This review may contain spoilers
How to live in the face of death
It's been a while since I last saw Lin Yi (Put Your Head On My Shoulder) but he seems to have been quietly building an interesting portfolio of dramas with real stories. Angels Fall Sometimes looked like another interesting show. Lin Yi plays Lin Tuo, a talented young person with a promising career as a designer, suddenly facing an early death sentence with a diagnosis of ALS.The last show with a similar theme that I watched was Love is Panacea (2023). Angels achieves what Panacea does not: it addresses the question of how to live in the face of death. In these types of dramas involving terminal illness, I tend to look for messages of hope or possibilities on an individual level. Panacea failed on several levels & for a while I thought Angels would fall short as well. Angels explored so many negative reactions, the what-not-to-do, surrounding the main characters for most of its duration. Its tone didn't change until the final episodes when all the questions that built up were finally addressed.
It's a cultural thing to cover up serious illnesses, but trying to maintain an alternate reality by lying is toxic & unsustainable. The level of denial & inability to cope is far worse than trying to face the truth in the first place. It was rather rediculous to watch, but sure enough, the friends who try to support Tuo break under the strain & his secret isn't kept for very long.
Toxic parents add to the mess, because why not? They suddenly become concerned & compassionate at the flip of a switch. If the workaholic father was essentially estranged from his sons for most of their lives, to the point of being oblivious to the younger son's near suicidal depression, why would he rush to Tuo's side at the drop of a hat & apologise for being a shit parent at first word of Tuo's illness? That didn't make much sense but at any rate they become an important part of Tuo's support network.
Keeping the illness secret from his grandfather by lying about why he's in a wheelchair is another level of incredible. Will the grandfather find out only when it's too late? The cruelest thing to the people around Tuo is to not allow for a proper good-bye.
Tuo retains intellectual capacity & the desire to work throughout his disease progression. His workplace supports his being there and eventually installs a wheelchair ramp at the front entrance. But instead of assigning an assistant to help him draw, his employment is initially maintained by making him use his wheelchair as a delivery cart to bring coffee & supplies to his office mates. From being a highly marketable designer, he becomes someone simply to be taken care of & every ounce of autonomy is taken away from the get go. Does he really accept this patronizing loss of dignity?
The acting overall was not bad. From the beginning the leads were so relaxed & easy with each other, it seemed natural & was nice to watch. But the 2nd FL character was annoyingly antagonistic & shouted most of her lines at the top of her lungs. Honestly, what is the purpose of such a character? Lin Yi did fairly well in portraying the very difficult role of Tuo, but Landy Li showed the strongest performance of all the cast as An ZhiQue, the steadfast girlfriend who takes matters into her own hands to pull Tuo through his ordeal. The actor playing Tuo's neurologist was so natural in fact, I wondered if he was an actual doctor. The show thankfully doesn't delve into romance tropes as the story is not a fairytale romance but a tale of endurance, purpose, & meaning.
I knew this drama was described as a "tear-jerker" going in, but what I was looking for was a message of hope and a show of possibilities. I'm a doer, not a cryer. Up to 20 episodes are spent highlighting the emotional impact on the people around Tuo, who behave quite badly. There's a lot of hysterical crying, shouting, & getting smashed drunk without realistic solutions to enhancing Tuo's quality of life. The despair & helplessness is somewhat unsympathetically portrayed. Then come moments of clarity, like ZhiQue's father telling Tuo to put as much effort into himself as his friends were putting into helping him (although an actual psychologist might've been more beneficial). However, by the final 5 episodes we then get Tuo finally not only facing his reality but also finding a new purpose to his remaining life. He revives his role as a designer and continues to work as I felt the character should've been supported to do so from the start of his illness. The show further explores the stories of other ALS sufferers & the various effects on them & their families, & ends with the decisions Tuo is able to make for his life as a result of the full support of all those around him. So the hope, possibilities, freedom of choice, & having a meaningul life are there & I'm glad this show was able to reach this conclusion.
