MidnightReader

Monkey see Monkey stalk

What is it about History 3 & not letting our characters live in peace? Make Our Days Count had me ugly crying & this series just left me unsatisfied.

Before I get into that, the acting was fine. I haven't seen Jake in anything before, so I don't know how in-depth he was with his character, but everything about Meng felt ridiculous. I couldn't take him seriously. The way he looked, walked, spoke, & behaved had me laughing. His existence alone was enough to make me laugh at first. Was he meant to be the comic relief? No idea, but it's what he ended up being. The only characters I hated were the two girl characters because they acted too entitled toward Meng & Tang Yi. Protective is fine, but telling them to stop seeing someone & actively trying to put a stop to it is pushing things a bit too far.

Kenny's flexibility was impressive, and I'm sad that we only got to see it a couple of times.

Now the plot is what made me really feel unsatisfied. We have this case that happened four years ago, and Meng and Tang Yi are trying to uncover the truth. Along the way, we learn that a LOT of people are not who they say they are or are doing shady things behind the scenes. I honestly wasn't surprised by any of that, and the big parent reveal at the end felt less like a reveal and more like an "oh they finally caught up" moment. But the most unsatisfying part was them just dropping that Tang Yi is most definitely going to prison, but we don't know on what charges, what evidence, or for how long. Meng said he would wait for him, and that's all well and good, but for how long? It's not like Meng has a safe job. What if Meng dies before Tang Yi is released? They should have at least given us a time skip to show that they are together again after Tang Yi becomes a free man. They tortured us with 2 episodes in Make Our Days Count after what happened; they could have at least given us 10 minutes here & wrapped things up cleanly.

If I'm going to watch a crime show, I want all the facts laid out, and I don't want loose ends in the case or the relationships.

The pacing was also slow at times and then would be very fast in others. It didn't help when they brought in other potential love interests for our main characters & we had to deal with unfounded jealousy. There is also 1 flashback that we see different parts of in 3 different episodes, because we apparently didn't need to see it all at once. Overall, I would say the pacing is good for this kind of show, but a couple of parts did drag a bit.

Also, Meng got hurt so many times, and each time it felt like he healed by the next day. I know that multiple days, if not weeks, passed, but the point is it didn't feel like it.

My favorite thing was Jack and Zhao's relationship. It was like Jack was taking care of an excited puppy that he found interesting at first & that interest turned into attraction. I wish we had gotten to see more of them, or at least their internal thoughts or struggles with falling for each other. Though Jack does seem like the person who would just go for it if he liked someone. They also had decent enough chemistry, whereas our main couple felt lacking.

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The best of the En of Love series

In terms of acting, plot, music, & just being generally interesting, this series was the best set in this world.

Yin & War are great actors, and you can tell that they really go all in no matter what role they play. War in particular is really good at expressing his emotions just through facial expressions and body language. The supporting cast also did a good job in what little screen time they had & thankfully this series didn't subject us to 90% teasing and flirting. We actually got drama!

What made this series the best was, in large part, that it was actually interesting. It had actual drama. I don't want 100% fluff. I want the characters to go through something that makes their relationship grow stronger. Granted, what Mark goes through is something no one should have to, but you know, at least we got some spice. That said, I'm a big hater of cheating. It is one of the things that will turn me off a series so fast. It's treated as a normal thing that is bound to happen when it's something that you could easily not do. Now, in Mark's case, I find him innocent of being an accessory to this cheating the first time it happens. After that, he's guilty of being an accessory.

This is a plot that needed to be expanded further because it's clear a lot happens in the background that we don't get to see. It also has the kind of relationship problems that can't be resolved easily & is going to cause a lot of heartache. They did a great job doing so much in very little time, but I'm glad they decided to make Love Mechanics and give us the full story.

