Hyde, Jekyll e Eu (2015)

Does it deserve the (negative) hype?

This review is as spoiler free as possible while giving fair warning about this drama! So no plot details, but mood spoilers etc.

For me, this was very much a drama of two halves. The first half was enjoyable, the second half was.... Not. The acting is good, the problem here was entirely the script/story.

The portrayal of multiple personalities isn't realistic, obviously. If you're someone who can take the show at face value and just go with the rules as set by that universe, you may still have fun with the first bit, like I did.

It's not the greatest show ever but it's an enjoyable enough ride with plenty of cute and fun moments - up until the main plotline wraps up and you realise there are still a bunch of episodes left. Instead of using those episodes to wrap up the romance, the show goes off the deep end in a way that I can only really describe as unpleasant.

The in-universe "rules" around the personalities are completely disregarded. There is a sudden and massive amount of unnecessary angst. Finally, and I am in no way exaggerating, the very last few minutes of the very last episode essentially goes "wait actually the personalities did work how we said they did at the beginning after all so forget all of that".

If you're the world's biggest Hyun Bin fan and simply must watch anything with him in... Watch up until the main story wraps up and then maybe the last 5 minutes of the last episode. It won't be satisfying but at least you won't feel actively bad.

Leia Mais

Potential lost on those additional episodes

WARNIG, this review contains some massive spoilers!

This drama gave me a lot of mixed feelings. For the most part it seemed very interesting and actually well written. I think I should be warned beforehand by really bad reviews, but at first I didn’t understand why it was so criticised, as it seemed to be actually entertaining. But then something happened.

Let’s start from the beginning. The idea is simple and actually well known. Gu Seo Jin is a young chaebol, director of amusement park. He is very composed, everything must be according to his words, he rules his company in a very stoic manner. And there’s a very good reason for it. Seo Jin has a DID, dissociative identity disorder. And his other identity, Robin, who’s name everyone avoid, can appear when Seo Jin’s heart rate will go too high. So no excitement for Seo Jin. But his five year steak of being Robin-free is about to be broken when Ha Na appears on the scene. Young circus actress work on Robin in mysterious ways and soon he appears.

And honestly, that’s a neat idea, and how it was done was also interesting. The comparison with Kill Me, Heal Me comes naturally, so I’d only say that transformation lacked weird effects, like change of eye colours, magically appearing tattoos or eyeliners (as it was in Kill Me Heal Me). It all seemed a bit more natural here, but of course it wasn’t perfect either.
And at first I really liked this drama. It all seemed pretty well. Production-wise it might’ve not be the best looking, there were some weird, pretty ridiculous moments, but not bad at the end. Main characters were interesting and well played (I mean, duh… Hyun Bin, right?).

It was sometimes painfully cliche. Because of course, and here comes major spoiler, so be aware, Seo Jin’s trauma from the childhood was caused by kidnapping. And of course, the child that was kidnapped with him is now a perp who kidnapped Seo Jin’s therapist. And Seo Jin wanted to save the kid as well but wasn’t able to do it, so that’s why Robin has a need to save people.

But aside all those things, up to some point this drama was pleasant to watch, just like that. Wasn’t the best, but I wasn’t bored, I felt somehow even invested in the story. Characters were interesting, there was some king of plot, even though writers seemed to forget about some motives and they brought them back out of spite.

What you can see from the beginning is cheap production. It’s maybe not incredibly obvious but I laughed my butt off when I’ver seen how they’ve changed car for accident scene. Brand new Mercedes shapeshifter into old Nissan. I mean, color was the same so I guess it’s all fine. But you can see after scenes like this that it’s not all perfect here. At least CGI gorilla wasn’t the worst.

So I actually enjoyed watching it, it all seemed very good, aside of those minor flaws that can be overlooked considering that this drama is not that new.

But you may ask, what happened then? Why am I writing good things about drama that I’ve marked so low?
Well… it all happens somewhere in the middle of the series. I’m always a bit sceptical towards drama that have more that standard 16 episodes. I’ve learned that many times writers just don’t use this additional time perfectly. And it happened here again. For four episodes we have an absolute chaos that doesn’t really changes anything. There’s a lot going on, but it doesn’t have any effect on the main plot.

A lot of new motives were brought then and some were totally forgotten about (third identity, anyone?). And yet, there were just too much information, too much was happening at the same time but the issues were not solved. There was no real plot development.

There was one episode that I swear was just dialogues. Nothing real happened, there was just exposition talking. Who’s who, and what could happen, that sort of things.

And the villain, interesting at first he grew into this exaggerated, over the top bond-type villain, who can do anything and cannot be captured. There were moments that I was wondering if he’s invisible because despite doing pretty obvious things, police still couldn’t figure out that it was him all along.

