MattPeddlesden
Kent, UK
Second Chances
Park Min Young once again brings her A-game along with a very strong cast. This drama is technically a Revenge drama but it's so much more nuanced than that.The female lead is killed by her husband and then wakes up in 2013 and realises she has the opportunity to live the time again and do things differently. The drama has a really interesting take on "fate" - where other dramas might note that you can't shake your fate, in this drama the female lead realises that while you can't shake it - you can try and shift it to other people and in that escape it. From there, a very clever game of manipulation starts to take place moving all the pawns around to try and shift her fate and make a better life.
I really enjoyed the plot, i've kinda binge watched it over a couple of days because I was hooked, I wouldn't say it's a complex plot - there's plenty there but you're not going to get a headache trying to keep up. It's technically time travel, but again, this is very understandable and watchable without a physics degree :)
Park Min Young is always excellent, paired with Na In Woo, who frankly towers over her. His character starts out dull and lifeless but just as Park Min Young's character undergoes a transformation so does Na In Woo - though he does struggle to set aside the plastic personality a bit, it definitely improves.
Standouts for me in the cast other than the leads were Song Ha Yoon who plays the utterly unhinged best friend, once you've watched this - go and contrast her performance towards the start of the drama with who she is towards the end, really talented actor.
Lee Yi Kyung is always a favourite to watch but where normally he's doing comedic stuff this is really quite nasty and a very different side. Done well. I was still expecting him to yell "CAJA!!!" and run off though... (hopefully you'll get the reference).
Last one - Choi Gyu Ri - incredibly bubbly character and just brought a lot of light and fun to scenes she was in.
Music was excellent throughout, frequently found myself banging the arms on my chair with the rhythm of some of the upbeat songs it has, but there's a nice range in the OST.
Overall, well worth the watch!
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Possibly my top drama watched this year?
I absolutely love Time Travel stories, they more often than not get some aspect of the time travel cause and effect loop wrong, or don't fully respect it and use it only when it benefits them, but when a Time Travel drama gets it right it scores a platinum - and this one such drama.Based on a Taiwanese drama (Some day or One day) which i have not watched (nor was aware of) this is the Korean retelling of that story. I can't judge it for how similar or different it is, so I won't, i'm just looking at this from a "I watched this, this is what I think" perspective.
The writing on this is absolutely some of the best i've seen. At 12 episodes, it is allowed to keep a good pace throughout without ever feeling drawn out. It twists and turns, but it all makes sense and you'll find every episode opening your eyes and making you click "next episode" just that little bit faster. The back and forth on this one, the way that time travel is knitted throughout the story is just beautiful in execution.
The romance is fantastic too and the two leads are great - but specifically I want to call out the female lead, Jeon Yeo Been, who so beautifully portrays two different characters - the outgoing Jun Hee from 2023, and the shy quiet Min Ju from 1998, you can easily tell them apart even from the way that they walk.
I will say, if you're someone who needs to understand the "how" of something like this, you're going to find this a 1/10 drama, because really - there is no explanation for something that can't be understood at this point in time by us such as Time Travel, so I kinda appreciate it when writers don't try to dazzle us with science or fantasy and just ask us to "sit down, relax, and enjoy the story". Many of the best sci-fi elements tweak something and explore the outcome of it without needing to explain how that tweak was possible. Remember, Magic is Science that you don't yet understand, just enjoy the magic.
I related a lot to the portrayal of the loneliness of Min Ju as well, simply not understanding how to integrate with everyone else, being the outcast and loner, I relate to that far more than I even realised and particularly in the closing episodes it home really hard. and it helped me understand her character and motivations even more.
There aren't many dramas that have had this much of an effect on me emotionally to be honest, the last time I can think of a drama having me a-buzz like this was "The Light in Your Eyes" (2019) with Han Ji Min which was also alluding to be a Time Travel theme as well.
Music is good, lots of time spent in 1998 so some nice old scenes and music to listen to.
I won't go into any more detail, you just need to go on this journey for yourself and enjoy it.