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You can watch the cut version without missing anything important

This was a rewatch (I watched the cut version last time), but I remembered nothing from it, and honestly, I won't remember any of it this time either. Addicted and Stay with Me just did everything so much better: from the plot to the characters to the balance between seriousness and humor. Also, I don't know how, but this version somehow does less than the others when it had the time to do it right. If you want to watch the major red flag that Hero is supposed to be, then watch Addicted. If you want a fuller & just all-around great adaptation of the novel, then watch Stay with Me. Don't waste your time with this adaptation, or at least watch this one first so things only get better. (Stay with Me was my favorite).

What didn't help this series at all was the translation. The series already wasn't doing too hot, but then there would just be random moments where they didn't translate anything being said. I know some basic Thai, but not enough to understand most of what's being said, even with context clues.

I had no problems with the acting, really; they did the best they could with what they were given, but I wish they had recast either Mac or August so that our main couple could have actually kissed. This couple is supposed to be VERY intimate; this is a fact in both the novel & original adaptation, but they couldn't really do that here because Mac was underage. So every fake kiss and intimate moment was blocked or black-screened. I'm not the biggest fan of NC scenes, but they are a large part of our main couple getting together, so avoiding them like the plague made the romance incredibly fake because it had little to build on. It also felt like it came out of nowhere; I'm not even sure when it started. The chemistry between them was also hit or miss, but as I said, the actors did the best they could; I'm honestly surprised that their chemistry was as good as it was.

The characters themselves weren't even as good as the originals. If you are going to take out the NC scenes, you can't also take out the back-and-forth between them. Them playing tricks (bullying) on each other built the tension and showcased how smart Bai Luo Yin (Poppy) is. Without it, the relationship felt imbalanced & Poppy came across as just an everyday student with nothing really special about him other than his handwriting and Hero noticing him. In the original series, it was a great way of showcasing his intelligence without relying on basic school knowledge. Hero was also just straight up weaker than his predecessors. This isn't anything against the actor; they just didn't do a good job of showcasing it at all.

Even the tension with the parents felt lacking, like it didn't actually feel dangerous at all, even when a gun was involved.

Our side couple was probably the best thing about the series, and that's only because we get no resolution from them in Addicted or Stay with Me, and here we at least got a kiss.

The plot itself felt patchworked because of them avoiding the NC scenes & glazing over some of the more relaxing moments the main characters shared that would have helped build the relationship. They didn't even include the whole ordeal Bai Luo Yin had to go through with Gu Hai's uncle. But the one thing that really bothered me is how they chose to start the series. We start with them as adults after they've been apart (if you haven't read the novels, it was 8 years), & they had no reason to do this. Why show us that if you have no plans to do that time skip in the series? Why do it if you're not even going to make it to where the time skip happens? It was completely pointless to include this scene because it didn't add anything to the plot except confusion.

So yeah, unless you are really interested or invested in the series, I would give this version a hard pass.

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Trigger warnings for bullying and implied rape

If this series had been given more time, and they had filled the montage moments with actual substance, then it could have actually been good. As it stands, the subject matter was too heavy, & both the plot and the characters felt underdeveloped. Xing Yao's social anxiety is debilitating & it felt like most of it was swept under the rug after a few words from our main love interest. It didn't feel resolved. It didn't feel like he overcame his trauma. It felt like we were getting to the end of the series, so we needed to resolve it quickly. The whole plot is about him overcoming his trauma to become a professional singer, & his childhood best-friend/crush helping him along the way. It sounded great, but the execution was weak and lacked substance. We also just weren't given enough time with the characters to care about them. I hate everything that Xing Yao went through, but that's not the same as me caring about him. This happens to me a lot when I watch Chinese & Korean BL dramas.

Other problems I had were:
* Too many montages with the same, like 3 songs playing.
* A lot of the background would just be blurred for whatever reason. Marketing maybe?
* Xing Yao has a nice voice, but it would have been nice to hear him sing more than the 1 song.
* The translators use the term "her" instead of him when referring to Xing Yao way too much. I let it go at first, but it started to get distracting.

Honestly, the only thing I liked about the series at all was the acting, which wasn't anything spectacular but wasn't bad, & the chemistry between our MLs, which by Chinese BL standards isn't that bad.

