Cisne Vermelho (2024)

This had potential to be great but....

I have had this drama in my mental watch list for awhile but I never had a chance to watch it cos my list is just becoming a pain.
I have mastered a strategy to alternate cdrama and kdrama..I will watch kdrama after every cdrama or Jdrama.Am a very fair person.
I was happy when i saw this and the clips around,cos finanny someone had cast people who are not 25 and 30.We had actors we the OG
can relate to..you know Oppa Rain and Kim Ha Neul are from our generation,but it turned out to be an OK project.
RAin did a great job but he was missmatched, am not an ageism person or anti women(as a woman myself) but I beleive that women
actresses dont carry the same vigor in the later years as the male counterpart..or its just this particular one cos i have see supporting
casts in their 60 and 70s do better for example the chairwoman in this drama,She is one of the people who carried this serie.
Maybe I should just stick to romantic or revenge plots which kdrama do very well in..The set was amazing though,all those beautiful mansions.
Overall its an Okay watch if you dont worry about a boring ending.Am rating an 8 cos of Oppa Rain

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Felt Rush, waste of time

Red Swan had so much potential if it could have been executed correctly. The story was rather cliche with the whole rich lady falls for her body guard, conglomerate family fighting for inheritance and some mystery murder thrown in just to cover all cases.

I had just finished watching Eve (another disappointment but better than this one) and was looking for my next revenge romance drama. I enjoyed the acting and that certain characters got character development throughout the series, the martial art part was also rather nice...but that's where all of the good things end.

10 episodes made this story feel rush, they left some plots loose, there was barely any romance especially between the FL and ML. Sometimes I genuinely wondered how ML who is supposed to be so good at martial arts would flop in certain scenes.

FL started off being strong will and badass but she quickly became one of those annoying damsel in distress type that spend the whole drama screeching and waiting to be helped. The music...personally for me felt too screechy and like it didn't flow with the drama but I will put that I have rather sensitive ears and tend to not be a fan of high pitch voices to begin with so that part might be my own bias.

I like the fact that they used actual English in scenes, there was some actresses that spoke fluent English (like FL sister in law) also with background characters they spoke rather good English which was rather refreshing to see and different English accent.

The ending...it's a rather abrupt, unsatisfying one. Overall, I'll give this show a 1 out of 10 with 10 being the best.

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Odd perspective: Seo Yi Sook showed some fine acting, and seemed to be having fun with this role.

I never liked Seo Yi Sook (Chairwoman) ever since Empress Ki. But in this show, I thought she was fabulous. Her hysterical ourbursts were so over the top that it made me laugh, and it seemed like the actress was really having fun playing this character.

I liked her in this role enough that I looked her up on YouTube, and she seems to be quite a likeable, soft-spoken person, who loves to sing - aside from being a talented actress.

Because of her, the drama was fun. I know this is a weird take on the drama, but this is how it struck me.
I also liked the actor who played the main character's husband, and will be looking forward to seeing him in more dramas. I thought he created a very sympathetic character in this role.

It wasn't an amazing drama, in retrospect, but at the time, it kept me riveted, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Going forward, when I see Seo Yi Sook, being evil, in future dramas, I won't be able to hate her any more.
I'll just admire her skill, and ability to get me invested in the story! 🙂

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Love begins with self-deception and ends with deceiving others

The so-called match made in heaven is nothing but a beautiful mask worn to show outsiders. As for how ugly and disgusting the person under the mask is, they know it but don't understand it. Marriage has long been dull and boring, and we are tired of each other, but under the bondage of interests, we will be the best actors, performing the drama that outsiders love to watch the most to please the audience. Love started casually.

On the 10th day of getting along, he looked up and saw her, and they looked at each other. He said, "Don't do it, marry me." They didn't speak for the first 9 days. She dared to love, hate, and venture out. She dared to cut off the mother-daughter relationship with her mother who was addicted to gambling, and dared to donate all the money she earned. She dared to fight from the bottom to the Hall of Fame in a foreign country.

This time, she dared to gamble on marriage. If she was really happy after marriage, it would be a romantic flash marriage. If not, she would use her career as a horse, galloping thousands of miles, shining and beautiful alone. You can cheat as you please, just don't let me see you having an affair, because it's not very harmful, but extremely insulting. In fact, she knew her husband had an affair with a woman who called her sister, and she turned a blind eye. It's not magnanimity, but she has more important things to do, and adults rely on themselves.

There is no love in the rich family, only interests, and she has seen through this. The reason why she was not kicked out of the house and the Yingying and Yanyan did not enter the house is that her value crushed everything. Her existence is to make the husband's family think about it.

There is a price to touch her, and it may not be the kind that can be borne, so don't act on impulse. So even if she is caught in bed, she can turn around gracefully and treat it as an accidental interruption: You still have the mood to continue, I can wait outside for you to finish, you have used my husband, and he and I still have tasks and dramas to perform. The important thing is that neither of us should lose our mood.

