Island (2022)

Pure entertainment.

Korean fantasy weaved with a hot priest and evil spirits and demons and exorcism and reincarnation. Good acting and all performances were a delight to watch. There wasn't much depth during the first half, but they built up things nicely for the finale. And opened up a whole new arena of things to leave us anticipating a season 2. But ya, since it's fantasy, the world-building is completely upto them. It's okay so far but I feel there isn't that much detail and very little that overlaps with any fantasy or myths that I am aware of. Except for the exorcism.

But overall, if you just wanna binge some wild CGI mixed action, no need to look further!

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There is something not quite right

The drama will not offer any deep story or surprising twists - both as story or acting.
The fiery priest plays the same role, Lee Da Hee was tot wrong for the role for me, and Cha Eun Woo pretty much acted just “pretty” with short moments of interesting depth- not his fault at all, someone should have told him; something was missing for me. Still, there is some entertaining value - constantly waiting for the interesting part to start! The last few episodes were better than the first 10
So none of the main cast acting is worth talking about - the supporting cast and the main cast pretty faces carried the drama for me.
I will remember this one for the wrong reasons:

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Dysfunctional Characters

The drama kicked off with good modern visuals and an interesting fantasy setting on a mystical island. However, it quickly unraveled. The fantasy elements, though visually appealing, peaked in the first two episodes, while the remainder felt like a rehash of what we'd already seen. It's strange that they revealed all their cards in the beginning, leaving the rest feeling empty. The female lead was sent to the island to work as a teacher, but this plotline was completely irrelevant and didn't last for more than one episode. The direction the drama took with the fantasy story turned out to be quite disappointing afterwards. More on characters, the female lead was an unstoppable cringe generator with her non-serious interactions, especially with the male lead in the earlier parts. It was the writers way trying desperately to build chemistry between the two, but it was impossible without rewriting the characters themselves. However, the character that suffered the most from both the writers' curse and the cast choice was Goong Tan. It doesn't take a blind man to see what was wrong. The drama ended up being this shallow shipwreck of recycled ideas and bland characters.

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I love this show :-)

The plot is simple and that is one of the reasons why I find the show to be beautiful. I love the show, because of what Van represents. Protection, patience, and sacrifice, but also the pain that comes with those three things. Van is half human and half demon, but has always kept his humanity. Mi-Ho looks at Van, sees the human in him, because that is what he projects. The human in him. The way he looks at her, is the most beautiful thing I have witnessed in a show. What that marble represents inside of her, and how he has to return the piece to Mi-Ho is very profound. That part broke me, because since the moment he became half-demon he waited for the day he was not. He knew that was unatanninable, so the only way evil would disappear was if him and Gungtan were to not exist in this world anymore. He had to disappear. It broke me, because I have found a character in a show I liked more. The way Kim Nam Gil portrays Van is both heartbreaking and hauntingly beautiful in my opinion. His eyes are very expressive, and because of that he does not have to speak. You know what he is thinking. I could say more, but I don't think I need to. This is just a really good show in my opinion. :-)

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Ugh!

This show is not that great. I do like the Van and Mi-Ho characters but the Johan character is annoying AF. I get that he's supposed to be the cool, hip, young, unorthodox priest but his antics are annoying and childish for a person in his position. His charcater did show some grace in the last episode though. This was 6 episodes that barely made any sense and the CGI is terrrible to boot! I did like the tree monster scenes though, that was actually really well done.

I hate that they split this series into 2 parts b/c it makes no sense. It doesn't even build up to a decent 1st half of a series either. Eveything was disjointed and all we got was some flashbacks, a monster of the week type villian each ep and some so called prophecy that will be the main point of the rest of the show I guess. I will watch the 2nd half though hopefully it's better!

1/7/24

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More than just any other drama. New fantasy world brought to life in the right way from a webtoon

Binged watched both parts in one day without any expectations or spoilers previously.
If you like comics, webtoons, anime...etc. with thriller, fantasy, horror and action as themes than this drama is made for you.
Do not expect a typical drama.

Acting was excellent. There was no boring moment or episode. Many exciting and visually beautiful actions scenes.

More than any other thing, I loved the whole atmosphere of the show. It really gives a "watching a webtoon becoming a movie" kind of vibe. So many moments and scenes feel like they were filmed just the way they were drawn and I had to replay them to enjoy their beauty. (I love comics and webtoons and haven't seen this one before but I know that kind of scene when I see one)

The story progressed in a steady and exciting pace and it was very easy to enter this new fantasy world together with FL.
New elements, discoveries, background stories were added one at the time so they would be both exciting and easy to understand. There were two moments when I felt the story is somehow disconnected but I quickly realized that things like that are exactly what happens when you read a webtoon and ended up liking that disconnections b/c the whole vibe became stronger.

There was no reason to split this one in two parts and it really should be rated as one 12 eps drama here.

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The phasing was really slow.... this is a slow burn drama. It only has 6 episodes but it felt like I was watching a 100 episode drama, I wanted to skip lots of scenes. It only got better in last 2 episodes.
The actions and CGI were okay, very animated style (or maybe my standard was just a bit higher after seeing AOS) but it was just okay for me, not bad but not enough to give that "wow!!" Effect.

The phasing is slow, the whole cinematic seems boring and dull. The story is just okay too, I just think there's something lacking with how they executed the scenes or the story.
And I think the FL... also... make it even less interesting.

The acting was just okay too.
Am a fan of Kim Nam Gil since QSD... but his character didn't really intrigued me. The constant frowning and just oozing with "emo" character with heartbreaking past.
I just don't think this character suits him.

