mya
my pc ♡
This review may contain spoilers
The best thing to do is to go into this drama blind
TL; DR: It's a drama that deals with a lot of difficult issues, particularly surrounding child abuse and adults' constant abuse of power, which ends in a lot of people (especially the victims) being let down. And for the most part, it is a revenge story with main characters who want the truth to be revealed. A really interesting and eye-opening watch. (I'm sorry this review is soo long)
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You know how you’ll accidently tangle your earphones and try to undo the knots, but every time, a new, much smaller knot appears? You can’t just simply unravel it, that’s now how it works. It takes precision and dedication. And that’s how I sum up this drama. And if that sounds interesting, give it go! 🙂 And the fact that the end has to mention that children and animals were kept safe during the shooting should indicate the type of drama that this is (i.e., it deals with heavy topics which I will include in a trigger warning at the end, so no one is accidently spoiled).
So, why is it called blind? Because in a world where children are most vulnerable, they are not being protected by adults. Instead, they are broken down by the adults around them. These adults are easily able to turn a blind eye to their own wrongdoings, both in the past and present. So much so, that when karma is coming back around, they still maintain a level of blindless where they refuse to accept responsibility or even acknowledge the fact that they are shitty human beings, like literal scum. The main characters, however, refuse to be blinded by this. They work to protect people who have been wronged and get them the support they deserve.
Now, on to the actual review…
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Hm... I almost slightly regret starting this during the first week. It's a thriller. And it's confusing. Not because it's complicated, but more because you don't really know ANYTHING. But despite all that, it's very intriguing.
/PLOT/
I don't have much to say because it's a very mysterious plot. It's a drama that relies on flashbacks at the start of episodes that slowly reveal more and more like a jigsaw puzzle … that just never seems to end..? I'm eager to be able to understand everything that has happened between the flashbacks and present day, and finally connect all the puzzle pieces, yet nervous to know all the bad things that have happened.
The best one sentence synopsis I can give you is: A revenge story focusing on hurting the people around the targets/puppets, rather than the puppets themselves, with an unknown puppeteer controlling everything/everyone.
To add to that, I do think the pacing is okay. It's fast paced in the sense that it feels like the side characters are doing more of the work whilst main characters are in danger. Although this does change, it doesn't exactly feel like the plot is progressing, but I will expand upon that a bit in the next paragraph.
I did have a small gripe early on with how everything seemed so contrived. And I will say that I managed to figure out how it was possible toward the end, and it was then confirmed in the last few episodes, so I'm happy about that. They did manage to fit everything in nicely, in my opinion. Other than that, I also have to bring u the fact that SUNG JOON kept doing his police duties ALONE. He would randomly go meet up with a perpetrator in the middle of the night to arrest him by himself, despite spending the day with his team trying to find said person. Why does he not have a partner??
But since then, another annoyance came into existence (to do with choice the writers made). This will probably count as a spoiler so BEWARE and just skip this paragraph if you want to
⚠️ So, as I previously mentioned, rather than targeting the real baddies, they targeted their children. And in every single case, their children were daughters. And the kids all locked up in Hope Welfare Centre were boys. And I'm not sure why, it just feels icky, especially since nearly all of the baddies were men. So, in order for a character to exact their revenge, they targeted the children of the people they hated, without thinking about how it would affect the children of the buddies' children, for example. I can't quite explain why, but it rubs me the wrong way. Also, one girl who was killed had no connection to the Hope Welfare Centre other than knowing EUN KI. I also just don't understand why she had to be killed, or the events leading to her being in danger in the safest place for her. ⚠️
This begs the question then, when is revenge taken too far? At what point do these innocent victims exacting revenge on behalf of their childhood selves just become just as bad the perpetrators who caused them so much grief? Definitely a bit of a morality thing to consider. Also, the plot twists were good.
