Reviews

Should be called King of Tears and Ice Maiden

This is a single layer story about a greedy woman who abandoned her son and coiled herself around a rich ceo to inherit all hus wealth by destroying his family. And she is truly wicked - doesn't shy from murder, sending her own child away to America etc etc.

In this straight layer you then have multiple players who are entangled. Then there are subsets to these people.
Simple, boring, clichéd, seen that before, yawn.

What then races these dramas to the top are the players and their nuances - both of which are absent here.

Let's start with the players.
Stand out performances by Grace (the spy), the FL wimpy brother, the FL secretary, the ML attorney friend and the bad villain (abandoned son)..

And now the leads:
One would think that if the premise is love/marriage /divorce/remarriage to same person, then there has to be an iota of chemistry.. Should they not test this in the audition? Maybe the stars are so big they discarded the auditions.
So Alas Alas - here we have to use our wildest imagination and fantasy to assume the two are madly in love.- because frankly they behave like they are allergic to each other.

There is not one heart fluttering moment between them, no sizzle, no intimacy, no intensity.
We have miss ice maiden who is mean to the ML through ep.15 and then agrees to hold his hand in16.
We have the king of tears who spends 80% of his screen time with wet eyes.

What a pitiful drama.

I think k dramas need to stop focusing on these so called big regional stars and get back to making their old classic story line with real actors.

Think about it - we've had 3 dumps already in 2024 with hot shot actors :
Doctor Slump, Welcome to Samdalri, and now this Queen of tears........all dramas that totally missed the point.

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Love it!

I love this drama! Heart fluttering indeed 😍😍😍

I recommend this to those who are tired from chaebol dramas.

Simple and realistic as it can get. Relatable characters. The greenest flag of a Male Lead there can ever be.

Roller coaster of emotions every episode. One minute you are laughing your ass off, the next minute you are bawling. I also love the Director. Big fan of his work in When The Camellia Blooms.

It is sure to steal your heart away with just few episodes.

Preparing myself when the drama is over and I am yet again missing the characters.

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At the beginning, there was much expectation.
"W," one muttered. "Why is the show called W?"
The other snapped their fingers. "W sounds exactly like 'Double U' - Double universe. Get it?"
"Clever!" came the reply.

........Except it was not.
Oh, it tried to be. From the offset, rules were made, broken and shaped into something else entirely. This constant shift in dynamics between real world and manwha world kept us on our toes. But two flaws held it back.

One - All of the characters in both worlds were flat. All of them. Except maybe one, but more on Oh Seong Moo later. Kang Chul was particularly tragic. To become self-aware of his own cartoon status, to gain a strong purpose to kill the creator - but then being reduced to nothing more than being Yeon Joo's chew-toy. She wanted romance, and romance was to be had! The plot would've been more interesting if he'd objected to his secondary creator's will (especially in the second half, when he had no recollections of their "romance") and resented her throughout. Muhahahaha. You can tell how sick I was of every romantic scene between them. Every-time manwha world tried to insert conflict, namely by having the killer after them, the end-goal was for their insipid reunion, that I stopped caring by episode 5. Seriously.

Yeon Joo. Man, I had major issues with this character. As I said to a fellow MDLer..."In the latter episodes, just to be walking around in pretty dresses, doing nothing but sleep and talk with Kang Chul - how is that inspirational? A woman with that much brains, will always seek for extra stimulation, not just be relegated to "Barbie" territory with fluff in her brains. Why make her a doctor in the first place? Just make her anything, if it doesn't matter so much."

I still stand by those words.

Lee Jong Suk and Han Hyo Joo's acting left a lot to be desired. They tried their best, excelling in certain points, but I was convinced by neither character in the end.

Oh Seong Moo/Hang Sang Hoon was a character portrayed well, by the actor, which is why he's my favourite, closely followed by Crazy Dog, who voiced every frustration with W's turns - he even voiced a fantastic thought. "Even though I hated the beginning, I must be respectful of the final episode"...and then, "That's it?"
Lastly Su-Bongah because he spent the majority of the episodes frightened out of his wits.

