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Amazing bromance and comedy make a 12 episodes fly by as if they were 4
My spoiler-free very quick review:The bromance made this show SO thoroughly entertaining. I don't even need to point out this but will: Wi Ja Hoon (je hound, oui! :P) is totally perfect in this role. The character development and story are also solid though some is predictable (but that's fine-it's too pleasant a viewing experience to need it to have intense suspense levels)... the scenes the writer concocted, though, were definitely not your usual even if the basic tale has been told before!
It has two weaknesses that made me throw it into "8/10 objectively, 9/10 subjectively" territory. First, the action has quite a lot of too-obvious fake punches, kicks etc. I'd say about 1/8 of the "hits" were unconvincing, but again... I didn't need it to be so perfect-had it been Jang Hyuk at the helm, I would've expected more, but it was still satisfying coming from these guys, and their chemistry more than made up for it. The camera didn't always get perfect angles with the hits so you can see no-contact "punches" fly, but what they did a GREAT job of=switching between the leads. That was truly well-done.
The second weakness is the lack of time/development for the supporting cast. The cast did really well with what they were given, but they just weren't given a lot of airtime. Their characters had really solid strong personalities, though, and I swear Lee Dong Wook would probably have intense fabulous chemistry with a fruit fly at this point. He must be hella fun to work with. I'd LOVE to see him and the FL in another show together-they had the "it" factor that made me REALLY want more of them albeit in another storyline. (Oh, and she and Cha Shi Won who played Jae Seon, the emotional big guy in the team, had really great action moves! They could definitely handle more shows, and I adored them both the whole show.)
Again, if I was objective, it'd be an 8/10, but my viewing experience was just too joyful, so it gets a 9 from me. Highly recommend-it's short, bromance and comedy are A+, and the time will fly by (if you like what I like at least). Wi Ha Joon might be my second favorite LDW pairing after Kim Beom!
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Not what it seems but a deep look into one’s psyche with morals/ethics and relationships explored
This is incredibly long and will get into spoiler territory in the form of a super long comment on the review. I ABSOLUTELY ADVISE YOU TO ONLY READ THE “SPOILER” MARKED COMMENT BELOW AFTER WATCHING if you want this one human’s explanation for their interpretation. This is a show that has a lot of stuff to chew on and will get a lot of different interpretations, many resigned to just not getting it. Wait to see if you ARE one of the resigned to confusion sorts before these reviews get fully read for your own sake!This is not a dystopian-set BL to me. I went in not knowing anything which served me well since I expected nothing whereas many seemingly thought it’d be a spicy BL. It isn’t. It does showcase gay behavior, sure, straight behavior, too, those behaviors instrumental in understanding it BUT NOT what the storytellers made this to deliver us. They aspired to something bigger, what may be the ultimate human dystopian hell, no spoilers up here.
Things to avoid: 1) wanting a BL, 2) refusing to let the story unfold without the degree of good faith effort required 3) getting obsessed and unable to let go of early theories that you love but maybe don’t fit anymore or resigning yourself to just not getting it 4) jumping on a social bandwagon of rage to complain quickly instead of thinking about the ideas presented that while not new ideas certainly have quite the different lens through which to see and think about them.
I confess I feel a bit uncomfortably preachy in defending the work’s strong points that for me did outweigh the negatives by quite a lot even as some things got visually mundane and some riddles mentioned by another reviewer felt lame (but understandable later even if I might choose other questions except for the last “missed” question in the fight with the “chaos/creator/controller” woman in that dark space early on… the reason behind the final one, the REAL reason, really hit home later as someone familiar with the things happening as weird as that sounds for any dystopian setting). With a kind of calm, “observation mode” sort of viewing of this, most can get a far better grasp of many coherent options for what is happening here (and hey, maybe BellA’s review or mine can help guide lost souls to the finish line).
I saw some early scathing comments blaming the script when under a third of had aired at the time as well as the whole “actors who can’t act” copied and pasted hostile comment seen almost everywhere. These are certainly not the best cast members in the nation, but assumptions early on reflect mostly on the ones not allowing them to deliver their parts. This is a case wherein actors absolutely SHOULD NOT be consistent in character delivery, and these kids, all new faces to me, managed bizarre, challenging roles pretty well, the story much bigger than their ages&experience give them the full opportunity to understand with a quick read. The confusion felt by people when watching IS INTENTIONAL. To be fair, when are (good) dystopia-set works clear as a meticulously maintained budget balance sheet? I also think the production and editing teams did well overall.
This is one to watch WITHOUT knowing anything cause if you know the big picture, you will really lose out on the important thing here, the experience of viewing with your mind engaged, not just taking anyone’s word for it. It is brain food. It is a tad philosophical. It is deeply psychological but not in a way that will make you feel immense emotions about THEM. It is not as casual a watch as most prefer. Specific experiences that made it easy for ME to be immersed won’t apply to most, and maybe it isn’t laid out plainly enough to grasp the mindsets presented easily. I suggest you watch in order and critically without skipping/fast forwarding (just take breaks if the dialogue tires you, or drop it if it isn’t your thing and you don’t have NDD like me). I slept twice and watched other stuff between viewing sessions, and three sessions seems ideal, two if you have loads of mental energy winter weather doesn’t afford me. Don’t watch when your body or just your brain is tired or you’ll miss a LOT in a couple of seconds many times over, so many times I nearly missed important parts before having the sense to take a long break myself.
A couple of theories have been given that I really enjoyed reading! I decided to, when a response got too long, instead put that here. There’s a more simple option (one of many I entertained) that I haven’t yet seen in a review. It may not satisfy some though I don’t think the base story being more simple makes the exploration of the human mind through storytelling any less intriguing—and bless their intern/grunt worker for consulting an expert to at least not totally botch it like they did Leap Day (along with bad science, writers abandoned anything they didn’t know how to properly close like the drawings). For that, I send you to the comment I will post below.
In the end, I land at an 8.5. I found the story intriguing, the acting solid even with many “faces” to portray, and it is well worth a rewatch I may give it to match the different bits together that I was happy to see merged as it came to a close. I do wish there was an eighth episode for reasons I’ll get to in the spoiler comment. If it had an 8th episode to do what can otherwise only be accomplished with a careful rewatch, I’d rate it even higher, maybe, but the 8.5 accounts for me being able to catch plenty in a single time viewed and my ability to go back as many times as I want.
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The sheer contrast between vivid, peaceful, utterly gorgeous and pristine rice fields and the teenagers growing up around them is painfully sharp. The intense guilt a weak bullied kid can feel contrasted with the fuck-it-all rage of a kid whose world went from stable with the kid a very easygoing sort to a financially ruined house with us only getting to see how the kid copes, completely transforming after a sudden rebellious trip that was the last bit of fun before a downward spiral…
Nothing I am saying here is a spoiler. This is not a linear timeline at all, and it is less a plot than being thrown straight into a middle school hell and reliving what you’ve likely either experienced or been afflicted with the pain of witnessing but having no way to change the horror someone is enduring… even with helplessness, though, we see how different the results are for kids enduring nightmares with just one person checking on them versus ones with no real sense of safety net to shoulder to lean on or even, as we see at one point, someone to physically inflict a tiny portion of one’s pain on and not be abandoned. There are powerful moments throughout if you tune in with a sense of compassion and curiosity. Those same moments, though, can easily be ignored by viewers, casting a mirror on how callous and apathetic a person might very well be seeing emotionally wrecked peers, neighbors, family members, or even total strangers. It demands your attention. It screams at you to not ignore their plights… yet does so without preaching one bit, only showing you the different kinds of humans all around and letting you see in some of them parts of yourself, some possibly uncomfortable, if you let it test your compassion and don’t throw on, even in the physically safe space of a room with a film on a screen, a shield of apathy as a defense against those preying on the defenseless.
