Entre nouilles et démons (2020)

Amateur with a capital A

I used to watch the original Power Rangers with my younger brother. All the heroes were good and all the baddies were bad. The characters were stilted and simple, but somehow the show wasn't cringey enough for me to grab the remote and fight to change the channel. This is what The Uncanny Counter reminds me of.

Like the Power Rangers of yore, the protagonists are always together. Every fight is basically the same, and done to the same degree. Because our heroes are almost always together, they have little opportunity to show who they really are through their actions. In addition, the writers break a cardinal rule of "telling" us instead of "showing" us the story.

My favorite actor here is Yeom Hye Ran as the motherly noodle chef. Her experience shows, and she delivers in every role she plays. Yoo Joon Sang plays the ex-detective with heaps of care and concern. Kim Se Jeong plays the closed and tormented Ha Na well. She is the only character who is written with a tiny a pinch of mystery. Ahn Suk Hwan is fun as the cool rich dude. And finally, Cho Byeong Kyu plays So Moon as a sensitive and tearful teen. I liked that he expressed a lot of emotion throughout the show. It's great that a guy can cry. On top of this, a huge shout-out goes to So Moon's best friends played by Kim Eun Soo and Lee Ji Won. They radiate care for him and are rightfully described as his pseudo-parents. Choi Yoon Young also plays her role as the police officer standing up to corruption in a delicate balancing act. She deserved more screen time. I appreciate that our main actors worked so hard to deliver their lines with as much depth as they could muster through the generic and terribly written script. Even the baddies did well in this respect. On the other hand, the afterlife characters in Yong really struggled.

The entire production is clearly an amateur undertaking. The unrefined camera angles and awkward blocking affects every scene. The script and writing is bland. The direction is lacking and inexperienced, but then again, they didn't have much to work with besides great actors. When I think about the Power Rangers, at least I knew they had their own way of speaking and individual interests. Here, they have these heartfelt scenes without layered context. We only care (a bit) because the actors are so good. The flow and rhythm of the story is simply devoid of characterization. The plot just keeps hurtling at the protagonists. One minute they're eating noodles and the next minute they're fighting. It's as if the story is being done to them and they are just there to react constantly. There is no build-up in between scenes. There is no foreshadowing to help us anticipate what comes next. There is no exploration of our heroes' pasts in order to push the story forward. There were only fragmented flashbacks without purpose. The whole show is campy and unsatisfying.

And let's talk about the violence for a second. How many scenes can you film of people stomping on other people's heads and beating them up? And murdering people with lots of blood? After a while it has no meaning, even for a teenage audience. Stop already.

In the end, I am surprised that I actually finished season 1. I can't quite pinpoint why. It has a youthful spirit. And I like a middle aged lady who can take down evil spirits. I didn't expect the depth of Stranger Things, but I at least expected better production values. Maybe I like Power Rangers more than I care to admit.

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Lovely family dynamics

Another great korean drama to just watch and enjoy. I watched it with my whole family and we all loved it.

I think Byung Kyu was the best choice to portray SoMun, he fits his character so well. The innocence that spark through his eyes, his willness to do anything to just protect the people he loves the most, his energy to just learn new things and learn from his experiences. I loved his character the most and it made me empathize with him a lot.

One of the best things of this drama are the family dynimics between the counters. I love when dramas include this trop of "new found family" and I love it even more when they carry out well. A good drama needs to have good characters in order to develop the story, and I think this one did a great job.

But certainly the best of best about this drama was the antagonist. I think Chung Shin's character did a great job at portraying a good villan and also making us feel sorry for him. I'm not justifyng his actions but I loved learning about his rough childhood and how he grew up.

I'm just happy that The uncanny counter is getting a second season cause I think the drama deserves it.

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Power Rangers: In Korea

This was almost exactly like Start-Up for me but better in some ways. Let me explain. This drama started out strong with good dialogue and action-packed scenes much like how Start-Up started out with the greatest of all time pilot episode. Both were pretty good till the middle-end part of the series where the dialogue and plot fall to nothing. I also want to mention that I started both dramas very early on when it was airing (I think ep 4 for both), so I felt the drop in quality every week. I feel like the writers of The Uncanny Counter just focussed more on the action aspect rather than the dialogue part, which was sad as there was way more dialogue than action. The characters in the drama became static and the action scenes became more predictable than ever. Hopefully, the second season changes some of this because I don't think I can stomach another power rangers episode at this age.

