I doubt there was any potential to begin with.

Bulgasal literally means "impossible to kill", or simply "immortal". It comes from the Korean folklore legend of Bulgasari, which illustrates the story of a frightening monster during the late Goryeo period (918-1392) that keeps growing as it eats all the metal. However, the drama named after the monster incorporates an immortal monster living for 600 years and drinks blood to survive.

Created by Studio Dragon & Show Runners and broadcasted on tvN, "Bulgasal: The Immortals" is the reunion for director Jang Young Woo and the husband-wife writer duo Seo Jae Won & Kwon So Ra with composition from Nam Hye Seung. It is also distributed on Netflix and TVING. It's basically a fantasy thriller with more than 3 timelines, 2 of the major ones taking place in far past and one occuring currently.

Dan Hwal (Lee Jin Wook) was cursed by Bulgasal 1000 years ago and was born as a cursed child, again 600 years ago, just to turn into a Bulgasal himself, after losing his entire family. He vows to avenge his family by killing the woman, the one who turned him into a bulgasal, as soon as she reincarnates as a human being. For that he desperately chases her down through the 600 long years till the present time and does all kinds of thing to survive. Will he be able to accomplish whatever he's been dreaming for all these years?

Kwon Na Ra plays the Bulgasal of 600 years ago, who has reincarnated 10 times since then and presently lives as Min Sang Woon who moves frequently along with his sister Min Shi Ho (Gong Seung Yeon) just to hide from the Bulgasal after a tragic incident to her family. Lee Hye Suk (Park Myung Shin) is a butcher who cares for Dan Hwal to a great deal. Kwon Ho Yeol (Jung Jin Young) is an ex-detective and currently a private investigator. Nam Do Yoon (Kim Woo Suk) is a highschool student living with all the above people as a family, due to some situations. All these people live at one place as the Bulgasal family and somehow interconnected with each other in different reincarnations.

Apart from them, we also have Lee Joon as Ok Eul Tae who plays the ultimate antagonist of the story.

Plot development is very monotonous. The introductory episodes might look intriguing to you bcs of the folktales as welll the Goryeo monster annihilation scenes but those weren't anything impressive to look forward to further. I had a hard time connecting to the essence of the story for 6 episodes but it became a lil interesting there so I was honestly expecting some good progress, just to be disappointed even further. It had several peak moments throughout the rest of the 10 episodes, nevertheless, I forced myself into finishing it since I am bad at dropping. So losing all my interest, I started fast forwarding since the 8th episode at 1.5x and somehow finished it.

The revenge storyline got lost somewhere in the middle and when they brought it up again after few episodes, towards the ending, it was again another set of confusing questions with infinity loops. In other words, it was predictable and nothing sort of suspenseful or confusing to make theories about. The 2nd half became very repetitive and overstretched, they were just revealing new details in every 15 minutes to keep it interesting, and the efforts were visible. The finale week was not satisfactory though entertaining with lots of things happening but that again became rushed. The ultimate back story was lame and very very funnh lmao. The final fight between the antagonist and protagonists itself was repetitive 2-3 times in the same premise.

The screenplay writing is moderately average which shouldn't be the case given there are 2 writers who have even worked together before. The plot development is entirely uninteresting, I must mention; the beginning itself has too many loopholes, which might create the impression of a suspense to be answered later, but trust me they just keep getting dull and dreary. I feel the writers have done a fair amount of research to create a good concept but making it into a good script is where they failed at, that too quite miserably.

The twists didn't help to be awestruck; like I'm not saying everything has to be wow, but they were underwhelming. Some revelations were amusing, I gotta admit, but the following excitement dies down soon enough with repetitive elements. The incorporation of various monsters from Korean folktales was in fact a nice idea, but the way they were trying to turn them into connecting plots, didn't work. The major turn off about the story was distorted narrative. The plot elements don't provide scopes to connect to the story or the character, thereby failing to gain any point.

The seemingly rookie director have been able to produce shows which were popular and seem to have been recalled now as well despite being critically average. But he seems to have not improved from experience and that has resulted in poor direction and execution of this drama. The screenplay is a messy one; not only it stupefy the audiences' interest, it also was unable to create any proper suspense throughout to keep the viewers going. The biggest turn off about this drama is the screen-editing, which could have actually saved a shoddy story, but alas!

Cinematography was pretty okay in my opinion and their investment for creating the Goryeo premise was justifying though there wasn't much to do. Camera angles weren't at all impressive per se the sound effects were tedious to begin with. The dark aura and the shady vibes in fact blended perfectly with the shadowy premise, as intended by the makers.

Composed by one of the best Nam Hye Seung, the 4 OSTs are somewhat good, I have to admit but they couldn't save the drama for a fact. The only track I could like is "Leave" by 4MEN, which suits the mood and the story's essence as well. The rest 3 were written to be romance-centric, both gloomy and joyful, which is definitely not what the story is about, thereby being proved useless. I would actually like them if they were not the parts of this drama. The other 3 tracks are "Tunnel" by Kim Ye Ji ft. KARDI, "Can't Forget You" by Minseo and "Beyond The Time" by Janet Suhh.

There was absolutely no need of romance and the writers visibly forced a love story plotline into the story expecting it'd pick the overall interest of the audience, which irl worked as many people fell for it. I am no objector of romance, in fact, I am sucker for it and got no problem with witnessing one in such fantasy thrillers but I can say it with confidence whenever romance is forcefully incorporated into a story where it wasn't required at all. What I liked to an extent was the bromance, which was in fact very subtle between the protagonist & the antagonist, but it did create an influence.

There were tooooo many flashbacks, enough to make you give up on understanding. The twists created weren't intriguing at all, rather the back & forth in time line, that too inclusion of more thanb2 timelines, was a major limitation for the writers themselves in framing a decent storyline with good plot elements. It's like they got confused in their own story. There were many filler scenes and unnecessary guest appearances (small roles). In fact, the 4 major supporting characters were used like fillers, just to be a part of the family and interact while projecting some comic dialogues to make the scene funny.

Another major drawback I would like to mention is the underutilization of the cast. First of all the proportion of major characters to that of the total number of people involved was very low. Secondly, it's waste of the tremendous skills of actors like Lee Jin Wook, Kwon Na Ra, Lee Joon, Jung Jin Young and Park Myung Suk. Given the potential they hold, the director failed to properly incorporate them into the story. The ultimate problem was with the dynamics of the characters drawn by the writer. The characters were unable to creare any significant impact on the viewers and their archs were poorly painted with repetitive dialogues and unnecessary reminisces that they were forced onto, to think about.

What's wrong with fantasy?
# Poor plot outline created with the concept.
# The origin was unclear, even after the finale where they showed the entire story that took place 1000 years ago, they were unable to explain where exactly bulgasal-s come from. The expectation that that timeline beholds the answers to all the questions, got destroyed in 15 mins.
# Different monsters were rather funny than scary.
# The characters curse each other as if they're some heavenly beings, that too pretty often. Ik it's fantasy but there should be a line of logic in fiction too.
#The connection between 3 bulgasal characters wasn't frustrating, rather stupid, irrational and awfully drawn to make it look intricate, whereas it isn't really potentially influential.

I must clarify before signing off, that I wasn't confused. I am not sorry for not being polite here bcs some people irresponsibly conclude their disagreement by stating that the person with negative comments was unable to understand the story and got confused. I was sane and tried to understand and like this thing but it didn't work out bcs it is what it is.

Final Remarks... Bulgasal overally is pretty average. Not jumping into a rash conclusion that it was bad, It felt like a good concept with scopes of beautiful script & nice improvement yet failed opportunity due to poor writing and direction, despite up to par performance. It could have been a lot better and a decent drama, if not something wow. I have to respectfully decline the argument that it was a good fantasy drama and the ratings should fall near to that of the other examples given.

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Time is the fire in which we burn.

Note: The drama waa completely shot back in 2019 and hence it demands the audience to watch itself in the pov of a 2019 Korean thriller drama. My review, in fact, is based on the same.

Chimera is a murder mystery plus investigative crime thriller with a major scenario in 2019 and a very minor frame of 1984 that connects to everything happening at present. Along with thriller, there are also a little of everything like: bromance, flirting if not romance, comedy, etc.

Chimera is a mythical character in Greek mythology, presented as a monstrous fire-breathing hybrid of 3 animal: a lion's head, a goat's body, and a snake's tail. The drama based on this creature, has its mysterious main culprit, burning people alive with fire, in ways that's difficult to decipher. 35 years following the serial murder incident, named Chimera Case, another series of chemical terrorism takes place in the city, which is similar to the previous and presumed to be related to it. The drama has 4 major characters at the center who are not only trying to solve both the cases, but also related to it immensely, in their subconscious. The story leads to one destination, catching the main culprit, Chimera and discover the underlying truth behind everything that has been happening aince the year 1984.

Cha Jae Hwan (Park Hae Soo), a junior detective at Joongsan Police Station, is a quick-witted and determined to his job. Lee Joong Yeop (Lee Hee Joon), neurosurgeon at Seoul, was adopted to America at a young age after a tragic incident to his family. Eugene Hathaway (Claudia Kim), an FBI profiler, was also adopted to England and demoted to Korea after committing a mistake. Kim Hyo Kyung (Cha Joo Young), newsroom ace at UBS news, is a steadfast journalist always after truth.

Some good actors in other major characters are: Nam Ki Ae as Cha Eun Soo (Jae Hwan's mother), Heo Jun Suk as Go Kwang Soo as the team leader of Chimera investigation unit, Woo Hyun as Bae Sung Kwan (Junso PS Chief), Lee Gi Young as Seo Hyun Tae (Seoryun Group Chairperson), Kim Ho Jung as Lee Hwa Jung (Seoryun Hospital Director), Kim Kwi Sun as Lee Min Ki (Hwa Jung's brother), etc.

Kim Do Hoon PD-nim has directed only 5 dramas including this, 2 of which are highly acclaimed and Chimera is in fact his comeback after a gap of 6 years (given that the drama was shot in 2019). This was obviously a bit difficult as his first thriller, hence the average execution of screenplay. The pacing is awfully slow, even for a 2019 thriller. The drama has that authentic OCN vibes, I gotta admit but somehow the screen-editing is a big drawback, along with the slow-paced progression. Cinematography was well handled as required by the dark theme of the script.

I haven't watched any other drama written by Lee Jin Mae Jakka-nim but she seems less experienced, both in terms of number of scripts and by quality of work. Chimera, in no way, is a bad script but I couldn't find the wow factor in the entire thing that would take me aback, except for the fire ignition techniques used by Chimera and explained by Eugene (haha), because chemistry interesting. If you summarize the overal plot and it's development, the story definitely seems very good but then it comes to screenwriting and it's organization and progression, it's preety average. The sequence of events and the way the plots are intertwined are surely intriguing but the timing and synchronization is poor. Given that the drama was shot in 2019 and we have come a long way in case of Korean thriller dramas, the initial plot and revelations are extremely predictable. If you're a K-thriller stan and has good intuition skills, you can definitely tell what's gonna happen next, thankfully it persists till the late phase of the 1st half. But again, the 2nd half almost runs out of substance, even though the revelations made in it were astonishing. The drama ends with more than one plotholes, at least 4 that I could realize; only one of which can be simply assumed whereas the other 3 needed to be answered. So here goes another minus point.

I don't have problems with slow-paced thrillers to be honest. So, if you're have patience and time to invest, you can easily finish it without fast-forwarding. The drama especially becomes slow after the 10th episode because almost everything is revealed to the audienceby then and all that's left is to disclose them in the drama, which has to be achieved by efforts from the main characters of the story.

There is only one OST that suits the mood and vibes of the drama and I wouldn't have any problem if there were no OST at all. "Dont go" by KLAZY is a eerie and intesnse track with softcore vocals and slowbeat instrumentals.

