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Dark and Disturbing... When Parasite met Poetry....
" As I watched the sunset in the dessert, I felt that I too would like to disappear as if I never exist"This movie on the other hand is one of those that will most certainly not disappear silently, and makes sure you know it existed. As it is a highly acclaimed movie and it did have me thinking what am I. missing here, what is actually happening and will I understand this better if I watch this a second time? As there are quite a few moments of confusion planted there to make you question pretty much everything in this movie, including the meaning behind it. making my mind make loopholes so much my head hurt.
There is quite a bit of absurd extremely dark humour here and there .Some pretty deep lines and extreme tension in silence.
I also feel like i must warn you that this movie gives new meaning to the word greenhouse and you may have trouble looking at the Nam-sham tower (or any tower) the same way again.
And while some parts are kind of extreme, there seems to be quite a bit of social criticism, if I was to compare this to Parasite I would say that they share some of the same issues but this one is more psychological, young and most certainly more raw than Parasite. Catering to the critics rather than to the popular audience, something that adds brilliance and depth but removes some of the main stream entertainment value that i must say a peasant like me can adore.
However compared to Lee Chang Dongs (the director of this movie previous movie Poetry, this one has more action and entertainment value making me understand that a lot can happen to a director in 8 years... So on a scale of Mainstream/entertainment to Artistic depth this move is right between Parasite and Poetry
Defiantly a movie worth a watch and worthy of all its praise
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Falling off a roof vs. Falling (being groomed by) ones teacher?
This is is a slightly confusing drama that tries to ask some pretty bizarre questions and puts things in to all kinds of interesting contexts, playing with perspectives and the viewers minds,Are they playing with or trying to blur the lines between what we see as right and and wrong ? Or are they actually trying to say something about society? Is this a drama about keeping- braking rules? Or is it trying to teach us how the best ways to die or maybe how to save a person from jumping? Are they trying to make the viewers uncomfortable? Or am I reading to much in to this as they are just trying to make us laugh while we look at pretty faces and banter?
Honestly I do not know... What I do know is that the dynamics between the leads is phenomenal. The characters are complex (slightly confusing) but extreamly enjoyable to watch. I love the leads, I truly do both characters hot n cold types. ANd even though the female lead is supposed to be this week low self asteam typical I just want x to be happy... soldering the worlds problams... she does not come of as pathetic at all she is even the mature one of the two and kind of bad ass cold. Both have a whole lot of amazing lines and oh such self aware dialog with dark humour for as far as the eyes can see... This was a pleasure to watch and indeed very highly entertaining.
I am however bothered by the last episode as it feels unfinished, left me with a bunch of theories in my mind and made me desparetly want a season 2, and I hate it when they split things up in to multiple seasons.
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Oh My Cringe!
This was a quick watch, boys over whatever meets 1.100000, meets BL. An inspirational, be positive quote fest of the worst type in some ways yet adorable in other ways... Making me both mad, sick to my stomach but also kind of fall in love with the leads (thanks to a few added bonuses).The good: The leads opposites in every single way, and adorable each in their own way. Giving us a whole bunch of romantic, humorous, positive scenes. Had it not been for a bunch life lesson mumbo jumbos that ruined it I would have loved them even more. At the same time I could actually kind of relate to Nikko, as he is the type to laugh off all the crap. Elis character was a bit ruined by the bad boy to get attention cliche he deserved a better story! Also Nikkos acting was spot on! I am impressed.
The other people around them are pretty decent, they could need a lesson or two in acting, But they ended up lovable in a way and being a fan of clices this kind of works even with the bad acting.
Though the ending does not necessarily call for a second season, I am hoping for one that will save up all that will take a better turn from using people with illness as inspiration to showing them as equal humans...
Here is for hoping!
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Oddly entertaining but bad
This is one of those dramas you will have to switch off your brain to watch as nothing what so ever makes any sense at all. As it fall in to the category so bad it is oddly captivating and had me pressing that next episode button.The female lead is not stupid, the male lead is cute. none of them can act and their kisses may have some kind of movement but lacked all passion. Still the male lead is cute which has to count for something. The second male lead is also adorable.
The predictability is high and the dubbing bad...oh so bad.. especially the dubbing for the kids for the love of Bart Simpson, please let kids dub kids.
The way the female lead is treated and styled as a kid is very troublesome, she is clearly one of few pretty smart female leads in the industry why did they have to devalue her that way... are they afraid the lack of obvious propaganda + smart female lead would bring backlash to them? So they had to cut the female empowerment out?
