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Full of kdrama clichés
Powerfully dumb storyline that's full of kdrama clichés and it's just unforgivingly jarring, almost like some classic parody too well made. It boasts unbelievable visuals of high concepts but turns out to be practically hollow, dialogues are strikingly coarse and far from relatable, and absurdity keeps coming as the plot goes on. It's not really a bad watch as there are some good parts that are worth rooting for, but the not so clever parts completely overshadow them and it simply becomes not more than just a race of mainstream popularity contest. Even the ending is still full of silly stuff to force a climax that doesn't resonate well, though the faint-hearted might still flutter intermittently.Was this review helpful to you?
Intriguing yet ineffective at its core
Being stylish and beautifully shot is one thing, but is the story well told with adequate suspense to be attached to, this drama simply fails to impress after some time. Most of the plot just stays there looking stagnant, with non stop teasing over and over again for the course of 8 hours of runtime in a very slow burn fashion, and as if the plot devices could make enough connections in the sense that was supposed to be potent on social commentaries, sadly the key to unlock the trunk is not present.Was this review helpful to you?
All style without substances
Incredible cinematography and immersive foreshadowing with over the top sound effects. It boasts two timelines for the plot but weirdly the storytelling of the past timeline did so much better it made the main one felt like subplot, because when they were back to the main course it somehow loses traction quickly, not to mention the absolutely lack of logical reasoning and very murky motivation of the characters. The vision of designing a badass female villain and that deep trauma they're trying to achieve simply doesn't work here, it came out all style without substances, and this story really isn't drama worthy at all.Was this review helpful to you?
Revolver with misfired bullets
An extremely classy looking loot revenge crime thriller that was made up of 100% pure melodrama without any action sequence. Despite its stylish appearance and full of dark conspiracy threats, the storyline never really takes off into anything worthy, it didn't had enough pressure or stakes to make it intimidating, and the side characters are mostly useless for the story. At the end the mission seems easily fulfilled without shock ending or huge fights, after all the extended buildups it turns out to just be an underdeveloped arthouse film that only feels like a revolver with misfired bullets.Was this review helpful to you?
Ordinary stuffs
Straightforward and simple storyline, literally too simple it has nothing heavy in its plot to raise the stakes except trying to chase the criminals tirelessly. Some of the fight scenes are not bad though they are not really that martial arts centric, everything just feels too one dimensional and empty.Was this review helpful to you?
No one will be able to make a difference
Screened as the closing film in 2022 Cannes, the director aims to expose the weakness of this gruesome capitalist system that strips off every little hope in the youths and basically makes them a robot everyday earning pennies. It all started from a forced internship program as a school curricular, exploitation on cheap labor yet doing demanding and unforgiving task. It's extremely sad to to watch it as we're all basically going through the same thing everyday, and no one will be able to make a difference as it is deemed as a reality for everyone to survive.Was this review helpful to you?
Home is no longer sweet
Extremely inconsistent tone for its episodes that led the storyline direction to nowhere. The action sequence in the first three episodes is absolutely impressive, it's cinematic and immersive but that's all about it. The episodes ahead are of really questionable decisions, the whole mood shifted out of sudden with a bunch of newly added characters that look detached and don't provide much to drive the storyline. Things got stagnant and the monster craze wore out pretty quickly, it felt like they were trying to reserve the bigger part for the next season, but hype dies down and home is no longer sweet.Was this review helpful to you?
Bizarre and hilarious
A cult classic styled comedy horror mixed bag that has an abundance of tricks up in its sleeves and it's hell lots of fun, it never stops throwing surprises around that are relentlessly entertaining. The insane acting performances from Lee Sung Min and Lee Hee Joon overpowering an absolutely dumb plot yet it works ridiculously well for its hilarious effects, what an utterly bizarre movie that was stylish enough to give it some great satisfying laughs.Was this review helpful to you?
Unbelievably patriotic historical setting
Extremely good screenplay that covers the whole background story of the political situation within sports, plot is rich enough to highlight the hardships of getting into the marathon competition itself, pacing is smooth throughout the movie and the details are so precise that you could really feel the significant amount of pressure along with the journey of the team, more so for its patriotic reason. The buildup for the marathon race has amazing suspense with soundtrack that's thumpingly brilliant, and I've cried so many times watching it. The production value is simply too high for this movie.Was this review helpful to you?
"No one's living a fairy-tale life in this world"
A drama that tells really good stories about all the broken souls of adolescent and the unleash of atrocity at young age. Humans could be born that way in their nature, or it could be induced by various societal issues, though the latter part of the drama highlighted more on the selfishness of irresponsible adults. The drama also poses serious questions on the judicial system and the effectiveness of the law and order in its juvenile act. This is why the drama works brilliantly as it reflects a highly detailed sad and torn reality beyond fixing.Was this review helpful to you?
There's no fairytale love in this world
It's rarely a romance movie that can be low-key touching, yet without overdoing the cringey stuffs. The plot direction is unexpectedly brilliant and clean, it stands out as an alternate romance viewpoint and provided some great insights on modern relationships. As its literal title suggests, "Romance Without Love", there's no fairytale love story whatsoever, but rather how to survive the harsh reality of this society, and well maybe on its path, there's something that could eventually make individuals get along, in a catastrophic way.Was this review helpful to you?
One of the best car actions in Korean movie
Gripping action scenes and very clean car stunts, great retro vibe soundtrack during car chases, it's on par with the one of best car actions you can find in any Korean movie. Meanwhile Park So Dam looks so freakin cool when she nails those action scenes perfectly, her edgy styling and gaze fits so well in the antihero character. The threat is frightening enough to keep you at the edge of the seats, overall storyline works fine for an action movie, which makes it quite an enjoyable movie experience.Was this review helpful to you?
Miraculously sugary and realistically acidic!
The movie started off really well with excitement that's addicting, and the pacing follows tightly as the focus of the story shifted chronologically. It may be using a more comical approach at the beginning, but the realism for the second half of the movie is extremely true to life and bizarre to watch. Then when everything's coming to an end, the ultimate reveal catches everyone off guard, by presenting a groundbreaking, mindblowing and earth-shattering closing sequence. The actors are simply superb!Was this review helpful to you?
There should be ways to make things more fabulous
The whole drama looks like a hot trendy fashion piece with all the sheen and glimmer, but its context is hardly effective and that's a major disappointment for a Netflix originals. It clearly had every substance it needed to dive deeper into the fashion design industry backgrounds, yet the direction of its narrative is quite uneventful, not to say the fillers are a lot for just an eight episode drama. Even though the ending romance is surely an expected one, there should be ways to make things more fabulous given that the character design actually had plenty of potential in it.Was this review helpful to you?
DOOM OUT OF SERVICE
The drama started with brilliant storytelling and superb setup ONLY for the first two pilot episodes, but after all of that the pace went straight down and struggle to get itself back on track again. It's actually surprisingly confusing how they were able to push great quality from the start but messed it up right away, like a real contender beaten up and dislocated back into its usual kdrama cliche again. Well at least their cinematography is sweet enough to be an eye candy with some added calmness as a bonus.Was this review helpful to you?
