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They should rename this movie "Missed Opportunity".
Not gonna lie, I am quite disappointed, especially after reading the synopsis. I was ready for some complex story that pushes the viewer into a state of constant questioning of what is real and what's just a part of the broken imagination of the female lead... Well, I did not get that. If they just kept it a bit more vague and made sure Mi Ju is actually present during all the "supernatural" occurrences, it would be so much better. But since a lot of crazy things happened even without her being near, the answer is given to the viewer. When trying to create a story that can be left to the interpretation of the viewers, you need to be careful as you craft it. They were not.One of the biggest flaws of "Cello" was the acting. I don't know how much of it I can blame on the actual acting skills (or lack of them) and how much blame can be put on the "acting style" that might have been more popular in 2000'. Either way, it was not good. The line delivery felt awkward in a lot of scenes and it took me out of any suspense they tried to create.
The plot was just a clusterf***. For such a short movie, they introduced too many characters we were supposed to care about. Why add the husband's sister? Or the "blackmailing" student? None of the plotlines were necessary and only took the precious minutes away from the main character and the development of whatever supernaturally or mentally was happening to her.
Overall, I would probably not recommend it. There was nothing exciting, innovative or interesting in this movie. If anything, it left me frustrated, because the concept was good, but the execution of it just failed.
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The story of how a sense of support can give you a ray of hope for better tomorrow and strength to work your way up. Overcoming the struggles, accepting defeat and putting it behind you so you can move forward. Welcoming someone into your world and heart and being able to say goodbye. This movie has quite a lot of truly emotional messages wrapped in a nice, simple storyline with a big heart.
The acting was amazing. Jo Jung Suk has this ability to make me hate his character with my whole heart at first, to later make me love and adore him. Doo Sik's treatment of Doo Young at the beginning got my blood boiling, but the gradual and solid character development done with his character made me care for him far more than I expected.
Do Kyung Soo's scene after the final match broke me for a few good minutes. It amazes me how natural he is with the craft of acting. Kim Kang Hyun's character was a lighter touch to the story, perfectly balancing the comedy and drama. Even Park Shin Hye did a good job, portraying a coach who is not willing to give up on Doo Young.
Overall, I didn't expect to like it that much, but I truly fell for its charm and the well written characters. The portrayal of mental struggle after facing a tragedy was done in a realistic way that made me feel the pain the characters' were showing. Rather than painfully sad, it's a touching story that will make you cry your eyes off, but won't leave you in a depressive mood.
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The greatest thing about this drama is how small the cast is and how natural and well built are the interactions between everyone. We only have three characters in the special missing person team: Soo Hyeon, Dae Yeong and Seo Jun and it makes perfect sense. Special team that has to be mobile while they take cases from many different places, why would there be more people? With high profile cases like the ones they dealt with, they would simply work with local police if they needed back up.
I truly enjoyed the set up. The dynamics between the characters were good - every one of them had a distinctive but realistic personality and they all played off of each other well. I also want to praise Seon Jun’s character. They could have easily made her hacker and nothing more. The girl has a brain of her own though. She does not just wait to “google” whatever the detectives ask her, she does the investigation too and helps solve cases.
Sadly, in my opinion, there were some mistakes made in the planning. The first case the group has taken was so amazing, interesting and attention grabbing, all the rest felt a bit flat. From Kang Ha Neul’s performance, to the “saw” like setting of the crime scenes, up to the mind games and plot twists - everything was perfect. All the rest though...they were still good, but nowhere near as good as the first one.
The writers also strongly hinted at a big mystery around Soo Hyeon, but as the drama progressed, we got barely any new information about it, and the attention to it was brought back only around episode 7. It was never properly explained nor concluded. You could say this plot hole was deeper than the Mariana Trench. It would be far better if we got some small hints here and there. I felt like the writers forgot about the subplot they themselves introduced.
Concerning that plot line, the writers could have played a bit more into the forming relationship and trust issues between Soo Hyeon and Dae Yeong. The culmination of the “bonding” was not as impactful as it could have been and how they dealt with the aftermath was quite poor.
