Beatrice

Sampler bites of zombie survival personalities

The film certainly does feature action, but most of it are snapshots of how regular people would fare or do when suddenly trapped in a building during a zombie epidemic and a straightforward tale of survival. The pov character is a random guy Joon Woo who very unfortunately slacked off on getting the groceries at the worst time. No particular special skills, but very online. The one time where the penchant to post personal information online works out as it turns out to be extremely important to the outcome of his survival. Also helping is that he's very lucky to happen to be living across from an outdoorsy woman Yoo Bin who still has all her gear despite the trauma she suffered from a fall three years ago. That's pretty much all we get to know about her aside from seeing her cleverly save Joon Woo from suicide with a laser pointer and tenaciously barreling through the zombies to get to him. The third and final resident survivor is a desperate husband in denial stage Bae Soo who drugs and tries to feed Yoo Bin to his zombie wife. That's a huge blow to the two of them who consider euthanasia and suicide by gun before the helicopters really show up despite them thinking Bae Soo was just lying to them. The government broadcast implies that Joon Woo's social media posts was what saved them as it was how the rescue copters knew which roof tops to look for them. It's unwittingly about a balance of hobbies, the gamer guy and the hiker girl, working together to get to safety.

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Art University Coming of Age Story

I love how the cinematography captures the air and space of the various settings. The best kind breaths life into every shot without overtaking it, it's harmonious in the storytelling with the characters who are at the center of them. The tension and the chemistry between the main characters works really well because beyond just the physical attraction, they are navigating learning about themselves through their interaction with each other. I really love that the women in the series have sexual autonomy and aren't shamed for it nor is it exploitative. Both the women and the men get to be three dimensional people exploring life experiences of young adulthood. I really like how their art major is actually part of the story, they go to class and work on their art projects.

Nabi is pressured into sex by her older boyfriend that is a teacher at an academy and is implied to be a mentor if not her teacher at some point who is also controlling and uses her as his model for an explicit art that depicts her completely exposed in every way during an intimate act with her real name attached to it without her consent or knowledge for any part of it. She finally dumps him when another student clues her in that he's also cheating on her with his other academy students. This is her first relationship and a toxic one that she survived to be more wary. She enters a casual relationship with Jae Eon with eyes open as to his preference of not putting a label on their time together. She is fully aware and she gave it a try with consent. Ultimately she wants wants a relationship that is more concrete. I like that she goes out on a date with the freshman and recognizes while it's the regular feeling she enjoys she doesn't have the spark. It doesn't work out because he immediately chooses the girl he's had a crush on for years. Nabi realizes she's a rebound and it stings. He knew that he was her rebound too though when they went on their movie date and she rejected his kiss by laughing. Her high school bestie has the worst timing of everything, he didn't tell her his feelings because she was already with someone, which could be her creepy older first boyfriend. Maybe if he had confessed earlier, a romantic relationship between them might have had a chance. I like that Nabi comes to life in friendships with people and she has kept that spark despite what she had endured. She is no pushover either, when Seol Ah, one of Jae Eon's ambiguous non girlfriends girlfriends comes to campus to be territorial, Nabi tells her not to cut her hair because Jae Eon likes to do it with the hair tied up, that was spicy.

Jae Eon has always had a distant relationship with women beginning with his own mother who is a successful dancer always on the road. He's effortlessly charming and straightforward, but withholds giving away too much of himself which eventually becomes off putting to them women who were initially attracted to his looks. He's always had an obsession with butterflies, keeping a walkable terrarium of them in his apartment. Both Nabi and especially him are very middle class well off, being able to afford being art students with nice apartments provided to them without the struggle that their female TA has to find affordable living quarters. He first sees Nabi when she's in the agony of public humiliation at the exhibit of her creep ex-boyfriend. By chance he runs into her again at the bar and then at the school that he transferred to from a different major because he's legitimately talented in art. He's by all means attentive to her. He learns that his feelings for her is different that when he's with other people, he can't keep her at a distance, he wants to be with her and wants to put a label on the relationship for her. He's not a perfect guy, his jealously seeing her high school bestie show up near her apartment being the partial reason to lead him to this epiphany. When she's not ready, he does his best to help her to reassemble her final project that was smashed due to a freak accident at school, and tearfully keeps his word to leave her alone. That was a beautifully heart wrenching scene. They run into each other at the final project exhibition long after everyone has left. Jae Eon is there to see their finished work with out bothering her while unknowingly granting her wish to see him again. She acknowledges that there will be pain in their relationship. She doesn't idealize him or their relationship, but she's going to be with him.

While they were the most intense relationship in the show, they are partly mirrored by Bit Na, a free spirited person enjoys friendships with attractive men and casual dating as well who is akin to Jae Eon, so it's ironic that Bit Na was the one initially warning Nabi against him, while Kyu Hyun is like Nabi who wants to be treated as more than just a sex partner. Jae Eon asks Kyu Hyun's perspective to understand more of Nabi's point of view. While it's fair that he deserves to be treated better than just for sex, the show could have done a better job showing that he's not in the right to tamp down the rest of her personality. The relationship of the the TAs were very typical kdrama fare with co-habitation to development of romantic feelings. The lesbian storyline with the best friends to lover relationship would have been great if they had gotten even a measly romantic kiss. I really like that their gender was never in question and their realization was developed organically. They should have gotten that kdrama kiss.

