Finished. Overall disappointed. Outside of the birth mother (who was absolutely tremendous and a real redeeming…
There are a lot of sad moments in My Mister, but it also has its very positive moments too. The ending is absolutely filled with hope and happiness. It feels like a really big pay off and is truly an amazing send off to the cast.
My Mister and Mother are very different dramas so the comparison may be unfair, but given they both tackle a serious theme of abuse among many other things - the writing of My Mister is just so much better. The actions of the characters feel more realistic, consistent and explainable. The 'bad guy' is just more interesting too and is more involved in the series - the bad guy of Mother is just a stoic dude that walks around and mumbles/repeats the same dialogue over and over.
I’m half way through, you have to suspend a lot of disbelief to enjoy this show, especially made worse by the…
Finished. Overall disappointed. Outside of the birth mother (who was absolutely tremendous and a real redeeming factor) I didn't find the acting really convincing on any of the other characters.
There was far too many coincidences, melodrama and frustrating characters (her sisters... my god). Doctor character felt like he had no purpose other than to be a perfect guardian angel. There was a strong undercurrent of men being the cause of all womens problems, and always being violent. A male character could only be good if he was subservient to women. Despite the women characters in this show for the most part being self-absorbed, vindicative, abusive, equally violent etc, the viewers based on the comments desperately try to redeem, overlook, justify and ignore all of this. I mean for the first half of the show, FL left Yoon Bok everywhere on her own and for the most part, focused only on her own feelings. In my view, the FL was consistently neglectful of Yoon Bok throughout the series and was constantly in her own little world. It would have been preferable if they did not stay together. This is by far the most overrated kdrama I have watched thus far, although I have not watched many so far.
To go from watching My Mister to this was a wild drop in quality.
I’m half way through, you have to suspend a lot of disbelief to enjoy this show, especially made worse by the fact that she leaves Yoon Bok alone as much as possible and in totally random places. Really frustrating, this drama feels very overrated so far.
+ A lot of kdrama prolong the life of their stories through 'misunderstandings', actually a lot of these type of misunderstandings in King the Land were swiftly resolved, even in the very same scene in this drama, which was refreshing and feel good. It didn't feel like things were 'holding back' progress in a highly contrived way. Things that did hold things back were faced head on straight away which was cool.
+ Main couple were charming, I think Gu Won is a little over the top and doesn't feel remotely like a real person in some episodes whereas Cheon Sa Rang feels believable from the beginning. I think together it makes for a good story. Has a nice mix of fantasy and reality. The grandma is really authentic too.
+ Soundtrack is relaxing and enjoyable.
- Kang Da Eul's husband has zero redeeming features, like not good for anything, even their child. I am VERY surpised this relationship lasted to the end and would have liked to see a change here. I think how it went could have improved considerably and part of her storyline as 'settling' for a useless husband was very questionable.
- Although not realistic, No Sang Sik not ending up with that King the Land manager was a crime lol. I never thought I would hope for this...
- Not a game-changer in the genre as you can predict practically everything that might happen. However it is comfortable!
I loved this series overall and it's definitely become a favourite. Two letdowns;
a) Jang Seung-jun as a character doesn't work in the drama. He's wasn't funny or insightful. He had no chemistry with any of the cast and his villainous appearances weren't charismatic, interesting or even moved the plot forward. He is a wholly misplaced character whose whiny attitude and lack of value to the drama makes me feel he could be written out in the first episode of season 2 and literally nothing would change and no value would be lost. Every interaction he had was painful. You could argue that he served as a minor catalyst for Kwon Min-Woo's development as a character but that began before he had any major part in the drama so I don't find him necessary at all.
b) Episode 9 was painful. The drama is episodic so naturally you're going to have variance in quality due to some stories being more interesting than others but episode 9 was genuinely shockingly bad.
I am a huge fan of Johnnie To, however this did not feel like a Johnnie To film. It seems like being set/shot in Mainland China suffocated the style he became known for.
Fantastic film - I think the biggest 'what if' of the film was the failures to a) more closely examine the new relationship as widow and widower and b) examine how the widower is also dealing with their situation. I understand this is based on a novel which I have not read but by the end I felt there was actually way too much emphasis on the coastal setting/environment rather than what could have been an even higher quality insight into grief and understanding between the two. This film is relatively sparse on dialogue which is understandably a facet of grief, however I believe it could demonstrated that - and more.
This was a really refreshing watch and actually a good representation of what it's like to work in a call center. It just totally deadens your soul - the endless calls of nasty/crazy people is a real root cause of forming a habit of suppressing emotions and becoming naturally withdrawn.
The story let itself down at two critical points - Jina should have had a proper reunion with Sujin. The phone call for me was not on point with the themes of the film and it would have been better if they met to eat together and become friends or at least had a proper goodbye. Sujin served as a startling contrast to Jina and deserved a higher quality end to her story segment. Jina also telling her father she'll be checking on him through a web camera in his room, to me, was creepy, rather than supposedly endearing/comforting. Can you imagine if someone told you that? Again, it would have been better if they had an actual reunion.
