Red Swan (2024)

A Drama That Will Keep You Entertained Through and Through! A Satisfying Ending!

I just completed the first two episodes of "Red Swan", and I must say that I'm more than impressed. This drama has almost everything you would want to see in a drama, romance, action, justice, and revenge. The story is about Oh Wan Soo a top golfer who marries into a chaebol family and find herself in danger.
Kim Ha Neul and Rain as the leads are delivering an outstanding performance with their top tier acting. Their chemistry is firing as expected, their first encounter was also somewhat unique. The supporting roles also delivers wonderfully.

The plot is captivating and interesting. The screenwriter did an excellent job in writing such wonderful story. The first episode had me on the edge of my seat, I didn't even noticed that the the second episode was about to end, not up until the song for the closing theme was played.
What do I love about this drama? What I love about this drama is that it delivered. Precisely, the action, it exceeded expectations. The romance also, we are shown the leads chemistry right from the first two episodes.
"Red Swan" is a drama anyone wouldn't want to miss. Its a drama that'll keep you excited through and through, I assure you, you won't get bored, not even in the slightest way. I know it because that's how I felt while watching it.


EP 3-6; These four episodes turned out to be very interesting and captivating. To be honest, I'd put this drama on hold and it's been two weeks. Why? It's because I wanted to have more episodes to watch, rather than the two episodes each week. Finally, episode 5&6 aired yesterday, making it four episodes to watch.

Some comments were about "forced chemistry and the FL not being suitable for the ML", but I'm telling all those are not true. The chemistry is there, the leads chemistry is firing. As the drama progresses, it gets more interesting and better. So Ignore the low ratings, negative comments and reviews, and watch this drama. It's definitely a drama anyone wouldn't want to miss. It's a must watch, a drama that makes you glued to your screen. Yes, it's that good! I gave this a 9 previously, but upon completing those four episodes, I'm increasing my ratings to 9.5 as those four episodes exceeded my expectations. Join me in this journey of "Red Swan" and watch how Oh Wan Soo and her bodyguard "Seo Do Yoon" overcomes adversities, punish evil, get justice, and finally get together. Yes, the romance has started blooming! I'm excited for what's to come next!

Ending
What can I say? "Red Swan has finally come to a conclusion. Although the ending isn't what I anticipated, nor was it what I expected, but it's still satisfying.
Red Swan is a drama that tells audiences and the world that justice will always prevail.
"What is justice?", that's often the question twisted people who are rich will ask. "I'm above the law. I'm untouchable. I'm dignified." That's how twisted rich people think. What I like about this drama is that, all those who think they can get away with their filthy acts, were punished in the end, by the law. While "Red Swan's" ending is not the best, the ending is still a happy. All the characters played there respective roles excellently.

Speaking of characters acting, I've got to hand it to Rain for displaying what I'd call exceptional acting. He slayed his role as a former police officer, and as a bodyguard. To be honest, this is my first time watching him in a drama. I must say, I'm more than impressed with his acting. His action scenes kept me glued to my screen. There's also Kim Ha Neul who's an actress I'm familiar with.

Ignore The Negative Comments;
There are comments stating how Kim Ha Neul always have the same facial expression. But if you're to ask me, she portrayed her role as Oh Wan Soo perfectly.
Oh Wan Soo is someone who couldn't trust anyone, not even her husband. The family she married into turned her into a doubtful person. She used to be a trusting person, but that was before her son's death. Her husband is unfaithful to her, he goes around sleeping with other women. Her mother-in-law is the the craziest I've seen. The same goes for her brother in law. Everyone in that family treated her as their competition and rival, except her husband. And even though Kim Young Guk didn't treat her as a competition, he wasn't loyal either. To be put bluntly, he's more of his mother's puppet than a husband. So, in such an environment, if she's still laughing and smiling, then wouldn't that be strange? Hence, her environment turned her into a cold person, someone who usually wears the same facial expression, except for when she needs to put on an act in front of a camera, that is. She's like that till Seo Do Yoon came into her life. In my opinion, her facial expressions are spot on, it matches the character she portrayed in "Red Swan". So, ignore the negative comments about the FL, and watch with an open mind, then, make your judgment based on what you see.

In conclusion, "Red Swan" is a drama that explores human greed and lust. It's a drama that explores love, hate, infidelity, revenge, and justice. So, don't miss out on this drama that's packed with action, mystery, thriller, and romance. It also has beautiful OSTs. "Red Swan" is a drama worth your time. I know it because, it was worth mine.

