This review may contain spoilers
Well, I was pleasantly surprised by how I liked this. It was very fluffy but not overly sweet for me. Seo Kang Joon was amazing in this one! For him to create such a big difference between Robot Nam Shin and Human Nam Shin is just amazing!!! I absolutely loved the parts where he faced himself head on. So Bong on the other hand, I'm sorry but I mostly disliked her here. I thought that being a female bodyguard would be empowering, but in the end, she wasn't even able to show her skill as one. She and Nam Shin had a good chemistry though, so I'll give her that.Next, I want to mention as well the amazing acting of Yoo Oh Sung. He did a stellar job as the antagonist, and really really got into my nerves as a bad guy. The faces of annoyance he makes is just so fitting of his character!
Lastly, I want to mention my favorite character of all here: Ji Yeong Hoon. Ngl I've been in love w Lee Joon Hyuk already before this so there's quite the bias but his role here is basically wiping everyone's butts after they poop, I am serious here hahausksks Anyway, he deserves what he got after all he's been through! And that's actually the thing I liked the most about this drama.
On the other hand, I strongly believe that human Nam Shin doesn't deserve any redemption. The fact that he had a happy ending pissed me off, because they really just forgot that he almost killed 2 people? Like.. okay I understand his actions of rebellion toward his grandfather and all the hatred inside him, but many character in the series warned him to not go that far, and yet he still did. He deserves jail time in my opinion, and thats that.
I was surprised to see this drama had a lot of OSTs, unfortunately I did not pay attention to it that much and I felt like only a few stood out. I did, however, listen to the full OST playlist and the songs are good.
One last thing, I couldn't help but compare this to Absolute Boyfriend, which I really liked when I was younger. I was afraid of how the ending would be because of that, and yeah the interactions between robot Nam Shin and So Bong just reminded me so much of Absolute Boyfriend aksksks
All in all, good drama, kinda predictable but with the stellar acting chops and chemistry it's easier to overcome what shortcomings I have of it. Well, except that I still strongly believe that human Nam Shin deserved to be in jail, if he did, I would probably rate this a little higher.
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the second part when Human Nam Shin woke up, it was also nice especially the surprises of the grandpa. I loved it !!
my only problem was the end really rushed and lacked explanations. Especially the robot tears at the end i didn't get it. I m sad that after all the effort put into it turned into a bad managed end.
The acting is just WAAAW completely incredible.
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The robot posesses all the qualities that a human should..which unfortunately doesnt exist anymore among humans like honesty, kindness, courage, empathy which makes the robot attractive and charming????
Seo Kang Joon never dissappoints with his perfect acting skills....He perfectly acts differently for two versions of the same character
Unlike other dramas about robot , i like the fact that this robot is similar to humans at the same time he also has robotic powers..
Technology is protrayed at its best
I am glad Go-Ara refused the role for the lead actress because the present actress matches perfectly with Seo Kang Joon in looks and acting
Music by VIXX is the best ost of this drama
I am going to miss this drama after it ends????
I hope it achieves the highest rating for 2018
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This review may contain spoilers
Depending on what kind of drama you want to watch, it can either be a hit or a miss. If you want a nice romance with a plot that (more or less) makes sense, Are You Human Too? will make you happy. If you are a big sci-fi fan and that's the reason you want to watch it - it might not meet your expectations. THE GOOD
Likable characters with realistic flaws.
The majority of the motivations make sense and we can clearly put ourselves in the characters’ position. Some are better developed than others, but it's something we can't avoid in dramas. As long as the mains are there making sense, I am content. Not to mention how refreshing it was to have so many moraly gray characters.
The romance.
If you like fluff and cute stuff, this will be one of the nicest shows you have seen. I could clearly see the chemistry between leads, and there isn't any unnecessary love triangle. It's hard to describe the growth of emotions in terms of Nam Shin 3, but we can clearly see that in our human protagonist So Bong - how her relationship with NS3 develops and how slowly her feelings change. The acceptance that she loved a robot and not a human was nicely presented.
Cinematography.
Being a person who values the visuals of the dramas, I must say this one was extremely pleasing to the eye.
The emotional aspects.
Basically, this drama is good at 'playing' with your emotions. In a good way. The pacing was fine and they didn't randomly change from sad to funny scenes. Since the characters were gripping, I could easily empathize with them, which made the watching that much more enjoyable.
THE BAD AND LESS CONVINCING
The villains.
