This drama is a fucking masterpiece

What an excellent drama!

I was hooked to this drama. It was dark, gritty, and brutal.
The plot of this drama essentially focuses on the cat and mouse chase between a "criminal" and the cops.

Hwang Kyung-min is a taxi company CEO who is on a mission to extract revenge from those who bullied him in school. In the process he contacted Jung Jong-seok who was his friend in the school, and now a cop.
The rest of the drama focuses on uncovering the truth behind the death of their third friend, Cheolie, and how Kyung-min takes his revenge, closely followed by Jong-seok and Kang Jin-ah, another cop.

What I liked about this drama is the brilliant narration style by the director Kim Dae-jin. Every episode ended with a cliffhanger, which is not rare, but what made this part is the tone at which the episode ended. In particular, I liked the 10th episode. It revealed so much, and it was great how the event were built to come at that moment. Again, this is the brilliancy of the director.

The actors of this drama were amazing. Each and every one had done their job perfectly, in particular Kim Dong-wook. I don't have enough words to praise Kim Dong-wook's acting in this drama. He was expressionless while killing his bullies, but at the same time his eyes carried that lingering pain.
The child actors too were brilliant. To act so extraordinarily speaks a lot about their talent. I hope they will have a bright future ahead and hope to see them in other dramas soon.

OST of this drama, even though wasn't much diverse, it was spot on. I particularly liked the theme music that played in the background, the one that played during the start of last episode.
The cinematography was dark, which perfectly complemented the tone of this drama.

This drama was so much more than just another revenge drama. It explores how the certain events can forge the future of kids. Bullying is a widespread problem in South Korea and one of the main reason for that is because of the inefficiency of schools to come up with a system to eradicate such problem. It's the duty of teachers to ensure that no child is hurt in the school. And yet, some teachers ignore the bullying in their class, which in turn destroys the life of the kid who is being bullied.

This drama shows too polar opposite humans. One who was bullied as a child and that affected his adult life. And the others, the bullies, who continues to live as if nothing happened.
While I condone the violence and murders, but I can't help but root for Kyung-min. This is the brilliancy of this drama.

Amazing drama. I will highly recommend it.

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A very entertaining and enjoyable drama

This has been quite an entertaining drama.
The story was very interesting, right from the start.
It was a pretty straight forward drama which was very well written. The mystery part was very intriguing, while at the same time, it was also full of hilarious moments throughout the last episode.


I liked that there were no classic tropes like childhood trauma or breakup in the 15th or 16th episode.

I also liked that there was a proper closure for every supposed "antagonists". Se-gi realized his mistake, while Soo-young also came to terms with her breakup with Go-jin. Both were inherently not at all bad persons, but the betrayal and lies made them extract revenge.

Have seen many dramas where they will be very light and funny in the first half and then will falter in the second half.
But this was not the case here.
There was the right amount of romance, comedy and mystery part.

The actors have also acted very well. It was nice to see Kim Jae-wook returning to the small screen after a hiatus of nearly 3 years. Krystal Jung, though a limited actress, had done well in this drama.
Actress playing role of Shin-ah's friend, Park Han-sol is cute and has done well in this drama.
Im Won-hee and Go Gyu-pil needs no introduction. I liked these two, as every time they nail their roles.
The same goes with other actors, particularly, Ha-jun and Yoo In-young.

Overall a mighty fine drama, and certainly has a very high rewatch value.

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An awfully ridiculous plot

There was so much of hype for this movie, but in the end it failed to impress me.
It's the classic case of "Great Cast doesn't guarantee you a good movie".

The cast of this movie was quite impressive and to be fair, all managed to do a very good job as far as acting is concerned. But when you stuff all these magnificent actors in one single movie, there's high chance that the script is not gonna do justice with all of them.
Can't blame the efforts of actors, though. Han Hyo-joo was very beautiful as a pirate, and so was Kang Na-heul with his witty lines and erratic behaviour. But the one who impressed me was Lee Kwang Soo. It seems like he simply can't leave behind his image of being a betrayer behind (*pun intended).
There wasn't much to do for Kwon Sang-woo and neither for Kim Sung-oh, which was kind of a bummer as I was really looking forward to their roles, only to be disappointed at last.

Now coming to the story.
It was just awful. Characters popped out of nowhere. There was no backstory for Han Hyo-joo and was very weak in the case of Kang Na-heul. It was just the plot of the previous movie, albeit with a bit of new ingredients. Let's compare it with its prequel:-
A Pirate - check
A disgraced soldier turned bandit - check
One evil general - check
One betrayer - check
And animals rescuing the pirates - check
The story might have been good if not for so much of stuffed characters. Chae Soo-bin's character literally had no importance at all.

