W (2016)

Angst and Time Jumps

This KDrama never got boring and kept me at the edge of my seat the whole time. I even went as far as sneaking my phone during class cause I NEEDED to know what happens next. I'm not usually the type to go for violent romance dramas(full disclosure: there is a LOT of violence) but this drama did it pretty well and I totally fell in love with the leads and their romance. The comedy in this drama is also very well done and really helped me through some of the depressing moments. This was actually my first ever drama and it is what got me into korean dramas to begin with, so I'd say this is a very beginner friendly kdrama to watch!

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From meaningful story to be a boring superheroes movie

At first the story is interesting. I'm so excited to see how Kang Chul manage to fall in love with a new lady that coming out of nowhere to his life.

Like first half of the episodes are making you want to see the story development more and more, especially after Kang Chul realize he is in a comic, and then magically go to the real world to throw his anger to the author. That's very unpredictable! what an awesome plot!
It's a melodrama, really romantic, mature yet very meaningful. It makes us learn in this real lfe how painful it is when the author of our favorite book is suddenly not appreciating his works.. and just stop half way. It breaks the dreams of us as the readers, also break the purpose of the characters in his story as well.
Kang Chul is really teach the author a lesson.. and make us want him to be a real human.. so he can make a good life which is not being played with series of tragic events, based on the personal life issues of his author.

But then, after the evil Father has appeared as a super villain character in episode 10, I suddenly feel like I'm watching a superheroes movie.. when the villains are getting stronger and did everything uglier, meanwhile the heroes tried to win the battle with their magic "drawing tablet". Then, some dramatic events suddenly come up like Kang Chul's memories gone.. like WTF.. and like most of korean drama with break up scene. Ok fine.. but second half of the episodes...it become a new drama that not focus on "W" meaning.. but suddenly to be a story of an author getting eaten by the monster that he just created. I finally saw this drama is getting unnatural, and so foolish.

It's fine then.. I keep watching.. until the repeating stories where the father monster being a horrible villain. He keep appearing again and again, even after he died, he make his come back to the story.. and it's totally out from the logic. I know it's a fantasy story.. everything can be happen beyond our logic there.. but I feel the story become out from its focus on Kang Chul's character development. It's not even focus to find out Who and Why. It's a complete mess with W turn to be "WTH".

In the middle of the story, this "W" drama forgot its main focus to emphasize how female lead should be a better doctor through her experiences in comic life, and how Kang Chul should be a super cool character and a great shooter! He never did a super cool actions again, despite of becoming a smart detective to find out how the comic's work so he can easily teleport from comic to real world and otherwise. Kang Chul suddenly become smarter than the real human, even more than the author itself.

The way the main leads solve the mystery is getting less interesting, and slowly its turn out they simply just go with the flow as how the comic wants how its ended. What you see is MONSTER FATHER + EVIL POLITICIAN VS THE FUGITIVE.

When the female lead dead, and getting alive by some magic drawing.. I was like "ok.." because they can make next "magical healing" story in new chapter, with those magic drawing tablet. But then, how come the monster can be alive again by possessed the human father? The story line is getting messy.. it's out of control..

Last challenge: female lead has to choose between Kang Chul or her father to go back to reality. Do they need to push the story to be very dramatic so it become mind blowing? Sorry.. It doesn't work for me.

Hello!! All the human of course should go back to their real world. It's ok if the drama never want to explain why Kang Chul can be a human later on,
but what's with the concept there about human can become a cartoon? LOL.
Can you imagine how the story in "W" comics turns to be messy there? I wonder the best selling book suddenly turn out to a complete confusion for the readers.
Well.. It's a sad ending in the comic.. where the hero: Kang Chul is dead, just like that.. with 1 bullet, and all villains remain survive.
The readers must be think how a cool "W" comic that started as an action story, turns out to be a romantic melodrama.. and last.. change to be a mess by making his super cool main character get a tragic dead by getting a single shoot.

Last episode.. we finally know that the fact that is all villains are dead in the comic, but Kang Chul is not dead, and he can be human. It just the readers never know about this side of the story.

The human dad then become a comic character but disappear for good... and TADAA... the "happy ending" just happened in reality. Yeah..just like that.. after Kang Chul went to the jail for 2 years to clean his name in the comic, he then teleport to real world to be a prince charming.. and satisfy us as the audience to have a happily ever after.. by a closing kissing scene in the end of fairytale.
Hell yeah!

Honestly.. W has a unique concept. They can make a better story without trying too hard to make so many surprising plot! If they want to make it an action movie in the first place.. so be it.. they have to be all out about it till the very end.
But even if it's main focus is more to romantic story.. they should make a beautiful plot till the end too.. with clever human character who are the female lead and her dad go to comic and help Kang Chul kill all the bad guys, and make "W" project as his successful achievement. So they can back to reality together with a super cool final chapter of the book.