I truly loved what they did with Nam Gun Ho. The way he played people around him to be played at the end. That said, the true main bad guy of the drama disappointed me. His motivations did not make much sense. They tried to frame him as a heartless person, but then introduced some scenes clearly showing that he is not as bad as portrayed and even he wants to protect people important to him, so in the end, it wasn't consistent.
The romance.
While for a fluffy part it was amazing, I believe they did not explore the robot-human relationship to the full potential. There are many questions that they never delivered answers to. How will society react to that relationship? Will So Bong be happy with a robot that might never truly love her back? Why had they never talked about getting old and how will they work it out? What will happen to Nam Shin 3 after So Bong dies? Is So Bong going to be okay without any intimate relationship? The relationship was cute, but the social commentary about it could have been deeper.
Real Nam Shin .
How much I loved his character and how much I did not want the writers to give him a quick last minute redemption arc . After all the bad deeds he did, we don't really see much change in his character. Instead of showing us the aftermath of his decisions, we get 'one year later' with Nam Shin being fine and everyone accepting him. No true apology, no reflection on what his choices brought on people he claimed to care about. The writers were so fixated on giving us a happy ending they did not stop for a second to think if it would make much sense.
Ending.
If for you, getting a happy ending is the most important part, you won't be disappointed. If you rather have a bittersweet ending that fits the plot and is consistent with the characters, this might make you angry. The last ten minutes of the drama introduces even more questions than all the preview episodes combined, and gave no answers. We don't know what happens with the majority of side characters. What will happen to M-City? How were the legal aspects resolved? Why only few bad people who broke the law were punished for it? How is society dealing with AI being a real thing? The ending was a big plot hole.
Unresolved moral and social issues.
I would have no problem with drama not dealing with those deeper problems if they weren't introduced in the first place. But they were, so they should be explored more. When the robot is not just a robot? How human the robot must be? Is being conscious enough? Do you need to be able to feel emotions too?
Another EXTREMELY interesting plot point that was not explored at all: is the creator responsible for everything their creation does? If said creation is self conscious, can the creator control all aspects of its life? How far can the free will go? What is free will? The whole sci-fi aspect of the drama, instead of driving drama forward, has been just a plot device created as a background for the romance.
Ignoring the characters’ traits when they are not necessary for the plot and forgiving characters without a reason.
So Bong is a fighter, a really good one. Former athlete, currently bodyguard. And it's all ignored later in the drama. She does not fight, does not defend herself. The whole skill set is simply non existing. Reporter Jo is another character that has no place in the drama. She is suppose to be a funny friend of So Bong, but is she really? She kept getting everyone into trouble, manipulated them and used So Bong for her own profit. The fact that So Bong kept her as a friend till the end is irrational.
Overall, if you are searching for romance driven drama with emotional baggage that is not too heavy, go for it and you will love it. If you want more sci-fi, give it a try for a few episodes, but don't have high expectations. This drama presents many amazing dilemmas, but never explores any of them, and that was the biggest problem I had.
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The beginning was quite interesting, until episod 10. Then there were so much impossible things the story was so strange. All characters are so angry & extrem. And I skip all romances because it was so annoying.
Even acting skills were really bad, except for Lee Joon Hyuk who was good enough.
It was terrible to watch until the end (i have dropped the tilte since 30 episods and watch only the final episod and of course i was disapointed)
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This review may contain spoilers
I've watched 31 kdramas so far and to be honest this drama is not in my top 10 dramas in my opinion. I binge watched it in less than a day (yes, that's possible in my case even though there are 36 episodes). The beginning was promising and I enjoyed the unfolding of the story but by the 20th episode I started to get bored and skipped through the episodes up until the last 2 episodes. The actors acted very well but there was just something missing for me so I wasn't fully satisfied. Overall, I highly appreciate and respect the effort that was put into the making of it because some scenes were amazingly done. Was this review helpful to you?
The robot we all would like to see
I love robot dramas when romance is involved. It makes for an exciting story and gives the writer flexibility to take romance to unusual places. It’s not something you see every day. This drama is no exception. Girl falls in love with a robot, and you have sparks of romance everywhere.A fantastic story of a unique robot who becomes part of a conglomerate and learns to love. This drama has suspense, surprises, and villains galore. Add in some comedy and lots of unusual romance, and you have a blockbuster.
