MinJi23

A nice watch for a change

after I've been ranting about the bad quality of newer dramas lately, a big yaayyy, 'good partner' is really nice to watch.
Yes, it's a typcial law drama, but a good one.
I had it on my watch list as I watch anything with Nam Ji-hyun. She was the lead of the first drama I ever watched ('suspicious partner' - another partner-title and she was a lawyer too) and no matter what I've seen her in yet, she is a great actress, I really like her vibes, I like that she also chooses non-vain roles, and same goes for her social media - I can't put into words how refreshing it is to see any Korean actor or actress on Instagramm who posts non-filtered, normal human pictures for a change. She does often, she has two normal cats (not the typical tiny white dog), well, in short, I really like her.

This drama started interesting, the actors are all quite good, the cases are interesting concerning emotional aspects as well as showing some specific tricky sides of the Korean law system. It also shows how difficult it is wanting professional success in your field on the one hand, and your conscience intercepting on the other.
Each case has been interesting enough for me to watch the whole episode without ff-skipping or just leaving for five minutes because it wouldn't matter if I missed them - as I sadly do often these days with other dramas that lack quality.

This is for you if you like this kind of law-setting in general and if you like to use your brain a little as it requires you actually listening, thinking and just having a love for the beauty of special field language. As I like all these things if they are delivered through good acting and storytelling, I really enjoyed every episode so far.

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Why?

I really don't get it. There was a time when one fantastic K-drama followed another, and these days, all I get is really good starts for the first few episodes, only to find myself annoyed and disappointed at around episodes 5 and after.
Same here.

This started promising, with rather nice and heartwarming storytelling, an idea of what might happen after death, and it had some great takes on what might come.
I first liked the idea that the writers acknowledged that pets might go to heaven too. I started to be bothered though as they only ever showed dogs, just once or twice a cat too for 30 seconds but there was never a follow-up. When they showed the rainbow bridge there was also only dogs, no cats, no other loved pets either.

Now having watched up to episode 7, it gets nonsensical for me. So, as there is talk about heaven and hell, and in that heaven there is only what seems to be a Christian church with a priest ( but nothing for any other faiths like Buddhism (which would make sense particularly for a Korean heaven) or any other possible faiths people might have followed while alive). Yet now we hear something about reincarnation doors. Not only does that not make any sense for the Christian faith, it also doesn't make sense to me that pure souls like those of dogs or cats would have to reincarnate , and they are told that they have to do so to one day become humans on earth themselves. In my personal opinon that would be a regression actually.

I also didn't like the fact that the dogs and cats in heaven had adult human form. If at all in human form it would suit the spirit of dogs much better to be shown as little, carefree childen, if at all in human form. So while there were some few good messages to actual pet owners watching this drama about their responsibilities, it just didn't ad up for me where they lead that part of the story meanwhile. And why would dogs have to go to human therapy sessions to be taught that natural dog behaviour is a bad and wrong thing?

Now for the humans: I get that this boss in heaven says that heaven is just a stage (which again contradicts that solely showing of this heaven being a Christian heaven) But our main FL having to meet her terrible mother-in-law again? How did an abusive mother-in-law get into heaven at all in the first place? Doesn't make sense to me. Also in the beginning they say that for meeting someone in heaven both parties have to consent to meeting each other prior, and our FL is now not asked and confronted with her terror-mother-in-law again even in that so called heaven and gets treated awful again? That is not heaven for sure. Also it totally contradicts the sequence in hell, where some schoolbully boys, (at least youngsters in their teens who, at least having the excuse of being very young and immature) go straight to hell for their bullying and burn in the everlasting fires, while a long adult, nasty bullying mother-in-law, who bullied her daughter-in-law all her adult life and enjoyed it, goes to heaven? Ok then ...Oo

Also the part of the story with Som-I? They drag it for way too long and now even start making it a potential cheating/affair story with the FL's husband? While before they say there is a special hell for adulterers? Also, how did Som-I get into heaven at all with no memory? How did she actually pass through that first office round where they ask everything (your name, your date of birth, and how old you want to appear in heaven) How did she get past that without answering anything? Who set her age for her if she didn't go through the first office? And she must have arrived there as the FL's husband was with her on the train, so she arrived at the very same spot all arrivals from the trains arrive. Some suggested Som-I is just a younger version of the FL - well, if so, why would her husband not have recognised her face in the train? Why would Sonya, the cat not have known immediately that Som-I is the very same person as the FL ? And so on... really sloppy writing from there already.

All in all though what I miss basically is the idea that in heaven (if there is such thing no matter for which faith) the souls, or spirits (or whatever you might call them) who go there should actually exist in some kind of elevated spiritual realm, where there is a higher conscience that frees them of human weaknesses and the miseries those weaknesses cause in humans' earthly lives.

But the way they show it there now is just no difference to earth at all, except for actual disadvantages in many aspects. Again, that would not be any kind of heaven I would imagine in any faith.
To me it seems they had some good initial ideas and started with those, maybe for the first few episodes, and then they started to just write along whatever came to them, maybe under time pressure, and not thinking about if it makes at all sense to what they set as frame in the first good few episodes.

I'll watch episode 8 tomorrow to see if they at least try to get back on any track with the storyline. If it gets even worse than episode 7 it'll be yet another drop for me.


Update: I drop this after episode 8. The storyline is totally ridiculous now. Christian churches and priests in heaven and then a boss of heaven who babbles about many lifetimes and reincarnation.

