This drama started out pretty interesting and I appreciate that it didn't have the typical misunderstandings, annoying love geometry shapes, overly dense/shy/naive FL with zero personality nor ability to defend herself, overly rude and stuck ML, irritating selfish parents/family, crazy sociopathic exes or second leads, Toxic friends of main leads, overdramatic plot and endless angst we see in most Asian romance dramas. It also was about two adults with very cool jobs, and both of them are passionate about said jobs, which is a great change from teen rom coms they keep suffocating us with most of the time.
The leads are gorgeous, both Yang Yang and Dilraba have stunning visuals (Especially Yang Yang, like seriously how come a dude is that pretty?! I can't get over his face even though I watched many of his dramas but I still get startled by his looks till this day lmao), and they fit each other pretty good. Their chemistry was decent, and overall both their characters were good. I especially like that FL is straightforward and brave, she never hesitated to pursue her love for ML and basically confessed to him twice. She also didn't fear acting lovey dovey with him in public which is great. ML is very smart, handsome, and everyone views him as ideal man, but all that did not make him arrogant to death. I did gets irritated by his when was acting too insecure, but his fixed that later. They both supported and cared for each other, also respected each other passions and jobs.
But although of all the positive things I said about the drama...I still felt bored to death lots of times and had to fast forward the last 12 episodes honestly cause by episode 20 I was really suffering to finish the drama. Even though the romance started from episode 21 I found myself barley interested and just wanted to see how the drama will end, the romance and fluff moments during these 12 episodes were decent, but not great enough to make me get that excited. I also wish they made the drama has a 20 episodes maximum cause they wasted a shit load of scenes and screen time on boring plotlines (The gaming and aerospace to be exact), I love games and gaming (Not a professional gamer though), but that game looked like shit and didn't deserve all that screen time on it. It was still a little bit more interesting than the aerospace part to me at least.
The aerospace stuff are awesome, it's a nice job/major and all, but I couldn't give a fuck about it cause I'm not really into these sort of things (Surprisingly I watch many Sci Fi stuff and I do dig that concept/genre, but in real life without fantasy/fiction aspects it's not that enjoyable to watch for me) so I struggled to understand what was going on and didn't care enough to understand. I either almost fell sleep during these moments or got impatient and skipped them lol to be fair it was clear they put lots of attention to making the information related to it as realistic as possible and I did hear that people who do actually do these aerospace stuff in real world said that everything they done in the drama was real and detailed...etc so that's cool!
Humor wasn't bad, but wasn't that hilarious. Their fluff moments got repetitive and bland at some point. The group wedding thing was a bit of a surprise, but it was unique and there is nothing wrong about it at all and it's perfect for people who can't afford having an expensive flashy wedding of their own. If they marry with close friends/co-worker that might make the mood even happier too. Personally I would never do such a thing if I wanted to get married myself since I would never bother share the spotlight with someone else in such an important day lol, but I fully understand the FL's point of view and I agree that type of wedding was good for them. Glad that the fans on social media supported them instead of acting like possessive maniacs.
The ending was sweet and logical. Their kisses were good, Dilraba didn't shy away from kissing back. I hate how rare good kisses are in Asian dramas (I despise the fake ass dead fish kisses they be torturing us with mostly in other shows!) In the end I suffered to decide what rating should I give the drama. There are lots of great things about it, but also the huge boredom and dragginess factor bothers me which is why I couldn't give it 9-10 rating, but it was still a very healthy and sweet drama so...well it was worth the watch overall.
I keep wanting this story to move forward and they keep rehashing the same stuff over and over again. Now, we're…
I also don't feel the great chemistry, there is a little bit of chemistry but it's not that strong enough to make me convinced into or care enough about the romance. So far only reason I keep watching is to know what will happen to Johan and Gungtan and that's about it. They are the characters I'm truly interested in, but yeah this season the plot got way messier and the best part of the plot was the one revolved around Johan and his brother.
Can someone tell me why this drama got tons of 10/10 ratings?! Like why? There was nothing 10/10 worthy about it apart from the cast visuals and bodies for real, everyone were hot, especially Dong Wook (I find it amusing that most of the main cast had their real names as their characters names lol), like dude is so fucking gorgeous and I loved his hairstyle and fashion style as well, even his voice was nice (Not gonna lie I only bothered finishing the drama to keep seeing his face and that's about it, otherwise I would drop the drama after like episode 4 or 5). Most of the other actors/characters had ugly outfits and hairstyles, especially the girls.
