Memories of the Alhambra

Refreshing story, intriguing, exciting, thrilling and unpredictable plot with a LAME ending.
As much as I loved this show and how unpredictable and crazy the game was, as much as I detested the writer’s failure in terms of Characters in the last 3 episodes.
Si Jo, the creator of the game, returning from his dungeon and being utterly useless, tongue-tied and frightened like a kitten the whole time without answering any questions, surprisingly enough Hee Jo never felt that her brother is responsible for the dreadful events following the introduction of this game, and the death of the most beloved character “City Hunter”
If a person I love or from my family was involved in creating a dangerous thing, I would feel guilty and apologetic to others while trying not to blame him while he is down and low. I found this to be quite strange and utterly unacceptable, especially that they all treated him like the victim even though Jin Woo suffered all the losses and negative outcomes of this game. Se Joo didn’t even propose the possibility of Jin Woo hiding till the last 20 minutes of the show, this is ridiculous, I think he is the WORST character in the show. He offered no explanations, he had no clue what was going on, he didn’t shed a light on the creation of the game or how he met Marco, most importantly doesn’t seem like he understands where the awful glitch started. Also, if it’s meant to be a 'game, how come he was sure Jin Woo is dead because Emma deleted him? Isn’t this a game? And why did he become a virus in the first place!
Secretary Seo is the real star of this show, he had a fun, endearing personality and portrayed being NCP in a haunting, heart-breaking manner, I can’t forget the blank expression on his face every time he appears an ally.
The soundtrack is ALL lame, a part of “Memories of Alhambra “piece played by Emma and when Dr. Cha appears with thunder and rain, other than that the music failed the show.
Episode 15 was pointless, Episode 16 was trying to touch down on reality and I think it did quite well until the annoying Park Shin Hye went running to find Jin Woo where he was claimed to be. However, one question was always ringing in my head: Why does she always jump into a cab when she has her own car?

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Upon watching this it felt eerily familiar to w, because its the same writer, i think director and music is by the same people too but i could be wrong, its like watching w, its suspenseful until the end

Spoiler alert : avoid reading from this point on if u havent watched


there are plot holes like why wasnt marcos bug taken care of, how the game still plays without the lens, why didnt they just shut the game and closed all servers instead, how he was able to run a marathon when he was limping since early episodes


Spoilers end: dont read the paragraph above if u havent watched

Music was great, keeps you pumped
Story was interesting enough to keep you going
Hyun bin is the reason to watch this, he acts good
Too bad only early episodes was funny, it got more serious as it went on
Rewatch value is alright

Overall i enjoyed the ride it was fun and i wanted more but knew the story had to end there

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plot is good but the only female protagonist is basically useless, great

-hey, how about we create an amazing plot with a little bit of romance to spice it up? -Yes, but let's not show how they start liking each other and also, give she girl as little participation on the story as possible.
That's how I imagine them writing this part of the script. Okay so, honestly I loved the story, it was so creative and well structured, it really got me hooked. The idea and the adventure/action part was really well done, you can clearly see the it was one of their priorities. BUT the only thing that bothered me like crazy was Jung Hee Joo / Emma's role in the drama, I mean she is literally on the poster o f the series but her charecter was completly useless. I couldn't ignore the way the only woman on the main cast was portrayed, Park Shin Hye is amazing actress and neither the scrip or the director did any justice. I felt that she was only there to make the hero look stronger and so that he could make a "sacrifice" to look like an even better person.
About their "romance", it was poorly written and awfully structured, it was so rushed like one moment they hate eachother and the next they are kissing. It didn't make any sense and it was totally useless to the plot, just because it's a man and a woman doesn't mean they have to kiss at some point (heteronormativity still going strong right). Also, Hee Joo had no personality or charecter development, it's like they just shoved her in the story and forgot that she was her until hey need a kiss scene. Jung Hee Joo is supposed to look all determined and and hardworking, but barelly has any involviment in the story and when she appears, she is always being saved by him. Women don't need to be saved, female protagonists are just as strong as the male protagonists.

