livreviu

I have been waiting for more works from him since Happiness, just watched watched Confidence Queen and still doesn’t feel enough! I hope he gets a big main role project soon. He is definitely bringing main character energy to his works.

I saw your other comments and I understand the frustration when we start watching something with specific expectations and it just doesn’t give us that. But yeah I totally thought of Logan too! I watched on theaters and I totally cried.

I also rated 7.5 at first then I saw a reaction to it and now it is a 9 hahaha
I have no idea why I rated 7.5 (maybe it’s a sign for me to start writing reviews)
but now I think it’s a solid 9 because I loved the storytelling, we not only get to see Ji-An being trained by Ji-Man, through all the flashbacks we (the audience) start to care about Ji-Man like Ji-An does. I really enjoyed their father/daugther chemistry, it is rare to see examples of Mentor/apprentice relationships like this. It gives Karate Kid and X-Man vibes. And I think Lee Dong-wook aced it, I love him as an actor and I think I had never imagined him in such a role. A thug who is also a girl’s dad, but it actually makes complete sense

Because of that I felt obligated to give it a ten (it’s more like a 8.5 in reality) I think most of these people are just casual viewers, and if they were looking for romance this show was definitely not it.

I AGREE. I think by Ep6-8 he could have wrapped up the research. And then we could actually see her digesting and processing the news and then going to him and then we could have seen a little bit of what happens after, they clearly still need to get to know each other personally aka directly interact, they can very well decide that they are not meant to be romantically together. I think seeing them in the process of figuring that out would be a much better ending.

I wished instead of repitition they gave us more from her POV. The worse part of the last episode was the amount of telling without showing so the ending doesn’t feel deserving.

I did acknowledge selfish motives. I never viewed the character as so flat as to have just one premise for his actions.
And I find very important to be exact when we state things: He didn’t experiment on her without her consent. He used her without her consent to experiment on himself. Both are wrong but they are not the same. I don’t like either (so please don’t acuse me of preferring one over the other).
I am getting tired of stating the obvious when you so clearly just want to vilify him. Did you forget he also did the research for his friend?
Your previous answer “I hope you find one” proves your statements are all based on the premise the show is about romantic love and as spectators we are all expected to just enjoy it and want it. News: sometimes they are not and as the audience we are allowed to enjoy stories just for the sake of storytelling.

Lol you know what is a real example of control and manipulation? You affirming I’m doing things when in fact I am not, therefore creating you own narrative around it based on your personal bias.

I am not justifying anything. I am interpreting the work. I approach Tv shows as design, every artistic decision is intentional to achieve a goal. If it is successful of not in its endevours, that’s a separate issue.

I acknowledged that taking her choice from her was wrong. The show aknowledges it. I agree love respects. But I do think it’s a dramatic take to say all his actions are “fundamentally wrong” when he doesn’t stalk her nor engages with her without her consent during his first research. He just collects data that is publicly available.
The problematic part starts during his second research when he starts to stalk her and experiment the boundaries of the laws. It’s not justifiable. He is just imperfect. I can also argue that his omission is similar to of a mother who lies to their adult kids about their fathers wrongdoings to spare their feelings. It’s out of love but it still is wrong. It’s their pain to feel and to process.
Also, doing the right thing is not directly correlated to courage. And “the right thing” beyond the laws in each country is entirely subjective. While courage is living you life to the fullest in spite of feeling fear. And I’m not the one that came up with that idea though I believe it. These are words by the likes of Nelson Mandela and Ambrose Redmoon.
And finally your understanding of control is very messy. I don’t follow. He never manipulated her. He almost never directly interacted with her. If she chose to move to a different address at any given time she could have. He didn’t isolate from society or her friends, his entire purpose was to give her back the agency that the fear of hurting others took from her. Most importantly, regardless of their dramatic encounters which I agree can be interpreted as selfish, it’s when he leaves that he finds redemption and gives her choice back to her. If she wanted she could ignore the laws, reject the research and never acknowledge his existence.

I believe his death was just unfortunate. She was bitten by a snake and he saved her but sacrificed himself in the process. This show left so much stuff implied. He apparently sucked the poison out of her, killing himself in the process. He was also with some type of sickness he was postponing to treat.

