Angel's Last Mission: Love (2019)

First of all, the casting was really good.
The drama had me hooked in the beginning, compelling scenes garnished with beautiful OSTs and this left me wanting more.
Along the line, the drama lost direction.
They dragged out the scenes and passed Ji Kang Woo off as the villain when truly, he was a victim of the Deity's harshness and cruelty.
The fact that Hu Sunbae had to be dissipated was really sad, but the more annoying thing was that despite that sacrifice, Dan and the FL still had to go through a lot.
The drama tried to stray away from cliches like 'You who came from the stars' and 'Legend of the blue sea' which have the same Human/Superhuman love story plots, but ended up being underwhelming and repetitive.
Kudos to Shin Hye Sun for bringing her role to life in this drama. I always thought she gave off 'supporting role' vibes, but I think she did a good job in this drama as a FL.

I don't want to give away much, but the drama started off strong and ended off as a huge disappointment.
I don't think I'll re-watch this one, but if it's your cup of tea, go right ahead.

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The beginning of this drama was extremely strong, with comedy, tragedy, and budding romance. But towards the last 3/4, things started to get messy. I honestly finished it because of the impeccable performances of the actors. Our main leads were amazing - I truly teared up numerous times on behalf of their characters. Shin Hye Sun will forever be one of my favorites - the emotion she can convey in just her facial expressions is astounding.

Overall, the drama was decent, but would have likely scored higher from me if the ending made more logical scene. I had no issues with the angel concepts throughout the drama, but things became a bit religiously heavy for me with some consistency of rules and explanations missing, which made things confusing in the end.

For example, the ending... Don't get me wrong - I liked the ending, but it doesn't make logical sense to me... If God said _______ can't happen because those were His rules, but then granted ________ in the end (even though it was made abundantly clear that exceptions weren't made), I'm left confused, which takes away from the overall drama.

God's character was more of a general concept in the beginning of the drama, but near the end, he became a more concrete being who would smite those who go against His will. This definitely caused the drama to become heavier and more tragic. As His character became more concrete, I think the drama would have benefited from some explanations and/or clarifications to help justify his motives and goals, aiding in story cohesiveness and audience understanding. With these explanations missing, God's character became difficult to understand with no clear stand. Is He merciful or is He taking pity? Did He give up because they were so persistent? Or did Dan/Yeon Seo earn their ending? Or was it something else? While some might be comfortable with this ambiguity, I am not. Especially when there are such dire consequences for choices made. Writers explained why Dan didn't disappear and successfully "completed his mission," so why not be as thorough in the final ending?

Perhaps I am taking this story way too seriously, but it has left me pondering many things..

Anyways, I don't think I will recommend this drama....Not because it wasn't good, but because I personally struggle with understanding God's character here, which makes the overall message and moral difficult to decipher.

***Note: Please, Come Back Mister, is a drama which I personally believe was much more successful in delivering a story about heavenly beings protecting those living on Earth in a more clear, consistent, and balanced manner.

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A Beautiful Romance

If you want to watch a love story you will never forget then watch this one. If you don’t get goosebumps a dozen times and cry with emotion you not a romantic. I saw this series on a friend's favorite list, so I decided to watch it. I am so glad that I did. Shin Kye Sun and Kim Myung Soo were absolutely amazing and had on-screen chemistry that glowed like a brilliant light. Shin Key Sun is so good at portraying unique romances, like Mr. Queen for example. Her acting ability stuns me at times. I would highly recommend this series.

There was drama, smiles, and all the romance you can handle. The supporting actors were great. Each one giving life to a great script. The music was fantastic pulling the emotional strings just when it was needed. I was totally immersed for all 32 episodes. Angel’s Last Mission: Love is now on my all-time favorites list.

And finally, a huge thanks to the Subtitle masters at Viki. Without the subtitles, I would have missed out on one of the most touching dramas I’ve ever seen. I am in your debt.

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Misrepresentation

I know not many will see this review, but I believe it's important to point something out.
When writing a story with supernatural elements, you have to represent those elements in an accurate and realistic way so that they don't become inaccuracies in terms of real instances that would exist in this reality.

For example, Angels are supernatural beings that are supposed to obey and follow God's will no matter what. Biblically speaking, that's the correct view of how angels behave. Demons on the other hand rebelled against God and do everything that is against His will.
I could go on lecturing about the reality of God, His will, angels and demons, but you get the point.
The drama itself has many flaws, not just the misrepresentation I already mentioned.
The characters are filled with hypocrisy and don't make logical sense at times. For example, the main lead always has a grudge against the "deity" because she believes he was unfair to her. However, before that, she did not even believe in his existence even though she has witnessed supernatural events first-hand!
Kim Dan, Hu and Gil opposed God's views and always seemed to question Him and even trying to rebel against him at times, and despite the clear warnings they have received, they kept rebelling.....which is completely INNACURATE to how actual angels behave! No angels can become human or vice-versa, thus the reason why the drama falls short in story-telling. Also if the above characters were truly angels, they would have a direct communication with God Himself, but God was portrayed as a silent sadist that had no connection with his angels.

