Money Flower (2017)

(LITTLE ENDING SPOILERS) It has been 2 months and the soundtracks are keep repeating in my playlist. That means this drama deserved its review.

So many words attached for this drama. Breathtaking, superb, elegant and beautiful.
The execution of the whole aspect was definitely spot-on.
The first time i heard this drama, i was thinking of how makjang could it be and how it was going to be a forgotten drama.
Well, i was wrong. After accidentally picked this up for watching, I'm curious on how its first episode would fare.
That day, i discovered my gem. The orchestra hit my ears beautifully, the cinematography give you sort of elegance oozing out.

As much as i adore Jang-Hyuk as a person, i never actually think of him as a force to be reckoned it with in acting.
It's the second drama I've watched of him and he just made the best gray character you could ever root on.
He knows he did some shady things to avenge his family and he's not afraid.
He made sure to serve those revenge cold.
Even Boo-cheon was portrayed excellent.
It might shown that the weak link here is Mo-Hyun character. While i might have agreed for the first several episodes, i just could not imagine if Han Chae-Ah would pick this role. I was satisfied with Park Se-young because Mo-Hyun is a necessary tool and stepping stone for the Pil-joo next level of revenge. I felt that she needs to be portrayed innocently at first for her to realize the bitter truth of life. Life could not be easy, and sometimes you have to face it.

I have no complaint for others, even for the ending. As much as makjang it supposed to be, it wont be makjang forever.
When the revenge is served, I just want to have my life at peace. So i understand Pil-joo POV. He just want to be acknowldged for who he is.

Lire davantage

This show made me deduct 0.5 stars from every other kdrama shows I have seen so far. And I have seen most of the best and top rated shows of industry.
This Show is a "Masterpiece" and I believe it has set a new standard which will be difficult to beat any time soon.

Only thing that surprised me is that, while searching relentlessly for best Kdrama shows to watch why it took me so long to find this hidden gem. This show deserves to be at the pinnacle of best shows list, it is that good.

Story:- It is a masterpiece of art. It is so well written that nothing even remotely feels out of place. Every thing that happens has some kind of Godly Reason behind it and it always keep you on your toes all the time. Story is the strongest attribute of this show.

Characters and Cast:- As I stated in my review of "Shopping king louie" that strong characters are needed for Mystery suspense shows, this show did not disappoint me in character development and backstories. Characters are second strongest attribute of this show and they are very strong. Acting from cast was exceptional, not even a single shot was bad.

Direction:- Some extremely powerful moments are present in this show that will shake you top to bottom and these will hit you out of no where. I had to add this point to prove my next point in the review.

Music:- Music in this show is extremely good at conveying the mood of situation in the show, These powerful moments were intensified using very good music.

Overall:- This show deserves to be more popular and much highly rated than it is now and i tried my best to draw your attention toward this show by giving a honest review that "It is a Masterpiece".

Lire davantage

I started watching this drama mostly for Jang Hyuk, because he usually chooses great projects and this one had an interesting plot, so why not? I watched the first two episodes when they aired and I was hooked. The story of this drama starts fast, suddenly showing the viewer the cards that the writer is dealing and making you think that you know everything that's happening. That's when the writer changes it all and throws in a new secret, a new ally, a new personality trait of one of the main characters that you didn't know about, and everything turns into a new path you had never considered before. Money Flower had the ability of letting you "see" into the lives of characters but surprise you when you least expect it. The main character, Kang Pil Joo, had an hidden agenda like many other melo characters, but you never knew what passed through his mind because he "played" various parts according to who he was dealing with, and the outcome was always different from what you initially thought. He was a player, and the writer successfully showed his various personality traits in the drama. This couldn't have been possible were the main lead not Jang Hyuk. He played his character to the fullest, as if he was Kang Pil Joo, and had a great way to show his emotions through his eyes. When you were undecided about which road his character would take, his eyes would tell you. This is not a feature everyone is capable of pulling off, and I think the character wouldn't have had the same success if the actor was different. Jang Hyuk simply nailed it and he is the brightest star of this drama.

