This review may contain spoilers
Dokgo-Poisonous drum. You'll die if you hear the beat.This mini series reminded me of Tong Memories. It had the same concept: who ever is the best fighter gets mad props and will be feared by many.
So here's where I'll describe the two: Tong, I believe had 9 mini episodes. If you banked them all together, they probably equaled out to one episode of Dokgo Rewind. Dokgo had 20 mini episodes which was combined into 4-40+ minute episodes.
In my opinion this was much better because there were no cut scenes when a fight was about to ensue. There were female side kicks in both but in Tong they made it seem like the females were going to fight but didn't.
This series didn't have that. Everyone fought where as in Tong, the main character barely fought.
This is the kind of dramas that drew me into what Korea had to offer in the first place.
I'm a action fanatic and if martial arts gets thrown in, then you have made yourself a happy woman!
This had fighting scenes throughout. I love how things went in my favor. There were some sad parts which I wasn't expecting but the justice was done in the right places.
As I said, I'm a action fanatic and there were reviews where this series was disliked. I was going to pass on this because of the negative reviews but this isn't for everybody. It certainly was for me.
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I'm not familiar with the main character but his fighting was what kept me watching. I'm all for any actor who has mad martial art skills. And no, I didn't watch it for drool factors but for the fighting and yes, a bit of bromance. I don't know why but I absolutely love Korean bromances! Not only was the bromance there, the chemistry with each cast member was great as well. That's why I enjoyed this series so much.
I even found myself for rooting for some of the bad guys close to the end.
There was a bit of romance in here which I try to avoid but it wasn't overly done in my case. Again, the fighting scenes were great. I wish there was more to solving the 'who dunnit' factor but hey, the writers can only do so much.
It's funny...whenever there's a series with a low score I end up liking. If it has a high score I question it because most of the time if it involves a male lead it will get a high score because of how the guy looks. Some reviewers should be ashamed of themselves for that.
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But it seems like the Korean action dramas-sans the cliche romance has come to a stand still for me.
I watched this movie because of Park Seo Joon from Itaewon Class and have grown to like him. His partner in crime Kang Ha Neul was awesome as well.
Even though this wasn't a top notch action/mystery movie it was something to watch to surpass a few hours.
The relationship between the two main characters as besties won me over. They also had awesome supporting cast members as well.
There were some things that touched a reality shock such as runaways and illegal infertility scams but again, it was something to help surpass the time.
If you just want to do that just watch. It didn't disappoint me in the least.
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My first Korean action drama
I didn't know about Korean dramas until I saw this on my Netflix. I read the synopsis and decided to watch to see if it was something I would be interested in.This was my very first Korean action drama and I liked it. I love martial arts and when I see this offered in movies or TV I'm immediately drawn to it so one will know I highly enjoyed the fighting scenes.
While the story line is a eye roll-highly impossible for someone to receive electronic eye implants-it still held my interest.
I liked the direction it was going until it strayed. It completely went in a direction I wasn't expecting but I still watched to the very end.
I have been out of the loop as far as Korean dramas are concerned. If this wasn't on Netflix I wouldn't have known Korean dramas existed. Since then I've been trying to find any and every Korean action drama I could find and is glad I found some. I hit a snag but hopefully more will pop up.
Thank you, Rugal for introducing me to Korean action dramas.
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Well, call me the odd one out of the bunch who really didn't like this. I seriously took a nap after every episode! It was just that slow. The main character had only one facial expression and that was the 'confused' look. It grated my nerves! I watched because I liked Lee Gi Young in Vegabond. I will watch anything he's in because he plays his characters really well. I even liked Jeon Sung Woo. His skills and gulliblenesss-yeah I know it's not a word-made him more likeable than any other character in this series.
I even liked the female cop. She was bad a** to the end.
Sadly no one in my opinion could save this series. To me it took too long to get to the plot and then in the end you find out the person who was behind everything wasn't the person you expected so I don't know why they took that issue in that direction.
Plus the ending was so freakin' cliche!!
I kinda got the gist of the ending due to Keifer Sutherland's show that has the same premise as this. I like Sutherland but he portrays the same character in anything he plays in. I can't tell if he's disinterested in the roles he play or he's portraying a laid back type of person either way I didn't see his version and wish I hadn't seen the Korean version.