You are twisting things. First, he starts his research because he has empathy for her and a crush and he believes that the best thing he could do for her is defend her from people’s prejudice plus at that time he doesn’t have the confidence to either talk to her or fight people for her as a teen. Then as an adult he restarts his research out of guilt with the desire to figure out not only how can she live a better life but also for his friend. Throughout his research he doesn’t face her imidiately because he needs to conduct experiments to test his hypothesis and he doesn’t want her to suffer with the knowledge he is getting hurt because of her. I do think that’s the thing he did that was wrong, he took away from her the choice of participating on the research or not. And for that even his friend aknowledged that he could go to jail and he would help her put him there. My other point is that one flaw of his research is to not differentiate types of love.I never believed he was in love with her but because he does gets hurt by the curse that’s proof enough for himself that he loves her. But the fact is throughout the story he shows mostly signs of Pragma, a type of love very different from Ludus for example.
When he faces her he is not 100% sure is he is not going to die. I don’t even think such thing exists, the thing with statistics and probability is that there is always space for exceptions. He just makes whatever he cans to lower the chances of that happening. He could have told her the truth through an email. He risked his safety for himself (he can finally face her with answers) and to show her living proof of the laws. And by the way, Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. The people who confessed their feeling for her left her right after for multiple reason, some because their pride was more important than her actual answer. When they meet in the end he brakes all the rules so when he sees the storm coming he imagines that she doesn’t love him back so he is basically dead. Still he gets up to leave. It is not to save himself, it is to spare her from seeing his death.

I agree that it would be much better if we had more screen time from her POV. If they cut back on flackbacks they could have given us more of that without even having to add any episodes but also the way this show was edited they could have easily made more 6 episodes or at least 2 for the sake of a more fulfilling ending.
A lot was left implied and the passage of time was just left for guessing.
My take is that when he left the implied message was “I’ve loved you for a while and through this love I discovered these laws. This research is my gift to you and I hope you can have a better life from now on, you don’t have to love me back, I will leave so you don’t have to worry about my safety or be uncomfortable but if you do you will know where to find me.”
Off course he hopes she can love him back so he doesn’t just leaves a copy of the research to his friend, he figures out a way to connect them so she can learn and get to know about him in a similar way he got to know her. But by leaving he is making sure that if she comes to him is because she is not afraid anymore, is confident of her feelings and is choosing him. And still when she goes to him he doesn’t assume anything or takes her presence for granted.
There is also the implied notion that love is a choice you make. His desire to see her living a better life and his pain every time he saw her suffer sparked his love. A very similar love he has for his friend. The only difference is that he had a crush on her when they were teens and the possibility of romantic love tortures him throughout all his research. And that’s is my actual main complain, the main leads never develop romantic love, is left implied they will explore it off screen at the end but we don’t get to see ANYTHING.
Even if it was just her journey getting to know who he is through his friend end then traveling and starting to think about him every where she goes and every time she tried new things in her routine, I would have loved to see that. It would have been more believable, versus her telling us about it.
And about the second couple I just think they were badly written towards the end. I do think they had so much potential. I think he loved her at first sight so he becomes extra careful and prickly around her because he doesn’t recognize it, it just makes him afraid for her. And her I think every time he goes detective mode she falls a little bit more for him. The fact that she recognizes that he has the same curse as her friend makes her want to befriend him. When she tells him she doesn’t like him like that or loves him and tells him to get closer and he says he needs more time that’s because not only he is not used to have any kind of relationship with women, he also already has a crush for her but it’s insecure if that counts as love, he knows he wants to court her but is afraid that if he is successful she could be in danger. AND THEN AGAIN EVERYTHING HAPPENS OFF SCREEN. It is implied they keep in touch and call each other frequently and that’s how she falls for him and his feelings for her deepen. But then we only get to see the breaking point when she can’t take how things are anymore. But it feels unlogical and undeserved because we don’t see any of the meaningful interactions that lead to that point. Overall I loved the show for its ideas, I wished they had given us more.

Hope they edit him out from whatever they already filmed and get a new actor like it was done to Searon. Just unfortunate for the rest of the cast who wasn’t involved in any of it.

😁😁 I am!! Remember how the CEO who is buying the construction company was worried about how changing the name of the construction company could hurt the brand? They do it rather quickly but basically ML convinced her to give the 30 million to the old lady as a marketing investment. That’s why it cuts to the CEO giving an interview about it. By helping the lady they not only get her out of there Immediately, they also improve the company image with the public and create a positive buzz around it for free since the news will cover the deal anyway.

