I could copy and paste what I wrote half way through. I don't fault the acting in this. Everyone did great job as far as I could see. No overacting. And the bad guys were great! They weren't cartoon character baddies, twirling their imaginary mustaches and snickering evilly. They were more complex and had dark and light to their badness. The fight scenes, of which there are many, were excellent. Terrifically well choreographed and far more realistic in their viciousness that we are used to seeing in dramas. More like in the movies.
Where this failed for me was the story and the writing. It tried too hard, too hard to be more than it was. And tried to be too many things too. If they had gotten away from the 007 wanna be stuff and just treated him like a disgraced cop, in a neighborhood bar frequented by retired cops and various oddball characters maybe, then the story would have felt more grounded in reality. Somehow this story never let us get really attached to these characters, for me anyway. It was all in all pretty disappointing. I should have been prepared, was prepared but still hopeful, when I saw who the writers were. Still I hoped! That it was on cable made me hope for a down and gritty action show with a tense revenge mystery to top it off(oh WHY could this not have been something brilliant like Signal?). But not even close.
I don't regret watching it. I just wanted so much more for Park Si Hoo's long awaited return drama. Still, he has his feet wet now. From the looks of him in this show, the strain and worry he must have been under definitely showed. He seemed very subdued or quiet in his portrayal...I missed the send of power or energy he is capable of projecting in his roles. I hope he will continue to fight on and bring us another brighter or stronger performance. I would love to see him with a strong co-star, or even as a second lead, in something dark like his movie Confessions maybe.
As entertainment, it doesn't get much better than this. Absolutely gorgeous to look at. Everything about it a delight to the eyes and the senses. The acting superb. I loved every minute. LBH was just stunningly sexy evil in this. He is looking very gaunt however...still, it was a perfect 'look' for this movie as it matched the character perfectly. The fight scenes were beautifully choreographed and, yes, it is very wuxia a la Crouching Tiger and I loved it doubly for that. My only problem? with the movie was the story...a mother, who seems to love her child, raises her to unknowingly kill her own parents? This is a departure from morality that is pretty hard to swallow. As a dramatic device, okay, I guess. Just not one I particularly was happy about. Still, not enough of a detriment to knock it down much!!! Still a 9/10 for me and I will definitely watch it again!!! Really. A feast to look at!
very good story and acting. Some procedural holes, but not horrible. Ending way too pat. I keep thinking how much…
yes it is. I've not been able to watch much. Only 3 episodes. Not impressed. Signal is FAR better, Ghost/Phantom was a step down from Signal, and this one is more like a typical kdrama. Not that that is necessarily bad...it's just no Signal!!! :)
My first 100 episode drama!!!!! I swore an OATH I would never ever watch one, but decided to just try it because of the cast and the early talk. I'm totally addicted. My heart was leaping out of my chest after every episode for the first 25!! I have tried several and they became so unbearable boring and repetitive! Seo Jun Yeong is killing it in his performance. I was left shaking purely because of him. Just amazing! (That mother of his is gonna kill me...but I'm killing her taking her with me if I die!!)
A few places have posted this synopsis which comes from KBS:
"As the proverb goes, "The apple does not fall far from the tree," the mother, who was unloved by her parents, sacrifices everything she has for the man she loved, but she gets betrayed. No matter how much she loved him, she ends up as a single mother just like her mother.
Her daughter, watching her mother's life closely, decides not to live like her. However, those who betrayed her trample the lives of the two women. The mother and daughter can do everything to achieve their goal even if they have to hurt other people. And, this is their greed. They should get paid enough for what they have done.
The daughter is so depressed that she has got nothing to lose, she has her last chance. Her twin sister, adopted by the rich family when she was a baby, passes away and she gets her place after that. She stays close to the mother and daughter and slowly she destroys their life. Yet, it is their matter of wanting to. The daughter gets hurt by her mother's trap. Watching her daughter bleed, the mother finally realizes what she has done.
This story is about the betrayal of the loved ones and the meaning of true love. And, while the saying, "What goes around comes around," is true, the main message of the story is that sincere love always wins."
