nowwatchingseoul
This review may contain spoilers
I highly recommend this drama
(Commentary mainly characters focused)
Gosh... I'm going to start by saying that this drama is really worth watching. You might not like it at first but it was worth the wait for me. I usually don't like watching weekly, i mostly binge watch but now i really had to keep up because it was SO GOOD.
The actors, the sets, the color grading too !! (we don't talk about the color grading enough) they were all immaculate. The action scenes were so well-done and the emotional scenes too.
I usually don't like the romance genre but a little bit more of it would've not hurt anyone in my opinion. When Youngro and Suho kissed, I thought I would feel their love for each other more. But I just saw their relationship like they were siblings. They looked like they cared for each other like siblings, not like lovers. Also this drama sometimes made 2 characters kinda "like" each other but not really give them the time to actually develop anything, *cough* Bunok and Gyeokchan *cough*.
I didn't mind almost the whole drama being shot in the dorm, they're hostages so it made sense to me. It would've been so makjang of the director and writer if they had Youngro and Suho escaping, dodging a rain of bullets from the SWAT and then continue the drama outside the dorm. So unrealistic lol.
But thank God, there were some scenes outside of the dorm because it would've gotten a little claustrophobic.
Speaking of outside the dorm, I personally have a thing for villains in general. I love hating them and sometimes they end up being my favorite character. In this drama my favorite character wasn't a villain but i literally LOVED to hate Nam Taeil. I'm sorry but this man was so hilarious! The way he scared everyone around him had me dead lol. Especially when he was with Eun Changsu, Changsu was speaking gently to Suho trying not to make things worse. And then you have Nam Taeil yelling at Suho, calling him "stupid communist" and all the names of the world lmaoooo. When he got arrested and Mr. An was being too confident while had lost 300 millions from Code 1's funds and got on his knees begging Taeil to save him. And then Taeil wanted to slap him hard but An was scared so he slapped him gently and then he said "thank you sir" hahaha omg this was so funny. He literally said thank you for not being slapped hard. Or when Taeil was getting beat up and then received an order from the president, everybody instantly feared him and he regained his confidence. And then beat the hell out the one in the black trenchcoat lmaoooo i was so dead.
I didn't like any of the wives to be honest, but the most hateable one was Taeil's.
At first i hated Jang Hanna but I ended up being tolerant to her because she helped Suho and stuff. But I'm pretty sure that if it wasn't for Gangmu she would have not cared that much. Like she said, she only joined ANSP for him.
I got attached to Suho so much. I love him so much omg. The way he got killed was too harsh for me. I couldn't do it. Hours after watching the last episode, my heart is still aching. From the moment he recorded his tape for Youngro, i knew he was going to die but not like this. They riddled him with bullets, all over his body it was SO hard to watch and Youngro witnessed it all! Oh my God. I was so shocked i couldn't move on from what I just saw. And then when we heard his tape, that was it for me. I started crying. I didn't think I would but damn I did. Even more when he said "I love you".
I love Youngro so much, she went through so much I can't even imagine the pain. Now she has no friends, everybody hates her. But sometimes (just my opinion) she pissed me off. She would do things and I'll be like "girl, why are you doing this ? haven't you gone through enough ? if you want to die just say that." I can name so many examples, when she helped gangmu numerous of times, when she provoked Gyeokchan, when she kept believing that her father would save her (i mean that's understandable), when she went back to save Ms. Oh, when she went BACK to suho while he was fighting for his life. Sometimes I would wonder "If this girl is not afraid of death, why does she always look terrorized lol?". It did bother me the way she was crying every episode, like okay I'm not asking you to be suddenly fierce, it wouldn't be realistic. But just... I would've loved a twist to her character you know ?
