MistyMaid

Apparently there is news that Ji Soo was innocent of all allegations all along. I regret believing initial reactions of accusations of him being a school bully. I apologize. Though it might not mean much, one small comment, doesn't mean that it doesn't mean anything either. But it is sad to see how people succumb to such lengths to hurt others and spread their pain in the hopes that it will somehow ease their own. Your pain is your own. Even if other people feel your pain, they will never understand it like you do so why give it to others in the first place. Let's try not to use our pain and hurt selfishly.

Bullying is a big problem in Korea. It's gotten worse over the years. Victims often don't speak up because they are scared of the backlash or people not believing them. If they come out there is a chance they become exposed to even more bullying because they're in the spotlight. I don't believe victims are worse than bullies. It's not as simple as people think it should be. We should be open minded and try to understand things from all sides. The victims AND the bullies. Sometimes, bullies act out because of their own difficult personal life and take it out on others. Doesn't make it right though, but it's just something to consider.

I was both a victim AND a bully unfortunately. Sometimes, victims grow up to be bullies because they went through a harsh time when they were being bullied and don't want to go through it again. So, when they see an opportunity to gain an upper hand over someone who seems weaker than you, you take the chance because you don't want to end up losing that chance and be bullied first. Basically, be the bully first or be bullied in the end.

This can't be proven in any way. You don't know him.

I really wish people would be more logical and practical about this situation. So many people commenting these horrible and nasty negative comments is really hard to watch and makes me lose faith in people as a whole.

I just want to say that:
1. I believe his bullying past should be taken seriously and there are consequences to his actions.
2. I'm not defending him. Just because I'm not joining in the bashing and making negative comments to condemn him for his actions doesn't mean that I'm supporting him either.
3. I actually like Ji-Soo but I'm not a die-hard fan. But also, just because I like him doesn't mean I can't be neutral and un-bias knowing the facts.
4. Though he should face the consequences for his past actions, that doesn't mean his punishment should be harsher than the actual crime. The punishment should fit the crime. THAT is justice!
5. People who feel bad for Ji-Soo, I understand. It's hard to see someone struggle and go through pain and frustration. But you also need to understand that what he did was not right either. We should that into account. It's disappointing but we should not ignore the facts either.

People, we need to take a breath and calm down before letting our emotions overcome our rationale. Being angry and upset is ok. Feel upset. Feel angry. But then breathe and come back to center and see things for what they really are. All these horrible and deplorable negative comments are only hurting yourselves. Creating a mob mentality is nothing to be proud.

I also have to add this and I think it's REALLY IMPORTANT for people to read. Please don't say that he's a bad person and that he's a horrible human being who will never change. If we want him to truly feel the depth of his actions, we need to give him the opportunity to reflect and change because of it. It's only by being exposed to the consequences do we learn the gravity of our actions and have the chance to make up for it but if people are constantly coming after them, what chance is there to change or apologize?
Reprimand him, yes.
Have him face the consequences, yes.
But DON'T trample over someone who is already down.

There are already enough people who are bashing him for what he's done. Why do you feel the need to join in and become one more person to beat up someone along with the others. Do you get justice? Do you feel good by doing it? Do you think that somehow you'll get something out of it?

Ask yourselves these questions before bashing another person whether that Ji-Soo or another person. These are questions Ji-Soo should've asked himself before bullying someone.

This is how easy it is to bully. Because you are using your anger and taking it out on someone else because now..........you're the bully.

Unfortunately, these kind of false accusations are never about destroying a person's life. They do it for themselves. People who create false claims either do it because they want money or they want the social/emotional benefits from it.

Motive for money is simple. There are already accusations thrown in, why not throw in another if you think you can get a little money out of it.