Not only that, the idea of reincarnation is showed so simplified and actually blames victims of any crime instead of the perpetrators. Following the logic of this show, it simply means (for example) that a 2-year-old girl who gets raped and brutally murdered by her own father is to blame herself because she did something bad in a prior life and so deserves this fate. I'm quite at a loss of words about this logic. Also this idea that blood-related families will have to meet over and over again in new life cycles - what a horrible thought for those children who have to endure careless, cruel, violent abusive and murdering parents. What a horrible thought that in this depicted 'heaven' they get only told that they have to meet these deranged foul souls over and over again, and there is no chance for them being reborn into good surroundings with DIFFERENT family member souls around them, an absolute, never-ending nightmare vision, that lacks any logic on top by the way. How should there be any possibility of progress in several life cycles, if a tortured child is reborn to the be the torturer instead? Which would mean, in the next life cycle the same soul would have to suffer terribly again for sinning in the last life and there would never be a possibility to break this negative cycle for anyone included.

This show should even have a severe trigger warning for people with PTSD, traumatic family histories and depression caused by family matters. What a load of....!

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one of the worst

I have no idea why this relatively new drama got such a high rating. It's one of the few that really annoyed me and got me angry even, - which is rather hard to accomplish. Here is why:

1. The male lead: So, who is this guy? He is supposed to be quite younger than the female lead, has just started his job more or less and he goes home into his house which obviously is in the most expensive area of the city, with probably 300 sqm, two story with galeria and a Zen garden outside, and which probably costs a silly fortune to rent let alone to buy. So how exactly does he get to have this house? Is he a Chaebol son born into immense riches? We don't get to know, he just has thta hyper fantastic home for the sake of it, - seriously?

2. So he falls in love with his female boss. Ok. But what he does is not ok. He has extreme stalking tendencies, immediately obsessive in a sick way for me. All of those rating this so high, could you do me the favour and just imagine for a moment that this guy does not look like Ro Woon but let's say he is a short, overweight creep guy with a balding head, greasy rest of hairs, yellow teeth and bad breath? Still so appealing that he keeps no distance, suddenly starts this ' I am very protective'-stuff, totally overstepping any personal boundaries, following the female lead around where ever she goes? Still fine, he aggressively steps into her private life and private relationships? Just think about it for a moment with a very different guy and if you'd still find this so lovely?

3.the female lead: Ah it's a pity really. I actually like Won Jin-A, she has a supercute look and face, a beautiful smile, a lovely deep speaking voice, I like all these things. Problem is, I don't think she is a very good actress. I saw her in three different dramas now and she is always acting the very same way, there is no variation - at all.
Secondly, she never has chemistry with the male leads. I know that most K-drama kisses are fake of course, but she makes it so fake it's hard to watch. She hardly ever moves her lips, or her head even, mostly looking scared and shocked like a rabbit in front of the slaughhterhouse. Why? And not only with the first kiss, it remains like that until the last episode. It's very obvious that she does not want to kiss the actors.

It was pretty much the same in 'just between lovers' - a bit better though, and it would have been the same in 'melting me softly' if Ji Chang Wook wouldn't have totally thrown her off guard which was rather obvious in that shower scene.
Here now we are supposed to believe she is a self confident modern woman on the one hand, having a secret ongoing affair with her boss and sleeping with him regularly for quite a while, and on the other hand she is not able to normally kiss thet new lover like an adult woman. Instead she acts like a 12-year old girl, anxiously not knowing what to do? What exactly did she do with her boss then all the time? A round of knitting together?
I do wonder why she would take on romantic roles if she has such obvious problems kissing her counterpart actors every single time? In this drama though there was no chemistry between her and Ro Woon AT ALL, it was just awful watching them.

4.. There is no backstory to the characters. I earlier mentioned the expensive house such young man owns without explanation. But also his character is like a flat sheet. Where does he come from? Why is he so obsessive on the one hand , and so totally unbelievably patient and almost asexual on the other hand? What else does he do in his life other than obsessing and following a woman? Does he have no other life? How creepy is that?

5. Totally unrealistic dialogues: again, the male lead acts like a saint without hormones or reproductive organs - no young man in his 20s would act like that, especially none who is so aggressively obsessive on the other hand. All this ' I will accept that you treat me like a trash bin, thank you, it's all ok for me as long as I can see you like this, and spend some time with you, or just look at you bla bla' and being all calm and smiles? No way!

6.The female lead is rather a unlikable person for me. She enjoys all the attention and treats both men like her puppets although it might look differently. I stopped watching when there was like the 50th scene with her then former lover. He for the 50th times asks her why she dumped him and she does not say why? Why does she not just tell him the reason? It really drove me crazy and made her character look weak and immature once again, totally contrasting to that self confident business woman thing the writers actually wanted to sell.

I gave up after 10 episodes because all this got me really angry, and I seriously do wonder how in 2021, they would produce such a badly written and acted drama with male and female leads going down the totally wrong road concerning many behaviours.
I was just thinking about that last real stalker case in South Korea some few months ago, where such obsessed sicko killed his former work colleague in a subway toilet room. I don't want to see this kind of stalking obsessive guys in K-dramas, not if t is nont shown in a critical way but instead selling this as desirable positive relationship. There is NOTHING to idealise or enjoy about this.

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light-hearted, funny, with a well-known storyline

first of, it's nice to see a classic rom-com n the midst of all the bullying, torturing, high violence and crime dramas that were rather predominant in the past months.

