Radiant (2019)

this has been one of the most amazing dramas i have ever seen. so different from the ones airing right now, with a story that grips you, takes you along a journey and teaches you so much in the short span. the end became unbearable for me as the drama condensed into its few last scenes. the sheer beauty of it left me speechless. the script, the themes of family, love, hardships were so beautifully portrayed in the small span of the show itself and nothing felt incomplete, no loose ends. absolutely beautiful. it may not appeal to all audiences but i believe it deserves a watch from everybody. stunning and amazing.

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This show has the biggest plot twist I've ever seen. The slap of cruel reality hit me so hard that after watching the show I'm completely speechless. The feeling I got from the show can't be described. The story was so cruel yet real, I couldn't accept it at all. I was hoping the pain to be less but I was wrong. I cried so much at the last 2 eps. The leads were the unluckiest characters I've seen. The show was dazzling along with amazing cast & story. I realized the feelings of old people & how beautiful today is at a great extent. Life is nothing but a mere dream but even an ordinary day like today can bear the happiest moment of our life without our realization. Don't think about the past or tomorrow just live today because today won't come back again. A must watch show to understand life.

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beautiful

" Others might not think much of me, but for me, i mean a lot to myself."

I am so in love with this show! It takes those subtle, little, tiny moments, and emotions of one's life, the struggles, trivial or otherwise, and makes you see them, really see them, and appreciate their place in your life.

Show teaches you not to take anything in life for granted, and be aware and thankful for what you have. :)

The storytelling is top-notch.. and so was the acting.

There were times when i considered dropping this due to:
1. It got really really depressing in the middle.. felt like the story was just dragging on without leading anywhere
2. Acting by Hye-Ja's parents and Nam Joo Hyuk.. compared to the old Hye Ja, it felt like they were not upto the mark.. felt lackluster..
3. I felt they would get no real romance..

BUT... as i finished the drama i realised I WAS SO WRONG!!! There was a reason the above (1,2) was portrayed as such. You'll know when you finish exactly what I'm trying to say.
As for #3, there wasn't a whole lot of screentime for it, but we do get to see the romance ;)

And that plot twist.. it was placed and executed PERFECTLY. :)

(This is my first review ever. I tried to express how much i liked this drama without spoiling anything. If there's an edit option available, I'll use it in future to better what I've written later on)

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This drama shows a very interesting topic that i have never seen before. I was so touched with He ja's story and totally believed it even though it wasn't realistic enough but i just empathized with her deeply. Also the plot at the end explained everything for me as a viewer so it was comforting. What made me LOVE this drama is that it is super realistic and it really shows a whole different and hidden side of old people. It gave me a whole new perspective on how to see and treat them. I actually learned a lot from this drama which makes it the BEST because beside being a very interesting drama it is very informative for a lot of people who've always had misconseptions about growing old. I highly recommend watching this drama, i promise you won't regret it.

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In Which Time Traveling gets Fairly Angsty about the Passage of Time

"The Light In Your Eyes" is a fairly deceptive take on a woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease that fits pretty well into the how the disease robs people of their memories and sense of self by exploring the idea of an imagined life. Before that, the series masquerades a time travel rom-com about an aspiring announcer who uses a watch that can manipulate time, but accelerates her aging as a price.

While not comparable to the likes of Sarah Polley's "Away From Her", the show - toward the end - does get pretty heavy once it reveals it hand and deals with the subject on more than a passing level. If the aim was always to tell a story about aging and how the elderly are treated by their community (on a whole), then hiding it behind a fluffy rom-com was certainly one way to see it through.

However, it gets to a point where that I think the constant barrage of melodrama honestly detracts from the message, and borders on comical (unintentionally) at times.

There aren't a lot of dramas I'd recommend, but if I had to choose a show for someone to watch, I'd choose this one (on the pretense that I'd spoil the twist, because I think knowing beforehand will simply make the story better).

Now if y'all excuse me, I'm gonna watch a salary man fight zombies. I'm sure that won't break my heart.

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The 2019 JTBC drama The Light in Your Eyes (Eyes Are Dazzling/눈이 부시게 ) is a stunning viewing experience. In the span of its 12 episodes, you will laugh, you will cry, you will fall in love, you will be on the edge of the seat. But even more importantly, the series leaves us with a profound reminder of a few things.

The first is a common reminder that we should live our lives to the fullest and to live every day like it is our last. The other is perhaps the more important reminder. That is the dignity of human life and how far too often, senior citizens are robbed of that dignity in their twilight years.

The Light in Your Eyes begins with a supernatural bent. As a child, Kim Hye Ja finds a watch that allows her to rewind time. She uses this power for little things like learning to avoid her brother’s teasing or maneuvering a better score on school exams. The catch, however, is she ages faster with every turn back of time.

Now as 25-year-old woman (played by Han Ji Min), she uses the watch to repeatedly go back in time in order to prevent a tragedy. But after she is finally successful, she wakes up as a 70-year-old woman (now played by veteran and acclaimed actress Kim Hye Ja).

Hye Ja must now navigate this peculiar situation. She is now older than her parents. She can pass as grandmother to her older brother and two best friends.

There are many fun and amusing moments as Hye Ja struggles to adjust. But there are also many sad and poignant moments that reveal truths about our everyday lives and today’s harsh world.

The still-25-year-old Hye Ja meets and falls for the handsome Lee Joon Ha (Nam Joo Hyuk) who aspires to be a reporter. In addition to the extraordinary circumstance that befalls Hye Ja and Joon Ha’s relationship, Joon Ha’s relationship with his grandmother in the first third of the series gives a taste of the kind of emotional and heartbreaking stories we will see over the course of the series.

Things are not as they seem, however. And saying much more will ruin the experience.