Even with some of the flaws I saw in the drama, I still would say it’s a show worth checking out. The overall plot was well paced, the cases seemed realistic (for the Korean crime shows), most of them had nicely planned plot twists, some more, some less predictable. The production value was fine, some typical crime show mistakes like looking for clues in a room with really dark sunglasses on (sure he saw a lot with them on), but not big enough to make anyone frustrated, annoyed and angry.
That ending though… it was something else.
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The movie drops us into the plot from both the introduction scene and the first scene with our female lead. We have no time to adjust to the creepiness of it. The anxious feeling increases with every scene shot in that small apartment, making the viewer feel paranoid and claustrophobic.
Kyung Min is not exactly the smartest character ever. She makes many mistakes and jumps to conclusions too fast, but wouldn't that make her more relatable and realistic? That said, the lack of either fight or flight response in some scenes was quite frustrating to watch.
My biggest complain character wise: how lazy and dumb the detective was. The conclusions he came up with made no sense taking into consideration circumstances.
Plot wise, there were few moments that surprised me, small twists I did not see coming. I kept questioning and guessing who the mysterious man is, and always failed with my predictions, every character fitted the creep quite well.
Overall, it was quite an enjoyable movie. The pacing was good, though some work related scenes were not necessary since they did not bring anything new either character or plot wise. Adding some more sequences of the man "intruding" would be better, since these were the most atmospheric and well shot.
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The chemistry between the whole cast was amazing. Not only the romance felt real, but all the interactions between the rest of the characters were realistic and well portrayed.
It's a well written story about love, finding self worth, emotional manipulation and overcoming a trauma. I'm extremely glad I did not read the synopsis, so when it was relieved, Gi Tae is also a gang member, I was honestly surprised and did not see that coming. With the innocent and pure aura Yeon Seung Ho gives off, I could not even imagine him working in such a profession.
With a plot like that, it's easy to make it seem cheap or over the top and way too dramatic than necessary, yet here, it was executed perfectly. I never felt that the situation the main characters are in is ridiculous and unrealistic. Because the whole story was kept local, with a small cast of the characters, it seemed simply believable.
Overall, I am quite surprised I enjoyed the dramas as much as I did. The acting of emotional scenes from both main actors were done in an outstanding way and I could feel the angst oozing from my screen.
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[ Fox Valley ]
I liked the idea and the introduction to the story. The scenes made me feel uncomfortable and anxious, but with the alien sex scene, it lost all the charm and became a joke of itself. I love dark humor and horror comedy, if done right. This was not.
[ Road Rage ]
Probably my favorite out of all the stories and the reason is quite simple: it was realistic. The things that truly may happen in real life are far scarier than anything abstract and supernatural. The plot by the end made a full circle and it was enjoyable to watch. The switch of characteristics between the characters was a good plot point, which was nicely executed.
[ Machine Ghost ]
This part was also well done, but made the leading story that much more confusing with the styling of the robots. That said, I always welcome a story that dwells on the themes of consciousness, free will and what makes a human human. When does the robot stop being a commodity to be used by people and should be treated as its own being deserving rights that will protect him? Since the story is short, it is not a deep dive into such a broad topic, but it highlights some interesting aspects.
Overall, I would say it was worse than the 1st movie, but better than the 2nd. The leading story was quite ridiculous and I truly disliked the costumes and set design. It looked like a low-budget sci-fi movie.
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The mood of the movie is all over the place. We start with horror and cheap jump scares. Then we move to the introduction of the characters which had a strong slice of life and high school romance feel. With few horror elements, it felt more like a psychological thriller or a story about a girl that cannot deal with a loss and pressure put on her. Then we get back to horror. To put it simply, I have no idea what the production team wanted to make out of it - an entertaining horror movie with jump scares? Psychological horror about losing a friend? Why even add hints of romance? There are also way too many plotlines about ghosts: the friend, owner of the amusement park, a girl from the beginning. At the end, none of them is explained and explored enough for me to care.
Any horror having a group of friends as the cast needs a good chemistry between the characters. This one failed to convince me they even like each other. They did not seem like friends and I could not understand why they would want to hang out together. They needed a group of stereotypical characters, but did not care to explain why and how such different people even connect and befriend each other.
