Not over the top
Phoenix definitely had it's good days and bad days, which I've come to expect in long dramas. There were quite a few characters I didn't really care for, however the ones I liked kept me coming back.Applauds go out to Lee Ji Eun (Hong Soo Ha) and Seo Jung Min (Seo Ha Joon). Both did a fantastic job in their roles and really kept the show afloat. No spoilers other than the bad guys/girls were bad and the good guys/girls were good. The last couple of episodes I almost didn't watch - but I'm glad I did. Through out the show the writer seemed to really try hard to bring out the humanness in us all and the end focused on that.
If you like Monday through Friday dramas I'd put this on one in my recommendation list. While it may not be the best daytime drama you'll watch, it certainly has a redemptive quality about it.
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No comparison to the original - this is just bad
I loved the original and was really looking forward to this. Initial episodes stuck close to the original and then just went off on its own strange track. The female came across as a diabolical, conniving, materialistic, selfish woman and I had more sympathy for the villains. The second lead was sort of interesting in the beginning and then later came across as entitled and utter brat.There was so much drama off-screen as well. The main male lead quit and was written off. So was the second female lead. The PD changed and at one point, additional writer was brought in. The writer threatened to quit but then stuck on and said would work with production. The second male lead became the main lead. The ratings reflect the mess.
It got so boring that I dropped it halfway through. I know several other daily drama regular viewers who have stopped watching as well and called it the worst daily they have encountered. If I could, I would rate this less than 1 star but that is the lowest you can give.
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This review may contain spoilers
It's a drama about Ji Eun, a woman who is torn between two men: Se Hoon and Jung Min.Ji Eun comes from a wealthy family, but she falls in love with Se Hoon. Against her family's wishes, Ji Eun marries Se Hoon, but reality breaks the girl's fairy tale, since when they live together, the two begin to see how different they are. Se Hoon can't live with Ji Eun's family, with her corrupt father and alcoholic mother, but the moment that completely changes their relationship is when in a moment of anger, Se Hoon pushes Ji Eun down the stairs and she ends up losing her baby.
After the loss of her father, Ji Eun's family went bankrupt and in order to survive, she ended up becoming a completely different person. It was at this point in her life that she met Jung Min, Jung In's twin brother, who was her fiance. Se Hoon returns to Ji Eun's life 10 years later, now a successful man. Se Hoon returns with the intention of revenge against Ji Eun and her family, but over time his feelings for her return, but Ji Eun is in love with Jung Min and going through the same situation she was in with Se Hoon, only now with Jung Min's family against her.
We can't forget Mi Ran, our villain and bitch of the story, who is obsessed with Se Hoon.
The romance between Ji Eun and Sung Min is cute, the two have good chemistry on screen. He was the person who helped her when she needed it most, who was by her side. Even when they broke up, you could tell that they would end up together in the end. But I have to say that the whole situation with Jung Min's stalker/secretary was very weird. She killed someone, tried to frame Ji Eun and then kidnapped her.
In conclusion, it's a very realistic drama, especially the character Lee Ji Eun. She is an ambitious woman who is not afraid to go after what she wants, but who has been hurt a lot in her life and has to deal with these traumas in her daily life. Even though I liked her romance with Jung Min, I didn't like how he never trusted her completely, it's very similar to how Se Hoon treated her.
I also didn't like the way the drama handled Se Hoon's character. When he returns in the story, he became a supporting character and didn't even try to win Ji Eun back, which seemed to be the purpose of his return. In the end he ended up with Mi Ran, the crazy woman who pretended to be paralyzed when she could walk, broke an aquarium and walked barefoot on the broken glass. He was an important character in the story, he deserved a better ending than this.
The development is good, but it should have ended in episode 116, they would have tied up all the loose ends in the story and it would have been a better ending, but they decided to add more episodes unnecessarily and it served absolutely no purpose.
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Goddamn....
What do you even expect from a drama where two of the lead actors left the drama in the last third of its run?!! If the cast can't pull it together, there's no saving. The drama gets the stamp of "dead on arrival". Any drop of hope the drama had was completely 100% lost after episode 17. Ah Jun added some serious unbearable cringe when he was introduced. On a side note, the fashion totally sucked. It's too much in your face and doesn't really fit the picture. The original version Phoenix (2004) was infinitely better than whatever this was. For a very similar story Cunning Single Lady (2014) was much better too.Was this review helpful to you?
