Honestly, what happened?
I want to start by saying - splitting it into 2 parts is dumb and I truly do not understand the logic behind it. I refuse to call it a season, because it is not - it’s the same story, same arc, same characters, direct continuation, no?The 6 episodes we’ve got were truly just an introduction to the characters and plot - nothing less, nothing more. And I don’t even think the introduction was that good for a lot of the elements.
Van has no personality and the only interesting and entertaining aspect of his character were the few reactions he gives when interacting with Mi Ho. That’s it. I love Kim Nam Gil, I do, but this role ain’t it.
Mi Ho is fine and I love her chemistry with other characters. The issue was - for a fantasy driven action flick, they wasted too much time telling us who she is in the present time. We don’t care. I couldn't care less about her struggle for power in her father’s company and the nasty aunt. I did not need a lengthy set up on why she had to go to Jeju. Only 6 episodes - time is precious, why are we wasting it? Also, this is a side rant, but every time the magic happened and Da Hee made the moaning sound I was like: girl, this ain’t the sound you should go for in this situation…
Surprisingly, the character I was the least excited about ended up the most fun and entertaining. Kang Chan Hyuk aka Father Johan. Eun Woo should take more roles like that, fitting his personality. Yes, the more "emotional" scenes were often lacking, but overall this is a lot better than many of his previous performances.
The cold emotionless lead is just not his thing. I liked how Father Johan was honestly a rookie compared to the forces he had to go against and he was too confident for his own good. I especially loved him testing Van and how far he can push before Van starts punching back.
Eun Woo as a cheeky priest was to die for. The child became a man. Man of faith and man of kinks for many viewers.
Production was painfully questionable in the CGI department. Just the manifestation of the power/energy was great. The barrier set by “the villain” looked amazing. But then, the design of the possessed was laughable, the execution was wanky. I liked the tree spirit monster, but that’s it. The worst of it all? The CGI models for the actors when they were doing the crazy fighting scenes - the movements were just bad. Then we also have the awkward scenes where the use of harness and lines could not be more obvious. I don’t think they practiced enough…
Overall, a mess. As much as I had fun watching it and joking about it with other users on feeds, the quality of the show itself is just bad. I’m so confused… What happened? I assume they had the budget, the cast was also good… So why was the end product just mediocre at best?
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The best word to describe this drama is: BORING. The main characters are written to be super quirky and especially at the beginning there are a lot of weird situations for the sake of creating comedy and showing their quirkiness. This kinda works at first (there was a time, like 2 months ago, when I was actually excited for the upcoming episodes) but as episodes went by everything became so dull, plain...boring. I can't exactly pinpoint what doesn't work for the main characters: poorly executed clichés? lack of character development? romantic chemistry where?, but something went reaaaaally wrong and I ended up skipping their parts in favor of the secondary characters, who surprisingly had much interesting storylines and relationships.
I'm not saying this is the worst thing I've ever seen, but it's frustrating looking back after investing 16 hours of my time and seeing that I could have watched something else instead. Oh, they also used Despacito as background music in several occasions and that was the last straw for me.
(lol no I'm kidding the characters were worse than despacito but really?? in 2019??)
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too slow but with some good NSFW scenes, start at episode 6 or 8
Overall: I initially dropped this after 3 episodes but sped thru the rest and my advice is to watch ep 1 around 12 minutes and then skip to episode 6 (and watch on a faster speed). 10 episodes about 1hr each. Aired on iQIYI. Re-aired on 9NAA YouTube channel. 9NAA also produced Check Out and I Am Your King series.Content Warnings: manhandling, harassment, kick
What I Liked
- established couples
- NSFW was well done
- sibling relationship
- the title was hilarious
- production value (which makes sense because there was a lot of product placement)
Room For Improvement
- as a viewer I need to want the two leads to be together in a romance series, however, I didn't want these leads to be together, I didn't understand what changed Sky's mind and I think Venus was too harsh towards Sky for way too long, they could have had a five minute conversation but the viewer had to slog thru hours and hours of nothing to get to a mutual understanding
- most of the scenes could have been cut or shortened, watched it on 3x speed, as an example you could start episode 9 after 12 minutes and miss absolutely nothing
- when the beginning scene took place was unclear for awhile, flashbacks/forwards without clear transitions
- who interrupts like that and then continues to have a conversation, get out of the room! (episode 1)
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More Horror, Less Comedy, Good Lessons
Daebak Real Estate is the kind of rare Horror Kdrama which has more horror side to it unlike many other horror comedy Kdramas where even the ghosts are part of the comedy and the scenes are clearly over-edited. Some horror scenes in this were really scary. In fact, every horror scene felt intense.About half of the story is about the basic steady plot that's going on smoothly & slowly, gradually involving more characters, one by one along with many connecting plots which are more or less related to the central story.