But we only watch a "cry baby" female lead who is desperate, and Kang Chul who become very busy with his runaway from the police and villains.
After all.. I thought at least the drama will give us a moral of the story in the end. Unfortunaly it's not. The dad ain't getting better: from drunken human in real life to be a freak, till he choose to disappear into the unknown for the good shake of everybody. And Kang chul in the "W" readers' mind is remain dead in misery.

As the good news: at least we still have Lee Jong Suk and Han Hyo Joo as the main leads here, with their good looking face and brilliant acting to be a positive side of this drama :)

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Ah, W.
My first Korean drama, and the one that ruined me for all others.
With how amazing it was, of course (:

Basically, my *only* complaint about this drama is the music. Which... wasn't terrible, but also wasn't great. It just wasn't exceptional or noticeable in any way. But it also didn't ruin anything. So... it was sort of just there. Not really to hit you in the feels, though.

Aside from that, anything and everything about W was fantastic.
The plot, the characters, the acting.
The concept of this drama is so very unique, and I felt that the actors did justice to it.

It was heartwarming, heart-pounding. I smiled, I was sad.
I didn't cry, but it certainly did hit me in the feels.
It was... *intense*. One second you're all "awww" over the romance and the next you're "oh god what is happening noooo!" over the action and suspense.
The perfect combination, and I loved it.

Final thoughts: I *highly* recommend watching this drama. HIGHLY. It has it all - heartwarming romance, touching scenes, funny moment, happy moment, sad moment, wonderful moments. You'll fall in love with those characters and you'll root for their happy ending.
That's the kind of show W is.

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The Plot Is So Confusing.

The Plot revolves around two worlds. The comic world and the real world. GREAT concept to be honest. At first, I was really against watching this show, why? Cause I wanted to watch another one. BUT. Gave this a try, now, do I regret it? No. But is this amazing? So so. It was good but not mind-blowing.
My problems with the story was the plot, even though I loved the concept of the whole thing. The show made the plot really confusing. The show starts off REALLY strong with the plot! It's weak on the romance though, as I'm a sucker for romance, this main couple's romance was like a 6/10 or 7/10 at most. Not really heart racing at some moments. The connection between the two main characters with eh. Nothing bad but not that good either.
What I also have a problem with was the characters. Yeon Joo seemed to have no personality in my eyes. She's okay but nothing interesting, like funny or badass. Just bland. And Kang Cheol? Same thing. He's introduced as some rich kid in the comic, some what cocky, nice, and a player. All the characters in this show (Even the villain) were just plain. MAD PLAIN. Can't even relate to them or anything. Won't spoiler anything but after Episode 9 I started skipping most of the scenes or just looked away from my laptop.
I also had a BIG problem with the flashbacks, WAY. TO. MANY. Or even way to long! I get some people need recaps from the start and stuff but sometimes the flashbacks were up to 5 minutes. Which wasn't needed.
The Acting was average, nothing special much. Nothing that really makes you cry unless it's one of Lee Jong Suk's scenes. Need to mention that I LOVE his acting! That's mostly why I give the acting so high.
The Music is nothing special to the point where I'm looking up the OST. It's just average.
Rewatch value, I could say somewhat high. Just to really understand the concept of the whole story and why the characters did certain things.
In conclusion, the story isn't bad but after a few episodes the plot is repetitive and a bore to the point where you can predict the ending. Romance is also weak but not THAT weak. If you wanna past time, watch this. But it's not THAT bad so I say give it a shot. One day I'll re watch this JUST for the plot and what I was confused with. Don't make my review stop you from watching or giving it a bad review!

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Great romance, not so great story

While the first few episodes were interesting, the story quickly loses steam and begins to fall apart. It seems like the writers had no idea how to expand upon the original concept and were just throwing in random dangers and half baked villains. By the end of the drama the plot became almost non sensical.
However, the performances and relationship between the leads is the saving grace of the show. Han Hyojoo does a great job of playing a clueless woman who is out of her depth after being sucked into another world. The romance was engaging throughout and the chemistry makes the show enjoyable to watch. Even though I was not invested in the mystery of the show I was eager to watch the next episode just to see how the romance played out.

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Story - 10/10: The plot might be confusing in the beginning but I promise you, it gets so much more clearer. I've watched this when it just came out but it always comes into my mind when someone asks for a drama recommendation. It's a great drama to get someone new hooked. All my guy friends had a prejudice against dramas so I told them to watch this and they thanked me afterwards. The thrill that it gave me was amazing. To be honest, it was a little scary for me but it's definitely worth the while.

Acting/Cast - 10/10: I don't have much to say about this because I feel like every character was just meant to be there. It's incredible how each actor/actress embodied their character. The father (artist/drawer) was amazing at his role!

Music - 10/10: The music in the drama gave me chills. Each ost was great. I personally liked the osts they put in during emotional scenes. It really added and gives the audiences the emotion. During the scary parts, they also had sounds in for that. There's really no words to describe how good it was.

Rewatch Value - 7/10: The only reason that this is pretty low is because I feel like if I watch this a second time, the same feelings I felt when I watched it the first time will not be the same. The excitement won't be there since I already know what's going to happen. I feel like if people do watch this though, they might be able to discover things they haven't seen in the first time but I'm the type to focus more on the emotions.

