This review may contain spoilers
SO MUCH LIGHT FUN
A few months ago, I put this on hold just after 4 episodes due to horrible Eng sub translation on YT. When it popped on IQIYI recently I was still curious (how could you not be when there is literally no plot for the first 50 episodes other than men from harem vying for Queens favor???) and, as expected, I enjoyed watching half naked male beauties bickering like hens among themselves, or steeling each other's best outfits for diligently serving the Queen, or flaunting themselves at the FL from all directions. And what makes it really enjoyable is the current excellent translation. I mean, how can you not love "my butt is perkier than yours" and countless one-liners that fit a perfectly staged and shot scene (two concubines in the blurry foreground having a pillow fight while the camera focuses on a slightly embarrassed FL who sits calmly watching with glee two idiots wrestle and then finally getting up with "I am leaving. Carry on" or one consort telling the other "where is your dignity, you think her majesty will like you dressed like a cheap whore")?People complained that the FL character is weak. True, but she has a consistent personality of a pushover dummy from the first life (who was manipulated by a man who hated her) to a reincarnated pushover dummy being sexily played by a man who worships her. How is that bad - particularly if we get to see abs galore, exposed legs and necks and some really skilled filming of what probably qualifies as Chinese version of a soft porn? š¤£š¤£š¤£
If you want an ambitious drama - look elsewhere. This is a straightforward eye feast for most hetero women who don't have to be strong as long as there is a fool in love who will remove all the obstacles from their lives and make love to them every turn while forsaking all other interests while we women still have other ahm... options available. It does not hurt to be loved by two handsome boys, right? Especially when they have been reborn with you and can band together to save you, perhaps even willing to share you? I giggled with abandon but was touched by Prince of Cang's dignity and self-sacrifice-a lovely detail.
But seriously, there are some turns of the plot here that will keep you glued to the screen in the end. Plus, the director created a solid, consistent look for this production with intimate feel in every scene which was done without theatrics and did not look cheap, regardless of the small budget (pay attention to things like the framing of the night talk with that old twisted tree trunk in ep 55 or the shadow theatre in the window in ep 12, or the stunning outfits of all parties- including three grooms on the wedding day). The 3 hours of the drama packed all the important things that are necessary for keeping your interest: conflict premise, opposing interests and views, scheming parties yet no single villain, catchy lovemaking scenes and seductive moves of various characters. Even flashbacks were incorporated seamlessly without the unnecessary refocusing. Add to it really good acting of fairly unknown actors (even though both Fl and ML have been each in over 30 micro/mini dramas since 2020) and excellent directing/edition and you get solid joyous experience of a S-drama in a nutshell.
The only thing that I personally did not like was lack of independently commissioned music - in QIYI version it was mostly borrowed from My Journey to You, One and Only, The Story of the Kunning Palace, and various other big budget dramas. While the use of these songs and BGM was very skilled and I loved the pieces in the original dramas, it was still distracting to hear them here: I dropped my rating one full point because of this. And I subtracted another point for lack of story/plot substance as there was not much empowerment or women's rights stuff here (a wasted opportunity if you ask me given the fact that the emperor is female guided by extremely powerful Dowager Empress). But still, what was once an incoherent seduction fest with really bad subs is now a reason to say that VD is alive and kicking in 2025 and still testing the boundaries of risquƩ and tongue in cheek fun.
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Watch this for the cool music, a very well choreographed set of fight scenes in each episode, and Kiriyama who has little speaking parts but lots of fast action, and a cool car. In fact, the action scenes are short and swift but that is what one looks forward to each episode. They are almost movie quality choreography and design, with each fight scene showing off Mirage's empty hand, or weaponed, or shooting prowess. Mirage is a mysterious killer who dispenses with his missions efficiently, stylishly, and without fail. Even though Kiriyama is not a martial artist, the fight scenes are quite convincing and intricate.
And if you can ever figure out who really are the good and bad guys in the Japanese government/police force, good luck...
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Love story
Warning: This review will contain spoilers!!!Plot: A woman falls in love with her boss at first sight.
For three years she works at his company, cherishing each moment they casually meet and interact, snapping and collecting pictures of him on the sly. (Not stalkery--just very cute). He, of course, is completely clueless to all of this to the point that...