Jang Hyuk is not the only one to praise, because this drama had the luck to find a great deal of fantastic actors, starting from Lee Mi Sook, who is a mature actress we always see in evil roles. In Money Flower she was brilliant and her interactions with Jang Hyuk were superb because you never know who was playing with who. Park Se Young, who played Jang Hyuk's love interest and a woman who could look like a damsel in distress at first sight but she wasn't, was also a discovery. I've never seen one of her previous dramas, but she usually plays the "bad" girl. Here she played Na Moo Hyun, a sweet middle school teacher who is naive but also very strong and capable of defending herself. She may seem innocent at first, but she is able to stand her ground. Another discovery was the second lead, Jang Seung Jo, who plays Jang Boo Cheon, Kang Pil Joo's "boss". He is also like Na Moo Hyun, but he is able to show character when needed, despite he isn't able to play the lying game like Kang Pil Joo. Besides them, whose relationship is perfectly showed through the posters (Kang Pil Joo controls Jang Boo Cheon), the secondary characters who aren't really secondary characters are also important and excellent in making the story of this drama even greater. This drama had a lot of talented and experienced cast and its success is deserved not only because of their performance, but also because of the writing. If you are looking for a melodrama that is able to keep you interested until the last episode and has also a great soundtrack and ecellent acting, you need to watch Money Flower.

Lire davantage

8.4 starts??? How??

I pushed myself to watch 19 episodes hoping something will happen. But nothing happens!

Story had some potential and could have been a good drama with good direction but alas! Here there are just series of small scenes, one after another, which does not keep viewers engaged. Bad acting, dark backgrounds and slow pace makes it even more boring and hard to watch.

There are just too many details about how everyone is trying to win over president by coming up with new ideas to concur one another in order to be next president.

Pil ju is one smart person where he can guess all moves well in advance and everything occurs according to his plan. And he has counter plans ready in case anything goes wrong!! I mean common!! And in all this, viewers just look dumb, just looking at screen and trying to understand what is important and what the hell is happening. But nothing does. And even if something happens, people do not react at all!!! They just quietly cry or show little anger on their face of try to quietly hurt themselves! Bad acting and almost similar characters make it worse. Only different character is president’s mistress and she is super annoying!!

There are multiple cliffhangers but they just drop out of nowhere with suspenseful music and viewers can not connect with those as both characters and story feels very distant. Lot of dull moments highlighted with long close up shots of everyones reaction and sad music. Many times suspenseful music is played to keep viewers interested but nothing happens. Bad bad direction!

I wish i can find something good to write about this drama but i can not. I also wish they had one strong female lead, who is not just angry, crying and being pathetic all the time or who does not need help of another man to get things done!!
I can barely give this drama 4 stars!!

Lire davantage

Lack of realistic Doing's

Actually ... i really like revenge drama and have already seen a lot. But this series was quite disappointing. It felt like they were reeling off all common plot stages which has to be in a revenge drama without any thinking about if it really fits the individual characters/needs or even the revenge path of the main lead. There were no suspension curves and if something was delivered or actually revealed (which are THE moments in good revenge series - and for me this is necessary to stay true to their genre) it was without any feeling/sense or any movement. It was just a little bit going up, but then flattened to another boredom...

The acting was ok for me. There were actually wether genius nor bad acting moments.

I believe the biggest problem in this drama was the loss of something in which actually korean series are leading and great... And this is psychology of characters. Watching Money Flower was a pain for me - Every person was nearly the same. Same greed for money, every reaction was through same hard-hearted, power-possessed and cold thinking and not due to their individual wishes/gender/believements. Every single person in this was just identical egoistic like a cold, clinical "psychopath/narcist". For me that was very unrealistic. I coudn't stand that even the person, who the writers give a little bit "more" humanity or emotions, was actually like all the others in the end. For me this was not well executed and the drama lacks a lot because of this.