Now about the characters:
Both the guys and girls were shit to me honestly. The guys were too creepy, annoying, irresponsible, immature, childish, unfaithful, and overall unbearable playboys, who only cared about their dicks. Basically typical painfully toxic male characters they liked to constantly use in Kdramas made in 2000's. Dong Wook was a self centered prick, Philip was a literal asshole, Royohei was boring and just existed, and Jun Hwan was a walking cancer. Even Su Kyung's brother was stupid and creepy as hell!
The girls had zero personality traits apart from them wanting to catch some guy to marry and keep in a cage forever. Like I literally know zero things about them apart from how exteremely desperate and horny they are for men. The ones that pissed me off the most were Yu Jin with how retarded her way of talking and behaving were, I get she was supposed to be the naive, dense, spoiled girl who didn't have that much experience in relationships...etc but they didn't need to make her be that over the top and act like she is mentally disabled at times. The other woman with glasses who works with the Yu Jin was also cringe to death! Other girls were either literal whores or just stupid and shallow to the core.
About the plot: It was lame, super lame. They are all working adults who are in their late 20s to early 30s yet they acted and thought like dumb high school or college brats. None of them acted their age at all.
There was also many moments that were supposed to be romantic or funny, but to me they were super disturbing and scary. For example the scene when Jung Hwan meets one of the girls in that Karaoke place and starts clinging to her, calling her pearl, then goes to her cousin's wedding and start telling everyone how that she is working as a hostess or whatever, basically ruining her reputation and the wedding, and he chases her everywhere like a maniac even though it's clear she feels uncomfortable around him. Was that supposed to be funny for real?! Dong Wook agreeing to marry Yu Jin when he doesn't really like her to begin with was also very disturbing.
Also many dialogues and things the (Mostly guys) characters said were super cheesy and awkward. Main leads took forever to become a couple and there was the whole bullshit about ML hearing FL's thoughts and FL seeing him in her dreams...blah blah then they decided they were in love in the speed of light. So all couples were garbage to cut it short and romance was ass!
The music/OSTs were decent.
Like seriously if it wasn't for the good cast, their stunning visuals, and good acting I would give this drama a 1/10.
Damn this was one hell of a boring drama! I have seen the extremely high ratings and people hyping the shit out of it on reviews, but personally I found it one of the worst Kdramas I watched till this day. Now, my issue isn't the acting (All actors done a very good job), nor the fact that it's a slice of life genre, I watched many dramas/movies/animes that are slice of life/sit com and highly enjoyed them, but this drama was the epitome of boring to me.
1- I couldn't like the FL, girl was stupid and annoying as hell. Basically all the girls had zero personality traits to them apart from being crazy Kpop fans and into boys and dating. (Which isn't really that odd for teenagers, I'm also a Kpop fan and all, but obviously I do not live my life only focused on Kpop as if I will die without it or whatever). She also was quite rude, spoiled, celf-centered, and treated the guys in shitty way. There is also her being creepy and obsessive to death when it comes to her favorite idols (Even going as far as trespassing into that idol dude's house).
The girls in this drama are overly obsessive and shallow, that it hurts. The boys were more interesting and their scenes were more bearable to watch, but they also were more on the dumb side. Hak Chan was irritating as a boyfriend as well, his girlfriend's way of talking was kinda annoying too. I did like the gay dude/Hoya's character though, he was the most interesting, likeable, and realistic to me. Glad they handled his character and issue properly, and didn't try to turn him into a retard, make fun of him, or make him a creep just for being gay. I also appreciated that the ML didn't hate on him after figuring out about his feelings for him. Hoya done a good job playing the role. I honestly mostly watched the drama for Seo In Guk, but Hoya also got my attention. Seo In Guk's character was just a typical teenager dude and that's it, nothing much, but not bad.
2- The whole relationship between the teacher and FL was gross as fuck, dude is an adult, she is a minor and they should have about 7-10+ age difference, he is also a teacher and she is a freaking high school student, not even a college student, and his younger brother's friend as well. What kind of creep fucker would view his younger brother's minor friend that way?! I'm 24 years old and have a brother who is 9 years older than me and I still would rather die than date someone his age cause I instantly would view him as an older brother figure even though am already an adult and it's not wrong or anything lmao yeah I do have crushes on idols/celebrities who are older or are in their thirties, but would never bother being in a relationship with one in real life. I seriously despise huge age gaps and the whole minor x adult concept.