....three and a half years later, he asks her help to "pursue" her best friend.
FL knows that her bff is in a relationship with someone else. Nonetheless, she seized the opportunity to get closer to the ML, so she agrees to "help" him pursue the bff. Using this excuse, the ML and FL begin spending time together, meeting and talking purportedly about the bff but eventually it reaches a point where they're almost like friends (despite him being her boss). Even after the bff gets married they still meet and interact.
The FL falls deeper and deeper until she decides to confess, whereupon the ML rejects her outright.
In his defence, her confession seems sudden, since he has no idea she'd had feelings for him for years. He just sees someone he knows as an employee and causal friend suddenly confess out of nowhere. When he asks her to explain why she likes him, our FL panics and lies, giving a very shallow response: "You're handsome and rich, of course I like you". The ML, who is the opposite of a playboy, naturally finds her response off-putting and tells her that they are not suitable.
The FL takes the rejection hard. But she accepts his decision and immediately begins taking steps to distance herself from the ML. As soon as she does, we can see the ML begin having doubts. From the start, her response ("handsome, money") strikes him as off, and out of character for the woman he's gotten to know over the past six months. But each time he tries approaching her again, she shuts him down hard. The FL is heartbroken and won't give an inch.
Now we enter our cat-and-mouse phase.
He does everything he can to pursue her, using work (offering to produce the movie for the book which the FL authored), proximity (he moves next-door to her), and support (financial and otherwise-putting his reputation and business on the line to ensure the development of her movie).
However, the issue is that he still has no idea that the FL has liked him for so long or how very deep her hurt is.
And she is not able to tell him. She can't open up and trust him.
So we go around in never-ending circles.
Many obstacles are thrown their way during this point, from online dating rumours, to a parent-pushed secondary love interest.
After a long (long, long, long!!) wait, the FL finally accepts that he truly does like her and they get together.
Once they get together it's a smooth walk down the aisle. Both of their families are happy and supportive. They live happily ever after.
My issue: The first half of the show built on chemistry, sexual tension, and heavy emotions. At one point I became annoyed with FL for putting off the ML for too long. But eventually we see her on-screen breakdown when he finds out that she's liked him for so long, and I forgive her. However, once they got together, the entire mood of them changed. She became less mature, more playful, and the sexual tension/chemistry seemed to vanish. We went from a heavy drama to a sweet romance--the transition was too abrupt and the mood shift was so extreme that I couldn't really connect the couple from part one of the show to the couple in part two of the show. This mood lasted up to the final episode. The final episode redeemed it. It was still playful and light, but the chemistry came back at least. Overall, I was satisfied with how it was wrapped up.
The secondary couple is the Director of the FL's movie and the ML's younger sister.
I'll say this: both characters are truly wonderful people.
The younger sister is cute, kind, and hard working.
The Director is dedicated, sweet, and also very kind.
In a sense, the younger sister who, by virtue of her age, always acted much younger and girlish than the FL, actually acted much more mature in her romance with the Director than the FL did in her own romance with the ML.
The chemistry between the younger sister and the director was wonderful.
I truly liked them together.
I loved seeing her gradually grow up and take control of her life. She made zero mistakes in her relationship with the director and I admire her so much for that. Since we'd seen her as a very young and cossetted girl, she'd have had ample opportunity to screw it all up, but she didn't. Truly, truly amazing of her.
As for the director, he admired her from the start, took his time, guided her as she entered his industry, supported her patiently, and confessed at the right time. Kudos to him for a job well done.
This couple was truly amazing to watch.
The music was fantastic!!!! The ost was one of the best I've heard.
The shooting was great.
The cast was wonderful.
I will definitely rewatch this show :)
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This review may contain spoilers
..THE STORY OF HALF-YANKEE AND HALF-NORMIE..
..yes, this is a story of delinquent family - but one of them decided to try and live a normal life, decided to go at school and be a member of art club showing his passion on paint and canvas...
..as always, life is not that easy - problems always enter, a change of uniform and appearance is a must, the conquering of city is a must by means of punching and kicking since his family expecting a lot for him - this will be his life revolves on daily basis..
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..a secret to be kept for a long year - and no secret will be stored forever and the truth will reveal as many people now knows it..