I would never rewatch it. I also had a lot fast forward moments. :(

Production was great. Can't remember a music piece which get me hooked....

Lire davantage

this series gave me so many emotions that I couldn't count them there were too much but honestly all of the no wait most of them where negative. I was like watching the first two hours of the drama and decide to not watch the next two because it's too dark but somehow I ended up watching the entire drama and I enjoyed every sinle episode, music, story, aciong, cast were all powerful, my emotions were up and down in every episode. May be because this kind of drama is my first time watching so I felt that many feeeling, but the end made me realise how the reality was in truth all made sense in the end of the story

Lire davantage

Slow blooming revenge

I had humble expectations for this show and was pleasantly satisfied with the quality. Kang Pil Joo, alone, was worth the watch. No need for me to comment on him here as others' reviews cover his merits in depth. Watching his revenge is like listening to Ravel's Bolero; we're introduced to the theme and it marches forward ever so slowly, repetitively, adding complexity, until it reaches a rousing culmination; a whisper to a fanfare.

The story relies on the common plot schemes of corporate/political/family intrigue. You know - those stories we're accustomed to where no one is safe around their extended family members and you're never sure if 'Uncle is going to poison your eggrolls or not'. The plot is serviceable and allows us to enjoy some great characters and fine acting.

Pacing was excellent in the first half of the show. In fact, there's so much plot development early, I wondered how they would fill the last 12 episodes. It reminds me of political dramas like Chief of Staff or Stranger with a thriller pace. The 2nd half did slow down a bit with increasingly soapy moments where characters stare at each other with dramatic music for 15 seconds.

The characters were mostly well designed; the cast put forward a great performance. Other than the ML, Jang Sung Man and Jung Mal Ran were standout actors. They were both compelling and convincing even though viewers obviously root against them. Jang Sung Man's character and acting are flawless; there's nothing I would change in design or performance. Jung Mal Ran's character was intoxicating. Her berating and deprecating behavior towards Pil Joo, combined with an undercurrent of electric desire, was terrific. I'd welcome her and Pil Joo actually connecting as a couple in a Stockholm syndrome alternate storyline. They had more character chemistry (not strictly romantic) than Pil Joo and Na Mo Hyun had. Well, their 'relationship' drove the plot, so it is not surprising this potential chemistry was achieved.

Na Mo Hyun's character seems simple, but is rather subtle and complex. This is the toughest character for me to evaluate. I guess viewers that didn't like her couldn't root for someone that was duped into a marriage for hire scheme and then hangs around, knowingly, for the abuse to come. Personally, I enjoyed Mo Hyun's character. Her character is one I'd want to watch carefully in a re-watch.

Boo Cheon's character grows a lot, perhaps the most of any character. But I didn't enjoy or connect with this character. It's odd because I usually enjoy characters who grow. If I could identify one reason for lack of engagement, it is that his character trajectory is wholly predictable. His character lacked that essence where a character feels like a genuine, unique entity, a sense of being compelling. We've seen revenge seeking characters many times before, but Kang Pil Joo is successful because he doesn't feel like other characters we've seen in that 'role'. Boo Cheon didn't achieve that essence.

Many support roles had short times on screen, but were well done. Han Eum Shim, despite being an annoying character by design, was one I was surprised to enjoy. Mistress roles are often narrow in design, but Eum Shim had enough complexity to earn their screen time. Yoon Seo Won was too simplistic, yet enjoyable, and used well in the limited screen time.

The music was effective, but forgettable. The music was soapy sounding at times, but it wasn't overbearing in that sense. Like the music, the cinematography, sets, and costumes were serviceable, but unmemorable. That's okay, because the plot and acting was strong.

Re-watch value is a bit higher than I expected because after browsing earlier scenes, it got me to thinking about characters in a new or enhanced way. So, a re-watch for character analysis rather than to savor the plot is justifiable.