The thing with Youngro character that bothered me it was that there was no growth or twist to it. We already knew that Youngro is a girl that is not afraid to stand up for other people. She's brave. We also know that she cares really much about the people around her but that's it. There's nothing really interesting about her. Everyone had a big secret, everyone had some mystery to them. (Like Ko Hyeryeong, i still don't know why she changed her name???) Or everyone had a tragic/meaningful story that built their character to who they are today. Other than being the daughter of ANSP's director (hated by every korean), having an evil stepmom and a caring brother, there was no depth whatsoever. We don't even know how her mom died. It would've been so good if the twist was something like : Youngro is the daughter of powerful government man, she attended military school and her father finally let her attend a normal university. Then she has to hide the fact that she knows how to defend herself or she'll have to display her dad's identity. ANYWAY... (Hyeryeong's voice lol) something along those lines.
Suho didn't really have a character development neither because he always knew what was right and what was wrong and always stood up for himself and others. He did that until the end. But we actually got to know his whole story. How his mom abandoned him, TWICE. The fact that he has a sister, how did he become a NK secret agent. We've seen the depth of his history and how did he become like this. This is why I feel like Youngro was just a bland character with no history before meeting Suho. And I know you don't always have to have a "history" but what i'm saying is that her life wasn't perfect before Suho, so it would've been good if we could dig more into her and actually KNOW her. Because if we're not going to see her grow her character at least build a "better" Youngro and show us how she grew that way.
Everybody had a character growth at some point. Mr. An (from being everybody's dog, to being the ruler, than... being a "dung fly" again", Eun Changsu (from wanting power at all costs but realizing his children are more important), Gyeokchan (to being the heartless and violent spy to being the guy who defends victims and who missed his mom), Kang Chungya (from being the veteran spy for 17 years who would never turn her back to the party to actually betraying them), Lee Gangmu (from being the agent that would do absolutely everything unethical to catch spies to one that now understands people's suffering), Ms. Pi (from being a cold blooded woman to a woman that actually has a painful past and hidden emotions), Bunok (from being hateable and selfish to being understanding and forgiving to people she used to "despise". Everyone but the FL and ML lol. Kinda funny but sad at the same time.
I really got attached to unexpected characters like Joo Gyeokchan and Eungcheol. When they died it really made my heart skip beats, especially Gyeokchan's death. I never hated him, he had his reasons to be the way he was but I did think he was too emotionally driven sometimes (especially by anger when someone rub him the wrong way). He was too violent for not so much but I ended up getting used to him and it really hurt me when he died. Rest in peace Gyeokchan. Rest in peace Eungcheol.
The only character I hate still is Bunok, i don't care that she's poor and she lost her sister and stuff. Like girl... Being poor, having it harder than everybody and feeling like you're being treated unfairly does not allow you to be a complete piece of crap, does it? From beginning to end, she was despicable and i don't feel bad for her. She literally hurt everybody around her, like who raised her? When people say "she had her reasons/motives" I'm sorry but no. Her reasons weren't good enough to act like that. Because of being selfish she didn't even know that she helped the man who killed her sister... And she could've killed Ms. Pi if the gun wasn't unloaded. She was hateful to the point of being a whole murderer. See what greed can do ? Anyways haha. But that means the actress made a GREAT job tho.
I saw a lot of people saying the drama was slow paced I don't think it was. It's just that we had to wait every week, i think this is why it felt so long. The story unraveled pretty quickly in my opinion.
My favorite character in this drama was Suho, we saw so many sides of him. Gentle and sweet, brave and threatening, sad and vulnerable. His story was so sad, he got abandoned by the people he trusted the most, meaning Lim Jirok and Choi Suryeon (aka his biological mom). At some point every character around him tried to kill him lol. He went through a lot really, thankfully he had some morals and wasn't brainwashed like Gyeokchan or Mandong. Everytime i see Jung Haein it will remind me of Suho :( Rest in peace King Suho <33
Finally the OST omg. Don't even get me started. I have 2 favorite songs : My friend by Kim Hee Won and If you stay with me by Sung Si Kyung, i literally know the lyrics lmao. They are so good and fit the drama so good.
On the overall, this drama was really good, i recommand it. It's a 9 for me. It's not a 10 because I was kinda disappointed in the FL character (Youngro) and i actually wanted to rewatch but after seeing the end, i don't know lol. I already watched episode 2, two times because i loved that one. The whole drama is worth watching millions of times so i will definitely do so in the future.
