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The Unwilling Ghostbuster

The story opens with the King’s crown princes dropping dead one by one, with his third (eh or was it the forth?) prince getting sick and behaving like a possessed kid. The King has no choice but to seek help from the temple, despite not believing in spirits. Kidnapped and later coerced into doing some ghost-busting in the Joseon Royal Palace, Gu-cheon, a freeloader who is recommended by the temple ghost-buster monk, found himself granted by the King with a witty and curious ghost-hearing assistant, court lady Saeng-gang. A ghost busting job that started as the hunt for a pond spirit turned into a battle against an ak-gwi, a spirit with powerful resentment who has killed souls, all while fending themselves against the King who is worried that they would unravel the royal family’s 30yo secret.

This is totally giving off The Haunted Palace vibe, though I must say this is definitely better with the actors not trying too hard at the romance thingy. Exactly the way i like it, if it’s supposed to be horror then do your horror thing and not distract viewers with those cheesy romantic scenes, I aint here to see that. Anywayyy, there are considerable plotholes that left me thinking “huh?” along the way, like how did Gucheon turn into a swordmaster in the spirit world but look like a clutz in the real world, and how the heck did he survive a cut across the throat, but i try not to think too deeply on it. One thing for sure, I liked the main characters Gucheon and Saenggang, a duo that started off suspicious and disliking each other but ended up sticking together even in life and death.

The villains here are really vile with a special kind of class, the King doesnt care about his own kids’ life and death, the Dowager Queen of course cares even little since the King isn’t born from her, though i gotta say, the King’s mother is probably the vilest of all. These characters made me thought why the heck do people fight for the throne so badly just to end up with such dysfunctional family with crooked and unhappy life in the end. Anyway, the actors for villains play their role really well I wished for the cruelest death for each of those characters real bad.

Love the BGM and the CGI is really good here, didnt look cartoonish at all, and that ggeomoksali is too damn cute. Gotta say korean ghostbusters really had the worst occupational hazard of all ghost-busters i’ve seen, they literally had to die first to even start ghost-busting. Not to mention need a lot of first aid kit for those palm cuts and blood loss after each trip 😫 no wonder Gucheon never wanted to be a ghostbuster.

SPOILER BEYOND THIS LINE_________________




The ending gives off kinda mixed vibe. Although i love it cuz the main characters survived, i also hated it because NONE of the villains had the vile endings they shouldve received for all the vile things they had done. Like for real. NONE. Justice definitely doesnt prevail in this story. The powerful remains powerful with just a tiny slap on the wrists. Urggg 😫🙄 So that kinda made me take off some stars off the story.

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Welcome to the Battlefield

Working with the Associate Justice Min, Kim Gaon is sent to become Associate Judge for the Live Court with Kang Yohan as the Chief Judge in trying to collect information and evidence to stop Kang Yohan. Kang Yohan is known to be a no-nonsense judge, becoming popular among the citizens as the one who gets the guilty pay despite their powerful background, with the memorable speech, “I am the Authority,”. As Gaon delves into the works of Kang Yohan, especially after bunking in Kang’s mansion after saving him from an explosion blast, Kim Gaon realized things are not exactly the way it seem on the outside. With Kang Yohan and his unconventional way of exercising law, Gaon is faced with dilemma, seeking true justice that makes the guilty pay no matter what it takes even if it means bending the law to his advantage, or stay true to his conscience that urges him to abide by the law that he has been upholding, despite realising that the law is filled with loopholes that the wealthy and powerful could escape with.

It took me some time to get acclimated with Kang Yohan character, he is depicted to be extremely shady who appears to be working for the citizen on the outside but laughing and drinking happily with the wealthy and powerful on the side. I get how conflicted Kim Gaon is, as Kang’s absurdly arrogant with immovable principle character could really make people either despise or worship him. At some point he reminded me of Prosecutor Jang Dohan of the kdrama The Guardians, one who had no qualm of getting his hands dirty and laugh with the devils just so he could put down those devils for good. Kang Yohan is like this, except he doesnt dodge or hide from the devils, he hit them straight head-on by using devilish tactics and measures that other characters with conscience like Kim Gaon and Yoon Soohyeon see him as the evil one and a threat to humanity, completely blinded to the reality that Kang Yohan is the better devil of them all.

I truly love the actress playing Jung Soonah. She really nailed it as the psychopathic biatch that holds enormous grudge against the wealthy and powerful, especially on Kang Yohan as he saw her as who she truly was before she became powerful, a thieving poor little girl. Her moves are as unpredictable as Kang Yohan’s are, it’s really hard to expect what would come next with these two characters. One point they are reliving their past, giving in to each other and the next they would go at each other’s throat with full vengeance. Although this character surprised me around third quarter of the show when she showed a little sympathy for the poor, the kind she was back when she was a girl.