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Messy motherhood messaging

The majority of the drama is painting a very three dimensional portrait of Young Soon who endured loss her entire life and to cope with the trauma of her husband's mysterious suicide after they had been abandoned by everyone they trusted, she raises her son to be a weapon of revenge without a specific aim at a person, but rather at the entire Korean justice system, which is a lot of weight on the shoulders of a man let alone a little boy. Instead of filling her son with warmth and understanding, she isolated him from finding joy with her, within himself, or in anyone or anything else, so he'll be single mindedly focused on becoming a powerful prosecutor. She's very lucky that Kang Ho is a born artist who is empathetic and observant and can see the glimpses behind her abusive parenting tactics and realizes the true targets he needs to hunt down for justice for his family who he played in a long game. Those are his true strengths that kept him from hating her for her behavior, which he has every right to no matter her intention as he still carries the emotional scars she inflicted on him. She herself realized the harm she had done only when she was forced to reflect on them after his accident left him with the mindset of a seven year old and he refuses to eat because she always forced him never to be full at meal times so he can stay awake to study. It's shocking he got to grow as tall as he did without much food. The majority of the drama sees Young Soon trying to fast track his physical and mental recovery before she herself succumbs to her stage four stomach cancer. The drama misses out on showing Kang Ho finding himself through his interactions with various people and memories. It was so disappointing that the memories from his 18 year old self when he kissed Mi Joo after saving her from the creep who was harassing her at the hair salon did not move up his mindset from 7 to 18. It's creepy that Mi Joo kept kissing a man with the mind of a 7 year old and he was able to be taken advantaged of by the village thief and loser Sam Sik. Instead of organically unlocking his memories in a meaningful way, of course Kang Ho recovers them after more severe head trauma from saving his mom and Sam Sik from the burning pig farm. Lee Do Hyun did a fantastic job portraying both the Kang Ho who is suffering from the mental regression and the pained adult enacting the 35 year revenge plan which required some difficult to outsiders to understand methods including keeping innocents in jail to save their lives and to cozy up to the company chairman.

He got to experience agency and happiness during his college years with Mi Joo who volunteered to help with the household chores and expenses while he studied. He broke up with her because there's something he can only do himself and offered to tell her why as he reached the time when he had to start his revenge plan, but she refused and kept her pregnancy a secret from him so as to not interrupt the plan that she didn't want him to tell her. She trusted that Kang Ho is doing something so important that he would leave someone he loves to do it. That's an intense trust level that she has with him, but also partially learned behavior from her mom in staying the man she loves no matter what. Sadly her mom's situation was staying in a toxic relationship with her abusive, cheating husband until he died just so her daughters wouldn't be fatherless, a insult that is levied at Kang Ho and also his seven year old twin children Ye Jin and Seo Jin who Mi Joo lies to that their father is a nail salon owner in the US. The twins are the creepily precocious kind, but Ye Jin is smart enough to tell Mi Joo to just get divorced from the man who clearly doesn't care about them and they'll live a good life without them. It's really awful that the drama makes this smart observant 7 year old man crazy and spending the majority of the time obsessed with marrying the guy she doesn't know is her biological father. That's not cute, it's just weird. It's also a big misstep in not showing a scene of Kang Ho finally introducing himself to the twins as their father and Young Soon as their grandmother, having a scene of their family finally formally together before they have the final celebration with the extended village family. There was time that rightly showed the love hate sibling like bond between Young Soon and all the villagers, but shortchanged the bond between the direct family members. Lion the pig also disappeared even though the pig was in the main opening sequence for every ep and was part of the story for so long. Could have shown her giving birth to the piglet that Kang Ho uses to propose at the end or something. Kang Ho also loses his job as a prosecutor and it looks like he becomes a pig farmer like his parents, with no mention of Mi Joo settling her major financial problems after being scammed by her former work best friend. They could have even thrown in a line to tie that up.

The tone of the series is really all over the place. It would go to very dark desperate places like Young Soon contemplating murder suicide to hanging herself to motivate Kang Ho to stand to then the annoying antics of Sam Sik and the bumbling goons who bumbled their way into becoming cabbage farmers. The more serious of the goons becomes a major whistleblower for Kang Ho. Yet again the show was missing a scene where the goon hits the final straw with a hit ordered on him to get him to the whistleblowing point. It was at least a little amusing to see that they found their calling as cabbage growing savants, but Sam Sik was just awful the entire time. A spoiled son that ends the drama having transferred his obsessive infatuation to Ha Young who is serving time for having incriminated herself in order to bring her father down. She's an interesting character who was also spoiled and haughty but melted to Kang Ho's seeming care for her. She does have a soul being haunted by her role in Kang Ho's attempted murder and seeing how corrupt and murderous her father is. She doesn't deserve to have Sam Sik being foisted on her though. The gag that the village chief's wife always covered her face with sheet masks and face masks because she is a Japanese mob boss's daughter didn't go anywhere. Her skills and resources was entirely unutilized and her character was just used as a sight gag the whole time.