The acting was mediocre and at times over the top. The characters were so poorly written I wanted them to die before they even got to that haunted location. The reason for them to go back to the amusement park was not well explained and built into the story. They showed one scene of Woo Sung doing a live show on the internet and it was supposed to be enough for the setting. It was not.
Overall, boring and messy. Definitely a waste of time.
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The semi-interesting adventures of a lost puppy.
Initially, it was hard for me to care about any of the characters or the plot. Who do you root for: communist or nationalists? There is no good choice here. Luckily, as the drama progressed, I was able to see the characters as the individuals they were, and not necessarily the institutions that were behind them. I get that at that moment in history the communists were the good guys, but knowing where the future led, it’s still weird to root for them in the show.Starting with the characters, I feel like there was a lack of care put into them, their circumstances, goals, motivations. At times we were not able to see a few of them for a number of episodes, and when they showed up on screen, their situation completely changed, but we had no context to understand it. They just skipped through moments that could have been perfect opportunities to explain their motives or give them some development.
I feel like naming Zhu Yi Zhen as one of the main characters is some kind of a joke. For the majority of her screen time, she was just sitting being worried or looking through the window being worried. We could have seen her work hard for the Communist Party, slowly gaining more responsibilities and being one of the front-runners for the cause, but it never happened.
Lan Xin Jie was similarly underdeveloped. The story of her struggle to survive as she was dragged into the war between the different groups would be extremely interesting to watch. To see her change from a well connected person who is a confident social butterfly, to being a desperate mother who just wants to save herself and her child. But everything happened off screen.
Truth to be told, even Lin Nan Sheng was all over the place. Rather than The Rebel, he felt like a lost puppy that follows whatever authoritative figure shows up in front of him at any given moment. Also, for a show titled “The Rebel”, he rebelled a bit late.
I kind of feel like that’s how the drama rolled - a lot of things were happening behind the scenes and off-screen. This type of story telling made me not care that much about… well anything. Who wins, who loses, who dies and who survives. The Rebel feels like a well presented, but only draft of an idea.
The acting was amazing, I have zero complaints. While I still feel like Zhu Yi Long got a bit too skinny for the role (he reminded me of CGI Skinny Steve Rogers in Captain America), his performance was extremely strong. That said, the star of the drama for me was Wang Yang. Not only was his character the most interesting one, I also believe Wang Yang had to do the most job in showcasing the changes happening in his perception of the situation, morality and alliances.
Production value had almost nothing more for me to wish for. Some poorly done dubbing made me giggle here and there, but overall, the quality was truly good.
Overall, I had no idea why I had this strange need to finish this show. I was not really interested in the plot, I liked a few characters, but could deal with saying goodbye to them at any moment. Normally I would drop a drama like that, but I pushed forward and was able to see the end. Which was quite… anticlimactic.
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This movie is an experience… The ending is… a choice.
I struggle with collecting my thoughts after finishing it. It was something else.The funniest thing is - I knew the spoiler. But I did not remember it till I was way past half way through the movie. So when the memory hit me I was just praying the whole time it was my imagination.
While many people say the twist, revelation, the ending was THE factor that made the movie huge, personally I would probably rate it higher with something “less”. I found out the truth and thought - that’s it? That’s the motivation? For all the shit that happened, it felt a bit underwhelming. That said, the storytelling was extremely solid and the tension, thrills and piling up frustration was so high I had to take a break halfway through the movie. My brain was just filled with question marks.
For many the motivation and the extent of the imprisonment and why it happened was the reveal, the plot twist. For me? The last scene of the movie That’s when the true traumatic experience starts and ends, leaving the viewer in a state of complete shock.
Many describe Old Boy as a cinematic experience, and with that I have to agree. Putting aside the shocking aspects of it, it’s just an extremely well made, well edited, well acted and directed movie. Masterfully crafted.
Overall, I think I need a few business days to come to terms with what I just watched.
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One big, missed opportunity.