Other than that there is not much to say... Was this a good watch? NO did I enjoy it? not really? Do I regret watching this? No... But do I recommend it? Nope, not really
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More about the Queens than the Umbrella
If you are in it for the Umbrellas chances are you will end up disappointed as the drama starts off showing amazing umbrellas during the first episodes but after that they are pretty much no where to be seen. However that does not make this drama any less good.The drama itself has a very much female centred plot as the boys lovely as the may be are more or les there to give the viewers interesting side stories that support the development of the plot but are not the main attraction of this drama. As the name may entail the Queens are the main attraction, while not so much the umbrellas but the queens and concubines of this drama are what makes this drama stand out. The woman's interactions, scheming, ways of figuring out stuff will keep you guessing, intrigued and make you feel a bunch of stuff.
The story is indeed deep, dark and complicated just like any other political historical drama. However the princes and princesses existence make way for a lot of humour, eye candy and soften the pain every step of the way. Giving this very much political drama the balance it needs to keep you from going under in complicated plot twists, darkness and what not.
Through the show of extreme parenthood of trying to raise kids in a palace setting, we are invited in to timeless parenthood issues (and other issues), tossing us from hating the parents of this drama to loving them back to hating them to loving them basically teaching us that parenthood is tough... Luckily most parents do not have to be terrified of others trying to kill their kids at any given time, however finding a good balance between pressure, caring, paving roads (over others) and survival is indeed a task most parents will probably be able to relate to.
The drama also teaches viewers not to trust anybody especially not to trust your grandparents, doctors, schoolers, maids, politicians, siblings, parents... And be careful what you put in your mouth too...
Making this a drama with a little bit of everything, there are even some tiny (focus on the word tiny) pebbles of romance... that the romance lover in me would have wanted a lot more of as all the potential romance side stories where really good leaving me wanting more of them and less of other stuff...
The pacing is decent while the first episode did not captivate me the second one got me hooked, making way for a good pace of escalating interest for the first half of the show or so before we reached a plato of still interesting pace but just not as interesting or with the added interest the previous episodes had. Giving it a slight down hill before it got back up to captivate me again.
The plot twists in this actually did take me relatively by surprise, I admit some where more more obvious than others but over all most of them took a while to build up to keeping me on my toes for most of the drama. The cinematography is really good! the amount of beautiful shots is almost overwhelming at times.
Bingabilaty :high,
Feels: Medium to high
Quality: High
Annoying characters: not really but a few to many annoying "ooh choohaas... " that got on my nereves.
Cute and lovable characters: a lot
Characters you will want to choke or shove of a cliff: a lot so well balanced
Relevant issues: yes and done well
Humour: not as dark as I had hoped but I did laugh a few times.
What keeps it from reaching a full 10 is:
1. It lacks some closure, as some parts dragged out others where rushed.
2. The middle parts where just not that exiting
3. Some of the logic did not really hold up all the way thru
4. Lack of umbrellas, I felt like the name of the drama and first episodes gave me high hopes that where not completely fulfilled
5. A few to many flashbacks
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Decent but draggy second part. to a decent but draggy drama
The second part started off very promising, the female lead felt all grown up end empowered the male lead had also gone through a whole lot of character growth and the slightly annoying characters had little to no screen time...While most of the characters seemed to have more lives than Bruce Willis in Die Hard there seemed to come a point where peoples who died actually stayed dead, and unless there is a 3ed season the meaning of life and death may actually seem... well meaningful... odd for this type of drama but it could actually happen here (I am not gonna tell you who though because that may actually spoil it). There are some really good scenes here and there, great lines about catered and power..
Such as " The more you hate Spirits the more you can do for me"
All very good indeed...
However some of the twists were a bit too predictable (even for the inexperienced viewer), there is a lot of unnecessary draggy dialog, boring fight scenes... poor graphics, the type that look like an old computer game from the early 00s and while the syrup kept flowing, there was some point where it felt like someone had a thing for vampires, as most of the looked like newly fed vampires just a little bit to many times...
Still I did love the leads.. could be a bias towards the actors, could be that they had lovely chemistry and nice dialog between them, So I guess they are the reason I kept watching and rated it an 8 instead of lower. I wish the plot would have focused more on them and given them more playful and romance time for these two, I also wish the plot made more sense to me...
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Obsession, Deception, Love and Redemption...
In a fantasy world more or less anything can happen and I mean anything... As I started this drama the 59 episodes felt a tad overwhelming and to be honest while it had several interesting characters to catch my interest right from the start it did tend to be a tad draggy, extremely aggravating and annoying at times making me wonder if I could actually finish this.As time/episodes went by my interest and aggravation came and went... Besides suddenly craving cranberry juice I was pretty intrigued and though some twist where annoyingly easy to figure out most of them where not and quite a few of the twists/ new directions of the plot where fairly interesting making the last part of the show captivating making me even long for more odd but true...