In some ways, the reason why I'm giving a high score of 6.5 is purely because the show tried something new and had an exciting soundtrack. My most appreciated scene in the show, was when Seol Hee was fading and drew attention to herself. Her will to survive was stronger, than the will of the show! And she wasn't even self-aware like Kang Chul. The only (truly) impressive dimension I saw.

Also the ending? More questions raised, than answered.

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Here's the summary of why I hate this drama.

1. Let's remember that Saeroyi's mission was to destroy the Jangga company.
2. Let's remember that Saeroyi loves Soo Ah for more than 10 years. So does Soo Ah.
3. Let's remember that this drama is a good drama. It tells us about business and marketing strategy. At least at the early episodes.

At the last episodes:
1. Saeroyi is ACTUALLY failed to destroy Jangga. Soo Ah is the one who destroys the company.
2. Soo Ah had been struggling to find the way to destroy Jangga company stealthily. (this drama doesn't tell you what, how, when, where she did it = plot missing)
3. Soo Ah had been waiting for Saeroyi to destroy Jangga so that she would be able to resign from the company and live happily with Saeroyi after he succeeding his mission.
4. Instead, Saeroyi fell in love with Yi-Seo and dumped Soo Ah, who loves him for FCVKIN YEARS!!!
5. This drama turns out to be "the story of a boss, who dumped his beloved, just to fall in love with a manager"

Conclusion:
I hate Saeroyi so much. It breaks my heart when he dumped Soo Ah. He FAILED to destroy Jangga but he got the company after acquiring it. WHERE'S Soo Ah?
The romance stuff RUINS the plot. The drama went from business-themed drama to sick romance drama.
After all, the conflict resolver is Soo Ah. Saeroyi? He went to a date with Yi-Seo.

PS. Still, I give 5/10 star-rating: 5 for business and marketing stuff. I appreciate that.

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Is everone watching the same show I'm watching?

How does anyone find this funny? The level of homophobia and misogyny is unacceptable. In the first episode, feminity in gay men is equated with predatory behavior, and the second episode involves a brothel and one character bullying another into having sex against his will.

This is terrible! Not in terms of production values or acting - it's solid there. But the writing is so backward, unfunny, and offensive that I'm truly shocked anyone likes it.

And the evil ex-GF trope again? Can we move past this?

It's a shame - I love everyone in the cast, and I was excited to see Pod in a lead role. Ep 3 was better and funny, but it's hard to get past the previous 2 episodes But even in 3, you have a gay couple paying a call-girl to pose as their romantic interest because they're afraid of Ton. What kind of message is THAT?

And the lack of originality... yikes:

Trip-and-fall-on-each-other-and-stare-at-each-other-with-faces-too-close-together routine? Check.
Engineers? Check.
Pathetic ladyboy? Check.
Silly fujoshi? Check.

One thing it does have going for it is Pod (Ton) is shirtless all the time (or wearing a skin-tight compression tank top which is pretty much the same thing) and I'm shallow.

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Only watch it for Leo Luo

I was quite skeptical whether to start watching as the reviews weren't that good. But from the trailer it looks like Leo Luo was pretty charming so I decided to go ahead.

The overall series was just normal, sufficient amount of fighting scenes and romantic scenes, but nothing big to entice people to love the series. Shang Guan Tou was a pretty charming character from the start to the end, he was beautiful, smart, protective and gentle which gives you no reason to not love him. HOWEVER, on the other hand, the female lead was a totally opposite character. Not one of but the WORST female lead character I've ever met in all C-dramas. She supposed to be skillful as she learnt the powerful Kungfu, supposed to be brave and smart as she was the clan leader, but instead she was dumb, weak, useless, immature, dependent, cry baby and acts rashly. I understand that male lead are always the heroic ones to save the female lead, was this female lead is just TOO WEAK. The male lead was always injured because of the girl but instead he is always the one to save the female lead from baddies when she is actually more skillful in terms of Kungfu, like WHAT? It is so not realistic. Also, when the male lead saves her for so many times, she chose to left him with some absurd misunderstanding, so I personally felt the love story is just so frustrating and I disliked it a lot.

In conclusion, story was okay but female lead character was extremely unfavourable. Not recommended but you can consider if you enjoy watching Leo Luo.

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The Couple is Everything!

