Well, after the last two episodes, I still feel the same about this sageuk. Not very disappointed because I didn't have high expectations from the start. It's not a disaster, it has good points, and all the cast is good or at least okay for me. And I have watched far worse sageuk honestly. But because they tried to mix everything together, it cannot be very good for me. They should have stick to either a full comedic sageuk or a true revange story, but not mix evetything with a romance and nowadays considerations. If not for Woo Do Hwan, I would have probably skipped this one. I think I'll re-re-watch "My Country" now, because even if Woo Do Hwan was good as Kang Han Soo, it cannot compared to level of perfection of his role as Nam Sun Ho in this wonderful sageuk.
All the cast is wonderful, and the production of the drama is very good too. However, as a sageuk, it falls in the category of the "bad" ones for me, and for one simple reason: it mixes everything and in the end it's a mess. It's a real disease for sageuk dramas since a few years. I don't know if it's because they believe the audience likes that, or if the audience really want that in Korea, but for me, it's always a big fail. It started as a fun comedic one, actually interesting, and it became a tragedy. And the trailer for the next episodes don't give another feeling that this will end sadly, which I wouldn't mind if it was the general mood and genre from the beginning. I love Woo Do Hwan, he is one of my favourites actors and he is really great in this one too, but the drama itself is very disappointing. Even more if it's compared with "My Kingdom" which is a masterpiece. It could have been a great comedic sageuk, or a great tragic romance sageuk, but by mixing everything it totally lost his appeal for me. And the King behaviour, in particular, doesn't make any sense in the end. I don't understand what they want to do with the character, because he doesn't look like a good ruler toward whom people will turn, and he doesn't seem to get away from the power and influence of the Left State Minister or the Queen Dowager. I'm still looking forward to the last two episodes to see how it will end, but whatever happens, it will unfortunately not be a sageuk I will really remember happily.
People who don't understand or don't like the grand guignol theatrical genre shouldn't watch this movie, because of course they will not like it. But this movie is quite good as a grand guignol one.
Well, if taken not seriously and realistically, the story and the characters are quite fun. It's a light rom/com that don't take things too seriously, that's nice once in a while.
Ok, so it really became Battle Royal in the end... Which could have been good, or just okay, but it didn't worked for me here. I just don't understand the purpose of this story. What do they want us to understand from that ? There is so much to write about this. First, they swear way too much. All these characters cursing all the time, it was very annoying. Is the purpose of this show to make people think that Korean high schoolers are all dumb and really stupid ? We can wonder, considering all the bad decisions and idiotic things these characters did and said throughout the first and second parts. It's true that the suneung has a huge cultural importance in Korea, but I doubt it will be that important and remains the first concern of people if what happened in this drama was real, so it's not very convincing, even though it's a sci-fi drama. The worst trooper of all the class almost exterminate all of them ? Seriously ? If he had shot all of them in the classroom in one go, it could have been believable. But we see him shoot a lot of them again and again, even after loosing is first riffle, even after being touched at the leg, even after some escaped, and even against good shooters we have seen in previous episodes, he has the upper hand (like when Tae Man stand up to shoot him) ? No, even if the surprise effect and the chaotic situation, it wasn't believable for me. The spheres are still in the air at the end, but everybody goes back to the life as before, after the devastation we have seen in the previous episodes ? And just one scene where buildings are in construction is supposed to makes up for it ? Again, big no, not believing that. And Chi Yeol is the only survivor we see at the end ? With a stupid self-reflexion and some moral of this nonsense story ? Once again, big flaw... Considering the potential of the plot, the huge and good production of this show, the overal great casting (Moon Sang Min's acting, especially, was perfect for me) and acting, there are too many and big flaws to make it a good drama, unfortunately. Oh and why this poster here ? It doesn't correspond to part 2 at all. Just like the cast credits. What are these contributors doing with so much edits ?
Two people found this helpful ? That means three idiots with the one who wrote it. Everyone can have a personal opinion, but blatant hatred isn't something that should be tolerated.
The fact that "The Night Owl" won the Best Film award and Ryu Jun Yeol won Best Actor in Film for his role in this movie at the 59th Baeksang Arts Awards (one of the most prestigious, if non THE most prestigious, award ceremony in Korea), just prove that the ratings here are really not something people should considered for watching this movie. Ahn Tae Jin won the Best New Director award for this movie too. Reviews and ratings like the one of @ChinaJapanLover, which are totally stupid, biased and full of hatred, are really useless.
you read manga, please, Any spoilers about the lead couple? progress? bitch? another rival? break up
You asked for spoilers, be careful, I wrote everything. This story is all butterflies, kindness and love. And food haha ! No rival, no break-up. ^^ The progression of the timeline is a little bit different with the drama so I'm not sure about when it will arrive but there will be the episode with Yutaka sick and Minoru who rush to him and take care of him. Sweetness x1000 in prevision. They should put also the scene when Yutaka explain to Minoru his childhood trauma, which should be very good if they follow what was drawn in the manga. The kiss scene under the snow too ! I look forward to it. And then the confession and how they were related before. But considering the drama so far, it doesn't seems they followed that, or maybe they are just hiding it until the revelation. There should be a little wavering time, until Yutaka realise his own feelings (I hope they will not drag and dramatise this too much in the drama), and we should have at least one full episode of happy couple and family cuteness (more would be even better !).
