Seol Nan(Soo Baek Hyang) is my favorite heroine of all time. And that's saying something because I've seen a lot of kick-ass heroines. Her character growth was stunning and after I finished the drama, I was left sitting there, gaping at the screen, because I couldn't believe how much Seol Nan had grown. In the beginning, she was a kindhearted, carefree girl who was an angel. She doesn't take the easy way and act as a maid when she enters the palace. Oh, no. Instead, she joins the nation's most special elite military force. And no, she doesn't just walk in and demand she be part of it. She gets put through trial after trial, constantly kicked, punched, and doesn't receive special attention because she's a woman. She's not afraid of being dirty. She's always covered in her own blood and bruises. She's always tested, and almost dies in many of the tests. She hardens and learns that not everyone can be trusted. But, at the same time, she gains the respect of the men in the military force. She gains many life-long friends who are loyal to her. She's sent on numerous, highly dangerous, undercover missions because she's the only one who can do it. She's beaten, tortured, betrayed, and ridiculed, but she never gives up. Ever. She remains loyal to her nation. She is the reason why her nation has become so strong. She is the key person responsible for the success of the nation. She is a warrior princess. She fights in the front in wars, goes undercover, and not afraid of death. At the end, I can barely recognize her. The woman I see at the end is infinitely times more mature, strategic, calculating, but still kind. She's not afraid to get revenge, and to destroy anyone who threatens her country. As she says, "Don't push me. Otherwise, you won't even recognize me, as I will be a terrifying beast."
Seol Hee. I don't know how to describe the hate/love relationship I have with this girl. She's evil and manipulative but at the same time immature and ignorant. In the beginning, Seol Nan and Seol Hee have a sweet sisterly relationship but that relationship changes, drastically. By the end of the drama, I was crying for them because they once had the sweetest relationship in the world. But, everything changed. They can not go back to what they originally were like. You'll love her. You'll hate her. You'll want to strangle her. And you'll want to hug her. She's a character that makes the audience goes through a mix of emotions.
The romance: the romance was funny, sweet, emotional, and heart-breaking. It's a 108 episode drama so there's bound to be a lot of conflicts. In the beginning, they were mere acquaintances. That developed into friendship. Then, a budding romance. No instant love. They slowly trusted each other. Then lovers. I love their romance, a lot. There's a lot of heart-breaking towards the end as the truth is revealed.
The acting was amazing. Especially Seo Hyun Jin who acts as Seol Nan and Seo Woo as Seol Hee. Both of these two actresses made me cry, angry, and get extremely emotional. Seo Hyun Jin's portrayal of Seol Nan's growth was stunning. She can be extremely kind one second and turn into a cold, calculating woman the next (when necessary if she's threatened). Seo Woo gave an outstanding performance of Seol Hee. She understood her character completely and she was basically her character. I couldn't imagine anyone else playing Seol Hee.
This was an amazing drama and I encourage everyone who loves stunning character growth to watch it.
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Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty II To the West
17 people found this review helpful
Super Soild Mystery Drama
No matter what angles you're going for, be it storyline, acting, mystery, season 2 is much better in every way than season 1 and s1 is already a great drama. So, congratulations on the job well done to the SToTD team!I love how solid the relationship between the 5 leads are, there were some rocky moments but they were able to move past that & not let it drag any longer than it should. Some people are complaining about the lack of romance but for me, a mystery drama should never be side tracked by the romance. This drama & the little side romance it has is already perfect. For me, romance side plot will only hamper the pace and almost always introduce unnecessary drama. We don't need that here.
There are a total of eight cases in this series and I tell you, every single ones of them are great. They had me gripping my seat & forced my brain to think of the solutions. I love them all but my particular favourites are 'Drunk in Yunding' and 'Mo's Inn'. Drunk in Yunding case is such a great case. It has it all; wine, corrupt official, covert illegal operation, hunger games style hunting game, missing people. The fight scenes this season is also top notch and there are TONS of them.
Overall, a solid mystery movie with high rewatch value ☺️
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Lots Lots Lots of Angst!!