If you look closely you can probably notice quite a few rainbows and LGBTQ+ storylines in disguise (for obvious reasons), playing with both gender identity (I am pretty sure one of the characters is gender fluid), sexuality etc.
The casting of the Male lead (and most of the others too) probably went something like: Here is some cranberry juice, try to spit/drool it out slowly... As the amount of fake blood/cranberry juice like substances where overflowing in each episode...
For the female lead it was more: cry out Sifaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang in desperation...
The chemistry between them is pretty awesome, and their acting and characters give you 2 or 3 personalities per beautiful body... Most of them lovable and fun to watch, Not bad right!
The main villains are so annoying you may want to see them crushed, tortured and turned in to fountains off cranberry juice.
There are a lot of thought provoking scenes about, evil, power, corruption, sacrifice, looking at the whole picture. the whole going beyond he is mean type of deal... As well as doing things for the greater good... Is there a greater good and will solving things with violence only lead to more violence or is there violence that is justified and could lead to peace, love and fluff? Any way you name it, this drama probably has it... Also some people just need to shut up and let people think...
There is a lot going on in this drama making giving you not only several personalities in each character but also give the feel of 3 or 4 dramas in one, the CGI effects could be better, however there are quite a few gorgeous scenic shots here and there.
So... in numbers:
Aggravation: 5-999999
Bingabilaty: Low first half, High second half
Lovable leeds: 9
Chemistry: 2-999999
Cranberry juice: 99999999
If you chose to watch it, you should prepare yourself for frustration, but if you can handle it i
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6 words rom com cuteness overload
This movie was just so much fun to watch, I am not going to say it had much new to offer but it does have a lovely combination of fun tropes, bickering, friendship, romance... Some drama here and there, an odd scene about a circumcision... Ok so it has some new things to offer... this is simply a lovely love trieangle movie with mostly lovable characters who are entertaining to watch, interesting, mostly smart and have the amazing ability to say a lot in just 6 words.Just a heads up: The second male lead does however do some questionable stuff that did not get the attention they needed, drawing down the score just a bit for this otherwise highly entertaining rom-com.
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M.r Insecure and M.s insecure fall in love in a world full of hurdles...
This drama portrays the day to day life of a girl with a pretty bad visual impairment and the people around her as she falls in love...The female lead is very lovable sweet and is a complex human being with a whole range of emotions, capabilities and hurdles... That have made her a lot more insecure than what she seems to come off as... However she is a so called good disabled person, the type that tries hard, and keeps on pushing herself three hurdles. When I say "good disabled" I mean that it is a person who from the point of view of society is one who does move forward despite all the obstacles... a so called real fighter catering to the Abel Bodied viewers... while still showing the obstacles. This is however done relatively well, she is not a super hero or anything, and they do show both the predjadus she meets as well as what she has to offer to a workplace without making her this super hero type. She comes off as a pretty relatable human being, so that is a +.
I like how they try to educate the viewers about visual impairments as well as the things those with clear vision do (unintentionally or intentionally) that can be really dangerous for people, but also what to to do to make things easier. I also like how they often show how she sees the world from time to time, helping us understand.
I also like that this was made with the involvement of a person with a visual impairment, even though I did not always get the humour, it was still a mostly good addition to the show.
The male lead is adorable, so are the rest of the characters. The romance is mostly sweet, and the chemistry good... the hight difference is adorable.
Some parts are however slightly annoying and feel unnecessary, , some parts are boring. Also the editing was not always perfect..
So Ill say this was good but not amazing...
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Short, Sweeet and fluffy
This is a typical fluff piece, lots of dream like scenes beautiful food and the typical misunderstood icicle male god with eyes only for his childhood sweetheart... The female lead is pretty cool, not too stupid, not to smart, strong, forward, a good cook but may have a drinking problem.The side characters are pretty ok, even the parents are kind of sweet and fun, the PPL is definitely noticeable and well that is about it.
Nothing wow, nothing bad just ok fluff to watch when you need something to make the world seem sweeter...
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Could have been great but something is off...
Some declared this feminist, but I do not really see it, but it does get points for effort... Showing some of the hardships many women do face from different angels as well as showing how these very different personalities come together and overcome sexual harassment, objectification, discrimination in the workplace and a bunch of other stuff... And while they do attempt to show that you do not need a man to be complete 90% of the conversation is about men so I actually doubt this female centered feminist plot would actually pass the Bechdel test... There is also a lot of cringe and situations that just feel awkward.The characters in this drama are most of the time, fun and lovable, there is one plotline that makes way to way too much second hand embarrassment, and though they do motivate it pretty well it just feel like something I have been annoyed by before. Also making this otherwise pretty cool character very annoying at times.