I can absolutely recommend it to some and absolutely can NOT to quite the majority. It depends on what art you find value in. While this is not at all a BL and only has faint flickers of a couple of straight crushes that are by no means the story, just pieces of young teens’ psychological makeup, the two recent stories that I might be able to say “if you found value in… then consider this…” about are Smells Like Green Spirit (which has some overlap in story elements and likewise sharply contrasts the feelings of being stuck in your home you find hellish and finding a place you can breathe and just be a kid) and Happy of the End (because you need the same sort of ability to get immersed in the wretchedness of others’ lives and find worth in the media presented to you to really appreciate this).
It is hard hitting, and it is LONG (just 20 minutes short of 3 hours)… but it is phenomenal. If you ARE young and enduring bullying, mental health struggles, social isolation, or are witnessing it happening to others, this won’t be suitable. It is something I would absolutely put restrictions on in a cinema—R level for the content.
It also needs a dozen trigger warnings, among them sexual assault, bullying, and possible epilepsy triggers from fairly frequent fast and intense flashing of black and white graphics that are critical to read but might also induce a migraine in some. In any case, this is a rare film I took a break from mid-viewing. It starts in a disjointed manner that you just have to trust will go somewhere… but once you are locked into their world, it can feel exhausting. It might also be something many start, can’t get into, and go back to later. It is very much a mood piece.
I had to think a long while about my rating, but I found no flaws in this as I did indeed “lock in” which Debussy and my past experience with his works as a lover of his music certainly helped. Brilliant use of music, especially as the music heard the vast majority of the movie is not even the music the youth are getting immersed in. It got a truly hard-earned 10 from me. Every technical detail, every cast member’s performance, and the story told through stunning cinematography and painfully realistic performances wowed me even through an incredibly simple overarching narrative.
This may be a slight spoiler in terms of how this closes out this chapter of their lives though I won’t give details on the plot: The main near-end event of it which is both a negative and positive for characters in it (a cruel truth I’ll leave at that) and the simple thought of how different things could and would have been had someone not been fighting to survive and fighting others in that process… it is so incredibly poignant it kept hitting me harder and harder as I reflected on what I had watched.
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Bone dry comedy short drenched in tiny green waterfalls
This was a goofy diversion I enjoyed for its absurdity and lack of clear cut “we will tell you absolute truths of the characters”—I liked it as much as most Japanese commenters seemed to be really confused by the style of storytelling and the point of it which I didn’t struggle with but can understand why young viewers may (not that it at all caters to young viewers, quite the contrary). It suits weird sarcasm-leaning dorky humor lovers like me, but most on this site probably won’t love it.The NyQuil colored stream is so silly… their poor shirts! Great acting skills… with the sarcastic, absurdist tone to the humor and subject matter, it is aiming to win awards for both the driest and most drenched 21 minute short film.
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An interesting modified adaptation of one of SK’s longest-lasting pansori performance folk tales
Crafted much in the same style as Shakespearean tragic comedies, this film (which was adapted from a popular folk story that is performed to this day in pansori, theatre musicals, and more) entertained me for its hundred or so minutes and ultimately made me want to watch Ran (samurai story in the style of King Lear), Throne of Blood (retelling of Macbeth in feudal Japan), or even The Bad Sleep Well (crime noir film built on Hamlet).While the writing was not as dazzling or sharp in wit as I would have liked, it makes up for it in execution by the cast led by Jung Woo (playing the title character), beloved, much-missed Kim Joo Hyuk 😔🪦 whose character Jo Hyuk gives up his comfortable life of wealth to care for orphans whose parents were killed, and classic sageuk veteran Jung Jin Young who plays Jo Hyuk’s greedy brother Jo Hang Ri, the key antagonist. Jung Hae In, while not playing a particularly interesting king, is nice eye candy, and Jung Sang Hoon and Kim Won Hae are a solid backbone for the tonal shifts. Chun Woo Hee is an endearing young assistant who is like a daughter to Heung Bu, and we also get small appearances by Jin Goo playing Nol Bu, the guardian of the people (and long lost brother of Heung Bu), a nearly-unrecognizable Kwak Dong Yeon, and a little epilogue cameo of Kang Ha Neul.
The story itself is small and lacking in some of the rich story depth of others employing theatre troupes like The King and Clown, but not all stories need to be visually stunning to make their point or highlight an important folk story though this veers very far from the original in terms of storyline while keeping important details, adapting them into a story with a bigger scale of impact, a greater gap in wealth and status between brothers.
While this does not (sadly, to me) follow the original story to its end, it does showcase how a good person standing in opposition to a terrible one can, even with odds stacked against them, have their good will rewarded in time, even if not in traditional ways. Apart from this using politics as a component instead of telling the more simple story of drastically different brothers with life lessons, this uses different characters to represent Heung Bu and his brother while having this Heung Bu be a storyteller who uses his own name and his brother’s name to instead tell of Jo Hyuk and Jo Hang Ri.
Jo Hyuk in the film represents the original story’s Heung Bu, Jo Hang Ri representing Nol Bu… it is best to go in ignoring this for the 105 minutes since otherwise the names can seem odd as the story published uses the names of the greedy and selfless brother while the characters with those names are, for the film, loving brothers separated during a time of conflict that left many families dead, Heung Bu publishing racy erotic novels as a means of making his name known so he can locate his brother. This does, though, keep important elements of the original like the poor disowned brother being slapped in the face with a rice spoon at his brother’s luxurious home, commenting that it is delicious, and asking to be struck again. The original tale has Heung Bu go to his brother’s home to ask for rice as the brother-who took the entire inheritance-has a surplus of it; Heung Bu in the original gathers the grains of rice on his face carefully to feed his hungry children whereas this has Jo Hyuk go there about a last bit of property, land he and the ones he saved had successfully farmed to feed themselves and the kids in their care they were also teaching, the rice slap happening on his way out because there was excess rice spoiling and a servant “dared to” prepare the rice and feed her child with it rather than leave it to rot.
What is left out: the original tale (apparently a common bedtime story, known by me because it is one of few classic pansori tales still performed in many forms, no doubt with nearly infinite variations) dives into a story of the poor brother saving a swallow [the sign of spring coming in the film] with a broken leg on his way home with the handful of rice and his hungry children being happy to nurse and feed it until it is well enough to fly back to its home. In the original, the swallow returns to them with a pumpkin seed that produces three enormous pumpkins. The pumpkins, when cut into, are full of treasures. The greedy, already well-off brother learns of this sudden wealth, inquires about how Heung Bu came by it, then tries to replicate it with a key distinction that he breaks the bird’s leg then tends to it… in that story, the bird also returns with a seed, but that seed’s harvest is full of destruction: a dokkaebi (goblin) that beats and chides him for his greed, debt collectors swarming in demanding repayment, and his home being flooded with muddy water. In that version, Nol Bu, who has lost all his property and money, asks for forgiveness from Heung Bu who is more kind… or more of a sucker… than I could ever be. Then again, it does exist to teach lessons, and Korean folklore doesn’t have that biting “you got what you deserved and I’d just as soon use you for stew meat as call you brother again” tone of what I grew up learning (maybe you can partly blame that-or watching Alfred Hitchcock and works similar to Stephen King films growing up-for the deep love of sarcasm and dark, often scathing, humor).
