ammmz

ahhh i'm glad you liked it! i get worried cos it's so llnng. and im super glad you feel the same way. i think there's a reason why so many of us became such big fans and identified with it. so it makes me kinda sad to see that people didn't like it. like in a strange way i feel misunderstood~ lol i'm always worried about my analyses and reviews anyways so thank you sm for your affirmation

thank you!

i really like them together tho! i think there's something that needs more explanation. it's clear they care about each other but i guess some of it means like insane calamity

we're watching a bunch of people grow up and people dealing with adversary!!! of course!!! she' school nurse ahn eun young!!

i hope they know people love this and it meant a lot to us. we're all weird people ;)

i was TERRIFIED and fucking disgusted. it's so good and so weird. you're right...it's just strange.

i cried a lot, too!!! they did an amazing job

cried too :( she's so fucking cool to have dealt with it. and if i were to guess the sterilization v. happiness is just one way of conforming or another. HSP is about eliminating pain in a cultish way, i think. idk if the book has other translated parts but i will keep a look out for it and if i find it will post it here.

a lot of it is about running away from pain and growth and status quou. that's why everyone is so "different" but they're the ones who are shunned. safe happiness is a "cure" for the things that dont need to be but people just need to be helped (disabilities, poverty (this one is trickier, but they deserve respect and for rich peers to help), sexuality, gender) i think the scene with the teachers encapsulates that the most but i don't think all the people believe in it. i hope this makes sense. i reallllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy hope there's a s2.

i don't trust the ratings on this site but man this shit was wild in an incredible way. i hope there's a season 2. netflix is a terrible notorious company known for lying lol but gives more creative control. i loved it. hopefully i can write a review but i'm real wrapped up in forest of secrets.

you should check out the excerpts from the book and you should check out kyoung mi's other work. one of my fav films of hers is 'the truth beneath.' she's talked about her troubles as a female filmmaker, particularly in SK, and how before this she wanted to quit. it has her mark all over it and there's lots of things unexplained, confusing, things that meander but the world was so entrancing and fucking bizarre. i loved it and i loved that it was to challenge conformity, sexuality, gender, particularly within teens. i really hope there's a s2. this is going up there with my other favorite insane dramas like 'trap' and 'strangers from hell' lol (part of ocn's cinema series ironically and i think this is a cinematic achievement even if the director didn't feel it as such.)

also all the actors were good. i NEVER say this about nam joo hyuk but he impressed me and has improved—kyoung mia nd the cast and crew were able to bring out the best but also, i hope, he is truly working at it. i admire that. and of course yu mi is another star. she wants to say and explore so much in that tiny body of hers. i love how open her mind is and the roles she wants to take on and how much she loves women.

it is so bizarre, so weird, so crazy. so beautiful!!!

btw netflix gives people more freedom as opposed to working within channels. it is still a corporation so there are drawbacks but nothing about this show in itself is "western" because the culture is specific to it. if a remake were to be done, the culture would change. of course there's cinematic tropes that are beautiful in every culture but you also have to be aware of the works of the creator. when ppl say western they mean white and simultaneously dont give a thought to imperialism and its affects nor give credit to the very capable artists. this is the world a korean woman wrote, two korean women adapted into script, a korean woman directed, with a korean cast and crew that was obviously heavily female. hye min didn't want to "exist automatically stuck in her designated area" that says so much in so many diff ways

shes a fuckin queen.

watch her other stuff. she's herself through and through and you can tell that she, na hong jin, park chan wook. and others have this particularly korean style of the absurd. it was what she wanted it to be but certainly not for western viewers; for everyone.

it isn't! the director and co-writer is a female filmmaker (you should check out her stuff!) it was her first tv show and just 6 eps for it. i dont think she'd even want to do anything longer but i hope there's a s2.

wan-su and mi-nu this is the only thing so far i don't get re: themes. why did they need to be cut even though their rship is still a connection? is it just cause lucky and bad luck and they were destined to do shit that attracts anxiety and pain?

