Salatheel

Have a bucket handy

I don’t know how much cutesiness you can take before being in urgent need of a bucket. I’m not good with it, so be warned, there’s one couple whose nausea rating rockets past stratospheric and had me retching for the FF button. Talking of couples, the word incestuous, seems almost ready to spring from my lips. It got so bad that even the celeb posters in the lobby were making out. If it could move it was paired up with something that only needed to show signs of breathing. Compatibility was an irrelevant afterthought if it was there at all. But hey, I’m not a sourpuss, and if it’s a bit of fluffy romance you’re after, then this is definitely your drama!

Actually, for once, the leads were the best couple (Lee Sung Kyun and Kim Young Dae) and I really liked both their performances.Not the hottest pairing ever, but they had likeable characters and played them well. Second up in the credibility stakes was Park So Jin and Lee Jung Shin. After that it goes downhill pretty fast…

Unlike most dramas, which start and end well but flag in the middle, this had a great mid-section a passable beginning and a totally forgettable end. Unless you’re an aficionado of PP you can skip episode 15 altogether and not miss anything at all.

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.

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A cerebral appreciation rather than an emotional enthusiasm. An intelligent watch.

If court intrigue is your thing, then you won’t get better than this. Half of the script is concerned with the delicate manoeuvring required to send indirect layered messages that have different meanings to different people, whilst the other half is concerned with bringing about the downfall of your enemies whilst keeping your hands clean. It’s an elaborate dance in which no-one touches anyone directly, but guides their steps by blocking or revealing pathways. A sinister pavane where one wrong step can lead to a blind alley, death and disaster.

In a world where there is no real warmth, compassion or security,
emotional manipulation is raised to an art form and the devastating results displayed. This is contrasted with the cool, rational manoeuvring of the female lead, abetted early on by the Grandmother, which is outwardly praised as moral righteousness, but owes a great deal to power playing and more subtle manipulation. It is scheming that uses the predictable weaknesses of others to bring about their downfall. It is revenge served ice cold and does the moral character of our heroine no real favours.

In this suffocating world of just a handful of families, there is a sense of the overbearing weight of society and the machinations necessary to survive in it. In particular it focuses on the role of women and the means by which they can find and assume power, though ostensibly in a powerless situation.

The world of the men is less well crafted and believable than the domestic setting of the women. Whereas the female parts had an almost slice of life feel, the script for the men is not edgy enough. In the main their lines and performances are far too soft and “nice” for the characters that are being portrayed. No such sleight of hand was shown with the female characters and they emerge much more forcefully and credibly, triggering ambivalence in the viewer.

The overall complexity is down to a magnificent script which is full of subtlety and cleverness. Even in translation there is a clear sense of having to read between the lines and there is plenty of brainwork to be done to fully appreciate all the undercurrents. This is not the sort of thing that you approach in your pyjamas, curled up on the sofa half asleep after a long hard day at work.

I had a problem with the casting of Feng Shao Feng as the ML, I thought he was too old for the part. Unlike Kim Tae Ri who dropped some 13 years in “25-21” and totally convinced me that she was a teenager using her body language and mannerisms, FSF’s acting didn’t convincingly portray the energy of youth (my calculation was that the character was in his late twenties, early thirties at most), or the hard core determination that was his stated character. He was unconvincing as a reformed ne’er do well and ruthless soldier with a streak of rashness, and seemed more like a pleasant, middle aged burgher.

All praise though to Zhao Li Ying who was hardly ever off screen and put in a great performance as Ming Lan—the wolf in sheep’s clothing. She was more than ably supported by the other cast members and there was plenty of character differentiation to give a credible feeling of a real world dynamic. it is really fair to say that this is a magnificent ensemble piece.

It has that epic quality of “War and Peace” with a large cast of characters, grouped in families, that wonder on and off the stage when required to inch the plot forward. Everything takes a circuitous route, even, or perhaps especially, the romance. But unlike most examples, the obligatory indirectness does not feel manufactured here but natural. And the relationship of the two leads is a joy.

It was designed to be shown once a day and the slow pace of daily life would really suit this unfolding. It’s not the sort of show that you can easily binge and is better taken in smaller bites of a few episodes at a time. Because the pace is so slow the plot is almost fully realised, but occasionally there were important scenes that were papered over or not shown, leaving an unnecessary sense of dissatisfaction. Neither was I a fan of how the complete final plot line was constructed.

On the down side, it is very long and repeatedly showcases the same type of scenario. I must admit that after episode 50 I was getting a little weary and had to muster up some determination to continue. Not least because it needed a bit more variation in pace and setting to liven up the overwhelmingly cerebral work that I was doing and the plot also became fragmented and uncohesive. But it picked up about ten episodes later and proved, yet again, it wasn’t afraid of the dark side. Displaying both the physical and the mental savagery necessary to survive and thrive. But to be honest, I was flagging and found the last haul to the end a bit of an effort. I think that splitting it into two series would have helped me considerably.

