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Ok so... this drama had potencial but they just focused on the cliches and ruin what could have been and excellent story.So many open holes left, they made us believe the villan was DANGEROUS but he didn't do NOTHING to save himself, ploted revenge for 20 plus years and at the didn't move a finger or HAD a plan like c'mon.
The romance between the leads was FORCED. The female lead treat him bad always never showed a feling for him but all of the sudden they started dating and the viewers are supposed to shawlow that? The chemistry just wasn't there like. Kim Go Eun acting was good but LMH acting was ehhh always with a straight face no emotion just trying to be cute and mandly.
They just focused on romance with cliches and more cliches alot of crying always for no reason.
Honestly I didn't knew Woo Do Hwa but he was PERFECT only good thing about this drama and they give him nothing at the end.
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This drama has a great casts but the story itself is a soso...Please don't get me wrong just watch it yourself and be ready for the tones of product showcasing hahaha.?✌?
Still, the show is quite a stealer in terms of visual. Thus, my rating for their visual is 10/10.
And let me remind you with the effects, it's totally amazing. BUT THE STORY...again...watch it hahaha✌?
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I'm confused...
I was so excited for this show and it honestly was an incredible disappointment I love a sci-fi and fantasy show like any other nerd but this was the most confusing thing I have ever seen. I want to say that the plot doesn't make logical sense but I'm not confident I understood it enough and I'm not planning to rewatch it to be sure.The things that carried me thought this show was the need for chicken, fancy drinks and a creepy face masks. There were so many sponsored, like most of the plot or the shots in the show were based on sponsors, It felt like I watched a very long
perfume commercial.
There are two thing I can give to this show, the first was the acting...I love the actors and they did a great job with the hot pile of garbage they were given. The second was the cinematography, at least I know were all the sponsor money went.
In conclusion, don't watch it.
P.S OTS!!!!!!
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This review may contain spoilers
This drama did not leave the same impact on me as KES's work Mr. Sunshine . The story was all over the place, full of cliches, and felt unorganized. For the most part, if a drama has a bunch of cliches, cringe scenes, not so great story, as long as it has something to keep my interest, I won't complain much about the flaws. It felt like I was forcing myself to watch this drama and it took me a long time to finish this drama cause good dramas I usually finish in 3 days but this one took me 10 days. I was hoping that maybe that the start of the drama is slow and boring and it will get better in the middle but it wasn't till the last 4 episodes that actually brought back some of my interest.The Characters /Acting & Story (spoilers start here)- Let me start this off by saying that in the main cast I have only seen LMH previous dramas & KGE's Goblin. I'm unfamiliar with the other actors.
This drama had the potential to be better, the idea of the story of a parallel world was a great start. There were just too many things that confused or angered the audience.
For example, the blatant advertising angered a lot, I found some of them funny but annoying at the same time. Most kdramas I watch always show the actors going to Subway or something and I know that it pretty much looks like Subway's sponsoring the drama, but at least time and dialogue are not wasted while trying to advertise the place. This drama had LINES promoting products. I saw LMH mention about 3-4 times about bbq chicken's being the best or another product being the same as his country blah blah. That is so unnecessary & unrelated to the story in a way. That time could have been used to explain more about the plot or have lines relating to the drama.
Now for the confusing part:
This whole parallel universe then third dimension with everything frozen along with time traveling could have been kept straightforward but the way they decided to deliver it throughout the drama was confusing. You get to know this parallel universe exists and it takes a few episodes to find out how it works and why time stops and for how long and then its meaning behind it a few episodes later. And then even more episodes later you find out sorta about why some of them have burning scars on thunder-storming nights. Then near the end you find out they can go back in time and multiple universes. I get they're trying to use the common method of slowly giving you answers which in most dramas I don't mind but it made me bored and only interested in the end to see how it ends. Another thing is they start off the first episode in a scene and in the last episode we're back in that same scene. I didn't mind that either. But then to do the same within episodes is triggering. I would start the next episode wondering if I skipped an episode cause it was not in order. They would randomly start somewhere and go back to connecting to that scene later on in the episode or next episode. And some scenes were never gone back to clarify.
WDH made his parts enjoyable to watch whether he's Eun Sup or Yeong. He was able to perfectly act out two different characters of the parallel world. I wished the directors/writers gave him more scenes/screen time. He's one of the reasons why I gave this drama a higher rating than most average reviews. He pretty much carried the drama by bringing "life" into his characters so I overlooked the fact that not much is known about these two characters. I wished they'd show some romance between him and KYJ instead. I'm sure they would have a better story and pull it off than the main couple.
