Leads lack chemistry. Vague plot points
Kim Min Gue is not my ideal type of Male lead; he has a perpetually sincere face, which I actually don't find endearing because to me, he just looks concerned. And that's the look he had for most of this series. Female lead was good but they had her staring blankly alot. Chemistry was lacking between male & female lead & the kisses were lacking { I blame that on the director & photographer} I was expecting more from this drama and ended up frustrated because the whole drama was rather incohesive. They kept calling the deity Lord Redrin but they were referring to a woman. The "idol" group sang & danced for only milliseconds at a time and did alot of nothing . The Character building was awkward. So many things were important to the plot were just vague . A mish mash of religious things that did not mesh well { grim reaper, goblins, an untitled head person, deities that were only deities because of people trusting in them, and yet deities that got energy from people's unkind thoughts. Around ep. 8 & 9 it got tiresome, dark, draggy & repetitive. Happy endings for main characters and tidy ending but it just didn't work for me.
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Lead's romance was a fail. Boring workplace drama
This drama failed on multiple fronts. It started out a bit spastic & went at a frenetic pace for many episodes before alternating between dramatic & annoying. it didn't help at all that they overplayed songs like Tuesday & Blind for love until I had to use the mute button. I'm not a fan of Jung Ryeo Won, but I didn't hate her in this. Kim Myung Min's character was written badly for a romantic lead. it would have been better if they had paired the Female lead with another character (though none in this drama was fitting) . Choi Si Won (as endearing as he is) played the idiot clown & got way too much screen time doing so. (It's frustrating that they never have him play a less goofy, irritating character ) His character is too over the top. I found the work place drama to be boring- just too much of it. The romance did not really work. The male lead being all Tsundere was fine, but the writers did not sell him as a romantic lead. I found it annoying that there was hope given for a character's impossible diagnosis, but the character chose to not delegate & what was supposed to be a "grand gesture" of love & sacrifice came off anything but, (as other characters should have been able to step in & take care of the issue). This made the ending frustrating, seriously, it was Lame. While it is a "happy" ending for many characters, it came after a 1 year time skip and the leads are more like siblings or coworkers than anything else. The balance between serious & silly was strained. There was alot of tedious filler, that fleshed out the story, but honestly, I just didn't care about all the side characters.Was this review helpful to you?
intense edge of your seat drama sprinkled with sweetness. Wounds heal super fast
My initial take was that it was similar to Shakespeare's 12th Night- struggling with gender attraction. the leads I have seen before & are worth watching". This has enough fear, gore & violence to keep you on the edge of your seat. The moments of sweetness provided a lull-that sometimes lasted so long you forgot you were not in a drama that was simply romance driven. There's alot to like about this butI got half way through & took a break-there is alot of intense drama & it got tedious -losing it's plot momentum . It should have been a 16 episode drama. There was too much plot resolution that came unraveled & had to be rehashed. Other issues were that 4 main & secondary characters are repeatedly (REPEATEDLY) slashed, stabbed beaten up & generally abused. They recover within a miraculous time frame & are up & ready for altercations quicker than blood dries on a rock on a sunny day. We are to then ignore when a major character gets a minor slash wound to the arm & it takes them more than a week to recover.
A big negative for me was that so many characters had beards that I could not tell who was who. First you have the old guys, which is really important as one of them is the main villain ! Then you have the man of arms in the maroon, another guy in grey, blue & yet another one in red....but they all are important characters on a particular political side, so knowing who they are is vital! !!It doesn't help that more often than not they are in stealth mode-so you see them mainly at night. I'm guessing that if I was more fluent in Korean it would have been easier to identify them, but they don't exactly call out thier names as they enter the scene! nice tidy happy ending but I was irritated that they did not explain how they achieved everyone staying alive for the happy ending.
**spoiler of a sorts**
(how hard would it be to say :"ah, I figured out the antidote ?)
random rant : WHY did the King's bodyguard not have his hair in a top knot like literally every other man in the palace ?
