Pyramid Game : A chilling psychological thriller, despite some slow moments
Pyramid Game is a drama that, despite some slow moments, manages to captivate its audience with a tense atmosphere and excellent cinematography. While certain parts lack pace, the psychological tension and outstanding performances more than make up for these flaws.Strengths
An impressive cast: Every actress delivers a remarkable performance, making each scene feel authentic and intense. Their acting is precise and compelling, bringing the characters to life with undeniable skill.
An immersive sound design: The soundtrack and overall sound work play a key role in building the show’s unsettling atmosphere. Special mention to the sound designers, who manage to convey the brutality of certain scenes without explicitly showing them.
Carefully crafted cinematography: Well-framed shots, smooth editing, and strong aesthetic choices enhance the impact of the drama.
Weaknesses
An uneven pace: The story sometimes drags, with moments that feel unnecessarily slow or flat. Fortunately, the strong performances keep the audience engaged.
Late character development: Some key characters should have been introduced in more depth earlier in the series, instead of an overload of information towards the end.
Conclusion
Despite its pacing issues, Pyramid Game succeeds in delivering a gripping psychological thriller, elevated by talented actresses and a masterful sound design. While it struggles with some narrative inconsistencies, the tension remains strong, making it a memorable experience.
Was this review helpful to you?
High School Drama that shows Societal Complexities
I was hesitant to start this drama when it came out all because it might just be another high school drama. It was not. I finished this one in just 3 days whereas my usual was a week or two for short dramas, sometimes to a month for a full-length (16 episodes, 1 hr 15 min run time). I was shocked that it had several elements and not just youthful elements. It really showed that adults can influence their children and as these children learn from adults, in turn, that's how they are as they grow. Yet, these adults wonder how they could have raised such children. Well?It was fast-paced and just had the right amount of episodes to fit all the things I needed to see. It does not really offer a good ending but I believe that's just how it could have that "happy ending" in reflection to real-life happenings. Despite having the option to escape things, the powerful, the rich, and those who have more resources and connection ALWAYS find their way out.
I already know that the protagonist will overcome things but getting there, it was thrilling! Just when you think she gets it, she doesn't. The solution was easy to end it all but getting there, as life always is, is complicated, or rather, we always try to complicate things before stopping them. This is also one of the best dramas for me this 2024.
Was this review helpful to you?
Being a monster is infectious
WHAT. A. SHOW.Do you like 8-10 episode long mystery storylines with revenge plots, plot twists and a range of character storylines?
Did you like The Glory, Celebrity, Battle Royale and Squid Game?
Consider this somehow a decent mix of elements from each, combining to give you a twist-filled drama that also serves as a social commentary on bullying and the hierarchy world.
I thoroughly enjoyed each episode, rather appreciated the character development and the dynamics.
I do wish there was more to say on certain aspects, making it difficult for me to say it was 10/10.
a 9/10 from me!
Was this review helpful to you?
FROM SOMEONE WHO HAS READ THE WEBTOON - AMAZING
i watched this drama, as you can tell, because i was a daily reader of the completed webtoon series of the same name that this drama was based upon. as someone who reads both webtoon and watches kdramas frequently, i often get disappointed by crap adaptations that deviate entirely from the plot (true beauty does this, worst kdrama ive watched by far)so when i watched this adaptation, i was pleasantly surprised by how close this was to the webtoon! the castings were spot on, the plot was nicely reshaped into a ten-episode format, and the main events were the exact same. i enjoyed jang da-ah as ha-rin and bona as sung soo-ji, i think they have nice coordination as actors and suit their respective roles perfectly. the casting of eun-byeol was INCREDIBLE - how could one play out a characters role so perfectly! she looks exactly like drawn eunbyeol in the webtoon- i instantly knew it was her. whilst pyramid game deviates ever so slightly from the webtoon, it is a very very good watch, and i can imagine how good this must be for anyone who hasnt read it. this is a MUST WATCH for anyone who is a fan of school and psychological themes!!!! and obviously, as per the webtoon, the ending is immaculate- no loose ends over here, my friends!!