The mindgames here is definitely different than the average thriller mystery revenge kind of show that I’ve seen cuz justice lurks on the grey and dark areas instead of the righteous path, so you can’t really guess even the protagonist’s next move. When I thought I was becoming bored with Kim Gaon and Yoon Soohyeon’s moments, the next scene turned out to be exciting enough that I could not put the episode on hold. But somehow I am disappointed that Detective Yoon’s character isnt more brilliant than she was in the show. I wish she was more than just a pawn in those mindgames.

As usual with korean revenge drama, the evil ones get fitting ending, though it is exceedingly more satisfying here as their deeds are made known to the general public, leaving no room for retribution at all. Some might think the ending is flat or disappointing with regards to Kang Yohan and Kim Gaon, but ultimately this is a story about revenge, it’s not about upholding justice at all. So for me, the ending is good and fitting.

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Came for the Action, Stayed for the Laugh

In the midst of transition between Goryeo and Joseon era, a loyalist soldier Jang Sojeong became a traitor when he went against his commander (who turned to be the future first king of joseon) and had to become a bandit in the mountains. As he led his small army of ex-loyalist bandits, they came upon the news that the Royal Seal bestowed by the Ming Dynasty was swallowed up by a whale on its way back to Joseon and that the navy is searching for it. Seeing this as an opportunity to hold the seal hostage against his ex commander now king, he led his ragtag of mountain bandits to the sea in search for the whale, clashing against the pirate Captain Yeo Wol and her shipmates in their fight against former pirate Captain Soma and the Joseon Navy.

The movie started off on a serious tone when ML had that fight against an army of soldiers during his mutiny, then that scene of Yeo Wol taking over the pirate ship after Soma decided to sell his men out to the Joseon Navy. I never thought this would turn out a comedy instead with the mountain bandits keep getting into mishaps in their efforts to hunt the whale. I laughed non stop, and the seasick pirate-turned-mountain bandit Chul-Bong who had to return to the sea when his chief decided to hunt a whale was the actual star of attraction. The mishaps that happened here looked so natural and fun. The waterwheel scene reminded me of the scene on Pirates of Caribbean though, they must have inspired by it cuz the similarity was too striking.

I love the FL Yeo Wol is such a badass that never really turn into damsel in distress for the sake of making the ML look cool. She has her own story, fights and make decisions that she doesnt falter from just because the ML hoodwinked her.

I love the ML too, he’s fun, he’s tough and he’s a gentleman enough for a bandit. Love seeing his banter with his banditmates. Psst, he’s good looking too!

The ending is somewhat depressing for the whale, but a good ending for the mainleads. Each had their revenge exacted the way they wanted it.

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Unnecessary Sequel

If i thought watching S2 was the screenwriter dumbing me down with those ridiculous philosophycal crap, this S3 made me feel like being zombified by them.

1. The whole season being triggered by quack professor obsessed with the afterlife, a crackhead enough to take down 2 people for him to get the useless answer that, mindfckingly, he never got til the very end. Like whaaaaaat?

2. A woman with a good husband and happy life who’s so hung up with her lost father that she’s willing to venture into the world she fought so hard to leave just to see him again. Like whaaaaaaat? If he’s dead, you won’t find him in borderland cuz that’s the land between death and life, and it’s not possible that he’s been in between life and death cuz it takes at most 2 minutes of dead heartbeat to traverse between that life and death, and he’s been missing for months (or years). And if he’s alive somewhere in the wilderness, then he would definitely NOT be in borderland. There’s just no way for him to be in the borderland so where is the sense of having Usagi following the professor to go to the afterworld? The professor isnt even a therapist she mightbhave wanted to consult with, so how did he convince her to go with him? She’s that fcked over her father’s disappearance that she’s willing to throw away the good life she has now, the good life that she was convinced her father would want her to have back in season 2, which is the reason why she fought so hard to get back to. How could someone who had gone through that, realize the meaning of life and found happiness suddenly throw everything again to follow this quack professor she knew days before just for the unplausible possibility of finding her dad again in the borderland? Where is the logic and sense in that? That’s a total mindfck the writers did on us the audience there.

3. There is no explanation whatsoever as to how the borderland citizens (the gamemasters) could influence real life people to want to come the afterlife, up to the point of arranging the death games in the real world. Like how? Nothing explains this.

4. The dramatic scenes on this one is even cringier than season 2. Of course why not we just opt for the couple straining themselves trying to hold hands between two moving trains when you can simply just jump across and hug? That gap was a no brainer for Usagi the mountain climber, but nope, lets just try hold hands instead 😒🙄 what a drama trope. And how did this badass spiderman FL suddenly needs to rely on a crippled man to get through the games? Guess japanese shows also suffers from cdrama plague of dumbing/powering down FLs just so the next male character could shine. OMG such cringeful of tropes they threw in there.

