Jirisan (2021)

Jirisan, montagne sacrée de la Corée, pleine de mystère.

Ce que j’en ai pensé :
Ce n’est pas innocent que les scénaristes aient choisi la montagne de Jirisan pour y planter leur histoire, car Jirisan est par excellence et par essence le cœur de la Corée, la montagne magique où les esprits se promènent, où on pratique encore le chamanisme, et des rituels réguliers.
Extraits d’un article de Géo magazine :
« C’est par ailleurs l’un des endroits du pays les plus riches en qi [l’énergie positive] et en spiritualité », analyse l’anthropologue "Benjamin Joinau, professeur de civilisation à l’université Hongik de Séoul.
« Nulle part ailleurs dans le pays, la symbiose entre le peuple et la montagne n’est aussi forte, insiste David Mason, professeur à "l’université de Sejong et spécialiste du sujet. C’est un haut lieu de syncrétisme entre bouddhisme, chamanisme et animisme. »
 "En Corée, on naît, on vit et on meurt dans la montagne », assure un adage. Une exagération sans doute. Mais le trekking reste "quand même, et de loin, le loisir préféré de la population, malgré un temps disponible restreint – entre cinq et onze jours de "congés annuels. D’après une étude de 2016, 30 % des 51 millions d’habitants seraient d’ailleurs des randonneurs chevronnés. « Nous avons des vies très stressantes, il faut toujours être performant : c’est pour cela que nous aimons tant côtoyer les "sommets ! » rigole Kim Euy Gon, 50 ans, croisé sur l’un des innombrables sentiers du massif sacré.

Une fois qu’on a bien tout ça en tête, le drama prend un tout autre sens, car Jirisan est partie prenante autant que les gardes forestiers de l’histoire. Le réalisateur s’en est donné à cœur joie en vues époustouflantes des sommets, des forêts, des incendies, ou des inondations, nous faisant bien sentir que l’homme n’est que toléré parmi cette nature sauvage et grandiose. D’ailleurs on peut lui reprocher d’en avoir fait parfois un peu trop en cadrage bizarre et en allongement un peu excessifs de certaines prises de vues… Mais j’étais si heureuse de retrouver un lieu qui m’avait enchantée que je ne m’en suis pas plainte !
Le garde forestier Kang Hyun Jo a vécu un drame personnel dans la montagne, et depuis il ressent une communication particulière avec Jirisan…
Le réalisateur a privilégié les changements de temps , on passe très souvent du présent à un passé récent, ou plus ancien, ou encore plus ancien, et cela demande un peu d’entraînement au début. Je pense que le récit aurait gagné en clarté à être un peu moins haché et un peu plus linéaire, sans cependant abandonner complètement les changements d’époques qui sont indispensables vus les changements d’état des héros principaux.
L’histoire est très prenante, les soupçons se portent sur divers suspects, qui, peu à peu éliminés, nous mènent au final à la découverte du coupable. C’est une part du scénario que j’ai beaucoup aimée, car tout au long de l’histoire le fantastique et la réalité triviale ont été mêlés avec habileté, et la résolution de l’énigme nous ramène à ce qui a toujours justifié le crime : l’argent, la vengeance, terriblement humaine, jusqu’au moment où c’est la montagne elle-même qui va conclure le destin du coupable !

Donc en conclusion, je devrais dire que j’ai beaucoup aimé ce drama… sauf que les 10 dernières minutes ont tout fichu par terre ! ça ne m’étonne pas du réalisateur de Descendants of the sun » ou « Mr Sunshine », mais la (le ?) scénariste de Kingdom et de Signal aurait pu nous épargner cette fin ridicule !
Attention SPOILER :