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I, like everybody else who saw the first season was so glad to see a second season come out. Unfortunately the second season lacked in so many ways. Every episode to me was meaningless. I thought for sure the way the first season ended was going to pick up where it left off but it started to where things happened a year later and the MML decided not to fight anymore because of what happened the year prior....SAY WHAT???There's the usual bullies taunting the weak and yes, you have a hero come in to save the bullied and they become best friends but now you created an enemy so you're going to have to fight to stay alive.... All in high school where there were no teachers around for the most part.
Throughout all of the episodes it seemed like it dragged. The MML was actually weaker in this than the first. Everything came to life in episode 8 but even that dragged a bit. I watched for the fighting and yes there was fighting but not a lot. It seemed like season two lost it's luster in every episode but I managed to stick it out. I was able to finish this in one day and now I don't have to worry about when I will go back to finish the rest if the drama wasn't as good as I thought.
Besides the main character, only two original cast members from the first season was in this but barely. Before the actual ending on the last episode, it was a eye roll-especially to a medical person. I thought that was the end but something bad happened after that with no explanation as to what happened.
To me the way this drama was it could've been left to just one season. The way it really ended makes me wonder if there's going to be a season 3. I don't know how that would work but I'm hoping it'll just be kept to two seasons.
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My rating of this drama is me being generous.It took me a little over two months to actually finish this!! It was so drawn out that I forgot that I was still watching one episode. There were times when I thought I had finished 3 or 4 episodes but I was still on the same episode I had stopped watching.
For me, by the 5th episode if is doesn't grab me I will drop it but I've hit another Korean drama slump. I was hoping to be able to have about 4 or 5 dramas under my belt but alas, this was the only one and I don't have any other Korean dramas to watch.
There were no character development in any of the actors. The mood stayed the same. The female cop was my least favorite. She was annoying from beginning to the end. The things she was doing should've gotten her fired but they didn't.
To me, there was no reason why the second male lead should've had powers. You won't learn how he came into his powers until the 15th episode and it's a really really weak excuse.
You then have the main male lead experience a weird pheonmenon but it wasn't capitalized. It was 'oh my hands are vibrating...oh well,..' and that was it. To add to that, when the second male lead exhibited his skills around the best friend and the female cop they were non-chalant about it.
The revenge factor was sloppy. I thought the situation of coming from the past and staying in the future instead of going back to the past was going to get covered...It didn't.
There were a lot of loose ends that had no closure. This is the type of drama that I hate and I have run into a few dramas like this which is why I'm still in that friggin' Korean drama slump.
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I'm like the few on here who wanted to see how this faired to the American version of Leverage.That is one of the few TV shows that I have enjoyed so much that I've watched all 5 seasons probably about 4-5 times since it aired and went off the air. I will even watch it if there's a marathon on.
The Korean version in my opinion held up on it's own. They do have the same premise: mastermind, thief, grifter, hacker, and hitter. Although some of the episodes from the Korean version was taken from the US version, the Korean version lasted about a episode and a half where as the American version each episode lasted only 40-42 minutes depending on the length of commercials.
The American version introduced each character with a mini story background as to who they were and how they got started.
The Korean version didn't need to do this. Each individual was introduced without a need for introduction or backstory.
At first I wasn't too thrilled with some of the characters. The hacker for instance, we know can't fill the role of Hardison but he had his own quirky way which he was able to pull off. I also thought I wasn't going to like the hitter but he grew on me.
My favorite was actually the female grifter. You could tell she was having the time of her life playing this role. One of the episodes I actually spit everywhere. It wasn't my intention to do that but I did. She was just that hilarious. I don't remember laughing this hard with the American grifter version.
I also didn't know what bromance was or what it meant until I started watching Korean dramas and the bromance was there between the guys. There was bromance between the American version between Elliot & Hardison. Their chemistry was just awsesome.
As usual this left off as if it was going to continue. I don't know if it will or not. I will say I am truly excited that there will be a American revival of Leverage that will stream on IMBD. The only downside is that Timothy Hutton won't be in it. I hope Noah Wyle can pull this off.
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Yes!
