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Hong Gil Dong - Take 2
The drama started off promisingly but took a nosedive after a pivotal moment around episode 7 when the plot took an unfortunate turn with the very conveniently timed amnesia break. This narrative choice not only broke the momentum built up until that point but also shattered the drama's coherence. After this abrupt twist, the series struggled to regain its footing, and the attempts to recover its initial momentum proved futile, leading to a disjointed narrative and a noticeable decline in quality. While attempting to portray the struggles of the oppressed, the series fell into repetitive cycles, as expected. The romantic elements felt forced and superficial. Rather than enhancing the storyline, the romantic subplot felt out of place and failed to integrate seamlessly into the overarching plot. It felt like they had to give the lead a girl, any girl. Would have been better if his siblings occupied that gap instead of being wasted on the love interest. At least the drama didn't end like Hong Gil Dong (2008).Was this review helpful to you?
Vampire Diaries
The poorly written prologue wasn't a good sign going into this drama. The leads didn't develop their relationship naturally, most of what we got to signify their romance was long dreamy stares. That's pure lazy writing. This what their romance was based off which made it hard to care about their romance, let alone their unmatched chemistry. If we were to ignore the romance, then we are left with the vampires which were equally lacking. The pacing of the storyline seemed uneven, resulting in moments of sluggishness followed by rushed progress. The bad guy barely showed up in the first half. Although I didn't expect much but the ending was just too boring.Was this review helpful to you?
Not so sharp of a shooter
The drama fell flat in so many ways. The whole idea of a sharpshooter tackling the Joseon era should've been thrilling but the way they pulled it off was dull. The characters were generally dislikable. Their emotions and connections felt about as deep as a puddle after a sprinkle. And that forced romance was cringe central. No spark, no real chemistry between these characters, making it hard to care about their lovey-dovey moments. They tossed action, romance, and politics into a blender without a recipe, which resulted in a messy unattractive artificial mix.Was this review helpful to you?
Not good
A well sizeable chunk of the beginning was wasted and failed to hook the viewers in for quite some time. The ending as well was equally bad if not worse than the beginning. The writer completely gone mental in the worst possible way. Maximizing the cringe and the illusion of creating something artistic, not knowing he was a clown in a circus. The drama itself was embarrassingly dry and lacked appealing elements. A story not worth telling. I'm not sure about the historical accuracy but they did a poor job with storytelling regardless. They also turned Empress Ki into a joke of a character. The drama had a dislikable selection of leading cast. I hated watching Son Chang Min as a lead, Jeong Bo Seok was too much in your face and Seo Ji Hye was just okay-ish.Was this review helpful to you?
Try again!
Practically, this drama is just a shirtless men expedition. It featured one of the most deplorable writing efforts and attempts to be edgy and hip with the times (2010). The drama had absolutely nothing to offer other than Jang Hyuk presence. They made Jang Hyuk as an edgy cringey whiny kid full of stupid one-liners and little to no real characterization put into him. This is a prime example for how to NOT write a broken and traumatized character. The drama had no real fights, just a handful of flashy dances in slow-mo with little to no weight to their strikes coupled with unfitting soundtrack for the fight or the moment. To reach the 24 episodes mark they had to stretch it thin, literally, with a lot of repeated scenes, extremely elongated stares and gazes, irrelevant dialogue and random slow-mo shots which all resulted in a poor utilization of the cinematography.Was this review helpful to you?
Coffee innit....
A decent concept but the drama didn't hit well with me. I didn't like either of the main leads nor was I interested in their boring sappy personal story. The support characters and their stories were slightly better. You better off just drink a cup of coffee anyway.Was this review helpful to you?
Kinda watchable
The drama had a nice concept but the story was too thin for a full run drama even with the added side stories. It's also why they sneaked in a useless love pentagon that didn't get anywhere. Although you may find the FL's behavior passable as a teen but that wasn't the case as an adult, it was increasingly challenging to endure watching her. It simply didn't serve the narrative. After seeing her character in action I had a strong hunch to why they broke up. Such a reason may be valid when written adequately but, in this case, it came off as a shallow excuse to progress the plot. Even if we were to over glance that, they ended up giving a half-assed resolution to their underlying problems and opted to supplement the rest with an overdose of mindless lovey-dovey scenes while eliminating any opportunity for the drama to delve deeper into the emotional package they threw at us earlier on. Another prime example of the bait and switch technique the Kdrama industry have been going through recently and it doesn't look like this will change. One last thing, there were some obvious amateur editing mistakes sprinkled in the drama. One singular scene may have multiple camera angles but 2 different color grading, even for the same consecutive face shot.Was this review helpful to you?
Big bait
This drama was a big bait. You may think this is about an uncle and his nephew, although that's partially true, but the biggest focus was on the mothers’ committee and everything surrounding it. The drama quickly turned into another boring high-class circle jerk lacking any creativity or nuances. The uncle nephew relationship was always a side story progressing in the background. The last 2 episodes were utterly useless, the drama ended by episode 14 and the remainder were all random made-up last-minute events. The writer blatantly gave up. The drama is still watchable just for the sake of a handful good scenes otherwise it's underwhelming for its genre.Was this review helpful to you?
Bad prequel
It was too expensive to keep Namkoong for another 2 episodes so we got this instead. These sloppy 2 episodes further highlight the worst points about the original series. Soo Yeon once again proven to be the worst character. We got less violence and a worse story, action and performance. If you barely got through the original one then I recommend skipping this useless prequel.Was this review helpful to you?