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Good Protagonist Vs. Lackluster Antagonist
Pyramid Game is a drama that I think embodies the idea that simple storytelling can work well. This drama wasn't groundbreaking nor did I really expect it to be, but I still think it held its own fairly well. There's always an innate appeal of an underdog story and combine that with the promise of a thriller that is female led? It was impossible for me not to check it out.It's rare to find a decent story that is written about women for women and for it to actually portray female characters in a decent way. That might sound absurd, but from my experience it is quite rare to find one that isn't romance led. The premise was quite good: a teenage girl that moves around a lot is forced into a prestigious class that plays a sick hierarchy game that is lead by a sociopath. I really liked seeing how Suji maneuvered her way through an unfair system that she had no choice but to participate in. In fact, I'd argue it's hard not to like Suji as a protagonist; she's smart, perceptive, strong-willed, confident, and stands up for herself. It's not everyday that I find a female protagonist as compelling as she is, but Pyramid Game managed to sell me the simple story through her perspective. Though of course, you can't win 'em all; while I believe Suji was a good protagonist and an entertaining character, I can't deny that the rest of the cast doesn't really hold a candle to her.
Her friends aren't all that interesting except for maybe Ye Rim and Ja Eun to a degree. The others were just background dressing needed to advance the plot to bring down the Pyramid Game through sheer numbers. Jae Hyung's whole character is being bubbly and horny, Ji Ae is the loser that is a perpetual leech, and Eun Jung was Ye Rim's knight in shining armor. There really wasn't that much going for them outside of that. Ja Eun was Suji's opposite in the sense that she was the kindness opposed to Suji's firmness. But if I'm honest, I feel like all that she did was perpetually blame herself and try to save almost everyone even if they didn't deserve it. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with a lead that's motivations are linked to their guilt, but the issue is that guilt wasn't really deserved. Then that gets us to my main issue with the characters: Baek Ha Rin. I think she is a very weak villain for a story with a protagonist like Suji. First off, her actress isn't very distinguishable in the role; she isn't a bad actress, but she doesn't sell the character as this chilling mastermind that the writers want you to think she is. In reality, she just looks and sounds like an average girl that would be better suited as a minor antagonist rather than a main one. Da Yeon and Seo Ah were more interesting and encapsulated their antagonistical characters in comparison to Ha Rin's. She didn't have the smile of a sociopath, not the aesthetic of one, and most certainly not the charisma/aura of one. To make matters worse, her motivation was quite weak as well: she started a downright criminal hierarchical game that tears people down and leaves them as husks of themselves simply because she wanted to get back a previous friend from 2nd grade that accidentally initiated her getting bullied. Her bullying wasn't even severe from what was shown through flashbacks, so why was she so brutal in everything that she did? I didn't buy it. I know that she was called out for being pathetic by Suji because of her motivations, but that still doesn't change the fact that I believe the central antagonist in a story shouldn't have such shallow motives to commit atrocious sins that torment the cast throughout the entirety of the plot. I just found her extremely pathetic and actually pitied how her adoption was dissolved so late in life. I think what they really should have done was shown how she got from Point A to Point B; show how she went from a victim of name calling into a girl that manipulates people and thrives on extreme violence, such as burning a little orphan girl's palm. Ja Eun shouldn't have felt that extreme guilt anymore after everything Ha Rin put her and her classmates through. She even pushed Woo Ri into attempted suicide, yet Ja Eun's extreme guilt didn't budge. The punishments just do not fit the crime in her case.
Though, this series did do well in trying punish abusers decently well. Though it's unrealistic, it's still nice to see bullies be exposed for their crimes and the bystanders be called out for indirectly enabling said behavior. You don't see a story be so clear with punishing everyone quite as much as this one! Even Suji's father is forced to realize the pain of a parent that was oblivious to their child's suffering, and how closeminded he was in his beliefs. I think it's great that this show wasn't afraid to showcase how negligence from adults is what leads to a lot of children becoming bad people themselves. Especially considering the fact that the story takes place in a country that prioritizes age in regard to showing respect.