But things take a breathtaking turn in Episode 10.

Everything leads up to this incredible episode that is equal parts fun, thrilling, action-packed, shocking, emotional and heartbreaking. It is arguably one of the most stunning episodes of television I’ve ever seen.

Everything converges in this episode and The Light in Your Eyes finishes up its last two episodes with several immense emotional punches that have everything coming together and falling into place.

The Light in Your Eyes focuses on many issues that the elderly face in today’s world. It also touches upon the effect those issues have on the elderly themselves as well as their loved ones. But the series also discusses life in general in interesting and unexpected ways.

The story is absolutely engaging and it rewards you with some stunning twists and performances as it reaches its climax.

The amazing ensemble cast brings this multi-layered and emotional story to vivid life

Han Ji Min is able to balance the young Hye Ja with moments when she must be the older Hye Ja appearing as the younger version from time to time. Nam Joo Hyuk shows off his versatility as Joon Ha. There are heavy moments where he truly shines in the series. Ahn Nae Sang as Hye Ja’s father shares a nuanced portrayal of the character that pays off in the end.

Son Ho Joon as Hye Ja’s brother Yong Soo is absolutely hilarious, especially as he is often tasked with the most absurd and funny situations. But he too proves his versatility when he must shift to quieter, more dramatic moments. Still, his riotous performance helps lighten the mood when other parts of the series get much heavier.

Lee Jung Eun delivers an excellent, award winning performance as Hye Ja’s mother. Another nuanced portrayal has her navigating the conflicting emotions of her daughter now being older than her, but also the struggles of her own life and family.

But most certainly, the star of the series is veteran and acclaimed actress Kim Hye Ja as the older Hye Ja. Her fun and cute display at first turns into an absolutely commanding and tour de force performance later on, especially in the final arc. She leads the series and is the heart and soul of the story. An unforgettable performance by one of the best. And her 2019 Daesang for this role proves it.

The Light in Your Eyes is almost an essential viewing experience. The series presents some profound and thought-provoking reminders in a fun, but breathtaking and incredibly emotional way. The series’ depth and sincerity have you easily caring about these characters while keeping you guessing and fully engrossed in the twists and turns of the story.

A truly unforgettable and enlightening experience, The Light in Your Eyes is a must-see.

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I've come out of review semi-retirement just to write this, such is the intensity of my feelings toward this show. I could waste your time (like this drama wasted mine) going on and on about how worthless, hateful, and often dull this show is, but I'll instead attempt to be brief:

Please do not watch this drama.

Watching "The Light in Your Eyes" is like settling down in front of a campfire, ready for the storyteller to begin his story, but instead, he starts spitting in your face and laughing at you while shouting "That's life, SUCKER!!" That's not storytelling, that's assault. And that's what you're basically signing up for by watching this drama.

You'll spend hours and hours watching characters be miserable, slowly start to grow and learn lessons, only for the writers to throw in a twist at the 11th hour that renders meaningless every single episode that came before. This drama takes great pains to establish rules, characters, and moments for you to become invested in, and then completely throws all of them away, amounting to nothing but wasted hours of your life. The sudden shift in the drama's direction is so jarring that I wouldn't be surprised if the writing team was completely changed halfway through. A perfect example of what I'm talking about: they literally change the main character of the show in the last episode. The first male lead actually disappears; no resolution, no ending, no future. He finishes the show as an unimportant side character who we barely know. Important plot elements set up at the beginning are, by the end, either 1) completely ignored and given no resolution/explanation, or 2) handwaved away with the laziest and most trite writing cliches in existence. It's so bad that I can't read the MDL synopsis of this show without feeling like it's nothing but a collection of lies.

I'm baffled that anything this inexcusably poor, this aggressively disrespectful to its audience, could ever make it to the airwaves. What's worse is that there are aspects of the production that are high quality. 77-year-old actress Kim Hye Ja is amazing, bringing energy and believability to her role, despite her age and the demands of a full drama shooting schedule. Kim Ga Eun portrayed a character who was rather like an island in the storm for me in this terrible drama, as almost every scene with her was great, even though most of them were completely pointless, just like every other scene in this show. Episodes 10 and 12 were fairly well done, and Ahn Nae Sang absolutely hit it out of the park in 12.
Other than those things, positive aspects to this show are very few and far between.

So again, I beg you: please, please do not watch this drama. Show yourself a little love, put it on "Not Interested", and never think about it again.

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live your life radiantly.

yes. i would give 10 again even if this drama had lots of mistakes. was there any hole in the storyline? i don't know. maybe. but i was so immersed that i couldn't see the bad parts. perhaps that was no bad parts, it depends of the eye (and heart) of everyone. mine was totally feeling the drama. since i was a kid, i've always feared time. the terrifying and precious time. so the sinopsis really attracted me. a 25 year old girl used a clock (kind of a time machine) so many times that all her youth was taken away. could you imagine saying goodbye to 50 years of your life? could you imagine not being able to grow up like everyone else? not enjoying the time you have? well, this drama taught me that we don't have time, but time has us. and it's okay. youth is as beautiful as old age.

when you become an eldery, you're still alive and have all the right to enjoy everything, everyday. "an ordinary day passes, and another ordinary day comes. but life is still worth living... please, love today radiantly. you have that right." i'm gonna take this quote to my life, it touched me deep deep deep down.

this drama has my heart. yes. i would give 10 again. was there any hole in the storyline? i don't know. maybe. but getting to understand life as an eldery, to see why youth is so refreshing and old age is beautiful and, most importantly, face time, was one of the best gift i've ever recieved.

p.s.: i loved the plot twist.

WATCH THIS LIFE LESSON, "The Light in Your Eyes".

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