Que Hyun Jeo se mette à respirer seul au moment où on le débranche, on peut passer, mais qu’on nous laisse croire tout un épisode qu’il est mort alors que … Oh ! mais qui est là ? Contemplant le lever de soleil ? mais c’est lui ! Bien vivant (hop un petit flash-back de 10 s montrant l’infirmière expliquant le retour à la vie ), cette vieille ficelle de faire croire à la mort de quelqu’un pour le montrer bien vivant ça a été usé et archi usé ! Mais le pire c’est Yi Kang, paraplégique depuis des mois, sans jamais parler de la moindre rééducation, ni d’un quelconque espoir de remarcher, hop !! la voilà debout, bien costaud ! Comment ??? Pourquoi ??? Ben on n’en saura jamais rien !
Et à côté de ça on accumule des flashbacks inutiles au lieu de donner un minimum d’explication à ces « miracles » !
En plus du ridicule achevé de ce happy end forcé, toute l’atmosphère du drama, de la puissance de la montagne qui peut faire du mal, du lien très spécial que s’est créé entre les personnages et cette entité magnifique qu’ils servent jusqu’au péril de leur vie, tout disparaît dans cette fin de romance à l’eau de rose !
Donc si vous regardez « Jirisan » arrêtez-vous 1/4 d’heure avant la fin !

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Une très bonne découverte !

Un très très bon drama. Je l'attendais depuis les premières annonces et je n'ai pas été déçu. Le casting, que je ne connaissais que très peu en dehors de Oh Jung Su et Go Min Si ont très bien rempli leurs rôles. Je m'attendais à un simple "tranche de vie" de gardes forestiers mais la partie enquête ne m'a pas dérangé, au contraire. On a un bon entre-deux niveau policier et quotidien des rangers. Chaque personnage avait son importance en plus des rôles principaux, c'était agréable. Le seul bémol, je dirais que c'est les timelines. Les bandes noires marquaient la différence entre passé et présent mais c'était un peu confus par moment. Mention spéciale à l'OST qui se fond bien avec le drama ! (Surtout celle de Kim Feel qui colle parfait avec le ton de Jirisan !)

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"Jirisan" radiates within the slowed down, yet powerful dynamic of the mountain world

"Jirisan" pays tribute to South Korea's first and largest national park and its rangers, who ensure security and order here. The KDrama weaves an exciting story that also takes into account the special aura of the mountains, adding a good portion of mysticism. Actually Jiri Mountain is quite legendary and downright sacred for Korea. It's worth watching the KDrama for that alone.

Other quality guarantees are given by the handpicked cast and high-end production.

A joy for some, a curse for others: "Jirisan" radiates within the slowed down, yet powerful dynamic of the mountain world. The story itself is a bit reminiscent of a mountain hiking tour: it's not a stroll. You need the right footwear. Sometimes you might think you've lost your way. The story is told in several timelines. Yet it chooses its own rhythm with a sure step, that leads to the final destination. On the way it is continuously enriched with worthwhile vistas along the entire route... Fast pace and airy love story are not part of the baggage. But exciting entanglement over time, unconditional trust as a topic in the team of rangers, as well as love in its essential form and various expressions (... e.g. for the mountain).

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An Ode to Mount Jiri and the forest rangers.

In a world of vast oceans and far-reaching land, it is important to not just remain a mere spectator and record the history, rather to penetrate the depth of it and capture the mystery confined within. Again, the possession of knowledge doesn't kill the the curiosity and mystery, instead creates more.

Jirisan is a drama that started in mystery and ended in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful truth lies in between. The great production value plus the extraordinarily amazing cast, are what made us look forward to the drama. By the end of it I can say that, I thoroughly enjoyed and engulfed those 2 elements though the entire thing couldn't totally lived up to my expectations of becoming something excellent.

"Jirisan" is set up in the premise of majestic Mount Jiri, the tallest mountain of the mainland Korea present in the Sobaek mountain ranges, on the southern regions of the country. It was made into Jirisan National Park in the year 1967 and has been serving as a major tourist spot ever since.

