Again another example of K-fandom rating anything that doesn't appeal to their fangirl midnight fantasies, being rated below 8 or even lower than 5, when pure visual nonsense like Hwarang gets a plethora of 10/10s.

Yes this is a seriously dark movie, and at times it had me feeling nauseated and extremely infuriated. But was any of that towards the script, author or the industry? No, for once it was out of empathy. This was absolutely horrible, and that's what it was trying to deliver, the worst parts of society. It was extremely immersive and acting was just so convincing that at the end, I had almost forgotten this wasn't a work of fiction. The blood effects and other props were on point as well.

This movie absolutely killed me inside, to project yourself into the protagonist or just empathize with her was a purely painful experience -- but it felt so very real and that's what mattered. The rape scenes weren't excessive, and I liked that, in the sense that the development team wasn't trying to capitalize on cheap semi-nude shots like almost every movie similar to this -- which usually just feels like insult to injury.

I honestly cannot think of a better actress for the role, the subtle displays of dismay, suffering and unconditional love from her.

Cinematography was on point as well but at times it felt inconsistent, although the overall quality was still good. Fight scenes had room for improvement, and South Korea's attitude towards weapons had this movie switching between conventional and unconventional weaponry and fight scenes.

The music was absolutely perfect, resonated very well with the highs and lows of the movie and delivered heartbreaking moments very well.

You're not going to feel happy watching this and you're not supposed to. Don't blame the movie for how you feel, but blame yourself for not knowing what to expect.

Leggi di Più

The first season was good, but the second season after all the wait seemed to just rehash pretty much all the old gags and make them less funny. The writer could've come up with new gags but it was written very lazily.

As much as I loved the original cast, having Lee Yi-Kyung or Lee Jun Ki remain as the only person from the original cast and write them off like they were side characters was not pleasant, if anything it was another example of lazy writing. I hated how while they could've used an entirely new cast, they kept him and just copy-pasted the cast into an entire portion of his past and assumed it would be convincing.

It's a comedy so lets focus on that: watch 2 episodes and you've essentially watched them all. Just a bunch of running gags overused to the point of not even being funny anymore. Lee Yi-Kyung's role was an over-the-top kind of role in the first season, but it wasn't so bad because there were characters to balance it out. But here, it's the focus of the show, the characters were dull and the acting was stiff or unnatural.

Cinematography was good, and whoever wrote the script, planned to just make a few easy bucks by capitalizing on the nostalgia of the first season -- had pretty much everyone hooked just by reminding them it was Welcome to Waikiki.

Overall, not really funny and too predictable. It was just something to watch for closure after the first season or if you just need help moving on from it. The conclusion was good though, I liked how they wrapped it up.

Hopefully they don't make another season.

Leggi di Più

More genres, less content and even less value

This is the epitome of how mix-matching everything almost never leads to good results. The narrative is roughly what you'd expect from someone with attention deficit issues. It starts off trying to be this, then it tries to be that, "-- oh that sounds cool, let's add that too," would be an accurate way to sum up the writer's thought process.

First it starts off as criminal investigation theme, then it goes into science-fiction, then onto supernatural, then back to criminal investigation, followed by pseudo-scientific, mind-numbing supernatural drama, carried out with the spice of pretentious detective noir.

I seldom feel this disengaged from a drama/movie, and this specific piece of work overachieved on that front. What helped achieve this accomplishment was largely a contribution by certain actors who took acting to a level where you could it transcendence. Take the newlywed police officer and his wife for example. Their facial expressions were so exaggerated that at times I felt more freaked out by their faces than what cheap thrills the zombie-mutant-demon-aliens made me feel.

Lest we talk about the special effects. They could've easily just made a dark fog and called that the source. People could just get infected by inhaling said smoke. It not only would've made sense and been easier to explain, but it would've also made it so much more realistic and not to mention the savings they could've made. Why, oh why did there have to sentient floating little dust clouds that are able to maneuver as they wish through air? How high was the author when he wrote this? Seriously, considering how the mutation works and such, the fog should've been the source. Could've easily attributed it to the likeness of spores. The demon-alien-evil-metal-dust-monsters keep appearing in such little concentrations, and how the characters behave when seeing them.... The sheer amount of frustration I felt watching this is indescribable.

I have absolutely no clue why this drama has an 8/10 rating. Plot holes, inconsistencies, narrative discrepancies, overacting, directionless, the list goes on. If you found genuine joy out of this drama, I commend you for being able shut off your brain to that level. Sadly, I could not do so.

Leggi di Più

I felt like this was a little too dragged out. The plot twists just kept getting more and more predictable, initial concept kept getting stretching out to the point where it almost felt like no one remembered who they were at the beginning.

The acting was decent, Kwon Nara while being seriously hot, her acting could use some improvement, she felt a little artificial. The cinematography was good, and the story was okay. The premise was good while the delivery was a bit dragged out as it expanded, eventually it became a bit boring.

