It's like an Eternal Love reincarnation story with Vin Zhang and Yang Mi (and Wayne Liu) in this. Maybe this time Li Jing and Bai Qian might actually end up together...
This drama is super cliche, ticking all the trope boxes, but honestly that's what makes it so funny to me. I know them all: the ML catching the FL when she trips or falls, the accidental first kiss, enemies to lovers, ML having a childhood trauma, memory loss, the FL having a terminal illness or an alien equivalent, etc. I just keep giggling every episode I watch because it's so ridiculous, unrealistic, and adorably cute. It helps that Thassapak Hsu is super sexy and suave as Fang Leng, and he looks like the love child of Ju Ji Hoon and Lee Jun Ho.
LDW is one of my top favorite actors. First saw him in The Guest, which is one of my favorite suspense/horror dramas. I next watched Find Me in Your Memory, Along with the Gods 1 & 2, and finally in the absolutely glorious Special Labor Inspector Jo.
I cried for her in the end......istg I didn't know that I could feel sympathy for villain characters until now
I'm on episode 12 now and I still have little to no sympathy for her. Like, I get why she tried to kill her dad when she was a child; he was clearly abusive and a drunk. But everything she did after that is still terrible. She clearly loves only three things: herself, Da Bin, and money. Maybe I'll get a different perspective by episode 16.
[EDIT] Just finished ep 14 and I think I know why you felt pity for her. TBH, maybe it's just that I've felt vindictive towards her almost the whole series, but the only thing I feel about her current misery is that she's reaping what she sowed. She spent much of her life betraying and hurting people, even those that loved her. She didn't deserve Seo Do Gyun's dedication and love, not the way she kept manipulating him and even planning to abandon him at one point. And it seems like poetic justice that she only realized after he died how much she cared about him.
I think this drama had a really bad start, a good middle, and a tame end. The first episode had me cringing at the female lead's child-like innocence, to the point where I was wondering if she was mentally simple. Her character got way better as the drama proceeded, and I started to really enjoy the romance and the angst. There are some really good scenes that I'd be willing to rewatch the whole show for. My one big gripe is that the main couple never had moment on-screen where they really hashed out their problems and had a good hug. They just kinda fell back into step with each other as they worked to bring down the bad guy, and then it ended with him proposing marriage to her and they didn't even kiss? My shipper heart was a little let down by the quietness of the ending, even if that is technically what the leads had been working towards all along: a quiet life. All I was asking for was a kiss, really, because there were so precious few in the whole drama. Maybe two or three? And none in the last 3-4 episodes.
Seo Jin's wife really is a manipulative bitch. She broke up with Do Gyun because he was poor, she married Seo Jin for his money and then destroyed his life in the cruelest way possible, making him think his child had been murdered and that she had killed herself. Not to mention she carried on her affair with Do Gyun, and continually pushed him to commit murder for her. I'm on episode 8, and really hoping she dies...
[EDIT] Well she died, but I don't think it's gonna stick.
Out of all of these, the one that bothers me the most is the static (or as I call them, "faceplant") kisses. It's not romantic at all. I even made a list of my favorite K-drama kissers because there's specific actors who really give their all in kiss scenes.
There are specific cliches that i hate, while others I don't mind. Back hugs are fine. Memory loss is ok if it's done right, but that's a rare thing. But wrist grabs, pointless breakups, and the infamous Truck of Doom are terrible and should be done away with.
I understand that product placement is a necessary evil, but I really want Subway banned from sponsoring shows.
I couldn't handle the toxicity of the main couple's relationship, and don't plan on ever watching this drama again. I only enjoyed scenes with Hong Seol and In Ho, because they were genuinely positive influences on each other.
Honestly feeling the bromance far more strongly than the romance in this one. The main couple is nice, but I found myself disinterested in their love story. Their past lives were clumsily told in flashbacks scattered across half the drama, when I think we would have benefitted from getting it all in one go in the first or second episode. Plus if they put more effort into developing their past lives stories, that would have given Ah Eum time to develop as a character, rather than being nothing more than a plot device to get Lee Yeon and Ji Ah together. Like if they showed that Ah Eum's father was an evil king, and showed how the land suffered from his reign, that would have made her revenge plot much more impactful as a story device. The tragic backstory of Rang and Yeon was far more interesting and better developed, and I felt a little cheated that the brothers didn't have more screen-time together. I wish they'd shown Yeon's love for his brother a bit better, because he only seemed to swoop in to save his brother when it would benefit Ji Ah, or when he absolutely had to: such as when Rang was about to die. It seemed like Yeon's love for Rang was a bit cheap. On the other hand, Rang didn't have any ulterior motive when he gave up his life to save Yeon; he just wanted his brother to live.
Those glasses are not simply just sun glasses... It helps the hacker ahjumma to see what healer is seeing and…
I want to clarify that I've watched Healer about 5 times now, including a rewatch I'm doing right now. I'm not talking out the side of my mouth based on a single viewing. These are things that I've noticed after several viewings, not just one. I know that the glasses function as a camera/facial recognition tool, but they never were said to function as night vision goggles, lol. That was my issue with him wearing them at night; if it was made clear that those glasses have some sort of night vision setting, then I wouldn't find it so funny. Well, no, no one at the newspaper would think he was Healer, but I wasn't thinking about them. I was thinking Yeong Shin, who literally has a picture of him (specifically the exposed side of his face) on her wall. I was thinking about the Double S cronies who have the most interaction with him. I am currently watching Episode 5, and the Double S guys absolutely saw his face during the fight where Healer was protecting Yeong Shin from them. There was a moment right after the fighting paused where Healer is facing them for a long moment with his face exposed (aside from the glasses). To say that none of those guys would remember his face – which had been fully exposed to them only minutes earlier when he was walking around as Bong Soo– is a bit of a stretch. Not to mention his face's side profile getting caught on someone's phone camera on the train; that's not cctv that the ajumma could delete. I'm just saying it's a bit of a clumsy plot device that could've easily been solved with a face mask. Maybe it wasn't a thing to wear them back then; but you see them pretty often in dramas nowadays when people try to hide their identities.
