This drama got a bit boring near episode 10. In the last episodes it gets more and more predictable. I think the cast did a very good job considering the story.
I think that the first version of the story might have been different but then some "wise" people reviewed it and ordered things to be changed in the last episodes... and that's how we got what we got. That's my assumtion because first episodes are written pretty good, but then weird things happen. Also I rolled my eyes when the drama explained things that were obvious for a long time. I still enjoyed the show, especially the first part of it.
1st episode starts with some North Korean guys stepping over the border and holding South Korean soldiers hostage... just to have some sparring with South Korean Special Forces guys and then just go back home..🤦♂️
Also this show would be better if the writer stopped explaining things in the most ridiculous ways possible. Like in 1st episode when Special Forces team is about to jump off the plane. One of the team members asks why they're taking off their immortals. Really? You want us to believe that a Special Forces soldier would not know that? 🤯 ...and then, right before jumping off, one of them asks "Where are we now?" Really? Do you want us to believe those guys did not have any briefing before the mission and are just jumping out anywhere in the world without any planning? 🤦♂️
These kind of things make me treat this show only as a comedy. I cannot treat it differently because every time I try to immerse myself in this dama's world something ridiculous happens/is said (like things mentioned above) so the only thing I can do is just laugh and shake my head. It seems that this drama follows many modern poorly written shows where the viewer is required not to think and just consume..
Too bad. I really liked the main cast and beautiful scenery, but some unbelieveably childish parts of the story and dialogues ruined the whole experience for me 😞
Fr. & The reason some Korean viewers gave for not liking TW version are:- actors/actresses are ugly, cheap cinematography…
Maybe 😉 I'm on episode 7/21 right now.
The plot was a bit boring up until episode 4, after that a bit confusing for a while, now it's interesting. I like it so far.
The acting is good. As for visuals I think the main actress is pretty. Also there are some other beautiful actresses in this drama. I don't really pay attention to male actors but I guess they are ok too.
Very nice drama. In the end it's all about friendship. If you know a bit about Japanese culture (being always polite and considerate towards others, anime, dramas, j-pop) it will help you enjoy it even more.
P.S. Interesting fact: This drama is all about the ladies. There are no positive male characters, most men are just bad 🤷♂️
I have a hard time ignoring some things in the drama. The ML is bullying her. Yes, he may improve in the future…
I agree about bullying. It was strange. I would add that checking her wallet was something I was not comfortable with as well.
As for forcing her to gain weight - it's something that one should expect when doing weightlifting so I didn't get any discomfort here. She agreed and the scenes where she's forced to eat were put just to show how much the athletes must be willing to sacrifice. I liked how they show the contrast where some athletes must gain weight and others must NOT gain weight.
As for hitting her when she was "disrespectful" (from her father's point of view) this is a bit complicated: When I watched it I was surprised for a second but I almost immediately recognized that this is Korean culture. After that I thought "Ok, so this is (or was in 2016) still acceptable for Korean parents when their child does not cooperate after being asked many times".
In Europe we call that physical violence. It still happens but it's not acceptable. My guess is that for Koreans her father could be considered gentle and caring - he asked her many times about the reason of her behaviour and she did not tell him. Not only had she done something wrong but she also disrespected her parent by not explaining her behaviour. And here comes two different approaches: either you talk to your child and explain that that kind of behaviour is unacceptable and apply some kind of indirect punishment (like being grounded for a period of time, "no watching dramas for a month" 😉 etc.) or you go for a physical punishment which is basically using the Dark Side of the force (it's faster and easier but it basically shows your weakness as a parent).
Anyway in most cultures you're expected to respect people older than you. Especially your parents and teachers. This obligation is almost gone in western culture, and I guess it's decreasing in countries affected by western cultures as well. This drama was filmed in 2016. Had this drama been filmed today I think there's a pretty good chance it wouldn't contain such scene.
I liked the overall concept but I think that without the whole final court case this movie would be much better. The final court case is a mess - there were no real arguments, just the defence attorney telling the story without any proof being presented. The prosecutor just steps in and interrupts whenever he wants... it was so unrealistic that I thought it was written by a child. Also Park Shin Hye's acting as the attorney was not that great here.
Apart from that some actions of the main character were really on the edge and I think it was unnecessary. If the writer wanted the audience to have any doubt about main character's innocence it didn't work out.