I would not rewatch but I do think it is a decent drama-just too much violence , beards & needed to be shorter
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the only reason to watch: Joo Sang Wook (+there is a happy ending)
the only reason to watch: Joo Sang Wook. Lead female was unlikeable. We are given no reason other than Love at first sight for the male lead's unwavering devotion. Rather speaks to how many times he's been knocked upside the head I think. Lead female is given bad hair style and seems to have a closet full of black or checkered shirts. By the time she finally smiles at the male lead, you are already in mourning over the fact that the 2nd female lead has zero chance with the male lead. Some scenes seemed repeated- HOW many times does a person just walk into your house before you change the lock or key code ?? Tedious family drama bits and yes there is a happy ending but This would have been better with only 12 episodes.Was this review helpful to you?
Extremely bland & boring
purchased on amazon & it was a waste of money & time. Just really bland.Lee Seung Gi is usually fun to watch, but he really didn't shine here. It felt like they just were out to make money off his star power & had shrunk a series into a rice wafer that just melted on your tongue. Set looked great, costumes were decent. Over all acting was O.K. it just got boring fast. Badly written female lead was so boring. Some VERY cringy dialogue & scenes about lower body hair and Joseon era instructional books (with pictures) on intimacy . I wanted to like it,but would not recommend it , even if you're just showing up to see Lee Seung Gi i partially shirtless. His fight scenes were mostly so close up, it felt like he was doing nothing
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Alot of relationship drama. has happy ending
Length :16 episodes was stretching this plot line a little thin by the end. Lee Hyun-woo 's hairstyle gave him too much of an adorable puppy vibe, though maybe that's what they were going for as he He acts alot younger than his age in the series. Lee Seo-won : ( I almost thought he & Lee Hyun woo should have switched roles). Joy: did really well, it was nice that they had an actual singer play a singer! This series had more relationship drama than I liked. Credit should go to the cast & the director for making it so uncomfortable!OST :was very enjoyable & never got annoying from songs being overplayed !Rewatch value: yes, but only because you can relax & enjoy the plot, acting & music, knowing alls well that ends well.(Be assured that there is a happy ending, but not all couples will be together at by the end). negatives: I found The lead female to be too naive, emotional & too earnest, but she WAS a highschool student who had never been in love so it's not that the character was flawed, rather that my preference is for more maturity, less whiny, & crying.
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tedious unromantic love quadrangle. Only IU shines brightly
Frustrating waste of time. The format made it hard to get into. I found 99% of this boring .The only reason to watch this is IU & Kim Soo-hyun. Sadly , Kim Soo-hyun's character is not written well & he does not shine as he does in his other works. IU is fun to watch & easily draws you in as you watch her character grow. Kim Soo-Hyun's character is very bland & directionless. He has joined the company because an older girl he had a crush on at school works there. He never pursues her, though because she is already dating someone else. Inexplicably he starts to crush on his brash & obnoxious older female boss: Kong Hyo Jin. WHY?? A love quadrangle ensues with Couples getting sorted out in the end, but it is a very tedious unromantic trip. This could have been more fun & more watchable if they had written it differently, but it's just inconceivable that Kim Soo-Hyun's character would be so fixated on older women who don't want him when IU is under his nose.Was this review helpful to you?
Cobbled together story, Jung Il Woo simply decorative
OST was really bad. Alot of computer game electronic music. It was irritating & distracting. I watched this because of Jung Il Woo , but his part was simply decorative. Because of the OST , the production quality & humor, this movie felt more like it was made in early 2000. The story was badly cobbled together , the transitions were odd & the humor fell flat for me. I've seen worse, but this wasn't worth the time I could have spent rewatching 2 episodes of a drama I likedWas this review helpful to you?