This drama was good, though I admit the whole "courier" thing still confuses me and makes me laugh a little. The idea that Healer literally hid his identity successfully by pulling his turtleneck up over his lips and wearing sunglasses (at night too)? And that it would stay pulled over his face during extended periods of running and parkour? Sometimes he didn't even wear the mask, so how did people not recognize him?
Can anyone recommend a similar drama where the female lead is wronged and approachrs ML with a mituve, deceives…
Not exactly, but there is a slightly similar one. In "Secret Love" (or just "Secret"), with Ji Sung and Hwang Jung Eum, the female lead is wrongfully sent to prison on a manslaughter charge. In this one though, unlike "Lie after Lie", the male lead approaches the female lead with ulterior motives, because the victim of the manslaughter case was his pregnant girlfriend. Link to the MDL page here: https://kisskh.at/7761-secret I should mention, though, that their early relationship is as toxic as you'd expect based on my brief summary. So if that bothers you, then pass this drama by.
I started Black fully aware that the ending is full of plot holes and completely retcons the entire plot of the drama. Knowing that, I decided to enjoy it while I could, and not be too angry when I reached the end. I've enjoyed the story thoroughly up through episode 14, but 15 was a bit of a drag. Maybe because it seems like there's one watch/one video tape surfacing one after another, it's starting to get repetitive. Also, I knew the politician was going to end up being a corrupt old bastard; there's hardly a single drama out there with an actually upstanding politician. I hoped for a hot minute he would actually be a good guy, but could feel the plot twist waiting in the wings. I also wish Black would actually tell Ha Ram the truth about being a reaper, and give her the chance to accept him that way, but I know that doesn't happen.
You can now listen for free to Kim Dong Wook's new project, an audio drama adaption of a popular webtoon, being produced on Naver's AudioClip app. It's called "A Man and a Woman" (남과 여).
Three episodes in, and maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but I really really just want Geum-Ja to either lose a case really badly, or else win and and to be emotionally shaken by the terrible consequences. Like, I appreciate she's a strong woman, and I admire her not bending to intimidation and insults, but at the same time she is unscrupulous and at times incredibly callous and cruel. I desperately want her to be taken down off her high horse. The little victorious smirk she gave Hee-Jae after he got humiliated at the end of episode 3 made my blood pressure spike in anger. I can't handle watching more than one episode of this series a day, even if it's good.
[EDIT] Just finished ep 14 and I think I know why you felt pity for her. TBH, maybe it's just that I've felt vindictive towards her almost the whole series, but the only thing I feel about her current misery is that she's reaping what she sowed. She spent much of her life betraying and hurting people, even those that loved her. She didn't deserve Seo Do Gyun's dedication and love, not the way she kept manipulating him and even planning to abandon him at one point. And it seems like poetic justice that she only realized after he died how much she cared about him.
[EDIT] Well she died, but I don't think it's gonna stick.
There are specific cliches that i hate, while others I don't mind. Back hugs are fine. Memory loss is ok if it's done right, but that's a rare thing. But wrist grabs, pointless breakups, and the infamous Truck of Doom are terrible and should be done away with.
I understand that product placement is a necessary evil, but I really want Subway banned from sponsoring shows.
The tragic backstory of Rang and Yeon was far more interesting and better developed, and I felt a little cheated that the brothers didn't have more screen-time together. I wish they'd shown Yeon's love for his brother a bit better, because he only seemed to swoop in to save his brother when it would benefit Ji Ah, or when he absolutely had to: such as when Rang was about to die. It seemed like Yeon's love for Rang was a bit cheap. On the other hand, Rang didn't have any ulterior motive when he gave up his life to save Yeon; he just wanted his brother to live.
I know that the glasses function as a camera/facial recognition tool, but they never were said to function as night vision goggles, lol. That was my issue with him wearing them at night; if it was made clear that those glasses have some sort of night vision setting, then I wouldn't find it so funny.
Well, no, no one at the newspaper would think he was Healer, but I wasn't thinking about them. I was thinking Yeong Shin, who literally has a picture of him (specifically the exposed side of his face) on her wall. I was thinking about the Double S cronies who have the most interaction with him. I am currently watching Episode 5, and the Double S guys absolutely saw his face during the fight where Healer was protecting Yeong Shin from them. There was a moment right after the fighting paused where Healer is facing them for a long moment with his face exposed (aside from the glasses). To say that none of those guys would remember his face – which had been fully exposed to them only minutes earlier when he was walking around as Bong Soo– is a bit of a stretch. Not to mention his face's side profile getting caught on someone's phone camera on the train; that's not cctv that the ajumma could delete.
I'm just saying it's a bit of a clumsy plot device that could've easily been solved with a face mask. Maybe it wasn't a thing to wear them back then; but you see them pretty often in dramas nowadays when people try to hide their identities.
I should mention, though, that their early relationship is as toxic as you'd expect based on my brief summary. So if that bothers you, then pass this drama by.