5. I dont get the kind of attachment Usagi has on the crippled professor. He offers empty promises, telling Usagi she could find her father in the borderland but when she arrives, she wants to go right back. But when Arisu lays a punch on the bastard when they reunited, she spared no second to come to his defense, yelling that he got them back together cuz he helped her clear the games. What the heck now? Girl, he’s the one who separated you guys in the first place for his own selfish desires, he deserves more than that punch even after he ‘inadvertently’ helped you reunite 😒

6. All that trouble to lure Arisu to stay in borderland as citizen for the gamemaster’s entertainment, then in the end the master of borderland would just let him choose whether to live or to die, whichever he chose would still not make him stay in borderland. What kind of mindfck is thattttt?? So what the hell is the point of this whole shenanigans? 🤬🤬

All the above made me thought the hours i spent on this stupid show was such a waste. There is no point whatsoever of this season’s existence. I shouldve dropped this on season 1. Like for real. I’m gonna go with my first hunch for the next shows. Don’t get reeled in by curiosity, woman!

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Get Ready for some Mindfvck

I cant believe how much yapping this season 2 has, when I can barely stand the preach on season 1. Omg that lengthy talk about leadership, sticking out with friends whatever is so repetitive that I finally used the FF button. ML was so obsessed about getting the answer whether they could leave the game if they finished all the games, when he’s been asking the wrong people with wrong questions. Why ask the citizen player whether they could return to the real world when the citizen’s real world is the borderland? Duh, I fastforwarded so much at season 2 cuz they keep yapping useless things like lamenting their past lives or their regrets or meaning of life. It’s amazing how they would yap yap yap when the time on the game was usually only 15-10-5 minutes left. Those preaching is also much cringe-worthy that i failed to see them as profound at all.

Episode 8 felt like the writer is trying to dumb me down with multiple “jokes” told by Queen of Hearts. The ending made everything seem even more senseless. Is this just another cheap trick to bait people for S3 cuz they never really explain why the heck was everyone having the same borderland experience? This season’s ending seem like yet another of the fantasies that the players are experiencing, it’s a hard sell. I feel like I am being tricked, but since the only reason why I struggled to finish both seasons was to find out who the real mastermind is, I guess I’ll have to endure a little bit more of s3.

There’s a lot of more blood getting spilled in this season, I guess with the weak script they had to do something to keep the audience on edge. More blood, more gory deaths, more gunshots. But no worries, as long as your favourite characters are within the top 5, no matter how many gunshots or slashes or burns they suffer, they would simply survive. The amount of resurrection they did on Aguni and Niragi are so many that I lost track of the numbers. The writer really dumbed the audience down with this one.

I am quite frustrated that I havent found my answer even after enduring 2 seasons. Now i had to watch s3. Duh.

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Clear the Game or Di3

Arisu, Chota and Karube walk out of the building only to find the supposedly bustling city being totally empty, devoid of any living beings whatsoever. They find instructions for them to participate in games where clearing it will reward them with visas - basically pass for them to stay alive. If the visa expires before players manage to join a game, a laser will shoot from the sky straight into their heads, which of course ends said life. As they try to clear each game, Arisu comes across an intriguing girl called Usagi, a mountain climber with superior agility and skill at scaling vertical objects, and both end up sticking with each other to find the game master so they could return to the real world.

Coming from a generation that grew up with Battle Royale and the likes, hardly any scene of this show fazes me, despite them being all bloody and gory. The games are somewhat interesting, but the real motivation for me to finish the show is actually to see the real puppeteers behind those games.

Arisu, although comes from a somewhat well-off family, is not the hero type - he can’t fight, he is not stunningly handsome, he generally panics first and think later, and he used to live his life as a loser back in the real world, being frowned upon by his family as hopeless, thus suffers from considerable low self esteem. He wastes his life with video games and hanging out with equally hopeless friends. So yeah, he is not the ideal hero ML. But one thing he possesses is a very perceptive and quickwitted mind that analyzes situations in a more detailed manner than the usual bloke. This is the only thing that gets him through those games in borderland. You dont get to enjoy an ML who could fight off bad guys or protect his female counterparts. Nope! Scratch that expectation off. Arisu instead gets beaten all bloody quite a lot in here, and he doesnt really lift a finger to fight back. He is a total living punching bag, which sometimes frustrates me to watch as I am more inclined towards physically strong roles. But the show must go on, and my curiosity of the game master trumps my getting cringed at how physically weak the ML is.