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Perfect kitsch, well worth a re-watch
I very rarely rewatch shows as I'd much rather spend my time exploring new ones, but this show happens to hold a special place in my heart. I grew up in North America & first got into watching Asian dramas only in 2021, thanks to Netflix. The first shows I started on were Taiwanese ones from 2011-2013. There's something unique about this time period & I was so fascinated by the level of the storytelling in the dramas & the pure fun of the comedies. And the music - the soundtrack songs became my introduction to the modern Asian music scene which I now listen to almost exclusively after listening to 1990's British/American alternative in my formative years.I've since moved onto Mainland China & Korean dramas, but I was brought back to this one for a re-watch. It's very representative of the kitsch of this era: cringeworthy over-the-top-acting, annoyingly immature characters, & eye-rollingly implausible situations. But what caught my attention was the scenery, the bright colour palette, the house the characters lived in & how they lived in it, all to the tune of a very catchy theme song which still brings a warm feeling when I hear it. And prior to the spectacular downfall of his own making, Aaron Yan was king in 2013. The light hearted, playful tone & pure irreverence of this show, & some others of that time/place, is largely unmatched in anything I've seen since (over 150 shows in the last 3 years). And 2nd time around, I'm realizing how hilarious Dean Fujioka was as the love rival. This show can be reviewed critically as lousy, but what it achieved sentimentally is something that can't be rated, so I give it my mid-range 7.5.
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entertaining story, appreciate the art
Ma Wang, a god of death, trades his murderous power to would be kings who end up in bloodthirsty reigns, until one dying king decides to seal Ma Wang forever into his official portrait to end the blood shed. However, a shaman's errant rain ritual ends up releasing Ma Wang, only to have him sealed up once more in the body of the gifted rain diviner & astronomy advisor to the subsequent king, Ha Ran (Ahn Hyo Seop). Who then can save Ha Ran but Hong Cheong Ki, a divine painter who holds the key to containing the evil threatening his life.In spite of it's simple premise, so complicated is the story that this drama starts with a preview filled 1st episode, solely dedicated to explaning all the characters & their relationships in this show. And even then it was dizzying, especially when you have to read subtitles & can't keep an eye on every face flashing on the screen.
I was impressed by Kim You Jung's no-nonsense portrayal of her character in My Demon & I can see the same spunk in her personality here in Red Sky. That energy is good in playing forward thinking characters. I also previously saw AHS in A Business Proposal, & here he delivers much the same muted performance. While the acting overall isn't stellar, at least it doesn't detract from the story which is imaginative & actually sparked my interest in Han Dynasty painting & portraiture. The show delves into the art of painting to the point of exploring the concepts of line & form, & the inference of a subject without actually showing it. Surprisingly, this held my attention as much as waiting to see how the lead characters will achieve their ends. Oddly though, the drama purports to tie up "loose ends" & yet it leaves the arc of the royal princes battling each other hanging, with a 3rd prince frequently mentioned but never shown.
As a fan of the gods & demons genre, however, I found this drama overall very entertaining.
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formula romance with good performance from Elaine Zhong
I get very skeptical watching C-dramas involving hospitals. It's rather jarring to see rich patients pay for what amounts to hotel service, in a hospital. Or getting an IV drip for a cold. Or getting an invasive diagnostic procedure just because. Or blatant violations of informed consent. Anyway, I now try to put all these things aside and try to enjoy the show.Qin YunSheng, a young but soon to be widowed cardiothoracic surgeon, commisions a glass house on the beach from up-and-coming designer, Su Ying. The house is an oceanside refuge for YunSheng and his terminally ill fiancee to spend her last days. However, the controversial glass design proves unstable in build and, 6 years after his fiancee's passing, YunSheng and Ying are re-united in a bid to fix the deteriorating structure.
The show then follows the developing relationship between the grieving doctor and the designer who helps him fulfill his deceased fiancee's final bucket list wish, and move onto a new start for himself. The story progresses rather smoothly (and blandly) without any serious challenge until Ep16 when personal and professional issues come to a nasty mix. Then we get trope stew with sabatoging ex's (including an ex you didn't know you had), backstabbing colleagues, and misunderstandings piled on so thick you're actually glad to see the formulaic break up scene. Never was a ML given a more satisfying lambasting.
By the usual separation scene, however, I found myself more sympathetic to the characters and I realized this was due to the subtle and consistent performance of Elaine Zhong as Su Ying. Writing-wise, it was nice to have female characters that don't speak with high pitched baby voices, are assertive at work, and who get food delivered to their office desk by the boyfriend instead of the other way around. Ying is also surrounded by her competent staff working perfectly in sync. Even though the show barely passes the Bechdel test with some of the office scenes, Ying pulls through that final crushing mess with a quiet strength that doesn't waver.
A major attraction of the show for me was the tropical paradise backdrop of Haikou City on Hainan Island. Bright sandy beaches, winding seaside highways, beautiful modern view apartments and all the ammenities of a modern city, all to the tune of a catchy cha-cha-cha theme song. I kept watching just for the scenery and lifestyle. Although the actual location of the story was kept fictional, there were frequent shots of the landmark Haikou Century Bridge. I just Google image searched; please correct me in the comments if I'm wrong.