This is far, FAR from the worst thing I've seen, but it's also incredibly forgettable.

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Lite spoilers & Trigger warning for SA

This is a series to watch if you want to turn your brain off. You don't want stress; you want problems solved quickly, & you want soft romance. Don't expect this series to get your blood pumping in any way.

I had no problem with our main couple other than not really understanding where the attraction came from for either of them. It didn't feel like a love that should have lasted through 5 years of rejection. Most of my problems with this series had to do with the writing, humor (which, unlike in Me & Thee, stopped being funny after a couple episodes), & the way they handled the side characters.

Instead of giving us an out-there plot with a wedding as a cover for drug trafficking that did nothing but add another couple, we could have progressed the three side couples the show had already started. Of those, Yu & Tai were the least interesting and made the least sense. Honestly, Yu's character alone had too much and nothing going on at once. He felt more like the android in Eternal Butler than a human. I don't ship them at all. Tee & Jeab could have been cute, but Jeab calling Tee a monster and treating him like a bully went a bit too far. Tee teased him, yes, and the end hints that Jeab gets that Tee likes him & that's why he teases him, so things may go more positively, but calling him a monster was way over the line. My favorite to-be side couple was Tian and Mark, probably because Tian was the most realistic character & actually had internal struggles unlike everyone else. Honestly, I would like to get a sequel with Tian and Mark as the main couple. Tian has self-worth & trust issues, and Mark feels like he could be a good one to both support him and help him to open up again.

I wish dramas would stop adding side couples if they are going to do basically nothing with them. They hit us with a "To Be Continued" at the end, so I expect us to be getting either a sequel or a special episode, but I don't hold out any hope for them doing much at all with the side couples.

Also, the "villains" in this series disappear without a trace after their part of causing a problem is over. Where did they go? Kluayhom & Khem just disappeared after each is rejected like they weren't important at all. I mean they apparently weren't, but still I hate when shows just drop characters like this almost as much as I hate when they do nothing with the side couples.

The humor was funny for the first couple of episodes, but after that it was mostly cringy, and I found myself rolling my eyes a lot. It was better than a lot of comedy drama I've watched, and it was more down to the writing than the acting.

The acting was over the top for some characters and is just plain painful to watch at the best of times. This opinion isn't limited to this series either. Otherwise, the acting was alright.

The SA isn't that intense, and it doesn't last long, but it happens nonetheless. Once between Moo & Khem & once between Tian and Mark. Nothing graphic happens & clothes are not removed, but it is non-consensual touching, so I felt it needed to be mentioned.

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Funniest drama I've watched in the past year

I'm not the biggest fan of Thai comedy, but this series had me rolling from episode one. As soon as I SAW Pond, I started laughing. Pond's delivery and everyone's reactions were gold; I honestly don't know how they made it through some of these scenes without losing it. I would hate to say how many retakes they had to do. Maybe they are used to Pond acting this way since many times Phuwin and others have said that he wasn't acting; that's just how Pond is. Filming this series had to be a lot of fun. This is also the kind of script that I would normally hate, but it works well because it fits Pond's character.

How much this series made me laugh was pretty much my sole enjoyment of the series. If it weren't for the fact that it made me laugh so much, the OST was really good, it had a large budget, and it had great acting, I would have rated this show lower.

The show lost my interest at many points, so much so that I stopped watching to play games on my phone. I wasn't interested in the plot at all, and the pacing started well, but felt very rushed toward the end. For example, the proposal and wedding at the end. Both of these things felt like they happened because it's written in the book, not like it was a natural progression of the relationship. Maybe if we knew how long Thee and Peach had been dating to that point, it would have made it more believable. Or if they had gone through some kind of hardship together. Things just felt like they happened way too fast, and then there were important things that we just didn't get to see, like Thee going through the adoption process & planning the wedding (no matter how small).

While I'm on that, the emotional moment when Peach learns that Thee adopted Mork & Morn fell flat because they hugged instead of kissed. That wasn't a hugging moment. It was a kissing one. Pond & Phuwin have never had the best or most emotional kisses, & honestly, they look uncomfortable. I don't know what they can do to fix that, but it would make their series a lot better if they would, because the more emotional scenes just fall flat or become uninteresting.