Evil characters were too obvious. The acting was passively boring. Romance was artificial.
And most importantly...the camera work. Why the heck do Korean dramas nowadays incorporate the SHAKY CAMERA cliche in every single instance of the series. To make it look dramatic? It wasn't! To make it look intense? You may have fooled some. I believe that all the positive 10/10 reviews are coming from those that only watched the drama for the visuals of the main lead Kim Dan and Yeo Seo and their poor romance.
It was a drama that could go in great directions but it took one of the worst ones. To me this drama felt more like an experiment for the visual effects artists than for the actual story elements and their reality.

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Bafflingly high rating for a waste of time

I began this drama with high hopes - it was set up with a premise that was something different, that I hasn't seen before.
Then as the episodes went on, it just devolved into garbage and more and more cliched tropes were introduced. They even added the (AWFUL) "met as children" trope despite this contradicting the whole premise of the show.

Actually, there were other things that didn't make sense too...like the second male lead who likes the female lead because she *look like* (but isn't) a reincarnation of his old girlfriend??
The way the storyline inexplicably fell into place with a happy ending - despite the characters receiving divine warning about disaster and punishment - just didn't make any sense either.

There are only a couple of worthwhile things about this show - L as the lead is pretty good, the actors who portray the female lead's nasty family are pretty good and the mystery about the sabotage at the dance company was interesting (I was annoyed that the perpetrators mostly didn't face any consequences though?). Also the music was pretty good (although repetitive).

Hye Sun Shin gives a decent performance as the female lead, but I think she was miscast, as her character is supposed to only be 23 and she looks her age of 30 (and was specifically playing a 30 year old in her previous series).

There were definitely some entertaining aspects of this show (I managed to watch through the whole thing), but they get overshadowed by the all the plotholes, needless annoying tropes, and melodrama; so by the end of the (overlong) 16 episodes I was just left wondering why I bothered with this mess.

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Like my title reads this drama was pretty much in the middle of the road for me because while I didn't hate it, I certainly didn't love it. The highlight of this show was the OSTs and that should say something. I can't really complain about the casting because the actors really did justice to their roles but sadly it wasn't enough for me.

While it's not really a spoiler, it is a detail about the show nonetheless about my biggest complaint which might have notched the show up a half star more, is the lack of body doubles. The show is about ballerinas and there is going to be dancing. How can you not have body doubles to do the heavy lifting when it came to skills scenes. It frustrated me to no end to watch the two dance leads fake their way through dance pieces when they clearly had no background in ballet. I would have forgiven minor faking but the director's decision to forgo a professional dancer to properly showcase the art form left me horrified. There were clearly opportunities to showcase a talent and make it look like either of the two front ballerinas but alas I was left wanting. In the end this made the drama feel a bit unprofessional in my book and highlighted some short-comings which is either laziness or cheap production.

In summation while it was clearly not a work of art, it probably paid the bills so I guess you can call it good Fluff material.

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The Short Bit - Really enjoyed it, highlights for me were the actors performances, particularly the leads, and the music was just amazing - whether it was classical accompaniment to the ballet, or more "normal" OST tracks there are a few notable ones that were fantastic. The story was good, but had some minor issues and "abbreviations".

The Waffley Bit - The two main leads were amazing, having already seen Shin Hye Sun in "30 but 17" I was already expecting great work from her, but hadn't seen "L" in anything before. Shin Hye Sun was just fantastic showing a wide range of her character work from the stone cold ice queen, mean and cruel at the start, to the warm, loving and friendly character later and then to the hysterical, crying and pitiful character further on, with plenty in between. It's worth rewatching just to remind yourself how her character progresses so much - after you've seen her "lights up the room" smiles and "nervous breakdown" crying it's worth reminding yourself of the emotionless cold hearted character she rendered at the start. L was fantastic too, and if i'm honest I appreciated his work more than I expected I would, nothing wooden or plastic about his performance at all, it was spot on. Other characters were largely as expected, though I did appreciate the butler played by Woo Hee Jin, an interesting character who makes out that she is constantly put out of her way by Yeon Seo, but is always there beside her protecting her.

Music was just stunning, this one is all about a ballerina so you can expect some fantastic ballet performances and lots of classical music to go with it (but not enough to put off those who don't enjoy it, don't worry :) ). Where the normal OST style tracks are they were mostly brilliant, some really notable tracks i'm looking forward to hearing again separately. The only exception for me was one track that starts with "1, 2 and 1,2,3.4" in the vocals - at least a couple of times this was played over the top of someone talking and its mere presence simply highlighted to me just how often it got played (at least for a while anyway until they seemed to stop using it at all). Producers - don't talk over your actors!

