Tomorrow (2022)

An excellent show, but difficult to recommend

I don’t know how to review this one. On one hand the production value is top tier, the acting is very good (the main cast is excellent, but the supporting cast has been hit-and-miss), and the story is solid, but it requires a lot of effort to watch because it deals with very negative subject matter. Don’t get me wrong: mental illness, suicide, suicide prevention, etc. should be exposed in all forms of media, but that doesn’t necessarily make for good entertainment. In fact, trying to make it entertaining might be the problem with this show.

To be clear, the subject matter is treated respectfully, and I think the production means well, but there are simply too many limitations on what can be done within a 60 minute episode. So while the problems are realistic, and sensitively portrayed, the solutions are superficial, and hollow. The reality is that heartfelt words, and appeals to supernatural/spiritual “faith” are rarely ever (probably never) enough to deal with mental illness severe enough to drive someone to suicide. So while I appreciate that this show promotes awareness of many deep issues within not just Korean society, but worldwide, it ultimately falls flat despite being an otherwise excellent show. Thus, difficult to recommend.

Lire davantage

Getting more and more interesting..

Each episodes/story of individual repesented morale and value behind their struggles in life.

I didnt know why I wiped like crazy person over the first lady story (highschool trauma). It was real good moment when ChoiJoonWoong hugged her and gave the encouragement words. That's exactly the kind of mental support we want. Without realizing, as any human being whom been stressing about life - we all actually just wanted to hear that kind of simple words. (Curious what he said? then start watching this show! Lol)

Also, there were times, I really do feel like slapping that CJW. He's just too reckless! Sigh.. but that makes his personality outstand in this show. So I'm gonna suck it up. Moreover, I can wait to find out the history of Ms. Kim's sin and death..

But well, yeah.. Is good show and worth your time :)

Lire davantage

now i like this kind of drama too

Firstly the cast is soo fiiine, I started watching this drama mainly becouse of Rowoon he amazed me with his acting skills for the first time in extraordinary you and this, it just felt so real. Also I really like the female lead too and her character, she has strong personality and she's also good in fighting. I loved the parts where she was fighting with the bad guys the most.
Story? I really liked it and when i was thinking about watching it i had hard time choosing if i should, becouse the main reason is that i don't really like kdramas with gream reapers but this, it never made me feel bored and i was fascinated the whole time, i was waiting every week for new episodes. But i haven't watched it all yet so.....
And the only thing that it lacked was that this kdrama has only slight romance or even maybe none. its just about my preference but i think it would be better with it. Im right now on 13 and half episode so i can't really tell much but its ending in a few episodes so.

Lire davantage

The theme is interesting, but the drama is not

The Korean society seems more prone to suicide than most of countries. The theme is important, but the drama did not kept me interest in it .
The way the afterlife organisation was constructed was annoying to me. Lots of holes with weird outcomes. The past story of the characters were very superficial, the different teams, etc.

STORY - maybe a message of hope to some people who are in a down part of their life. For them, please keep up! But nothing more...
Most of the suicide stories were very boring for me, but maybe lots of people can see themselves in those struggles.

ACTING - wonderful the lead actress. The other 2 members of her team were ok. And that is it.

MUSIC - do not remember any of the songs or melodies...

REWATCH - never. There isn't a single scene I would like to see again.

OVERALL - a different theme rapped up in a fantasy world of the death. I realised that there are thousands of grim reapers with nationality! Amazing!

Lire davantage

Talvez o maior acerto da MBC até hoje

Eu estou sem palavras para essa produção. Normalmente eu fujo de dramas com finais previstos, como Tomorrow, Bad and Crazy e tantos outros, mas resolvi assistir esse não só pelas infundadas polêmicas mas também pelo senso de proximidade à realidade que foi tão comentado nas redes sociais.

Logo no primeiro episódio já fui surpreendida e as surpresas não pararam até o final. Há muito tempo um drama não me fazia errar tanto nas minhas apostas, chega a ser cômico uma história completamente prevista mas nem um pouco previsível.
Me encantei por cada um dos personagens e suas peculiaridades, as atuações, trilha sonora e os efeitos especiais não deixaram a desejar também.

