Great thriller/horror

When going into this movie, please keep in mind that this is a zombie thriller. Don't expect any more or any less, and you will be perfectly satisfied. It delivers everything it promises to. A lot of people have grand expectations with Korean movies, since they aren't bound by the same laws dramas are and can thus cover heavier subjects which earn them their reputation of being insanely good, mind-boggling pieces of art that leave you thinking about it for days. This movie isn't like that. It's really /just/ a zombie thriller, but it's a great one.
The whole time I was on the edge of my seat watching the events unfold, wondering how the characters would survive, and miraculously, they did. I really enjoyed the cinematography and all the little details they included about the mechanisms and routines they'd developed to survive the apocalypse, it made it feel that much more realistic. The zombies were not much to write home about, they were your typical stumbling half-dead monsters.
I really enjoyed the motif of staying alive portrayed throughout the whole movie, and how even when things seem to b endlessly dark, and our best option may seem like ending our lives, we really just want to survive and keep on living. It was surprisingly wholesome coming from a zombie movie. The acting was great, especially Yoo Ah In's.
It's an enjoyable movie to watch when you don't want something super deep and just want to feel some adrenaline.

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Freedom at all costs necessary

I found this movie through my Youtube video recommendations and I couldn't wait to begin it. I don't usually like bully-related media, I feel like most times it's riddled with cliches and falls flat, but this movie is not like that. I feel like it tackles the serious subject of bullying extremely well.

Better Days examines the socio-political conditions that perpetuate bullying very thoroughly, showing the viewers that bullying is a complicated problem to solve. From the intense competition and pressure the students face due to exams, through the illegal & borderline dangerous work Chen Nian's mother puts herself through in order to provide a better future and escape poverty, to Xiao Bei's life on the fringe of society, many of the characters in this movie are trapped in conditions that become tighter and tighter shackles on them as tensions rise, thus prompting them to take extreme measures to ensure their freedom.

Additionally, Chen Nian & Xiao Bei's tender romance is beautifully written, depicting two people who have nobody else but each other to depend on. Instead of depending on skinship to depict their affection for one another, this movie choses to mostly omit that and instead show their love through the actions and sacrifices they make for one another. I really appreciated this choice and I think it made their chemistry even better.

Finally, I want to highlight the beautiful cinematography of this film. It is filmed in such a way that the scenes naturally flow together, every directing choice feels deliberate to move the plot forward. I loved it so much that I plan to paint a few scenes from this film, that's how beautiful and painterly it was.

In conclusion, this is a beautiful & raw movie that I recommend to anyone. Please watch it, you will not regret it!

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A drama about ordinary people, for ordinary people

This is a drama that I believe resonates with a lot of people. Not everyone wants to become rich, powerful and famous, most of us just want to succeed at our dreams or even just find them. This is exactly what this drama is about, and it's where its strengths and one sole weakness lie.

As someone who's lived through something similar to what Dongman went through, his story especially resonated with me. I feel like there's something to resonate with you in at least one character. It's a simple plot, but it works for the drama. There's no added cliches to embellish the drama, except one. The birth secret trope is something I believe this drama could have very well done without, and it's the only reason I rated the drama so low. I feel like if you're trying to write a drama about normal people, you wouldn't include such an unusual thing. I mean how many people do you know that have had something similar happen to them?

The cast was amazing, you could really feel the camaradie between the Fantastic Four and the awkward blossoming love between Dongman and Ae Ra. The scene that shocked me the most was when Dongman lost his hearing, you could truly feel the panic coursing in his veins at that moment. The casting was also great, I feel like the actors fit their roles very much.

The OST was not something to write home for, it was neither beautiful nor memorable, but it served its purpose as background music and it had me jamming along at times. I feel like the mixing could've been done more professionally at certain times too, especially when Dongman got hit in the head and the cutesy girly song was still playing in the background.

I will definitely rewatch this drama whenever I feel discouraged in achieving my dreams. It's the type of feel good drama that will definitely cheer you up if you're feeling discouraged. I really recommend watching this drama if you're feeling low.

