sunshine_area

Witholding the current, and not fighting it

When i first watch the trailer for the drama, i thought that the drama would be a romance about partnership and facing hardship together. I'm a romance enthusiast, i don't really watch non-romance drama, and i wanted the heart-fluttering, devotion, yearning, intimacy, all sort of that things that comes with a romance. And then i watch the first episode, and realize that perhaps it wasn't going to be what i expected and want it to be. I cry so much watching the first episode, thinking that it's hard to find a show that makes me cries so much, i stick to it. At the end to me this show held my tears switch turning it on every episode, it tugs my heart exactly at the topic that makes me cries even if not necesessary sad.

At the earlier part of the story, i somewhat disdain the ML, so my hopes for the heart-fluttering romance, i have wrapped it up and thrown it away. But i stick because the other things is very interesting. The maid surviving the cruel young madam arc was interesting first and foremost should be credited to the antagonist performance, she carries her character with such unhinged but also somewhat vulnerable weight to her. The story was also have this theme of girlhood among the maid, the friendship they share were very touching, it was worth my tears, the hardship they endure, the punishment disporportionate to their fault, everything was also worth my tears. I even cried for the antagonist. So by this point, i have somewhat an idea of what kind of vibes the show is going, but as the story arc moves, the heartbeat of the story also moves, the themes going from girl friendship, to family, to love, moves one to another, back to another, but at the end it was mostly about being a women.

They have a lot of female antagonist, from a women trapped by the shackles of her powerful family lacking knowledge and wit, to a women who is full of wit but coming from a humble background, to someone both smart and born from powerful family. Unlike a lot of drama where the female antagonist was just shallow, jealous women, these women was everything but that. They were all flawed people but all strong, and have something to say. They were walking the wrong path, but they have their own justified reason.

The show was full of women, from young to old, maid to master, reserve to cheerful, petty to wise, childish to mature. One differs from another. What amazing is despite the abundant character, most of it were a full-layered character. They feel alive, they were interesting enough to wonder what kind of life they have off screen.

As the story progress, the romance developed, as the romance developed, my disdain towards the ML slowly subside. His character growth was great. For me, he went from a bitter jerk, to somewhat a chill guy, to a true gentleman. His love went from selfish to understanding. He genuinely grows, learn to understand what's really matter and comes out the best version of himself. I really loves this character, despite my initial dislikes. For me, he never went downhill, my likability towards him actually grows as the story go, it was truly a satisfied character growth.

The drama gaves a lot of life lesson, one that stick to me and i feels like the overarching part was the idea about helping someone walking their path will leads you to a wider and brighter path yourself, i always love the idea of how being kind lead to good karma, this kind of thing might seem simple, but it was really precious to me. The silent strength of kindness, it was really one of my tears triggers.

Initially the title Against the Current sounds like it was about fighting your way, moving towards the currents hitting on you. Being about going the other way, changing the tides. But watching this show it was not, it was about withstanding it, it was about holding your ground despite it. Initially the FL seems like a character just moving following the motion, wanting to live safely and peacefully, she doesn't have great ambition to rise above other nor vengeance to seek revenge, just moves in motion to where lives leads her, but then as the story goes she was thrown into a path she doesn't want to take, despite letting it takes her where it takes her she still holds to her principle, didn't let the currents washed her ashore or drowned it under. The ML have his on unconventional way, he follows the norm but have his own principle, he doesn't blindly follow the currents lest it leads him astray. To go against the current is not to fight upstream against the current, but to strive to live well of a life that one chosen despite the current.

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Ain't no way that's how they write it

Gosh, what a terrible story execution. The story was so lackluster, there are no likable character, and the death was so dumb it pisses you off

They bring out such an amazing cast, they have great production value, the idea and concept is great, i don't know what makes the storyline feel so lackluster, but it just is. There are a couple of complain i have, first of all there are too many character that there are no depth whatsover to them, you could cut a couple of them, the main character se jong, she was written as this anti social person that didn't mixed well with other people, she is the main character, but like there is literally no stake for the character, her ex husband is dead by like the first 30 minutes of the movie, this movie was from the creator of train to busan so i expected something more emotionally touching, but you cannot do that if your main character is so detached, the people that she could have some kind of affection at least is dead by like the first minute of the main story and there is no way they could bond with the other survivor, everything happening around is just sort of written so that she could reach the conclusion of the story, but like it doesn't work because she doesn't feel connected to the other character, which they have a lot of them. Like she could bond with the bullied girls since they both were sort of outsider, she could bond with the sister's character, she could bond with jcw character somehow whatever, but noo, they were just become this people standing around her, waiting for the plot to happen to kill them. They were trying to give JCW character some kind of plot, but that too felt somewhat flat, i did felt bad when the sister's died, but then they makes his character go on a rampant (?), like what?, that so out of the blue.

And the at the end it feels like they were trying to force a sort of commentary about how society being so herd-minded is awful, i mean i get that but like, that's just feels so spiteful and cynical after they killed the good natured people in like the dumbest way and without even letting anything marinate so we could feel sad for them. Good and bad people could just die without so much of me even batting an eye, the main character didn't have any kind of character development and at the end it just revert back to the conclusion that she doesn't need development. It just feels like they were trying too hard to be edgy for me.

Well, they have great action sequence because they obviously have the budget, the sound design is pretty good. The movie itself is a spectacle if you didn't consider about how awful the story is, it could be a good horror movie to watch mindlessly, but other than that, it's definitely not for me

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A light hearted romcom perfect for a drama slump

If you are looking for a light hearted romance historical show, this is just exactly what it was. I binge watched in just two days. The show moves in a sort of faced paced, concise, and to the point way, but it’s not to a point where it felt shallow and not enough fleshed.

Every few episodes focus on different li’s daughter and their respective partner, and then they wrapped it up and move to the next sibling.

My problem with watching a show is i get bored easily, so with cdrama that have so many episode and so many story arc sometimes i didn’t finish them even if i liked the show, but with these show they able to mantain the momentum because it doesn’t spent too much time finishing story arc with one couple, there are moment where sometimes it felt dragging, but the drama didn’t suffer much, once they done we moved on, and the next story doesn’t really need to spent much time with introduction or building because we have estabilished quite a lot with the previous episode while the fun of previous storyline was still there, so even with my short attention span, i could watch the show on and on because they are concise, sharp, and just exactly my type.

If you were in a drama slump i feel like these would be the perfect show to binge

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