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I can find a lot of flaws within this drama, I wouldn't have to look very hard but I'm willing to overlook these for the sake of how much I enjoyed Ma Yi Deum and the initial premise of the story. I was hooked on the first episode cause it felt like I was watching the Korean version of Law and Order: SVU. I enjoyed the episodes that focused on a different individual each episode because it did well at showcasing that many sexual crimes are about power. For a majority of the earlier episodes, I found myself yelling at the screen saying that 'Men Are Trash'...
I was not a big fan of the overarching storyline only because it just felt moot point whenever they caught him for something in the earlier episodes because we knew it wouldn't have amounted to anything and then it made me feel annoyed because at the end the solutions seems so easy and efficient that it was like "why wasn't this done episodes ago." I will say though, it was kind of satisfying but also not with the way the overarching storyline ended. I'm equal parts satisfied and dissatisfied, probably because I kinda wanted something a little more sinister, but I mean it went with the theme of the show so good for it.
I would not recommend this drama if you're looking for something that is romance heavy which if we're honest was kind of a waste of Hyun-min and Ryeo-won's chemistry. The romance was hinted at, pushed forward, fell off, creeped back, ignored then put back again. Honestly there was nothing that convinced me of why they even fell for each other but like i said the chemistry was lit so I'm not even mad.
Side characters? Didn't care about them. Matter of fact i didn't care about anyone that wasn't Ma Yi Deum and just wanted her to get her happy ending. I was very confused because I felt like the last few minutes of the finale made it seem like these were people we've been invested in and i'm like huh? I literally knew more about Gap Soo's secretary than the other members of the prosecution team.
So the story was okay in some aspect. Acting was superb. OST was beautiful to an extent (really enjoyed Solji's voice and the pump up one). Would I rewatch this? Definitely. I would probably skip a few episodes or at least fast forward scenes that don't feature Ma Yi Deum.
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But I like to make exceptions on some hidden gems like this one. (My only written review is about the family drama "Lee Soon Shin is the Best/You're the Best, Lee Soon Shin" with IU and Jo Jung Suk) I don't claim that these 2 dramas are the best or perfect, but they hold their own and has more to offer once you started watching it. Simply put, I'd like to promote this kind of dramas that were underrated or were overshadowed by more popular dramas.
The Flower in Prison may not be your typical epic historical saga, but It's beautiful and satisfying, nonetheless. For me, TFIP is about REVELATION!... so please bear with me while I explain my point through my simple understanding.
STORY:
First off, this is a sageuk (historical) and makjang (melodrama) type of drama, so you can't compare it's narrative and pacing to mini series with 16 - 20 episodes. But that said, It has few draggy moments but tolerable for a 51 episodes long show. The story is simple with all the usual ingredients of a historical show....but though it's a political drama, most of the events were focused on the life of the leads being ordinary people and their struggles to fight injustice and persecution. The main story focuses on our female lead, born and raised in the prison (Jeonokseo) and her journey from prison damo (tea server, translated as warden) to a spy, then merchant...and so on...and in the process, gained friends and uncovered secrets and tragedies of her birth that lead to vengeance and triumphs.
When I said a REVELATION, I was talking about the casts of this show. The cast is awesome, specially the support.... Most of the support are famous veteran actors, but the few new ones held their own against the veterans. You'll be amazed on how the support casts delivered their characters in such a natural yet memorable performances.
CASTS:
This is my first time watching Jin Se Yeon and Go Soo as leads in a drama. Although they both performed well in most parts, they were actually awkward as couples. They don't have enough chemistry to pull out the romance. But since the drama itself is about vengeance and struggles, you won't really need to focus on their romance to continue with the show. Go Soo for the male lead for me was just average.
My first revelation is Jin Se Yeon! OMG!!! I was so amazed on her fighting skills! You'd know that she really trained hard for this role. We've seen female actors do fight scenes, but never as swift, accurate and as cool as she does. (except maybe for Ha Ji Won)..... it's like watching a female Jason Bourne!!! Most of the main fights were really planned and executed well by the directors and actors. I've seen her short romcom drama, "High End Crush" and she's completely different in both dramas. I hope to see her career grow more and becomes the next Ha Ji Won that can do both romcoms and action dramas.
