Vic

Slow Burn or Slow Deep Frying?

Alright, I'm disappointed.

First of all, the plot is good. Like the story, the idea, some of the plot twists, the sub-plots, it's all good. But man, was this too slow. Like okay, she lands in North Korea, meets this handsome guy who's helping her escape safely with his friends/crew, and in the meantime, she is learning about the North Korean lifestyle and people. Then, finally, she escapes, but then he runs after her bc he wants to save her from danger. I understand that this is a classic kdrama plot, where there are constant twists and turns, and it's like: "Who's gonna die? When are they gonna die? Omg are they dead now? Oh no, she's in trouble! Oh no, he's in trouble" But I feel like there was too much of that. Their romance was destined not to work out from the start (even though they made it work somehow at the end?), but whyyyy, whyyyyy, was it soooo long and slow?? Personally, episodes 9-15 were really draining; the whole time, I just wanted them to get to the point.
And yes, Gu Seung-joon's death PISSED. ME. OFF.
LIKE WHY WOULD YOU KILL SUCH A GREAT CHARACTER WHO FINALLY, AFTER SO MANY YEARS, FOUND JOY AND HAPINESS AND LOVE AND SUNSHINE IN HIS LIFE????? WHY WOULD YOU BREAK UP MY FAVOURITE COUPLE???

Basically, the only thing that really annoyed me in this show was how slow it was, and the fact that they killed Gu Seung-joon. Like, I literally finished the show for him and Seo Dan.

The four soldiers and Jeong Man-bok were amazing, though I loved them, as well as the women from the village.

It's also possible that it was right kdrama, wrong time, bc I was really stressed out with personal stuff and this show was not really comforting me.

Justice for Gu Seung-joon and Seo Dan, I want them in another action drama together, where they actually survive, and they "get to the point".

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Crash Course Not-Just-In Romance

I'm pretty disappointed with how this drama ended, and I also believe they should've given it a different title.
In the beginning, I thought it was gonna be a simple "slice of life" romance drama, only to later find out it would have emotionally difficult themes in the ongoing episodes. Maybe that was a mistake on my part by not researching more in depth beforehand, but I do believe they should've approached these themes (suicide, mental health, school pressure, etc.) differently.

The ending bothered me the most because they made everything seem "lovey-dovey" when in reality, people suffered, lives were lost, and yet no changes were made in the system that caused the disruption in the first place. I wanted to see how the characters truly felt during these unfortunate events, how they recovered or didn't recover, the psychological development.
Bang Su-a was having hallucinations and extreme intrusive thoughts because of how stressed out she was from school and the pressure her mom put her through. And what happened in the end? She got into med school, continuously studying, her mom showing off her daughter's success, and yet not a single word on how difficult it must've been for her to get to that point. The only piece of information we got was Su-a's mom calling a friend who owns some sort of "clinic".
Furthermore, Choi Chi-Yeol and Jeon Jong-Ryeol's conversation in the restaurant in the last episode left me, simply put, confused. They're both admitting how stressful it must be for students from a teacher's pov, and they're both mentioning things that students do to "make it" (academically speaking), and yet, after that serious thought-provoking conversation, they move on like nothing happened because they're conclusion is: "The educational system and the parent's mindsets are to blame. A mere star teacher's guilt won't fix anything." Like what?
Sure, maybe I'm looking too deeply into this, after all, it's a romance drama about an unlikely but adorable pair, Choi Chi-Yeol and Nam Haeng-Seon, but why add such serious and worrying sub-plots and themes to a show like this one?

This show explores themes such as suicide, academic and social pressure, and mental health, but it's almost like it doesn't actually explore them. It really just touches the surface and then moves on to the main plot.
It makes me question: What were the writers trying to say? Is academic pressure really a big deal in Korea, and does it have to change? Or was all of this just for show so that the main romance plot wouldn't bore the audience and take up too much of the time on screen?

Overall, it's a nice drama, but I'm not sure what the moral of the story is.

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Every now and then, I think about the ending of this drama.

Incredible. The plot is genius, the acting is spectacular, especially from the lead actor Kim Soo-hyun (yeah, let's separate the art from its artist pls). His acting was mesmerising, I was in awe while watching every scene. The soundtrack is also beautiful, and it really added to the story.
Kim Hyun-soo’s character development was so beautiful to watch, like bestie went from an awkward weak, insecure guy to the strong baddass man he is now, but honestly, idk if it was worth it because you can see the pain in his eyes and he’s just so broken from all of the injustice. In the last 2 episodes you could see him slowly starting to not give a single shit in court. He lost all hope in humanity. When he was released, he was literally drained of life. He will never be the same after that.
Such a sad story, it really makes you think about the “innocent man in prison or guilty man on the loose” saying. And the ending, gosh, the ending is just perfect. That beautiful display of his life post-prison. All that pain, all that torture. All this time, you think how liberating it would feel to finally be proven innocent and released, but really it was the exact opposite, and the way they showcased that through cinematography and the outstanding acting is just breathtaking.
Furthermore, I loved the lawyer Shin Joong-han; he’s such an icon, and if I got 50 cents every time I saw his feet in the show and every time he gave his business card to someone, I think I’d be pretty rich lol. His relationship with his ex-wife, Hong Jeong-ah, is hilarious and they were so entertaining to watch. The other lawyer who helped on Hyun-soo’s case, Seo Soo-jin, was also another character I loved specifically because of her most iconic moment in the whole show, where she was representing him in court and questioning the witnesses. The whole “we all make mistakes” speech made me tear up.

