Hope Dies Last

Even though, sometimes, the first season of a drama doesn’t give you what you want, when a second season is announced, there's always hope for things to get better. As one of the persons who was disappointed by the first season of Alchemy of Souls, but still full of hope & curiosity, I've given AoS's second season a chance, to see what more this story had to offer.


~~S1 vs S2 ~~

World & Rules

In my review of AoS S1 I have written "in AoS the rules/grounds of body sifting are very interesting yet the concept of it somehow lacked". Well, in AoS S2 the rules/grounds of the whole world's structure just lacked.

The world doesn't follow a predetermined setting,a natural flow. In S2 new rules/abilities are constantly added and the only reason behind their existence is because somehow the plot had to move forwards. It's not a bad thing to create rules that help the plot out, but you can't excuse everything that happens because "it's magic" or "it's a fantasy drama not based in reality". Even in fantasy stories there should be grounded and have limitations and everything that's done should have a reasoning behind it.

Winner: S1 The world setting was way better there.

Pace

AoS S2 consists of 10 episodes which is the half amount of the S1 episodes and this helped the drama's pace a lot. S2 has a lot fewer filler scenes than S1 so it's more focused on the story which is actually a good advantage. Generally though, I had to say that the S2's individual pace as a drama wasn't perfect, just not as problematic.

Winner:S2 ? Well...

Story & Development

Having the characters and their relationships already set, the 10 episode-length S2 of AoS is ready to set another thing: the story. But jokes on you! S2 spends most of its time resetting the relationship between the two main characters while it didn't develop the core of the story until the last 2 episodes. In all the other episodes, the things that move the plot forward didn't have as much screen time.

As in S1, the villains were on the background plotting once again and doing nothing. The other relationships between all the other characters are already known from S1 and they made, from time to time, guest appearances in episodes , just to remind that they also exist in the story but they don't evolve further (except some exceptions).


To sum up, S2 was static. The only hot topic was the recreation of the main character's relationship and not what was actually happening in the world of the drama. The reason why this was bad is because it somehow made AoS S2 look like an individual drama that was inspired by AoS S1... Maybe a FanFic??

Winner: Tie. Both seasons lacked in story development and only move forward the very last minute


~~Cancel Writing~~

AoS's story has a very big disadvantage, and will call this problem "cancel writing". It means, when something that is written in the story is canceled by future events, for example, a character is represented to be very strong, but never one in the story was. A character has a curse that can't be broken, but it actually did, with the most easy way possible etc... This is bothering because the events that made you happy or sad and gave an emotional value to the story, got canceled, just like they didn't even happen.

In addition to that, I felt like the writers didn't dare to move the story a little bit further, so that everyone in fandom could be satisfied. Story-unrelated example, when a beloved character stays good and flawless, so that none of the fans is hurt because of their beloved ones behavior.

The above can make the drama boring, because you know that the story is not gonna pass a certain point and pull out something unpredictable and even if an event disturbs the story's waters, it will get canceled. As a result to this, everything in AoS ended as a bit cliche and not out of the box drama.



~~Overall~~

To say something positive about AoS, in both seasons, there were some things that I really enjoyed. In S1, I enjoyed the characters' interactions, the lore of the world. In S2, I appreciated the action scenes and the production behind this drama a lot more. AoS is generally a very well-made drama and no one can say otherwise.

The story had many possibilities to be good, and some of its parts were actually really good. I thought many times that if some things would turn out otherwise, AoS would be excellent in my eyes, but it wasn't. AoS's story never reached its full potential.


In the end, hope dies last, but dies


And just like that, as far as the story is concerned, AoS ends up as something I wouldn't recommend watching.

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The Clickbait

Little Women is a Korean Thriller Drama adapted from the novel "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott, until it wasn’t.

Before reviewing the drama itself, I will try to define this matter without spoiling anything from the novel and the drama.

~Novel & Drama Comparison~

The novel revolves around the life of 4 sisters from a poor family. Each of them has her own personality, flaws, charms, worries and dreams, creating her own path in life. All of them together create a chaotic & dynamic companionship filled with many happy, sad, comforting but above all, sisterhood moments. The novel is set in the 1860s, but the core of its story is timeless. Thus, whatever changes plot wise, as long as the adaptation stays true to the original story’s vibes, it will successfully deliver the original message.

But this particular adaptation, despite having Little Women’s family tree (kind of), has nothing else in common with the novel. It’s a pure Makjang with a completely independent story, which is not even slightly inspired from the novel as its conflict between poor and rich is the most common theme in Makjang. It looks like the writers had a story already planned in mind and used the novel as a reference in order to promote it.

The Drama production should have mentioned the novel only for copyright purposes and of course, they should have used a different title. The fact that they didn’t, was a foul move which makes the drama a clickbait, something I personally can’t ignore.

I’d advise you to not start the drama thinking it is a modern retelling of Little Women. Think of the drama as another Makjang and don’t get scammed by the drama’s sly marketing. This way, you will enjoy the drama, or not, but at least the reason of deciding to watch Little Women will be sincere.

~The Story~

So where to start and where to finish with that chaotic mess which is called "story"? Ι have many issues with it and to set the record straight, the drama not being actually a modern adaptation of Little Women didn’t affect the story’s rating more than 1 point in my books.

~Main theme & escalation

Little Women consists of 12 episodes and its story is actually very fast paced as a lot of things are happening in a very short amount of time. The first 2 episodes gave the drama a very promising start while they set a thrillery and mysterious aura around the main characters. Also, the sisters were presented having different personalities and problems, that could be explored through the story. But unfortunately all these didn't last long.

As the story escalated, it turned into a vendetta between the poor sisters and the wealthiest family in the nation. And that’s all folks, nothing else is going to happen expect from a series of unfortunate plot twists alongside stupid actions (and some plot holes, because why not?).

In the name of suspense and uprediction the writer made a story with more ups and downs than a harmonic oscillation diagram. The result of it was two, 1) to make an unfocused story with an unclear goal from the writer's perspective which couldn't lead to any conclusion 2) to make the story complicated and confusing without any specific reason. In addition, the story consisted of some fiction elements which made it even more unrealistic and far-fetched.

The climax of the above was the final act, the last 2 episodes. As the story was processing it got messier and messier to the point that there wasn't any way for the story to reach an epilogue. So, what happened? A plot twist coming straight from the Neverland worked as Deus ex machina and saved the day with the most simple and canceling way possible.

~The Characters

Even though at first it seemed that the Sisters were well written characters, they weren't. Generally, the drama was very plot driven (not that it had a certain plot as I said but anyway) so actually none of the characters had any space to grow and develop. Oh In Joo, the main character from the sisters, was bond to be naive girl who loves money, her sisters and making stupid decitions. Oh In Kyung was supposed to be the cleverest sister but oh well, at least she tried. The little sister Oh In Hye could draw, that's it, she was a moving puppet during the whole drama.

The flatness of the main heroines didn't bother me so much though. What frustrated me most was the poor reference to the phenomenon of alcoholism which is a very serious matter that can't be portrayed in a drama as lightly as it was portrayed in Little Women. The story had the easiest solution to alcohol addiction: just to forget that it was ever mentioned in the previous episodes. This just proves how much the writer cared about giving the drama a decent story and an ending that would respect the time which viewers had spent on it.

