Started watching serial thinking it would be a bubbly not-so-taxing series. But boy was I surprised. Up to episode 20 everything about the drama was top-notch. I liked the general and tian qi's gradual interactions while low key pining for Marquiz Marvel to win it all (happiness, girl, you know the typical whole yard for the second male lead)... But boy o boy from ep 21 things went so weird....so weird that the final happy ending felt a blasphemy and an irritating slap to viewers.
I can't go onto describe every single detail that went wrong but I will still list a few

1. Tian Qi's revenge is nothing but a joke. She does literally nothing at all to take revenge except dressing up as a boy to enter J mansion. From then on viewers can see next to no effort of her getting any revenge done. The sorry excuse that we see in the name of revenge here comes through the intervention of the J brothers who punishes the culprit for things the villains did in general and not for tian Qi or her grievances.
2. The actual villain of the drama goes Scott free by the end of it all. The perpetrator of tian Qi and Marquiz Marvel's suffering aka General J's mother is never given any punishment or confrontations at all. The woman is just portrayed a product of her surroundings which excuse me??? Is not a good enough reason . Just to pave her son's way to become the next general and to solidify her position... she goes on a spree to kill her husband, his consort ( Marvel's mother), and tian qi's parents. And her punishment?? She becomes a Nun!!!! Like yea right that is some next level writing bullshit If there was ever any...
3. General J the character at best is wishy washy and at worst downright selfish. His selfishness begins when refuses to give tian qi to zheng even though he can't accept his homosexual feelings. And from then on his obsession with tian qi was cringe to watch (not cute). It's like he can only love tian qi if she is a girl. And he won't hear it or let his brother hear it if there is any homo matter. Now some people will argue that zheng knew tian's identity. But for those people I would say... A guy who's mother was murdered by the woman he was "made to love and respect", a guy who has every reason to bring down the family still forfeited his everything including the girl he loves to his brother because of his obligations (but more like his big heart) ... I don't think a guy like him would have chickened out like the General because of the word homosexuality thrown in. But then tian qi is not the only flaw in the general's character. His character in itself comes out as this overbearing personality who only knows how to command and be served every time no questions asked and two pivotal points in the drama proves it. a) where he tried to punish marvel according to family traditions when the later lost his temper in front of him .b) when he shouted at marvel instead of humbling down and apologizing sincerely for what his mother did to zheng . Nowhere in the entire serial do I find this general-mother duo ever feeling sincerely sorry to anyone except for themselves.
4. Tian qi. My god where to start? I would just say the writers did a very bad job here. From beginning to end it's all about her.. there is no room in her thoughts for any person other than her. In a way she is like the general too.. selfish and self centered till the end. She had no business going for that revenge if she was going to produce children with the enemy's son anyway. I mean who comes up with these plotlines??? Also she never really thanked zheng for all he did... Bollocks she never even acknowledged it except to say thanks as lol service!!! And what about her lie to the made she almost married?? Did she ever say sorry to her??? Nope

The only good character in the entire drama was Marquis Marvel aka Zheng's but he was also the only character who was made to unjustly suffer till the end. Which was one of the cruelest moves of the writer's ever.

The overall problem of the whole drama lies in its tone. For the first 20 episodes viewers are made to think it's a bubbly drama with no major brain jerkers. But from ep 21 this light hearted cute as a rainbow drama takes a 180 turn. The story gets so dark with the mom and general and everything involved that there is no turning back from there except a sad or at least bittersweet ending. But nope the writers just had to ruin even that probability of saving the drama it's grace by forcing a happy ending. As an audience I didn't feel happy with the comedic happy ending. Nope respected writers (sarcasm) not even one ounce.
The moral of the story is if you want to make a happy drama make one like (meng feng comes across) and if you wanna make a sad drama then legit make it sad (like goodbye my princess) . But please don't make a sorry mixture of both and end up writing one so utter bullshit that it only wastes viewer's energy and time... just because you can. Cause I take my dramas seriously and whenever I see a potentially good drama with a stellar cast ruined because of writers/directors experimentations with their creative licenceing, and that too with a half hearted attempt... It's feels like an insult too close to heart and damn melancholic :/