I rate this an 8. As a one-time watch, a-ok! I could quickly grasp what it was aiming for both in substance and style, and I rarely rewatch titles as it is, but I can see some watching this again if they were fairly casual “just ingest and process minimally” viewers the first time. It did take me half a dozen years to watch it because I needed enough distance from Kim Joo Hyuk knowing how much it hurt to watch Argon not nearly long enough after his passing to not be thinking about it between episodes and sometimes during them (I also kept delaying watching Believer for that reason). This felt way too short, probably because I am so accustomed to dramas and lowkey want an elaborate 20-hour version of this with the energy of Rebel: Thief who Stole the People (which is the more historically “accurate”-ie based on the real Hong Gil Dong, not the pure folklore variant). I want the erotica plot line! ;) I want more of his assistant and beloved Park Sang Hoon searching for his bro! More would benefit this… cause it is a bit surface-level-feeling in storyline. Okay, I’ll just say it: the story is kinda shallow, underdeveloped feeling. I still liked it, but I can’t ignore that fact. Simple can work, but this left me wanting more depth.
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Complex lead w/nuanced character growth, emotions screamed through punches/throws/kicks, A+ delivery
I usually don't post about, let alone review, shows that are already highly represented (I don't post a lot as is), but this show truly deserves the 5 hours of time anyone who can handle violent content (EXTREME bullying and extreme injuries!).That said, I honestly recommend you NOT read any reviews before watching. It's so satisfying to go in without others' perspectives. A clean slate is perfect for this IMO. With that said, this isn't really so much full of spoilers (as I don't really go into plot much) as it is a summary of the characters which may still be more than some wish to read about.
We start with a stone-faced high school kid, a complete loner whose parents, divorced middle class workers (an academy math teacher and athletic coach), pay him little attention. He dives into his studies like his life is on the line, goes to cram academies and not much else. When he places first in a math competition (that is either schoolwide or regional/national-something bigger than their class), the guy who places third (a rich, entitled kid who rebels by drinking, smoking, and buying fentanyl from a hulk-like runaway/homeless/orphan thug in a gang that exploits teens) gets irritated and makes him a target.
From there, violence becomes the main feature, but the reasons for being violent, the methods of fighting, and the approach to it are different for all of the key figures. There are, of course, lackeys that gang up on people in swarms, but they picked a truly unique lead here. How he fights is pure strategy. He's truly weak-his stamina makes him take 50% longer than classmates to run a distance most take 6-7 minutes to do, so he instead uses his brain. He scans his environment, calculates the best strategies he can, and goes for quick shocking moves, not a steady flow of hard punches. He is, to be frank, a badass in terms of his brain. His lack of social skills, though, is less enviable, but his apparent lack of need for friends/him seeming fine flying solo does make others (like the attention-seeking third place kid who we can assume has some home life issues/parents pressuring him to be the best because "how can you lose to someone without our abundance of wealth?" but we don't actually see the background of them because it would distract from the short and fast-paced show's focus).
Alongside him are two other classmates, one right away, another soon after. From the beginning, our second lead is a righteous classmate whose MMA skills are unparalleled, a sweet guy who works multiple jobs to help take care of the grandmother he lives with. He protects not just the lead from others but others from the lead early on. He gets along with everyone, is truly good-hearted and generous, and is impossible to dislike for anyone but the few bullies with their ego issues who can't stand someone being so well-loved by everyone, someone so assured in who he is that he doesn't mind anyone's opinion of him or anger easily at all. They become friends in a quite unique set of encounters day to day, but it is a hard-earned friendship for the golden retriever-like faithful pal.
Soon after the initial two have been introduced to us, a transfer student enters the picture. He is a rich kid who was bullied severely at his former school. His family situation, though, is nothing to envy. His father is an Assemblyman who we learn adopted him solely to improve his image. There is nothing but annoyance and hostility because he is a nuisance-he isn't winning awards that the Assemblyman can show off but instead is occasionally taking him from work when beaten up by other schoolkids at the school of all-wealthy people.
This show's fight scenes are incredibly powerful... for something with only 5 hours of viewing content, I found myself truly impressed by the sheer variety of reasons for fighting and ways people end up fighting people who are often total strangers. It wasn't a variety pack that was just "create all kinds of scenarios and throw them all out there to just have as much violence as possible" from my viewing. Nothing seemed farfetched, a scary fact. Sure, the chance of ONE PERSON having this assortment is farfetched for reality, but this almost has a "Girl From Nowhere" "tour of this town's adolescent violence" feel through the lens of the ML.
I always LOVE when students look like everyday students. Seeing a load of flower boys/princess-like girls is harder to get immersed in. I love that this particular ML, despite being able to "glow up" and look very pretty (I've seen him in such roles), looks like a pretty common, average kid. He isn't this tall model-looking guy with an anime-like face but a kid whose expressions make him seem generally not-so-attractive. The golden retriever who can fight like nobody's business, well, okay-he's like a young Jang Ki Yong and no one's going to deny he's got some really handsome moments here. The third player, too, can look rather intriguing in a way that has a bit of what make Lee Soo Hyuk and Noh Min Woo so drop dead gorgeous. He is an awkward squirrely skinny kid here, and his hair is intentionally made unflattering, his glasses not really doing much for him, either-they made the two friendless ones LOOK like kids who don't have friends. Pretty impressive on makeup/hair/wardrobe and of course the acting, too!
One thing really stood out about these kids' faces, the ML's in particular. Watching the stoic lead show warmth as time goes on and seeing the transformation in his EYES when slowly getting a bit closer to the SML is powerful! The acting is truly spot on start to finish, and there's a scene where the SML (golden retriever) mentions feeling a bit strange as he expresses how the lead, this kid who was nonchalant and "are we close? Do you know me?" with people who talked to him when attention went his way, is actually a really warm, considerate, kind person... it was one I'll remember a long time. Despite there being SO much violence, we really do see these awkward kids blossom... and one fall and develop intense envy and bitterness and sadness/loneliness and derail for that matter. The ML's development, though, is kind of magical. Even the end is showing a still-transforming adolescent. He's one of the most intricately written teen characters I've seen in a LONG time (maybe ever), and his delivery was IMPECCABLE.
You will feel such a wide range of emotions... sometimes the violence will be deeply satisfying (even though it shouldn't), other times deeply disturbing and even heartbreaking! It's like these actors really did punch out all of their characters' strongest emotions with every single punch, throw, etc. For the male lead in particular, we see the journey of his psyche and can tell his emotional state from the way he engages in violent acts. It's truly well-done. I'm REALLY stoked it's getting another season, something I rarely feel so excited about!
