The couple. The angst. The thrill.
The writer did an amazing job with the pacing and story at first. After I finished episode 4, I had no idea how the story could be stretched into 16 episodes because each episode, each scene, was packed and had a purpose. The characters are very realistic and three-dimensional. The female lead is especially well written. She's a true independent and strong woman rather than just having a snarky attitude and yelling "YAAAA" all the time. Her internal struggle was captured excellently. Overall, the story and writing are consistent throughout. Except, some people (including me) noticed that the vibe was "off" in episodes 12 & 13 (this may be because the first 11 episodes were of such high caliber and episode 11 was a sort-of climax). Episodes 14 & 15 picked up a bit and were good by kdrama standards, but nothing like the first 11 episodes. The ending, episode 16, may be controversial depending on your taste.**When I first finished episode 16, I thought it was an alright ending, a little disappointing, but light years better than most dramas. Then a week went by and I HATED the ending. Now, I think it's the most perfect ending I've ever seen and rewatching the last two minutes always makes me cry. Even if you don't end up appreciating the ending, it won't ruin the first 15 episodes.**
The cast is PERFECT. The leads are amazing together, they have so much chemistry as a married couple. Lee Joon Gi was phenomenal, and I loved Moon Chae Won. Just the fact that the two are acting together makes Flower of Evil a must-watch. The child actor who plays their kid daughter is so so adorable. The villain gave me the chills. The way he BREATHES makes me shudder. Watch it for the villain.
The OST hits different. The songs really capture the unique relationship that is portrayed in the drama between the leads, which makes them unforgettable. The OSTs are also used appropriately and sparingly for maximum feels. I sometimes wish there were more songs in the soundtrack like a traditional kdrama, but then I realize that Flower of Evil was never meant to be a regular kdrama. It's perfect.
At first, I was let down because Flower of Evil wasn't more of a romance (umm, because LEE JOON GI. He is soooo swoony-worthy), but after watching, it becomes clear that it's much more than that. It's a mature depiction of love between a married couple who have to overcome a multitude of challenges so that they can love each other in peace. Even if they aren't together in every scene, it's because they are fighting to be together, for the life that they have created. It's beautiful. Go watch it.
Was this review helpful to you?
MASTERPIECE
What a masterpiece this drama is. The character developments shown in this drama is so amazing. I cried, I laughed and I even got goosebumps while watching this drama. Usually, there are fewer dramas with morals, and this drama has clearly shown us the reality check with such great morals. I love this drama for what it is. The plot twist and storyline are sooooooo great. And each character that was being portrayed was too good. The character Hyun Su was portrayed so realistically and its character development is beyond perfection. I reallyyyyy loved the aesthetics used in this drama. I highly recommend this drama not because it is good or something(ofc it is) but this drama should be watched by everyone. The one and only drama I watched so far with zero loopholes. Perfection!So I gave my ratings everything 10 because I think this drama is beyond perfections. I never heard of any story like this and I want deep and meaningful dramas like this. The story is very meaningful so I give it a 10. It taught me many lessons about life.
I gave the Acting 10 because they portrayed their character really well. I can feel their emotions and realistic of their actings. I gave the music 10 because the music vibe fits perfectly with everything in this drama. The music makes the drama even better. When the music was played, I can feel the warmth of it. For rewatch value, I gave it a 10 because I still can't get over the FL and ML's chemistry. I have rewatched this and I don't know about anyone but I still get suspicious, laugh, and cry over again. Overall, I don't think I will find any better drama than this. Again, this drama is beyond perfection!
Was this review helpful to you?
It was so thrilling and suspenseful at first and then all of a sudden it just felt like a romantic melodrama. It was honestly so thrilling to watch till episode 5 and even after that till episode 9 it was mostly good but then it started going downhill from that point onwards.
So yeah the reason why I don't love this drama is cause of the story. It started out well and then was getting progressively ridiculous and cheesy...and gosh there was just way too much going on. Too many coincidences and overly dramatic. And lol don't get me started on the last episode...gosh why did they have to add in that overly used trope?! It was too cliched and frankly painful to watch.