What I loved about the drama:
#1 Bromance: This is one of the best bromance for me. I am more into older actor bromancing on screen, ngl and this was totally my cup of tea. It felt like the writer didn't have any intention to introduce it at first but anyways, I am grateful they did. The interaction between Park Hae Soo and Lee Hee Joon was such an interesting thing to witness. Them working together to solve the mystery and also teasing each other at instances was fun. Loved the way both trusted the other and cared for each other in the drama, though this was indirectly shown.

#2 Even for 2019 drama, Chimera doesn't have any romance elements which was greatly included in thrillers back then. There were subtle flirting in very few instances but the scenes were supposedly funny.

#3 Again, acting is something you can't help but praise about. It's because the actors are already seasoned to the par, but even the most amazing actor sometimes fail to perform well depending on situations.

#4 The overal concept is fabulous; the way in which fire is used as a metaphor of resurrection, purification and justice, is quite intriguing. The execution couldn't be drawn well by the writer in terms of scriptwriting. Even so the way of revelations were underwhelming, and predictable I think the destination picture is good enough.

#5 The metaphorical portrayals of activities along with the quotes and dialogues used in the last episode were good and meaningful, loved it.

Despite the shabby plot development throughout the series, I actually loved the finale week. As everything had been revealed by the 14th episode, all that were left was how they deal with the present circumstances and wrap up the show, which was well handled. The ending consequences and their thrill was amazing and I enjoyed it.

I am actually indecisive to draw a conclusion for this drama. This is not bad but not good either, so let me put it as a moderately average drama. Some aspects were too good and others were too bad. Very unfortunate that it couldn't be aired in 2019 because of the asst. Director's scandal but even for that year, I don't see myself changing my decisions too much. I could have been awestruck by some of the elements for sure, so keeping that in mind and considering the year of production, this would definitely rate it at 8.0/10, most of whose credit goes to the acting line.

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March sisters walked so Oh sisters could run.

The first report about this remake had me excited to the seven heavens; I was overjoyed not only to have a Korean version of one of my favorite classic novels plus movie adaptations but also to see how exactly they blend it into a sageuk (historical). Was a little upset upon learning that it’ll be based in modern urban times but it didn’t take long me to make terms with it. However, starting the drama and finishing two episodes left me very confused and had me pondering about the intentions of the makers. Not long after, I had to realize that only a few elements of the original have been picked up for the so-called remake and hence this one deserves no comparison. So, what are the similarities?

◆ Sisters (4 there, 3 here) living with their mother; father long gone to places.
◆ An artist among the sisters (2nd one there, 3rd one here).
◆ Poverty-stricken lifestyle, hard ways of earning food and necessities.
◆ The great grand-aunt who favors the middle sister for her intelligence and tenacity.
◆ The prince charming with not-so-significant role, two distinct male leads here.

Let me know if I missed out any ;)

Developed and produced by ‘Studio Dragon’,” Little Women (작은 아씨들)” is supposedly a loose adaptation of the 1868 classic novel of the same title by Louisa May Alcott. Screenwriter Chung Seo Kyung creates the story in a modern Seoul-styled Korean backdrop with essence of thriller, melodrama and makjang while Kim Hee Won takes charge of direction. The 12-episode drama was originally broadcasted on tvN and internationally distributed by Netflix. Several parts of the major happenings of the drama were also filmed in Singapore.

The original plot is about struggles, love, compassion and dreams, whereas this adaption is about greed, goals, urges, fear, somewhere love and of course, dreams. The story follows a poor Oh family of three sisters with separate professional goals who, without their consciousness, get involved with the richest family of Korea and a supposed cult that is connected trough a mysterious orchid, which starts with a missing sum of 70 billion won.

Oh In Joo (Kim Go Eun), the eldest sister, works for a salaried office job and having lived in extreme poverty, she dreams about money and wishes to live an ordinary life. Oh In Kyung (Nam Ji Hyun), the middle sister, is a righteous reporter who doesn’t value money and starts working on a case that was long-forgotten in order to unveil the truth. Oh In Hye (Park Ji Hu), the youngest sister, is an aspiring artist who gets acknowledged for her natural skills though she is a realist and considers her sisters’ love for her as a burden.

Choi Do Il (Wi Ha Joon) is a part of Wonryong Group whereas Oh Hye Suk (Kim Mi Sook) is the Great Grand Aunt and Ha Jong Ho (Kang Hoon) is her neighbor and childhood friend of In-kyung. Park Jae Sang (Um Ki Joon) is a politician aspiring to become Seoul’s Mayor while his wife Won Sang A (Uhm Ji Won) is the daughter of Wonryong Group, created by her father Commander General Won Ki Sun (Lee Do Yeop); Park Hyo Rin (Jeon Chae Yeon) is their daughter, also an artist who is In-hye’s best friend.

Other familiar faces in the drama are Jo Seung Yun, Gong Min Jung, Park Bo Kyung, Park Ji Young, Lee Min Woo, Kim Myung Soo, etc. Several big faces have made special appearances: Song Joong Ki, Oh Jung Se, Choo Ja Hyun and Jang Gwang.

Its initially mystifying and allows one to think what might be the intentions of the writer though the follow-up picks up very entertaining and baffling elements creating arousing intrigues within the mind. The furtherance was as amazing with gradual disclosure of more engaging facts about several plotlines, major or minor, and what perplexed me the most was the storytelling and its naturalness despite a mixture of idealistic, realistic and real factors. There was this episode around the interval, that I clearly don’t recall, did felt a little off; the period where things were static and nothing huge seemed to be on its way, not like it became boring or something though. The later half was definitely much more marvelous with each episode bearing several peaks and each of them competing to excel. I was personally taken aback at episode 8 and how the presentations got the best of me, so this is my most favorite, though the show kept surprising even more in the rest 4 episodes. The ending

Writer virtuoso Jung Seo Kyung, known for her prodigious portrayals in staggering women-centric scripts, has once again proved how efficient her skills are to bewitch the audience and finest her creations to stagger the viewers. Admittedly and provenly, a copy-paste remake ain’t her style as reflected in “The Handmaiden”, so the decision to convert a classic English melodrama into a contemporary thriller with justifying dynamics and stupefying elements which turns out to be an appealing and positively appalling masterpiece.
Fascinating character arcs are a specialization of jakka-nim which undoubtfully is finely incorporated with satisfying development. The script is a bag full of whiplash twists, evenly distributed throughout and the picturesque convulsions that serve as delicious dishes of a sumptuous brunch. The theme creation is as bemusing as we see the ghost orchid, its backstory, the people it connects to and how it is at the center of everything.

Acquiring great skills despite less experience within a short period of time, is what Kim Hee Won known for. However, her previous work was a blunder that was finally recognised as a trumpery; though the script was hugely to blame. To see her work of creativity has always been a pleasure and without a second thought she strives to better. On that note, the cinematography of the drama is mesmerizing, from aesthetic shots to extravagant frames and swift yet detailed movement/shift, everything did their job in minds. The screenplay was visibly well-planned as the progression is periodic rather than episodic, seizing the viewer into one plotline but confusingly forcing them to other, albeit the manner was very comfortable thereby maintaining the quality.
What I also loved about the visuals are the reasoned and well-defined backdrops and setups. The Seoul-ic vistas of light and dark hue with polychromatic shades were very eye-savoring outside while rather plain and simplistic colors inside the mansions and buildings also did exhibit the contrast in between. The attempts to draw frame-wise parallels within the same show between the two halves were very ecstatic; admittedly, I wouldn’t have noticed if not for one of the users’ feed posts here.

Composed by Park Se Joon, there are two OSTs in the drama:
# “Enough” by Zior Park
# “La vie” by SOLE

(70 billion won-Truth-Art: Money-Justice-Dreams) … This is how I will draw the outline of the way the three sisters were connected to the show; one who thought money could solve all the problems, one who believed justice will bring everything to peace and one who desired art will help her escape. The combination could result in only one thing, money laundering through art pieces, haha. But the drama is much more than just power trip, greed for wealth and artistic perspective. Indeed, with her cinematic excellence, the writer uses the tool of social sin and the feelings of superior connivance in order to establish a story that reminds us how human mind is a complex matter that could cause catastrophes in the world while only truth and remain constants of time.

Oh In Joo was the most natural of a character in my opinion and apparently Kim Go Eun was the most suitable person for the role, provided her ongoing saga in “Yumi’s Cells” is also one hell of a realistic thing. From her desire for money to her being clueless and from acting cautiously to strangers to being overtly sensitive to everything, just average human being. Clearly, the best character development given to the one at the exact center, performed and excelled.

Nam Ji Hyun could have been used better, not like she was underwhelming or something, but in a way, I believed, both the character Oh In Kyung and the actress herself held lot more potential than what we saw. There were instances Inkyung was just pure dumb, as in dumb for someone who was a journalist plus it was visible the way she struggled a bit at first, which was a given since I don’t recall her playing such a fierce character(?). Anyways, it was satisfying to see her in action at times and how she changed from the beginning to end.

Oh In Hye had a magnificent arc to begin with and the actress did perform very well with her expressions and delivery. However, I was a little upset the way she was limited in the latter half; as in they forgot about her existence for some time and brought her back absurdly like oh she is a part too? All I mean her share of screentime did not suffice as someone who is tagged as a main character everywhere. Otherwise, her dynamics were naturally that of a rebelling teenager. Also loved how the makers decided to end the show with her prologue story and monologue note. The actress playing Hyorin did not have anything significant about her but she was good nevertheless.

Choi Do Il as a character is probably one of the most mysterious you will ever see and Wi Ha Joon should be commended for carrying it very well. His on and off dimension will apparently become the reason half of the audience will develop trust issues in real life. The introduction wasn’t really grand, rather felt he’d be only playing on the surface (to me at least), but the maker’s way of playing with their audiences’ mind worked like some sort of crazy drugs wow. I am not sure whether I should be saying that I was impressed but there was a point I just decided to sit at a corner with popcorn in m hand and see what he is upto. Nonetheless, I was happy at them screaming how he loves only one thing at the end of the day.

The drama is a heavy thriller; although it offered few bright and comforting elements, it mostly exhibited dystopia. Some events could be very frustrating like you are gonna drag a character out and beat the organs outta them. The plot devices like the orchid, the red heel and the architecture did serve as amazing scopes in order to create an artful story filled with thrills and excitement. And the progression is very unpredictable and mysterious for the current trend in K-thrillers, no doubt the screenwriter is a cinema maker; loved the suspense at the end of each episode as well. A galore of twists might even feel like burden in some episodes but their outcomes are relieving in some way. Again, the symbolisms, backed by their ingenious metaphors make the drama more entertaining.

The group of antagonists were not really one of a kind but the performance of the cast was what made them lively. Both Uhm and Um for the seasoned actors they are, did put forward an enthralling and captivating show, and the bad times we had clenching our teeth stands witness to it.

I believe March sisters’ struggle to keep up their dining table occupied helped Oh sisters to not just protest but fight against capitalism as they indulged themselves with the evil, for the sake of prosperity and justice though separately. Their dispute with reality urges them to opt paths they thought would be treacherous and relying on a single straw they not only strive to remain true to themselves but also thrive like a single blade of grass in the dessert. Through thick and thins, this remake remains grounded to the original in portraying how the littleness of everyone leads to a grand world of big beauties

The finale was as satisfying in the sense, it was not rushed, or even dragged unnecessarily, rather every bit of it felt good. It is not an open ending either as some people might think though in my opinion they left one plothole regarding the burried pendrive. But again, in a way, the evidence was not really useful. The ending sequence was smooth and also made mr realize that Choi Do Il's efforts were equalized with his manupulative and intelligent skills.

A personal and silly observation about the show that I made towards the ending, was that the in-situ viewership was very accurately concurrent with the qualitative graph that I have made in my mind, i. e. my episode-wise rating. Idk why I thought it was necessary to mention it here but here you go TT.