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Coming of age gold, a story of finding oneself with cute romance speckled about
To think… I came here because Noh Min Woo and Kim Seul Gi were in the cast, Im Cheol Su, Park Jae Joon 애 끼, Cha Woo Min, Kim Hye Eun, and a couple others also drawing me in… thinking this was probably going to be on the shallow end, I just thought of it as a good way to get a dose of two Koreans I adore and have for ages!It turned out to be so much better than I could have guessed going in blind. The premise immediately caught my attention, and ahhhh the sets were splendid, totally splendid! Minue was naturally ethereal in his role as a beautiful barista, brother, and Bigfoot’s benevolent blessing, but he was, as was that fantastic dog, an angel guiding souls to their heavenly spaces, that is, a small support cast. Kim Seul Gi again had my unconventional crush in full force. She made me flutter like Seon Ho did the two female students in the SF group.
I didn’t honestly care if romance happened in this at all. It was absolutely lovely and expected, sure, but not at all the reason this is valuable. What is precious about it is the coming of age story, finding oneself, finding one’s people, finding one’s place and purpose… and finding a way to stand against forces (in this case parents) who believe they know better than you ever can even as they are close to doing the psychological equivalent of throwing you down on your knees beside a bathtub full of water and flinging your head into that water and holding it there.
That is what the female lead is up against, and man, does this do a fantastic job showing her defense mechanisms against it/how she copes, that is, as well as her siblings (mostly the younger but we have a glance at the older, too, and see how it would’ve been were she better in school, something I found really wisely integrated since otherwise he would just be this mythical kid we have zero feelings for besides maybe resentment—somehow in just a few minutes, they gave us a clear context to the older brother who’d been talked about incesssssantly by the mother). The younger brother has more time, and at first, you just see this bratty child… then you see him soften with a bullied kid who likes him for reasons all his own, ones we don’t really share yet (kids do usually pick who they like as randomly seeming as throwing a coin into a machine and cranking a lever to get a cheap toy in a capsule!), but for a good while, he is still not particularly likable when with his sister.
Enter the sister’s new boyfriend, kind of boyfriend, at least, that kind of boyfriend in the high school way of hanging out a lot, liking each other, and so on but not actually seeming like people dating so much as a couple of kids in the same club who skipped a couple of steps, going from bullied girl and incredibly weird but nice guy who gives a kind of pep talk and is strange enough to have her not feel quite so nuts anymore… from a chance encounter to him somehow REALLY liking her immensely in the inexplicable way teen attraction just happens like a sneeze when one has a burst of sunlight strike their eyes… to them kind of flirting and her crush moving from mature guy who first brought her in and wholly accepted her and introduced her to all these other wholly accepting supportive people (truly the best people you could ever have, the kind of group, connected or separate, everyone should definitely have in their lives, people who have your back unconditionally but will tell you if you’re being an idiot, too, or need to wise up/are being uncool somehow, and I mean uncool in the sense of hurting other people because of your insecurities kind of uncool, actual uncool, not the poor labeling of people who aren’t prom queen and king candidates as uncool)…
In any case, their relationship was absolutely not grounded, not the slow simmering buildup that happens in typical “not my first crush but maybe first serious romance” 20-something relationships but the erratic, step-skipping, absolutely unstable sort that teens DO HAVE. I mean, I remember my teen era well despite having lived 4 birth to driver’s license spans so far… I had quite the mix, but insecurity was absolutely part of it even when it was the guy who was initially attracted which was kind of my normal situation (I rarely dated my crushes which is just as well lol… it would’ve broken a precious image of them that is a happy memory🤭). I usually went from same activity acquaintances to friends to mutual flutters eventually and then “dated” in that same kind of hanging out after school way with physical contact and injected words of affection of a different sort, at least emotionally, than those said to friends. Nothing was, save physical touch, different from how I spent time with friends-music, movies, books, passing notes, spontaneous art, meeting between classes and after school, phone calls, hanging out at each other’s homes.
Teen romance in this drama feels like real teen romance. What is really special, though, about how they handle it is that he gets involved in her family, specifically with the younger brother, and helps the little kid who is one of the tightest little balls of unnecessary stress, cruel levels of it, truly, unwind a bit, laugh a bit, see silliness and fun as important valuable things… and trust an adult which the adults in this sure made difficult for the child trying to be, at far too young an age and tiny a physical presence, a guardian to a sister twice his age and size. Seeing this kid’s rationale for being so cold and hostile-seeming and seeing a truly good human break a wall or several down and not give up on this kid or in turn his sister, of course, was truly heartwarming. It had to be one of the best details of the whole show.
My main gripe is probably that it was a bit hurried toward the end. The father just popped in so abruptly at the end that it felt like I didn’t really process what happened until long after the show was over. Say what? Wait, huh? Oh. I think my brain just threw the dad into some on-hold list (all by himself, mind you) WITHIN the drama. It would have been much more effective if they’d prepped us for it through the mom like we were prepped for the brief time with the older brother! I might have just been tired, of course, but it was steady and then suddenly flung together what should’ve, having seen the whole thing now, been fleshed out more and turned into 16 episodes or at least 14. I also would’ve enjoyed a bit more development of the ML, but he stayed steady (still could’ve had better relationship details shown and just more of his life beyond quick photoshoots and the FL/SF).
There are a couple of “colors” I would’ve loved getting to know better, another way they could’ve helped with those extra hours wanted, but even as it is not without shortcomings, I appreciate that at least for the characters, we get to see shortcomings stop being weaknesses at all and simply being part of the person. Coming of age stories absolutely need that factor. It isn’t that we stop being flawed but that being flawed stops being a flaw itself. This handled that beautifully.
Oh, I never pointed this out, but the cast did a FANTASTIC job! Amazing job, casting director team and director who no doubt helped cement their identities! They truly all BECAME their characters. I look forward to more of the young new faces met through this! (I couldn’t stop thinking the actress playing Se Ra reminded me of Kim Go Eun, so I hope she stays active as we need more faces like hers and KGE needs someone to play her little sis who actually resembles her)! I am glad this set of veterans were cast as they are well-known for being really warm, compassionate, savvy mentors who teach well, no doubt partly fro theatre keeping them on their toes for ones with that background… the mother mentoring the daughter as her character is ever increasingly impossible to love is always amusing to me. ☺️
In any case, I truly enjoyed this, and it wasn’t just for the handsome, gentle musician-actor and beautiful, sassy actress I came for! I recommend it to anyone who likes coming of age stories! It handled that so well I am still surprised!
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Like opening a lot of time capsules from 20 years of their lives
This is hard to rate because it really depends on what you want from it. I wanted nothing in particular as I knew nothing but who the leads were from the poster… I loved my couple of hours with them because it really fit my wandering/daydreamy mind that was fine just quietly observing while curled up with a ball of fluff.This is a slice of life… we are getting a moving image selection of time capsules of these characters’ lives, and where they are and who they are with in that moment is all you are getting, not some huge plot of what ifs, just a beautiful depiction of how the choices of each person at every stage made them grow, change, and all the same keep looking back and letting their hearts linger at a time long past. The child actress was an astonishingly good match, something I didn’t realize until I kept seeing them back and forth. She was also just plain good at connecting to this story in that quiet, nuanced way I see depicted in a lot of Japanese art. Minimalist in some ways, sure, but more like precision, a lack of clutter in what is shown so you see precisely what you should.