As to the ending - in my opinion, it's perfect. Just exactly what's needed and not a drop more, and i'll leave it there :)
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Different Crime Thriller
Short: Based in the 112 Emergency Call Center this one has a bit of a different premise which starts to look like a really interesting incident-per-episode but after a couple, it becomes a fairly standard police crime thriller where the team leader of the call center is going out in the field to chase bad guys... It's fun, the bad guy is ruthless, but there's a ton of inconsistencies. Recommended but don't expect a flawless story. Cast are on point.Detail:
I had expectations of this one being different and for the first two or three episodes it really starts to deliver, they create this high energy moment when she presses the button and announces "Code Zero!" and everyone shifts gear, with the call center suddenly becoming the HQ coordination point for a remote team of police officers out aiming to resolve whatever the issue is within the "Golden Time" (the time that means highest success for saving lives). However, there's a back story of the male leads wife being murdered, and the female leads father being murdered - and this fairly rapidly takes over the story, leaving the Emergency Center concept for dust (mostly).
Overall, I want to say that I have really quite enjoyed it so I'll say that now just to put everything that follows in to some perspective. Definitely worth a watch if you're interested in the crime thriller genre, and particularly if you like really well depicted psycho bad guys (which this one really is). The story takes a few twists and misdirects you into who the bad guy is and a couple of other things, so it keeps you guessing. It's not the most complex of stories, but I felt it was highly entertaining.
Ok, so the flaws.
What the heck is the team leader for the 112 Emergency Center doing going out in the field ALL THE TIME ? She abandons her post frequently! It's as ludicrous as on Star Trek when the captain keeps going off on away missions, it just wouldn't happen, you're the boss, you're quite important, sit down and trust your team :)
She wants to hire two specific people when she forms the Golden Time team. One of them a former white hat hacker, he accepts and his value and contribution is totally clear throughout. He's the guy who can instantly access anything anywhere even if in reality such things just aren't online, but, let's not worry about that, it's "magic" and he's awesome :) It keeps the plot moving at a good pace. However, the other one initially says no and goes back to the Airport Police she was based at - during one of the 112 incidents however something happens and it makes her realise that joining the Golden Time team is where she really wants to be, brilliant moment, love it... but... I don't think she actually brought anything new to the team at all when she joined. She's supposed to be this great officer with multi lingual skills but she contributes nothing unique to the team in the slightest so I was left wondering why the female lead was so bothered about getting her on the team.
Last one - she has this unique ability with fantastic hearing, she can hear things nobody else can to the point that she has padded her room out with sound proofing (well, in reality it's actually echo proofing not sound proofing but... we'll let that slide) and sometimes she can tell the most amazing unrealistic things like listening through a mobile phone speaker she can tell if the ML needs to go left or right to navigate! Other times, it seems like her hearing is less good when that good hearing would be inconvenient to the story.
I'm of mixed opinion as to how I think it should have gone. On the one hand, I now *really* want a weekly procedural drama based around the call center (someone tell me if it exists :) ) but on the other I do quite like the overall plotline of this one and how it developed. As silly as it is for the call center team leader to keep going out in the field it did move things along nicely.
As I say, overall I enjoyed it. It's not without its flaws but it was entertaining and I am definitely looking forward to starting Season 2. This story *does* fully conclude, don't be concerned about the presence of subsequent seasons, Season 1 is properly finished. I have no idea if that holds true for future seasons but for this one, we're all good. :)
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Detail:
Honestly don't think I found anything off-putting or out of place on this one, it was just well paced throughout and they nailed the ending of each episode perfectly to make it that much harder to go to bed at 4am, so, yeah, thanks for that production people. :)
So Ji-Sub the fugitive secret agent on the run, as a babysitter. If you're thinking it sounds like that "Kindergarten Cop" movie then don't, it really isn't that at all, Ji-Sub's character drops right into the role of being a great caregiver for the amazing two kids - it might have been nice for this to have been explained somehow, e.g. grew up with smaller siblings and flaky parents or something - but I didn't feel the omission of explanation was that big of a deal.
Jung In-Sun as the mother, comes off initially as the pinball in a furious game being pinged around a bit and suffering all kinds of problems whether it's her husband passing away or the drama of a 100 million won handbag - but actually while her character is seen to worry and lack confidence as situations arise what you find is that she's not afraid to face anything head-on. She's smart and nothing can stop her, even her own fear. I enjoyed seeing her overcome each of the trials put in front of her.