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Family fantasy that's also about individual growth and change

It's difficult or impossible to root for the leads of most kdramas to reconcile because the writing simply does not do the work to allow them to learn and confront the core problems that drove them apart in the first place, just skipping through romantic moments and calling it a day. This drama thankfully does have the main characters fully separate so they can gain a new point of view and move forward in their lives before finally understanding and see eye to eye. Da Jung delayed her schooling and working in her dream job in reporting/hosting while Dae Yeong completely abandoned his childhood dreams of becoming a professional basketball player in order for the two to become teen parents to twins. They both aged from still looking like their teen selves through their 20s to looking like they are in their 40s (as their actors are) even though they are supposedly 30s. within a few years (like John and Mary from Supernatural). At least she's pursuing her dream despite, while he's deeply embittered at his dead end job that he turns to drinking away his sorrows and saying the most unforgivable thing he could to his wife in public at their school reunion, blaming her for how his life turned out and forgets about it while being black out drunk. It takes two to conceive and was contraceptives even involved? This snowballs with his other bad behavior into being served divorce papers by Da Jung.

Dae Yeong caches in all the good karma he accumulated in his life both when he get given some magic tea that's implied to be perhaps a mix of science and magic by an mysterious elder that turns him back to his young charismatic handsome self and he has a very rich best friend Deok Jin who can house and pretend to be his father. All the scenes with him makes me wonder if this show was partially sponsored by Disney/Marvel. Deok Jin keeps pursuing Ms. Ok despite her constantly saying no until she agrees to date him at the end. It doesn't matter if she's also a fellow nerd, this is just awful. This storyline is awful when they did the other ones pretty well. Ji Hoon the baseball player was always respectful of Da Jung's space and wishes from beginning to end, being a fantastic friend to her even when she doesn't return his feelings. She in turns gives him observant and experience advice to raise his niece/adopted daughter. He was always the mature adult when ever Dae Yeong was being jealous territorial too and only got stern with him when Dae Yeong looked to be getting inappropriate and violent with a fearful Da Jung. He also had to learn that he can't force people to become parents when they don't want to. Him forcing his daughter's unwilling bio mom to meet her was cruel to both regardless of what she chose to say. It turns out that he had been looking for Dae Yeong as well as he was the one who was able to save the niece's life with his handyman tools by breaking the car window and taking her away from the car before a big truck careened fatally into her father and Ji Hoon's brother's car. It's pretty convenient that they are connected this way, but I'll chalk it up to part of Dae Yeong's magical karma.

Dae Yeong initially self serving wish to become young again to do what he missed out on became a way to understand his estranged family members. He finally sees all of his negative behavior towards them while his loving actions as Woo Yeong makes them think of Dae Yeong's caring side. His twins Si Ah and Si Yu seem to have zero interest of ever looking at his photos or videos of him when he was young, while in contrast Si Ah's boyfriend who has fond memories of Dae Yeong stepping up to race with him when he was young does and is the only one other than the adults to figure it out. It took Dae Yeong to transform into the body of his former self to stop yelling so much and be a more communicative person, finally getting to know his children fully as the people they have become. His stereotypical macho father outrage at boys being interested in his daughter was awful though, as Si Ah is more than capable of handling herself on that front. I hope both his kids are fully informed about contraceptives though. It's really lovely how the parallels were done between Da Jung and Si Ah's personalities. Da Jung was actually a bad ass that kicked a girl gang down to save the girl that bullied her, turning her into a life long friend and continues kicking ass with further self defense classes with Si Ah. Si Ah is a bit too old to learn the hard way to avoid dark alleys and picking fights in alleys no matter how good a fighter she is, but better late than never.

It was really interesting the way the drama dealt with the various bullies. Both the lawyer and the young anchor were saved by Da Jung fighting people that picked on them like the other bullies and the upskirt filming producer creep. The coach that bullied Deok Jin in high school took bribes due to his father never believing in him and paying his way onto the team. He became an example used by Da Jung to compel the parents to whistleblow together for their kids. This actually made the parent of Ja Seong that was bullying Si Yu for witnessing the bribe become a better dad and so his son becomes a better person too. Dae Yeong's dad didn't give into the bribe because he believed his son's abilities speak for itself. This storyline connects to the all the characters so well. Deok Jin appearing on the news and the anchor describing his incoherence in speaking as evidence of how badly he was beaten up by the coach was so funny. Dae Yeong reunites with his father who also turned to drinking and hitting him after Dae Yeong's mother died. With time and distance, his father had recovered from his grief and was able to change as well. Dae Yeong watching the back of his aged father, both sitting in the senior seating on the bus to driving the bus for work was heartbreaking. He interacts with him a for a few times, before finally revealing himself to his father through the sign language they both learned for Dae Yeong's mother. It's the most moving scene in the series.

I liked that Da Jung got to date Dae Yeong in his young form for a bit. The chemistry between the actors is very nice. Because there was so much change between the characters, it wasn't too disappointing that he switched back to true age after he made the decision to abandon a basketball career a second time, reaffirming what he wants is just life with Da Jung and their family. He even becomes her manager for a while before he becomes a teacher to little kiddos once his own kiddos have gone off to college. I assume it's because she made enough money in her flourishing career to afford to hire a team. The series is only a about 1hr4m most episodes, but each one feels longer than that, but in a good way. It packs in a lot of interpersonal connection and growth than dramas with episodes over 90minutes long. This is why years later when Da Jung and Dae Yeong have found their identities and have learned healthy ways to communicate after disagreements, it makes sense for them to tie the knot once again. Their guests include the mysterious magic elder who also offered Da Jung who helped him across the street a wish, but she didn't take it. I wonder if he offers everyone who helps him a wish, there might be a whole connected universe of magical mayhem stories because of him.

