Big Disappointment*
*I finished the 6th episode and the huge disappointment is that it ended so soon. If ever I appreciated the Korean tendency for 16 full hour episodes it's this one. The closing scene left open a sequel, but I really wanted to binge another 10 hours now.The show is 'quirky' meaning you're going to love it, or hate it depending on your susceptibility to this particular brand of quirk and you'll know before the end of first episode whether it's for you or not.
Only six episodes are promised, so the hope is there will be more.
Bae Doo Na effortlessly does meek and menacing and comedic.
Lee Su Hyun is great in her first outing.
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Supernatural Vigilantism with a Big Bonus
There are many movies and TV series with strong vigilantist themes including a great many from Korea. This one, Judge From Hell, adds something to trigger attention. Seeing some rogue heroes deliver vigilante justice the system fails to provide is always satisfying, but here we get to see the hero, a demon exiled among humans to hunt down sinners, punish the sinners in excruciating and painful detail before sending them on their way to Hell. All in all it is extremely satisfying and very rewatchable.The challenge for the screenwriter and director is to find the right balance among comedy, dark detail, and romance. For me, the comedy was a bit strong at times, and perhaps the main character, the demon judge, could have been a bit more demonlike before softening up, but it all works well enough.
The first half of episodes tend to emphasize the procedural element - showing the sins of a particular culprit followed by the machinations of the demon judge to deliver the sinner's punishment and then send them to hell. The judge likes to leave the bodies to tease the authorities. Once the basics are understood the series shifts to emphasize the struggle among the top demons in and from Hell.
And the ending is an obvious setup to keep the option for a second season open.
It's odd that in this story Satan and Lucifer are two entirely different beings and not just different names for the same.
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Cinderella Plus
With the Cinderella name titled up front you know going in that it’s a romance, a drama, and a comedy with a Cinderella and a happy ending. The romantic entanglement question is over three ‘princes’ vs one. The comedy elements are focused on the step mom and sister (three abusive stepsisters reduced to one). The drama aspects have many extra big reveals that have nothing to do with the original Cinderella story. These reveals tie together seemingly unrelated events from early on and are discovered through flashbacks and in later episodes and deliver some satisfying twists, and of course because this is a Cinderella inspired story our Cinderella here overcomes all obstacles and wins the heart of one of the three princes, and she gets her own happy ending along with better endings for the whole family.The second time I watched I was aware of the many twists and reveals but enjoyed anticipating the hints woven into the story - there are many - of what was to come.
The twist on the original Cinderella story is that the poor abused girl is coerced into cohabiting with three princes (three cousins of a filthy rich family) who detest each other and resent being forced to stay at the family mansion. A bit contrived? Absolutely, but it sets up a fun story with our spunky Cinderella’s presence in a (mostly) hostile house and her ever optimistic, bubbly personality acting as a catalyst to bring about the three princes going through steep character growth by the last episode.
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Four Episode Pilot for a New Franchise? Plus 2nd watch Comments
First, you do not need to see either of the Witch movies (Parts 1 & 2). Any connections are slim and add nothing. So if you're looking for some sort of continuation of those stories you won't find it here. Instead an action thriller is served up for the first three episodes before the Sci-Fi main course gets fully underway.I found the first few episodes hard to follow. It's like A Shop For Killers in that the viewer is thrown into the middle of intense action and in machine gun fashion the plot and characters' backgrounds are unlayered.
The fourth episode brings things to a conclusion which sets up a potentially interesting franchise led by a fascinating new main character with super powers (Venom character comes to mind).
I wish this Korean series followed the usual 16 episode pattern, because I really wanted to see another 12 episodes of a longer series. So that's my only disappointment here - that it ended just when the set up for something really good was in place.
Hopefully this was a four episode pilot for a new series.
Follow up comments after rewatching.
Much more coherent second time around. Better left apart from the Witch 1 & 2, particularly W2 which I found chaotic at best. These 4 episodes are a great set up for a continuation of an interesting story. There's a hint at the very end via that flashback scene of much deeper early complications involving the main character. Also interesting the director/screenwriter borrowed an idea from All of Us Are Dead where some of the zombies retain their sentience and full cognitive abilities. In this story the main character retains her sanity whereas it's revealed that all of her predecessors infected with the same virus did not. Why that is, how it is, and where this new super powered character goes from here deserves a few follow on seasons hopefully longer than 4 episodes each.