Final Remarks… A show made by women, led by women and prospered by women was quite a piece of thrilling experience as Little Women hits the floor this time around. The time will cite the show as something that is not a good remake but nevertheless a great show, which is a perfect balance between the original and the adaptation. From high production values to outstanding presentation and from enchanting performance to entertaining outcomes, this was a unique approach and definitely a must watch and easily one of the best thrillers of 2022.

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Tango because you like or you need?

“She is free in her wildness, she is a wanderess, a drop of free water. She knows nothing of borders and cares nothing for rules or customs. 'Time' for her isn’t something to fight against. Her life flows clean, with passion, like fresh water.”
― Roman Payne

Produced by 'Studio Dragon' and 'C-JeS Ent.', "EVE (이브)" is a melodrama cum revenge show with essence of Korean makjang (not a typical makjang). Written by Yoon Young Mi and directed by Park Bong Seop, the show was originally broadcasted on tvN.

The story follows the arduous life of Lee Ra Il (Seo Yea Ji), a Tango dancer, a daughter, a wife and a mother who has the aura that can bewitch even the cupid. Coming from an infamous background, she suddenly garners overwhelming amount of attention of everyone but behind the glamorous façade, she hides a formidable past and burns in her heart, the fire of misery. As life becomes cruel to her at an early age, she comes back with master plans to seek revenge from the devil and make them crumble.

LY Group Chairman Kang Yoon Kyum (Park Byung Eun) is Ra-Il’s prime target who without his awareness serves as the greatest cause to the tragedy. Han So Ra (Yoo Sun) is Yoon Kyum’s wife who can go to any length to save her marriage and her father Han Pan Ro (Jeon Gook Hwan) is the mastermind to every evil deed. Seo Eun Pyeong (Lee Sang Yeob) is an assemblyman and Laa Il’s old acquaintance who is eager to help her by any means. Jang Moon Hee (Lee Il Hwa) is La Il’s foster mother and her partner in conspiracy. Kim Jung Chul (Jung Hae Kyun) and Kim Gye Young (So Hee Jung) are aides to Pan Ro and Eun Pyeong, respectively.

Plot development is amazing at first, in fact stayed the same for the first half; I’d say I loved it till the 12th episode. With a steady flow and several peaks, the pilot episode and the beginning sequences, including the starting scene, were all intriguing and captivating. As La-Il continues to step up, ticking off her list of plans, the show keeps getting more interesting with each episode. There were moments of uncertainties for the characters’ pasts but the way they were dealt with must be acknowledged. The furtherance of the story was as amazing, though there were instances of possible labefaction and the writer seemed lost in her own story. Admittedly, the somehow felt a little draggy two week before finale, as if nothing major was happening, and with everything out to the surface, things were only getting messed. This surely is reflected in my ratings but I also felt the overall quality never went beyond the average mark.

With an experience of over 1.5 decades, Yoon Young Mi jakka-nim seems like a lover of makjang pieces. And as she chose to make Yea Ji the star of her event, she surely has hit a huge with the show that for sure was well decorated by the rookie director Park Bong Seop PD-nim. The show is not exactly character-driven but the characters surely hold the leashes to every mightiness that the viewers were offered throughout. The background narration, the manner of portrayal and the execution as well as storytelling were pleasing to their best. The cinematography with dazzling bright hue accompanied by sumptuous eye-enticing editing were joyful visual treats. The problem with writing is that the last quarter of the show turned typical, with a moderate rush they made it a complex mess where characters went berserk and acted crazy

There are a total of 4 OSTs in the drama and all of them are truly likable, narrating the natures of the four main characters that you see in the show’s main poster. Notably, the pure instrumentals of these tracks are as alleviating.

# My most favourite is “Hold Me Tight” by again, one of my favourite vocalist, Kim Ye Ji is an English track meant for La-Il telling her intentions to make her enemy suffer through lies.
# “Adios Amante” sung by Shin Youme is an awfully intriguing track that begins with piano notes depicting confusions and suspicions and meant for So Ra. Both the lyrics and vocal are strikingly beautiful.
# As a song of remorse “Want to be your everyday” with soft vocals of Sondia is a way for Yoon Kyum to seek the presence of someone who understands and wilfully comforts him for life.
# Lee Hyun sings “Only Way” as Eun Pyeong calls for acknowledgement of his emotions that he realizes are genuine. The track is immensely soulful as well as soulful.

The aesthetics of the show was focused on Seo Yea Ji and does it sound like a complaint? Hell NO! I am beyond happy. The lady is already so gracious and the outfits she wore, were what chose her and defined her. Goosebumps kept coming in and going out every time she came into the frame. How can someone be so graceful? Her character arc as Ra-il is as beguiling and appreciable skills of hers are what should be credited. However, the aura of the character sadly faded in the later half, slowly getting diluted with typicality of the show. I loved that she stayed vengeful till the end, but the initial undertone felt lost.

Byung Eun is undoubtedly one of the best in terms of acting and as pleasing was his performance as Yoon Kyum, a man deprived of love and a man seeking liberty of worldly things through his leaning towards music and dance. A man who holds himself back knowing what is demanded of him but for the sake of acknowledgement, he suffers of misery, with no one to lean on. I would have loved to see a character development but unfortunately he stayed the same, with all the expressions and thinking process, the only change that he exhibited was the change in heart and his views of love.

Yoo Sun as Sora did a good representation of someone with multiple complexes and severe mental health issues, who seeks nothing but care and attention from her family. Sang Yeob as a sane character playing the man of influence contributed to the quality of the show but I couldn’t see anything appealing out of his character that would make me want more; his character could have been better written and provided with more screen-time.

One thing I loved the most was the inclusion of Piazzolla’s bandoneon and the underlying legend. The way the writer used that tale to narrate the lives of both leads was ecstatic even though it lasted only for an episode. Also, bringing the deep essence of ‘tango’ and narrating the story in artistic sense was also beautiful.

Some of my favourite dialogues from the show are…
“Dance is a form of rebellion by nature. People who obey orders, don't dance.”
“Love cannot be hidden, it's madly impulsive.”
“There are three things that can't be hidden: poverty, sneezes and love.”
“I will be the master. Not you.”

Final Remarks… I think it’d be wrong to forget the amazing start and the gracious furtherance of the show just because the ending faced a downfall, and rightfully so, I understand why people are mad. But, rationally speaking, I am not gonna rate it absurdly low for the unsatisfactory ending. Despite everything, it was a good show in overall. One problem is that many here perceived this as a makjang story with several moxed genre, where the makers made clear that it is a revenge melodrama. I think it is worth the time and you can speed up after 12 episodes if you want but this is not bad.

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There's no time to rest.

Bad and Crazy? Well the characters aren't the only ones depicting the adjectives, withal the entire show is so bad and so crazy that you can't help but jump off your bed. "Bad and Crazy" is one of the most entertaining Kdramas you'll ever see and I wanna guarantee on that. It has it's own flaws and we'll discuss that but overally this is an amusing watch.

Initially intended to be aired on OCN, the production later changed the broadcasting to tvN. "Bad and Crazy" is the 3rd collab of Studio Dragon with iQIYI. Principal photography took place at place at Ochang-eup of North Chungcheong Province. The drama is a reunion project for the makers of the OCN hit THE UNCANNY COUNTER, Yoon Seon Dong PDnim and Kim Sae Bom Jakkanim.

Soo Yul (Lee Dong Wook) is a proficient detective in the anti-corruption unit at Munyang Police Station who has high ambitions. He sucks up to his seniors by helping the rich and powerful in solving cases in their favor, thereby getting promotions and earning more. He's aware of his wrongdoings but can't help himself until the righteous yet crazy 'K' (Wi Ha Jun) appears in his life in order to set everything at their places.

Apart from the two awesomely crazy duo, we have Lee Hee Kyum (Han Ji Eun) as Su Yul's ex and a cop in the Narcotics unit, Oh Gyung Tae (Cha Hak Yeon aka N of VIXX) as a rookie in Su Yul's team known for his honesty, Yang Jae Sun (Cha Shi Won) as Su Yul's junior and most trusted man and Kwak Bong Pil (Sung Ji Ru) as the chief of Munyang metropolitan anti-corruption unit.

There are plenty of antagonists but notably Kim He Eo Ra playing Boss Yong was the best. Why "notably"? Bcs having played guest roles, that too only in 2 dramas: "Beyond Evil" and "Hospital Playlist 2" before this, she has intrigued the audience by her skills in this drama. It's definitely commendable and hopefully it lands more offers on her way.

Some other familiar and good actors in the drama playing major roles are Lee Hwa Ryong, Won Hyun Joon, Kang Ae Shim, Kim Dae Gon, etc.

Yoo Seon Dong PDnim is not a star director but he's a diversified experience in working differently for his creations; director, screenwriter and director-screenwriter. The screenplay management and screen-editing is top notch. The drama somehow ends up giving 'The Uncanny Counter' vibes which was obviously bcs the director is the same and both the dramas are of dark theme. To add, the theme song is the same and most of the bg score composed are of similar tempo (I felt like dancing throughout). The rapid camera movements and the close-ups portraying action scenes and variable emotions respectively, were very apt. Cinematography of dark motif was suitable for a urban thriller genre. The black and red colour palettes plus the pale hue throughout the drama were attractive and pleasing.

Kim Sae Bom jakkanim has done a good job in bringing out the complexity of human mind through the 2 main characters. They know what suits the taste of the audience in such genres. The plot development of this 12 episodes drama has in fact 2 parts, dividing 6 to each. While the first one is a crazy and mind-blowing chase after the villains the second one turns into a psychological warfare against the past and the time. The journey of Su Yul from a bad boy to an anti-hero and then finally to an insane person is something you should look forward to.

The show is entertaining as soon as it strats; the adrenaline-rush makes you go crazy. There are the action scenes, the bike stunts, the chasing, the investigation, the strategies, etc. everything was so interesting and intriguing, it's difficult to take your eyes off or stop watching. You crave for more. Ep 1-3 were amazing but the 4th felt a bit off, as if they have lost the direction but thankfully, they regained their pace. The surprising element was the introduction of another plotline in the 7th episode and that's when the entire mood of the drama shifts into an intense game of cognition and memories.

Although both of the plotlines had been associated and intertwined with each other for a long time, the involvement of the main characters does confuse the audience a lot but that's just for one or two episodes. Soon after you get habituated to the mood, it's time to connect to different plots and set them straight. Yeah, it's preety much something that doesn't require brain and that's bcs the the elements are pretty predictable for avid thriller fans. Oh yes! This is full of comic elements.

The progression till 10th episode continues to be amazing, until 11th; as soon as it strats, a lot of things start going wrong, in the show? No, I'm talking about the technical aspects here though that lasted for the first half of that episode and they made up for it in the later half, but anyways it created an impression hence reflecting in the ratings. Few illogical deets and events had honestly ruined the drama for me but thankfully it couldn't affect the ending; it was very amazing, properly executed and had expected outcomes. So overally the plot development is not that steady and had few flaws here and there though it is manageable.

Among the few complaints I've to make against this was the unfair distribution of screen-timing. It's obvious that the ones to take the spotlight will be the 2 major characters but what a writer must make sure is to give a fair share of time to the supporting characters. The one's who fell short were Ha Gyeom, Gyung Tae and Jae Seon. These 3 were key players of investigative process but it was bothering how they got ignored for most of the portions; sometimes for 15-20 mins or say 5-6 sequence of scenes. Could have been better.

The next complaint should be about the real culprit; not only it was predictable, also the revelation was underwhelming. The antagonist dynamics was just odd; won't blame my level of expectations here bcs it was actually not that impressive. The onw casted for the role did act well but it's just the arcs weren't properly done and finding him was that easy.

The best thing about the drama is the Bromance between Lee Dong Wook and Wi Ha Joon. From enemies to partners and from partners to becoming friends, the chemistry development between them is worth investing your time and energy into. Them interacting with each other and helping each other during fighting scenes, is hugely is fascinating and enthralling at the same time. They embark on a whirlwind of romance despite the difference in personalities; they find each other annoying but still care about each other. They are at each other’s throats constantly (quite literally), but when it comes to helping each other, they won’t hesitate; epically bromantic.