This drama is literally one of my very favourite dramas ever existed. I can’t believe how much I actually love it but this drama has everything that I ever wanted from a drama be it a great production, tight script, amazing acting, beautiful cinematography and most of all explosive chemistry from the leads. I basically break my own binge record with 14 hours straight without rest – this never happen to me before with any dramas so this record speaks to itself on how addicting the story was. This is the type of drama that is so great that you wonder how the actors will ever top this work with any of their future projects.I liked how fast paced is the story, so you don’t have to wait for everything to happen. It’s basically one adventure after one adventure so you will not have time to get bored since so many things happen at the same time. I also liked on how it took for a very long time for Thit to get over Tiw’s death and how Jee has never really getting over feeling guilty even though it was never really her fault in the first place. It made the story really realistic and you can somehow relate to the characters and their struggles.
I really thought Mark is great in this role. He does hating really well so all you can feel is his anger and hatred. He also nailed all those subtle expressions be it the embarrassed smiles, the slight happiness smiles, the surprised expressions, the sadness, the disappointments or how he tries to hold his tears when his heart was breaking without overdoing it. You can really see Thit as someone who is cold and rarely show his emotions unless to someone that he loves – those transitions are great to be witness one by one when he slowly warm up and falling for Jee. Yaya as Jee is absolutely wonderful. Aside being so stunningly pretty, she brought life to Jee and made her really stands out as a character. She was really fantastic and I’m just amazed to see all those tears coming from her. But most of all she nailed it as someone really yearns for love while at the same time ready to pour all her love to protects the ones that she loves – everything that she do, she do it because of love and purely that without asking anything in return. I love that she is a mixture of strong, sweet, lovely, kind-hearted, talented while at the same time vulnerable and broken – Jee is all of that and Yaya portrayed this character to perfection. Jee is not only beautiful but she probably one of the kindest soul that anyone can encounter in their lives – its perfectly understood why Thit falls for her despite how much he despise her.
And the most awesome thing about this drama is the chemistry between Mark and Yaya. They really the master the arts of chemistry in this drama – I finally understood that you cant fake chemistry no matter how good you are as an actor – you either have it or you don’t and they demonstrate it really well here. Their chemistry is so electrifying that you basically can’t focus on anything else when they’re both on screen – even when they’re screaming to each other, their chemistry was overflowing with passion. I realised it even more on how powerful is their chemistry when I do a rewatch since most of their scenes involves long stares with arrays of emotions. They did it so naturally that you didn’t feel awkward at all and I personally think had other actors required to do the exact same scenes, it would be resulted with an awkward scene instead.
And the OSTs! How perfect and how amazingly it matched the drama. I love it when the songs were played in the drama, it perfectly matched the scene to the core -- it just made each scene even more angsty or sad. The lyrics perfectly matched the characters – Thit for the theme song and Jee for the ending song. I couldn’t ask for more on how flawless is both the melody and lyrics.
Regarding the rewatch value, this drama is probably the most watched drama for any language for me. I lost count on how many times I rewatch this. It largely due to the tight script and the amazing performances but most of all, I think it got to do with how engaging is the chemistry between Mark & Yaya – you just cant turned away. And rewacthing them in 4k at Netflix is just like heaven. Everything is more colourful and vibrant – I can see all the tears, sweats and their facial expressions more clearly – its like rewatching a new drama all over again since all the new details keep surprising me. And Netflix’s sub is much better than the fansub I must say. I ended up loving the script even more since its more accurate, spicier, and pierced to your heart even more. Not to mention that the accurate script gives more context to the whole plot – it is also less ambiguous and clearer and most of all more satisfying. It seemed that the Netflix subs are closest to the original writing the writer intended in the first place.
Great drama through and through. Its gonna take a while for me to find other masterpieces like this again.
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Where is the acting FL?
Watching the female lead is like enduring a masterclass in monotony. Her acting was so flat that it makes a wooden plank look lively in comparison. Watching paint dry would be more thrilling an experience I think?But oh wait, watching a tree grow in slow motion might actually be more exciting too. Whenever she's on screen , the energy is so stagnant that you could use that time spent to literally do anything else—like counting the individual grains of sand on a beach or timing how long it takes for an ice cube to melt. It’s a truly special kind of boredom, one where every moment drags on like a never-ending lecture on the history of paint drying.
I can go on and on.. but I'll stop here.
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This review may contain spoilers
In The Dark Gray Box is a complex coming of age story worthy of an evening bindge watch.