The only other thing that I didn't like that actually affected my enjoyment of the show was that we are given 2 side couples & neither of them gets enough screen time for me to care about them. I'm going to assume we get a lot more of Rome & Mok in the sequel Peach & Me, but I feel like I should have at least been made interested in them in this series. I simply didn't care about them even though I love William and Est.

At least Rome not being a big part of the story can be explained, but there was no excuse to not show us more of Tawan and Aran's relationship. We don't get enough of them together for me to care. We get one sweet flashback, a little chemistry, & a moment when Tawan hits rock bottom & Aran takes him back. Some moments that we could have gotten are just cut off completely, like in episode 1 where Aran tells Tawan they will talk; we never get to see it. Aran tore up his contract after Tawan disappeared. Why? For what reason? Why didn't we get to see that? Tawan is also friends with a Japanese mafia boss's illegitimate child & this would have been interesting if they had felt like friends and less like they were using each other. I forgot a few times because they act like exes, but Tawan & Aran have never dated. They were in the talking stage, and at the end they are in the roommate stage, so actually can we even consider them a couple?

I know the main focus of the show is Thee & Peach's relationship, but don't introduce side couples and then do nothing with them.

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A relationship built on lies & manipulation

The whole plot of this series revolves around lies and manipulation, with a whole lot of fortune-telling and feng shui overlaying it.

I'm not going to say this series is a waste of time, but I will say that it was incredibly disappointing. I'll go into more detail later, but the writing for this series is so flimsy that I'm convinced that this was the screenwriter's first time writing a script.

THINGS I LIKED

* The acting was great. It was a lot of these actors' first role, and they honestly killed it. Sadly, good acting can only save a show so much.

* The only part of the plot I liked was when Ritt didn't get back together with Itt just because he got hurt trying to "save" him. That happens way too many times in drama series, and sometimes it's fine to do that, but like in this series, it made sense for Ritt not to forgive him because at this point every step of their romance has been built on lies and manipulation, and Itt risking himself doesn't solve those issues.

* Using rune stones for fortune-telling is different.

* NC scenes were surprisingly okay. The actors have good chemistry together.

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE
(90% of these things can be chalked up to lazy writing)

* The actors for Pure and Itt looked so much alike that I got them confused a couple of times. Not for a few seconds either, but sometimes minutes. This was probably just a me problem, but it was still annoying.

* Someone needs to tell the writers that Fortune-telling and Feng Shui can not be a person's entire personality.

* Even if you love someone, you shouldn't pretend to be someone you're not just to be with them. Ritt has the excuse that he was drunk and not thinking clearly when he told the lie, but he should have cleared things up as soon as he got sober.

* Was Pure trying to turn Ritt into an alcoholic? He was drinking so much that I have no idea how he remembered anything. Honestly, this was a small example of lazy writing because he really shouldn't have been able to remember everything.

* Pure honestly wasn't a good friend.

* Can we go back to the time when, if a character wanted to pretend to have beaten or kidnapped someone, they have real footage or at least have made it so the said person is busy and unable to answer the phone? Or manipulate the person to the location to falsify evidence against them? I've only watched a couple of series where they pull this "it was faked with AI" bullshit, and yes, it shows the dangers of AI, but at the same time you can't rely solely on that to move the plot forward. It just makes the characters look stupid for falling for it, and in this case also Pure for thinking Itt is pulling a "Ritt was kidnapped" scheme to what? Make up with Ritt? Does that make any sense at all? This whole scene was just to deal with a blackmailer that honestly played such a small role in the story that he could have been written out completely, and they could have just had Ritt's guilt slowly eating at him until he couldn't take lying anymore, only to then discover that everyone around him had been lying to him.

