PrettyCarEye

Golden Empire is by far the best I've seen by this writer. It's hugely underrated on this site because this writer's dramas are for thinking viewers who have some life experience. I found it to be much better than both The Chaser & Punch, even though those dramas were fantastic too.

I really have to comment on that asshole police woman. Seriously, this woman is as stupid as stupid gets. I mean even if she was ablebodied who the fuck meets a man for the first time out in the middle of nowhere??? The fact that she ISN'T able bodied and goes to meet a strange man alone in a remote area with no one else around all by herself ... is unbelievable. Not only is it unbelievable, it's totally incredible. I hate such sloppy ass writing, but I decided to let it go on the premise that when you're desperate for male attention & affection, some women will do some fuck shit. Furthermore, when he literally screwed her over and then left her for dead, I thought THAT fucking idiot would have learned her lesson.

But nooooooo, she went and met him alone, AGAIN!!! Ok, this time it wasn't in a remote location per se, but was just as dangerous since it was in the middle of a demolition site! People were around & kept telling her to leave. The dumb bitch didnt listen and kept wheeling herself farther and farther into the maze of small alleyways until, of course, the demolition workers lost track of her & she got trapped. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Honestly, at that point I really wanted the ML to fucking murder her!!! Cause her character served absolutely NO purpose whatsoever. The only way her character made sense to the plot was if she was a SKILLED police officer, but when she is so fucking incompetent & stupid, her character loses all purpose. How did this blunder get pass the producers? Nobody supervised the script & told the writer this type of behaviour made NO sense, esp for someone in a wheelchair AND who is supposed to be a cop??? Christ, the woman had NO self-preservation instinct what.so.ever.

In fact, I'm of the opinion that her character was not needed at all, even as police. At first I thought she was just to be another victim of the ML, but then her character was expanded. Why??? Same goes for the shaman. I don't know why they were there. Rather than wasting precious screen time on these two lame ass, no good characters, the show should have stayed focus on ML & FL, giving more insight into each of them, their backgrounds, how he picked his the victims, was she tempted to go on murder sprees with him since she loved him and so on.

Excellent direction, cinematography & performances by the actors. Fantastic soundtrack too. I don't normally pay attention to music in dramas, but I couldn't help but notice the amazing tracks here. They didn't just sound good, they enhanced the entire experience of the show, which is exactly what soundtracks are meant to do. The writing was brilliant & sublime in parts, but suffered from the usual overuse of melodramatic plot devices that is so typical in Korean cinema. Koreans love their melodrama, man. Regardless of whether it kills or weakens an otherwise good plot. That entire story arc with the idiot cop & the shaman was unnecessary & added nothing (but frustration) to the central story arc. Had this focused only on the ML & FL and their dynamic in the midst of all the lunacy, it would have been a show of the highest tier.

As it is, it's still better than 99% of Kdramas with high ratings on this site, but for viewers with a keener eye for cinematic quality, there are a few things lacking. Overall, though, this is a highly fascinating & enjoyable show with more merits than not. I personally LOVE how natural, open & gritty the drama is, showing the reality of Korean society in all its depravity & diversity. Not some fake, glossy veneer that will have audiences believe that Koreans are juvenile, asexual, magical beings. ::eyeroll:: The cinematography was fantastic, the use of both lighting & lens to create depth, mood & tone was masterfully done & the direction of Jung Ji Woo was on point. This was movie quality stuff. The low rating is an abomination & an insult. It absolutely in no way reflects the true quality of the show. Smdh. 8/10

Seriously during my entire watching of the show I was like "why tf ain't this bish dead yet?" I mean she was so damn stupid and annoying that I really wanted the guy to murder her fast & put us all out of our misery.

LOL, perhaps this is not your type of drama. It's a psychological thriller about a very dark theme. Why are you mad that "no one is normal"? They're not supposed to be normal. That's the whole point, the drama is about abnormal people who have an appearance of normality. I agree with you though about one moronic character. The ML should have gotten rid of her the first time.