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A thriller of Culpability

The story kicks off with a mystery of all the teens being forced to play Mafia and is propelled with fear of death and bullying at every point. The deaths themselves become spectacles. All of the head hits are impactful, as are the ones where they throw themselves over the railing. The self strangulation one was too silly, they should have rethought that one. Selfish bullies push people to the edge just as much as the assigned Mafia do. Everyone is forced to be complicit participants in someone's death by voting. Friends turn against one another. Kids blame themselves. The selfish flourish until their time is up. Intrepid asthmatic Yeon Seo analyzes the crime scenes and tries to find clues out of this giant, murderous Mafia themed escape room. Aside from her observational skills, she's also special in that there is a force who wants her to see beyond the code.

Jung Won turns out to be this force, a character designed to win the game and causing discord and murder in the wake of it, decided to lose it to save the two players who became her friends instead. She's the virtual stand-in, the virtual ghost of Se Eun who took her only life from bullying. The intense loneliness being targeted everyone around you is truly suffocating and it may be hard to understand by those who have not experienced it themselves. It doesn't matter what type of reason was used to bully her, it mattered that it was the people's attitude and actions or inactions towards her. Her parents took it upon themselves to kidnap her entire class and use them to mentally and physically hurt each other. There is no legal recourse that would give them justice for the daughter they lost. Yeon Seo gets to see the set up she's trapped in so the parents could find out what made Jung Won go against her programming to help. They are unwilling to see that Jung Won/Se Eun has found the feeling of friendship and loyalty that she didn't have before. Jung Won found a catharsis in the game that the parents are not willing to embrace yet outside of it even though they have engineered the repeated suffering of the key perpetrators and bystanders. Jung Won is reset along with the rest and she was not able to free Yeon Seo by letting the citizens win as Yeon Seo is only able to awaken when the parents allow her to. The kids aren't there to learn a lesson, they are just to suffer indefinitely. I wonder if aside from Jung Won, the other roles are randomized? If Yeon Seo is put into the mafia role, what would she do? Ultimately her morality doesn't matter to her jailers. Even Se Eun is trapped in this virtual hell until her parents can find their way out of their grief.

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Mostly age appropriate sweet coming of age romance

The make up, hair, and styling for the show is very nicely done. The cinematography and the editing could be better, but I appreciate that they tried to do something a bit different. The casting of the three high school leads are very nicely done, they're new comers with a lot of great chemistry with each other and good presence. Qi Zhang and Ye Guang's relationship is really lovely, two gentle boys that actually get time to get to know each other. I like that it's not an opposite personality attracts situation and they are both kind and nice to each other. Ray's chosen pronouns was unclear, but their storyline is the edgier one dating adult men and being more physical quicker. I dislike the trope of high school teenagers dating grown men being shown as normalized. Ah Jian's age hasn't been stated, but I hope he's only just a year or two older. The surprise double date scene was immensely cute and the most natural all the actors were as their characters. I really like how the main high schoolers aren't portrayed as too childish or too adultified, outside of the cartoony guy that was bullying Ye Guang that disappears from the story.

This show definitely had more story to tell than it had time for with it's 22nd per ep runtime. Most of the plot lines feel finished still in media res like it was meant to continue for another season, but that's not usually how asian dramas work. The storylines introduced are usually wrapped up in one season and have new storylines even if there is a second one. The rivalry with that bully kid that's too obsessed with his sister joining the student council elections went nowhere. Ye Guang didn't have a final face to face understanding talk with his parents, though it could be that they could only reach one with space between them via phone as they had been suffocatingly controlling to their son. There's a lot of potential for more of this story, but it doesn't look like that will happen. It's still a good watch for folks looking for something wholesome and sweet that doesn't talk down to the audience.

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Refreshing take on the reincarnation romance

The two things I thought was interestingly explored was how the familial structure would work with one really long lived immortal relative actively living with his descendants and how the reincarnated soul is completely their own person or even persons separate from their former lives. The weaker elements was how sudden and arbitrary the abilities and the punishments of the miracle stone are. It can heal, which is broad enough that anyone could figure it out. But how did the savant guy suddenly know that he can feed half to San and it would give him exactly 100 years of immortality with him being stricken by pain every midnight, and transforming into a child every 15 days until he is able to find Wat's reincarnation for a blessing/curse breaking ceremony? Maybe a scene of him divining instructions from the goddess or having a instruction book from the ancestors would have tied things together better. Also the youngest generation of the savant guy is pretty much San's best friend, which is kind of odd since San would have been like his uncle, having been part of his family's life for generations and there is no sense of that from their interactions. Also the show doesn't deal with why San deserves the destruction of the healing stone for him? Especially when the story immediately follows into scenes with Vee's terminally ill grandmother, the type of people the stone could be used to help. The stone could be used to heal and help people, but now it's used up for a pretty random guy in the grand scheme of things.

I really liked that Vee and Wat have no memories or any personality quirks or similarities to their past life as 1920's Wat aside from Wat having the same face and that they were incarnations split from the same soul as confirmed by the stone reacting to both of them and they both needed to be present to lift the blessing/curse from San. Vee and San may have been drawn together supernaturally, but they fell for each other on their own terms. Though San didn't treat him very nicely for a lot of their meetings, so maybe Vee may have been more influenced that it seems. It's so fascinating and there isn't much media that I can remember that explores this aside from the mention of splitting souls, which was mostly from older Cantonese supernatural stories. But then the implication is that Wat is somehow exempt from San's promise to love and cherish her in this current life even though she's also the soul that was bound to the promise. The potential for a bisexual polyamorous thruple is just plain ignored. Wat was a rich girl and reborn as a regular guy and a girl that seem to both be in the lower income bracket and both get intwined with San. It would have been nice if the show explored why Wat's soul was split, like as a side effect of her soul being tethered to a rock and a man or something? Doctor Tri is also an interesting case who has also been reborn looking like his past self who was a violent jealous man, but his current self is an amazing friend who goes above and beyond. He didn't really get any karmic punishment that was evident in the storytelling except for falling for Vee in this life as well, but he's also deals with it with the utmost maturity which was really nice to see.

