1
1
A bare-bones version of the familiar rebirth revenge story
FL rebirth revenges must be a thing. I have watched a bunch of them by now and they’re all just variations on a theme. That’s not necessarily a bad thing- they can still be enjoyed on their own merits- but I found this one to be on the mediocre side. It’s a short drama and too much has been trimmed- some meat along with the fat- resulting in a very straightforward show with little nuance.
Like the others, this show features a smart and capable FL who schemes and maneuvers her way to success. The villains are definitively Bad People who consistently do bad things, while she consistently outsmarts them. Retribution is swift, and villains surface one after another to be whack-a-moled away. She also has a textbook romance that doesn’t take too much time or effort to establish. Pretty much the show just takes all these classic formulaic elements, strips them down to the essentials, and packages them into a quick 21 eps x 10-11 minutes.
I think this show scoped too much story for its runtime. Fans of short or vertical dramas might not take issue, but I disliked the jarring short-drama symptoms of too many big things happening in too quick succession. Narrative expediencies aid the plot, reveals and big events lack buildup, and some things are poorly explained (eg the FL’s career- what exactly is her official role that she’s representing her maiden family, and how is her gender such a non-issue?). I still got the idea of what was going on, but I felt like I was watching the outline of a story rather than a fleshed-out story itself. But I admit this may also be partly my fault because I watched it extremely sped up.
The show also fell extra flat for me because I had such little emotional attachment to any of the characters. Once in awhile, one lead or the other’s past is alluded to, but these feeble attempts only served to remind me that there’s practically no character development in this show. And I don’t just mean them developing and growing, I mean developing and building out characters and their personalities. I couldn’t care for the main characters, let alone any of the cartoonish villains or the barely-present side characters. And also, I felt absolutely nothing about the romance- I sped through lots of those scenes at 3X speed.
The acting and production are ok. It’s hard for me to judge because I watched it so sped up, but at least I mostly believed the characters. The FL looks convincingly badass. For the ML, I don’t know if it’s his styling, his acting, or just his face, but somehow he kept looking like he was wide-eyed smiling when maybe that wasn’t the most appropriate expression. The villains are too cartoonish, but that's at least partly the writing.
The costumes, SFX, sets, music, occasional fight choreo, etc are solidly decent for a short drama. I did notice that this show keeps some idol elements with posing and slow-mo, which I thought is a waste of time for a show that can’t even manage enough glue between events to pace its plot properly.
Overall, I think this is a fine watch if you like this formula; this is not the best version, but it has all the essentials and doesn’t mess it up too badly. It’s still coherent and complete. But for me, having watched so many versions of this FL rebirth revenge story, I found it not that interesting or special. Other shows, even other short dramas, are able to tell their stories while still getting me emotionally invested. This bare-bones version has stripped away all the things that would have made me care, to tell the shell of a tired story I’ve already seen before.
ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS
Happy ending. All villains are disposed of, resounding victory for our leads, no deaths of any “good guys”. Ends with their wedding.
Like the others, this show features a smart and capable FL who schemes and maneuvers her way to success. The villains are definitively Bad People who consistently do bad things, while she consistently outsmarts them. Retribution is swift, and villains surface one after another to be whack-a-moled away. She also has a textbook romance that doesn’t take too much time or effort to establish. Pretty much the show just takes all these classic formulaic elements, strips them down to the essentials, and packages them into a quick 21 eps x 10-11 minutes.
I think this show scoped too much story for its runtime. Fans of short or vertical dramas might not take issue, but I disliked the jarring short-drama symptoms of too many big things happening in too quick succession. Narrative expediencies aid the plot, reveals and big events lack buildup, and some things are poorly explained (eg the FL’s career- what exactly is her official role that she’s representing her maiden family, and how is her gender such a non-issue?). I still got the idea of what was going on, but I felt like I was watching the outline of a story rather than a fleshed-out story itself. But I admit this may also be partly my fault because I watched it extremely sped up.
The show also fell extra flat for me because I had such little emotional attachment to any of the characters. Once in awhile, one lead or the other’s past is alluded to, but these feeble attempts only served to remind me that there’s practically no character development in this show. And I don’t just mean them developing and growing, I mean developing and building out characters and their personalities. I couldn’t care for the main characters, let alone any of the cartoonish villains or the barely-present side characters. And also, I felt absolutely nothing about the romance- I sped through lots of those scenes at 3X speed.
The acting and production are ok. It’s hard for me to judge because I watched it so sped up, but at least I mostly believed the characters. The FL looks convincingly badass. For the ML, I don’t know if it’s his styling, his acting, or just his face, but somehow he kept looking like he was wide-eyed smiling when maybe that wasn’t the most appropriate expression. The villains are too cartoonish, but that's at least partly the writing.
The costumes, SFX, sets, music, occasional fight choreo, etc are solidly decent for a short drama. I did notice that this show keeps some idol elements with posing and slow-mo, which I thought is a waste of time for a show that can’t even manage enough glue between events to pace its plot properly.
Overall, I think this is a fine watch if you like this formula; this is not the best version, but it has all the essentials and doesn’t mess it up too badly. It’s still coherent and complete. But for me, having watched so many versions of this FL rebirth revenge story, I found it not that interesting or special. Other shows, even other short dramas, are able to tell their stories while still getting me emotionally invested. This bare-bones version has stripped away all the things that would have made me care, to tell the shell of a tired story I’ve already seen before.
ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS
Happy ending. All villains are disposed of, resounding victory for our leads, no deaths of any “good guys”. Ends with their wedding.
Was this review helpful to you?