This one seems rather a classic rom-com, with decent casting and actors, carefree music and a classic storyline too.
That said, - after watching the first two episodes - it is all pretty known concerning the story and the way it's constructed.
Although there were some rather funny scenes in yet both episodes, I did find myself thinking aw, they stole this part of the story here or there. The whole plot with her accidentally thinking he is a pervert? Saw that in 'suspicious partner'.
Her having this kind of girl clique where all is rosy all the time between three women? Saw that often elsewhere. And so on. So yeah, we all knw all the cliche K-drama scenes, and yes in this drama they used all of them once and again.

I was waiting for this drama mainly because of Lee Jun-ho, as I found him to be brilliant in 'the red sleeve' and really good in 'rain or shine' too. I get the idea of his role here is the brooding/sad and rather arrogant chaebol heir, and after a bit of a slow start concerning the actual acting, I do see the idea of his character after episode 4, and it's quite light-hearted and funny to watch him (and please don't beat me, I just think Lee Jun-ho is too thin now, he looks gaunt to me and not healthy. I know it's the trend for male Korean actors to achieve that but for me, at a certain point, it starts looking bothersome and I find myself thinking 'jeez he does not look healthy there' while watching).

The character of Yoon-ah is likeable and cute, and slowly getting a bit more substance after the first three episodes. The interaction between her and Lee Jun-ho is easy-going, it's nice seeing the characters bantering all the time and it's obvious both actors have known each other for a long time and probably like each others company.

The plot remains well-known from many other dramas (episode 4 just had the typical 'sad in the rain, he brings the umbrella'-scene) but it's enjoyable anyways, even if it's yet pretty clear what's probably coming next.
Right now I'm just enjoying that it is light-hearted, funny and carefree entertainment taking my mind off the day and any kind of worries. If you are looking for this kind of show, this one might suit you well!

EDIT I:

After having watched 10 episodes:
a big thanks to the creators of this drama for one specific thing: thank you for showing a young couple newly in love ACTING like couples do when they are head over heels. They gaze at each other, they want to touch each other and they want to kiss and seek every chance to spend time together. And I think it's a first that in a drama a couple kisses in a frequency that I'd consider normal at that stage. And even more, it's real kisses both want to share and it's shown like that.


EDIT II:

After episode 15:
how unnecessary was this episode ending? I guess I know what the writers are up to in the last episode (She meant quitting the hotel, not the relationship), but this last scene was sooo unrelatistic. She would never have just said these sentences without any context. She came to that restaurant that evening, even saying and remembering how they ate there for the first time on her birthday etc, seeing and knowing he planned something special for the night, him being nervous etc. So if she would really call it quits with him, totally out of the blue at that moment? She'd be a total psycho contradicting every single aspect of how her character was portrayed yet. So really, writers, was that necessary and in such bad style?
So, given I am right with my idea of what she actually wanted to say about quitting - her hotel job -realistically she would have said something like: 'I have to say something important too. I am very grateful I could work in such a high position in the hotel and I have given it a long and good thought. But I feel misplaced. I hope you understand and support me when I want to do something new.'


EDIT III

After the final episode:
ok, that last episode was like pure sugar coating, nothing but sugar, I even found myself laughing out loud. =D
I think this was the most unrealistic positive drama I have watched yet, everything that happened in this episode has absolutely nothing to do with reality - but that was the whole idea of this drama, and if you want TOTAL reality escape with everything fluffy and nice - that's what you should watch on steady repeat =D

I don't know where to start: apart from the MANY product placements, even in slow motion (common, the chaebol heir wears Dior 'sauvage'? Never would someone like that wear a cheap drugstore perfume - just as an example...) - sadly, people are not like that (or maybe my rather longer lifetime taught me otherwise;). That bitchy sister of Gu Won? She would never change. People who are that evil and nasty, remain that way, and when they get older it gets worse, never better. His father? Would have NEVER accepted his choice of a wife, ever. In reality the son would have probably lost his heir status, he would have never gotten the leading position in that hotel. And his father would not have shown up at the wedding and wished him well.
His mother would probably not haven shown up again in his lifetime... and so on, and so on. In the real world, most people are selfish, nasty, and they do not change. So, this drama really over-egged the puddig concerning unrealistic, but I enjoyed it exactly because of this =)

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No cast in the world can safe this nonsense

The storyline sounded rather intriguing, but I drop this after episode 4, I really can't take this non-logic and nonsese anymore.

Episode 1: a guy finally snaps (understandable to a degree even) and runs amok shooting 20, 30 people in the Goshiwon he lives in. He has automatic weapons, and when the police arrive, he has already shot all these people there, it's a splatter feast for the police to SEE when they arrive, they see all the bodies and blood and brains everywhere. So, in whatever country in the world, in this case, any police would have not only the right but the obligation to have a full shoot to kill - permit.
What happens here? The inspector has clear view on the target, he could shoot him right away, but instead? He does this cat and mouse game with him, trying to make the shooter use all his ammo and almost gets shot himself? No, seriously, in such case, with the shooter still armed and shooting, any police would shoot to kill and rightly so.

In between: loads of 'shibal shibal shibaaaaal!' and not much else.

