Overused tropes in fantasy genre

I have been watching Korean dramas since my early teens; it has been close to 20 years. I'm genuinely quite sick and tired of the same old plotlines where there are two leads that are bound to end up together, and two supporting actors who may or may not end up together. Writers continue to churn out these repetitive storylines for mindless entertainment to appeal to lonely, horny, swoony, young (and older) women. Goblin, is just another one of these dramas.

I absolutely hated this drama: I actually dropped it halfway around episode 8 and continued with my life for the next 6 months with little intention to return to it. I only forced myself to finish the series so it won't keep showing up in my "Continue Watching" list in my Netflix account.

Its redeeming qualities are the CGI stuff, and the performance of the supporting actors. I thought their love story was slightly more interesting and bittersweet. I was irked by the weird semblance to the awful Twilight series, where an undead male figure falls in love with a teenage girl. EEEWW. Sorry, no matter how dashing Gong Yoo is (I am one of the few who never found him charismatic), I shudder to think how anyone could find this romantic, even suspending all logic.

If you are a newbie into the Korean drama universe, this could be a sample drama for you to let your heartstrings be tugged. But for longtime K-drama watchers like me, I am always looking for something new and refreshing.

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Not your typical romance K-drama

Cheese in the Trap appears to be a light-hearted, simplistic college-life romantic drama at the first glance. The true essence (and vision) of this series explores the complexity of human relationships and how each person's inner motivations and past life experiences influence their emotions, state of mind and finally, actions and choices in life. This exploration is done through the lens of the protagonists.

The male lead was written as someone who has sociopathic tendencies. Sure, but honestly, I don't think it's fair to say that he's the sole individual who is "problematic". Each character has his or her idiosyncrasies and personality flaws, which drive them to make ambiguous life decisions. What I found weak in the drama. perhaps, is that instead of SHOWING us the growth or inner conflict of each character after a traumatic experience, oftentimes, they were TOLD to us by the characters verbalising those experiences. This left me somewhat unconvinced of the message the drama was aiming to convey.

In my view, I thought the one with the true psychological issue might just be Baek In Ha. I mean, seriously, who acts like that on a day-to-day basis? Her persona seems to fit the criteria of someone diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (I've worked in psychiatry before), and even in the flashbacks of their childhood, the kid actress also portrayed that eccentricity. I don't know how Yoo Jung was able to tolerate her for so long. She needed the most professional help in my opinion. She was actually also my most disliked character in the series.

Cute stuff in the drama included the supporting characters' love arc, and the friendship of the Hong Seol and Baek In Ho. After this drama, I am a new fan of Seo Kang Joon! Park Hae Jin was also great in his portrayal of Yoo Jung; there was a lot of subtle emotions that he was able to convey very well.

I think it is good to go into the drama knowing that it is more than meets the eye. Good for those who want a drama that requires some reading between the lines. So, if you're looking for your typical feel-good K-drama, this is not it.

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Dramedy with a good share of blood and slapstick humour

Although I was a longtime Song Joong Ki fan (since Sungkyunkwan Scandal), I wasn't initially drawn to watch Vincenzo. I thought the premise was a bit ridiculous, a Korean in the Italian mafia?

However, I decided to give it a shot, and I was not disappointed. I found the mix of comedy (albeit more slapstick than wit), drama, action, and melodrama (the bits with the parents of the main characters in particular), a very refreshing addition to the K-drama universe. I am honestly very tired of the usual K-drama tropes and melodramatic romantic stuff that has been seducing audiences for years, and continue to do so, while now masked into different time periods or mixing it up with the military or fantasy genres.

Cast and Acting
The entire cast was STELLAR, to say the least. I do agree there are many missed opportunities to develop the two main characters (I honestly really wanted Vincenzo's Korean/Italian childhood storyline to take off), however, I think they made up with the very solid performances of all of the support cast. I was endeared to most, if not, all of them, at certain points of the series, and each support character had a great contribution to the plot. They each brought a unique flair to their character, and I found myself chuckling quite a fair bit at the interactions they had with each other.

The main cast, however, tried their best with what little they had to work with. Nevertheless, I think the noteworthy performance by Song Joong Ki is during the scene where he threatened the Babel group after his mother got murdered. Ok Tacyeon deserves a lot of credit for managing the two personality extremes, though I much prefer his evil side. Jeon Yeo Bin's best performances were in the first half of the series; I think she fell a bit flat in the second half just because of how the storyline progressed. As for the romance portion, I was very satisfied with the lack of focus on this; it is somewhat forced into the storyline just because, but I think it makes sense that the two leads endeared to each other because of all the trauma they experienced together. I disagree that the acting fell short here: Vincenzo was already someone who kept his feelings to himself and is not someone who displays emotions easily, Song managed to capture this and expressed a lot of the subtle displays of affection quite well. As for Hong Cha-young, come on, who wouldn't fall in love with an invincible, intelligent, wealthy man, who supported her emotionally throughout, and with a cute face like that, seriously?

Storyline
Generally enjoyed the cat-and-mouse game between Babel and Jipuragi, but I felt the absurd number of deaths attributed to Babel too unbelievable. But then again, being the dramedy that it is, I don't expect all things to make sense. There's a lot of wacky comedy weaved into the serious topics of corruption in the business and legal worlds, justice and morality, and grief and death. I did not feel this was done in bad taste, though it might appear slipshod to some folks. Episodes were about 80-90 minutes, and this is the first time I've felt they were not too long. Perhaps it might be because there were so many characters and plots involved that I could not get enough of them. I really liked how this show presents us with the challenge to re-think what justice and morality ought to be (the juxtaposition between Hong senior and Vincenzo, Hong junior and Vincenzo, etc.). I am generally a Hong Yu Chan type, rosy-eyed and idealistic, and this drama helped me to explore different motivations that others might have in life. Pacing of the drama was an interesting mix of fast (for the action and comedy) and slow (for the sentimental parts).

Production
Cinematography and editing was another hit for me. I think the production team was experimenting a lot of the camera angles, and they were mostly successful in their attempts. Some individual shots of Vincenzo thinking or sleeping were questionable to me, but with the addition of the BGM, they didn't bother me as such. The CGI team really did a good job as well.

Music
The OST was commendable, and I actually went ahead and bought it on iTunes. There's a wider variety of musical genres in this OST, compared to most K-dramas (which feature mostly ballads). I particularly enjoyed Questo edificio è mio, Aalia's version of Adrenaline, and Holy Anger.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Vincenzo, and I am currently re-watching it. It might not be on par with the greatest black comedies ever made, but I think it does well enough. I actually prefer this series to Parasite (the movie). My personal favourite is Keeping Mum (2005) with Rowan Atkinson. Oh well, to each her (his) own.

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