MPL88

A Rebellion, A Monster and a Weak Love Story

A mission to find a government official’s side piece leads down a rabbit hole of horrific human experiments, a rebellion against the Japanese occupation and of course love.

I generally liked the leads in this but am on the fence about whether PSJ was the right actor for the ML role. He wasn’t bad in the role but I think there are other actors out there who could’ve really owned the part. His acting is good but I don’t think he’s the embodiment of who Jang Tae-sang should be.

The monster being created by the Japanese was a creative way of referencing the history of the experiments they conducted on Koreans during the war and its horribke impact on those individuals. However, how the monster worked within the story wasn’t always consistent. Some managed to fight off the monster and escape its attack unscathed while others were completely eviscerated by it. This was driven more by plot than logic. Same with the anthrax attacks.

The action on this show was pretty good, but what engaged me the most was the human stories of those impacted by the war and the Japanese occupation as well as those working in the rebellion in an attempt to fight back.

The implied feelings developing between the leads was not believable because they have no romantic chemistry and the development of those feelings was random. Having the ML join the rebellion due to his feelings for the FL made no sense for the previously mentioned reasons. There was more than enough going on in his life to drive his change of heart without the FL being the reason.

The production value was superb, save for the CGI of the monster which was hit or miss. The episodes were a little too long, but overall the acting was good and the show entertaining.

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Once again, Xu Kai takes on a Potentially Good Story which Unfortunately Veers off into the Tedious

A woman who is the brains behind the design of a new medical technology is on the precipice of rising to a new level within her company and subsequently the medical technology industry. Not only that, she seems to be well rounded with a personal life full of friends and a loving boyfriend who wants to marry her. Of course her road to career success starts off rough with her male supervisor knowing her talent but deliberately blocking her growth for fear that she’d outshine him and the inevitable male pig or two who feels he can treat women like sexual objects whom he can harass at his leisure. The first few episodes entailed the FlL dealing with these obstacles in the office with no support from her male or female office leaders. It was infuriating to watch, but entertaining.

Ji Xing (FL) was a strong woman who stood up for herself. Reporting sexual harassment when others tried to deter her complaint and quitting her job when she realized they’d never reward the value she brought to the company. Many of us have been there. So I cheered her on when she made that wise decision to move on. Moreover, when friends, colleagues and even her boyfriend weren’t overly supportive of her starting her own business she pushed forward, making adjustments to the business plan where needed, to improve her chances of success. Loved this.

On a shallow note, the FL looked 35 rather than her character’s age. Good actress, but she looked too old to be in her early 20s. The styling of her hair didn't help and the ML though in real life in his late 20s, looked way older than his character's age. But at least he looked old enough to run a conglomerate unlike most of the MLs in C-dramas who look all of 21 years old. Lol.

That said, I liked the business interactions between the leads and was intrigued by how the romance would develop between them, but I also liked the potential that was the relationship between the FL and her boyfriend. The story started to lose my interest with the contrived breakup of the FL and her boyfriend. The reasons made no sense and was a mere plot device, not well written I might add, to make the FL easily available to the ML. It would've been more interesting had the ML had to fight for the FL's affections with her eventually realizing he was a better match for her than her boyfriend. Unfortunately, no such luck. I could predict where the story would go from here as the plot contrivances started almost immediately after the breakup with the ML showing up at the FL’s home for some ridiculous reason, and in turn, happened to meet her mom who loved him. And of course with him now having invested in her business, mind you he only invested so that he could continue to work closely with her in hopes of then dating SMH, the plot contrivances would undoubtedly continue. At this point, I stopped watching the show. It’s a shame because I really liked the set up of the story, but the writing kind of got lost within itself after about 10 episodes.

