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Realistic but unremarkable
I had heard comparisons between this and Go Ahead, which I loved; LCDF though, just didn't hit me the same way. On the one hand, I appreciated that no drama was over-the-top (which is understandable, considering that it's based on real events), but on the other hand, it felt almost boring.I definitely enjoyed second ship which seemed to have a little bit more spark, but at the same time there were moments where they just kept things from each other for too long.
Ultimately though I still enjoyed the subtle way in which the leads fell in love, and I liked that there was no over-dramatic third-party villain. The characters were realistic, their problems were relatable, and the family issues were touching.
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The best kind of stressful
First Thai movie ever! This was so intense and I swear no movie has ever made me root so hard for academic dishonesty. The best part of this movie is undoubtedly the cinematography and sound; it might feel over-the-top for some, but for me, it really felt like the movie bought into its own story and that made me buy into it as well.Bad Genius was so much stress, but I became so invested in it and was really rooting for all the characters. The way the movie talks about class inequality and moral ambiguity is also just so subtly and artistically weaved into the movie.
Enjoyed this so much — a story about cheating on standardized exams may not seem like much, but there's a lot to love.
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Poignant and bittersweet
Made me feel a lot of nostalgia for Taiwan even though this took place before my time! It was a really beautiful story — really poignant and subtle with the way it delivers references and relationship dynamics. The pacing was a little up and down and I have mixed feelings about the time jump — I wish there had been more balance and more development in the time jump.Ultimately, I just loved the entire vibe of this movie, and I'm a sucker for this type of quiet yet fiery yearning slow burn. The entire movie felt bittersweet in the best way.
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Better than I expected
I read the short story right before this and honestly didn't think a film would be able to do it justice, with how mysterious and nameless the characters are. But this movie really managed to create that atmosphere of impending doom, of a question you're just on the brink of answering. This is one of those movies you feel.And they kept a lot of the original lines from the original short story, and the William Faulker reference! I was really worried they take that out. The only thing that maybe bothers me is the fact that they did greenhouses instead of barns.
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Wholesome
This had a really pure, aesthetic ASMR-ambience kind of vibe — the kind that makes me want to sit in a tea shop for an entire afternoon. I appreciate the communication between the leads and the lack of ridiculous drama tropes, and just overall the simplicity of everything.Ultimately — this is an ad for a tea shop in Korea (which I will look for for sure if I ever visit, so it accomplished its goal) but there's really not much plot at all (and honestly it's not very heavy on the romance aside from implications) but the vibe of the show is really enjoyable.
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Revenge dramas are ALWAYS fun
I'm a sucker for a revenge plot, and this one caught my eye because it was business and brain-oriented, not like the other revenge dramas where the main guy just goes around beating up bodyguards and secretly recording corruption. No, Park Saeroyi did everything BY THE BOOK, and I appreciated so much that he was willing to play the long game.I was super into this drama for most of it. Even though the romance was unusual, I actually didn't have an issue with the age gap, because we saw Saeroyi fall in love with someone who stuck with him through the years, instead of the typical "first love" trope.
One point of the romance that did sit badly with me, however, was a non-consensual kiss which I would've preferred was actually a dream.
A lot of people have complained about the car crash writing of the last three episodes, and I pretty much felt exactly the same way. I would've loved it much more if PSR just continued with his plan and most of the conflict remained business-y, instead of suddenly throwing over-the-top kidnapping, gangsters, car-of-dooms, and hostage situations into the mix. In doing this, it essentially didn't give me the redemption arc that I wanted (that would've been more realistic and heartfelt) but also seemed to make the situation much less realistic and out-of-control.
Still, I loved how this drama managed to balance smaller sub-plots with different characters that addressed LGBTQIA+ discrimination and racism in Korean society. It's definitely not something you see in every drama and they handled it pretty well.
A gem of a character I wish got more screentime was Ho-Jin, the nerd who was bullied who went on to be a genius financial advisor. I loved that he had such strong character development and found it in himself to "forgive" his bully at the end, knowing that being successful and happy was the best revenge he could've gotten. Beautiful scene.
