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In a restaurant, we see photos of Vivian Maier. That made me happy.It's interesting to show how hellish it can be to be a public figure. You can't disappoint, you always have to react correctly, you can't have a bad day in front of your fans. The series focuses on the life of the singer, his lawyer and, to a lesser extent, the prosecutor. Ultimately, the murder investigation is just an excuse to discover these characters and how they deal with their situation. The revelation of the culprit comes in the penultimate episode, clumsily, very clumsily. In any case, we don't really care.
The strong point is that it doesn't try to absolve people of their responsibilities. On the other hand, seeing a fan and her idol end up together is not very healthy ! I didn't know that being a solicitor involved housing, driving and feeding your client.
Ep5 : the kdrama disease of having a serious accident at the end of an episode and waking up in hospital in perfect health at the beginning of the next. How many times are we going to be subjected to this before the great Revolution ? Anger is brewing among the crowds.
(I may have skipped parts of episodes, no one will ever know.)
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Simple, elegant staging in natural settings and historical costumes that aren't necessarily very exciting. Some beautiful, aesthetic shots, but too few and far between. The music remains rough and stripped down, even discreet. Except when it emphasises the humour of a scene, which, in my opinion, detracts from the overall tone of the series. Many K-dramas brilliantly mix registers, but not this one. What remains is a narrative that takes the time necessary to advance its pawns in this game of massacre.Alas ! It is difficult to feel concerned by these stories, as the protagonists, including the hero himself, are so unsympathetic. The latter shows disgust at the way his fellow workers are treated and does nothing about it. He could. He has the ability to change things, we know that perfectly well, and he chooses to suffer for a long time. He sides with the bastard who mistreated him and his comrades before. He doesn't try to help them ; he supports one tyrant against another. Since the power struggles are never questioned, and the ending celebrates sovereign individualism, these script choices leave a bitter taste.
At first, we think that morality means : when you exploit people, have the decency to pay them. Personally, I would prefer that no one be exploited. If your thing is loading rice onto boats and making a profit from it, then load it yourself, you bloody exploiter.
In the same vein, one character protests that bandits collect taxes, but that's how regimes worked at the time. Soldiers in wartime, bandits in peacetime, they are the same people. Aristocrats earn their titles of nobility in bloodbaths ; they have no innate nobility. There is no difference between a nobleman and a godfather of the underworld, between the state and the mafia. That was my awkward anarchist, or Christian, take. (delete as appropriate)
Shin Ye-eun is underemployed. Scandalously underemployed ! An actress of this calibre and a character with so much potential should not be relegated to the background. What a waste, seriously.
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Citizen Kim by Or Son-Wel
"Is a fake that seems perfectly real really fake ?"Shin Hye-sun, best actress. End of sentence. That's all.
A thrilling series, with a new twist in every episode. I really liked how effective it was. Just the right length, even if it does drag a little in the middle. The themes are well explored and really gripping. It's quite clever !
"I felt deprived of something that had never belonged to me."
All these luxury bags, all these luxury items, it's high time to put an end to it. These people clearly don't pay enough tax and feel far too secure to walk around with them in public. "When did it all go wrong ?" It's amusing to talk about Ponzi schemes, but capitalism is based on them. The whole system is a huge scam based on debt. "My mistake was wanting to become rich. You don't become rich, you're born rich."
Sarah Kim, who no longer knows who she is because she keeps taking on new roles and doing what is expected of her... welcome to the world of autistic people. It's exhausting, isn't it ? I know. And it goes well with the big twist (which we see coming, anyway). A clash with oneself, with one's fellow human beings, alienated by money, obsessed with commodity fetishism...
"I'm not sorry, and I apologise for that." Great line.
_And Jung Da-bin finally starring in a good series ! Well done to her. I never doubted her. Or maybe just a little.
_"Splendid melancholy", why get that tattooed on yourself ? Joyful depression, obscure clarity, excellent Nolan. These oxymorons are so bizarre.