Since no one has given this drama a review yet, I thought I'd give it a go. I hope this review helps you to decide if you want to give this drama a try. I gave it an 8 out of 10.The story complex and twisted in a way that the Japanese are so good at. I thought the acting was good for how the writer and director wanted to portray what these young adults were going through at this stage of their life. The music was good. I HAD to rewatch parts of it because it was so twisted I was like: "What the Fffff! Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing? and Where are they going with this?"! Luckily this drama is more like a three-hour movie so I was willing to go for the ride
Here is the set-up. The story is about the last year of high school for a group of 5 teens who grew up together in a large apartment complex. Like most kids, these teens all live in their own little bubbles but those bubbles are about ready to pop because they have to figure out what they are going after they graduate AND the apartment complex is up for sale so they aren't even sure they'll have "home" to come back to once they leave. To add to all this stress one of them, "Ritsu" has been damaged by his emotionally unstable mother who forced him to act like a girl until he finally rebelled when he was around 4 years old. He hates lies and especially hates it when people act in what he considers to be a "fake" manner. Misery loves company, and at this point, he's so unhappy and stressed that he's decided to "expose" all the secrets his friends have been keeping from each other.
I liked it while I was watching even though I wasn't sure what was happening, The episodes were short and I wanted to watch the next one right away. Once I "got" it, I really liked it and was left wanting more! Which in my book is the sign of a good drama.
If you can't handle "adult" themes, bi-curious characters, or if you hate open endings you probably will not like this drama. Because it's set as a "point of view" coming of age story there is no way for us to know what the future will hold for them unless someone writes more seasons. If they do I will be first in line to watch because by the time they graduated I ended up loving all of them as much as they loved each other.
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Awesome watch to start my 2021
When I decided to watch this dorama I had no big expectations. I thought it would be fun and relaxing, and it was that but so much more.Not only it showed several cool locations for when I visit Tokyo, but it presented their history in a very compelling way. I think one of the best ways to inform someone on a subject they are not particular interested in, is by being honestly enthusiastic. And the main character are exactly like that. They seem like that friend that talks so positively and passionately about their hobby that you just pay attention.
I already am a fan of architecture and design, so this dorama fit my taste like a glove. But it is more than just simple visual "porn".
As peer usual in Japanese shows, they imbued each episode with a small and subtle message about how to live your best life. The main character also grow little by little, which is so good to see.
I recommend this to anyway. Just sit back and enjoy the show.
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The story was adorable and the two main leads had chemistry. The drama of the love story was quickly resolved and it didn't get tiring, fortunately, because, overall, that twist was too cliche. The love story was a bit cheesy, but the drama was short and cute, so it was more of a fluff, easy drama to watch, so you can't really ask for more. Also, the manga plot was nice and the idea of how they presented the main story, with the two povs was interesting.
However, there were two things that kind of didn't work for it, though they weren't deal breakers. First of all, the two pov thing, although entertaining and original, it also meant that there were some scenes that you get to rewatch even though you have just finished watching them. Also, the drama was a bit too short, probably needed either longer episodes and more episodes.
But, the performances were good and the story was nicely paced. So, overall, seven out of ten.
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Unlike most dramas that I've seen, all the characters are completely realistic, even the most bizarre. There is not much action in the drama. For me this was no problem because I was so caught up in the characters. The acting was superb especially Nakama Yukie and Kase Ryo.
The script is exquisite. Look for the scene where Kase explains Irish dancing to Nakama. So simple and innocent and such a powerful description of their lives!
This drama is worth watching again and again but one caution. If you need English subtitles make sure they are good. Some of the translations are so bad that it ruins the story. Look for subtitles by Momoflower, she did a wonderful job.
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The film starts out very simple; a bank robbery already took place and the three culprits are trying to divide the money amongst themselves. Things start to get fishy between the three partners as schemes and hidden motives start to surface. An endless game of trust begins to shatter their relationship. However, the plot doesn’t keep lingering on that narration pattern. After a while, we get countless of smartly inserted flashbacks which explain our main characters, the people who threatened them and their motives to commit a robbery.
Saibun no Ichi screenwriting is pretty clever at grabbing the audience attention. It kept adding a twist after the other and a development after another which had a strong effect to keep me glued to the screen. It even triggered a nice guessing game about the following events. However, the script wasn’t perfect by any mean. It failed at balancing comedy and crime. It’s obvious that those two genres are entirely different but it’s not supposed to be this confusing. At some time frame, it became painful to set my mind: am I supposed to laugh or feel the chills? Before I knew it, the scene passes by as if nothing happened. After all, it was some type of a crazy film. Those of you who are well familiar with the “weird Japanese cinema” will know what I am talking about.