You are soon made aware of the "Fight Club 1999" reference of the drama and it actually helps a lot in understanding the drama. Alter ego portrayal is not new for Kdramas but incorporating in thrillers like this has come out with an engrossing taste. Won't say a lot about this to avoid any spoiler.

I have a good news! We got one more! Yes, bromance line! Jae seon-Gyung Tae are not as crazy as the main partners but they sure are cuter and sooo adorable. The tease party was so funny and them making fools outta each other and even caring at times of siciness and giving presents, I will stop here and leave it for you to watch.

There is little to no romance. Let me put in another words: there is an already existing romance storyline which seemed to have ended before the beginning of the drama but that somehow ended up mending up, thanks to a crazy character. That's all, don't expect much bcs the drama was meant to be for intense bromance and could have been a lot better without the little to nonexistent romance.

Kim Woo Geun, known for his composition in thriller movies and dramas has produced music for this drama. It has 4 OSTs in total, 3 of which are rock songs, one being romantic.

# "Bulldozer" by Don Mills is an anthem of conceit with EDM vibes. It feels powerful every time you listen to and was able to fit aptly during the fightings.

# "BUMP!" by G2 and Jang Hak is my most favourite. This is completely a rap piece, full of heart-wrenching raplines. The intense and energizing lyrics gives you goosebumps.

# "Out of My Way" is a song of warning with hardcore instrumentals and equally enraging.

# "Present" by Song Yerin is a modern Jazz beat music with soft instrumentals and romantic track expressing an ode to the lover's beauty.

"Bad and Crazy" in overall is a good drama, if not excellent. It is, at a time, an action, psychological thriller, investigative thriller and bromance drama.The production, the cast & its acting, the bromance, the action and everything else has made out to be an entertaining as well as very interesting watch. It is just something with a fantastic premise which had better scopes for improvement, which wasn't well utillized. It has it's flaws with plot elements and character arcs but considering the stupendous performance and fabulous execution, it should be rated as 'must watch'. Go ahead!

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ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE

NOTE: Not an easy watch. Prepare yourself mentally before you start.

There is psychological thriller.
There is psychopathic thriller.
There is crime thriller.
There is murder mystery.
There is urban thriller.
There is science-fiction.
And there is dark genre.
Then there is Mouse which is the combination of all of the above.

MOUSE IS THE PERFECT THRILLER YOU'LL EVER WISH TO WITNESS.

As I said, MOUSE (마우스) is the combination of many genres, unlike other crime thrillers, where they either stick to unveiling only one case or they try solving several cases, Mouse had particularly one goal from the beginning but in later episodes, they introduced few other murder cases to fill in the blanks created by the basic event of story. So, the basic plot here is not exaggerated rather they introduced new events which worked like connecting plots in between to fit the ending goal.

Have you watched the Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Specy starer 1995 English movie SEVEN? Mouse is the exact opposite of that movie. The 7 serial murders were directly related Bible and the psychopath killed people because they were actual sinners acc to him in the movie. But in this drama, they altered the concept. The killer is killed "Innocent people" who were completely opposite of the 'seven deadly sins'. Plus, the intertwined the 'sins' with 7 different popular Korean tales (which were actually written on the basis of the 7 deadly sins of the Bible) meant for kids.

Standing ovation for CHOI RAN jakka-nim for this most intertwined and most confusing script that traumatized all of us to the core that we almost ended up in psychiatric hospitals. Twisting, turning, connecting, unveiling, revealing, utilizing, etc. everything has been done very well.
And at the same time, stirred up our emotions, obviously. Applause for the 2 brilliant PDnim-deul Choi Joon Bae and Kang Chul Woo for the outstanding direction which made the drama even more intriguing.

WE ARE THANKFUL TO YOU THREE PEOPLE.

ALSO, what an amazing cast! Each and everyone did a very good job at their respective characters though Jung Ba Reum (Lee Seung Gi) is the only one with a definitive character development. I am kind of disappointed that Oh Bong Yi (Park Joo Hyun) didn't have a development at all rather she turned even more childish but that's understandable given that she didn't even feel like a main character. Special mentions to Ko Moo Chi (Lee Hee Joon) for his acting skills. I hope he gets nominated as a supporting character next year and win them. Choi PD (Kyung Soo Jin)'s character was fierce too. In fact, in the finale she was the real MVP.

The FINALE episode isn't a super-dramatic one as 90% of us would expect it to be, but I assure you, it's a very satisfactory one. It was rather kept simple but I see the writer's intentions of pleasing the audience who have been traumatized all along the entire process. So, it's like a masterstroke played by her.

MOUSE IS A FREAKING MASTERPIECE. WATCH IT OR REGRET, TOTALLY UPON YOU.

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Take the 50-50 chance.

Created by ‘Studio S’ and combinedly produced by ‘Binge Works’ & ‘Studio N’, “Today’s Webtoon ()” is a coming-of-age office drama with urban settings based on famous 2012 Japanese manga series “Juhan Shuttai!” authored by Naoko Matsuda which has been previously adapted as a Japanese drama with the same title in 2016. Written by debutant writers Jo Hyun Joo & Cho Ye Rang and directed by Jo Soo Won, the drama was broadcasted on SBS TV.

The story follows the lives of a webtoon editorial team that is on the verge of being dismissed due to mediocre performance in profiting a top IT company, NEON, which acquired it 3 years back. It begins with On Ma Eum (Kim Se Jung) and Gu Jun Young (Nam Yoon Su) joining the team as new recruits and soon becoming PDs in order to assist different artists. As the drama progresses, we see them struggling do their individual tasks and worrying about the team’s issues along with others, as everyone attempts to save their positions while also putting best of their efforts to comply with the artists.

Ma Eum is a former Judo player who could never look back after a hiatus following a major accident, while Jun Young is a fresher with high qualifications. Jang Man Chul (Park Ho San) and Seok Ji Hyung (Choi Daniel) are the Chief Editor and Asst. Editor of the team. Other familiar faces in the drama in major roles are: Yang Hyun Min, Ha Do Kwon, Im Chul Soo, Kim Gab Soo, Ko Chang Suk, Hwang Young Hee, Kang Rae Yeon, Ahn Tae Hwan, Kim Do Hoon, Jeon Hye Yun, Hal Yu Ri, Baek Suk Kwang, Jang Sung Yoon, Son Dong Woon, Baek Hooo Hee, Nam Bo Ra, Jang Hye Mi and Yoon Seo Ha.

Plot development is not very unusual, rather follow a feel-good flow in the premise of the office. The pilot episode created a good impression for me and the follow-up was nice. The basic elements and simple issues used to portray the odds and evens of a office worker in a webtoon editorial team and their interactions with the artists were in fact beautifully introduced and explained. The progression was smooth for a long time. I was honestly tip-toeing from the very beginning bc the comments on MDL were not very kind, but I enjoyed it till the 9th episode. However, the visible regressive changes in the flow and the quality of the story took place and that’s where you know that the writers are gradually losing it. By the 11th episodes it actually becomes boring and few aspects becomes weary and exaggerated. The ending was okay.

IMO, the debutant writer duo has done their best and it is natural and okay to be average on your first attempt, though the others in the production team could have guided them for better. The script is like half good and half bad; the first half was actually likable with good amount of creative efforts but the second half fell through badly. This is because the writers were free-minded at first but realized around the interval the manga has too much left to be told in another 8 episodes. I don’t know how good the original work is but I think I’d have not liked it much if the basic plotline of the story is actually like this. Nevertheless, the screenwriters have done a good job pouring the Kdrama essence into it.

Maker of many modern dramas of both light and intense genres, Jo Soon Won PDnim took charge of an office setup for the first time but the feel-good essence is surely preserved. The premise has been well-developed and the screenplay is well-executed. The urban vibes of the show with mostly light hue was very much suited. The sound production and screenplay editing were decent. So the directorial values remain consistent throughout.

There are 5 OSTs in the drama…
# “I FLY” by Jihyo
# “Bring it on” by Layeon
# “Today You” by O.WHEN
# “How is your day” by Kim Tae Woo
# “Walking Girl” by Kim Ye Ji

Unlike a lot of watchers who’re on this drama, I am very glad with the amount of romance. They never mentioned romance or tagged the show with romcom at all, so it’d have been okay with none of it. But its appreciable how there are several dynamics to portray workplace likings, love, attractions, confusion, infatuation, admiration, etc.
All these came in different versions and shown between different characters. Also, funny how some were mad about the makers confusing the audience with the first male lead to be paired with On Ma Eum, but no! the show wasn’t about it and their concerns were not to find lovers. The kind of chemistry Ma Eum has with the two male leads separately was beautiful; one being friend and the other being a superior. And, the way it was shown to have been both admiration from working together and attraction from spending time together, was actually realistic in many ways.

The main problem with the show was they introduced so many contexts but they failed to finish them in their due times, instead exaggerated each of them till the very end. The situations that could have been dealt with immediately and solved in a blink of moment, were unnecessarily and horribly dragged to a point that it became shabby and shoddy by the end. Extending Shin Dae Ryuk’s story and giving unnecessary twists just to fill the gaps was something I hated the most. Even Ju Young’s back story was a inessential element.

Typical tropes like family reunion, terminal illness, public opinion as well as appeasement, etc. did annoy me at points, provided that all these were accumulated in the 2nd half only. Some scenes were unnecessarily longer than required,

Final Remarks… Not a must watch but ypu could try either for the leads or if you are fond of feel-good office dramas, but don’t expect a lot because it actually turns choppy in the latter half. Anyways, I would not discredit the entire effort and the fact that it was simple and decent for 9 episodes, my overall rating will be a fair 6.5.

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Glad I wasn't very hyped about it :3

Alike any avid Kdrama fan, I was surely looking forward to a decent drama when the final cast was announced. I didn't have high expectations from it, ngl, but U wanted it at least to be a decent drama with average ratings. However, I found it difficult to keep myself up for this after the interval, i. e. 8 episodes. I was praying hard for them to improve the quality but then, I had to fast forward from the 11th since I am bad at dropping anything; so I just finished it for my mind's closure. So I'm gonna write the minimum for this saeguk supernatural.

The saeguk is set-up in the Joseon Dynasty, during the rule of the 3rd monarch Taejong. Hong Chun Ki (Kim Yoo Jung) is the only known woman painter and has divine powers inherited from his father who was a Royal painter involved in the demon sealing ceremony that took place 28 years ago. Ha Ram (Ahn Hyo Seop) is the son of the head shaman Ha Sung Jin, who led the same ritual. Both of them have a ill-fated yet intimate relationship, established during the childhood. They're a fated pair, meant for sealing Ma Wang, the demon in a portrait that will act like a vessel and hold the evil power within. When both of them meet again as adults, their lives become complicated as they're get involved with the King, the royal family & it's power struggle and the royal court affairs; everything leading to one single event, i. e. To seal the absconding demon again in the royal portrait.

Grand Prince Yangmyung (later Moarch Sejong, the great) is played by Gong Myung and Grand Prince Joohyang is played by Kwak Si Yang, both of whom are the 2 major characters having great influence on the plot. There's a very good line up of old & seasoned actors casted for other major characters who indeed did well in their respective roles. Also, the new and less familiar ones were able to deliver a decent job with the limited screentime they're provided with. However, I am disappointed with the acting element of the drama as a whole, particularly from the main cast, who are actually experienced enough to serve appropriately but couldn't do so for most parts, and rather offered an underwhelming performance.

UTTER DISGUSTING thing about this drama was the kise between the 2 kids who played the younger version of Ha Ram and Chun Gi, the ML and FL. I mean it is a saeguk that runs in the medieval world and irl, such things could have been a thing but brooooo, this is a fu*king TV show, how dare you make 2 kids kiss. I mean it could have been fine if you had shown in subtly, indicating they were kissing but what's with directly showing it? Are you even sane? I wonder why no one is talking about it.

