Salatheel

So much more than just the music

This documentary series describes the K-Pop industry from the inside through interviews with the professionals embedded within it. So they tell the story they want us to hear it and it is how they tell it to themselves. It is not designed to be an exposé, so don’t expect it to poke the vulnerable underbelly. K-Pop from the outside in gets an airing in Ep 6 but it was the least interesting episode and opportunities for insightful constructive critique were largely missed. Having said that, it is a serious piece of work that is thoughtfully structured, clearly developed and well worth watching.

I first got introduced to K-Pop about four years ago, so for me this was an interesting and informative series that provoked a lot of thought. As a long-time consumer of so-called western music and the business models and culture around it, it was really helpful to get an insight like this and confirmed that you cannot look at K-Pop through a western lens, it has to be understood on its own terms. Believe me, Stock Aitken Waterman were just rugrats fumbling with Duplo compared to their contemporary, Lee Soo Man, when he set up SM Entertainment and began conceptualising and building on a Lego Masters scale.

The series reflects on every aspect of the business of K-Pop and the culture it has spawned and is embedded in. From its history to the current world of fandom, how the music is composed, the choreography designed, the idols trained. It explores the clever exploitation of the market and the development of globalisation and how that impacts and changes the domestic market and attitudes. In the final episode it opens windows onto the future and K-Pop’s place in the wider context of a world uniting through digital technology.

The impact of COVID created opportunities for agencies in the sphere of digital marketing and digital creativity. They systematically exploited them to find ways of “connecting to each other directly…that people kind of enter this K-Pop universe that they can experience and enjoy. It’s almost like an immersive metaverse but in real life.” This technological revolution is blurring the distinctions between fans and idols and pushing it down the road of the illusion of a special and “private” reality that includes AI video-game inspired group members. But it is also opening up possibilities for creating like-minded global politico-social action groups that look outwards into the real world to effect change. As one interviewee says “K-Pop agencies are actively leading the industry beyond music”.

The mental pressure on everyone, but particularly the performers, is mentioned fleetingly in Ep 3, but the response (from a sunbae idol) was to push yourself harder. The ethic of always working harder to be better and attain perfection, which is a deliberate selection criteria subsequently nurtured by the agencies, also means that they are selecting for certain types of mental health issues. As was explicitly stated in the documentary, you need to have a certain personality type to survive in this industry. Watching this soon after the tragic death of Moon Bin was particularly poignant and the failure to address this elephant in the room was a glaring shortcoming in the series.

The series provides a great deal to reflect on in terms of how music relates to and reflects the current needs and dreams of society. And how the fundamental nature of business to exploit opportunities for gain has shaped and continues to shape and expand the music industry.

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Rich characters with an intricate but tangled plot.

When there’s nothing much on the table it’s time to plunder the back catalogue and this one from 2013 is definitely a find. Jung Kyung Ho makes a much better crim than a crush and here he shows off his delicious mean side.

What makes this thriller both unusual and worth watching are the performances and the characters. Especially the central trio played by Jung Kyung Ho, Kim Yoo Mi and Choi Moo Sung who put in top notch all-round characterisations. Very few of the characters are two dimensional and the writer, Yoo Sung Yeol, has beautifully crafted the interrelationships that bind the story together. The characters are nuanced and ambiguous rather than good and bad, and what side you are on is not what’s important here. Conflicting loyalties and debts of gratitude jostle with temptations and sacrifices on all sides of the fence.

It was something I had to eat slowly, like a rich chocolate sauce, one mouthful at a time. It makes demands on you to keep up and I like that. Nothing kills the tension more than explaining every twitch and smile. It ups the rewatch value to the maximum, because there is so much in it that is only half-understood. However, although the plot is a good setup, it borders on being way too clever and incestuous—yep that’s the only word for it and you’ll understand if you watch it. For me, in order to accept the incredible in a drama and suspend my disbelief, it needs to be in a balanced proportion and this one repeatedly flirted with the boundaries of credibility, especially in the first half (or maybe I just got used to it later on). However the plot is intricately designed and written (high five to the writer) and fundamentally very good, so I was willing to go the extra mile for it, in spite of the numerous eye-rolling occasions that frustrated and annoyed me. If you do go with it, it offers enough clever opportunities to wind you up like a coiled spring and send you spinning off in various directions.