_I loved the moment when she turns around and says her real name : "Rosebud". Now that's cinema, the real thing.
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why ?????
Honestly, Season 1 of Love Alarm was good. The whole app concept was good, the tension between Jojo, Sun-oh, and Hye-yeong was on point, and the vibe was both cute and a little unsettling. for Season 2 after that insane cliffhanger… and man, what a disappointment.TWO YEARS FOR THIS, and they gave us just six short episodes that start with a really weird time jump. They completely ignore the final scene from Season 1 like it never happened. From the very first episodes, I could feel the pace was way too slow. Not much actually happens we just go in circles with Jojo’s doubts, her family traumas, and her quest to remove her shield. It’s more mature, sure, but it quickly becomes heavy and repetitive.
My biggest issue is Jojo. She’s so indecisive, passive, and sometimes selfish that I ended up finding her really annoying. Her choices don’t always make sense, and it feels like she’s hurting everyone without really owning up to it. Sun-oh (Song Kang) is still likable even though he gets a bit toxic at times, but the real gut punch is the ending: Jojo’s final choice. Without spoiling too much, let’s just say most Sun-oh fans (including me) were pretty disgusted. The chemistry with Hye-yeong isn’t bad, but it never comes close to what she had with Sun-oh in Season 1. Hye-yeong is way too “perfect,” almost bland.
On top of that, the message about the app is inconsistent between the two seasons: is Love Alarm good or bad? They flip-flop on it and you can totally tell. There are plot holes, underused side characters (Gul-mi seriously got on my nerves), and overall, the magic from Season 1 is completely gone. We went from a fresh, addictive drama to something melodramatic and depressing without the same emotion.In the end, I don’t totally regret watching it because I needed some closure, but I’d clearly recommend stopping at Season 1 if you don’t want to ruin the good memories. Season 2 is slow, frustrating, and the finale leaves a bitter taste for a lot of people.
annoying asf for me !
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"Alone, I can't do anything. I can't redeem myself. I can't comfort anyone or be comforted myself. The only thing I can do on my own, it is feeling lonely."One touching aspect of this series is the attention paid to how the characters look at each other. People like to see others happy. The series deals with sad topics, such as grief, but it also has some sweet, funny and tender scenes. (The story with the young girl in the convenience store is very touching.) It's terrible to feel guilty if you start to feel better after losing someone. This cult of suffering in our societies, truly poisonous. And these people struggle to get out of it.
A series I watched, taking breaks. Quite long breaks, to be honest. Its pace, its subjects, its slowness, all these elements make it challenging despite its great qualities. Two episodes in, and it starts to feel heavy. I cry far too much. It has to be said, some of the characters can become downright unpleasant, behaving badly or hurting others, wallowing complacently in their own misfortune. They are whole, complex, real, and don't always know what to say or even how to feel. It requires a heavy investment on our part.
The brother, for example, I didn't want to follow his story. He becomes interesting when he interacts with his father or sister, but the rest of the time he's unbearable. And I really wonder how he ended up with his dancer girlfriend. What does she see in him ? It's a mystery. This kind of relationship is best avoided. Everyone ends up hurting each other...
On the contrary, we see the brother's childhood friend doing all the emotional work for him, even mourning his mother's death in his place. She invests herself in their friendship, almost like a second mother ! And I would have preferred them to remain friends. Friendship is beautiful too, isn't it ? He remains incapable of saying I love you to the one he loves. It exhausted me to follow all this. I'm sick of seeing guys who make no effort and live like parasites off their girlfriends.
Overall, the women in this series... I feel sorry for them, so sorry. The last episode is hard to watch. They deserve better. They have to put up with everything, plan everything, manage everything, and (unfortunately) it's very realistic. The series has a happy ending (what a relief !), but it's still primarily to the benefit of the men and at the expense of the women's work. Emotional work, particularly.
"Without you, I'm a total disaster."