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heavy court drama, leads lack romantic chemistry, but Lee Soo Hyuk steals every scene
With a trio of handsome leads (Lee Joon Gi, Lee Soo Hyuk, Shim Chang Min) This should be a 10/10 , but it fell short .The story should have centered around the male leads, making it a bromance drama- because none of the romances are worth the screen time they are given (no shade thrown at the male leads for this, as they hold up thier end adequately ).As the villain ,Lee Soo Hyuk's charisma is off the charts & is immensely fascinating to watch every sneer, grunt, smirk. He completely sells his character & the way he takes control of his scenes is mesmerizing. Lee Joon Gi spends too much time in "Clark Kent" mode, lazily half awake until he goes into beast mode & that's when you remember how skilled an actor he is. The fight scenes between Lee Joon Gi & Lee Soo Hyuk are a great deal of fun to watch. But the drama as a whole was not a winner for me
because:
1) too much political court drama- boring & scenes & issues felt recycled
2)female lead; Lee Yoo Bi -is not written well & poorly directed as she looks & acts & has the mentality of a puppy in a 12 year old girls' body . Her supposedly romantic scenes are all weird because even though they are careful with how Lee Joon Gi shows affection for her,(he IS 120 years old) she's so young & innocent that it feels just a tad bit creepy & wrong as she is too wide eyed & a bit brain vacant. (but really, imagine the male lead gazing into the face of a golden retriever puppy-yup weird, right !?)
The real romance killer : Lee Joon Gi frequently refering to her as the "child" [English subtitles]
3) plot cycling: they keep revisiting the same issues
4) 1 year time skip at end, before the end
5) idiot side character told multiple times to watch & take care of female lead & he does absolutely nothing
6) 2nd female lead wears a literal weapon (holding up her hair) but 3/4 times forgets that
7) the handsome deer in the headlights king is a bad friend & easily deceived. he waffles in his loyalties.
8)Bland happy ending-yes main couple they end up together- but
**spoilers*
(in what capacity it's not clear. seemed he was still a vampire, so the obstacles of disproportionate life spans & needing blood to sustain his life still apply)
Problem with "great love" as a plot device motivator for a character is that as of ep. 6 I had to ask: WHY is Sung Yeol not pursuing Choi Hye-ryung, ( Myung-hee's present-day doppelgänger that he's been pining for )if he loved her so much & so was in misery for SO long missing her-how is it that he gives up so easily - like he must have had very shallow feelings in the first place. Yet he forms this attachment to Lee Yoo Bi's character super fast. It makes sense that he would want to protect her (as he is naturally very protective of all humans) but beyond that, does he find her clumsy, bumbling, childish clownish actions endearing ? you would think his affection would be that of an uncle then. so no, the romance does not create warm fuzzies, nor are there any swoon worthy moments
but just watching Lee Soo Hyuk emote with every fiber of his being was kinda worth watching this drama at least once :P
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Wasted a perfectly good male lead on whatever depressing thing this is
extremely disliked this. the pain of poverty, the over the top domineering parents, the harsh realities and no romance-this is not entertainment- it's a case in study on human frailty. The music WAS good but most of it was sad. all along you wonder how is the female lead paying for food & rent considering that you never see her work in the end she has totally forgiven her deadbeat father and the male lead has gone off into the sunset with no particular destination. The magician is AWOL as well. The whole thing was very depressingWas this review helpful to you?
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Too much serious relationship melodrama & not enough action. Bland happy ending
Female lead is one of my least favorite actresses, so it was a rocky start .The first few episodes give off a weird vibe because the female lead is happily married. So it feels uncomfortable/unpleasant & wrong for her to be spending anytime with her ex.
It was annoying that we don't ever really get concrete answers about how long her first marriage lasted (my guesstimate is a year) or how long in between her divorce & meeting husband #2 was. The series gives you a feeling that it has been a LONG time since she saw her ex AND that she has been married for more than a few years.When actually she has only been married to husband #2 for a year! The "perfect" marriage is shown to be based on things that aren't quite obvious or normal for some societies [or for me!] . The married couple don't actually kiss or get intimate [it's never suggested either], which is odd to me. The tug of war between who IS the best man for the female lead does keep you wondering for awhile. What disinterested me was the long soliloquies where the main characters reminisced for long periods of time about thier relationships. Sure, they were setting up a way for the audience to get into the character's heads, but it was SO tedious & maudlin. The mystery of who killed the scientist is only slightly intriguing. It's the mystery of who husband # 2 actually is that you sort of wait for . Neither husband # 2 nor his wife are in thier marriage for the reasons you would expect & that sets the stage for allowing us to see what looks perfect to be challenged.