Plot development is something that's unworthy of mentioning for this drama. Except for the basic plotline for the lead couple involving the demon, the gods and the entire thing about sealing demon, I couldn't count on the script screeplay accompanying it. That was just very stupid; in fact very interesting to make someone give up without any second thought. Sometimes it becomes slow and sometimes becomes rushed. The writing is awfully inconsistent throughout the series though manageable till the 6th or 7th episode, just because of the emphasis put on art, painting and artists through the competition held to choose skillful painters for Gohwan. There are not 1 or 2 but uncountable number of plot holes in the drama, which makes the viewer confused and the way many things were left unanswered and some other popped out of nowhere, I don't know how to describe that without spoiling.

Not sure about the original novel and it's play but the screenwriter for the drama has made obvious about her lack of experience very thoroughly. Can't help but rant about how shoddy the entire script has, despite a decent basic plotline.

Even that wasn't enough, the script was unreasonably dragged post the interval with the addition of many unnecessary side plotlines and use of needless elements like dates, romance, love triangle, toxic relationship practises. The way they were represented was even very unrealistic for a saeguk. The lead couples childhood connection was revealed as soon as in the 4th episode and from the next episode they start dating wtf. It could have been a 12 episode drama but for that one forthcoming goal, the way did they drag really seemed pathetic to me. It goes smooth till the 6th episode, then 7th & 8th becomes super slow and again 9th & 10th are suddenly rushed, as if they want to end the drama in next 10mins, lmao. That's where I lost whatever lil interest I had left abd started fast forwarding at 2x.

The characters, both main & supporting, and their nature are another problem of this drama, which again is a fault of the jakka. Firstlyz they were inappropriately shaped, even for a supernatural fantasy and medieval historical. And then there was no improvement and development for them, which could have at least compensated in the later half. Both Ha Ram and Chun Gi, couldn't become the potential lead duo who could carry the show; the inconsistency is the major issue here. Grand Prince Yangmyung as the 2nd ML didn't seem to have an essence and major contribution for the entire event. The minor characters casting good actors went into waste because of unsuitable and little screentime they got. The character arcs are simply not prominently drawn for a drama of such genre with lame development, leaving no door open for any improvement.

What else could have made up for the poor writing? Direction! Yes, but look at them failing at that too. Surprisingly Jang Tae Yoo PDnim is not a rookie with less experience, rather has a record of directing a number of good script in years but I wonder what went wrong. He could have directed scenarios well at least to yield satisfactory outcomes but it felt like he was entirely inattentive. The main cast is good but still youngsters who could have done decent jobs upon appropriate guidance, which the PD failed to provide. Again, the screenplay management is of low-grade quality, the pacing is either very slow or very fast, with plenty of plotholes. Editing is kinda fine I guess; since OSTs are pretty good, their use plus the sound production with background scores were good enough to give off the suitable vibes at respective events.

2 thing that intrigued me when I had started the drama and made me go on with it were the emphasis on medieval Korean painting and the supernatural plotline. As someone attracted towards different forms of art, I thought this is a unique approach in a Korean saeguk, which was true to some extent. Then, the supernatural plot based on Korean folk beliefs was a pretty interesting investment. The portrayal of Sam Shin and Ma Wang fight over years, the fate decided for the leads and the editings meant for showcase was actually nice for first few episodes and also in the last 3 episodes (only the ritual parts I repeat haha). I liked how Sam Shin was intervening at necessary places and guiding them to their purposes of life. But well, I am disappointed the drama went down hill just like that.

I think I have ranted enough so now let me sum up everything. Overally, "Lovers of the Red Sky" isn't even par the average quality drama. It's a trash which can also be described as ridiculous, boring, uninteresting, exaggerated, shoddy, etc. etc. It's completely shitted on unanimously by the cast & the crew. It's not even worth the one time watch so if you're planning to start it, please drop it in your 'use me' box and move ahead with something else.

OKAY BYE

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C̶o̶n̶f̶u̶s̶i̶n̶g̶ , No! just stupid.

Created by Ace Factory & Arc Media,"GRID (그리드) [2022] is a Disney+ Korea Original drama and one of the first ventures of the investment made by the OTT giant in South Korea. Written by Lee Soo-Yeon, directed by Khan Lee and music composed by Kim Jun-seok, this is a Scifi thriller involving various fields of science.

The world collectively creates a shield namely GRID which is an artificially induced geo-magnetic field, to protect the human civilization from the suddenly erupted strong solar wind, otherwise the earth would face a rapid mass extinction event. The story keeps at centre, Kim Se Ha (Kang Seo Joon), an employee at Administration Bureau dedicated to the South Korean Grid Management Body and Jung Sae Byeok (Kim Ah Joong), a detective in the violent crimes department. While following a murder suspect involving a mysterious woman as the accomplice, they discover unforeseen events that remained as dark secrets behind the GRID for decades.

Others familiar and skillful actors playing main and supporting involve: Kim Sung Kyun, Jang So Yeon, Lee Si Young, Kim Mu Yeol, Heo Jun Seok, Lee Kyu Hoe, Jo Hee Bong, Kim Hyung Mook and Song Sang Eun. Many known faces are also in guest roles. The acting and performance are up to par, with all these good actors.

Plot development... If I were to express the development in percentage, I'd give it a fair 50/100, why? Bcs it was half good and half bad, very exactly. The pilot episode, the furtherance and the development in ep 1 to ep 5 is sooo amazing and it was even fine till the midway through 6th. And that's when everything starts falling apart. To make it look more confusing, the makers attempted to incorporate a number of thriller elements as well as subsume related concepts from different fields of science, expecting it would seem complicated to a particular set of audience. (note the sentence carefully, bcs it wasn't really confusing, rather the writer thought the audience would find it confusing)

Something that started with the physics of cosmic & solar science and geomagnetism, turned into time travel & 22nd century technology and finally ended up with molecular phylogeny, heredity, mutations and evolution. Intersecting science is not a new deal, but what you must possess is the most basic knowledge and even a vast knowledge, in order to retain the scientific goals. I feel, it was still okay till the 8th episode and from there they could have tried to wrap up things with a simple manner in last 2 episodes. But 9th was even messier, making it complicated to a level from which it can't be saved with one final episode. The amount of plotholes adding to the complicated inclusion of absurd and illogical concepts, led to a rushed and sloppy ending. Okay, let's speculate it like, the show will have another ending, for? In order to explain the things it has left; seema more likely and somewhat obvious, but again, for what and why exactly? I see no point of making a sequel of continuation, bcs it doesn't deserve one; no more penny should be spent and no more time should be wasted on a script that turned into nothingness. I am not watching it if this actually happens.

Lee Soo Yeon jakkanim might have created only a handful number of dramas, but in terms of quality, she aced on her debut and proved her worth; so that was expected to be reflected in this drama as well, unfortunately which didn't happen. There was a definite amount of struggle which was visible through inconsistencies in plot, inconvenient elements, lack of proper knowledge and relevancy among fields of science; clearly she attempted something out of her league, without a thorough study. It could have been a good mystery thriller with only one basic concept otherwise; the situation can be justified saying it was an experimental approach from her side, which will help her but as audiences, It's fair to be disappointed.

Having not known the director before I can not write about Lee Khan PDnim, while I must point out the technicality of his work. So overally, it wasn't a exciting judgement bcs I had to think through a lot. The screenwriting was very good for the first half and became messy in the later but I doubt for direction, whether there was a consistent effort; what I mean to say is, I didn't particularly like it for any part of the show and the thing that kept me hooked was the unique concept for the time being. While cinematography and VFX works have been well handled, I can't say the same for screen and sound editing. The comprehensive execution isn't really likable.

What I disliked...

# I strongly believe in intersectionality in any case possible and for the modern world of science, it's the key to many more ventures and discoveries. The same using 2 or 3 branches is cool, but going beyond that and not being able to retain the factuality of either of them properly, is what you call inanity and indiscretion.

# One of the biggest drawbacks of this show is it's run time. Given that there are only 10 episodes with around 50 minutes duration each, it probably needed more to explain things in detail and good pacing, thereby allowing the viewers to understand it better. But again, I am relieved it didn't happen as I would have to endure more of this lunacy.

# Adding to the last point, the 1 ep per week tactics was a vacuous decision from the makers. It could have been okay with more than an hour runtime but still for a 10 eps short show with less duration, it should be either an one shot release or 2 eps per week.

# The exaggerated context wasn't personally bearable even with the introduction of numerous new revelations with each passing scene. Instead of exciting my curiosity, I was rather bored and sometimes even frustrated bcs of the irrational and laughable elements kicked off by the makers.

# The undergrade progression of the plot turned me off in thea 2nd half and the more I tried to think positively of it, the greater was it's irrationality with each coming scene.

# Rushed ending, it was obvious and expected, even by the ones who have been liking it, and all of us certainly wanted the show to at least not leave anything unanswered. It clearly didn't happen given the number of plotholes it has left.

Final Remarks... My feelings and excitement for the first half was that good that I thought I would end u0 recommending it to everyone but I was proved wrong in the latter half, for it quickly went downhill and messed everything up. For the 50% I would have been generous if only it was a 16eps drama with longer runtime but with the circumstances I would not recommend it to anyone. I would have rated it at 6.0 if not for the potential it possessed in the first half.

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"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that."

"Through The Darkness (악의 마음을 읽는 자들); literally, "Those Who Read Hearts of Evil" is a live-action adaptation of the nonfiction novel of the same title, written by Kwon Il-Yong, Republic of Korea's first profiler and co-authored by writer Go Na-Moo, published in the year 2018.

Created by Studio S and Wavve, "Through The Darkness" is directed by Park Bo Ram while Seol Yi Na took the charge of screenwriting, which is a debut for both of them. Master composer Gaemi leads the music production while the show was broadcasted on SBS. It had a mid-season break of 3 weeks due to Winter Olympics but I guess it proved rewarding.

To be clear, this is not the depiction of the real life events of the profiler but the sequence of events are reflected from reality to a certain extent; that's why the novel is nonfiction. The drama is setup in late 1990s and shows the process and struggles of establishing the "Behavioural Analysis Unit" in South Korean Police Force as well as making "Criminal Profiling" an important factor of investigation, through succeeding years. I think this is enough for a gist given the theme and premise of the show.

Inspector Song Ha Young (Kim Na Gil) is reserved and somewhat introverted with abilities of reading through emotions and is highly piercing. Having a traumatic experience in early childhood, he has grown up into a person who seeks a simple life and want to persue his job with honesty and discipline. Detective Kook Young Soo (Jin Seon Kyu) is the chief of Forensic Analysis unit yet has aspirations to create a Behavioural Analysis team after being inspired from "criminal profiling" done by American FBI. Detective Yoon Tae Goo (Kim So Jin) is the leader of Special Crime Squad 2 at Seoul RIU who always strives to bring justice. Jung Woo Ju (Ryeoun) is a Statistical Analyst in the Behavioural Analysis Team, who is young yet determined and hardworking.

Other actors in major roles are: Baek Joon Sik (Lee Dae Yeon) as RIU Superintendent, Heo Gil Pyo (Kim Won Hae) as Special Crime Squad Chief, Detective Nam Il Young (Jung Soon Won) as Yoo Tae Goo's partner and Oh In Tak (Hong Woo Jin) as the current chief of Forensics. The performance by each and every major characters as well as supporting plus temporary roles was simple amazing, I must mention. Special credits to Kim Nam Gil and Jin Seon Kyu, who obviously were expected to carry the show on their back. Also, the performance from the actors playing serial killers is hugely commendable.

Plot development was stupendous. Let me inform you that it's neither a steady nor a plot, neither a staircase development and doesn't have any connecting plot elements either. Rather it's more of a biographical documentary of a profiler and him solving cases one after another, obviously along with people around him through a passage of time of about half a decade. The pilot episodes were impressive and able to make the audience look forward to further; might feel a little slow but it's a matter of time, you realize that the entire show was intended to be like that. The show greatly emphasizes on the methods of intensive profiling through which the male leads not only try to spread out the importance of criminal behavioral analysis, but also put efforts into learning themselves.