Gosh... I'm going to start by saying that this drama is really worth watching. You might not like it at first but it was worth the wait for me. I usually don't like watching weekly, i mostly binge watch but now i really had to keep up because it was SO GOOD.
The actors, the sets, the color grading too !! (we don't talk about the color grading enough) they were all immaculate. The action scenes were so well-done and the emotional scenes too.
I usually don't like the romance genre but a little bit more of it would've not hurt anyone in my opinion. When Youngro and Suho kissed, I thought I would feel their love for each other more. But I just saw their relationship like they were siblings. They looked like they cared for each other like siblings, not like lovers. Also this drama sometimes made 2 characters kinda "like" each other but not really give them the time to actually develop anything, *cough* Bunok and Gyeokchan *cough*.
I didn't mind almost the whole drama being shot in the dorm, they're hostages so it made sense to me. It would've been so makjang of the director and writer if they had Youngro and Suho escaping, dodging a rain of bullets from the SWAT and then continue the drama outside the dorm. So unrealistic lol.
But thank God, there were some scenes outside of the dorm because it would've gotten a little claustrophobic.
Speaking of outside the dorm, I personally have a thing for villains in general. I love hating them and sometimes they end up being my favorite character. In this drama my favorite character wasn't a villain but i literally LOVED to hate Nam Taeil. I'm sorry but this man was so hilarious! The way he scared everyone around him had me dead lol. Especially when he was with Eun Changsu, Changsu was speaking gently to Suho trying not to make things worse. And then you have Nam Taeil yelling at Suho, calling him "stupid communist" and all the names of the world lmaoooo. When he got arrested and Mr. An was being too confident while had lost 300 millions from Code 1's funds and got on his knees begging Taeil to save him. And then Taeil wanted to slap him hard but An was scared so he slapped him gently and then he said "thank you sir" hahaha omg this was so funny. He literally said thank you for not being slapped hard. Or when Taeil was getting beat up and then received an order from the president, everybody instantly feared him and he regained his confidence. And then beat the hell out the one in the black trenchcoat lmaoooo i was so dead.
I didn't like any of the wives to be honest, but the most hateable one was Taeil's.
At first i hated Jang Hanna but I ended up being tolerant to her because she helped Suho and stuff. But I'm pretty sure that if it wasn't for Gangmu she would have not cared that much. Like she said, she only joined ANSP for him.
I got attached to Suho so much. I love him so much omg. The way he got killed was too harsh for me. I couldn't do it. Hours after watching the last episode, my heart is still aching. From the moment he recorded his tape for Youngro, i knew he was going to die but not like this. They riddled him with bullets, all over his body it was SO hard to watch and Youngro witnessed it all! Oh my God. I was so shocked i couldn't move on from what I just saw. And then when we heard his tape, that was it for me. I started crying. I didn't think I would but damn I did. Even more when he said "I love you".
I love Youngro so much, she went through so much I can't even imagine the pain. Now she has no friends, everybody hates her. But sometimes (just my opinion) she pissed me off. She would do things and I'll be like "girl, why are you doing this ? haven't you gone through enough ? if you want to die just say that." I can name so many examples, when she helped gangmu numerous of times, when she provoked Gyeokchan, when she kept believing that her father would save her (i mean that's understandable), when she went back to save Ms. Oh, when she went BACK to suho while he was fighting for his life. Sometimes I would wonder "If this girl is not afraid of death, why does she always look terrorized lol?". It did bother me the way she was crying every episode, like okay I'm not asking you to be suddenly fierce, it wouldn't be realistic. But just... I would've loved a twist to her character you know ?
