“This is all just so unfair.”
kang haneul never disappoints as he brings woo-sung, an average salaryman who finds himself down on his luck after buying an expensive apartment in seoul, to life in what is one of the most stressful movies i’ve ever seen. there are dozens of twists and turns that leave you unable to trust anybody we see on screen, even the main character himself, and that make you feel as if you’re losing your mind alongside him. while i did enjoy this i think i would like it more if it were even ten minutes shorter because it started dragging a bit, but it was still a fun watch.Was this review helpful to you?
“Dad, today I made a plan.”
what begins as a dark comedy about a family of con artists infiltrating the home of a family too rich for their own good quickly becomes one of the most engaging and shocking films i’ve ever seen (and even though i haven’t seen many, that still speaks volumes). easily one of the best as well. i’m definitely not smart enough to write hundreds of words like i usually can explaining why exactly this movie works (so if you're looking for a proper review and not just my notes, check out any other one on here), as it’s a feeling far more visceral and personal that i can’t properly put into words, but it’s something i’m sure everyone who’s watched this film can relate to. the feeling of sighing at your computer screen once the film ends, sighing minutes and hours later as you recall what you’ve just watched, knowing that it’s changed you in some form that you can’t exactly give a name. truly just a wonderful film.Was this review helpful to you?
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“There’s a type of hatred that’s similar to longing. It’s impossible to stop.”
not a single boring moment in these eight episodes. from the very beginning there are so many heartbreakingly beautiful shots that tug at your heartstrings, especially in accompaniment with the soft and emotional music that plays in the background. the scene in the very first episode where dong-eun is laying on the snowy roof makes me cry every time i watch this and it’s the first of many instances in which you as the viewer feel so emotionally connected with her because of song hye kyo’s phenomenal acting. it’s moments like these where we begin to hate her bullies even more, and actors like park sunghoon and im ji jeon do insanely good jobs at bringing them to life and wishing for their (characters ofc, not the actors) downfall. the one thing i will say is that the slow burn burns VERY SLOWLY, with not much present-day action happening until midway through this part and even then it’s nothing too satisfying (especially in comparison to the next part). it’s very good at introducing us to dong-eun’s world though as we get to know her character alongside the few true friends she makes in her revenge journey. speaking of them, yeo-jung is one of my favorite characters in this alongside dong-eun herself (for obvious reasons do you see his actor) and i absolutely adore what hye-ran brings to the table in terms of her friendship with dong-eun, with both of them being just the right amount of silly to counter her serious nature. these characters help bring dong-eun to life as she finally gets to experience the happy moments that were stolen from her during her childhood all while watching the shallow lives her bullies have built slowly begin to crumble. the only reason i give this a nine for rewatch value is because some of the scenes are definitely hard to stomach because they're genuinely disturbing and i forgot how intense some of them are.Was this review helpful to you?
“We are still alive! We’re all in this together… and we have to fight to end it all!”
the BEST death game drama ever. if you can handle gore/death/blood/all the fucked up shit that comes with these types of shows, i strongly recommend this to you. every character is so carefully crafted and despite the little time we spend on their backstories and motivations, their personalities shine through with every second of screen time they have. from chishiya’s nonchalant demeanor to aguni’s stone face you can tell what kinds of people they are and yet they’ll still manage to surprise you with the depth they hold as we learn what kind of people they truly are in a series of life or death games that determine their fate. every character (save for niragi…) is very near and dear to my heart and i truly believe there’s somebody for everyone in this show because they have such a wide range of personalities that make them really stand out, and as we watch their development we learn to love them. seeing how these characters change from the beginning of the show to the end is honestly essay worthy, especially with how intertwined our cast is.the very first game will have you invested in the world that’s slowly introduced as we follow arisu and those who reside in the mysterious borderlands through their new daily lives as they struggle to find purpose. each card suit offers a new and unique challenge that they must overcome in order to see another day and each game will leave you at the edge of your seat up until the very last moment. in particular the final game of the season always leaves me impressed no matter how many times i watch it and i cry over different parts each time. each scenario is so well written and it keeps you locked in from the very beginning, with the music amplifying the experience tenfold as it works to try and push you over the edge in terms of stress and immersion. while i personally prefer the games in the second season this doesn't mean i think the games in this season are boring, on the contrary i think they work perfectly as introductory games that are still very high-stakes as we're still easing into the world this show has to offer. the actors also work their asses off to deliver believable performances as the lines between the seemingly sci-fi world of the borderlands and the harsh reality of the real world blend into one. its nearly impossible to predict what the truth of the game is and what will happen next because before you know it there’s a panther trying to attack our main characters.
all in all i think this show is definitely worthwhile, especially with s3 right around the corner and god knows what in store for the returning characters!
