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This review may contain spoilers
This series was a story full of potential, only half realised.
I don’t know how to feel about this one but I’ll try to put together my thoughts.
On the one hand the main character is like a blend of Si-eun and Beom-Seok from Weak Hero Class. This is what intrigued me at first. It’s an interesting portrayal of young male rage (or in this case - young male Asian rage) and the cycle of violence.
However, on the other hand, I’m unsure of what story they were actually trying to tell. Even up to episode 7 I had no idea where the story was headed, and not in an exciting or intriguing way either, but rather in a perplexing and scattered narrative kind of way. When this happens it usually puts a lot of pressure on the last episode to tie everything together. I was worried when we got to the half way mark of episode 8 and I was still none the wiser. There were so many different narratives and characters’ stories that didn’t seem to tie-in much below the surface level violence.
I’m not trying to be obtuse. I understand that they are tackling the topic of violence and showing how violence begets violence, but why? And how is this informing the audience about the purpose of Ui-gyeom’s story. Past this surface level plot, how does this violence impact on Ui-gyeom behaviours now/going forward and why does it manifest in this way? What are his motivations, his outcome, and lessons learned or take-aways from this, or even his thoughts for the future or about what he has done or himself? That’s all left unexplored, unfortunately. We don’t even know how Ui-gyeom feels now the dust is settled. Has he become a monster? Is he a school hero? Is he an anti-hero? Is he neither? Is he all of the above? What does he think? What does his peers think? What do the adults and his parents think? I get that life doesn’t wrap up neatly or typically have a ‘message’ or a point to it, but this is a crafted story and stories should have a purpose to them (narratively speaking).
E.g. Is this a story drawing parallels between Ui-gyeom and the two bully characters that realised fighting wasn’t worth it to exorcise their demons? No. That’s not it. Perhaps it’s showing how friendship, or having someone care enough about Ui-gyeom’s wellbeing can help him on the path to slowly healing the feeling of brokenness and the pent up rage he has inside him? Nope, I don’t think that’s it either. Then, is it about Ui-gyeom taking responsibility for his actions, recognising this and breaking the cycle of violence? Uh-uh. Alright then, it must be a character exploration of Ui-gyeom’s descent into violent madness and how you can’t get out of the violent cycle once you are deep in it. Nope, wrong again. Maybe it’s all four? Could be, but the story never really explores these fully or commits to any of them narratively. It touches on them and then swiftly moves on.
It’s frustrating that it took the last 10 minutes for the series to finally ‘say something’ about what story they were trying to tell, because by then there wasn’t a lot of time left to explore and unpack now that it was getting interesting.
I can’t say this series was satisfying. It left me more befuddled than anything else. It wasn’t half bad but it wasn’t that solid either. What was the take-away supposed to be? That this was primarily a series about bully violence with just enough background plot and character development to break up the fight scenes?! What was this all supposed to be building to? What was the point of, or the take-away from Ui-gyeom’s story? Is he going to get the help he needs? Is he going to unpack his trauma? Is it exploring the effects of the cycle of violence through Ui-gyeom and the consequences/impact on the character? Is he going to say f-it and lean into the violence from now on? Heck, will he be scouted for the 2028 Olympics combat sports? Or was this series merely setting up for a new fight-club style school series? What’s the conclusion of where Ui-gyeom is at in his story/journey and his psychological state of mind, feelings about himself and his future? Who will he be from this point on? No one knows. This isn’t a clever open ending. It’s the conclusion of an underdeveloped story. And it’s just so frustrating.
As the tile says; this was a series with a story full of potential, only half realised.
On the one hand the main character is like a blend of Si-eun and Beom-Seok from Weak Hero Class. This is what intrigued me at first. It’s an interesting portrayal of young male rage (or in this case - young male Asian rage) and the cycle of violence.
However, on the other hand, I’m unsure of what story they were actually trying to tell. Even up to episode 7 I had no idea where the story was headed, and not in an exciting or intriguing way either, but rather in a perplexing and scattered narrative kind of way. When this happens it usually puts a lot of pressure on the last episode to tie everything together. I was worried when we got to the half way mark of episode 8 and I was still none the wiser. There were so many different narratives and characters’ stories that didn’t seem to tie-in much below the surface level violence.
I’m not trying to be obtuse. I understand that they are tackling the topic of violence and showing how violence begets violence, but why? And how is this informing the audience about the purpose of Ui-gyeom’s story. Past this surface level plot, how does this violence impact on Ui-gyeom behaviours now/going forward and why does it manifest in this way? What are his motivations, his outcome, and lessons learned or take-aways from this, or even his thoughts for the future or about what he has done or himself? That’s all left unexplored, unfortunately. We don’t even know how Ui-gyeom feels now the dust is settled. Has he become a monster? Is he a school hero? Is he an anti-hero? Is he neither? Is he all of the above? What does he think? What does his peers think? What do the adults and his parents think? I get that life doesn’t wrap up neatly or typically have a ‘message’ or a point to it, but this is a crafted story and stories should have a purpose to them (narratively speaking).
E.g. Is this a story drawing parallels between Ui-gyeom and the two bully characters that realised fighting wasn’t worth it to exorcise their demons? No. That’s not it. Perhaps it’s showing how friendship, or having someone care enough about Ui-gyeom’s wellbeing can help him on the path to slowly healing the feeling of brokenness and the pent up rage he has inside him? Nope, I don’t think that’s it either. Then, is it about Ui-gyeom taking responsibility for his actions, recognising this and breaking the cycle of violence? Uh-uh. Alright then, it must be a character exploration of Ui-gyeom’s descent into violent madness and how you can’t get out of the violent cycle once you are deep in it. Nope, wrong again. Maybe it’s all four? Could be, but the story never really explores these fully or commits to any of them narratively. It touches on them and then swiftly moves on.
It’s frustrating that it took the last 10 minutes for the series to finally ‘say something’ about what story they were trying to tell, because by then there wasn’t a lot of time left to explore and unpack now that it was getting interesting.
I can’t say this series was satisfying. It left me more befuddled than anything else. It wasn’t half bad but it wasn’t that solid either. What was the take-away supposed to be? That this was primarily a series about bully violence with just enough background plot and character development to break up the fight scenes?! What was this all supposed to be building to? What was the point of, or the take-away from Ui-gyeom’s story? Is he going to get the help he needs? Is he going to unpack his trauma? Is it exploring the effects of the cycle of violence through Ui-gyeom and the consequences/impact on the character? Is he going to say f-it and lean into the violence from now on? Heck, will he be scouted for the 2028 Olympics combat sports? Or was this series merely setting up for a new fight-club style school series? What’s the conclusion of where Ui-gyeom is at in his story/journey and his psychological state of mind, feelings about himself and his future? Who will he be from this point on? No one knows. This isn’t a clever open ending. It’s the conclusion of an underdeveloped story. And it’s just so frustrating.
As the tile says; this was a series with a story full of potential, only half realised.
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