And don’t start me on the hostage situation episode. Yes, EPISODE. The whole episode when we had exclusively hostage situation. Nothing more happened, just talking about kidnapper. How it ended? I have no effing idea, it was so chaotic that I actually I haven’t catch all of it.

After this we had stretching motives till the very end. One issue had to be talked through by everyone and before anything happened my curiosity was long gone.

And only at the end, last two episodes we had some sense back, those two episodes brought my faith in this drama back a bit, but nothing could bring back my time that I’ve lost before.

So… I’m a bit in a pickle here. I really wanted to like this drama. Despite all of its flaws, ridiculous solutions and poor production. I liked main characters and I really liked how it all ended between them. But the truth is that Hyde, Jekyll, Me should have 16 episodes, no more. That’s it, thank you.

Leia Mais

It was a pretty good drama. Hyun bin played the main lead who has a severe case of schizophrenia and has an alter ego that saves people where Hyun bin himself is laden with guilt from his past and gets strange symptoms like anxiety. I liked all the characters the romance was swoon worthy and Hyun Bin is so handsome. Interesting plot with cliff hangers that keep you engaged. Fun and romantic and hilarious at times. I absolutely enjoyed watching. The female lead started out a little outrageous but seriously this is a guilty pleasure drama so the outrageous stuff didn't bother me.

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This is a great character based drama that depicts a male lead with Dissociative identity disorder (DID) stemming from a traumatic event in his childhood! There is no good vs. evil, the main lead’s persona split into two personalities, one that is cold hearted and cowardish in order to protect himself and one that is warm, understanding, and brave. The lead male actor (Hyun Bin as Gu Seo Jin/Robin) did such a great job that one totally forgets that he is still one person. This drama’s plot starts with Gu Seo Jin unexpectedly meeting Jang Ha Na which becomes the trigger to Robin’s (Gu Seo Jin’s alter ego) reappearance. From henceforth, and through a series of unfortunate events, this man starts on his way of healing, reconciliation, and falling in love. It has a good ending but the drama could’ve used one more episode to strengthen the lead couple’s relationship. Still, it is a great drama with many good actors playing their characters very well and a fantastic antagonist. Enjoy it!

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After two years of dropping and putting this drama on hold, I've finally finished it and am baffled to say that I really did enjoy it.

Hyde, Jekyll, Me is a kdrama centred on a character with DID that came out at the same time as the much better received Kill Me, Heal Me. Because they share similarities in concept and came out around the same time, these two dramas are held up to one another automatically, so I think it's important to recognize how and why KMHM had such good reception when HJM couldn't pull in ratings. Other reviewers have mentioned the similar time slots, so I won't get into that. Instead, let's focus on HJM's shortcomings.

The story is about Goo Seo Jin, a rich chaebol heir who was kidnapped as a child alongside his friend--check off another similarity to KMHM. The trauma from that event and his inability to do anything about it eventually birthed Robin, his heroic, kind-hearted alter ego. But the story doesn't start with Robin's birth and instead, we're shown Seo Jin's position later in life, his bad personality and selfishness as he meets ringmaster Jang Ha Na and the two clash. One big drawback to the series is the very start of it. It took me two attempts to get through the first episode, and another two to make it past the first four. The beginning is clunky with weird pacing, an even weirder setup, and not a lot to suck you into the story. The first introduction to Robin as a character is cringy. He feels less like a person and more like a comic book superhero someone came up with in middle school. Both he and the main personality feel like caricatures, and it's painful to watch. Getting into this drama is hard, there are no two ways around that. But does that mean it's not worth watching? Well... I have a story for that.

I started watching HJM coming off of a few really great dramas. I absolutely fell in love with those dramas back-to-back and once they were over, I couldn't bring myself to get invested in any of the other good-looking shows out there. Ah, I thought, the dreaded burnout. That's when I looked back at my 'dropped' list and saw the name Hyde, Jekyll, Me. I went into it wanting a trashy, badly-written drama that I could laugh at. I only paid half attention, especially to the earliest episodes, and it worked out exactly as I expected it to. The plot was cliche, a bit stupid, with some moments that didn't make a lot of sense and a bit of dragging towards the middle that I was used to seeing at the halfway. Every now and then, I would put the drama back on hold again and would switch to series that I was invested in until the burnout came and I would inevitably need my 'trash drama' once more.