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I enjoyed the comedy and pace of the drama until the twist in the middle

I enjoyed the comedy and pace of the drama until the twist in the middle
Then the story started to drag abit and start trying to milk the tear ducts.
Action packed in some places, comedy in others, when they are not trying to make you sob sob. depict the evils of politics and bribery in others. And not to mention the every growing evil spirits

Satisfying ending. Like the hard emotionless character of Kim Se Jeong. Free spirited wildman Yoo Joon Sang. And the boyish innocent Jo Byung Kyoo. btw, did i mention they are a group of people who catches spirits?

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Engaging to the end

I had such a good time watching this show. It is in no way perfect, and in terms of technical aspects of storytelling and production, it probably wouldn't be among my top shows. My technical rating of it would probably be more around 8 or 8.5, but my enjoyment of it is around 9 or 9.5, so there's that.

But. But...

It was seriously so much fun to watch. I really loved the basic storyline of the counters, and I loved the character development that happened for each of the main cast. So Mun's friends are actually the best, and I want a gang like that someday.

Also am I the only one who hoped that in the end So Mun and Hyeok U could become good friends? I really wanted a bigger Hyeok U redemption arc. I feel like a lot of his faults stemmed from his father and [ SP OI LER] would probably be resolved by the end, when his father is out of the equation and So Mun has helped him to realize how terrible he's been.

If you're looking for a fun show, something light-hearted with serious moments, fun characters, and a pretty good story, then watch this show. It's worth it.

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Decent action kdrama with weak writing, fight choreography and visual effects.

This kdrama is definitely good and at least worth of a single watch. The main cast and characters are written well and acted extremely well. They are extremely talented and it shows in their performances.

I would like to first start off this review by pointing out the bad things about this drama. This review will contain spoilers.

--------------SPOILERS AHEAD, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED ----------------
Bad:
1. The immense plot hole with the murder of Kim Jung Young in Episodes 12 and 13. The characters are told it is a suicide, yet the main piece of evidence against it being suicide is that she was shot from OUTSIDE her car THROUGH THE GLASS, which would have shattered it. She is also facing her shooter, but the gunshot wound is to the side of the head. This evidence is never mentioned. You could argue the police covered it up, but if they did then it was not mentioned at all. At other crime scenes through the series, you see other detectives and crime scene staff there. These staff would have seen the ballistic forensic evidence and would have concluded foul play, not only with the shooting occurring outside the car but with no mention of other evidence such as powder burns, fingerprints, etc.
If you're going to involve police work, crime scene investigation and deduction, then please write it so it makes sense. This will only help flesh out the world of Counters and how they have to skirt around the normal world.
Another plot hole that is not explained is how Dong Pal is also So Moon’s partner somehow? You just see him come back to Yung after Jeong Ju dies, but there are no more Dong Pal appearances nor any talk about how a counter has two partners. This pretty big plot development is just not mentioned again.

2. Fight choreography is lackluster. I kept getting frustrated with how little the fights make sense and are quite boring. They more or less slap each other a couple of times, throw each other around, and get injured when the plot demands it. There is no interesting shots/cinematography or super cool special effects. Yes, they have the Yung territory and some psychokinesis, but that rarely makes the fights interesting. The characters are portrayed training extensively, yet very little evidence of practical striking and/or grappling exists. Perhaps I am spoiled by MMA and martial arts movies, but IMO they could have done so much more with fight scenes, such as using real world striking and grappling techniques, fighting with objects, etc. The final fight scene is just so lame compared to what it could have been. Basically an empty arena and the counters kind of throw themselves at Shin without any interesting plan other than bum rush the guy. Nothing from the environment is really used besides some rocks or something.

3. Mo-tak does not visit Kim Jung Young in Yung. I did not understand how there is no scene where they meet each other while other characters (except for Ha-na) get to do so. This is more of a personal opinion, but I do feel this story beat would have hit harder for both characters had it been included.

