What a rollercoaster ride of action, thriller and emotions!! A Must Watch.

DO NOT RELY ON THE MDL RATING. WATCH THIS DRAMA. YOU WILL NOT REGRET.

Even though I watched this show 2 years later than it was aired, I feel compelled to write this review.
This is easily one of my top favorite Korean action thriller.
I have absolutely no idea why this show has such less rating and what exactly people found illogical in it. But other than getting little dragged in the middle, I have found no issue with this whole series.
Well, considering the people in Rugal have artificial limbs and GPS tracking eyes, the show is as logical as it can be within the premise of their world setting.

To be honest at this point I will never question Choi Jin Hyuk's choice of drama or movie. In my eyes he can do no wrong, be it playing the lead or the second lead. He is not just a handsome pretty face, but also an extremely talented actor and he has proven it in this drama once more.

The Story: The story is easily one of the best part of this show. The twists came completely out of the blue but also made sense when you understand the clarifications they have given in the show. It also broke my heart not just for the male lead Kang Gi Beom played by Choi Jin Hyuk but also for the other members of Rugal who were manipulated into experiments under the guise of justice. This show made no effort to somehow give them happy ending or make the ending all sunshine and rainbows after all the amount of trauma and hardship the 4 main characters went through. It stayed true to the realistic suffering of any trauma survivors, trying to somehow still carry on. And this was probably the most realistic thing about the show, even though it was so heartbreaking and left me wanting at least 3,4 more episodes of them finally living mundane and normal life, happily and content with each other with no more trauma.

The Characters: What I loved the most was the difficult but still sweet bromance between Kang Gi Beom and Han Tae Woong (played by Jo Dong Hyuk). They started off as "alpha male"ish characters who will show no mercy and at the end became each other's support system. It was so satisfying to see Han Tae Woong finally understanding how hurt Kang Gi Beom was and taking his side at the end. The other two characters were also so well written.

Jung Hye In's character Song Mi Na was such a badass lady in this story. And she did not get overshadowed by despite of being the only female teammate with three other male team mates, unlike many other dramas. All the 4 characters were given almost equal importance and a good backstory. It would have been better if Park Sun Ho's character Lee Gwang Chul had a better backstory. But if that happened he would probably not remain as child like as he was in the story, so I am not complaining much.
And most importantly all the actors have acted the characters as realistically as possible. The heroes and the villains alike.
I would however want a little backstory of Bradley, Susan and Doctor Oh and why and how they simply agreed to such human experiments knowing that if the experiments failed the subjects will die.

The Villains: This drama easily have the worst villains among the ones I have ever seen. And the main villain who is shown from the start is not even as bad as the other villains that you will get to know at later stages. Somehow even the main villain could have been forgiven but not the other ones. I personally felt like killing these other villains if it was possible for me to get inside the show. What I mean is the story is that good that at some point you are willing to even forgive the most terrible human but not the ones manipulated and caused so much hurt.

Production: They have done a tremendous job with the cinematography and the graphics. Stating from the visual effects of artificial eyes to action sequences, the drama is extremely well produced. Most of the action sequences are very Matrix like and what a sight to watch. Their was not exactly a OST to remember but the all the background scores and the music were very fitting to the story as well as the action and thriller.

I can keep on writing so much about this show but I will probably also end up giving all spoilers. So long story short, PLEASE WATCH THIS DRAMA.

Leggi di Più

What a batshit crazy useless show!!!!!

I am seriously questioning the sanity of people who found this show even remotely likeable.
The story was a hot mess. There was no particular plot. The plot was the basically 3 good lead actors trying to be cute along with useless unfunny fillers and bunch of people overacting. That's it. That's the plot.

What were those bunch of goons getting beaten up all the time? Why is a very loving father getting beaten up funny?? What was that priest kind of dude trying to do all the time?

Where was the story? Just looking cute can not be whole plotline of the show.

Also what was the really dark weird creepy thriller doing in between??

Basically.. What was this show?? WHY WAS THIS SHOW EVER MADE?

Plus oh my god the amount of homophobia. Yeah i understand most romcoms are not progressive or even give much thought to it but OH MY GOD. The "gay is funny" thing was so on the face. I get it. You think homosexuality is some kind of disease. But can you please have a limit.

The re watch value is actually 0 but that is not allowed.

Leggi di Più

When Peter Pan met Dead Poets Society and became better

If I could give it a 100 out of 10 rating, I would. I absolutely can not stop thinking about this drama. I finished this yesterday and my heart was so overwhelmed by the beauty and the sorrow of this drama. I was at a loss of speech. I even dreamt about this drama after watching it. This show really hit me on a personal level having gone through some of the things that this show portrayed.

I am a sucker for good musicals. And having Ji Chang Wook and Hwang In Yeop together in one drama? I was already intrigued. I was so eagerly waiting for it and oh lord the waiting so worth it. Never in my dream I thought I was about to witness one of the most mesmerizing, magical kdrama of all time.

