W (2016)

Are most of the Korean writers either Misogynists or Masochists!

As I was watching this Drama for the 4th time, I decided to write something. I know this will be one of the many that have been written for this one but still can't curb the urge to let out my frustration for this show. The first three times I didn’t feel this urge as was only being satisfied with the show(and also too engrossed in the plot to notice). But this time something irritated the crap out of me(Guess I grew up and my taste changed). So, I am just going to rant about the romance.

Why do you write a suspense thriller this amazing and ruin it with a sloppy romance?

First of all, the story about reality and fiction bleeding into each other is interesting. The plot was quite gripping and entertaining(almost good job Ms.Writer). Had it not made the heroine so one-dimensionally love crazy, it wouldn’t have distracted me with perpetual frustration time-to-time. The mystery plot of the show is very riveting. That’s why for the first three times I didn’t notice the flaws.

The hero in this is indeed a man with many adjectives, he is nice, kind and caring, smart, intelligent, observant, conflicted, strong-willed(the cliché hero type) but sometimes also a jerk and indifferent one to the heroine's feelings(which she only had one; endlessly irrational and idiotic love for the hero). I mean you can’t blame him completely ‘cause a bullet is always hovering over his head and he wanted to live, at least at first. So he had to take every step calculatively since he didn't have the luxury to love recklessly.
Unlike our hero, the heroine didn’t have a life besides loving the hero(honestly, I found it quite suffocating from the hero’s point of view). At times, I even wondered whether Kang Chul’s feelings towards Yeon Joo was actual romantic love or feelings of gratitude, guilt, duty, responsibility and the feeling of the only connection to the real world. It rather felt like, he was entertaining a twelve-year-old. Yeon Joo is still pubescent, living in her doll-house, trying to make her own Ken doll. She too had a hard life growing up with a rarely present father, which is, though incomparable to Kang Chul’s plight, yet difficult. But don’t worry, that didn’t stop her from remaining childishly immature. I see her caring and compassionate nature in trying to save Kang Chul but, you don’t have to be this unrealisticly desperate, girl! Never did she once expressed her disappointment and displease over Kang Chul’s indifferent, inconsiderate and sometimes downright questionable behaviour (even considering his situation), instead, she whines about petty stuff. Any normal person would’ve actually hated him for making their life into a ruin due to the involuntary involvement. Very little complain, just in the beginning and somewhere in the middle(still not enough) about continuously getting dragged into the Manwa( she was quite chipper about the fact). And some of her actions made me believe that obsession for a lover(even when he is from a Manwa) can undermine any other existing relationship. Every time she foolishly grinned while looking at Kang Chul or thinking about him, I wanted to shove a dose of reality-check down her throat. I have something to say to the writer, “Girl, why do you hate yourself and your fellow kind so much? You made Kang Chul so wise that even he said at a point in the drama, ‘How could there be only one reason for a character to exist?’. Preach! But you forgot to apply that wisdom to your own heroine.” After some time the romance started to feel overbearingly silly. And as you can tell from the rant that I couldn't move past these interruptions.
The father was cruel to be planning to dispose off Kang Chul but I can't blame him either(not everyone is delusional like his daughter), if ever your fictional creation takes on a life of its own and try to pull you into its world, wouldn’t you do the same? After all, we are not Alice and don’t wanna live in wonderland leaving behind our families, no matter how wonderlandy it was.

Phew…. Sorry for the long angsty rambling, the frustration needed some words.

The acting was uneven. As much as I adore Lee Jong SuK(dem lips doe) and his acting, but here he seemed a little robotic in some of the scenes. He is a wonderful actor with a large pallete of expressions on his face, and I love his crying scenes the best, he cries like a little boy(of course besides Jingoo and my BAE Kim Soo Yun). Still, a little inadequate here. Han Hyo Joo is a bundle of talent, in fact, one of my favourite actresses. I love her work. She gets under the skin of the character she plays. Maybe that’s the reason I hated her(character) in this drama. Their chemistry is the only saving grace of the romance. Kim Eui Sang was so convincing with both the shades of character; the worried father and the creepy antagonist. Lee Shi Eon is as always. He has a certain way of acting, which I don’t mind but gets slightly repetitive sometimes. The other actors are good too, especially, the lawyer, he is excellent as a villain.