ML was sweet for trying to let go of his own feelings for FL for the sake of his brother, since his brother took care of him and they had such a heartwarming sibling relationship (Unlike my asshole older brother lol), but seriously why did they need to add that gross romance-plot?!
3- They wasted tons of scenes on the Kpop blah blah crap, 16 episodes were too much, only 6 or 8 episodes could be enough honestly. Many unimportant scenes, odd editing of scenes when it comes to stupid flashbacks. Also I FUCKING DESPISE that goat sound/noise they play during the supposedly funny scenes. They aren't funny, the goat noise piss the shit out of me! I don't know why, but they just never fail to anger me. Also the parents scenes were either not funny at all, or straight up cringe.
I do believe that the 1988 version was far better than this one even though I didn't complete it yet, but judging from the few episodes I watched so far, it's much better. This one was probably just made to earn profit/milk the shit out of this franchise and that's about it and it's clear from the hollow ass plot and characters.
Okay so I have seen many people nagging in comments about this movie's plot, characters, acting...etc Tbh I personally liked the movie, I mean yeah I admit the plot isn't really that unique or new, it could be a bit better but it's still not that bad. Now there are many points I would like to make in case someone is interested enough to read them:
1- About Im Siwan not being a great actor, not being a proper psychopath blah blah. Yes, his acting here isn't as great as in Strangers from hell, but mainly cause the plot and characters there were much better written, he also done a very great job in Unlocked with what he was handed. He is a great actor and can actually play both dark and crazy roles, or peaceful/shy/sweet roles perfectly which can be seen from his roles in Summer Strike and Run On.
About him not being fitting to be a psychopath, that's 100% not true, I think he is more fitting to be a psychopath than many other people, why? Cause he actually does have the right vibe and looks to be serial killer. I mean many people who watch true crime shows/videos on YouTube can understand my point, because many of serial killers around the world (Especially ones who specialize on killing women) got very similar description.
A guy who is very good looking, charming, trustworthy, chill, sweet, and gentle. Many people give that description to them, which is exactly why the victims fall for them and trust them easily, cause there is no way in hell they would figure out that said sweet, easy to trust person could be a full on psychopath, and Im Siwan totally has that vibe to him as a person overall. A guy who is just so gentle, cute, charming, likeable, seemingly weak, and chill which makes him pretty perfect for these psychopath roles. Not every murderer out there have a clearly shady or creepy looks, and if the criminal are clearly criminal looking then it would be much harder for them to deceive and catch targets.
Since Im Siwan can use his natural innocent vibe, then make a 180 degree change to act like a crazy person with quite the creepy expressions, it shows that he is great at acting cause he can play a role that completely opposite from his real personality.
Now about his character in this movie, not every damn killer needs a complicated and dramatic backstory, cause most of the time that only leads to watchers sympathizing with their ass which shouldn't happen. Having shit parents, harsh childhood...etc isn't an excuse for someone to become a murderer, and harming people who got no fault at what happened to them.
Also many killers in real life had very normal lives, normal parents, happy and peaceful childhood, yet they turn out to be one of the worst criminals in human history, mostly due to them being born that way or whatever. It's pretty normal for a human to not have a great reason to kill people or do wrong things, some just do it for fun, or for boredom. Some to feel superior and god like. Some do it to copy another killer whom they might idolize. There are many reasons, some are deep, some are shallow and stupid as hell, but it doesn't make them unrealistic necessarily.
The killer character in Unlocked was pretty smart and didn't have a very visible shady vibe which makes sense he would manage to be that successful at killing people. Also only person who genuinely realized something off was about him was the FL's father who only figured out because he lied about being a regular at their café, then interacted with his daughter again. If it wasn't for that, he also wouldn't find out and would think he was a normal dude whom had a thing for his daughter.
2- About FL being dumb, she is actually one of the smartest FL characters I have seen in thriller/horror movies so far. Instead of being a meek scardy cat, she actually tried her best to solve the issue personally with the help of the police (Who were useless and handled the case in a very retarded way), she clearly didn't know he was a serial killer, just assumed he was a stalker, perverted, creep and that's it. If she knew he was a murderer and police told her the truth and done their job properly she wouldn't put her self art risk to begin with.