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Fireworks Have Never Been So Dull

Great set up for this story. A couple who were once involved being torn apart by some painful action of the past, but who are still obviously drawn to each other in the present. The chemistry between the leads was perfect, but the story was far from it. It spent way too much time on the minutiae of everyday life. Granted saving lives is not minute, but it just wasn't interesting here as it wasn't well balanced with the love story that should've been the driving force behind the series and thus the A story instead of the C or D story. The show spent numerous episodes moving the love story at a snails pace with hardly anything happening and when they did try to put more focus on it the dialogue would be at times cringey. For example when the FL was saved from her sinking car by the ML. After he saved her, carrying her from her car of course, she asked him if he "went through all that trouble to save her because he still cared for her." Sigh. The guy is a firefighter that is his job to save people no matter his personal feelings for them. The FL should've known this best being that she is a doctor. SMH. Anyway, it took nearly 20 episodes for there to be any "significant" movement with this relationship and even what happened was barely a step forward. Once I realized there would be another 20 episodes of nothingness with most of the focus being on the fire or medical emergency of the week I gave up on this.

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Peter Parker meets Superman meets Bruce Lee in this ridiculously fun action school drama

That’s exactly what Yoo Ga-min was a school kid who was passionate about learning but also about protecting the weak and doing the right thing. The way he miraculously appeared when his friends were in trouble along with his super human strength ie kicking through steel doors, jumping off of buildings, running at super human speed and crashing through walls without getting so much as a scratch, he was indeed a super hero. All he needed was a cape.

The idea that his ultimate goal was to form a study group, so that he could improve his grades and go to college was original and served as a great way to bring the misfits that were the study group together. The group was a nice mix of brains, brawn , and kids from varying backgrounds. Though none of their lives were particularly similar they all formed a strong bond of friendship and loyalty.

This show was entertaining and had many hilarious moments but did have a very dark undertone, which was the ever present theme which pops up in k-dramas, severe bullying. It was infuriating to watch kids get bullied at school, bullied walking home from school, bullied when walking to the local store or just hanging out with friends, and no adult stepping up to help. The school was strait up pandemonium, but save for one teacher, administrators weren’t doing anything create order. It was ridiculous (and unrealistic) that there were no parental complaints about the chaos at the school ( or their kids coming home with black eyes, bloody noses and other bruises) while crimes were going on daily on school grounds without any recourse from the administrators or local law enforcement.

Pi Ha Wool’s reign of terror at the school made sense in that he wanted to control his “kingdom”. What didn’t make sense is that control entailing terrorizing kids who wanted to study, learn and make something of themselves. Another plot hole, it was implied that Geon Yoop’s mom was murdered by Pi Ha Wool and/or his gang of thugs but that story thread was dropped and seemingly given to Ms. Lee. Not a plot hole but though Ga min’s focus was learning not fighting, I wanted him to teach his friends a few moves that would help them defend themselves when he wasn’t around. It difficult to watch them repeatedly get slapped, kicked and beat down (rarely fighting back) until Ga-min miraculously came to the rescue.

Despite some flaws, this was a great show. Good cast with great chemistry. Min-Hyun was perfect as Ga-min. This was by far his best role to date. Would I recommend this show? Absolutely! Would I rewatch it? Absolutely!

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An Office Romance Wrecks Havoc on the Fragile Career of An Elite Educator

Interesting insight into the elite education field for high schoolers in Korea. Though the FL was very good at what she did her approach, at times, could be off putting. The ML being brought onboard predictably stirred things up and inevitably led to the FL being humbled a bit but it was growth her character needed .

Though the show did a good job at capturing the atmosphere of the elite Korean education system the story wasn’t deeply engaging. There wasn’t anything compelling about the FL standing outside a door waiting for the ML to finish his teacher’s entry exam, watching him do a mock lecture or watching administrators and teachers try and outwit each other to become the next *star* educator at the school. It’s difficult to make a series centered around the classroom interesting, which is why this show struggled to capture this viewer.

The romance wasn’t enough to make up for what was missing in the main story. The leads chemistry wasn’t great, just passable. Their love story was okay. It was a little icky that the ML had a thing for the FL back in high school when she was his teacher. She gave in to his advances almost immediately. It would’ve been more realistic had she resisted his romantic overtures given their past teacher/student relationship, not to mention the risk to her career, for which she’d worked very hard to find extraordinary success.

Overall, this was okay. After I finished the last episode I realized there was nothing memorable about this show. Is it worth watching? Depends on the viewer, but honestly not to me. Is it worth a rewatch? Absolutely not.