The other revelations are the main support, the actors playing the powerful villain couples Yoon Won Hyung (Jung Joon Ho) and Jung Nan Jung (Park Joo Mi).... and Seo Ha Joon as King MyeongJong.
Jung Joon Ho and Park Joo Mi are veteran actors so it's not surprising to see their good performances... but not every good actors (or veterans) can really fit well and do justice to their given roles/characters. Jung Joon Ho's portrayal of Yoon Won Hyung is scary yet funny at the same time. I don't know if the characterization is historically correct, but the actor's performance will leave you hating, fearing and loving YWH. I believe the actor earned acting awards in this role.
Same with Park Joo Mi... I can safely say that her performance as Jung Nan Jung is the core that keeps me glued in this drama. She's the the perfect villain that you'll love to hate, and the actress gave us a soul crashing performance. I haven't seen her drama "Ladies of the Palace" where same characters are portrayed in the same period as TFIP, but I guess it helped Park Joo Mi a lot in portraying Jung Nan Jung. I love watching great antagonists as much as the protagonists, because I believe they bring out more of the leads character if portrayed well.... just like Lady Mi Shil in "Queen Seon Duk".
And then, there is Seo Ha Joon as the King. This is my first time seeing the actor, and am really amazed with his range of acting! You can see him being awkward, goofy, confused...then serious, dignified and commanding!.... all in a natural and subtle way. You can't help but to love his character, and empathize with him, specially in the heartbreaking scenes. His "Best New Actor" award for this drama is really well deserved!! I hope he gets more great roles.
The rest of the support casts are also remarkable, even the goofy ones in the prison office. They all gave the drama the comic reliefs and plot continuations it needed.
Overall, this drama is a good one and I'm proud to recommend this to Historical Drama lovers. It may not be compared to other dramas from MBC like "Empress Ki" , "Horse Doctor", "Moon Embracing the Sun" and the likes... but definitely worth the watch. Not sure if others wold re-watch, but I've already seen this twice.
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Along with the development of the lead characters, the supporting characters have fairly unique and memorable character arcs. Aside from the contract relationship premise, Because This is My First Life also tries to tackle the three modern day females with different perspectives setup. This drama does this very well. The roles of Woo Su Ji and Yang Ho Rang are able to share in some very poignant moments throughout the drama. I enjoyed how the portrayal of these female characters provided a commentary of the modern day woman and the challenges that she faces from day to day.
Personally, this was one of my favorite dramas this year. It was just pure perfection from start to end. It astutely created characters that had special circumstances, but were still entirely relatable. A feat not many dramas can aptly pull-off. I can’t recommend this one enough!
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I love that I cried along with the characters. The cast was beautiful and great!
I wouldn't watch if you don't get deep into meanings behind the shows. If you're just watching to watch then skip it. If you actually analyze whats going on you'll see the deeper meaning behind everything that happens.
My only dislike was the ending, I didn't hate it but I didn't love it either. It was a bit too confusing because it jumps around. Although it is clear what happens, I would prefer if the scenes didn't skip too much during the last 3 minutes. (I'm not talking about the memories part either.)
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Summary sounds too cliched?
Still wondering if you would try this out?
The deciding factor starts with where you are currently in your life. Slice of life is an understatement for this drama. In my opinion, this drama was specially made for people who are emotionally in connect with themselves and see the world crudely as it really is. The comedy kicks in right from the start and it makes you wonder if it really is for a light watch but then the strange characters walk in, the characters that you see almost regularly and wonder how are they still functioning in this mess of the society within their own bubbles?
