This review may contain spoilers
Tbh, I was hesitant to watch it at first. I thought it's going to be serious and tedious since it's not like the usual KDramas that I watch. If you're a sucker for romcoms and you've never tried watching other genre of KDramas like "Prison Playbook", don't worry! Your time will definitely not be wasted! I thought 1 hour and 39 mins for 1 episode is too long, but it's not! Episode was not that great tbh but I got hooked at ep 2! I love each of the characters' story. The drama was heartwarming and funny. (SPOILER AHEAD)I love how the story of Kim Je Hyeok and his cellmates ended, except for Hanyang. I was hoping he would start a good life with his lover. He was able to fight his craving for drugs for months while he was in prison. I was so disappointed that not even an hour after he got released, he was doomed once again. But.. I guess what happened to him was kinda realistic.
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Je-Hyeok is a famous baseball player adjusted well in his prison life with the help of his inmates and his bestfriend Joon-Ho who is also a prison officer. But my most favorite character is Han-Yang a.k.a LOONEY grabe na ang tawa ko basta xa nga mga trashtalk hahaha... sometimes his normal and sometimes his druggie which is I loved the most hahaha... If he made you cry in Hi Bye Mama, here you will cry in laughter ???. And Captain Yoo (Jung Hae In) is so hot and his acting here is different from his other dramas that Ive seen. And if you hear the tweeting bird you already know what it means hahaha ????.
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This review may contain spoilers
Bad People don't Always Do Evil Things, Good People doesn't Always Do Kind Things
It's always never easy to make a long review on a quite realistic life show, like this one. This show is very calming and heartwarming. But please note, the genre is prison so sometimes it turns really dark and malicious. This show is about bad people being put together in the same place after doing some bad things. Character development is very strong in this show: some of them are repenting, some are going worse; some deserve it, some has to unfairly experience it.The screenplay is excellent, everything is as pure as life. There are a mix of tears, laugh, love and friendship as your normal day in life, nothing overdramatic or too ecsatic. It is very soothing that the heartwarming moments mostly involve the most evil person such as Cha Min Chul or Lifer. The whole cast, on the other hand, does an oustanding job here. Looks like they do this all effortlessly. The technique of flashbacks is really awesome.
While the screenwriting is quite impressive, it doesn't mean flawless. When the cellmates try to manipulate Je Hyeok's dream, it is later known that both Captain Yoo and him didn't take the sleeping pills. However this has zero impact to the plot, and it's still unknown what happens that night. The ending is quite unfavorable though. Je Hyeok seems to think about other cellmates while he was imprisoned, so I was expecting him to track all of his past prisonmates, but he doesn't. It's also never seen on screen, the moment with Je Hee after Je Hyeok released. The writer also suddenly forgot about Joon Ho and Je Hee relationship in the last episode.
The soundtracks are excellent. Finally, this show is highly recommended for rewatch, especially to someone who are looking for something calming after a hectic day.
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Good Show
I liked this show. Most of the characters were developed excellently, causing one to get attached to them. The show is lighthearted and provides a great laugh but still has parts where it is serious. However, the serious parts are not needlessly serious and are a great addition to the plot overall.In general, I would recommend it.
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And as for Jung Hae In, this guy really just compliments all uniform he puts on. He looked damn good in a cop uniform in "while you were sleeping" and in here he looked damn good in a military uniform as well. Even the prison uniform, haha.
Overall: Great human show. Something different from the typical soap-opera kdrama.
Rewatch: yes.
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This review may contain spoilers
One of must-watch drama! This drama is unique in a way. A mix of satire, humor, and bromance. If you are looking for romantic like the usual K-drama, this is not for you. However, if you are looking for a drama with Humor, Bromance, reality, deep messages, great acting from a lot of experienced and talented actors, and great cinematography, you are looking at the right place.
SPOILER ALERTS:
The story is focused on the baseball player Kim Je Hyeok, who accidentally killed a man who tried to assault his sister. He was sent to the jail where he has a hard time to adjust. Luckily, he met his best friend, Joon Ho who was working as the Jail Guard. With Joon Ho helps, and the Jailbird (a jailmate who has a lot experience being in prison for so many times.), he started to get accustomed to prison life. During his stayed, he met with other jailmates and find other stories about where they are coming from and start to have a brotherhood relationship with them. Not all the jailmate are friendly. Some had tried to take advantages of him and some had assaulted him, to the point where his injury was so severe and his career as a baseball player may come to an end.
AGAIN SPOILER ALERT HIGH
The more eps come to an end, the more interesting the story is. All the characters are very interesting. It is very interesting at the beginning of the series, there was a scene where Je Hyeok was seating on the car and went through a tunnel on his way to his trial and when he came out, he was in the bus on his way to prison. Then at the end of the series, there is the going through tunnel scene again, but this time he went as a free man and on his way to his come back games. The cinematography is just so beautiful and memorable.
The songs are really good. The song Bravo My Life by Eric Nam was a perfect choice for portraying Je Hyeok's life. I also like the fact they are using the classic song, "Time to say Good Bye " in the beginning as a premonition for Je Hyeok new's beginning in prison.
All the characters are great, unique and loveable. It's hard not to love and sympathize with their situation. I also love the fact, that there is a character who is shrewd without any reason at all (Captain Na, I'm talking about you. You remind me of my high school teacher). Although if I can have a complaint, I would like to complain about Looney aka Han Yang ending. I really really want a happy end for him! I was soooo sad but then again. It was actually pretty realistic in a way and bitter. It is true that once you are a drug addict, it will be very very hard to stop your addiction. But I still with a happy ending for him. He is my fav after all.
