Mr. Plankton

Tragically Beautiful..

Mr. Plankton was a total gem from start to finish.. It truly set a high standard.. Delivered quality in every departments.. From start to finish there were no bad scenes.. No bad characters.. And not a single bad performance from any of the actors.. Each actor brought depth and authenticity to their role.. Made them essential to the story no matter how small their screentime is.. Cinematography was impressive.. The romance was just chaotic.. Messy and yet strangely perfect.. They were a chaotic couple.. And funny even when they shouldnt be.. And come on what more can you expect from a drama that had two marriages in the first episode and The ML kidnapped both the brides.. It was a rollercoaster of chaos and fun..

The first scene itself screamed ' No happy ending here '.. And that was actually the way to go.. The entire story leading to that last moment.. ' His Death '.. That was the perfect ending.. No miracle cure.. Nothing magical.. Just a journey filled with Love..
Comedy and Pure Messy Romance..

At one point.. I genuinely feared that WDH wasnt just acting.. Maybe he was actually going through something himself.. He was that good.. He was really living the character..

The scene where Jae Mi kissed Hae Jo at that the bus stop after kidnapping him from the hospital honestly didnt feel like it was scripted.. It felt real.. As real as it can be.. Such a perfect moment..

And the last scene..

" In the end.. You are the final scene of my life.. I guess that means i had a pretty good life.. "

What a powerful way to end the story.. The ending was expected but heartbreaking nonetheless..

Overall.. Another strong contender for drama of the year.. Loved the characters journey and their warm connection and relationship with each other.. WDH certainly deserves an award for his performance here.. And kudos to the writer for that ending.. This drama is going to stay with me for a long time..

They entered our lives so effortlessly.. And in just ten episodes.. They left us shattered and aching..

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Balancing angst and comedy

Combining the angsty plot of terminal illness while also trying to maintain loud and slapstick humor is a very difficult feat but Mr. Plankton managed to do it extremely well. The humorous scenes are laugh-out-loud funny, while the sad scenes still hit really hard, and I never felt like I was getting whiplash between them.

As much as I love green flag MLs, I do think several kdramas have overcorrected recently; it's actually refreshing to get a drama that gives both its leads stories that have equal weight, and to see an ML that has more purpose than to just be in love with the FL. With that being said, Hae-jo's character is absolutely the best part of this show, and WDH plays him to perfection.

I feel a little more mixed on the other characters, to be honest. While I liked Jae-mi's plot, I wish we focused more on her desire to be a mother and have a family. The flashback we got of her at the orphanage is extremely touching. Instead, it seems like we get a lot of her relationship with Eo Heung and his mother. I don't necessarily dislike this, but it's weird. The drama does a fantastic job of making Heung a sympathetic character. His capacity for love is so great and his relationship with his mother goes through such important development, but I still never quite felt the emotions of it, not when Jae-mi and Hae-jo's dynamic is so strong and heart-wrenching. I also felt liek the love triangle was dragged out just a little too long; we saw clips of Jae-mi/Heung and they're cute but as a viewer I never once believed that they belonged together.

I did, however, still enjoy the humorous scenes with the three of them, and I almost wish we got a longer road trip type plot, with a new character (Gi-ho, Bong-suk) joining them in the car ride to each next sperm donor. It would have made the party scene at the end feel more meaningful, because I actually don't think we saw them spend much time together before then.

Overall, I think the first half worked better for me. Something about the bickering and the chaos was just so fun, whereas the last few episodes seems to have Hae-jo leaving Jae-mi stranded as a plot point multiple times. The ending also needed to be extended a little longer for things to get tied up. The plot is pretty outlandish — sometimes it works because it absolutely leans into it, and sometimes I had to remind myself "this is a DRAMA and that's why Hae-jo is still allowed to drive." Either way, it's fun.

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Good watch for those who enjoy tragic love stories....

This drama is really good if you enjoy dramas with a beautiful emotional love story. It’s a story of 2 people who did not have a childhood filled with happiness. They found each other and fell in love however unfortunate events kept happening to them.

I watched the entire show in a day so it’s definitely possible to binge watch the show. #Woodohwan and #Leeyoumi had insane chemistry and their acting was so good! Haejo’s character was very free spirited and he liked doing things without any plans. Jaemi is very extroverted and has an outgoing personality. Both of them suit each other well cause they relate to similar pain.

Now the story is really very simple, there is no plot twist and nothing really shocking. It’s a very simple deep love story. So for this genre it’s good but personally not my style of show so there were parts where I just skipped…

I enjoyed the relationships shown in the drama especially Haejo and Bongsuk who was basically his guardian since he was young. She cared for him as a mother / sister and was always there for him.