Anyway it's a solid tearjerker. The main cast did a great job. It's a good movie to watch if you want to cry 🙂
i finished binge-watching this my first wuxia drama and even though some things got on my nerves - FL's childishness…
Cool! I've just finished watching it as well and I agree with everything you've written. This is also the first wuxia drama for me. Probably not the last one, although honestly I don't know if I'm not too old for this kind of dramas. Oh well, I'll try some more and see ;) The story reminded me of "Beauty and the Beast" a lot. The opening song "Jue Ai" by Faye is very nice.
the couples were cute but at some point, things just dragged on and got bland for many of us.
The problem with KTL was that the main couple was... very good and mature and their relationship was healthy, no toxic weird things... and I loved it! At the same time I think that was one of the reasons for the show to drag near the end. I also agree that with 12 eps it would probably be better.
How does Yoonah keep getting roles?? Who is backing her? She is such a terrible actress. You’d think she’d…
Aigoo... I like Yoonah so I would like to disagree... but I can't. You're right.
As for who's backing Yoonah - there's a 2-letter company behind her called SadoMasochists or something... i don't remember 😉
I guess there are people out there who just like to watch her despite her very limited acting skills. And I can understand that. I personally liked her in King the Land as she was very cute there. So I guess I'm one of the people to take the blame.
But yeah I'd have to agree that she has no talent for acting. I believe she works hard, the directors and other cast members probably also try to help her a lot, but as a viewer I often get disengaged and reminded that "this is just a movie/drama" whenever her acting is weak/bad.
A very good slice of life drama. The pacing is a bit slow so some people may find it boring and drop out. And it's ok. Sometimes you need the right mood for a drama like this. I myself wanted to binge watch it at first but I couldn't. It was too slow for me. Instead I watched 1, sometimes 2 episodes per day and then I enjoeyd it. I totally understand the hype.
The story is interesting and very realistic, the chemistry between the cast is good. The story execution is slow but it's consistent. And looking back I think it's what it should be.
The only thing that I found weird/annoying at the beginning is the goat sound when something funny happens. I got used to it with time and I can say I prefer the goat laugh way more than fake audience laugh (which I dislike much more).
During the scene near the end of ep 15, a lot of the villagers are in Sam Dal's parents house I had this weird feeling. The intention of the scene was to show that the villagers are all worried about her and protecting her. That's so moving that makes the her happy. But for a moment, seeing her smile I had this weird thought "What if Sam Dal likes to be a victim and likes when people are worried about her? Maybe that's why she's not doing anything to protect herself?" Now that would be a plot twist! But maybe for some other drama 😉
Anyway, I enjoyed ep 15. The only thing that i actually skipped (and it was the first time I skipped a scene in this drama) was Yong Pil's conversation with Boo Sang Do as I got tired of this unnecesary love triangle bs.
At some very dramatic point near the end of ep. 15 I just couldn't stop laughing. It looked like a writer's bet "Lets see how many cliches can we execute in 5 minutes" 😉
I think the cast did a very good job considering the story.
I think that the first version of the story might have been different but then some "wise" people reviewed it and ordered things to be changed in the last episodes... and that's how we got what we got. That's my assumtion because first episodes are written pretty good, but then weird things happen.
Also I rolled my eyes when the drama explained things that were obvious for a long time.
I still enjoyed the show, especially the first part of it.
I don't know why I was wondering 🤷♂️
1st episode starts with some North Korean guys stepping over the border and holding South Korean soldiers hostage... just to have some sparring with South Korean Special Forces guys and then just go back home..🤦♂️
Also this show would be better if the writer stopped explaining things in the most ridiculous ways possible.
Like in 1st episode when Special Forces team is about to jump off the plane. One of the team members asks why they're taking off their immortals. Really? You want us to believe that a Special Forces soldier would not know that? 🤯
...and then, right before jumping off, one of them asks "Where are we now?"
Really? Do you want us to believe those guys did not have any briefing before the mission and are just jumping out anywhere in the world without any planning? 🤦♂️
These kind of things make me treat this show only as a comedy. I cannot treat it differently because every time I try to immerse myself in this dama's world something ridiculous happens/is said (like things mentioned above) so the only thing I can do is just laugh and shake my head.
It seems that this drama follows many modern poorly written shows where the viewer is required not to think and just consume..
Too bad. I really liked the main cast and beautiful scenery, but some unbelieveably childish parts of the story and dialogues ruined the whole experience for me 😞
I'm on episode 7/21 right now.
The plot was a bit boring up until episode 4, after that a bit confusing for a while, now it's interesting. I like it so far.
The acting is good.
As for visuals I think the main actress is pretty. Also there are some other beautiful actresses in this drama. I don't really pay attention to male actors but I guess they are ok too.
Ok, I'm not watching. Thanks for the warning 😉
In the end it's all about friendship.