This show is otherwise a mildly dramatic romance with gorgeous scenic views, ending with the signature house that started it all. A nice fluff piece if you don't get too annoyed with the tropes.
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light and entertaining
Past and present collide in this rom-com about a city lawyer with a mysterious ancient curse and a civil servant with whom he shares an "unseverable destiny". If you are undecided on whether to watch a modern or costume drama, this show will deliver both.While there are all the usual ingredients of a rom-com, this show is more entertaining than average. There wasn't the usual shy, denial of feelings, but rather a full on "Sorry - Not Sorry!" head first dive into love. Shin Yu believes he is under a love spell cast by Hong Jo and struggles to fight it. "You're not pretty, but you are to me!" It's a funny internal battle between a newly awakened heart and a seasoned analytical brain. A few scenes were too slow but, before you get too bored, the story manages to move along with hints into previous lives, dark magic, murder and suspense. However, the draggy scenes were during the modern portion of the show and I felt more time could've been spent on the historical back story. Rowoon and Jo Bo Ah change pace smoothly and maintain their chemistry between the two settings.
The overall cast is very funny and work well with each other. However, it was almost uncomfortable seeing Park Kyung Hye being very over the top; she has had better roles. The comic timing between the 2 ML's as they compete against each other in 1 of 2 intersected triangles is spot on. It's also nice to see two decidedly unglamorous people in their own romantic story arc; it counters the expectation that only young and beautiful people can fall in love. Rowoon, noticeably freakishly tall (his height is mentioned several times), is good at comic scenes and his fans won't be disappointed. He is maturing into a decent dramatic actor as well.
If you're not looking for anything too profound, this show is light and entertaining to watch.
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wild ride
Merchant's daughter & general's son climb the social ranks into the Imperial Palace. Crazy amazing Tang dynasty costuming with the most impressive wedding dress I've ever seen (ep 34). Starts light & silly but then turns into a dark & sordid speeding train with a full buffet of back stabbing politics, debauchery & revenge, peppered with moments of pure LOL camp, only to run over the cliff with half the characters being killed off. Main reason to slog through the last 10 eps is finding the answer to the question: will the ML/FL end up together? I like Xu Kai but he doesn't get much screen time in the 2nd half.Was this review helpful to you?
Eye-opening but shot too dark to see
Is a teacher's purpose only for helping students pass exams? Not knowing what a hagwon is when I started this drama, I had homework to do. Why are school kids learning in an office building? isn't that setting usually for adult night classes? It took a few episodes just to get a sense of the role of hagwons, or private prep schools, within the public educational system. Teachers compete against each other for students while pandering to the parents, measuring success by how many get accepted to prestigious universities. It's a complex world of ultra-privilege & free market dynamics, intertwined with regular schooling like a cancer, choking out academic freedom & feuling incredible pressures for all involved.Speaking of night classes, this drama made me claustrophobic. Most of the scenes are visually dark: offices & rooms appear windowless, what windows were visible had their blinds drawn during the day, many outdoor scenes were nighttime, & classrooms & offices are so small all the occupants looked like they were virtually shoulder to shoulder. It made for a very oppressive setting. In fact, the overall look was so dark I actually had to adjust the brightness of my tv just to see what was going on (it's a cheap tv).
In spite of the show being uncomfortable to look at, the story itself was fascinating as it introduced an aspect of S Korean society I hadn't seen before, nor have I experienced anything close to that where I live. The story follows Seo Hye Jin (played by Jung Ryeo Won) a top performing teacher at a Daechi-dong academy. Her life is turned upside down when her former star student, Lee Jun Ho (played by Wi Ha Joon) quits a comfortable, nepotically achieved corporate job & is hired as a new teacher into her own team.
When you've been teaching for while, you discover it takes a student to challenge you to your roots. HyeJin unknowingly instilled in JunHo genuine wonder & curiosity in literature which was the spark to the improvement in his grades. But having been in the business for so long, HyeJin seems to have forgotten that focus, locked into her memorization techniques & dependency on her ability to predict exam questions that brought her to the top of her game. In stark contrast is JunHo's approach in encouraging exploration & appreciation. Catalyzing their explosive clash is a brilliant 10th grade student Lee Si Wu, who is in the top tier of smart: i.e. he actually knows what he doesn't know. Si Wu fully understands his perfect scores are like walking blindfolded on a tightrope, totally dependent on knowing which questions to study for, rather than being able to handle any question that could come his way. He knows how to memorize, but doesn't know how to read. JunHo wants to teach students to read, a skill for a lifetime, which would bring a seismic shift to the role of the academy as an economic machine, catering only to parents' wishes.