Quero chamar atenção para o Rowoon nesse caso, é visível a evolução dele como ator e só agregou acertos ao elenco impecável.
Quanto as histórias, talvez seja aqui que Tomorrow desandou, tirando alguns arcos extremamente emocionantes e fidedignos, outros romantizaram um pouco as situações deixando um ar utópico meio descompensado. Entretanto, não considero isso um problema, são em pequenos passos que começam os avanços e essa utopia se faz necessária para tornar a produção comercial e atingir públicos maiores que precisam dessas mensagens.

Encerro trazendo highlights à primeira e a última história, ambas sobre bullying, o físico e o virtual, respectivamente. Foram aqui as jogadas mais certeiras da MBC, duras e necessárias críticas sociais que não é sempre que vemos serem tão bem retratadas pela própria indústria.

Lire davantage

Too Episodical and Not Enough Backstory

TLDR: Started off strong, too many episodical episodes, not enough Worldbuilding for the Reapers and their rules, not enough Character Backstories/Development for our 4-5 main characters, too many messages (e.g. suicide is a sin) I disagreed with.

As the title suggests, I felt this drama was too episodical when all I really wanted was backstories and worldbuilding for our Grim Reapers and the Grim Reaper world. The episodes were fine a 1 to 2 capsulated stories until about episode 8, and then I was getting bored of the format and just wanted to know all about our 3 main reapers (Koo, Lim, and Park), plus the boss of them. I wanted so much more worldbuilding of the Reaper world, the rules, their day to day life, what they did in their free time etc. by that point.

So the last 8 or so episodes were a bit of a drag. I absolute loved the two episodes spent on Lim and his backstory but I feel like we super super rushed through Park and Koo's -- also I was expecting there to be a twist such as he's actually her son or something, rather than the predictable story we did get.

I wish we had gotten like the first 8 episodes as is, and then the last 8 episodes were actual worldbuilding and backstories of the Reapers and the Reaper World -- it fell very lacklustre at towards the end.

Also, you can see the Christian values and the influence it has on Korean culture within this drama such as "reap your sins before death", "purgatory before you can go to heaven or reincarnation", and "suicide is murder and a sin" which are things I personally disagree with.
I AM happy that towards the end we do see Park change in his thoughts of "suicide is sin and people who kill themselves should suffer in hell" somewhat, but I wanted something more explicit from him.

Another thing is you can see the heavy handiedness of the Pro-South-Korea messages throughout the show where it makes the Reaper world very unequal/unfair. I'll post the full explanation at the very end because I get very detailed and could make people uncomfortable and angry but TLDR: there are some Pro-Korea episodes, and one is basically "look how amazing South Koreans are and we're so amazing that after death, even if we killed people in war, we aren't going to hell for these sins because we were the winners." Which, I thought the Reapers were supposed to be fair? So surely, they should be going to hell because they did sin?!

If we had been given more details and explainations in the show for things like this rather than have 13+ episodicals. Even just a simple "if you're killing people in self-defense or without malicious intent (such as defending your country from invaders) then it's not seen as a sin in the Reaper world." would've been good enough for me, but even this isn't explained.


Conclusion: Started off strong, too many episodical episodes, not enough Worldbuilding for the Reapers and their rules, not enough Character Backstories/Development for our 4-5 main characters, too many messages (e.g. suicide is a sin) I disagreed with.


****


Here's the long version of my Pro-Korea part:

We see two episodes of two different wars (WW2 and the Korean War).

First episode: it's never said or confirmed that the South Korean soldiers will be sent to hell for killing people (when killing is very obviously a sin). This show very much felt like it was implying: so long as you're defending your country and you're on the side that wins, killing people is absolutely fine according to the Korean Reapers. But neither the rules nor explanation is in the show.

