catherine
Endearing but cliche
For the most part, this was definitely a fun watch. But though it has high production value, everything from the female lead's personality, to the horrible turn of the second female lead, to all the plot tropes that were used, just made it feel like an oldie drama, It was just all the tropes that were already on my list of pet peeves that I just did not want to see again and was hoping this drama would veer away from. It didn't.Overall, the production value and visual effects of this drama were really a pleasure to watch, and like many other viewers, the second male lead stole the show for me. Honestly, I might've been a little more lenient for this review if it weren't for the last two episodes, which really pulled a time jump cliche and leaned fully into the love triangle, making the actual plot arcs feel irrelevant. I'm not a huge fan of character development happening off-camera in general, but it felt like I was watching a completely different drama. Those closing episodes very much snuffed out any momentum I feel like the drama had going for it.
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Light-hearted but missing plot
I had watched the drama before this and of course, I expected the movie to cut a lot out simply due to time constraints. Because of that, however, I felt like we ended up with a mediocre movie. It was light-hearted and we still got a really warm and mature relationship between the two leads, but in terms of plot and character development, this version was lacking.Essentially, I felt like nothing really happened in this movie. I'm not sure what the plot for this movie was and what conflicts there really were; because there was no big conflict, I also didn't really see our characters grow or change or have to face any obstacles.
I liked the tidbits of bromance and sismance between the cast, but it's also true that we weren't able to see much of it and everyone was very cookie-cutter.
I did like the visual effects however, though the actual gaming didn't take up a big part of the movie either (understandably).
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Has its good parts but is formulaic
This started out pretty endearing — I liked that the main girl was the one with high grades, and that the guy was teasing but kind and had his dream of dancing. However, I think it quickly became too formulaic, with all the typical school cdrama plots (sports day, talent show, tutoring, etc.) and none of the character or plot development.The main girl's passiveness quickly became really annoying, and it was like she never had a good verbal reaction to second lead and never had a conversation with her parents and never had her own thoughts unless she was judging main lead without knowing all the facts. Even past the time jump her actions made no sense and made her seem clingy still; It's fine if she started out like this but staying this way for 24 episodes was too.
Overall, the time jump just wasn't enjoyable and the future plot was very anticlimactic after using a very common trope for it.
I also just wish we got to learn more about the side characters so that they didn't feel second-rate; I really liked the second pairing's banter but their story was left behind.
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Lighthearted but cliche
At its core, this was a really fun watch. I liked the character of the female lead (who started off doing cringy and ditzy things but quickly showed she was capable and headstrong) and I thought there was a really fun relationship between the leads. I also liked the female best friend.I did not like the male best friend who seemed stalkerish and creepy, and I also thought the random addition of a love triangle with a later-introduced childhood sweetheart was unnecessary.
Ultimately, though, there are a lot of cliches in this, from the second leads' and side characters' cookie-cutter personalities to the actual misunderstanding tropes that they used.
My problem with the latter came in that there was a sort of disjoint with cause and effect; it was like the writers knew they wanted Character A to react this way and go through a specific emotion, and so they created a situation for that to happen. But the situation didn't warrant that big of an emotional response, so the addition of sad music and tears just made everything seem overblown.
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Better than the first
The plot for this was surprisingly better than the prequel and was more coherent in comparison. All in all, though, it was still really messy and all over the place — though I might chalk it up to the short time it has to tell the story and the style of the drama.Speaking of the style...I hated the over-the-top slapstick humor and I hated it in this one. There was a really good story here buried very deeply beneath, but the humor and the fake way in which every line was said really ruined any sort of sentimental value the drama could have imparted.
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Wonky
I really didn't expect this to have the vibe that it did — simply ridiculous and nonsensical. The plot could have been interesting but with the way they filmed it and the kind of slapstick comedy and dumb humor they used, it just wasn't really my thing. The fact that every line was said as a joke just seemed over-the-top and tiring, and I cringed at every scene.I also just think there were way too many characters, especially because all the side characters were just used for more slapstick humor. The only characters with actual personality were the two leads and even then they were very cookie-cutter.
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Heartwarming
If you're looking for a slice-of-life family drama, this is the best it gets. I must have cried every other episode, and it's rare to see a drama where every character gets a fleshed-out backstory that tugs at the heartstrings. There's a lot of struggle and tragedy but a lot of love as well — and it really felt like no minutes in this drama were wasted and no character felt left behind. This drama just gave me so many feelings, especially when it came to the two fathers.The romance was done really well too; it was hinted at early on and developed naturally — there was no annoying breakup and misunderstanding. This drama describes why I love friends-to-lovers, because they just know each other well enough.
The OST is perfect and powerful; listening to the songs afterwards isn't just like watching the show all over again, it was like seeing myself grow up in the last 20 years and feeling the nostagia of it all.
There's some comments about the ending feeling rushed and to a certain extent I feel that as well, but ultimately I think it was more of a feeling of not wanting it to be over. I'd seriously highly recommend this one.