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Recommending

I highly recommend this drama! Month after you finish the last episode you will probably consider watching it for a second time.

PLOT:
Interesting story with good balance between dynamic, informational and drama moments. In this drama we see character development, inner persona dilemma and interesting life choices.

MUSIC:
The OST is really good. After the 3rd episode you will be huming the main track.

ACTING:
Hyun Bin - Hyun Bin did really amazing job! There is one scene that totally below my mind. By my opinion he did 90% of the drama.
Park Shin Hye - I really hoped that she will change my bad opinion of her, but it didn't work. Really weak cry and emotional scenes but she did good with the fear scenes.

SPECIAL EFFECTS AND ECTION:
Really good job, not the best but 8 from 10

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cool

omg it was soo cool, the whole concept was intriguing. every action scenes were thrilling and I was looking forward to the next episode, curious on what will happen and wanting to know how the story unfold. it was unique, the storyline. I literally was in awe-struck even though I'm not a gamers I loveee it. the first 12 episodes I don't want to miss anything, I feel like I'm going to miss something. but towards the end, it was getting so slow, the business part thingy was meh and I wish there were more twists and thrill at the last few episode. for the romance, it was kinda unnecessary but I do like them anyways. acting was superb and cg was great.

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Less Magical, More Gritty

As my title stated, this show is kind of not what I expected. Netflix made this show seem like a magical love story set in the lovely city of Grenada, Spain. I got to say, not really the case. This was sci-fi, a thriller, and a thriller that was surprisingly gritty and dark. I have mixed feelings on this show. Let me first say that I do not regret watching this show, was it was a good show, and it definitely gets an A+ when it comes to originality. This show blends augmented reality with reality, and the rules are very blurred. That is not to say that there are plot holes, but some of the phenomena make you wonder how that happened (because like logic), and you overlook the first few, but there ends up being a lot. I managed to overlook them, as it was just a small distraction anyway. Visually speaking, this show was great. The graphics of the game along with the lovely city of Grenada has to be mentioned, and does make the show more interesting to watch. This show was also not boring, there was lots of action and plot twists, especially in the beginning. Besides some questionable logic, my main critiques are that the love plotline did not work and lots of the show was kind of...depressing. This was surprisingly gritty and dark as I have mentioned, and lots of this show is watching the protagonist slowly hit rock bottom. Not necessarily a bad thing, just not expected. The overall ending and final episodes had some great moments that were fun to watch and gripping, but the final scene did not make sense to me, but I just went with it.
I know I had a lot of critiques, and this show has its imperfections, but the overall concept, visuals, and plotline were good. I did mostly enjoy watching this, and I am happy that I did watch it, so no regrets here.

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This one's a mindblower! I was hooked from the beginning to the end! Romance element is weak imho, but the overall story and presentation MORE than makes up for it. Bit of gore and a fair bit of gun violence, but you're not going to be seeing body parts hanging off or anything extreme like that, no worse than i've seen in Joseon dramas.

If you're familiar with Augmented Reality mobile games like Ingress or Pokemon Go then some basic elements of this are going to be familiar, the idea of playing a game out in the real world, where real world locations are important - you need to go to real world locations and complete tasks to play. Alhambra takes this several steps further - merge those ideas with Call of Duty and other current video games and you start to see where things could end up.

If you watch this with a tech mind you're going to start wondering how sword fighting works that causes reaction to your arms, if all you're wearing is contact lenses. There are many other questions you'll ask yourself. Stop. Sit back. Just relax and enjoy the drama, you're thinking too hard. :)

Video FX is outstanding, the way the video game world is layered onto the real world is seamless, just as i'd expect it to be if the game were for real. Simple actions like how the player changes or stores weapons and how things like the armory and so forth are done - perfectly executed. I absolutely and firmly believe that enthusiastic gamers and/or real game designers were involved in the AR game elements because nothing jarred at all (and I say that as a game designer myself).

