Ophanin

Firstly : Why doesn't he wear gloves ?

Otherwise, at first I thought it was a good story, with everything mixed up together and very few details. But it quickly became tedious. You want to shake up certain characters who are deliberately withholding information for no reason other than to prevent the plot from moving forward. It's so absurd ! You can't understand why they keep quiet and make other people miserable.
Of course, they end up revealing the solution by crying over their fate, but they should cut their ties instead, you can't lie for years like that and get away with saying "it's for your own good", especially when it results in the death of a person (one of the best characters) that could have been avoided without all that mumbo jumbo. Ok, actually, that pissed me off. Don't ever do that again.

Besides, this 'psychometric' gift comes in very handy when you need it. What luck... On the other hand, their insistence on presenting people incapable of expressing emotions as dangerous people, I don't like that at all, being autistic and unable to do any masking.

Episode 7 : "being bisexual is unacceptable" ah really ? Well, that's embarrassing. Let's call the whole thing off, Park Jin-young !

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To tell the truth, I don't think I'm particularly fond of the police. This series reminds me of that with a certain acuity. Cops are detestable. We don't talk to them, we have nothing to say to them, we don't let them in, we haven't done anything wrong. They will always find something to make our lives miserable, so let's not make it easy for them. I was absolutely, totally, entirely on the side of this mother and her falsely mysterious sidekick. What poverty drives people to do, though... The theme is less about drugs than about the injustice of this world where being poor condemns you to death, where being honest makes you lose your job, where family only exists when everything is going well. The cycle of economic and social violence ensures that those at the bottom stay at the bottom.
The war on drugs is above all a war on the poor and minorities. And doctors who snitch to the police are no better. And come on, Eun-soo's boss goes in the bin with the rest. We give you a little power, you abuse it, you filthy bosses.

A solid series, albeit a little slow. Some scenes beat around the bush too much, and there's an overuse of the trick of cutting a scene dishonestly to make us believe something else. (I know what I mean)
The ending leaves a bitter taste. Punishing a character once was clearly not enough, they had to insist because, you see, drugs are bad, oh so bad, not good ! Bring on season 2, quickly. I'm in.

However, it's nice to see a male-female duo without any romantic tension. If you see one, you're part of the problem. (What nonsense I can spout)

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A series that seems feel-good at first, focusing on neighbours helping each other out. These mums are cool. It's a shame, though, that they try to make us believe that teachers don't see the bullying going on between their pupils and that they justify police murder too. (We're used to it) And then they portray criminals as crazy lunatics. Well, it doesn't even shock me anymore, I'm just fed up with it.

The investigations get tangled up and the humour makes a lot of very borderline things acceptable. The further we go, the darker it gets. So, there you have it, a good investigative K-drama despite all these nasty tirades that I address with virulence, waving my finger at the sky.

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In a restaurant, we see photos of Vivian Maier. That made me happy.

It's interesting to show how hellish it can be to be a public figure. You can't disappoint, you always have to react correctly, you can't have a bad day in front of your fans. The series focuses on the life of the singer, his lawyer and, to a lesser extent, the prosecutor. Ultimately, the murder investigation is just an excuse to discover these characters and how they deal with their situation. The revelation of the culprit comes in the penultimate episode, clumsily, very clumsily. In any case, we don't really care.

The strong point is that it doesn't try to absolve people of their responsibilities. On the other hand, seeing a fan and her idol end up together is not very healthy ! I didn't know that being a solicitor involved housing, driving and feeding your client.

Ep5 : the kdrama disease of having a serious accident at the end of an episode and waking up in hospital in perfect health at the beginning of the next. How many times are we going to be subjected to this before the great Revolution ? Anger is brewing among the crowds.

(I may have skipped parts of episodes, no one will ever know.)

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A Chinese drama where women call the shots. They run the most renowned tea production company and compete with each other for power while all the men seek to win their favour. The roles have truly been reversed.

