This review may contain spoilers
Okay first off SPOILERS AHEAD Taecyeon - HOLY SHIT.
I mean I've never seen him like this, I just love me a hot psychopath and this guy is a total snack obviously soooo honestly I can't rate lower.
But let me tell you why I was frustrated despite enjoying it too.
It's basically the kind of show where serious stuff happens but then they make a joke so it ends up becoming an entertaining one which is what it should have been because the finale was absolutely one of the worst I've seen for such a drama.
It was all over the place, Taecyeon killed his brother and I felt sad but the way it was shot even, if you shoot two people and make Vincenzo try to save them, it was just cringe the way that and the preceding 'torture' was executed.
It was supposed to be edgy and dark, and it ends up being cringe or pretentious.
Now, I'm not the type to hate operas, Chinese or Italian, or whatever I love all that stuff so I had no problem with those parts. The problem was the way they handled the darkness. He's Psychometric has a way better story that keeps you guessing and the two brothers actually love each other so the eventual unlocking of the mystery makes you cry for them both. Even though Psychometric didn't handle the end with the brothers to my liking at least you see them struggling with their demons and loving each other. Psychometric despite it's faults actually has some good writing.
This is why I find Devil Judge so amazing because its not just solid direction but a fantastic script that has nuance.
That's what Sam and Dean do, you get so emotionally invested. The Lost Tomb has enough Bromance that becomes your favorite even if one person is a abusive.
The thing is either make it Stockholm syndrome or do something that makes them being brothers have a point - But there was nothing in this story. They could have been strangers and nothing would change.
The script was so basic. Another problem because just trying to look edgy is fine if you have solid writing. This one aaah it's all just a bunch of random, convenient stuff happening. Case in point - once Vincenzo was saved by .. wait for it ... A BUNCH OF FREAKING BIRDS. that's how random and convenient the stuff that happened was bro xd
But nothing disappointed me more than that brothers story because they didn't act like siblings and for 20 eps there was barely any explanation for them, barely a past established, you had no idea why either of them was behaving the way they did.
So honest I didn't hate or dislike the characters as much as I found them nothing special. Because like so much convenient stuff was going on, like a guy as RUTHLESS AND CUNNING as Taecyeon and all the prosecutors and officials, just how did they SO EASILY get duped AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN by taking place of their security detail and doing Carrie style blood throwing on the villain - Taecyeon lol
Seriously it started to get hilarious XD
But despite that Taecyeon every time he was on screen I was basically swooooning a hot badass villain ffs for this and for giving me a new ship I'll be grateful ;)
Ohh and also Kim Yeo Jin her character had depth mostly because of how she played it, Choi Myung hee being so loyal to Taecyeon right down to the end made me feel a little better at least, especially when he was dancing with her that was just so WHOLESOME
Song Joongki was Fine. Jeon Yeo Been was fine. Kwak Dong Yeon was fine, Jo Han Chul played a character I've seen him play several times so it was just fine too. But like I said apart from the first episode, the 'clever' ideas just became too strange and unrealistic. The torture scene in the finale was the most disappointing! Taecyeon supposedly had no humanity and so his attitude with his brother would make sense, he's killed people for less, but then CLEARLY forms a motherly bond with Choi Myung hee and stays loyal and faithful, those things are the exact opposite of each other. But like I said the script is so basic, there's no research, nothing. That's why that last torture scene doesn't make sense either because Taecyeon showed no emotions other than excitement and malice even when Vincenzo was holding a gun to his head, meaning his emotions must be off right, but then in the end he was all crying and begging HOW DOES THAT MAKE SENSE. If instead of Googling a listicle with cool European ancient torture techniques (we've all done it lol) they should have worried about keeping the character of AT LEAST the main villain consistent like the first season of Voice with Kim Jaewook and Janghyuk, it would have been a much more promising story.
But okay, credit where its due - that finale scene where Song Joongki leaves Taecyeon to rot like I said the execution of the torture could have been done better but the scene where the crow comes to sit on Taecyeon and there's a sun flare - that got to me.
But you can't really make an impact with a scene like this if people are just going to go back to acting like they're in a Mafia rom com.
The action isn't bad either, its entertaining like I said just don't expect much and some bits get draggy and repetitive.