There is a lot of violence and perhaps too much of it, especially in the early episodes, appears contrived and manipulated in order to increase the threat and tension. I don’t think it really needs to do that. It had enough guts in the basic premise and execution to keep you interested without having to resort to cheap tricks. I lost track of the body count at around episode 5, and it continued on. Hence the large number of small supporting roles, otherwise they would have had no choice but to chew through all the leads half way through!

The camera loves all of the faces in this drama and there’s a bucket-load of opportunities for the actors to show off their micro-expressions to good effect. The directing allows time for these revelations and they add greatly to the depth and tension of the drama. The production values really create the moody, dark backdrop so well, with great OST and lighting.

This is a hard one to rate, because when it’s good it’s very, very good, but the plot has so many impossible escapes, incredible coincidences and gaping holes that it can only be realised with huge compromises around credibility. Look it’s way better than average and well worth watching, so I’ll up the rating, but it comes with caveats.

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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Great start but fails to live up to early promise

Quirky. This show revels in being slightly off its face all the time. The sort of drunk where everything seems to be totally spot on and making perfect sense to you, but from the outside it really doesn’t hang together coherently in any way at all. So you need to join Koo in her permanent drunken stupor and follow it all from the inside, just accepting the strange leaps of logic and weird dream fantasies. Then it’s a lot of fun and after a couple of episodes things begin to coalesce.

There’s a good villain well played by Kim Hye Joon, and the whole thing has a gorgeous surreal edge to it. Whilst it has obviously taken a heap of inspiration from “Killing Eve”, it has not just copied blindly but found it’s own path and its own cast of characters. Personally, I had a particularly soft spot for Santa. But all of them have something going for them and there’s some great team dynamics.

However, about half way through there were some plot twists and scenes which were somewhat clumsy and things began to seem like a bit of a tangled mess rather than deftly woven threads and the whole thing lost some credibility for me. The pacing was off with long parts that were too detailed and I lost interest and had to push through a bit. Then they rebooted and things came together again in a sort of meandering plot with too many characters to focus on and the necessity for lots of backstory explainy bits, so that it didn’t sustain its early promise.

Perhaps I was looking for some better character development and there were some missed opportunities for more sparks/interactions and relationship development between the female leads. Overall though, there were other good character interactions on all sides and this was definitely its strength but the writer /director couldn’t bring off the action side of it which was far too wordy and slow.

I enjoyed the cinematography and creative use of CGI, not to create breathtaking effects, but to bleed out the colour and smear the images and create an edgy rawness to the visuals. It went a long way to supporting the general craziness of the characters.

The soundtrack was good too; woven into the story so that there were not sudden endings or fadeouts and it all felt nicely tailored with some great songs.

Difficult to rate because although some parts were brilliant it wasn’t quite cohesive enough and the approach began to pall towards the end. In the end I feel 7.5 is about right, although I would score it higher for originality and performances.

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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Sherlock Holmes meets Agatha Christie meets Harold Pinter…

I’m fairly new to Japanese drama, so I may not totally have a handle on the styles that govern it, but I must admit that I was more than a tad confused at the start of this one.

At first I thought I had time-travelled back to the 1960s and was watching a play by Harold Pinter. It has that surreal hyper-normality to it, where bizarre things are accepted as totally ordinary and people stand around and willingly listen to long, quasi insightful/philosophical speeches.

Then, half way through the first episode, it takes on a weird Sherlock Holmes homage logical deduction trip (and to be fair the subs team are called 221B Baker Street). Just when I decide the production isn’t going to take itself too seriously (and mercifully I shouldn’t either), it gets really worthy. With tearful remorse and regret for wrongdoing accompanied by a swelling string section. At which point I nearly give up on it.

But seeing as it is still episode one, I think to give it the benefit of the doubt and get to the end. It finishes up comfortably surreal again and continues that way into episode two, which is a complete Agatha Christie style who-dunnit, even down to the country house setting. And it begins to occur to me that if I knew crime novels better, I’d recognise a series of famous authors - Georges Simenon, Micky Spillane, Val McDermid perhaps? However, crime novels are not something I’ve ever been into, so I’ll leave it to aficionados to comment on whether that supposition is true.