For those who will watch this, you are probably one of the big fans of this long-running screen couple, like me!!! YES, I can never get enough with this couple and even if they continue to show until Season 4,5,6,7 I will still watch it as long as it's the two of them starring!

Unbeatable amount of kiss scenes, from sweet kiss, sad kiss, passionate kiss or even a small peck, they had the best chemistry! I even think they probably kiss more than kissing their real-life partners (?) Giving that they have worked together for 4 dramas. Well, not complaining because I LOVE IT! Unlike some other Chinese dramas that blurred out kiss scenes or even fake kissing, this couple went all out, salute the couple for their professionalism!!! It surprises me when they even included kiss scenes not for romance, there was a scene where they kiss just to test the spell (like wow!), but the way they showing it, it was so natural and pleasing, not cringey at all!

Story wise, at first I thought it was a standalone story, but apparently in the second half, it somehow relates back to some plots from the previous seasons. As for me, I kinda forget about the story so I went to do some read-up and managed to recall on it before continue watching (But do take note while doing your read-ups as you might accidentally caught some spoilers haha). I would say this is almost about the same standard as the 1st and 2nd season, entertaining but not special... especially when Romance of Tiger and Rose has first started with "Women ranking higher than men" kind of setting already, also some repetitive cliche plots like the previous season (amnesia, doppelganger, time travel, diplomatic marriage). But as I mentioned earlier, because I enjoyed watching the couple so I don't mind watching it too. But I personally prefer Season 2 the most, mainly because it has the modern era of the couple and I enjoyed that version of Mo Lian Cheng the most.

Acting, I find the casts' acting have improved. Not the best but is getting better, I personally find Xing Zhao Lin being one of the best among the team. Although he is one of the youngest casts but he captured a lot of detailed expression with his "small eyes" (HAHAHA) and played a matured role real well, didn't notice the age gap at all! Same goes to the new cast - Allen Fang that joined the team, although his role wasn't that favourable (kinda pathetic) but I'm impressed how he can be so serious and sorrowful in such a comedy drama, have to acknowledge his well acting though!

I hope I can see Xing Zhao Lin and Liang Jie on-screen again, again and again! No matter in this series or others, as long as they are acting as a couple in a drama, I'll take it!!!

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5 brilliant episodes

The good:

-this is a drama with an important topic and for about 5 episodes it was more than brilliant. Lee You-mi's performance alone was so outstanding as victim of heavy domestic abuse, I really hope she gets every award possible for the role.

-for the first half, the drama managed to capture the fear and emotional extreme situation of victims of domestic violence - and for a change (which was good!) it showed that domestic violence is not only happening in low income, low background areas (how it is depicted most often) but also in high society, where abusers use their power and money to cover up their crimes easily.

-some things were shown very realistically- for example that Cho Eun-su, herself traumatised by a violent father figure in her childhood, could do any sort of artificial self-defence training as much as she wants, when the actual real danger situation occurs with a very violent real attacker, who is much stronger than her, she has no chance to fight him for many reasons. That's an important lesson for women if you want to learn how you might really have a chance defending yourself against a real attack - and it's none of the artificial fight sport trainings, as they are that - artificial, with opponents who only do a certain set of artificial attacks and moves, and stop when it starts hurting.


the bad:

- from episode 5 on many things didn't make any logical sense anymore and logic was thrown out the window for the sake of creating cliffhanger situations and thriller elements by the writers.

-it didn't make any sense that Jang Gang looked exactly ( as in more a clone than a twin) like No Jin Pyo - and on top, he is in the very same area of Seoul AND for a very strange resaon to start with Cho Eun-Su sees this very identical person while trying to retrieve a stolen luxury watch. Propabilities for this are simply zero. As for the character of Jang Gang, they could at least have worked with small prostetics, like changing his (veeeery distinctive!) ear shape and giving him false teeth. A character like Jang Gang with his background does certainly NOT have super white, straight perfect clean Hollywood teeth. As he is shown as a heavy smoker and with a criminal street past, he would not have these perfect teeth at this age in any universe.