Good:
1. Acting is pretty incredible in my opinion. The cast does a good job portraying the comedic and "super serious fight time" aspect in adapting a webtoon to live action. This does mean however you do get the over the top webtoon/anime style emotions and some plotlines.

2. The writing between the main cast also makes their team chemistry organic. It feels like they care for each other and work well together as a team.

3. Visual set design is pretty and varied. The different locations showcase the different worlds characters live in, and there are few times where you feel as though you’re watching something on a set, rather than something that is “real”.

Meh:
1. The overarching plotline(s). I understand that it is a webtoon based drama, and as such falls into the tropes in kind of a predictable way. While the counter plotline felt a little shallow, the real world plotline could have been so much more fleshed out and done better. The RW seems shallow and crafted to be around the Counter’s world, rather than something separate that they have to deal with in their work. Ji Cheong Sin’s duality could have been explored more instead of only for a couple of episodes just to make the heroes fail in that moment. Same with Mayor Shin. Villains here felt quite one dimensional instead of having complex stories that make them more interesting. Their motives and means of conducting their shady business does not seem realistic either. While they may be kind of constrained by adapting the webtoon’s writing, there is an opportunity here to craft a truly impressive world of Counters.

2. The visual effects. The only kind of cool thing is the territory because of its glowy matrix style light, while visual effects in fight scenes amount to nothing more than a couple pebbles and rocks and the “push” psychokinesis effect. With more interesting fight choreo, the VE team could have definitely had room to shine.


Overall:
It’s decent. I would say don’t expect too much besides a decent superhero type drama with some action and plot. It did not blow my socks off, but it did entertain me for a while. Temper your expectations and look past some of its lackluster elements and it’ll be fine.

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Wholesome and Gruesome go hand in hand for this one

Though the times I watched this drama weren't easy and I had barely any motivation to smile or engage in anything, I found myself enjoying this Drama, even laughing and crying whilst following the characters throughout the story. The concept and idea of this story, although I have not read the webtoon I find the overall implementation of it very felicitous.

The subject and main story seems to be on the heavier side, with death and tragedy not far. Nevertheless the drama itself, the lighthearted jokes and scenes as well as the mood set make it an "easy to enjoy" Drama.

generally speaking the cast seems to be in line with eachother, their characters and the storyline, making this drama, though scifi/fantasy, very believable and relateable. I was specifically impresed with Jo Byeonggyu's outstanding acting and couldn't imagine anyone else fit for the role.

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A perfect fun and suspenseful watch

Last year I saw this coming out, and I thought to myself, "Ah, another action Netflix kdrama..." and never gave it a chance. Until recently I thought it was some mediocre action drama that I would not enjoy, like most action kdramas. Then I saw a review that was so enthusiastic about The Uncanny Counter, that I decided to give it a go on a random evening.
Oh boy, was that person right! This show was such a refreshing breath of air finally, a good action kdrama that I managed to finish. One that I LOVED. Honestly, might be the first one as well.

I don't even know where to start. There are many kdramas about Grim Reapers and the evil spirits etc. but The Uncanny Counter successfully fused the supernatural, with comedy, family-drama, action and politics. While watching I was sometimes worried about how the writers were going to continue with the story, because there were so many different starting points, from the evil spirits to the mayor and politics and all the personal problems of So Mun and the other Counters. But man, they told the story with such mastery, it was smooth af.
I liked that everything was kind of connected, but wasn't necessarily intertwined. Honestly, we had everything: comedy, a lot of heartful and sad moments, hype moments and moments of frustration. Even though towards the end it kind of dragged (really just a tiny bit, maybe I'm just sensitive) they always threw in something new. Like holy freak Son Ho Jun appeared I was so happy like AHH (they could've just not decided to kill him though like...). Sometimes I was really frustrated because nothing seemed to work out and maybe there were some parts where I was like "okay, but they could've done that...", but honestly it's completely forgivable.