Jirisan, the drama, is a story of a group of rangers who have dedicated themselves to prorect and preserve the mountain as well the people associated with it. The major plot about the drama is the horrifying deaths caused by accidents that happen back to back in the premise, leading to investigation by the rangers who can't help but worry. Along with it what we see are, realistic events that takes place on mountain ranges at different timelines of a year. That includes, natural disasters affecting the mountain, maintenance of law & order on the mountain, life of people living or relying on the mountain, etc. They have also portrayed the legends & myths related to Mount Jiri,
special attractions of the nature, different religious as well as memorial spots and mysteries of the montain.

Note: Jirisan is semi-supernatural and also involves mystery, investigative thriller, violence a lil amount of dystopia. It has in fact lived upto the mystery genre and I am very much impressed with how they kept the mystery buried till the finale week. Actually, the writer throws enormous hints since 10th ep so that we can pinpoint the real culprit behind the entire tragedy but it also keeps diverting from one to other, a lot, thereby confusing the audience a great deal. Although one person becomes the primary focus, attracting all the suspicions towards themselves but not until the finale week you are answered the questions. So the writer has done a very good job in that regard, no wonder she's a legend.

One of the main elements used in Jirisan is immense time shuffling. Not that they're spontaneously continuous, but there are chances you might get irritated by it. Personally I wasn't bcs It didn't confuse me at all. So to explain you briefly, the present timeline in the drama is the early Summer in 2020, which is about 40% of the drama's runtime. The major scenario with a share of about 50% takes place from late summer of 2017 till the mid winter or the end of 2019. The rest 10% goes to the backstory of the characters, involving unfortunate events, that takes place in different timelines between 1991- 2010.

Seo Yi Gang (Jun Ji Hyun) is the best amont the Jirisan rangers and capable of everything to a extent that she's considered a legend. She has always wanted to run away from the mountain but always found her back. Kang Hyun Joo (Joo Ji Hoon), is an ex-Lieutenant at military who left the army after a sad incident on the mountain and decided to protect the mountain. Now he's a rookie ranger. Yi Gang and Hyun Joo are partners and with their abilities they brings the best out of their job.

Captain Jo De Jin (Sung Dong Il) is the chief of Haedong Branch Office who has been working there since his rookie days. Jung Gu Young (Oh Jung Se) is also a ranger at Haedong and a close friend to Yi Gang. Park Il Hae (Jo Han Chul) is the team leader of rangers and recruited at Bidam shelter. Lee Yang Sun (Joo Min Kyung) is the office control room head. Kim Woong Soon (Jung Suk Ho) is the in-charge at Jirisan sub-police station. The major cast consists of these characters who are the parts of all the above mentioned timelines. Another major character is Lee Da Won (Go Min Si) who is only there in 2020 as a rookie ranger.

Some good actors in other minor characters are: Lee Moon Ok (Kim Young Ok) as Yi Gang's grandmother, Kim Sol (Lee Ga Sub) as the Culture Centre researcher, Lee Sae Wook (Yoon Ji On) as Yang Sun's cousin, Kim Kye Hee (Joo Jin Moo) as the National Chief of Mountain Rangers and Dr. Yoon Su Jin (Kim Gook Hee) as the conservation centre researcher.

The production value of Jirisan is on another level and that's obviously because the PD-Jakka duo are highly skilled. Not just because they're the makers of several highly acclaimed dramas, the quality of this drama in terms of the technical aspects speaks very loud of it, I can assure you that. Kim Eun Hee jakkanim with her experience in the field of both dystopian supernaturals and investigative mystery thrillers, has done an amazing job in writing the entire script as well as incorporating several essentially intriguing elements into the story. The plot development was quite pleasing, if not something wow-ish. Lee Eung Bok PDnim is a very familiar name and has experiences of working in all kinds of dramas, so that clearly shows here. I'm sure the extensive time shuffling would have been difficult for the screenplay but he has managed it well.