There is the least amount of suspense, I must mention. It's bcs the writer has opted to reveal the culprits at the beginning of the cases itself. On that note, it's not a psychopath crime thriller or any sort lf murder mystery, rather the weightage is on profiling, i. e. how the cops exercise their brains to get to the criminal. There are about 5 major culprits throughout and each case starts while the previous is about to end. Song Ha Young's growth as a rookie profiler to an expert is worth investing your time into.

I feel the most amount of credit should go to the screenwriter. Although the drama is a novel adaptation but turning books into live-action isn't as easy since the latter is more of a play script. Haven't read the original work but from what I saw on sns, they have retained originality for most of the parts, which should be commended. The premises wete aptly setup and the sequence of events were perfectly arranged plus organized. The momentary monologues and self-notes picked my attention as well. Even though the focus is hugely concentrated on the 2 MLs, others received a good amount of exposure as well, and on that note, the character arcs were drawn with great efforts and the growth in them was clearly conspicuous, again, especially for the 2 MLs.

I'm sure the directorial debut for Park Bo Ram PDnim has been a fruitful experience; directing the screenplay for such a fantastic script indeed would have brought joy. To me, the show didn't feel like being directed by a rookie at all, in fact, after watching 3 episodes, when I rushed to check out which amazing person has taken the charge, it turned out to be someone I never knew of. The pacing was perfect; the seeming slow paced development made the entire thing more meaningful, I felt. The cinematography with unlit & dim pallettes and dark hue was able to provide pertinent moods and gives, given the catastrophic theme of the story. The screen-editing was good for me, with less sound effects and being greatly focused on intense scenarios; the criminal chasing and fighting scenes were in fact enjoyable.

There are 4 soundtracks in total, composed by Gaemi nim and to the best of the show's vibes. I think it would have been still okay with no OSTs and this number was okay given the least utilization. "Lullaby" by Nerd Connection is a harmonious depiction of dark conflicts between emotions within your heart. "Can't Run Away" by Isaac Hong is a caliginous urge to give up on everything. Leopard of Mt. Kilimanjaro by 4Men was the last track.

What I liked...

ML doesn't shadows others...
# Seemingly nonexistent bromance... I couldn't concluded whether it was bromance bcs there was no eye-catching portrayal but the things between Ha Young & Young Soo was full of care, affection and mutual respect is all I can say. I loved their chemistry as partners who gave their best with the preeminent determination to get to the roots of all the cases, as well as to save and develope their team. "Bloom and Fall Alone" is a gloomy call from heart's core about the hostilities one goes through, with intriguing vocals of Kim So Yeon.

# Extensive emphasis on profiling...
Oh! I guess I'd have mentioned this point first. This is the thing that makes the drama one of the best. For 5 years, I have been waiting for something to come and level up itself with "Signal (2017)" and may be it wasn't able to reach that, but well, it is the one that went the closest, which makes me happy.

# No dramatic peak elevation... It's expected of a story of any form to have peaks; it's one of the essential factors that we all love about. But, the storytelling method for this drama didn't intend to have clear-cut elements of such. I've explained the reason above, and, in fact, this fact makes the show more of a realistic piece.

# Simple yet powerful and impressive... Again, it isn't a brainy drama with intriguing plot or astonishing revelations. Everything has been made crystal clear for you from the beginning so what's left for you to see? It's the way the detectives analyse and profile an event and personalities of criminals to get through the cause and the culprit. Indeed, the way everything has been executed, makes it highly impressive, entertaining and worthy of investing your time into.

# Apt exposure to side characters... I loved how the side characters and their parts were not exaggerated as fillers and were properly used, especially for Kim So Jin, Ryeoun, Jung Soon Won and Gong Sung Ha.

What I didn't like... There's only one thing I didn't like about this drama, i. e. in the screenplay, things that could have been explained by the speaker by simply telling the scenarios, was shown via quick flashbacks of the event. I guess it was a screenplay strategy by the writer and director but it could have been excluded in my opinion. Nevertheless, it didn't ruin the quality of the overall content, for me.

Final Remarks... I didn't have much expectations before starting this, ngl, and all I relied on was the cast which I admire and also the fact that the drama was on profiling. But, to my surprise, the drama left with no option but to applaud and eulogize everywhere. The overall execution of this drama including direction, writing, performance is definitely to the level of excellency and I would obviously recommend y'all to watch this. MUST WATCH!

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A decent remake for sure…

Produced by ‘Drama House’ and ‘SLL’, “Cleaning Up (클리닝)” is the Korean adaptation of the 2019 British TV show of the same title. Written by Choi Kyung Mi and directed by Yoon Seung Sik, the show was broadcasted on JTBC.

The story revolves around Eo Young Mi (Yeom Jung Ah) who works as a cleaning lady at a brokerage company and a single mother to two daughters, while she struggles to meet the ends. As she learns about a possible insider-trading happening at the company, in secret, she joins hands with her closest colleague An In Kyung (Jein So Min) to spy on those involved and acquire informations in order to be able to invest and make big.

Catching up with their plan, later joins the team Maeng Soo Ja (Kim Jae Hwa) who has bears her toxic family despite living miserably. As the three work together, they get into contact with Lee Young Shin (Lee Moo Saeng), a lawyer and Geum Jan Di (Jang Shin Young), the Audit team chief at the company, who lead them to this influential person known as captain. Eventually they find themselves in a mess that might ruin their lives and do every possible thing get out of it. Amidst all of this Lee Do Yeong (Na In Woo) is the cutest and most charming in the drama.

Other familiar faces in major roles are: Young Gyung Ho, Kil Hae Yeon, Song Young Chang, Kim Tae Woo, Song Jae Hee, Go In Beom, etc. The two child actresses, Kim Si Ha and Gal So Won, playing the two daughters of Young Mi also did great.

Plot development is upto par. The start was smooth with a gradual buildup of seriousness and with the furtherance, it keeps getting excited. The more the ladies put their steps fowrad, the more thrilling and entertaining it was become. There were, admittedly, few instances where I was on edge. Also, probably it was the 7th episode or 8th where there were rough points that I didn’t like and the screenplay felt a lil boring, but it went back to track very soon with a major incident, that changed things for everyone.

As a rookie writer, Choi K yung Mi jakka-nim does a good job in translating and screenwriting the English show while including things according to the Korean environment and adding the taste of Kdramas to it. I’d say the portrayal of the characters and their complexions have been done better here. There is definitely a bit of dragging of the original show to make it a 16 ep drama but I guess it was still enjoyable and not really boring.

Master Director Yoon Seung Sik PDnim surely manages to bring a decent show out of an average script with no extraordinary feature to look out for. The set-up, the editing, the sound production and screenplay execution have been well-handled. The urban-office backdrop and suburb housing scenes were aptly utilized.

There are 5 OSTs in total…
# ”For You” by Sam Kim
# ”Hug” by Sondia
# ”The Queen” by SURAN
# ”Faith” by Lee Joon Hwa
# ”Times Like This” by Josh Daniel

The performance by Yeom Jung Ah is fantastic as always, the lady can literally do anything. Worth watching on screen acting every time. She as a mother, being rich or poor, has been a fierce character and she is so gorgeous I swear. Jeon So Min did a decent delivery in the drama and I am happy that she is trying out different roles. Kim Jae Hwa is also a favourite. Lee Moo Saeng is undoubtedly a very good actor.

The drama had 2 spectrums of romance: one that bloomed subtly and turned crazy for a cute couple, i. e. Doo Yeong and In Kyung and Young Mi and Young Shin whose development was angsty and serious. The latter shared an amazing chemistry on screen and this is the kind of adult romance I’d like to see often I was looking forward to some more uwu.

The writer has done a good job in portraying various social issues related to poverty and family issues through the three central character. Be it Young Mi’s struggle to give her daughters a good life or Soo Ja’s efforts to get acknowledged by her family or In Kyung’s dreams to get a coffee truck of her own; we witnessed relatable characters and their happiness & sadness together.

The show was super thrilling, ngl. The scenes involving the ladies trying to steal information or the long chases or their efforts to escape from situations or the serious scenes with the antagonists, it was fun to watch.

Final Remarks… Well, in overall, this is a good remake I would say. Even though it’s not something grand, it’s pretty enjoyable and entertaining with a decent production value and satisfying delivery I could not really find any visible flaws and I would say it was a casual and light watch for me.

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Adamas: The greatest crime of conquest.

Crime? Authoritarianism? Greed? Power? Mystery? Lies? Fights? Misery? Conspiracy? Yes, everything that a thriller Korean drama could bear, Adamas offers all that but what makes it stand out? 1) The narrative 2) The presentation 3) Ji Sung himself and 4) the elementary object, Adamas. The dramas, as a whole, is not a masterpiece or entirely a decent show if you consider whatever we have been offered till date, but it surely is up to par and can be passed as a well-made mystery thriller. It did disappoint in the finale but to judge the whole thing, this is not actually bad or a trash as some people will tell you in impulse with their final experiences about it.

Developed by ‘Studio Dragon’ and produced by ‘Mays Entertainment’, “ADAMAS (아다마스)” is a political and legal thriller. Written by Choi Tae Kang and directed by Park Seung Woo, the drama was broadcasted on tvN and internationally distributed by Disney+ in selected regions.

Adamas, keeps at center, twin brothers, writer Ha Woo Shin and Prosecutor Song Soo Hyun (played by Ji Sung), fighting against Kwon Jae Woo (Lee Kyung Young), chairman of Haesong Group, in order to unveil the evil deeds of him and the people he’s surrounded by. All these started with a murder that took place 22 years back killing their stepfather and convicting their biological father. To save their father, they go to unmeasurable and unthought lengths which lead them to discover dreadful truths surrounding the graceful yet mysterious object, namely ‘Adamas’.

Eun Hye Soo (Seo Ji Hye) is the daughter-in-law of Heo family, whereas Kim Seo Hee (Lee Soo Kyung) is a ferocious reporter. Choi Tae Sung (Heo Sung Tae) is the Chief of security at Haesongwon while Kwon Soon Yi (Hwang Jung Min) is the Butler. Lee Jun Kyung (Oh Dae Hwan) is the leader of Team A and Kang Hyuk Pil (Choi Deok Moon) is the leader of Special Investigation Headquarters (SIH). Other familiar faces in the drama are: Jo Sung Ha, Kim Jung Goo, Seo Hyun Woo, Park Hae Eun, Shin Hyun Seung, Lee Shin Won, Woo Hyun Joo, Go Yoon, Choi Chan Ho, Lee Ho Chul, etc.

The pilot episode to me was a lil underwhelming, as in I was not really impressed with how the writer was trying to lay the background. A little bit of everything, did make it seem boring and uninteresting. The follow-up felt as poor for a while. However, further twists and the development in storytelling started doing wonders at some point that I didn’t realize, and I found, myself engaged and constantly entertained by the sequence of events. The overall interest on the development, personally, was a little diminished around the interval but I was glad it picked back the momentum very quickly with the 11th episode. All I had been wishing for till the end was to see a good, even so not remarkable, ending, which didn’t really happen.
The finale week rather came off lousy. The 15th episode was all talk and less action, and it was quite visible that they were rushing it by skipping from one short scene to another. The first sequences of the 16th episode which was expected to be interesting, did end the saga very swiftly as if they have no context left to keep on the fight. The follow-up till the ending was then underwhelming and with 10 minutes left, I was sure they are gonna finish it abruptly.

I don’t quite believe that the writer is a debutant? How? I mean this is not really extraordinary and bear a fair share of flaws in writing but this is actually way better than just a decent thriller show which had us at awe at several whiles. The story is well-planned, the characters are well-drawn, the elements are well-created and the sequences are well-thought. The process of establishing the background in the pilot episode seemed a little rushed, as if they have a lot to say about the present but the way everything about the past was unveiled and represented, I was very satisfied.

