Reviews

This drama was very different to what I normally watch, surprisingly the comedy-horror worked quite well. The story was interesting and I loved the acting, (my new crush SJS!) but I feel like it missed the mark a little bit. There were a few underused plots (Madame Go and Ha Jee Choo) which would have drawn me more emotionally into the drama if they were utilised properly. Don't get me wrong I loved this drama, but it didn't have me crying along with the characters or overflowing with love either.

Overal I found this drama refreshing but also lacking that depth of emotion. (Especially those frozen kiss scenes, way to torture a girl!)

Leia Mais

There's not a lot that you can say about this drama, and there aren't many bad things either or even bad things at all!

1. It doesn't take up most of your time
2. It has a solid enough plot even at 4 episodes
3. The casting is a nice selection
4. The story is nothing heavy and easy to keep up with
5. This drama motivates me to cut my hair... I've never really liked cutting my hair
it kind of shows the importance of cutting hair but the fun side of it also!
6. Acting was very good and real the characters were very realistic.
7. I felt like I was watching a 16 episode drama... like... what I mean is by the end of the drama you feel like you just finished a full length drama but really IT WAS ONLY 4 EPISODES which is really mind blowing!
8. The quality kind of gives me that.... classic kdrama feel and I'm not saying kdrama in general I mean like early 2000's feel and that feeling is GOOD

If you're a college/university student that doesn't really have the time to watch a full on drama at the moment I think this one is the right one to watch even if you're busy!

Leia Mais

It was exciting to watch it at first, but after awhile it was just too much frustration after the other... If this was a romcom, I would actually "forgive" the unrealistic plot but this was a crime-suspense-love story so there must be a logic. For all that Kim Mu Yeol does - why he never goes to jail or why the girl (Lee Shi Young) detective is always alone in doing her job and why he is always the one to tag along.

The action fights were very well executed, Kim Mu Yeol, was flawless in his fights.

I just had very high expectations due to the high ratings. Later on the excitement in the beginning was not the same anymore, it just became unrealistic and the unprofessionalism of the lead detective was just too much for me because after all this is a Police Detective story. Cruel City is much better and the momentum was there.

Leia Mais

This will be a very short review compared to my usual fair. I just felt I had to throw this out there. This was a weird drama for me. There were parts in the middle where the plot became so predictable, the lead female so annoying, the noble sacrifice trope so overused, the dialogue so trite and the romance and music so in your face that had it not been for Lee Jun Ki I would have dropped this puppy.

But just as I started it for LJK and stayed for LJK, LJK (with some help from Lee Soo Hyuk and even, gasp, Changmin) saved this one for me. If at any point LJK and LSH, and most of the other actors too, hadn't sold this to the hilt, it could have been the utterly crappy hot mess that Night Watchman was. But somehow their commitment to the roles, even when they got stupid, saved this drama.

But what also saved it was the last 4 episodes. The quality of those episodes clearly showed the writer DID have a plan. The writer just had trouble filling in the bits between A and B. The first 2 episodes were wonderful. The last 4 episodes were also very good. I could probably find 4 episodes in the middle that were not totally terrible. So if this drama had been 10 episodes it actually would have been pretty awesome. As it is, it's only okay, but brought to the level of better than okay because of the acting. If you love Lee Jun Ki as much as I do, you will still find something to love in this drama despite its MANY flaws.

Leia Mais

Most fandoms play with same sex characters and ship them together but how many movies/series actually focus on same sex relationships? Same sex relationships are quite a hot issue right now in many countries, so the main topic of this series is right on. Love Sick shows what it might be like to some gay teens (and teens overall). This drama shows a very important message, which is one of the reasons I rate it so high up.

The story overall is very touching. The teenage problems the characters have are very easy to relate to. It is all about trying to find your place among others and to find yourself overall. These topics are brought up in the story very well and thus it is nice to watch. Nothing is too exaggerated or unrealistic, which is a huge plus.

Most of the cast is acting for the first time. Despite that, they did a good job. Sadness is an emotion hard to act and sometimes it doesn't look too natural. Most actors and actresses fit their character perfectly. Sometimes I feel like Captain doesn't fit Noh's role, but I got used to it.

The music is okay. Sometimes it ruins the moment, sometimes it enhances the emotions. Most of the songs sound just fine to me. Especially the OST has a place in my heart.

This series has one big minus. I absolutely hate that this series is filled with advertising. I know they might have to do it to cover the costs but they do it so obviously it makes me furious. There are whole scenes that are written just to advertise. They have no meaning for the story whatsoever, but include characters eating a certain food etc. I like my drama a drama. The advertising should go hand in hand with the story. Yes, you can hold that bag of chips or drink some green tea, but I do not enjoy watching a scene dedicated to a sim card and how it works. (I'm sorry, I might mix up the seasons but nevertheless, both have the same kind of advertising.)

