Reviews

Another Bad Adaptation

If you've read the novel that this drama is based off of, you should know that there are slight differences. While the scriptwriter has remained mostly faithful to the novel, the slight changes resulted in big changes in the nuance of the drama. Originally, the novel was about a strong female engineer/budding entrepreneur who succeeds with the guidance of a CEO. Alas, the CEO (who later becomes her boyfriend) messes up which causes them to break up. It sounds exactly like the script right?

While it may seem generally the same, there are major differences. The ML in the novel always viewed FL as someone could potentially be his equal with the right guidance. However, his big ego and hiding things from her eventually becomes the breaking point. Here, while they try to portray the same dynamic, the drama FL comes off as a naive girl. How can someone that is the supposed brain of a whole AI medical robot be foolish? While the drama FL can be inexperienced in the entrepreneur part of a start up, they completely rob her of her intelligence and contribute a lot of her success to ML. Another review said it perfectly when they wrote that the scriptwriters messed up when they portrayed FL as a poor decision maker and that they minimized the tension between the leads by making ML fall in love with FL in college.

My biggest peeve about the drama though was the big conflict. The novel's author foreshadowed that there would eventually be a problem because ML being slightly (if not too) overpowering/controlling while FL is fiercely independent. Similar to the drama, it was over the fact that ML was basically going to rob FL of the company she built. In the novel however, FL does give ML his just desserts and ML is eventually forced to apologize/grovel a bit. Here, there is basically none of that. ML realizes he messed up and does the whole woe is me act, but there is very little apologizing going on. Eventually the issue went from ML stole her company so that it would benefit his (a one sided betrayal) to the issue being it's an us issue because our personalities don't match. Drama FL leaving the company was fine, but then takes ML back the moment they reunite. They show her accepting ML's decision being the best for the greater good. This in particular rubs me the wrong way because it minimizes FL's acheivements and emotions. It implies that she is still emotionally charged and that her decision to walk away was a poor one - ie. zero change from the beginning of the drama. This doesn't sit right because if I were in her shoes and my company that I struggled to build from day one were stolen from me by the person I trusted the most, I would be upset too. I wouldn't be thinking about the 'greater good' but more about how the person who is supposed to love me the most just betrayed me. The fact that FL accepted this injustice is incongruent with how she reacted when she was sexually harrassed at the beginning.

A small note on the acting. I don't think I like Xu Kai as an actor very much. He tends to play 'cold' ML roles but it just feels like I'm staring at cardboard or stone. He keeps a blank stare most of the time but there's nothing charismatic about him. I just kind of expect something more than just a flat face. Seven did an okay job. There were some moments that were better than others and felt more natural. However, she tends to have this one wide-eyed expression that she applies to multiple different scenarios (ie. when she's dumbfounded, shocked, betrayed, etc.). One of her characteristic is her big eyes which gets her a lot of younger, more naive/pure roles, but here it's an obstacle. Like Xu Kai, she doesn't have a dynamic range of expressions when acting. Every time she pulled out this expression, I was reminded of Shin Se Kyung and the strained face she tends to use when she's run out of facial expressions. I can tell both are trying to broaden their range, but this was a flop.

TLDR: The novel was better. The drama reeks of fake feminism (a term coined by someone on NovelUpdates). While the drama seemingly talks about a strong female lead, her actions do not match up to the expectations. Furthermore, her acheivements are lowkey attributed to the ML and there was very little she actually did. Basically, a Cinderella/Knight in Shining Armor story. Definitely wouldn't watch again.

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Beautiful & Courageous Journey to achieve your Dream with lovable characters

Subjective Gut Rating: 8.25 (rounding up to boost Jdrama average rating LOL)

“My Second Aoharu (Youth)” is the perfect title for this drama. The drama never loses its focus on the courageous journey of Sayako (FL) to achieve her dream to be an architect. Though this dream was 12 years later than anticipated, the drama gives us an uplifting journey of perseverance, hard work and guts. And this is what I like the drama the most. Misfortunes happened to Sayako, but she never drowns herself in self-pity. Instead, she takes the plunge to go back to college and achieve her dream.