Secondly, we have a heavy Pro-Korea and Anti-Japan episode which to me felt very intentional (therefore harmful) which is what I disliked about it.

If you don't know Korea-Japan relations and history this is a very important, eye-opening, horrific, and informative episode. Everyone should know about this history, absolutely!

But, I personally felt the message of this episode is intentionally very harmful: "hey, young Koreans, Japanese imperialism did this to us and they still haven't apologised for what they did. So, we're making this episode because we want Koreans furious at Japan for another year and we wanna increase the anti-Japan views in Korea even more than they still are".

But as someone who has studied it:

Actually, Japan HAS apologised (since 2007) and has done for many times.
Korea DEMANDS apologies every single year and has done for many years (more so from great-grandchildren now rather than the people who actually suffered because most have passed away, rest their souls - which you could probably now call 'generational-trauma').
Japan HAS compensated the families and victims (apparently 1 billion yen -- although I know that it won't ever be enough for the victims).
Korean newspapers and politicians still post and encourage anti-Japan views - they literally blamed Japan for the 2022 Itaewon Halloween incident in a few newspapers - while Japan is embracing Korean culture at an alarming speed (thanks to KPop and Korean food).
This history is still not in Japanese history books (especially in school ones where they rarely learn modern history anyway).

So, as you can see, both sides are bad!

I can't help but think this episode wanted to strain Korea-Japan relations even more than it already is. It feels like the episode was created on purpose to make Koreans continue the rage and the pain, rather than "this was absolutely horrific but it's time to heal; educate ourselves and others while trying to build a better future and relationship with each other both inside and outside Korea." and I personally find that in very bad taste.

Lire davantage

TOO RUSHED AND 0 CHEMISTRY

I binged it over 3 days and found myself fast forwarding half the episodes. More effort was given to aesthetics than to the dialogues which were bleak and not strong enough for the theme. IDK how these many liked it. Maybe I just saw better ones than this in this genre. The chemistry was very forced and due to lack of proper backstory the couple had not even a thread to romantic look between them. Also rowoon was very annoying and stupid with no character development. The rules of the reapers were vague and unclear as they were ONLY applied to the scenes to enable the story.
As someone working in the mental health field, what I liked was how the problems were portrayed BUT I absolutely hated the way they were handled. Such serious issues like PTSD, Eating disorders, depression etc... that are serious enough to warrant suicide CANNOT be solved in minutes or through words of comfort alone. Their attempt to stop suicide was very lethargic contrary to what they say and that red light app was yucky. I cannot even remeber any ost.
overall a decent watch which satisfies your eyes but not your brain or heart

Lire davantage

Choro, choro e mais choro.

A forma como esse drama aborda a questão do suicídio de uma forma respeitosa e bonita (em forma de esperança), me fez terminar esse drama que eu estava enrolando em um dia.

Saber que alguns dos casos abordados aqui, como as mulheres de conforto na Invasão Japonesa, assim a crítica em como o governo negligenciou e ainda negligencia seus veteranos de guerra e idosos, me fez ter um sentimento tão mal, tão forte em relação a isso.

E saber que atualmente, na época que assisti esse drama, o Japão não reconheceu o genocídio que cometeu durante as suas invasões me faz me sentir tão mal por todos esses povos.
E a questão de aposentadoria ser algo tão difícil para os idosos coreanos, principalmente aqueles que viveram o período de guerra, é de quebrar o coração.

A forma que o drama abordou o suicídio de uma forma delicada e respeitosa, foi divino. Até por que esse assunto, saúde mental, é considerado um tabu na Coreia e saber que esse é o quarto países no ranking de suicídio... Me fez pensar.

Sobre esse drama eu só tenho pontos positivos, principalmente:

- Elenco.
- Cinematografia.
- Enredo.
- Músicas.
- História.

O único ponto que eu posso talvez me atrever a reclamar é como eu queria mais desenvolvimento do relacionamento dos nossos queridos ceifadores, entendo que o fio deles foi cortado, mais imagina o quão lindo seria a história deles juntos assim, agora como ceifadores? Até por que eles não irão reencarnar.


