - and this wasn't even good enough for that. Now I just want it to end. Yuk.Was this review helpful to you?
Nothing special
This was a nice enough drama. If you need to spend 16 hours with no intellectual challenge, no original story lines, no violence or horror, and a fairly bland cast of characters. this will suit you just fine. This sounds like harsh condemnation, but it isn't - sometimes an innocuous rom-com is just what you need to spend some time with. But don't have great expectations of this. At the end I didn't love any of the characters and was happy to let them pass out of my life with no regret. There are better things to watch, but not much as bland.Was this review helpful to you?
A lovely and surprisingly heartwarming story
Two outstanding dramas in one season are more than I would have expected, but following on the heels of Navillera, we have Move to Heaven, an Unexpectedly charming and moving story of an autistic boy and his uncle. After watching Lee Je-hoon in Taxi Driver, I was pretty past my limit for violence and revenge, and if I had realized that he's playing the uncle, I would not have watch this. I"m so glad I was ignorant - he proved to be an actor of excellent range and made the transition from ex-convict to caring man elegantly and subtly. All of the cast was terrific. The writing was well paced, as was the direction. You'll shed a tear or two, and the stories nested within the main story elaborate the plot and the feelings. This is well worth watching.Was this review helpful to you?
Underrated, a good piece of romantic fluff.
True disclosure: I adore Lee Min Ki and would happily watch him butter toast for 16 episodes. I just wish he got better dramas these days.The plot here is totally idiotic. I was taught that to enjoy fiction you needed a "willing suspension of disbelief." Well, suspend everything, because the story line is lame lame lame. If you can expect nothing from the story line, you might enjoy this. The acting is very good. The drama is full of interesting characters and side romances that are well acted and rather engaging. Somewhere in the middle, I started to realize that the writing of the main plot was really too stupid for words, but Lee Min Ki and the other very good performances kept me watching.
It's hard to review a drama in which everything EXCEPT the main plot is very good. But that's this drama. If you are looking for an undemanding bit of romantic fluff, you might enjoy it. In addition to the Eye Candy of Lee Min Ki, there's Kang Min-Hyuk who just seems to get cuter and cuter, and, for me - a die-hard classic Korean Rock fan, there was Kim Chang-Wan. What's not to love? Well, other than the pointless plot.
Was this review helpful to you?
Sorry I watched it
This is tagged as " Comedy, Law, Romance, Crime, Drama" and it was, initially. There was a rather uneasy blend of crime and comedy, but the humor was quirky and the soundtrack provided a lot of good laughs. I initially hadn't planned to watch it because I hate most Mafia dramas (I went to school with children of real Mafia bosses, so it's not a world I find amusing) and because I'm not very impressed with Song Joong Ki's acting (bring on the haters!). Song was better than I expected but still not great - he simply doesn't have the gravitas I expect from a consiglieri. And I never felt any romantic vibes between him and Jeon Yeo Bin; they were pretty cold fish until the hastily tacked on end scenes.But he real issue is that it went from a nice hidden treasure drama to a vicious revenge drama with over-graphic hate and sadism. There was nothing likeable about Vincenzo, who showed himself to be a purely evil as the psychopath he was trying to bring down. And what happened to all the gold? Was anything worthwhile done with it, or were the tenants just sucked into Vincenzo's world of revenge and greed? In the end, he corrupted them all.
The star performance was, of course, was Ok Taec Yeon, who went from a bumbling office assistant to an evil psychopath seamlessly and believably. It was a great performance. In the end, I felt sorry for him, a clearly troubled defective human being, while I disliked Vincenzo immensely. If you enjoy cruelty and revenge, you might like this. But don't be deceived by the lighthearted moments in the beginning - this drama is nasty.
Was this review helpful to you?
Made with a deft hand on all levels
There are so many things that can go wrong in a drama with a heart-tugging story, especially when it brings in an overworked trope to add to the pathos. But the writing never got sappy. Nothing was played for cheap thrills. The acting was spot-on, never descending into over-played or over-done pathos. In all the many ways this could have failed, it never did.Park In-hwan is a master actor and always worth watching. His face is amazingly expressive and he provided a memorable character that you would love to meet. This was an Oscar-worthy performance.