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Action over substance
In theory, this was a really good story about a righteous detective going up against a corrupt chaebol, but the execution of the movie turned out kind of rambling and messy.I spend a lot of time at the start trying to figure out who was who, and it definitely took a while for the story to get started.
All in all, this felt like a lot of action and not a lot of substance, and the actual detective work seemed to take up less time than hand-to-hand combat and physically running around after people, rather than using brains (which is usually what I prefer to see). The story turned out to be a lot more simple than I expected, which was a little disappointing, even though the action itself was really good and it held up.
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I was surprised to see how much hate it got in its earlier episodes, because that was the part I loved the most. There were funny fish-out-of-water scenes for our female lead — but she wasn't stupid, the chemistry with both male leads was building, and there was the backdrop of people willing to take extreme measures for the throne so there was always the feeling of there being high stakes.
Once things started ramping up, however, the sub-plots disappeared and even the main competition for the throne started feeling less high stakes when all the cards were pretty much already laid on the table.
The romance dwindled as well, mostly self-sabotage by the characters who were lacking development and seemed to constantly be changing their minds without good reason.
And much of this has to do with the terrible use of time skips. Time skips where nothing really changes BETWEEN characters really have no purpose, especially since we were given such little context for why things changed. To add, they started adding more characters and focusing on side ships at the halfway mark who I didn't care about.
They really underutilized the time-traveling aspect as well. Hae-soo had visions every once in a while, but her role in history was very passive and reactive.
All in all, I honestly felt everything was predictable, especially the ending. The difference was, at the start, I was emotionally invested in it and by the time it happened, the dynamics between the characters had changed so much I stopped loving them.
Also: a "gotcha, they're not actually dead!" moment for a villain simply shows me to that they didn't build up the infrastructure for a system of obstacles and needed one character to drive the whole thing. It also feels lazy to have not one, but TWO kings descend into madness — neither of which were explained very well.
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I surprisingly didn't hate the side characters in this one, though some of the dynamics and age gaps were weird to me, and I didn't feel so invested in the secondary relationship.
I did feel like the last few episodes dropped off a little after they reconciled, and that a lot of the talk about marriage and the disapproving parents were more tedious to watch.
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This review may contain spoilers
This is seriously close to one of my favorites, and it could have been, with a few tweaks. Other than that, the premise is seriously intriguing, the cinematography is gorgeous, the romance was natural, and the plot twists were gut-wrenching.I think I just wanted a bit more mystery with the criminals. There were some, but the show used a lot of dramatic irony — telling the audience who was at fault before the characters knew. It's a powerful tool for sure and I loved the frustration it caused me, but at the same time it got very formulaic, especially when it came down to The Big One at the end. I think my favorite subplots were the earliest ones — the car accident which was one of the best first episodes I've ever scene, and the domestic abuse one when cop and reporter's dreams clashed.
Going off of that, I think the show did a really good job with the mini-mysteries style. I'm usually not a fan of these because it reminds me of kids' shows where trouble pops up and is resolved in an episode. But WYWS tied them into the lives of our main characters really well and that's why I felt so emotionally involved in every case. Still, I kind of wish that the characters hadn't won pretty much every case they had, because I felt like a loss at some point would've made the antagonist (already a very powerful character) seem more competent.
With that being said, I thought the antagonist lawyer was a really good character but could've used more backstory that was unrelated to the main characters. He did a lot of evil things but at the same time seemed to have a conscience and some disgust towards his clients. He seemed to be really powerful and good at being bad, but because the main characters always seemed to defeat him, I never felt like he was on the same playing field.
I also wish the dreams were utilized more in different ways; I loved it when the question of knowing and changing the future became unclear, and the drama discussed how changing the future doesn't always mean "better." There's a lot of potential in what "the future" entails but the future mostly used it only as a tool for the main characters to get ahead in their reporter/prosecutor adventures.
With all those things being said, however, I still really loved a lot of things about this drama, especially the Investigator plot twist that totally BLEW MY MIND.
The ending mostly wrapped things up with a nice bow, though I have to say I have an aversion to the Vehicle-of-Doom trope despite how they reasoned it. The main characters were really good together and I loved both their personalities (humor was an added bonus), and I think the OST and the aesthetic of this entire drama really completed it.