The sets, costumes and editing are beautiful. It's standard for these kinds of productions. So I'm quite willing to believe that at one time in China, everyone was capable of the greatest physical feats in epic aerial combat. It was commonplace to fight to the death to win the heart of a noble woman, of course. I've just summarised a good third of the series. The plot doesn't make much sense, but that's okay... for a while, because you get tired of it. But above all, don't watch the episodes too quickly, as I did. Big mistake. Nothing and everything happens at the same time. I skipped episodes after a while, the compulsion to know the ending even when you've lost faith is serious, very serious. My behaviour is utterly scandalous.

But, although the show quickly loses steam, FL is brilliant. We want to follow her adventures. She never lets anyone fool her. She has a truly photogenic presence, always elegant and noble. The actress, Gulnezer Bextiyar or "Naza", is one of the very few Uyghur actresses. She plays a character who had potential but was not exploited sufficiently. That's why I gave up halfway through, I think. (And then 36 episodes of 50 minutes ? Let's calm down. Write less, write better. That's advice I should take myself, the chatterbox.)

Oh, and the final plot twists are so silly.

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The injustice perpetuated by Confucian society

A series about the injustice perpetuated by Confucian society, particularly in Korea. A scene in the early episodes makes this point quite clear. Furthermore, the authority figures are all, without exception, negative characters who stem from this hierarchy.

At times, the psychological and physical violence is unbearable. It’s terribly cathartic to watch. When you’re on the receiving end, all you can do is wait. Rebelling only leads to more violence. Speaking out is pointless. Nobody wants to listen to us. You learn that very quickly.
In this regard, the two disabled characters die, either by suicide or murder. It’s no scandal to anyone in the series. It could have been me. That’s what I take away from it.

The cult in this story is directly inspired by the JMS Church. I can say this with certainty because of the leader’s white tuxedos, a reference to the vile bastard who ran that utterly disgusting cult. People tried to escape and were beaten up in groups (as the series brutally depicts in episode 10) or, worse still, went missing. People reported it to the police for years, to no avail.

What sends a shiver down your spine is seeing just how pervasive the indoctrination is. Those vultures circling around people’s misfortune, and then that falsely humble and approachable leader. It doesn’t matter whether or not you believe the stories this bloke tells; it becomes the sole reason for his followers’ existence. You find yourself isolated. Those who watch over us are, above all, watching us. You convince yourself that it’s ridiculous to give up after having made so much progress, after having given so much, and you become the first spectator of your own show.

"Why don't you leave ?"

It’s an absolute nightmare. Sang-mi finds herself trapped in this cult. Leaving would mean abandoning her parents and losing them, along with the memories of her brother. And abandoning all these vulnerable, desperate people. Her father controls every aspect of her life ; both her real father and the cult leader.
Where the writing really shines is in the way it puts us on Sang-mi’s side. We’re trapped alongside her. She understands exactly what’s going on; she knows that this cult hastened her brother’s death and how everyone around her is manipulating her ; they’re using her mother against her. (Just like with her friend, the politician’s son. The parallel is brilliant) Sang-mi has no leverage; she owes her survival solely to the leader’s evil intentions towards her. It makes you want to scream when you see it. You want to shake the servile father. He is pathetic and hateful. I understand his background, but I don’t excuse him. Well, that’s what I thought at first, but after a while, I just wanted someone to finally put him out of action, because he’ll never come to his senses. We all need friends who tell us when we’ve gone too far, even if it hurts at the time. But there’s no point confronting fanatics; they lie, say we refuse to understand them, and so on and so forth. (As for the mother, we excuse her; she’s been put in a straitjacket. Like so many people who die in psychiatric hospitals amid general indifference)

It’s one of the hardest scenes to watch, when the protagonists try to reason with the cult members, the police or the politicians, and it backfires on them. There’s absolutely no point in talking to these people; they have no interest in changing. They’re there because it suits them, and they want it to continue. It destroys everyone, but these people either put up with it or profit from it. (Time for a name drop: 'Discours de la Servitude Volontaire' (A Treatise on Voluntary Servitude). The only way to abolish this is to abolish hierarchy, exploitation and dependency.)