Although the ML is weak and rather uninteresting, the females roles here have quite a range of interesting characteristics. We have Usagi the mountain climber, Kuina the black belt transgender, Ann the police forensic lady and Mira the mysterious psycho. The show really picked up when they finally arrived at The Beach that supposedly hold all the answers the players needed. Or so it seem.

Anyway, this is a total survival story, don’t go expecting smooching romance or mindblowing fight choreographs. There are lots of blood, gun shoot-out and knife and sword slashings with occasional racy bedscenes among unimportant characters, and head’ss up for rather icky almost r@pe scene, though. So be advised.

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Brutally Insane Ride You can Barely Breathe

Kwon Yu, an ex national athlete who is now living off his mom who works as hospice worker, quietly wasting away his life by playing video games around the clock. A phonecall offering reward of $300 for returning a phone turned his life into a living hell. The next morning after returning the phone, he wakes up to a police raid, convicted with a crime he knew nothing of, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. He finally decides to escape when his mom died mysteriously amid his appeal. Determined to exonerate himself, he teams up with his online gaming team to track down the men behind his frame-up.

I had to say this is one of the most engaging kmovie I’ve ever watched. The level of blood being spilled in those brutal fight sequences is unimaginable. Ji Changwook is exceedingly phenomenal here, the writer definitely did quite a number on his role - he gets beaten, sexually assaulted, drugged, shot and crashed into non stop. Even when I saw The Worst of Evil, his role had not been as brutally injured as this Kwon Yu. The action and special effects team are astronomically excellent here with those hand-to-hand fights, car chases and explosions. Totally love the car chase especially when the good guys had to work with that tiny compact car compared to beamers and mercedes benz that the villains drive.

The plot twists, the angst, the fury of both good guys and villains as they outwit each other back to back keeps me at the edge of my seat in the whole duration of the movie. Gosh I’d really rewatch this just for the action. As usual, i cant really find any faults with korean actors, they carried their role too well even those with the small parts. I really love the foreigner characters that were ever so small but were actually the tipping point between Kwon Yu getting caught and escaping. Man, the whole production is truly awesome.

I am glad I watched this in movie format compared to the series The Manipulated (also starring Ji Chang Wook), cuz I dont think I can handle the anger and frustration of seeing ML getting assaulted and outwitted by the villains on a longer basis.

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The World from an Autistic Perspective

Woo Young Woo has been having a hard time landing a job after graduating as one of the top students in Seoul National University Law School, simply because she is in the spectrum. Finally a job offer came from a top law firm, Hanbada and she started as a rookie attorney with a 1 year contract, dealing with various cases that teaches her about the world and its workings. Though sometimes bullied by her fellow rookie coworkers or yelled at by clients and senior attorneys, she still manages to learn about love and making concessions, eventually learning the secret behind her father’s simple background that led to her not so simple identity.

First off I just had to give it off to ALL the actors in the cast, from the one who played young Young Woo who appeared less than 15minutes to the mainlead adult Young Woo. Every single one played their roles well and I could really feel the connection between them. The one that hit me tha hardest is how lonely Young Woo’s father’s life had been raising an autistic child all by himself, with absolutely no support system nor job stability, knowing that he is throwing his dreams and life away to make a life for somebody who may never learn how to express her love back at him, his autistic and socially-challenged daughter, Young Woo. Imagine raising a child who could never stand holding hands or hugging you for more than 1 minute, it wouldve been infuriating, especially when youre all alone with no one to confide into or seek warmth from, ie a soulmate. Young Woo’s father deserves the Parent of The Year Award for having that kind of endurance.

Although the story is very simple and straightforward with a pinch of political maneoevre, it still manages to keep my attention on with all those quirky characters they throw in, from the sassy Dong Geurami to the colourful attitudes of judges. I really liked Honju, although he is an extremely green flag that seem too good to be true. It’s somewhat sad to see him constantly giving in to Woo Youngwoo cuz she just couldnt understand social cues, deep down I know he’s going to be father 2.0 if he ever gets together with Youngwoo. Of course it is a good thing for Youngwoo, hey autistic people long for love too, just in their own way that may not seem like love to the ordinary people.

A fun fact that I find unique about the show is there wasnt any true villain in the show, even the horribly selfish and cunning Tae Sumi and Kwon Minwoo eventually redeemed themselves at the end.

The conflicts and tensions here isnt as pressing as other stories i’ve seen, but okay for a moderate-paced family drama. I look forward to Season 2.