Lire davantage

Hamlet in a Chaebol

Forget Game of Thrones and Succession!

This show is an amazing revenge drama! Its complex plot is beyond compare and may put some viewers off after watching the first few episodes- but if you have a little patience, trust that all will become clear as more episodes follow, you will be rewarded with an awesome viewing experince!

I'd never thought a show with a financial backdrop highlighting the inner machinations of a chaebol would ever hold any interest for me - but this show is absolutely not what you'd expect from reading the plot synopsis.

Much like the US dramas mentioned above, this is a psychological drama, a portrait of several families corrupted by the greed for power and money and the toll this takes on the individuals. Lives are blighted and ruined and it is absolutely intriguing, suspenseful but also painful to watch.

I can't imagine how the writer could have come up with such an intricate, complicated plot - the mind really boggles! I don't think I have ever had to follow such a tangled web of fateful encounters, murderous schemes, past betrayals, adultery, political corruption and manipulations followed by the most brain-twisting machinations and plots by the various interested parties to try to hide them.
There are unlikeable characters in Moneyflower, but the writer has managed to make them incredibly multi-facetted and threedimensional in a way that is very rare to find in a TV drama. As a consquence, the viewer cannot easily pick a favourite character to wholly cheer for or to wholly despise outright.
I have not discovered a single glaring plot hole which can often be found in such intricate plots. There are a few very convenient, fateful co-incidences and one lightning-speed recovery from a coma - but a regular viewer of Kdrama should be familiar with these tropes and not be surprised by them.

The closest comparisons to this show I can think of are the already mentioned Game of Thrones and Bloodlines (a Netflix production) - these were similarly focused on family, power, the internecine struggle for the one true, legitimate succession within a powerful family (business).

On the other hand, Moneyflower's central character's dilemma also reminded me an awful lot of HAMLET in that roughly speaking, in both:

the rightful successor to a powerful family (Hamlet/Kang Pil Joo), whose father has died under questionable circumstances ( Hamlet sen. is poisoned/Jang Eun Cheon's father's life support switched off prematurely?), has to use all his faculties and deceive everyone as to his true intentions (Hamlet's "antic disposition" and alleged madness/Kang Pil Joo's myriad manipulations) to survive in a poisonous, treacherous, shark-tank environment (Elsinore/Mooshimwon) whilst trying to avenge past wrongs, surrounded by untrustworthy minions and spies (Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern/Secretary Oh), with support from just one trustworthy friend (Horatio/Yoo Gong) all whilst having to come to terms with a doomed love interest (Ophelia/Mo Hyun), whose terrible fate and mental torment he is largely responsible for....

There's a HUGE price to pay for Hamlet to get his revenge in the end - oh my! I do hope Moneyflower ends differently but - I'm not too hopeful that Kang Pil Joo's quest for revenge will succeed as he intends...

What more is there to say?

ACTING:
The acting is so good I don't know what to say. There is no way I could imagine any other actors portraying the characters than the ones cast here. I am running out of superlatives. This is really the best of the best.
As a viewer, your emotions will get a thorough workout if you have come to care for the fate of one or more of Moneyflower's characters.. This can be quite exhausting, but once having become involved and interested in the characters, you will love, hate, despise, sympathise, pity the characters -sometimes within the space of a single scene you will go from wishing them dead to a form of sympathy and pity...

Having just finished the last of the episodes I'm still completely bowled over by this drama.
Most impressive in addition to the amazing plot is the acting - honestly I don't think I can praise this acting ensemble enough! I wish I knew how and where Korean actors learn their craft. I'm so curious as to how they manage to express so many conflicting emotions with their facial expressions and eyes.

I want to especially mention Lee Mi Sook - I was terribly prejudiced against her because of her surgically altered looks. But although I am deeply, deeply disturbed by her looks and saddened by what she has done to her face to make it look so alien and artificial, her performance as Jung Mal Ran has really impressed me and won me over. She really is a good actress and manages to convey emotions very well despite the fact that her face is very masklike. It is a shame to think what level of expressiveness she might have still had at her disposal had she allowed her features to age naturally and her face to be less frozen...