What you see? Beautiful cinematography, truly. The parts that are a bit more raw like the early months working in a cheese factory for the ML feel entirely intentional. When things are more harmonious, it is very clearly meant to convey the state of mind/level of comfort and peace in that singular moment. Everywhere is thoughtfully decorated, and this one warm older woman kept giving me Kim Hye Ja feels and I wanted her to feed me, too. Even the food, while only a few moments of it were shown, was really tender…
It is, from my viewing, about finding your home (your soul’s home in particular) and healing from things that made you run from even your happiest moments. The connections are not some pretty, perfect picture. They are realistic. The leads are understated in their expressions much of the time, her more than him, but their faces show pretty clearly how they are processing their emotions… you could probably turn off subs for 80% of this and still get 90% of what is said… ah, the music is also truly good, well-fitting for this film (which is actually “adapted from a song” which sure isn’t a tag I will see much, is it?). There is a bit of a shortcoming in the story itself a few places, mostly approaching the end, and I don’t love time skip endings in general (well, I particularly don’t like these barely there time skip endings… like why not show more between the ferry fireworks end of era capsule and the final one? I feel slightly, well, slighted there. Sure, it definitely works this way, but some things, even done well, make you ask “coulllldn’t you? We would be soooo happy to see this process after so many others were shown in such detail!” Alas, they jumped ahead in a way that felt a little disjointed and peculiar after the rest was so detailed in making sure the moments would linger…
I really found myself appreciating the hair and makeup stylists here!! They found the right ways to make time pass and make them seem definitely older, and that really helped in times when things were not going as desired. It was convincing, and they carried themselves in a way that matched the visuals the team crafted through makeup and hairstyles. The supporting cast were all just excellent, too.
So that is the spoiler free (slice of life doesn’t really have a ton of spoilers) reaction for this thread of fate being entwined, tangled, snapping, tied back together, etc. for every person in this whole film… the emotions are not loudly expressed very often, but they are palpable. Just know it feels a bit like an art film that is more about impressions left than any particular plot being carried out (almost 20 years of time are covered, so lots of small plot moments make the impressions, but they don’t directly connect in a linear fashion; rather, they culminate). It is reflective and has some flashbacks that some may not love. I would not want to watch this if my mind was busy/distracted. It is something to just immerse your eyes in and soak up, to feel as you observe… I didn’t find myself thinking about any what ifs at all. I just rode its wave which was gentle enough to sweep me here and there without making me drown in any place or lose my balance. The simple words “Are you okay?” becoming a grounding force for someone in a bit of a bad place is one of its most lovely details… those tiny words can make someone feel able to breathe again, able to smile. Okay, doesn’t hurt if the other is adorable and adoring.
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If you like Doctor X, especially if you are waiting for Season 6 or 7 or 8 to be subbed depending on when you see this, you'll probably thoroughly enjoy the shenanigans of this one. It's a little more racy (only a little, though), and more focused on comedy than all else though it does present an interesting couple of medical cases amidst the clamor.
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Brilliant cast executing a fun, oftentimes hilarious showing of girl power
Two words: GIRL POWER! Okay, so onto a review of sorts which I think probably seems more like a rabid fan name dropping idols they have crushes on-oh well, so be it!I have been waiting to see this since eons ago when they first cast Ra Mi Ran (a personal superhero to me, brilliant, funny, able to make me cry with joy and anguish and anger and from laughing too hard, great no matter the role, always genuine and with expressions that show how invested she is in every role, a superb mentor to her younger starlets in training, a lovely warm and sweet human who especially brings out the importance of family, biological and more than that the chosen family you make as adults or even in youth, in roles no matter her job, social status, etc in the role... she is such a team player that I seriously haven't seen ANYONE she has poor chemistry with! She's just so beautiful everyone loves her with great reason!). I am so happy I finally got to watch it. She is so badass here whether sporting a leather jacket or Hawaiian shirt or denim. The hacker ace role really was, somewhat surprisingly, well-suited for Sooyoung, much moreso than others I've seen her in. I also liked seeing Lee Sung Kyung in a role that has no reliance, momentary time at a club for folks under 30 aside, on beauty which she has plenty of. I would ADORE having a drama series made from this. 16-24 hours of badass ladies supported by guys? YES PLEASE! ALWAYS YES! It doesn't hurt that one of my favorite ahjussis finally came in albeit for such a brief moment to stand behind his true cop kiddo! <3 Sung Dong Il always rocks, even when he plays characters I momentarily want to castrate! Thankfully, this brief cameo did not kick in that feeling at all!
After him playing the angsty but awkward and tender/sensitive design artist in Romance is a Bonus Book (and his roles in Matrimonial Chaos alongside Bae Doona, Jung Hae In's pal turned bro in law in Pretty Noona etc), Wi Ha Joon kind of startled me-well, REALLY startled me. Oof, those punches and kicks just aren't so like his image elsewhere-movies let them really go to other worlds, and his cursing was so natural!! Yikes! :) O_O After he was the American named Michelin chef with the injured hand in Best Chicken, I came to like the guy who plays chemical wizard for illicit drugs Philip, too (though I didn't realize he was quite this tall or lean-he's 6'2" apparently, same height as Jang Ki Yong). I also spotted a fellow costar from Miracle We Met and more recently the cute Song___ (not sure his full name-the Thai guy) in Fiery Priest! From Class of Lies we have the Lee Tae Seok fellow even looking for fame and status here, tisk tisk, but this one comes around and at least helps do real work if minimally lol! The maknae on that squad was a twin in Sky Castle, is in Arthdal Chronicles, and played the young version of the prosecutor bro in Psychometric and I think the young Jang Hyuk, too, in Money Flower, though I'm not sure and don't know his name off hand-there's no shortage of cuteness here, weird as it is to say about cops and drug dealers! Anyone watching Moment of 18 (M-T adorable first love high school drama w/Hyangi) will recognize the well-humored though somewhat taunting math wizard and track star oughttabe character Sang Hoon, too, as one of the four drug dealers, the one I think coordinating the distribution of illegally acquired sex tapes, and last but not, not ever, least... OUR GRIM REAPER from Hotel Del Luna! I was all kinds of sentimental even though he is quite a louse in this one!
All to say I was totally in love if only because it was like the stars aligned so brilliantly and brought together all sorts of people I have enjoyed recently (even if some like the status seeking cop/Lee Tae Seok one I enjoy disliking!)-to see such a cast is a total feast for my eyes, even if only briefly. Can't forget Yoon Sang Hyun, of course, not after Shopping King Louis, Miss Perfect, OSKA in Secret Garden, I Hear Your Voice, and even Gap Dong and Mrs Temper from a while back-he's a bit typecast for these dopey roles, but he's definitely good at them! Still, his roles in Shopping King Louis and Secret Garden are my faves for him.
Admittedly, this might not have much rewatch value since it's not especially complex or anything-you can watch casually and grasp everything the first time around, so it's not a mental maze to navigate by any shot (nor is it trying to be), but it is super fun. If I feel really stressed and feel like I need to throw or hit something, I can just replay the showcase of girl power in this and let them further damage the already lacking brain function of their brother-husband who gets a bit battered in his efforts to be useful! Prepare to laugh and smile A LOT. It is quite the riot and such a welcome respite for a weary day.