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..well, what I learned on this drama, well, even if I am not a yankee, it teaches us a lie either it is a white lie is still a lie - keeping it for a long time, only keeping us to hurt for a long time too - not only one's self but anyone too. . .and yes, truth will always set us free and continue to have a happy life with our loved ones..
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..I love the casting plus the talking dog dubbed by the legend VA (TsudaKen), the music, the pinch of love story and the overall lesson we can learn how important our family and friends as they teaches us how to live the way we want too..
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Story : the story follows a group of military trainees from admission to graduation. They evolve through adventures and hardships which are well told and entertaining for the action parts and cute and funny for the other parts. Main focus is put on 3 characters who are very interesting in their personality and their development throughout the drama. You really understand them and feel close to them. The love triangle was very well handled as you could not know how it will unfold for a long time. Other secondary characters have also nice or sad or bittersweet stories well told and this brings complexity and good density to the overall plot line.
Acting : I thought most of the cast did a tremendous job here. I have seen the two main lead in the Legends and the are very good in this drama too. Bai Lu acting is on spot portraying a strong character but less funny more calm but also daring. You totally believe her tomboyish female character as a girl and the pretty boy soldier as a man. Xu Kai was great too. He portrayed nicely a fun character quite immature but finally reliable. He was good while bickering or nagging or playing cute with Xie Xiang. Many commented he had something of Leonardo Dicaprio. I kinda agree. Toby Lee was great also. He portrayed a very serious heir of a rich family. You totally believe his character and the nature he shows in his relationships. He overshadowed the main lead some times as his chemistry with the female lead was so good. Others actors did well too specially the guy portraying soldier Song, the Shen brother but the also the Academy staff. The female friends were well portrayed.
Music : I found the intro music very surprising but contrasting with the genre of the drama and it gave it an originality. I loved the love song at the romantic moments. Overall the music was ok for me.
Re-watch: Not sure I would re-watch it since it is so long but this drama has many fun or heartbreaking scenes I will gladly re-watch just for the feeling of it and I seldom have the chance to do that with Chinese dramas.
Overall : despite some usual clichƩs regarding the vilains it's a very entertaining and recommended drama.
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It took quite a long time for the killing spree to start but no second leading up to it was wasted. This film had a brilliant story behind the horror and whilst most horror films are more sadism than substance, Death Bell 2 had a great balance of both. In fact, the deaths were so imaginative and disturbing I hope never to meet the writers behind the script!
I was interested in seeing Ji Yeon in a horror role after only seeing her as catty Rian in Dream High 2. I expected her to be ok but she surpassed my expectations. She had the same shy, slightly twitchy yet 'tower of strength' personality I loved in Nam Gyu Ri's character from Death Bell 1 whilst being completely different, and most of the boys were easy on the eyes (the ones who managed to stay alive long enough to get a good look at anyhow).
The music's hard to comment on as the film was so intense I barely noticed it and the most effective scenes were the killing ones where silence or indescribable music boosted the scary atmosphere. The music I did notice at the beginning though was great for setting the scene.
Overall the film isn't too gory (although there's a lot of blood) and not that scary so if you're a human jelly, like me, then you won't need to find anything to hide behind before you watch. I've given Death Bell 2 a rewatch value of 8 just because I feel once you've worked out who's behind the killings and who's going to be killed, the element of surprise might be lost and make rewatching less enjoyable (but am going to rewatch anyway!)
A great film!
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*When it comes to acting I really don't know what to say...it's Shin Ha Kyun the most talented actor ever...the short guy who's not so good looking but yet his smile makes me fly of happiness & his tears destroy me...his acting is real for me...once I watch him on screen I feel like I'm there with him in his world...
I thought at 1st that this drama will be showing us how wrong Dr. Lee Kang Hun was in his methods & in seeking success...It's the thing I hate most in K-drama the perfect humans they portray (Like in King Of Baking) but this drama is not about that...it shows an imperfect man who's cold, arrogant and selfish...someone wasted the time he had with his mother and followed a stupid revenge - that was eventually against himself...yet this drama glorifies his unlimited ambitions...that's what i love about this drama...that at the end they didn't let him sacrifice his Ego but respected and protected him.