The two kids, wow, they were awesome!
The story moves at a reasonable pace as the game of cat and mouse proceeds, it certainly never got stale. There's some good mystery in there "who is the mole!" which was played well and I don't think it detracts too much from re-watching it either, in fact a second watch knowing how it all plays out is probably a recommendation anyway just to see if from the different perspective.
The other spy drama I watched recently was Man To Man and honestly I rate this one as better - although I enjoyed both I thought this one was better overall and nailed the ending perfectly, where Man To Man I just found had an unsatisfying ending.
Definitely worth a watch!
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The only thing that jarred me a bit was that when Violin music was being played by the actors, there wasn't an attempt to sync their strokes with the music being overlaid - so it's slightly triggering in that you can see a violin being played, you can hear one, but the visuals dont match the audio. It's a minor thing but it tweaked me each time it happened :)
Generally speaking the OST is superb, several tracks in there i'm going to enjoy listening to again and the classical performances were superb, some great pieces.
Actor performances were very good, I especially enjoyed the two leads, they had such great chemistry together but even when they were apart they owned their scenes. Whether it was Woo Jin and his closed off disconnected and cold personality, or Seo Ri who captured the part of the 17 year old in the 30 year old's body so well.
There were some really nice visual effects too, a couple of times (both as a 17 year old and a 30 year old) Seo Ri is joyfully skipping along towards some musical destination and she's visualising the music she will be playing, turning overhead power lines into a stave and seeing the notes pop into place, or seeing them along side her and she pops them as she goes by waving her arms up and down in time with the music. The steps beneath her lighting up as she continues on her journey - you can totally capture that she's completely in her own world visualising the music her mind and captivated by it. Right up until someone throws a bucket of water on her by accident or she falls over a barrier because she's not actually looking where she's going, anyway. I do this kind of thing myself when i'm stuck on a coding problem or designing systems, so I can really appreciate how they've beautifully captured how totally absorbed she is.
The "Mary Poppins" housekeeper character was really good, I found her jarring at first but her monotone appearances and sounds become something to look out for, particularly as her character develops.
Don't expect big dramas in this one, there's a love triangle but it's the softest kind and dealt with perfectly and without angst. This is a gentle slow burner that is just fun to enjoy. Once you get to around the final 3 or 4 hours or so, all the various ribbons start coming together into a nice bow.
Everything, and I mean everything, is resolved. I can't think of any unanswered questions.
... and after 53 dramas, and 1156 episodes so far, while others have made my face want to melt and made me *feel* sad, this was the first that caused actual tears on more than one occasion - so, no apologies for an all-10 review on this one. Totally re-watchable too.
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Most strangled female in a drama?
Short: Good action, nice "fish out of water" type storyline with the detective displaced in time with some of the humour that brings, as well as the contrast in various aspects of the two time periods. The ending is solid, but I thought it missed a couple of nice final moments that would have just been a perfect bow - but that doesn't negate the overall solid state of the story. Great acting, great cast. Definitely worth the watch.Detail:
There's some great moments in this with the detective being a bit of a "fish out of water" as he's displaced in time, as well as struggling with being a great distance (in time) from his wife. The chase for the murderer is really good and works generally well with some trips to mislead the viewer until things shift into top gear for the final apprehending of the killer. I thought those aspects really worked well.
There wasn't anything that I thought worked badly, it was entertaining throughout - though I think Lee Yoo Young might qualify for the most strangled woman in a drama now though, I mean, you've gotta have a need for some psychiatric help after this story is over if you're her, surely.
Literally the only thing that I thought was missed was at the end - a couple of nice scenes could have been really good here - but i'll leave it for a spoiler comment in a moment to discuss the detail, so that this does not spoil anything if you haven't seen it yet :) Suffice to say that while these would have been icing on the cake, the cake was still very good indeed :)
In short, well worth the watch.
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Light, Fluffy, Fun, Mostly
Short: Really enjoyed it, it's primarily a light fluffy and fun romcom that doesn't really innovate or try anything different, but sticks to formula and does a good job. Only seemed to be one or two tracks of music but they were good :) A couple of annoying characters that you just have to live with, made up for by the leads who were excellent.Detail...