Episode 4: They are doing it again? The perv from episode one now also got gift boxes full of automatic weapons, yaaay.
After realising this, our same detective is urgently looking for him, he's in the middle of the city and some lady is trying to guide him via CCTV cameras, and tells him where the suspect was last seen. Our detective does at some point realise that the pervi is going straight to the police station. And what would any normal person do now? He would immediately CALL there and inform the station that a madman is coming with loaded guns and for them to lock the station down right away. But no, he does not inform them, so to fit the absurd storyline, the perv can really freely walk into the police station and start shooting police officers there without hinderance. And again, our detective arrives there, he and his superior have their guns pointed at the shooter directly, the shooter, who has just brutally shot many of their colleagues OBVIOUSLY , is pointing his still loaded automatic gun at them and they....?? do NOT shoot him, instead they start talking to him, let him curse for half an hour and tell him to put down the gun? They still don't shoot him and instead wait for the perv to start shooting at them? I can't really, this is beyond stupid, unbearable. I even said it out loud in front of the screen, what bs is that?

So, as this is so dumb it is not good for my blood pressure (which is normally very low) I drop this immediately, and can only recommend this to viewers who absolutely do not care for any kind of intelligent and logic story that would make any sense in ANY universe.

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really bad

in short:
this was not a season 2 following up a very good season 1 of this show.

-they kept the original characters just as a strange framework on the edges, instead about 40 new characters were introduced, none of I cared for at all.

-it seemed like they writers sat together just making up ever new gruesome scenes ( oh oh, and let's do some kind of a zombi bride, we haven't done that, let's add to too!!)

-no real storyline, instead lots of torture porn (with what is going on in the real world? I really don't want to see little toddlers being hunted with bows and being shot in the back - just NO! Unnecessary for the story and just to show crass content for the sake of it)

-almost nothing of the actual main character Song Kang? He is not really in that show, oh except for these few porn-leaning scenes fighting bare'backed' and soaked in blood in slow motion.

-the only original character that had more screen time was Eun-yu. Character development: zero. She is just running around looking broody and cold and kind of like a knock-off tomb raider. I also didn't really get why so much of the storyline was hung up on her desperately wanting to find her brother- the same brother she actually hated through all season one and as they were siblings not even remotely close anyways. And now she suddenly risks her life and that of others to find him, or what is left of him. Didn't make much sense to me.

result: I'll stick with the brilliant season 1,and I certainly won't watch season 3, as there is no way to make a sensible storyline of the mess that was supposed to be a season 2.

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What happened?

So, I made it to episode 8, and I think I'm done. What is this? How is it possible to have quite a great cast, huge names, actors I really liked in the past and to eff this up so much?

I normally love Jung So-min, my most favourite drama ever ('because this is my first life') is with her as the FL. I also liked Jung Hae-in in the past, he was great in 'Snowdrop', in 'one spring night', you name it.

But this? Where to begin? I didn't really like the first episode with all the 'funny' farting intro. Not funny. But I kept watching.
There is no, and I mean none - chemistry between the leads. It all seems so acted and cringe, I can hardly watch it.

So we have two mid-thirty people. One is a rich son, with his own business and for Korean standards he looks super attractive. Yet he steadily acts like a 7-year old boy. We are meant to believe that apart from this one relationship he had in the past with this self-confident but oh so friendly and well-meaning ex (unrealistic to the brim by the way) that is steadily showing up for no real reason, he was a virgin-and childlike boy in the body of this now mid thirty man waiting for his childhood girly to return and otherwise staying abstinent? Common. A guy like him, looking like that, being rich and having his own business? He would have lead a very different life if she had been gone to the US for years, and we all know it.

Same goes for our FL. She acts and dresses like a child. Concerning her relationship with the ML she acts like a clumsy little girl that didn't have her first kiss yet, but we do know she lived in the US, and was engaged and thus had an adult relationship with a man, so she knows how things go. Yet, we have this setting in the house of the FLs parents, who by the way are supposed to be poor, while the very rich son of a doctor and a busniesswoman, somehow has lived across in almost the same house? How? These two families are of completely different financial background and they certainly never lived in the same neighbourhood even, also not in the past?

Next thing? I really don't like ANY of the characters, they all annoy the hell out of me. Jung Hae-in? He is not funny, it's not his area of acting, at least not in such badly written drama, no one could make this seem remotely funny. It seems staged and almost exhausting for him to do these supposedly 'funny'lines, it's so obviously not him and it's unwatchable for me as I know he is a really good actor in other settings.
The FL and her constant screaming and nagging and physically attacking everyone? Not cute, not romantic, not anything, just annoying. Same goes for her mother, screaming all the time and physically attacking people.

Then the storyline, was there any way to make this any more unbelievable. Not only does or ML wait until forever for that girl that steadily beat him up and screamed at him, no, when he finally decides to tell her he likes her (again, like two 12-year-old would act, not like mid-thirties), out of nowhere, in exactly that moment, the even more unlikable ex fiancee stands there blablahing something staged about wanting to get back together with the FL. I laughed out loud at that scene, how ridiculous, who wrote this?

Not enough, our FL, who is screaming and attacking people at random all the time does not say anything to anything. The ML confesses - no reaction, no answer. And no, that milk bag scene with the expiry date was not funny. Why not just talk like adults? It's all Kindergarten. Why? It's not cute, it's so annoying. Same with the even worse situations when both men are 'fighting' over her. The ex-fiancee can just stalk her and show up at any time with this psycho grin and she always lets him talk instead of just finally telling him off. She does not decide anything at any point which contradicts the aggressive and loud character she is otherwise supposed to. And now, to add insult to injury they even come up with a cancer story? Come OOOON!