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Moth to an ex-flame

This production company really loves to name their messy gays Tae Ha. Poor Ji Eun is completely powerless against his incredibly selfish ex-boyfriend Tae Ha who becomes a trauma to both Ji Eun and Soo Hee. While I felt bad for Ji Eun being the one getting threatened by the scorned woman, he also isn't completely free from the blame, but she definitely should have been aiming all that vitriol at Tae Ha. If only Ji Eun had any self control, he would not choose to be with Tae Ha, but alas he has no such thing. This is such a toxic soap storyline, but executed in a compelling way.

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From chilly blue winter to warm blue spring skies

The series basically feels like what it would like to watch only the parts focused on the main couple without any of the subplots of a usual full length show or like back in the day when gay characters did not have their own series. I love that Jae Min and Nam Yi started off so direct with each other, but in verbalizing how they feel and expressing it physically as well. They establish that Nam Yi probably does love Jae Min a bit more and has experience dating other people albeit not seriously. Jae Min doesn't mention dating anyone before and now that he has that happy relationship glow is attracting other people too like Tae Ha, who really used his pretty privilege to get away with sniffing someone without the cops being called on him. Jae Min was lonely and he's very tempted by probably the attractive and second ever guy to confess to him, but he did immediately tell Tae Ha he's already dating someone once Tae Ha kissed him. I'm glad that Nam Yi expressed fully how hurtful that Jae Min didn't just tell him the truth of what happened instead of him having to stumble upon this. I hope this lesson is settled for both of them and Nam Yi doesn't have to feel insecure every time Jae Min puts on a cute outfit and will be working around other guys because it's really just Jae Min in regular clothes, the cuteness is just how he is lol.

The Soo Ri subplot of her manipulating Jae Min by threatening to spread rumors outing him to every company she has connections to was already evil, but then her recounting it to Nam Yi who rebuffs her love confession like it's something to be proud of is extra evil. This also brings up the economic divide between Jae Min and Nam Yi that I don't feel like got much exploration. When they reunited that first night since high school, Jae Min hadn't had money to pay the gas for two months. It looks like Nam Yi semi-moved in, did he help pay the bills? Even after Jae Min goes to see Nam Yi's nicer place the night they broke up and later made up, they still are just staying at Jae Min's place. Soo Ri also points out the fact that it's harder for Jae Min to find a job than Nam Yi with the outing. The missing part that the short run time can't cover is Jae Min finally successfully landing a job that he likes. Despite that, overall it's still a interesting portrait of a new relationship going through the growing pains to become stronger. The main couple is lovely and I hope even Tae Ha will figure his messy self out, that he shouldn't just go around kissing people who are already dating someone else just because they look lonely and smell amazing.

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Killer economics

There are many kdramas that try to be cool and gritty with often cringy results, but A Shop for Killers is the rare one that has done it. The standout of the show is Lee Dong Wook as the stoic but softie at heart Jung Jin Man. We learn who he is alongside his clueless but quick thinking niece Jung Ji Ahn, picking up new information while trying to survive the hordes of professional mercenaries. I like that 7 year old Jung Ji Ahn wasn't a sitting duck and had excellent assassin-dar, learning from her mistake of walking towards the strange man that broke into her house. As soon as she went to hide in the morgue, I just knew she was going to have to go through the additional trauma of hiding with one of her murdered parent's corpse.

Jin Man's morality is firmly in the grey and it's so fascinating to see how the show can keep navigating it. He's not okay with murdering civilians, particularly the murder of sex trafficking victims that his mercenary cohorts either perpetuated or enabled, but his market is definitely sells weapons to terrible people. It's so ridiculous of Babylon to go after him who just wants to quietly be with his family, instead of Bale who is a trigger happy psycho who goes off mission to commit atrocities that gets the local government's attention. Jin Man saves Min Hye who the only trafficking victim that survived and becomes part of his inner circle, but she has never met Ji Ahn and needed to scan her green code to even be sure who she is. Both ladies are trained by Pasin, another former mercenary, who turns talent into sharpened skill. Ji Ahn has been calling her unnie, but it should really be sunbae.

I cheered so hard when it's revealed at the end that Jung Jin Man faked his death, because of course he did! Towards the end, it just felt like a waste Jin Man was dead, but the show didn't let that happen, good for them. Although the season was enjoyable, the conclusion or any continuation without him felt less satisfying without him because he was the heart of the show. All the best parts revolve around Jung Jin Man, either it's his relationship with his niece, protecting her and giving her as regular a childhood as possible in their situation while training her on the sly without her even knowing she's learning integral survival knowledge or the glimpses of his friendships and business partners. I hope if there is a season 2, we could see more of his business acumen because he set up a very intricate black market shopping mall for professional killers. I want to see how he set up his business and how he runs it. I could see how the drama could show us through him finally properly training Ji Ahn to be the successor to the bloody family business.