Although the historical aspects are well realised, the military settings in the story are less credible and it obviously never had the budget to be an action spectacular. In the midst of such realism however, the impossible sword fights, miraculous escapes and sporting competitions (which all end without a hair or a belt out of place) stand out as somewhat ridiculous. But heh, I’m not going to nitpick here when the overall quality is good.

Cinematography-wise, the slice of life approach is beautifully realised in muted colours and subtle lighting that help to give the feeling that you are a part of the family. In the hands of lesser cinematographers and lighting designers, filming in dark interiors can appear dull and murky, but so skilful is the lighting, that the faces are always highlighted in a way that seems natural without disturbing the muted note of the surroundings. The bright colours of the costumes also lift the atmosphere and provide contrast to the browns and greys of the environment.

The soundtrack is simple and effective, supporting the historical aspect without being too literal or noisy. And a shout out to the translation team, who took the time to give helpful comments all the way through.

What my rating means: 8+ A great drama with interesting content and good writing, direction, acting, OST, cinematography. But didn’t quite have the requisite sparkle to bump it into my all-time fave list. Worth watching.

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Quirky, surreal, warm and friendly

There is a somewhat bizarre plot which meanders along picking up themes as it goes. We go through digressions into crime, music, friendship, blackmail, betrayal, unrequited love, abuse, possible murder etc, all embedded in a wintry slice-of-life, set two hours drive out of Tokyo. It gathers all the themes together, along with a seemingly random selection of self diagnosed failures as characters (with the obligatory oddball viola player - musician’s joke…), but like strangers at a party, they don’t quite mesh. There is a slightly surreal feel that I am coming to associate with Japanese dramas and it has a strange affinity with Sartre’s play, “No Exit” (Hell is other people) where each of the characters wants something from the others which the others can’t or won’t give them. However, this is not a story about Hell, but about acceptance, both at a personal and an interpersonal level.

It doesn’t really follow a single plot line, but presents sequences of fragmented scenarios that have a thread running through them. Just when you think it’s all fallen apart, it comes back together at the end.

There are some really good performances from the core cast who hook you in and carry you through. The “playing” of the instruments is a bit unconvincingly painful to watch at times, but that’s a constant gripe in many shows that involve musicians and the actors do a good enough job if you don’t look too closely.

A bit like a meal of leftovers, it’s all hashed together, but tastes good! I was in two minds about how to rate it, but in the end enjoyed it enough to bump it up from ordinary to good.

Note the Easter egg squirrel in the final episode, just before the credits :-)

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Beautifully crafted gem

This is a tasty little series; unpretentious, straightforward and beautifully put together. It is 8 stand-alone episodes, each with a specific theme and a different male/female couple. The twenty-five minute stories involve spending a night together (not necessarily for sex) and eating breakfast afterwards. The series explores the hinterland of closeness, both physical and emotional. The borderline of intimacy and emotional vulnerability.

A great deal of thought has been put into how to frame each story. Every episode has a definitive colour and food menu and they are used symbolically to represent the different flavours of interaction and relationship. Emotions and emotional space is also symbolically represented by cutting images into the narrative. A character may be seen alone in an open field, or sinking through water. At first this struck me as a bit self conscious, but as the series progressed, I got into the imagery more and appreciated the careful crafting that had gone into the production values.

It’s the type of series that packs a lot in and you could definitely watch it again and get more out of it. The dynamics of the couples were so varied and covered a whole range of reasons why we seek closeness with others - consolation, kindness, loneliness, sanctuary, hope and failure - all of these were featured and more.

The standard of acting did vary, but was very good in the main. Only episode six stuck out as being below par.

Recommended.

What my rating means: 8+ A great drama with interesting content and good writing, direction, acting, OST, cinematography. But didn’t quite have the requisite sparkle to bump it into my all-time fave list. Worth watching.

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Four of a kind but not quite a straight flush

This one is not for the faint hearted, but if you can stomach some relentless violence it’s definitely worth watching. I’m someone who doesn’t like violence much but I was prepared to watch because it was honest and presented realistically without glorification. It was straightforwardly nasty and brutish and the after effects were carefully and realistically created and maintained. However I did find it pretty tough going in places.

Initially set in a dog-eat-dog world of the prison, the character Kim Yo Han does what he has to do to survive. There are no cool heroics, he is at the mercy of vicious overlords and is accordingly vulnerable. This is a stellar performance by Kang Ha Neul whom I last saw in “When the Camelia Blooms”, where his performance also shone like a diamond (even though his character annoyed the hell out of me).

I really liked the writing for this show, whilst maintaining the style of the revenge thriller, it dug deeper into the underbelly of how that anger and pressure both shapes your strengths gnaws away at your integrity. Kang beautifully portrays the anxiety levels and edginess that is an ever present factor in his character’s life. He flinches when doors open and spins to face anyone who approaches him. It draws you into his vulnerability, raising the stakes and the tension and gives insight into the overwhelming pressure to survive.

