Blind (2022)

Interesting Crime Story

I watched this drama in one sitting. Yes, there were times when I just forwarded some scenes, I hope I didn't miss any crucial details.

Plot: Very interesting. The twists and turns of events keep you guessing. It keeps you on the edge of your seat. It keeps you believing that the leads have something to do with the crimes/murders. Then you start doubting your guesses, and you will return to square one. I was hesitant the first time to watch it cause I've watched the same that are not so engaging and interesting. But this one will surely engage and pique your interest.

Theme: The story is about revenge. A detective tries to uncover the serial crime/murder of people connected with an orphanage. The orphanage has maltreated the children and treated them inhumanely. The children grew up and planned to revenge on the people who had seen them but took a blind eye. Hence the title - Blind.

Acting: The 2 main ML are good actors. I've watched the other dramas and expected the acting to be good. The FL is ok, it did not have much exposure or did not have any lines that warrant good acting.

Read More

One of the best korean dramas that I have ever watched

In my whole life time I never got a chance to spend my time doing what I really wanted. This time it was not as the same. I spend my whole time watxging different kinds of kdramas because I really wanted to waste my time. And finally I have watched thousands of kdramas but I can say that BLIND is the best kdrama that I have watched . I really mean it because each and in every rpisode I swayed in my mind that he may be the culprit and he may not be the culprit and also I suspected each and every charactor without considering their status. I must say that it was because of the great skills of the actors and actresses . That was a blast at the final moment in my mind because some of my assumptions were wrong meanwhile some were correct. My favourite genres are crime, thriller and horror and I have never swayed in my decisions and foresee . Therfore I really think this is the best and I recommend each and every one who are interested in crime thriller genre.

Read More

Underwhelming

As a big fan of crime dramas, I was super looking forward to this. I love Taecyeon in Vincenzo and was excited to see him in something else. This show has great casting and acting; however, I was disappointed with the plot of this one.

The show itself is a fairly mediocre crime drama. It felt like they were throwing darts to figure out the twists, leaving plot holes that they had to try to quickly clean up towards the end of the show. The show starts by splitting the storyline between children locked in some kind of hellish prison, and our main characters in present day. Figuring out how these storylines connect is super interesting....until it's not. It seems as though the writers tried so hard to throw the audience off and to make sure they wouldn't expect the twists that they weren't even worked into the story well. However, towards the end of the show I did start to enjoy it a bit more. Considering my love of crime dramas, to rate this one so low hurt a bit, but I think there are a lot better, more cohesive crime dramas out there.

Read More

Another good thriller.

This series is really something. I believe that along with "The King of Pigs", these are the two best revenge thriller series of the year. This series takes you to the guts until the last episode. There is a lot of suffering, and that explains the choices of certain characters who in turn have also caused other people to suffer.

Some of the characters were some of humanity's worst trash, what they did to those kids is just awful. And the fact that years later they refuse to restore the truth to save their asses, it's really unbearable, and I also understand the "why" of the actions of certain characters. This series is an excellent suspense thriller, from beginning to end we have no idea of ​​the revelations to come, even though I guessed the murderer quickly and his potential accomplices, I believe that the mystery does not lie in the "who ?" but in the "why?". Why these murders ?

The characters, including the murderers all have motives, and sometimes even if as an audience we judge their actions, we understand why. And I honestly think it was all done with a certain realism in every aspect.

The series is therefore really well done, the tones are dark, enigmatic. The music is memorable. Well detailed script. The characters are striking with a sometimes sickening realism. I must say that I finished this series with the ending that it deserved, and I don't feel the need for more episodes or less, everything has been explained and makes sense.

So honestly, a good thriller that I recommend for sure.

Ps. From what I get, it was inspired by real events, which is the more tragic. In light of this, I do wish the kids here, the victims were more highlighted rather than the antagonists who did horrible things to them.

Read More

He Who Holds The Gavel Wields Formidable Power

WARNING: SOME MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW.

First off, I watched this show since it first aired, so this review is rated from a different perspective compared to those who just binged all episodes of the show in one sitting.

Blind may your typical revenge-based thriller, but its overall plot is quite unique, since it’s premise is based on a true story, which the authors have taken and sprinkled a bit of their own creative narrative to it. Blind takes inspiration from a South Korean case involving a welfare place called Brothers Home. I suggest that you research about the matter, but viewer discretion is advised. In short, the plot is nothing you’d see in other kdramas, but Blind’s take on it had some pitfalls. Some spoilers below.