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Dare to love, missed the transitions, but mostly gets there

The show does eventually have a cute romance between the lead couple Hong Do and Yoon Bok at the end of the tunnel, but it's jarringly dropped in out of nowhere like it had been setting it up all along when it hasn't been at all. Throughout the entire beginning it's always been just Hong Do being the only one interpreting his every action to be romantically driven towards her in an over the top way, whereas it's not shown from his point of view during the period when he's clearly dealing with a lot of trauma regarding his abandonment issues from his mother and sister leaving him. She herself is later revealed to have also been abandoned by her father yet doesn't empathize or connect with him about this issue. On the other hand he never showed any short of romantic attraction to her, but rather looking for familial comfort in a trusted mentor. There was one moment that could be argued and it's so vague it needs to be, and it's when she returns to him with a drink for him when he has given up the idea of her coming back. There is nothing on his face and demeanor that specifically indicates burgeoning romance though. If the actor cannot express it, then the director needed to do something about it.

This show has many lack of transitions for many different character plots starting with the main couple. Although it's literally like a flip of a switch once he quits his life as an successor to Seongsan village, it so nice when he finally turns on the romance mode because it means Hong Do as a character can ironically stop obsessing over him for once and actually start her career proper as a designer because she hardly did any designing. It was always weird that she didn't have a sense of style either despite being a designer and even later she just wore clothes from her Camille company closet. Meanwhile Yoon Bok is always nicely dressed though it seemed like the first time in normal clothes is when Hong Hak dressed him for the club, he suddenly has a tasteful closet. Their dates and life as a couple is really sweet. It took way too long to get here. The end where she makes a unilateral decision for them to choose one place or another and to break up is so ridiculous though. There is such a thing as long distance relationship and even Seongsan Village has wifi reception. Even when he shows up in Paris to see her after her successful debut, it doesn't feel very complete.

Yoon Bok's sister Yi Bok makes a awful rookie mistake like talking extremely loudly on the phone without even being aware of the people walking around her at the very place she's undercover and tailing suspects even though it looks like she's already been a detective for a long while. She just as quickly quits her job too and doesn't seem to take up any role related to it when she returns to the Seongsan village, she suddenly takes up the chief position so her brother can go to Paris for the finale. What's her dream job? Leadership skills? But she never showed any even while she was a detective. It's also a big deal her grandfather is now switching to training a woman as a leader of the village when the entire ruling class has been old men like himself, but that's all skipped over. The Hyang Gi character makes the most random turn. She was crappy co-worker happy to date a two timing guy and steal designs, but she suddenly she's an advice barista with her own business that has nothing to do with fashion even though she's a designer. It's like two entirely different characters just to keep the actress on the show. The cultural heritage administration director Bum Gyo is the ultimate random bad guy just to have a bad guy to not commit to completely vilifying the one guy (Jun Ho) that had a point to be mad's sake. He has no personality other than wanting money. The show didn't bother to give him any meaty motive and it's so dissatisfying.

Although she is a lead character, Hong Do is the third most done wrong character. The show would give her a moment like she's standing up for herself but always undercuts it with her getting steamrolled every single time. She NEVER gets to properly take agency to save herself while she is constantly damseled throughout the entire show. The second most wronged character is Jun Ho, the former child servant of Yoon Bok's family. The idea of Seongsan village presents an immediate problem that the show glosses over that Jun Ho represents. It can be one thing to preserve the culture for the people who are lords and ladies, but there are also the servant class and children who can be treated brutally like in the feudal era. Can human rights violation be consented to? Jun Ho is such a wasted character and he deserved to be part of the imitation and execution for change. The number one character that was the most done wrong is Hye Won, Yoon Bok's mother. She is a victim of the old school views of the grandfather and a bit of her tragic could have been majorly alleviated by her daughter Yi Bok, a whole detective actually telling Yoon Bok the whole truth sooner. Her mom was already in hospice in the last days and she couldn't have at least cleared the air on her behalf to her brother BEFORE she's dead? She's literally dying and not going to benefit from the deal with the grandfather anytime soon. Yoon Bok's misplaced anger while she dies is the result which is double trauma for her little brother too.

Some odds and ends, Camille is an independent queen who is always dressed to kill. It's a bummer we never see Frankie's lover. The two older couples of Camille and the grandfather and Chil Bok and Joo Daek are cute. Yoon Ah and Hong Hak got surprisingly saucy with their one night stand. All of these couples create interesting familial interconnections but the show NEVER capitalizes on it, instead using up half the show on endless chase scenes to catch Jun Ho. There's so much potential heart and humor just left on the floor. Even Joo Daek as Yoon Bok's mother figure wasn't played up enough. Chil Bok's immense financial losses also caused Hong Do and Hong Hak to be homeless as well, how did they survive that? There are missed opportunities and holes in the narrative everywhere and very slow to get into the meat of the story, but the romance when it happens is lovely and mature until it's messed up at the end.

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Psychological warfare game

It's interesting that the drama posits Soo Ji who is middleclass be the one that successfully fights back against the heiress bully Ha Rin. Ha Rin hand selected her to be in her class because of her background, mistaking her for easy to control. Soo Ji's sole familial connection actually doesn't have any thing that can be used against her aside from some easily disproven rumors. Soo Ji is financially stable, has good grades, and her largely absent military father has pushed her to be the utmost versatile independent problem solver for everything other than physical self defense. I don't think this guy will ever understand how neglectful he's been even after seeing what kind of bully she's actually been dealing with all on her own. I really like that Soo Ji is no saint, she just wants to stay in the middle, strategically forming surface level friendships until she can safely move onto whichever new school in the city her dad moves them to next. Even facing the violence that she'll be complicit in enabling in the pyramid game, she just wants to stay in the middle as well, but her conscience is challenged by Ja Eun, and finally uses her brain power for the greater good.

