7
14
1
Joerin
Greece
Let me give you a taste of your own medicine
Or better, let me give you a taste of mine.
Flirting with revenge and lust, ‘Eve’ tried very hard to escape from norms and bring a groundbreaking revenge story on the scheme, but in the end, the drama wasn’t as great a seducer as its protagonist.
That being said, ‘Eve’ is a revenge-focused drama with many dark elements which contains both physical and psychological traumas. Considering also its sexual context, Eve is a drama I wouldn’t easily recommend to someone. But even if someone can deal with brutality, would I recommend Eve to them? Well…
I highly doubt it because, even though ‘Eve’ wasn’t that bad, it has several problems in almost all the aspects. I will try to identify these problems one by one as I analyze some factors. So, let’s begin with the most important one:
The Story
The main theme of the story is the revenge of a girl whose normal and peaceful life was rodded by the evil rich guys. What is special about this story, is how character-driven the plotting and the execution of the revenge is, since everything was defined by how this girl would react in a specific situation like it’s a butterfly effect.
Considering the story’s character-driven plot, the protagonist’s character plays a very important role. The protagonist, Ra El, is blessed with the charisma to seduce and manipulate everyone around her. Despite being The Great Seducer, she is very smart but at the same time vulnerable due to her haunted past. Determined by all these factors, her character is multi-dimensional and at the same time very dynamic and interesting, yet, something feels wrong.
What is wrong is the character’s presentation through the story. The writers, along with the direction, presented the protagonist as a queen (see drama’s poster), a goddess, like she is something beyond the humans of this world, when she wasn’t. The deification of Ra El and the beautification of her actions are so forced that there isn’t any space for the audience to make its own opinion about this matter.
In other words, the drama was yelling “Look Ra El IS a top-notch seducer. She is also this and that” and I just have to accept it. The fact that Ra El is charming was not my own conclusion based on several scenes I’ve seen, it was something I was forced to believe from the very beginning. It really felt like I was watching a long-running advertisement. Sorry, but even if there were actually some awesome and badass scenes of Ra El, I won’t buy it thank you.
Moving on to the story's structure, the story is clearly divided into parts (which I won’t analyze ‘cause spoilers) and also, there is a flow and escalation of events which lead to the closure. Although the story has good coherence, there is a fact that can’t be ignored, the fact the story is chaotic and illogical. This leads to a question:
Is ‘Eve’ a Makjang drama?
Yes, but actually YES
This question is controversial among the watchers, but for me ‘Eve’ is clearly another makjang drama for various reasons. For those who don’t know what a makjang drama is, let me use a defection of an article (source on comments): a drama is a makjang “when plot devices involving extreme, or outrageous instances of life are dealt with in an illogical or twisted manner to assure or hook the viewers”.
Likewise, ‘Eve’ consists of a decent amount of nonsense, alongside with craziness, all over the top behaviors and exaggeration of events. More specifically, like other makjang dramas I’ve watched, ‘Eve’ has the all-time classic affair-thing in which revenge is based on, the unfortunate little kids and my “favorite”, slaps.
Thus, as I said before, ‘Eve’ tried to be a revenge drama which would be different from others, but it ended up as a combination of makjang dramas like ‘Penthouse’, ‘High Class’ and ‘Golden Mask’ for me. I can’t consider ‘Eve’ as a bad makjang drama, but it wasn’t the best of its genre either.
The last thing I want to say about the story is the center of the plot. I believe that even though the main theme is revenge, the romance (which is the tool for the revenge) is highlighted more, making the revenge losing its importance.
The acting
The main lead is portrayed by Seo Yea Ji. SYJ’s acting was what made me start this drama and also finish it. The direction took advantage of her skills and by using them wisely they created many amazing scenes. The second female lead who is portrayed by Yoo Sun, was the most entertaining character and also YS had great chemistry with SYJ. These two give the drama a sparkle of vividness and enjoinment.
On the other hand, the acting of the male lead, who is portrayed by Park Byung Eun… wasn’t so good. The male lead was supposed to be cold, distant and emotionless, so was the actor directed to play the character this flat? Maybe, but personally I believe that both the actor and directing are at fault. PBU pairing with SYG didn’t feel so awkward because of SYJ's good acting.
Lee Sang Yeob as the second male lead, in this drama was rodded. He did a pretty good job and his character had potential to do many interesting things but he didn’t have much screen time. Also, his chemistry with SYJ was certainly better than PBU with SYJ.
The production
Nothing about the production amazed me enough to say that it is great. Of course, it isn’t bad but, I have seen better. I mention some of the directing problems I had in the story and acting section of my review. What remains in the music consists of some pieces I really liked but in general, the soundtrack didn’t impress me as much as it should. The pieces also weren’t a lot and some of them are covers of the OST ‘Hold me tight’ or very close to its ‘theme’. Thus, there isn't much variety in the drama’s music. Lastly, the styling of the drama felt, meh. Seo Yea Ji’s eyebrows will haunt me in my dreams.
Conclusion
‘Eve’ is an average makjang drama. I was quite hooked at first and there were many scenes I enjoyed, especially some dance scenes but after the excitement of “new drama with Seo Yea Ji'" faded away, I wasn’t so interested anymore. Though I personally wouldn’t recommend this drama to someone, I believe that there are some people who would enjoy it, because of some events of the story or/and Seo Yea Ji’s and Yoo Sun’s acting. Whatever you’ll do, I hope you’ll make the right, for you, choice.