~The Production~

Production wise, Little Women is masterfully made. From visuals to music, to styling, to framing and directing, Little Women is one of the most exceptional Korean productions I have ever witnessed till now. Thus the drama was very captivating and putting aside the plot, very enjoyable to watch. But if you care the slightest about the plot, the drama felt like a present with extraordinarily beautiful wrapping which was empty inside.

~Conclusion~

Well, Little Women is not a drama that I would recommend in general as I believe the story doesn't have anything to offer. I tend to ignore things that bother me in the stories, trying to find the meaning behind everything the writer wanted to do and tell through their story, but Little Women hit me under the belt countless times, so in the end, I couldn't ignore any of these triggers.

On the other hand, if you are willing to turn off your brain and enjoy the view, maybe Little Women can be an enjoyable and visually beautiful ride for you, as it was from the eyes of many other people who watched it.

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An alchemy of genres that went a bit wrong

Take a dose of a classic shonen anime trope and mix it with romcom. Then add some wuxia elements and for the cherry on top, give a historical kpop-like styling and wrap it with a high-quality production. What you’ll end up with, is Alchemy of Souls.

Alchemy of Souls (AoS) is a weird combination of many different tropes & genres which make it definitely stand out as a very unique drama. I believe that’s partly why it gained popularity and is loved by many; it has its own special charm.

AoS is easy to watch and overall, an enjoyable-entertaining ride. It may consist of 20 episodes, but it can be easily binged if you feel like it. Watching this drama while it was airing and discussing events and theories with other watchers made the experience a lot more fun. Thus, I highly recommend watching this drama with company.

~The Story~

Even though I quite enjoyed the drama, story wise I had many issues that disappointed me and I wanted to highlight. The story had a very promising beginning but unfortunately, as unique was the style of this drama, as shallow the story ended up to be.

~~The main concept: body sifting

NOTE: If you don’t mind spoilers, read the first review’s spoiler comment for more details about this matter.

As a concept is nothing new, yet if it’s done right, it can make the story extremely interesting. In AoS the rules/grounds of body sifting are very interesting yet the concept of it somehow lacked.

Firstly, biologically speaking it has plot-holes. Since it’s a purely fantasy drama, I didn’t get bothered by it, I just found it funny. With that move though, it was made clear that what really matters in this concept is the soul and not the body. But did any other actions show that the soul matters more than the body? Well, in general I didn’t feel like they did.

When you play with such themes you have to constantly remember where the soul is coming from and its original form, especially if that form comes back eventually. You have to make clear that a soul is “parasitizing” a body. This can be succeeded with several directing-writing ways. In AoS when at first this “parasitizing” was clear at first but started to get blurry from both the directing and writing side.

From the directing aspect, I wanted more audiovisual stimuli of the original soul’s form. From the writing, I wanted to see the persona I was promised this soul has and its gradual development-changing and confliction, which weren’t really shown. This leads me to my next issue.

~~ Development: Plot & Characters

Some would say that AoS is a slow-burn drama. I would say that to characterize a drama like this, the plot has to move, unlike AoS where honestly, the plot is moving slower than Flash the Sloth from Zootopia. Don’t get me wrong though, AoS is an eventful drama, just most of these events don’t escalate the storytelling, they are fillers.

These filler events were mainly comedic & romantic scenes. The writers made sure they gave the audience a decent amount of juicy funny and romantic scenes which provided exclusive entertainment and made the viewers get more attached with the characters. These scenes didn’t offer anything to the plot, so as the drama was running out of episodes I was wondering “I’m having a good time watching, but what about the story?”. From one point onwards, I couldn’t but constantly get the feeling that the writers wanted to win over viewers’ hearts and extend the series as much as possible rather than make a consistent story.

AoS is a fantasy story that has its mysteries. These mysteries made the story very intriguing to watch and many viewers started theorizing about what would happen next. Sadly, even the mysteries didn’t escalate as they should. For example, one of the main mysteries, which was also a very important part of the story, was noticed and solved pretty early in the story process. Yet, it was “explained” so late to the point that when the director finally presented it as a very intense revelation, it didn’t feel intense at all, because it wasn’t anything new.

About the characters, some of AoS them had likable personalities, others didn’t and very few of them had multidimensional personalities. Many characters were just used as mere plot-subjects, love interests or/and they were very important parts for the story but they were never fully explored. About character development, the two protagonists barely had any, and in fact, they were predictable. It’s really funny how static the characters were when the drama consists of 20 episodes with a duration more than an hour each.

The universe of AoS is very well created, I would gladly see another story from the same universe. But about the character relationships of this universe, everything was predefined, everything was forced. From the start it was made clear who are the bad ones, who are the good ones. Even their appearances and acting were decisive. There was no room for doubt, everything was black and white without them getting mixed and creating a gray area, even if the good guys sometimes did the same things as the bad ones.

~Conclusion~

AoS is a drama in which you’ll enjoy the journey (individual moments) but not the destination (the overall story process). The story started really well but lost its main focus as the episodes were passing. Despite that, AoS can turn out a very good drama depending on what you are looking for. If you want to have a good time, laugh and you don’t really care how the story will turn out, then watching AoS is a very good option. If you want a story with more depth, escalation and more complex writing, then AoS is not what you are looking for.

I would also advise you to not have high expectations while watching AoS, you will enjoy it more that way. I believe the main reason I ended up really disappointed at the drama was that due to the amazing first episodes, I set the bar too high and I expected a lot from its story. In the end, the drama didn’t satisfy my high expectations and I was let down. I want to believe that the second season of AoS, writing wise, ends up better than the first one so the final taste this drama leaves in my mind is a more positive one.

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If “God’s gift: 14 days” and “Mouse” had a child, this child would have been “Black”

Note: This review feels more like a general observation of the drama than a review

Screenwriter Choi Ran, is an expert on writing unique and confusing stories and she never forgets to leave traces of her characteristics in them. “Black” is mystery supernatural thriller with many elements that reminded me “Gods Gift” and “Mouse”. Some of those elements were good and some were bad.

~The main mystery and the flow of the story reminds of GG14D.

In “Black”, we have a case that is getting bigger and bigger and more people are involved and affected by it. It generally feels like that cartoon scene where the characters unzip their costumes and all these plot-twists about their identities happen but at one point onwards it is getting out of hand and flirting with surrealism.

Having a structure in such a chaotic story is necessary. But the structure wasn’t really there and that’s why the flow of the story wasn’t really good. More specifically, I didn’t find a way to divine the story in parts nor did I find (clearly) the progression that led the story to climax.

The above made the drama quite draggy and difficult to keep up with, even if the directing was good and simple enough. Despite that though, Black’s mystery is quite unique and, let aside the confusion, clever so it is entertaining and it can be likable. There were some moments in which I really appreciated the plot.

~The character development of the protagonist in “Black” reminds of “Mouse”

Both stories of “Black” and “Mouse” are a journey of self-awareness and self reflection of the protagonist. The character we met in the first episode is not the one we end up with in the last.

