Watch the first half.
Main character has lost his memories and is being accused of crimes he didn't commit. Seen and done. But i gave it a chance(the cover convinced me).The first episode sets really high expectations. The violence is brutal and has a lot of gore. What kind of disturbing things were going on there? The MC looks wild and animalistic. What made him like this? I was so intrigued. The plots twists were amazing though, had me grabbing my head.
The action scenes are very satisfying to watch. MC's walk did snatch some attention, it was bulky and... Idk kinda weird. I don't think he needed that much muscle as he had to do a ton of running and chasing.
NKM's acting was good as ever, though i found the dialogue delivery a little stiff and weird. Only his dialogues are overly dramatic and very cringe. I've seen a lot of kdramas but these dialogues still stood out to me, i think there is some writing error.
I love the theme song, it stuck with me and evokes a lot of emotion. I don't remember if there were any other songs and i think that says enough about it.
The only major thing The Veil failed with was the plot. In the first half, there's a ton of suspense and very little truth is revealed. It is made out to be this huge disturbing truth that will rip everyone's throat when revealed. Something so unexpected that it's unimaginable. But the second half totally falls flat and ruins all of that because guess what the sick truth is: Corruption. National politics. Just that. The murder reveals were interesting though, but it was definitely not enough for what they set the viewers up to.
The plot is so overly complicated that we only know who the Actual villain in this series is in the last two episodes. Multiple people are made out to be villains, only to be revealed later that it's someone else. Again. So many names, so many tiny subplots. I've seen complicated, but this one was a hot, incomprehensible mess.
The characters act like they're hiding the recipe for cancer. Something like
"you have no idea what's waiting for you. "
"do not go further, you can't face the truth. "
"Ji Hyuk, I... " *gets shot and dies*
No one had the braincells to talk like a normal person. Throwing riddles left and right. No one would tell him ANYTHING. And tell me why everyone in that agency was lowkey working for sangmuhoe. Everyone is corrupt. And that's literally the whole truth.
And the climax? Long lost father returns as a deadly criminal amd his daughter tries to fix him with the power of love. plays his favourite song. Puts herself in danger to see if he will harm his daughter. And somehow, the most feared man's heart melts. B*TCH HE'S THE MOST NOTORIOUS CRIMINAL EVER, THIS AIN'T A MELODRAMA.
I enjoyed the first half a lot. The rest was disappointing af.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Worth watching for the characters.
Listen up, jeong jian. (*opinions are bound to be biased and subjective.)A Shop for Killers is a character driven action thriller with a melodramatic tone. It is a non-linear narrative, focusing on a slow reveal of intentions, secrets and character. I find the premise very dark, where basically multiple groups of middle aged men, who are professional trained killers, are hunting down a seven/twenty one year old orphan girl to kill her.
I loved the part where the show heavily focuses on the characters and their backstories, immersing us in their experience, hardships and dilemmas. The pace slows down and it feels like a gloomy melodrama. I love how there are minimal cringy dialogues and scenes(except for a couple characters) and the lack of much dialogue in the flashbacks really leaves the viewers to put themselves in the characters shoes and guess what they're feeling, instead of endless monologues where the characters just put all their thoughts out and make cringe expressions. *cough* moving *cough* I LOVED the backstories of both jian and jinman and especially related to young and mute jian.
What do you do when there are trained killers after you, parked up in front of your glass wall, ready to shoot you in the head the moment you're in sight? You crawl past that wall and act surprised when they shoot you.
And what do you do if multiple drones surround your windows and shoot at you non-stop? You stand in the centre of the room, frowning and act surprised when your window is blown up.
And what the heck do you do when someone tells you that your friend who's right next to you killed your uncle and there's proof of it in the computer right next to you? You go to that computer, put your finger over the mouse and stop. Don't open that file. Instead, tell that person to leave and go help your friend up. And act surprised when that "friend" suddenly ties you up and tells you how they killed your uncle and are going to kill you next. For f*ckʼs sake, jeong jian!
I got attached to all characters except for jian. I was excited to see jian in the first couple episodes, where she's shown as this badass girl who knows how to defend herself. She even fights off some boys s*xually assaulting her friend alone. But when she has to actually defend herself, she's brainless and starts crying. It happens all the time. The "strong female lead" is Always a facade to attract viewers. With time you'll know that it is every other female lead, the one who makes the stupidest decisions, the FL that's been written, played and seen a hundred million times. Jian is no different, and finding this out was very disappointing. Poor writing.
Many plot holes and illogical things like jinman taking his shirt or whatever it was off to give it to minhye when right behind them are a bunch of clothes hanging. Jian & Co. doing stupid shit left and right, not to mention the ending where the main antagonist hasn't even been seen in a while, less alone defeated.
The antagonist is... very dark. He kind of creeps me out, which means the writing and acting was good. Something about a man who is a sadist, who likes inflicting pain on others and simply loves to kill is very disturbing to me. I hope there's a season 2.
i love the character of jinman. The only time i felt he acted out of character was when he just listened to a recording of jian and easily took his own life, which too turned out was a scheme of his. Jinman truly thinks before he moves and he moves fast. And i love him for that. All the other characters like minhye, pasin and honda were very beautifully written and acted. 10/10 for all these characters and their stories.
OST... was there any? I do remember hearing some drums so that was good.
Was this review helpful to you?