Genre : Rom-com, Slice of Life
Story : The story starts with the happy but unfortunate and tough life of a writer who wants little too less from life. Raised in a partriach society all she wants is a place to rest and thats when she finds the eccentric man with his strange house and realises this could be what she was looking for. For a person who wants nothing but peace and quiet and may be a place where she belongs, this drama is particularly those who have lived through the irony of this world. What makes this drama special is the plenty of characters that make you laugh and see the ruthless world as is. The girls who are standing by each other even though they might be in a good or bad situations and the men who are willing to go through loops of fire to keep their girls happy is a refreshing yet has a strangely patriarch edge to them which is quite common in Asian dramas but what makes you happy is the fact that there is good in every bad and i would advice you to watch it for atleast 4 episodes to actually decide if you can be in love with the strange lonely man in his house.
Actors : Jung So Min is one of the most talented actors out there and she proves it with excellence why so. Her portayel of the character was similar to that of "Father is Strange" but somehow it seems natural.
This is my first drama with Lee Min Ki and even though he looks a little weird, i am going to try and watch more of his drama to see him act because this was an amazing ride. At some point i was convinced he might be one of those talking robots with 3 facial expressions.
Lee Som plays a head strong warrior princess kind of character that makes you challenge the society. KIm MIn Suk is a sweet lucky engineer and the struggle is so real from an engineers point of view.
I would also like to comment on the OSTs (which i rarely do) because they're so perfect for each charcater. I couldnt stop myself from humming along.
Will i watch it again? Probably if i cant find any perfect rom-com for binge watching on girls night.
Will recommend it to Anyone? Ha Ha I already have.
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As for the acting, I initially watched this show for Yoon Hyun Min since I had seen some of his previous works but I stayed for Jung Ryeo Won. This actress was so strong at portraying Ma Yi Deum that I cannot think of another actress playing her role. The looks, all the way down to the personality matched perfectly to what I had imagined when I read the synopsis. The characters were all balanced with each other, especially Yeo Jin Wook was the calm to Ma Yi Deum’s storm. Jun Kwang Ryul’s villain acting was so perfect that I hated him since the minute he walked in. His expressions were so good and so convincing that honestly, he should be awarded an Oscar.
Overall, this show was really great to watch and the cases were all super unique in their own way. I loved how halfway through the show, they finally started to connect the dots on Cho Gap Soo’s case and how they slowly revealed all the details. Even though there is no romance tag on this website, there is a hint of romance in the drama and it was very cute. I’m glad Yi Deum and Jin Wook got some screentime with each other. It was the perfect amount to balance all the craziness going on in the show. The ending wasn’t rushed and it was nice to see everything ending peacefully.
I would 100% recommend this show to all users. If you have time and are bored, definitely give this show a try because it was worth every minute.
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Personally, I was so disappointed with this ending that I was forced to make my first review to save others. Honestly, this drama had some quotable moments before shit hit the fan towards the end.
I enjoyed:
-BEST OTS of 2017 better than Goblin and DOTS put together.
-I love the consistency of the GOOD acting skills from ALL the cast members even the supporting,
-Filming cuts and narrating from both leading allowing the audience to gain different perspectives. And increased your understanding of the characters actions and emotions (I think it humanised a lot of characters that appeared selfish).
-the beginning with very addicting because it seemed to have an adult tone with relative beautifully written plots.
-At first I appreciated the balance between the cheesy couple moments with the reflective tone.
-this drama had a lot of potential as it approached adult relationships with characters responding close (comparing to with general kdrama standards) to realistic reactions.
-Every couple had me in my feelings with the chemistry in the relationship being natural in some and others realistically awkwardly progressing (again believable pacing ).
-This was the first drama that EMPOWERED me to venture outside me shallow preferences.
-I was grateful for REAL kisses and make-out scenes.
-No last minute kiss scenes (waiting for 525600 minutes).
-The writers didn't complicate nor prolong meet ques or plot-lines (to an extent).
-I never skipped because the dialogue and the pace of every episode was synced.
-interesting story lines.
-The filming was on POINT! Especially the shots and angles because they added to the actors performances, made certain scenes more intense and kept it simple avoiding distracting the viewers (camera focus was clear as iPhone users).