Something else that I appreciated was that the story was only 10 episodes long. I'm honestly tired of seeing Kdramas that think they need to reach 16 episodes in order to tell a full story. You don't need that many episodes!!! Pyramid Game used 10 50 minute episodes to tell a decent story and that was great on its part. Did the story drag at times? Yes. But was it still entertaining for the most part? Also yes. It didn't feel like the writers were just throwing in random plot points for the fuck of it. Everything had something to do with the overarching plot, so it never felt meaningless. It used its strengths of having a unique protagonist and a good premise and ran with it. I appreciated that it never tried to be some greater-than-thou story that I've seen one too many times; it started with a girl wanting to break down a corrupted hierarchy in her classroom, and it ended with her doing just that. She didn't go and fix world hunger or anything, she simply solved her own issue and didn't let herself become a doormat like everyone else did. I seriously don't know why writers think it's impossible to make a protagonist that can have their own self-interests as motivations. They don't all have to be white knights. Her bond with the convenience store guy was also quite cute. Something that I wish we were shown instead of told was how Ye Rim helped Woo Ri. We're told that Ye Rim originally tried to go against the Pyramid Game, but we're never shown that. It also made it harder to accept her coughing up her idol dreams when she seemed the least deserving of such an outcome. I also would've liked to see her and Eun Jung's relationship confirmed, rather than ambiguous. I loved that they included the LGBTQ without showing an agenda in the audience's faces, but I think it would've been even more impactful had it been confirmed rather than left open ended. I choose to believe they ended up together.
The production was decent, but not extraordinary. Though, I never expected it to be, so I wasn't heartbroken over it or anything. The music was fine but was too reliant on the opening song for any semi-climactic scene in every single episode. I think they must've only had one song at their disposal. Settings were never really exemplary except for maybe the first shots of the prestigious class building and absurdly high budgeted bathroom.
Overall, I liked this show more than I disliked it. It wasn't extraordinary, but it was a good timewaster. It gives me hope for future Webtoon adaptations. The ending featuring the Miryo twins and indicating Suji's second round of outmanipulating mean girls made me actually wish there was a season 2. I would've loved to see the same type of story except with more compelling antagonists next time. It's just a shame that it's heavily unlikely to ever get a second season since the Webtoon of it is marked as completed.
Was this review helpful to you?
Hierarchy
After finishing "Alice in Borderland," I decided to give this series a try, and I really like it! It brought me back to the series "SCHOOL 2015".Baek Ha Rin really got to me—she's such a difficult character! But honestly, if you dislike her, that just means the actress is doing a great job portraying her. Her acting is impressive! Every time I see her, I can't help but think of Wonyoung. 😅
Bona is on another level; I absolutely love her! From "Twenty-Five Twenty-One" to this show, the quality is amazing. The story, setting, soundtrack, characters, villains, and even the bystanders are all well portrayed!
I really appreciate how calm Su-ji is—she's a perfect example of a nonchalant person. I love her energy and her dedication to keep moving forward, despite the betrayals and lack of support from others. It's a great life lesson.
I adore the group she has created, and the paintball scenes are just fantastic! 😭
Overall, this drama is excellent! It has a vibe similar to "The Glory," and I love themes of revenge and getting back at those who deserve it.
I'm proud of the cast; you all did an amazing job! This series is definitely a must-watch!
1/20/25 925PM
Was this review helpful to you?
Society Pyramid
The story is about a school where the student held a game called Pyramid Game. This game has a rule where the top is an A grade and the lowest is an F grade. When the student gets an A grade, he/she's like a King or Queen and nobody can disobey them. The opposite of an A grade which is an F grade got bullied and never got a chance to fight back. Later on, the story becomes interesting when an F grade tries all ways to get a higher position and to have revenge.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Psychological warfare game
It's interesting that the drama posits Soo Ji who is middleclass be the one that successfully fights back against the heiress bully Ha Rin. Ha Rin hand selected her to be in her class because of her background, mistaking her for easy to control. Soo Ji's sole familial connection actually doesn't have any thing that can be used against her aside from some easily disproven rumors. Soo Ji is financially stable, has good grades, and her largely absent military father has pushed her to be the utmost versatile independent problem solver for everything other than physical self defense. I don't think this guy will ever understand how neglectful he's been even after seeing what kind of bully she's actually been dealing with all on her own. I really like that Soo Ji is no saint, she just wants to stay in the middle, strategically forming surface level friendships until she can safely move onto whichever new school in the city her dad moves them to next. Even facing the violence that she'll be complicit in enabling in the pyramid game, she just wants to stay in the middle as well, but her conscience is challenged by Ja Eun, and finally uses her brain power for the greater good.Soo Ji's cleverness and Ha Rin's cunning is a great match throughout the show. Everyone is involved in the plot in an interesting way and I like how there are moments where it shows the light of true friendship in between all the darkness that envelops the class because of the pyramid game. I quite enjoyed the paintball scene where they broke the prisoner game by turning the paintball shots on themselves, but it's not quite realistic that they were shooting each other for fun. Those paint pellets really hurt, especially at such close distance. One of them is for real all kinds of freaky though lol. I like how Woo Ri has her own storyline that goes beyond just being the first victim, but she gets to be a hero too. She tracked Ye Lim's stalking behavior albeit when she was doing her own borderline stalking behavior and broke through her agoraphobia to save her former classmate and later spoke out publicly about the pyramid game. Her brother is nice, supporting his sister and also Soo Ji and the other students as one of the rare adults who care.