What this production does in spades is to build and sustain tension. Along with the main character, for a lot of the time you are in the dark, but the threats keep coming from all sides. There was a great balance between the viewer experiencing suspense because they didn’t know what was going to happen, and the viewer creating the tension all by themselves because they did know what was going to happen. This is a writer who knows how to exploit all the angles and does so with a confident touch.

The writer layers character and plot in stages, the emphasis shifting and with it the whole focus and tone. The pace is slow enough for character exploration, but fast enough to keep the interest. Most of the time my hold on the plot was tenuous, but thanks to clever writing, I was keeping up sufficiently to be carried along. Some of the plot twists were obvious but the motivation behind them was obscure and built into a web of hidden connections. At one point Oh Soo Yeon (Lee Yoo Young) says “All of our plans are entangled. If one thing goes wrong then the rest will falter.”

However, the plot can be criticised for over-complication. In order to help the viewer keep abreast of events there is a necessity for frequent use of infill flashbacks to conversations previously seen as well as totally new ones that reveal missing pieces of the jigsaw essential to understand the immediate action. This can feel somewhat clumsy and explainy and interrupts the flow. Also, I did get wearied about three quarters of the way through when the only thing to expect was twist after twist which in itself makes things predictable. As a viewer I was in need of some plain sailing and somewhere stable to lay my allegiance.

There is good characterisation all round, with plenty of ambiguity about good and bad. Along with a stunning performance by Kang Ha Neul other standouts in the cast were Kang Young Seok, Lee Yoo Young and Heo Dong Won. But the standard of acting from everyone was very good as they were given a quality script to work with and a director who didn’t overplay his hand and allowed the dynamics of the story to flourish.

The cinematography is unobtrusive but skilful with a good use of angles and minimal light sources which creates an effective and moody interplay of shadow. It enhances the action without distracting your attention, which in such a complex thriller is essential. Nicely done.

Nothing in the soundtrack stood out for me, but it was sufficiently good to blend into this excellent production without jarring.

Overall, the script, direction, acting, cinematography and editing align to create gut clenching tension in abundance. Even if you don’t know how to play poker, don’t worry it still works.

What my rating means: 8+ A great drama with interesting content and good writing, direction, acting, OST, cinematography. But didn’t quite have the requisite sparkle to bump it into my all-time fave list. Worth watching.

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Turgid and relentlessly predictable

Look, I’m never going to love a show like this.

The first half of this show is a let’s-pretend-we-are-saviours-of-the-poor-downtrodden-unfortunates. The second half is is the usual predictable gangster/corruption stuff. The script totally smacks of being written by someone who has zero understanding of what they are writing about. Everything from the emotions the characters are required to exhibit to the conversations that they have is totally unrealistic and wide of the mark. The gangsters are caricatures and there’s a lot of cringeworthy faux laughing. The plot and actor’s lines were so predictable that I was almost saying it with them—actually I did say it with them on a number of occasions. There’s a credibility gap as wide as ten ton truck in the way they behave. Dressed in plain clothes, they never identify themselves as police, but just wade into fist fights on every possible occasion, randomly throwing in a few gunshots without warning.

Not only that, but so many fragments of plot around the FL’s family hang off the edges of the main action like flailing fish and there is no credible character development. Son Ho Jun as Han Jin Woo simply looked embarrassed about being in the show at all. All the other characters had one mode of being and acted it out from beginning to end because they had no choice. I’m a real fan of Kim Hee Ae and that was why I picked up the show. But this is not one of her best performances.

All I can think is that this was the show where director Ahn Gil Ho learned from his mistakes, because Watcher and Stranger are light years ahead of this drama. But he had different writers to work with on those productions and, well, it really shows.

OK, it’s Sunday night bland entertainment, with nothing except fantasy-land porridge to offer. Was there anything to like about it? I think like is a bit strong… The OST made no impact on me whatsoever. The other production values were uninspiring and perfunctory. I only got through to the end in order to post this review. Jeez I need to go reward myself for diligence!

If you want something like this done properly, then I’d recommend "Live".

What my rating means: 4+ I forced myself to go through to the end of it, but only because I was committed to writing the review. It annoyed the hell out of me. Actively avoid.

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Cosy comfortable with a shot of blood

Once you get through the obligatory starter course of processed cheese, the first four or five episodes turn into a gentle, warm, carefully observed drama-romance with credible characters. Then the romance stretches like melted mozzarella for a number of episodes before just about righting itself; the cottage cheese style comedy tries to spice itself up with some hot chilli crime and the plot turns into gruyere, with holes so big you could run a mouse through them. Unfortunately, I could see where it was headed like I had a grandstand view down a wormhole.

Okay, let’s put some spoiler-free depth to those claims.

First the romance. This is a noona romance and visibly so. I have no problem with the age of the FL, or the fact that the characters are played by actors with at least 10 years between them. But at times I found myself wincing because in the script the FL acts more like the ML’s mother than anything else and at one point the ML behaves like a teenager, and those things I did have a problem with. However, once the romance got going things settled down a bit, but there is precious little chemistry going on. It’s all very cosy and comfortable, so be prepared for that.