Her doing the "No text, just calls" note was a very clever idea, and she instantly contacted the police and tried to have professionals handle the issue when she figured out her phone was hacked. She changed to using an old phone and still didn't 100% trust the old phone which is why she showed that note to the police before going into her father's house. Then she tried her best to face him in her father's house, and even shot him when even the cop was trembling unable to make a decision (Also why did she need to stab him according to some people?! Who cares if she shoots or stabs him? She got the job done anyways you know and it's way easier to shoot someone than stab them, especially if you're not an experienced murderer or are physically strong enough to stab someone to death from first try lmao). Compared to many FL characters out there, she was more on the brave, smart, and realistic side honestly. I do think her friend was as stupid as the cops for not just answering her question and being like "No, I didn't hack your phone or whatever, I would never do such a thing to you so cut the crap" instead she answered in a roundabout way and made it seem as if she truly done something wrong.
3- About the cop and his son part, who cares? It turned out that the killer isn't his son so it doesn't really matter what happened between him and his son. From what they showed the father was supposedly and abusive prick who liked to hit his son and that's why his son run away and hated on him. I find it interesting how they made the watchers believe for a good amount of time that the killer was the son.
Also if I remember correctly, when he went to his fake son's/killer's house, there was a paper that had something about plastic surgery on it, so they basically made it seem as if the killer had plastic surgery to change his facial features and that's why his father and other cop couldn't recognize him. His father might've thought the same thing, and seeing his real son's face on his phone lock screen, it could actually work since the son have a kinda similar facial features to Im Siwan so some plastic surgery and losing weight could do the trick.
4- The ending for anyone who is confused, the killer didn't die, they took him to hospital and are waiting for him to wake up to continue their investigation properly. I do find it odd how they don't have his information in their database, I mean really? He was born in the country and grow up without having any sort of information about him in this day and age?! That part didn't make sense to me indeed.
But anyway the FL, her father and friend live normally afterwards, which isn't that odd, the fact that they showed someone else was filming her with their phone probably only means that the killer wasn't the only creep/psychopath out there, there are many others who are like him and might try to do same things, and since she she is a survivor might be more of a reason for another shithead to try and approach her.
The people filming and taking pictures of the FL when the ambulance/medics were taking here shows how people barley give a fuck when such awful things happen, instead they rush to take pictures and shit to gain views, and have something to talk about for some time before continuing with their lives as if nothing happened at all.
I mean the movie's message is clear and it's pretty realistic in my opinion, many people indeed do rely on their devices a bit too much and have tons of very personal and important information saved in them and so if someone get their hands on them, they can easily do wrong stuff and mess with the device's owner life. Many people would just live their whole lives through screens, taking pictures and videos of every stupid and important little thing they do and sharing them with everyone on planet earth, and would freak out if they are forced to spend more than 10 minutes without their phones in their hand.
Still it's not like people can easily not use social media and their devices cause current society rely on them when it comes to lots of things, like handling bank accounts, jobs, watching stuff, studying...etc not anyone could go throw their devices in the garbage and live like they are in the 19th century. We just need to be more careful, that's all. So devices and technology aren't really bad, they help humanity a lot and at this point we can't not use them, we just need to figure out the proper way to handle them, and cops should take such issues (Cyber crimes) more seriously.
Overall it was a decent movie, could be better, but still pretty decent.
This was okay but it could’ve been great. I really dislike when film makers tend to go the artsy ambiguous route…
I agree, they focused so much on the "artsy" side that the plot got abandoned and became boring and stupid instead, I literally had to force myself to complete it lmao
Also love your profile picture/gif! Dongfang is my top drama/fictional character crush lol
Well I'm a huge fan of gore and violence in shows...etc but god damn this movie was empty as hell! Just people dying and killing each other left and right and that's it.
All the characters were not that interesting nor likeable so I barley cared when they died including the cops who are supposed to be the good guys in the story, they all were useless and dumb to death, and of course the female characters sucked (They love making the girls stupid and incompetent for some reason most of the time in shows and movies sadly). Plot was predictable as hell too, and honestly the main reason I watched it was Seo In Guk, it was my first time seeing him play a role of a violent, heartless, criminal, and he done a flawless job!