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Easy watch that questions “what is the best thing for…” a few ways
This is going to have spoilers, so I recommend you just dive in and watch a few episodes instead of reading my rambling thoughts here if you haven’t already seen this.This was quite heartwarming and a little crushing, too. Seeing kids develop obsessive compulsive behaviors, have panic attacks, and endure way more strain than their developing bodies can handle is hard, even in fictional settings. It is a bit predictable (because family dramas almost always are), but the characters that are developed are solid while the background ones are sort of just there. They chose fantastic cast members who delivered reliably even when the characters themselves didn’t have enough time on the screen to be deeply developed.
They had the characters and plot for 12 episodes but trimmed it to 8. It worked both in its favor and against it at the same time-some things were shallow and felt like filler simply because they weren’t fleshed out but delivered like bullet points in a presentation you list off and move past. Seo Yun’s father was supposed to be one of the main characters but had less presence than the grandmother of SY’s best friend. I’m sure the actor doesn’t mind since he is pretty content with all levels of roles, but he was really just there, his scenes kind of feeling out of sorts like a quota they needed to meet since two single moms of one daughter back to back in a family would bring quite a different dynamic, the crypto mess really truly feeling unnecessary, like odd 3-line filler that goes nowhere (I find it hard to believe that they “just need a little more” and instead of a loan and family support or just WORKING SOMEWHERE since his building doesn’t need him on site, they… um… write a plot line of gambling away what I think was ₩300M. Still, even with some odd moments, the actual human connection was warm and tender, resilience and priorities and “what is best for them” really central. Jung Jin Young was a big reason I watched along with Jeon Hye Jin, and I especially enjoyed his role. JHJ’s first drama after losing her husband so cruelly made me feel more intensely than perhaps I should have initially, but I quickly forgot she was anyone but the character once the dynamics were established.
The kids who have to endure, as preschoolers, this sort of imbalance are just being set up for mental breakdowns. Adults in rat race workplaces shouldn’t inflict that same kind of atmosphere and pace on developing brains and the bodies controlled by them. That much stress causes destruction from underdeveloped body systems (especially gastrointestinal, another reason stress leads to more accidents with little kids’ bladder development getting delayed on top of stress making the nervous system derail) to self-destruction. The nail biting and stealing, trying that hard to control a situation impossible to control as a tiny kid, turn into far bigger problems down the line. That intense level of denial for so long when she knows first hand the triggers for it is crushing. Looking straight ahead at the other moms when your child is by your waist makes me loathe them. Neglect is a form of abuse, and I am glad they showcased different ways of harming your child (ones that don’t require physical contact or that can, to outsiders, seem like compassion even when cruelty is displayed) clearly without ambiguity.
I don’t know how I feel about the accident in the last episode, but at least everyone was okay. They had no time to traumatize the whole cast, so it isn’t as if there was a decent alternative once they decided to have a car pull out (really, though, why not do like train tracks and have bars stop people from walking into these exits for underground lots where they can only see people if they take the time to look in the mirrors on the garage walls which most don’t do?)… The kids were realistic-most are resilient so long as their parents are stable, honestly, even if it is partly because actually stable parents don’t tend to forget their kids are kids and turn them into trophies because of social pressures stable parents can actually talk through and decide the level of engagement with.
SY could’ve (not should’ve but could’ve) handled Class A (how dumb to rank kids not even in grade school yet, though, oof!) if they’d just let her have room to breathe, run a bit which is necessary at that age (what is with expecting the brains of preschoolers to be able to focus for 2 hours on reading material, and I’m sorry, but what 5-year old SK school kid is learning comma rules for English in an academy, and… whyyyy?—some of it is nuts and hopefully exaggerated since most of it I caught was *native language* 2nd grade material they were doing in their academy). They made me so glad for my own time of art, music, math through tactile learning (objects in front of you), reading fun material (certainly not the king’s speech or anything like it lol), swim lessons and observing nature and comparing leaves and bugs from outside to what is in books, growing our own little plants, incubating bird eggs, and other basic “learn how to learn” techniques and motor skill development! In this case, SY would’ve been okay if her mom hadn’t upended her own life and been showing intense stress around the clock and being so intensely anxious the whole time they were looking into Class A mess. Your tiny mirror, the cute little monkey that sees and does, is gonna reflect that stress right back, dear parents.
I am happy the elders got their cute late in life love story. That is probably my favorite part, 3 grandparents with one being the wingwoman for both of the others. All in all, I enjoyed it. The title is quite apt. It really is about a mom, her mom, and her experience being a mom herself, complete with another grandmother-mother-daughter pack of pals.
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If Mr. Bean and a horribly corrupt idealist got into a fight... in a bank?
Is my headline confusing? So is this show. I don't feel like I can devote a ton of energy to making this organized if I'm honest; I just noticed this weird show somehow has a totally respectable rating thus far but no one is bothering to say what they like about it or dislike, so I'm going to basically rant a little til I feel better.It starts off seeming okay. You have a bank merger with one of the two having far more political pull/influence and this weirdly corrupt idealist (see, told ya it's confusing) pushing the board of directors who are all in for profit at the cost of the bank itself, even. Corrupt idealist exec is going through this shutdown of all the less powerful bank's branches and transferring their accounts to the others, fine okay, but he's bribing people left and right, talking about giving control to overseas companies, even, to "save the bank?" There's his idealism in a big vision: banks ruled by AI, minimal human knowledge or involvement, computers the superior means for all things monetary in his mind.
I struggled to give this a rating at all because it COULD be genuinely good, really, except good freaking lord, what was this writer thinking when deciding to basically make the lead character a sort of comical Mr. Bean figure always bowing, smiling, everyone robotically following militant sorts of motions that don't EVEN seem like human bodies are moving half the time. Some solid sentimental connection is formed, and I really do like a couple of the actors in this, the ones more subtle in behavior, more... banker-like? Kagawa Teruyuki is by far the best of them in this respect. Some of those banker behaviors are instilled, the whole morning hazaa sorts of let's get em tiger fight the good fight work hard comrades teamwork chants, but he looks human and real. Ah, so does Takahashi Kazuya (who has some of the Mr. Bean but without being so annoyingly non-humanlike). With that said, because there ARE some really sweet behaviors, some sentimental attachments, and while of course a bit on the forced side there are some stories of customers that are delivered in touching and normal ways, I kept watching. Would I watch a second season? My rating speaks for itself. I'd certainly watch the aforementioned actors (along with the youngster Kamiki Ryunosuke) again, but assuming this is not the normal sort of behavior/acting job for the lead, for Kote Shinya who is basically a mobster in a bank office, and for bully with the approval stamp Sakou Yoshi, assuming more aptly they don't make these grotesque over the top facial expressions that sometimes look like someone having a seizure in 'anger' or 'defiance' and other times just look RIDICULOUS... The lead Fukuyama Masaharu seemed to think he was in a comedy. Maybe it is? When he would become 'sentimental' it was a bit like a tiny child cuddling a doll; when Mikami Hiroshi, our corrupt bribery using idealist trying to save the bank through machines, to fire everyone then say it was for their institution that now the experienced bankers will make a valiant sacrifice and bag groceries for the rest of their work years, when he got pissy, it was so much like a spoiled little kid not getting his robot the day it was released it really WAS comical. The problem with that? The content was serious.