But something strange happened amidst all that. The writing wasn't good by any means, even when the acting was decent, and my wife and I would mock and laugh at some of the things that they were doing, but then it came time for the final episodes. The main conflict was over, the antagonist was gone, and there were still a few episodes to go. All that was left to settle was the conflict of the dual personalities, something that, remembering KMHM, I expected to take maybe half an episode. But it didn't. And as I watched the characters go through their days and saw the inevitable end creeping up on them, I realized that I actually cared about the characters for some strange reason. The characters I thought of as caricatures grew on me when I wasn't looking and suddenly they mattered to me. And sure, what happened from there on was predictable, but I was still invested.

Just like how production values don't make a show, you don't always need a solid story to love something. Sometimes all you need is time and a little bit of passion. HKM is nothing of a masterpiece, but that doesn't mean it did everything poorly. Instead of focusing on the outward appearance of DID like KMHM did, it put time into the internal effects that the illness had on both Seo Jin and Robin, and the ripple effect it had on the people they surrounded themselves with. Even while its handling of the issue was silly, with hypnosis sprinkled in for added effect, and even with Robin being a better person than Seo Jin and more likeable to boot, it remembered that the root of everything was mental illness. It took the time to make Robin a person instead of a stereotype the way that KMHM treated its alters, and it respected its characters enough to give them a proper end.

The production is a bit of a mess, the writing is sloppy and premise is weird, but it's a drama with heart. Don't take it seriously, and you may be pleasantly surprised.

Leia Mais

Quando il troppo stroppia e i pregi diventano difetti

L'idea alla base della serie non è nuova - come dice il titolo si ispira al noto Dr.Jekyll e Mr. Hyde - ma la chiave di lettura sembra avere un buon potenziale di partenza: un Jekyll freddo, cinico, egoista e per nulla empatico e al contrario un Hyde che invece di essere un alter ego malvagio viene dipinto come un eroe, un salvatore, costantemente permeato da sorrisi e buone intenzioni.
Un meccanismo rovesciato che mi ha incuriosita e che già dopo i primi episodi mostra un ulteriore inversione: Seo Jin non è poi così freddo e calcolatore come si sforza di apparire e d'altro canto l'altruismo di Robin non è proprio così smisurato. Un doppio flip che sembra voler rimettere tutto in discussione, gettando l'idea che "la verità non è quella che appare". In realtà, alla fine, la verità si troverà un po' nel mezzo.
A condire la storia ci sono dei buoni temi a supporto: la psicanalisi, i ricordi del rapimento durante l'infanzia, con tematica poliziesca annessa.
Tanti aspetti positivi, insomma. Eppure...c'è mancato poco che non la terminassi. Il ritmo - non dico incalzante, ma quanto meno coinvolgente - dei primi episodi rallenta a una velocità da crociera. Il giro di boa l'abbiamo a metà serie, con la protagonista che finalmente fa 2+2 e scopre che non esiste alcun gemello, ma sia prima che dopo i tempi sono davvero troppo dilatati, parliamo di 20 episodi che potevano benissimo essere riassunti in poco più della metà. E poiché il troppo stroppia, tutti gli aspetti positivi sopracitati diventano delle zavorre: la questione dell'avvicendarsi dei due sembra voler proseguire all'infinito, la storia del rapimento e del recupero dei ricordi sembra la saga della "storia infinita", la dottoressa segregata, le sedute ipnotiche, ecc... a una certa viene da dire "ok, abbiamo capito, ora però andiamo avanti!". Sostanzialmente è proprio questo dilungarsi esasperante che affossa una serie dalle premesse più che buone. Anche il triangolo amoroso viene trascinato fin quasi alla fine e risolto con un ricongiungimento che non ha il tempo di essere percepito come tale (più che un protagonista che alla fine è sia Robin che Seo Jin, la spiacevole impressione è che lei si sia sposata con Robin per poi trascorrere la vita con Seo Jin). Poteva essere gestito meglio, insomma. In ultimo, c'è davvero un eccessivo buonismo: il dualismo bene/male di Jekyll/Hyde sparisce, e vogliamo far risultare buoni entrambi. Non contenti, anche al padre di Seo Jin viene condonato molto e, perchè no, pure l'amico d'infanzia, che ha fatto da antagonista per buona parte della serie, entra nella squadra dei buoni redenti. Alla fin fine, i cattivi sono tutti spariti, insomma.
Per quanto riguarda i due attori protagonisti, non conoscevo l'attrice ma l'ho apprezzata molto. L'attore che interpreta il Presidente l'ho già visto in altri drama - in primis Suspicious Partner - e lo trovo sempre una valore aggiunto. Quanto a Hyun Bin, servono due parole a parte: l'ho conosciuto nel più acclamato "Crash landini on you", che è stato anche il mio prima k-drama in assoluto, e che ha fatto da apripista a tutte le serie asiatiche che ho visto successivamente. Non avendo termini di paragone, all'epoca, l'avevo trovato ineccepibile - pur nei panni di un personaggio non particolarmente scattante, va detto - ma molti degli altri suoi drama ero finita poi per abbandonarli, ridimensionando la sua bravura a una triste monotonia interpretativa. Con questa serie, invece, si riscatta decisamente: non solo perchè ricopre ruoli diametralmente opposti ma perchè emerge in entrambi tutta quell'energia che mi era sembrata sopita persino nella sua sopracitata serie di maggior successo. Consiglierei questa serie? I primi episodi valgono la pena, ma mettete in conto di non arrivare alla fine.