-While, as always, Jang Seung-jo delivered an excellent performance in both roles, the figure of Jang Gang didn't make any realistic sense to me. The switch from being a submissive, quiet, stuttering low job worker to full blown, crazy laughing psycho? (And this crazy laughter was stolen from 'my name' genius psycho role Do Kang-jae by the way) Nah, sorry. If that guy had been that kind of uncontrolled psychopath, he wouldn't have worked for a long time for Jin So-beak before and he wouldn't have stayed hidden and low profile in general. Also he really did have a family (wife and child) in Shanghai as can be seen in the airport footage shown, so he comes back to threaten Hui-su and his whole demeanor changed? Nah, someone like that, if he would go back to blackmail her for more money, he would act at least normal to stay low and get the money - like he did before. To act out like a crazy person in the middle of the city doesn't make sense and was just written like that to create a fear and danger situation for the two women.

-Also factual mistakes began to show - when Jang-Gang comes back to threaten Hui-su, while he does have the dead man's phone, why would he suddenly have the door passcode to the appartment? If so, he would also have the pass code to the safe. So again, this situation of Hui-su hearing the beeping code of the door and a man just entering her place was just written to create horror and fear, but without brain, as the guy wouldn't have had the pass code.

-While Jin So-beak was a fantastic character for himself, his connection and will to risk his own life, business, everything for the two women didn't make sense either? Why would he do that? Was he attracted to Eun-su from the start? Well, after a while, honestly, nothing came of it, so in reality, a guy like him would simply have lost interest in her and her situation. The drama never explains his motivation to any degree that would make sense of his actions. The fact that 20 years ago he lost his son (something he and Hui-su have kind of in common but he finds out very late anyways) was not a motivation for all he did then.

-the police sister of the villain - didn't make sense in many situations either. So what position did she actually have as an officer? How is it possible she can spend almost all her work time alone (and not with at least one colleague) doing all the things she does? That wasn't realistic at all.

- my biggest problem comes in the end: so, to give this ( as it is a Netflix production after all) a forced moral message, they ruined the end for me. Both women admit to their crime, give apologetic and 'wise' statements in court - and don't even tell the truth? The truth was, yes, they had PLANNED to kill a man, but, (which was realistic) he found out about that plan, and what actually happened was that HE attacked both women brutally and was about to actually kill Eun-su, when Hui-su, in actual SELF-DEFENSE! - killed him to prevent him from killing her friend. In every normal universe, a defense lawyer would have brought this up and followed on it to reach a not guilty-verdict - and it would have been the truth! Instead they create this Kindergarten-morality, and Hui-su saying she killed her husband?

-And it gets worse! Eun-so has her turn too to tell the jury how 'guilty' she is - and says something I find highly problematic. She actually blames herself in retrospective, as in when she was a very small child and had to endure her violent father beating and abusing her mother- and she says and implies that little children are at fault for reacting with ignoring such situations when they are over? NO! Little children NEVER have ANY fault in howEVER they react to such super traumatic situations! It is a very wrong, and dangerous message to tell any victim of also former domestic abuse, that it was in any way their fault when they were just small children.



Result:

Stellar acting performances, especially by Lee-You-mi, a good start of a storyline with a very important topic.
Sadly for the sake of creating thriller and tension elements, the writers threw logic out of the window in many scenes from episode 5 on.
While this would have had great potential for important messaging to try to enable and encourage victims of domestic abuse to at least try and get help, they ruin this message in the end by letting the two women repent like sinners and give off messaging that is the opposite of encouragement.

And yes, I get it, they can't end such a story on the note that the women get away completely unbothered because they would probably get legal trouble concering encouraging people to kill their violent spouses.
But they would have had a chance to show that even IF the women get to court, they CAN get a good defense lawyer who, in such crass cases of abuse and a killing in self-defense, (maybe even adding temporary insanity due to not only her own life being in acute danger, but also her having to watch her abuser killing her best friend and life anchor) could have reached an acquittal instead of a prison sentence.

Acting and idea 10 - storyline decline and very questionable messaging 3. - I'd still give it a 6 because of the partly very good acting performances.

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Excellent must watch

Finally Deng Wei got this kind of lead where he is flourishing... Excellent acting n he can pull both the negative n positive roll so well...
Story, fight scenes , supporting leads ... all in all a must watch...


Finally Deng Wei got this kind of lead where he is flourishing... Excellent acting n he can pull both the negative n positive roll so well...
Story, fight scenes , supporting leads ... all in all a must watch...


