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?
sigh..... I'm not blaming any of the actors, they seem to be trying VERY hard....it's the WRITING. This thing can't seem to make up it's mind if it wants to be a 007 wanna be, a mystery, a comedy, a romance, and a host of other stuff. It's doing way too many things trying to be everything!! It goes helter skelter from scene to scene without enough story to back them up. We can't attach to the characters because there isn't enough built into their stories to make us interested in them. Should have known, and I did worry, when I saw the writer's previous credits. IMMENSELY disappointed...but still hanging in there with ever fading hopes. It's not horrible, it's just not what I hoped and prayed for. At a 7 for me right now. Still hoping and will wait for eps 5 & 6 with fingers crossed.
5.5 and that only out of charity. I too do not understand why No Min Woo continues to take these oddball rolls.…
Yes indeed, a very tough watch and I am totally with you on how it got harder and harder with each episode. I ended up FF through most of the final ones. So very very disappointing. Or. Unfortunate!!
This movie is heartbreaking and the facts presented are very hard to deal with. It's not so upsetting that you can't watch it. It's presented in an almost documentary style, so that helps with the overload of emotions that could overwhelm. It did not leave me sobbing, but I did shed tears, so don't feel like you can't watch it because you are afraid it will be too upsetting. I learned a lot watching this and left with even more to think about. No easy answers in this one. And my heart will stay with those parents who are still searching for their stolen children. Unbelievably sad and inconceivable.
The last half hour was good, but, honestly, I expected more. The adults were good. The kid not so much. It's like the director just picked some random kid, said stand or sit in this spot and look at the ground until I tell you to stop. Now raise your arm across your eyes and rub it back and forth until I tell you to stop. Still, the quirky adult cast was fun to watch and I loved the dream sequences. Not Great not Bad. 7/10
It's a commercial For Samsung. They apparently have a mentoring program for young entrepreneurs to submit business plans to, If they get selected they get into the mentoring program to help them build their business. This appears to be a training type video introducing people to it. MASSIVE product placement throughout!
Absolutely hilarious. Really enjoyed it. Jung Il Woo FINALLY has a great show and performance and he looks fantastic in this. Loved his wardrobe! What a fashion doll he is! ;) JSY was ok. She still seems wooden to me. Her facial expressions are ??? I'm not sure what the word is but she doesn't have that subtlety of expression that makes a fine actor...that way of projecting thoughts and feelings with those facial expressions that speak better than words The MV in this was a case in point. She looked frozen and awkward all through it yet everyone in the show was oohing and aahing about how 'great' she was (not). Still she was cute enough. JIW was definitely the star and all eyes will be on him in this anyway. Highly recommend and it's a definite rewatch for me.
Crying like a baby. I loved it. Absolutely loved it. I was so on the fence anyway that I would have been happy however they wrote the romance angle, but I was completely on board with how it went. And that ending was just beautiful, beautiful. This one, more than the other 2, really got to me emotionally with the friendship and family bonding. There was an extra heavy dose of intimacy about these relationships. I think the setting had a lot to do with that.
I feel like this entire series, and 1988 in particular, touches so many people differently. I have very few happy memories of my childhood. So perhaps, for me, it's a look at something I wish I could have had in my life. Yet I think for others, who had this kind of history, its a beautiful reminder of youth gone by and the ache of memories that sometimes are all that remain . " A time so warm and pure that it was painful. Can you hear me? If you can hear me, please answer."
The music again was a huge factor in this. I know I lose so much by not knowing the words to those songs, and I hope one day Viki will pick it up so I can watch it there with the lyrics translated. No matter what, this one I WILL watch again and again.
Park Bo Geum again just blew me away. He is one AMAZING young actor. He nailed Taec. It was a beautifully written and portrayed character...deeply passionate with a careful balance of strength and fragility. No one else could have done it so well. He did this in I Remember You. The serial killer you hate to love. And Hye Ri was perfect. Adorable and, on the surface, still a child, Deok Sun had hidden depths to her and a heart of gold with room to love and give unstintingly to her family and her friends. PD Shin again proved his (netizen) critics wrong with his pick for a female lead. But Ryu Joon Yeol and Go Gyeong Pyo have also made their mark and all them are going to be swamped with offers.
Thank you TVN for existing in kdrama world. At a time when I am reaching saturation point with makjang, cliche ridden dramas, Korean Cable is my salvation.
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?
This movie is heartbreaking and the facts presented are very hard to deal with. It's not so upsetting that you can't watch it. It's presented in an almost documentary style, so that helps with the overload of emotions that could overwhelm. It did not leave me sobbing, but I did shed tears, so don't feel like you can't watch it because you are afraid it will be too upsetting. I learned a lot watching this and left with even more to think about. No easy answers in this one. And my heart will stay with those parents who are still searching for their stolen children. Unbelievably sad and inconceivable.
I feel like this entire series, and 1988 in particular, touches so many people differently. I have very few happy memories of my childhood. So perhaps, for me, it's a look at something I wish I could have had in my life. Yet I think for others, who had this kind of history, its a beautiful reminder of youth gone by and the ache of memories that sometimes are all that remain . " A time so warm and pure that it was painful. Can you hear me? If you can hear me, please answer."
The music again was a huge factor in this. I know I lose so much by not knowing the words to those songs, and I hope one day Viki will pick it up so I can watch it there with the lyrics translated. No matter what, this one I WILL watch again and again.
Park Bo Geum again just blew me away. He is one AMAZING young actor. He nailed Taec. It was a beautifully written and portrayed character...deeply passionate with a careful balance of strength and fragility. No one else could have done it so well. He did this in I Remember You. The serial killer you hate to love. And Hye Ri was perfect. Adorable and, on the surface, still a child, Deok Sun had hidden depths to her and a heart of gold with room to love and give unstintingly to her family and her friends. PD Shin again proved his (netizen) critics wrong with his pick for a female lead. But Ryu Joon Yeol and Go Gyeong Pyo have also made their mark and all them are going to be swamped with offers.
Thank you TVN for existing in kdrama world. At a time when I am reaching saturation point with makjang, cliche ridden dramas, Korean Cable is my salvation.