Flower of Evil (2020)

CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED DRAMA!!!

Moon Chae Won and Lee Joon Gi both shown so realistic emotional acting and also the supporting actors which makes it a great cast ensemble. The directing, writing, storyline, cinematography, acting, and others (you name it) are worth to watching.
Both Moon Chae Won and Lee Joon Gi brought out the best in each other. They were casted perfectly for the characters they played. The directing is very meticulous which highlights every scene so that viewers can understand the story well. The writer (Yoo Jung Hee), did a great job to tell the beautiful story of the drama where it has many catchy lines, and it flows smoothly.

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I was scrolling through viki when I found episode 1 of FOE and I randomly just went for it and I was instantly hooked. I would get excited each week for a new episode to come and this is one drama that has maintained quality from start to finish. There is not one storyline that feels unnecessary- there is absolutely nothing I would change about it.

The plot is very engaging and each episode concludes beautifully and ends in a manner where you are eager to see what's next to come. There is some much depth in the story and both the leads have CRACKLING chemistry and all you do is root for their happy ending. Each emotion is portrayed so well by the actors you really think the actors are in love. LJG and MCW completely make the show what it is.

The OST is limited to three songs but when you pay attention to the lyrics you'll realize how perfectly they capture the character's emotions with respect to the scene they are played in.

As the description already tells, the drama is very serious and maintains that tone throughout. It is very consistent in terms of quality and maintains a good pace.

To anyone reading this, this drama is a must watch and if you're double minded about seeing it leave your doubts aside as it this will surely not disappoint you.

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How Love Overcomes Hatred

Oh, this genre is so not my kind but gosh it's surprising good!

I don't really fancy the dark content but I couldn't deny that it was pretty well written, especially how the two main leads bring out the inner feelings of their relationship alongside with the intense story; "when you think you hate him/her, but you actually love him/her more than anyone else do". You might not feel anything in the start as they started off to be a couple with a kid already, but the more you watch, the more their past memories being shown, and how you realised you got hooked on.

Lee Joon Ki's character, neither a villain or an innocent citizen, never understand feelings and have expression. This is a pretty uncommon yet interesting character that I've never seen before in other dramas and LJK definitely amazes me with his impressive portrayal of the role. What surprises me was when female lead wanted to separate with him, he said nothing much but his eyes were so sad and so helpless, and he never knew this was "sad" and it was because of "love". Well I would say his acting is in a whole new level that it draws me deeply into the story.

I would say the main leads were the only reason kept me watching to the very end, I enjoyed their "healing" kind of relationship. The main story of the murder case was okay, quite exciting but not my cup of tea, I believe it is suitable for people who like thrilling kind of drama!

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The best of 2020!

This drama is the COMPLETE PACKAGE. The cast was excellent. The story beyond amazing. The music, just perfect. From ep 1 you will be hooked by the storyline and the characters. You'll keep on guessing if Hyun is really bad or good, whether his relationship with his wife and family is all a facade. It will also make you scratch your head trying to guess who the real accomplice is, I know I did. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, then I find out I was wrong. There was something new in every episode that you will never lose interest and the depth of emotions that the leads displayed was so remarkable. Lee Joon Gi and Moon Chae Won really outdid themselves. Lee Joon Gi can display so many different emotions on his face in a matter of seconds, what a pro. This is really such a turnaround from his last drama, Lawless lawyer which I hated. This drama for me is the BEST this year, period. I can't stop raving about it and it definitely is in my top 3 of my all time fave dramas. What a satisfying watch and my expectations had been exceeded.

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Refund My Time

I have always been curious about this show since it's always trending in Netflix and highly rated. I watched it a few months ago with my boyfriend and despite the numbers, I did not have expectations, save for the acting part because I know Moon Chae-won delivers.

The production value is high and the cast is great, so where did it go downhill for us? Flopped on story, characters, and music.

I don't feel that the story was treated to its full potential and it could have been better if it was less cheesy and the characters were taking the situations seriously, as well as their solutions to situations. It's just ridiculous to see adults with high responsibilities on the public's safety conducting mediocre police work and letting their personal relationships get in the way of the investigations. On characters, there aren't many likeable ones save for the main lead's child. I also quite liked Kim Moo-joo's character because he's the most human I've seen in the series with his choices and his desire to do better and failing over and over again.

NOW, MUSIC. This is the first element that got to me and made me consider dropping at the very first episode. The scoring for this drama is SO OUT OF PLACE. For someone who studied film and media, it's just surreal to encounter such a well-loved piece being scored this way. The score feels like it's from a medieval fantasy film/series and they use it on scenes that are meant to add suspense. It detached me from the scene so much because of how misplaced it sounded.

We still finished the series, fast forwarding for the last 1/3 since we barely cared anyway, and it was a "refund my time" worthy experience.

