It's pretty rare I don't give 9's or thereabouts for these. They are uniformly well written and acted. It's hard if you are used to drama formats to give up the plot and character development that goes with a longer series. Still, I remember loving my short story courses in college and learning to appreciate the challenges faced by authors to tell a story that leaves holes the readers are able to fill in on their own. It is an art and the drama specials excel in it. This was wonderful...a sweet and loving story that showed terrible hardship, a perceived betrayal of the worst kind, and the learning of acceptance and love. I felt nothing was left out of this story, nor were there unexplained gaps. Everything was easily filled in by the audience, even if we wanted more. Have tissues ready, but it is a lovely, sad but happy story you will be glad you watched.
I can tell a LOT of work went into making this film and a lot of money. Still, it found it hard going to appreciate it. I think a lot of that has to do with a lack of connection for me with the content and story, so it's my failing rather than the movie's. Yet, I've watched many other movies like this from countries I have no knowledge of and liked them better. So...I'm not sure. Per wiki, there was a lot of 'artistic license' taken with this movie also. 7/10
for me, this was a difficult movie to enjoy. It's heavy on content for sure, detailed to nth degree regarding the period and the inner workings of the gangster life. I had to appreciate the detail of it, the intricate relationships and character building of the excellent script and great performances. But I found myself walking away, checking emails, just taking a break because I was losing interest. Still those performances and that story....I wanted to see it all come together at the end. Choi Min Sik was great...smarmy and opportunistic as hell, slippery as an eel. The rest of the cast perfectly selected for their roles. All that said, I still could not stay engrossed. I managed to finish, but it took me about 4+ hours of on and off. Still 8/10 for performances and script. So much work and effort was put into the film, I had to appreciate that even if the story just didn't really interest me. I do wonder...was it his conscious he was hearing at the end? Or retribution's arrival?
Pretty good, if uneven movie. Crime noir should stick with dark and the intermingling of the slapstick comedy relief, while cute, was jarring when you consider the events in the story. Dark humor would have worked, but this was just a bit too cutesy. Even so, it was well acted, most especially by Park Hee Soon, who really carried the intensity that made the movie worth watching for me. The erotica was not inappropriate and even well done since it matched the story, but overall, there wasn't anything much new in this and there are no real surprises. Still, it wasn't a waste of time. It killed a couple hours when I couldn't sleep. Either a 7.5 or 8...probably settle for 7.5
MDL had it as 12 episodes also up until a few weeks ago when I noticed it had been changed. This was simulcast on Oksusu, Something about 1% was only 8 episodes on Oksusu originally, but when it appeared on DF it came out in 16. So maybe MDL got it from there?
I never noticed what DF had as the number of episodes. :) When I referred to 12 vs 13 it was based on what I saw on MDL and everything I had read about it before it started. I like shorter dramas sometimes since they tend to condense all the unnecessary stuff out and Sometimes you get a better story. It's one of my favorite things about the few Jdramas I've seen. :)
awful..just plain awful. They took a perfectly adequate fairy tale cliche ridden kdrama and ruined it. It's obvious they added an hour of flashbacks in order to drag these last episodes out. It was scheduled for 12 and now there are 13...for absolutely no good reason. Ugh. Sung Hoon....be more careful. This thing and the even worse idolm@aster are 2 you should never have signed on for if you wanted to build a better resume!
Absolutely lovely movie. The beauty and pathos of it will sneak up on you, wrap you in its arms, and leave you happy but aching at what you have just watched. This is the story of 4 elders at the end of their lives, all dealing with life's daily struggles, loneliness, happiness, sadness, life and death. It's particularly appropriate and oh so real given the real life situations of many of the elderly in Korea. Beautifully filmed, every shot seemed carefully planned and built with great attention to detail and with a lot of love.