It seems that the writer wants to give the drama a bit of weight and chose to do it in two ways. One of which definitely added something—educational child abuse in pursuit of excellence. Because of the setting in a tutoring academy it was fully explored and provided some real depth by documenting the impact on the students. This part of the drama was good and was credible alongside the romance. But the other theme—heavy-duty-crime—really didn’t mesh well and was totally unnecessary imo. Also the execution of that whole plot thread was obvious and clumsy.

There’s a fashion at the moment to try mixed genres, but it rarely succeeds. Okay I admit, it could be that I just need to change, get with the program and embrace something new, but … I think that there are genres for a reason. And that’s because any drama is an exaggeration of life in a certain direction. The imaginary world created by a romance is fundamentally different to that of a crime thriller because it is designed to evoke different emotions and responses. Things that are credible in one world aren’t in the other. When you mix the genres it’s like being emotionally and psychologically pulled in opposite directions so that you twang like a rubber band from one to the other. In the time it takes to cut to the next scene the viewer has to heave out one universe and drag in another. Jeez, it wears me out…

A bunch of corrupt mothers were required to fulfil both the comedy and the serious commentary on educational abuse. But neither the writing, nor the acting/directing was subtle or clever enough to exploit this killer opportunity for black humour. Satire is an art-form, and anyone who wants to check it out at its absolute best should watch “Heard it through the Grapevine”. Here it was mostly a clumsy mish-mash.

Hwang Bo Ra was delicious again as the mercurial but minor character, Lee Mi Ok. She could have made a much better job of the self proclaimed leader of the mother’s group than Kim Sun Young and brought out the dark humour. She is such an underrated actor imo. Lee Chae Min as the student Lee Seon Jae and Jang Young Nam as his mother were notable, and the scenes between them were little gems. He’s a Song Kang lookalike but with acting ability… In general the performances were really good and that is what kept this drama afloat for me.

To quote Skitc’s excellent review for “Stranger’s Again”— beware the trebuchet!!!! Another traffic accident. Really!!!

Okay if you are a writer in need of ideas of how to injure someone in an urban environment that doesn’t involve a car, here are some pointers (feel free to add more in the comments below)
• bitten by a zombie escapee from “Happiness”;
• pushed down a manhole into the sewer;
• Dorothy’d into the sky by a tornado;
• half encased in setting concrete;
• an eye gouged out by a drone;
• garrotted by a kite string;
• savaged by a flurry of rabid hamsters.

F**king anything pleeeeeease except being hit by a car.

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.

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Netflix "realism" predominates.

Netflix has a definite style of youthful romance which may not be to everyone’s taste. The characters (not necessarily the plot) are more realistic and less “wholesome” or formal than the one’s coming out of Korean television. More willing to mess with the standard norms and to be concerned with the realities of things like depression. Less afraid to explore the uncertainties of youth, which make it more afraid of the finality of rejection than living with the denial of feelings or unfulfilled desires.

The production style here is more akin to “Nevertheless”, although the storyline is totally different. It has a greater emphasis on showing more realistic reactions and character traits, such as smoking, swearing or anxiety attacks. The characters are often much less sure of themselves and can display behaviour that is obvious red flags, such as a dangerous tendency to want to be violent, or being caught up in abusive relationships. The actual impact that these situations have on an individual is more honestly portrayed. Often K-dramas gloss over the effects of trauma and create miraculous and timely recoveries so that the sense of a moral correctness, or fairytale happy-ever-after can be preserved. Whereas this story takes place amongst the uncertainties and messiness of life.

The director, Lee Jeong Hyo, has a string of hits in the last 5 years, including “Crash Landing on You” and “Romance is a Bonus Book”. Here he has adopted a less predictable style. He likes to observe the reactions on the actors faces and Bae Suzy is well worth looking at as she successfully conveys her inner emotions. Yang Se Jong is less convincing, but his character is lacking light and shade in the writing and it is very much a cypher and a foil for Doona. For me, the ML character is too young to be believable and as a result is played more mature. In general, his circumstances and themes were under-explored. At this length, the drama could easily have opted to focus only on the leads and gone deeper. There was plenty of material, particularly on Doona’s side to do so.

Instead, they chose to introduce secondary characters and subplots that did not hold up particularly well. There was an air of plot convenience about them with insufficient integration between their characters and the lead story. The script for these subplots, particularly between Lee Won Jun (Yang Se Jong) and his old flame, disappointingly often slipped into the banal and trite.

One annoying detail was that the continuity was bad. The weather and costumes were very mixed up. People wearing summer outfits in early spring and full tree foliage with snow. I’m prepared to overlook bright sunshine and rain, as that is often unavoidable due to a shooting schedule. But deciding on the season and dressing appropriately is something that should be unified.