Well, both can be true at the same time. Seeing it one way does not nullify seeing it the other way too. I liked it both as psychological thriller and an examination of the human condition.

It's because it has open sex scenes in it. No leaving anything to imagination in this one & most MDL users just can't deal with that. They're always super hateful toward anything with sex (& even romance) in it. If it's not a romcom, you always have multiple somebodies whining about how the show would have been better without romance (as if romance belongs *only* in romance dramas) & if it has sex in it as well, that's even worse. Then it gets completely ratioed. It has always been a fascinating phenomenon on this site, and annoying as heck because you have to wonder why these people are so offended by normal human functions. I get not wanting a replica of western shows where sex is always the focus, but expecting every drama ever made to never explore such a fundamental part of human existence is delusional, imo. Not to mention great shows like Somebody getting buried with these stupid, unfair ratings whilst most of the most popular dramas are complete trash.

There are some good theories in the discussion thread above.

If you have access to avistaz.to, it's on there with subs. It's also on Kissasian, but the playback quality is rather bad.

I just finished watching a drama (The Chaser) from the same year Ghost was released. It didn't feel outdated at all. It felt just like present day in terms of fashion, technology, gadgets, themes etc. It could have easily been a drama that was released more recently. Twelve years is not that long ago so if you want to watch this drama, go ahead watch it.

Now for the stuff that didn't make sense:

- I'm not sure how they do trials in Korea, but I'd bet good money that it absolutely can not be the way they're portrayed in this drama. The trial of PK Joon was more like a kangaroo court than a serious legal process. I mean intimidating a witness in open court (with no objections from neither opposing counsellor nor the judges), calling random witnesses, admitting random evidence on the spot. I seriously was LMAO that entire trial. I guess PKS was banking on his audience being mostly ignorant of how trials go??? I dunno, but it all seemed highly incredible to me.

- For an experienced politician and one of the most conniving men in the show, the fact that Kang Dong Yoon is caught, not once but twice, incriminating himself on video, just doesn't make any sense at all & is wholly inconsistent with his character as we know him. You can barely get politicians or company CEOs to commit to anything in writing, muchless getting caught bribing & admitting to conspiracy to commit murder on VIDEO. Furthermore, the way in which he narrated his crimes to Baek Hong Suk was also a sign of sloppy writing. Explaining the plot to your audience through dialogue is the cheapest form of creative writing, but I'll give PKS some slack here because although he did have some prior credits under his belt, I understand that The Chaser was his first major drama.

- How Kang Dong Yoon & his wife went from hating each other's guts, to the point where she has had multiple affairs (IN HIS FACE) & him vowing never to forgive her ... to being willing to sacrifice themselves for each other. How??? I'm not saying it can't happen, I'm just saying the transition from enemies to allies was literally non-existent. One minute they were going for each other's jugular, then another minute they were holding hands & reminiscing about their past together. WTF???

- How SK writers are so skillfully able to turn the South Korean police into a bunch of bumbling, incompetent buffoons just to drive their plots in a desired direction never ceases to amaze me. If I were the police in South Korea I'd be so offended with how they portray my profession in entertainment media. Imagine a middle aged ML without any special supernatural abilities orchestrating multiple escapes from a supposedly trained & professional police force. Not to overpowering a melee of gangsters and police officers combined so he can get away. COME TF ON!!!

I'll come back add more as I remember them, but way too much in this drama was reliant on a severe need for suspension of belief.