"In this world what's real and what's false are not different. So don't try so hard to distinguish the real from the false."

A series that makes you weep with rage and sadness.
Nothing is straightforward. It’s heart-wrenching. Because it’s extremely well written and performed. The parallel between the prison-like conditions within the cult and the outside world is explored with great insight. The thirst for power and obedience. Confucian principles being used to serve scum.
The three-year time jump allows us to explore these characters in greater depth and become even more invested in them. A modern series would have skipped this first part.
It’s touching to see how hard it is for this group of boys to express their feelings.
A focus on class-based violence. The subtleties of power dynamics between people. And in friendships, depending on whether you’re poor or from the capital. Depending on the hierarchy within the cult. Honestly, the writing in this series is brilliant.

Naturally, those bloody [redacted] cops are no help at all to the victims. They’re only too happy to hand them back to their tormentors. Just like it was with the JMS Church, for that matter. They’re completely in the pocket of politicians and the cult. Very realistic. Right, they pull the ‘cops suddenly spring into action’ trick in episode 12... but the bloke interrogates the victim with her tormentors in the room. Nice work. And the young female cop makes the same daft mistake of going to confront the leader at his home on the basis of: nothing against him. Great. Very helpful.

Jeon Yeo-Bin, in one of her first roles. Already displaying great subtlety in a challenging part where she must appear to believe in her faith whilst simultaneously casting doubt on it, in order to keep her true motives hidden.

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Contrary to what the poster suggests, it's not about domestic violence, and none of that is actually depicted. I don't understand why they chose this illustration. (which makes me uncomfortable, I admit)

A series about the insidious power dynamics in South Korea. This surgeon should be at the top of the social ladder, yet finds himself crushed by his stepfather, the police (yet another bunch of useless idiots, as is so often the case in K-dramas), and a kidnapper. He is brought back down to his social origins : his fatherless childhood and his education on a scholarship.
In the end, who were the real villains of the story ? Those doctors who were so full of themselves. I'd say: realistic.

The plot unfolds smoothly throughout the first two-thirds of the series. There’s a twist in every episode. We can overlook the somewhat inconsistent acting. However, the ending drags on unnecessarily; we already know all the details, yet they keep rehashing them.

In this kind of story, you need a great antagonist. And at first, he certainly is one, odious and incredibly annoying. It works really well because we know nothing about him, and his motivations seem absurd. His wife, who's involved in the scheme (and whom we'd figured out long in advance), is just as despicable. And the series should have stuck with that instead of turning everything upside down the way it does. What a huge waste ! and it creates a major plot hole. In the end, they just abandon their entire backstory ; it doesn't make sense for even a second. Which brings me to my final point : "Some scenes were generated by AI."

No way. Isn't this nonsense going to end soon ? I don't want to see this. This year, it's a party at AIgen. Don't you know how to film anymore ? Don't you have a production crew anymore ? No actors left ? Where's your damn dignity ? This has to stop. Don't spit in our faces like that. Stop ruining everything with your death machines.

I suspect that at least part of the script was generated by these chatbots. Between the inconsistencies that ruin the series towards the end, and episode 8 throwing in flashbacks of scenes we've just seen… Strange. Very strange. Or is it just that awful opening sequence ? We're not sure anymore, but we're fed up with it, that's for sure !

Lee Seol delivers a particularly intense performance. And this AIgen nonsense insults her involvement as a performer.

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First of all: imitating Silvestri's music for Back to the Future wasn't essential. That little arpeggio annoyed me.

That said, it takes its time at the beginning, a little too much. Probably to show that the time travel thing isn't that central. But neither is the music, since everyone plays superbly without making the slightest effort. It's borderline genetic...