Social/emotional benefits. Someone hears about accusations against someone well-known, someone might get the idea that because there are already quite a few accusations thrown out there, throwing in another one won't be suspicious. By playing the victim it gives them attention, exclusivity, exposure, and sympathy. Getting sympathy from others is an addictive feeling because there's always a constant cycle of acknowledgement and validation of yourself. It feels good to be validated by people and when people think you're a victim in a crime then they are nice to you, accommodating and maybe even do things for you. This is what I mean by social/emotional benefits. These factors may be more attractive then money because A, they know there's a slim chance they'll get money of out it anyways, or B, their interests goes beyond money.

P.S. I gave a Re-Watch rating of 8/10 because it was quite an emotional tug for me, haha, so I probably won't re-watch this often or anytime soon. But it may be different for others! Personally, for me it was a wild ride and bittersweet but still an incredible story!

True, but I think it's great to not have a tag either because I don't really believe that people should base their drama picks on the tags. Besides, a strong female character who happens to be a lesbian is far more interesting and intriguing rather than playing Guess Who with everyone to see if you can figure out who the lesbian is. Also, I think word of mouth will eventually lead other people to this drama anyways BECAUSE of that little fact was a bit of a twist and surprise, which isn't a bad way to streamline things either.

I agree with you on that the US/British entertainment industry are run culturally different than Korea's however, there is also the difference in the way fans respond to "scandals" or "rumors" as well. Netizens that find out about a certain scandal in the US/Britain are more or less willing to listen the details about an incident or event that caused a controversy. There are still people out there that will be mean and say horrible things but there is an equal number of people who are willing to not speak their opinion until they have all the information available in order to make a more informed opinion. However, when Korean netizens read about a controversy or a scandal, it's more often than not that the first reaction is blurted out and not many people are willing to listen to all the facts. Lots of unnecessary anger and cursing and refusal to see it both ways. Koreans do care but they often let their emotions control their behavior and their actions, which is not a healthy thing to do. Especially when they are pushing their own ideals onto others and reject them when people make a mistake or shatter that ideal. I am not defending Seo Ye-Ji nor convicting her because I don't have all the facts to everything that seems to be happening around her, but I just want to point out this glaring problem with Korea and its netizens. I highly disapprove of the netizen community culture in Korea because a lot of harm seems to come from it. Cyber bullying, crushing careers, lives damaged, etc. A bad attitude is a subjective issue and should understand all sides of the story before you judge someone for their actions. That's how it should be however a lot of Koreans can be quick to judge a situation just from the surface. Not all, but a lot. Just hoping that you understand that you shouldn't condemn someone before knowing all the facts before you judge them. I'm sure you wouldn't want random strangers judging you for your actions for something they may not understand or may not know the whole story of. I am Korean and I have seen these quick-judge instances and online netizen bullying personally. It's not a happy world to be in and really glad that I live the US because the level of cyber-bullying online in Korea is next level compared to the US.

Most Korean dramas are typically 16 episodes but since it's being produced by Netflix, based on another one of their Netflix originals, I imagine they are thinking like a multiple seasons setup like with many other Netflix original productions. Like The Crown, 13 Reasons Why, Altered Carbon, etc. If that's true, will actually be pretty exciting to see because Korea doesn't do multiple season drama shows.

I'm not a fan of Kang Ji Hwan but I enjoy the dramas that I've seen him be in. Alas, it's really quite sad what happened and I believe that he is mostly innocent of what is being accused of him. I learned everything about the case and the incident itself from this website. It is a pretty neutral post about the case he was involved in and it doesn't seem to be trying to sway the public towards one opinion or another so you can form your own opinion instead of riding on the opinion of the article. It's just stating the facts of the event so it's a good read to understand all the information they presented.
https://m.vlive.tv/post/1-17501021