Soo Ji's cleverness and Ha Rin's cunning is a great match throughout the show. Everyone is involved in the plot in an interesting way and I like how there are moments where it shows the light of true friendship in between all the darkness that envelops the class because of the pyramid game. I quite enjoyed the paintball scene where they broke the prisoner game by turning the paintball shots on themselves, but it's not quite realistic that they were shooting each other for fun. Those paint pellets really hurt, especially at such close distance. One of them is for real all kinds of freaky though lol. I like how Woo Ri has her own storyline that goes beyond just being the first victim, but she gets to be a hero too. She tracked Ye Lim's stalking behavior albeit when she was doing her own borderline stalking behavior and broke through her agoraphobia to save her former classmate and later spoke out publicly about the pyramid game. Her brother is nice, supporting his sister and also Soo Ji and the other students as one of the rare adults who care.

Some weak parts of the show is definitely how conveniently Ja Eun gets interrupted every single time she's about to tell Soo Ji what happened between her and Ha Rin that makes her hate her so much. It's so inorganic and obvious of the show to stretch out that plot point. That's very sloppy writing indeed. It turned out that it wasn't even the only reason, so they still had something to reveal at the end. Instead it always looked like Soo Ji is missing some crucial information whenever she formulated her plans. There was no need for the principle to be so cartoony when no one else acts like that. Ha Rin's final play to make Ja Eun watch her die was pretty weak, as is her comeuppance having her adoption dissolved. Da Yun continuing to be abused by her dad who gets to comeuppances like that is the punishment she deserves for being abusive to others. Perhaps that is part of the story where the ones at the very top continue to have their way and new ones like the rich twins that move into the class arrive to replace the top of the pyramid. Soo Ji is ready to take them down though.

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Ms. Park and her husbands

Yeon Woo's opening section in Joseon is pretty fun with her being a woman that is too far ahead of her time, using her training in embroidery to sell avant garde hanbok designs and supporting fellow women artists. Her connection with the doomed Joseon Tae Ha is sweet as well, it was really sad to see him pass so soon. Her confusion being in modern times was only amusing up until after the point she meets reincarnated Tae Ha's nephew and learns the joys of a convivence store. After that it was pretty grating even though it would be realistic to need time to adjust, the schtick was just old. It was great to see Sa Wol take to the modern world like fish in water. She turned out to be even more of a woman ahead of her time than her agashi. Their sisterhood is really sweet as well.

I like how even though Yeon Woo is surrounded by dopplegangers with similar goals as those in Joseon, they're nuanced and different than those past versions of themselves like Hye Sook the step mother. I feel like the role of Tae Min could have been a very interesting wild card red herring had he been played by a stronger actor. It's a wasted opportunity that the writing didn't put some effort into fostering a brotherly bond between Tae Ha and Tae Min because the latter was on his brother's side, looking up to him the whole time.

While I do like that the drama portrays the two reincarnations are two entirely different people when other dramas stick the surviving lead with a reincarnation like it's the same person, it's also so sad that Yeon Woo kept Joseon Tae Ha at arms length after she manages to tip him off with enough of a head start that he survives their wedding night. It would have been lovely if she would have opened her heart to him too, just loving him as his own person different than reincarnated Tae Ha. He didn't have that long to live anyways with the medical abilities of the era no way being able to treat his lifelong heart issues. It's also weird that reincarnated Tae Ha's lifelong heart issue magically disappears and isn't an issue anymore.

Tae Ha's grandfather being the manipulative villain all along was nicely done, it seems to be a new trope having a seemingly loving parental figure who wants their child figure to be married to have been the one who is responsible for the death of the character's original parents. His ending of being just a happy guy all the time due to his head injury is anticlimactic though.

I really like how Yeon Woo and Tae Ha actually have a good physical intimacy, lots of kisses and they even have sex. I was half wondering if she'll be pregnant after going back to Joseon, passing off the kid as Joseon Tae Ha's, but they never went there, which is good. She and reincarnated Tae Ha used protection well.

The ending was okay, a vague connection of her jumping off a cliff and ending up in the modern day, although it looks like she just materialized by the tree all dry this time. Slightly better than just appearing again like a lot of other supernatural dramas where one character magically reappears with no explanation. They get officially married, but it's weirdly without any of their family like Sa Wol or Tae Min. It would have been a nice reversal from the fake one that only had his evil grandfather in attendance.

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Supernatural but not mind bending

The main pair are an okay match, though the show tried too hard at the beginning to push the romance with some cliche cringy scenes like they suddenly starring at each other for no reason, which was totally unnecessary because they already had all the scenes needed for the Yeong Min and Ji Hyeon to organically realize their feelings with her classmate ghost's unresolved wish to spend time with her since she's his first love. Ji Hyeon being able to change outfits is a fun. The show really had a missed opportunity not using this ability for Yeong Min to get some gifts for his ghost mom when they finally get to spend some time together before she moves on.