The story involves 4 major characters: Hong Ji Ah (Jang Na Ra), a skilled and stupendous exorcist, continuing her family business of exorcism through a real estate agency, Daebak Realty. Oh In Bum (Jung Yong Hwa), a conman disguised as exorcist who later turns into a psychic to help Hong Ji Ah. Together they discover the past about their families, that they had forgotten in the course a tragic incident. Joo Hwa Jung (Kang Mal Gum), the real estate agent at Daebak Realty. Heo Ji Chul (Kang Hong Suk), Oh In Bum's partner-in-conning who also joins Daebak Realty as a Chief.
The storyline is a good one and the direction is well-organised. One or two episodes felt a bit slow as they were just busy investing stuffs but manageable. Have some tissue paper by your side as at many instances, it will be too overwhelming because there are lots of crying scenes. Also, watch it with a minor TW because there are some triggering scenes which are obvious for a horror drama. Every character did their acting well, especially Jang Na Ra again proved her skills.
Romance part of the leads in the drama is almost zero yet some conversations seemed like flirting but who is complaining about that? Not me! Hong Ji Ah's character is cold yet very very strong but she's soft from inside too. She'll make you cry more than anything else. I can't just see NaRa noona crying. Also, my Yong crying few times made it worse for me TT.
Another thing to point out is cinematography. In most of the cases, the horror dramas hugely rely on VFX and editing even for the horror scenes to look scary but in this drama, they used cinematography to keep the atmosphere simple and look natural and at the same time give off the horror vibes.
OSTs of this drama aee good too yet it felt under-utilized a bit but I think that's fine because their intention was to keep it intense. The bg themes are thrilling and melancholic I must say. And Jung Yong Hwa's OST is definitely a catchy one.
Note: If you're expecting anything very extraordinary, you've come to the wrong place; but it's not bad at all. It's worth giving a watch because the story is definitely a good one :)
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This review may contain spoilers
Hwang-Tae yong's father
The beginning of the series was well done, yes it was perfect, but after the series came to the middle parts, it started to be processed slowly. I'm still watching because I'm curious about the ending. Although it attracted a lot of attention at first, the audience dropped as the series progressed.hwang tae young i guessed his dad was already using the golden spoon
Also, right after Hwang-Tae yong's father started eating with Lee Seung-cheon's golden spoon, I noticed how Hwang-Tae Young's father was watching the spoon, obviously his father had a different attitude towards the poor and despised the poor. I hope the series ends well.
yes, it's over, it wasn't a very satisfying ending, frankly, this shouldn't have been the end, but the ending isn't too bad, yes, we've come to the end of another series.
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I actually didn't know I'd like the cast as much as I did. Shinohara Ryoko did such a great job in portraying her character. I wasn't really all too thrilled with the portrayal of Sakura in the beginning, but her funny, loyal, over-the-top self managed to grow in me really fast.. Which applies for the rest of the cast as well.
As for the music, there was nothing that stuck out to me. Everything was very fitting for this drama, but nothing too extraordinary to mention. Overall, I enjoyed watching this a lot. This kind of drama goes to prove that you don't need the young, popular idols in order to make a good drama. The type of friendship and romance this drama portrayed was enough for me to stick around all 11 episodes. It'll make you laugh, possibly even cry depending on which guy you root for, and will show you the value of friendship and real every day situations. I would definitely watch this again, one of the best J-Dramas I've seen this year.
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Soft, but heavy
A beautiful and moving series. Perhaps it generates a little too much frustration. The story is beautiful, the acting even more so. It has a soft atmosphere, but at the same time it is heavy and at times painful. It shows various aspects of life, in particular how we can change, succeed, fail, feel lonely and inadequate in a world that demands so much, when in the end the problem is that WE don't accept ourselves.It shows the importance of presence, both in family life and in friendships and relationships. I was disappointed that the relationship with the protagonist's family was not explored in more depth at the end, given that it played a fundamental role in the first half of the series.
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Comedy & Crime
This drama is NOT to be taken seriously. SIG is his usually wonderful self, this time bouncing around as a shaman, who is secretly trying to avenge his friend's murder. He used to be a profiler & uses that in his fortune-telling. The team at Cafe Minamdong is just fun, although those who hate slapstick, exaggerated comedy will not like them.The police team are also fun, although the two junior detectives were a bit over the top even for me. I liked the female lead (really, people! WTF is wrong with her? She's a cop, going after criminals!), and the older mentor just is one of those seasoned Korean actors that brings verisimilitude to every role he takes.
The mystery has an interesting twist - I wondered after about the 8th episode, but it didn't fully reveal itself until nearly the end, and did so in a very good way. I've watched a lot of dramas with this kind of thing before that have not done this as seamlessly or logically, frankly - playing with the audience or using shock value (or both, like Mouse ). This one did it well.
All in all this was just a fun, refreshing drama for me to watch - nothing heavy, satisfying action, very few true plot holes or logic fails (other than some over the top kinds of comedic situations), and just, SIG being very funny & appealing throughout.
I find all the negative reviews ridiculous, frankly.
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Yes, it's kind of flawed and has its plot holes, but considering the original writer dropped out and another writer had to come in and pick up the pieces, it's pretty darn good. At times it did feel like different writers were writing different parts. It would go from Comedy to Horror to Action, for example. However, in the end, I think the last scene represented the drama real well as a whole. Basically, bright and colorful, but one hot mess. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess.