Seo Hyun-jin/Joon-Kyung is more or less the main character. All her life, she has made so many efforts without success, yet she does not realise how far she has come. But she is terribly lonely and unhappy. She leaves her mother feeling angry, even furious with her, and doesn't immediately realise that it's over, gone, and that one day a wall of silence will hit her head-on : her mother is no longer there. She is left alone, carrying their memories. But this triggers a realisation that she has the right to be happy. It's a complex and mixed set of emotions, enough to make you sick.
This character's journey is very beautiful. She makes mistakes, she overcomes them, she finds love. This strength has always been within her. She just needed to find a way to open the door wide.
Her partner confides in her, explains how he feels, suggests activities, cares about her. Incredible. A rare gem. It's so good to see men like that! I don't know if we realise how rare this kind of representation is ? (Well, the story with his ex was tough) This K-drama presents quite different types of men in heterosexual relationships. That's one of its strengths, its subtlety, its raw complexity.
"Just because we are a family does not mean we are supposed to know everything, understand everything, endure everything and persevere."
However, we need to have a conversation here. People in this series do not know how to respect other's privacy. You don't just invite yourself into someone's home without warning ! What's more, with their strange doors, everyone knows each other's codes and can just walk in unannounced. That's not right at all.
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love cheng yi
Vendetta of An is not something I'll typically watch, as it's not my favorite plot; however, my dad insisted on watching together, so I watched the entire thing. Of course, Cheng Yi shines super brightly, and I love all his works, but this story was just not my cup of tea. The visual and the acting were amazing, though. Don't get me wrong, I do love me a good visual movie, but plot is everything, and I just felt like it wasn't that interesting.Was this review helpful to you?
I don't know why, but for some obscure reason, a lot of people in this series go from whispering to screaming in a fraction of a second. In a nutshell : annoying and ridiculous.
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A K-drama about a chosen family, in a way ? A whole group of merry pranksters, united in adversity and divided in the gold rush. The entire building refuses to give way to a despicable company.It's so zany and grotesque at times, it's like The Fiery Priest but with lawyers this time. It goes way over the top in terms of silliness. That said, I suspect the trials aren't very accurate in terms of how the Korean judicial system works. And, sure, the series is funny, but damn, it's about some really serious stuff ! Killing your employees is not okay. It's not reasonable. Babel, the most evil company in the world. The mafia seems almost more likeable in comparison. (Between us, I think that's the point here, to show us that they're equally bad... except Vincenzo Cassano)
Everyone loves Vincenzo. That heartbreaker. Even pigeons. Nice pigeon, by the way, Vincenzo, congratulations. Not all heroes wear capes, sometimes they're just pigeons. And Vincenzo knows how to make good police officers : force them to resign. An example to follow.
Anyway. But Jeon Yeo-been has class, she's an impeccable actress, I need to see more of her performances. Ms Incognito was really good, even if it didn't get a very good reception, it seems.
So ! I solemnly declare that if I hear that cover of Bach's chaconne in D minor for violin again, I'll go berserk, ok ? I'll smash tiny objects while screaming. My strength doesn't allow me to express my anger any more furiously than that.
Also : those adverts for instant coffee and chocolate squares wrapped in plastic ? Embarrassing. No one buys that rubbish, wake up.
And at some point, we need to take two minutes to think about xenophobia towards Chinese people. They are always portrayed negatively in almost all Korean productions. One character has a caricatured name, "Wang Shaolin", then we hear about "Chinese hackers from the North Dragon gang". It's getting a bit much.
_"This idiot's brain is a black hole." A teacher must have written that in one of my school reports.
_"You're a subhuman, unworthy of being human, you don't deserve to live." It all reminds me of my father.
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"Introductions ! This is Rachel, Phoebe, and Chandler ! Hi !" Nobody loves Monica.Miss Hong is so cool. She and the 'queen bee' are a killer duo ! It was really nice to see a show that didn’t focus on romance with guys, but on female friendship.