Buuuut I must say I really liked the cast in this drama. Every single actor was pretty good, especially Lee Joon Gi.❤
In fact, the best thing about this drama was LJG. Like holy cow can we talk about how brilliant his acting was?...honestly, despite all the problems I had with the story, the reason why I was able to watch it till the very end and actually even enjoy it somewhat overall was cause of his outstanding performance.❤❤ Moon Chae Won too was pretty good though at times her acting wasn't very convincing. However, the chemistry between her character and LJG's character was so good!♡
And I love love love the ending theme!!♡♡
I don't regret watching this cause I got to see an awesome performance by LJG but this drama is certainly overrated imo..
Was this review helpful to you?
An Unpopular Opinion
So I decided to watch this drama after seeing all the raving reviews and most importantly the interesting premise. The idea of the show is very intriguing but the drama failed to execute the plotline.The acting and filming were really well done. The relationships displayed between the characters were interesting but there was a lot of unrealism for a thriller for me personally. The number of coincidences to drive the plotline forward made the show predictable and when it was not predictable the characters displayed what felt like a trainwreck of decisions. For a crime thriller, the drama lacked finesse and story building that makes a viewer engaged in the drama. This drama is more focused on the human element of behaviour. That was all fine and all but the ending for me did not achieve closure. Instead, the end felt like a waste of time and was just filler, especially episode 15 & 16. Overall, this drama just left me feeling unsatisfied.
This drama would be for those who are okay with not needing a drama to have a well thought out crime and investigation component.
Was this review helpful to you?
It's rated too high lol
The drama started off on the right foot. The story of a son of a serial killer who's assumed to be like his dad got me hooked at first. It was interesting to see how he was hiding his identity from his wife. The thriller scenes from the beginning to the middle of the drama got me on the edge of my seat! Is our protagonist actually a murderer? What really happened in the past? Who is the accomplice? The cast was phenomenal, truly. I loved the professionalism of the police force. Like heck, I know I'd be in good hands if they're on the case. The little girl's also amazing!But then I soon got bored of its pace. Don't get me wrong, the couple's chemistry is hella strong, I felt it to tears. It made sense to focus on the fact that someone with antisocial personality disorder feels nothing but his love for his wife. But the back and forth between the main leads' dialogues made me want to skip. The sister was my least favorite character because she barely contributed anything. Her romance with the reporter felt unnecessary.
I also didn't enjoy how it wrapped up at the end. I was very interested in the family and the accomplice more, as it would have been interesting to see his story further explained. There were also so many plot holes to be rated this high. Some things didn't make sense. They also really pulled a common drama trope at the end.
Was this review helpful to you?
A flower blooms where evil has been buried; suspenseful melodrama with a poetic narrative!
"I wanted to share the message that even where evil has been buried, flowers can still bloom." — Yoo Jung Hee, Flower of Evil writer.Despite its outer appearance of a thriller, the drama centers about love and how powerful it is. Flower of Evil, on its core, is a romance thriller of salvation and healing. And, while there are already dramas trying to prove those themes, no drama has been as successful and powerful as Flower of Evil. When you think you are going to be disappointed because your gruesome psychopathic nightmare of a drama doesn't happen, Flower of Evil proves better; it offers you a deep and breathtaking drama, with great acting skills, directing, and solid writing.
Flower of Evil is one of Korea's masterpieces and I'll stand on that argument of mine. The story soaked so many emotions in me and had given me so much catharsis. Its composition is 20% suspense with 80% melodrama, but despite that composition, the suspense and the melodrama were well-balanced and complemented one another in order to come to its warming and beautiful conclusion.
The drama centers on the character and relationship growth of the married couple as they find themselves closer to the cruel truth they don't want to face. It has its share of suspenseful events partnered with suspenseful orchestral instrumentals. It is thrilling, but instead of focusing only on those elements, it combines melodrama to give a powerful story. The rawness and vulnerability of the characters made the drama powerful. We have a questionable manipulative male lead who has a dark past and deceits, and a female lead who is strong, firm and a principled police officer that at the same time, still compassionate. Many put this drama as fast-paced, but in the end, it felt like just in the middle as everything was well thought-out and well-planned. It was deep. It was great. It was breathtaking. The writer proved this with the parallelisms and metaphorical messages she laid out in the overall narrative.
