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Shine or Be Mad korean drama review
Completed
Shine or Be Mad
0 people found this review helpful
by 15458362
11 days ago
24 of 24 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 10
Story 9.5
Acting/Cast 10.0
Music 10.0
Rewatch Value 8.5

“Shine or go crazy” indeed!!!

I will start this review by saying “I am shocked by the results”
This historical kdrama is not like any historical kdrama nor does it have the “usual” atmosphere of what makes it a historical kdrama

it’s more similar to a historical “cdrama” to me which is why I find it interesting
then I discovered that the drama is based on a web novel then I knew why it looks similar to these cdramas since the web novel culture dominated by the Chinese writers.

now for the story, it’s about the wang family of goryeo and the aftermath of achieving their dream of uniting Korea under one nation,
here you have the wang geon children battling for the throne, and some political parties that against the wang children
which is their uncle who contributed to the unification and wanted his share of the throne

so it’s a family battlefield.., then you have shin yule who is a merchant from a fallen kingdom “balhae” …, she got involved in this fight of the throne

story wise it’s so interesting and beautiful to witness

the characters all played their roles right and made me both love and hate them

the acting was great by the mains

the music is a top tier.., arguably the best historical drama In music

I loved many historical observations in the drama
like how wang so loves another woman besides his Wife and queen

another one is shin yule and how is she a from a fallen kingdom.., balhae at that time was absorbed completely by goryeo so she’s being in the story as a balhae person not something off from historical standpoint view

the insane chemistry between the triangle Wang so , shin yule , hwangbo is just a chef’s kiss man

the only thing I don’t like is I think it’s short despite being 24 episodes.., I think the drama should’ve been 28-29 episodes but overall the writers did so well

the drama title “shine or go crazy” is the best title I’ve ever seen in any drama
because it represents the heart of the story overall

how the characters interact, fights, survive, love, hate etc
either it will shine or go completely crazy
no middle ground unfortunately and that’s why the story is so bitter

the shift in tone from the first 12 episodes into an emotional poetic one is something I didn’t realize I needed.., kdrama rarely has a poetic tone like cdrama has but this drama did a good job with it
the symbolism, parallels, characters destinies, the irony, and so on

“In love with it”
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