Overall such a good show but damn did it make me angry at the world and society, and also the writers because they killed Do Ji-tae, literally the hottest man in the show lol.

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Doctors really are the greatest heros.

This was amazing and slightly delusional, but still amazing.
Probably the best medical drama I ever watched (also the first medical k-drama I ever watched so this definitely made an impression).
I don't think I was ever fully aware before of how hard it is to be a doctor, especially if you work in the ER. I was in awe the whole time I was watching this show, and I couldn't stop thinking of all the doctors that I ever saw in my life whenever I was sick or had to go to the hospital for a check-up. It really gets you thinking about how much some people sacrifice in their life for you to live a healthy and happy one.

My favourite part was probably at the end of the 3rd episode, "Keep On Running". I always think about it every now and then:
"We had to keep running. Even agonising over a patient's death was a luxury to us. Twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. It felt as though if we stopped, even for a moment, someone's heart would stop too. So we had to keep running. To keep our patients' hearts beating, we must keep running. "

Gotta admit, I cried a little while watching that part.

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I never cried so much bro

The soundtrack is so particular, and every time I hear the main song I literally start crying.
This was one of my first thriller k-dramas, and if I'm not mistaken, my second ever k-drama, and it really made me fall in love with this genre of shows. The story, the acting, the soundtrack, it's beautiful and sad at the same time.



When Pil-do died, I was bawling my eyes out and was depressed for 3 whole days. I don't think a character's death ever hit me as hard as this one did, and as much as I hate to admit it, bc I was such a big fan of Pil-do and his relationship with Ji-woo, his death was a must.
After Ji-woo's father was murdered, her hatred towards the murderer and her passion for revenge were awakened. Throughout the whole show, we were all patiently awaiting the episode in which Ji-woo finds her father's murderer and avenges his death, but when she got together with Pil-do, he convinced her that revenge is not the way. He believed justice could be served in a different way, and so the 2 of them decided they were going to arrest her father's murderer and put him behind bars, however, this was not the original plan that Ji-woo had in mind. I'm not supporting Ji-woo's decision to avenge her father bc I do think that Pil-do has a point, but the original plan and the original wave of motivation was revenge, and that is exactly what needed to happen in the end. If Pil-do hadn't been as brutally murdered the way he was, Ji-woo would've never gotten that revenge. That's why his death was needed, however, I do think he deserved a better death. That man was a f-ing fighter and an icon, he deserved a whole dramatic k-drama death scene bro. I will never forgive the writers.

Anyways, yeah, that's my spiel.

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I love a good show about young people fighting for love.

This show was sooo good.
It had a really nice fresh story. I mean, when was the last time you watched a show about teenagers protecting and fighting for love, and I don't mean fighting for their relationship with someone, but fighting for love in general and fighting for love for all.

The last episode, when they all got together to try and ban the rule, was beautiful. I also really, really like the lead couple, they are so cute. As for the antagonists, in the end I felt empathy towards them (however, not the professor, sorry dude you practically raped a student, no empathy for you and your hard life).
I like how with all the drama and gossip, and some sex scenes (which could've been avoided but that's just my opinion), they still made room for important lessons, like how not to fall into self-hatred, and that falling in love, even with the wrong person, is not a bad thing. For example, one of the characters who fell in love with this dude who ended up being an asshole, she still didn't regret falling in love.
I also really loved the soundtrack. I wanted to Shazam every song. And ofc, the cinematography was very nice. I loveddd some of the shots. Idk how to explain it, but I feel like for the first time I could really connect the shots to the plot and to the vibe of the scene and how the characters felt. This is usually the goal with cinematography and maybe it did happen multiple times before with other stuff I watched, but this time I feel like I could truly notice it. The shots were beautiful. This was also the first time I started paying attention to editing. I wasn’t a huge fan of it in every scene but there were some good moments.

Furthermore, I loved the lead actress's facial expressions. Idk if that was intentional on the director's side or if that's just her way of acting, but I found it very nice and fresh since all the other actors had numb faces for most of the time. With the other actors/characters it’s like the only way to see emotions in their faces was if they were having a breakdown or sth. With her, we saw everything. Joy, sadness, fear, love, anger, worry, shame. All of it.

This was my first j-drama, and it’s much different from k-dramas, so for fun, here are some differences I've noticed:
1. The actors have actual faces. Like they have texture. Their faces are real, raw. The older actors have wrinkles. Nothing is hidden or photoshopped compared to a lot of k-dramas I've seen.
2. It has a faster pace, much easier to follow but that could also just be the plot.
3. The cliffhangers I was left on in this specific show were very good. Enough to make me wonder what happens next, but not enough to make me obsess and binge the whole show in one day.

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