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Should You Watch?
I gave this a try despite several negative warnings in the media. I found myself binging - unable not to watch each next episode. The story and predicament of the characters is intriguing, and the short fast paced episodes hard to resist. These high school kids make some odd choices, but given their ages within the story it's believable. It is obvious early on that given the fantastic and impossible and 'supernatural' things that are happening that this must be some sort of unreal dream scenario. All the impossible things are OK if the ending satisfactorily ties matters up. However, that's the downside - the last 15 or 20 minutes will likely leave you unsatisfied. Does all the good story telling that comes before compensate for the soft ending? I found it did and enjoyed the binge.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Mixed Japanese Take on the Lost TV Series
Going in a potential viewer needs to be prepared for a heavy dose of Japanese cultural behaviors. On the positive side the subtitles were excellent maintaining a high quality translation throughout.The basic story is a Japanese twist on the old TV series 'Lost' with two commuting train cars getting catapulted into the future leaving the occupants to learn to sort out their communities and how to manage to survive. The focus is on one of the cars' occupants (car#5) with the other car (#6) becoming those other people eventually getting discovered by our main characters.
My biggest problem was the writer focused on the relationships to the detriment of the story consistency. A few flaws here and there are acceptable but here even big story line points are trampled on which pulls the viewer away from the story itself and the characters' development.
Fewer background characters would have made for a better plot development. There are just too many people sitting around not contributing to the plot line growth.
Anyone who watched Lost may remember the character Hurley who weighed in at around 350 or 400 lbs for the entire six seasons! (Also the Captain on Gilligan's Island which was a comedy so maybe more forgivable.) The meager food resources the people were finding would have meant some weight loss even for the few months they were stuck in the future. And the hair and clothes would be deteriorating rapidly. It is very distracting to see clean faces and hair styles along with clothes that appear fresh from the laundry episode after episode.
There are other problems not adequately explained. These people are occupying a gone wild landscape with only a few distant buildings intact. Yet they find an intact power generating station nearby. That still works! All the buildings, roads, etc are gone with no trace, and there's still a fueled working power station???!!! The writer would have been better off contriving something with those glowing rocks and a periodically appearing wormhole than to go the route that he did.
Once the occupants of car #5, our main focus and characters, discover the wormhole they don't tell the nearby group from car #6. And then when they set things up to try and return they still say nothing to them apparently intending to just leave them behind, which they do. Not a word of guilt or conscience either before or after they leave them stuck in the future dystopian landscape!!???
It was worth the one time but not rewatching.
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Lasting Impression
Perhaps it's the final scene in the movie, or perhaps it was the magnificent revenge scene close to that ending, or more likely the relationship that against the odds develops between the two leads, but this movie is unforgettable. It's left a lasting impression and when scenes pop up on YouTube I can't resist rewatching them.The extreme violence which is sadistic at times is not for everyone, but it has a purpose within the story context.
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Baby Assassin Goes Supernatural
A no frills movie with one of the actors from the Baby Assassins series of movies and TV shows playing a college student who stumbles into being possessed by the ghost of an older hitman betrayed by his new boss.The only way to get unpossessed is to resolve the hitman ghost's grudge. When the ghost actively possesses her she has his super skill level at fighting, shooting etc.
The action and comedy scenes make up for the usual over emphasis of Japanese productions on melodramatic exaggerated acting styles.
The production would have been improved if the comedic side of the college girl being possessed and suddenly becoming an ultimate fighter would have been given more screen time and some of the very long intricately choreographed fight scenes would have been downplayed.
However, despite a few choices I didn't appreciate the overall end result is very entertaining.
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Endearing Comedy
The acting in Japanese TV and movies tends to lean heavily to exaggerated expressions of any emotion or reaction. Not surprisingly this does not work well outside Japan for most people, except for comedies. Japanese comedies sometimes can hit the spot for non Japanese. This show is one of those.The lead is endearing and hilarious stumbling from one situation to the next.
The episodes are short at less than 30 minutes and there are only six. Well worth the time, and this one is particularly well done.
PS I watched this again and was delighted by new layers of humor. This is a social commentary message wrapped within some extremely well done layered humor. I admit, not living in Japan, much probably goes over my head but I get enough to be happy I found this little gem.