Jaemi had a fiancé who she was going to marry and he was deeply in love with her. Initially I didn’t think he was going to have such a big role in the drama. But he is actually the second male lead. So there are many scenes regarding his family issues as well. He was an understanding SML though always thinking about her happiness so nothing toxic! (just that maybe there was too much screen time regarding his issues)

I’m sure everyone who will watch this knows the ending so…. 🙃 Everything is revealed in episode 1 itself so there isn’t any shocking reveals after that.

For those who really like the emotional tragedy kind of romance then this is for you! There is fluff definitely but it’s all under the shadow of tragedy so… 🥺

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Woo Do-Hwan never fails!

Woo Do-Hwan never fails to please!

My two top Korean actors right now are Woo Do Hwan and Lee Do-Hyun.

I first saw WDH in Save Me and my favourite ones out of his dramas would have to be:

My Country and Bloodhounds.

With Mr Plankton I really enjoyed it for the first 7 episodes and then I'm not sure where it quite started turning for me, but it did.

I hesitated to watch this drama because I knew the fate of his character and didn't want to go through that all again like with My Country.

With Mr Plankton the ending was sad, but not as devastatingly sad for me like what happened in My Country for some reason.

Have seen others of his dramas in full like: Save Me, Tempted and Mad Dog which I really enjoyed as well.

As for Joseon Attorney (4-6 episodes) and King Eternal Monarch (half) and didn't mind these either except maybe Joseon Attorney would probably be the least liked one out of them all. Not because of him, but rather the story itself.

King Monarch I would probably finish only he isn't the male lead.

In regards to Mr Plankton, it is about the main character being diagnosed with a terminal disease (less than 3 months to live) so he goes on this personal journey to find his real father, only decides to kidnap his ex girlfriend at the start, just as she is about to get married with a gang on his tail out for revenge.

It has a great mix of humour, a solid story line, drama, action, a sad or bittersweet feel, romance and adventure.

The music is so so - nothing really stood out like Stay With Me (Goblin) or Butterflies (Wedding Impossible).

A major dislike for me would be the female in this as she got on my nerves with her crying - it is the worst, also, her hissy fits. I really wish I could have reached through the screen to slap her out of it. Really annoying!!! Far too many scenes for my liking and she grated me the wrong way as she sounded terrible. Couldn't stand it! Her other scenes were mostly fine - just the sobbing and hysterics were irritating. Terrible! She really did come across as being idiotic quite a bit of the time which was unfortunate - I'm not sure what he saw in her. Another minor peeve was the way she ran. Weird!

Wouldn't it be something to have a female that is mature even when annoyed yet sassy, full of spunk, charismatic and adorable even if not dropdead gorgeous. Just not a cry baby, nagger, whiner or screamer.

I need a female actor that can pull it off like WDH, who in my humble opinion, is one the BEST actors in the industry for crying, laughing and emoting expressions and feelings. His crying or sobbing scenes in My Country were believable, but especially that one scene inside the room with that silk item and his name embroidered on it probably due to the significance of what it meant.

Simply the BEST!!!

The gut wrenching moments in this drama definitely have momentum, but not as impactful as two specific scenes in My Country.

What else?

I really enjoyed the bond that was made on the road trip back to Seoul between the Heir and character played by WDH - the bromance was fantastic and seemed better than what was between WDH and the main female lead at times!

WDH has a beautiful laugh, way of chuckling and tantalising manner with particular words or expressions.

Him and only him!

Anyways, Mr Plankton is recommended for those that like a good mix of everything, but after episode 7 it doesn't seem as exciting and seems rushed or done so as not to leave any loose ends. But...done so without depth.

Maybe one loose end actually - I don't remember seeing anything about the test results of the 3rd candidate. 🧐

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Mr. Plankton Review - ZyKuu

"Two drifters embark on their final trip together" - The story is very chaotic but entertaining, and there are many valuable life lessons taught throughout the show. The cast was sweet and sour for me. I am a huge fan on the main lead Hae-jo, I thought he played his role well and was the most excellent amongst the cast. The female lead Jae-mi was wonderful as well and she really displayed her acting ability. Their romantic chemistry was great. Other roles that I enjoyed were Bong-suk and KKari. I found them to be great side characters that added to every moment and made the show more memorable. The OST was decent and I was pleased by the shows aesthetic. This drama is somewhat random, but everything ties together neatly. The show is very eventful, and the lessons taught within are golden.