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A Dull Demon Doing What’s Been Done Many Times Before, but with little Flare

The premise of this series was quite cliche. It could practically write itself due to how much this type of story has been done. Unfortunately, the writers could not make this interesting at all. The “demon” (Gu-won) is very good looking, love the actor. But there was nothing interesting about him. He made deals with desperate people and collected on those deals 10 years later by collecting their souls and sending them to hell. Okay. Seen this before. Now what?

It is intriguing that he has a cross tattoo on his wrist that apparently holds all his powers and he did have an encounter 200 years earlier with a little girl which I’m guessing somehow connects to the FL in the present, but the details of that story thread likely won’t be explored for another 10 episodes.

The demon’s first meeting with the FL was fun. And the power struggle going on at Almighty Ju’s company has some spark, but overall the story fails at being interesting. The leads look great together but have lukewarm chemistry. The only relationship that really popped in this was Doo-Hee and Ms. Ju. Really loved their conversations and chemistry.

Again I can already guess where the story is going. Gu-won will of course see the error of his demon ways and in turn find his humanity by giving up his powers for love and eventually becoming mortal. I’m also betting he made a deal with Doo-Hee’s parents (probably to save her life or ensure she has a good life) and that’s why they died in that car accident. This will be a source of angst in their romance. Nothing wrong with a story being predictable but it needs to be interesting. I gave this three episodes and just couldn’t care enough about the story to continue so I stopped watching.

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Snoozeworthy Love Story with Characters Who Lack Chemistry

I knew this series was in trouble when it spent the first 15-20 minutes on characters who weren’t the leads in a silly dispute. The FL lead was involved, in a attempt, I’m guessing, to set up who she was but she was playing a supporting role in those first 15-20 minutes in a storyline that was neither good nor interesting.

The story eventually progressed to its main storyline introducing the the male lead who couldn’t be more dull. The overbearing mother demanding that he immediately find a wife didn’t help matters either. The leads finally meet and unfortunately they are about as exciting as watching paint dry. No chemistry whatsoever. Both actors are attractive and can act but their characters are as dull as dishwater.

The contract marriage trope always has an element of ridiculousness but the suspension of disbelief required for this story is a lot. This was because the lies to keep up the illusion of the contract marriage were so over the top, so unnecessary and so far from who these characters are it just didn’t make sense. If the FL was smart she would’ve made sure the lies closely aligned with the truth. Thus they’d be easy to remember but the fibs she came up with were ridiculously elaborate which I imagine will eventually lead to the undoing of her and the ML’s scheme. The side stories with the brother and the FL's ex are annoying rather than intriguing or funny. And the leads apparently starting to fall for each other is just not believable, due in part to the lack of chemistry between them and their love story being poorly written.

I gave it 10 episodes because I like Xua Kai, but stopped watching as I was FF through episodes more than I was watching them. Needless to say I won’t be finishing this series and don’t think it’s worth watching.

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Off the Rails Before the Story Could Gain Traction

Nice science fiction setup about parallel universes. The wealthy FL is transported to the past after following the advice of an acquaintance who assures her if she arrives at a specific location at a specific time she’ll find her missing friend. Speeding to that location in an effort to meet the deadline she ends of careening off a bridge into the water and traveling to an alternate universe that ends up being the year 2018.

Sounds exciting right? Yes! Unfortunately this is where the excitement ends. The FL struggles to understand what is going on and immediately discovers the life she previously had doesn’t exist in this version of 2018. She gets some help from a stranger who gives her shelter for the night then she meets the ML who proceeds to help her while also stalking her. The first four episodes is literally her finding a job and the ML following her around town because of course she’s some woman, likely a love interest from his past, whom he must look out for. There is nothing more about the sci-fi of the story. If a viewer didn’t know any better this would be another boring romance drama.

Such a shame because I like the actors in this and the premise has promise, but the show seemed to have abandoned that premise for the mundane day to day life of the FL and her inevitable romance with the ML.