The dispensing of wisdom continues unabated with transformational moments regularly swooping like shooting stars across the faces of the previously afflicted, as Totono offers alternative versions of truth. The question is, how seriously do you take it? I have to go for a pinch of salt myself, otherwise it’s all just a little bit too simplistic and naive for me. But if sentimental repentance is up your street, this one is definitely for you.

As for the cases, which occupy one or two episodes each; they are never over until they are over. They meander through surreal twist after twist and there always seems to be another surprise lurking under a stone somewhere about five episodes later. And the whole thing has a circularity precipitated by flashbacks that leaves you wanting to go back and watch it again just to check the order of things and how they all relate. Definitely not straightforward or predictable and for that you have to hand it to the writer for the originality of the plot (probably the inspiration of the manga author on which it is based.) It is the beating heart of the drama and the reason to keep watching.

The deliberate unreality extends to a great many things in the series and often the plotholes are enormous and the motivations not credible, so be prepared. The role of the police is not fully integrated and mostly they feel like convenient spare parts bumbling around the central action. As though they need to be included to give the whole thing some semblance of credibility, but their inclusion seems like an unfortunate distracting sideshow. For me the last two episodes didn't quite have enough cohesion to give it the ending it deserved.

The acting is rather static and formal which matches the feel of the production giving it a very cerebral and largely unemotional tone for long periods punctuated by intense outbursts. The notable exception being Onoe Matsuya II (Ikemoto Yuto) who is strangely manic. So I’m not going to praise performances here, although Suda Masaki is engaging as the protagonist, Kunou Totono. There are any number of curious and weird supporting characters that play the criminal antagonists who are strange enough to keep you invested.

The soundtrack utilises a whole range of classical music, from Vivaldi through Beethoven to Rachmaninoff and various stops in between. It is quite intrusive and deliberately loud, and can punctuate the action with emphatic “meaning”. There is also an OST of contemporary songs with explainy lyrics especially for the repentance/realisation scenes. Not to my taste to be honest.

This is a really difficult drama to rate as it has a uniqueness that could well foster a cult following. It was consistent in its approach and managed to successfully walk the edge of credibility, such that I found myself still willing to suspend my disbelief even though it was way out of any normal comfort zone. So even though it was not really something I warmed to, I think it was very successful and skilful in doing what it set out to do, which means it merits a higher rating than I would instinctively give it.

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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Cute but Superficial

I was a bit underwhelmed by this movie and found it spread too thinly to really realise any depth. It suffered from trying to achieve too much in too little time. The film explored the familiar territory of trying to be and feel normal in a society that does not accept you as such, but without a unique angle to give it originality. The snippets of life and relationship at different stages that we were offered did not really allow me as a viewer to connect with either character and I didn’t feel much chemistry between the actors either.

The love story was sweet and cute but relied on a quirky and often hackneyed script that did not always give credibility to the emotions being expressed. There was little subtlety to be had from the direction and cinematography, which could have better utilised facial expressions and body language to convey the message and the mood instead of the bland and obvious spoken thoughts. I would strongly recommend “Old Fashion Cupcake” as a far superior watch for anyone who enjoys this type of genre and is looking for a more mature approach.

What my rating means: 6+ Some aspects of it were OK but it had serious flaws. It will pass the time but you can find something better.

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An undiscovered treasure.

This drama is wonderfully unique and the only other drama I can think of to compare it with is “Misaeng”; but set in the public service rather than the corporate world. It begins as a quintessential comedy of manners; beautifully observed and very funny. There is no slapstick, forced humour or conscious jokes it is all situational comedy requiring an appreciation of what-is-not-said from the viewer. The smile hardly left my face for the first 5 episodes and I often had to stop streaming because I was laughing too much to read the subs.

This is the type of drama that someone who has worked for a while can really appreciate. The office politics are just wonderful and understanding them is 50% of the humour. If you have worked in a setting that interfaces with the public, or community/social work, then the scenarios in this drama will be delightfully reminiscent of how reality can often be more absurd than fiction. The storyline was taken from a book by a rural prosecutor about his experiences and it has retained a very firm grip on reality.

The skilled and acute observation of the writer, the subtle portrayals by the actors and the understated direction tell a very human story, on one side of fraught repressed emotions, petty rivalries, oneupmanship, self delusion, bullying, jealousy and misjudgement; and on the other side, of compassion, dignity, forgiveness, generosity, loyalty, friendship and support.