The story itself is a twisty rollercoaster that goes all over the place, in both Spain and Korea. Nothing is obvious, and the way the story jumps around is at first confusing but once you get the hang of it, it actually makes for an interesting approach. You'll see a sequence of things happen e.g. a,b,c,d, and then later you'll see what actually happened between c and d - or some additional facts will be played out between c and d that totally changes the way you'll understand the meaning of what happens in d. None of this is in a random way either, as the viewer you become guilty of taking a few facts and drawing a conclusion involving additional facts that you made up out of inference or the way something was presented.

Park Shin Hye was great in this, one of my favourite dramas with her in it. After seeing Doctors recently with her where I didn't really buy her performance (or her character) - but this was superb.

Hyun Bin - well this guy just can't put a foot wrong, can he. Exactly the right actor for the job.

The only weakness for something that was just such an epic drama to watch, was the ending. I mean, I get it and I liked where they went (though not how they did it as it feels incomplete), but I can absolutely see why so many people didn't, it's just a tad too subtle imho. There are other reviews which go into detail on explaining it so I won't add to that, but suffice to say if the ending seems "eh?!" to you - read them AFTER you watch and all should become clear.

Overall thought this one was brilliant. Rewatch is a tough choice ONLY because I didn't enjoy the ending as much as I was hoping.

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PLOT
The plot description of this drama hasn't been done justice on a lot of sites. It's actually a lot more interesting than they make it seem, so here is my version of it:

After getting a strange call about a game that would change the entire world of technology, The co-founder of an investment company, Yoo Jin Woo, travels to Granada, Spain in an attempt to meet the creator and buy the game before his rival and former best friend, Hyeong Seok gets to it.
Forced to stay at a run down guest house, in wait of the creator, Se Ju, Jin Woo plays the new game in an attempt to learn more about it. But as he levels up, things are changing for the worse and Se Ju still hasn't showed up.

REVIEW
The story was well built and stuck to it's logic until the end. I feel like they made this fictional world as realistic as they could while adding a dimension to it as they jump between time lines. Although you might feel like you've seen the same scene many times before, every time it's presented to you, a new clue has been added to it. So this is definitely not a lazy watch. It's a drama that deserves all your attention while watching it.

The theme of the drama is artistic and dark while carefully mixing in the charms of Spain and the lightness of supporting characters. There isn't too much blood being shown apart from the average amount that usually comes out of a body when you stab it, shoot it, or piece it but other than that, they kept it realistic.

There is a love story amongst all the fighting and backstabbing, that didn't steal too much focus from what this drama actually is about. I found the romance to be comfortable, well paced and cute in a way that isn't like a oily, cheesy pizza.

The characters where all memorable in their own way and they all had a reason for existing. The grandmother brings comfort and nostalgia to the audience of Koreans with grandmothers like her, in the nightmare like atmosphere.

The little sister is the embodiment of cupid as the main function of her dialogue is to get the romance going between the two main characters as she also lightens the mood.

The "adopted" best friend of the female lead is the logical side of things. He is there to act on the logic that most people would be thinking in the circumstances which balances out with the female lead who completely lives off of fairy dust.

I wish the female lead was less passive and actually had a chance to join in on the dangers of this game. Having a female character fight along side the male lead would have been so refreshing but sadly, she's mostly just crying or fueling the male leads ego while having a pretty bad Spanish accent. She did her best though.

The male lead is quite a cliché character with his hot temper and rude comments, carrying such a hard and cold facade, but the writers did give him a very humane and good side as well so I ended up falling for him at the end anyway.

Of course there are more characters in this drama, that I didn't mention, like:
The old man you would like to strangle with a shoe lace.
The fluffy, cute, innocent, man baby who doesn't get what he deserves.
The famous person who stirs the pot and so on...

So if you like games and the thought of games becoming a reality. Or you're a fan of crime and investigation, you might actually like this drama. Bringing you the feels and many reasons to cry, this might be one of the best dramas this year.

ENJOY!!!

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Ignore the plot holes and enjoy the (AR) ride

verall, this was an enjoyable ride but only after I started questioning what was going on. We'll come to that later...
Let's start with the positives: the cinematography, locations, and CGI are all beautiful. The first half of the drama is shot in Alhambra in Spain which looks stunning. Park Shin-Hye's Spanish is also fluent and really helps the integration of her family into their Spanish home.