Bang Min Ah - i've seen her in "Beautiful Gong Shim" and thought she was a really interesting actress, I really like her voice, her manner and acting style, but it always takes more than one drama to really get a better idea of an actors range and talent. This would be my second drama with her in and all it's done is boost my impression. During scenes when she's crying, she's genuinely giving off all the right emotions through her movement, facial expression, even colours of her face, much like Jang Na Ra, when she cries she's all in. As these kinds of moments are some of my favourite (which sounds odd, I know, but I like the sad scenes, no idea why...), how the actors portray them is much more important to me than other scenes. I saw some other reviewers note that it felt like she was warming up to this role as it went along and I would probably agree, she definitely gets better and better as the drama progresses.
The story itself isn't going to do anything innovative or set the world on fire, but neither do I think every drama has to do that either. It's fairly formulaic but does a good job in execution.
Two characters drove me up the wall. Ma Wang Joon, the top-star / ex boyfriend, is just a horrible example of a man in my eye. The way he denies their break up, constantly tries to get back together with her when she's clearly with someone else, ugh, it was just a bit pathetic to watch. Diana, the psycho who orders the robots so she can destroy them. There was more potential for Diana's character, I felt there was a potential arc for her redemption but it wasn't explored, after building her up to being someone truly awful she just kinda fizzles out.
I thought the little side thing going on between Yeo Woong and Bo Won was fun.
The general trajectory of this one is building up a wonderful love between the two leads, but it's a love that has many challenges to overcome, some of which may be insurmountable. Ultimately, the last few episodes will have you crying a river, and all the more meaningful because of all the escapades and history that you build up throughout the previous episodes in the story.
As this one was concluding, I was thinking to myself - if you're going to take the story one way then you need to get on with it to do it justice, or commit to where it's currently heading... it keeps going... last few minutes i'm thinking - don't do it, don't screw it up... and then in the last like, 1 minute, well, i have no idea WHAT happened. So, my recommendation is... just watch up until she goes to see him at the end and then stop as soon as that scene is over :)
Lead cast were great, some of the other characters weren't fantastic but I think the cast did a good job of representing them - SO disappointed Diana didn't become more, the actress did a great job. Music - felt like there was only one or two actual tracks in this (i'm sure there was more) because the title song comes up ALL the time... it's ok though, it's a good song :) Story is good except for that last minute derail and side step into "what!?" land.
Definitely recommend it, primarily for the romance between the two leads, and for Min Ah's wonderful performances as the story progresses.
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Rushed ending
Short: Really nice pace, really good characters, has some clear evolutions in the story making it feel like it's moving at a decent pace throughout... and then just stops. Totally feels to me like this 18 episode story was meant to be 20 and they cut it, so while it has an ending, it just isn't satisfying at all.Detail:
I was hooked on this one throughout, Kim Tae Hee and Joo Won are both excellent and they are surrounded by a great cast as well. The story has an interesting premise and moves along at a nice pace throughout so it was always interesting but i'm left at the end of it just feeling like the story ran off a cliff and suddenly stopped as soon as they could possibly do it - it's like the final seconds close out the loop, the [final thing] happens and boom - credits.
I always prefer a nice run-out to my stories, let's see them live their best lives now that they've worked hard to get there.
I don't really have anything else to be sore about on this drama, if it had a decently closed off ending this would have been at least a 9 if not a 10 for me but I hated that rushed ending.
To be clear, it DOES have an ending, it DOES have closure, it's just supremely rushed which undid the great work and pacing prior.
So i'm conflicted about recommending it as a watch - on the one hand, it's great fun and I really enjoyed watching all the characters, but on the other - if you're like me and you like the long run-out endings be prepared to be checking your netflix player to double check you didn't just run out of internet or something :)
I did note with some amusement that near the start, she transfers 2 million USD to him that needs a password to release that he'll get once he gets her out of the hospital... and at no point at all during this did she ever actually do that - it's like that whole thing was just forgotten about because it was inconvenient, instead he ended up relying on another source to help his sister (because that was more story-angst-ridden :) ).