I feel the main question posed in this show was how do children become functional adult in a society that in its core is dysfunctional and rotten? How do you remain a soul that still remembers how to dream, remembers its innocence? How do you keep your uniqueness in a society that is trying hard to put everyone inside the same box.
Human society is a broken one. You are an outcast if you behave or think even slightly outside the societal norms. This is a society that will kill the likes of Galileo and Alan Turing but will praise and worship morons.
So how can children, the most vulnerable and weakest section of the society, not have any impact of this filth? How do they keep their childish heart alive in a world that is constantly pushing everyone towards a meaningless rat race?
Why would anyone be claimed as successful or failure just because they don't meet the average standard of human imagination? After all genius can only be born if they can exist outside of the box.

This show was so beautiful, healing, magical, mesmerizing... I can keep on adding adjectives and it will not be enough. This show touched quite a few heavy topics like abandonment, trust issues, emotional abuse, child sexual abuse, student suicide, mental illness and yet somehow remained light like a feather throughout the show. It made us cry but did not make the story dark and gloomy. Best part of the show was it did not even bother making sense of the magic. Because that is what magic is. After all as they said in the drama "Magic does not create miracles, but allows you to discover them". This show will make you feel in your heart that you do believe in Magic. Because the true magic exists in living a happy satisfied life and not in adapting to society to look happy and successful while living with a heavy heart. And this show so rightly said "So what if you don't have accomplishments? You can still be happy without the approval of others"

It reminded me of the lines by Aldous Huxley
"It’s dark because you are trying too hard.
Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly."

Annara Sumanara <3

*Few points at the end*
A really good point of this show is that absolutely everything remains platonic. Even though there was a slight hint of romance at the beginning it gets quickly side tracked by everything else in their life.

Acting: Ji Chang Wook's acting skill does not need to be analyzed by me. He is one of the best Korean actors. Even though he has made some weird drama choices in recent past, I am so glad he took up this project. He made the character of Magician so believable.

Hwang In Yeop too is tremendously talented. His expressions were so spot on to express the struggles of a child pushed down by the burden of parent's expectation, societal norm. I would be disappointed if he does not get an award for his acting here.

The female lead is a talented one she acted very well in Beyond Evil but here i did not find her believable as a high school student at the beginning. But it did not matter because that was never the point. The point was to show how class discrimination gets heavier and heavier no matter how much one tries to keeps their head up and she was spot on with there expressing the dilemmas. Plus it was visible that she is a great dancer because of how she moves during the musical scenes. She has done an amazing job.

Direction: I have never seen another musical kdrama till now. I don't know if they exist but I must say the director here understood the assignment so so well. Often musicals get heavily loaded with too many unnecessary dancing scenes. Even some of the greatest Hollywood musicals have this flaw. But NOT THIS ONE.

One negative point is that it has two typical black characters. Especially the school bully. For some reason I just hate a school bully for the sake of existing without any character depth in them. Because children usually do not become black or white. They are most often product of their own environment. So a random student bully to make things hard is never to my liking. The reason of her existence was only to make things hard for the leads for absolutely no reason. But other than this i have no complain and I still absolutely love this show.

Leggi di Più

There will come a moment when you realize it was all for today.

"Even so, you should live."- A quote that summarizes this drama. A lesson that is taught by this drama.
*might have mild spoiler*
I have been a Korean drama fan for more than 10 years now and I must say i have rarely come across such a beautiful concept that deals with healing and comforting the people on the edge of the night, people who have given up.
Not too many humans understand or even tries to understand what goes on in a mind of someone who decided to give up on their life. People call them cowards, people blame them for leaving the loved ones. But how many really try to understand them with compassion? Can slogans like "talk to someone" even help people who have given up on the world?

The drama "Tomorrow" raises these questions. Tomorrow asks humans to be more compassionate. Tomorrow comforts the soul of the people who have been there in past, who are going through it now and who may face it one day.
Tomorrow does not give a solution. Tomorrow give a chance to look at the brighter side when all seems dark.

The plot line of the show is most unique and a beautiful combination of fantasy and reality. The drama shows the world of grim reapers who work on different departments of the afterlife that deals with various assignments related to the dead souls.
The story follows two grim rippers who are working in risk management team, a unique team of grim reapers who work to save souls instead of reaping them. Which eventually make them a laughing stock of whole afterlife and everyone looks down upon them.
However, they are doing the hardest of all works. They are saving the people on the edge. People with high risk of committing suicide. The goal is to prevent as many souls so that they do not end up in hell while trying to escape their living hell. The director of afterlife (The Jumadeung) is the famed Jade Emperor of Chinese/Korean history who personally assigns these team.
And along comes another soul Joon Woong (Played by Rowoon) who had a failed life and recently went into coma trying to save a beggar. So now Joon Woong is given two choices. Either work with Risk Management team and wake up in 6 months with a guaranteed high paying job that he will love in real life, or wake up after being in coma for 3 years. Surely, Joon Woong chose the first. However, he already had harsh encounter with the other two grim reapers who were his senior in the Rick Management team when he tried to save the beggar. The two seniors did not like him for not thinking his actions through and being immature. They have no faith in Joon Woong's ability. He is inexperienced and the two seniors has experience of several hundred years of being grim reapers.
So the story shows journey of this risk management team who goes on saving lives, one case at a time while also slowly wrapping up the intertwined stories of these three leads, the two badass grim reapers and a half dead soul.