There were some deliberate attempts at stylistic cinematography - especially towards the end. The breaking up the images into multiple rectangles (there’ll be a technical term for this, sorry not really my speciality). The use of a lot of close up reaction shots. It had a modern feel. Slightly smokey images, with the edge taken off by using less saturated colour, and moody lighting, nicely played into the slightly sombre tone of the piece. Greys, blues and browns predominate. The spare use of music carries emotional weight because it is unusual to have no background sounds.

Overall, for me, there was a lot to like about this production regarding the central characters and storyline, but the subplots and details let it down. It was an emotional 8, but a rational 7.5.

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More Alice in Wonderland than Little Women

Loosely based on Little Women is the sort of loose that happens when the elastic in your trackies gives way and they drop to your ankles in a wrinkled heap. Yes they are still trackies, but not obviously so. I spent the first episode distracted by trying to unsuccessfully work out how this drama maps to the book. But I was looking in the wrong place, because, although there are parallels to be found, the map is really in the theme: the significance of money.

This is fundamentally a story about money and its sidekick—power (the perennial obsessions of K-dramas, well maybe most dramas actually…). How and why it shapes lives, morals, choices and character. How poverty shapes your mentality and expectations. What you are willing to let it buy and what that does to your integrity. What risks you are willing to take to acquire and keep it. Under what conditions you will let it go. The price that your decisions exact from both you and those around you.

It puts the protectors, helpers, underminers and benefactors of the wealthy centre stage and examines their motives and desires. This is a rare perspective and I can only remember it being the centre of a drama in one other totally brilliant case, “Secret Love Affair” (if you are interested in this aspect, watch SLA, it will not disappoint, although it’s not a thriller).

As you can guess by now, it is not the plot that makes this drama special, (more about that later) although you can simply watch it as a thriller. It’s the examination and unfolding of motive behind the fight for freedom and opportunity in a world that values money over the individual. A society that insists we fight for limited resources to fulfil not only our dreams but our basic survival as well.

It’s almost impossible for us to imagine a society not based on money. But money itself is not of course concretely real, it is simply a universally accepted system of sharing resources that becomes meaningless if we lose trust in it. It is the illusion around which our reality and dreams are built. And if you are going to be fanciful, you could watch this drama as a commentary on the system’s strengths and weaknesses and the approach people take to best work it. Given that it is compulsory to engage in this system, the question as to what is morally acceptable and what is personally justified is core to the unfolding of the narrative.

Having said all that, there are problems in my opinion with how the drama is written and presented. There’s a vibe of the sisters being ordinary people (a reference to Little Women perhaps) who are unwittingly and sometimes unwillingly mixed up in something big.

However, through most of the drama, the sisters don’t display enough realistic, long-term emotional reactions to support their ordinariness in the extraordinary and violent situations that surround them. In a normal thriller we suspend disbelief because the whole thing is not related to any recognisable reality in the first place. Here, particularly in the middle section, I am being made aware of the gap between quasi normality and the world of the story with the result that I am also very aware of suspending my disbelief. And at times I found the approach is not subtle enough to make it work.

Because the women are presented as relative amateurs, there are moments that stretched my credulity to breaking point. For instance, without any preparation and seemingly without backup, they are willing to confront people they think are probably murderers. There are scenes where professionals who would never disclose information to anyone let alone the naive woman in front of them, disclose it. Etc, etc.

There’s an odd mix of the ordinary, the extraordinary and the completely surreal. The more surreal it gets the less the ordinary women at the heart of it are credible. It turns into conspiracy theory central with hallucinogens thrown in for good measure. Whether this was intended as a reflection of the madness that money creates in people is debatable.

The plot gets increasingly bizarre and takes off in strange directions and at times loses impetus. This has a fragmenting effect which leaks tension and can be frustrating. But at other times the sense of confusion and powerlessness is very effective in putting you into the shoes of the protagonists.

Overall, this is an ambitious drama and when it works it really works, and when it doesn’t, it really doesn’t. I’m someone who is prepared to put up with stuff not always working well if an attempt is being made to experiment with something new and different. I think this drama tries to do that, so I was happy to give it the benefit of the doubt, but even my goodwill was tested beyond its limits by the end.

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.

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Almost really good—but not quite…

I’d really like to give this drama more than the 7.5 I settled on because there is a lot on offer. But for me, the last four episodes lost their way when the main arc of the plot ended and felt much more like introductory episodes trying to establish a story where there wasn’t a thread. This left an overall feeling of blandness and added to the other things against it, I could only drop the rating.

So what would have garnered it an 8. Well, the performances. They were good overall but Jang Na Ra really delivered a standout performance here, and it is worth watching just to see her. The other leads were also good, but with less complex characters also had less of a chance to reveal their talents. Having said that Nam Ji Hyun and P.O stepped up to the plate and I enjoyed their scenes together.

The relationship between the two FLs was well developed, moving from seonbae/hoobae to encompass a well rounded appreciation and friendship. The steps to achieve this were credible too.

The script was informed—the writer has done the job of a divorce attorney, so probably cherry picked from the cases that landed on her desk.They were varied and sometimes had interesting twists, but their resolutions were often trite and rushed.