This way of writing is called “The Hero’s Journey” and I find it really fascinating and not so common in kdramas. Thus, I think the protagonist’s way of writing is Black’s biggest advantage.

Beside the protagonist though, the other characters didn’t have depth. In a plot-centered story like this, this is more likely, but it would have been great if the universe was moving forward like the protagonist did.

That said, the female lead, Kang Ha Ram, was a very promising character whose potential was never unlocked, fully-used and involved within the story. Unlike the male lead, Kang Ha Ram stayed in the dark till the very end, which was really sad.

~The ending reminds of GG14D

I have seen many conflicted opinions about the ending. But whatever your thoughts about it are, it is certainly rushed and somehow incomprehensible.

I’ve read in an interview (link in the comments) that there was a miscommunication between the writer and the director of the drama. The episodes were supposed to be 20, the tone of the drama more melodramatic and the ending slightly different. Maybe this is the reason why Black ended the way it is and I’m really curious to see how the actual ending would have been.

But since #ReleaseTheSynderCut movement didn’t affect Black too, we only have one ending and this is the only one I commented on.

So in my mind, I can see and understand why Black ended the way it did, but it left a bittersweet taste in my mouth. I felt something was missing and wasn’t explained as much as it should have.

In the end, I thought and made my own theory about it based on other theories I read. The final outcome made me satisfied enough. But the thing is, not every viewer is in the mood of theorizing and overthinking about an ending, especially if they don’t not have enough clues to assure them.

In conclusion, the problem with the ending is that even though it has a closure, it’s unfinished because it wasn’t well explained and executed and the final idea of it never reached the audience as it was supposed to. The production team should have paid more attention to it.


~Final thoughts~

From what I wrote, it may seem that I didn’t like Black, but I actually enjoyed watching it. There were moments I laughed, moments I was shocked and moments I was touched. It has many imperfections but its uniqueness offered me a different, from other dramas, experience so overall it was worth it.

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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.

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And I’m feeling… Blue

Taking some real-life problems and highlighting them through the screen, “Our Blues” (or literally “Our Depression”) tells the story of the everyday life and struggles of a bunch of people that have one thing in common: the island of Jeju.

“Our Blues” is a drama everyone can watch, because of its slice of life theme, but at the same time, is not for everyone. It contains a huge amount of depression thus, it’s not a drama someone can watch simply for fun or enjoyment. Also, its episodic structure is not everyone's cup of tea.

Production wise, “Our Blues” is another technically even drama. It has brilliant directing and its cinematography is beautiful, but not so artistic. In combination with the mainly chilling music, the drama has a melancholic tone which fits perfectly with its theme. Last by not least, the cherry on top of the production which gives the drama a high quality, is its stellar cast.

The story

“Our Blues” is a slice of life anthology consisting of 20 episodes and each story has a duration of 2-3 episodes. By using many different stories, “Our Blues” shows various real-life situations of people in various ages, social statuses. As the stories have small duration, we can say that it is fast paced drama but the overall pace is not synchronized with the fast pace of everyday life. On the other hand, I’d say that it is a slow paced and chill drama.

The coherence of the drama is almost excellent as the center-story of the drama changes very naturally and even though a story ends or hasn’t been told yet, is still developing through the drama. It has to be mentioned though, that I didn’t like all the stories the same, some felt weaker than others. The weakest story in my opinion was the first one and it was the biggest disadvantage of the drama, because it gave the drama a weak start. But as the episodes passed, I felt the drama only was getting better and better and without realizing it, I fell in love with it.

As far as the characters are concerned, they are all well written. They are multidimensional, imperfect and, as a result, “real”. Almost none of them is likable and they all have their scars, traumas and daily struggles which in the end, make them who they are.

Epilogue

Blue is the coolest color, it’s the color of depression. But blue also brings to mind feelings of calmness and serenity. In “Our Blues” this conflicted meaning of blue is used a lot. There were many depressing scenes accompanied with calm and chilling music or beautiful sceneries. And in the end, all these combined overwhelm you with a feeling of comfort, relief and rejoicing. They give you a strange feeling of purification. “Our Blues” manages to perfectly show that through sharing Our Blues with people we love, we can find a little spark of happiness and continue to live. This beautiful message is the reason “Our Blues” is a very unique and special slice of life drama.

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The Thrilling Trio

Being in a Thriller slump for quite some time, I came across the title “Midnight Thriller” and my curiosity was alarmed. Without even reading the synopsis, I dived in and “Midnight Thriller” ended up to be a surprisingly pleasant and enjoyable watching experience.

“Midnight Thriller” consists of 3 episodes and it’s an anthology of 3 stories. Each story has its strong and weak points and some aspects are done better in one story than another. Overall, all the stories left a good impression on me.

Surprisingly, the production in total is quite meticulous and technically sound, giving the drama quality and at the same time, artistic tones. The only thing lacking is the music which is like the music you hear in an Escape Room with a horror theme or a Haunted House. Despite that, the music still fitted with the drama’s tone perfectly.



~~~First story : Friendly Police~~~

Friendly Police is a psychological, mystery thriller story. It was the creepiest and the “weirdest” of the three. The plot is quite predictable, or it isn’t? If you watch it, you’ll decide yourselves and that’s what makes Friendly Police a very unique story. The biggest disadvantage is that the story is very slow paced and it can be tedious. Still, the pace might not affect you so much.

The Acting

The acting was superb, the best of the three stories. The main leads are portraited by Kim Yoon Hye and Jung Jin Won and their chemistry was insane. I have watched KYH in other dramas (Vincenzo, Sh**ting Stars) and yet, her performance in Friendly Police is her best. It was my first time watching JJW and I was amazed, this actor really has some skills.



~~~ Second story : Follower~~~

Follower is a crime, mystery thriller and my favorite story of the drama. As a crime thriller, it gave me strong Agatha Christie vibes. The plot is very well written and executed so as a result, the story has good coherence, pacing so you won’t feel bored at all. The story isn’t predictable but if you are observant, you might suspect what is going on. All in all, this story was very enjoyable to watch and I’d gladly watch it again.

The Acting

The main lead of the story is Cha Ye Run alongside Jo Han Sun and Kim Jung Hwa. CYR was the reason I discovered “Midnight Thriller” as I was searching her filmography. In Follower, she was quite captivating and she delivered her emotions successfully. I think she is a brilliant actress and I’ll keep searching her filmography and hope I will see her in another good drama soon. JHS and KJH did a pretty good job too.



~~~ Third Story : Supermodel~~~

Supermodel is the most suspenseful story of the three and also, the one with the most aesthetic cinematography and directing. The plot is quite interesting and manages to keep you attention till the end as a result of its good pace and structure. The story is far from predictable as you can’t see the ending coming. Honestly, I was quite shocked with the ending.

The Acting

I have to say that I wasn’t as impressed as with the acting of the two previous stories, mainly because of the acting of the supporting characters. The main lead of the story, Lee Shi Ah is, in my opinion, a good actress. Her interpretation in Supermodel was decent and that’s why the third story had in the end a good outcome.