As for JEC, I can't even say anything about her acting. She had minimal scenes with almost no impact. We know so little about her character in the drama as well. All we know is she's an ambitious person with a hunger for power and she's willing to do anything to reach her goals. The writers make us assume that she's like this because she wants to climb up in the social status ranking because she has this inferiority complex that she started out at the bottom with nothing. That's a very typical reason and at first she's shown out to be a strong female character but turns out its the men in the story (her husband, advisor, etc) that helped her to get that far in the social ladder. Then they show how Lee Lim also wanted to use her and it seems like she just gets outsmarted by every guy in the story. They imply that she cares for her mother, but there were no scenes to feel that mother-daughter relationship to begin with. And we know nothing about her doppelganger character at all.
KKN's character was somewhat better. I could feel his affection with his mother & Tae eul. Although there are some things I do question about the writing of his character. The villain was a flat character. Not going to go into depth in the review it will be too many spoilers already.
As for the main couple everyone had this criticism regarding their chemistry. I feel like they would have better chemistry but because of the crappy writing and the flow of things it wasn't pulled off well. I think this couple would have been better if the writing/story was adjusted a bit. But my critique is regarding their characters. I will admit watching KGE in Goblin made me question if it was her acting that's bad or the role given to her. In this drama, she did a lot better. It's true she didn't pull off the two characters differently in the way WDH did. Luna's way of talking and Tae eul was pretty much the same. One just had different tastes in clothing and hair than the other. I also hate how this drama portray its women (complete opposite from Mr. Sunshine in that sense at well). It's already tiring to see every media whether Western or Eastern portray women like this. They show Tae eul as a police detective with a black belt. She's admitted at times to be scared, but have to be brave and she wasn't afraid to get to the bottom of something or hunt/run into somewhat dangerous criminals. But in that one scene where she gets stabbed, they show her not using her skills as an officer and black belt user. As an officer, I'm sure you will be aware of what dangerous situation you're in and you have to be on watch. They just went from showing a strong female to a weak female in a situation like that. I would get if she's outnumbered. But in another scene she was strong enough to get herself away in an outnumbered situation as well. I also felt like she would play a major role in the drama and contribute to helping Lee Gon out, but they even take that away from her. She's basically shown in investigations and as the love interest of the male lead. I don't mind seeing a FL in love with the ML but at least showcase her strengths often and make her more useful in the story.
Overall, the production was high quality and music/OST's were amazing, but there were countless flaws in the story. If you can overlook these flaws in the story, and watch for minimal entertainment and some action then you'll be fine. Although for me this only got interesting near the end when things were going to be tied up and supposedly explained clearly. This drama makes you end up crafting theories for multiple things.
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Love the acting - plot a let down
I am a huge fan of the cast and waited for forever it seems like for Lee Minn Ho's next show after his military service. And the creator of Goblin!!! Very excited and the leading cast had me setting the alarm bell on Netflix and binge-watching the entire season. The series has a strong start, the beginning plot was great but then it started to go downhill in the middle. It seemed so rushed and the storyline lost its luster and became predictable and honestly, I almost didn't finish it. I was disappointed with the ending but even though it was not as good as I had anticipated if you are a fan of great acting and wonderful production it is worth watching. Just don't get your hopes too high on this one.Was this review helpful to you?
TKEM starts off with a strong footing. It reels you in with really good world building of the Kingdom of Corea (which is one of the major things I liked about this drama), and the mysterious manpasikjeok that allows it’s holder to travel parallel worlds.
The first few episodes were a bit slow in terms of the major plot but seemed rushed with the romantic relationship of the leads. I personally didn’t have that much problem with how the romance developed but I guess I can see where it might seem rushed. The romance time frame was a bit badly executed and would have been better if their time together and apart was more implied. The story also expects the viewer to know some basic concepts on time travel / parallel worlds which allows the story to focus more on the major plot. It is not that hard to understand what was going on as almost everything comes into place at the end. The story really picks up by episode 11 (may also be due to the change of directors) and I rarely had a hard time in enjoying the whole series. Perhaps the minor issue I can think of in the script is how the product placements were given that much dialogue. It would’ve been better for most PPL to have been just on display or have the characters use them. The PPL didn’t really bother me as I just thought of it as a comedic relief.
When it comes to production and technicalities, TKEM does not fall short. The costumes were amazing and I appreciated that it fits the color grading of the drama. The cinematography was good but camera angles in some scenes of dialogue could’ve been improved. Camera angles play a major part on how the delivery of dialogues will be interpreted by the viewers. There were times when emotional scenes could’ve been shot more closely because they felt so far off you can’t feel the emotions that well even if the actors portrayed it well. There were also times in the earlier episodes when banters felt a bit awkward because of lack of sound effects that were thankfully fixed in later episodes. The OST was really fitting and the instrumentals were no joke (just take a listen to My Love And... —an orchestral take on My Love by Gummy and it is amazing).