Was this review helpful to you?
This is easily one of my favorite movies now, because two of my favorite people being friends, and their banter and the whole scenario, it was so much fun to watch! Kind of like the Korean version of Kick-ass! Two regular friends banding together to fight a much stronger evil force.
We all know Park Seo Joon and Kang Ha Neul are two of the most amazing actors and it shows in this movie where they both play the parts of guys who meet in the police academy and become friends when Park Ki Joon (Park Seo Joon) saves another trainee Kang Hee Yeol (Kang Ha Neul) when he gets hurt during a training session without thinking about getting a penalty.
Not only does this bond them but it shows a side of these two people who while still struggling with their own identity and the usual dilemmas people that young face, worrying about making the wrong career choice, money issues, not having a girlfriend, just basically being a young adult.
They go out one night to a bar to have fun and meet girls, but instead end up being caught up in a world of human trafficking when they witness a girl getting kidnapped and thrown into a van. They try to get the cops to help but realize that without the pressure of an adult, no one is going to listen to them especially because the girl in question is a runaway and doesn't have a family who would file an actual missing persons report.
Ki Joon (Seo Joon) gets angry and starts to lash out at the cop who refuses to take them seriously but Hee Yeol (Kang) manages to get him to calm down and they both decide to catch the criminals on their own because they learned in their training that the first seven hours are crucial in a female kidnapping case. After that time has passed, there's less chance of finding them and they don't want to waste any more time.
With no idea who the victim was they go back to the site of the kidnapping to look for clues.
After that ensues an interesting little plot about a young girl being sold to human traffickers and how two naive trainees go in search of her applying whatever knowledge they have of police work and even end up putting their own lives at risks, when they could have just as easily not bothered and stayed safe.
One of the things that I love about this movie is their characters. They're well thought out, well acted, such an amazing combo! When they go from total badasses to acting their real age you fall in love with their inexperienced innocence, and their naive charm. In a time where people are forgetting about family values and give very little importance to friends because we all think we can live in a bubble and survive, this movie shows two people who believe in each other and in the goodness of people. And they do it not by demanding everyone to be good to them but by SHOWING them how it's done.
An amazing, fresh new take that you have to check out!
Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
MAJOR SPOILERS The queer coding is next level, I loved it.
Absolutely on point acting and next level psychological thriller like Forgotten.
Basically, you think you know what it's about, but you DON'T.
And God is it a tearjerker! I'm a mess rn!
From the moment he was trying to hurt and maim himself and said please come back, ffs it was obvious how desperate he was. And you can disagree with me but they were in a weird threesome with Mai, I mean "for the experiment " was basically code for 'I have feelings for you but I don't know how to deal with it ' since they were both pretty much using the 'ghost lab' as a way to cope with everything and to have a reason to be close to each other.
Just look at the minimal screen time the gf has, she's basically just conflict for their love.
Even that cutesy ass scene where Paris 'jokes' with Tor and basically gazes in his eyes whn theyre at the vending machine alone at night, and says something like Its The Power of Love P MO omfg so much content like this.
But that ending ah. Pure perfection.
I watched it from when Tor falls to the ground and ends up in the morgue and Paris comes alive in his dead body, it should have been gross, but it wasn't. I watched it five times already ㅠㅠ
It was just the most beautiful, poetic scene I've seen, kinda like that Untamed scene where Xue Yang does with Xiao Xinchens dead body, and it's not gross it's just really really sad.
Also, I might have finally lost it BUT WHY WAS GHOST PARIS SO DAMN SEXYYYY
Was this review helpful to you?
How you can try and stay away from violence being meted out to others but violence has a way of going around. If you think you're safe one day the next day you might not be, so being self-preserving will not make you last forever. That's why you also have to form a society that values peace and takes care of one another because yes, that bully might be someone you resent but the truth is humans are capable of terrible things when they feel like they're on their own and no one will come to save them that's scientific fact.
Anyway seriously This show is WHACK perfect combo of dark humor and moving. And with more eye candy than you can possibly consume including but not limited to Yoshimura Kaito, Mackenyu, Kubota, Yamada Yuki and most importantly Mamiya Shotaro in a CRAZY role lol I've never seen him like this lmao but God it will hurt too so much. Hard not to fall in love with the characters. Especially Kubota and Mackenyu.