However, I demand a moratorium on characters travelling into the past who are surprised that people don't know their future and get lost in pointless misunderstandings. People have been sentenced to death for less.
Another thing: the fact that one man's affection for another is ridiculed for being gay, I think that's pretty lame and spoils the relationship between the two characters. (a son and his young father, no less).

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade"
Personally, I'd rather wonder why I'm stuck in a remake of It's a Wonderful Life. In short, the cast is excellent but the story doesn't move forward enough for me to be carried away with it and that disappoints me, unfortunately.

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Are you serious ? Transgender people don't become transgender because of childhood trauma. What is this nonsense ? And all this talk about gender dysphoria, frankly, I'd rather not say anything... well, actually, yes : psychiatrists are not allies, no one needs their bogus diagnoses to know who they are.
I'm not putting this under a spoiler alert because I'd rather warn about the transphobic clichés that await the comrades concerned.

Other than that, it could have been an interesting crime series. I watched it to the end, so it wasn't that bad. Season 2, however, will be without me. The hero lies to his wife and his team, and we're supposed to feel sorry for him. It irritates me.

Jeong I-Shin/Ko Hyun-Jung did nothing wrong.

"It is the police's job to save lives." Come on, let's all laugh together : hahaha !

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Humility leads to progress, comrades. It's written on the textile factory, so it must be true.

This is a series to watch at your own pace, two episodes here, two episodes there. In between other things. Because the story doesn't really move forward much. It’s the kind of show you watch for comfort. That said, I was worried at first that we'd be presented with a revisionist take on the Cultural Revolution. But the two protagonists are actually victims of it. It isn't stated outright but framed as their courageous efforts to overcome it… And we know they will. No mystery there. A little trick to get around censorship, I suppose.

We're also led to believe that domestic violence is no longer tolerated in the new, truly socialist China. Well, I'll steer clear of that topic because it would imply that the rest of the world is subject to the same constraints. There's no reason for Chinese productions to be criticized more than others. Propaganda is produced just as much elsewhere. And C-dramas, in fact, ingeniously manage to play with the boundaries. Still, seeing Mao's portrait everywhere feels weird. Excuse me, Great Helmsman, I am an enemy of the Revolution, a rusty nail in the gears of true Socialism.

Arthur Chen played a vengeful deity in When Destiny Brings the Demon, and here he completely changes his acting style, attitude and character. A stunning transformation. He becomes a gentle, dreamy man, always ready to help.
As for Sun Qian, she plays a young woman who wants to fulfil herself through her studies, to graduate even though she is denied this opportunity, and who wishes to retain her independence. All the female characters display authority and free will... as long as one remains within the framework of marriage ; a man, a woman, everything in its place. True socialism seems awfully straight.

In this sense, there is a scene surprisingly charged with sensuality in which our dear artist traces the outline of his working-class partner in chalk on a large blackboard in front of the factory. It's highly symbolic. The two of them complement each other perfectly. A cute couple, in the full vigour of youth, unstoppable. It’s a pleasure to follow them, two angels who've found each other so perfectly. However, there was surely not enough material to fill 29 episodes. A common trait of too many Chinese productions : it drags on. (Just like my dumb reviews)

The other characters aren't all that interesting. The mathematician, the hero's sister, you just want to tell her, "Move on ! You deserve to be happy, comrade." The series has its moments, though. The humor is heartwarming. Some tragic events occur ; (tw: suicide) one character sees no future in this society and feels like he's in prison at work. C-dramas often manage to convey unexpected messages.

Do you also blurt out things like "You belittle the working class !" when you argue with your parents ? Me, I call my cat a paper tiger. That little capitalist scoundrel.