He was the only and most interesting character for me and the moment he died I lost the little bit of interest I had and just tried my best to not fall sleep while watching the rest of the movie. Why did they kill him so early?! That was quite the dumb move since his character actually had protentional and was a well written villain character, especially compared to the other hollow characters, his acting was just wasted on this movie. I was also expecting some sort of nice duo thing to happen between him and the Do Il dude, but well...
And of course there was a pointless sex scene too (Mostly a blowjob to be exact), you know to add more of a "mature vibe" to the movie lmao and just like anyone else said the blood looked so fake that it also ruined the violent/bloody moment. It was basically tap water with some red color added to it and that's it. Then there were some supernatural abilities and humans added to the mix because why??? Who knows!
Overall this movie made me have a similar blank and bored reaction to the one I had after watching the second part of The Witch which was all about the fights/blood with zero plot or well written characters, but it was still a little better than The Witch part 2 to be fair.
The plot was way too 'busy'. Felt like the script writers kept thinking "OK, how can we make the situation even…
I agree, especially with the blood part. It totally felt like colored tap water lmao no matter how gruesome the injuries were, the fake ass blood ruined the serious mood for me.
can someone please tell me why does the Korean interview in dramas have to be a group interview. why not one on…
Yeah it being a group interview is kinda scary, especially since someone might end up saying something that you were planning to say right before you, that can make you panic and not know what to say anymore.
The leads are gorgeous, both Yang Yang and Dilraba have stunning visuals (Especially Yang Yang, like seriously how come a dude is that pretty?! I can't get over his face even though I watched many of his dramas but I still get startled by his looks till this day lmao), and they fit each other pretty good. Their chemistry was decent, and overall both their characters were good. I especially like that FL is straightforward and brave, she never hesitated to pursue her love for ML and basically confessed to him twice. She also didn't fear acting lovey dovey with him in public which is great.
ML is very smart, handsome, and everyone views him as ideal man, but all that did not make him arrogant to death. I did gets irritated by his when was acting too insecure, but his fixed that later. They both supported and cared for each other, also respected each other passions and jobs.
But although of all the positive things I said about the drama...I still felt bored to death lots of times and had to fast forward the last 12 episodes honestly cause by episode 20 I was really suffering to finish the drama. Even though the romance started from episode 21 I found myself barley interested and just wanted to see how the drama will end, the romance and fluff moments during these 12 episodes were decent, but not great enough to make me get that excited.
I also wish they made the drama has a 20 episodes maximum cause they wasted a shit load of scenes and screen time on boring plotlines (The gaming and aerospace to be exact), I love games and gaming (Not a professional gamer though), but that game looked like shit and didn't deserve all that screen time on it. It was still a little bit more interesting than the aerospace part to me at least.
The aerospace stuff are awesome, it's a nice job/major and all, but I couldn't give a fuck about it cause I'm not really into these sort of things (Surprisingly I watch many Sci Fi stuff and I do dig that concept/genre, but in real life without fantasy/fiction aspects it's not that enjoyable to watch for me) so I struggled to understand what was going on and didn't care enough to understand. I either almost fell sleep during these moments or got impatient and skipped them lol
to be fair it was clear they put lots of attention to making the information related to it as realistic as possible and I did hear that people who do actually do these aerospace stuff in real world said that everything they done in the drama was real and detailed...etc so that's cool!
Humor wasn't bad, but wasn't that hilarious. Their fluff moments got repetitive and bland at some point. The group wedding thing was a bit of a surprise, but it was unique and there is nothing wrong about it at all and it's perfect for people who can't afford having an expensive flashy wedding of their own. If they marry with close friends/co-worker that might make the mood even happier too.
Personally I would never do such a thing if I wanted to get married myself since I would never bother share the spotlight with someone else in such an important day lol, but I fully understand the FL's point of view and I agree that type of wedding was good for them. Glad that the fans on social media supported them instead of acting like possessive maniacs.
The ending was sweet and logical. Their kisses were good, Dilraba didn't shy away from kissing back. I hate how rare good kisses are in Asian dramas (I despise the fake ass dead fish kisses they be torturing us with mostly in other shows!) In the end I suffered to decide what rating should I give the drama. There are lots of great things about it, but also the huge boredom and dragginess factor bothers me which is why I couldn't give it 9-10 rating, but it was still a very healthy and sweet drama so...well it was worth the watch overall.