At last, I will say some words for the VFX. It was childish graphics. Yes, the VFX certainly improved in the last act, but overall they were very poor and one can clearly see that there are just a lot of green screens.

Overall, I was disappointed with the movie, but the cast made it a bit enjoyable. Watch it for Lee Kwang Soo, Han Hyo-joo and Kang Na-heul. If you are seeking a good story, then don't go in that direction. Better to leave your brains aside while watching this movie, as this is certainly very logicless.

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Anything but a sports movie.

So, I'm writing this movie after seeing 7.9 ratings, which I feel is very biased for this movie.
I will come to the point that this is an average movie that claims to be sport-comedy, but there's nothing sporty about this movie.
Half the time, it felt like they were playing Rugby, not Football. The Homeless Soccer Tournament was a big joke as there were no rules on fouls and penalties.
Coming to the acting, Park Seo Joon and IU both were good and were ably supported by the rest of the cast. But that's it. They were just good and not even once went beyond that.
But the main criticism is there's no character development. It seems like they have put a bunch of sob stories expecting to gain sympathy from the audience. It doesn't work in this era, maybe in the 80s and 90s but not now.
Giving sob stories is fine but you have to show their character development and this was hardly true for any of the characters. And as for the comedy, there were a few hits and misses, mostly misses. It only made me smile, not made me laugh, which I think is a must for a movie marketed as "sports-comedy".

Overall, a better effort was required from all, the director, the writer and the actors.

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The weakest Korean monster/zombie drama of recent times.

I can't say I enjoyed this drama.
Half the time I wasn't able to understand the plot.

The basic plot is that Ki-hoon, an archaelogist, and Soo-jin, the language interpreter, are husband and wife and lost their daughter to an accident, forcing them to live separately. A Buddha statue is unearthed in a village. After that strange things started happening in the village like monster rain, unnatural hail, people turning into weird creatures with white eyes and going on murder spree.
The rest of the plot is focused on how a group of people trapped in the town hall came together to fend themselves against the attackers, with Ki-hoon battling against the time to save the town from the evil spirit inside the statue.

The story seems very underdeveloped. 6 episodes of 30 minutes each is very short and didn't do much justice with the plot and theme of this drama.

But I like the background story of the lead couple. But the rest of the leads were very under-developed. Like the relation between that kid and his cop mother, or b/w Do-kyung and Yong-joo.

The second season is hinted at the end, but still it kind of ended on a bad note.

I liked the use of ancient myths, tales and religion. A Buddha statue, haunted by an evil spirit with eyes covered with cloth inscribed with Tibetan language, was a nice touch.
Shin Hyun-been has done well in the limited time she got with Koo Kyu-Hwan at his best.
Kwak Dong-yeon was also good, and it was nice to see him killing people for a change. He has the traits of becoming a perfect antagonist.
I really like Park Ho-san since I first saw him in Prison Playbook, and it's a shame he didn't have much to do in this drama, understandable as the duration of this drama was very short.
Still, I hope he will make a comeback in next season, if there is any.

Overall, 6.5/10. Characters were underdeveloped didn't quite like that apocalypse-type of tint, the duration was short, but the plot was indeed innovative.

Hope that next season will be better.

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Too many unanswered questions

First, let me start by saying that this drama was less from what I expected it to be.
I mean, Jin Goo's past two works were absolutely gold, and in comparison to them, it just fades away.

The story starts with informing that Gye-hoon has some kind of magical ability that makes him feel the emotions of his twin sister, who was kidnapped as a child. As this is a fantasy drama, I'm not going into any logical explanation of the "Wi-Fi" in question.
Next we were introduced to Da-hyun who is a struggling student.
Both live in the same neighbourhood, where Gye-hoon opened his new restaurant, in effort to fin his kidnapped sister.
Next were the usual bickering and romance moments between the leads.
In the end, the identity of the kidnapper (and also killer) was revealed.
The usual 15th episode breakup, danger to life in 16th episode and patch up in the end.

Now, let me tell about "unanswered questions".
1. We never knew why that person kidnapped and killed his sister. No information on whether he was a psychopath, a rapist or a human trafficker. Nothing, nada. All is left at the imagination of the viewers.
2. The neighbours were made to look suspicious since the start. But at the end, none of those neigbours except one was guilty. So all that "suspicion" thing bore nothing.
3. Da-hyun's mother killed a person as an act of self-defence. The murder was covered by the police. Near the end of the series, she went to the police to confess, but was not arrested. Why? Was it statue of limitation or no body was found or anything else. None of the questions unawsered.