The characters in TKEM had good chemistry. Some side characters could’ve been removed to make way for more of the plot but it was still a delight to witness them interact with the leads. The absolute scene stealer in this drama is Eun Sup / Jo Yeong played by the wonderful Woo Do Hwan. Every scene he’s in, he acts it out in full. Kim Go Eun and Lee Min Ho also portrayed their characters well but might have suffered through the seemingly premature development of their romance which made their characters a bit flat to some. I also loved the strong personality of Tae Eul that complimented Lee Gon. As previously mentioned, time was not that implied in the drama which made every reunion of the leads translate to Tae Eul being “too weepy” and the exact opposite of her established characteristic (which I do not agree with). Another issue I have concerning character development was of Prime Minister Goo. Her character seemed pointless. She could’ve been more utilized, really. I personally had no major issues in understanding the motive of the main villain but some viewers may not spot it clearly when it was show vaguely.
Overall, TKEM has flaws that can be overlooked when getting into it. I personally enjoyed this drama and never skipped a scene (which is saying something as I always skim and skip through dramas I’m watching). It needs to be watched continuously and with an open mind. It’s far from the best but if you are looking for a grand fantasy drama that requires a little bit attention to detail, this is for you :)
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Can Lee Min Ho be more handsome!!??
Lee Min Ho was an handsome king and that is a fact...he was born for this role but.... Story was SHIT ....I get what writer wanted to say, but screenplay was to raw, forced, predictable and characters were not good developed. Kim Go Eun and Lee Min Ho are not good match at all... there is no chemistry between those two! Kim Go Eun is great actresses but she couldn't do much better since screenplay was Shit! Her character was rude and without empathy to the point that I hated that girl. Why king fell in love stayed mistery to the end.... End of story is a pure shit in a much higher level they stayed together forever in different universums.... Crap! All in all cast was good , OST and production but in the end when story is bed only bitter taste stay in your mouth.Was this review helpful to you?
Twitter fans and I watched a completely different TKEM
Poor LMH! I’m a fan but this isn’t the right comeback.Love Team: Dislike. No chemistry. Not matching from looks standpoint. King is fully smitten at first sight and we’ve no idea why. (The ID is too trivial)
Male lead: Dislike despite being LMH fan. ML had unrealistic reactions to everything. Eg overly calm when transported to parallel world, expounding nonsense and calm in gun fight.
Female lead: Dislike. FL was too weepy from halfway and became Katie Waitey in the end (the label on Kate Middleton when she didn’t really pursue serious career and was just waiting for Prince William).
Evil uncle: Dislike. He could’ve been a worthy antagonist but was utterly powerless and futile. All these years of planning - it’s not just his plan didn’t succeed, his plan didn’t make sense
Prime Minister - Dislike. It’s not that I felt she was evil. ButThere was no point for her role. True, we had some cute scenes on ep16. But ep1-15, there was a lack of coherence and sense of purpose for her role. It didn’t move the plot at all.
Supporting cast: good to very good. They were put to good use. Woo Do Hwan the bodyguard served a good purpose and bromance with himself was fun to watch, Shin Jae the police officer acting was good, Luna served good purpose (even if I didn’t like her as I disliked the actress), the court lady, old prince uncle were good plot insertions that painted a richer world.
Writing . terrible terrible terrible. There is nothing good I can say about the writing.
Directing - overall ok as scenes were pleasant to watch. But 2 big sins - (a) excessive use of slow-mo which backfired. (b) lack of tensions in crucial parts
Music - it’s ok. Not a personal favorite but I can’t criticize the music.
Cinematography- scenes were pleasant to watch but some cheesy insertions (the red balloon, slo-mo photo destruction). But overall good.
Cannot recommend to anyone except drama newbies.
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Disappointing
Story :The scenario and all the characters were very badly organized, I hardly understood anything :’) Nothing was logical and nothing was explained. The concept is good but it has not been exploited well enough...
Acting :
Kim Go Eun was very good, she's a charismatic actress.
Lee Minho was also good of course but we all know that he's not versatile, his facial expressions were the same as usual so i was a bit disappointed by his acting.
Woo Do Hwan was amazing, the two characters he played are very different and he pulled that off really well.
I discovered Kim Kyung Nam with this drama, he play very well and I had a second lead syndrom T-T
Overall :
Despite all that, there is action, suspense and humor so I watched everything pretty quickly and I had a good time, surely the reason why I put this note while this drama deserves less objectively.
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bad casting
kim go eun and lee min ho have ZERO CHEMISTRY. the acting was really bad cause the characters dont suit them especially the FL. she was better on cheese in the trap and thats it pretty much. she gives that dumb submissive aura to be a detective. the romance feels so awkward and forced. the story was ok and the show couldve been better if they just focused on the story instead of the cringey romanceWas this review helpful to you?