The first half of this show is incredible (solid 10/10 material). It then loses all tension and leans very heavily into the comedy/romance aspects - sometimes to its detriment. Seo Dan's/Gu Seung-jun relationship arc comes to a genuinely dreadful end, not only was it completely rushed (despite having ample time to avoid this) but totally unfufilling and didn't appear in line with the story overall. Their arc was sacrificed for soft petting and 50 goodbye scenes between Ri Jeong-hyeok and Yoon Se-ri.
The soldiers in Company 5 were amazing and really carried the show at times, their adventures in the second half seriously retained my waning interest due to loss of tension. Jung Man-bok was a standout character outside of the main duo and his storyline reminded me of the incredible film 'The Lives of Others'. The North Korean villagers were also a surprisingly great addition to the cast as I didn't expect so much focus on them. This is a fantastic drama, the production values are high, but lets not pretend it isn't supremely flawed in so many ways due to the huge change in setting half way through.
My Mister and Mother are very different dramas so the comparison may be unfair, but given they both tackle a serious theme of abuse among many other things - the writing of My Mister is just so much better. The actions of the characters feel more realistic, consistent and explainable. The 'bad guy' is just more interesting too and is more involved in the series - the bad guy of Mother is just a stoic dude that walks around and mumbles/repeats the same dialogue over and over.
There was far too many coincidences, melodrama and frustrating characters (her sisters... my god). Doctor character felt like he had no purpose other than to be a perfect guardian angel. There was a strong undercurrent of men being the cause of all womens problems, and always being violent. A male character could only be good if he was subservient to women. Despite the women characters in this show for the most part being self-absorbed, vindicative, abusive, equally violent etc, the viewers based on the comments desperately try to redeem, overlook, justify and ignore all of this. I mean for the first half of the show, FL left Yoon Bok everywhere on her own and for the most part, focused only on her own feelings. In my view, the FL was consistently neglectful of Yoon Bok throughout the series and was constantly in her own little world. It would have been preferable if they did not stay together. This is by far the most overrated kdrama I have watched thus far, although I have not watched many so far.
To go from watching My Mister to this was a wild drop in quality.
+ A lot of kdrama prolong the life of their stories through 'misunderstandings', actually a lot of these type of misunderstandings in King the Land were swiftly resolved, even in the very same scene in this drama, which was refreshing and feel good. It didn't feel like things were 'holding back' progress in a highly contrived way. Things that did hold things back were faced head on straight away which was cool.
+ Main couple were charming, I think Gu Won is a little over the top and doesn't feel remotely like a real person in some episodes whereas Cheon Sa Rang feels believable from the beginning. I think together it makes for a good story. Has a nice mix of fantasy and reality. The grandma is really authentic too.
+ Soundtrack is relaxing and enjoyable.
- Kang Da Eul's husband has zero redeeming features, like not good for anything, even their child. I am VERY surpised this relationship lasted to the end and would have liked to see a change here. I think how it went could have improved considerably and part of her storyline as 'settling' for a useless husband was very questionable.
- Although not realistic, No Sang Sik not ending up with that King the Land manager was a crime lol. I never thought I would hope for this...
- Not a game-changer in the genre as you can predict practically everything that might happen. However it is comfortable!
a) Jang Seung-jun as a character doesn't work in the drama. He's wasn't funny or insightful. He had no chemistry with any of the cast and his villainous appearances weren't charismatic, interesting or even moved the plot forward. He is a wholly misplaced character whose whiny attitude and lack of value to the drama makes me feel he could be written out in the first episode of season 2 and literally nothing would change and no value would be lost. Every interaction he had was painful. You could argue that he served as a minor catalyst for Kwon Min-Woo's development as a character but that began before he had any major part in the drama so I don't find him necessary at all.
b) Episode 9 was painful. The drama is episodic so naturally you're going to have variance in quality due to some stories being more interesting than others but episode 9 was genuinely shockingly bad.
The story let itself down at two critical points - Jina should have had a proper reunion with Sujin. The phone call for me was not on point with the themes of the film and it would have been better if they met to eat together and become friends or at least had a proper goodbye. Sujin served as a startling contrast to Jina and deserved a higher quality end to her story segment. Jina also telling her father she'll be checking on him through a web camera in his room, to me, was creepy, rather than supposedly endearing/comforting. Can you imagine if someone told you that? Again, it would have been better if they had an actual reunion.
The soldiers in Company 5 were amazing and really carried the show at times, their adventures in the second half seriously retained my waning interest due to loss of tension. Jung Man-bok was a standout character outside of the main duo and his storyline reminded me of the incredible film 'The Lives of Others'. The North Korean villagers were also a surprisingly great addition to the cast as I didn't expect so much focus on them. This is a fantastic drama, the production values are high, but lets not pretend it isn't supremely flawed in so many ways due to the huge change in setting half way through.