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Meandering Scenes with No Logic and No Story; Making This Series Unwatchable

The cast is beautiful as are the costumes, but that does not make up for the lack of logical storytelling. We meet the FL, Qingyue, who has been living at a mortal sect of magical practitioners for 11 years. In this time, she has developed no valuable skills or powers but yet is stationed as a guard at the sect gates. She’s obsessed with romance. Though we’re told this instead of shown this , and in turn decides to marry a God whom she knows nothing about.

Granted he saved her life when a rogue monkey tried to kill her and is a good looking guy. But there is no logic in a) why she would betroth herself to him while not knowing one thing about him. B) why when she saw that he was obviously not a mortal she didn’t ask who he was and where he was from. C) Why she would hide him in her home knowing it would cause serious trouble if he was discovered? She then happily “marries” him having no idea why he selected her as his spiritual partner or anything else about what being married to a God will entail. She moves to his kingdom where the “story” gets even worse. It’s literally just one scene after another that have no connection and with no effort to built a logical story.

There does seem to be some past drama connected to the FL, based on the ML’s, the God, brief and ambiguous dialogue with his main subject, but there has been no effort to build on whatever that is. This started off mildly entertaining but eventually devolved into a story with no purpose. If you’re considering giving this a try, I say save your time and watch something else.

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Great premise, but the execution was a snoozer

It begins with the leads experiencing a tragic fate, but are somehow transported back to the past to live a do over. The FL returns to her younger self just in time to witness the betrayal that destroyed her parents marriage, precipitated her mother’s death and brought about her “wicked” step mother. The conflict that this situation could’ve created was resolved before it could ramp up. After which, the story slowed to a crawl. The series spends quite a bit of time on the day to day monotony of the FL building her business and the ML’s military excursions, but nothing that was building towards an intriguing story thread for the series. I gave this 5 episodes , but just could not get into it because the story wasn’t really moving forward at a reasonable pace.

On a shallow note the ML looked great with long salt and pepper hair, mostly salt. 😂. And the snow covered sets were very well done. The leads had so so chemistry. They need more time together to potentially warm up and mesh. Perhaps that happened in a later episode after I dropped the show. The acting was good, but the actors weren't all that charismatic, which I'm guessing contributed to the show being difficult to enjoy. If the actors were interesting, it would've certainly made it easier to continue watching even with the story barely progressing. Anyway, if you have the patience to sit through several episodes of some world building, while the general story comes together at a snails pace, then you may enjoy this. If you are someone who likes to see where the story is going and actions to support that story thread within the first episode or two, this show may not be for you.

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A Repeat of Once We Get Married this Was Not

The leads in this have wonderful chemistry. They played opposite each other in Once We Get Married and did a phenomenal job. So this series already had extra points for casting them together again. The premise of the series was strong with a lot of potential but unfortunately the story quickly lost steam early on. I don't know if it was too much focus on the kid, which can sometimes happen when dramas are centered around children or if it was the conflict in the story shifting to business which wasn't well written, but this just started not to work in part due to these issues. As a result, I did not continue this show and dropped it about 1/4 of the way through.

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“Passion” that’ll leave you cold with a laughably absurd plot

“Passion” that’ll leave you cold with a laughably absurd plot

This was entertaining and the leads are very pretty even though the chemistry is passable. Outside of the previously mentioned this show is a hot mess. It tries to have passion but the kisses between the leads are so bad they’ll leave you cold and laughing at how horrendous they are. Probably the worst I’ve seen in a while.

The plot makes absolutely no sense. And neither does the leads actions. Moreover, neither are the brightest bulbs in the chandelier. Case in point, the FL goes to visit this slimy business man who offers to invest in her business if she drinks an entire tray of alcohol shots. She foolishly does it and of course the worst nearly happens. However, she conveniently manages to escape the situation, ridiculously running into the arms of the ML who rescues her. Swooping her up into his arms and carrying her away from the slimy business man.

The ML shows his denseness when he sleeps with the FL during which he discovers it’s her first time but then proceeds to think she’s a prostitute with lot of clients. SMH. And then there is the marriage plot which is silly at best. I continued to watch because it was entertaining until the plot got too absurd to continue. This show is the epitome of leaving your brain at the door while watching. If you can get past the absurdity of it all perhaps you’ll enjoy. If you’re looking for a show that at the very least makes sense, this ain’t it.

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