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What an Epic Tale!
Short: An epic (in both senses of the word) tale, great characters realised by great actors. A story that moves at a strong pace throughout. A love story, an action story and a political story. This is not light and fluffy, but neither will the action overwhelm if that's not your thing, it's a great balance. Hooked from start to finish.Detail:
I have not got the foggiest idea how I picked this one up. It wasn't on my plan-to-watch list.... but I am unbelievably glad I did!
Ha Ji Won, one of my favourite actresses is probably in one of the strongest roles i've seen her in so far (including many newer ones). Not just as a strong character, but a character and story that gives her room to shine as an actress.
Lee Seung Gi, another strong actor from the likes of Vagabond, in an earlier role (this drama is 2012) and he's consistent throughout. Starting out as the lazy playboy doing his best to avoid anything he doesn't want to do and then plausibly and through real challenge and hardship transforming into the man who would be King.
Jo Jung Suk, another strong actor, takes up a second lead role as friend and soldier with an interesting side story that he has with the Princess.
Yoon Je Moon is someone i've not seen before but his character and the way he brings it to life reminds me so much of the best classic James Bond villains. He's insane, but not so much that you'd immediately recognise it. He's battered in his mind by rage and jealousy, he feels insecure and insignificant, but is also extremely clever and manipulative, calculating and evil. There is no end to what he will do. It is so rare to see a character like this done well.
The story is set in a slightly altered version of reality where the monarchy still exists. It has a slightly different view of how North Korea is too compared to what you would have seen in the likes of Crash Landing on You, for example. At its heart this story is a love story between two people, but it's also at its core about the reunification of the Korean Peninsula, and all of the challenges set before them. It opens with the current King watching a news broadcast as the Berlin wall falls and there are powerful and obvious relevancies to the pains going on in Korea and the King's desire to repeat that unification on their peninsula.
The story goes beyond Korea, travelling to China and also involving the US and other nations. It's as far reaching as a story involving North and South Korea needs to be, with lots going on throughout.
The initial setup of the World Officers Championship is great, starting with the uneasy relationship between the South and North Korean officers unifying into one team to take part. Later in the story when they re-unite for the actual event it's great to see them in action again working together and playing to each others strengths.
Really enjoyed this one from start to finish and definitely recommend it :)
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Detail:
Picked this one up because it's got Gong Hyo Jin - I've always liked her style and the characters she plays. It's introduced me to Kang Ha Neul though who as the ML was excellent with a wide range in his character from the goofy to the dead serious and it all fit perfectly.
The story features a really good thriller element that literally right from the opening scene will have you puzzling, the story will misdirect, and also present you with straight facts, and you'll need to figure out what's right and what's misdirection, who did it? who's going to do it? I did wonder whether the thriller element might be weak in comparison to the usual romance elements but it gets equal footing in the story and is constantly there being worked on and developed throughout the story. The way it lays out motive for numerous people to take an action over the course of many episodes was really nicely done.
A key element of this story is about mothers, about the FL's mother, about the FL who is herself a mother, about the ML's mother, and about other mothers in the neighborhood, about the mother of the boys father, there's an overarching element in this story about the strength and power of mothers everywhere. I did find that, as a father, the story seemed a bit negative towards fathers - with abusive, ignorant, idle, absent, drunk fathers being pretty much the mainstay of the story but... i'm gonna let that pass because I know some single mums and i'm in constant awe of them, they should be celebrated. The message here is a good one. I particularly liked a quote in the story 'Mums exist because God can't be everywhere", how nice is that?
The romance is nicely done, with the FL showing exactly zero interest in the ML for a while and him goofing around and hanging around her all the time winding her up before things begin to progress. It does have the usual KDrama break-up but it's valid, not stupid, and in fact amusingly at one point the FL's mother does comment that she hates in tv shows when they say they're "breaking up because they love you" and how stupid it is :)
It has a light love triangle, but barely and not enough to annoy those who are turned off by them.
A great story, which keeps you guessing, gets you interested in the characters, rooting for their successes and feeling pains at their losses.
Nice music too, not listened to the OST separately but a few I was humming along to, which is a sign there'll be some nice tracks to listen to there I think.