The three younger actors playing the central trio of Kang Pil Jo, Jung Cheon Boo and Na Mo Hyun were also exceptional. Just perfect. Fans of Jang Hyuk will get exactly what they have come to expect from this actor: a perfectly nuanced performance depicting a complex character's emotions, making the viewer empathise so much with his painful past experiences that shaped Kang Pil Jos's motivations for his actions in this drama. There are lots of scenes with Lee Mi Sook where the two almost set the screen on fire with their unusual, uncomfortable, erotic chemistry! (Best have a fire extinguisher at the ready!) The intimacy is almost unbearable to watch sometimes.

The young couple Jung Cheon Boo and Na Mo Hyun are written as extremely complex, well rounded characters with some major character growth and development that both actors show beautifully. I particularly LOVED Na Mo Hyun - this is one of the most satisfying female characters I have come across in KDrama so far! Do not be fooled or put off by her happy-go-lucky naivete in the first few episodes! She undergoes some major changes that are deeply satisfying to watch esp. as a female viewer!

Lire davantage

An education in film making and a masterclass in acting

Absolutely floored by the acting and the technical complexity of the show.... All praise for the stunning acting by Jang Hyuk. The man elevated the art of acting to some other level.. It is going to take a long long time for me to get over his sublime acting. Unfortunately his is a hard act to follow, so I can see myself dropping shows by the dozens in next few months, just because nobody came close to the intricate story, wonderful editing, and the technical mounting of the story..
Its a hard watch as it conveys the dark, foreboding, short of breath feel of what Kang Pill Joo the protagonist conveys. I would not be able to watch 3 episodes at a stretch because it required total absorption from its viewers. I would come up for air and then go back to the show the next day.. It is that good.
Jang Hyuk's acting as protagonist needs to be a part of acting classes . His eyes are so compelling despite the lack of facial expressions. Very few actors touch those heights of skill and mastery. Jang Hyuk, Sir, you are something else!!

Lire davantage

Unfortunately I have to jump on the wagon of those individuals who did not really like this series.

First of all I am a huge fan of the ML. He is an amazing actor and he is able to portray any character flawlessly. He seriously was acting within his acting in the series. The man is amazing.

What I liked: Overall I think that everyone did an amazing job in the series. The acting from every cast member was awesome. With that being said there were a few things that I did not like. There was some serious platinum and scheming and the secrecy of it all made things a lot better. I love the intelligence of the ML and the genuineness of the FL. Everything really feel authentic.

What I disliked: The revenge seem very general. And although the plot was for the NL to get revenge it was never targeted towards making the individuals pay for the initial eval that they did. I also dislike the fact that he repay kindness with evil. For me it just made him just as evil as they were although he didn’t take a life. He used a good person who saved him more than once and broke them. In addition to that I just felt like the conclusion should’ve been different. I felt like people that actually suffered didn’t deserve it. Long story short he his attempt to make one or two people pay caused damage to people who were kind. No apology. Yeah yeah I know collateral damage but it was just too much. Also the ending was somewhere open ended and really gratifying for all the intensity and heartache.

Lire davantage

A revenge driven plot with no cliche!

The story follows our main lead attorney Kang Pil Joo, which goes on a revenge journey to bring down Executive Jung Mal Ran.
He plans everything in detail with cautious planning. This characteristic will make you wanna watch more episodes.

The character built up is very good. The plot gets a little sketchy after episode 20. Then ending is played slowly to adjust each character's mood. You will get hyped up to episode 14 after that it's up to you to watch.
Anyway, I binge-watch this drama and am satisfied with a reasonable ending.

Trust me the direction and the soundtrack felt a little old and kinda boring. As this drama has no special OST to listen.

No rewatch for me.

Lire davantage