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Don’t Watch for the Plot, Just Seo In Guk
The Smile Has Left Your Eyes is not a show, in my opinion, that you can watch for the plot because the writing is extremely weak. The characters made little to no sense as the writers couldn’t seem to be consistent about any of their personalities.The absolute weakest part of this show was the brother. His character made no sense and did the craziest things you’ve ever seen, with somehow little to no reaction from the other characters. His relationship with Seo In Guk’s character changes drastically from scene to scene with no explanation. His relationship with his sister also felt very off. Her characterization was pretty weak and only Jung So-min’s fantastic acting saved it. Her character’s reactions to some of the things that her brother did felt like a reaction that no human would ever have. It felt so bizarre that it completely took me out of the story.
With all of the weak points aside, this is Seo In-guk’s drama. I didn’t know much of him before this and it made me a fan. His character is dark and manipulative, but also magnetic. His performance was so expressive; I could’ve watched him smirk all day. It was easy to understand how Jung So-min’s character was pulled into his orbit. The chemistry between the two of them was what kept me watching. I’ve never seen Jung So-min not have great chemistry with someone in a drama before, but hers with Seo In-guk might be the best. Their characters had great physical chemistry but they also depicted intimacy and connection in a beautiful way as well.
I think this show makes little to no sense in terms of the characters and the story. In order to enjoy it, I think you have to watch it for the vibes. It’s a dark, melancholy show with these deeply flawed characters that are inexplicably drawn to each other. If that’s what you’re looking for, it’s still worth watching, I’d just say to set aside your expectations for the writing.
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This review may contain spoilers
WARNINGIf you are the kind of those people who like happy and comic dramas
Definitely you should avoid this one
I've phobia from tragic ends, Although I am one of this kind, I took the risk inspite of knowing that they will die together
And sure I hated the end
The writer was masterful in torturing the ML in every way sometimes with no need
The plot was good
The romance was nice
The Story was solid
But.... over dose sulk and depression
Specially the end
As if the writer hated the idea that the ML wanted to be good person, so he punished him for this idea
As if the message behind this drama was
No place for those who want to be good
What I disliked about this drama
1. The ML face expression was extremely dead
He is not a good actor for me
2. What sung woong did at episode 11 when he stabbed the ML was extremely annoying and with no reason except the writer want more sadness and torturing the ML in every way
3. Definitely the end,
This is just a drama so why should I watch such a toxic end like this, he made their relationship impossible to be continued in every way,
So the only logical end was to make them die together
4. Jang se ran .. that B**** should definitely die 🤬🤬
But why the ML should be the one who killed her
These kinds should be exterminated not the ML
I was so happy for the first time when someone got killed
5. The twist at the end
that the FL was his sister was the beginning that the end was going to be catastrophic
for me it was good till the last 2 episodes
So if I'm going to rewatch it I'll stop till the scene when she hugged him and said I accept you the way you are
You are who you are
End of drama for me 😂
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And this how Seo Inguk entered my top 5
Plot? peakEyes acting? peak
Actors chemistry? peak
Emotional distress after finishing it? peak
I had no expectations at first, not being familiar with the actors and not being hyped by the plot. Well it was one of these dramas that let you wondering how are you gonna find such a gem after it.
Honestly I watched it long ago so my review can't do it justice, but years later it remains as one of the most impactfull drama for me and one of the few that made me cry alongside Move to heaven, Moon lovers, My Dearest, 2521, My country and When life gives you tangerines!
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The Title should have been:The heart haas left your body
I have another review to write but let me get this one out of the way while my pulse is still high cos thats what this drama will give you.An emotional rollercoaster and a high blood pressure.I dont care what anyone say, if you want to see how the past traumas can ruin innocent people's lives.
I dont have much to say about the story cos you have to watch to make your own judgement but it will leave you with anger and bitterness towards adults and their decisions at a split of a second and lives are ruined forever.
Seo In Guk has officially entered in the my guiness book of record as an actor whi shoulders strong enough to carry a character that is demonised and hated by everyone..A devil they say but what kind of devil is he?Is He really?
THis is the first drama where i watched the ending before starting it so i knew it was going to wreck me but decided to watch it like a book.I enjoyed the journey and burried the end at the back of my head and assume it wont happen.Call it voluntery amnesia.