* Ritt has no right to play the victim after learning that Itt knew he was lying the whole time. He had no reason to snap like that. He should have just said sorry and explained why he did it. It's only after Pure reveals that he had known for a while, and that Itt and Phitcha had known the whole time, that he had the right to be mad and hurt. Because let's be honest, Itt pretty much set him up to tell the lie in the first place and then manipulated things so that they had to have a fake marriage, live together, and go on a trip together. He also had everyone around him and Ritt in on the scheme as well. So to me, Itt was the worst of these two, and I honestly wouldn't have been surprised if they hadn't gotten back together.

* They showed the same scenes from Ritt and Itt's past multiple times with little added.

* They had Itt say at the end that he wanted to start over without any lies between them when he manipulated things to get Ritt to the event in the first place. At this point, it felt like Ritt gave in to get Itt to stop, more than him being willing to give them another try. At this point, basically their whole relationship had been built on a lie, so how do you know when the lying stops? Itt's a red flag & everyone is color blind.

* LAZY WRITING! Everything written above for starters, but also the characters have no real personality or growth. The story focused so much on the fortune-telling and Feng Shui that there wasn't any room for either. They decided to add these things instead of building up good foreshadowing or tension, and defaulted to "let's just use AI". We only see Ritt struggling internally about his lie for the first couple of episodes and then again after he's being blackmailed. If Ritt's victim speech had to happen, they could have used better dialogue instead of making the audience completely unable to be sympathetic toward him. Some sympathy was possible because Itt did a lot more lying and manipulating. Itt supposedly tried to get Ritt to tell him the truth when really, after their first date, he didn't at all. Itt also used the excuse that he wasn't brave enough to hit on Ritt, but for some reason he had no problem lying to and manipulating him into dating him.

This series had potential.

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Don't expect anything intense or dark

I saw a few clips of this show before I watched it, and it turns out they were all from the side couples' scenes. After finishing the series, I get why; they definitely had better chemistry than our main couple. Kisses were stiff either way. I liked the back hugs and cuddles, though.

I liked that I actually learned something from this series; I had never heard of Hyperventilation Syndrome or Aplastic Anemia before, and it was nice to learn more about them. I'll remember them, whereas I probably won't remember most of the other details of the show. Not that it wasn't a good show, but it was . . . safe. I feel like this show was sold as something much darker with a toxic, obsessive, and possessive romance, and it did the bare minimum with all of those things. I had really been looking forward to those darker tones.

OST was good; it made me feel like I was watching an anime at times.

The acting was good. I have no idea who played Xiaosi, but he did a great job. I loved his character and the relationships he had with Li and Zhai Qiu Yu. Li is his most important person, and he wasn't going to give Zhai Qiu Yu an inch.

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Not the worst Vampire BL series I've watched

I liked what they were going for, but sadly, they couldn't do much with only 10 minutes per episode. It clearly had a limited budget, even though the effects weren't the worst I've seen.

For some reason, I found Lucifer saying "I'm also a Christian," really funny.

The fighting was laughably bad, and so short that it may as well have been cut out.

The kissing was . . . kissing, I guess. Chemistry wasn't there at all.

What was that ending? No, seriously, what was it? Is Minu alive or dead? If alive, how? And what were the repercussions of what Lucifer did?

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Bored and Disappointed

I had no expectations going into this show. That being said, what the hell happened?

First off, the little things. The speed effects & CGI were bad, and the OST was way too loud at times. Also, was that last scene filmed in front of a green screen?

The first couple of episodes were alright, but by episode 5, I found myself doomscrolling while the show played in the background, and I started watching it at x2 speed just to get through it.

I lost count of the number of times I wanted to DNF this series, but I didn't because of Neo. Then they kill him unnecessarily. They could have saved him if they wanted to. Why was Mark trying to heal him while he was still impaled? If it was too late for healing once you pulled him off, turn him. And you can try to argue that they needed permission because they can't die afterward—bullshit. 1. I'm sure Tonkla would have chosen to live & 2. I'm sure taking their head off or piercing the heart, even without having "golden blood," would kill them. I thought about dropping the show after he was killed by Nakan (whom I was hoping to see him have a romance with), but at that point, there were only 3 episodes left, so I pushed through it.