The flaws of the was in regards of the keeping up with the pace of excitement as mentioned earlier, plus how the context, around the same time felt a little dragged. I was almost annoyed with the fact that they were getting diverted from what they’d intended to offer initially. The ending is the biggest letdown about the drama for it was rushed, abrupt, vaguely explained and left few things open. The audience would have liked to be answered plainly anyways, so why exactly the makers made such decisions.

Seemingly rookie director Park Seung Woo PD-nim hit it big with his previous work, KAIROS, and being a unique fantasy thriller, it really must have taken a lot, and again, that experience did help him here. The PD, I am sure, must have developed a good understanding with the debuting writer which has brought forward this amazing work. The quality of execution is way above the standard of a thriller drama. The scenario of Hanseongwon as well as the detailed elements associated were well-created, from objects to personnel and the system inside it.

The cinematography is of a moderate essence though it was not really visible a lot provided the eerie and dark vibes of the show, however, the same inside the premise of the mansion was ecstatic to some point. The sound production as well as the screen-editing were up to par. The pacing did bother me at some instants in between as mentioned earlier, as if it were going off the grid, making an overall inconsistent flow of plot. Nevertheless, the recovery was very amazing, which, in fact, took place very soon.

Composed by Jang Young Kyu, there are 6 OSTs in total though they aren't really used in the drama. Also, I couldn't really understand the essence of most of them in the story albeit my liking of them as songs.

# “Beat of My Heart” by Elodie Wave
# “NEED YOU” by Charlie Bean Works
# “Darling You” by Bernard Park
# “By Your Side” by Ha Hyun Sang
# “All About You” by KATIE
# “Rain on Me” by Kim Jo Han

The screentime was obviously and fairly dominated by Ji Sung because he was playing twins, present at different places, separated by boundaries and burdened by different responsibilities (read tasks and goals). It was like the same face in a parallel universe with distinct personalities and traits. Needless to say, that the man aced it well; it was perfectly a Jisung-type drama. I am personally a bit upset with the arcs of Soo Hyun, about he, at places, didn’t respond like a prosecutor, rather a bull-headed geezer, but its manageable. In his stead, it was Woo Shin who was always calm and better calculative.

The 2 female leads gave a decent delivery as expected from them but the character of Seo Ji Hye was kinda subpar whereas Lee Soo Kyung’s character lacked dynamics for a major duration of the show. Eun Hye Soo was surely mysterious and a lot of things about her bugged me as well, indicating a grand ending she’ll get, but the way it was plotted and presented, came as a weak motive to me; not really displeased, but it could have been better, imo. Kim Seo Hee was broached as an annoying character rarely showed her skills as a journalist, nor did she contributed a lot to the process, but I must admit, the 11th episode keeping her at the centre, was fantastic,

The antagonist side was very strong, with all the familiar faces, known to be villains in the industry, from Lee Kyung Young to Oh Dae Hwan, and as always, they scored heavens. Lee Kyung Young’s role was a bit different from others, where despite of being thecmastermind and controlling everything, he sometimes is powerless and have to be cautious and worry for things; anyways, he was charismatic with hos manipulation skills. Oh Dae Hwan probably played the cunt-est character of his life and I was pretty intrigued by him. Seo Hyun Woo with his given part, did very good as well.

Special mention to Hwang Jung Min who played the butler at the mansion and did an extraordinary job in carrying out the intended persona. Her first appearance itself was an indicatory that she will be a key rider in the show and her acting is what submitted the fascination mostly. And how her importance escalated with each episode along with a well-crafted backstory was astonishing. Her actions and reactions gave me goosebumps, particularly how she flew to to the peak in the 11th episode.

11th episode is my most favourite of all and I guess that is where the show was at its highest peak. The way two major turning events were happening throughout simultaneously did excite me to core as well as gave me goosebumps. The execution of them that was presented in bits alternately was amazing; from performance to editing, the entire episode was just perfect.

I feel the most important factor about Adamas is the fact that neither the protagonist was some sort of superheroes though one side was more radical and had more powerful cards on their side. This, subsequently proved how one person, even at the center/top of the show is not entirely responsible for the set of fortunes/tragedies that happen, rather everything is an outcome of a systematic contribution made by a group of people, no matter which side it is.

About the possibilities of a second season, I don’t think that’s gonna happen. The message is clear: you can’t wipe off the weeds completely in one go and frequent monitoring action is what you require. They might have wrapped it up with an obvious cliffhanger but now its upon us to assume and pot the ending by ourselves.

Final Remarks… I guess many people gonna try this for Ji Sung but I can say that it is as good. Only if the finale sequences were not lame and awry, this could have been a decently splendid experience. Even though it messed the ending up, the process and the vibes are good enough to be tried once, so do see for yourself. It will be a fair watch excluding the ending for those who like slow-paced thrillers with sedate buildups.

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"Carpe diem", seize the day!

Time and patience, told to be the greatest warriors, can change your lives to the extents, that you can never imagine, right? Time is not the best thing, it's the only thing. On contrary, time you enjoy wasting, is not wasted time; it might flow like an arrow but still brings out fruitful results. You witness, in 2521, what time is capable of doing with human lives and what it can turn them into.

Produced by Hwa&Dam Pictures and Created by Studio Dragon, "Twenty-Five Twenty-One (스물다섯 스물하나)" is a 16 episode show about blooming youth, that has set on an odyssey to attain prosperity and entirety of life. Written by Kwon Do Eun and Directed by Jung Ji Hyun, 25-21 was broadcasted on tvN and Netflix, for which Lim Ha Young has taken the responsibility for composing the album. The production started shooting on 7th September 2021 and the principal photography was done in Ahyeon-dong, present in Seoul's Mapo District. It was also filmed in parts of Jeonju, Seohak-dong, Jeonju Hanok Village, Jeonju National University of Education's dormitory alley, and the National Intangible Heritage Center, as per the production.

25-21 is a drama about dreams, passions, ambitions and goals of a group of young students who despite their situations and circumstances, not only strive to achieve what they want but also get them and thrive together, through their teenage. It's the story of love and mutual care between characters, who share each other's life with utmost solicitude and look forward to their success. The story keeps at centre, Baek Yi Jin and Na Hee Do, who met when they were 25 and 18; and shows us the flow by which their lives change when they turn 25 and 21, respectively. The most important fact, the story takes us to the year 1998, when the world as well as South Korea is nearing to welcome a new millennia and embrace the changes that come along. I think this is good enough to describe the show without spilling anything important.

Na Hee Do (Kim Tae Ri) is an aspiring fencer, who gives her best and can go to any length when it comes to keeping up with her passion. In spite of the rough days she had to go through while dealing with lonliness, she's not been able to give up what she loves with all her desires. Baek Yi Jin (Nam Joo Hyuk) is a young guy with passion, whose dreams get shattered after sensing poorness from being a chaebol. With the desire to get his separated family back, he does work hard while trying his best to keep up with his mental health. Ko Yu Rim (Bona) is Hee Do's rival and a world champion fencer. Ji Seung Wan (Lee Joo Myung), the class topper and Moon Ji Woong (Choi Hyun Wook), the fashionista popular, guy are friends with the Hee Do and Yu Rim.

Some very familiar and skilled faces in the drama include: Seo Jae Hee, Kim Hye Eun, Kim So Hyun, Choi Min Young and Kim Young Sun.

The acting dept is full of acclaimed actors who wonderfully justified their characters. The kind of role Nam Joo Hyuk plays is definitely his forte and his acting skills has nonetheless been proved since the beginning of his career. I would like him to switch but I feel this particular character was made for him. Also remember him saying in an interview "Wow! That's Hee Do"in response to his impression about Kim Tae Ri. And on that note, I am certain no one will disagree that anyone else could have justify Na Hee Do, like Taeri has done. Being a 31yo woman, she has done the most accurate representation of a 18yo immature teenager, that, I am sure nobody can level with. Been a fan of hers for years, I know that, as a person of cinema, she isn't someone who rashly accepts any drama making it to her home, and 25-21 is the living proof of why I'm saying that.

Bona is a blooming actress and judging her improved skills from this show, I truly wish she goes up and up in the drama world, because I have witnessed the way she has evolved even with handful of experience.The same goes for Lee Joo Myung; I didn't really remember seeing her elsewhere before checking her biobut what an impressive character and what an amazing performance she has delivered throughout, I am impressed. Special mention to Choi Hyun Wook; being the youngest among the 5 main actors, that too only 20, when others are 26+, the way he could establish himself at the level of such amazing acting, he deserves all the appreciation. I wish Joo Myung and Hyun Wook had more screentime, but I guess whatever they had, they definitely brought the best outta it. Also mentioning, Choi Min Young who played Baek Yi Hyun (Yijin's dongsaeng), bcs he was cute; I mean I have seen him numerous times before, but he was the cutest here TT.

Plot Development...There was no definite plot to being with, that was made clear; the progression made it clear that 2521 was an awfully accurate "coming of age" story with bag full of "slice of life" elements. However, after the midway, the writer tricks the audience by setting a definitive goal; the flashbacks of the future comes as a storm to the audience creating confusions and curiousness, thereby bringing more intrest and attraction towards the show. I am sure, it was not just me, who was getting anxious with the ending of each episode; it's like I was walking on the eggshells with concerns about a lot of things. I would like to inform that, that anxiety reaches it's peak as the show nears its ending. I can noway forget how painful yet exciting it was to wait for a week to get my answers and be allayed. I should wrap up by saying that the ending was not convincing, not realistic either. The reason of..... felt very stupid; well, I am disappointed, not sad. It does hurt for why it happened, than what actually happened, Its not what you call realistic; the writer was not thinking right. Not gonna disprove the entire thing bcs of what happened at the end, but yeah, it will definitely affect my ratings.

I haven't been able to make time for Search: WWW yet and Kwon Do Eun jakka-nim has created only 2 dramas including this. Hence, I am not gonna present a criticism rather praise, how beautiful and impactful story she's offered the world through 2521 and any kind of word wouldn't amount to her skills as a writer; this is all I can say. The flow of the story is wonderful. The characters are awfully admirable; their archs were heart touching and accurately drawn with much relation to realism. This has some very gratifying and satisfying character development, I must admit. The storytelling method.... No I put a halt bcs the method here is very interesting and through which it takes place, also make it something to look forward to. Only if the ending waa good, I was gonna think her as one of my most favourite writers, I am serious.

Not so Rookie Director, Jung Ji Hyun PDnim, hit the stage of Kdramas with amazing drama and has continued to produce ones which become acclaimed by audiences, despite the qualities. Nevertheless, he must be credited for he always creates the buzz. I am not sure whether I should comment this but from every angel, I think this should be the breakthrough in his career. The direction and setups never let us down throughout, isn't it? The cinematography is mesmerizing for most of the parts; with bright hue and variable alleviating colour palletes which did correspond to the scenarios, moods and vibes for each and every scene.

Lim Ha Young PDnim who masters in composing for slice of life Kdramas has delivered tremendously amazing scores for 2521, proving again her skills. The OSTs are lovely, likable, memorable and I have come to embrace all of them. To my knowledge and as much I have been updated, there is a set of 9 OSTs.
# "Your Existence" by Wonstein is my most favourite of all and goes into my all time favourite Kdrama OSTs list. Wonstein's harmonizing vocals with the melodious instrumental and pleasing lyrics, makes this song so touchy, I can go on listening to it all the day, especially the rhythm of the song.

# "With" sung by the 5 main cast is something that makes you cry precious tears; of course it's very relatable for the story, given that the characters themselves have sung it.

# "Go!" by SVT Dokyeom serves as the energizing track of the album whose lyrics are also motivating was used during fencing scenes to present athletes' spirit.

# "Starlight" is lyrically beautiful song about passionate love, ornamented with Taeil's (NCT) vocals and has the feels of pre-2010 Kdrama OSTs'.

# "Shine on You with Blinding Flash of Light" by giseong bae is the track with retro vibes, depicting the beauty of blooming youth.