Now about the characters:
Both the guys and girls were shit to me honestly. The guys were too creepy, annoying, irresponsible, immature, childish, unfaithful, and overall unbearable playboys, who only cared about their dicks. Basically typical painfully toxic male characters they liked to constantly use in Kdramas made in 2000's. Dong Wook was a self centered prick, Philip was a literal asshole, Royohei was boring and just existed, and Jun Hwan was a walking cancer. Even Su Kyung's brother was stupid and creepy as hell!
The girls had zero personality traits apart from them wanting to catch some guy to marry and keep in a cage forever. Like I literally know zero things about them apart from how exteremely desperate and horny they are for men. The ones that pissed me off the most were Yu Jin with how retarded her way of talking and behaving were, I get she was supposed to be the naive, dense, spoiled girl who didn't have that much experience in relationships...etc but they didn't need to make her be that over the top and act like she is mentally disabled at times.
The other woman with glasses who works with the Yu Jin was also cringe to death! Other girls were either literal whores or just stupid and shallow to the core.
About the plot:
It was lame, super lame. They are all working adults who are in their late 20s to early 30s yet they acted and thought like dumb high school or college brats. None of them acted their age at all.
There was also many moments that were supposed to be romantic or funny, but to me they were super disturbing and scary. For example the scene when Jung Hwan meets one of the girls in that Karaoke place and starts clinging to her, calling her pearl, then goes to her cousin's wedding and start telling everyone how that she is working as a hostess or whatever, basically ruining her reputation and the wedding, and he chases her everywhere like a maniac even though it's clear she feels uncomfortable around him. Was that supposed to be funny for real?!
Dong Wook agreeing to marry Yu Jin when he doesn't really like her to begin with was also very disturbing.
Also many dialogues and things the (Mostly guys) characters said were super cheesy and awkward.
Main leads took forever to become a couple and there was the whole bullshit about ML hearing FL's thoughts and FL seeing him in her dreams...blah blah then they decided they were in love in the speed of light.
So all couples were garbage to cut it short and romance was ass!
The music/OSTs were decent.
Like seriously if it wasn't for the good cast, their stunning visuals, and good acting I would give this drama a 1/10.
1- I couldn't like the FL, girl was stupid and annoying as hell. Basically all the girls had zero personality traits to them apart from being crazy Kpop fans and into boys and dating. (Which isn't really that odd for teenagers, I'm also a Kpop fan and all, but obviously I do not live my life only focused on Kpop as if I will die without it or whatever). She also was quite rude, spoiled, celf-centered, and treated the guys in shitty way. There is also her being creepy and obsessive to death when it comes to her favorite idols (Even going as far as trespassing into that idol dude's house).
The girls in this drama are overly obsessive and shallow, that it hurts. The boys were more interesting and their scenes were more bearable to watch, but they also were more on the dumb side. Hak Chan was irritating as a boyfriend as well, his girlfriend's way of talking was kinda annoying too.
I did like the gay dude/Hoya's character though, he was the most interesting, likeable, and realistic to me. Glad they handled his character and issue properly, and didn't try to turn him into a retard, make fun of him, or make him a creep just for being gay. I also appreciated that the ML didn't hate on him after figuring out about his feelings for him. Hoya done a good job playing the role. I honestly mostly watched the drama for Seo In Guk, but Hoya also got my attention. Seo In Guk's character was just a typical teenager dude and that's it, nothing much, but not bad.
2- The whole relationship between the teacher and FL was gross as fuck, dude is an adult, she is a minor and they should have about 7-10+ age difference, he is also a teacher and she is a freaking high school student, not even a college student, and his younger brother's friend as well. What kind of creep fucker would view his younger brother's minor friend that way?! I'm 24 years old and have a brother who is 9 years older than me and I still would rather die than date someone his age cause I instantly would view him as an older brother figure even though am already an adult and it's not wrong or anything lmao yeah I do have crushes on idols/celebrities who are older or are in their thirties, but would never bother being in a relationship with one in real life. I seriously despise huge age gaps and the whole minor x adult concept.
ML was sweet for trying to let go of his own feelings for FL for the sake of his brother, since his brother took care of him and they had such a heartwarming sibling relationship (Unlike my asshole older brother lol), but seriously why did they need to add that gross romance-plot?!