Unlike most Japanese film, One Third had some exceptional conversations about Hollywood films, actors, directors and even similar settings. One of the main characters is an actress while the main character himself aimed to become a director just because he was fascinated with Quentin Tarantino’s filmmaking. I found it rather innovative to discuss those types of topics in a Japanese picture. It’s also ironic because the goofy references they mentioned worked so well in building many scripts and swindling games inside the story. It felt like the whole film was some kind of a big fat play.
Now, let’s talk about the acting. Honestly, I didn’t feel so good about the leading cast but they were surprisingly fine. I have some type of issues with Fujiwara’s overacting, he was originally a theatre actor and he doesn’t seem to set a clear barrier between the stage and the big screen. However, to do him credit; I noticed obvious improvement in some of his recent works. One Third’s leading role counts for his favour. He even made his character appealing enough, aided by the fine characterization of course. Then we have Tanaka Koki, I apologize to his fans but I never for once thought of him as a good actor. His character saved him though, he was interesting as the ruthless cool Koji, even the acrobatic and fighting scenes he had were pretty good.
Other notable actors are definitely Kubozuka Yosuke and Nakashima Mika; the first played a lizard-like complex character while the latter played a very convincing ex-actress. Both of them led pretty well-crafted performances with those odd characters. But then again, all of this film’s characters are a nice bunch of anti-heroes.
Actor turned to director Shinagawa Hiroshi did a fine job with directing and writing this piece, I especially liked the visuals, some of the little details in the background made this film rather special.
Watch if:
-You like different unconventional Japanese films.
Do not watch if:
-You don’t appreciate crazy/wild Japanese cinema.
-You dislike Japanese humour.
Sanbun no Ichi is a nice surprise that came at a whim. It might be too crazy for some tastes but I always had a soft spot for untraditional Japanese filmmaking. This is a very entertaining picture in my personal book.
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This review may contain spoilers
The season of terrible writing/acting for one of the two leads
The show is dragged out way too long at 16 episodes, especially with all the interesting plot points that are wasted and goes nowhere and terrible ones that go on for ever. Kim Jung Hyun is doing a herculean job trying his best to act his way through this atrocious writing for Kokdu the character who has grown petty whims and tantrums during his long supernatural punishment after losing his memory or original personality to time. The worst part of his character is still anything to do with the forced romance between him and Gye Joel, both before and after they fall for each other. There's no spark between these two characters, it's just double the annoying scenes. There is no proper communication for most of the series either, with important information force revealed to one or both of them. His curse/promise to do literally anything she asks being used for comedic effect falls extremely flat to say the least and it cuts short the fascinating aspect of the other curse from the deity for him to hear the cries of victims to kill a specific person. He's shown to kill the scum of the earth that evade legal persecution, but he's also shown to hear the calls for the death of someone that's just based on made up hearsay by Gye Joel who he may more may not have killed if it wasn't the body he was currently occupying. He really is a serial killer with voices in his head telling him to kill and the plot where Gye Jeol's brother detective Han Chul tracks him down is way more interesting than romance storyline. There's also the storyline point where Kokdu's power was on the fritz and suddenly that's forgotten about and it was just fine. The part where he found the reincarnation of his younger brother who turns out to be ex-boyfriend Yi Deun who brutally dumped Gye Jeol albeit with a reason, was more exciting than anything with her. I wanted to see their new brotherly relationship explored more. More of Kokdu's original personality is scene in from the past with their reunion. It was actually sad seeing Kokdu's pain at being unable to protect Yi Deun from getting shanked whereas there is no feeling or stakes with anything between Kokdu and Gye Jeol. Unlike her Kokdu actually has his sentient moments and sees through people and makes interesting plans. It was clever of him to use his own end time in the mortal realm to set up his enemy as a murderer. Again it was a frustratingly dumb moment to see Gye Jeol just crying instead of using any of her ER doctor skills to even attempt to help him. She suddenly just wants to kill the guy like she's possessed by her past life instead of sticking to her morals about not killing.Do Jin Woo's character feels like a wasted opportunity. He was trying to expose corruption and the killing of his birth mom before he was surreptitiously murdered and his corpse possessed by a supernatural entity. He's really sharp and immediately figured out the supernatural situation he's in and wants to live. Exploring the dichotomy between doing what's right and playing it safe to live longer while going against both the earthly forces pursuing him as well as Kokdu could have been interesting, but the show dropped it like a hot potato. It's such a relief to see his level headedness shut down and not enable Gye Jeol's ridiculously childish behavior. It would have been fascinating to see his story play out, but instead he just dies again at the end of his 49 days after death.