~~~Conclusion~~~

I’m very happy I discovered “Midnight Thriller”. Each of its stories had something to offer me and impressed me in its own way. Even though they weren’t perfect, I was completely satisfied with what I watched and I’m craving for more thrillers now. It’s really a shame that “Midnight Thriller” is undiscovered by many. If you are a thriller lover and want to watch light mini-drama, then “Midnight Thrillers” should be on your radar.

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“Violent delights have violent ends”

Emerging from the darkness, covered in brutality, comes the King of Pigs and whispers “There is no creature in the world more cruel than human being”. And just like this, it haunts you. It makes sure that watching this drama will be something you won’t forget anytime soon.

‘The King of Pigs’ is a psychological thriller drama that is, as already implied, not for the light-hearted. It contains a lot of violent, gore and psychologically heavy scenes which make it almost unbearable to watch. Prepare yourself, because what you are about to watch is a very rough ride.

The story

The drama’s story is based on a 93 minutes animation film ‘The King of Pigs’ by Yeon Sang Ho which is also based on a true story. As I’ve watched the animation film too, I can say that the drama is lightly based on it. Actually, it feels like the drama took the original story, evolved it and ended up making its own and unique story. Thus, there is no point in comparing them.

Without giving away the plot, the story deals with the trauma caused by intra-school violence and how it affects the victim and the perpetrator. Specifically, the story explores a series of events of school violence which took place 20 years ago and the results of these events in the present.

The uniqueness of the story is that it doesn’t refer to these events passively, as something that happened in the past, but as something that started in the past and is still progressing. In other words, the story emphasizes on the dynamic nature of these events and successfully manages to show how greatly the victims were stigmatized and how even the perpetrators were affected by it.

The story denotes that an act of violence is not a simple act. It’s an act which opens the Pandora's box and destroys everyone involved without an exception, because an action always provokes a greater reaction. Thus, in the end, “these violent delights” can only “have violent ends”.

Moving on to the structure, the story has great coherence. As the story is dealing with trauma, it has many flashbacks that interrupt the present story. The transitions from the present to the past were very meticulously made so they don’t end up as tedious flashbacks but on the other hand, they help the story develop and escalate making the story impactful.

The story’s pace can’t be called fact paced because the events don’t unfold quickly yet, as the episodes are very tense, it can’t be called slow paced either. What is certain, is that the drama pace is balanced and manages to keep your attention until the very end.

Lastly, it has to be noted that the story isn’t perfect. In fact, it has some minor flaws as some illogical things occur. Fortunately, they don’t affect the general plot and also, they can easily be ignored or pass unnoticed by the audience.

The production

From my point of view, the production of the drama is almost flawless. ‘The King of Pigs’ is one of the most well-made and well-executed dramas I've ever watched. The directing is on point and manages to perfectly render the dark tone of the story’s theme. The drama consists of beautiful frames, great scene transitions and camera angles which combined with the dark color palette, make the drama visually stunning. The drama’s soundtrack is the cherry on top, as it works as the last stimulus which makes you shudder and frequents you emotionally with the moment.

As far as the acting is concerned, every actor did a pretty good and decent job as every emotion was delivered with great success, the interpretations felt very realistic to the point that the scenes became more traumatic and tense. Both Kim Dong Wook and Kim Sung Gyu had great chemistry and were great in their roles. It has to be mentioned though, that the young actors, especially Choi Hyun Jin, Sim Hyun Seo and Lee Chan Yoo, stole the show.

Conclusion

‘The King of Pigs’ is technically speaking, a very decent drama which deals with a very sensitive and heavy theme. Thus, it is a drama you can’t watch easily just for enjoyment and also, it may not be to everyone’s liking. If you are a thriller lover, I believe that you should give ‘The King of Pigs’ a try. For me, ‘The King of Pigs’ is a very impactful and unique drama that really deserved my time.

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"I detest young offenders"

"Offender, Criminal, Killer" what comes to your mind when you hear these words?

Maybe, a maniac, a psycho or a monster and disgusting adult human being? But what about a child? In most of the drama/movies we see adults committing crimes, but young offenders exist too.

And this is what "Juvenile Justice" wants to remind us, that criminals can be anyone, even a little child. "Juvenile Justice" deals with a very interesting, yet very difficult and provoking theme. Fortunately, though, the drama succeeded in managing its heavy theme and ended up a very eye-opening drama for me.

As "Juvenile Justice" it's a law drama which deals with many inhuman crimes (and it's also a Netflix original drama), it's an R-rated drama, which contains a lot of violence, gore scenes but mainly, it contains a lot of scenes that may upset psychologically some viewers. In addition, the drama doesn't contain any funny moments, or comic reliefs and its pace it's slow too. Thus, the drama is indeed a heavy and difficult watch, it will punch you in the stomach without any pity for 10 hours straight. Therefore, be very careful when you make your decision to watch it.

The story

The story revolves around the Juvenile Judge Shim Eun Seok. Through her eyes we are able to see how Juvenile Justice works on many different cases and affects the involved ones and that's the biggest advantage of the drama.It approaches its topic from many different aspects and shows the two sides of the coin of crime but also the law system.

It has to be mentioned though, that the number of different cases may have a negative effect on some viewers because they won't like all the cases the same as the cases aren't on the same level and some are more interesting than others. Despite this fact, I believed that all the cases offer something valuable to the story and also, that the story's coherence is great as every event of the story is very well connected with the other so the overall story is very balanced.

The story starts with a shocking abominable and macabre case which gives a strong and promising start. The middle cases are milder but the story doesn't lose its interest neither becomes tedious and repetitive. The story throughout its whole run, asks moral questions and tries to make the viewers think of various different situations and dilemmas. The final case, the story’s finale, gives a decent and powerful closure. The story indeed leaves the best for the end as from all the cases, the last one is the most suitable for closure . Thus, the story manages to end without the feeling of being rushed or unfinished. To my surprise, Netflix made a (maybe) one season kdrama that is complete and I'm very glad and relieved about this.

There's a high possibility that the first case and some others are inspired and lightly based on real cases which have happened in Korea and I personally really appreciate it. It's very interesting to see how writers use real events to deliver their messages and basically, to see the impact these events had on them. In addition, the story feels more down to earth and more realistic. Korean dramas and movies have their way of making excellent and entertaining stories based on real events. Fortunately, "Juvenile Justice" is one of these stories. More details about the cases in the spoiler comment on this review (because they are, of course, spoilers).

The characters & acting

Almost all the characters of the drama have depth and their personalities are very well built. Their actions are always composed of their life experiences, scars, insecurities and the drama explored with success the reasons behind their behavior. None of the characters is perfect, everyone made mistakes and some learnt through them, some not. It’s pretty amazing how the drama made so many well written characters and developed their personalities through the story, this is very rare to see.

And of course, the actors did an amazing job portraying these complex characters. I couldn't be more satisfied with their performances. Their feelings were on point and the characters really came to life and took shape. There was also great chemistry between the actors that made the characters more bound and the drama complete and more impactful.