This was the second Korean action drama that I watched after watching Rugal. Again as I say in all of my reviews I didn't know Korean dramas existed until watching Rugal last year. After seeing that I tried to find any and every Korean action drama that I could find and this was the second one.I wasn't familiar with the style of Korean dramas but since then I have found myself steering away from the romance type of dramas. I didn't notice the style last year but now I do. I loved the main character, the second main character, and the main character's partner. These three had the chemistry that I loved. I especially loved the bromance between the 1 & 2nd male characters. There were scenes that had me laughing hard.
I tolerated the female lead up to a certain point. She started off likeable but became a whiny love sick puppy in the end that made me cringe. This was the reason I started migrating away from romance dramas.
The fighting scenes were awesome. I kept going back to those scenes. This had somewhat of a James Bond style to it.
I haven't rewatched any of the action Korean dramas I've seen but sometime in the near future if I'm still alive, I will most definitely rewatch this again.
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I almost dropped this
Since i decided to steer clear of anything Korean that has romance in it, I've found myself having a hard time trying to find something to binge on.I'm a mystery, thriller, comedy, and mainly actions type of girl who went into this blindly. I didn't see any trailer on this but decided to give it a try.
The first few episodes seemed to drag 'in my opinion'. There were times when I looked to see how much time a episode had left and was bummed that I became extremely uninterested within the first thirty minutes of those first few episodes.
Then it got better. I, for one, welcomed different scenarios throughout the 12 episodes. There were different types of plots instead of having one plot draw out till the end. Some subjects carried over but it was solved.
I loved the fighting scenes-of course-and found it funny that whenever a fight ensued, a trio would just show up out of nowhere. It was funny because it didn't matter where a fight would happen, they were there. What was even funnier was the main male from the trio would come out tough but then would pull out his inhaler.
I never seen the ML in anything so I wasn't familiar with him but he was cast perfectly. I liked the whole team as a matter of fact. The chemistry wasn't as strong as some of the other dramas I've watched but for some odd reason everyone's relationship with each other worked. No cliche romance at all!!!!!
It went off as if another season will happen but I seriously doubt it.
Since getting hooked on action Kdramas since last July, I should know when they do one whole season of something, they're done which sucks. Us USA folks have been spoiled.
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This one was OK
This was only a 12 episode series so I was glad that whatever the plot was, it wasn't going to be a long drawn out plot.The issues I had was that there was too many loopholes in this series. They didn't delve into the detective receiving vampire like capabilities at all. There was no questions asked and none answered.
There were also episodes that literally put me to sleep. Those could've been the episodes where it explained the main characters skills more but it was like 'meh, he's a vampire let's move on', kind of thing.
It was an OK watch. Makes me not want to watch the other vampire drama that's out there. Can't remember the title but yeah, I will be staying away from that one.
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Disappointed...again!!!
So this is about the third drama that I've watched that have left me thinking what the heck is going on here!!!In the beginning you get the sense that the son(not going to name names) was trying to help out his mom pay some bills so he's going to do some boxing to win money to help her but then she takes out a loan and not read the fine print and get herself into a whole lot of trouble with some crooked loan people. Common sense should tell you if it sounds too good to be true, it usually isn't. This drama brought out all the stupidity of people.
The first few episodes held my interest because I wanted those who were doing those illegal loans to pay for it dearly.
The one thing that didn't disappoint me was the fighting scenes! Oh, man! I'm not heavily into boxing but kind of swayed me. It was weird barely seeing any martial arts in a Asian drama though.
Episodes 6-8 was where I became utterly disappointed. I thought the whole gang was going to take down the main villain and get some well deserved justice but half the cast literally gets obliterated by two men. The main female is nowhere to be seen in the last few episodes even though she got on my ever lasting nerves in the beginning. I loved the fact that she was able to hold her own against countless of guys. That one guy's pride was so hurt after he got beat by a girl.
The last two episodes was underwhelming. The second main ML gets severely injured but looks buff and unharmed in the last episode. There's a new girl in the picture trying to replace the other girl. She shows she's good in archery but missed a lot of shots...Really?! She also said she can fight but she never do.
The take down of the two main bad guys was what really tanked it for me. I don't know what I was expecting but I know I wasn't expecting it to end in the lowest of take downs ever.