Finally Deng Wei got this kind of lead where he is flourishing... Excellent acting n he can pull both the negative n positive roll so well...
Story, fight scenes , supporting leads ... all in all a must watch...

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Hands down best BL drama I have ever seen, I started this with no expectations and I ended up falling in love with this show. If you want to watch good show or a good bl show then just watch this, it's beyond amazing.

Story - 10/10
The story line is well done and well written. It will invoke a lot of emotions out of you. The writers will make you angry and laugh and be sad. The romance is one of the best. It's different from a lot of other bl dramas because they tackle really hard topics and when I was watching I wanted them not too but it is written so well that it made the show even better.

Acting/Cast - 10/10
Can I rate this 12/10 because the actors were all amazing. Chemistry was so brilliant that I was like whoever cast these actors did God's work. It was so beautiful to watch actors so natural with each other.

Music- 10/10
Just perfect, the right songs and instrumentals were used to fit the mood of the scenes.

Rewatch Value - 10/10
I enjoyed this so much that I had already re-watched it as I waited for the finale episode to air and I can say it was even better the second time round. So,yes the rewatch is on a 1000

Overall - 10/10
Overall, I enjoyed this show a lot, it was fun to watch, I replayed a lot of scenes and I can see myself re-watching this over and over again because it was so good.

Do I recommend this, hells yes, it's worth it. You will not regret giving this a go.

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I got the impression that the love story thread was added as an after thought. To be convincing this love affair needed a lot more story time than what it got. The writers needed to show how these two became love birds right off the bat. Instead the male lead is like a stone wall, and she is for some reason desperately in love with him. They didn't give the viewer a reason to believe that these two would fall in love at the end.

It was entertaining enough for me to keep watching it - can thank the actors for that who were able to make this mediocre story into something reasonably entertaining.

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Beautiful moments surrounded by nothing.

Here’s the thing - I liked the show when it started airing. I knew few people thought this type of plot might not work out with a drama format, but I was still full of hope. At some point, though, I had to admit they were right and I was wrong.

This show should be 12 episodes long at best. Preferable 6 to 10. It should focus on exactly 3 plotlines: Da Jung and Dae Young, Dae Young and his kids, and Da Jung’s job/dream. They should fill the episodes with school drama, as a lot of interactions were happening there. You can even keep the bullying and teen romance. But why, oh why do we need a love triangle? Why do we need a 2nd couple/romance? Why do we need all the scenes and interactions between Deok Jin and Ae Rin? Why do we need that Il Kwon mess? Or what was the point of this mystery photographer guy? There is so much going on in this show, and yet it feels like nothing is happening. All the most memorable moments that were truly meaningful were the family interactions. We do not need that many filler plots.

The last two episodes were some whole new level of cliche and stereotypes. When you have 2 cars of doom for the price of one, you know you've hit the jackpot. The back story about Ji Hoon's brother being connected to Dae Young was unnecessary and presented in the worst possible way. Such an emotional scene and yet, I could not stop laughing when the 2nd car came out of nowhere.

I don't even want to talk about the last minute "I'm breaking up with you for your own good" plot, because that trope just needs to die, or at least take a few years break from appearing on screen.

The highlights? All the scenes between Dae Young and his kids, both in the past and present. The slow realization he had about mistakes he made, the gradual learning that Dae Young actually cared a lot for Shi Ah and Shi Woo. These are the scenes I will remember after the show ends, and these are the ones that moved my heart the most. These were the gems that made me cry so many times, and if the show focused more on the actually important parts (relationships between main characters), chances are it might have gotten a 10 out of me.

For the acting, Lee Do Hyun aced the role. There are quite a few shows with the “younger actor playing an older character after body switch”, but none of the actors were as believable as Do Hyun. I trust this guy with my life. What do I see? Bright future ahead of him. His talent will lead him to some great roles and amazing projects.

Overall, the acting was on point. The emotional scenes were emotional, happy and funny scenes were just that: happy and funny. No areas of complaint here. Some people might dislike a few overacting moments from Lee Mi Do, Kim Kang Hyun and Kim Yoo Ri, but it was clearly a stylistic choice that has nothing to do with the acting skills of the actors themselves.