Flirting with revenge and lust, ‘Eve’ tried very hard to escape from norms and bring a groundbreaking revenge story on the scheme, but in the end, the drama wasn’t as great a seducer as its protagonist.
That being said, ‘Eve’ is a revenge-focused drama with many dark elements which contains both physical and psychological traumas. Considering also its sexual context, Eve is a drama I wouldn’t easily recommend to someone. But even if someone can deal with brutality, would I recommend Eve to them? Well…
I highly doubt it because, even though ‘Eve’ wasn’t that bad, it has several problems in almost all the aspects. I will try to identify these problems one by one as I analyze some factors. So, let’s begin with the most important one:
The Story
The main theme of the story is the revenge of a girl whose normal and peaceful life was rodded by the evil rich guys. What is special about this story, is how character-driven the plotting and the execution of the revenge is, since everything was defined by how this girl would react in a specific situation like it’s a butterfly effect.
Considering the story’s character-driven plot, the protagonist’s character plays a very important role. The protagonist, Ra El, is blessed with the charisma to seduce and manipulate everyone around her. Despite being The Great Seducer, she is very smart but at the same time vulnerable due to her haunted past. Determined by all these factors, her character is multi-dimensional and at the same time very dynamic and interesting, yet, something feels wrong.
What is wrong is the character’s presentation through the story. The writers, along with the direction, presented the protagonist as a queen (see drama’s poster), a goddess, like she is something beyond the humans of this world, when she wasn’t. The deification of Ra El and the beautification of her actions are so forced that there isn’t any space for the audience to make its own opinion about this matter.
In other words, the drama was yelling “Look Ra El IS a top-notch seducer. She is also this and that” and I just have to accept it. The fact that Ra El is charming was not my own conclusion based on several scenes I’ve seen, it was something I was forced to believe from the very beginning. It really felt like I was watching a long-running advertisement. Sorry, but even if there were actually some awesome and badass scenes of Ra El, I won’t buy it thank you.
Moving on to the story's structure, the story is clearly divided into parts (which I won’t analyze ‘cause spoilers) and also, there is a flow and escalation of events which lead to the closure. Although the story has good coherence, there is a fact that can’t be ignored, the fact the story is chaotic and illogical. This leads to a question:
Is ‘Eve’ a Makjang drama?
Yes, but actually YES
This question is controversial among the watchers, but for me ‘Eve’ is clearly another makjang drama for various reasons. For those who don’t know what a makjang drama is, let me use a defection of an article (source on comments): a drama is a makjang “when plot devices involving extreme, or outrageous instances of life are dealt with in an illogical or twisted manner to assure or hook the viewers”.
Likewise, ‘Eve’ consists of a decent amount of nonsense, alongside with craziness, all over the top behaviors and exaggeration of events. More specifically, like other makjang dramas I’ve watched, ‘Eve’ has the all-time classic affair-thing in which revenge is based on, the unfortunate little kids and my “favorite”, slaps.
Thus, as I said before, ‘Eve’ tried to be a revenge drama which would be different from others, but it ended up as a combination of makjang dramas like ‘Penthouse’, ‘High Class’ and ‘Golden Mask’ for me. I can’t consider ‘Eve’ as a bad makjang drama, but it wasn’t the best of its genre either.
The last thing I want to say about the story is the center of the plot. I believe that even though the main theme is revenge, the romance (which is the tool for the revenge) is highlighted more, making the revenge losing its importance.
The acting
The main lead is portrayed by Seo Yea Ji. SYJ’s acting was what made me start this drama and also finish it. The direction took advantage of her skills and by using them wisely they created many amazing scenes. The second female lead who is portrayed by Yoo Sun, was the most entertaining character and also YS had great chemistry with SYJ. These two give the drama a sparkle of vividness and enjoinment.
On the other hand, the acting of the male lead, who is portrayed by Park Byung Eun… wasn’t so good. The male lead was supposed to be cold, distant and emotionless, so was the actor directed to play the character this flat? Maybe, but personally I believe that both the actor and directing are at fault. PBU pairing with SYG didn’t feel so awkward because of SYJ's good acting.
Lee Sang Yeob as the second male lead, in this drama was rodded. He did a pretty good job and his character had potential to do many interesting things but he didn’t have much screen time. Also, his chemistry with SYJ was certainly better than PBU with SYJ.
The production
Nothing about the production amazed me enough to say that it is great. Of course, it isn’t bad but, I have seen better. I mention some of the directing problems I had in the story and acting section of my review. What remains in the music consists of some pieces I really liked but in general, the soundtrack didn’t impress me as much as it should. The pieces also weren’t a lot and some of them are covers of the OST ‘Hold me tight’ or very close to its ‘theme’. Thus, there isn't much variety in the drama’s music. Lastly, the styling of the drama felt, meh. Seo Yea Ji’s eyebrows will haunt me in my dreams.
Conclusion
‘Eve’ is an average makjang drama. I was quite hooked at first and there were many scenes I enjoyed, especially some dance scenes but after the excitement of “new drama with Seo Yea Ji'" faded away, I wasn’t so interested anymore. Though I personally wouldn’t recommend this drama to someone, I believe that there are some people who would enjoy it, because of some events of the story or/and Seo Yea Ji’s and Yoo Sun’s acting. Whatever you’ll do, I hope you’ll make the right, for you, choice.
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