The plot was also way too predictable. I should not have known that Thara was after Golden Bloods for her own personal gain, episode 1. That twist doesn't even get revealed until episode 10. Was anyone really surprised by this? Nakan wanting to take her down because she killed someone he loved was also not a surprise at all. The biggest surprise was that they actually killed Tonkla because he was the only good character in the whole show, and killing him off was just a stupid decision. They should have just gone with an enemies-to-lovers trope and at least tried to save their sinking ship a little instead of letting it capsize.

The world-building was very surface-level and made everything feel fake. The lore of vampires is never properly explained, but we have no idea what normal vampire abilities are because they are all treated as expendable. Not even the important ones are that impressive tbh. The Mortal Instruments did a better job building up its vampire world in its first book, and they are barely a part of it. To me, this was just lazy writing. Everything in the fantasy genre needs rules; this series took the pre-established rules we know and threw them out the window, and replaced them with nothing. That didn't make the vampires feel powerful and impossible to kill; it just left me as a viewer feeling like no one wanted to put any effort into building the world or writing it into the script, so they just gave us nothing.

I've liked Gawin's acting in the few things I've seen him in, but with this series, I didn't care for it. I believe that is largely down to the directions he was given and the script giving him very little to work with.

Besides Tonkla, because he was just a good self-sacrificing person, I didn't care about any of the characters, not even Dome, and I love AJ. I spent more time questioning Tong's IQ and common sense than I should have had to, and everyone else was just uninteresting. Mark was interesting as he slowly became more human, but not enough to draw any interest in me. I do wonder why Thara was so inhuman since she's drained multiple Golden Bloods. Wouldn't that have made her more human and feel some kind of guilt? Did something happen? Is it because of how old she is? How old is she really? Who was the first vampire, and how did it happen? These small things could have built the world up a little, but too little, too late.

NC scenes were probably the best part of the series, and I honestly only looked up from my phone if they were talking, but it wasn't enough to save the series. No matter how many they try to shove in there in the end. It felt like there was one or two in every episode after they "did it" for the first time.

Lastly, the sleeping beauty moment in the last episode? Please never do that again. Or if you are going to, make it make sense and don't half ass it.

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Did we need this?

Probably not, but it's always nice to see the characters again after the main series has finished. We got to see that Shulang's ex is doing fine, and Fan Xiao & Shulang are getting married, or they got married. Shulang helped Fan Xiao get over his trauma, which honestly took no time at all, but I get there were time constraints. I know they had to rush this special because of some problems with fans, and that we are lucky to have gotten it at all.

The only thing I wish we had gotten to see is them co-parenting Tiantian. Do I think Fan Xiao is someone you expose a child to? No, but I would have liked to have seen it regardless, and I feel like Tiantian has the same level of protection as Shulang.

"People are watching." Yes, yes, they are. Honestly, the tourists being actual tourists made it more real. So what if they gawked? I'd be sitting in the sand watching as well and squealing like the fangirl I am.

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OP is very fun to listen to

First off, I love the OP and the club music that they used. I also liked that it sounded like they were really trying to talk over the club music, and honestly, they might have been.

The pacing was slow; each episode felt weeks long. This was probably due to the fact that the story for both couples was boring. I thought they'd do more with Dean and Moth. They are low-to-mid-tier red flags, so nothing actually bad happens other than them being flippant about each other's feelings. They aren't as physical with each other as I was expecting either; they were very tame. I was expecting them to start a physical relationship and kind of go from there, or for Moth to be in on the plan (he kind of was, but also not really), but for them to start "dating" threw me off. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't expected. It felt like I was oversold on a concept that should have been more twisted than it was. Our side couple wasn't as much of a driving force to keep Dean trying to win Moth over as I expected either. That was the starting point, and it was dropped pretty much right away. All of the people Dean was "talking" to also just disappeared from one episode to the next with pretty much no explanation. It didn't help that it didn't feel like we got to know much about the characters besides surface-level stuff.