The story features the relationships and strategies that most people adopt in order to make life easy enough to bear and is mostly about people for whom climbing the ladder is not the most important thing in their life. They just want to keep their heads down, ensure that their salaries drop into their bank accounts every month, and do enough of a good job to keep themselves from being noticed. But underneath there lies a streak of obstinate courage.

The drama starts with everyone just muddling along in comfortable complacency when the supercharged tornado of Cha Myeong Joo breezes in from Seoul to shake up their world. Ambitious, arrogant, abrasive, smug and beautifully played by Jung Ryeo Won, she divides opinion but completely rubs Lee Sun Woong up the wrong way. He is brilliantly portrayed by Lee Sun Kyun and is the notional protagonist. Over the course of the sixteen episodes, through various scenarios of conflict, competition and grudging co-operation, we see the heart that lies beneath the surface of both of these characters. Essentially though, this is an ensemble piece and all of the leads are praiseworthy with no weak links. Each one has their own story and is featured at some point in the show.

The drama presents a variety of case scenarios, sometimes using the lives of the main characters. They vary from the truly tragic to the totally ridiculous and the action can switch from comedy to pathos in a heartbeat. The vein of social commentary that lies underneath brings a serious and compassionate note to the drama adding another layer of richness. As with most Kdramas, corruption rears its head and the resultant cost to everyone is movingly revealed.

The production values on this show are pretty standard and the music is upbeat in the main, borrowing some latin-style rhythms. What sets it apart is a fabulous script and some really top notch performances.

As the show is episodic in nature there is no need to binge it. On the contrary, it is something to be savoured. It has short plot lines that can be munched through a couple of episodes at a time. So curl up on the sofa with your favourite tipple and enjoy the feast along with the cast who eat their way through a mountain of food. A perfect show for a Sunday night.

I was really surprised at the low viewing figures and the lack of reviews in English for this show on MDL. I totally fell in love with it and have rated it really highly for its entertainment value and delicious humour. If you are finding it hard to find, then on VIKI at least, search for it under the title “War of Prosecutors”. It comes highly recommended.

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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An OK script lifted by exceptional production values.

Raw edges. That sums up this show as both a compliment and a criticism. The compliments are for the cinematography, colour palettes, set design and music. The criticism is for the writing. This was an OK script that scrubbed up well because it was dressed in designer clothes. The attention to detail and co-operative work between director, lighting designer and cinematographer are what really made this show special.

More money went into this than is available to the network broadcasts and it shows. The look and feel of the drama was classy and there was a great deal to feast the eyes on. It had a wonderful raw, grungy, greasy, grimy feel to the sets that you could almost smell. The colour palettes were varied, with rich blood reds and charcoals for Moo Jin’s world and ice blues and golds for the gambling den.

The biggest gong as far as I’m concerned goes to the cinematographer. Superb lighting throughout but especially the extensive use of side lighting was magical. It emphasised the chiaroscuro, creating mood and atmosphere by the truckload. The thoughtfulness was not just for wide angle shots. Sometimes, even in close shots, one face would be lit in colour and another, right next to it, almost B&W. This richness served to emphasise the stark contrast to the police station scenes which were filmed with flat lighting and no dynamics.

The cinematography was imaginative with a lot of use of low and high angles helping to build a sense of unpredictability and energy. An up-close-and-personal approach to the action scenes added to the visceral nature of this drama. It didn’t flinch from violence and there was a nod to credibility in the fight scenes which were well choreographed and numerous.If you don’t like blood and gore, this may be a bit OTT for you. Not just visually but sound-wise as well.

Add to all the above, a great OST. I loved the opening of the drama, cool and edgy, and that music really set the tone for what was to follow. Overall, the soundtrack had a rawness to it, not smoothed out or overproduced which totally complemented the other production values.

There was a lot that was good with the writing, but some parts were sloppy and not well thought through. There were amateurish aspects to the undercover scenario which were basically to serve the plot and character interactions and I could not credit them in the context of the sophisticated and ruthlessly organised gangland portrayed in the story. On a number of occasions convenient plotting stuck out like a sore thumb with inexplicable motivations and character choices. Hence my criticism of raw edges. The ending stretched my credulity a step too far and didn’t really work for me either, but that’s more personal preference.