Husband # 2's hair style was cringy & distractingly unappealing. The reasons at the end for why the leads do what they do, PLUS the time skip makes the happy ending rather blah. Too much serious relationship melodrama weighed this down when more action & fun spy stuff should have been added.
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Jang Keun-suk & OST are great, story is dated & ending is "meh"
I've watched this 2 times & I liked it enough to buy it but end was very typical for K-dramas, but for me, not enough romance & concrete resolution as I would have liked. Music is great . Real reason to watch ? Jang Keun-suk ! His, facial expression are captivating. This was one of the first K-dramas I watched & what drew me into the genre. On second viewing I was disappointed that it wasn't as wonderful. Lead guy is really harsh (even though why he's like that is well explained) Lead girl is over the top clumsy & it grated on my nerves as I don't enjoy that kind of comedy in large doses. The sadness of the second lead (guy)pursuing & breaking & rebreaking & rebreaking his heart over lead girl was not great. The only consolation the viewer has is that he's available for the viewer to love without competition ! The music was good . Ending is SO typical for this genre & left me flat. Still, this series holds a special place in my heart because it was a first love when I was first introduced to K-dramas & really it's a classic, but I will wait another 5 years before watching.Was this review helpful to you?
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Unsatisfying ,Heavy melodrama , light on the romance with a "meh" ending
I like both leads, so though I was reluctant to watch this (because it was 50 episodes) I started & ended up slogging through it. Despite the cheerful perky intro, this is NOT light & fluffy. This is a heavy family drama & that where the focus of the story is, NOT on any romance. The romances in are weighted down with obstacles & misunderstandings which drain the romances from being fun. It seemed like there were 2 episodes that gave warm fuzzies for the main couple & not even whole episodes ! This was a painful series with SO much crying & SO many characters that you wanted to slap. I frequently found myself mentally swearing at the MANY female antagonists . To be fair, I loathe family dramas & this had at least 5 families going full drama all at once. I did not like most of the side characters & though this has a good theme & things are resolved for most characters with the focus on repentance & forgiveness, it's too emotionally heavy for me & I found it more annoying & painful than I like my entertainment-which I want to be escapism- not a reminder of how awful family can be. IU did a very good job here & Jo Jung-suk play the same character type as he did in Hospital playlist and Oh my Ghostess character's personality but there isn't enough of screen time for them & they are not enough to save this from being drudgery to watch (even though by Ep. 35 I was fast forwarding through all the grandmother/foster mother scenes.) Overall-depressing & the main couple get, like 1 kiss the whole series & no wedding.Was this review helpful to you?
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Slow, bogged down with filler & lacking balance. Romance falls flat
this has a Slooooooow pace with a slow burn romance between 2 good looking but boring people .There is alot of filler -the story could have been finished in 10-12 episodes .As it is you feel pretty lethargy by the end. Speaking of the end; a contrived amount of people get coupled up, but there's no good soaring sense of happiness for them as it's presented blandly. The end spends alot of time with voice overs & sounds like one big long advertisement for mental health pitch,(I expected to see a suicide hotline # all throughout the series !). The creepy twin brothers story is depressing & there's WAY too much emphasis on it. The romance falls flat & there's no balance between the romance & suspense (the boringness of daily stuff was too predominant). The only thing interesting was how 4 characters met as children.Was this review helpful to you?
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Bad storyline & Leads have zero chemistry
spoiler rant:having started an affair with another man, a woman marries a long time friend she doesn't love, leaves him & aborts thier baby. That same guy is betrayed by selfish coworkers & looses his job & status because of his love & chef rivals. He decides he is in love with new woman because a fortune cookie tells him so. Problem is that a somewhat reformed gangster is also in love with the same woman. That woman's fiancé left her at the alter because her father is taken to jail. I dropped it 1/2 way through because it just doesn't work between leads.No chemistry, & you are rooting for the female lead to get together with the gangster. I can only imagine how it will end. the leads start out sympathetically but soon show themselves to be rather stupid, naïve & gluttons for punishment. Then it drags on with the mother interfering out of snobbery.Lastly the one guy you like (& who is worthy of the idiot girl he loves) sacrifices himself so that the 2 leads can have what they want.
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