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Good But Nits to Pick
I wont go into the gory details here, but I will say the meat of the show -- the way friends support one another -- is worh the watch. Most of the plot does take place in jail or in prison, which puts everyone in that bleak, melancholic state of mind, but the main characters work to overcome their environment, mostly with success and mostly thanks to the good nature of the people around them. It is an inspirational message, and the show did give lots of positive vibes without feeling too preachy or sappy.That alone made it the worth the watch for me, but...
Some of the plot is silly. Villains keep doing their bad deeds to an extent that that defies credibility. The show alternates between cartoon violence for comedic effect and gritty violence to create dramatic tensions, which is a bit jarring. I am also pretty skeptical about the closeness of the relationships between guards and prisoners. It feels a bit shallow, not enough to ruin the story but enough to test our patience.
One odd side note is that the baseball bits are done very well. I know someone really did their research when I hear about Steve Blass. The actor also must have a lot of time and effort into learning how to pitch because he looks pretty good on the mound.
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This review may contain spoilers
Finest Prison Slice-Of-Life Drama met all my high expectations and then some.
Went into this with high expectations, since it has super high MDL ratings. Just finished it and must say, I am NOT disappointed. It starts as a story about a famous baseball player that accidentally kills the man who tried to rape his sister and turns into probably the finest Prison Slice-Of-Life Drama made. This is primarily character driven, and the ensemble cast are ALL excellent at portraying guards, inmates and their families. Their stories interweave as they interact and this is all very well done, with nothing feeling forced or strange. Kudos to the scriptwriters for this.The 2 main leads are Park Hae Soo as Star Baseball Pitcher Kim Je Hyuk, and the handsome Jung Kyung Ho as his childhood friend, Lee Joon Ho. Both disappear into their characters. As a viewer, I found it IMPOSSIBLE not to like Je Hyuk - he's clearly protective of his family, is smart enough to "act" dumb and has a "psycho" mode. Joon Ho is the perfect foil, he's smarter but cunning enough to do good things for others by subterfuge, like when he tells the other guards to come watch Je Hyuk pitch so Lieutenant Paeng can change in peace, or when he goes off on a prisoner so the same Lieutenant won't get another demerit. That's a good man right there. Both romances were also done well.
Of the other cellmates, I found myself liking the old gangster Min Chul, the Innocent man in prison Captain Yoo, Kaist the swindler and towards the end I started to love Crony for how his arc turned out, as that last statement he made to Je Hyuk actually reduced me to tears. But NONE of them grew on me like Loony. When he took drugs he was smart. Then he went cold turkey and we laughed and cried as he went through withdrawals. Then, RIGHT After he got released ... argh, I was so angry when that happened both me and the spouse actually said "NOOOOO" at that scene. We were FULLY invested in him and even though what he did was probably more realistic it still hurt, bad. Great acting, and writing.
The guards were also fun - the smarter than expected warden, that obnoxious and hateable rules Chief Na, kind Leutenant Paeng, Prison guard Song the motormouth even the bumbling Dr. Go. Supporting cast also had their own story arcs, I especially was fond of Je Hee (Je Hyuk's sister) and Joon Dol (Joon Ho's brother the stalker level super fan).
The last episode made me cry, too many feelings. I was for the most part very satisfied and how nearly all the various plots wrapped up so there was hope, recovery, friendship and ultimately redemption. This is one of the game-changing Korean dramas that has elevated the genre as a whole and I hope more people see it.
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A nice watch but I wanted more
Overall a nice watch and a lot of mini lessons and touching scenes, but I'm kind of surprised it's rated THAT highly here. I think the beginning was stronger for me, more about JH dealing with his prison situation and who the people around him are, rather than the latter half which had more rotating bad guys and random baseball obstacles. I thought the drama would deal a lot more with morality and be heavier, but overall it seemed pretty light-hearted to me.There are A lot of rotating characters, which makes sense given the prison system, but it just makes it feel like the writers dropped the ball on their stories. One side character that was consistently present throughout the entire series got a terrible ending; I know how unrealistic it can be to give everyone a happy ending when there's such a big cast but it just felt terrible to watch and so unsatisfying :'(
A lowkey star of the show — Paeng! So much depth in his character, from his own backstory to just how he interacts with the inmates. And Minchul was another fave of mine.
Obviously, I loved the bromance and the friendships throughout but I think it could've gone further as well if they handled more serious topics about unjust laws / redemption / life paths / power dynamics, etc.
Anyways! This was a fun one for me and as a fan of the friends-to-lovers trope, the fact that we got two of that was a huge plus.
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The casting was so appropriate, and the main characters portrayed the complex emotions so well! Special love to Lieutenant Paeng, whom I had only seen as scary villain characters before (coughcough, I Hear Your Voice). His acting here made me discover a whole other side of him!
Only reason why I didn't give this a higher score is I'm more into heavier/more intense dramas, but if you're looking for a lighthearted human drama with comedic relief, smart characters, and amazing acting, this is a must-watch :)
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This review may contain spoilers
NASAYO NA ANG LAHAT BY DANIEL PADILLA
This drama has it all: drama, comedy, romance, suspense.Tbh I started watching it few years back but then I don't continue watching it because it's just not my style and the eps are so long and I am regretting it now.
No words can explain how I love this drama so much. It made me laugh and cry like there's no tomorrow. I'm curious what happened to Looney and the others but still I'm satisfied with the ending. This drama also tackles different issues that we are facing.
P.s. My rating for the rewatch value ia low because I don't rewatch dramas he he. Hence, it's definitely worth rewatching ^^
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I do think this show would get in everyone's personal top 10 list. Everything about this drama is just perfect the songs, cast, story.
It made me really sad, in a good way though, I felt like this show was too perfect to end and i wished if it would keep on going forever.
Give it a try and you'll surely won't regret it.
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