Usually I don’t pay that much attention to the soundtrack, unless it’s truly outstanding. Here, I liked quite a few songs, especially Sohyang’s Hello, which truly elevated the emotional scenes to a new level. Not to mention Sondia, who became one of my favorite ost singers, with an amazingly sweet and warm voice.

Overall, nice show, but skippable. I stayed for the parents and kids relationship and Lee Do Hyun’s acting. Even though I am massively disappointed by the obvious ending and last two episodes, the scenes between the family still made me tear up a bit and it shows how amazing this drama could have been if it was not for the unnecessary sub-plots.

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Read the comment discussion a must - SUPER HORRIBLE writing and NO CHEMISTRY

1.0 is already generous for this Drama and I always question why a member of mydrammalist would give such low rating to
Other dramas. And still finished it..
Now I know.. its like getting into bad relationship..
And you got trapped in the middle, you wanted to go back but then there's this thing call HOPE and you just kept on moving..
So you've been TRICKED, LURED and USED..

The worst written female lead..
Wait, she's not even felt like the lead, her fam members are..

This drama totally shook my belief for kdrama to the core..
Its like eating Raw avocado... do you know how does it taste?
Bitter than medicine..

Read the comments from the drama page, its all there before you invest 16 hours more or less of your time, your thought, your time..

You will be betrayed! Watch something else!

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ACTION THRILLER OF THE YEAR

Note: DO NOT EXPECT A BRAINY CRIME THRILLER & A CONTINUOUS STORY

Yes, you read the headline right! Do check it yourself. TAXI DRIVER is not a crime thriller, rather an action thriller, where you see a lot of action and stunts and it'd not be false to say that the action by Lee Je Hoon (Kim Do Ki) is not at all exaggerated or overdone unlike crime thrillers or simple melo dramas where everyone just flies off, climb walls like a reptile or jump high places like a squirrel (lol).

TAXI DRIVER is a perfect balance between thriller and melo, and a lil romance. The drama being based on a combination of real crime cases of Korea, is created on a concept of a transportation firm, namely Rainbow Taxi Service, that help people get revenge to avenge there dear one's death.

I am happy how brilliantly the main writer of the drama came up with this idea of portraying real cases and it's actually enthralling to witness this kind of direction. At the same time, I am unhappy how people have slept on this absolutely wonderful thriller piece. PEOPLE, DON'T DO IT.

I saw some people disappointed because there is no romance between the male lead and the second female lead, but what's with you expecting to see romance everywhere? Not everything necessarily has to be about it. Go watch romcom dramas.

I loved how this drama is straight-forward. Obviously, there are back stories for each of the major characters but you know what? They are not that long; even if they had stories to tell, those were shown as prologues and epilogues at the beginning and ending of each episode. You might not like the fact that there is almost no depth in there characters but I don't see that as a problem, given the drama is an absolute treat to yoyr mind & emotions.

Are you expecting a steady plot development to back a major protagonist-antagonist story? Well, it's better you to be aware that, you won't find a solid 16 episode long narrative here. Various cases that would be over come in broken prices will come together at a time in the end to haunt you down, haha.

Let's talk about acting? What exactly should I tell you? Just ummah! People, you have literally slept on Lee Je Hoon's acting till now. I am telling you he's one of the top 10 Korean actors. Let's start recognising his skills because it's not too late, okay? Esom noona is fierce as always. She did her job really nice. And oh my goodness, Pyo Ye Jin, I really really wish this drama will be a breakthrough to her carrier. This lady has waited long enough for such a role, which ahe deserved, and she's doing nice. Kim Eui Sung-nim is as always a solid actor. Jang Hyuk Jin & Bae Yoo Ram have done a impressive job as supporting characters which they've been doing fkr a long time.

Special mention to cinematography and the screen editing. The background themes and the songs that give you goosebumps, uff! Fabulous direction, coordinated and well organized script. A bit disappointed with the change of the main writer when only 3 eps were left but okay.

Please don't hesitate to watch. I am assuring you, this is the year's on of the best thriller because 2021 is indeed the year of thrillers.

P. S. First two episodes are introduction episodes. So don't drop the drama thinking it's slow, okay?

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