Ahh…. The soundtrack, all the songs are alright except for one, which I am going to take to my grave. Basick INKII- Illusion, this song gives me the same hair-raising feels as Auditory Hallucination(which is also in my ‘list of songs I’ll take to my grave’). I have loved many songs but these two put me into a trance. I feel my insides are levitating.

Rewatch…. I have this tendency to repeat my favourite shows until they're ragged and then some. But this time it has put me off for good. I am not coming back into this rut again. The bads made me forget about the goods of the show.

So, that’s that.

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Finally a fantasy drama that doesn't forget about the "fantasy" part

Finally writing this after rewatching the show and I can say it's just as good as I remembered. W stands out to me because it's probably the only fantasy/romance drama that actually develops the plot in a satisfying way, since most of the time the fantasy element only works as a set up or to make the romance a little more interesting, but it's not properly explored. So, as a fantasy fan, I was delighted, but not without some criticism.

The plot is very original and quite gripping. Who hasn't thought of entering the world of a beloved book or movie, being able to interact with their favorite characters? But I like that in this drama, this encounter is portrayed not as just fun and games, but the fl also gets into a lot of trouble because of it. The writers do a good job in building the suspense, making you anticipate every episode. There's also some good action scenes and the worldbuilding is pretty great, although there's a point where things get a bit messy. They start to create so many rules regarding the manhwa and how the other world works it feels like they are taking things out of a hat. There's also some minor plotholes, however they didn't bother me that much.

Even though I really enjoy the plot of this drama, I have to say the romance was kinda meh. Since they spend so much time developing the fantastic story, the romance is left aside and it's honestly hard to believe the two leads would love each other so much, specially Kang Cheol, when they had almost no proper establishment of their romantic feelings. The leads also lack chemistry in some scenes because the acting on both parts is simply unconvincing and comes across as very artificial. I love Lee Jong Suk but damn, it almost felt like he was being held at gunpoint in certain fluffy parts.

Outside of that, Lee Jong Suk has a very consistant acting. At first I was a bit bothered that his character seemed so perfect, but in the context of the drama that makes perfect sense, considering he was a fictional character created to be that way. I was actually quite pleased that Kang Cheol showed his intelligence many times, cause in some dramas the ml is only said to be smart but never shows us that. His arc is interesting, a simple fictional character that develops a will and conscience and tries to break free from his pre-determined fate. Yeon Joo on the other hand is very annoying. It enrages me this habit that Kdrama writers have of making the fl always inferior, even if they have a prestigious job they're not actually good at it, just like with Yeon Joo. She's a doctor but she's not really that good of a doctor, like c'mon! She doesn't need to be a genius, but being as dumb as she is she would've never graduated med school in the first place. The way she just stares like a gawking fish in most situations is pathetic.

Sung Moo, though, really deserves some attention. He had the best arc by far, and the actor who played him did a fantastic job in conveying every emotion, I think he even stole the show from the protagonists at some points. The soundtrack is nothing special, though.

All things considered, I think every fantasy lover and people who prefer a more plot-focused story will like W, just don't go into this expecting an unforgettable love story or anything of the sort.