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When Crazy Meets Crazy

As a child, Seo Yeoreum (Summer) grew up in hatred and violence as he witnessed his father assaults his mother on constant basis. The final straw was when he saw his mom hang herself but he never moved to help, and eventually blamed himself as his mom’s killer, never managed to catch a sleep and constantly looking for a way to die. He lets himself gets beaten by schoolbullies because the pain takes away the pain of watching his mom die. His mom’s first love, Detective Nam Woo fostered him in out of guilt for not marrying Yeoreum’s mom when he had the chance and he tells Yeoreum to find a girlfriend so he would want to live. Feeling suicidal every single day, Yeoreum constantly gets in trouble and one day the local thugs got their hands on him. Han Gyeowool (Winter) saw the beatings and decided to help, subduing them in a matter of moments with precise skills. As if falling in love at first sight, Yeoreum finally got the deepest sleep since ages ago and found his will to live again. To make matters more interesting, the next day, Gyeowool turned up at Yeoreum’s class as a new transfer student. Things escalated when they were caught yet again in yet another altercation with schoolbullies, both fell from the rooftop and developed amnesia. Gyeowool gets hunted by a group of unknown people when a local reporter printed their news, and Yeoreum gets dragged into the chase.

This show focused more on the trauma survival of both main characters, one with his dysfunctional family tragedy while the other with her forced assassin training as a child. One badly wanted to die to atone while the other was fighting hard to stay alive to get revenge. ML and FL were both uniquely intriguing cases for psychologists, those psych people would literally drool if any of them walked into the clinic. When theyre together they conjured up fantasies to their own liking of how they wanted to live their lives.

However, the production tried too hard to paint the FL as the ultimate final weapon - they put it on the title, they repeated this so many times in the script, but apparently that’s just it - a mere label. A supposedly ultimate assassin, the best ever trained, and yet she cant even pull the trigger to save a life. If she’s really an ultimate weapon, then she should know where on the body to shoot to avoid killing instantly, if they really wanna go by the script of the assassin who never kills. But naaaaahhh. I hit play expecting Arya-like teenage assassin but saw a streetfighter wimp who is quite skilled at hand-to-hand armed combat but cant pull the trigger instead 😒🙄 So much for ultimate weapon. She only grew some spine when she realized her uncle might have been gone. Urggh much to late, sister! Like for real, I wouldnt have nitpicked this if they had just portrayed her as a common child-assassin who escaped the Company with their dirtiest secret in tow, treading the path of seeking revenge.

Honestly i am not really mad that she’s an assassin who cant pull the trigger, it’s just that I expected this ultimate weapon would showcase some awesome combat skills that look extraordinary from the usual streetfight, something like how Teach You a Lesson’s Na Hwajin fights, or even Study Group’s Yun Gamin packs his punches. But nah, she got injured while fighting Yeoreum, and even falls off the building while fighting schoolbullies, so yeah, she fell damn short from my expectation. The only thing extraordinary i could see here is the villain who doesnt feel pain, now thats really something, though they placed him much too late in the plot and appeared no more than half an hour roughly. The cat and mouse chase wouldve been much exciting had he entered the picture earlier. Things got real gory when he steps into the picture, that’s for sure. Definitely not for the faint hearted.

The story is rather shallow and easy to follow, you don’t need your neurons to fire up all over trying to figure out the plot or mysteries. It’s just about a couple of teenagers who found love while trying to stay alive while escaping from a group of demented assassins’ clutches. Dont put too much expectation, there isnt much skinship or action per se, but it is okay to fill your free time, just 8 episodes, it’s over before you even realize it!

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Great for Family Theme, Mediocre for Action

Kwon Dohoon tries hard to be a good father and husband but his line of work constantly drives a wedge between him and his family, despite him being the family’s major breadwinner. An expert sniper for the National Intelligence Service who is often away from home during important events like his father’s knee surgery and their 10y wedding anniversary, Kwon Dohoon found himself driven into an even tighter spot when his wife Kang Yura misunderstands his relationship with his Chief, the beautiful Oh Chunryun upon her return from their supposedly anniversary vacation turned solo trip. And just as they manage to straighten things out between them, a man named Taegu turned up at their doorstep. Yura introduced him as her cousin but Taegu turned out to be the key to a bigger and darker secret of the nation, threatening to rip apart this second family that she cherished and pushing her to do whatever means necessary to protect them at all cost.

I took up this title expecting Mr & Mrs Smith or The Incredibles kind of show, but it turned out to be a lot like Modern Family instead. The pacing is very slow as theyre more focused on portraying how tight-knit the family is, with Kang Yura acting like a glue to keep the family in order with her husband being constantly out of the picture when important things come up. It took 5 episodes for FL’s backstory to emerge, and the pace only picked up on the action at Episode 7 when FL’s real face resurfaced and bullets and punches flew all over the place.