Unquestionably, this film would be much less without the lead of Yoon Kye Sang. The intensity of his portrayal is the only consistently fine performance in this movie, for me. The difficulty of this role...no dialogue, all emotions and communication purely through facial and body expressions...there are very few actors that could have done as well. I guess the words spare and stark are good descriptions of the filmings style, but after as many KKD films as I have seen, it's not as unusual for me as it might be for someone who hasn't watched his films. Still, there was no connection for me with any character except YKS's. Everyone else I really could have cared less about, nor did I find them frightening or emotionally engaging in any way. And that's not a good thing given the story I just watched. I found myself fast forwarding through several scenes...unable to connect nor to feel any sense of urgency about what was going on . 7/10 But YKS gets a 9/10
this thing is listed as one of the best films of this century?? Why I have no idea. Horrible acting, low budget, everyone seems to have weird voices, especially the women...all of them kind of whiny and nasal sounding. Some of the 'tasks' are so cheesy it's like the whole thing was thought up and written by a group of 13 (pun intended) year old boys. The scene where the morgue attendant is wheeling him down the hall was so badly acted it was embarrassing watching it. And the ridiculousness of a guy with half his head cut off crawling along was straight out of a zombie movie...a very bad zombie movie. I've read reviews raving about it...obviously I'm not in on the secret. I found it neither scary nor nail-biting nor shocking. The ending was highly predictable so totally anti-climactic. And the kid doing the Blofeld act with the white cat? Definitely a 13 year old concept. I wonder if the writer of this thought all of it up when he was 13..ergo the use of 13???? Sorry. I obviously missed the boat totally on this one.
I thought this is a 16 episode drama, so I confused why I get 2 episode in a day. Watching it for key and that…
It is only 16 episodes....sort of. Each one hour episode is broken into 2 half hour segments. Korea has some strange rules on how much advertising they can or cannot do during a show. By creating 2 episodes out of 1 hour, they can sell commercials between the 2 segments to get around the rules and create some badly needed revenue. The drop in income because of the China ban has hurt them badly. They are saying we may be looking at fewer dramas in the future.
I really dislike the 35 minute format, I truly hope that this is not the future of Korean dramas.
unfortunately, it will be for some time to come until the issues with China are resolved. The networks are desperate to bring in more revenue since the loss from China hit them, and this is one of the ways (due to their different rules and regs on advertising) they can insert more commercials. By broadcasting 2 "episodes" in 30-35 lengths every day, they can fill up several minutes between the 2 with commercials. =more$
Really Really enjoyed this. I certainly hope they consider a series. Though we all know that is so rare as to be impossible to think of. This drama was a great surprise. I just wasn't sure about this pairing but Choi Kang Hee is always surprising me and Heart to Heart was a shining example of her brilliance as an actress. This show definitely continues the tradition of the female versions of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson that have been so popularized over the years by several others. Ms. Marple and Jessica Fletcher of Murder She Wrote are prime examples of brilliant but ordinary women joining forces with the police to solve crimes. This was such a fun and Well Done show that I hope there is enough feedback to encourage the producers and the network to consider another season. I'm not sure how realistic that will be given that it had difficulty staying in the top 10 and only maintained ratings in the 8-10% range.
Another one off my List! I've been putting this one off for so long. It had such great reviews, but if there is anything I find more repetitive, cliche, and boring than sageuks, it's family drama. And 58 episodes?!?!?! I usually end up dropping them or skipping episodes. The 50+ format usually means for highly repetitive relationship developments that frustrate me and invariably they bog down for the middle 25 episodes.
But...........not this one! This one deserves all the accolades it got. It got its feet under it from about episode 8 (for me) and just kept getting better and better. I will admit I could not stand the 2nd son's arc so ended up ff through all of he and his bratty wife and psycho MIL's scenes...was not at all interested in their redemptive arc either. And I pretty much watched the entire thing on 2X speed with no loss of enjoyment. I did slow it down for Joo Won and Uee and the mom's scenes though. They were wonderful! The script was good, but the acting and lack of hysterical cliche were the salvation. I've waited for another family drama to rival Glorious Day and Bluebird House and this one lands right up there with Glorious Day for me! Kim Ja Ok...what a loss. Such a wonderful actress. I absolutely adored her in this.