The men in this drama are either complete jerks, or so sweet they will give you diabetes... and the drama does have more representation than most c-s have.
We also get to see typical C-drama parents that have a blood boiling effect... A pretty cool kid and some delicious food pictures...
The subs here are really good so extra points for that; https://www.captionfy.io/playlist/61b42e5c85aaa3748a8d7ced
All in all an okay watch that is pretty easy to binge but not really a masterpiece, and not really a feminist manifest...
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Not so much romance but found family romance
You may just have to leave your brain at home to watch this drama... not much makes sense and not all is perfectly done in anyway but you do get an entertaining mix of Bromance, friendship, gorgeous food, gorgeous people (inside and out) and just the sweetest bunch of characters ever... actually making me long for a second season with more romance and less investigations...Though it does lack romance it does not lack fluff having both a lovely selection of fluffy desserts, fluffy friendships and fluffy lighting... So yes this is definitely a feel good fluff piece with a side order of kidnapping and the sad sad story of the forgotten kids... or something along that way, though they do bring up some important issues it is not really well and as I wrote earlier you will have to forget most of the things you know about the world to find it intriguing...
But all is compensated by the beautiful food, found family, friendships and mances... Just not a romance...
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Cute and electric...
It started off with a gorgeous umbrella scene....This drama is sweet, easy to watch and takes a fun spin on a bunch of well known tropes with en electric charm,combining the classical and oh so fun college male god icicle meet Pikachu (according to them, I know nothing about Pikachu) but it did remind me a lot me of Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo just without Nam Joo Hyuk's charisma and charm, but having in mind that this was a c-drama I was just happy to be reminded of one of my all time favorite K-dramas.The men's swim team was definitely a pleasure for the eye having the male lead being the least attractive of the bunch this swim team was definitely a pleasure to watch. But they dress up a guy as a girl gorgeously not really as a punch line but laugh at how he looks, so unnecessary! There is no forced kissing by the leads, but we do have the classical wrist grab, the hold up against the wall and maybe a record in ways to accidentally fall on to each other lips, very impressive!
The female lead comes of as human, not overly smart, not stupid, she is independent but not cocky and is actually pretty lovable from start to finish. The Male lead goes thru a very quick character development and is actually a pretty lovable guy too. The side characters are not annoying, they may not be perfect but they do not make you want to skip parts like many other side characters do in other c-dramas and the grown ups do not make you want to smash the screen ether, they are actually pretty decent people...
There are some splashes of suspenseful drama and twists, non come as a shock and most of them are underdeveloped but not horraly handled.
All in all an enjoyable watch!
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Better than Gluttony
First watch gluttony that is pretty bad with its 70 porno vibe, but if you move on to watching wrath after it it actually makes more sense and reminds us that some men suck... the world is not as lovely as it should be and some times people do bad things to survive...No one here is actually lovable... and it is still not close to being any good lesbian representation. But for those who enjoy seeing men being d**** that use women to their advantage, go right ahead. you might just enjoy it.
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First half sweet other half draggy, cringey torture
Never have I seen a drama that had so much sweetness and potential go down hill this badly, why I kept on watching, I thank dubbele speed and skipping... as well as hope of seeing that sweet sweet cat as well as more scenes between the main couple but no she was long gone and those two where not as fun as I would have hoped they would be. This is the first drama I have ever watched so much in dubbele speed, but oddly enough dubbele speed did not feel fast at all, making me wonder if they used slow mo just to fill the time.It did have some nice action scenes good explosions, high speed water chases and a whole lot of helicopter shots (though i think they reuses allot of those too), so if you are obsessed with tanks, helicopters etc this might actually be enjoyable for you.
Characterwise, the leads and one of the second coples where highly lovable, one was so annoying that I struggled feeling empathy with her, others where also pretty annoying. Not to spoil the drama I will mention one character and a very satisfactory scene as a spoiler tagged comment.
The medical stuff was so ridiculous and inconsistent I struggled between the emotions fear and comedy... one heart transplant was postponed and could be planned several weeks away, giving people the idea that hearts are easy to come by while a lung is rushed and extremely urgent... And I will not get started on how the organ is portrayed after it has been recycled...
So if you want to watch this go for the first half it is actually good and if you start feeling that it is draggy then drop it, it does not get any better! I really hoped it would, but no it will just keep on being draggy... but if you find yourself enjoying the second half too all the power to you! It will keep on going that way so you are in for a fun watch.
Just a note the cat, was the best thing with this drama, I want a spin off for the cat, preferably in a new home with other characters.
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