Leia Mais

This drama is one of the best for my point of view. Sadly, I saw it is underrating and I am quite alone in thinking it was a great drama. I loved every episode and every main characters. Hyun Bin made an amazing role, full of sensibility and the struggle with itself was perfectly contrived along all the drama. on the other hand, the psichiatrist was fantastic and his battle seemed real. I think the drama was like an amazing fight and dialogues between Seo Jin , Robin and dr. Yoon, a journey to healing, a journey to survive and to find their real lives. I loved all of this, the drama was full of sentitivity and feelings.

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I just finished this drama the 4th time last night, and my heart still soars with joy by the moments from the drama. If you want to watch more Hyun Bin’s work, I recommend this one. It’s not an average rom-com, it requires some emotional investments as the story unfolds the thought process of HB’s character, how he became the way he is now. The character development in the story was one of the best I've ever seen in the world of fiction. HB’s acting in this drama is super superb and his visuals are also perfect. He makes you laugh and cry and fall in love with both characters that he portrays.

This one was my favorite of all time before CLOY. Please ignore the bad ratings, ignore all the comparisons between this and KMHM and give your pure heart a try. Like I said it’s not just another rom com because its plot is complex. But to those who love complicated plotlines and plot twists, you won’t be disappointed. Hyun Bin is simply the best actor.

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starts weakly but more and more becomes AMAZING emotional drama, deep story and characters

from random clieche melodrama to fireworks of emotions and complex characters/relationships!
Don't judge this drama from first 5-7 episodes. There are dramas with so high production quality and details (I mean when even not meaningful details are well thought and exquisite) but often lack of emotions, when you watch, it's really good but you don't feel anything. Well this drama is opposite. Maybe there are some law quality details in overall but characters, relationships are soooo emotional, soo deep and multilayered....

In the beginning episodes It had really bad production value and many primitive scenes, clieches and cring moments, but it kept me interested anyway, all the time. And then it becomes more and more good, primitive moments are less or almost not but story and characters grow, become deep and multilayered, relationships and emotions real and very emotional; Near the end this Drama was soo amazing, SOOO GREAT I would rate it (if not first 5-7 episodes) 10/10... No, 15 from 10!!! There are dialogues and subjects that make you really think about human nature, psychology, emotions... characters (especially Hyun Bin's characters) really grow and make you more and more feel for them, sympathise them...

Now when I write this, I'm surprised myself, how drama with so primitive chieche beginning become soo deep and emotional!

Hyun Bin of course is perfect as always, and FL isn't bad too, I would say she is quite good, I could feel her emotions (because of her acting and because how her character is realistically written). I saw many dislike her, but as character and also her acting is still much better then many FLs in dramaworld, she isn't annoying and is quite logical.

Events and characters actions/reasons develop, not happens out of the sky. There wasn't usual scenario of drama development, when action/interest is in the beginning, then story is puled and complication of (already predictable) story is fastened only in last 1-2 episodes.

Villain wasn't perfect/fully resonable from beginning but as the whole drama he and his character becomes more and more good, not fully dark, he is human with issues and anger, nut just one dimentional evil.

P.S. I tend to love not so nice characters, but there are few dramas when nice/kind character is soo good, soo pure and completely wonderful, no one could not love him, and Robin is one o them <3 his character, story from beginning till the end was so beautiful and emotional, real fireworks of real emotions ...

Leia Mais

I really loved this drama. It was a unique take on a ML with multiple personality disorder. I watched months or a year after seeing Kill Me, Heal Me so I didn't have any lingering feelings for KMHM when watching. I think they are both great in there own way. HJM was less comedy and explored more of the relationship between the original and the second personality. It had its fun and light moments, but the last few episodes drew out the viewers emotions. The crime aspect of the story was good. Some of it was predictable, but it added to the growth of the characters and wasn't boring. Overall I think the relationships between the FL and the ML's two personalities was original and was treated with realistic feelings and actions in such a unique situation. The relationships in the show were mature and showed growth over the drama so it kept the viewers attention.

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