I am not fond of the FL as well... her character is the most boring and less interesting one in this drama so far. I only know Lee Da Hee from "I hear your voice" and I love her character and her portrayal, but on this one...I just don't think this character is for her. She didn't make thr fl that interesting, her acting is just... not that good on this one. I really wonder if it will be different if they choose a different actress.
I cringe at her constant hair fixing. Some scenes should make her look like a girl boss but still bland, the comedic scenes is also tough to watch.

Eun Woo surprised me on this one. The first time I saw him as priest, he automatically reminds me of the ML from the Manhwa Black Winter (when he dressed as a priest).
The writers and the director, definitely knew what they are doing, when they made his character a handsome priest with all those *sexy* scenes.
At least this one is a bit different with all the other dramas he portrayed since I am not really fond of his previous dramas.

I do not think I will rewatch this season, although I do not think it is bad enough for me to drop. I am interested on how the story will be on season 2. Hopefully it will be better on this one.

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Enjoyable

The story might feel a little confusing at first but you catch up quite quickly. It was a fun ride! I had 0 expectations before starting this so it was a completely positive experience. It's not too scary either.

I almost didn't recognise Kim Nam Gil from Through The Darkness so that discovery was exciting.

I was a little doubtful that the pretty boy idol portraying Priest Yohan would make a good character but he added some humour to the show that is otherwise a bit dark. He emoted better than I expected.

The CGI is nice. One particular scene reminded me of a scene from Harry Potter as well.

I do wish they hadn't split up the season unnecessarily. Not happy about this trend but it was an interesting ending. Looking forward to part 2.

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Lustful Demons and Kim Nam Gil what else can a girl want -- nothing!

I was hooked from the moment I started watching. I am a complete sucker for anything Sci-fi and/or fantasy. Those two genres combined in a series featuring Kim Nam Gil in any character, let alone a fantastical dagger-wielding demon slayer hunting soul-seeking lustful demons, is more than a girl can ask for --- Island is almost a cross between a Korean Odyssey and Dark Hole, where humans breed monsters and evil from their own selfishness and hate that ultimately hunts them. It's like they say humans are the real monsters, and to defeat that monster/demon/evil, whatever one chooses to call them, one must become a monster. But let me say; this opener was brilliant. The cinematography hooks me, the lustful demons' makeup, the music score, the flying, jumping, chasing, running --- I mean, edge-of-your-seat attention-grabbing stuff. All the actors are nailing their parts so far and complement each other greatly. Of course, one cannot dismiss Lee Da Hee; she was terrific in Beauty Inside and WWW: Search. Nothing she's done since compares to this role, which she plays perfectly. I commend the Manhwa writer for such compelling work, the script writer for mesmerizing it, and the director and actors for breathtakingly bringing it all to life.

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it's ok but frustrating to

when I start watching I like the series and main male and female both are good at there acting and story but the other main lead was frustrating he was full of him self like he know everything and it's make 4 th episode a frustrating episode with good fighting but it will make a good series test bad.
I hope he will disappear so other episode won't be ruin other episode like a trashy 2nd main role ( kang chan hyuk/ John)
he have to be a supporting character that will help van so series will go to main villion (goong tan) actually after watching 4th episode I was to much frustrated so I am writing it if someone fill this and see this he/she will be satisfied that he was not the only one who think John as trash ?

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You know how something is so bad that it becomes good? This is just that.

I will be patiently waiting for season 2 now because I found season 1 enjoyable enough which I know isn’t a popular opinion.
Coming to the storyline this isn’t something that we have not seen before. The writer seemed to have taken some inspiration from previously aired dramas; yes like many people pointed out it has some striking similarities with Bulgasal : immortal souls but I was never able to get into the latter because of poor acting and slow episodes.
This, however, I ended up binge watching. What kept me hooked in the first two episodes was the dynamic between the two leads, they were fun to watch, had good chemistry. There were some unexpected comedic moments. I must admit that the episodes became boring as it progressed with the last episode being the weakest
.
Acting wise I was skeptical of both Lee Da Hee and CEW, thought it would be a bad acting fest. I was pleasantly surprised with the former although there were some scenes that could have been better had she showed more emotions but she somehow didn’t stick up like a sore thumb so thats good. What I liked about the character perhaps was that she wasn’t exactly the typical damsel in distress: yes she was in trouble all the time but she wasn’t bland and the powerless sort. Also, God bless the outfit department, some of LDH’s outfits were atrocious.

That priest was pretty annoying at first-bad writing there. He shows up out of nowhere, sticks with his noona (that was so cringe) and believes he can protect her. He fights too well for a mere human, how is he more powerful than other priests? Didn’t understand the significance of his arc with his brother either- what was the point? However, I loved his scenes with Van. Those little animated reactions during their interactions were cute.

Kim Nam Gil didn’t have much to work with, he was our wounded hero and knight in shining armor. Wanted to see some of his acting prowess- hopefully, in season 2.

I don’t know what briefing the vfx team had gotten though. If they were expecting to make those lust demons scary they failed terribly at it. Also, some of the action scenes just fell flat because of poor vfx and weren’t really choreographed well.

There haven’t been any positives in this review uptil now so you may ask why would I be watching the next season if there were so many flaws. The answer is pretty simple: I would like to watch the leads together and the potential angst that will follow. You know how something is so bad that it becomes good? This is just that.
A mediocre season that became a guilty pleasure.

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