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A gripping watch and good bland of romance and thriller

It a drama that keeps the viewers on their toes. The twists are really hard to predict. The chemistry between the leads is amazing. And Lee jong suk is a charming male lead with a traumatic past. Even in very serious situation they managed to get some humor in the drama. I personally liked the couple so much I gives you the feeling of something left to be desired. The Father of Han hay joo did a amazing job playing both the positive and negative characters.
The first episode may look a little slow but it's picks up after that and amazing till the end . So it worth of your time. It does seem a little confusing at times but it's fun trying to figure out what will happen

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Webtoon Travelling Gone Wrong

I think this had a great premise and it started pretty strong. The drama roped me in pretty fast but then made me lose interest just as fast as well. I finished it out of curiosity about how everything was going to be tied together, but it didn’t clear up my questions and what I saw was wrong. I first watched this when it was aired, so I may not recollect the exact events of the drama. However, my feelings about the drama are still applicable.

STORY (spoiler in 3rd paragraph)
As we know, this story is about Oh Yeon Joo getting dragged into the webtoon where she meets the protagonist of the webtoon, Kang Cheol. They start to develop feelings for each other and soon realize that this webtoon hopping is a lot more dangerous than what they thought.

This drama was one of the first dramas that I have watched that is directly looped into it being a webtoon crossover. I was quite excited about the drama, but I was left quite disappointed. If you do not want spoilers for the plot, please don’t continue beyond this point of the “story” review.

First off, the romance was mediocre. The writers have to make it believable for me to feel like their love was intense. The writers of the story could have made the plot more intense. These are two characters from two completely different worlds. They are "enemies" without knowing. They have to sacrifice so much for one another after falling in love. Yet, Yeon Joo pointed out in one of the later episodes that they never got to do much as a couple even though they were married. And we find this true, why do they love each other so much? Why did they get married? Their so-called “romance” is just kind of weird/off. I would have been fine if it was just her one-sided crush on Kang Cheol (as her ideal character) and Kang Cheol relying on her for survival (as a character). I think that would have made more sense/I would have bought that.

The whole appearing and disappearing aspect do not make sense to me. Even when Kang Cheol seemed to have controlled it, he did not have control at the same time. When we thought that Yeon Joo had control over the webtoon world, she did not as well. It had a mind of its own, yet I don’t think that point was well put together. Or it could just be me not getting the message of how all of this came to be, like the two worlds never collided, but only the “author/killer” was the one who could jump in-between (apart from Kang Cheol and Yeon Joo), but without being a “character/human”. Then how the dad lost his face just because he drew himself as the killer. What was that about? Like what are the rules and the consequences of these two worlds? In the later episodes, the Webtoon world doesn’t stop running or stop at the end of the chapter. Instead, the story continues because the “killer” is “writing” it now? I’m just going to stop there because I’m just confusing myself even more. Someone please comment and explain to me!

What made the drama feel off was that I feel like it was trying to include too many genres into one but didn’t know how to blend it. It was a cute romantic comedy at the beginning of the show. Then it turned into a mystery suspense type of drama.

I wished that the writers could have focused more on the father-daughter relationship that the two had or expand more into it. They were disconnected for so many years and she lost him so fast afterward. Instead, they made him run all over for Kang Cheol and trying to save him.

ACTING/CAST/CHARACTERS (minor plot spoilers)
I have always enjoyed Han Hyo Joo’s acting, but Oh Yeon Joo’s character kind of annoyed me. It made me questioned Han Hyo Joo’s acting even though I have seen plenty of her other works and enjoyed them. Oh Yeon Joo was poorly written with no depth in her character. She is supposed to be a surgical intern, which I assume would be smart and hard-working. Half of the time, we see her sleeping and slacking off. She acts like an office intern that grabs coffee instead of doing other menial things in the hospital. She can come off as a clutz and is kind of slow. How Yeon Joo approaches issues and her decisions to tackle them feels like I am reading a fanfic novel from a teenager. The writers did not think her character through.

Lee Jong Suk has always been an okay actor to me. He has yet to impress me or disappoint me. I think Kang Cheol was a well-written character (a lot better than Yeon Joo). Kang Cheol’s background story in the webtoon was just as interesting as him finding out that he was a webtoon character and overcoming that obstacle. I think if they focused on that more and less of Kang Cheol and Yeon Joo, it would have been more interesting.