None of that bothered me much; it was more like an "okay" shrug-and-move-on type of thing. I've seen too many horrible shows to let these kinds of things bother me when the overall show is alright. The only thing that truly bothered me was the dialogue during the couples' dinner after the time-skip felt like it was happening right after Dean and Moth got together, not 3 years later. It was weird listening to a conversation that should have happened years ago happen as if no time had passed at all.

The acting was fantastic all around. William and Est had great chemistry, as always, and their hand-holding scenes are still great, though they didn't outdo the one from ThamePo that I'm still obsessed over.

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A good movie to pass the time

This movie was mostly action and didn't really spend any time emotionally connecting you to the characters. I didn't care if any of them died because I didn't know them, and honestly, my favorite character was the tow truck driver's dog. He was a cutie, and I was constantly looking for him. SO yeah, if you're looking for a movie that will get you emotionally invested in the characters, this isn't it.

Good action and CGI? It's one of the things that Korea does right. It didn't feel like they used the full scale of the bridge as they could have, but maybe that's the Final Destination part of my brain thinking that.

The story could have been a little more in-depth. For example, they could have shown us more of the experiments and test runs in a flashback. The researcher could have been more useful in getting around the dogs throughout the movie instead of only at the end. They could have included the rescue team's POV. Just something to make the story more interesting than going back and forth on the bridge being chased by the dogs.

It was a good movie, but it lacked substance.

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More of an action movie than a zombie movie

The only similarities to Train to Busan are the way the zombies look and function. There is a little backstory given about the virus and its origins, and Busan is mentioned as a place that wasn't as safe as they thought it would be, but if you were to watch this movie without first watching Train to Busan, you wouldn't be confused. This movie can stand on its own.

The CGI in the driving scenes is a bit obvious, but not in a very distracting way, and honestly, I was fine with it when we were getting such good action scenes. Joon-ni was a hell of a driver, and Yu-Jin was a very helpful sidekick. (I really hope I got their names right.)

There were a couple of moments that were predictable, but they didn't take away any of my enjoyment of the movie.

The biggest plot twist was at the end. I won't spoil it, but a certain person really surprised me when they showed up.

This movie also showcases how crazy people can get when they are forced to live in a constant state of life or death, and how, after long enough time has passed, they aren't that different from the zombies. I do wonder if there were any other survivor groups? It sounded like it, but you'd think we would have seen some sign of them with how much of the city was covered.

You'd also have expected, after 4 years, for the zombies to have died off. Zombies never seem to decompose in these movies, and I really don't understand why. They are dead and constantly exposed to the elements, so you'd think their bodies would be rotting until there was nothing left. *shrugs*

There's definitely potential for more movies.

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One of the most realistic depictions of war I've watched.

I somehow found this dubbed in English. It actually wasn't that bad, but I wish I could have found it in Korean. Weirdly enough, I could only find it in English and Russian.

Set in Korea, July 1953, during the battle of the Kamgang Bridge. I personally don't know much about this battle, but I'm very interested in studying it & the war itself after watching this movie. I'm not sure how much truth I will get from it since the winners write our history, but I'm interested nonetheless.

All the focus is on this one bridge. One side is trying to destroy it while the other keeps rebuilding. It's a never-ending cycle of hope being built up and then crushed. We get the POV of the Korean ground troops and the American fighter pilots. The two stories aren't told in sync, so it was a little confusing until I realized that. This movie doesn't try to get you emotionally attached to any of the characters; it's showing you the reality of war through their eyes. And it's an uplifting and soul-crushing thing to see. Uplifting because of the sheer tenacity of humans, but soul-crushing because you see how cruel and greedy some can be over the littlest things. (I'm going to stop there before I go on a rant.)

I won't spoil it, but the ending scene was the reason I watched this movie, and it was honestly an empowering thing to see. Even more so because of the 2 hours building up to that moment. Then it ends by showing us a fully built bridge in the same place, I'm guessing, in the present day, and I got a sense of pride seeing it.

This movie was far from perfect, but it's a story that I believe needed to be told.

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