MiyamotoMusashi

Just finished it, not gonna write a long review, i read some posts here and from what i read, i think most missed the crucial part of the story.

Positives and negatives:

- The games i liked, using children games that makes people nostalgic about a time far removed from their material worries of adulthood, was a good touch, especially since the order of the games were purposely chosen to enforce the animalistic side of the participants

- I liked the commentary on the dehumanizing system we currently have in most countries, especially S.Korea

- The execution/intelligence of the games was lacking, saw far better survival games, especially in manga

- The twists were all predictable. at least for me

- Acting was ok, to be honest can´t really comprehend why the show is pushing so many actors into stardom from this

- I liked the ending, i think it´s fitting in a symbolic way, though for the personal fate of the MC, i wished he would just go to see his daughter.

10 years ago or earlier it was far worse. I was actually impressed that most of them were passable, unfortunately the worst of them also had the most to say, the fat guy.

From the games to the twists i agree, i have seen far better survival games.

But the incorporation of metaphors and symbols for the modern human experience in the current system, especially in S.Korea, is spot on.

The disdain the rich feel for the poor, the constant struggle for survival that makes it impossible to follow higher morals and ideals, and the archetypes represented by the characters, that was great.

Yes i did. It´s a more extreme example, still on point. "Part of culture" is not an excuse or explanation, period.

For it to be your responsibility,

1) you would need to know the consequences of drinking, which in South Korea is not widespread knowledge. The liquor industry is huge in SK, and are actively lobbying against any education on the topic.

2) it should not be idolized as it is in SK. I have never seen a drama in which alcoholism is actually addressed, but every drama has a cute drunk scene.

3) you would need to assume you are not harming anybody else, which statistically it´s not a given.

Random articles my foot.
There was a huge uproar of people using it as defense successfully, as reported by news outlets in Korea. The clause of using drunkenness as a mental disorder was amended in 2013 from "should be used" to "can be used" as defense, yet a lot of cases after the amendment still successfully used that as defense. Being ignorant is ok, being ignorant and trying to downplay a big problem, not ok.
Here, a few others:

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20091019000018
https://thepeninsulareport.com/2019/11/05/sim-sin-mi-yak-and-joo-chi-gam-hyung-the-use-of-alcohol-intoxication-as-a-legal-defense-in-south-korea/

Not everything has to be excused because it´s part of a culture. I doubt you would be defending women getting stoned in Saudi-Arabia because it´s "part of their culture". Heavy drinking is not only harmful to yourself, it has a lot of consequences due to the drinking, whether it´s violence, high amount of rape and so on.
https://qz.com/171191/south-koreans-drink-twice-as-much-liquor-as-russians-and-more-than-four-times-as-much-as-americans/
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2016/2/7/the-country-with-the-worlds-worst-drink-problem
https://ksr.hkspublications.org/2019/07/16/in-south-korea-being-drunk-is-a-legal-defense-for-rape/

Anyway, dramas have a certain influence, especially on the younger audience (which tvN aims at in the first place), so idolizing heavy drinking till fainting does is not irrelevant.
But i know i might come off as snobbish to a certain extent, hence why i wrote /snob, in the first post.

Nirvana in Fire.

That´s what South Korea needed, another drama advocating for drinking. /snob

Anyway, happy to see Jung Eun-Ji. I think Reply 1997 showed a lot of promise for her acting career but unfortunately for some reason she never could tap into that. I hope this might become a stepping stone to getting main roles again, assuming she and her agency want that.

Seems like a fun slice of life show.

I caught up completely. I don´t think it´s necessarily the depth but like i said below, it´s a bit too monotonous with the other characters. Every time the main characters reveal something, or actually interact, you can cut the tension in the air, and my chest tightens up due to the investment, everything else just does not stack up. Literally every mother-in-law scene can be skipped, she is annoying for the sake of being annoying, humanizing the writer/actress fails for me, especially considering what she has done to LBJ, The husband has been the nagger for 7 episodes, episode 8 with him crying over his old lover´s husband´s deal was admittedly a bit better. Just/Sun Joo crying so far does nothing for me since so far, his problems seem really be about being a simp to an emotionally unavailable narcissist, speaking of her, her manipulating Just and knowingly hurting him does nothing for me either and the list goes on.

It´s one of the best depictions of melancholy in any medium.
Unfortunately it also has to fit the usual K-Drama structure (16 episodes, 1 hour episode length), so you get a lot of things that are quite uninteresting. The mother-in-law, the writer, the husband and so forth, it´s too monotonous to add something profound.
The main characters and their dynamic is one of the best i have ever seen, hence why i think the two great main actors agreed to it in the first place.