Honorable mentions to KIM EUI SUNG and LEE SI ON as they were support roles that drove the show!

MUSIC
I think the music was well coordinated with the scenes even though there weren’t many songs that stood out to me.

RE-WATCH VALUE
I wouldn’t re-watch during my free time. My sister watched this and didn’t enjoy it as well. It confused her and I don’t even know if she finished it.

OVERALL (plot spoilers)
I didn’t feel much with the drama. Not even with all the sacrifices that each character made. I was irritated with the whole rewriting aspect of it. It got old kind of fast like the writers couldn’t think of better methods for the characters to overcome things. If the first re-write didn’t work, the second one probably wouldn’t as well. And there were enough loopholes between the two worlds already. I’m surprised I never threw the towel early.

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Defy logic and common sense

Watching this in 2021, the artist could have just drawn an incurable disease and be done with ML.

Of course back then in 2016 this concept of going into webtoon was fresh and interesting, but there were sooooo many plot loopholes in this series everywhere as you watched. It just defy any sense of logic or common sense, just gets messier and frustrating to figure out as it goes on. I find myself mumbling and grumbling at the amount of things FL or her dad could have drawn instead or the support cast reactions /acting, plot flow etc.

ML and FL chemistry also looks more like brother and sister than lovers. I guess its still a decent filler drama if you are looking for something that doesnt make sense to watch. But this is not the the most satisfying drama to watch in this era and will likely leave you wondering wth you have just watched.

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WHAT A SERIES!!! OMG!

I should say that this drama made my whole life, I mean this drama tought me a lot of things about love and real life. and also at the end of the story there was a HUGE thing what I didn't think it could happen *-*
The end of the series takes a huge turn! woaaah!
Last, but not least I totally felt in love with the caracters, with the story, and also with the wholeeee series uwu (and of course particularly with Lee Jong Suk. I felt deepeeerrrrr)
And at the last thing is what I want to say I just want to say thank you for the directors and to the cast and to the stuff, thank you for working hard <3
~ Rea

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The first half of the drama blew me away with its fresh story line. But as soon as second half of it began the writer started giving far fetched explanations for all the questions that were raised in our minds before. Even in fantasy you need some rules to make people believe what you want them to see. This was completely all over the place. The drama was full of Plot holes after Plot holes by the end of it. And not to mention, I couldn't understand when exactly the main two leads started having feeling for each other, and when did they realise they loved eachother? It seemed it just happened and they accepted as time passed with them facing challenges together. It felt very lackluster and ordinary if you just consider their romance in the story and not the other factors.

Still, if we keep logic out and watch it as it was shown to us then I must say it is quite entertaining. So yes, this drama is worth your time.

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A very good surprise!

I love stories based on mangas and also the surrealism that can be put into the adaptation. With "Strong woman Do Bong Soo" I could see a little of this, but in "W" it's just amazing. The editions, the way how they decided to show the two worlds and mix them, I thought this was very fun! The thriller was in the right place, I take less than three days to watch the whole drama because I was seriously involved.

I don't think Lee Jong-suk is the best actor, but this is the role that I most appreciated of him and I really like the character Kang Cheol. Sometimes I really believed that he was a manga character! Oh Yeon-joo (Han Hyo-joo) is a very good female lead for me too. She has all the stereotype of a "Cryer girl" in the beginning, but in the process, she's gain much strongness and courage, and I love seeing how the drama doesn't focus just on the romance but also in all the story.

I was really surprised by this drama and this is so good!

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Too Cringe ?

Let me tell u why I didn't like this drama.......

1. The love story progressed way too fast. There were no sparks between the couple, and suddenly, they were confessing their love.

2. The unnecessary kissing scenes felt forced and out of place. Their kisses seemed sterile and flat. I get that couples kiss, but before they even confessed, he kissed her multiple times, and her reactions were bafflingly neutral—no shock, embarrassment , anger, or any discernible emotion.