Overall, I would (and will) watch this again. I have never watched a drama this great. Definitely worth watching! If you're looking for a school / slice of life drama, please watch this!

Leia Mais

This Drama is most memorable for the amazing OST, Hyun Bin sparkly Jersey's and that red shoe.
what I loved about this drama is the solid cast and their performances, the lead actress is a surprising lead, you don't expect to see such a female character in K Drama, not appealing nor eye candy nor weak and vulnerable.
Hyun Bin as a lead was a brilliant choice, he played the character so well that I loved all of his scenes, every other cast member was outstanding as well.
the story is fun, heartwarming and heartbreaking as well, it remained attractive and had some unexpected twists, especially in terms of "Progression" of relationship between the lead couple and Hyun Bin and his cousin, the singer.
I don't care for the lead actress Ha Ji Won that much but she won me over.

Leia Mais

There are reasons I haven't reviewed City Hunter here. For instance I don't want the Lee Min Ho fangirls to downvote my review like crazy just for stating what I honestly felt about the drama. It's a fact that I rated it 7.5 stars while 'Faith' gets an 8 from me. Execution-wise, Faith may lack City Hunter's slickness or tempo or glamour but it makes up for everything with the inclusion of the sweetest romance ever. I have watched LMH with Goo Hye Sun and Park Min Young before this too but boy his chemistry with Kim Hee Sun in this one is totally off the charts. In every scene they appear together, they are virtually shooting sparks. And to think they have a 10-year wide age gap. This just goes to show that good acting trumps everything else.

Faith's other strong point is obviously Kim Hee Sun. In the first couple of episodes she may come off as slightly airhead-ish, babbling non-stop like a teenager but once you learn that under the facade of this relentless bubbliness, there is a headstrong, intelligent, sassy woman who takes no shit from anyone you will find yourself charmed by her antics. I came to this drama to verify whether Lee Min Ho can actually act or not and was pleasantly surprised. I think this is the only show in which LMH gets into a character rather than acting out the part of a rich, entitled brat/superhero-lite. Choi Young's vulnerability, his heroism in the face of defeat and danger, his emotional scars, his unwavering love for Eun Soo all come through quite wonderfully in Lee Min Ho's performance. And I think Kim Hee Sun's excellent excellent acting may have helped things along in this regard. Only she could have made Eun Soo so endearing, earnest and believable.

The direction is not the drama's strength. In fact it flounders so badly, that there is a constant discrepancy between a scene's emotional content and the actual screenplay. Badass fights look distinctly less impressive because of the choppy editing and shabby production values. There are so many plot loopholes in the drama that one can drive a truck through all of them put together. Several plot devices are rehashed time and again to advance the story and the fantasy bits are rather badly juxtaposed with the realistic bits. The X-Men-ish premise makes zero sense. One wonders if there were indeed X-Men like warriors in Goryeo, why the hell did they not organize themselves against Yuan? Also Young's superhuman powers were rarely used in the drama so I am not sure what was the point of giving him the ability to shoot lightning anyway. Excellency Deuk Heung made for a worthier villain than Gi Cheol who sort of degenerated into a caricature by the end methinks.

I would have liked the time-travelling bits to have been more fleshed out so that we could understand better the past and future Eun Soo's struggles to reach Young across the fabric of space-time. It was probably one of the only plot threads that could have made for interesting viewing but remained sadly underutilized.

Long story short, Faith isn't the best sageuk-fantasy out there (that honour goes to Arang and the Magistrate) and has a shitton of narrative flaws. But it has its heart in the right place. If for nothing else, watch this for Young and Eun Soo's impossible love that develops gradually and becomes the show's only lifeblood. In my opinion, this is one of the best romantic relationship portrayals in all of Kdrama history.

Leia Mais

I've read the manga for quite some time, but never had the courage to watch the japanese version since I had a lot of disappointments in the past. So when I found that a korean version existed I watched it in one go.

For those worrying about the plot, let me tell you this: you don't need to. This is a very stimulating dorama, quite different from the majority since its focus is not on romance (there's almost none) but on mind games. As the manga already had an incredibly good material to any possible game to be played in the tv show, I can say that you'll rarely get bored. In fact, the only period where the series dragged a bit was in the only original game that the dorama had -- the presidencial game. Other than that, it's nearly perfect.

The music is absolutely amazing, and that's all to say on that matter. The characters are more realistic than their manga counterparts, and are better portrayed as human beings. The lead girl (Da Jung/Nao) is kind and too naive at the beginning but grows wiser as the series go on, and the lead boy (Woo Jin/Akiyama) is very smart and reserved, but also a good person. There are of course many others worth mentioning, and at the end you like a lot at least 5 people in total.