Having said that, there was plenty to like about the solid centre of it. It successfully played with your allegiances and refused to neatly categorise good and bad. The direction gave the script space to breathe and Han So Hee’s performance relied a lot on effective silences. Time and care was also given to underlying emotional arcs, fleshing out the main characters a little more than is usual in this genre.

Han So Hee’s performance was mixed for me. I really liked her at the beginning and the end, but in the middle I think it lost the edge. Full credit though for pulling off the action scenes and physicality of the role. Park Hee Soon’s performance as Moo Jin was both convincing and persuasive. His time on screen was always compulsive viewing.

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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How much pouty petulant can you take?

This is the first time for me to watch a quasi-historical Korean fantasy and to be honest I was totally underwhelmed. Which is a pity because there are probably some really good ones out there. There is a simplistic naivety about this one that perfectly defines the phrase, dumbed down. It starts with a script that has zero sophistication, explains even the most self evident motivation in words and never passes over an opportunity to state the obvious. It offers bland, predictable, two dimensional characters and a direction so wooden that any dynamism the actors might have produced is squashed by a requirement to stand still and spout. And just to round it out nicely the editing in the early stages is unbelievably bad, hacking off chunks of story and throwing them roughly together. But to be fair it does have a plus side in the production values—great costumes, beautiful sets/locations and credible CGI.

The rigid division between good and evil does not help. In order to create interesting tension there needs to be ambiguity and the central character, Naksu, simply doesn’t have enough real-world edge to her. Assassin? Pouty, petulant tweenager more like. And that’s the irony of it. In a story all about power, the power has been sucked out of everything: her, the story and all the characters.

It’s all far too nice with the result that nothing is too far from that bland (and to be honest, boring) middle ground. Very little light and shade, zero depth and no emotional impact. Safe, safe, safe. A let’s pretend world that has about as much tension as a teddy bears picnic.

Okay, it’s not Game of Thrones and is aimed at a totally different and much less emotionally resilient audience, but does it really have to be quite so impotent? So concerned to keep the viewer safe inside a bubble watching on from the sidelines. So scared of itself that it pulls back from every opportunity to have some balls and make an impact? Everywhere it pulls punches, particularly by not following through on the consequences of actions, either emotionally or physically.

I like Jung So Min as an actress, I thought she was very good in “Because this is my first life”, but I think she was miscast here. She lacked the necessary edge to make her character believable. The actress who plays the original form of Naksu (Go Yoon Jung), did a better job of delivering credibility to the part. Even if Naksu lost her magical power she would not have lost her attitude or her edge and this could have been an opportunity for great character development and depth. But Jung So Min’s scripted lines did nothing towards this, often being subservient when they should have been authoritative, victim when they should have been master and bland when they should have been vulnerable.

It also puzzled me why, in a world which is quasi-historical fantasy and not reality, there should be so few women occupying decision making roles. In the main it utilised boringly predictable stereotypes and missed a huge opportunity to be creative. The relationship between the M and F lead was not master/pupil but something out of a fluffy romcom with a dominant, emotionally stunted male and a petulant, subservient female. There’s nothing ostensibly wrong with writing fluffy romcom relationship dynamics, but why pretend to set it up as master/pupil and then make it unbelievable?

Ok enough, I got half way through and then had to wait for the next episode. It will be an eternal wait...

What my rating means: 5+ Meh! Don't bother, it's full of platitudes and clichés with boring characters and plots.

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A beautiful start that fails to deliver.

It’s always interesting for someone who comes from a notionally egalitarian society (no society actually IS egalitarian!) to watch how hierarchy (an overt aspect of Korean society) is undermined in stories such as this one, whilst also being lauded by the very existence of so many chaebol dramas.

The opening of the drama asks the question, can a gifted student from a lower class background trump a hardworking, corruptly privileged student from a high class background, who was born to lead and must therefore learn how to do so and shine as a leading light in the process. The mention of Eton School is not accidental. Meritocracy versus aristocracy. Both systems have their pluses and minuses, but this drama’s sympathies are firmly in the meritocracy camp.

The drama addresses the underlying attitudes that govern education and thereby society. It is reflected in the perception of mathematics as either a humanity at the service of people’s dreams and creative aspirations (aligned with the meritocracy) or as a science, a descriptor of the world that can carry technology forward and be at the service of those that need to preserve power, sustain order and create wealth (aligned with the aristocracy).