The biggest weak point is both the writing and acting for the female lead character Gye Joel who pretty unsufferable the entire time. There was a moment of hope when she stood up for herself to block one hit from an unreasonable patient, the first and last point I wanted to root for her, but then it's just a series of her being a clumsy, man obsessed, childish, whiny, immature overreactions to everything, literally tripping over her own feet charicature. She literally trips down the stairs multiple times. The worst part is the drama points this out as a point of pride, she's intentionally made this way because they think it's cute. It's not. The worst is that she can never advocate for herself or for her patients. There is no point to her as a doctor characer. She does use her status as a doctor to threaten her brother to sabotage the witness's testimony if he ever brings witness who saw her boyfriend murder someone to trial. She's always the fool. Again the drama does it on purpose like they are doing something great. The acting doesn't do anything to elevate this kind of grating character. She's comparatively fine as Seol Hui who for the most part is allowed to act like a human being, actively taking agency for herself her entire life , but as the reincarnation of the character she drags down the story every time she appears and she half of the lead pairing. She's a pretty awful doctor too, not questioning how Do Jin Woo who is severely injured by falling off a whole highrise onto a car is just fine with some amnesia, taking advantage of an amnesiac to lie for her in a hearing, telling people she's his accomplished doctor boyfriend, the extremely irresponsible way she treats Do Jin Woo even though she thought Kokdu personality was a result of a disorder, etc. She doesn't notice all the weird powers he has, even when it's shown to her face while she believes things she has no proof for. She doesn't figure it out for TWELVE out of the 16 episodes when he literally had to teleport her and heal in front of her face. She some how managed to become a doctor, but her brother detective Han Chul got the brains of the family even though he supposedly has double digit IQ. Her forcing him to not take bigger cases is pretty selfish too, it's his job to investigate. Ahn Woo Yeon as Han Chul carries all the sibling scenes they have together and Han Chul can be professional at his job, but she can't handle it. Gye Jeol's must be in the negatives. His romance storyline is leagues better and more mature than hers as well, the difference better acting and strangely better writing as well. The writing lampshades her terrible traits, but that's not the same as breaking through them.
The costuming is also very garish for all the characters from lead to supporting. They literally give Han Chul a leather jacket with spikes during the scene he first meets Kokdu as his sister's boyfriend. It would be fine if it looked cool, how did they manage to find the worst cheap looking one. There are so many lower budget productions that do better in dressing the characters both for the story and just aesthetic wise. All of the jewlery looks so fake like toys except for the bog laurel ring and hair stick. The pink jeweled tiara and the matching necklace are the worst after the big ruby ring. It makes no sense because Ok Shin chaebol underling is filthy rich and could afford real jewels for her.
There is one thing the series surprisingly does right and that's actually planting the seeds for a plausible reason for the disappeared forever character to reappear again. Kokdu had his contract with Gye Jeol and also the prayers from her kokdu cult of patients that she makes pray for him in lieu of payment. Kokdu remains a entity with his underworld job and Gye Jeol continues her cycle of death and rebirth without the tragic death in this timeline like she has in every life. They just dropped that nugget last second without having established that info anytime in the 16 episodes. It's also a bummer there's no final reunion between Yi Deun who survived the stabbings but no line about whether he's in remission or not which he hopefully is after five years.
If you skipped to the end here, just skip this whole drama. There's better ones out there.
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Seriously , the first thing I would tell someone about this movie is : you'll get a HEARTATTACK !
I'm a fan of action and thriller movies and I've seen many of them both from Korea and USA but this one was surely one of the best action movies I've ever seen ! I wanna congrat the screenwriter first for having such a creative mind to put all these big events in order and only in 24 hours ! Also a special THANK to the great actor who SHINED even more in this movie : LEE SUN GYUN !
He amazingly played a careful detective who UNLUCKLY gets involved with the most challenging crime ever ! And does the things he could never imagine in his NIGHTMARES ! A HARDY DAY , as the name says , is maybe simply about a really hard day with really surprising events ... or It's maybe all about a WRONG TIMING or maybe even farther ... About the serious social problems of TODAY'S society !