In all, it's a sweet drama that definitely serves its purpose. It's not the deepest plotwise, it doesn't have masterful cinematography, it's not a once in a lifetime drama but it relays a message everyone needs to hear from time to time. Never give up on your dreams :)

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Promising but fails to live up to its potential.

With an extremely interesting premise and a badass, strong female lead, and the director of Extracurricular (my all time favorite drama), My Name was very promising from the start. It has very well choreographed fight scenes and a Netflix budget to boot. It had all the ingredients necessary to be a very good drama.
It started off extremely strong. Although at first I wondered why Jiwoo would go this far to avenge a dad who hadn't been there for her, the story quickly filled in the gaps to my satisfaction. I also thought that the writers handled being a woman in male dominated fields very accurately. Jiwoo being a double agent for the gang was also really interesting to see, the whole time I was nervous for her identity to be revealed. I loved that this drama had a premise of "the good guys are actually the bad guys and the bad guys are the good guys".
When it was revealed that Jiwoo's dad was actually an undercover cop I was a bit disappointed but retrospectively it was a cool twist rather than a cliche "cop kills the gang member because he's a criminal" thing.
However, then it turned out that her dad's killer is actually Mujin and his motive was a simple and typical revenge for betrayal. I felt like this was such lazy writing and it would've been much cooler to have this drama explore topics of corruption within the police force and Donghoon being killed by a fellow cop. I also don't understand why Mujin took the time and effort to train Jiwoo if he knew that eventually she'd betray him once she found out the truth. I understand that he wanted to use her to kill Cha Giho but if Taejoo was able to kill him with ease then there was no reason for him to involve Jiwoo. Although I understand that tricking her could be seen as the ultimate revenge against Donghoon, he seemed genuinely disappointed when she "betrayed him" and I felt like that was stupid of him to do when he knew it would eventually be coming.
I also have a problem with the ending scenes, I felt like forcing a sort of happy ending to this drama was unnecessary and Jiwoo dying in the tunnel after finally getting revenge for her dad's death would've been much more fitting.
Finally I want to talk about the sex scene in episode 8. I feel like when it comes to k-dramas, fans are way too prude and have almost a fetishistic mentality about the lack of sex scenes in kdramas. I think the sex scene wasn't out of place considering he had been pining after Jiwoo since the first snowfall, and she finally had a person she could truly depend on without requiring anything in return, unlike with Mujin. Emotions were running high considering they were previously running away from the Dongcheon members. I think it's a physical manifestation of Jiwoo deciding to trust Pildo, considering she's a fighter and letting her guard down in such an intimate way is proof of that. She's also the one to initiate the kiss. We have to consider that prior to this episode, she lost everybody she could trust. She was a cop who was now a fugitive, and the man she'd trusted with her life turned out to be her father's killer. I also think this scene mirrors the scene where she first let her guard down around Pildo, on the day of the first snowfall when he sees her fathers urn and learns of what Gangjae almost did to her. In that scene he pulls her apartment's blinds up, a metaphor for her letting her guard down (she probably has the blinds down so people can't see in to her apartment). When he leaves, she pulls the blinds back down. I also think it was necessary to give her the conviction to go after Mujin once again after he murders Pildo.
Overall, this was an action packed drama with a cool premise but not much to hold it up. I finished it because it kept me hooked, but I doubt I will rewatch it. I feel like it could've done better if it had a longer run time or if it had kept its original premise.

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Before I begin my review, I do have to mention that I basically watched this drama thanks to SHINee's Onew. I first tried watching it in 2018 or so, and it didn't appeal to me at all back then, partly because I expected a fully medical drama, and partly because I was younger. Now that I'm older and a Shawol, I decided to give it another try because I realized Jinki starred in it. Man am I thankful that I did, because I would've missed out on an absolute gem!

The absolute biggest strength of this drama is its wonderful cast of characters. I found myself feeling so much love towards all four of the leads, each and every member of the medical team, the military squad, even Ye Hwa and Daniel. When they laughed, I laughed, when they cried, I cried. I have to say, I've never felt this attached to a cast before. I really wished for all of them to have a happy ending.

As for the flaws of this drama, I would like to mention the last few episodes. I feel like episode 15 could've been cut out and the storyline wouldn't have changed much. The disappearance of Si Jin and Dae Young felt very unnecessary, I found myself skipping forward through basically the entire episode.