I really didn't like how the show played up Yeong Min being molested by which ever spirits that randomly possesses the shaman for laughs. And they also didn't make it clear why the shaman invited Yeong Min to the haunted building the taxi drivers hired him to to solve even when Yeong Min asked him directly. I did like how he was finally directly useful in helping Yeong Min find out where his mom's spirit went.

They left the plot of Yeong Min needed to pay off a certain amount within a month in order for his house to not be put on sale. They could have just had a quick scene showing the gold he got as payment from the ghosts was enough to pay that off, but it's like they forgot about it even though it was an important set up that got him accepting that he can see ghosts fast. It's a distracting thing that his money issues that affect both him and his grandmother were never explicitly resolved still lingers when he doesn't do much work in order to date a dead girl.

Every kdrama with a ghost romance always ends up with the ghost being someone alive in a coma so it was not surprising at all and feels kind of like a cop out for less emotional complexity especially since it was revealed really early on. It's also a weird thing that I've seen in other kdramas too where if the girlfriend is older than the guy, they refuse to call her noona whereas when the it's the other way around, it's oppa for life.

Neither of the main characters, one of whom is an aspiring police officer and one who is already a police detective albeit supernaturally amnesic though retains her police training in all the other instances are particularly detailed in their planning in how the catch their cunning serial killer doctor Kyu Jin. The show is lazily keeping them exactly one step behind the serial killer in logic like how in the first two times they confront him, he gets away scott free even after directly trying to murder Yeong Min because they didn't do any sort of recording. Kyu Jin even gets his hand on Ji Hyeon's phone because Yeong Min is so careless with it. He learned nothing when he almost lost the phone to the goons a high schooler called to beat him up.

Yeong Min's friendship with the taxi drivers is nice, but I don't feel like they spend enough time together to really strengthen the emotional ties. Kyu Jin and Hee Yeon as well, there could have been a bit more of a connection other than murdering together to flesh out their twisted sibling bond. The serial killer set up with an emergency doctor who enjoys seeing the family of the victims think of him as a hero after he murders their loved ones is well set up though. Ji Hyeon's police veteran dad believed Yeong Min way too easily that Ji Heyon's spirit has been hanging out with Yeong Min no matter how helpful he has been to catching Kyu Jin. They could have spared a scene for that.

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Could be more subversive, but still interesting

Kang Na Eon is such a refreshing female lead character that got to be diabolically cool, smart, and cunning. She even has the smooth, swoony kdrama moves down like when she caught the male lead as he fell. Both leads have excellent chemistry too, starting with the moment So Eun Ho desperately dresses up in his literal funeral best and initiates some passionate kissing that she reciprocates. It was lamentable that she had to switch bodies so soon, but it was also cool to see how immediately went about acclimating and investigating the attempt on her life while in Eun Ho's body. She had a lot of cool moments while in his body, so I looked forward to her switching back because I really want to see a female character get to be a commanding presence, but the drama definitely favored her having intense and commanding moments while in a male form more alas.

The costuming for her started with her in the most garish colors like poisonous animals have, but she totally owned every outfit. I like that she took a liking to wearing suits after spending time wearing them in Eun Ho's body, but it's a bummer it's mostly over sized looks rather than bepsoke ones that would fit her to perfection. That would have been amazing. I really liked the reveal that Eun Ho was playing dumb and had a hole revenge plan against her too, blaming her for stealing his idea and the death of his girlfriend. The twist that Na Eon tried to fix the situation and apologize for it was interesting, the hint that she had a heart deep inside.

I found the body swap pretty easy to follow, there were even times where I felt like the show was over explaining who was in who's body. There seems to be two ghostly presences legitimately haunting Na Eon since it's not psychosomatic and Eun Ho experienced it too and later follows Na Eon to Eun Ho's body, one being the ghostly hands and the other being the body swap ghost girlfriend Da Eun. It's never explained but there was a bunch of people that rushed in to help the Da Eun before there was an explosion, so I wonder if they also died and are the hands. There should have been more of an attempt to explain how the switches are triggered and why is it limited. It was pretty arbitrary through out the end.

On the gender side of things, I appreciated that they didn't add stereotypically gendered movements to the characters when they've switched, it's more personality traits like Na Eon's aloofness and Eun Ho's over the top reactions which were an act on top of an act. On the other hand the portrayal of the only gay character Lex was suspect. It's totally fine he's effeminate and a fashionable drag queen, but the show had him be overly touchy to other male characters and the other male characters refer to him in gay panic moments. That's very unfortunate. The show seems to be making effort to destigmatize gay culture along with feminine hygiene, contraceptives, and sex toys, but still baby steps for productions that aren't lgbt specific.

The ending with almost all the antagonists redeemed except for the lone female executive was lacking. There wasn't enough from Yoo Mi or Nam Byul for them to be redeemed. Also Jung Woo would go as far as being so physically violent and attempted to murder Na Eon, erasing the evidence, and left her for dead is all forgiven because Hee Jung told him to is extremely nonsensical. That man committed a huge crime and she shouldn't be on friendly terms with him at all, at least not with how things turn out. Yoo Mi went off the deep end hating Na Eon's guts too and there should have been seeded more scenes of her caring enough about Na Eon for their return to friendship to mean anything. Otherwise her not wanting to murder Eun Ho is good enough for them to have some sort of begrudging understanding. Nam Byul was literally a character on the side plotting against Na Eon the whole time with no emotional connection to anything.

Though the drama would have been better if there was a bit more grit and angst in a bit of a darker tone, it was still an interesting take on the body swap genre.

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