--------It's confusing because who is her? Who is the mother? Who is the daughter? I think it keeps switching. After reading it a few times and switching who I was thinking it was, I think the mother daughter they are talking about in the 2nd paragraph are Se Jin and her mother. The 1st is about NaYeon. The beginning of the 3rd is NaYeon and the end about Se Jin and her mother again.
Whatever the story ends up being, I was actually happier with it being Do Hee that survived. I don't really like the door mat characters like Na Yeon. But, probably, if it is Na Yeon that survives, I'm betting she gets tough like Do Hee, so I'll be fine with that. I'm wondering if Tae Joon et all are going to know Na Yeon is "dead"? Or will that be hidden somehow? And she will be picking at them as Do Hee, saying stuff Do Hee should never know??? Whatever, it's going to be fun!
One thing though. I really really HOPE that little girl does not get drug into this mess...like Se Jin and Tae Joon getting custody and that little tyke being exposed to all kinds of crap from her and her mom. The whole scenario of NaYeon pretending to be dead and assuming DoHee's identity doesn't make much sense. As DoHee she would have no rights to custody of NaYeon's daughter so a dead NaYeon automatically means Tae Joon and Se Jin will get her. And Se Jin is not going to be happy about that. So, if NaYeon does assume Do Hee's ID, then I have to assume they have already taken custody away from her somehow. And that will be a stretch. Because even in Korea, unless the mom is a deadbeat mom, or unable to support her child, the mom's usually get custody. But I see no other reason why NaYeon would pretend to be dead. Because if she is alive and has custody of her daughter, why would she jeopardize that? Which then gets my mind going on another dozen scenarios explaining all that!!!! UGH. Wishing my days away. Better go check to see if the next episode is up. I'm watching on Dramanice.
very good story and acting. Some procedural holes, but not horrible. Ending way too pat. I keep thinking how much better done this would have been if it was done on cable. I'm eternally grateful that Signal, also by this author, jumped to cable for that brilliantly done drama. Now on to Sign, also by her...but also by SBS. Still a solid 8 for me.
It was a good story. Excellent production. large cast and realistic sets. Overly long at 2.25 hours!!!! Could have done with a bit of editing. Nice romance. WAY overly dramatic in places, in particular her 'confession' scene was a bit overdone. Watched it on Dramanice. A lot of the scenes were filmed in the dark/candlelight which made much of the film difficult if not impossible to see. The final battle was the highlight...looked like a Joseon era 300. Of course thousands of arrows falling and not a single horse drops. Pretty amazing how thousands also get blown up but the girl right in the middle of all that lives! But it was fun. Even more fun is the fact that the weapons and the time period are actually based on historical fact. I'm pretty sure none of this story is though, but who cares!
Highly predictable Romeo and Juliet movie with usual sad ending. But not all that sad since you know going in how it's going to go from the very first scene....and the synopsis is a dead giveaway. Pretty to look at, not a lot of depth, but entertaining enough.
For some this is a classic. For me, it's a poor B movie at best. Terrible script, virtually no story building. Just a bunch of set scenes piled one after the other about people who apparently don't like each other for no clearly defined reason as there's virtually no back story to any of it. A lot of fight scenes which, by today's standards, are pretty poorly done. Watching bodies hit 'barrels' that are obviously made of rubber, poorly concealed mats for the fighters to conveniently fall on, to the completely idiotic final fight...all of it just made my eyes roll. There wasn't a thing about this movie that was new or innovative or ground breaking or emotionally engaging. I had absolutely no reason to cheer for a man who was clearly completely out of his league in this fight and not smart enough to logically plan and execute a decent revenge scenario. I spent the entire final scene thinking this is the dumbest protagonist I have ever seen and the most embarrassingly bad scene writing for a final fight ever...a public 'fashion' show where he walks down the stage and attacks the bad guys?? not 17....like 71 of them!!! SMH That's all the bad. However, I absolutely LOVED the opportunity to see the young versions of this cast. All are actors we see everyday now in film and dramas and to see them so young and so handsome, it was just a joy. For that reason alone this movie is endurable. B movie it may be, but there's a ton of people who love old gangster movies like this...I just don't happen to be one!