3. I understand that people like the leads, and that's fair. However, the female lead overacted so much that it felt unnatural. She didn't come across as a real person but as someone acting. and I'd rather not even get started on the male lead's acting...( btw I loved her acting in Happiness and Moving but rom-com is not for her )

4. The constant time travel was unnecessary. The show started strong with the cartoon world concept, but the story felt like it was stuck in a loop and never progressed. Also, the secondary characters or supported characters were severely underused....

5. The first half was good, but the second half dragged on.

Maybe I'm spoiled by watching some great Japanese dramas and movies, but this kdrama was just too cringeworthy for me at times.....

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This was a pretty difficult for me to write because I keep on wavering between whether I like this drama or not as a whole. Lee Jong Suk is oe of my favourite actors and I love him a lot -- but I feel like even his phenomenal acting became underplayed because of the story. There were parts that were done well and I enjoyed but other parts that I found lacking and plotholes that as much as I tried to overlook, seemed as though things were inserted just for an ending's convenience.

The drama completely defies logic and blurs the line between reality and fiction, so it is necessary to approach it with an open mind or else you will be caught in a tangle of frustration at the story. Even though that's the whole concept of the drama and its unique plot, that perhaps is too ambitious for its own good. It feels like the drama thinks it has a very profound storyline while in realiy it's just plain confusing. There's a chance that action fans will enjoy the fast-paced storyline however. This drama is the first to do what it has done with the law-defying plot in kdrama land that is wild for even "supernatural" standards that I have seen so far. It will leave many questions unanswered and toggle many minds, and (pun intended), will leave you asking "Who and why?" for the entirety of the show. Why do the things happen? Who is making up these rules to the connection between the real world and the manhwa world? These questions will never be satisfactorily answered, which frustrated me but the journey through was wild with all the fighting scenes and world traveling. Personally, I enjoyed the whole set up of the drama and its storyline in the first half. I felt like it had the potential for both the story and the romance to develop a solid drama. But when the story kept going back and forth and wavering on its own progression, I almost lost patience for it.

The story gets just plain terrible as it tries to wrap things up but small obstacles keep appearing and preventing the story from ending as if to prolong the drama. I feel like it should have ended at episode 12 and the last 4 episodes were just filler to make a statement of a disorganized story that can go anyway because its set up of "blurring reality and fiction" allows it to do so.

Again, as much as I loooove Lee Jong Suk the romance in this one became progressively worse from start to end. It started off high for me and everything made sense about the relationship between Kang Chul and Yeon Joo, but as it progressed, their chemistry became lost and their reason for loving each other dissipated. Instead of the ditzy, playful relationship in the few beginning episodes, it sadly did not lead to the next half and lost its charm. I think that as the plot also became more far-fetched and confusing, the romance was downgraded because the wild action did not allow for it to flourish. And so, we are left with a flat romance that is there just because there needs to be one in the drama, which I was disappointed about because I absolutely loved the initial relationship. I wish they could have had more cute scenes together, but in a plotline this fast-paced and knowing no bounds, a romance just didn't work as the tone became increasingly grim. It initially worked because we were tossed into this world with so many possibilities but the set up becomes used in the most inconvenient way to toss aside its potential.The actors did do a good job in playing their roles even if the storyline was mediocre.

As good as the actors are, if the story isn't written well, their acting can only go so far. In this situation, the emotions played out were quite fitting. I didn't like Yeon Joo's crying scenes because I just felt extremely drained from seeing her run around and cry so much, even if the situations made it appropriate. It was one of the only emotions I can vividly remember her projecting, which made her kind of flat.

I would probably not rewatch this drama since it gave me so much stress and anxiety because of the plot, but go check it out if an ambitious plot with stunning Lee Jong Suk visuals is to your liking.

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