Music was decent, nothing too memorable though. The casting was good, as the characters were represented pretty well and the characterizations had some reasonable depth to them,

Can't say this was great, maybe it were a movie it would've been phenomenal but as a drama, they just stretched the plot out to almost inconsistent levels.

Leggi di Più

Very hyped and very much of a let down.

Honestly for such built up hype, this drama seriously failed to deliver. I.U. was not the best actress to represent this role but that also is a conflicting aspect, as I.U. is honestly the best at representing a struggling character from a lower class. But her as a rich character just doesn't fit, although her feisty acting style was very endearing.

Her character was a little too inconsistent, it was almost as if she was suffering from hysteria or bipolar disorder throughout the entire drama.

The male lead on the other hand, had almost nothing special to offer, and his character was an infuriatingly excessive "good guy" character through and through. His cowardliness was a little excessive as well.

As always when a Korean drama or movie showcases Korean deities, it's just infuriating or extremely irritating. In attempts to be ambiguous they become redundant and self-contradictory and do things in roundabout ways, when far more efficient solutions exist.

Supporting characters had depth to them but at times ignored that for cheap drama intensification.

Cinematography was great, essentially very similar to goblin but the SFX were nowhere near up to scale and at times just horrendous. Music was okay.

Overall, a decent drama but nothing great.

Leggi di Più

Gritty but not messy, dark but not borderline excessive. This movie started out with a concept and it delivered accordingly. Cinematography and acting was on point.

The plot was very well written, practically no flaws, at least no major discrepancies. From how it started to how it unfolded, the pacing to the plot twists were written in a way that it was either unpredictable or when it was it was an engaging/thrilling anticipation.

The characterizations were relatively good, although I wish the "bad guy" had more depth to him and more reasoning to his behavior rather than being somewhat of a straw villain, otherwise this would've been at least a 9.5/10 for me.

They wrapped it all up pretty good and I can't have imagined it turning out any other way and it being as satisfying albeit a tad noir.

P.s. they could've done without the disgusting scene to be honest, or just not show it in graphic detail.

Leggi di Più

Typical K-fandom, this should be at least a 9/10 but since no handsome oppas to drench their underwear to, and no shallow forced romance for them to ogle -- it serves them no good anymore.

The story was very well done, the progression was done very smoothly, plot twists were not too predictable but even when they were, they were delivered very well.

Acting was very convincing, the cinematography was great. The romance while being tempting, the way it fell off showed a lot about her inner guilt.

This is a 10/10 or at least a 9.5/10 in my book, perhaps it may have a few areas in need of improvement, maybe the music, I don't know - but as far as story is concerned, it was done well.

Leggi di Più

I'll be blunt and say this, this isn't an overhyped drama just because of the visuals but 80% so, but mainly it's just the nighttime fantasies of almost middle aged K-drama enthusiasts.

Most of them would love to imagine it was them in her shoes and just ignore everything else.

Anyhow, me not being one of those -- the plot was a train wreck at best. Characterizations were horrendous. The female lead went from being a mature career woman to an unnatural 40+ woman acting like a preteen, and the male lead was fluctuating between the understanding gentleman wise beyond his years to 12 year old throwing a tantrum at times and withholding important key communications.

First episode was funny, wish they capitalized on comedy and it would've been great, but it became a failure of a drama that took itself way too seriously.

P.s. yes, decent cinematography.

Leggi di Più

Disclaimer: A review written by someone that's not your typical underwear-drenching-fangasming-fangirl.

As an intro the review: Most of the run-time is spent ogling, hyping and worshiping the priest's appearance and trying to force-feed the viewers the notion that he's the most attractive thing ever brought to life.

Now for the rest of the drama: The narrative gets inconsistent at times and in all honesty, this shouldn't have been a drama but a movie instead. The overly dragged out plot turned it from a decent premise to a horrendous and tedious experience. The weird part is, it tries to play off the fact that Kim Hae-il's character is 100% fictional and impossible to exist in the real world, but then sometimes it tries to convince your church might have someone with a background like him around.

Now the action scenes were a mixed experience for me. The choreography was really good at times and borderline repulsive the other. And it still annoys the heck out of me that the go-to weapon of crime syndicates is a 2x4 piece of wood. Rarely ever does a Korean drama or movie do a good job with action scenes because they're only trying to appeal to a female audience and majority of the female audience would be more than happy with a few "cool" angles and telegraphed K.O.s.

Kim Hae-il's background makes absolutely no sense. He's made out to be every badass possible in every situation. He's not only A, he is also B!!! He is not only B he is also C, D, E and the rest of the alphabet!!!! Anyone that watches this with any amount of military expertise or background, would be appalled by the depiction of Kim Hae-il's background.

If the production team spent half as much time trying to overhype the character and desperately trying to convert every woman that watches this into a new religion, "Kim Hae-ilism" this might've actually turned out pretty well. Maybe someday there'll be a better remake, but for now, this felt like a waste of my time.

p.s. a lot more I didn't have the time nor could be bothered to mention. But if you personally liked this and disagree: good for you.