Some weak parts of the show is definitely how conveniently Ja Eun gets interrupted every single time she's about to tell Soo Ji what happened between her and Ha Rin that makes her hate her so much. It's so inorganic and obvious of the show to stretch out that plot point. That's very sloppy writing indeed. It turned out that it wasn't even the only reason, so they still had something to reveal at the end. Instead it always looked like Soo Ji is missing some crucial information whenever she formulated her plans. There was no need for the principle to be so cartoony when no one else acts like that. Ha Rin's final play to make Ja Eun watch her die was pretty weak, as is her comeuppance having her adoption dissolved. Da Yun continuing to be abused by her dad who gets to comeuppances like that is the punishment she deserves for being abusive to others. Perhaps that is part of the story where the ones at the very top continue to have their way and new ones like the rich twins that move into the class arrive to replace the top of the pyramid. Soo Ji is ready to take them down though.
Was this review helpful to you?
ဇာတ်ကားကို ဇာတ်ကားလိုပဲ ကြည့်ပါ
ကြည့်ကောင်းပါတယ် ၊ တစ်ပိုင်းပြီး တစ်ပိုင်း ဆက်ကြည့်ချင်နေတာ ၊ ဇာတ်လမ်းဇာတ်ကွက်လည်းကောင်းပါတယ် ၊ မင်းသမီးတွေ သရုပ်ဆောင်တာလည်း ကောင်းတယ် ၊ ဇာတ်လမ်းဇာတ်ကွက်ကတော့ ရိုးရှင်းပါတယ် ၊ ဒါပေမဲ့ တကယ့်လက်တွေ့ဘဝနဲ့ ယှဉ်ပြီး ကြည့်မယ်ဆိုရင်တော့ အဓိပ္ပာယ် သိပ်မရှိဘူးပေါ့ ၊ ဇာတ်ကားထဲက ဘဝနဲ့ ကြည့်မယ်ဆိုရင်တော့ တကယ် ကကြည့်လို့ကောင်းပါတယ် ၊ တစ်ပိုင်းနဲ့ တစ်ပိုင်း ပျင်းဖို့ကောင်းတဲ့နေရာမရှိဘူးWas this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
The best drama of the year, without a doubt!
I really had high expectations for this drama because it was only about women.Don't get me wrong, I like romance but in this drama there was no place for men or fighting over men. It was a sinister battle between women.
It's really interesting that they will use the concept of the pyramid. Because that's really what happens in all aspects of life. Whoever possesses wealth, power and beauty are above others. And the lowest of us must survive, as the protagonist and her friends did.
There is no black or white here, there are nuances in some characters. Many girls did not want to play this game but they had to do so to survive the macabre game that the antagonist had created.
I love Sooji's intelligence. At first she is strong and tries to survive, after seeing Myung Ja Eun she changes her focus and knows that she needs to destroy the game that Ha Rin created so that she can receive punishment from her and end the bullying.
The actress really did a great job. Although her personality is calm, upon being involved in this game and being a victim, she is extremely intelligent to little by little build a rebellion among the girls and cause Har Rin's pyramid to be destroyed little by little. It is too satisfying to see how she and her friends triumph in the end and give Ha rin a game over.
