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What happened?! Post-production crew working drunk is the only explanation!
Seriously, what happened ??? With the star-studded cast they had, all the production crew and project decision-makers should make amend ! I raise serious question on the sanity of the people who validated the post-production work done on this drama... So much was wrong that I will not go through one by one but still list a few (un)honorable mentions...
First, why make it so difficult to introduce characters and relationships ? Instead of laying out the story set up in the last episode, wouldn't those 5 minutes be more useful at the beginning of the show ?
Second, why bother speaking about 12 "angels" if the focus is on a unique protagonist : Taesan, chief tiger? Not even the most interesting character, you got around his personality in very little time and then it is only fights, grumbling, and being in leader mode but without any dialog with his team members.
Third, why are all of the fights scenes blurring together in a really uninteresting manner? The fighters have almost no specificity in their fighting style nor special power. The few elements that differentiate them are too little, very superficial and never explored in relation to the others...Snake cannot speak, Pig is hungry, Monkey is good willing idiot, Dog is people pleasing, Horse is a fighter... That's about it. How is the viewer supposed to care about any of those characters ?!
Fourth, why have a romance so bland and so late in the story that instead of being a motor for the emotion it feels totally devoid of meaning ? It lacked chemistry and it should have been set up much earlier to have any kind of pay-off.
Fifth, where did you use the budget? Certainly not on the writing team nor on the costume department. It was mediocre at best. It takes a very specifc kind of individual to manage to make Park Hyung Sik look bad...So congrats I guess for this "achievement"?! More seriously, there were a obvious lack of care on the costumes and styling department, with wigs that felt of very poor quality, white ghostly makeup not matching neck, and so on...I'm left to ponder if all the budget went on casting big names and publicity rather than anything else...
Unfortunately, casting cannot save by themselves a drama. Writing was bad but most of all the editing of the scenes, the fact that fights or emotional sequences were cut by other non-relevant scenes, the pacing and the way the story was organized : nothing worked !!! Even the acting of actors I like and find usually good was lacking and disappointing... Among the very unsatisfactory production and post-production, the saving grace was the soundtrack with the track Salvation that I enjoyed when played at the end of each episode, mostly because it is a good song but potentially also because hearing it meant the end of an episode...
I would definitely not recommend this. If you are looking for a great ensemble cast incarnating heroic characters and gripping villains, go watch Moving. Or even The Uncanny Counter. This is so full of flaws that I still cannot imagine how it was greenlighted as such !
First, why make it so difficult to introduce characters and relationships ? Instead of laying out the story set up in the last episode, wouldn't those 5 minutes be more useful at the beginning of the show ?
Second, why bother speaking about 12 "angels" if the focus is on a unique protagonist : Taesan, chief tiger? Not even the most interesting character, you got around his personality in very little time and then it is only fights, grumbling, and being in leader mode but without any dialog with his team members.
Third, why are all of the fights scenes blurring together in a really uninteresting manner? The fighters have almost no specificity in their fighting style nor special power. The few elements that differentiate them are too little, very superficial and never explored in relation to the others...Snake cannot speak, Pig is hungry, Monkey is good willing idiot, Dog is people pleasing, Horse is a fighter... That's about it. How is the viewer supposed to care about any of those characters ?!
Fourth, why have a romance so bland and so late in the story that instead of being a motor for the emotion it feels totally devoid of meaning ? It lacked chemistry and it should have been set up much earlier to have any kind of pay-off.
Fifth, where did you use the budget? Certainly not on the writing team nor on the costume department. It was mediocre at best. It takes a very specifc kind of individual to manage to make Park Hyung Sik look bad...So congrats I guess for this "achievement"?! More seriously, there were a obvious lack of care on the costumes and styling department, with wigs that felt of very poor quality, white ghostly makeup not matching neck, and so on...I'm left to ponder if all the budget went on casting big names and publicity rather than anything else...
Unfortunately, casting cannot save by themselves a drama. Writing was bad but most of all the editing of the scenes, the fact that fights or emotional sequences were cut by other non-relevant scenes, the pacing and the way the story was organized : nothing worked !!! Even the acting of actors I like and find usually good was lacking and disappointing... Among the very unsatisfactory production and post-production, the saving grace was the soundtrack with the track Salvation that I enjoyed when played at the end of each episode, mostly because it is a good song but potentially also because hearing it meant the end of an episode...
I would definitely not recommend this. If you are looking for a great ensemble cast incarnating heroic characters and gripping villains, go watch Moving. Or even The Uncanny Counter. This is so full of flaws that I still cannot imagine how it was greenlighted as such !
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