WAIT NVM IM ON EP 6 wil update

i am on ep 4 and i'm so in love. i love the director's work, yumi (and omg shout out to live co star!), and i read a chapter of the book (it was translated) and yea but i'm surprised. i was super worried about nam joo hyuk but i was willing to risk it all anyways for kyoung mi and yumi but he's improved dramatically it seems—and it's rare that i feel that way about many actors. so next time he's in something i won't feel as anxious watching it.

i thought there would be a massive imbalance between he and jung yu mi but he embodies the character well. everyone in this world plays who they're supposed to be with such fond strangeness. and obviously like with the work yu mi picks anad the director's view on life and women it takes conformity, sexuality, and growing up in a literal and psychological approach. also it's hILARIOUS. i don't want it to end!

it's hilarious and fucking absurd

good way of putting it! i hope when you rewatch you will find what you did in s1. i didn't realize the power of s1 until way after. you're right about the reality! and i also pose something else: if s1 set up the world and gave us our first question and answer and s2 pulls the lens out even more and drags us through the mud on the bigger political scheme that let s1 be what it was (micro - macro ; one case trying to break through a system - a system that lets it exist and forces death) then don't we know s2 isn't possible without it? and if it isn't we see it as a continuation with an understanding of s1 but, like you said let go the specificity of s1's case and understand the consistent, neverchanging, fucked up world that continues from s1 within s2's?

everything has repeated from corruption points, to scenes to call back, to interrogating criminals and coercion, but do we feel like things are less at stake because of one particular thing? i, personally, believe you are right; it is a great one in politics in which the things that s1 couldnt' achieve because of a specific focus s2 is able to build off of. i ronically, i do remember a complaint of s1 being that it isn't an actual political thriller so when we get this, and thrillers are much about action but also dialogue, i wonder if those who wanted that from s1 like this more.

no matter what, im impressed and i know for a fact that many of us will get to rewatch this whole thing after being here for weeks and will be blown away like the first time we rewatched s1.

LOLLLLLLL

same about the rewatch. by 3rd rewatch i could rly understand the nuances and language. if i just atched it once i wouldnt feel the way i do.

feel the same as you!

i binged s1 up to ep 12 and then had to wait for the end. i remember where i was and what i was doing when i finished the series (WORKING lmaooooo.)

i remember, at the time, thinking about it waaay different than i do rn but still being floored. the ending i loved but on my rewatch (and subsequent 8 more) is when i Got It. i think the 3rd time i rewatched is when i realized it's a masterpiece for me.

you bring up a really good point and beforehand in the comments i would say that s1 was VERY slow and sort of unsatisfying if you were watching it as airing. by the time i got to the major point with eun soo i was like wow i feel bad for people watching this live!!!!

it's the little things. i didn't know the second ssn was pre-produced too? that's really good actually bc they can think of the script and that's why i think s1 achieved so much bc they got to write it beforehand and that gets tons of kinks out.

anyway i like your optimism! i believe in your belief and i believe in them!!!!

same with US tv. i only watch kdramas if it's tv (or cartoons and comedy shows in the US lol.) films are much better worldwide. kdramas take me to an interesting place and you find stuff like this. or maybe we just want a different worldview idk.

i truly hope so. all the big Moments in the show have been GREAT though like i'll remember the hanging scene, the watch scene, when the detectives came into the room. that kinda stuff. hopefully you are liking it!

right??? a whole three years in a fictional world and the people behind this fictional world. tax evasion would be even more disgusting in context of 2020. and police brutality (both domestically with what happened to a south asian immigrant in SK and globally), and prosecutorial and class privilege and subsequently imperial force. which had to influence the crew and cast regardless if they are as intelligent as we think they are. frankly it would be so insulting to expect a halt. also

we never really got an exactly cheery show considering the happy ending of s1 was uhhhhhh what it was. death and despair is all around them which they keep hammering home (you either die or go along with the bullshit.) the trauma and tragedy of LCJ just hangs in the air and it never goes away and it shouldn't. the stagnation is the corruption not them or the process. how could they possibly NOT be traumatized....

begs the question....what would have satisfied others (again not in a rude way though IK you know that it's just some people here are soooo...)

edited to add: s1 has to be picked over with a fine toothed comb if you're like me (silly and never present) or the type of people who pay attn and Get It immediately and pontificate~a= si ibe can feel that impact. luckily my flighty ass has a huge foundation to go on from s1 and without s1 i could never appreciate this show the way it is deserved. but i would love to hear from a person who starts with s2 (and who likes s2) and see what they say. i almost wish we didn't know about s1 so we could judge it separately but hey. we are only human!

whomstd've could have possibly done it i have like 50860840860486086 theories lmao