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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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The one thing that stood out to me the most is the music and the cinematography — both really impressive and immersive, with some of the most dramatic and beautiful shots I'd ever seen.
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Not comparable to the prequel
Seriously, this should've just been its own zombie movie, not Train to Busan 2. I loved the first one after watching it for the first time this year — it not only had the right amount of tension and stress, but also made me love all the characters and go through the heartbreak of losing them.This one had none of the same heart in it. It essentially felt like an action flick. And if that's what you're a fan of, then you'll love all the drag racing and the shootouts. But I'm not really a fan of mindless action, and even though there were some scenes where they tried to be tragic, I hadn't connected with the characters at all, and crying scenes felt dragged out.
Ultimately, it was just too formulaic — there was no deep-dive into the human condition (though there were some dystopian vibes), and zombies were relegated to the background the same way a general would wield an army, as a weapon. It was still a nice watch; after all, I LOVE the Train to Busan zombies — but all this movie did was hit home how good the first one was.
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A nice watch but I wanted more
Overall a nice watch and a lot of mini lessons and touching scenes, but I'm kind of surprised it's rated THAT highly here. I think the beginning was stronger for me, more about JH dealing with his prison situation and who the people around him are, rather than the latter half which had more rotating bad guys and random baseball obstacles. I thought the drama would deal a lot more with morality and be heavier, but overall it seemed pretty light-hearted to me.There are A lot of rotating characters, which makes sense given the prison system, but it just makes it feel like the writers dropped the ball on their stories. One side character that was consistently present throughout the entire series got a terrible ending; I know how unrealistic it can be to give everyone a happy ending when there's such a big cast but it just felt terrible to watch and so unsatisfying :'(
A lowkey star of the show — Paeng! So much depth in his character, from his own backstory to just how he interacts with the inmates. And Minchul was another fave of mine.
Obviously, I loved the bromance and the friendships throughout but I think it could've gone further as well if they handled more serious topics about unjust laws / redemption / life paths / power dynamics, etc.
Anyways! This was a fun one for me and as a fan of the friends-to-lovers trope, the fact that we got two of that was a huge plus.
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Fun but had to grow on me
I enjoyed watching this a lot, even though it was definitely something that had to grow on me because all the toilet humor wasn’t my thing. I really appreciate how quickly the plot moved through everything and learned to care about all the characters! This drama did a really good job forcing me to suspend my disbelief and even though it had a lot of tropes, it honestly didn’t FEEL cliche, at all.Now —I have such MIXED emotions about the ending? While it was definitely fun and not altogether so unrealistic, I felt like a lot of sub-plot was left out, like the debt and loan sharks, Yoon-hee's piano-playing, familial relationships, etc. Some sub-plots felt a little unnecessary and I think the time could've been used to explain other things better.
Similarly, I felt like they could’ve really subverted our expectations with some of the lovelines and having some couples NOT end up together — it’s not just that I didn’t really like them, but just that the relationships were based on so many issues that I don’t think were successfully worked out and I think the characters needed more exploring on their own.
So, same goes with some of the characters by themselves — as much as I loved cute domestic fluff, Hyuk's character was pretty under-utilized, while Han-chul’s cancer plot felt like it was only used to justify his obsessiveness and angstiness.
Overall, still a fun watch and very fast paced. If you liked Eulachacha Waikiki (which I didn't) you'll probably also like this sort of slapstick humor.
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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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A fun watch
This was overall a really good and enjoyable drama, and everything wrapped up nicely!I love a strong, outspoken female lead, and for the most part, she stayed that way. There were some moments where the dialogue and actions for her devolved completely into nonsense and the drama went into overdrive on the angst. I also thought the acting for Yikyung started out really great, but after Doorim was introduced I couldn't unsee Yikyung as Doorim.
We also got really good plot development where misunderstandings and secrets weren’t dragged out, and people were brought into the loop quickly.
While I wish the sageuk part was distributed more evenly throughout the drama, I honestly loved the intensity of that part, even as its own story.
I would have rated this a 7.5 but honestly, the last few episodes took me out. I can’t help but feel like a lot of the last three episodes were unnecessary. I thought we’d already gone through the noble idiocy but they really doubled down on it and added a time skip for it, and I kind of hate that. The way it played out — sort of resolved with just rainbows and butterflies — just did not make logical sense and it felt written that way because they had to wrap up the drama. Some of the resolution with the antagonists felt that way as well.
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The humor was there but it wasn't really my style of humor (which usually is more dry and sarcastic), and the mystery/melodrama of finding out the past also wasn't heavy and engaging enough to make me shed tears.
Something about the way it was edited/produced also made some of the flashbacks, especially at the start of the drama, look parodic as if the characters were just dancing in front of a green screen, and it was hard to take it seriously that way.
I do appreciate the handling of several important topics like child abuse and trauma though, and how the DID played into this was really touching.
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