But whatever It is ... It has something to talk about ! Something as important as one's life in A HARD DAY!
Make sure to watch it !
Uhh ! And I wanna thank Jo Jin Wook for showing his great acting skills as he always does !
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1This review may contain spoilers
Great reviews for this rare gem have already been written, but even without having anything new or original to add, I feel the uncontrollable need to come here and share the joy with whomever wants to read.This drama is brilliant. It's profoundly human, histerically funny, heartwarming, emotional, at times highly gratifying and - given the premises - surprisingly uplifting. Who would have thought I'd enter prison with gloomy anxiety and come out of it with a huge grin of satisfaction, almost wishing they would prolong my sentence and let me stay a little longer behind bars?
The strengh of the script is the wonderful ensamble of characters. They literally invade the viewer's life with their diverse personalities, background stories and antics. I laughed, despaired, feared, anxiously waited with them and never felt bored, even when the events taking place are paramount only for the characters and not for the script itself. It happens when the world of a drama or movie is so well outlined you forget it's fictional.
Fenomenal acting by everyone bar none. Alas, I can't fill up the page with ravings about each one of them: it would take too long, I'd end up being spoilerish somewhere and I'd bore those who haven't watched the drama yet to death. Suffice to say all the actors had the time and the means to shine, both individually as well as a group, proof of their talent but also of an awesome director's work.
Perfect score for the music too. This ost does not exist only to soundtrack the scenes, it also exists in the world of the characters, it's listened to by them, even sung by them, so that we have the weirdest blend of classical music, rap, old korean folk, opera and everything in between. There isn't the usual love ballad played at every turn, until it becomes haunting in a bad way. This soundtrack adds to the story, instead of simply working as a background to the written events. Genius.
Prison Playbook was warmly recommended to me. I'm deeply grateful to all my friends here who encouraged me to watch it and I hope this short review may have the same effect on others. Perhaps some of you are hesitating because of the setting: indeed, there's no glamour here, no super trendy clothes to show off with, no highly dramatic love story, and the goodlooking actors aren't here to simply beautify the set. This drama goes deeper than that, it will make you laugh a lot and it will make you cry, but rest assured you won't regret a single tear.
My only warning: the first episode. Now that I have completed the drama, I could rewatch it with a new perspective. The first time around however, that long pilot felt kind of hard to get through. Hang in there, please. It's worth the patience!
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This review may contain spoilers
“And even if the door closes, open all the doors in the universe and return to me"
So I’m confused...why are we hating on this drama? I had to create a whole reddit post to ask people if I should watch this. Most people told me to save my time, but, against everyone’s better judgement, I went and watched it anyway. And I loved it? I’ve heard so many people say it’s a trainwreck, advertisement-saturated, no-charisma, rushed-romance, plot-holes-galore, confusing mess of a drama, but I must have missed something, because I didn’t really encounter any of those things when I was watching it. I may be a tad biased because Lee Min Ho and Kim Go Eun are some of my most favorite actors (Still can’t get over Goblin and Legend of the Blue Sea *sigh*) but I thought this drama was actually incredibly high quality. While I do admit that the romance could have been paced better, I understand that the author was just trying to allow for their affection to develop quicker for the sake of the plot. Because the main story was not about them falling in love; it was about their relationship across two separate worlds and their fight against a power hungry lunatic. It’s kind of hard to pull off that type of story unless the leads fall in love quicker than what we are used to. As for product placement, I honestly found it extremely entertaining. To be honest, I didn’t even really notice it at first until it dawned on me that usually kdramas blur out logos that they are not sponsored by. Nonetheless, I thought their chicken dates were absolutely adorable and helped move the plot forward rather than provide an unnecessary distraction from the main story. The charisma between the leads was off the charts, so I have no idea what y’all are talking about. This is one of my favorite kdrama couples ever, and I rarely give a 10 star rating to a drama, so color me impressed. I definitely hopped on that Woo Do Hwan bandwagon and loved him in every single scene that he was in. The man is a genius. To be honest, there’s so many things I want to say about this drama that made it amazing for me, but I just can’t put it into words. The character development was some of the best I had seen in a while. I expected the ending to be horrible judging by the reviews, but it was actually very easy to understand and accept. As I said in another review, science fiction dramas are bound to have some plot holes, and while I felt that there were some things that weren’t entirely explained to me, I’m content enough with the ending, and I don’t feel that the discrepancies actually matter as much as some people think they do. I thought the ending was absolutely perfect, and I appreciated how the drama spent the last 30 minutes tying up loose ends and showing us what happened after the leads finally reunited. Overall, if you don’t think too deeply about any of the science-fiction aspects of the drama, you have a wonderful drama on your hands. I loved every single character (Yes, even the Prime Minister. I thought she was freaking badass) and I definitely plan on rewatching this drama in the future because of the wonderful blend of romance, action, and science fiction that it had. Thank you, Kim Eun Sook, for blessing us with another incredible drama. I can’t wait to watch more of your works!Was this review helpful to you?