Unfortunately, some parts of the legal system and the prosecution was biased because of what the case was. Some evidence that would have questioned whether he was really guilty was omitted and the public was out for blood as well. He may have confessed to crimes that he did not commit because he blacked out and when he woke up, he believed the victims and thought that he had done those crimes. It is possible that the victims lied and there is evidence to show that the victims lied about some things in their police statement. There is also surveillance video that would corroborate to some degree his innocence as well and text messages from the victims phones that put into question their own statements. I am not saying that he is completely innocent because there is no evidence yet that clears that 100% but what I do believe that the victims may not have been entirely truthful in their claims. Tests and evidence showed no sperm or DNA found in areas they claimed Kang Ji Hwan had touched and violated them. It's not a easy thing to do to clean that kind of evidence and the tests all showed up negative. One of the girls was on her period as well and claimed that he touched her there but no blood DNA trace was found on his fingers either. There is something not quite right with the victims statements and things don't really add up either with their text messages. If you want to understand more about the details and facts about this incident you can learn more about it here:
https://m.vlive.tv/post/1-17501021

Exactly, the comedy is typical Korean slapstick and it's always fit in well with other genres because the Korean entertainment have numerous movies and dramas where they put this into practice for decades now. But have not put into much practice of weaving comedy into dark themes before. It's out of the box and it's scary being outside the box so I doubt a lot of writers are brave enough to venture out that way. Plus, black comedy is not a particularly popular genre with the Korean entertainment. Companies will gravitate more towards romance, thrillers, and family dramas because those are where the ratings are, unfortunately.

I personally like the Italian chef and find him a little endearing in a weird way, haha. The way he keeps trying to prove his authenticity to Italian cooking and keeps making all these dishes for Vincenzo even though he knows criticism lies ahead. I think it's cute, haha. But I respect your opinion too!

I agree, Korean dramas have their own signature style and flair to them so I can't really blame the show all that much either. And I believe that it's pretty typical for characters in Korean dramas to create main characters with a bad attitude and a crooked perspective on life to suddenly change after a loss or great tragedy. She's certainly less annoying, haha.

Yes! I love The Boys! Definitely a dark comedy and I'm glad you brought that up actually because The Boys is a great example of how a black comedy TV show can be pulled off. There are more black comedy movies than there are TV shows because the timeframe of a movie is easier to work with when working with dark comedy elements. It's difficult to do that with a TV show without appearing repetitive of the same old jokes, or same old humor tricks.

But yes, I agree with your comments on the observation of the comedy and dark element being entirely separate. It should be blended together like The Boys did finding humorous moments in a serious situation, but Vincenzo does not do that at all and thinks that just by having the two elements present in the drama will make it a black comedy. But yes, Vincenzo has potential but it needs to be more fine-tuned to really bring it to its best. I think if the writers and directors were a little more capable in being able to pull it off then Vincenzo would've made a great and certainly unique Korean drama in the community. But again, like I said before, I certainly think it's even more difficult to pull of a dark comedy TV show than a movie.

The romance I could take it or leave it, haha. These days, I don't seem to be into romance dramas much unless the chemistry is like super-charged amazing but I will give it to Jeon Yeo Bin who plays Hong Cha Young. She's pulling off her character's quirkiness and style without being ridiculous and over the top. It would've been easy for her over do it but she pulled it off making it look natural. Great job!

I definitely agree with you! Vincenzo tries to make out as a dark comedy but, in my opinion, it's difficult to pull off this genre. I believe the writer thought that with the gravity of the whole mafia, murder and death involved it would become the dark element of the drama and the typical K-drama comedy would count as the comedy and somehow create a dark comedy.

I think dark comedy is the hardest genre to pull off because it takes a little more wit, creativeness and dark humor to pull off. In short, dark comedy is taking a serious and/or almost taboo subject and finding the humor in it and kind of poking fun of it and taking it lightly. Rick and Morty is a dark comedy. JoJo Rabbit is a dark comedy. PARASITE is a dark comedy.