One thing I very loved about the drama is how they tackled and discussed questions about morality and ethics. It will always be fascinating to know how people can easily point out others' sins as if they are cleaned themselves.
Going to its downsides, there is a character that I wished was further explored and had given more narrative. Going critical, is the mental diagnosis accurate here? As I'm not a psychiatrist, I can't say about its accuracy, but, instead of putting Flower of Evil as a realistic one, I'd put Flower of Evil as a somewhat poetic and romantic tale. With those things said, I highly recommend Flower of Evil to those who enjoy deep, emotional and mature romances. As for viewers who enjoy gruesome thrillers, crime or procedural ones, as this drama is more on the melo side and on evoking multitudes of emotions to the viewers, they may feel unsatisfied with the turns the drama took and convenient drama troupes used in latter episodes (tho it didn't overshadowed the whole narrative).
As for the acting, it was exceptional. If you've seen the casts before and think that they are already good or you are not a big fan of them—whatever the case is, the drama stands a very high chance of changing your opinion about them. This is Lee Joon Gi and Moon Chae Won's best performance I've watched so far. Every character is incredibly well-acted even the side-ones and because of this huge factor—Flower of Evil is this effective. Lee Joon Gi and Moon Chae Won who played the leads complemented one another in acting as a married couple standing desperately in the broken bridge of trust; there was no overpowering acting, both of them give their all and you'll feel it. Their emotions intensified their chemistry and you'll feel how sincere, strong and vulnerable their characters are. Aside from the leads, I want to give praises to Nam Ki Ae, Kim Ji Hoon, Han Soo Yeon, Seoyeon (Eun Ha) and Seo Hyun Woo.
For the directing, it was well-done, this is my first time watching a drama of Kim Chul Gyu, so, I've been thinking of watching his other dramas. I was also personally in awe of the cinematography of the first part of the drama and its finale. The color tones used all through-out were exquisite and consistent for the melo and thrilling scenarios. The soundtrack has left me wanting for more songs but was good, suspenseful, and heart-wrenching. The suspense was thrilling but the melodrama and romance broke my heart into pieces then put it back into one whole piece.
PS: A year had passed and I was able to see again this masterpiece, unlike from before, I was able to even appreciate its soundtrack even more especially the orchestral ones. The rewatch value has been higher because as you rewatch the drama you will even find more.
Was this review helpful to you?
The overly dramatic scenes ruined it!
Thrillers, mystery and crime shows are my kind of thing. I think I have watched so many of this genre that I could always guess whodunit. I am always excited to watch these type of shows. Flower of Evil was quite interesting at first. It had a nice atmosphere and storyline. I was so into it up until the last few episodes. The overly dramatic scenes ruined it for me. It was just unnecessary and felt so contrived. I guess the writers wanted the audience to sympathize with the lead actors so badly. They were trying too hard! I know this is a melodrama but some of the scenes didn't go well with the initial vibe of this show. It didn't flow smoothly with this crime, whodunnit plot. The writing got lazy and it feels like they just threw all this heavy, crying scenes out of nowhere. This could have been one of my favorite asian mystery thriller. If only the writers were just consistent.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
My first ever on-air show
~||~ Things I hated:- The character description of psychopath and sociopath.
Psychopathic description was somewhat fine but sociopathy...oh boy...
Being a sociopath Do Hyun Soo was dumb and rather helpless in most of the situation. His plans were never meticulous enough and would always have a hole in them.
Sociopaths can be calculative and know how to manipulate for their need too.
Sociopaths are able to feel some emotions. They are not completely emotionless (as the character himself stated so many times).
ML failed to be the right kind of sociopath.
\\
- So you are telling me the real psychopath Baek Hee Sung woke up literally after 15+ years of vegetative state and within a week or so he was active enough to not only plan meticulously but kill people??? Wow.
Maybe he was on a really good medication because I took two whole days to recover just from severe dehydration. Lol. Let me know.
That's all.
~||~ Things I loved:
- Sibling goal {Do Hae Soo + Do Hyun Soo} ✌🏻
//
- The female lead Cha Ji Won was on point though. Perfect amount of boldness, dash of emotions and packed with strength. Perfect.
//
- Reporter Kim, a type of friend we don't want but we need.