The drama has a lot of lovely characters. Sayako was a little too much to handle in the beginning, as I am not a fan of super loud and over-the-top acting (anime-style). But she grows on me and never veers towards the super annoying side. It’s impossible not to be influenced by her positivity and as viewers, I am rooting for her 100%. The house she lives in is also full of friendly and lovable housemates. It would be a dream if you have housemates like that. It’s all fun and games, and helping each other night There’s no animosity or chaos.

The romance is a mixed bag for me, and it’s not because it’s a noona (aka older woman/younger guy) romance, which is not my jam. I actually quite like how the leads meet, develop into good friends before lovers. The chemistry of the leads loses its spark when they first get together (about the ⅔ of the drama). There aren’t enough cute or romantic scenes between the two. Skinship is limited to a couple OK kisses. They also feel more like best friends or siblings, instead of lovers. However, I really like how Taku (ML) understands Sayako. He admires and appreciates her charms (good and bad) and is the only one who keeps on reminding Sayako of her initial goal. Whenever Sayoko is confused and lost regarding her studies or future, Taku is the one to shed some light and clear the fog in front of her. Taku is portrayed as such a mature young adult that the age gap is not as prominent. Sayako often acts very young with her crazy antics as well. Towards the last ⅓ of the drama, decisions need to be made between career/love. Those were the episodes that tug my heartstrings the most. The plot is predictable and some might not like how the drama tackles that, but these episodes are much better than those in the middle of the drama.

Sayako’s family members have very little screen time, but they are fun. I love that they’re so positive despite growing up poor. Sayako’s best friend provides additional comic relief. She has just enough screen time to add some more fun to the drama without getting annoying. The step-parent/child relationship is also interesting and beautiful to see.

I was unclear on a few storylines (or plot holes) and I wasn’t sure if I just missed them. With the rules of the house, how did everyone end up living together again? I thought Kanta had a girlfriend. What happened to her? Did I miss something between Kanta and Sumika? Also, I thought Kanta is a year or two older and should not have graduated with the rest of the guys, am I wrong?

Despite these plot holes (?) and mixed feelings about the main romance, I had a very enjoyable time watching this. I’m glad Sayako’s journey has always been front and center, despite the romance, family, and housemate storylines.


Completed: 9/28/2024 - Review #492

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Wasted Potential

I came here after finishing the last 3 episodes and I'm honestly irate. What was the point of all of that? I can't even tell at this point whether this was supposed to be drama, horror, romance or a comedy. This entire story just felt hasty and confusing.

It had so much potential from the first 2 episodes but then somehow although tagging it a romance the FFL was given more scenes with the SML and there were barely any opportunities for chemistry with the FML because they turned his character into a clueless narcissist. It had such a great premise; dealing with mental health, overcoming trauma, the possibility of unexpected love and yet... it all went down the drain.

The only reason I watched it to the end was because I got caught up with other dramas and felt I should finish it because it showed so much promise, and there was also some good acting. But all I got in return was exasperation . I don't know even know how they managed to make every character so unlikeable but somehow they succeeded. Seriously, there was 0 character development.

At the end of everything, I could barely remember anything I liked about this story and that ending was the icing on the spoilt cake; out of nowhere, anti-climatic and completely unrealistic. You can't convince me that their infatuation and single kiss was enough to make them not see other people for 3 years, and pine for each other even though their issues were never resolved? Let's be all the way for real.

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worth to watch

kaget dikit sama endingnya, udah ngira gopuri nya dia tapi ga nyangka ajaa. keren banget pliss layak untuk ditonton ?? walaupun diawal awal agak kesel sama han jaehee tapi dia baik kokk. overall baguss banget sii, komedi, thiller, roman dapat semua, acting nya juga. ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️

️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️

️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ ️️

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Masterpiece

New genius devil, new skill, new attitude, new way treat patients but continues developing story from the first season.. Everything is perfect ? ? The thrilled, the suspense and the plot twist..

I love how Sera sensei always with Amagi, even its absurd conditions or choices but followed and respect him.. Also how adored Saeki sensei towards Amagi since the beginning, without complicated things surrounded between both of them..

Every pieces comes together at the last two three episodes.. Totally blown my mind.. ^_^ Ninomiya Kazunari as always great great chemistry with Takeuchi Ryoma..