When Miss Hong goes undercover on her first day at work, she notices that the managers don't do anything, the bosses don't know how to do anything except to be extremely misogynistic, and the only one who works in the department is the guy at the bottom of the ladder with the lowest salary. Realistic. What's more, it's a financial investment company, the ultimate bullshit job, legendary parasite level. If I've learned one thing in the world of work, it's that there's no point in overworking yourself, you won't be rewarded for it. The wool will be sheared the same from our tiny round backs. Glad to see that Miss Hong's colleagues have understood this. A fine example for young people. "They're overdoing it ! Why give us work ?" A French joke just for fun : They gave us work for four people ! Luckily there were eight of us. And, of course : I talk in my sleep. At night it's annoying, but at work it's worse.
"If experience made you grow, you would be surrounded by saints."
Revenge, then ? We love that here. Especially when it's the little employees that no one takes seriously. We enjoy accompanying this cast of characters throughout these sixteen well-filled episodes. Albert Oh and No-ra annoyed me at first, but in the end, I love them. Everyone has their goals, becomes friends, teams up : the usual stuff. Studio Dragon does a great job of mixing humor, serious topics, and redeeming endings that are comforting after their emotional roller coaster. We talk about harassment, suicide, misogyny, single mothers, domestic violence, working conditions... Poor Kim Mi-sook... And then, No-ra engaged to a man 20 years older than her ? Hell ! But it's a joyful and kind series despite all that.
It should be noted that there are always an investigation, but not by the cops, which is good. Everyone hates the police. All my homies hate the cops.
In any case, the writers manage to make these stories about investing in a company cool and fun. That's why we love K-dramas. I'm ready for season 2. Totally ready.
"A man who disparages you for having lived with him deserves to be judged.
PS : The t-shirt "Vivre est un journey", I don't understand. "Vivre est un voyage" or "to be alive is a journey" but not a mix of two ! It stresses everyone. Never do that again.
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Jisoo plays an ordinary woman whom nobody notices? That requires a massive leap of faith. When she stands in front of her mirror and complains about her dark under-eye circles… but she has the most flawless skin in the world. It’s hard to believe she’s this insignificant, clumsy character. But, to be fair, her acting has improved. (She was already quite good in Newtopia, given the series’ delightfully daft tone)She plays an adorable, heartbroken producer who’s getting over her break-up and taking control of her love life again. We figure that out pretty early on.
All her scenes with new virtual boyfriends are strangely good. It plays on clichés deliberately, so it doesn’t treat us like idiots. I've found myself laughing stupidly far too often to say anything bad about it. I’ll admit it, I liked it. There, I’ve said it ! The humour saves the day when it gets a bit saccharine.
This series is pure binge-watching (there isn’t even an opening credits sequence), a short, simple, funny, pinky, very pinky story… Pinky but blackened (this joke : illegal in 197 countries) by this dating game, which, when you get right down to it, is quite terrifying. Losing consciousness every time you start it up ? I’m not sure I’d like that. I’ve already played Dark Souls, ok ?
And what about her working hours... can we take this up with a trade union, please ? Both in the series and in Jisoo’s real life.
Gong Min-jeung, the "annoying" author, is the best. Keep it up, madam. Screw them !
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(The initial idea, why not ? But the execution of it, I didn't like it at all, not one bit. It's truly heartbreaking to see these people remembering insignificant things as if they were the most important thing in the world, it makes no sense... and the age difference ? She's 19 more lives, actually.)
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The true meaning behind trusting and supporting each other
What a beautiful drama. We have a solid background story for the FL and ML, a super fun way for them to reconnect, and a wonderful relationship to watch.At first, I thought this was going to be the common plot of non-celebrity dating a big celebrity that would be full of privacy issues and insecurities. Instead, it's a beautiful story about two individuals who are passionate about their careers and find a way of being together without compromising who they are.
The first thing I loved about You are my glory was the fact that the FL fell in love with the ML because of how smart and passionate he was about his dream. He was handsome, yes, but she truly went further and found the very essence of his being. They both have very demanding jobs, and they spend more time apart than together because of it, but when they do, they make the most out of it. They don't focus on miscommunication, on being petty, on being angry. Whenever a less positive emotion comes up, they talk about it. They work through it together. And it's so refreshing to watch such a healthy relationship on screen.