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Life and death are in the power of the tongue.

The only goal of this review is to explore spiritual themes and messaging in Mr. Plankton. I'm not analyzing on any other level, so if that's your thing, let's get into it.
The story begins with the fulfillment of two curses, previously spoken by the leads over each other at the end of a very unpleasant breakup. Jae Mi tells Hae Jo that he'll die alone in the street and Hae Jo tells Jae Mi that she'll never be a mother. Unseen, the forces of darkness leap to bring about the circumstances necessary to enact these words and several years later, on the same day, in the same hospital, Hae Jo is diagnosed with a terminal case of tangled blood vessels in his brain, and Jae Mi is told she's entered premature menopause.
Hae Jo is the more intuitive of the two and seems to understand that the road to redemption is through Jae Mi, so he kidnaps her from her wedding. Her wedding is a farce, a play where everyone is playing their part no matter how ridiculous. Jae Mi has no real self-esteem and has built a house of cards with her fiancé that will come crashing down the moment his family realizes she's not pregnant nor likely to be in the future. Hae Jo recognizes that she is not being honest with herself because of her desperation for family. What he doesn't recognize is that his own repeated abandonment of Jae Mi is a different reaction to the same desperation.
A series of adventures begins in which Hae Jo looks for his father and drags Jae Mi along with him. The story bounces back and forth between outrageous shenanigans and moments of genuine connection and soulfulness. In a particularly moving scene, Jae Mi asks Hae Jo to sing her a song. "You were made to receive the greatest love. You'll feel it in every part of your life." He sings life over her. Not an exact reversal of the original curse but powerful nonetheless.
Later in the story, when Hae Jo has flatlined once and seems near to death, Jae Mi decides to sneak his unconscious body out of the hospital. It's completely ridiculous, but in a moment of desperation she finally tells him she doesn't want him to die. She pulls back a corner of the curse blanketing him and he awakens. She buys him some time.
Unfortunately for this story, and the swollen eyed writer of this review, neither Hae Jo no Jae Mi ever fully understand the power of their own tongues. Reversing a curse requires repeated application over a period of time and so we're left with a story of limited redemption and a pretty heart wrenching ending. Here's hoping that radical, destiny changing, curse reversing redemption becomes increasingly common in future endeavors in storytelling in Kdramaland.

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Entertaining Plot, Annoying Leads

My 4 categories are Acting/Cast, Writing, Direction/SFX/Music, Entertainment Value.

I decided to watch this because people seemed to really like it and it stars Woo Do Hwan (우도환). I want to like him, but I haven’t liked him in anything I’ve seen him in so far. Maybe this drama will be the one that changes my mind.

Acting/Cast: Many familiar faces in this drama. That was nice. I can say Woo Do Hwan’s acting was better in this drama, but unfortunately his character wasn’t likable. The female lead started off alright, but she became increasingly annoying over the course of the drama. The second male lead was a decent character though. 4.5/10

Writing: I’m just not into the red flag male leads at this age. I want more green flags and healthy relationships. The constant fighting between the leads, the constant psychological abuse (the female lead is an orphan and, knowing this, the male lead repeatedly abandons her)…it was just…not cute at all. And after all the torment the male lead puts her through, she is the one that needs to repeatedly prove her love for him. By the end of the drama, I was thoroughly irritated by the whole thing and I was completely okay with the idea of the male lead dying. I wasn’t buying their chemistry as a couple. I actually thought her chemistry with the second male lead was better, although I couldn’t support their relationship either. There are also questionable things in this drama that was difficult for me to even want to watch…relationships with large age gaps…even grooming?? The humor is also very cringey to me. Instead of laughing, I’d be saying ‘wtf??’ or ‘ew…’ (for instance, the second male lead had a habit of exposing himself in public as an act of protest, as well as having scenes that insinuated that he might whip it out randomly and sexually assault someone.) The male lead’s character didn’t feel realistic. He would be a broody asshole one moment and then suddenly be super goofy and happy the next. The female lead’s character also didn’t feel authentic. After all the psychological abuse she’s endured, there’s no way she would be that cheerful. The message of the drama was lame as hell. There’s two storylines happening and both are all about the importance of bloodlines. By the end, the two leads and the second lead and his mom (all with their own issues regarding their own bloodlines) finally realize that blood isn’t what makes people family or makes people happy. Well yeah, no shit...welcome to the 21st century. So, nothing revolutionary here at all. The basic plot of the drama is actually entertaining – a guy kidnaps his ex from her wedding to have her go on a quest with him to find his biological dad before he dies, while getting chased by gangs and falling in love again – but this bloodline obsession stuff is just weak. This drama was fun when it wasn’t taking itself too seriously. 1.5/10