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Winning Formula
This series uses a winning formula that's been done several times before because it works. Hometown Cha Cha Cha has a dentist forced to set up her practice in a small coastal town in the rural countryside of Korea where she meets many quirky local characters and finds romance.In an American series - Northern Exposure (1990 - 1995) - a very New York very Jewish young doctor is forced to set up his practice in a remote Alaskan town where he meets many quirky local characters and finds romance.
In a British series - Doc Martin (2004 - 2022) - a very quirky surgeon from London develops a phobia with blood so he's forced to move to a coastal village in Wales where he meets many quirky local characters and has a lot of trouble finding romance.
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This review may contain spoilers
Finish Falters
Strong opening and enough intriguing questions raised to hold you to what turns out to be an unsatisfying conclusion. The opening and first few episodes caught my curiosity, but I found myself sticking it out to the end just to find out how it would tie things up. But it didn't tie many important threads up and we don't learn what happened to the characters and in important cases the why behind their actions. I was waiting for a supernatural angle to appear given the physically impossible things occurring, but there isn't any. The makers just walk away from a reasonable finish. That last 'special' episode or epilogue was weird. The idea that a surgeon/doctor would pursue relationships with two or three high school girls was absurd and I suspect as illegal and socially unacceptable in Japan as it would be elsewhere in the world.Was this review helpful to you?
Great Follow up to the Original Series
The original TV series had some pacing issues, but the characters and story set up were excellent. This follow on movie has thrilling action with a fast pace, and appears to be the first of a series of self contained movie long episodes with the main characters from the original series. Baek So Jin, the main character and 'hero', doesn't appear until late but she is clearly the center and is defined by her actions as a new super hero. Reminds me of the Dexter character from the book series - not the TV series - who was literally possessed by a demon/evil spirit that resulted in a tense balance between good and evil. Dexter would offer up serial killers for torture and death to this demon to keep it and its influence on him in check. I look forward to seeing what they do with this demon possessed So Jin character.The first time I watched this from an online source the subtitles were horrible. However, I just rewatched a Blu-Ray version and they are much improved.
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Fantastic, Subtitles Subpar
At the beginning it struck me as ridiculous in certain affectations. However, by the end of the first episode I was won over. I finally started because of the news that there will be a second season - always a positive.The mix of comedy, crime procedural, and thriller aspects are sure not to disappoint. The male and female leads were outstandingly good and the supporting cast all superior.
I do have one nit to pic here. The English subtitles here are subpar as compared to most K-dramas put out these days. This in itself is not a reason to not watch. Context delivers the understanding to follow the meaning. The question is when these S Korean production companies so often succeed so well in production quality, script, acting, continuity, and great direction, why do they scrimp on subtitles? How much would it cost to get a college educated native speaker to review the proposed translations and smooth them over? Why is this important? Why not just go with subpar translations? Because in a fast paced story such mistakes take the viewer out of story immersion and call attention to wrong verb tense, the odd phrasing or word choice. No one anywhere in the English speaking world says 'get on the car' it's 'get in' or 'get into the car'. Verb tenses even in the simplest situations were grating and just too often obviously wrong. If I were talking to a Korean friend in college and they made these mistakes I wouldn't correct out of politeness, but I suspect this lack of correction gave someone doing these subtitles a false sense of mastery of the language.
Please fix before wrapping up the second season.
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Vigilante Serial Killer
I have not seen the original French version, nor the American spin off so I started this with only the description to go on - an imprisoned serial killer mom who forces her detective son to work with her to solve a series of copycat murders.Go Hyun Jung as The Mantis dominates every scene she’s in owning this serial killer mom role. Early on there’s a Dexter like assertion that her murders were only of really bad men who had escaped the failed justice system. She forms an interesting relationship with the detective who captured her and through whom she negotiated an unusual arrangement for her imprisonment which included provisions to give her son a new identity and to raise him to be like the detective. While The Mantis is cynical about the justice system (hence her vigilante justice) she admires the sincerity and naiveté of the detective. She would prefer her son to grow up molded after the detective than herself.
This show directly brings up the nature/nurture issue. The son fears that his bloodline connection to his serial killer mom will determine his behavior and future. It’s this fear which leads him to often react seemingly irrationally in his interactions with her, and with his wife, and his fears should they have children.