So. overall, this was quite a dull drama. The chemistry between the leads was way unnatural. Half-cooked story was another off thing about this drama. I literally completed the last two episodes in mere half hour by fast forwarding and skipping many unnecessary scenes.
Wouldn't recommend this to anyone unless you have too much of spare time or are a fan of Jin-goo or Moon Ga-young.

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A near perfect mystery miniseries.

First things first.
I enjoyed watching this drama. Yes, it was not almost a perfect, but it was very enjoyable.

This drama is perfect for those who wanted to enjoy a good mystery series At only four episodes long, this doesn't require viewer to invest 16 hours of their time. A perfect series to binge-watch in the weekend.

The series started off with a countryside couple, couple winning a big lottery. What follows is a series of catastrophic events that ends up consuming the lives of the villagers, the friends, and the families. It's the story of betrayal, friendship and revenge. It explores the greed of human and what we are capable of doing.

The writing is very good. The writer managed to wrap up this good and the ending was just excellent. The only reason I didn't give it a perfect star because I still didn't know what happened to Joo-hyub. But that thing set aside, it was intelligently written.

Park Ho San was brilliant throughout the four episodes. I've been his fan since Prison Playbook days and was expecting good acting from him in this mystery series. He clearly didn't disappoint me. I think he might've just won himself Best Actor in a Short Drama award at MBC Awards this year. He was bloody brilliant.
The rest of the cast were good too, particularly the actor who played the role of In-Sung.

BGM was awesome.

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Could've been better.

It's a decent one time watch movie.

But, as the headline says it all, this movie could've been better.
I didn't, at all, get the vibes of Korea in 1988. I'm not a Korean and born in the 90s. So, I truly don't know what it would be in Korea in the 1988. But we do have a parameter to compare it with, Reply 1988. And the only thing common in these two were the presence of Go Kyung-po. Nothing else. Nowhere I got the vibe of 1988.

So, ignoring this basic thing, I would now focus on the story.
Honestly, it was quite good. It was funny, thrilling, entertaining and the actions were good. That being said, there were many glaring mistakes too. I felt that come characters were way underutilized like that of Lee Kyu-hyung. Bok Nam will make absolutely no difference in the story if he wasn't in it. So that's a big flaw. All other characters were good and engaging, but not the same with Bok Nam. But I understand this as it's very hard to give importance to all the characters in a movie with an ensemble cast.
So letting this one slide.
Now I will address another problem, the climax. It seems to me that they tried to copy a bit too much of Hollywood movies like Fast and the Furious. I know it's a movie, but still does it make nay sense to see a car parachuting its way down to the car from a fucking cargo plane. I know it is possible, but this scene is frame-to-frame like that of Fast & Furious 7.

Coming to the acting, I think all the actors did a very fine job. I watched this movie because of Oh Jung-se and Moon So-ri, and I wasn't disappointed by it. Yooh Ah-in was exceptional, so were rest of the actors from his gang.

The best thing about this movie has to be the music. The songs of 80s provided that nostaglgic feel which was missing from the production setting. Korean as well as English songs were used quite well in the form of mix-tape.

Overall, this movie is nice and would appeal to fans and those who haven't watched much of Korean cinema.
But as someone, who has watched many Korean movies and dramas, this movie was way below mark.
Still, the acting and the funny sequences will make it a worth watch.

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It was like the Korean version of VEEP.

This drama reminded me very much of VEEP. Set in the same context, a journey of a female politician to the top of the ladder and how she negates all the hurdles.

The basic story is that Lee Jeong-eum is the newly appointed Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Previously an athlete, she is relative new to this political arena, only to be showered with all types of problems at the beginning of her new role.
On top of all this, her husband is also kidnapped and she has to resolve this situation before it blows out of proportion.

A political satire/ dark comedy series, this drama focuses on the journey of Lee Jeong-eum and her underlings.

The first few episodes were very slow, but the last 4 episodes were right on the money.
The story felt like a half-baked plot. Certainly, there were many things which warranted more detailing.
But lacking story was made up by the perfect acting and the dark comedy.

It really put into perspective how the government actually runs. There are so many permutations and combinations that a politician have to calculate in order to successfully complete his/her term spot-free.

What I liked was the character development of Lee Jong-eun. From a naive athlete turned minister, to a master manipulator, her journey was very spectacular. She learned from every betrayal, from every incident, and in the end she was able to successfully negate out of this whole controversy.

The second season is going to be very interesting.