The acting was just superb, especially Seo Kang Joon, who performed two roles. Switching between a robot and a human, and making it seem real, is not easy. His performance made the entire drama fun to watch. However, the woman that loved the robot was every bit as good. Gong Seung Yeon was brilliant in her role as Kang So Bong, the bodyguard protector of Ham Shin the android. Her romantic chemistry for her robot was believable and heartwarming.
You will find that this drama flows easily with the short episodes. The music was good. The story had moments that will make you stop and think about the AI world.
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Seo Kang Joon was excellent
Seo Kang Joon did a good job of playing a dual role. The human was a real jerk and the robot was lovely. I tend to like to watch actors show their acting chops by either playing two disparate roles, or by changing completely from the beginning to the end of the drama. I just didn't find the storyline that entertaining and believable. I'm all for being willing to suspend disbelief, but I just couldn't believe that she would be satisfied with loving a robot. It seems awfully sad to me. This is one of those shows that I had such high hopes for, and was so disappointed.Was this review helpful to you?
Most underrated drama .. A breath of fresh air
If you are deliberating whether to watch the drama .. please go ahead and watch it. you will not regret it for a minuteLikes:
The ML: omg the lead actor is too good (the USP) .Whether it’s emotion or emotionless, he can nail both the expressions so very well. Praises to be justifiably showered on him.
Characters: the way the characters are drawn it’s very relatable neither anyone is too good nor fundamentally bad. Everyone has a reason to do something and they do fall into the villain category.
Story: it keeps you hooked till the end. There is no suspense and story flows into a smooth stream and takes you with the flow.
Overall: a good drama with good story and a strong ML. Brings out emotions in you so don’t forget the tissues in certain scenes.
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The cast is good, But the character they potray is not good enough to warrant and show their acting skill more.
Rewatch Value? You should just rewatch for some good scene. There is quite some good moment which is for me quite touching. Especially a scene between a mother and both of her son
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This review may contain spoilers
Jesus Christ...! I binge watched this series until 4am and now I have a terrible headache and dry eyes. Honestly, I don't even want to know what other people think about this. I can imagine some find it disturbing seeing a love story between a robot and a human. I know about the sexbots and AI development of recent years, the uncanny valley, so it wasn't surprising to me even though a had a strong reaction when I first heard about it. I think those kind of develompments tell us a lot of society and what a person is looking for in a partner. He has to be good looking, capable of doing everything, always kind and nice, never talking back etc. It seems we want the perfect partner and a human cannot be perfect. That said, I didn't mind the romance. It was cute and fluffy, the sexual issue was never adressed (thank god) which wasn't surprising. I mean, we are talking about a Korean drama where everything is innocent and lovey dovey. To make it short: the robot was cute, the romance enjoyable, but it wasn't the reason why I binge watched this until early morning. What I enjoyed was the conflict between the human Nam Shin, the robot and the whole envirnoment. This was extremely captivating. It's a while since I felt so much for a character. The human Nam Shin was very complex, but also a poor soul. He was the "bad guy", but it was obvious many cared for him, because they knew how kind he really was. The anger, pain and sadness made him behave like a jerk and cross the line. The relationship with his mother and his assistent made me tear up several times. I cried a lot watching this drama and I must give credit to the actor. This sure was a very difficult role. He had to change so often between playing the "robot" and the "human". It was always very clear which role he played at the moment (expect for the scenes where he intentionally tried to imitate the other one).
I must admit I wasn't a fan of the comic relief scenes in the gym with the father of the girl and the robot. Also, there was just too much fluffy romance going on (which is typical for Korean drama), but that doesn't make me love this series any less. I wished for more scenes with the human Nam Shin, I would have loved to see how he redeems himself. He did that at the end, but I really wished for a happier end for him. The robot was always the "good guy", the hero. That may arise many questions. The robot had a much better life than the human to begin with. The mother giving all of her love to a robot instead to the human ... I mean, come on! In my opionion the human was the bigger hero who had to survive many hardships (his father died when he was child, he was threatened by his grandfather, he lost his mother, he had to live in a hostile houshold). I honestly wondered throughout the drama why they insisted to make the robot the perfect guy, perfect lover, perfect son, while the human was always on second place.
Well, whatever. It was a good story and whoever wrote it did a good job. I would have changed some things, but that wouldn't have made it better or worse.
To sum it up: A great drama. One of the best I have ever seen. If I think about it, no other drama ever could draw me in so much as this one.
10/10. I'm thankful I found this one. It's proof that there are intriguing stories out there. Korean Drama can be really great.
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