Given this is based on a real case, I can’t help but feel conflicted. Although the plot is circulated around revenge, I didn’t like how they made victims of HWC come out as seemingly psychopathic, bloodthirsty murderers. I’m not saying that I necessarily disapprove of the revenge arc, but some characters ruined it for me more than others. If one of the villains were more dimensional like Sung Hoon, I would’ve approved of it, but Yoon Jae is an entirely different case. His character ruined it for me. Yoon Jae lacked character development, and stayed as a rather two-dimensional (flat) character throughout the story. Considering how much he was mentioned throughout the story, I expected for the writers to make him a much more impressional anti-hero, but he just came out as a villain. I was disappointed to find out that he wasn’t a main lead, since his character was mentioned so much throughout the drama.

Even after the drama ended, Blind still had so many plot holes. In fact, I counted around 15. I was disappointed how none of these were filled at the end. Another thing that irked me was the sloppy investigative work. Almost everyone, including Sung Joon, looked like amateurs trying to play cat and mouse.

Blind also lacked influential characters. Aside from Sung Joon and Eun Ki, none of the other characters, including Sung Hoon and Yoon Jae, made a deep impression on me. Although Sung Hoon character was morally grey and dimensional, I felt like he lacked something. Overall character to me was just.. weird. I can’t quite explain it. He’s straightforward, smart, and seemingly perfect, but he seemed too animated. I’m not sure if this was on his actor’s part, but I felt that Sung Hoon’s character could’ve been written differently. I already talked about Yoon Jae, but I have to mention one thing: If his character was written like Children of Nobody’s anti-hero Lee Eun Ho, I would’ve approved of it.

I appreciated the final episode so much. It seems like the writers took some time to spread awareness about the real-life issue. It was impressionable, call to action wise.

Flaws aside, the drama did a wonderful job at keeping my attention gripped. Each episode had an impressional cliffhanger, which left me anxiously waiting each week. It stayed consistent in this aspect. Furthermore, this is probably the first Korean thriller where I actually rewatched each episode to try and play detective on the case. It was fun reading theorizing and reading other people’s theories on platforms like MDL and Reddit- the community was incredible and well-mannered (almost everyone out spoiler tags on their comments, that’s why).

Blind’s soundtrack was also perfect. A new MV was released each week, and none of them flopped. I literally played these OST’s every day and never got sick of it. Im thoroughly impressed by the sheer amount of variety in the OST’s. It included so many genres, many of which I thought I wouldn’t like- such as country and rock. However, some scenes in the drama could’ve used a more suitable OST. Often times, I find that certain scenes had OST’s that completely ruined the mood for me.

I have to give credit to the wonderful actors and actresses that participated in this project. The cast had seasoned actors and actresses, so I wasn’t concerned on cringe-worthy acting. I was especially surprised by Eunji’s acting, since it was natural and she immersed into her role well. Taec and Eunji had so much chemistry on and off set, and I kinda wished they took the romance route for them at some point. However, I felt like some characters needed more work in role immersion.

Finally, I liked how morally-grey the drama was. As the titled states: “Enter Blind, Retreat Equally as Blind,” it’s best to approach this drama completely spoiler-free. Even towards the end of the drama, you’d still feel conflicted on whether or not justice was served. Some characters had crueler fates than others, but was it deserved? was justice served on a silver platter or was it bittersweet?

Read More

Is the police a joke? - You should might consider watching a different Thriller

The story itself was good and had alongside to the purpose of a meaningful ending, through a conclusion on the well being of children (which undoubtedly is important), some peaks, but I won’t bother with pointing out things everybody is telling you. Due to the fact that everybody just gives it a 9-10 rating which I can’t relate to at all.

I was happy with the acting of our ML seeing him after Vincenzo playing a good guy, but his character was just so wack.

I loved Ha Seok Jin, here and in the devils plan he fits the role of being the big brain just way to well.

Jung Eun Ji did a really good job in her acting I hope she gets more enjoyable roles than miss night and day which I had to drop after 1 episode - it’s just to much once I’m in need of comedy I might pick it up again.

Now concerning my title.

After you knew about the 5 kids and everybody in the jury being part of the welfare Center in a way - isn’t there just one conclusion? Somebody with enough power had to orchestrate the selection of the jury - who is it gonna be? Obviously the judge.

Now you take the jury members, everybody younger than 30 was obviously either a child/brother to someone related to the incident or one of the children themselves. And in the end both guys are in it and not just one - how did the chef and the killer even start some sort of bromance? Nah come on.

Jumping to episode 11 where the most unnecessary person died causing the biggest plot hole.

You’re telling me:

The ML meets up with the Nurse at day, tries calling the FL while it’s dark (somehow he couldn’t reach her for 30 minutes or what?). He arrives at the Center and just checks out the office where he finds the picture of the 3 kids. Without checking anything else to find the FL, he drives home to find his brother after realising he got manipulated. But somehow he can’t get a hold of his brother either. He now drives to the parents home confronting them about his brother.

Meanwhile the brother saved the FL of the killer and drove with her away somehow crashing into some animal and digging a grave for it.