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Blood Free had more chemistry and it wasn't even a romance...

I think this drama could've been a really fun makjang like Perfect Marriage Revenge if the main couple had incredible chemistry like Han Hyo Joo and Joo Ji Hoon in Blood Free, but sadly, that is not the case and the result is pretty lackluster. Rain does his absolute best to sell this romance despite the plot never really explaining why he falls for her, and I fully believed by the end of episode 1 that he would gladly go to hell and back for her. Kim Ha Neul, by contrast, is the definition of go girl give us nothing. I've never seen her in anything before this so not sure if she's just like that or if it was just this drama that did her no favors. Or perhaps she's actually the best actress alive because she was able to keep her composure and not melt into a puddle while Rain was wearing a perfectly tailored suit and promising to protect her with his life. Every scene between the two of them was him looking at her with longing and devotion while she stared back at him like he was a bowl of plain oatmeal.

The plot is unbelievably over the top and the show took itself so seriously that it actually became really unintentionally silly. Wansoo's press conference about the secret love child had me howling with laughter. There's a flashback where we learn that Wansoo's mom hid in the doghouse when debt collectors came and later when Wansoo goes to visit the house with her mom's ashes, it deadass looked like she was gonna put the urn in the doghouse. There's another scene where Wansoo and her evil mother in law (who is SO shrill and has a hairdo to rival Yubaba from Spirited Away) arrive at the same event in the same outfit and this is basically treated with the same level of gravitas as the high stakes conspiracies and coverups. There are SO MANY scenes of a middle aged man putting on chapstick and it wasn't even PPL!!!!!

Was it good? No. Did I enjoy it? Also no. But frankly it's hard to complain too much about any drama that gives us 10 hours of bodyguard Rain with that haircut in a black suit looking fine as hell.

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"Action-Packed Thriller: When Something Feels Off"?

First i love watching action, romcom thrillers. So i loved K2 series a lot so , i started watching this drama. At 1st 2 episodes are bang on like so much impressive so, i started to watch when the series reached to it's middle i seriously felt something feels off, like what it is, idk ! Now i completed it's last episodes they are wierd for me personally like what that is all !!

Coming to main 2 points; Are directors are insane or what ? why to show heroine husband as good like suddenly he loves her and helps her too, like WTF, what he was doing when she got hurt by his actions, AND WHY DO YOU NEED BODYGUARD? FOR ONLY PROMOTIONS LIKE Rain was sacrificing his life everything whenever heroine gets attack , their romance blooms up and suddenly vanishes into thin air!!

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Well, Rain is in it.

I was so set to enjoy this. Rich people being shifty? Rain? Murder attempts? Melodrama? Sign me up! But then they expected me to accept that our FL and ML make really bad choices... repeatedly.
I shouted at my TV screen so many times. So much eye rolling at contrived situations. And of course the super healing powers of a K-Drama hospital stay. It's got to be the humidifier.
I don't think it's a spoiler to say that the only thing missing is the deadly box truck.
But you get to see Rain shirtless. Jung Gyu Woon is not bad to look at. You get the rich people in their lavish house. Sneaky people being sneaky. A little bit of humor.
It's just not that great.

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I laughed at the silliness, but it's mostly underwhelming.

Married into a chaebol, Oh Wan Soo (Kim Ha Neul) finds herself tangled in a war of money and power. As her own family threatens her and her marriage, the only person she can rely on is her bodyguard.

There was not much that grabbed me throughout. Although the actions were intriguing, the story and twists were all stale. It focus more on family drama and don’t reveal most characters’ connections and motivation until later.

I’m not satisfied with the premise being a bodyguard romance. The romantic scenes were shoehorned randomly to show us there are feelings between them. Moreover, it doesn’t help that both leads were flat and stoic. Looks alone can’t make me invested if the performance were not gripping. On the other hand, Jung Gyu Woon as Wan Soo’s husband acted very well. I felt for his character. A few things were distracting; choppy editing, especially the black screen transitions, and the very loud music. I think more quiet moments or creepy thriller songs would fit better.

Still, it was entertaining at times. K1, played by Jung Joo Yeon & her stunt girl (if any), was amazing in her actions scenes, such a badass fighter! Also, the over-the-top reactions and the English conversations, are some scenes that got the biggest reaction out of me. Overall, not the worst drama but not one I will recommend either.

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the best show of dark fiction for chaebol korean families

I wanted to write a review for this drama mainly to increase the supportive positions and making it clear that it is deserving to be more renowned as it is so much underrated!!!