These two approaches mirror the attitudes found in the characters. The two leads consider the experience of living a fulfilling and unscripted emotional life—which may be challenging—is more important than achieving goals and upholding societal structures, as it can open doors onto new worlds and ways forward. Whereas, for the characters at the school, education is there to maintain the status quo and prepare children for the life already set out for them by moulding their attitudes and controlling their emotions. Does the world serve a human being, or does a human being serve the world?

Rigid structures provide boundaries for behaviour and many of the characters have clear plans and justifications for their actions. We may or may not agree with their reasons, but they are clear and logical. Whereas the boundaries for behaviour when governed by the murky world of freedom of emotion, are blurred. And the relationship between the two leads lives in a place of ambiguity, where professional boundaries and personal boundaries are often confused and misinterpreted, providing the viewer with plenty to reflect on.

I loved the first 6 Episodes of this show which were set in 2017. They explored ways of viewing the world, both conceptually and politically, and were filled with subtle interactions between the characters. But after the time jump to the present day these things were, in the main, sacrificed for a somewhat predictable and plodding plot. Revenge, justice and retribution took centre stage and the elements that made the drama distinctive and individual were swallowed up in a story with far too many characters complicating the direction of the narrative.

Needless to say, I found it most convincing when the drama emphasised the cost to the characters rather than the machinations of the plot. If it had focused on fewer characters and tried to say less it would have been far more effective.

There was still plenty to praise in some of the performances.

ISJ brought a sweetness and vulnerability to the character of Yoon Soo which was really appealing. And later managed to convey a strength of character with very little fuss, which I found convincing. I was struck by how she inhabited this character, rather than wore it like a coat, which was my impression of her in Search WWW. I did have my doubts about whether she could express emotion well and this drama has dispelled that. However, by the end I was wondering if she might fly in with angel's wings and a halo.

LDH was convincing as a young Seung Yoo. He managed to show the change between the adolescent and adult very clearly, but as an adult failed to impress me as much. I was not quite sure how he had arrived at his new persona.

Wu Da Vi as Sung Ye Rin, the victim of the system, had a beautifully written part that she played well, and I found her story one of the most interesting. Another performance to note was Choi Day Hoon, who gave a sensitive rendering of the financé.

In stark contrast, Jin kyung’s performance as Noh Jung Ah sprang from a world of mega-melodrama, an unnecessary hurricane leaving only devastation in its wake. Some of the responsibility for it must lie with the writer and director who can only have egged her on.

It was difficult for me to rate this drama, as I really loved the beginning but felt lukewarm about the rest of it, so I have compromised with a 7.5.

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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Unbelievable in all the worst ways

Unbelievable crap. The start of it is bad enough. The usual Japanese penchant for men forcing themselves on women and then backing off so that they can be portrayed as caring and considerate. This is the very first scene, so no spoilers here. But then later it's so clear that the writer has zero experience of how a clinic would operate in the circumstances of the plot. Not reporting to the police? Work procedures and regulations anyone? If you have even an ounce of professional work experience this will be so ridiculous as to be unwatchable. Let alone the childish and annoying ML and the token weird characters. I struggled through to Episode 7, before finally drowning in incredulity.

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Muted, poetic, thoughtful

Although it is a Korean drama it has all the hallmarks of a Japanese production. The sombre moodiness and the underplayed emotion. The observation of thoughtful faces in a muted colour palette. The poetic rather than the pragmatic approach softens the tone so that it sits comfortably in melancholy. Any raw emotion is smoothed out by gentle music and there is no wailing going on. The OST was good, setting the tone for the drama.

There is a thoughtful progression to the feelings that work their way through right to the end which has a gentle landing. It delivers what it promises in the title, “What Comes After Love” so don’t come into this thinking it’s a standard romance. The messages in the show resonated with me, and reflect the changing perspective of what love and relationship are/should be as we grow older. It is the journey the protagonists take as they learn to appreciate who they are and what is needed to sustain themselves and a relationship.

Overall the show is solid with good performances, believable chemistry and consistent quality in the production values. Although I enjoyed it very much, there was not that spark to lift it to something special. There were no new insights for me and the story played out in a safe and somewhat predictable way, taking no risks. Where it did do very well was to show the progression of emotions. The rating reflects the quality of the production overall, rather than the originality, which would have scored lower.