The DVD with authorized English subs is due for release in April 2016. I'm guessing we will have to wait until someone pirates it onto their site to find decent subs.
I agree about PP. KSY worked very hard on that character and it was very well written and acted. The character had an extremely high IQ, which caused its own problems socially, and she was also extremely sheltered and spoiled. She grew so much in the length of that show, and if you were patient and waited to see it, it was a wonderful transformation and a terrific acting job she did. This is my favorite PSH drama. His character was very complex and I half hated him for what he was doing to her. It was a cruel plan on his part, without consideration for the innocent she was. This drama did manage to stay in the top 20 during broadcast, but ran against Cinderella's Sister and High Kick Through the Roof, both of which were top 5 shows, and Personal Preference which was a top 10 show.
Don't know about Ugly, but I don't believe all the stuff about more time for character development in these long dramas. If a movie can get across the heart of a character and a story in 2 hours...and it can....then there is something wrong with a show that cannot get an audience to see who their characters are in 50-70 hours of broadcast. It just means a ton of filler and, unless that filler is a joy to watch (like Glorious Days), it's fast forward for me or skipping every other episode. It says a lot about a drama if you can skip every other episode and not lose track of the story! But I have heard good things about Ugly and it will stay on my list....probably still be there after I die!!! ;)
MHTT...what a travesty. I loved that show. It had enormous potential that was utterly wasted. First the lack of audience and then that mess with Lee Tae Im and Yewon. It was destroyed before it got started. Bae Soo Bin was amazing in that. I hate him playing bad guys, but lordy is he good at it! That is a drama that I will never forget. I was SO frustrated over everything that went down that caused it to be chopped in half and then dumped. Some great performances and a really good story.
Great movie..not a gangster movie in the traditional sense, more an intense character study of mother/son relationships under extreme circumstances. Not his mother, not her son, but that relationship that transcends blood and how the loss of those relationships affects even the most hardened men. This is the first movie by the director/screenwriter Lee Jeong-Beom who also did The Man from Nowhere and No Tears for the Dead. It was not at all what I expected. My heart is still pounding and, though the ending is exactly what you expect, it didn't prevent me from crying my eyes out. Na Moon Hee was terrific as the mom. My heart went out to her. A mother has to love her son in spite of knowing who and what he is. Her acceptance of Jae Moon as her second son sent back to her was utterly heartbreaking in its finality. And her grief at knowing her real son was responsible was just as heartbreaking. There are good movies that you forget. This movie I will never forget. 9/10 on Dramanice.
odd odd odd...weird, offbeat, bizarre....still I liked it. Ji Hyun Woo...blink you will miss him!! I have no idea how I ended up with this on my list. I think the writer and director got stoned and put this thing together.
Disconnect. These young men are. And I was, while watching. Not in the sense that I was bored or felt the subject matter was uninteresting or not well presented....it was very well done, but in the sense that watching these young people and their hive mentality is so disconnecting in any relatable way for me and who I am in my age group. It's scary, frightening, depressing to see how disconnected from themselves and each other they are. There is an absence of feeling and emotion and connection on a human level that is very disturbing. Some of my problem or confusion with the movie may have been caused by the subs or the writing that left me scratching my head in parts trying to figure out how they got from point A to point B, or it may also have been my inability to understand the jargon and the technology that allows for those jumps. It's not the first movie, book, or conversation that brings this bleak outlook on the social network generation. But they all seem to present the same dark prognosis for people who are unable to look a person in the eye and see a fellow human being instead of a fellow User. Thankfully, there were still some who were trying to hang on to their humanity. In a life spent with cyber bullies and non-human users, how does a young person today form and retain a real life friendship or love when they live with a computer screen between them and the humans around them? 8/10
Literally left me breathless. Overwhelmed. Yang Ik June wrote, produced, directed and starred in this brilliant, stunning, and yes, breathtaking movie. I found myself holding my breath many times, shedding tears many times, having my heart broken many times in this film. So unbelievably well done. Extremely violent and profane and worth every minute. There are many great reviews of this movie. Read them because I can't come up with better words than they do. Very deserving of it's many awards.
For those of you who watched It's Okay, That's Love, you will recognize Yang with white hair as the mad older brother of Jo In Sung/Jae Yeol.