Not only does it show intense bullying, but it also makes me think that sometimes women are our own worst enemies.
I was very happy to see that a teacher really cared about what was happening and didn't really care about losing her job if she had to protect one of her students.
She didn't turn a blind eye to what was happening, like other teachers.
I'm didn't take it as a really feminist drama, perhaps a little because they showed the love relationship between two girls (I loved that), but as a rebellion against bullying and her own parents who put everything they wanted into their daughters.
I also love both reflections that the protagonist makes. The first is a talk she has with Myung Ja, which makes her understand that it doesn't matter that she led Ha Rin to be the way she was. It had no justification, in the end she was just a harasser who made excuses for her past, which was not as serious as what she did, to be a harasser and rely on "I was also a victim once."
The second reflection that I really liked was that she was also a spectator. This happens when she sees a group of girls walk past her, who were clearly harassing a girl. In the past she wouldn't have cared, because she just wanted to have a peaceful school life and not get involved in those problems (there she recognizes that she was also a spectator) but now she turned around to face these situations and save someone who is being harassed.
I also liked that each girl who stayed by Sooji's side took it as a lost dream or losing privileges from their parents, because they believed that since they were spectators, they also deserved punishment. For looking into the past and doing nothing to stop it.
It is clearly seen at the end that two twins enter, ready to play the pyramid game again, but when Sooji sees them and smiles, you know that won't happen again. She won't let it happen again. She is ready for another battle, but this time she is not alone, this time she has her friends on her side to stop this.
The performances were perfect. I read that some actresses were just making their acting debut, but they really did an impeccable job.
The soundtrack made you feel tense all the time not knowing what twist the plot was going to take, because there really are no cliché twists here. There are twists here that you don't even expect to happen and that leaves you trapped in each chapter.
The cinematography is perfect too.
There's really nothing wrong that I've found. Or maybe it is... that it is so underflown! This drama is really much better and superior than many dramas we have been watching so far and it is not that popular. That bothers me a lot!
In general, I stick with this reflection: "If you see that someone is a victim of abuse, don't look to the side, go and help them. Who knows if tomorrow you won't be in their place."
Was this review helpful to you?
The most unexpected Highschool series
My Review of Pyramid Game (K-Drama): I wasn’t really interested during the first three episodes, but I decided to give it a chance—and honestly, I got hooked. It was totally worth it. The characters’ storylines and backgrounds were intriguing. The plot was twisted in a good way, though I found it a bit confusing at first. I couldn’t quite tell who was who in the beginning. But I ended up really liking it, especially the mission aspect of the series.The Pyramid Game itself was used as a tool, and it was fascinating to watch the bullies end up getting bullied. It made me feel sad for them once I learned about their backstories and the environments they came from.
The two girls who stood out to me were Beak Ha Rin and Myung Ja Eun. Beak Ha Rin’s betrayal of her childhood friend added a heartbreaking layer to the story—it was painful to watch, but it made the drama even more compelling. Myung Ja Eun was my favorite. I really admired how she cared more about the people than the game itself. I felt connected to her, even though she was often too shy to speak up. Her vulnerability around Beak Ha Rin made her feel so real and relatable.
Was this review helpful to you?
A very refreshing watch.
I don’t usually leave reviews but this drama is absolutely amazing.I’ve been dropping a lot of dramas lately because most of them were boring and weren’t thrilling enough. But this drama is so well executed.
First the cast; I really liked Bona in 2521 and I watched this drama because of her, before I started the show I wasn’t sure if should watch it or not because every time I watch the show because of the actor, it ends up being boring, but this one was different. The actor who portrayed Baek Ha Rin was so good, I’m honestly surprised that this was her first drama. Even though this show had a lot of rookie actors everyone acted and portrayed their character really well.
The story was so well executed and each episode just made you want to keep watching. The ending of each episode was left on a semi-cliffhanger making you want to watch more and more. The music/sound effects were well chosen, it made the show even more thrilling to watch, and the intro music was so good, it fits in with the drama so well.
Although I don’t think this show needs a season 2, I would sure love to see one. This cast and story is so refreshing to watch. I definitely recommend this.
Was this review helpful to you?
