Ghost (2022)

Más de lo mismo...

¡Hola, gente! Hoy me paso por acá para hablarles del más reciente dorama de "zombies" que Corea nos ha dado: #Monstrous.

La trama va de un pueblo que es afectado por un extraño fenómeno cuando la estatua de un buda con los ojos vendados que data de la era Goryeo es encontrada y desenterrada.

Okay, sinceramente no tengo mucho para decir de este dorama. La trama es sumamente básica, los personajes no tienen casi nada de desarrollo, no es que me mantuviera muy enganchada y un largo etcétera. Podríamos decir entonces que me terminó pareciendo un gran "meh".

Si nos centramos sobre todo en lo que pasa a lo largo de los capítulos, no creo que estemos ante algo muy original. De hecho, sentí que estaba viendo una fusión entre Happiness (que no terminé) y Dark Hole (que no me gustó), pero más plana y más sangrienta (esto último es de lo que me hizo seguir viendo, la verdad). ¿Acaso las historias de zombies no son para mí? Probablemente.

Otro de los motivos por los que seguí viendo la serie, es que trabaja Kwak Dong Yeon (también es el motivo por el que la empecé, para qué mentir). Su personaje, como casi todos, es bastante simple, pero él lo interpreta bien y me gustó verlo tan sacado y a punto de matar a todo el mundo. Es una faceta suya como actor que no tenía tan vista, así que no me puedo quejar.

Igual, aunque los personajes fueran muy planos, algunos sí tenían potencial. El arqueólogo que se dedica a investigar la maldición de la estatua podría haberse aprovechado muchísimo más, pero lamentablemente la serie cae en lo simple, predecible y cliché.

Eso sí, me gustó que relacionaran el fenómeno que tiene lugar en la historia con algunos mitos antiguos, creencias religiosas, etc. Por ese lado, creo que el kdrama lo hizo bastante bien.

Pero bueno, como dije, no tengo mucho para comentar. En seis capítulos lo que más rescato son las escenas de acción (que abundan, porque es lo que sostiene la serie) y algunas actuaciones. Encima el final me dejó con ciertas dudas (no sé si es que hubo un par de incongruencias o yo me perdí de algo) y, para colmo, termina con un pequeño cliffhanger.

Miren, si quieren darle una oportunidad, háganlo! Pero, meh.

•IG DE RESEÑAS CORTAS: @altoplottwist

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TVING is the new -more violent- OCN

After the King of Pigs, TVING released another dark-themed series with a star-studded cast and even though it didn’t disappoint, it wasn’t as thrilling as one would expect either.

From a technical aspect Monstrous is quite well done. It has a believable (enough) atmosphere, some nicely shot scenes and a dark colour palette. As a result it is better to watch it with all the lights off to be fully immersed. The CGI is not exactly the greatest CGI you will see and it does seem pretty fake at times, but at the same time it is not too bad to take you out of the story. Furthermore, the make-up wasn’t really good, especially in some horror-like scenes of the drama. Lastly, even though I do believe that the lack of censorship can make a series feel much more realistic, in this case they overdid it with the violent scenes. Sometimes it felt like they used them just for show and to fill some time.

Acting wise, people familiar with Korean series will recognize the majority of the main cast, including Koo Kyo Hwan (D.P.), Shin Hyun Bin (Hospital Playlist), Kwak Dong Yeon (Vincenzo), Park Ho San (Prison Playbook, My Mister), Nam Da Reum (Six Flying Dragons, The 8th night) and Kim Ji Young (Graceful Friends). Needless to say that the majority of the cast did a pretty good job with the roles they were assigned with. My favourite performances were undoubtedly those of Koo Kyo Hwan and Shin Hyun Bin, two of our main leads.
On the other hand, I wasn’t entirely convinced with Kwak Dong Yeon’s acting in some scenes, even though he did a pretty good job with his role. My biggest problem acting-wise was probably Park Ho San (the annoying governor). Even though I am never too bothered by his acting, almost every time I watch him on screen I feel like he is overdoing it with his expressions to a point that he seems a bit ridiculous.

The plot of the series was good enough to keep the viewer interested. There were some scenes that didn’t make sense, or to be more precise there were things that conveniently happened so that the plot could move forward. I didn’t mind it that much though, since what matters the most to me is having fun and I was pretty entertained throughout the drama. What I loved the most about the series were the backstories of the characters that I would like to watch more of.
The series was very easy to watch and I would suggest binge-watching it not only because it consists of six thirty-minute episodes, but also because it would probably feel very underwhelming otherwise.

Having said that, the characters, even though interesting, were pretty underdeveloped. Also, at some points, the series felt a bit like your typical zombie/monster drama and we have been seeing a lot of those nowadays, with All of Us Are Dead being the most recent one. There were also some particular scenes that felt a bit out of place, like those with the monks in the first three episodes. If I could point out the biggest problem of Monstrous, then it would be that I didn’t really feel for the characters. Even though we were presented with some suspenseful and sorrowful moments, most of the times I wasn’t really on the edge of my sit, neither did I feel emotionally invested.

All in all, it is obvious that TVING is trying to bring something new to the table; something more violent and raw and they pulled it off to some extent. Nevertheless, it seems like they need to do a bit more work to make some other aspects of series like this one work. Looking forward to their next project, Rose Mansion.

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