Cinematography is an area which was stupendously managed in the drama. In fact, the immensely beautiful premise of Mount Jiri provided the team enormous scope to work on and bring the best out of it. Loved the different Kind of habitats, waterfalls, major cliffs of Mt. Jiri., the hiking routes, dense forests as well as meadows and also the frictional manmade visiting spots. The colour palettes were also well executed. For a matter of fact, they've also used both CGI and VFX in many scenes, because obviously it's not that easy to shoot thr entire thing on mountain. The VFX is literally a brownie point to the dramas quality, whereas, the CGI is a bit shabby which is quite visible, but I won't say it's that bad to cut points from the drama, so yeah!

Despite everything, I somehow find myself a bit disappointed with the music of the drama; not that they're bad but the OSTs must be able to match with the moods & vibes of a drama, which didn't happen in this case, ngl. I, however, like them as individual tracks but 60% of the entire album didn't feel like they were composed for this drama. Gaemi is a master composer and known to be one of the best music director of Korea but his skills didn't work somehow. (Note: this entire paragraph is a personal opinion so can't really say whether someone else thinks the otherwise.)

Anyways, my favs are
"Always with You" by Paul Kim
"Destiny" by Kim Feel
"Yours" by Jin (BTS)
"Stay" by O3ohn
"Little Garden| by Taeyeon (SNSD)

The sound production for the screenplay, however, is accurately done to give off the proper vibes at respective scenarios; especially for the thrilling suspense scenes plus the scenes showing Mt. Jiri's beautiful premise.

What I loved the most about Jirisan is the portrayal of the life of rangers through picturization. Their dedication towards the well-being of the mountain, while helping the people who visit the mountain for different purposes as well as preserving the natural resources that belong to it. They have accurately addressed all kinds of problems that the rangers face during work. One of those is forest fire and the ways to tackle it as well as the after effects. Another one is flood induced by heavy rain, rescue work during it and the destruction is also shown. I loved how these 2 things were thoroughly studied and picturized well by giving them appropriate runtimes

Overally, Jirisan is a good drama though it had some flaws (that is why 7.5). It was anticipated to becone one of the best because of the star-studded cast and the makers, which it couldn't be. Despite that, it's wrong it say that it's a failure. Given the production value, acting and cinematograph y, this is a fair one time watch.

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An impressive collection of talent badly underutilized by a troublesome script & production misfires

One of the recent additions to the literature genre is The Recipe Blog. It is characterized by insufferably long backstories rife with unnecessary details, long personal digressions and endless teases that it is about to get to The Big Reveal of, y’know, The Actual Recipe. [scroll scroll scroll “Where is it?!!! Aaaarghh, back to the Google search…]

It is easy to imagine the producers of “Jirisan” concocting this show much like the reader of a recipe blog: imagining the beautiful final product, struggling to get through the preliminary preparations, getting to the list of ingredients, then finally running out of patience, throwing them in a bowl haphazardly, giving it a few stirs, tossing it in the oven and going to have a very large glass of whiskey. It’s not that “Jirisan” is an hopeless, ugly mess that doesn’t merit a meal, but it needed a skilled chef at the helm to blend all of the elements together in to something that comes close to approximating the sum of its exceptional parts.

And the parts, in isolation, are a murderer’s row of impressive quality.

The supporting cast is Grade AA+++: Go Min Si as the fresh, novice ranger. Oh Jung Se (OH JUNG SE!!!) as the lonely veteran ranger. Jo Han Chul, Sung Dong Il and Jun Suk Ho are all terrific character actors. The mountain is a gorgeous setting to the show and viewers are treated to some outstanding drone shots of the scenery.

Jun Ji Hyun is the star and is every bit the talented actor needed to anchor a big budget drama. It’s not an award-winning role, but Yi Kang is a a solid lead character - enough complexity and development, a dry sense of humor and the tragic backstory. She is highly guarded personally but has a good development arc as the show progresses.