The biggest difference that the korean version provides, and I believe what it sets it apart, is its main antagonist: Kang Do Young. He is the host for the Liar Game, a television show and not an underground event as the original, but he's a big player as well. He has the charisma, he has the looks, he has the intelligence to rivail Woo Jin, and more importantly (for all of the reasons) he has the psycho vibe. This dude is elegant and ruthless but it's his strained laugher that will make you truly uncomfortable (for fangirling reasons or not ;) Still, his true goals and story is like: woah! Did not see this coming, but I loved it! I just can't read the manga and not miss him anymore. Didn't expect this level of competence from the writers, I must say.

Well, I don't know if it'll have a 2nd season. It's said that they brought the rights but it's already one year and no new rumour so who knows? But I honest to God hope so. I mean. The ending makes you really, really hope so. The biggest wtf, I think, is that it had low audience in Korea...

Leia Mais

Nunca había escrito un review acerca de un drama, pero con este siento la necesidad de compartiros mis sentimientos porque a partir de ellos fue que supe valorar y entender miles de situaciones que se mostraron y se discutieron a través del drama. Además siento la necesidad de darle un lugar muy especial a este drama en mi corazón porque hace mucho, demasiado tiempo no me atrevía a ver un drama que me fuera a hacer llorar, porque desde el último que vi hace un par de años mi corazón tardo mucho tiempo en recuperarse.

Quiero agregar y destacar porqué fue que mi corazón disfruto tanto el drama, porque logré colocarme en la posición de Takuto e inclusive llegarme a imaginar y sentir un par de sentimientos que en la vida cotidiana no suelo sentir. Es por ello y mucho más que logré disfrutarlo.

Hasta la proxima.
Besos.

Leia Mais

This is it. My first historical drama, complete! As a historical drama should, it was filled with hanboks, politics, and... vampires!? "Scholar Who Walks the Night", or what I feel the drama could be alternatively titled, "Kim Sung Yeol runs around on rooftops", had all the potential to be a 10/10 drama. Great cast, amazing music, wonderful costumes and sets-- the only thing holding it back was unfortunately the story.

With the vampire popularity boom these past few years, you'd think that we ought to have grown tired of them by now... The premise of this drama is good. No complaints. Just somehow, they managed to mess up on the execution. Some characters have depth, while others are rather one-dimensional. Yang Sun was a bit too clingy and stubborn for my liking. She wasn't able to take no for an answer and followed the Scholar around like a tail. Gwi, on the other hand, seemed like a dull character at first but turned out to be one of the stars of the show. The gisaeng Kim Sung Yeol's right hand Soo Hyang showed some great character development, and Ho Jin charmed us all, I think, with his yes-can-do attitude.

The drama moved along extremely slowly around episode 8-10. I watched this on Viki, and I have never appreciated the timed comments-function more. Then the drama changed writers, which was kind of both good and bad. Good, because the pace quickened again and prevented the audience from dying from boredom. Bad, because a lot of loose ends were left at the end. What was the deal with the black cloak anyway? The final episode, by the way, was probably the best final episode I've ever seen- for the first half, that is. The second half, and especially the last ten minutes, provided the second least satisfying ending I've ever seen (those of you that have seen Big know what I'm about). In any case, the storyline wasn't that complex that it really required all that much explaining in the end anyways.

But what really got me coming back to continue watching this drama week after week isn't the story- it's the sets and the costumes. Since it's a historical drama, all characters wear traditional Korean clothes, which I've come to understand is called a hanbok. Men wear some sort of long robe and women wear a jacket and a skirt. All the costumes are beyond amazing. With their intricate details, lovely cuts and overall design, it's clear that the costume team spent a lot of time making these. Thank you costume department!

The cast all did a splendid job. This is the first time I've ever seen Lee Joon Gi, but let me tell you, it won't be the last. I am definitively seeing more of him in the future! That man can act. There were many demanding scenes in this drama, but he acted all of them out wonderfully. Lee Yu Bi, too, did a great job. Real emotions; real tears, real smiles, real kisses. The two of them had real chemistry, which unfortunately cannot be said for Shim Chang Min and Kim So Eun. Individually, they were great. Just not so much together.

I also won't forget that this drama gave the world the gift that is Secret Paradise by Jang Jane. This song is everything. I swear I've listened to it a hundred times. Not only is the atmosphere it gives incredibly well-suited for the drama, it's also a real tune. I just love it so much. The rest of the soundtrack doesn't disappoint either: both Beast and Yook Sung Jae, among others, feature on the OST. The background music overall is strong in this drama. The instrumentals are thematic and really set the mood. There are even a few that I'd like on my iPod (if they only would release the soundtrack... please, if you're reading this, MBC people).

Even if saeguks aren't your thing, "Scholar Who Walks the Night" is still a drama worth watching for its excellent production, music and cast.

Leia Mais