Leggi di Più

Go Ara tends to get roles that absolutely infuriate me, every single time I swear.

This wasn't a drama made for plot, it was basically "K-fandom wet dreams: The historical version". I mean, the story was lackluster and the script was lazy. The entire budget went into getting a cast that would make every fangirl go through at least a week's worth of underwear.

But not to say it had it's moments. If the annoying Go Ara character didn't exist, this might've actually turned out pretty well or at least half decent.

The two male leads had great synergy throughout the movie, and a lot of moral tension although it entirely revolved around an infuriating, "NEVER SAY WHAT'S IMPORTANT!!" trope.

Anyhow, good cinematography, fight scenes could've used better choreography though.

Leggi di Più

This had so much potential, it started off with so much originality but why, WHY would it drown itself in tropes/cliches when it was doing so well... sigh.

The acting was okay, slightly on the stiff side at times but not too bad I guess. Using characters as disposable plot devices was not good either. Good cinematography and music.

It seems that if it's a soppy romance drama with decent visuals, every K-fan will drool all over it and throw around daebak (cringe) and 10/10s.

Fun fact, I have Korean friends and even they don't DAEEBAKGKG as much as these people.

Leggi di Più

This should be rated no higher than 6/10 but typical K-fandom and visual obsession means their ratings start from 7 and onward, anything lower and they feel as if they've betrayed their religion or something.

This drama's plot was lackluster at best and irritatingly lazy at worst. The characterizations were so dull and one dimensional that they may as well have just told the viewers how to feel about each character upon introduction. The acting was either stiff or unnatural. Sure it capitalizes on cutesy romance but it tries to be too many things at the same time and while using a whole bunch of tropes just as some weird sprinkles on top of the mess.

The male lead was an anime/manga fan which was appealing, and the references were decent but the pure cringe from how he behaves and represents it was not. The female lead was cringey in more ways than I would like to remember.

The female lead's friends had one toxic bitch that they just blew out of proportion and almost tried to justify it, made me go from being bored to just being irritated with this, but finished it out of completionism. And of course, the female lead trying to be the nicest person in the world irritated me as well.

It felt like the entire purpose of this was to advertise Korea's most sexually abused, oppressed and degraded career and then glorifying it visuals. Cinematography was good, the music was as dull as the plot.

Leggi di Più

A heartwarming story about the difficulties a family can face with time.

This is a story about a family whose father/husband is a man with Alzheimer's and his slowly deteriorating mental capacity as the years progress. How his family deals with the knowledge and how they learn to adapt and grow as a family throughout the hardships that entail. Overall, the family bonds, the consideration turned apathy that returns to consideration again -- all these little things were delivered relatively well.

However, I do have qualms about certain aspects. The stiff and unnatural acting from some actors, the dissociation the structuring of the movie makes the viewers feel that could've easily been fixed with a simple floating subtitle that mentions the current date during flashbacks, the lack of any noteworthy OSTs and usual lack of post-production quality of majority Japanese works; high frames but lower quality and a severe lack of post-production.

Given these things, it was hard to rate this accurate but as far as I'm concerned I didn't necessarily regret watching this, and it was rather heartwarming too at times, hence a 7 star rating seems fair.


P.s. I see there are no reviews here -- I mean, no oppas in this movie after all, lol.

Leggi di Più

In all honesty, Migi did NOT look like a weirdly animated sextoy in the anime. And I also did not like how they changed the scene where Migi was taking care of him after the stab wound.

How did they make Shinichi extra cowardly in the Live-Action I do not know. In trying to capitalize on the gore they at times exaggerated the SFX, specifically the blood effects. Fight scenes were nowhere near as enjoyable as in the anime. Again, why did they change scenes? The rooftop scene was also different.

Cinematography was decent, but Migi character model was just disturbing.

Leggi di Più

Switch out the male lead for someone like Lee Joon Gi and this would be a 10/10 from everyone and overall score would be around 8-9. Typical K-fandom.

Yes the plot was relatively predictable and cliche but the delivery was all that mattered here. The movie didn't start off by pretending to be unique but it capitalized on the natural and realistic delivery of it. The antagonist was my only issue, as he was a bit excessive. Nonetheless, forget visuals and focus on the experience watching this, I'm not saying it's a 10/10 but it's nowhere near a 5 or whatever.

Instead of casting a pretty boy who does nothing but pose and smile, the male lead was a very convincing actor for the role. From his appearance to his acting, switching between his temperamental and kind side without being a douchebag like every other actor that would've played the role, was a huge plus.

The chemistry between leads and their synergy with the cast was good as well, cinematography was also relevant to it's style. Yes this wasn't a one of a kind unforgettable movie, but for the experience overall and seeing a very convincing "thug" with a soft side, stumble and at times embarrass himself trying to become a better person was worth an 8/10 in my opinion.

Leggi di Più