# "Stardust Love Song" by Jihyo is an emotional ode to love and it's essence in life. The vocal is so on point, it can make you melt.

Rest of the tracks include:

"Very, Slowly," by BIBI
"Free" by Xydo
"Your World" by SURL

What I loved...
# Na Hee Do... Yes! The character! Because Na Hee Do was that base of the mountain which held onto the drama of such huge essence. None of the people, watching this drama, would say that Na Hee Do wasn not their most fav character. She was the many people started this drama, she was the reason many continued to watch the drama, she was the reason people ended up falling in love with the drama and she will be the reason many will keep coming back to here.

# The flow of the story... It is very different from most of the drama out there who always set goals and move towards it, with either 'this' or 'that' results. The biggest achievement of the show is that, it made us think, which is very important.

# The narratives and topics... The kind of narratives it has with neutral as well as balanced perspectives of each of the every character even during contrasting disputes, truly commendable. The wide range of topics the writer has attempted to adresss and spark conversations about and also gave it a closure, is praiseworthy.

# The athlete pov.... Not the first drama to show the life and feelings of the athletes but surely the only one to showcase equitable and open-minded perspectives from either sides. The portrayal of true sportsman spirit between players and their contribution to replicating passion in the mass, is amazing.

# The reporter pov... As Baek Yi Jin became a journalist, I wasn't expecting the writer to show more about his life as a professional but to my surprise, untold and lesser known sides of journalism and reporters were brought into conversation, making it an unique set of approaches.

# The friendship... This is definitely going to the list of one of the best Kdrama squads, because it is. The group of five, 4 of which where classmates with Yijin were so adorable and supportive of each other; I swear they brought life into me, every time there was a scene involving them.

# The romance... It amounted to perfectness. It in no way is entirely romance-centric, even though their relationship remains at the center of the drama, followed by the friendship of the squad. It definitely evolved from teenager romance adult sharing of love, with meaningful exchanges throughout.

# The slice of life elements... As told earlier, slice of life is the actual genre of this drama and it was tremendously reflected throughout the show. The monologues narrating lessons of life and the conversations emphasizing the essence of our existence, touched my heart so much, especially in the first half of the show, I had no way but to stick to it till the end.

# The contemporary elements... Be it the IMF crisis or the Asian Games or the revolution in art & lifestyle; the drama is another stupendous representation of the socio-cultural and socio-economic situations of the contemporary time. It's always a pleasure to witness Kdramas set in those periods.

What I didn't like.... THE ENDING. Don't wanna talk more about it. I know that could be a possibility but still, it was a well built story and the reasons the writer wanted to provide don't suffice the conventions; I'm not sorry if anyone disagrees.

Final Remarks... Honestly, I hesitated a lot before writing this review; I was not sure, whether I was worthy of writing a review for this? This drama has touched so many points and made mw reflect on my own, I was not ready to judge it a bit. It's after a long time, I have come to love something that much. After giving so much of thoughts, now that I write this review, I believe, it will reach many more people as it can and I wish you all who are watching it or going to watch, have the same, or even better experience than mine. I was more than willing to give it a 9.5 but provided the way the essence of the entire show got shattered into pieces with the ending, I am deducting the points. I am always gonna acknowledge how excellent of a show this is but the disappointment about the ending bothers me so much, I am giving a 9.0.

Definitely a must watch piece and already the best of 2022 despite it's ending, which I am not taking into consideration anyways. Putting it in my all time favourite list, without a second thought, please go ahead with it. Good luck :)

P. S. Definitely revisiting this post to add points whenever I am reminded of something that's worth telling about this drama.

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Nahhh!

Combinedly produced by ‘Hi Ground’, ‘JS Pictures’, and ‘Great Story’, “Becoming Witch (마녀는 살아있다)” is a modern makjang-styled dark comedy drama with little mysteries. Written by Park Pa Ran and directed by Kim Yun Chul, the drama was broadcasted on TV Chosun.

The story follows the wrecked married lives of three friends in their 40s, as they set to put an end to the aggravations in the already-frustrating situations when things become unbearable at a point. Gong Ma Ri (Lee Yu Ri) is a housewife, married to the star anchorman Lee Nak Gu (Jung Sang Hoon) and has a daughter, finds out about her husband cheating on her. Chae Hee Soo (Lee Min Young) is married to a rich household, and takes care of her bed-ridden mother-in-law, is unable to conceive and thus having a bitter relationship with her husband Nam Mu Yong (Kim Young Jae). Yang Jin Ah (Yoon So Yi), a widower, lives a luxurious life with the money she got from the life insurance after her husband Kim Woo Bin (Ryu Yun Suk)’s death.

Other familiar faces in the drama are: Ye Soo Jung, Kim Hyun Jun, Park Yoon Hee, Jung Ah Mi, Sun Byung Sook, Han So Eun, etc.

Plot development was stable for the first half with several peaks which in the second half hit the shambles, particularly the last 3 episodes did dirty to the show. The beginning started impressive, it was a package of mixture of different elements: comedy, melodrama, melancholia, mysteries, etc. The progression was also a bit interesting as the two sides in the life of each of the 3 friends started going hard against each other. The problem was when all these soon escalated into the highest peak and it felt like they were quickly gonna run outta context, which actually happened.

The debutant writer has way more to go and learn. They did a good job establishing the pilot episode and the follow-up by adding attractive elements like the badass female leads, their fashionable outfits, suspicious behaviors, and shades to their individual stories. I was glad at the fact that the character assessment for the leads have been kept brief while elaborating more on behavioral psychology. The downgrade in writing could be a result of inexperience in handling the stress or something, for which the show felt exaggerated with some repetitions and became boring in the 2nd half. The way major twists were unveiled was entertaining.

I don’t know the director nor do I can judge his style of working but this wasn’t a good experience in overall. While the sound-editing and sequencing are up to par, the overall execution hits low by the end and the show stop making sense. The camera shots were likable ngl.

There are 6 OSTs…
# “Shut Up” by Kim Boa
# “Kill My Love” by City Noise
# “Every Morning” by ID: Earth
# “Now or Never” by Weki Meki
# ”I’ll Be With You” Kim Bo Young
# “Take Me Home” by Navi

Definitely not the best performance of Lee Yu Ri but this was a different kinda character from her previous roles and she aced it, every bit of it was interesting until the arc turned annoying. Happy for how Lee Min Young has improved and she carried out the misery of Hee Soo very well. Jung Sang Hoon was crazy.
Oracle’s café and the element of her being a badass feminist did intrigue a lot and loved it for sure. That part was exciting and thrilling at the same time.

Final Remarks… Pretty mediocre from every aspect, this drama pretty much missed the littlest of scope that could have been rethought and improved by the makers. The actors did their job but the lacking in the direction made it worse. My reason of starting this was the poster and Yuri’s look in it and was expecting something out of t but had t somehow finish the 2nd half for the sake of finishing. Not recommending even for one time watch.

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Café of horrible Exaggeration…

Not bluffing when I say that I knew what will happen to this drama. When the news broke out and I read the story, with my notions and instincts, I, for sure, knew this will be as bad as Seo In Guk’s previous drama, DAYS, where the characters, their appearances and the setups will be incorporated to attar t and intrigue the audience, instead of shaping up the plotline. I have zero idea about the original manhwa and is quality, but this show is surely below average and I guess the opinion is unanimous. I still wanted th drama to do good bc In Guk actually needs a blast in his career atp, but well…..

Produced combinedly by ‘People Story Company’, ‘AD406’ and ‘Monster Union’, “Café Minamdang (미남당)” is an 18 episode long live-action adaptation of the popular Kakao webnovel of the same title by Jung Jae Han. Written by Park Hye Jin and directed by Go Jae Hyun, the mystery thriller cum comedy drama was originally broadcasted on KBS2 and internationally distributed by Netflix.

The drama is about a handsome shaman Nam Han Jun (Seo In Guk), formerly a criminal profiler, who runs a small café with fortune-telling as a backdoor business and cons people for money. With him, work Gong Su Chul (Kwak Shi Yang) as a bartender, Nam Hye Jun (Kang Mi Na), an elite hacker and Jo Na Dan (Baek Seo Ho) as the waiter, all of them with the aim to unveil mysteries from the past. Detective Han Jae Hee (Okm Yeon Seo) is an upright police officer currently transferred to work with Detective Jang Do Jin (Jung Man Shik) and is close to prosecutor Cha Do Won (Kwon Soo Hyun).

Other familiar faces in the show are: Jung Eun Pyo, Jung Ha Joon, Hwang Woo Seul Hye, Park Hae In, Heo Jae Ho, Baek Seung Ik Kim Byung Soon, Kewon Hyuk, Kim Won Shik, Jung Da Eun, Cha Geon Woo and Park Jung Hak.

Plot is very choppy provided the mystery line was not properly to begin with. I feel the screenplay and execution could have made the drama survive but the very fact that not one of them were potentially enough, did influence the overall quality and the dhow hit its lowest even before it could reach its interval. This definitely didn’t deserve 10 episodes, forger about 16 but the audacity to make it 18 is beyond my thinking process. They should have been considerate to the response and criticism, duh! Not just the comedy scenes in the later half is stupid, the story itself was exaggerated without any mercy.

The twists and revelations were underwhelming for obvious reasons, not just they gave away obvious hints at the very beginning of the show only to make us look like clowns at the end, it did not pick my interest at any point and I gradually lost interest in the 4th episode itself. However, it felt like it had hopes left so I thought to proceed by the kind of stupid portrayal and execution got me hard soon. The antagonist and the group of evil people is too high but their connections and way operations were poorly sketched.

This is my first drama from the writer Park Hye Jin and they haven’t created much it seems but I really hope they learn from all the criticisms for poor writing skills and low-standard character buildups. Apart from the shoddy plot development, the elements incorporated were very subpar and the characters had no overall growth. This no way felt like dark comedy,ngl, rather the thriller part were hugely mis-subscribed as unfunny comic. It was kinda okay till the interval but then exaggerated to an extent that anyone would loose interest.

Go Jae Hyun PD-nim deserves better scripts for all his hard work in all these years but this is probably his worts creation and not to lie, there were significant flaws with the direction, as the writing, so he needs to do better, as well. The screen-editing is one of the worst aspects of the show. The comic flash-ups were unnecessarily frequented which turned me off from the beginning and the sound production was also substandard. The flashy hues again were not attractive as it were intended by the makers.

Composed by Seo Sung Won, the drama has a total of 7 OSTs; some are good but not very memorable. I vibed with “The dance of Minamdang” though haha.
“Ghost Buster” by Gwangil Jo
“Stay Awake” by Nam Young Joo
“Endless Night” by Raina
“The dance of Minamdang” by Gonia and Yu Taepyungyang
“Stay Here” by MORE
“I like you’ by Seo In Guk
“Still with you’ by SU A

The character of the female lead was the worst thing about the drama and there is no way I will take back my words, let me tell you why. Han Jae Hee appeared to be strong, brave and fierce on her first appearance but soon it was followed by a comic gesture, which I took healthily, but to my disappointment that feature of hers was frequently utilized for comedy only and was exaggerated. There is no development at all and her behaviors wee quite made to annoy the audience, like not one percent likable. On that note, the male lead character is subpar as well.

The romance was off, please I would like to have none of it. There was no chemistry between the leads at all and other than that they were not exactly falling in love. To me it seemed funny about how they came to kiss and be together, but until that point, I felt no need of them ending up together. And for partnering them for the cases, they weren’t even good at that. Also, the 2nd couple were funny but ig their impact didn’t lessen the mediocrity of the show.
None of the characters were likable. Seo InGuk seemed intriguing at first but his aura soon vanished into thin air. Kwak Shi Yang as a tall dummy was my most favorite probably, liked the way he acted up. Kang Mi Na was kinda bland for the kind of crazy girl she was supposed to be. The antagonist was lame lmao.

Final remarks… Do not need to watch even when you are Seo In Guk fan. Thank you.

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