What can I say about The Chaser, it has all the great hallmarks of a PKS drama: the corporate skulduggery; the backstabbing, lies & cat & mouse games between familial factions; the corruption & moral bankrupsty that permeate societial institutions. As well as the morally grey areas of human nature (esp those in which good people do horrible things because the way to hell is paved with good intentions). Oh, and let's not forget all the great metaphors, similes and allegory that PKS uses so well in dialogue. I really do believe he is the Alan Sorkin of Korea.
That said, it doesn't mean the drama didn't have some major flaws because it did. The first of those being the massive plot holes the size of PKS himself, as well as the overuse of melodrama in certain parts of the show. His crafting of the story & characters was topnotch as always, nothing less than we've come to expect (and the actors were fantastic, more on them later), but PKS failed in the actual execution of the story. I was surprised to notice that he resorted to some rather rookie screenwriter techniques in this drama to unveil the plot. And sooo many other things did not make sense (I will address those in the spoiler below).
Overall, though, not a bad addition to his repetoire, and a testament to his ability as a writer to learn, adapt and grow because his subsequent dramas that came out after The Chaser were all much better to me. Golden Empire, released in 2013, a year after The Chaser, was almost a 10 & Punch, released in 2014, was a solid 8. PKS is a good writer despite some flaws & anyone who enjoys deep character studies & philosophies on life/human nature would be amiss to pass on his dramas.
I want to conclude this comment by giving props to the actors, some of whom also played in Golden Empire. Amazing! Really, they embodied these characters so well. I think I first experienced Son Hyun Joo in Golden Empire where he played a very vile character, but here he was the sympathetic everyman caught up in the evil wickedness of greedy & powerful men (I have to say I preferred his performance in GE, he plays the villain really well; better than being the good guy imo!). Then there was Kim Sang Joong, damn ... this ajusshi, I don't know how I've never come across him before. He reminded me of the ML in Golden Empire. An older version of him, but just as formidable, stoic & badass. You know that if these men did not become so consumed by their own avarice they'd be such an asset to the world. Then there's the FL, who was the SFL in Golden Empire. I am such a fan of how PKS writes female characters. Always in their feminine energy, but tough as nails, and just as treacherous as the men. Excellent characterizations & brilliant performances. Those are absolutely The Chaser's strong points.

I completely disagree with this statement & definitely feel like this is a culturally motivated bias. Most Asian creators seem to have a zero sum approach to romance, which create these unrealistic biases in a lot of viewers. That romance is only appropriate in romcoms or when its specifically the driving theme in a drama.

However, romance is the one genre that can be incorporated into every other genre without it seeming odd because you're telling human stories & where there are humans there will always be romantic entanglements. If you're watching a romcom, which suddenly turns sci-fi out of nowhere, that to me would seem odd because there is no plausible reason why an alien invasion would be introduced if this was never indicated as a possibility from the start. But if you're watching a sci-fi drama & two crew members on a space ship on its way to Mars suddenly fall in love, even though this was not apparent from the beginning, it doesn't feel as odd because its natural for human beings (most at least) to seek out romantic relationships.

That's why I've never understood this unreasonable phobia & constant complaint about romance in dramas that aren't specifically romance related. In a drama that is reasonably well written, romance increases the quality of the drama by raising the stakes & making it more exciting & heartfelt. "Raising the stakes" is a fundamental aspect of screenwriting because it is an important device used to get an audience invested in your story.

In fact, I've seen a lot of dramas where the lack of romance devalued the drama in a way because it seems unnatural for human beings to not connect in such a way, esp under certain conditions. One stark example of this, is the drama Sweet Home where the lack of a romantic arc (along with otherwise mediocre plot developments) really damaged the overall quality of the drama.

And just to say while I am a fan of romance, that doesn't mean it's at any cost. The romance must enhance the plot. And often it does. I think people who don't see this simply have a personal bias or phobia against romance itself (maybe because in their own lives they're otakus or incels or they're bitter/hurt after of a bad relationship) & not because romance takes away from the quality of a show. I'm not saying that to be disrespectful, just sharing a different perspective.

I remember when I first watched Golden Empire years ago I really enjoyed this drama (I thought the writing was brilliant), but was sooo vexed by the ending because it was completely out of character for the ML. That ending felt so lazy & uncalled for, like the usual overly dramatic, cliche Kdrama ending that belied the otherwise great quality of the show. Anyway, I just finished watching The Chaser & I noticed that it had more plot holes than a block of Swiss cheese. I can't remember feeling the same about Golden Empire, but having watched The Chaser, it did get me wondering if I would have been as impressed with GE today as I was back in 2014 when I first watched it. Or did it indeed only benefited from being one of my many firsts: first drama by PKS & first kdrama of this kind. I wonder, because a lot of people (perhaps myself included) remember their first dramas very fondly, even if said drama was, objectively, a bad drama. Anyhow, while PKS dramas may not be as perfect as I once perceived, he's still one of the best TV writers in Korea, esp in terms of presenting specific themes & nuances of human nature. Kind of like the Aaron Sorkin of Korea, I would say. And he writes really good female characters.