/CHARACTERS/
The main characters that we follow seem slightly unique compared to other thrillers. We know who the protagonists are, but as for the antagonists, they remain, to some extent, a mystery. There is also more than one antagonist. But we're not following the person exacting revenge, instead we're following three people who are also just trying to understand what is going on, just like the audience. In that sense, it's very refreshing, but it's easy to wish that they would hurry up and figure at least one thing out. I feel like the side characters know more than the actual main leads at times, which can be frustrating, especially since I'm waiting for the characters to be on the same page and understand they have a common goal.
the FL (EUN KI) is the rational mind, the third-party perspective that - for the most part - doesn’t necessarily have any personal ties to most of the characters. The two MLs on the other hand are a bit different. Whilst one is more rational (SUNG HOON) than the other, he’s still involved in a way that causes him to fight with the other ML, who happens to be his brother (SUNG JOON). Despite the annoyance some of the characters bring me, I still enjoyed watching them, and I did for the most part like them. SUNG JOON is definitely annoying towards the start because he just does not listen, but I do tend to root for him more and I like him. SUN HOON was definitely a bit boring. He did have some nice interactions with YU NA (a side character connected to EUN KI) which I appreciated for its wholesomeness. And EUN KI, EUN KI, EUN KI. My favourite character by far that pretty much just became a background character. Towards the end, she just started slowly disappearing and there were less and less scenes with her. And her contribution seemed to also dwindle and her role as a character, role in the story, and her role as a social workers became less significant. And I truly did miss seeing her by the end. I think that once more information was revealed, she writers of this drama kind of put her in her place and didn't really let her move.
/MUSIC/
In most thrillers, the music tends to be subtle, and this is no exception. It's not constantly there, but I like it when it is. If anything, this has more of a film score than anything. It's eerie and quiet and it works. For the actual OSTs that exist, I really like them. There is one song that kept being played in the final episode which I'm trying to find still.
/REWATCH/
Thrillers in general can be fun to rewatch because it's nice to be able to go back and pick up on small things and understand them better. And with a drama like BLIND, I can't wait to be able to binge watch this (probably years later) but be able to pay attention to detail a bit more, particularly the characters themselves.
/OVERALL/
I actually liked the ending, in terms of where the main characters ended up. But at the same time, I feel like justice wasn't fully served. Certain people were just slightly tossed to the side to make room/screentime for the main characters, and we didn't get to see them being fully punished because of it. And I kind of feel numb now. I'm sat her just wondering what to rate it and how I even feel about it. I am sad that it has come to an end. I had high hopes - 2022 has given us a lot of thriller kdramas, and I hope this can be added to my list of favourites with a satisfying ending! But still, I think I just want to forget about this drama for a few weeks, come back, and really deduct how I felt about this.
I also want to mention the importance of a character like EUN KI. As SUNG JOON mentions in the final few minutes, if those kids had someone like EUN KI to support them and guide them, a lot of things could have turned out differently. But of course, at the end of the day, the fault is on the people who ultimately abused their power by either abusing others, by turning their head the other way and ignoring those in pain. And I think that this drama raises those very important points.
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[02/10/2022 update - some comments I have after watching eps 5 and 6 - no spoilers] I just didn't know how to fit it into the review...
I'm almost annoyed with how slow certain things are progressing.
Also, I have a few theories on who's who but because the side characters are hardly ever seen, it's easy for us to suspect them since we hardly know them.
And some of it seems SOOO contrived and obviously fictional. E.g., what are the chances that the victims and perpetrators of a case, along with the police and judges involved and the jurors are (nearly) all somehow connected through their past (which is extremely dark). I'm expecting some very good storytelling when it comes to the mastermind behind all this considering this person has managed to get them all in the same vicinity and is messing with all of them to this extent.
I will say that SUNG JOON is so freaking impulsive that it began to bother me. He's that one character in a horror film who goes through the door when we all know he'll be killed. Like, come on!! Your brother tells you to make sure you tell him before doing something, and you just decide not to? He's constantly putting himself into situations where he could be seen as suspicious, and he doesn't seem to care...? Or realise why it's such a bad decision.