3- They wasted tons of scenes on the Kpop blah blah crap, 16 episodes were too much, only 6 or 8 episodes could be enough honestly. Many unimportant scenes, odd editing of scenes when it comes to stupid flashbacks. Also I FUCKING DESPISE that goat sound/noise they play during the supposedly funny scenes. They aren't funny, the goat noise piss the shit out of me! I don't know why, but they just never fail to anger me. Also the parents scenes were either not funny at all, or straight up cringe.
I do believe that the 1988 version was far better than this one even though I didn't complete it yet, but judging from the few episodes I watched so far, it's much better. This one was probably just made to earn profit/milk the shit out of this franchise and that's about it and it's clear from the hollow ass plot and characters.
Tbh I personally liked the movie, I mean yeah I admit the plot isn't really that unique or new, it could be a bit better but it's still not that bad.
Now there are many points I would like to make in case someone is interested enough to read them:
1- About Im Siwan not being a great actor, not being a proper psychopath blah blah. Yes, his acting here isn't as great as in Strangers from hell, but mainly cause the plot and characters there were much better written, he also done a very great job in Unlocked with what he was handed. He is a great actor and can actually play both dark and crazy roles, or peaceful/shy/sweet roles perfectly which can be seen from his roles in Summer Strike and Run On.
About him not being fitting to be a psychopath, that's 100% not true, I think he is more fitting to be a psychopath than many other people, why? Cause he actually does have the right vibe and looks to be serial killer. I mean many people who watch true crime shows/videos on YouTube can understand my point, because many of serial killers around the world (Especially ones who specialize on killing women) got very similar description.
A guy who is very good looking, charming, trustworthy, chill, sweet, and gentle. Many people give that description to them, which is exactly why the victims fall for them and trust them easily, cause there is no way in hell they would figure out that said sweet, easy to trust person could be a full on psychopath, and Im Siwan totally has that vibe to him as a person overall. A guy who is just so gentle, cute, charming, likeable, seemingly weak, and chill which makes him pretty perfect for these psychopath roles. Not every murderer out there have a clearly shady or creepy looks, and if the criminal are clearly criminal looking then it would be much harder for them to deceive and catch targets.
Since Im Siwan can use his natural innocent vibe, then make a 180 degree change to act like a crazy person with quite the creepy expressions, it shows that he is great at acting cause he can play a role that completely opposite from his real personality.
Now about his character in this movie, not every damn killer needs a complicated and dramatic backstory, cause most of the time that only leads to watchers sympathizing with their ass which shouldn't happen. Having shit parents, harsh childhood...etc isn't an excuse for someone to become a murderer, and harming people who got no fault at what happened to them.
Also many killers in real life had very normal lives, normal parents, happy and peaceful childhood, yet they turn out to be one of the worst criminals in human history, mostly due to them being born that way or whatever. It's pretty normal for a human to not have a great reason to kill people or do wrong things, some just do it for fun, or for boredom. Some to feel superior and god like. Some do it to copy another killer whom they might idolize. There are many reasons, some are deep, some are shallow and stupid as hell, but it doesn't make them unrealistic necessarily.
The killer character in Unlocked was pretty smart and didn't have a very visible shady vibe which makes sense he would manage to be that successful at killing people. Also only person who genuinely realized something off was about him was the FL's father who only figured out because he lied about being a regular at their café, then interacted with his daughter again. If it wasn't for that, he also wouldn't find out and would think he was a normal dude whom had a thing for his daughter.
2- About FL being dumb, she is actually one of the smartest FL characters I have seen in thriller/horror movies so far. Instead of being a meek scardy cat, she actually tried her best to solve the issue personally with the help of the police (Who were useless and handled the case in a very retarded way), she clearly didn't know he was a serial killer, just assumed he was a stalker, perverted, creep and that's it. If she knew he was a murderer and police told her the truth and done their job properly she wouldn't put her self art risk to begin with.
Her doing the "No text, just calls" note was a very clever idea, and she instantly contacted the police and tried to have professionals handle the issue when she figured out her phone was hacked. She changed to using an old phone and still didn't 100% trust the old phone which is why she showed that note to the police before going into her father's house. Then she tried her best to face him in her father's house, and even shot him when even the cop was trembling unable to make a decision (Also why did she need to stab him according to some people?! Who cares if she shoots or stabs him? She got the job done anyways you know and it's way easier to shoot someone than stab them, especially if you're not an experienced murderer or are physically strong enough to stab someone to death from first try lmao).