In between everything police officers where at the scene finding blood and telling the ML about it.

So a total of 5 persons never had the idea of checking the place the girl was staying at. Even though our judge was accomplice he never wanted the girl to die but both him and the FL just forgot about her and went digging that fckn grave without looking after her or checking their phones.

The police officers just went away from the scene after finding blood for what?

And the ML was so shocked of the picture, it wasn’t important that the killer might’ve killed the FL in her home?

So our dumbasses of police officers consisted of what?

A corrupt chief who destroyed every evidence he could get a hold of after losing his daughter which was just forgotten about?

His corrupt buddy who thought he was mister big shot but killed a little boy?

The nerd who just made some fiction drama up from every little whatsoever.

The team leader who was nonexistent.

Our ML who can’t get shit done.

And probably the only normal guy. Our best buddy who actually left some good impressions in my head, but he ain’t the big brain - the character was fine though.

And that’s our squad? Who couldn’t figure out anything at all. Neither that somebody orchestrated the jury nor there might be an inside man in the jury.

In my opinion that’s not how you write a story.

Just give up on dragging it out after episode 10. Delete the death of the girl in episode 11. Give us at least one regretful person. I mean take the shaman for example she was just some unimportant witness who could have started to feel regrets. But she just said nothing having her seizures and disappearing after being locked up in the welfare center just to sit in the courtroom at the end. Her maybe talking about number 11 and 13 goving the police some hints that’s all we needed - maybe alongside at least some sparks of love between the FL and ML not to much since it’s a hard story but the possibility was there. We got the bromance and a love story between some mid 30 judge and a 20 year old - but alle we got was some hand waving at the end?

All in all just to many bad persons and a to dumb police squad to get shit done. In the end they needed number 13 to go crazy while being on his killing spree and yap about it in jail. I don’t know if others figured the plot out as well - for me it was just to obvious and predictable who the bad guys would be. It might be worth to watch since it’s fine until episode 10 but it’s definitely nowhere near a 9-10 rating (Only if your standards are low and they are if you can’t compare it to for example through the darkness and realise the differece in quality)

Read More

Average it is, but not below average...Eh, what would they do without all those recordings

It is one of those dramas where you don't know until the very end who is the serial killer because the episodes are directed to sway you away. ..Which I do not mind but there is reason in everything including these moves. So why? They really twisted it so much that every reveal seemed as likely as any other. And none particulary satisfactory because they abandon one interpretation they gave you another immediately in the next episode.

There is no depth to any of the characters. They tackled too many stories that at the end they all were one step from being obviously shallow.

I think the screenwriting was an issue. The actors elevated this drama but the gaps in plot were just so obvious. Literally one person in drama reexperiences assaults and they just go on about their life as if nothing happened. Then, the detective knows this person is in danger and drives to save them but his attention gets stuck on an image in the office of prospective victim... so he drives back to his apartment ignoring that someone is still trying to attack the victim next to the mentioned office. Also the recordings, video or audio, were used too much as plot device in this drama. Eh what would they've done without those recordings...

As for good parts. Music accompanying the murderer was a nice touch. Overall, actors did a great job. Although Sungjoon was not as strong of a lead in my opinion. I never changed my opinion of him as all brawn and no brains. But I again blame the screenwriters as Taecyeon did surprisingly well in Vincenzo and I believe he has it in him. Yoo Na's part was wholesome and gripping. Also Jung Insung actor was such good choice for the character. I hope to see him more in similar roles. And overall, plot-wise, the villain arc really took off in the last few episodes... so I was entertained, okay? I was entertained.

While gripping and emotional at moments.... ultimately at the end nothing makes much sense. Nothing gets resolved. Rather you are still unsettled, and I do not think that was intention. I wanted a meaningful punch but was left at 'meh, serial killer killed people I guess. And then we get who it was. And, wow, they all moved on.' I understand it was supposed to deliver a societal message which I got it in one way or another but it was not done in any impactful way.

I do think that this genre was better done by Mouse. So would suggest you to watch that one instead. I do think you will be entertained if you like this genre. It is just average, but not below average.

Thanks for reading.

Read More

Kdrama that you for sure won't regret watching.

I've been looking for a good kdrama to watch for a while, and I found it in this show. Every aspect of it has nothing to reproach itself with, the acting is of a high standard, which makes the whole story even more exciting. There is no moment of boredom, in every episode something happens and the story is incredibly interesting and also unpredictable. Music included in this show really fits to the storyline and the only thing I wish was more presented is closer relationship of Ryu Sung Joon and Jo Eun Ki. However I totally recommend waching it and I guarantee you will not regret it at all.

Read More

Clumsy writing and direction

I just finished Suspicious Partner and Flower of Evil, and enjoyed them both (the latter more), and wanted more of crime/mystery drama so I was excited to give this a go. It was very disappointing to say the least.

