namopanik

I only wanted to take a peek and ended up watching all six episodes. Struggling not to do a full rewatch from a beginning. This is electrifying and so good for binging. Don't start it yet. Seriously, don't.
Apparently, cinematographer and lighting director were working on Forest of Secrets before. No, but seriously, don't start. Don't be a fool like me.
/Also: Black Knight's stylist! *re-lurks*

Good news: ep 17-18 is on, we don't need to wait a whole week. Bad news: weekly load gets split again.

When I first picked it up, I enjoyed the differences in both ways, but watching it now makes me feel really itchy about BTLIOF. I wish kdrama gave a clear credit to this one instead of tiny nods here and there that you only recognise if you know the source. There's no way BTLIOF makers didn't know about Nigehaji, given what a rating success it was and with all the awards it followed. K-version takes its own spin of course, softens down many things and add its own, but it's heavily reliant. It was always in that writer style to incorporate many references and play in high context, but in BTLIOF it feels more like named references to writer's past works, The Graduate, Room 19, poems and whatnot served more as a smokescreen to hide the biggest inspiration. And that's not cool.
I need to finish it off and get it out of my sight so it wouldn't sit and glare like a constant reminder that one of my favourite k romcoms may or may not be a work of plagiarsim.

I'm going to accept that last twist, I guess, because despite its shock value, it explains more question than it raises. The only uncovered suspect with hints planted all-over had no motivation whatsever, so I take a motivated yet unannounced one over her any day, especially since it fits the pattern of every lover having a clingy woman behind him except the war reporter. The way the show was switching suspect to suspect wasn't as much leading to her identity as preparing a slot that she jumped in in the end. You can't say it's completely ungrounded. The mystery was engaging even if it wasn't meant to be solved with given hints and the overarching narrative on love was convincingly put together and progression for main characters made sense to me. So I'm going to roll with it.
And hey, at least she didn't combat an uncurable disease while plotting all this.

I really liked the cinematography and the lighting, as dated as it was. Maybe precisely because of it's dated-ness and 90s overload?

How specific are you about 'like Cross'? Because revenge x medical combo seems pretty unique to me, especially with a murderous doctor. Doctor Stranger and Yong Pal may somewhat fit, but they're polarizing (I liked them, though). MC's skills in the first one are so above the average it counts as superpowers.

For general recs on medical:
- Shiroi Kyoto is a must, but it's heavy on hospital politics. It's the hospital politics drama. Has a Korean remake, too.
- My Beautiful Bride covers organ trafficking, but I can't tell what's the ratio of action/investigation to medical yet, because I only saw a bit of it.

A girl is amused.


/I really love it so far, it's so much fun to watch.
1. Ignore bad CGI at the beginning. If you stick around, there's plenty of pretty. I haven't seen such a well thought-out and carefully put together props in a cdrama since Ten Miles of Peach Blossom (but Love Lost in Time stood out in its own way, too). They create specific spaces and add up to the worldbuilding in a subtle way. Some eyebrow rising props stick like a sore thumb (like that Alastor Moody's enemies detector), but costumes, hair accessories, interior design, it's all a joy for eyes. Some sceneries look straight out from a classic painting (or at least they try the best they can). Lighting isn't as blinding as in some other cdramas (thought admittedly artificial and senselessly directed, there are candles everywhere day and night while everything is lit in the same, cold and uniform way -- I digress) and colours are nicely put together and toned down. And so much pretty. Did I mention pretty.
2. I came for face changing and got face changing. How cool is that. Sometimes they just throw a random gimmick into a synopsis and you never see much of it in the actual story. Not here. Impostors, doppelgangers and plain duplicity, you name it, this drama has it for days and knows how to weave it within the plot.
3. It's a silly, pretty thing with dark undertones and power struggles. Acting isn't that great, but has a charm to it. Basically a reverse harem, but the development isn't rushed nor forced (it's a dealbreaker for me in most cdramas I tried so far - rushed beginning with pointless, repetitive conflicts smeared around the rest of the run). Female lead is likeable. Better - other female characters are people with their own stories, not conflict manufacturing plot propellers clinging on males around f.lead and meddling. I repeat: people of their own!

Subtitles for ep 8 are on subscene if anyone has a raw. Further episodes are only subbed in Indonesian for now.
(memo to myself never to start a jdrama that isn't fully subbed again)

yup.

It's not mutually exclusive and both desires have a strong basis in his life.

Haha, ok, I take it back about Choi Ja Hae disappearing from the drama without a trace. I feel successfully trolled and I'm glad that drama is finally back on its track and all that waiting paid off. Although those four (two) last episodes had lots of filler and ad lib, admittedly.
But where's the fourth bottle? One was used, two stand next to the pictures, where's the last one?

Fully preproduced kdramas are an exception, not a rule. There's no connection between episode's lenght and the quality of the drama, splitting episodes in half is something major broadcasters did last year as a legal walkaround to put a commercial break in between. So think again.

@TeleriFerchNyfain: Sorry to butt in, but deleting one post doesn't affect others after the update. If it does, it needs to be reported so it could be fixed back. I can still see a convo above this one. Have you tried entering this page through a general link (not the one that brought you here via notification)? Notification links bring the thread in question on top and hide everything newer than it. Unless you mean other posts that were in fact deleted, then nevermind.

I thought the same re: her personal issues. Even if not integral for the plot, than at least giving her some personal motivation as for why she is this way. I was patiently waiting for it to start being relevant at certain point and I still think it's a fresh idea to shift the focus from the investigators to the case. But now I'm rethinking her scenes and some were just there with no rhyme nor reason, so maybe there's something in those rumours about directing of her character going back and forth. (Like the one when she went to the seaside to make a call. It was pretty and all, but why? and what for?)
Now the question is, will they change the actress in the mid of the trial or at least managed to finish that scene? That will be super awkward.

I need a recommendation for something similar, but hardly anyone saw it and even fewer liked it.

I don't see it either, it must be a bug since other pages have that section. The only other case I remember when discussion was closed down was in the comment section and there was an announcement with reason, so I don't think it's intentional.

I found about it through Just Beetwen Lovers recommendation and expected something like you describe, but had to give up from ep 7 onward. Would you say it grows more into that direction, or stays roughly the same as it is at the beginning? For me it has a potential, but it's ridden with jarring tonal shifts. It's either mellow or really overdramatic, no middle ground. I generally like how those hallucinatory parts are presented and how both leads are traumatised, but compared with JBL it lacks subtetly, so I have troubles taking it seriously. Does it get better?

The theme is such an earworm though.

Not a fan of Yoon Doo Joon & Kwak Dong Yeon's hair colours, but I encountered a comment that makes it easier to look at. A commenter on dramabeans speculated it was choosen to highligh the fakeness of Ji Soo Hoo public persona and it may subdue as the story goes on.
I myself thought they were just trying too hard to break them out of their sageuk image.

worse, even today's slot is pre-empted. They really had a tight filming schedule, huh.
http://www.dramabeans.com/2018/02/go-hyun-jung-leaves-return-amid-on-set-strife/

Sorry, I probably wasn't clear enough. My point is how Waikiki entered Korean language to become associated with laughter.

I like her character and I'm curious of her backstory, but frankly if they wanted to get rid of Choi Jae Hye instead of replacing Go Hyun Jung with a different actress, it could work, too, given how she's not central to the case itself (from what we know so far). She wouldn't even be personally involved if it wasn't for Nara. She could go abroad, got busy with that TV program or -- not that I'm suggesting anything, but people are dropping dead left and right with amateurish killers trying to cover their lead. One step too far and she may have someone after her. Just saying.