Catch me if you can!
Thirteen Years of Dust is the best Light On/Mist Theatre suspense thriller iQiyi has released since The Bad Kids and The Long Night in 2020. This tightly written mystery cum police procedural is gripping from the start. An eerily staged crime scene reminds Lu Xingzhi of a serial killer that had terrorised Nandu thirteen years ago, when he was just a rookie detective. Starting with his mentor Wei Zhengrong, he gets the old investigative team that had profiled and hunted the killer back together again. They have unfinished business to get down to. Thus begins a thrilling chase for the long hidden killer who seems to be taunting them, "Catch me if you can!"The way the narrative unfolds in parallel between the present and the past is mesmerising and immediately made me invested in the main characters, including potential antagonists. In the present, the characters are older yet wear unmistakeable vestiges of the past that make them seem still touchingly familiar. We see what they were like juxtaposed against what they have become. This invokes a haunting sense of nostalgia over what was lost and what could have been. This captures the essence of what made CBS's Cold Case one of my favorite police procedural series. Wei Zhengrong seems the most markedly affected. In sharp contrast to the rather rough, dismissive, and bitingly cynical cop in his prime, he becomes a muted, wiser and oddly broken shadow of his former self. Lu Xingzhi on the other hand has delivered on his early promise and come into his own but his family life is disrupted.
Chen Jianbin and Chen Xiao anchor the stellar cast in this production. Both are charismatic and convincing actors with such incredible chemistry that it evolves to reflect the passage of time. They each subtly take on some of the other's traits thirteen years later, indicating how deeply they influenced one another. It is not easy to play characters that have aged and changed over thirteen years, yet remain essentially that character. Beyond both leads, every main character in each of the many cases delivers riveting portrayals of both their younger and older selves. This brought the victims to life through the eyes of people who knew them, loved them, feared them, envied them and may very well have killed them! The side story that moved me most was that of the gangster and the dancer.
The plot is very well designed and is a lot more whodunit than howdunit. It is set in a time when use of forensic technology was nascent and primitive. So the cases had to be approached the good old fashioned way of narrowing down suspects to who had motive, means and opportunity. The evidence and clues are all presented in an even handed manner; there is no attempt to hide anything from the viewer. From early on, the audience has enough clues to credibly build a case around at least two suspects at any given time. While the solution is not a huge surprise as the killer is well concealed but far from invisible, it still comes with a decent twist. It is a surprisingly dark story with a chilling ending for a c-drama. The production maintains an unsettling tension of a disturbing and menacing presence throughout. If I have to criticise, the staged crime scenes are a bit pretentious and the explanation of the painting and its significance is on the weak side although it just passes muster.
Overall, this is a well written and nicely executed crime thriller that will satisfy exacting crime buffs. A highly recommended watch that I rate 8.5/10.0.
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This is a biased review tbh
I jump into this without knowing the sypnosis of the special episode, so my disappointment is immeasurable and my day was ruined. I was expecting more scenes of the main couple as an actual couple cause we didn't get that in the first season but what we got was the backstory of the ex......Like sure its nice to know about it but to make it a special episode like really? It should have been included in the first season tbh. So that we can get a idea why Yu Zhen likes him so much. They made an entire episode dedicated to the ex and what enraged me more was that the ex and Yu Zhen had more chemistry and couple scenes than Yu Zhen and Lei Lei had in the entire series combined. Sure sure you can put the backstory of the ex but is there a need to make it a whole episode? 10 mins is more than enough and the rest of the time we should get Yu Zhen and Lei Lei as a couple. Honestly disappointed but tbh its a great story of the ex and Yu Zhen but still I don't want to see it. I fast forward it till the part of Lei Lei cause I was uncomfortable. So this is a biased review, this shouldn't affect you in any way from watching it. I just wanted to vent out.Was this review helpful to you?