*The OST was really good and fitting with the drama...the song Solitude makes me cry while listening to it even without understanding the lyrics...really good I also read that Kim Hyun Joong recommended the song Closer.
*The reason I enjoyed this drama a lot was the characters and the acting...so I'll definitely re-watch it.
*There's only a few kisses in this drama but they are good & the romantic scenes were touching...also the weakness of most Korean actors is crying scenes but it's a strong part of this drama...the way Shin Ha Kyun cries was destroying me...it was so good and so real that I wanted to hug Dr. Lee. :')
*Hope this review was helpful...I'm really grateful I watched this drama...it's not that popular...but it was one of the best I've ever seen...just give it a shot...you might get hooked from the 1st ep like me ^.^
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My verdict? It won't be long before I see it for a third time, which might make you wonder why I gave it pathetic music rating. I gave it a pathetic music rating because there is no music to speak of, none, zilch, nada, not unlike_No Country for Old Men_. Alas, unlike _No Country for Old Men_, _Christmas in August_ has nothing to commend itself in terms of a suspenseful plot, cinematography-rich settings,or a villain so compelling as to make your skin crawl.
What it does have is a reality which you would not have known could ever have existed and conveyed with such subtlety and nuance that you're reaction upon viewing would probably be along the lines of "What?!" To be sure, it's a thinking man's film,one if you could ever get your head wrapped around, you might experience what I did the second time around: an ineffable sorrow which shedding tears for would be vulgar in the extreme.
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This review may contain spoilers
The rookies delivered the best k-drama of 2024 so far
A very interesting premise. Rookies galore. Full female cast. I had lots of fun watching this short drama. The main thing that I like about this show is that while it has so many characters involved, most of the characters are meticulously crafted, with their own motivations, flaws, and moral compass. The main protagonist and antagonist being equal monsters made the battle of wits so entertaining. At no point did I feel that one side was too overpowered and it was a chess game played by two masters who took turns to deliver punches. Every one of those beautiful ladies was capable of being an ugly monster if they had to for survival and nobody was truly on one side till the end. A thrilling war of nerves that kept me rooted. Will you conform or challenge?Being somebody that is not very good at pairing names with faces, it took me a while to remember all of the characterās names. There were so many characters being introduced from the get-go and all of them being female names made it quite a challenge for me. However, despite the lack of āA-listersā, it was this show with a bunch of newbies that slayed.
Some people are just born to act and Jang Da A is one of them. You know how some people make hard look easy? How they seem like they are not doing much but actually delivers? Baek Ha Rin (game master) took a stroll for 10 episodes and yet she is the main impression that was left on me. She barely moved yet I felt a whole spectrum of emotions from her performance. Mad mad performance for a debutant. I enjoyed watching her descent into madness as she slowly losses her initial gracefulness and composure. Not all madness needs to be represented by loud screaming and excessive arm waving. You have to remember this is a chaebol kid who has to maintain her image in public at all times and show absolute control with class. Her facial expression for a first-timer was unbelievably good. Imo this will be an iconic character- The twitch bitch.
A weird theory struck me during the scene of BHR cutting her hair short. Unless I am missing something, that scene did not mean anything to the plot and there was really no reason to do that. What I took from that was it could be an attempt by the director and Jang Da A to break the fourth wall and send a message that actress Jang Da A is here to deliver and is stepping out of the shadow of her famous sister because of how strikingly similar they look. That would be so cool if true.
Seriously, there are just too many great performances from the rest of the girls (Im Ye Rim is my fav hehe) that I could go on and on but I shall not- this show had such a high level of acting I can only say all of them were amazing. They are one of the most talented groups I have seen in recent times and many of them here are gonna give their sunbaes a run for their money.
I have to talk about THAT paintball episode. My god that was one of the best writing and acting I have seen in recent times. The build-up to that final moment was so perfect, coupled with a great soundtrack. I am unable to think of a better way to showcase that scene of unified camaraderie amongst the underdog to break the enemyās morale and win the psychological warfare in the most composed and collective effort. Top top tier. They won that round with such class despite being the āpeasantsā of the system and turning the ānoblesā into absolute jokes. Winning the devil at their game, what a beautiful uprising of the underdogs. The Prisoner Dilemma. S tier writing there, I applaud.