Even though the plot is working on suicidal people, the story is not always dark and gloomy. Rather Joon Woong's innocent and honest personality and the other two's irritation at him made the show pretty lighthearted.
I loved that they explored so many possible social economic reasons for having suicidal tendencies instead of just saying it is caused by mental illness. Love how they show that impact of society is far more dangerous than just be summarized as result of depression.
I am always intrigued by the shows and movies (whatever language it may be) if they have elements of mental health awareness. So needless to say I was already biased towards the plot. And as the story progressed, I must say it exceeded all my expectations.
All the cases that were shown from bullying to body shaming to poverty and depression, every single story and how they saved the people were remarkable. And the stories only kept getting better and better. My personal favorite is the 13th episode.
However, the audience must keep in mind that this show is about suicide prevention and not mental health treatment. Even the show mentions this exact message in one of the episodes. So audience must not confuse the two.

Korean Dramas have progressed a lot in past 7 years. The cinematography was just as amazing as most other Korean shows. And I will never have any doubt on any show/movies by MBC productions (a Korean production house).
The actors have done a commendable job. Kim Hee Sun who played the team leader Koo Ryun and Rowoon who played Joon Woong (the soul in coma) have already proved themselves as topnotch actors with multiple awards under their belt.

Things I did not like:
One of the main point I did not like was how the story of the Main lead (The team leader Koo Ryun) was wrapped up. The plot made us wait for her story to come together at the end but it was simply not well handled.

One more point I did not like was the less amount of screen time given to Lee Soo Hyuk who is an amazing actor but always somehow end up getting side tracked by the leads in most dramas.

Leggi di Più

I am at loss of words

Mr. Sunshine has redefined perfection. From cinematography to dialogues to story, acting. This show is perfect on every aspect of filmmaking and storytelling. This show is brutal, it is beautiful, it is honest. This show will rip your heart into pieces an you will still keep watching because it is that beautiful.

I have been watching Korean shows since last 10 years and i have not seen a show as great as this.
I was completely ignorant about such a painful history of the Korea. I don't know how many shows or movies South Korea has made on Japanese colonization, but I must say this has got to be their best work.
I have never cried as hard as i did while watching Mr. Sunshine. It felt like they were my own countrymen. Being from India, a country that had been enslaved by The British for 200 years, I could relate so much of their pain and sacrifice. I have heard stories all my life about the martyrs and the freedom fighters of my own country. Never did I think i will see the same stories of another country.
May be all countries who fell victim of Imperialism still bears the scar of our ancestors.
I wish this show had a happy ending, but real life did not have happy ending. So this story has what real life had. At the end they had gun and glory. Happy Ending followed decades later.
I can go on and on about this show so may be this is enough. Please watch this show, no matter what.

Lastly, I must say each and every frame of this show is so picturesque that often i found myself pausing the show and staring at my computer screen just to grasp the beauty of the show.

Leggi di Più

Most insane and fun thriller of 2021

2021 had few of the best dramas in thriller genre. But none was as crazy and insane as this show. I would absolutely love to see Lee Dong Wook and Wi Ha Jun work together (may be a second season). I wish it had more episodes. But then again it probably was as fun as it was because the length of the show was less. Nothing was overdone. No part of the story was too stretched. I am a master of skipping scenes and I did not skip anything in this drama. It totally kept me on edge the whole time because Wi Ha Jun's K was so crazy and unpredictable in expressing his emotions.
The story, however, was pretty predictable from get go. One can easily guess the villains pretty ahead of time. But the beauty of this show is not the story itself, rather how the story was presented. It was such a fun ride. I had always seen Wi Ha Jun in very serious roles. This is the first time i saw him acting completely unpredictably. I can not stop wondering how fun it must have been to shoot this drama.
Also as usual Koreans always do a great job in portrayal of mental health. No doubt same was done here.
A little bit more romance between the male and female lead. wouldn't hurt. Also all the characters were pretty real and fun to watch. Best part was they were not simply focused on the main two male leads and showed lives and aims of other characters too. No matter how short it was, they tried best to make the team great together.
Over all a must watch especially if you are feeling down. This show will totally distract you with its insanity.

Leggi di Più

What a waste of potential in the stupidest way possible

First of all, the moment they showed psychopath gene i was pretty annoyed. Like sure way to establish more prejudice against children of criminals.
I must say I enjoyed the first few episodes and then i don't know what the fuck happened. It is like the writers said fuck logic.. we are gonna use all the possible tropes available in Korean drama universe.
And what stupid female lead. Girl you are in school. Stop throwing tantrums and go study. Also what a damsel in distress. They tried so hard to play into the strong female lead trope yet somehow she always needed saving by her knight. I wonder how did any of this make any sense. And on top of that they played the hero forgetting his life trope. Someone tell the writers that this trope is now backdated.
And then the moment they also used brain transplant I just simply stopped because WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!!!! I could not watch any more episode.
And now I want those 9 hours of my life back. What a wastage of my time.

Leggi di Più