Although you took advantage of every opportunity, your time management was still not strict enough, which embarrassed me on the spot. Fortunately, I have seen big scenes and am not surprised. However, after this incident, you should be more careful. It seemed that she had rehearsed such encounters in her mind. If you often walk by the river, you will get your shoes wet. Seeing his disapproval, the husband instantly lost the desire to seek pleasure. In order to maintain self-affirmation, he needed to get close, fresh, visible, and close love from a person. He deceived himself in the regret of not being fulfilled, and tortured himself in unspeakable lies. His wife was too good and always made him unable to reach her. There was a distance between them.

The one who wanted to get close could not step down, and the one who wanted to chase was too strong to disdain. He indulged his desires, hoping to arouse a little anger and love from his wife, but he didn't know that his wife had already reconciled with her inner love and fragility, fought her way out of the wounds, and placed her feelings in a wider world. In this regard, the husband had long been unable to keep up with her. Sometimes, the best way to make others care about you, or think less like a victim, is to care less about them.

Although this road is bloody, if the goal is clear and firm, marriage is not necessarily a shackle. Whoever suffers will change, whoever can endure the pain and transcend the pain will be a bystander, and only use the advantages of a clean marriage to pave the way for their future. Even if the mother-in-law is so angry that she wants to say, "You still don't divorce after all this, you are so heartless", it can't disrupt her rhythm. Is she heartless?

No matter how wonderful the outside world is, she just longs for a lamp to protect her. Is she heartless? If she doesn't get the result she wants, she will stick to it no matter what. But I still want to say that the most reasonable way is not to force yourself.

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RAINNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You and your face card!!!!*soul sigh* I luh you but...

Listen...listen...I LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEee me some Rain...LOVE me some Bi Rain. LOVE him.
However...not even his perfect face card, body, and charismatic allure can make me say that I LOVED this dang haberdashery of a trope-filled to our eyeballs genre action-melodrama-thriller-comedy-romance-Micheal Bay-inspired tomfoolery!!!! NOTHING! I turned this on for pure, PURE support as a day-one Bi-Rain/Rain fan, and sat there slack-jawed and laughing my butt off at the writers playing around with this man and his FL, who both were grasping for whatever meat, potatoes, kimchi, and pantry seasonings of sauce that they could find to keep this hot mess of a written show together. This mess was clearing a check grab for our two popular and strong leads, as well as work/checks for everyone else in it who must have needed it due to recessions and past pandemic woes. LIKE....WTH was I watching!! It hurt my feelings to the bone! I do not recommend UNLESS you want to watch for Rain's deliciousness, and if you want to predict the outcome of the whole show by the time you finish episodes 1-3 thanks to every dang predictable trope that the writing room threw in this show, and then some. Errrmahgawd!

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strong potential in the storyline... failed to reach its peak

Hated all the characters, hated the chairwoman the most , while hated Yong Guk the least .

Oh Wan Su kissing the bodyguard while still technically married, took away all her credibility and the saint image she was given. It was a flagrant error in the plot . embarrassing way to ruin the build up and the purity of her feelings towards her bodyguard. They should v stuck to hugging.

The ending had its good and bad points...

-Yong Guk s death(despite my sympathy for the character, his death was necessary to accentuate the tragic effect), Mr Han and his son in jail were much deserved closures .

-Oh Wan Su reuniting with the bodyguard ruined everything about her character. Despite the different context, she showed how similar she is to the chairwoman. depending on a man , getting too emotionally invested, and simply not being the strong women they were painted to b throughout the show. Very disappointing

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Among My Swan

A much-anticipated action drama, not least because of its outstanding cast, ‘Red Swan’ unfortunately ends up betraying expectations, turning out to be a mid-level, almost routine release that fails to innovate the genre, slipping into an accumulation of entirely predictable narrative clichés.

Apart from the good start, a solid first episode that, as is often the case, plays its best cards with a skilful use of various locations, the development of the drama wearily deals with narrative stylistic features that have been abundantly exploited in every makjang represented previously;

The most classic of the rich families, the usual viper's nest where everyone is ready to eliminate each other, slaves also to their own vices and unmentionable secrets, with a despotic and unbearable matriarch (a Seo Yi Sook decidedly over the top), an all too ‘efficient’ official in the administration of the family companies (a calibrated Yoon Je Moon, one of the best things in the drama) and the usual round of more or less legitimate children, concubines, lovers, etc.. all in the shadow of the patriarch, who obviously died in ‘mysterious’ circumstances and around whom the whole affair revolves, considering also the obvious inheritance that triggers the most unthinkable actions...

Obviously, a victim of circumstances, we find the main character O Wan Su (Kim Ha Neul), a former professional golf player, now Chairwoman of a charity created to help the most needy in the world, married -it is easy to imagine with what degree of happiness- to the eldest son of the rich family; Of incredible sadism is the choice of the writers, who force poor O Wan Su to face and accumulate over the course of the 10 episodes a catastrophic series of calamities so unbelievable and ridiculously absurd, with the beautiful Ha Neul who, untamed and imperturbably covered in blood (literally! ) advances through the accumulation of misfortunes with a temper of steel, backed by the policeman/bodyguard Seo Do Yun, played by a functional Rain, also an all-out hero -never a smile, at least until the final moments- determined to vindicate his friend colleague, killed while investigating the death of the aforementioned patriarch...