For someone who doesn't like/understand gaming, the episodes focused on it will probably feel boring. But I can tell you, as a gamer myself, e-sports are extremely well portrayed here. Not only the environment, but also all the game jargon and how an e-sports team works together.
As for his job, I hadn't really considered how hard the life of an aerospace engineer could be. And watching the reasons behind every project, behind every next step humanity takes to understand the universe, was very satisfying. In the end, they both work super hard in their own industries, and they never fail to be there for each other in both losses and victories.
Now, last but not least, this is my first Yang Yang drama. And oh my god, this guy is insanely handsome and so expressive AAAAAA. There are a lot of kissing scenes and super funny banter - none feels displaced, and my heart felt full while watching them.
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a basic romance...
My review of Season 1 of Love Alarm:A basic K-drama romance with a simple concept: an app that notifies you if someone within a certain radius likes you. You might think this would make the story interesting, but personally, I didn’t feel like it added anything special after the first half of the season.At the beginning, it’s useful for introducing the series, the theme, and showing who the characters are attracted to. But after that, I personally found it lost its interest.The acting from the main characters is okay. With a theme like this, you shouldn’t expect anything extraordinary from the romance.
The OSTs didn’t particularly stand out to me, but they weren’t bad either.
You can watch this K-drama if you have nothing else to watch!
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A story about corruption at the highest levels of South Korean society, or so we're led to believe. Everyone's despicable. No one worth saving. Because the cruel world these people inhabit demands it. I would have preferred less self-indulgence, though.In reality, it's a just decent thriller about three or four individuals, but not really about politics, neither corruption...
Unfortunately, in my opinion, there are too many ostensibly shocking choices thrown in just to brutalize the audience. And then, again and again, that same way of portraying relationships between women ; it can only be sad and end badly, nothing else is possible. To be honest, it really gets on my nerves seeing that all the time.
It's a twisted series in which all the characters behave strangely, solely to conceal plot points. Or to give Nana and Ha Ji-won their moment to shine. (They're brilliant in those scenes, of course.) But that's obvious, and it really annoys me. As a result, the ending feels like a real slog to get to. The first episode promised a daring story and I have to say : that's not the case.
Why is everyone breathing heavily or sighing non-stop ? I don't like having someone breathing down my neck for 10 episodes.
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Extremely serious topics addressed head-on. Unfortunately, the pacing is terribly slow at the start. The characters spend so much time repeating the same information. But the story becomes increasingly gripping as it progresses. A cliffhanger in every episode, it works. (It makes me feel uncomfortable saying that about a subject like this)A "necessary" series (even though I don’t really like reducing a work to that). Especially when you know about the Burning Sun scandal. Of course, these aren't exactly the same events. But it's comparable because the privileged scum who destroyed the lives of dozens and dozens of women didn’t face many consequences, thanks to the active complicity of the police and the justice system. Just like in the series, an idol committed suicide ; she was helping to raise awareness about this scandal, and documents disappeared after her death. (Goo Hara) Just like in the series, these men beat, abused, drugged, and filmed their victims. And just like in the series, they were tipped off about an investigation in advance, so they were able to delete their chat room and their abominable catalog (the "Connect In" app). These wealthy men have shown no remorse, and those facing legal action are free to start all over again. (They are suspected of doing so, by the way, in France and Cambodia, according to the latest news)
As long as prison is the only response to these acts, nothing will change. That's the point. The state's justice system wants us to feel powerless. It protects those who have everything against those who have nothing.
In Honour, the victims have to take matters into their own hands. Sadly realistic. And they're three well-off women, with all the tools they need to succeed. That, too, realistic. The poor don't get justice. Neither do the dead.
A good thriller, in the end. It has a slow start. We have to get past the first three episodes. But a good thriller. Between this, Made in Korea, and Climax, Korea is sending a clear message this year.
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