This review may contain spoilers
Good noir vibe, but it pulls its punches
Honestly, a lot of the low ratings are probably from people who watched it with trash machine translations or expected a standard polished K-drama. It’s actually a pretty solid, gritty movie, but I totally get why it frustrated some viewers.
The atmosphere is definitely the best part. It really nails that desperate, dirty underground vibe. The dynamic between the two female leads is raw - they aren't your typical best friends; they're just trying to survive and aren't afraid to be completely toxic to each other.
Throwing in real-world problems like the housing scams and loan sharks gave the story some actual weight.
But here’s my biggest issue: for a movie trying to be a dark noir, it’s way too timid. It heavily hints that Ye Seul works in the shady nightlife (the whole "blue bracelet" thing at the market), but it never actually shows what she goes through. Why be so vague about her actual job? If you're making a movie about women trying to escape a messed-up life, why sugarcoat the very thing they are trying to escape from?
It felt like the director was just too scared to go all the way.
Instead of exploring that actual darkness, we just get endless screaming matches in cars and a super cliché sports-betting plot. It’s still a decent watch if you're into the genre, but ngl, it left me a bit disappointed. It could have been a 9/10 if it actually had the guts to show the ugly truth instead of just playing it safe.
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This review may contain spoilers
Decent drama but lacks the courage to commit
Honestly, it wasn't a bad drama, it was even enjoyable, but man… it's just not bold enough. For a story with this kind of subject matter, I expected way more. There isn't a single proper nude scene, not even one female breast shown clearly, and that's just ridiculous. This kind of censorship ruins the whole point.The secret banquet scene was the biggest letdown. We see the young female lead in the room with the old man, but then they cut away and we only see her crying afterward. We never actually find out what happened - it's left only to our imagination. In that situation, it had to be either forced sex or at least oral, or maybe it was the older female lead who had sex with the old man since she went in after. But we never know, because it's all cut away and hidden. Such a wasted moment. They played it way too safe.
Same with the end of the first episode: the younger female lead lifts her shirt, but it's completely censored, and we see nothing. These moments were very important for the story, not just cheap fanservice, and it should've been shown properly, without censorship.
Madam Aema is supposed to be this empowered, sexually confident character, but how can you portray that authentically when you're too scared to show her body? Other Korean productions like The Handmaiden aren't afraid to go there, so why is this one playing it so safe, netflix?
When you do a story like this, I expect mature content. That's literally why people watch it. Don't bait and switch with a watered-down version when the character's whole identity revolves around sexual empowerment.
They had good production values and decent acting, but it all feels wasted when you won't commit to your own story.
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