The production

Production is the last ingredient of a drama. It's the finishing touch that will make the drama more appealing. The "Juvenile Justice" 's production, as far as the directing is concerned, isn't one of Netflix's top-notch and artistic ones, but still, it's great and gives the drama the right tone and atmosphere, making the drama very decent and beautiful. The music is wonderful, full of emotions. It gives the right tone in every scene and it never feels off. The music is the cherry on top of the drama, giving you the last push to fall in love with it.

Overall

"Juvenile Justice" is a very tough watch and not an easy ride. Still, the things this drama will make you feel and think are countless. If you believe you can bear its cruelty, then "Juvenile Justice" really deserves a try because from the story, to acting, to production, this drama has the whole package. For me, "Juvenile Justice" is the first Netflix original kdrama I loved after "D.P. " and I'm glad I watched it.

~~~Epilogue~~~

"I detest young offenders". Young people are the future of humanity, humanity’s hope. When they behave like adults and commit crimes, the world loses its hope and everything becomes darker. Why do young people commit crimes? How can someone so young do such a macabre thing? Can we teach them what is good and what is wrong? Can we set them back to the right path? In the end, is it their fault or ours?

"I detest young offenders" because they are showing me how cruel the world is and how we fail to protect them.

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Working Women

When I read the description (the Netflix’s one), I thought this would be another drama about relationships and cheating. In the end, I was wrong and I’m glad about it.

“VIP” is a drama that revolves around the life of the people that are working as members of the VIP Management and especially, it focuses on the working women. The drama manages to show through its women characters the different kinds of difficulties that women face in their working life. Even though the drama is very woman-centered, the whole concept is handled very meticulously, with respect and it doesn’t give the feeling that is all over the place and that is the drama’s charm.

The drama is a mix of romance with some mystery elements but generally, I would categorize it more as a business and slice of life drama. It can be also considered as a light drama because it doesn’t contain extreme violence, gore or other scenes of this kind. As far as the pace is concerned, the drama is slow so there is a high possibility for someone to lose their interest. Fortunately, I didn’t lose mine (as I’m a slow-burn lover) but I have to say that the drama was tedious for me at times.



About the characters of the drama, the females seem more well written and complicated than the male ones. I consider it as a disadvantage because this was one of the reasons the female actors shine bright in the drama while the most male actors sank.The strongest example of this is the male character, Park Sung Joon. This character didn’t have enough scripted words to say. Every time he was talking with a female character, he wasn’t talking, only looking. In some way, that was his personality but it seemed as personality-lacking to me.

Anyway, I have to say, this drama made me adore all the female characters, even the women who had more controversial motives because they had Personality and I was really impressed by them. I especially liked Lee Hyun Ah because she seemed the most logical of all the characters. She always fought back, never gave up and she didn’t care about her pride. She was an amazing person.



The drama’s production isn’t top notch but it can’t be considered as bad. In fact, it is as it should be, so that the drama ends up being beautiful and eye-catching but nothing else except this. In other words, it isn’t so “artistic”. The music consists of some very interesting and wonderful BGM music that is likable, but unfortunately it is a little repetitive.



To sum up, VIP is a drama that I partly enjoyed because it has some really good scenes and it gets some very important messages crossed. I have to say though that I didn’t care about the general plot at all. There were times that I thought of dropping this drama. In the end, I completed it but I have very mixed feelings about it. I don’t know if I would recommend it, but I believe it deserves a try because of its beautiful (and rare) subject matter.

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How far will you go in order to survive?

"All of us are dead" is a classic zombie drama with a lot of action, thriller and horror elements. Even though the story is nothing groundbreaking, it doesn't fail to deliver enjoyment to the viewers that seek for zombies and epic action.

As the drama consists a very high number of brutal and gore scenes, in addition with bulling and sexual harassment, it's not for the lighthearted. The drama's extreme violence made the drama at times really disturb and difficult to watch. If you know you can't bear it, then avoid it.

As for the drama's pace, the first episode is slow but the drama in general is very fast paced because it contains many action scenes. As the drama is very suspenseful and stressful to offset seriousness, and make the drama easier to watch, at times it has some comic reliefs. Thus, every episode is good watching experience. As it's a 12-episode drama though, it's difficult to binge-watch it right away.


The Story

"All of us are dead" is based on a webtoon by the same name, written by Joo Dong-Geun. The original run of the webtoon was from May, 13th 2009 to November, 9th 2011. The story mainly revolves around the struggle for survival of the students who were trapped in the ground zero for the zombie virus, the school.

Webtoon comparison

The drama adaptation has many differences with the original story that gave it some advantages and disadvantages. I will analyze some of these changes below.

1. The beginning
Unlike the original story, which starts straight away, the drama invests some time to set the characters background. The advantage of this change was that the viewers had the time to get to know the characters so it was easier later to understand their motives and empathize with them. The disadvantage of this change was that the first episode was slow and it may be boring for some of the viewers.

2. The center of the story
In both stories the center of the drama was the school, but in the drama, we see a lot of subplots outside the school that originally didn't exist, or they weren't fully developed. That way, we see a more global picture of the events that took place under the zombie apocalypse. For example, the overall government's response was more carefully written and seemed more logical and comprehensive in drama.

The disadvantage of this change was that some of the extra subplots were completely unnecessary (and illogical) and that could easily put off some viewers (which in my case happened).

3. Characters & relations
As the drama consists of many extra scenes and subplots, some of the characters are extra too. Apart from this, some of the original characters have different storylines, deaths and relationships from the original story. As for the storyline, the actions of a lot of characters changed but their personalities remained the same. As far as the dead are concerned, the only thing that changed was the cause or the timing of their death. This change was neutral for me as the results were the same as the webtoon.

4. Action
The drama is filled with a huge amount of action scenes and almost all of them aren't part of the original story. On the one hand, the action made the drama a thrilling watching experience as some of them were pretty amazing. On the other hand, as far as the story's events are concerned, due to the action "overdose" the story got draggy. This affected the characters also because, even though they had better and more complete background and relations than the webtoon, the necessary time for them to develop through the episodes, wasn't given.

5. The virus' origin
The virus origin that causes the zombie apocalypse is different in the drama. I can't analyze this in detail because I don't want to spoil it. What can I say is that in the drama they tried to make a full background of the virus and support it with sci-fi biology elements which was pretty convincing for someone who doesn't know about biology. Again, this was an advantage for the drama.

6. The ending
Both endings have many similarities but the webtoon ends while the drama may require a second season. As the webtoon has ended, the second season of the drama will be completely unrelated with the original story. The writers don't have elements to base a second season on, so it's unsure if a second season will be released or if it will end up being a good sequence of the story. This change may be a big disadvantage for someone who doesn't like incomplete stories but at least the story has a closure so maybe it's less frustrating.

Conclusion
The drama and the webtoon have countless differences which have both negative and positive effects on the story. We can say that the drama's story is loose based on the webtoon as it just kept the story skeleton and created a new one. In general, I think the adaptation can be considered as a good one.

My overall impression of the drama’s story is not very great, not very bad either. It was a mediocre story and there were many unnecessary and illogical things for me to accept. Also, several same (or almost same) things and events happened which made the story repetitive and tedious at times. What I liked the most, was how it manages to show how differently everyone acts in order to survive or to save someone else.