At times the killer mom projects an insane enjoyment of the torture she inflicted on her victims said torture inspired by the form of the torture they themselves inflicted on their own victims.
The plot twists and reveals near the very end cascade rapidly one after another and lead us to an understanding of why she became that way. And I promise that these final reveals will inspire sympathy for her if not acceptance of her actions. Think of Hannibal from the books and movies series and his origins in WWII as a small child struggling to survive the horrors of the German/Soviet front.
The show is a mere eight episodes so pacing is a problem only for the impatient.
The reason I rate it a 9.5 is connected to a few flaws in plotting and certain scenes. There are some clumsy lurches in moving from certain plot points to the next. Second time through these became even more glaring. The story, like a magician’s sleight of hand, glosses over them to move things along. And then in a very few scenes the absurdity just jumps out and no sleight of hand can hide it-e.g. washing machines with windows scene.
Within the larger context of a great story and Go Hyun Jung’s performance these flaws are forgivable.
There’s a final scene which promises a sequel. Such a sequel would have to shift from the backward looking to the present and future, and consequently will be very different, but I welcome the attempt just to see this fascinating character in action again.
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Impressive**
**I rewatched and reiterate that this is an impressive production start to finish with only one irksome detail. That tattoo she wears on her chest....that would not, could not have gone unnoticed during police training (e.g. showers), medical exams, visits to the hospital, etc. Yes, it has great symbolic meaning, but any gang leader who wanted to put her covertly on the police force would not have done that and if he had he would have had it removed, or covered up. Other than that a very enjoyable watch.I put off watching this when it first appeared in 2021 in part because it seemed like it might be another 'Girl Boss' story line. I was so wrong. I happened upon a video on YT and I gave it a go. I was so so wrong. Yes, there are some examples of a slightly built young girl beating up guy almost twice her weight, but it's clear that she's using better technique to beat their physical advantage, and then she often loses, too.
Some combination of a well above average script, skillful directing, and outstanding acting performances deliver a mesmerizing series.
The story calls for Han So Hee's lead character Yoon Ji Woo to often project an emotionless stone faced demeanor but then, when real emotions are called for as her personal revenge quest leads to uncovering unexpected twists and to developing unexpected emotional connections, she delivers. No doubt her talent is core, but give credit to a nuanced script and I suspect a director aware of the embedded tension and layers of meaning between the lines in the script. Her character undergoes a profound evolution as she grows from a beaten down young girl motivated and living for revenge to a young woman who finds love and is loved as she is forced at the end to confront the truth behind her father's murder, her real role, and confront her final choices.
Also a standout for me was Park Hee Soon's Choi Moo Jin, the lead 'villain', whose villainy has context and depth, and as the story unfolds we understand why he made the choices he does. Towards the end the script gives him and us the audience some lines revealing much about his own tragic motivations and his own feelings of betrayal at every attempt at trust.
As the story unfolds we see an almost father - daughter relationship develop between Ji Woo and Moo Jin as they come to rely and trust each other on her quest for revenge. For much of the story the gang boss is the closest thing to a father she has. Her own father had to keep his distance when she was young and while the gang boss is anything but close and fatherly he does provide crucial support when she had nothing and no one else. And we see on his face and his reactions the inner turmoil in the gang boss when at key moments of danger she will ask him how he's doing, is he OK, etc.
However, the story is a Greek Tragedy meaning the characters make reasonable logical choices at every step given their backgrounds but they relentless step by step are forced to meet tragic ends.
And like in the movie 'Unforgiven' small events trigger vengeful reactions which in turn escalate into ever bigger and more costly actions. No one can stop and everyone is trapped into the logic of revenge. Undercover the lead Ji Woo discovers that many of her police comrades have been wronged by gangs, by drugs, etc and are seeking to get payback even if a true righting of those wrongs might be out of reach.
Another source of tension is the undercover mission in which the lead must hide her role as a mole for a ruthless drug gang boss. This reminded me of Dexter in the Dexter books and TV series. Dexter is a forensic blood splatter specialist on the Miami police force and must hide the fact he's a serial killer who uses his inside information to find and kill other serial killers before his colleagues on the police force. Ji Woo again and again comes close to being discovered even as she feeds information to her gang boss.
All in all a very satisfying series.
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