Rugal (2020)

So...you're here because of Squid Games...lol

I won't be long. The Netflix algorithm sent this my way. I clicked because its bionics. Who doesn't like bionics?....The cast is beautiful. Hero is a hero, anti hero is an anti hero, sidekick is sidekick and female heroine checks female heroine box....

All boxes checked...so what's the problem?...simply ...its dumb. The writing is so dated. Full of useless characters and incredible amount of useless scenes...yes I mean the Argos chairwoman and company. The ONLY thing to make this tolerable....I mean the ONLY thing...is the villain...Dude thank you for saving this show....sigh. They will get a second season because of him.

So if you're a screen writer that thinks you can write a superhero movie....think hard...think really hard...because everyone can't. So how do I define a hero?...They're usually dedicated to service from the beginning of their lives to the end of their life. Hence the male lead was a cop...super soldier...investigator...and so on. It's what they do. Give it a try...see if you like it

Leia Mais

Fantastic I'm very excited this drama
It's very interesting, and I think the scenes are the best The acting was really good. It seemed like the characters were very well expressed
A stories was very interesting I liked all the characters Actors seems like really talented this drama I think tehnologhy and human greed is very dangerous Nice! ♡♡♡♡
Ocn drama series is the best I really really liked
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Leia Mais

Story did not make sense most of the time, but Cast and acting really made it worthy to watch! Choi jin hyuk never disappoints and he did fantastic job in this drama as well, but Park Sung Woong (Antagonist) totally stole the spotlight for me, his acting left me speechless, even though it was my first time seeing him in a drama. rest of the cast was great too. I really loved AI/Tech side of the show, it was cool to see heros with different AI parts. It was mostly Action, thriller show but there was many wholesome, heartwarming scenes which portrayed friendship between main leads. I would say, if you like action, good quality fighting scenes and eye candy *wink wink* definitely go for it!

Leia Mais

I swear the moment I saw that Choi Jinhyuk's the lead I'm anticipating the series airing lol. Even more when the teasers had been amusingly

That aside, so far the series starting out really good. Love the SFX, fight choreography and ost.

I'm still in the process of finishing the series so this review may still end up being revised again later on. But suffice to say, that I love what the drama was trying to bring out. I skimmed the remaining few episodes earlier on, and it turned out that the drama did still took on a lot of the main plot from the webtoon. Including the parts that I wished turned out differently compared to in the webtoon because it was very poorly executed and written almost to a point that it seems as if it was there purely for shock value. It was partially the reason I kinda slow down on following the plot as it was released. Because the webtoon frustrates me so much.

But turn out, the drama did well to create their own story while staying quite close to the webtoon. In fact, the drama did a lot of things that were much better than the webtoon in terms of pacing, plot development as well as character development. I love the fact that the drama took time in fleshing out the characters' personality aside from Gibeom and how the drama also paid enough care to have the Argos main/side villains have their own distinctive traits as well. It was something that I find lacking in the webtoon, which mostly focuses on action scenes while neglecting to put much depth to the characters besides Kang Gibeom and Hwang Deukgu. Also, I like how the drama gave Mina, Gwangcheol and Taewoong a lot more back story on how they ended up being in Rugal compared to the webtoon, which had a lot more side characters included in the team, resulting on their back story not being developed enough.

Also, one thing I'm grateful for the drama, as much as it did end up following the original webtoon plot regarding the real truth behind the attack on Gibeom's family, the drama didn't pull a cheap trick on how the wife (and daughter, which was non-existent in drama) ended up dying. Because the way the webtoon did it was just plain distasteful. As if the main setting in the webtoon hasn't already enough internal corruption. The drama also did better on the portrayal of Chief Choi, in which I prefer how drama laid his end compared to in webtoon. I much preferred how the plot went on once Gibeom went rogue in the drama compared to in webtoon, which ended up having an even messier plot.

Overall, while the drama itself had its own weaknesses and cliches it is much more enjoyable (to me) compared to the webtoon. With great songs, soundtracks, action sequences and sfx, the series didn't fare too badly in giving an enjoyable experience. Also, the ending was pretty much sweet and satisfying, which is MUCH better than the webtoon plot has been the last time I caught up with it so I have no complaints.

Leia Mais

Just concluded the drama series "rugal". I must commend the writers on such an amazing plot twister and story-line. Park Sung Wong character (Hwang Deuk Goo) acted in his role so perfectly. I was very impressed with the villain plot and acting, it was very professional, realistic and the story line was deep. I wish i knew more about Hwang Deuk Goo back story and not just the little snipet of him being a test subject in the early era of Rugal. However, I enjoyed the drama very much and I could re-watched it over and over. Also, I wish they will do a season 2 of the series, I can see the characters growing and developing to the point where society accepts them and they become mentors to other young peacemakers looking to uphold justice. Best drama ever!