Excellent movie. Really well written and terrific acting by all. Looking at it strictly as a movie about a concept, it was very well done. As a fictionalized accounting, taking liberties with the true story, I am just a BIT hesitant with this concept. I kept it as a 8.5 based on my feelings for the movie as a stand alone production. The fact that the true story is so tragic, so compelling, so worthy of being told without so much fictionalizing, made me hesitate. Still, the story the movie tells is so well done, I decided to stand by my higher rating despite my misgivings, but not to bump it up into the near perfection of a 9.
I have read some accounts of the true story of the Frog Children, but they did not go into details about how they were killed, nor much about the searching or the investigations other than mentioning major facts. It's not a stretch to think the investigators had to have considered the parents...it would have been irresponsible not to at least investigate the possibilities. Still it was hard to witness that nightmare play out. This movie dealt more with that aspect of the events surrounding the boys' disappearance and murder. The characters of the PD and the professor were a fascinating device used to expose what is probably a composite picture of these types of characters that investigators and victims have to deal with in high profile cases like this. I loved the prophetic 'lesson' the professor is teaching as we first meet him of the cult figures who, upon finding their prophet's feet of clay, decide that neither he nor they were wrong and go on to adjust their beliefs so that neither he nor they appear to have believed wrongly!! And then we watch as the professor fulfills his own lesson becoming his own false prophet. And the slimy PD regains his soul, partially through the birth of his own child and finding out what being a parent really means, and desperately seeks to make amends for the damage he has caused.
I don't know why they had to insert the killer concept at the end. It felt like an intrusion. I always wonder if these kinds of ideas are purely imaginary, or, were there hints given out by the investigators that they had a suspect but no proof to build a case on. Anyway, it felt like a lame attempt to give some partial closure or to build even more frustration. Still, it wasn't so awful that I hated it completely. It's not out of the bounds of possibilities I guess?
Where this failed for me was the story and the writing. It tried too hard, too hard to be more than it was. And tried to be too many things too. If they had gotten away from the 007 wanna be stuff and just treated him like a disgraced cop, in a neighborhood bar frequented by retired cops and various oddball characters maybe, then the story would have felt more grounded in reality. Somehow this story never let us get really attached to these characters, for me anyway. It was all in all pretty disappointing. I should have been prepared, was prepared but still hopeful, when I saw who the writers were. Still I hoped! That it was on cable made me hope for a down and gritty action show with a tense revenge mystery to top it off(oh WHY could this not have been something brilliant like Signal?). But not even close.
I don't regret watching it. I just wanted so much more for Park Si Hoo's long awaited return drama. Still, he has his feet wet now. From the looks of him in this show, the strain and worry he must have been under definitely showed. He seemed very subdued or quiet in his portrayal...I missed the send of power or energy he is capable of projecting in his roles. I hope he will continue to fight on and bring us another brighter or stronger performance. I would love to see him with a strong co-star, or even as a second lead, in something dark like his movie Confessions maybe.
A few places have posted this synopsis which comes from KBS:
"As the proverb goes, "The apple does not fall far from the tree," the mother, who was unloved by her parents, sacrifices everything she has for the man she loved, but she gets betrayed. No matter how much she loved him, she ends up as a single mother just like her mother.
Her daughter, watching her mother's life closely, decides not to live like her. However, those who betrayed her trample the lives of the two women. The mother and daughter can do everything to achieve their goal even if they have to hurt other people. And, this is their greed. They should get paid enough for what they have done.
The daughter is so depressed that she has got nothing to lose, she has her last chance. Her twin sister, adopted by the rich family when she was a baby, passes away and she gets her place after that. She stays close to the mother and daughter and slowly she destroys their life. Yet, it is their matter of wanting to. The daughter gets hurt by her mother's trap. Watching her daughter bleed, the mother finally realizes what she has done.
This story is about the betrayal of the loved ones and the meaning of true love. And, while the saying, "What goes around comes around," is true, the main message of the story is that sincere love always wins."