The other lead is Joo Ji Hoon who stands out more as an actor and his character, Hyun Jo, is the most intriguing of all. Joo Ji Hoon is really as complete a package as there is in the industry - all the physical attributes and a wonderful actor. He is warm and outgoing and understanding of Yi Kang and also exasperatingly driven to stop the killer that has escaped capture. Every time the show puts Hyun Jo in the spotlight, the energy of the show picks up noticeably.

All these various individual qualities, unfortunately, don’t mesh into a scintillating vehicle for entertainment. The chief culprit is, ironically enough, The Culprit. The murder mystery is flat out not particularly suspenseful and “Jirisan” never works out how to generate any measurable amount of tension. A fair amount of blame goes to a script that incorporates so many multiple timelines that anyone outside of a quantum physics practitioner is likely to struggle to make sense of. It also doesn’t help that the present day storyline has both main characters incapacitated to a certain degree and, as a result, incapable of interacting with each other. The show also starts out on a bizarre and awful sequence involving a rescue amidst a embarrassingly badly rendered cgi rockfall. The OST promoted a solo BTSer effort but it is wholly forgettable. And there’s little things like frequent splatters of blood that don’t look anything like actual human blood.

At no point (other than the opening sequence) is “Jirisan” tedious or unpleasant. But this production desperately direction and editing that made it’s little multiverse more accessible and the interaction between the cast members more meaningful and resonant. As it falls short on those areas, it’s very much a middle ground of a show - with some fine actors and a couple of intriguing main characters that are very much in search of a better blend between them.

Is it recommended? Kind of. Maybe? Not really or at least not strongly at all.

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Overall? Just not good

Simply put, Jirisan is a murder mystery with a supernatural twist that takes place on a mountain. However, when Kim Eun Hee is your scriptwriter, nothing is simple. I am a huge, I mean HUGE Kim Eun Hee fan. When I see her name as a screenwriter, I'm watching it no matter what. She has 12 screenwriting credits on MDL and I've seen 11. I love her weird twisty mind. This is why I tried my best to like Jirisan. I went out on several limbs. When I fell off one, I grabbed hold of another, but in the end, I just hit the ground.

For about 10 episodes it was one of the worst mystery and/or supernatural dramas I've ever seen (and trust me I've seen way more than my fair share from around the globe). The mains were boring and flat. The cast seemed bored. Their countenances were flat and disinterested. Honestly, it felt like Jirisan was written by someone else or as if Kim turned in a script she wrote as a project in college. Suddenly, it pivoted and became interesting. It was as if another crew took over production including the script. The cast came to life. The twists and turns seemed to have reason as opposed to a writer who says 'let me just do this to throw them off.' It was actually fun to watch right up until the end of episode 16.

Our leads, Jun Ji Hyun and Joo Ji Hoon, were awful. Simply awful. Their characters were idiotic. I love strong intelligent female leads, but Ji Hyun's Yi Kang was not one. She was needlessly stubborn and wreckless. She angered me in almost every episode. Ji Hoon looked like he was sleepy. Like he was thinking of napping in almost every episode. I don't know if he was filming something else at the same time, but he definitely didn't seem to be getting enough rest. The stellar supporting cast held Jirisan together. Veterans like Song Dong Il and Kim Yong Ok (both of whom I adore) can turn sh*t into sunshine and that is exactly what they did in every scene they were in. Right behind them was Oh Jung Se, one of my favorite scene stealers. If it hadn't been for the 3 of them and a few of the other rangers, I would not have made it to episode 5 let alone 16!

The music was actually pretty good. It went especially well with the cinematography. My rewatch value is less than 0. I'm talking a large negative here. I can guarantee you that I will never voluntarily watch Jirisan (any piece of it) again.

Overall, I can't recommend it. The story isn't told well for more than half the drama. The production is haphazard and lacking. With that being said episodes 10/11-15 are excellent. I won't say they save it, but the saved me from giving a Kim Eun Hee drama 3 stars or less.

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Draggy. Boring. Lacklustre.