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When it was good it was very very good, when it was bad ...

A mortal sin for any writer is to undermine the credibility of their characters. But that becomes a cardinal sin when they do it just to try and raise a cheap laugh or serve the demands of the plot. There was so much to like about Fiery Priest and also Vincenzo (same writer), but in the end I couldn’t finish Vincenzo because I refused to watch a great character destroyed by its creator in collaboration with the director and I struggled with Fiery Priest.

In both dramas, the problem really kicked in for me about a third of the way through, when the stakes become increasingly serious. I felt that early in the drama, I had been invited to believe that Kim Hae Il was a bona fide professional, operating in a world where ruthlessness and violence are central. But a little later on, he repeatedly behaved like an amateur, and a stupid amateur at that. This attempt to marry comedy with hard core action failed because the comedy felt forced at the expense of both credibility and (worse) character integrity. The result was to destroy my connection to the main character and leave me confused about how to view him. Instead of being the cool dude that many characters in the drama thought he was, in key scenes, Kim Hae Il was presented to the viewer as an incompetent idiot to be laughed at, not with. To be honest, I was so pissed early on with the writer and director for spoiling what had the potential to be a really good drama that I nearly stopped watching.

But not being someone who wants to give up easily, I found there was enough merit in the cast to keep me going. Around two thirds of the way through, the drama had been reduced to farce. And yes, it is very funny. So I just gave up and went with the flow and enjoyed the comedy and suspended my disbelief when things got serious and his character flipped. However, Kim Hae Il is simply not credible as any sort of cohesive character and I think it would have been much better if I had never been asked to take him seriously. I felt that Kim Nam Gil was as confused about the character as I was, but did his best to convince me.

If you are prepared for your hero to exhibit multiple, contradictory personalities, encompassing super cool action hero, ruthless killer, sexy priest, tortured soul, fluffy bunny, goofy adolescent, angry man, and a totally cringeworthy imitation of Johnny English, then this is absolutely a good drama for you. As many before me have said, it offers up in spades in so many other departments, with some wonderful performances, great characters and inventive fight choreography. A shout out to Lee Ha Nee and Go Jun, who were exceptionally good.

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 good example of what Korean drama does best

I have read comments that criticise the Korean content on Netflix for being “too western”, as though pure Korean drama has been corrupted and led astray. I really don’t see it like that. Rather I think that Korean writers, directors and actors have been given a less restricting space to work in. Where the target audience is broader than the domestic weekly TV watchers, the train tracks of trope, cliché and accepted practice are still under construction, and the censors (real and ideological) don’t cast so long a shadow.

This drama feels very much like that. It retains all the hallmarks of what Korean drama does best: slow pacing; subtlety and character exploration, which are, in my opinion, so often sadly under-developed in US drama. But it allows an added edge of imperfection that is, for me, the missing ingredient in many home-based Korean productions. As though the perfect idol make up has been removed to reveal a natural imperfect beauty. The characters are still well within the social bounds of respectable, but they have an underbelly beneath the shiny exterior that gets exposed. They are being permitted to fail in terms of perfection and be acceptable, and accepted, as ordinary. The SML, Si Jun, is even allowed to be morose and negative for almost the whole drama without it dragging the whole thing down.

The dominant theme of the drama is hiding and its relationship to honesty, both with ourselves and others. The masks we put on, not just to hide ourselves from the world but also to hide ourselves from ourselves. The oblivious hiding, where we do it so well that we can’t even see what we are hiding. And the hiding of the truth about others, wanting to believe what someone is presenting to you, rather than diving with them into the murky depths of their world. Hiding our own fears and insecurities under the pretext of something else, such as not wanting to invade someone’s privacy. The drama addresses all these types of hiding. The plot explores what it takes to reach those moments of honesty that realign the characters with the world around them and free them from the shackles of the past allowing them to accept the broader truth.

The narrative flow was a little lumpy, especially in the latter part. With the result that it was as though they needed to explain, rather than everything already being in place for the viewer to understand. A more integrated approach to the backstory earlier on, for the second couple, would have made this less clumsy and allowed for a better lead into the final episode.

The cinematography was clean and square. Presenting pictures in which the action unfolded, rather than wondering through the set: static rather than fluid. There was a crispiness to the overall mood, with the use of sharp contrasts and pure colours.