They set same bar like Season 1 bcoz as great as Season 1.. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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Keep Going South

It took me a while to write this because I was angry. This film affected me to the point of wanting to reach through the screen and punch Young. Tae should have been the one with the rock above Young, smashing his skull in. Yes, I was that angry.

Perspective:
It's 2012 and homosexuality is still considered a crime. So it's understandable that Young would be hesitant to continue a relationship with Tae for everyone to know. It's 5 months since Young was discharged and Tae still has some time to complete his service. On his last leave, he visits Young. Young, driving Tae back to compound, tells him coldly, "Don't contact me again." Tae, hurt and grappling with the change between them, decides to drug him and desert. It is revealed through a series of conversations and tussles, that Young had sent a letter telling him that he liked him as a "person". How much more humiliating could he have been? Young was the one who approached Tae. Enticed him and encouraged him to have sex. Young was the one who told him he liked him. Tae believed. He fell deeply in love with him. During the 5 months they were apart, Young is denying his homosexuality, their relationship and has a girlfriend. He says to Tae, "he feels nothing for him, it was the army." Here, he as heartless as they come. The denial, selfishness and cowardice Tae endures, finally rips through him. He has a point to prove. He asks for sex for the last time, in exchange for the letters Young had wrote to him. Sitting on top, Tae rides him and as he senses Young about to ejaculate, he reaches for his small camera and snaps Young's face. He has his proof. He would not have enjoyed it, if he did not feel anything for him. After another hard to watch scene of them fighting in the mud for the camera, Young gives up. After all this, he still chooses to be 'straight'.

This is what causes the anger. Had he taken the time to break things off properly with Tae, rather than discarding him like dirty rubbish, Tae might have had a better chance of handling it. The film ends with Tae
telling Young to get lost. Dancing defiantly and more than a little drunk, with the music glaring, he chooses himself. It's as if he's saying, I know who I am. I will live true to myself. You didn't break me. Young, continues to walk in the opposite direction. Going back to the army would only remind him more of Young and what he thought they shared.

Tae's anguish and emotional ride he took us through was felt. Kim Jae Heung shines. He carries the film. Jeon Shin Hwan had the easier role and I'm still left wanting to see when he would show up to fully deliver. He seems flat against Kim. His true rage only evident when he raises the rock to hit him. Here, Kim steals again, crying in the mud, controlled by the betrayal and pain he feels, he cries out, " Don't treat me like I'm invisible. You had a hard on!"

The short is good and worth a watch. At least once.

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Empowering girl boss storyline

This drama has been sitting in my to-watch list for a few years now, ever since I've gotten into Kdramas really. This is an intense slice-of-line series that I would put on as soon as I finished work as a good de-stresser very fitting into the theme of corporate. I loved that the story highlighted the main flaws with corporate business within the country supporting the themes of work culture, nepotism, bribery, feminism, long working hours, excessive drinking etc. It's quite a handful but I was impressed with the controversial direction in plot that the directors had chosen to take in. Female empowerment was unreal and very inspiring to someone working in the same industry. In my humble opinion, the drama would've been perfect if it wasn't for the super toxic female and male lead relationship: I swear I stopped paying attention to it by the 7th time they'd broken up. In relationships, communication is key, and even though they were truthful and had communicated A LOT, that really didn't stop them through dragging their relationship through the mud. I forgive them because their chemistry was off the charts - well played. Quite an intense watch but addressing many problems within Korean society and making you feel empowered as a female in the end, so definitely put on your list to watch if you want to switch it up a bit.

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The Struggles and Pain of Life

(Minimal spoilers ahead)

This was very, very good.

I’ve been watching kdramas since 2013, when I was a very young person. As I’ve grown and matured I’ve become choosy about the shows I watch. Not just kdramas, any type of show. This was the first shows I’ve watched all the way through in months, to give you an idea of how picky I've become.

Just about everything about Gyeongseong Creature Season 2 was compelling. The commentary about human nature at the core of the story, the action, the CGI, the fluidity between this season and the last. The absolute highlights for me though were the acting and the soundtrack.