Which brings me to some of the negatives. I’m not a fan of wailing melo, or saccharine sentimentality in order to create an unrealistically simple happy ending. And there was quite a bit of both. Now this is a personal preference, and I know that there are a lot of people out there who appreciate this approach, so judge for yourselves here. This was particularly apparent to me around some of the interactions with children and spouses.

The forward thrust of the lives of the leads petered out around episode eleven, with Cha Eun Gyeong’s (JNR) main plot line all but resolving. The other characters did not really have a strong enough plot focus to carry through. The result was that the sequential cases continued without a continuing main thread to support them A bit like a steak and onion pie without the pastry, as a result things slopped around the plate with the last few remaining crumbs of piecrust floating in them. Leaving a very unsatisfactory aftertaste.

Overall, this is not a bad watch at all. It has some excellent stuff to offer, but may leave you wishing it was more.

Just editing this to backup unterwegsimkoreanischenD's warning not to watch episode 0 if its available on the platform you watch. It's a weird spoiler filled mish-mash.

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Scored well until it started kicking own goals.

As the famous football quote says: this is a game of two halves and it’s not over until it’s over.

This perennially loved theme has always found an audience, from “Shirley Valentine” onwards; the dutiful, middle-aged woman waking up from the self-imposed drudgery and finding she has no-one to blame but herself, then kicking over the traces and fighting back.

In the first half, it takes some standard comedy tropes and situations and gives them a refreshing twist. It’s not outstanding in any way, there’s no spectacular cinematography, or deep, complex characterisations, or an innovative script or striking editing, yet the first half ticks every box as a great, enjoyable watch. It’s funny without being obvious, observant without being self-conscious, clever without being pretentious. It’s a great all-round show that slides seamlessly from comedy to drama to melo and back again, maintaining exactly the right degree to remain balanced and credible.

Then after half time, the team comes back and who knows what happened in the locker rooms in those fifteen minutes? Because things start to go pear shaped during the obligatory away-from-home scenes in episodes 9 & 10 after which they pretty well fall apart in episode 11 and continue on kicking own goals from there.

The plot really got pushed way beyond its limits. It went hunting for bottomless pits to fall into and whenever it couldn’t find one wheeled in an excavator and dug it out until, by the end, the pitch looked like a opal mine site at Coober Pedy. The overblown comedy and melo burrowed deeper and deeper until the whole thing pretty much collapsed into a sink hole.

The team managed to scramble up to the surface again for the last twenty minutes, but by that time, it really was all over.

There was absolutely no real need to keep upping the ante, there was already plenty to work with in the relationships laid down at the start. But everyone was literally dragged through the operating room for emergency surgery that singularly failed to revive a show gasping for air.

Having said that, in amongst all the manufactured chaos were some nice performances.

Although Uhm Jung Hwa gives a convincing performance as the unconfident and self-doubting Dr Cha, I feel she was somewhat overshadowed by Kim Byung Chul as her scheming husband, who has fantastic comic timing and plays in to all the “total bastard husband” expectations that you may have. Another actor who stood out for me was Song Ji Ho who beautifully captured the conflicted son.

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.

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The reality of hope. A deeply compassionate drama.

Both writer (Park Hae Young) and director (Kim Seok Yoon) know how to create sensitive dramas built around pathos, but with a cutting edge. Kim directed “The Light in Your Eyes” and Park penned the class act that is “My Mister”. You can imagine what you will be getting, and they deliver on it—in spades.

At the start there is little to attract in the main characters. They are all struggling to find any sort of meaning in soul-destroying lives that are dominated by a long and exhausting commute to the city from their countryside home. But this writer has a beautiful knack of taking that ordinary exterior and peeling away the layers to reach the vulnerability and struggling humanity within. And by the end of episode 2 you are totally captivated by these self-scored 20/100 characters. Add to that a director and cinematographer who know how to capture the smallest twitch of a muscle in a face and make it speak volumes. And actors like Kim Ji Won and particularly Son Seok Koo, who can work with them to reveal the interior life of a character without words.

As with “My Mister” the raw material at the heart of this drama is family and the unfathomable glue that holds it together despite difference, ambivalence and natural preferences. Essentially they are characters weighed down with who they are, wishing they were something else, ignorant of how to change but trying to work out how to make things different. They are trapped and struggling to emerge, like butterflies, from chrysalises of painfully low self-esteem, guilt and negative thinking. If this doesn’t sound like an attractive proposition, it is the skill and wonder of the whole production to make it compulsive viewing. Each of the characters draws you to themselves and touches your compassion as they struggle towards the elusive future that beckons them.

The plot meanders through their realisations and lurches along with them. In the main it works but occasionally loses its way, particularly later on when time hopping causes inevitable fragmentation. I was not convinced that this disordering of time to create tension was strictly necessary as the depth of the characterisations are sufficient to carry you through. However, imo, it would be counter-productive to enforce a regular development on a drama that is essentially exploring the vagaries of the human psyche with all its winding roads, u-turns and blind alleys. The unevenness of it creates the overall mood and ambience of the drama and reflects the stop-go nature of real life.