For a drama where the soundtrack was featured, it didn’t really impress me. Using well worn melodic styles, heavy with the sort of filler piano runs that trickle along like relaxing background noise in a respectable bar. And the songs, although pleasant were not groundbreaking or striking in any way. I think an opportunity was missed there.

Overall I really enjoyed this drama. The production was solid rather than remarkable. Its main strength was to offer good characterisations and explore the depth of them well.

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Just a little too bland to be thought provoking.

This slice of life film explores the nature of social connections and the difference between aloneness and loneliness. The protagonist, Chihiro, understands how to make attachments and bring people together, but ultimately shies away from the community she enables. Everyone is trying to escape from something and is brought into connection through her, but what else connects them is questionable. Even in the midst of people, Chihiro experiences her separateness and alienation.

It is well observed but not beautifully observed. I didn’t find the insight I was looking for here. Perhaps it was the sanitised personalities of the characters, many of whom had lived difficult lives but didn’t seem to have the resultant rough edges. They didn’t come across as affected or moulded by their experiences, just as mild people unable to find an acceptable social place. We are all moulded by our experiences and this film felt afraid to show that just in case the characters might turn unsympathetic. Chihiro has experienced tough times as a child and young woman, but how or whether that has contributed to her emotional distance, or is perhaps just her personality is never fully explored.

It is the sort of film that asks questions, but doesn’t offer too many answers, which is fine as long as the questions reveal some new perspective or path to travel. For me, that wasn’t really the case.

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A wonderful unfolding of layered characters.

I’m wrapped up in a comfort blanket eating too much 70% chocolate, a surfeit of endorphins and caffeine. Netflix has offered two outstanding slice of life dramas and aired them simultaneously. First, “My Liberation Notes” and now “Our Blues”. What more could be asked for? Whereas “My Liberation Notes” was essentially a story built around family, “Our Blues” centres around the members of a community and explores their individual lives and circumstances. Given the title, there is a hint that this drama will tackle the things in life that are difficult. But far from being sad it ultimately strikes an uplifting note.

The stories on offer are not about huge life changing tragedy but the emotional hurdles that life puts up for us to jump over and the hoops we go through. Essentially this is a drama about the good heart that lies at the centre of ordinary human beings. Their generosity, warmth, caring and insecurities.

They are stories set within a community where there is no real privacy and no anonymity. Where caring and interference exist either side of a blurred boundary which is crossed and crossed again. They are essentially about the price individuals are wiling to pay for deeper connection and love, and the confused and contradictory emotions that are experienced when that love and resentment collide.

There is no judgement written into the narrative. Each character has depth, we can love them from one angle and criticise them from another.

Among a slew of excellent performances Lee Byung Hun as Lee Dong Seok was the standout. Even though the writing for the last three episodes concerning his relationship with his mother, did not work as well for me, his performance did not falter.

Next in line was Han Ji Min, who was painfully convincing as the conflicted and hurting Lee Young Ok. Also, Lee Jung Eun as Jung Eun Hee, the stalwart glue of the community. But to be honest there was barely a weak performance in a large cast. Perhaps Shin Min Ah failed to completely convince me as Min Seon Ah, but she came good in the end.

This is the sixth writer (Noh Hee Kyung) /director (KimKyu Tae) collaboration which started in 2008. They include “Live”, “That Winter, The Wind Blows” and “It’s Okay That’s Love”. The long experience of working together brings a sense of seamless harmony and easy expression to the end result. In a drama of so many parts there can sometimes be an unevenness of tone, but here the actors were helped to bring a consistent feel that unified the whole production.

One of the most challenging things to write is the slow unfolding of emotions for a character. Peeling back the disparate layers to find out what is underneath. To reveal the unexpected, that often surprises us. This writer has done a magnificent job of just that, particularly with the story of the twin sisters which explores deeply complex and conflicting emotions and reveals them beautifully.

The cinematography is simple and what I loved about this show was the relief from artificially beautified faces. People were shown in their ordinariness with limited makeup and occasionally, deliberately unflattering lighting. In terms of camerawork, it was Jeju Island itself that became the star of the show with all its natural beauty on display.

The music was a weak point for me, with too much use of hotel-lobby style background music that failed to do justice to the emotional depth of the action. Thankfully, there were times when silence carried the pathos and did justice to the acting.

This drama comes highly 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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