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“We were born humans… and we’ll die as humans.”
i haven’t read the manhwa yet and while my feelings towards this may change after i do, as somebody who knew next to nothing going into this it was insane in the best way. i love an ensemble cast and this series delivers as we get to know the true nature of the residents of green home as they’re thrust into a survival situation in which monsters, both in the literal and metaphorical sense, are a constant threat to them. i loved everyones acting in this, especially kim nam hee, song kang and of course lee do hyun to name a few. with so many characters there are of course dozens of plot lines that we switch in between simultaneously, meaning there’s never a dull moment. this coupled with the time skipping doesn’t make for the best watch for me because i tend to multitask while i watch a show, but it’s still easy to follow the events that are happening. the action scenes are definitely the selling point for this and this is also the main genre for this despite what the other tags may say, meaning the scenes are well done for the action thriller this ends up being.i loved the development we got from some of our characters, especially hyun-su as i relate to him, but i feel more could’ve been done with them. this is what usually happens when a show tries to include so many characters at once, many of them begin to fade into the background even if they’re present in every single scene. while our cast is the key to this show as through them we explore what it really means to be human and how greed and desire changes people, this kind of gets lost in translation as we near the ending of the season. it felt as though they knew the vibe of a carnby kim work yet missed the mark as they were more focused on the action scenes and playing warriors behind them for the nth time. a lot of moments still made me cry because i’m a crybaby, but some deaths could’ve been even more impactful for sure. that being said, the use of sweet home in the final scene never fails to make me sob.
despite all this, i still really enjoy this show and its flaws (as i do with many shows if you look at any of my other ratings) because i prefer to focus on how much fun i have while watching rather than looking into all the technical aspects. i’ll leave the proper reviews to other people on this website.
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“Let’s just be free, yeah?”
i definitely prefer this cast more, but i like the progression of season one better so this is definitely a tough rating. like i mentioned for season one, this show is mindless turn your brain off fun and this is the main reason why i enjoy this show even though i realize it's far from the best. i absolutely love dindin, dex, and code kunst and ofc lee siyoung, and taeyong and eunbi were fun additions as well in comparison to last season’s na-rae and tsuki (as they were really helpful during some of the major moments). the out of character bits were absolutely hilarious and this season makes me laugh a ton which means i enjoy it way more, but some of the missions weren’t exactly my favorite. for instance, the helicopter part where they have to choose people to sacrifice and how this becomes something common throughout. while there were only a couple, there were some missions that couldn’t have been won unless somebody sacrificed themselves in comparison to not only last season but also the other missions in new blood where it’s possible for everyone to survive. it seemed like a cheap way to cut down the cast and add stakes. that being said, i still really love the missions in this season regardless of that. the train moment with the references and the subway tunnels are really fun and offer lots of humorous moments. if there’s a season i’d rewatch more it’d definitely be this one, although it’s not exponentially better than the first one.Was this review helpful to you?
“Guess you’re my catch of the day.”
sometimes you just want a no-stakes, action packed film and that’s exactly what this movie brings to the table. the plot was set up from the get-go and it’s very easy to follow, with the scientific explanations behind the new generation not being too complicated and the setting being quickly established (lizard people are real and WILL hurt you). the cast in this was great and the action scenes were even better with dozens of decapitations, gunshots and swung fists that kept me entertained throughout. ma dong seok is of course the highlight of this movie as his presence is unmatched and his fight scenes are incredible but i also really enjoyed lee jun yeong in this. i loved him in whc2 and seeing him play a different role was really fun, ill definitely be checking out more from him. the female leads were also wonderful as well, with ahn ji hye playing the absolute badass that was eun ho and roh jeong eui playing the strong-willed su-na. these characters don’t have a lot of depth or backstory to them but they aren’t the focus of this movie which makes it okay. while it has its emotional moments this is far from a tearjerker, but it definitely works for some mindless fun if you don’t have anything to watch.Was this review helpful to you?