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When i first started watching this drama I rated it an 8.5 ... but as the story line gradaully progressed I kept looking back at that rating with doubtful conviction. Then came ep 21 from where the story started to make no sense at all. Here kindly note that I didn't use the word "nonsense" but rather "no sense" at all... Like if dramas could be pronounced brain dead/ gone in a vegetative state then Born Again is one classic hell of an example. The series more or less died by episode 28. So what kept it going? One crazy writer who just doesn't know when to call quits on a project he/she obsessively thought was "novel". I don't even want to know the writer's name/gender/age or any relevant information. Cause that might tempt me to go rage a war against him/her. And that will not fare good for anyone. However the rage he/she has put in my heart with this drama is something that's gonna slow burn me to the pits of frustration for a long long and long time. So what's so bad about this drama? The short of it everything.. the storylines, the characters, and the mediocre acting of the two lead casts aka. Jang ki Young and Jin Se Yun. Being a die hard fan of Jang Ki young I never thought that I would use the word mediocre and acting in the same sentence for him. My god the boy if anything is known most for his phenomenal scene stealing acting. However in this drama where technically the writer "served him the role in a golden platter" he came to shockingly dissapoint his audience. I don't know what went wrong with him in this project, but this was definitely not the Jang ki Young or near about his excellent acting caliber that we have come to love and adore over the previous years. This is also one of the major reasons why the drama sucked till the end. Cause audience couldn't really connect with either of his characters Gi chol/Jong bum at all. So even if he "got" the girl no one felt happy at all. No seriously it was cringy to look at that final scene... I swear I would have gotten goosebumps if my heart was not raging with agony for Soo hyuk.
Next comes the female Jin Se Yun/ Ha Eun/Jong Sabin (or shall I call her the villain of the drama?) Where to even start?! Here I wouldn't say the below average acting was to blame rather it was the character in itself that was the problem. I highly doubt any actress in korea would have been able to do a better job. Cause in one word review her character was trash. There is no other way to sugar coat it. Sorry Jin Se Yun... (But you should have run after reading the script). Everything about this character is creepy. More creepy than the psycho killer fiancee of Soo hyuk. Cause at least the psycho knew what she wanted and this one doesn't. Which only goes to makes her character seem more dangerous and damaging to others. But like I said it isn't the actres's fault but rather the writer again who if you ask me is more like the crazy writer character Jang Mi in the drama. As people who had seen the drama would know how crazy obssessive that woman was with the serial killer... So is the actual writer of the drama whose main intent of writing the script was to make the female lead love the male lead.. no matter how he portrays himself. Want examples? Take your pick.... 1. Oh so he is a stalker/potential serial killer? Gwenchana gwenchana must have had a tough life. 2. He killed a woman to get a heart? Gwenchana gwenchana it's his love for the heroine and that woman was bad anyway. 3. He majority time acts as a psychopath? Gwenchana gwenchana its all an acting shield he built as no one understands him. 4. He killed the heroine's sweet sweet fiance? Gwenchana gwenchana but he did it first by accident and the later knife stabs where just his frustrated heart needing an outlet. Also it's best that he killed him cause that gave the heroine a good reason to turn the fiance down which she would have done eventually anyway as you know he is the... Second lead!!! (Sssssh don't tell anyone) .
See? ??? Where the problem lies with this Only mother terasa for Jong bum/ psycho heroine Sabin/Ha Eun character.??? I wish I could laugh it off like the struggling actor of laughter at Waikiki whose name I suddenly forget due to all the trauma I incurred watching this drama. So now you must be thinking so why watch the drama if it's so bad? Well the problem is I didn't knew it was gonna be so bad did I??? They dragged the story till 32 episodes to tell us "HAHAHA THE JOKES ON YOU AND YUP... SO HYUK IS THE SECOND LEAD SO WATCHYA GONNA DO YOU BUNCH OF WIMPS???" Believe it or not that's what the writers and directors did .. they made us believe So hyuk the only sensible character in the entire drama was the lead until the second to last episode only to reveal in the climax that he is the second lead. And you know how drama gods feel about second leads right? TOTALLY DISPOSABLE PIECES OF PLOTLINE. But out of all the brutal outcasting of second leads i have seen in k-dramas over the years... This one takes the crown. The cruelty that So hyuks's character has been dealt with is a betrayal that should be remembered along the lines of Julius Ceasar's assassination by his friends. Yes it's that bad. Just so the writer could make the two leads fall in love without guilt... They deconstructed the entire character of So hyuk in the last few episodes. Tuned out his prosecuting style isn't right, his love not so novel, and yea he is also the Butterfly effect for ha eun's parents to die in the car crash. That for me was the wake up call to villify the holder of the pen who wrote this utter bullshit. Cause all the things that were "supposedly" wrong with so hyuk.. wasn't and I repeat WASN'T WRONG AT ALL. So here allow me to curse once "WHAT IN THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS DRAMA???" why write stories like this at all?!
The main reason I took up this drama was Lee So hyuk.. its his project after a long time. And it really showed all thoughtout the drama how much an of effort he has put into it. Not only was his character the only good thing about this drama but he also acted the best of his acting career here. Being a model turned actor his acting previously wasn't always polished. But this time he really brought out the hidden acting capacities within him and gave his all. And the result was beautiful to watch. Audiences could connect pulse for pulse with his characters hyung bin// So hyuk... But here I would like to stop and ask the writer what for??
Why write a character like that and have an actor portray it the best was possible only to make him and audiences suffer till the end?! What was the point of this "pseudo novel " drama even? Sacrifice? Redemption? Salvation??? New beginnings??? Well whatever your cause was let me tell you one thing and one thing only. This drama "didn't get the message across even by an inch". What it all came down to is a potential drama gone heavily south.

In the end I would say don't even think about watching the drama if you want meaningful entertainment. If you are going to watch it for Lee So Hyuk then do so until ep 20... Cause from 21 his character's unfair treatment will give YOU a broken heart syndrome if not a stroke. For Ki young fans.. just pretend you didn't see him here at all. His under the weather acting will give you additional grievance. All in all, Born Again is a ball of massive dissapointed wrapped in a silk cloth that rot by the end of it all. So wanna see don't wanna see that's up to you.. but don't say you haven't been warned. I just wish Lee So Hyuk can put this sad project behind him and move on to do greater things where he and his acting will be appreciated for all its deserving worth. (Lee So Hyuk ssi Hwaiting!! <3 )

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