The drama features the standard three leads and their relationships; but this is not a standard romance drama. Relationship itself is the focal point, not the falling in love. Essentially it examines how we can approach and be with each other whilst still retaining ourselves. And suggests that the only way we can live with both ourselves and with others is by being honest and taking the hit for doing so, as we work towards self-acceptance and self-understanding. Ultimately it is upbeat, but open ended.

There are no generic characters here. Each one, even the minor players, has been carefully created and presented with depth and there are some wonderful observational details and cameo performances.

Lee Min Ki does such a great job with the character arc of the irrepressible, oblivious and impulsive Chang Hee. His confusion and lumbering realisations are beautifully portrayed and provide a flicker of humour darting through the shadows. How can you not fall in love with him? Especially over the car!

I have an affinity with Yeon Mi Jung and the things she prayed about as a child. The character is played elusively by Kim Ji Won who manages to capture the enigmatic exterior that hides the depth and singularity of her character’s thinking and perceptions. You are always waiting expectantly for what left-field thing will emerge from her mouth. Occasionally the script can feel a little pretentious and self-conscious, but it is mainly because the writer is wanting to explore non-intuitive ideas and trains of thought. If there is a reason to rewatch the series, then I think Mi Jung is it. A second time round, understanding the character arc, would illuminate much of her early actions and responses.

Perhaps the most vulnerable of the three is Yeon Ki Jung, portrayed with empathy by Lee El, who manages to undermine herself at every turn and perhaps elicits the broadest spectrum of responses from both the viewer and the other characters, from exasperation to total compassion.

The interloper into the family is played convincingly by Son Seok Koo who manages to capture the multi-facets of Gu Ja Gyeong from brooding to awkward to nasty to vulnerable. The character and his background provide a disturbing contrast to the rest of the drama and sometimes jarred for me. If there is any flaw in the credibility it comes with the ending for this character. But his time on screen is compulsive viewing and many of the scenes between him and Kim Ji Won are very special, full of nuanced, silent communication and unspoken feelings from both of them.

The cinematography and editing has more the feel of a film to it, as though the camera is just a neutral observer hanging around and we see the action though those non-judgemental eyes. It lingers on contemplative faces and reveals hidden depths. In many ways the whole drama doesn’t criticise or condemn, but tries to simply observe. And in that observation there is the balance and compassion that colours the whole production. Nothing is too polished or self conscious. It draws you in and places you firmly in the action as a participant in this slice of life. Beautifully done.

There is also a very restrained use of a soundtrack, so that often it is the silence that holds you in the moment with the character. There is a lot of simple piano music, ethereal voices and soulful songs, which have been carefully chosen to highlight the mood. Did I catch “So Tender” by Say Sue Me from “Nevertheless” in Ep 11 at 47’, playing in the cafe scene between Yeon Ki Jung and Jo Tae Hoon. I think I heard it earlier with regard to this couple as well.

This was a special drama for me and goes straight onto my personally recommended list.

What my rating means: 9+   A drama I totally fell in love with and is endlessly re-watchable. It ticked all the boxes and had some serious wow factor. It would go on my personally recommended list.

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Day-time TV eat your heart out! Watch and learn...

By heck they don’t make makjang like they used to! You have to go to J-drama now if you want to find this level of hot, sweaty testosterone on display. Forced kisses, women dragged around, and all things beyond and in-between (there’s even a good splash of Master/slave in there). Beware, shrinking violets, this one is not for you. But if you are of a more robust mindset and like your melodrama vicious, toxic, wet and wailing, then this will absolutely be the ticket.

Who else but Ji Sung could be evil incarnate one minute and hot stuff the next, whilst doing a brilliant impression of a belligerent, sulky teenager not getting his own way. Hang Jung Eum takes on the role of the suffering angel with the patience of a snail, the heart of a sticky chocolate pudding and the destiny of a lump of rancid fat. Normally it’s an ahjumma that parades a face like a slapped arse, but here it’s Bae Soo Bin who takes on that role and plays it with relish. As for Lee Da Hee, it’s a masterclass in “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”!

The plot is fairly straightforward and guessable from the get-go, but it still leads you a dance where all the characters are given ample opportunity to balance on a moral knife edge and come up wanting. Prepare yourself for gut wrenching twists, heart rending suffering, and miraculous character transformations. The pain and torment of the innocent (and not so innocent) is offered up as a sacrifice to cruel fate and revenge, and the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune rain down on everyone. And yes, those arrows are pretty outrageous. In anguish, in fortitude, in sickness and in revenge, it’s all supercharged and in there. “No matter how I try to erase you like an incurable disease from my heart” (actual song lyrics, end Ep13). What a wonderful, explosive mixture it is.

It spins along at a rollicking pace, with a touch of middle age sag that tightens up again later. And it all unfolds along well-worn tracks like a pilgrimage to the Wailing Wall. But, by gosh, it’s a thrilling, compulsive ride.