So I quite liked how they did this and that’s why I’ll comment even though someone already answered hahah
The owner said two figures not only because he is emotional but because that’s a negotiation strategy. He shoots for the stars to create possibilities, he is a successful businessman, just the fact that he is making it harder for people to sell this company already gives it more value because it means he sees something in it other people can’t see yet. The ML knows this so he keeps his cool. He confirms the chairman is flexible by sending someone to “convince” him and feeling his reaction. It all works out to make the construction company look like more valuable than it is. When people spill about the company struggles and the buying company realizes there is a risk they ask for a discount. The ML prepared for that too, because he knew it was highly likely to happen. So he prepared a counter proposal by not only mitigating the risk but actually putting an end to it before the deal was finalized and he made it more susceptible by making the buyer put a number on it. Bacause they gave a value to the risk the ML could argue having that solved gave that much more value to the company. So in the end a company that was valued at 6.5 billion was sold for 8.5, which is insane. I loved how they did this because it showed how good the ML is without having him make the impossible. This push and pull dinamic really made everything more realistic, fun and gave space for the detail to create so much more nuance.I don’t know If you noticed but when the intern smiles as he see the 7 billion offer of one of the companies he is actually spilling the tea,later that same company makes a 6.9billion offer. Because of his smile they realized 7 is actually good so they can start to negotiate with less. The ML also accounted for that, he realizes the intern naivety when he hires him so he strategically uses him as he wanted to deal with the most desperate one to buy them. It is only after knowing that the other company was prepared to negotiate 7, that he goes to the one who arrived first and tempts them into placing a higher bid. if he had to negotiate with the company who bid 6.9 the negotiation would be much harder. The cherry on top is he being “humble” by saying he had luck, off course luck is part of it but by publicly acknowledging it and not bragging it gives space for people underestimate him in the future regardless of his reputation and having people underestimate him is also part of his strategy. Chefs Kiss, I love it.

I love Dream High but I could never bring myself to like him. Couldn’t watch his other stuff. And then I loved It’s Okay to Not be Okay. Thought maybe I just had an irrational ick. Now this, I’m disappointed but unfortunately not surprised. I’m really just sad, it is all quite sad. When Kim Sae Ron got into a DUI and when I read there were no fatalities I was so relieved for her and hoped she could bounce back, when I heard how she was apologizing for all the damage she caused and was taking responsibility for it I was kinda proud, I hoped people in SK would give her a real chance. You don’t see that kind of attitude these days, people make mistakes and then try to deny and bury it. Her death is a tragedy.

I think you are being impatient and forgetting to value certain things. He was sent there to make the acquisition by the parent company easier because he is damn good at his job. Aka he doesn’t get emotional. If he gets emotional his company will lose money. He is assessing the Team and trying to come up with a plan to make the most money out of them. He is tolerating the disrespect right now because it is not worth being reactive, he is not their permanent leader and he knows they are emotional and lack perspective. They might be brilliant at their jobs but are kinda dumb for other stuff. I think part of why he is keeping his distance from them is because he knows he is temporary. He doesn’t think it’s worth playing the big bad boss. I believe he would totally do it if he thought it was necessary and would bring good results for the team. Like he he just straight up fired her! I also don’t think seeing someone being humiliated is funny, I don’t love how much they are using this kind of humor in this show (even with the FL and other characters) but I can see how in some circumstances it drives the plot forward and for the most part the comedic bits are more than just one dimensional. With that said I don’t think the ML is just being embarrassed for comedy. We are seeing how he does business. Without being arrogant and unnecessarily cruel. I actually think his calm and calculating demeanor is kinda hot. And I can’t wait to see people regret how they treated him. (I am counting on it and it will be a huge let down if it doesn’t happen).

Now about his romantic experience, I wonder if it matters. What if she has more experience than him? And I actually don’t know about that, I think she may have had one long relationship with that ex and that’s it. She talks big but lost her cool with a simple proposal. Like you can kiss someone you don’t like but you can’t date them? LOL you date people to discover if you really like them. Her argument doesn’t make sense. She accused him of being traditional but she was being more conservative than him. My take is that she was just freaking out cuz she didn’t date anybody after her last break up which the show implied to have been quite bad. Back to the ML, I thought his forward and honest approach was very hot, the man liked the kiss and wanted to do it again so he asked for it.

The "“romance is just mid" is misleading. This is romance at is finest. By definition "romance" as in the genre is characterized by a central love story and an optimistic ending. And this is just that. The show knows what is and does it very well. You don’t like it and that's fair.

what?!?

hear me out. what if the organization behind the kidnapping is actually her siblings? her sister who disappeared and her brother who is supposedly “dead”? the man who kidnapped her keeps calling her “sister”, what if she really is his sister?

yes! and now she is choosing to not speak with others to use that for her advantage. She wants out of the marriage. I just wish they had worked that a little bit more, like her practicing talking after she was able to talk again.