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Heart race and chase! A must watch kdrama

I am a fan of mystery/thriller drama but I have no idea at the first place on how they combine melodrama inside this genre. I was not expecting that I will love this story so much until it is hard for me to let it go (writing this review on the day of the last episode). If you watch this drama, please dont jump into ur assumption so early because it was all well made and there'll always be explanation to it. Every ending serves you a huge cliffhanger and letting you suffer to know what will happen in the next episode in which I love the angst and mix feeling of it so much.

Talking about cast, both ML and FL did a really great job! I am able to feel that their chemistry is real. Whenever they felt hurt, happy and sad, I could just really feel for them and their characters are award worthy for this drama. Talking about supporting cast, Villain character also does his good job. I would tell you he is creepy enough and making me hate him so much. All casts deserve to be praised too. They are so good!

Only 3 OSTs were introduced in this drama but this three played well so much. They even use it for a different situation and surprisingly it hits differently.

Last but not least, this is going to be my most fav kdrama so far! It wouldnt be too much if I say the best of 2020 kdrama. IMO. Cheers and happy watching!

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"Knowing someone from so long does not always mean you actually know them."

Initially i thought this drama would be a bit boring. As the leads are already married i assumed that they will be trying hard to save their marriage. Only because it was categorized as a pyschological thriller i wanted to give it a shot and all of my assumptions were proved wrong.This drama made me "RETROSPECT".It made me think about humans,relationships and the necessity of wise upbringing .
There are many things that i liked in the drama but i would like to point out the top 5
1.Everyone of us want a perfect life and we would want the reason of our happiness to remain with us forever.
we might have a secret and would want to hide it from people who we are scared of losing and we would do anything for it to remain buried.
2. Due to fear of not having someone by our side we start giving them only what they need and show them what they want to see, in the process we loose ourselves and the fact that we are hiding our true emotions might haunt us someday.
3. Becoming blind in love , This applies even for love between a child and parent. Parents just hope that there will be a day where our child will see the brightest sunshine and that will be life changing. They see all the mistakes of their children as silly things and wait for them to change.
4. Due to cowardice we might hurt people close to us which might end up being the biggest regret of our lives. We might not know what the other person is going through and not be by their side when they need us the most and finally when we realize our mistake it might have been too late . Many of them might not get an opportunity to makeup for it and they end up waiting for the rest of their lives, but when they do get a chance they will give their everything to set things right .
5. People start believing what they have been said since childhood. The society also plays a major role in building the child's personality. If someone says we are bad at something we actually think that might be the case irrespective of it being true or not. If society keeps emphasizing on the point that our personality is like "THAT" we actually start believing "THAT" and someday we might actually become "THAT".
I just found myself thinking about a lot of things after watching this drama.Each episode had atleast 1 dialogue which mesmerized me.
"Eagerly waiting to see how this ends"

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Crime mystery with the usual suspects

Short review this time.

~Strengths~
This drama is OK, in terms of plot, characters and acting, everything falls in line, however do not expect anything to see something you have not seen before. The best part of this drama is Lee Joon Gi, damn his acting can make anything boring look interesting, and he made this somewhat ok plot feel more interesting than expected. He does well with psychopathic-ish roles, and emotes so well with his eyes. The love for their family and commitment to each other is warming.

~Neutral~
The plot was ok - not very logical jumps, but there are times where things seem farfetched. Other actor's acting, and directing, structure was not bad.

~Weaknesses~
The plot was ok but also a bit weird. Baek Hee Sung's family situation was odd but you went with it, yet question "so, ok why would they do this?" Again the plot was ok and I would have dropped this if it wasnt for Lee Joon Gi.

TLDR: Good drama to watch for chilling out at home but not if you want something more.

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WOWOWOWOWOW

The headline above is all I can think of when I think of this drama. I finished this in a record two days, and each episode just kept me wanting to know what happened next. Lee Joon Gi and Moon Chae Won both did a magnificent job in their roles, especially the former. I'd never seen any dramas with Lee Joon Gi prior, but boy, it'll be hard to watch anything else with him in it since he was sooooooo good in this role (but also, of course, it makes me want to watch his other works as well).

This whole drama took me on a huge emotional and psychological roller coaster. It had me feeling angry, sad, happy ... you name it, I probably felt it during the drama. Without giving anything away, this is just one of those dramas in which you never know what's happening next or what anyone is thinking. As I went to bed last night, the drama scenes were still reeling in my mind.

The other standout cast member in my mind is Jung Seo Yeon who plays the main couple's young daughter. She was so adorable and did such a great job in her role as well. I can't wait to see how her career progresses.

Anyway, WATCH THIS DRAMA. You won't regret it (well, the dark circles under your eyes or puffiness from crying might make you regret...jk)!!! Oh, but do note that because of the dark nature of the drama, there are scenes that can be somewhat gruesome or triggering, but the drama does such a good job of portraying everything nonetheless.

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Something big has to happen if I get excited about a crime drama of any kind. That is not the type of shows that I gravitate towards. On the other hand I do find it hard to resist Lee Jun Ki and Moon Chae Won being together on screen. Those two were just excellent in these roles and just hook you in right away.