Ngl, I fell asleep once in the middle of finishing the last 2 episodes. Thought it was just me because of how perfect the show had been up till that point but read many similar sentiments about the rather stale ending and a sudden change in the strange pacing. I was expecting a "finale" in the sense that BHR would deliver a final desperate blow but she became overwhelmed and subdued instead. I thought a lot of the key characters were being sidelined and had no proper conclusions. Do Ah (class president) felt like a much more complex character than what the show portrayed and I wish she along with the likes of Da Yun (girl abused by daddy) were given more storytime. The ending was being wrapped rather lethargically imo and did cause it to drop 0.5 level down in my book.
Overall a great concept with the Pyramid game that when you zoom out it reflects a tiny version of todayās society but when you zoom into it deeper, it is reminding you to eat Subway. Baek Ha Rin lost cause she did not had that bread.
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I need my time back
Call me a hopeful watcher, but I was hoping this story would lead somewhere ... it didn't.The BL aspects weren't censored... they were just none existent. Like it never happened and the original material was a fever dream. Didn't even get a little tension, just a toxic, convoluted... "friendship?"
The bad guy got the glory and the victim went fishing. No justice. Slap dash resolution to 14 episodes of abusive tantrums.
I request a refund on my time.
Will not rewatch.
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Falling High School Girl and Irresponsible Teacher
11 people found this review helpful
Love on a Suspension Bridge
What is the suspension bridge effect? According to Urban Dictionary, āthe suspension bridge effect happens when a person crosses a suspension bridge and he sees someone of the opposite sex. His fear of falling down causes his heart to pound. He then mistakes that for the heart-pounding feeling felt when falling in love with the opposite sex.āIs the love Ochiai Mikoto (FL) feels for Haiba Jin/Haijin (ML) a result of the suspension bridge effect? Will these feelings go away once sheās not standing on the edge of the building? Well, you will have to watch the drama to find out.
āTsuiraku JK to Haijin Kyoshiā aka āFalling High School Girl and Irresponsible Teacherā is a dark comedy addressing the serious issues of suicide and loneliness. The drama does not take the issues lightly, but offers an alternate, witty and sarcastic way in handling them. You will fall in love with the leads and their personalities. Both of them are caring, considerate, āuniqueā and āwackyā. But the best part of the drama is their interactions. You never know whatās going to come out of Haijinās mouth, and what comebacks Mikoto will have. They are just so fun together.
The drama is really short - 9 episodes and about 20 minutes each. It doesnāt tell the full story but only gives us the initial encounter and relationship building. I wanted more of them and wished the episodes were longer. I want to know more about how Haijin fell in love with Mikoto. That one flashback is not enough for me.
If you are unsure of the taboo relationship of a teacher and a student, I can say thereās nothing overtly out-of-the-line physically. But thereās heavy flirting and you know emotionally they are ātogetherā. There were only two instances where they performed an act to āsave someoneās lifeā. Of course, thatās their way of justifying the act. But they did it in such a comical way that it didnāt feel dirty at all.
This drama reminded me of the C-drama āDefinitely Not Todayā. Both tried to tackle the issue of suicide with dark comedy but approaches this topic very differently. This drama has a lot more comedy and flirting.
If the themes of suicide and teacher/student relationships donāt bother you, I recommend this unique drama to you.
Completed: 9/18/2023 - Review #355
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Story- the first few episodes told the child stories. Normally Iāll fast forward through these because I donāt have the patience but I found the story compelling already. By the time the time the adult characters come on you are already immersed into the story and wanting to see how these damaged characters grew up and how they come together. This drama made me laugh and cry. The ending was just perfect=)
Acting/Cast- The acting was perfect by everyone. I am a new fan of Kim Jae Won! He portrayed his deaf character so well. Really spectacular acting by NGM. His character had so many layers and he was able to portray his complex character so well that I was able to feel Maruās pain.
Music- Lovely score.
Rewatch- Iād watch this again in 2 years. That will give me enough time to forget a lot that happened. I loved the cast so i would want to see this again sooner than later.
Overall for a drama that is 30 eps, it is worth the watch because itās so well written and acted.
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I think the idea behind this drama is awesome! It was totally made for Kpop fans and I really enjoyed watching it! Not just because of Seulong, Nichkhun and the others but also because of the story the drama told.