But okay I love pretty much all the men in the cast but two people that really stood out and I wished their roles were bigger -- Yoshimura Kaito (Smoking) and YUKI fudge sake looked HOT.
Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
The show is about Iron Triangle. So you'd hope that Qi Ling would at least appear as much as some supporting character AT THE LEAST - let alone giving him the actual deserved screen time.
The second Yangyangs Qi Ling disappears, you watch season after season, episode after episode, spin off after another spin off, only to get to Reboot (Reunion) and have him still pretty much either so far in the background, or just simply gone.
And okay, I loved Baron Chens romance with the mute girl, it was genuine, had everything in the right amount even though in the end even that didn't go anywhere.
And then you think omg Yi long is the perfect older, mature Wu Xie, so please give me SOMETHING WITHMY OTP I'm not asking for much, but they could have done something along the lines of Untamed or Guardian - I mean I thought I was going to leave confused considering Yilong and Bai yu are one of my top couples.
And in the beginning it looked like that was a possibility, because you guys know I'm extremely partial for Yangyang and for the first time the actor for me had the potential to be a close second to YY buuuut the poor boy never got a chance.
Because halfway through they got into some bullshit office romance - which they probably thought was a clever Warehouse 11 storyline, but seriously the only clever aspect was how much money they saved on the production that went from badass, dangerous, and rather narrow escapes, showing the Uncle and Baron Chen, and the rest like a family - however screwed up it might be, you were still rooting for them.
And then someone gets the great idea that screw tomb raiding, and badass action, or even focusing on the fact that his uncle was being so nonchalant about the cancer news, like WTF.
And then they took my last bromance hope Pan Zi to some hetero storyline too, TWO SECONDS AFTER he confessed his love to Wu Xie lol most likely to give Wu Xie that completely contrived 'romance' which okay not going to lie I was shipping them during that one bonding scene where they lay down and 'watched the stars' XD but apart from that Wu Xie was being so wishy washy. It didn't seem sincere AT ALL not from his side anyway, not like Baron Chen was so into the chick and doesn't just go save her in some ending scene twist.
And omg that ending ugh are they still going to be in the warehouse lol I don't know if I can take the torture.
So, yes, for me it was fantastic till Wu Xie joins the warehouse and then it had it moments - Jia Le story, especially, or Kan Jians ADORABLENESS XD
Anyway, I loved the characters, actors, but I hope the story lines improve and I see more of Qi Ling and iron triangle ACTUALLY BEING TOGETHER AND BONDING TOGETHER instead of being apart and just talking about each other. I mean where is the pining, where's the eye fucking XDwhere's the WORRYING ABOUT THE GUY WHO HAS FREAKING CANCER.
Okay anyway, waiting for next part lol because I'm a sucker for pain.
Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
The dialog is so powerful --- right from the beginning, when Aka 'collects' Dora , well technically right after, Aka says to the girl he wants to 'show Dora there's a world even lower than this' meaning Dora hasn't seen sh*t in Aka's opinion even though Dora's life is no walk in the park.
But we all know the story is only just beginning.
And then Zebra -- Powerful stuff. That's all I'm going to say without any spoilers.
And it wasn't just Aka.
The same vulnerability, Ryusei Ryo gave to Dora's character who is pretty much consistently problematic but you still see his struggles. That resistance before he does something unspeakable.
The violence in the film is brutal and in-your-face but here's a kind of insane logic to the whole story that reels you in.
So, be careful but a must watch.
Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
What was with that sappy and crappy ending? Lol seriously it was all over the place. Not all shows have to end this predictable! Anyway, ok it started out great I was completely engrossed. Most of the plot twists were good, but it kind of became a bit lack luster after the biggest twist after that it was all just pretty ok. The thing is the show's villains they alluded to hunting people and even cannibalism and rape at one point it should have remained dark. Like who went ok so we were talking about people hunters and chopped up body parts way too long so how about let's get totally cheesy now ^_^ I feel cheated. Anyway, for me it didn't quite have the impact of children of Nobody, Save Me, Circle, etc. But it was entertaining and had some great ideas and all . Was this review helpful to you?