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My favorite part of this was Seol, who went from the antagonist in S1 to my favorite character in this season. She was straightforward about her feelings, good at thinking through the situation, and knew when to stand up for herself and her friends. Loved her in this one.
What I didn't enjoy was that there was a serious lack of communication between the characters, especially the two main leads, who I lost a lot of love for. They never talked to each other about anything, and conversations were either unnaturally bubbly or just awkward and not there at all. They really didn't seem like the same people they were in S1 and I felt like some of the issues (like that goddamn TEACHER) were never really resolved. Between the main girl and her best friend, there was also a sudden lack of communication that annoyed me.
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Even so, however, the drama was a little too goofy and ridiculous for my liking; I don't have an issue with that itself and I actually appreciate that the drama didn't take itself too seriously, but overall, it was hard to get emotionally invested because of it.
I also felt like it trailed off at the end a little with very repetitive reasoning.
Other than that, the character development of the rich characters were actually very well done, and I especially grew to love the second lead. The male lead was a great character as well but he didn't change much. The second female lead was probably the weakest of all. Even though her character was initially interesting, ultimately her character development didn't really go anywhere and it was hard to pinpoint exactly what her personality was. The main character grew a lot too, but the acting left a lot to be desired.
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This review may contain spoilers
So much potential
I feel like with better execution this could've been along the lines of LOTBS or MLFTS, or even Extraordinary You. But the thing about these dramas were firstly that the sageuk and the present-day moments were evenly spread out throughout the drama so that we understood there was a reincarnation aspect to this. In the drama, it was all present-day for the first few episodes, all sageuk for 5 more, and then present-day again for the rest. It just made for very messy and weak parallelism.With that being said, I was honestly more interested in the historical story, which is a rarity for me. But it had a really good action aspect to it, and the nobility/commoner difference also made the tension much more interesting. Still, it ended sort of weirdly and anti-climactically.
On the other hand, though I love school dramas, the school part of this had so many cliches, including my least favorite: AMNESIA. There also really needed to be an enemy, like there was in the sageuk portion, which could've made it so much more interesting. Essentially, I felt like the "bubbliness" of the drama — the fact that it was just about bullying and being nice to vampires — made the present-day portion super weak compared to the sageuk.
Honestly, I also got pretty bad SLS during this, especially during the present-day scenes, and the way he was haphazardly slapped into a relationship with the bad girl was super fast and made no sense to me. I felt like his character could've used a lot more development NOT centered around the main girl — his backstory with his parents was much more interesting.
Overall, I laughed a lot during this, not because it was meant to be funny, but because it took itself so seriously when things were actually really ridiculous.
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It definitely took a while to get into, and honestly I was annoyed by the main character who was just overly boy-crazy right off the bat and talking about how she only attended college to find a boyfriend. It's also pretty obvious that it's Young-ji's acting debut — it wasn't the worst, but there was definitely a lot of bad overacting and it made the character seem super pouty and whiny all of the time.
I also don't know how I happened to get second lead syndrome in such a short amount of time but it happened.
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This review may contain spoilers
Heartbreaking but a tad too repetitive
Seriously, I basically cried every other episode. Honestly, this drama could'dve used less crying and faster plot, but some of the scenes worked super well, and it made me miss my mom like crazy.The moral of the drama is honestly really powerful and really moving. You can expect that it would be about grief and moving on and living life to the fullest — and the entire time I felt like it was impossible to see a happy ending for everyone, and that was sort of how it went.
I was honestly a huge fan of the sideplots too. Even some of the ghosts that I thought were annoying at the start quickly grew on me when they were tied into the main story.
Ultimately, there were some things that could have been stronger. The reasoning behind why Yuri had to go back up was weak, and there was an exorcist character that basically had a role for two episodes and then disappeared again. The same could be said for Pilseung, who I really thought could have a bigger role as well.
Still though, I was really worried they would turn this into a full blown melodrama romance, and I am so glad they didn't. It was a lot more about family and friendship, which I loved. The sismance was something I loved to see, and the way everyone acted was honestly super mature and respectful of boundaries and of each other — it's something you don't see a lot in any drama, and how realistic this was only made it all that much more heartbreaking.
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