"A friend in need is a friend indeed"
//
- The head of Team 3 Detective Lee Woo Chul, portrayed a good leader. Equally caring, admirable and strict.
//
- Tbh I kinda shipped (you know like imaginary second lead syndrome) the female lead with detective Choi Jae Sup.... I'm sorry not sorry.... Their chemistry was worth noticing too.
//
- The ending (episode 16) seemed kinda unnecessary but still it was a happy one so I won't judge it too hard.
That's all.
Take care. Stay safe.
- Maaya
Was this review helpful to you?
AWESOME~!
Story: Can I just tell you that this has been the best mystery drama I have ever watched. Honestly, the plot, as far as I know, isn't like anything I've seen before and it's just so exciting to watch. You do die a little bit from all of he tension build up sometimes but that is what is enjoyable since you never really know what to expect.Acting/Cast: Like, do I even need to say anything about the cast? They are all so talented and complete ~visuals~, I have no complaints. They did such a good job portraying their characters. Truly splendid.
Music: The music was honestly something that really enhanced the drama experience. It went with the occasion and always made the scenes better while keeping it simple and not overbearing the scene.
Re-watch Value: The only reason why I score it with a low re-watch value is because since the whole drama is about a mystery. So once you finish the drama the first time, you already know all the twists and turn the drama takes and you also already know all of the identities of the "bad guys". So, in it's original purpose to build up tension, the drama wouldn't do that anymore since you already know the plot.
Was this review helpful to you?
One of the best
As a fan of Lee Joon Gi, you know I had to check this drama, and boi when I tell you I became all over again, this show had everything I could ever ask for in a drama.Romance, suspense, thriller, emotions, acting, music,, literally if I could describe a perfect drama, this would be it.
I have watched it 3 times already, and every time I catch something I missed, so I will be re-watching it again for a forth time, and despite how many I have watched it, I have yet to get bored from it.
Was this review helpful to you?
Let's try to fit Romance anywhere under False Pretense
As usual, I'm gonna be completely honest,I started this drama after reading the synopsis thinking it'll be a great thriller, A psychopath husband deceiving his wife and everybody.
Even the initial actions of the protagonist were fun to watch but then bam! *FLUSH*
The writer lost in her mind and converted it to a melodrama.
I'm surprised how so many people liked this drama, do you people not even care if the writer tries to change the theme in b/w?
The acting was good, the script was terrible and the ending was super cliche'.
Decent enough drama I guess.
For people wondering how to easily describe my basic thought, It's like the writer started from Stranger from Hell and made it a melodrama xD
Absolutely Disgusting, right? xD
Was this review helpful to you?
Wow!
Okay! This was a GREAT drama! The reason I started watching this was because of Lee Joon Gi, but at the end of this show I fell in love with all the characters.The reason why I gave this drama an overall of 9.5 rather than 10 is because of the semi-predictable plot. I kind of knew where it was going from the beginning and there was only one plot twist that truly shocked me, though I'm not going to get into detail about that. Other than the predictable plot, the ending. Oh gosh, now that was an ending. Again, I'm not going into detail about it so I don't spoil it for you guys, but all of those people who have already watched this show, are totally aware of my feelings and probably feel the same way as I do.
The acting/cast was amazing! The cast was amazing, all of them were on point and drew emotions from me (which, by the way, is hard to do). They made me feel the anguish, happiness, and darkness. Lee Joon Gi and Moon Chae Won together was honestly the best thing the writers have done and that's not to forget little Jung Seo Yeon who just wowed me away with her acting skills. Although she got little screen time, she still is one of my favorite characters in this show. Kudos to the writers who found this precious little girl!
The music to this kdrama was fantastic! It was played at just the right moment. Whenever there's a suspenseful scene, the music always made things ten times scarier. Whenever there was an emotional scene, the music would make it ten times more emotional, and yeah, you get my drift. The music played a great part in my liking of this show because they managed to find just the right tune that hits the right spot.
This is one of my favorite dramas of all time and actually one of the first dramas that I watched. It was quite an experience waiting every week for two episodes and leaving off on cliffhangers. If you're considering whether or not to watch it, please go ahead and do :)
Was this review helpful to you?