I felt while watching red swan that it is a special and outstanding show from the moment they announced about the plot and the trailer about the romance of a rich female and her bodyguard that I was looking for such story a long time ago, I was captured while watching the trailer by the action scenes and the trauma wan soo was living while facing many situations under the threaten of being killed at any moment!!!!

in fact to make it clear this show is depicting the hidden dark fictions sides of the high ranked rich families in korean society though I wanted to see more romance side of the story but the realistic acting of such top notch actors made the show overall being unexpectedly so good as I didn't felt any boring moment and didn't skipped any scene of this great drama!!!! while watching it wishing to stay drowned in this story having all the catching elements to cling over it not wanting to reach the end so fastly at any moment as it is one of the best korean dramas of this year...
the screenwriter wanted as I think to make the relationship between the leads to be formal along the show though showing great affection between them, "so the romance is not a major part of as a drama plot"...
the action scenes were filmed in a marvellous way made me not able to escape any look while watching such masterpiece fighting between do yeon and the female bodyguard...

if talking about any flaw of the story that could make it be rated almost all the period it was aired around 7.8, there is some parts of the story that was hurried to be displayed instead of calling it flaws, giving the example of the attack of the female and her bodyguard by the drones was so amazingly portrayed in a realistic way but some criticized the fact that how do yeon got healed in a short period of time carrying wan soo after he was stabbed in his back by a fragments of the car while it was exploding so it is logical to think like by so many watchers that cause in an overnight for such critical injury he should take a great period of time to resume his assignments as bodyguard...

talking about the mystery side of the story, it made me so attached to the drama as the screenwriter succeeded in making the facts of the real reason behind wan soo staying married to such trashy husband betraying her with several womens knowing this already and living in hell amidist such failed marriage and surrounded by criminals in laws, so she beared a lot of their offenses and living painful moments in this jail of grand palace...

in addition to reveal gradually till the end the identity of the real perpetrator of the death case of do yeon's close friend joo hyuk was written with excellence keeping the excitement level to the top for me while watching it as do yeon did a marvellous job to punish the criminals and avenging for his murdered friend while keeping his composure along the story especially afer the provoking slap of gong yuk to do yeon behind the reason of a photo was taken for both of them after her mother death, I wanted him to defend himself at the salp scene but he couldn't do any mistake while he was there vowing to revenge for his friend...

I like the character of do yeon being honest with wan soo about the reason of joing hwain group and being impartial, he was the real support for female lead living such hard life while all her in laws were beasts wanting to take advantage of her in addition to her husband to married her just to escape from a scandal to be in relationship with an actress!!! do yeon used his intelligence and all the skills he acquired while he was a cop to catch the criminals so his character was played in a professional way and the actor was choosed in the right place!!!

wan soo's life wasn't easy for her to deal with all the hardships she went through as her mother was greedy for money like wan soo's in law, her mother was gambling to addiction extent just to get out of the poverty they were living, even realising her dream to be a pro golfer, wan soo gave for her money prizes to pay off all her mother's gambling debts, so she didn't live in happiness neither one as a chaebol, neither before married to such lowly rich corruptive family!!!!

wan soo was criticized by may watchers for having the same facial expressions but I see that she was like that as a person living such depressive life, losing her child and dealing with dangerous in laws taking the money laundrey as a habit to make illegal profits and being threatened to lose her foundation just for the sake of greediness of those beasts in laws as they are always hungry for money and making such lowly deeds, will make wan soo logically not finding a time to think about smiling or changing her temper to be a happy person as maybe so many won't agree with me!!!! she was behaving in a wise way to not be caught in any scandals in front of the press and keep her foundation safe...

I think the most eccentric character considered a flaw in the story, is yong guk's one was something unprecedently seen having two contradictive sides of his personality, he is having the trauma of seeing his mother betraying his father while he was a child so instead of making his character logically despising betrayal and cheating, he not only betrayed wan soo with several ones and he said that he loves his wife?!?! so how should anybody believing him after so many cheatings and lying to her!!!! he even didn't shown any care about her even if playing a fake role!!! he was supposed to be loyal if hating the fact of his mother being a cheating women, so he was always distant from his wife...
the other opposit side of yong guk was the first and last time hugging his illegitimate son demonstrated a tender and soft side of his personality but though everything he badly did, the way his half-brother yong min killed him was so brutal scene!!!