That's not to say you can't take serious content and deliver it with a lot of comedy. I finished Special Labor Inspector (Kdrama) not long ago and it was funny, sharp, and also managing serious stuff. Heck, even Doctor Detective has funny moments. This seemed more up the Radiation House alley-something to take very seriously as if the lives of all you serve depend on it. In both a hospital and bank that is entirely true. If your money OR your health disappear, the other is soon to follow, so it's not like we can survive without both being managed well and safeguarded. Had it been approached LIKE Radiation House-some sweetness, sentiment, some brilliance, some dumb moments of despair/shame, and a sharp contrast between the 'do it quick and make money' folks and the 'do it right the first time and follow through thoroughly' ones, it could honestly have been great.
Summary: I don't honestly know if the actors were TOLD to be so unnatural (ie if it's a failed comedy) or if the writer's directions were not clear/precise or if they gave leeway for the actors to interpret it, but the director at the very least BOMBED this because it was like I was watching six different shows, actors who had read six separate scripts thrown together. That'd be fine were they tourists in a hostel all acting wildly different, but not in a bank, especially not in a single branch of a bank. It was just too peculiar to enjoy and I ended up frequently speeding up the ABUNDANCE of dead time, time when a scene could have been done in 2 minutes but took 10. It was just poorly made. I feel sad for the ones who DID work hard because it's clear they didn't gel in the end. Failed comedy, failed business centered semi-serious drama about economic issues of the day, failed study of what ACTUALLY makes a person heroic? Who knows. They clearly wrote for the lead to be persevering the whole way through. The problem is the lack of evolution of that character and-even if it was the intention-how unbelievable it was for someone completely underqualified and not especially skilled, your base level clerk, to suddenly jump up several tiers in order to fail then behave like a basic clerk but everything turn out alright? Eh, perseverance isn't enough and the message gets lost with a guy who can always be outwitted and who ultimately would realistically have been attacked and hospitalized in almost any other drama; they fired and bullied and hurt others, threats left and right, but a guy with a wife and child at home is going to just take the threats and go? Unbelievable is definitely a good word.
Like I said, I like the idea of this grunt worker just running his way around (no transit bankers have enough $ there I suppose?), though he is running apparently 15km a day from how they make it seem, all in dress shoes and a suit, no changing outfits for the sake of not being sweaty for clients (but I guess women don't fart and bankers don't sweat if they're honorable?). I like a lot of its ideas. The problem is I cringed so so much I am angry for how much more my wrinkles set in with a mere 540 minutes. I feel jaded that it took 450 minutes of lousy acting by the ones that were in that comical Bean universe that sometimes felt like I was watching a fight between (The Simpsons) Mr. Burns and Ned Flanders, the lead the obvious Flanders and the paper stamper/approval process slower downer and stopper the Mr. Burns. That leaves Takahashi Kazuya to be Mr. Bean since he has the best resemblance!
Ah, and it's normal, I know, but when a show already makes you grit your teeth, those ads thrown a few places in them really make your fist feel like punching something sometimes. They do serve as times to unclench a jaw that is really sad to see something promising go from drain to sewer to waste treatment plant in 10 hours then just end with a stench you never can quite stop smelling even after it's theoretically 15km away, running alongside our protagonist who somehow turns from a cog they'll use and dispose of to a master who beats them despite knowing almost nothing about what's happening in his own institution. Should've maybe let someone else be the voice of inspiration. This guy just made me want to slap him too often with his fast furious bows and running and loud shouting and other comedy troupe suited behaviors that don't translate well on TV.
Sorry I ranted. I got mad all over again at myself for watching it through, but with 10 episodes, it feels like an insult to not see something through (oh heck, for me there can be 25 hours left and I'll still not be able to stop watching most that I start if I've gotten even 5-6 hours into it). This has been a confession for your holiness to forgive my impudence and all that. I at least can go watch them be cute, handsome, sweet, tender, or villanous elsewhere, hopefully in sync with their fellow cast members next time.
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Heartwarming story of heartbreaking realities that keeps building to a perfect finale
I started watching this for Jung Kyung Ho, Tang Jung Sang and Seol In Ah always welcome on my screen, too. I fully expected this to be 7.5-8 material based on the beginning couple eps, but this thing really does worm its way into your heart, and it is sitting at a very cozy 9/10. It is one of the most solid finales I’ve seen a show have in a long time, and it kept building and building with very real issues handled with compassion for victims and fervor and rage to get something done about it. The cameos in it are absolutely FANTASTIC the whole way through. The veteran cast members featured across different cases really did anchor this, their stories more than just plot points, their characters and struggles critical in the growth of the male lead.I always appreciate when a show can be both entertaining and actually make people spend some of their moments thinking about and hearing stories of people very much around them that they have mostly ignored. It is an important role of media, after all, as bring people’s collective attention to issues is the first step in bringing positive change to society. The cast of this brought their best to show what not-so-famous everyday workers are going through all around us, and they did it beautifully, especially everyone playing low-wage workers throughout the drama.
I also love stories that bring me new kinds of characters in terms of their jobs in particular (for the same reason, I love when shows do a good job showcasing a lesser known disease/disorder and how it impacts those with it and their loved ones). This is a job people rarely think about existing INCLUDING those who need a labor attorney most! Highlighting it can both make people consider a career in it but bring awareness to struggling victims and their families who desperately need representation when fighting corporations’ foul play. Bringing new jobs gives a fresh perspective and, since this one did a solid job of making it very believable, it gave people more than just dancing hormones and neurotransmitters for its short time on screen.
It ended up being heartwarming, the ending even making me tear up a few times, and the bonds between all the people in it are believable and strong. I was frustrated right alongside the main characters, occasionally frustrated AT the characters, too, saddened for the ones being represented and their loved ones, and relieved and at peace when they were. It ended with hope, the final ingredient needed in telling this kind of story.
It won’t necessarily appeal to all. I bought into the lead’s personality (and the last episode was a chef’s kiss rounding him out in full!), and while the comedy wasn’t always perfectly landing (Cha Hak Yeon doesn’t quite win me over here or elsewhere, dunno why, and his character frustrated me many times which I think was intended only half of them🙃), most of the time the experience of Jung Kyung Ho and Seol In Ah’s charisma really did make the humorous scenes in this work very well. The buildup to the very end is truly worth watching attentively, at least to me! Really glad I didn’t sleep on this one. It left me feeling full of warmth… now I just need something cool to not let summer heat make that warmth overwhelming.