It started off with a very intriguing premise: children trying to escape their abusers through the woods or some sort of abandoned area. Couple of kids manage to hide but right when it looks like they're about to be busted, we're brought to present day. Okay, nice, this premise seems to have a good potential to flesh out into a well weaved crime mystery thriller, and especially since this is based on a true story, I was hoping for a more realistic plot. But no! I was so wrong...

Before I start criticising, I'd like to clarify that everyone including the supporting actors did a decent job of portraying their characters to their best of abilities but the direction and writing are just awful. If you've watched true crime documentaries, you'll know right away the writer hasn't done enough research.

We're introduced to a detective (ML) who functions with a brain of an immature kid with anger issues. He's unnecessarily violent and handles every situation messily, and he's displayed this way for us to believe that he's one of those oddball genius detectives whose ways go against standard practice but he knows what he's doing so we should root for him. He has a tendency to put himself in the criminal's or victim's shoes to understand and analyse the situation better and he does this by doing odd yet very stupid things like putting himself into a plastic bag and rolling himself down a mound to mimic a possible scenario of corpse being rolled down that same mound by the killer... Why did he do that? The corpse was not even in a position it would have been if it was rolled down the mound and thrown away. It was in a perfectly sitting position. Was this not obvious enough from the start??? Even if the corpse was rolled down first and then put in that sitting position, there could be signs of damage from rolling down but again this may be determined only through post mortem so whatever he was doing felt so dumb. After this, it just felt like he was trying too hard to come across as eccentric to the point I cringed, like when he tried to mimic the killer by trying to slit the pathologist's lips and she called him a psycho for that. Why does he mimic the most obvious scenarios to understand a situation...? It doesn't make sense... Then he beat up a "junkie" for trying to hurt a girl, which could get him into trouble legally. Was he not trained to incapacitate and cuff assaulters? Why didn't he threaten him with a gun? He was on duty investigating a murder so he should have been prepared. Ugh it was so messy and he felt so amateur.

Some of the scenes were very unrealistic and didn't make any sense at all. The murder suspect stabs his lawyer with a pen in court and the police just stood doing nothing. He then proceeded to jump over the table and climb up to the judge and raised his pen ready to stab the judge who didn't flinch or worry he was going to be harmed, and the police were still nowhere to be scene!! ML was the only one who rushed to save his brother (judge) 😭. And while everyone was in a panic and the whole court was in chaos, the judge was simply sitting there giving his judgement/reasoning on the suspect and his crimes until he jumped up to him to stab him too wtf 😭😭😭

ML's brother just feels like a robot with no sensible reactions. His overconfidence feels more like a supernatural ability to withstand any and every situation. Heck if he was suspended upsidedown above an active volcano, he still wouldn't react. I didn't watch far enough to explore him or the FL so I'll leave it at this.

Then while the suspect was being driven, an accident happens where all the police on board were severely injured due to the police van literally being overturned because a motorbike cut through, but, BUT the murder suspect not only managed to free himself by finding the cuff keys (which was conveniently right in front of him) in all that wreck but walked out like a champ with his injuries and drove off on the motorbike... How the fork??

Then he went over to FL's house 3 hours later and kept her hostage all night and I'm guessing he called the police to threaten them to take back his jail sentence or whatever even though he also clearly says that he knows it won't work, and that he just wanted to kill her for revenge. Okay so why did he keep her hostage all night then? It's not clear who even called the police or maybe I missed it. Though he does later in the hospital say he was ordered to do this by the actual killer, and maybe it is explained later why all this was necessary so if you have the patience, go for it. Then our oddball ML crashes into her house and heroically shoots the guy and he falls over. I understand the FL is all tied up but he lets his guard down to let her loose and predictably the guy gets up and stabs him and then ML passes out... I'm so done with this drama.

I can usually tolerate messy scenes every now and then but the direction and ML's character is a flop. Idm hot headed cops but don't make him do dumb things and don't make cops look like they're useless. Some cops are but this is a story which you can shape however you want, you can make them look at least a little reliable to save the audience from frustration.

This would probably be watchable if you're not familiar with true crime. It has some thrill, just delivered poorly.

Read More

Good Enough

Korean Drama " Blind " is a crime thriller, involving a past and a present case.

The drama had enjoyable performances, first and foremost, with all the actors and actresses, but, especially, the main ones, fleshing out their characters brilliantly and showcasing the right amount of emotion.

The start of the drama was quite intense as well, with the mystery of that past case being the main source of all the horific moments of the story.

However, the drama soon grew bleak. It was obvious from the start who was behind everything and any attempt to shade shadow on the other characters was not well managed. In addition, the drama got boring and the twists tiring.

So, overall, five out of ten.

Read More