So, intrigue, espionage, crimes, double-crosses, betrayals (real or presumed) and all the typical repertoire of the genre that never gets going, never reaches the climax, proceeding along a banally predictable path, where all the elements end up converging on solutions already known; sin and guilt, expiation, justice, love, etc.. In the end, everything finds its usual repositioning in a kind of reparatory justicialism that leaves a bitter taste in the mouth, with a reflection on the true intention of the plot;

I don't know if it is due to Disney's production, it must be said that there is anyway a lot of violence that clashes sensitively with the image of the film company, but I had the feeling that the authors chose to play on a safe path, widely experimented in similar previous series, without any courageous or innovative choices, perhaps to please international producers, maybe to facilitate their export, but ending up offering an average product, quite forgettable, where even the supposed ‘chemistry’ between the two main characters struggles to come out, but at least Rain has the chance to show off some physicality with a few rather well choreographed action scenes, while Kim Ha Neul limits herself to a performance of ordinary administration; rather modest and often pedantic musical choices (there's even the requiem!) and an ending, after the inevitable temporal ellipsis (‘a year later’) of staggering ordinariness.

To be honest, not more than 6.5 overall, because it still makes itself watchable and does not drag on for long, for a drama on which I was betting so much and which in the end, in my eyes, turned out to be extremely disappointing

Unless I have missed something, even metaphorical, as was also the case with the titles of Italian thrillers of the 1970s that often mentioned various animals, there is no trace of red swans...
6,5

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Red Swan K-Drama Episode 7 Recap

The episode begins with Wan Soo's brother being arrested. Sang Gil reports this to Mi Ran. Do Yoon was also giving the console to Wan Soo and holding his hand but then Yeong Guk comes and Do Yoon leaves. Next, we see Sang Gil who comes to Yong Min and shouts at him that why did you do this, you should have taken permission from me first. Yong Min says why should I do this, you are just a servant. Wan Soo also comes to meet her brother and asks if he is fine. Hyun Soo says don't worry about me, just don't let this news become public. Later Sang Gil comes here. Hyun Soo tells Sang Gil that this is Yong Min's work, he must have reported me to the prosecutor. But Sang Gil says why would he do this. Hyun Soo says I have all the proofs of how we both took bribes, and we also have generous accounts, if you don't want all this to leak out then release me. Sang Gil tells him that he was reported by Wan Su's bodyguard who stole the ledgers. In the next scene, Yong Min tells So Dam what he has done and that he is the one who reported Hyun Soo. Mi Ran was also asking Sang Gil who reported Hyun Soo. Sang Gil says that he has doubts about Do Yoon. We see Do Yoon in the car who was looking at the ledgers.

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Stellar acting compensates for plot gaps

Generally, plot holes of the size and frequency of the ones in this series have me dropping a show like it's a hot rock, but the depth of the characters and the outstanding cast kept me binging Red Swan. There are a lot of gaps in the story and deux ex machina has to be called in when reality and the space/time continuum threaten to get in the way of script absurdities, but I still enjoyed the series.

The entire cast is great, without exception, and they make the show addictively watchable despite its boatload of flaws. I ended up sympathetic to characters I thought I'd hate and hating characters for whom I started out sympathetic.

Kim Ha Neul plays O Wan Su, a self-made rags-to-riches success story. She's a woman determined that other children be spared the fear, uncertainty, and deprivation of her own childhood. Putting herself in a position to realize that goal cost the lives of her loved ones, and puts her own life at risk.

Rain is Seo Do Yun, a former police officer on a mission to solve the murder of his brother cop. His investigation entangles him with O Wan Su when it appears the same killer is gunning for her. Don't ask how we know that, just roll with it.

The two leads hooked me from the get-go. A near foxhole type lust moment between O Wan Su and Seo Do Yun after the sniper incident was smoking, and I loved their restrained intensity and moments of tenderness throughout the series.

Despite how well Rain and Kim Ha-Neul worked as the lead couple, comments on the ML/FL dynamic follow the standard MDL pattern: ML is a perfect swoon worthy hunk whom the inferior-in-every-way FL doesn't deserve or measure up to. That comment pattern is so predictable it ought to be baked into the MDL plot synopses just to save time.

My advice: ignore that drivel.

Some commenters are bothered that Kim Ha-Neul's characterization of O Wan Su wasn't more demonstrative. She's presented with the vulnerable stoicism of a woman who has faced unbearable loss and has no choice but to persevere.

Perhaps Kim Ha-Neul could have played O Wan Su as a weeping damsel, swooning with the vapors, back of her hand pressed melodramatically against her forehead, but O Wan Su has to be strong and relentless to survive, and a strong, relentless woman doesn't have the luxury to wail, flutter, fall apart, or swoon.

One more place I'll diverge from the pack: I thought the ending was perfect.

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