--------It's confusing because who is her? Who is the mother? Who is the daughter? I think it keeps switching. After reading it a few times and switching who I was thinking it was, I think the mother daughter they are talking about in the 2nd paragraph are Se Jin and her mother. The 1st is about NaYeon. The beginning of the 3rd is NaYeon and the end about Se Jin and her mother again.
Whatever the story ends up being, I was actually happier with it being Do Hee that survived. I don't really like the door mat characters like Na Yeon. But, probably, if it is Na Yeon that survives, I'm betting she gets tough like Do Hee, so I'll be fine with that. I'm wondering if Tae Joon et all are going to know Na Yeon is "dead"? Or will that be hidden somehow? And she will be picking at them as Do Hee, saying stuff Do Hee should never know??? Whatever, it's going to be fun!
One thing though. I really really HOPE that little girl does not get drug into this mess...like Se Jin and Tae Joon getting custody and that little tyke being exposed to all kinds of crap from her and her mom. The whole scenario of NaYeon pretending to be dead and assuming DoHee's identity doesn't make much sense. As DoHee she would have no rights to custody of NaYeon's daughter so a dead NaYeon automatically means Tae Joon and Se Jin will get her. And Se Jin is not going to be happy about that. So, if NaYeon does assume Do Hee's ID, then I have to assume they have already taken custody away from her somehow. And that will be a stretch. Because even in Korea, unless the mom is a deadbeat mom, or unable to support her child, the mom's usually get custody. But I see no other reason why NaYeon would pretend to be dead. Because if she is alive and has custody of her daughter, why would she jeopardize that? Which then gets my mind going on another dozen scenarios explaining all that!!!! UGH. Wishing my days away. Better go check to see if the next episode is up. I'm watching on Dramanice.
it says 0%, but if you go into the episodes, the subtitles are there.
Don't know about Ugly, but I don't believe all the stuff about more time for character development in these long dramas. If a movie can get across the heart of a character and a story in 2 hours...and it can....then there is something wrong with a show that cannot get an audience to see who their characters are in 50-70 hours of broadcast. It just means a ton of filler and, unless that filler is a joy to watch (like Glorious Days), it's fast forward for me or skipping every other episode. It says a lot about a drama if you can skip every other episode and not lose track of the story! But I have heard good things about Ugly and it will stay on my list....probably still be there after I die!!! ;)
MHTT...what a travesty. I loved that show. It had enormous potential that was utterly wasted. First the lack of audience and then that mess with Lee Tae Im and Yewon. It was destroyed before it got started. Bae Soo Bin was amazing in that. I hate him playing bad guys, but lordy is he good at it! That is a drama that I will never forget. I was SO frustrated over everything that went down that caused it to be chopped in half and then dumped. Some great performances and a really good story.
For those of you who watched It's Okay, That's Love, you will recognize Yang with white hair as the mad older brother of Jo In Sung/Jae Yeol.
I have read some accounts of the true story of the Frog Children, but they did not go into details about how they were killed, nor much about the searching or the investigations other than mentioning major facts. It's not a stretch to think the investigators had to have considered the parents...it would have been irresponsible not to at least investigate the possibilities. Still it was hard to witness that nightmare play out. This movie dealt more with that aspect of the events surrounding the boys' disappearance and murder. The characters of the PD and the professor were a fascinating device used to expose what is probably a composite picture of these types of characters that investigators and victims have to deal with in high profile cases like this. I loved the prophetic 'lesson' the professor is teaching as we first meet him of the cult figures who, upon finding their prophet's feet of clay, decide that neither he nor they were wrong and go on to adjust their beliefs so that neither he nor they appear to have believed wrongly!! And then we watch as the professor fulfills his own lesson becoming his own false prophet. And the slimy PD regains his soul, partially through the birth of his own child and finding out what being a parent really means, and desperately seeks to make amends for the damage he has caused.
I don't know why they had to insert the killer concept at the end. It felt like an intrusion. I always wonder if these kinds of ideas are purely imaginary, or, were there hints given out by the investigators that they had a suspect but no proof to build a case on. Anyway, it felt like a lame attempt to give some partial closure or to build even more frustration. Still, it wasn't so awful that I hated it completely. It's not out of the bounds of possibilities I guess?