I would say giving 9 for the show though I was expecting to see more romance between leads and wishing to make do yeon and wan soo having more screentime but turned to only focusing on the slush fund and the struggle and hatred between the members of a chaebol family, I couldn't condoned the fact that all the supportive characters of hwain group from park mi ran portraying a crazy chairwoman didn't see like her character though repellent but so highly performed to the lawyer han sang il who is the mastermind of all the killing cases happened there to yong min character who gave all his best while expressing his frustration in a magnificent way portraying the illegitimate son of a chaebol family and the female bodyguard was well convincing in her character with all the action scenes she carried with do yeon...

the main reason to give 9 for this show was that at least we got what we want and that the justice to prevail at the end and proving that even being one of the most finest chaebol with leverage and holding the power of money, they can't let them to escape forever from being punished at the end...

I just preferred to make the party who threatened wan soo at the beginning of the story to be a korean local gang instead of making a religious party which is meaningless for me being involved in blocking her endeavors as a goodwill ambassador, I know not everybody will agree with me but just a personal opinion...

some watchers call it a "open ending" for both of leads, I can say it was right cause we can't guess after seeing do yeon resigning from being wan soo's bodyguard after completing his mission to hand the criminals for the justice of and coming back after one year to be do volounteer work like her, is considered somehow for me a happy ending though preferred to make them a couple together at the end but it is still satisfying while we have the real criminals being punished and receiving what they deserved of being all jailed...

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Could Have Been Better

This felt like an extended version of a chaebol melodrama with added action scenes!

I’m a huge fan of Rain, that was one of the main reasons to start this show. The pilot episodes did catch my attention and I was slightly hooked (won’t say that this show was intriguing right from the start). We have loads of plotting and scheming happening in the backwaters, alongside the “classic mother-in-law & daughter-in-law melodrama”; add a cheating husband, a crazy illegitimate brother-in-law and a hot bodyguard to this mix, and we have a complete potboiler. This show was full of overused tropes- a bodyguard falling for his employer, a husband who is insanely in love with his wife and yet cheats on her and a scheming mother-in-law who got her comeuppance in the end (that was quite satisfactory). There isn’t much to dwell in this drama, so we are going to quickly tap into the specifics!

Read the complete article here-

https://kcdramamusings.wordpress.com/2024/08/04/red-swan-series-review/

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Rain - check. Plot - Fail

This show gave so many vibes of K2 and Reborn Rich, and such a substandard plot, it was a real shame.

Rain was 1000% in his action skills. He pulled off the bodyguard stuff perfectly. The Chairwoman was amazing in her villian era thiugh honestly the amount of female screaming in Kdramas is overdone. It hurts our ears folks, please stop it.

Wansoo started off great but her acting felt extremely monotone. I wasn’t sure when she was scared, happy, sad or bored. That was a major disappointment.

Heres the problem. Everyone in this ahow is either having an affair, had an affair, got murdered or murdered someone. I mean the extent to which which regurgitated nonsense rolls theough the entire cast is laughable.

I won’t be rewatching this, but it was worth it at least once. Its only 10 episodes thank goodness, so theres that. This felt like a let down, was excited for more here. If anything its a life lesson to not get rich and avoid the rich.

Greed gets you nowhere.

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hit or miss???

it faces the issue as majority kdramas released this year. it's too predicable. here are some examples:
- FL falling in love first and harder (in the scene where OWS admitted her feelings towards SDY , he looked like he could care less)
- SML /OWS's husband getting k!lled off after receiving typical redemption arc (i hated both of these things)
- the other brother kwording his brother and stepdad (they should've played around with this plot)
also, there were major issues with the writing in the second half. they focused heavily on the antagonists, instead of the leads. leads' relationship wasn't developed at all. the last scene they had together felt like they went back to zero.
honestly speaking, this series was heavily carried by the acting. so kudos to actors. if the cast was different, i wouldn't have finished it.

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Mediocre Plot but with satisfying ending

It’s about a former-policeman-now-bodyguard who is on a path of revenge for his best buddy’s death at the hands of a murder-for-hire. He suspected the commissioner for stopping his investigation into the death, resigned and stayed in Manila where his friend was killed to gather intel. It led him to Hwain Corporation when he was following a lead and inadvertently rescued the director for Now Foundation, a subsidiary of Hwain. He then secured a job as bodyguard to the director and started to poke his nose into the power struggle in the chaebol family which unravel twists that he never imagined, capturing the director’s heart in the process.