Enfim, é um drama muito bom, digo também, uma obra magnifica que aborda assuntos pesados com respeito e delicadeza, o que deixa toda a situação mais leve de se ver. Esse drama são para pessoas que buscam algo profundo, sério mais delicado, com um certo alívio cômico entre as cenas.

Acredito que super vale a pena esse drama.
Terminado: 21/02/2024.

Lire davantage

Tomorrow é necessário.

Tomorrow é um drama que precisa da apreciação certa. Ele fala de um assunto muito delicado e que muita gente ignora e acha que é futilidade de quem passa por esse momento difícil. Tomorrow realmente foi um drama incrível em tudo. O roteiro e as histórias entrelaçadas, o elenco que tem bastante química e interpretou muito bem os personagens.
Extremamente necessário pra todo mundo. Lição de empatia.
O final: Todo mundo queria eles juntos mas não ia acontecer, a consequência da quebra do fio do destino era lidar com esse fardo e pelo menos ele descobrindo a verdade é um peso tirado dos ombros e eles ainda podem conviver enquanto estão juntos trabalhando como ceifadores. Acho que o mais triste pra mim foi a pequena despedida do Jun woong. Eu realmente queria que ele se lembrasse deles no final. Mas ele ainda tem a mesma essência de antes eu amo kkkkk salvando pessoas o tempo todo
"Somos ceifadores."

Lire davantage

My legit comfort drama

This drama overall is an outstanding drama for me.its been a really long time since the last time there was a similar story to this one and finally tomorrow did not disappoint!

I love how the efforts of trying to convey the messages to never scared of living for tomorrow through variety types of cases that was a really sensitive topic each one of them had.The scripts were written very carefully that I could spot comfort words repeatedly.

Acting skills performed by the leads Kim Hee Sun,Rowoon,Lee Soo Hyuk and Yoon Ji On were also felt real even though there was a lack of rowoon's sometimes but it didnt get the drama to downhill at all and I really cannot deny the fact that his acting has improved miles better than in his previous dramas .I believe he will eventually perform perfectly in his next projects as his role here in tomorrow had a full package of mixed emotions almost in every episode and i suppose he has already had an experience to live more characters like he did here soonn!!

Not to forget about the CGI too !! Certain scenes from the flashback of old times were so aesthetically made and directed.The director of this drama often worked in directing movies before so maybe that explains why i always felt the touch of a masterpiece like i was watching a movie when i was watching it.

If you're looking a good fantasy drama to binge watching,no doubt on this one for me .the ratings didnt justify this drama enough but nevertheless, its still a good one.dont look any further!

Lire davantage

Netizens want to control the lives of artists, actors, actresses, and idols. Despite the Netizens complaining about this Korean Drama because of birthdates that were similar to 2 members of BTS. People have the wrong idea about the Korean Drama "Tomorrow". The creators of this drama stated, "They are simply a combination of numbers, and there are no other intentions." We all have to open up our eyes and know what this movie is about... It's about saving lives. Even though this drama is a fantasy, according to the World Health Organization, South Korea is rated the 4th highest suicide death in the world. This drama addresses that problem.

I loved this drama, the main actors/actress all did phenomenally great. I wished we really did have Grim Reapers to save those from suicide. We have suicide prevention in the United States and I am probably sure South Korea has one too but is it working? This drama brings attention to this serious and horrific problem.

Lire davantage

A perfect 13 episodes, followed up with a decent finish

Unlike what others may say, I really enjoyed the set up for this drama and how the case of the week format played out. The world and lore was interesting and the cases were great. I thought the show explored suicide in a pretty meaningful way and gave some good life lessons.

I think the only downfall of the drama is the overarching plot between two characters wasn't very interesting and paled in comparison to the suicide aspect in present day. Part of me feels like the drama should have been 20 episodes and they could have included some more cases who added a more complex backstory to two of the characters.

Lire davantage