Jirisan was a series made up of flashback after flashback. If you don't like  flashbacks in your drama (like me) you probably won't like this. It contained more scenes of the past timeline (1991,1995,2019 and many more) than the present timeline (2020). It did not help either when the story in the present timeline was lacklustre compared to the past. The main cast basically did nothing in the present.

The editing of the drama was not that good either. It was all over the place and confusing in a bad way. Like when you start focusing on one part , then the next scene unrelated to the previous scene entered made you easily lost interest with all the questions and answers this drama want us to have with the previous scene.

You know a thriller drama was bad when at the scene where you suppose to have adrenaline rush by watching everyone busy saving lives but here you just felt unconcerned at all  about who just died or about to die or what the disaster's ending .  I recalled my boredom was at peak while watching forest wildfire scene.  I just want to yawn and say 'okay .. next.' The mystery part also was not executed very well. The killer was kinda obvious but our main leads were oblivious despite all the hints and keep focusing on wrong suspects. They made the case more complicated than what it really was.

Jirisan had so much insignificant scenes. I don't care at all about Goo Young 's romantic scenes. Those scenes were dull and uninteresting . The same with resident meeting scene . Don't know what was the point in showing the scene that contributed to nothing . And there were these slow-mo close-up on the faces of the cast when one disaster happened and they keep showing it but in different angles , it was annoying to me . I sure did not want to see the same close-up shot of the cast showing shock faces with no dialogue repeatedly.

The comedy also was  hit or miss. The OST also so and so. Coming from Kingdom screenwriter, DOTS director and with the big names cast, this series indeed was one of disappointing drama of the year.

I can't help thinking  are all ranger's task  truly what depicted in Jirisan? If it is so I have much respect for all ranger all over the world. They are like 'firefighter' of the forest. It was an eye opener to see how forest rangers do their work. CGI was acceptable and good sometimes . If there were flaws, it did'nt bother me much .While the story lacking so much,  the only best thing in Jirisan was its sceneries. Those were shot beautifully.

Overall, I don't recommend this if you are looking for a good thriller mystery drama to watch . There are better drama of the same genre out there. Watch this if  Jun Ji Hyun and Ji Ji Hoon are among your favorite and you missed watching them in a drama.

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if you're planning to watch this, don't

first of all if you don't want to read a long review and just want the main point- there are hundreds of dramas better than this. don't waste your time on it. i would've dropped jirisan right at the first episodes if only i wasnt watching it with my mom. but since i finished it anyways, im gonna take this chance to tell people to not even start it.

jirisan is a drama with splendid cast, poor execution of story, bland characters and boring plot. lemme talk about them in detail.

STORY
the synopsis was intriguing at first, but it ended up providing nothing special. the concept is unique- rangers and the mountain. but it failed to give anything impressive and worth complimenting, it failed to add anything meaningful to its concept. it had so much potential to be a beautiful drama but ended up being boring and draggy. literally halfway through the drama there was still no progress in the story. i could barely watch it, in fact, i didn't watch it without doing anything else. i can't focus on the drama because it's too boring.

CHARACTERS AND ACTING
every single character was bland. sure the story focus on their work and not their characters, but they should've at least gave something to enjoy about the lead characters. i know the cast are amazing actors, especially jun ji hyun and ju ji hoon, but while watching the drama icb i even questioned their acting skills. tho im pretty sure it's because the characters were so bland they couldnt showcase their skills. i don't even know why ju ji hoon and jun ji hyun accepted such roles when they're up at the top of the pyramid. hyunjo had no role except to have those visions and put those signals, what frustrated me even more was that he was in a coma for the whole present part of drama. those "soul wandering in the mountain" hyunjo scenes did not suffice esp because he's the male lead. while seo yi gang- i can't even remember what significant thing she did in the drama. oh and as much as i love the two JJHs, they didn't have any chemistry together. dont give me some shit that it's because there's no romance (even tho they were obviously a pair), there are lot of dramas/movies with no romance but the leads' chemistry is impeccable. even in the witch subversion kim dami and choi wooshik were killing each other but their chemistry can be seen 4K. was it because of the writing? idk we'll never know. another thing is that THERE ARE TOO MANY CHARACTERS. at the end of the story when everything was coming all together and suddenly 20 names (exaggerated) are being mentioned at the same time i was like "who the fuck are they again? what did they do again? i know they were related to this incident but i don't remember what their story was".