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Tough life for the rich. What a bummer to be rich. It can't be easy having all that dough, can it ? I feel like telling them to use all that dough for useful things if their lives are so miserable, instead of wallowing in their pitiful little love woes. It'll give a little meaning to their indecent existence. That's what I said to myself at the start of the first episode. And then the Korean capitalist propaganda got me, again. What a sad life I lead. The flesh is weak, alas.
Even if their thing of torturing themselves over a divorce that the gentleman never asked for and even : abandoned ! it pisses me off. He literally did nothing, but he's going to get rotten as if he'd strangled kittens anyway.

In any case, it's clear how the rich use progressivism to their advantage. They still exert their domination, but we have to thank them because deep down they think that women too can be tyrants like the others. What great values... damned rich. I want the money and your power to go. And your good intentions, keep them to yourself or let them be translated into action. Despite all this, I fall for these damned kdramas every time. Every single time ! God, that was good. The scriptwriter had already ripped me off with Crash Landing on You, I'm going to lodge a complaint. You can't make me love rich people with impunity, you have to pay for it !

Kim Soo Hyun, there's nothing you can do, he looks like a little boy. Throughout the series, I hesitated to denounce Kim Ji-won, but in reality, she's even younger than he is.
I must confess I stopped watching at episode 8 because of the revelation that the actor dated an underage girl who has since committed suicide. If she hadn't taken her own life, he would never have admitted it or apologized. It disgusts me too much.

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What an incredible first episode ! So much happens in such a short time. Poor thing... How awful to go through that ! It's unbearable to watch such a powerful, untouchable manipulator. The show's little twist comes out of nowhere ; I had absolutely no idea it would be that. And I think that's better not to know anything before starting.

"If women interfere with politics, the State will collapse."
Go tell that to Cixi, who kept the Qing dynasty afloat for more than 50 years.

Oh my ! That feeling of satisfaction when you start watching a random series and it literally sucks you in, leaving you eagerly awaiting each episode, day after day. A C-drama about power and court intrigues, featuring powerful men who are never satisfied but who end up crossing paths with a cunning princess who stops at nothing. She knows how to keep her allies close and her enemies even closer. She uses their strengths and weaknesses against them. She stands up to the ministers and the rest of the world. (When she traps Xiao Xun in a gilded cage, lured by a reward... episode 16.) It's so good. Did I say it was good ? I'll say it again, then.

I love these stories about unexpected characters who take their revenge on fate. These people are one step ahead because they leave their arrogance at the door. Princess Zhao Chu does, however, have one advantage : the sympathy and loyalty of certain people excluded from the circles of power. She lives surrounded by her maids, her advisors, her protectors, almost exclusively women.

All in all, these guys who feel belittled and are plotting in the princess's shadow are quite entertaining. No matter what schemes they hatch, they end up doing whatever she wants.

This little emperor, still just a child, who puts his ministers in their place, I found it so funny. They don't take him seriously, but they follow his orders because what he says makes perfect sense and shows great intelligence.

"Why must she seek such Glory on the battlefield ? [...] Clearly, she refuses to know her place and means to usurp the throne."

The relationship between the two main protagonists works so well. They're passionate and each has their own demons. Their conversation in episode 3, very tense, borders on the erotic without the slightest sexual undertone. And their sword dance beneath the fallen leaves drifting from the trees around them, their gazes filled with desire and mutual respect… When he fixes her hair knot while she's kneading dough to make pastries ? Please cover the children's eyes ! A man and a woman among the most beautiful in the world, and they support and admire each other, to the point of pulling off a final plan that's quite implausible but relies solely on their faith in one another.

"I'm not here to persuade you but to threaten you." she says with a venomous smile.

The music is so lyrical at times ! Often melancholic and melismatic. It takes on a more martial tone during battle and siege scenes. How strange it is to hear melodies that usually sound more like Japanese animation. Simple, repetitive phrases built around a single ornamented note.

Of course, the sets and costumes are meticulously crafted and drenched in black and red throughout. How beautiful !

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