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Consensual infidelity
Reviewing all the 1-star reviews, I tried to find a positive point about the series to balance things out. Despite giving it as much perspective as possible, it's difficult.In this series, we follow a couple in their thirties who have been together since childhood and haven't tied the knot yet.
Very quickly, you realize the couple's dynamic: Ho Namgung isn't just in love, he deifies Lee Mi-do.
He deifies her so much that when she cheats on him, he tells her, « If it made you happy, keep sleeping with him, I'll wait for you. » Lee Mi-do felt ashamed to accept, and he encourages her by saying he could do the same to ease her guilt.
So, if you found that absurd or even awkward, well, just know that their respective love interests suffer from exactly the same syndrome.
I'm not exaggerating in the slightest. Every single episode goes like this:
1. HN or LMD has a problem at work and discusses it with their love interest.
2. HN or LMD pushes their love interest away, claiming to be in love for life, wanting only to wait until the other finishes fluttering around in their new relationship.
3. The love interest replies that they are so full of admiration for this love that it makes them fall in love too, and that they will wait.
Yes, almost all the arguments end with « I love you too much » or « too much love ». The characters are in their thirties, but emotionally, it's questionable.
Besides, they are poorly written. They go from being clingy to nonchalant from one scene to the next, bordering on a split personality.
I'll spare you the famous work problems, as they are so poorly introduced and boring.
Long story short, it's a romance that, in its quest for originality, becomes nonsensical.
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Nice to Not See You Again
This series lives up to its title. Indeed, this drama is the embodiment of a nightmare where walking out of a room just leads right back into it. A social version of claustrophobia.The main character is Lim Hyun-jun, an actor frustrated by being perceived solely through the role he plays: the police detective Kang Pil-gu.
Every single interaction he has leads him to endlessly cross paths with the love interest, Wi Jeong-sin.
At first, it feels like repetitive comedy, but very quickly you realize the core problem of this show: these characters are completely illogical, indecisive, and inconstant.
Despite a few flashes of brilliance, LHJ is a total weather vane, both in his interactions and his own thinking. Most episodes end in complete inaction on his part.
WJS is rigid and egocentric. The show tries to give her a bit of humanity by pulling the sad past card and moments of naive contrast.
Yet, the series brushes over interesting subjects: journalistic ethics, his mother's reputation, panic attacks...
But nothing comes of it. In the end, it is just a pair of fake investigators tracking down the cliché rich villain.
Having watched Squid Game and The Glory, seeing these two actors in this drama remains a total mystery to me.
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This review may contain spoilers
Hoped for better
This is a thriller with very few reinforcements available, very little ammunition, tracking down a monster of nameless lethality.The tension is constant; the characters are stressing out and swearing up and down in striking realism. As soon as the monster is discovered by the main character, the roles are reversed.
Up to that moment, the film fully deserves a 10/10, but unfortunately, it very quickly becomes disappointing.
Im Seong-ae comes off like a parody of Rambo: skid, then gun in hand with several long takes and slow-motion shots. Then she gets back behind the wheel while spouting cliché lines every five seconds. Her arrival clashes with the entire mood of the movie.
The poop joke, although funny because of how much they push it, drives another nail into the coffin of immersion. Aside from the hunt in the forest and the autopsy in the city, the film completely loses its pacing and what it did best.
It turns into a succession of shootouts and car chases, redundant to the point of making these scenes visually slower than the rest. There are more car chases in this movie than car scenes in a Fast & Furious.
We also need to talk about the inconsistency of the creatures. Some seem to fear bullets enough to cover themselves or lose limbs to explosives, while others take several head-on hits and keep running. The quality of the CGI is also inconsistent.
We end up taking their perspective, which, to me, felt like yet another betrayal. Their distress is explained to us through this dialogue, yet all the clues were already there and had even been deduced by the cop earlier.
Ironically, the movie concludes with the characters still running, again. It’s a shame, the film could have been wrapped up in one go if it didn’t beat around the bush so much.
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From Dark Poetry to Pure Noise
A series based on a revenge, but which, for me, is radically divided into two parts.At the beginning, the series takes a strong direction. It's slow, delicate: we discover La-el through dance, it's sensual, the camera films the fingers, the glances... The series pushes you to love her at the same time as Kang Yoon-gyeom. There is lust, psychological manipulation, mutilation. We fully accept La-el's darkness, and we tell ourselves that her revenge will be just as much.
Unfortunately, the series completely betrays itself afterwards. We go from a La-el vs. the elite showdown to hair-pulling over a guy.
The series drags on without moving forward. Around episode 10, you'll be thinking: « Geez, what is even left to tell with so many episodes remaining?! » There are plot conveniences all over the place (example: a child crying right when someone asks the right question). La-el starts wearing outfits that clash. We endure flashbacks, tales of destiny, secondary characters explaining that La-el is struggling...
Do I recommend it? A demanding series that turns into a telenovela: whether you belong to the first style of audience or the second, you won't be satisfied.
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