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tw // child abuse, murder, kidnapping, torturing, mentions of sexual assault
---
You know how you’ll accidently tangle your earphones and try to undo the knots, but every time, a new, much smaller knot appears? You can’t just simply unravel it, that’s now how it works. It takes precision and dedication. And that’s how I sum up this drama. And if that sounds interesting, give it go! 🙂 And the fact that the end has to mention that children and animals were kept safe during the shooting should indicate the type of drama that this is (i.e., it deals with heavy topics which I will include in a trigger warning at the end, so no one is accidently spoiled).
So, why is it called blind? Because in a world where children are most vulnerable, they are not being protected by adults. Instead, they are broken down by the adults around them. These adults are easily able to turn a blind eye to their own wrongdoings, both in the past and present. So much so, that when karma is coming back around, they still maintain a level of blindless where they refuse to accept responsibility or even acknowledge the fact that they are shitty human beings, like literal scum. The main characters, however, refuse to be blinded by this. They work to protect people who have been wronged and get them the support they deserve.
Now, on to the actual review…
---
Hm... I almost slightly regret starting this during the first week. It's a thriller. And it's confusing. Not because it's complicated, but more because you don't really know ANYTHING. But despite all that, it's very intriguing.
/PLOT/
I don't have much to say because it's a very mysterious plot. It's a drama that relies on flashbacks at the start of episodes that slowly reveal more and more like a jigsaw puzzle … that just never seems to end..? I'm eager to be able to understand everything that has happened between the flashbacks and present day, and finally connect all the puzzle pieces, yet nervous to know all the bad things that have happened.
The best one sentence synopsis I can give you is: A revenge story focusing on hurting the people around the targets/puppets, rather than the puppets themselves, with an unknown puppeteer controlling everything/everyone.
To add to that, I do think the pacing is okay. It's fast paced in the sense that it feels like the side characters are doing more of the work whilst main characters are in danger. Although this does change, it doesn't exactly feel like the plot is progressing, but I will expand upon that a bit in the next paragraph.
I did have a small gripe early on with how everything seemed so contrived. And I will say that I managed to figure out how it was possible toward the end, and it was then confirmed in the last few episodes, so I'm happy about that. They did manage to fit everything in nicely, in my opinion. Other than that, I also have to bring u the fact that SUNG JOON kept doing his police duties ALONE. He would randomly go meet up with a perpetrator in the middle of the night to arrest him by himself, despite spending the day with his team trying to find said person. Why does he not have a partner??
But since then, another annoyance came into existence (to do with choice the writers made). This will probably count as a spoiler so BEWARE and just skip this paragraph if you want to
⚠️ So, as I previously mentioned, rather than targeting the real baddies, they targeted their children. And in every single case, their children were daughters. And the kids all locked up in Hope Welfare Centre were boys. And I'm not sure why, it just feels icky, especially since nearly all of the baddies were men. So, in order for a character to exact their revenge, they targeted the children of the people they hated, without thinking about how it would affect the children of the buddies' children, for example. I can't quite explain why, but it rubs me the wrong way. Also, one girl who was killed had no connection to the Hope Welfare Centre other than knowing EUN KI. I also just don't understand why she had to be killed, or the events leading to her being in danger in the safest place for her. ⚠️
This begs the question then, when is revenge taken too far? At what point do these innocent victims exacting revenge on behalf of their childhood selves just become just as bad the perpetrators who caused them so much grief? Definitely a bit of a morality thing to consider. Also, the plot twists were good.
