Interesting short stories only told at surface level, and a lack of understanding in AI
Okay, this movie is... weird. It feels like an incomplete draft with missing scenes, actually it's almost like they had shot a short series and edited the key scenes into a movie. There is not enough context and world building which makes it confusing. I get that the science fiction aspect of this movie is not its focus, but it really needed an extra 15-20 minutes at the start to properly explain how exactly this Wonderland service works. Like how are the AI characters programmed and what are they programmed with? There are so many ambiguities but they'll be spoilers. It's almost like the movie itself doesn't know the answers. I can't tell if the director is inexperienced in the sci-fi genre or they cut out those scenes because the basic foundation to make a coherent story wasn't there. At one point towards the end it was straight up a fantasy movie and not science fiction anymore lmao.But then, I actually like the subject matter, the actors and parts of the movie especially in the first half. Most of the scenarios were actually interesting and complex -- but they weren't fleshed out at all. Which brings me to the point that this movie just has too many characters. Basically every story was only on surface level, some were just left hanging or abandoned. Suzy and Park Bogum's arc especially suffered from this, it needed way more screentime to be properly developed. I hate to say this but some of their parts felt half-baked and wasted their onscreen chemistry. Tang Wei on the other hand had the most complete arc and probably the most touching one.
It's a shame because I think if they expanded the material and went more in-depth for each arc, or removed all the arcs other than Suzy/PBG and Tang Wei's, it would have been way better. But alas the potential was wasted. Nonetheless, I think at the very least this movie can spark some interesting post-watch discussions.
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This review may contain spoilers
A different take on swindlers and identity theft
This one is tricky... It started as a murder mystery and in the second half, became more of a psychological crime drama. It was different from my expectations of how a drama featuring a con artist would be. The identity theft was also a smaller part of the show than I expected. There were definitely both strengths and flaws, but as a whole, I enjoyed it and was invested throughout.What was undeniably good is Shin Hye Sun's performance. The effortless charisma and persuasiveness doesn't make me surprised that people around her fell for her tricks. It's to the point that you wonder if she was really faking it, and you can't help but like her character. Sarah Kim is also a compelling protagonist to me. She isn't a ruthless villain or a cliche genius con artist, she was intelligent but very human despite what she ended up doing in the show.
I also liked the wealthy victim characters. They weren't obnoxious caricatures nor evil chaebols. They were rather realistic portrayals of how the rich would behave and get swayed -- which is, imo, very rare in kdramas. In that sense, I think the biggest contributor to my enjoyment was the complexities in the relationships between Sarah Kim and her victims.
Onto the flaws, I definitely thought the show lost a bit of steam in the middle parts. The interrogations clearly were slow-paced compared to the beginning, and often unnecessarily confusing. While it gained its footing at the end, the show wasn't exactly consistent.
I also thought it was a shame that Sarah's employee identity arc only lasted one episode. It was intense and emotional, and I actually thought it would be intriguing to explore how she shifted from her original personality to Sarah's persona. The show missed out on this potential.
Overall, I think this would be a show that divides viewers. What is undeniable is that it is different, and thus an interesting watch.
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