I think this is the worst drama I tried to watch in a longer time, and there were several bad dramas in the past two years as my impression is the quality of storytelling and writing has been going down the drain in the past two years compared to years like 2016, 2017, 2018, where there were several brilliant dramas per year.

So, no, please South Korean writers and drama producers, you can do better. Not even generally good actors help anything if it is just unwatchably bad.
I give the 2,5 instaed of 1.0 for the acting of the FL's father, as I think he is really good and actually the only one I find credible in his role.

Dropped, and I mean dropped out of a skyscraper in this case.

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Same problem as so often...

This started rather funny and easy to watch, with nice visuals, music and at first an interesting storyline about someone who suddenly suffers from face blindness - which probably is rather irritating and devastating - at first at least.
The second episode is really funny and again Kim Young Kwang stands out to me with his acting abilities as he can even do comedy stuff - he can play a total psycho (Somebody), a depressive, silent businessman (call it love), a nasty deity, he can convincingly cry his eyes out in front of the camera, you name it, he can do it all.
But once again the writers are so sloppy with the storytelling - and this drama here is no exception sadly.

So, yes, the ML suffers from face blindness, but how does he also suffer from not recognising distinct individual voices of people? Especially his secretary, who deceives him with claiming she is Veronia Park? Her voice is so distinct and sometimes screeching even in both characters she plays, and he doesn't realise it's her? Not credible. Same goes of course for many other people around him. You normally recognise people not only by their faces, but by their voices, walks, scent, soooo many things. So dragging this blindfold-story for about 10 episodes without him realising it is just nonsensical.

That said, I have another problem with this: It really bothers me again and again that the female leads are portrayed like 5 year-old girls, totally naive and never taking action.
So here, given she deceives the ML, when he finds out and is so hurt? She apologises, but never tells him how she really feels about him. Then the ML has got to crawl back to her and apopgise and understand her and HE confesses his love, when she does not even then tell him that she likes him too? And it goes like that until the very end, he is almost lovedrunk, babbling the most over the top romantic stuff, and she still just silently looks like a shocked deer in the headlights and like she does not even know what's happening? Why does it always have to be this 'helpless, clueless little-girl-portrait of adult women? With this pre-story, and her being in love with the ML for so long? If he confesses, an adult woman would react differently for sure?

I just can't get used to that image of women like that. And they dragged this for sooo many episodes, I even ff-ed from episode 7 to the end then to just see when they will finally get together. And even that was then underwhelming because she even then can't bring herself to simply say to him 'I like you too'.

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how it could be...

this series is something for the heart, and for following the thought of how it could be in a world where most people care, are considerate and willing to be selfless for others.
It has a serious undertone as the topic of death or imminent death is the main subject of the show, but with the idea of fulfilling last wishes of dying patients it manages to produce many heartwarming and touching scenes with final goodbyes.

As I said in the headline, it's a version of the world where people would really care with all their heart to guide dying patients until the very end, to fulfill their last wishes, to give them the most positive farewell possible in that situation.
It's what most of us would wish for and mos of us know in hopsitals and even hospices the reality is a different one (most of the time at least)
Here you can watch how wonderful it could be in a different version of reality - I really enjoyed that!

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This is good!

I am generally not even a horror fan, but this series was so thrilling and tense I was glued to the screen through all 10 episodes without a second of being bored or even remotely thinking about fast fowarding. (which I have to admit happens more often lately, when dramas have a good start, and quickly go downhill either with storyline, dragging etc.) I also found it remarkable that (after I have watched several 'end of the world/zombie apocalypse etc. shows in the past years) in this show they at least didn't shy away from the fact that in such circumsatances also the worst in humans comes out and things like rape would happen. Other apocalyptic shows go on for 10 seasons and never even mention it, like it wouldn't happen - and it would!

I do not know the webtoon but I can say pretty much everything in this adaption is perfect for my taste. The storyline, the actors, the soundtrack (phenomal), the production, the lighting, the sets, the special effects, and especially the whole atmosphere created in this huge building - really got me and I felt like I was sitting motionlessly tense watching, only interrupted by really well done monster sequences that got me shrieking out loud.

Still, in all the horror story there are serious and good single stories of the main characters.
It even managed to get me crying at one point when Jung Jae-Heon sacrified himself with his spirit true to the very end in all that dystopic mess of a world.

if you generally like the genre I'd say this is yet one of the best shows I've seen and from the first to the last episode.

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well, you get what it says ;)

so, I got to find this comparably older movie from 2014, because I lately finally watched 'because this is my first life' - yes, real life is crappy these days for many and a friend highly recommended this drama as one with the perfect 'everything is good, poeple are good and all will be fine in the end' dramas - so I watched - and - saw Lee Min-ki for the first time.

I liked him in that drama, but not exclsuively because I (really) liked this specific drama, but because I really liked his vibe, which is rather edgy and dark in a restrained way. Even in that friendly role and unintended.
I thought that all the time, and I really enjoyed that although the script writers tried hard, he just never looked like the typical babyface , unrealistically nice and 'no intentions' guy, but instead very classically manly.
So, I checked what else he has done, and seeing the 'emperor' movie in the list plus seeing Park Sung-woong in it too, I checked further.