As opposed to the dramatic hollywood spy/secret agent shows, this drama instead showcased the couple of differing sides to be very calm and collected, diffusing any strain that could ever emerged had this been an american production. Just like how Kwon Dohoon try to be understanding about Oh Chunryun’s background, he did the same with his wife, never mentioning it openly but went directly to be her support by his actions instead. Although I love how maturely understanding their bond is, i do feel quite disappointed that he never talked about it onscreen and they never showed how his team reacted to the new Kang Yura they discovered during an intense shootout at their supposedly covert office.

I totally love the portrayal of Kwon Dohoon although he does act quite like a prick in the early episodes, and Jang Nara is so gorgeous here I didnt want for her to be off the screen at all. Love it even more when she rips her typical gentle wife mask and went Black Widow in last quarter of the show.

I loved how they portrayed the family, but it turned me off when the writer decided that it’s fine to sexualize 7year-old children’s friendship and turn it into an obsession. It’s like seeing a kid beauty pageant that dolls up a bunch of little girls as mature sexy women. It’s gross. I fastforwarded whatever scenes that have Minseo and Boseok cuz it just doesnt bode well with my moral conscience.

Other than that, this is like the usual family drama with a pinch of action.

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Solving the Mystery of the King’s Treasure

A botched mission forced Jeong Haesong and his team to accept an undercover mission to make up for the mishap. The objective is to retrieve a lost stash of goldbars from King Gojeong era that is believed to be hidden at Byeongmun High School by the school’s founder. Going undercover as a student in his foster sister’s class, Jeong Haesong finds himself caught in between saving his new classmate from bullies and suspicion from his homeroom temp teacher Oh Su A that could really blow his cover. Burdened by the weight of his father who went missing on a mission quite like his, Jeong found that there is much bigger scandal in Byeongmun High School that he could ever anticipated and he absolutely needed all hands on deck to stay in school.

I think Seo Kangjun did a well done job portraying Jeong Haesong, a somewhat efficient agent who is also rather hotheaded had not for his foster father An Seokho who is also Team 4 team leader reigning him in. Despite the general air of the show being somewhat comedic, Seo still managed to carry out the grief-stricken scenes when needed, complete with reddened, teary eyes and convincing sobs. I especially love the Team 4 members, the team leader Oh Seokho, the tech support Park Mijeong and clownish member Ko Yeonghun, all seemingly rely a lot on Jeong Haesong’s capability as an NIS agent.

A special shoutout for Kim Shinrock for the successful portrayal of the psychopathic chairwoman of Byeongmun High School director board. She is such a crack in the head that you can’t really expect how far she could go for survival. Her laughs really remind me of a demented serial killer.

I can never understand Korean working culture of groveling to the higher ups even when youre already at retirement age. The kind of groveling they show onscreen isnt for the faint hearted too as one is expected to wait for your boss 24/7 rain or shine night or day as if they don’t have a life, constantly bowing and sucking up to him to the point of putting your pride under their soles, a literal modern slave. It’s utterly mindblowing.

There wasnt as much action as I anticipated from a spy show though. Lots of sleuthing around, and riddle-solving, definitely not enough punches, kicks or bullets flying around. The action choreography isnt much of a wowsie too. I fastforwarded many of the romance scenes. Just not feeling it with the main cast. I loved the interaction between Park Mijeong and Ko Yeonghun though, never skipped a scene. 🤣 their scenes definitely exudes more chemistry that the main couple.

All in all is okay. The plot is really straightforward although not without plotholes. Some scenes did left me dumbfounded, but I treat this like a common entertainment show that doesnt need any logic. Don’t take them seriously and you may enjoy the show.

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Don’t Mess with the Nerds.

If most parents would want their kids to be the top scorer in their school, Yun Gamin’s mom is satisfied enough if her son could graduate safely even if he’s at the bottom. Yun Gamin had always been the permanent resident of the bottom 5 in all the schools he attended so far, and although his future seems bleak, he decides to enrol into Yusung Technical High School as his last resort to enter college through special admittance lane. He diligently try to recruit students to join his study group to improve his exam score, and finally manages to gather four seemingly hopeless kids through blood and sweat. But then he faces yet another stumbling block, Yusung’s #1 student, son of a feared chaebol in the district, Pi Hanul would not let any of those kids to study and would try every means necessary to tear them apart even if it means to kill.

I was so excited to see Seo Yul from Alchemy of Soul playing the ML here. His looks is as gentle and harmless looking like he did in AoS, and fits the nerdy Yun Gamin perfectly well. Yun Gamin looks like a super nerdy loser just waiting to be bullied with his big ass glasses of his, but this character packed some serious punches once provoked. Little that people know, ML spends every morning training martial art. Although his physique fits more for an athlete instead of a nerd, he was adamant on studying instead, despite always occupying the bottom 5, because he felt a kind of fullfilment when he manages to answer questions right, no matter how low his overall score turned out to be. It’s an attitude that every parent would dream of to have in their kids, diligence and perseverence.