Other than what I mentioned above, this was a pretty enjoyable drama. I wouldn't say it's the best drama I've watched, but it's a very solid drama. I would recommend this, especially to someone who is just starting to watch kdramas!

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Not Your Average Drama

The minute I began watching this drama I knew this would not be like any of the others I'd watched so far. Similar in tone to Parasite and many other Korean movies, this drama portrays a very realistic and gritty take on life and what it takes to survive.

The strongest point of this drama is its plot. Void of stereotypical cliches, it leaves you on the edge of your seat guessing what will happen next. Although high schoolers running a prostitution business seems extremely out-there and unrealistic, the genius-level writing of this drama has made me realize that this may very well be reality for people living not only in Korea, but other developed countries too. I'm glad that this drama is a Netflix Original, because it would not have been as dark nor as great had it been picked up by Korean networks that have to abide to the KCC's laws. I have never felt the way I've felt over the course of this drama, from developing a strong attachment to Oh Jisoo in the first few episodes to being disgusted with myself & his actions in the last one. The characters are all extremely well written and I enjoyed watching them struggle to conform to the rapidly changing circumstances. The actions & motivations of the four leads are such that you can never truly root for any of them despite either having begun as a favorable character, or become one through their character development. While there are some questions that remain unanswered, the open ending of this drama has me believing that the story is not complete and we will get a 2nd season in which those questions will be answered. In all, the plot will have your brain running a mile a minute, thinking of theories and motivations for days after completing it.

I have never been good at telling good & bad acting apart, but judging by the way the lead four, especially Gyuri & Jisoo made me feel, I think their acting is nothing short of amazing, especially Kim Dong-hees's. He portrayed such strong emotion, especially anxiety, that I felt my stomach bunch up into knots while watching him.

The only reason I have given a less than stellar rating to the soundtrack is because, while it was good, it wasn't all that memorable. I watched this drama a few months ago and yet when listening to the soundtrack I fail to place what scenes the songs were used for. On top of that, I felt like the theme song was kind of cliche. To me it felt like the stereotypical theme song for a dark, crime drama rather than being one that really mirrored this story. To be honest though, this drama was so good that even a less than perfect soundtrack did not detract from it. Like I said before, the plot is so entrancing that you will barely register the soundtrack. Perhaps that's what happened with me.

Rewatch value-wise, I gave it a lower score not because I would not enjoy rewatching, but because this is the type of drama you can only truly experience once. It is riddled with plot-twists that leave you gasping for air, akin to Parasite, and I just do not feel like you can re-experience the same feelings while rewatching it because you know what will happen next which is absolutely essential for this drama. With that being said, if there was ever a device invented that let you wipe shows from your memory, I would be first in line so that I could watch this for the first time again. I am planning to rewatch it with my friend soon, so who knows, I might feel different about it then.

TL;DR: Absolutely amazing drama, will have your emotions running high. Must Watch.

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I really wanted to like this drama :/

When I first read the synopsis, I was so excited to begin watching! It was so refreshing to finally see a drama that didn't shy away from sexual topics, but unfortunately this one fell flat.

The first few episodes are pretty good, the pacing is great and the plot isn't half bad. However, even then there were some issues, especially with plotholes and cliche use. I ignored these and pushed on, because I loved how this drama wasn't prude in it's romance AT ALL while also not being explicit. However, after the plot had established itself, the whole thing fell flat. This drama felt like it had no clear progression for me, it felt like it was going in circles at times. It depended heavily on cliched plot devices to progress it and it was too riddled with misunderstandings for my taste.

One thing I did enjoy was the skinship, it was refreshing to see the FL genuinely enjoy herself and I like that they included light makeouts, not just pecks. Other than that, the acting was okay, but the FL's naive personality began to grate on me as I continued watching. The ML's break in his serious facade was charming at times.

The OST was okay, not too bad but not memorable. The theme song is cute. At times, the music mixing seemed to be a little amateurish

I would not rewatch this drama considering I could not finish it.

Overall, unless you really like your kdrama cliches, misunderstandings & lies, I would not recommend. There is a reason why people dislike kdrama cliches and this drama showed me why.

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