Cho Byeong Kyu? Eh, hello? Why didn't I notice earlier that his acting is... amazing? Maybe because he always played smaller roles, but damn, he delivered. He did a wonderful job, especially bc this is his first main MAIN role. All the other Counters were so perfectly casted, the chemistry was perfect and their relationship adorable. Please, give me the second season already.
Shoutout to all the antagonists. The actors and actresses were INSANE (sometimes those scenes scared the heck out of me, like it's disgusting, bc in my head it was a comedic show...), especially Lee Hong Nae, he creeped the heck out of me, but in those more humane moments I could still feel his sadness and fear (even though I couldn't empathize ofc the story didn't allow me to, but his delivery was really good). He definitely stole the show.

I would rewatch this without a second thought. Yeah, it was that good. One thing I liked (and this might just be a very personal thing) is that we could feel with the characters, but it wasn't extremely relatable so that I'd bawl my eyes out. It was enough to make me teary eyed, but the things that happened were enough distanced (idk how to say it...) so that I wouldn't invest too much of my emotions into the characters and their sadness. In other words, it's a really good watch, where you could just stop and go about your daily life, without feeling like something is different... It's good entertainment, but nothing life-changing. And sometimes (or very often) this is just something that we need :)

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Worth to watch!

Another 10/10 drama!

The acting of everyone was awesome, from the students, to the counters, the side characters, and especially the villains! A roller-coaster of emotions for this series. I love the friendship that the counters have, the strong bond of Im Ju Yeon (Lee Ji-Won), Kim Ung Min (Kim Eun Soo), and So Mun (Joe Byung Gyu). The powers were cool, although I wish they give more background to it. And I also love all the action scenes. The bullying really made my blood boil. The actors were so great I want to punch them. Kudos to their acting! But out of all the characters I found the 2 evil spirits the best acting (Ji Cheong Sin and Baek Hyang Hee). Really recommendable!

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easily one of the best kdramas i've seen

i dont know why this drama dont have the recognition deserved, ITS ONE OF THE BEST DRAMAS! i confess had dropped in the first ep, but after i gave a chance and no regrets. each caracter have your only history and personality, what makes you love they and even untill identify with one of them, and honestly i like that very much cause you fell more conection and affection for them, and that make have to very chemistry between they too.
the story is sooo captivating and creative, you never get bored with the eps.
pls just watch it right now, i have 100% confidence you'll like this if you already like dramas of fantasy, action and mistery.

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This is a fun show with heartfelt moments and a good mix of action and comedy

Looking for something heartwarming? Looking for some fast paced action?
I feel like this show has a little bit of everything mixed in with it. There are kickass moments where you're rooting for the good guys and get to see justice served, but also unexpected heartbreaking moments. And if you're in the mood for utterly ridiculous comedic scenes? Those are there too! Some of my favourite comedic scenes include the team raiding a press conference and the mayor getting waste water dumped on him and an epic money heist which hinges on the ability of a certain strong dude to fake leg cramps. The show actually reminded me of the Fiery Priest, which is full of some truly epic comedy gold. (The fart scene in the vault? A classic.) But back to the Uncanny Counter.

So Mun is a really good main character - and despite getting superpowers all of a sudden he's not some perfect protagonist. You can see So Mun growing throughout the show from being this impulsive, naive kid who runs into dangerous situations by himself like a dummy to learning to be patient and relying on his teammates. His teammates are also complex characters with their own backstories and their friendships and personalities are part of what make the show worth watching.

You also get to see other people mature through the show, including the mayor's son who starts out as this major bully and transforms after being shown true kindness for the first time in his life when he is at his lowest. I feel like there was this theme of redemption with him and So Mun was a driving force in that. I don't know if he'll show up in season two but I really want them to be friends.

One of my only gripes with the show was with the Yung people and their unreasonable rules, where the Counters weren't even allowed to protect people and were just supposed to rid the world of evil spirits. I'm glad that later on they got permission to deal with the bad guys but that was seriously wack - also the way they welcomed back So Mun so suddenly after kicking him out seemed so fake.

In the last few episodes a lot of stuff happens and I found the reveal about So Mun's powers kind of weird / sudden. But I thought the show ended well and despite this being a show where you sort of know the good guys will triumph in the end, the journey there is fast paced and unpredictable with some major plot twists along the way. I'm not about to go binge read the webtoon, but I would watch season 2 if it comes out.

I would give this a solid 7.5-8.
Category: Comedy, supernatural, heartwarming, action

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