The description said dark, classical gangster flick, lots of blood, brutal, and adult content.
So firstly, for all those complaining here: please read the description first. If you don't like this kind of content don't watch it instead of complaining afterwards.
But now, to the movie finally:

Movie:

So, I expceted a certain setting but I was utterly surprised after only five minutes in. Yes, there is lots of blood, knives, rather nice cinematography with the flickering lights in the dark. And then there is real adult content? In a Korean movie? Real passion, real kisses, and - you know, - the real stuff, like poeple really do it at times? A woman making the real sounds, not that fake high pitched mouse squeeking stuff? I almost fell off my chair, - in a Korean movie? I really did not expect that and found it to be a nice surprise for a change.

That said, the rest is also what the description said - it's a noir gangster movie set in Busan, ( if you speak Korean it's nice hearing the actors speaking with that accent as in this gangster setting, this accent gives the right vibe)
it has all the cliches, games and betting, brothels, gangster bosses in big cars and expensive suits, lots of minions willingly going into rather unrealistic knife fights with lots of bloody action.
The music seems fitting as it felt a little dated, almost 80s like with that synthi-sound. ( so seemed Lee Min-kis hairdo with that perm, but also this fitted that role)

The whole movie seems just like a glimpse into this kind of gangster world, which, in the end, is a shark tank, the one on top always has to fear to be killed so another one can take his place.
It's all about money and yes, women who, in these settings ( and that sadly is realistic) are nothing but convenience used and abused and trying to survive somehow.

And no, it's just not the movie where you start with feministic ideas, it's simply the truth for many women in many countries who for whatever reason, find themselves in such (or way worse) life settings. I found the actress played that part convincing, having to do things she hates, using what means she can, always being threatened, and of course being sad and unhappy.
Still she at least finds short passion with Lee Hwan, they transport that first moment immediate (almost animal-) attraction feeling very convincingly. And no, there is no happy end for neither of them, in such settings there is no place for happy endings, at least that was realistic.

As for unrealistic parts: the knife scenes where nicely coreographed but far from reality. Even further from reality is the idea that a lanky ex baseball player like Lee Hwan suddenly has self defense abilities topping the best gangsters, him being outnumbered by 15 large blokes with knives and he takes them all down - yeah, no way of course, but, again, typical for these kind of movies.
There was dialouge, yes, cliche dialogue, but good enough to watch the whole movie. ( and this goes SO much worse, and in newer productions, please go watch 2022 'project wolf hunting' if you want the worst ;)

Result:

knowing what I will probably get I enjoyed this, and watched the whole movie without fast forwarding (which I did many times with actions flicks worse that this)

I was impressed by Lee Min-ki, as he can convincingly play that cruel, cold, psycho guy with a death stare one might still feel drawn to .
As I said he gives off that very reserved and restrained vibe, but there is some little dark intensity underneath, (also in interviews) which I find rather appealing and interesting in a very classical, manly way. I meanwhile saw another drama with him ('liberation notes') with yet another completely different acting vibe, so he for sure can play very versatile roles, and is obviously brave enough to simply not be yet another polished 'little boy' actor.

So, if you can just enjoy these kind of movies - brain off, - with all the typical stuff, gangsters, fights, dark vibes, - give it a go.
It's not brilliant, nothing for your intellect, it's just what it is and says to be and for that comparably enjoyable.

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outstanding acting, classic drama story

I can imagine this drama is not to everyones liking as , for a K-drama, it is rather dark and at some points uncomfortable.
Although it has some very minor flaws I find it rather outstanding all in all

+ Seo In-Guk is simply fantastic in this role. I didn't know him before and after having watched some dramas for the past two years I think this was the first male lead who completely convinced me to be that person he portrays. When I was watching this I really believed this very person would exist like this, and I could not imagine him to be any way different. There are other actors I like and they are good, but in their roles I always see the real person they are, when you watch interviews with them.
Here it was very authentic. The fact his character was difficult and at times mean and cold made it even more realistic for me, as in general, people tend to be like this. They have their personal troubles and deficites, they can be mean and sometimes, not always, they might have a good side too. But in the end, they are caught in their own ways and can't get out of their own skin and troubles. And that often leads into disaster, for themselves and if one gets close to them, for others too. That is what is shown here for me and that makes it believable. Uncomfortable, dark, but believable.

+Jung So-Min was also convincing in her role. She portrayed very well the inner struggles you might have in such situation, the insecurities you might have from hard times in your childhood, the way things went ok for her with being adopted by her 'brother', but how her past still creeps back into her life and drwas her to Kim Moo-young. This drams is also good at showing certain rules of behaviour and manners that one has to know about concerning Korea. Some criticised that Yoo Jin-Kang 'betrayed' her 'best friend' Baek Seung-Ah, but was Seung-Ah really her best friend? I don't think so. It is not explained fully how long these two women have known each other but it is clear that Jin-Kang is older than Seoung-Ah, yet, probably because of her considered poor and bad family background Jin-Kang is almost submissive in her behaviour towards Seoung-Ah - which is quite exceptional given an obvious age difference between the two. If Seoung-Ah wasn't filthy rich and Jin-Kang had a better background, it would normally be the other way around. And Seoung-Ah is using this fact in a gullibly naive way all the time. Kim Moo-young even points it out (and rightly so) when he tells Jin-Kang that not even after Seoung-Ahs mother hit Jin-Kang in public and offended her deeply (and referrs to exactly that poor seen background of hers), Seoung-Ah doesn't even apologise in her next text message but just once again wants to use Jin-Kang as her servant and messenger. Is that Jin-Kangs best friend? I wouldn't think so. It's more a realtionship of power and inferiority as a given by the strong Korean conventions. Was Seoung-Ah a victim? Yes, certainly, a victim of her greedy mother and to some extent of Moo-Young, but she was not a victim of Jin-Kang in my opinion.