I was scared to watch this project but am glad I did because out of it i learnt life lessons that i will pass on to my off-springs;Cure past traumas before they kill you,and tell everything no matter how painfull it is
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A sad but value lesson
I don't know yet how to describe my feelings about this drama, but I'll start by saying that this was the saddest drama that I watched until now. I already know about the ending (no spoilers here), but I'm talking about the entire process and plot.Starting with the performance of Seo In Guk, this is my second place in my top five of his dramas. His performance as Kim Moo Young/Kang Seon Ho is totally heartbreaking and I felt like crying every time that I saw him on the screen. The character was incredibly deep and make us think about how life can be tough to some people and how trauma could change everything in your life for good if you don't find out some kind of fortune in your path. With Yoo Jin Kang, the story goes the other way. I caught myself thinking many times who was the pitful one, and in which position I should prefer being if was me, but I really couldn't decide. Yoo Jin Kang had scars as Moo Young did (literally), and she was repressed by the wall that she built around her emotions as the same as him. Jung So Min is amazing, and I already say here that I love her. I really hope that she can shine in dramaland beautifully. The ahjussi Yoo Jin Gook was the most difficult part to process in this show. I begin loving him, and then I started to hate him, but at the end of it all, I finally comprehend him. He is the third traumatized in the main plot, and he let his trauma overcome the sense, confounding his fear with his love for Jin Kang. Park Sung Woong did an incredible job being cute and terrifying at the same time.
This is definitely not a drama that will make you happy and light, but will push you through a deep analysis of life and about stereotypes. The saddest thing to me was to think that this is real life in most part of cases. People who are hunted by its ghosts and aren't able to deal with it without struggling like crazy. It's a big lesson and a big warning.
This is a drama with many triggers, so certify to watch if you are feeling good with yourself and in a good moment. For me, definitely a chosen one (★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★) and definitely a drama that will be printed in my mind for a long time.
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Kim Moo Yeong!
18/01/2024Not a typical rom com cliched hashed out drama and am so thankful for that!
Kim Moo Yeong:
I really like the character of Kim Moo Yeong regardless of how flawed he is - maybe not his thrill of danger and living on the edge, but because he doesn't care about anything or anyone and calls a spade a spade. He also sees things that others don't and can sum a person up in a matter of moments, but in seeing what he sees he tends to use it as a part of his game playing and pranks to humour his dark sociopathic side. He is intriguing. However, he would have been much better had he been able to fight, do martial arts - something to fit the bad side of his character.
I think everyone should be more like him - as in not caring or getting so emotionally connected to people or situations because that in itself is pure freedom with no guilt to be had whatsoever.
It is a good series so far (on episode 10), but I really don't see the build up or development between the ML and FL - not really. Am also still guessing what happened in the past that connects them in some way or what really happened as to why he is the way he is - I think I've guessed, but am not going to give any spoilers.
I am aware that this has a really sad ending which is why I have put it off for well over a year
Yoo Jin Kang:
I really like Jung So Min in Alchemy of Souls and she is fine in this except her character is far too hot and cold. For example, moping and upset when she doesn't know where KMY is and then when he appears gives him the cold shoulder and tells him they should never see each other again. She does this more often than not
I don't know what he sees in her!!!
He is so simple and straight forward yet she is not easy to please and continuosly over complicates things.
For me a realistic rapport isn't really there so far as nothing about her is so extraordinary that it would blind sight a person like him - especially as he is supposed to be emotionally detached, lacking remorse with no feelings and is unhinged in some ways. It seems somewhat "forced" .... so what if she has a scar, was in a house fire and is an orphan like him, well - there are 5 million of her out there somewhere.
The writers could have done a better job to make me believe that something about her really caught his attention - her character and scar just aren't enough.
It might have been better had she given him an ultimatum and played mind games so as to teach him a lesson or two. Something more creative than a burn scar and few interactive glances to set the tone of a strong bonded connection with no development.
Just adding:
I watched a few more episodes and feel it is wrong for Yoo Jin Kang to be interested in her best friend's "so called love interest" especially after what Kim Moo Yeong put in to action just to teach the CEO a lesson - not to mention the CEO's sister who matches KMJ to a tee except she comes from money and he doesn't.
Between the brother of YJK and the sister of the CEO the future is looking rather bleak for KMJ.
Some lessons can never be undone!
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Surprisingly good drama!
The male lead looks like the anime character Gaara from Naruto. Oddly, there is something that I find attractive about his appearance in this drama. I don't know if I find the male lead character or the actor attractive; I am hoping it's the actor, as the character is a sociopath! To be transparent when I saw the second female lead actress (not the character) in the first episode, I was hesitant to continue to watch this drama because I wasn't fond of her performance in another drama (My Golden Life) that I watched with her in it. However, she did a much better job in this drama than the other drama. This drama is really good, and I get excited after watching each episode. This drama is totally binge-watch-worthy! The only con is the pace of episode 15, I feel like 3 major things happened within one episode and it felt rushed. This drama should have been 17 or 18 episodes, instead of 16. The last episode was fantastic. I don't think a drama has to have a happy ending in order for it to be good. I believe the ending should make sense (realism), and the ending to this drama made 100% sense. The male lead actor did a fantastic job acting in this drama. I actually think he's the best male actor in South Korea.I found out about this drama via the recommendation list for the drama Nevertheless.