I really liked how the writer string in each kid into ML’s study group through such uncanny encounters and circumstances. Each character is very different from each other, although they all do share the same goal, which is to study for college and that they would not give in to the gangster’s pressure to quit. A special note on the one who played Pi Hanul, he looked exactly like chinese actor Ding Yuxi, it’s like seeing a younger version of him.

It is rather sad to see how the adults failed these children though. I am not sure if this is the reality in Korea, but for adults to enable this fear of school while promoting hopelessness is the absolute violation of kids’ rights for education. These enabler kids, parents and teachers really needed some ample slaps from Teach You a Lesson’s Inspector Na Hwajin.

That aside, watching the show also made me feel like I was watching a superhero show, cuz these kids fight like they have superpowers - smashing thick windows and sliding doors, crashing through walls, kicking through reinforced locked doors and jumping off high floors. Even broken/dislocated knee could not stop the ML from teaching those bullies (that look more like criminals than students) a lesson. I love it each time Uncle’s Ultimate Move makes its debut. No matter how outworldly unrealitistic the fights looked, i thoroughly enjoyed myself cuz the satisfaction of seeing the villains bleed and knocked out is very fullfilling.

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Real Adult Protects Children

Kim Deuk Pal, #2 man of Chulsang Gang encounters a suicidal teen trying to jump off the overpass during his drive back from meeting the boss. As he rushed towards the boy to save him, his soul is somehow transfered into the boy’s body, Song Yiheon, before Kim’s own body is run over by a truck. Waking up as Song Yiheon, he had no choice but to live his life while prepping the surrounding for Song’s soul’s return. Kim Deuk Pal managed to keep himself busy juggling between taking care of Song’s highly medicated depressed mom, getting rid of Song father’s secretary cum mistress who is hell-bent on taking over the legal wife position, fighting off bullies at school, making friends with Song’s classmates, all while studying hard for the college entrance exam.

I honestly started this show with a low bar because I don’t really like teenage soul swap fantasy genres. Surprisingly, this show turned out to be extremely well-written with fast paced and engaging plot. I couldnt stop myself from hitting the next episode button, so it took me less than 10hours to binge this.

First off I wanted to say that the actor Lee Seo Jin for the middle-age Kim Deuk Pal is extremely handsome and looked really good for his age. I really love his charisma as the righteous gangster challenging himself by taking the college entrance exam as the middle-age gangster boss even before his soul transference. And second, I truly commend Yoon Chan Young for being able to imitate the original Kim Deuk Pal’s character into his teenage Song Yiheon’s role. The way he successfully portrayed the outcast teenager and the domineering #2 gangster boss was very convincing. He also managed to act out a rather wide range of emotions for this dual role, and I am thoroughly impressed.

I love how the story came out to be more about friendship, loyalty, growth, and redemption with the emphasis of the role of an adult instead of pure violence. I love how the middle-age Kim tried real hard to keep the kids in school and studying, and how he protected them from missing classes even at the risk of himself being detained into juvie. The way he carried himself is exactly how a real adult shouldve acted for children. There are many character growth here, especially on Choi Sekyung and Hong Jaemin, although they did whip up a reality check scenario with the other goon highschooler who wouldnt admit their wrongs, because there are people like that in the real world.

The last episode made me cry buckets until i came to the ending, which was actually a happy ending. Glad for that.

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The Power of the Slap

This is like watching Taxi Driver operating in schools. Again, the protagonist is an ex special force who is on the road of seeking closure after the loss of a loved one. Na Hwajin lost his fiance in a stabbing at school which left him devastated. Two years later, he made an appearance as the Educational Rights Protection Bureau (ERPB) inspector who goes to schools to investigate bullying cases, the first one being the death of a schoolboy.

I am always a sucker at revenge drama especially when it involves physical fights so it is truly satisfying to see how the ML teaches school bullies - be it the student, teacher or even parents - into admitting their faults and actually paying for it in a justified manner instead of just a slap on the wrists. In his case, he carries out the slap right across the face, multiple times! And the cherry on top is the ML looked exactly like John Cena the wrestler minus bulky body with oversized muscles. 😆 No wonder he looked so dang familiar in the first episode although i am pretty sure this is the first show i ever saw of him. Took me quite a while to finally pinpoint the resemblence.

I truly commend the whole cast here. Every single one performed to their fullest regardless how small their role is. The antagonists, the protagonists, the victims, the perpetrators, you name it, I just couldnt find a flaw at all. The bullied primary school teacher did exceptionally well especially with the supposedly facial tics she suffered due to stress from the bullying by a student’s parent. It must have been hard to do the tics to look so natural whenever she’s agitated.