The influence of hagwons is so deep they affect real estate, & this is reflected in Jun Ho's pursuit of becoming successful enough to buy his own home. In spite of growing up privileged in Gangnam, he's determined to achieve his own living & stay in Gangnam. Stronger than his own economic ambition, however, is his pursuit of the true purpose of education & his own role as a teacher.
At the center of it all is JunHo & HyeJin's noona relationship, one in which HyeJin has a very hard time overcoming the teacher/student mindset. And, given her own hesitancy & inexperience, she's paradoxically mature & immature at the same time. JunHo challenges her on different levels &, in this respect, I felt this was one of the more realistically presented age gap romances I've seen. Things get ugly when ambitious executives at the school seek to use this relationship to destroy HyeJin's career. This somehow made me lose interest in the show in it's final episodes as it plunged downward into viscious office politicking.
The subject of hagwons has been eye-opening & for that reason I enjoyed the story which is the show's greatest strength, along with good performances from the cast. Unfortunately, the show was also visually suffocating with all the poorly lit interior & night time settings, & with a lower res tv I sometimes couldn't even see the actors' faces clearly. If you can get beyond that, this drama was well worth the watch for an honest examination of the purpose of education itself.
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a silly ride through good vs evil land
I have not seen Strong Woman Do Bong Soon so I'm reviewing this show on it's own. This is the 2nd installment (which ends with a setup for a 3rd) about a genetic line of females with superhuman strength. Nam Soon is a 3rd generation strong woman in her family. She's separated from her father by accident while on a trip to Mongolia at age 5 and is raised for the next 20 years, a la Superman, by a loving, childless Mongolian couple on their isolated farm. On return to Korea she instantly attracts attention and is reunited with her mother with the help of a young police officer. Nam Soon soon teams up with the officer to join her mother's secret crusade against a powerful, international illicit drug trader.The show has a comicbook feel with jerky and awkward action sequences and bionic woman sound effects. Nam Soon's mother is like a self-made Bruce Wayne, a trillionaire vigilante who funds all her own toys, including a BatMobile, black leather cat suit, and live-in personal assistant (a younger, female version of Alfred). However, unlike Bruce Wayne, she is surrounded by family: her mother, brother, 2 adult children & ex-husband. The vibe never gets very serious despite the deadly danger they face. As Nam Soon and her mother carry out their covert operations, one has to suspend all logic in how they get anything done.
The characters are more like caricatures and the show lacks depth. The arc of Nam Soon's obese twin brother, Nam In, features him delivering 90% of his lines with his mouth full of food, and is a joke stretched way beyond funny. None of the men have any super powers, even those born to strong women, and they struggle to find their place in the family. Not until Ep7 do the implications of power imbalance get explored when Nam In decides to move out, and his father is ruthlessly pranked at his own birthday party. The strong women aim to use their strength to "do good" in the world, which only means stamping out crime in comicbook style while neglecting their own family, until it's too late, when the crime reaches them, too. And even then, do things really change?
Lee You Mi takes quite a turn from her stunning role in Squid Game, but the strength of her talent isn't enough to pull the exaggerated naivety of Nam Soon past being a cartoon character. Park Bo Young makes a cameo appearance as (Strong Woman) Do Bong Soon, as the only reference to the 2019 series.
This drama runs largely on the novelty of seeing women beat up men, although the final showdown isn't what you'd expect from a superhero story. There is some pleasure, though, in seeing a 60-something year old grandmother driving a Lambo, dressed in incredible fashion & living carefree as she pleases. The show could've made a more meaningful exploration of gender and power, or even given a satisfactory arc of redemption, but it gave only a superficial and silly ride through good vs evil land.
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masterclass performances
What Comes After Love is based on a 2005 novel co-written by Korean & Japanese authors, Gong Ji-young & Tsuji Hitonari. Likewise this short, 6 episode drama series is a K/J joint project, filmed in both countries with K/J leads & spoken in 2 languages as the settings alternate.I've seen Lee SeYoung in a few shows now & she is absolutely amazing. Lee has impressively portrayed her character's fluency in Japanese, showing no sign of awkwardness in delivering her lines, & allowing the emotion of her character to fully flow through. I'm less familiar with J-dramas but Sakaguchi Kentaro easily matched intensity with his portrayal. These two basically gave a masterclass & their performances carried the entire show.
The drama weaves back & forth through time but never feels choppy. It very smoothly tells the very simple story of Hong & Jungo in a relaxed pace, revealing events as they lead to the main conflict which is their reunion, 5 years after a very difficult break up. Do they come to a reconciliation? I couldn't really guess what would happen, so I only hoped it would end satisfactorily either way, and it does so as Jungo learns to run by Hong's side, both figuratively and literally, & they each come to understand one another.