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A tender, delicately crafted story of healing through found family
This drama has so few reviews I decided to copy my feed post from a month ago to the page as a review; other reviews give you the story details, so I feel okay just gushing in my stream of consciousness fashion here. :) (It is a given that not many titles are still at the forefront of my brain a month later for being so wonderful-only the wretched titles tend to lurk that long!)The short summary: This is a highly emotional slice of life with performances that are a balance of charming, funny, and naturally sad at times as 9 people who’ve lost the people they love most in the world are faced with a world that doesn’t understand what they are dealing with and makes them want to be further isolated as no amount of “stay strong”isms will do any good… Those people come together and find a place they can breathe, people they don’t have to pretend to be okay around and eventually get okay around. Tearjerker moments paired with gentle humor, character growth and the best example of a true “found family” story I’ve seen… that is what you are signing up for if you watch this drama which I HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
The lengthy version (my brain splatting out its thoughts without censorship-pardon the mess):
I hovered between 9.5 and 10 for the rating here, but I really can’t find fault in it, especially since I had to naturally watch some pretty compressed video (it was uploaded long before the era of full HD gigabyte plus episode files being common) that lost a lot of the color in it but still found myself crying a bit, smiling, and crying again for all the pain and happiness alike… yeah, this deserves a 10. It is a heavily character-centered slice of life about found family (admittedly a weakness of mine that will warm my heart more than almost every other trope when it is done well, and man, this is your platinum star for that!), so instead of plot twists and turns or intense feuds of family dramas that have scheming at the forefront, this is bringing together people who are as different as you will find but who share one crucial thing: they all just lost the most important people to them because of the same tragic accident.
Granted, you need to WANT something that explores grief, loss, and pain from MANY perspectives and showcases a really complex set of character dynamics as they cope with trauma, loneliness (to extremes), survivor guilt (a couple of them weren’t there at the scene of the accident at all, but their guilt, while a little different, is no less intense, and their isolation and alienation no less saddening).
Stunning performances across the board. This managed, in 9 hours, to let me see deeper into the stories of the characters (despite there being several to peer into, some more deeply than others) than most dramas can in 20 hours, but unlike many (most) quick works that aim for the same “tell a lot with little time” result, it never felt like they were just gluing together tiny skits. It flowed exceptionally well, and I ended up deeply loving the characters thanks to how thoughtful I found both the writing and portrayal of them.
Emotional train wreckage, yep, and it is beautifully handled. I feel both amazing warmth and a tiny bit of exhaustion from so much emotion pulled from me as I couldn’t stop watching after a point. I didn’t want to let go of them, any of them. They really managed to end it pretty perfectly while leaving a big part of me wanting to forget much I’d just seen so I could watch it for the first time again even though it is not throwing a thrilling twist-filled plot that justifies forgetting before rewatching. I want to see their initial encounters and growth from the start with no knowledge of it. I want to watch them grow together and heal together in this gentle haven. The blend of heart, humor, pain, and characters who grow to trust and feel truly comfortable like family, real lasting family, with one another is worth anyone watching who wants to throw their hearts into something. (I am really glad I watched it far in advance of the Korean adaptation coming out-the Kdrama has only cast 3 potential house members, and I am excited for it, but I think it’ll be very different… still, what a fantastic title to remake in HD, hopefully with all the charm of the house this one features which really is just a perfect setting for this story!)
This is certainly not for people primarily looking for pretty faces and sharp cinematography. It is 20 years old this year and what is online, fan subbed, is compressed to under 1/5 the file size it would be if released now. I didn’t actually find it detracted too much after a brief adjustment for my eyes since I was there for the characters’ story, story, and more story and it fully delivered. The OST, while the start and end are consistent, has some fitting songs. In particular, a couple of instrumental numbers threw my brain back to an album I had, might still have, that I think was the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra. At least that is the cover that is in my head (it is not at all a weird song of theirs-they have lots that are non-traditional-just one that I remember the flute player’s sound from and think this might be that same player). No huge wow factor anywhere… but that is why it shines. It is delicately handled, full of tiny details (both through setting/cast/prop visuals and in character traits and dynamics), and nuanced, and it feels deeply honest, authentic, in terms of the emotions of every character.
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Didn't expect to watch Armageddon's Korean sequel
I feel like I'm on a streak of posting 8-8.5's and this was all set to be another 8* option, but... in the end had too many weak points to give it that (it's still fine for single-viewing mindless entertainment, just not exactly for grading it from a story and casting POV or my own preference since I'm not really a mindless watch stuff get blown up sort of viewer-I do generally prefer my brain to need to at least be alert-here, it's like I could put it in hibernate and recreate the whole thing-it's just a bit too basic, too common and overdone a storyline, and predictable overall).This one is a bit hard to rate because the acting and production are totally A-grade and I appreciate that they don't have the actors in the "control towers" (military commanders, the President and his staff, etc) being over the top-everyone was precise and acted their parts out quite well... but for a script that is totally average. This is a bit like Armageddon, South Korea style, but not so cringe-inducing, not trying to drag tears out of you by punching you repeatedly with saccharin blech (there's a very very short bit of it, though it's forgivable, I guess), this had, for me, what would make a really weird high/low points graph. It starts off kind of mediocre which honestly almost made me click out, but it got much better and better... only to have an ending that felt like dozens of other action movies and brought back to mind Armageddon references when I never in my whole life want to remember that film with... isn't it Steven Tyler singing its anthem? Yeah, pretty sure... that song still feels like a trauma in my life somehow.
At least this lacks an OST to speak of-it's too busy with immense sound effects. THAT is a definite strength, but it's Dexter Studios (Dexter the Eye etc) with CJ Group-of course the visuals and sound engineering will be solid. The ACTING is also solid. This is Lee Byung Hun's perfect sort of role IMO. I don't like him in anything where he's supposed to be "sexy" or in any romances except only-half-romance historical Mr. Sunshine, but this... yes, this is the right role for him... tough, sly, a bit hard to put up with, cocky, all the things his face exudes if I'm honest. Physiognomy isn't my jam, but maybe all those face reading sageuks made me see his face and project... or the Marlboro Man vibe just feels off-putting... okay, and Mr. Sunshine aside, I'll never root for his romance bc he took Ji Sung's woman in 2003. Yup. Bitterness eternal here.
This is, overall, kinda, hmm... entertaining because the acting is slick and some dialogue is, while not too unique, really well-delivered (and thank goodness their American cast members were actually good speakers, whew... SO often their "Americans" end up just absolutely sucking!)... Ma Dong Seok was playing a super smart Princeton professor, a geologist of sorts who had predicted the mountain explosions that are the basis of this and gets involved, and his big ol' teddy bear personality was on screen as authentic as imaginable here. He's so dang endearing.
Now for a gripe, though: Suzy's role was small and honestly forgettable and seemed pretty out of place (she looks 20 years younger than her "husband" Ha Jung Woo plays here, like 40 vs 20 even if they're supposed to be 30... mismatched for me and they ARE 17 yeara apart). While she's great in her role, Jeon Hye Jin, actually a couple years older than him, easily passes for child-bearing age in this movie, so she would've paired better, as would have Ok Ja Yeon who's 10 years younger. Either of those would've made Ha Jung Woo seem younger than his 44 years, but Suzy's SO far off age and appearance-wise it makes him look like his character would have friends whose children were in her class. Oh well... not that important, just not loved by me and a bit annoying in the very few moments they were in the same scene... it's super weird to see Ma Dong Seok look like a better spouse for Suzy than the one assigned! He cleans up nicely here, though. :P
Anyway, it's not amazing stuff, no, but for a couple of hours of explosions and action and me wishing more about the science would've been explored and worked through on-screen (and even the political end since it was just thrown on screen in an "everyone knows this bit" way that made it lack longevity for sure), it was entertaining. Not a screenwriter I'll be desperate to seek everything out from, though. To go to Armageddon's awful theme song to close this out, I WON'T miss a thing... about this movie, Ma Dong Seok the expert Princeton scientist with his ever-golden care bear heart aside.
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