Overall a nice drama. A good 8.5/10 from me. That being said, I don't get why this drama got so many Baeksang nominations, and that too for Best Drama.
My sole motivation for watching this drama was because it got the Best Drama nomination, but as with most other names, I don't agree with this nomination either.

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Drama which could've been way better

So, when this drama was first announced, I was pretty excited because it had one of my fav actress, Kang Han-na.
When the first episode aired, I had high hoped from this drama. The idea felt new and the pairing also felt fresh.
But as we ventured into the second half, it became evidently clear that the writer had no clue of how to proceed with this drama. Some of the things that made this drama interesting were gradually faded out in an effort to make it more "romantic".

1. The idea of a person suddenly developing ability to speak truth is a already used in Hollywood, but I guess this was pretty fresh in Kdrama universe. So, yeah the plot appeared to be nice.

2. But this was the only good thing about that plot. Halfway through it felt like the writes have altogether forgotten that they have a ML who is incapable of telling lies because in no shape or form he looked "very uncomfortable".
This lying thing could've been churned more to induce more laughter. But after 2 or 3 episodes, that laughter vanished. It went from a romcom to a seriously romantic drama.

3. Another interesting thing about this drama was that fictional variety program. It made mid episodes very interesting. But this barely went for 4 episodes and then we were slapped back to slice-of-life romance. This thing should've been explore mode and perhaps should've been central plot along with lying thing.

4. Second Male Lead was a pretty boring character and there was no "strong antagonist". While I am love dramas where there are no villains, but the thing about this drama was that they introduced a vamp kind of SFL and she just disappeared after 4 episodes. It was a pretty dumb move. If you are introducing a villainous character, make it a stronger one.

5. Drama is 12 episode long which felt way too less for the story to fully develop and end satisfactorily. This is ongoing problem in kdrama. Drama that require 12 episodes are being somehow stretched into 16 and dramas that deserved to be long are cut short.
This same problem was with NKM starrer The Veil.

6. The cast was good. As said, I'm fan of Kang Hanna. I found her very cute and charming in this drama. ML was also fine but need some polishing.

Overall, this drama isn't bad, per se. But it could've been so much better. The cast and the audience is let down by some seriously ridiculous writing.

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Want to ask only one thing from the writer- WHY?

See You In My 19th Life is a drama which recounts the tale of a woman who remember all of her previous births.
After being killed in an accident in her previous birth, she now wants to be reunited with the person she loved back then.
The overall drama is story between how she unveils her past, and how she reconnects with the people from her past living in this life.
Acting:- As expected, Shin Hye-Sun and Ahn Bo-hyun are amazing. They'd amazing chemistry together. SHS was just great in some scenes. I am genuinely pleased by the acting choices of ABH. Be it playing the role of a military officer, or just a typical rich BF, he is nailing all those roles. Next in liene is Ha Yoon Kyung who is doing great in the past some dramas.

Now addressing the elephant in the room, the ending. At first I liked the ending, but now to retrospect, it isn't making any sense.
First of all, why are writers so interested in making them strangers again when there's no sequel planned. They could've devised another way for Ji Eum. But they just had to make the ending more complicated by making us show that she has lost her memory and now it's the time of Seo Ha to woo her in the same way she did.
This doesn't make any sense. Why can't a drama be left at them being hopelessly in love? Why does writers have to be so weirdly creative?

Overall, this is a dine drama, with unique plot, amazing acting, and visuals. But the ending could've been a bit more original.

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Aesthetically eye-pleasing, conceptually brilliant, excellent execution.

These three words in the headline perfectly summarise this drama.
Cinematography is one of the finest I've come across in any kdrama.
Conceptually it was strong, and the writers did a fine job to adapt a novel into a drama.
And the execution was just excellent. You know this when the drama is really able to connect all the dots and close all the loose ends in 8 episodes alone.

This drama is about two women, who are different from one another, but in some way, are direct reflection of each other. One is living with her "happy" family while coping with serious trauma from the past that affects her life to this day. While the other lady is a subject of domestic abuse but has to pretend to be a "happy" family in front of others.
What follows is how the life of these two women became interconnected, and how they help each other to come of their misery.

The acting is brilliant, exactly what you expect from the likes of Kim Tae Hee, Lim Ji Yeon, and Kim Sung Oh, but the highlight of this show, for me, was the ML. Kim Sung Oh has had his own share of villainous roles in the past, and in this drama too he showcased his ability. I hope this drama will earn him a Baeksang nomination.

