Kiruha-Chou

Did anyone think Hyin Yi was a boy in the character's first appearances?

I didn't expect the diversity in this drama to be treated seriously in the first place (it just improves parts of the plot), but with Toni's story it was way too noticeable that he was sort of a filler character. Maybe a link for Ms. Kim's investment. He practically disappears in the last episodes.

Yi Seo's love for Saeroyi was... okay (too persevering?) but she always behaved really pettily whenever she talked about it with Soo Ah. I could never really like her personality for that kind of behaviour she came up with sometimes, although I did enjoy seeing her work and how competent and resourceful she was.

As for Oh Soo Ah, she's an inconsistent character. Hard to understand, and the drama doesn't improve that. It's unrealistic that her relationship with SRY stays the same for more than ten years and that they didn't do anything to change it, but still it was somewhat frustrating that SRY fell for Yi Seo shortly after Soo Ah finally admitted to liking him back. It's like they wasted their opportunities... several times over.

I liked SRY initially, but the last episodes definitely ruined what he'd been. Both in the romance and his morals.

There are more tiny subplots that started well and got thinner in the last episodes until they disappeared. All related to Ms. Kang, for instance. I liked her character. The ex-policeman/detective also seemed to have an important role in the middle episodes, and practically nothing came out of it.

I also didn't appreciate the return of the "bend the knee" theme. They had been insistent enough about it before, and in my opinion the writers exaggerated on Chairman Jang's transformation. No need to humiliate him by turning him from a predator into a blabbering old man once he loses his company.


These are all negatives that I've written here, and the first half of the drama was mostly filled with positives, but I'm just a bit surprised about how much the story changed (for the worse) in the last episodes.
I suppose that, in summary, the plot stopped making sense (anything related to Geun Won) and the huge-corporation-owners version of the characters was at odds with their previous selves and what they had built so far. I didn't even like their new looks, frankly.

The drama had a better story than I expected about Saeroyi building up his future, and I quite enjoyed the episodes that followed that storyline. Watching it felt like a perfectly good choice for half of the show, but I think the last fourth lost it completely.
The characters don't even seem to be the same anymore, and a lot of secondary flaws begin to come up because the drama sets aside the characters it had been building so far to put in an unnecessary conflict. Even the OST seemed to get worse?

In the spoiler below I go into specific details, in case anyone would like to comment on how they felt about them.

I completely agree about the last episodes. The characters were beside themselves and lost all previous development towards their personalities.

I didn't much care for Geun-soo so it's not like I would've preferred him, but I also didn't find the romance between Yi Seo and SRY satisfactory at any point. The way the series presented it, none of the options felt too right, but maybe if they had worked more on Soo Ah...
Hyun Yi and Seung Kwon could've developed more interestingly, too.

I think it's best to go into this film knowing as little as possible. There's something it does that, if you don't know about it, will be much better like that. IF you do like the like the style, which might not be easy.
I know I didn't in other films by the director, but here the approach to the characters and the overall themes truly shone for me, and the director's realistically-paced and discreet style had a great effect. It's probably the only style that would've made this film possible at all.

That may be true. It was like he lost his compassion too quickly once he left the closed environment of the tower and joined the political games of power.
But it's not really incoherent with previous development. He barely had had any opportunities to show or explore his true self.
To look at those sort of details, I'd be quite willing to re-watch the series. Saya was very good in S2.

Is that you started to hate Saya a flaw from the show? If he's as cruel and manipulative as as he was shown to be during the last episodes, it's just a reasonable change of heart about the character, I think.

I actually watched a bit of New Dragon Gate Inn (it was unintended, I came across the film on YouTube I think), but I don't recall why I stopped. It was too soon after the older version, or too violent. But I'd like to try again, thanks for the recommendation! A more thorough plot could make a great difference.

Oh don't worry, you didn't discourage me! In fact I haven't seen K-dramas for a while and they seem quite inviting after a break. So yes, let's keep on enjoying them!

That doesn't really make me want to watch more (°ー°〃)

I think Burning is a really hard film to analyse, but you did it splendidly!
When I first saw it, I was a bit "annoyed" at the film for being so effective at leaving the audience hanging and choosing to leave all the loose ends, but your review is so good that it makes me want to rewatch it from a more careful perspective. So thanks for that!

“The twist” turns liking or disliking this story into a choice. Personally I side with the opinion that the first story is NOT presented in a way that validates it being completely erased last-minute. Because the drama is so slow, it took me a lot of effort to connect with the characters, yet I did because their stories are unique. Particularly for the Joon Ha who suffered so much, and also the Hye Ja surrounded by unusual circumstances and the job of keeping her family together… They did not deserve to be wiped out (nor did I deserve +10 hours of watching them to get to that). There are many specific events not excused like the twist; the twist just prevents having to solve them (for instance the brother who ends up trapped in a car and shipped abroad).

When the twist first appeared I thought it was really capricious, and a choice not at all supported by the tremendous amount of detail that the other story focused on (and sometimes wasted its time with, too).

If in the end I could finish the drama with a better impression it was only because the last two episodes ended up being the best by far, and because the good character development scenes really do get it right.

I think Dazzling teaches a lot from a human perspective: its characters are there to invite you to pay attention to people you normally wouldn’t notice, to care for them, and the characters themselves are explored with profound feeling.

Unfortunately its execution suffers from a lot of areas, which makes it one of the hardest-to-watch dramas I’ve completed so far, because the plot is uneven and neglectful of pace, even though so much is unexpected in it.

Full review here on the rest of its qualities here: https://kisskh.at/profile/Kiruha-Chou/reviews/65651

And in the review I leave out that one event…

Chanel appeared in the last two episodes' life version as a woman at the hospital where old Hye Ja is staying. This Chanel also dies shortly, before the show ends (in that part, her husband appears more than she does). But I don't know what the meaning between the two versions of the same character would be, if there is one.

The reason why people can rate it as a 10 (myself included) is firstly that the rest really is that good and can compensate, and secondly because it's clear that the story is not meant to have only 18 episodes. It's obvious that the writers want to continue and thus they shouldn't be blamed for not being able to do so against their wishes. And in my opinion the series being interrupted like this is far better than a rushed or bad quality ending because it doesn't ruin all the story that came before it.

There's a final reason, which is that scoring it poorly because of the no-ending becomes pointless once the continuation is announced. And now it has been!! :)

I am SO glad that they decided to continue Arthdal! Not doing so would've been an unbelievable waste of the incredible universe they built with this story.

As long as the four main actors return, all else is good.

(And checking on this page from time to time was useful!)

Why do people say that Bae Suzy's acting is poor?
I don't know in a standard K-drama without singing (I hadn't seen her at all before) but when she does pansori here her performance is really strong.
Cinematography and various of the reciting scenes in particular are beautiful. Most of the story is too, although there's a thick veil of sadness in what it leads to...

Really detailed praise, and Arthdal Chronicles truly deserves all of it!

Maybe it has to do with how they were brought up? Saya was locked up in the tower for most of his life and could be physicially weaker than Eunseom / not have discovered his full abilities yet (actually neither has Eunseom).

Halfway through, the drama seems to have lost its main attractive point which was being silly but really funny. Now it's focused on characters that are bent on ruining someone else's life simply because it's in their personalities to do so and they just lie and lie and lie, and the overall effect is dangerously close to the sort of soap opera I would make sure to avoid. I hope it picks up in the last third to wash that poor quality away.

I also initially liked the protagonist for being fierce and having a strong presence, but that changed as well when her character turned fidgety and melancholic (it happened to coincide with the time she started to wear her hair down instead of the braid-ponytail, curiously).