Story - this bit is a bit mixed. Overall I really enjoyed it. It's not without its issues though. Some times things are just glossed over - you go from one state of relationship to another in the blink of an eye and there's no reason or explanation as to how it happened. One minute characters are at loggerheads and the next they've figured it out and made up... There's more good than bad, and the bad isn't really that bad it's more just a case of taking something on faith really. There's a heavy Christian religious theme to it - but that ought to be expected - and one of the things I was hoping they'd develop was the burden humanity places on God, why does He permit bad things to happen to good people? The question comes up, but it never really gets any kind of answer or development. There's plenty of fist shaking to the sky but then later on when Angel Dan narrates his final views it's verging on as "thats just how it is, and i'm suddenly fine with that where i wasn't before". I think this would have been a great opportunity to explore these elements further even if only in the context of discussing thoughts and views (I should say I'm not a religious person myself perhaps, but I still appreciate religious elements in stories, whatever religion it might be).

There's some similarities that can be drawn between some of the key elements of this drama and "You who came from the stars", particularly the two leads who get together but inevitably know there's a clock ticking where they will be ripped apart. Another element that I found good in this similar to "stars" was where the couple are joyously happy, but you, and they, know they are racing towards that cliff - it's a bittersweet time and represented well.

The conclusion is... there? But it wasn't particularly clear and as with numerous other times in the story - lacking even simple explanation, I mean they're standing under the tree, how about a leaf falling with a simple note from God to Dan and Yeon Seo just to put a "bow" on it. I also don't like how they left the butler's view of Dan shredded to pieces - given the final few minutes i'm sure it would have repaired, but that just left a sour taste.

So... finally? Yep, worth a watch, it's not flawless by any means, but it's still worth the time to watch it in my view. Rewatch is quite high because I don't think knowing the ending really affects your enjoyment too much, and in fact as I said earlier, watching the full range of Shin Hye Sun's performance again has to be worth the time.

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The best k drama for romance and love,hands down

So I’ve watched a lot k dramas for love,romance and comedy and I have to say in terms of love and romance this one for me did it better than all of the k dramas I’ve watched before it and this is mainly down to these two main characters.they play there roles extremely well and you can genuinely feel how much they care and love one another,can’t remember any show making me smile numerous times just because of what’s happening between them two and there was plenty of times where I had tears in my eyes,the female lead is so cute
It’s unreal the way she says “Dan” the sideline story is good but the main reason this k drama is special for me is because of the leads,there enough to have you go through 16 episodes no problem,if your on the fence about watching this and you like the pure “romance” dramas you NEED to watch this, it’s a top 5 for me
Quick side note the ending I don’t think I’ve ever been as happy at a ending in a K drama if I’m honest I thought they’d never be able to touch again,couldn’t stop smiling

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Nice but I would have enjoyed it more if they didn't misuse many things from Christianity and distort them and change them so much (especially the way they describe God) that almost anyone watching would get the wrong idea of the real God.

Imagine if someone wrote a story with your family in it although they changed all of your families personalities, they even added someone who isn't even in your family (reincarnation). My family is something I hold very dear to me, if someone misrepresented them in a harmful way I definitely wouldn't like it. That's how I feel about my beliefs.

Other than that, it wasn't totally bad. I enjoyed it.
Angel Dan had a cute personality and the ballet was pleasing to watch.

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This is my first time to write a review on this website, I often only use it to view the ratings and reviews of other people but here I am writing my own entry. Angel's Last Mission: Love is such a refreshing drama, the plot is somehow creative in a way that it gets you hooked really easily. The casting is also brilliant, Shin Hye Sun does an amazing job at portraying her character, the other casts are also outstanding . I only plan to watch it once a day, but I binge watched every episode.

The genre sticks to what it is supposed to be and by that I mean you get an ounce of comedy drama and romance, it's really worth the watch, I can't even explain in words how perfect the soundtrack is, it really adds up flavor to the series. If you're hesitating on watching this, please don't, I've watched countless of dramas and I can say this is different from the stereotypical plot that dramas often have, it is somehow new with a minimal touch of cliche but it's really enjoyable and addictive. I can't wait for it to be finished, I really wish for an epic ending.

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Sobbing

Wow,I think this k-drama beats everything I watched till now. I cried at every episode.This drama has all,comedy,tragedy,romance, everything. I cannot wait to see the next episodes so I can make a longer review. I'm dying here to see what's next. I'm glad that I gived it a chance so I could see this awesome drama.


Update: After all this waiting I could see the last eps. I think I cried enough to fill a river. This drama was so beautiful, just like the actors who played so well I do not think I cried so much to other dramas, but that was special. I've seen a lot of kdramas but that was different. There were many sad moments, but also many fun and happy. It's a relief for me that it had a happy ending.Wow,everyone who didn't watch this drama need to stop from whatever they do and watch this drama because it will be the most beautiful drama they would ever watch. I wish I could give 1000000 stars and my heart,but for now the only thing I can do is a good review, 10 stars and send it to others so I do not miss a drama like that, nor have words to describe it. This drama and all actors deserve an award and I hope they'll get it.

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