I found the almost creepy but strong attraction between Jin-Kang and Moo-Young very understandable, and I could relate to it personally having had such relatioinship myself too in the past. I fully understood for many reasons why those two couldn't get away from each other and also why it was in some way doomed.

+ I think this is still the only drama where the communication between the leads is realistic, as in how it really happens between people who are attracted to each other but come from difficult backgrounds. There is not love at first sight but a strong attraction. There is lots of banter and even anger and frustration - but always still strong attraction that is even growing despite the anger. The conversations these two have in the restaurant scenes and particularly at the end of episode 6 in front of Moo-Young's house? That was a scene so realistic I even held my breath the whole time, eyes wide open because I have been in such situation myself, pretty much exactly like shown here, with even a at least similar talk that left me both attracted and angry and confused and frustrated. Most K-drama couple conversations are dreamy and cute and how everyone would love them to happen but they never really do. This here, that felt real to me many times during many episodes.

+I loved the mood and the small things in the drama. The way Kim Moo-Youngs place looked, the light, the mood. His feelings of desperation, resignation, anger and still the need to somehow connect and try to understand at least some other person. That does not justify all his behaviours of course, but I found it credible. And again, when I was younger I would have fallen exactly for this type too, I would probably even have stood in front of that door of his like Jin-Kang in the end, crying in desperation and beg him to open that door, because I didn't understand his Jekyll & Hyde actions after a steady emotional up and down. But it is exactly like certain real relationships are, and how they end unhappy in one or the other way. And how they are filling you up with an almost hysterical happiness and emotions you wouldn't have considered possible for you, and at the same time they are like energetic black holes exhausting you to an incredible level.

- if I would want to criticise anything then it would firstly be that some circumstances are rather unlikely. The idea that these two kids where from Haesan, one of them got lost somewhere and all of them live almost aroud the corner in a megacity like Seoul more than 20 years later and meet like that - it is very unlikely.

- the scene with the origin of the burn marks wasn't done in a good way. The kids were fully clothed and if that water would have hit them, they would have had some minor burns, but never such large scars for the rest of their lives.

-the whole stabbing scene and the follow-up was a little unbelievable . So Yoo Jin-Kook loses his police cool and while he later says he felt sorry for Moo-Young, he suddenly decided to stab him on a public road. Jin-Kook confesses to his boss who...does nothing actually, doesn't accept his resignation. Then his little sister just acts rather normal after shortly screaming at her brother? Not believable. Her reaction at the first moment was right, she said he must be crazy, and she was scared then and angry especially because she is very much in love with Moo-Young. The next thing would certainly have been that Jin-Kang leaves that house. Jin-Kang would have been afraid of her own brother after his rather surprising and totally crazy actions. I would have wished that whole part would have been done differently or they would have left it out. It would have made much more sense to me if Jin-Kook would have gotten into a rage and then into a fight with Moo-Young, if he had beaten him up maybe. But that stabbing with murder intentions was an unfitting twist here.

Summary: despite these flaws this drama touched me deeply, maybe really because I could relate to the main characters and this kind of relationship so personally.
I will certainly rewatch it at later as this kind of human darkness draws me in sometimes.

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not sure about this...

so, as my favourite male actor is Park Hee-soon, I was waiting for this drama quite eagerly.
Also several other great actors on the starring list, so I started watching this and...
...I don't know... story is known from other formats before with some variations (x men etc.), the story starts veeery slowly, and I was just waiting for something to... happen really? I have seen 8 episodes yet, not Park Hee-soon in sight? Is he really in this drama?
Not sure about the storyline either, so genetically gifted people have genetically gifted kids and they try to hide and protect them from the evil forces of the North? I will give this another chance and watch some more episodes, but as of yet I am a bit underwhelmed.

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Best thing I have seen in ages

So, for some unknown reason this drama skipped my attention at the end of 2024 and only accidentally I stumbled upon it seeing Park Bo-young in a thumbnail and started watching.

I’ve been watching K-dramas for many years now, but I haven’t seen anything as good as this, not only regarding K-drama, regarding anything I have watched in the past decades.
Just a week ago I wrote a 1.0 review for ‘heavenly every after’ being really frustrated what the writers and director did with an actually interesting and important topic like a possible afterlife. All the things that went wrong there? Were down SO right in ‘Light Shop’. I never gave a drama a 10.0 in every area, this one got the full 10.0 in all of them.

The actors in this are altogether beyond fabulous. I can’t even say who stands out as they all do. The soundtrack is so multifaceted, so sensitive, capturing not only the entire mood in the alley, but also the specific situations of the characters, sometimes only with a few keys played on the piano.

But from the start: I started watching this without reading a summary before. I watched the first episode, was mesmerized the whole time and after it finished, I didn’t have the faintest idea what is going on. Just a feeling, much like the shown characters themlseves who just seem confused. Same thing happened with the second episode – I watched it, totally fascinated, but no real idea what is happening there.
And this goes on for a while, until episode 5 at least, when things start clearing up a little bit. This is a philosophically very deep, sensitive and touching take on a possible afterlife realm. Not only humans are there, also loyal pets who, beyond death stand by their humans, not giving up until they are safe.
Human souls are wandering endlessly in the dark alley until they find their way into the light shop. Only there they can find their individual soul light and move on, either to another realm in death, remaining in the limbo alley for longer, or going back to the realm of the living.