Weak attempt for a sports-themed drama
It's an oversaturated manufactured cheap emotional bait that lacked the genuine human connection and necessary depth but rather opted out for easily digestible cliches. Most of the cast, especially the younger ones, were desperately overacting in an attempt to translate the youth energy to screen but it came off as fake most of the time. The actual sports scenes were average at best, it's themed around the sport but not the sport itself. Most scenes with a sweaty face, the sweat looked as fake as it can be. It's so damn laughable that some scenes the neck was sweaty but the face was perfectly dry! The cast didn't do a good job in showing the physical exhaustion of performing the sport whether it was while training or competing. Again, making the sports scenes even more fake. What's up with the drama trying so hard to pair every boy with a girl? Really unnecessary. This drama would have fared infinitely better as a standalone one-off movie. The drama really highlighted the "bad" in badminton. Going into this I had the slightest tiniest bits of hope to get something that can be remotely and ever so slightly similar to "Ping Pong the Animation" but I quickly realized within a few minutes it wouldn't be the case.Was this review helpful to you?
Weaker than expected
It's good enough but not that good! It's highly rated so it's only natural to get into it with high expectations, unfortunately, it became quickly evident what kind of show I'll be getting. As a life drama, it lacked the essence of genuine human connection and eventually dipped in mediocrity trying to achieve that artificially by adopting quick, dry and cutthroat life cliches lacking nuances, depth, relevant characterization and thematic attachment. Aside from the 2 main characters, none of the side cast was interesting the slightest and clearly had the absolute minimal amount of effort put into them which is why the drama may come off as boring sometimes. Speaking of effort, the soundtrack was abysmal if you are watching it from Netflix! They clearly didn't give any attention to it and slapped in some royalty free default tracks because it's easier for Netflix to distribute it world wide. The TV version had real music and songs which is really important for a drama of this theme. Stupid Netflix as always. One more thing, the drama has this habits of sprinkling in a handful of random mini stories for the side characters that doesn't get attention for more than 2 scenes or contribute to the overall narrative in a desperate attempt to buff up the drama. The only noteworthy thing about this drama is having an elderly cast getting the spotlight which we don't see often, otherwise, it's a bland collection of life drama cliches with the occasional nice moments.Was this review helpful to you?
How!
The lack of resemblance between the younger and older versions of the cast was striking. This drama was like one of those scuffed TV Novels, just a tad bit detached from reality, trying to mimic humans but not quite there yet. The drama consistently followed a peculiar and sporadic direction, which hampers any potential for viewer engagement. This inconsistency, coupled with incoherent pacing, weak plot elements, and dull execution, contributes to a well packaged disappointment. The drama fails to deliver something substantial, leaving viewers longing for literally anything worthy. Furthermore, the drama features one of the most underwhelming last episodes, further adding to the sense of disillusionment. It almost made me reach the point of detest if it wasn't for some of the cast's performance. Highly not recommended!Was this review helpful to you?
Poor
This drama primarily focused on serialized cases involving child abuse, while gradually developing its overarching plot. However, it failed to delve into anything profound or captivating, lacking the ambition one would expect from the first drama with such a theme. Furthermore, I don't think they did a good job handling the subject anyway. Its characters are its biggest problem. Initially, most of them were given over representation but eventually they didn't contribute much to the story. The FL's daughter was barely seen or given any involvement in the plot, wasn't even seen in the last episode. You would think she would be because of the theme and what FL went through.The characters remained static, lacking meaningful dynamics or genuine human emotions, which is particularly disappointing given the drama's thematic focus. In addition to the shortcomings, the color grading employed throughout the drama was remarkably poor and even embarrassing. The constant shifts between overly saturated green tones, flat magenta hues, and subdued blue shades were highly distracting and detracted from the overall visual experience, if it had any to begin with.
Ultimately, this drama offered little beyond a series of sad child abuse stories. It failed to deliver a compelling narrative or explore its themes in a profound and meaningful manner.
On another note, Soo Yeong is somewhat a fierce cop/detective yet there was a brief scene in the last episode of her being physically abused, that was the most redundant and unnecessary scene in the drama. It served no purpose to the narrative and contributed nothing to the story. On another another note, it's a mockery seeing people defending Eun Ho, if an old ugly guy was to play his character then nobody would dare to say anything.
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Okay...
The usual makjang drama nothing new nothing special. You stick around to watch them go mental and laugh at the absurdity. However, this one got a really unlikable male lead. The guy feels so out of place and had zero chemistry with anyone around him even himself. On the other hand, Shin So Yool was the female lead, she always caught my attention playing support roles so it was nice seeing her as the lead. She did good. The drama lacked a consistent plot line, even the main one was scattered and mostly felt as if there were no persistent goal and antagonist. At the same time, too many side plots ended up being underdeveloped and neglected later on, like the delusional FL's father one.Was this review helpful to you?
.
The little kid stood out the most in the entire thing. The villain and the corporation arc were very lame, they wanted the drama to have some tension but it would have been better without. It just made it ever more generic. Also, it wasn't a good role for Ahn Nae Sang. Other than the kid and the food I can't see much good left in it. It shares some similarities with Couple or Trouble (2006) except that one was much better and definitely more enjoyable.Was this review helpful to you?