this drama was really a disappointing one. with all the hype and top tier actors, it failed badly. i wonder what was wrong with lee eung bok bc the cinematography of jirisan is a disappointment compared to his previous works (esp mr. sunshine which is very well known for its unbeatable cinematography). while kim eun sook... ah, should've continued kingdom instead.

on the other hand, i got to learn more about the work of rangers a bit and that was something i never saw in any other drama. thanks to that ig?

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Grade A+ casts trapped in complete packaging of a badly written script, directing, and editing

Listen, the premise is really interesting yet the output is just…. bad. I want to like this drama so bad that i forced myself to watch it until the very last episode. Alas, it just goes from bad to worse.

They throw all kinds of genre into this drama. Horror thriller? Yup. Mystery? Of course. Slice of life? Just been added. Romance? You got it. Survival? Undeniably. It’s like they were hesitating to chose what is the genre for jirisan and decided to put all kinds of genre there smh.

Let’s start from the writing. I feel like the writing lacks focus. They know how the main plot goes, but they don’t know how to spice up things around the main plot. The just randomly throw in some drama which was really unnecessary to add whatsoever. The plot is dragging and too dramatic. To be honest, the dramatization is a pain in the ass (way worse because the bad directing supported its dramatization). With this kind of plot, they could’ve just wrapped this drama up in 8 episodes or less smh.

The directing and the editing just doesn’t help. If anything, it makes Jirisan looked worse, and much more dramatic (in a bad way). Too much flashback scenes, too much weird transitions, too much shaky camera. The directing jumped from one story to other, and then it goes to flashback scene and then all of a sudden it goes to scenic panning. It’s a mess, really.

All in all, this drama is such a waste of time. Don’t even bother to watch it cause the great cast(s) didn’t help me that much.

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Disappointing mash up drama , Mediocre at best don't expect much

I had high expectations and I was disappointed from the first or second episode ,, every episode had about ten minutes of thrilling events and the rest is just boring talks or detective work on the mountain
it turned out to be so simple drama not that much of complicated story
detective drama ,, people getting killed on the mountain disguised as freak accidents and the main leads are working together to find the culprit
the supernatural aspect is useless ,, the ghost that hunted the mountain to warn the victims or became a doom sign for them
The episodes that made a good impression for me were the blaze of fire episodes and the flood episode
I though the genera of this drama is about fire rescue or rescue on general on the mountain and with supernatural mythology of it's residents but to put a detective story into the mix that was too much
travelling in time between the past and the present ,, trying to confuse us ,, and illogically ended it a happy ending for the male lead just like that
That was ridiculous ,,, I likes the songs and BTS Jin ost very much
I liked the mountain climatic events
I liked the natural disasters that happened and how they dealt with it
I didn't like the hints of romance and didn't get anywhere
I didn't like all that killing without government noticing and all accidents ,, apparently the government there needed a ghost to point into the direction of the murderer and the ghost didn't even could do that hahaha
so overall it's not so bad not too good it's mediocre with lots of hype because of the actors

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Perfect if not for the last few episodes

As an avid mountaineer, I was very excited about this drama. Jirisan is added to one of my mountaineering plan. :)

To me, the CGI was not too awkward. It is really kinda similar to how you look out from the mountains at dawn. Everything is just greyish lol. I just wondered if they just filmed this on gloomy days but that did not take me off from continue watching.

Stellar actors, great concept and cinematics. The only regret was the storyflow from episode 13.

When you start watching it, it takes some time to get used to the past and current events, but it is fairly easy to tell from the screen on the timeline. Plot builds up from the middle, so it actually took me a few episodes + adjusting to the timeline to understand what is going on.