Each story of each character is very touching and combined with the extraordinarily good special effects to make the alley tangible for the viewer, I was glued to my screen the full 8 episodes without missing a single second. I think I never watched a drama where this happened. Not only were the individual stories very moving, sometimes heart breaking without any of them being attention seeking or over the top, the whole setting was thought-provoking in a deeply philosophical way, at least for Agnostics like me. Many things I saw there fit my personal vague feelings and thoughts of what might come after death. Many things depicted even fit some personal experiences I have made with death and what might come after this earthly timespan. I guess this specifically struck a chord with me.

Apart from all that I was again very moved by the death-and burial rites in Korea in general, which have so many gestures of acknowledging and respect for the deceased – something that has gone amiss totally in many parts of Europe I know at least. There death is totally avoided, and if it occurs, it’s either an emotionless factorylike thing (concerning the actions of many doctors and nurses), a grim business where profit counts at funeral homes who want to sell you absurdly expensive coffins for tens of thousands of dollars trying to convince you to spend more and more with guilty conscience speeches of the lowest order. How refreshing was it once again to see the morgue director in the hospital in this drama, who talked to every deceased person, called them by their name and told them individually with a bow, what the next step would be. How refreshing was it once again to see there just is one sort of light wooden coffin and the yellowish linen death garments that are so carefully put on the deceased.

In small but important scenes it was shown how utterly important, even life-changing in the literal sense – small gestures of good will, or small gestures of pure spite and evil in life can be. I was almost shaken, (having had a mother-in-law who her whole life through made everyone else’s life pure misery with her never ending spite, hatred and lies) when the anxious mother is waiting in front of the operation theatre after the accident and as a viewer you side with her, you feel for her as her son is in acute danger of dying in there… and then… she grabs this cell phone, the girlfriend of her son desperately tries to call him and his mother, spiteful as she is, sends this message to her, lying, that her son is dead and that it is the girlfriend’s fault he died. This ugly, hateful and nasty gesture in an instant changes your feeling towards this mother. Where there was empathy for her a moment ago, there is only disgust and disbelief about such devilish doing. And this small hateful gesture has direct consequences, not only in this life, as the poor girlfriend is taking her own life right then, also in the afterlife, for both, the girlfriend and her son who is there in limbo. As much as this emotionally bothered me, as good I found it captured what is happening in so many families between mother-in-laws and girlfriends or wives of their sons, and as true it rings to me what consequences, on a much broader sphere such behaviour could possibly have.
But there are so many more scenes, impressions, ideas in this show that touch very important topics for actually everyone as, in fact, everyone will die one day.

I am so happy that that the writers and directors of this drama decided against the current trend of just making another horror – everything explodes-torture porn – what every crass, perverted scene can we make up no one has done yet – etc.-show calculating this will probably reach the broadest most dumbed down audience and make the most money. Instead, they made a sensitive, deeply philosophical, slow-paced show, often without much or any words, where you don’t get spoonfed every little detail, but you have to just wait and feel in and think yourself what could be happening.
I will certainly rewatch this as I think, knowing what it’s about will make me sense more details and make me understand more of the story in a second go.

I recommend this for everyone - well, with a working brain, that is not dumbed down with all the rubbish that is out there in tons, for everyone who does think philosophically about topics like the afterlife with an open mind of what might come there without anyone really knowing.

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sadly a fail for me

I was really looking forward to this as I had watched a few really good dramas with Seo In-guk before, and was wondering about this new show.

Well, this one didn't work for me. The first two episodes had some funny elements although I started to find the side characters annoying because of the massive overacting.
I watched on and for my taste the elements that were meant to be comedy were just way over the top, be it facial expressions, verbal expressions, movements, it all sadly seemed to clowesc for my taste.

I also have to say I don't like the female lead in this role. ( I don't know her from any other shows yet though) She for a change has too few facial expressions and I can't really see her acting qualities in this show. I don't believe for a second that she is a police woman, especially in scenes where she gets hyper emotional, screams like a mad person or beats a man in the hospital bed who has just died and totally loses it, while doctors and colleagues are watching on. Someone with the police can't be that emotional and lose their countenance.

Also I don't buy the lovestory between the leads. It's one of the few shows where I really can't see any chemistry between them: I always felt like I see the actors 'acting while acting'. I'm constantly aware of it. Them just reproducing their lines they learned, I never believe they are really the characters they play or have real conversations.

That sadly goes for the side charcaters too, especially the other couple. Again, way too much overacting, especially the male side character with the way he speaks, when in some situations it's obvious that he can speak normally.
As I think Seo in -Guk was brilliant in other dramas, I can still see why he might have chosen this role now. In the past he was in several rather serious and even tragic roles, - but, and that is the point - in those he was really outstanding. I believed every single second that Kim Moo-young in '100 million stars...' existed, like that person existed for real for example. I still bet doing 'Minamdang' was a lot of fun for all the actors, as it was a funny show and the feeling gets through they might have laughed a lot on set.

I know 'Minamdang' is meant to be comedic but for my taste it it was just too much of these slaptstick elements, so many that I couldn't believe the serious story parts in the background anymore. You can do comedic K-drama and make the characters real and believable to a degree, like in 'suspicious partner' for example. But Cafe Minamdang' just couldn't convince me. At some point I was even fast forwarding and getting impatient for 'something to happen'.
I did enjoy many parts of the soundtrack though.

So, if you are really into slapstick/ hullabaloo shows, this one might be the right thing for you, otherwise, probably not.

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