The thing with Youngro character that bothered me it was that there was no growth or twist to it. We already knew that Youngro is a girl that is not afraid to stand up for other people. She's brave. We also know that she cares really much about the people around her but that's it. There's nothing really interesting about her. Everyone had a big secret, everyone had some mystery to them. (Like Ko Hyeryeong, i still don't know why she changed her name???) Or everyone had a tragic/meaningful story that built their character to who they are today. Other than being the daughter of ANSP's director (hated by every korean), having an evil stepmom and a caring brother, there was no depth whatsoever. We don't even know how her mom died. It would've been so good if the twist was something like : Youngro is the daughter of powerful government man, she attended military school and her father finally let her attend a normal university. Then she has to hide the fact that she knows how to defend herself or she'll have to display her dad's identity. ANYWAY... (Hyeryeong's voice lol) something along those lines.
Suho didn't really have a character development neither because he always knew what was right and what was wrong and always stood up for himself and others. He did that until the end. But we actually got to know his whole story. How his mom abandoned him, TWICE. The fact that he has a sister, how did he become a NK secret agent. We've seen the depth of his history and how did he become like this. This is why I feel like Youngro was just a bland character with no history before meeting Suho. And I know you don't always have to have a "history" but what i'm saying is that her life wasn't perfect before Suho, so it would've been good if we could dig more into her and actually KNOW her. Because if we're not going to see her grow her character at least build a "better" Youngro and show us how she grew that way.
Everybody had a character growth at some point. Mr. An (from being everybody's dog, to being the ruler, than... being a "dung fly" again", Eun Changsu (from wanting power at all costs but realizing his children are more important), Gyeokchan (to being the heartless and violent spy to being the guy who defends victims and who missed his mom), Kang Chungya (from being the veteran spy for 17 years who would never turn her back to the party to actually betraying them), Lee Gangmu (from being the agent that would do absolutely everything unethical to catch spies to one that now understands people's suffering), Ms. Pi (from being a cold blooded woman to a woman that actually has a painful past and hidden emotions), Bunok (from being hateable and selfish to being understanding and forgiving to people she used to "despise". Everyone but the FL and ML lol. Kinda funny but sad at the same time.
I really got attached to unexpected characters like Joo Gyeokchan and Eungcheol. When they died it really made my heart skip beats, especially Gyeokchan's death. I never hated him, he had his reasons to be the way he was but I did think he was too emotionally driven sometimes (especially by anger when someone rub him the wrong way). He was too violent for not so much but I ended up getting used to him and it really hurt me when he died. Rest in peace Gyeokchan. Rest in peace Eungcheol.
The only character I hate still is Bunok, i don't care that she's poor and she lost her sister and stuff. Like girl... Being poor, having it harder than everybody and feeling like you're being treated unfairly does not allow you to be a complete piece of crap, does it? From beginning to end, she was despicable and i don't feel bad for her. She literally hurt everybody around her, like who raised her? When people say "she had her reasons/motives" I'm sorry but no. Her reasons weren't good enough to act like that. Because of being selfish she didn't even know that she helped the man who killed her sister... And she could've killed Ms. Pi if the gun wasn't unloaded. She was hateful to the point of being a whole murderer. See what greed can do ? Anyways haha. But that means the actress made a GREAT job tho.
I saw a lot of people saying the drama was slow paced I don't think it was. It's just that we had to wait every week, i think this is why it felt so long. The story unraveled pretty quickly in my opinion.
My favorite character in this drama was Suho, we saw so many sides of him. Gentle and sweet, brave and threatening, sad and vulnerable. His story was so sad, he got abandoned by the people he trusted the most, meaning Lim Jirok and Choi Suryeon (aka his biological mom). At some point every character around him tried to kill him lol. He went through a lot really, thankfully he had some morals and wasn't brainwashed like Gyeokchan or Mandong. Everytime i see Jung Haein it will remind me of Suho :( Rest in peace King Suho <33
Finally the OST omg. Don't even get me started. I have 2 favorite songs : My friend by Kim Hee Won and If you stay with me by Sung Si Kyung, i literally know the lyrics lmao. They are so good and fit the drama so good.
On the overall, this drama was really good, i recommand it. It's a 9 for me. It's not a 10 because I was kinda disappointed in the FL character (Youngro) and i actually wanted to rewatch but after seeing the end, i don't know lol. I already watched episode 2, two times because i loved that one. The whole drama is worth watching millions of times so i will definitely do so in the future.
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