Maybe I had my bar too high after watching Blood Free, this show somehow fell short to become an utter disappointment to me. Although the outline of the story is the same - enforcer turn bodyguard going undercover to catch the killer of best friend, falling in love while doing so - the tension and smoothness of the story flow had not been like Blood Free, and the romance thrown into it is just too awkward for someone bearing as big a vengeance as the ML. At least the hint of romance was very vague with Blood Free, whereas it had been too quick and too obvious for Red Swan. It’s understandable if it was the FL who was quick to fall for him, after all she had been in a loveless marriage for so long, but for the ML to fall in love at first sight like he did is just too unreal to digest. I also failed to feel the spark between them.

I also thought the FL looked too old compared to ML, maybe thats why i couldnt feel the spark? I know Rain isnt that young, but the FL just looked much older than him. I couldnt figure out what age the roles are supposed to be, but my guess would be late 30s early 40s maybe? Well out of curiosity I looked up the casts, no wonder she looked old, she was indeed older than ML and SML.

The fight choreography is top notch tho. I like how characters dont recover so fast from injuries like in most shows.

If youre not too into romance, this might not be for you. the romantic scenes made me cringe. I wanted to see the action, not longing stares between the leads, awkward hugs and cringy conversations.

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Great Supporting Cast with Disappointing Main Leads

This was my first Korean drama, and I watched it because of all the hype around Korean and other Asian dramas. The story could have been a 10/10 if they hadn't made the cheating husband seem good and loving towards the end.

The supporting characters' acting was top-notch, especially the villain mother, who really made my blood boil.

Assistant/lover of the villainous mother was also great, especially with his way of applying chapstick.

Mistress/girlfriend of the cheating husband was a good actress, but her role wasn't as important as it seemed in the beginning when she was portrayed as a potential villain or second female lead.

Cheating husband's acting was impressive too; even though I hated him at first, his portrayal made me pity him and see him as a loving and caring husband and father, despite his inability to express his love.

The female bodyguard/spy and even the child actor were also very good.

But, I was disappointed with the forced chemistry and pretentious acting of the main leads. There was no chemistry between them. And what's with the chewing gum every time he went on a task? Both the male and female leads acted as if they had learned some expressions and had to use them according to the scene. I had to play the video at 2x speed whenever their scenes came on because they were such a turnoff for me.

Overall, good story with great supporting cast with weak leads.

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I want to like this, I really do...

To start off, I've been a fan of Kim Ha-Neul since My Tutor Friend, and Rain... well, who doesn't know Rain? The man is an international star. So I was excited when I found out they'd be starring in a drama together. The trailer looked good, and I was looking forward to watching the series as soon as it come out.

And then... well...

This isn't the first k-drama revolving around chaebol family drama. There are tons out there, from The Heirs to Sky Castle to the more recent ones like Penthouse and Reborn Rich and... well, you get the idea. There's this fascination with the rich and the ultra rich. We may not like that they treat money like toilet paper, but hey, they're still entertaining AF.

That being said, I gotta say, with Kim Ha-Nuel, Rain, and a stellar cast that included the lovely NS Yoon-G, I'd expected something good, or even amazing.

And I was let down.

The beginning and the backstory were well-established. The pace of the series was good, but then halfway through the series it started to feel rushed, which made the plot seem messy. I found myself pausing every 15 minutes in order to process what was happening. There were a few times when I wanted to drop this, but I kept watching because I wanted to find out what would happen to O San-woo and Seo Do-Yun in the end.

Which brings me to the acting.

The acting was amazing, but sadly, it felt wasted on this particular show. While I was drawn to O San-woo, I felt like 90% of the time, she didn't know what to do with herself. On the other hand, I found myself rooting for her as she decided to fight back after living in a decade of abuse, and gradually regained control over her life. As someone who was once in a toxic relationship, I could relate to her struggles and her journey to rediscover her voice and identity. I was however, bummed that they didn't go in-depth with it. Then again, with a complex family of characters, it could be challenging to get everyone's story out.

The chemistry between the two leads was... interesting. It's not zero chemistry, but it wasn't the intense staring contest you see often in kdramas, either. Instead, we see a slow burn type of relationship building, where two broken people learned to care and trust someone after suffering some form of trauma. It might not be something everyone could appreciate, but Rain and Kim Ha-Neul managed to make it work.

Overall, this isn't the worst k-drama I've watched, but it's not the best, either. If you're a fans of Kim Ha-Neul or Rain, then you might enjoy this. Otherwise, there are better chaebol-related kdramas out there.

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