I was quite excited to watch it. Waited till late night to get the right atmosphere and get the best possible experience. 15 minutes in I started to become extremely sleepy, and it was not because I was tired. Kim Kang Woo is stunning, but his beautiful face is not enough to keep me engaged, when all I see on screen is him walking around the building with a flashlight.I am truly impressed how such a short movie that also has so many different tropes, time lines, and plot elements, can be this boring. The plot twists were predictable, the story told in a messy way, the protagonist was a massive idiot that truly did only one thing right.
They tried to be creative, giving a twist to the typical “black haired girl ghost” story, but it was so ridiculous, it did not work out - especially with this execution.
The design for the ghosts and scares was mediocre at best, simple copy paste of what we saw in other movies. Basically a snapchat ghost filter.
They did not use the place for their advantage - could have presented the place as a claustrophobic loop, but I never felt that.
Kim Kang Woo did a good job acting wise, but the rest of the cast was just comical. The screams that are so important in horror movies, mostly sounded like free stock audio.
To sum it up, it felt like they had an interesting idea, but no clue how to present it.
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This review may contain spoilers
Wasted premise and the cast.
Honestly speaking, almost nothing worked out in this drama. The idea behind it was truly good, but it was never explored enough, not to mention contradicting messages. Your female lead cannot at the same time change her mind about the ML based on their past life, but also be firm about the past being just the past, and her not being the past version of herself (wording might be confusing, sorry).While the whole cast did a good job portraying the characters, there was no chemistry between them. I did not care about the main couple, I did not get second lead syndrome - they all just did not work well together to create some sparks on the screen.
One thing I definitely did like about the show though was the female lead. Out of all Hwang Jung Eum’s characters, this one was quite fun. While she made some dumb decisions, all characters in dramas do - It's inevitable.
Another thing that the drama did well was showcasing how marriage is not the only happy ending one can get, and not the only end for a couple that loves each other. Respecting each other’s individuality is an important part of a happy life too.
Sadly, the stakes for the present story were not that high. It’s hard to care about the broken romance between the main characters, when the thing they are trying to prevent is Hyun Joo getting sued. Compare it to death, torture and jail in their past life, it falls short. Not to mention the ridiculousness of Kim Seon Hee’s character. You just don’t try to get your daughter married to the reincarnation of your crush.
So many plot lines, all so boring. The conflicts and problems created for the main couple were truly not that hard to solve, which led me to rolling my eyes, when they made it into a bigger mess than it was.
Was the show beautifully shot? Was it pleasant to the eye? Yes, but at this point, this is a standard in kdramas and not enough to make drama good, interesting, entertaining and worth the watch.
The soundtrack was a rather generic rom-com style. I did enjoy Motte’s So Much Into You, which had a nice sweet sound to it, but that’s the only sound that caught my attention.
Overall, not really worth your time. The only reason I finished it was to find out how ridiculous the plot will be with the mediocre motivation from the villain.
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Ghost Voice is probably my least favorite of the 4 Whispering Corridors movies I have seen so far. The horror element is weak, the plot is both predictable and confusing at the same time. The last minute plot twist came out of nowhere and was not well incorporated into the story.
I also find it a bit of a miss to include “tragic lesbian story” into it, when similar story was part of the 3rd movie. Watching these one after another makes it seem like they ran out of ideas.
The acting was good, definitely more modern than in the previous movies. Seo Ji Hye, Cha Ye Ryun and Kim Seo Hyung did the best. Some of the line delivery from Kim Ok Bin seemed off, the overused pauses between words gave a robotic vibe.
Overall, I’d rather recommend Whispering Corridors 1-3 over this one. It brought nothing more to the table and does not even serve as an easy entertainment.
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If you look for realism, you won’t find it here. The plot is pushed to extremes at times, but it does fit the overall mood and story progression - I never felt like they were going so far just to shock the viewers, all the scenes seemed to match well together.
Surprisingly, with how grim the movie was at times, it left me quite happy and hopeful - we truly dealt with the pandemic way better in real life, compared to authorities in The Flu.