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Stirs emotions deeply !!
This is the first melodrama that i liked watching and dint get annoyed or bored at !I am so not into melodramas , and I started this one without knowing that its a melodrama ! That being said I found the basic story very week and unacceptable , as it has many main unanswered questions , but still somehow the twists-turns of events and unfolding of relationships is done so aptly that even though you know the truth it still stirs your emotions every time !!
Basic questions like why dint the brother want them together , is kept a secret til almost the end of the series , when you might think that he must have done something wrong to her ! But then in the end you realise that he got that burn trying to save her and the brother knows it and saw it , and still wishes to separate them ???? Why would he stab him , when he was just sorry towards him ??? He would give Yoori a chance to redeem herself , but just hate moo-yeong ?? Also few things from the first murder and seong-ahs accident aren't very clear .... I just waited till the end to thing to unfold , but few things were just left out .
It was a good watch , with little to no annoying characters , all felt right at their places except oppa :D !! Enjoy :)
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the lead charecters seem unrealisticly obssessed with each other
I haven't finished the series so i don't know if things improve drastically in the later half of the series but up until i saw, the characters seem to live in their own bubble world, while stuff around them is falling apart. This is expected in a romance based light-hearted series, but the topics this show covers(abandonment, effects of crime, anti-social behavior), i expected an intense romance with at least a bit of realism. The characters just seemed unreasonable to me and weren't quiet in the moment. P.S: i absolutely fan-girl over booth Seo In Guk and Jung So Min, and hence found their acting phenomenal.Was this review helpful to you?
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outstanding acting, classic drama story
I can imagine this drama is not to everyones liking as , for a K-drama, it is rather dark and at some points uncomfortable.Although it has some very minor flaws I find it rather outstanding all in all
+ Seo In-Guk is simply fantastic in this role. I didn't know him before and after having watched some dramas for the past two years I think this was the first male lead who completely convinced me to be that person he portrays. When I was watching this I really believed this very person would exist like this, and I could not imagine him to be any way different. There are other actors I like and they are good, but in their roles I always see the real person they are, when you watch interviews with them.
Here it was very authentic. The fact his character was difficult and at times mean and cold made it even more realistic for me, as in general, people tend to be like this. They have their personal troubles and deficites, they can be mean and sometimes, not always, they might have a good side too. But in the end, they are caught in their own ways and can't get out of their own skin and troubles. And that often leads into disaster, for themselves and if one gets close to them, for others too. That is what is shown here for me and that makes it believable. Uncomfortable, dark, but believable.
+Jung So-Min was also convincing in her role. She portrayed very well the inner struggles you might have in such situation, the insecurities you might have from hard times in your childhood, the way things went ok for her with being adopted by her 'brother', but how her past still creeps back into her life and drwas her to Kim Moo-young. This drams is also good at showing certain rules of behaviour and manners that one has to know about concerning Korea. Some criticised that Yoo Jin-Kang 'betrayed' her 'best friend' Baek Seung-Ah, but was Seung-Ah really her best friend? I don't think so. It is not explained fully how long these two women have known each other but it is clear that Jin-Kang is older than Seoung-Ah, yet, probably because of her considered poor and bad family background Jin-Kang is almost submissive in her behaviour towards Seoung-Ah - which is quite exceptional given an obvious age difference between the two. If Seoung-Ah wasn't filthy rich and Jin-Kang had a better background, it would normally be the other way around. And Seoung-Ah is using this fact in a gullibly naive way all the time. Kim Moo-young even points it out (and rightly so) when he tells Jin-Kang that not even after Seoung-Ahs mother hit Jin-Kang in public and offended her deeply (and referrs to exactly that poor seen background of hers), Seoung-Ah doesn't even apologise in her next text message but just once again wants to use Jin-Kang as her servant and messenger. Is that Jin-Kangs best friend? I wouldn't think so. It's more a realtionship of power and inferiority as a given by the strong Korean conventions. Was Seoung-Ah a victim? Yes, certainly, a victim of her greedy mother and to some extent of Moo-Young, but she was not a victim of Jin-Kang in my opinion.
I found the almost creepy but strong attraction between Jin-Kang and Moo-Young very understandable, and I could relate to it personally having had such relatioinship myself too in the past. I fully understood for many reasons why those two couldn't get away from each other and also why it was in some way doomed.