And if you're going to create a dark comedy, it needs to be done WELL because the two elements of the genre are just so far apart on either side of the extreme. There's no middle ground when it comes to dark comedy unlike other movie genres. It's either bad or really good. There's no average because it's difficult to find a meeting of the two in the middle that actually works together. IMO, Vincenzo did dark comedy very poorly.

To be honest, the whole comedy from the tenants throws me off as the story progresses because it's kind of a weird sharp contrast to switch from serious, guns and murder to quirky, silly and campy.

I'd categorize Vincenzo as more of a casual action drama genre. Casual action being basically all the elements of an action movie, but doesn't take itself too seriously as a typical action movies does.

I didn't know Kim Myung Min started a new drama! I'm excited now! Giving me How To Get Away With Murder vibes and loving that even more. Love that show! Lots of people seem to agree too. Can't wait to watch this and review.

lol, perfect!

Funny coincidence here. Shin Ha Kyun (actor playing Dong Shik) was a lead in a past drama called 'Less Than Evil' and right now he's in a drama called 'Beyond Evil'. Haha, just thought it was an interesting coincidence I would share.

So I thought I'd share another myth busting of psychopathy since people seemed have liked my previous comment on differences between TV and real psychopathy so much.

A lot of times, in TV, psychopaths are portrayed as face-value cold and analytical. They are shown with a very stark contrast to the rest of the people to heighten the obvious difference between a psychopathic character and "normal" people. This is not how psychopaths really are in real life. They don't behave coldly nor do they communicate with other people with a cold sense of logic and then not understand why people react to them so strangely when they are just speaking the truth. This is not an accurate portrayal. People believe that if someone has psychopathic traits, it should be obvious how different they are through their interactions and behavior by acting frigid, being blunt with a show of restrained emotions. This is not true. Individuals with psychopathic traits DO UNDERSTAND that most of the population have emotional empathy and they will change their demeanor and attitude because they will want to blend in with the rest. Most times, they know that their true thoughts and their perspective do not really align with a majority of people and they also know that if they veer off from that norm, they will stick out. Most psychopaths will adjust themselves into society so that they are seen as just like everybody else. Now, this isn't because they want to hatch a devious plan or that they have ulterior motives to do harm to others, they just understand that the majority of society behaves this way and in order to progress forward, they must fit in.

I'd also like to note, that people who may have psychopathic tendencies don't always know that they are different from the rest. You don't just wake up one day and realize 'oh, I'm this kind of person.'

Another thing I really need to mention is that the MAOA gene mentioned in the first episode. It does exist and is often called the 'warrior' gene for it's link towards high aggression in some people who exhibit low levels of MAOA. Yes, I said low levels not high levels. It's a bit of science that I will not go into, but this drama is taking the existence of MAOA gene as the sole "predictor" of a psychopath in making. This is just NOT TRUE. MAOA gene can be found in many people but not all of them associate with having psychopathic characteristics. To say that there is a "psychopath gene" is being sensationalized for entertainment purposes and even borders on misinformation. It's times like this that I worry that the people of South Korea will take this dramas word as gospel and believe this crap.

I hope this helped sort out any misbeliefs people may have had while watching this drama. I have watched all four episodes out now but struggle to finish until the end. I'd really like to write a review for this drama.

I don't believe it's "over the top" either. Some elements of the drama may be a little over the top but a majority of it is pretty realistic. Korean parents will do ANYTHING to get their children into the best university, if they have the money. I have a cousin who goes to school, then after school she goes to afterschool tutoring, and then after tutoring she goes to do self-study until past midnight and then wakes up early in the morning to go to school again. I grew up in the States and I thought it was insane because they grew up with no childhood. Just studying, studying and more studying. In Korea, WHERE you got your education from and how pretty or handsome you look will determine whether you get a full-time paying job or not. I'm not joking about that either.

This drama is a bit of a slow burn but it gets better as you watch each episode. It was the controversial drama in Korea because it touched on the taboo subject of education and it's potential connection of abuse towards children. Let us know what you think of it when you're done.