I know I haven't seen the first main ML and the main male villain in some dramas in a few years and was excited to see them both in one but wondered since they haven't been in anything in a few did they just took what they could? Did they not have any questions when doing the table read because I know I would've had some questions.
All in all, this drama have left me in a Kdrama slump. I'll be glad when I can find one that will restore my faith in Korean dramas. Until then...the slump continues.
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Disappointing
OK, so I stuck this out as long as I could but I stopped watching before episode 15 ended. This series was already grating my nerves because of how slow each episode went but by the time the 15th episode came around, it made me feel like I wasted my time!So the writer decides to pinpoint several people as killers to throw off the viewers which in point almost worked. I sort of figured it out around the 12the episode but my suspicion was confirmed by episode 14. I just wanted to know the reason for the killings and episode 15 let me know...it was just for fun...There was no reason behind the killings!!!
The MML and MFL were already annoying to begin with. The stupid things they did just made my eyes roll. It was already absurd by being able to see people's past by touching their butt because that's how the FML came into her powers. A meteor storm happened while she was examining a pregnant cow and was touching the cow's butt when the meteor hit. That cow gave three people powers but the doctor was the dumbest but I stuck it out because the first few episodes were cute and quirky sans the bully MML cop. How can you body slam a female and not get into trouble over that??
Anyway, when the protagonists starts dying before the end of the series it lets me know the very last episode will be a true waste so I seriously doubt I'll be missing anything. Each episode dragged on and on and I found myself pausing each episode about 2-3 times because I couldn't bring myself to finish the episodes all at once. This series did not lead me to binge watching.
I don't know what's going on with these Korean dramas. The last good Korean drama that led me to binge watching was First Responders season 2 and that was back in September...Haven't seen a good Korean drama since and I'm starting to lose my faith with these so-called Korean dramas. It's already hard enough as it is to find something worthy to watch without all that so-called swoon worthy romance crapola.
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Korea doesn't have too many female action fighters who's not stereotyped so when I saw the preview of this I decided to watch it.I was thinking of a female version of John Wick and I read another review who thought the same, lol.
Aside from the slow action scenes this movie didn't have too much to go on. Yes we learn there's a company called MK but you don't know what's it about. You have men sitting at a table but you don't know who they are. There's no backstory about what this company is about. There were backstories of Bok Soon but what was the point of some of those back stories?
Then there's stuff that could've been left out such as the semi sex, lesbo, and small incest scenes. Didn't need to see any of that.
My main gripe has to do with the last part of the movie. It went down like a wimp.
This is why I don't care for Korean movies. It seems like they stuff a whole lot of fluff in a two hour movie but just completely rush the ending leaving questions to be answered. Definitely not the kind of movie I like to watch.
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I for one liked this drama. It nailed the coffin on the head concerning how far people will go once they get pushed too far. I don't know...I guess I'm twisted because I enjoyed watching the people who were pushed over the edge get their just desserts. The revenge factor wasn't watered down. It felt real. There are people out there who have been pushed to the brink that makes them get rid of the people who have tormented them for fun. Especially bullies. I can't stand bullies. I love it when a bully gets owned and that happened a lot in this series. Now some got away with making other people's lives miserable a few did not.I don't know how most countries operate when guns are at play but as for here, in the US, it looks like this type of drama every day. There are measures that's been taken for someone to legally obtain a weapon but there's also a lot of people who have illegally obtained one which is why bad things have always turned out the way it do.
From my take on this drama: never tick a person off because you never know how short their fuse is.
A lot of people complained about the last episode...I don't know how else the last episode could've ended but I'm OK with how it ended. Usually I hate last episodes of Korean dramas because a lot of the times it's too wordy and everything gets wrapped up in a news segment and then it's over.
There are some things in the last episode that left me scratching my head. I don't know but there may be a sequel? There was a scene where the person who started all of the chaos wanted someone else to pick up where the original bad guy left off so that could mean it may be a sequel but it means it may not. I don't know how that would play out if a sequel will follow.
If you can't stomach gun violence then it's suggested that you don't watch. Otherwise it you like seeing bullies getting owned then maybe this drama is for you.
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