As a police procedural detective show it was very decent. But as a suicide prevention, anti-materialism allegory grounded in K folk religion it was fantastic. I enjoyed the plot, learnt some history and the entire cast acquitted themselves admirably.
I loved the ending. The journey started with one lonely person who could see ghosts and now he has someone to talk to who knows exactly what it's like. Whatever one might be inclined to read into their relationship, it's lovely that they can find some consolation in each other. Maybe even have other adventures together.
It's one of my favourite K dramas this year. Thank goodness the second half of the year is turning out to be better than the first.
Just read the description and some reviews, also watched a bit and i would really love for it to be like 'You…
I agree that it's not as good as You Are My Hero mainly because a lot of stuff gets dragged out especially the horrible mother. But I don't think FL is cunning. I think she just wants her cake and eat it too. She wants everyone to get along.
Finally we get a face (and a name) to the evil spirit. Someone down the thread asked why she has a backstory and Hong-sae doesn't. That's because she is a key character in the story and always has been. She's been manipulating various people from the start. She drives much of the narrative. But more importantly she's still a victim of a terrible crime that wasn't considered a crime in her so-called community.
But it seems to me anyway that said pubescent spirit wants to live vicariously through someone else. To have the kind of life she always wanted but could never have. To be an artist. To be loved. To have people who care about her. To have a belly full of food. This was her resentment. That she never had agency. She was forced by circumstance to struggle her entire young life. And then to add insult to injury, she is cursed to walk the earth as a spirit with a big chip on her shoulder.
Of course it's wrong to steal someone else's life. And then there's the matter of taking away someone else's agency.
Just started. A very engrossing drama. Performances are great all round definitely helped by a fantastic script. It is a fascinating character study of a man who has very complex relationship with various women in his life. However in the vernacular Cheng Gong is a scumbag. He used his position. He set her up. He took advantage of a vulnerable young woman. A man of integrity would have taken her home in the state she was in. Or better still, had someone else take her home after they left the banquet. The fact that he acted inappropriately before they entered the bedroom is enough for me to deem him untrustworthy. He put himself in a precarious position. It is interesting that one of the old fogeys who sit on the board made a joke about Cheng Gong's philandering and brushed it off as being irrelevant to his capacity to lead the company. I can't agree with that. A man who is this indiscrete is bound to be a problem sooner or later.
Overall, not a bad watch. But I still think You Are My Hero is the better show if we're to compare like with like. For me the highlight was really the firefighting and the medical side of things. I loved the male camaraderie and the depiction of healthy masculinity in particular. The romance was okay but the Romeo and Juliet stuff got a bit old after a while. Like a lot of others, I think Mummy Dearest got away with a mere rap on the knuckles after building her up to be an absolute monster. It's embarrassing to watch them all hold hands and sing kumbaya at the end. Snobbery is one thing but she went so far as to try and destroy another person's life. Forgiveness is fine on his part but the woman committed actual crimes.
I think 30 - 35 episodes would have made this a better show.
P.S. It's hilarious that boiling water is now a euphemism for sex.
Re: Episodes 1-2 I get it. I can see why mother and daughter are why they are what they are. They've had to look after themselves all of Jin-hee's life and that aggression and combativeness is a natural result. Obviously a lot of that is exaggerated for humor but it's not hard to see why the two women see the world as a battleground.
But I also agree with Jae-won as to why Jin-hee isn't cut out to be a cop. At this point at least. It's not difficult to see just from the transfer arc how she jumps to conclusion far too readily but more importantly, she's not a team player. The police are fundamentally civil service and by extension highly bureaucratic. There are plenty of procedures in place. Too many. Due to lots of backside covering. As a result it's often gets very political. For people to survive in such places long-term they have to be politically savvy. It isn't enough to want to do the right thing by the "clients", you have to be smart about it. For mavericks and individualists, the public service is a difficult place to work in because the culture requires you to conform. There are plenty of things that don't make sense in terms of procedures but people in those settings have to "suck it up" if they want to hang on to their jobs. However, if you play it smart and don't mind having the maneuver a bit, play the game of accommodation, you can sometimes get what you want. Ironically, what Jin-hee did is what terrifies bureaucrats the most. And nervous bureaucrats respond by putting more regulations and procedures in place rather than overhauling the reporting system.
When Jae-won poses the question about why there was no response in the child abuse case... Her answer is a reflection of her naivete. "There can be no excuse." It isn't about excuses. It is about the inherent systemic issues about the organization. The worst part is that it the people who get into trouble are those at the bottom of the food chain who have to work within the rules. Usually all that happens is that politicians come out and make a lot of noise about doing better. Then bureaucrats scramble to find a scapegoat and of course management is almost never going to sack themselves. Nothing changes. All that happens is musical chairs. The organization only has to be seen to have done something.
This is not to say that no good can ever be achieved within the public service. But it's not achieved by running roughshod over one's colleagues.
4 
I loved the ending. The journey started with one lonely person who could see ghosts and now he has someone to talk to who knows exactly what it's like. Whatever one might be inclined to read into their relationship, it's lovely that they can find some consolation in each other. Maybe even have other adventures together.
It's one of my favourite K dramas this year. Thank goodness the second half of the year is turning out to be better than the first.
*Off to watch season two of Uncanny Counter*
But it seems to me anyway that said pubescent spirit wants to live vicariously through someone else. To have the kind of life she always wanted but could never have. To be an artist. To be loved. To have people who care about her. To have a belly full of food. This was her resentment. That she never had agency. She was forced by circumstance to struggle her entire young life. And then to add insult to injury, she is cursed to walk the earth as a spirit with a big chip on her shoulder.
Of course it's wrong to steal someone else's life. And then there's the matter of taking away someone else's agency.
I think 30 - 35 episodes would have made this a better show.
P.S. It's hilarious that boiling water is now a euphemism for sex.
I get it. I can see why mother and daughter are why they are what they are. They've had to look after themselves all of Jin-hee's life and that aggression and combativeness is a natural result. Obviously a lot of that is exaggerated for humor but it's not hard to see why the two women see the world as a battleground.
But I also agree with Jae-won as to why Jin-hee isn't cut out to be a cop. At this point at least. It's not difficult to see just from the transfer arc how she jumps to conclusion far too readily but more importantly, she's not a team player. The police are fundamentally civil service and by extension highly bureaucratic. There are plenty of procedures in place. Too many. Due to lots of backside covering. As a result it's often gets very political. For people to survive in such places long-term they have to be politically savvy. It isn't enough to want to do the right thing by the "clients", you have to be smart about it. For mavericks and individualists, the public service is a difficult place to work in because the culture requires you to conform. There are plenty of things that don't make sense in terms of procedures but people in those settings have to "suck it up" if they want to hang on to their jobs. However, if you play it smart and don't mind having the maneuver a bit, play the game of accommodation, you can sometimes get what you want. Ironically, what Jin-hee did is what terrifies bureaucrats the most. And nervous bureaucrats respond by putting more regulations and procedures in place rather than overhauling the reporting system.
When Jae-won poses the question about why there was no response in the child abuse case... Her answer is a reflection of her naivete. "There can be no excuse." It isn't about excuses. It is about the inherent systemic issues about the organization. The worst part is that it the people who get into trouble are those at the bottom of the food chain who have to work within the rules. Usually all that happens is that politicians come out and make a lot of noise about doing better. Then bureaucrats scramble to find a scapegoat and of course management is almost never going to sack themselves. Nothing changes. All that happens is musical chairs. The organization only has to be seen to have done something.
This is not to say that no good can ever be achieved within the public service. But it's not achieved by running roughshod over one's colleagues.