A few years ago I was on here everyday & I had many friendships based on our common love for dramas. However, as time went on some of those friendships revealed themselves to be toxic, and unfortunately the ones that weren't, weren't enough to make me stick around.

I deleted everyone from my friends list and still to this day, I haven't added anyone back. In fact, I no longer accept friend requests. Not unless I have interacted with someone over time & know that we have similar tastes and can disagree on things civilly.

I will never completely abandon my account on MDL because it's the only site (that I know of) of its kind, but I come on here sporadically now, just to keep track of what I've watched & want to watch. I will make or respond to comments if I feel particularly compelled to do so, but I'm not as interested in interacting with anyone on here as I was before. Because like I said, lots of weird, mentally unwell and delusional people on here. Watching dramas should be an enjoyable pursuit & pasttime so I've learned to leave well enough alone.

Someone spewing nonsense just cause she can is still defined as an OPINION.

And as nonsense as it may be, to you or anyone else, she still has a right to express it.

As for your comments about me, I said what I said. Feel free to think exactly as you like about me. It is your right. Knock yourself out.

I'm confused about your use of the word "bromance". When did bromance become associated with homosexual undertones? I've always thought bromance simply meant a strong friendship between (straight) men? Like best friends? Certainly a man can have a strong friendship with another man without any sexual connotation whatsoever? I have a best friend who I've been best frieds with since I was about 10 years old, that's many many years ago now. I have never under any circumstances had any sexual thoughts about her ... at all. LOL, even the thought itself is kind of weird & absurd to be honest, something I can't even wrap my head around. Could it probably be the same between two straight male best friends?

Elaborate. I'm not following your line of thinking.

Unfortunately, none of this is new. MDL has always been a cesspool of obsessed, mentally ill fandoms who will attack like a rabid pack of junkyard dogs when an opinion they don't understand is expressed. This has always been a problem on this site & I guess other sites where fandoms gather. I stopped logging into to MDL for years because at one point it got to be too much for me. I like engaging with other viewers, but mostly people don't know how to read & comprehend what they read or think critically, which tends to reveal a lack of decorum & proper conduct.

Instead of arguing against a person's talking points, they will attack you & make false assumptions about you personally without any evidence to back up what they're saying. Keyboard warriors always have a lot more bolster behind their computers, but most of them likely can't even leave their homes because they don't function well out in the real world. Nobody is perfect, and sometimes even I express myself clumsily, but I try my best to stick to the arguments, never the person - who is really just a pseudonym on the internet. And the way people present themselves online isn't always how they are offline. So there's really no way to know who you're talking to, thus making personal attacks rather stupid, if you ask me.

I like family dramas & was very excited to come across Beauty & Mr. Romantic. Lost a bit of that excitement, however, when I realized this drama is written by the same writer who wrote one of the absolute worse dramas & FLs I've ever had the displeasure to watch, Loving You A Thousand Times. Gosh, that drama, Loving You..., was so so bad, and a huge part of what made it bad was the FL, both the character & the actress who portrayed her. I wrote a very scathing review of that drama a couple years ago and still to this day, just remembering that show arouses feelings of anger in me. It was seriously THAT bad to me. When it comes to FLs, I don't require that she is a particular way as long as she's not an extreme, an extreme bitch or an extreme pushover. The FL in Loving You ... was more than just an extreme pushover, she was an inanimate object that everyone could toss this way and that. I absolutely hated her. The fact that the same writer is behind this latest drama does not bode well for its chances on my watchlist, but I'll wait until it ends to decide.