Song Kang was gorgeous to watch in motion. It's hard to believe that he hadn't studied ballet all his life, but I suspect some of the magic in all the dance sequences is owed to brilliant editing. He played a wide range of emotions - exactly what you would expect from a young man grappling with family tragedy and finding his feet in the world. (No, I wasn't being cute with "feet"!)
The entire cast was first rate, and you will love all of them.
If you have a dream, go out now and start to realize it. You may need to look for a parallel track, like the eldest son, or figure out what really matters, like the youngest son. I was over 50 when I took my first calculus class. You can do whatever you want to! Start now!
Was this review helpful to you?
I give up
I've been queuing this to watch every night for a couple of weeks, and I just can't make myself do it. It started strong, but by episode 10 there has been enough silly nonsense masquerading as a plot that I just cant manage more. I have been a sci-fi and time travel fan forever, but with very few exception (so few I can't think of any right now) K-drama just doesn't handle this stuff well. The best performance in the whole thing is Seong Dong Il, who always brings it. I think the writing went astray, and the direction got flatter and flatter. Well, take your chances, some people like it.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
There's Science Fiction and there's bad science
I didn't plan to watch this but couldn't resist the stellar cast. I'm especially fond of Kim Seong Oh, and he certainly delivered here. Overall, the acting was great, even Kim Rae Won, whom I haven't much liked since Gourmet.The show started off strong, and I found myself very engaged. The science was asinine, but as my English teacher always said, fiction requires the willing suspension of disbelief. So, I suspended and went along for the ride.
It was a good ride until about halfway through, and it was downhill from there. With the rise of the cult sub-plot, The action got increasingly pointless, devolving into too many fights culminating with a blast of electricity from the electric eel man. (Like I said, bad science - even the creation of Spiderman made more sense.) The possibly very sweet love story between the princlpals also made little sense- one minute she's hating him for killing her parents, the next she's having his baby. There were places where the author was trying to write Frankenstein, but the whole cult bit ruined it all. The ending was not satisfying on any level. Where there could have been more development on the humanization of Zi O, it was just thrown away.
An Nae Sang was a marvelous mad scientist but his part petered out at the end - it seemed that the author got tired of writing for him and liked the cult leader better. By the 9th episode I was ready for it to end. Overall, it didn't live up to its promise.
Was this review helpful to you?
Making a great drama is simple
All you need to make a hit drama is good writing, great acting, and excellent production values. It helps if the music is good or at least not annoying. This drama ticks all the boxes, so much so that a person like me who fundamentally dislikes action dramas can find this to be the best offering so far this year. I looked forward to every episode and was never disappointed.Yes, the premise is silly, as are all the demon hunter dramas. But the characters were so engaging - even the villains - that it was impossible to avoid getting caught up into who they were, what was happening to them and what they would do next. There were several touching stories about loss and love wrapped up in it, as well as friendship and redemption. It has everything you want in a drama - and maybe more bloodshed and violence, but that goes with the territory. Literally, if you've watched it and know what the territory is! This isn't for the faint of heart, and I'd exercise parental controls over younger kids. But it was a great ride.
Was this review helpful to you?
Mildly entertaining
This movie contains some of the worst animatronics I have seen in 15 years. If you can get past that, it's a slightly entertaining "family" movie. Of course, anything with Lee Sung Min in it is bound to have some redeeming features, and this is him doing his hammy overacting shtick, which is pretty funny. Bae Jung Nam was a nice surprise and handled a ridiculous part with - well, you can't call anything that silly "with aplomb" but he was quite excellent. I'm pretty sure David McInnis is actually a terrible actor, either that or he's always directed badly. He wasn't any fun to watch. Sinvely Whiplash would have been more nuanced.The music was irritatingly loud. I often had to turn down the volume and then crank it back up when there was talking.