Definitely recommended, the blend of the thriller and the romance makes it a bit different to the usual.
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Detailed:
Last time I saw a drama with Hwang Jung Eum was Kill Me, Heal Me - and honestly I wasn't the greatest fan of the over the top shrieking so I went into this one looking to see more from this actor and how she is in other roles. Have to say, thoroughly enjoyed her work in this one, rather than the shrieks in the car of the other drama, this one has much more comically timed reactions and she plays the comedic role well. The counter play between her and Choi Shi Won's character is brilliantly written and brilliantly portrayed and they provide a really nice mischievous comedy element. The comedy tends towards the usual type i've seen in K-drama, a bit over the top, but there were numerous laugh-out-loud moments and most of them were this pair.
The premise of the drama is that as a young girl she was beautiful and was best friends with the boy who lived next door, an overweight lad with some issues, they bond supporting each other and have a great friendship until his family moves away. Many years later, there is the opportunity to re-unite, but as she no longer feels she is the same pretty person she was, she asks her best friend to stand in for her. It's just a recipe for things to go wrong really!
There's a couple in her workplace who I found really entertaining to watch, I'm a fan of Shin Hye Sun's work anyway so I always enjoy seeing her on screen but really found her character development to be fun to watch.
Overall, this one is quite light hearted, some really funny moments, but also some loud ones so if you're watching this one late at night on the main TV be prepared to be as shocked as the FL is and ready to turn the TV volume down :)
It's also one of those dramas that has the really nice long ending so you get to enjoy some of the happiness that was worked for so hard during the main part of the story. Very nicely done.
There's a really nice overall message about self confidence in this drama, the title and description presents it as being potentially superficial - but, hey, you should know better by now, that's not how these things work, there's a lot more to it :)
Great fun, been hooked watching it from start to finish!
Highly re-watchable too, there are some clever reveals and secret identities but honestly I can't see it being any less interesting even if you know the answers to those questions.
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Detailed:
I honestly struggled to finish this one, what kept me going was the music, the actors that I was enjoying watching, and a desire to see the relationship find its feet. But it was a struggle.
This was the version on Netflix, called My Secret Romance, 14 episodes around 45 minutes each - just to be clear.
Ok so...
Production issues - the audio is a mess. Some times you've got studio clean audio and clear actors voices. Moments later, possibly even in he same room, you've got raw echoey audio like they had to use it straight from the mics on-set. Another time you've got background music playing that's quite "busy" - but they've set the volume around the same as the actors so they're virtually drowned out. In another scene I noticed the waves were rolling backwards into the sea, clearly a bit of reversed footage, it looked really unnatural. Noneof this happens a a *lot* but it happens enough to keep it in your mind throughout.
Predictable story - I mean just about every cliche romance comedy trope is in here, and the timing of them is almost like this drama is a parody of romcom's. It's just *too* predictable :) One that comes up over, and over, and over (multiple times in one episode in at least one case!) is that deer-in-the-eyes look when she stumbles and he catches her, or she's knocked and ... he catches her, and... you get it. That doesn't make them all bad, but I just felt there were too many. Let' not forget the obligatory double love-triangle too of course!
Abusive Relationship - bit controversial perhaps, and maybe i'm just a bit oversensitive but... you know how when young lads like a girl one of their outlets is to pull their hair - which makes the girl miserable and hate the boy, that kinda thing. Well, now do that with a grown up guy who can't express himself in a sensible way, likes the girl a lot, so orders her around, is generally rude and abrupt to her, makes her feel bad a lot of the time, keeps her late at work, forces her to go out to places with him, fakes a seizure to get attention.... i mean in drama world that's one thing but let's not kid ourselves, in the real world that's a problem... and before you say "well, she could just leave" you have to remember he's her boss, and jobs are not the easiest thing to come by, and that's the rub. If this was brief, i'd have glossed over it, but it was 10 out of 14 episodes. This is not acceptable behaviour! Once he gets past it, it's all fine, but... isn't that how it is in real life too, until things go bad again? Let's just not make this acceptable. Maybe i'm just oversensitive, but I found this difficult.