But when you advance to episode 13 where they start to introduce the scenes from 1990, it is where the confusion starts. They did not really introduce the characters well, and everyone looks different compared to the 2021 scene. O know people do age, but it is tough to follow up all the backstory in just 1 episode. Until the last episode, I am still unsure who is the real killer. I had to rewatch from epsiode 12 to understand.

AND, they did not explain how the leads are healed??? That is still a mystery! How can Yi Gang be able to CLIMB a mountain after being wheelbounded for 3 years at least? Physio + treatment takes years to even return to the normal. And Hyun Jo suddenly waking up after 3 years in vegetive state and being a ranger again. I am not sure, this feels not too logical to me LOL.

Conclusion:
This is basically a drama about how they caught a killer who disguises murders on Jirisan as accidents for revenge. Everything else is just a filler which does not even make much sense. :upside down smile:

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Tonal Issues & Poor Ending To an Overall Very Promising Series

*SPOILERS*

TLDR; Overall, as a huge fan of Joo Ji Hoon and Jun Ji Hyun, I enjoyed watching this show but felt like the execution and final episode were lacking.

The initial episodes had some tonal issues that bothered me. At the beginning of one episode, viewers are blasted with hard rock music to energize the rescue scenes of the mountain rangers and show how cool and daring they are. Then, not 10 minutes later, we're hearing eerie and beautifully ethereal Icelandic artist Jonsi playing throughout a slowed-down scene of a failed rescue. I loved the more eerie and instrumental songs that would play during extended reels of the forest and angles of smoke and mist. It added to the tonal portions of the show I liked the most (the supernatural side of it).

I feel like the director couldn't quite figure out if he wanted a procedural mountain rescue/murder-mystery type show or a suspense-supernatural murder-mystery type series and I wish it had meshed a bit better. I was also a little perturbed by the pacing of the series as well. The first quarter of the show is a character dump that I enjoyed, but they didn't give enough backstory to Kang Hyun Jo aside from his past military experience and the visions. Meanwhile, we're shown Seo Yi Kang's relationship with her grandma, her parents, her first love, and her childhood growing up. I was much more curious throughout the series over Kang Hyun Jo (despite being a fan of Seo Yi Kang's character overall and her spirited attitude).

I thought their chemistry as main leads were killer. I really wish the romance thread had been expanded a bit more. Especially during the last half of the series leading up to the accident - their chemistry was electrifying whenever they were near (when she touched his knee and he flirtatiously teased her by touching her hand to "make it even.") It was obvious he cared about her more than as just his Sunbae, and I could tell she felt the same during the 2nd half of the show (or perhaps the last quarter).

The reveal at the end was done well, but not surprising. I could tell he was the culprit as early as when Hyun Jo ran into him in the cave in Black Bridge. I may have even had some suspicion beforehand since I wasn't overly surprised. I liked that our conviction over the culprit was often tested when the show would suggest it could be someone else. I wish the series had spent less time showing extended scenes of the forest canopy and walking sequences of Hyun Jo's ghost walking around, and more time on his waking up/rehab-recovery/reunion with Seo Yi Kang. I kept wishing they'd reunite and the romance would have a chance to breathe before the series end, and instead, we're left with a ridiculously short scene of them reuniting on the mountain without a spoken word between them. I also wanted to see Seo Yi Kang's recovery as well, instead of just randomly getting better. I can understand Hyun Jo's recovery since it was the mountain that kept his spirit in limbo from his body to solve the mystery, but Seo Yi Kang got legitimately injured from her accident- how did she miraculously get cured?

Overall, I looked forward to this series and am happy to have watched it, but it did have some issues that left me still wanting at the end. If anything else, I really enjoyed watching Joo Ji Hoon and Jun Ji Hyun for 16 episodes. They're both beautiful, have strong chemistry, and are great actors. Special shout out as well to Oh Jung Se.

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