If you know a bit about Japanese culture (being always polite and considerate towards others, anime, dramas, j-pop) it will help you enjoy it even more.
P.S. Interesting fact: This drama is all about the ladies. There are no positive male characters, most men are just bad 🤷♂️
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUSvHCiD_jR56k3g8UkQyYABaPTNXYUws
Some of the later episodes can be found on MBCdrama YouTube Channel.
There are some episodes on YouTube but not all of them have english subs.
Too bad, I really wanted to watch it 😞
I would add that checking her wallet was something I was not comfortable with as well.
As for forcing her to gain weight - it's something that one should expect when doing weightlifting so I didn't get any discomfort here. She agreed and the scenes where she's forced to eat were put just to show how much the athletes must be willing to sacrifice. I liked how they show the contrast where some athletes must gain weight and others must NOT gain weight.
As for hitting her when she was "disrespectful" (from her father's point of view) this is a bit complicated:
When I watched it I was surprised for a second but I almost immediately recognized that this is Korean culture. After that I thought "Ok, so this is (or was in 2016) still acceptable for Korean parents when their child does not cooperate after being asked many times".
In Europe we call that physical violence. It still happens but it's not acceptable.
My guess is that for Koreans her father could be considered gentle and caring - he asked her many times about the reason of her behaviour and she did not tell him. Not only had she done something wrong but she also disrespected her parent by not explaining her behaviour.
And here comes two different approaches: either you talk to your child and explain that that kind of behaviour is unacceptable and apply some kind of indirect punishment (like being grounded for a period of time, "no watching dramas for a month" 😉 etc.) or you go for a physical punishment which is basically using the Dark Side of the force (it's faster and easier but it basically shows your weakness as a parent).
Anyway in most cultures you're expected to respect people older than you. Especially your parents and teachers. This obligation is almost gone in western culture, and I guess it's decreasing in countries affected by western cultures as well.
This drama was filmed in 2016. Had this drama been filmed today I think there's a pretty good chance it wouldn't contain such scene.
The final court case is a mess - there were no real arguments, just the defence attorney telling the story without any proof being presented. The prosecutor just steps in and interrupts whenever he wants... it was so unrealistic that I thought it was written by a child. Also Park Shin Hye's acting as the attorney was not that great here.
Apart from that some actions of the main character were really on the edge and I think it was unnecessary. If the writer wanted the audience to have any doubt about main character's innocence it didn't work out.
Anyway it's a solid tearjerker. The main cast did a great job. It's a good movie to watch if you want to cry 🙂
If you're a girl sleeping with a different guy each night you need to move to the Czech Republic? 😉
This is also the first wuxia drama for me. Probably not the last one, although honestly I don't know if I'm not too old for this kind of dramas. Oh well, I'll try some more and see ;)
The story reminded me of "Beauty and the Beast" a lot. The opening song "Jue Ai" by Faye is very nice.
At the same time I think that was one of the reasons for the show to drag near the end. I also agree that with 12 eps it would probably be better.
As for who's backing Yoonah - there's a 2-letter company behind her called SadoMasochists or something... i don't remember 😉
I guess there are people out there who just like to watch her despite her very limited acting skills. And I can understand that. I personally liked her in King the Land as she was very cute there. So I guess I'm one of the people to take the blame.
But yeah I'd have to agree that she has no talent for acting. I believe she works hard, the directors and other cast members probably also try to help her a lot, but as a viewer I often get disengaged and reminded that "this is just a movie/drama" whenever her acting is weak/bad.
The pacing is a bit slow so some people may find it boring and drop out. And it's ok. Sometimes you need the right mood for a drama like this.
I myself wanted to binge watch it at first but I couldn't. It was too slow for me. Instead I watched 1, sometimes 2 episodes per day and then I enjoeyd it. I totally understand the hype.
The story is interesting and very realistic, the chemistry between the cast is good.
The story execution is slow but it's consistent. And looking back I think it's what it should be.
The only thing that I found weird/annoying at the beginning is the goat sound when something funny happens. I got used to it with time and I can say I prefer the goat laugh way more than fake audience laugh (which I dislike much more).
The intention of the scene was to show that the villagers are all worried about her and protecting her. That's so moving that makes the her happy.
But for a moment, seeing her smile I had this weird thought "What if Sam Dal likes to be a victim and likes when people are worried about her? Maybe that's why she's not doing anything to protect herself?" Now that would be a plot twist! But maybe for some other drama 😉
Anyway, I enjoyed ep 15. The only thing that i actually skipped (and it was the first time I skipped a scene in this drama) was Yong Pil's conversation with Boo Sang Do as I got tired of this unnecesary love triangle bs.