Leia Mais

The biggest disappointment of the year for me

I was SO excited and looking forward to watching this for the sci-fi genre, premise and actors ever since they 1st announced it. I was really hoping for it to be a badass sci-fi thriller with a good story but that was not what I got. Since it was based off a popular webtoon, I didn't even entertain the idea that they could go so wrong. It started off really cool but by the 3rd episode, I was so disappointed I had to drop it.

THE GOOD:
- It had an Intelligence/Almost Human (American shows) vibe to it which I was really enjoying.
- I liked how, at first, they made the ML face the consequences for being so emotional during his mission (his wife did just get murdered so it made sense for him to be emotional and they were doing a good job of showing that transition of him trying to come to terms with it).
- The cinematography was great (typical Kdrama-esque with it being very clean and stylized).
- I enjoyed the fight scenes. They were well choreographed and realistic enough.

THE BAD:
- Why choose the MC for Rugal in the 1st place if he's so overly emotional, uncooperative and immature? (apparently there never really was a reason why it HAD to be him)
- Why did the people at Rugal never explain anything to him about what was going to happen (like when he had to escape from the hospital or when they uploaded those images to his eyes...like really, would it have hurt you to warn him or at least give him a little heads up?).
- I was really hoping there would be no romance especially because of the way they introduced the main leads (but I was told later on that unfortunately wasn't the case...)
- The all-talk-but-no-show thing they had going on got old real quick. They kept telling us he's this badass guy whose supposed to be really strong but he got his ass whooped 5 times already?! They kept hyping him up with nothing to substantiate it so I had a hard time gauging his character. It was just not done convincingly.
- The characters all felt very 2 dimensional. I was really trying to give them a chance to grow but I wasn't feeling anything for any of them.
- THE ACTING. For a cast that's as good as this, I was shocked to find the acting was very disappointing and even cringey at times. I was completely thrown off in the scene where the female antagonist witnessed her husband being killed in front of her. I was so sure she was in on it because her acting looked so ungenuine but apparently that really was her in distress. They probably did the best they could with such poorly written characters but even the more experienced actors looked awkward.
- All these things together made me feel disconnected from the story because I kept thinking it could have been done or executed better. It simply made no sense and wasn't logical because nothing was ever explained properly (its the type of drama you have to leave your common sense and logic at the door but I didn't get that memo before starting this so...)

I think this drama could have had a lot of potential if it had been developed properly cause it was such an interesting idea/concept. Since I went in with such high expectations this was a really big let down for me. I don't regret dropping it since I've heard it doesn't get any better. I should probably just stick to reading the webtoon.

Leia Mais

Very disappointing!!

The premise of enhanced agents working covertly to bring down a criminal organisation isn’t new but I was looking forward to seeing actor Park Sung Woong as a baddie. Park didn’t disappoint as the charismatic, menacing and ruthless Hwang Deuk Goo. Unfortunately, he was let down by the writer, director and the rest of the cast. (Park deserves a '10' rating for his acting but he's let down by the rest of the cast so hence the '5' rating.)

There are too many baddies we don’t care about vying for position when it is obvious to viewers that Hwang should be the kingpin. The same goes for the Rugal agents. It is customary to have a team of with complementary skills and personalities working together to take down the baddies. After watching the first few episodes, I got a gist of how each of the four became suitable recruits for Rugal but I didn’t get a sense of who they are as people. Aside from superficial traits such as Kang Gi Boem’s (Choi Jin Hyuk) tendency to go off on his own, endangering himself, his fellow agents, the Rugal agents and supporting team just aren’t interesting enough to hold viewers' interests.

Poor characterisation and a muddled story means I dropped it after only four episodes.

Leia Mais

I was more of interested in romantic and comedy k-dramas but since devilish joy i liked Choi- Jin- Hyuk's performance overall. so i started watching this crime/action/thriller drama just because of him and "rugal" doesn't disappoint me in any manner. I found it bit boring when i watched first episode but just because of the cast's great acting i thought of going on forward with other episodes too and guess what I'm enjoying this drama and whole cast is truly working hard to give their best. Every episodes leaves you in kind of mystery and suspense that you start thinking what will happen in the next episode, you cant predict any of the episodes and that's what is great about this great k-drama.

I hope people just don't expect anything from a sci-fi cum action drama....i dont expect romance in it....its a joy ride for action and crime investigation lovers .
thank you.

Leia Mais

This first episode from start to finish was quite impressive in the way they brought in all the main characters early on, and set the tone for the rest of the series. Choi Jin-Hyuk is an incredible actor, with great charm and aggression for those of you who recognise him, and Lee Min Ho's older brother from The Heirs. Park Sung-woong playing his typical specialised role is perfect for his character. My only concern is seeing how the rest of the series plays out, seeing as the main story line has been revealed. Overall, wonderful fast paced action series, with cool Sci Fi themes. This is one of those series that you want to binge watch, but don't mind anticipating, and guessing the themes each week.

Leia Mais