I would recommend this drama to literally everyone I know. It's the type that everyone would enjoy no matter what kind of genre you would like!

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Great start but anticlimactic end

Started off well - really well. I'm very hugely into "isekai" and this drama predates the explosion of Korean isekai webtoons that made the genre itself extremely cliche and repetitive, so I'm surprised I put off watching this for this long. Premise aside, it started off meeting all my expectations and managed to stand out even in the vast sameness of the genre, but somewhere along the way, maybe around ep 10, it started getting repetitive and draggy. And that feeling of satisfaction that you get in a good ending was completely missing - when it finally ended it left me questioning the point of the last few episodes.

Despite the very disappointing and anticlimactic ending, rating it up because I liked the leads and I liked the show enough to binge it through the night (at least upto ep 10) and I wanted to know how it ended badly enough that I finished it.

Ironically, the person I could most relate to post-end was her boss, Prof Park. His expression pretty much mirrored mine when I finished the show.

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Great idea, confused execution

This was a really fun and exciting idea, but although the first few episodes were good and got me hooked, I lost interest after it became clear that it was all style and no substance or solid plot - like a cool dream: feels like you've got a great story going on, until you try to write it down and realize it doesn't make sense. As others have said more eloquently, rules kept being set that were full of great potential, but then were broken or just fizzled away. The FL was kind of a limp noodle: she was given all this agency - like being able to draw new scenes and being invulnerable to bullets! - but instead of kicking ass with that, she just... fainted a lot and sighed and cried. And the ML wasn't much better. I liked him in a few scenes - when he discovers she wasn't lying about the cartoon, and when he meets Dad for the first time and rails against that - but he didn't really work for me as an action hero. He does this cute little corner-smile, because apparently that's the only part of his face that can actually move! - appropriately cartoony, but I wasn't buying why he was so keen to come out of the cartoon world, where he got to be a CEO with a nice car, and live with boring noodle-girl on no money. His secretary pal/almost-love-interest was a lot more attractive, and probably would have given him Option 4 instead of grocery shopping. I wish the side-characters had been developed more: they deserved more airtime than the romance. Overall, full marks for the idea and the general feel of it, but downvotes for the incoherency.

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Why soooooooo many bad reviews!!

Before watching any drama I prefer reading spoiler free reviews and I was kinda disheartened by such bad reviews but this plot kept intriguing me but I was afraid of running into a bad drama but anyway I decided to give it a shot

And I don't regret it rather I regret of thinking Even twice before watching
Ofcourse everyone will differ
But I'll tell you why it's a must match!!!

1. First of all the plot is mind-blowing
2. Excellent use of time and space
3. Amazing cinematography
4. Awesome caste
4. Satisfying ending(bit sad)
5. Such good and satisfactory theories explaining such occurings in the two worlds
6. Bit of a mysterious
7. Great acting
8. Fast paced
9. Not boring at all
10. Best kisses!!!

There are a lot of to and fro between the two worlds but there would always be hints clarifying which world it's showing

It's I must one of the most genius k drama I have ever seen
It's completely worth the watch!!!!

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Exciting Concepts, Messy Ending

Because of its widespread popularity, "W" has attracted lots of criticism. I quickly heard about the drama when I first got into them, but because of such negative criticism, I stayed away from it. I finally decided it was time, though, so here we are.

I don't want to sit on its problems for so long, so I'll just overview some of it. First of all, there are a great deal of plot holes and points of confusion that aren’t really explained (despite the somewhat prolonged ending). Despite this, I would still argue that the pacing of the show keeps you so invested that the plot holes aren’t so cumbersome, merely occurring because “the plot demands it.” The concepts and points the writers are making with the plot points are so interesting as well that it makes it easier to suspend your disbelief.

The second problem for me is the ending. It is very messy and much darker than the more intriguing first half. In fact, it is shockingly dark, in my perspective, which contrasts with some of the themes and purposes of the show. Juxtaposed with the even more confusing story line, the second half and its ending dropped my rating from an 8 to a 7.

As opposed to the popular opinion, I do not find Jong Suk Lee to be the best actor. Despite having an entire character laid out for him, his fake smiles and flat deliveries struck again. Even if you don’t love him as I don’t, this won’t deter your entertainment from the show. But as a side note, shout out to Eui Sung Kim who did a great job.

Because the show is absolutely entertaining. Every episode brings sometimes several new plot twists that you never see coming (mostly because they are never explained, but still). There is a more philosophical take on life that I haven’t seen much in K-dramas which was fresh and enjoyable.

So even though it isn’t perfect and is full of choppiness and “wait, what?” moments along the way, I would say this show is worth watching for its interesting take on writing and life.

Side note: my rewatch value is always my entertainment value because I hardly rewatch dramas. As always, I am so appreciative of the work and efforts of the cast and production team into making this show. It is a lot of work to put together any type of work of art; and we get to enjoy it! So big shout out to them and those making it available to us.

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