Compared to many FL characters out there, she was more on the brave, smart, and realistic side honestly.
I do think her friend was as stupid as the cops for not just answering her question and being like "No, I didn't hack your phone or whatever, I would never do such a thing to you so cut the crap" instead she answered in a roundabout way and made it seem as if she truly done something wrong.
3- About the cop and his son part, who cares? It turned out that the killer isn't his son so it doesn't really matter what happened between him and his son. From what they showed the father was supposedly and abusive prick who liked to hit his son and that's why his son run away and hated on him. I find it interesting how they made the watchers believe for a good amount of time that the killer was the son.
Also if I remember correctly, when he went to his fake son's/killer's house, there was a paper that had something about plastic surgery on it, so they basically made it seem as if the killer had plastic surgery to change his facial features and that's why his father and other cop couldn't recognize him. His father might've thought the same thing, and seeing his real son's face on his phone lock screen, it could actually work since the son have a kinda similar facial features to Im Siwan so some plastic surgery and losing weight could do the trick.
4- The ending for anyone who is confused, the killer didn't die, they took him to hospital and are waiting for him to wake up to continue their investigation properly. I do find it odd how they don't have his information in their database, I mean really? He was born in the country and grow up without having any sort of information about him in this day and age?! That part didn't make sense to me indeed.
But anyway the FL, her father and friend live normally afterwards, which isn't that odd, the fact that they showed someone else was filming her with their phone probably only means that the killer wasn't the only creep/psychopath out there, there are many others who are like him and might try to do same things, and since she she is a survivor might be more of a reason for another shithead to try and approach her.
The people filming and taking pictures of the FL when the ambulance/medics were taking here shows how people barley give a fuck when such awful things happen, instead they rush to take pictures and shit to gain views, and have something to talk about for some time before continuing with their lives as if nothing happened at all.
I mean the movie's message is clear and it's pretty realistic in my opinion, many people indeed do rely on their devices a bit too much and have tons of very personal and important information saved in them and so if someone get their hands on them, they can easily do wrong stuff and mess with the device's owner life. Many people would just live their whole lives through screens, taking pictures and videos of every stupid and important little thing they do and sharing them with everyone on planet earth, and would freak out if they are forced to spend more than 10 minutes without their phones in their hand.
Still it's not like people can easily not use social media and their devices cause current society rely on them when it comes to lots of things, like handling bank accounts, jobs, watching stuff, studying...etc not anyone could go throw their devices in the garbage and live like they are in the 19th century.
We just need to be more careful, that's all. So devices and technology aren't really bad, they help humanity a lot and at this point we can't not use them, we just need to figure out the proper way to handle them, and cops should take such issues (Cyber crimes) more seriously.
Overall it was a decent movie, could be better, but still pretty decent.
Also love your profile picture/gif! Dongfang is my top drama/fictional character crush lol
All the characters were not that interesting nor likeable so I barley cared when they died including the cops who are supposed to be the good guys in the story, they all were useless and dumb to death, and of course the female characters sucked (They love making the girls stupid and incompetent for some reason most of the time in shows and movies sadly). Plot was predictable as hell too, and honestly the main reason I watched it was Seo In Guk, it was my first time seeing him play a role of a violent, heartless, criminal, and he done a flawless job!
He was the only and most interesting character for me and the moment he died I lost the little bit of interest I had and just tried my best to not fall sleep while watching the rest of the movie. Why did they kill him so early?! That was quite the dumb move since his character actually had protentional and was a well written villain character, especially compared to the other hollow characters, his acting was just wasted on this movie. I was also expecting some sort of nice duo thing to happen between him and the Do Il dude, but well...
And of course there was a pointless sex scene too (Mostly a blowjob to be exact), you know to add more of a "mature vibe" to the movie lmao and just like anyone else said the blood looked so fake that it also ruined the violent/bloody moment. It was basically tap water with some red color added to it and that's it. Then there were some supernatural abilities and humans added to the mix because why??? Who knows!
Overall this movie made me have a similar blank and bored reaction to the one I had after watching the second part of The Witch which was all about the fights/blood with zero plot or well written characters, but it was still a little better than The Witch part 2 to be fair.