+ I think this is still the only drama where the communication between the leads is realistic, as in how it really happens between people who are attracted to each other but come from difficult backgrounds. There is not love at first sight but a strong attraction. There is lots of banter and even anger and frustration - but always still strong attraction that is even growing despite the anger. The conversations these two have in the restaurant scenes and particularly at the end of episode 6 in front of Moo-Young's house? That was a scene so realistic I even held my breath the whole time, eyes wide open because I have been in such situation myself, pretty much exactly like shown here, with even a at least similar talk that left me both attracted and angry and confused and frustrated. Most K-drama couple conversations are dreamy and cute and how everyone would love them to happen but they never really do. This here, that felt real to me many times during many episodes.
+I loved the mood and the small things in the drama. The way Kim Moo-Youngs place looked, the light, the mood. His feelings of desperation, resignation, anger and still the need to somehow connect and try to understand at least some other person. That does not justify all his behaviours of course, but I found it credible. And again, when I was younger I would have fallen exactly for this type too, I would probably even have stood in front of that door of his like Jin-Kang in the end, crying in desperation and beg him to open that door, because I didn't understand his Jekyll & Hyde actions after a steady emotional up and down. But it is exactly like certain real relationships are, and how they end unhappy in one or the other way. And how they are filling you up with an almost hysterical happiness and emotions you wouldn't have considered possible for you, and at the same time they are like energetic black holes exhausting you to an incredible level.
- if I would want to criticise anything then it would firstly be that some circumstances are rather unlikely. The idea that these two kids where from Haesan, one of them got lost somewhere and all of them live almost aroud the corner in a megacity like Seoul more than 20 years later and meet like that - it is very unlikely.
- the scene with the origin of the burn marks wasn't done in a good way. The kids were fully clothed and if that water would have hit them, they would have had some minor burns, but never such large scars for the rest of their lives.
-the whole stabbing scene and the follow-up was a little unbelievable . So Yoo Jin-Kook loses his police cool and while he later says he felt sorry for Moo-Young, he suddenly decided to stab him on a public road. Jin-Kook confesses to his boss who...does nothing actually, doesn't accept his resignation. Then his little sister just acts rather normal after shortly screaming at her brother? Not believable. Her reaction at the first moment was right, she said he must be crazy, and she was scared then and angry especially because she is very much in love with Moo-Young. The next thing would certainly have been that Jin-Kang leaves that house. Jin-Kang would have been afraid of her own brother after his rather surprising and totally crazy actions. I would have wished that whole part would have been done differently or they would have left it out. It would have made much more sense to me if Jin-Kook would have gotten into a rage and then into a fight with Moo-Young, if he had beaten him up maybe. But that stabbing with murder intentions was an unfitting twist here.
Summary: despite these flaws this drama touched me deeply, maybe really because I could relate to the main characters and this kind of relationship so personally.
I will certainly rewatch it at later as this kind of human darkness draws me in sometimes.
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I don't know why, but I fell in love with this show right in the first 5min. I loved the idea of a guy who has always been cold due to an incident and just uses everyone developing into someone with feelings who has the desire to protect what he cares for. The story overall was beautiful as it was slow-paced but not slow enough where you would drop it as it provoked thought and you felt the emotion alongside the characters.
The cast was a good decision as Seo Kang Joon played the role perfectly as the anti-hero in the story as it is always nice to take a break from the nice heroic ML. Jung So Min also did good job alongside him as she played her role well but Seo Kang Joon still overall stood out to me even though the rest of the cast was good.
The music was a nice touch to it as it made you feel in the moment with perfect timing. The music was a positive aspect in the plot as I can't help but cry when I hear the music sometimes.
I rewatched this show twice and every time it was good still filling you with emotion and the story as you never get bored watching this show.
The ending of the show was beautiful in my opinion as I love the type of endings that are associated with these shows and this will always be one of my top shows.
Overall: 9.5/10
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But I follow dramas of Seo In Guk and Jung So Min, and have been waiting for a good kdrama to be released. It was hard to resist watching this, although the plot seemed heavy and the Japanese version was quite popular as well.
The plot in itself is intriguing at best, and paired with fittingly cast actors, their expressions of mixed emotions that need to be delivered as per the storyline, kept me waiting for the episode each week!
I never watched mysteries that haven't released fully yet, (because, annoying right!), However its hard not to look forward to what happens each day in Jin Kang's (female lead) and Moo Young's ( male lead) lives.
You end up getting so hooked to their lives and roles, you end up wondering what Moo Young's pace is, why he does what he does. It keeps you guessing and the chemistry between the two is unmistakably electric. But it's kindof push/pull and makes you want to punch the rest that comes in their ways, but what stands between the two is more than just people ; it's unforgotten lives and a misguided fate. Paths of some shouldnot have crossed; unfortunately cursed destinies.
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