-I would suggest this drama for those seeking a light hearted drama filler.
Disliked:
-I took it too seriously and I got more invested as it aired.
-When shit hit the fan and the last script scenes went with it.
-Went from unique drama to basic kdrama.
-The writer thought it was a laugh 'ticking' me with unnecessary story-lines that just ended up back square one.
-Made me root for hopelessness!
-Sacrificed a LOT of the casts character's development and defining decides for certain character's personal growth. (.e.g. Yoon Ji Ho's traits went from Lovely Sam soon Kim Sam Soon to Goong- Shin Chaekyung).
-Unexplained character possessions of all the main cast- near the end had them making out of character decisions.
-The supporting cast vanished (deleted my bae #HotnessInPink).
-Limited episodes made some characters seem neglected because we didn't have enough time to explore their backgrounds, resulting in certain relationships only scratching the surface.
-Cliche BS Rom-con moral of the story ''love conqueror all''.
-Stops addressing the topic ''what happens to couples when love is not enough''.
-Decided to be messy and take notes from 'How I met your mother' with a CERTAIN couple.
-Questionable introduced plots could have added depth to story-lines but were abandoned or water-down.
-Contains contradictory messages comparing them to previous dialogues and the narratives points.
No, I will not re-watch this kdrama and I'm done with tvN thanks for another misleading journey towards a filler fluffy ending.
VIEWER DISCLAIMER: Please do not proceed to complete this drama in the event you are still suffering from PTSD, which were triggered by reply 1988, Cheese in the Trap or Another Miss Oh.
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Over all the story telling was good, there are some big names in this that you should recognized the second they come on screen.
I enjoyed it and I hope you do too.
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It was one of my highest anticipated dramas of 2017 and I was expecting that first episode in and I'd be ready to give it a solid 10. However, as I watched the series, one by one all my hopes came crashing down.
The drama's worst flaw was its lack of an original plot. The fact that it was extremely badly written with a truck load of plot-holes and stroppy pacing, didn't help the case. From the first episode to the last, I guessed everything that was going to happen. It was such cliché, same old bs that at one point, I was even correctly predicting the character's dialogues before they spoke them. I saw plot-twists coming from miles ahead. I knew exactly what the main leads were going to do and how they were going to do it. Trust me, it ain't a nice feeling when you're ten steps ahead of your main leads.
Some people say that a show is only as good as its antagonists and that is one another point where Witch Court loses out on. From the daily episodic rapists to the main antagonist, all the villains were less than mediocre and slight variations of one another. It's like they were trying way too hard to be evil but unfortunately, ended up being cheesy instead.
You know how when kids do something bad, like steal a cookie and you ask them about it and they're all innocent smiles to your face but the moment you turn your back, they start smirking mischievously, triumphant that they managed to ''fool'' you? That's exactly how the bad guys were in this show.
The cringey smiles and 'evil laughs' they gave behind our main lead's back just added to their extra personalities and not in a good way. I mean how many times before have we seen a story about a corrupt Mayor in power being the villain, acting all nice and kind infront of the camera? Too many times to count. Bring me something new, please.
All the side characters were poorly constructed, barely making any contribution to the plot.
At first, I was very intrigued by our male lead. He seemed like a breath of fresh air, unlike the typical macho alpha assholes. He was supposed to be this smart, gentlemanly guy who actually gave our heroine the upperhand. How amazing, right? Not really.
Even though he is made out to be different from all the other drama male leads, the show still shoves him into the 'cool tall neighborhood oppa' stereotype. I'm always amazed when everyday prosecutors adopt ninja fighting skills out of nowhere. But those things were the least of his problems, because as the show progressed he became increasingly annoying. I love my upright handsome guys who're adamant to uphold the law but, Prosecutor Yeo was just all talk and no show. He had the classic 'dumb but heroic' vibe throughout. Way too self-righteous and equipped with dramatic declarations, he didn't do any of the actual work and soon became a pain in the ass I could really do without.