/CHARACTERS/
The main characters that we follow seem slightly unique compared to other thrillers. We know who the protagonists are, but as for the antagonists, they remain, to some extent, a mystery. There is also more than one antagonist. But we're not following the person exacting revenge, instead we're following three people who are also just trying to understand what is going on, just like the audience. In that sense, it's very refreshing, but it's easy to wish that they would hurry up and figure at least one thing out. I feel like the side characters know more than the actual main leads at times, which can be frustrating, especially since I'm waiting for the characters to be on the same page and understand they have a common goal.
the FL (EUN KI) is the rational mind, the third-party perspective that - for the most part - doesn’t necessarily have any personal ties to most of the characters. The two MLs on the other hand are a bit different. Whilst one is more rational (SUNG HOON) than the other, he’s still involved in a way that causes him to fight with the other ML, who happens to be his brother (SUNG JOON). Despite the annoyance some of the characters bring me, I still enjoyed watching them, and I did for the most part like them. SUNG JOON is definitely annoying towards the start because he just does not listen, but I do tend to root for him more and I like him. SUN HOON was definitely a bit boring. He did have some nice interactions with YU NA (a side character connected to EUN KI) which I appreciated for its wholesomeness. And EUN KI, EUN KI, EUN KI. My favourite character by far that pretty much just became a background character. Towards the end, she just started slowly disappearing and there were less and less scenes with her. And her contribution seemed to also dwindle and her role as a character, role in the story, and her role as a social workers became less significant. And I truly did miss seeing her by the end. I think that once more information was revealed, she writers of this drama kind of put her in her place and didn't really let her move.
/MUSIC/
In most thrillers, the music tends to be subtle, and this is no exception. It's not constantly there, but I like it when it is. If anything, this has more of a film score than anything. It's eerie and quiet and it works. For the actual OSTs that exist, I really like them. There is one song that kept being played in the final episode which I'm trying to find still.
/REWATCH/
Thrillers in general can be fun to rewatch because it's nice to be able to go back and pick up on small things and understand them better. And with a drama like BLIND, I can't wait to be able to binge watch this (probably years later) but be able to pay attention to detail a bit more, particularly the characters themselves.
/OVERALL/
I actually liked the ending, in terms of where the main characters ended up. But at the same time, I feel like justice wasn't fully served. Certain people were just slightly tossed to the side to make room/screentime for the main characters, and we didn't get to see them being fully punished because of it. And I kind of feel numb now. I'm sat her just wondering what to rate it and how I even feel about it. I am sad that it has come to an end. I had high hopes - 2022 has given us a lot of thriller kdramas, and I hope this can be added to my list of favourites with a satisfying ending! But still, I think I just want to forget about this drama for a few weeks, come back, and really deduct how I felt about this.
I also want to mention the importance of a character like EUN KI. As SUNG JOON mentions in the final few minutes, if those kids had someone like EUN KI to support them and guide them, a lot of things could have turned out differently. But of course, at the end of the day, the fault is on the people who ultimately abused their power by either abusing others, by turning their head the other way and ignoring those in pain. And I think that this drama raises those very important points.
---
[02/10/2022 update - some comments I have after watching eps 5 and 6 - no spoilers] I just didn't know how to fit it into the review...
I'm almost annoyed with how slow certain things are progressing.
Also, I have a few theories on who's who but because the side characters are hardly ever seen, it's easy for us to suspect them since we hardly know them.
And some of it seems SOOO contrived and obviously fictional. E.g., what are the chances that the victims and perpetrators of a case, along with the police and judges involved and the jurors are (nearly) all somehow connected through their past (which is extremely dark). I'm expecting some very good storytelling when it comes to the mastermind behind all this considering this person has managed to get them all in the same vicinity and is messing with all of them to this extent.
I will say that SUNG JOON is so freaking impulsive that it began to bother me. He's that one character in a horror film who goes through the door when we all know he'll be killed. Like, come on!! Your brother tells you to make sure you tell him before doing something, and you just decide not to? He's constantly putting himself into situations where he could be seen as suspicious, and he doesn't seem to care...? Or realise why it's such a bad decision.
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tw // child abuse, murder, kidnapping, torturing, mentions of sexual assault
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