I’ve been a fan of Park Seo Joon since I watched him years ago in the movie Chronicles of Evil. If you are a fan, it's worth checking out. It came out in 2015, right around the time he had his breakthrough. Although mostly a side characters, he has one scene where I was truly blown away by the emotional range he displayed. I still sometimes go back and rewatch that scene. His ability to evoke raw, profound emotion is underrated, particularly as his comedic sense and timing is so good. In Gyeongseong Creature, I found myself crying along with him just about every episode. Han So Hee measured up to him well. Her acting didn't pack quite the same punch, but he's got a few more years than her in the industry and in life, and I have no doubt that she is going nowhere but up. I'm looking forward to see how her acting matures in future projects. Also, to be fair to her, Tae Sang/Ho Jae was a more fleshed out character than Chae Ok.

And then the soundtrack! The soundtrack added so much depth. Nothing rips me out of my immersion in a show more than a soundtrack not hitting the right notes. But this season's soundtrack did everything right. The composition's were good enough to conjure emotion on their own, but the music in conjunction with the intense action and emotional acting scenes was everything.

The CGI and the action scenes were fantastic. Enough said. As for the rest of the main cast, Claudia Kim was so creepy as Lady Maeda. She embodied the evilness, selfishness, and cruelty of humanity. She was a fantastic villain. The torture she put Ho Jae and Chae Ok (especially Ho Jae) through because she was bored in her position of power? That is a true villain right there. Bae Hyun Seong as Seung Jo flip-flopped well between being insanely psychopathic and somewhat endearing. Lee Moo Saeng as Captain Kuroko was the only character out of the main cast that fell a little flat to me, but I'll chalk it up to his character being written as emotionless and stoic.

One criticism I have seen of this season is that it is a repeat of the first. This, I think, is actually part of the beauty of the show. At its core, Gyeongseong Creature is about human nature, greed, selfishness, the struggle to survive, and life. And life has a strange way of repeating itself. How many actions do we complete, day after day, that are exactly the same as the day before? Part of the struggle of life is learning how to escape this repetitive process of pain, making the same mistakes, and experiencing the the same betrayals and traumas over and over. So many scenes this season were written to intentionally replicate ones in season 1. I felt for the characters, that even after experiencing such heavy hardship, they have to repeat and experience the same pain over and over, year after year.

Another criticism is that the motives of the big bad went largely unexplained. I don't disagree, but I also don't think it detracts from the drama. The executives of Joenseung Pharmaceutical are undergoing unequivocally inhumane experiments. All we really see of their motives this season is a supposed urgency to advance their research for the sake of preserving the human race. But perhaps it is this vagueness, when juxtaposed with the sheer desperation of the protagonists to survive, that makes the emotional impact of this series so strong. Every day in real life powerful people make decisions that once examined seem truly indecipherable. Meanwhile, "average" people struggle to survive, and are harmed or hindered by those inscrutable decisions.

In conclusion, Gyeongseong Creature Season 2 has it all. Park Seo Joon's acting and the soundtrack were stand-out phenomenal in a close to perfect production. If you are on the fence about watching, just watch it. The seven episodes go by so fast that it's really not going to waste much of your time. And hopefully it will evoke some serious emotion for you like it did for me.

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Not quite as good as the first season, but still enjoyable

First off, are they expecting to make another season? Because if it's not planned for sure, then WHAT was up with that little bonus scene (plus all the unanswered questions).
That aside, I really really enjoyed this season. It scratched a very specific itch I have for superhuman/experimented on heroes, giving me almost exactly what I wanted. However, I do think that the first season had better emotional arcs for the characters and more overall heart throughout.
I think this season could've given us what the first season did if they had a few more episodes. Usually I'm in favor of less episodes because some dramas take way too long to get to the point, but in this case, I would've liked to spend more time with these versions of the characters and to see the different relationships between everyone.
I also think that Lady Maeda should've been introduced sooner. We should've seen more of her with Seungjo so that when he kills her the impact would've been greater. I also think her twisted relationship with Taesang was a missed opportunity. It would've been interesting to see more of them throughout the years and actually see what kind of games she was playing with him. I think this would've given us more of an idea of why she had set up such an elaborate scheme to make Taesang kill Chaeok.
All of that to say, I really liked this season and if another season does happen, I'll be eagerly waiting for it.