Direction/SFX/Music: I didn’t have much complaints in this area. It’s definitely a well-produced drama, which is a big reason why it held my attention despite all the issues I had with the writing. The music is ok, but there's something that bothers me about it. They used an American song called California Dreamin'...maybe that's why? It doesn't fit? 6/10

Entertainment Value: The plot is pretty exciting, especially for the first half. The characters weren’t likeable enough for me to really care about them by the end of the drama though. Their toxic behavior becomes repetitive and annoying. The overall message was too basic to have any lasting impact on me. The toxic relationships left me feeling weird about the whole thing (especially the grooming…wtf?). 4.5/10

Overall, I gave this drama a 4/10. This was tough to rate. It was entertaining, well-produced, and well-acted. But there were so many things in the writing that just didn’t work for me personally and I felt like it was a waste. I can’t recommend this drama, especially to those who have been in abusive relationships (I feel this drama normalizes psychological abuse in relationships and even romanticizes it). However, it is a quick watch (only 10 episodes) and easy to binge.

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An adventure show with great vives

The show mixes a between a lot of genres and often succeeds in most of the parts it is trying to play. It's main issue is that the show is short with a very simple plot that could have been a 2 hour movie.

The main 3 characters have decent chemistry between each other, one often carrying the other; however, it is often annoying that all of them feel incomplete and don't talk their mind ever. The male lead is dying but refuses to tell anyone and even in the end he does not feel that sick so that story point seemed moot. The female lead had issues getting pregnant but It did not have any meaningful impact in the story and no one really cared at all about the issue. And other the male character was so incompetent in everything that I always ignored him.

It's a shame that none of the plot points mattered and it is just a simple journey/adventure show, where you get to see new things and places. I enjoyed the first few episodes but later nothing seemed to happen between any characters. I was confident after episode 4 or 5 that the main lead is gonna be fine after the show and it is going to be a simple ass ending and I was right. I am not saying it is a bad thing is that I would have loved to have some changes to happen and something of consequence to occur in each episode. And in my opinion nothing was going on.

In conclusion, the show had a bit too small of a plot to not be a movie and be a full fledged series. It is a mini series and it succeeds in doing that. I would have loved the show to have some consequences or some changes in situations between the leads and the people surrounding them as I got super bored after episode 6. But it is a well acted and directed mini show that delivers in what it promises.

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Toxicity is just io much here...

So i started watching this series casually and was hooked at the beginning until became just too much.... It started off ok, a kind of angsty romance which I'm usually here for. This is until the the ML became just too toxic, which the FL was somehow increasingly ok with.

- For the good
I really liked that in this series, the FL wasn't this shy girl who is scared to touch a guy, not mentioning sleeping with him. Same goes for the ML. When they are romantically close, they seem to be quite open and grown up, which I always appreciate in a series. No need to make a kiss sth so scary when u r a full grown adult.

-For the not so good....
The dynamic between the FL and ML is just bad. All the shouting, shaking, grabbing and forcefully pulling.... you would think it was some old school romance kdrama from 2010 but no. The writers were trying their best to make him this complicated character with complicated past, which should somehow excuse his awful behaviour but I was having none of that. Just because you have a brain tumour doesn't mean you are allowed to treat people like shit. Nor does it allow you to completely ruin the life of your ex girlfriend just cuz u feel lonely. Even if it's only for 3 months.

While this whole mess of a human being was looking for his father, the FL fell for him all over again, to the point where her low effort escape attempts were just.... pathetic. And her telling him, basically screaming, that he ruined her life is.... very dramatic but very useless because he manhandles her and she just gives in, always coming back to him.

The dynamic between those 2 characters was incredibly toxic but the way it's written, we should cheer for this couple and be happy that each time she has an opportunity to run away, she doesn't. Look at him, he saw that she liked some shoes and got it for her such a great guy (sarcasm) ...... bleh.

We shouldn't forget that there's the SML, the man the FL was supposed to marry and another guy who is the friend of the ML, both being the comedic relief of this angsty drama. Jokes about 2 guys acting gay, a guy pissing him self from fear, a dumb spoiled mammas boy... how are those even funny ? Those "comedic" moments made me feel as if I'm watching an old poorly aged kdrama.... cmon, we r in 2024...... we can do better than that....