With all the praise the show is getting here, i gotta say something though, besides the two main characters, i am not really interested in anyone else except maybe LBJ´s father, who seems to be an immense source of wisdom.

Jeon Do Yeon is one of the most beautiful people to ever walk this earth. The woman is nearly 50, has no make-up on her face, and just visually speaking, i would take her over any actress to be honest. Literally definition of timeless beauty.
And then she can actually act extraordinarily as well...

You could argue that the first three episodes had some things that stretched your suspense of disbelief, but it was ok and acceptable still and you could somewhat explain it. Episode 4 for me for the first time had an event that made me go "yeah no...".

There is an anime actually adapting Dazai´s no longer human called Aoi Bungaku (first 4 episodes)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aoi_Bungaku

Seems a bit too high of a rating for a simple show, but i guess consistent what LBPG and i have been saying, ratings might not be a good indicator.

Is it that bad? I actually wanted to watch once it concludes, especially since i like Shin Min Ah. That´s disappointing...
I usually only look for new dramas once a few episodes aired, who i have no idea what´s coming when to be honest (except stranger season 3 if it actually happens).

1) They are desperate
2) He was cleared officially, his evaluation was kept secret by the director
3) They have no evidence that he remotely had something to do with the deaths and leaking
4) If he had done that, he would have no reason to come back

5) Like i said, the memory thing might get explained (or not), we will have to see. Of course the explanation so far is insufficient, but we don´t know the details.

6) No backup was intentional to not raise suspicion because of the traitor. He wanted to prolong pretend to be captive as far as he could to draw out information.

7) Equipment is no issue, if he is a black ops trained agent, getting your hands on basic stuff is no problem.

8) Everyone knew why he was injured, they pretended not to know, he pretended to not know they know.

9) Reports as a secret assassin? At best he needs to give oral reports and other people write it down, he does not have a desk job, he is also not a cop.

10) Politics within the information agency business is fairly common, read up on the rivalry between FBI, CIA, NSA and so forth. As example, try this book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedge:_The_Secret_War_Between_the_FBI_and_CIA

Common sense and working for common good is an ideal that has nothing to do with reality, the ones who rise through the ranks are usually the ones searching for power.

Been a while that i watched it, but yeah, i could completely empathize with the characters in Misaeng since you make those experiences yourself in your professional life.
I am not watching any current drama besides Lost and The Veil, do you mean Hometown or Yumi´s Cells? Both are rated pretty well.

Yeah the fan culture on this site is really advanced, hence why i do not care that much about the ratings anymore besides mine and people i know whose tastes align with mine. I was disappointed with a high rated drama and surprised by a low rated drama too often at this point.

You mean continuing to work? Yeah that´s certainly was a bummer.
But i mean that the fantasy part is never really the main point, but it´s just a simple device to highlight and reveal the actual and realistic problems they have, which works for me. Him turning to 18 and becoming friends of his kids revealed his mistake and how absent he was mentally, whereas his disappearance revealed stuff for his wife. In Go Back Couple, each of them learned the struggles and challenges they faced in their daily lives by going back in time, it also worked. Or Familiar Wife, the separate reality revealed to him how much of an asshole he was, and so on. I don´t mind that too much, but if it´s actually making outlandish stuff actually a significant plot point, it kind of pushes me out.

Yep exactly, i think we all might know people like that. In pursuit of something, you also lose something about yourself.

Yep Misaeng is the prime example, i think that´s why it became so huge in Korea, yet is kind of underwatched here.

So far at least i don´t think there has been stuff too illogical. Of course you can question him erasing his own memory (might get explained though) and him being able to work immediately (he is supposed to be the best at a time in which the agency faces a crisis, so not unrealistic either).

Yeah exactly, while i understand it as a simple plot device (the FL learning so much about the ML´s life without approaching him, and thus build empathy), it´s just so far removed from our lives it seemed outlandish.
I don´t mind fantasy elements to highlight the daily problems more (like let´s say 18 again or Go Back Couple) but if it´s supposed to be completely realistic, yet feature so specific and outlandish devices, it feels off.
And yeah, weather is fine was the same. A murder mystery, a huge sacrifice, the whole mountain beast thing. It would have been enough to have the female lead not being able to adjust to her life in Seoul and the main lead having problems with being adopted and getting close to people, since these are real problems people can understand, but then it would be too real again i guess.
And i was not shocked by her leaving in the end since i would agree she would need to sort herself out, but they played it differently which did not work completely.

In Lost i think i can at least understand the main lead, even if being a host is somewhat outlandish, since the rat race of pursuing money can make you forget your principles and ideals you would like to follow, until you just substitute love with money. And yeah, the female lead´s circumstances are very specific, but i think you can still classify it under problems you have in society, especially Korean society, which from what i have read, seems really unforgiving.