The CGI is also really well done and well-integrated into the surroundings and with the characters.
You can check out the synopsis elsewhere but there are issues over how the AR tech works (SPOILER ALERT) - like how do they physically feel the effects of the AR weapons; how do they feel pain, how is powered - you know, the logical things.

But... ignore that and it becomes an enjoyable rollercoaster of a who-done-it adventure, and you end up forgiving it a lot of things. The acting is good - if you've only seen Hyun Bin in CLOY then it's weird seeing him be such a jerk at the start but his character develops due to the wonderful Park Shin-Hye and her family. The supporting cast is good too - with the evil Professor Cha (you'll remember him from Mr Sunshine - has he ever played a nice character?) and Hee Ju's little sister who is a great actress. EXO stans will love seeing ChanYeol as Se-Ju as the mysterious creator of the game.

All in all, I like it in spite of the plot holes. Give it a go.

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Your Ally has arrived...

Gaming since Atari (telling my age, lol). I know what it's like to build mods and play online with great friends. Alhambra's gaming schematics aren't your conventional couch or desk gaming experience. The all-AR base is physical.

In "Memories of the Alhambra", Yoo Woo plays Yoo Jin-Woo, a CEO who visits Granada, Spain, on a business trip and important mission. At Jung Woo's (Park Shin-Hye) hostel, he meets Jung Se-Joo's character, as he experiences a mysterious virtual augmented reality game.

Jung Joo's brother Se Joo is missing, and Yoo Woo's mission is to find him. Initially unaware of the brothers' relationship with Jung Woo, he hides most of his plans. It is soon apparent what "magic" he was speaking of when the game world is activated. In the process, we learn more about Se Joo's programming and his dilemma, and Yoo Woo's marital problems. A betrayal of Yoo Woo's friend CEO Cha Suk raises the stakes in Yoo Woo's mission and complicates his life even further. The only real impatience I felt from that point on came after Cha Suk made his 37th enemy appearance. (sarcasm)

In the middle episodes of "Alhambra," the story was a bit confusing. Mostly following the game. What was the truth behind the deaths? Were only a few people singled out? Is Yoo Woo really crazy? It became clearer as the episodes progressed.

Regarding the love interest, I wouldn't describe this as a romance series. Yoo Woo and Jung Joo's love provided a change of tone and stakes to the story. In my opinion, it wasn't significant, but it was sufficient in light of the story involving her brother and how much she liked Yoo Woo. Slowly, the romance developed. The relationship between the two leads took about 10 episodes to develop after a very rocky start. While she cried a lot, Park Shin Hye's doe eyes won me over.
Even with newly found love, the ML seemed to struggle with inner happiness.

"Memories of Alhambra" had good cinematography. The visual effects in the game were not groundbreaking, but they were different. As far as capturing the beauty of Granada and Barcelona by showcasing their iconic landmarks and architecture. Certain areas felt a little controlled to me. Permits for film can offer a lot, but only so much, I guess.
"Alhambra" had a good cast overall. Especially liked Jung Joo's little sister Min Joo. In most of her scenes, she played a low-key tone relief role. There was something annoying about her brother. As well as Jung Joo's male family friend.

While I did not resonate with some minor issues in "Memories of The Alhambra", the series was overall good. Other viewers may have a better or worse understanding. This is just my experience.

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Compelling from start to finish

I watched this drama because I was captivated by Park Shin Hye's performance in "The Heirs." In both dramas, her eyes tell the story in a way that sets her talent apart even in a field rich with talented leading women. That, coupled with her "girl next door" charm and looks, plus that undefinable Q factor, makes her compelling in a way that sneaks up on you.

To avoid spoilers, I won't say much about the ending except that I prefer that final episodes do a little more overt work toward the happy ever after. Instead, the ending felt like the set up to a Season 2 that didn't happen. Still, the writer gave us enough to know all was well and and that love and creative programming would win.

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