Overall, I'm not gonna even finish the drama. The development so far has been meh and I'm tired of seeing the FL just accepting all the harassment coming from the ML just cuz. And im also tired of this series trying to put the ML in the positive light using the most low effort things. Their relationship is awful and I'm not here for it.

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I liked it until it lost me

TRIGGER WARNINGS of this series: Infertility issues, illness, death.
Comedy is on the thinner side and there is also melodrama.

Looking at the ratings of this drama I feel like I watched a different one than everyone else.
I really wanted to like this series because the premise and the start had potential and there are things I liked in the portrayal of flawed characters that don't do the best of things, but sadly this just progressively lost me as episodes went on and things started to annoy me.

Overall my main two issues here are:
The execution of the plot is a mess at times, it wants to do too many things at the same time but none are necessarily solved or are just there for the pure chaos of it, it got kind of boring. I certainly didn't expect to find this show boring considering its length and how much I wanted to like it because the characters are not presented as perfect like in many other dramas. At points I felt kind of disappointed in myself for not finding it engaging enough but I literally fell asleep a few times, and I never fall asleep with series or movies. Funny enough is how I didn't even bother in going back and I don't feel I missed anything even though I missed in total probably about an hour and a half or a bit more of the total series.
Until the later episodes most of it it's just going and coming from places without enough of a substance to me, felt like a lot of padding. They're just looking for the potential father while he's dragging the girl around and the other two are following them, and the scenes with SML's mother and all that I still don't know what they added to the plot.

The second worst thing in this drama is once again the obsession with the bloodline. At points I thought it was presenting different ideas here because of the main characters and the plot in general, only to fall into the same silly ideas with the blood and how once you see your parents "you know" just because and unconditional love and blah blah blah. Equally silly was the expectation that some dude that might be his potential father would care about him just because he gave the sperm once, this is when they were theorising what that potential father might do or not for him as well as potential inheritance. And then only in the end to go back to a father that was a piece of s*** and abandoned him back in the time. "Oh, but he did go to the school though!!" someone might say, yeah, and after he was missing he didn't move a finger to find him, and apparently didn't care about her blood daughter either. I get ML needed the closure so to speak, but he said it more in the line of getting back some kind of relationship with him again, what falls again into this korean idea that parents don't do wrong and that at the end of the day everything needs to be forgiven because they're your parents, blood and "unconditional love" again.
The whole series revolves too much around "daddy issues" and I'm not a fan of this plot device.

I get it wanted to be comedy at some points but at times it was simply bad taste to me, like how FL wanted to take that baby in the beginning or when she takes ML from the hospital towards the end.
I also didn't appreciate much the duality of going from comedy to melodrama from one scene to another. I don't like melodrama in general either but I think that the comedy bits fell even more flat at times when straight before or after everyone was having a melodramatic moment. One second they're crying about something and the next it's like it never happened and everyone is happy to then remember and cry again.

There are quite a few side characters for such a short drama and I don't feel any of them was explored in depth what it would be fine if it wasn't because it feels they wanted me to care more about them than I did. SML is explored more but it could have been better in my opinion, his whole personality is more or less following the girl all around for most of the drama and it's progressed quickly to have his ending as it is.

I liked the ML for the mess he is, but I would have liked a tiny bit of growth, why is everyone still following him around when he's trying so hard to push everyone away? just leave him get lost then. It's funny that of all the things he did that was the worst for me, because as a viewer this dynamic got repetitive. He's a bad person but a good character, but I wish there had been some progression and that we didn't get the same dynamics of him rejecting people to then leave to then the others try and follow him, it got old quickly.
FL was ok for the most part until she started annoying me with her extremely childish tantrums, she spends half the show screaming. So she might be a good character again but in her case I didn't enjoy watching her.
Her side of the story is never explored enough anyway, we're given some pieces but there is never more exploration about it. She didn't even ask the bio mother anything either, she just spent the time screaming once again. We're also not given any other answer or even conclusion to her menopause thing, because it's not a black or white topic that it's how they presented it here, she's told, that's the end apparently. Her character in general revolves too much around ML and she's just a girl with two personality traits.

The ending was expected considering how the show starts and still was a bit anti-climactic in my opinion, even more that credits scene with the car driving, it's that FL with ML's body inside or what? It also felt a bit rushed since we got so many bits of their trip in a few scenes, I really wished this had been a good chunk of the drama instead of the thugs pursuing them in the first half for example.

Overall it's not an awful drama and it can be watched. I wouldn't rewatch it personally and I wouldn't recommend to people that wants happy endings, perfect characters nor to those that might be triggered by some of the topics.

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