Even though the show is tagged 'romance' there was nothing of that sort here. The main couple had no chemistry and they just seemed like regular colleagues on good terms.
Surprisingly, the show did its flashbacks fairly well but like I mentioned before, the pacing was shit. Things that needed to be drawn out and be dramatic were so anti-climactic and things that needed to be rushed on were dragged out.
Some things that happened were so questionable because they were far out of the sphere of logic. Most of the times, our prosecutors won the cases because of convenient plot devices instead of actual smarts.
So seeing all these flaws, it's quite just that I rate it low right? But why then, does it pain me so much to do so? Well the answer is: Ma Yi Deum.
The heroine of this show was undeniably the saving grace. She was the only thing unique about the otherwise run-of-the-mill drama. Watching her antics was absolute bliss. Jung Ryeo Won brought forth a character that was extremely real and relatable. Often, I felt like she was my soul sister considering how many similarities I had with her. This is also why she was so easy to connect with.
I loved the fact that she went through life staying true to herself and not giving a fuck about what people thought. Even though, at times, she acted like she was all over the place, in reality she was a very composed and strong woman. Her face remained impassive in the worst of situations and she always had some clever tricks up her sleeve. Her bright smile, dark red lipstick and bad hair cases gave me so much life.
She was the one making the show, for every second she went off-screen the show turned utterly boring. Ma Yi Deum was so lovable and a character that I'll always remember. This is the reason why, even though I have a lot of problems with this show I still reccomend it so that other people can witness Prosecutor Ma's quirky weirdness and like me, be thoroughly entertained by it too.
The fact that the show revolved around rape cases is something I found to be commendable. Rape is a taboo topic and people often hesitate talking about it so openly and this show (while not perfectly) still managed to bring some fairly brutal cases on the forefront and that effort needs to be acknowledged.
The OST doesn't really stand out but the instrumental that plays at Ma Yi Deum's badass moments was really good.
I hope who ever reads this considers this review a good thing, instead of being let down because this will lower your expectations and then when you do end up watching the show you'll be pleasantly surprised.
While this is not a drama you can go in with the thought that your high hopes will be met, it is definitely a good time-pass.
Enjoy!
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The drama was super easy and light to watch. I decided to watch it while working on one of my art pieces, since I understand Cantonese and thus the drama did not require me to read subtitles.
It was ultimately about Ma Gwai and the discovery of his identity and role in the world. Shek Gamdong guided his way, and allowed him to see his importance and impact on other people's lives. Although it is a light-hearted drama to watch, there were scenes (especially the ones about how much his birth parents and adoptive mother loves him) that pulled on my heartstrings and had me in tears. I do wish that they had more action and interactions with the supernatural side of the story, but unfortunately it didn't and I felt that that made the story lack a little bit of spice. A lot of the more supernatural activities happened towards the end of the drama with the fighting and such, but don't get me wrong, it was funny and still managed to keep me interested in the story just fine.
Going off on a tangent, Kenneth Ma (plays Ma Gwai) has really gotten older. I wouldn't say this is one of his super-duper best dramas, so I would recommend checking out his other ones too! He is actually a very good actor and super funny. Also, Ram Chiang's hair in the drama...hahaha!!
Overall, I recommend watching it if you would like to binge on something light-hearted and funny.
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I laughed and cried along with the characters throughout the drama. Love how it was realistic and how relatable it was.
Ji Ho was definitely my favorite character. She stole the entire show. There's never been a female lead so realistic like Ji Ho before. I love how straightforward she is with her feelings. She never gave up on Se Hee even though he was always trying to draw a line between them. Jung So Mi did an amazing job portraying the emotions out her character. It felt so raw that I too felt her emotions as the story moved along.
Lee Min Ki also did a great job portraying Se Hee too. Through Se Hee's robotic personality, Min Ki was able to convey his emotions perfectly. Everyone else also did a great job portraying their characters.
The ost for this drama is so good! My favorites are Marriage by Moon Moon and Can't go by Ben. It went very well with the show.
I recommend this to anyone!
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