The show is also beautifully shot, with the spring blossoms & stark winter cold perfectly setting the stage of the characters' relationship at different times. Each scene is a work of art.
One final detail which I can't ignore because I'm a pet owner - I still find it disturbing that Asian dramas treat house pets as decorations & portray them in situations bordering on neglect. A dog confined to an outdoor courtyard, alone, & in near freezing temperatures is not humane. There are no scenes of anyone in the household providing any care for the animal or interacting with it in any meaningful way. As Hong is an avid runner, why not take the dog running with her?
Doggy aside, the show was otherwise a delight to watch because of the two powerful performances.
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binge-worthy but lacking depth
Moon in the Day combines historical & modern settings in an intriguing story of a tragic couple that reunites after 1500 years.Kang Young Hwa is a present day fire fighter who has been shadowed her entire life by the lost soul of a 6th century army general & nobleman. The shadow finally comes to light when Young Hwa crosses paths with Han Joon Oh, a feckless entertainment idol whose star power is on the decline, & who becomes the new vessel for the dark & vengeful spirit Kim Do Ha. Although Young Hwa is the 19th incarnation of Han Ri Ta, an enemy general's daughter, she is the first incarnation to regain Ri Ta's memories.
Young Hwa & Joon Oh/Do Ha's relationship becomes infused with past resentments as their previous lives come into greater focus. The historical background is of two people so lacking in control of their lives as to be completely indifferent to life & death, until they meet each other. Han Ri Ta lost her entire family at the hands of Do Ha, who is a puppet of his adoptive father, a court minister, & used only as a killing machine in order to maintain his father's political power. Although Ri Ta's vengeance brings them together, they begin to understand they are both caught in the same web. They give each other reasons to stay alive, only to end their relationship in a desperate betrayal.
Questions arise as to how much responsibility does one bear for an ancestor's actions? What obligation do you have to fulfill another's promise? And is the release of one's suffering only dependent on the sacrifice of another? Are Young Hwa & Do Ha able to cut the web that has ensnared them for 1500 years?
I liked Kim Young Dae in Forbidden Marriage but his performance in Moon in the Day wasn't as strong. His modern day character was not unlike his role in Shooting Stars, so he wasn't challenged much playing the two roles of Jooh Oh/Do Ha. Pyo Ye Jin was good in Taxi Driver & seems to hold her own in the lead dual role as Young Hwa/Ri Ta, but she & KYD had little chemistry & were quite stiff together. One sympathizes with the characters' relationship due to their circumstances & the story, rather than how well they actually understood each other. This could also be the fault of the writing which stagnated quite badly in the last few episodes. The ending was satisfactory, but that's due to the strength of the story itself. There were no stand out performances from the rest of the cast.
Overall, the show fell short of fantastic because the writing & acting lacked sufficient depth. However, the story itself was engaging enough to make it a bingeworthy watch.
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Fast paced, exciting to the end
Zhong XueMan and Xiao BeiMing are 2 childhood friends who grow up to become constables in an Elite Constabulary Unit headed by XueMan's father. BeiMing is a star disciple, a wonderboy brimming with arrogant hubris professionally, but genuine in his affection for his betrothed XueMan. Hot on the trail of a notorious & unknown serial killer targeting court officials, an ill-fated plan blows up right on their very wedding day, causing him to fall from his lofty pedestal into a fugitive in hiding, framed & branded as the killer he was hunting.This drama is a very complex murder mystery featuring one of the most creatively gruesome modus operandi I've seen on tv (will never look at needle & thread the same again). But I didn't have too much time to dwell on that as the list of suspects, allies/foes, & general who's who is ever expanding & shifting. The story takes us through a fast paced & seemingly endless series of murders, as XueMan & BeiMing dig deeper into a history involving BeiMing's origins, uncovering an horrific incident to shake the very foundations of the kingdom. At the heart of everything is a revenge story with a seemingly fluid villain which didn't actually make much sense until toward the end when secret histories get revealed.
The only thing central & unchanging is XueMan's and Beiming's deep trust in each other that suspicion & separation can't breach. The drama nicely interweaves their relationship within the action of story without it feeling like two parallel arcs. And as their relationship is established from the beginning with their marriage, we're spared from silly & immature romance tropes cluttering up the sleuthing.
And as with all good murder mysteries, you're always left guessing until the exciting ending, with twists & surprises throughout. There are no lagging moments so you're left rather breathless, but this is one of the better shows I've seen this year.
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