The production & Acting

The greatest thing about this drama, it's its production and directing, they were just amazing. Maybe "All of us are dead" has one of the best productions a Netflix original kdrama has. From the VFX to the zombie’s make-up, to the choreographed action scenes, to the scene’s shots and transitions, everything was perfectly and meticulously made. The music on the other hand was the weakest part of the production as it wasn't so memorable to me and it felt a little off from time to time.

The acting in general was okay. As I've said before, the drama mainly had action scenes so the actors didn't have enough to work with and create multi-dimensional characters with complex emotions. Some actors, though, manage to shine and catch my attention as a viewer. These were Yoo Chan Young, Jo Yi Hyun and Park Solomon.

Overall

"All of us are dead" was a drama with a mediocre typical story about zombies. It doesn't have the touching story of "Train to Busan”, the mysterious aura of "Kingdom", the uniqueness of "Sweet Home" or "Happiness" but it has one of the best productions of zombie action scenes which makes it a very decent and solid zombie drama. So, if you're looking for a drama for zombies with impressive action elements, watch it for sure. You won't be disappointed.

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No words can describe the feelings “The Red Sleeve” gave me

But I will try.

“The Red Sleeve” felt like hymn of love,
but also, like condemnation of love.

"The red sleeve" is the perfect rendering of the dual nature of love, of its bittersweet reality.

At moments it made me laugh my heart out, at moments it made me cry. Sometimes I was over the moon, filled with joy or my blood was boiling to the point I wanted to punch the screen. I was amazed, I was entertained, I was disappointed. “The Red Sleeve” was a pleasant and thrilling ride that offered me all kinds of feelings, positive or negative ones.

The Story

“The Red Sleeve” is a historical romance drama of 17 episodes. The story is based on the novel “The Red Sleeve Cuff” by Kim Mi Kang and revolves around the relationship of court maid Sung Deok Im and Crown Prince Yi San.

The story is also based on historical events and figures. As I’m not an expert in Korean history and I haven’t read the novel, I can’t analyze this any further. For anyone who wants to know more I will comment on my review- comment the link of the MDL discussion thread “Drama vs Novel (vs History)”. This contains spoilers so I’d advise you to read after you’ve watched the drama.

Even though the story is romance-centered, it deals also with other things that make the drama quite interesting, like the life of the court maids, the fairies of the palace. From their point of view, the story manages to show how the institutions of the palace work but also, the sad and brutal reality of it : the intrigue, the political corruption, the inequality, the devaluation of human life.

In addition to the above, another benefit “The Red Sleeve” has, is that although it starts with a very common romance trope, generally it doesn’t contain a lot of cliché romance scenes. Thus, I believe that even if you’re not into romance dramas, you can give “The Red Sleeve” a chance and you may be satisfied with the outcome. I’m not really a fan of historical or romance-centered dramas and yet, “The Red Sleeve” kept my attention till the very end.

The Pace

The pace of the drama is neither fast or slow, it’s something in between and varies from episode to episode. Thus, I think the pace is just right and manages to keep you unbored. I also noticed that after an intense, thrilling and serious episode, the next episode is mild and relaxing, like it is a comic relief. That creates balance in the drama’s tension and makes it pleasant to watch.

It has to be mentioned that some comic reliefs and serious scenes also exist inside the intense and the mild episodes respectively. These changes between funny and serious are well structured and not abrupt so they don’t destroy the drama’s serious and melodramatic tone. Not everyone though likes this kind of alteration, even if it is well made, so if you belong to this category, you may be a little disturb from time to time.


The Storytelling

I don’t know if it is because the drama is based on a novel, or the screenwriter did a very good job or because of something else, but the storytelling is beautiful.

There is harmony between every situation and relationship, everything is perfectly tied together creating perfect coherence. The story slowly and unsuspectingly escalates, comes and hits you unexpectedly. Watching the last episodes and realizing how much has happened and how every character and situation has changed was a shocking experience.

The greatest thing about the storytelling is how poetic it is. This drama has one of the best scripts I have ever come across. The dialogues and monologues are so impactful and powerful,full of beautiful words. The feelings and thoughts of the characters are very well imprinted that can touch the audience and make them feel the same as the characters. Reading the subtitles of this drama was so appealing that even someone who hates reading subtitles would enjoy it.


The Characters

The characters are very well written. There isn’t any dull character, almost everyone has a multidimensional personality and depth. Everyone has their own purpose, acts accordingly and ultimately, it is their actions that determine their fate. Even if some characters had bad intentions, you can’t define them as villains because they weren’t completely bad people, they were just humans.

I like many of the characters but I especially like Sung Deok Im, the definition of the “strong female lead”. Sung Deok Im is smart and she has her way with words. She used her charms to survive in a very tough environment. She is confident, fearless, independent and she always puts her logic over her feelings. Her acts are very mature and thoughtful so she is a person to rely on.

The Acting

I was impressed by the acting and I was completely satisfied with the result the whole cast provided. All the actors did a great job.

The two main leads, Lee Se Young and Lee Jun Ho had perfect chemistry and their performances were breathtaking. I have seen many dramas of Lee Se Young and she has never disappointed me, she is always on point, as she was in this drama too. It was the first time I saw Lee Jun Ho and his acting surprised me. In the future, I will see more of his dramas.

My favorite actor was Lee Deok Hwa (King Yeongjo), he was remarkable. I was captivated by his solid performance. His reactions was so natural that made me predict something that happened later.

The Production

What I liked about “The Red Sleeve” the most, was its production. “The Red Sleeve” is technically perfect from all the aspects. Everything is so well made; the production is indeed very meticulous. The directing contains beautiful cinematography with the artistic shots of nature, vivid colors that made the drama visually stunning. This directing combined with the soundtrack, created thrilling and romantic scenes that made my body shivering and sad scenes that made me want to cry a river.

Conclusion

I believe that “The Red Sleeve” is one of the dramas that you know from the first episodes if you like it or not. The technical aspects of the drama are very decent; everything else depends on personal taste. For me, “The Red Sleeve” was pure art from all perspectives. This drama has a lot of beautiful moments that stole my heart and I will always remember. It was indeed a delightful journey.


I hope if you watch it, you will experience the same feelings as I did.

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This drama was like an explosion

The time an explosion happens, what you see from afar is impressive, you are shocked, surprised and curious at the same time. You wonder and you come closer, what you finally see is ruins.

That was the feeling Shadow Beauty gave me. At first, I was really impressed and shocked about how good, thrilling and well executed the story was. But as the episodes were passing through, this first impression slowly faded away.

Shadow Beauty is a web-drama of 13 episodes. The pace of the drama is pretty fast and the small duration of the episodes make the drama very easy to binge-watch.

Although it’s a psychological thriller, it’s a light-watch drama that can be watched by everyone who likes this genre. The drama is somehow thrilling and it keeps its tension till the end but also, the level of frustration is also growing up little by little as the episodes are passing. Romance is also one of the main genres of the story, but the drama isn’t Romance-centered as the romantical relationships aren’t fully explored.

As far as the technical part of the drama is concerned, both the production team and the majority of actors did a pretty good job. What I especially like about the production was the drama’s direction and montage, combined with on-point music which wasn’t unfortunately something memorable but it works well in the building of the drama's tension.

It has to be mentioned that this was the time Shin Dai Gi played the main lead in a drama and she was stunning, I hope we will see her in more main roles from now on. Shadow Beauty was also the first drama as a main lead for Choi Bo Min and the first time I saw him in general and he left me a good first impression.