If you are not expecting much, this is a nice movie you can watch with kids who speak Korean or who can read subtitles fast. There's some comic violence.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Great portrayal of Silicon Valley
I've seen a lot of reviews that pan the ambiance this show creates for startups. I'm writing here mostly to say, they nailed it! I lived in Silicon Valley (Mountain View and Sunnyvale) from the time that Google had one building, leased from Silicon Graphics, until just a couple of years ago. I had many friends who worked at Google. I attended focus groups and workshops there, and ate in the famous cafeterias. I knew people in other startups and used an incubator for a while with a group I worked with. I had a close associate working for a self-driving car start-up. Start-ups are regularly bought for big money just to grab the talented programmers for a couple of years, and everyone ends up wealthy. It happened to someone I know. The images created in this drama were so accurate that it was like being back there again. So when I say that they got the ambiance right, I know what I'm talking about.That said, it's not much like that any more - the renown Google food has deteriorated, the people aren't having fun any more, and it's become largely tech rat-race.
AS for the story, it's ok. There were things that didn't go the way I had hoped, there were loose ends. Although I watch a lot of K-drama, I don't pay any attention to the fan wars or other stuff that surrounds them, so I'm blissfully ignorant about all that. I loved seeing Kim Hae Sook, one of my favorite actresses. I looked forward to every episode, and I was sorry it ended. There are plenty pf reviews out there that dissect the plot and everything else in painful detail, so read those if you want to know about that stuff. But if you want to visit the world of tech startups in the early days, this is a great place to do it. They got it right.
Was this review helpful to you?
A watchable spy story
I usually don't care for spy stories - by the 4th or 5th episode the plots get so convoluted that I lose track of what's going on and by the 6th episode I just don't care any more. But because hope springs eternal, I gave this a try and I'm glad I did.First, I am a fan of Im Joo Hwan. He tends to end up in second lead roles, especially if the role is evil or generally a horrible person. I was really pleased with the complexity that was written into this role for him, and as usual, he delivered a lot of misdirection as to whether he was a good guy or a real scum. The ending for his character was totally satisfying for me and worth the watch.
I liked Eric Mun more than I have in the past. And Yoo In Na was a nice surprise - although she is pretty active, I wasn't really aware of her before, but she got my attention here. Overall, the cast and the acting were excellent.
The story had enough twists and turns to keep me bingeing, but it never got overly confusing. Easy to follow but engaging - that's the best! I didn't actually notice the music, so on one level, that's a good thing, since I really hate shows where the music seems to want a starring role.
Overall, a good watch, nice for bingeing. Nothing record breaking or earth shattering, just a good solid K-drama rom-com. Which is no small thing.
Was this review helpful to you?
Starts mediocre, downhill from there
After 106 episodes. I've given up hope of any improvement. There are no longer any plot threads, just gimmicks to stretch it out longer. I started it because I enjoyed Shim Yi Yeong in Want a Taste, which, as daily dramas go, wasn't awful - interesting characters and decent writing. But I found that this was going to be a re-run of her character in that one, the beleaguered, unappreciated goody goody who takes care of everyone. I should have quit at that point.The characters in this drama had potential but were stagnant throughout. No one learned from their mistakes, no one improved. Do I think that will happen with 12 episodes to go? No, but if it does it will be totally unconvincing and rushed. The acting, especially of Jin Ye Sol, was positively dreadful. She seems to have two expressions, neither pleasant, and I was tired of her scowl a long time ago. She's written as the most two-dimensional, stupid villain ever. And as near as I can tell, there was no real development in the male lead. He and Shim Yi Yeong did not seem to have any believable chemistry at all. He didn't come across a a competent corporate type and seemed under developed throughout - not sure whether bad writing or mediocre acting was the reason, maybe both.
Poor writing paired with mediocre to bad acting earns this a spot on your "Don't bother" list.
Was this review helpful to you?
Disappointing
I loved the first episodes, but very quickly the whole plot point of different doors into different times got lost and was non-existent by the end. The plot seemed almost like an afterthought. The weak plot was presented by some varied acting, some delightful, some poor. The costumes and characters were badly done in the "western" segments, but you can't expect that to be good from a different culture. I tried to be tolerant, but by the end it really grated. I certainly won't re-watch this.Was this review helpful to you?
The story in interesting, although marred by Korean insensitivity to LGBQT issues, but at least they try to include this verboten subject. The subtitles are reasonably offensive but understandable. The acting is excellent and the writing is well paced, But IU am exhausted by the music and if I finish it at all it will be in small doses. Sad to see a decent drama ruined by what should have enhanced it.
Was this review helpful to you?