And of course it’s full of characters that in real life you’d give a twenty mile berth to in order to avoid touching them with a barge pole. In fact, all of them wave so many red flags it’s like being at a communist party rally. But hey, this is makjang. Just deserts will be got, and the twisted will be stretched on tenterhooks until they become straight, then woven with remorse and sacrifice until they become the very fabric of the community. Just roll with it and you’ll have sooo much fun.

How can I not give it an 8, for being a perfect example of outrageous, sumptuous makjang, in all its over-blown, toxic glory. Or is it perhaps a 3, for breaking every woke rule in the book. Only you know yourself well enough to decide.

Ahhhh, thanks “Secret” for the explosive laughter. Nothing like it to warm the cockles of your heart and cheer you up every time. That’s when you’re not sobbing of course. Cue violins and angelic choirs…

NB Currently (Jan 2025) showing on VIKI under the title “Secret Love”

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A very watchable production in a difficult to get right genre.

What I like is that this show presents something different, it wasn’t perfect but it was refreshing. The weight is absolutely on the character interactions and with plenty of quirkiness below the surface there is no lack of material to work with.

It occupies the sort of territory that Summer Strike tried to do, but does it much more successfully. Sitting in the overlap of a Venn diagram that includes the genre sets: slice of life, romance, crime mystery, drama and comedy. The cost of inhabiting this territory is that nothing is really dominant and arresting for your attention and the overall effect is a kind of bumbling along warm and fuzzy.

It probably worked better as a webtoon, delivered in bite sized chunks, where the overall flow of the narrative was not so important. Although there was an ongoing plot, it didn’t quite have the punch that it could have had as the relationships took precedence. Neither did it venture into too much darkness, preferring half-lit shadows for its tone. It was slow to take off and the pacing in general is uneven. It sort of lurches along and when it does eventually bite, it’s more of a nip at the ankles than a chunk out of your leg.

The characters are what carry this piece and they have light and shade too, which is what makes them interesting and relatable. I can imagine that some people may find the character Park Jin Hong (older ML) a little creepy at first but he was played with sincerity by Ann Jae Wook. The mother, excellently played by Joon Hae Jin, is an imperfect character whom some viewers might take exception to. I warmed to her, even though I didn't necessarily like her. Her relationship with her daughter played by Choi Soo Young, was especially good, both in the writing and the acting. The rest of the support cast also played their roles convincingly.

The comedy is not overcooked and there are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments to lighten the mood and carry you along. The romance is gentle and the melo was handled with sensitivity, especially at the end. The cinematography and OST follow suit being pleasing but nothing spectacular.

High five to the director for finding the right note and not overplaying his hand. This is the first time I have seen his work. The writer, Min Sun Ae, has no other credits listed on MDL. If this was a first outing for her then I think she did a very creditable job with dialogue if not the pacing.

Overall I liked this drama. It’s not a stand-out special but weighs in as a watchable drama in a blended genre that is difficult to get right.

What my rating means: 8+ A great drama with interesting content and good writing, direction, acting, OST, cinematography. But didn’t quite have the requisite sparkle to bump it into my all-time fave list. Worth watching.



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Sexed up Corporate Finance

In an imperfect world where your capital is reputation, of necessity the currency must be moral ambiguity. Honesty and compassion come at a price and the decision about who is going to pay that becomes a war of survival. This formed the core of the plot and was explored through the attitudes of the various characters who ranged from deepest black through shades of grey to the blinding light of our hero. There was not a great deal of subtlety in the exposition of this theme which often felt contrived, but it did offer you plenty to think and reflect on.

This is a new angle on corruption for me and perhaps for K-drama land. The introduction of a new world requires explanations that don’t have to be made where the viewer is already familiar with procedures, concepts and terminology (for instance in the police). So the script is necessarily clunky and unrealistic as the actors are required to provide a Corporate Finance for Dummies guide to the tangled complexities of accountancy. So expect to pay attention to keep up with the threats going down in the plot. (Unless, of course, you’re a certified corporate accountant, and then you can snort and laugh your way through the inevitable distortions of drama-la-la-land.) But for most of us there will be Side Effects—머리 아프다 (my head hurts).

It gets away with a lot of OTT stuff because tbh I was concentrating so hard on what was going down that I didn’t have enough brain power to clock all the sleights of hand and magical illusions going on. But of course, we are gifted with a spectacularly clever rookie ML who manages to navigate some fairly incredible situations in this tightly plotted thriller. The end is never really in doubt, and the great reveal half way through is about as surprising as porridge for breakfast, but it manages to create a thrilling ride nevertheless. Until the ending that is. Wtf were the last two episodes? Totally random. Totally unsatisfying. Totally messed up.

I liked some of the performances in this, notably L (Kim Myung Soo) who turned in a great angry young man and Choi Jin Hyun as his sunbae. Unfortunately the female parts had less depth and relied more on caricature but the relationship between Yeonwoo and L had it’s sweet moments.

Not compulsive viewing but an honourable rating which deems it worth watching mid-week after a long hard day.

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