I know there were lots of complaints from medical personnel watching this as to the poor attention to the small details of hospital routine...no gloves, improper operating or ER procedures, etc. We have gotten so used to the higher quality medical dramas in the US where attention to those details is almost OCD. Even so, I loved the format, the individual stories, the blurring of right and wrong, the difficult decisions that must be made in an instant, the real pressures put on medical personnel each day. It was nice to see the comparisons they brought up between the systems...the administrative decisions that are not exactly black or white, but sometimes have to be in between...and differences between Chinese medical care and foreign medical care...the layers of bureaucracy that are everywhere, but even more scarily controlling in a country like China. It got WAY too mellow towards the end, and OMG! the violins were absolutely deafening. As long as it stuck to the medical stories and stayed away from the melo stuff, it was really good for me.
I, for one, love the ending. No need for pretty bows to tie up everything. In their world life will keep on going as it has, rocketing forward on a very very bumpy road. The best part about the (lack of) romance was...it's lack! I loved the adultness of the drama in how it treated them as a couple. They aren't little kids and I think they did an excellent job of portraying the chemistry in a way that left us no doubt of how they felt about each other. Besides, the romance was only a side story for me anyway.
on DramaCool or DramaNice or DramaFire. Really well done. Enjoyed it very much. Lovely love story and these 2 did a really good job. ( search as Individualist Ms. Ji Young)
http://www.rogerebert.com/far-flung-correspondents/a-nameless-gangster-in-2012s-best-south-korean-film
for me, this was a difficult movie to enjoy. It's heavy on content for sure, detailed to nth degree regarding the period and the inner workings of the gangster life. I had to appreciate the detail of it, the intricate relationships and character building of the excellent script and great performances. But I found myself walking away, checking emails, just taking a break because I was losing interest. Still those performances and that story....I wanted to see it all come together at the end. Choi Min Sik was great...smarmy and opportunistic as hell, slippery as an eel. The rest of the cast perfectly selected for their roles. All that said, I still could not stay engrossed. I managed to finish, but it took me about 4+ hours of on and off. Still 8/10 for performances and script. So much work and effort was put into the film, I had to appreciate that even if the story just didn't really interest me. I do wonder...was it his conscious he was hearing at the end? Or retribution's arrival?
http://wiki.d-addicts.com/My_Secret_Romance - still has it as 12 + 1
Special?
http://www.inquisitr.com/4140462/dramafever-coproducing-ocn-1st-romcom-my-secret-romance-kdrama-to-simultaneously-air-in-us-and-korea/
MDL had it as 12 episodes also up until a few weeks ago when I noticed it had been changed. This was simulcast on Oksusu, Something about 1% was only 8 episodes on Oksusu originally, but when it appeared on DF it came out in 16. So maybe MDL got it from there?
I did just NOW saw this article !!!.....
http://en.koreaportal.com/articles/36074/20170524/my-secret-romance-episode-12-spoilers-watch-online-jin-wook-yoo-mi-returns-to-fateful-beach-for-sweet-reunion.htm
It's a RECAP special??????????? Odd. Usually MDL lists Specials as separate entries. I haven't seen 13 yet...guess I'll find out tomorrow! :)
I never noticed what DF had as the number of episodes. :) When I referred to 12 vs 13 it was based on what I saw on MDL and everything I had read about it before it started. I like shorter dramas sometimes since they tend to condense all the unnecessary stuff out and Sometimes you get a better story. It's one of my favorite things about the few Jdramas I've seen. :)
But...........not this one! This one deserves all the accolades it got. It got its feet under it from about episode 8 (for me) and just kept getting better and better. I will admit I could not stand the 2nd son's arc so ended up ff through all of he and his bratty wife and psycho MIL's scenes...was not at all interested in their redemptive arc either. And I pretty much watched the entire thing on 2X speed with no loss of enjoyment. I did slow it down for Joo Won and Uee and the mom's scenes though. They were wonderful! The script was good, but the acting and lack of hysterical cliche were the salvation. I've waited for another family drama to rival Glorious Day and Bluebird House and this one lands right up there with Glorious Day for me! Kim Ja Ok...what a loss. Such a wonderful actress. I absolutely adored her in this.
I, for one, love the ending. No need for pretty bows to tie up everything. In their world life will keep on going as it has, rocketing forward on a very very bumpy road. The best part about the (lack of) romance was...it's lack! I loved the adultness of the drama in how it treated them as a couple. They aren't little kids and I think they did an excellent job of portraying the chemistry in a way that left us no doubt of how they felt about each other. Besides, the romance was only a side story for me anyway.