“There were a lot of scary moments. But I think it was less scary when we were together.”
the best way to enjoy this is to turn your brain off and have fun with it. are some of the cast annoying and useless at times? most definitely, and i do think it impacts the viewing experience to an extent, but it's easy to simply ignore them and enjoy the rest of their antics without taking the show so seriously. the unserious nature of this show is what makes it so entertaining and the times where, despite their immersion, the cast members break character are some of the best moments because of how ridiculous the interactions are (in a good way). the concept is also unique for a reality show and even though it has a lot of limitations, like the lack of action scenes you’d normally expect from a zombie show and the need to suspend your belief that they’re actually turning once they’re bitten, it’s still entertaining enough to get by. the people who go into this expecting a serious show will definitely be disappointed, but those who go into it knowing it’s not the best will manage to enjoy it.Was this review helpful to you?
“I will never abandon these people!”
i’m not a big fan of the historical setting, whether it be in dramas or manhwas, so i definitely didn’t vibe with this as much as i would’ve if i was a fan of the genre but it was still pretty good. i came for the zombies and definitely stayed for them, especially with the twist in the final episode that nearly made my jaw drop. i love how the origin story is written and how they used the time period to really bring this story to life as well as how it ties into the politics surrounding the royal lineage. the actors are all great and i love how not much about them (save for our main character the crown prince) is stated outright by them, and how we instead have to look at their actions to understand them since we don’t get much of their backstory due to the short amount of episodes. they definitely could’ve added at least two more episodes to really flesh things out in the first season but hopefully we get a bit more in the second season to make up for it. this was still enjoyable for what it was although it wasn’t my favorite thing ever.Was this review helpful to you?
“Because it’s the path I chose.”
the episode where the contestants had received letters from their parents made me ugly cry. especially when gunwook bursted into tears like holy fuck. classic mnet with the evil editing, repeating the same shots five times, not including half of the contestants in the show and literally causing one of them to write a disstrack about it, but isn’t that half the fun of these shitty survival shows? i absolutely adore a lot of the groups that were formed from this, zb1 of course but i’ve also been in love with onepact (jongwoo was one of my favorite contestants, especially during the home performance), xlov (rui was another one of my favorites and is completely unrecognizable in his new group in a good way), and the other groups formed from the bonds made during this show. while this program is far from perfect and definitely problematic, great things came out of it that i’m thankful for.Was this review helpful to you?
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“Thank you for everything.”
what starts as an action-fueled zombie flick quickly turns into one of the most tearjerking and depressing movies i’ve seen as we enter the second half and characters begin to drop like flies. this movie decides to focus on the preexisting stories of the living rather than the origins of the dead and by introducing these characters to us at the end of their lives we can somehow understand them as if we’ve known them for the years leading up to this train ride. the tense scenes are top-notch and every single death made me bawl my eyes out. i cry for a solid five minutes after the final death scene every time i watch this.Was this review helpful to you?
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yung sun-bin is in this season which automatically makes it great but overall there are a lot of great contestants that make watching this super fun, with the downtime moments like the military jump challenge cute and nice to watch. the thing i don't like about this season is the ending and who the winner was. not because he didn't deserve to win because i'm sure there was a lot of times he showcased his strength considering he made it all the way to the end, but it's the fact that we didn't even get to see any of that because he got literally zero screentime in the early episodes that annoys me. the premise of finding the "perfect physique" is clearly just a selling point which is why i'm not as mad as i would usually be in the clear imbalance in the gender ratio and overall how unfair the show is half the time, so just turn your brain off and have fun. Was this review helpful to you?
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“I’m not lonely anymore.”
i loved a lot about this movie, especially the sound design and the coloring in the different shots that overall added to the atmosphere. the cat and mouse between our trio and han was great and the suspense was done perfectly in a way that made you terrified for what would happen next, hoping that the boys manage to get to thailand like they said they would. unfortunately, their dream is ruined by han as he hunts them down relentlessly and even kills jang-ho (and presumably kihoon, although his death is off screen and implied), leaving joon-seok alone and traumatized by the events that happened before he managed to escape. the cliffhanger ending which leaves room for viewer interpretation as to if he gets his revenge or not was nicely done as well. the main thing holding this movie back was the ridiculous runtime, clocking in at over two hours and telling a story that could’ve easily been told in ninety minutes. other than the big of a drag it can be, this was really fun even on a rewatch.Was this review helpful to you?
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