~~~The webtoon~~~


Shadow Beauty is based on a webtoon by the same name written by Ahum. The webtoon is completed and it consists of 100 main episodes and 25 special episodes. The English translation is still ongoing and until now (December 29th 2021) 78 episodes have been released. The story is about Koo Ae Jin, a girl who has built a fake social media persona called “Genie” and she is basically living a double life.

As I said before, I was very excited and pleased with the first episodes of the drama. Then a certain thing happened that bothered me so I decided to read the original story. Guess what happened, the thing that disturb me wasn’t part of the original story.

I kept reading as well as watching the drama and now that I have finished both (I’ve read until the last published chapter of English translation), let me say the negative (for me) parts of the drama while doing a comparison with the webtoon at the same time (which is spoiler free so don’t worry).


The coherence


The episodes were very few compared to the episodes of the webtoon. To fill the whole story in only 13 episodes a lot of parts were cut and the story was limited. The original story is about Koo Ae Jin’s life in general and not only her school years which the drama contains.

As the drama only focuses on Koo Ae Jin’s school years, it is only logical for the drama writers to change some things and create their own ending of the story. This for me was a disadvantage because by limiting and editing the story, the storytelling ends up becoming incoherent and rough at some parts.

Also, by changing the story, what the author has in mind and the purpose behind the situations fails to be delivered. The story’s main purpose is the Koo Ae Jin’s secret identity and how she will keep it secret when in the webtoon this isn’t the case.


The characters and their relationships


One of the biggest mistakes was the alteration of the characters but also the alteration of the relations between them. My main problem here was the relationship between Koo Ae Jin and Yang Ha Neul which can be described with one phrase as “a hot mess”. Something quite curious that happened between them isn’t part of the original story so it was just something the drama writers came up with to create more drama in the story. This certain thing though makes Yang Ha Neul twisted to the point that her character’s writing seems weak.

Unlike the webtoon, the drama builds villain/s which Koo Ae Jin conflicts with and that makes the drama another ordinary drama despite the story’s attempts to break the norm. In the webtoon, the characters are mostly gray with their own wounds and mistakes that determine them. During the webtoon’s episodes, you see the characters mature, learn from their mistakes or shrink because of them. The drama didn’t completely fail to show this side of the characters but it didn’t succeed either.

In the webtoon, the main reason why Koo Ae Jin and her backstory are revealed in the early episodes, in the drama this is done at the end of it. This was bad because in the drama, the background of all the other main characters was explored before hers and made somehow the story unfocused on her.


~~~Overall~~~

Generally speaking, Shadow Beauty wasn’t a bad web drama, it was a regular school story with some thrill elements and some quite interesting parts. The finale of the drama is decent and the message that drama wants to get cross is very well delivered. I wish I could have rated this drama higher, but knowing the original story and how it failed to deliver its uniqueness I couldn’t do it.

Shadow Beauty is a story about people who are fighting everyday and conflict with themselves so they can mature, overcome their insecurities and accept themselves. Each character's monologue was a delightful and unique journey. It’s a pity this beautiful side of the story remained in the shadows.

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The “Silent” Show 

“The Silent Sea” tells the story of the critical space mission that will determine the future of planet earth. Even though the drama had its problems, it ended up an enjoyable and interesting ride.

The drama is a mystery horror thriller without any romantic aspect as it only focuses on the mission. Generally speaking, it isn’t creepy as it is gore and (a little) disgusting so I don’t consider it a heavy drama. The drama is also a Sci-Fi and that makes it not everyone’s cup of tea.


~~The Sci-Fi~~

The Sci-Fi of the drama is mainly about Biology, especially Astrobiology. I have to say that I found the Sci-Fi part pretty interesting and it was very well presented and delivered through the episodes. Using Astrobiology was one of the keys to success for the Sci-Fi theme because space is endless, full of mysteries and that lets the human’s imagination arise and make unique stories. Also, as we don’t know many things about space, the Sci-Fi part is more acceptable and less frustrating (unless you are an Astrobiologist I guess).

The Sci-Fi part reminded me of the “Panspermia Hypothesis” which basically says that “life began on Earth when the "seeds" of life, already present in the universe, arrived here from space”. I don’t know if the creators know about this hypothesis but I really like the fact that the resemblance with this hypothesis existed even if it wasn’t on purpose. If you watch the drama, you will understand this resemblance too.


~~The Pace and Storytelling~~

Slow but interesting, without action but suspenseful. This drama is very insidious, even though “silent” it manages to make the louder noise.

“The Silent Sea” is a slow burn drama, but it’s not boring. It takes it’s time to unfold the mystery and to create the right atmosphere. The suspense of the drama is built through the “unknown” factor and the process which will eventually lead to the knowledge and not through the violence and action scenes. Even the music of the drama is slow, mysterious, calm, hypotonic but also very interesting and aesthetically pleasing. As a lover of slow burn dramas, I really appreciate this drama’s aura.

“The Silent Sea” felt like a movie and this is a good but also, a bad thing.

The good thing first, it felt like a 7-hour movie, it was easy to binge and it didn’t lose its interest. The storytelling was very meticulously made. It had a start, a middle and an end united with a very good coherence. In other words, the story is a well-completed chapter.

The bad thing was that as a movie due to the lack of time has some undeveloped parts, “The Silent Sea” has some undeveloped parts too. The main undeveloped thing is the character’s depth. One of the advantages that series have over movies, is that they have the comfort to dedicate time to spend on the character building and on its development. “The Silent Sea” though didn’t dedicate the necessary time on this. All the characters were one-dimensional, even the ones with the backstories, and also, there isn’t any character development.

The second bad thing is the ending. Unfortunately, the story only focuses on the space mission and the mystery behind the accident but not to what happens after. As many movies, “The Silent Sea '' is dedicated to one action but not to the universe that this action is part of. Thus, I believe that “The Silent Sea” might have a second season.


~~Production and Acting~~

I don’t have much to say here, I am fully satisfied with both production and acting. Netflix paid much attention to their last Korean Drama of the year and the result was beautiful. “The Silent Sea” is just visually stunning with neat directing that contains beautiful space sceneries and scene transitions and with good quality VFX and CGI. The acting was great but the actors didn’t have the needed space to develop their portrayal through the drama and reach their full potential. Still, it was so nice to see these lovable actors on the screen again.


~~Overall~~

If you are a lover of Sci-Fi and slow burn dramas, but also a binge watcher, “The Silent Sea” is a very good choice. The story has some mistakes and some loose, rough points but generally, the storytelling is comprehensive in terms of its main theme and quite interesting. I don’t know if you will end up loving the drama or hate it but I believe that this drama will be an entertaining watching experience.

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Well, well, well…

Make some tea, this will take a while…


!!!ALL the spoilers will be warned beforehand!!!

Hellbound is one of the examples where a story with an interesting concept was "bound", not to hell, but to not develop fully so that it could reach its true potential.

Hellbound is a supernatural horror drama not for the light-hearted. Even though Hellbound is not scary, it contains extreme violence and gore which makes it very dark, raw and twisted.

The story revolves around a mysterious phenomenon where some weird creatures burn humans and bind them to Hell. As fast these monsters burn humans, so slow burn the drama is. For a 6-episode length drama, it’s really slow paced. Personally, I like slow paced dramas when this factor helps in building the universe of the story, the atmosphere, the suspense or the characters’ depth. In Hellbound though, nothing of these happens. That’s why I found the whole set up (especially the first 3 episodes) a little boring and I don’t think that the drama can be binged-watched easily as its slowness makes it a very exhausting experience.