I wish they were more faithful to the manga regarding the memories of Yutaka's childhood. It's okay because I have read it, but otherwise I don't think what they show has the same meaning and impact that what was drawn in the manga. And the flashbacks of previous episodes were way too long and unnecessary here. But I nip-tick because I like it very much. The bench scene was very cute and Iijima Hiroki is doing a fantastic job at portraying Minoru here, even though he don't really have the same "vibe" as the manga character.
The depiction of the adoptive parents in the drama is wrong for me though, compared to the manga. Sure, they didn't stopped the step-brother bullying, but in the manga it's because they are always away from home, working, so they don't have any clue of it. In the drama it's like they don't care about Yutaka, which is very different from what you get reading the manga. It's a little bit disappointing for me.
So happy for him after he won the Best New Actor award in the TV category at the 59th Baeksang Arts Awards for his role of Grand Prince Seong Nam in “Under the Queen’s Umbrella”. Well done !
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If not for Woo Do Hwan, I would have probably skipped this one.
I think I'll re-re-watch "My Country" now, because even if Woo Do Hwan was good as Kang Han Soo, it cannot compared to level of perfection of his role as Nam Sun Ho in this wonderful sageuk.
It's a real disease for sageuk dramas since a few years. I don't know if it's because they believe the audience likes that, or if the audience really want that in Korea, but for me, it's always a big fail. It started as a fun comedic one, actually interesting, and it became a tragedy. And the trailer for the next episodes don't give another feeling that this will end sadly, which I wouldn't mind if it was the general mood and genre from the beginning. I love Woo Do Hwan, he is one of my favourites actors and he is really great in this one too, but the drama itself is very disappointing. Even more if it's compared with "My Kingdom" which is a masterpiece.
It could have been a great comedic sageuk, or a great tragic romance sageuk, but by mixing everything it totally lost his appeal for me. And the King behaviour, in particular, doesn't make any sense in the end. I don't understand what they want to do with the character, because he doesn't look like a good ruler toward whom people will turn, and he doesn't seem to get away from the power and influence of the Left State Minister or the Queen Dowager.
I'm still looking forward to the last two episodes to see how it will end, but whatever happens, it will unfortunately not be a sageuk I will really remember happily.
There is so much to write about this.
First, they swear way too much. All these characters cursing all the time, it was very annoying.
Is the purpose of this show to make people think that Korean high schoolers are all dumb and really stupid ? We can wonder, considering all the bad decisions and idiotic things these characters did and said throughout the first and second parts.
It's true that the suneung has a huge cultural importance in Korea, but I doubt it will be that important and remains the first concern of people if what happened in this drama was real, so it's not very convincing, even though it's a sci-fi drama.
The worst trooper of all the class almost exterminate all of them ? Seriously ? If he had shot all of them in the classroom in one go, it could have been believable. But we see him shoot a lot of them again and again, even after loosing is first riffle, even after being touched at the leg, even after some escaped, and even against good shooters we have seen in previous episodes, he has the upper hand (like when Tae Man stand up to shoot him) ? No, even if the surprise effect and the chaotic situation, it wasn't believable for me.
The spheres are still in the air at the end, but everybody goes back to the life as before, after the devastation we have seen in the previous episodes ? And just one scene where buildings are in construction is supposed to makes up for it ? Again, big no, not believing that.
And Chi Yeol is the only survivor we see at the end ? With a stupid self-reflexion and some moral of this nonsense story ? Once again, big flaw...
Considering the potential of the plot, the huge and good production of this show, the overal great casting (Moon Sang Min's acting, especially, was perfect for me) and acting, there are too many and big flaws to make it a good drama, unfortunately.
Oh and why this poster here ? It doesn't correspond to part 2 at all. Just like the cast credits. What are these contributors doing with so much edits ?
Everyone can have a personal opinion, but blatant hatred isn't something that should be tolerated.
Reviews and ratings like the one of @ChinaJapanLover, which are totally stupid, biased and full of hatred, are really useless.
This story is all butterflies, kindness and love. And food haha ! No rival, no break-up. ^^
The progression of the timeline is a little bit different with the drama so I'm not sure about when it will arrive but there will be the episode with Yutaka sick and Minoru who rush to him and take care of him. Sweetness x1000 in prevision.
They should put also the scene when Yutaka explain to Minoru his childhood trauma, which should be very good if they follow what was drawn in the manga.
The kiss scene under the snow too ! I look forward to it. And then the confession and how they were related before. But considering the drama so far, it doesn't seems they followed that, or maybe they are just hiding it until the revelation.
There should be a little wavering time, until Yutaka realise his own feelings (I hope they will not drag and dramatise this too much in the drama), and we should have at least one full episode of happy couple and family cuteness (more would be even better !).
But I nip-tick because I like it very much. The bench scene was very cute and Iijima Hiroki is doing a fantastic job at portraying Minoru here, even though he don't really have the same "vibe" as the manga character.
The depiction of the adoptive parents in the drama is wrong for me though, compared to the manga. Sure, they didn't stopped the step-brother bullying, but in the manga it's because they are always away from home, working, so they don't have any clue of it. In the drama it's like they don't care about Yutaka, which is very different from what you get reading the manga. It's a little bit disappointing for me.