The story is dramatic and a bit of a tragedy at times (it's a melodrama after tell) and sometimes that does tire me out and after a while I tune out a a show like that towards the end and there are certain clichés like memory loss and evil rich parents and so on within the story that would a lot of times make me sigh. But Flower of Evil did somewhat manage to use those types of things to their advantage or do something interested with it that I didn't initially groan whenever those type of things happened.

The only real criticism I could sort of think of was that their child was almost just used as a plot device at times and if not the is conveniently with her grandma so her parents can run around doing whatever they need to do at night.

The story is very well layered and I could not predict non of the actions of the characters or what was going to happen for most of the story. Especially Baek Hee Sung, and Lee Jun Ki is really pulling one of his best performances here. I could not agree with every decision he did (he is a bit of a noble idiot at times) I could always understand where he was coming from and could see his reasons behind everything that he did. He, just like every other character, was just very well realized and well crafted. Non of the things that happened just felt like they were being done to drag the story.

The way the story talked about and explored his trauma and how it effected him as a child and as an adult and just his whole personal journey was really well done. They never really brushed over anything, they never slowed down or dumb down anything or any action that any of the characters did. The drama always felt very smart and well thought out.

The story was filled with suspense and mystery so you never really could tell where it was going. There were so many times I thought the drama was running out of story and it would start dragging it's feet a bit. But no, it just threw another cliff-hanger at you.

The romance worked surprisingly well within the story. I thought it might feel out of place or clash with the more thriller side of the story. But it and just the characters quest to feel love and belong somewhere and the tenderness of it all really was the heart of that story.

The story is dramatic, and emotional and packs a punch in all the right ways. It's not going to be for everyone and some kdramas definitely go over the top with it. But Flower of Evil does not feel like one of those dramas despite how dramatic it can be. Because it's used to well, it's never predictable, it fits with the story the drama is telling and it feels so earned.

I got a lot of enjoyment and emotions out of watching the show. Much more than I ever thought that I would. I had my worries about it being very predictable and just a bit boring but just like I could never really predict where the story was going to take me I could not predict how much I ended up liking this show. I was at the edge of my seat pretty much the whole time.

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Wow.

Wow. I was so into the whole story and it was all so believable. Such a great story that really makes you feel engaged. I was crying a lot, im usually not into these love scenes in dramas but in this one it all felt so real. When they were crying I was crying haha. I usually know a drama is good when i start biting my nails a lot, I might be crazy tho. Never got bored and I would 100% recommened watching. I rarely give a 10 however this is a real masterpiece. Now when I listen to the OST i want to cryyyy ;-; I can be quite picky about my dramas however this one is worth it.

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This is a drama with a amazing characters and a well paced plot.
At first, I was a little apprehensive about the tone and the direction it was going in: the relationship seemed a little too perfect and superficial, Cha Ji Won and her police team weren't very convincing, and well I was really scared that it would have a sad ending (I hate sad endings). Fortunately with the power of Lee JoonGi I soldiered on and actually as soon as I started episode 3 I was hooked.

I loved the pacing of the reveal that Hyun Soo wasn't actually a bad guy. It was gradual enough that it kept you hooked and I think it was really effective that there wasn't necessarily one big point where the reveal happened. LJG's acting was amazing as well. I loved how he searched Ji Won's face and studied it to make sure of the emotions that she was feeling and little details like that. His delivery of Hyun Soo was exceptional.

At first I also wasn't very convinced of Moon ChaeWon's acting. It just felt like she was to bright, too naïve, and there didn't seem to be much depth to her acting. It was only after she found out about Hyun Soo's identity and didn't tell him that I was convinced. In fact she went on to deliver really powerful acting moments: I got goose bumps when she found him near the swimming pool and several other scenes.

I also really enjoyed the other characters too. I felt here was ta real sense of community within the police team. The writer really did a great job of making sure that each character had individuality and wasn't there simply as a plot device.

Kim Ji Hoon (phewwwww). They should have picked someone ugly to play his character because I spent way too long finding a psychopath attractive. Objectively, he also did an amazing job of portraying his character. I saw on his IG that he had several references for his portrayal and I could really tell that he put a lot of effort into portraying Baek Hee Sung correctly. Fully convincing!

There were slight issues I had throughout the drama though. First of all, it didn't feel like to me that Hyun Soo would be someone who sobbed, and constantly after a point too. I also felt some scenes were just so cheesy.
I almost wasn't convinced by the amnesia trope BUT I think it was important to see that even Hyun Soo wouldn't trust that he was being sincere to someone and it felt like they were able to reset their relationship so that they could start from a place of honesty and love. However, I'm sure they could have come up with a more convincing and organic was to show this.

Also think they sort of brushed his hallucinations under the rug when in real life such things are serious. To be honest he should be seeing a therapist bc of PTSD but alas, kdramas.

Overall, it was a great, compelling drama. Super recommend!

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