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The reason you should watch this.....
According to me this drama has everything that you look for in a drama. After reading the synopsis of the drama in MDL and you feel like you understood the story, then you are mistaken. I wanna complain about the way where only few people have watched this drama until now. It is such an underrated drama.The story, especially the way the games were designed, is the highlight of this drama. Every game they play is so interesting and dreadful. I love the screenplay and the writing. Kudos to the author, the screenwriter, the director and the actors for making this drama happen.
Coming to the acting, everybody have done a phenomenal job. Kudos to them. Yeah, like I said there is everything in this drama friendship, fear, happiness, love, jealousy, romance, subtle comedy. I don't know how others felt regarding Xiao Kai Zhong's(Qiang Ge's) acting, but to me he is the entertainer in the entire show. According to me he is a comedian(this is the highest praise I give to someone) in this drama.
Yeah, I do some complaints other than this show not being recognized by a larger audience. That is this technology that they introduced in the drama is too much for me to believe. It just felt like something that only happens in a drama not in reality. Also, I did feel like Chun Yu's character could have been played by someone else. Sun Qian did a great job but idk why I felt that way.....
PS - Irrespective of the genre you like, my suggestion is WATCH THIS DRAMA!!!!
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This review may contain spoilers
--Note: this review contains minor spoilers--If I had to describe Man of Honor in one word it would be disappointing, because disappoint it will. The story was supposed to be about a nurse and a baseball player who find love in their journey. This was EXTREMELY misleading. Yun Jae In (Park Min Young) was a nurse in training, and Kim Young Kwang (Chun Jung Myung) was a washed up baseball player with one successful game in his career, for about two episodes (and one more after being absent for 20 episodes). The remainder of the series mainly deals with faux-cest and revenge. The story was very makjang driven and unstable. It seemed like the writer didn't really know where he was going with the story, which made it feel unfinished towards the end.
Despite these flaws, Man of Honor was fairly enjoyable until midway through, after about episode 12, the story went on an unsalvageable downward spiral.
While the main problem lies within the writing, the acting was also poor. There was a lot of overacting, and Park Min Young looked as though she had a mental illness when she smiled widely for minutes on end.
Overall, this is not a drama that I would recommend, and it is longer than the average of 16 episodes (this one totals 24). There are many good to outstanding dramas out there that can be substituted for this much inferior one.
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AKA boys on crutches
AKA so many confused bisexualsThis one gave me My Engineer vibes from the start, only with a better main couple, but much weaker side dishes. This is OLD school Thai uni BL. It felt like it was meant to come out in 2018 but I was grateful to get it in 2021. It went up against GMMTV’s FUTS without the same level of production or quality control and STILL knocked it out of the water (or sky, as it were).
Neither offering was strong on story but Nitiman had more redeemable and sympathetic characters, a great tsundere uke redemption arc, and a fantastic pining seme who yearned without bullying, grooming, or gaslighting his uke.
It was very much a university drama in that there were lovable surrounding friendship groups for both main characters with their own relationships, issues, and nosiness. I really like it when uni BL feels socially collegiate.
All that said, absolutely nothing happened in this BL. And I thought Oxygen lacked drama. I enjoyed it but it felt a bit just like really good vanilla ice cream, I was left rather scrabbling for the missing peach cobbler. In other words… was there a point? Do I care to eat vanilla ice cream for it’s own sake when I consider it the condiment of the dessert world? I honestly don’t have an answer.
You’re gonna have to watch it for yourself and decide if it’s you flavor.
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This review may contain spoilers
For the most part this drama was ok. I really enjoy slice of life dramas as they usually a commentary or a reflection on life but I felt like it that didn't really happen in this drama.
What was weird about this drama was that it was slow paced and over done at the same time. Weird combo but they did it. Usually with slice of life, the drama is slow paced and progresses naturally with very little or no "action conflict" i.e. fight scenes and whatnot, which is what happened. But then on the flip side the drama had a lot to unpack. Childhood trauma for both Male and Female Leads, the long pining love romance but then betrayal love triangle for the FL, with family secrets, stigma against the ML and many, many, many subplots.
Somewhere along the way I lost the point of the show when the emerging subplots took over. It became all about the secondary characters and not about the leads and with so many people coming to the forefront I lost all relatability with the characters. So I guess that my biggest problem with the show is that I lost the connection I was developing in the beginning with the characters.
I liked the OSTs and the instrumentals as the helped set the tone in the first half of the series. The acting was good, especially with Seo Kang Joon and Moon Jung Hee. Their performances were really outstanding for this drama which was probably the main reason I watched till the end. The end however was unsatisfactory to me.
Not sure if I expressed my point of view well but I think the show is definitely one to watch and I would surely recommend.
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My only complaint is that I wanted more episodes,I mean, how could they end at just 8 episodes? But there has been reports that other 8 episodes are already filmed, so fingers crossed for that.
You can watch it on Netflix if you are in the mood of something light and mushy.
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