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I probably would not recommend this drama. Part of the problem is Deng En Xi's acting. She plays the Female Lead, who is supposed to be a brilliant detective, but there’s something about Deng En Xi’s wide eyes and static face that seem to undercut the supposedly brilliant deductions she makes. She also sometimes comes across as pouty, particularly towards the end. Ding Yu Xi fares better as male lead Shen Du, although his character’s noble idiocy is particularly idiotic in this drama and the resolution is also idiotic, thus coming full circle. The drama trundles along improbably but adequately up until around Episode 34, when the wheels finally come off the train and the drama goes off the rails. I had some hope for Mao Zi Jun’s evil character until he caught the crazy (derailing) train. The costumes are great but everybody’s excessive makeup and hairstyles are distracting.

Was there anything of note about the drama? Well, Ding Yu Xi has one of those faces that glows with an almost ethereal beauty in one scene then looks doughy and pudgy in another. How does he do that.

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Life imitates art and art imitates life

I wasn't very impressed with this. I somehow expected more drama, intrigue, and obsession from this. I think for me this film falls short of executing what is otherwise a very interesting premise. It's partially due to the ambiguity of the narrative but it's not just that. There's also the fact that the film's intrigue is amped up too high because the actual film fails to deliver its meaning at certain points so it's both ambiguous and vague.

Plot: An idol rapper is (for some reason) doing a super moody theater production with a famous theater actor known for his method acting. This whole thing seems convoluted because theater is too prestigious for idol actors like...seriously! But whatever. After initial disinterest and rebellion, the young idol slowly becomes interested in acting as he watches the seasoned actor. He tries to imitate the method acting technique and soon, things get weird!
Btw, the idol coming from a group called "P2S" is so gauche...Korea, please do better. Seriously...

Plot: So I could not understand the narrative from watching the film. It was so vague, choppy, and scattered for me, that I ended up reading the plot summary on Wikipedia in order to figure out what was happening in the film. I have since read some interesting interpretations of this film which partially succeeded in redeeming some aspects for me but for the most part, I could not understand why characters went from one point to another. Basic details of the plot were so convoluted and unnatural that I also failed at suspending my disbelief and spent a good amount of the film distracted by technicalities that made me feel second-hand embarrassment. Like how are they getting away with making a racy theater production about a gay affair?! It's been seven years and Korea can barely accept a TV show with a gay character in it, in the year of 2024! And why is an idol actor doing theater to begin with?! And why is everyone so chill about the bizarre behavior of these men?
That said, it wasn't all bad. The plot has a cyclical nature and that's so interesting. We're thrust in the middle of a script reading with no context of the drama's plot. We slowly figure out that the drama is the final, bloody moments of an affair gone wrong but we have no idea how the characters got there. Then we see the actors going through a process of living as the drama's characters, becoming them in every way. It's a self-fullfilling prophecy. The actors' attempt to embody the characters sets into motion a series of events that eventually come to precede the events of the drama they are supposed to act in. Real life becomes the cause and history of the drama's events and the drama is the cause and catalyst that brings about the incidents happening in real life. It's actually brilliant! There's also a seriously interesting point made about sincerity and bravery and it's completely entangled with the queer representation in the story which makes this an exclusively queer narrative, impossible to recreate with any other type of dynamic and that's so amazing. I love that!
But I didn't really get all this from just watching the film. I only put these together with the help of other people's analysis and reading the summary! So while I think the idea is great, I think the execution of the plot was sloppy.

Acting: and that brings me to the second point. I don't think the acting was great. It was too much and too little in different scenes and only hit the mark occasionally. I know there's supposed to be ambiguity in the story and we're not supposed to be totally sure if the characters are being honest or pretending but for that to be shown, sincerity and insincerity need to be contrasted against each other. Here though, characters are unreliable and vague all the time! I could never grasp a normal behavior standard for them to measure their abnormal behavior against. So that led to more confusion.

Production: I think the main issue of this film is directing. A better director would have directed the actors better, established the world order better, chosen the best shots, and made sure the editing was immaculate. Then this movie could have been a 10. I really think a better direction would have fixed everything. And that's odd because I believe the director wrote the script too so they should have been the perfect candidate to make this. I wonder why it fell short a bit.

Rewatch: Not really. It wasn't that interesting though it wasn't awful. Once was enough.

Overall: If you're curious, just watch it. But it's not a personal recommendation, for me.

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