Dragging on - the last 2 or 3 episodes, the last one or two in particular, really lay the flashbacks on thick.
So what did I *like*, why did I not make this my first drop?
I liked the music. I liked the actors, I thought they both worked well together and wanted to see their relationship to its pinnacle moment. I thought the relationship between the secondary leads Hyeon-Tae and Hye-Ri was nice and warm and was happy with how this progressed. I thought that the reconnection of Jin-Wook with his mother was by far the most tender and emotional moment of the story. The funny relationship between somewhat extreme characters of Assistant Kim and Je-Ni were amusing and well played.
There were good moments, the story DOES get somewhere, but it's built on a framework of flaws and issues. That said, it's also quite short - so if you're looking for that romcom fix and you've haven't seen it yet, well, if I haven't put you off so far then why not give it a shot and then please do come back and tell me if my review is unfair or wrong!
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Detail:
This is a fun spy drama, Park Hae Jin is good as always and he's supported by a strong cast as well throughout. Park Sung-Woong plays the comedic element fantastically well. Good to see another drama with Chae Jung-Ahn as well, having seen her in only a couple of dramas so far such as Suits, it was fun trying to figure her character out.
The story has a number of twists and turns, nothing too earth shattering - good enough it's a change in gear for the story, but not so earth shattering that it ruins future re-watches, I think i'd enjoy a second watch nearly as much as the first even knowing all the twists.
For me the last few minutes are where the drama forgets to put a nice full stop on its ending - the *story* is ended, everything concluded in whatever way it concludes - but I just didn't get the closure I wanted for the main characters at the end, made even worse because they appeared to actually be setting it up for a nice final scene and then just didn't!
Music - nothing earth shattering but a couple of tracks stood out and I found myself humming them to myself while not watching the drama so not bad either :)
Worth a watch imho!
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Wraps itself up nicely, it's not rushed - some may argue it's perhaps a bit slow but I appreciated that they took the time to not gloss over some difficult stuff.
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If you're familiar with Augmented Reality mobile games like Ingress or Pokemon Go then some basic elements of this are going to be familiar, the idea of playing a game out in the real world, where real world locations are important - you need to go to real world locations and complete tasks to play. Alhambra takes this several steps further - merge those ideas with Call of Duty and other current video games and you start to see where things could end up.
If you watch this with a tech mind you're going to start wondering how sword fighting works that causes reaction to your arms, if all you're wearing is contact lenses. There are many other questions you'll ask yourself. Stop. Sit back. Just relax and enjoy the drama, you're thinking too hard. :)
Video FX is outstanding, the way the video game world is layered onto the real world is seamless, just as i'd expect it to be if the game were for real. Simple actions like how the player changes or stores weapons and how things like the armory and so forth are done - perfectly executed. I absolutely and firmly believe that enthusiastic gamers and/or real game designers were involved in the AR game elements because nothing jarred at all (and I say that as a game designer myself).
The story itself is a twisty rollercoaster that goes all over the place, in both Spain and Korea. Nothing is obvious, and the way the story jumps around is at first confusing but once you get the hang of it, it actually makes for an interesting approach. You'll see a sequence of things happen e.g. a,b,c,d, and then later you'll see what actually happened between c and d - or some additional facts will be played out between c and d that totally changes the way you'll understand the meaning of what happens in d. None of this is in a random way either, as the viewer you become guilty of taking a few facts and drawing a conclusion involving additional facts that you made up out of inference or the way something was presented.
Park Shin Hye was great in this, one of my favourite dramas with her in it. After seeing Doctors recently with her where I didn't really buy her performance (or her character) - but this was superb.
Hyun Bin - well this guy just can't put a foot wrong, can he. Exactly the right actor for the job.
The only weakness for something that was just such an epic drama to watch, was the ending. I mean, I get it and I liked where they went (though not how they did it as it feels incomplete), but I can absolutely see why so many people didn't, it's just a tad too subtle imho. There are other reviews which go into detail on explaining it so I won't add to that, but suffice to say if the ending seems "eh?!" to you - read them AFTER you watch and all should become clear.
Overall thought this one was brilliant. Rewatch is a tough choice ONLY because I didn't enjoy the ending as much as I was hoping.
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