~~~What went wrong~~~


The real problem of the story though, it’s not the pace. I think that the story has 2 main problems



~ The Randomness~

DISCLAIMER: ~Randomness~ does not contain spoilers but it describes very generally how the storyline works.


The one problem is the randomness. Many random people were involved in many random situations that led to a random storyline.

Hellbound feels like watching a “collection of stories” which take place in the same universe. The storyline is showing some of the actions/situations of many different people during the crisis, but never you’ll never get to see in depth the character's way of thinking or get to fully know their personalities. Also, you won’t even get to know the whole story for some of them. As a result, you can’t get attached with any of the characters. There are only some cases where you can feel sorry for some of them and that’s it.

In addition, the relationships between the characters feel kind of superficial to me. The fact that you see many people with not a certain relationship between them, strengthened the randomness factor because basically, the drama was just throwing random characters and their stories to your face. The weird thing is that the drama isn’t that long and it didn’t even have these many characters to feel like it’s overdrawn with them and their stories, but it did.



And here is where the critical question arises: among all these characters, who is the protagonist?

I asked myself many times and to my surprise, I couldn’t come up with an answer. In Hellbound there isn’t anyone that you can call “the protagonist” of the story. Thus, as a watcher, you don’t have anyone to follow and process the story with. This is actually the reason that everyone seems irrelevant with each other, there isn’t a protagonist to bound all of them together.

Don’t get me wrong though. Good stories without a certain protagonist can exist but I believe that Hellbound isn't one of them.



~Netflix~

The second problem, that I believe is the most serious one, is Netflix.

Netflix has started to produce more and more Kdramas lately and some of the dramas it has made had huge and global success. Even though I really loved many of them, I have to say that there’s a different aura in these dramas, a more “Netflix” aura that slowly takes the K from Kdrama away.

The main problem I have with Netflix original dramas is the “see you in the second season that isn’t even confirmed that’s gonna happen” thing. As a regular asian-drama watcher, I have been used to watching a drama that has one season with a story that has a start-middle-closure which in the end I like or dislike and then, move on to the next watching adventure. I, and many others I have talked to, like asian-dramas because of this. I’d lie if I’d say that I haven’t liked dramas which have multiple seasons but Netflix has just overdone it lately.


Thus, I started to think if I dislike the fact that Hellbound is another Netflix drama which will have a second season, or if there was something wrong regardless of the fact that Hellbound has to have a second season. The answer here is both.


Hellbound is based on a webtoon by the same name. I haven’t read the webtoon. I don’t know the full story, so I don’t have an opinion about it. Maybe the webtoon is a hidden gem, when I read it, I will see for myself. For now, everything I based this review on is the 6 episodes that I have watched.

The webtoon’s original run was from August 25, 2019 to September 21, 2020. This means that the story was completed and Netflix could have released the whole story in one go, but it didn’t. This led to the creation of a drama which basically has no story progression. It’s remarkable, the first season ended and it answered literally nothing, on the other hand, it raised more questions than the already existing ones. The first season could have been described as the “backstory” of the Hellbound but it’s nearly the beginning of the story.

Maybe, if Netflix had released the whole story in one go, the progression and the escalation of the story and characters, that was needed, would be there. Unfortunately, Hellbound’s story was bound by Netflix to not develop as it should, and this is really sad. As the story hasn’t ended yet, to see the story’s full potential we have to wait until the second season is released (if it will be released) or read the webtoon instead. For me, Hellbound will be saved if the second season comes to set the record straight and puts everything in its proper place.



~~~What went well~~~


Despite the fact that the storyline is messy, there are some things that I quite liked about Hellbound.


~The concept~

!!WARNING ~The concept~ part contains SPOILERS!!





Hellbound has managed to build a dystopian world that's based on a very -as nonsense as it sounds- realistic depiction of human thought. Humans through the years tried to explain the world and the natural phenomena around them using logic. In the early years though, humans couldn’t understand all of the things around them. Thus, they attributed the nature of these phenomena to God and God’s Will and many times humans were scared by them. A perfect example is Greek mythology. One of the Greek mythology myths is saying that God Zeus was using lighting as a weapon and to punish but in many myths, he didn’t use lightning to punish but to seek solutions.

Likewise, in Hellbound we see people become witnesses to a supernatural phenomenon which they couldn’t explain. In their fear and lack of knowledge they attributed this supernatural phenomenon to God’s Will to punish sinners. At the end of episode 3, Jun Jin Soo explains exactly the feeling of human’s fear to the unknown perfectly.


“Do you honestly believe true justice can be served through man-made law?”. This is the moral question that Hellbound asks through Jun Jin Soo and answers through the 6 episodes of the fist season. Law was made by humans when society was created to ensure harmonious coexistence between people. Of course, nothing man-made is perfect and the same applies to the law. Through the years, humans fight for their rights and always try to improve the law as much as their human nature allows them.

In Hellbound, we see people turn a blind eye to the law and only believe in the God’s Punishment, which was actually the product of human fear. The deviation from legal life led to the creation of Hellbound’s dystopian world. Thus, through this world, Hellbound shows the value and the importance of human law and how humanity would end up without them.







~The production and Acting~

The production is not perfect, but it’s decent enough. It has some generally good cinematography and even though the music was average, it was on point and it fitted very well with the drama’s tone and atmosphere. As the drama has a very dark plot, the colors follow this darkness too so the color palette contains strictly cool colors. The visual FX are very satisfying in general but the VFX I think that lacked in some parts. The CGI of the monsters honestly wasn’t bad, the design of them was only somehow weird and not scary enough. Personally, I didn’t care about the monster’s appearance, I had other things that I didn’t like and found them more serious problems. Last, for the acting, Yoo Ah In was exceptional as always and the other actors acted good enough alongside him. Won Jin Ah's performance as mother and Park Jung Min as a father were really remarkable too and I enjoy watching them a lot.



Conclusion

Hellbound wasn’t good, but it wasn’t very bad either. Everything will depend on the second season. Until then, if you want to watch a horror-thriller series and you don’t care about how complex and well-written the story process is, you would definitely enjoy it.

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