The cinematography was so pleasant. Some of the shots taken by the cameraman were just absolutely gorgeous. There is minimum use of songs as the director wanted to highlight the tension between dialogues by muting the music and letting the atmosphere create extra tension.

So, overall, a mighty fine drama. Not free of some flaws w,r,t, the story, but they are ignorable ones and don't impact the story in any way. A solid 8.5 from my side.

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I enjoyed this movie.

There are many negative comments for this movie, but I enjoyed this movie,
Yes, it's definitely not the best, but at least it was entertaining.

Watched this movie because of Song Ji-hyo, and clearly I wasn't disappointed by it.
The basic plot of the movie is that Ji-hyo is an assassin tasked with killing the ML. She appears to be clumsy, but is a very good killer, and thus fooled ML into thinking that she doesn't know how to do her job.

Following her are a bunch of cops, who suspected that Jackal will be in that hotel to kill a person there. They laid out a trap and waited for the moment to catch him/her.

The comedic moments are many, some forced, and some actually funny. The dynamics of the cops is what I liked the most. Oh Dal-su is a very seasoned actor and time and time again he shows why he is rated so high.
Even in this rather dull movie, he managed to leave a positive impact.

As said, I watched this movie purely because of Song Ji-hyo and the comedy it promises. I enjoyed this movie. Yes, there were many faults, but I didn't have high expectations from it.

Have fewer expectations and you will be less disappointed.

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Disppointing

I'm using the word disappointing because I'd hoped something better from the duo of Kim Hye-soo and Han Suk-kyu.
They both are such exceptional actors, that it's only fair to expect the best from them.

I wouldn't say that I'm that much disappointed with the movie, but because I'd expected better from them.

The story is about a villain, Chang-in, (han Suk-kyu) who is a robber stealing cultural artifacts. He cuts out a deal with a business chaebol to deliver him a set of teapot, which is an ancient artifact and has a very high value.
But that item is in the house of the widow, Yeon-joo (Kim Hye-soo) who is living alone with her daughter and is in depression.
Jeon-joo's daughter was a child actor, whose popularity has faded, and she is constantly bullied by her classmates. The relationship between mother and daughter is limited to make her food and drop her to school. No ocnverstation, no playing with her, no talking, nothing.
He disguised himself as an author and rented out the room from Yeon-joo, to snoop around the house and steal that item.
One thing led to another, and Chang-in wooed Yeon-joo in order to gain access to her house and basement.

The basics story is whether he would be able to retrieve that item and can they both be in a relationship that is not based on deception.

While I found the story to be interesting, the execution was not up to the point.
Hye-soo and Suk-kyu lacked any form of intimacy or chemistry.
But the worst thing is how the relationship of daughter and Yeon-joo developed over the course of the movie. Least to say, I was not happy with how she was portrayed in the movie. The writing could've done a better job in developing a better character arc for Yeon-joo and also for her daughter. Yes, the ending suggest a better relationship between the two, but in the end the execution was not perfect.

I watched this movie because of Kim Hye-soo, and as her fan, I was not disappointed by her acting, but things could've been a much better. I think the direction was lacking, especially in the second-half.
Not only that, but I didn't quite like how the character of Seong-ah was handled.

Story wise - 6/10
Acting - 7/10
Overall - 6.5/10

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Jo Yeo-jeong is the boldest Korean actress I've seen.
Keeping that in mind, I dived headfirst into watching this movie.
Quite frankly, I'd no high expectations from this movie considering it's a sex-comedy, a genre I'm not a fan of But still watched this because of Jo Yeo-jeong.
And frankly, I was surprised how hilarious this movie turned out to be.

Chemistry between Jo Yeo-jeong and Clara Lee were spot on and both complimented each other, either in emotional scenes or comedy scenes.
The same can be said with the chemistry of Jo Yeo-jeong with Kim Tae-woo. I don't know if this is rude to say or not, but their s*x scenes were quite hilarious and steamy.
Since it's a comedy movie, I can say that one will not be disappointed seeing this movie. It will guarantee some good hearty laugh, while at the same time was also a bit emotional towards the end.
I will recommend these movies, if you are open to watch such taboo topic and are looking to have a good laugh.
Jo Yeo-jeon has been amazing. I know I'm mentioning her a lot, but it's the kind of performance that sticks with you.

There's nothing new to the story. The same old woman starting a business, keeping it a secret from her family and ultimately husband, understanding that how important is if for a woman to be independent. Nothing new, nothing surprising except the business they both chose to start.

Comedy rating - 9.5/10
Story - 7/10
Acting - 8/10

I didn't have high expectations, but it's safe to say that this movie "Exceeded Expectation".

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