It was really fun to watch it and I recommend it to every Kpop fan out there! :D
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This review may contain spoilers
I can KIND OF see the effort but..
Iām convinced thereās is a good story buried somewhere inside this garbage mess but itās barely visible. This series made very little sense.Itād be too long to go through every little and big thing in detail so Iām not gonna do it but to put it bluntly: nothing made much sense, including charactersā decisions and accusations. Even the first half of the show made barely any sense but the second half was complete idiocy. This show had several scriptwriters how did nobody catch the nonsense?
The first episode was actually quite good (good enough) but onward ep 2 it got exponentially worse until in culminated in full-on ludicrousness.
Absurdity of the plot aside, the show also struggled with extreme tonal inconsistencies. It didnāt know what it wanted to be, comedic or dark. Itās possible to carefully combine both genre elements but you have to know what youāre doing and the writers here were not up to the task. The whiplash I got from the clumsy, radical tonal shifts was insane. One minute itās a serious scene and the next minute itās suddenly turned into badly written gag comedy. Bizarre!
Some of the scenes were painfully overdramatic and were portrayed in a way that made them unintentionally hilarious. It felt like they wanted to make certain scenes look really cool but ended up making them look ridiculous instead. The direction felt incredibly amateurish and I know that the director isnāt an amateur but he obviously didnāt know jack about directing action scenes and it shows.
Now that weāre on the topic, this is not an action drama, itās not a romance drama either, itās an awkward and weirdly paced family drama with some clumsily sprinkled action and romance scenes in between. Oftentimes the dialogue was painful to listen to and most of the time it was on the nose with a lot of telling (AND sometimes showing). It genuinely felt like the dialogue was taken out of a bad shonen anime word for word.
Now onto the romance:
There was so little attempt at romance that I didnāt even care if Jack and Joker ended up together. The romantic chemistry and interactions were nurtured so little that I didnāt care to be invested in their supposed romantic attachment.
I donāt mean that we need to see them confess and/or make out with each other every other episode bc romantic chemistry and build up can be shown in a lot of different ways that donāt have to include sexual intimacy but you gotta have at least some build up, no?
Where are the stares, the slight flirtation? Sometimes itās briefly there but then it abruptly stops, removing any possibility of a smooth romantic build up. Itās really awkward and at the end doesnāt amount to much. Iāve seen many types of bromances (Western and Asian) that have so much more romantic and sexual tension between characters where they barely even touch each other and this is supposed to be a BL but the romantic tension barely exists here. You canāt just haphazardly throw in a couple of romantic scenes in between all the plot and call it a romance. Thereās an art to properly weaving romantic subplot into the main plot of a different genre. Talking about other BLs, Manner of Death did it right, Kinnporsche did it right, even Triage did it right and that one had barely any romance in it.
War is a good actor and Yin def. has improved but in this drama their acting felt slightly off kilter for a lot of the time. I might be wrong but it seems to me that the people heavily involved in this project, YinWar included, didnāt know what exactly they wanted it to be, werenāt sure enough in the direction of this story/plot/theme and thatās why almost everything felt wonky about it and the project itself felt unstable on its legs.
One last thing I want to mention about the plot is that it wanted to showcase how poor people were being taken advatage of by rich people but the poor people didnāt make the greatest decisions either. One example that really jumped out at me was the bit about Jackās parents.
They committed suicide bc they thought that their life insurance would be able to pay off their debt but bc they didnāt care to properly read the contract it didnāt work the way they expected it to (bc insurance doesnāt pay in cases of suicide, which was written in the contract!).
Why did they make Jackās parents seem foolish by making them not read the full contract? Why not make it a legal loop or make it some other type of refusal to pay out the insurance? Why not lean into the obvious unfairness and scam of the society that openly prefers and protects rich over poor? This was a missed opportunity and made Jackās parents seem rather stupid instead.
Anyway, my criticism notwithstanding I do appreciate the idea and the grind. I see the effort behind the show and I respect the effort. I know that Iām in the minority in my dislike of the show and I think itās a good thing that many other people liked it. I do wish for Yin and War to succeed in the entertainment business and Iām sure Jack and Joker will contribute to their future success, I just hope that their next project will be more to my liking.
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