Although most of the scenes look very far-fetched in the real world, like how the inspectors could survive a 4-storey fall like they’re robots, it didnt stop me from cheering the ERPB at every turn. The awkward other members of ERPB only made the show even more fun to watch, the nerdy deputy director Bong and the eccentric borderline crazy Inspector Im. This is an extremely satisfying watch as the evil ones never go scot free despite being minors. I am looking forward to season 2.

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Best Friends Forever Vibe, with a Race of Who Dies the Most Efficient between Lovers.

I don’t usually watch xuanhuan genre cuz I am usually too lazy to try understand different worlds with different power systems, but somehow I just had the urge to try on this one because I saw that the ML is going to be in the upcoming Ashes to Crown, which novel I liked, so i wanted to see his work beforehand. This is the first time that i saw him anyway.

The story takes place in the middle part of Donghua’s Soul Land - the journey of Tang San, a soul master with dual martial soul, with his group of 6 other friends that he befriended in Shrek Academy. Upon graduation in the first episode, they parted ways with a promise to reunite 5 years later. The story tells about their power growth journey, about how they overcame various challenges as Martial Soul Hall sees them as a threat after defeating the Martial Soul Hall team in the Soul Arena, Especially for Tang San, whose beloved is 10,000yo Soul Beast, who had transformed into a human Xiao Wu, coveted by the Martial Soul Hall Supreme Chief Bibi Dong to advance in her cultivation in her attempt to rule the Duoluo Continent.

Honestly the plot is quite interesting with amazing powers that we could only dream of having. Tang San is the usual zero-to-hero focal point of the show, having to get the best of luck of encountering great treasures, personas and powers that helped him to advance in his cultivation. Despite being a soul master of the control branch, he is indeed the best fighter in the team surpassing Storm Attack branch Dai Mubai whom shouldve been the best of the best in fights, or the keen attack branch Zhu Zhuqing. Of course he is, he is the hero! Anyway, I love the CGI they did not look cheap at all. I’ve always loved Tang San’s spider claws in the Donghua and they really did it well here. They closely follow the donghua, some parts even have identical dialogues. I am impressed. Totally love all the action sequences, especially when it is Tang San doing the fighting.

The ML looks ordinary here, i sometimes confuse him with another character in the first few episodes. 🤣 i can’t bring myself to like Xiao Wu although I love the actress’ face. She’s so dang beautiful! I just couldnt like Xiao Wu cuz 1, she’s too whiny acting cutesy in donghua and in liveaction, 2, the character always try to look tough but usually gets injured the most in the Shrek 7’s soul fights in the donghua. Although in the liveaction the character actually execute some powerful fights after she became Tang San’s soul ring, the weakly and whiny act of the resurrected Xiao Wu just put me off each time she comes on. And 3, I can’t feel the chemistry between Tang San and Xiao Wu, in donghua and in the adaptation cuz i keep seeing them as brother and sister instead of a couple (that is how they started off in the donghua anyway) so I utilized the fastforward button each time their lovey dovey scenes came on. Too bad cuz I really liked the actress. You can say the only thing that keeps my interest on Soul Land is Tang San’s personal growth journey.

The wardrobe department needed some improvement in creativity though, some of the girls’ clothing are so tacky. The only one that had nice wardrobe was Qian Renxue. Although, as tacky as they looked, theyre definitely way better than the skimpy scraps the girl characters don in the donghua. And i can’t help but notice that some of the characters didnt do the donghua characters enough justice. Like Dean Flander, how did he become a scholar when he looks like a rouge soldier in the donghua? Honestly I think General Ge Long actually looks the closest to Donghua’s Flander with his big frame and face and I was imagining Vengo Gao as Yu Xiaogang. Anyway moving on, it is also very tiring to see how they had to display each of our seven leads’ reactions during each moment of shock or surprise. I mean, cant they share a frame instead of showing 7 reactions one frame for each character in each occasion? I roll my eyes each time they do this, cuz it took so long to finish all 7 reactions! Gosh! That little race between lovers trying to do their best to thoroughly die for their other half is touching in the first few times but becomes comical when they keep repeating the same thing over and over again. It’s like “so you think you can die for me? Hey look at this, I can die better than you, you’d go through hell on earth trying to resurrect me” kind of competition. Hilarious when you see it enough time on screen. But hey, that’s xuanhuan/xianxia for you, dying isnt the end of the story. 😆 though seeing this kind of trope every few episodes eventually tend to feel too over the top.

And I totally did not expect to see Liu Yuning making a guest appearance here!

The soundtrack is great though. It’s packed with catchy songs and bgm, some even stuck in my head i cant help but hum along.

I have seen better work, but this show isnt a waste of my time either. It’s an all right kind of show, not quite impressive but not too forgettable too.

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