The whole cast did an amazing job portraying the characters - each representing a different reaction to an unexpected and dangerous event occurring. Different motivations led to different actions taken by them. The characters were smart and dumb in a realistic way, so even when they made mistakes, it was understandable.
If I had to complain about anything, I would say Kang Ji Goo was unreasonably heroic and the ending was not satisfying in one specific aspect.
Overall, it got my blood boiling. I was annoyed, but in a good way - I was supposed to be annoyed. Even though I wanted to throw my laptop out of the window, I still kept watching - it truly got me engaged. Would definitely recommend it, just remember: it’s not a realistic story.
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For someone who does not know anything about scientific methods, this would be a really good horror thriller focused on the dark side of humans and their desires, fears and obsessions, with the use of supernatural elements. It was well produced, the set design, costumes and the design for the ghost were truly nice and well prepared.
For anyone who knows a bit about scientific methods... it would be frustratingly dumb and unrealistic, and not because of the ghost and supernatural elements. Here's the thing: you cannot make the main characters people of science (I would call a person who finished medical school one) while making them conduct research as well planned and executed as flat earthers do. Writers should have either made the research more realistic (especially at the beginning, were Wee was not that obsessed and emotionally attached to it - hence he should have been more objective) or made main characters normal people who did not have much to do with science in the first place - then the poorly conducted experiments would make sense.
It was like watching people fight for who is going to get Darwin Award first - both deserve it equally. Since I was frustrated with the set up and the massively flawed and senseless research at the beginning, it was hard for me to connect to the characters and actually care about what will happen to them and how the movie would end.
Overall, if you either: don't know much about scientific method of research or are able to ignore that part of the plot and not put much value to it, you will most likely like it or even love it. Sadly for me, poorly done science done by people, who should know better, frustrates me to the core.
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Self-fulfilling prophecy
Whenever the producers and director of the show like it or not, they influence the end result a lot, and it makes the shows less entertaining to watch. With limited screen time, they have to decide who to show and for how long. Trainees who get more screen time at first get more popular. Because they are popular, the director and editing team adds even more scenes with them, which makes them even more popular - at the end of the day, they are the ones who will debut.⇢ Cast aka the contestants and mentors
I started the show for Lian Huaiwei. He was my favorite in season 3, so I wanted to check his “humble beginnings”. Surprisingly, the one that was the most entertaining was Lay. He was so unintentionally hilarious, it was hard not to like him. All the mentors did well. I could see they truly tried to help the trainees as much as it was possible.
For the contestants themselves… Only a few caught my attention, and it’s mostly because only a few got a fair amount of screen time. Watching the finale, I still did not remember the names of over a half of the trainees… I guess it says a lot.
⇢ Music aka the the performances
There were few performances I liked quite a lot, but for me, the buildup is quite important. I want to see them practicing the songs more, see the progress from the day one of forming a group, to the day they actually perform. Sadly, I did not get much of it.
⇢ Story aka the production
Let’s get real… they did not care that much about the international audience. They did not bother to translate into English the result boards, hence the only way I could find out who won in specific groups was based on the reactions of the trainees. Which is sad, because the competition is the core of the show… but I could not even follow the competition to the fullest because of the lack of translations.
Another thing that bothered me a lot were the volunteering and charity work bits. Don’t get me wrong, the idea was amazing, but it was wasted by adding it to the episodes themselves. It would be far better to make it a separate series like “Charity with Youth” or something like that, with full length episodes just showing the trainees work. By adding the bits to the episodes, the precious time that should be used on showing the teens working to achieve their dreams was wasted. With that, during the elimination, we weren’t even able to hear the thoughts of all the trainees that got to the next round.
What I liked though, was the addition of the Special mentors, who were able to promote the trainees to the next round, even if they did not get enough screen time. It’s fair to leave some space for the professional to “interfere”, since the production is not completely fair to all the trainees to gather the votes from the public.
Overall, I kind of had fun? I laughed quite a few times, even managed to cry here and there. I feel like I was just spoiled by season 3. Not only were there twice as many episodes, but also all the episodes were longer than the ones in season 1 - with that, I was able to get to know and get invested in the trainees and their journey far more.
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